The locust liquid? Possibly, but he was still damp now—or was. These questions swirled in his mind as he floated behind the creature as a bodiless entity, observing its questing tentacles, and raw, powerful flanks.
The thing whirled about looking for him, head tilted back, tusked maw giving rise to a whining roar. The thing’s veiny eyes swam in their bulbous sockets, looking for its prey like a spider springing for an escaped fly.
Miko floated back a pace, studying the creature curiously, like a scientist a lab experiment. Safe in his cloak of invisibility, he sensed his emotions settle, as if the event had never happened. His disembodied episodes always induced such calm. Why wouldn’t they? Without a body there were no worries. Of bodily harm. Of unsealed helmets and differing air qualities. It was peace and security. A place of feeling invincible.
Miko debated whether he would pick up the blaster and end this violent aberration’s life. But no, too risky. If he were to suddenly morph back to solid form—the thing would snatch him and kill him.
His space suit had been shredded beyond repair. The helmet was useless. The thing pawed at the place he had last been, sniffing at the broken glass suspiciously. A faint bluish glow continued to emanate from the surrounding walls, casting the monster in the most brutish light.
He knew he had to lure the thing away from Star and Usk. He looked about for a means. The blaster, no. In the shadows, he saw the ship’s ghostly silhouette, balanced on rocks in a corner. It was a small Zikri rover, sporting twin stern fins, much different than the modern day Orbs. Its outerbody was dented and rusted, looking terribly ancient. It was of no use to him. With disappointment, he scanned for other possibilities. The walls were crumbling in places. It gave him an idea. With his astral will, he grabbed up several stone chips that had flaked from the wall, some no larger than pebbles. He launched one into the nearest side passage. “Ping.” The creature whirled about and loped over in anticipation. Aha! An easy way to bait the creature and draw it deeper into the complex. He had only to keep ahead a certain distance and propel more chips wherever he wanted to lead the thing.
He glided around its hulking form and down the passage, only to discharge another.
The stupid creature surged ahead, falling for the ruse.
The presence of a ship here indicated there would be more of the same and that he was possibly near the honeycombed openings where he had first gained entry. A good sign, but, under the circumstances he must not transform back to human form. Almost as he divined the thought, Bzt. He could feel the painful solidity of body crowding back on him. Panic struck. He forced the violent emotion back in his memory, deep into his psyche. The crackling energy dissipated. Not fast enough. The thing had seen his shimmering and charged like a savage beast.
He let it pass right through him. Miko brimmed with triumph. A further testament that his mutant powers could be controlled. He would have died then and there had he not been able to mentally will his emotions to keep him invisible. With restrained excitement, he resumed his earlier plan.
While the thing snuffed about, tentacles wavering and polyped maw whining in frustration, he took care to lead it deeper down the shadowy corridor. Like a ghost, Miko drifted past more crumbling walls and on into another lofty hall of the proto-locusts. Surging ahead, he led the beast past more derelict ships, toppled alien statues and shattered tanks. Then he heard the echo of voices.
Zikri chitters that he knew all too well. They echoed from a place deep within a side corridor. Miko quietly levitated a chunk of rusted metal that had fallen from a scavenged vessel. He projected the junk down the way. The creature lumbered in eager anticipation of its meal down the hall.
The beginnings of delight stirred Miko’s resolve when he heard the tearing of flesh and rending of tusks. His bodiless grin curled from ear to ear.
Time was ticking. There was much to do if he and the others were to survive.
XARES: FINAL COUNTDOWN
BOOK V
Chapter 1
Something had startled Star: a sound, some movement, a sinister and deadly rustle in the murk of the god-forsaken tunnels hewn by alien hands. A thick sweat clung to her skin, dripping down her neck and onto the small of her back. She lifted her blaster. Her long blond hair fell limp, in damp clumps down her slim shoulders. The air in her suit was humid and close and would be running out soon. Maybe better that the nightmare was over quickly, that she die here before she was caught and plunged into one of those horrible tanks.
Usk, her locust ally, one of the Mentera race, hung suspended in the luminescent green fluid of one of the eerie tanks in front of her. His locust-shaped head lolled, protected in a kind of scratched and dented grey helmet. A dark red smear ran along the edge of his insectoid brow. The other three tanks were unserviceable, either cracked and drained of their water, or contained alien creatures she could not bear to look at: with horns, pincers and claws the only barely-recognizable features. Usk, human size, bobbed upright in his glass tank like a lab specimen. Though she loathed the very sight of the alien aquarium, she took two steps closer, reached out a trembling hand to the glass. The locust blinked, slowly lifted an answering pincer up in response. Now human finger and locust claw touched on either side of the glass in a classic pose of friendship. The locust’s space-suit was shredded, the wounds
