Plunge

I heard the truck scrunch to a halt in the snow behind me. Nemuleki had noticed that I’d hopped out.

The Casti wasn’t going to stop me anymore than Daniel could. It was not lost on me that the two aliens in the truck were not in the condition to do what Tasser was trying to do.

Maybe that was why Tasser was willing to be a decoy. He was the only one capable of fighting off Trapper long enough for the rest of us to escape.

The appeal of it wasn’t lost on me. Self-sacrifice for the sake of the group was intuitive. But today the Three Musketeers motto resonated with me far more. We were all making it, or none of us were.

At least, assuming Tasser was still alive.

I jogged back toward the facility gate, following the deep tread the truck had left. The fourth building towered over the rest. Every building had been dark when we’d first arrived, but there were a few lights on.

I could see the window Tasser had opened in the building we’d slept in, the undisturbed second building, the bombed out first floor of the third. I didn’t know where Tasser was, but I knew he was trying to open the gate. It would probably be a button or a lever.

But in the last building, the one I hadn’t set foot in yet, there was a light in the window of the top floor.

I said,

Daniel picked up on what my idea was; < You can’t be serious. >

I replied, trying to distract him with the truth.

My time in the coffins on the ship had affected me, but so had the long hours in the Vorak cell.

It had left me with a lot of time to think about how each container was put together. I couldn’t begin to fathom how many times I’d seen construction underway back on Earth. But the basic principles seemed to be universal.

I shuffled through the snow as quickly as I could. Reaching the base of the building, I was struck by what a bad idea this was. It seemed so much taller looking at it up close.

I shook my head. Psyching myself out now was no good.

Focus on what’s at stake.

This wasn’t a skyscraper. It was only four stories. I could climb this. If the structure had to support the weight of each floor weighing down on the one beneath it, then it had to be able to hold me.

I tried not to think about the railing that had buckled when I put my weight on it.

<‘About’ this far,> I corrected.

The corner of the building had structural supports like the ‘H’ shaped beams that held up the mineshaft scaffolding.

I was acutely aware that this climb was worse than my previous one, in every conceivable way. It was further, it was colder, and I had even less to grab onto in case I fell. I could grip fine with my hands, but my shoes were caked with snow and felt like they might slip.

I started climbing.

I said, and pointed his attention toward the rough floor plan of the facility I’d been drawing in my head.

<…The layout is the same for each floor.>

I put my hand on one of the pipes. Haste wanted me to put all my weight on it, but I was forcing myself to go slowly. It would only take one mistake to fall. I tugged on the pipe to test it without putting my weight on it.

Even after testing it, when I wedged my foot between the pipe and the building wall, I didn’t pay enough attention to my grip.

My hand slipped on a tiny patch of ice and for a moment, I only had my foothold under me.

I jammed my arm into the same gap before I fell.

Safe. Barely.

I took a few shaky breaths before continuing. I was okay. Still possible. I just needed to stay careful.

I tried to focus on the advantages I still had. I weighed less. The climb wasn’t exhausting me that much. Now that I was to the second floor, there were numerous handholds in the form of pipes running up this side of the building.

Even though the cost of falling would only get worse, the actual odds I would fall went down the higher I got.

The metal band fittings that kept the pipes fastened to the exterior were sturdy enough to take my weight, and so once I reached the top of the second level, my pace improved.

At the same time, I felt Trapper activate its power. It created something… lesser than the bombs it had earlier. It did it regularly too. One after another.

I heard Tasser’s pistol go off several times from inside too.

Daniel guessed.

The exchange gave me an idea of Trapper’s position too. It was on the third floor. Tasser’s gun sounded like it was on the second… if my floor plan was accurate, then they were probably shooting up and down the stairwell.

But I looked down toward the entrance Tasser had used and wisps of red smoke were floating out the door—the same kind of trap it had left underground.

I told Daniel,

I hauled my way up another floor. My hands were only just now beginning to feel numb. I felt like they should have felt cold long before now, but I could still move them so I didn’t question it.

I was calm. Clear.

One more floor.

The point I wanted to enter the building was actually the same window I’d first seen Trapper in. Because…if memory served, Trapper had distracted Tasser with the firebomb and promptly disappeared.

But it had not closed that window.

The wind had pressed it shut, but it wasn’t locked or latched. So when I climbed up to its level and sidled onto the ledge.

Going around the corner was the worst part of the whole trip. On this side of the building, this high up, the wind blew stiffer. It didn’t push hard , but I was standing on a ledge two inches wide holding onto a tiny lip above the window. Even a gentle breeze made my stomach turn.

With one hand, I reached over and scraped at the edge of the window, trying to pry it open with my fingernails.

It felt frozen shut. But I managed to find the tiniest purchase and levered the window open a hair. That made it easier to get a grip with the rest of my too-long nails.

Still, I refused to rush.

I pulled the window open, reached inside and up, to brace my hand against the interior wall before gingerly ducking down and into the window.

I said.

He said, still rattled.

The window opened into a room lined with flickering low-resolution screens. This was the flickering light I’d seen from the ground.

I recognized the image from one of the screens as the hallway outside the room where we’d slept. Another screen delivered a badly cracked view of the machine room from the third building, the one Trapper had Kaczynski’d.

It couldn’t be a coincidence that this was the room we’d seen Trapper first in. Had it been content to stay in the room and deploy its disc traps remotely until Tasser and I had first glimpsed it?

Of course it would. It was trying to stall for time. Delay us. It had only gone out to engage us once we started moving through the buildings.

In the next room, I heard the scrape of boots on the tile-like floor. Only it wasn’t the next room. It was this one. Where most of the floors in the other structures had been divided into two, roughly square, rooms, the top floor here was a conjoined one, with a retractable screen between the two halves.

I peeked around one of the server stacks and saw Trapper shove a large yellow lever on a console in the other partition. A loud whir started up below.

As a matter of fact… that sounded like it came from outside.

I peeked out the window and saw the yard’s steel gate rise again. Although now that I really looked at it, ‘barricade’ might have been a better word.

Two more gunshots rang out from the lower floors. If Trapper was here, Tasser must have been shooting at discs.

Daniel said.

Trapper slipped back down the stairs and I sensed it conjure another crossbow bolt.

The Vorak hadn’t actually looked out the window like I had. If it had, it might have seen that Nemuleki had been willing to leave Tasser behind. They’d gotten the truck moving before the gate had even fully gone down. Even now, looking outside, I could see the roof of the truck peek out from the other side of the perimeter fence-wall.

My mind raced.

This would all come down to if Trapper had already looked outside or not.

Tasser had done something to open the gate from the bottom floor. The Vorak had been ready for it. So it had used the lever on the top floor to close the gate.

But if Trapper had been in a hurry, knowing there was an armed enemy in the building, there was a chance that it hadn’t actually looked out the window to see if the truck was still inside the gate…

If Trapper had been hasty, I could lure it back to this room, guaranteed.

I peeked from behind the cabinet. Trapper wasn’t in the room.

Speed was paramount. I went to the window first.

I popped the window open and unscrewed the vial of blood the Casti doctor had ‘traded’. There wasn’t much, but in the sealed capsule, it had stayed liquid.

A few drips onto the window sill. They would dry and harden quickly in the cold, but that was fine. The illusion didn’t need to hold up, just fool Trapper for a few moments.

I pushed the same yellow handle Trapper had reset, shoving back in position.

There was a loud, but distant whir as the facility slid open again.

Trapper’s reaction was instant.

No later than my hand left the lever did I hear claws and boots scramble against surfaces on the floor below. It would be here in seconds.

As silently as I could, I moved through the doorway, out into the hall with the stairwell. As long as I stayed in the corner, motionless, I wouldn’t be in Trapper’s field of view as it bounded up the stairs.

Stolen story; please report.

The sounds of it scrambling rushed closer and a blur of Vorak rushed up the stairs and dove through the doorway that I’d just come out.

I kept holding my breath, even as I gingerly climbed over the railing of the stairway and dropped down. I caught a glimpse of Trapper at the open window, poking its head outside and looking down.

Well, if it hadn’t known the truck was already past the gate, it did now.

Things moved fast. I landed on the stairs connecting the third and fourth floors and went down, just in time to see Tasser coming up from the second floor.

He snapped his gun toward me on habit, but quickly lowered it. The Casti looked like he was about to say something, but I put my finger to my lips and thank God , he understood the gesture.

Trapper was loudly searching the other room on the fourth floor, any second it would be coming down, we wanted to be long gone.

I gave one look up the stairs to check Trapper’s progress before starting toward Tasser.

We should be able to hold our breath and exit through the smoke. After that, we just needed to get to the gate, hop over it, and get in the truck.

Easy.

Daniel’s warning came too late.

I’d been so careful on my way up the exterior. I’d been so careful when I first wrapped my head around this Vorak’s abilities.

But when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, for just a moment, I forgot about what kind of Name I’d given this otter.

There was a thin black disc peeking out from under the door I walked past, and I hadn’t seen it until I was just a foot away.

Tasser had sharper eyes than I did though.

He’d closed the distance toward me, just to get his pistol in position to shoot at Trapper when it came down the stairs. The Casti was close enough to see that I hadn’t seen the trap.

Tasser lunged forward, shoving me backward and scooping up the disc in his other hand.

The first time I’d seen this variety of trap, Tasser had disarmed it with a few bullets from a safe distance. But this time, the disc popped open. A wave of liquid splashed outward, hardening into foam that filled the hallway.

In less than a second Tasser was completely engulfed in the foam. I couldn’t even see a corner of his black poncho sticking out. The hardening foam filled every corner of the hall, forming itself into a solid wall affixed to every surface. It cut me off from the bottom floor.

I felt Trapper use its power to create a bolt.

No need to bother looking. I threw myself away from the stairs. The crossbow thwanged and the bolt buried itself in the wall next to where I’d been standing.

Heart pounding, I threw my weight into the door at this end of the third floor and barreled into the room. Unlike the floor above, this room didn’t connect to the next one.

I’d cornered myself.

Trapper knew where I was.

And it was armed, literally, to the teeth.

I hadn’t wanted to put this to the test, but I was out of options. Time to see if this Vorak really was a pushover up close.

If the top floor was a radio and computer room, then this room must have been a record storage room. The tall metal boxes were probably filing cabinets. The maps on the wall might have been surveys.

One of them even matched up decently with the map I had in my head.

Trapper didn’t immediately show itself. Instead, it took its sweet time coming down the stairs, crossbow at the ready. Any plan, this one included, benefitted from a hasty enemy.

But it was the Vorak being careful now. We’d shown that we could be tricky too much. It expected it from us now.

But that could actually work for me.

Decisiveness had its advantages too.

There was nowhere to hide in the room. No tables to upend, even the cabinet was tucked into the corner so it wouldn’t even fully cover me.

I could tell Daniel was about to say the same thing I was thinking.

Instead of backing further into the room, I crouched low, next to the bent remains of the sliding door, and went stock still.

Footsteps quietly tapped against the floor, closer and closer… as soon as it got close enough to touch the door…

I shoved the door, bending it back the other way. The goal was to hopefully slam it into Trapper’s raised arm or crossbow. But I underestimated the otter’s reflexes.

It swayed away from me, avoiding any connection from the door. But in doing so, it had to break its aiming stance. It stepped back toward the staircase, but I had momentum.

Carrying the crossbow in both hands meant it only had the two remaining limbs to maneuver with. And several times I’d seen firsthand that if Vorak wanted to move fast, they preferred all fours.

Trapper wasn’t ready for me to close the distance and it faltered when I got close enough to hit it.

I put my whole body weight into slugging the Vorak right between its eyes. I felt something crack , and shockingly, it wasn’t my hand.

Trapper swung the crossbow at me like a club and caught me on the shoulder, knocking me down. It didn’t miss the opportunity, and half pounced, half fell on me, trying to bite at my throat. I had multiple layers under the hoodie, so its teeth didn’t quite find purchase.

It was having a Vorak this close to me again that I began to appreciate how heavy the aliens were despite their size. Trapper was one of the skinniest otters I’d seen with long limbs, but it still outweighed me.

I planted my foot onto its belly and tried to make its weight work for me. I rolled backward and kicked it off me back into the room behind me.

It took precious seconds to scramble to my feet, with Trapper doing the same. The adrenaline drowned out the pain of whatever injuries I had. The Vorak spat a gob of dark purple blood onto the floor and raised its claws.

It had lost the crossbow in the tumble.

But what it hadn’t quite realized, is that I’d yanked the goggles off its face too.

“Game over,” I said, raising my palm.

There was a moment’s delay, but not enough for Trapper to defend itself.

A few feet in front of my hand, I pictured a million tiny sparks binding together into a pattern. A millisecond later, a bright explosion went off in front of Trapper.

The blast blew the windows out and Trapper stumbled backward, snarling.

I scooped up the crossbow bolt that had tumbled out of the weapon in the struggle and walked toward Trapper. In a way, it was like a playground game, like lava tag, or Marco Polo where one kid closes their eyes and has to still try to tag people.

Sometimes, kids would try to tag the blinded ‘it’. To be daring, or spiteful. Tag them one way, and move the other, and the blinded ‘it’ would go the wrong way.

I jammed the bolt into Trapper’s right thigh and then immediately ducked under the yowling swing it let out in that direction. We lined up and I seized a handfuls of its fur and suit with both hands.

I dropped my own weight, squatting under the Vorak and rolling it over me, and flinging it out the broken window.

There was a heavy thud where it hit the roof of the garage we’d sheltered in earlier. Looking out the window, I could see a hole torn in the sheet metal roof of the garage.

Would that fall have killed it? I wasn’t sure.

I doubted we were that lucky.

But it seemed even an Enumius Vorak wasn’t completely immune to a fall like that; when I came back out into the stairwell hall, the foam that had trapped Tasser was dissolving into dust.

He was on his hands and knees taking big breaths, but otherwise alive.

I helped him up and retrieved his pistol from where he’d dropped it. Had he tried to drop it for me to pick up? I didn’t need to stick around to consider the answer, so we made for the stairs.

The gas was dissipating too, and now that I was noticing it, it felt like I could sense the creations fade on my Enumius radar.

It was like seeing a shadow, or hearing absolute silence. It wasn’t quite ‘something’ in the normal sense, but it was like I was noticing the sudden absence of it.

<…y-…yeah.>

Wordless affirmation emanated from him for a moment. Using my flashbang on my own still took its toll on him it seemed.

Tasser and I both held our breath through the wisps of red gas that hung in the air, and we pushed out into the snowy yard.

My heart was still pounding, and I was sweating hard. Going back into the frigid wind while my body was still running hot was a shock.

But it was far from the hardest thing I’d had to do today.

Tasser and I trudged through the snow toward the gate, raised again now. Trapper had thrown the lever again, hadn’t it?

We could have gone to the top floor to throw the lever yet again . But neither Tasser nor I could be bothered.

Tasser, perhaps unsurprisingly now, did not need my help to scale the metal gate. Instead, he actually gave me a hand, hauling me up.

We dropped down on the other side, to find a surprised Nemuleki crouching in the snow with the heavy bolt-rifle. Had they been ready to cover our escape?

Seeing both of us shocked both Nemuleki and Nai though.

Nai looked like every second was a struggle to stay conscious. The moment its eyes found Tasser, the alien slumped over.

Twice now, in less than a full day, Tasser and I had come face to face with Vorak trying to kill us, and both times we’d come out the other side.

As the Nemuleki got the truck rolling again, Tasser rummaged through the truck’s bed and found another tarp like the one Trapper had hidden the vehicle under. It didn’t do much for the wind or cold, but it was something.

·····

Our truck was rolling through the snowy mountain road at a careful pace. Snow wasn’t coming down any more, but there was still plenty on the road to be hazardous.

Not to mention the truck’s window was broken and Tasser and I were each huddled under tarps in the bed. Speed meant wind. Wind meant more cold.

Daniel said.

I took a swig of partially frozen water from the tubes I had in my backpack,

I agreed. Trapper hadn’t managed to wound me except for some more bruises.

Considering that it had been throwing around high explosives, this was a flawless result.

Daniel warned.

I understood why Daniel was upset with me. It had turned out well, but the truth was I’d taken some pig-headed risks, both in his absence and not.

It was hard to tell the precise nature of our mental relationship.

During the climb up the building, I’d felt… steady, in a way I hadn’t when I’d done the similarly dangerous climb up the mine scaffolding.

It was not lost on me that Daniel had been afraid during the former.

I said.

he said,

The Enumius radar hadn’t quite been as useful against the second Vorak as it had the first, but it had still saved our lives at critical moments.

But it was also apparently killing Daniel.

I complained.

He trailed off.

He said.

I said, stingily.

I decided.

<…Sorry. It’s easy to see your own flaws in other people.>

I could understand that—very possibly because I was sharing my head with him.

It was my turn to trail off.

I’d been about to say, ‘I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep you around’. But that wasn’t how it should be. Both of us understood what it said about our self-esteem that we were ready to risk our personal safety to keep the other one alive.

It was good to want to help people. Self-respect was in short supply these days. Kidnapping and attempted murder, fending for your life… There was just no ignoring how few people there were in my corner right now. Even fewer in Daniel’s corner.

Tasser was the closest thing I had to a friend. Right now? I think I even trusted him.

But we’d still only known each other for about a day. There was a bond there, sure. We’d saved each other’s lives. But I didn’t know the alien, who he was, where he came from.

Why he fought.

I trusted him, but it was trusting a stranger.

<…Do you remember your parents’ names?>

< ...>

I supplied.

He said.

We’d won again.

But it was hard to feel optimistic.

There was too much to keep me down right now. Both small scale, and large.

Trapper had stalled us here for hours. The only reason to buy time was if it had help on the way. If it had backup incoming, then we weren’t out of the woods yet.

How many more Vorak were hunting us?