by Phil Maxey
“I’ve just been informed of that by Weber. Is it heading towards the shuttle or Tantalus? Over,” replied the captain.
“I’m trying to follow the trajectory of it now, ma’am,” replied Seth tapping his screen. “They are—they’re coming our—” Just as he finished speaking, the lights on the bridge dimmed and brightened again.
Not again. Elisa turned to Watkins. “Watkins back us off, one point impulse.”
Oscar tapped his screen, which went blank then reappeared. “She’s not responding ma’am.” The lights dimmed once again.
“Captain, I think we’re being attacked by the hidden, our navigation is not responding. Over.” She turned to Haywood. “What’s the situation with the shuttles?”
“One is docking now, the other just left the station, shall I tell the other shuttle to turn back ma’am?”
“Umm—” Elisa’s mind flashed back to when the Earth was being attacked.
Are they safe here? We will survive?
“Umm—”
“Ma’am, I need a command,” said Haywood as the lights dimmed again.
“I think we have another problem,” said Evan, looking at his console screen.
Elisa turned to Evan as the captain’s voice came over the comms. “Tantalus, you there? We’re having comms interference, are you under attack? Say again. Over.”
Elisa took a deep breath and steadied herself, then looked at Evan. “What’s the problem?”
“I’m reading lots of the wrong kind of movement, from the belt.”
“Show us the asteroid belt on the main screen,” said Elisa, large asteroids came into view. She pointed to the largest. “Zoom in on that asteroid there.”
The gray and black potholed surface grew in detail, until they could see things moving on its surface.
“Keep zooming in.” She walked closer to the bridge’s large screen, then suddenly stopped, her mouth agape. The surface of the asteroid was covered in thousands of bodies, most not complete but all were looking upwards.
“What the hell?” said Seth.
“There! Did you see it? One of them pushed itself off the surface!” said Evan.
Watkins pointed. “And there! Look, there’s more.”
“Zoom out.” said Elisa.
Everything on the bridge went black. “Damn it,” said Seth. The lights and power came back on.
As the main screen backed off from the writhing bodies, more became visible detaching from the dry rocky surface and slowly drifting upwards.
Elisa backed up until she was alongside Haywood. “How long until we have everyone onboard.”
“Five minutes for the final shuttle to be here.”
The view on the main screen now showed a swarm of thousands of jostling bodies slowly moving towards the Tantalus.
“Somebody calculate how long it will be until those things reach the Tantalus.”
“What’s the big deal, they’re just people or dead people, they can’t do any damage to us,” said Watkins.
Seth anxiously looked at him. “When I was on the hauler mission, I saw just one of things flick an IM twenty meters like it was nothing. I wouldn’t want to find out what they could do to the hull of this ship.”
“At the speed they seem to be moving, ten or so minutes, Ma’am,” said Evan.
Elisa stepped closer to Seth. “The Tantalus doesn’t have any external guns, but the RRVs have them, how many do we have left?”
Seth tapped his console screen. “Twenty-five.”
“And how many IMs do we have left?”
“Not including the three at the station, eighteen.”
“Ma’am, if we lose all the IMs we won’t have any to defend the ship,” said Evan.
“I know, Evan, but I’d rather take a chance than let those things—” The lights dimmed and stayed low. She looked at Haywood. “Can you get a message through to the captain?”
Haywood shook his head. “I’ve only got intermittent control of our comms, I’m trying to boost the power to what signal we do have—” The lights came back up “—okay, go ahead.”
“Captain, can you hear me? Over.”
“Yes! Are you being attacked?” said Luke.
“The hidden is affecting our systems, but the people that the station jettisoned, they are heading towards us from the belt. I’m going to launch RRVs with IMs to intercept them. Over.”
“That really does sound crazy,” Evan said under his breath.
There was a small pause, before Luke replied. “We need to hold onto the IMs, there might be another—” His voice distorted then came back. “—the VR units in the cells, could they be connected to remotely pilot the RRVs? Over.”
Evan’s face lit up. “Yes! I’ll configure them now, umm—” he tapped away at his console screen “—in the male cellblock, second floor. But we’re going to need pilots.”
“We’re setting that up now, I’ll get back to you. Over,” said Elisa to her captain, then turning to Seth. “Bring me up the complete ship’s population database, find me fifteen pilots, then task the IMs to find them and get them plugged into the VR machines in those cells, and do it quick. We don’t know how much time we will be able to use our systems!” She looked back at the main screen, which had changed to a digital diagram showing the swarm of bodies approaching the ship, and the time and distance between.
“I can pilot one!” said Watkins.
“We need you here Oscar,” said Elisa.
Seth’s fingers tapped away at his screen, until a list of fifteen profiles was left. “Okay, I think I’ve found who we need. Tasking the IMs to find them now.”
* * * * *
Edward Valoy ducked at just the right time. The large man’s fist would have preferred to have had hit him in his jaw instead of a carbonic pillar, but Edward or Ed to his friends took the opportunity to strike back, hitting the muscular man square in his solar plexus. The plan was, that would give Ed time to run, but unfortunately the man just stood back up and grinned, grabbing him by the arm and throwing him into a stall that sold ice.
“Look, tell Bragg I’ll have the money for him tomorrow, I just need an itsy bit more time and—”
The large man slowly slid a knife from his pocket which was at least as big as his hand, and his grin grew broader.
Just as he stepped forward, an IM burst into the area near the stall ignoring the large man. “Edward Valoy, you are required to follow me immediately. Your services as a pilot are required.”
The large man smirked. “Ha, you were a pilot?”
The lights across the main hall of the male cellblock dimmed.
“Best one in the outer system,” said the square faced, unshaven man in his early forties lying on the floor covered in crushed ice.
The man with the knife frowned and started to take a step forward when the IM flung out an arm gripping his shoulder. The IM still looked at Ed. “Your services are—”
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you, I’ll come with you, what’s the deal with the lights?” said Ed as the big guy tried to struggle free without any success.
The IM looked at the large man. “Please refrain from any unnecessary violence in the future.” It released its grip. Ed smiled at the man as he got to his feet and followed the IM who was already walking away.
They were soon two floors up, and approaching more IMs and people. “Hey what is this?” said Ed.
The IM stopped at a cell. “Please enter the cell, and engage with the VR device. You will then receive further instructions.”
Ed slowly walked into the cell, stepping over food ration packets and clothing, pulling some off the VR headset which was hanging on the far wall. He looked back at the IM. “The whole thing? Arms and feet as well?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” He stepped forward, pushing his body into the recess, then placed his hands into the grips and did the same with his feet. Finally, he pushed his head forward and the helmet dropped and clamped itself automatically around his neck and should
ers.
The world around Ed fell away and all he could see was black.
“What is this? Some kind of retraining program you machines have cooked up? I don’t think it’s working!”
“We are having power problems, hold on we are switching to battery backup,” said an anxious voice through his comms.
His view changed to the inside of a cockpit. He was sitting in the pilot’s seat of an RRV.
“Oh right, you want us to play a game, I can do that. What do I get for winning? I could do with a few—”
Elisa’s voice came from his comms. “This is the XO of Tantalus. The ship is facing imminent danger. This is not a drill, a test or a game. This is real. We have reconfigured the VR system to patch you directly into the actual RRVs we have onboard. You will pilot them to defend the ship against—”
“Yeah against what?”
“Against a threat. You will know when you see them. All of you have been chosen because you were formally pilots. Please do your best, we are all depending upon you.”
“See who?” said Ed to himself.
It had been eight years since the ‘incident’ and his pilot’s license had been revoked, but until then most in the commercial sector regarded his skills as some of the best money could buy.
The docking clamps released and his RRV slowly dropped in the zero gravity of the docking bay, it then automatically reoriented itself towards the already open bay doors and shot forward with others into space.
Ed looked at the readings on his HUD. “Ah I see there are fifteen of us out here, can anyone hear me? Over.”
“We hear you, concentrate on what you’re doing. Over,” said a female voice.
Ed slowly turned the small craft, making it skim across the surface of the huge ship just next to it. “Oh, hey, what’s your name? Over.”
“If you could see me in this cell, you would see my eyes rolling, that’s my name. We have—”
He continued to pilot the RRV along the outside of the ship making it swoop in and out of ducts and pillars while ignoring the direction most of the other RRVs were moving. “We have what?”
“Bogey’s on my six!” shouted a male voice.
“Bogeys? We in an old sci-fi movie or something? So where—”
“I can’t—they are on the outside of my hull, I can’t shake them off, they are breaking through the glass!”
“Somebody help him!” shouted the female voice.
Ed slowed his RRV to a stop, then spun it around to face towards the asteroid field below. “Yeah, yeah, I’m on my way, what’s all the f—” Neon streams of plasma were lighting up a sea of thousands upon thousands of clawing drifting bodies. “I’m on my way!”
His RRV surged forward swaying left and right avoiding the undead things as they tried to grab hold of his ship. “I see him!” Ahead an RRV was smothered in the reanimated, pulling pieces of the ship and flinging them into space. It’s plasma cannons were firing, tearing through the creatures that were in his line of fire, but other bodies soon replaced them, like flies landing on rotten meat.
“They are into the cabin, I don’t know how long before—”
Ed watched as the lights blinked into submission on the RRV, and the creatures tore through the hull, causing it to disintegrate.
“Don’t watch. Fire!” said the woman’s voice to Ed.
“Zombies? Seriously? Friggin’ undead creatures of the night?” said Ed as he let rip his plasma into the group that had already started to float towards his RRV, tearing them apart.
“We don’t know what they are, just stop them from getting to Tantalus.” Elisa’s voice came through his comms.
“Yes, ma’am, I’m on it.” His cockpit view bumped and he saw a leg scrambling over the glass of his cockpit. “I got one on me, damn it—” he quickly spun the RRV, over and over causing the creature to cartwheel away into the darkness of space, which he destroyed with a tap of his trigger finger.
“Nah, they got me, I’m out,” said another female voice he didn’t recognize.
Burnt parts of bodies floated amongst the bodies that were swarming against the other RRVs, fighting desperately to stay functioning.
Ed spun and fired, then shifted his position when more creatures started moving towards him, and fired again. Swooping between groups of the undead he cut through hordes of them, before turning back to see how far they were from Tantalus. “Hell, some are almost at Tantalus! I’m going towards her, see if I can stop them from touching down.”
On the bridge, Elisa ordered all onboard IMs to go to the area of the ship that was closest to the onslaught.
“Final shuttle docked, ma’am,” said Haywood.
“Good, that’s something.” She turned to Evan. “How we holding up against the hidden? Is it inside?”
“Our hull plating seems to be repelling a lot of it, maybe that’s why these creatures are attacking us physically,” he said focusing on his screen.
“Then why are we having power fluctuations?”
“Quick answer, I have no idea. Slightly less quick answer, the hidden must affect space at the quantum level which is affecting our anti-matter reactor, or maybe the transmission of energy throughout the ship.” He turned back to his console “Where the hell is Weber when you need him?” he said under his breath.
Elisa quickly looked back at the main screen, and the cams on the outside of Tantalus’s hull. A number of creatures had landed on it.
Close to the ship Ed had just blasted a wall of creatures to bits that were nearing the Tantalus. “I just took out a whole lot of them, but some got through and are on the hull of Tantalus, I’m going in closer!”
“There’s only seven of us left out here—” shouted the woman in his comms. “But there’s still thousands of them, we can’t keep them all away from the ship.”
Ed’s RRV swooped down upon the Tantalus’s hull, in the distance at least twenty of the undead were tearing away at the outer plating.
His RRV flew just above the hull, racing towards its targets. “Nice and low Ed, so not to hit the ship,” he said to himself under his breath. His RRV then dropped even lower and sparks flew up as it scraped the larger ships hull. “Bit too close.” He pulled up slightly and started firing his plasma canons, strafing the creatures, and destroying them on impact. “I’ve cleared the hull from the first lot!” He spun his RRV around and looked back towards the asteroid belt. He could see five RRVs still flying in and through the thousands of creatures around them.
Back on the bridge the elevator door slid open. “Captain on the bridge!” said Elisa, as Anika and Luke ran from the elevator.
He still had his suit on, but the visor was down. “Status?
“All shuttles docked. The hidden is affecting our power systems, but we are still up and running, there’s only four—” Two RRV’s energy readings went dead on the main screen. “—no, two RRVs still left outside. Some of the undead did some damage to the hull, but nothing major,” said the XO.
“Show us the belt,” said Luke.
The main screen switched showing thousands of creatures still drifting towards the ship. The two RRVs left were dodging and flying in and amongst the hordes and destroying dozens with each plasma blast.
“Patch me through to the pilots,” said Luke. Haywood nodded. “This is Captain Carter, how’s things looking out there?”
The woman who Ed first heard responded. “I can’t hold out for too much longer. They’re—There’s two on me, trying to—”
“Can you get your RRVs back to the ship?”
“We can try!” said Ed, flipping his RRV, and throwing two creatures off into space.
“No, they—damn, they got me—” said the woman disappointed.
Ed swooped, ducked, and span his small ship narrowly missing contact with hundreds of clawed hands that desperately tried to grab hold of his RRV.
“Give me twenty seconds and I’ll be back onboard.”
Luke turned to Oscar. “Navigation, I want a full
five second burn on my mark.” He turned to Haywood. “Patch me through to the entire ship.” Haywood acknowledged. “This is the captain, we are going to do a full thrust maneuver, strap yourself in or hold on to something secure.”
“He’s docked!” shouted Seth.
“NOW!” shouted Luke lunging for his seat, while the others around him grabbed hold of the bridge guardrails.
Oscar went to tap his console screen, when the bridge’s lights dimmed almost to complete darkness.
“Come on!” shouted Oscar at his screen, which then sprang back to life as well as the lights around them. He immediately tapped the option for thrust and a second later everyone was flung back in their seats, and Anika fell backwards trying to grab one of the nearby consoles. Soon the acceleration dissipated.
“How far away are we?” said Luke.
“Almost forty thousand kilometers.”
“Is there any of those things on our hull?”
“Looking now,” said Evan. “No, it seems clear.”
“What about the hidden? Any sign of that?” said Elisa.
“No, we seem clear of that as well.”
Luke sat back in his seat. “Task some IMs to fix the hull.”
“Do we have a new destination?” said Watkins.
“Europa Colony.”
Anika stood back up, walking closer to Luke. “The other stations in the belt?”
“Europa is one of the biggest EA colonies in the system, we need to go there first,” replied Luke.
“Plotting course now,” said Watkins.
In the male cellblock, Ed pulled his head back out of the helmet. Applause broke out behind him. “What the hell.” He quickly pulled his arms and leg’s free and turned around, at least twenty people were clapping, including a slim brown haired woman in her early forties.
“That’s some fancy flying,” she said holding out her hand, which Ed shook.
“Ha, yeah, it’s been a while, but it soon came back, you are?”
She smiled. “Amanda Shaw.”
“I’m Ed.” He felt a bit weak. “Anyone got some crater juice?” Someone disappeared out of the cramped cell. “Just what the hell were those things? I mean I know what they looked like, but—” He leaned back against the wall, as the crowd started to dissipate. A young girl ran back in with a cup of liquid. Ed started drinking and quickly stopped. “This ain’t Crater juice.”
