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Nobody tells you what to do when your friend and colleague is snatched up from the ground by the jaws of an enormous, ground-burrowing fauna. Worst still, nobody tells you what to do when she is thrown aside and now lies, bleeding out in the dirt. And you look at her still face, the blood gushing out, and all you had going for you was the vague thought that you had to stop the bleeding.
Arada leaned over Bharadwaj and pressed both her palms against the injury—her hands were covered in red—and hoped that it was enough. Enough until whatever happened next happened.
Nobody could prepare you for this.
It was hard to think.
All her senses were taken over by this paralyzing fear that emerged from somewhere on the back of her neck—from an animalistic part of her brain that only saw the teeth and the blood. It spread down from there, into her spine, and arms, and legs.
Bharadwaj was still not getting up.
She couldn't move.
The creature could be charging at her, and all Arada would be able to do was stare dumbly ahead.
Time seemed to stretch into the infinite. The SecUnit was still tussling with the fauna, or more accurately, it was stuck in the creature's mouth, firing out of a hole it made, as they were spun in circles. The ground shook as the many insect feet slammed down. Arada couldn't follow; she had to close her eyes to keep the dust out.
Bharadwaj was still silent.
The blood was warm on her hands.
This was supposed to be a safe planet, with small, manageable fauna. Nothing like that creature, certainly not that size.
The next thing she knew was that the SecUnit was standing before her, talking to her, picking Bharadwaj up, hauling her over its shoulder. It was talking to her, but Arada can't hear it, any of it, because the SecUnit's side is gone, mauled into an open hole with bits and gore hanging out, and inner tubing tracing some pattern that only a specialized technician could understand. All Arada could comprehend was the viscera—the cooling blood on her hands.
Was she shaking? Was she breathing?
Her limbs just wouldn't obey her.
Stuck like that—what if the fauna comes back?
How could it even stand with so much of it missing?
Then there was a click and shuffling. She looked up—up at it—and a face, a human face, looked down at her.
"Remain calm. It will be alright. You have my word."
Right. Alright. Calm, she could do that. She could even believe that she could do that.
Arada nodded and got to her feet.