SECTOR 64: Ambush (43 page)

The aide's brisk façade cracked, her hands flying to her mouth. "Oh my god!"

Sandy screamed, "Jake!"

Jake reached out to grab Lieutenant Croft and missed. "Shit!" Hooking his heels on the edge of the
Turtle's
airlock door, he stretched out and snagged the man's ankles. However, the lieutenant's upward inertia dragged them in a slow arc. Like a couple of trapeze artists, they swung toward the edge of the gravity field.

Jake looked up wide-eyed. "Oh, fuck!" Earth's gravity was about to pull them into its waiting arms like a two-man human roller coaster cresting the world's tallest hill. Jake dug the back of his heels into the opening's edge. With a mighty heave, he pulled their combined inertia toward the
Turtle
. Completing the trapeze analogy, Jake bent his knees and hooked his calves over the lip.

Through his heavy breathing, Vic said, "Thank you! I thought I was a—" His words dissolved into a scream. Croft's inertia suddenly converted to weight.

Jake's body shook with the effort of holding up the lieutenant. "Shit!" As their arc reached its zenith, the weight quickened the return swing. Their velocity accelerated radically. Victor whipped back out of the planet's gravity field. However, at this rate, he'd slam into the surface and bounce off. Jake had only one option. Judging the distance and the timing like a quarterback trying to lead a crossing receiver, he released the lieutenant.

"What are you doing?" Victor screamed.

"Richard! Catch him!"

Flailing his arms, Lieutenant Croft flew across the intervening space in a diagonal that carried him straight at the tunnel's opening.

Jake's inertia swung him into the airlock and back into the
Turtle's
gravitational field. He crashed to the floor on his back, the impact knocking the wind out of him. Struggling to draw breath, he looked up in time to see Vic bounce off the near rim of the crater. His arms ineffectually batted at the surface, sending more rocks flying to their doom. Heading back out to space, he flew over Richard's head. The captain grabbed the spasming lieutenant. His inertia started dragging Richard from the hole, but the captain's toes apparently caught on a lip and they came to a halt.

Croft still waved his arms.

"Stop fucking moving, Lieutenant!" Richard yelled. "I've got you."

"Oh, thank god," Vic whimpered.

Careful not to dislodge his toehold, Richard eased them into the tunnel.

"Thank you," Vic said between gasps.

Panting and heart racing, Jake stood. "I don't know about you two, but I've got plenty of drinking water now!"

Vic laughed nervously. "Yeah, I think I pissed myself about a gallon of it."

Richard glared at him, then shook his head. Turning to Jake, he waved. "Come on, Captain. We're burning daylight."

Bent over, Jake nodded. After a moment to catch his breath, he passed through the airlock and proceeded hand over hand to the opening. Richard waited with an extended arm, Vic floating at his side.

Jake grabbed the crater rim and the offered hand, sliding headfirst into the tunnel. Finally inside the smooth-walled hole, he noticed a slight gravity.

Richard nodded his head. "You feel it too?"

"Yeah, I bet it gets stronger farther in."

Starting to think he'd made a mistake, Jake studied Vic's panting face through his fogged helmet.

Apparently reading his expression, the lieutenant made a visible effort to center himself. Eyes closed, he took a couple of calming breaths. Opening them, he put on a brave face and nodded. "I'll be okay. Let's go get the fuckers."

Richard turned and pulled himself deeper into the ship. Vic and Jake followed close behind. Gravity increased with every foot they progressed. Having felt neutral in the no-up-reference of zero-G space, the tunnel began to feel and look like it was running uphill. After a few more steps, the gravity leveled off at just under one-G.

Jake stood. When he looked back toward the opening, the tube appeared to run steeply downhill. "Don't slip. It looks like you'll slide down the tunnel and shoot out into space." The thought sent a shudder down his spine.

Apparently appraising his weight, Richard did a couple of deep knee bends. "Thank god these aliens didn't come from a bigger planet." Turning to look up the tunnel, he added, "Doubling our weight might have slowed us a bit." Richard paused, then whispered, "I see an opening ahead." He crept a couple of feet farther up the black tunnel. Resting his hands on a ledge, he scanned the darkness beyond.

Unable to see from the back, Jake turned to check their rear. Finding nothing at their six o'clock position, he asked, "What do we have?"

"It's a small room." As Richard scanned its interior, the helmet light tracked his movements. "It's clear, I'm going in."

Jake watched as he hoisted himself onto the ledge. "Is that a floor?"

"Yep, come on up," he whispered.

Richard's arm extended from the darkness and helped Vic up to the ledge.

Walking toward the opening, Jake made another quick check of their rear. Reaching the ledge, he hoisted himself onto the floor. The room was dark and dank. The light from his lamp reflected off walls covered with flash-frozen algae. Before exposure to the vacuum of space, it looked like a perpetual thin layer of moisture had coated the walls.

The other two officers studied a panel with a pulsing red square. It was next to a half-open metallic door leading deeper into the ship.

Pulling his pistol from his hip, Richard stepped to the door and placed his hand on it. "It's vibrating like it's trying to close." After a quick scan of the room beyond, he said, "All clear," and passed through the opening.

Next, Vic drew his weapon and disappeared into the darkness.

Drawing his pistol, Jake walked back to the tunnel. Scanning left and right, he verified their six was still clear. Returning to the jammed door, he saw why it hadn't closed. A rock had lodged in its track.

He stepped through. The other two were twenty feet away studying a door on the far side of the room. "What do you have for me?" Jake asked as he looked around. His helmet's spotlight fell on machines and pipes of indiscernible purpose. The ubiquitous frost and patches of frozen algae persisted through this room too.

"There's another panel to the right of this door," Richard whispered. "But, instead of a pulsing red square, this one has a steady green one. There's a button just below the panel. Should I push it?"

"Yes."

Signaling for Vic to move to the left side of the door, Richard aimed his nine-millimeter at the door's right side.

Pistol at the ready, Vic stepped to the left.

Jake stood off to one side. He didn't think anything would happen, but better safe than sorry.

Richard pressed the button. The door didn't budge, but the green square flashed red twice then returned to steady green.

Jake looked back at the half-open door. "Try it again."

"Okay," Richard replied. When he hit the button on the far door, the light on the half-open door shifted to steady red for a couple of seconds and then resumed flashing.

Jake described what he'd seen. "We're going to have to gamble that once this door closes, the computer will let the other door open. I think they've programmed them to work like an airlock in the event of a hull breach."

"No, let's just go back to the tunnel and find another way!" Vic begged. "If you're wrong, we'll be stuck in here."

Jabbing at his wristwatch, Richard shook his head. "Damn it, Lieutenant! We only have twenty-one minutes left before we need to be done or heading out. Besides, he's right. This'll work." Turning to Jake, he said, "Do it."

Jake kicked the rock blocking the door's track. On the second attempt, it broke free and the door slid closed, silently locking into place in the room's vacuum. After an agonizing couple of seconds, the light turned green.

Jake turned to look at the far door. Richard was pushing the button. The light on its panel was still green, but nothing else happened.

"Shit—" Vic started, but cutoff mid-sentence when Jake raised a hand.

"Just a second, can you hear that? It sounds like—" To Jake's horror, his helmet retracted. Ice-cold air struck his face. The sound he'd heard must have been the atmosphere flowing back into the room. The smart-suit had obviously detected it. He took his first tentative icy breath. The air had a musty humid feel and taste, but seemed to have adequate oxygen.

He saw horror then relief cross his wingmen's faces. Their lights had moved to the neck ring. Turning his head, he saw his had relocated, as well. Its white spot followed his line of sight, briefly shining in Rich and Vic's eyes.

"All right, we're in now. Next time you press that button, it'll open. We need to go into full tactical mode. Remember your combat survival training, move and cover, move and cover. We need to make our way to the upper level. We'll breach each door we come to with crossing fields of fire. Richard, you stand to the right of the door, covering the left sector. Vic, you stand to the left, covering the right sector. I'll stand back a few feet and cover the center field of fire. Any questions?"

They both shook their heads, wordlessly moving into position. Returning the pistol to his hip, Jake drew the shotgun and dropped to a knee seven feet back. Raising the weapon to shoulder, he aimed at the door and nodded to Captain Allison. When he reached for the button, Jake was surprised to see Richard's hand tremble.

He pressed it.

To Jake's relief, the door slowly slid open this time. The room beyond was a dimly lit cavernous space. Its soft light slivered through the gap, creating a widening shaft of illuminated dank air in their makeshift airlock.

Captain Allison and Lieutenant Croft both gave the all-clear sign.

Seeing no movement or evidence of life, Jake gave the same sign. In the dim light, he reached down and touched his lamp. It extinguished, melting back into the ring.

The other two did the same.

Jake pointed to Richard and gave the advance sign.

He nodded. After another quick scan, Captain Allison stormed through the door and took cover. A moment later, Lieutenant Croft did the same. Once the two of them were in position, Jake followed, leaving the door open to allow for a quick retreat.

As his eyes adjusted to the room's ambient light, he realized they were in a cavernous cathedral. The large assembly area's ceiling vaulted fifty feet. Having entered from a side room, they crouched behind a row of stone bench seats. Shattered rock littered the floor. Apparently cast about by the battle, several broken benches laid on their backs. Before being disturbed, it looked like they had formed arcing rows. Like an amphitheater, each seat faced an elevated table or altar to Jake's left.

Jake's breath hitched in shock. Behind the altar stood a thirty-foot-tall backlit statue of what must have been a Zoxyth. With its head lifted toward the ceiling and its mouth open in an apparent victory roar, the beast had broken chains dangling from shackled hands and feet. Raised toward the ceiling, the left arm had a sickle-shaped razor-sharp appendage protruding from its forearm.

Tearing their eyes from the monstrous beast, all three men stared in shocked horror at the scene above the altar. Extending forward, the demon's right arm hovered over it. Clutched by their hair, two severed human heads hung from its clenched fist.

"These guys
really
don't like humans," Richard whispered.

Vic nodded. "Ya think? Look at those claws."

Gripping a handful of human hair, razor-sharp talons extended from its three fingers. Palm down, the right hand's opposable thumb was on the outside, opposite of where it would be on a human hand. The Zox's lower leg sported another knife-like appendage. It protruded from the back of the alien's calf. Similar to the hand, and again anatomically opposite from a human, the biggest talons on the creature's foot extended from the outside.

Scanning the rest of the cavernous room, Jake looked right. Standing like giant macabre Academy Award Oscars, a backlit headless Argonian statue adorned each side of the cathedral's main entrance. Cracked across the top of its bound knees, the left human form had tipped across the top corner of the opening, its truncated neck precariously balanced against a glowing sconce centered over the entranceway.

They would've been twenty-five feet in height had their heads still been attached.

Victor looked back and forth between the Zox and human sculptures. "If they're to scale, these bastards must be at least eight feet tall," he whispered.

"I'm sure shotguns will kill'em just as dead," Jake said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt.

Casting nervous glances at the pistols in their hands, Richard and Vic returned them to their hips and drew the shotguns. All three officers cringed as a sound similar to peeling velcro echoed across the silent room.

When nothing happened, Jake pointed toward the back of the cathedral. "Let's keep moving." Turning to Richard, he pointed two fingers at his own eyes and then through the opening, giving the signal to advance and cover.

Richard nodded and squat-ran down the side to the back wall. Creeping toward the opening, he scanned the area beyond. Reaching the right side of the entrance, he took up a defensive position and nodded, giving the all-clear signal.

Jake waved Vic forward.

Lieutenant Croft nodded, took a deep breath, and scrambled along the side to the back wall. Scurrying left, he stopped next to Captain Allison.

After a quick check of their rear and another glance at the horrible icon behind the altar, Jake ran to the third row from the back. Using the benches for cover, he scooted toward the center, stopping just shy of the aisle. Shotgun at the ready and his back to the altar, he sat propped against the smooth stone face of a fallen bench.

His suit glistened with condensed moisture. The stone bench seats, as well as the walls and floors, were soaking wet. An unending staccato of drips echoed through the room.

Aiming the shotgun toward the opening, he leaned into the aisle, scanning the entrance and beyond. About twelve-foot-tall by nine-foot-wide, the entryway afforded a broad view of the area beyond. Across a twelve-foot gap, an apparent hallway's damp rock wall extended left and right out of sight.