Askavor rolled in, and froze. I caught a flash of horror from his mind, and then he spoke.
“Door,” he said, and there was enough urgency in his voice that I didn’t need him to tell me to hurry.
I looked at the melee, and then backed up to stand in front of him. It might not help, if I was inside the ship’s systems…
“But it might. Please, hurry. The timer will be too slow.”
Well, that wasn’t good news. As hard as it was, I settled against one of his forelimbs, and dove back into the system. I was seriously glad when Askavor came with me. This time, getting coated in code wasn’t quite so bad, especially not when the arach programs couldn’t seem to get a grip on it. It was better, when he hit me with a second coating of code, and I could see the tendrils melt away from me when they touched it.
“That’s not going to hurt the ship, is it?”
“Only arach code.”
Oh, good. I focused on the door commands. It was a simple matter to turn the timer off, and come back to the battle. I was just in time to catch a flash of movement beside the door.
“Aska!”
“I have them.”
We turned together, and fought to kept the door clear—me using one hand to brace the Blazer against my hip, and hoping there was no one in the cabin opposite, and him, with foreclaws stiffened to points, as he stabbed over my shoulder. He barely pulled his legs back in time, as the door snapped shut. It shook as the next arach in the swarm outside slammed hard against it.
“Jam it,” Tens said, from behind me. “They have the codes.”
Damnit. I remembered them coming in to feed, securing the prisoners inside. Of course, they did. I reached back into the code and fried the controls. This time Aska was only just in time to stop the hostile arach software from wrapping itself around me—and I was only just in time to block Mack’s strike against the spider.
“Get out of the way, Cutter.”
“No can do, Mack.”
“Your choice,” and he swung the long blade at my chest.
I backed up, and found my retreat blocked by Askavor’s bulk. The small sound of fright I heard, as I skipped forward, was my own—but I turned against the spider’s foreleg, and blocked Mack’s strike with the short blade, followed by the hastily spun Blazer.
That, sure as shit, wasn’t good for the barrel, but it blocked Mack’s fist, as well, which was good for me.
“Mack!” Tens. Promptly ignored, as Mack readied himself for a second attack. “Mack!”
And then Mack jerked as something struck him from behind. He started to turn, but the wasp venom acted swiftly, and he toppled, unable to resist, as Askavor reached past me to catch his body and lower it to the floor. Tek’s voice was a welcome distraction.
“The queen requests the second shuttle, and assistance to fly the first.”
“I’m not sure I can fly both at once.”
“I can help,” came as a chorus from Tens and Rohan.
I looked at them.
“Aren’t you locked out?”
“Not if we go through your head, we aren’t.”
Fan-fucking-tastic, but at least it solved the problem—and there was no arach code in the drop-ships’ controls. I settled myself to the floor, beside Mack, and pulled his head into my lap. I don’t know if it made him feel any better, but it sure helped me—and much more than I wanted to admit.
I felt even better, when Cascade came and lay down on Mack’s other side, although I wasn’t so happy with the big beast resting his head on my legs. Now, I really wasn’t going anywhere, and I wouldn’t be able to react if the arach made it into the room. I looked up at the ventilation ports set high in the wall, relieved to see they were too small for a human, let alone a full-sized arach.
“They don’t fit,” Rohan reassured me, and connected with the shuttle. “You’re going to need to open the hangar bay doors.”
Of course, I was.
“Get your greasy paws off the controls,” Tens ordered. “You can familiarize on the way down.”
“The queen wishes to depart immediately.” Tek ended what was starting to look like a brawl. “Do you both know how to fly?”
“Yes,” came from two minds, followed by Rohan’s instructions to the dog. “Stay, Cascade. Guard!”
Cascade raised his head from my leg, and wuffed, once, before settling back down.
Great.
“I’ll get the doors,” I said, and was relieved when Askavor spoke.
“I am ready.”
We turned back to the ship’s controls, and I was relieved to see that Askavor’s virus was still at work. I was not so relieved when I outdistanced it, entering the ship’s central systems.
“I have you,” Askavor said, and I wondered where he’d heard that turn of phrase.
“It is a weaver saying, from when we secure the webs.”
It meant something else, too. I caught a quick flash of extra meaning, but it was gone before I could see what it was. It made me wonder what he wasn’t telling me… or it would have, if I hadn’t been too busy dodging code. It looked like the arach had been so focused on getting to Tens and the crew, that they hadn’t bolstered their systems.
I moved on the code for the hangar-bay doors, and opened them all to space. It surprised me that the Shady Marie had four. I felt the vibration as they opened, and then the slight imbalance as the drop-ship took off.
“Not bad, kid,” told me exactly who was flying it, and I wondered what Mack would say about that.
“Just wait until I can move, again,” came through loud and clear.
Rohan laughed, the sheer high-spirited glee of it making me smile, until Askavor brought me back to the fact I was still in danger.
“We need to clear this.”
“What do you suggest?”
He coated me in defense code and virus, once more, and said, “Run through
