Chapter 526

The creature looked like a gigantic larva, easily seven feet long and weighing two thousand pounds or more. It didn’t have any limbs or appendages whatsoever. Its saggy, wrinkled body was pale gray, almost corpse-like in color, with folds of loose flesh hanging over one another.

Two glossy black eyes, each the size of a golf ball, protruded slightly from its featureless head. They lacked pupils or irises, making it impossible to tell where exactly the creature was looking. Still, Jake had no doubt that those lifeless eyes were fixed squarely on him.

The creature was seated in what looked like a futuristic smooth chair. It was clearly some kind of transport, hovering silently about two feet above the organic floor. The chair drifted with perfect stability, never wobbling or making the slightest sound.

It was clear that thanks to it, the creature could move around despite its complete lack of limbs, though it wasn’t immediately apparent how the hover-chair was operated. After all, it had no visible controls, joysticks, pedals, or touch panels, and the creature itself had no appendages capable of manipulating them. Most likely, it controlled the chair with its mind, either through natural telepathic abilities or some kind of implanted brain chip.

The hover-chair was perfectly spherical, with half of the creature’s body embedded so deeply within it that its sagging flesh and the chair’s smooth artificial material appeared seamlessly fused together. There wasn’t so much as a visible seam between the two.

It was hard to tell whether the creature was merely seated in the hover-chair or had long since become one with it, flesh and metal permanently merged together like the various synthetic creatures Jake had battled on his way to the bridge. It definitely looked less like a vehicle and more like an extension of the creature’s own body.

The larva-like creature was a Grafter, the captain of the bio-ship. The semicircular control console before it clearly allowed the Grafter to operate the living vessel. However, the control console was devoid of any conventional instruments. Or more accurately, it lacked anything resembling the controls you’d expect to find on a craft built by humans.

There were no sensors, screens, buttons, switches, levers, or touch panels anywhere on its surface. The console was entirely organic, and its uneven, leathery surface was rising and falling ever so slightly as though it were quietly breathing alongside the creature connected to it.

Numerous fleshy tubes stretched from the console’s surface toward the Grafter, connecting to its huge body as though the creature and the console were parts of a single living organism. Some of the thick cords pulsed faintly, carrying streams of dark fluid beneath their translucent membranes, while thinner tendrils twitched every so often as if transmitting countless impulses between the captain and its vessel. The entire arrangement looked less like a pilot operating a ship and more like a vital organ connected to the body it sustained.

Strange as the sight was, Jake wasn’t particularly amazed. By that point, he had seen so many bizarre creatures and impossible events in the post-Collapse world that very little could still surprise him. Compared to some of the horrors he had already fought, a living control console barely registered as anything unusual anymore.

The Grafter’s massive chest rose and fell in slow, heavy breaths, producing a faint wet rasp that was just barely audible over the bridge’s ambient hum. Other than that, and the occasional twitch of one of the fleshy tubes connecting it to the console, the creature remained perfectly still.

Its bulbous black eyes, however, continued to seemingly stare right at him. They were solid and utterly expressionless, but Jake couldn’t shake the feeling that they were studying him, measuring him.

More importantly, he could feel a foreign presence probing at the edges of his consciousness, trying to worm its way into his mind. It was cold, invasive, and utterly alien, pressing insistently against his mental defenses in search of the smallest crack through which it could force its way inside. He could feel the Grafter’s own thoughts seeping through and pressing relentlessly against his consciousness, probing for weakness before attempting to force their way inside and seize control.

The Grafter was trying to pry open his mind, but despite its best efforts, it found nothing to exploit. Jake’s resistance to Mind Control had grown high enough to withstand the telepathic intrusion of not only lesser beings like synth phantoms but even their creators, the Grafters. His mental defenses held firm, and the alien presence found itself unable to penetrate them.

After several seconds of futile effort, the enormous larva-like creature finally gave up. Jake could feel the telepathic pressure recede, replaced almost immediately by emotions that didn’t belong to him. The Grafter was frustrated and annoyed at the same time. It couldn’t believe its mental attack not only achieved nothing but was fought off so easily.

The Grafter clearly hadn’t expected him to resist its mental assault so completely. It was obvious that this creature was not without some effort but still was able to break Owen’s will a few days ago. It clearly had expected to be able to do the same with Jake, but to its great surprise and disappointment, his mind turned out to be much better protected than his counterpart’s.

A heartbeat later, Jake detected another psychic ripple as the Grafter shifted its focus. This time, it wasn’t directed at him but at the crab-like combat units stationed throughout the bridge. The command carried no emotion or hesitation, only cold, unquestionable authority, ordering the combat units to attack the intruder.

The captain didn’t so much as twitch, as though it remained completely certain the situation was still under its control and that the intruder would soon be subdued. Or perhaps it simply couldn’t afford to relinquish control of the bio-ship even for a moment. Whatever the case, this wasn’t the time to dwell on it. The battle was about to begin.

As the crab-like creatures attacked from every direction all at once, Jake leaped high and clung to the ceiling. His hands and feet adhered to the slick organic surface without any effort. A split second later, glowing energy bolts sizzled through the spot where he had been standing, blasting chunks of fibrous tissue from the living floor.

One of the crab-things was unfortunate enough to stray into another’s line of fire. The energy bolt punched straight through its chitinous carapace, boring deep into its body and killing the monster instantly. It collapsed where it stood, its legs curling inward as wisps of smoke rose from the smoldering hole.

Jake scurried across the ceiling with astonishing speed as the surviving crab-things swiveled their weapon-limbs upward and adjusted their aim. A barrage of energy bolts streaked after him, peppering the organic ceiling with heavy fire. Each impact left behind a scorched, smoking crater and sent sprays of dark biological matter raining onto the bridge below.

Unfortunately for them, their opponent was far too fast and agile to let them land a single hit. Jake constantly changed direction, making abrupt turns and sudden bursts of speed that threw off their aim. They would fire the instant their weapons recharged, but all they would accomplish was carving more blackened holes into the living ceiling while their elusive target remained frustratingly out of reach.

At one point, Jake paused just long enough to fire a cinch net at one of the crab-things. The webbing expanded as it streaked through the air before wrapping tightly around its chitinous body. Jake issued a mental command, and the cinch net immediately began to constrict.

As the razor-sharp strands dug into the creature’s armored shell, there was a brief moment of resistance. Then the carapace gave way, collapsing inward with the crack of shattering chitin and the snap of breaking limbs. Within seconds, the crab-monster was reduced to a heap of shattered chitin plates and broken limbs.

Jake didn’t linger to watch, though. The instant he fired the cinch net, he was already moving again. Moments later, he dropped from the ceiling onto another crab-thing just as it prepared to fire. Grabbing the energy cannon fused to its forelimb, he twisted it toward another monster an instant before it discharged.

The energy bolt drilled through its target’s chitinous breastplate and into the vulnerable flesh beneath, killing the creature instantly. Jake then launched a glob of acid at the creature beneath him before immediately charging another foe.

At one point, several turrets descended from hidden compartments in the ceiling, clearly deployed by the Grafter. Jake could still feel the larva-like creature’s presence inside his mind, and with it, its growing frustration. The battle was definitely not unfolding the way the captain had expected.

Glowing red bolts of energy sizzled through the air, leaving brilliant trails in their wake. Since the Grafter occupied the center of the room, it was only a matter of time before one of the stray projectiles struck it. When it finally happened, however, the creature remained completely unharmed.

Instead of hitting the Grafter, the projectile stopped dead a few inches away, colliding with a barely visible barrier. The enormous larva-like creature was protected by a powerful energy shield, which explained its confidence. It had probably assumed the shield would protect it from Jake as well.

Several minutes later, the last of the crab-things and turrets lay destroyed. Jake stood amid the broken bodies of the monsters and the mangled remains of the turrets. Only the Grafter remained. It still occupied the center of the bridge, connected to the control console by numerous pulsating fleshy tubes. For a moment, the two simply stared at one another.

Then, from the nearest wall panel came Mick’s voice.

“Jake, you need to hurry. I’m keeping the bridge doors locked, but the Grafter is trying to lock me out of the ship’s systems. Once it succeeds, I won’t be able to help you anymore. Please hurry and deal with the Grafter so I can deactivate Owen’s chip.”

Before Mick had even finished speaking, Jake charged straight at the captain of the bio-ship. It was time to finish this battle.