HAWK

CHAPTER ELEVEN: SPIDER (2/6)

For a moment, all Kas could see was a white scar across her vision. Once she'd blinked it away, she was shocked to see Hik standing alone in the centre of the cargo hold. A small pulse-cannon was protruding from his left shoulder, its barrel a swirl of cool blue light. He turned to Kas, his face awash with the blue text.

'We have to go,' he said. 'Get to the--'

A beam of red light found Hik's chest and jolted his body like an arrow. Kas followed it with startled eyes to the open door just as the spider drifted in, alone and angry. Its ten legs were curled into a narrow cage, their white-hot tips touching at a common point like slender fingers pinching the end of a laser. Kas looked back to Hik and saw the spot where the beam had struck his body was turning from black to red to orange. Waves of heat were rising from him strong enough to melt carbachrome, but somehow he was still standing.

Kas's brain was still trying to process it while her hands were going to action, grabbing the prio-pistols from her hips and pulling them from their holsters. With no time to think about what she was doing, she swung her arms up level with her eyes and locked sights on the spider. Her index fingers squeezed the triggers in unison. The grips thrummed from the dynamo power chargers and gave way to two miniature explosions. If time had slowed, Kas would have seen two bolts of green light ejected from their barrels and burn a parallel path through the air, scorching twin trails of smoke on their way to their common target. But time didn't slow, and all Kas saw was a brief emerald flash before the spider was knocked instantly off its axis. The intense beam of red light that had struck Hik disappeared at once as the spider's legs scattered and twisted outwards like a ruptured ribcage.

But it didn't die.

In the fraction of a second it had taken for it to hit the wall, the alien X1 had managed to adjust its legs accordingly and was now clinging to the side of the ship. Its shiny black body shimmered with green splintered code and reorientated itself so that it was looking right at Kas.

Uh oh...

The spider launched itself away from the wall, making a beeline straight towards Kas, its legs locked out behind it like a squid propelling itself through water. Kas tightened her fingers on her pistols' triggers, ready to fire again, but a second blue flash beat her to it. The spider spiralled wildly out of the rear doors and disappeared.

Kas turned once again to see Hik looking back at her, the orange glow on his chest quickly diminishing.

'Thanks,' she said.

'Close the doors,' he replied, and then he bent his knees and dived forwards, sailing out of the rear exit like one of the old-fashioned action heroes Kas used to idolise in her youth.

Kas holstered her pistols and pushed the red lever upwards to close the doors. She pulled her knees in towards her chest, planted her feet on the wall and pushed hard. As she soared backwards across the hold, she held her arms out in front of her like a diver and pirouetted towards the open cockpit door. A well-timed kick struck the frame and nudged her towards her seat. She grasped its back and used her momentum to somersault over the top, landing perfectly in her seat. Her hands whipped up to the twin belts and pulled them tight over her shoulders.

'Maybe I really am crazy...'

She cracked her knuckles and reached out to take the controls, but her face suddenly tightened as she looked out of the viewport. Outside the Calista, spiders were pouring from a large hole in the alien ship's curved ceiling - dozens of them - perhaps as many as fifty.

Not good, not good...

A fierce blue light washed over the viewport and knocked the spiders back like an explosion just as Hik soared into view and landed on the Calista's nose. His entire body was glowing orange. Red spider-beams were raining on him from all directions, concentrating an intense heat on his body in an effort to reduce him to a single element. But Hik was still standing strong. The cannon on his shoulder fired off a barrage of blue pulses, knocking the spiders out of the air like flies while he shot at the rest with twin sleeve-snipers that had extended from his forearms. They weren't powerful enough to destroy them, but they were at least keeping them from destroying him. Kas saw a blur of movement on Hik's right and realised a lone spider was flying in to attack.

'Watch out!' she shouted, but she needn't have bothered. Hik had already seen the spider coming and plucked it out of the air by two of its spindly legs. The spider thrashed as Hik tore most of the ten limbs from its round body and threw the remaining ball at a group of its siblings near the ceiling.

But as good a fight as Hik was putting up, the spiders were closing in on him and Kas realised if she didn't do something soon, Hik would soon be turned into molten metal.

'Calista! Combat mode!'

There was no delay. The front edge of her control panel clicked and shifted and a pair of gun-grips unfolded in front of her. Kas looked at her left forearm like she was checking the time and tapped on her combat suit's sleeve. A rectangle lit up on her forearm showing a number-pad. Kas quickly typed in '0-0-0-1' and the rectangle flashed solid green and disappeared.

Kas felt the effects almost instantly. The skinsuit delivered a surge of clarity stimulants direct to her spine which sent them straight up to her brain and into her frontal cortex.

Thoughts shuffled into order.

Time slowed to a crawl.

Senses tingled and enhanced.

Her mind felt sharper than Remi's carbon knife and became a weapon of its own. With a calm breath out, Kas slid her hands into the gun-grips and the viewport transformed. Everything in the screen suddenly had a white outline traced around its edge, including Hik and the fifty-or-so alien X1's. Kas heard several solid shunks surround her ship and knew her turrets had been deployed.

'Weapons ready,' the Calista announced.

'Target all X1's but Hik,' Kas said calmly.

The white outline of every spider in the viewport suddenly turned red and Kas felt a chill spread throughout her body.

My turn...