Read Slave Empire - The Crystal Ship for Free Online Page B

her jump as the front of the box slid back, revealing a
dark interior. Her heart pounded as she waited for the alien to
appear. After about a minute, a tri-clawed leg appeared over the
edge of the doorway and gripped the steel lip. Another bright
orange claw joined it, then a third. With a jerk, the alien shot
into the light, and Rayne swallowed a scream. A mariner. Her mind
whirled. She had no idea why they were called mariners, for they
came from an arid planet whose sun slow-roasted it. The study data
she had accessed on Atlan had marked this creature with a bright
red danger symbol: deadly. More than that, however, the thing was
impervious just about everything save ejecting it into space.
    The mariner
raised a three-eyed nub from its carapace. With its three hundred
and sixty-degree vision, it could not miss her. The black spots of
its eyes swivelled, nonetheless, examining its new prison, and its
next meal. Six triple-jointed legs splayed from its pear-shaped,
rigid torso. Its exoskeleton’s orange plates shifted as the muscles
within it flexed. Its tri-tail, three whip-like appendages of
armoured muscle, remained curled on its back. She tensed, ready to
run, for the mariner was fabled for its speed. Knowing she had
little hope of escaping it, she used her implant.
    Shadowen,
they’ve put an alien in the cell with me, to kill me. It’s a
mariner.
    Mariners are
movement hunters. Stay quite still. That is your best hope.
    She froze. What else can I
do?
    Nothing. You
are in great danger. Do not move.
    Rayne fought
the urge to run. The alien moved towards her, uncurling three
metre-long feelers. Its curved jaws, tipped with black fangs, bit
with a horizontal scissor movement. Hidden under its belly were two
needle-like appendages it used to inject its victim with an
embalming fluid. Mariners took a long time to eat their prey, for
they hunted far larger creatures. To conserve their food, they
injected a preserving fluid contained in sacs under the carapace.
The bloated soil-eaters of their home world were scarce, so they
could not afford to waste food by allowing it to rot.
    A female
mariner laid eggs in her prey, then left it for her young to
consume and hunted again. Males often used their preserved food to
entice females for mating. Seldom did a mariner kill more than
twice in its short lifetime. The food their mother provided
nourished her young to adulthood, then males killed once to entice
a mate, usually chasing her away afterwards and eating the
remainder themselves.
    The females
often hunted twice, once for their offspring, once for themselves.
If they did not find a second victim, they starved. The
soil-eaters, like giant worms, made vast networks of tunnels as
they ate their way through the ground, and mariners hunted in
these. The cell’s bright light seemed to affect the one that kept
her company. It withdrew the three-eyed nub and curled its legs,
only its feelers waving.
    Rayne wondered
if she dared to slide down the wall and sit, or whether the alien
would detect the movement. She asked Shadowen.
    It will detect it, the ship
replied. It may even sense your breathing,
anyway.
    Oh, great.
What do I do if it attacks me?
    There is not
much you can do. Presently the Draycon ship’s captain has reached a
standoff with the Shrike’s cruisers. Negotiations for your sale
were going well when an Atlantean ship arrived, now the Draycons
suspect the Shrike of trying to rescue you as well. Right now, all
sides are awaiting reinforcements. This means you will not be
rescued soon, so avoid alerting it to your presence.
    Rayne groaned inwardly. That’s why
they put this damned thing in here with me. They’re making sure
that even if they lose the battle, I’ll be dead.
    Shadowen replied, It would seem so.
However, a mariner is not the ideal choice of executioner. If it
does attack, it kills quite slowly, for it has no poison. The
embalming fluid it injects eventually kills, but it takes several
hours. The mouthparts