Chapter 21
Next Step
You were very calm when I told you that Khoth was considering killing you, Jace, Gehenna said.
You also said that you would paralyze him through the suit’s electronics before he could even close his hand on his rahir, Jace reminded her with a faint smile. And tell me that you aren’t sharing this conversation with him? There was a pause. Gehenna?!
I’m not! Gehenna cried then added, I was just double checking. People can be wrong, you know? Despite the best of intentions! They can make mistakes even if they’re trying very hard!
He snorted. Gehenna’s “mistakes” were becoming legendary. But he quickly bit his inner cheek to stop any more sounds from emerging from his lips. They were being taken into the Hive now. They’d found this hiding place just moments ago with only minutes to spare.
This plan is going to work, right? Jace suddenly asked her. Talking about mistakes and best of intentions had him wondering about his own thinking. I don’t really want Khoth to go through with the head chopping thing.
That still felt a little unreal to him. Maybe that was why he wasn’t as freaked out by it, that Khoth had seriously been considering beheading him.
The fact that his suit would have blocked at least the first blow gave him some comfort.
Or Khoth could have tried to get him to take the helmet off.
Not that this would have happened! He didn’t even want to breathe the air in here. It could be--infected--unbreathable.
I think your plan is sound, Jace, Gehenna said chirpily. With my cloaking, you’ll remain invisible to any scanners! Then I’ll get inside of their systems so I’ll be able to track Khul movement and relay to you the best way to get to the core.
Too bad you can’t just inject a virus in from here, he said.
Yes, that would be very handy, but--like the Osiris, in a way--accessing the core of a Hive remotely would cause so many alarms that we’d be discovered in moments and the Khul would just take it offline.
Jace stopped himself from nodding. So physically inserting the virus is the only way.
It hadn’t been a question, but a statement, yet Gehenna stated anyways, Yes, it is the only way that could possibly work.
How long do we have before the virus affects the Hive? He asked.
Ten minutes--
Damn! Only ten minutes? Can we--what am I saying, if we could extend the time, you’d say so.
He closed his eyes tightly to sort of get his mind around ten minutes the difference between life and death.
But I’ve estimated the time to get back to this ship--even assuming multiple battles along the way--you’ll be back in eight and half minutes! She informed him helpfully.
Eight and a half minutes? Plenty of time, he replied dryly with a soft laugh.
Indeed. There was a pause. Running. You’ll have to be running full out to get back.
Yeah, Gehenna, I assumed that, he told her.
The ship shuddered as it came to a stop inside of the Hive.
On his helmet’s screen it showed him the seed-shaped hangar bay.
As soon as the outer doors shut again two Omull scuttled into the hangar bay.
Their seven-foot tall bodies, sheathed in that shiny black carapace, had Jace’s stomach churning more than it had so when he’d seen them in Sunrise.
The larvae wriggling under the young woman’s skin had him seeing the Khul totally differently now.
He’d been scared of them before, but now he was scared but also angry on a deep level.
What they did was obscene. It wasn’t just killing people, it was how they did it and it was the pain their victims went through.
To keep their victims conscious throughout this process was malevolent in Jace’s mind.
They need to be stopped, Jace thought. No quarter.
As the two Omull came towards the ship on their clawed feet, tentacles extended from the back of their heads waving about, Jace thought of cutting off those heads and tentacles with his rahir.
Even if they were within range though, he and Khoth were not to attack the Omull. They were to stay hidden.
His eyes slid towards Khoth then and he wondered if the Commander was thinking the same thing.
He couldn’t ask Khoth because that would create sound and using the suit’s texting capability--even the aspect that allowed them to use their eyes--might cause them to move and, again, cause noise. So they’d agreed to be silent.
He frowned, Gehenna, how did you know Khoth was thinking of cutting off my head?
Oh! I track where he’s looking and, obviously, all of his vital functions--
Obviously, Jace laughed internally.
And there are certain micro-expressions that are very telling that he makes before he fights, she rattled off. But really, it was obvious.
Uhm, obvious?
He cares for you, Jace, her voice softened. He would never let the Khul harm you.
Jace blinked. Y-yeah… but he would be cutting off my head.
With love! Cutting off your head with love! She enthused. So why weren’t you freaked out when I told you?
I was! I mean… at first, but then I thought of that girl’s face, Jace said and swallowed, nausea bubbling up again.
He fought off the urge to squirm as he felt imaginary bugs tickling his skin. The thing was that he had to remind himself that his suit kept them imaginary as there were tubes with larvae not two feet from him.
The thing is, he continued, I was going to ask him to do it. You know? Kill me if…
Yes, but you’re nowhere near that yet! Things are not that dire! Gehenna cried. Which was why I intended to paralyze him if he even so far went to touch that hilt!
He cracked a grin. I’m glad you’ve got my back, Gehenna.
Of course!
His grin though faded as the ship opened and the gangway started to lower.
The two Omull were joined by half a dozen Cetixes.
These caterpillar-like creatures--if a caterpillar were hundreds of times larger than they were on Earth--wore what looked like harnesses on their backs with hoses attached that lead into the walls of the ship.
Hoses large enough to…
I think that’s how they’ll move the people, Gehenna whispered. They’ll suck them up--
Don’t! Don’t tell me, Jace said as bile was already rising up his throat.
All he would need would be to throw up in his space suit.
He heard the tick, tick, tick, of the Omull’s claws as they were the first to come inside the ship.
He and Khoth were on that main floor where the gangway entrance was.
But, beyond being shielded from discovery by Gehenna’s electronic sorcery, there were only a few inches of the chitin between them and the Omull.
Even without the ship camera’s equivalent of a microphone.
Tell me again that you’re safe, Gehenna, Jace demanded as his breathing rose, frosting the glass of his helmet before the internal cool air supply wiped it away.
She hadn’t been able to fit with them here. So she was hanging from the ceiling in the engine room. Just more coils in a room full of coils with the lights in her squid-head dome shut off.
I’m safe. I’m more worried about you, she said. Those two Omull are suspicious even though my hack is perfect!
He saw what she meant. The two Omull had split off at the top of the gangway--one heading to the left and the other to the right--going around the external circle of the walkway near the pods.
They would pass right by him and Khoth! The urge to grab his rahir or his pistol or Khoth’s nearest hand was so strong that sweat broke out across Jace’s brow as he fought the instinct.
We don’t know what caused this ship to return to the Hive, Jace pointed out, focusing on that instead of the steadily approaching Khul. Maybe we tripped something and they’re looking for the cause of that.
I see no evidence of that, but I suppose it's possible, Gehenna mused.
The Omull to his right--he called this one Jerry--was not only a few pod-lengths away from him and Khoth.
The Omull to his left--this one he called Raul--was further away, but was intently scanning each pod, looking into the faceplates, peering around them as if looking for injuries to them--or perhaps if someone uninfected was hiding inside--and being more pokey.
Desperate to think of something--anything--else, Jace continued, Maybe they were scanning us a lot earlier than I realized.
I would have known! Gehenna sounded affronted.
He supposed for an AI missing something like this would be like failing at a 101 course or something.
Or, Hell, even if they didn’t have anything to do with us coming back and it was the Osiris--
You know what I think! The Osiris did this! On purpose! For its stupid mission! Gehenna’ voice was full of angry suspicion. But she didn’t like the Osiris very much.
Yeah, I know, Jace said, wondering how he felt about that.
On the one hand, if it was the Osiris then, hopefully, the ship was keeping his parents from losing it.
Except nothing the Osiris said would likely comfort anyone.
Let’s say it was the Osiris that sent us here that would make the Khul way suspicious, too.
Like this ship is a Trojan Horse, which… well, it is!
But that’s a human story. They might not have an analogous story to look upon for inspiration, Gehenna pointed out.
Oh, I have a feeling in war that it’s pretty common, he said, then found that he couldn’t even speak mentally then.
Both Omull were right in front of them. His heart rate rose even higher.
His breathing hissed through his teeth. Could they hear that?
They were only guessing that over the hum of the ship’s machinery and all the life signs of the human cargo, that two more heartbeats and respiration wouldn’t give them away.
Not to mention the wall. It was only a few inches thick, but still!
What if we are wrong?