Ann
Heavy darkness spread in front of her. Involuntarily, Ann gasped, more out of surprise than fear. Still, everything had been illuminated, everything clear. Then it had, as simply as an aedee gesture, turned off. The lights flickered back on, but in a low-level setting, the same yellowish-hue of the flashing lights during the lockdown. "Emergency power," said Nolan, who had stopped in the middle of the hallway when the lights deactivated and now stood, glued to the same spot. "Those are our emergency lights." Ann fingered another increase on her aedee pain-relievers--they weren't the same as actual chemicals, but it helped tamp down some of the most adverse side-effects of the headache--and said, "I'm aware of that. What I don't understand is how we could have lost power." "Did you feel the Compound shake?" asked Nolan, his face a sickly color in the lights. Sweat shone on his forehead and glistened on his lip. Ann felt a twinge of pity for the poor man: He'd come to Prospero recommended by one of Ann's friends on the Vanguard, but he had--quite unexpectedly--been diagnosed with colon cancer. The aedee spotted it pretty fast, but the process of stopping the growth had led to other problems. Now his aedee couldn't interact with his physiology, leaving it as a communication and personal computer, but little else. Additionally, he had suffered from some personality changes because of the treatments, and his abilities of organization, recall, and management had all dwindled as well. She didn't blame him for being scared--she was scared herself, though she manifested that through anger and commitment to seeing things resolved--but it was becoming a problem. "Yes, Nolan," she said in answer to his question. "I did. And then the lights went out. Now they're back on. We need to prep security for these creatures, so let's not hang about in the halls and instead--" A finger-length wide net of cracks grew out of the smooth glass to her left, accompanied with a loud bang as something collided with it. Embarrassingly, she flinched at the sound, recoiling from the darkness beyond. The terraglass was strong--palladium-infused glass would bend before it broke--and it also cut down on the glare between darkness outside and illumination within. This proved a useful feature in stargazers and spacestations, as it allowed the people within to still look out at the vastness of space without the reflections of themselves being as prominent as with other glasses. Plus it held the polarization that allowed some of the more brilliant aspects of cosmic phenomena to appear in a spectrum of colors more easily viewed by human eyes. These same features meant that the Compound could see out into the brave new world of Prospero while the humans inside were still protected. A dark shape charged at the glass again, smashing into it with a deafening crack. Ann stumbled back. Nolan fell over. Like most of the connecting hallways of the Compound, this area that connected the Laboratory wing to the main thoroughfares was built out of terraglass formed tubes. Metal joints at the entrances and exits of each hallway had been installed to allow any one section the ability to seal itself off in the highly unlikely chance of a breach in the glass. As Ann watched the shape, stumbling a bit from the second blow step back, only to make ready for a third charge, her eyes went wide. The net of cracks broadened under the third strike, one major break spreading up to the center of the tunnel. "Nolan!" she said, running in the direction they had been heading. The exit was still a good hundred meters away, but if the system worked the way it was supposed to… He looked up at her as she ran, a paralysis of panic spreading over his face. "Get up, man! Run!" The order helped pull him out of his own terror enough that he scrambled to his feet and began to chase after her, his cheeks puffing in and out and his arms pumping wildly. Ann, eight meters ahead of him, faced front and put on as much speed as she could muster. Her heart thudded dully in her ribs and her mind felt tight with pain and panic. Each breath rasped more than she cared to admit, and she berated herself for having neglected her exercise lately. There'd been so much work, so many reports to file, so many comms to receive that she had always found an excuse to avoid rather than an excuse to do. She regretted it now. Checking over her shoulder, she could see that Nolan was losing ground. Sweat poured off his face. Dark stains beneath his arms grew on his coveralls. The spot between his legs had a similar appearance. Without judging, it was clear the man had wet his pants. "Come on, Nolan! You can do it!" She should keep her breath to herself, save it for running. But he needed encouragement, he needed help. "Come on!" That seemed to give him confidence and he sped up. Not much, but enough that Ann thought they might make it. Facing forward, she could see the metal mouth that would close if the tunnel actually broke-- The sound of the terraglass shattering filled the tunnel and made Ann's headache flare worse than before. The shrieking sound of the Compound's atmosphere rushing through the hole nearly deafened her, and she could feel the air she desperately needed pulled almost from her lungs as it fled. The concussive force needed to break through the glass rippled down the hallway, and she heard Nolan stumble. In front of her, the emergency seals began to constrict. They moved slowly to allow people time to go through, but they moved steadily. Being on emergency power hadn't turned off this crucial system; Ann had no time to wait. The dilemma popped into her mind immediately: Turn and help Nolan or escape and save herself. It wasn't a hard decision, even if she felt it was the wrong one. She sprinted harder, now only ten meters away. The door contracted, the four sides of the doors pulling closed. There was a gap in the center--a steadily closing gap--that she aimed for. "Ann! Please!" The shriek was so pitiable, so sad that she almost--almost--stopped. But she couldn't. The hole continued to close. The strength in her legs diminished. Like sunlight draining from the twilight, her energy flagged. Nolan screamed. Only a couple of meters now. The door contracted. Ann was close enough. Nolan screamed, the pitch of it bending higher into a key of terror. Ann dived, headfirst, through the closing aperture. Her left knee banged into the door, sending a burst of pain through her entire leg. Landing on her side, she slid a meter or so before scrambling back to peer through the door's sealing hole. Bathed in yellow light, she could discern what looked like a larger version of the specimen Senton had coddled, except more vicious and pointed. What were protuberances and buds on the infant were full-fledged spikes and horns on the adult. A cranium of keratin-coated bone topped a heavily muscled head, with jaws that split open widely, as much down the middle as from the jaws. An array of eyes peered out from beneath the boney crest, each looking at Nolan. The haunches rippled beneath a slimy skin, and the spike-encrusted tail swung from side to side as it approached her friend. The Dentolura lunged forward. Nolan screamed. The door slammed shut. Ann leaned against it, gasping, trying to come to grips with what she'd witnessed. The creature had broken through the terraglass and attacked her crewmate. The Compound had suffered a localized quake. They were running on emergency power. Swallowing, Ann tried to calm her pounding heart. This was not what she had been expecting of her evening. Sucking in as many thorough breaths as she could, Ann fingered a voicecomm to Captain Rall. This was out of her jurisdiction; she needed guidance. Rall responded almost immediately. "Timpson! What's going on?" "I don't know, sir," she said, still having difficulty breathing. "We found the infant specimen, but now we're under attack." "I know that," said Rall, a sneer of frustration in his voice. "We've lost power throughout the entire Compound. We're running on backup batteries. The outer fences are toppled, and we have atmospheric breaches reported in sixteen different areas." "Sixteen!" Continuing without having heard his Chief of Security, Rall said, "We have reports of severe casualties as colonists are being attacked in the darkness, knocked out into the atmosphere of Prospero without appropriate gear, and injuries relating to inexperienced dumbasses who fired on each other instead of whatever it is that's invading." "It's the Dentolura, sir. They're attacking the station." "What? Why?" "We have their baby, sir!" There was a pause, then, "Then give it the hell back!" "Yes, sir!" "We're sending everyone to the Hangar. It's the most defensible area, and we can also evacuate once help comes." Ann tightened her jaw. "Yes, sir." "Get as many people there as possible." "Yes, sir." "And find that baby. Get it back to them!" "Yes, sir." "Oh, and Ann?" She cleared her throat and worked her way to her feet. "Yes--" The metal door behind her bent inward with a deafening shriek. Ann stumbled away from it as the metal trembled. Another dent appeared, close to the first one. It was about the size of the head of the lura she'd seen attack Nolan. "Sir, I'm going to have to call you back," she said, disconnecting the aedee with a flick of her hand. Then she told her augmented device to help block the pain from her leg. She wasn't done running. |
What is this?This is a NaNoWriMo project that publishes, day by day, the chapters I'm writing for 2017. If you're confused, go to Chapter 1 Ann and start there. ArchivesCategories
All
|