"Well, at least it's not toxic." Kamala glanced down at her bare midriff. The only clothes she had were the double sports bra and cargo skirt she'd been wearing when this whole screwed-up adventure began. Not the kind of things you wanna be wearing when you're stepping into an atmosphere that might burn right through your skin.

But she and Roger had been walking around for nearly half an hour, and there'd been no burning sensations or blistering or fizzling and dissolving.

"Yeah, there's that, at least." The glow from his ultratool's holofield diffused through the thick fog around it. The display showed the outline of the corridor ahead, which appeared to stretch into infinity.

Kamala's 'tool gave her the same information, sending it straight into her brain and overlaying a grid in her field of vision to show her where the walls and ceiling were.

She checked its motion and heat sensors and found nothing within its range.

"I wonder if this ship's automated," she muttered. "If it had a crew, they wouldn't be able to see more than two feet in front of their faces."

"Assuming they have eyes like ours. Maybe they see in infrared. Or, hell, even radio waves."

"Huh. Yeah, that could be." She shook her head. "If they're that different from us, we may never figure out what their motivations are -- why they abducted us."

"I'm curious, too, but not curious enough to stick around."

"Good point. Getting out of here alive would be more than enough." Her motion sensor flagged a dozen points on either side of the corridor ahead, and she stopped abruptly. "Whoa."

"I see it, too." Roger nodded at the display floating in front of him.

Kamala swept her ultratool over the corridor and more outlines appeared in her heads-up display. "Looks like a bunch of doors just opened."

"Yeah. I wonder why we didn't detect them before. Our 'tools should've been able to."

"Maybe all the walls are seamless until the crew needs a door, then it just kind of morphs out of the wall."

"Like programmable matter? Creepy, but yeah, that'd definitely keep any doors off our scanners until …"

A low, rumbling growl came from the fog ahead, and Roger froze, staring down the corridor and holding his breath.

Kamala's hearts pounded. She pointed her ultratool straight ahead and tried to stop her hands from shaking. An outline of a horse-sized animal with six legs launched out of the fifth doorway on the right and charged straight toward her and Roger. Her first impulse was to scream, but she couldn't even suck in a breath.

Roger let out an incoherent scream, grabbed Kamala's hand, turned and bolted.

He barely traveled a single step before he slammed into a wall. He staggered back and fell on his ass.

The corridor behind them was gone. Kamala's pounding hearts revved up a few more notches. She turned back just as the creature emerged from the fog. She caught a glimpse of a dark orange body covered with scales and a mouth like an alligator filled with three rows of teeth before it landed on top of Roger.

Roger threw his arm up in front of his face and the animal bit down on it.

Kamala dropped her ultratool, lunged at the creature, and pummeled it with all four fists. It released him and snapped at her. She shoved it away and slithered toward Roger, keeping her gaze locked onto it as it charged again.

"Kamala!" He reached out to her.

She leaped between him and the creature, letting it plow into her -- then she coiled her body around it and squeezed. Breath rushed out of its mouth and its eyes widened. She cinched herself tighter, putting everything she had into it until the animal's bones snapped and crunched under her skin. Even then, she continued tightening her grip.

Its movements grew weaker as it struggled for breath. Blue fluid -- blood, probably -- poured from its nose and mouth. Kamala kept the pressure on until it stopped moving. She waited a few more seconds before loosening her grip. She flung it away and scooted back to Roger.

The creature rolled across the floor and hit the wall. She stared at it, expecting it to spring back to life at any second, but it remained limp, eyes frozen open and spiked tongue dangling out of its mouth.

She put her arms around Roger. "You okay?"

"I think so." He ran his ultratool over his body and stared at its display. "Yeah, no suit tears, broken bones, or anything like that. Heart rate's through the roof, though."

"Mine, too." She held him for several more seconds before helping him get back on his feet. She pinged her ultratool and its location relative to her body appeared in her mind. She picked it up and scanned the wall that had been a long corridor a moment ago. "What the hell? I can't get any readings beyond this wall."

"It's like a bulkhead door, except I can't find a doorway or any seams or cracks. Looks like you might be right about the walls 'morphing.'" He leaned against the wall and took a few ragged breaths. He raised his trembling hands and shook his head. "Oh, shit, I thought …"

"So did I." She hugged him again. What had almost happened to him, and what she'd just done, started to sink in, and she sobbed. He held her gently until she regained control of herself. She sniffled and moved forward slowly, keeping both left arms around him. "Come on. Let's find a way out of here."