Just static. A static with some eerie humming sound buried in it. Every muscle in her body was bunched in sheer animal terror. Her nerves were electrified and jarring. Her heart was pounding. Her scalp pierced by needles.

A weapon.

Find a weapon. You’re a fucking DSU diver, you silly little bitch! Protect yourself! Find a weapon!

Gasping for air in full-blown panic mode now, she grabbed a speargun. Oh yes, that would work. She saw a propane torch. It would shoot out a five-foot flame. Now her head was working. Start with that. If worse came to worse, she could run into the Main Lock, depressurize Entry.

The clamp was coming up.

Weapons in hand, shaking and nauseous with a fear that actually burned in her guts, she stood ready on the wet porch. The winch was spooling back in. For all intents and purposes, it was working. But she knew it wasn’t working. Nothing was working. Everything had gone insane and she wasn’t far behind.

The clamp brought Hubb’s Exosuit up out of the moon pool.

35
ORGANISM

Javonivic was so scared now her guts were shriveling with fear. There was a hollow booming sound in the back of her head. She wanted to scream. To run. The suit was up all the way now and the MALFUNCTION light was no longer blinking. She dove at the controls, dropping the speargun, and thumbing the override. It worked. Her breath barely coming now, a moaning in her throat, she threw the emergency shut-off. It held. The winch was dead. The suit just hung there from the clamp like a marionette with no one working its strings. Water ran from it. The legs and arms were moving slightly.

She calmed a bit.

Whoever was in there, they were going nowhere. She had them.

She punched up a channel again. “Hubbs,” she said, trying to keep the panic from her voice. “If you’re in there…tell me so. You have exactly one minute. If you don’t, I’m going to take this propane torch and cook you in your suit. I swear to God I will…I’m not fucking around here.” Tears ran from her eyes, her voice cracking with sobs. “Don’t test me…whatever in the fuck you are, don’t you dare test me.”

There was nothing but that static from the suit.

“All right then.”

Taking up her speargun and torch, she went over to the wet porch. She was within seven feet of the suit now. Whoever was in there was still dangling, limbs moving sluggishly. Using her foot, she turned the spotlights on the suit…and instantly recoiled in horror.

It was not a man.