Chapter 5 Venom
Venom
I had barricaded myself into a tiny storage room, but it was only a matter of time until they broke in.
The only reason why they hadn't used a blaster on the door yet was because everyone was busy dealing with Jarra.
The Prime Game Maker was seriously injured and currently surrounded by an army of medical personnel, but he still found the strength to bark furious commands to find the female.
My female. I kept listening to the transmissions from Jarra's quarters while also watching my mate's progress through the pipes.
I'd not been able to give her as much help as I'd wanted, but after Briarra had caught me hacking into her uncle's security systems, I'd had to focus on my own safety for a short time.
I didn't think Briarra realised that I'd been to blame for Jarra's injuries – not yet, anyway.
She wasn't stupid. Eventually, she'd put two and two together. By then, I had to be gone.
Now that my mate was following my guiding stars through the maze of waste pipes, I could take the next step, the one I'd hoped I'd be able to avoid.
I had to inform my superiors. My cover was blown.
I needed an urgent extraction, but I wasn't sure they would provide one.
I hadn't completed my task. Yes, I had gathered highly sensitive information that would get them closer to shutting down the Trials, but was it enough?
After the last data transmission, I'd been told that it wasn't. They needed yet more incriminating evidence.
Although that had been before the Peritan females had been sent into the Trials.
They were innocents, taken from a planet that wasn't even part of the Intergalactic Alliance, thrust into the games by force. That had to be enough.
"Come out now!" someone shouted. I ignored them and pushed my coils tighter against the door.
I typed as fast as I could. First, I started the emergency data transfer to make sure everything I'd collected since the last transmission hadn't been in vain.
Next, I deployed a virus I'd written at the very beginning of my deployment to Kalumbu Station.
It would wipe all trace of my presence, my work, my hacks.
If I was lucky, it would work quickly enough to erase the evidence of what I'd done today.
That might just save my life if the extraction didn't happen.
I hesitated before the final step. If I did this, it was all over. No way back.
I'd been desperate to leave Kalumbu for a long time now, but this wasn't how it was supposed to end. I'd failed in staying undetected and in completing my mission. If I got home – and that was a very big if – I would likely be demoted.
But that didn't matter as long as I had my mate with me. She was more important than any job. More important than my life, even. She was my priority.
Which is why I had to do this.
I closed my eyes and focused on a place deep in my mind that was sort of foggy, like a memory that's almost faded.
I'd never had to do this in an emergency situation.
During practice, it had been easy – but the last practice was at least two rotations ago.
Shouts and banging against the door kept breaking my concentration.
I had to focus. Calm down completely. Difficult when you're about to be captured by the enemy.
I thought of my mate. She was relying on me to get her out of here. If I didn't help her, nobody would.
Focus.
I took a deep breath. The fog lifted somewhat.
And there it was, the mind safe. It was locked securely, just as I had left it during the last practice.
I entered my combination by thinking of a series of numbers, words and smells that were important to me.
For a click, nothing happened. Had I forgotten the right combination?
No, thank Glycon, the safe opened, revealing the emergency comms console.
I knew this was only the visual representation I had given it – for other beings, it would look very different.
Not that many people were given the implant that made all this possible.
It was a dangerous, unpleasant procedure, and extremely expensive at that.
I activated the console and recorded a message.
Agent V-29@#1 requesting urgent extraction for myself and a civilian. Cover blown. Emergency situation. Please send help immediately.
I looped the recording so that it would send continuously in the background, without me having to think about it. The implant in my brain would automatically connect to any communications equipment I was close to, hacking into it to send my message. I hoped it would reach my superiors soon.
They had always been somewhat murky when it came to extraction methods. I knew I was the only agent embedded into Kalumbu Station, so there would be no easy way to get help. They'd have to send a ship, or bribe someone locally.
That gave me an idea.
The Bloodstar was still close enough to Kalumbu to help.
I had assisted them in the past, now it was time for them to return the favour.
The crews’ previous ship, the Artep, had docked at the station in the past, which meant their captain had the necessary clout with the criminal underworld who controlled this place.
But I didn’t know who was in charge of the Bloodstar and whether they were the kind of people who could enter this station. One way to find out.
I started a search for the ship's name in the security protocols. Fuck. It wasn’t listed as an approved vessel. They wouldn't let it get even close to the space station. There might be other ways for it to be of use, but it wasn't going to be an easy ride. I had to contact the Bloodstar.
For now, I still had access to all the station's systems. They'd revoke my accounts soon enough, so I had to be quick and subtle. I couldn't turn the Bloodstar into a target by directly communicating with them.
Wait, there was a new ship approaching Kalumbu. Something in the alert didn't seem right. I dived into the code, examining it from all sides. If the situation hadn't been so serious, I would have chuckled.
The ship wasn't real. It was a simulation.
A good one, granted, but it was obvious once you knew.
Fascinating. Who'd go through the trouble of creating a ship that didn't exist?
Maybe it was a training programme designed to test the planet's alert systems. Or maybe.
.. could it be? I examined the code in even more detail, hoping this wasn't a waste of time.
There it was.
>>
B for Bloodstar? It had to be. They must have spotted the hidden messages I left when I helped them. Excellent. Now they could return the favour.
"Get out of there now!" Briarra called suddenly. "We have blasters trained at the door. If you don't come out, we will shoot. You'll be nothin' but stinkin' naga soup!"
Fuck. It might be a bluff – I was sure they wanted to interrogate me first to know who I worked for and how much information I'd stolen – but Briarra's uncle was wounded and she likely wasn't thinking straight.
I quickly checked on my mate again. She was still following the lights, stumbling and looking increasingly weary. I'd programmed them to lead them to an exit in a rarely used part of the station. I'd planned to meet her there. Now, that was looking increasingly unlikely.
Glycon, what was I supposed to do? Even if I contacted the Bloodstar right away, they couldn't dock at the station. The only place they could reach was the planet's surface – with my help – and that was the last place I wanted to go. I was on my own for now.
I could take on a few of Briarra's grunts.
I didn't carry a weapon, but I had enough venom stored to kill five or incapacitate ten average aliens.
Very few species were immune to naga venom, but there was always that chance that it might not work on one of the guards on the other side of the door.
Even if I fought, spent all my venom, somehow made it out of the data centre, I wouldn't get far.
I had stashes of weapons and supplies hidden away in multiple hiding places across the station, but it was unlikely I'd reach the closest one.
There was no way I could shoot my way off the station.
"I'm counting to three!" Brianna shouted. "Come out now!"
Fuck, fuck, fuck. This was hopeless. I had no idea what to do.
If I got killed now, my mate would not survive.
There was no other way.
I sent a quick message to the Bloodstar, embedding it in the security protocols they were likely to monitor. I enclosed the key I used to quickly break through the planet’s defences. Hopefully, they would get it.
"Two!"
I couldn't let them recapture my mate. Maybe…
No, the portal was made for me. She might not survive the journey.
But I had a feeling the game makers would send her to Kalumbu when they captured her.
If she used my portal, at least I'd know where she'd end up.
And it was a fairly safe area, if you could say that about any area in a monster-infested planet where even the plants want to kill you.
I typed two more messages, one of them to my mate with further instructions. Then I stretched, relaxed my coils, and opened the door.