Kaylee collapsed onto the couch that was housed inside Inara's shuttle, followed closely by Simon. Zoe had shoved them both inside with a strength neither of them was going to argue with, and then Jayne came bounding inside. Simon gave him a dark look, and then frowned all of a sudden.
"River," he said, moving to stand up. But Jayne grabbed his shoulder and forced him back down onto the couch.
"Nuh-uh, Doc," he said. "You ain't goin' nowhere."
Simon shoved Jayne's hand away from him and he stood up, getting right into the other man's face. "That was a double negative, you moron," he said fiercely. "Now get out of my way – I'm going to find my sister."
He pushed Jayne out of the way, and Jayne actually stumbled back – probably out of surprise more than anything else, expecting the doctor to give in without a fight. But he was quickly back on the ball, grabbing the doctor and shoving him back onto the couch with more force than was really necessary. Kaylee frowned; Jayne wasn't normally like this with members of the crew. He usually restrained himself more.
Simon, seething with anger, jumped up and punched at Jayne's face with an angry cry, but the bigger man grabbed his fist and forced him back down for a third time.
"Now you stay down!" yelled Jayne, his face seething with anger. Simon saw the raw emotion boiling inside of him, and followed Jayne's instruction. He glared up at the mercenary, knowing that if he couldn't beat Jayne physically, then there was another area in which he could certainly triumph against him.
"How does it feel?" he spat, studying Jayne's face closely. The other man shot him a look that tried to silence him, but Simon would not be put down verbally by someone he knew to be of inferior intelligence. He pressed the offensive, twisting the proverbial knife into Jayne's guts. "How does it feel to be responsible for all of this?" he demanded, and Jayne actually slapped him – a sharp blow with the back of his hand. Kaylee was up immediately between them, but Jayne pushed her away.
"What are you doing?" she cried, bewildered. Simon shot a look full of venom towards Jayne.
"Why don't you tell her, Jayne? Why don't you tell her why we're huddled in this scrap heap of a shuttle, cowering for our lives? That the ship that we used to call home is gone? Tell her, Jayne. Tell her!"
Jayne flew at Simon, yelling incomprehensibly. He dragged the doctor up by his shirt and pushed him away, and might have done something Simon might have regretted later when Zoe staggered backwards into the shuttle and the hatch slid shut.
The docking clamps rumbled beneath them, and almost immediately they were floating away from Serenity. Simon howled unintelligibly and ran to the hatch, as if he could somehow reverse the undocking process.
"River!" he called, as Kaylee helped Zoe to her feet. Jayne paced over on the other side of the shuttle, seething with anger. After a few moments Simon realised that the ship wasn't settling back down onto the docking clamps by his force of will alone, and turned to the only one among them who might know what had happened back on the ship.
"Where's River?" he asked of Zoe, halfway between accusing and pleading. Zoe met his eyes evenly.
"She's the one who pushed me onto this thing."
Simon bit his lower lip, and pressed his folded hands onto the back of his head. The feeling of complete and utter helplessness felt like his brains would try and vacate his skull through the rear. A sudden sense of floating hit him, as if this wasn't real.
It isn't real, he realised. An alien on board the ship? River opting to stay on board with it rather than escape with me? Impossible. Simply impossible.
It became the only logical explanation in his head; that this was some kind of dream – or at worst an elaborate hoax, perpetrated by the other members of the crew for some reason he was unable to fathom. It wasn't the first of April…it wasn't his birthday…he had gone on to start sorting a preliminary list in his head of wrongs he had done to the others that might possibly cause them to stage this kind of trick on him when he felt his cheek throbbing.
Then his fantasy floated away, and the real world hit him in the face like a sledgehammer. This was real, this was happening now. River was on that ship with that monster, and there was no way he could get back to her. He slowly sank against the bulkhead, despair enveloping him.
But Zoe seemed to realise why he was slumping towards the deck and shot him a steadying look.
"The Captain's with her. He stayed behind to go and get Inara. She got grabbed by the thing we're runnin' from."
The implications of that sunk in. Was the Companion dead? Were River and Mal as good as dead for staying to mount a rescue? Simon saw the twisted logic inside his sister's mind; or rather, he thought he did. Inara had helped River begin to meditate and in return, she was going to rescue her from the clutches of the terrible creature lurking in the depths of the ship.
Although he didn't know his assumption was almost entirely wrong, he took some comfort in it. River was trying to do the right thing; she had protected him and was trying to protect Mal and Inara from coming to great harm. Simon knew better than most people she was more than well equipped to afford such protection.
But he didn't stand up. A great weariness gripped him, and he just sat there, slumped against the bulkhead, the two women's eyes focussed entirely on him.
Which is why they completely missed what Jayne did next.
The shuttle lurched under their feet and the hatch that led to the cockpit slid shut. Zoe was instantly up, hammering the control that would open the hatch under normal circumstances, but Jayne had locked it from the inside. She banged on the door, yelling at him to open it up, but she received no response.
Simon was startled from his reverie and moved to activate the intercom, but Zoe all but shoved him out of the way and did it herself.
"Jayne, open up," she commanded, but the other side of the transmission was dead. She tried again and received no response.
"What's he doing?" asked Kaylee, slightly bewildered by this series of events. Simon gave her an even look, not wanting to appear like he was deliberately attacking Jayne; merely imparting the facts in an unbiased way.
"Back on the ship, Mal told him to keep an eye on that creature. But…he fell asleep. He woke up when you activated the engines to escape the moon's gravity. And by then the creature had escaped."
"Gou niang yang de," said Zoe. "He thinks this is all his fault."
"Isn't it?" flared Simon, abandoning his pretext of neutrality. But Zoe had moved back to the intercom.
"Jayne," she said, and waited for a response that didn't come. "Jayne. It's Zoe. Listen to me. I know you think you're responsible for all this, but you ain't. I don't think so, anyway. I mean, fallin' asleep on watch was a pretty dumb thing for you to do, but d'you really think you could'a done anything if you'd seen it? Hell, it'd tear through you like butter if it's as big now as you said it is. I know you – you're tryin' to run from all this, and you're probably tryin' to figure out a way to get rid of us 'fore you dump the shuttle and run, hitch a ride on some other ship. But you're forgetting that the Alliance is lookin' for you now. Remember when Simon and River came to us? That's what you're facin' now."
There was a brief pause before Jayne finally responded. "They managed well enough, why not me?"
Simon looked as though he was going to say something, but Zoe cut him off.
"'Cause what they did is nothin' compared to what they're lookin' for you for. This is too big to them; the first alien life form they'll encounter. They're probably thinkin' of hundreds of ways to catch it and train it…and you're witness to their little secret. They aren't gonna let you go, and you can't hide from them. Think fallin' asleep's a stupid mistake to make? Try it when an Operative's lookin' for you. No, they'll string you up within a week. Trust me on that. You and I both know you ain't smart enough to outrun them."
Rather than take offence, Jayne sat in meditative silence for a few more moments.
"So…what's your plan? You gotta better idea?"
Zoe, admittedly, didn't. But she wasn't about to let Jayne know that. "'Course I gotta plan. The first step of it is you comin' outta that cockpit. I can't get us anywhere if you're all holed up in there."
There were a few more minutes of contemplative silence, and then finally, the hatch to the cockpit slid open and a subdued Jayne stepped out of it.
"Listen," he said. "I didn't…I didn't mean for it to – "
Zoe's fist smashed into his face, and he staggered back with the force of the blow. She followed his motion and viciously punched him again, not letting him regroup.
"That's for ruinin' my life," said Zoe. "You're gorram lucky I didn't think it could get much worse, or you might be dead now." She hit him again. "And that was just for the hell of it."
She marched into the cockpit and assumed the controls. Simon followed her while Kaylee stooped to help Jayne to his feet. A small amount of blood ran from his forehead where Zoe had split the skin. He felt it, winced, and then let Kaylee help him to the couch.
They didn't say anything for a while, but then Jayne tried to speak.
"I dunno…I mean, I never thought that…"
Kaylee silenced him. "C'mon Jayne. Zoe was right. It's not like you could'a stopped that thing if it came at you."
He gave her an almost appreciative glance, but she wasn't finished.
"But…I can't believe that you did it. I always thought you put on this tough guy act for show, and somewhere in there you really cared. But…fallin' asleep when you were meant to be watchin' that thing?"
Jayne was quick on the defence. "You just said that – "
"I know what I said. You couldn't have done anything if it came at you. But the fact that you fell asleep anyway. We were all countin' on you, Jayne. You let us down. Do you really not care?"
Jayne had never felt this way before. Always when he had messed up, it was never about him. He gave up Simon and River to the feds? So what, who were they to him at the time? But this was Serenity, his home for the longest time since he'd actually been home with his Ma. Normally he either didn't care enough about the people he betrayed, or someone else saw that he'd make the mistake and fixed it up before he even made it. Mal. Mal was always the one who was two steps ahead of the game. Mal always saw his betrayals, or his blunders, and accounted for them. This was Mal's fault. He could have checked on him, or came to look at the thing himself, but he just let him be.
He drew breath to say all of that to Kaylee, but the look in her eyes stopped his words.
She was disappointed. Not angry and apoplectic with rage, but disappointed. He'd rather Zoe hit him for hours than suffer the look in Kaylee's eyes right now. He wished he'd never come out of the cockpit; ran from his problems as he always did. But he was trapped by the look in the girl's eyes.
Suddenly it all came crashing down on him. He should have stayed awake. He should have taken things more seriously. He should have taken responsibility for his own actions.
And then his conscience, which hadn't been taken out of its packaging since he was seven years old, assaulted him with the full force of its power. Tears actually filled his eyes, for the first time he could remember. This was his fault. Granted, had he stayed awake, the outcome probably would have been the same, but like Kaylee said; he should have tried. No wonder Simon and Zoe were so angry with him. If he were either of them, he would have shot him on the spot.
Finally he understood the apparently complex system of morals that governed Mal's actions. The man that had remained an enigma to Jayne since he met him unfolded before him. Mal simply didn't want to feel bad after whatever he did. That was as simple as it got. Mal didn't want to live with this feeling that raged inside of Jayne now.
If only he wasn't trapped on this speck of metal in space. He could have ran away from his feelings; even Serenity was big enough for that. He didn't want to have to deal with this.
Kaylee could obviously see that he was suffering some kind of feedback loop in his built in system of denial of responsibility, and put her arm around him. He leaned slightly towards her, and they sat there like that for a while; neither of them talking, but perhaps for the first time both of them understanding each other.
The shuttle rattled with a physical impact, shaking them from the shell they had constructed around them. Jayne stood, blinking and sniffing, and marched into the cockpit.
"What is it?" he said, but Zoe and Simon both ignored him. Kaylee joined him and after assessing the mood in the cockpit slapped the back of both of their chairs. They stopped what they were doing and looked around at her; Zoe incredulous, Simon surprised.
"Hey!" she barked. "There's not time for all of this! I'm thinkin' that was the Alliance cruiser that's been followin' us?" Zoe nodded mutely. "Well then, we got about five minutes before they rope us in with the grapple, and nobody's gonna help us but us. Put all of it behind you; there's just us four here now, and we gotta make it work."
Metallic objects streaked past the cockpit viewport down towards the surface of the moon. Zoe went to meddle with the controls, but Simon stopped her with his hand.
"No. They've got us now. Those were some kind of bombs, and I suspect they were targeted at Serenity. If we resist in any way then we could be next. Better to just let them take us and hope we can come to some arrangement with them."
Zoe looked as if she was going to fight, but Kaylee moved to support Simon.
"Simon's right," she said. "Right now we're the only ones who know what's on our ship and how to deal with it. They need us alive. Let's not aggravate them. We gotta keep it together until the Cap'n gets back with the others." She nodded to herself, to reassure herself that Mal was going to turn up any moment now in the other shuttle. She just had to keep the others rallied together until he did, and he could take over.
Zoe reluctantly surrendered the controls, and the shuttle was pulled in to the docking bay of the cruiser. When they felt the shudder that indicated they had landed, they all assumed a position around the couch, hands raised in the air and weapons on the padded surface they surrounded.
They each exchanged a glance with the other, silently giving reassurance and hope to the others, even Jayne. Kaylee had been right; whatever had happened in the past, they were in the grasp of the enemy now, and all they had was each other. If they didn't pull through this together, then they'd either face a long life alone, or failure. And neither option looked particularly agreeable to any of the occupants of the shuttle.
The hatch sprayed sparks and then collapsed in on its own weight, and the shuttle was filled with flashing lights and soldiers armed to the teeth screaming at them. Kaylee was forced to the ground and restrained with cold, metal cuffs, and she lost track of the others in the confusion.
The next thing she knew she was being hauled out of the shuttle and into harsh floodlight. Masses of soldiers swarmed around the shuttle, guarding engineers who scanned the surface with portable devices. A biohazard team was assembled nearby, and Kaylee wondered if the soldiers who had stormed the shuttle first knew they were so disposable as to not wear any protection whatsoever.
She was dragged into a corridor off the main docking bay and then forced to her knees and found herself in a line with the other three. Simon gave her as reassuring a glance as he possibly could under the circumstances, but then their attention was distracted by a sudden silence all around them.
Eerily, a single set of footsteps echoed down the corridor towards them, and Kaylee couldn't see for the crowds of soldiers around them who it was. But then his face floated into view. The greasy dirty blond hair. The piercing blue eyes. The ape-like, yet sinisterly intelligent face. The only thing different was that rather than scowling, as he had appeared on the readout back on Serenity, his features were lit by an almost warm smile. Kaylee felt icicles penetrate her stomach and spread their frostiness throughout her torso. It was the Operative they had found the incomplete bio for deep within the Blue Sun files. The files that were now lost with Serenity.
"You…" she whispered, and his eyes met hers.
"I take it you know who I am?" he said, but Jayne must have shaken his head beside her, because he looked almost – almost – crestfallen and introduced himself. "As I understand it, you have encountered one of my kind before now. I am an Operative of the Union of Allied Planets. And you, like me, no longer exist."
He waved the soldiers with his hand and they hauled the prisoners deep within the ship to a holding area. All the while, Kaylee's mind raced. She was suddenly terrified. This wasn't anything like she had expected. Where were the questions, the threats, and the demands? It was almost as if this Operative had been expecting them, and was simply going through the motions.
She was dumped unceremoniously to the floor of an almost entirely white room. Before she or any of the others could gather their wits about them, the soldiers had retreated out of the room and a clear barrier had risen from the ceiling, separating them from the exit. Zoe was up almost immediately, throwing herself at the barrier but to no avail; it didn't as much as vibrate as she attacked it. Just as she had given in, the Operative entered and took liberty of the only feature of the room besides the door and the barrier; a white stool that had up until now escaped Kaylee's notice.
There was silence for a few moments, and then Zoe kicked the barrier again. The Operative smiled slightly, obviously amused at her attempts.
"I suppose you're the face we can finally put on the Alliance's involvement with this whole mess," said Simon, the first to speak. After he did, the Operative finally did so, too.
"If you like."
Kaylee exchanged a sideways glance with Jayne. Considering that this man should be desperately trying to establish what had happened to the creature on Serenity, he was being awfully coy. This must be some kind of interrogation technique, she decided. All they had to do was wait it out.
"What's going to happen to us?" asked Zoe, and the Operative finally stood, as if he had been waiting for this question.
"I suppose you're all wondering why I'm being so smug about this whole mess, as you described it," he mused, correctly. "But you see, although you must think that I should be desperate to rectify this situation by demanding you tell me exactly where to find the creature on your ship…I have, in actual fact, done all that I came here to accomplish."
Kaylee frowned, not understanding. But the Operative continued.
"From your perspective, you have been desperately pursued by every galactic power there is to obtain the contents of the crate you carried from Aries to Beaumonde. The contents so dangerous that normal means of transport are completely out of the question; they must be smuggled inside an innocuous cargo container that the smugglers themselves don't know what's inside."
"And then killed," said Zoe darkly. The Operative raised a hand as if to congratulate her.
"Exactly. Consider; why would the Alliance go to the trouble of manufacturing such an elaborate scheme when you yourselves, more than anyone, should know that the we do not care about trivial things as morals and laws?"
Realisation hit Simon. "You're talking about the Academy where you mutilated River."
The Operative nodded. "So please, any one of you; why would the Alliance, who have secret facilities such as the Academy, bother to travel to the extreme of exacting a plan such as one you have just lived through?"
"They wouldn't," said Zoe.
"Right again. I will tell you exactly what has happened to you this past week, and I think I am correct to say that you will not be pleased when you have learned the truth. The crate you had been travelling with was merely a misplaced shipment, travelling between two facilities similar to the Academy; the main difference being that instead of creating the perfect weapons from ordinary citizens…we were creating the perfect weapons from ordinary citizens," he said, perversely, with the hint of a smile. "If you catch my meaning."
"You're mass producing those things?" asked Simon, aghast. But the Operative shook his head.
"No. We don't understand them well enough to create them en masse. But we certainly have more than enough."
"Then why did we end up with the crate?" asked Zoe, the only one of them asking the right questions.
"When I said 'misplaced,' I of course meant 'stolen.' That is in point of fact, my task. To discover how and why someone would have the means and motivation to formulate and then set into motion a plan to obtain their own specimens of Project Nightmare." He paused and then raised his hand again. "Forgive me. Project Nightmare is the code name we have given to the study of these creatures. The name stems from an affectionate nickname one of our technicians gave to the creature during the first weeks of analysis."
"Night Stalker?" suggested Kaylee, and she was right.
"Yes. Correct. Which, I think, wraps up our session here but for one small point. I mentioned that there were two facilities devoted to the study of these subjects, and while I am not at liberty to discuss the location of the first, the second I must reveal to you as a matter of course. On board this vessel."
A rippled travelled up Kaylee's spine as soldiers poured back into the room at the Operative's electronic signal. The barrier rose back up into the ceiling, and they were waylaid once again by troopers pinning them to the ground.
"Your arrival is most fortuitous for two reasons," said the Operative, looking very pleased with himself. "Not only has the issue of the misplaced shipment been wrapped up, but with your vessel destroyed – because that's what happened to it, by the way; it sank into the ocean and then it was hit with depth charges from our vessel – there is no longer any record of your existence. Which makes, by my calculations, four more subjects for Project Nightmare. Please," he said to the guards, "Take them away."
Kicking and screaming, the four crew members were dragged from the room and down another faceless corridor. There were double doors that the guards pushed open with their bodies every four feet or so, and the only noises besides those that came from the late Serenity's crew were the shuffling of feet and the banging of the doors. Jayne managed to get his foot free from the men holding him and he lashed out at their faces, but he was quickly grabbed after landing only one solid blow against his captors. Then they found themselves in another non-descript room. The only features that stuck out were that this time there were banks of monitors and scientific equipment lining the sides of the narrower room. Kaylee had no idea in which direction the docking bay would be found, even if they managed to escape from the dozens of guards. Everything looked the same on board this ship.
A group of men in lab-coats – no, that was wrong, there were two women with them – scrutinised the Serenity crew closely and then nodded to the trooper in charge of the rest of the guards.
"Put the males together in one cell, and the females in the other," he instructed. Two hatches on either side of the room slid open; Simon and Jayne were dragged off to one, screaming all the way, and moments later the two women suffered the same fate on the opposite side.
This new cell was considerably grimier than the pristine white room they had just been ejected from, but no features stood out. The only major difference was that the deck was made of grating, rather than smooth, solid metal. The guards secured their shackles to chains built into opposite sides of the room, and having exited another transparent barrier rose up between them. Zoe thrashed in the sudden eerie silence that enveloped them, trying to somehow break her chain, but it was no use.
Kaylee's cheeks were streaked with tears of shock, and her small whimpers of fear were silenced when she noticed a circle built into the floor. She thought she could guess exactly what was going to happen when that smaller hatch opened, and the fear that thought evoked froze her entire brain, rendering her even unable to even think.
Zoe followed her eyes and arrived at the same conclusion Kaylee had, stopping her attempts to get free momentarily. Kaylee started to cry again, the sheer hopelessness of their situation occurring to her all at once. But Zoe spoke to her sharply.
"Hey. Hey! Look at me!" Kaylee obeyed on reflex, accustomed to following the first mate's orders for so long. Zoe's eyes all but fed her resilience. "It might seem like we're screwed, but don't for one second think about givin' in, 'cause when you do, it means they've won. You wanna know the real reason me and the cap'n never got so messed up by losing the war? 'Cause we fought til there was no strength left in our bodies and til the enemy was right up in our face, forcing surrender onto us."
"But…" said Kaylee, confused by the juxtaposition of Zoe's speech. "I thought you and the cap'n never got over the war." The situation allowed her to say things she would ordinarily never conceive of saying to the other woman.
Zoe smiled grimly, sitting down onto the grating beneath her. "We didn't. Haven't. But we didn't have to go to the fong luh because of it. Some guys who live through what we did, they spend the rest of their days in a padded room. But not us – because we knew we'd done everything we could to stop the enemy from winning. If it wasn't enough, then that ain't our business – it's like you were sayin' to Jayne, it's tryin' that counts."
The smaller hatch clunked abruptly. Kaylee leapt back in fear, rattling her chain. But oddly, at the same time a fierce resolve rose up in her. Zoe was right; she would be a hypocrite if she had told Jayne that it was trying that mattered if she immediately went and just gave in. And if there was one thing her folks had taught her, it was how to not be a hypocrite.
Zoe was pulling her chain forward and her cuffs down her legs, over her boots. Kaylee considered attempting a similar manoeuvre but then hatch popped open, releasing the same gas – unbeknownst to Kaylee – that had filled the cargo container they had been hauling; the gas that served as an anaesthetic to subdue the alien creatures while they were in transit.
Zoe stood, her arms now relatively free in front of her. She caught Kaylee's eyes again.
"Now listen up. It's gonna come at you and not give in, so you gotta do the same thing to it. No mercy. It's an animal, remember? You can outthink it, and if you can do that then you can sure as hell beat it. Your feet are your main weapons, but don't forget your body can be just as useful. Sit on it if need be, but don't let it near your face."
Kaylee nodded, the deathly calm that comes with paralysing fear washing over her. She had never been as terrified in all her life, and it was as if her brain had gone beyond the ability to measure the emotion in the same way she couldn't hear certain frequencies; it existed, but it was like it wasn't there. The hatch started to rumble, and an ovoid organic structure started to rise from its depths. A similar motion was being carried out in Zoe's cell, but the first mate was focussing intently on Kaylee. The engineer frowned slightly, trying to figure it out, but Zoe answered for her.
"I don't give a damn about me. I was never much good at anything 'sides fightin'." Tears stung at her eyes slightly. "And I've lost the only thing I cared about more than everything else in all the 'verse. But I'll be damned if this is the end of you. You're better'n this."
Kaylee broke her eye contact with Zoe as the ovoid emerged completely in the cell. Suddenly the fear evaporated. She realised that she wasn't just fighting for herself, but for Zoe. And Simon. And Jayne. And River, Inara and the Captain. And everyone else who had faced these monsters. And Wash, and Shepherd Book, and everyone else who had taken a stand against the Alliance, or the Reavers, or the New Independents, or any other face of evil and been consumed by it. And even those people who had taken a stand and survived, lived to fight another day; perhaps those people most of all, because Kaylee resolved that she was going to join the ranks of those people and stand proud among them. I fought with all of my strength and I proved that one person can survive evil; I stood before it, alone, and withstood everything it could throw at me. I am worthy.
She had never been a fighter, but now she understood where Mal and Zoe's reserve of strength came from. They must feel this feeling every time they stared Death in the face. Being alone and yet part of an elite community of warriors who somehow stood with you. That Mal and Zoe had volunteered to fight and Kaylee had had it thrust upon her made no difference; they were kin now, and not even the monster lurking inside that egg could change that.
She nodded resolutely at it, and it started to open, as if it could act now that the terms of engagement had been decided. A moment of chilling calm passed after it had fully opened, and then the hand-like creature sprang from inside, clutching towards Kaylee's face.
She leaped sideways out of its way, constrained in her movements by the chain that tied her to the bulkhead. Sounds of a struggle reached her ears from the opposing cell, but she dared not take her eyes off the creature that scrabbled for its balance on the far side of the cell.
No sooner had she thought that did her eyes reflexively flicker to the chain that constrained her, and she noticed that the bolts that held it in place were corroded. A few strong jerks might be enough to release it entirely.
The creature flopped towards her, and bile rose in the back of her throat. That was her final defence, she thought; she could puke on it.
It leaped at her again, but her dexterity outmatched the creature's; it hit the far bulkhead as she danced sideways out of its reach.
Immediately she started to tug and jerk at the bolts that held her imprisoned against the wall, and the metal bracket started to give way against her efforts. With a final, gargantuan effort she heaved and the bolts popped loose of the bulkhead, allowing her full freedom of movement. The creature sensed her new advantage, and twitched in the corner of the cell. Kaylee utilised its hesitation by sitting down on the ground as Zoe had done, working her hands down towards her legs in an effort to free them.
Just as she had reached the point of no return, the creature darted forward and managed to within six inches of her feet before her hands were free and she whipped the chain at it, sending it skipping back to the corner it had originated from.
She released the breath that she had been holding, astonished by its ability to sense the moment of her greatest weakness. She re-evaluated the creature, knowing that one mistake would cost her dearly.
She started to whirl the chain and realised that she would have to go on the offensive; it stayed in the corner, waiting for its moment to strike. She built up the kinetic motion of the chain and sent it lancing down towards the creature, but it darted sideways out of the way, much in the same way she had avoided its attack when it had had the upper hand.
She swung again but this time it ran forward underneath her attack. Having committed her weight to the offensive, she found herself closer than she cared to be to the creature and tried to step back, but the damage had been done.
It started to climb up her leg and reached her stomach before she recalled Zoe's earlier advice. She all but ran into the perspex separating the two cells, squashing the creature between her weight and the transparent material. It slid limply down to the deck, but quickly recovered, darting back towards her feet. She backed away quickly, sweeping along the ground with the chain, and it was deterred again successfully.
Suddenly she detected a change in it as it quivered and became still. Everything about this creature made her skin crawl, and when it started to clamber towards her it was too much. She ran backwards towards the opposite bulkhead, clubbing down with the chain, but after missing it for a third time she forgot where she was in relation to the rest of the cell and her leg stumbled against something soft and organic.
The egg, she remembered, and she was falling down towards the deck. She hit her head against the bulkhead and she suddenly felt lighter.
Sluggishly she looked up and saw that the alien was clambering up along her legs, dangerously intent on reaching her face. She tried to bat it away but her arms weren't working properly, and it easily evaded her attacks.
She heard Zoe banging on the perspex separating them, trying to rouse her to a further defence, but it was no use. Before she knew it, the creature had reached her face and enveloped her with a warm, organic moistness against which her whole body rebelled but could not rouse itself to defend against.
Just before her brain deactivated out of a combination of physical trauma and blind, screaming horror the wet tube pushing against her lips evoked, she had time for one, final thought, other than a feeling of bitter regret in knowing she would not join those ranks of the proud undefeated; that she had been consumed by this evil.
I hope the others are all right.
How little she knew.
The End.
A/N
…Of Void, that is. But don't go thinking I'd leave you on such a sour note! Our guys will be back in the next instalment. I wanted to leave Void just as it was – a slow descent into suffering, loss and blind bewilderment (aren't I nice?). Don't be put off by the nasty ending because the next phase of the story, entitled Nightmare, will be up just as soon as I've figured out the exact timeline of events. Think of this as a season finale, except without the six month wait to find out what happens. And hopefully, without the sense of anti-climax watching the second part often brings.
Thank you very, very much to those people who read this story, and even more to those who reviewed. Although I would probably still be writing this if no one read it, it gives me inspiration to carry on, knowing that there are those of you who enjoy what I write. Academy Award acceptance style speech over, but I wanted to let you know that I appreciate it!
If anyone wants me to email you when the new story is put up, let me know your email address so I can get in touch. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Until next time…