“I still don’t get how this could be,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s a weird situation for sure,” Cyrus answered. The ship rumbled with another lightning strike. They’d been coming periodically for hours but they’d picked up speed in the last twenty minutes or so.

I was digging out the last battery I thought I would need from a helicopter. I’d picked the ATV that looked like it was in the best condition of those available. Flying back to the Ariel would have been preferable but I didn’t know how to fly a VTOL or a helicopter. And even if I did, with the thunderstorm still raging hard enough to rattle the Reliant, I wouldn’t get far.

The lights in the ship were every bit as bright as I remembered, the whole of engineering was lit up just like it would have been back when the ship was in space. I even had one of Rip’s music playlists blasting over the speakers. It felt normal, familiar, and it hurt like a nail digging its way into my heart but it felt right too. I didn’t even like Rip’s music but needed those old, familiar songs right now.

Still, as I worked I couldn’t help chewing over the facts again and again.

“Why the hell would they leave? There was enough food here to last for years. They put in the effort to fix the engine after the crash. They had power, shelter, food, and all the tools they’d need to get to work escaping this frozen asshole of a planet.”

“Kid, I said it’s weird. If I knew why they did it, it wouldn’t be weird.”

Thunder, so strong I felt the ship beneath my feet tremble, roared.

“That was just a bit ominous.”

“Just a bit. Look, we’ve got what we need, right? We can just wait out this storm and head back when it quits. Then you power up that ship of yours, don’t explode this time, and once you’ve gotten me out of this pod, we can jet back here and explore all you want. Maybe Ai can get into the security systems and play back whatever the ship’s cameras caught. Or we’ll find a clue. Something. Either way, you don’t need to worry about it right now.”

“You act like I can stop worrying about things just because I don’t have to worry about them,” I said, pulling the last battery from the truck.

Cyrus laughed while I gathered my pile of batteries like cordwood and headed for the ATV.

“Yeah, that is definitely a trick you need to learn.”

Another peel of thunder, even louder than the last, struck so hard that I nearly lost my footing. I staggered, weaving about to balance the stack of batteries in my hands.

“What on earth is going on out there?

“It’s a nasty storm system. I’ve got a good look at it from here.”

His screen came up, briefly showing his face before swapping to a swirling mass of clouds that I had to assume were over my location. It did look pretty big. I guess. I didn’t know how to gauge the size of a storm.

“Still, I’ve never felt anything like this while I was h-“

Another shudder went through the ship. This one came at just the wrong instant and threw me to the ground. Batteries scattered around me.

“This isn’t because of the storm.”

“What?”

“It’s gotta be an earthquake or something.”

“Wouldn’t it be a Persephonequake in this case?”

“Shut up, Cy-“

Another tremor rippled through the ground, and then another almost before that one had ended. Again and again, each one stronger, more violent than the last. I stopped trying to grab the batteries, I was too busy just trying to get to my feet.

A dozen yards away one of the remaining VTOLs, the one I’d used to get to the cranes, came loose and fell with a tremendous crash. It crushed an ATV like a beer can and I was suddenly very aware of all the VTOLs hanging over my head.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

In stuttering, flailing steps, I half ran, half crawled back towards the engine. It was the only place close by I could be sure nothing would fall on me. By the time I got there, it felt like the whole world was shaking apart. And as I hung on I realized that whatever this was, whatever was happening, was because of the engine.

This was why they’d turned it off and fled.

“I’ve got to turn it off!” I screamed, though I don’t know why.

“Kid! What’s going on down there?”

My hands flew over the consoles, trying to get to the screen that would let me shut down the engine but half the keys I pressed were the wrong ones. The screen just beeped indignantly at me as though there wasn’t a catastrophe happening. And then, with a shriek of metal and the sudden howling of wind, I got my first glimpse of what was attacking the ship.

Unthinkably huge blades punched through the outer hull of the ship with a sound like ten thousand cats shrieking. The blades were as big as the vehicles in the room and they sliced through the thick metal walls like gigantic butcher knives. My first thought was that some aliens were attacking the ship by launching giant blades at it.

And then the knives flexed.

They weren’t knives or blades at all. They were fingers.

The fingers ripped and tore at the wall like a child digging into a cake. It ripped it away letting the storm outside in. And then it got worse.

There wasn’t enough light for me to see outside. I only had a hazy glimpse of what looked like giant metallic pillars that must have been the horrible thing’s legs. But once it ripped away the wall the hands retreated. There was a moment of near silence, with only the wind sighing through the open hole.

“What the f-“ Cyrus started to say and then he was drowned out by tortured metal bending and twisting. I gasped as the noise forced its way into my ears, digging for my brain.

And then something filled the opening in the wall. It was so impossible I couldn’t understand what I was looking at until I saw the eyes. Eyes bigger than the windshields of the helicopters that now lay broken on the ground. Eyes that glowed with brilliant yellow-orange light. It was only as the monster’s jaws fell open, revealing metal teeth taller than I was that I realized just what I was looking at.

The impossibly huge, robotic lizard let out a roar that I could feel slam into me through the suit, and rumble through my body as vibrations shook the air in my lungs.

A silvery cloud, like metallic mist, escaped the creature’s mouth as it screamed it’s gale force fury at me and nanobots swarmed through the room, tearing and ripping away at everything metal like tiny piranha.

And then, somehow, it got even worse.

Up from the thing’s guts came dozens and dozens of humanoid figures. They spilled from its mouth like it was vomiting them and they fell to the ground in stumbling, clanking piles. They weren’t human. They were like the nano-beasts I’d seen at the AI nest. Nano-zombies. And as soon as they could stand they rushed me.

I moved then, my body finally getting over its fright, ignoring fight completely and going straight to flight. I dashed for the nearest ATV that still had a battery in it and dove into the driver’s seat. The titanic robot lizard, had torn open so much of the wall that there was a spot that I could drive through. If I could get to it.

I slammed on the button that fired the engine, threw the ATV into gear and hit the accelerator so hard I thought I might push it through the floorboard. The truck fishtailed as the first of the nano-zombies leapt at the truck. They hit the hood with enough force to leave dents and for me to feel through the wheel. I swung the ATV wide trying to fling them off. One lost its grip and slid over to the side. The last thing I saw was a grasping hand and then I felt the ATV roll over it like I’d hit a speed bump. The other one was more tenacious. It slammed a clawed metal hand into the hood and used that to anchor itself. I kept weaving for a moment longer and its body whipped and snapped like a flag in the wind but I couldn’t get it to let go.

And then I hit the bulk of the nanozombies and it wasn’t my only problem anymore. Their bodies were heavier than normal humans and the car hadn’t gotten much speed. Still, the ATV had been built to handle the worst terrain possible and despite their efforts they couldn’t do much more than slow the truck. But they didn’t need to do any more.

The creature’s hand fell on the ATV and smashed it in place. The wheels squeak and squealed for a moment as they kept spinning. A moment later there was a series of whumping pops as they exploded. I hunched down, screaming, begging the thing not to crush me. But that wasn’t what it was trying to do.

It lifted the car like a toy and the sense of uncontrolled motion was hideous. It pulled me out into the storm and through the hail of ice and snow. Seeing the monster through the hole it had made was one thing. Seeing the entire thing, next to a space station to give its size context was something else entirely.

It’s tail made its body seem to go on for miles, whipping back and forth in the air like an iron kraken’s tentacle. It’s body and limbs were bulky and seemed swollen, a misshapen mockery of anatomy. The muscles were made of huge corded wires that groaned and strained with the effort of moving the body. Covering those wires were massive chunks of thick, beaten and scratched metal, like the thing was wearing armor.

It should have felt robotic. It should have felt lifeless. But as it lifted me and the car into the air, I caught sight of its eyes again and this time I knew that it saw me looking back.

The lizard hated me. Hated me specifically. Hated me personally. Hated me with passion that dwarfed its massive body, that dwarfed this whole hideous planet.

And then it raised me above its head, let its massive jaws grind open again and dropped me inside.