The False Admiral (24 page)

“I think you've upset them,” I said to her.

“Oh, Founder.” Nils closed his eyes.

Salmagard was bouncing on her toes to try to see past us. She spotted the things on the walls, and motioned for us to get out of the way. Deilani and I backed up; Nils was still bleeding. This was
bad
.

One of the Ganraen tech suits we'd discarded earlier was lying a few meters away. Salmagard picked it up and started to pull it on. She got the helmet sealed, and pressurized it. The suit more or less shrank to fit her, and she removed the safety tab from the wrist-mounted incinerator.

She marched into the med lab, and the door closed behind her.

Nils stared after her, uncomprehending.

“The Empress only negotiates one way,” I reminded him. “Don't tell me you forgot.”

About thirty seconds passed. The door opened, and Salmagard beckoned us in. The med lab was covered in burns, and I could see several shriveled carcasses. There was a lot of steam, but the emergency sprinklers had stopped.

“Clear,” Salmagard said.

I couldn't help but think of how many hiding places there were,
but the private sounded sure of herself, and she had her scanner to back her up. We laid out Nils, and Deilani bustled away, but was back almost immediately. “Turn him over,” she ordered, and we did so. Salmagard was stripping out of the pressure suit.

“Better keep that on,” I said over my shoulder.

“No use, sir. It's out of fuel.”

Deilani jabbed Nils with a hypo, then moved a digital lens over his wounds. “It's already affecting him. We have to slow it down.” She switched cartridges and jabbed him again. Nils swore loudly. “Shut up. Get me that cutter.” That was directed to me. I grabbed it and threw it to her. She used the beam to slice away the back of Nils' EV suit, revealing wounds that looked, even to me, extraordinarily ghastly. The skin around his punctures was purple and black. There was a dark foam bubbling from the wounds.

“How soon before he's dust?” I asked, squeezing my eyes shut. I was seeing double, and I felt light-headed. My heart rate was up, and that was making it all worse.

“I'm right here,” Nils moaned.

“I don't know,” Deilani said distractedly. “These Ganraens weren't very creative. Ensign, I'm going to slow your metabolism. I need to shut down your heart for a second because this chem needs to be localized. If your heart's beating when I do this, it's going to go places you don't want it to go. Don't panic.”

“Wait—what? You're gonna kill me?”

“Dying's easy,” I said.

Nils gagged, face white.

“Don't panic,” Deilani repeated, attaching leads to his exposed skin.

“Oh, Empress,” he gasped.

I looked around to see that Salmagard had disappeared from the lab. I hadn't seen her leave. I shook my head, but it wouldn't clear.

“Hold him!” Deilani ordered.

“I got it, I got it.”

“I'll say one thing for your plan,” Deilani said, the cap of yet another hypo held in her mouth. She spat it out. “He'd have to go into stasis anyway.”

“See? I plan ahead. I bet you guys thought I've been winging it this whole time.”

She looked up at me sharply. “Did you take something?”

“No, I'm drying out. It's almost as good.”

“Oh, Empress. Just help me. I'll get to you.”

“No hurry.”

“Take your hands off.” I pulled them back, and she ran a current through the ensign. He started to seize. “Grab him.”

“Are you going to bring him back
today
?” I asked, holding him down more with my weight than with my muscles.

“You want to do this?” She sprayed some foam on his back, muttering about Ganraen medical technology. “Pull that third lead and juice him.”

“What?”

“The
blue
one.”

“Oh. The blue one.” I tried, but my hands were shaking too badly.

Deilani saw me and blanched. “All right, just back off.”

“I can hold him.”

She yanked the third lead from his back, checked the other two, and zapped him, then immediately hit him with another injection. He gasped and began to swear in between groans of pain.

“Don't be a baby.” She pulled a black spine the size of my finger
out of his back and tossed it aside, then sprayed on more foam, which seemed to help. “We need to seal him so he has EV integrity; it can't repair a breach this big in time. Where's Eyelashes?”

She meant Salmagard. “I don't know.” I keyed the com. “Private, where the hell are you?”

“Clearing the satellite launch corridor, Admiral.”

Well, that was something that needed to be done—and damn it, she was thinking more clearly than I was. My presence of mind was coming and going as it pleased, and we were running out of time. “Be careful.”

“Sir, the first unit's damaged. We'll need another. But I've got ours in there.” Wasn't that a nice thought? Of course two people could not share one unit. She meant the one that we'd been moving together. Now we were out one unit, and . . . I stopped thinking about it. “Carry on, Private.”

“We're not getting off this ship, not with those things all over,” Deilani stated flatly.

She was right. We had enough of a hill to climb without hostiles. But I couldn't wish them away.

“Stay positive,” I told her. “We'll make it work. So far I'd say that negotiations are going well.”

“I think I like you better this way,” she said.

“I've heard that before.”

Deilani had sealed Nils' back nicely, and turned him over. “Listen, Ensign. I've put you on a cocktail that'll kill you in less than twelve hours—thankfully, we'll be in stasis by then, or dead anyway. This is a stimulant. It's going to make you forget that you're dying. Don't forget that you're dying. Do you understand?”

“Yes, ma'am.”

She shot him up one last time, and got him into a sitting position, where he began to cough. I understood what she was doing. Not medically, of course—but we needed Nils. We weren't getting off this planet without him, so no matter how radical the treatment, she had to keep him in the game. This was the first time I'd seen Deilani really doing her job; her assignment to the
Julian
made more sense now.

“How do you feel, Ensign?”

“Who the hell . . .”

“Give him a minute,” she said.

“We don't have a minute.”

“Good point. Help me get him up—he's not going to be mobile. We'll have to park him in the satellite and bring the work to him. What about you? Are you up to this?”

“I'll manage,” I said.

WE were losing time. We had to get back to the satellite.

Deilani and I spilled out of the lift to find Salmagard with her back to us, facing down the largest of the three creatures that had jumped Deilani and Nils. I didn't know where the other two had gone. The steam had cleared; the ship's computer had recognized the breach and cut it off.

Salmagard was right. Something
was
attracting the xenos to us, and the big one was advancing on her.

In her arms was a device nearly as big as she was, and I didn't recognize it. It looked like something you'd see held by someone in a tech suit doing major work on a ship's hull.

Deilani and I backed into the lift. It probably wasn't a good idea to walk Nils into this situation.

“Um—Private?”

“Clearing the way, Admiral.”

She started to advance, and that halted the creature. I wondered if it was puzzled to see something so small refusing to run away. The creature was so big that it had difficulty fitting in the corridor. Its legs were spread over both walls, and it less walked than dragged itself toward her.

“Is she going to be all right?” Deilani hissed.

“I don't know. Private, fall back!”

She didn't reply, but instead set her feet and readied her—her thing. Weapon, presumably. She knew we had to secure this corridor to reach the satellite.

It was almost on top of her. I saw the xeno arch its back, revealing more spines and smaller limbs on its underside—so those were what had done that to Nils' back—and that was what Salmagard was waiting for. The front of her device lit up, and she lunged forward, ramming it into the creature's underside.

It was a magnesium cutter. Like most things Ganraen, it was bigger and more primitive than what Evagardians were accustomed to. The light was blinding—then the tip was buried in the xeno, which was trying to scramble away from Salmagard. She pushed the thing back, past the corridor to the satellite. Deilani and I immediately started forward with Nils.

We moved him down the narrow approach passage and into the satellite, propping him up against the EMS unit we'd already placed.

Salmagard appeared in the hatchway, flushed, but unharmed. It wasn't a look of pleasure or elation on her face, but rather one of deep satisfaction.

Instead of looking for weapons, she'd gone looking for tools. Smart. The lance was gone; maybe she'd left it buried in the thing.

“Did you get him?”

She shook her head. “But he shouldn't bother us again.”

“What about the other ones?”

“They've gone off, Admiral. We're clear for the moment.”

I let out my breath, trying to collect my thoughts. I just wanted a minute—
one minute
—but we didn't even have that much to spare. I rubbed at my eyes, opened and closed my hands a few times, and focused.

Deilani and Salmagard were watching me worriedly, but I was more concerned about Nils. Without him, we weren't going anywhere. We had to keep him safe. His eyes were closed, but he was conscious, taking deep breaths.

“Guys, we need to own this deck. Or at least the ground between here and the lift. I'm going to need both of you in play, so the ensign has got to be safe. Private, get out there and lower every pressure door you can find. There's nothing here but this and the lift. Got it? If it doesn't come off the lift, it's not getting in here.”

“Yes, Admiral.” She jogged off.

“You're fading fast,” Deilani said. “I can give you a stimulant. It'll set you back, but it might get you through the next few hours. You look weak.”

“What do you need to do?”

“I need to check your blood first, or I could kill you or put you in a coma.”

“No time.” I shook my head and led her back down the corridor. “We've got work to do. Find Nils whatever he needs, and help him. Get him set up; do what you have to do. You work for him now.”

“What about you?”

“The private and I are going to try to find three more EMS
units. Look—I'm not—I can't be trusted to cover the details now. You have to make sure we don't forget anything, all right?”

Her gaze flicked back toward the silo. “If we don't put him in stasis soon, he's not going to make it.”

“If he doesn't prep this launch, none of us will.”

I tracked down Salmagard, who was making certain she'd been thorough in sealing off the silo passage. Together, we took the lift down and made for the vehicle bay.

The gray padded Ganraen corridors were starting to blur together.

“You're tired, aren't you? Do you need a stim?” I asked her.

“Evagardian ladies are expected never to rely upon chemical assistance, Admiral.”

“That's your way of saying you need one, right?”

“No, sir.” She said it with a completely straight face.

I wished she'd shown this side of herself before things had gotten this bad. It was probably the adrenaline.

“We'll get you one from Deilani when we get back up there.”

“You need it more than I do, sir.” She meant it seriously.

“Yeah, but I can't have one. It's karma.”

The lift doors opened, and we moved into the corridor. “Movement in the bay,” Salmagard reported.

“We have to go anyway.”

“Naturally, sir.”

“I don't suppose you've got another cutter handy?”

“No, sir.” There was excitement in her voice.

“I'll run interference. You move the units,” I told her.

We entered the bay, and I spotted half a dozen xenos of varying sizes, none smaller than two meters across. They hadn't been there twenty minutes ago. “You really have upset them,” I said.

“How?”

I decided to let her work that out on her own. I started to jog in the opposite direction. I climbed into a bay skiff and started it up. It was a small, lightweight vehicle that techs could use to move around the massive bay quickly.

I drove it straight at the nearest xeno on the ground, veering off at the last moment to give it a scare. I circled around and made for another one, hoping I would be more interesting to them than Salmagard. I wasn't in too much danger as long as I was mobile. On foot I wouldn't last long.

The one I was charging down was on the small side, standing a mere meter off the deck. I smashed into it, flinging it against the bulkhead.

I wheeled around to look for another victim. One of the creatures crashed heavily into my roof, its hooked legs ripping easily through the thin canopy. It must have dropped from the ceiling. I released the controls and dove out, rolling to my feet. The skiff continued to skim, taking the xeno with it, but I wasn't alone. I barely dodged as a smaller one lunged for me. I backed away, but a look over my shoulder told me I had company behind me as well. I started to run.

“All right, Private?”

“Nobody's bothering me, sir.”

Great. I couldn't outrun the big one behind me. I dropped into a slide that took me beneath a ground-crawling personnel carrier. I scrambled up on the other side of it and took off running again.

There were more xenos in this bay than I would've expected to find on the entire ship, now that it was sealed. The satellite launch corridor was secure, so Nils and Deilani didn't have to worry unless these things sorted out how to use the lift.

There was Salmagard, pushing an EMS unit across the wide expanse between the hulking survey flyer and the nearest bay door. She looked clear. All the same, I angled away from her.

At least their hard carapaces made the xenos easy to hear; their clattering echoed around the walls of the bay, a constant reminder that they were after me, and still very energetic.

“Private,” I gasped into the com, twisting to put another vehicle between myself and my pursuers. “Private, I want you to open the big doors.” There was one right above me, clambering over the top of an unmanned survey robot.

“But we still need two more units, sir.”

“Open them and close them again. Quick.”

“Yes, sir.”

I wasn't sure how much more running I had left in me. The withdrawal was sapping my energy. If the private didn't do something, they were going to be all over me. There was a grav cart ahead. I powered it up, turned it around, and shoved it at the nearest xeno. The cart struck home with a satisfying crash, but I was already fleeing again.

Emergency lights began to flash. I deployed my helmet as the Klaxons started to wail. Salmagard was working fast. The lights on the doors came on. I knelt down and put both palms flat on the deck, putting a cling charge into my gloves.

The air was sucked abruptly from the bay. The smaller xenos were picked up and hurled toward the opening doors. The larger ones didn't seem fazed, but they weren't the ones running me ragged.

Almost immediately, the doors began to close. Several xenos had been pulled out; others smashed into the door with enough force to kill an unarmored human, but they were a hardy bunch.

I detached from the floor, switched off my helmet, and ran for the nearest survey crawler. It was big and sturdy—much sturdier than a skiff. I reached the hatch and searched for a way to open it. The little ones would've been all over me during this pause if Salmagard hadn't thrown them all to the far end of the bay with the doors. She'd bought me the time I needed, and unquestionably saved my life.

I got the door open and climbed in, sealing it behind me.

Something heavy thudded onto the top of the vehicle. I could hear them crawling on the metal.

I dropped into the pilot's seat and powered up the heavy crawler, then opened the viewfinder to see the deck. I released the brake and shoved the throttle forward, accelerating after the nearest xeno and heartlessly running it down. This wasn't very sporting, but my back was against the wall. My karma was already shot.

Besides, it wasn't like these things were endangered. They were everywhere.

After I flattened the third one, they got the message and started to flee. I went after them, taking down three more before ramming the crawler into the wall to smash the hind legs of one a full four meters across that was trying to crawl to safety. I backed up and it fell to the deck, twitching madly. It didn't seem right to just leave it there crippled, so I did the compassionate thing and ran over it a couple of times, then turned the crawler around to survey the bay.

The remaining xenos were all out of reach. I rolled the crawler to the middle of the bay and idled there. My vision was a little blurry, but on the whole I felt good. Piloting this crawler was a lot easier than running around out there.

“Private?”

“Yes, Admiral?”

“What's your status?”

“We've got the second unit tucked into the satellite. I'm on my way back down for a third. Ensign Nils is completely immobile, but the lieutenant's following his instructions. He doesn't look good,” she added.

I sighed. “I'm going to cover you. I've got a survey crawler, and it's working pretty well out here, but you're on your own in the corridors. Keep your scanner on.”

“It is, Admiral.”

I leaned back in my seat. My joints ached. How many minutes were ticking by, and how many did we have left? I looked at my gloved hands. I couldn't see anything, but they were swarming with the nanomachines that were keeping me alive by keeping the mist out.

Mist that wasn't mist, just larval xenos. It was hard to imagine, hard to wrap my head around the notion that the ubiquitous mist was made up of tiny organisms that might ultimately grow into these hulking creatures.

Technology every Evagardian took for granted had saved our lives without us realizing it. Deilani's faithfulness to surface decon protocol also deserved credit. Her overly developed sense of duty had been a thorn in my side earlier, but now I owed my life to it.

I looked at the big doors, and thought about the planet beyond them. I felt bad for the colonists, but it just wasn't meant to be. This planet didn't want to be colonized.

It was already occupied, after all.

A stealthy local had come down to the deck, and I saw on my monitor that it was approaching my crawler from behind. No matter how you looked at it,
this
was a hunting tactic. It hadn't evolved out of nowhere. What did these things normally hunt?

This was supposed to be a dead planet? No. It just looked dead, and with typical human arrogance, we'd taken that at face value. Maybe there were whole worlds underneath that black and rocky shell.

I put the crawler in reverse and ran him over with a series of horrible crunching noises. I almost felt bad about it. A couple others that had been edging downward hastily scuttled back up the walls.

I had a nasty thought, and popped the hatch long enough to sneak a look at the ceiling. Sure enough, half a dozen of them were clustered directly overhead. I moved the crawler away. I couldn't stop them from doing that, but I could make them work for it.

The larger ones could tear this crawler apart if they wanted to. It was sturdy, but not armored. I hoped that wouldn't occur to them.

Salmagard appeared, looking very small at this distance, jogging across the deck. The xenos didn't all rush for her like I'd feared—they seemed wary. With good reason; in typical Evagardian fashion, Salmagard hadn't shown their kind any more mercy than I had.

She ran up the ramp and disappeared into another flyer.

A xeno dropped onto the flyer and crawled in after her. I'd barely opened my mouth to warn her when it came scuttling out, trailing pink smoke. “Ah—uh, Private? You all right?”

“Yes, Admiral.” She'd used a flare launcher to scare it off. Clever. I put the crawler into gear and ran down the flaming xeno. “Admiral?”

“Yeah?”

“What's the situation overhead?”

I took her meaning; they would drop on her when she came
out. I looked up at the xenos poised over the flyer. Was there a way to scatter them? Did I
want
to scatter them? “All right, Private—you need to come out as fast as you can. If they drop, then at least it won't be on top of you, and I'll have a chance to try to help. How many flares have you got?”