Ann
The door slammed shut and the sound of the creature and people's screams drew her attention away from what Senton had done. Ann brushed off her confusion. She didn't need to waste time trying to understand Senton's behavior when there was a more pressing problem in front of her. Gathering herself, she flicked her fingers and activated a broadcast to her entire crew. "I need all available members to get to the Dormitory wing immediately," she said, her voice impressively calm. "We have a large creature killing people here." A chorus of understandings came through, though a couple begged permission to remain and help the wounded of other areas of attack. She allowed that, logging away the information. The entire Compound was under siege. She didn't know the full extent yet, but every time the Dentolura broke through an external wall, it triggered localized lockdowns. Some of the major arteries of the Compound were now clogged, cut off from the rest of the colony. Everyone was in a panic. Ann wished more than ever to take some Calm--or a stiff drink…anything to cut the tension--but she only had the one she'd snagged from her desk when she'd stopped by her office to-- The squat, broad creature that looked like an old-Earth alligator, except enormous and covered in spikes, let loose a terrifying hiss as it lunged for another victim. It was approximately ten dorm blocks away--far enough that Ann would have to run, and likely wouldn't arrive in time--so Ann did what came instinctively. She shot at it. The gun's projectile--a packet of condensed light--smashed against the lura's back, sending up a burst of steam, a shower of sparks, and an eruption of vibrant green blood that splattered against the wall. The person who was cowering in front of the creature's blood-dripped jaws looked up at her, surprise on his face. "Are you nuts?" he screamed. "Get out of the way, you idiot!" shouted Ann, leveling her gun. Taking a careful stance, with her feet directly beneath her shoulders, she let her aedee overlay her view of the distance, generating a target that let her know the greatest likelihood of where the packet would strike when she pulled the trigger. The would-be victim got up, scrambled toward a juncture, and threw himself out of the way as Ann squeezed the trigger. The lura, however, jerked to one side, letting the shot soar past it and explode in a flash of light and sparks at the far end of the hallway. Gritting her teeth, Ann silently commanded her aedee to patch into the localized public address system. "Everyone in the Dormitory wing, take shelter in the rooms or retreat to the second floor. Repeat, everyone must evacuate the dorms. Do not take any possessions with you; do not interact with the creature." She blinked away the comm-override and focused on another shot. This one struck the lura in the bow-legged right shoulder, blasting away a hearty chunk of meat and plenty of bone. Its hiss sounded enraged, and despite being unable to move its right leg, it began to gallop toward her. In the back of her mind, Ann was calculating the size and potential weight of a creature like that. She estimated that it clocked in at almost five metric tons. Her little hand blaster wasn't likely to do anything to that. She didn't stop firing anyway, carefully backing up as it got closer, pock-mark after bloody pock-mark erupting from its body as each super-charged packet smashed into it. Now it was ten meters away. Fire. Fire. Seven meters and closing. Fire. Fire. Five meters. Fire. Fire. Four meters. Its body tensed. Ann fired. Like an uncoiled spring, the lura leaped forward, its massive jaws splitting open vertically as well as horizontally. Sharp, conical teeth--layered with human blood and its alien saliva--glistened in the harsh emergency lights of the dorms. Ann fired a parting shot as she dived to her left. She flew an easy two and a half meters before landing on her side and rolling up into a shoot stance. The lura's head, complete with a crater where the back of its skull had been only a moment before, smashed against the door through which Senton had thrown her only a few minutes earlier. The stench of charred flesh and copper-coated sewage filled her nostrils and it took a concentrated effort not to gag. The body still twitched, and gaps in the creature's slimy skin, some as large as human mouths, opened and closed in spasmodic episodes for a full ten seconds after the rest of the body stopped convulsing. Ann approached cautiously, but it was clear the last shot had done the job, bursting through the Dentolura's head when it had unhinged its jaws. The shot, she was certain, would not have done anything otherwise. Her hands trembled as she tried to rein in the adrenaline that seared through her. She wanted to laugh and cry and she couldn't get her thoughts together. Maybe it she took a small hit--not a big one at all, not even half her normal dose--she could Calm down. The tiny pod was in her hand, pointed at her nose, when she realized what she was doing. Startled, she nearly dropped the drugs. Looking around to see if anyone was watching, she pocketed the Calm and turned to the door. It was destroyed. There was no way to get past it until they moved the lura, and that wasn't happening anytime soon. Ann drew in a steadying breath and commed her first lieutenant, Rander Jickson. She picked up immediately. "Yeah, boss?" "What's your status?" asked Ann, trying to steady herself still. "We evacuated the entire Cafeteria and Recreation wings. We're huddled up in the Hangar, awaiting further orders." "I need a sweep done." "Yes, sir." "I'm getting occasional reports about where everything is going wrong, but I need better intel." "What about the camera system?" "It's out. Drains too much power, I'd guess," she said. "Are there any engineers with you? Someone who could give us a status on the power situation?" "Um, I can check." "Do so. Then I want you to help that person--or persons--to get main power back online." "Okay." "Take one or two crew with you, then send the rest out to pick up stragglers or relieve points of attack. I'm entrusting this with you, Jickson." "Yes, sir." There was a pause, then she asked, "What are you doing, sir? Can I help you with that?" "No, I have to try to get out of the dorms." "What's wrong with the door?" "It's…" Ann glanced at the ruined creature that stuck out of the door like a monstrous doorstop. "It's out of order." "Understood." "I need to track down Senton Trapp. I think he's hiding something that could help us out." "I can't help there, sir. We're not allowed to track people's aedees that way." Ann gritted her teeth. "The Janus Protocol…" "What did you say, sir?" asked Rander. Shaking her head, Ann said, "Nothing. Give me an update as needed. I need to find this guy." "Good luck, sir." They disconnected and Ann turned around, startled to see a group of colonists gathering around the creature. They were all in different actions, but Ann recognized the most common ones: They were snapping memory photos, storing what they saw in their aedees for future retrieval. "Hey, you guys," said Ann, stepping toward them and raising one hand while resting the other on her holstered weapon. "We need you out, not gawking." "But…it's dead!" "And so are a lot of people," said Ann, casting a glance down the main hallway. Bloodstains dotted the floors, walls, and even the ceilings. "You all need to evacuate. Go back the way you came and get to the Hangar. That way, if needed, we can get you off Prospero." "Who are you?" asked one man, tall and beefy, wearing the telltale insignia of a miner on his lapel. "I'm the Chief of Security," said Ann, straightening up and glaring at the man. Despite the height difference of nearly a half meter, she had a better glare than anyone she knew. "You're leaving here. All of you. Now." Her tone had a blade's sharpness to every word. There was no arguing with the authority she exuded. A couple more people took mental snapshots and then turned around. "Move yourselves, people," said Ann, her stomach still flopping, as much from the fear of fighting down a charging lura as because she had more work to do. The crowd dispersed, albeit reluctantly. Ann didn't care. She had to figure out where Seton had gone to. Thinking back, she'd followed his gaze for the split second it took before he grabbed her and threw her into the path of a massive Dentolura. Had she been thinking clearly, she would have had her aedee recording what was happening, but the loss of Nolan and the residue of the different drugs had clouded her thinking. That caused a small squirt of frustration at herself, but she couldn't dwell on it. She'd have to face that demon another time. Instead, she rifled through her memories. What had she seen? Had it been the infant? Was it escaped again? That certainly would make sense. If Senton had lost the creature, he'd be frantic--desperate, even--to get it back. Desperate enough to throw her to the bigger specimens? She shrugged. It was possible. But why would he be heading northward? The only thing there was the… Life Support wing. If something happened in there--if one of the adults got into that area, searching for their infant--the entire Compound would be compromised. It wouldn't matter how quickly the Vanguard dispatched stargazers to help out. The entire colony would be dead in a matter of minutes. Recognizing the danger, Ann pulled up a display of the Compound and, tweaking the parameters of the path, told her aedee to guide her to the best path to the Life Support wing. She had an appointment with the good doctor that she didn't want to miss. |
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
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