Astronomicon: Behemoth

Chapter 46 - Anger and Retaliation

"What are you doing?!" Megan shouted, her mouth just a couple of centimetres from his left ear as she heaved him backwards away from the open hatch.

With her arms hooked under his shoulders and pinning both his arms back with more force than he expected, the rage that had surged within him drained away enough for him to get some control back over himself. His feet dropped onto the ground and he steadied himself but offered no resistance.

"Can I let go?" she asked in a calmer tone.

"Yeah," he groaned.

"No more frenzied stabbing?"

"No...no...I'm back now," he croaked.

"What were you doing?" she asked again, releasing her grip on his shoulders.

"What I should have done in the airlock. I hate this thing, detest its existence," he snarled through clenched teeth.

"Like the cat people? Just what is going on in this place?"

"I...I don't know," he sighed, turning away from the robot now he was free of Megan's grip.

"I'm starting to think that this is an arena set up to test which lifeform is the strongest."

"The lobsters didn't attack us," Aron pointed out matter-of-factly.

"Nor we them. Are we supposed to work with them? What is this place for?"

Aron pulled himself out of the remnants of her hold and turned away from the robot carcass. Megan watched him for a moment, unsure that he was truly calmed down from his episode. He took a slow step away and rubbed his face with both hands. She took the opportunity to lean across and get a look inside the robot's still open hatch. It all looked like scorched components, tubes and ash. Nothing that instantly resembled a creature.

"It's all burnt out in there," she commented. "Just like the drone?"

"Looks like it. The layout of what I believe are circuit boards is very similar. I'm guessing opening the outer shell caused a self-destruct reaction."

"But it didn't work properly?"

"How do you figure that?"

"You killed the creature, whatever it was. The self-destruct didn't," she explained, turning away from the robot to look at him again.

"Maybe the self-destruct is designed to protect the technology, not the driver?"

"That seems an odd way to do it," she replied, shaking her head slowly. "An enemy might still interrogate the driver and get information that way."

"True, but does that hold up when the driver is a cross between a worm and a tree?"

"Did it burn out the moment you opened the hatch, like the drone?"

"No, it was already..." He paused for a moment. "No..." He paused again. "I think it went in the airlock."

"When you shot it?"

"It poured out a lot of smoke while I was firing through the grill on the side. I must have punctured something, maybe. It might not be a self-destruct at all!"

"No?" She looked surprised.

"No, I'm wondering if it's a chemical...an unlucky chemical reaction to our atmosphere?"

"That would make sense, but it's not easy to test."

"There is a way, well, more than one, but one that's probably easier to test."

He looked back at the robot and paused again.

"And that is?" she pushed, trying to keep him from reacting to the life-form in the robot again.