Long John looked at the viewscreen. From far in the depths of space he saw a shape approaching, moving with a whiplash motion like a snake or, as Whitlow had suggested, a dragon. Mesmerized, he stared for a long moment.
“Oh my,” Crystal breathed. “That—that thing’s huge. Incredibly huge.”
Despite being so far away, it did look vast. Long John wet dry lips. “Doctor, you might want to activate your device.”
“The Protector. Right, working on it,” Perthonogis muttered.
“What do you mean, working on it? Don’t you just flip a switch?”
“Not quite that simple.” The doctor sounded preoccupied. “First we have to calibrate the innumerator . . .how far away would you say the creature is?”
“Hard to say.” Long John frowned at the screen. “But getting closer all the time. Maybe five thousand kilometers, give or take a few hundred.”
“So almost in range.”
“Our range is not that far. A couple thousand at max.”
Crystal glanced at him. “Surely you can shoot farther than that?”
“Effective range is not as far as maximum. No sense in lobbing torpedoes that will just annoy it.”
Long John glanced over his shoulder. The glyptodont was bent over his device, sweat falling from his brow as he worked. Long John decided it would be counterproductive to keep hassling him.
The creature in the viewscreen had flown closer. It flew at incredible speeds, almost the speed of light. Its hide was black, nearly the same color as the darkness of space, but the light of distant suns glistened on its sinuous length. The closer it came, the more the kernel of fear in his heart grew, blossoming into terror.
“How’s it coming, doctor?” he asked, unable to resist any longer.
“Nearly there. Just a few more adjustments . . .”
“Couldn’t we have made those earlier?” asked Long John.
“No, unfortunately. It depended on factors we didn’t know: distance, size, and so on.
“Long John,” said Crystal, her voice tense. “I think you made an error in your calculation of its distance. It’s much farther away and much, much bigger.”
He looked back at the screen. The creature had grown larger, but still seemed far away. Its jaws opened, and they were immense. He saw the suggestion of teeth, and behind it, a suggestion of vast wings spanning the darkness.
“Uh, doctor,” he said.
“Yes, yes. How much time do we have?”
“Hard to say. A few minutes, maybe.”
“Right. Give me a minute.”
“Limpet!” said Long John. “Evasive action!”
The thrusters pushed them back in the seats. The ship swerved violently to port as the great jaws opened before her.
“Fire! Fire! Fire!” said Long John.
Crystal fired. Torpedoes rocketed toward the creature. The explosions made starbursts in the dark, but did not slow the creature’s progress.
“Warp speed!”
“Warp not work,” said Limpet.
“Fire!” said Long John.
Crystal fired again. The torpedoes flew, but made little impact.
The creature whipped around and came at the ship again. Long John could see nothing in the viewscreen but wings, eyes full of hunger, ravening jaws. Sheer malice drove at him, searing his mind.
He jammed the control down and the ship dove. Down, down, until if there had been sound in space, he would have heard metal screaming.
“Fire!”
“The launchers are not responding.” Crystal punched the controls. “They’re dead.”
Long John sprang out of his chair and ran back to haul open the belowdeck hatch. He climbed down into the cramped space, and called up, “Try firing again.”
Crystal did. The launch mechanism made an abortive shudder, but nothing happened. Swearing under his breath, Long John crawled to the torpedoes and pulled one out of its cradle. It weighed more than he could lift. Grunting, he dragged and manhandled it toward the launcher and slid it in with care. He was dripping with sweat when he finished.
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
Looking at the rest of the torpedoes, he groaned. He turned around and pulled himself back up onto the deck. “Where is it?” he asked.
“It’s pulled back,” she said.
“Could it have given up on us?” asked Dr. Perthonogis. “Maybe we’re too small for it to notice.”
“Doubt it,” Long John slid back into his seat. In the distance, the creature flew with lazy lashings of a barely visible tail. As he watched, it veered around and charged at them again.
“Limpet!” cried Long John. “Can the spiders load the launchers?”
“Can do,” said Limpet. He emitted a series of instructions in spiderese. The spiders sprang into action, scurrying down below deck. Long John could hear the thunk! of torpedoes sliding into the launchers. The spiders’ strength amazed him.
“Shoot now!” said Limpet.
“Fire!”
Crystal fired. The torpedoes flew through the creature and exploded in the darkness beyond. The creature dove toward them, blotting out the viewscreen.
Around, above, beneath, the creature was everywhere.
The girl Diamond had been right: falling, falling forever, there was no end to it. It invaded his senses: more ravenous than all the hunger on all the planets, more terrifying than all the nightmares he’d ever known, more horrifying than all the tales of horror told on earth, more vicious than the devils all the religions had spawned, crueler than all the killers ever born.
It was inexorable.
They were doomed to destruction, and all the galaxy with them.
“Doctor!”
“Now!” said Perthonogis. The device gave off a sparkling, splintering sound.
Everything changed.
Reality turned inside out. The ship became translucent, surrounded by the creature.
The device, the Protector, enveloped them. It spread out in five, six, seven dimensions, as far as he could see. Light glowed along its lines. Sparks flew from his hands on the controls.
Long John stood up. Beside him stood Crystal. “Fire!” he said through teeth gritted so hard he tasted blood.
She fired. Torpedoes flew, enhanced by the Protector. They bloomed in the creature, tearing great holes in it. She fired again and again.
The creature roared, a wall of sound that rose so far beyond their hearing that they could see the pulse in the darkness. It writhed and attacked, its vast jaws trying to engulf them. Implacable, relentless, focused on their destruction, it dove at them, jaws open wide. They slipped aside barely in time. His ship was a seed squirted from its mouth.
Deep in the creature’s belly gleamed an ember of fire. It grew, roaring into life, filling lightyears of space, rushing toward them swifter than thought.
Within seconds all they could see were the creature’s jaws open on a great gulf of intense, primal fire ready to engulf the Don Quixote.
Long John lifted his hand and light poured from it. He reached for Crystal’s hand. Their strength together created a shield of light. Sapient life, the pinnacle of creation, streamed from them, guarding them from the merely horrific, the merely ravenous being attacking them.
His love for Crystal, fragile and imperfect though it was, his love for Limpet and his crew and for all the worlds he knew, flashed in his heart. Expanded and focused by the Protector, it shot forth fierce and sharp as lightning.
“Fire!” he said again.
She fired the laser cannons, and combined with that lightning, they sliced the entity in two. Together they dealt the last mortal blow to the dragon from darkness.
She fired again and again, carving shards from it that disintegrated in the black. Until only fragments whirled in space, despairing, fading, lost in the darkness.
The Protector expanded into an enormous bloom of energy and power and light and burst into the void.
Then nothing.
* * *
Long John groaned and opened his eyes. He was lying on the deck of his ship. All his muscles ached, and he felt as if he had been in a barfight. Maybe he had. His memory was fuzzy.
He rolled over and saw Crystal trying to sit up. He looked around and saw the tangled limbs and body of Limpet not far away. He reached a hand that trembled toward the spider, but before he could touch him, Limpet shook his head.
“Are you all right?” asked Long John.
“I’m breathing,” said Crystal. She sat up and leaned against the bulkhead.
Limpet muttered some swear words in spiderese.
“Doctor?” Long John looked behind him and saw Dr. Perthonogis sitting mournfully beside what was left of his device, a few wires and melted pieces of metal.
“It’s destroyed,” said the doctor.
“Yes, but it worked. Is the crew all right?” Long John asked Limpet.
“Hm.” One by one, the spiders showed up, some limping, all apparently intact.
Long John crawled over and sat beside Crystal, back against the bulkhead. “That was . . .exhausting,” he said.
“That’s a good word for it.” She looked at him and began to chuckle. Then she laughed. She couldn’t stop laughing, until finally he had to join her. He put his arm around her and hugged her.
“Relax,” he said. “We’re alive.”
* * *
“Where are we?” Long John asked Limpet.
“Danje system not far. Few hours.”
“How did that happen?” asked Crystal as she pulled herself to her feet. “We were days away from my system.”
“We seem to have been blown, or caught in a space fold,” said Perthonogis. He touched a piece of his device and it swung sadly back and forth. “We travelled several hundred light years while we were out.”
Long John examined his ship while they made their way toward the Danje system. The outer skin had sustained some deep gouges, perhaps caused by the creature’s jaws, and the torpedo launch system had failed, but aside from those issues, the Don Quixote seemed intact.
“So it’s gone?” Crystal said. “We really destroyed it?”
“It seems that way,” said Long John.
“Yes. Absolutely beyond a doubt,” said Perthonogis after consulting his instruments. “We should let your planet know, my dear.”
“Can you make contact?” she asked Limpet.
“Yes. Here, talk.” The spider handed her the mic.
‘General,” she said. “Just wanted to make sure that you know . . . yes, it’s been destroyed. No problem, piece of cake . . .” She put a hand over her mouth, tears springing to her eyes. She hung up and looked at Long John. “I don’t feel so good.”
“It’s a normal reaction. We almost didn’t make it.” He was feeling shaky himself. They had come so close to dying, but they were still alive. It was hard to come to grips with.
