Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
Arin ran, ignoring the flickering lights up above as she headed toward the communications room.
The elevator trip had been hellish, with strange thumping and scratching noises coming from above the ceiling.
She’d spent the entirety of the brief ride standing with the rocket launcher activated and pointed upwards, just waiting for some nightmare to drop through the roof.
Stupidly, she’d yelled Rykal’s name, but he hadn’t answered.
Arin sprinted past stacks of satellite monitoring equipment, noticing that a faint trace of Juvi smoke hung in the air. Someone had been here recently. She wondered who else might be willing or able to put in a secure call to Earth.
Riana had used the secure line to get through to her, but Riana possessed certain special ‘skills’ that she’d acquired on Earth before her days in the forces.
Finally, Arin reached the comm room. The doors slid open, revealing a brightly lit area filled with panels of blinking equipment.
Most of the equipment was rendered useless because of the network blackout enforced by the Federation, but the comm room contained a secure line that was used for distress calls and classified communications.
The same line was also connected to the navigation room, but she couldn’t afford to have this discussion in front of anyone.
Arin scanned the equipment, looking for the familiar shape of a holoscreen.
There.
She identified the device and sat down, putting her pack and the EI launcher aside. She brought up the input pad, entering a special code that she’d memorized, one that she’d been given by the nameless, dark-suited ghosts back on Earth.
The holoscreen flickered as the device did its thing, logging onto a secure satellite network.
“Yes?” The answering voice came through with a mild degree of distortion and static, the result of a signal being transmitted thousands of miles through space.
“Agent E1?” Arin instantly recognized the woman’s voice. Moments later, her image appeared on the holoscreen.
“Sergeant Varga. I’m assuming this is urgent.”
“I don’t know what your relationship is to the Powers That Be, but I need to get a message through to the Senate. They need to start getting off their asses and organize an evac mission. It’s time to get these people off the freighter.”
“The Senate is still deliberating on the best course of action. We can’t risk any move that might lead to retaliation from the Kordolians. We can’t risk any further loss of life, and we still don’t understand what their motivations are.”
Yes, we do, Arin thought in frustration. They want to kill the Xargek, and that’s what we want, too. What’s so fucking complicated about it?
Politics. She hated politics.
“They won’t harm us if we honor our end of the bargain,” Arin declared.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Trust me, they won’t. They won’t save us, but they won’t intentionally harm us either.”
“Have you obtained a DNA sample for us yet?”
Arin clenched her jaw in frustration. “I have not. Now, are you going to help me, or are you going to be obstructionist?”
“We have procedures to follow. We can’t influence the actions of the Senate. The matter is currently under debate.”
“They’ve found Xargek on the freighter,” Arin informed the woman.
“The Senate should reach a decision soon,” was her only response, as if the matter was routine and not abso-fucking-lutely urgent.
Her cold indifference was in direct contrast to Arin’s rising anger.
Did this nameless woman not understand the situation?
Sometimes, it felt like the entire world had gone mad, and Arin was the only sane one left.
Or perhaps it was the other way around.
“So let me get this straight, E1. You’re saying you can’t help me right now?”
“We will act when an appropriate course of action has been decided upon. Rest assured, we have your best interests in mind.”
“You won’t help?”
“We cannot go against protocol.”
Arin couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Perhaps Marat had been right, and humans had forgotten how to fight a good war. Four hundred odd years of peace could do that to a race. “Go fuck yourself, Agent,” she whispered as she terminated the comm, paralyzed by anger and disappointment.
Un-fucking-believable.
The whole world was nuts.
Arin tapped the comm in her ear. “Private Shepherd,” she said, waiting for the voice-recognition system to connect her to Riana. At least the ship’s internal wireless still worked.
No response but static.
“Private Shepherd,” she said again.
“A-Arin?”
“Riana, get your ass up to the communications room, now. I need you.”
“B-but…” In the background, Arin could hear voices. Slurred voices. Drunken voices.
“Riana,” she growled, “have you been drinking? Where the hell are you?” She shook her head. “I don’t care. Get up here now, or I’ll file a report about a certain illegal hacking activity that happened on Fortuna Tau. If I remember correctly, it was something to do with the X-rated networks.”
“Don’t you dare,” Riana gasped. “I’m on my way, Sarge.”
“Hurry up.” As Arin shut off the comm, she heard those strange noises again. They were like the noises she’d heard in the elevator, except they were louder now.
They seemed to be coming from above her.
Thud. Thud. Taptaptap. Skitterskitter.
Fucking Xargek. Arin stood, hefting the EI launcher onto her shoulder. She set it to activate and waited.
Thudthudthud.
Something pierced through the metal roof. A black blade.
Arin steeled herself, preparing to shoot. The thudding was deafening now. The blade disappeared, then reappeared again and again, stabbing dozens of tiny holes in the roof.
Something else was stabbing through, too. A giant black claw.
Oh, shit. It was a big one.
“Rykal?” Arin called. Relief flooded through her. So he hadn’t left her, after all. He’d just hidden from her.
Stubborn Kordolian.
“Get out of there, Arin,” he shouted, although his voice was slightly muffled by the layers of metal that separated them. “Take cover!”
How the fuck had he gotten into the ceiling in the first place?
Arin looked around wildly, but there was nowhere to hide. She did the next best thing and backed into the corridor, keeping her launcher pointed towards the direction of the noise.
There was a loud crash, and the ceiling began to fragment into pieces.
Two black figures fell through the roof, along with a shower of small, disgusting, swarming Xargek larvae.
Arin almost discharged her rocket, but now Rykal was in the way, jumping to his feet as he raised his sword.
It met the adult Xargek’s giant foreclaws with a loud crack.
Arin groaned. Not this again.
“Get out!” Rykal yelled. She couldn’t see his face; it was hidden behind his menacing visor. He was a black whirlwind of savage motion, matching the Xargek blow-for-blow as it tried its best to cut his head off.
Arin took one look at the scenario before her and obeyed, dashing out into the corridor, the sliding doors closing behind her.
She was met with a swarm of Xargek larvae, approaching her from the direction of the elevator.
In the ceiling just before the elevator, there was a giant black hole through which spilled various wires and bits of debris, along with the occasional Xargek hatchling.
Arin swore and lifted her rocket launcher, preparing to rain a firestorm down on the Xargek larvae. The damn things gave her the creeps, and there was no way she was going to let any of them so much as even touch her boots.
She was about to fire when the light above the elevator flashed, indicating that someone was about to step off.
“Shit.” Arin held her fire as the doors opened. She lowered the launcher and pulled out her bolt gun.
Riana appeared, and the Xargek larvae swarmed towards her. She screamed. Arin ran towards her, firing at the larvae that skittered at her feet. Every time she hit one, it would explode in a burst of foul-smelling liquid.
Riana found her gun and started shooting, but her aim was way off. One of her shots narrowly missed Arin as she sprinted towards the elevator, her long legs covering the distance with powerful strides.
“To me, Riana! Don’t shoot. Just dodge. Hurry up and get out of there before they box you in.”
The private blinked, looked at Arin, then glanced down at the Xargek larvae that were swarming all over the place. As three of them rushed towards her, she made a giant leap and started to sprint, easily dodging the oval-shaped black creatures as they ambulated around on their multiple tiny legs.
Horrid things.
Several loud crashes echoed from the communications room, and Arin hoped Rykal was getting the real threat under control. Riana reached Arin’s side, breathing heavily. “This is what you called me up here for? I wish you’d asked for the rest of the squad, boss.”
Arin squeezed off two shots, hitting a couple of Xargek that were trying to sneak up on them from behind. “The situation’s changed,” she said. “Had no idea these things were swarming all over the place until afterwards. Doesn’t change the fact that I need you to do something for me.”
“Oh yeah?”
“I need you to hack a military satellite.”
Riana laughed, her perfect white teeth gleaming. “Is that all? How come you never give me any of the easy jobs?”
Arin fired at a weird-looking Xargek just beside Riana’s boot.
The thing looked like it was halfway between its larval stage and some weird second stage.
Bits of carcass and legs and gunk flew everywhere, some splattering on Riana’s boot.
The private grimaced. Arin shot it again, just for good measure.
“That’s because you’re special,” Arin grinned, as Riana made a face and tried to shake the muck off her boot.
“Can we get out of here and into the comm room so we can at least close the doors? I can’t hack shit with these things nipping at my ankles.” Riana started to move, but Arin grabbed her arm.