When the Devil Dances

“I don’t want to be out,” Shari panted. “The kids need me.”

“Not with a great damned hole through you they don’t,” Elgars replied. “You’re not going to be doing them any favors screaming every time we move you.”

“We’re nearly to the elevator,” Wendy said desperately. “We can get you out; getting you up to the surface won’t be that hard.”

“Oh, God,” Shari said, her lips turning blue and going cold. “I can’t die now.”

“You won’t,” Wendy promised. She jammed the Hiberzine injector against her neck and watched as the woman went limp. Her color improved almost immediately as the nannites directed blood to the brain. In moments her face was flushed and her tongue protruded horribly.

“Okay, let’s go,” Elgars said.

“Fuck that,” Wendy answered. “We need to find a medical facility and a stretcher.” She pulled out the medical pack and withdrew some clamps. “If I can put her together even a bit the Hiberzine will keep her from bleeding out while we move her.”

“We can’t operate on her!” Elgars snapped. “We have six hours to get out of this place or we’ll all be jelly. We have to leave.”

“WE ARE NOT LEAVING HER!” Wendy screamed coming to her feet and putting herself nose to nose with the soldier. “NOT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”

Elgars met her stare for stare, but after a moment she backed off. “Most of the Class One facilities are where there are people. And there’s not much we can do, unless you’ve been taking night courses as a trauma internist.”

“We can stabilize her,” Wendy said, waving at the console. “Go find a medical facility, one that won’t have the Posleen all over it.”

“This is impossible,” Elgars said, shaking her head. But she keyed in the information request anyway, asking for the nearest full-scale medical facility. Strangely, the database asked her for her username and password. Keying both in, it noted that there was a Class One Plus facility only three quadrants away. The map showed it as being carved out of the wall of the main sector.

“There’s a facility practically next door,” Elgars said. “That door that didn’t appear on the map you downloaded? It’s the way into the facility.”

“Well, then we’re fucked,” Wendy cursed. “We can’t open it.”

“Let’s go back,” Elgars said. “Maybe I can come up with something.”

“What?” Wendy asked.

“I don’t know,” the captain said. “I’ll say ‘open sesame’ or something.”

“Fine, you go get the kids,” Wendy said. “I’ll start dragging her.”

“Great,” Elgars said. “Send me after the kids.”

“They’d argue with me,” Wendy pointed out heaving Shari up into a fireman’s carry. “Oof. You’ll be there before me, I think.”

* * *

Elgars placed her palm on the doorpad as Wendy carried Shari through the door to the tank room. As soon as she placed her hand on the pad, the door opened.

“What did you do?” Wendy asked. She was sweating and panting already carrying the older woman; it had been a long day.

“I just put my palm on the pad,” Elgars said with a shrug. “I’m military; maybe it was designed to open for any military personnel.”

The far room had lockers against both walls and the far door appeared to be an airlock.

“You did ask for a medical facility, right?” Wendy asked, shifting the body on her shoulders. She looked around, but it looked more like the entry to a computer chip clean room.

“Yes,” Elgars said leading the line of children to the far door. It, too, opened at a touch. “It’s supposed to be this way. The map showed a winding path; we’ll have to see what that means.”

The group crowded into the airlock and Elgars keyed the next door, which opened into violet darkness.

The light from the airlock illuminated the far wall and Elgars felt an almost unholy dread shiver down her spine. The wall was clearly a made thing, but it looked organic and the tunnel drifted off to the right in a fashion that made her think, uncomfortably, of the inside of an intestine.

A purple intestine at that; the light that seemed to emanate from the walls was a deep violet. In the distance was a gurgling sound, not quite like a brook or a fountain, but more like an upset stomach and closer to hand there were high, shrill whistles. The smell was odd and alien, and acrid sweetness that told hindbrain that it was no longer in a human environment.

“Well, this is odd,” Wendy said.

* * *

Elgars hefted her rifle and looked around the violet tunnel. “I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all.” She was panting quietly.

Wendy shifted the inert lump of Shari on her shoulder and shrugged as well as she could. “I don’t care if you like it or not; there’s supposed to be a trauma facility in here and we’re going to find it.”

“Where’s an info terminal?” Elgars asked rhetorically.

“Do you need information, Captain Elgars?” a mellifluous voice asked out of the walls.

Elgars pried one of the children’s hands off of her uniform and looked around. “Who asked?”

“This is the facility AID, Captain,” the voice answered. “Do you require assistance?”

“We have a patient,” Wendy answered. “We need a medical facility.”

There was no answer.