There were no wailing klaxons sounding the alarm, but his instincts were pulsing in his temples anyway.
There was an odd smell in the room. Garth knew it well-he’d been exposed to this alien stink before. He struggled to his feet and grabbed up his clothes in the dark. He did not bother with his jacket, nor touch together the nano-adhesives to close his shirt over his bare chest. He took the time to pull on his boots, but that was all.
He got no further than the midpoint of the room when the Tulk in his head awakened. The being that shared his skull was an old one, and tended to sleep often. But now Ornth woke up and quivered with alarm. Garth felt an instant headache as Ornth no doubt employed his spines and sent probes through their shared nervous system. He felt the Tulk reach out to take the reins of his mind.
Garth felt his arm lifting, reaching for the pad. He had not instructed his arm to do so. It was moving under the Tulk’s control. At a single touch, Garth knew the door would swish open.
Don’t! Garth said loudly in his own mind.
The hand hesitated. The fingers squirm like worms baking on a sidewalk. Then it reached closer still to the touchpad.
You will kill us, Garth thought, unable to stop his arm from moving. You will be exposed.
The hand paused and wavered uncertainly. It was a horrible thing to be trapped within one’s own shared skull and to be unable to control one’s body. Insanity must have felt much the same, Garth had often reflected.
Do not dare to threaten me, ungrateful creature, Ornth responded directly.
Despite the danger, Garth smiled triumphantly with half his mouth. Ornth had taken the rare step of conversing with his mount. This in itself was an achievement among skalds.
I offer no threat. I am imparting a warning. The enemy is near. Can you not sense them?
The ship is full of the beasts from the stars.
Yes, but now they are inside our sanctuary. They have broken in somehow.
Ornth hesitated, then Garth felt his arm lifting again. I do not believe you, Ornth said.
Fine. Open the door. Prove me right as we are devoured, watch our flesh be sucked up into the food-tubes of the ancient enemy. How they will laugh when they find you hiding inside my cracked skull!
The hand stopped, and lowered back to Garth’s side. If we are not to exit this place, what can be done?
Garth felt his crushing tension relaxing. The Tulk was listening to him. Use a communication device. Attempt to communicate with another skald in another cubicle. Do not speak, but see if the others respond. We cannot let the enemy know we are awake and breathing in this place. They will hunt us, if we do.
Ornth did as he suggested. He touched a device near the bedside in the darkness, after first muting the system. Garth knew a tone would sound inside another chamber nearby, but he could not hear it. Ornth waited, but after six chimes, no one answered.
Try another, Garth suggested.
You are clouding my thoughts, and causing me undue stress.
I’m keeping us both alive.
Ornth used Garth’s fingers to reach out and touch a different glowing cabin number. More chimes were indicated. Garth could hear them through the wall. Ornth must be calling a nearby room.
This time, the call was answered. A face flickered into being on the screen and both minds stared with Garth’s wide eyes. It was a female face, but not the same skald girl who had tricked Garth days ago. She looked tired and baffled.
“What is the purpose of this communication?” she asked.
Do not respond, Garth urged. They are listening.
Ornth said nothing with either his mind or Garth’s lips. The skald girl peered at them, unable to see much. She lifted her hand to disconnect the device-but hesitated, turning her head to one side.
Suddenly, a shriek came from her. It was a strange sound of surprise and desperation. The cry was human, but not entirely so, as two creatures screamed together in mortal terror.
Her face was gone from the view of the device a moment later.
Turn off the device! Garth urged.
What has occurred?
Turn off the device!
His own squirming fingers did as he demanded. The horrible sounds could still be heard, however. They were coming through the wall from the cabin next door. The walls reverberated with a sudden booming sound, as a body thudded against it.
We must flee! Garth urged. Walk us into the lavatory.
Ornth did so on shaky legs. Why are we here? There is nowhere to hide.
Garth directed the Tulk to remove a clamp and the toilet slid from its moorings. A narrow dark hole appeared. A rich odor wafted up from the pipes below.
You suggest we attempt to slide away into the sewers?
I maintain this vessel. The pipes will expand as they join others. If we can reach an expulsion tank, there will be a maintenance portal. That may well be how the shrade got in in the first place.
Ornth walked out of the lavatory, while Garth shrieked in his head. You are the mad-thing, not I. You have never met them in person. I’ve been in their nests. We must flee!
No, said Ornth firmly. We will gather weapons and drive this interloper out.
The Tulk do not fight, they flee!
The Tulk do battle, upon occasion.
But why change a successful strategy now? Why not continue to avoid the enemy?
Because there is no way off this ship, disobedient rogue. Now be silent, I’m having difficulty cogitating.
Garth was anything but silent. He pleaded, threatened and strained to recapture the reins of his body. But his nerve endings were riddled with fresh-driven control threads. He could not force his own limbs to stop moving. He felt his hand make contact with the smooth metal touchpad. The door swished open, washing him with the bright glare of the corridor outside. Although he didn’t see any aliens crouching at his feet, Garth shrieked helplessly within his own mind.
Quiet, fool! Ornth demanded. I can’t think!
The being that was a hybrid of human and Tulk stepped out into the empty corridor. The room next door was quiet now-perhaps the shrade was eating its fill. Garth had to struggle to make a coherent argument with the creature that drove his body like a power-walker without his consent.
You must see reason, Ornth, he said. At least, whatever you do, don’t open that door.
I do not intend to listen to a rogue.
I have faced these beings before. Allow me to be your tactical advisor.
The Tulk hesitated uncertainly. Garth felt a growing sense of panic. They were taking a tremendous risk standing here in the hallway, staring and twitching. At any second, one of the aliens could arrive on the scene and there would be three creatures riding this single body.
I would humbly suggest, great Ornth, that we move to a safer location, Garth said, trying make his thoughts seem as calm and reasonable as possible. His continued existence depended on it.
I have no intention of exploring sewers. We are under attack. I must sound the alarm.
Garth wanted to shriek again, to cry, to screech and gibber with madness. But these things would not increase his already dismal odds of survival. Instead, he controlled his thoughts as the Tulk clumsily drove him to take tottering steps toward the open saloons.
Any audible alarm will also alert the enemy, Garth pointed out.
I am not a fool. I will find the others and we will form barricades.
Garth wanted to argue that the Tulk was indeed an old fool, even for one of his reclusive race. He was impressed by the bravery of this member of the Tulk, however. Fryx would have run and done anything to distance himself from danger. This being had larger ideas. Unfortunately, they were foolish ideas and likely to get both of them killed.
The shrade will penetrate any barricade, as it managed to do when it entered this enclosed region. The critical thing now, is to stop the shrade from opening the exterior locks. It will seek to do so, and thus let in an
