Ascending - James Alan Gardner [52]
In addition to the terrible rending and gurgling, the light had begun to fade. The great fuzzy beds of fungus on the wall were dimming their phosphorescence like a grass fire burning itself out. Uclod had said the fungus derived sustenance from Starbiter’s own tissues; now, as my friend disemboweled herself, perhaps the fungus’s nutrition supply had been cut off. Either the icky fuzz was dying of starvation, or it had some instinct to go dark as a way to conserve energy when its food supply was interrupted.
Meanwhile, the banging and bumping of our trip was loosening the fungus’s grip on the wall. Off to my right, a sheet of the stuff peeled away with a whispering sigh, its yellow glow snuffed in an instant as it toppled heavily to the floor. The bare wall behind was nothing but a clear membrane, transparent except for three big splotches of pinkish fluid: Starbiter’s blood. As we jerked forward again, I could see fierce shivers beyond the membrane, unknown organs shuddering with pain as we passed.
Another patch of fungus slumped off, this one from the ceiling over Lajoolie’s head. The big woman batted it away with one arm; it hit the floor beside her with a thud. More thuds sounded all over the room, as other clumps of fungus fell…until the floor was heaped with crumples of buttercup yellow, and the walls and ceilings were nothing but bare membrane. Any patch of wall I looked at, I could see straight through into Starbiter’s guts. Gouts of fluid slapped against the outer tissues; strands of connecting fiber snapped as we barreled forward, bashing our way through. Closing my eyes I could shut out the sight, but I still heard the splashing and splitting of gristle…
…then it all went silent. A deep deep quiet. And I felt myself shift under the straps that bound me to my chair, as if my own weight no longer held me down.
“Artificial gravity’s gone,” Uclod said in a whisper. “We just passed the edge of the field.”
I opened my eyes. Through the clear membrane, I saw we were not quite separate from Starbiter: we poised half-in, half-out of a great rupture in her side, as if we were an egg she was trying to lay. In one direction was the blackness of space, with stars smearily visible through vacuum-dried smudges of Zarett blood. In the other direction was noble Starbiter herself, her damaged body straining for one last push to shove us free. I could see muscles bunch and contract…then with a great heave, we were hurled tumbling away.
My friend Starbiter vanished in a heartbeat—an FTL cannonball shooting through the night. Seeing with my naked eyes rather than long-range scanners, I could barely make out the stick-ship…but there was no way to miss the flash of blazing light that reached us thirty seconds later. For a moment, I feared the Shaddill had fired their unconsciousness ray again; then I realized I had just seen Starbiter’s death as she bravely struck our enemies.
Whatever she had hit, it made a fine explosion.
Grief And New Burdens
The stick-ship was not obliterated, but it did not come any closer—it simply remained hanging in space, an image no bigger than my thumbnail.6 From this range, there was no way to guess the extent of the damage…but I had faith Starbiter would have aimed for the most vulnerable spot she could find.
She was an excellent Zarett.
Beside me, Uclod snuffled into his hands. Lajoolie did not weep; but she rested her fingers on her husband’s shoulder and stared at him with sympathy. At last, the little man took a shuddering breath. “She died alone.”
“She did it for us,” Lajoolie told him. “She did it gladly.”
“But she died alone!” He pounded one hand on his chair, then turned around sharply to glare at Nimbus. “She was your mate, for God’s sake. Why didn’t you go with her?”
A ripple passed through the cloud man’s body. “I offered to,” Nimbus replied, “but she wouldn’t permit it. She said I had a higher responsibility.”
All this time, the cloud man had been clotted around the chair beside