Industrial area, the Arena, Prasinos system
The bugs had surged on Andy as soon as Menka had passed by them. They hoisted him up without any consideration for his damaged ankle and carried him off in pursuit of their queen.
‘Ow, shit, mind my leg,’ he grouched through gritted teeth. ‘Clumsy bastards.’
Menka stopped and turned, the mass of bugs following and carrying Andy stopped suddenly too, all comically bumping into each other.
‘Easy with our guest,’ she said, rolling her eyes. ‘Get his ankle strapped up too.’
With Andy griping all the way, they turned the corner and instead of heading right for the egg layer building, they turned left, crossed the double roadway and a vehicle park and entered another smaller carboncrete building. Half a dozen humans greeted the queen and accepted Andy from the bugs. They sat him down, removed his clothes and boots, pumped a couple of injections into his lower leg and dressed him in a set of blue coveralls. Some sort of fracture boot was placed over his foot and ankle. He yelped as it inflated on the inside, repositioning and locking the foot in the correct position. Relief came very quickly, as whatever had been in the injections did its job and the pain washed away.
The building suddenly shook violently, immediately followed by a deep boom. The humans all looked at each other, the worry evident. Then sounds of crashing outside, followed by breaking glass, then shortly after, another boom resonated from the same direction and something heavy fell on the roof above, causing dust and plaster to shower down on them.
While this was going on, Andy noticed the human aids to the queen were having quite an animated but whispered discussion. He couldn’t hear what was being said, but the expression on the queen’s face was anything but contented.
Finally, she seemed to relent to what they were saying and pointed in his direction.
‘Okay, bring him,’ she snarled, turning and disappearing down a corridor.
Andy was immediately stood and hustled along in pursuit. He wasn’t given time to put the provided sock and boot on his other foot, so he just limped along as best he could.
The corridor they followed the queen and entourage down ended in a garage at the back. Tyre tracks led to a vehicle-sized door that probably opened to a rear roadway. No vehicle was in residence on this day however, just a row of dark packs laid across the blue hexagonal-tiled floor.
The aids picked one up and began wrapping it around the queen. Before Andy could see exactly what it was, he was dragged over to a similar pack at the far end of the room. As they began doing the same to him, he realised they weren’t packs at all, but some sort of armoured sleeveless jacket with a separate wide metal bracelet that clipped on your forearm. The jacket was surprisingly heavy and made from a thick grey canvas type material, with lumpy rectangular panels sewn in front and back.
When the humans began dressing themselves, Andy quickly sat down and slipped the sock and boot on his good leg. The boot proved a bit big, but was better than nothing.
Once they were all similarly garbed, one of the humans grabbed his arm, activated a small touch screen on the bracelet and programmed something into it. Whatever it was, was copied from his own bracelet and when done, he bowed at the queen who nodded in return.
‘Send him,’ she said.
‘Oh, shit,’ mumbled Andy, as he realised what it was. The human stood back, touched an icon on his own wrist and with a snap, Andy found himself in complete darkness.
‘Did someone turn out the lights?’ he asked, trying to use the faint glow from his bracelet screen to see by.
Another loud snap nearby, made him jump and stumble. He yelped as he put too much weight on his bad leg. More snaps sounded around him, then someone lit a small light and his earlier fears were confirmed.
He’d just jumped.
The space in which he found himself was high ceilinged, so high he couldn’t see it. It was about the size of a tennis court with walls of plain carboncrete and he could taste the dust in the air, stirred up by the displacement of the jumps. Grey boxes of machinery filled one end of the room. Connected by wiring and pipes, they hummed and whirred. It was cold, bone-chillingly cold. He shivered, the thin coveralls providing no warmth at all. Several other lights were illuminated and the human who’d dressed him, now removed the jump suit and bracelet. Probably didn’t want him jumping off on his own and escaping; not that he had any idea how it worked anyway. Even colder now without the jump suit, he flapped his arms around his body, his breath hanging in clouds around him.
‘We need to get you downstairs, My Queen,’ one of the humans said. ‘We’re vulnerable here.’
The party marched off towards a small door at the far end of the room, and Andy was ushered along with them. It opened as they approached and two more humans entered and stood to attention either side of the opening. They both bowed as Menka passed by into a brightly lit stairwell and headed down.
Following behind, Andy reasoned with the carboncrete they must be on one of the bugs’ flying rocks, a big one too. That’s until he got a glimpse out of a small window on one of the landings. It was only the briefest of glances as he was ushered past.
‘Snow?’ he murmured. ‘How can it be snow…unless?’
The realisation dawned on him. They hadn’t jumped onto another ship, they must have jumped onto the surface of Dasos. But where?
On the next landing they exited the stairwell through double doors, emerging into a corridor, one side of which was floor to ceiling glass. He was relieved to find it a lot warmer in here. Able to see outside clearly now, he observed they were in a low-rise building adjacent to a space port. Many ships of all descriptions sat around a wide apron stretching as far as you could see. All were covered in varying thicknesses of snow.
Passing by a row of offices they pushed through another set of double doors into an enormous hangar. Dominating the space was a large commercial ship of some kind. Andy guessed it was some sort of passenger liner, judging by the rows of oval windows along its rather bulbous hull.
Designed more for functionality than elegance, he thought.
A rectangular hatch powered open on its belly next to one of the six huge struts. A set of spiral stairs wound its way down to the hangar floor and a red strip light inside the handrail illuminated the way up.
‘HEY, MENKA,’ echoed from somewhere in the hangar, somewhere close too, causing the queen to stop dead in her tracks. She scowled and peered around, obviously peeved by the disrespectful use of her old Ancient name.
‘Who said that?’ she sneered.
A man stepped out from behind the strut nearest the stairway into the ship.
Andy snorted a laugh when he recognised him.
‘I did,’ said Pyriaeus, leaning casually against the strut and folding his arms.
‘PYRIAEUS,’ Menka spat. ‘So…the treacherous rat lives?’
‘Indeed I do,’ he said. ‘Valiant effort on your part though. I pretty much was dead until Edward and this fine gentleman came by and revived me.’
Menka turned and glowered at Andy.
‘If I’d known that, human, I would’ve let my soldiers rip you to pieces in the reservoir.’
‘Love you too,’ said Andy, blowing her a kiss.
Baring her teeth, Menka turned back to Pyriaeus, sneered and with a wave of her hand, her human entourage all pulled their weapons and fired at Pyriaeus.
He smiled at her dismayed expression as all the laser bolts passed harmlessly through him and impacted the far hangar wall.
‘What is it with this society and fucking holograms,’ she snapped and with another wave of her hand, his hologram disappeared. She mounted the stairs and wound her way up, stopping at the top and turning to look down at Andy. ‘Leave him here,’ she said. ‘Well, Andrew. I was going to spare you and take you with me, someone with your obvious talents may have come in useful, but recent news has made me change my mind.’
His escort left him standing at the bottom of the stairway and filed their way up. Before she boarded the ship, she spoke again.
‘You have an overdue appointment with some friends of mine,’ she said and with a wave of her hand, a low rumble sounded from the massive main hangar door.
It began to open and Andy’s eyes widened as hundreds, maybe thousands of bugs poured in, all turning towards him. He immediately spun around and began running back towards the double doors – well, more fast hobbling really – and looking over his shoulder he realised there was no chance he’d make it. The clattering of their legs on the hangar floor became a deafening roar and just as they were about to envelop him, he dived down on the deck and rolled into a ball.