Voyage of the Hayden (The Adventures of Christopher Slone Book 1)

by Donald Nicklas

  When the airlock cycle was complete, the inner door opened. The marines were ready with their weapons lowered as the door slid into the wall. The air in the ship seemed good and there were none of the smells associated with combat. As they entered the corridor leading into the main part of the Hayden, they were struck with how normal everything looked, except for the total lack of crew.

  “Where is everyone?” One of the marines asked. Dane immediately jumped on him for having made a sound. After that, they proceeded in silence until they reached the mess. By this time, they were sure the ship was deserted. The mess was empty, as the ship was at Battle stations when it was taken. The lack of blood on the floor and scattering of medical supplies means it was not used as a makeshift hospital for overflow of wounded. This agreed with the other findings in the crew quarters indicating, there had not been a fight aboard. They were preparing to move forward to the bridge and CIC when they suddenly heard a faint sound coming from the aft portion of the ship. The marines sprang into combat positions, and when it was clear that nothing was coming into the mess hall, Dane signaled for them to move in the direction of the engine room, where the sound came from. They reached the door to the engine room and could hear faint sounds on the other side. Dane placed his men on either side of the door and punched the Sinclair codes into the keypad. The door slid open and marines on the other side raised their weapons. Almost simultaneously, Dane and Sardac ordered their men to stand down, and a disaster was averted. Once it was realized they had found friends, there was a short reunion with brief reports of what had been happening since they had last been together.

  “So that blast we saw not only incapacitated the ship but all of her crew?” Alaya asked.

  “Yes, even the shielding of the CIC couldn’t prevent us from passing out. At least the aliens never found the concealed door to the CIC.”

  “Where’s the crew?” Alaya asked.

  Sardac responded, “I have no idea. When we regained consciousness and verified the coast was clear, my group set out to explore the ship and do damage control. We found no one aboard other than the group from CIC. Commander Stravinsky is examining the engines to see if the ship will fly. If she can, our next step is to find the crew and figure out how to get out of here.”

  “You’re underway in the belly of this beast. They are heading for the exit slipstream. We calculate we have 14 hours to the wormhole and 24 to the exit slipstream.”

  “Then we have to get out of here in the next 23 hours. Thanks for the heads up.”

  Just then, Stravinsky returned from his damage assessment of the engine room. He had not expected to see someone from the scout ship. He was quickly filled in on Alaya’s arrival. Almost simultaneously, Alaya and Sardac asked the condition of the ship and if she could be brought to fly.

  “Basically”, Stravinsky answered, “the Hayden is good to fly. There are some structural problems, but they are the ones we brought with us. As far as I can tell, the EMP that hit us did no damage. Of course, I still need to do an external inspection but I doubt I will find anything surprising. There is one problem on the internal examination that will be hard to overcome. Whoever took us into this vessel, removed the engine core. I have a spare in the engine room but to install it will take a lot more time then we have from what you tell me about our movements. The installation is fast but tuning a cold core takes a long time. If we are to leave here before this ship moves into the outgoing slipstream, we will have to find the Hayden’s working core and reinstall it, since it is already tuned. If we can’t find it, we will have to find another ship.”

  “Easier said than done,” replied Alaya. “There’s nothing in the alien vessel large enough to fly us and the crew out, which is assuming we can find the crew.”

  “That’s a big assumption,” Sardac added. “This ship is huge and we have no idea where the crew is being held. Let’s head back to the bridge and give our report to the captain. Maybe they have found the crew’s location on their sensors.”

  The group was now reassembled from the damage control examinations and started heading back to the bridge. It was decided to move up the port side this time to check on the opposite side of the Hayden. As they moved forward, they again checked all of the passages coming off the main corridor. They were approaching the amidships area when they heard a noise from a side corridor. The marines immediately went into defensive stance and surrounded the officers. Sardac signaled two of the marines into the side corridor. They watched the marines move down the corridor when there was a sudden sound in front of them and the marines lowered their weapons then suddenly moved them rapidly upwards to aim at the ceiling. This could only mean they did not want to fire at whatever was making the noise. There were voices and one of them was not from the marines. The marines parted and a young woman came past them and into the area lit by the rest of the group. She looked scared and her uniform insignia indicated a lower level cook. As she approached the main corridor, she looked furtively in both directions. Alaya spoke first, “You’re safe, sailor. Tell us your name and rank.” Alaya did not want to seem harsh, but she wanted to make sure she spoke in an authoritative tone to snap the frightened sailor back into the chain of command. “There are no longer any aliens aboard.”

  The young cook snapped to attention and said, “Phyllis Hammer, Junior Cook rating 3, night kitchen.”

  “How’d you manage to avoid the aliens?”

  The junior cook was still looking furtively around, as if expecting aliens to appear at any moment. “I was getting some meat from the freezer when there was a bright flash behind my eyes and I must have passed out. When I came too, the door to the freezer was closed and I looked out the window. I could see aliens carrying crewmembers through the mess hall, but they never checked the freezer for me. When it finally got too cold and I could no longer hear movement, I quickly opened the door, ran back to the far side of the kitchen, and hid in the cabinet below the grill plate. The aliens did a final check of the kitchen but did not check a single cabinet. It’s as if they don’t know about cabinets or they use something else for storage.”

  Alaya gave her next question some thought. “What did the aliens look like? Have you seen the methane breathers we ran into before?”

  “Yes I did see them. These looked different. They reminded me of some sort of thin caterpillar or worm. I think they had many legs, maybe eight, but they could rear up on the back four legs to look like the letter “L”. Their face looked like a pig. Their front legs became four arms with digits at the end of them. I could not see anything that looked like a hand and the digits looked more like worms than fingers. I saw four digits on each arm. They are about the same height as us off the floor. There was nothing I could call a head or a neck but they did have a circular mouth in their piggish face. I think the eyes were on short stalks. They had some kind of covering over their bodies consisting of different colors. That could have been clothing, not sure. I only got a good look at two of them closest to the freezer door, and as soon as they turned in my direction I moved away from the window and hid behind the meat.”

  “You did well, sailor.” Alaya turned to one of the marines carrying extra weapons. “Give this sailor a pistol.”

  The marine complied immediately and handed Seaman Hammer a loaded automatic pistol. As soon as she took the weapon, her training kicked in and she checked the magazine and put a bullet into the chamber. The group continued moving forward and no further survivors were encountered. It was obvious that the cook was very lucky and the aliens took off the rest of the crew. They again passed the armory and took as many weapons, ammo and body armor as seaman Hammer could carry. They were welcomed back to the CIC and Slone was more than happy to know at least one crewmember was found. The report the cook gave was, however, disquieting. It was obvious that the crew and not the ship were of the most interest to the aliens. They could have killed them all when they were incapacitated, yet they took the time to carry them off the ship. The ship itself was left
in the hold as if part of a collection. Everyone in the CIC was heavily armed now and wearing body armor. The cook was also equipped and everyone began to realize that, unless they could find the rest of the crew alive, they were the only ones left on the Hayden.

  Slone gave a hand signal to Alaya indicating he wanted to talk with her a bit away from the crowd. He and Alaya went into a corner to confer and took Dane with them. It was not that Slone did not want the others to hear, it was a matter of wanting a quite place to talk. More and more the in-ship monitors were coming on line. It was an eerie sight, seeing all those empty spaces that should have been filled with crew.

  Slone looked at Dane and Alaya. “We need to leave the Hayden and look for the crew. Any thoughts on how large a group we should take with us and what precautions against detection we should use?”

  Dane was quick to respond in his military way. “No more than ten in the away team. I think half should be marines. Then Alaya and myself and, of course, I am sure you will want to come along Captain. The last two should be the chief engineer and an engineering tech to look for our missing engine core.”

  Slone nodded his head. “Any thoughts, Alaya?”

  “I agree with Dane, the smaller the group the better and the faster we can move. If the crew is alive we will have all the reinforcements we need; if not then a small group can get in and out quickly.”

  “Alright, Dane choose your marines and I’ll alert Stravinsky and his tech. I hate just sitting around waiting for the next shoe to drop. We meet back here in ten.”

  Dane and Alaya acknowledged the orders and began their preparations. Slone spoke with Stravinsky, who took the only engineering tech left to him and all were armed and ready at the appointed time. They left the CIC with orders to those behind to keep the CIC entrances sealed unless they see the group returning. They carried communicators but intended to maintain radio silence unless it was an emergency.

  Chapter 8 – Hive Mother

  From what Phyllis told them, the crew had been captured alive and taken off the Hayden. Slone felt encouraged by the news. If they wanted the crew dead, why didn’t they kill them here? Why go to all the trouble of taking them off the ship?

  The group moved rapidly towards the hangar and soon arrived at the force field to the outside. Instead of space on the other side of the force field, all they could see was the larger hangar deck of the alien vessel. Dane and the marines dropped rappelling lines and exited first. They checked out the deck and found it as empty as Alaya had when she came aboard. Dane signaled the others to follow and soon all were standing next to the Hayden. For the first time they could appreciate the size of the ship they were in. The Hayden, a star cruiser, looked more like a shuttle in the cavernous hangar of the alien. Small methane ships were there as well as some larger vessels. None appeared operational, with all having pieces missing here and there. In truth, the alien hangar looked more like a salvage yard than it did a working hangar. They cautiously made their way to the rear of the Hayden where they saw the Hayden's engine core. Stravinsky pulled up short and took a deep breath. Everyone knew why as soon as they saw the core; it had been smashed. No matter what the result of the crew search, the Hayden wasn't going anywhere.

  “Horst, take your tech and see if you can find any operational ships in this hangar. We may have to use what is available to get out of here. I just hope there’s one that can hold the entire crew.” Slone said and sent the chief engineer on his way. The hangar was completely deserted and something told Slone the ships in it were only dismantled when there was a full crew aboard. As time progressed, it became more and more evident to Slone that a skeleton crew flew this behemoth of a ship. Perhaps their arrival had caused her to leave when only the minimal crew was aboard. This makes it likely that they had never planned to become involved in any combat.

  “The rest of us will stay on mission and find our crew. I want us to stay together and keep tight. No idea what lies ahead.” Slone looked over to the marine commander. “Dane, lead us out. We know there’s nothing on the starboard side from our makeshift x-ray machine, so we’ll start in the middle and move out to port. Use your best guess where the crew might be held. Keep checking your trackers for any signals from the crew implants”

  Dane saluted and ordered two marines to move out on point but stay in sight of the rest of the party. The center consisted of Dane, Alaya, Slone and one marine. The last two marines came up as a rear guard. With this line of march, the group penetrated into the center of the alien vessel. They had no idea how long they would be exploring the vessel but they also knew they had less than a day until it reached the exit slipstream. With this in mind, they moved swiftly but cautiously. They passed many compartments as they went deeper into the ship; some they could guess the function of but some were totally alien to them. These beings were as far from humans in their makeup and existence as humans were from dolphins. The intelligence may be similar, or the same but the resultant use of that intelligence was vastly different. They could also see that the vessel was sturdily built and out of a very hard metal, perhaps titanium with some additives. Nothing was brittle like the methane breathers brought to Purgatory.

  Several hours passed, yet it seemed they had not moved far through the vessel. The enormous size was beyond anything they had ever experienced. After about three hours of exploration, they heard their first noises ahead. There was some clanging, as metal on metal and a ‘whooshing’ sound. The marines in front came to a halt and signaled the group to come up to them. As Slone approached the point guards, the sounds became louder and were heard coming from a place behind a door that was standing open. Slone looked at his tracker and could see some blips, suggesting, at least, part of the crew were on the other side of the door. The point guards had themselves not looked in yet, but waited for Slone to arrive, in case they would only get a quick look before a firefight started. So far, their encounters with aliens had not been of the friendly variety, and this group had captured an entire ship’s company of over three hundred souls. Slone approached the door and signaled the marines to be ready. He pulled out his pistol and moved to the frame of the open door until all that was needed was for him to look around the frame and expose only his head and that ever so briefly. He inched towards the opening and slowly looked around the frame. What he saw was a sight of unspeakable horror that he had only read about in history books of earth. There was a large stack of naked bodies in the center of a cavernous room with airlocks at one end. There appeared to be three airlocks and the bodies were clearly human. Slone even recognized some of them and then it hit him like a brick falling from a height. These were the bodies of his crew. From the size of the pile, he had no doubt they were all of the crew. The bodies were being moved into an airlock while the other two airlocks cycled. Worm-like creatures with four arms at one end and four legs at the other were moving them. The beings stood upright by extending their center to make an ‘L’, just as the cook had described. They reminded Slone of an inchworm, like the one in a children’s book his mother used to read to him. Once the airlock was full, the door was closed and the other door opened to space. As soon as that happened, the bodies were propelled out of the ship by the escaping air. By this time, one of the other airlocks had finished cycling, allowing the process to begin all over again.

  Slone had seen enough. The aliens had not seen him and he now knew that his crew was gone. It still did not explain why they were taken off the Hayden just to be killed elsewhere, when they could have killed them where they found them. Slone made sure that each of the group with him had a look at what was going on in that room. They all came back with somber faces and expressions clearly indicating their desire for revenge. All agree they had seen only a total of five of the worm-like aliens and they seemed oblivious to them being there. To keep their presence secret, they affixed silencers to the ends of their weapons and prepared to enter the room and get some revenge for the crew. The marines entered first and then the officers. In all, there
were seven of the worm-like aliens in the chamber. They were working to get all the bodies into the airlocks as quickly as possible; they didn’t even notice the marines at first. When one finally did, they let out a high-pitched screech to notify the others of the danger. This all happened in a fraction of a second. What happened next seemed like minutes, but could only have been a few seconds more. The marines opened fire on the aliens and it was over quickly. These were not the rock-like methane breathers. These aliens had no armor protection from a skin made of silicon. These aliens were soft and as each bullet tore through their skin; they came apart a bit more and bled pale green blood. It was all over in less than ten seconds with seven dead aliens on the deck.

  "Throw the aliens into the airlock." Dane ordered his men.

  Two minutes later the alien bodies were floating in space, following the train of human corpses heading out into the void. A quick check of his dead crew told Slone that all their heads had been opened and their brains were missing. They decided to leave the remaining human corpses where they were and to move on before they were detected. The group moved into the next room. On the surface, this appeared to be a laboratory with seats and instruments designed to fit the anatomy of the aliens. Most of what Slone could see was beyond his knowledge. Perhaps a human scientist could make sense of it, but a ship's captain was not versed in such matters. What he and the others could understand was a human brain in a transparent container, hooked up to various tubes and wires. This was the same arrangement they had seen on the captured alien destroyer that had attacked Purgatory. Slone knew the aliens used human brains as fast computers on their ships. He had no idea whose brain this was before him. However, he did know, it was agony for the consciousness of the person to whom it belonged. Slone pulled the tubes and wires from the brain and, almost immediately, alarms started sounding.