The beacon kept moving.

“Srell. Where the blazes is Tu’ver taking them?”

“He might not have had a choice, Vrehx. We need to split up,” Karzin suggested.

“No,” Vrehx commanded. “If we run into a horde of soldiers, we’ll need all the firepower.”

“You make a good point,” he acquiesced. “Which direction then?”

We were standing at an intersection about thirty yards from where we came up. This floor was much more manufactured than the ones below, looking very much like an actual starship than a cave system like the first floor.

Behind us was the elevator. Then to our left, right, and in front were three passageways that all looked the same. The only thing that gave us any kind of hint on where to go was the beacon, which was moving more on the right than on the left.

“Look, the beacon’s somewhere in that direction,” I said as I pointed roughly between the right and forward hall. “Let’s just pick one and go. The longer we sit here, the worse things get.”

“But which passageway?” Vrehx asked aloud.

He had a point. Which one? If we picked the wrong one, it would waste so much time that we couldn’t afford.

But if we sat here thinking about it all day, that would be just as bad of a waste. My mind started imagining what they were doing to Leena, or had already done to Leena, and my heart was pounding so hard it started to hurt.

My breathing was hard, my head hurt, my wounds hurt, my wrist was killing me, and all of it made me want to save her even more.

I looked at the beacon. I tried to do a quick calculation in my head, then I took off down the front corridor. I didn’t bother waiting for the others; I just went.

There was just something in my mind, screaming at me to hurry. The others called after me and started to follow, but for some reason, they weren’t able to catch up to me.

Every intersection that I came across, I just somehow knew which direction to take. Something was pulling me. It kept telling me where to go, and I just went.

I heard gunfire and yelling behind me. I looked back and saw the others fighting some Xathi. I knew I should turn back to help, but the pull had become impossible to resist.

I couldn’t turn back. I had to keep moving on.

A green Xathi, a farmer, jumped out at me, chittering at what seemed like a million miles an hour. Then it snapped at me, pushing me back. I pulled out my blaster and shot it.

It fell like a rock, its armor not nearly as thick as a hunter’s or soldier’s. Another farmer jumped out at me, trying to grab me. I shot it, too.

Six more farmers attacked, six more farmers dropped. Without the suits to augment their strength, they were no match for us.

The Xathi that came out of the corridors behind me were cut down quickly by the others. More workers and farmers, their shells much thinner than those of the soldiers. The farmers dropped easily, the workers nearly so.

It should’ve been a concern in my mind. It should’ve been something that worried me, but I kept going.

I was still being pulled, and my only hope was that it was toward Leena. The beacon was getting closer, so I didn’t doubt the sensation.

The corridors twisted and turned, until whatever pulled me to Leena thrummed in my head.

Finally, there were screams.

Human screams.

A sub-queen reared above Leena, deflecting the steady stream of shots Tu’ver fired into her iridescent carapace.

The pull vanished, replaced by rage.

My blaster wasn’t one of Tu’ver’s easily hideable toys. Charging through the crowd of humans scrambling past us in the corridor, I fired.

And the the sub-queen’s head split down the middle.

The Xathi soldiers went into a frenzy.

And the room erupted in chaos and blood.