Transformation Space (31 page)

‘Do you notice the scent? The sweetness?’

He nodded. ‘That’s them. The Saqr. I’ve smelt it before.’

‘It’s also the scent of ligs.’

Jo-Jo frowned, not understanding. ‘What’s ligs?’

‘Ligs are one of the few insect species on Araldis. We use their pollen extract to scent our candles.’ She ran her tongue
over her teeth in a nervous gesture. He’d forgotten how crimson her skin was, and how
deep the colour of her lips. ‘Ligs are as much a part of Araldis as the dust and the rock. There is something in the ligs
that the Post-Species need. The ligs and the quixite. I think it is enabling them to—’

But she stopped short as the object shifted.

‘Josef,’ she whispered. ‘I think … we must get out.’

‘If the tunnel stays there – there wasn’t one before when I was here. All we saw of the ship was a small space. Then the floor
liquefied, and we were trapped undern—’

A loud crackling noise stopped him. They both looked at the object again. It had split some of its skin, and a wet mound of
tissue bulged out towards them. As they watched, the bulge grew, oozing through the fissure like thick liquid until it stopped
only a short distance from their feet.

Jo-Jo felt the floor harden to accommodate the new weight.

‘Now!’ He scrambled to his feet, hauling Mira up with him.

They ran through the dim tunnel. Mira lifted the folds of her robe to make it easier, but she was still hampered by them.
Jo-Jo caught her twice as she stumbled, but in truth he could barely manage her weight, his own strength diminishing rapidly.

The tunnel began to buckle and fold, the ceiling collapsing behind them as they moved.

By the time they reached the outer wall, only a short length of tunnel remained. Jo-Jo ran his hands over the blemish.

‘What are you doing?’ she panted.

‘The ’zoon ripped its coupling here; it’s still healing and there’s a weakness.’

Her reply was a strangled noise, and her fingers tugged at his robe. Over his shoulder, Jo-Jo glimpsed the last of the passage
disappearing. The object had spread right out to the ship’s limits, and in a moment it would crush them.

‘Shit!’ Jo-Jo gouged at the roughened blemish. ‘Scratch it, hit it. Anything!’

Mira roused herself and joined him, pinching and pushing at the skin. She cried a name he didn’t recognise. ‘Wanton!’

Another loud crack. Then the sound of something wet and heavy moving behind them. Jo-Jo felt pressure against his back and
neck. This time he couldn’t turn his head to see. He was pinned to the wall, his chest struggling to expand enough for him
to breathe.

Next to him, Mira’s eyes were closed, as if she were concentrating on something else. He clawed the wall with his fingers
and dug his toes into it with the small room for movement he had left.

‘Take my hand,’ Mira said suddenly.

Her eyes were open, and clear. Strain showed on her face.

He reached down and felt her slim fingers grip his own. She squeezed his palm, giving comfort. Strength and calm flowed from
her. His breathing steadied despite the crushing weight.

‘It’s going to expand again,’ she said. ‘Be ready.’

Jo-Jo had long fantasised about her voluntary touch, and the irony of it coming now angered him. He squeezed her hand and
laboured over the words he had to say. ‘I would’ve – come – anyway. Sole – didn’t need – to – make me.’

He saw her brief surprise and something else, something he couldn’t quite read.

Then the pressure began to build again, and his ribs felt like they were breaking. He tried to brace, tried to fight the compression,
refusing to let go of Mira’s hand even when her fingers went slack.

No. No!

Then the outer skin split, and he tumbled free.

‘Wanton!’

Mama? Are you all right?

The pressure against her was so great that Mira could barely breathe.
Nova, can you – speak to – Wanton? I’m in – trouble.

Si, Mama. I will try. What should I say?

Unable to think in sentences, Mira shared images of her situation: of the object expanding so rapidly that it was pressing
on their backs, and the weakness, the blemish that Josef had spoken of, where
Insignia
had torn away from the side.

Crushed, Nova
.
Wanton, help us.

Long moments passed, and the only things she was aware of were her battle to breathe and Josef holding her hand. With every
increase of pressure against her body, his grip tightened as though he would never let go.

His fall to the dune below should have been soft, but the distance turned soft sand to rock. He lay, winded and paralysed
by the agony of impact, unsure whether he’d broken anything.

Through sand-blurred eyes, he saw the glow emanating from
Medium,
and behind it a moonlit sky. Thank Crux it was still night. Then the outer skin of the ship ruptured above him, squirting
fluid and a sticky wet mass into the hot air and spraying him with sweet fluid.

An intense rush of adrenaline got him upright. He searched frantically for Mira, and saw her in front of him, spreadeagled
on her stomach. She’d been thrown further from the craft than he had, and he scrambled over to join her.

She moaned at his touch.

‘Away!’ he cried in her ear. ‘We need to get further away.’

She struggled to her knees and collapsed, her moaning louder.

Jo-Jo swore at himself. He couldn’t lift her. Randall’s image sawed its way into his head. The damn merc would find strength
from somewhere; he damn well would too. Bending down, he lifted Mira into his arms. She was light, but he was weak and hurting
all over. Not just hurting, his body screamed at him. But he
ignored it and began to stagger in the direction of the biozoons.

He only vaguely took in the headlights of the TerV that left the edge of the ship, heading towards the dark mouth of the mine.
The activity of the Saqr, though, was more worrying. They seemed disorientated, some crawling in circles while others stopped
to rear up on their hind legs. Their bodies made a weird shadow play against the still-glowing ship.

Jo-Jo set his jaw.

Can
, he told himself.

Mira stirred in his arms. ‘Let me walk,’ she whispered. He shook his head. ‘You can’t.’

The TerV lights had changed direction. It was labouring over the dunes towards them.

‘Who’s – in – that?’ he asked her.

Mira pushed back the hood of her robe to see. ‘His name is Jancz. He works for them. He led the invasion here. Brought the
Saqr in.’

‘What sort of ’esque would work for the Extros?’

‘He told me it was logical that he did.’

‘What’s that mean?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe he formed a … relationship with them, as I did with Wanton.’

Wanton? The name she’d called out before they fell from the ship. ‘Who’s Wanton?’ he said fiercely.

‘Wanton is a corporeal. I brought it here, to save it. That’s what I was doing in the ship. Wanton was dying. I brought it
back so that it could integrate with the others.’

Jo-Jo took a couple of savage breaths that sent pains
shooting from his belly to the base of his neck. He gasped and staggered.

She hung onto his shoulders. ‘Does your chest hurt?’ she asked anxiously.

‘No more than the rest of me,’ he said, righting himself. ‘Jancz stole my ship.’

‘
Sal
?
Sal
is yours?’

He stared at her. ‘You know
Salacious
?’

Mira nodded weakly. ‘
Sal
is a hybrid. We can communicate. Jancz hasn’t treated it well.’

Jo-Jo set his jaw. ‘You can save that story for another time. Right now, I’m going to get my ’zoon back.’

His staggering footsteps gained some strength and purpose.
Jancz framed me. The fucker stole my ship
. All the panic and fear and pain of being on board
Medium
again burned away on a surge of hot fury. Once before when Jo-Jo had thought he would die, as he floated free in space around
Dowl station, anger had saved him, pulled him back from the brink of despair and defeat. It did the same thing now, channelling
energy into his limbs, giving him a goal. His ship,
Salacious
, was the closer of the two biozoons.

Sal.

He reached the hybrid as the TerV climbed the dune closest to them. Though the ’zoon was half buried in the sand, its egress
scale was too high to reach. He put Mira down on the sand, leaning her back against the ’zoon’s skin, and turned to face the
TerV.

He recognised both of the figures inside it: Jancz, who’d introduced himself in the station bar as Jud, and Ilke the Balol,
who’d kept Jo-Jo busy in the bedroom while Jancz had stolen his ship.

He wasn’t sure which one of them he’d kill first.

Jancz, he’d learned through a glimpse at Lasper Farr’s Dynamic System Device, had been Randall’s Capo during the Stain Wars.
The ’esque was the worst type of mercenary, one who changed sides mid-conflict. Or maybe he’d been working for the Extros
back then too.

The TerV grunted air from its brake jets, and settled to rest an arm’s length away.

Mira moaned softly behind him, but he kept his focus on the mercs.

Ilke got out first. Then Jancz. Neither had changed as far as Jo-Jo could see through the film of their masks. Ilke’s spikes
were bunched together, her powerful body squashed into a cooling suit, but Jancz’s suit had plenty of room. He looked as lightweight
and unimpressive as he had in the bar. More so, in fact.

Both Jancz’s and Ilke’s eyes were on Mira.

‘Hey,’ said Jo-Jo, waving his hands. ‘Remember me?’ He loosened his hood, pushing it back far enough for them to see his face.

Ilke shrugged and moved to walk past him, but he blocked her way. She automatically pulled a pistol from the pocket of her
suit and shoved it into his ear.

‘Ilke!’ barked Jancz.

She shifted the muzzle back a fraction. ‘Yeah?’ Her reptilian eyes glistened through the suit film at him. Then she blinked
in recognition. She gave a belly laugh and glanced across at her partner. ‘He’s the one we took the ’zoon from.’

Ludjer Jancz didn’t blink an eyelid. ‘I know. Kill him.’

I know you, Mira Fedor.

Mira felt a shiver run through the biozoon’s outer skin. She sat up straighter.
Sal?

You remember me.

Of course. You helped me.

I have communed with your mate, Tasy-al, who rests alongside me. What are you doing here, touching me?

Sal, can you let us come aboard? W-we cannot reach
Insignia
, and we’re in danger.

I can see that.

Mira waited. She knew, from her brief encounter with the hybrid once before, that it was perverse and damaged.

I have news for you. I have a new captain
, it said finally, almost jauntily, ignoring her plea.

Ludjer Jancz is not good for you,
Sal
. There are others that would be kinder. He took you illegally.

Not him
, the hybrid scoffed.
Jancz is no longer my captain.
It made a sighing noise.
I have moved on.

Would you ask your captain, if we might board?

I could.

Sal
, Jancz is dangerous. He’ll hurt us. Please …

Sal
remained silent as Jancz and his Balol partner got out of the TerV and approached them.

Sal!
Mira cried.

I don’t need to concern myself with your problems, Mira Fedor.

The other one has a weapon. See … she will kill Josef.

Josef?
The hybrid’s tone sharpened.
Who is this ’esque that you call Josef?

Josef is your true captain, your legal captain
.
Do you remember him?

The sound of a series of explosions froze them all, delaying the hybrid’s reply. Across the dunes,
Medium
cracked open, its skin ripping apart like watery overripe fruit. The glow grew brighter as an enormous glittering carapace
emerged, shivering and shaking bits of the ship’s outer hull from itself.

Even Jancz and Ilke stopped and turned to watch.

‘Josef!’ called Mira, recovering first.

Josef
, repeated
Sal
.

Mira’s cry shook Jo-Jo from his trance, and he lunged for Jancz. The pair tumbled into the sand and wrestled.

Jo-Jo was the stronger of the two, but neither of them was a match for Ilke, who casually stepped forward and lifted them
apart. She let go of Jancz, dropping him to his feet. Then, loosening her weapon again, she shoved it under Jo-Jo’s jaw.

My
Josef
? exclaimed Sal.

Si. Jancz tricked Josef and stole you. He’s been looking for you ever since.

The Post-Species stole me?

What do you mean
, the Post-Species
?

The corporeals, Ludjer Jancz and Ilke.

Jancz and Ilke are Post-Species?

Of course. Sal
sounded perplexed and irritated by Mira’s ignorance.

Then yes
.
The Post-Species stole you. And they’ve been cruel to you, binding your fins.

The hybrid emitted a sound somewhere between a screech and a squeal, and shifted in the sand; an impossibly large floundering
whale, its tail pounding the dune and its gills venting odd noises.

Mira crawled away from its side.

‘Crux!’ shouted Jancz, backing away towards the TerV. ‘Ilke!’

The ’zoon’s cephalic fins began to strain against their cruel restraints. Each screech seemed to stretch them further, and
sent more sand and rocks blasting out from underneath it.

‘Ilke!’ bellowed Jancz again. But the Balol was transfixed, glancing between the strange creature emerging from the discarded
skeleton of the Extro craft and the thrashing squealing ’zoon before her.