Two, a novel - Chaper 1

This is the first chapter of my novel in progress, working title "Two." Look for other chapters in separate posts.

JOINING

The five men moved down the darkened hallway in quick, light steps, weapons ready. Their progress was swift and silent, with a choreography about it that spoke of practice. Visors hid their eyes. As they went, they made continuous, rapid glances at the surroundings and each other. Hand gestures communicated intent, direction, coordination. Throughout their progress, the lights were dim and sporadic, indicating perhaps some power-saving mode on the vacant space station.
Presently the hallway opened and split into a larger, rounded set of corridors that curved away on either side. Dead ahead were big double doors made of some translucent material. A faintly blue-green tint to the doors indicated something there in what otherwise might have been a vacant opening.
The men silently pooled up around the base of the doors, which stood three meters high and two across. A tall figure beckoned and all five huddled, heads together. He lifted up, glanced either way, then bent again to the circle of heads and began to speak softly over the comlink.
“We’ve made it this far with no trouble. Either the security systems have gone dead or we haven’t looked threatening. When we crack these doors that could change. We need to get the material and get out as fast as possible.”
The speaker glanced side to side at the shaded visors.
“Let’s do it.”
The group quickly fanned out. Two men took up positions by the gangway opening, carrying heavier weapons held ready. Two scurried to the base of the doors. They placed gray tubes lengthwise and began to unscrew the ends. The tall leader stood off to the side, glancing back and forth, watching everything. Two glistening black rods came slowly out of the tubes. The men let them slide out and come to rest along the doorway base, then turned and looked back. The leader made a sweeping gesture back away from the doors and everyone retreated to the relative shelter of the gangway opening.
One man pulled out a small transmitter, looked at it, looked up, then thumbed a key. All five froze, watching intently.
The slick, glistening rods began to move, softening and pooling. In apparent defiance of gravity, the material began to flow up the sides and front of the translucent doors.
Beyond the doors, the men could see a wide rectangular space arrayed with lab tables and machines. Smaller see-through doors opened off the main space to other lab areas, protecting—or confining—whatever lay inside.
The black material had now turned a light gray as it spread across the big front doors. Light smoke or vapor wafted from it. Motion crinkled on the surface, busy activity on a micro scale. The men watched and waited.
Within two minutes, the doors began to change. Activity accelerated. The entire surface of the material, the sides and hinges, the locks and handles, began shifting and molding.
The man with the transmitter looked down and entered coded commands with rapid keystrokes.
A seam appeared in the middle where the two doors met and they began to part. The smoking material melted back away from the growing opening. Within another minute, a rounded archway now beckoned where before there had been no passage.
Several of the men stirred, as if to move for the opening, recalling the urgency of time. But the leader put his hand on one shoulder. They waited another 30 seconds.
The archway had now stabilized. The vapors stilled. All seemed quiet.
At last, the leader chopped two fingers down toward the entry. In a quick stream, the men shuffled through the opening.
Inside, they moved past tables and equipment to a smaller doorway on the far side of the lab. They halted while one man consulted a display on his forearm. It showed a map of the lab interior, a map that had been difficult to obtain. They hoped it was current and reliable. The man looked at one door, then the one next to it, then back down at the display. Finally, he pointed at the entry on the left.
Quickly, they placed another tube at the base of the door and moved back. The process repeated, the black ooze sliding up to cover the translucent surface. Within minutes the doors melted back to an arched opening. Three men moved inside, the other two stayed out, eyes continuously arcing around the room, watching the lab.
Inside the smaller room, a round table was covered by a large clear dome. Wheels operated sealed hatches to segmented chambers inside the dome. Inside the chambers rested large container tubes stacked vertically, color-coded and labeled. The leader moved around the storage table.
He stopped before green tubes marked “ORG” and gestured and stepped back. Another man came up, turned the wheel and opened the hatch. He pulled a black fabric duffel from a pouch on his coveralls and kneeled down, unfolding and spreading it on the floor. He stood and carefully reached into the chamber. His gloved hand grasped one tube and gently pulled. It came free easily and he lifted it out and placed it in the duffle.
All during this time, the leader and the other man stood near the doorway, watching. Now they also pulled out duffels and began removing containers.
The leader chose a set of black tubes marked “MIL.” The other man chose red ones marked “MED.” In all, there were six categories. The others were marked “INF,” “ECO” and “BIO.” The three men moved carefully and methodically, but at the ends of gestures, a sudden quickness of movement betrayed the urgency of their task.
* * *
At the entrance to another room two doors down, a face watched from the bottom corner. Under a lab table in front of the doorway, she could see the booted feet of the men standing guard across the way. The watcher crawled back away from the door and stood up. She had a woman’s form, but short, soft hair covered her body from head to toe. Long, round muscles were defined with a sculptor’s art along her arms, legs and torso.
She moved with lithe grace back into the room, which was spare—only two cots, a small sink, refrigerator, and a storage cabinet. She looked down at her companion, who was sitting on one of the cots. They wore only the barest clothing.
“What are they doing?” a deep voice rumbled.
“I can’t be sure, my love, but I believe they’ve come to sack the place.”
She stood tall, shoulders back, and lowered her head. Her eyes glinted, revealing green irises with feline slits. Her face was beautiful, with high cheekbones and full lips. The hair on her head stuck out about an inch, only a bit longer than the light brown, downy fuzz that covered the rest of her body. The most striking features of her face were two catlike ears that stuck up and out on either side, with darker, pointed tufts at the ends. She smiled, revealing a row of white teeth with four sharp fangs.
“This is our chance.”
He looked up at her, nodding. For almost four days now, they had been trapped in the small room, left behind when the science teams fled. They were imprisoned, yet also insulated and protected from the terrifying threats that had emerged on the station.
“Can you do it?” she asked.
“I can try. I think I can. But I won’t be worth much for a while afterward.”
“Just get the doors open and I’ll do the rest.” Her voice was soft and low. But beneath the softness, there was something dangerous in the clipped precision of her speech.
The man slowly rose from the cot. She was almost two meters tall, but as he stood, he towered up over her, his head almost touching the roof of the chamber. Where she was a sinuous curve, he was a fortress. Thick muscles stood out on every part of his massive frame. His legs were like tree trunks, his face like chiseled rock. A wrap-around visor hid his eyes. The hair on his head was shaved down to a fine stubble.
She moved up next to him and placed the fingertips of one hand on his chest. A prehensile tail slid out from behind her and curled up around his left leg like a snake sliding around a tree. She looked up into his face.
“These people must have come in a ship. When they leave, we need to be on that ship.”
A hard smile curved her lips, with a hint of sneer. She passed her hand across his chest and up to his face.
“Surely they’ll welcome some new talent.”
A bare whisper of amusement showed on the big man’s face. Slowly and gently, he stepped away from her toward the door. She let her arm and tail slide off of him, watching his progress the entire way.
Standing before the translucent doorway, he planted his feet firmly, flexed his arms and turned them up so that his fingers rested like claw hammers at the seam of the door. It was sealed so tightly that hardly a crack showed, yet he placed his fingers on the seam.
He took a deep, slow breath and lifted his head. Seconds passed and nothing happened, while he remained almost motionless. Then, the thinnest trace of white smoke began to rise from around his hands. Slowly, the hard surface began to soften and his fingers sank into it.
The giant began to pull. Muscles corded across his back and arms. He took a deep breath and held it. Vapor clouded the area around his hands. His limbs began to vibrate with the strain.
* * *
The storage chamber holding the two captives ripped open with a sound like a giant sheet of paper tearing.
The two operatives guarding the lab whipped around and saw a giant of a man shuffle through the opening and slump down against the wall behind the row of lab tables and equipment.
Barely had they registered this than a tan streak shot through the ruined doorway. She hit the floor in front of the door in a crouch, gathered herself and sprang. In a flying leap she crossed the room in less than a second. Ten centimeter-long claws extended from the ends of her knuckles as she flew across the lab tables. Curled over, they made a striking edge hard as bone. The pointed ends were like razors.
She struck her target in the chest. The weapon spun out of his hands and he flailed backward into a tall superstructure of hoses, boxes and cylinders on the lab table behind him. In a split second, she used his body as a launch ramp to leap at the next man.
Too late he realized what was happening. Fearful that he’d shoot his companion, he’d held his fire. As she shot past, she snaked an arm around his neck and whirled around behind him.
One hand reached down, sunk four claws into his crotch and pulled upward. He winced and gasped as her other hand pulled back on his throat, choking him. The weapon fell from his hands, both of which came up to his throat.
Out of the storage chamber burst the other three men. One rolled out on the floor and came to rest aiming his weapon, but could not find a clean shot at the woman behind his comrade.
“Christ in a cupcake. Who the quark are you?” said the leader. With apparent calm, he strolled slowly closer to the woman and her captive. The third man knelt by the wall, seeking a clean shot.
“I’m your new best friend,” she said, with a smile. She spoke around the side of the man’s neck, her cheek pressed close against his nape.
The leader stopped and looked at her, brow wrinkling, head cocking to one side. “Hello. You are a bit odd.” He could see one tufted ear, one feline eye.
A noise erupted from the man she had hit first. All three of his comrades turned in alarm to see his body smoking and writhing. The lab equipment seemed to be leaning over him, wrapping around him. His body shook but he didn’t move away. His mouth was open, jaw slack, eyes unfocused. A thin line of gray liquid began to flow down the side of his forehead.
“You have less than two minutes before he becomes a deadly enemy to all of us.” She had raised her voice, causing them to start and look back at her.
“This lab, this whole ship is full of active systems. They will assimilate you all. Without us, you don’t have a chance to get out alive. I know this ship. I can lead you out. Now, we don’t have much time. You have a choice to make. Either you trust me and tell your men to lower your weapons, or I spew his blood all over the walls.” The points of four claws pressed into the captive man’s neck, not quite breaking the surface of the skin.
The stricken man continued to shake and smoke, his clothes and skin covering with the dark liquid. The leader lowered his head and looked at her under glowering brows.
“I don’t know how the hell a naked cat-woman is going to get us past an active systems array, but I’m inclined to take your offer…friend.” He said the last word with a flick of his head and a manic smile. He gestured to his armed companions. “Put ‘em down.”
Immediately she loosed her hold on the captive and he stumbled away, one hand on his crotch, the other on his neck. She threw back her shoulders and rose to her full height.
“Stone,” she said, keeping her eyes on the leader.
“Here,” came an answering rumble. The giant stood up and quickly stepped around to her side. He looked down at the three men.
“Oh, yeah,” said the leader as his gaze swiveled slowly upward. “You got any more…friends?”
The woman broke and ran around the table toward the lab door, Stone in her wake. “Run! Keep up with us!” she called back over her shoulder.
The four men ran. Three of them carried black duffels strapped to their backs.
Just outside the lab doors, she had turned right, going around the curving hall that circled the lab.
“Where is she going?” said one of the men as they rushed to catch up.
Her voice trailed back to them. “The main hallways are more active. We’ll never make it that way.”
“Good ears,” said another.
For some minutes they raced along the corridors. The four could see Stone’s great form just ahead of them, turning corners, thundering down halls. Finally, they panted up to a side door. She was holding it open.
“Inside! It’s a maintenance corridor.”
As the leader came up to her, she fixed her slit pupils on him. “Your ship’s in the main docking bay?”
“Yeah.” He couldn’t help a quick stare.
“Keep moving,” she said, pushing him in. “Your comrade is not far behind now, and we don’t want him to catch us.”
The door closed behind them. They made the best time they could down a cramped, busy space with pipes and cables running overhead. Boxes and bins lined the walls. Switches and access panels showed periodically.
“I didn’t catch your name,” the leader said, running beside her.
“Leona,” she said, and flashed him a smile with white daggers.
“I’m Chain.” They sailed around a corner.
“Why didn’t the active systems engage earlier,” Chain asked, “when we were coming in?”
“Maybe they wanted to lure you into the inner sanctum. Where you couldn’t escape. The station’s running on backup power. The scientists destroyed the main solar power array. They tried to starve their little creatures, but it was too late.” She vaulted a box on the floor and glanced over at him, eyes crinkling in a wicked grin.
“They’ve been wasting away. You little flies were just the ticket. With your ship, they could get out.”
Both of them ducked a low hanging line of ducts and pipes.
“What if there’s something active ahead?” he asked.
“Stone can take care of it. That’s why he’s up front.”
Up ahead, the others had stopped. Leona and Chain ran up and almost plowed into them. The men were leaned over, hands on thighs, panting.
Stone looked at Leona. “Which way?” They had reached an intersection where another maintenance corridor came in from the side.
At that moment, a clumping sound became audible, growing in the corridor behind them. They all looked back and listened.
“This way,” she broke the spell and charged off down the right hand corridor, Stone right behind. The group bunched and bustled trying to follow. As the last man turned, he cried out. “Oh my god. It’s coming!”
They raced along the crowded corridor, this one more cramped than the last. They ducked under overhead obstructions and dodged around bins and equipment stacked on the sides. Somehow, Stone managed to keep pace in spite of his size. Behind them, the clumping noise receded.
Again they rushed up to a stop, and again they bunched together, this time before a larger door. Leona was looking at them. Her eyes flicked from face to face.
“Right. This leads to storage just off the docking bay. Stone will go first. There will be an active threat here.”
The big man turned to the door and placed his hand on the nob. All eyes were on him as he eased it open.
With an explosion of sound, the clanking, pounding noise suddenly sounded loud in the passage. Everyone looked back. A strange, towering thing was coming down the corridor. Pieces of lab gear and scraps of clothing flapped on the sides of its gray-black, gelatinous exterior. Where there should have been a face was a flat mask. There were no eyes, but a rounded opening on the lower half remained open in an endless, silent howl. Down the corridor it came, grabbing and swinging on overhead pipes with its arms, extending its crazy, flexible legs over obstacles on the floor. Its “feet” landed in a driving rhythm.
“Oh no,” said the last man. “No, no, no,” he said with increasing intensity as he pushed the others toward the door. They were crowding through the entrance. Stone went through, then one of the men. Panic seized the others as the thing came closer.
A scream erupted from behind Chain. He knew what was happening. He didn’t want to see. He pushed toward the door. The man in front of him slipped through. Leona was crouched there, looking back. The sight of her shamed him. For a second he stopped and looked at her. “Should we? Is it…”
She stared at him evenly as if reading his mind. “There’s nothing we can do. Go on.” She motioned with her head.
Still he hesitated. He started to turn around. He was responsible. He should try something.
But her hand slapped into his back. “Go!”
He rushed through. She came behind him. They fled through the storage room, rushing to catch the others. Lockers and bins flashed by, and they burst through the far door to the other side.
Compared to the cramped corridors, the docking bay was vast. It spread out away from them and to the sides, hundreds of meters high and wide. Twin ramps led down to the main deck. There was the ship, gleaming silver and gray, beautiful in the glow of artificial light mixed with starlight coming through the translucent airlock doors.
But the men had stopped before the shuttle’s lowered gangway liftgate. Before the entrance, blocking the last few steps to freedom and escape, a hulking apparatus loomed. It may have once been a mobile service module to fuel and repair incoming and departing ships. But now it towered, strange and menacing, a conglomeration of parts that waved and clutched.
“What’s he doing?” Chain asked. Stone was standing motionless before the thing, head down, hands clasped before him.
“Watch,” said Leona, and she slinked ahead of him down the right hand ramp. They came up next to the three others, who stood to the side, eyes moving from Stone to the machine.
With a sudden jerk, the assimilator launched itself at Stone. He surprised them all by rushing to meet it, hands outstretched. They met with a crash.
“Jesus!” Chain said, eyes narrowed. “Is he sacrificing himself?”
The machine wrapped its many limbs around Stone’s upper body. They could see the muscles in his legs working as he slowly pushed it back and to the side.
“He’s clearing the way!” a man yelled and moved forward.
Smoke now rose all around the assimilator where it had encased Stone’s upper body. Still, he kept pushing. The way opened, and they rushed up the gangplank.
Inside the ship, Chain moved quickly forward to navigation control. A hatch swung open before him and he passed through. Sitting in one of two cockpit thrones, a young blond man with a smooth-shaven face grinned at him.
“You made it! I thought you were all gone when that thing took up residence outside.” “Hey, Erstwhile. Lift the gangplank,” Chain said.
“What about the guy outside?”
“We can’t do anything for him.”
“Yes, we can,” said a silky voice.
Both men turned to see Leona in the doorway. They could see the others behind her. She stepped all the way in and shut the hatch.
“We will wait for Stone,” she said. “He has…capabilities that you don’t know. We wait and watch.”
Chain took his hands off the unmanned cockpit seatback and moved over to stand right in front of Leona, his face level with hers.
“I believe it was you who said we could do nothing when we left my man back there.” He was smiling but his eyes were wide. “That’s just the way it has to be, right?”
“That was different.”
“Oh? How so. My guy is worth less?”
“No. Stone is different. He has a chance. Your man didn’t. You would have died if you tried to save him.”
“Oh, I see. Just like we might die here if we wait around for your friend?”
With blazing speed, he whipped his hand up to Leona’s throat. His fingers tightened and forearm tensed, lifting her almost off her feet.
“We’re not waiting. We’re leaving. I’m not risking this crew.”
Leona gave a languid smile, chin raised, lids lowered. She drew in a breath and sighed. Her whole attitude seemed to relax.
“Well, you’ve got the tiger by the tail,” she spoke through clenched teeth.
Afterward, the pilot often tried to recall exactly what happened next. One moment, Leona was standing still, apparently submissive. The next moment, Chain was flying backward.
As he fell, she sprang onto him. Raking claws grabbed fistfulls of his suit. She put her face down next to his. Her lips curled back, showing white teeth, four of them long and sharp.
“If you ever cross me again, I’ll rip out your beating heart and hold it up before your dying eyes. Do you understand me, sweetheart?”
Chain looked up at her, hair hanging in his eyes. His mouth twisted in a sneer. “I understand. Bitch.”
With a screaming howl, Leona pulled her hand back to strike him.
“Look!” said the pilot.
Leona flicked her head upward. Through the clear forward viewport, she could see out into the docking bay. The crazy, weaving tower of parts that was the assimilated man was coming down the left ramp.
She turned to face the pilot. He had a handgun pointed at her head. She slowly lowered her hand back down to Chain.
“Open the gangway or I’ll rip his face off.”
The man was breathing harder. He looked down at Chain, who nodded.
“Open the gangway, ” Chain said. He looked back up at Leona. “But if either one of those things starts coming in, lift it back up and blast out of here. Kill her and don’t worry about me.”
The pilot turned, sat forward and thumbed a switch.
Leona let go of Chain and he fell back on the floor. She quickly opened the hatch and moved aft.
The other three men were looking down the gangway. Leona and Chain came up and looked past them down the ramp. One of the men shot a glance at them.
“It’s incredible. He’s fighting it with nothing but his hands, and it can’t get him.”
Stone had maneuvered the machine around so that his back was to the ramp. His feet were close.
A change had come over the assimilator. Its gray surfaces were now mostly black. So much vapor was rising that it was hard to see, but Stone’s back and head were now clearly visible. His arms were sunk into the machine. They could hear the other apparatus clanking down the ramp leading onto the docking bay floor.
Leona snatched a weapon from one of the men and held it up. A beam of light seared out of the gangway entry and struck the second assimilator. The shaft tore into it. She knifed the glowing line back and forth, chopping off pieces of the thing, which fell smoking to the floor.
Stone was still inching backward, and his feet now almost touched the gangway. He had pulled back most of his arms from the hulking gel-like mass. Only his hands now remained embedded. His right heel touched the gangway.
A fresh emission of gray-white vapor began rising all around Stone’s hands. The assimilator began to vibrate. The watchers heard a sound. It started low, a guttural groaning, and increased in volume.
With a final bellow, the big man pushed the machine back and jerked his hands out. He staggered back and turned. He slipped and fell on the gangplank. Leona squirmed around the others and ran down to him. She grabbed his arm just under his shoulder and pulled upward. For a moment, his head lolled, listless. Then, he recovered and stumbled up the flat walkway. The men gave back and they piled inside. Stone fell in a heap just to the side of the entry and Leona sprang sideways.
“Liftgate up!” Chain shouted. The gangway hummed into motion. The assimilator lurched toward it, two smoking holes showing in its mid section. But the liftgate moved too quickly, rising up and in, blocking the view of the docking station.
Chain came and stood looking down at Stone.
“Is he clean? I don’t want any active infection spreading on this ship.” Chain looked at Leona.
“He’s clean,” she said. She stood over her partner, hips slung sideways. “I can explain later. But he’s clean. Just exhausted.”
“The station systems don’t respond,” Erstwhile blurted over the intercom. “The main airlock won’t open.”
“Get strapped in,” Chain said to his men. He threw a glance at Leona. “It’s going to be a bumpy ride out of here.”
The men moved to cocoon-like deck chairs used for takeoff, landing and sleep. No one offered to help Leona, who struggled to move Stone.
Chain leaped forward into the cockpit and sealed the hatch behind him. He slid into the second navigation throne and began strapping in. Erstwhile had powered up the ship and it was arcing slowly around. The translucent expanse of the airlock doors was coming into full view.
“I don’t see an option,” the young pilot said. “I’m going to have to blast a hole.” He turned to look at Chain. “It’ll be messy.”
Chain nodded. “Do it.”
Erstwhile’s hands danced over the control console, flicking switches. He moved his grip to twin ergonomic joysticks. A see-through quantumgraphic display appeared in the air before him. He brought the joysticks up before him and a red targeting beacon showed on the display. He focused the beacon on the seam where the big doors met and squeezed a red button with his right thumb.
A white beam stabbed off the forward weapons array and struck the doors. For a few seconds nothing appeared to happen, although the light danced all around the translucent material. Then the material began to glow, first red, then white.
The beam breached a hole in the doors and anything not nailed down began sucking toward it. With no vacuum properly prepared in advance, the effect was pronounced. Smaller pieces of equipment flew through the air. Chain saw a piece of the assimilator Leona had sawed off. The ship itself began to vibrate.
Erstwhile worked the beam back and forth, methodically cutting the hole bigger. He glanced at a readout and spoke.
“Assimilator’s latched onto us. It’s trying to breach our assim defenses.” He shook his head as he watched the readout. “It’s not in, but it’s working away.” He looked back at the hole he was making in the doors. He worked the beam back and forth, cutting a big rectangle ever wider.
“I don’t want to take chance. If that stuff gets under our skin, it could be hell to pay later. I’m going to have to exit through the doors before I can get a nice, big, comfy opening. It’ll be rough, but we don’t have a choice. When we take off, the drives will incinerate everything in this docking bay, and then some. It ought to clean off anything trying to hitch a ride.”
With a final glance at the assim readout, he toggled new switches and another quantum display popped up. This one was much larger. It filled the entire forward viewport, showing star charts and ship system readouts, overlays upon overlays that could be switched back to front or up to down, dimmed or brightened as needed. The pilot sketched the rectangular opening he had made on the screen, and the ship’s navigation software computed a trajectory.
Erstwhile sat back in his seat. Chain reflexively gripped the auxiliary joysticks he held. The pilot spoke into a mouthpiece on a slim stalk by his lips.
“This is it. Takeoff imminent in two seconds.”
The ship’s secondary engines fired in the enclosed space. Instantly, red and white flames billowed all around them, blocking all visibility through the viewport. The crewmembers jerked back in their restraints. The vessel fired into the too-small opening and blasted through it with a lurching jolt. Debris scattered behind them around the station as they shot into space.