“What was that?” Cidra took a deep breath.
“A roacher. They like caves. That one must have thought he’d found a really nifty home when he came across this thing.” He wrinkled his nose as he leaned forward again. “What a stench. The roacher’s been living here a while.”
Cidra stepped closer, caught a whiff of the rancid odor, and nearly choked. “Are you going inside that ship?”
“I just want to take a quick look around.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Severance.”
“I’ll be just a minute.” He stepped over the jagged edge. “Stay here in the opening where I can keep an eye on you.”
Reluctantly she moved closer, aware of a deep curiosity that was at war with her instinct to put as much distance as possible between herself and the ship. The ramifications of the discovery were endless. She could certainly understand Severance’s fascination with it. But Cidra didn’t like the feel of the whole thing any more than she had liked the feel she’d gotten from the eggs.
The quartzflash moved around inside the ship, falling on banks of alien machinery that stood silent and blank. There was a lounge that might have been a seat or a bed for a body the size of a man, but it was shaped oddly. Cidra had a passing mental image of one of the blue monsters, grown to the size of a man, lying on that lounge, and she shuddered. The creatures from the eggs were bad enough when they were hatch-lings; she didn’t want to imagine what the adult version looked like.
“Look at this, Cidra.” Severance shone the light along the surface of a long, sealed case. It was made of the same black metal as the hull of the ship, but the top was fashioned of a clear material, perhaps a hard plastic. There were scratch marks on the clear portion, as if something hungry had tried to get inside. Whatever it was had not succeeded in prying open the case.
“What do you think it is?” Cidra asked. “Some kind of storage facility probably. I can’t see what’s inside. The cover looks clear, but it’s not when I shine the light down through it. Too much dirt and grit caked on it. Maybe I can get it open.”
“Don’t, Severance. It looks too much like a coffin. Let’s leave it for an exploration company that’s got equipment and time. We don’t have either right now.”
He paused as if a part of him realized the truth of what she was saying, but Cidra saw his eyes drift back to the long case. She realized that getting him out of the ship wasn’t going to be easy. She remembered all too clearly how stubbornly he had insisted on fetching the egg from the safehold. Cidra decided to try a drastic approach to breaking the spell the ship seemed to have on him.
“I’ll just be another minute or so, Cidra.” He ran his hand along the line on the metal case where the clear section joined the black portion.
“Fine.” She swung around determinedly. “I’m leaving.”
“Cidra! Don’t be a fool. You can’t leave without me.”
“Want to bet?” She was sure of herself, absolutely convinced that she had to get him out of the ship. The same sense of wrongness was permeating her senses as she had experienced when she had kicked the blue reptilian carcass out of die protected circle.
“Damn it, Cidra, come back here. That’s a direct order.” “No. You’ll have to come with me if you don’t want me to leave alone.” She paused, about to shoulder her way through a wall of vines, and glanced back. “Severance, I mean this. I’m leaving and I…. Severance!”
His name was a scream on her lips as she looked back and saw him silhouetted in the doorway. Behind him a deathly black light flashed inside the ship. But light couldn’t be black, Cidra thought in horror. For a timeless instant everything seemed frozen. Energy crackled from the depths of the round ship, flickering around Severance’s body as he stood poised with the pulser in his hand. For a few seconds he stood staring out at her, his face a mask of agony, and then he collapsed backward, out of sight. The black glare flashed again and then died out.
Cidra caught her breath in fear and raced forward, slamming to a halt at the opening in the ship. “Severance, where are you?” She could see nothing. The quartzflash no longer shone in the darkness. He was dead, Cidra thought in a flash of hysteria. No, it wasn’t possible. She refused to believe it. Frantically she started to scramble over the torn hull. She had one leg swung over the edge when she heard the heavy scrape of claws on metal.
Cidra froze. She knew with sure instinct that the long coffin-like case had opened. The shock of that knowledge was enough to make her feel dizzy. Clutching at every ounce of willpower she possessed, she started to edge back out of the ship. Slowly, her eyes never leaving the jagged opening, she backed away from the horror that lurked within. But her body seemed to be moving in slow motion. It was like a dream in which she was trapped, knowing that she should flee but finding herself unable to make her body respond.
The blue, leathery body appeared in the opening of the ship. Cidra was mesmerized by the shock of its size. As tall as a man but far heavier. Standing erect, its pale, iridescent blue belly looked obscenely shiny. The head was massive, built to hold the teeth of a predator. Red eyes gleamed with the flat, lethal, unemotional expression of a true reptile. The little appendages she had seen on the hatchling were indeed sickeningly handlike. One of them held Severance’s pulser.
The jungle was safer than what waited in the alien ship. Cidra whirled to run.
“Racer!”
Stunned to hear Severance’s voice, Cidra glanced over her shoulder. There was no sign of him. The alien lifted one massive clawed foot over the edge of the jagged metal. It was coming after her. Frantically Cidra tried to peer around it.
“Severance, where are you?”
“Damn you to hell, Racer. You’re dead. This time you’ll stay dead.” The blue reptile raised the pulser it was holding, aiming it at Cidra.
The voice was coming from the mouth of the alien. Disoriented, Cidra reached out to grab a tree limb to steady herself. The creature moved closer. “Severance, if you have any control over that thing, make it stop. Don’t let it come any closer.”
“Stop talking with Cidra’s voice, damn you. Where is she? What have you done with her? You’re already dead meat, Racer. Tell me what you’ve done with her or I’ll make it slow this time.”
“No!” With a staggering sense of disorientation Cidra began to realize what must be happening. “Severance, listen to me. Can you hear me?”