“Prime,” Rose said. “Help.” She was more panicked now, her voice soft and trembling.

  A moment later, Joseph discovered why as he finally reached her position. Her body had nearly vanished beneath the membrane, the oily goop spreading across her in hundreds of layered strands like black muscle fiber, keeping her in place with her arms pinned spread-eagle across the roiling surface. A few tendrils were trying to find a way in through her helmet, wriggling like worms around the neck clasps. They had managed to unhook the headgear, but had yet to realize it needed to rotate the bed of the helmet to break the seal.

  “Doctor Rose!” he said, staring at her predicament. “I see you.”

  “Prime, help,” Rose cried. Joseph could see her lips moving and the terror in her eyes.

  He didn’t know how to help. “Captain, I’ve got eyes on her,” Joseph said, certain he did too. “What now?” He was hoping Grant or Siraj might have an idea.

  “Try to get it’s attention again,” Grant suggested. “If it goes after you, it might release her.”

  “Copy that,” Joseph replied. He used his jets to push back, away from Rose.

  “Where are you going?” Rose asked meekly. “Don’t leave me. Help me.”

  Joseph raised his rifle, switching his finger to the launcher’s trigger. He aimed way above Rose and fired, sending an explosive ball into the membrane.

  It detonated a moment later, causing the ripples in the material to stop. Like before, some of the membrane blew out from the site, creating blobs of matter that floated through the dark. The part of the material holding Rose seemed to shudder from the assault, a few of the fibers pulling away.

  “I think it’s working,” Grant said.

  Joseph chose another section of the wall and fired again, with similar results. The membrane over Rose trembled and released her, the edges beginning to stretch out toward Joseph as long tentacles.

  “Shit,” Joseph cursed, switching triggers and firing on the tentacles, his rounds punching away the ends and leaving them tumbling through space around him. More tentacles started forming along the surface, the membrane trying to defend itself and still keep its victim.

  “Prime, help me! Pleeeasssse!” Rose wailed.

  Joseph clenched his teeth. He fired desperately at the tentacles, fighting to keep them away from him. He couldn’t help her, damn it. There was nothing he could do to make it let her go, no way he could fight this thing effectively, not by himself.

  “We need another idea!” he shouted into the comm.

  “Prime, Oslo’s team is in position,” Grant said. “Get back to the entrance and accept the thruster.”

  “What?” Rose said, able to hear the statement.

  “I warned you, Doctor,” Grant replied. “You thought you knew better. Prime, this might be our only chance.”

  Joseph stared at Rose through the darkness. She was almost entirely absorbed into the membrane. He could see her eyes though, pleading with him, the reflection of tears on her cheeks. He saw his sister in them, if she had lived to be an adult. He didn’t particularly like Rose, but that didn’t mean he wanted to give up on her.

  “Prime!” Grant snapped, recognizing his hesitation. “Get the thruster. That’s an order.”

  Joseph reached down to the line. He didn’t have a choice. “I’m sorry,” he said as he began pulling himself away. He momentarily disconnected his comm, letting out a scream of frustration as Rose vanished from sight.

  48

  Cross

  Alien Object. Interior. 11.12.2052. 2200 hours.

  Joseph reeled himself back toward the object’s opening. He could hear Rose crying the entire time, alternating between begging for him to come back and cursing he and Grant for leaving her. He couldn’t stop projecting his lost sister onto the trapped scientist, making him almost desperate to save her. How long would it take before the alien realized how to get her helmet off? And would the quick, cold suffocation be a mercy by then?

  Was it even trying to kill her or did it want her for something else?

  It was that thought that nearly made him turn back. If he were stuck like that, he would want one of his Guardians to put a bullet in him at the very least, to save him from something worse than death. If he couldn’t get Rose out, he could at least do her the same courtesy.

  He couldn’t go back. There was no time and he had orders. Betraying them would be worse for everyone involved, and there were thousands of lives at stake. He kept going despite the guilt and the pain, using his jets to let the line wheel him in quicker.

  Oslo waited for him outside the object, along with Bourne and Sykes. They had helped the lead engineer move the thruster, bringing it right to the edge of the object. Nearly three meters tall, it was little more than a welded scaffold with a small rocket booster in it, fuel tanks hastily soldered and welded to the outside.The scaffold flattened at the top, pre-drilled holes allowing bolts to plant it in place. A wire ran from the right side of the design to a manual fire control box floating a couple of meters above it. Oslo held out the bolt gun as Joseph landed in front of him.

  “Just press the red button,” Oslo said about the fire control while holding out the bolt gun. “Hold it down until this thing is off the ship.”

  “Copy that,” Joseph said, taking the gun. “Captain, are the Bayonets in place?”

  “Affirmative, Prime,” Grant replied. “They’re holding position nearby, ready to come to your aid.”

  “Tell them to be ready, I think I’m going to need them.”

  “Copy that.”

  “Prime,” Sykes said, handing him the line to anchor the thruster to his suit. “Good luck in there.”

  Joseph took it, hooking the carabiner attached to the wire onto his suit, beside the spool. He grabbed the side of the scaffold and pulled up and in, lifting the thruster and giving it some initial velocity.

  “Once you have it in place, we’ll trigger the powerpacks,” Oslo said.

  “What if this doesn’t work?” Joseph asked.

  Oslo didn’t answer. Neither did Grant or Siraj. None of them seemed to know.

  “Help me, please!” Rose sobbed in the background. “It’s trying to get into the suit. I can feel it.”

  Joseph closed his eyes tight. He needed to focus. When he opened them, he could see Oslo was affected by her pleading too. His eyes welled up, his face a facade of indifference hiding the frustration of the situation.

  The motion of the thruster into the alien object pulled him with it, and he fired his jets to build momentum, wrapping his arm around the scaffold and guiding the thruster in and up. He couldn’t go too fast without risking losing control of the large equipment and each passing second felt like a lifetime, especially with Rose’s fearful cries in the background. Her voice was worse than the alien screams, pained and haunting.

  He continued to drift upward. Reaching the top of the object inside of a minute. He fired his jets to slow them both as the ceiling appeared, using another twenty percent of his air to do it. At this rate, he would be suffocating by the time he got out of here. He brought the bolt gun up to the corner hole and fired, shooting a heavy metal anchor into the surface of the alien vessel. He was sure he felt a light tremor when he did, and Rose fell silent at the same time.

  “Rose!” he shouted into the comm. “Rose!” She didn’t respond. "Damn it!” Joseph shouted, sinking another bolt into the object, and then the last two. “The thruster is in place.” He unhooked the carabiner from his waist and grabbed the wire to the control box, pushing himself out and away from the thruster. “Preparing to fire. Chief, are you ready?”

  “We’re in position, Prime,” Oslo replied.

  “On three. Three. Two. Shit—”

  A dark shape appeared out of the darkness, shooting up at Joseph. An oily black ball ringed with sharp tentacles approached, too fast to avoid.

  Almost too fast.

  Joseph pulled hard on the control box wire, using it to tug himself out of the way, turning and banging into the scaffold as the ball caught the ceiling and then lunged back at him. He pushed downward, ducking beneath the creature, keeping his grip on the box while reaching for his rifle. He couldn’t use his jets with his left hand occupied, but he didn’t want to let go of the controls.

  The alien darted down after Joseph. He opened fire, peppering it with rounds as the momentum stretched the wire taut and swung him out and back in an arc.

  The alien crossed beneath the thruster.

  “Now Chief!” Joseph shouted, pressing down on the thruster control. He had no idea if any of this would work, but it was the only chance they had.

  Joseph didn’t know right away if Oslo triggered the electrical charge or not. He watched as a blue-hot plasma ring formed around the nozzle, right before spewing superheated gas out the back.

  Directly into the alien.

  It froze in place, the plasma hitting and vaporizing it a moment later. Then the entire object began to shudder, an impossible scream cutting through the vacuum and piercing Joseph’s helmet. He winced against the pain of it, refusing to let his finger drift off the red button firing the thruster.

  “Captain,” he said through the noise. “Is it working?”

  He couldn’t hear the answer. He only figured it out for himself when he was suddenly dropping, his arm stretched tight to keep a grip on the control box when the alien object began to rise. He clutched it tight, desperate to keep his grip on the trigger, counting the seconds until he felt safe to let go.

  If he could hold on that long.

  He counted the seconds, trying to judge the acceleration and distance from the strain on his arm. The tether on his hip snapped from its source, the maglock giving way against the strain and leaving the spooled line hanging.

  The alien continued screaming, drowning out his ability to hear anything from Grant, Siraj, Oslo or anyone else. He had no idea what was happening outside and little idea what else might be happening inside. There was only the thruster, himself and the horrible alien cry, along with the knowledge that he was leaving Pioneer behind.

  Probably for good.

  He finally let go of the control box, allowing the vessel to rise to meet him, the thruster dying out at his release. He fired his jets to slow his relative velocity, the dark floor of the object approaching. His feet hit roughly, knees bending and straightening to absorb most of the impact. Drawing his rifle, he ran toward the membrane and Rose, his head pounding from the alien’s continuing screams.

  Rose emerged from the darkness in front of him, running in the opposite direction. They collided, with Joseph wrapping her in his arms and pivoting to drag them both to the floor to better absorb the force of the impact. He rolled over her, his helmet touching hers, looking into her eyes, still red from her tears.

  “Doctor Rose?” he mouthed.

  She was still terrified. Her mouth moved, forming an unquestionable word.

  Run.

  49

  Cross

  Alien Object. Interior. 11.12.2052. 2220 hours.

  Joseph stared at Rose for what felt like an eternity but was less than one of his pounding heartbeats. Run? Where? From what?

  He pulled the doctor back to her feet with one hand, swinging his rifle forward with the other. The enemy exploded from the darkness—what looked like a thousand small tentacled monsters like the one he had burned with the thruster.

  He squeezed the trigger as he backed away, his bullets punching into the aliens and blowing them into blobs of black goop. The front line went down easy, but there were too many to shoot them all, and he doubted it would have a lasting effect anyway.

  He gripped Rose’s hand as they retreated, following the direction of the detached tether, the end of it dangling outside the hole in the alien vessel.

  The aliens gave chase, one of them lunging into the air and breaking apart into dozens of sharp-tipped spikes. Joseph grabbed Rose, dragging her down to the floor and quickly covering her with his body, rolling when the spikes flew overhead. He practically threw the doctor back to her feet to keep her heading for the hole.

  He turned back as they ran, loosing a pair of grenades and watching them bounce across the floor into the center of the alien herd. The explosion scooped up dozens of them, tossing them around the space and offering a momentary break in their offensive.

  The entity was still screaming, its horrific wails drowning out Joseph’s ability to hear anything else. At first he had thought the electrical charge from Oslo’s powerpacks had hurt it, but now he wasn’t so sure. It seemed intent on preventing him from communicating.

  The open gap in the side of the object faded into view, nothing beyond it but stars and empty space. It meant the object had cleared the chasm where it landed, but there was no telling how far it had traveled from Pioneer. It didn’t matter. Rose was right. They couldn’t stay here. They had to get out of the object and take their chances in space.

  They were only a few meters from the hole when a river of black goop raced toward it, lines of the stuff stretching out over the gap to block their escape. Rose tried to stop in front of Joseph, but he wrapped his arm around her waist, lifting her off her feet. He fired his rifle in his other hand, loosing his last two grenades at the goop attached on either side of the gap in the wall. He turned sideways to protect Rose and covered his helmet with his arm as the explosives went off. The blast spewed bits of hard matter and membrane against Joseph, but it didn’t pierce his suit and it didn’t slow his momentum. Carrying Rose with him, he charged into the remains of the detonation and through it, taking a leap of faith out into open space. A short-lived wave of panic washed through him and Rose squirmed in his grip, even more frightened than before.

  The alien’s screams vanished as the object continued rising behind them, its trajectory widening the space between them as Captain Grant’s voice finally broke through.

  “...is Grant. Prime, do you copy? Prime?”

  “Doctor, you need to stop struggling,” Joseph said, “or you’re going to send us tumbling out of control.”

  Rose immediately stopped thrashing in his arms, and Joseph took the opportunity to get his bearings. They were at least a kilometer or two over the top of Pioneer, and while still matching the ship’s forward velocity and heading, they were vectoring away from it. The alien object was moving up and away from them at even a faster clip, but without knowing how the thing navigated there was no way to know how long that might last.

  “Captain, this is Prime,” Joseph said, grateful he was still in comms range. “We’re out of the alien vessel. We need an assist from the Bayonets. We…shit!” He cursed and Rose started screaming again as a dark blob landed on his helmet. Tentacles wrapped around the front of it, covering his view.

  Close up, the blob looked more like tar than oil, thicker and more textured. It held fast to his helmet with six appendages, the undersides of each undulating, a dim white light pulsing beneath it. He couldn’t get a shot at it from his angle without risking the integrity of his helmet, so he let his gun dangle freely on its tether and grabbed at the mass instead. He managed to get his hand around it, only to have it begin wrapping around his hand and holding it fast to his helmet.

  “Prime, what’s happening?” Grant asked. “Your video feed isn’t reaching this far. What’s your status?”

  “Captain, standby. Doctor, I need you to let go of me.”

  “What?” Rose said.

  “Do you see my rifle?”

  “Yes?”

  “Push off me and grab it.”

  “You want me to let go?”

  Beneath one of the limbs, a crack began to appear in his face plate. The creature aimed to expose him to the vacuum.

  “Once it kills me, you’re next,” he snapped. “Grab my gun and shoot it!”

  Joseph wasn’t excited about the prospect of her shooting anything attached to his helmet, especially with zero experience. Best case if she missed was that the round would go into his head and kill him instantly. Worst case, she would accomplish the alien’s goal for it.

  “We don’t have a choice. The gun is tethered to my suit. As long as you hold onto it, we won’t get separated. Now do it!”

  “Okay,” she said, shoving off him. He could barely see her from the side of his helmet. The move pushed him sideways, pulling the rifle toward her as she moved in the opposite direction. She screamed as she reached out for it, fingers slipping off the barrel, causing it to rotate away from her as it went past.

  “No,” Joseph growled. Before he could do anything else, Rose swiped at the tether’s slack behind the weapon. She got her hand on it, catching the line and holding on, pulling the gun toward her.

  He barely had time to sigh in relief as another crack appeared in his helmet, and then another, the headgear beginning to fail.

  “Hurry,” Joseph said.

  “What if I hit you?”

  “Then I’ll die, which is the same thing that’ll happen if you miss. Just do it.”

  He pegged his eyes sideways, only barely able to see the muzzle flash. The round went wide and she fired again. This time the bullet scraped the edge of the helmet, leaving a scuff before slamming into the alien.

  The force broke the creature apart, the tentacles losing grip and pulling away from his helmet. The globs floated off into space, leaving Joseph and Rose alone once more.

  “Nice job,” he said. He looked around them again, regaining his bearings. They were in a light spin, the momentum from the push and the gunfire pulling them away from Pioneer. The alien object was well over their heads, its surface so dark now he could barely make it out against the blackness of space.

  The bottom of it began to pulse, a dim shiver of energy surging across it, making it visible again. At the same time, Joseph’s helmet overlay drew a flashing red reticle over one of the cracks, zeroing in on a leak through the transparency and warning him that his air reserves were nearly depleted.