Pilgrim (9 page)

The plants were mostly mushrooms although
some vines crawled along the cave walls. The plants shone out and
created a friendly glow which counteracted the encroaching
darkness. A leak in the ceiling far above was dripping water down
onto a flat rock.

“The mystery of the dripping is solved,”
Nova said as she took in the falling water. “Fluorescent plants in
abundance. These look to have occurred naturally as opposed to the
usual artificial breeds. A sample of the plant has been taken and
labelled A.”

She spoke the audio log as she placed her
gun on the ground. Bending down, she used a pair of tweezers to
pluck a small mushroom and lower it into a sealed tube. She held
her breath throughout the whole process in case the mushroom
released spores as a defensive strategy. It would be a severe
embarrassment if she had survived everything so far only to die
here at the hands of a small glowing mushroom. The mushroom
continued to glow even when isolated inside the glass. Nova slipped
the vial into her bag where a pocket held it firmly in place before
standing, gun in hand.

Huge rock formations decorated the cave.
They hung down from the ceiling and extended up from the floor.
Some had connected to form massive columns of stone. Their uneven
surfaces reflected the blue light of the plants.

Her attention was ripped from the rocks by a
crunch behind her. She took a step forward and turned to face the
noise. The blue glow of the plants illuminated a figure shuffling
towards her. It looked human but walked with a definite hunch. It
was at least a foot taller than Nova and the sound of scraping dirt
accompanied its approach.

Nova’s heart beat faster and she was
suddenly aware of how alone she was down in the tunnels. She
couldn’t even be sure that Cal knew where she was. Her breath
scraped against her throat as her eyes darted about the chamber.
She clenched her gun tighter to keep from shaking.

“Stop where you are,” she said.

The creature didn’t respond.

“Stop or I’ll shoot,” she said, steadying
her gun.

The creature moaned but didn’t stop moving
forward. Nova backed away a few more paces.

“Cal! Cal! I need a new translator patch,”
she said. If she’d ever needed her robot, it was now. The darkness
and weight of the tunnels pushed down on her, making it hard to
breathe. Cal didn’t respond.

“Damned robot,” she said as desperation
flooded through her.

She turned right and made a dash for the
tunnel she’d come through . The creature behind turned to follow
her. She jogged down the tunnel but didn’t bother sprinting, the
figure seemed slow at best.

“Did your people do the carvings?” Nova
called over her shoulder. Crunching footsteps were her only
reply.

She ran to where the path split and retraced
her footsteps. She continued until she came back out into the open
expanse of the cavern. In the distance somewhere was the crashed
colony ship. She raced towards it.

That was when things got bad.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

The glowing ball at Nova’s waist reflected
back from more than twenty sets of eyes. They gleamed in the dim
cavern and were accompanied by low growls. She couldn’t make out
any of the cavern walls; there was just the darkness and the eyes.
In the dim light, she made out vague faces but they were moving in
and out of the shadows so quickly that she couldn’t be certain. The
eyes moved closer, surrounding her on all sides.

“I mean no harm,” she said, holding up her
hands. Fear had a firm hold of her heart. She would have shot them
all and run if she thought she could kill them all before they
reached her. Instead, she had to hope they understood and weren’t
planning on killing her where she stood. The gun reflected the
light in a bright glint.

The creatures didn’t respond except to move
closer.

Hearing more people in the tunnel behind
her, she darted right and slammed her palm into a creature,
knocking the dark figure back. She managed to get past and made a
break for the ship. Stomping feet sounded right on her heels. She
risked a glance over her shoulder. The glowing eyes were catching
up.

In her quick glance, Nova saw human-like
faces except that the eyes were double the size of her own. They
bulged out of the creatures’ heads like tennis balls. Their teeth
were sharpened to a neat points that gnashed as she ran away.

They looked like demons leaping through the
dark caverns after her. Cold sweat broke out across Nova’s forehead
and her legs felt like jelly beneath her. The sound of her breath
was like a choked bellows as she fought to stay in control. The
darkness and the sounds of pursuit pushed her closer to the madness
she struggled so hard to resist and soon other voices and shapes
were joining those of her chasers.

She gritted her teeth and blinked hard,
using the pain thumping through her right foot to push the visions
away. They faded in the face of the very real threat at her
heels.

The sight of her pursuers put fire into
Nova’s feet and she sprinted the remaining distance to the ship.
She breathed a sigh of relief when her light shone on the jagged
entrance, and she dashed inside, turning right she sprinted back
past the controls and buttons.

She got to the door with the keypad and
madly typed in the code. As her fingers worked she looked back and
saw the approaching horde. Whatever they wanted it certainly didn’t
seem friendly. They snapped their teeth at her. In order to get up
the steep incline of the tilted ship they grabbed hold of the
passing equipment.

Entire sections of machinery torn right out
of the ship. They rolled down the inclined floor and smashed
against the wall some distance away.

She finished the code and the door slid open
she dashed through it and slammed her palm against the close
button. She whipped in a circle but there was no sign of more
attackers in the tech lounge.

“C’mon c’mon!” she said, begging the door to
close faster.

With a hiss, it finally obeyed and the noise
of chomping teeth was silenced.

She drew in a few deep breaths. “Always nice
to meet the locals,” she said. “Cal, are you back online yet?”

Static filled her ears.

She turned away from the door and came face
to face with an open mouth. She was so close that she could see
each individual tooth and the spittle which connected them. The
stench of rotten meat flowed over her as the creature bellowed into
her face.

She dived to her right just as the
creature’s jaw snapped shut on what would have been her face. The
humanoid turned to face her, shambling forward with jerky
movements.

“I don’t want to kill you, but I will. There
are only so many times I can put up with having people trying to
eat my face,” Nova warned. She scrambled to her feet and levelled
her gun at the creature.

Her stomach clenched as a rush of blood
poured through her veins, feeding adrenalin into her already
exhausted muscles. She’d had enough of being captured and of
strange people trying to eat her. It made no sense, and she
couldn’t get off of the planet soon enough. Even the promise of a
warp converter was less appealing with every encounter she had.

The creature paid no attention to her words.
It took another step forward and gnashed its teeth. It wore
tattered rags for clothing that only just covered its waist. The
rest of his body was covered in dirt and grime along with tiny
scratches and scars.

The vacant eyes and gnashing teeth reminded
Nova of some of the drug addicts she’d encountered in the outer
planets. They had the exact same crazed expressions and the
similarity made her hold back, despite her fear, until the creature
whipped out its hand and took hold of her left wrist, and then she
let fire. The gunshot reverberated around the tech lounge and
clanged against Nova’s ears.

The blue plasma shot from the gun and
blasted into the creature’s chest. The flesh melted away and the
thing collapsed. Its hand remained locked around Nova’s wrist and
she was jerked downwards with the sudden weight.

She dropped her gun to the floor to free her
other hand and pried the fingers from around her wrist one by one.
Her breath was coming fast with the adrenalin and a bead of sweat
rolled down her forehead.

As soon as she was free, she jumped to her
feet, snatching her gun from the floor. She turned in a tight
circle, her gun held out in front, straining her ears for any
noise, but the tech lounge was silent. She waited until she was
sure there were no more creatures and then knelt beside the body at
her feet.

“Let’s get a better look at you,” she said,
ignoring the quiver in her own voice. If she was going to find out
what was happening on the damned planet then she had to get as much
information as she could. She held the glowing light up high so
that it illuminated the entire creature.

“New encounter, possible new homo sapient
species. Subject was hostile and fatal action was required. Subject
killed by plasma blast to the chest. Initial impression is of
humanoid sub-species, possible cave dweller. Large eyes dominate
facial features along with sharp teeth. These look to be natural
and not filed…”

She stopped her scientific analysis and
stared with a twisted mouth at the subject’s ear. “What the hell is
that?”

Crawling out from the corpse’s ear-hole was
a slug. It wormed out of the narrow tunnel and plopped to the metal
floor. A trail of slime followed its progress.

Nova stared with horrified fascination as
the creature edged its way from the body across the metal
floor.

“Oh no you don’t,” she said. She scooped the
slug into another vial, which she tucked safely into her bag.

“Secondary species found. Possibly
symbiotic. Slug-like in appearance. Collected as sample B.”

The door behind her caved inwards.
Persistent banging clanged around the tech lounge as the creatures
on the other side of the door tried to claw their way in.

The door vibrated and dents sprung up across
its surface.

Nova sprung to her feet and stepped
backwards away from the door with her gun pointed straight at it.
She backed away through the learning pods, up the slope towards the
next door.

A shriek to her left was her only warning.
She ducked low and sprung forward, only just moving out of the way
of a swinging fist. She turned and levelled her gun. She squeezed
the trigger and a single blast fired off. The blue bolt of energy
spun through the air and collided with her attacker’s face, melting
it.

She was surrounded. Out of the shadows and
crawling out of the learning pods came the creatures. They hobbled
on uneven feet towards Nova and her glowing lamp. They growled at
her. She couldn’t make out intelligible words.

Her already pounding heart raced faster,
filling her ears with the noise. Her aching muscles trembled as she
spun in a tight circle, trying to bring the panic in her chest back
under control.

Ten of the humanoid figures approached her
from different directions. Not wasting any time, she levelled her
gun and fired off shots at the approaching silhouettes. In the
semi-darkness, it was hard to be sure of how many there were but
she shot all the same.

She blasted the first figure, turned a
little to the left and shot the next, continuing around in a circle
firing off blasts of energy. Her enemies collapsed to the ground as
the highly charged bolts burned away their flesh and disintegrated
their organs. Ordinarily she wouldn’t have stood in the middle of
an area when outnumbered. Here she didn’t have much choice.

Click. Click. Click.

Her gun clicked over but no more blue blasts
came out.

The nearest creature was on her. She
crouched low and swung her leg around in a bruising roundhouse
kick. Her boot slammed into the creature’s midsection and it flew
to the side, completely off balance. As it sailed past, she brought
the butt of her gun down and smashed it into the creature’s head. A
dull crack echoed through the darkness and the thing collapsed at
her feet.

“Damn you useless thing,” Nova said,
throwing the overheated gun into her gaping bag. She had time to
reflect that if she’d had the money she would have upgraded her gun
and it wouldn’t have overheated so quickly.

By then, the attackers were on her. Compared
to their initial ponderous movements they were now at full speed.
The closest was a man in a ragged pair of overalls. He ran full
tilt at Nova and swung his fist.

She ducked under his arm and as he moved
past she kicked his back so that he went flying forward. He
collided with two more attackers and they went crashing to the
floor like bowling pins.

“Strike,” Nova said, turning to the next
attacker.

This was a female with long nails, sharp
enough to carve a roast. She swiped at Nova with her talons. First
the left hand sailed forward and then the right.

Nova ducked backwards, moving her torso
right and left to avoid the claws. She glanced behind and saw that
the door leading down into the cavern was nearly broken. As soon as
that broke, more creatures would surge in and she’d be dead.

The woman attacking Nova barred her teeth
and growled. Her giant white eyes stared at Nova with a squishy
kind of fixation.

Nova looked around for any kind of weapon.
There was just her and her bag. She slipped her hand down to her
waist and unclipped the glowing ball, thrusting it towards her
attacker’s eyes. The woman howled. She stumbled away from Nova,
clutching at her oversized eyeballs.

The other beasts stopped their advance and
looked from the cowering woman to Nova. They paused for only a
second before approaching. They moved with more caution now,
spreading out in a circle to surround Nova.