Everyone was nervous.

  Erika cracked her knuckles, then each individual finger, then went back to her knuckles. Petra paced, two steps in one direction, then two steps back. Aymeric told a hunting story that everyone ignored. Naoki kept his attention on his IRIS instead of the airlock in front of him. He was trying to keep a sense of normalcy, but it wasn’t working.

  Luther stood ready, and kept his attention on the door. He wanted to keep a sense of normalcy too, and though he thought he put up a good front, anxiety whirled around in his gut.

  What happens if the Carnifex is dead? If it’s not dead, how do we revive it? Are the other aliens doing okay? These questions turned and turned in Luther’s head, and he wouldn’t get his answers until he got beyond that heavy airlock door.

  Luther decided that the Carnifex was likely dead. There was no time to return to Tartarus to retrieve a second specimen, and even if there was, the Hell’s Ark herself was in no shape to do anything but drift. Someone would have to tell the company that the Carnifex died in transit.

  Naoki shifted on his feet. His eyes still glowed blue. He would be the one to tell SmallWorld of any disaster that happened aboard the ship. He might have been searching through company manuals in preparation for what came next.

  “The lab’s free to enter,” Ryder said over the comms. “Tell me what you find.”

  Aymeric slammed his hand on the airlock button, and slipped into the decontamination chamber as the doors slid open. Luther followed him in, and the others came a few steps behind. Aymeric was already at the other end of the hall and mashing the button to open the second door.

  “It won’t open until the decontamination cycle completes,” Luther said.

  “I know that, but–” Aymeric hit the button a few more times.

  “We have to be patient for a moment,” Luther said.

  “We don’t have time for this!” Aymeric slammed his fist on the button once more, then pulled back.

  The decontamination procedure finished, and the door to the lab opened.

  The beakers and test tubes had been properly secured before the explosion, and the equipment left out was too heavy to be jostled from the tables. Aymeric did a good job of cleaning up. Luther would have to praise him later, when there was time to hand out praise.

  Luther guided the group through the lab, and to the Carnifex’s enclosure. The creature lied crumpled in the alien foliage. Luther wavered a step, but quickly regained himself. He marched to the console and pulled up the readings.

  “Erika, please check the enclosure’s condition. Petra, help me check the Carnifex’s health,” Luther ordered.

  Petra came to Luther’s side while Erika worked on the other end of the console.

  Luther pulled up the Carnifex’s health reports. The readings spiked when the ship exploded, then quickly dropped to their base levels. That stability continued through the Carnifex’s exposure to the void.

  “It’s fine!” Petra grinned.

  “There’s a slow pressure leak,” Erika said. “We’d need to wear EVA suits if we wanted to get into the enclosure.”

  “I doubt that will be necessary,” Luther said. “The Carnifex, apparently, does will without atmosphere.”

  Erika furrowed her brow.

  “That doesn’t mean this is healthy,” Luther added. “Petra, can you monitor the Carnifex for a while and make sure everything really is okay?”

  “Of course.” Petra groped her side, but her drawing tablet wasn’t there. Her face wavered, then set itself in a determined expression.

  Luther led the remainder of his party to the Lamia’s enclosure. That’s when he realized he had a far larger problem than the Carnifex.

  The Lamia lurched across its enclosure, limbs waving like it was having a seizure. The alien smashed plant analogues in the enclosure. In the back, the metal wall had been torn apart.

  Luther and Erika hurried to the console.

  “What’s going on with it?” Naoki demanded.

  “I’ll have an answer in just a moment.” Luther pulled up the health profile for the Lamia. Its biometrics had been normal right up until the moment the ship exploded. Unlike the Carnifex, however, the Lamia’s readings never went back to normal.

  One of the Lamia’s limbs hit a wall with a dull thud. It left a dent.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “It’s never acted like this before, has it?” Naoki asked.

  “No.” Luther checked the health monitor again. This didn’t look like a seizure, but Luther wouldn’t know what an alien seizure would look like. He wouldn’t know how to stop it, either.

  “The enclosure’s air quality and pressure have shifted out of the Lamia’s comfort zone,” Erika announced. “I can’t adjust the settings, though.”

  “May I see?” Luther stepped to Erika’s side, and checked the enclosure controls. They were, as Erika said, out of place. Luther adjusted some levels, though the numbers didn’t change. He felt Naoki and Aymeric watching over his shoulder.

  Luther tried adjusting the levels again, though the system wouldn’t respond.

  The Lamia thudded against the wall again.

  “There’s controls within the enclosure,” Aymeric said. “Maybe the Lamia damaged something while it’s been ratting around.”

  “I think you’re right.” Luther looked up, to the Lamia. The creature threw itself around with greater force.

  You have to go into the cage with that monster.

  “Was the enclosure opened to the void?” Luther asked.

  “No. We can…we can open the doors,” Erika said.

  “Okay, but then what?” Aymeric pointed at the Lamia.

  “We can’t kill it,” Naoki said.

  “No, we can’t,” Aymeric muttered.

  “Erika and I developed anesthesia for the aliens,” Luther said. “It’s incomplete, but it should do the trick.”

  “Will it kill the Lamia?” Naoki asked.

  Luther looked to Erika for an answer. She shook her head: she understood the question, but she didn’t have an answer to it.

  “We don’t know what the anesthesia will do,” Luther said, “but if the creature isn’t subdued, I think it will destroy that cage. We can’t let this thing escape.”

  Naoki pressed his lips into a thin line.

  “Okay. Do what you need to make that drug,” Naoki said.

  “Hey, uh, that drug might do fuck-all,” Aymeric said. “I was thinking, if you didn’t need me right here right now, that I could grab some weapons.”

  “Good thinking,” Luther said.

  Aymeric hurried out of the enclosure.

  The Lamia slammed against a wall. Luther felt the impact under his feet. It wasn’t going to throw him off-balance, but it was a firm reminder of the situation. As if Luther needed a reminder that the Lamia was a dangerous, uncontrollable monster.

  “Erika, the Aranea still needs to be checked. Can you do that?” Luther said.

  Erika nodded, and hurried away.

  “Naoki, can you keep an eye on the Lamia while I make that anesthetic?” Luther said. “I don’t mean to order you around though, so if you don’t want to do this, you can leave.”

  “I’m wherever you need me to be,” Naoki said.

  “Thank you. I owe you one.”

  Luther hurried back to the lab. Aymeric gathered the shock spears from their charging ports, and hurried back to the enclosure with them.

  Luther headed for the lab storage closet, and pulled out his keycard. The lab was kept cordoned off from the rest of the Hell’s Ark as it was, but some things had one more layer of protection. Only Luther, the lead investigator, could access the lab storage and its variety of chemicals.

  Luther swiped his keycard, and the door unlocked.

  He pulled up the anesthesia ingredients on his IRIS, then went through the storage. The room was organized, so Luther quickly found the ingredients he needed. He used the lab equipment to mix the chemicals together. The anesthesia should pose no threat to humans, but Luther should have worn a mask. He should have ordered everyone else to wear a mask, too.

  Just how dangerous is this going to be? What if your calculations are wrong, and the drug kills the Lamia? What if it’s the opposite, and the drug doesn’t do anything to the alien?

  Luther put those thoughts into a drawer, then shut it. He was allowed to feel fear and anxiety and dread, but those weren’t emotions he needed to spread around, so Luther worked with sure hands and a head held high. If he was confident–or at least looked confident–his team would be the same.

  Luther finished the anesthetic in a beaker. He put a cap on it, and brought it to the Lamia’s observation room. Erika, Naoki, and Aymeric were already gathered.

  The Lamia slammed against the glass. Its limb squeaked across the surface and left behind a streak of mucous.

  “Y’know, it’s gonna do that in a zoo, too,” Aymeric muttered.

  Luther headed to the side of the room, where a couple of capsules waited. One capsule would carry food out to the Lamia. The second was for liquids and mists. Luther poured the anesthetic into the second capsule, then sealed it.

  “Everything is in place,” Luther said. “Aymeric, please hand me a spear.”

  Aymeric passed a shock spear into Luther’s hands, and took one in his own. Erika also held a spear.

  “What are you two doing?” Luther asked.

  “Everyone knows I’m good with computers; I’ll be able to help,” Aymeric said.

  Luther looked to Erika.

  “The Aranea is fine,” Erika stated. “After checking it, I came here and showed Naoki how to operate the doors, so we can all go in. That would be best, I think.”

  Luther tried to come up with a good reason to keep the rest of the team in the observation room, but the pros outweighed the cons. If something went wrong, it would be better to have multiple people with multiple skillsets on site.

  “Yeah, we should all go in,” Luther said.

  I hope to God that anesthetic works.

  Luther stepped up to the main console, navigated the menus, then dispersed the anesthetic.

  A mist fell into the Lamia’s enclosure. The alien screeched. It writhed, but its movement was less coordinated and lacked the power from before. The Lamia collapsed into a heap of pale flesh.

  “Is it still alive?” Naoki asked.

  Erika checked the health monitor.

  “Still alive,” she announced.

  Luther guided Erika and Aymeric to the side, where the airlock entering the enclosure waited.

  We should be wearing enviro-suits.

  There was no time for that, though.

  “Are you in position?” Naoki called over the radio.

  “We are. Open this airlock, please,” Luther said.

  The doors hissed, and pulled apart.

  Luther adjusted his grip on his shock spear.

  A mix of alien plants and cold metal greeted the scientists. The air carried a metallic tinge.

  Luther stepped into the enclosure. Erika and Aymeric followed.

  The Lamia was sprawled on the ground. Its skin rippled.

  “We’re in. Shut the doors behind us,” Luther said.

  The doors hissed again, then moved back into place. The researchers were sealed in the predator’s den.