Ann
The lura's containment was fortuitous. Both the small and the large one that Korryn had brought with her were focused on attacking Korryn's corpse, so they didn't notice that they'd been sealed in when Ann had let go of the aedee pad, thus closing the door. Though she turned away, the image of Korryn's terrified face as the creatures tore into her would always haunt Ann's memories. Senton pounded on the glass of his own cell, his expression twisted into screams and fury. Ann took a deep breath, her body trembling still from the exertion of the fight with Korryn, then crossed the hallway to Senton's cell. Palming the speaker on, she listened to his accusations for a moment. "--killed her! Why didn't you open the door? What did she do to deserve that death? You monster! You heartless bi--" "Listen," said Ann, her voice sharp with frustration and exhaustion and too much adrenaline and digenetic hangovers and vestigial effects of the bad Calm hit and she frankly didn't have a lot of patience to deal with an overly-emotional doctor whom she held personally responsible for the entire mess she now had to clean up. Apparently, Senton caught most of that in the two syllables she spoke, because he shut his mouth, tears still dripping down his cheeks. "Listen," she said again, "I am sorry about her death. I'm not even certain why they attacked her and not me, but it is a tragedy. I'm sorry about it. But she killed my crewmembers and she was trying to get off planet with one--or more--of the Dentolura. I'm not saying that's deserving death," and she put up a hand to stave off Senton's excuse, which he looked anxious to share, "but I'm saying that she's not guiltless." Ann paused and glared at Senton. "This isn't right, by any stretch, but I'm pretty confident that I told you that having these things in the Compound was dangerous, that we had to get rid of them." "But--" She raised the hand again. He stopped. "You screwed up, Senton. In the worst possible way." Ann gestured at the bloody mess that had once been Korryn. "She didn't deserve that. And you have to carry on, knowing that's the case." He pursed his lips. "She didn't kill them, you know." "What?" "The guards." He gestured with his head, his entire countenance scribbled with furious glares. "She didn't kill them. She arrived only a moment or two before you did, hauling along the adult." Ann frowned. She had taken longer to get to the Brig than anticipated--only diverting when she realized that the Janus notification wasn't something she should ignore, sending her crewmembers on ahead to take care of the power restoration. Almost as if on cue, the lights all flickered, dropped out, and the normal lighting of the Compound returned. Her members hadn't failed her. Small consolation. "So who did it?" asked Ann, looking over at the corpses of her crewmembers. Pol and Rander, two men who had shown great promise. Pol's wife was expecting a child--the twenty-ninth planet-born colonist--in a couple of months. Rander had been a wonderful musician, using his talents during his off time to provide some entertainment and culture to the too-often dreary world of Prospero. Thinking of their lost potentials and the pain that their deaths would cause made her heart hurt. A desire to find the perpetrator and deliver unmitigated justice on the accused's head shivered through her. She tamped it down with a professional jerk, but the sentiment simmered nonetheless. "Was it the same one who killed Theodore?" Senton snorted. "I'm pretty sure that killed Theodore." He pointed at the infant. "The little prick." Ann didn't disagree. She faced Senton. "So who did it?" "You can't recognize family work?" Ann's vision dimmed at the edges; her head swam. "Charalee?" Senton pointed at the bloody handprint on the outside of his door. Ann looked at it, uncomprehendingly. "She did that." "No." Ann could hardly believe it. What had Charalee said in the Medical wing? "You may be the noble one, but I can care about others, too." Apparently not. "I don't know what she did, necessarily. I can't see them from here." Ann looked over her shoulder. "You probably don't want to." Senton shrugged. "She came to see me." "I thought you two hated each other." Another shrug. "For the most part. But she was interested in some of what I had." "What's that?" "Information." "Yeah, you're filled with that." Ann tried--and failed--to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. He snorted, looking down his nose at his captor. "I know that the lura attacked Korryn because of pheromones." Ann shook her head. "How can you possibly know that?" "I've had a lot of time to think since you threw me in here." "It's only been a couple of hours." "And what else was I going to do?" he asked. "You notice the holes on their skin?" "They look like mouths," said Ann, turning to face the mess that was Korryn's cell. The two had finished whatever feasting they were interested in. The small one followed in the pacing steps of the adult. They didn't look particularly similar, but Ann figured that, if that many creatures had come in for the baby, they weren't necessarily interested in close bloodlines. Even from here, she could see the holes on the side of the adult open and close. "They're vents. That's how they exude their pheromones. To us, it smells like coppery sewage. To them, it's a homing beacon. That's how they know where to go. Karl--the little one--sent out the pheromones into the atmosphere, letting the other lura where it was. They've been trying to meet up with it ever since." "And why did they attack Korryn?" Senton sighed. "I noticed polyps on her, stuck to her clothes. During your fight, some of them burst. Once those polyps popped, that's when the adult pushed through whatever sedation Korryn had given it." He shrugged. "I guess it's more of a hypothesis at this point, but it seems to explain the observations." Ann snorted. "Always a scientist." "I admit it." Ann frowned and moved away from the cell. She'd noticed something in the corner of the large lura's cage. Crouching, she peered inside. Glistening in the newly restored lights, a couple additional polyps--unbroken--stuck to the cage walls. Holding her breath, Ann peeled one of them free of the sticky goo in which it had been stored, then--taking care not to squish it--she brought it back to Senton. "This brings them, then?" He nodded. "I'd be careful with that. With the power on, the ventilation system is going to start pulling out all the stale air that's accumulated--secondary and tertiary priorities will be served." Senton licked his cracked lips. "There's a good chance that the creatures will become more attuned than before." Ann carefully placed the polyp in an empty Calm cannister she had in her pocket. "It's sticky." "Nature can be uncomfortable. That's how it solves its problems." "Nature…" said Ann. Senton's words reminded her of something, but she couldn't remember it now. It had been said so long ago--as the sunset, before this hellish night had broken open. Something about nature…no, it was gone. Focusing instead on the doctor, Ann said, "I'm leaving now. Once this is taken care of, you'll be freed." She gave a command to her aedee and palmed the information into his cell's terminal. "Now that the power's back, you'll be taken care of." Senton looked around. "Wait, you're leaving me?" "Yes." "You can't do this!" "You'll have food. You have a bed. You have safety. That's more than ninety-nine percent of the colony right now. I need to get to the Hangar as soon as possible." "Why, so you can take the Portal out?" Ann shook her head. "No, I'm staying on Prospero until we can get this cleaned up." Senton laughed. "You're so stupid, you know that?" "Is that supposed to make me want to let you out?" His laughter sharpened. "You think that Charalee is going to let you out? That you'll get to come along?" He gestured in the direction of Pol and Rander. "You think she's going to be stuck with those murders? Man, wake up. She's going to go through the Portal and then close it down, leaving us here. Cover up. It's what she does." Ann opened her mouth to rebut the arguments, but she couldn't get her words to work. Senton knew Charalee in a different way than Ann did. More than that, her sister had always had an ego--a selfishness that had shocked Ann on more than one occasion. Was she really interested in covering this up? They'd be able to communicate with the Vanguard now that power had been restored. Sunrise was less than an hour away. She didn't have a chance… "How well do you know your sister?" asked Senton, leaning with his good arm against the glass. "How many people do you think she's willing to sacrifice to save herself?" Ann's mouth went dry. There was something dark in Charalee, that much was true. But Charalee was family--Ann had to give her sister the benefit of the doubt. Didn't she? "She's headed to the Hangar, where the Portal is." Senton shrugged, turning his back. "I'd guess you have ten minutes before she's gone." Ann frowned, thinking. No, it didn't make sense for her to escape. That wouldn't be enough to cover her tracks. Ann still lived, plus there were thousands of potential witnesses to see her go through, then shut it off. The testimony against Charalee would be overwhelming-- Ann's eyes widened and her mouth slipped into a shocked O. "Dear lord," she whispered. "I think she's…" Senton perked up. "What? What is she?" Ann didn't dare say it aloud. Instead, she spun around, took two steps to the bloody cell, and palmed open the door. Firing her gun into the face of the rising adult lura, she knocked it back and out before it could mount a defense. With a smooth movement, she kicked the infant into the open container, which so stunned it that Ann was able to slap shut the cage's door before the infant could escape. Leaving the cell door open, Ann righted the cart and began sprinting to the nearest taxi pod. Her own pain and exhaustion didn't matter now. Pushing herself to sprint even harder, she slung herself and the cart around a corner, the tinny sound of Senton's shouts echoing behind her, unheeded. There wasn't time to stop and think. Action was required. She had to get to the Hangar before it was too late. |
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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