Free Ten Little Aliens: 50th Anniversary Edition by Stephen Cole Page B

hurt?’
    ‘No. But guns are so noisy!’
    ‘Keep your ears blocked a little longer,’ Tovel advised.
    Shade kept on blasting, criss-crossing the tunnel entrance, until abruptly the yellow fire faded. ‘Power pack’s out!’
    For a moment Tovel relived Shade’s helpless sense of panic back at the freighter simulation, as the Kill-Droid had targeted him head-on. Then he raised his own gun and took up the barrage. Through the bolts of yellow light Tovel glimpsed burning red, caught coruscations of reflected fire in the body of something big coming out of the darkness.
    Shade had thrown down his rifle and released his grenade launcher from the clamp on his back. Now he aimed it down the tunnel and fired. The kickback nearly knocked him over.
    The noise of the grenade impacting left Tovel half-deafened. The tunnel mouth was incandescent for a second. Tovel blinked furiously to clear his sight. He had a blurred view of Shade gripping the launcher so tightly it seemed the skin would split over his knuckles. He fired again. Tovel heard the rumbling of rock.
    ‘That’s enough!’ Tovel yelled. ‘You’ll bring the roof down on us! We’ve got to get out of here!’ That would be a count against Shade when they got back to base. Poor little Earthborn.
    He groped around for the girl, grabbed hold of her skinny arm and yanked her up by it. She squealed as he dragged her away. The ground felt like it would shake itself apart.
    A few metres down the tunnel he, Shade and the girl all collapsed together as the impact of several tonnes of rock hitting the ground behind them knocked them off their feet.
    Tovel choked as he breathed in dust. ‘Nice work, Shade. Were you tired of walking? Wanted to block off that tunnel on purpose?’
    The girl glowered at him. ‘I’m glad this outfit’s quilted.’
    ‘Who the hell are you anyway?’ Shade suddenly aimed his gun at her head.
    The girl looked up at him. She seemed frozen in fear. Tovel studied her properly: dark make-up around her eyes, a straight, pointed nose that had never seen close combat, the ludicrous yellow spacesuit… she was clearly no soldier. Where the hell had she come from, and what the hell was she doing here?
    Tovel gave Shade a look, warning him to ease off. Then he retreated down the tunnel and beckoned Shade to join him, out of the girl’s earshot.
    ‘Nice work,’ he said.
    ‘Wasted the droid, didn’t I?’
    ‘Did you?’ Tovel waved back at the blocked passageway. ‘And what about
her
? Now we can’t go check out her story.’
    ‘What story?’ Shade scoffed. ‘Blue lights? Incredible places?’
    ‘We’ll get more out of her,’ said Tovel, ‘if she thinks we trust her.’
    Shade nodded slowly. ‘I guess so.’
    ‘Don’t leave me here,’ the girl called. She sounded pathetic.
    ‘No chance of that,’ Tovel called back as they marched back to rejoin her. ‘I think our Marshal’s going to be very interested to find you here. What’re you called?’
    ‘Polly. Now please, you don’t understand…’ The mysterious Polly got to her feet. ‘I was trying to tell you. There’s some sort of countdown going on, I’m sure of it.’ She regarded the blocked tunnel with a gloomy expression. ‘And now I can’t show you where it was!’
    Tovel nodded ruefully, though he noticed Shade showed no signs of remorse. ‘What do you mean by a countdown?’
    Polly gesticulated worriedly with her hands. ‘I… I got the feeling we haven’t very long.’
    Shade looked like he was losing patience. ‘Long before what?’
    ‘I’m not sure,’ said Polly, ‘but
something’s
about to happen!’
    She was right; Haunt’s voice, low and concerned, broke in on their conversation. ‘Tovel, respond.’
    ‘Tovel here,’ he rapped into his wrist-comm. ‘Marshal, I was about to –’
    ‘Shade with you?’
    ‘Right here.’
    ‘Have either of you had contact with Joiks or Denni?’
    Tovel swapped a quizzical glance with Shade. ‘No, Marshal. But we’ve