Chapter 104

Chapter One Hundred Four

About halfway back to the Lucky Sevens, with darkness anchored in the thick woods and the brutal heat slipping away, the scorpions finally broke off their harassing attacks.

Connor relaxed, if only a little.

The bugs might have stopped attacking, but they still pursued.

For hours, the buzz of their wings echoed through the moonlit trees. Their stench clung to everything, making the thick air almost unbreathable.

What remained of the team glowed like stars in the infrared of Connor’s visor.

Fatigue could kill just as easily as an enemy attack.

He jogged alongside the vehicle, talking to Yemi to keep him awake. Aubriella’s body rested in the back, bracketed by Mosiah’s cases and their supplies.

At least she didn’t know the terror and misery of this retreat.

Then again, would she have chosen death over the struggle? That was life, after all: a constant battle for survival.

No, she would have preferred to be their with her comrades, fear and all.

Stopping when night fell wasn’t an option, not with the scorpions in pursuit. Instead, they took turns napping in the back of the vehicle or resting in the front beside Yemi.

An hour catching your breath, maybe closing your eyes without fear of a bug swooping down and filling your body with venom…it was enough to recharge.

Selen was too preoccupied with survival to vent at Connor.

He took solace in that, but nothing was going to erase the pain of losing another teammate, especially one so young as Aubriella.

Was Selen regretting her choice of coloring the young woman as the problem?

It seemed unlikely. Selen was quickly isolating herself from reality.

In the early hours, it was Connor’s turn to take the front seat with Yemi. Vicente looked ready to collapse, so Connor sent him inside.

The big man didn’t protest.

Connor shifted over to the passenger side of the vehicle. “You going to be okay, big guy?”

Vicente’s chest was still heaving, and the towel he used to dry the sweat from his body was limp and wet. “Doesn’t feel right.”

“You can’t let survivor’s guilt get to you.”

“I know, Boss. But she was just a kid. Rudy swore he’d make a mercenary out of her.”

“She died in battle.”

“Fighting bugs.” The heavy weapons expert shook his head. “It’s not right.”

“You think how someone dies matters?” Connor wasn’t sure how he felt about the subject, actually. He just wanted to keep the big man distracted, to cool down.

“My mother’s family was actually still religious, y’know? Not her, but her parents and grandparents.”

“You believe any of that?”

“Nah. It makes you feel good, but it’s not sensible, right?”

“I’m not sure what’s sensible anymore.”

Vicente leaned his bald head back against the seat’s headrest. “I think maybe I’ll take a nap.”

“You do that.”

A minute later, the big man was snoring, his head lolling in time with the vehicle’s rocking.

Just before the shift ended, they broke out of the wooded cover. The low butte waited, the open ground empty of threats. Connor slowed everyone and waved Kalpana forward.

She fell in beside him. “Thinking there’s trouble?”

Connor shrugged. “I’m not sure what I feel. Something.”

He led the way up the gentler slope, Asp light machine-gun held ready. He half expected the lizards to be waiting for them, maybe hiding under the ship, but there was nothing. The butte top was clear except for the ship.

But something still felt wrong.

Kalpana dropped to a knee when he signaled for her to hold, then he jogged around the spacecraft, alternately shining a light on the belly, then switching to infrared.

Nothing.

He tested his radio, something he hadn’t used since entering the ruins. “All clear.”

The vehicle rumbled up the side of the butte, its thick tires chirping and scraping on the incline. Even wounded, Yemi was a special driver, gunning the motor every time it seemed like the vehicle might fall back down.

When everyone was safely atop the butte, Connor set his machine-gun down, drew his swords, then opened the airlock.

A pungent odor hung in the cargo bay, which seemed no cooler than the evening air.

He connected to Selen. “Something happened to the air recycler.”

“What’s wrong?”

“No cooling, and the air smell stale.” The best case scenario was an automatic shutdown when the system detected something going bad.

He didn’t want to imagine the worse.

A quick check confirmed that was the only problem.

Connor hurried back down to the airlock and waved everyone in. As a whole, they barely managed a shuffle. Their shoulders slumped, and they were too tired to complain about the heat.

Kalpana unslung her rifle. “All I want is a shower and bed.”

The others echoed the sentiment.

But Connor hung back at the airlock door with Selen and Elise. Once everyone was in and passed through the cargo bay, he sealed the airlock. “We purged the coolant and water filtration systems.”

Selen stiffened. “You said it was just the air recycler.”

“Maybe that’s what it turns out to be.”

Elise bowed her head. “You don’t think that’s it.”

“Do you? With all the crazy things going on, I have to assume the worst, and that’s the same problem we ran into before.”

“Those spider things? I can’t even understand how they got into the pipes in the first place.”

“I know.” Connor caught the anger on Selen’s face. “We’ll check.”

But she shook her head. “Show me.”

He led the way up the ramp to the second deck, then aft to the entry to the engineering section.

When the hatch opened, he froze.

Silvery lines stretched from the ceiling to the floor as far in as he could see. Resting on some of those were the same furry, fist-sized spidery monstrosities.

He slammed a fist against the hatch actuator, and it closed.

Selen groaned. “How did they get in there?”

“I have no idea.”

“We need to kill them.” She crossed her arms. “Now.”

“We will. I think releasing high-pressure steam into that room will do the trick. But if they’ve clogged everything up again—”

“Fix it.”

“We may not be able to, Selen. They didn’t just damage the pipes.”

She spun on a heel and marched away. “I want my ship back.”

Connor did too, but whatever was behind all the insanity they were facing apparently had other plans.