Pictoria (The Ammonite Galaxy Series, Book 4)

Chapter 14

UP AT THE shuttles, Diva and Grace found that they couldn't speak. No words were wanted or needed. The day had broken sometime previously, so together, with white, stunned faces, they began to set up the two big missiles they had brought down. Diva did lean over to Grace once, but it was only to help her with a particularly difficult catch, which the Sellite girl's own hands had been unable to unfasten. Their eyes, deadened by the shock, met. Both girls were in agonizing pain from the task they had been set, both horribly aware that there could be no going back.

The seconds passed like years, the minutes like centuries. Their heartbeats stuttered and once or twice seemed to stop, unable to cope with the thought of what they had to do. But they were not to be lucky enough to escape into death; their destiny was to watch the consequences of their actions, to know what they had done. Grace could feel her soul falter, but the rest of her went on grimly with the task she had been given. The touch of Ledin's consciousness still lingered in her own mind, a trace of sensation that was slowly dissipating, a memory that was sadly leaving her.

Then she was ready. She looked over at Diva, only to find the Coriolan girl was already looking at her, having finished her preparations earlier. Diva gave a sort of sob, and then a nod, holding up a hand, and beginning to countdown from five, one finger disappearing behind the back of her hand with each number.

"Five—" One finger disappeared.

"Four—" Another followed.

"Three—"

But she got no further. There was a sudden whoosh and the sky was at that moment full of avifauna – the original kind with large wings and beaks. They were coasting in on the girls, and squawking at the top of their lungs. The first two birds thudded directly into the girls, knocking them feet away from the missile launchers. Others thumped to ground nearby, and then hurried over to surround the girls, both of whom had been winded by the first thundering blow, and were struggling to get their breath.

The launchers were displaced from their targeted position, and then knocked over into the dust; the girls were smothered by feathered wings, and then dragged away from the shuttles by knife-sharp claws which they were unable to avoid. The avifauna systematically did their best to pound the smaller weapons and the two missile launchers into the dry Pictoria sand, and then sat back and cackled at each other.

Diva was the first to open her eyes. The scene around her was chaotic, and the only thing that was abundantly clear to her was that there would be no weapons fired on the cavern. Everything they had brought down from the shuttle had been rendered temporarily useless. She felt something hot and sticky running into her eyes, and put up a hand to find that she had been sliced by one of the wicked claws. She tried to wipe aside some of the blood, but it still flowed freely into one of her eyes. Diva looked around. Grace was some metres away, lying prone on the sandy ground. Her eyes were open, and for one ghastly moment Diva's heart leapt into her throat, warning her that Grace might be dead. Then the Sellite girl moved and blinked in the light, and Diva breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you all right?" she whispered.

"I think so. What happened?"

"The avifauna have gone mad, and are acting as if they were intelligent."

"What does that mean?"

Diva shrugged. "I guess it means that the Dessites have managed to take over the avifauna amorphs' minds, and they have somehow been able to pass that on to the avifauna themselves."

"What about Six and Ledin, and the twins and the visitor? Do you think they will be all right?"

Diva blew a ragged sigh. "Better than they would have been had we fired those missiles. I never thought I could be glad and so sad at the same time. What about us? Are you up to escaping from this lot?"