Intergalactic Pest Control

Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Sector 12 Transgalactic Station

Joel wasn’t sure what surprised him more: the behemoth bug, or the fact that expletives had just come out of Reggie’s mouth.

“Uhhhh… Cody? Can you hurry it up? We’ve got a big problem.”

Cody tapped furiously on his wristcom. “Got it. Dumping the lines now.”

Joel twisted together a casing rigged up of old paint cans. “Flashbangs are ready. As soon as I toss these, all the bugs in the hall are toast.”

“But the elevator is on the other side of that swarm,” Reggie said. “We’re trapped in here with that beast.”

“Maybe not,” Cody said, studying the floor schematics. “Looks like there’s a service elevator toward the back, right next to the engine. We just have to get past the mother bug.”

“Because that’ll be ‘easy as f*****g pie’, right, guys?” Joel jabbed at them with his sharp voice.

“Just throw those grenades,” Reggie said.

Joel didn’t argue. He activated the two flashbangs he’d made and threw them as hard as he could down the hall that was clogged with ShimVens.

The guys didn’t wait to see the effect. They turned and charged straight at the mother bug, yelling like they were berserker Vikings attacking some English villagers. As they ran, they heard the shriek of a hundred bugs burning to death and felt the heat tickle the backs of their necks.

They expected the mother bug to strike. All she needed to do was bring one of her massive legs down to turn all three of them into smears on the floor. The irony wasn’t lost on them. But the giant ShimVen didn’t do that; she didn’t so much as look at them. She couldn’t look away from the fire behind them. From the sight of hundreds of her babies turning to ash.

For a second, Joel felt bad for the hideous creature, having to watch as its family writhed in pain and died. Then he remembered how each and every one of those skittery bastards had wanted to eat him and lay eggs in his brain, and his sympathy turned to delight.

They ran under the mother bug while she was distracted. As Reggie glanced up at her underside, his chest tightened and his stomach sank. But then the service elevator came into view.

We made it in one piece. He decided to focus on that for the moment. The positive.

The mother bug was still staring at the flaming pyre of its offspring as the elevator door closed.

Joel stabbed the button for the hangar bay with his finger. “We’re getting the f**k out of here,” he said.

Neither Cody nor Reggie argued. No one said anything until they were back on the ship.

“Computer, plot a course for home,” Cody said. “Get us off this goddamn station as fast as you can.”

Joel strapped into his chair. He didn’t even bother to take his bug-gut-soaked jacket off. He just wanted to get gone.

Reggie seemed reluctant to strap in. He didn’t argue that they stay, though; he wasn’t stupid. The guys would kick him out an airlock if he even suggested it. He knew they weren’t equipped to handle a bug that size. Not to mention their weapons were depleted.

Cody rocketed the ship out of the space station, foregoing all the standard departure protocols. Not that there were any traffic controllers to give a s**t, but the Notches usually followed procedure.

Once they were free of the station, Reggie spoke.

“Guys, I know you don’t want to hear this, but we have to go back.”