by Bruce Marcom
Chapter Four
Two hours pass by and the intercom activates ship-wide. “Action stations! Action stations! Contact made!” 42 announces. Eve awakes and presses her com badge.
“Report!”
“Boss, we have a distress signal coming from an area close to the coordinates that we have arrived at.”
“I am coming to the bridge.”
“You are so stubborn; it may open up your wound again if you do not watch it,” the doctor sighs.
“Just put me on those floating med chairs and I will be okay, Doc. I need to be on my bridge.”
“Very well, but I am coming with you to monitor your condition. You do not need a lot of stress right now.”
“Fine.”
Upon reaching the bridge, Eve finds Helma and Nelma on duty along with 42 and Gartooth.
“Status?”
“Picking up a weak distress signal coming from the asteroid belt approximately five minutes from this position,” 42 informs.
“Hmm…. Sounds like a pirate trap. They use asteroid belts a lot to sucker people in,” Gartooth suggests.
“Yeah, that is what I was thinking. Get the stasis net ready for deployment just in case we have any uninvited guests. Also, load those mines into the mine deployment shuttle.” Eve is issuing commands rapidly. “Move in range of the asteroid belt and launch a class A-probe.”
“Launching probe. Readings will begin in 60 seconds,” 42 says. “Looks like the asteroid belt is dense, but there is an opening that can fit a ship of our size. The asteroids in the belt consist mostly of non-valuable minerals and ores. I am picking up a distress signal, which appears to be an Elemental Empire signal. Coming from within the asteroid belt and at the approximate location of the opening I just mentioned. Probe is too far away to scan for life signs; we need to get closer to the mouth of the clearing to the asteroid belt and I’m not sure from how deep the signals are coming from.”
“Action stations, code yellow. Shields up, prime weapons,” Eve announces over the ship-wide intercom. “Move us into the mouth of the opening and launch another probe. Deploy mines on the right side of the opening and activate their cloaking devices. Set the status net trap to the left after we pass by it. Open the net and have someone standing by to retract it if we have to leave suddenly. That should be sufficient to prevent any surprise visits from behind us.”
“Readings from the second probe are coming in…. Appears to be a large asteroid about the size of a small moon approximately five minutes in front of us at a current sub-light speed. The asteroid has building structures on it, as well as a large war cruiser on the landing pad close to the structures. Structures appear to be made by the Elemental Empire, but the cruiser is a Class 2 Undead attack vessel. Coming closer in, there are fighters that have been deployed just drifting in space not moving, approximately 36 Undead fighters of various kinds. All ships are inactive and not moving. The facility seems to have no power, no life, no Undead activity. I am just picking up a distress signal as far as I can tell,” 42 explains.
“What are the Undead doing over here in this part of space? This is a long way from Vampire space. Activate condition red. Get a landing party ready with five squads of security officers fully armed with biotech armor; we do not need any of our own turning into the Undead. Make sure you pack a lot of flamethrowers and ultraviolet light explosives,” Eve orders.
“42, you have command. Make sure you notify me immediately if we have any unwanted visitors. Gartooth, meet me in the cargo bay with our landing party and bring the doctor with us. Bring extra scanners of different types. If this place is some sort of secret facility for the Elemental Empire, then it is always good to be prepared. Must be something special if the Undead are interested in it. The Vampires are at war with many empires, so that doesn’t mean much. I think the Reptilian Empire is the only one currently not at war with the Undead. At least not yet.”
Thirty minutes later, the ship sends down two shuttlecrafts. They land next to what appears to be one of the main entrances on the west side of the complex. Twenty fully armed security guards with biotech armor get out of the shuttlecrafts along with Eve, Gartooth, and Dr. Farshe. Eve is still in pain from her injuries, but she is feeling better with the reinforced brace that the doctor put on her before they left the ship.
Eve says, “Let’s fan out and stay within visual range. Do not go off alone anywhere. Let’s go.” They walk cautiously to the entrance and go inside. Using the high-beam flashlights on their weapons and their bio-suits, they light up the hallway. They come down to an intersection and see corpses of humans and the Undead in all directions. They see the ghastly sight of some destroyed Bone Warriors. Bone Warriors are the Undead foot soldiers of the Vampire Empire. The animated armored zombies have a highly contagious touch that will turn any living creature into an Undead Bone Warrior. The human bodies in the hallway have flamethrowers and are scattered among the half-charred Undead. Some of the humans have been burned just as the Undead were, but several of the others died from hand blaster damage or explosives.
They go down several halls that are filled with offices. They continue onward to another series of small buildings that appear to be research facilities and laboratories. Most of those buildings are empty, except for some of the laboratories that have several dead humans in them.
“Hmm…. Some of these humans in these labs were not killed by the Undead. They were killed with objects from inside the laboratories. I also noticed that the Undead on the west side were killed in combat. Those Undead from the north- and east-side labs have no marks on them at all, and yet they are all dead,” Dr. Farshe reports.
The group goes further down more hallways that lead to a large chamber, the main laboratory. They walk inside this vast chamber to see even more Undead corpses mixed in with human remains. None of the bodies seem to have been involved in any type of fighting.
“Man, this place gives me the heebie-jeebies,” Gartooth remarks.
“These humans over here have no marks on them, and my scanners are not picking up any type of damage or any biological hazard. At least not any known biological hazard. This is a covert laboratory, so there may be some unknown pathogens floating about. Some of the computer systems here still work. I am trying to access information now,” the doctor adds.
“Secure this area and do not leave this room. Maybe we can find some valuable information on these computers that we can use.”
Gartooth remarks with a nervous tone, “Look at these Vampires over here…it looks like the life has been drained out of them. I didn’t think Vampires could feed on each other, or why would they? I do not understand. Holy crap, these Bone Warriors have the same markings. What the hell could drain a Bone Warrior?” The entire landing party is beginning to feel very uneasy about this place.
Eve says, “I sense a presence here, a telepath. I can feel the emotions: very chaotic, alone, angry, hungry, confusion. A very powerful mind.”
Dr. Farshe says, “This laboratory facility was researching biological weapons according to these records. The experiments included a lot of genetic experimentation with half-breed mixing, most notably with telepathic races and creatures with telepathic abilities. Some of these records are 30 years old. One of the projects named in these records is project Evella.”
“What...?” interjected Eve.
“There was a project with your name on it that, according to these records, involved experimenting on reptilian and human telepathy to try and make a more powerful telepath as a means of defense against the Undead. They were trying to make a telepathic slave warrior. The only successful subject was lost about 30 years ago in transit: Subject 37.”
“That was me, which means I was created here before I escaped, or should I say was rescued by pirates,” Eve says. “Is there any other mention of me?”
“Query, Evella. While it is doing that, I am downloading all the information from this computer onto our ship’s computer.” The doctor pauses for a momen
t while she reviews some information from the downloading records. “Yes, there is one other reference to project Evella. It is in another project called Evella 2. This project took some of the DNA from Subject 37 and mixed it with a human male with a high PSI rating. This new formula was introduced into new hybrids that were supposed to give the hybrids the ability to kill Vampires and other Undead in the same fashion that Vampires killed living beings via draining. In addition, these hybrids also transmitted a very infectious disease to all forms of the Undead. Subjects E2-135 and E2-136 were the first successful hybrids to survive the process who retained the abilities of the project’s goal. There were some side effects that gave these two subjects the ability to drain the magic force out of sorcerers, whether they were Undead or not.”
The doctor pauses a moment before continuing. “What that means is they can kill sorcerers in the same fashion they kill Vampires: by draining the magical force out of them. Undead are primarily given life by magical force, whereas living beings have a different type of life force. Vampires feed off the life force type that living beings have. Telepaths have a different type of life force and thus are the reason for these experimental projects. The researchers basically redesigned a telepath and made it function similar to a Vampire but with the requirements of feeding off of magical energy. In simpler terms, a reverse Vampire.”
“In addition, the telepathic energy that is used to drain magical beings also carries a similar contagion like the Undead, except it only infects a host with a magical life force. Basically, it is the Undead virus in reverse. This virus is more powerful, though, because it resides in its host even after death for an infinite period of time. That means it is a booby-trapped corpse. Any Undead or sorcerer who comes within range or touches the body gets infected.”
“Sounds like people playing God, and it looks like one of their experiments decided to kill their masters after they got freed by some unfortunate Vampire,” Eve states in an unsurprised tone. “I can feel them. They are here. They are powerful and have no control over their abilities—it is likely a child or children.”
“You are the mother of those monsters, so do not forget that. Remember that they were not willing participants in these experiments,” the doctor reminds Eve. “Upload almost complete.”
“Good, then we’re getting out of here. I will not stick around this place. I’m getting a bad vibe,” Gartooth says.
“Yes, I agree,” Eve says.
They begin to move out the same way they came in. They notice that the hall that they first came down had finally collapsed, so they are forced to backtrack and go a different way. They decide to travel north. They go up a way to a four-way intersection and hear some noises coming down the dark hallway. Although they try, no one can pinpoint from which direction. Eve gives Gartooth the signal and gestures for him to go down the North Hall.
“Why do I always get chosen to go down the creepy hall of doom first?” Gartooth sighs. He creeps slowly down the hall with his laser rifle pointed in front. Then suddenly, one of the guards behind him farts very loudly, causing Gartooth to jump backward in fear.
“Really? Seriously?” He looks back and frowns at the guard. The guard just shrugs his shoulders apologetically. Gartooth hears snickering from various sources in the group behind him as he turns to continue. They go down the hallway, slowly checking each room. They discover a large room off to the left, which evidently is the cafeteria. They assume there might be a way out through the kitchen or elsewhere. They enter the cafeteria doorway, single file with Eve and Gartooth in front.
Suddenly, two figures come hurtling through the doorway on the other side of the cafeteria with glowing blue eyes. They leap up onto a table and hiss with fangs glaring.
“Vampires! Open fire!” Gartooth says. Laser beams start firing at the shadowy figures, as blasters hit the two figures as well as parts of the wall behind them. Neither of the targets seem to be affected by the blasts. One of them launches a lightning bolt, hitting Gartooth in the chest and slamming him backwards into the wall. The other one releases an uncanny screeching sound, and the guards start fighting each other in chaos.
Eve yells, “Get back into the hall now!” She releases a massive telepathic wind blast that picks up all of the tables and chairs and sends them flying upward, sweeping the two figures along with debris into the wall with a loud crash. The force is so great that it punches a hole in the wall leading to the kitchen area. The entire area shakes as the lights flicker on and off. Eve feels the violent rage, confusion, and pain from the two telepaths as they slowly emerge from the pile of rubble.
Eve is in the room alone as the others watch on a monitor outside the hall. Eve grabs them telepathically and hoists them up into the air, holding them while trying to focus on suppressing their telepathic abilities. She feels that these two beings are very powerful telepaths who have no discipline, no way to control their powers. She also senses that these test subjects have no idea what is going on and are totally confused. She notices they are wearing metallic collars around their necks—maybe some sort of control device put on by their creators, or maybe something that was supposed to inhibit their abilities but is failing to do so. She is straining to hold both of them; they are incredibly powerful minds but very chaotic. She removes the neck devices with her mind. As the devices fall to the floor, the test subjects’ chaos and pain subside at a rapid pace. Perhaps their creators did not realize the neck devices did not have the effect they were hoping for. Instead of controlling them, they caused their subjects to go insane.
“Relax, calm down. No one is going to hurt you. It will be okay,” Eve says telepathically and sends images of a peaceful and relaxing nature. She looks into their minds. Even though their bodies are probably teens or young adult, they seem to have the education and social skills of a five-year-old. This is probably because their creators were only interested in using them as controllable weapons. They do not even speak a language yet, but they could still communicate telepathically. They calm down and are able to talk to Eve telepathically.
“Where are we? What is this place? I am scared. What is going on? Why are people so mean to us? We are confused.”
“We are leaving this horrible place, children. I will protect you from harm. Everything will be okay. No one will be experimenting on you anymore.”
“Who are you? Why are you wearing a suit like those mean people?”
“The suit is used to protect me against things that might harm me. You do not need to wear one of these suits, because things that can harm me cannot harm you for the most part. I am your mother,” Eve flatly states. She looks at them and notices they resemble Vampires, but they are different in several aspects. Apparently, they do not need oxygen to survive, and walking out in open space does not seem to bother them, much like Undead.
“Come with me, children, as we must leave this place at once. It is dangerous to stay here.” She gives them a hug and reassures them that everything is okay. The two young girls leave the room holding their mother’s hands. Out in the hall, the rest of the crew is sitting and watching the monitor out in the hall but not quite understanding what is going on. Most of the conversation was done telepathically.
“Um…so what’s up, Boss?” Gartooth asks, wanting to understand.
“It will be okay; these are my daughters, and I am taking them with me. They had some sort of collar on them that I think was supposed to control them, but instead it was driving them insane. They have the mental development of about a four- or five-year-old. They can’t even speak a language yet, which is understandable since their creators were not interested in their educational and social development. They simply wanted a controllable weapon. In my mind, those sadistic bastards got what was coming to them for what they did to my girls and me. Call it poetic justice,” Eve said. “I can communicate with them telepathically though.”
“Okay, but we will need to keep them separate from the crew until I can confirm that they are not contagious to
us. There is one thing I would like to note: they do not register as living beings or Undead. Instead, they are something else, a new sentient life form,” Dr. Farshe explains. She looks at Gartooth’s bio-armor and sees a huge hole.
“It is okay, Doc. It did not go all the way through. This armor is pretty tough. I could not have taken a second hit—that is for sure. Guess I got lucky. A minor flesh wound,” the crocodile winks.
“Back to the ship. Let’s go.”
After about 30 minutes, the landing party is back on board. Eve’s daughters freak out a lot of the crew at first but nonetheless they are taken in. The daughters are placed in bio-suits and moved to Eve’s quarters. The doctor starts running tests on them to make sure that they are not infectious to the crew.
Back on the bridge, they are getting ready to move away from the asteroid belt.
“Gartooth, I want you to blow that entire place to dust, including the Undead ships. Begin now.”
“Yes, Boss. You know how I love to blow stuff up.” He commences to pressing buttons. They hear the large explosions below them. They watch on the Vid screen as after 10 minutes of firing big cannons and unloading some missiles, the entire asteroid is obliterated.
“Helma, let’s get out of here.”
“Yes, Boss.”
After about two minutes, 42 says urgently, “Contact just outside the asteroid belt. Elemental Empire ship signature: it is a battleship, dreadnought class, crew about 3,000, and 35 fighters—they outgun us 10 to 1. The Telherra, the Telepath hunter flagship. They are probably responding to the same distress signal that we responded to.”
“They are probably not going be happy that we blew up their super-secret, black-ops, naughty, naughty laboratory facility,” Gartooth remarks facetiously.
“We are being hailed,” 42 warns.
“On Vid.”
The screen lights up with a picture of a very large black Wolfkin male in a smartly dressed uniform.
“I am General Hurt, the captain of the flagship Telherra of the Elemental Empire. You’re trespassing in our space. What business do you have here?”
“I am Captain Noctu of the Reptilian merchant vessel....” Eve pauses, thinking of a name “Noctu. This is a neutral zone, so how can you claim that we are trespassing? You have no claim to this area of space.” She knows that he knows she is lying about the ship’s name. She just does not want to say it because it is the name of their main black-op project.
Eve continued, “Besides, there is nothing out here that says Elemental Empire on it, now is there? We are just doing an astrological mineral survey of these asteroids to see if they contain any ores that we might be interested in mining.” They know she is lying. They also know that she is probably the one that destroyed their lab facility.
“I don’t think they are buying that story, Boss,” Nelma says nervously.
“Make sure the mines are active and the status web is deployed and cloaked,” Eve says and then presses the reply button to hear the general’s response.
“I think you destroyed our lab facility, and you probably took something that was not yours. I might be able to forgive you for destroying our lab facility if you give me what you took…, Evella,” General Hurt demands.
42 says, “He is launching fighters…looks like all of them.”
Eve could not think of anything else to delay for more time.
“You have 60 seconds to comply. What is it going to be, Captain?” Gen. Hurt insists with growing impatience.
Eve instructs, “Fire all batteries at the main ship now.” She knows the other ship will never let them live, no matter what the general said.
Aboard the battleship, orders are flying about.
“General, they are firing on us. Shields are up. Fighters are almost in intercept range. Even though it is a merchant ship, it has firepower, shields, and armor that are impressive for that size of ship. Of course, it isn’t a match for a battleship,” First Officer Bean informs. Bean is a human of about 35 years old; he has been in service for seven years.
“Even if we get the data or whatever they took back, they cannot be allowed to live,” Councilman Jax demands.
“Yes, I am aware,” General Hurt acknowledges. The large black Wolfkin is rather annoyed by the whole situation.
“Now if everyone is done telling me stuff I already know, let me do my job.”
Meanwhile back on Eve’s ship…
“Okay, Boss, the fighters just hit our traps. The mines just took out nine of their fighters, and twelve of them are stuck in the status web, and it is draining all their power. They will have no power in about five minutes. The other fourteen just engaged us. The shields are holding, but they will be gone in a few minutes. The small rail guns are firing on the fighters,” Gartooth says.
“Keep hitting the big ship with the big cannons, and fire missiles at the fighters. Nelma, plot a jump course to Reptilian space. We are going to light speed as soon as we get out of the asteroid belt. Steer us behind the status nets to block their line of sight using their trapped fighters. Then hook around the net at the last minute and get to our jump point, Helma,” Eve commands with authority. The ship-wide intercom activates. “Doctor bring my daughters to the bridge now. Rulu, report to the bridge, and Pura do the same.”
“Captain, I have not finished my testing on your daughters yet, so I do not know if they are contagious,” the doctor says, using her personal com badge.
“It is not going to matter in a few minutes when we get blasted into a million pieces by that battleship in front of us!” Eve yells in a hurried fashion.
“We have taken out seven of the fighters, but our shields are gone. We are counting only our armor right now. Forward rail gun battery on the port side has been hit and is not working,” Gartooth says over the exploding noises in the background.
Nelma reports, “Course laid in for the jump, Boss.”
“We are at the status net, but the battleship has moved to the front of the opening and is blocking our exit!” Helma says in a panic.
The doctor, the daughters, Rulu, and Pura enter the bridge. Rulu goes over to engineering station and transfers engineering commands to that console. Pura goes to the ship status station.
“Doc, get them out of those spacesuits,” Eve blurts out as the ship shakes from an explosion.
Pura says, “We were hit on the port side again in the rail gun ammo holder. All the rounds detonated in the magazine. There is an enormous crater on the port side; Levels 13 through 21 and Sections 10 through 19 are open to space: 93 are dead, almost half the crew.”
“The blast took out four fighters and disabled two more. The last one got tossed into the status net from the blast explosion,” Gartooth reports.
“Sub-light and jumps engines still okay,” Rulu says.
Helma responds, “Want me to make a run for it and slip around the left side facing the starboard side of the ship to the battleship? We still have armor and guns on that side.”
“Yes, when I give you the word. It is going to be a tight squeeze. Being that close to their guns, we will only have a few seconds to get into jump position. Helma, as soon as we are in position to jump, don’t wait for my command.”
Eve grabs both of her daughters’ hands and begins communicating the instructions for her plan. They stand there holding hands, their eyes glowing blue to focus their powers.
On the battleship, a different scene is developing.
“Sir, all of our fighters have been eliminated. It looks like they will try to make a run for it, most likely using their starboard side, as it is the least damaged. They will probably jump if they can make it around us,” Bean says with confidence.
“Thirty-five fighters! Okay, I am not playing around anymore. Open fire with everything we’ve got, including missiles,” General Hurt commands with a forceful attitude.
“Here they come. Firing missiles,” Bean says as he presses a button.
Second Officer Ham responds. “Sir, we are gett
ing a massive energy feedback in our main generator….” The power flutters on the bridge and lights go off and on. “Shields just went offline, Sir…And now the weapon systems.”
“What?” the General screams. “Get the backups going now!” he yells.
“Bridge, this is security. We have fighting breaking out on all decks. The crewmen are fighting against each other,” the chief of security reports.
“What in the hell is going on? Don’t just stand there looking at me, get back to work!” General Hurt roars at the station officers as the lights and panels blink off and on.
Ship-wide intercom is activated on the battleship.
Eve begins to speak. “Looks like you have a discipline problem, General…You know that it usually is a sign of poor leadership. I understand that it is hard to find good help these days.” She laughs and evil laughter echoes throughout the ship.
“Mind you, Witch! I am going to kill you with my own hands if it is the last thing I do. I am going to hunt you down like the garbage you are. Your mind tricks don’t work on me.”
“Maybe not, but they do on your officers.” Half of the bridge officers point their weapons and begin firing randomly at people.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Eve chuckles aloud. “Councilman, don’t think I have forgotten about you and your murdering band of sorcerers. I am going to enjoying watching my daughters suck the life out of each of you.”
On the bridge of the Evella, missiles from the battleship come raining down on the starboard side. Several of them hit, causing more explosions.
Rulu says, “Boss, jump engines hit, and sub-light engines offline.”
“On the bright side, we have matching craters on both sides now,” Gartooth cleverly inserts.
“Boss, I just lost helm control and we are spinning like a Frisbee. We are going to hit that battleship in 90 seconds or so,” Helma says with alarm.
“Geez, I have to pee so bad now,” Gartooth adds.
“Remove command module clamps and begin bridge separation. We are going to detach from the ship and then get as far away as we can,” Eve sputters out. She activates ship-wide intercom. “This is the captain. All remaining crewmembers abandon ship, abandon ship!”
“Detaching complete,” Rulu says. “Activating Command Module engine and helm control.”
“Helm control up. I am steering us away, but this has a small engine’s sub-light speed that is lame,” Helma says with regret.
Pura says, “Boss, we are not going to make it out of the blast area in time. The Evella will slam into their reactor core hard because their shields are down.”
“Now I really gotta pee,” Gartooth squeaks.
Nelma frowns at him and barks, “Seriously?”
“Sorry, I usually just have gas when I am about to die, but I think I drank too much water earlier.”
On the battleship, collision alarms are going off.
“Sir, that ship is going to hit us in the reactor core. We need to abandon ship—not that it will help much.”
“Turn the ship some, so we at least have a chance to escape in the pods, you idiot.”
“Yes, General.”
The General presses a button and the abandon ship messages thunders out as he runs down the corridor heading to the fighter bays. He makes it into the hanger bay of his personal fighter just as a tremendous explosion reverberates throughout the ship. He activates his fighter and begins launching, just as a chain of explosions marches down the ship in his direction. He jettisons out of the bay into space and heads full throttle away from the battleship. The battleship begins to break up as a monumental explosion completes the devastation. Large quantities of debris go in all directions, destroying everything in their path.
Both Eve’s command module and the General’s fighter are hurled into open space in opposite directions. The electrical systems in both ships flicker off and on. Both are floating in space.
“Wow! That was a heck of an explosion,” Rulu says.
“Yeh,” Pura agrees.
“Report,” Eve requests.
“I need to change my shorts,” Gartooth says hesitantly. Helma slaps him on the back of the head.
“I should have everything running in an hour,” Rulu assures.
“Until then, we will be free flying through space with no controls into the Elemental Empire,” Nelma states.
“How far to the nearest Reptilian planet?” Eve questions.
“About 100,000 years without light speed. We will run out of food and water in a week or so, though, so that is irrelevant,” Nelma guesses. “The only planet in range is about ten days, but it is in Elemental Space.”
“Set a course for there. We don’t really have another option,” Eve says.
“Okay, I will do that as soon as Rulu finishes repairs. I will assist. Just hope we don’t have any hostiles pop up, because we don’t have weapons or shields in this thing.”
A few hours pass and they make repairs and head off to the nearest planet.
