"How ya doing?" Merlin barked the question, his own voice thick with strain.

"How do you think," St.i.tch snarled. "Wonderin' when you're gonna quit lagging."

Merlin's facemask pivoted around. "Anytime you're up for a race, you let me know."

"Cold day in h.e.l.l when I can't outrun your candy a.s.sshhiiiit..." St.i.tch lost the words in a slur of profanity as he came down hard on the leg. His weight dragged sharply on Merlin's shoulder for several floundering yards before he found his stride once again.

The medic sucked a sharp breath and gasped, "Can't leave you behind anyway, Major'd have my a.s.s."

"d.a.m.n straight." Merlin hitched the medic's weight further up on his shoulder. The pair hooked left at the next intersection and slammed the brakes amid Merlin's sudden curse. "Son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

St.i.tch doubted that the characterization did justice to the obstruction in their path. It looked like the Grand b.i.t.c.h herself.

A tapered column of stone jutted up through the floor and extended well into the ceiling. Just a slice, St.i.tch realized, of a huge stalagmite, but wide enough to block most of the corridor.

St.i.tch looked back and forth before he slumped against a door in the right hand wall and struggled to cement his bearings. The door swung in beneath his weight and St.i.tch nearly fell in to the room beyond. He edged left until his hip found solid support on the doorframe, then bent forward and wheezed, "You figure this one." He threw a blind wave at the ma.s.sive barricade. "Gotta catch my breath."

St.i.tch struggled for air as Merlin paced slowly down the hall. The engineer's fingers tapped rapidly against his thigh as he surveyed the dead-end. When his head rocked up toward the ceiling, the fingers froze. St.i.tch followed the gaze.

The bottom half of a tool cart stuck down through the ceiling, the remainder all too easily pictured sticking up through the floor above. Though juxtaposed, neither showed signs of damage. They simply coexisted.

Merlin reached up with one hand and tapped the cart, hard armor ringing on sheet metal. He gripped one of the castor wheels and gave it a solid push. The cart held fast, fused into the framework of the ship. "I never woulda believed it."

"Wha.s.sat?" St.i.tch asked breathlessly.

"The whole wormhole bit." He nodded toward the ceiling. "s.h.i.t gets unsolid, stuff overlaps. This thing falls through the floor and gets stuck halfway. This is what happens when good science goes bad."

St.i.tch bobbed his head in return. "b.i.t.c.h luck huh? Zillion light years of empty s.p.a.ce and these poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds intersect with a rock."

Merlin's hands settled on his hips as he took a step back and looked once more at the huge spike of rock that pa.s.sed through the ship. "Guess it coulda been worse."

"How you figure?" St.i.tch could image few fates worse than the nightmare around him.

The engineer answered in a flat tone, his eyes never drifting from the obstruction. "Coulda come out inside a star."

St.i.tch fell silent, the recorded message still fresh in his mind. Survivors of the accidental jump found themselves trapped inside a ball of cold stone. Terraformers established a breathable atmosphere but with no sun and no soil, nothing grew. Years pa.s.sed in an endless fight to keep the ship alive. Appearing in the core of a sun would have been fatal, but at least it would be quick.

"Would you have done it?"

"Done what?"

"Put everybody back in cryo," St.i.tch said quietly as he patted the device on his side. "Leave a few beacons like this one and hope the tubes held out till somebody arrived."

The engineer didn't turn, but answered as he paced around the stalact.i.te. "s.h.i.t, I dunno." He shrugged and shook his head slowly. "Self-contained tubes, each one's supposed to last a couple hundred years. Popsicles don't eat, they don't need warm environments. As far as c.r.a.pshoots go, it probably had the best of limited odds."

A shudder pa.s.sed through the medic as he thought about the haggard narrator on the beacon's transmission. "I meant would you wanna be one of the guys who stayed out."

At that, Merlin turned and his head bowed with a sigh. "Somebody had to do it. h.e.l.l those guys kept s.h.i.t working on this tub two, maybe three times as long as anybody would have dared hope. n.o.body coulda guessed that it would go on that long."

"Immortality isn't all it's cracked up to be," St.i.tch muttered. "Not like that."

He drifted into silence as Merlin sorted through a pitifully small handful of supplies. "So what do we have left?"

Merlin took a knee and waved a hand over the spa.r.s.e artifacts. "You're looking at it, three strips of LSC, two bricks of Therm and a wad of Detonex."

St.i.tch picked up one of the metal strips and turned it slowly in his hand. An una.s.suming piece of channel by all appearance, St.i.tch knew the angled t.i.tanium was lined with a very fast high explosive. When detonated, the Linear Shaped Charge would produce an explosive scalpel that could slice a steel girder. But three strips wouldn't go far against a ton of rock.

A deep tremor echoed from somewhere astern. St.i.tch handed the explosive to Merlin and hopped along the wall back to the intersection.

Another tremor, this one even deeper in tone.

Getting closer, St.i.tch realized, close enough already to make out the thump of rapid footfalls. He drew the MP17 and popped the magazine from its well, glancing furtively at the few remaining rounds. With a slap, he re-seated the mag. His eyes never drifted from the hallway as he spoke.

"Whatever you're gonna do Merl, do it now."

Merlin's voice came back quickly, flattened by a detachment borne of focus. "How far?"

"Hard to tell, but it's coming fast." He listened to the growing volume. The crack of a bursting door reverberated sharply.

"A minute, ninety seconds on the outside." St.i.tch heard Merlin curse under his breath amid the sound of sledgehammer impacts.

The noise from astern grew louder, close enough now for St.i.tch to make out the whine of pneumatic pistons. "Make that forty five."

He glanced over his right shoulder to see Merlin wedged into the narrow gap along the left edge of the hall. Light poured through from the far side but the opening wouldn't possibly allow them to wriggle through. St.i.tch's eyes flicked aft once more. "Thirty seconds partner, if we're gonna get through that thing we need to move now."

His fingers closed on the subgun's molded grip and drew the stock firmly to his shoulder. "Twenty!"

The tremors resolved into frightening clarity, their source no more than one corner away from view.

Out of time, St.i.tch thought with grim resignation as he keyed the targeting laser. But I can buy Merlin a chance.

"Haul a.s.s, Merlin--" The shout was cut short by the crash of a heavy door that burst from the wall. Something huge slammed itself into the reinforced doorframe, a broad ma.s.s of short, stocky legs and huge snapping teeth. The fleeting image looked to St.i.tch like the h.e.l.lish child of a bulldog and a great white shark. The doorframe split with a brittle pang and Jaws surged through the gap.

St.i.tch squeezed the trigger and watched as starburst impacts rippled across the dark silhouette. The thunderous beat of charging feet devoured the subgun's chatter.

Something yanked St.i.tch backwards with great force, the subgun's final rounds scattering on an erratic line across the ceiling. Then the world was lost in darkness and the concussion of high explosives.

CHAPTER 35.

Ridgeway fought to keep the skid level as it hugged the ceiling. Smoke poured from the hole in the port side, an acrid black plume that marked the vehicle's path. The dead starship stretched out below them, specks of light glimmering from a million points across her ma.s.sive hull.

Two sharp bangs resonated from within the skid. Ridgeway gripped the controls against another lurch into bucking frenzy. Instead of turbulence, he got Taz.

"It's wired Majah!" The young Marine's upper torso popped up from the engine hatch. "The charge is planted right up against the coil housing. You set it off and sure as s.h.i.t the core'll go off like the fourth of b.l.o.o.d.y July."

"What broke down there?"

Taz fired off a dismissive wave. "Don't worry about it. The b.l.o.o.d.y bug tore a coolant line so the engine's running hot. Too much heat and the Detonex might cook off on it's own. I punched out a couple of floor plates to let the cold air come through."

Ridgeway nodded in approval, developing a fondness for the Aussie's brute force innovation. He tapped the command console and the skid lurched uneasily into a side-slip just below the ceiling. He dropped almost three meters to avoid a ridge of stalact.i.tes.

Three and an half might have been better, Ridgeway winced as the lowest spike of ebony rock clipped the skid and left fragments of brittle stone scattered across the deck. Taz rolled to one side as the broken spire missed him by inches.

The Aussie popped up and turned sharply toward the con but said nothing. Ridgeway could imagine the glare that burned behind the carbon mask. He shrugged and muttered, "Yeah, sorry."

Taz mumbled something and stepped around to the wheel. "Howzabout I drive and you check on Gunny?" The shoulder that b.u.mped Ridgeway to one side made it clear that the question was rhetorical. He looked down at the rec.u.mbent form propped against the bow ramp and said in a low tone, "It's yours, get us to the Papa-Three."

"Rojah that."

Ridgeway moved forward and dropped to one knee. Monster had a small touchpad in his hands, the device connected to his armor by a rope of fiber optics. The sergeant moved slowly, challenged by the task of fine motor control.

"How ya doin?" Ridgeway spoke over the din of the engine, trying not to shout.

"Like s.h.i.t." Monster slurred. His hand opened and allowed the touchpad to slip to the deck. "Life support is running but that's about it. Exo's shot."

Ridgeway had been stunned that Monster was alive at all. Still, he frowned as he processed the news. While Monster's armor could still provide heat and oxygen, the system of electroactive polymer cables that served as the armor's muscles had failed. The gravely injured Sergeant now wore un-powered armor.

"Lemme see." He placed a hand on Monster's right shoulder and stepped around to a.s.sess the damage. The sight made him draw a sharp breath.

Ragged trenches criss-crossed the pack that housed the power supply and vital systems. One of the thick scapular plates had torn away completely and the other was spider-webbed with fractures. The feed track for the Gatling hung broken and empty. Thick gobs of blood covered the ravaged mechanics.

"s.h.i.t Gunny, you've got--"

Monster's hand grabbed the front of Ridgeway's armor in a grasp that felt like the suit was still powered. He yanked Ridgeway so close that the two helmet domes touched. "n.o.body quits."

Ridgeway looked at the shawl of injuries, "Listen to me--"

"n.o.body," Monster said, his voice rock hard. "Are we clear?"

Ridgeway slumped, recognizing both the logic and the futility of argument. He nodded slowly. "Crystal."

Monster's grip relaxed and his deep voice softened as he extended the open gauntlet. "All right then. Give me a hand and let's kick this f.u.c.king door down."

CHAPTER 36.

Jaws rounded the corner so fast that it ripped away a piece of left-side wall before it skidded to a halt. Its immense mouth snapped convulsively, baring a crescent of jagged triangular teeth that scissored together like a piston-driven beartrap. Standing now in the dead-end strip of hallway, it shook in what seemed a frenzy of anger.

Nothing stood between the creature and the huge geologic obstruction. To the left, smoke drifted from a newborn cleft burned through the wall. The channel, too small for the creature's bulk, was barely large enough to allow a human to wriggle past the column of stone. Light poured from the far side of the scorched opening.

The shambling ma.s.s of junk stepped forward, spun back, then turned to the barrier. Mechanical feet shuffled until it threw itself at the gap with a fury. Powerful jaws tore ma.s.sive shark-bite chunks from the damaged wall as it ripped, thrashed and hammered its body into the widening crevice.

With a flash, the wads of Thermalite plastered along the top of the makeshift tunnel went off, a sudden spike of over eighteen hundred degrees. White-hot liquid steel poured down across the creature's back and legs. Particles of Thermalite burned craters through the creatures outer sh.e.l.l. One rear leg, knee poised high at the moment of incineration, came down a charred stump. In an explosion of sound that was at once organic and synthetic, the creature screamed.

St.i.tch watched Merlin roll out from behind the door, CAR in hand. The engineer's rifle burned a h.e.l.lish breach into the creature's flank. A second leg disintegrated under the merciless touch of covalence gone awry. Steam boiled from the gaping holes in Jaw's back as thermalite continued to blaze.

Wedged and unable to turn, the creature thrashed violently. It drove forward instead, away from the onslaught until it broke through with a sudden lurch and pitched forward to collapse on the floor beyond with a horrendous thump.

St.i.tch looked at Merlin, whose muzzle remained fixed on the smoking hole. He stared into the gap and watched for movement.

Only flame moved in the fissure, spreading fast. The Thermalite had kicked off a fire that now grew rapidly. Feeding on a smorgasbord of combustibles, the flames rolled up the wall and fanned out across the ceiling.

St.i.tch looked up as the fire oozed overhead like a living thing. He shouted over the growing roar. "If we're gonna go, we'd better go now." He pointed at the ragged gap left by the creature's pa.s.sage, now twice as wide as the one created by Merlin's small breaching charge.

For a moment he considered the strength needed to rip through that much steel. St.i.tch glanced at Merlin. "You figure it's dead?"

Merlin shrugged in a half-committal gesture. "Dead, dying or just p.i.s.sed off; either we go now or we cook. We'll figure the rest out on the other side." The engineer took St.i.tch's outstretched hand and hauled him to his feet.

With a groan St.i.tch hopped twice on his good leg to catch his balance. He put a hand on Merlin's shoulder and grumbled, "No time like the present." and the two Marines bolted into the flaming portal.

For a long moment St.i.tch felt like the entire world was made of fire. Molten liquids dripped like rain amid the rolling sheets of flame. Then they broke free and burst from the clouds of obscuring smoke.

St.i.tch split from Merlin as both men hurled themselves toward opposing walls. Eyes swept across the corridor their gazes merged on the floor ahead, on... nothing.

St.i.tch snapped around, a sick moment's fear that the creature had somehow mimicked their deception and lay in wait behind them. Only flame and rock stood to his rear. Less than a heartbeat elapsed before the he pivoted forward once more. "Clear" St.i.tch said with forced conviction.

"Clear" Merlin confirmed.

His eyes fixed on the darkness ahead, St.i.tch swallowed hard. "Figure it crawled off to die?"

"Dunno," Merlin replied mechanically. "Let's hope so." The engineer took several cautious steps forward, the CAR snapping from point to point as he advanced.

St.i.tch nodded and his arms went slack. The fading adrenaline rush was already giving way to a new wave of pain. He hobbled forward, one hand on the beacon while the other gripped the wall. "I don't wanna be here when it gets back."

Merlin shifted the CAR to his left hand and stepped under the medic's outstretched arm.

They covered two lengths of corridor before St.i.tch spotted turbolift doors at the end of the hall. Four levels above Sickbay, the two had to cover a lot of ground before they reached the Lobby floor. That still left a lot of climbing and hiking. As crippling spasms of pain crawled up his back, a thought flickered once more through the medic's mind.

Merlin grunted. "You really thinking about it?"

Beneath his mask, St.i.tch chuffed. "That transparent, huh?"

"s.h.i.t," Merlin muttered "If I had that leg I'd think about it. But do we have the time?"