Page 55 of Alien's Luck
Ari climbed again. This time, the rock retracted into the wall. He was rewarded with more water and another fall.
A puzzle. This pit was a puzzle.
Ari made it farther up the wall this time. The puzzle tested his memory of which stones were safe and which to avoid. Just as his confidence grew, the stone he grabbed crumbled under his grip, leaving a gap in the wall.
He fell, and he was not alone.
The creatures fell from above, landing on his arms and shoulders. Ari shook them off, throwing them into the water. Orange flashed in the darkness. He was far from an expert on the venomous creatures of the planet, but he recognized that distinctive diamond pattern. He read about them in a tattered old wildlife field guide that Miriam left behind on the ship.
At this point, the water was mid-calf, and he realized the true nature of this pit. It wasn’t a puzzle to be solved to escape. It was a test to determine which manner he would choose for his own death.
Shift to stone to be impervious to the serpent’s bites and be too heavy to swim and drown? Or remain in his soft skin form to tread water but risk being bitten and die that way?
Remaining in his current form had a chance of survival, but if he failed, his death would be agony.
Fangs sank into his calf, the pain sharp and erasing all sensible thought. He grabbed the serpent, its body twisting and coiling while its jaws snapped. Enraged, he bashed it against the wall until it stopped moving.
Now, his only choice was to sit, waiting for the venom to take effect while he drowned, or continue to climb, causing the venom to move faster throughout his body.
CARLA
This was happening too fast. She needed to stall.
Carla grabbed the shell cracker from the table and brandished it at Tavat like a knife.
His quills went down, unimpressed. “You think that can injure me? I havescales.”
“Crushing damage. If I get a finger, it’ll hurt.” She flexed her hand, working the cracker for maximum crackiness. Look, she used the tools at hand.
He snatched the cracker from her hand, making a triumphant noise. That was fine. Carla grabbed a handful of feathery quills and yanked.
The quills came out with a gasp of shock, followed by a squint and a growl that she felt down in her soul.
He moved towards her, menace radiating with every step.
Carla backed away, keeping the table between them.
The lights went red, and an alarm sounded. “Perimeter breach.”
Finally.
Kronkee rushed in. “Master, an unauthorized ship has landed.” He gasped. “You’ve been disfigured.”
Tavat caught Carla, grabbing her roughly by the upper arm and squeezing tightly enough to bruise her. “What did you do?”
Carla smiled. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You think I have the time or patience for your games? Shoot her.” He released her, shoving her away. “This one bores me.”
A grin spread across Kronkee’s face like nothing would please him more.
Shit, she was gonna die.
“Fine, fine!” Carla held up her hands in surrender, still holding the quills. “Ari didn’t think you’d let us walk away, so we bought protection.”
Turns out you can solve a lot of problems by throwing money at it. Ari threw a pile of untraceable credits to hired mercenaries—as per her original idea.
“Impossible. A code is required to bypass security,” Kronkee said.
