Before I could work out what to do next, Tens had spun up a series of code constructs that all hit the wall at once. I watched as the tendrils lunged out at each one—and then stared in confusion when they crushed the coding in their coils, dropping the remains at the foot of the wall, before vanishing into the surface.
“Well, that answers that, then,” Tens said. “He’s programmed something that can tell the difference between wet-ware and code-ware.”
“Not possible,” Delight responded, but I didn’t bother arguing.
If Askavor had done what Tens said he had, then there was only one way through the wall.
“Don’t you dare!”
Delight lunged for me, but I was already running. I hit the wall hard, just as she grabbed a hold of my metaphorical foot. It was still a relief when I wasn’t crushed—not so much of a relief that I could feel the program sliding through my mind and taking what it wanted.
“Askavor!” I shouted. “Askavor! Help me!”
The wall dragged at my face as I was pulled through the code.
“Askavor?”
Uncertainty uncoiled inside my chest. What the fuck had I done?
And, no sooner had I asked that than the wall faded from around me, and Askavor was crouched over me. The sight of him above me, had me trying to backpedal my way out from under.
“I’m coming,” he said, and vanished.
I just sat and stared at where he had been, relieved to see Mack, and Tens, and Delight, still there.
“He’s gone?” Delight asked.
“I think he’s back,” I told her.
“Yup,” Tens said, “and he wants you back in your own head.”
I hesitated, and that was all it took.
Tens kicked me out of the system—again!
The minute I was back in my own head, I wished I wasn’t. I definitely didn’t feel so good—and Doc was definitely pissed off with me. Mack, too, if the look on his face was anything to go by. Delight, also, wasn’t amused.
“I have shit to do,” she said, and pushed me over to Mack. “She’s your troublemaker; you take care of her.”
Well, looked like I’d won the trifecta.
“Where is the tank?”
Tovy was here? Cool.
Make that super cool. That calming pheromone was excellent shit. Doc seemed to think so, too, but it didn’t stop him from turning me into a pincushion, again.
“This way,” he said, as Mack lifted me into his arms.
Honestly! This was getting ridiculous.
15—Arach Infiltration
Mack was standing over the med box when I came round again.
“You missed one helluva party,” he said, as I opened my eyes, and I groaned.
Every time, man. Every. Time. He was always there.
“Someone’s got to make sure you’re okay when you wake up.
Yeah. Pretty sure that wasn’t it.
I frowned, and decided there were more important things to do, than snark back.
“Did we win?”
“Let’s see, Odyssey had to port over six more teams to clear the engine room, the med bay, and fix whatever they’d done to Bio… and then we found what happened to the crew who hadn’t made it to the pods the first time around.”
He paused, and I caught a flash of memory he didn’t hide fast enough.
The rec room had been filled with web, and crew members had been cocooned against the server stacks. Mack shook me out of it, when he shut the memory down.
“They’re all okay, but they’re going to need some serious ground-time before they can come ship-board, again. The wasps said they’d take care of it.”
“What was that?” and we both knew I meant the cocoons in the rec room.
Mack hesitated, and then shrugged.
“The vespis said the arach were preparing a place for their queen. Askavor says it means the hatchery on the queen’s ship is full. He says this is more than an invasion force, that the arach intend to colonize this world.”
He stopped, just stopped, and I had never seen Mack look so haunted.
“How long was I out?”
“Doc stuck you in the regen tank and then boosted it. If we’d let things take their course, you’da been in there five days. Because we didn’t have that kind of time, Odyssey sent over one of their med teams and boosted our system. They said…”
“Mack,” I said, breaking into the flow. “How long?”
“Four hours,” and he didn’t look happy.
I wondered what the side effects were, but then decided it didn’t matter. I’d get Doc to fill me in later.
“Gonna help me out?”
He glanced down at me, and managed an almost-smile.
“Sure, you’re needed in the teleport center. We’re chasing the arach, and Delight said she’d stay with the queen’s team. You and me have to go.”
“Why?”
“It’s part of the contract.”
I didn’t bother to ask which contract. Four hours was more than enough time for Mack and Delight to have come to some arrangement. It was probably enough time for Mack and the vespis queen to have come to one, as well.
I sat up, carefully, given how much I remembered things hurting the last time I was awake. It was disturbing that all the pain had gone away.
“Yeah. That’s why Doc isn’t so happy with Delight, right now.”
“Why? Because I don’t hurt?”
“No, because she’s treating you just like she’s been treated, and he doesn’t think that’s a good thing.”
I wanted to ask why not, but my mind shied away from the question. Truth was, I didn’t want to know. Right now, if treating me like Delight got me back on my feet in time to help my friends out, that was good by me. Mack hit the switch that turned the med box into a bed, and I swung my legs over the side.
“Let’s get this crazy show on the road,” I told him. “You got anything you want me to wear?”
I watched his eyebrows hit his hairline, and turned away, smirking. It was always good to catch him on the hop. He could take it any way he liked, but there had better be some armored underwear waiting in the closet.
“Picky, picky, picky,” he muttered, and pointed to a
