Tevin's Arc

Chapter 2 of 5

The horn kept blowing. Tevin shoved the shed door wide and stepped out with the alien gun Ambrose had pushed into his hands on the ridge. Six purple workers were already running at them across the mud, tails whipping, claws out. Tevin raised the gun. His shackles flared blue against his wrists. He fired. A bolt of white light punched the lead worker off its feet. The others split sideways. Tevin ran at them anyway, barefoot in the wet, shouting something that wasn't words. Behind him Riley opened up with her makeshift gun and dropped a second worker mid-stride. Harlen went past Tevin at a dead run and the red rig over his mouth hissed once, then roared. A cone of fire caught a Vael in the chest and it went down screaming, curled around itself. "Cover me," Ambrose said. The old engineer was already moving, goggles blazing blue, harpoon gun bouncing on his back. He ran for the flank of the siphon machine. Tevin swung around to shield him and fired twice more, keeping the workers off the machine's side. Ambrose reached the chassis. He dropped to his knees beside a panel under the water tank. "Buy me two minutes." "You've got them," Tevin said. A worker came in from Tevin's left. He didn't see it. Elina did. She dropped from above, wings out, and the sharp edge of the left wing came down across the worker's neck. Stained glass caught the sun in reds and yellows and blues. The Vael folded into the mud. She landed light beside Tevin and did not look at him. "Two more," she said. Riley took one at fifteen paces, one clean shot. Harlen took the last with fire, close enough that Tevin felt the heat on his face. Then the mud went quiet except for the machine's siphon and Ambrose's swearing. Something inside the chassis clanked. Ambrose pulled back and stood up cradling a black cube the size of a loaf of bread. Its seams glowed the same blue as Tevin's shackles. "Got it," Ambrose said. He was breathing hard. "We go. Now." Tevin let himself feel it for one second. The core. The thing that might get him off this planet. It was warm in Ambrose's hands. Then Harlen said, "Look." Tevin turned. The mountain rose behind the lakebed. Along its lower slope, a dark line was moving down toward them. Not six workers. Not ten. A column. Purple bodies in loose formation, antennae up, tails dragging. A scout ran at the front, faster than the rest, already pointing. Riley lowered her gun. "That's a lot." "They felt the core come loose," Ambrose said. He tucked the cube under his arm. His voice had gone thin. "They know exactly where we are." Elina folded her wings tight. "Move." Tevin ran.