The procession passed through the aft door of the hangar bay and entered the corridor that led to the hyperdrive room on the lowest level. This corridor was like every other passage in the ship, run-down and neglected: the same rust-colored walls, the same rickety grates, and the same malfunctioning lights. To their left just as they entered was the transport. Its door was open, revealing the unlit lift.
Noes still led the way, followed by Cotrel, Cheedo, Terrah, and then Videsse. As Videsse passed through the door, she made sure to shut the seizing door behind them. Terrah shuddered at the thought but did not say anything.
"Just up here," Noes called back, "and we'll be at the engine room."
After a few more steps, Cheedo stopped suddenly in front of Terrah.
"What's the matter?" Terrah asked as she halted.
Cheedo pointed to Noes, who had also stopped. "When our watchman stops, I stop."
Noes was at attention, his whistler blaster raised and aiming into the darkness. "Shine a light up here!" he yelled back with a cracking voice. "I heard something."
"You're hearing things," Cotrel snapped. "We left the hound behind us. How could it be up here?"
"Don't know, but I know what I heard," Noes replied.
Videsse made her way up the line behind Noes and lit the corridor with her antenna lamp. There was nothing but an empty hall with the engine room door ten meters away.
"What was it that you heard?" Videsse asked.
"I thought it was that exhale sound. You know," Noes said in a low voice. His blaster shook slightly.
The hall became completely silent as everyone listened. There was nothing; not a sound of breathing nor a footfall. Terrah could only hear a dull rhythmic beating in her head. Their lamp beams moved from the corridor in front of them to behind and back to the front; nothing.
"Maybe it was nothing," Noes said as his blaster relaxed a bit. "Maybe we should keep moving." He started forward cautiously.
"Wait," Videsse called out, putting her hand on his shoulder.
He made a step forward onto the next grate, which shifted under his feet. A savage huff issued from beneath him. Videsse leapt back. Noes head dropped to look down in fear; but before he could do anything, the floor grate caved in, two massive claws gripped his leg, and his blaster bolts ricocheted off the wall. Noes was sucked into the floor, his body gone. His screams filled the air.
Cheedo and Cotrel had already started to flee back the way they came. Videsse, stunned, stood inert for a moment; then, regaining her sense, she pulled out a grenade and lobbed it into the open floor.
"Let's go, Ohara!" Terrah called to her.
Videsse turned on her heels and followed. The grenade explosion shook the corridor, causing some of the other grates to pop and crash down with an echoing riot. There was a roar underneath. The next grate nearest Videsse shifted in a loud clang as the hound hit it from below, then the next grate and the next, picking up speed as it headed toward the fleeing prey.
"It's coming," Videsse yelled to Terrah as they ran. "Guess grenades don't work either!"
Cheedo reached the closed hangar door first, but it spasmed as he tried to open it. He looked back to the others running toward him, and then jumped into the lift. It was dead. He opened the top hatch and quickly disappeared into it.
Cotrel followed without thinking, struggling a little to get his legs up and through.
The grates shook with the hound approaching as it gained on Terrah and Videsse.
Terrah made it to the lift just in time to see Cotrel's feet disappear into the darkness of the transport shaft. She stepped out of the lift and aimed her two disruptor pistols past the sprinting Videsse and shot at the floor.
"Get up the shaft, Ohara!" she ordered, as she sprayed the floor with red rain. Every cell in her body wanted to get into that shaft. Still, for a reason she did not admit to herself, she stayed to make sure Videsse made it into the lift.
Videsse whipped into the transport and hoisted herself through the hatch, her clunky V-6 pack just barely fitting.
Terrah did not waste a millisecond, raising herself up immediately after Videsse. The grate outside the lift crashed, and the lift shook under Terrah's feet as the creature hurtled into the lift. She looked down to see the back of the creature as it flailed inside the lift, slamming itself into the sides. Its back was covered in thick, course, grizzled hair.
Terrah did not wait to get a better look. The rest of them had already started climbing the maintenance ladder to the middle level. Terrah climbed swiftly, hand over hand, as fast as she could.
The huffing sound continued inside the lift, then grew quiet. They continued to climb. Another huff sounded, this time it was in the shaft behind them. Terrah's heart was in her throat.
"It's in the shaft!" she yelled to the others ahead of her. "Faster!"
The sound of grating claws on the metal walls emitted a high pitched shrill as the creature ascended the walls. It was climbing.
Terrah looked down and quickly illuminated the metal cavern. As soon as the light hit the hound, it leapt from the beam to the shadow of the opposite wall. It clung wildly to the side before continuing its climb. Terrah had seen it-a flash of it: black eyes, four eyes, claws, scales, fur, and teeth, sharp snapping teeth. In that brief glimpse, she knew it was something she had ever seen before. She lost her breath, but managed to keep her limbs moving, foot-over-foot, hand-over-hand. The scraping claws continued their single-minded approach.
Cheedo was out the transport door at the second level. Cotrel made it through as well. Videsse approached to the door. A metal sliding echoed through the shaft followed by a hollow clang.
"That Leatherneck!" Videsse shouted. "Cotrel locked the door!"
The clawing drew nearer.
Terrah gritted her teeth and thought quickly. "Third level! Fly!" She activated her boot rockets and flew up past Videsse. Videsse ignited her pack and ascended.
Terrah's boots sputtered at the top, and she re-gripped the maintenance ladder beside the third level doors. She pried the door open with her gauntlets and pushed the doors apart with her back and arms before slipping through. Videsse crested her flight and passed into the hall, the hound still pursuing.
Videsse attempted to close the door, but it only whined in response. "Sod it!" she exclaimed. The scraping sound of the hound was only five meters below. They ran.
This hall contained the crew quarters, with multiple cabins on both sides. Some doors were open, others closed. Either end of the hall was a dead end, except for the forward lift. Terrah recognized that there was no way they could outrun the creature to the forward lift. She dodged into one of the open cabins. "In here!" she called back to Videsse. Videsse did not argue.
Once in, Terrah tried to shut the door with the control panel. It started to close before slowing to a stop half-way down. The grate outside the lift clanged under the pressure of the hound.
"We've got to shut it manually," Terrah said, smashing the knee-high emergency panel on the right of the door. A crank handle fell out. Terrah snatched it up, attached it to the gear inside the panel, and wrenched it around as fast as she could. Every turn moved the door panel four centimeters down. The hound approached within four meters. A half meter was left to close. The huffing exhale was two meters away. Still the door was open enough for it to fit. Terrah cranked; ten centimeters.
The creature's feet—all six of them—paced in front of the door, unable to fit through. Still Terrah cranked. One of its claws burst through the opening and hooked Terrah's boot. She fell as her leg was dragged through the opening.
Videsse jumped on top of Terrah grabbing her waist with one arm and brandishing her vibroblade in the other.
Terrah blasted the last of her boot rocket fuel, burning the hound with the jet fire. The beast roared and gave up some ground as Terrah strained her foot into the cabin, the creature still clutching the armored boot, and tugging it back. Terrah grunted as she tried to rip her foot away, straining with every muscle. Videsse stabbed violently at the hound's foot. Her blade turned at each stab, not piercing its scaled skin. However, the hound seemed to feel the attack, releasing Terrah's boot. She flew back into the cabin and crashed into the far wall between the cabin bunks. Videsse manned the crank, being sure to keep her feet away from the opening. The door finally sealed shut.
Videsse collapsed to the floor, panting. "You're welcome," she said.
Terrah breathed heavy as well. "Thanks."
The hound pounded on the door from outside, an indomitable hunter determined to capture its cornered prey.
Terrah switched off her head lamp. "Best shut your lamp off. Save the power cells," Terrah advised. "We may be here a while."
Videsse nodded and switched off her lamp. They were swallowed up into darkness. The death knell of the hound's pounding resounded through the room.