Elena laughed. “They do not.”
“They do. I’m telling you — they’re a fungus. They grow spores and spread diseases.”
“Now you’re the one going off the rails. I thought you were supposed to be a brainiac.”
“Why do people keep saying that?”
“Hey, brainiac.” Ariki rapped the table with swollen knuckles. “They say you ratted out our mission to the public. Why would you do that?”
Nathan almost went with a standard wise-ass retort, but caught the serious look on Ariki’s face. “Look… it’s not ratting people out when you’re exposing the truth. I want people to know why we’re on this farce of a mission, Ariki. If you think you can trust your Chimera employers, you’re not as bright as I think you are. This isn’t about rescuing any missing lab workers. It’s about pursuing Chimera’s objectives at all costs. They’re only about one thing, and that’s furthering their agenda. They’re risking everything with this move. You think they care who lives or dies along the way?”
Ariki’s face sobered. “I knew something was up the moment Blackwell showed up in person. So that talk about all this sci-fi crap — that’s for real?”
“Ask him.” He jerked a thumb at Michael. “He’s the only one who can tell you.”
“Don’t think your friend is in the mood to talk.”
Nathan took a second look at Michael, who sat completely still. His eyes were wide, his mouth slightly ajar, as if his consciousness had fled and left behind an empty shell.
“Jeez, Michael.” Nathan waved a hand in front of Michael’s face. “Snap out of it.”
Elena grinned. “Now you know how you look when you zone out.”
Nathan shook his head. “This is beyond zoned out. I think something’s seriously wrong with him. It’s gotten worse since we left the mainland. Just a few minutes ago he was seeing invisible ravens.” He gave Michael’s shoulders a non-too-gentle shake. “Back to earth, Michael.”
Michael slowly blinked and turned toward Nathan, who felt his breath catch in his throat. Michael’s irises quivered, darkening from blue to pools of liquid black. His gaze was nearly alien, and he sounded even worse, his voice warbled and thick as if his throat was lined with static.
“We’re beyond the event horizon. There’s no turning back now. It’s here.”
Nathan tried not to shrink back from Michael’s ebon stare. “What are you talking about?”
“The Aberration, Nathan. The Aberration is here.”
At that exact moment, alarm sirens shattered the silence.
Chapter 11: Zugzwang
Everything went to hell in less than five minutes.
The reaction from Elena’s squad had been stellar. Everyone in the mess hall leaped up as Commander Steele’s monotone voice spoke over the intercom.
“The ship is under attack. Non-combat personnel are to seek cover immediately. Everyone else: kill anything that didn’t come on board with us.”
The soldiers responded immediately, hustling to grab their gear and break into teams. Elena seized Nathan by the arm. “C’mon, you’re going with me.”
His mouth was tight and his eyes wide when he nodded. “What about Michael?”
She turned. Michael stood in the midst of the turmoil, his stare blank and his head tilted as though listening for something. With a nod, he drifted toward the opposite hallway like a man sleepwalking.
Nate took a step his direction. “Michael — where are you going?”
Michael never slowed. “It’s in my head. Calling me. Get to a higher floor if you can. You might make it out alive.”
“What? Are you insane?”
Michael never bothered to answer. He exited into the hallway and disappeared.
“Come on, Nate. We have to go.” Elena staggered when the ship rumbled as though struck. “We have to go now!”
“Don’t worry about your crazy friend.” Ariki clapped Nathan on the shoulder as he passed. “I’ll look after him.”
Elena seized Nathan, hoping her face didn’t betray her fear. Her heart pounded as she hustled him toward the bridge. The hallway was thick with trotting soldiers and staff, some of their faces tense with barely restrained panic. Red lights flashed, and the sirens continued to blare their ominous anthem.
A reverberation rippled under her feet, and the ship groaned in response. Elena lost her footing and fell when the hallway buckled. The lights flickered like paparazzi flashes before finally fizzling out.
“Elena…” Nathan’s disembodied voice sounded on the verge of panic.
“I’m right here, Nate.” She squinted, trying to focus her vision in the afterglow. Bizarrely enough, her clothes were soaked. Clammy wetness slithered across her skin from several inches of sea water that flowed through the hall. A rank odor filled her nostrils, like rotting meat that had washed ashore. For a terrible moment she was paralyzed by a surge of terror.
If water has already made it up here, this ship is crippled.
Someone gurgled beside her.
She snatched the flashlight from her belt and clicked it on. The sight was so bizarre, so horribly unreal that she almost turned it off again. A man wearing the gray uniform with the emblem of Supply Officer writhed uncontrollably, splashing in the water that streamed across the floor. A glistening, serpentine tentacle was wrapped around his neck and threaded across his body. It quivered as it constricted, cutting off the man’s air supply and squeezing his body so tightly that the sound of his bones splintering was clearly audible.
Elena scrambled upright, fumbling for her sidearm. The hallway was tainted red by the emergency lights. The light painted the flowing water crimson, but that wasn’t what terrified her.
It was the thing in the hallway with them.
It stood upright, but that was the only thing related to it being humanoid. Visibility was difficult, but in the glare of the emergency lights the creature appeared to be a misshapen lump of scaly flesh with disproportionate appendages that sprouted from its body and latched on to anyone in its vicinity. Some were tentacles, others sickeningly humanoid — gaunt, pale arms with fingers that wriggled like oversized earthworms.
The hall was thick with screams, grunts and curses. Elena’s weapon drifted back and forth, but struggling human bodies disrupted every attempt at a clean shot. She ducked to the side as an inhuman arm thrust in her direction. The overwhelming scent of putrid meat made her gag. From behind her, Nathan’s voice rose in a shrill scream.
“It’s got me! Oh God…”
Elena pressed the muzzle of her pistol against the scabby flesh and pulled the trigger. Black ichor spattered across her face as she continued firing. The arm jerked back, severed at the joint. The creature emitted a piercing sound, the first it had made since it appeared. Long, bristly feelers waved agitatedly from what Elena guessed was the monster’s head.
She dropped to one knee, steadied her hand, and emptied the clip into the bulbous, malformed body. The piercing cries continued as the creature recoiled from the impact. Other soldiers unharnessed their weapons and followed suit, until the hallway thundered with the sound of gunfire. Muzzle flashes created a flickering effect, capturing the creature’s jerky death throes as it collapsed in a heap of spurting blood and wriggling limbs. The hallway went eerily silent; trickling water and heavy breathing the only sounds.
The monster’s exoskeleton erupted in an explosion of pulpy chunks.
Elena leaped back when thousands of creatures streamed from the gaping cavity: slithering eels, tiny crabs and crawfish, isopods, and viperfish. One and all, they were colorless, pale and glistening. Her companions cursed as they kicked and swatted to keep the fleeing creatures at bay.