"Varrik?" Rika went to grasp his vistor's arm but gagged and leaned back as the youngblood breathed in his face "How much have you consumed?"
"Not enough," Varrik said thickly, "But I… I must sssspeak with you."
The other hesitated in the doorway for a moment, but the younger male's slurred speech, unfocused eyes and unsteady stance – together with the fug of alcohol – betrayed his state of extreme intoxication, persuading Rika he had better let him come in, rather than allowing him to range around the ship alone. He stood aside and Varrik almost fell into the room, managing to pull himself upright to sit at the table.
"Make yourself at ease." The older yautja frowned, even while he suppressed his laughter.
Having become aware of Varrik's existence during the battle on board the Void Cutter, Rika had not really got to know him until after getting back from Hirai. He had been the only one of the Rough Skull's attack-force to do so. Khurshad's casual malice had brought him down but he had managed to avoid being consumed by the shapeshifter. In the chaos that followed, he had used his superior camouflage unit to hijack a Bad Blood ship, after first detaching the bomb attached to the hull. Nar'Jat had made him a captain for his part in the destruction of the Bad Blood camp and that brought with it a certain status. His small stature meant he would never achieve the highest levels of the social strata, but Rika had never craved greatness. He was happy enough to have respect and position.
After his return from Hirai, the juvenile Varrik had sought him out. Rika believed he had been drawn by his well-known friendship with S'Kia. He had already known of the younger male's part in the battle onboard the Cutter, but now that he was blooded, his size and his abilities in combat had both outstripped Rika's own. His fighting style at times resembled that of S'Kia, and he sometimes wondered if the other was consciously modelling himself after his dead friend. Rika liked him. Furthermore, he suspected the day was coming when Varrik would be promoted higher even than his current rank. Then, his allegiance would indeed be useful.
Currently, he was sitting at Rika's table groaning with his head in his hands.
"What troubles you, Varrik?" He said, "You are not normally such a pathetic drunk."
"I have done something. Something terrible…"
Now Rika did laugh, clicking his jaws together "And what can you know of terrible deeds – being so lately an adolescent?"
Varrik ignored the jibe, "I am… treacherous slime… I have gone back on a blood debt. I shall not be forgiven..."
"Forgiven by whom?"
"I am vile… a betrayer…"
Rika shifted uncomfortably, disturbed by this outpouring of feeling, "Get yourself under control!" He snapped, "What is the cause of all this shameful snivelling?"
"He will haunt me… and she will blight me with her dark magic. My sword arm has already begun to fail me."
"That is because you are inebriated!" Rika snarled, "Now, stop your whimpering and tell me; whom have you betrayed?"
"S'Kia!" Varrik howled, "My life was in his keeping and that of the ooman witch… and what did I do? I served them with treachery! Now, his vengeful goddess will devour my soul, just as she does to all oath-breakers and those who do not honour the debt of blood – "
"S'Kia?" Rika stared at him, "S'Kia is dead."
"No!" Varrik uncapped one of the flasks and took a long gulp, spilling some of the liquid, "He lives! His ooman Sorceress lives! But not for much longer – "
Rika put his hands on the young blood's shoulders. He was starting to have serious doubts about his friend's sanity, "Varrik, you are speaking of those who are gone; turned to dust and ashes. S'Kia has been dead for twelve solar cycles or more, Lex with him. They were both vaporised – blown to atoms on Hirai. I mourned them, but they no longer walk in this world."
His visitor appeared not to hear him, "I took their offspring."
"Whose offspring?"
"The offspring S'Kia got on the ooman Sain'Ja."
"You are… confused." Rika's jaws curled up on themselves and his brows lowered, "S'Kia and Lexsss had no shared offspring. It is true she was pregnant… but not by him. What you are suggesting is not possible."
"I have seen them!" Varrik lurched to his feet, knocking over the flask and spilling it on the floor, filling the room with the reek of alcohol, "I have seen their children myself! Two sons, identical in appearance; a mixture of S'Kia and the witch… and I captured them." He threw himself down in his seat and sank his head in his hands again.
"You talk nonsense."
Barely lifting his head off the table, Varrik flipped open his wrist-com and swiped a control. The screen on Rika's wall lit up.
"Mom? I don't know if you can hear me. If you can... that means my message got through..."
Rika was rooted to the spot, "What is this?" He said, hoarsely.
"It is one of them, S'Kia's spawn by the witch."
"We have been hunting... something called the Avissa – "
A shiver ran up Rika's spine, his gaze staying riveted on the screen. 'The eyes, the brows, the markings, the mouth, the colour of his skin… he really does resemble both of them…'
He shook his head "Where did this message come from?"
"We intercepted the communique on the outer arm, by chance. I showed it to the Council without knowing what it was… but I should have guessed…"
"S'Kia brought us to this planet, to teach us to hunt but … um…. I don't know the name of it."
Rika was still staring at the screen "But the Council knew?"
"Nar'Jat guessed all… his cunning knows no bounds! And he used it to find and capture S'Kia and Lexsss and their offspring… and I helped him to do it," Rough Skulls do not weep, but at this moment, Varrik's voice was near breaking, "It was I who captured their sons and brought them here for Nar'Jat, and now… now he will kill them!"
He was cut off as Rika's talons closed round his throat, the older hunter yanking him upright so he could stare into Varrik's bleary, golden eyes.
"Tell me," He growled, "Where are these… children now?"
The hard meat around them squealed and fled and both Lex and Scar looked up as the ceiling began to descend, the labyrinth shifting once again.
"Go!" She screamed, and they took off down the corridor, sprinting after the kainde amedhe as the roof sank inexorably down towards them. All she could see at the end of the tunnel was darkness; all she could hear, the terrible groaning of stones grating over each other.
She pushed herself to run faster, knowing that in a few moments, the space would be too low to run. Scar overtook her and she was jolted forward as he seized her, pulling her along with him. His claws bit into her skin, the pain washed away in the flood of adrenalin. They skidded to a halt at the lip of a sheer drop, so deep that she could not see the bottom, a shower of dust raining down into the impenetrable night. Quickly, they began to climb down, only getting a foot or so before the ceiling slammed shut above their heads with a noise that shook the walls.
When the shaking stopped, they continued down without a word, finding whatever handholds they could on the dark, slick rocks. S'Kia scaled like a lizard – the yautja climbing ability surpassed only by that of the kainde amedhe. Lex forced her fingers into the almost non-existent spaces between the slabs, breathing steadily until they came to a point where the wall shelved away underneath them, leaving only darkness and a drop.
"I see running water… under us," He rumbled "A large river, perhaps."
"I can hear it," She looked down: nothing but blackness, "But the hard meat must have come this way."
"Certainly," He looked up, "Where else is there for them to go? Or for us?"
"Then… they could be in the water."
"Then, we kill them!" He looked across at her, "There is no other way out, but down."
She took a long breath, "So, we jump?"
"We jump." He reached out with one hand and seized her arm, "Stay close to me."
He launched himself off the wall. She thought about the children, as she let go.
Selim regained consciousness and tried to open his eyes, only to find that his lids were glued together. A red, stabbing agony radiated through his skull. He screwed his eyes up tight again and lay, fists clenched, waiting for the pain to subside. Images floated into his mind of Mei'Savir and Mei'Varsi on their knees in the middle of a ring of enemies, and the Chameleon's cockpit doors sliding treacherously open to admit the two Rough Skull intruders…
Selim groaned inwardly: he recalled the fight on board the Chameleon… but could not remember how it had ended.
A terrible suspicion crept over him, and he became still, forcing his sticky eyes open just a fraction. He did not recognise his surroundings at all. Prising apart his lids he looked around; he was in some kind of cavernous metal room, much bigger than anything that could be contained onboard the Chameleon. A quick glance from side to side told him that no enemies were nearby and he sat up, ignoring the throbbing in his head. The place was dimly lit, but Selim's yautja eyes could easily penetrate this darkness. Hanging on racks along the shadowy walls, was a lot of very strange and sinister looking equipment, none of which he could tell the purpose of.
He put out one hand and began to rise, but as he did so both hands met an invisible barrier and he sat back on his haunches.
"I am in some kind of tank, made of glass. Or, perhaps, something stronger? But why? And where am I?"
Fully alert now he began to crawl forward, wanting to explore the confines of his prison, turned and almost fell over Isaac. His brother was lying on his back, eyes shut, unmoving.
"Ize?" Selim hissed, shaking him, "Isaac? Wake up!"
His twin gave a sigh. His eyes blinked slowly a few times and then slammed open.
"Sel!" He whispered "Where the hell are we?"
Selim shook his head "Those two Rough Skulls took us down, so we must be on their ship."
"Prisoners of the Rough Skulls?" Isaac thought for a minute, "But S'Kia said they would exterminate us!"
"Look around you. That is by no means out of the question." Selim reached out a hand to tap the side of the tank with his talons.
Isaac's face went pale, "What do they mean by putting us in a specimen case, like rats? And what is all this lab junk?" Having lived the first four years of his life at the Weyland research facility, Isaac was no stranger to laboratories, but even he did not recognise most of the implements hanging on the walls.
"I do not know," Selim said darkly, "But I doubt any of it is for our benefit."
"So, what do we do?"
"We must assume they plan to kill us."
"No shit," Isaac looked around, "They obviously don't think we're going to be much trouble, otherwise they'd have put us in separate tanks or… restrained us ... or something."
Selim nodded thoughtfully, "That may be to our advantage. Mei'Varsi says that when people see you as weak, they think you are no threat. Then, they are careless. It may be the only advantage we have."
"That and being together." Isaac grabbed his twin's hand briefly, "Half human, half yautja – "
" – all badass." Selim returned his brother's grip, then both of them froze as they heard the door at the far end of the room slid open.
Immediately, he lay down again and shut his eyes and Isaac imitated him, both of them lying more or less as they had done when they were unconscious.
Footsteps coming closer, approaching until they were standing right next to the specimen tank. Selim hardly dared even to breathe as he sensed the movement in the air, the top of the case sliding open.
Lex held her breath, crashing into the oil-black water. Kicking her legs, she burst through the surface, Scar doing the same next to her. She tried to hold onto him but the current was strong and swift, tearing her arm from his grasp. Threshing her legs, gasping for air, her flailing hand caught his fingers. He grabbed her wrist and dragged her towards him, wrapping an arm round her and using the other to keep himself afloat.
They clung onto each other, the water sweeping them along at great speed. The last thing she wanted was to be separated, carried off down different tunnels,
'Then, I'd have to navigate this labyrinth alone – and who knows where this river's going?'
Looking up, she saw shapes moving in the darkness overhead; the hard meat were running along the ceiling of the tunnel.
"They're above us!"
He looked up, cursing in his own language.
"I still have the gun!" She gasped.
He lashed his free arm harder to take them out from under the hard meat, "It will rain acid onto us!"
Ignoring him, she raised the barrel and fired, deliberately aiming wide. She missed the hard meat completely but it had the desired effect. As the plasma lit up the darkness, they squealed and scuttled across the other side of the tunnel.
"Why don't they jump in after us?" She yelled, over the rushing of the river, thrusting the gun back in its holster to stop it being dragged from her grip.
"That is what concerns me!" He bellowed back at her, before the current dragged them both under again, pummelling and battering them as they were forced through a series of rapids. Lex fought to hold onto him, fought for every mouthful of breath.
Every time she battled her way up to the air, they were pushed back under, the white, roaring strength of the river too much for either of them to fight.
Finally, she came up and he resurfaced next to her, coughing water as she gulped in oxygen.
"The river is heating up," He snarled, "I smell acid."
"Shit!"
"Make for the side of the tunnel."
She tried to swim without letting go of him as she felt him do the same, beating at the water with one arm and lashing his legs as he strove to pull them both closer to the cave wall. As they came within reach, he threw out his hand, talons scraping across the rock as he fought to gain purchase, finally managing to grasp a ledge that jutted from the wall. She thrust out a hand too, gripping the wet stone, the current sucking at them both.
Something touched her leg, lightly. For a second, she thought it was just him brushing against her… but then the soft, questing touch on her calf became more insistent. A chill stole over her.
"Scar," She said urgently, "There's something – "
The sinuous thing wrapped tight around her knee and she was jerked violently underwater, her nails torn from her skin where they had been gripping the stone. Something like a hard band of muscle was now locked around her leg and she held her breath, lungs on fire, fighting not to scream and drown herself as it dragged her downwards. In desperate fear of her life, she unsheathed the dah'kte and slashed at it, praying that it was something different to the hard meat, whose touch never felt soft. She felt a flurry of warmth in the water, and the pressure on her knee was released but even as she was freed, Scar grabbed her arm and hauled her upwards.
"There's something down there!" She choked, in between gulps of air "Not the hard meat!"
He didn't waste time asking questions but thrust her towards the wall and drew his knife. Then abruptly he disappeared, yanked under, just as she had been.
"Scar!" She stared at the water and thrust out her hand, grabbing at the spot where he had been, "No!" Still gripping the ledge, she ducked her head beneath the surface, trying to see, all but blind in the pitch-darkness.
As she came up for air, he erupted from the water gasping for breath and seized her arm again. Dragging her away from the ledge, he struck out into the centre of the river, swimming with the current that pulled them away.
"Whatever hunts us – it is large and angry!" He snarled, "We must find some way of getting out of… the water."
She didn't answer but swam harder, expecting every second to feel the questing limbs wind round her legs.
Then, she gasped "Look!"
Up ahead of them, the river disappeared round a bend in the tunnel, made visible in the darkness by a strange glow. It was faint and ghostly at first, but becoming brighter by the moment, greenish and unearthly.
"And the water is still getting… hotter."
He was right, the river was getting uncomfortably warm. As they were swept round the curve of the tunnel, he threw out a hand and caught hold of a rocky outcrop, still holding onto her with one arm. She turned in his grasp … and saw the river widen out into a huge cave, the walls stretching upwards like a vaulted ceiling. The greenish light was intense here, the cavern walls covered in something luminous, she guessed maybe some sort of fungus or mould that glowed in the dark.
Looking further ahead she could see why the river was getting faster, as it poured down a shallow fall to a lower level that bubbled and smoked. Whatever was causing the illumination seemed to be making the water glow too and there was the smell of something corrosive in the air. Casting around desperately for a way of escape, she noticed a narrow bank of rock on the left-hand side of the cavern, "But if we try to reach it, we'll be pulled over the waterfall and I don't like the look of the water down there…"
"Scar!" She slapped him on the shoulder.
"I see it!"
"We can't get swept over the falls, the water down there – "
He tensed, "Just hold onto me and… keep the gun ready."
Drawing the cannon, she threw her arms around his neck just as a vast, pale shape broke the surface a few feet away, long tentacle-like limbs thrashing up great sprays of phosphorescence into the air. Her stomach lurched as the stink of it hit her, a rotten, piscine stench, strong enough to drown out even the acrid stink of caustic liquid.
Holding her breath, she aimed the cannon straight at the threshing mass, blasting it with glowing plasma. There was a high, thin squealing, whether from burning matter or from the creature's throat she couldn't tell. Scar thrust himself away from the rock, launching himself across the cavern with her still clinging to his neck. He plunged through the water, arms straining against the power of the current that wanted to tow them over the falls and into the seething pool. She held onto him, the gun in one hand, trying to keep her head above water. There was splashing and more piercing squeals from behind them and she glanced over her shoulder to see the pale shape charging them, a tide of glowing foam in its wake.
At that moment, Scar reached the other side of the cavern and grabbed the high bank with one hand. Pulling her arms from around his neck, he threw her out of the water, tossing her upwards onto the stone shelf where she landed heavily. Rolling upright, she levelled the plasma gun at the pallid shape closing on him, shooting at the parts that reared above the surface, shiny with wetness. Again and again she fired, carving glowing wounds in the creature's bloated body, gobs of its burning flesh dropping in the water.
The creature gave a deafening scream, its head rearing up out of the water. Its bulbous eyes were white and blind, like a cave dwelling fish; its huge and horrible mouth, a gaping hole of putrid tissue. It lashed mangled stumps in the water, spraying viscous, black blood, and wrapped two of its remaining appendages around Scar's legs as it strove to pull him into its waiting maw. He held on to the bank with both hands, arms pulled taut, shoulder muscles straining.
"Get off him, you slimy freak!" She aimed the plasma cannon straight at one of blank eyes and fired, the white orb exploding in a shower of gelatinous fragments.
The bloated creature squealed in pain and fury, dropping Scar to send its quivering feelers toward her. He turned and slashed at it with the knife, severing another one of the thrashing limbs so that it smashed down into the water.
She fired again, driving the creature backwards, holding off the horrible, lashing appendages as he hauled himself quickly out of the water. Spinning round, he hacked off the end of another limb that came too close, unleashing a thick spurt of inky blood. At this, the creature gave a final ear-rending squeal and dived down under the water, disappearing in the direction of the falls. The pallid shape splashed into the glowing, steaming pool and then it dived down again, swallowed up without a trace as the murky depths rolled over it. They both stared after it for a few moments, weapons upraised.
"Why don't we ever meet any friendly lifeforms?" She holstered the plasma cannon, "Why is it always blood-sucking slime-beasts that smell like bad seafood?"
He shrugged "To remind us that we are still… alive?"
She put a hand on her hip and gave him a look.
He grinned, "In any case, it discouraged the hard meat… from following us into the water. Or perhaps they did not… care to swim through the rapids…"
"Oh, I'll bet they're still around here someplace. And what the hell is that stuff?" She waved a hand at the water that bubbled and steamed at the bottom of the waterfall.
"Geo-thermal springs, most likely… from under the crust of the planet. I imagine the glowing fungus … or algae … thrives on the heat and… the minerals."
"But it smells terrible, like it would burn – "
"Yesss. Who knows what nasssty… chemicals dwell beneath this planet's surface?"
"I think that thing went down there," She wrinkled her nose.
"If it is a native of this planet… perhaps it is immune to the chemicals in the environment." He looked at their surroundings, "This does not… look like part of… the Pyramid, we must be… underneath it. We should… make our way back towards the upper levels. I see a tunnel… on the far side of this ledge. Let us leave before that thing comes back."
"Back towards the hard meat, you mean?" She sighed, as they began to edge their way along, "If we get out of here, I am going to kill your Mother."
"When we get out of here… you must await your turn… after me."
Happy Friday, thanks for the views and the reviews! If you're enjoying the story, please give it a follow/ fave/ review.
LovyDovy7: Everybody is in deep trouble, but the boys are still alive and undissected - for now. Couldn't resist bring Rika back, though. I enjoy writing him.
Kassandra: I'm so pleased you like Deviation enough to reread, it's a big compliment :) You're not weird at all, I've tried to write Scar as, if not romantic, then quite emotional. He's probably more so than Lex (though he fools himself he isn't).
Nubian Queen: Yeah, the Avissa do to their prey the same thing spiders do, which is pretty horrifying when you think about it. Glad you love the series!