A calming presence blanketed the flood of panic, before she could even react. It was Ei’Brai. The weapon is within reach of your dominant extremity, he soothed.
She couldn’t take her eyes off the animal. It acted almost drunk, still trying to adjust to its constantly changing circumstances. But there was no doubt it was hungry. It was just a matter of time.
She slid her right hand over the floor, Ei’Brai guiding it to the pistol. She clutched it gratefully, then clamped down hard on her jaw and rolled, with considerable effort, onto her side. Why had that been so hard? She paid no heed to the racking pain in her leg and fired point blank into the thing’s head. It exploded, raining blood and disgusting chunks over her.
She coughed, swiped at her face with her sleeve, and tried to sit up. That was a mistake. She came close to passing out again.
She laid back down, panting, and considered her options. Her compressed-air tank was a few feet away. She should go for it. Maybe she could crawl there before the nepatrox were completely recovered and alert. She could buy herself some time that way, so that someone could come get her.
With a grunt, she rolled back onto her stomach. She tried to raise herself up on her uninjured knee. It wouldn’t cooperate. She squeezed her eyes shut and fought down despondency. One leg badly broken—that was clear—but the other was…what? Paralyzed? She searched her memory for a clue. The venom. She had felt a burning sensation earlier, but she hadn’t had time to really think about it.
Hate seethed inside her, a bright, glowing thing that eclipsed everything else. She braced herself on one elbow and fired at anything that moved within a few feet of her until the clip was spent. She dropped the clip, awkwardly hurled it at one of the animals, and shoved her last clip home.
Ei’Brai’s voice rumbled inside her head, All will be well. My arrival is imminent.
She heaved with incredulous giggles, certain she’d completely lost touch with reality. How preposterous. That wasn’t even possible. He couldn’t come for her. She had to be hallucinating his voice. Oh, she was really in a pickle now.
Ei’Brai, she mused. He’d said something once about debating the existence of deities and she wished she’d had the chance to do that with him. She needed a deity now. Her grandparent’s fire and brimstone God seemed as good as any other at the moment. Oh, God, help me survive this.
Dimly she registered that people were yelling. Weapons were firing.
Blood. Some of it was hers. The floor was slick with blood and brains and other nepatrox gore. She drug herself through it. The horror of that made her throat close up.
“Jane! Can you hear me?” It was Gibbs, coming from the direction of the closest door. “I’m going to set off a flashbang. Cover your ears and close your eyes!”
She heard him. She knew what he was going to do, but it seemed so impossible that it could make a difference. The animals were hissing, closing in. There were too many of them. Doggedly, she maneuvered on her elbows toward the canister, retching and spitting when she wrenched her leg.
Boots thudded heavily on the floor at her ear. She looked up, expecting to see Alan, Ajaya, Walsh or Gibbs, thinking, but, he hasn’t used the stun grenade yet, has he?
She was pretty sure she would have noticed that. They were supposed to be really loud, blindingly bright, weren’t they?
It was Tom.
His expression was spiritless and unblinking. There was no life behind his eyes.
The flashbang went off, and with it came a concussive force that knocked her jaw painfully into the floor.
She hadn’t been ready for it. At least she’d been looking in the opposite direction, so the searing of her retinas was short-lived. But she couldn’t hear a thing now. That would last a few seconds, she remembered.
Anticipate discomfort, vibrated pleasantly inside her brain.
She gaped at Tom, and rolled over. “Tom? Wha—?” She couldn’t even hear herself.
Tom bent mechanically, at the hinge of his knee, and rested stolidly on his heels. His arms slid under her. He scooped her to him in a single, efficient motion and stood. She blacked out as the movement jarred her leg and came around to find him marching down the hall at an unhurried pace. Each jostling step sent pain shooting up her thigh. A few of the hardier nepatrox surged around them, lashing at his legs and chomping their jaws in frustration.
She touched Tom’s face. He didn’t respond. Not even a flinch. He didn’t turn his head to look at her, just plodded on. “Tom?” she questioned softly.
It is not your Dr. Thomas Compton that secures your health and safety, Dr. Jane Holloway.
She stared at Tom’s face in confusion. She felt so lightheaded. She must have lost a lot of blood. “Ei’Brai?”
Tell your shipmates—it is imperative that they go into the chamber.
She continued to speak aloud to Tom’s blank face, “Why?”
It is only a matter of time before this individual’s structure malfunctions. Tell them now. I cannot protect them without your assistance.
She could sense then, that this undertaking was tasking him to the reaches of his capability. He let her see his determination, his assurance, that he was going to make amends. He was almost to the deck transport.
She wrapped her arms around Tom’s neck and lifted herself to look over his shoulder. The others were fighting fruitlessly. Alan was yelling her name, over and over.
She called to them, “Go inside and shut the door!”
“Jane! Are you ok?” His voice was so full of anguish.
She blinked hard. Her vision was blurry. She didn’t know how to respond to that. Everything was swirling out of control. She wanted to trust Ei’Brai, knew she didn’t have a choice and…they didn’t either. “Yes! I’m ok! I’ll be ok!”
That was all she could muster. She leaned her cheek on Tom’s shoulder, fighting her eyes closing, and watched dully as Gibbs and Ajaya went through the closest door and shut it.
Seconds later, she saw Walsh haul Alan through the farther door by the scruff of his flight suit. That door shut. A moment later, Tom strode into the deck transport. Another door shut between them.
A few nepatrox followed them inside. Jane couldn’t maintain consciousness as Tom’s body, forced like an automaton by Ei’Brai’s mind, kicked them into death or submission.
She roused again as Tom staggered through the outer chamber of the medical facility. He stumbled past the diagnostic platform and through one of the many doors there.
His breathing was labored. Something was terribly wrong. The calming force that had tethered her, kept her from shrieking in pain, was gone. Her vision was fuzzy around the edges. She grit her teeth and clung to him.
All will be well, he thundered clumsily in her mind. Do not fear.
His loss of control did not engender trust. She couldn’t comply.
This room harbored a sea of large, molded tubs, each filled with a sparkling-clear, gel-like substance. Tom lurched to the nearest tub and unceremoniously dumped her in without a word of explanation.
Her head went under and she thrashed at the shock of it, arms blindly seeking purchase. Ei’Brai gushed reassurance as she broke the surface, gasping. Tom’s body was collapsed against the side of the tank, clearly no longer inhabited. There was no time to contemplate what that meant.
Calmly, now. This is critical care. You are unaware of the damage you have sustained.
There was some kind of activity taking place, she realized faintly, within the goo. Bright blue lights gleamed under the surface, beautiful and surreal, highlighting the swirls and disturbances she’d made in the crystalline-clear gel. She watched numbly as a purple blob seemed to bloom from her leg. A tiny tube emerged from the side of the tank to suction it away.