“Marjorie?” Sita asked.
Han recalled the Mechanized Artificial Representative Councilor’s motherly personality, Marjorie, from time spent around the colony’s headquarters where his adopted mother spent most of her time. The icy dread that had formed in his stomach when their shuttle lost power and got spaced thawed, but only a fraction.
“Hello everyone,” a pleasant and professional voice replied. The thin droid reached up and put a hand on Sita’s shoulder. “Is something the matter? I only received a partial download of Conquest’s database prior to shuttle launch.”
“We got spaced!” Sita pulled MARC over to the control console. “Marjorie, I need this MARC unit to help me reboot the system before we run out of air. I’m afraid that the power cells have been compromised by energy bursts!”
“Initiating diagnostic,” MARC’s voice was no longer that of a motherly woman. The green profile set on a black background was now that of a thin young man in glasses. “Power cells are undamaged, but have been completely drained.”
Han’s heart slammed in his chest. He felt his clothing squeeze against his body and knew he had to calm himself. If he continued panicking, his body would grow uncontrollably. He pulled slow breaths, the way Master Craygarta had guided him. He sat with legs crossed in lotus position and focused on his breathing. If this was something Sita and MARC could fix, the best thing he could do was remain calm and keep from outgrowing the shuttle.
Cray joined him. Wisp hovered over the two who worked at the console. Sita told MARC about the Anki attack.
MARC had opened a utility panel to one side of the display and wired itself to the console. After Han counted twenty heartbeats, the display came to life. A few seconds later, the sound of oxygen scrubbers hissed into the cabin.
“My batteries can power this console and life support systems for just under three hours.”
Sita exhaled loudly and ran her hands through her hair and long ears. “Well, that gives us a bit of time to finish our goodbyes.” She gave Han a cold glare.
Wisp bolted upright and tugged MARC’s arm. She tapped at the display console until it showed what looked to Han like an old fashioned radar signal.
Sita turned back around and studied the display. “An electronic field just bounced off the shuttle. MARC, is it worth diverting power to take sensor readings and find its source?
“With Conquest gone and power cells drained, whatever it is that sent the electric field could be an alternate source of power,” MARC said. “No sense using my battery to prolong a slow death sentence.” The young man’s face on MARC’s display looked like he shocked himself with that last remark.
Marjorie’s face appeared. “Sorry if that last remark was grim. What I meant was, from an engineer’s view, that pulse’s source is our best chance at finding the power to jump start the shuttle.”
Another electric pulse blipped over the display. Han felt a strange tingle and the hair on his arm stood on end.
“There it is again!” Sita said. “This time the source is closer. You can tell by the arc of the pulse. Han and Cray; look out those windows and let me know if you see anything.”
Han scrabbled to his feet and pressed his face against cold glass. The twinkle of stars against the inky black backdrop seemed unblemished at first, until something unusual caught his attention.
“Bumble bee?” Cray rubbed two arms together and sang the question. “Jellyfish?”
Han squinted at the shape as it grew larger. Yellow and brown stripes seemed to ripple and undulate across a tube shaped body. One end tapered to a single point while the other flared wider. The striped thing curled its body so both ends faced the shuttle. Han saw dozens of tentacles writhing and then a bright burst of electricity.
“We’ve just been pinged again,” MARC said.
Han watched the electricity approach the shuttle and then a bit of it rippled back the way it came. The creature’s narrow end wiggled at the touch of the returning electricity. It straightened itself once again and began undulating its striped form closer. Han couldn’t help but stare. Electricity pulsed from dark brown stripes to the lighter yellow ones, which flexed and released with each drip feed of energy. “That thing must have sensed the conquest and come looking for food.”
“If our studies within the colony’s Earth habitat are applicable to this thing, I think we are looking at an animal with electrocytes.” Cray sang. “Its body is a living battery.”
“Does that mean that it generates electricity?” Han asked. He had no clue about anything inside the Earth habitat except for the monkeys.
“Those brown stripes are likely collecting starlight and providing it to the muscle in the yellow area for propulsion,” Cray replied.
“I saw it pulse electricity out its tentacles and it looked like it read the returning wave on its narrow end, too.” Han scratched his nose with his tail. “Is it coming to eat us or jump start us?”
“Without signs of sentience, let’s assume it’s coming to eat us,” Cray replied.
Wisp flexed her arms and nodded toward the creature.
“Wait a moment,” MARC told Wisp. “I’ve data on electric fish and other animals from Earth that have specialized electrocyte muscles. Many of them stun prey with an electric shock in order to catch and consume them.”
“Its attempt to eat the shuttle could jump start it!” Han smiled. This close encounter could be the first bit of good luck he and the others had seen today.
“What if we are wrong?” Sita asked.
Marjorie’s face bore an anxious expression. The MARC droid tapped a few keys to one side of the control console and a hatch opened. Space suits lined its interior. “Hope for the best and plan for the worst, I suppose.”
Wisp and MARC watched the striped creature undulate closer while Han, Cray, and Sita helped one another into the equipment.
“It would appear that we would not be its first meal,” MARC’s voice was now that of the Admiral, a LARC headquarters military strategist. “It looks like this creature is digesting a satellite or small space craft.”
Han pushed through Wisp’s vaporous form as he had before their falling out. She dissipated and reformed, apparently as indifferent to their relationship’s tension as Han currently was. Han squinted at the tubular center of the creature and thought he made out a boxy metallic shape within its striped bulk. “Wisp, if this thing eats machines, you might not be safe trying to fight it off.”
Wisp’s orange-pink form burst a violent rose hue and she grabbed Han’s hand and held it to her heart.
“I think she’d rather die with us than survive out here alone,” Sita said.
Wisp nodded.
“Everyone get in your places,” MARC motioned for Sita to sit at the console.
Han and Cray strapped their suits to utility latches on the shuttle wall. Sita jumped into the cockpit and strapped in. Wisp crouched and prepared to strike. MARC’s feet clicked as the droid activated its magnetic boots. Han peered out the small window at their approaching fate.
The creature curled its tail end at the shuttle once more. Lightning lanced from several tentacles and seared through the void until it connected with the shuttle. Han squinted as the bright interior lights of the shuttle came to life.
“It worked!” Sita whooped.
The shuttle echoed with a wet thud. Han cupped his hands between his face and the glass trying to block the interior light from his external view. His eyes wouldn’t focus. It seemed like he was looking at the starry backdrop through yellow jelly.
“It seems that power has been restored and that the shuttle is being consumed.” MARC replied.
Wisp nodded and began to dissipate, making her way through the hull to confront the creature.
“Wait!” Han shouted. “We’ve got life support, and it seems like we are already in its belly, so let’s think things through. If anything we have a bit more time than before.”
Chapter 4
“Well, it’s nice to
have atmospheric controls back,” Han said with a smile.
A wet slap echoed against the hull of their shuttle. Sita cringed and sighed. Sounds of metal bending and tearing followed. Han and the others ceased all activity and awaited the cold pull of vacuum once again.
Han could hear Sita’s rapid breathing. He reached out and took her hand. Sita flinched at first, scowling at Han, then her features softened and she clasped his hand in return. Cray sat on the deck of the shuttle and began to meditate.
The sound of metal ripping ended in a pop. All was silent except for the heated air blowing through the atmospheric vents in the shuttle. A strange sort of gurgle followed Han and Wisp giggled, the sound was like that of small bells tinkling.
Sita and Han cast dark glances in Wisp’s direction and she shrugged.
“It appears to have taken its first bite,” MARC said. The Admiral’s gruff features had replaced that of Marjorie on the little silver droid’s facial display. “The shuttle’s system reports that hull plate RW64 has been compromised.”
“Let’s hope it’s the meal and not the appetizer,” Han said.
Sita dropped his hand and rushed to one of the small viewports. She pressed her face to the glass for a moment, then huffed and spun back to face the group. “I’d like to know what that thing is doing now, but its body is blocking the view.”
“Are you sure you want to see?” Han scratched his head. In the old movies, most people who are being executed get a blindfold.”
“That thing is no executioner, Han. It’s just some weird, hungry life form.” Sita tried a few other view ports while she spoke, then pounded the hull wall with her fist.
A deep belch rumbled.
Wisp slapped her hands together, ran in place for a minute, and then burst through the hull wall, leaving a thin fog of orange-pink vapor.
“Recon?” Han asked.
“Indeed,” Cray sang. The mantis monk rubbed a set of its arms together, producing a melodic voice. “I have touched its mind, though it will take a good deal of time for me to learn it enough to communicate.”
“Oh, thanks Cray. I was talking about Wisp, though. She’s out there now, having a look.” Han cocked a thumb toward the hull wall.
“With a hull plate missing, we may not want to disconnect from this creature before we are within a breathable atmosphere,” MARC said.
“Great! Well I guess I’m not going to ask it to leave, after all.” Sita returned to the control console and began stabbing fingers into the keypad and swiping at display screens. “We’ve got to find something we can do! I won’t wait around to die in here.”
Wisp burst through the hull, her form looked like the ovoid shuttle, smooth and metallic on the bottom, but like that of the creature on top. Han loped all around her, even grasping overhead racks and peering down to see the top of her. “She’s showing us where the creature has attached to the shuttle.”
“Here,” MARC jabbed a thin silver finger at a spot in the creature’s middle. “That object I saw within the creature is here. “Wisp, any chance you can retrieve it from the creature and pull it in through the rear hatch?”
The vaporous model of the shuttle and its consumer swirled into that of a young woman in a sundress with hair cropped up to her jawline. She had a grim look on her face and gave MARC a solemn nod.
“Wait!” Han had shouted without intending to. “Wisp, something could happen to you. If you are going to risk yourself we should talk first…” Han was cut off. An orange-pink finger pressed against his lips.
Then she was gone.
A minute passed in tense silence. Their slow breathing was the only sound.
Before Han realized anything had changed he was seeing spots. A deep bellow and more violent lurching sent him tumbling into MARC and across the cabin floor. He hugged the little droid and grasped a rail. The shuttle bucked and lurched and the sound of tentacles slapping the shuttle’s underside echoed through the chaos. Cray had his shell lifted and fluttered wings furiously in an attempt to keep from being smashed around. Sita was strapped in at the control console, and slapped desperately at the keypad that controlled the hatch.
Hugging MARC close to his body with his tail, Han used all four thumbed limbs to crawl across the cabin wall to the viewport into the hatch, which was now open to space, but sealed off from the pressurized cabin. He peered through and laughed in relief. “She did it! Seal the hatch, Sita!”
The cabin continued to lurch about and tentacles slapped at the underside of the hull once again. Then the creature went silent.
“Apparently it has accepted the loss of its meal,” Cray sang.
Han’s hairs began to stand on end. His eyes widened at the sight of electricity crackling and surging on panels and parts of the cabin walls. A display screen burst, scattering debris to one side of Sita.
“Don’t wait until the hatch pressurizes,” MARC said. “Batteries are at full charge and the shuttle’s system may short if this attack continues, we need Wisp and that machine in here, now!”
The hull swished open. Wisp burst into the cabin. A metallic cylindrical device clanged onto the deck.
As the hull swished closed again the creature’s thrashing ceased.
“Wisp, you just stole its lunch!” Sita said.
As if on cue, the sound of bending and tearing metal coupled with a wet slurp resumed.
MARC wriggled free of Han’s grip and approached Wisp and her prize. “Are you alright?”
Wisp flexed her arms and her biceps swelled to cartoonish proportions. Then she smiled and floated over to the console near Sita.
“Well, it’s certainly a piece of technology,” a thin male face wearing thick glasses replied through MARC’s facial display. “I’m going to interface with it.” The palm of MARC’s hand split open and four wires snaked out, connecting to the surface of the alien device.
“Any luck joining its pack, buddy?” Han asked Cray.
Cray only hummed that sound Han had come to know was its way of saying, “Don’t bother me now.”
He was nervous and wanted to talk, but the girls were together, and Han needed to fix things with each one alone, before trying to talk to the both of them. The tearing and slurping outside ended in a loud pop once again and the creature rumbled in what Han guessed was satisfaction.
Sita groaned and ran her fingers through long strawberry blond hair, then smoothed her ears down against the length of her mane. “The hull is now irreparable without the Conquest or a workshop with at least that many tools and replacement parts,” she said. “That last bite was big and deep.”
“Have you located Conquest? Those Anki dirt-bags can’t have gone far,” Han said.
“I see it. Trust me Han, those three have something coming and I want to be part of dishing it out. I just don’t know if we should move while we deal with this thing.”
“This is great!” Marjorie’s face beamed in triumph on MARC’s facial display. “This device was like a control interface for the creature.”
“What!” Han felt his cheeks flush with anger. “Someone set this thing to attack us?”
“No Hanuman, the device was a control interface. Lately it has been dormant. Apparently the Baleadian people fended off a swarm of these creatures with devices like this. They called the species industria dolor. They are a peaceful species and simply wanted the creatures to leave their planet and feed upon minerals that were not part of another life form’s habitat.”
“Their pacifism is going to be our death sentence!” Sita said.
“Perhaps not,” MARC’s display had changed to the thin man again. He was nothing but glasses and a toothy grin. “All Wisp needs to do is put this device back into the creature close enough to the nerve bundle it was attached to, then I can wire in through the shuttle’s console.
“Nerve bundle?” Han asked.
“Like a prosthetic limb, Monkeyboy!” If you had paid more attention when I tried tutoring you in biotech class, you would remember.
“Yes, Sita. I believe that if we can successfully rewire this device, we can rewire our shuttle into a symbiotic relationship with this creature.”
“A cyborg shuttle?” Han grinned.
“The Baleadian data confirms the possibility. It also confirms that the implantation is very dangerous to the organism. Likely made worse from begin torn out. If the creature perishes during the re-installment, it is likely that it will release its hold on the shuttle, exposing the cabin to vacuum.”
Shugarra Corps: Launch Towards Destiny Page 2
