Page 209 of Red Scale Daddy
I veer toward it, grabbing the edge and wrenching it open the rest of the way. Inside, a narrow vertical shaft drops into darkness, ladder rungs bolted into the wall.
“Down,” I say. “Fast.”
Pally goes first without hesitation, swinging himself onto the ladder and disappearing into the dim.
I start to follow, then pause just long enough to glance back down the corridor.
Something moves in the flickering shadows.
Not human. Not anything that belongs on this ship.
“Roma,” Dux says behind me, urgent now. “We’re out of time.”
“I know.”
I swing onto the ladder, boots finding the rungs as I descend. The metal is cold under my hands, vibrating faintly with the strain the ship is under.
Dux follows close behind, the hatch slamming shut above us with a hollow clang.
The shaft is tight, the air stale, each breath a little harder than the last. The only light comes from a dim strip running along one side, flickering just enough to keep the darkness from swallowing us whole.
Below, Pally’s voice echoes up. “How far?”
“Two levels,” I call back. “Keep going.”
We descend in tense silence, the sounds of the failing ship muffled but ever-present—distant impacts, groaning metal, the faint, horrible suggestion of something moving where it shouldn’t.
Halfway down, the ladder jolts.
Hard.
I grip tighter, muscles locking as the entire shaft shudders.
“Please tell me that was just structural instability,” Pally calls up, voice tight.
I listen.
Feel.
“No,” I say quietly.
Dux swears under his breath. “They’re in the walls.”
The realization settles cold and heavy.
“They’re adapting,” I say. “Using the infrastructure to move faster.”
“Fantastic,” Pally mutters. “Love that for us.”
Another jolt, closer this time. Something scrapes along the outside of the shaft, a sound that sets my teeth on edge.
“We need to move faster,” I say.
“No argument here,” Dux replies.
We descend quicker now, less careful, more desperate. The rungs blur under my hands, the ache in my muscles building as gravity continues its subtle, disorienting shift.
Finally, the bottom comes into view—a small landing, another hatch leading out into what should be the lower maintenance corridor.
