Cold storage was just that; cold. I guess it was better than hot storage, No, wait, I take that back. It’s not better than hot storage. As a matter of fact, I’ve just now made up my mind; there is no worse place on the entire ship than cold storage. In hot storage you sweat a lot. In cold storage you freeze your ass off and sweat a lot. How is it possible? You’re bundled in a thermal retention suit. Yes, it keeps the heat in, however it also has Velcro flaps and openings that let the cold seep in. It’s not uncommon to come out of cold storage with sweat frozen to your body. So, like I said, cold storage is the worst place on the entire ship. And cold storage is the source of my current problem.
My name is Lorena Poole, Colonel Poole, to the happy crew of the bio-research ship Doolittle. Yes, I’m a soldier; one with a long and well established career for being so young. I’m only twenty-eight and have fought in four major campaigns ranging the six explored galaxies. I fought in the Polaris Uprising, the Que Shue Conflict, the Elysian Frontier War, and finally Rim War, not to mention a few dozen pirate hunts.
When the Rim War ended last year, my service record allowed me to choose just about any command I wanted. I chose to take military command of the Doolittle. Some of the higher ups were disappointed that I didn’t assume some kind of authoritative military position, but that was their problem. I took this job for one reason: after ten years of watching people get butchered, blown apart, and kill each other over a bit of contested territory, it was time to see some life instead of so much death.
The Doolittle explored uncharted galaxies for life forms. When we discovered them, we brought them aboard ship for catalog and study. We had yet to find a sentient race, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. We had hundreds of species aboard ship and they were all organized by M Class planet climates. The Doolittle never dropped anchor anywhere humans couldn’t readily colonize. So, if we could live there, we needed to know what to expect in the way of locals.
My job is to maintain and train the duelers. I also assume command should a hostile force attempt to take control of the ship or harm any of the S.C. teams. That’s what the duelers are for. They are actually highly trained soldiers that can work in just about any environment. They get their name because they always travel in pairs. A pair always accompanies an S.C. team on any and all survey and capture missions. This just makes sure that any xenomorph they run into is less of a threat. A five-foot snail-looking thing might look harmless enough, but when it opens its mouth and has rows of teeth that will chomp through a transport engine housing, a pair of well-armed soldiers in bio-hazard armor is always a good thing. And the snail story is true.
Most of the scientists have no problem with us. We’re a necessary evil to help accomplish their goals. Some even enjoy our company. They’ve taught the duelers quite a bit about what they do and in return the duelers have taught them how to survive under some pretty harsh conditions. We run into the occasional science versus military argument, but usually I can defuse it by having both sides give a little.
There’s only one perpetual thorn in my ass that I can’t seem to get rid of. That would be Science Corps Captain Reginald Trevor. There are days that I’d rather be facing down a platoon of armored Karven Delta Raiders than that asshole. He’s in command of the mission and usually his word is law. However, he is keenly aware when he’s close to crossing the line and moving into my territory. Every day he tries to push a little more and every day I have to push back. Our shouting matches are well known among the crew. The consolation I have is that everyone on board also thinks Trevor is an asshole.
We are currently orbiting Loris III. The whole planet is a giant version of our cold storage, a big frozen pain in the ass. Well, I shouldn’t say frozen. Let’s say prone to freezing with snowstorms that rage planet wide every minute of every day. We know when and where the storms are going to strike, so we work primarily in the unaffected areas when we can.
Yesterday the S.C. research team found something interesting in one of the abundant ice caves. What made the find interesting was that the cave actually contained a running waterfall and a lake. They weren’t sure how this was possible, since everything else was frozen. So they’d done extensive testing, finding that the lake water contained elements that could only be considered the low-level equivalent of anti-freeze. Within an hour they’d found the xeno.
It was half frozen in a block of ice, but biosensors indicated that it was alive. Trevor, in his infinite wisdom, assumed that the creature was hibernating and ordered it tranqued and brought aboard ship. Once it was in the landing bay, the real fun began. Its eyes snapped open, it tore through the restraints, killed two scientists, and proceeded to tear apart the bay until the duelers managed to take it down. They had to wear bio-hazard armor and ramp up the compupression muscle assist system to do the job, but they finally contained it in a section of the bay slotted for cargo. Once they had it cornered, they fired up a containment field and flooded it with a tranq gas.
Sirabella, one of the xenobiologists on board, did a thorough digital scan and found the problem. The creature had a fairly thick fat layer and Trevor, the wonder spaz, had used a standard tranq dart. The needle barely penetrated the skin and hadn’t even gotten close to getting through the fat layer. So, Trevor had let loose an uncontrollable beast aboard the Doolittle and if my duelers hadn’t been ready, we’d have been hosed.
I was in the middle of re-evaluating the mission parameters when Trevor beat me to the punch. He ordered the two remaining S.C. teams down to the surface. He ordered the third team, the one that had discovered the xeno, to do research aboard ship. He wanted a breakdown of the xeno’s morphology, physiology, skeletal structure, nervous system, and any other thing he could come up with. Thereby saying if something went wrong, he did everything he could to understand the creature and to hell with the two dead scientists.
I called for a meeting with Trevor, but he was conveniently busy. When I told him I would recall all teams on the ground if he didn’t meet right away, his attitude changed. He was pissed, but he knew I would do it and he’d better meet with me. He scheduled it for fifteen hundred, which had given me an hour.
I decided to go down to cold storage before the meeting and see how far Garfield and Sommers had gotten on the xeno research. They’d taken to calling him the “snow man”. I typed in the cold storage access code and the door slid open.
The sight that met my eyes chilled me more than the room ever could. Blood was everywhere; its metallic copper smell permeated the entire habitat storage bay. All of the habitats were destroyed. Garfield’s body lay sprawled across a worktable. Sommers was nowhere to be seen. Everywhere I turned I saw blood and body parts, some human, some from specimens. I drew my pistol and stepped cautiously inside, scanning for movement.
The air, already frigid from the cold storage, now felt heavy with an unspeakable horror. My heart hammered against my ribs. Garfield’s usually meticulous workspace was a scene of utter chaos, a testament to a brutal, swift attack. The absence of Sommers was deeply unsettling, adding another layer of dread to the grim discovery. My pistol felt like a cold comfort in my trembling hand as I advanced into the gruesome tableau.
The lights were flickering and an occasional sputter of sparks let me know that a main panel was severely damaged and failing. Even the alarm klaxon was only spitting out an occasional blat instead of its steady, cacophonous tone. I glanced over to the main system relay node and found that it was only so much shredded metal. It explained why the alarm had not been ship wide. My guess was that it had been the first thing destroyed.
I have to admit at being a little scared. I already knew that the thing wouldn’t be taken down by my plasma pistol. Hell, plasma bolts wouldn’t even slow the damn thing down. The smart thing to do would be to back out into the hall and hit the main alarm system. But, if Sommers was alive in here, I needed to find him first.
A corner of the darkness exploded and the snow man rushed me. In one of its large claws it held Sommers’s upper torso. So now I knew a rescue was out and that meant going back to the hall for the main alarm and to engage the safety protocols.
It came on fast. One of the scientists would have been caught with their pants down but, as a trained soldier, I was ready. I backpedaled, firing as I went. I tried to put every round in the xeno’s massive head for maximum damage, but when you’re on the move, trying to run a lockdown, and planning strategy in the span of a few milliseconds, aiming can be a bitch.
I made it through the door by the skin of my teeth and engaged the dead seal. I also engaged a Level 1 Bio-Hazard Protocol. This meant, as far as everyone was concerned, that the deck was sealed and I was stuck trying to contain this thing. I didn’t know how many people were on this deck, but I had to round them up fast.
The door shook as the snow man buffeted it repeatedly. From the force of the impact, I knew he would be through in a matter of minutes, ten at the outside. Trevor was going to be in deep shit when I was done with him, if any of us survived. I really hated cold storage.
So, in essence, cold storage has led us to our current situation, cold storage and Trevor. The upper and lower decks were now inaccessible. The damage to this deck was extensive. The internal com systems were down, but we had video and even that was spotty at best.
The habitats on this deck were on their own power plant and each of those appeared to still be intact. Well, M storage and hot storage were still up and running, the hallways and rooms in between were a wreck. All accept the room we were in, the mess hall, also on its own power plant.
The snow man was somewhere, roaming the halls, destroying equipment, or eating specimens that might have gotten loose. I needed something to take him down, but it wasn’t looking good. There were no big guns on this deck and, as far as I knew, my pistol was the only firearm I had access to. And, since I had to improvise, being in a mess hall full of cutlery was about the best I was going to do.
I’d managed to find an engineer on my crew round up. Tom Jennings was a good guy and didn’t panic. He’d grabbed his tool belt and followed without being told twice or asking any questions.
Xeno-biologists Jenna Hirota and Antonio Sirabella were my next find. They’d been working in a research lab when they saw the thing break out of cold storage via the monitor. When the snow man got close to their lab, they’d taken refuge in a supply closet, but the snow man had passed the lab without trying to come in.
Finally, our little group had come across exobiologist Ray Turner. He was buried under a mountain of debris. Everything from wall plates to a storage door had been thrown on top of him as the snow man had passed. It hadn’t seen him coming out of the supply room. It was too busy shredding anything and everything in its path. Ripping through a wall section, it had just continued on, burying Turner in the process.
And, as if an omen of evil, Trevor was waiting in the mess hall. He’d started screaming about my incompetence and how the dead crewmen were on my head. I let him go a full two minutes before I threatened to knock his perfectly veneered teeth down his throat if he didn’t shut up.
Everybody spread out and I began a search of the place to see if I could dig up something to use as a weapon. So far, my choices were limited to a few carving knives, a meat cleaver, and a few steak knives. I also had the combat knife in my belt. But beggars can’t be choosers, so I got to work.
Jennings sat at the table wringing his hands. Turner was pacing back and forth mumbling to himself. Hirota and Sirabella were sitting face to face in a pair of chairs, their heads close together as they talked quietly. Captain Trevor stood, his back against the wall, his head lowered and stared at a spot three inches in front of his face.
I watched them all as I tore a length of copper wire from a suspended fluorescent light. There was a flash and a shower of sparks as I ripped the light down.
Trevor looked up. “What the hell are you doing?” He was angry.
“I need some wire.” I said.
“Don’t you think there’s enough damage on this ship without you adding to it?”
“Don’t start, Trevor. This isn’t the time.” I continued stripping the copper wire out of the light.
“It’s S.C. Captain Trevor and I’m in charge here! It was a mistake to put a woman in charge of the military forces on this ship.”
What a time for this jerk to get ‘little man’ syndrome. “Why don’t you explain that to the snow man out there? Maybe he’ll listen.” I didn’t bother looking up.
“We’re going to set up a perimeter and see if we can herd the creature back to cold storage.” Trevor puffed his chest up and tried to sound like he knew what he was doing.
“Can’t do it,” I said and walked over to the small closet. I opened it and found a broom and dustpan. I pulled out the broom and began unscrewing the head.
Trevor was getting pissed. “What makes you think we can’t get it back in cold storage?”
“What cold storage?” I asked simply.
“Are you monumentally stupid, Colonel Poole? We can simply maneuver him to the cold storage at the end of this deck.”
“You mean the one he broke out of? The cold storage unit that has no door and no power? That cold storage unit?”
Turner stopped pacing and looked at Trevor. “Trevor, you’re an idiot. Do you know how long I’ve wanted to tell you that?” His voice shook with fear and anger. “You don’t listen to anyone because your ego can’t handle you being wrong! We lost S.C. Team 4 because you were convinced there was nothing dangerous about those caverns on Delos. The Colonel asked you to run thermal imaging and minute heat sensors, but you said no! We had to abandon a shuttle when we left Kitra Six because you wouldn’t let the dueler’s pilot take over! You are an egotistical idiot so full of his own self-importance and swagger that you’d kill us all just so you could try and be right!” He was so angry he began to shake.
Trevor’s eyes turned dark. “You’re out of line, Turner!”
Turner let out a long, slow breath and seemed to relax. “Screw you.”
I smiled to myself. Turner had some guts talking to the Sci-Corps Captain like that. If we got out of this, it could mean Turner’s career. I’d be damn sure that didn’t happen. “Time to calm down everyone.”
Trevor’s face was flushed with heat. A bead of sweat rolled down his cheek. “I want you to repeat that, Turner!”
Turner smiled. “Screw you, Trevor. I’m done taking your shit. I don’t care if you report me to command. Screw you.” He paused. “Colonel Poole, do you have any ideas?” He sat down and turned to face me.
Everyone looked at me, everyone but Trevor that is. He stared heatedly at Turner. His hands were balled into fists at his side and his nostrils flared. “I’m going to make sure that the only research you ever do is studying bacteria levels on a waste disposal ship!”
I’d had about enough of Trevor myself. “Back off!”
“I’m in charge here, Colonel! You will take Turner into custody!”
“No, Trevor. You’re not in charge. Not anymore.” Hirota’s voice was quiet. She looked up at the captain with tired eyes.
“Like hell!” Trevor snapped at her.
“She’s right, Trevor,” Jennings said.
“Is this some kind of mutiny? You unbelievable bastards!” The growl in Trevor’s voice was beginning to sound dangerous.
“Trevor, the second that thing wiped out of cold storage and the safety protocols engaged this became a mil op! So you shut down your attitude right now! I’m in charge and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it!” I pulled my combat knife from my belt, stuck it point down into the table and began wrapping the copper wire around the hilt and broom handle, forming a spear.
Trevor was fuming. “I’ll go over your head!”
I finished a final few wraps of wire and jerked the finished spear out of the table. I shouldered it and walked to the hallway door. “Fine! The closest com system is right outside this door and four hundred yards down the hall. Good luck with that! If you want, I’ll even hold the damn door open for you!”
“We are going to that com system, and you will lead the way, Colonel!”
Sirabella, who’d been quiet until now, looked at Trevor with a relaxed manner. The words were calm and clear. “Trevor, if you don’t knock it off, I swear to God that I’m going to break your legs and throw you out in the hall. Then that big ass snow man that you’re so proud of can wander down here and you two can talk about what to do. Personally, I hope he rips your fuckin’ head off. I can’t imagine the colossal amount of ass kissing you did to get your job, but you’re an incapable dimwit that deserves whatever that thing gives you.” He paused and then focused his attention on me. “You were saying, Colonel?”
I walked back to the table and laid my makeshift spear on top of it. “Protocols won’t let us get to the other decks. The good weapons are two decks down. There should have been a cache stored up here, but that doesn’t do us any good now.”
Turner forced a laugh. “Let me guess. Captain terrific here said we needed to keep all of the weapons on deck seven.”
Trevor had reached his boiling point. “Now listen up you mutinous bastards! I’m going to. . .”
I snap drew my pistol, took two steps, and shoved the barrel hard into Trevor’s forehead. “What we need from you right now S.C. Captain Trevor is a little less talk, and a lot more shut the hell up!”
“Please just do it! I’ll give you a year’s salary to put him out of my misery!” Jennings was smiling.
That’s when the door buckled inward. The crash was tremendous, compounded with the groaning shriek of twisting metal. The door still held, but barely. The frame was beginning to rend and squeal in protest as the snow man attempted to rip it from its moorings.
“Everybody out! Go through M class storage! Maybe that will confuse him!” I herded the group towards the secondary door.
Hirota gave me a frightened glance. “What about the creatures in M? He’ll tear them apart!”
“I’m open to suggestion!” I yelled as we cleared the door and sprinted down the corridor.
Jennings typed in the entry code to M storage and we pushed in. I glanced backward just as the snow man ripped into the hallway. There was a thunderous explosion behind the beast, and it was blown into a hallway wall. Propane tanks, most likely, I thought.
The creature shook its massive head and then got to its feet. It lifted its eyes and stared down the hallway directly into my face. It let loose a massive roar and charged. I hit the door switch just as an alarm Klaxon began warbling, amber warning lights fired brightly and the overhead fire system activated, sending a spray of water cascading down the walls. The door slid shut as the snow man plowed into it.
I stepped back, hefting my spear. I knew the thing would have a hell of time getting through this door. He could do it, but I judged it would take him at least ten minutes. That would give us time to get out through the opposite door, seal it, and give us another ten minutes before he came through.
“Okay, people, time to move. Out through the other door, we’ll dead seal it behind us. That should give us a good twenty minutes to come up with something. No idea is off the table. Let’s go.”
Everyone started toward the exit door on the opposite side of the room, everyone, that is but Trevor. He stood, arms akimbo, staring angrily at me. “Colonel Poole, this is intolerable! We are going to remain here and secure the habitats of all of these specimens! If it comes through the door and we lose any of them, I will hold you directly responsible!”
I was done. “Look at the care in my eyes, asshole! Either get with the plan or stay here! I don’t care anymore! I’m not jeopardizing crew lives for animals that can be reacquired! You want to secure the habitats, you do it!”
“Colonel Poole, we’re wasting time!” Turner was calling from beyond the exit door.
“You will listen to me!” Trevor screamed.
I stepped through the exit door and reached for the keypad. “No, I won’t.” I closed the door and punched in the dead seal code.
The others looked at me grimly as I turned away from the door.
“He didn’t give you a choice, Colonel.” Jennings said.
Hirota was more direct. “He’s going to die in there.”
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. We need to move now.” Turner started down the hallway.
Sirabella put his arm around Hirota. “We’d all die in there if Trevor had his way. We need to get out of here.”
He pulled her close and hugged her tightly. Tears began to roll down her cheeks, and she turned into his chest, sobbing.
“We need to go.” I couldn’t tell if my words had come out casually or coldly. It didn’t matter. We needed to move.
Jennings fell into step beside me. “Colonel, I can get us to an engineering junction from here. I might be able to do us some good there. I can bring up some containment fields in the corridors and, maybe, lock him up.”
“Let’s do it.” I said and we moved down the corridor.
We made the engineering junction in three minutes flat. If my calculations were correct, the snow man would be halfway through the M storage entry door. We had a fifteen-minute window, and I intended to use of every minute.
Jennings and Turner began going over the control systems. Hirota and Sirabella tried to find something to do, but soon realized engineering wasn’t their element. I pulled up a damage assessment array on one of the monitors and began scrolling through it.
Jennings tore open a service panel door and then shook his head. “Colonel, the master relay node is down. I won’t be able to get the containment fields up.”
“Any way to bypass?” I asked.
“None.” He said sadly. “Long range com is down on this deck also.”
Turner looked hopeful. “Won’t the other teams be on their way up then?”
“Not if they ran into more of those things.” Hirota’s voice was almost a whisper.
“They may still be okay. What if we move to the other side of hot storage? Wouldn’t that give us more time? Maybe they’ll be here by then.” Sirablla was looking at Hirota as he said this.
Hot storage gave me an idea. “Jennings, can you put a containment field around this engineering node?”
The man nodded. “Sure. But it won’t do us much good. We’d have maybe four hours of oxygen and then we’d all suffocate. “
I shook my head. “What if we could get to the service tunnel on the far side of hot storage?”
It was Turner who answered. “Wouldn’t work. The corridor is included in the protocol shutdown. The locking system is different. A case-hardened bolt six inches around slides through a carbide lock. You can still enter the code, and the door will try and open, but the bolt won’t let it. There’s no way through.”
“What if I could find a way to open it?” I asked.
“The tunnel is wide enough for an engineer and a tool pack. We might pull it off.” Jennings said, smiling.
“And just how are we going to get through the tunnel door?” Sirabella asked.
I smiled and pointed at a row of cabinets. One was marked ‘plasma torch’.
“Uh, Colonel. . . We’ve got a big problem!” Turner’s eyes were glued to the hallway monitors.
We all turned and watched in horror at the monitor. The exit door we had used in M storage was wide open and the snow man was coming through.
“How the hell did he break the dead seal?” Jennings fumed.
Then we saw him. Trevor’s face briefly appeared as the M storage door slid closed.
“That rotten son of bitch!” Turner yelled.
“If we live, I’m going to kill him.” Sirabella pulled Hirota close and put his arms around her.
I walked over to the cabinet and pulled out the torch. “He’ll be here in three, maybe four, minutes. Here’s the plan. You put up the containment field. I’ll take the torch and cut through the tunnel. All of you will stay here. Because of Trevor’s little stunt, I won’t have time to keep all of you moving. You don’t have the training to keep up, and I won’t have time to give you a lesson.”
“Colonel, you won’t be able to hold him off and cut through the door. Take me and I can cut the bolt.” Jennings said.
“I need you for something else. It’ll take me two minutes at a dead run to get to hot storage. I need you to drop the temperature in the corridors. I want him to follow me. Make him as comfortable as you can. Nine minutes from the time I leave, start bringing it up.” I checked my pistol and handed my spear to Turner.
“Not much of plan, Colonel.” Turner said, looking awkwardly at the weapon in his hands.
I smiled. “I’m going to introduce him to Ryuu.”
They all looked at me, stunned.
Hirota’s eyes were as big as portholes. “You can’t be serious!”
I nodded. “I’m deadly serious. No more talk now. Time for me to go.” I turned to the door.
“Colonel?” Jennings put a hand on my shoulder. When I turned back, he kissed me hard on the mouth. I surrendered to a moment that was all too short lived.
Jennings pulled back, red faced. “Good luck.”
I nodded, smiling, and headed out the door. I heard the buzz of the containment field engaging. I also heard the vibrations of deck plates and knew that the snow man was close behind. I ran.
I made the trek in just under two minutes. I stopped in front of hot storage, a little winded. Lights were flickering on and off. I could hear the occasional hiss of steam from a pressure relief valve somewhere in the pipe-way overhead. The alarm lights were spinning their red glow and a klaxon was howling somewhere down the corridor behind me.
It was cold as hell in here and getting colder. I glanced at my watch. Jennings had six minutes left. Shit, it was cold! I wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do, but there wasn’t much choice. The ice world xeno had managed to take out the entire cold storage module and most of the ship board crew on this deck. With only a handful of us left, and no way to get to a com system, this was about the only realistic option.
The research team members still on the ground would realize that they couldn’t contact anyone, probably already had in fact, and would start back up using safety protocol nine. That meant, upon landing in the main bay, the duelers would come out in heavy bio-hazard armor and armed with the big guns, followed by the scientists. But, if both teams still on the ground had run into these things, I wasn’t holding out much hope for them coming back.
If the research teams made it back aboard ship, my guys could take this thing out without a problem. Hell, I could do it myself if I could get to the arsenal on the lower level. How many times have I pitched a bitch that this would happen, a dozen, maybe more? If I got out of this one, I was going to punch Science Corps Captain Trevor right in his smug, egotistical face. Maybe I’d get lucky and the big bastard had back tracked, found S.C. captain Trevor and taken a bite out of his ass. The next time I go into a storage unit, I go in heavily armed. And I don’t care if the xeno looks like a buttercup, it blinks in my direction, it becomes a pile of ash.
There was a crashing sound and then a throaty roar. I looked down the hallway and saw the snow man. He reached up to the ceiling and punched through a roof grate. There was a shower of sparks, a screeching of metal, and then the warbling klaxon died. The creature then looked directly at me and threw the remains of the alarm siren at me. I had to duck as the missile rocketed the sixty yards between us and caromed off of the hot storage door with a loud clang. The door itself now had a huge dent in its six-inch depth.
As I rose back up I saw a vision of death. The snow man stood in the flickering lights, its white fur streaked with blood, bile, machine oil, and a thousand other viscous unrecognizables. Sparks popped and sputtered from the shorting bare wires he’d ripped from overhead. The black eyes were locked on to me, and the thing’s chest rose and fell heavily as it breathed. It hunched its massive back and then straightened, letting loose a blood curdling roar that was actually more intense than all his others combined.
I felt my head swim and my eyes jumped in and out of focus. I had three rounds left in my pistol, two for it, and one for me. There was no way in hell this thing was gnawing on me.
I began punching in the door code and hit the last key as it began its run toward me. I was through the door in a flash, the warmth of the room enveloping me, filling me. The rush of heat was so immediate that I almost passed out. I had just enough time to hit the door stud, heard the whoosh as it closed, before I slid to the floor exhausted.
I could hear the banging as the snow man drove its fists into the door. I could hear the veneered metal ripping away layer by layer and I realized I’d forgotten to program the dead seal. I judged the door would be in place another two minutes. If my plan didn’t work, I was left with two choices: Lunch for a xeno or dying by my own hand. Neither option held much comfort. Here’s to hoping my plan would work.
I got to my feet and ran down the center aisle, not bothering to look at the containment habitat numbers. I knew exactly where CBL6A was, I helped load it. It held Ryuu, Kaji Umi Ryuu. S.C. Pernell had named it in Japanese. He promised his Japanese girlfriend back on Tovyn he would name the biggest thing he found after her and so he had. Kaji Umi Ryuu, the Fire Sea Dragon, had been found in a molten lake of boiling magma on Pyre 3. The world had been nothing but desert sands, broken lava rock fields, and volcanoes, with very little in the way of life.
But what we found had been amazing. Standing twelve feet high, armored head to toe in a skin almost like black diamonds, with muscles and talons that could rip through a warship hull in a matter of minutes, we’d barely taken him down. Neural stunning lasers slide easily off of Ryuu’s scales. Tranq darts wouldn’t penetrate the skin, and we were about to break out the bio-hazard armor and try to wrestle it into a xeno incapacitation cage when Percell figured we should try a tranq smoke bomb. It had worked and we were able to get Ryuu on board with minimal problems.
But here was my dumb ass about to turn him loose to take down his direct opposite: a battle of fire and ice. I stood in front of the containment habitat, staring at the keypad to open the door. Was I nuts? Ryuu could be worse than the snow man. With the insane battle I was predicting, the whole ship could be destroyed.
The squeal of the protesting metal door brought me out of thought and spurred me to action. No choice. I punched in the code, and the containment field gave a final buzz and then dropped from existence. The containment habitat door slid open just as the hot storage entry door ripped out of its frame.
Ryuu blinked and stepped warily from the habitat. He looked down at me, held my gaze for a moment. I stared back and then turned to look at the snow man. Ryuu turned his head, almost in unison with mine, and saw the ice world xeno.
Eyes, born of fire, met those born of ice. Each of the xenos held their ground, as did I, transfixed in anticipation. The snow man was the first to break. He bellowed and charged. Ryuu stepped forward, his large claw coming down, striking me in the chest, and knocking me to the deck.
When the titans slammed into each other, the force of the impact seemed to rock the entire ship. Claws and fangs struck with savage lethality. The snow man punched at Ryuu, its hug fists crashing into Ryuu’s armored chest. For his part, Ryuu absorbed the blows and struck out with an armored claw. The blow caught the snow man across his head and he rocked backward.
I watched for only a moment and then reached down for the torch. I stared, dumbstruck at the remains of the instrument. When I had fallen to the deck, the head of the plasma torch had been wrenched apart by the grating on the deck plates. There was no way of fixing it and I knew it. Unless any of the scientists that were left could make another tranq bomb, Ryuu would rend the entire research vessel into fragments.
Well, if I was going down, I’d just have to face off with the winner of the battle and go down fighting. I drew my pistol and watched the awesome confrontation in front of me.
The snow man was giving ground, backing toward the hot storage entrance. Ryuu rained blow after blow relentlessly down on him. The ice world xeno was cut in a dozen places from Ryuu’s armored claws, the fat layer no longer a help. The heat was also causing the snow man to slow down.
Science Corps Captain Reginald Trevor looked around the M storage habitat smiling. It was relatively intact, with only a couple of small habitats compromised. If the teams on the ground got here in time, he would be able to contain the major damage to the cold storage area and the hallways in between. He would be praised for saving this many specimens against such overwhelming odds. He would just have to convey how sorry he was that he wasn’t able to save the crew.
He could have done more if it hadn’t been for that damn woman, that damn Colonel Poole! She was ever the soldier and made his life miserable. So maybe they should have had a cache of weapons on this deck. He would make sure that it was implemented now. He could also take all of the credit since Poole, along with the others that could ruin his career, were likely dead.
He’d let the snow man in and then back out again. No sense in destroying M storage if it could be helped. All of the specimens, as far as he could tell, were safe. He would have to round up a few that had escaped, but that would be easy. Might as well get started, he thought.
He walked the line of habitats until he found an open one. He read the number above the door and realized that it was a small, monkey-like xeno that they’d picked up on Saylas. From what he remembered, it was a rather docile creature and not prone to violence.
He heard a chittering noise to his left and turned to see the creature sitting on a work bench. He smiled, walked over to the creature, and stuck out a hand for the creature to smell. The xeno looked up at him quizzically. Trevor smiled as the Simian creature took the man’s hand in his own. Then the creature bared fangs and sunk them into the hand. Blood squirted upward splattering both the creature and Trevor.
Trevor let out a scream and tried to pull his hand back, but the little creature hung on. The man shook his arm violently and still the creature remained fastened hard. Trevor then tried to beat the creature against the worktable, but it leaped away at the last second causing the man to slam his now bloodied hand into the metal top.
Trevor screamed again and grabbed his hand. “Damn it all to hell! When I catch you, I’m going to figure out a way to wipe your species out!” He picked up a towel from the top of the worktable and began to bandage his hand. It was then he started to feel dizzy. Beads of sweat began forming on his brow and a vibration hummed through his body.
“Oh shit.” He realized it was a neurotoxin. The creature had a defense mechanism. Trevor had never read the report. He knew what it looked like and where it came from. But the xeno was small and insignificant on the man’s radar, nothing that would get him in the history books. Just another primate, he’d thought. Now he was going to pay the price.
He felt his knees buckle and he slammed into the deck. Maybe he should have listened to Poole. She was an attractive woman, and Trevor had always been intimidated by attractive woman. He’d found his chance to dominate her as mission captain. But, when things went a little rough, she took over. Typical soldier, typical woman, he thought. She should be at home raising some kids or. . . His mind slid out of focus, and he tried to bring it back. The toxin worked incredibly fast.
He looked up and saw the xeno staring down at him, its head cocked and body ready to spring. The last thing Trevor saw was the creature’s eyes twinkling merrily and then the world went black.
I watched Ryuu force the snow man onto the deck. They were both battle scarred and bleeding. The snow man had managed to rip off a plated section of Ryuu’s shoulder chitin. I knew that might be the only vulnerable spot I could attack when the fight was finally over. And from the looks of it, we were there.
The snow man was on his back, Ryuu straddling him, pinning both arms underneath. The Fire Sea Dragon’s claws were wrapped around the snow man’s throat. The ice xeno was gurgling, there was a snapping sound, and then he was silent.
I tensed. Now was when he would turn on me. I raised my pistol as Ryuu turned. He stood for a moment and then wearily sank to the deck, his back against the corridor wall.
“I want to go home.” A weak voice sounded in my head. I paused. What the hell was that? The words came again and I stared in stark amazement at Ryuu.
“You can talk?” I asked, slowly lowering my weapon.
There was a pause and then a reply formed in my mind. “Not in the way you understand. I can say things into your mind; understand what your mind says back.”
“Are you talking about. . .”
“Telepathy is what you call it.” The voice said weakly. “I want to go home.”
I stared down at the body of the snow man. “You won’t try to hurt us?”
“ Too cold here. I want to go home.”
I walked over to Ryuu and placed a hand on his massive head. “I’ll take you home.”
The transport landed on Pyre 3 within a hundred yards of the cave where we’d found Ryuu. His real name was Zectrofelianxynoctopelitorlextethiusmerivox, but he let us call him Ryuu. Jennings had rigged a temporary habitat for him and we made best speed for Pyre 3 once we’d established contact with the S.C. teams on the ground and got them safely aboard.
One of the teams had indeed run into a group of snow men. The duelers had kept them back and given the team time to board the transport. We lost Sergeant James Hernandez in that fight, but the rest of the team came back to the Doolittle unharmed. I would be putting a commendation in Hernandez’s file and writing a letter home. I hated those damn things. How many had I sent during the wars? I never thought I’d send one being a part of a floating zoo.
The other team had come back empty handed. Of course, they hadn’t had much time to really get started when they’d gotten messages from the other team. They buttoned up and bagged ass for the ship. They’d touched down just as Ryuu had finished with our own snow monster.
The transport’s ramp lowered onto the blistering sands and the cargo door slid open with a whoosh. I stepped to the edge of the ramp, watching the swirling sand motes deposit tiny granules into the crevices of ramp’s hinge. The world’s sun screamed brightly, and I had to raise my hand against the glare.
Ryuu stepped up behind me, his ten-foot frame casting a tremendous shadow. “I am home. You have kept your word.”
The words came into my mind and I smiled at him.
“It was the least I could do.” I said. “I’m sorry we took you from here in the first place.”
“You didn’t know.”
“You’re too forgiving. We should be more thorough when dealing with species, especially those species of intelligence.”
I swore I heard the sound of laughter in my head. “Now you will.”
I looked at him for a moment. “Thank you, Zectrofelianxynoctopelitorlextethiusmerivox. If it hadn’t been for you, we would all be dead now.”
He looked at me in surprise. “You said my name correctly.”
“I practiced it all the way here.”
“Your thanks are not necessary, Lorena Poole. I am a warrior as are you. We were not destined to meet on the field of battle as enemies, but as allies.”
“Still, I won’t forget.”
“Of course you won’t! Great battles are those for storytellers and songs. Fire and ice came together in a battle that will be spoken of forever.” Pride rang in his thoughts.
“And I’ll make sure of it.”
He smiled and let his wings fall open. “I leave you now.”
Without saying goodbye he leaped into the air, his wings catching a thermal. He spiraled toward the cave and disappeared through the entrance. I waited a moment to see if he’d return, but he didn’t. Instead, a voice came through my head.
“Why do you wait? The story will not tell itself!”
I laughed and hit a switch. The cargo door came down, and the ramp slid into place. I felt the ship’s engines cycle up and I took a seat in the cargo hold.
“Goodbye, my friend.” I thought toward the cave.
“Warriors never say goodbye until the last battle. Yours has yet to be fought.”
I smiled at these words. The sentiment was apparent in them. I would miss hearing Ryuu’s thoughts in my head, a kindred spirit. I watched through a porthole as the surface of Pyre 3 fell away. I did not hear Ryuu’s final words. If I had, I would have been prepared for what came next.
“Fire and Ice are destined to battle again. You will lead the charge.”
