CRAIS HAD BEEN WATCHING THE TECHS WORK.
He'd picked an open tier, a floor above them, to enable him to look down and watch without being in their way. The techs, he'd discovered, liked ex-Peacekeepers about as well as Muukarhi did.
It was for Talyn, he continually told himself, but the disdain and open loathing was starting to grate on his nerves.
There was a scuff behind him and Crais turned but saw no one. The corridor behind him was dark and empty. He was suddenly glad he had heeded Crichton and brought a pulse pistol. He waited and watched but the scrape was not repeated. He turned back with a sigh, looked back down on the techs harvesting neural tissue.
What had Crichton called these Leviathans? Selfless? Indeed they were. Hard to believe that not so long ago Crais would have seen such as this as immensely foolish – exploitable, of course - but foolish, weak and contemptible.
Such would save Talyn. Crais shook his head, discomfited by the idea. Many such ideas were still new to him and they still gave him pause.
Perhaps it would become easier with time.
There was click behind him and Crais turned again, irritated, to see a figure encased in what appeared to be globular armor.
It was pointing a rather wicked looking rifle at him. Crais dove for the floor just as shots sizzled over his head, crashed through some empty crates in the corridor. One hit him in the left shoulder, but he kept going. He scrambled along the wall as more shots exploded behind him.
"Bounty hunters!" he muttered as he unlimbered his pistol, feeling blood trickling down his arm, a sharp pain arcing across his shoulders. He didn't know what that was, though it was obvious as to what it was after.
"Crais, Captain…" he heard a gurgling voice intone. "Come out. Shant you die if you comply. Surrender do."
Crais had a hand poised over his comm.
"We are Invidid – we are hunters for bounties. Save your companions, for die they will if you surrender not."
Crais saw the Invidid still moving to where he had dived to escape its initial shot. He had managed to already get around behind it.
He stood, levelled his pistol at it, said, "I think not," and opened fire, punching it back against the wall. It let out a liquid squeal as it fell. He advanced on it, continued to fire as it tried to rise, shattering more globes. Blue goo splashed from them. Finally, it stopped moving.
"You are indeed formidable."
"We…" it gurgled. "…are Invidid. You cannot …kill us unless you kill all."
The blue goo he noticed was flowing in on itself, until it was a large pool on the floor. It started to move away from him and it's shattered armor, accelerating. He sent another shot at it, but it had already found a crack in the wall and was pouring through it, vanishing.
"Unfortunate." He sighed.
He holstered his pistol, hit his comm.
"Attention. This is Crais. We've bounty hunters on board. I was just attacked by one that called itself an Invidid."
"I am pulling my techs out, Crais," Muukarhi came back. "This is not in their contracts."
"Do you have the required neural tissue for Talyn?" Crais asked, hurrying carefully down the corridor.
"Invidid are colony creatures, Crais." Muukarhi told him. "They never travel alone, and there will be more. We are not getting killed for you – or your Leviathan."
"Do you have the required neural tissue for Talyn?" Crais asked again, as if he hadn't heard her.
"Not all of it, no."
"Then you will continue to work until you do," He told her in no uncertain terms. "They are not after you, but me. I shall lead them away."
"What? I – you're going to lead them away?" She seemed skeptical.
"Yes. Finish your tissue extraction. Talyn is the priority."
There was silence from the other end for a long moment.
"Very well. We have proximity sensors that are normally used in case of DRD misfires – not uncommon on old Leviathans – I shall set those up. They should warn us if anyone comes near. They have a limited defensive arrangement."
"Very well. Please proceed."
"We will need at least eight more arns to finish, Crais. This is delicate work."
"Please do your best. I shall do what I can to keep the bounty hunters occupied."
Down in one of Elack's larger nexus, Muukarhi looked up the shaft, once again reassessing the ex-Peacekeeper Captain. He was undoubtedly running to his death.
"We will go as fast and efficiently as we can, Crais. I'm heading to the Den – perhaps the Pilot can assist you."
"That would be most appreciated." He commed off, grimaced as more pain lanced through his shoulder, sighed, jogged into an auxiliary cargo bay, gun drawn.
Behind him, he heard a long, drawn-out gurgle follow him across the bay, recognized the sound.
It would be a very long eight arns.
