“Enough of that.” Runo said dryly. “We need to keep our heads.”
“Camera two.” Prub said. “Holy fuck.”
Everyone strained to get a look at the small datapad in Prub’s hands, but the engineer had lowered it out of view.
“What was it?” Blinji asked, reached for the device, snatching it out of Prub’s hands. He quickly brought his eyes to focus on the image on the screen and promptly vomited inside his helmet. The young miner looked like he was going to vomit again until the suit auto-cleaned the helmet, sucking the waste out, and jabbed him in the arm with a very mild sedative to relax him.
When Runo finally got her hands on the datapad, the image confirmed the horrific scream she had heard earlier. It was an image of the access area just inside the main airlock where Zaka’s body was staked against the bulkhead with her head missing. The chamber was covered in blood.
“Why did they take her head?” Oto asked, his eyes wide with wonderment and horror.
“Fucking maniacs.” Prub said, shaking his head.
“Find the next image.” Runo ordered, shoving the datapad back into the Engineer’s hands.
“I’m not letting them do that to me.” Inkana said.
Runo turned around, about to comfort the young woman only to find the prostitute gripping a blood-covered axe.
“Where did you find that?” Runo asked, a shocked expression on her face.
“It was lying a few compartments back.” Dupina said. “I think the crew of this ship killed each other with tools like that.”
Runo nodded. “Well, don’t hurt anyone with that.” She said, giving Inkana another look before turning around to look at the images coming through to the pad. “Anything?”
“Empty chambers or nothing at all.” Prub reported. “It’s a big ship, this may take a while.”
Five minutes later, they had their answer.
“Here we go.” Prub said, staring at the screen, everyone bent over his shoulders looking at the screen.
The image was scrambled and continuously fading in and out, but the figures on the screen were easy enough to see. Two males, both attired in tight black leggings, sandals, and shaved heads were accompanied by a single woman who was wearing a knee-length black skirt, a tube-top, sandals and also sporting a shaved head while carrying Zaka’s head. All three were armed with knives in their hands and small axes on their belts.
“Just three of them?” Oto stated. “Odd.”
“Why do you say odd?” Dupina asked.
“Because boarding a ship with just three individuals seems a little short-handed.” Oto replied.
“There could be more of them.” Blinji said. “Somewhere else on the ship.”
“I’ll tell you one thing that’s certain, there are more than three people on that cruiser.” Prub said. “That ship can’t fly itself.”
“Droids?” Dupina suggested. “Maybe the ship is crewed entirely by droids?”
“What do you want to do about these three?” Prub asked, looking up to Runo. “Your call.”
Runo stood up and looked out of the hatch down J-Hold. “We wait. It’ll take those three time to search all of the Gauloi, and maybe, if we’re lucky, they give up.”
“But then what?” Dupina asked. “We can’t stay on this ship.” She looked at the other five faces. “If they don’t find us, and if they don’t destroy the ship, and just put this crate back out into space, we’ve still got no engines or jump drives.”
“And?” Oto asked. “You’re not proposing that we go out there and what?” He cocked his head to one side. “Try and storm that ship?”
“That is a bad idea.” Prub said. “That ship is huge, there have got to be hundreds of crew onboard.”
Runo looked down at the deck, the old ship looked dead compared to the Gauloi, but the vines that were strung around the inside of the hull appeared to be turning from grey to green.
“We ambush them just as they’re about to enter the ship.” Runo finally declared.
“What?” Oto asked.
“If they open J-Hold and look like they’re about to come into this ship, we attack them just as they enter.” She looked around the space they were standing in. “Right here.”
Everyone stood around in silence, looking around the entry area they were in. It wasn’t more than five metres squared with a two-metre high ceiling and had panelling on all the surfaces, and other than the vines, it was completely grey in colour.
After a period of lengthy silence, Prub finally spoke up. “Then, we wait.” He said solemnly, then looked back down at the data-pad with the three individuals moving about the Gauloi in the centre of the frame.
It took over two hours of trying to track the three black-clad figures around the Gauloi until they finally reached Deck 3. The three characters appeared to never speak, only follow the lead of the larger of the two men, the woman in the group still carrying the severed head of Zaka around as if nothing was amiss.
Inside the research ship, Runo was getting anxious and tired. She had only been out of stasis for several hours, and she felt underpowered. Looking around the interior of the ship, she could see that the only thing changing was the colour of the vines that had worked their way through the ship. They had gone from a greyish, dead-looking colour, to their present shade of green, with the ends of the vines where the dead flowers were, slowly coming back to life.
The waiting inside the environmental suits also didn’t help with the comfort, but she knew it was the safest thing to do, and looking at the five other survivors, she could tell that they were equally uncomfortable.
As her eyes grew tired, Runo tried to keep focused and stay alert, but the more she fought against the drowsiness that was overcoming her body, the more fatigued she got, until she finally fell asleep, propped up against the wall.
When Prub gave her a shove, her eyes shot open and darted around the chamber. The once monotone room was now looking lush. The vines were now green, and spaced along them were flowers with pink and purple petals with a bluish haze filling the room. It was luxuriant.
“They’re in J-Hold.” Prub said in a whisper.
Runo nodded and pushed herself to her feet. “What’s with the flowers?” She asked, still drowsy.
“They bloomed quickly.” He said. “Once the temperature in the ship got high enough, they just started sprouting.”
“It’s beautiful.” Inkana said.
Runo took a deep breath and looked over at the prostitute who seemed oblivious to the imminent danger.
“Where is the trio?” She asked Prub.
“Half-way down the deck.” Dupina replied. “They’re taking their time, but they’re coming this way.”
“Killing everyone in their path.” Oto added.
Runo walked over to the monitor and checked the image. Sure enough, the trio of scantily clad Heresy Alignment supplicants was walking directly towards the ship.
“Everyone, take your positions.” Prub ordered.
“Are we really doing this?” Blinji asked.
“I don’t think we have a choice.” Oto replied. “It’s them or us.”
Runo swallowed, her eyes locked on the trio as they got closer.
Outside of the research ship, the vines that had wrapped themselves around the vessel were in full bloom. They were thriving in the oxygen-rich environment. The vines were unable to detect the six individuals inside the ship through their environmental suits, but the trio approaching through J-Hold was triggering a natural defensive mechanism.
The sweat and the secretions from their natural bodily functions were easily detected once they were within twenty metres of the vines, alerting them to eject the spores from the blooming flowers. The dozens of flowers on the exterior of the ship suddenly blasted into the air a trillion micro-particles that as individuals were invisible on an individual level, but in such concentrated numbers was impossible to miss in the form of a dense blue mist. A beige cloud covered the exterior of the ship suddenl
y, in such concentration that thousands of pores were sucked into the lunges of the three marauders.
The effect of the spores was almost instant. The tiny particles raced through the blood-streams of the victims, reaching the brain within seconds, turning off whatever control of their minds that they could have had, and focused all their energy into a wild and uncontrollable rage.
The woman carrying Zaka’s head was the first to react.
Using the head as a weapon, she swung it at the larger male, hitting him on the back of the head, then lunged at him, blade drawn, and plunged it into his neck. The knife missed the critical arteries but sent blood flying from the wound.
Reeling from the attack, the big male grabbed the woman by the neck with his left hand, squeezing tightly before using his axe to cut her almost cleanly in half at the waist.
Dropping her body to the ground, the large male turned to face his accomplice, just in time to watch the final few centimetres of flight before a knife pierced his eye, killing him instantly. His massive body collapsing to the floor next to the dead woman.
Onboard the ship, everyone was in terrified horror, clutching their weapons, unsure of what just happened.
Runo’s eyes were locked on the screen, watching the final male as he looked around J-deck as if he were a wild animal. He was hunched over, breathing heavily, head moving from right to left.
“What just happened?” Dupina asked in a hushed tone.
“Fuck me.” Blinji said.
“Uhh.” Prub shook his head. “Why did they do that?”
Runo ran her tongue over her dry lips. She wasn’t complaining. They had been planning to kill three people, now there was only one attacker left for them to dispatch. Six to one were better odds than six to three.
“We need to go finish this.” Oto said, his weapon gripped tightly in his hands. “We need to kill that male while he’s distracted.”
“Do you want to go out there?” Dupina asked.
“Doesn’t matter anymore what we want to do.” Prub said. “Oto is right.” He looked over the five faces looking back at him. “We need to finish this while we have the advantage.”
Without another word, Prub was moving towards the hatch, his weapon up and ready. Oto right by his side, leaving the rest of the group behind with bewildered looks on their faces.
Runo’s eyes were locked on the screen, watching the two males rush out of the research ship and out into J-Hold.
Their presence was instantly detected by the male, who turned to face them for the briefest second, before rushing towards them.
Any skill in hand to hand combat that the Heresy Alignment male may have had was gone and replaced by a blood-lust that sent him flailing wildly towards Oto and Prub. His weapon slicing through the air without any discernable grace or skill.
“Fuck this.” Runo said, her courage coming to her. She tightened her grip on the piece of metal in her hands and started off after the first pair.
Stepping through the hatch of the ship, back into the Gauloi and J-Hold, Runo swallowed hard. She had felt some semblance of safety inside the old ship, but now, in a place where death had just visited, she felt scared.
Ahead of her, she could see Oto and Prub swinging their weapons as if they were mining tools, chopping motions.
A strike would land on the enemy, but not fatal. The next would be parried. Oto and Prub moved like men much younger than their ages, continually keeping up their attack. Their relentless assault finally paid off, with a heavy blow landed on the HA members head, sending him face-first to the deck. A follow-up strike was delivered to the back of the skull, resulting in a cracking sound and a spurt of blood shooting upwards away from the body.
“Is he dead?” Runo asked, looking down at the member of Heresy Alignment. Blood was covering his head, and other than a single twitch, the figure was still.
“His skull is fractured.” Prub pointed out. “And I think he’s bleed out.”
Runo nodded, then looked over at Oto. The miner was cradling his right arm.
“Are you alright?” She asked.
Oto nodded. “He cut me.”
Runo could see the blood slowly dripping onto the ground at a steady rate.
“It’s nothing serious.” Oto reassured her.
Runo stepped back, and looked towards Blinji, Dupina and Inkana who were slowly emerging onto J-Hold, each clutching an implement of some kind, but what really struck Runo was the vibrant colours of the vines and flowers that were not only wrapped around the ship lodged in J-Hold, but also spreading over the walls and surfaces of the storage area.
Before anyone could say anything, the suits they were all wearing finally detected the spores in the air, and flashed alerts onto the inside of the helmets.
ALERT. The first message warned, distracting everyone.
AIRBORNE CONTAMINATION. Read the second message.
“Good to see the suits are working.” Dupina said dryly.
Runo looked past the warning and locking eyes with Oto who was standing across from her. She could see that his eyes were wide open, reading a different signal on the inside of his helmet.
DEHCAERB TIUS. She read.
“Oto?”
Runo took a step towards the miner, she could tell that he was breathing heavily. Looking towards his wounded arm, Runo could see a fine layer of spores on top of the rubber outing of the suit.
Taking another step towards Oto, Runo looked back up at the man’s eyes, and could see that they had gone almost pale white, and before she could react, his mouth opened, a snarl on his face, and his body came shooting towards the startled Flying Officer, but before he could even take one step, an axe swung into his path, catching him in the chest, driving his body backwards, dead.
“Fuck!” Blinji blurted out.
Everyone’s eyes shifted to Prub.
“Why did you do that?” Dupina screamed.
“He was infected.” Prub said, struggling to catch his breath.
“How did you know?” Inkana asked.
“It’s in the air.” Prub replied, waving his hand. “The spores either get into your lungs or your blood or something.” He shook his head. “I’m an engineer, not a doctor, but once the spores are in your system, you go crazy, and then you try to kill anyone around you.”
“Are you so certain that you had to kill Oto?” Dupina pressed.
“It’s exactly what happened to these three.” Prub said, pointing at the dead Heresy Alignment bodies.
Runo shook her head and looked at the hundreds of stasis pods inside J-Hold. “That means if anyone wakes up from stasis, they’re going to try and kill us.”
“Or each other.” Prub added.
“Then what do we do now?” Dupina asked. “Stay here?” She looked at the read-out on her hazardous suit. “My suit has only three hours more air supply.”
Runo checked her suit. It was already under two.
“So, now what?” Dupina asked. She looked at Runo. “You’re sure we can’t stay on this ship?”
Runo shook her head. “We know that the jump drives are shot and we’re out of fuel. We’re just floating along.” She tilted her head up, looking at the ceiling. “Then again, we’re now inside the belly of that Heresy ship. So we couldn’t go anywhere anyway.”
“What about that thing?” Blinji pointed towards the wrecked research ship. “Could we get it out somehow, go somewhere?”
“You’ve got to be joking.” Prub snapped.
“Then what options do we have?” Dupina asked out loud. “Because in three hours, I’m in trouble.”
“We’ve got to get off this ship, and onto the Heresy ship.” Runo said dryly.
“What?” Dupina asked. “That ship will be filled with mad killers like those three.” She pointed at the dead bodies that were dressed in bondage gear. “We go in there, we’re dead.”
Runo put her hand up in protest, then pointed at the ship lodged in J-Hold. “The vines are wrapped around the entire ship, which
means that they’re on the exterior of that ship, inside the other ship.”
“So, the other ship is infected as well?” Dupina asked.
“I would think so.” Prub said. “In fact, if there isn’t some kind of bio-security in place between the Gauloi and the other ship, it’ll be infected soon.”
“Yes.” Runo added. “Assuming there are open hatches inside that ship, the spores could spread everywhere.”
“Won’t their bio-safety measures detect them?” Blinji asked.
“Maybe, but our suits aren’t registering them as a threat.” Runo answered. “Just contamination.”
“So, what?” Dupina asked. “Go over there, then what?”
“Either vent the ship or get into a shuttle or escape pod.” Runo answered. “We need to get away from here.”
“And what about them?” Prub asked, pointing towards the stasis pods. “How many other decks have hundreds of them? And you just want to leave them?”
“We can’t do anything for them now.” Dupina said. “Runo’s right. We need to get off this ship and see what’s available on that big ship. Maybe we can purge the air once we get over there, that would leave everyone still in stasis safe.”
Runo looked towards the hatch that led off J-Hold, then down to the dead woman. Moving over to her corpse, Runo picked up the woman’s knife and axe and checked the weight. They were less than she expected. She wondered why they weren’t carrying energy weapons. What had happened since the had set off from port? Had two-hundred years really gone by?
Facing the exit of J-Hold, Runo grasped the weapons in both her hands and started walking. Her mind was racing. There were a dozen things she was thinking about. What would happen once they exited the Gauloi, what was happening on the other ship, what if the crew had suits to protect themselves and weren’t infected, what if there were combat droids? All the questions that she needed answers to were being filled with more questions, guesswork and supposition.
With every step she took towards the hatch off the deck, her mind bounced around ideas. Could she hear something ahead of her, was a band of screaming killers about to come towards her? When she reached the precipice, Runo stuck her head through the hatch before stepping back into the main section of the Gauloi.
The Gauloi Page 6
