Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres [41]
Shit.
Along the farthest wall, though, he spied a dull glow above another hatch. He ran over to the hatch’s spyhole and rubbed it clear. A tiny tubular lug with a one-operator cabin drifted on an external mooring. It wouldn’t get them far but it would get them off Dowl. Hopefully, someone would pick them up. Hopefully, there were ships out there still...
‘There’s a lug left,’ he bellowed.
Bethany stuck her head out of the flexi-hatch again and signalled that they were coming. She jumped down, naked to the waist. Mau followed, his shoulder strapped with her shirt.
Jo-Jo gaped at her as she approached.
She scowled. ‘Stop acting like you’ve never seen me naked before. You know my butt better than I do.’
Jo-Jo gave her a grin and unhooked an EVA suit from the wall. ‘Lug’s got a one-person cab. Better be Mau because he won’t fit into one of these.’
Beth took the suit and deftly folded her small body into it.
‘Done this before?’ said Jo-Jo as he struggled with his own.
‘I’m a biologist, remember?’ She grabbed the collar of Jo-Jo’s suit and yanked it upward in one smooth movement. ‘There.’
‘There? echoed Jo-Jo. Only now he was looking back at the flexi-tube. It was vibrating as if it had suddenly filled with a lot of shifting weight.
He turned to the lug controls and set them to wind it in. A few precious minutes passed while Jo-Jo and Bethany fumbled with their helmets and primed their airflow. Jo-Jo’s suit had about a half-hour supply, Bethany’s a bit more.
When the lug slotted into its bracket the hatch popped open for the driver.
‘Pick us up at the first Savvy lock,’ said Jo-Jo. ‘If you miss us coming out of the chute ...’
Mau gave a grimace that wasn’t pain. ‘Miss you, mebbe. Not her,’ he said before he slammed the door shut.
Jo-Jo sealed his faceplate.
‘Josef.’ Bethany’s voice sounded choked-up through the suit’s transceiver. ‘Hurry!’
An arthropod crawled out of the flexi-tube.
Jo-Jo grabbed Beth’s hand and they stumbled, clumsy in their suits, to the larger external hatches.
Now the arthropods were piling over each other to get out.
Jo-Jo worked the chute levers and gave Beth the thumbs-up. ‘Go!’
She climbed up the short ladder and into the mouth of the tube. Jo-Jo expected her to slide in and shut the two-way, but she rolled onto her stomach and bumped the top of her helmet against his. ‘Her name is Djeserit. You come back here and find her.’
‘I’ll be the one who’s dead if you don’t shift your arse,’ he barked and gave her a shove. She slid down to the bottom of the tube and he closed the first part of the lock. The distant ‘pop’ told him that she was out.
The lever icons blinked their changing sequence and the top hatch reopened. He began to climb the steps but a blow knocked him off onto his side. He crossed his arms automatically to deflect another hit but instead something long and wet slithered across his faceplate. The arthropod seemed confused by the EVA suit.
Jo-Jo tried to breathe but the air seemed to have gone out of his lungs and his suit.
Another set of feelers joined the first, then another.
His muscles turned watery. How long before they realised that his brain fluids were behind the shiny faceplate they were playing around with?
Slowly he brought his knees up to his chest so that he made a smaller target. But that seemed to agitate them. The arthropods unfolded to their full height and crowded in, their movements more aggressive. Claws scraped and rattled on his suit as they began to paw him. The maw of a proboscis opened above his left eye and a needle-thin hollow stalk protruded.
Fuck!
Jo-Jo’s strength returned on a tidal wave of terror and he kicked at the middle section of the closest creature. It fell back, creating enough space for him to launch himself at the steps. He scrambled up them and dived into the chute where he floundered around for the hatch control.
The lock snapped shut, crushing the head section of the pursuing arthropod. Its slimy innards sprayed down the chute and coated his already blurred visor. Then came the pop of the