The short-range radio transceiver in Dahl's glasses crackled, and she froze on the metal stair rail like a snake hanging from a vine. She listened intently, praying Moss was out there in the dark somewhere. Static crackled again, but Dahl couldn't pull a voice out of the noise. No one's there, she thought. Just static discharge coming off the hull. Or maybe it was just an artifact of her desperate need to hear another living voice.
The sound of Dahl inching along the handrail spread through the darkness, and she imagined hungry things turned in her direction. Shambling footsteps reached her ears. They found me; she thought. But the footsteps faded as quickly as they had come. Silence coiled around Dahl's heart, turning her veins to ice. Whatever was out there had stopped. The thought that some unknown creature was out there pushed Dahl towards the next compartment. She needed to get Lockspur out. Without considering what lay before her or what she was leaving behind. She forgot about making noise. She wanted to escape the darkness. And the faster, the better.
Dahl's heart punched the inside of her chest. Something was wrong. Her air tank was empty.
She gasped for air, grabbed her 02 meter on her side and hung by one hand. The 02 generator had switched off. Dahl turned it on, but she was out of air. Her head swirled; sweat ran from her palms. She grabbed the hanging bar with her free hand and struggled to hold on. She had already fallen off once. If Dahl fell again, she would need time to rest and gather her failing strength.
Dahl waited for a set of grotesquely twisted claws to reach out of the darkness and yank her down. But nothing came. Maybe she was alone; maybe she wasn't. Outside the range of her glasses, there was no way to tell. She reasoned it was just the wreckage settling. There's nothing out there. It's all in my head. Darkness and exhaustion clouded her judgement. She prayed she was right, hoping Moss was out there searching for them. But the sound she heard behind her. Whatever was back there was not Moss. The shambling gate drew closer.
Dahl slipped through the hatch above the dead bio-raptor that had blocked her way for precious hours. How long could Lockspur hold on before his injuries became fatal? She couldn't think like that. She had to push on. Dahl had waited for the beast to succumb to its injuries before daring to move on. All the while, its cries threatened to attract other, less helpless raptors. She thought of nothing but Lockspur lying pinned in the dark with only a few matches to keep him company. Why had she left him? He had no way of defending himself. He couldn't even move?
She pushed away the negative thoughts of what might have already happened to him. Shimmying down the twisted handrail to its lowest point, Dahl lowered her feet into the unknown, drew in a calming deep breath and wondered, how far is the drop? The floor was nowhere in sight. She closed her eyes, released her grip and fell into the empty green void.
The invisible ground rushed up, and two things happened at once. The air exploded from Dahl's lungs, and Lockspur stumbled further into the compartment behind her. They missed each other by a few scant feet and a split second of bad luck.
Lockspur fell against the mound of debris Dahl used to hide from the bio-raptor. Sweat poured down his filthy forehead, burning his already bloodshot and swollen eyes. The sound of his labored breathing escaped him like a panting dog. He wanted a drink of cool, clean water. His burning mouth felt like sandpaper. And the shard of steel sticking out of his guts filled him with fiery agony. Lockspur's throat was raw, and he needed to urinate. No way, I'm keeping what little moisture I have left inside me, he thought. Exasperated and out of breath, he mustered all his remaining strength and called out, "Dahl!"
A hoarse voice vibrated through the darkness, and Dahl's headset crackled again. Only this time, she heard the voice not just as static in her headset, but from the compartment behind her. Lockspur's in there, she thought. I left him behind. She jumped up, lunging for the hanging handrail. Her efforts were of no use. It was ten feet above her head. "Goddammit!" she screamed.
She looked around, straining to see through the oppressive darkness, trying to ensure nothing was hiding in the compartment with her. But no matter what she did, all her efforts were in vain. The darkness was too thick to penetrate.
Dahl knew calling out was a bad idea, but she had already made too much noise. What could a little more noise hurt? "Carlos, is that you?" she called out.
"I'm here."
"Shit. Shit, shit," she roared.
Lockspur wanted to call out for her to be quiet, but he didn't have the strength.
Dahl had to get back to Lockspur. She had to help him get out alive. She peered up at the only remaining piece of handrail in shock. The lower half of the staircase and its handrail had torn off in the collapse. The rest of the staircase hung suspended in the darkness, ten feet above her head. She couldn't jump to reach it. There was no way back. Carlos was on his own.
The new compartment was bigger. Dahl looked around the giant space, searching for large objects to stack on top of one another. There was nothing; the room was an empty storage compartment.
"Fuck." Dahl grumbled in an angry tone as her transceiver crackled again. But this time, she could make out a familiar voice. "Carlos, how did you get here?" she asked, half in disbelief and half relieved to hear his very much alive voice. Dahl had to fight back tears of relief and guilt.
"Dahl," Lockspur said in a garbled voice. "Hold up. I dug my arm out. I'm coming to you."
"How did you get here?"
"I was lying on your glasses," he replied. "They don't work for shit, but I can see well enough to stumble into a raptor. Fell on my ass a few times and bounced off everything between here and there. But I made it."
"Are you okay?"
"I'm a mess." Lockspur said, leaning against a filing cabinet for support. Exhaustion and blood loss threatened to take him down for good.
As Dahl tried to get back to Lockspur, he explained how he had found her glasses and freed himself.
"Just wait there. I'll be over in a minute."
"There's no way you're going to climb between compartments without my help," she said, still jumping up, trying to grab the handrail. "Goddammit, something could have killed you."
"Doubtful," he said. "Everything behind us is dead or dying. Besides, I needed to get moving. If I don't get to the auto-doc soon, I'm never getting out of here," he said, laboring to catch his breath.
"Don't say that."
The throbbing pain in his gut had come back, and it sapped his strength. "I thought I heard screaming," he added, struggling to pull his heavy armor over his useless arm. The Herculean effort took everything he had left. He barely got it off before losing the rest of his strength and collapsing into an awkward squat. "It sounded..." his voice trailed off as if he didn't want to finish.
"Like what?" Dahl asked.
"Familiar," he answered. "You know the story nobody wanted to believe. I left some stuff out. Stuff I knew was... beyond belief."
"Like what?" Dahl asked. The stories she heard of his first encounter with Lilith sounded preposterous.
"She didn't just step out of the darkness," he answered, pulling his limp forearm up and propping it high on his chest. "There was something in the darkness before she came out. I'm certain it was a Xenomorph."
"No one has seen a Xenomorph in decades." Dahl said.
"Maybe not. But it was big and black and not human. And when it screamed, it sounded just like…"
Dahl said nothing. It was obvious he believed the story, and nothing that she said would change his mind. Either way, she couldn't worry about that right now, because there was something unnatural out there in the darkness, and if it was a Xenomorph, it would be a bad idea to let their guard down, or give their positions away.
"Dahl." Lockspur said, causing her to jump out of her thoughts.
She heard the weariness in his voice and knew his condition had worsened. She searched the giant room, moving too fast and making too much noise. But she didn't care. If I had only waited another minute, she thought. With every crashing step, she gave away her position, and Lockspur heard her efforts as if she were in the same room.
"Calm down," he blared, working his way around the pile until a large grayish mass came into view. He froze, studying the slick, leathery hide that covered the mound. And now there's a raptor, he thought. "Dahl, there's a raptor in here," he whispered into the darkness. "It's under the stairwell."
"It's dead," she replied, wishing she had warned him about the carcass before he stumbled across it in the dark.
"Are you certain?" he asked, staring at it from behind. Even in the grainy green light, he thought he could see the creature's upper body expanding and contracting as if it were alive. "Because I could swear it's still breathing."
"It's just the screwed-up glasses playing tricks on you. It's dead. I had to step on it to get in here."
The mound twitched. It's just muscle tremors, he thought. It's dead; Dahl said it's dead. A second later, a colossal head turned to look at him. The creature's dripping snout was inches away from the end of Lockspur's nose. Its hot breath stank of blood and entrails, and Lockspur fought back the overwhelming urge to wretch. The confused creature couldn't locate him. He was too close. But it could still smell him. It knew something was close.
A second raptor sat atop the fresh, half-eaten carcass. It was dining on the warm remains of its now dead brethren, and Carlos, wearing failing glasses, had just stumbled right up to it. If he moved 3 inches in any direction, the raptor would spot him. The pain in his arm and stomach was bright; his reactions were slow, and his legs were about to buckle. If they did, he would be next on the menu.
Something reached out from behind, grabbed the back of his shirt, and hoisted him upward with ease. A 230-pound man hung in mid-air, hanging half an inch above the floor like a rag doll left on a meat hook. A large object whizzed by his ear and bounced off the far wall, and the raptor turned to the sound. In an instant, whatever had seized Lockspur jerked him out of the creature's line of sight. The giant raptor turned back, finding nothing. Its fresh prey vanished. It returned to its meal.
"Carlos, I'm coming back to get you," Dahl whispered, hearing something heavy crash against the wall between them. She knew Lockspur hadn't thrown it. He was very weak. She hoped it was not his lifeless corpse hitting the wall.
"No," he stammered, as a strange calm seemed to steal the previous fear in his wavering voice. "I'm fine for now. Go on ahead. Scout out the next compartments. Then come back and get me if you find an exit."
"Are you sure?" Dahl asked, preparing to disregard his request, no matter what the consequences may be.
"Yes. Go." he said. "I'll be fine."
He dangled helplessly before the giant beast that had pulled him to safety, peering into its brilliant chrome eyes without a care in the world. "I hope you're having a good time?" he said to the creature. "Because so far, this mission has sucked." Lockspur adjusted his shirt as the creature set him back on his feet. "Care to explain what the fuck you're doing here?"
"You're not afraid of me." The creature said with an Aussie accent. It studied him for a moment and then sat him down. "And just who are you, little man?"
"Christ, Lilith." Lockspur said, grimacing and waving away her bad breath. "What have you been eating?"
The creature receded into the shadows and, a moment later, a tall, pale-skinned brunette stepped out of its place. Lilith Hemmingford's skin was so white Lockspur's glasses blurred out, causing him to rip them off and rub his eyes in pain. "Chinga tu madre. Dial back the light show a few notches before everything in here spots you."
Lilith smiled and nodded. The glare receded, and the crackling green of his night vision glasses returned. He put them on again. "Even the things without eyes?" Lilith asked, smiling ever so politely.
"Especially the things without eyes," he replied, wondering why Lilith Hemmingford was behaving oddly. "What's your deal, Lilith? Is this shit funny to you?"
Lilith studied him for a moment and said, "I take it from your attempts at familial banter. You think we know each other?"
"Are you shitting me right now.?" Lockspur blared, and coughed up a gob of clotted blood. "Wait. It's you. You're my contact. I came to meet you?" He added, mind connecting to dots. "You fucking bitch. You sent me here knowing this was going to happen to me. And you didn't warn me." Lockspur laughed, coughed up another handful of blood, and grabbed the wavering pipe sticking out of his abdomen. "How about I yank this out and stuff right up your ass?"
"You came to meet me." Lilith asked, interrupting him. "Who sent you, little man?"
"For the record. This kind of shit wouldn't keep happening if you'd just stop messing with time."
"I do not mess with time."
"Oh really? Then why send me here just to meet you? What's your deal?"
"I would imagine you came for something more than just witty banter about what you'd like to do to my ass."
"You know, I always hoped I'd get the chance to tell you, you're a pain in the ass." he said, walking over to the wall, placing his back against it, and sliding into a sitting position as he steadied the pipe protruding from his stomach. "I guess this will be my only chance." He held out his forearm and showed her an oozing boil. "I suppose this is for you."
"Charming, I sent myself an STD," Lilith said, watching him pick up a jagged chunk of debris from the floor.
Lockspur frowned up at her and said, "Get fucking real, bruja. I've been in stasis for months." He placed the tip of the debris on the meaty part of his forearm at the edge of the red welt and pushed the tip in deep. The 1-inch cut burst apart, and oozing pus trickled down his forearm. He threw the hunk of jagged steel away, jammed his index finger into the open wound, and winced as the red skin parted. He dug around, trying to find what lay concealed inside. Two shiny pea-sized chunks of crystal popped out. He cleaned them off on his dirty, sweat-covered shirt. Then thrust them at Lilith. "Here, take it."
"It's broken," Lilith said, inspecting the shimmering objects. The information on this crystal is corrupt. There could be a significant loss of data.
"Sorry," Lockspur replied, rolling his eyes. "Someone thought it might be a good idea to throw a freighter on my arm."
"In the future, I hope you're not filled with so many excuses."
"In the future, when you think about sending me here, go fuck yourself and get someone else."
"You seem fixated on me and sex. Are we together in the future?"
"For God's sake, woman. I'd rather fuck a rabid badger."
"You're too kind."
"I'm dying, and it's your fault," he said, scowling up at her. He gestured to the objects and added, "Just eat it and pay up."
Lilith sneered at the bloody, pus-covered shards and said, "What's on it?"
"How the fuck should I know? You encoded it. Just eat it. Unless you think you're trying to assassinate yourself. Which, knowing you, is likely." Lockspur snapped, gesturing for her to put the capsule in her mouth.
"You're quite happy to speak your mind."
"It's funny how dying seems to erase inhibitions."
Lilith rolled her eyes and glared at him. "We have never met. I am not the Lilith, you know. She is the future me."
"All I know is that I am supposed to give this to whoever I meet, and they're supposed to cure me," Lockspur said, gesturing for her to hurry before he died. "Judging from your reaction, I assume your alter ego thought you'd need the memories inside this. Now I did my part, do yours."
"I don't have money," Lilith said, staring at the tiny objects in his fingers. She took it and studied it.
"Fuck your money; you promised me a cure. So, where's my miracle cure?"
"You are trying my patience."
"Bruja, if I weren't 5-minutes from the grave, the only thing going on here would be me putting my foot up your ass," Lockspur replied, head lolling against the wall as he almost passed out. A spreading puddle of blood slowly formed beneath him.
Lilith lifted his chin. "What is it?" she asked again.
"Memory shard." Lockspur explained, pointing for her to hold it up and look more closely. She studied it and, to her amazement, saw hazy, moving images floating in the tiny crystal. "If you ingest it, you will gain the memories stored within the matrix."
"You broke it," Lilith said, swallowing half of the capsule without hesitation.
"Maybe you shouldn't have dropped a fucking freighter on us."
But Lilith didn't hear him. She just stared ahead as if in a trance. After a few confusing moments, Lilith held out her hand and said, "I'm glad to see you made it, Carlos." He grabbed her hand, and she lifted him off the floor with surprising gentleness.
"This is your idea of making it? My guts are being held in by a pipe. The impact crushed my arm, even if I can get to the auto-doc before my time runs out. It still can't cure terminal cancer. I'm dead," he said, holding her arm to keep himself upright.
"Always so melodramatic."
He pulled his shirt up, revealing a 3/4-inch pipe protruding from his abdomen. A piece of bloody intestine protruded from the cut beside it. "I believe I have reason to be. Don't you?"
"She said I could help," Lilith clarified. "But I never agreed to help. It's my experience that such things end badly."
"I see you are as big of a pain in the ass in the past as you are in the future." Lockspur replied. "And for the record, you are going to help me, like it or not."
"How so?"
"Because your future self already knew you would before she asked me to come here. So, get to it. I followed your instructions. I did as you asked."
"You won't like what comes next, and there will be consequences."
"Aren't there always?"
"As you wish," Lilith said, gesturing for Lockspur to get down. "You will need to lie down for this. This will be unpleasant."
"Of course it will." He groaned, grabbed the pipe sticking out of him, and a glut of blood oozed from the corners of his mouth. To his horror, Lilith bared a mouthful of pure white teeth that morphed into triangular barbs. She sank the shark-like teeth deep into the fleshy meat of her forearm and tore out a chunk of meat the size of a chicken egg. With one arm, she forced the tissue into his mouth and held her hand over it until he choked the bloody meat down. With the other, she held out her arm and let her blood pour onto his stomach wound. He puked a geyser of steaming blood into the air. Only this time, the blood splattered the floor and ran back to him in red streams that faded through his ash-colored skin. Lilith knelt down beside him, smiled, and without warning, tore the pipe from his quivering belly.
Lockspur screamed in agony, clutched the bloody hole, and spewed half a dozen indiscernible Spanish expletives. He looked up at her with tears streaming down his face and said, "Thanks, that's loads better."
"Funny. You don't look any better, Carlos," she said, staring at his injuries with a scowl. She knew giving him more of her blood was a bad idea, but a contract was made and the bill had come due. So she reopened her already healed over forearm and poured more blood on his stomach. His screams were a good sign he did not like her triage method.
Lockspur shuddered and moaned. "You could have told me someone was going to drop a freighter on my ass."
"Would you have come if I did?" she asked. "I thought not."
"Thought not," he repeated, scowling up at her. "You knew."
"This is bigger than either of us. Too big to leave to chance. I could not risk your not coming. You are critical to the success of this mission. You all are."
"That's why you bribed me with bullshit claims of curing my ills?"
"Do you think so little of me you believe I would lie to you? I would intentionally deceive you?"
"No," he admitted. "But you left shit out."
"It was a small thing."
"It didn't feel small jammed through my guts," he said, placing his forearm back in the makeshift sling and cinching it tight. "Why send us here if you were coming yourself?"
"I did not come here from Sol Lucia. I came here from my home. Long before your ancestors crawled out of the sea," she answered, staring up through the open hatch above them with a scowl.
"You are the Dark Athena."
"I am not..." Lilith said, collecting her thoughts. "And no amount of memory shards can ever make me so. But if your Lilith has her way, I soon shall be. Her memories are a way of drawing me closer to that end. She wants me to do something that will forever alter every life in this galaxy. From the very first life to the very last. And I fear she has left me no choice. And in completing your mission, you've irreparably altered our streams forever. She broke our path. We are untethered from space-time. We have no beginning, no end. Thanks to deception, we now live in a paradox that threatens the entire universe. You do not know what you have done. What you have done to me... to us all."
"What was in that shard?" Lockspur said, looking up at her. "You're not making any sense."
"I underestimated her willingness to change everything. But like a falling domino, she ran headlong into disaster with no way to stop once it began. I had my mission, which her meddling interfered with. I remained here to stop Safrina, and now, I am compelled to join Lilith. To give that mission up."
"Who is Safrina?"
"You do not know what this world is. Who these creatures are."
"What was in that crystal?"
"Our salvation or our doom. Either way, Lilith should have known no one should play God. "My future self sent you here because the Lord Marshal sought to corrupt the champion's future. Instead of protecting that timeline, she sought to seize power."
"You're admitting you made a mistake?"
"I made no such mistake. The mistake was hers, not mine."
"I'm supposed to believe that when you reach the future, you will not make the same choices? We both know that's bullshit," Lockspur said and laughed.
"I will not."
He looked at her doubtfully, and said, "Spoken like a true Hemmingford."
"I had not expected the lengths to which she would go to protect the champion, or inflict her vengeance on her beloved. Zhylaw has sent many of his agents to this sanctuary."
"Sanctuary," Lockspur said in an explosive cough. "Have you looked around? This place is hell incarnate."
"This place is a paradise. It is my home."
The blood dripping from Lockspur's arm wound stopped and reversed its flow. He watched the macerated boil heal with a glazed-over disinterest. He held up his hand and asked, "How many fingers do you see?"
"Five," she answered, steadying his shaking hand and placing it on his chest.
"Me too," he said, closing his eyes. "Me too."
The gaping hole torn out of Lilith's forearm had vanished without a trace. She looked down, saw the bit of intestine sticking out of Lockspur's belly disappear back inside his stomach, and said, "Your immediate injuries will take a few hours to heal. Your other issues will resolve in their own time. Now, I have fulfilled your employer's bargain. I owe you no further goodwill."
"So kind," he said, holding his stomach in pain.
"Was it kindness when you conspired to do this to me? Did I ask you to come? You would have done anything to anyone to end your suffering. For that, I cannot blame you. But do not act as though I have wronged you." She stood up, turned to walk away, and then turned back. "You should rest here for the next few hours. My blood will heal you. Although I suggest you refrain from sustaining any further injuries. There is only so much damage my blood can repair at one time. And fear not. When my little friends are done with you, they will leave you in peace. Unless your intent is nefarious, then… they will leave you in pieces."
Lockspur pushed himself up on his elbows. Most of his pain in his arm had faded to a dull roar. But his belly still felt like someone had made him swallow razor blades. He smiled, tried to sit up and then lay back down. "I'll be down here, taking a nap and waiting to hear what happens next."
"Perhaps that is for the best. As your intended contact will be here soon enough," she said, turning her head slightly as if listening to something far off in the darkness.
"Wait," Lockspur said, coming up out of the fog threatening to swallow him. "I thought you were the contact I was supposed to meet."
"Do not get up or move until someone comes for you."
"You lied to me," Lockspur said. "Moss was right. It was your voice he heard. You control the raptors."
"They are my children," she replied with a smile. "But if I lied to you, it is your fault. You are the one who turned me into Lilith Hemmingford."
"And what about our slimy friend in the other room?"
"Her," Lilith said. "All the raptors here are female." He just stared at her, close to collapsing. "Don't worry about the creature. She will protect you."
"Does it know that?"
"Zhylaw's men injured her when his horde sought to steal what does not belong to them. But he does not know my sisters follow me," she said, turning to leave him in the dark.
"How do you know she won't kill me?"
"Because I know her as well as I know myself."
"Hey," he said, before she could run off. "You don't have any water, do you?"
"I do. But sadly, you have an intestinal injury, and drinking water could kill you." She patted him on the shoulder. "You don't want sepsis, do you?"
"Lilith," he blurted, grabbing her hand to prevent her from leaving. "Be careful. You're not alone." His voice faded as he fell asleep. "I heard…"
"I know," she said, placing his hand on his chest again. "Many time streams converge here."
A scream erupted from somewhere deep in the ship. Dahl cried out in horror, and Lilith leapt upward, transforming into the beast as she grabbed the steel railing and bounded through the hatch into the pitch black beyond.
Lockspur jerked to life, looking after her as his glazed eyes drooped. "What's Sepsis?" He called out, head falling back softly as injury and weakness took him down.
He lay alone in the black, breathing shallow but steady as the things Lilith put inside him repaired his injuries and erased all memory of their meeting. Mercifully, his pain faded.