The Ark’s bridge was a small space. With everyone clustered in it, breaths mixing together, the place became an unbearable sauna. Erika sweat under her armpits and on her lower back. She wanted to get out of the room, but the banging below convinced her to stay.
“Everyone’s here? Good.” Ryder marched in front of the console. His eyes flitted over the crowd before falling on Erika.
“Any ideas on how to stop the Lamia from tearing my ship to shit?” Ryder asked the group, but his eyes stayed locked on Erika. This was a question for the lead investigator.
And it sure is a question. It had floated in the back of Erika’s mind ever since she’d escaped the Lamia’s enclosure, and so far, she had no solution.
“We, uh, we can’t use shock spears against the Lamia,” Erika said. “Electricity is ineffective.”
“So what is effective?” Ryder demanded.
Erika shook her head.
“Are you trying to say nothing will slow this thing down?” Ryder said.
“We just don’t know anything yet,” Petra said. “Oh, hey, that anesthetic! Didn’t that take the Lamia down?”
“The anesthetic worked for about a minute or so,” Erika said.
“Why can’t we use it again?” Naoki asked.
“The chemicals and equipment we need for the anesthetic come from the lab.” Erika looked to Ryder. “Even if we had the anesthetic, we have no guarantee it would work again. The Lamia might have already evolved a countermeasure.”
“Okay, no knock-out gas,” the Captain said. “So, come on, we’re supposed to be smart.”
Erika stood in silence. The others talked, each adding a new idea to the pile. Erika listened and tried to keep up, but everyone’s voices mixed together into an unintelligible buzz.
“Enough!” Ryder barked. “One at a time, please!”
“Let’s push that fucker out an airlock!” Mi-Cha shouted.
“Killing the assets is not on the table,” Naoki replied.
“Oh, of course,” Mi-Cha spat. “You’re totally fine watching the rest of us get raped by these things, as long as the company’s happy, right?”
Connections webbed together in Erika’s brain.
Naoki’s orders were to oversee the scientists’ efforts and ensure they stayed on schedule, but what if he had another order? What if Naoki was supposed to kill the scientists off once they collected the aliens? He could have purposely locked the scientists into the enclosure with the hopes the Lamia would slaughter them. Did that really sound like something Naoki would do?
The lights flickered.
“We really need that fixed,” Ryder muttered.
“First we need to worry about the Lamia,” Naoki said. His words sounded oily now.
“Without killing it,” Ryder said.
“Yes, correct,”
Mi-Cha huffed and rolled her eyes.
Luther’s death replayed in Erika’s head.
“Mi-Cha might be right,” she said.
Ryder and Naoki glared at her. Erika wanted to shrink into the crowd, but she kept her feet planted where she was. She had something important to say, and the crew would hear her out.
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“I don’t know any method we have of bringing the Lamia down safely,” Erika said. “If we stop thinking about sparing the creature, we might come up with a method to neutralize it.”
“SmallWorld will strip us of our jobs and blacklist us,” Naoki said.
“I’d rather lose the job than get torn apart on this ship,” Aymeric said.
“And you’d rather not mutiny against me,” Ryder spat. “We are not killing the Lamia or any other alien. Final.”
The option really needed to be considered, though.
“So has that little tangent jogged anyone’s imagination?” Ryder asked.
A noise banged from the ladder. A moan wafted up the shaft.
Erika tensed.
Everyone else did, too.
The Lamia wasn’t–couldn’t be close.
A fleshy limb appeared over the rim of the ladder.
The group backed up.
“Quick, how do we kill the Lamia?” Ryder asked.
“Subdue,” Naoki corrected.
The Lamia hauled its mass onto the bridge. It lurched forward.
Erika hurried to the side. A limb slammed against the console a meter away from her.
The monster drew closer. It blocked the elevator.
The Lamia was focused on going forward, not backward. At least that’s what Erika thought. There was no face to read emotions or intent from. If Erika was right, though…
She ran for the ladder. A limb swiped out, but the Lamia was aimed behind her. Clive sidestepped to avoid the attack.
Erika reached the ladder.
“Everyone! Here!” She shouted.
One of the Lamia’s limbs shot out. Erika dropped to the ladder, and scurried down. She reached the second floor and came to a stop there. She backed away from the ladder, and waited.
The Lamia thumped above.
Erika’s panic dropped, but that only made room for guilt.
Had the Lamia caught someone? Was Petra dying because Erika ran away?
A shape moved down the ladder.
Erika backed into a table.
The shape was Mi-Cha, and Aymeric soon followed.
“You’re alive!” Aymeric huffed.
Erika watched the ladder. No one else came.
The Lamia thrashed above.
“Thanks for leaving us behind, by the way,” Mi-Cha’s words were venomous, but her eyes were wide with fear.
“Are the others okay?” Erika finally asked. She should have asked that sooner.
“I dunno. I think so?” Aymeric glanced to the ceiling.
Erika, Aymeric, and Mi-Cha needed to go back to the bridge then, after they found weapons. They couldn’t leave the others with the Lamia.
Erika stared at the ladder, waiting for Naoki or Ryder to climb down and take charge. Except neither came. Aymeric and Mi-Cha stared at Erika.
Of course they are waiting for your solution. You’re supposed to be the expert. Erika glanced between Aymeric and Mi-Cha. Something slithered in her guts.
? ? ?
The Lamia slammed against the airlock door, but the metal was too thick for the asshole to get in. Ryder also put his Captain’s Override into place. He doubted the alien could work the door console, but he didn’t want any surprises.
He turned and addressed those in the med bay. Theo, Clive, Petra, and Naoki had made it into the med bay with him. Ryder had no clue where Mi-Cha, Erika, or Aymeric went. The Lamia might have gotten them. Ryder hoped the Lamia hadn’t gotten them.
The creature slammed against the airlock door. It moaned in frustration.
Ryder pulled up his IRIS and tried to call Mi-Cha. The system was still down. Ryder swore.
The Lamia pounded down the hall, back toward the bridge.
“We can run now!” Petra said.
“Straight into the jaws of that piece of shit,” Ryder said. “I like the attitude, though. We can’t stay locked up here. Theo? We got some secret passage outta here?”
Theo glanced to the ceiling. There was a vent, though it was too small to squeeze through.
“We have to go out through the bridge,” Theo stated.
“Can we go through a wall or something?” Ryder said. “I really don’t care if we have to bust down a wall.”
“We do not have the tools to do that,” Theo said.
“Then what the fuck is that tool belt for?” Ryder spat. He took a deep breath. He couldn’t afford to panic when everyone needed him.
But what a fucked up situation this is!
Ryder looked around the med bay. He opened a cabinet, and found bandages waiting for him. He dug beyond them, because he was looking for something else.
“What are you doing?” Naoki asked.
There was nothing in the cabinet. Ryder shut the door, and moved to a drawer. There he found a slim pair of scissors. Ryder pulled them out, and held them to the light. They looked sharp enough to stab through flesh. That should work against the alien.
“If we’re gonna get around that Lamia, we’re gonna need weapons,” Ryder said. “Everyone, find something.”
Clive and Petra hopped to it. Theo hesitated a moment, then dug into a drawer. Naoki frowned at Ryder, because of course he did. Being a skeptical little shit was his job.
“Scissors?” Naoki asked. “Erika told us that the Lamia is tough. I don’t think scissors, or anything else we find in here, will help.”
There was a screeching noise. Clive pulled one of the cabinet doors from its hinges.
“So you’d rather be stuck in here until you starve to death?” Ryder asked.
Naoki pressed his lips into a thin line. He turned to a drawer, opened it, and searched inside.
