Black Hole Heartbeat

Rusalka - 40

The Shrook's body sagged limp, face smeared across the chair. A mess of bone and meat. Rusalka took the gun from Forr's hand. His metal fingers continued to squeeze to air. "Don't touch my things."

An alarm started. A low and constant drone. Rusalka pushed the chair aside and the body flopped onto the floor. The blood reeked of wet earth. She leant under his desk and saw a red button. "He set off an alarm. We need to get out of here," she said. Elizabeth and Forr retrieved their guns from the dead guards on the way out.

"Are you alright?" Lavell asked Forr. "He shouldn't have called you that." "I didn't hear it," she said, tapping her translation implant. "I did." "Come on. Let's get back to the ship."

A company of guards greeted them wielding shotguns that looked like miniature cannons. "Now you know why we took so long," Rusalka said. They were quicker than the guards, sending a barrage of bullets through them before the shotguns fired. Over the bodies, they sprinted down the tunnel back to the shuttle. "Open up!" Ranger shouted. The shuttle door rose with obedience and the four of them dove in. The shuttle roared into life and the whole station quaked.

An orange inferno chased them, biting at the shuttle's tail. "What set that off?" Lavell asked. "That button wasn't an alarm, it was a self-destruct. His men were collateral," Rusalka said. Elizabeth looked back at the explosion. "All his treasure's been destroyed." Rusalka wiped her knife clean, pressing the flat of the blade to her fur. "Better they be destroyed than belong to someone else." Roka surged out of the station and the fire quelled.

~*~

"We're gonna be stuck on that ship until Querius and Krakk figure something out," Elizabeth said. "We don't have to be," Rusalka said.

"What do you mean?" "Think about it. We're all treasure hunters. We've got a shuttle that will carry us far enough to acquire a better vehicle." "You mean until we can steal another ship?" Forr asked in a disapproving brogue. "There's none of us could claim to be kayeedar." "My translator just bugged out," Elizabeth said. "Mine too." "And mine." "We've all broken the law for our own gains," Rusalka explained. "Write it down and I'll add it to the lexicon. Translators don't handle Umbra linguistics as well as other species' languages," Lavell said. "We could convince the pilot to abscond with us," Rusalka said. "How would we do that?" Elizabeth asked. "There's only three ways to convince anyone to do anything. Money, sex, and knives through the neck." "Which one are you suggesting?" "I'm not fucking him." "We're not killing Roka," Elizabeth told her. "Fine. Offer him some of the score," Rusalka said, sheathing her curved weapon. "We're going back to the Victory Pearl, and we're gonna wait. I hate it just as much as you do, Rusalka. But you joined us because you didn't want miss what we might find." "This discovery that we're apparently on the brink of? It had better be monumental."

Roka came over the speakers with a crackle, "Incoming com link from Querius. Patching him through." "Incredible, Miss Ranger. Quite incredible. This species... unseen... unheard of... remarkable!" "You're breaking up, Querius." "The link is fine, Captain," Krakk said, "Doctor is just excited. Our findings are unprecedented. I have compiled a report for you to peruse on your return." The com cut out and Elizabeth looked at Rusalka with a sly grin. "You got lucky," Rusalka said.

~*~

Querius descended on them as they left the shuttle. He was like a cawing bird, fluttering, skittering, making no sense. Krakk stood by patiently, listening to Querius fly from one subject to another. Rusalka wondered if Uhkira ever acted this way, like a giddy child when slicing open some creature's brain revealed something new about existence. She doubted it.

Krakk. Ang... Krei... the man was fascinating. She she should probably be listening.

"...which is precisely why it's so fascinating! Don't you comprehend what this means?" Querius said, eventually pausing for breath. Rusalka turned to Krakk and he smiled. The first she had seen cross his lips. "The DNA strand pre-dates any known species. Whoever this belongs to, they could be the oldest species in existence," Krakk said. "Why does that matter to us?" Elizabeth asked. "Why? Why, infinite.... Discovery... Answers..." "Doctor is thinking of the advancement of science, but this matters not to Captain. However, something so old would be very rare. This species appears to predate even the Jahlder." "And the Umbra?" Rusalka asked. Krakk turned to her. "No one knows how old the Umbra are." Rusalka just smiled. "Any idea where they could be?" Elizabeth said. "I have a dossier which compiles the most likely of locations, if Captain would like to read it." "I trust you. What's top of your list?" "We think Purple 24, based on the spores we also found your artefact that had no link to neither Green 3 nor the rapui." "Back to The Barley Charted?" Elizabeth said. "That's our best guess." "I'll tell Donovan to set a course."