Chapter 9 – A Mad Dash for Freedom
Shi heard the squeak of expanding rubber at the same time as something dark suddenly loomed behind Briar, shaped vaguely like a spacesuit. Instinctively, Shi modified the flow of her magic in her mind, pulling the flames from her left hand. Shi grabbed Briar’s recently cleared arm and pulled him behind her as Shi willed the remaining fire to erupt from her right hand at the Seal-Tech mass in the form of a small fireball.
The first of the wards exploded in a crackling discharge as its arcane energy spewed fire upward like a landmine. Kaylee shouted something, but it was drowned out by the boom of her launcher discharging another shell.
The mass in front of Shi flailed wildly as the arcane flames consumed it. It stopped moving a moment later as its form shuddered, losing its shape as it melted onto the floor.
Unfortunately for Shi, there was another mass looming right behind the melting one, and it hadn’t been touched by the fire. Knowing she couldn’t start another spell in time, Shi’s hand went to one of the revolvers at her hips; she didn’t normally try to fire a gun this close to an airlock, non-lethal enchantments on her rounds or not, even if the hull plating would likely stop the bullet, but desperate times…
The Seal-Tech mass was faster, though, its still-vaguely-spacesuit-shaped arm extending in the blink of an eye, reaching for Shi as it expanded like a balloon filling with air. It wrapped around Shi’s waist and pulled her toward it at almost the same moment, throwing her shots off, causing them to strike the walls behind. Shit!
“No! Commander!” Briar shouted as another ward exploded.
Shi fought to maintain her distance, but the strength of the thing was formidable, and it took everything she could muster to maintain her footing. Gritting her teeth, she brought her gun back on target, but saw other tendrils starting to grow from the thing.
Briar uttered a prayer as Kaylee fired another shell. As the Seal-Tech mass squeezed around Shi’s waist, Briar’s hand touched Shi’s shoulder.
Shi felt herself displaced as the magic washed over her, then she realized she had switched places with Briar. The pressure around her midsection had lessened, but she could feel the warmth of the Seal-Tech lingering there. “No, Briar, why did-”
Another ward exploded, and Murissa roared a challenge.
“You have to get the others out of here!” Briar said as he was suddenly pulled toward the growing mass. Off balance, he practically flew into it as the tentacled arm shortened, his back slamming against the Seal-Tech’s ‘chest’, his arms and legs melting into the rubber. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he struggled, rapidly being absorbed into the mass. “There’s still hope! The escape pods! You have to get out of here! Erisaya will protect me, but you have to go!”
“Briar…” Shi muttered, wincing, making herself watch as the Seal-Tech monstrosity pulled Briar into itself. The medic had closed his eyes and taken on a more serene appearance as he was pulled fully inside the Seal-Tech, which began to shrink and form itself to his body.
Shi glanced down, saw that she had her own Seal-Tech patch growing around her waist, eating away at her bodysuit.
“I think they’re pissed,” Kaylee shouted, firing off another shell that rocked the small space; the fact that Shi could actually hear her was a small miracle in itself. Shi turned her head numbly in that direction after one more look at the featureless form of Briar as the Seal-Tech began to form restraints upon him. Kaylee dropped the empty magazine from her launcher as two more wards shot fire at the shambling rubber masses. The corridor beyond was covered in black rubber or blackened scorches, but the Seal-Tech was relentless, reforming and coming forward after only a few seconds. It must have been drawing a ton of power…
There had to be a reason the escape pods weren’t used by the crew, but what choice did they have? It was a chance they’d have to take.
Shi looked once more behind her, saw the Seal-Tech she had burned up bubbling as it too started to reform. Wincing as the Seal-Tech around her waist grew tighter, almost like it was intending to crush the breath out of her, Shi stepped up behind Kaylee and Murissa as Kaylee slammed her remaining magazine into her weapon. “Last stand here, or we try the escape pods. I don’t have much left to offer.”
“I’ll take a fighting chance over this!” Kaylee replied. “Briar wants us out of here, and damn it, as much as I hate to leave him and Hilde, we don’t have much choice here.”
“How can we get there?” Murissa asked, her blades held warily in front of her, for what little good they would do in their current situation.
“I can get us there, but then it’s all on you two after that; you’ll need to get out of here and find a way to help the rest of us,” Shi replied, a bit grimly, feeling a warmth spreading up and down her torso. “They’re…they’ll be fine, we just can’t help them…”
Shi could certainly get them to the escape pods, but after that, she’d be lucky if she didn’t pass out from the strain. Regardless of the danger, she began another spell, weaving the arcane symbols with her fingers, drawing heavily on her dwindling arcane reserves as she formed the image of the corridor with the escape pods in her mind. She had to pull from deep inside for this one, wishing for a moment that she could tap into the ship’s reactor like the Seal-Tech had, or whatever the magical source was that had initiated that rapid startup. Though her eyes were closed as she weaved the spell, she could feel Kaylee and Murissa looking at her.
Shi didn’t have a generator, but she did have some batteries, or at least, something like them. It wasn’t much, but it would certainly help; maybe she wouldn’t pass out once the spell was done after all. Using one hand, Shi began running her fingers over the remaining bullets on her gunbelt, sucking away their enchantments and reabsorbing their magic into her inner pool.
Two wards exploded in quick succession, the smell of hot rubber nearly overwhelming.
“One left…” Murissa said, growling tensely.
Kaylee fired another shell, rocking the area around her, momentarily deafening them. She raised her hand from the grip, all fingers held wide, then quickly took hold of the weapon again. Five shots left.
Knowing that more of the black rubber welled up quickly behind them, Shi solidified the image of the corridor outside the escape pods firmly in her mind’s eye as they had seen them in passing, rapidly chanting the power words.
The last of the wards exploded. Even with her ears ringing, Shi heard Murissa’s defiant roar.
Shi shouted the last of her power words, triggered the energy she had stored up within her, and touched her hands to Murissa and Kaylee’s shoulders. The corridor distorted and warped around them, twisting almost into a knot. Shi had a momentary sensation that they were falling, then the world untwisted itself, and they were suddenly in the corridor outside the escape pods.
Kaylee and Murissa staggered, catching themselves before they could fall, but Shi’s head spun, and she still nearly blacked out as she fell against the wall, barely keeping herself on her feet. It would have been so easy to just have gone to sleep right then and there.
“Commander!” Kaylee shouted over the ringing in Shi’s ears.
Shi shook her head, waved them forward. “Go, go! You two get out of here!” The Seal-Tech had expanded upward just below Shi’s breasts and as far down as her hips, taking on a more solid form that squeezed her all around, like some kind of corset, and was still creeping up her bodysuit. She panted and pointed at the nearest pod. “You have to get back to the ship and warn everyone what’s happening here!”
Murissa’s ears twitched as her eyes darted around the corridor, alert for a sudden attack.
Kaylee nodded grimly, her eyes lingering on Shi’s midsection, and hefted her launcher, then approached the nearest pod. She slammed her big fist onto the button, activating the warning lights and klaxons; the pressure doors ground open, followed by the pod’s hatch.
Taking a few steps back, Shi pressed her head against the bulkhead, trying to catch her breath and overcome the fatigue that had consumed her. It had been a while since she’d had to teleport more than one person, and even then she’d been at full strength. Through her exhausted haze, a memory surfaced: back in the old days, teleportation had been a lot easier, with her easily transporting a half-dozen others hundreds of miles with barely any effort. Magic had certainly waned in the galaxy over the centuries…
As Kaylee stepped up onto the lip of the pod entrance, Murissa shoved her aside and stepped in front of her. Kaylee staggered backward, looking hatefully back at the ferakatian. “Damn it, Murissa! What the fuck is wrong with yo-”
Murissa roared in response, the arm that hadn’t shoved Kaylee glistening with a black rubber tentacle that had whipped out from within the pod. She stabbed forward with her long blade, impaling the Seal-Tech shambler to little effect, snatching her short blade from her trapped hand before it could be seized, quickly slicing the tendril away, though the remnants remained upon her arm, now radiating outward from her forearm.
“Murissa!” Kaylee said, her anger quickly replaced by a growing panic.
Shi winced, muttering a curse. Of course they were in the fucking escape pods! Why else weren’t they used? More warning lights above the other pod bays started flashing, and their doors opened. A veritable wave of black flowed out of the remaining pods, reforming into the shamblers.
“Blow the ship!” Murissa roared, backing up to stand between Kaylee and Shi, holding her left arm away from her. Shi watched as the Seal-Tech spread over her hand, forming a tight skin before Murissa’s fingers were forced into a fist, said fist quickly smoothing over into a useless black globe. Murissa turned to them, rage in her eyes. “Go now, damn it! Don’t let it spread! Don’t let them win! Go!” The ferakatian turned back and steadied herself into a wide stance between Kaylee and Shi, roaring with defiance, daring the shamblers forward.
Gritting her teeth, Shi snatched the collar of Kaylee’s bodysuit and hauled her backward. “Let’s go, Kaylee! Now! Move it!”
The pilot allowed her larger bulk to move with Shi’s guidance, and she ran down the corridor, back to the connecting corridor they had traversed on the way inside, Shi struggling to follow her as she wavered unsteadily in her steps, bouncing from one bulkhead to the next to keep herself upright. They headed toward the stairwell, but Shi could already see shamblers and grasping tentacles waiting, moving toward them.
“What are we going to do, commander?! There’s nowhere else to go!” Kaylee’s face, despite their exertion, was pale, eyes wide as she fought to keep her panic in check, the barrel of her launcher wavering as she pointed it at the approaching hostiles.
Another roar came from Murissa in the direction of the escape pods, and was choked off a moment later. Shi looked at Kaylee, the two sharing a silent moment, fear filling their faces. How could they possibly make it back to engineering from here?
Oh no, poor Briar! Poor Murissa! That tricky Seal-Tech is something else!
Can Shi and Kaylee find a way out, or are they doomed to a rubbery end?
Check back next week to find out!
Until then, Urban out!
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