Scene 31: Escape

As the crew make haste away from the engine room the hallway lights switch back on.  Everyone skids across the polished floor, spin on their heels and collectively train their weapons at the fork in the hall that leads back the way they came.

Nothing.

Rune and Tulia lie prone with Aaron draped between them.
Rune lifts Aaron's arm from his back and takes up his rifle.
Tulia hisses at him and misses trying to pull him back.

TULIA:  Where are you going?

RUNE:  Someone has to look.

Everybody stay here.

ERIMENTHA:  Let me.

He doesn't answer and has already reached
the fork in the hall.  He points his rifle around
the corner, which presents a heads-up display
of what the scope can see to his helmet.

ROSS:  What do you see?

RUNE:  Check it out.

He passes on the video feed to them.

NICODEMUS:  Hold it steady.

The chamber has been illuminated as well.
A rough ring of drones strewn the floor.
Also, refracting light dancing on the
ground seems to suggest a pool overhead,
perhaps the core out of sight.

ERIMENTHA:  Where is he?

Rune ducks back.

RUNE:  You still don't know?

Can't you sense each other

or something?

ROSS:  I don't feel anything either.

Tulia swallows her lips dry
on her next decision.
She closes her eyes.

TULIA:  Can you get any closer?

RUNE:  Sure.  Anything for you.

TULIA:  You volunteered to go 

out there.  Come back.

He's out of sight around the corner.

RUNE:  I'm almost there.

The crew continue to have the benefit of the scope feed.  As he passes the door, Rune scans the walls to either side.  No presence of black blood.  He points overhead and there is no sign of any persons on the catwalk.  The camera jumps to one of the first drones he comes to.  It lies scored and scared from their weapons.  There remains a trace of dried black blood in its gears.  Rune quickly points across the way and there lies the rubble that had trapped Aaron.

But now he points the rifle overhead and where there was black blood in the core the matter continues to flow freely, but is clear and vaguely glows to cast the watery ripples across Run's face.

RUNE:  Did we just dream it all?

Erimentha tests her hands and
the glow is now tinged with yellow.

ERIMENTHA:  I don't believe so.

TULIA:  Come back, Rune.

RUNE:  Sure.

The door starts to close behind them,
which Esben braces against.
The door gears spark and jam up.

ROSS:  Rune!

The blast doors start to close ahead of Rune.
Ross rounds the corner ahead of the others
and the gap in the doors is almost gone.
Ross slides with a grenade in hand.

ROSS:  Get back!

Rune falls back from his sudden stop
and scrambles back to take cover
behind one of the destroyed drones.
The door jams with a narrow opening.

He waits.

RUNE:  Well?

The door explodes.  Rune gets up to discover
the blast door has hardly peeled back at all.
He can see through the gap to the others.

RUNE:  Now what? 

TULIA:  We can't get it open now.

Erimentha thinks a moment.

ERIMENTHA:  Please try standing
against the door, Mr...

RUNE:  Starling.

ERIMENTHA:  Mr. Starling.

I'm going to do something.

Press up against the door.

RUNE:  Tulia?

TULIA:  Trust her.  Do you 

have any other choice?

RUNE:  Well I-

ERIMENTHA:  Please, Mr. Starling.

Zayd-Neil is out flanking us as we speak.

Rune presses against the door.  Erimentha reaches her hand through the opening and there causes her
fingers to glow.  The space between the door next becomes filled with yellow light and then collapses on a bulge that passes through the wall.  When the light dissipates Rune stands before them.

He pats himself down.

RUNE:  Thanks?

TULIA:  How are you doing that?

ERIMENTHA:  Line of sight?  Lucky guess?

NICODEMUS:  What did Zayd-Neil show you?

ERIMENTHA:  Not him.  It's what you showed me, 

Mr. Clemence.  I had limited my potential.

And I don't know what this is now.

Nicodemus grins.

NICODEMUS:  Happy to help.

TULIA:  You said he's flanking us?

ERIMENTHA:  He'll have trouble extending his reach

now with all those drones destroyed.  But here is where he

would be strongest on the whole ship and be the safest.

Why would he... the Shadow's Heart.  He wants it.

NICODEMUS:  We got a dead run ahead of us.

They run.

Blasts doors continue to close around them,
but the way ahead is clear as the passage
narrowly seals behind.

ERIMENTHA:  He must still be close.

TULIA:  But at least he isn't sure
which hallway we're in.

A set of blast doors at an intersection ahead
close in their faces and seal with a gap
down the middle of dead black blood.

NICODEMUS:  Lucky guess.

To the left, Ross inserts a grenade into
another pool before it hardens into doing
the same as the other door and creates
a gap like he did for Rune.

The crew beam through in a hallow of light.

At the next turn they go right to continue
on in the same direction as they were before.
More doors are sealing ahead of them and
do not provide time to make it at a run.

In rapid succession, Erimentha collapses the party into a narrow beam to leap through each gap while momentarily rematerializing to acquire the next distance to jump to.  She manages about three of these before everyone comes tumbling out of the beam beyond the next door.  Nicodemus was the last through and his side is clipped by the closing door.  He writhes in pain on his back while Erimentha coughs violently on her hands and knees.  The door ahead closes.

TULIA:  That's it.

Esben rises to his feet and
pounds away at the door in vain.

RUNE:  Our suits.  They're shredded.

Erimentha continues coughing.

ROSS:  You got us this far.

ERIMENTHA:  Please stop concerning yourself

with making me feel better.

RUNE:  (mocking) Yeah.  

You jackass, what's with you?

TULIA:  Quit it.

RUNE:  I mean it.  We're all just barely alive here 

carrying out princess' little quest.  Aaron is anyone's guess.  

And now all our party crasher has to do is vent the atmosphere.  

But please, Ross, sooth the magic lady.  

Esben roars from the door.

RUNE:  Do you want to go too?

NICODEMUS:  Shut up.

RUNE:  I'll take you both on.

What do I got to lose?

NICODEMUS:  Your head.

Nicodemus inches his way up with his back
pressed up against the door behind him.
He looks beyond Rune, which causes him to
turn around.  Esben stands close behind.

RUNE:  How does someone as 

big as you move around that quietly?

Esben picks Rune up by his tattered
environmental suit.  Both turn their
heads at a pistol charging.

TULIA:  I like you, Esben.

But I'm not losing anyone else.

Esben sets him back down
and sniffs a little derision.

TULIA:  Take that useless thing off.

They all start removing
what's left of the suits.
Tulia takes Rune aside.

TULIA:  She risked her life coming

back for you.  Look at her.

RUNE:  She risked all our lives

for a fool's quest.

Nicodemus' eyes light up.

NICODEMUS:  Wait... wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait... wait.

He opens a side door and disappears
into a maintenance closet

VOICE:  Erimentha.

She looks over at Aaron.

ERIMENTHA:  Aaron?

She scrambles over to
Aaron and shakes him.

RUNE:  Hey, hey!  We're woollying 

him around enough as it is.  Alright?

ERIMENTHA:  He said something.

ROSS:  Did you hear anything?

Rune shakes his head
sadly and shrugs.

TULIA:  You heard him?

ERIMENTHA:  You worried that 

you can't believe me?

TULIA:  I'm more worried that you did.

NICODEMUS:  I got something working.

I need your help over here.

She rises, blood drained 

from her face and similarly

has a depressed demeanor.

ERIMENTHA:  What can I do?

NICODEMUS:  We're going to flood the
power grid and force the locks open.

ERIMENTHA:  What about the doors that are already sealed?
He's sacrificing blood to keep us out.

TULIA:  Esben's sword can't do anything with it.

NICODEMUS:  This ship is powered by the black blood.
So... we flood the doors with it.  This station is part of the
plumbing system.  I'll reroute power to the pipes and close
the valves here.  Let the pressure force open the doors.
All I need from you is to create a siphoning effect.
I can open up the system, but can't make it flow
right where we need it.  Draw it through these
pipes and toward the door and I'll make sure
that it has nowhere to go.

ERIMENTHA:  I can't manipulate black blood.
That's the point of turning it.

ROSS:  Zayd-Neil can.  Does that
preclude you from learning how?

ERIMENTHA:  I'll give it a try.

Nicodemus turns a couple valves to close the end of the line.  He stands at the controls.
And Erimentha rests her hands on a vertical pipe that is larger around than her fingers stretch.
She closes her eyes and probes the darkness.  She stops.

ERIMENTHA:  I need a place for my powers to enter

so I don't burst the pipe.

NICODEMUS:  If we open a valve it will flow here.

I don't need you to force it out with

your own powers.  I need you to draw 

the black blood by making it your own.

ERIMENTHA:  My mind can't touch the turned blood.

We don't even know what it could do to me.

NICODEMUS:  Do you have another way 

for getting out of here?

Erimentha returns her hand to the pipe.
She flinches with her eyes closed.

ERIMENTHA:  I feel it.  It conceals so much...

so much power.  There... is a great deal

of motion, of momentum.  I couldn't feel

it through the dumb sensation of my barriers.
It's not so much the path of least resistance
but more a matter of where it is already going.
The blood is incredibly difficult to change course

once it starts.  I've only wielded the Master's for a 

short time, but it came so easily what I knew to do.

She gulps some guilt

ERIMENTHA:  Zayd-Neil's mind must be very strong.

TULIA:  And you outsmarted him once.

Came up with a  new technique

all your own.  You can do this.

ERIMENTHA:  I don't think he's exerting direct control

over this pipeline.  It will only take some effort.

She gasps at the new sensation.

ERIMENTHA:  It puts a chill over my mind.
I feel numb, but I know I am being touched.

NICODEMUS:  Can you control it?

ERIMENTHA:  Who controls blood?
We make requests of it.

TULIA:  Maybe this is different.

ERIMENTHA:  Maybe.

She lifts her hand.

ERIMENTHA:  It's coming this way.

Nicodemus goes to work on the valves
and the metal in the pipes strain and whine.

NICODEMUS:  We've done all we can do here.

They file out of the control station.

Ahead, bulkhead welds burst and spray
a fountain of the clear black blood.
As far as Nicodemus can tell the
pressure is being let off.

NICODEMUS:  Damn.  It didn't work.

Exposed piping from the sheared bulkhead rattles and explodes into a raging torrent that blasts the door like a fire hose and rends it from the wall and carries the two halves downstream in the spontaneous flood.  Nicodemus ducks back into the control station and closes the valves.

All the remaining black blood flows ahead out of sight.

TULIA:  Might be green lights

all the way now.

ERIMENTHA:  Good thinking, Mr. Clemence.

NICODEMUS: (stunned amazement) Yeah.

Esben delivers a swat to his back as they all
start to head off.  The sharp pain brings Nicodemus
back to his senses and he bends down slowly to
pick up his weapon before following.

The way ahead is clear.

Ross looks around as everyone
begins breathing heavily.

ROSS:  Does this run feel harder than it should be?

NICODEMUS:  He could be venting the atmosphere.

RUNE:  Told you.

ERIMENTHA:  That would be foolish.

There are too many open compartments now 

between us and him.  A vacuum will take too long.

NICODEMUS:  It is slowing us down.

TULIA:  Ross, be careful.  But run ahead of us

and make sure that we can make it.

Ross picks up the pace and goes out of sight.

ERIMENTHA:  Curious creature.  Often quiet.

And likes his explosions.

TULIA:  I thought we all did.  That's Ross.

He doesn't debate.  He blows up the argument.

RUNE:  A word to the wise, don't try

to arm wrestle him.  I still feel the

barometric pressure change planet-side.

NICODEMUS:  Challenge accepted.

ERIMENTHA:  Don't you keep to your own size?

NICODEMUS:  Anyone ready to take me on either 

already is my own size or really stupid.

He squeezes Rune's shoulder in passing him.
He comes alongside Tulia.

TULIA:  Or both.

NICODEMUS:  You've given a lot to

this little adventure we're on.

TULIA:  So you noticed.

NICODEMUS:  When we get our payday,

what say you and I agree to stick

together afterwards?

TULIA:  I think it's bad luck to talk

about after a job in the middle of one.

NICODEMUS:  I think it's bad luck to not

talk about it, so long as you only allow 

the subject of happy endings.

TULIA:  You getting giddy?

He smiles.

NICODEMUS:  You're right.  

Must be the low oxygen talking.

The coms squawks.

ROSS:  Tulia, check in.

TULIA:  What is it?

ROSS:  Black blood ahead.

It's just in a pool on the floor.

ERIMENTHA:  We're close.

Tulia goes back to Esben who is carrying Aaron.

TULIA:  Okay.  Rune and I will take him

from here.  You've got some resistance to it.

Esben snorts his approval and hands Aaron over.
She struggles with the weight before Rune takes an
end and Esben appears unaware of the difficulty
seeing as it was easier for him.

Ross turns an ear to his friends coming up behind him,
but won't take his eyes off the puddle.  Tulia observes
him being wary of it and puts Aaron down to come alongside.

TULIA:  Do I need to leave you two alone?

ROSS:  Air's better here.  If he moves, 

I think the blood will stay low.

TULIA:  Good to know.

ROSS:  I could be wrong.

Might just be waiting to strike.

TULIA:  Let's hope we get something

for the depressurization.

ROSS:  I figured attacking it 

risked pinpoint us.

NICODEMUS:  I'll bet he has a pretty good

idea where we are.  Just didn't like

the fight we put up.  

RUNE:  So do we pass quietly or no?

Tulia glances behind her.

TULIA:  I want to get Aaron back.

I want to leave.  To Hell with this ship.

ERIMENTHA:  I don't disagree.  But this place

could still pose a significant danger

to the Republic.

TULIA:  Then we better live to tell about it.

ERIMENTHA:  Yes.  Agreed.

Tulia and Rune take Aaron back up.  The crew skulk single file along the left side of the hallway so as to avoid the substance.  Each can glimpse their reflection as they go by.  Once, the puddle ripples and they all stop.  Nothing happens and they proceed.

Erimentha looks into her reflection and sees Zayd-Neil step into view standing on the other side.
She looks up and he isn't there.  She looks down again and the false reflection is gone.  Another ripple and her reflection disappears.  The blood spools and lunges at her.

Esben chops it in the air.

The surviving half still punches her in the abdomen, throws her the short distance into the wall and sends her into a coughing fit.  They watch as the black blood dies in a writhing distorted mass ending in trapped air bubbles and jagged edges rather than the smooth stone artifacts created before.

Erimentha discovers a minor cut on her stomach.

ERIMENTHA:  I'm okay.

NICODEMUS:  You sure?

She nods frantically.

ROSS:  How much further?

NICODEMUS:  Just beyond the next two doors.

That puts us back in the main receiving chamber.

Footfalls of someone running.

NICODEMUS:  Hey!

Nicodemus steps around a corner
and fires blindly, but there is no one there.

Then he hears a hatch closing.  The Prestmoor
pounds on the door as Zayd-Neil stands on
the other side of the window in the open chamber.

NICODEMUS:  I'll get you, you slippery turncoat!

He steps away from the window
as the others gather around Nicodemus.

The lights turn out  and Erimentha
offers soft illumination.

Static comes over the radio.

VALORY:  Is anyone there?

TULIA:  Valoy?  Valory, we can't 

hear you that well, honey.

VALORY:  I can hear him.

He's trying to get in.

TULIA:  Who's trying to get in?

NICODEMUS:  Stupid question.

She glares at him.

TULIA:  Valory, honey.  

Tell me what's happening.

VALORY:  Sweets (static)

TULIA:  Valory?  Valory?  

Valory, what about Sweets?

VALORY:  I think he's trying to kill me.

Nicodemus opens a panel to reveal 

a manual crank to the door.

TULIA:  We're right outside.  We're coming.

VALORY:  Hurry.  I locked myself in engineering.

I can hear the whole ship tearing apart.

TULIA:  How long will that take you?

NICODEMUS:  You're not going through this one.

Head two more up.  That'll put you closer to the

Shadow's Heart anyways.  I open my door first.

TULIA:  What good will that do?

NICODEMUS:  He'll flood the hallway hoping to finish us off 

using this as a bottleneck.  He knows Erimentha is our only 

meaningful defense and so will calculate that the door we 

pry open is the one that she's behind.  

TULIA:  Because it would be 

suicide to try anything else.

NICODEMUS:  I'll just bet he's waiting on the other side for us 

to follow him and is going to put everything he has into whatever 

opens up first.  You wait for the blood to disappear from your 

window and then make a run for it.

TULIA:  We can't ask you to do that.

ERIMENTHA:  You'll never make it.

He peers through the window

and sees what looks like 

an orange lantern.

NICODEMUS:  Don't count me out.

He twists and rips off a wall cupboard 

panel as a makeshift shield.

ROSS:  How do we open our end?

Tulia looks surprised at him.

NICODEMUS:  You need it to be fast.  

No shape charges.  Think of something.

Save the girl.  Douse that light before you try it.

Everyone stands around.

NICODEMUS:  Well I'm ready here.

What are you waiting for?

RUNE:  Were you going to leave us 

behind at Vincent's estate?

NICODEMUS:  That hardly matters now.

Get, sharp shooter.  You still 

gotta fly them out.

They leave him to go to their other door.
Erimentha lingers behind.

ERIMENTHA:  You'll need me to make this plan work.

NICODEMUS:  That's right.  But you're too worn down

to be taking anything head on right now.  Protect them

at the airlock.  That's the second most critical time.

ERIMENTHA:  What message do I carry to the Order?

Nicodemus thinks a moment.

NICODEMUS:  The Prestmoors are moving, again.

ERIMENTHA:  It's never easy.

NICODEMUS:  Nope.  It isn't.

He primes his weapon.

NICODEMUS:  That's what really matters.

You need to get the message out in time.

ERIMENTHA:  I will.

NICODEMUS:  Now get going before I change my mind 

about all of this.  I'm a loyalist to the Order and not the 

Republic.  The two are just too close together right now.

Erimentha joins the rest at the other end.

ERIMENTHA:  When the door opens a little, be running.

I'll vault us as far as I can.

TULIA:  We're ready here.

Nicodemus starts turning the crank.

He looks up at the overhead lights turning on unexpectedly and the door flies open, apart from his efforts.  The initial blast throws him back with the sheet of metal lying on top of him and the black blood pins him there by applying pressure to the shield.  His gun has slid to just beyond finger's reach and tendrils form to the man's left to grab him.  Nicodemus hammers these tendrils with the rim of his shield and next reaches for the gun, which he unloads into the core of the mass and momentarily keeps it at bay.

ERIMENTHA:  I can see the airlock.

Esben cranks open the door.  Erimentha beams them through the gap at mid-run and they rematerialize the same way, which necessitates bracing their arms to stop from running into the wall.  Though standing at the door crank, some momentum was transferred to Esben and the poor creature falls on his face and the sword slides across the floor to the others.

Nicodemus' gun jams.  The black blood takes notice of the others around the airlock and flies toward them.  In its wake it grabs Nicodemus' shield and pulls him into the void.  Erimentha raises a barrier to the impending onslaught.  She looks back to see the crew is locked out.

Nicodemus has let go of the shield and is tossed around in a whirlwind.  He magnetizes his boots and finds footing.  To his right the blood flashes in brief transparency striking Erimentha's protection.  Scanning the darkness, these flashes reveal a figure with the orange lantern glow.  The minigun still jammed, the Prestmoor turns to a knife strapped to his leg to stalk Zayd-Neil in his own maelstrom.  Drawing nearer, he discerns a more inhuman shape.

Rune watches through the same flashes and witnesses three figures moving around in the midst of the black blood.  Uncertain of which to choose, he tracks each one in turn through the rifle scope.
One on the far left is moving toward the other two.  The middle one hasn't moved.  And the one on the right just raised his hand and the blood lifts from Erimentha's barrier.  At this time the black blood becomes opaque, but then comes crashing down again and so he can see between where the two forces meet.  The storm retreats and billows overhead.

RUNE:  Drop it!  Do it now!

He fires.  The cloud recoils, but then comes crashing down.

RUNE:  Damn.  I missed.

ERIMENTHA:  I can't hold it much longer.

Two figures emerge from the black blood together.  Nicodemus and Desdine support one another as they limp together.  Orange-glowing gears spin on the side of Desdine's limbs and chest.  Any black blood attacks are dispersed into harmless swirls of smoke.  And simultaneously the storm as a whole recedes.  Erimentha drops her barrier.

Zayd-Neil appears in the distance nursing a wounded side.
Desdine inserts a code into the keypad.

DESDINE:  Precaution, that the vessel has 

been infiltrated by hostile presence.

Security lockout was necessary.

TULIA:  Just be glad he mistook you for one of his.

DESDINE:  Indeed.

The airlock opens and they cautiously enter.
Zayd-Neil looks on, silent.  He is too far away
to recognize the slight triumph on his face.

On the other side, they fill the cargo hold and close the airlock behind them.  Desdine begins to set Nicodemus down.  Tulia helps Rune put Aaron down and then sees Sweets' open crate.  Shen then thinks to grab Rune's shoulder with the reminder.

TULIA:  Valory.

As everyone else is leaving, Nicodemus refuses to be set down where he is and points for Desdine to escort him to follow the others.  Tulia lingers at Sweets' side, seeing the dried black blood, and then looks to the engine room door.

TULIA:  Valory?

VALORY:  I'm here!

TULIA:  You can come out now.

VALORY:  Is he still out there?

TULIA:  Who?

VALORY:  Sweets.

Nicodemus doubles over and starts coughing.

TULIA:  Sweets?

VALORY:  But it wasn't Sweets.

Something took him.

Said he wanted everyone.

Nicodemus finishes coughing up something.

TULIA:  Valory, honey.  

I want you to stay in there.

VALORY:  He was fast!

Don't let him get you.

The black pool slithers to Sweets
and he rises before their eyes.

SWEETS:  Did you miss me?

VALORY:  Don't believe him!

TULIA:  What is this?

ERIMENTHA:  Looks like possession.

I thought it was only possible in the 

old religion and then only in legend.

NICODEMUS:  Where am I?

TULIA:  What are?

SWEETS:  Don't you know me?

TULIA:  I...

He strikes an enchanting smile for her,
which softens her own expression.

VOICE:  It's okay.

TULIA:  I know.

RUNE:  What?

Tulia thinks she has snapped out of it,
but then she looks over her shoulder and
there is Sweets' face.

VOICE:  This is our life.

No exceptions.

TULIA:  Esben.

Esben violently roars to the possessed Sweets'
notable horror and is rendered in two, but the
skin has become like cloth and there are no organs
or any other remains apart from blood stones.

The Shadow's Heart undocks from the Atlas
and it fails to follow them.








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