Regers grinned.
But that grin did not remain for long. Even as Jennings turned Xaromar’s nose toward deep space to clear planetary gravity, the dragonfly was on the move. When it caught sight of its armored shell being carted away, it came streaking up from planetside like a mad hornet.
“Is this for real?” Vincent murmured.
“Up the power, Jiminy, unless you want to be staring into the eyes of a space bug in one of his cranky moods.”
“You see, you can’t kill them!” cried Dez, his eyes lit in a maniacal gleam.
“We’re almost at warp distance,” Ramra hissed. “How fast can the thing fly?”
“Xaromar’s beat up.” Jennings clawed at his brow. “Impulse is shot to hell. Let’s just hope the warp isn’t screwed too.”
“If it is, guess who’s going out in a space suit to fix it?” Regers jeered, his lips fixed in an unpleasant grin.
The bug loomed up in the holoview, overtaking them at their slow impulse. With a sudden burst of speed, it smashed its hammerhead nose right through the plated hull of the Mentera assault probe along Xaromar’s starboard side. Bits and pieces of wreckage and mangled bodies floated out of the newly created hole.
The dragonfly surged in with otherworldly eyes glowing ravenous hues. Its acrid spit cauterized the hole, now small enough so that no human could escape. As more debris flew out, Regers gaped, shuddering to think about Creib’s fate out there. Even if they’d attempted to save him, he’d be long gone now.
“How far?” he croaked at Jennings, fingering his blaster.
“One and a half minutes to safe zone.”
“Too long! Hurry the fuck up. If that bug smacks through our hull, we’re all floating corpses.”
Jennings grimaced. Another oil-drum boom came thudding from the port hull.
“Christ, that thing’s going to shred us,” rasped Deakes. His eyes rolled port-ward to the engine bay. “How much more damage can this ship take?”
The ship lurched to new assaults.
All eyes turned to the holoview. The dragonfly ripped out of the hulk and flew ahead of Xaromar and turned back to stare at the crew with iridescent eyes, even though the port glass was shuttered. For a second time, Regers got an unpleasant glimpse of that creature through the holo view, as if it glared through misty veils of evil and on through his soul. The streamlined carapace glimmered rainbow colors under the faint light of Remus’s faraway sun. Its near transparent wings buzzed at impossible speeds. Then its bulbous body twitched like a bumblebee on a blossoming flower. The six legs retracted and extended and an extra set of antenna wavered. How could any creature survive in a vacuum? A shudder of apprehension shivered up Regers’ spine. He could not help but remember the dragonfly creature he’d named Shredder that had torn through as many Zikri squids as he could count on Phebis.
Jennings gave a sudden gust of triumph as he slammed the Varwol drive to engage. The ship lurched in response and hurtled through the light highways to impossible places. The crew gaped as the holoviews showed a wall of white light to either side.
Safety.
Silence.
Regers loosed a strangled breath. “That’s not a creature I want to mess with. Good work, boys. Let’s crack out the Daulk ale.” He glared at Dez. “See, Dez, your shitass prank of delaying us, nearly got us killed.”
Dez’s lips peeled back in an angry scowl. He held his tongue, forgoing to mention that Regers had already implemented his original plan to capture the armor.
Regers stepped through the pile of Mentera bodies, whistling a happy tune, kicking at corpses as he passed. “Let’s get this mess cleaned up. We’ll shove this filth in the trash compactor. Hate the smell of their yellow, green-goblin blooded hides.”
Regers took little heed of Dez’s droopy misery as he hunched amidst the bloody masses of locust husks that lay strewn across the bridge. Ramra lifted his weapon to blast one of the last twitching insects, but Jennings held up a hand. “Don’t nuke that one yet.” His face was flushed, cheeks blood-smeared. “Hear that? Radio chatter. We can patch in his communications to the ship’s universal translators and figure out what these bugs were up to. Seems a dismal place to crouch and hide. If the locust is still alive, maybe it’s receiving some kind of messages or last transmission from its superiors.”
“Good plan, Jiminy.” Regers turned to Ramra. “Help Deakes.” They dragged the weak creature over to the com console, ripped off its cracked helmet and patched the battered headset into the main computer. Raspy, clicking, insect sounds played through the ship’s audio. The computer began to analyze and decode the garbled scratches and hisses.
“Mantis one, can you read? Intercept humans. (Pause). Bring all aboard with the others. (Staticky pause). Once you have acquired targets, rendezvous to Kraetoria with the mother ship at sector A34.7765#953l54. Other humans have
