D'Mok Revival 1: Awakening (34 page)

“Sensitive,” he muttered.

“That shows your current position very precisely,” she said. “It’ll help you stay oriented.”

They followed the map to the bay’s exit. As they entered a brightly lit corridor, a pungent smell greeted them. Allia plugged her nose. “Ugh! What
is
that?”

Naijen’s eyes twinkled. “Death.”

They followed the map down the corridor, Mencari leading. As they rounded a bend, he threw out his arm to keep Allia and Naijen back. They ignored the outstretched arm and peered around him to see what he had just seen: bodies lying in small pools of various-colored liquids.

“It’s okay, Rhysus,” Allia said. “I’ve seen dead people. But . . . never seen so many in one place. And the smell!”

“What’s going on, Mencari?”

“Bodies, I’m afraid. Lots of them,” he replied.

“No!” she cried. “Can you move so I can see?”

He turned and headed into the hall. As he did, he told Allia and Naijen, “Be ready—for anything.”

As they approached the bodies, Mencari saw no obvious wounds.

“What happened to them?” Allia said, confused.

They could hear Eyani muttering, “Marcus . . . Thalen. I knew them. Keep going. Please.”

They found more bodies in the hallway and in each room they checked along the way. People were dead in their beds, at their desks, midway across the room, as if they’d stopped in mid-stride and simply fell.

“It’s like they all died at the same instant,” Mencari muttered.

Naijen looked over the bodies and growled in disappointment, “Wasn’t no battle. They juz dropped.”

Mencari grew nervous. What could have killed so many, so cleanly?

Eyani gasped. “Head to the control room. Maybe the bio-scanners can find someone alive.” Again Eyani moved her hands outside the hologram’s view. A new yellow dot appeared on the map, this one on the station’s upper level.

“The service tunnels should be faster and take you right there,” she said. “At the end of the hall, left side.”

A new arrow appeared on the map. They followed it to a closet-sized maintenance room, with a ladder inside that led into an opening in the ceiling. As they started up the ladder, Ichini jumped on Allia’s back and held on tight. Mencari was amazed that her slight form seemed uninhibited by the creature’s weight, as she climbed quickly, rung after rung.

As they ascended, a faint twanging came from the metal structure above. Continuing farther up the shaft, the sound grew louder. Through an opening in one section of the tunnel’s ceiling, Mencari stopped when he saw a barbed tail whip through it.

“It’s one of those creatures!”

Naijen beared his Skar. “Outta my way.”

He shoved Mencari aside and scaled the ladder to the opening, peered through the hole, then pulled himself up. The others followed, even though what sounded like a shriek echoed out, followed by a mighty bellow.

In the tunnel above, they found Naijen engaged with four of the creatures they’d seen outside. Unlike the one that had smacked against their craft on the way in, these were alive. Even in the gravity of the station, they seemed to soar effortlessly through the air.

Running to help, Mencari powered his hand-phaser. Allia followed, pulling out her Flower Blade. A greenish cast lite the corridor, drawing Mencari’s glance behind him. There he saw Ichini’s flailing and distended body, attempting to transform. A swirl of green and white brilliance tumbled in patterns across his body.

Allia screamed “Ichini!” as she ran back to her companion. As she did, one of the ray-like creatures shot a barb at her from its tail. Before Mencari could warn her, Naijen blocked the quill that would have landed squarely in her back.

“What’s happening?” Eyani called out.

None of them had time to answer. Allia placed her hands on Ichini while Naijen dispensed the other creatures. Mencari ignored Eyani’s continued cries for attention and went to Allia, the same green and white light dancing chaotically around her fingers as the girl attempted to heal her companion.

“I can’t get him to change back!” she yelled.

He knelt with her as Naijen, elated with battle fever, scoured the area, hunting for more prey.

“What’s the problem?” Eyani asked, panicked.

Mencari waved his hand in front of communicator. “Give us a second.”

“I see more ta play with,” Naijen called from an open doorway. “Catch up when yer ready.”

He disappeared into a side corridor, ignoring Mencari’s calls to wait.

Beastly shrieks echoed down the hallway while Allia continued her frantic efforts to help Ichini. Slowly, the white light began to overpower the green, allowing Ichini’s body to return to its normal form.

“You scared me,” Allia said, hugging her companion.

Silently Ichini nuzzled her side as if nothing had happened. Even so, Allia’s brow wrinkled in concern.

“Let’s keep moving,” Mencari said gently. “Maybe he shouldn’t try morphing for a while.”

She nodded, and as they moved down the corridor to catch up with Naijen, she glanced back often to make certain Ichini still followed them.

“What is
happening
?”

At Eyani’s call, Mencari kept walking but said, “Naijen’s attacking creatures that got inside.”

“What kind of creatures?”

“Same as the ones outside. Floating creatures, like stingrays. And they aren’t very friendly. You have any idea what they are?”

A moment later, she said, “Nothing’s coming up in my database. See if you can get close enough to get a read—”

At Naijen’s bellow, Allia ran into the room he’d headed into, and soon she and Mencari were engaged with the creatures. Her flower blade sliced through leathered skin, sending the beasts flailing on the ground.

“Ah, a true warrior come to help me!” Naijen bellowed while hacking at his own adversaries.

A steady stream of creatures started to flow in from a hole in the ceiling. When their traditional weapon couldn’t dispense with the number of beasts flooding in, Naijen resorted to his D’mok attacks. Meanwhile, Naijen was glowing with power, as his energy-imbued Skar sliced the creatures like a hot knife through butter.

Naijen scoffed as the last one fell, “Too easy!”

Panting, Mencari said, “Maybe for you. Let’s head to the command center before more of them show up.”

As they continued on, a nagging feeling kept dogging Mencari. He found himself constantly looking over his shoulder, expecting something to be there. After checking the scanner and not seeing any life-form readings, he dismissed it as his own paranoia getting the best of him.

The command center held an equally gruesome scene, with dead humanoids scattered throughout.

“Everything points to some sort of bio or neuro attack,” Eyani said. “Check the environmental readings.”

They scanned the station’s log entries. “The last entry’s thirty hours ago,” Mencari told her. “It just states that the environmental system was reinitialized by the automatic systems.”

“That would have been about eighteen hours after we lost contact,” Eyani said. “Anything else? Any life readings?”

Mencari reviewed the monitor. “Just our readings . . . wait . . . more creatures too. Many of them. They must be everywhere in the station.”

A small plug appeared from the side of the pin on Mencari’s chest.

“There should be a general terminal off to your right,” Eyani said. “Find an access port, and connect the communicator. That will allow me to use it remotely.”

Seconds after he located it and plugged in, she blurted in frustration, “It’s scrambled. This isn’t just system damage, the interface has been hacked. And the data store is gone.”

“Nukari?” Allia said.

Mencari shrugged. “If it was, we have a lot more to worry about.”

Eyani directed them with urgency to the research lab area. As they went, Naijen brandished his Skar and scouted for prey like a child hunting for hidden candy. Once there, they found the door marked “Aken I” and entered.

The lab was trashed, with vials and equipment thrown against the walls and smashed to pieces, and test-suited scientists piled into a heap in one corner.

“Someone else was inside,” Mencari muttered. “Looks like whoever was here knew what they were looking for.”

“Whoever did this had inside help,” came her reply.

“Could whoever did this still be here?” Allia asked, looking about. Mencari double-checked the scanner and shook his head.

“There’s more of those creatures, but nothing else shows up,” he said. “They must be long gone.”

“I need you to check one more place,” Eyani’s voice insisted.

Following the new marker, they made their way to the end of the corridor and stopped, confused. Mencari said, “It’s a dead end.”

“Look for a latch.”

Allia spotted a concealed latch first and pulled it. A panel of the wall glowed, then folded into the wall, revealing a long corridor that led to a vault-like room.

“The data-core backup area,” Eyani said. “It’s still on board, so the commander didn’t have time to eject it. Do you see a panel with a number of slots just ahead of you?”

Mencari and Allia searched and found what she described. Naijen walked back into the main corridor, calling, “If ya need me, holla. I’m goin’ huntin’.”

Mencari called after him. “No, hang on—”

“Let him go,” Eyani said. “He’s a distraction.”

“He’s also our best warrior,” Mencari replied through gritted teeth.

She shook her head and said, “In that slot should be some crystal cubes. I just need one.”

At Eyani’s direction, Allia grabbed a cube and handed it to Mencari. He placed it into one of the slots. The cube sparked briefly with light, then faded. “There, I downloaded a copy of the data,” Eyani said. “Now—”

Naijen’s enraged bellow made them turn around and run back into the main corridor.

“Look what I found!” he cried happily.

At Naijen’s feet, a soldier dressed in a black uniform lay crumpled on the ground.

The silvery-blue Nukari emblem decorated the shoulder. Mencari quickly checked the bio-scanner.

Nothing.

It showed nothing! Even though he had proof lying before him of more than what was being shown.

“Must have thought he was safe slinking around like he was,” the warrior chortled.

“Is that—?” Eyani blurted.

“Yes, emblem and all,” Mencari said grievously.

“They’re still there?” Eyani yelled.

Before Mencari could respond, hastily-fired laser blasts whizzed by, striking the walls next to them. Gasping, Mencari instinctively shoved Allia into an alcove along the wall before diving into his own on the opposite side. To his relief, Naijen also quickly took cover near Allia and Ichini. In moments they were trapped, however, with Nukari covering both ends of the corridor.

“Get your team out of there!” Eyani cried.

“Not time to run—it’s time to FIGHT!” Naijen bellowed, bearing the Skar.

Mencari watched across the way as Naijen looked for a way to move between the blasts. The warrior was great in melee, but didn’t have a prayer in a firefight. Even if Naijen wanted to use his distance attacks, he needed to power them up and step into the line of fire to unleash it.

Worse yet, Allia and Ichiini had the same disadvantage. Why didn’t he think about this before?

He powered up their only conventional distance weapon, his hand phaser. Recalling the enhanced power crystal from Liren, he cranked up the setting, hoping for a powerful blast.

Aiming down one side of the corridor, he listened for the high-pitched squeal from his wrist indicating a full charge. Among the soldiers, an average looking cat-man in a white trench coat stood oddly out, hunkered down, cowering against the wall.

“Wait! The man in the trench coat—can you get a better view?” Eyani said.

Laser blasts continued to whiz past. Mencari had enough to deal with, getting off his shot, much less a better view for Eyani.

“No,” he said begrudgingly.

The charging tone of his weapon went higher than usual, and felt very warm against the top of his hand. Odd. But not odd enough for him to delay further. His hand gripped, triggering the device.

A radiant ball of silver energy formed at the tip of the phaser, before extending out and streaking down the hall. In the same instant, the force of the tremendous kick-back threw him against the alcove wall. A chorus of screams was cut short by a powerful blast that blew smoke and debris down the corridor towards him.

Stunned, he looked down for the phaser, only to realize the safety system had ejected it off his wrist. Quickly scanning the ground, he saw it lying in the corner, charred black and still sizzling. The light from Liren’s crystal glowing through the breaches in melted housing. Perhaps all the recent action had pushed it too far?

“Are you okay?” Allia yelled over.

While his one shot has been equally impressive and scary, it occurred to Mencari that their one distance weapon was now destroyed. A constant barrage of laser fire continued from the remaining Nukari forces.