The door disappears into a void of white. By a clean trick of the eye the captured team cannot discern the boundaries of their cell. Aaron and Ross lie down on a couple of spartan benches while Tulia and Sweets probe the walls with their hands. They meet again at the back of the cell.
TULIA: This is a pretty sophisticated jail
for an out-of-the-way operation like this.
AARON: (arm across his face) Glad you
can appreciate the architecture.
TULIA: Are you still checking out on me?
ROSS: I would take another grenade
bursting my eardrums over this pain.
AARON: We must still be close to
where they are keeping her.
TULIA: If your princess wanted saving
would she leave the two of you like this?
SWEETS: What makes you think it's the angel?
TULIA: Were we affected?
SWEETS: Good point.
AARON: She must not realize
that we're here to help her.
TULIA: Yeah, but why fry your
brains and not the mercenaries?
ROSS: Excellent question. Can we just focus on how
we're going to get out of here so I can get
as far away from it as possible?
On the Shadow's Heart Valory turns her head to see Safe roll into the infirmary and plug into the control station. On the screen appears an exterior camera view of half-a-dozen armed men just outside the Shadow's Heart's loading ramp. She lets out a slight gasp and turns to Esben.
VALORY: They're in trouble.
Esben grunts his agreement without approaching to examine the monitor and lumbers out of the infirmary. She takes a couple steps to pursue before she is yanked by the arm back to one of the med beds.
NICODEMUS: (weak voice) Get it straight, little girl.
We're in trouble. Help me up.
VALORY: But what about Rune?
NICODEMUS: He's most of the way there.
Ask yourself, do you really want your hairy friend
to have to handle those mercenaries alone?
Or with only you there for back up?
He doesn't wait for an answer, but begins to sit up;
correctly assuming that she would try to support him.
His eyes bulge from the effort.
VALORY: What's wrong?
NICODEMUS: I'm dizzy? Hmmm. I might have given too much.
Ha! I might not be immortal anymore.
VALORY: Were you?
NICODEMUS: Ahhh (shoos at her).
VALORY: Can you fight?
NICODEMUS: Had some of the best feeling like this
at the Grim Grip. Just point me to the cargo hold.
A moment later Esben looks over his shoulder
and snarls at Valory's companion.
VALORY: I think he's here to help.
NICODEMUS: (gasping) You think?
He leans against the door frame.
NICODEMUS: Ungrateful, the lot of you.
Get in that crate. You'll find an ammo box. I want it.
Tell your friend to help you with it.
Esben pries the crate with his claws and removes one canister out of a dozen or so. Opening it they unravel a fresh ammo belt. They both turn at the sound of Nicodemus' minigun scraping against the deck as he drags it back to some other crates he intends to use for cover. When standing about where he wants to be, Nicodemus falls back to sit with a thud and places the minigun on his knee.
NICODEMUS: Bring that over here.
He opens the feed tray. Valory looks at Esben
who jealously clutches the ammo box.
NICODEMUS: Hey, I got something for
you too. Look in that long box.
Esben barks his curiosity and opens the latches on a black case.
Inside he discovers a long rifle with fat, silver housing
surrounding the barrel and blue rifle stock with angled
pistol grip on the back and no buttstock.
NICODEMUS: Slower rate of fire, lousy for long range,
but packs a lot of power. You turn it up the whole
way and you'll blast a hole in the ship.
Esben barks appreciation and carries the ammo box over.
Nicodemus starts loading and Esben powers up his
new weapon, kneeling next to Nicodemus.
NICODEMUS: As soon as you
see light break, fill the gap.
Esben scurries to the opposite wall.
VALORY: Who's going to open the door?
NICODEMUS: Let the trash can do it.
I want you at our back.
The loading ramp is breached
by a cutting torch.
NICODEMUS: Move up! Move up! You, get back.
He sends Valory reeling back beyond
the mouth of the door to the cargo hold.
NICODEMUS: Be ready on that switch.
Safe rolls up to the loading ramp and opens it.
The torch stops and for a moment there is only
the sound of the gears in the door.
Two flash grenades fly up and Nicodemus fires blindly into the open door while shielding his face behind the crates. Two armored mercenaries follow. They are wounded by Nicodemus' fire, but reach cover. One is picked off by Esben, exploding half a crate in the same concussive force. And the second mercenary, now more exposed to Esben, attempts to turn on the hairy creature, but is cut down by Nicodemus.
The other mercenaries charge in with a rain of fire along with them. Esben ducks and runs to the side, blasts another crate and mercenary behind it, and proceeds to grab Nicodemus by the collar and drag him over the threshold out of the cargo hold while Clemence covers them with a steady stream of fire. Valory seals the hatch.
VALORY: Safe is in there.
NICODEMUS: We're not going back for it.
ESBEN: (alien growls) Those mercenaries
could do with a healthy fear of death.
NICODEMUS: Whatever you said, we're leaving.
VALORY: You can't!
Esben grabs her shoulders from behind and when she looks up at him he shakes his head.
Esben rounds her and takes up supporting Mr. Clemence to the cockpit. Valory watches in desperate confusion and starts following them, sealing each hallway hatch as she goes.
Back in the cell.
ROSS: This can't get any worse.
He sits up cradling his head and a couple drops
of blood drip from his nose onto the floor.
ROSS: It's worse.
SWEETS: Maybe we were wrong.
Maybe she's already killing us.
And she's just going to take Ross and Aaron first.
AARON: We can't afford to wait around.
He gets up and stumbles against the door.
TULIA: Lie down, Aaron. Sweets, did you
manage to keep anything when they caught us?
SWEETS: My charming disposition.
TULIA: Get to it.
Sweets roars and causes the other three to grab their ears. He throws his shoulder into the closest wall and dents it. He tests each side of the cell and imprints the metal, which destroys the illusion of infinity, but otherwise is to no avail.
The trio aboard the Shadow's Heart reach the cockpit and Nicodemus is lowered into the pilot's chair. Taking up the co-pilot seat, Valory glances out the window and sees the mercenaries exiting the cargo hold for the station.
VALORY: They're leaving.
NICODEMUS: So are we. Strap in.
Nicodemus draws back on the
yoke and nothing happens.
Esben mumbles a question.
VALORY: I don't know. What's wrong?
NICODEMUS: We're not getting any power.
Sweets snarls such a reptilian hiss, enough to question if he has lost all his sentient being. He charges head long into the door, which sends Tulia scrambling for her life to get out of the way.
He draws back, his arms caught in a gelatinous white web that peels from the walls, revealing the
all-to-material metal underneath. But the gelatinous material encases his claws and adheres his hands to a closed fist; converting his struggle to simply spread his fingers apart at will.
The tunneled eyes fixate upon the glowing substance and then Sweets proceeds to grab at the material that grabbed him. He makes a deep and throaty roar as the viscous substance weakens into strands, but continues to bind Sweets to the wall and begins to seep into his scales and form deep, glowing cracks there.
Sweets seizes more and more, pulling it in like a rope, but suffers the goo to seep further into his arms, and the light just beneath his scales meanders down into his legs. Some glowing cracks fork up his neck and across the snout.
The walls take to glowing all around them and emit a piercing scream, which sends Aaron and Ross yelling in agony and as Tulia kneels over them she dabs her face with a finger and realizes she has begun to bleed like them.
Then the whole of the asteroid shakes
in one violent tremor. Sweets falls back
and the room goes pitch black.
Esben, Valory and Nicodemus ride out the sudden
shift in the asteroid from the floor of the cockpit.
NICODEMUS: What happened?
He looks out the window to view space.
NICODEMUS: The asteroid's rotation has changed.
The stars aren't moving in the same direction.
VALORY: You can tell?
NICODEMUS: You have to tell. Mission isn't over
just because a navigational computer fails.
VALORY: Is there anything we should be doing?
NICODEMUS: Now that the mercenaries are gone,
you move all the guns there are out of the cargo hold
and seal it off. I'm heading out.
VALORY: Don't leave us.
NICODEMUS: Someone has to watch the ship.
He strokes her arm to take hold of her hand.
NICODEMUS: Take good care of your friend.
Esben grunts.
NICODEMUS: Same to you.
He leaves. In a moment he is stomping
down the cargo ramp, weighed down
by the minigun. He heads off into the station.
Safe rolls up on an open hole in the ceiling.
He follows the trajectory to find a broken
metal body in the corresponding crater.
He extends a wand to begin work.
Tulia opens her eyes to realize there is a soft glow to the gloom. It is not immediately obvious where it is coming from. The walls are completely dark. Then she turns her head to see a dim pool of light surrounding Sweets' body. On hand and knees she scurries over to him and opens his mouth to check for breath.
She weeps across his chest at
finding no warm breath.
TULIA: Why not him? Why not him? Why not him?
Her back seizes at a hand placed upon her shoulder and Tulia violently turns to see Sweets looking down on her, illuminated by the glowing pool. She wrinkles her tear-bruised face in confusion, looks down at the body and back up at Sweets.
She pants, grasping for a word such as what or how, but can't articulate anything. Sweets reaches down and cups her face. His scales have been made soft as skin and his hand is warm against her cheek. She rests her face there with closed eyes.
SWEETS: Tulia. (his voice travels across a long distance)
TULIA: Please! Don't go.
She clasps his hands.
SWEETS: I have gone nowhere.
I will be with you until the end.
The cell doors part and floods the room with light, which momentarily blinds Tulia. And when she regains her vision the only Sweets there is lies dead, head cradled in her lap.
The guards yank Tulia to her feet and the others are roused by being moved as well. They are delivered briskly through the corridors and deposited into another cell where the door seals behind them into oblivion.
ROSS: Where are we? Are we in another cell?
TULIA: (matter of fact) Sweets is dead.
AARON: What happened?
ERIMENTHA: I would say your
assassination attempt failed.
All three look up to see they are sharing the cell
with a young woman with a luminous face that
otherwise disappears into the brilliant surroundings.
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