“Is your arm okay?” Kira asked.
He grimaced. *Yeah. Just can’t move it.*
Sparrow jetted over to Hwa-jung, the anguish on her face nearly equal to that of the machine boss. The smaller woman touched Hwa-jung on the shoulder, but she didn’t do anything to interfere with Vishal’s treatment.
*I’m fine,* Hwa-jung growled. *Don’t stop for me.*
Kira bit her lip as she watched. She felt so helpless. And she felt as if she’d failed. If only she’d used the Soft Blade better, she could have kept everyone safe.
In response to her unasked question, Falconi said, *There’s no going back. Not now. Only way out is through.*
Before she could reply, a Jelly popped up out of the disk-shaped hole in the deck. She nearly stabbed it before she scented the creature and realized it was Itari.
[[Itari here: Idealis?]]
[[Kira here: We’re coming.]]
A cloud of nearscent wafted toward her then, not from Itari, but from the now-open doors where the gleaming bone-white orbs had emerged. More Jellies incoming, and they most definitely weren’t happy.
“We gotta go,” said Kira. “Everyone into the drop tube. I’ll bring up the rear.”
Itari darted back through the hole in the deck, and then Falconi followed, and Jorrus and Veera and Sparrow too.
“Hurry it up, Doc!” Kira shouted.
Vishal didn’t reply, but closed up his medical case with practiced speed. Then he kicked himself over to the hole and pulled himself through. Hwa-jung did the same a second later, her blaster trailing behind her via its shoulder strap.
“About time,” Kira muttered.
She compressed the Soft Blade around her sides, discarded some of the extra material she’d picked up moving through the ship, and flew headfirst into the drop tube.
7.
Kill Ctein.
The thought pounded in Kira’s skull as she hurtled through the crimson shaft. She was moving fast, real fast—like the maglev on Orsted Station.
Transparent panels flashed past at regular intervals. Through them Kira glimpsed a series of rooms: one full of swaying greenery—a forest of seaweed with a backdrop of stars—one with a coil of metal wrapped around a flame, another humming with unidentifiable machinery, and still more filled with things and shapes she didn’t recognize.
She counted the decks as they went by.… Four. Five. Six. Seven. Now they were making real progress. Only four more until they reached the level where the great and mighty Ctein lay waiting.
Three more, and—
A detonation slammed Kira into the side of the tube. The curved surface gave way, and she found herself tumbling sideways, along with Itari and the crew, through a long, wide room lined with racks of metal pods.
8.
Crap, crap, crap.
Kira popped the canister of chalk and chaff she’d been carrying at her waist. A white cloud exploded around her and the crew, thinning as it expanded toward the walls. Hopefully it would protect them long enough for her to control the situation.
She had to act fast. Speed was the only way they were going to survive.
Sinking tendrils into the floor, Kira stopped herself with a painful jerk.
Through the chalk, she saw a lobster-like creature with a flared tail scuttling along the far wall, heading toward a small, dark opening less than a meter across.
Stop it.
At her thought, the Soft Blade shed much of its accumulated mass while launching her after the Jelly. Using the thinnest of threads, Kira pulled herself along the deck, arcing through the cloud.
The lobster twitched and attempted to dodge.
Too slow. She stabbed the Jelly with one of the xeno’s triangular blades, and she allowed the blade to bristle outward, impaling the alien as a shrike might impale its prey upon a tangle of brambles.
Kira scanned the room. All clear. Sparrow and Falconi had a few more scorch marks on their armor but appeared otherwise unscathed. They were holding position by the ruined drop tube along with the Entropists.
Coils of electricity arced from the twisted decking in front of the tube, blocking the way. Even as Kira watched, Hwa-jung scooted close and reached into the hellish, blue-white glare with a tool from her belt.
An instant later, the discharges vanished.
Then Kira saw Vishal floating near the back wall. The doctor was locked in a rigid, plank-like pose, arms stiff by his sides. His skinsuit had entered safety mode, freezing him in position for his own protection. The reason was obvious: a line of medifoam oozed from a burn across his chest.
Kira started toward him, intending to snag the doctor from the air and secure him with the Soft Blade. As she did, a skittering shadow in the corner of her vision seized her attention.
She twisted, pulse spiking.
A coiled, millipede-like creature raced across the upper deck, heading toward Jorrus, who had his back turned. Hundreds of black legs accordioned along the millipede’s segmented length. Pincers hung open before a mouth filled with a row of grasping mandibles that dripped with slime.
Kira and Veera both saw the millipede, but Jorrus didn’t. Veera shouted, and Jorrus looked at her, obviously not understanding.
Kira was already stabbing with the Soft Blade, but she was too far away.
The millipede jumped onto Jorrus. Its pincers closed around his head, and its legs snapped shut around his body. The Entropist managed a single strangled yelp before the razor-sharp pincers sliced through his skull and neck, separating his head from his body and releasing a spray of arterial blood.
9.
The millipede shoved Jorrus aside and sprang toward Hwa-jung’s unprotected back.
Kira yelled, still unable to reach the alien.…
The roar of jets sounded as Sparrow initiated an emergency burn of her armor’s thrusters and hurtled past. She tackled the millipede even as it latched onto Hwa-jung, and the three of them tumbled sideways through the air.
Lasers flashed between their clenched bodies. Fans of ichor flew from the alien’s segmented carapace. Then blood fouled the air also, and there was a screech of protesting metal from Sparrow’s exo.
Over the comms came the sound of desperate panting.
Kira followed with all her speed. She reached the three struggling figures just as Sparrow kicked the millipede away, sent it flying toward the far wall—the alien wriggling and writhing the whole way.
BOOM!
Falconi’s grenade launcher bucked, and the millipede exploded in pieces of orange flesh.
“How bad—?” Kira started to ask as she closed with Sparrow and Hwa-jung. She saw the answer even as she spoke. Medifoam was spraying from a nasty-looking crack in the armor encasing Sparrow’s left leg—the knee was locked straight, stiff as a rod.
Hwa-jung was in no better shape. The millipede had given her a deep bite on the right side of her upper back. Her skinsuit had already stopped the bleeding, but the machine boss’s arm hung limp and useless, and her whole torso appeared lopsided.
Behind them, Veera was screaming. The woman floated next to Jorrus’s body, cradling him in her arms, clinging to him as if he were the only solid thing on an endless ocean.
The contortions of Veera’s face were too painful for Kira to watch: she had to look away. This isn’t working. The thought came to her with cold clarity.
*What can I do?* Falconi said, jetting over to Hwa-jung.
*Just keep watch,* Sparrow said, her voice tight with pain as she worked on Hwa-jung, applying an emergency bandage to the machine boss’s upper back.