Refuge in the Stars

by Tim Marquitz

  “Not very welcoming,” Cabe agreed. “Wonder if they have any nip onboard.”

  “You smell that?” Taj asked, breathing in short, sharp breaths to ward off the harsh scent that steeped the ship.

  “It sure ain’t nip,” Cabe replied with a sigh. “Antiseptic maybe? Some sort of cleaning agent?”

  Torbon shrugged. “Place reminds me of Gran Verren’s office, all clinical and clean, like right after they mopped the place. You think the ship always smells like this?”

  “I don’t plan to spend enough time in here for that to matter,” Taj answered. “We’ve got to find the last survivor.”

  “Hope that’s not them I smell,” Torbon grunted.

  “So, where do we start?” Cabe asked.

  Lina came across the comm, confirming she’d been listening in. “Scanners show me the lifeform should be somewhere to the left of your current position. Need to hurry, though. The signal is still decaying. It’s getting weaker by the moment.”

  Taj growled low in her throat and started off without any further hesitation. She’d put her people at risk trying to save this unknown being, and she was still putting them at risk. Every second they spent on the listing alien ship meant more opportunity for something to go wrong.

  “Come on,” she called out, waving the others on behind her.

  They moved down the hall at a fast clip, weapons out and at the ready. The clinical stink of the ship remained, but they slowly got used to it, the sting in Taj’s nose seeming to ease as they moved along. It wasn’t long, however, before the smell was replaced with another, far worse one.

  “Oh, Rowl,” Cabe muttered as he stumbled across the first of the science ship casualties.

  A body lay on the floor in the corridor. She was lithe and short, maybe half the height of Taj, if that. Skin a purplish-blue, the woman’s eyes were massive, taking up the majority of her face. They were a brilliant orange, even in death, and they stared at the ceiling without seeing, no pupils to distort the shine.

  A tiny dot of a nose and a narrow slit of a mouth sat below its eyes, scrunched into a pained rictus. Greenish blood pooled around her, gelatinous in the chill, having spilled from a large gash on the side of her head. There was way too much to imagine she’d survived the blow that felled her.

  “Should I…uh, check to see if she’s…” Torbon asked. He examined the body, clearly unsure of where to even start hunting for a pulse.

  Taj shook her head. “She’s clearly not the lifeform Lina detected. She looks like she’s been dead for a little while now,” she told him, reaching down and closing the woman’s eyes, transparent eyelids doing little to mute the orange shine.

  Like everything else in the ship, she was cold to the touch. Taj shivered. “We need to keep going.”

  Taj turned away from the body, her breath clinging to her lungs. She’d seen far more death in the last few months than she’d seen her entire life, and she was already sick of it.

  Even though she didn’t know this woman, had no clue as to her nature or who she was, Taj felt bad for this woman’s unfortunate demise.

  The crew made their way through the ship, casting glances here and there in chambers they passed, but there was little they recognized as having any value to them or.

  And driven toward the source of the last remaining lifeform on the ship, there was little time to stop and properly search or determine what the strange items did. Besides, it being a science ship made Taj a bit more tentative than she might otherwise be.

  Who knew what they might stumble across.

  Taj snarled as she realized their little adventure was likely going to end in failure with regards to supplies. The only thing in abundance aboard the ship were dead bodies. They were nearly everywhere as they made their way down the quiet corridors.

  Taj pushed the crew on, doing her best to not examine each and every one, wondering how long they’d lasted after the gacking pirates had struck. Fortunately, Lina’s voice in her ear pushed her forward with a determined relentlessness, the engineer spewing a running dialogue of directions through the comm. Grateful for that, Taj pressed on, her grip growing tighter and tighter on her weapon.

  That was when the unthinkable happened.

  “Gack!” Lina swore, growling into the comm. “The signal died…er, I mean, went out.”

  “Where was it last?” Taj called back, unwilling to stop now. They hadn’t come all this way for nothing.

  “Ahead a little, to the right. That was where the last blip pinged from.”

  “Let’s go,” Taj called out and ran off, sliding on the slick flooring as she shifted directions and bolted into the room Lina had pointed out. The others followed right behind.

  The room, as it turned out, appeared to be the mess hall. Row after row of tables were splayed out in haphazard fashion, attached benches running alongside. Trays and various bits and pieces of food littered the tabletops and were scattered across the floor, the pirate attack clearly having occurred during meal time.

  Distracted momentarily by the trays and plates, Taj made a face and grunted.

  “I’m guessing that stuff is what these people eat,” Cabe muttered, glaring at the blobs of black and green goo splattered about, some of it dripping from the table edges with a muddy splat.

  Taj scanned the rest of the tables and groaned. “Guess the hunt for food is over,” she said, shaking her head. “No one’s gonna want to eat that stuff, even if we can.”

  “It certainly doesn’t look edible,” Cabe agreed.

  Torbon poked a finger into a pile and brought it to his nose. He hissed and flung the goop away, wiping his hand on the table to scrape the remainder away. “Oh Rowl, this gack reeks.”

  “Leave it,” Taj told him, returning her attention to the bodies.

  “Gladly,” Torbon agreed finally peeling the goo off. “Now if only I can get rid of the smell.” His face was scrunched, whiskers twitching.

  Taj ignored him in her efforts to find the being who’d signaled them.

  Dozens of the purple aliens filled the room, some hunched on the benches, locked in place by misshapen seats, but most were awkwardly sprawled across the floor, having come to rest where they’d landed.

  Like the poor woman they’d first come across, there were obvious signs as to how most of the aliens had died. Open wounds covered their bodies as well as massive bruising, the result of the ship being tossed about during combat, the crew unprepared for such violence.

  A few might have died of more natural causes, shock or physical ailments during the battle, but the mess hall looked like a battlefield, greenish blood coating the floor in a way that left little of the original flooring visible.

  “Nothing but corpses here,” Taj told Lina. “How many crew members do you think were onboard?”

  “Struggling to connect to the ship’s data logs, a lot of incompatibilities cropping up between the Wyyvan system and these guys, whatever they are, but it’s looking like there might have been close to two hundred crew aboard if I’m reading this right.”

  “What the gack were the pirates looking for?” Cabe asked. “If there was something aboard the ship they wanted, it had to be sturdy or it would’ve ended up like the crew. They were merciless in the damage they inflicted, clearly not caring what happened to the beings in here.”

  “I think the ship might have decompressed at some point during the fight, too,” Lina answered over the comm. “Exterior scans show some pretty serious damage to the hull and one good-sized hole near the bridge, in the neck of the craft.” Taj heard Lina draw a surprised breath. “The big one looks like it’s been repaired, though, albeit a bit haphazardly. There might be maintenance bots aboard somewhere seeing how recent the patch is, or maybe that was our last survivor, having finished up the job too late for it to make a difference.”

  “You think?” Taj asked.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Lina replied.

  “Is the patched area nearby?” Taj let her gaze roam
over the walls and ceiling, not seeing any obvious repairs attempted.

  “No, it’s all the way on the other side of the ship, so I’m guessing the bots were trying to cope with the damage, seeing how it’s unlikely our signal lifeform could have made it so far in the short amount of time between the patch placement and the loss of signal,” Lina replied.

  “You’re sure this is the place, though?” Taj asked, hoping to be sure. “It doesn’t look like someone just keeled over in the last few minutes.”

  “Absolutely. The room you’re in was the last place the signal showed up, though, so I’m guessing the source is somewhere among the bodies at this point since it’s been quiet for a while now.”

  Taj grunted. She hated the idea that she’d wasted their time only for the being to die anyway. No food and no survivors put a checkmark in the failed column of this mission as Taj saw it.

  Sucking in a chilly breath, she glanced around, surveying the room one last time and seeing what appeared to be the galley through a set of arched entryways on the other side of the room.

  “Let’s check the galley out and see if there’s food we can actually eat stashed away somewhere,” she ordered, motioning toward the ship’s kitchen. “Maybe they had other beings aboard and there’s something that doesn’t smell or look like moldy tar.”

  “I’m guessing the odds of that are pretty slim,” Cabe challenged. “All the bodies in here are the same species.”

  Taj agreed, though she wasn’t ready to quit yet.

  “Still worth a look,” she pressed. “You never know.”

  That determined thought in mind, she marched off, going to look despite Cabe’s objections. He grunted and started to follow, apparently not willing to let her adventure alone.

  The lights flickered right then, and a deep, low hum resonated, vibrating the walls and floor. Then the lights died entirely, plunging the mess hall into darkness without warning.

  “Bloody Rowl!” Torbon cursed, dropping to a crouch and turning in a quick circle, his weapon trailing around the room.

  Taj did the same, her eyes adjusting to the darkness quickly. “What happened?” she asked Lina, spying Cabe hunkered down next to her and surveying the mess hall in search of threats.

  “Ship’s losing power a bit quicker than I’d anticipated. There was a sudden spike, like a system was triggered, and then the power plunged,” the engineer replied. “The ship just coughed up its death rattle. Atmospherics are gonna drop off next, life support and gravity. Best get out of there before you end up as furry ice cubes. You’re not exactly dressed for deep space exploration,” Lina reminded them.

  Taj spun about, nodding even though Lina couldn’t see her. “Back to the Discordant,” she called out to her crew. “Quick and orderly, but emphasis on quick.”

  Neither Cabe nor Torbon argued with her. Both hopped to their feet and started off, Taj at their heels. Cabe flew through the mess hall door, followed by Torbon, but a flicker out the corner of Taj’s eye caught her attention.

  She stumbled to a halt and spun about, wondering what she’d seen if everyone aboard the ship was dead and her crew were traipsing along in front of her. She unholstered her bolt pistol.

  A shadow flickered near the galley, a deeper darkness against the black. It swelled and shifted, moving in her direction, steadily forward.

  “Uh, guys…” she muttered across the comm. “There’s something in here.” She raised her bolt pistol and backed toward the corridor where Cabe and Torbon had disappeared only a moment before. “What’s in the room with me, Lina?”

  “Nothing,” the engineer came back right away. “The only lifeforms in the ship are you three.”

  “You sure?”

  “As sure as I can be,” Lina answered. “These are aliens we’re talking about. How the gack do I know if all of them show up on scans? For that matter, I might be reading these scans all wrong to begin with,” she admitted, and Taj heard S’thlor mumble something in the background. “Might be one of those maintenance bots, too. No way for me to tell, I’m afraid.”

  “Great,” Taj muttered to herself, unable to draw her gaze from the shifting darkness of the room.

  She backed into the hall and put as much distance between her and the room as possible. Cabe and Torbon came up behind her, their weapons ready, having heard the entire conversation across the communicators.

  A muffled clank sounded in the mess hall, and Taj spied the shadow coming through the doorway, a figure slowly taking shape.

  “There!” she shouted. “Do you see it?” she asked Cabe and Torbon.

  Both nodded, readying their weapons.

  “Still not showing anything,” Lina said.

  “Well, the scanners are clearly wrong,” Taj spit back, making sure she didn’t let the shadowy shape escape her line of sight. “Whoever you are, whatever you are, stay right there!” she called out to the emerging shape. “I’ll shoot if you keep advancing.”

  The figure ignored her warning, stumbling forward in the darkness, drawing closer and closer without pause.

  Taj backed up further, her crew moving right along with her. Cabe circled around her on the left, placing himself between her and whatever it was coming toward them. He was letting Taj take the lead, but it was clear Cabe wasn’t going to let her face this thing down on her own.

  “Last chance!” Taj shouted.

  Once more, the shadowy figure ignored her commands. It moved steadily down the hallway, and Taj’s finger twitched against the trigger guard of her bolt pistol. She made ready to fire as the figure ambled toward them, unwilling to halt its advance despite her warnings.

  Taj was ready to blow the figure away, the safety of her and the crew tantamount, but there was something about the way the being had emerged from the mess hall that kept her from squeezing the trigger.

  “Hold on,” she called out to her crew, raising her free hand and making a fist to give her a few more seconds to examine the newcomer without them opening fire.

  With the figure out in the hallway, the gloom slightly less oppressive thanks to the blessing of her Furlorian heritage, the figure began to take a familiar shape.

  It was humanoid, a male she believed, much the same as the other aliens they’d come across in the ship. Purplish-blue skin seemed to absorb the darkness, lending him the shadowy form Taj had been so caught off guard by originally.

  The fact that the creature didn’t show up on Lina’s scanner readings, however, made the pit in Taj’s stomach open up. That this person, this thing, could be up and about yet not trigger the scanners sent chills down Taj’s spine, which had absolutely nothing to do with the frigid air.

  She aimed her bolt pistol at its head, her finger tightening against the trigger, just below the required amount of pressure needed to fire the weapon. It looked as if she’d have to make good on her threat to shoot him.

  Taj drew in a steadying breath and double-checked her aim.

  Only the stranger’s sudden reply saved him from an unfortunate end.

  “He-lllp…me,” the being muttered in a roughened voice, a ragged edge making the words raspy. “I-I…I neeeed—”

  The being twitched and collapsed, crashing face-first into the floor with a mighty thump.

  Taj hesitated only an instant before yanking her finger off the trigger and holstering her pistol. Decision made, she raced toward the fallen alien to examine him and offer what aid she could.

  “Are you insane?” Cabe shouted at her, though he stayed glued to her side, his gun never wavering from the alien.

  Torbon ran to remain alongside them. “You’re only now asking that question?”

  “Be quiet, you two,” Taj growled at them. “He’s hurt. We need to do something.”

  She knelt beside the fallen alien and touched a hand to its throat where she hoped there’d be some indication of life, something to contradict the scanners readings. Maybe it had simply been too wounded to show up any longer.

  Taj sighed when she felt nothi
ng, not knowing whether that was because the alien’s biology was different from hers or because it had truly died this time. Either way, she needed someone better equipped to deal with the situation than she was.

  “Lina, get Gran Verren to meet us at the tube. We need a doctor, incoming alien wounded.”

  “On it,” Lina called back.

  “Wait, we’re taking him to our ship?” Torbon asked, shaking his head. “Is that smart?”

  Taj shrugged. “I don’t know what I’d call this, right now, Torbon. Just help me.” She grabbed the alien’s legs, and Cabe scooped up the man’s upper body, grimacing the entire time, straining to move him.

  He was far heavier than she imagined he could be.

  Torbon groaned and joined in, helping her carry the alien, clearly struggling, too. “I want it known I think this is a bad idea,” he said. “The worst of bad ideas. The baddest of worst ideas.”

  “Noted,” Taj replied, “now shut up and get moving.”

  “Are you su—” Cabe began, but Taj cut him off.

  “If you ask me if I’m sure, I’ll shoot your tail off,” she told him. “Now is not the time.”

  Cabe went silent, cowed by her threat, and the crew raced toward the tube, carrying the limp alien in an awkward shuffle. By the time they reached the end of it and set him on the floor in the Discordant’s corridor, all three were sweaty and out of breath.

  Lina and S’thlor met them at the umbilical control panel, worried expressions plastered across their faces. Lina stared at the alien, eyes wide.

  S’thlor just stared in no particular direction.

  “Rowl, this guy is heavy,” Torbon muttered, wiping his forehead after they’d put the alien down. “Must be all that goo they eat.”

  Gran Verren and two other Furlorians arrived moments after they’d set the alien down. “Get him to the infirmary, now!” she called out, her wrinkled face squished into a grimace, and her assistants jumped to the task.

  They huffed and puffed and scooted the alien onto the hover-gurney. Once he was settled, they triggered the gurney’s anti-grav pads, and it rose into the air. Even still, it seemed to hum under the weight of the alien being.