Thanks for all the favs and reviews. And thanks to Bjlu0900 for beta-reading two chapters at once. Also, this story now has more than 100k words. Which is rather stupid when considering that it was just a quick story about what happened after my other story.
Also, to spoil a few things, there is no flashback in this chapter. However, you do get an extra-dose of fatherly Jim Raynor who joins the party. I hope that makes up for it.
Chapter 14
Leave the Rest to the Professionals
''Paula?!" James Raynor gasped when he looked up and recognized the young woman standing right in front of him. And as if to confirm his suspicions...
''Dad?!" Paula Kerrigan shot back. There was a short and awkward moment of silence until-
"What are you doing here?!" both of them shouted at each other at the exact same time.
"Whadda'ya mean?" James Raynor then said. "I was just about to leave Ramelow with your mother when she suddenly told me that she felt weird. And then you just appeared out of thin air!"
"I didn't appear out of thin air!" Paula protested. "You did! Look around, does this look like Ramelow to you?!" Only then her father looked around and the expression that appeared on his face was one of utter disbelief.
"What the hell...?" he whispered and studied the dark walls surrounding them. "Is this...wait a second. I know this place!" However, before he could finish that line of thoughts the person beneath him groaned in pain.
"Get off me, dammit!" Dan Bowski howled. "Just kill me! I don't care, make the pain stop!"
"Huh?" Jim mumbled and looked down, only to finally realize that he was lying on a man. A man that looked as if he was about to liquefy. "Who the hell are you?" But Marshal Bowski wasn't able to answer that question. Painful cramps started to ravage his entire body and Jim Raynor rolled off the man when he realized that something was wrong, very wrong.
"WHAT THE-?!" he screamed and jumped on his feet with the elegance of a young man.
"DAD, GET BACK! HE'S INFESTED!" Paula yelped. Her father looked at her in disbelief and shock.
"Infested? INFESTED?! There hasn't been a recorded case of infestation in over 800 years!" he shot back.
"Well, now there is!" his daughter whined. "And I'm partially responsible for it!" Only then Jim looked at the huge Protoss standing right next to his daughter.
"Is that true?" he wanted to know.
"Actually..." Sirella mused. "...I'd say that Paula is to 99 percent responsible for this."
"That's not what I mean!" Jim barked. "You found an active center of infection? Of Zerg?! How the hell did you even manage to do that?!" It almost sounded as if he was impressed and not angry.
"Well..." both Sirella and Paula mumbled and looked at each other. "...it's a long story and-"
"GHAAAAAAA!" Dan's screams cut them short and all eyes turned downwards, where he was starting to spasm. Foam was coming out of his mouth and there was the wet, ripping sound of tissue. Jim's eyes widened in shock when he realized what was about to happen next. He looked at his daughter and gestured her to do something.
"Paula, help him!"
"I... can't!" That answer was enough to make Jim stare at her in disbelief.
"Whadda'ya mean, you can't?!" her father protested. "This man's dying! You have to save him!"
"I CAN'T!" Paula suddenly yelled and pointed her finger at the crystal that was growing out of the wall right next to it. "I CANNOT DO IT! That's why I got this guy over there to get some help. I asked him to get Mum!" Jim Raynor pulled a brow up when he heard that.
"And instead you got good old me." he mumbled.
"GHNNNNNNN!" Dan groaned again and rolled to the side, wrapping his arms around his belly while his belly was trying to do the same thing, only the other way around.
"Oh boy, this brings back a whole lot of bad memories." Jim muttered as he watched how Dan was fighting for his dear life. And about to lose it. However, instead of running away, James Raynor didn't hesitate one second. He knelt down right next to Dan and placed his hand on the other man's chest, pushing him down and making sure that the Marshal wouldn't hurt himself by accident.
"I don't want to sound like a demanding jerk, but at least some context would be nice." Jim muttered and looked at his daughter, then Sirella, and finally at Dan. "Anyone?" But before someone could enlighten him, the man lying right in front of him decided that he had waited long enough and that it was time to finally get the party started. Dan opened his mouth, ready to scream in pain. However, the only sound that escaped his throat was gargled squeal, a sound that didn't even sound human.
"By the Ancients!" Sirella whispered and stumbled backward until she smashed with her back into the wall behind her. Whatever was going on here, Jim had no time to be timid. He knelt down right next to the unknown man, placed his hands on Dan's shoulders and pressed him down. It wasn't as easy as it sounded, though. A human that was fighting for his dear life could mobilize a surprising amount of strength, enough to overwhelm an unsurprising foe. Or ally. There was a limit to how much a human could handle, sure. But Jim had seen some weird stuff. Like a doomed marine strangling a goddamn Zergling to death with his bare hands.
Then again, that had happened so long ago that Jim couldn't even say who the poor fellow had been. Heck, he couldn't even remember when he had last encountered a Zerg that had been a threat to him.
"Sirella! Help me, he's going into shock!" Jim barked. A stern look from him was enough to rip Sirella from her stupor.
"Y-yes!" the Protoss muttered and moved forward. She still seemed hesitant but the presence of Jim seemed to be enough to help her overcome her fear.
"The legs! Make sure he doesn't hurt himself!" Jim ordered and the much stronger Protoss did as she was told. Even though Sirella was no warrior, she had no problems with pinning Dan's legs down. At least at first. But Dan's strength proved to be quite a match as he kept fighting for his dear life. And as it turned out a desperate and dying man was actually more than a match for a Protoss artist who had never learned how to fight.
"Hurt himself?!" Sirella squealed. "What about hurting me?" But Jim had no time for this. He looked up at this daughter and gritted his teeth.
"Come on, Paula! We hold him down, you fix him!"
….
….
….
"I..." Paula whispered. "...can't."
There was a short moment of silence. Jim's glance was one of disbelief.
"Paula! There's no time for that, we have to help this man and-"
"I CAN'T!" Paula screamed, her voice filled with desperation. "It won't work, I overextended my powers, I cannot do anything right now!" Instead of being angry, Jim's facial features softened.
"Paula..." he said with a gentle tone in his voice. "...you can do this. I know it. Please. Just-" Beneath him Dan groaned again, as if to reinforce the urgency of the situation.
"Oh God...I can feel it..." the dying man groaned. From the corner of his eyes Jim could see how something slithered beneath the skin of Dan's belly, something that reminded him of a snake. Or a tentacle. Gosh, that certainly was something he hadn't missed in all those years.
"Paula, I don't know what happened. I'm sure that we can work it out. But first this man needs help. Your help. And that means-" That's when suddenly a loud bang echoed through the abandoned lab. They all fell silent, even the squirming Marshal.
"What was that?" Jim whispered.
"I think I know..." Sirella whispered back. "...unfortunately."
Bang.
Bang!
BANG!
BANG!
"Oh please no..." Dan groaned. Jim noticed the look of fear on his daughter's face.
"What the hell is that?" Jim mumbled. It was almost as if there was something clawing its way through walls made out of metal. Something big. Something big that was coming closer. And then...
"Kerrrrrrrigaaaaaaaaannnn..." A voice sounding like the moans of the damned echoed through the abandoned lab. Jim looked at his daughter once more, only this time his expression was one of utter disbelief. And horror.
"What. The hell. Is going on here?" he muttered.
"I could tell you..." his daughter mumbled. "...but I'm sure you wouldn't believe me."
"Try me." her father replied. He could see the frightened look on the face of his daughter. She was afraid. Not because of what was out there. No, she was afraid of Jim. Of what he would say. As a parent, Jim had excessive experience when it came to reading his own child's emotions. You don't have to be psionically gifted in order to know when your child feels guilty because she has screwed up.
"It's a long story..." Paula said, trying her best not to face the music.
"Paula, whatever it is you've done, I can only help if you tell me what's-"
"KERRRIGAAAAAAAAN!" an ungodly voice suddenly screamed. Before anyone could say anything, something smashed against the heavy door. Over and over again a creature possessing superior strength smashed itself against the reinforced steel. Jim's eyes widened in shock and disbelief as the metal of the door started to bulge.
"Oh hell, that brings back some bad memories." Jim whispered and looked around. "We have to get out of here!"
"There is no exit!" Paula whined. "We are trapped!" However, Jim's mind was already racing. As he looked around, he searched for something, anything that could help them in the current situation. Like, you know, a goddamn shotgun or something like that. Sadly, there were no firearms lying around. Then again, Jim had his doubts that anything short of a tank would stop that thing on the other side of the door. He had no idea what that thing was, but suddenly he remembered something that had happened so very long ago, a botched mission that had ended with him and some of his Raiders running through a wrecked research-station with a hideous Zerg/Protoss-hybrid on his tail.
Ah, good times!
"Please, tell me that you didn't manage to find a hybrid." Jim whined.
"I didn't manage to find a hybrid." Paula replied immediately, only to add a: "...it kinda found me."
"Oh, hell no! That is just-" Jim started.
"It's not a hybrid!" his daughter interrupted him. "Trust me, it's actually a funny story. If I tell you about it, you will probably laugh your ass off and-"
"GHAAAAAAAA!" Dan's screams of agony interrupted them and Jim gritted his teeth.
"No time for this. What is this place? Paula, where are we?" He looked around and a frown appeared on his face. Even though there was literally no time to smell the roses, Jim noticed a few details. This room, he had been here before. Standard confederate science-lab-layout, the stuff you could find on pretty much every battlecruiser back in the day.
However, the longer he looked around, the more details emerged. And with it a strange sense of nostalgia. Perhaps the biggest clue that this wasn't just another wreckage of yet another unnamed battlecruiser were the two objects hanging from the opposite wall. The first one looked like...something that once had been alive. It was dead. Hopefully. But Jim recognized Zerg when he saw it. And that thing, no matter how dead it was, was most definitely Zerg.
The thing right next to this mummified carcass was not Zerg, that much was obvious too. It was a crystal. You could even see the vat-tanks from which these two things had spawned. Jim blinked once, twice, three times. And then...
"We're...this is..." He looked at his daughter in utter disbelief. "Hyperion?!" Paula flashed him an embarrassed smile.
"Surprise!" she said as if she was trying to make a joke. "Tadaaaaa!"
Before they could celebrate this moment (not that there was any reason for that), the creature on the other side of the door renewed its effort to gain access.
It was utter chaos.
Jim looked down and saw the writhing man beneath him, a man that was currently being devoured by his own entrails. While Jim wasn't the prime expert on Zerg-related topics in the family, he knew enough to know that this guy was one poor bastard. Even though Sirella was helping Jim pinning this guy to the ground, she too looked as if she was about to panic. And Paula?
She looked like she a five-year-old who got caught with her hand still in the cookie-jar.
"Keeerrrriiigaaaaaaaan!" the nightmarish voice continued to scream from the other side of the door. Jim looked around, took a deep breath, closed his eyes and then...
"Sorry, pal. But trust me, you will thank me later for this." Jim said to Dan, who only managed to grunt in confusion. He barely noticed how Jim clenched his hand into a fist and knocked the Marshal out with one mean right hook. Both Paula and Sirella watched in disbelief.
"Dad, what-" Paula started but was cut short by her father.
"Not now!" he barked and got back up. "Sirella, grab this guy, we won't leave him behind. Paula!"
"Y-yes?" his daughter stuttered. Jim pointed with his finger at the crystal in the wall.
"That is a precursor-crystal, right? The ones Karax is always babbling about, that are so damn rare, yes?"
"Uh-huh."
"Heh..." Jim chuckled when he heard that. "...to think that we had such a treasure on board back in the day and didn't even know it. Oh Stetmann, guess you didn't see that one comin'!" Jim would never consider himself an expert on Protoss-stuff. But if you live as long as he did, you pick up some things along the way. Especially if you hang out with a phasesmith that doesn't know when to shut up.
"Okay, tell this thing that we need help. I know you can talk to it. Tell it that we need our big hitter." There was no need to explain who he was talking about. Besides, she should probably realize that he was missing anyway. The question was if she would realize it in time.
Unfortunately, he had no time to wait for this storm to just blow over. And so Jim did what he had always been good at.
He took over command.
"Okay, new game plan!" he told them as he walked over to a nearby crate that someone had left here. Jim pushed it aside before he knelt down in front of something that looked like an air vent and started to pull it open. "Sirella, you keep this guy close to you!" Jim ordered. "Should he wake up, knock him out again. Trust me, it's better this way."
"I... I don't know how to do that!" Sirella protested.
"Just him in the head really hard. Just not so hard that his brain will come out. If that happens, then you used too much force." Oh boy.
"B-but what about the infestation? Isn't he going to, uhm, explode or something like that?"
"Sirella!" Jim barked and looked over his shoulder. "There's no time for that right now. I need you to trust me with this. Understood? If you do as I say, then we will make it out of this. I promise." There had been times when people had loved his inspirational speeches. And while those words weren't exactly top material, they were enough to make Sirella nod.
"O-okay." she whispered before she grabbed the unconscious form of Dan Bowski and threw him over her shoulder. "Ihhhhhh! I can feel something slither on my back!"
"Protoss can't be infested. I know it's disgusting but you have to bear it for a while." Jim explained before he looked at Paula. "Kiddo, tell that damn crystal that we need more help. The nuclear option, if possible. If you know what I mean. And I don't want to sound rude or anything, but could you hurry?" He watched how his daughter swallowed hard and looked at the crystal. The doubts were all over her face. He knew that look. He knew it all too well.
"I guess it's Thursday again." he whispered. Even though those words weren't meant for Paula to hear, she still managed to do so. She bit on her lip and clenched her hands into fists, yet even then it was impossible to overlook that her whole body was shaking. Jim wanted to grab his little girl and tell her that everything was okay. But right now ,was not the time for that.
"KEEERRRIIGAAAAAAAANNNN!" the creature on the other side of the door screamed as it continued to smash its body against the door. And from the looks of it, they were running out of time.
Jim tore the hatch from the air vent, which was a lot harder than one might think. But in the end he prevailed.
"Paula, get to it! We are running out of time!" he yelled.
"I...I..." he could only hear his daughter stutter. This complicated things. A lot. When Jim finally managed to tear the hatch away, he looked into the air vent and sighed in relief.
"Thank God, it's big enough. Sirella, take that guy. You take point." Jim ordered.
"B-but I don't know where to go!" Sirella protested.
"Don't worry about that, I will be right behind you. Go. Now!" he ordered. Even though he hadn't led troops into battle in ages, Jim still possessed the same aura that had made him a decent leader back in the day. Sirella was no warrior, never had been. But she knew when to just shut up and do as she was told. "Come on, we don't have all day! Grab this guy and down the hatch!" Sirella, who had still Bowski slung over her shoulder, seemed to be confused.
"But...I can't carry him on my shoulder when I'm inside!" she protested.
"Just pull him after you. Trust me, any damage you might do to him is his slightest problem." Just because that statement was true, it didn't mean that it put Sirella's mind to ease.
"O-okay." the young Protoss stuttered. Jim gestured her to hurry up and made room so she could slip into the air duct. Under normal circumstances, no Protoss would have fit inside. Thankfully Sirella was no warrior. Even Protoss with their lithe bodies could pack some serious muscles. Someone like Fenix wouldn't have been able to squeeze himself through a narrow place like this air vent. Then again, Fenix probably wouldn't have thought about running away either. He probably would have faced whatever was behind that door and beaten it to a bloody pulp.
Sirella was no Fenix. Aside from the fact that she was no warrior, she was a lot less bulky, slender even. And while it was a tight fit, she still managed to squeeze herself into the air duct and crawl forward.
"It's dark! And I don't know where to go!" she whined while she pulled the unconscious form of Dan Bowski after her.
"No time for that! Just move forward. If you can, go right. And upwards." Jim told her.
"H-how do you know?"
"This is the Hyperion, right? Trust me, I know. Now move!" he ordered and watched how the tall Protoss vanished from his sight. There was little time to relax, however. As Jim looked back over his shoulder, he realized that Paula hadn't done anything except for staring at the crystal with a look of utter despair on her face.
"Paula, no time to dream on the job! I know you can talk to that thing. Just-" Unfortunately that's when the door finally started to yield as whatever was on the other side was forcing itself inside. Metal was twisted and bent and Jim watched how something akin to a tentacle emerged from a small gap between door and doorframe.
"That..." Jim mumbled. "...doesn't look good."
"Kerrrigaaaaan! I will not yield to you, not anymore!" the creature gargled.
"Well, crap." Paula's father muttered. "Paula, now! We are running out of time! Do it NOW!" Unfortunately, his daughter seemed to be completely incapable of doing anything right now. Which meant that they were out of time. "Darn it!" Jim shouted. He got back up and ran over to his daughter.
"D-Dad, I'm sorry, I didn't-" she started.
"Not now. We have to get out of here first." he cut her short. Jim grabbed his daughter by the wrist and pulled her with him. There was no time to stop and sniff the roses, so he took his daughter and shoved her into the air vent face first. "Go! And don't look back."
"But Dad, I-"
"No time for that. MOVE!" he yelled. "I'm right behind you, just go go go!" When everyone was inside the duct, Jim grabbed the hatch and squeezed himself inside as well before doing his best to block the duct so whatever that thing was that was out for blood would have a hard time following them.
"Okay, kiddos! Don't stop, not even for free booze and smokes!" Jim yelled.
"I don't drink!" Paula protested.
"And I don't even have a mouth!" Sirella added.
"Kids these days." the older man growled. Suddenly there was a loud BANG! right behind them and the sound of tearing metal echoed through the air duct.
"KERRRIGAAAAAAANNNN!" the creature howled as it squeezed itself into the abandoned lab.
"Dear God, Paula! What did you do to piss that thing off?!" Jim huffed as he hushed his daughter and her friend forward.
"It's not my fault." his daughter mumbled. "He's not angry at me. He's angry at Mum!"
"Now there's a line that I haven't heard in a looooong time." Jim mused. Behind him there was another loud bang, and then another. It sounded as if whatever was rampaging inside the lab was really angry. "Also: He?" As they were crawling forward, Paula looked over her shoulder and her eyes met.
"That thing is...was Alexei Stukov." Paula panted.
"Who now?" Jim asked as they crawled deeper into the bowels of the Hyperion.
"Stukov! You told me stories about him! That guy that helped Mom during her, well, funny times!" Paula declared. Fun fact: Her mother didn't like to talk about her time as the most-feared creature of the entire Koprulu Sector. So, at one point, her uncle had coined the term "funny times". And much to Paula's mother's annoyance, it had stuck ever since.
"StukovStukovStukov..." Jim muttered to himself. "Wasn't he that TV-host with those fancy suits? No, wait, that was Vermillion." After all that time it was perhaps not too much of a surprise that this specific name didn't exactly ring much of a bell. Still, Jim couldn't deny that this name did sound familiar. His first instinct was to do what he always did when something was happening that he didn't understand.
Blame the missus.
"Probably someone who worked for your mother..." Jim muttered. "...guess we should have AGH!" Before Jim could finish that sentence, something grabbed his ankle. An inhuman strength pulled him back. He tried to hold on to something. Unfortunately, the insides of an air duct weren't exactly known to be littered with things to hold on to.
"DAD!" Paula screamed when she noticed that her father was pulled away from her. She turned around and grabbed his hand.
"No! Go!" Jim yelled at her. "Whatever this is, I can handle it! Get out of here." Heh, some things would just never change. Like the fact that Jim just couldn't help it and play the hero, even if he had no effin' clue about what was going on.
Well, he was about to find out.
A quick glance at his feet confirmed his suspicion. A tentacle had wrapped itself around his ankle.
"Tentacles. Why does it always have to be tentacles?" he mumbled before he was pulled back. "DAMN IT!"
"DAD!" Paula shouted again and pulled with all her might. Jim tried to kick the tentacle off his ankle with his other foot. Yet when he looked down the air duct, he noticed how something else was trying to gain access to the small vent. It was another tentacle. Only much thicker than the one currently wrapped around his ankle. Aside from the less than tasty appearance of the naked flesh, what truly made Jim question his own sanity was the fact that there was a face attached to the end of the tentacle. A horribly mutilated face that looked like something straight from a horror movie.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?!" Jim shouted.
"RAYNOR!" the face howled. "Lies! Deceive! I see you know! Kerrigan's lies do not stop me from seeing the truth! She claimed you were not here, but here you are!"
"Technically he wasn't here five minutes ago!" Paula yelled. "So, I didn't lie!"
"LIEEEEEEEES!" the creature howled and opened its horrible maw. Jim watched in disbelief and disgust how the jaws opened wider than any human could. And when he spotted the three rows of mismatched teeth, some human and some Zerg, he wished that he had stayed in bed. "I will not join you again, Kerrigan. I will never yield! I will fight you! No more. No more! NO MORE!"
"Yeah, I got you the first time!" Jim shouted back, raised his free foot, and smashed it into the creature's face over and over again. Geez, when he had woken up today, he certainly hadn't expected this to happen. Kicking the creature's head was like punching a wall made out of concrete. There was no indication that Jim's kicking achieved anything, until he gathered his entire strength and kicked so hard that even an ultralisk should have felt it.
"Ghaaaaaaa!" the creature called Stukov howled when Jim smashed his boot so hard against its face that some of its teeth were sent flying. Yet even then the tentacle wrapped around his ankle didn't let go. Even worse, the creature started to pull Jim out of the vent again.
"Oh no! NONONONO!" Paula's father screamed. The situation was less than ideal, and Jim was running out of ideas. "Paula, get away!"
"I won't leave you here, this is all my fault and-" his daughter protested as she continued to pull him the other direction.
"This is not up for debate! You get out of here, now!" he screamed and looked at his daughter. When their eyes met, he could see her fear and despair.
"I can't!" his daughter whined. "I just wanted to-"
"Paula..." he said with a surprisingly soft tone in his voice. "...go. You have to-" Jim started until he spotted something behind Paula. It was the body of Dan Bowski that Sirella was dragging after her. However, the man was of less importance right now. What caught Jim's interest was the object attached to Dan's thigh. It was a holster. And, in it, was something that he hadn't used in a very long time.
"Change of plans!" Jim suddenly screamed. "Paula, the gun! Give me the gun of that guy!"
"Gun?!" she stuttered and looked around. When she saw the gun, she realized what that meant. But even then, Paula hesitated. She was still doing her best to keep her father from being pulled out of the air vent, she couldn't let go of him.
"Sirella, can you toss the gun over to me?" Paula shouted.
"No, I can barely move!" the Protoss replied. "What's going on back there? I can't even look over my shoulder!"
"Paula..." Jim gasped. "...you have to let go of me and grab that gun. Come on, we are running out of time!"
"If I let go of you, Stukov will just pull you out and then-" his daughter whined.
"There's no other choice!" he told her. "Come on, have a bit of faith in your old man! Do it! Now!" Jim could see the doubts in his daughter's gaze. But then he watched how her expression changed as it was replaced by determination.
"Don't you die just yet, Dad!" she ordered him, which caused Jim to flash her a grin.
"I survived your Mum till now. I think I'll manage this guy over there." A bold statement, especially since they were running out of time.
"Okay." Paula whispered. "Okay. This better works. Ready?"
"Am I ever." Jim replied and nodded. "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."
"Mum always said that she hated it when you told her that. Now I know why." his daughter declared.
"Heh, well, guess that runs in the family." her father chuckled as he held on to his dear life. They nodded one more time, signaling that they were both ready. And then Paula let go of her father.
"UNF!" Jim gasped when he was pulled towards the exit. He tried to hold on to something but there was simply nothing that he could use. He used his free foot in order to kick the creature in the face over and over again, yet this Stukov didn't seem to care at all. That's when suddenly Jim remembered something. Stukov. From...Earth. Former UED, back when the UED had still existed. And his lover had mentioned the names a couple of times.
Weird what you remember when you look into the maw of a monster.
Everything happened within the blink of an eyelash. The moment Paula let go of her father he was pulled towards that hideous face. Paula turned around, grabbed the holster and-
"I can't get it out!" Jim's daughter squealed and Jim started to curse like a sailor. He smashed his foot once more into the face of the monster, coming to a halt for a brief moment.
"I don't want to sound rude but THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANT TO HEAR RIGHT NOW! PULL HARDER!" Paula's father screamed. Behind him Paula was doing his best to get the gun out of the holster. Gosh, things sure were much easier when her powers were working. Once this was over, he would have a long talk with his little girl about this whole mess.
"PAULA!" Jim screamed as the creature formerly known as Stukov resumed pulling him out of the air duct. He could already feel the hot and rancid breath of this monstrosity on his face. It was an utterly disgusting sensation, one that wanted to make him vomit. He reached out with his hands, tried to grab something, anything to pull himself away. That's when he suddenly felt something cold and heavy in his hand.
"Huh?" Jim muttered and looked up.
"Here!" Paula yelled and pressed the pistol in her father's hand. So, she had managed to get it out of the holster after all.
"Good girl!" Jim mumbled.
He hadn't used a gun in ages. There hadn't been any reason for that anymore. A part of him wondered if firearms of this time and age were still the way he remembered it.
Well, there was only one way to find out.
"Can't think of anything witty right now!" Jim barked. "Hey, ugly!" The creature growled and yelled strange gibberish but Jim wasn't even listening. He aimed the gun at the creature's head and pulled the trigger.
There was no bullet. At first Jim thought that this thing was either broken or that he hadn't switched the safety off. However, the moment he took his finger off the trigger, a yellow bolt emerged from the tip of the gun. It traveled past the creature's head and smashed into the body that was still outside the air duct. The monstrosity howled in pain and anguish. Instead of cherishing this moment, Jim decided to go all out. He pulled the trigger over and over again, firing one lightning-fast bolt after the other. The head of Stukov managed to avoid being hit in a display of ungodly swiftness. Fortunately for Jim the air duct was too small for the head on a tentacle to dodge all shots. One bolt hit the monster right into the left eye. It screamed in pain and much to Jim's relief it seemed to have finally enough. The moment this Stukov-thing let go of his leg, he turned around and looked at his daughter.
"Go. NOW!" And this time Paula was actually listening to what her old man was telling her to do.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" the voice of a certain Protoss whined.
"Yes." the faint voice of Jim answered.
"Are you sure you are sure?"
"Yes, Sirella, I am sure. If this is the Hyperion, then we are close to one of the ammunition bunkers." Jim barked. "I have no idea how strong that beast is, but I doubt that it can claw its way through those reinforced blast-doors." You could actually see how something moved through the narrow air ducts hanging from the ceiling. They weren't exactly subtle.
"And then what?" Paula wanted to know.
"Then we're gonna barricade ourselves in the ammo bunker and wait for either your powers to work again or for the cavalry to arrive." Jim explained.
"That's your plan?" the young Protoss protested.
"I never claimed it was a good plan. If you got a better idea, then I'm all ears." Jim declared. "Be careful up there! These air ducts aren't designed to hold the weight of a Prot-" That's when suddenly the air vent burst open and a screaming Protoss fell downwards.
"AAAAAAAAAUNNF!" Sirella screamed until her fall was suddenly stopped by something hard. The body of Dan Bowski was still inside the air vent, at least half of it. In an almost comical display, he slid forward until he fell down as well, only to land on the poor Sirella.
"AGH!" the young Protoss groaned. And then there was silence...
"Sirella?" Paula mumbled after a while. "Are you still alive?"
…
…
…
…
"No..." was the weak answer of her friend.
"I hate to sound like a douche, but we have no time for this!" Jim snarled. "Sorry, kiddo, but there are moments when you just don't stop. Especially when you are crossing a street and chased by an infested monstrosity. Watch where you're falling!" Paula, who was still inside the busted air duct, squealed in disbelief when her father pushed her out of the small tunnel. She fell, and the only thing she could do was to protect her face with her hands. Thankfully she landed on something that wasn't made out of metal.
"UNF!" Sirella groaned when her "friend" landed on her. "Oh, come on, you're doing this on purpose!"
"Hold your horses, here I come!" Jim barked, and when he slid out of the broken vent, he displayed a lot more grace than either his daughter or her friend. And let's not even talk about Dan, who was still out cold. And probably dead. Jim actually managed to land on his feet and when he looked down, a cocky grin appeared on his face. "Kids these days." He looked around and sighed in relief.
"Well, now that we're inside the ammunition bunker, we should be safe and..." When he fell silent, Sirella groaned immediately.
"Don't tell me..." she sighed. "...this isn't the ammunition bunker? Now I know where Paula got her awful sense of direction from."
"Gimme a break!" Jim barked. "I haven't done this in a really long time." As he looked around, he recognized old and familiar things. And then it started to dawn on him.
"This...is one of the hangars! Starboard side!" Jim looked down and realized that they hadn't landed on the floor of the hanger, which was a good thing. Falling from the ceiling all the way down surely would have resulted in some broken bones. Instead, they were standing (or lying) on a dropship.
"Damn. I was certain that we would come out in one of the ammunition bunkers." Jim muttered until he noticed some finer details on the hull of the dropship beneath him. His eyes widened in surprise. "Wait a sec...is that my old dropship?! How the hell did this thing get here?!"
"I asked myself the exact same thing." Paula groaned as she rolled off the still unconscious Dan and the groaning Sirella. Didn't Mum once say that she lost it?"
"Well, I'll make sure to ask her about that should we survive the next couple of hours." Jim muttered. "Speaking of which..." He then knelt down next to the unconscious form of Dan Bowski and rolled the younger man on his back. Jim checked his vitals. He was still breathing. Barely. And his skin was already ghostly pale. There was little doubt in Jim's mind that this man's body wouldn't be able to fight off the infestation for much longer. "...who's that? Your new boyfriend?"
"He's not my boyfriend!" Paula protested. "He's the local marshal who helped us to find the Hyperion. And tell me what not to do. Which I did anyway."
"Marshal?" Jim sighed. "Oh God. A Kerrigan meets a marshal. If your mother hears about this, she will laugh so hard that she will grow some blade-wings." And that wasn't even made up. "Did he have inappropriate thoughts when he looked at you?" Jim asked his daughter before he looked down and nudged the unresponsive man with the tip of his foot. "Hey, did you have inappropriate thoughts while looking at my daughter that would make "You pig!" a completely justified first impression?"
"He's NOT my boyfriend!" Paula winced. "Also; when he saw me for the first time, he had no dirty thoughts!" When Jim heard that, he looked at his daughter and then at the unconscious body of the Marshal.
"I don't know wherever I should be relieved or disappointed." Jim mumbled before he shook his head. "Okay, enough chit-chat. We still have to get the hell out of here. Come on, let's climb down. Sirella, help me with this guy!" The Protoss' only answer was a pained groan, yet she still got up and together the three started to climb down from the dropship while making sure that Dan wouldn't fall down and-
"Watch it, he's slipping!" Jim screamed just before the mangled form of Dan Bowski landed on the hard floor of the hangar. There was a sickening sound when the Marshal made contact with the floor, and Jim could swear that he could see how a tentacle emerged from beneath the shirt of the Marshal, only to spot him and retract back into Dan's body.
"Charming." Jim growled.
"Is he dead?" Sirella mumbled, clearly too scared to get close to Dan again.
"Probably not." Paula's father mused. "Infestation has some nasty side-effects. One of 'em includes the ability to survive almost everything. Except for lemons. I think. Not sure if that was a hoax or actually a thing. Happened a really long time ago."
"Shouldn't we, I don't know, do something?" Paula whispered. All three of them were looking down from the dropship at the still twitching body of Dan.
"Dunno..." Jim mumbled and looked at the gun in his hand. "...but maybe we should end this now." Sure, it had been ages since he had used a gun. And he couldn't even say when he had encountered an infested the last time. But there was one thing that Jim knew...
"There are fates worse than death." he mumbled and pointed the gun at the body of Dan Bowski. His finger was already applying pressure to the trigger when-
"NO!" Paula screamed and grabbed her father's wrist. Surprised by her sudden reaction, Jim gritted his teeth and managed to not fire by accident.
"Holy crap, Paula! Watch it! Guns are dangerous, I could have hit you or Sirella by accident!" Jim barked. Yet when he looked his daughter into the eyes, he could see something besides the shame and fear. Something that reminded him of Paula's mother.
Determination.
"You will not kill him!" Paula said with a firm tone in her voice, even though her lower lip was trembling. Those words...for a moment Jim could see Paula's mother all over her. The piercing gaze, the determined look. It wasn't just the fact that they looked so familiar. It went deeper than that.
"Paula..." Jim tried to reason with her. "...I know that this must be horrible for you, but there is nothing we can do right now. Not unless you can get control over your powers again." It had happened before. Many times, actually. There was a good reason for Paula's lack of control, and that reason had a name.
"Mum can fix him!" Paula protested. "If she gets here, she can make him whole again!"
"It's not that easy, and you know it." her father replied. "We can't take him with us. Sooner or later the infestation will consume him, and then he will stop at nothing and try to kill us. Or worse, he will try to infest us as well. And if we are really, really, really unlucky, then he will simply detonate. Trust me, you don't want to be nearby to find out what he's gonna turn into. Whatever it will be, it will be ugly."
"But it will be alive!" Paula lectured him. "You won't kill him! I won't allow it!" When Jim heard that, his features softened. Right now, she was the spitting image of her mother. It was almost scary, but in a good way. And so...
"Okay..." he whispered. "Okay, you win." And then Jim lowered the gun. "But we can't take him with us. It's too dangerous."
"But-" Paula protested but was cut short by her father.
"No but, kiddo. You can only "but" me if your powers work. Which they do not. And I won't have an infested man on board of a tiny dropship that's surrounded by hard vacuum." He realized the confused look on his daughter's face.
"Dropship? Hard vacuum?" Paula muttered. "What the heck are you talking about?" A proud grin appeared on her father's face.
"Fear not, daughter, for I have come up with a brilliant plan while we were running for our dear life! We shall take my old dropship and just leave the Hyperion behind. And then we will just find the next habitable planet and wait for your mother to show up!"
Behind them Sirella was looking for a way to climb down from said dropship.
"Perhaps this is the right moment to tell your father about where we found this thing." the tall Protoss mumbled.
"What?" Jim asked Sirella, only to receive a shrug. He then turned his attention towards Paula. "What's she talking about?"
"Haha, funny story, actually." Paula chuckled in a rather pathetic way. "Guess what, we are not in space!" A frown appeared on Jim's face when he heard that.
"Then, where are we?" he wanted to know.
"Below ground." his daughter told him.
"Well..." James Eugene Raynor growled when he heard that. "...crap."