“Yes, exactly.”
Khoth began threading his way between unknown machinery towards what appeared to be a ladder. The cockpit, as he recalled from training, was in the bowels of the ship, not the tip. So they should go down.
“Do you… ah, do you know where the cockpit is?” Jace asked.
“Down,” Khoth answered briskly.
“Do you know how to fly this ship?” Jace asked.
Khoth’s progressed slowed slightly. “I… no, but--”
“Well, I do,” Jace said, sounding slightly triumphant.
We trained on this! Gehenna exclaimed excitedly.
She was following after them, tucking her tentacles close in as possible as if she was frightened of being infected by the Khul larvae, even though that was impossible in any form she took unless it was organic. The cleaning bot body was not in any danger.
“Yes, we did!” Jace agreed with her. “And I remember you thinking it was maybe overkill to think I’d ever be piloting a Khul ship, but I was like: I want to pilot everything!”
“Your enthusiasm for flying has paid off,” Khoth stated, feeling genuine relief. “That is an excellent thing. I will still go first to the cockpit in case--”
“AH!”
Jace’s scream had him whirling around--rahir brought up for a strike--when he realized that there was no Khul there to be struck down. Jace was looking into the clear faceplate of one of the pods, into the wide open eyes of one of the humans.
It was a woman. He gauged her age to be somewhere around Jace’s. She had blond hair that was slicked back from her head. The humans were encased in a kind of gel that started the softening process to make them easily digestible for the larvae. There was a hose that pumped air into the human’s lungs. The hose was shoved down their throats and a harder gel substance closed over the mouth and nose. The gel glowed a phosphorescent green. Through that translucent material the human’s eyes were a muddy color, but they were awake, alert and full of agony and fear.
“She’s conscious…” Jace breathed. “Not just alive, but aware.”
“Yes.”
Khoth’s voice was thick, full of emotion, as Daesah’s face--which had had this same expression--flashed before his face. No, not the same. Hers had been one of knowledge. She had known what awaited her.
This young woman only knew an unreasoning terror. She, undoubtedly, felt the larvae moving underneath her skin, separating it from the fat and muscle and bone. Larvae would be nesting and growing in her organs, too, but not large enough yet to cause the large cysts that would burst and release them. There was a muffled sound. It was coming from the young woman. She was trying to talk--or perhaps scream--around the tube that kept her alive in the gel.
“We’ve got to get her out of there!” Jace cried.
And his hands were going towards the release controls, a simple lever that would drain the gel and discharge the body from the pod.
“NO!”
Khoth grabbed Jace, wrapping his arms around Jace’s body, pinning Jace’s arms to his sides in a terrific bear hug Jace went rigid before he started to fight. Thrashing and kicking and full of indignation and anger.
“What are you doing?” Jace shouted. “Let me go, Khoth! She’s in agony! We have to--”
“Set her free, but not this way. Remember?” Khoth asked softly. “We cannot let her out of the pod. We cannot touch her. She is infected. There is only one method to aid her and it is not this one.”
Jace’s hard body suit didn’t allow him to feel Jace’s muscles go limp. But the young man stopped moving and sagged forward in his arms. He could hear Jace’s breathing--hard gasps, even though he hadn’t been truly exerting himself--over their comm. There was nothing else. No words. No crying. Just deep, deep breaths as Jace tried to control his Xi and Xa. Khoth let him alone to do it, offering only the strength of his arms to hold the young man up. When he was certain that Jace would not go for that lever again, Khoth released him and took only one step away. Just in case.
You were right, Mother. Bringing Jace here, showing him this, was the way to motivate him to fight, Khoth thought with almost despair. He will never forget this. It is being seared into his memory with every waking second.
The young woman’s eyes were bugging out of her head then as she realized that Jace wasn’t going to let her out. They were wide with pleading, wide with pain. Jace did not look away and neither did Khoth. They both needed to see what they were fighting for, even him. If they looked away, that would be cowardice. At least they could offer her their attention, even if she believed that they were abandoning her.
Three larvae--black squiggles beneath the young woman’s skin--slithered up her right cheek and then dove deep, going through an opening in her skull to nest in her brain. She jerked and shuddered as they disappeared. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as if she were having a fit. She collapsed forward, floating and unconscious, and then her head lolled back on her neck like a too-heavy flower on a too-slender stem. Her right eye was now black as larvae circled within it.
Khoth’s stomach churned. He heard a sharp intake of breath from Jace. He reached up to touch his own skin and, thankfully, found instead the closed helmet. Yet, he still imagined the wiggling sensation under his own flesh.
“Gehenna,” Jace said, his voice cracked with anguish and rage, “while Khoth and I take control of this ship, I want you to--to end these people’s suffering. Can you do that?”
