Casey Lockhart's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

The shuttle broke atmosphere and Casey let the engines idle. Seven canisters sat strapped in the hold. Their green glow filled the cabin. She thought they were clear. Then Yuri pointed at a canister near the wall. Its seal had split during the run to the shuttle. Slime seeped from the crack and slid across the floor. "It's leaking," Yuri said. He backed away from it. Casey knelt by the canister. The goo was moving on its own. A small octopus creature pulled itself out through the crack. Its beady eyes glowed. It had woken up in the dark hold. And nothing here could hurt it the way the suns did. More followed. They spread across the metal floor and climbed the crate straps. Casey remembered the ridge. She remembered the walls of the shack breaking. These things attacked when their colony was stolen. She had seven canisters of stolen colony aboard. "Get the seals," she said. "Now." Yuri grabbed a strap and yanked. A tentacle wrapped his wrist and squeezed. He hissed and shook it loose. Casey pulled her scanner and swung it like a club. The creatures didn't fear it. They swarmed toward the warmest thing in the room, which was them. Casey looked at the shuttle's side doors. On the ridge, dawn had saved her. The suns burned the creatures back into the rock. There were no suns in here. But there was open space outside, and cold, and killing light from the star they orbited. "Yuri, brace on something." She grabbed a handhold by the wall. "You're not," he said. "I am." She hit the door release. The side doors cracked open. Air screamed out. The pull dragged everything loose toward the gap. Loose slime slid past her boots. The creatures lost their grip on the straps one by one and tumbled toward the doors. Casey held the rail with both hands. Yuri clung to a strap and shouted something she couldn't hear. One creature caught the leaking canister with a tentacle. Both flew toward the doors together. The canister struck the frame, split fully, and vanished into the dark with the creature still wrapped around it. Six canisters left. The rest held in their seals, strapped tight. Casey slammed the doors shut. The screaming stopped. She dropped to the floor, breathing hard. The cabin was empty of moving things now. Just slime trails and six sealed canisters, glowing steady. Yuri stared at the wet floor. "We lost one more." "We kept six." Casey wiped her glasses on her sleeve. Six canisters was still a fortune. Still enough exotic material to sell for the price she came out here to earn. Then the console beeped. A ship pinged them on the open channel. The voice was flat and clipped. "The shipment," it said. "You should have walked." Casey knew that voice. The green giant from the ridge. He hadn't stayed behind. He had followed her off the planet, and now he was up here with her.