And Chapter six...
Six
Skan and Jas made their cautious way down the corridor, watchfully. Jark was remotely controlling the security cameras, just in case Xek should wake up, but they still felt uneasy.
“Well…” Jas swallowed, thickly. “We’re in. Where first?”
Skan shrugged, tautly, looking round himself nervously. “Dunno. Where did we see her?”
“I remember seein’ C7-9 written on the wall outside, when the lab door opened, when we was in the ducting,” Jas squinted. “An’…” he pointed. “There’s A1-2…”
“Yeah,” Skan nodded. I see. An’ A2-6 down th’ corridor. But there’s E9-4,” he pointed to the corridor just to the right. “I don’ see no pattern in the numbers…”
Jas sighed, frustratedly. “No, me neither. We better jus’ go check everywhere.”
Skan nodded, and loped silently after his pack-mate.
They found intersection C7-9 after half an hour’s searching. The heavy door barring their way had a bold white and dark blue sign affixed to it, reading; “Livestock Analysis.”
Skan gave Jas a look, and planted his palm firmly on the sensor that operated the opening mechanism…
With a sigh of hydraulics the door swept open…
…and the lab was empty.
“Oh, great,” Jas whined. “Now what?”
“We’re jus’ goin’ ter have ter look harder,” Skan said, padding inside and casting about for any trace of scent in the sterile white room.
Jas sighed, tiredly. “Yeah.”
Skan glanced up at him. “Well, c’mon; they won’ search themselves, y’know…” he said, picking up a clipboard and squinting at it. “Hm.”
Jas mooched over. “What yer found?”
Skan held the pad out. “See what yer make of it.”
“Specimen to be placed in holding cells pending further investigation,” Jas read. “Termination date set for three days hence…” his voice tailed off, and he swallowed. “They’re goin’ ter kill her…?!”
Skan nodded, dour faced. “That’s what I make o’ it, anyway. C’mon ,she’s obviously not here, so we better push on. We had nearly an hour. Don’ want ter waste what li’l time we got…”
The two sligs clattered out of the lab and went on down the corridor to the next door… This one was similar; the dark blue writing on the sign read; “Chemical Testing Bay Four.” And below that, written in bold, black marker on the white background; “AALU test.”
The two sligs swapped looks. “AALU?” Skan questioned.
“Yer guess is as good as mine,” Jas replied. “Want ter go in?”
“What fer? She won’ be in here, will she?”
Jas shrugged. “May as well try all the rooms. We dunno where Pru is no more, so she could be anywhere…”
“Yeah, but… there may be some horrible li’l slig-eatin’ monster in there…”
“Not scared, are yer?”
“Naw, just cautious,” Skan glanced up and down the corridor. “An’ I don’ like labs, they gimme the shivers.”
Jas nodded in agreement. “I don’ much care fer ‘em, neither… Well, gassin’ won’ get anythin’ done…” he touched the radio mike. “Hey Drek, how much time we got left?”
“’Bout four hours,” Drek’s disembodied voice replied. “Had any luck?”
“Naw; they’ve moved her. Ask Jark what’s in Chemical Testin’ Bay four, an’ ask him what AALU means.”
“Okay. Gimme one minute…” There was a murmur of voices in the background, and the muted rattle of hands on keys. Then; “He says it’s a slig.”
“A slig…?” Jas echoed, worriedly. “I thought they didn’ experiment on us no more…?”
“Yeah, well… that’s what the ‘puter reckons, anyhow.”
“Is it Pru?”
“Doesn’ say.”
“Any idea where she is?”
“Sorry, lads. We’ve been runnin’ a search the whole time yer been in there, but the ‘puter keeps turnin’ up garbage. Yer jus’ goin’ ter have ter look fer ‘er. ”
Jas sighed. “Okay. Well… warn us when we’ve only got half an hour o’ safe time left.”
“Will do, Shortie. Need anythin’ else before I close the channel?”
“One sec… Skan?”
Skan was already fiddling with the door mechanism. “Tell Jerk to either disable any alarms or get the door open, or both,” he replied. “’Cause it’s bein’ a sod.”
“You hear that, Drek?” Jas said.
“Yep. So did he.”
There was a muted thunk and the low hiss of hydraulics, and the door opened, squealing in its tracks.
“Tell Jark thanks,” Jas said, watching Skan peer round the door and check for danger.
“Will do. Warning in half an hour, right?”
“Right.”
“Okies. Speak ter yer later,” there was a muted click as Drek closed his end of the channel.
Jas followed Skan into the deserted lab, warily.
The Testing Bay looked cold, sterile, and almost empty of any kind of life. The walls were lined with glass-fronted cabinets, each filled with clear and amber glass bottles of a variety of chemicals, some of which also had “toxic” or “irritant” stickers on them. Burettes sat tips-upward in a rack by a sink, and drawers marked with things such as “auto-pipettes” or “Quick-Fit apparatus” took up nearly every inch of room below the worktops. On a trolley by one wall was a small, white, opaque sided incubator; Jas and Skan swapped looks, then went over, cautiously, wondering what they might find…
The two sligs looked down into the incubator, with some degree of trepidation…
They were a little surprised at what they found; the occupant was sleeping, peacefully, sucking away at its thumb. And it was not the hideously mutated hatchling they were expecting; even so, it wasn’t like most hatchlings, as it was smaller, delicate, pale blue in colour… and female. Jas and Skan looked at each other over the top of the incubator.
“It’s a lass,” Skan pointed out, unnecessarily, and then pointed at the incubator – on the end furthest from them, the word “AALU” was written in bold, black letters.
“AALU,” Jas read, thoughtfully. “That word again.”
“Yeah, but…” Skan frowned. “What the frack is an Aalu?”
“Dunno,” Jas gently picked the sleeping infant up, tucked her blanket a little neater around her. “Mebbe it’s her name,” he guessed, smiling down on the snub features. She smiled back and cooed, waving her arms sleepily.
“Aaaaaalu…” Skan rolled the name around. “Why couldn’t they have picked summat that were easy ter say…?”
“They’re vykkers,” Jas shrugged and held the baby out to his friend.
Skan gave it a look. “What yer doin’…?”
“Take it, you dope! I can’t charge about an’ find Pru wi’ a kid.”
Skan visibly winced. “Well, neither can I! I’m meant ter be helpin’ yer, remember…?”
“Take her!”
“Aw, c’mon Jaskie… leave it…!”
Jas scowled. “I ain’t leavin’ her jus’ cause yer scared o’ the lads laughin’ at yer. Now take her, dammit…!”
Skan took the child with a wince and a scowl, and held her out as though she was a deadly poisonous snake that may bite any second rather than a three-day-old slig. “Yer goin’ ter pay fer this,” he growled, softly.
The infant blinked and made a soft sound, batted at his snout with one hand.
Jas snorted with laughter. “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say…” he said, waving a hand. “Now we can get on again.”
Skan sighed, exaggeratedly. “I’m goin’ ter be a laughin’ stock ‘cause o’ this, I hope yer realise…” he muttered, coldly.
Jas smiled, grimly. “Yeah, well… yer’ll be a dead one, too, if we don’ hurry up a bit an’ stop arguin’. We ain’t even meant ter be in here, remember…? An’ we sure as frack won’ get a second shot at this; when they find out we were in here without authority, an’ rescued the kid – even if we don’ find Pru – we’ll be filleted an’ fricasseed an’ served up as tomorrer’s lunch before yer can say ‘wasn’t me, boss’. The sooner we find Pru, an’ get out, an’ get as far away from here as possible, the better.”
Skan’s features crumpled. “I should never have agreed ter help yer wi’ this…” he grumbled, faintly.
“Yeah, well, yer did,” Jas replied, curtly. “An’ yer can’t back out, as yer up ter yer neck in it, now…” He looked at the paper clipped to the clipboard hooked over the end of the trolley. “3–1(C)–4W–AALU–F(exp.)+n?” he read, picking the board up, and scratched his head, confusedly. “Some sort of code, d’yer reckon…?”
“Mebbe,” Skan nodded and shrugged. “Any idea what all the letters mean?”
“Dunno,” Jas flipped through the pages, skimmed over the bulk of the writing, most of which was scientific jargon that he didn’t understand. “Here,” he squinted at the page, and read; “Chemical test fer the promotion of stability in young females. Genetic problems cause worker class females ter be unstable when young,” he glanced up at Skan. “Must be why we don’ see ‘em normally.”
Skan nodded, mutely. Jas grinned, seeing that his normally-volatile old pack-mate was cradling the young female a lot closer, now, both arms round her; she was still half asleep, burbling faintly into his ear. Skan scowled back, but didn’t change his hold.
“Um…” Jas looked back at the paper, scanned for his place. “Lessee… ‘previous stability promotion tests (aggr., active, longer usage) were expensive, requirin’ specialised pharmasomethin’s – new tests use longer-actin’ preparation, less expensive. Need okay from Management before goin’ ahead wi’ larger scale production of the drug. Initial tests promising.’ Any idea what the hell they’re blabbin’ about…?”
Skan shook his head. “Does it matter?”
“Hm…” Jas squinted. “May do. After all, says here they need lots o’ chemicals ter keep ‘em alive…”
Skan frowned. “Mebbe we oughtter leave her, in that case…”
Jas flared up. “I’ve tol’ yer we ain’t-” he snapped.
“Yeah yeah, gimme a chance ter explain!” Skan barked, annoyedly. “If she needs all them chemicals, she’s goin’ ter die if we take her. Mebbe she’ll be better off stayin’ here!” He turned his attention to the infant, who’d started to warble at the raised voices. “An’ yer can stop squealin’ in me ear, an’ all…” he told her, bouncing her gently to get her to quieten down again.
Jas backed down, grumbling. “Hm,” he flicked through the papers again. “I hate ter agree… but… mebbe yer right…” Then he saw the scribble at the top of the last page. “Hang on…” he squinted at it – it was written in a horrendous, scarcely legible scrawl, but he could pick a few words out… and numbers…
“What yer found…?” Skan looked over his shoulder.
“Somethin’… written today, I think – that today’s date…?” he pointed to the numbers.
Skan nodded agreement. “Looks like it…”
Jas frowned in concentration. “I think… hm… I think it says… somethin’ like… ‘tests successful… female to be squiggle three weeks hence… examine tissues fer presence of compound…’ can’t read th’rest,” he looked up and met Skan’s gaze. “I reckon that squiggle I couldn’ read was somethin’ meanin’ they’re goin’ ter kill her.”
“Why would they do that…?”
“Same reason as they’re goin’ ter kill Pru,” Jas put the board down. “C’mon, we’re wastin’ time…”
And with one last glance about the testing bay, Jas decided it was time to leave; Skan followed silently, with a sleeping Aalu cradled gently but firmly in his bony arms.
After another hour’s searching they found door to the holding pens. Jas opened the channel to Drek. “We think we might’ve found her… how much longer we got…?”
“’Bout two an’ three-quarter hours,” Drek’s disembodied voice replied. “Yer found her, yer say…?”
“We ain’t sure… but we’ve found the holdin’ pens, which is where we read she’d been put.”
“Right, well… Jark’s arrangin’ some transport out o’ here fer us, so give us a yell when yer nearly ready ter get out and we’ll come find yer outside labs.”
“Thanks, Drek…”
“Yeah, yeah… jus’… get on wi’ it, okay?” A laugh. “If yer get out o’ there when it’s still night-shift we stand a better chance o’ gettin’ out.”
“How’s that?”
Another laugh. “Everyone’s still be in the land o’ nod right now. Time it right an’ we’ll be halfway ter safety an’ all the lads’ll still be staggerin’ about wonderin’ what all the fuss is about.”
Jas laughed. “Okay. We’ll get on, then…”
“You do that. Speak ter yer soon.”
“Yep,” Jas closed the channel and looked over, to find Skan had opened the door; he followed him into the room, cautiously…
It was a long, single-aisle room, cages lining the walls nearly from floor to ceiling, each cage with either two or three or more occupants, clipboards or wipe-clean boards affixed to the front of each… At the near end, where the two sligs stood, was a short section taken up with aquariums and terrariums.
Skan peered into the nearest; the darkened waters appeared uninhabited, at first… Next second a huge shape lunged at the glass and Skan had a brief glimpse of huge jaws full of razor sharp teeth snapping together before the fish swept round, foiled by the glass, and vanished back into the gloomy depths.
Skan blinked, startled, gave his head a shake and looked over to Jas, who was looking into the blue depths of another tank; he padded over, watched the huge, sad-faced fish rise and fall as gracefully as an airship in its bare tank.
Aalu reached out for it with one stubby little hand; the dour-faced fish drifted over and gazed at them out of its tank with over-large glassy yellow eyes, hoping to be fed. She whimpered when Skan tucked her hand back into the blanket and wouldn’t let her have the fish. And she whimpered when he wouldn’t let her have the vibrantly coloured sawtoothed eel, either, and similarly whimpered when he wouldn’t let her have a Greater Green-Banded desert lizard or a fuzzle. So she settled for whining softly about her sorrow in his ear.
“This ain’t a lab, it’s a bloody zoo,” Skan muttered, staring about himself at the rank upon rank of cages, all filled with small lab animals. Now he was closer, he could see that in the smaller cages were fuzzles, mainly, but there were a scattering of meetle grubs as well. In the larger cages down the end were the bigger specimens – there were even a couple of paramites and a young scrab at the far wall, and they hissed faintly and backed into the corners of their little prisons as the sligs passed.
Jas exchanged a brief glance with Skan, and planted a palm firmly on the pad that would open the door.
With a soft whine, the door slid smoothly aside.
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