Young Writers Society

Chip shoulder-barged the CMC door and stumbled into the still dazzingly bright room. The first thing he noticed was that the room had been evacuated. There were red and black warning signs pinned up all over the place and not a soul in sight.

“Puccoon!” The shout came from the ground somewhere, but Chip didn’t see its owner. Apparently the room wasn’t quite as empty as it seemed.

Treego hopped off his outstretched palm and started poking about under the tables.

“Ochon!” he shouted a few moments later.

Chip crouched down and spotted them near the edge of a table’s shadow about a metre away.

“What are you doing here, Ochon?” Chip asked, eyes wide.

“Kernik’s – the spider who’s in sickbay. She’s my sister,” was all Ochon replied.

Chip? That was a different voice entirely. That was Margo. She went on, Chip, it’s stopped. The Thermal Regulators are working again!

Chip stared at Ochon, then at Treego. He pressed a few buttons on his comms hub and added Margo to the channel Lezeki was on. He chuckled at the clamminess of his hands as he left sweaty smudges all over it. At least he wouldn’t be freezing to death with all this running.

“Lezeki, what are you doing?” Chip asked, his chest so tense he was worried he might throw up.

Huh? said Margo.

“I’ll explain later,” Chip murmured.

So, Lezeki began, When I said I wouldn’t explain my secrets, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t flaunt them right in your traitorous faces.

Ochon frowned at Chip, who shrugged and splayed his hands wide. He had no clue what was going on either.

I have paused the process and I would say that, for the worst affected, this is just in time.

“Margo, how's Bassila?” Chip took a deep breath and ignored the frog and spider staring up at him. “How long does she…?”

There was a whimpering noise from Margo’s end and she said, I don’t know, but it was getting a lot worse recently. I wouldn’t have said very long.

Without a pause, Chip said, “Alright, Lezeki, what do you want?”

There was a moment of silence, which Chip imagined was Lezeki revelling in satisfaction. God, he hated that wasp.

I want you, Lezeki said eventually, I want you and your ship under my control. I want you to come to my side and join your sister.

Chip’s heart beat twice, four times - ten before he was able to say anything. When he finally spoke he said only, “Uh…”

“What are you uh-ing?” Treego snapped, “Give him what he wants!”

Chip frowned and stared at him. He saw Ochon looking down at the ground out of the corner of his eye. His sister? He hadn’t seen Martha in years but … no, that was absurd.

“Chip,” Treego said, his voice much quieter this time, “Nothing is more important than the safety of the crew.”

Chip ran his paw down his face and groaned. He looked over at the gap in the wall, which was identical to the last time he’d seen it. Somehow his heart was managing to race ten times as fast as when he’d last seen it. There was still no way he could fit in it.

“The question is,” Ochon said, “Do we have any alternative? If we can stop what he’s doing right now, he loses his only bargaining chip.”

Words started to form then dissipate on Chip’s lips. Eventually, he stammered out, “W-what … There’s nothing that w-we can do.”

Then he went quiet and thought about his sister and how much he wanted to ask more questions to try and see whether Lezeki was lying.

Ochon spat on the ground in front of him. Treego jumped back a bit but, given that he shuffled back a moment later, it seemed he was just a little startled.

“You’re afraid,” Ochon said, curling his mouth back into a sneer and glaring into Chip’s eyes. “You weren’t scared earlier, when you ordered us all into that place-” he glanced over at the gap “- but where’s your food chain now, eh? You’re scared to order me in there to go get rid of the flies. ‘Cos now your froggy friend here can hear you - and the wolf doctor.”

Chip’s fur raised as if a current was being gently charged through him. His jaw tensed and he had to take a few deep breaths to stop himself from screaming at the spider.

“Well sod this,” Ochon muttered. He shot off out from the table’s shadow, away from both Chip and Treego. He darted up the wall, dragging something tiny behind him that held one of his tiny legs back a bit. Chip had no idea what it was - he hadn’t even seen it when they’d been talking in the shadow. Before Chip could do more than push himself to his feet he’d managed to get onto the edge of the gap.

“Stop!” Chip cried, but Ochon only winked at him and dropped through the gap, dragging whatever was attached to his leg with him.

Well, that wasn’t necessarily expected. Lezeki chuckled. You realise he’s ruined it for you?

Chip’s eyes widened and he looked up at the ceiling, as if that was where Lezeki’s voice had come from.

“What are you talking about?” Chip said, holding his voice as firm as he could.

Chip! Margo screamed. It’s started again!

“What have you done!” Chip howled into his comms unit. He felt a weight on his wrist that he assumed was Treego landing on it but he didn’t even look down. Instead he ran over to the gap and knelt down so that he was eye level on it. He chuckled despite himself as a cry from Treego and a clamping down on Chip’s wrist told him that he was in fact there. He couldn’t see Ochon.

“Lezeki!” Treego shouted, “If you destroy us, you don’t get us. You need a crew, don’t you?”

Lezeki snorted. You think you’re the only ship in the galaxy?

“Well, pretty much yes,” Chip muttered under his breath. For a moment he felt acutely the disappointment he’d been ignoring. This was not exactly the exiting discussion with a fellow Jungle Corps ship he’d been hoping for. Then it was gone, and he was just panicked again.

What was that? Lezeki snapped.

“Oh - nothing,” Chip said, adjusting his head to try and look into the gap at a different angle. “You’re just unfortunately the most interesting -”

Chip didn’t really hear the explosion at first. The first signal he had of it was the rumbling in the floor that buzzed along the bones of his feet. Then he felt his muscles clench, and the floor pushing him up and backwards. Then he heard the noise as he flew through the air. It was like a scream of metal and fire that pounded against his head and winded him even before he hit the ground.

When he did land, he gasped and felt pain shoot up his back, but something animal and primeval in him told him it wasn’t too bad. He started to drag himself back to his feet but as soon as his head was off the ground he saw the fire licking out from the gap, which was now an enormous gaping wound in the wall.

“What has he done…?” Chip murmured. His heart clenched at the thought of Ochon.

“Chip!” Treego yelled, hopping up Chip’s arm towards his shoulder, “Chip, listen to Margo!”

Chip glanced down at his wrist and noticed that the clock counting the time of his call to Margo was still going. But his ears were still ringing and all he could only just hear Margo’s voice. Treego must have been much closer to it, clinging to Chip’s wrist.

“M-m-margo?” he whispered, bring the comms unit right up to his mouth.

Chip, it’s stopped! Now that the comms unit was right next to his face, this from Margo seemed to blast out and attack his ears, which popped, and left him able to hear properly again.

Then he realised what she’d said.

“Wait! How is that possible?” He looked back over at the wall and darted over to it, kneeling below the gap. “Ochon! Ochon!”

But there was no answer. Whatever explosive Ochon had dragged behind the wall, it didn’t seem like he was going to be able to tell them about it.

I bloody hate you all, Lezeki said. Then there was a beep, and he had disconnected from the call.

“Oh God,” Treego murmured.

Chip twisted his head round to his shoulder to see Treego, then noticed he had jumped down to the ground. He crouched down to Treego and saw what he was looking at.

Ochon’s body was upturned on the linoleum floor. He was missing three of his legs and he was completely still, with a solemn trail of smoke trailing up into the sky from where he lay. He was gone.

***

Ochon’s funeral was a sombre, though massive affair. Collected in the viewing platform, so that Ochon could be under the sky one last time, the crew listened to the stuttered words of a newly recovered Kernik, who was giving a eulogy for her brother. Chip did his best to ignore the glares of the spiders that had gone with Kernik and Ochon into the gap. They were like a mini-crew all on their own, whose captain had been sent into danger by a careless primate.

But that wasn’t what had happened, no matter what rumours that spider Deni wanted to spread.

They’d stood up from Ochon’s body, and she’d just been standing in the doorway, watching. She must have known Ochon was there, but, if you believed what she told the rest of the insects and bugs on the ship, she was under the impression that Chip had ordered Ochon to save the ship. It hurt Chip unfathomably to think that most of those she told seemed to believe her.

The guilt was crawling around his insides and tensing him up. He was shaking, but he knew if he cried he’d look like he was seeking attention. Instead, he kept his head down and tried not to indulge himself in thoughts of his sister.