25

As both Briyun and Lap disappeared into the thick fog below, Demi began to wonder whether Friss had anticipated this or not. For certain, Lap could defend themself, but Briyun, the cheery, odd-speaking stoat-like creature didn't seem the type to be a fighter. A party-goer? Yes. A surfer? Almost certainly. A fighter? Not so much. Her fingers tapped upon the frame of the cargo bay doors and she considered stealing the ship and flying away to some isolated planet where she could worry about little things, like which sarong to wear to the beach.

"Friss. They both jumped. Bri and Lap. They didn't even use the rope and ..." She paused as she communicated with the bridge as several more, enormous rabbit heads emerged above the surface of the fog. One seemed bad enough. "You're gonna need a bigger stoat."

The communications rattled and crackled as Demi waited for Friss' reply and she continued to stare down at the fog and the monstrous rabbit heads, that dipped beneath the surface and rose again, teeth bared, terrifying roars escaping wicked-fanged teeth. She didn't want to think what those teeth could do to Bri and Lap. Probably something horrible, like ripping them apart until there was little left to identify the two crew mates.

Then, something odd happened. Something more odd than thirty-foot tall rabbits living in a bank of fog that blanketed an entire planet. The roars turned to howls. Howls that sounded very much like screams of pain and, when one monster rabbit head emerged from the fog, Demi saw something remarkable.

Briyun, clinging to a rabbit ear with one hand, waving her other hand in the air, like a rodeo rider controlling their balance, and whooping before she leaned down and bit into the rabbit's neck. Another roar of pain and blood began to stream from the rabbit's neck before it dipped down under the cover of the fog once more.

"WHERE IS THE PARMESAN!" The voice of Bognrd broke into the silence as Demi stared, open-mouthed, below. "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CREATE CULINARY PERFECTION WITHOUT PARMESAN!"

"We're a little busy here, Bognrd!" Friss answered Bognrd when he hadn't even bothered to reassure Demi. That felt more than a little insulting. "Have you tried the third refrigerator on the second floor of the kitchen? Bottom shelf. Behind the crate of tabasco sauce?"

"I AM LOOKING AT THE THIRD REFRIGERATOR, YOU IMBECILIC SPAWN OF A MOTHERLESS GNAT! IT'S ..." A pause followed and, through the crackling and interference caused by the fog, Demi heard a tinkling as Bognrd moved things aside. "WELL, WHO PUTS PARMESAN ON THE SAME SHELF AS TABASCO SAUCE? NEVER MIND. I'LL REARRANGE EVERYTHING MYSELF, BECAUSE WHY WOULD PITIFUL CREATURES SUCH AS YOURSELVES KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE CORRECT PLACES FOR INGREDIENTS?"

Demi shook her head. The muscular, demonic-looking Bognrd should be here, helping Briyun and Lap find the entrance to the facility, not messing around in a kitchen that Demi still had serious doubts about. At least Lodka couldn't create parmesan from her own flesh. At least, Demi hoped so. After another second of thought, she decided Gal-Navy rations on Zapasnoy weren't so bad after all.

She couldn't see anything happening below, now. Not that it looked calm. By the way the fog swirled and shifted, she could tell something was happening down there. What, she couldn't imagine, but it probably involved blood and biting and whatever it was Lap did that caused such horrible, sickening injuries to everyone they fought.

A involuntary shudder travelled up and down her spine as she tried not to remember the events of the arena on Banks Station. She had tucked all those visions away, hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of her mind. The kind of places usually reserved for those embarrassing moments where she had become too drunk to control herself and had become a nightmare for her best friends. Or those times when she had confessed her absolute adoration for rock stars as a teen who, when she looked back on those times, were all dicks.

That shudder had travelled along her spine so often these days, she felt certain it now had a frequent traveller pass, where it could get free drinks every so often, or discounts, or even the chance to shudder up and down her legs, for a change, for free. A shudder she had become so intimately entwined with, she could start searching for 'Save the date' cards and look for somewhere they could live together.

As nothing continued to happen, Demi became bored of staring down at the featureless surface of the fog and decided she should find something to do until Bri released the flare, or Friss realised that one stoat-like woman and a two-dimensional being were not the greatest assault team for a planet covered with murderous vegetation and extremely angry-looking, thirty-foot tall rabbits. A magazine, perhaps. Or a newspaper with a crossword puzzle designed to appear easy, but hiding one, or two, clues that someone would need several Phd's and a lifetime of educational achievement behind them to solve.

Gal-Net was out of the question. The technological interference from the fog even affected her implant, causing her to switch it off. After the fifth time that her implant had felt like it had attempted to dig its way out of her brain, she had realised that the alien enhancement didn't like being around the fog, which, when it came time to break into the facility, could become a problem.

If they ever found the facility. She had switched off her magnetic boots and taken to touring the cargo bay, checking the rope she would need to abseil to the planet's surface, should Bri and Lap survive and find the facility, and various boxes and cases as she went. Every so often, she glanced out of the cargo bay, only to see some other monstrous creature rise above the fog, only to disappear once again, Friss nudging Zapasnoy along, following those appearances.

"GARLIC! WHERE, IN THE NAME OF THE FIVE DEITIES THAT MY PEOPLE DESTROYED AND DEVOURED, IS THE GARLIC?" Demi heard crashing and things clattering over the hazy communications as Bognrd continued to not help any situation at all. "I SWEAR, EVEN THE BOY WARLORD HAD A BETTER STOCKED KITCHEN!"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe you should check the seasonings refrigerator?" The sarcasm dripped from Friss' voice so much, Demi imagined it pooling at the captain's feet. "Third floor, eighth refrigerator on the right."

"DO YOU THINK ME OF SUCH A MINUSCULE INTELLECT THAT I WOULD NOT CHECK SAID REFRIGERATOR AND ..." Silence, punctuated only by the crackling interference, the song of the fog below, before Bognrd continued, his voice lower than normal, which still sounded like the angriest person alive had become incandescent with rage. Or flatulence. "YOU HID IT DELIBERATELY BEHIND THE LAYOLA ROOT. YOU ARE A FIEND, FRISSON PACKLIGHTLY, AND YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS INSULT! NO PUDDING FOR YOU, YOU WORTHLESS EXCRETION OF A POISONOUS FROG'S CROTCH!"

The exchange ended, once again, leaving Demi to wonder why they had left the communications open for everyone. Briyun and Lap couldn't hear them, if they still lived, and she had no idea why Bognrd would need to communicate during the mission, if he wasn't using his immense body for what it was most obviously suited for. Violence. She felt thankful that the communications of anyone within the planet's range would be as affected.

Even using Lodka's organic technology, there were still complications. Not affected as badly as normal technology, the organic communicators still suffered from interference from the fog, and, once under the blanket of that fog, even Lodka's communications were useless. That was why they had to rely on Briyun, or Lap, finding the facility and launching a flare.

A flare that, right now, streaked out from beneath the cover of the fog, sailing majestically through the air in a lazy, somewhat beautiful arc, flying in, through the open cargo bay door, and landing upon a crate marked 'Self Sealing Schtem Bolts - Not To Be Resold Separately'. The flare continued to burn and, as Demi soon found out, the crates upon which the flare had landed were, for some inexplicable reason, flammable. Dangerously flammable.

Before Demi could even react, flames erupted on the crates sending Schtem Bolts flying in all directions, activated and trying desperately to find the nearest thing it could bolt and seal all by themselves. Demi fell to the ground, praying that the fire suppression systems were not among those that Friss had obsessively removed from Zapasnoy.

Long seconds passed as Schtem Bolts landed all around her, furiously bolting themselves to the floor and sealing closed with a noise that sounded like a satisfied sigh. Then, the fire suppression gas began to fire into the cargo bay, dousing the flames within a second, leaving only the pathetic sounds of the remaining Schtem Bolts struggling to attach themselves to nothing.

"Brilliant! I've got the location charted." Friss, at least, sounded happy. "Banking for your deployment in ... now seconds."

Zapasnoy did bank, dangerously so, and Demi found herself scrambling to catch hold of something, anything, to stop her from tumbling out of the cargo bay. Her fingers managed to catch hold of something and she clawed at it, trying to drag herself to safety, but the thing gave way. A Schtem Bolt that hadn't attached properly. It bounced off her helmet's force field as she, and it, fell out of the cargo bay, descending to the roof of the fog, each screaming in their own ways.

"I'm not attached to the abseil rope, you maniac!" She hoped the communications hadn't completely fritzed as she hit the bank of fog. She wanted Friss to hear every word of every insult from every planet and culture that had refined insults to an art-form. She wanted to, but couldn't quite manage the translations. "You ... you ... moron!"

Nothing. That was the reply, or non-reply, or no reply, from the organic communications earpiece currently nestled and curled up within her cochlear. Nothing but a sibilant hissing that may, or may not be, something other than the interference. Even as she fell toward the surface of the planet, knowing that her human body would not survive such a fall like Briyun or Lap, even in the EVA suit, she had one thought passing through her mind.

Was it real garlic that Bognrd had found, or something that had come from Lodka's flesh that only resembled garlic. It was important to know.