AUTHOR'S NOTE: See author's notes at the end.

xXx

That people were getting ill was 'unfortunate', but the demand for carbauxite was high enough that it was considered a secondary concern. Craxan Prime was currently the largest producer of planetary carbauxite known; most was mined from asteroids in asteroid fields by machines. The discovery of a huge carbauxite deposit- it was massive, not just a vein- the size of an Earth continent was enough incentive for Weyland-Yutani to ignore the bug threat, though they knew best the risks involved.

They hadn't counted on the viral infections that mine workers developed; in the presence of the natural and normally benign viruses humans had introduced to Craxan Prime, carbauxite fragments in the air presented an especially wicked threat. No longer merely the bringer of miner's lung, the carbauxite interacted with the human-originated Craxan viruses and produced neurotoxins on a vast scale. Mine workers began dropping like flies, each showing the same symptoms, each developing what the medical profession called pseudocoma. They became prisoners of their own minds, unable to communicate with the outside world while the viruses created spine and brain lesions that removed their ability to speak, swallow and move on their own. It eventually invaded the cerebellum, the seat of the most basic life functions. Once this final phase of the illness had begun, death was swift.

Weyland-Yutani's stock was devastated by the discovery of these workers, but as the disease was not communicable, they continually seduced new workers to Craxan Prime to mine the carbauxite for its precious titanium and aluminum. Earth's commercially viable deposits had been exhausted years before, and it was essential for the space industry as well as many others that new sources be found. They offered two-year contracts with an enormous bonus payable on completion. Of course, few ever collected those bonuses, and fewer still were well enough to put the money to work on their dreams. The risks were accepted by miners and their families, though many snake-oil salesmen used their fears to sell used military gas masks to the miners.

Those families which did not have miners in them associated with entirely different groups of people- the miners and their families formed a tightly knit community and helped each other when the "Craxan flu" began to take its toll.

xXx

"How is Jake?" The question was one that Anise Latham fielded often, and the answer was always the same: "He's doing fine, thank you." The inquisitive person this time was Mrs. Parrinder, the wife of the man who ran the commissary. She asked every time Anise came into town, and every time, Anise answered the same way. She tried to be patient with the older woman's constant inquiries, but it was well known that those who got the Craxan flu went downhill fast. Besides, the skylanders always pretended to be interested in miner affairs. Mae Parrinder had a son who was a miner, but they didn't talk or get together for holidays. There was an unavoidable rift in relations between the non-miner skylanders and the miners and it even cut families apart.

Anise smiled warmly at Mae. "We're doing our best to keep things positive." She collected her groceries and Jake's prescriptions from the counter and carried them out into the glaring sunlight. The heat of the Craxan sun was nothing like Sol; the atmosphere of Craxan Prime was thinner than Earth's, but it was further from its star. The resulting sunlight had a cold burn to it- though it was only twenty-two degrees Centigrade, Anise could feel her face warming from the UV. She pushed her chin-length dark hair behind one ear, sliding on the dark glasses that protected her eyes. She needed to get home as soon as possible; she didn't like leaving Jake alone for too long. She climbed into the field skiff and turned it on. The car hummed to life and lifted off the dusty concrete outside the commissary. She was turning it around, when someone shouted to her.

"ANISE!" It was Lucas Parrinder, Mae's skylander son. He ran toward the skiff, holding his arm up against the small wind the craft generated. "Mom said you needed help with your hydroponics rig out at the house," he yelled over the noise. Anise nodded slowly. "I'll comm you about it later! I have to get home to Jake!" She accelerated the skiff out toward the open prairies before he could reply. Lucas had been very attentive since last year. Anise looked down at her left hand, knowing her ring was still there under her driving gloves, though Scott had died months ago.

The majority of Craxan prairies were full of a hardy type of razorgrass that had thick blades fortified against the brutal sun. It had a tendency to cut open exposed skin at the slightest touch, so full bodysuits were usually required for any kind of trip between the compounds. Anise reached down and thumbed up the altitude on the skiff, lifting the craft above the grass and into the cool western breeze. She leaned back in her chair, letting one hand guide the skiff in an easy cruise. It had been a long night and she had made groceries this morning with barely an hour of sleep. The hydroponics rig was indeed acting up, but she was sure that Harvey would be able to look at it. Lucas was a nice guy, but he was a skylander; he just couldn't understand.

The hatch that lead to her underground compound was a dusty, filthy expanse of metal on the lee side of a small barren rise in the razorweed prairies. The rise was crowned with a small communications tower; Anise squinted up against the sun and saw that the power light was still on its slow fading cycle. She hurried over to the hatch and opened the control box, punching in her code. The double doors creaked open uncertainly and Anise used the remote unit to guide the car into the compound.

"Welcome home, Ms. Latham." Anise smiled at the familiar voice. Harvey was her synthetic assistant for Jake, the last gift from Scott's death and injury compensation.

"Good to be home, Harvey." She jerked her head toward the garage. "If you would, please?"

Harvey smiled, that strange smile that seemed so forced on synthetics. "Of course."

Anise sighed and began moving toward the residential half of the compound. The hydroponics rig was in the other direction, but it could wait; she had to see Jake first.

He was in much the same condition as she'd left him. He always is, she reminded herself, feeling the sting of regret and sadness that it was always so. Her brother and Scott had worked alongside each other in the mines, each of them carrying the carbauxite ore in their powerloaders. Scott still kept watch over Jake from a picture frame near the bedside. Jake was sitting up in his chair, and Anise moved so that she was in front of his open eyes. "Hey there, big guy. How you doin'?"

There was, of course, no response. Jake's expression remained blank, his lips slightly slack and to one side. She leaned over and checked his waste bags. It looked like Harvey had just changed them; the bags were empty and the smell of excrement was absent. She silently blessed him for it, and patted Jake's hand, once thick and rough from work, now shrunken and chilled. She shook off the melancholy that began creeping over her at the thought of the inevitable.

"Got something from Weyland today. Want me to read it?" Jake blinked once. She stood, pulling out a small white envelope from her bodysuit's inside pocket. "Yeah, they're still printing these things on paper, can you believe it?" She opened the envelope and read from the letter,"Your disability claim is now being processed by our human resources department. You may be contacted to give a statement to our personnel. Please submit any and all medical bills, testimonials from medical professionals and members of the community." Anise's voice was matter-of-fact; the vagueness of the letter left much to the imagination, but it was identical to the letters that other miner families had received. Their claim was out of limbo and someone was actually going to help.

xXx

Two hundred miles to the north, a little over 2 hours by skiff, lay the mines. The entrance was a yawning black rent in the side of a mountain, and all the machinery was covered with carbauxite dust. Men wore masks; women did not work in the mines. Massive earthmovers collected the raw ore and dumped it onto a conveyor belt that hummed as it ferried the ore away to the ore refineries. They pushed deeper and deeper below the surface, gutting the ground with explosives and powerloaders. In their zeal for the metals contained in the ore, they were straying from the blasting plan, moving closer and closer to a subterranean Hell.

In the darkness, earth exploded, and nearby, something stirred.

xXx

Anise sighed, rubbing away the sweat on her forehead with her wrist. The hydroponics rig was indeed proving difficult to work with. The machine which dispensed nutrients was dispensing too much, burning the root systems of the water-growing plants. She leaned forward, looking at the pipe system and then at the timer apparatus, as if looking closer would reveal exactly what was wrong. The only explanation she could find was that the timer apparatus itself was busted. She shut off the pumping systems and disconnected the timer. With a screwdriver, she pried the lid off and looked inside. The valve cover seemed to seal okay, and the clock itself was still ticking, which meant the crystal motion was intact. She turned it around and over- and there was the problem. The small set of levers and gears which interfaced between the clock and the valve was missing a few teeth; it meant that the lever would be clicked open, but the next set of teeth to close it would come four hours later, after the nutrient supply was depleted and the plants had chemical burns. Anise sighed and stood, stretching her aching muscles. New timer units were not cheap, that was certain. However much it was, the money had to be found. Without these plants, their ability to survive was cut in half. Hefting the unit in her hand, she began walking toward the residential area.

The long stone corridors were unfinished, baring the rock; this part of the continent had once lain under an ancient sea, which left thick layers of limestone as their legacy. The sandstone layers that intertongued with the limestone held water, and the aquifers often wept into the limestone. Anise dragged her hand against the wall as she walked, collecting the faint moisture. Limestone did have the added disadvantage that the water that passed through it so well also dissolved it. It wouldn't happen fast enough to make any difference to Anise, but every so often, she would find small bumps in the stone where minerals accumulated. The carbauxite didn't extend this far; it was part of an enormous volcanic eruption below the surface that had happened millions of years ago.

She rubbed the back of her neck with the wet hand, grimacing at the stiffness in her neck. Her watch said she'd been down there working on that damn thing for over four hours. She needed a hot shower to get the grime off her. She paused at the junction of corridors, looking toward the garage. After only a moment's hesitation, she turned toward the cooler air. She'd only spend a moment outside the hatch, where it was cold. Her footsteps echoed around the garage, and the grating noise the doors made seemed especially loud. She paused again at the comm system before pressing the call button. "Harvey? I'm stepping outside for a moment."

A delay, and then, "Are you sure that's wise, Ms. Latham?"

She smiled at the concern in the synthetic's voice, even though it was part of his programming. "Yes, Harvey. I'll be fine." She let go of the call button and then tapped it again. "Figured out what was wrong with our garden."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Timer's junk." Silence stretched over the comm, and she could almost hear the synthetic running his accounting routines. "That'll be expensive," he finally replied.

"Yeah. Can't help it much, though. Got Jake's letter from Weyland today, so hopefully we can put it on credit and pay it off when they come through. I'll be outside, Harvey."

The night was cold, around six or seven degrees Centigrade, but it snapped her out of her funk and cleared her thinking. Her breath made fog in the air and she chafed her arms against the chill. The stars were clear and so bright; the dust between galaxies was easily visible; the nearest surface town was hundreds of miles away. She walked out to the edge of the clearing, looking up at the single visible satellite. Yun and Relith, the other two moons were on the far side of the planet; they wouldn't return until the next winter. She dearly missed their twin presence and felt halfway sorry for Caaj, the single moon. In the next five years, Caaj was scheduled to rejoin Yun and Relith due to differences in their revolutions, but five years was so long. Anise smoothed her arms, remembering. Five years ago she had been a blushing bride. Five years ago, her life had seemed like it was on the way up. And now, she was stuck on a backwater planet, a widow with a terminally ill big brother. She half-blamed herself for Jake being caught up in this in the first place. If she hadn't pushed him to take the job, he wouldn't be out here, dying from some bizarre viral infection.

Before he'd lost the ability to speak, Jake had told her it wasn't her fault. "I knew the risks when I came out here, Annie," he said from his wheelchair. The pet name choked her; he hadn't called her that in years. "Scott told me to make sure you were taken care of no matter what." He reached out and caught her hand. "No matter what."

Anise stood with her hand clapped over her mouth, her nostrils flaring as she tried to keep her breathing from breaking down into sobs. Squeezing her eyes tight to clear away the tears, she looked up to Caaj, the cold wind stinging her cheek. The razorgrass caught in the wind and the hardened stalks clattered against each other. But there was a break in the clattering, an inconsistency. As the wind died out, she turned around the clearing, checking carefully. It was silly to think of anything being there. The large carnivores didn't come this far south and they were too far from other compounds. She stepped backwards toward the doors, looking around her again. The air in one spot seemed to shimmer, but as soon as she tried to focus on it, it disappeared. Again, in another spot, and when she tried for a clearer view, it was gone. She rubbed her eyes and then turned to go inside. She'd been messing with the rig for too long; she just needed some sleep.

The hot shower helped; her muscles stopped suppressing their pain and became bona fide aches. She walked in to see Jake. Harvey had already moved him to his bed; she blessed the robot again for his assistance. Her slight build would never have accommodated Jake's large frame. The synthetic was arranging the hoses and diodes that were attached to her brother and he looked up when she wandered into the room. "How were things on the surface, Ms. Latham?"

She looked from Jake to Harvey. "Things were good. Cold as ever, but refreshing." She paused. "Feels like things are about to change."

Harvey looked at her with that passive stare. "Change? How so?"

"Something about the wind tonight seemed different." She shrugged. "It's probably this business with Weyland. It means a better life for all of us." She took Jake's hand and patted it. "Even you, big guy." Jake blinked and closed his eyes when Anise kissed his cheek.

xXx

The next morning broke bleak and grey. The cold wind of change of the night before brought in heavy layers of clouds; they had already dusted the razorweed with a fine mist of water. The razorweed had extended its moisture-gathering buds from inside their hardened husks to drink in the rain. The rain made music when it hit the hollow hulls, and Anise found herself making up accompaniments to the natural percussion. The car hovered out of the garage, its weather canopy open, shielding Anise from the elements. Of course, once she got moving, even the windshield wasn't going to help much, but whatever protection she could get would be welcome. Harvey watched her go from the compound doors.

"I'll be back soon, Harvey!" she yelled over the whirr of the skiff.

"Take care, Ms. Latham," he called back.

"No, YOU take care!" She laughed and accelerated the skiff off toward the east over the sodden prairies.

She emerged several hours later from the commissary feeling satisfied with herself. Her timer hadn't cost her the arm and the leg she thought it would; Weyland-Yutani had brokered a deal with the manufacturer for the benefit of the colonists here on Craxan Prime. It was uncharacteristically kind of the Weyland board, but she wasn't arguing. The cardboard box under her arm hadn't even been put on credit. She had enough money left over to treat herself. It wasn't something that she did often. Their money situation had been so tight lately that she hadn't dared give herself anything resembling luxury. She cast her eyes around the impromptu plaza that had grown up around the commissary. The diner that was set up for the skylanders looked promising, and she decided to allow herself a small splurge, just this once.

The diner smelled strongly of food, cigarette smoke and cooking grease. Anise made her way to the bar and sat down. The waitress sidled over.

"What'll it be, miss?"

Anise smiled softly at her; she felt she was entirely too old to be called 'miss', but it boosted her ego that someone still used the term for her. "A lemon ice, please."

The waitress smiled as she moved off. "First one of the summer. Coming right up."

Anise looked down at her hands, unwilling to meet the eyes of the skylanders that watched her. There had been few miners in here; Anise had spotted one in the back, but he was doing his best not to be noticed while he wolfed down a sandwich; must be his day off.

"Anise?"

She jerked her head to look at the speaker and found Lucas Parrinder. "What are you doing here, Lucas?"

Lucas shrugged toward the miner in the back. "Had to drop off something to my brother."

Anise looked at the miner. That would be Tyler Parrinder, then. She hadn't ever met him personally, but he had been Scott's supervisor in the mines and Scott had always spoken highly of him. She felt a twinge of sadness that families split by mining met each other in diners.

"Can I get you anything?"

Anise blinked and looked back at Lucas, suddenly desperate to avoid his easy blue eyes. "Actually, no, I was just leaving..."

The waitress set down the lemon ice in front of her and Anise smiled weakly while glaring daggers at her. "Thank you." She reached into her pocket for her credit chit and Lucas did the same.

"Oh, no, I couldn't possibly, Lucas," she protested. Lucas had already waved his credit chit over the payment pad. She felt her shoulders fall as she heard the payment pad chime acceptance. "Thank you," she mumbled.

He smiled, his teeth gleaming whitely against his tanned skin. "I can afford a lemon ice for a beautiful woman." Anise felt herself flush to her roots and she reached for the small dish of lemon ice, lifting a spoonful and jamming it into her mouth so she wouldn't have to talk. Lucas inched closer to her and Anise felt her skin prickle even inside her full bodysuit.

"Look, I've been worried about you. So has Mom." His lowered voice took on a husky quality. Anise felt her heart speed up in spite of herself and she chanced a look at him. His eyes were filled with what looked like genuine concern, and she sighed. "Especially with all these disappearances lately."

Her ears perked. "Disappearances?"

Lucas nodded. "Men have been disappearing at the mines for the past two days. They clock in and they don't clock out. Kinda spooky, huh?"

Anise frowned. "Yeah. Spooky." The lemon ice was half-eaten, a softening mass of frozen sugar. She silently cursed herself for not staying in better touch with Jake's friends; then she would know that people had gone missing.

"Has anyone organized a search party or anything?"

"Where would they search? Come on, Anise, those mines stretch on for miles. If their locator chips aren't working, what can we do?"

"But-" She stopped, realizing he was right. "Have there been any disappearances in the sky- in town?" She corrected herself, although he seemed to ignore her slip.

"No, there haven't. They've got the militia armed and ready, though. Acid armor and everything." Anise felt her stomach turn. Acid armor only meant one thing: bugs. Lucas put his hand over hers, warming the chill off of it.

"Let me come out to your place and help you install that timer," he nodded to the box on the stool next to her, "and I can make you dinner. I promise I won't burn down your kitchen."

xXx

It had taken Lucas next to no time to gather her things together and carry them out to the skiff. Anise was fighting off what she recognized as "first date" tremors. She smiled nervously at him as she powered up the skiff. The rain had stopped, but the clearing sky was tinted with an early dusk. She pushed back the weather canopy while the skiff was idling, and then powered the skiff out toward the western prairies. Lucas sat next to her with an easiness she wished she felt. In all truthfulness, her stomach was in knots. She felt selfish for letting him buy the lemon ice, and guilty that she was actually beginning to want his company. No, she corrected herself. She felt guilty for wanting his company over Jake's. The companionship of a human, a real human that could talk and laugh, was something she had missed dearly.

She turned to look at him but something in the sky caught her attention. A cluster of meteors had entered the atmosphere; they were scattered far enough apart that each individual burning piece could be made out. Their trails of smoke and vapor widened after them as they fell toward the western horizon. Anise grunted. "Would you look at that."

Lucas looked up and then smiled. "Shooting stars," he answered.

Anise nodded, suddenly lost in thought. "You know," she began, "I thought they cleared out the system debris when they first got here. Weyland said something like it interfered with the mining ships."

Lucas grunted back. "I dunno. Maybe it's part of some space trash that fragmented?"

Anise nodded again. "Could be." After a moment of nothing but rushing wind in her ears, and the vapor trails continuing to fade, she nodded more firmly. "Yeah, that must be what it is."

Lucas looked out across the razorweed, a sea of grey green stalks now that their blue moisture buds had withdrawn. "How much further is it to your place?"

"About thirty minutes."

"Are you really okay all the way out here? Seems pretty isolated." Lucas' voice was colored with concern. Anise felt her insides warm and she couldn't suppress a small smile. "I have Harvey and Jake. They keep me company."

"I can't imagine their company is all that great. Harvey's an android and Jake's..." He trailed off, realizing what he was about to say. "Anise, I—"

"It's alright, Lucas. I know what you meant." She sighed, the sound lost in the wind. "To tell the truth, you hit the nail on the head. I have missed being part of a community, having the company of other women…" She gestured vaguely to include all the other thoughts left unspoken.

"So, why now?"

"Hmm?"

"What's so different about today that you didn't feel like you had to keep being alone?"

"I don't know. Felt like it was time for me to stop living in the past, I guess. Maybe I could find someone who wouldn't get the Craxan flu and they'd stick around long enough for me to make some memories." At first, the words seemed false to her, like something she'd said to get him off her back. But the more she replayed herself saying them in her head, the truer they seemed. She'd been reluctant to find anyone else, friend or lover, because the only lucrative job on this rock was mining, so most men were miners. It went without saying that if you were prepared to marry someone on Craxan Prime, you had better be prepared to watch them die before your eyes.

Although she had previously viewed skylanders with distaste, she was beginning to understand more and more the advantages of being one. It meant never cleaning gas masks for husbands and brothers. It meant not having to worry about how many thick layers of plastic you put between the mine and his lunch. It meant growing old together. And for Anise, it was starting to become a path she might travel down to get the hell off this killer planet.

xXx

The hatch slid open and Lucas winced at the sound of grit in the workings. Anise used the remote to guide it in and power it down. Lucas reached up to help her down and Anise took his hand. She didn't need the help out of the car—she climbed in and out of it by herself all the time. It was semblance of gentlemanly behavior that was often abandoned on worlds out beyond the Tiir Limit. Anise reveled in it. He carried the timer box and followed her toward the corridor. "I'd like to check on Jake first, if you don't mind?"

Lucas smiled. "No problem. I'll wait here?"

"Don't get started without me, okay?"

Lucas chuckled. "I won't."

Anise did her best to walk calmly down the stone halls, but as soon as she was in the residential wing, she all but flew to Jake's room.

"Harvey?" There was no response. She frowned for a moment and then turned to her brother.

"I got some help to fix the timer. Lucas Parrinder."

She paused, watching his eyes for any sign of communication, but they remained steady.

"I know you don't like skylanders, Jake, but… he's a nice guy." She watched him worriedly, her eyebrows knitting into an anxious knot.

"When we're done installing the timer, I'll bring him back here and you can meet him. He even said he'll cook dinner. How's that sound?"

Jake blinked once, and Anise smiled softly at him. Though it was a one-sided conversation, there was someone there who was speaking to her. She leaned forward with a napkin and wiped a little drool off his lips and chin.

"You're getting a little messy, big guy. Don't want you looking like you kissed a slug, do we?" She leaned forward and kissed his clammy forehead. "I'll be back in a bit."

She walked lightly back to the junction of corridors. Lucas smiled as she came around the bend.

"Ready to grow?"
She grinned. "You bet."

They started walking toward the agricultural wing and he stopped. "You do have tools to install this, right?"

Anise grabbed his shoulder, pulling him forward. "Yes, I do. How do you think I got the old one out of there?"

"Just checking. I wasn't sure if you were one of those gearhead types or not."
"Gearhead," she mumbled, "Not likely. Or else I would have fixed the old one and saved some money."

Lucas nodded sagely. "I guess that's true. How much further is it?"

"Just around the next two corners, first left, then right."

As they rounded the first, Anise stopped sharply. "Do you hear that?"

Lucas stopped a few feet away. "Hear what?"

He listened, and heard it—the whirring of a geared door closing, and a dull thud. Then the air release as the door slid open. After a few moments, it repeated; that grinding noise, the thick stop and the whoosh of pressure being relieved. Anise looked down the hall past Lucas, and then began quietly inching down the hall. As she got to the second corner, she could see halfway down the next hall, and she saw the light diffuse from the greenhouse door onto the wall opposite it. The light grew and shrank with the machinations of the door; Anise could see the door's shadow shudder as it thudded and its smooth track back when it opened. She opened her mouth to call Lucas and tell him to come here, but he was already behind her, peering around the corner. She swallowed hard and then stepped out into the other hallway, facing the door of the greenhouse.

The foot and shin that were caught in the door leaked white fluid as the door pounded on it. Anise covered her mouth with one hand and pressed the emergency open on the door with the other.

"Harvey?"

She stepped into the room around the leg, avoiding it like one avoids a viper. The supersaline solution that had once coded messages about Jake's condition formed a milky pool on the floor. There was another leg, this one torn off at the hip joint, the blue fabric of the pants ragged and stained dark with the synthetic's blood.

She heard Lucas behind her cursing and trying to pick up a table that had been upended. Anise began looking for the rest of Harvey, her muscles flooded with adrenaline. Resolute, she followed the white fluid; although there were smears and signs of a struggle, the amount of supersaline pooled on the floor was increasing. Something shifted in the corner under an overturned hydroponics tray.

"Harvey?"

A cursory inspection revealed the synthetic's single remaining arm, twitching as it was drained of electrolytes. She rushed over to him, pushing the tray off of him. Her cry brought Lucas across the room.

One side of Harvey's neck was missing; the pale tubules stuck out at odd angles from the digital flesh. Anise felt tears burning her eyes as she watched him. His eyes were rolled back into his head, showing their stainless metal backsides. The torso was similarly wounded, with one cavernous hole in the chest; what remained of the shirt hung in ribbons on the android's frame.

Harvey twitched again. "Harvey? Can you hear me?" Anise couldn't keep the fear or sorrow at bay, and when she called him again, her voice broke. "Harvey!"

The android was still, but a small emergency subroutine had not yet lost power, and responded by playing a pre-recorded audio file installed by Weyland-Yutani's military sciences branch.

"BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS BUGS …"

The room hummed with the horrifying litany. Anise stood, at last understanding the synthetic's last desperate act: an attempt to warn her. Her breathing quickened as it suddenly dawned on her that the bugs might still be here. "Lucas?" she breathed. "We've got to get out of here."

She turned to look at him; his mouth was drawn into a grim line. "I'll help you get Jake."

Anise nodded and began picking her way through the destruction back toward the door. She picked up a heavy pipe from the dismantled rig along the way; she wasn't sure she could use it, but it felt good to have it in her hand. The recording stopped suddenly as the battery power failed. The silence was deafening, and Anise paused to listen and see if anything had been moving and using the noise as cover. There was nothing.

She began to move toward the door again, although the prospect of leaving the brightly lit room for the shadowy stone corridors was beginning to make her whimper with every breath. Lucas came up behind her. "I'll go first." Anise nodded, clutching the pipe she had picked up and noticing Lucas had gotten one as well. He slid close to the door and leaned out, looking both ways. He looked at her and then began sliding out of the door, around the corner to the left. Anise followed close behind, keeping her hand on his back. They moved across the corridor, keeping their backs to the wall. He leaned out and looked around the next corner and then leaned back in, whispering urgently.

"I can see the garage lights from here. You go power up the skiff and I'll get Jake, okay?"

She closed her eyes briefly, took a deep breath, and nodded. "Okay."

He smiled at her. "You're gonna be okay." She looked up to answer and saw the movement in the darkness behind him.

He turned—he had seen her face change—to see the drone hovering behind him. It swayed gently side-to-side, moving its tail in lazy serpentine loops. Lucas drew in a shuddery breath. "Anise, run."

Anise had been paralyzed with her initial fear, but his words broke through and she began to sob, inching between him and the wall to get past him. The drone wrinkled back its upper lip, exposing silvery teeth and dropping ropes of saliva on the floor. The long head swiveled away from him to Anise's retreating form, and it hissed softly. Lucas muttered a small prayer and then swung his pipe in an upward arc, connecting with the bug's shoulder.

It screeched in agony, whirling on the human who hit it. Anise stopped at the screech, looking back down the darkened corridor. "Lucas!"

"RUN, DAMMIT!" He couldn't check to see if she listened. The knife-edge of the drone's tail stabbed at him again and again, first into his thigh, and then his shoulder, leaving Lucas hoarse from screaming and dizzy with pain. For all its efforts, the drone failed to strike a killing blow. There was no time for him to think twice. He braced the pipe against his one good arm and brought it hard against the translucent side of the alien's head. Acid sprayed from the rent in the bug's exoskeleton; it bit into the limestone and fizzed violently. The caustic blood splashed onto Lucas, opening bubbling pockets in his face and arms. Lucas could only scream once before the acid burned through his sternum and into his lungs; in the short space between that moment and death, any other attempts produced only wet gurgles.

Anise watched in disbelief, her tear-streaked face frozen in a gruesome sob. Lucas' last scream tore her open inside; although she knew she had to run, she couldn't leave him while he was still alive. But the sizzle of acid on flesh and the rising hiss of the wounded alien made her fear greater than her loyalty, and in spite of wanting to have saved Lucas, she knew there was nothing she could do. She gathered up her legs and ran, dropping the pipe. The loud clang echoed down the hall like a death knell and it spurred the drone to action.

Anise ran as fast as she could; the oxygen was like fire in her lungs. Her nose was blocked from crying and she groaned on every breath. She was near the junction; the door to the residential wing was only feet away, but surely the drone was even closer than that. She jerked off into the garage corridor, hearing the bug behind her scrabble for traction on the stone floors. Her small lead time evaporated in the straight hall. The bug was gaining on her, and she knew it.

She ran into the garage and tried to run and put a car between the alien and herself, but hit something and fell to the ground. She must not have cleared the edge of the car, and now look what was going to happen. The drone had resumed its nonchalant sway; the wound on the side of its head had stopped gushing. Acid dripping off its face formed smoking pits in the floor. Anise tried to catch her breath, sucking in air and sobbing as she exhaled.

"So this is it. This is it." She leveled reddened eyes on the bug, feeling hatred and bitterness cut through her fear.

"I wish I had a gun, just so I could deny you the satisfaction of killing me." Movement at the corner of her eye caught her attention—two other drones had arrived. Anise coughed a laugh.

"Great. We'll have a party." The two new arrivals advanced on their quarry.

The air glimmered in front of her eyes and she wiped the back of her wrist across her face. A soft series of clicks sounded, and then the unsheathing of metal. The wounded drone shrieked and dove for Anise. Something caught it in midair and tossed it three meters across the garage. Anise looked up to find the air shimmering, the light itself unraveling to expose a giant humanoid, some two and a half meters tall, with thick locks of hair and a wickedly curved set of blades on its arm. There was a sudden movement, and a clanking of bone and metal. The humanoid took the bug's attack easily, catching it on the armblades and gutting it like a fish. The corpse bubbled on the floor, sinking into a pit of its own making. The new alien sank into a half-crouch and roared, a sound like nothing Anise had ever heard in her life. There were monsters fighting on Craxan Prime and Anise could not help but think that no matter who won, she lost.

xXx

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I apologize for the lame pop culture reference at the end of this chapter, but if I hadn't ended it there, it could have gone on for a whole 'nother chapter.

Carbauxite is an entirely fictional mineral; bauxite, from which the name is derived, is mined for aluminum.

The miner's disease, "Craxan flu" is based loosely on a collection of Lou Gehrig's disease, Locked-In Syndrome and various effects caused by pollutants. It is speculation for the sake of fiction, and it is highly unlikely that a compound in the presence of viruses would do much of anything. It was simpler than cancer and served my purposes.

On Escthta not knowing human females: Dear Reader, I can understand your "WTF" at Escthta not knowing what a human female looks like. I rather meant to indicate that for a member of a species with a comparatively greater disparity between the sexes to observe humans, they would not observe much sexual dimorphism at all, certainly not to the degree in its own species. When you tell the difference between red and blue, it is not hard, but to tell the difference between magenta and cerise is very different because they are so much alike. This is why Escthta wonders how he will recognize them, since he believes they look so very much alike.

And thank you all again for reading and reviewing the story. I like to know that people take as much pleasure out of reading them as I take out of writing them.