Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres [39]
Bethany hugged his neck. ‘You saved us, Pet.’
The man patted her gently and sent Jo-Jo a dirty look.
Jo-Jo righted himself and rubbed his jaw. It felt broken—dislocated at the very least.
‘Which way is the Savvy?’ he asked clumsily.
Mau pointed to his left. ‘Long walk.’
‘Along the flute?’
Mau nodded and sat up. Little bits of exoskeleton peppered the skin on his arms and face as if he’d rolled in liquid and been crumbed.
Bethany tore some cloth from her shirt and wiped off what she could. ‘Might be toxic,’ she said.
Mau sat still like a docile animal.
His submission to her ministrations baffled Jo-Jo. As though the pair of them had known each other for years. He shrugged off the notion and climbed to his feet. They were only a few levels from the top of the station now.
The lift halted and the doors pinged open. ‘Keep it open for me, Beth.’
Jo-Jo felt his way to the door and peered around the edge. The little he could see to the right seemed impregnable: plastic conduits twisted around fallen metal joists and giving off a God-awful stinking gas where the fire had melted them. The left was clearer with enough room for single-file access.
‘Let’s go,’ he told the others. ‘Mau, show us the way.’ He stepped out to let him pass.
The big man lumbered ahead. Bethany followed.
Jo-Jo found it impossible to see around Mau’s bulk, so he fell to glancing nervously behind. Would the creatures follow them? Maybe he should have destroyed the lift panel—but what if they needed to get down again? What if the Savvy had already gone?
The titanium corridor of the flute section was tarnished with wear. Dark green oil had seeped along the floor from a ruptured hydraulic, and Jo-Jo and Bethany slipped every few steps. Mau was surprisingly steady on his feet, his bulk leaving little gap between either side of his body and the sloping walls.
Eventually the corridor opened on to a narrow mesh platform that hung above a huge scallop-shaped chamber filled with crusted tanks. A long pipe ran from one tank to the next, then joined another to make a thick conduit that disappeared through the chamber wall.
Mau pointed to one particular tank. ‘Bad shit, that. Made Mau piss green stuff.’
Bethany took a spontaneous step away. Her reaction made Jo-Jo want to laugh. Right now pissing green stuff seemed more attractive than having his body fluids sucked out. Then he remembered that his HealthWatch had expired.
He took a step that put him even further away from the tank than Beth.
Mau pointed to where the pipes converged into one. ‘Go through underneath there. You first.’ He turned his finger to Jo-Jo and prodded him in the chest.
From his expression, and the jab of the finger, Jo-Jo figured that Mau hadn’t forgiven him for the bagging yet. It didn’t seem like the right time to make up.
He squeezed past Beth and Mau to take the lead. The narrow gallery was joined to an even narrower ramp that spiralled down into the chamber in a looping slope. As Jo-Jo jogged ahead of the other two he noticed globs of dried uuli secretions on the ramp grating. He’d heard they had a high tolerance of heavy metals. Maybe that was why they smelled so bad.
When he reached the bottom he realised that Mau was walking sideways to fit the constricted passageway. Bethany was only a little way in front of him, making gestures of encouragement.
Her patience and consideration impressed Jo-Jo. His own mind was firing off a bunch of wild messages, including one that he should leave the others behind.
‘Hurry!’ he bellowed helpfully.
Bethany shot him an annoyed look.
Jo-Jo shrugged and ducked in under the convergence of pipes. In the recess behind them sat a docking hatch whose display strip flashed unoccupied above it.
The Savvy had gone.
Jo-Jo sagged back against the pipe, his mind racing even faster. They could return to the lift and search level by level for survivors. Or they could try to get through the trade hall to the main docking area. He discarded the second idea as a last option: the creatures must have come in that way.
How they