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CHAPTER SIX

Dani

The passageways were small as she crawled her way back, pausing every so often to check the map to make sure she was going the right way. When she finally slid out of one door near the warehouse, she struggled to her feet, knees aching from the cold metal ground.

She wished she felt victorious or proud, but she didn’t. She only felt a small sense of relief that they could finally move on with the mission as planned.

She returned to the generator room first. Ryatt was sitting against the wall now, helmet in his lap, damp blond hair in his face, bright-green eyes looking up at her, dazed.

“Fucker threw me,” he said as she went to the door.

As the door slid open, Myrell stumbled out and hugged her.

“You crazy woman.” She squeezed her then pulled away. “I thought you were done for. Is it...?”

“Yeah, it’s gone.”

“I’m sorry I doubted you.”

Dani arched a brow. “You doubted me?”

Myrell laughed. “Well, I didn’t think we were dealing with something out of a cosmic horror. I’ve seen some shit in my day but nothing like… that. ”

Dani glanced back down the way she came. No, she’d never encountered anything like it either. “Let’s get back to the others.”

Helping Ryatt walk, they returned to the warehouse. Garret got to them first as they made it inside.

“What happened?” he asked, taking hold of his teammate.

“Dani took care of it,” Myrell answered plainly. “You should make her a head of security at this point. She got rid of that thing you and your team said you killed, and she did it without a gun.”

Garret stared at her. “You took it out?”

Dani shrugged as her crew crowded around her, a few coming in for a hug, grinning at her and patting her on the back.

“Dani, you are a badass!”

“You’re amazing, Dani!”

“How did you kill it?”

Her smile faltered a little. “I trapped it in the incinerator.”

Lex whistled. “Hot damn.”

Their laughter rang across the wide space.

“Wish we could have gotten a good look at it like you did,” said Tom, adjusting his goggles.

“I as well,” said Sheek.

“No, you don’t,” Myrell replied. “Trust me. It looked like…”

“Like what?”

“A devil or a demon.”

Tom frowned. “You did say it was spiny with horns across its head, right?”

“That’s right,” said Dani. “It had two red eyes and…a few blue ones.”

“Huh…” The gears seemed to be turning in his head. “Was it red?”

“Yes…except for its second arms. They were blue.”

Tom’s brow rose. “Well, that’s peculiar. Though I thought maybe…”

“What?”

He shrugged. “It sounded at first like it might be a vrisha.”

“Vrisha…that sounds familiar,” Lex said.

Phen gasped, the most expression Dani had seen her give. “Vrisha. I heard of them. They attacked one of the cities on my home world, so says my clan. But that was a long time ago when I was a childling.”

“They are a very rare species,” said Tom. “Don’t see the likes of them this far from the governing systems. They are very reclusive. Few others even know where their home world lies or have ever seen one.”

“Oh! I remember now,” Lex said. “We learned about them at the academy. But it was very brief.”

Suddenly Dani felt a little light-headed. She leaned back against a crate. So, that’s why it seemed oddly familiar. “Oh, my god, I…killed a vrisha?”

“Well, you don’t know for certain,” corrected Tom. “Double limbs and more than two eyes is definitely not a vrisha trait. But the rest…”

She stared off into the distance. “I remember they said it was unlikely we’d ever meet one.”

“Which is true.”

“How come you never heard of them, Myrell?” Lex asked.

“I grew up in a cult that colonized their own world far away,” she explained. “They didn’t teach us anything about the outside systems, and I didn’t go to academy.”

“Not everyone knows about those who come from the alliance,” Sheek pointed out. “I too don’t remember much about the vrisha. I was young as well when they had their rebellion.”

“Why didn’t you mention this before?” Dani asked Tom. “When I told you what I saw?”

“Honestly, I thought it was so completely far-fetched. I mean, why would a vrisha be here of all places? It seemed impossible.”

“A decommissioned outer world far from alliance territory, that kind of tracks,” Lex agreed. “And, like you said, Tom, vrisha don’t have four arms and double the eyes. And I remember they said they were distinctly red in color. Not blue. Maybe it just looked like one.”

Dani thought back to it standing by the doorway. Then she remembered the images she’d seen of one in the academy. She must have blocked it from her mind because it had scared her even then. But she remembered now. “I think…I think it was,” she said. “But somehow changed…”

“Surprised our good boys in armor didn’t mention it.” Myrell glared at Garret and Ryatt.

Ryatt’s face went red. “I got knocked out before I saw anything.”

“I didn’t see it either,” said Garret. “And we’ve encountered many things that are big and spiny with horns. Doesn’t mean it was one of them.”

“Guess it doesn’t matter anymore anyway,” Lex said. “Dani took care of it. And I think I agree—it couldn’t have been a vrisha because why would it stalk and threaten one of us?”

“There were some that were against the alliance,” Tom answered. “Maybe it ran away and hid here.”

For some reason, that made a chill run down her spine. She not only killed a vrisha but a rogue vrisha?

“Well.” Myrell broke from the group to grab her pack. “Like Lex said, doesn’t matter what it was. It’s gone now. So, let’s say we put it behind us and get the hell out of here, eh?

“Yes, please can we go back to the ship now?” Phen asked.

Dani shook her head. “We have to finish here first. Then it’s the labs.”

“You heard the woman,” Myrell said, slinging her pack over her shoulder. “Let’s go before my back gives out and I decide to grab a new spine off the rack.”