Ryann looked away self-consciously, unable to hold her gaze. A sudden image of Angelique entered his mind, during the time that she herself had accused him of being reckless. And then his thoughts turned to her laughing along with Mara Kobo and he was overcome with sadness once more.
“You have a kind face Ryann,” said Eve softly. She leaned in closer towards him and went to lay her hand upon his arm, then stopped, as though quickly changing her mind.
“You’re right, we should get moving,” she said awkwardly, pulling herself up to her feet. “The Queen will surely have sent out drones to hunt for us.”
“But where to?” asked Ryann, looking up at the rows of vessels above them. “Even if we could somehow get a drone ship flying, the hangar doors are sealed shut. We’ll never get out of this hangar, never mind the rest of the ship.”
“I might know a way to get power to doors,” said Eve, lost in thought. “There’s a control tower for each hangar — if we could get up to it, I might know a way.” She craned her neck to look upwards and Ryann followed her gaze. The hangar was a vast hexagonal shaft, and high up the sheer walls a structure jutted out on gantries. Ryann could make out rows of windows, like dark eyes staring back down at them.
“There’s an elevator over there,” she said, pointing across the hangar to an open doorway. “We might be able to get it working.”
“And if not,” muttered Ryann, gazing back up to the distant control tower. “That’s quite some climb.”
“Then we’d better hope I can get the elevator working,” she replied with a grin, and set off across the hangar floor.
Ryann went to follow and then stopped as he heard a faint sound echoing off to his left.
With a sudden hiss of venting gases a blast door slid open to reveal a dark group of figures standing motionless in the doorway. They were the same, ill-formed drones that had borne the Hive Queen upon her throne.
Ryann instinctively raised his rifle, but to his horror another door slid open, and then another, all around the periphery of the hangar. He looked to Eve, and they both jumped as the door directly behind them hissed open.
“Run!” he called, but Eve was already dashing across the hangar floor as the drones spilled out from the doorways with a terrible cry.
As he sprinted for the elevator shaft, Ryann raised his rifle, firing a quick burst across the hangar. His shots flew over the open space, exploding into the nearest group of drones. Several were knocked to the ground in the blast, but to Ryann’s concern, they all struggled back to their feet, seemingly unharmed. They came on with a slow, lumbering walk, converging upon them from all around the hangar.
He focussed all his attention upon the open entrance to the elevator and ran for his life.
“When we get to the elevator I’ll try and get the doors closed, but you’ll have to hold them off while I work!” gasped Eve at Ryann’s side.
“Well work quick,” he replied. “My rifle doesn’t seem too effective against them!”
He loosed off another burst, and more of the drones were sent reeling. But they soon pulled themselves back to their feet and continued on towards them.
Ryann glanced about in horror; it seemed like there were hundreds of shambling figures streaming into the hangar now.
“Just slow them down!” yelled Eve in fear.
Finally, they reached the imposing entrance of the elevator, and Eve crashed breathlessly down beside a control panel. With a deft punch she managed to buckle a corner of the panel covering, then took hold and tore it from the wall. She let it hang from a tangle of wires and quickly got to work sorting through them.
“Hey, you fix things the same way as I do!” called out Ryann with a grim smile, taking up a protective position in front of her. She shot him a grim smile before going back to her frantic work.
“Just keep them off me,” she muttered through gritted teeth.
Ryann risked a glance into the shadows of the elevator. It was a large open space for transporting the drone fighters. The power was out though and the protective blast doors remained locked open.
He turned back to the hangar, loosing off another shot into the nearest approaching figures. They were still a little way off, but more and more were appearing at the doors.
“Can you get the elevator working?” breathed Ryann without looking around, firing shot after shot into the drones.
“Doesn’t look like it,” replied Eve matter-of-factly. “But I might be able to get the blast door closed — that should buy us some more time.”
“Well, just do it fast.”
“I’m going as quick as I can,” she muttered irritably, pulling out a cable in a shower of sparks.
“Go faster!” exclaimed Ryann, picking out the nearest drone, barely ten metres from them. It fell backwards with a smoking wound in its chest, but more drones quickly overtook it.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE HUNT
They came on, one by one, like some endless, unstoppable tide. Each figure was a shadow, vague and ill-formed as though its features had been roughly carved in clay. They strode forwards with slow purpose, their arms at their sides and their faces blank.
“Where the hell are they all coming from?” called out Ryann over the sound of his rifle as he fired shot after shot into the approaching horde. But his weapon was doing little more than slowing them down. Each time his shot struck, the figure would stagger under the impact, then resume its steady pace with a terrible inevitability. It wasn’t until the third or fourth round hit before the figure would fall lifeless to the floor, its body breaking up and scattering like ash. Already the ground was littered with blackened husks, but still they came on.
“The Queen’s channelling all her energy into bringing the ship back to life,” Eve called back, wrenching at another
