The Conquering Queen

Chapter Three - The Belly of the Beast Pt. 2

Etnastus, for a God of explosive fire and anger, was as cold as a pole inside. Billie's breath formed clouds, stark-white against the tarnished black of the walls. She hoped Etnastus was too large to notice four little warts of warmth crawling about his insides. She could hardly imagine what vile fluid the tunnels they were now shimmying through were designed to hold.

Billie found Titus where Icarus had put him: crouched defensively at an intersection of four tubes. His flesh was as white as death and his lips were turning blue, though he had only been there a few minutes longer than Billie had. She tossed him a satchel full of hot hemolymph from Icarus's sinus-cavity, which Titus eagerly strapped to his bare back. The tunnels were just large enough for Billie to crawl comfortably with her own pack of warmth - Titus had a worse time of it. His wide shoulders scraped the tunnel's walls and he had to half-slither on his stomach, a feat made all the harder by the fact that he would not relinquish his great clawver. How he thought to swing it in this small space, Billie had no idea.

Theo and Polly were following a similar trajectory to theirs - inward, away from the hull and the frozen deeps of subspace. So far they had no indication that Etnastus was at all hurt by the little cuts Icarus had given him, nor that their presence had alerted any crew. Billie hoped the belly of the great God was empty, and yet as they bore deeper in to him, Billie recognized the telltale signs of habitation. Panels that could be removed, revealing only the dark lenses of alien eyes; handles, and, after some time, a ladder. Whatever inhabited Etnastus, it was the size and scale of a human.

"We have descended a ladder," Polly broke silence first. "Below, we have found a tunnel-"

"We've got it too, Polly," Billie interrupted her.

"Excellent. Head to your left. With luck, we occupy the same corridor."

Their footsteps clattered noisily despite careful footing. The floor felt thin, hollow, and precarious. The dun echoed below them as if they were crossing a great chasm. Whoever was in here would find them soon, yet they still knew nothing at all about their enemy.

Titus stopped abruptly after they'd travelled a few meters, holding up a warning hand to her. The echoing clamour beneath their feet continued. We're not alone, he signed to her.

Billie held up two fingers. Polly and Theo? She mouthed to him. He shook his head. The sound was to their right, not ahead down the hall. Billie scanned the dark walls for any kind of opening. Tubes and veins of cold metal lined the walls, joined in complex ways. At intervals, they looped up towards the ceiling, leaving canvasses of sleek black wall unadorned with no markings or joints. Titus followed her eyes and approached one of these blank spaces with his clawver ready, and pushed on the wall.

Faster than she could see, the wall slid away, leaving an opening. Instinctively, Titus brought his clawver down, bisecting the newly revealed space before Billie even realized it was there. The tunnel beyond ran parallel to them and looked identical to theirs in every way - except for the now-mangled and bleeding creature just beyond the door.

Titus surged through the opening, attacking without thinking, as he was trained to do. His target loomed over him, a rust-brown creature supported on four chitinous limbs, with two more sprouting pincer-like from the top of its thorax. 

One more, Billie corrected herself. One of the pincers had been severed by Titus's first stroke and now lay on the ground leaking greenish fluid.

The creature hissed and turned on him, thrashing out with its one remaining pincer as it tried to back away. Titus parried with his hilt and cut once, twice; strong, quick strokes which snapped the creatures legs off and halted its retreat. When the elongated head twisted in pain and turned two golden eyes on him, Billie almost recognized the expression. Then Titus cleaved that head clean off.