I know! But Khoth! I can’t reach him! Jace grunted out as he was practically climbing the duct now with his feet on the walls to brace himself as he hauled himself upwards. He’s not answering me. I can’t get a hold of him!
There was a very long pause.
The sweat went cold as ice on his skin as he listened to that pause. He stopped climbing.
Jace, don’t stop! Gehenna cried. You still have a chance to make it!
What about Khoth? Jace wasn’t moving.
He’s… he’s… you’ve got to keep going, Jace! Gehenna cried. Keep going! You can make it!
Gehenna! Jace commanded. Where is Khoth?! TELL ME NOW!
He’s pinned behind you, Gehenna said with a wretched gasp in her voice. He turned off his comm. I’m guessing that he doesn’t want you to come back. Because if you do, you won’t make it out and–
That idiot! That big blue idiot! Jace swore.
You’re the Pilot, Jace. A lot more people than Khoth depend upon you, Gehenna said with such sadness in her voice. Khoth knows this and that’s why he–
We don’t leave people behind, Gehenna, Jace said and unbraced his feet from the sides of the shaft.
No, Jace! She cried. Oh, I knew you were going to do that!
He slid down so much faster than he had crawled up. He tried not to think about how hard it would be to retrace his steps, how much time he was losing right now. He twisted his head and realized that the duct had collapsed behind him. He heard muffled sounds of laser fire.
Show me the schematics of this place! He demanded.
Immediately, he saw that there was a room to his left and that Khoth was still in the duct but fighting two Omull. Without even requesting it, calculations flashed before his mind’s eye, telling him that he could bust through to the room with some well-paced pistol fire.
He got his pistol out of its holster and by turning and twisting his body was able to hit the weak spots that had the duct and room wall giving way. He burst out of the opening, firing where the heat signatures were even as he couldn’t see anything, but a dark haze from the particles of disintegrating Hive all around him. The two Omull went down. Jace swung his head around towards the heat signature that was Khoth. The Thaf’ell Commander emerged from the duct after using his feet to kick the wall out of the way.
“Jace, what have you done?!” Khoth growled.
“I’m saving you!” Jace snapped.
“No! You’ve just managed to condemn us both! I--”
“Gehenna, I want you to take the ship out of the Hive. Put it in orbit. Pilot it here,” Jace told her even as he sent a coordinate.
“What are you–” Khoth began.
Jace, I won’t leave you! Gehenna protested.
“We’re not going to make it back to the hangar bay, but we can literally blast our way through the Hive. Everything’s falling apart,” Jace explained even as he felt the floor starting to give a little beneath his feet. “We can survive in these suits in space. For a little while anyways.”
The thought of jumping into the vacuum of space had Jace’s stomach doing jumping jacks in his chest. But he knew it was the only way. And the Osiris–for he was certain it was the Osiris now–agreed. It was showing him how to make his insane plan work. The orange arrow showed him the exact direction they needed to go, where they needed to shoot the walls and how he could use one of the grenades he had to blast the Hive’s outer hull.
That’s an insane plan! Gehenna responded. But let’s do it!
Damn straight! Jace told her.
“The odds of this plan succeeding–”
“Didn’t I tell you I don’t want to hear the odds, Khoth?!” Jace let out another hysterical bark of laughter. “We’re going to make it!” He holstered his pistol and brought out his draagves. “Shoot where I do!”
And the two of them were shooting through walls and busting through into hallways then other rooms then more hallways. The Khul were in such a panic that the Omull and Cetixes were in such a panic over what was happening to their ship that they weren’t going after him and Khoth. But when they did get in the way, the two of them blasted the Khul without hesitation. But the Khul were not the true danger as they came across a hallway that was filled with the gel containing the larvae. It was running down the hallway like a river of filth. Jace reared back. Khoth grabbed him around the waist and they leaped over the material.
Please let them not be able to drill through the soles of our boots! Jace repeated with horror even after they had left the river of larvae behind.
