Josh screamed. Heavy, slimy mucus splashed around him, soon coating his spacesuit and grav-cycle. Gripping the cycle with his knees until his fractured pelvis ached, he pulled his blaster and fired until it ran out of power.
Patting his belt with his left hand, he realized that he hadn't brought extra cartridges. Slamming the blaster back in his holster, he gave the cycle some power and tried to turn. The ugly yellow-green muscles constricted around him, nudging him deeper in the beast.
Shrieking his frustration, he pulled his vibro-blade. His first swing contacted one of the muscles moving him deeper in the monster. The blade cut a gory slash. The movement to the rear stopped.
Filled with anger and terror, he continued to slash. As the muscles pulled back, he sliced into the hide. Josh couldn't see it through all the slime, but the hole he had opened led to the outside.
He gunned the cycle to move him ahead as he wildly slashed right and left. Muscle fell away in front of the vibro-blade. Mere organic cells couldn't stand up to a blade designed to slice through two inches of steel. As the muscle fell away, it opened a bigger hole in the hide.
The screeching and keening buffeted him as it flew by to the now open mouth of the monster. Josh's madness wouldn't let him stop. Ignoring all sounds or sensations, he continued his assault on the inside of his attacker. Suddenly, a violent movement threw him out backwards.
Clinging to his grav-cycle, he stared in disbelief. Mucous dimmed the light but he could still see fifty feet of the strange creature writhing in a death throes. Glancing down, he saw the head lying on the boulevard. His berserker rage had cut the head off from the inside.
Cherry's yelling finally penetrated his red hazed craze. "Josh, Josh, what's going on? Where are you? Please, answer me."
Josh shuddered and almost lost his grip on the cycle. He said, "I'm alright now. Stay where you are."
"What happened?"
"I got swallowed by this fifty foot monster."
"I see your light now. Why's it so dim? What happened? You taste so bad the thing spit you out?"
Josh shuddered again, "Yeah, something like that. I hope these things don't travel in pairs. I don't think I could do that again. I think I did something to my pelvis fracture. It hurts like I don't know what."
"Hang on, you're only a half mile or so from me. I'm coming —"
"STOP! Don't move one step this way. If there is more than one, you wouldn't stand a chance. Tap into the sensor here. I had it follow me. You can see what I'm talking about."
Josh now began to warily search the surrounding area for any signs of a second monster. Reaching forward, he tried to wipe some of the slime off of his light. His hand had as much slime on it as the light did, so he did very little good.
Cherry's voice came over the comm again, "What in the universe is that? It's huge. It could swallow you whole —"
"That's just what it did."
"What happened to its head?"
A stealthy movement in the shadows caught Josh's attention. He put the cycle in reverse and eased back toward the entrance to the cavern. Cherry's voice became a babble in the background as Josh searched the darkness for threats while he kept the cycle in a slow move toward the entrance.
When Cherry's hand touched his foot, Josh almost sliced his arm off when he swung the vibro-blade. He said, "Cherry, you're lucky to have your head. If I could have reached it, it would be on the ground right now."
"Yeah, you seem to make things lose their head over you. What's going on in there?"
"I think I saw something else moving. Let's get out of here."
"You can't take that – that goop in Naca. We'd never get rid of it. It looks like it smells to high heaven too."
"I don't know, but I agree. I don't want one drop of this gunk in our ship."
The two inched their way back to their spaceship. Their eyes never wavered from the entrance Josh had just come out of. Josh said, "I wish we could block that entrance. That thing is horrible. I don't ever want to see one of them again."
"If we had another shield generator, I'd use that. However, we're all out."
"Any of them in that old spaceship?"
"I don't know. I've been busy trying to get it ready to fly."
Josh shivered, "We can't use the ones from Naca. We have to keep all the oxygen in. I wouldn't feel safe in Naca without them either. Those things are hideous."
"I'll agree. The sensor just doesn't do it justice though. No size comparison."
"Just think of me on the cycle going down its gullet whole. That'll give you a comparison."
Cherry said, "I wonder what those things are. How can they survive in vacuum? What do they eat?"
"Humans on grav-cycles."
"How many of those are around here? If that thing had succeeded in eating you, how long before it needed to eat again? A year? Five years?"
"I don't care. Just as long as I'm not on the menu again."
They reached the shield. Cherry said, "How are we going to clean you up?"
"Just set the shield to let me and the cycle in. Don't let the slime in."
Cherry thought for a few seconds then said, "That might work. Don't go through here though. You'll leave a pile of slime. I don't want to have to step around it every time I go to that other spaceship."
Josh snorted, "You're still going to that other spaceship after what happened to me?"
"We don't have a choice. That might be why we haven't received any answers to our distress signal. If the locals know about those things, they won't come near here."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. The clock is ticking. We've got to get something ready to fly. Hey, I might have something to help —"
Josh turned to look at the empty spot where the food replicator had been. Even the straps were missing. He said, "Well, I did have something. I've still got the pictures and brochures – at least I think I do."
He looked in his carrying box. The brochures, translators and charging cords were still there. Closing the lid so slime didn't get in, he moved well around the shield. Yelling at Cherry, he said, "Come on. Get the shield set. I'd like to get behind it. I keep getting the feeling that something is still looking at me."
Cherry touched a port on the shield generator and yelled back, "Put your hand through the shield. I want to make sure I stop all the gunk. Now hold it there. I need to go inside to get a scanner."
"I'll give you about fifteen seconds, IF something doesn't poke its head out of that entrance."
Rushing into Naca, Cherry grabbed a scanner. As Josh and the cycle eased through the shield, the scanner remained silent. Looking closer at Josh's spacesuit, Cherry said, "That must be some nasty stuff. Your spacesuit is already pitted from it. Even your helmet."
"I see that now. It distorts my vision. Before, I just thought it was the slime."
"Come on, let's get inside. I'll see if I can polish some of the pits out of your helmet. If not, I may have to slave a sensor to your display to give you a clear picture until we can get a new one."
Inside, Cherry helped Josh out of the spacesuit. Josh groaned as he had to move his legs. Cherry grabbed the healer unit to scan him. After a quick check up, he announced, "You messed up the fracture in your pelvis. The legs look good though."
Attaching the healing unit, Cherry made a few adjustments before sitting back.
Josh moaned, "I didn't have to have that thing to tell you my pelvis is worse. I can feel it."
"Well, whose idea was it to go in that cavern anyway? You had a sensor to look around without any danger to yourself."
"I know, I know. I just wanted to see if I could get these translators and a food replicator. It could be the difference between life and death for us."
"That's true. At least you have the translators – if we can power them."
"You are one ray of sunshine after another, aren't you? Speaking of sensors, maybe you could send it back to se
e where the replicator fell off. And leave it at the cavern entrance to make sure we don't have any monsters sneaking out."
Cherry headed for the cockpit to do that. Josh pulled himself along behind with accompanying moans and groans. Cherry glanced back once with a grimace. Josh bit his lip to stop the noise.
By the time Josh reached the cockpit, Cherry already had the images from the sensor on the view screens. Josh watched as the sensor moved toward the entrance to the city. Cherry kept it close to the ground, hoping to spot the food replicator.
As the sensor slowly flew forward, both bounty hunters kept their eyes glued to the view screens. Josh recognized a bench in the median. It sat not far from where he had been attacked. His hands clenched into tight fists and his breath came in shallow rapid heaves.
Josh leaned forward, straining to see beyond the lights of the sensor. He jumped back with a shout when the severed head of the monster appeared. Cherry jumped and the sensor darted left as it shot upwards.
He yelled, "What? What is it? Is something after the sensor?"
Josh trembled, "No, I just got a good look at what swallowed me. That's one ugly head."
"You about stopped my nutrition pump. There's nothing to be afraid of. Look, I'll fly back down."
The sensor moved again. Josh didn't move this time, but his fists were clenched until the fingernails drove into his palms. Cherry said, "See, it's dead. Nothing to be afraid of."
"Easy enough for you to say. I saw that thing from the other side. Look closer, I'm not sure it is dead."
An eye swiveled as he spoke. Cherry jumped the sensor back. He said, "That's impossible. How long ago did you cut that head off?"
"I don't know. But I'll tell you that thing is still alive. How could it live in vacuum? That thing might live another five years for all we know."
Something flitted into view. The mouth snapped at it. Josh shouted, "Look, it's a smaller one. It's only five feet long. That big head is still trying to eat it. Cherry, what have we stumbled into?"
More forms flashed into view. They stayed well away from the giant head. Josh asked, "How many of those things are there? I can see some even smaller than the first."
"There's one that must be fifteen feet long and almost four feet in diameter. That snake could swallow you whole if it wanted to."
Cherry moved the sensor a little and the two saw dozens of the beasts swarming over the decapitated body. They attacked it like sharks in a feeding frenzy. Josh said in a quiet voice, "There must be hundreds of monstrosities in there. Cherry, we need to get off this rock right now. With that many mouths after you, it's only a matter of time until they get you. Look, there's one that's even bigger than the one you spotted."
"Josh, there is only dozens. Don't exaggerate. We'll find a way to get out of here alive. It is just taking me some time to figure out things about that spaceship."
"Cherry, it doesn't have to be perfect, just fly. We don't even have all we need to repair the holes. We'll just have to patch them somehow." He groaned and clutched his middle.
"What is it?"
"I must have tensed and twisted something. My pelvis is killing me."
"Come on, you need to get back in bed. I'll give you a sedative to make you sleep for awhile."
The sensor sat in place recording the destruction of the huge carcass. Cherry picked Josh up and carried him to his quarters. Easing Josh into bed, he programmed the healer unit to give him some pain killer and a sedative.
When Josh dropped off to sleep, Cherry started to go back to the cockpit to watch more of the feeding frenzy. A plastic sheet on the floor stopped him. He saw the brochure that Josh had picked up. Hooking up to the computer, he tried to translate it but failed.
Entering the cockpit, he saw the same frenzy as before. Moving the sensor back to the entrance, he set it to trigger at any motion, then shut off the lights. As he sat, he thought about what Josh had in his cycle.
He went back to the cycle to get all the translators and power cords. When he got to the shop, he spread all of them around on the work bench. Three hours flew by before he had most of the translators recharged. Two were dead. He couldn't get them to do anything.
Sliding the plastic ads for the food replicator over, Cherry tried the different translators. The one bundle with the two failures didn't do anything. He tried each one. They came up with translations but nothing he could read. Going to audible, he tried that.
When nothing worked, he tried to load some of the different languages from Naca's computer. Still nothing worked. He muttered, "We need some sort of common ground on a few words. I'm not sure where to go from here."
Cherry tried some more changes for a few minutes then gave up. He went to check on Josh, who still sprawled on the bed sound asleep. After checking the healing unit, he tiptoed out of the room. In the passageway, he wavered then turned to the cockpit.
Checking the images from the sensor, he moved it back into the city. He moved it slowly forward, only using passive infrared and ultraviolet to see with. Soon he came to the partially devoured carcass. It barely showed, but the creatures around it stood out very plainly. Their bright bodies on the sensor told of a powerful heat being developed. A few still picked at the beheaded monster, but most were lying in the dirt in the middle of the boulevard or floating about fifty feet above it.
As he watched, one of the smaller heat sources came at the sensor. Cherry held his breath as he saw the thing coming closer and closer. The infrared image didn't give a clear picture, but he thought the body coming at the sensor measured about eight feet long and eighteen inches across.
The snake-like figure came to the sensor and bumped it with its head. Cherry let the sensor skitter away. It swam closer again and smacked the sensor again. The sensor shot up and to the left.
Cherry tensed as the creature moved again. It batted the sensor with its head like a cat playing with a ball. The sensor bounced around until the others disappeared in the darkness. The beast spent the next twenty minutes playing with the sensor. At last, Cherry saw the heat generated image intensify.
Looking closer, he knew he had to be looking down the gullet. Suddenly, everything except the heat source dead ahead disappeared. Cherry turned on the radar at full capacity. The glow of heat ahead increased. Muscles along the inside tried to quickly force the sensor back toward the tail.
Shutting down the non-passive instruments, Cherry set the sensor to recharge on any heat or radiation. The charging gauge shot to the maximum. The heat source rapidly receded. Cherry said, "You didn't like that, did you? Spit me out. You sure have a lot of energy inside to peg that meter like that."
The beast shot forward and swallowed the sensor again. Cherry set it for rapid recharge. The snake spit it out even faster and harder. The sensor flew three hundred yards away. As he watched, Cherry saw it swim away.
When it had dropped out of sight of the passive devices, Cherry carefully backed the sensor out of the city. As he reached the entrance, a yell on the intercom from Josh made him dive the sensor to the ground. It hit and laid there in the dust.
Cherry loudly said, "Josh, don't do that. One of those snake things just ate the sensor. I got it back and now you've made me crash it."
"Forget that. Look at the image from the sensor I set to follow you. Can you see that thing?"
"What are you talking about? I don't see —"
Cherry's eyes narrowed as the image on the view screen came into focus.
Chapter 8