Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

Rose forced herself to her feet.

Dav slammed his shoulder into the door in frustration.

They were trapped.

“They took the helmets so we couldn’t get any incoming comms, didn’t they?” She had protested the helmets being taken on principle, but the food, water, and shower had done wonders, and now she realized why Crythis had done it.

If Sazo was causing this crisis, he had no way of getting in touch with them.

Before Dav could answer, the door opened, and Crythis stood in the doorway. “You know the bugs.” She gestured to them. “You need to come.”

This was a Hasmarga attack? Rose wanted to tell her that she didn’t have any special insight, but if it would get her and Dav out of the room, she’d say whatever she had to.

Dav blocked the way. “Helmets?” he said.

“Don’t have them with me. I’ll get them for you.” She turned and rattled off instructions to one of the guards, who jogged away.

“Where are we going?” Rose asked, following Dav into the passageway.

“The launch bay. There’s something happening inside that ship.”

She moved ahead of them, and Rose noticed she was armed, and her weapon was in her hand. Behind them came the remaining three guards, also with weapons out.

She was nervous to be in front of them, particularly because they seemed so twitchy.

Dav noticed it, too, and made her walk in front of him, shielding her from them with his body.

There was a strange silence as they got closer to the bay. When they’d come through, only an hour ago, there had been plenty of crew coming and going, and the sound of engines in the launch bay.

There was no one around now, and when Crythis opened the launch bay door, the massive space was silent.

Suddenly, something slammed hard into metal, the sound as loud as a shotgun crack. Rose jerked.

“Look.” Crythis pointed, and she saw a bulge in the Pyre’s ship’s outer shell, as if something inside had rammed the metal so hard, it had caused the ship to deform outward. “They’re trying to get out.”

There was another loud crack.

“What’s in there?” Crythis whispered. She turned to Rose as if she had the answers.

“I can only assume it’s Gerna’s babies.” And they didn’t sound very small and helpless.

“Pyre,” Rose called. “What’s happening?”

There was silence from the ship. She was either still pretending not to be self-aware in front of the Fisone, or whatever was happening inside the ship had destroyed her ability to communicate.

Something threw itself at the upraised ramp of the ship, and then another, and then another. With the creaking of metal under strain, it began to move.

“We need to get out.” Dav grabbed her arm, pulled her away, back into the passageway.

“Do you think—?” Before Crythis finished her sentence, the ramp exploded outward, slamming down onto the ground, its struts severed.

Dark, winged creatures, the size of Rose’s torso, poured into the bay.

“Close the doors,” Crythis screamed to one of the guards.

He smashed the button but before the doors were able to shut, a baby Hasmarga managed to wedge itself between them.

It made a sound of pain, and as they backed away, Rose could see more and more of them crowding behind the narrow gap, and with another groan, the door was bent outward.

“Rose. Run.” Dav pulled her in front of him, and she ran as best she could, knowing he wouldn’t move. He had her back in the most literal way.

Behind her, she heard the sound of weapons fire, and then a scream that made her stumble.

She turned to look back, but the way was blocked by Dav.

“Don’t look, run.” He glanced around himself, and whatever he saw made him urge her faster.

Another scream came, and Rose flinched as she recognized Crythis’s voice.

The first Hasmarga baby flew overhead, low enough that she felt her hair stir. Dav pulled her to a stop, curling his body over and around hers, but it kept going, and suddenly there were babies on every side, overrunning them—some flying, some scuttling.

She and Dav stood as still as possible as wings brushed them, hard bodies bumped them, but the Hasmarga didn’t stop. Didn’t engage.

The last one turned the corner, and Dav straightened, letting her up.

Rose turned to look back. Felt her gorge rise.

“Dav.” She grabbed the front of his suit, pressed her forehead into his chest.

Crythis and her guards lay dead, legs and arms almost torn from their bodies. There were a few dead babies lying around them, the ones they had managed to hit with their weapons.

“We need to find somewhere safe.” Dav didn’t take his eyes off the fallen Fisone.

Screaming started from up ahead and Rose could hear something fall to the ground, a double thud and the sound of rolling. Like bowling balls hitting the floor.

“Where is safe? They bent the doors back to get out.” Rose blew out a breath, wanting to not look at Crythis and her team, but forcing herself to.

Dav hesitated, but she could see him accept she was right. “Why didn’t they touch us?” he wondered.

Rose remembered Gerna and her warriors’ talk of scent around the fire, and wondered if her and Dav’s scent had lingered inside the ship. Maybe that had made the babies consider them familiar, or friends.

“I want to see if Gerna is all right,” she said.

Dav stared down the passage, then at the dead Fisone, and gave a nod. He was breathing heavily, and Rose realized how much he was struggling in the atmosphere of the ship.

“That could have been our helmets I heard fall down a moment ago.” The guard had been going to fetch them on Crythis’s orders. He might have been running back with them when he was overrun by the Hasmarga.

“Wait here.” Dav jogged to Crythis and her fallen guards, took a weapon, and then walked back. He cautiously looked around the corner, and then disappeared.

He came back holding her helmet, and wearing his own.

There was blood on them both.

Rose took hers gingerly, and decided she didn’t need to wear it right away.

She stuck close to the wall, skirting around the bodies and stepping back into the launch bay.

Two Fisone lay dead, half hidden by other ships. They must have taken cover and not had time to get out. She stared at them until Dav touched her shoulder, and she forced herself to keep walking.

The ramp was no longer fully attached to the ship and lay slightly twisted. There was no safe way to go up it.

“Gerna?” she called.

There was a sound from within.

“Gerna?” She craned her neck to see, but the interior of the ship was dark. All the lights were out, and given the destruction wrought by the Hasmargan babies, she could only assume they had torn through Pyre’s ship before they’d escaped.

“Can you see her?” she asked Dav.

There was another sound, and Gerna was suddenly crouched at the top of the ramp. She looked smaller than she had, and there were cuts across her face and chest, and lacerations on her arms.

“You’re hurt.” Rose took a step forward.

“Minor.” Gerna’s voice was a little hoarse. “The space was too confined. This is not how we bring young lives into the world on my planet. The conditions were wrong.”

Rose could see how the panicked flying of her babies inside the small ship could have caused the injuries.

“Where are they?” Gerna asked.

“They flew past us. Deeper into the ship.” Dav reached out a hand, and Gerna took it, used it to hop down into the bay with them.

“What about Pyre?” Rose asked. “Is she still talking to you?”

“I don’t think she can.” Gerna looked back inside the ship. “Most of the interior is destroyed. It’s possible the comms are broken. She may still be fine, but unable to communicate.”

“Let’s go see if we can find a comms station, and get in touch with our people,” Dav said. “It’s likely the Fisone are blocking the comms.”

“Yes. I need to get the young lives somewhere they can thrive. They are frightened in this place.” Gerna walked to the launch bay door, and stumbled to a stop, then fell to her knees beside one of the dead babies.

“They shot them?” she whispered. “They killed them?” The pitch of her voice rose. “First Ecdre, and now this?”

Rose didn’t even try to excuse the deaths. There was nothing to say.

Instead, Dav found a weapon for Gerna and handed it to her.

She took it without looking at it, then glanced at her hand and slowly got to her feet with a nod of thanks. Her fingers curled around it, and she strode off without waiting for them.

Rose didn’t think she was going to make friends.