Free Ashlyn Chronicles 1: 2287 A.D. by Glenn van Dyke, Renee van Dyke

commander.
    “Dammit, Hitch, come-on!” A brief second after the fifth snap of the paddles sounded, they all heard a small beep. “We got her—for the moment anyway. We need to get her back to Sea Base, Stratt. She needs the regenerator,” said Victor.
    “I’m afraid we aren’t going anywhere, Doc. The storm is on top of us,” reminded Stratton. “Robbie can’t bring the Dolphin down in these conditions.”
    “Without Sea Base’s regenerator, she doesn’t have very long. Her vitals are barely registering. It’s going to be hard enough just keeping her alive on the ride home,” said Victor.
    Stratton threw a glance at the others in the room, his mind trying to find a solution. Maybe Cole was right!
    “Robbie, you still in the area?” said Stratton.
    “I’m still here!”
    “Get ready to pick us up!”
    “Apologies, sir, but there’s no way I can land down there! Wind speed is 310 knots. Transports aren’t built for that kind of turbulence. Not to mention, last I saw, there was a swarm of spiders all over you guys.”
    “There won’t be any wind—or spiders! I’m going to detonate Cole’s energy core. Get clear of the blast area. Return the first moment you deem it safe to pick us up.”
    “The core will blow our asses into a million pieces,” said Martinez.
    Ignoring Martinez, Stratton ran his fingers over the heavy security door. He remembered the scratches of the spiders’ assault upon the door, the building. It had barely been marred. Retrieving the scanner out of Tomlinson’s pack, he scanned the building’s material composition.
    Similar to their armor, the door and walls were composed of the same variety of rare metals; however, it also had 12 percent of a foreign, unknown compound. Whatever the ingredient was, he knew it was the reason why the spiders had not been able to breach the building. Moreover, after seeing the depth to which Tynabo had gone to protect his work, it didn’t surprise him.
    “Transport clear,” said Robbie.
    “Doc, get Hitch suited and prepped to move. We’re taking her home!”
    “As a ghost. We’re all going to be vaporized,” said Martinez.
    “This isn’t a college debating class, Martinez. I’m the ranking officer. So stow it! At the very least, we’ll take all the creepy-crawlies with us. Everyone, get your helmets on. Take cover in the corners. When it’s over, help the doc move Hitch to the transport. Martinez, increase the size of your dampening field to cover the doc. Shield him with your armor.” Victor was the only one in the group not wearing armor.
    The team took cover in the corners of the room as Stratton had suggested. Verifying that they were ready, Stratton then gave Gena the command code to overload the core in Cole’s armor.
    Outside the building, above the boisterous rumbles of the storm and the clacking of the spiders, the shrill shriek of Cole’s overloading fusion reactor grew louder.
    Inside, they waited anxiously knowing what was coming, but not sure of their own outcome.
    Suddenly, the silence in the room was broken by the sound of a sheet of paper being ripped . Their gaze was drawn to the hallway entry. Before them stood Ashlyn—Steven draped atop her back. She was fully nude, her skin glistening white from a layer of light frost.
    Seeing her standing there, Stratt recalled Dr. Takamura’s prophetic words about Pandora. “It is said that when she returns, she would rise from the earth, her hands raised above her head in epiphany, and that she would be the giver of gifts unto men.”
    It was not until Ashlyn took another step forward when they again heard the sound of ripping paper. At once, they understood the source of the noise. In the hallway behind her lay a trail of bloodied footprints—in each, clumps of her own pulpy flesh frozen to the ice. She had made the trek, knowing that with each step, she would have to endure the pain of pulling her foot free, ripping away ever-deeper layers of flesh and muscle