As one, woman and slime-mass lunged towards him. And now, incredibly, Boone saw that there were fangs beneath the laughing lips; that, like Medusa, the woman was crowned not with rippling hair, but writhing serpents.
He screamed as the voice on the com-box had screamed; blazed point-blank at the naked belly with his nerve-gun.
The soft flesh shimmered, darkened. Great scales took form. The smooth body distorted into the plated, cartilaginous torso of a dragon.
Boone hurled himself aside as its great horned head lanced forward. With all his might, he threw the nerve-gun into the yawning mouth.
The mighty jaws clamped down. The metal crumpled.
Behind Boone, thunder crashed in the passage. A fire-bolt from a blaster smashed into the monster.
Dragon and slime-mass alike exploded into spattering fragments. Half-stunned, Boone felt the ensign's fingers dig into his shoulders and drag him back towards the lift-shaft.
But he shook them off. "No. I've got to see—" Even as he spoke, he knew that the words were coming out an incoherent mumble.
He staggered back anyhow ... clawed amid the smoke and debris.
His hands came up green and stinking with viscous slime.