Questions, too crazy even to give voice to, bounced and tumbled in his mind.
“What in the hell is that!” Jones shouted.
Weaver felt Jones’ grip on his armor loosen. “Don’t let go!” he snapped. He looked through his binos. The creatures seemed to distort and shift in the glow, but he could see the bizarre wrinkled skin and the jagged vertebrae as they gathered around the flare. The frailest of the group crouched next to another thorny blob in the snow and clawed at it.
Weaver zoomed in and the creature’s head came into focus. A bony crest jutted up from its skull.
“What do you see?” Jones asked, his voice trembling over the comm.
The creature suddenly tilted its face in Weaver’s direction and stared directly at him. But it wasn’t looking at him; it couldn’t. The thing had no eyes.
Weaver almost dropped his binos when he saw a meaty red cord hanging from the thing’s thin lips. The beast tilted its head back and swallowed it whole. Then it bent down to pluck another piece from the crimson snow and scrambled away, the rope swinging from its mouth. That was when Weaver saw the armored body of a diver in the center of the pit. Jay or Sarah, but the corpse was so mangled, he couldn’t tell from here.
Amazement turned to raw fear. “Pull me back!” Weaver said. “Pull me the fuck back and run!”
“Why? What’d you see?”
“Do it!”
Jones yanked him back to safety and took off, his labored breath crackling over the channel as Weaver took another cautious step backward. His slight movements provoked the monsters into a frenzy of motion, and they let out a chorus of whines that intensified until Weaver couldn’t stand it anymore. He froze, as if paralyzed by the sounds.
Sirens—they sounded just like emergency sirens.
Motion in the center of the pit snapped him out of his shocked reverie. The creatures scattered in all directions and leaped onto the walls. Some clambered up the near-vertical surface; others, missing a hand- or foothold, slid back down, their claws scrabbling over the rock.
Weaver still wasn’t sure whether it was Jay or Sarah down there, but it didn’t matter—there was nothing he could do to help them. He eyed the crate one last time and then turned to run.
Chief Engineer Samson opened the door to Captain Ash’s office, stepped inside, and slammed it shut behind him. His cheeks were so covered with grime and sweat, Ash couldn’t tell whether he was grinning or grimacing.
She gestured to the chair in front of her desk. “Have a seat.”
“I’ll stand,” he replied, wiping a filthy sleeve across his forehead. “I need to get back to engineering as soon as possible.”
Ash grabbed the glass of water she had poured for herself, and handed it to him. He gulped it down.
“I hope you have something good to tell me.”
Samson gently placed the empty glass on her desk and said, “I’ve managed to get seven of the eight reactors back online. My crews have also patched four of the internal gas bladders. We’re operating at eighty percent power—best we’ve had in years.”
Ash smiled—an expression so unfamiliar, it made her cheeks ache. “Excellent news, and right in the nick of time. We received a distress beacon from Ares.” The smile disappeared as she remembered the message.
“An SOS?” Samson blurted.
“They lost several generators in a storm and were forced to shut down their reactors. They’re running on backup power. Captain Willis sent a team to the surface to retrieve nuclear fuel cells and parts, but they’ve requested our help.”
“And?”
“I was waiting for you to fix the Hive before I made a decision.”
“It’s not exactly fixed.” Samson ran a hand back and forth over his smooth scalp. “What kind of help did Captain Willis request?”
“He didn’t specify. The transmission cut out. All I know right now is that Ares is in trouble and they need our help.”
Samson crinkled his nostrils. “We’re in the best shape we’ve been in years. We shouldn’t risk—”
“Which is exactly why we’re in a position to help,” Ash said, cutting him off. She didn’t have time to argue with the engineer or anyone else. Besides, she had called him to her office for a report on the Hive, not for his opinion on helping Ares.
“Anything else?” she asked.
He shook his head and left her office without another word.
A moment later, Jordan entered. “X is on his way,” he said. “Should be here in fifteen minutes.”
Ash paced behind her desk as they waited. The dull, tarnished plaque on the wall caught her eye: Commissioned in 2029. US Army. Model #43.
“Hard to believe there are only two left,” Jordan said.
“Might be only one left if we don’t answer Captain Willis’ call.”
He waited for her orders. She wasn’t ready to give them—not until she talked to the most experienced Hell Diver on the ship.
A knock sounded on the other side of the door, and Jordan opened it. X stood outside, with his back turned to them.
“Come in, Commander,” Ash said.
X turned away from the bridge and walked into the room. He cracked his neck, on one side and then the other. Unlike Samson, X wasn’t covered in workplace grime, but he looked just as bad. His features were hardened into a mask of anger, and even from here she could smell the ’shine on his breath.
“How’s Michael?” Ash asked.
“Still an orphan. But with all due respect, Captain, you didn’t invite me here to discuss Tin.”
Ash sat back down and folded her hands primly on the desktop. “You’re right, I didn’t. Have a seat, Commander.”
X glanced at Jordan, then reluctantly sat.
“Ares is in trouble,” Ash said. She repeated the same thing she had told Samson a few minutes earlier, then waited, searching X’s face for a reaction.
He scratched the stubble on his chin for a few seconds. “I’m assuming there’s something else you haven’t told me yet.”
X wasn’t just a good diver. He was smart. Ash had always appreciated that about him. She told him what she had kept from Samson.
“Ares is hovering above Hades. Captain Willis has already dropped a team down there.”
X tilted his head, as if he hadn’t heard correctly. “Hades? What the fuck are they doing there?”
“Good question,” Jordan said.
Ash shot her XO a look, then brought her gaze back to X. “We’re not exactly sure how they got there, or why, but at this point it doesn’t matter. I asked you here for your counsel—to see what you would do if you were in my shoes.”
X picked with his thumbnail at something stuck between his front teeth. He had an unusually white smile—a rare feature on the ship. But during Ash’s long history with him, he was usually too hungover or angry to crack a grin.
He pulled his thumb away from his teeth and, inspecting the nail, said, “So you’re asking if I think we should attempt a rescue?”
“You’re the best diver on either ship,” Ash said. “You know the skies and the surface better than anyone.”
X scowled. “I know as much about Hades as you do. The electrical storms there are the worst on the continent. Even if Captain Willis’ divers make it to the surface, they’re going to have to deal with off-the-chart radiation, and if they survive the storms and the rads, they still have to survive whatever monsters are down there.”