“Agreed,” T’Kit said, and came to a stop outside the door leading to the room, where the station staff were sheltering. “Scan, please.”
Please… always so polite, I thought, and set about doing what I’d been asked.
“Thank you,” the wasp replied, although whether it was because I’d appreciated her manners, or was doing as I was told, I didn’t know.
“Both.”
There was no response to that.
I accessed the station systems, and found my way back to the room we needed. What I saw beyond the door made my stomach churn.
“I don’t think the station personnel locked themselves away,” I said.
Anger vibrated T’Kit’s wings.
“Open the door.”
“Stay back,” I warned her.
While I didn’t think the arach had booby-trapped the door, I didn’t want to risk it.
“Are you sure the arach queen was still on her ship?” I asked.
“Why do you ask?” T’Kit wanted to know… and then she dipped back into my head. “Oh.”
“Is there some way to tell?” I paused, letting her think about it, and then an idea occurred to me. “Do they smell different?”
“You learn quickly,” and amusement tinged the wasp’s tones.
Again, the scent of arach filtered through my head, and into my nostrils. I took a little time to savor it, but couldn’t tell if it smelt different from the scent she’d passed to me down the corridor.
“It doesn’t,” she confirmed, “but the possibility of the queen having left her ship was not one we could discount.”
“Has it been known to have happened before?”
“Never.”
I wondered why she would not discount it, then.
“Because the arach have been known to innovate on contact with other species—and now they have come into contact with humans, the most unpredictable creatures of all.”
Creatures. It made me smile. At least specism wasn’t limited to my own race.
“It is found in all races,” the wasp replied. “It is how we have preserved ourselves, up to now.”
I got the impression she was making small talk to pass the time, and maybe to help her ignore the pain. Her next question confirmed it.
“Have you opened the door, yet?”
“Just a minute,” I said, then, “It’s unlocked. How do you want to do this?”
“We try not to damage the cocoons, and destroy every arach we find within.”
Sounded like a plan to me. I switched out the Blazer for the Glazer and Zakrava, and made sure I could get to my blades.
“You ready?”
“On three.”
“One. Two. Three…”
We burst through the door and into the chamber of horrors beyond. The arach had done a number on the personnel. Some of them were still doing a number. Not everyone was in cocoons. Some were being held tight as the arach fed.
“Fuck this,” I said, and slid the smaller pistols home, bringing the Blazer up, instead.
I might lose some accuracy, and the chance for collateral was higher, but some of these bastards had been sitting in areas the security cameras couldn’t see, and I needed them dead, sooner, rather than later, or T’Kit and I would be dead before the job was done.
It was a bit of a surprise, when T’Kit didn’t disagree, but unslung two Blazers, firing each independently from the other.
“We see differently,” she told me, “and coordinate differently.”
I might have found that interesting, but I didn’t have time to digest it properly. The two arach that were closest had discarded their meals, and were racing towards me. I took them out in quick succession, and then fired upwards and into the third one coming over the ceiling towards me. I figured one day I would get over just how much that freaked me out—I just had to accept that today wasn’t going to be it.
The fifth one leapt out from behind a cocoon. It had gone to hybrid form, and clamped two of its four hands over one of my arms, trying to pull me towards its far-too toothy maw. It was a good thing it hadn’t worked out this was a bad thing.
I turned the Blazer in towards it, and gave it a short burst of solids. Its hands went limp, and it folded. I sidestepped its falling body, and moved with T’Kit around the room. After clearing her side, she sliced the cocoons down from the ceiling, and laid them gently on the floor, while I took out any threats trying to come in from the other side.
Between us, we worked our way across the room. It must have been one of the conference halls, because it was bigger than it looked, and we took out twenty more arach, and, between us, we counted almost a hundred and fifty cocooned humans, all drained, drunk from, or dead. As soon as nothing else moved towards us, we commed the queen.
“Area secured.”
“Stay there,” the queen ordered. “I will come for you.”
“T’Kit has been injured.”
“How bad?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Guard T’Kit, report!” the queen ordered.
“I may not survive.”
How T’Kit could be so calm when reporting her own demise, I did not know, but shock tremored through me, and I wanted to cry.
“I will come.”
“Please, your Majesty, there is no nee—”
“There will always be a need…” and the queen’s Galbas shifted to the fluid clicks and whistles of pure vespis.
T’Kit was silent when the queen was done, and I thought they had shifted directly to mind-to-mind. I left them to it, while I surveyed the room, looking for any movement that would signal we’d missed one of the arach. The only movement I saw was that of the humans, huddling together for comfort.
I almost shot the first silver column of light that appeared amongst them, but T’Kit was faster. Before I could fire, she had snapped the Blazer out of my hand with a well-placed strike of her foreclaw.
“Odzee,” she said, and I turned to her.
“What can I do?”
“Only the
