Into the Lion’s Pit
Scratch came up to another ventilation shaft branching off to the side and he was about to pass by it when he noticed that Jack was no longer behind him. He turned to search for her, but he couldn’t see her in the length of tunnel he was in. He tried whispering her name, hoping that it would travel down the tunnel but no answer came back. He turned around in the tight passageway and starting going back when suddenly Jack’s head popped out from around the last bend.
“What happened?” Scratch whispered, but noticed her squinting her eyes from pain. She slowly crawled up to him and said, “The pain’s back, but not as bad as before…”
“Do you want to turn around?” Scratch asked.
“No, let’s keep going. I need to know what’s happening to Bones.”
Scratch had lost hope that Bones was still alive, but he kept the thought to himself. He was a little jealous of her determination to find him, but he knew his jealousy was unreasonable. He wanted to find them alive and well too, but she was so fixated on him. If they were alive, and it was a big if, he could certainly use their help in getting out of here.
“Scratch, how much longer before that unit you fiddled with goes off?”
Scratch looked at his watch and said, “Eight hours twenty three minutes, Jack. How are you doing?”
“It’s not getting any worse, but it’s not exactly pleasant either. And I’m starting to get images in my mind again and sometimes it interrupts my vision.”
They continued crawling, but at her pace. Coming up to another vent in the wall, they peered in to see an ant peering back at them through the hole. Scratch and Jack reeled back in surprise. The ant, having caught an unusual smell and then an unnatural mental interruption, came to inspect the source of both. Jack had little time to react, but she carefully brought the small laser up to firing position behind Scratch’s back, waiting to see what the ant would do. She immediately received a series of mental queries, and from what she could gather, it was trying to find out what they were doing in there, away from their assignments. Scratch’s confusion at everything seemed to have led it to a conclusion, and it started tearing at the hole to get to them. Jack punched a neat hole through the alien head and it fell to the ground.
They looked past the alien and saw a large tunnel-like room with the walls lined with the same crablike aliens they had met before, except that these were held in place with some form of hardened glue. Attached to each was a small box and a tube, which seemed to be carrying liquid to or away from the crabs. Further down the room was a smaller ant, another drone worker. It had stopped what it was doing to look at the commotion, but then continued with its duty oblivious of the two humans now crawling in.
They slowly lowered themselves into the room, careful not to step on any crabs. Jack looked at Scratch and said, “Last time I came across them they communicated with me, but now all I’m getting is pain. Scratch, I think they’re in so much pain that they don’t even realize I’m here. I’m going to try to communicate with them again.”
Jack sat down and concentrated, her brows furrowed. The alien drone stopped what it was doing again and looked at them. Jack drew in a sharp intake of breath, and Scratch could see tears forming in her eyes. ‘No!’ she yelled, startling Scratch, and then sat quietly with her mouth open. Finally, she shook herself and opened her eyes.
“We have to get out of here!”
“Out of where, this room? What about the crabs? What did you see?” Scratch asked confused.
“Later!”
They quickly left the room and worked their way down the ventilation tunnel with Jack in the lead. Scratch followed and Jack finally stopped and turned toward him.
“We couldn’t do anything for those crabs. Only others like them could help them, and if they come anywhere near that tunnel the same thing would happen to them. Scratch, they have a large ship almost ready to lift off, but all I see is death associated with it. At first I thought we could escape in it, but the crabs want it destroyed. They say it’s imperative! They also want… the planet destroyed. Apparently there are more hives like this on the planet, all busy doing something but I don’t know what. But in the visions, it showed…”
“How can we destroy a whole planet? And wouldn’t that destroy them too? And us?” Scratch interrupted.
“I don’t know, but they believe we can do it. And they showed me a vision of your ship, all assembled and working, but different…”
“Different? And was this a past or future vision? We don’t even know if this is true!” Scratch said frustrated.
“The ship seemed more alien then human, as if they modified it or something. The crabs were all over it, but the work was already finished. Scratch, it all seems real, and I’m pretty sure that your ship has actually been rebuilt.”
“What about Bones and the others? Did they say anything?”
Jack kept quiet, and Scratch prodded again. Finally Jack said, “According to what I saw, he’s beyond help. So are the others.” After a few moments Jack turned to continue going down the ventilation tunnel, and Scratch followed without asking anything more.
After what felt like a half hour, he finally couldn’t resist and spoke up. “Where are we going? It was down this tunnel that I heard the screams earlier.”
“I know,” Jack said. “We’re going after Bones and the others.”
“But you said…”
“No Scratch, I didn’t say, the crabs did! I want to see for myself. Anyway, according to the crabs, there’s something else down this tunnel that we have to look at and destroy.”
“Jack, I know about the big black ship. I know it has to be destroyed, but I really think it’s a bad idea to go where Bones is.”
Jack didn’t answer, so Jason gave up and continued following her. They eventually came to another fork in the tunnel, and Jack immediately turned right again. Within a few moments groaning sounds starting drifting up the tunnel and she quickened her pace. The sounds were odd, as if dozens of people were having a bad nightmare and moaning out loud. As they got closer the sounds increased. Scratch’s hair stood up on the back of his neck as they started hearing alien grunting and gurgling noises. Scratch could feel pain and horror and hopeless fear emanating from ahead, and he had to mentally strengthen himself as he continued crawling.
“Jack, are you picking up any thoughts?” Scratch asked through clenched teeth.
Jack concentrated but she shook her head no. “Not human thoughts anyway, but I do get little glimpses of odd… I can’t explain it. It’s like a horrible memory, but one cut up into pieces so tiny that I can barely pick any of the pieces out. It’s as if…” and a look of revelation came onto Jack’s face, “It’s as if whatever made them human is being torn away and destroyed! Hurry Scratch!” she said and they scrambled down the tunnel as fast as they could.
Once they rounded another bend, the tunnel came to a dead end with a short vertical shaft facing down. Scratch and Jack carefully peered over the edge to see what was going on, and the opening was large enough to give them a clear view of the room below.
Directly in the center and well below the opening was a Hive Queen, the first they had ever seen. As far as they knew, the original Hive Queen had been killed when their home-world was destroyed, and although rumors had gone around that there was perhaps another queen, most felt that it was only a matter of time before the aliens would die out. They were looking at proof that there was at least one more.
“Jack, look at the size of it!” Scratch whispered. They lay there looking at this monstrosity, so big that there was no way that she could leave this room. Part of her body was proportionate to a regular ant except much larger in size, but the head and sensory organs stood out as being unusually large and out of proportion. The eyes had withered to grotesque stubs and were clearly useless. The thorax was the biggest part of her body, more like a spider’s bloated thorax than an ant’s, and most of it was submerged in some sort of clear fluid. The portion that was above the fluid caught their attention, and they had to augment their view to bring into focus a tiny ant that was somehow permanently attached to the back of the Queen. Jack guessed it to be the male, somehow impregnating the eggs that were soon laid, but she couldn’t be sure. She took a number of mental pictures to share with her Commander later, if she ever made it off this planet.
They continued to watch as an egg would periodically float up from the depths of the fluid to the surface. Once there, a drone would collect it. Other drones were coming to her and feeding her directly from their mandibles into what used to be a mouth but was now only a soft, moist and fleshy opening. They were interrupted only by her actions of lowering and stretching her body.
Jack lowered her head into the short shaft leading into the room so she could take a better look around, and what she saw almost led her to lose her grip and fall.
The room itself was totally alien, dug out by claws and mandibles, and all around the Queen were humans laying prone, arranged in a large circle. There appeared to be no restraints or straps holding them down.
Jack and Scratch looked in horror as the Queen bent down and engulfed a human’s head in her soft mouth. They were sure it had eaten the head, until it carefully let go and slowly moved to the next human. The groaning was lessening now, and Scratch could barely pick up emotions. The human that the Queen had engulfed with her mouth lay there completely still and seemingly dead, just like the ones before him.
Jack frantically searched for Bones, and finally found him to be one of those next in line as the Queen worked her way around.
“Can you sense anything?” Scratch said.
Jack shook her head, and Scratch saw tears rolling down her face. He watched her stare at Bones, and she then slowly withdrew the laser from the backpack Scratch was carrying.
“What are you doing?!” Scratch whispered, alarmed at what she was about to do. “You’ll get us all killed!”
“I have to do something!” Jack replied.
“Jack, they’re gone! They’re not human anymore!” but Jack wasn’t listening. Just as the Queen came up to Bones, Jack steadied her hand and neatly and quietly burned a hole through the Queen’s head, and the Queen slumped to the ground. The drones burst into activity, only to quickly slow down and mill about confused. Jack and Scratch watched the action below, wondering what would happen next, when all of a sudden, all of the human’s eyes opened up.
Because they were lying down, some automatically looked to where Jack and Scratch were watching from the ceiling, and Jack peered into Bones’ eyes, hoping to see something there. Bones lay there staring at her, and then a slow comprehension came across his face, and hope returned to Jack that perhaps it wasn’t too late. Within a second it all changed and he let out an alien scream that pierced Jack to her soul. All the humans quickly joined in, and within a few moments, alien guards came in and started scurrying up the wall to reach Jack and Scratch.
Scratch quickly ducked out of the way, but Jack started shooting with her laser once again. The humans now became quiet, but Scratch could sense communication going on though he didn’t understand what it was. He reached into his backpack, pulled out a grenade and set the timer for two minutes and stuck it into the corner of the vent behind Jack. He set the second grenade also for two minutes but threw that one into the chamber, hoping the pandemonium below would allow the grenade to go unnoticed.
“Jack, let’s go! We don’t have much time!”
Jack lingered as she fired her laser at the ants, but Scratch pulled her hard by the arm and she eventually turned and started crawling.
“How long?” Jack asked, her head aching from the mental thoughts exploding in the room below.
“Not much, and we have to hurry! I don’t think it’ll take long for the aliens to widen the hole enough to come in after us!”
They concentrated on shuffling through the vent tunnel as fast as they could, and kept talk to a minimum. Scratch could swear that at least two minutes had passed, but Jack was counting the time down in her head. As she counted she could hear alien appendages rasping against the walls of the vent, the click of their claws getting clearer and clearer. Ants were built for these tunnels and it wouldn’t take long for them to catch up. Jack stole a glance behind her and saw them coming single file about thirty meters behind.
“Scratch, the ants are right behind me! And we only have about ten seconds left!” She yelled.
“I’m hurrying!”
Jack grabbed her laser and shot the first few ants coming behind them to slow them down but Scratch grabbed her hand and pulled her into a side vent they had passed earlier. Immediately afterward the grenade blew and a hot stream of gasses and projectiles blew through the aliens. The tunnel imploded behind them and they could feel from the vibration that a large amount of rocks had come down.
They were deafened by the explosion, and the resulting dust left them almost blind. Once they had regained their composure, they adjusted their eyes to maximum infrared. They could see the walls from the vent tunnel and the dust in the air glow from the heat of the blast. Jack looked around and realized there was no way out the way they had come now that the vent itself had collapsed.
“Do you think this tunnel has collapsed further down?” Jack asked.
“Only one way to find out,” Scratch said, and he started crawling down the vent. He was exhausted and knew she was too, but she hadn’t complained yet. It had been nearly four days now since either one of them had fully slept, but it also was only an hour before the power generator would go, and they had no time to rest now.
Jack must have picked up his thought, and she asked, “How much time do we have left?”
“One hour, Jack,” Scratch answered. They crawled and cleared minor debris, and eventually worked their way to another opening. They could see a huge chamber filled with more equipment neatly organized along the walls, but what captured their attention was an immense, sleek black ship sitting in the middle with hoses and wires attached to it. They could see right away that it had jump capabilities, but little in the way of weapons. It was clearly built for stealth, with odd angled surfaces pitched to deflect sensor beams away from their source. It seemed even stealthier then the ghost ships Jack came across in space. Around the ship were humans and ants, the ants milling about lost in confusion, but the humans startlingly organized and working with a common purpose. All the humans had dust suits on, and Jack and Scratch could feel a draft coming into the ventilation tunnel from the chamber itself. “Must be a positive pressure room, Scratch,” Jack said.
“Yeah. Is that the ship of your dream? I’m sure it has something to do with the Collider. What do you think it’s for?” Scratch asked.
Jack went deep into thought. She thought of the immense Collider, the humans working there, the stealth and jump capability the craft had, and as she thought a transport cart drove up to it carrying a single round cylinder with hoses and support tanks fixed to it. Also attached to the base of the cylinder was a compact power generator of a much more updated design. The cylinder hissed and periodically released small clouds of steam as it sat there waiting for whatever the operator of the cart had in mind.
Jack studied the cart, wondering why it had wheels when an antigrav shuttle was much more practical, and then it hit her. Wheels were for safety. If the antigrav unit stopped working, it would drop, while the wheeled cart would simply stop. That cargo was either valuable or dangerous or both. ‘What could be that dangerous?’ she thought.
“Scratch, what could be so dangerous that you would use a wheeled cart to lug it around, that it would have its own self contained power source and cooling system, and that you would want to put into a jump capable super stealthy ship?”
“Damn!” Scratch said, as he looked at the ship. “I can’t believe it. They’ve been successful at making and storing antimatter too!”
“That’s why our alien friends insist that this planet must be destroyed!”
Jack and Scratch stared alarmingly at the ghost ship. After a while, Jack asked, “Scratch, are you tired of all this?”
“Tired? I’m exhausted! It’s been four days…”
“No,” Jack interrupted, “I don’t mean this here, I mean tired of the war. I’m so sick and tired of the whole damn thing! No place to call home, losing friends, always wondering when my number will be up… When will it end? Aren’t you sick of it too?”
“Of course I am Jack. I wish I could just forget all of this and settle down somewhere, in some corner out of the way where I could be left in peace, but with these ants, we would never be in peace. And I don’t want to settle down somewhere if I always have to look over my shoulder.”
“I know Scratch. I know this is important and I know I have to do it, but lately…”
Scratch could see a kind of longing in Jack’s eyes, which she quickly hid.
“But, you settle down? You of all people? That would be the day…” Jack said as she feigned a laugh.
“I would settle down,” Scratch said. “If I found the right person.”
“I don’t believe it. You’re not the kind to settle down,” she replied smiling.
“Jack, you can read my mind. Read it now and see – I’ve found the right person and I will settle down.”
Jack saw the determination on his face but refused to read his mind. Reading minds left her feeling uneasy because too many things better kept secret popped out at her. Plus it gave her a terrible headache, and this wasn’t worth either one.
She thought back to her ship, and how they were both not only senior pilots but the oldest of the flight group. Somehow they managed to stay alive in a group whose median age was twenty-four. The nearest anyone came to their age of thirty-three was a hot-shot pilot three years younger who was still alive more by luck than anything else. They called the pilot Clouseau in honor of some French national hero that somehow always came to the right conclusion through his own ridiculous mistakes.
Would they be paired? It had been on the eugenics board. With only one hundred and sixteen thousand surviving adult viable couples after the original exodus, a human eugenics program was a necessity and one the general space population embraced wholeheartedly. Generally, a group of people called appropriately “The Committee” would suggested ‘a pairing’ after a careful DNA study, and the two people would look over the genetic benefits of the pairing and decide if they wanted to have a child together. This guaranteed the most diverse choice possible in the less than satisfactory situation of relatively small groups of people closed off from others in their individual World Federation ships.
The large majority of those on the Federation Ships had a number of children with different people, and although it was a genetic success Jack felt that it was a moral failure. She looked at Scratch and wasn’t at all sure that he would stay faithful to her, something she absolutely would insist on.
But time was passing by and they needed to get things accomplished. A thought came to her and she said, “Scratch, how many grenades you have left?”
Scratch smiled, and said “Two, but one will be enough.” He went serious after saying this, and he looked at Jack and said, “You know, we’ll die too.”
Jack looked at him and said, “Not if I can help it. Can you set the grenades for…” and Jack thought a bit, “a one hour delay?”
“Sure thing, under one condition,” Scratch said.
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m serious. I will not reprogram these grenades unless you agree to something.”
“And that something is…?” Jack eyed him suspiciously.
“That at the next available chance you allow me to properly propose and that you say yes.”
“You’re kidding, right?” But Jack could see that he wasn’t kidding. He appeared completely serious. She concentrated a bit and read his thoughts, and saw that he was in fact serious about his request, or rather, condition.
“Scratch…” she was about to start but Scratch interrupted.
“Look Jack. We’re not going to make it out of here alive, no matter what you have in mind. We’re as doomed as this planet is if I have to stand there and fire off the grenade myself. But just in case you have this miracle tucked up your sleeve, and I see that you don’t because you’re naked, I would like very much to marry the one girl I have not been able to forget from the moment I saw her sixteen years ago. You. You have been in my thoughts day and night all this time, every single waking and sleeping moment. Every minute I’ve seen you with another man I’ve been tortured more than I thought I could endure. And if you say no, then I don’t care if I die here. But if you agree to say yes when I can properly propose, then I have something to live for and that thought alone will make us survive even if I have to throw you into orbit myself!”
Jack was surprised at his sincerity and deeply touched from what he had said. This was totally uncharacteristic of him and completely different from the Scratch everyone knew. She was at a loss for words, afraid that they wouldn’t survive, or that if they did he would quickly forget everything he had said.
Scratch, afraid she might actually say no, quickly added in, “And anyway, you’ve been staring at my ass for the last day, it’s about time you did something about it.” They both laughed and Jack told him to shut up and program the grenade.
“Not until you agree.”
“FINE! I agree,” and Scratch could see that she meant it. He kissed her hard on the mouth and lingered as he squeezed his body against hers, and they sat there embraced in love until reality clicked in.
“I guess it’s time to set those grenades,” he said laughing, and he started working on it.
“Only activate it when I tell you. Look for a place on the ship that would amplify the explosion, something we can reach in a hurry but that would hide the grenade well. The other one goes on the cart, as near the cylinder as possible. How much longer until the Power Generator goes offline?”
Scratch looked at his watch and said, “Six more minutes. Jack, did you notice the far end of the room?”
Jack looked and saw large bay doors at the very back, heavy steel units that would be impossible to move by hand. “What am I supposed to see?” she asked.
“About half way down the chamber flanking either side of the ship is a set of doors that I think lead to two opposite corridors. If I have my directions down right, if we go to the doors on the left we should pass the human living quarters, showers, mess hall and generator room. If the corridor continues…”
“We could get back to where we came from, or at least access the ventilation tunnel further up the obstruction,” Jack finished. “We have to get back to where I met those crabs in the beginning. I’m not sure I know how to get there, but we’ll have only an hour to do so. I don’t want to stretch it any longer so that I don’t give these humans a chance of finding the grenades.”
“Do you think we can make it?” Scratch asked.
“I hope so!” and she looked with longing into Scratch’s eyes.
“Just one question. Why go back to the crabs?” Scratch asked.
“They hold the key to this, and they showed me the rebuilt ship. I know it’s a long shot, but maybe it’s the way out. Now let’s go. Think we can put two humans out of their misery and steal their dust coveralls?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem. There are two near us close to this vent, and we can stuff them both in here. I just hope they have no backup power source, or none they can turn on very quickly.”
“We’ll have to move fast just in case they do,” Jack said.
“Less than one minute left.”
Within a few moments, the lights suddenly increased in intensity and all the bulbs burst. A large explosion was heard and Jack and Scratch felt a strong puff of air go through the vent tunnel as the generator blew up.
“WHAT did you do?”
Scratch just laughed. “I think it will take them a while to fix it.”
As they adjusted their night vision, they looked into a scene of total chaos on the floor. They could clearly see the heat signatures of the humans as they walked about bumping into one thing after another in the almost complete darkness. The only thing that had lights on was the power generator unit keeping the magnetic bottle for the antimatter cylinder powered and chilled, and the emergency lighting spilling out of the open hatch of the ship. Other than that, every lighting diode in the complex that was powered by that power generator had been shorted and blown.
“Scratch,” Jack said, “before you go out, remember to clear your mind. Listen to your breathing and absolutely do not think of the grenades.”
“Oh yeah. Right. Clear my mind. Ok.” Jack could see him concentrate and calm himself, and he opened his eyes with a blank expression on his face.
She jumped through the vent with Scratch close behind. The two humans near them heard the noise and turned, but couldn’t see enough to locate them. Jack walked up and behind the one, pulled his dust hood off and calmly fired the laser into the back of his head. The second person reacted to the sound of a body slumping to the floor near her, but she couldn’t see anything. Jack calmly walked up behind her and repeated the motion.
They quickly unzipped both dust suits off the now dead bodies and Scratch picked up and stuffed them into the vent shaft. They put on the dust suits and calmly walked up to the side of the ship. Locating one of the maneuvering jets near the main thrusters, Scratch triggered and dropped one of the grenades down the exhaust port. He tried being as quiet as possible but the grenade made a rolling sound and thumped as it stopped at the jet nozzle at the bottom of the cavity. He tried fitting his hand in and was happy to see that the cavity was too small. A couple of humans further off queried at the strange noises, but Jack continued to emit an ‘I’m busy, concentrate on your work’ signal that she hoped they would accept.
Next they walked over to the antimatter cylinder. Scratch removed the cover over the fuel dumping port, triggered the grenade and hid it under one of the fuel containers. He quickly replaced the cover and they started walking to the set of doors on the left, passing a number of aliens and humans still milling about in confusion in the near dark.
A bright light lit up near one end of the chamber, followed by a second and then a third. They were caught by surprise and temporarily blinded, but they quickly changed their sight to the regular wavelength. Humans were turning in their direction, and Jack realized too late that their surprise at the lights coming on had been mentally picked up.
The aliens milling about had stopped, and Jack could clearly make out a mental alert call.
“Scratch, come on!” she yelled as she palmed her laser. They ran through the exit as the humans and aliens hesitated, trying to make sense of what had happened. It took them only a few moments to confer and come to a decision. Jack had picked up the mental alert, and was dismayed at seeing the airtight doors forty meters ahead.
Fortunately, the corridor was only wide enough for three people walking side by side. This branch of the hive had been completely built by humans, with floors that at one time were smooth and polished, but now scratched and pitted from the alien claws running over it. However, the alien ants had trouble finding traction, and they ended up bumping into each other and those humans chasing them. Scratch had just a few seconds to take some shots with his own laser, and he watched satisfied as some of the humans tripped over the dead ants, creating a minor roadblock.
He bumped into Jack, who was now stopped and furiously working the controls to the airtight door.
“Why the hell did they put an airtight door here?” Jack yelled.
“Don’t know, but now’s a good time to open them!” Scratch answered as he continued firing on the approaching hoard.
“How about now?!” he yelled again. “My laser’s overheating!” Scratch well knew that small handheld lasers weren’t meant for this sort of duty cycle, and this laser was older than any he’d ever seen.
“LOOK JACK! It’s now or never! One of those monsters from the chamber is coming!” Jack stole a glance to see one of the earlier aliens they had seen before, a warrior ant that was tossing aliens and humans aside as it came directly at them. She gave Scratch her laser and he used both, maniacally firing at all targets. The first one got so hot it started burning his hand, but Scratch kept firing. He could barely hold the laser and saw smoke coming from his hand, but the aliens and humans kept inexorably approaching. Even those injured would crawl towards them, dragging themselves along the floor.
“JACK!” Scratch yelled, and she looked over to see his hand start shriveling as smoke rose from the now superheated weapon.
“It’s not like I stopped to knit a damn sweater, Scratch! Hold them off!” Jack yelled, but Scratch was in too much pain to reply. He stood staring at his burning hand in shock. She looked one more time, shocked at the damage.
“Jason, I’m trying,” she yelled as tears of frustration rolled down her cheeks. The warrior ant had taken blow after blow from the laser and shrugged it off as if it were nothing. The only thing slowing it down was the other bodies in front of it, but Scratch could see that their end was near.
His fingers had become blackened dried out twigs curled around the laser, still firing but glowing a dull red. Scratch tried uncurling his fingers, but they were seized in place. He looked with dazed eyes at the swarm now very near. The hot laser had lost coherence in its beam and the beam was now fluctuating wildly and uncontrollably. Scratch could see that it, although weaker, was having more of an effect then it did when it was tight, and he watched as the warrior ant slowed in its approach, became confused, and started to glow. Still, it approached Scratch inexorably, until it finally wrapped its primary pincers around his arm. The pincers were now so hot from the laser that they burned his flesh as they severed his arm off.
Jack yelled and pulled him through as the warrior ant’s carapace burst from the intense heat. The laser in Scratch’s now severed arm continued firing, and the two fell to the ground as Jack yanked Scratch through the doorway. Jack fumbled to get the good laser from Scratch’s other hand. He had lost consciousness and his eyes had rolled to the back of his head. Just as she yanked it off a human worked his way through and grabbed at her hair. She yelled but shot him in the groin. The human howled in pain as he slumped to the floor, the lower end of his spine neatly severed by the laser.
She jumped up and reached for the antiquated door palm switch, all the while firing the small laser at those trying to come through the doorway. She could feel this laser heating up and knew that she wouldn’t be able to use it much longer.
Jack continued to hit the buttons in the same sequence she had done to open the door, but nothing happened. She tried the opposite combination, and the doors suddenly closed, cleanly slicing in half an ant that was trying to squeeze through. She shot out the controls hoping to delay them, but she knew that it wouldn’t take them long to circumvent this.
Scratch was on the floor, semi-conscious and groaning. She looked at the stump of what was left of his arm, and finished cauterizing the end of it with the laser. The smell of burning flesh made her sick and she looked worriedly at Scratch, but all he did was groan louder.
“Wake up Scratch! We got to get out of here!” She would never make it out carrying him, but he wasn’t responding.
She slapped him hard, but his only reply was “Did you finish your sweater?” and his eyes lost focus again. Hearing the rasping of alien claws against the door behind her reminded her they had to go now.
“Guess I’ll have to carry you,” she murmured under her breath, and grabbing his only arm, pulled him up into a fireman’s carry. She held onto the laser but dropped the now empty knapsack, and started running as fast as she could.
Sweat poured down her forehead blurring her vision, but she dare not stop, and she tried hard to clear her mind as she ran. The noise of the pounding receded, but she knew this was only temporary. Further down, she could see some ants milling about confused, but as she passed them she carefully kept her mind clear so as to not arouse suspicion. Once or twice she ran by a human that tried querying her, but she ignored them, kept her mind clear and kept running. Suddenly, a large explosion was heard from the direction of the airtight doors, and she was sure that the aliens or humans had brought in some heavy firepower to get that door open. It would now only be a few minutes before they reached her, probably getting information from any humans she had passed. She had to find a place where she could hide. She needed Scratch awake or they would never make it.
She ran past the Power Generation/Cafeteria area, blackened by the explosion and recent fire, but kept running. Jack knew she was at the limit of her strength. She was surprised to have made it this far, especially with Scratch on her shoulders. She felt him move and cough, so she cut into a small utility room just off the side of the corridor. This room still had a door on it from the time the base had been occupied only with humans. She carefully went inside, shut and locked the door, and then dropped Scratch down as gently as she could. Scratch grunted, looked around confused, and then asked, “What the hell just happened?”
“Scratch, listen to me carefully.” Jack could see that he was very confused, but they had no time left. “If you want to live, do exactly as I say.” He was about to protest, but she kissed him on the lips, which seemed to rouse him up completely.
“If you want to propose to me properly, we have to hurry!”
“What do you want me to do?” Scratch asked as he stared confused at his missing arm.
“Follow me as close and as fast as possible!” Jack said. It was obvious that he was in shock.
“Did I ever tell you that I faint at the sight of blood?” he said, showing signs of confusion again.
“Great. Now you tell me. Leave the fainting till later!”
“Ok. Just one question. What did you do with my arm?”
Jack looked at Scratch and could see his eyes slip out of focus as he slipped into and out of reality.
“My hand hurts,” he said as he went to rub his missing limb. He looked down again in confusion, then up at Jack for clarification.
“Scratch, we’re going to go get your arm. Then we’re getting married,” she said.
“Ok. Sounds good to me, but if not, make sure the sweater you’re knitting only has one arm,” Scratch replied, his face pale and his brow knitted in pain.
Jack went to the door and was about to open it when she heard the clicking of claws against a hard floor. “Damn, the ants,” she whispered to Scratch. She looked around to see the usual vent on the wall, their lifesaving backup, and then for something to prop up against the door. Along the walls were electrician tools hanging from a rack, some cabinets, and over to the side was a rack with tubing of different lengths. They all appeared to be very old and hardly used. Jack found some large diameter tubing that fit snugly in between the door and the back wall and laid it there as quietly as she could.
Jack looked at Scratch again and said, “We have to climb in there again Scratch.” She could see sweat beading up on his forehead and running down, wetting his chest. His eyes were unfocused and he appeared about to faint again.
“Scratch!” She whispered, giving him a hard mental jar too. Scratch’s eyelids popped open and he looked up and said, “I’m tired of vents! My knees are raw. Can’t we walk…”
Jack heard the doorknob turn, and went as quiet as she could, both mentally and physically, and she signaled Scratch to do the same. Scratch heard the doorknob and nodded.
After a few moments of the doorknob turning, Jack could feel a query being sent out mentally, but she didn’t respond and tried to keep her thoughts hidden. She could see Scratch concentrating too, and she hoped he was being successful. After a few seconds, the doorknob stopped turning, and Jack could hear the patter of feet and claws leave the area.
She breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, “We can’t walk, we have to crawl in the vent. Now get going!” She pulled the grill off and laid it inside the vent shaft.
“Ladies first,” Scratch said.
“Scratch, I don’t have time for this!” Jack could see that Scratch was in a lot of pain and that he still wasn’t there mentally, but she was terrified that the humans walking past the door would again sense their thoughts and attempt to come into the room. She crouched on one knee to help Scratch up, seeing as he had only one arm now and the vent was high.
Scratch climbed up, followed by Jack, and Jack had just finished putting the vent grill back when a loud bang against the door startled her. She hadn’t expected the noise, and she could see through the grill that the door had shattered and would only take a few more hits before it would crumble under the onslaught. Jack was curious to see what could do that damage but didn’t want to hang around to find out, so she nudged Scratch to crawl as fast as he could.
“Can’t keep your hands off of me can you?” he said as he crawled, but Jack didn’t reply, concentrating on moving as fast as possible. She could hear the door fly apart and people and ants rushing into the room they had just been in, now about fifteen meters back. She just hoped that they wouldn’t think of going through the vent after them.
Soon they came to the original fork in the tunnel that she recognized would lead her back to the chamber her suit was destroyed in, and eventually to the main tunnel where they could walk and find those crabs she had met with at first. They rushed through as fast as they could, no longer trying to keep quiet except where vent openings led directly to chambers. Scratch was complaining again, but he now seemed more lucid. Jack let him complain, quietly nudging him now and again to move as fast as he could. His missing arm was slowing him down tremendously, and Jack passed by him and told him to hug her behind with his good arm so they could crawl together. They crawled much faster, and they quickly passed another vent and eventually worked their way into the area where the crabs were being farmed by the harvester ants. The pain started throbbing in her head again, but they moved so fast that it soon receded.
Scratch stopped for a second and said lucidly, “Twenty-two minutes.”
“We have to move faster.”
They pushed hard, working their way into the tunnel that led to the main chamber where her drop suit was destroyed. After a few moments they reached it, and it was now empty except for the drones milling about the eggs and the eggs themselves. The explosions had obviously drawn the humans and ants away and Jack was grateful they could now walk.
Scratch looked around and said, “I thought the aliens were supposed to be idiots without a queen. We killed her didn’t we?”
“I’m pretty sure we did too. I think the humans must have something to do with their activity somehow!”
They continued, carefully walking toward the opening that her suit had created earlier. On the way, Jack noticed some pieces left behind, including the part of the suit comp that held the events log. She picked it up and carried it with her.
“How do you know that?” Scratch asked quietly.
“Because the ants were milling about confused until one human got wind of us, and then all of a sudden all hell broke loose. If that’s the case, do you understand what this means?”
Scratch thought a bit, and then said, “That we can control the thoughts of ants?”
“Exactly. Now I understand why it’s so important that we escape and that this planet be destroyed, just as the crabs showed me. If any of these humans here got loose, we could have a new enemy. They could form their own warped army, or then somehow force this arrangement on others, or even have the leaderless ants rally around them! It’s all starting to make sense!”
“Well, we have the first part covered, but escaping will be more difficult. And so far, you’re the only one that can communicate mentally, so I’m not sure how those crabs are going to pull off what they showed you.”
“Scratch, trust me. I’m sure that if we can get there in time, we’ll get out with all we need.”
“Ok. Get where?”
Jack smiled and in a reversal of tables said, “You’ll see. How’s your arm? Sorry, I meant, how are you feeling?”
“I’ll live. All I know is you better say yes when we get out of here or there’s trouble.”
Jack held her laugh in, and Scratch seemed to come out of his state of shock but she was worried. His adrenaline was keeping him going but it was only a matter of time. Still, within a few minutes matters would be settled one way or another.
“How much longer?” Jack asked.
Scratch looked at the subcutaneous watch and said, “Fourteen minutes.”
‘Damn’, Jack thought. Should have had more time. ‘This is going to be really close’. They were just about to exit the chamber when a drone followed them.
“There’s a drone behind us, confused,” Scratch whispered.
“If one of the humans or the ants controlled by them come across it, they’ll be after us. Run!”
They ran as fast as they could, hoping to avoid any confrontation with any more aliens or humans before they got out. Jack was remembering the twists and turns in the tunnel and counting them down one by one. Soon a thought crept in her head, one of extreme urgency. Jack saw a threat in the form of a black shadow pursuing them, and then a fireball that consumed all. She ran harder, telling Scratch to do the same. She didn’t wait for an answer, but Scratch yelled out, “They’re behind us!” She stole a glance and saw humans and ants following just past the last bend.
They came up to the area where Jack first met the crabs, and they stopped dead in their tracks. Instead of a large group of crabs covering the tunnel surfaces, there was a smaller group of them huddled together, and humans from the base standing on the other side blocking their escape. They were obviously trapped. Jack pulled out her now cooled laser and was about to start firing, but before she could act the humans suddenly seemed confused and unsure of what to do.
“Scratch, I think we have our chance here somehow. I think the crabs have something to do with this, and if that’s the case, I don’t know how long they can keep this up, so we have to hurry!”
She received another thought of extreme urgency, and as they ran past the confused humans and rounded the next corner, Scratch’s Klinger showed up in clear view. The whole surface of the ship was covered by more of those crabs, but as soon as Scratch and Jack came closer they scrambled off to reveal a craft that looked completely different from what Scratch had earlier.
Human and alien technology had fused together, forming something that was more than the equal of the two. The aliens urged them to keep moving, and the hatch opened up by itself as they approached. The smooth surface of the ship somehow changed, and steps and handholds appeared as they approached. Jack climbed quickly and helped Scratch up, and they sat into what was no longer a regular seat, but a living organism that quickly enveloped them completely. They panicked and the seat immediately released them again, but the alien crabs emitted a sense of oneness that told them the ship was an extension of their consciousness and they urged them both to accept the seat.
Jack and Scratch leaned back again and the seats once again enveloped them. Within seconds, Jack could feel every part of the ship as if it was a part of her own body.
“Welcome back, Scratch, and it’s nice to meet you, Jack,” The thought broadcast itself into their minds.
“Is this ship comp?” Jack asked.
“Yes and no, Jack. We’re out of time and need to leave immediately. Just think what you want me to do, I’ll do the rest,” it replied.
Flight parameters started scrolling up in her vision, as did information on the location and condition of the ship. Scratch got a three dimensional three hundred and sixty degree view of the area they were in and the aliens working their way up to them. Enemy targets lighted up in a bright red triangle and information showed the target’s degree of importance. He could feel something touching the stub where his arm was, and within moments the intense pain he was experiencing disappeared.
Again the crabs urged them to hurry, and Scratch realized that their time was almost up. He looked down to see his watch, but the ship somehow displayed an image of the watch in his mind.
“Jack, Two minutes! We have to go!”
“Going now!” Jack replied, and Scratch could feel the thrusters starting up. The crabs in the tunnel were oblivious to their surroundings, and Jack squirmed as she saw ship thrusters blowing many of them away. But she was surprised to receive a mental thought from crabs inside the Klinger, and she got an intense feeling of hurry. The Klinger picked up her surprise and gave her statistics on the number and health of all life on board the ship. She realized that the ship was full of the crabs hitching a ride with them off the planet. They couldn’t take all of them because there were billions of them alive in subterranean chambers, but this group was going to survive the destruction of this planet.
“Scratch, target your weapons on the tunnel roof!”
Scratch thought it, and immediately the roof chamber dissolved in a cloud of dust. Jack carefully lifted the ship out of the opening and quickly accelerated to top atmospheric speed. Although they were completely enclosed by the Klinger’s modified seats, they ‘watched’ the planet quickly shrink away in the panoramic, three dimensional full vision. She gloried in the feel of flying an invisible ship, and she could tell that Scratch was enjoying the view too, but her feelings turned sour when she saw the burned out hulk of the rear half of WF221 smashed against the surface, not too distant from the base.
Jack wondered if the Klinger’s original image recorder was still working.
“Yes, Jack, it is. I’ve turned it on.”
She knew the scientists back home would love the footage of what was about to happen if everything went well.
***
Back in the underground hanger, a human went up to the cart holding the cooling equipment and antimatter. After communicating with other humans in the room, it carefully considered everyone’s mental version of events, their perspectives, and their images of what happened, and although most of what it saw was useless, there was one glimpse that showed the invader illuminated but the cart’s operational lights hovering around the ship for a minute, and then walking up to the cart and opening a lid. It decided to investigate the area where the human had first stood, and after a quick glance decided that no harm had been done. As it was about to turn to the cart, it glimpsed the thruster port and peered inside for a second. It was dark, but a faint glow from the countdown timer on the grenade was enough for it to recognize what had been left behind. It frantically tried to shove its too large hand into the port to retrieve the grenade.
It realized that reaching the grenade would be impossible. Pulling out a utility knife, it methodically cut up the middle of its hand, progressing to the wrist and arm until it finally reached the elbow. Putting the bloody knife on the cart, it carefully separated bones and sinews until it was left with half an arm and two fingers. Although it was now in intense pain, it was satisfied to see that its arm now fit inside. After bumping against the bottom with its clumsy and barely functioning fingers, it finally was able to grab hold of the grenade and carefully lift it out of the nozzle port. Holding it in front of his eyes with satisfaction, it noticed the countdown timer reach zero and accepted the fact that its pain would end very soon.
***
Before long, the atmosphere went from a dull red to black, and Jack received the mental impression from the interface that they were now past LPO. A ‘Brace for Explosion’ warning was given and Jack felt her chair tighten uncomfortably around her.
An intense white light emanated from the planet, and they both looked down to see its source disappear and a black hole emerge in its place. The hole appeared to suck everything into it for a split second and then explode outward with a force so tremendous that they could see the atmosphere turn into super hot plasma from the shock of the blast. Jack looked down and saw the plume rising toward her at supersonic speeds, and the ship informed her that she had six seconds before it reached them.
“Scratch, brace yourself!” The word had barely come out of Jack’s mouth when she realized how stupid it just sounded. He was fully encapsulated by the ship chair and had little alternative. She made sure throttle was on full, then shut down all power hoping to coax out more speed and protection in the precious few seconds left.
‘Wish this thing had shields,’ she said to herself.
“I don’t have shields,” the Klinger replied to her mental thought, but I have something else that will help. Don’t worry. I am fully capable of protecting myself and both of you.”
She was surprised it could read her thoughts so clearly and was full of questions about it, but decided to wait and watch what happened to the planet below. She looked down once again to see the surface of the planet ripple, and when she wondered at their height the information instantly superimposed itself on her vision of events below, stating that they were at one-hundred and sixty kilometers in altitude.
An intense shock wave hit the ship and threw it into a tumble. Jack felt the ship’s speed increase so fast she almost lost consciousness but she corrected the yaw and pitch, and waited for damage reports. After a few moments she queried again but all she got was that the ship had no damage.
“What do you mean, no damage? We tumbled, and the forces needed to generate that must have damaged something!”
“Yes, the explosive forces were great. It lasted for one decimal two nine seconds, at climaxed at 32 G’s.”
“Thirty-two G’s? Can that be right?” Scratch asked.
Jack mentally thought the question, and the same number came back.
“That’s incredible! We should be flatter then pancakes…” Jack was impressed herself, and wondered how the crabs had fared. She mentally queried the question and reached out until she picked up healthy life signs, together with a firm reply of health from the ship computer.
“The crabs are sad, Jack,” Scratch said. “I’m picking up intense sadness and… and… I would guess it to be their version of heartache.”
A cloud of dense dust was encircling the planet, and infrared showed a bright glow at the epicenter where the hive used to be, slowly cooling to a dull red at the edges as a still growing circular ripple of intense shock travelled through the planet’s crust. She couldn’t see all of it but guessed that it covered at least half the planet. After a few minutes, Jack could see pockets of hot magma sprouting on the surface over the blast zone. Soon the cloud of dust got too dense and the distance too far for Jack to distinguish much, and she switched off infrared.
“Looking at what’s happening below, I would be sad too. And relieved at the same time. How are you doing, by the way?”
“Fine. I’m going to sleep. Do you think we can pee in this seat? Because I have to go bad.”
Jack laughed but felt the urge herself, though she didn’t answer his question. “I’m sending out a few beacons - one to the Safe-Sat, and a few to the nearest repair bases closest to us,” she said as way of a reply. The Safe-Sats were permanent automated emergency communication space beacons with hyper-link abilities that followed their master ship’s route path one week behind them. This made them secure and safe while keeping them accessible, and their small size needed little in the way of power – a small, dirty but effective fusion reactor that needed to be fueled only every twenty years or so, just capable enough to power all systems and the shields but crude enough that no one or thing would steal them. They were programmed to detect friend from foe, and they lowered their shields randomly for a split second to scan the area, send packets of information, or receive pre-scheduled communications from their master ships.
“Communication sent Scratch. Now all we have to do is wait.” Jack wished she could touch him somehow, worried about the severity of his injuries. She also knew that getting saved in time would be a long shot.
“Sure,” Scratch replied. “Don’t forget your promise,” he said sleepily. Jack smiled and sent him a telepathic kiss as the ship administered another anesthetic.
Just as Scratch lost consciousness, the Klinger alerted Jack that it had detected a large cap ship that had somehow lifted off the planet surface before the explosion.
She watched the image with dread. They were obviously no match. “We need to get out of here!”
“Don’t worry,” came the reply.
“What do you mean, Don’t worry?”
“Jack, can you name me?”
“Name you! There’s an alien Cap ship and they must have seen us by now, and you’re worried about a name? Can we get out of here?” she said, starting to panic.
“There is no need, and you are not in danger. The shields you asked for aren’t really shields at all but a portal, so to speak.”
Jack was curious, so the ship computer continued: “If you’ll remember, Jonathan Diaz handed the World President a formula that mathematically proved the existence of zero state energy. His later inventions allowed humans to harvest and use this energy to power drives, shields and so on. Our universe, as you know, is composed of two parts, the visible matter universe and its antimatter counterpart, still un-named by the way.”
“Oppiverse!” yelled Scratch from the back.
“I thought you were asleep,” Jack said.
“You guys won’t shut up.”
Jack laughed at the name, knowing the kids would love it and the scientists would hate it.
“Zero state energy,” continued the ship comp, “is simply energy released from the quantum interaction of matter and antimatter, material that somehow leaks across the natural barrier separating the two halves of this universe. This ‘noise’ or energy is then collected. My portal simply sends any object touching it into this opposite universe where it usually gets obliterated. The weapons available could never penetrate the portal.”
Jack was only half listening as she saw the ship increase in speed towards the alien Capital ship.
“What do you mean, ‘Usually’?” Scratch asked.
“Any ship with your shields can easily pass through to the other universe as long as it went through the portal intact and operational. Of course, the shields could in no way be lowered, and the quantum energy fluctuations could not be collected on the other side. There is also the issue of coming back, but travel is definitely possible.”
Jack watched the capital ship that was now almost completely covering her view.
“Have you thought of a name?”
She rolled her eyes at the persistence of this ship comp, but was immediately corrected. “Jack, I am an entity. I am aware. There are many Klingers but none like myself. I would appreciate it if you gave me a name.”
She had trouble believing that this ship was somehow alive. However, she searched her mind and eventually said, “I had a friend who was young, spirited and courageous, and his name was Mike. Would you accept that name?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
After a few seconds, the alien ship raised shields and started firing salvos, but they had no effect on the Klinger. Jack watched mesmerized as the alien craft grew ever larger, and reflexively closed her eyes as she approached its shields, but nothing happened. Within seconds, the Klinger was through and quickly approaching the alien hull. A few moments later, there was no noise as Jack watched mystified. The hull melted away and the Klinger sailed on through without any resistance. All around her explosions rocked the alien ship, cabins lost pressure and ants were sucked out into space, but it had no effect on the Klinger. Eventually it passed through to the other side, with clear space in full view. She mentally requested rear view, and she could see the alien craft now lying useless, slowly being dragged back into the planet’s gravity well.
“Wow. That was impressive. Can anything penetrate the barrier?” Jack asked.
“The barrier can be tuned, allowing in desired elements.”
“But why did we feel the tremor when the planet was destroyed?”
“The destruction of the planet caused a space-time ripple. Because we exist in this universe, we were affected.”
Jack thought for a moment. A barrier like this portal would help them all win this war.