Ally or Alien: A Sci-Fi Novel (16 page)

Halfway done with the meal, he looked up from his tray and offered a smile to his Newtype colleague.

"I think we both need a relaunch. I've been bitchy at times, and I'm sorry for that. You have to understand, it has been a decade since I traveled through space, and I've gotten a bit cranky over the years. The long sleep, your crazy tech, that roller coaster tube and now that ship wreckage monster out there. I'm not a twenty-year old anymore, you know."

eVax' face remained neutral, but his voice came in low.

"I understand."

Silence.

Followed up by the last slice of artificial beef getting smashed by Bellrock's mighty teeth.

"Now we both know we're never going to be friends, but for the short time we remain here in this facility, let's behave like mature servicemen and get over our little disagreements."

"That sounds like an efficient strategy."

"Coolio."

Bellrock licked the tray from bottom to top and reached out his hand.

eVax inspected the fingers as if they were yet another alien object peppered with spikes.

Bellrock clarified the custom from Earth.

"Back home, that's an invitation to agree."

eVax grimaced but sealed the handshake. The guy must have bitten his tongue with disgust. Touching was the unofficial no-go around here. Bellrock still didn't know why. It couldn't be a germ thing, because their bodies were created to easily withstand bacterial infections of any kind. Maybe the Newtype distanced themselves so much from humanity they tried to avoid any physical interaction, deeming it primitive. 

For them, only the function remained.

A minimalist life, but an effective one.

Bellrock wondered how his life as a Newtype unit would look like.

Free of regrets?

The chance to start afresh with all the options still open?

A blessing.

"I'm gonna go for a little after-lunch walk. As soon as we have some new knowledge about the biomorph, please update me."

"We will do that. eLoom and your partner are working ferociously on the footage."

"Good to hear."

Bellrock pushed himself up from the table and steered away. Midway through the corridor, he noticed eVax walking out his quarters and stiffening up. 

More than usual.

His eyes frosted, the movements stilled. 

Something was wrong...

40

Bellrock ran back to his temporary 'guest' room.

"What's the matter, eVax?"

He closed his eyes and probably queried the information from the network. It looked like a standing meditation, but Bellrock felt the tension tearing through the artificial air.

eVax said,

"There is a situation in the lab section."

"What the hell does that mean?"

The Newtype hummed and charged off like a homing missile. He sprinted into the direction of the lab section, leaving the captain from Earth on the spot. 

Flabbergasted.

"Hey," Bellrock said as eVax vanished around the curved corner.

Damn B2B connection meant no human being ever knew what was going on. Bellrock stormed after the Newtype but barely managed to keep up, even with his artificial muscle-enhancements. Corner for corner, he saw the Newtype roaming through the corridors in well-placed steps. 

The final shutter gate opened up, after which eVax came to a screeching halt in front of a transparent wall. Bellrock neared him with his chest raised and upped his voice. 

"What's going on?"

The Newtype simply pointed through the see-through wall where a lab came into view.

Or what was left of it. 

The tech table was torn apart, just like the bionic arm that spat sparkles. Ergo shelves had shattered on the ground, transparent pieces of containers sprayed the surface. 

A view of destruction. 

Bellrock saw eLoom crawling on the floor. She looked hurt although he couldn't see her injury.

Boom.

That was Dr. Rao, pressing his face against the other side of the transparent wall and ripping open his mouth. Blood leaked from his forehead, splattered at the hull and rivered down. Bellrock couldn't hear a thing but hammered on his side of the wall and shouted.

"Open this goddamn lab."

"I can't do that," eVax said, "the area is contained to keep the aggressor trapped."

"Aggressor?"

Now he saw the culprit. 

In the corner of the lab lurked a little something, crawling up a desk and stretching its claw-like arm. It took Bellrock two seconds to recognize it—the artificial creature was the damaged cybernetic arm that eLoom had brought back from the biomorph approach.

Now it was somehow alive...and aggressive.

Snaking around the lab interior like a hand-faced viper, hunting its prey. 

Shit.

The biomorph arm climbed up the left wall inside the lab and targeted Dr. Rao who battered the transparent side with his bloody fists. Bellrock burned with anger and screamed at eVax who was still standing next to him, motionless.

"Open the goddamn door."

"I can not. It is on lockdown."

This useless shell.

Lives were on the line, and he still refused to help. Bellrock wanted to ram eVax' plastic face into the wall and stomp on it, but getting his partner out of the lab prison was the priority. He released the PEPS from his side-holster, stepped back and aimed the firearm at the wall.

eVax sighed with faint annoyance and slumped his shoulders.

"That will not help you break through the hull."

"Shut up."

It was Bellrock's only choice.

He squeezed the trigger and heated up the air before him. The invisible blast impacted the wall with no discernible effect.

Of course, it didn't.

It was non-lethal. 

Bellrock ground his teeth.

If only he carried a real firearm...

Useless thoughts.

He ran toward the see-through wall again and hit it with all his might. eVax looked like a bored bystander now and crossed his arms. He seemed to suffer from a severe loss of reality.

"That is even more useless."

Bellrock gnarled at the Newtype's direction.

"My friend's getting slaughtered inside. Either you shut the fuck up or you help me out."

"I am afraid I cannot do anything about it."

So shut up, then.

Inside the lab, the biomorphed arm spidered up Rao's back and smashed the poor guy into the half-broken tech table. The doc's eyes screamed in terror, his body cringed in agony. It tumbled over to the ground like a lifeless piece of meat. 

Bellrock shouted.

"Sriniva."

The young doctor crept toward the table and tried to lift himself up, but the blood wound leaked. He slipped and hit his face on the floor tiles first. More of the crimson liquid bubbled out and created a lake around his body. 

Bellrock couldn't take it anymore. He ran back to the direction where he came from.

eVax craned his neck.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to armor up."

"Is this violence really necessary?"

Bellrock pushed his legs and focused on the shortest distance back to his exoframe equipment. The critical thinking vanished, only the battle instincts burned. As he dashed through the corridor maze at full throttle, asset eKazumi came his way.

"The biomorph—“

"I know," she said, "we are all synced, remember?"

"Then where the hell were you?"

"I was recharging. When eLoom is working in the lab, she almost never requires my assistance."

Worst timing ever.

Bellrock passed her.

In less than a minute, he reached the cargo section and aimed for the crate with the HULC equipment, the Human Universal Load Carrier, a third generation model. Normally used to transport and lift heavyweights at disaster zones and construction sites, now a device to increase his physical strength and speed for CQC.

Close-quarters-combat. 

The exoframe way.

Seriously, the HULC was the best mobile armor that didn't count as military gear, although its variants were used in almost every infantry-based conflict. Bellrock attached the wireframe to his joints and slipped into the mobile armor. Activated its UX and felt like a raging titan.

HULC, online.

Hell yeah, Bellrock thought.

Five times his body weight.

Five times his physical strength.

Ten times more likely to kick some alien ass.

With the power of the suit, Bellrock readied his PEPS firearm and marched all the way back to the lab section. During the speed stomping, he prayed for his partner's survival.

Stay strong, Sriniva. 

I'm going to get you out of there.

Bellrock realized he should have never let the young man go alone. His instincts proved him right.

On the quick run, he activated a fast-beat, hammering sound piece from Shibuya Burn to get into the right mood. The ooz-ooz-ooz hardcore beat made his blood boil. Back in the lab corridor, he saw the biomorph arm creature slipping through a hole in the wall. It carried new mechanical attachments to its body, probably assimilated from the lab, which made it look like a cybernetic swiss knife monster. Bellrock recognized sharp cutting tools and even hull pieces from the crates and the tech table. 

The horror.

This creature was a parasite through and through, snatching up every tool that helped its killing spree. The ugly thing leaped onto eKazumi and swung one of its laser-sharpened body blades...

41

The biomorphed arm-creature cut through eKazumi's left arm with ease. Her limb snatched off and whirled around the slick ground. A bright blood-like liquid splashed out from its tubed veins and spat against the walls. They swallowed up the neon crimson substance and looked clean again.

Bellrock shook his head.

This was turning into a fetish now. To his amazement, eKazumi didn't scream. She ducked and rolled sideways as the mechanical creature assimilated her arm and made it a part of its ever-growing body. A strange liquid splattered the wound like a meteor trail. It looked like a damn SFX.

"Hey, ugly bitch."

eKazumi rotated her doll-like head.

Bellrock groaned.

"No, I meant the biomorph."

The mechanical creature let go off the asset and crept toward him, now with two cybernetic arms attached.

The captain was ready for it.

He trained his PEPS at the creature and squeezed the touch-sensitive trigger. The pressure wave knocked back the biomorph spawn by ten meters. Kicked the sucker off its legs and stunned it. 

Bellrock approached the grounded Newtype.

"Are you okay?"

eKazumi looked at her left rear. Some of the bloody liquid still leaked out, but the arm stump sealed itself to prevent further spilling. eKazumi's face remained devoid of emotion.

"It is just one arm. I can reprint it once this situation is dealt with."

"Good. Stay here for a sec. I have to check on my buddy."

She nodded.

Bellrock kicked open the rest pieces of the see-through wall and jumped into the demolished lab. The place looked as if a splitter bomb had blown apart the whole interior.

Didn't matter, only his partner did.

He found his buddy in the corner, laying in the fetal position, crying in pain. 

Spilling blood left and right. 

Bellrock hoped the injuries weren't as grave as they looked like.

"Doc, I'm gonna get you out of here."

The young man looked up and forced out a smile. Blood mixed with tears and ran from the corners of his eyes.

"C-captain."

Bellrock took a deep breath.

"Not gonna lie—this is going to hurt a lot."

He carefully lifted the doc and gently carried him under his left exo-arm. No problem with the help of his HULC, but Dr. Rao screamed his lungs out. The pain must have been excruciating, especially to a civilian with no anti-fragile training. Bellrock made sure he didn't squeeze. Thank tech the finely-tuned mechanics allowed for millimeter-tight accuracy. Still, it sucked to see the young man wince.

"I know, buddy, but we don't have the luxury of a stretcher."

Bellrock was about to step out the wall-hole when he noticed eLoom on the other side of the lab. She tried to push herself up and slipped on debris.

"Are you okay?"

She was more resistant than her human counterparts, but even shells were susceptible. No one deserved to die by the biomorph, or its twisted offspring. 

Bellrock knelt next to eLoom and said,

"You're coming with me."

She nodded but was unable to speak.

The captain grabbed her with his supported right arm and carried both her and Dr. Rao out the lab wall’s hole. In the corridor, he saw one-armed eKazumi staring at the east section of the corridor.

"The biomorph creature is coming back."

She was right.

The little bastard crawled on the wall. Ripped the fingers of its assimilated arms through the ceiling's hull and snaked at their direction. Bellrock felt the urge to fire, but with both arms carrying his folks, he was out-armed. That's when he looked at eKazumi and said,

"Asset, take the PEPS gun from my side-holster and use it to keep the creature at bay."

She followed his command with no hesitation, activated the gun and aimed it at the incoming ceiling-hugger. Bellrock watched her raise the firearm and expressed his doubts.

"Do you even know how to use this?"

"I'm Newtype. I know everything."

Of course she did.

"Well, then cover our asses."

She bowed, directed the gun and squeezed the trigger at the blink of a nano-enhanced eye. The blow caught up with the biomorph creature and threw it meters down the east corridor. It looked as if an invisible foot played rugby with it. 

Low on damage, high on pushback.

Bellrock whistled.

"Good shot."

But this wasn't the time to drool over accuracy.

He cranked the servo-mechanics of his HULC exoskeleton and marched away from the hotzone. eKazumi covered his escape route by firing controlled bursts every time the biomorph crawler neared the duo by five meters.