Varrik hissed as Y'Kryss started towards the two unconscious juveniles, dah'kte unsheathed.
"I am going to cut these filthy, crawly, little scum into pieces so small, the maggots will not have to chew!"
"Y'Kryss!" Varrik snapped at him, and the giant stopped, "Nar'Jat gave us very clear orders to bring them in still living."
Y'Kryss did not make a further move towards the juveniles, but his huge fists still twitched.
"He will be most displeased if we disobey him. I have no wish to lose my command – or my head – because you cannot follow simple instructions!"
Y'Kryss looked at Varrik, then at the two unconscious boys, talons clenched, blades glinting. There was silence in the cockpit. Then, the larger male dipped his head in submission, retracting his dah'kte, "As you say, my captain."
"Good." Varrik gazed down at the two juveniles at his feet "Besides, these… children fought well." He said, half to himself, "They do not deserve to be murdered in their sleep."
The other gave a discontented rumble, but Varrik knew he would obey. He and Y'Kryss had fought alongside each other since childhood and the larger warrior mostly deferred to him. Varrik had proven himself the superior fighter many times and in any case, he was the one in command.
Varrik looked at the two insensible faces, so alike that he thought they must have shared a womb as well as their unique parentage. Twins were not unknown in yautja procreation, but the thought unnerved him for some reason, as if their being doubled gave them some kind of strange power.
"So, what now?" Y'Kryss demanded, behind him.
"Now we take this ship and return to the Cutter."
He looked again at the two brothers, their faces smooth and unmoving in unconsciousness, as if nothing had ever troubled them.
"Come," He said, finally, "Let us take them to Nar'Jat: The children of S'Kia and the ooman Sain'Ja should be enough of a prize to satisfy him."
Y'Kryss grunted his assent and went to programme the new course into the console. Varrik stayed, gazing down at the juveniles. Even out cold, their appearance powerfully recalled both their intimidating sire… and the enigmatic ooman enchantress who had birthed them. Both had haunted Varrik's dreams and his waking thoughts often enough over the years. If he closed his eyes, he could see again S'Kia's dangerous grin and the mesmerising gaze of the ooman female, boring into him; twin voids of blackness…
He shuddered and turned back towards the console.
In the theatre of Lex's imagination, she could see it all happening already. Soon, the eggs would hatch and those horrible, spiderlike limbs would close around her face, forcing the vile tube down her throat. Then, she would slip into a deathlike sleep and wake hours later, knowing it was only a matter of time before true death came, along with pain and blood and sorrow.
She squeezed her eyes shut to banish the horrible visions and looked up at Scar again. There were angry, green lacerations on his wrists where he had been pulling at the restraints. She watched the muscles in his shoulders writhe and the veins stand out on his arms as he hauled on the chains again, fighting to free himself. It was a doomed attempt. His eyes were full of powerless rage and he stared back at her – unable to even speak in case that triggered the pods between them.
By tilting her head back very slowly, she saw that her own wrists were likewise shackled and attached by lengths of chain to a single post, her hands pulled tightly above her head.
'The GhaRan-S'i-Ka said this was a place of execution,' She thought 'So they must have killed others like this before. Other yautja…'
She cast her eyes around the place; they were in some kind of stone chamber, the stench of death sickly and cloying in the air. There were corpses here already, on the ground around them and in various states of decay. Many looked old, bones picked clean of every scrap of flesh. Others were more recent. One or two had the explosive craters in their chest that marked them as hosts of the hard meat.
She looked around again at the bodies, taking care not to move her head, 'I guess there might be weapons here, under those bones, some of these hunters must have been armed when they died… unless they were executed, like us. But even if there are weapons, that won't do us any good if we can't get to them!'
A thought struck her and she very slowly tilted her head back again, moving only by tiny increments, until she was looking upwards.
She felt a glimmer of hope. The shackles on her wrists looked just a fraction too large, 'They're obviously not meant for humans. That's why I'm chained to one post instead of stretched between two, like Scar; they're set too far apart and the chains aren't long enough for my shorter arms.'
She wriggled her hands, already slick with sweat. To her excitement, one of her wrists slid a little way down past the edge of the metal. Holding herself under tight control to ensure she did not make any sudden moves, she concentrated all her attention on that wrist. The perspiration helped and she managed to slide it down further inside the cuff, folding her thumb inwards so it would fit. Red blood began to ooze from under the edge of the metal and she stopped for a moment, getting her breath back. The strain had raised a fresh wake of sweat on her chest and throat and between her shoulder blades.
Her eye was caught by a tiny movement and she glanced up. Scar was still watching her. He moved his jaws very slightly again and raised his brows, then looked down; 'He's been trying to get my attention.'
Again, she followed his gaze, but she did not understand what he was trying to show her. The hard meat eggs had not altered since the last time she looked at them and she frowned, puzzled. Then her eye alighted on something else: lying on the floor between them, beside the pod nearest to her, was a plasma cannon.
Lex's eyes widened. She didn't stop to question how the gun had got there but began to work at the shackle again, pulling hard on her aching wrist to free it. Blood was flowing freely beneath the cuff now, sticky and slippery at the same time. The skin underneath it was being shredded, but right now she didn't care. With a last effort she wrenched her hand loose, catching her fingers onto the blood-slicked metal ring to stop her numbed arm from dropping to her side. She paused, breathing deeply, 'As soon as I make a move, I'll only have a few seconds before the eggs hatch. Those spider creatures are fast. I'll probably just have time to grab the gun and get off a couple of shots before they can get to me… and to Scar. How can I stop them from infecting him without showering him in their acid blood?'
She looked at him again "I could probably hit the chains and set him loose, but in that time those spider things can reach me, unless I'm really fast! I need both my hands."
She pulled on the other wrist, but – whether it was swollen from her struggle or whether the manacle was fastened tighter somehow – she couldn't pull her left hand free.
She leaned back against the post for a moment, biting her lip. Somehow, she knew that even if she did manage to reach the gun, she could only save one of them, 'Either I can free myself or I can free Scar: I don't think I'll have time to do both…'
She stared across at him. He was watching her. Perhaps the same thought had also occurred to him. The moment she made a move for the gun, the eggs would to begin to open and then…
She stared at his yellow eyes, in an agony of indecision. 'I was angry with him… I still am… but I still can't condemn him to such a terrible death! I can't bear the thought of either one of us being infected by those things but… but… what if only one of us can get out of here alive? If that happens, Scar's got a better chance of getting Spyrro back from the GhaRan-S'i-Ka and of helping the boys than I would have on my own. Or of saving them from Nar'Jat, if he's even got them…'
This last realisation struck her like a punch to the jaw, 'Even if I die, I know Scar will go after the children – there's no doubt in my mind about that. He's always protected them, above all else. I know he'll either get them back or die in the attempt. I have to free him first, so that he can help them.' She felt a lump come into her throat at the thought of never seeing them again... of dying without even saying goodbye.
His eyes were still locked on her face, absolutely still and as mute as she, knowing any noise could be fatal. His brows knitted together at the tears that sprang up on her lashes and his jaws twitched again as if he wanted to say something.
She wished she could speak, 'Heaven knows what I'd say to him. All I know is, I don't want our last conversation to be that vicious fight – but I guess it's too late now... God help us both!'
Tightening her grip on the manacle, she shifted her weight.
Then she dived for the floor, leaning down as far as she could with one hand still chained. She pulled with every muscle in her body towards the plasma gun, but it was just beyond her fingertips. In her peripheral vision, she could see Scar pulling to reach it too – even if just to knock it within her reach – but she knew he was too far away. Her left wrist felt like it was about to break but she ignored the pain and strained forward as far as she could get. Her outstretched fingers had just managed to close around the grip, when she heard the wet, little noise near her head and hurled herself backwards. In a blur of adrenalin, she lifted the gun towards him, took aim at the restraints that held his wrists. Showers of sparks poured into the air as the chains holding his arms burst apart.
She just had time to raise the gun above her head, blasting the chain that held her other hand, when something exploded from inside the nearest pod, springing towards her in a squeal of bone and slime. Instinctively she threw up her arm as the skeletal fingers closed on her face…
"Release me, you dirty, scum-sucking coward!" Spyrro yelled as she was dragged through the endless corridors of the Vortex "Let me out of here!"
"Silence, noisy insect!" Growled the female who had a tight hold of her arm, smacking her hard on the back of the head. This behaviour might have been intimidating to a human child, but the only effect it had on Spyrro was that she got angrier. After all, she had two older brothers who were not shy about fighting back if she got rough with them and her Father – for all that he doted on her – was not above giving her the odd cuff if he felt she had overstepped herself.
"I want my Father!" She howled "Where have you taken him?"
She wanted her Mother too, but Mei'Savir had ordered her not to talk about her Mother and Mei'Varsi had not contradicted him (which Spyrro knew she was more than capable of doing). Some survival instinct told her that she had better do what she was told, this time.
The guard halted at one door amongst many other identical doors and looked down at Spyrro.
"You would do well not to talk about your father anymore," She sneered, "He is being executed as a traitor and an abomination."
"Liar!" Spyrro's hands balled into fists.
Her captor pressed a control and the door slid open. She hauled Spyrro roughly inside and dumped her on the floor. As soon as she released her, the girl leapt to her feet and launched herself at her tormentor, trying to get round her and escape, but the guard grabbed her arm and slung her to the floor again.
Spyrro leapt up again, raising her voice to a bruising pitch, "I want to go home!"
The older female regarding this display of temper dispassionately, "You have no home but this. You belong to the Vortex now, so you had best get used to it."
So saying, she turned and left, closing the door behind her. Spyrro heard it lock but she flung herself after her jailer anyway, hammering her small fists on the uncaring metal.
"I hate you!" She screamed "I hate the Vortex! I hate the Rough Skulls! I hate that old bitch who rules you! I hate you all!"
She carried on for several minutes, until her throat was raw and her fists felt as if the bones in them might be about to break.
She sat down. Just as suddenly as it had come, the tide of rage ebbed away, leaving her stranded and gasping on the floor.
'It is my fault I am here and Mei'Varsi and Mei'Savir are in danger – all my fault! I caused all this trouble by running away. Now I will never see them again – and I cannot even give them my sorry!'
Lex gasped for breath as the tail of the hard meat larvae coiled around her sweat -slicked neck, pulling tighter every second, cutting off her airways. Somehow, she had managed to shoot her other hand free but it took both hands and all her strength to hold off those terrible, grasping digits as they groped for her face, pulling the questing tube ever closer to her mouth. Gulping for air, she crashed backwards to the floor, vision rapidly blurring, ears ringing as if filled with water, fighting to stay conscious as she tried suck oxygen into her lungs. Sound and sight and sensation were ebbing away from her, smothered under the spreading, pulsing darkness.
Then, something else was round her neck, hands yanking her into sitting position, choking and gasping. The terrible coiling noose was wrenched from her throat and the squeezing fingers from her face and she fell to her knees as the blessed oxygen flooded back in again. Through the pounding in her temples, she heard someone say her name and looked up. Scar stood above her, holding the struggling spider creature, its tail thrashing wildly in his taloned grip.
Before he could speak again, the slimy orifice of the egg that had been nearest to him quivered and another spiderling erupted towards him, bony limbs outstretched like a skeleton claw. Throwing out his free hand, he caught the creature mid-leap, snatching it from the air, holding on tightly as it writhed, the vile egg tube wriggling from side to side, searching for a throat to fill.
"The gun!" He bellowed at her, jerking his chin towards the corner "Shoot them!"
She snatched up the cannon and he hurled the spidery things as hard as he could. Without hesitation, she fired, plastering the creature's corrosive blood across the glassy stone in an eye-searing flash of light and heat as Scar threw himself back out of range.
The foul, chemical stink of acid and dissolving rock filled the chamber. Both of them stood, breathing hard, Lex coughing and heaving now.
His head turned towards her "Are you… unhurt?"
She nodded, raising herself off her knees, "I did not think you could hold those spider-things like that," She said "You didn't in the Pyramid."
"I am not an adolescent now." He shrugged "Their strength is no longer a match for mine."
She shivered, "I really hate them."
Before he could reply, a ghastly and familiar shape burst through the doorway of the chamber, launching itself towards them both. Before it could reach them, Scar threw himself at it, hitting the hard meat with his shoulder and knocking it across the room where it hit the wall. Lex fired the plasma gun again, splintering its chest and burning away one bony arm, the heat of the plasma vaporising the cloud of acid blood.
Almost immediately another set of grimacing jaws appeared at the top of the doorway. Scar took the full force of the kainde amedhe in the chest as it hit him with claws outstretched, knocking him to the ground. Lacking any weapons, he punched it hard in the jaw, rolling over as he grappled with the thing. Lex aimed the plasma gun, futilely trying to get a clear shot as Scar and the hard meat slashed and gouged at each other. She could see where its claws were already glowing with his blood but if she shot the creature now, he would be seriously – perhaps mortally – burned. The hard meat's inner mouth shot out, inches from his forehead as he held it off with both arms, darting his head to one side to save his skull from being shattered like an eggshell.
Casting around the chamber for something to use as a weapon, she hauled aside decaying corpses and snatched up a dusty combi spear, fleshless fingers shattering as she wrenched it loose.
Swinging round, she levelled the spear at the hard meat and charged. The creature was knocked sideways off Scar as the point of the spear took it in the chest, bursting through its ribcage. She gritted her teeth and hung onto the spear shaft as it hissed and lashed its deadly tail-spine, just out of range of her.
"Lex, move aside," She heard Scar say and she turned her head briefly to see him holding the plasma gun she had dropped. She let go of the spear, flinging herself away from the acid splash as he opened fire, incinerating the hard meat's smooth skull with the white-hot heat of the plasma. Its headless corpse dropped forward, still impaled on the end of the ki'cti-pa {translation: combi-spear}.
She expected him to go and retrieve the weapon but instead he came and took her chin in his talons, tilting her head and leaning closer to inspect the livid weal left by the spider creature's tail. Her eyes widened at this unexpected touch and she stepped shakily backwards out of his reach. He stood there for a few seconds, fingers still outstretched, looking at her and then he frowned. "We should leave this place. If there are more hard meat nearby, the noise will attract them. You should have this, to protect yourself." He held out the plasma cannon to her.
She looked at him, hesitating, then she nodded and took it. "I wonder how it got here."
He shrugged, plaits tossing, "Right now, we have more… pressing concerns."
"What about you? You don't have a weapon."
In answer, he picked up the spear, pulling it free of the hard meat corpse.
Trying to conceal her still uneven breathing, she looked around the chamber again, "We should see if we can salvage some more weapons. I'd feel a lot happier if we had dah'kte at least."
"Very well, but we must... hurry."
They searched quickly and managed to find one dagger which he used to butcher the hard meat, quickly cutting off the stiletto tail spike and securing it to the combi shaft to replace the dissolving spear head.
There were two welts of dried green blood above his collar bone, where the electrodes had been lodged in his skin. A quick downward glance revealed that the electrodes had also been removed from her chest, although whoever had done it had not exactly been careful. Sunbursts of black blood remained in the places where they had been.
"At least they took the shocker spines out of us."
"Hah, yes," He snorted, "Probably worried they might… malfunction and make us unconscious again. The 'Annihilator' would not… wish us to miss even a second of our… punishment."
She was silent for a few moments, digesting this.
"What is this place?" She asked quietly, as she carried on searching, "Is it another Pyramid?"
"Yes, another Pyramid," He kept his voice low. "This place is a yautja construction, I am sure of it."
"Well then, what planet is it?"
"I cannot be sure without my wristcom but… I suspect that we are at the Great Pyramid… on To'Phet."
"To'Phet?! The chiva planet?"
He nodded "Likely, it serves a… dual purpose; both for the chiva and… as a place of execution."
She grunted, wrenching a set of dah'kte from another desiccated cadaver, "So before we can go after the children, we have to fight our way out of another Pyramid full of kainde amedhe?"
"It would seem so… yes." He nodded, sliding the dagger into one of his empty holsters and hefting the ki'cti-pa in his other hand.
She drew a deep breath and stood to face him, tightening the last strap to hold the the dah'kte in place on her wrists.
"Ready when you are." She said.
Happy Friday! Thank gods it's the weekend and only one more week to go before a week off. I wanted to post a new chapter tonight so I'm burning the midnight oil a bit... and probably tomorrow's midnight oil as well. I'm just having a big pyre made of oil that wasn't supposed to get burned tonight. Ah, well.
If you're reading please follow, favourite and review. It'd be nice to get to a hundred reviews! Thanks to those who've already done it.
LovyDovy7: Agreed it's not looking good right now, but at least they're still alive. Also, I felt it was time for some xenomorphs!
Tenjp: Granted, Spyrro the elder is not going to win 'Mother of the Year' but I wouldn't really expect Scar's mother to be a pussycat, would you?
Madhatta51: Hope that's a good sort of terrified, I don't like my readers (or characters) to get too comfortable.