Dominant Species (34 page)

The tremors resolved into frightening clarity, their source no more than one corner away from view.

Out of time, Stitch thought with grim resignation as he keyed the targeting laser. But I can buy Merlin a chance.

"Haul ass, Merlin--" The shout was cut short by the crash of a heavy door that burst from the wall. Something huge slammed itself into the reinforced doorframe, a broad mass of short, stocky legs and huge snapping teeth. The fleeting image looked to Stitch like the hellish child of a bulldog and a great white shark. The doorframe split with a brittle pang and Jaws surged through the gap.

Stitch squeezed the trigger and watched as starburst impacts rippled across the dark silhouette. The thunderous beat of charging feet devoured the subgun's chatter.

Something yanked Stitch backwards with great force, the subgun's final rounds scattering on an erratic line across the ceiling. Then the world was lost in darkness and the concussion of high explosives.

CHAPTER 35

Ridgeway fought to keep the skid level as it hugged the ceiling. Smoke poured from the hole in the port side, an acrid black plume that marked the vehicle's path. The dead starship stretched out below them, specks of light glimmering from a million points across her massive hull.

Two sharp bangs resonated from within the skid. Ridgeway gripped the controls against another lurch into bucking frenzy. Instead of turbulence, he got Taz.

"It's wired Majah!" The young Marine's upper torso popped up from the engine hatch. "The charge is planted right up against the coil housing. You set it off and sure as shit the core'll go off like the fourth of bloody July."

"What broke down there?"

Taz fired off a dismissive wave. "Don't worry about it. The bloody bug tore a coolant line so the engine's running hot. Too much heat and the Detonex might cook off on it's own. I punched out a couple of floor plates to let the cold air come through."

Ridgeway nodded in approval, developing a fondness for the Aussie's brute force innovation. He tapped the command console and the skid lurched uneasily into a side-slip just below the ceiling. He dropped almost three meters to avoid a ridge of stalactites.

Three and an half might have been better, Ridgeway winced as the lowest spike of ebony rock clipped the skid and left fragments of brittle stone scattered across the deck. Taz rolled to one side as the broken spire missed him by inches.

The Aussie popped up and turned sharply toward the con but said nothing. Ridgeway could imagine the glare that burned behind the carbon mask. He shrugged and muttered, "Yeah, sorry."

Taz mumbled something and stepped around to the wheel. "Howzabout I drive and you check on Gunny?" The shoulder that bumped Ridgeway to one side made it clear that the question was rhetorical. He looked down at the recumbent form propped against the bow ramp and said in a low tone, "It's yours, get us to the Papa-Three."

"Rojah that."

Ridgeway moved forward and dropped to one knee. Monster had a small touchpad in his hands, the device connected to his armor by a rope of fiber optics. The sergeant moved slowly, challenged by the task of fine motor control.

"How ya doin?" Ridgeway spoke over the din of the engine, trying not to shout.

"Like shit." Monster slurred. His hand opened and allowed the touchpad to slip to the deck. "Life support is running but that's about it. Exo's shot."

Ridgeway had been stunned that Monster was alive at all. Still, he frowned as he processed the news. While Monster's armor could still provide heat and oxygen, the system of electroactive polymer cables that served as the armor's muscles had failed. The gravely injured Sergeant now wore un-powered armor.

"Lemme see." He placed a hand on Monster's right shoulder and stepped around to assess the damage. The sight made him draw a sharp breath.

Ragged trenches criss-crossed the pack that housed the power supply and vital systems. One of the thick scapular plates had torn away completely and the other was spider-webbed with fractures. The feed track for the Gatling hung broken and empty. Thick gobs of blood covered the ravaged mechanics.

"Shit Gunny, you've got--"

Monster's hand grabbed the front of Ridgeway's armor in a grasp that felt like the suit was still powered. He yanked Ridgeway so close that the two helmet domes touched. "Nobody quits."

Ridgeway looked at the shawl of injuries, "Listen to me--"

"Nobody," Monster said, his voice rock hard. "Are we clear?"

Ridgeway slumped, recognizing both the logic and the futility of argument. He nodded slowly. "Crystal."

Monster's grip relaxed and his deep voice softened as he extended the open gauntlet. "All right then. Give me a hand and let's kick this fucking door down."

CHAPTER 36

Jaws rounded the corner so fast that it ripped away a piece of left-side wall before it skidded to a halt. Its immense mouth snapped convulsively, baring a crescent of jagged triangular teeth that scissored together like a piston-driven beartrap. Standing now in the dead-end strip of hallway, it shook in what seemed a frenzy of anger.

Nothing stood between the creature and the huge geologic obstruction. To the left, smoke drifted from a newborn cleft burned through the wall. The channel, too small for the creature's bulk, was barely large enough to allow a human to wriggle past the column of stone. Light poured from the far side of the scorched opening.

The shambling mass of junk stepped forward, spun back, then turned to the barrier. Mechanical feet shuffled until it threw itself at the gap with a fury. Powerful jaws tore massive shark-bite chunks from the damaged wall as it ripped, thrashed and hammered its body into the widening crevice.

With a flash, the wads of Thermalite plastered along the top of the makeshift tunnel went off, a sudden spike of over eighteen hundred degrees. White-hot liquid steel poured down across the creature's back and legs. Particles of Thermalite burned craters through the creatures outer shell. One rear leg, knee poised high at the moment of incineration, came down a charred stump. In an explosion of sound that was at once organic and synthetic, the creature screamed.

Stitch watched Merlin roll out from behind the door, CAR in hand. The engineer's rifle burned a hellish breach into the creature's flank. A second leg disintegrated under the merciless touch of covalence gone awry. Steam boiled from the gaping holes in Jaw's back as thermalite continued to blaze.

Wedged and unable to turn, the creature thrashed violently. It drove forward instead, away from the onslaught until it broke through with a sudden lurch and pitched forward to collapse on the floor beyond with a horrendous thump.

Stitch looked at Merlin, whose muzzle remained fixed on the smoking hole. He stared into the gap and watched for movement.

Only flame moved in the fissure, spreading fast. The Thermalite had kicked off a fire that now grew rapidly. Feeding on a smorgasbord of combustibles, the flames rolled up the wall and fanned out across the ceiling.

Stitch looked up as the fire oozed overhead like a living thing. He shouted over the growing roar. "If we're gonna go, we'd better go now." He pointed at the ragged gap left by the creature's passage, now twice as wide as the one created by Merlin's small breaching charge.

For a moment he considered the strength needed to rip through that much steel. Stitch glanced at Merlin. "You figure it's dead?"

Merlin shrugged in a half-committal gesture. "Dead, dying or just pissed off; either we go now or we cook. We'll figure the rest out on the other side." The engineer took Stitch's outstretched hand and hauled him to his feet.

With a groan Stitch hopped twice on his good leg to catch his balance. He put a hand on Merlin's shoulder and grumbled, "No time like the present." and the two Marines bolted into the flaming portal.

For a long moment Stitch felt like the entire world was made of fire. Molten liquids dripped like rain amid the rolling sheets of flame. Then they broke free and burst from the clouds of obscuring smoke.

Stitch split from Merlin as both men hurled themselves toward opposing walls. Eyes swept across the corridor their gazes merged on the floor ahead, on... nothing.

Stitch snapped around, a sick moment's fear that the creature had somehow mimicked their deception and lay in wait behind them. Only flame and rock stood to his rear. Less than a heartbeat elapsed before the he pivoted forward once more. "Clear" Stitch said with forced conviction.

"Clear" Merlin confirmed.

His eyes fixed on the darkness ahead, Stitch swallowed hard. "Figure it crawled off to die?"

"Dunno," Merlin replied mechanically. "Let's hope so." The engineer took several cautious steps forward, the CAR snapping from point to point as he advanced.

Stitch nodded and his arms went slack. The fading adrenaline rush was already giving way to a new wave of pain. He hobbled forward, one hand on the beacon while the other gripped the wall. "I don't wanna be here when it gets back."

Merlin shifted the CAR to his left hand and stepped under the medic's outstretched arm.

They covered two lengths of corridor before Stitch spotted turbolift doors at the end of the hall. Four levels above Sickbay, the two had to cover a lot of ground before they reached the Lobby floor. That still left a lot of climbing and hiking. As crippling spasms of pain crawled up his back, a thought flickered once more through the medic's mind.

Merlin grunted. "You really thinking about it?"

Beneath his mask, Stitch chuffed. "That transparent, huh?"

"Shit," Merlin muttered "If I had that leg I'd think about it. But do we have the time?"

Stitch had given the matter a fair bit of thought. "I'm betting it's a function of injury. The worse you're hurt, the longer it takes. Darcy went over an hour because she was torn all to hell. Just about every system she had was shut down or in shock. One big hole," he chuffed, "hell, ten minutes, maybe twenty."

Merlin shook his head slowly. "Yeah, but to have that shit crawling all over you, all through you…" Revulsion tinged his voice.

Stitch wheezed, his breath gilded with pain. "Sometimes you reconsider your priorities, besides," he tapped one of the kits on his belt, "that's why God gave us narcotics. I didn't say anything about being awake. Screw that."

Though badly hurt and dog-tired, the Marines laughed, the senseless laugh of the damned that bubbled to the surface when dying no longer seemed like the worst of alternatives. Propped against one another, the two staggered into the curved hall that wrapped around the turbolift shaft. The door stood only yards away. They moved through piles of debris, like so many others scattered throughout the ship. But only one pile was smoking.

Stitch felt himself thrown forward as the mass of living wreckage erupted from the floor, blackened jaws gaped wide. The sickening crunch of steel echoed from behind as he slammed into the door. Bursts of light and pain starred his vision as he slid to the ground. Fumbling for a weapon and finding none, Stitch looked back and felt the bile rise in his throat.

Merlin was pinned beneath the charred and smoking hulk. The engineer's CAR lay in pieces, it's receiver crumpled into the wreckage of Merlin's left glove. The rest of Merlin's arm was clamped in the gnashing jaws.

Though badly wounded, Merlin slammed a punch into what should have been the creature's neck. The armored fist drove elbow-deep and a gout of dark fluid sprayed from the hole. Merlin yanked back with a scream, dragging a fistful of entrails.

In response, Jaws snapped at Merlin's right hip and found it's mark. The heavier armor held fast, but the joints gave way beneath tons of wrenching torque. Pieces of Merlin tore away as the beast shook him like an angry dog. An armor plate, one of several that bridged the curve from hip to ribs, sprang free and skittered across the hallway. Blood, dark and arterial, geysered from the broken right arm that flopped about like the limb of a crash-test dummy.

Stitch shoved aside the foam-wrapped beacon as he groped for his last grenade. Padding tore and the device slapped hard against the floor as Stitch pulled the explosive sphere.

His gaze fell on Merlin's bloody form. If not already dead, the grenade would certainly finish him. Me as well, Stitch realized as he keyed the release, a modern-day equivalent to pulling a cotter pin. A sick snarl pulled across his face as he looked at his friend.

You go, we go.

Without warning, Jaws froze. It's frame shifted bolt-upright as far as its mangled legs would allow. Bloodstained teeth glimmered obscenely and tiny bits of Merlin fell free as the angled blades slowly rasped one against another. The oversized mandible sucked back into it's skull.

Stitch watched in confusion, his fingers tight on the metal sphere.

With a drunken lurch the creature spun ninety degrees, the heavy legs trodding absently on Merlin as if he were a forgotten doormat. In abrupt, cyclic motions the creature hunkered down, then raised itself once more as if seeking a better vantage point.

Stitch let his eyes flash to either side. What the hell is it looking at?

Lost in its sudden trance, the creature's rear quarter hovered motionless in front of Stitch, where the largest of it's wounds gaped invitingly. The broken outer shell presented a large, unmoving target. The medic drew back the grenade, determined to shove it as deeply into the beast as possible. The grenade would need only to leave his grasp to begin it's detonation cycle. Four seconds later it would fill the creature, and the hallway, with lethal shards.