But the ceilings and floors were faltering too. And the heavy tanks that contained the humans and the larvae were starting to sink through. There was a terrible crack when they bashed into one room. Jace’s head shot towards the ceiling just in time to see a tank’s bottom start to emerge. He and Khoth fired straight ahead at the next wall as they continued to run and blasted through it just as the tank crashed behind them. He heard a wet splat as water and larvae–and maybe softening human–splattered on the walls, and floor of the room they’d just escaped.
He hoped to any god out there that the humans were dead. He prayed that they were before this happened to them.
“How much farther?” Khoth asked as one of his boots punched through the floor.
Jace helped him yank it out before they were blasting and running again.
“One more room! It’s a hangar bay!” Jace told him as they entered the final room before the outer hull.
Similar to the one that they had been brought into, this hangar bay though had no needleship as it was down on Earth. The hangar bay doors though were closed and Jace saw no way of opening them except with the grenade. He held up an arm to stop Khoth before he brought up one of the grenades that was attached to his belt.
“There are jets on the suits,” Jace told Khoth. “We should be able to navigate to the Khul ship.”
“Jace, the likelihood of us surviving and making our way--”
“It’ll work! Trust me!” Jace cried. “The Osiris has got this planned.”
“Ah, I see that my suit is now being operated by the AI as well,” Khoth stated.
“This is our only shot,” Jace told him.
“Yes,” Khoth answered.
They stared at one another through their faceplates.
“If this doesn’t work–”
“It most likely will not,” Khoth informed him dryly.
Jace swallowed. “Yeah, well, it’s been awesome getting to know you. Really, if there is an afterlife, I’m going to tell them you were the best part.”
Khoth’s eyebrows lifted. “I will do the same.”
There was no more time to say anything else.
Two presses activated the grenade. Jace then threw it at the hangar bay doors before grabbing Khoth and bringing them both behind some of the stacked and empty pods to use as a makeshift shield.
The blast had Jace’s ears ringing, but that was the last of his worries as he, Khoth and the pods were all sucked out of the huge opening that appeared in the Hive’s side. The two of them shot out of the Hive and into space.
The silence of space intensified the ringing in Jace’s ears and he couldn’t hear Khoth calling for him. In fact, he was struck dumb with both awe and fear as he realized he was floating in the void. The cold already wrapped around him like a lover’s caress even as the suit’s systems strove to keep it at bay. He turned his head and he saw Earth, hanging below him, like some bright jewel. He also saw Khoth and beyond Khoth, the needle-like Khul spaceship.
I see you both! I’m slowing! I’m–oh, the Osiris has control! Gehenna sounded both shocked and annoyed.
Don’t fight it. It’s controlling us, too, Jace told her as his suit’s jets were expertly turned on and off to direct him towards an opening in the Khul ship.
Jace relaxed and let the Osiris take full control. He and Khoth both were both brought back into the Khul ship. As the opening closed behind them and gravity was re-established in the door lock, he and Khoth looked at one another.
“That should not have worked,” Khoth said.
“I know, but it did,” Jace told him with a laugh. “The Osiris made it happen.”
“Yes, but even with an AI, the room for error was vanishingly small,” Khoth protested.
I do not make errors, the Osiris said, not only in Jace’s head, but it appeared on both of their HUDs.
“Really? Because we were just hijacked and taken aboard a Khul Hive!” Jace put his hands on his hips. “Unless you had something to do with that!”
The Osiris said nothing.
