The Colony Ship Warren #1-7, page 191
part #0 of Colony Ship Warren #1-7 Series
“Too far, and the landing was strange. Gooey and absorbent stuff, a floor I suppose, which then swelled into that vault back there. I must have bounced away from you when we landed.”
“I guess so. I fired at some Jellie thing back there,” she gestured down the tunnel, “and it retreated. I feared shooting more because I did not want to hit you.”
“Did you use the new dart-thing or the winxy pistol?”
“I am saving the dart gun for when I know I can hit a Jellie. I used the pistol,” Beth nodded at him. “I thought I heard Doc, but have not been able to hear her or the others again. You came though just now.”
“Me too. I mean, I can hear you, obviously. Oh, I hate this! I am not sure what happened up above,” Allen replied. “But the system says it is working, although the readings are just flashing for some of the information. I will restart it and then call them again.”
“Wait!” Beth put up her hand and then tapped Allen’s bubble helmet. She stared right at him and then pushed her helmet forward to physically touch his.
Her voice came through as a whisper since the helmets conducted the sound, “The Colonel wanted silence, and who knows who is listening in. Macmillan, Monitor, or the Jellies? I just muted communication. You do it too.”
Allen did that as well, nodding to her. After he checked that it was muted, he replied in what she heard as a whisper, “We have to talk. Just pressing our helmets together will not work for long.”
“Long enough to get us away from here,” Beth replied and wrapped one arm around him. “My eyes hurt from that disgusting glow. I prefer being in the dark to that purple irritation.”
With her other hand, she held the winxy pistol and aimed it toward the darkness, then she gestured.
“We are in this together,” Allen replied and copied how she was holding him, only using the opposite arm and hand. His winxy pistol was ready.
They walked steadily into the shadowy areas ahead of them, making sure to keep their helmets together as much as possible. With each step it grew darker, and they held onto each other tighter.
Each of them was blinking and wishing they could rub their eyes with their fingers. It was slow going, but they knew that behind them was just the vaulted cavern with is falling debris. The dark tunnel was at least consistent in shape, and the permalloy around them gave them a sense of some security. Nothing was falling on them, and the floor beneath seemed solid enough. Even though they could tell they were heading deeper down into the underground, they did not think there was any other choice.
Soon they realized it was not completely dark, as their eyes recovered from the abuse of the Jellie’s light. Or perhaps it was a natural adjustment their eyes were making. Still, they held onto each other firmly as they slowly walked along. It was dim, shadowy, and murky, but they pressed onward.
About three dozen paces later, the tunnel curved and they could see a bit better. Diffuse lighting, with a pinkish tint, came from various spots, but the source of the light was as ambiguous as the purpose of the tunnel.
Onward they walked, and saw that ahead of them the tunnel opened into some kind of larger room. As they entered into it, they saw a vast maze of equipment all around them. Large tanks, empty pools, and toppled over mechanisms littered the floor. The walls had structures built into them, but of uncertain resolution, as the light was enough to see that items were there, but not enough to discern much with clarity.
The complexity was not just on the floor and walls. Overhead the chamber was crammed with stuff. Cranes, with cables and hooks hanging down, ran on tracks built into the ceiling. Ducts crisscrossed each other. Struts, supports, girders and other structures were at various levels about them, mostly cloaked in shadows and gloomy, almost-hidden, upside-down crevasses.
“A strange place,” Allen whispered as they kept their helmets connected together. “Way more complicated than a recessed tray-like ceiling, but why?”
“Looks like they moved materials around down here; dirt, rocks, other stuff. Did those chutes bring stuff down here, and then what? Water, or some kinds of liquids, flowed in those troughs,” Beth replied as she scanned the area with her eyes. “But they are mostly dry. What was this place?”
Suddenly, a myriad of tentacles slapped at them from above. The tentacles were moving so quickly it was difficult to see how many there were.
Piff!
Beth fired and the tentacle right in front of her blew apart in a spray of pinkish-purple gunk.
A tentacle slapped into Allen, but he kept firm grip on Beth as he fired his winxy pistol.
Piff! Piff!
The shots caused the tentacle to shatter and rip, unlike anything they had seen before. Chunks and globs from the damaged tentacles splattered all over as they wildly flailed about.
Then more appendages, thicker and heavier than the previous tentacles, struck down at them.
Unable to dodge, since they were holding tightly to each other, they stood together and just fired at the tentacles.
Piff. Piff. Piff.
Each shot first impacted the closest tentacle, blasting it apart, then traveled through and into another tentacle, doing similar damage. There were so many appendages thrashing about it was almost impossible to miss them as they fired. The projectiles shredded many tentacles in the frenzied shooting.
Beth and Allen fired with abandon, desperate to defend themselves.
Piff. Piff.
Piff. Piff.
“They… are not… stopping,” Allen huffed out as he kept firing.
“But they are… just getting more and more frayed… and shattered!” Beth replied through gritted teeth and held on tightly. “Not like… the other fights. There… is something odd… about this!”
Piff. Piff. Piff.
Allen kept firing, but huffed out an answer, “The wounds… are not sealing… over. No healing… or whatever it is they do.”
Beth wanted to holster the winxy pistol and try shooting the Jellie with the dart gun, but there was no time to stop firing, and the dart gun would require two hands for its initial cocking. She would not risk letting go of Allen just to get the dart gun out.
“I cannot… see the body! Where is the Jellie?” Beth hollered out as she aimed and fired. All she could see above was the flotilla of tentacles, but she knew a Jellie’s body must be somewhere up in the rafters, or wherever.
The tentacles then mutated, merged in a sickening way, into countless smaller ones, similar in diameter to a human finger, but very long and whip-like. These were much more difficult to hit, and they struck at Beth and Allen innumerable times. Like an ancient flail, or scourge, they whipped viciously down upon Beth and Allen.
The ECAs deflected that barrage of tentacles, but the force of so many strikes, a seemingly unending fusillade, finally caused them to stumble backward.
Piff! Piff!
Beth fired at something shadowy up in the rafters, but she was uncertain what was there. The apparently countless slender tentacles flagellated before her and while some of them were pierced or devastated by her shooting, far more just slapped at her with increasing ferocity.
One tentacle wrapped itself around Allen’s hand while the tip of that tentacle slid inside the barrel of the winxy pistol.
Piff!
Allen fired, and that specific tentacle was eradicated, but its truncated end just flapped about spewing foul gooey junk everywhere.
Another wave of slender tentacles walloped into the two humans as they courageously fought on, firing and holding onto each other, but now they were soaked with the foul fluids which the spouting tentacles kept pumping out.
Piff. Piff. Piff.
Allen pulled his arm tightly about Beth, trying to keep their physical contact, but the slime and gunk from the shattered tentacles made everything slippery. The tentacles kept striking, from various angles, and the slime pouring onto them increased with each blasted tentacle.
Allen lost his footing, then his grip on Beth.
She grabbed his wrist as he stumbled, pulling him up next to her, but just at that moment, from behind them, a tentacle as thick around as a human thigh smashed into them.
That sent Beth off to one side and Allen off to another side. Beth’s grip on Allen’s wrist slipped and they grabbed each other’s fingers.
Yet, that hold was tenuous as several tentacles struck down right onto their joined hands.
They lost that last grip and fell to opposite sides.
“Beth!” Allen yelled out, but he was unsure if she could hear, since their helmets were no longer in contact. He made sure his external microphones were on and screamed her name again, “Beth!”
Beth muscled her arm away from a constricting tentacle and dove down to the deck. Rolling along, she holstered the winxy pistol before it was ripped from her grip. She drew out the dart gun. She remembered that that weapon was supposed to be bane against the Jellies.
I will kill them all and then find Allen!
She aimed at the largest tentacle she could see and fired. With the ongoing battering her ECA was taking, she did not hear the weapon fire, unlike the winxy pistols whose sound was distinct, but her aim was true. The dart gun’s projectile entered and vanished inside the Jellie’s tentacle.
Nothing else seemed to happen.
“No! You have to die!” Beth screamed in frustration. “Explode! Shake! Melt! Wither! The darts have to stop you!”
She fired the rest of the ammunition in that weapon, and each projectile penetrated a specific tentacle. She did not think she hit the same tentacle twice, but it was impossible to tell.
There were no visible changes in her attackers, and the menagerie of tentacles kept hammering her.
Pulling out the winxy pistol again, as it at least did something to the enemies, she fired.
Piff. Piff. Piff. Piff.
The onslaught of slender tentacles, interrupted by large ones swinging in like cudgels, forced her to dodge and weave.
“Allen!” Beth yelled out through the communications link she opened.
Piff! Piff!
Allen was firing somewhere, so she knew he was still fighting, but she could not see where.
An ugly purple curtain, made of a multitude of tentacles, thrashed Allen all around, but none of them tried to grab his winxy pistol. Not knowing where Beth was, and unable to see her at all, he only fired upward, thinking that was the safest direction to shoot without accidentally hitting her.
“Beth! Look out! Where are you?” In his fear and the fog of combat, he forgot to turn on the communication link, despite the fact he was screaming for Beth.
At that moment, a torrent of very sticky fluids dumped from somewhere above. It was gunky and a different shade of purple color. It slathered over their bubble helmets, nearly obscuring their views entirely. Instinctively, Allen reached up to try to clear the helmet, but that just spread the dark purple ooze further about. His fingers were sticking together, making his hand less useful.
Another bunch of tentacles slapped against the two struggling humans, forcing them further and further away from each other. They each were jostled about violently, yet, they kept fighting.
Piff. Piff. Piff.
Then the floor beneath them rose rapidly, dropped, and rose at an angle. That eerie undulation, disrupted the last of their equilibrium. They were stumbling, falling, trying to stand, and then staggering a step or two, before falling down to their knees again.
“Beth!” Allen kept screaming, but only he heard it.
Tossed wildly about, Beth was waiting for him to answer her own frantic cries, as she tried to peer past the lumps of stuff stuck just outside her helmet. But with everything happening, she could not see or hear Allen.
Unexpectedly, powerful nozzles at various places shot out mighty jets of air which whooshed against the sticky liquids and drove some of it off of Beth and Allen. That river of air also combated the torrent of watery gunk which was still dumping down on them.
The floor halted its bizarre movements, leaving it at an angle, but at least stable.
Varley shrieked out, but only Beth heard it, “I will move you. You must keep killing them, but not in this place! The Lillakas Vooras Masins must be killed.”
Allen just felt baffled at the combination of drenching gummy fluids, high-powered bursts of air, the clots all over his helmet, and the crazily tilted floor. Because of a blast of air, he was shoved off to a side, hit a wall, felt the wall give away, and then slid harshly across and into a dark chamber. He felt a door slam shut behind him, but he was too disoriented to do much else.
On the opposite side of the room, the floor tilted abruptly in a different direction and the largest blast of air yet shoved Beth, head first, into a small access passageway. That space was never intended for human use, but was designed for engineering automacubes.
The door to that access passage tried to shut and as it did it physically jammed Beth further inside.
“You are out,” Varley squawked.
“Varley?” Beth huffed out in exhaustion, “Where is Allen?”
“The Lillakas Vooras Masins must die! Do not hinder me!” Varley shrieked out.
The doors on the place where Beth was then locked, securing her away from the waters, sticky purple globes, and bursts of air. Yet, she could hardly see, and her ECA was coated with unknown substances. Still, she struggled to see where Allen was, as she kept calling for him.
“Allen, where are you?”
There was no answer.
They were separated.
8 Another Old Friend?
Allen, scared, exhausted, and physically battered, finally noticed that his communication system was not linked. He toggled the switches as best he could, but the interface was not working.
He cursed himself and then tried activating the links again.
A light in the heads-up display finally read, “Connected.”
“Beth? Beth? Are you safe?” Allen yelled.
He got a response, but it was not Beth.
“This is Elsa, Allen. I have been trying to reach you. This transmission has finally connected.”
“Elsa, connect me to Beth! Is she okay? What has happened?”
“Allen, I am unable to connect you directly to Beth. Your signal is barely strong enough, and it will not connect into any multiple channel. If I disconnect you from this exact frequency, I fear I will not be able to reconnect to you. I have your position noted. For the moment, you are safe.”
“Is Beth safe?” Allen demanded.
“Her situation is much like yours,” Elsa replied. “Neither of you is in immediate danger, as far as I can assess, but your ECA communication systems are wedged into different frequencies. I have just spoken to Beth, and she is not physically damaged. I know where both of you are located, via the deck plans and triangulation, but your positions are not in standard locations.”
“Is Beth safe? Connect me to Beth!” Allen hollered again with some hysteria creeping into his words. “Just tell me yes or no! Answer me!”
“Allen, Beth is as safe as you are. Each of you is, to put it bluntly, stuck outside of the typical passageways, with a single avenue of communication. I cannot address both of you at the same time. You are lodged between decks. I am conjecturing the best ways to physically get assets to reach each of you, but it will take some time.”
“Let me talk to Beth! Please!” Allen cried out.
He tried to move his arms and push himself over, as he could see a bit of something beyond the mess coating the outside of his bubble helmet. Yet, as he tried to move, he realized that he could barely move at all. For in each direction he moved, he felt a squishiness against him which greatly inhibited how far he could go. He thought of the thick mud he had stepped in, in one of the biomes, and that had felt similar. Only here, he was immersed in it while he was lying on his side.
“Allen, please listen to me. I cannot connect you to Beth directly. I can keep this channel open, but by doing that, I am not able to converse with Beth. Right now, Beth is speaking to someone who can assist her. I can offer that same service to you, but that means I will not be talking to you.”
“What? I do not understand! What is happening? I need to get to Beth! Is she okay? She is talking to someone? If she can do that, she can talk to me! Is she really safe? Really?”
“Yes, Allen. Beth is safe, but trapped like you are. It will take some time to reach both of you, and I am still conjecturing which assets I can use to reach you.”
“Assets? What do you mean?” Allen demanded. Some gunk had slipped on his bubble helmet and his visual field was even more limited.
“Assets are what things I can direct. It will probably have to be an automacube,” Elsa replied. “But I am looking at all options.”
“Help Beth first! Get her to safety!”
“Allen, I am giving this situation my highest priority. I am learning a lot. I cannot speak with both you and Beth at the same time. So, I am connecting you to someone who will help you cope with this confinement. My focus will be on securing your rescue, and if you really need me, I will reconnect. But please try to calm down.”
“Connect me to Beth! No one else! Please do not leave me alone!” Allen whimpered out as he was awash in anxiety, immobility, and seclusion. “I have to rescue Beth!”
“Allen, she said the same kinds of things about you. She cares deeply for you. That is an interesting phenomena. I am now splicing in the person you can talk to while I study this situation.”
“Elsa, if you can splice in someone else, why not Beth?” Allen demanded.
“Hello, Allen. What a jacked-up mess this is.”
“Doctor Chambers?” Allen muttered as he recognized the voice from long ago in Dome 17. “How?”
“How indeed?” Doctor Chambers’ rich and soothing voice answered. “I am told you needed some help, so here I am.”
“But you are not really here!” Allen yelped out. “Beth is in danger! Help her, please!”
“I am on it,” Doctor Chambers replied with gusto and sincerity.
There was a slight pause.
“I am back. I spoke to Elsa, Brink’s creation, and I am assured that Beth is getting help,” Doctor Chambers answered. “She is stuck in a trap like you are.”
