By the grace of God, Holly had travelled back to Sci-Med with Stocky and without any sight of the creature. Their rapid journey gave her new hope that they would find Patterson unharmed. They still might have to fight on the way back, but there would be three of them. She was wrong to have tried to stop him.
Their momentary relief then evaporated when they entered the airlock. Stocky checked the status of Sci-Med Gate and saw that both airlocks showed that they had recently been used. The Gate was no longer safe – not for them, and not for Patterson.
He entered first and verified the nearby area was clear. Then he affixed a wireless camera in the overheads to the hallway and he told her to hide and try to lure Pazuzu. They left a large duffle bag – containing Patterson’s equipment – in airlock access.
She hid in a nearby storage room, gripping her laser pistol with a feverish grip while Stocky waited within a locker in airlock access. The Creature had to pass by him to get to her. She would bait it with noise and Stocky would strike it from behind. He should have a good chance to kill it with one blow with his strength. That was the plan anyways, and their fortune had been outstanding so far. But now they had to fight.
She struck an equipment rack with a wrench again, putting a lot of force in it to make sure the sound carried. Then she waited with her pistol aimed at the door. She barely saw a somewhat man shaped silhouette appear on her tablet, which was capturing the camera’s video feed. The smoke was undermining visibility to a larger degree than they had hoped.
But if she could see him then so could Stocky. And he also had other means to ID the intruder – like smell.
Her pulse was racing. She stared at the screen trying to determine who was their enemy. It stalked through the smoke with an alert, tactical pose. It wasn’t feral like those creatures they had faced on the Mess. And yet it clearly wasn’t Patterson. Even with the low visibility she could tell that the person didn’t have the chest. That must be a thrall made from De Silva.
She then saw a much larger figure appear near it and strike it. She simultaneously heard the enemy’s body shatter by the blow of Stocky’s mace and collapse. Her heart surged with both surprise and joy. She released the coughing she had been holding in, picked up the flamethrower stashed beside her, and rushed out into the smoky hallway, ready to shoot at another enemy. Stocky was towering over the remains of Chandna. Just another thrall.
Splatters of blood had littered the hallway. Stocky’s bludgeon had struck Chandna’s right shoulder and sank deep into the chest. The blow had nearly severed the android’s right arm. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much pooled beneath Chandna’s crumpled body, and she reasoned that the android had already lost much of its blood during the many operations that left it so heavily bandaged.
Stocky tossed away the locker panel that he used as a shield and pulled his enormous, flanged mace out of the android’s broken body. A last burst of electrical sparking crackled, and a final spray of blood splattered his surroundings.
She cautiously kept her aim on the fallen enemy. “Is it scrap?”
“Terminated,” he said. He turned in the direction of Reception and the main hall and shouted, “Amanda!”
“James!” Patterson screamed in a distant room. “I’m in examination!”
He hurried down the halls, coughing some because of the smoke. She followed along behind him, coughing more. And she cautiously surveyed Reception and the other rooms they passed by through her weapon’s sights. She came to examination and then stayed at the doorway to keep watch, frequently looking down both ends of the hallway.
Patterson had her wrists and ankles tied to the railings, and Stocky cut those bonds with a knife. She promptly hugged him. “You came back,” she said, her red cracked eyes wide open. She looked over the paint on their EVA suits.
“Of course I came back,” he said. He made her lay back down and he began to smell her all over.
Holly watched him in surprise, but she understood his intentions. That’s so weird. She turned away to yawn. She didn’t want that catching.
He soon turned toward her with excitement. “She smells right.”
She coughed again and cleared her throat. “Good, we might not get to walk unnoticed through Aux Two next time.”
Patterson got up and rushed her. “Give me the flamethrower,” she said. She snatched it out of Holly’s hands and then kicked a canister off a tray and torched the small, disgusting gelatinous mass inside of it. The revolting thing writhed when the fire engulfed its body and then disappeared within Patterson’s continuous spray of flame. The smoke and heat soon triggered the fire suppression system and they had to evacuate to the hallway.
Holly was at first alarmed by Patterson’s aggressive behavior, but that soon changed to encouragement. She was glad that they all seemed ready for a fight. But she wondered why Patterson seemed to have such hatred for whatever that creature was. “What was that?”
“Something from Hell,” Patterson said, panting. “We can’t make peace with Pazuzu. Do you still have the data?”
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“Yeah.” She patted her chest, signaling that she had her copy of Sci-Med’s files underneath her EVA suit.
“I have mine too,” Stocky said.
“The sample boxes are already loaded on the Piloting Module,” Holly said. “So one of us can launch at any time after we get back to Command.”
“Where are the others?” Patterson asked.
She wished she knew. And she hated to think the reason why they had left her in the accessway after the fire was because they couldn’t trust her. “Moussa and Samoylova should still be alive. But they haven’t answered comms, and I think comms is starting to fail. I met Stocky, or James, as he was evacuating Farm. He thought you had become trapped by the fire and came back here. You two are on a first name basis now?”
Patterson nodded.
“We’ve been through a lot you don’t know about,” James said, grinning.
Seems that way. “It’s a good name.”
James nodded. “It’s simple and has history.”
She looked at Patterson. “Can you fight? We brought your EVA suit. We need to quickly find the others.”
Patterson nodded. “I’m tired and sore, but I can fight.”
She was glad to hear it. It would take the might of angels to get through Pazuzu.
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James led Patterson to her office while thinking about how fortunate they had been. He had eliminated another Pazuzu-thrall (which he had not known about) and now had a three-person team. It would now take the best effort of all of them to fight their way back and then fortify Command. And most of that effort would come from him and Patterson. The humans simply weren’t in the same class as the entity threatening them.
He also felt tremendous relief. He had left her vulnerable by splitting up. Even working in different places in a single Gate was too big of a risk to take. They would stay together from now on.
He shut the door behind them and laid her pressure suit on her desk. They both had a mild fit of coughing upon entering the room, even though the air was better here than in the smokey hall. He did worry some about their coughing. Was it a lingering effect from the urticant gas, the poor quality of the air in Sci-Med, or was Pazuzu’s microbes finally overcoming them?
He reasoned there was nothing they could do if it was the last one. But he kept such worries buried deep in his mind. He needed to focus on breaking through Aux Two. And so did she.
He draped her EVA suit across her desk, and which was of the same make as worn by Holly and himself. It was of the lighter variety used on the ship. But it was still tough enough to take substantial impacts and it wasn’t as cumbersome as the ones used earlier when boarding the alien derelict.
“We painted the suits. It should reflect most of the laser energy from the weapons stored in Aux Two’s locker. And even though these light EVA suits aren’t bulletproof, they’ll do well enough for you and me.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “I got weapons for you by the airlock.”
She stood looking up at him instead of the suit. She didn’t seem afraid. But he had to wonder how well she was paying attention.
He squeezed her arm reassuringly. “I’ll always come back for you.”
She flung her arms around him. He wished he wasn’t in a pressure suit. He longed to feel her touch. He caressed her back with gloved hands, imagining the feel of her soft hair and smooth skin.
“I love you, James,” she said. She began to cry.
Don’t do that. He leaned in toward her ear and whispered. “I’ve always loved you.”
She backed away while shaking her head and wiping her eyes. “No, but I know you do now.” She pulled off her shirt and stood in front of him in her bra, watching his eyes. Dark scabs were already beginning to form on her skin but even still she looked radiant. “We don’t look our best, do we?” she asked.
He looked in her eyes, now with bags underneath them, and then glanced at her breasts before looking in her eyes once more. She was trying to be a tease and he wouldn’t make that easy. “We just need some rest.” And more like a full weekend.
“Hm,” she mumbled. She bent over and took off her shoes, flaunting her cleavage. Her boobs jiggled with her forced movements and appeared to almost fall out of the cups of her bra.
He could feel his pulse spiking while watching her, knowing this was intentional. She stood back up and then slid her pants off and stood before him in her panties. She gazed in his eyes without fear and with a subtle grin. He instinctively breathed her redolence and lost control of his mind. His gaze wandered down her hourglass torso and focused in between her legs.
She seemed aware of his focus and rubbed her hands down the sides of her body, steering his attention. Unbearable tension surged through his veins, his heart pounding furiously in response. His penis uncomfortably swelled underneath his suit’s fabric, and it really wasn’t made for that.
He became lost in a world of imagination. He savored her look of surprise while pushing her down on her desk. And the same with her new position. There was something sweetly satisfying about smashing the boss on her own desk.
He undid the hooks of her bra and relished the silky touch of her skin against his own. And also the merging of her scent with his own. He held her close while she closed the soft flesh of her thighs around him. Everything he wanted was so close.
He remembered that Holly was waiting out in the hallway. They had to fight and regroup, but he pushed such memories from his mind. He could afford a few short moments with Amanda but not even one distraction. And he brought her head towards him for a kiss while climbing up on the desk and laying her back. Her fingers pressed into the skin on his back while her legs spread apart.
A hand lightly slapped him, waking him from his daydream to see her looking up into his eyes, grinning mischievously. How much was she aware of? He already had his hands on her ribs and was holding her close. Her scent was close. God, that was a good dream? Her desk wasn’t even large enough for sex.
He felt unbearable tension and didn’t want to wait to get to Command. But it was what they needed. He ran his fingers through her hair while gazing in her eyes. “You can’t do this to me right now.” Pazuzu wanted to fight and he needed to want that too!
Her smile widened with a radiance he had never before known.
His hands shook while caressing her. He couldn’t control this. He turned away, opened the door, and stepped into the hall. “I’ll let you get dressed. Let’s be ready for a fight because Pazuzu will be.”
He shut the door to give her privacy and walked a bit down the hall. His racing pulse filled him with tension – the wrong form of energy. She smelled so right. But he needed to refocus. He needed to wait even after reaching Command. He could take her after about a day of rest and healing. God, help me with self-control.
Killing was easy when he put his mind to it – although he would never tell anyone that. He typically wasn’t supposed to kill, and never had, but man had crafted him with that task in mind. Killing probably wouldn’t be easy for either of his companions though. Just maybe Amanda was fit for this – he hoped she was never actually scared by her monster films. The wise path was to not count on it.
But he was thrilled knowing that she now wanted him too.