Take the Main Elevator

We took the Main Elevator down into the unknown, guns ready and were met with immediate resistance as a wave of ferocious drones came swarming down the tunnel.

Mikhail was having the time of his life. His Gatling gun roared, six barrels glowing orange as explosive rounds tore through the swarm. One drone burst apart. Another lost most of its torso. A third came skittering across the ceiling only to explode before reaching us.

“COME!” Mikhail bellowed. “FOR THE COLONIES!” There had to be nearly a hundred of them still coming and more were likely on their way.

Rei ducked beneath a leaping drone’s claws, caught it by the throat and drove her knife beneath its jaw. She ripped the blade free, spraying green blood everywhere as Mikhail’s gun thundered over her shoulder.

Things were going great. Alli had already been cut in half. One of the creatures had whipped its razor-sharp tail across the corridor during the first rush. I’d watched it pass clean through her waist, sending her upper half in one direction and her legs in another.

I’d screamed. Alli had looked down at the sparking bundle of wires hanging from her torso. Then she’d screamed louder.

“MY LEGS!” She screamed as a drone carried them away in its jaw.

“I THOUGHT YOU COULDN’T FEEL PAIN!” I yelled

“THOSE ARE EXPENSIVE!” She yelled back. “THE COMPANY IS ALREADY FACING RECORD LOSSES ON THIS JOB.”

She was really more concerned with the company’s bottom line than with having lost her limbs. I grabbed what remained of her before the drones could finish rearranging our team and wound up carrying her on my back. Her arms locked around my shoulders while loose wires hanging from her exposed torso bounced against my belt. Her chest was pressed firmly against my back.

“Are you enjoying this?” Alli asked.

“What?”

“My sensors indicate an elevated heart rate consistent with sexual arousal.”

“Your sensors must have been damaged when you were serrated in half.”

She tightened her grip, pressing her breasts harder against me. “Negative, your heart rate is directly reacting to the pressure of my breasts.”

I put another round through the skull of a charging drone. “We really have more important things to worry about right now!”

Rei glanced back while feeding another ammunition belt into Mikhail’s weapon. Her ears flattened. “Seriously?”

“This isn’t my fault!”

Alli rested her chin on my shoulder. “Technically, I am incapable of walking.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Another wave poured around the corner. Mikhail laughed until his ammunition counter flashed red. Rei quickly fed another belt into his gun.

“We can’t keep this up!” Rei shouted.

Alli suddenly twisted on my back. “Side passage. Eleven meters ahead. It connects to a sublevel tunnel terminating near the Queen’s last recorded location.”

I spotted a narrow doorway behind a collapsed support beam and looked at Mikhail.

He understood immediately. “I stay.”

“Mikhail—”

He slammed in a fresh belt. “I said I stay.”

Rei stepped beside him, knife in one hand as she guided the ammunition with the other. “So do I.”

There wasn’t time to argue.

“As soon as you get a chance, head back up the shaft, I’ll find my own way out.”

Mikhail grinned beneath his white beard. “Just go kill Queen.”

I ran.

Alli hooked into a nearby terminal and slammed the blast door behind us, leaving Mikhail’s laughter and the thunder of his Gatling gun on the other side. I squeezed through the maintenance passage with Alli clinging to my back and my the Frontier Model 3 drawn and ready.

My plan was beautifully simple. Find Queen. Put magnetic slug through Queen’s skull. Escape through the side tunnels. Collect eighty thousand Xens. Never accept another extermination contract.

“You understand killing the Queen may not stop the drones,” Alli said.

“I’m choosing to believe Mikhail’s terribly inaccurate Chess metaphor.”

“That seems unwise.”

The tunnel narrowed as we descended. Metal gradually disappeared beneath glossy black resin crawling across the walls like veins. Somewhere ahead came a faint clicking sound.

Alli tightened her arms around me. “Movement.”

“I thought they didn’t want to eat you.”

“They don’t.”

“Great.”

“But I may lose more limbs and you remain easily edible.”

“Less great.”

The passage opened into a cavern. Four drones waited inside. One clung to the ceiling. Two crouched beside the entrance. The fourth unfolded from behind a pillar.

“Oh, come on.”

I raised my pistol.

“Stop.”

Every drone froze.

A young woman stepped from the darkness, well I was pretty sure she was a woman at least. Glossy black exoskeleton covered an unmistakably feminine body, faint violet light pulsing between its segmented plates. A long armored tail swayed behind her. Short swept-back crown spines framed an unnervingly beautiful face and luminous golden eyes.

She was younger and more slim than the voluptuous silhouette from Alli’s recording of the queen.

The drones lowered themselves before her.

“That isn’t her,” Alli whispered.

“What?”

“That is not the Queen.” Alli warned.

The alien smiled. More drones filled in behind her.

“Not yet.” She said, a hint of venom in her raspy voice.

Wonderful. “Who are you?” I kept my revolver trained on her skull. The drones around her hissed.

“Bellix.” She answered. One drone shifted behind her. Bellix flicked two fingers and it immediately lowered its head.

“You control them.”

“Some.”

“That’s reassuring.”

“It shouldn’t be.” She smirked. Okay. Definitely evil. Possibly my type. Her gaze settled on Alli. “What happened to your friend?”

“I was bisected,” Alli answered irritably.

Bellix tilted her head. “You survived.”

“I am an android.”

“Convenient.”

“Debatable.”

I kept my pistol trained on her. “I’m looking for your Queen.” Mikhail and Rei were still holding off the main swarm, I didn’t;t have time to waste.

For the first time, Bellix’s smile vanished. “My mother.”

Well, shit. “You’re a princess then?”

“I am a Queen.”

“Your mother might disagree.” Alli quipped. “A hive cannot have more than one Queen.”

“She frequently does and you’re correct there can only be one queen.” Bellix stepped closer. “My mother will consume your people, birth another generation and move on when nothing remains. Help me replace her, and the humans will be released. My hive will leave this world.”

Alli leaned toward my ear. “She could be lying.”

“I know.”

“I can hear you,” Bellix said.

“Good,” Alli replied.

Bellix smiled again and extended one clawed hand.

“Or continue without me. You will find my mother soon enough.”

Behind her, two passages disappeared into darkness.

So much for putting one bullet in one Queen.