Darcy?

Ridgeway spun around and stared into the long dark cavern. "No, NO!! Hold your fire, hold your fire!"

He turned back to the truck where the Spider had clamsh.e.l.led the cabin apart and now crushed the truck's sidewall down into the lake, exposing the cargo within. Mechanical arms reached inside, lifting the bound blocks of thermalite into view.

From within the core of the creature's ruined frame, the tear-streaked face looked at Ridgeway before the eye closed and the head bowed low. It raised the incendiaries high overhead.

It'll blow the skid. Ridgeway saw the chain reaction, ma.s.sive heat rising to engulf the vehicle above.

He choked out a whisper. "The thermalite Darcy, hit the therm" as he dove beneath the surface.

A streak of white-hot plasma ripped through the air and slammed into the wire-strewn package. Even underwater the shockwave hit Ridgeway like a sledgehammer as twenty kilos of thermalite transformed the truck, the Spider and a couple thousand gallons of coolant into a column of superheated steam that rose like a nuclear cloud. With a temperature of over eighteen hundred degrees, it enveloped the overstressed skid.

The gravitic core of the skid went off like a suitcase nuke. Huge chunks of rock rained from above, crashing down on the charred bit of lake bed that until moments ago had been the truck and the Ascension's last guardian.

CHAPTER 41.

Taz found Dan Ridgeway flat on his back, drifting in and out of consciousness. Blood ran in red rivulets from both of his ears, pooling in the hollows above his collarbones.

"Majah! Can you hear me?"

Ridgeway's eyes drifted for a moment, rolling beneath half-closed lids before they fixed on the anxious corporal. His right hand rose awkwardly.

"Crikey but you've been through the b.l.o.o.d.y meatgrinder." He tried to count the injuries that criss-crossed the figure at his feet but even gross a.s.sessment proved daunting. Taz couldn't tell where one injury ended and the next began. "Don't worry Majah, we got you reserved at a table for one."

Ridgeway's expression remained distant.

"Just as well," Taz muttered. Ridgeway hadn't seen the machine used properly. Even now Merlin lay in quiet repose as his injuries were pieced together with microscopic care. He hefted Ridgeway from the ground, careful to avoid needless josteling.

"Can you walk?" Taz shouted, hoping to penetrate the haze that seemed to enshround the bigger man.

Ridgeway nodded slowly and he took a hesitant step. His weight wobbled aimlessly.

"Whoa there Majah," Taz said firmly, "let's take it one step at a time there, eh?"

The senior Marine pulled up short and waved a hand toward the bowl-shaped depression burned into the rock. "Not alien," he stammered, the shattered arm swinging aimlessly.

The grey dome of Taz' helmet bobbed. "Yeah, we know." his voice was solemn. "St.i.tch found some kind of log. It tells the whole story."

Ridgeway's left hand clutched Taz' collar in a sudden grip and the Marine stood fully erect. "The cube." His eyes danced rapidly around the surface of the lake. "Did we save it?"

"It's fine Majah," Taz interjected, patting his hand against Ridgeway's fractured chestplate. "Tucked safe and sound."

Taz felt the sudden tension drain from Ridgeway's body, weight sagging once more against his shoulder. "Pretty clever idea using the truck and all." He tossed a nod back toward the crater. "Punched a right clean hole through the ceiling."

He glanced up at the circle of light that sparkled down from the cavern's black sky. Searchlights swung back and forth along the rim. Marines above, the invasion force, had secured what was left of Cathedral and were already dropping emergency supplies.

"Bet they b.l.o.o.d.y well s.h.i.t their knickers when the floor fell out, eh?" Taz hitched Ridgeway's bulk a little higher. "So how'd ya set it off?"

"Railgun," Ridgeway said, his voice a little clearer in tone. "Shot the Thermalite."

Taz stopped short and rocked his head abruptly. "Railgun--" He paused in mid-sentence as his mind replayed the terrible scene on the edge of the Hive. "But Majah, we didn't find the LTs rifle."

"Lucky you." The ragged voice echoed in from the left. "If you'd touched my rifle I'da had to kick your a.s.s."

Taz felt a sudden rush as the sniper emerged from the fog, the long silhouette of the rifle in her grasp. Like Ridgeway, her armor was a scorched, broken wreck.

"LT!" Taz spun so hard that Ridgeway almost slipped from his grasp. "I don't, I-- s.h.i.t LT, you were dead, flatlined."

Darcy limped to a stop. Charred bits of ash flaked away as she removed her facemask. Taz took a sharp breath as she looked up. Tiny pinpoints of ember light sparkled among the blackened stretch of flesh along her throat.

"Yeah. I was," she said quietly, then added with a shrug, "at least I think so." The sniper raised a hand and tapped at the neckline of her armor where the swath of burned flesh dipped out of view. "That b.a.s.t.a.r.d I gutshot went kamikaze on me; don't know what he had but it went off right in my face. Everything went black. Dead black." She paused and took a slow breath. "Next thing I know, something hit my chest like a thousand volts and the lights came back on."

"Crikey," Taz muttered, shaking his head slowly. "No wonder the b.l.o.o.d.y creepy-crawlers could suck up so much and keep coming back."

"Yeah, maybe so." She looked back towards the Hive and her voice lost all emotion. "I just wonder how far the similarity goes."

"What, you mean you going all buggy on us?" Taz shook his head emphatically. "Ain't gonna happen."

A glower pa.s.sed across Darcy's eyes as she jerked a thumb back towards the Hive. "Tell that to them."

Taz shook his head. "You're asking the wrong bloke for a science lesson. Merlin can explain it better than I can. It's like they're all a one big brain, right, each little bug talking to each other."

"Yeah, neural processing, so?"

"Well, the more you get, the smarter the brain gets. Only the guys that built em didn't know that the bugs could talk over a distance. So instead of a bunch of little brains, they got one big brain. The ones in their bodies, the ones in the ship, zillions and zillions fixing everything, all on the same channel and all getting creative. Pretty soon the little bugs could throw away the rulebooks and make parts out of just about anything. All the little buggars had to go on was keeping things running, not how it looked. Improvisations compounded." He paused and looked down at his feet. "So did the errors. Only these poor b.a.s.t.a.r.ds didn't figure that part out until it was way too late."

"So I'm not gonna--?"

"h.e.l.l no, not s'long as you get out of here and don't go back on the table again. Two runs puts too many in your system and all bets are off." Taz shifted to an oddly encouraging tone. "You ain't gonna be alone either. Merlin got tore all to s.h.i.t and he's on the table now. St.i.tch'll hit it after we get the Majah fixed up. He's busted up pretty bad, so we're likely to be two hours before I bring up the tail of the dog."

"You look like you came through all right."

Taz shrugged then looked Darcy in the eye. "You go, we go. We're a team."

Darcy opened her mouth as though to speak, then simply nodded and reached out a fist. Taz thumped it roughly and they turned to the entrance of Papa-Six when Darcy added, "What about Monster? Don't tell me he's still pushing his tough-guy routine."

The Aussie's voice fell to a somber note. "Gunny didn't make it."

Darcy stopped in her tracks. "No--"

Taz nodded a grim affirmation as the breath flowed from his body. "Yeah. He saved my a.s.s. Guess he needed some of them little crawlies of yours in his blood."

"Like h.e.l.l." The gravel voice was far too deep to have come from Darcy's throat. Taz flicked a reflexive glance at Ridgeway before his head snapped to Papa-Six. The figure that lay crumpled against the hull looked like an old piece of wreckage dredged up from the sea floor. A single word exploded from Taz' throat, "Gunny!"

Monster raised a gauntlet from the lake and offered the weakest of waves before the hand dropped once more with a splash. Taz and Darcy hauled Ridgeway quickly across the gap in a flurry of questions.

For the next several minutes Monster was forced to recount his fall and survival. "I just hung on," he repeated, "and let that sonofab.i.t.c.h take the impact." He emphasized the point with a knuckle-down jab of his fist. "It took me a while to pull my s.h.i.t together and crawl out here."

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, Gunny. I looked for you, I swear. I got nothing on--"

"The TAC?" Monster interjected as he reached out and thumped the dome of Taz' helmet with an armored finger. "The same TAC I'd been off since getting my a.s.s chewed back in the Hive?"

Taz felt a tightening in his chest. "Oh s.h.i.t."

"Stow it, you had a mission and you stuck with it." Monster added with far softer a tone than Taz expected, "about d.a.m.n time, too."

"Well boys," Darcy cut in, "you both can enjoy a nice hug or whatever, but somebody's gotta get the boss to Sickbay. And if you think I'm hauling your oversized b.u.t.t up the Tower," she nudged Monster with her knee as a tired smile broke out across her face "you're forgetting-- I'm just a girl."

"s.h.i.t," Monster chuffed as he waved Darcy away like shooing a pet. "You take your skinny b.u.t.t upstairs, girl, I have a real Marine to lean on."

Taz found himself chuckling at the playful banter before the compliment registered. He snapped a glance at Monster then turned back to Darcy. "I can handle this LT, you go on with the Majah."

He caught the momentary flash of the sniper's eyes as they tracked back and forth between the two men. Her smile softened and she said with a nod "I can see that. Then I leave this mess of a sergeant in your capable hands." She turned away, steering Ridgeway towards the hole in the hull before she added over her shoulder, "Oh hey, Taz?"

"Yeah?"

"Be sure to grab that claymore I stuck by the door. I'd hate to see one of our rescue boys get spread across the lake."

"Rojah that," Taz replied crisply. "I'm on it." He stood quietly as Darcy and Ridgeway disappeared through Papa-Six, then turned to the rec.u.mbent sergeant. "You know you gotta go too."

Monster struggled to his feet, sloshing unsteadily as he rose. "Don't need any d.a.m.n bugs," he muttered.

Taz ignored the comment as he knelt to look for the errant claymore. His hand slid quietly along the surface of the hull until it met the small flat brick. Data blurred across the TAC until three words appeared, INERT, IFF ACTIVE and DETONATE. He decremented the status from the second to the first, disabling the mine's sensors before he pulled it free.

"No choice now Gunny, it's a team thing." Taz turned, flipping the mine in one hand. "Darcy didn't get a choice, and Merlin didn't either. I made the call for the rest of us; they go so we all go."

"You made the call?" Monster barked incredulously. "I leave you alone for five minutes and now you're running things?"

"You were dead, mate," Taz slapped the mine against Monster's belly, "and corpses don't get a vote."

Monster clamped his left hand on the mine as Taz shifted beneath the sergeant's ma.s.sive right arm. "So that was your plan, no forethought, everybody dive into the unknown together?"

"Just learning from the examples set by my commanding officers Gunny." Taz said with a shrug.

Monster began to reply, then paused.

Taz seized the chance to change the subject. "Well, look at it this way Gunny, St.i.tch'll hit you with some kinda c.o.c.ktail that'll put you on the dark side of the moon for the whole ride. You won't have to go through the b.l.o.o.d.y awful s.h.i.t the Rimmer went through."

"You have no f.u.c.king idea what I went through." The synthetic voice trembled, wet and tw.a.n.gy.

Taz and Monster turned at the sound, their eyes agape at the silhouette that loomed in the fog.

One of them, Taz realized with a start, and yet much less so. The thing was far more humanoid in shape than the others, bipedal at least, though its legs seemed nothing like those of a man. Gears spun in the twin pillars that carried the fleshy torso above the surface of the lake. Torn strips of rubbery orange fabric were grafted in uneven patches across its skin, making room for the additional ma.s.s of motors and electronics contained with the body. Although the head now sprouted an ugly cl.u.s.ter of optic sensors along the left side of his skull, most of the human face still remained. Taz's gut twisted as he recognized the features.

Jenner.

"b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l, it's the f.u.c.king Rimmer!" Taz spat the words in a combination of shock and anger.

"h.e.l.l ish right" the strange voice wheezed. Even with all of the physical changes, the cleft lip persisted. "h.e.l.l again and again."

The mechanized human raised one arm, its hand replaced with a wicked set of metal claws. Jenner watched the finger-blades snap back and forth with pneumatic speed. "Thought I wash one of them," he slurred, "sho much in me after the shecond time I could hear them, shee them in my mind."

He looked up. "They could shee me too." The right half of Jenner's split lip curled and his voice quavered. "That came for me. Took me... home." At the last word his voice broke into sobs.

Suddenly Jenner's face curled into a knot as the eyes fixed on Taz. The distorted hybrid clanked forward as the bladed hand pointed. "You did thish to me."

"I'm not the one who stole all the b.l.o.o.d.y food, you stupid git. You hauled your stupid a.s.s up on that table all on your b.l.o.o.d.y own."

"f.u.c.k you!" Jenner scowled. Both arms flew up as he charged.

With a sudden nonchalance that bordered on disregard, Taz turned to Monster and grabbed the curved object from his right hand. "D'ya mind?"

Taz spun back towards Jenner, putting the full might of his armor into the pitch. The dark blur rifled across the s.p.a.ce at a murderous speed and slammed into Jenner's torso.

Jenner rocked from the impact and stumbled several paces back before he regained his balance. The misshapen head shook several times as if to clear his thoughts, ignoring the object imbedded in his ribcage. Jenner swallowed hard and slowly exhaled a cloud of fog. "You shtill don't get it do you?" The man-machine sneered, "You don't have your d.a.m.n guns, you can't hurt me bad enough to kill me."

"Wrong again, s.h.i.thead. Have a look."

Jenner's gloat faded as his eyes swung down to the curved brick in his chest. Fiery pinpoints already glittered around the dark shape, casting an ember-hued light that highlighted the words embossed in the casing.

FRONT TOWARDS ENEMY.

"oh shi--"

Before the thing that had been David Jenner could utter its final curse, Taz watched his TAC register the change from INACTIVE to DETONATE.

A moment later the two Marines stood quietly as the last bits of Jenner splashed down across the surface of the lake.

"All right," Monster admitted grudgingly, "that was a good plan."

"Yeah, thanks."

They turned back towards Papa-Six and Monster draped himself across Taz' shoulder as they edged their way into the glowing pool.

"We probably should have just shot him at the start." Monster muttered as he went below the surface.

"Hey, I tried to tell ya, but did anybody listen..."

The voices were lost as they slipped through Papa-Six.