CRAIS WATCHED THE INVIDID GO BY SLOWLY TO THEN CIRCLE BACK.
Dren – had he been spotted? He pressed himself deeper into the duct with a silent curse. Up the corridor, he heard a popping, grinding sound then a crack and a gush of blue steam erupted into the corridor, billowed past.
He sniffed, realized with a spike of dread what it was – edresin, the catalyst for Elack's fluidic circulatory systems. If he lost too much - his 'blood', as it were would begin to gel, and death would not be far behind. On the plus side - if there were such a thing in this situation - the clouds of it would hopefully make the Invidid's search that much harder.
Elack was definitely in his last stages. He'd stayed in the Nexus to cover the tech team's escape, just in case and the tier he'd been on had begun to depressurize. He'd barely managed to make it through the ductwork and into a lower tier before it went completely.
Fortunately, many of Elack's autonomic systems were still functioning and bulkheads had closed, stopped the depressurization from spreading – at least for now.
Elack rumbled, suffered another long slow shudder. Crais glanced out into the corridor, saw the Invidid still there but now it had been joined by someone else – another bounty hunter he assumed. They did not look like they liked one another. The newcomer was Insectoid, slightly taller, slimmer than the Invidid, covered in a solid, faceted carapace, the edges of which were clearly sharpened. Part of its carapace formed a shield over its head. He heard the Insectoid hiss.
"Invidid parasites." The voice was sibilant, but sharp. "Failed. Go. Kill I will or kill you too."
"Not failed. Just not succeeded yet. You go your way."
"No. Prize mine alone."
"Worthless you are, Hafta'lal'ta, to kill only."
"Kill!"
Crais saw the Invidid raise its weapon. This Hafta'lal'ta bristled, carapace shuddering in anger.
"No kill! You will die!"
The Invidid managed one shot before it was diced by the razor-edged carapace. Its globular armor popped like multiple balloons, eliciting a gurgling scream, flinging the creature down the hallway. The Insectoid grunted collapsed to one knee, carapace smoking - the Invidid's shot had hit him. Crais held his breath. The Invidid was down but the Insectoid was still moving. It shook itself, rose.
Crais waited a while longer, watched it as it stepped out of the blue haze left by the edresin, focused on the Invidid.
The Invidid gurgled. Crais knew that the Invidid was not actually one creature, but a colony of creatures, with a collective consciousness. The one he had managed to incapacitate earlier was probably reincorporated into its 'brother' there.
It was in no shape to offer much in the way of resistance. It had been hit by multiple strikes and its armor was useless. Without it, it was nothing more than 'blue goo'.
"Invidid… burn."
Hafta'lal'ta pulled a small bottle of something from its belt, uncapped it, poured a small measure into one of the slashed globes. There was a gurgling moan from the Invidid and anywhere blue that Crais could see began to go black.
Hafta'lal'ta stood, replaced the bottle and seemed watched the Invidid die with relish. Then it went silently down the corridor, past Crais' hiding place, soon vanishing around the turn in the corridor.
Frell. There was one less, at least, and unfortunately, Crais knew the name of Hafta'lal'ta. The Insectoid was a vicious, relentless killer. It had absolutely no ethical scruples that he'd ever heard. Males, females, offspring - of any age - it would kill with sadistic glee. The Peacekeeper bounty on Hafta'lal'ta's head was even higher than Crichton's, although they didn't put themselves out trying to capture him. They employed him more often than not.
Crais climbed back into the ductwork, heading for'ard. He wanted to be far away from the hunting killer before he tried sleeping.
He reached a space further down along, with a shaft that had once held conduits, long since disintegrated due to Elack's age. The shaft went down for a considerable distance. Crais looked at it, looked back up the corridor. He was near the rear of the Leviathan, only a tier or two away from Elack's long-dormant propulser systems.
He climbed down the shaft, found a spot, backed into a space between the support struts. From here he could not be seen, and the alloys in the conduit around him should mask any scans. There was only one way in and he could see anyone coming long before they reached him. Crais got as comfortable as he could, before he closed his eyes.
He was abruptly snapped awake as he heard a soft clicking chitter come up the corridor above him, pressed himself back deeper into the pipes. A few moments later, the form of the Insectoid stepped cautiously around the space. Crais held his breath. It slowly made its way around the hole in the floor, peering into the shaft, scanning the walls. The armored head appeared to look directly at his space.
"Chemicals. Exude you." it hissed. "Hide not. You cannot."
He sighed internally. Of course it did. So far, however, sensing his 'chemicals' was not seeing the man himself.
"You live. No bounty dead. Live. Come out."
There were the sounds of footsteps from the corridor up ahead and Crais cursed silently to himself. Hafta'lal'ta's attention immediately turned to it. Someone still here? He told them to leave!
Elack shuddered again, harder than the last time, vibrating hard down his length, throwing Hafta'lal'ta off-balance.
Whomever was up there with the Insectoid was also thrown off-balance, for the shot that Crais could see was meant for Hafta'lal'ta went wildly off to the side. It clattered in anger, leapt out of Crais' sight, and he chose that moment to dive from his space, dropped further down the shaft, landing with a solid thunk on the floor below and felt something in his knee give. There was another shot from above, and Crais heard a sharp short scream and then something bounced off the wall of the shaft, falling. Crais managed to move out of the way as the body of one of Muukarhi's techs landed with a sodden, sickening crunch where he'd just been standing, spraying his blood everywhere. The fellow had been sliced to ribbons, his head nearly off, his entrails splaying on the floor. Crais grimaced at the sight, cursed the Insectoid its unnecessary overkill.
An angry chatter followed it down and the Insectoid clattered away.
Crais looked over the tech, wondering why he'd remained. He gathered up the pulse pistol the tech had carried down with him. Another would always be useful.
"Thank you." He told the dead. "It seems you proved a fortuitous distraction. Unfortunate, but true."
Crais tested his knee and hissed as he felt his kneecap where it shouldn't have been, off to one side. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed it, bore down on it, heard it pop, felt hot pain sear. He held his breath, waited until it passed, gingerly put his weight on it. It did not want to cooperate.
Regardless, it would have to do.
He climbed back up to his space, pulled his ration pack from it, slung it, climbed back down. It took him longer than he would have liked.
In the corridor, he checked his guns.
So far, so good.
He was close to where the bounty hunters would have moored their ships. He was unfamiliar with Invidid technology, but if it flew, he'd figure it out.
Steal a ship, return to Abbanerex, hope the Insectoid didn't manage to follow. Simple plan. Very simple.
Those were, naturally, the ones that frelled up the worst.
