The Lamia swung its arm out. It was aiming for Theo.

  Erika pointed Ryder’s gun at the Lamia.

  Five bullets, she reminded herself.

  The Lamia’s swipe missed, and tore through Luther’s shrine instead of Theo.

  Erika pulled the trigger on the pistol. It took more effort than she expected, and the gunshot jarred her arm out of position. The noise made Erika’s ears ring.

  A hole appeared in the Lamia’s flesh.

  The creature writhed.

  Theo hurried down the ladder.

  A limb swiped after Theo, but he dipped below the ladder before the Lamia could hit him.

  The Carnifex darted forward.

  A flurry of limbs stretched for the Carnifex, but failed to connected. The Carnifex lunged onto the Lamia, and sunk its tail deep into its flesh.

  The Lamia tried to grab the Carnifex, but they leapt out of reach.

  Erika raised the pistol, and lined up another shot. Her finger sat on the trigger, but she didn’t fire yet. She wasn’t going to kill the Lamia, not with a gun, and not with anything else. She had a different objective in mind.

  Erika ran for the elevator.

  The Lamia swiped at Erika. The Carnifex kept pace with Erika, and deflected the Lamia’s limbs. Erika reached the ripped open elevator doors, and looked down the shaft. The elevator car was shredded open, leaving spikes of metal ready to impale anyone who fell on top. Erika clambered down the service ladder.

  A spike slammed into the elevator shaft. The sound was so jarring that Erika slipped from the ladder. She hugged onto the rungs before she could fall.

  Probing limbs entered the elevator.

  Come on, you son of a bitch.

  Erika hurried down. The Lamia followed.

  ? ? ?

  The reactor room could not be called a reactor room anymore. The Aranea had filled the area with its strange, orange webbing. That webbing vibrated as Aranea young scurried through it. This was no reactor room anymore; this was an alien den.

  Theo stepped into the reactor room to a chorus of hisses. Theo tossed the Aranea anesthetic into the room. The gas rose in a cloud of blue.

  The Aranea larvae scuttled out from their hiding spots and toward Theo.

  He tossed out the second bottle of anesthetic at the gathering aliens.

  The gas gathered around the larvae. The aliens dropped and writhed. The aliens caught in the other cloud of gas twisted on the ground, too.

  Theo hurried through the larvae, and toward the reactor core. The Aranea had coated the core in a thick layer of webbing.

  Theo used the tip of his spear to clear off the mucous. There was more webbing inside the core and coating the wiring.

  A cry came from behind. The Aranea larvae were inert on the floor. The gas was meant to knock the creatures unconscious, though they looked dead to Theo.

  That doesn’t matter.

  Theo turned his focus back on the reactor core. He made sure the shock spear was powered down, then dug it into the core’s opening to clear the webbing clogging up the components.

  Remember there are parts that need replacing. You won’t be able to do that right now.

  The repairs were going to be a patch job, but that’s all the Ark needed for the moment.

  Something hissed.

  The adult Aranea stood atop the reactor core, looking like a queen addressing her subjects from a balcony. Then it lunged for Theo.

  ? ? ?

  The Lamia grabbed Erika’s arm, and squeezed. She cried out and tried to yank her arm away. The Lamia held tight.

  Erika rose the pistol and fired two more shots.

  The Lamia didn’t let go.

  The Carnifex’s tail blurred by, and the limb went slack.

  The Lamia screeched.

  Erika tore her arm away. The Lamia’s limb came with her in a geyser of green blood. Some of it splattered against Erika’s face.

  She didn’t have time to be disgusted; she ran out of the elevator and toward the shuttle bay. The Carnifex darted to Erika’s side. The Lamia oozed into the elevator car. The car creaked under the Lamia’s weight.

  It’s going to all fall to the fourth floor.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The Lamia hauled itself out. It rose a limb. This one was going to throw a spike.

  Erika fired again.

  One bullet hit the far side of the elevator shaft. The second connected with the Lamia’s body, but this time, the Lamia didn’t flinch. It already adapted to gunfire.

  The Lamia swung its arm.

  Erika scrambled to the side.

  The Carnifex swiped its tail forward. It intercepted the spike, and sent it careening into the shuttle bay.

  The Lamia groaned as it lumbered forward.

  Erika stepped back into the shuttle bay. She kept herself visible for the Lamia. It threw another spike.

  Erika dropped. The spike caught the corner of her shoulder before continuing into the wall.

  Erika tried to shoot again, but the gun wouldn’t fire. She was out of bullets.

  The Lamia moved into the shuttle bay. The Carnifex lunged at it from the side.

  The Lamia turned its attention to the new attacker.

  Erika ran toward the airlock button, and slammed her palm onto it.

  The doors whined as they moved together and locked the Lamia inside. It had nowhere to go now.

  Neither do you.

  Erika turned just in time to see the Lamia’s limb coming for her head.

  Erika tried to twist away, but the Lamia got its tentacle wrapped around the helmet. It lifted Erika off the ground. The mucous coating the Lamia smeared onto the helmet’s glass.

  Erika pushed against the Lamia, but it wasn’t going to let her go. It was going to smash her on the ground, and then–

  Something yanked Erika from behind. She fell back to the ground, and stumbled into the Carnifex. They chirped something, then leapt back into the fight.

  Erika leveled her shock spear, and opened the radio.

  “The Lamia’s in place! Mi-Cha, time to roll!” Erika shouted.

  “I can’t! The reactor’s not online yet!” Mi-Cha shouted.

  Theo should be done with the core, though. If the reactor wasn’t online yet…

  “Theo, are you there? What’s going on?” Erika asked.

  No response.

  ? ? ?

  Theo heard Erika and Mi-Cha, but he couldn’t respond to them. He was too busy fending off a horde of Aranea.

  He determined that the real problem wasn’t the adult in his face, but its children. They crawled up Theo and delivered stinging bites through the EVA suit. No matter how many times Theo brushed them off, no matter how many Theo stomped their bodies, more larvae came.

  The adult kept its distance, only taking occasional swipes at Theo. He had to keep a few steps away from the reactor core. It was tough keeping track of both the larvae and the adult.

  “Theo, please respond!” Erika called.

  The adult lunged.

  Theo deflected it away with the shock spear. An appendage stabbed at Theo’s helmet, but rolled off the glass. Theo threw the adult back as far as he could.

  I’m slowing down. Theo couldn’t afford to slow down.

  ? ? ?

  “Theo, come on!” Mi-Cha bounced in the pilot’s chair.

  She heard all the fighting below, but what could she do about it? She was supposed to plant her ass at the flight controls and wait for everyone else to finish their job.

  What if Theo’s dead? Mi-Cha didn’t want to think about it, but it was a very real possibility. He could be dead, and no one was doing shit about it.

  Something thumped from below.

  An asteroid filled the cockpit window. If the Hell’s Ark didn’t get power, and get power soon, the ship would kiss that big-ass rock.

  Mi-Cha tapped the edge of her seat.

  “Oh, fuck me!” Mi-Cha leapt from the chair, and hurried down the ladder. Halfway to the reactor room, Mi-Cha realized she didn’t have a weapon. Then she realized she didn’t give a fuck.

  Mi-Cha made it to the bottom floor, and stepped into the reactor control room. Theo was alive, thank God, but the Aranea surrounded him.

  Mi-Cha burst into the reactor room.

  “Hey, assholes!” She screeched.

  The entire ship reeled, making Mi-Cha stumble into a wall. The Ark hit a rock–not the big one, but something large enough to rattle the ship.

  A chunk of the larvae broke their assault on Theo to focus on Mi-Cha.

  Wish I had a weapon now.

  The larvae crawled on Mi-Cha. She stomped at them as they approached. The larvae made a sickening crunch under her shoes. Mi-Cha tried not to think about cockroaches.

  The big Aranea was coming too, it looked like.

  “Mi-Cha, here!” Theo flung a shock spear.

  The spear soared over Mi-Cha and hit the wall behind her.

  She snatched it off the floor and swung at the approaching larvae. The electric tip fried the little bastards.

  The adult lunged.

  Mi-Cha rammed the shock spear forward, and let the adult slam right onto the electric tip. It screeched and writhed.

  “Fuck yeah!” Mi-Cha shouted. Then she felt the larvae biting through her EVA suit. She brushed herself down. More young approached. Mi-Cha swept at them with the spear.

  The adult recovered and skittered back.

  Theo was at the reactor core and tinkering inside. He rose his head.

  “The reactor’s online again!” Theo’s voice came over the radio. “Mi-Cha, back to the pilot’s chair!”

  “And roll, please!” Erika added.

  Mi-Cha wanted to snap something back, but she didn’t have the energy.

  “Catch!” Mi-Cha threw the spear in Theo’s direction. She’d forgotten to turn it off again, but that was okay. Her throw wound up a meter short from Theo.

  Mi-Cha turned, and ran back the way she came. A few larvae clung to her. Mi-Cha brushed them off. She scrambled up the ladder, and jumped back into the pilot’s chair. The controls hummed with life.

  “Brace!” Mi-Cha shouted.

  Then she yanked the controls.

  ? ? ?

  Erika thought she’d be ready for Mi-Cha’s flying. She was not.

  The Ark spun. The ceiling raced to meet Erika, then gravity switched long enough to slam Erika into a wall. Before she could right herself, the ship changed again, and Erika fell to the center of the room.

  The one good thing was that the Lamia also didn’t know how to deal with the changing gravity. It slammed into the walls, limbs flailing. It fired off spikes that flew in random directions.

  The floor raced to meet Erika.

  She braced herself. The impact still hurt, but this time, Erika managed to concentrate the pain into her palms. The Carnifex rushed to Erika’s side.

  Gravity shifted again, and Erika slid to the wall.

  The Carnifex grabbed Erika, then stabbed their tail into the ground.

  Gravity shifted.

  The Lamia fell.

  Erika and the Carnifex stayed in place.

  ? ? ?

  Theo managed to get into the control room for the reactor. The adult Aranea stayed with the core, though the larvae squeezed their way into the room. Theo kept them at bay with the shock spear while he monitored the core. It was heating up to dangerous levels.

  Theo swiped at the ground, and fried a new group of larvae.

  The core glowed orange.

  “Mi-Cha, be careful. The reactor’s getting hot,” Theo said.

  “Figured! Half the thrusters already exploded!”

  The readings on the console pushed into the red. The reactor core itself turned the color of the sun.

  “Point us toward civilization! Now!” Theo ran.

  “Motherfucker!”

  Theo clambered onto the ladder.

  The reactor popped. A wave of heat and light rushed toward Theo. The heat licked at his heels as he clambered up the ladder.

  Theo reached the third floor. He leapt to the side as heat washed by him. He turned his face away.

  The heat died down.

  The lights were off for three seconds, then the emergency generators came online.

  “Shit! Theo, you still there?” Mi-Cha asked.

  “I’m alive.” Theo glanced to the shuttle bay doors. “Erika, what’s your status?”