phil jones2 (52 page)

Now it was just the small matter of navigating their way to the pod in pitch darkness while surrounded by a lot of confused and angry alien creatures brandishing claws. Simple.

Picking Smith up and trying his best not to hurt the already-injured man, Terry squinted at the small light of the scanner before taking a few steps forward.

'Wouldn't it be better if I took that for you?' Annika asked, eyeing the tightrope act that Terry was inadvertently performing with the floor of the ship.

Had it been anyone else Terry might have considered himself better equipped to work with the device, even with the increasingly difficult weight of Smith slung over his shoulder. He was well aware of the Lieutenant's expertise though, and there was the technical matter of her outranking him. Now was not the time to test if she would pull rank, they had far too many other things to worry about.

'Thank you.' she said as he handed it over, trying not to keel over in the process. He had been slacking off on the dead weights lately and it had been showing. That or Smith was made of lead, the man weighed far more than Terry would have suspected for such a slight form.

'Now we just have to work our way back to the pod without getting caught by the Voravians again. I have a feeling they'll be too busy trying to get the ship back online to worry about potential intruders.'

Smith shook his head. 'They will know that when the power to their ship went off, so did all the force fields. I have no doubt about it, they will be searching for us.'

'That and they will be hunting whoever it was that did this to them. It wouldn't be too hard for them to put two and two together.' Terry added. 'Come on, we had best get moving as quickly as we can, otherwise they'll catch us for sure.'

He always wondered how he'd deal with a crisis situation, and the last few days had given him any number of opportunities. He had surprised himself with this calm and logical side, fully expecting the flight or fight to come out in him at the slightest provocation.

'Come on Stevens, get moving!' the muffled voice behind his back said faintly.

Terry looked around, then realised it had been Smith talking again. 'Oh... right.'

Not needing any further provocation, Terry and Annika made their way through the almost pitch-black corridors. There was no emergency lighting on account of there being no power to supply it, and anything could be lurking in those shadows ahead, attracted to the light of their scanner. Most likely something with claws and a bad disposition on account of their crippling the ship. He really needed to stop thinking about that and get on with things.

As it turned out, he didn't have to force himself into doing so, as his mind was helpfully taken off matters by the inexplicably increasing burden that was Agent Smith. Terry was no power lifter but as time went by the sheer weight of the man had started digging into his shoulder, something that made no sense at all to him since he should be able to handle someone this size for an extended period of time. Especially given the circumstances.

He came to a halt involuntarily as another winding corridor resolved itself into a large straight seemingly without end.

'What's the matter?' Annika whispered, also conscious of hidden listeners. 'Why have you stopped?'

Terry took in a deep breath, but said nothing to her. As it turned out, he didn't need to.

'Leave me.' Agent Smith croaked at him.

He craned his neck back to look at the man but without any success. 'What did you say?'

'You heard me the first time.' his superior snapped, still well enough to be annoyed. 'Leave me here, better that the two of you make it to the pods instead of none of us.'

Annika looked stricken. 'What are you talking about? We can't leave you here!'

Terry turned slightly, allowing Smith to address her face to face. 'I'm slowing you both down.' he said, and the cough he let out wasn't for show. 'The Voravians incapacitated me much worse than you. I am a burden and a liability to this mission. The only logical thing to do is to leave me.'

The Lieutenant started to shake her head, but Smith cut in before she could voice her protestations. 'I'm ordering you both to leave me here, get yourselves to the pod and get back to the ship if you can.'

To his surprise, Terry found that Annika was crying, torn between her duty and something else. 'I'm not leaving you!' she cried, making Terry wince at the sound that would have undoubtedly travelled a long distance down these corridors.

'You don't have a choice.' Smith replied, but not unkindly. Gone was the rigidity of his previous words, softened by something Terry refused to think about. 'Now get going, I'll see what I can do from here to draw them away.'

'You're wrong, Commander.' Terry said, surprising himself with his own words. 'We do have a choice, and I'm going to get you to that pod even if it kills me.'

As if the discussion was at an end, he continued marching forward with Smith pounding ineffectively on his back. The man had hard fists, but there was no energy behind the strikes, and the complaints gradually faded away as they fell on deaf ears. Hopefully between them Annika and Smith hadn't made enough noise to alert the Voravians, the only way of telling would be to continue staggering forward. A sitting duck.

The scanner's light continued to lead the way, now in the capable hands of Lieutenant Annika, who kept whispering words of encouragement to Terry now that her tears were dried. The light on the device, even at its lowest setting, was going to attract attention far sooner than any whispering on her part so he didn't complain. Even if they didn't make it back in one piece he prided himself on the feeling that he was doing the right thing, it propelled him onward and gave him reserves of strength he hadn't found in even his most excruciating sessions back home.

Annika held up a hand then, and he came to an immediate halt. He had seen enough movies to know that if someone were to hold up a hand then you should stop immediately before trouble did it for you.

Having come to a halt, he heard it too. It was faint but unmistakable, the skittering of claws across the metallic plating of the ship's darkened floor.

Annika turned off the light and Terry didn't question her decision. He didn't want to be left alone in the darkness with these things, but using the light would be tantamount to jumping up and down and shouting 'Hey, green-skinned monsters, I'm over here!' No, he didn't much care for that idea. If they needed to proceed in the dark then so be it.

The Lieutenant listened for a little longer before proceeding down the corridor, her light footsteps indication enough that Terry should follow, even if he was at risk of bumping the dead weight of Smith into the bulkheads.

All pretence of stealth on his part had been lost, he couldn't afford to try it lest his knees give way and he provide himself and Smith with a mild concussion at best. Shaking his head, he suspected that thanks to his lizard friends he already had one.

He took a deep breath and continued, but the burden of his superior meant that his struggle for air was all the more painful. He would have been truly baffled by that if he didn't hear the heavy breathing of Annika next to him.

'The atmosphere.' she gasped, 'the air is thinning here.'

Terry knew better than to doubt her, they needed to somehow pick up the pace otherwise they would suffocate. As if the Voravians hadn't been bad enough. Just great. Next thing the ship's self destruct would start counting down or something.

Except that there was no power to do that! Terry's Engineering half intruded into his thoughts, chastising him for such a rookie mistake.

He didn't know whether it was the darkness or lack of oxygen or just his own muddled perceptions, but his burden felt lighter now. He could do this, he could make it to the pod in time!

Buoyed by this discovery, he moved faster and Annika did her best to keep with him, injured as she was by more than the single stun blast he had been hit with.

That was when the clicking sounds grew uncomfortably loud and the atmosphere took a turn for the oppressive. Someone had found them.

'I think we're going to need that light.' Terry risked whispering to Annika, but found that she was already activating it and scanning the area for any signs of Voravians.

'There are two of them up ahead.' she informed him. 'Quite likely armed and most certainly in our way.'

Ah, that was bad.

'Fortunately they don't know we're here yet.'

Well, that was good!

'Sadly they are approaching us.'

Ah, that was bad.

'That means we can ambush them.'

Well, that was good!

'The ambush will most likely cost one if not all of us our lives.'

Ah, that was bad.

'At least we can take comfort that our deaths will happen as a result of successfully averting the complete destruction of all mankind.'

Well, that was... in truth, Terry didn't know how to feel about that one. Saving mankind wasn't much fun if you weren't around to enjoy it. At least he knew where he stood though, they had to get past those two Voravians up ahead to stand a chance of getting to the pod. If they weren't capable of doing that then they need not worry about trying to sneak past the rest of the crew.

It looked like they didn't have long to prepare themselves for it either, as the clicking grew more and more pronounced with each passing second. Either these Voravians were completely unaware of the breakout or they simply weren't built for stealth and chose not to try.

As if one cue, one of them noticed Annika's light and went charging toward her, followed swiftly by its companion, another great hulking beast that was all scales and sharp bits.

Terry found himself setting Smith down and placing himself between the Lieutenant and certain death. Chivalrous certainly, he thought, but not the most instinctive action when it came to self-preservation. Those claws were looking sharper by the second.

Something was wrong, and it was only now that he spotted it. Their running should have brought them within carving distance of him by now, but their footsteps seemed laboured as if someone had inconsiderately dropped soda all over the floor and forgotten to clean it up a week ago.

His Engineer brain as he so fondly called it, saved him. Taking control of his arms and legs for that split second, it forced him to shove Annika into one of the walls and reach out to embrace the clawing death that awaited him.

Terry had no intention of dying, and the last-minute assault he offered the Voravians caught them by surprise. Instead of slamming himself into them or throwing wild punches and screaming at them, he stuck a leg out and tripped them both, sending them sprawling in what seemed to be slow motion before he shoved them both down the corridor behind them.

The gravity failed completely then, and the two lizards sailed harmlessly away into the darkness.

Two points of light shot out and buried themselves into the backs of the creatures, and Terry looked over to find Smith holding a smoking Voravian weapon.

'They would have come back for us eventually.' the man offered by way of explanation. 'Even if you don't think so, the gravity of this situation has not diminished.'

If Terry didn't know any better he would have suspected that to be a play on words by his Commander. He didn't risk laughing for fear of retribution now that the man was armed and very dangerous.

'We're not that far from the pod.' Annika said from the other side of the corridor. 'If we just continue a little further we should make it.'

Terry didn't argue with her, using the deck plating to push his way over to Smith, who was rising.

'I no longer need your aid, Engineer.' the Agent said, pushing himself upright and proceeding down the corridor with weapon in hand. 'I am proficient in zero gravity, your assistance was appreciated but now it would appear you need help more than I do.'

Terry spotted that he was doing a barrel roll and about to collide with the wall. Smith hadn't warned him until it was too late.

'Ow!' he cried as his face crunched up against the plating.

'We don't have time for this.' Smith called from ahead. 'Lieutenant, escort Engineer Stevens. I shall scout ahead.'

Terry shook his throbbing head in disbelief. He had been carrying the man's dead weight but a few minutes ago, now the same man was ready to take on the whole Voravian mothership?

Speaking of which, not that he wanted to find out badly, but where were the rest of the Voravians?

The heavy panting he had adopted reminded him painfully that both time and air was running out, he needed to worry less about having holes blown in him and more about getting out of here before he died. Yes, that would be quite nice thank you very much.

First, he needed to figure out how to move. Apparently Annika had already ascertained his dilemma, as she was floating over toward him with an overly encouraging look on her face. The sort that suggested if you don't get it right the first sweet time of asking the next askance would come at a scream.

'Just do as I do.' she said as she got closer to him, pushing off from the wall and angling herself further up on the opposite wall instead of directly down the corridor. This gave her a few seconds of floating before she could then push off from the wall in a different direction, a sort of zig-zag from wall to wall in the general direction that the more proficient Smith was heading.

It didn't take Terry long to figure out this new manoeuvre, adapting muscle motion was his speciality back at the gym and he wasn't going to be outdone even if these were his final moments.

The aforementioned corridor resolved itself after a few turns with a large set of double doors, doors that he hoped would lead to the escape pod. An escape pod untouched by Voravian hands and entirely functional that is.

Instead of finding their way out, they were greeted by a large room whose walls eluded the faint light of the scanner. There were also a number of growls which were swiftly silenced by bursts of light coming from the direction of Smith.

'We just have to make it through this room and...' that was when Smith had started shooting, cutting off Annika mid-sentence. '...avoid the Voravians.'