Chapter 21 #2
Gehenna was piping in the video from the ship’s own cameras and one of them was almost directly facing out at the Omull. So it appeared on his screen that the two Khul were leaning right towards his face. Jace held his breath.
There were long, long moments where Jace’s heartbeat thundered in his ears and his lung started to ache from not breathing.
But he held himself completely still. Finally, the two Omull pulled back and started off into other parts of the ship.
As soon as they left, Jace gulped up air. Cold, clean, glorious air!
Now, they would just have to wait until the Cetixes off-loaded the humans--and his heart ached that these people would have to go through whatever came next--and the hangar was empty again before they made their move to go to the--
There was a hissing sound from behind them.
Jace froze, even though he really wasn’t moving before, as light suddenly appeared by his and Khoth’s feet.
A section of the outer hull was opening!
Jace immediately thought of the Cetixes with the hoses on their backs.
They didn’t suck out the humans from the front of the pods, but from the backs.
Khoth and his asses were literally going to be hanging out in front of the Cetixes in moments.
Gehenna! Jace shouted.
I know! I know! She sounded strangled. I wondered what those--
GEHENNA?!
The Omull are up above you! Get into the ship! Then you can head out the gangway, she rattled out. I’ll tell you when it’s safe!
Jace grabbed Khoth’s hand and sent two words, Follow me.
Khoth gave a nod. He, too, had seen the growing light. The two of them slid along the inner and outer sections of wall until they came to one of the openings between two of the pods. Jace popped through followed by Khoth. The Commander moved as silently as a cat. Jace was pretty quiet too.
Hide? Khoth sent.
No. Wait, Jace answered as he crouch-walked towards the gangway then pressed his back to the wall.
Khoth followed after him and copied his stance on the other side of the gangway.
Gehenna, I can see… Jace’s visor shifted to heat vision. Oh, man! I can see them!
It shocked him, but it was exactly what he needed to see.
He could see the heat signature of a Cetix scuttling outside on the hangar bay’s floor.
He could see the other five, the caterpillar-like creatures crawled up to the openings into the ship and were attaching the hoses.
He made the mistake of looking at the nearest pod where a Cetix attached a hose to the top back of the pod.
His eyes naturally went to the faceplate.
He recognized the person inside. It was Mrs. Lo, the sweet, elderly lady who had run the laundry.
Her dumpling face was scrunched in pain.
Her eyes though sought his. He remembered her shop.
There had been a long smear of blood. He had wondered if he would ever see her again.
Now… now he wished he hadn’t. The larvae streaked her face like black lines painted on.
Her lips parted in agony just before she was sucked out of the pod like a tapioca ball.
As her feet disappeared out of view, Jace just stared.
Jace?
Jace?
Jace?
Something hit his arm and he whirled around, ready to strike, but it was Khoth. The Commander’s face showed concern, alarm, and more concern. Jace was breathing hard. He realized he’d drawn his rahir and yet didn’t recall doing so. He blinked.
“Jace?” Khoth’s voice was low, but hearing his name said in that now familiar accent calmed him.
His shoulders lowered. He had been so tense that they had been drawn up to his ears. He drew in a breath and resheathed the rahir.
“I almost cut off your head,” Jace whispered.
A quirked smile appeared on Khoth’s beautiful face. “Then we are even.” Another pause, then he said more than asked, “You knew her?”
“Mrs. Lo. She’s a grandmother to three kids. She used to bring me dumplings. Homemade. She knew how much I loved them…” Jace’s throat became so tight that he couldn’t speak. “How do I tell her family… family what happened to her?”
But the moment he said this, he realized he likely wouldn’t be the one telling them.
Maybe no one would truly tell them. Not the truth.
Not yet. His mother was going to start the process of revealing the existence of aliens, but who knew how long that would take or what form.
But it was highly unlikely Mrs. Lo family wouldn’t know that their beloved grandmother had been infected and turned into food for aliens. But Jace knew. And he would avenge her.
His gaze swept around the hangar bay. The heat signatures for the Cetixes were bright as stars. He knew where they all were. A line map of the Hive appeared before him, showing him where they must go to get to the core. He sent what he was seeing to Khoth.
Based upon the Cetixes’ movements, I believe there is a chance for you to escape the ship unseen in a minute, Gehenna stated with some urgency in her voice.
He knew that she wasn’t just anxious about them. The two Omull in the ship were moving towards her location.
Understood, he had recovered from seeing Mrs. Lo. Actually, seeing her had made him more intent on destroying this place. Keep safe, Gehenna.
You, too, Jace! It’s time. Go!
“We should go, Khoth. Now,” Jace said and he was moving, knowing that Khoth would follow.
He didn’t have to see everything surrounding him.
When a Cetix looked right or left or would hear his boots or not, he knew it on a subconscious level.
There were warnings, like the hair on the back of his neck rising when he took a wrong step and he would dodge or duck or run faster.
The Cetixes were mostly concentrating on their tasks, eager to bring the humans inside of the Hive.
The hoses jerked as human after human was passed along inside.
He thought of every life in those tubes.
Still alive but dead. Dead because there was no chance for them to be saved.
Yet continuing to suffer and be afraid and, maybe even, hope.
To think that somehow this could be stopped and they could be saved.
We have to end their suffering! Jace thought. It’s all I can offer them.
They made it across the hanger towards the door that would lead them deeper into the Hive.
Khoth had followed his footsteps perfectly.
Trusting him utterly to lead them safely here.
He felt a connection to the Commander, even though they were not speaking out loud.
He met Khoth’s gaze through their helmets.
The Commander gave him a short nod. It was the equivalent of a thumb’s up.
He’s impressed with you! Gehenna chuckled.
Let’s not celebrate prematurely, Jace told her and yet his cheeks flared with color.
Khoth tilted his head to the side and Jace just shook his head. He could not explain any of this, even if it wouldn’t embarrass him terribly about Gehenna singing the equivalent of Jace and Khoth! Sitting in a tree! K - I - S - S - I - N - G!
You’ll need to go through this door, up the hallway about 100 meters, and then I’ll show you where to go next, Gehenna assured him.
Right, let’s do this, Jace said.
With a tilt of his head, Jace indicated to Khoth where they were going. The door was made up of three ribbed sections of chitin that twisted together to close and disappeared into the wall when open. It appeared to be operated simply by proximity because it opened for them.
You’ve got a clear shot down the hallway, Jace, Gehenna told him, even as he and Khoth crouched by the open doorway.
Jace made a movement with his hand to indicate that they should move.
Khoth nodded. They kept low and glided down the hallway.
The chitin was ridged so that it wasn’t slick under their boots.
But as careful as they both were, their boots squeaked against the material every once in a while.
And when that happened, Jace’s heart was in his throat.
But while he saw heat signatures in other parts of the ship, no one seemed to hear them or, if they did, come to check out what had made that noise.
The core was, unsurprisingly, at the very heart of the Hive and the Hive was huge.
When they were near the hangar bay, there had been few Khul, but as they moved deeper within the ship, more and more heat signatures were appearing.
More than once, Jace had held up a hand to stop them from proceeding in front of another hallway that emptied into the one they were currently in because an Omull or Cetix was clacking its way nearby.
Gehenna, we can’t stay out in the open in this hallway! Jace told her. We’ve lucked out so far that none of them are using this hallway, but that’s going to change.
It isn’t luck! It’s me, she told him with a touch of smugness. But yes, I see your point. There is a duct system that you could likely use. It will slow you down though.
A legion of Khul will slow us down, too, he reminded her.
Fair point! She agreed. Here’s a new route.
On his HUD, there was a glowing dot that showed him they should go forward, then turn right, then enter a room to their left.
There would be an entrance in the floor into the duct system, which was far roomier than he’d hoped.
Again, he indicated to Khoth they should go and the Commander gave him a brief nod. Warmth filled Jace.
I can’t let him down. Got to keep us safe and on target, Jace thought.
The light in the Hive was amber. It reminded Jace of being in a piece of hardened sap.
It should have been a calming light, but it just seemed to make things murky and undefined.
Luckily, his helmet and his own super-attuned senses stopped him from blundering into the walls or down the wrong hallway.
Soon, they were outside of the door that would lead to the room that could get them into the ducts. But there was a problem.
His heat vision showed him that there were two Cetixes inside the space.
And there were two other, fainter, signatures that looked to be human.
They could withdraw down the hallway and hope the Cetixes would leave.
But they had no idea how long that would take and…
the two human signatures. What were they doing to them?
“What do you wish to do, Jace?” Khoth asked.
Jace looked again with his heat vision. The Cetixes were bustling around the human heat signatures. He thought of Mrs. Lo. He thought of that young nameless woman. They were still alive. They were in agony. He had to stop this.
Jace met Khoth’s eyes. “We need to kill them.”