Chapter 6
~ Cassidy ~
The blaring alarm stopped, but the white lights running around the top edge of the room still blinked. To her mind, that meant they were still in danger. She’d tried to get a com signal out to speak with Carolyn, but it kept stalling out. That meant her only recourse was to spend another hour pacing or try to find something to distract herself.
Walking over to her gigantic sketch pad, she flipped the page and began drawing an image depicting her beautiful clanless warrior in battle. She drew his long, dark hair spilling carelessly around his shoulders. His uniform wouldn’t only be dirty from working earlier in the day, but also tattered and torn from hand-to-hand combat. Though clanless warriors didn’t have the huge swords the other warriors carried, she created one for her warrior, styled after ancient Earth Celtic swords, with a bowed blade serrated on one side, like the knife he carried at his side. Feeling whimsical, she created a clan emblem for the breast of his uniform. It had two swirling dragons, fitted together in a heart shape with accompanying heraldic symbols. Sketching the background around her warrior, she added scattered insectoid bodies that had been vanquished in battle.
Cassidy wasn’t sure how long she’d been sketching, but she looked up when her door slid open. A gruff male voice sounded off, “Fine, but don’t let me catch you out of quarters again.”
“With no further preamble, Carolyn careened into the room and fell to her knees.”
Pushing herself up, she stalked to the door and screamed, “You stupid, worthless, pile of steaming dog shit. Get yourself back in here.”
Cassidy quirked her brow, now quite believing what she saw. “What, pray tell, are you doing?”
“His lord and master, Faron, thinks he can boss me around like one of his warriors. I’m going to…”
Waving her hand, Cassidy interjected, “You’re going to what? Scream at him, beat him up, tear his clothes off… tell me what exactly you’ll do.”
Throwing herself down onto the settee, Carolyn folded her arms over her chest. “I’d scream the walls down for sure, I might even give him a good punch up, but I’m never getting into bed with him…” She trailed off, mumbling something under her breath.
Trying not to smile, Cassidy went back to putting the finishing touches on her masterpiece. “That last part sounded an awful lot like you saying you’d never get back in bed with him again, which leads me to believe you might have been using him for a bouncy castle very recently.”
Her sister huffed out an exasperated breath. “The stupid fool tried to lock me into his room when the alarm sounded.”
“I wouldn’t tolerate that for a hot second. Wait, Daron did the exact same thing before he left, so I guess I can’t act too shocked.”
Walking over, her sister admired her sketch. “Damn, overprotective bastards.”
Chuckling, Cassidy looked over her shoulder. “Have you been hanging out with Krylon women? You’re starting to act just like them.”
“The alarm sounded, just when I was about to… you know. I guess that I’m a little frustrated.”
“I totally understand that. Daron and I didn’t get quite that far.”
Gesturing to the sketch, Carolyn commented matter-of-factly, “I’ve noticed you always make him look super sexy in your sketches. In this sketch, I see that you’ve given him a really impressive sword and made him a new little clan symbol.”
“Spit it out, sis, what are you trying to say?”
“Are you planning on keeping him? It looks like you’re getting real attached to tall, dark, and scary.”
“Refer to him that way again, and you and I will go a round or two.”
Shaking her head, she walked off. “You’re keeping him. I don’t even know why I’m surprised. I’m apparently the only woman on this vessel with absolutely no clue what in the name of God I’ll do with myself.”
“Whoa, calm down. You’ve got years to figure that out.”
“Well, what if I never do figure it out? What then?”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, okay?”
“Sure. Cassidy, what’s that scratching noise?”
“What scratching noise?”
“Listen. It seems to be coming from the duct work.”
Growing quiet, they listened to the sound. Scrape, scrape, scratch. It sounded over and over again, seemingly growing closer. It came from the vent in the far back of the space. Pressing themselves closer to the door, Carolyn attempted to get the locking mechanism to disengage.
“Hurry, whatever’s in there is getting close.”
“Stop talking. Maybe it will pass us by.”
“I… I don’t think so. Look.”
Carolyn followed her pointing finger directly to the overhead vent. Two slightly rounded claws moved ominously, as if attempting to grab onto the grid covering the vent.
Cassidy whispered breathlessly, “Get us out of here.”
Ripping the scanning plate from the locking mechanism, Carolyn grabbed the long pencil she’d been sketching with from Cassidy’s hand. Turning, she used it to pry parts out of the little square box. Just when the creature began jerking at the grid, the door slid open and they stumbled out.
If Cassidy had thought being in the room was terrifying, being in the corridor was much worse. There were bodies strewn about, mostly alien with insect features.
A couple of Krylon warriors were dead as well. Cassidy kneeled by one, and Carolyn by another. “They died trying to protect us.”
“It looks like they were partially eaten.” Carolyn reached down and picked up the warrior’s weapon. “Don’t even think about not getting a weapon.”
“I wouldn’t. The insect weapons are smaller. I’ll try one of them.”
Just then, they heard a screeching from the doorway to their room. A huge insectoid came into view. It had scales like a lizard, huge bug eyes like a fly and two antennae adorning its head. Hissing, its mouth opened, revealing jagged teeth.
Carolyn heaved her weapon up with two hands, taking aim directly at the creature. There was a brief pause then she pulled the trigger, sending a laser straight into the creature’s chest. Unfortunately, it had little effect. Cassidy jerked off a shot with the insectoid weapon in her hand. It sent the creature hurling back into the wall with a gaping wound through his chest.
Carolyn threw down her weapon. “Right, we shoot like bugs today. Gather up as many as you can carry. We don’t know how many shots we’ll get out of one before it stops working.”
“I agree. What’s the plan?”
“I hate to say it, but we need to check on the other women. If the bugs are in the vents and the women are all locked in their rooms, that makes them sitting ducks.”
“I was thinking the same thing. Sarah and her little one are nearby. Let’s check them first. I can’t stand the thought of them getting eaten.”
“Better move fast. I don’t feel comfortable being out in the open like this.”
They quickly ran down to the quarters their friend shared with the captain. Before they even made it to her door, they could hear screaming inside.
“Blast the scanning plate with the alien weapon.”
Cassidy braced herself and pulled the trigger. As soon as the door opened, they stepped through. In the middle of the floor was an insectoid. He looked much like the one who attacked them, only this one waved his arms around and screeched at Sarah. His weapon still hung at his waist.
Cassidy didn’t even pause to consider the strange scene. Bringing up her weapon, she blew a hole right through his mid-section. The insectoids that had attacked their vessel were killing their warriors and terrorizing the women.
Sarah covered Lea’s ears and turned her face away.
Carolyn made her way to the pair. “You two okay?”
“He… he came in through the vent. We didn’t realize until he was on top of us.”
Cassidy grabbed his weapon. “Come on, we’ve got to check on the others. You can’t stay here by yourself. Others are sure to come.”
Carolyn explained, “The corridors are littered with bodies. You need to carry Lea and turn her face to your chest. We’ll cover you. Shove this in your pocket.”
Cassidy jerked her chin towards the weapon. “They use some kind of plasma technology that puts the Krylon laser weapons to shame. The laser pistols don’t even dent their exoskeleton.”
Taking the weapon from her, Sarah shoved it into the top of her shirt and picked up her daughter. They kept Sarah between them as they moved from room to room, gathering more weapons as they went. After about twenty minutes, they’d cleared eighteen rooms and had about thirty-four women with them. Mostly, they just shot the door locks and the women came pouring out.
Carolyn shook her head. “We aren’t moving fast enough. The bugs will get to them before we can rescue them all.”
Cassidy sighed. “We have to split up. Move in teams of three or four. It’s riskier, but we can cover more ground that way. The Krylons have done most of the heavy lifting. Unless I miss my guess, they came through thinking they’d cleared all the bugs, not realizing a few of them were using the ductwork to move through the ship.”
The women split up weapons, and went in different directions. As they continued clearing room after room, a growing unease flowed back and forth between the sisters.
“None of the women are harmed.”
Cassidy looked at her sister.
Carolyn expanded on her observation, “No matter how long the bugs were with the women, they didn’t harm them. What the hell is going on here?”
“I don’t know, but it’s creeping me the hell out.”
Their group grew again. They were about thirty strong when they entered a medical sub-station. Each section of the ship had a small room for medical emergencies. Cassidy blew the lock off and walked briskly to a medicine cabinet. Breaking the filmy, clear coating, she pulled out a small, clear case of hypo-sprays. Pulling out one of the syringes, she gazed at the sparkling green liquid in the clear vial. “I may not know what’s going on here, but I sure as hell will find out.”
Carolyn was at her shoulder in a heartbeat. “You don’t even know if that will work.”
“Got a better option?”
“Nope, as a matter of fact I don’t.” Carolyn’s answer proved they had no other valid options.
Cassidy shrugged. “Then let’s find ourselves a bug.”
“We’ll file that under the list of things we never thought we’d say.”
“Now you suddenly get a sense of humor.”
Grinning, Carolyn followed her back out of the room. They popped seven more rooms before finding one with a bug terrorizing the female inside. He was a large, green one with huge wings that flapped wildly as he screeched. Again, this one didn’t have his weapon out.
“Lower your weapons, ladies. I don’t want to scare him into shooting someone.”
Trading her shiny new plasma gun for a hypo-spray, she approached him. With another screech, the creature stepped back.
She held up the syringe, tilted it slightly so he could see the liquid, and then made the gesture of injecting herself in the neck. His eyes followed her every movement. She gestured talking, then pointed to him and the needle. His head tilted to the side in a gesture so bizarrely human, it took her by surprise. Its ugly bug eyes regarded her with suspicion.
Stepping forward slowly, she held the syringe in one hand and held the other up in front of her. Though he looked like he was about to flee at any moment, he managed to hold his ground. She lifted the syringe, placed it gently against his neck, and pressed the button.
Remembering that it worked better if someone was speaking, she used her most soothing voice.
“I want to know why you attacked our vessel. What do you want from us? Why are you killing the warriors but not the women? We don’t understand what you need.”
Suddenly, the insectoid’s head snapped up. A scratchy voice, clearly trying to mimic human speech, spoke one word, “Queen.”
“You want women?” Shock tore through her at the realization that an insectoid would want a human woman.
“One queen.”
“If you get one woman, you’ll stop your attack?”
Bowing his head, he said, “Yessss.”
Narrowing her eyes, Cassidy rolled the dice. “No. Queens are precious. We give you one queen and you’ll war no more in this sector.”
“No war, one queen.”
“Your people will stop all fighting for one queen?”
“Yessss. One preciousss queen.”
“You got a deal. Take me. I’m real precious, you can ask anybody.”
Carolyn gasped. “Cassidy, no, don’t do this.”
“One person in exchange for stopping a senseless war? It sounds like a really good deal for everyone but me.” She meant her comment to be funny, but it provoked some of the women to tears.
Her sister’s eyes took on a hard glint. “Fine. Trade yourself to the insectoids. If they don’t keep up with their end of the bargain, I’ll kick their asses myself.”
The bug screeched into what Cassidy imagined was a com device of some sort, “We leave now. Come.”
“Glad to see the multi-language virus works properly. I didn’t think it would work on insectoids.”
“It worksss, my queen.”
“Your people are leaving now.”
“Yessss. We must make for the loading box.”
“Yea, we call that a loading bay.”
Nodding, he walked off. “Guess I’m following.”
Carolyn, spoke up, “I’ll walk with you.”
“I’ve got a better idea. Why don’t you get yourself as far away from the people-eating, crazy insectoids as possible?”
As they walked off, at the least, the other women had enough common sense not to follow. “Why do you think they want a queen?”
Cassidy hadn’t taken a minute to even wonder about that. “Maybe they’re so used to being told what to do by a queen, their society is breaking down. If that’s the case, I’ll just put my bossy pants on and whip them into shape.”
“You are acting very cavalier.”
“Well, it’s definitely an act. I’m terrified they want a queen to breed little bugs with. I’ll be trapped. I’ll have to submit to whatever they want to do. Not even suicide will be an option; that would result in them attacking again.”
“That’s assuming they are even dealing honestly with you.”
“If you’re thinking I have any answers, you’d be very mistaken. I’m just doing what I can to keep them off you and the other women.”
The bug stopped. “No more time. We leave now.”
Instead of the loading bay, they stood in front of a garbage portal. Sighing, Cassidy eyed the size of the portal. It would be a tight squeeze but she could probably fit through it. She imagined the insectoid ship retrofitting a docking ring onto the other side. They must be doing that or she’d get sucked into open space.
“I’m sorry about this, sis.”
Turning to look at Carolyn, she asked, “Sorry for what?”
Instead of a reply, there was a white-hot searing pain to her shoulder. Falling back against the wall, everything seemed to move in slow motion. As her back hit the wall, she saw Carolyn standing in front of her with a Krylon weapon in her hands. The bug screeched his anger.
“Your queen is damaged. Take me instead.”
“You come and ssstay? You be queen?”
“Yes. Leave my sister and take me instead.”
Cassidy tried to force her mouth to form words. Though her lips moved, no words came. Feeling herself slowly slide down the wall, her sister stepped forward to ease her to the ground.
She whispered, “You’ll be okay. It’s just a flesh wound. Go back to your warrior and make it work. I’ll get them to let me contact you as often as possible. Don’t let the warriors fight with them again. I don’t want to sacrifice myself for nothing.”
“Stop.” It took every ounce of strength and breath in her body to speak the one word.
Carolyn leaned over and gave her a hug, kissing her hair. “I’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
Trying to grasp onto her clothing to keep her from leaving, Cassidy realized her hands had no strength. Sitting alone, leaning against the wall with her shoulder throbbing, she was forced to watch her older sister crawl through the portal. The portal that was meant to carry her to a horrific life of pain and torture, took her sister instead. The creature followed her and several more scurried through before the warriors screamed after them.
As darkness claimed her, Cassidy felt herself lift from the floor.