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“I’m sorry,” I muttered as I used the lovely dagger Wrin had given me to pry at the join in the panel, levering the edge up until it released with a pop.
It swung wide to show a recessed alcove lined with computers.
“Yes!”
“Vivv?” Wrin said.
“I found the computer controls. I’m going to destroy those.”
“Good work.”
Easier said than done. I searched the various screens, each covered in an indecipherable alien language. But screens weren’t the important part of the computer. I needed the hard drives. What did an alien hard drive look like, again? Where they the little black boxes?
A door sounded behind me.
“Oh, good. You’re here. You can remind me which of these things are the hard drives.”
“What do you mean I’m there?” Wrin’s sharp voice cut through me like a lash.
I spun, my heart racing.
The door I’d come through remained closed, but one of the wall panels had opened to reveal a hidden entrance.
An alien marched out. About as tall as a Zaarn, it was covered in a thick gray hide. It had two arms, two legs, and a bald head topped with four black eyes.
“The Grug are here!” I snapped my blaster up into position. “The kind that can walk!”
I squeezed the trigger. A burst of red splashed across its torso, and the gray alien fell, eerily silent. Another marched right behind it, and another, and another. Just Grug as far into the hidden corridor as I could see.
They were going to overrun the room before the others ever got here, keep us from destroying the emitter. I couldn’t let that happen!
I spun and shot the computers, and sparks ran across the surface of the circuitry for a second as the screens flickered. Then everything stabilized, as perfect as could be.
“Fuck me,” I muttered and pulled out my knife.
I crouched down to get to the stuff below the screens, punching the knife into the plain black boxes over and over. I stabbed three times, whirled and shot the closest Grug, then stabbed three times again.
My panting breaths echoed inside my helmet, competing with the pounding of my heart and Wrin’s yells for the prize of “loudest thing ever.”
He was winning.
“Vivv, getoutof there! You get out of therenow!” He put the full snap of command behind each statement, and my muscles quivered, my body wanting to obey.
“It’s no good,” I gasped. “Even if I got back to the hallway, they’d only box me in. At least here I can do something.”
“Vivv!”
My heart broke at the anguish in his voice.
I shot another Grug, this time only winging the shoulder, so it kept coming.Damn it, Viv! You can’t afford to be sloppy.
Steadying my aim, I shot again, hitting it dead center, so it dropped to the floor in an unconscious heap. The next one stepped over it as if it were nothing, its creepy black eyes not even registering its downed comrade.
I shot a few more, creating a little barricade, and finally they had to stop and move the stunned Grug out of the way.
I spun back around. A few screens still flickered with life. I hunch walked further into the alcove and stabbed my knife into the boxes below them, whang, whang, whang.
The blows vibrated up my arm and echoed in the confined space in the most satisfying way.
