The Nick Of Time (and other abrasions)
A Heart Full Of Dust
by
Al Bruno III
(Eighteen)
Between a rock and a hard place- that was where they were in Vagabond's opinion.
On one side they had the approaching dust storm- dust hurricane was more like it- a howling, churning wall of disturbed earth and debris. On the other side they had the Myrmex swarm, slowly, ponderously making its way after them. “The damned thing's driving us into the storm!” Lily had to shout to be heard over the whine of the trawler's engine and the monstrous roar of the tempest.
“Of course.” Vagabond stood at the aft railing with her, his arm around her shoulder “Why waste any more troops when the storm can do your work for you?”
“How did they find us?”
“I think its just a case of bad luck,” the trawler lurched to the portside and began speeding away from the storm. The sudden motion sent the Myrmex bodies that littered the deck rolling, they piled up against the deck's railing and in some places smashed through it.
“Bad luck my ass.” Rhea returned from the bow. The trails of blood had dried on her face making it look as though she had grown a crimson moustache. Her pallor was becoming more and more waxen by the second, “With the damned Splinter, Ltolox and his pet alchemist probably knows where we're going before we do!”
“Is there anything we can do about it?” Lily asked, “Like wrapping our heads in tinfoil or something?”
“That's a nice idea,” Vagabond said, “but I think we're about one thousand years from the nearest roll of tinfoil.”
Rhea pointed into the storm, “We've just gotta keep going, once we find the ruins of the New City we'll find the Splinter.”
“I thought we were going to the Myrmex Hive.” Vagabond said.
“The Myrmex hive is over what's left of the New City. You must have missed out on that development.” Rhea said sweetly.
“I must have…”
“Is there anything else you need to tell us?” Lily shot her mother an accusing glance.
Rhea was surprised and a little hurt, “What the Hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Have you been keeping secrets from me too?”
“Lily, you're my daughter.”
“You kept secrets from your real daughter- I know that, and since I'm just a close approximation I have no doubt that you...you...” Lily pointed skyward,
“Uh-oh.”
A trio of Myrmex dropped from the swarm, they glided towards the trawler with unnerving accuracy.
Rhea fired three shots. Three corpses plummeted to Earth.
“Nice shooting,” Vagabond said, his ears ringing from the gun's report.
The trawler returned to an even keel, closer to the storm than ever. Lily spoke but the wind drowned her out.
“What?” Vagabond shouted.
“I said what does that idiot think he's doing?”
“If you feel safer below decks that's fine!”
“What?”
“I said-” Vagabond yelled with all of his might, “if you feel safer below decks that's fine!”
“No!” she grabbed his hand, “I want to stay with you!”
“Ok.”
“What?”
“I said Ok!”
Rhea watched the exchange with an expression of total disbelief. The swarm was still shadowing them. Vagabond patted Lily on the shoulder and headed below decks, “I've going to see if there's anything I can do about the engines.”
“What damn Indians?” Lily shouted after him but he didn't hear.
Mother and daughter stood staring at each other. A flash of lightning from the storm illuminated the bloodstained deck, burning images of the carnage into their eyes. Neither of them had ever seen a storm like this. Lily ran a hand over her cracked screen, wiping away the grime. Rhea tried to say something but was drowned out by a clap of thunder.
The trawler pitched and adjusted course slightly, edging ever closer to the storm. The face disappeared from Lily's screen, Rhea cried out and stepped towards her.
Letters flickered on the screen “How.”
The trawler's engine whined in protest and began to pick up speed.
The first word disappeared to be replaced by “Many.”
Another trio of Myrmex launched themselves from the swarm but Rhea didn't even notice, she was too busy reading the next set of letters. This was impossible. Lily wasn't designed to communicate this way.
“Lies.”
Kurt stormed out of the bridge, his cry of “What the fuck!” swallowed by the wind.
“Have.”
The first two Myrmex had their wings torn apart by the storm, the last almost made the deck but the trawler put on another burst of fresh speed and it fell short. Kurt watched their descent and then ran back onto the bridge, leaving a litany of unheard curses in his wake.
“You.”
A sour taste rose up in Rhea's mouth. How dare she? Hadn't she sacrificed? Been there for her? Tried to listen and always been ready to forgive? Hadn’t she given birth to the little bitch? Twice?
“Told?” The last word lingered and then was replaced by Lily’s defiant expression.
Rhea's remaining hand curled into a fist, her scarred face curled into a snarl of pain and rage.
The swarm began recede.
All grease and grins, Vagabond climbed out of the hatch, he started to speak.
Lily's tensed expectantly; this was a dance they had danced since she was thirteen.
The storm flickered with spectral lights, they coalesced and brightened, bathing the trawler in a crimson glow. Rhea looked up, her rage replaced with alarm- she knew that light!
Vagabond stared at the illumination, his brow wrinkling in fascination. There was a shape resolving itself out of the red swirl. It was a face.
A face that he found oddly familiar.
A bolt of scarlet lightning slit the darkness and tore into the bridge, reducing it to scrap and ash. The stench of ozone filled the air as the trawler went into a dive. Rhea and Lily staggered around the deck blinded. Vagabond gaped dumbfounded at the face in the chaos of light. He spat the name of the man he was sure he had left for dead so long ago, “Adiramled!”
The Myrmex swarm was poised but there was no need for them to attack. The doomed trawler plunged directly into the path of the storm and was consumed.
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