BigBug

Moon took a deep breath and ran into the bunker screaming, “Pieter you are a human. You are one of us. You are a boy, a human child.”

Bigbug vented the poison gas. It could easily have killed or disabled Moon but it paused for an instant. It paused, looked up and listened to Moon, and in that merciful second Moon managed to shove the spike into Bigbug’s eye and push the plunger. Moon staggered outside and dropped to the floor.

The M&M got up onto the platform all the time covering Seamus with its automatic rifle, pointing it at his head. It could not miss if it pulled the trigger. Seamus was lying on the track face down. The M&M looked at the kids lined up against the wall. It was drooling. It licked its lips. It turned and shouted down at Seamus, “Get up onto the platform,” it ordered. Seamus could not move he was so sick and terrified. “Get up prison pie,” it taunted. Seamus hoped it would shoot him. Get it over with. The M&M released the safety catch on its assault rifle. It was going to shoot Seamus in the head. Seamus closed his eyes and began to pray. He felt a loud thud beside him. He opened his eyes. The M&M was lying beside him. Dead on the track. Seamus looked up. One of the little girls was standing on the platform holding the poisoned Cyclops' blade. Somewhere, from someplace deep inside him, Seamus found the strength to haul himself to his feet. He climbed onto the platform. One of the kids handed him the M&Ms rifle. DATA was slowly spinning. They pointed up the platform. Bigbug was carrying Moon in its arms. It was running towards them. It stopped and laid Moon down by the slowly spinning DATA. The earth was in chaos. The spike was still stuck in Bigbug’s eye. Bigbug was looking at the rotating DATA.

“We may be too late.” Bigbug the boy was back.

Moon was conscious. He began to shake and shudder. He foamed at the mouth.

“He is having an epileptic fit,” said Seamus.

As Moon shuddered and shook DATA also shuddered and shook. Moon crawled over and flung himself across DATA. DATA went still with a shudder. Moon passed out and fell back unconscious. Bigbug the boy picked up Moon tenderly.

“Onto the shuttle,” it shouted.

Seamus rolled the inert DATA onto the Turtle 1. The kids, Bigbug the boy, and the semi-conscious moaning Moon followed. Bigbug laid Moon down and stepped outside again.

“Let’s go,” shouted Seamus. “Get us out of here.”

“There is something I have to do first. I have to bring my father’s body with me.”

“Are you crazy you alien asshole? Get us out of here. Please,” Seamus pleaded. He pointed at the tunnel. “The monsters will be on top of us soon. We will be annihilated.” He pointed at the kids. “You know what will happen to them. We have to leave. Now!”

“I am not leaving without my father’s body.” The station shook violently. “Good. My plan is back on track and we are back on schedule. The cloning facility is starting to disintegrate.”

Seamus pointed his assault rifle at Bigbug the boy. “We are leaving here now.”

“We are ok. We have time to get out. I have rigged DATA escape hatch to explode in twenty minutes. The M&Ms will not get here for twenty-five minutes. I am going to get my father’s body.”

“No, you are not. I want out of here,” screamed Seamus,” get us out of here. Now, or I will shoot you –” He poked the barrel of the rifle into Bigbug the boy’s chest.

“No,” shouted Moon, who had regained full consciousness, “do as he says. We cannot leave without his father.” Moon fell back exhausted but he was a functioning human.

“We are wasting time,” said Bigbug the boy, “time we can no longer afford.” He started walking towards the door that let them into his offices.

“I am coming with you,” said Seamus. “I can help and besides we cannot drive that thing.”

“Thank you, earthling.” He smiled at Seamus. “Logic always prevails.”

“Take care for him,” shouted Seamus at the children and pointing at Moon. “We will be back soon. Do not leave the ship.” He smiled at the kids to reassure them. Seamus staggered, he was too old to run, after Bigbug the boy. Bigbug the boy had already opened the door behind the M&M hut. They took the elevator up to the corridor that led to Bigbug’s labs. Seamus walked behind Bigbug the boy passing by all the meteorite and mineral collections. Fabulous diamonds, mouth- watering meteorites, emeralds, gold nuggets and extra-terrestrial fossils. At the lab Bigbug, the boy opened up his father’s tomb. Inside Jan van Zoete was lying in a glass coffin. He was frozen. His cranium was full of holes about fifteen millimetres in diameter made by the bugs when they ate their way out of his head. There was such a look of stricken terror on the dead man’s face.

“That’s where they ate their way out as he lay dying,” said Bigbug the boy. It was crying. “DATA promised to fit him out with a new colony, in a new body, but that’s the last thing my father would have wanted.” Bigbug the boy lifted his father out from his frozen prison. Between them, they carried the frozen corpse back towards the Turtle. The facility shook violently. Parts of the ceiling fell down. Cracks appeared on the corridor walls. Frozen body dripped down Seamus' neck. He didn’t care.

“Is the lift safe?”

“Yes, it is powered by the human grid. Nuon.”

They got back to the shuttle just in time. Moon was sitting up waiting with the kids. He was covering the tunnel with an assault rifle. Moon had armed three of the kids with the M&Ms assault rifles. They were pointing down the tunnel towards Metro Shell. They all knew this was a futile gesture. If one hundred M&Ms came rushing out the tunnel they were finished. The ammunition in the captured assault rifles would not penetrate M&M body armour. Seamus knew they could not let these monsters loose on Amsterdam. There was a deep grumbling and then a roar of noise and a gush of hot air came out from the tunnel and such a stench of death it brought with it from that evil place. It made the humans sick.

“That shouldn’t be happening,” said Bigbug the boy, “not yet.” It checked the time. “We should still have eleven minutes. Of course! DATA must have sped up time as it re-engaged.” Bigbug the boy started up the Turtle and drove it over to the sluice. The sluice was a twenty-five-metre long steel alloy tube twenty metres in diameter that led up to the Ij. The lock gate in the bottom of the tube opened and Bigbug the boy drove in the Turtle. The gate closed and locked behind them and the tube started to fill with water. The Turtle began to rise up. It was a simple but ingenious design. When the tube/sluice was full the top lock gate would open and the Turtle would exit into the Ij. The lock gate then closed, the tube retreated into sediment and the water pumped out. The M&Ms were less than two minutes from Metro Ship station. The Turtle was floating up at the second exit gate that would let them out onto the Ij and freedom. The second lock gate, just above them, would not open. “The gates are losing power,” said Bigbug. They were only a lock gate away from freedom. They were stuck in a steel tube, trapped, between the two locks gates. Down below the M&Ms exited the tunnel and ran into Metro Ship station platform. They quickly realised the situation. DATA was gone and their treats were escaping.

“Prepare demolition charges,” ordered the M&M sergeant.