Paw-Prints Of The Gods (51 page)

The spinning rods
became a tornado-like frenzy. The cryogenic capsule toppled and
with the dead spider was promptly sucked into oblivion. The cocoon
remained a few more moments, then dropped silently through the
inverse starry whirlpool and into the void.

“Nana and Stripy!”
shrieked Artorius. “Where have they gone?”

“Home,” said Ravana.
She looked at Nana’s strange gift, which despite everything was
still in her hand. “I hope they know where they’re going.”

* * *

The light within the
portal began to fade. The rods continued to whirl, beyond which the
faint outlines of Jizo and the two clones were still visible,
perched precariously at the edge of the vortex. Lilith and Dagan
solemnly drew near Ravana, Quirinus, Kedesh and Artorius, all
temporarily united by shock. Fearful murmurs came from the others
huddled in the archway behind them. Ravana’s headache pounded as
fiercely as ever.

“I saw a woman,” Dagan
whispered. “Sitting on top of that thing!”

“Brothers Dhanus and
Simha,” said Lilith. “Can we get them out of there?”

“What about your
fellow nurse?” sneered Kedesh. “She caused all this.”

“Stuff Jizo,” Lilith
retorted. “Mad drunken psycho.”

“Stuff them all,”
growled Quirinus. “I’ve had enough craziness for one day.”

“Look!” Ravana cried,
pointing. “There’s something coming back up!”

A dark shape rose from
the glowing vortex. At first Ravana thought it was the return of
the cocoon, then a shiver ran down her spine as a huge black bulk
hauled itself from the funnel on long hairy legs. Behind it
followed another, then another. Anguish surged through her implant,
sending her reeling before she even heard the cyberclones’ shrieks.
She opened her mouth to scream, but Jizo got there first with a
wild banshee wail.

“Weavers!” hissed
Kedesh.

“What the hell...?”
murmured Quirinus.

“Ashtapadas,” moaned
Ravana, holding her head. “Why did it have to be spiders?”

The monster arachnids
clambered from the portal to the edge of the spinning rods. Jizo
leapt frantically from one set of snapping jaws to another, tried
to jump through a gap in the moving rods and was thrown to the
floor. The cyberclone monks raised their hands and shrieked again.
Ravana winced under their barrage of concentrated pulses of anger,
which felt like they were trying to ward off the invaders by
thought alone. The chamber quickly filled with the chattering of
mandibles, punctuated by sharp cracks as creatures fell against the
whirling rods and were catapulted back across the vortex in a
tangle of legs.

Ravana stared
mesmerised at the ever-increasing tumbling mass of spiders. Her
fear turned to horror at the sight of Jizo under attack. The
nurse’s screams of terror mingled with the defiant screeches of
Simha and Dhanus, then with one last searing spike of anguish the
pain in Ravana’s head was gone. A glimpse of Jizo and the
cyberclones prone upon the floor, overrun by snapping jaws and
trampling limbs, gave way to the grotesque spectacle of a pair of
spiders scrabbling over them to wrap their twitching bodies in
silk.

The scene of thrashing
legs and pulsating bodies gradually became clearer through the
blue-tinged blur of the rods. The funnel of the alien portal was
closing, the whirring circle slowing to a halt. Ravana felt a cold
shudder of dread.

“The rods,” she said
in alarm. “They’re stopping!”

“I don’t like this,”
sobbed Artorius.

“Giant spiders,”
growled Quirinus. “Any chance they’re friendly?”

An arachnid suddenly
burst from the writhing mass, ricocheted off a moving rod and to
their horror flew through into the chamber beyond. The spider
untangled its legs and with scything jaws made straight for the
frozen and stupefied Dagan. Quirinus whirled towards the
approaching creature, raised the guns in his hands and let loose a
volley of shots. The spider’s head exploded, splattering blood to
the floor.

Ravana grimaced. The
decapitated corpse slid onwards and she leapt away with a shriek.
The arachnid was clad in what looked like armour, similar to that
of the dead spider once embedded in the floor. Lilith ran to the
arch and beckoned wildly to the robot sentry.

“Battlebot! Release
the prisoners and defend our retreat!” she cried, then turned to
the frightened onlookers in the archway. “Everyone, run for your
lives!”

A tremor shook the
chamber and with a loud groan all twelve of the rods promptly
stopped dead. A split second later, a cascade of monster spiders
fell through the gaps amidst a flurry of legs and surged towards a
terrified Ravana and companions. The floodlights cast gigantic
scuttling shadows upon the glistening walls and shone upon a galaxy
of glinting eyes. The macabre chattering of mandibles was
deafening.

“Run!” Kedesh cried to
Ravana. “Get the hell out of here!”

Lilith was already
dragging a dazed Dagan away. Ravana stuffed the green globe into a
pocket, grabbed Artorius and dashed towards the screaming voices at
the arch. Quirinus and Kedesh began to fire upon the advancing
horde and the loud retort of plasma fire echoed around the chamber.
The military android joined the fray and with rapid rifle fire
decapitated three arachnids in a matter of seconds. The advance of
the spiders barely slowed.

Ahead, Ininna and Yima
were frantically urging the panic-stricken Xuthus, Urania and
scarlet-haired Hestia away into the tunnels, closely followed by
the more resolute Philyra and Fornax. Ravana found Govannon waiting
for her beyond the arch, where she wasted no time bundling Artorius
into his arms before scooting across the passageway to collect the
plasma cannon. The cricket bat was nearby but her slate was nowhere
to be seen.

“Get him to safety,”
Ravana urged Govannon. She hefted the cannon to her shoulder,
thumbed the power switch and smiled grimly as the
implant-controlled targeting cross-hairs appeared in her virtual
eye line. “Philyra can lead you back to our ship.”

“Spiders!” wailed
Artorius. “They took Stripy and Nana!”

“Don’t dawdle,” urged
Govannon. “We’ve already lost one archaeologist on this trip.”

Despite everything,
Ravana grinned. “You call this archaeology?”

Govannon gave a wry
smile, hoisted Artorius onto his back and with a hand on his hat
slipped away into the flickering green light of the tunnel. Lilith
and a terror-stricken Dagan hurried after them, leaving Quirinus,
Kedesh and the android still shooting at the skittering spiders.
Ravana ran back into the chamber and lined up the cannon to take a
shot at a cluster of arachnids near the three twitching bundles of
silk. The creatures were relentless, yet there was something about
their advance that reminded her of holovid news footage of street
battles between royalists and Que Qiao back on her native Yuanshi.
Around thirty arachnids had come through the portal and barely a
quarter had fallen to gunfire.

“Ravana!” yelled
Quirinus. “Get back!”

“Knock them for six!”
cried Kedesh.

Ravana fired. A streak
of white light leapt across the chamber and suddenly the air was
thick with smoke and chunks of black flesh. She looked for a new
target and saw a large spider at one of the rods, prodding its
mouth parts against the faint indentations that had last seen
Stripy’s nimble fingers. Another tremor struck the chamber, then
the rods jolted back into life and started to circle the central
dark pool once more.

“They’re reopening the
portal!” cried Ravana.

“There’s more on the
way?” Her father’s face was a picture of dismay.

Ravana, Quirinus and
Kedesh looked at one another, turned and raced for the archway.
They had barely entered the labyrinth when the staccato rifle
retorts from the android back in the chamber fell ominously silent.
The echoes of their pounding footsteps were soon joined by the
eerie chatter of mandibles and scuffle of feet that quickly grew
louder. Ravana risked a glance over her shoulder and to her horror
saw the first of the pursuing spiders barely ten metres behind. She
paused, aimed the cannon and fired her last remaining plasma bolt
at the arachnid’s bulbous head. Her grin upon seeing the resultant
smear upon the wall soon faded when three more spiders appeared at
the end of the tunnel.

“Ravana!” hissed
Quirinus, who had also stopped. “Save the heroics until later!”

He grabbed her aching
arm and pulled her forward. The passageway seemed never-ending,
made more so by the sound of the scurrying spiders behind. After
what seemed an age, they spied the light of the exit and finally
scrambled into the trench beyond.

Zotz was waiting in
the dome, calling and waving from the entrance of the flexible
walkway. Kedesh limped to Ravana’s side, still holding the waste
cartridge taken from the cryogenic capsule. She had also found time
to grab her cricket bat on the way.

“Jizo made me leave it
behind,” Kedesh said sourly. “She was no fan of cricket.”

“This way!” Zotz
cried. “Quickly!”

Behind them, the jaws
of a spider snapped at the ragged opening in the arch. Quirinus
raised a gun, released a barrage of shots into the arachnid’s head
and the creature fell to the ground. He shoved the pistols into his
belt and reached for his wristpad communicator.

“Momus!” he yelled.
“Start the engines!”

* * *

Ravana, Quirinus and
Kedesh, out of breath after their frantic dash back through the
labyrinth, hurried to where Zotz eagerly beckoned them on. The
dome’s airtight door was open, beyond which the walkway tunnel
curved up to where vacuum clamps held it to the underside of a
spacecraft’s curved bow. At the other end, Ravana saw the welcoming
sight of the open pod bay door of the
Platypus
, from which
dangled a wire ladder. As Zotz sealed the dome door behind them, a
pair of legs appeared at the pod bay hatch. Govannon clambered
uneasily down the ladder and dropped into the tunnel ahead.

“What happened to the
others?” gasped Quirinus.

“All present and
accounted for,” Govannon reported. “The Que Qiao agents made off in
their own transport, see? Everyone else is aboard. I’m sorry to say
that includes Dagan and the other Dhusarian. It seemed cruel to
leave them here.”

“This is Kedesh,”
Ravana said, seeing his wary look. “She helped us escape.”

“What happened to the
Dhusarians’ transport?” asked Kedesh.

“Momus hooked it up to
the road-laying machine and set it off on automatic pilot across
the desert,” Zotz replied, grinning.

They became aware of a
faint chattering on the other side of the airtight hatch, a sound
rapidly followed by the muffled patter of arachnid feet. Ravana put
an ear to the door and shivered. Quirinus flipped the timer
switches to release the clamps securing the
Platypus
to the
tunnel, then with Ravana quickly followed Govannon, Zotz and Kedesh
up the ladder and through the pod bay to the flight deck of the
ship. Ravana quickly made for her co-pilot’s seat and ran her
fingers across the console, checking flight systems.

“Ship!” Quirinus
called, shutting the floor hatch. “Seal the EV pod bay door.”

“I’m already on it,”
retorted Momus. He caught Quirinus’ stare and moved to the adjacent
seat to leave the pilot’s chair clear. “Ready when you are,
captain.”

“Pre-flight checks
complete,” intoned the AI. “Life support and flight systems online
and functioning normally. Faults remain in the forward...”

“We haven’t got time
for that!” snapped Quirinus, taking his chair.

A series of clunks
sounded, followed by a thud and the flexible walkway fell away from
the ship. Govannon slipped into the crawl tunnel to join his
students, huddled together on a bench in the cargo bay, the couch
in the carousel having already been commandeered by Fornax,
Philyra, Lilith and Dagan. Seeing Zotz take the fourth seat on the
flight deck, Kedesh was about to follow Govannon when a movement
outside caught her eye.

“Look!” she cried,
pointing. “They’re coming through the dome!”

Ravana gasped in
horror. A spider was wriggling through a hole in the dome’s
inflatable wall, its powerful jaws masticating upon shreds of
ripped fabric. The poisonous air of Falsafah did not seem to be
slowing it down. Momus glanced up and went pale.

“What the bloody
crapping hell is that frigging eight-legged freak?”

“Ship!” yelled Ravana.
“Start the engines, maximum reverse thrust!”

“Brakes released,”
said Quirinus. “I’m extending the wings now.”

The
Platypus
shuddered into life with a roar of thrusters and backed away from
the dome. More spiders were forcing their way through the dome’s
sagging wall. Kedesh tore her eyes from the scene, turned to the
crawl tunnel and cursed as a couple of the AI’s tendrils dropped
from a conduit and slapped her in the face. She gave Quirinus a
startled stare, wedged her cannon and cricket bat under another
thick tendril, grabbed the cryogenic capsule cartridge and
hurriedly slipped away to the cargo bay to find a seat.

“Main engines running
using onboard oxygen,” the AI confirmed.

“Ravana, can you
handle take-off?” asked Quirinus. “The boosters aren’t wired into
the AI, so I need to run some manual calculations on when to fire
them.”

“What about me?”
retorted Momus. “The pilot you hired?”

“I know exactly when
to fire you,” Quirinus muttered. Zotz grinned.

Ravana nodded
anxiously. She switched to forward thrust, pulled the rudder across
and the beak-like nose of the
Platypus
swung away from the
archaeologists’ domes onto the runway. Several tense moments passed
before the ship reached the end of the airstrip and turned once
more for its take-off run. Ravana’s implant link to the AI was live
and she mentally scanned the various read-outs for alerts. The hull
sensors made it feel as if the spacecraft’s wings were trembling in
sympathy with her own nerves rather than on the breeze. Quirinus
pressed a switch to activate the ship’s intercom.