Inseminoid by Larry Miller Read Free Book Online Page A

Sharon wondered.
    Karl raced after Ricky and caught up with him at the inner door to the airlock. “Hey! Where ’ya going?”
    Ricky tried to push past Karl. There was only a blank stare on his face. “Dean . . . Gotta find Dean.”
    Karl took him by the arms and tried to hold him back. “Dean’s not out there.”
    “Dean!” Ricky shouted.
    Without warning he lunged at Karl and the doctor was taken totally by surprise. “Ricky, what in hell’s got into you?!”
    But Ricky didn’t answer with words. His actions told the story well enough. He banged his elbow into Karl’s ribs, sending him flying. He brought his balled-up fist down to Karl’s face. But the doctor saw it coming and jerked his head out of the way at the last possible second. Ricky’s hand smashed into the wall with full force. There were cracking sounds that Karl knew were those of bones breaking but even that didn’t stop the crazed man.
    Sharon leaped on to Ricky and grabbed at the oxygen pack on the back of his suit. He shook her off easily but he was disorientated for a brief moment. Then he remembered where he was and started for the airlock door. Only Karl was between him and freedom. Ricky moved steadily toward him and grabbed him. He reached back, poised to try again to finish Karl off, just as Sandy came around the corner from the opposite direction. She didn’t understand what was happening but she knew she had to do something fast. This was just the kind of crisis books couldn’t teach you how to handle.
    She dived between Ricky’s legs and using a manoeuvre she called “testicles deviant” she brought her hand up in a karate chop to his crotch.
    Ricky screamed like a wounded animal and Sandy figured she’d scored a direct hit. When she saw blood seep through his suit she realised just how accurate she had been.
    That distraction, engineered by Sandy, gave Karl the chance he needed to reach the emergency alarm to warn the others. He broke an alarm panel sending the high-pitched wailing sound blaring through the complex.
    Ricky had started after Karl but the alarm brought him to a complete stop. He covered his ears with his hands. It was too much for him to bear. He spun around and careened through the corridor, leaving Sandy, Sharon and Karl behind.
    Ricky ran faster and faster but everywhere he went there was the alarm. He couldn’t get away from it. Gary had stepped out of his cabin to check out what was happening. He was looking the other way and didn’t see Ricky coming. The two men collided and both ended up in a pile on the floor.
    “What’s going on?” Gary tried to shout over the din.
    But Ricky wasn’t aware of anything but the noise, that excruciating noise. He got up and tried to climb a stairwell but he was clumsy in his spacesuit and fell backwards. He rose from the ground and pulled himself up by the railing. Just then Mark appeared. “Ricky? What the hell . . .”
    Ricky never let him finish his sentence. He knocked him out of the way with a blinding two-fisted punch to the gut. Mark went flying into a row of cabinets while Ricky headed off down the corridor in the opposite direction.
    By the time Mark opened his eyes and regained his wind, Ricky was nowhere to be seen. He’d disappeared into the maze of corridors.
    At that moment the other crew members rushed toward Mark. He wiped the blood from his mouth. “The last I saw him he was heading down there,” he motioned with his hand.
    “We’d better find him before he hurts somebody badly or hurts himself,” Karl said.
    They moved cautiously, opening all doors as they went. There was a noise and each one froze. But it was Barbra. She was coming toward them.
    “Have you seen Ricky?” Karl asked her.
    She said she hadn’t.
    Then there was noise coming from behind them and Ricky was running away from them. He was moving into a part of the complex that had been closed off for the last hundred and fifty years.
    “Where does this lead to?” Sharon