Alien Freak - Calista Skye Page 0,71

your female is bred to death by the highest bidder. Now be smart, and I will make sure all my people know your name.”

A shiny metal ball drops from his hand, rattling as it unrolls into fine mesh netting.

I scowl at the hunter’s ugly insect head and sincerely wish destruction on it.

Nothing happens. I’m not able to focus, the situation has me too scared.

Donna is avoiding looking at me, her big eyes empty, her head held high in pure righteousness.

“Don’t agree, Zaroc,” I hiss. “Shoot him! We’ll all die, but that’s the best outcome.”

The emergency lighting goes out, and the room becomes pitch black.

I instinctively draw close to Zaroc, but there’s only empty air.

All hell breaks loose as everyone with a functioning gun opens fire in a thunderous cacophony and an evil light show of lasers, plasma bolts and hot projectiles. And behind it all, a nightmarish buzzing like from the universe’s biggest beehive

I hit the floor, banging my elbow on the metal.

The firestorm is over as soon as it started. Bright flood lights come on, and I glance up.

Each of my enemies has a close companion – a human-size mosquito clinging to their sides with thin black legs, pointing a long, shiny stinger to each of their faces from a half inch away.

Zaroc is on the floor. On his back, which can’t be a good sign.

Behind IruBex stands Bathosc the Engineer, holding a shiny gun to his head, her hand rock steady.

“Now let’s all just calm down,” she thunders, using some kind of invisible loudspeaker. “This station is my home. I will not have it turned into a battleground. My homegirls here will absolutely sting any one of you if you try anything. I promise that you don’t want that. You will be paralyzed and filled with her grubs, and as they grow they will eat you from the inside, keeping you alive as long as possible until they burst out of you in a swarm.”

All the aliens go even stiffer, if that’s possible. Yeah, none of them want that.

I look nervously around, but there’s no huge mosquito mechanic close to me.

But there is one clinging to Donna, stinger dripping something unpleasant.

“One at a time,” Bathosc continues, “put down your weapon and step away from it. Averie, move out to your ship. I can’t help you any more after this. Bring your red dude and leave. Don’t return.”

The hall is very quiet.

I scurry over to Zaroc, just as he’s laboriously getting to his feet. He has a scorch mark across one cheek, still smoking. There’s something wrong with his legs, too.

“Are you all right?” I ask, seeing that he’s not. “Can you walk?”

He steadies himself on me. “I’ll try,” he wheezes. Let’s go.”

He hobbles along with me. The airtight door to the docking bay opens, and the sound of the alarms still blaring out there fills the big hall.

“Take me with you! Ow!” It’s a desperate scream from behind me.

I turn. Donna is on her feet, running clumsily towards me, broken free from the mosquito’s grip. On her cheek is a bright, red dot.

Her mosquito has already stung her.

“Stay where you are,” I yell, moving backwards towards the door, not wanting human-sized mosquito grubs anywhere near me.

“Wait! Alicia!” Donna takes three more steps. A bright plasma bolt smashes through her head, she collapses to the floor without a sound and stays down, not moving.

“She was dead already,” Bathosc says, aiming the gun back at IruBex’s head. “I saw her get stung. Well, I did tell her not to move. Now go, Averie. The docking bay is sealed again. And I can’t keep these guys calm forever.”

I speed up and get Zaroc through the door, then along the walkway to our ship, the alarms still screaming at deafening volume.

The airtight door slams shut behind us.

“Were you hit?” I ask.

“The face and the leg,” Zaroc says calmly. “The face shot is not bad. The leg… I don’t know. You?”

I look down myself. “I’m not hurt. Or stung.”

“And apparently not able to use your extremely valuable Elder weapon for anything good.”

“I… no. I tried. I couldn’t focus. Sorry.”

We stumble in the hatch, it closes behind us, and I steady Zaroc up to the control room

“There are Gurandu in this station,” Koyanara says immediately. “And Bululg. Did you see them— oh, sweet Fate, what happened to you?”

Zaroc sits down heavily in the pilot’s seat. “We met them.”

I fasten the harness around me. “Let’s just get away. This place creeps me out now.”

“I hope