Erika, Aymeric, and Mi-Cha huddled in the kitchen and carefully poured thick, blue liquid from metal tubes into glass jars. The fumes made Erika light-headed and anxious about her plan.

  So, the plan itself. The blue liquid was the Ark’s supply of ship coolant. According to Mi-Cha, ships bottled up the heat generated inside, so they needed powerful coolants to keep the ship from becoming a broiler. That coolant was toxic to humans. It might also be toxic to, say, an alien trying to murder everyone aboard the ship.

  It was a bad plan. Erika had no way of knowing or even guessing what the coolant would do to the Lamia.

  What else can we do?

  Erika continued to pour.

  ? ? ?

  Ryder had a pistol. It was an Albrecht 24, with a fifteen round magazine. He’d bought it God-knows how many years ago, when he was a younger captain who thought that, if pirates showed up, he’d blast his way through them to protect cargo. Ryder had only fired the gun a few times at a range, but he was a decent shot. He could shoot the Lamia down. If that Albrecht 24 was in his hands and not in his cabin. What Ryder held was a pair of scissors that were nearly lost in his clenched hand.

  If I get out of here–no, that’s defeatist thinking. When I get out of here, I’m gonna get that gun and carry it everywhere with me. I’m gonna cuddle that thing to sleep.

  The others didn’t have guns, either, because Ryder didn’t like anyone else having a weapon on his ship. Clive gripped a cabinet door in both hands. Theo and Naoki held scissors. Petra carried a short length of aluminum pipe that she’d found somewhere.

  The Lamia hammered something on the bridge.

  Ryder tightened his grip on the scissors.

  The Ark was Ryder’s ship, and he sure as shit wasn’t gonna let some giant blob alien take it away from him.

  “Are we ready?” Ryder asked.

  “Is there another way?” Naoki responded.

  “You sound so earnest when you ask that, like we haven’t gone through our options,” Ryder said.

  “It’s gonna work.” Petra patted Naoki on his shoulders.

  The overseer squeezed his eyes shut. It looked like he wanted to rub his temple too, but he kept his arms at his side.

  “Come on, we can’t wait for someone else to rescue us,” Ryder said.

  Naoki opened his eyes.

  “You’re right. Let’s do this,” he muttered.

  Ryder marched to the airlock. The others followed behind him like soldiers.

  He lifted the Override from the door, then opened it. Ryder stepped through, scissors ready in his hands.

  The Lamia was in the bridge, twisting its fat limbs across the console.

  That’s mine.

  Ryder charged. Clive stayed at Ryder’s side, though nobody else followed.

  The Lamia’s limbs shout out. Ryder stabbed with the scissors. The skin was thick. Stabbing the Lamia was like stabbing a watermelon with a fork.

  Ryder tried to yank the scissors out, but they were stuck in the Lamia’s skin.

  Clive slammed the cabinet door on the alien’s limb.

  The Lamia jerked its arm back, and took the scissors with it.

  Ryder swore.

  A second limb was coming from his side.

  He jumped back.

  The Lamia clipped Ryder and made him fall, but if he hadn’t moved, the fucker would have smashed him against the wall.

  Petra danced around one of the Lamia’s attacks. She swiped with her pipe, but couldn’t land a blow.

  Naoki managed to stab an attacking limb. A second swiped out.

  “Behind you!” Ryder shouted.

  He was too slow.

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  The second limb punched Naoki in the side of his head, and he went down.

  Ryder scrambled to his feet.

  He had no weapons, and his team was getting overwhelmed.

  But you have to do something.

  ? ? ?

  The thumping from above grew more intense.

  Erika had only known the Lamia for a few weeks; that increased movement could mean anything. It saw something interesting on the bridge, or it had grown agitated when it couldn’t find prey, or it found the crew and was tearing them apart.

  Erika looked to Aymeric and Mi-Cha. They knew what the thumping meant. Erika did, too.

  “Someone’s still alive,” Mi-Cha said.

  “For now,” Aymeric added.

  The group had managed to fill four containers with coolant. It was both not enough and too much.

  Erika grabbed two of the jars, and marched toward the elevator.

  “What are you doing?” Aymeric asked.

  “We have to help,” Erika said.

  “We won’t be able to–” Aymeric groaned and grabbed the remaining coolant jars.

  “Lemme see!” Mi-Cha snatched a bottle from Aymeric, and followed him into the elevator.

  The Lamia growled. Someone above shouted.

  Erika slammed the elevator button. The doors shut, and the machine rumbled as it moved. It was slower than usual. At least Erika thought so; she couldn’t be sure. She didn’t know if she wanted the machine to move any faster, really. She didn’t want to come face-to-face with the Lamia again.

  The machine stopped.

  Erika’s heart tightened into a wrinkly little ball.

  The doors slid open to carnage.

  Erika counted up the rest of the crew with a glance. Ryder shouted at the Lamia and waved his arms. Clive attacked with a twisted piece of metal. Petra swiped at the Lamia with a bent pipe.

  “Everyone, back up!” Erika shouted.

  Ryder saw Erika. His expression went from fear to fury. He backed away from the Lamia. So did Clive and Petra.

  What happened to Naoki and Theo?

  Erika didn’t have time to really dig into the question though; she threw her jar as hard as she could.

  The glass shattered against the Lamia’s skin. Coolant splashed across the body.

  The Lamia screeched.

  Clive and Petra darted to the edge of the room.

  Theo came up with Naoki leaned against him. The pair hurried back.

  The Lamia brushed itself down with its limbs, and only managed to smear coolant across itself.

  Mi-Cha flung her bottle into the creature. It smashed and sprayed more coolant over the alien.

  “Yeah, suck on that!” Mi-Cha flipped the Lamia off.

  One arm whipped out and dented the wall next to Mi-Cha. She yelped and jumped to the side.

  Erika and Aymeric followed.

  The Lamia kept wiping the coolant across itself. But it wasn’t going down.

  And we have no tools to capture it.

  The Lamia stopped fussing with itself, and swiped a limb out in Erika’s direction.

  “It’s me you want!” Ryder shouted from the other side. The Lamia ignored the Captain; it wanted the person who threw the coolant.

  Another limb came out in Erika’s direction. It was the limb covered in Luther’s blood.

  You’re next.

  Erika ran for the ladder. If the Lamia squeezed up, it could squeeze down, too. If the Lamia was as fixated on Erika as she thought, it would follow her and leave everyone else alone. That was the best case scenario for the moment.

  A limb grabbed Erika’s ankle, and she fell.

  The Lamia screeched. It dragged Erika back.

  “No!” Aymeric threw his jar. It exploded onto the Lamia.

  The monster let go of Erika, and wiped itself down.

  Aymeric ran to Erika’s side and hauled her back to her feet.

  Erika ran to the ladder, Aymeric and Mi-Cha followed.

  “Down! Now!” Erika shouted.

  Mi-Cha slipped down the ladder without a word of complaint.

  “You can’t stay up here!” Aymeric said.

  “I’ll follow; don’t worry!”

  Aymeric gave Erika a skeptical look, then he slipped down the ladder.

  The Lamia shook its body and flung coolant across the bridge. One droplet splattered centimeters from Erika’s shoe.

  “Over here! Hey! Fucker!” Ryder shouted from the other side.

  Erika tossed her second jar. It exploded onto the Lamia’s limb. It screeched, then thundered toward Erika without bothering to wipe the coolant away.

  Erika scurried down the ladder. A limb followed her. Coolant dripped from the alien flesh.

  Erika leapt onto the second floor before the coolant could drop on her face.

  Aymeric and Mi-Cha waited for her.

  “What are you doing here?” Erika asked.

  “You don’t need us!?” Mi-Cha demanded.

  The Lamia was coming down.

  “This fucking thing,” Mi-Cha muttered. She ran toward the shower room. Aymeric followed, and Erika came behind.

  The Lamia groaned.

  Once Erika got into the shower room, Mi-Cha slammed the button to close it.

  The Lamia lurched toward the closing doors, but it would be too slow. If the doors held up, then Erika, Aymeric, and Mi-Cha would be safe.

  Then what? You’d need a net gun, or something else to stop the creature. Can you get that?

  The Lamia had smashed Luther to death, and it actively hunted the rest of the crew. It was too dangerous to roam the ship any longer. It was too dangerous to bring to Earth.

  Erika pressed the button on the airlock to open it again.

  “The fuck are you doing!?” Mi-Cha hit the button again, then ran in the opposite direction.

  Aymeric gave Erika an odd look. She couldn’t worry about him right now, though.

  The Lamia closed in. The airlock doors slid together, but the opening was large enough for the creature to slip inside.

  The Lamia squeezed into the doorway.

  “Oh sweet fuck,” Aymeric muttered.

  Limbs lashed out and thudded against tiled floors and walls.

  Erika dashed forward and threw all her weight against the Lamia’s slick skin.

  She partially sunk into the monster, like she’d hit a wall of jello.

  Erika did manage to shove the Lamia back, though only by a few centimeters.

  She tried to dart away, but limbs wrapped around her.

  Erika grit her teeth.

  The airlock doors closed on the Lamia’s body.

  The limbs let go.

  Erika dropped to the ground. She scrambled to her feet and backed away.

  The Lamia screeched.

  The airlock doors whined as they tried to shut on the monster’s body. The Lamia wriggled and pushed against the doors, but it was stuck, just as Erika planned.

  Something crunched.

  The Lamia wailed.

  A limb whipped out and hit Erika in her bad shoulder. The force knocked her to the ground.

  The airlock doors came closer together. The Lamia’s struggles weakened as the doors crushed its torso.

  Green blood splattered across the doors.

  The airlock slammed shut.

  The Lamia thudded to the floor. Its flesh jiggled, when it fell. Green blood spread across the tile.

  Erika picked herself up, and held her throbbing shoulder. She stepped back, and waited.

  This was the part where the Lamia jump-started back to life to continue the chase, because it couldn’t be dead. Monsters didn’t die easy.

  The Lamia let out a hiss. It said nothing more.

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