Eric Brown - The Kraken Rises

Something flew through the air beside his face as Zek yelled, “Grenade!”

Lumley threw himself flat against the corridor wall as Zek and Simmons found cover farther along the corridor they were in behind him. The explosion shook the whole area, sending bits of squid creatures splattering everywhere. Lumley felt the black blood of the squid splash over him. He broke away from where he had pressed his body to the wall, thankful that he hadn’t been hurt by the shrapnel flung about by the detonating grenade and hosed the squids behind those that had been blown apart with the last of his SAW’s belt. The heavy weapon clicked empty. He flung it aside, unslinging his rifle from where it hung on his back by its strap.

“Run!” he heard Zek screaming at him. As if on autopilot, Lumley whirled about, turning his back on the remaining squid creatures and sprinted after Zek and Simmons.

“This way!” Simmons shouted leading them into the large, open area of the ship’s mess. Lumley nearly gagged from the smell that hung in the air of the room as they entered it. The area was clear of squids, but it was far from empty. There were human corpses everywhere. It looked as if the squids had been dragging any kills that they didn’t eat on the spot into the mess and storing them there for later.

Zek was struggling to close the mess’s door as Lumley ran through it. Simmons had collapsed onto his knees and was busy vomiting onto the red-slicked floor of the mess.

“Help me!” Zek ordered him. Lumley joined his CO, and between the two of them, they managed to get the door’s hatch closed and locked before the squids in the corridor reached it. Seconds after they had closed the doors, they heard the squids slam into it. The mad pounding of their tentacles shook the thick metal door in its frame.

“It won’t hold them for long,” Lumley told Zek.

“What…?” Simmons started to say as another dry heave hit him. When he recovered from it, he finished, “What are they doing with all these people?” he rasped.

Neither Zek nor Lumley answered him. Lumley was watching the mess door for the squids to break through it. Zek ran across the mess, searching for another way out of it, disappearing into its kitchen area.

Simmons wiped at his lips with the back of his hand as he staggered to his feet. “What in the hell are we going to do, Lumley?”

Lumley had no answer. He just stared into Simmons’ haggard face, seeing his own fear reflected in Simmons’ eyes.

A burst of gunfire erupted from the kitchen area followed by the sound of Zek screaming. Both he and Simmons turned towards the kitchen area as half a dozen squids came charging out of it at them. Lumley knew that Zek was dead. He had to be, and soon, they would be too.

Simmons jerked his rifle at the squids only to have it click empty. He was closer to the kitchen area than Lumley was so the squids reached him first. One lashed out at Simmons’ legs, knocking him from his feet as another bounded on top of him. Simmons writhed beneath it as its mouth ripped away most of his left shoulder. Lumley watched as Simmons tried for his sidearm, having lost his rifle as he fell. Simmons managed to get the weapon clear of its holster but never got the chance to use it. Even as Simmons raised it up towards the squid on him, the creature stabbed one its tentacles through his heart, killing him instantly. Simmons pistol slid from his fingers to clatter onto the floor.

Lumley knew he couldn’t fight all six squids by himself. He’d never be able to stop them all in time before they were on him. He threw his rifle at the closest of the things as it sprang at him, yanking the grenade in his jacket out. He pulled its pin, clutching it to him, as the squids fell on him in mass.

The explosion that followed brought an end to Lumley and the six squids alike.

Stern looked about at the dozens of wounded filling the Rigel ’s engineering section. At first, the engineering section had become a sort of field hospital for the crewmen and soldiers trying to hold the squids at bay. Now, the battle outside it was over, and the squids had won. The Rigel belonged to them. Stern and Dr. Beck had managed to seal off the section, closing the heavy bulkheads meant to protect it from fire and flooding. The two of them were the only uninjured crewmen left in engineering and maybe on the whole of the Rigel . The bulkhead doors were too thick for them to hear the squids on the other side that were surely trying to force their way inside to get at them. That at least was a blessing. There was more than enough fear to go around without those noises adding to it.

Dr. Beck had abandoned his care of the wounded to try the radio gear they had brought with them again. The doctor sat hunched over it, crying out, “This is Dr. Beck aboard the USS Rigel . We are in immediate need of extraction. I say again, we are in immediate need of extraction!”

Stern could tell from Dr. Beck’s expression that no one was answering him. In truth, for all they knew, the squids had done the same kind of damage to the other ships of DESRON 2 that they had aboard the Rigel. It could very well be that there was no one left to come to their aid.

“Give it up, Doc,” Stern urged him.

Dr. Beck looked up at him with tear-filled eyes. “It can’t end like this,” Beck wept openly. “My family needs me.”

“We all got family back home, Doc,” Stern said coldly. “That don’t matter squat to those squid things out there.”

“Surely there has to be something we can do,” Dr. Beck pleaded.

“Yeah,” Stern said. “Sit here and wait on those monsters to figure out a way to get in here.”

“They can’t get in!” Dr. Beck snapped, flinging the radio gear away from him and standing up.

“Those things are smart, Doc,” Stern reminded him. “Given enough time, they’ll find a way in. You can count on that. Even if they don’t… The Rigel is sinking.”

“What?” Dr. Beck’s eyes bugged. “How can you know that?”

“I can feel it, Doc,” Stern told him. “Can’t you?”

The two men stared at each other in silence as the moans of the wounded around them filled the void left by their words.

Finally, Stern spoke up again. “Look, Doc, we’re dead men. The only thing left we’ve got to decide is how we’re going to go out.”

“What do you mean?” Dr. Beck croaked.

“I mean, I know how to set those engines to blow,” Stern told him.

“You can’t be serious,” Dr. Beck spat. “That’s insane!”

“Is it, Doc?” Stern growled. “If we blow this ship, think about how many of those monsters we take with us. It might just be enough to make a difference for another ship still fighting out there.”

“I won’t allow it.” Dr. Beck stepped between Stern and the engine controls. Dr. Beck pointed at the wounded men and women around them. “These people are under my care. I won’t let you kill them out of some warped need to get vengeance on those things out there.”

“That’s too bad, Doc,” Stern said. “I sort of liked you.”

“What do you mean by that?” Dr. Beck asked as Stern lifted his rifle and squeezed its trigger.

Dr. Beck stumbled backwards as the bullet Stern fired slammed into him, turning his chest into a jagged mess of ruptured flesh.

Stern stepped over Beck’s body as he moved towards the main controls. He quickly set them to overload the engine and took a seat to wait for death to come calling.

The USS Braxton raced over the waves, her engines at full military power. The Hercules followed her. The two ships were the only survivors of DESRON 2. The DESRON’s flagship, the Mitchell, along with the Bonime ,had been destroyed by the great Kraken and its lesser spawn. The Rigel , boarded and overrun by the spawn, had been left behind. That fact haunted Captain Nicholson. He understood why Captain Weaver was forced to leave the Rigel to the squids, but doing so didn’t make it any easier. He wished there had been something, anything, that they could have done to help those trapped aboard her.