The Engineer Reconditioned by Neal Asher Page A

be an idea to put you in a suit anyway, Jane. What do you think?"
    "It will offer some protection, though obviously I do not need it for the same purpose as yourselves." Abaron winced, realising he was patronising her. She might look like a little girl, but in that body was an alien mind probably far superior to his own. He pulled a small suit from a locker and handed it to her. Without assistance she put it on and reduced it at all the expansion points. Shortly after he felt the thrusters cut out and the AG go off. Chapra came through from the cockpit.
    "Let's move it," she said. "We've only half an hour to get clear of the shuttle. That other craft is nearly here."
    Abaron pulled his visor down and popped the inner door. He took up both packs and handed one to Chapra. He noted the singun hung on her utility belt. He went first into the lock, and remembering those monsters they had seen in the sea, pulled a short range cutting laser from his pack and held it ready as he opened the outer door.
    Nothing immediately attacked. The shuttle was up on a beach of red sand scattered with nautiloid shells up to a metre across, into the cover of which scurried thumb-sized lobster things as soon as he stepped out. Two steps from the lock he looked out to sea at the swarm of atolls and saw the heave and glistening backs of great beasts swimming between them. Inland towered trees the size of redwoods, but with globular blue objects on their branches rather than needles. Jammed between these giants was a tangle of life that on Earth would have consisted of smaller trees, bushes, and vines. The only resemblance these growths bore to such was that they filled the same niche. It seemed a frightening place to negotiate and a perfect place to hide. Abaron wondered what creatures were making the racket of groans and shrieks issuing from there. Soon Jane and Chapra joined him. Chapra led the way into the hot shadows under the trees. There she drew the singun and aimed it at something on the ground. Abaron stepped forward in time to see a giant leech heaving itself out of her way. Half an hour into the tangle Abaron was thoroughly grateful for his suit's impenetrable fabric and the hard chainglass visor. There were insectile horrors here: blood-suckers and flesh eaters with all their cutlery in their mouths. Beetles as big as hiking boots landed on him and immediately tried to bite him. His chest ached where a wingless mosquito-thing the size of a cat leapt up and tried to ram into him probosces like the barrels of a shotgun. That thing he cut away with the laser before it broke his ribs. Chapra twice used the singun on things charging out at them with intent that did not seem joyous greeting. They bore appearance of Rottweilers crossed with hornets, before the singularity converted them to sludge. The expected danger revealed itself to them when they had been travelling for an hour. The explosion was loud and brief, and it silenced the jungle racket for a few minutes.
    "The shuttle," said Chapra.
    "Will they come after us?" asked Abaron, then he fell silent at the sound of boosters overhead. The three of them stood waiting. They could see nothing through the foliage. Nearby an actinic flash then blast was followed by the monolithic fall of a great tree.
    "Can they detect us?" asked Abaron.
    "Only if our suits leak, and then it won't matter to us."
    "Suits?"
    "They could use infrared and maybe pick up cold spots, even then ... " Chapra gestured up at the thick foliage.
    The next explosion was close. A lightning flash, and a hand of force knocked Abaron stumbling. It hurled Jane to the ground and knocked Chapra against a tree.
    "Oh shit! Run!" shouted Chapra, and she led the way to the right.
    "I thought you said they can't detect us!" yelled Abaron.
    "The gun!" Chapra yelled back. "Both those explosions were where I shot those things! It uses an underspace tech to open the singularity! That's what they're picking up!" Another explosion behind, this