ILL
Chapter 14
Nia beat helplessly on the thick door that barred her way to the hallway. She could hear the xenomorph's shrill screams and the scratching of metal and was certain that a decisive battle was taking place on the other side of her bedroom door. If Zen lost, she knew with every fiber in her being that the monster would come after her no matter how dense the wall was that separated them. Intellect told her that Jax and Prae'tor were probably running up the steps of the pyramid even now. If Zen could just hold out for a few more minutes…
An image of the robot they'd dubbed Gab, torn to shreds and abandoned like so much junk at the main entrance, flashed through her mind. Her heart skipped a beat. Zen and Gab looked so much alike it was easy to picture Zen in the same frame.
Nia's temper suddenly flared up. She would die before she'd ever let that happen.
She turned her back on the door, knowing full well she'd never get it open, and scanned her surroundings. Her goal was the same one Zen had in mind when they were trapped in that small office in the gardens…and it was directly above the kitchen table. She rushed over to it, snatching up the Yaut'ja spear from the floor in the process. She lifted a chair to the tabletop, but knew it wasn't nearly high enough to help her reach the vent.
There had to be something…
She started searching the lower cabinets in the kitchenette for something to stand on. Jax kept the area spotless with each and every item in its proper place. Still, he had to have a footstool or something to stand on to reach the highest shelves. In the last cabinet she found a plastic crate like the ones she had sat on in the storeroom. She yanked it out, surprised to find it light in weight. Or was that the Yaut'ja strength Jax once told her about? Glass clinked together inside the container as she carried it to the table. Once it and she were atop the chair, she knocked the vent grating out of the way with the spear, tossed it into the shaft and climbed in after. Her journey through the twisting tunnels was a blur. It wasn't until she was staring down through a different grating to the corridor below that she realized she had followed the noise of the screeching xenomorph.
What she saw nearly stopped her heart...
Zen was sprawled out on his back on the floor. The spear she had seen him grab from the vase was far out of his reach. Inner workings of his robotic body were exposed through various jagged incisions and scratches. He was lying in a pool of silvery-white fluid that rolled out from underneath him. Sparks burst from severed wires causing his body to twitch uncontrollably. And if all that wasn't bad enough, the creature was hunched over him continuously slashing at his face and chest plate.
Nia didn't think, she just reacted…
She slammed one foot down on the grating so hard that it cut her heel before it gave way and clattered to the floor below. There was no fear for her to push aside as she disregarded the ten to fifteen foot drop and slid out of the shaft feet first, landing right on the creature's back. The weight of her body caused it to sink to the floor next to Zen. Stank odors of smoke, fire and burned flesh seared Nia's nostrils a split-second before she drove the spear through the xenomorph's shoulder blades, directly below his fat, ugly head.
Acrid green blood spurted out of the wound at both ends, singeing the hem of her gown and the top of her bare feet. The creature screamed so loud with pain that it made Nia dizzy. She let go of the spear and covered her ears, which turned out to be a bad idea. With nothing to hold on to, she was thrown off when the monster reared up violently. She barely missed being impaled by its flailing tail as she flew backwards through the air, hitting the floor so hard that the wind was pushed out of her lungs. She banged her head, jarring her teeth, as white light flashed across her closed lids. Too busy fighting her own pain, she was unaware of the fact that the beast was heading right for her.
Zen noticed, though. He saw her fall from the shaft and land on the creature's back. He had sat up the minute the monster reared and watched in horror as she sailed through the air and dropped to the floor like a rock. Now it was creeping towards her, crouched low to the floor and growling, the spear still impaled through its torso.
"Nia! Look out!" he shouted, but the warning fell on deaf ears. She was still recovering from that hard landing. Zen reached out and grabbed hold of the monster's whipping tail and held on for dear life.
Up ahead, Nia had rolled onto her side and was trying to sit up. Her head, back and feet throbbed in pain and her sight was slow in clearing. When it did, though, her eyes widened when she saw the xeno clawing at the floor to get to her.
"Why are you just staring at it?" Zen demanded, straining to hold on to the creature's tail even though it almost lifted him off the floor. "Run!"
The woman scrambled to her feet, wobbled and sank back against a wall. She shook her head vigorously to clear her senses, then stumbled on shaky legs past the creature just inches from its reach.
"Have you lost your mind?" the robot shouted when he realized she was heading in the wrong direction.
"Yes!" she admitted, stopping to pick up Zen's spear from where it lay on the floor. The xeno twisted around as best he could with an A.I. holding onto its tail, yearning to kill the bi-pedal threat that kept alluding its claws. It opened its dark, salivating mouth and Nia thrust the pointy end of her newly acquired weapon into the narrow recesses of its maw, with such force that the weapon came shooting out the back of its slick, elliptical head.
Whatever sounds it made were choked back down its horrid throat. It kicked and thrashed violently on its one good leg in an attempt to fight its own impending doom. Zen dug his heels into the floor so as not to be slung around like a lasso. Nia was also holding on for dear life to the handle of the spear, afraid that if she let go she would be knocked unconscious by it. The xenomorph struggled for a few seconds longer, then went limp and sunk to the floor. Zen watched the creature a while longer, not certain of its death. However, because of his own injuries, he eventually released its tail and collapsed backwards onto the floor.
"See…I told you I wasn't going to let anything happen to you," he joked, elated that it was all over with.
Nia, however, was still standing over the dead creature and holding onto the weapon when Jax, Prae'tor and two other Yaut'ja's and robots rounded the corner.
The scene of carnage caused Jax's eyelights to flicker off and on. He quickly rushed over to Nia and gently laid his hands over hers.
"Everything is all right," he said to her in a soft voice. "You can let go of the spear."
Her gaze was blank and transfixed on the dead xenomorph. Jax's voice sounded far away to her and she was standing so still that she didn't even blink.
"You are safe now," he continued. "Let go, shao'uta…let go."
Nia wasn't responding. She was practically frozen to the spot, her fingers gripped the spear so tightly that Jax was unwilling to pry them off less he hurt her. He kept calling her name, but it didn't do any good.
"She must be in shock," suggested a voice from the floor and Jax looked down to find a battered Zen sprawled at his feet, leaking fluids and spitting electricity from exposed wires.
"What happened to you?" he asked, his brow crinkling into a frown.
"I had a date with a xenomorph," Zen spat sarcastically. He tried to pull himself erect, but wound up leaning against the wall for support. Jax grunted in response and turned away just as Prae'tor came to stand next to him. The Yaut'ja pried the spear from Nia's death grip, retracted the weapon then handed it to one of the other robots that were part of the rescue party. The Yaut'ja lifted the half-conscious woman into his big arms then growled something to his companions. They stepped forward and dragged the xeno's lifeless corpse away.
Jax crossed the hall and began stabbing keys on the panel next to the entrance. "What did you do to the doors of this pyramid?" he shouted at Zen when he could not get them to open.
"I set them so they would not open to just any old monster roaming the halls," the other replied snidely.
"You did more than that! I could not even get the main access to open right away. Now everything will have to be reconfigured." Jax's voice was dripping with derision, but Zen ignored it.
"Stop overreacting," he snapped, waltzing up to the paneling to punch in the code. The doors slid open with a swish and Prae'tor carried Nia to bed. Jax, however, spun angrily on his counterpart.
"Go repair yourself," he ordered hotly. "then assemble the rest of the A.I.'s and start cleaning up this mess that you have created."
Now it was Zen's eyelight's that flickered uncontrollably. "What! How can you possibly blame all this on me?"
Jax scoffed. "Oh, I suppose you want me to blame the xenomorph for setting off bombs in the main corridor?"
Zen's mouth fell open in shocked quilt. "I…I can explain that," he stammered and the other harrumphed.
"I am certain you can," he quipped sourly. "You have your orders, now go." Without waiting for further argument, Jax turned his back on the garden-keeper and went to examine his charge.
Zen grumbled in frustration and limped up the hall.