by Erin Hayes
I nod. “I know. But things are different once you’re on the ship, and you can’t be too careful.”
A few more button pushes from Taka, and he says, “None on the ship. They must have fled when the Nova was crippled.”
“What crippled it if it wasn’t an asteroid belt?” PC asks.
Taka shakes his head. “It doesn’t say. As I said, we’re only on auxiliary, so I can’t access the mainframe.”
So we’ll have to worry about that once we get to the bridge. I’ll need to be able to have some computer control in order to access the Nova’s records and downloot them. One step at a time. And as the door whooshes open, I let out a breath of relief.
“Nice,” I say as I motion everyone to start walking into the main part of the ship. “Let’s go.”
Daisy gestures for Taka to take the lead, but I see her draw her zapper, at the ready for anything to come our way from the rear.
I do the same and take point. Oh, and try to act like I’m not terrified, as I remind myself. It’s harder than it looks, but I manage all right with PC at my right. We all have our zappers out, ready in case shit hits the proverbial fan.
“How is it looking over there?” Captain Louis asks.
“Fine so far,” I say. “Just moving down the main corridor towards the bridge.”
“Is the hull breached everywhere on the ship?”
I look towards the other wall of the ship and see through a hole to space. “Yep. There’s nothing airtight about the Nova anymore.”
“You know,” PC says, “on old Earth, there was a language called ‘Espanol.’ And in ‘Espanol,’ ‘nova’ meant ‘no-go.’”
“How the hell do you know that?” Daisy asks.
PC gives her his most dashing grin. “I can’t spend all my time satisfying the ladies.”
“Pig,” Daisy mutters under her breath.
“What?”
Banter is a good sign. It means that we’re comfortable enough in our surroundings to take our attention off the stress—at least for the moment. I don’t join in, as my eyes constantly dart from one area to another, looking for any sign of something amiss. Aside from the chunks taken out of the hull, the Nova looked to be a good, modern ship. Syn-Tech sure knows how to take care of their employees. I notice some details, such as frequent, recessed lighting and concealed seams that make the Pícara look like a piece of junk.
“According to the maps,” I say as I point to my left, “the mess hall is that way, followed by the dormitories.”
“We don’t have to go down there, do we?” PC asks.
I shake my head. “No.” And I don’t want to, either. I don’t want to see if the crew had time to pack their belongings before they abandoned ship. Nor do I want to see if there are any unfortunate souls who didn’t make it to the escape pod.
“Down that hall,” I say, crossing another one, “is the way to the bridge. And that one, Popcorn, is the route we do have to take.”
Everyone falls into line behind me as we hurry down the corridor to the bridge. The entire ship is still, like a coffin. My flashlight illuminates the hallways ahead, particles floating around us like long-forgotten ghosts.
The door to the bridge is sealed, and I curse soundly as we come up to it.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” Taka says as he crouches to work on the panel. “Just means that there’s a firewall to keep the auxiliary power from opening the door. In case of invasion.”
“Which is kind of what we’re doing, isn’t it?” PC asks. I shoot him a look. “What?”
I roll my eyes and focus on Taka working. Focus on it, because there’s not much else I can do.
Daisy stands at attention further down the corridor, her zapper at the ready. There’s a tautness to her body, like she’s expecting an ambush. “Did you hear that?” she whispers.
My blood runs cold. “What?”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Taka muses, “because there is no sound in the vacuum of space.”
“Okay,” Daisy says, sounding unconvinced. “Then did you feel that?”
Did I feel something? I stand straight, looking down the hallway where her flashlight is poised. The only thing I feel is the pounding of my heart in my chest, as I hope against hope that there was nothing to feel. Because if that’s true, then…
I feel a vibration through the metal of my boots, like a faint plink, plink. I look down, wondering if there’s something hitting the exterior of the Nova. I even lift my foot. I tell my internal computer to try to guess what it is based on the distance and the intensity of the vibration.
The sensation gets stronger, and something in my gut twists, the biological part of me ready to bolt and run. Something’s not right.
“Taka,” I say in warning. “Hurry.”
“Almost done,” he says, not picking up the panic in my voice. But PC does, and he frowns my way.
“What is it?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” I murmur softly. “But I think it means we’re not alone on this ship.”
“Told you there was something,” Daisy says a little too smugly.
The vibrations get stronger and faster. Whatever it is, it’s picked up our scent and it’s headed straight for us. An android perhaps? Or maybe a crewmember who’s wearing such a thick spacesuit, we couldn’t pick up his presence. Do metal boots shake a ship that much, though?
Maybe if they tread softly. Still, something in me says that we’re not safe here.
“Taka…”
“What?” he snaps, looking up at me.
At just that moment, something turns the corner, and even though there is no sound in space, I swear I can feel the soundwaves as they hit my suit. It’s screaming—loudly—and it doesn’t like us being here.
And I have no fucking clue what it is.
The thing is massive, filling up the corridor. There’s no way we can get past it. It has eight spindly metal legs that work mostly in tandem with each other—I can tell that it’s not used to walking though, and one of the legs is broken off at the joint and dangles in the air. The structure reminds me of something familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it.
That’s where the familiarity stops, though, as it looks like there’s some sort of organism growing on it, liquid pulsating through large blue veins that run right into the machine base. It’s lopsided, with the left larger than the right, and lumpy as fuck. It looks disgusting, and that’s the only word that I can think of for it.
And then I see an eye and a mouth on the side, with human-looking square teeth, and I scream. Daisy reacts by firing at the thing, catching it on the lumpy side.
“What’s going on there!” Louis shouts into the intercom.
PC steps in front of me by Daisy and fires two blasts as well, but the stunning blasts don’t seem to faze it at all. “Set it to kill,” I say through gritted teeth as I raise my own weapon and pull the switch for the intensity of the blasts. Fuck the rule about not killing anyone—I think this thing means to do us harm.
“Clementine, talk to me!” Louis shouts.
“We found something!” I shout into the mic.
The three of us keep firing at the thing, but it keeps advancing.
“Taka, for the love of galaxies,” PC warns, and I can hear the exertion in his voice.
“Got it!” Taka says, getting to his feet. I chance a glance behind us to see the doors open, and I gesture for Daisy to go through, then PC. Taka goes inside first and immediately tears open the panel on that side to work on those inner components to close the door behind us. Hopefully, he can get it closed faster than he opened it.
I increase my firing rate at the risk of overheating my zapper. I can feel the metal of the gun through my gloves, and I wonder if it can melt my space suit.
“Taka!” I shout as the creature advances, obviously not liking us reaching the bridge. “Taka, close the door!”
The lone bloodshot eye on the creature watches me and the mouth opens wide, as it barrels its way tow
ards me. I keep firing, but there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I cross the threshold to the bridge, wondering if I should tell my friends to run or hide or get the fuck out.
“There we are,” Taka sighs as he taps the screen once. The doors slide shut, but not before I get a good look at the beast as it careens toward us. Then the door is shut, and we all breathe a sigh of relief.
But that doesn’t seem to stop the beast. I feel the pound as the beast rams into the metal door, bending it inward. I glance at Taka, and I can tell that he knows there’s not much time before it breaches the door.
We don’t have very long to retrieve the patents. And I can’t help but think that we’re running on auxiliary power, which will make it harder to access those records.
We’re alive, at least for the moment. Although for how much longer, I have no idea.
Chapter 11
“What the fuck?” PC shouts, giving a vulgar gesture to the door. He thumps his helmet, a sign that the adrenaline is running through him. “What the fuck is that?!”
“I don’t know,” I say dryly, turning away from the door as the creature pounds into it again. The door bends a little more under the pressure, but it holds. For now.
“You don’t know?” he thunders. “You don’t know?!”
I level him with my gaze and say icily, “It didn’t show up on scanners, it isn’t anything I’ve seen before, and it’s outside for the moment. So no, PC, I have no idea what the fuck it is, and standing here to debate that fact is only going to get us killed.”
He glares at me but doesn’t say anything else. I’ll consider that issue closed, at least for now.
“How will we get out of here with that thing blocking us?” Daisy asks.
“There’s another exit,” I say, a little exasperated that my group has obviously not reviewed the maps as extensively as I have. Then again, when have I ever gone over them with the same fervor that I did this time? I’d always been cocky, thinking that nothing could ever kill us.
I was so goddamn wrong.
“Taka,” I say, licking my lips, “help me get the main computer turned on. Daisy and PC, stay at the door and shoot if it comes through.”
“You got it,” Daisy says, cocking her zapper.
PC presses his lips into a thin line but nods as he faces the door.
Taka seems to be out of sorts as he follows me to the console. The bridge is like many other bridges I’ve been on, although this one is much bigger than the Pícara’s, with enough room for at least a dozen crew members to sit here. The captain’s console is easy to find, so I sit down in the chair and face the console. Like I expected, it’s dark with no power running through it.
“Think you can fix that?” I ask. “And quickly?”
“I’ll try,” Taka says as he kneels at the front of the console and starts pulling stuff out of it.
“Don’t try, do,” I mutter as I take off my right glove. My metallic cyborg hand greets me, and I wriggle my fingers, almost in fascination that it all still works. If Taka can connect the power and if that happens before the door fails, I’ll still have to take some time to search for and downloot the information. If the packet is small, then that shouldn’t be a problem.
If it’s larger, though, then we could very well be screwed.
“Are you guys all right?” Louis asks, his voice steely.
“For the moment,” I answer as I call out the plug from my middle finger. “The door’s holding for now.”
“What is it?” Orion asks, his voice coming over the speaker in my helmet.
“I don’t know,” I say, inwardly shuddering at the memory of the creature. “It looked like…a bio-mechanical…thing…”
“It was a modified arachni-lift,” Daisy adds. “You know, one of the machines they use to unload cargo at the docks.”
That’s where I’d seen it before. I hadn’t put the two together because it seemed so far-fetched that an arachni-lift could end up looking like that.
“What the hell happened to it?” PC asks, echoing my own thoughts.
Daisy throws her hands up in the air. “How the fuck should I know?”
“Guys,” I say placatingly, “we’ll figure that out later. For now, we just have to get this working.”
“This isn’t worth 300 million Space Yen,” PC mutters under his breath.
“Clementine.” I pause at the sound of Orion’s voice. “This is just a private line between you, Captain Louis, and me. Mute your microphone.”
I press the button. “Okay.”
“Clem,” Louis says, his voice rough, “should we pull out of this job? Are you in danger of being killed?”
I hesitate and look around at Taka who is trying to power up the console, and at PC and Daisy, who are guarding the door. I think of everyone back on the ship who gave up some hope and time to make it here. Were we fools for thinking that this would have been an easy run? Did we foolishly ignore the signs that this was doomed from the start?
“I don’t know,” I admit softly.
Another shudder rocks the bridge. I glance back at the door and see PC and Daisy aiming their zappers at it.
Suddenly, the console roars to life, and I nearly sob with relief.
“It’s ready,” Taka says.
I re-open my coms for everyone to hear. “Good. Now, get that door to start working and have it ready for when we need to run.” I point the door on the opposite side of the bridge. It connects with the rest of the ship via the dormitories and the mess hall. It looks like we’ll be able to see how the crewmembers of the Nova lived, although I doubt we’ll stay for tea.
I imagine we’ll be running the entire way.
I navigate the computer to the documents screen and then insert my finger into the port. A hiss escapes my lips as the shock rocks through me. That had been unexpected. I didn’t think that the computer would have that much zing as I plugged myself in. I gag, feeling my tongue blister with the electrostatic charge.
“Ow, fuck.”
“Sorry,” Taka says. “I diverted most of the auxiliary power to that console.”
“I noticed,” I mutter as I access the computer, tearing down the firewalls with the usual methods. It’s a bit harder this time, but it only takes me another couple of seconds to improvise and find a workaround.
I get in.
I inhale sharply as I’m bombarded by an operating system that feels different on my brain and on my circuits. It’s a newer format than any of the others that I’ve been in. The data packets are smaller, and the entire thing is organized differently.
And it feels oddly empty as I poke around.
My brows furrow together as I work.
“What’s wrong?” PC asks, noticing my concentration.
“Just a different system than I’m used to,” I say. “Nothing to worry about.” Then, as if to reinforce my statement, I find the folder name that I’m looking for.
/patents/infinity
Exactly what the brief told me to look for. The file itself is encrypted and behind so many firewalls that I have to run a few hacking programs to even get permissions to copy it. I won’t be able to access them, but I don’t need to, unless I want to figure out what the hell was so important that Chairman Maas is willing to pay us a fortune and risk our lives. Not that he cares what happens to us, but this must be a very important piece of information.
Curiosity piques my interest. Then again…
I grimace as the door shakes, even harder this time. The door won’t hold much longer. I quickly move the files onto my internal storage system, packing it tightly and safely, and then I unplug.
“Got it,” I call out to PC and Daisy as I shove my glove back on. “Let’s get the fuck out of here. Taka, how’s that door coming?”
“Ready when you are,” he says as the door opens.
“All right, let’s move!” I say, grabbing my zapper and getting to my feet.
Daisy rushes the other door while PC slowly walks backward, his eyes stil
l on the door. It shudders again, and I know that one more good ram, and it will be broken.
I touch him lightly on the shoulder, seemingly breaking him out of his trance. “Run,” I say.
We both turn and sprint towards the far end of the room, thirty yards away. Taka is already on the other side, working on that panel to close the door behind us. I feel the door behind us burst open, but I don’t take the chance to see if the creature is right behind us.
I just keep running.
It isn’t until PC and I are on the other side that we turn around to fire shots back at the creature. I scream in anger, shooting at the thing.
It’s so damn close, reaching out towards us.
The door shuts, sealing it in the bridge.
“Dammit!” PC curses. “Dammit, dammit, dammit!”
“What now?” Daisy asks.
I give her a brave look. “We run to the dock as fast as we can.”
She doesn’t need to be told twice. For a big woman, she moves surprisingly quick, her shorter legs pumping her massive body along, running faster than I thought possible. Taka follows her, then PC. I take up the rear, shouting directions as we move.
Funny how they didn’t know much about the layout of the Nova before, but now that our lives depend on it, they’re remembering it a lot easier. In many cases, they don’t need my directions. I still say them though, since a wrong turn could be our last.
I just keep thinking that if that thing is sentient, if it knows how we’re trying to leave, it could try to intercept us at the dock…
Don’t think about it.
We round a corner, and, like a dream, the dock is there, still in the same state. No creatures here, just the wire and the harpoon that Daisy shot out. I make a mental note to disconnect ourselves as soon as possible in case the creature gets any ideas.
“Orion, we’re coming back onto the Pícara. Prepare the airlock for us,” I command as I help usher Daisy onto the wire.
“Is it safe?” he asks calmly. “I’m detecting a space-born—”
“Fuck you,” PC snarls, not calm himself. “You need to let us get off this hunk of space junk.”
“Clementine?” Orion asks.
