As he attempted to sit up, he suddenly tensed and looked about himself anxiously.

  “Oh shit! What’s happened to my rifle? What are we going to do now?”

  “Forget about your rifle,” LaCruz said. “We won’t be needing it now, anyway.”

  Hermandal made his way over to a side door and indicated for them to follow. LaCruz was soaked right through and was hoping for some kind of changing facilities but she was to be bitterly disappointed.

  “What’s all this?” she asked.

  The place was enormous and looked like the perfect re-creation of a lagoon at low tide, complete with sea cave and various rock pools. There were even a couple of moons projected onto the back wall completing the illusion of life on some distant planet. For a moment, LaCruz forget about how cold she was while she took in everything around her.

  Was this how the Da’al dealt with being so far removed from their home? By trying to recreate it here? It seemed enormously self-indulgent if that was the case. The amount of space they’d given over to this mini seascape was wasteful in the extreme and yet she found she couldn’t stop staring at it.

  It was, in its own simple way, quite fascinating.

  “I like it,” Grimes was having difficulty walking and was glad of the distraction. “This must be where the captain comes when he needs a little R and R.”

  “You could say that,” Hermandal was looking about, his distress palpable.

  “Any chance he might still be around?” LaCruz asked, picking up on his obvious unease.

  “Every chance,” Hermandal said. “But that’s not our main concern. Our main concern is getting through there.”

  He pointed past the ‘lagoon’ area towards the far wall which appeared to ripple and change colour randomly whenever you tried to look at them. Set back in the wall was a brightly lit corridor and at the end of this was what had all the appearances of being an external pressure hatch. Two Da’al soldiers were currently guarding it. They seemed to her somehow different from the ones they’d seen earlier but she couldn’t quite work out why that was.

  “They’re part of the captain’s personal guard,” Hermandal said. “I’d hoped they might have been gone by now.”

  “Nah, that’d be too easy,” Grimes said.

  The three of them began picking their way through the various rock pools. The rocks weren’t real, LaCruz kept telling herself. They couldn’t be. Who would expend all that effort to carry actual rocks into deep space? Yet when she paused to examine them, they seemed genuine enough. Even the green slime on the rocks’ undersides felt authentic.

  At one point, Grimes’s feet slipped from under him and if it hadn’t been for Hermandal grabbing hold of him, he would have fallen badly. Hermandal’s expression cautioned him to be more careful.

  LaCruz couldn’t remember why it was that she looked back towards the mouth of the cave at that point, she only knew that she did. No doubt she’d picked up on some of Hermandal’s own anxieties: some slight angling of his head perhaps, some brief flicker of his eyes?

  Whatever the reason, she looked over at the cave mouth and saw something which she didn’t immediately understand. She took it at first to be a huge pile of mouldering fish - that would certainly explain the smell – but on closer examination she saw that her first impressions had been wrong. Whatever it was, it was moving. Breaking the surface before continuing its long languorous roll. It was difficult to judge at this distance but whatever it was that was moving appeared to be very big indeed. Too big even for a mature seal. She knew what they were, of course. She’d watched plenty of documentaries on Earth Prime.

  Grimes and Hermandal had moved off without her and she knew that really she should be heading off to join them. Only, she was too distracted by what was happening out in the lagoon. She stood there for a while, willing her eyes to penetrate the darkness yet failing to fully grasp what it was she was seeing.

  It was only on the point that she was leaving that the thing broke the surface, seeming to rise up and in doing so displacing a vast quantity of water which rolled languorously towards the back of the cave. This thing was much bigger than any seal, she thought. Much bigger.

  Something else, then. Something which lay outside the framework of what she might consider ‘normal.’ Then, as she looked on, an unfeasibly thick appendage lifted itself straight up out of the water. It hung there for a moment, as though signalling to her, before coming crashing down. The weight of it providing the creature with enough rotation to roll it down into the depths but, before it disappeared completely, a mitre shaped head broke the surface and she found herself being scrutinised by a series of bright, sherry-coloured eyes.

  Then it was gone.

  Afterwards, LaCruz told herself that it had been too dark to see what she thought she’d seen. And yet, the image remained.

  She set off across the rocks with scant regard to where she placed her feet. That thing had unsettled her. She’d experienced all kinds of perceived threats in her time as a Marine but this one was new to her. It was as though invisible hooks had been inserted inside her skull and were now starting to slowly pull apart.

  Grimes caught her arm as she made to rush past.

  “Heay, heay! What’s wrong?”

  “Back there. In the water.”

  “It’s alright. Whatever you saw, it’s gone now.”

  LaCruz stared at him, searching for something to say. But what could she say? She wasn’t even sure what she’d seen herself.

  At that moment, a discordant trilling sound issued from the far corridor.

  She looked around. “Where’s Hermandal?”

  Grimes must have registered the fear on her face.

  “It’s okay,” he said. “He’s not abandoned us. Old beardy’s got a plan.”

  There was no time for further explanation so she followed him over to the far wall. Tucking in behind him, she pulled out her pistol. It felt small and insignificant in her hand. She noticed that the makeshift bandage she’d wrapped around Grimes’ arm had come loose and his wound was bleeding freely. The sooner he got some medical attention, the better.

  From where they stood, they could see very little of what was going on in the actual corridor but they could hear almost everything. Initially there only Hermandal was speaking but then, as the Da’al guards joined in, their squawking and shrieking grew progressively louder. Then the voices stopped and they heard the unmistakable sound of Hermandal’s feet slapping across the floor towards them. LaCruz raised her pistol while Grimes took out a thin stiletto knife.

  As soon as Hermandal was through the doorway, he ducked to his right, flattening himself against the wall. LaCruz was conflicted. She couldn’t risk taking a shot with Hermandal standing directly in her line of fire. She’d have to wait and pick her shots more carefully.

  The Da’al guard that appeared through the doorway, was very different from the one who’d questioned her earlier. It was taller for a start and much more robust, its colouring a vivid coral pink.

  It was also armed with a flat-headed pulse rifle.

  Hermandal immediately launched himself forward, both hands closing on the barrel. The creature fired off two shots, both of them discharging into the floor.

  LaCruz stepped in front of them, levelled her gun and fired.

  Three bullets punched through the creature’s upper thorax. It listed heavily to one side, knocking Hermandal off his feet before landing on top of him. The pulse rifle clattered across the floor.

  LaCruz’s trapped it with her foot then, without thinking, picked it up, took aim and pressed the nodule on the side.

  Lights flickered along the barrel but it failed to fire.

  That was the point she realised Grimes was missing. He must have taken the opportunity to slip down the corridor. He meant to confront the other guard armed only with his knife. LaCruz made up her mind to follow him, leaving Hermandal to deal with the other one.

  After the near darkness of the lagoon, the corridor was so brightly lit that she had to shield her eyes. The remaining guard was armed with some kind of ceremonial spear which Grimes was attempting to wrestle from him. The problem was that the creature, though shorter, was a good deal heavier than Grimes and it was only a matter of time before the Da’al managed to turn its weight to its advantage, pitching him to the floor.

  “Don’t just stand there,” Grimes shouted as the guard tried to run him through. “Shoot the damn thing!”

  LaCruz studied the weapon she was holding, looking for a trigger or some kind of arming mechanism, but there was only a series of nodules. The rest of it was as smooth and flimsy as a child’s toy. She aimed it in the Da’al’s general direction and depressed the middle nodule. Two vents opened, one on either side of the barrel, but nothing else.

  “What are you doing?” Grimes was trying to wriggle out from beneath the point of the spear but the guard was too quick for him, skittering from side to side to maintain his advantage.

  LaCruz turned the rifle over in her hands. There were three nodules. She pressed the third nodule down and kept it there. Nothing happened.

  As soon as she stopped pressing, a bright white energy bolt flew across the room, punching a hole in the far wall.

  “That’s it!” Grimes was getting excited. He was trying to kick the creature’s legs away without much success. “Do it again.”

  LaCruz repeated the procedure, only this time she held the nodule down for longer just to be sure. Only then did she raise the weapon and try to aim it.

  “Grimes! Let go of the spear!”

  Grimes did as he was asked, rolling to one side just as LaCruz fired. But the shot went wide. She had, however, succeeded in getting the creature’s attention and it surged towards her now, spear in hand.

  “Oh shit,” LaCruz pressed the nodule again but this time nothing happened.

  Had she drained the thing already?

  A quick glance told her that she was pressing the wrong nodule. She transferred it to the lower one and tried again, aiming vaguely at the creature.

  A coruscating ball of light struck the guard in the upper thorax, spinning it around. It flailed about, trying to maintain its feet but that was always going to be a losing battle.

  She didn’t wait to watch the thing keel over. She went back outside to find that the other guard had Hermandal by the throat.

  One shot was enough to blow a big hole in the thing’s side. It released its hold on Hermandal who promptly fell to the floor.

  LaCruz helped him to his feet while the guard staggered away, heading towards the lagoon. Perhaps it might find some peace out there.

  Hermandal looked shell-shocked, his long hair had come loose and was draped across his face. She took him by the hand and led him back out into the corridor. She tried not to look at the Da’al she had just shot. It was lying against one of the walls making an awful keening sound.

  Grimes was already at the airlock but was too exhausted to even begin to open it on his own. His right arm hung down, completely useless. Between the three of them they somehow managed it.

  With a burst of escaping air, the door hinged outwards and downwards so that LaCruz had to step back to avoid being crushed. Eventually, the door extended all the way down to the floor, forming its own little staircase.

  It was a curious design, unlike anything she’d seen before and LaCruz was immediately suspicious of it.

  Hermandal didn’t wait for her approval and moved resolutely up the steps. As he did so, she heard the life support systems sputtering into life.

  Grimes’ features had taken on a grey pallor and she pushed him ahead of her. There was no telling how long they had left – the nuke could go off at any time. The ship was much bigger than she’d anticipated, with moulded floor sections covered with the same fronds they’d seen earlier. It was built in a wedge shape, blunt end at the rear, sharp end at the front. The flight deck had three belly couches arranged in a line, though there was no sign of any operating systems.

  “Are you sure this is it?” she asked.

  Hermandal stopped what he was doing and looked around, confused. “This is all there is. Why, is there a problem?”

  “It’s kind of big, that’s all – for an escape pod, I mean.”

  “It has to be this big to accommodate the captain.”

  “The captain?”

  “Captain, pilot, Sieff - call it what you will. I saw you looking at him earlier.”

  LaCruz was taken aback. “That thing? You mean that was the captain?”

  “Of course. Who else could handle all those calculations? You wouldn’t trust those foot soldiers with a ship this size.”

  LaCruz stared blankly back at him. Clearly, there was a whole host of questions that needed to be addressed if they were ever going to get back to the Mantis but, for now, they’d have to wait.

  Hermandal went over and stood in the centre of the room. A console appeared out of the floor, rising up so that it came level with his waist. Hermandal released a heavy sigh. In front of him, various read-outs appeared in mid-air, projected onto a fine mist. Once he had consulted these, Hermandal’s fingers began to explore the console.

  LaCruz shared a look with Grimes. They were both thinking the same thing: no way would they have managed to get this far on their own. Without Hermandal, they’d still be wandering the ship, desperately trying to find an escape route. The realisation brought with it a wave of relief. Even if they failed to get clear, that wouldn’t matter – at least they’d know they’d given it their best shot.

  Grimes’ resolve seemed to crumble at the thought of it. He eased himself down onto the edge of one of the belly couches and then let himself fall back. Within seconds, he was asleep.

  He’s going to need a blood transfusion once we get back, she mused. If we get back.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by a deep judder which reverberated throughout the whole of the ship. There was the numbing sound of metal scraping against metal followed by total silence.

  Hermandal stepped back from the console and dropped his hands.

  “Well, that’s all I can do, now.”

  At that precise moment, the floor fell away and LaCruz was slammed hard against the ceiling. She hung there in a state of confusion trying to work out what she should do next, but she had nothing. Hermandal must have managed to disengage them from the main vessel somehow. That was the only thing that would explain their sudden loss of gravity. The idea of the belly couches now made a lot more sense because Grimes had hardly moved, despite being largely incapacitated. She guessed that they must work as an equivalent to the Mantis’ acceleration chairs and would have saved both her and Hermandal from a few more bruises if they’d thought to use them.

  But that wasn’t their immediate problem. Their immediate problem now was how did they intend to pilot the ship. Hermandal looked completely disoriented, showing no inclination to return to the controls. LaCruz, being more accustomed to working in a weightless environment, scrambled across the ceiling in order to reach him.

  “What are we going to do?” she said. “We have to get away before the ship blows.”

  Hermandal gave her a pained look, “You realise I have no idea how to fly this thing?”

  “You’ve done pretty good so far.”

  Hermandal started to protest then stopped himself. They were running out of options.

  LaCruz grabbed him by the elbow and, by bracing herself against the ceiling, managed to heave him in the direction of the console. Hermandal, being unused to weightless conditions, fought against her, thrashing about with his arms and legs but eventually, she managed to get him into position. He hooked his hands under the edge of the console and pulled himself down.

  Once he’d re-oriented himself, Hermandal surveyed the wash of lights in front of him.

  “Now, let me see,” he ran a hesitant hand over one small section and immediately, the front wall of the craft seemed to dissolve, leaving them looking out at a blanket of stars.

  LaCruz had never seen an observation window that big on a shuttle before – at least two metres wide. The captain, it appeared, had afforded himself every kind of luxury. Off in the far distance, she could even make out the faint smudge of lights that the Mantis had become.

  “That was a good trick,” she said to Hermandal. “Bet you can’t do that again.”

  He tentatively repeated the motion, only this time the window turned first grey and then black until it looked just like any other bulkhead.

  “Well,” she said. “I’m impressed. You do know what you’re doing.”

  “And in that regard you’re very much mistaken. I know how to disengage from the mother ship but that’s about as far as it goes.”

  “Then, who’s flying the ship?”

  He gave a non-committal shrug. “Not me at any rate. We seem to be following some kind of pre-arranged flight plan.”

  “Is that such a good idea?”

  She repeated Hermandal’s sweeping hand action, and the observation window re-appeared. “We might be headed in the right direction, but if we can’t find a way of identifying ourselves, the Mantis is probably going to start thinking the worst.”

  “What? That we’re hostile?”

  “Exactly.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “Sixty seconds to detonation.”

  Webster wasn’t really listening. Along with Faulkner and Bertran, he’d lost himself in the events unfolding in the engine room. The major’s men had staged a spectacular counter offensive and for a time it had looked as if they might stem the tide. The fighting had been prolonged and bloody with the Marines attempting to frustrate the enemy’s efforts by sheltering under part of an engine cowling. This allowed them to subject the opposition to a merciless onslaught as soon as they entered the engine room. That was until the enemy succeeded in setting up an energy canon. At which point, the Marines’ situation had quickly deteriorated.

  The enemy’s numbers soon began to tell and while the Marines were able to inflict heavy casualties, there were always fresh troops keen to throw themselves into the breach. In the carnage it was difficult to work out what exactly was going on. Back on the Mantis, the bridge officers were reduced to consulting the diagnostics in order to keep track of who was dead and who was alive.