The Mothership (32 page)

“Holy crap!” Timer exclaimed. “You don’t
think it’s getting ready to take off, do you?” A high pitched, animal screech
sounded from a long way off. Timer spun around anxiously trying to look in
every direction at once.”We’ve definitely got to get off this tub!”

“Whatever that was, it didn’t sound
friendly,” Vamp said, peering into the darkness, finding the few flickering
wall lights too weak to illuminate the deck.

Dr McInness looked confused. “It wasn’t a
machine. Perhaps that’s their language.”

“Man, if that’s what they sound like,”
Timer said, “their conversation must be a bitch.”

Vamp pointed toward a distant wall light.
“That way! Go!”

They started toward the island of light, Timer
in front, and Vamp in the rear constantly checking behind them. When they
reached the light, they halted and listened. The sound of rapid, scratching
footsteps carried to them as something unseen loped across the deck.

“It’s headed this way!” Timer whispered.

Vamp produced the crystal ball and set it
to several hundred meters. Two small dots appeared at the edge of the display,
moving in and out of range. “They’re over that way,” she said pointing towards
an area of impenetrable darkness.

“They?” Timer asked uneasily. “How many?”

She scrolled the range out a little
further, but no more dots came into view. “Two. Let’s keep moving.”

They hurried along beside the wall,
searching for an alcove that might contain an elevator. The walls were cold to
the touch and marked with shallow grooves. Dr McInness wondered why the walls
contained such etchings, unaware that when energized, they projected stasis
fields that secured the cargo in place. They hurried from one flickering island
of light to the next, pausing only to listen for the strange clawing footsteps
before moving on. When they reached the sixth light, another high pitched
screech sounded, this time closer than before.

“It’s at the cargo hatch,” Vamp whispered,
glancing at the crystal ball’s surface. She could see the transport beam
projectors, but whatever was investigating the area was hidden in the shadows.

“It’s picked up our scent,” Timer said.

Dr McInness peered toward the four cargo
hatches thoughtfully. “If it’s using smell to track us, that doesn’t mean it’s
an animal, just that this species has a highly developed sense of smell.”

“Animal or not,” Vamp said, “if it gets too
close, the only thing it’ll smell is gunfire.”

The high pitched screech sounded again from
the darkness, followed by a burst of rapid scratching footsteps.

“That don’t sound like a big nosed alien to
me,” Timer muttered. “More like an alien guard dog?”

Dr McInness looked doubtful. “A guard dog?
On a starship?”

Vamp glanced once more at the crystal ball,
then slid it into her pocket so she could hold her rifle with both hands.
“Whatever it is, it’s coming for us.”

They listened as the scratching footsteps
approached slowly and began to circle.

“It knows where we are,” Timer said as he
peered into the blackness.

“If it’s trapped here with no food or
water,” Vamp said, “it’s got to be hungry.”

Dr McInness gave her an anxious look. “You
do realize, if it ate us, the microbes in our body would probably be fatal to
it?”

“Doc, I really don’t think it’s worried
about microbes.”

“Hmm. You might be right. Perhaps it would
settle for a ration pack?”

“Not if it likes fresh meat!” Timer said.

In the flickering light, Vamp thought she
glimpsed a low shape creeping through the shadows, then it vanished. “It’s
close.”

The clawing footsteps stopped as the
predator paused to sniff their strange, alien scent. Smell was its weakest
sense, but it knew this was meat unlike any it had tasted. Even so, it was
starving, and the promise of any kind of food was driving it towards a killing
frenzy that would soon outweigh its stalking instincts.

Ahead was the last island of light before
unbroken darkness. If there was no way out, they’d have to go back along the
wall in search of an escape route. The sound of claws scratching on metal grew
louder as the creature crept towards them, so they ran through the dark toward
the final light. Vamp caught a glimpse of a hulking, rounded form prowling at
the periphery of the sputtering light. She fired a burst from her M16,
illuminating the creature with the muzzle flash. There was a hint of smooth
skin and large muscular shoulders, then it leapt with surprising speed into the
deep darkness at the sound of gunfire.

“I saw it!” Timer yelled. “It’s big!”

“Did you hit it?” Dr McInness asked.

“No,” she said, staring wide eyed into the
darkness. “It doesn’t stand like a man.” She started moving towards the edge of
the light. “I hope there’s a door ahead.”

Timer glanced at her, then looked into the
blackness she was about to lead them into. “No way! We can’t leave the light,
not with that thing out there!”

“We can’t stay here.”

“Yes we can! Wait until it attacks, then
smoke its ass.”

“Wait how long?” she demanded. “An hour? A
day? We don’t know how many of those things there are.”

“It does appear to be an animal,” Dr
McInness said. “And you do have weapons.”

“Yeah, but I’ve got to see it, to kill it,”
Timer said, aiming his special into the darkness and touching the firing
surface, but nothing happened. “This thing can’t hit shit in the dark!”

“You have to aim it at a viable target
first,” Dr McInness said, “Unless . . . there’s something inside the ship
affecting its targeting system?”

“So I can nuke a freaking tank,” Timer
said, “but can’t hit a dog’s ass?”

“Quiet, both of you!” Vamp snapped. “We’re
going! Listen for its footsteps. Timer, if it gets close, start shooting. I can
aim by the flash of your special.”

Not waiting for an argument, she started
along the wall toward the endless darkness. They hadn’t gone far when another
heavy metallic clang vibrated through the superstructure, reminding them
somewhere, repairs were proceeding.

“Why don’t they turn the freaking lights
on?” Timer growled as he strained to penetrate the darkness closing in around
them.

“They’re obviously short of power,” Dr
McInness suggested.

“That’s not all they’re short of,” Vamp
said. “This place has been scrubbed clean.”

“Automated systems probably keep the ship
spotless.”

“God damned obsessive compulsive aliens!”
Timer declared.

Vamp stopped, realizing the unbroken
darkness ahead was not a power failure, but a dark wall blocking their path.
“It’s a dead end.”

“Now what are we going to do?” Timer asked
uneasily.

Dr McInness stepped past Vamp and ran his
hand over the wall to the floor. “It’s recessed into the deck. I don’t think
it’s a wall. It’s more like . . . an air tight door. It seems to run all the
way across to the other side.”

“I knew it! We’re trapped like rats!”

“Shh,” Vamp said, listening.

“Come on you mother!” Timer yelled at the
darkness. “Here I am. You want a taste of me, come and get it!” He said aiming
his special at shadows, waiting for it to sense a target and fire.

“Quiet! . . . Listen.”

In the silence, they heard a barely audible
dripping.

“Water?” Dr McInness said surprised.

“Even the plumbing leaks on this tub,”
Timer said. “No wonder they crashed!”

“Come on,” Vamp said as she started along
the air tight door toward the sound.

Dr McInness kept close to Vamp while Timer
watched for any sign of the creature. Timer kept waving his special at the
dark, pressing the firing surface, but with its tracking system unable to find
a target, it refused to fire. The sound of dripping water grew as they moved
toward the center of the deck, then they became aware of the whisper of rushing
water. Soon, they found a large black mass jutting out into the air above their
heads. Before Vamp could investigate, a wild screech sounded nearby as the
predator’s maddening hunger overpowered its stalking instincts. She turned and
tossed her last flare into the darkness, towards the sound of claws scrambling
against the metal deck as the creature struggled vainly for grip. On the soft
muddy soil bordering the waterways of its homeworld, those claws would have
propelled it forward faster than any terrestrial animal. Against hard metal, it
slipped and slid partially out of control as it charged towards them.

The flare soon revealed a dark mass racing
toward them. Vamp had an impression of shark’s teeth, sharp and triangular,
jutting from dark red gums, framed by a streamlined snout and thin lips that
were pulled back in a ferocious snarl. Above the overly wide mouth were two
almond shaped black eyes and tough scaly skin polished smooth for speed through
the water. Behind the head, thickly muscled shoulders curved down to powerful
forelegs and webbed feet, each foot sprouting a single, yellow claw as thick as
a knife blade. Behind the mighty forelegs, the body sloped back to a short tail
and two thin, weak looking hind legs. She knew at a glance the creature’s
strength was concentrated in its massive shoulders, and its killing power in
its claws and teeth. The forelegs could lock onto its prey with their hook
claws, while the teeth ripped its victim apart.

Timer pointed his arm at the creature,
finally giving his midget a recognizable target. The special’s plasma bolts
sliced through the creature’s enormous shoulders like butter, while Vamp’s
burst from her M16 drilled three neat holes through its thick skull. Its
forelegs folded beneath it as it split in two, sliced in half by Timer’s
special. Dead before it hit the deck, both pieces slid toward them, narrowly
missing Vamp before slamming into the massive door behind her.

“Man, that’s one freaking ugly space dog!”
Timer declared.

“Amphibian,” Dr McInness corrected. “Webbed
feet.”

He stepped forward to examine the animal’s
head, but Vamp caught his shoulder and pulled him back. “No way, Doc.”

“But this is a creature from another
world.”

She stepped toward it cautiously, aiming
her rifle at its head. “I don’t care if it’s the creature from the black
lagoon, it just tried to eat us.” She jabbed the point of her gun into the side
of its jaw, triggering an automatic nervous response that caused its jaws to
slam shut. “Even dead, it’s dangerous. You’re not touching it.”

Dr McInness looked at the creature’s teeth
with renewed respect. “OK. No touching.”

“No touching?” Timer repeated thoughtfully.
“Reminds me of my first date with Betty Sue.”

Dr McInness ignored him, studying the
creature from a safe distance. “It’s not a tool user. Its head is mostly bone,
very little intelligence, but a highly evolved predator. It’s probably deadly
in or near water.”

“It’s pretty freaking deadly on land,”
Timer said.

Dr McInness brightened. “Their homeworld
must have a lot of water to produce a species like this!”

“So what’s this ugly son of a frog doing
here?” Timer asked, feeling better now that he’d shown it who was boss.

“I can’t believe it’s a guard dog. That
makes no sense.”

“Worry about it later, Doc,” Vamp said.
“Let’s get out of here. There’s at least one more of those things out there
somewhere.”

She led them towards the dark mass that
loomed above their heads. The fading flicker of the flare illuminated a large
black vehicle, pinned between two blast doors which had slammed shut from
either wall. The vehicle must have been airborne when the doors hit it,
suspending it above the deck. It was over twenty meters long, ten across, ovoid
in shape with a streamlined hull. It showed no windows or hatches, while
mounted on the gently sloping bubble that filled its upper side were two
bulbous turrets sitting side by side. Each turret mounted a stubby, forward
facing cylindrical shape. Incredibly, the two massive doors had not crushed the
vehicle.

“If that’s not a tank,” Vamp said
suspiciously, “I’ll eat broken glass.”

“Looks bad ass to me.” Timer agreed as he
lifted his special and fired at the bottom of the vehicle. The plasma blast
struck its hull harmlessly, then he stepped forward and felt it. “Not a
scratch.”

They exchanged knowing looks, then Vamp
slipped beneath the tank, between the air tight doors. They were more than two
meters thick and weighed thousands of tons, yet they’d been unable to crush the
vehicle. On the other side, she found a metal bulkhead had fallen from the
ceiling, and now rested against the rear of the tank and the deck, leaving only
a narrow passage between the bulkhead and the blast doors. She inched her way
between the two, toward a sliver of light which marked the way ahead. Dr
McInness and Timer edged after her, with Timer keeping careful watch to ensure
the second amphibian predator didn’t take them by surprise. The closer to the
sliver of light she got, the louder the sound of rushing water became. She
realized the acrid atmosphere they’d been breathing since the cave-in had
become humid, less irritating, with a hint of eucalyptus.