Critical Path

Lifting the aliens reminded him of lifting Denver as a toddler when Charlie first brought him back to their shelter in the cave system. This was just before Pippa was killed. Despite everything they had lost at the time, having Denver with them renewed their hope and desire to carry on, if not for themselves, then for the next generation.

And Mike realized this was exactly the same situation.

He wasn’t doing this just for the immediate threat, but to help ensure the safety of the next generation.

Turning his attention back to the obstacle, Mike scanned the surface and found a number of foot and handholds where railings and other pieces of infrastructure had been ripped off this particular bulkhead or whatever purpose it had served in its original location.

He climbed until his head poked up into the darkness.

Muscles screaming, he reached a hand into the darkness in order to find something to pull himself up with but found nothing and began to slip. “Shit, shit…”

The two engineers peered above again, each one grabbing his hand.

Despite being tiny, they had enough strength to stop him from falling and helped to drag him up.

They managed to crouch in the narrow gap, but Mike had to stay on his arms and knees and shuffle through the darkness as they led, their screens bathing the tight passage with blue light.

Another twenty or so meters later and Mike found himself dropping out of the passage into the center of the maintenance room.

Clean, off-white, smooth surfaces surrounded the three-meter-square room. The walls must have been strengthened, as the ceiling, just a few centimeters above Mike’s head, hadn’t collapsed.

Blinky showed Mike the screen.

A diagram showed that the part they needed was behind one of the wall panels. Mike located it and reached forward with his arm to open the panel, but quickly pulled it back as something touched his skin and sizzled with a burn.

“Jesus, what the…”

A sizzling noise came from all around him. He looked up.

Through holes in the ceiling, a clear, acidic liquid dripped into pools on the floor. The two aliens backed off. “Oh, this is just great.”

The liquid, fuel or some kind of coolant, Mike guessed, was burning through the metal. The spot on his skin continued to burn.

Just great. If it wasn’t hard enough to get here, he now had to extricate a delicate part while avoiding multiple streams of acid.

“Well, best I get on with it, then, eh? Don’t look like you two care to help out much…” He shook his head and pulled the sling around his chest. He fished out a flat-tipped screwdriver and leaned carefully forward to the panel.

A stray drip bounced off the edge of his shoe, instantly melting through the leather and making him wince.

“Goddammit.”

Making himself as small as possible, he pried the panel open.

“Is this it?” Mike called out, pointing to a glowing green cylinder the size of a soda can. Wires and tubes connected to a lid on its top.

Blinky clicked his affirmation.

There didn’t appear to be any obvious way of removing it without damaging the metal cap that took the wires and tubes.

Taking a small multimeter, Mike checked it. The voltage and current were off the scale. Have to be careful with this baby, he thought.

As Mike thought how best to remove the device without breaking it, a terrible crack boomed from above him. He managed to duck out of the way as a crossbeam gave way and fell down. It struck Grumpy on the head, knocking him to the ground.

Mike couldn’t move away in time, frightened of stepping into the acid stream. The beam fell onto his ankle, trapping him in place.

The new hole above, with metal sheeting pointing down, funneled more acid into the tight room.

Mike looked away as a pool of it splashed onto the unmoving form of Grumpy.

He hated that he felt something for the poor bastard, but…

“Hey, where are you going?” Blinky had climbed the beam and disappeared back out of the passage into the gloom. “Come back here, you little…”

Damn this bullshit!

Mike tried his leg, but the beam was too heavy across his foot and ankle. It had probably broken it, if the pain was anything to go by.

With the acid filling the room with bitter, sharp fumes, Mike had no other option but to get to work. If he couldn’t get out of here and someone came for him after he had died, at least he’d get the part out of the system for them.

Fishing through his sling of tools, Mike took a shallow breath and set to work, all the while the sizzling of the dead croatoan’s body reminded him what awaited him if he didn’t get free.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Mike yelled with triumph; the part came free and he hadn’t shocked himself with the full power of a piece of alien tech. Score one for Mike, but the sizzling of the acid had grown in volume.

The stench of hot metal and liquidized alien corpse made him want to retch.