Mirror Space - Marianne de Pierres [45]
‘Remove all your weapons and place them at your feet,’ said the Extro.
Catchut stared at the spot his small explosive had vanished.
‘Do as it says,’ Rast instructed.
‘Capo?’ Latourn’s voice was tinged with uncertainty.
‘Whole chamber we’re in is an Extro, Lat. You wanna be goin’ where your grenade just went?’
‘No, Capo.’ The hulky man began unbuckling his gear.
Jo-Jo felt a rising conviction. One thing he knew for sure, he wasn’t going meekly into captivity again. Especially not in this place.
He glanced across at the junction. The egress scale was still open. Could he make it before the floor, or the wall, or the Extro reached out and sucked him away?
‘Josef.’ Rast’s warning to him was clear.
‘A jail’s a jail, Randall. Not going back into one.’
‘Who says that’s where you’re going?’ she said reasonably. ‘Might be that EK here wants to entertain us. Be the smart thing to do. Seeing as I’ve got all that cryo on board. Be an awful lot of disappointment if we told the ‘zoon not to let them have it.’
Pretending she had control over the ‘zoon was about the only thing Rast had up her sleeve. A small amount of cryo went a long way in Extro land from what Jo-Jo’d heard.
Rast’s caution didn’t stop Jo-Jo from taking a step backward though; or trying to, at least. But his damn boots stuck to the floor. The fear that had been gathering in his stomach sent panic messages to his limbs. He reached down and frantically scrabbled with his boot buckles.
‘Don’t take your feet out.’ Rast gestured to stop him. ‘You’ll—‘
A noise erupted from inside the ‘zoon; a terrible groaning that drowned Rast out. An object shot through the junction as if thrown, and stopped near Catchut’s feet.
Jo-Jo barely recognised the object that had spun past them earlier to sample the ‘zoon’s internals. Now it was coated with biozoon tissue and a thick, stinking mucus.
“Zoon’s pissed,’ muttered Latourn.
Jo-Jo glanced at the junction. Insignia’s start-up hum sent another vibration through the chamber. A fine shimmer of skin appeared across the connection junction between them and the ‘zoon; a second skin growing to replace the soon-to-be-torn egress scale.
“She’s blowin’, Capo,’ said Catchut.
Rast’s expression cracked for an instant and Jo-Jo glimpsed her terror. It matched his. Then he lost all thought save the one that told him to stay with the ‘zoon. Lifting his feet out of his boots, he gave one huge leap towards the junction - and fell short. The moment his feet touched the chamber surface he stuck. He fell forward and tried to crawl the last distance but his hands and elbows adhered as firmly to the floor as his feet.
Insignia’s hum became something higher and stronger and a groaning tear deafened them all.
Jo-Jo craned his neck upwards to the junction. The old egress scale was still in place, a thin layer between them and the blackness, but Insignia had gone.
Sole
need’m that one, need’m luscious
creature find’m, bring ‘m
me
MIRA
Mira ran.
Wanton called out directions that took her branching down what seemed like random tributaries between the featureless plumes of Hue. The sandy terrain remained flat and firm enough for her to keep her pace for a while, but soon enough she had to stop and rest. And then sooner again. Eventually the periods of running shortened until she was back to walking.
The spreading black fertiliser kept pace with them, staining the sand in every direction. On the occasions she allowed herself a backward glance, the land had become curving dark stripes.
‘The humanesque form is more limited than Wanton thought,’ it commented.
‘I am pregnant,’ Mira snapped. Right now she could feel the drag and the ache it caused around her lower belly, and her spirits lowered with the fatigue. She did not bother to add that she was neither trained for, nor used to, extreme physical demands.
‘Take the next tributary to your right