Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

A voice on the other side of the door is slamming on my cabin door and yelling at me from the top of their lungs sounding like they’ve been at it for quite some time,“Hey Capt’n wakey wakey. I’ve been trying to wake your ass up for what feels like the better part of fifteen minutes.” I wake up, groggy as hell, to the sound of Del Cole, my second, trying to wake me up. This better be good or he’s going out the airlock. 

“Yea, give me five minutes you prick!” I yell back so that he leaves and I wait for the receding footsteps. Once I hear them I slowly get out of bed, get dressed, and as I am approaching my door I am overcome with an overwhelming feeling of dread like something terrible is about to happen. Brushing that off, I make my way out and approach the common area of my ship, the DuskWalker. 

“Hello everyone, why was there a need to wake me up so early?” As I put my hands on my hips, I take a three count deep breath as I look around at my crew who has gathered in the common area at this unforsaken time, whatever that be. On my left is a tall and slender man, with hair almost as large as his ego, Ben Beck or as we call him BB, and sitting on his right is his giddy and well kept sister, Jina Beck. Standing over the two kids, like their own father, is a broad shouldered man who is twenty years past his prime and sporting a recently acquired brew gut as well as gives over the aura of someone who can and will beat you, he most likely will kick the shit out of any humanoid if they mess with those kids in any sort of way and mean ill intent, as well as the bastard who had the balls to wake me up, Del. Over on the right side of the room sitting on another couch with an ever bouncing leg and worried look on his blemished face with a perpetual looming dark cloud over his balding head, is our ever loving and non-cowardly pilot, Alber “Al” Dawn. “Obviously it was damn important since you were at my door for a quarter of an Earth hour.” The words leave my lips dripping with annoyance whilst I stare daggers through the man. 

“I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t important, and ya know that Cap.” Del says evenly, his eyes say this will not be good news to me “We got a call from Sector 20’s guild Commander, says there's some salve out in this area that we can bring back to them, if we’re inclined to earn an extra thousand telts, which obviously we are always inclined to.” 

Mid sentence I cut him off, “So that means we have another ten weeks out here before continuing our already three year trek back to this Sectors guild to receive our pays before hypering back home. Fucking fantastic timing.” Sighing deeply, I head over to the caff bar as I’m not awake enough for this bullshit. We were just about to enter an agreed thirty year break period but now this load of slecshit. Guild Commander Yareck has always been a slight in my side but this is really making me wanna take my dispenser and shove it to his cranium and release all nine of its contents, regardless of how expensive the rounds are nowadays. 

Pouring my caff and sitting down, and shutting my eyes, I ask the question that's been floating in the air, “Show of hands as to who wants to find the salve and earn more telts for themselves and families.” Without opening I know everyone, even myself, has their hands raised and awaiting my orders. “If that’s the case, get off your holydamn asses and step to it.” With a standing salute they get to work and I watch as they all leave and attend their stations. Al and Del head for the cockpit, BB heads to the computer room and Jina awaits her personal orders from me. I keep an eye on her so she doesn’t bother her brother and so Al doesn’t bother her, plus I didn’t have anything else for her to do. I figured I’d take her under my wing and be my personal assistant. 

Checking my chrono, I’d say we’re still a good couple hours from wherever this new set of salve may be. Naturally I kick back and relax and pat the space next to me so that Jina isn’t standing next to me. 

Without turning to look at her I ask, “I forgot to ask Del, and I’m too lazy to go ask, where is this deposit of salve Yareck has sent us to go get?” 

Fumbling with her datamass “Oh yes, it’s in…..” she hesitates while scrolling, “Sector 20, quadrant four, around planetary mass thirty near the more stormy locations.” As she continues scrolling her pale eyes grow to common plates behind her regulation grade glasses, “This is also the last known location that the Pandemonium, the Juggernaut class militar party vessel, was last seen a century ago.” 

Making it extremely obvious, I roll my hard very hard, ”Please tell me you aren't one of those people who follow those Pandemonium conspiracies. Some of them are borderline treasonous, if not terroristic. I’ve seen some of them, blaming the Liberation or the Guilds.” I spit on the idea, ” It was most likely pirates, or even as you said, an interstellar storm that was unavoidable. All it takes is an inexperienced pilot to make a lapse in judgment and then there you go. Systems down, backup generators down, and life support fully drained because of it.” I turn to look at her and wonder where this conversation will lead. 

Looking down, she says softly, “Some of them are compelling. It’s incredibly difficult to lose that type of ship and for the tracker to be disabled. Why would they shoo off their lead and tail blazership escorts that were meant to protect them and keep them on course? None of it adds up at all. One of the theories is that they were using the ship to develop clones on the orders of high-ups in the Liberation or working on a bioweapon in case one of the worlds steps out of bounds.”   

“Jina, look at me girl,” She slowly looks up, worried at what I’ll say, “None of those theories, as interesting as they may seem, are factual and have no concrete evidence. The blazeships left because there were pirates in the area that they had to take care of. It was a party ship, not a science vessel. You know as well as I do that you need authorized permits to conduct experiments dealing with anything biological or nuclear. The Pandemonium didn’t have any besides a simple brew license and authorization to carry military class, level two, weapons to defend the externals of the ship. For reference, we have the same class of weapons here on our ship because of the work we do and the amount of dangerous places we venture into. So please, Jina, stop reading too much into those theories. I know they give you something to do out here but at the end of the sunlight all they are, are just theories and nothing more.” 

“Roha..Cap’n Dusk, pardon me for spouting nonsense.” She looks back at her datamass and continues putting together the itinerary for when we reach the salve. Once more, for what feels like the thirtieth time in the last twenty minutes, I sigh. At this point I thought we worked out the whole military shit. Jina, being ex-military, is still deprogramming I presume even after years of working with me but I digress, she was in the military for thirty years of our exceedingly long life span. 

We sit together on the couch and watch the datastream while she works on her datamass. I slowly sip on my caff and watch whatever station we are able to intercept out in the depths of space we’re in. As we’re lounging I get a beep calling me to the computer room, supposedly there's something that requires my attention and not Dels’. With a soft groan I stand up, leave Jina in the common, and head to see what BB so desperately needed to tell me. 

I take my sweet time making my way to the comp room because it’s been some time since I’ve been down this way and I wish to take in my surroundings. Maybe bringing Del with me would have been a good idea but he is in the complete opposite direction and it was made very clear that this was for me only. All this time alone with my thoughts gives me time to reflect on how we all got to this point, more importantly how I got here flying through space and trying to earn what I can for myself since I aint got no one else. 

Before I continue my way to BB I stop over at the cockpit where Del and Al are, some nice chit chat seems to be in order with these two cockshits. Especially Del for waking me up at whatever time it is. My chrono doesn’t set to the specifics so I have to make do. 

I slam on the already opened door the same way Del did not only fifteen minutes ago, “Hello boys, how goes the piloting? Hope all is well.” I flash my brightest, and thinnest smile at the two. Al stands up and attempts to salute before being yanked back down by his comset and falling flat on his ass. 

“Get up you dumbass. You’re making a fool out of yourself, much like all your other siblings out in the great yonder.” Del spits as he scolds Al, “Seriously, after all these years as our pilot you’d think something in your skull would be screwed in correctly.”  

Regaining my composure after laughing hysterically I stand fully upright, “Like I was saying, I wanted to come and check on the two of you and see what you were up too before I continue making my way to BB.” At the mention of BB, Del locks eyes with me, goes to open his mouth but thinks better of it. I noticed, and me being me, poke at this,”Del, please, you’ve been here almost as long as me, don’t be afraid to speak your peace.” 

At my request, he says, “I just was going to ask you if you could just make sure the siblings, especially BB, are okay and safe. I know Jina was with you and in the common but I worry for the brother the most. He stays in that dark room way too much for his own good. Can you just give him your official Captain order to get out of there more?” His body says nothing but his eyes plead. Fuck, he really cares for those two. Hopefully it doesn’t kill him. 

Making a show of tossing the thought around, I reply, “Sure, why not, wouldn’t hurt.” I look at Al and Del, keeping my eyes on him the longest, “I’ll relay the message. I’m off now. Stay safe and alert you two.” With that I take my leave of them and they wave me off. 

I start making my way to BB, message in tow. Beginning to think idly to myself, I take a look at where I am in my ship. Damn, I’m already here. Have these halls gotten smaller or have I gotten faster? That was just way too quick to get here, even on this style of ship. Regardless I knock on the door to alert BB that I’m here at his behest. Nothing. I knock harder, again nothing. Leaning against the door I can hear his loud music and he most likely can’t hear fuck all, this gives me an idea. After I slide my key card into the authorizer the door opens and I quietly enter the room. Peering around a corner I see him furiously typing away at some line of code or something of the sort. Naturally I slowly make my way closer to him. Once I get closer I grab and jolt him and laugh my ass off at his reaction. 

“Lifedamnit, you asshole!” BB yells at me, “Why the fuck would you do that?” 

“You did tell me to come here, I knocked, but you didn’t answer the door cause your music is too loud like always even though we’ve talked about you keeping it down in the event of an emergency.” 

“You’re still an asshole Ro,” BB is the only one who never doubles back and calls me Captain or Cap’n, even Del who should call me Ro just for some reason doesn’t, “But yes, I do have something important to show you. If you look right here at this monitor,” he points to the monitor on his left, “This one keeps picking up something. It’s not large enough to be a ship, even a blaze, but it’s large enough to be picked up by this sensor.” 

I reply, “Do you think it’s more salve that Yareck swept over?” I have another thought, “Or is it just an asteroid?” 

He takes his time to consider his answer. If it is an asteroid I’m going to be annoyed because that should just be relayed to Al and not me so that he can adjust course regardless of our higher class shields. “ It's not an asteroid, whatever this is, it’s too small.” He continues thinking, “There's a good chance that it could be debris of some sort, and if that is the case, I would recommend we pick it up and try to sell it to Yareck.” 

I just stare at him, deeply, “In your deepest wisdom, BB, what would happen if it’s an organic? Should we still pick it up?” Looking at him, that feeling from earlier has come back and I still don’t understand what is causing it. 

He turns to look at me, “We arm ourselves to the teeth, lock all doors from the cargo hold into any other portion of the ship, disinfect it, and then we all go see what it is. This could be worth our time, sensors are saying it’s metallic, we could strike it big and get to our breaks quicker with much more telts than that salve Yareck told us to go get. Hell we can still go get that one too and get even more telts.” 

Taking in a big breath, “I agree with you, unfortunately. I’ll give a call to Al and Del to await the coordinates from you and to get armed and have everyone armed. We’re going into lockdown mode on your suggestion. This was your idea, if any of my crew get hurt this is on you. Affirmative, BB? Am I fully clear?  I need to make sure you fully understand the common coming out from my mouth.”  It feels like BB is feeling the exact same thing as I but won’t tell me in fear of me thinking less. I have this nagging feeling of hoping he goes back on this idea and tells me to ignore it and for us to keep going. 

Sitting up straight, and maintaining eye contact with me, “Captain Dusk, I, Computer Chief Ben Beck, am formally asking you to investigate this sensor reading. I have a feeling that this will earn us a generous amount of telts, ma’am.” He stands and salutes, more proper than he has ever been in the years he has been under my command.

Reaching up to my shoulder com, I radio to Al and Del, “Attention, await call from BB concerning a sensor reading. After receiving said call we are going into armed lockdown mode. Relay this message to Jina as well. Lifespeed to everyone. Captain Dusk out.” 

“Attention all crew, we are now entering armed lockdown proceeding the arrival of an unknown debris. Please obtain any dispensers or any weaponry of proficiency. This is an order from your second in command and your Captain.”  Del announces ever so beautifully over the PA system. I rush back to Jina to make sure she is good and ready, and because of Dels request that I’ll carry for as long as I take in oxygen. Regardless of the military background she says she has acquired, she never goes into much detail about those times or if she even saw combat or not. I know people who have never made it to the field who still had firearms training as well as handheld weapons training. Jina, on the other hand, either never got that or is extremely rusty. 

Finding Jina on the couch where I had left her, I pull her up and get her ready for this lockdown. “Come let’s get you to the armory and get you loaded out.” I say to her and, without waiting for a reply, I drag her with me downstairs. My heart has been pounding like it’s about to break my rib cage. It’s probably due to the running but I’ve been having this underlying feeling of dread since I’ve been awake and I am not writing that off. 

She blinks off the surprise and asks worriedly, “Cap’n what’s going on? Are we under attack?” The nervousness exudes out of her small frame, heavily reminding me of Al in the sense, “And why does it feel like my arm is about to be pulled out of its socket by being dragged like this?” Without responding to her questions we continue going. 

As we approach the door the intercom dings to life with a new announcement from Al this time, “T-minus five minutes until interception with unknown object. All personnel please be armed and ready by or before such time.” The intercom chimes off. He is really pulling his weight today, Hell must’ve frozen over while I was sleeping.  

Entering the proper security codes, obtaining retina scans from Jina and myself, we finally enter the armory. As I’m getting her and I ready, I finally respond without looking away from what I’m currently doing, “Your brother found something on the scanners and we’re being exceedingly cautious about it because we don’t know exactly if it was, or is, an organic or if it’s just a run of the mill inorganic. Either way, it could mean payday for us and us getting into the cryos and getting home all the quicker.” I continue searching for a high power dispenser for the two of us as well as my hydro slicer and her ionwhip. 

“Don’t the scanners tell us if something is organic or not? Isn’t that the whole point of our scanners or was that one of the many things we forgot to get before we set out.” She says highly annoyed with a large amount of sass, but not enough to be considered insubordination. I spare a quick glance toward her and oh my life does she look rightly annoyed with her hands on her hips and her face scrunched.  

“It may or may not have been one of the things we forgot on Ixelem.” Finding the weapons I was searching for, I holster both of mine and hand the others to her. “You do know how to use a dispenser right?” she looks down at it and I stare straight at her. 

“Yes, of course I do Cap’n.” With a salute from her, I hand her the sixteen lock-and-ready scrap that turn into rounds. I salute her back and we make our way toward the cargo hold and wait until we intercept whatever it is that BB saw. 

On our way back one more announcement happens, this one again by Al, “Anyone near the cargo hold please stand back. Cargo bay door is currently opening and once it is shut the disinfection process will begin.” Intercom chirps off. 

As we round the corner we see BB and Del by the door watching through the tuglass. “Any visuals on the object or nothing in sight?” Trying to maintain my composure in front of my crew. 

Oversized hand on his oversized dispenser, and ionslasher on his hip, Del glances to the sound of us arriving and answers my question, “No, nothing. The lights are currently off, Al must’ve hit the switch when opening the bay door. Would’ve liked to have seen what it was before opening the door and being taken aback by whatever the hell the boy saw.” 

BB looks to Del, “What the hell I saw was an opportune payday for all of us should this be an epic sized piece of salve. As I already told Ro, this could be our ticket back home sooner than if we listened to Yareck, hell if we do go to the location we were sent we won’t have to come back in thirty, we could come back in fifty or not at all.” The excitement in which he says this would be infectious to us all if we all already weren’t on the edge of our seats with anxiety and fear. 

After standing at the reinforced titanium door for what felt like eons we finally get some form of explanation, that being in the form of Al calling me over my shoulder com, “What is the issue Al, how long does it take to get this thing into the cargo hold?” I ask, letting the anxiety and annoyance creep into every syllable I muster out. 

“That’s what I was calling you about, Cap’n. I was letting you know that the disinfection cycle is beginning so standing anywhere near that door is going to get very hot, very fast. And smell of citrus but that’s an upside.” Wondering why Al knew how close we were to the door I look up and see the camera’s piercing red light on and realize he had been watching, I flip him the bird. “Hey now, that ain’t very nice of you, just tryna look out for you lot.” 

Motioning the others back away from the door I blurt out,“You heard the man, back it away from the door unless you wanna get a sun tan this time of year.” Grabbing the nearest seat in my sight I kick back and wait for the thirty minute cycle to be done so we can all investigate what this whimsical “jackpot” is that BB desperately needed us to grab. 

“BB, do you have any idea what it might’ve been out there?” Del asks even though he knows the answer. 

BB glances my way, “Unfortunately we don’t have that level of tech on this antique ship, if we did I could tell you every particle of space dust that pelts this ship.” 

Before anyone can answer there's an ear piercing beep. Disinfection is done. Has it already been thirty minutes? I’m really not paying attention to anything today. Why didn’t Al let us know it was done, did he manage to also lose track of time like I did? Del is the first one to open the door as we all enter the cargo hold to see what it is. As we all crowd around the pitch black hexagonal item and just stare dumbfounded, there’s just no way this thing is real. There is no reason as to why this thing should just be floating out here but yet here it is. Good fucking hell, it’s a black box. 

After standing in awed silence for what seemed like a lifetime just standing and looking at the thing that sits nestled between the four of us. A blackbox, more importantly a military grade one at that. So many damn questions race through our minds, my mind, before I even have a second to ask one of those raging questions BB says it aloud with an unsettled tone, “Why the fuck is this just floating out here?” Looking at Del and Jina, I can tell they were thinking the same. 

Del is the first one to answer, “BB did you see anything else out there on the scanner besides just…this?” We all turn to look at BB for an answer. I know for a fact that when I went there there was nothing else but for some reason I can tell that this will not be the end to this He just shakes his head, “No, there was nothing within sight of the scanner besides this.” 

Jina is the first one to suggest we should see if there is a message on it as to why it is just floating here. Giving a curt nod, “That’s not a bad idea we need to see what else we need to be on alert for out here. There needs to be more than a good reason as to why a black box is randomly in space with no debris in sight.” Darting my eyes to BB, who is the closest to the device. "Press the teal button, if there is a message on here, it should play when you push that one.” He complies with my request and pushes the button. 

A fuzzy and static holo of a gruff yet attractive woman appears above the black box, “My name is Gene Ryel, I am one of a few remaining survivors of the Juggernaut Class vessel, also known as the military party ship, Pandemonium. There was an incident that occurred, at time of recording this message, what feels like a few weeks ago but could’ve been days or hours, I’ve lost such track of time.” Slowly, she lowers her face into her hands, “Out of four thousand passengers, and three hundred crew and staff, only we seven are currently alive. Some….” She takes a moment to fully put her thoughts in order, “Creature that somehow managed to get aboard started attacking everyone within its sight. Somehow, some unholy way, the dead…” Static for a few moments, “People tried fighting back, tried to live as we humans tend to do, but ultimately they failed.” She takes a deep breath and releases it then continues, probably recollecting on memories of the fallen “If you somehow find this message, find this black box, please have atomics. You need to destroy this ship and everything on it. Fuck protocal, fuck the Liberation, fuck it all, destroy every molecule of this shit. Our lives are forfeit at this point. I have my theories of how this thing got here, we don't have time, don't trust the Liberation. Don't trust anyone that works for them,” There is a loud banging on the other side of the door, sounds like the door is about to cave in, She turns to look, “We don’t have long. IF you’ve found this it may be already too late. LifeSpeed.” The holo ends. 

Standing there, we're just too stunned to speak. I look at Jina, Del, BB, and I can only imagine Al was watching and listening to everything and can only imagine he has the same face as us, blood drained pale. The fear and tension in the air is thick enough to cut into equal parts and the room stays silent for a while. BB is the first to come out of the fear induced paralysis and bolts back to the scanner room to check for anything else that may have shown up while we listened to the words of a dead woman. I’m the first one to speak up, “We need to get the fuck out of here right now and report this to Yareck.” With more motivation ever in my life, I grab my should com, “Al get us the fuck out of here now!” I shout as I dash to the long range com on the wall. 

“Already on it Captain!” We can audibly hear the thrusters of the ship being pushed to the limit by Al, but falter and give out. BB calls on the com, “Ro! We have an issue…” Dread and sadness drip from his words as the ship slams to a halt and we all fall over. Without answering BB, I hail for Al my com, “Al what the fuck happened!” Del runs to the cockpit to see, “I don’t know the ship just wont move!” Fear and anxiety can be felt all the way down here and throughout the ship as if it was alive.   

“CAPTAIN!” BB shouts over to me via the coms to get me to answer him. 

“What BB!” I shout my response. 

“There is something on the scanner and it’s a big something. After checking if it had any ship call signs, unfortunately, it does and it’s a really bad call sign.” I fucking hate when he plays up the dramatics and doesn’t get to the lifedamn point. 

“BB, for the life of everything, get to the lifedamn fucking point before I wither of olden age.” I growl out and shaken with anxiety waiting for his response, really hoping he does not tell me what I think he is going to tell me.

“The ship is registering as a Juggernaut class vessel," Fuck. No, "The call sign for this vessel is that of the military party vessel that has been missing for a long, long time, Pandemonium.”  And like that my feeling of dread has been given a reason, as I look out the window and see the vessel slowly come into our view and eclipse our, significantly, smaller ship. 

Jina and I are glued to the window as we watch the already large vessel fill up the entire window, “Al,” I call shakily, “Please, tell me that it is you moving us closer to that vessel and not it dragging us closer.” 

“I’m sorry to say Cap’n but it’s not me moving us, ship’s controls have gone out of whack and I am not in control.” Al softly says. 

Sighing, I reply, “I’m going to contact Yareck and let him know.”  Without waiting I go over to the holocom and hail that bastard. “Yareck, come in, we have an issue.” 

His holo comes into full view, “What is it Captain Roha, I was in the middle of something.” 

“We have found, and are being pulled closer to, the missing vessel Pandemonium. Send anyone in the sector you can. We retrieved a black box with a holo message from someone aboard the vessel named Gene Ryel informing any and all of some unknown creature. We need help.” Yareck looks at me confused, “Captain please repeat you’re….” Static, “Please repeat previous message.”  I start banging on the holocom as Yareck’s holo fades out and it cuts out. 

“Lifedamnit! Fucking connection!” I hear the chirp of the intercom and hear Al’s voice, “Attention crew, please prepare for boarding on the large vessel you can currently see outside.” Heading back to the window with Jina we stand and watch as we’re pulled into a docking area with many other vessels.

The docking areas lights are out and I can’t see a damn thing. Trying to look closer I can just make out the bright lights of the ship's corridors underneath the heavy duty doors. Looking around, I spot something out of the corner of my eye. Thinking I can see something out amongst the other ships which causes me to slowly reach up to my shouldercom, “Al, please lock all external doors and put the ship in lockdown.” 

“Copy that Cap’n.” Al whispers back and I can hear him enable the locks and set down the tungsten shutters outside to give the ship extra protection. As soon as the shutters start to close, they slam against the ground, unable to wrap around our ship. The thing I had seen begins to stand up, and then others, that had been hidden within the dark, begin to rise and slowly stumble toward us. “Al, engage electrical pulse shields.” Watching outside I see the pulse shield frying the silhouettes that get too close to our ship. “Del, can you see anything on the night vision? I can just make out the silhouettes, they seem to be human, but I can’t make out any features.” 

“Yea, there’s something odd about them Cap’n, they seem to be workers from those ships out there but I don’t know why they’re walking into the shield…wait they stopped and are just standing there staring at our ship.” As those words come out of my com, Jina and I both feel like our blood turns to ice. He’s right, the zapping stopped. I try to strain my eyes and see a dozen or so figures just standing there. “Del, what the hell are they doing?” I step away from the window and Jina continues to stand and watch. 

“I….I don’t really know, like I said last time they’re just there.” The confusion in his words is prevalent. “What is the plan Cap? Are we just sitting here or are we trying to sneak our way out?”  

“How much supplies do we have left? Are we able to start our engines and leave this bay?” I don’t have a plan at all, everything has happened way to lifedamn fast. “We all heard what was on that holo, it is not safe outside. If something is out there, then why hasn’t it come for these people out here? Wait…how are people still here and just in the dark?” Silence builds it way back up between all of us because we haven’t had a second to stop and analyze. If that person, Gene, was that concerned for their life then why are the people outside just there? 

“We have enough supplies for three weeks.” A loud sound comes from outside and the audible sound of a camera turning is heard on my com, “The bay door just closed.” A fist striking the console, “Fuck, we’re stuck in here now. We need to turn off the pulse shield, it’s going to drain the ship's power supply and that’ll turn off life support and we don’t know if the air outside is breathable.” 

I turn the idea over in my thoughts, “Okay, you have a point, turn off the pulse. The external shields stay down, they shouldn’t drain any form of power.” After a heartbeat the sound of scuffling can be heard from outside and then multiple loud meaty thuds. I click off my com and head back to the window, “Jina what in the fuck is happening.” Looking outside, I truly can not see a damn thing but can almost make out dark shapes slamming against the metal shield. “Del what the fuck are they doing.” 

“You and Jina need to come here. Now.” The command in his voice is what moves us from our post and to him and Al. Rushing to the cockpit we slowly enter due to a lack of space for the four of us. “Now that you’re here, take a look for yourselves.” He moves the camera to the middle so we can all watch. Outside around twenty people are rushing the ship and slamming against it. Blood is beginning to cake the spot they keep smacking into, some are using metallic rods and slamming against it, trying to crack our ship like an egg. Looking closer at those attacking the smaller details are horrific. Chunks of their flesh are gone, organs are splayed out, entire jaws are missing, limbs missing. How are they alive and functioning? I start moving closer as something cuts the feed from the camera. Looking at the other cameras they slowly cut out as well until the last one shows one of those creatures biting the camera off and us losing the feed.   

“What the fuck!” Del shouts, “What in the hell are these things?” He looks at all of us as if we aren’t just as confused as his burly ass. He turns back to Al, “Ready gun, we’re firing at these things.” 

I shoot up and rush to stop them,“Wait! Don’t do that! We don’t know if there are any survivors among these ships that are hiding out.” I don’t even think there are any survivors here. From what I could see while the cameras were still attached, these ships are newer and not the same ones that were available a hundred years ago. Life, how many more people found this and never left? “We need to open the bay door and get out of here before these things figure out a way to crack open tungsten, otherwise I doubt it will end pretty for us.” Saying with as much authority as I can muster. 

After a heartbeat, and all of us staring at each other dumb founded, surprising all Al is the one who pipes up first, “Cap’n, we’re gonna need to open the external shields and make a b-line directly for those doors on the far side of the docking bay. You’ll need to give me twenty minutes first so I can get BB and the two of us can get into Pandemonium systems and open them remotely.” 

Standing over BB and Al as they work on figuring out a way to gain access to the outer ships systems, my heart feels like it's about to rupture my chest for the amount of anxiety and tension.  Del and Jina are in the common, trying to make a plan with the schematics we were able to pull, and also trying to keep their heads on straight. Besides the deafening silence, and the clacking of the holoboards, we’re all trying to ignore the sound of scratching coming from outside as those creatures try to get in. 

“Ro, once we lift the shields, how are we going to make it out of the DuskWalker?” BB asks, breaking the never ending silence, “When I checked the scanner they completely surrounded us and I think there were more in the dark.” 

“We’re gonna need to run and hope to Life itself that those things can’t run.” I give a little chuckle, more for myself than him. “We also have advanced, military grade, weaponry so we should be fine.” It would make me feel better too. 

He just nods and gets back to working with Al and I head back to Del and Jina. Listening to the continuous banging of whatever those things outside are, I reach the common and give them the news and I catch them in the middle of a prayer. Ignoring it, I announce what I need to say. “I think they’re close to finishing but we’re going to put on oh two tanks just in case whatever caused the stuff outside is contagious.” They both look up in surprise and take a second to register what it is I said. 

“How do we know those would even be necessary? Wouldn't we know if this ship would have life support or not? I mean, whatever those things are outside, they surely would need some kind of support, no?” Jina asks in Del's stead. 

"I agree with Jina," Del says as he puts a hand on her shoulder, "The tanks would weigh us down if the plan is to run. Plus she's right, life support has to be on if the lights are on." I sigh and nod in agreement and tell them to forget the tanks. 

Clapping my hands to my sides I look at both of them.“Okay let’s get to it.” As I start to make my way to the suit up station, Del clasps his hand on my shoulder. “Cap, whatever happens make sure you keep your promise to me about those two.” He points to Jina and to where Ben is working. I simply nod and continue my way to the station with him and Jina in tow. 

 After putting on the suits we get a hail from BB and Al. “Cap’n we have control over those doors and we have schematics of the Pandemonium, so I believe we’re good to go.” BB buts in, “Ro are you sure we can’t use the exterior dispensers to shave off a few? Why not use the pulse shield to fry the ones within the barrier?” 

I chew on the thought, “Do it, fry them.” BB acknowledges my go ahead and turns on the pulse. Hearing the audible hum, silence falls on the entire ship again as we strain our ears to listen to the sound of any organics caught near or inside of the shield as they begin to cook. It would be so much easier if we could have a visual confirmation but those bastards destroyed them all, knowing exactly what to target. Now I’m even more thankful I ordered the shields down. I ring BB, “Hey can you check the sensors and see how many of those things are left?” 

“Transferring scanners to the cockpit. Give me a minute.” You can hear clacking and an annoyed grunt, then a satisfied sigh. “Ro, we’re good but we’re going to have to be fast. We thinned the herd, sort of speaking, but there’s still a pretty number of them out there in the dark."

"Meet us in the common when you're ready. We need to make this quick."  

“Aye aye Cap’n Ro.” I can almost hear the mock salute over the coms. Del, Jina and I head to the common exit door and begin to wait for the other two to finish. I swear one of these days I am going to scold that kid for the attitude he gives, even if it is in jest. 

We wait for around another twenty minutes until BB and Al make their way to us. Taking a look at all of them before we go forward with my suicide plan, I speak with as much authority as I am able to muster, “Here's the plan, once the external shields are lifted and the pulse is off we’re going to have to book it. When we are at the agreed upon halfway point BB is going to lift the doors, that should lead into the halls of the ship. After we’re on the other side he will shut the doors behind us and lock our ship remotely so that none of those things outside wander in. Our main objective is to find the bridge and deactivate what we think is a pullbeam, as well as open the dock bay door. Lastly, we're going to need to make our way all the way back to our ship, hopefully the rest of this vessel is clear, and make an attempted escape. Is everyone clear with the plan?" I ask, looking at everyone. They nod. "Any questions on what we will attempt to be doing?” Everyone shakes their head and no one says a damn thing. Turning off the pulse shield, and having the externals lift up, I open the manual door that lead to what will be our first steps inside the legendary vessel, “Good, now fucking run for it. Lifespeed.” 

Running through the cargo bay I really thought those damn doors were closer. Looking over my shoulder briefly, these things ain’t as fast as us but fuck, can they keep pace. The slowest of us, Al, almost gets grabbed multiple times and I swear I heard one of those things moan the word ‘hungry’ which sent a shiver down my spine along with the loud screech they did when we started running and the incessant moaning they’re doing now. I can’t even hear my own thoughts of the dozens of pounding feet, aside from our own. As we reach the predetermined halfway point I yell over my shoulder to Al and BB. “Open the Lifedamn door! Now!” They beautifully oblige my request and the doors begin to open and should be open by the time we get there. 

Getting closer,, there are a few more of them on the other side of the door. Fuck it. I raise my dispenser at them and yell over to Del, “Open fire!” He nods and we start dispensing on them. Few fall but the ones that do have had their skulls removed and Del yells over to me, “Head shots seem to be effective, let’s try that!” It was my turn to nod and do as he suggested more fall and we clear our way inside. 

As we approach the corridor I yell over to Al, “Close the door!” I don’t see or hear the response but the door begins to close. Del and I slide underneath with BB and Jina close behind we hear Al screaming, “WAIT FOR ME!” Del props open the door to wait a few more heartbeats and Al slides through as those things start falling and piling over each other to get to us. I kick the prop out of the door and multiple grabbing hands are crushed underneath, followed by loud, inhuman, screeching. 

Al begins to panic, “What the fuck! Those were humans! Why did they try and attack us and did one of them actually fucking speak!?” Looking at each other, we know we all heard it, we choose not to acknowledge it. 

As we're standing around to regroup, I feel something, like something is staring at us. The others feel it too, and we all turn and look. There, at the end of the hall, we see what looks like a human face with sunken features and a sheet pale face just staring at us. We stand there frozen not knowing if this is a person or a vision or if it is real, but whatever it may be, we know it ain't friendly. 

After staring at each other for what feels like an eternity, we all slowly stand up and head to a junction just before the end of the corridor. As we move this thing starts to bares its terran shark sized teeth and we know it’s time to run out of there and as far away from this new, and just as terrifying, thing as possible. As we are running away we can hear this new creature emit a high pitch screech before what sounds like claws and hooves on metal running our way. Knowing what this means, we pick up the pace. 

Frantically looking for a place to hide, and feeling the sweat rush down my face and body, we find nothing. Any door we find is locked or there is loud banging and scratching on the other side. Running up and down different hallways trying to confuse and lose that thing we eventually turn down a long corridor into what looks like a huge ballroom area with a multitude of seating areas and clothed tables. We jump under different tables as it makes its way into the room. Fuck, this ain’t good at all, I really thought we had lost it five twists ago. 

BB and Del are under one table, Jina and Al under different ones and me by myself. I know the others are just as terrified as I am as we hear it sniffing knowing that it’s still trying to find us. Slowly, the click of claws and hooves on the wooden floor begin to stalk and from the far side I can hear the shuffling of feet accompanied by a low moan. The second I hear it, it’s followed by that big thing shrieking and two thuds. Then wet munching and slapping. I click my shoulder com twice, getting two squelches back from my crew,  and quietly crawl out from my hiding spot while keeping myself as small as possible. Seeing my crew behind me we start crawling away from the two sides that the thing followed us from and the shuffling feet came from and head straight. 

Making my way to a set of double doors I make my way inside and hold it open for the others behind me. Once Al, of course he’s last, makes his way inside I gently shut it behind him, “We need to barricade this.” They nod and we start pushing and placing anything and everything in front of these two doors so that thing can’t get in. I hope.  

“Okay Cap’n what’s the plan now?” Del asks in a hushed tone, “From what it seems like there’s no other way out of this room.” He says as he surveys the room we’ve barricaded ourselves into. Looking around we realize that we crawled our way into the ship's kitchen, at least now we have food in this hellhole. 

“There’s gotta be an vent that leads to a duct that we could take.” I suggest, “Thinking about it on the other hand, how do we know those things can’t get into the ducts?” 

A tired and irritable BB speaks up, “Ro, with all do respect, we need a fucking name instead of just refering to them as “it” and “those things” cause incase you haven’t noticed there is another thing on this ship that the women from the blackbox was probably trying to warn us about!” 

“I agree but is this really the best time to talk about this?” Jina asks. 

“Yes, cause for right now we’re in a relatively safe spot.” BB fires back. I’ve never seen him this worked up before, to be honest it’s completely upsetting seeing him like this in such a short amount of time. 

 Chewing on the thoughts, Al is the first to give a name, “The thing that was just staring at us we’ll just call it Pale Face, or Pale for quick speech.” We all nod, no one else having a better idea, “As for the things that almost grabbed me, I believe they’re dead things since as the Cap’n pointed out they should by all means be dead. From Old Earth media I believe they were called Zombies, or Zed’s, so we should most likely use that terminology.” At the most inconvenient moment that door we had just barricaded starts shaking and our fortifications start moving. Not good. 

“All of you, find that Lifedamn vent, now!” I yell and we all start searching for someway to get out of this fucking corner we put ourselves in. After what feels like hours no one has found anything and from the way that the pounding on the door sounds, Pale is scarily close to breaking in. “New plan, since we aren’t finding damn all. Ready your dispensors and we’re going to open fire and just pray to Life that this thing scares off.” Del opens his mouth to object but I raise my hand to stop him, “No, this is my choice and if shit hits the fan I’ll make sure to draw its attention so you bunch can escape.” They nod, Del more sternly than the rest. 

With me in the front of the line and Jina in the back we stand waiting for Pale to break its way into our safe corner. Our hastily made barricade topples to the ground and the door, as well as bits of the wall, break inward and Pale screeches in succession with its giant body in full force, with the front half of a torso from a bear and the latter half of a horse and an elongated neck that leads to the pale human face we saw in the hall and the tail was not of a horse but something else with three inch long spikes that also protrude from its neck. Fuck this is a beast of a creature. We immediately start unloading our dispensers into it and there is no doubt that this will attract much more unwanted attention but that will be crossed when it arrives. 

It tries walking closer but we do not relent in our little firing squad, realization sets in and Pale shoots off another ear shattering screech and fucks off, how far? I wish I knew. What I do know is that after checking outside the coast is clear for the moment but the once beautiful mess of the pale ballroom has now become a gore buffet. There are multiple Zeds, and some of their pieces, scattered around the room and they look….eaten? Does Pale eat them? It truly must for this much of a mess to have been created in what felt like such a short amount of time between events that just occurred. 

“I feel like Pale is still somewhere close watching us.” Jina says while white knuckling the dispenser I had given her. 

Putting an arm around Jina, Del comforts her as he says, “If it is then we’ll just shoot at it again and again until it truly just fucks off and learns to leave us alone.” I can agree with that, but something tells me it simply just won't be that easy to shake that thing. 

Standing straight and mustering all the authority I currently have left in my body as the Captain I announce to my crew, “Let's cut all the lovey-dovey stuff, we ain’t safe yet. We still have no idea if there are any actual survivors aboard, how many Zeds there are and if Pale Face is the only one on ship. We need to continue our trek to the bridge to shut off whatever pulled us into the dock bay and open said door, let’s not forget that.” Moving from the ballroom back into the corridors we make our way forwards while keeping lookout for Pale. 

As we begin moving around the ship we’re checking every corner, for either Zeds or Pale, and we’ve only had a few encounters with the former which were easy since it seems the majority were in the docking area. The one issue I have with that line of thinking is that this is a Military Party ship, these things are massive, even the smaller ones, so where are the rest of the crew and passengers? Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a detour and see if there are any escape pods still on board in case things go south and to check how many monstrosities we may have to deal with. Of the few Zeds we’ve dealt with were in formal attire which seems to have been when some outbreak started, but that’s a thought for another time. 

Walking for what has probably been thirty minutes standard, and going through twenty Zeds, Al shakily asks, “Are we almost there, Cap’n?” 

Without stopping to face him, “If I had to guess, no. I’ve never been on a ship of this class or size so I can not answer with certainty but we may have a few more floors to go up. Also, didn’t you and BB pull the schematics for this ship?” That causes the rest of them to stop and I turn around to face them, “Is there something no one is telling me?” 

BB states plainly, “It fell out of my pocket when we were running in the docking bay. I didn’t have the proper amount of time to secure it onto my person before.” 

Jina goes up and slaps her older brother with tears in her eyes, “You’ve fucked us! You’re the one who found this on the scanner! You’re the one who had two jobs, pull the schematics and get the door activation and you only accomplished the one!” She says all of this while shoving her finger into his chest. Del pulls her back from him and moves a few feet away. 

I approach BB, “When we make it out of this hell we’ve found ourselves in, you and I are going to have a long talk but for right now we need to find schematics somehow. Where would that be?” 

After thinking for a moment, “From my knowledge, the science center would be the main place where it would be, since the only other place is the bridge, and because this ship was made before wall terminals were made and much more commonplace than they currently are for us.” 

“Then, I guess, we’re looking for the science center.” I say to everyone while keeping my eyes on BB, “Don’t forget the schematics so we can more easily find the bridge. Understood?” 

“Yes, understood, Ro.” We continue our journey through halls, taking down any Zeds we find and keeping our eyes open for Pale. Finding a grand staircase with signs that say ‘authorized personnel only’ and that seems like a good enough indicator that we may be close to the center. Making our way up the stairs the unmistakable sound of a low growl can be heard coming from the way we just were and we rush up the stairs and down an intersecting hallway that is labeled ‘science center.’ 

Running once more toward our goal, we take down anything with grabbing hands and make our way in while barricading the door so that, hopefully this time, nothing can get in that way as whatever we didn’t take down starts smacking against the door and windows to get in. “BB, find the damn system and get the schematics so we can do what we need to.” Without responding he sets off. 

Once out of earshot Del turns to me, “Can’t you ease up? He made a mistake.” 

“You’re right he made a mistake, but that mistake could’ve killed us, Del, and us being soft on him will make him think it’s all fine and dandy. He isn’t a child, he is a grown man.” 

Before we can continue our disagreement, Jina comes around a corner that neither of us saw her wall behind. “Hey, you two, we need you present.” Walking toward the wall and going around the corner we come face to face with what looks to be eight to nine feet high test tubes, blood covers the floor and walls, it’s a horror scene. “What in the fuck was going on this ship?”  Looking at these tubes there are different stages of development for Pale Face and some serpentine-like creature that has been placed in a much larger tube with a large portion of the back end chopped off. What is left of the front end is what seems like an exoskeleton with a hideous maw with sharp, crystalline teeth. There also doesn’t seem to be any eyes, “This..this is horrific, what the hell were they doing here!? Were they using the party aspect of this vessel as a front to do tests?” Everyone just stands there staring at these things in the tubes. No one has answered my question, and I don’t expect anyone to, this is the stuff of nightmares plus we have more important things to worry about. 

Attempting to come back to my senses, “Hey..BB..anything yet?” 

Prying his eyes away, “What? Oh..yea, I’ve downloaded the schemes but there's another video on here but it’s not from that woman, Gene, but from a scientist named Dr.Kelly Lilum, they seem to have been the leader of this fucked up shit.” He presses play on the video and it is displayed on every screen in the room. 

“My name is Dr.Kelly Lilum, head scientist aboard the Pandemonium vessel that has been approved by key leaders of the Liberation to use as a place to conduct scientific experiments pertaining to the advancement in medicine, the potential usage in any future wars, and advancing our knowledge of life within space.” He clears his throat, “As seen behind us,” He gestures to the creature we saw in the larger tube that is currently on an examination table, “These creatures live within the vast vacuum of space. This seems to suggest an entire unfound ecosystem with these as the apex predators of the stars.” The creature starts squirming and screeches, the same ones that Pale makes, “Shut that thing up now!” He regains his sterile composure, “As I was saying, these are what are known as Reavers and they have a similar hive structure to that of Old Earth bees. There are Protectors, the workers, this one here is a newborn juvenile, and there is the Queen whose size varies from generation to generation with the current one being estimated to be the size of Mars moon, Phobos, making her one of the smaller ones. We are using this juvenile as a base to see how well its DNA mixes with ours and other species.  The other test we’re conducting is purely militaristic in the form of Project Oobelawng. Made from the DNA of human, bear, horse, and Reaver to make a truly formidable organic weapon that we will be able to control and keep any revolters in line.” 

“Fuck sake.” Del breathes out, “These bastards are insane.” I wave my hand for him to shush. 

“As you can see here,” The floating recorder swivels to face the tanks much smaller in comparison, “We have a fully grown Oobelawng in this tube which, after this disingenuous party voyage is over, we will present to the Liberation and we will be hailed as pioneers of our field.” Suddenly there is a large crashing sound which causes the center to begin shaking and alarms to start blaring, “For Lifesake, they’ve found us. Secure the juvenile and make sure those tanks don’t open, the implant device hasn’t been put in! We can’t let the creature awaken or else who knows what will happen!” There is frantic rushing around and another crash. The tube that held the Oobelawng visibly splinters then, with a follow up crash, shatters expelling what we know as Pale Face. It wakes up, shakes off the cryo water, and begins shooting its tail and back spikes into scientists, pouncing and eating others. Dr.Kelly somehow manages to avoid all of this until the scientists that were shot with the spikes start getting up and joining Pale in a feast and swarming Dr.Kelly, tearing into him and greedily taking parts from him. The video cuts.

We’re left just standing there in stunned silence. My government, our government, made that abomination. I swivel my head over to BB, who is still standing by the interface, “Graft all of this. All of it, every file.” Like everyone else, he is too stunned to have even heard what I just said, “Ben snap out of it, I gave you an order.” Coming to he gives a salute and starts the process of acquiring every file available. 

“What do you plan on doing, Cap’n?” Del asks as if he was in a far off location. 

“I plan on giving it to one of those nutjob revolters and seeing what happens. We all know that when we get out of this and it is found out that we were aboard the Pandemonium, we’re as good as shaking hands with Life’s deity. The Liberation will not allow us to continue going about our normal lives.” He nods in agreement. BB signals he’s done with the graft. 

Attempting to quietly disassemble our barricade, we check each inch of the windows to see if there are any Zeds or if Pale Fale, The Oobelawng, Bel, is outside. After removing the last of it nothing is outside save for the bloody prints that have been left on the glass. The doors hiss open as we exit the center back into the corridor. Glancing over my shoulder to do a headcount, BB isn’t there but as I’m about to say something he quickly comes out of the center and joins up with us. Filing that also for that later talk I mentioned earlier. 

“BB, send the schemes to everyone.” He graciously obliges and we check how many more floors we currently have to go until we access the bridge. Two more, two more fucking floors. Another thought comes to my mind, we’re going to have to come all the way back down, Lifedamn it. 

Rounding another corner, I see where the lifepods should be and that means, either fortunately or unfortunately, everyone is still on the ship. That means all crew and passengers would have been turned into Zeds, but where are they all? Aside from the ones in the dock and the few we’ve taken down, those were nowhere near that large amount.     

 Coming up on a staircase there is nothing there, just a mess of gore, probably where an event happened. I signaled for us to move upward but at that exact moment a loud screech came from the direction of the science center. This one sounds similar to Pale Face but higher pitched and…juvenile, oh Life how did that thing, the Reaver, get out of its cryotube? After that screech we hear hurried shuffling from down the hall and up the staircase. Zeds, Lifedamn. As we’re running up the stairs and as we reach the next landing there is a loud bang, like a body landing on the floor, on the ground above us so we run along this floor till we find a slightly ajar door and run into that room, consequences be damned. 

BB, Jina, Del, Al, and myself make it fully into this safe haven and slam the door. Once inside we all frantically search for anything we can use for a barricade for the third time since this fucked misadventure. Slamming and sliding whatever we find against the door and the millisecond we’re finished dozens upon dozens of hands slam on the door, moans filled with hunger and scattered voices coming from outside our little slice of safety that all loudly say the same unsettling word, “HUNGRY!” 

Looking around we realize we’re in a cabin room which could’ve been the room of one of those hungry uglies outside. Again, with our moment of peace, it’s our moment to panic. The Zeds are yelling “Hungry! Hungry!” as they try to break through the door and through our barricades. As they slam their bodies and smack their hands on the door they ramp up their yelling into screaming the same word over and over like a broken record, as if it’s the one and only thing those dead things can say.

“See, I told you I heard them talking! I told you!” Al exclaims like one of those bastard people who get off on being right, “Ro said she wasn’t sure if she heard it, but I knew, knew, I heard it!” He keeps going, morbidly giddy. 

“Hey, remember who it is you're talking to, that’s our Cap’n.” Del grunts with tested patience. 

“What does it matter anymore? We’re not gonna make it out of this hellhole all because of techboy over here just had to point it out to Ro-” Before he could finish his manic ravings, BB gets up and slams his white knuckled fist into Al’s bulbous face. 

“Shut the fuck up you obnoxious, anxiety ridden, creepy prick!” It’s BB’s turn to get in on the fun as he is punching Al in his face, “It’s bad enough that Ro picked you to replace our previous pilot after they retired but your weird obsession with my sister and your constant ‘anxiety’ ,if you even have it, has made life on the DuskWalker hell. Don’t you dare critique my work! Don’t you dare come near my sister when we make it out of here! Don’t you dare make it out of here alive!” BB is shouting as this is happening, Del and Jina rush over to pull him off of Al. 

Al, teeth smashed back into his throat and blood covering his face, decides not to shut up and read the room. As he spits out some blood, “This is why you’ve been moved into a corner on our ship.” With this final comment BB grabs Del's hydroblade, and before Del can react, he slams the rapidly moving water through Al’s face multiple times before Del grabs BBs arm and smacks the blade out of his hand. 

We’re all just there, staring at the bloody mess that is now laid bare in front of us and Jina speaks up, “Ben, what did you do? Why did you do that?” We all continue staring at BB, waiting for an answer. 

After a few minutes of silent staring he finally comes up with a good enough answer, “Jina, you were creeped out by him every single day a month after he was brought on as our pilot. We both know this was for the better.” He takes a breath, “We all know that after this job he was going to be let go because he just wasn’t cut out for our line of work. Always getting in the way with his stupid fucking bullshit comments.”

Looking from Al’s butchered face to BB I respond before Jina, “Well, now you’ve actually fucked up. I agree, it wasn’t your fault we’re currently in this mess but now it’s your fault it’ll be more difficult to leave this fucking mess, you lifedamn idiot, Del is a decent pilot but not anywhere near Al.” I stand up, grab a sheet, and go over to Al’s body to drape the sheet over him. “For everything negative you may have to say, he was part of our crew, our family, and you took that from him, from us. Jina and Al resolved their issues but agreed to keep as much distance as possible without it interfering with our job.”  I shove my face into my hands and everything finally catches up with me. 

As we’re going through another problem ,aside from the hunger driven corpses outside and the murder inside, we all hear the same noise at the same time. The door hinges behind our barricade start creaking inward. “BB, we’ll once again deal with your shit later, if you don’t wanna die, pull up the schematics now.” I order hastily and he does as he is ordered, “Del and Jina, help me find a vent or something.” They give me a tight nod and we frantically start searching for something, anything. 

What feels like five minutes of panicked searching and listening to loud, unionized, voices as the door starts giving way, BB gives us the hope we needed, “Ro, there should be a vent behind the bed you were on and it’s large enough for all of us to crawl through.”  We all get up and shove the bed closer to our barricade and find our holy exit. I take my ionblade and slash the vent up, like BB did to Al a few minutes prior, to cut open a large enough entry way. Life, I hope those things can’t follow us. 

Ushering everyone in, “Let’s go people we don’t got enough time for this dallying of yours.” One by one they start crawling into the vents and BB turns to me and mumbles an apology, “Shut up kid and start crawling.” He nods. After he gets in I follow him and the others as our barricade, and the door gives way and hundreds of shuffling feet find their way into the room we were just in. 

While making our way through the vent I can hear wet munching behind us, followed by the sound of multiple somethings slamming on the metal. Fuck I don’t want to look behind because I know exactly what is following us. Quickly glancing behind I see the dead faces of the passengers and crew looking straight at me, at us, and crawling as fast as they can to us. Shouting, “Move fucking faster! They entered the fucking vents!” After finishing my plea, and as if to prove a point, loud and agitated moaning sounds from behind me, “HUNGRY!” While we start moving so much fucking faster, I pull out my dispensor and unload a couple of rounds behind me while trying to hit any of them behind us. I hear a couple of rounds connecting, then slamming on metal. Sparing a glance I hit one in the head and it’s blocked a portion of the vent, “Get fucked you dead fucks!” I yell back, knowing they can’t respond aside from the one word they keep screaming, “HUNGRY!”  Flipping them the cross we keep moving. 

“BB!,” Del shouts, “How much further until an exit?”

“One more turn and we will get to the closest vent.” He shouts back to Del, and us, we all grunt an acknowledgment. 

Turning the corner in the vent system, with the droning of those deado’s still stuck behind us, BB takes out his weaponry of choice and fires a few rounds to open the vent and we all slowly crawl out one at a time. Following our escape from the vents and horde we then block up our exit in case they somehow manage to get around the other blockade and then take in our surroundings. We stand in a large, open space, it kind of looks like a…wait it is, it’s the ships observatory. Looking up and into the vastness of space we’re able to see the multitude of stars and a few planets within this sector, Life, how has this vessel not crashed yet? Regardless, this view is breathtaking and thankfully it's one of the few rooms that isn’t covered in blood and gore. Looking closer outside the dome, there's a deep dark moon orbiting the planet. That’s actually very odd, I don’t remember this planet, Uio, having a moon of that size or color. I shake myself out of my pondering and get back to the task at hand. 

Turning to face BB, blood still splashed across his manila face “How far are we from the bridge?” 

“According to the schemes, it says we just have to go up one floor,” he points toward the doors of the observatory, “There are stairs out those doors and we just have to go up them and we’ve arrived at our destination on Vessel Hell.” He dryly laughs to lighten the mood. No one else finds his misplaced humor and he moves on, “If we are decently lucky, none of the Zeds should be on the bridge. In the case that they are, then at least we have enough firepower to deal with them.”   

Looking at the three members of my crew that are left, “As long as our dispensers don't overheat at the worst possible time we should be fine. We also have melee options which we should all be sufficiently proficient with. Now, enough of this, we don’t know how much time we have left until the dead things find us again so let’s get a move on to the bridge.”  

Leaving the observatory, and now with questions about the deep black moon, we head to the staircase which is directly across from us. 

Saying the question we’ve all had on our minds, Jina blurts out, “Anyone else curious as to where Pale Face is? We haven’t seen it since before we entered the science center. It’s beginning to feel like we’re being watched again.” 

“Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, the longer it licks its wounds the better. If we can get to the bridge without being impeded by Zeds or Pale Face, the better.” Del says as we walk up what feels like a grand staircase, “The only thing is, we haven’t seen any Zeds over here, and from what I’ve noticed, they try and stay away from what they seem to consider “territory” for it.” That does make a lot of sense since that is usually what happens with prey and predator and this thing seems to be top of the food chain on this confined hunting ground. 

Coming to the top landing of the staircase we take a left, at BB’s instruction, and come face to face with a heavy duty metallic door with a key card reader, with a num pad, on the side. As I inspect it to see if it can wire it differently to open the door, I speak over my shoulder, “BB, what can you do to open this door for us?” 

Kneeling next to me and attaching his wristcon to it, “Give me five minutes and I can open the door without us having to scour each and every Zed for a proper authorized keycard.” I nod to him, get up, and move back to Del and Jina. 

Speaking in a hushed voice and moving away from Jina, Del says to me, “When we make it out of here, what’re we going to do? I would rather not leave BB planetbound but he killed Al, brutally.” 

Rubbing the bridge of my nose, “I know he did, I watched him do it the same as you and Jina. Al was antagonizing him but it doesn’t make what we did right and he needs to be punished. He isn’t just going to be planetbound, after he sends the video to one of the revolters I’m reporting him for murder of a guild official and letting what happens, happen.” 

Del sighs, “You’re the Cap’n whatever your call is, as your second, I’m behind it all the way even if I have my own reservations about it.” 

“You know I welcome your opinion, seeing as you’ve been serving as salve collectors for years, but I don’t care for your soft spot for these kids, after this BB is done.” Del just stiffly nods and we move back to stand with Jina. 

Shouting at us BB tells us he’s done and we watch as the door opens and, with almost dark comedic timing, the deep guttural growl resonates up from the staircase we just walked up and we all rush through the bridge door. Sound of rushing can be heard as I use the indoor keypad to shut and lock the metal door. The sound of a large body slamming into the door can be heard as we watch the entire door shake as it gets hit multiple times and then just stops. 

“Hey guys, can you please open the door?” A voice comes from outside the door, “Pale Face is somewhere and I think it’s close, please, let me in!” They sound desperate to get in. Whoever it is on the other side, sounds like Al. 

Whispering to everyone on our side of the door, “Don’t answer, let’s just do what we came here to do.” Turning around and ignoring the voice we take in the scene on the bridge. More blood and gore, much more. Pieces of body’s just strewn everywhere this is a massacre, “BB get to the Captains console, shut off the pullbeam, and open the bay door.” He gives a mock salute and heads upstairs to do what I have just asked him.  “Everyone else, let’s scavenge what we can, there’s got to be some food and liquids we can get in our system.” Del and Jina salute and we all get to looking for something, anything. 

The voice on the other side of the door keeps on going, yelling, wanting our attention, “Hey! Please let me in, I’m really scared!” I keep trying to ignore it but the way the voice sounds it feels like I should recognize it, “Let. Me. In. NOW!”     

BANG.

BANG. 

BANG.

The thing the voice is coming from keeps going at the door trying to break in. After some time searching, I am able to find a couple of extra dispensers that I attached to my belt.   

“Cap’n, please, let me in.” The voice asks softly. Suddenly I realize whose voice it is. Al’s. The only issue is that Al is dead, and most likely eaten to the bone, so whatever is on the outside isn’t good. 

“Cap’n plea-Se elt im en-” The voice slowly starts devolving into garbled nonsense then it becomes a soft guttural growl that I know all too well. Pale Face and, and it can copy our voices? Fuck, what else will be able to go wrong. 

“Ro! Come up here!” BB shouts. I rush up to the Captains console to see what BB has so far. 

“What is it, BB?” I ask while glancing at the console. 

He points to the screen while typing away, “I’ve opened the door and turned off the beam but it keeps turning back on every time I turn it off. The other thing is..well…this ship's scanners are picking up something. Massive. Smaller than a planet but it’s still the size of a moon. Whatever it is, it’s moving slowly but heading in our direction. I’ll keep trying to turn off the beam but I needed you to also know this, what I did to Al wasn’t me and I don’t know what came over me. You should know that I don’t have it in me to take a humanoid life but the compulsion, the hunger, something terrible came over me.” Looking at him he is sincere and that makes my decision that much harder. 

“Kid, look I-” Then the sirens begin to blare and the cameras on the console, and monitors, all show the other side of the door. Pale face is pounding against the door and using its terran bear claws to try and pry it open. Giving up, it slowly stares up at the camera, bares its fanged mouth, and rips the camera out. 

“I’m getting Del and Jina and rushing back up here, when I give the word activate lockdown mode.” Not caring if he heard me or not I run as fast as I’m able to, downstairs to get the others.  Sparing a glance to the door, Life, Pale has been making progress since the door is starting to cave in as it keeps going. 

 Rushing to the bridge kitchen, “Del, Jina, we need to-” They’re busy fighting some Zeds we didn’t bother finding and then some turn to me. Without hesitation, and grabbing my IonBlade on my hip, I start hacking away at the Zeds to try and reach the other two. 

Clearing enough out, “Let’s go! Run to where BB is, I’m right behind you!” They make a dash back the way I just came and once they’re clear of the kitchen I quickly follow behind. 

Making our way to the Captains area the bridge door caves in and Pale Face slowly saunters in and screeches at the top of whatever it considers lungs when it sees us. We run even faster. Nails cut into the floor as Pale Face begins its hunt. 

 “BB!” Jina shouts, “Start the lockdown process!” Behind us we hear a large body slam against the wall behind us and then a loud screech as Pale Face continues. The doors in front of us begin to close, one by one we leap through the ever closing door and narrowly escape our grisly fate. As we all land we hear a solid thud and more screeching, then determined clawing.   

Looking around, we all look for an alternate exit, “So, what now?” BB asks, “I can’t make out a way out of here.” 

“There has to be an emergency exit in here since this is where the Captain would be while giving their orders to the people on the bridge. In the event of an emergency, the Captain and crew would evacuate through a passage in here.” Jina replies, while in a thoughtful trance, “It must be around here somewhere, since…” She trails off while gesturing to everything. 

THUD 

THUD

THUD

I point over to the door that is the only thing keeping us alive,“Look, just find it, I don’t think we have much time.”  

Del and I head over to one side of the room, Jina to the back wall, and BB back to the console to activate more lockdown measures to delay the Oobelawng. The three of us on the walls all just slap around aimlessly to find a pressure sensor or an inlaid door, just something to get us out of here and begin our trek back to the DuskWalker. 

As we keep up our search my hand slides a little deeper into the wall causing a door to hiss and pop out. Without any other option we all slowly enter, weapons ready, nerves on end, ready to deal with whatever is in the walls. 

As the Captain's emergency door closes I catch a glimpse of the lockdown door cave in as Pale Face sticks its pole-like neck, with its deathly pale face, into the room to find us. It misses the door closing and our escape. Barely. It screeches loudly in defeat and destroys the room, like a toddler throwing a tantrum.  

Turning on our shoulderlamps to see better, we walk in the only direction we can, forward. These tunnels aren’t like normal hidden passages with all exposed metal with concrete flooring, but have wooden walls with carpeted flooring but for some reason there isn’t any lighting, save for the ones the four of us are providing. “Hey BB, do you know where we’re heading?” I ask, trying to get a sense of direction. 

Looking closer at his wristcon he answers, “It seems like this is a straight shot to the generator area. Mind you this was specifically designed this way at the behest of our dear deceased Captain or this vessel. I recommend that we be on high alert because we don’t know what’ll be at the end of this.” Agreeing with him and his assumption and we all make sure we’re armed and ready, Jina mumbles some discontent but it’s a whatever at this point since we have no other choice. 

While walking through these corridors I take a second to lean against the wall on my right, which leads to a hallway on the other side, and hear the drone of the lights as well as the ever present drone of those Zeds, the shuffle of their feet. There is also the low rumble that seems like it resonates from something large. Probably Pale as it sounds organic. There also sounds like something being dragged, like a heavy metallic item. I gently push off of the wall and get back to walking. 

As we have this time it feels like the proper time to think about that deep dark moon I saw over Uio. Us, as a crew, have only been past this spot a handful of times and never once did we see that. There are five moons, each varying in size, but that thing I saw gives me a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. 

During this introspection of mine I don’t notice that everyone in front of me has stopped walking and I walk right into Del. Looking up at him, and speaking softly, “Why did we stop?” 

He speaks to move over his shoulder, “The boy thought he heard knocking like a ‘Rap Tap.” After giving me a demonstration, “I also heard it, but he says that it sounded like multiple knocking on both sides. As I said, I did hear something but this ship has been in deep space for a century and could be just sounds of an old ship.” 

“It wasn’t that, I can tell the difference, it was knocking.” BB pipes up while still trying to maintain a quiet voice, “I don’t think there is anything living in this  Life forsaken place, minus Pale. Is it possible the Zeds can problem solve?” This sets a mood of uneasiness between the four of us, a mood I truly do not enjoy. 

“They’re able to speak, or at least say a singular word, but they’re dead things. Don’t really think they can think.” Jina says, but from the tone of her voice we can tell she isn’t confident in her answer, “I mean, right?” Standing there in silence, no one has a good and true answer to this. Truth is not one of us knows what they’re fully able to do. As if on cue to our thoughts, there are multiple knocks that seem to be in sync with each other. Following the knocks hundreds of hands puncture the walls on either side and we take the hint to run toward our end goal. 

“See I told you!” BB shouts as we run, once more, for our lives and try not to get grabbed. 

“Not now Ben!” Jina screams at him. BB fires off a couple of grabbing hands that shot out of the right wall to make a pathway for all of us. 

“Lifedamnit! Can we please just catch a break!” I scream at the top of my lungs, no use in hiding now. As in response the dead freaks scream back “HUNGRY!” Fuck this, I stop quickly, grasp my Ionblade and shove it through one of the holes. I feel, and hear it, connect and I rip it out and go back to running. 

“Why the hell did you do that for?!” Del yells at me. 

I responde back, feeling winded, “It felt fucking cathartic!” He shakes his head and we keep going as we approach a fork. 

BB, our ever helpful guide, yells a direction, “Make the left, then head straight!” As everyone is heading toward the direction my jacket gets grabbed from an over eager deado. I yank the arm inward and slam the attached body against the wall multiple times to get it to release. After a few times, the arm rips off and I’m free. 

Looking at the fork again, as my heart thumps against my rib cage, I don’t remember which way BB said to go and missed where they turned. This day is getting better and better. Taking my best guess, I head right and continue straight. Not seeing anyone, and thankfully no grabbies as well as realizing my mistake, I continue on my trek knowing that I should be able to meet back up with them once they know I am not with them. 

Approaching a dead end I start feeling the walls for anything that moves to open a way out of here. After five minutes of rubbing my hands up and down the wall I feel my hand slowly move in and am able to hear a quiet CLICK as a door opens outward. 

With Ionblade gripped tightly in hand, I slowly make my way out, checking for any Zeds. Any that I manage to see I cut down without hesitation and I move forward, not really knowing where I am. Walking for a few more minutes, and looking at my surroundings, I realize at some point there was a slope and I went down a floor or two and now I’m back at the science center and nowhere near where the others have gone. Since I managed to come back to this spot I may as well check out that reaver thing. 

Slicing a few more Zeds in two, I reach my destination. Walking through I immediately see the reaver, on the floor, cut up with a fresh dissection mark on it. “Oh, BB, you idiot. You don’t know what you really did, do you?” I say out loud while looking at this terrifying creature. It has no eyes, a large maw with sharp mulberry colored crystalline teeth, and the same crystalline shards in its mouth all along its body and some embedded that make up portions of it. This is truly one of the many things I wish to never see in my life again. 

Looking around the bloody mess of a room I grab a couple of medical packages, as well as some anti-pain stims, and head out. As I stand in the entrance, I glance over and feel a compulsion to go back towards the serpentine creature. I watch as I stand over it and slowly raise my blade to bring it chopping down on its head until it stops squirming and squealing. Blinking and shaking my head, I wipe off the fogginess. What the fuck was that? Was this what BB went through? The murderous compulsion I just felt towards this helpless creature, Life, was horrific. 

Leaving the center as quickly as I can, I begin to retrace my steps before we were chased into that bedroom that Al was killed. Al, a good pilot, he deserves at least me to go and grieve him. With this I start toward that room to go pay my final respects to whatever is currently left of him. 

Approaching the hallway I can very easily see the broken door and the bloody door frame. Entering in, there are just bloody prints everywhere, mainly around the vent, but no Al. Not even a hint he was here. Did he become like the rest of the horde? That seems to be the only logical explanation to this, since if he was fully dead there would still be a body. Realization sets in as I know now that I have spoken too soon when I said what else could go wrong, this, this is what could go even more wrong. If BB sees that Al has become a Zed it may really drive him crazy, if BB is truly torn up about the entire thing and was not lying. 

I need to get back to the others as quickly as possible before I run into that horde or Zed Al, or both. Darting back to the start case previous, and going up them as fast as I can, the top of them comes much quicker than I thought. Looking for any identification as to where I need to go, there's a sign that indicates the generator room and I book it toward there knowing the others will be there, hopefully. 

As I run the sound of that low grumbling is loud and ever present behind me. I glace behind me, knowing full well that Pale is there, and hunting me, I push even more speed out of more to get to the generator before it is able to pounce and able to take me out. 

Slamming face first into the door, I reel back and shake the door handle. It’s fucking locked, are you kidding me? Shaking the handle and slamming into the door, I’m hoping the others are just beyond the door and come to investigate. Looking back at the way I have just come, I see Pale leaning its neck, and ugly fucking face, around a corner. Just watching me. Flipping it off, I go back to trying to keep getting into this room when I hear a voice from inside, “What do you think is trying to get in?” The voice asks someone else in that room. I yell as loud as I can, through my parched throat, “Jina! It’s me! Cap’n Ro, please open the door!” I slap the door three times rhythmically, hoping they'll know it's something alive and not dead. “Please, Jina, BB, Del, open the fucking door!” I keep slamming into it and I feel the tears run down my face for some reason, only then realizing that I've hit my breaking point, “Please..." I say softly, "Don’t let me die.” As the words stumble out behind chocked sobs, I hear the door lock click and it opens quickly followed by me being dragged into safety once more.

BB, Del, and Jina bolt down the other hallway, not knowing that Ro is being grabbed by a Zed and subsequently making her way down the wrong way. BB yells at the other two to keep following him to make it out of this narrow potential coffin. The tension between the three of them is thick enough to be sliced by Del's Hydroblade. 

"BB, how much further?" Jina asks, exasperated. 

"We're close, this upcoming wall should be an exit and there is probably a button that opens it."  BB says as he stops at the wall, "Quickly, look for a piece of wall that slides in before those dead freaks slide into this Lifedamn hallway!" The three of them readily move their hands across the walls to find something, anything, to keep them from being on the menu. 

Del exclaims, "Kid, I found it!" As he pushes the piece of wall in enough until they all hear an audible clicking sound as the wall in front of them opens. Behind them they can hear the walls collapse from the weight of tons of pressure against the thin walls as shuffling follows towards them followed by the unionized shout of the same singular word they've heard over and over. With a singular look shared between them they push the wall open the rest of the way until everyone is out and slam it closed until another click is heard and dozens of thuds are felt. 

"Is it me or are they getting faster....and smarter?" Jina asks softly. 

"Faster? Yes, Smarter? I don't think so." BB responds worried, "At least I hope not."  

"Wait," Del looks around, "Where the hell is Roha? Why the hell isn't she with us?" The others finally take notice of their Captains missing presence. 

BB, shaken, says mournfully," I thought she was with us. The last time I saw her, she was behind when those hands smashed through the walls. After that we all just..ran and hoped for the best. Now we're here."  

"I'm going back to get her, Al may be dead but I refuse to let another one of us die." Del says as he reaches to open the wall before he is stopped by BB and Jina. Looking down at them both, "Move, I need to go back for her." 

Looking up at him, Jina says pleading, "If Ro is alive she knows where we're heading, she will meet us there. If you open that door, you won't only get yourself torn open but you'll put us in harms way and most likely get us killed." As if to make a point, the wall bends and shakes with the force of dozens of bodies behind it. Everyone looks at the wall and then back at each other, "Fine, you have a point. Let's make headway to the generator room," Del turns to BB, "Kid, where are we heading?" BB pulls up the schemes and shows them the path that they will have to take.  

As they start their trip to the generator room Del, who is front, lags behind Jina to talk to BB in hushed voices, "Why did you take out Al, especially so violently?" 

BB, taking a moment as they walk, "I...I don't have a good answer. Look, he annoyed the Life out of me and I really did not like him. I had told Ro all of this, but it felt like my emotions were amplified, pushed beyond their limits. Like everyone else, I've felt the blood lust toward someone but I've never wanted to actually follow through with it. But that moment, I was overtaken and did what I did." Walking, BB finds something interesting on his moving boots, "I didn't want to kill him, but I couldn't help it." 

Taking in a deep breath, Del says, "I'll talk to Ro about making sure you aren't reported and planet bound. First, we need to get the hell out of here." BB nods and they continue moving forward. Taking the correct turns, dodging the undead, and killing any that come remotely close to them with deadly hunger. 

Coming closer to the generator room the group hears a low grumbling noise from something very large. Instantly, they recognize where the sound resonates from and its behind them. Rapidly, they turn and come face to face with Pale, the Oobelawng, that they have been hunted by their entire dreadful stay. In a rare scene, they have a full view of their hunter and its ragged look. Cuts, all over its body, chunks of flesh fully missing. These are more recent as its purplish-black blood is seeping down the injury points.   

Slowly, and methodically, it takes steps closer to the group as it bares its needle-like teeth. Del, look from the monster in front of him and to the two others at his side, pulls out his dispenser and fires a few shots into Pales giant size, "Run! Get the hell in there!" He shouts while firing. BB and Jina run to the door and desperately try to get it open. 

"Fucking lifedamn!" BB exclaims as he uses his wristcon to try and unlock the door, "Of all the damn doors on this unforsaken vessel, why is the security the toughest here!" Jina pulls out her own dispenser and takes aim at Pale as BB works desperately. 

"Del, start moving toward us! I got you covered!" Jina yells at him over the rounds being fired. Del, with his weapon still single mindedly trained on the beast, starts taking steps back. Pale goes to take a step forward and Jina takes a shot to put the amalgam in its spot. Once Del is next to her, they both move back to BB as he works desperately.

Pale, ever hungry, starts moving closer but stops short of the corner before any shots could be fired. It screeches loudly and makes a display of clawing the ground and walls around it. 

Del, looking at Jina, asks, "Why isn't it pouncing on us?" 

Replying, "I wish I knew. Let's not look deeper into a gift than we have too." Hearing the door click open behind them BB shouts for them to get in and they shut and lock the door as Pale runs off, defeated once more. 

Looking around the big open room, large pale blue machines are still chugging along after a century. Catwalks going all around the corner of the room, hanging above the other mechanisms providing different services to the rest of the over sized vessel and a center console in the middle of it all. BB walks over, plugs his wristcon in, and begins to find the correct power line that turns off both the large bay door as well as the pullbeam that brought them here in the beginning. 

As Del and Jina stand around, waiting for BB to give good news, Jina asks Del, "What's the plan after this? Surely we have to report this to Liberation officials, if not Guild officials?" Before Del could respond the door handle starts frantically shaking and a female voice is heard on the other side screaming for her to open the door. Approaching, fully on guard with Del next to her, she opens the door, finds Captain Roha Dusk outside and pulls her to safety. 

Feeling a hand grab my jacket, feeling my frame being dragged into the previously locked room, and hearing the door slam closed followed by the door locking. I’m still tearing up and unable to really see. “Ro, Ro you’re okay, we got you.” BB says as he hugs me gently, “I got you Ro, don’t worry.” I gently hug him back, never happier to be with my crew than I am right now. 

“Where did you go Ro?” Del asks me, using my name for the first time in front of the others. 

Wiping tears out of my eyes, “I got grabbed and took a wrong turn. Went on a side adventure of my own,” I chuckle gently, “Pale is right outside of the room, I don’t know why it didn’t just kill me. It just…watched me. From the few encounters we’ve had with it, by all means it should’ve killed me on sight.” I stand up, help BB up, and straighten out my clothes, “I also went to the science center and got some of the medical supplies for any future use.” At the mention of the science center a quick flicker of worry runs across BBs face. 

“Regardless, you’re here and safe now. BB here,” Del says as he wraps his arm around the boy, and wears a proud smile, “Managed to shut off the power to the bridge which also means the power to the pullbeam is off. We can leave.” He pats BB on the back for the good job. 

“Did you not just hear what I said, Pale is outside waiting for us.” I reiterate. 

Jina, holding herself much more confidently, “Yes, we heard you Ro,” my name out of her shocks me, “But if you have yet to notice, Pale hasn’t made any attempts to get in and if it wanted to that door would not hold it back. We wouldn’t be having this conversation.” 

I look at her, confused, “Yes, that’s fantastic, but the moment we leave we’re dead. What part of that are you not understanding, Jina, seriously? I said nothing about it trying to get in, but if our plan is to leave here, Alive, then we need to leave here, yes? ” I look at the three of them, “Or is there an alternative route to get to the docking bay?” With a smile on their faces I can tell they have news for me. 

BB adds to the conversation, “Yes there is another way out of here that doesn’t take us through the door but still gets us out,” He pulls up the shemes on his wristcon and shows us all the route, “She we enter through that vent and crawl all the way to this point…” We memorize the path that he sets for us, “And that should take us to the bay and to the DuskWalker. Any questions?” 

“Yea I got a very important couple of questions,” I say, “So first off, how far off the ground are we going to be? Also, What’s the plan with the multitude of Zeds that we all know are still in the bay? Last I checked, we just shut and locked the door and threw away the key.” BB looks down at something interesting on the floor, obviously he forgot the very important question. 

“There is a catwalk the vent leads to,” He answers the former, “As for actually getting on our ship and not getting torn asunder, well that's something we'll have to deal with when we cross that gap.” 

Sighing I say, “Well, what’re we waiting for, let’s get a move on.” BB nods and we head to crack open the vent and begin our descent to escape. 

Making our way through the vents and following BBs route, we make it to our destination and one by one we drop down on the catwalk way above the floor of the bay. From our vantage point we’re all able to see how many ships there are and…

Jina gasps, Del and BB shake their heads, I say it aloud for everyone, “This is where the occupants of the ship have been hiding.” The docking bay lights have been turned on and it is infested with Zeds, our ship in the middle of hungry corpses. 

“So much for hope.” BB says under his breath. I notice that the doors, that we once ran to and locked, are also unlocked and have the dead flowing into the hanger. There also seems to be a new ship that wasn’t here previously but has been cracked open, like an egg, and those unlucky enough to have been aboard are now part of the mob. 

 “What now?” I ask BB, “We can’t leave the way we entered and it looks like the only exit is down into the hands of death.” I gesture down. 

BB, still staring in awe, “I don’t know, there is no good option here.” 

“No shit,” Del says, “But we’re here now and there is no turning back. Do we have anything that causes a distraction, something to kill off a bunch of them?” 

We all check what we have with us and it turns out that we have nothing. 

"I wish we had picked up that Ex-Amror they were selling back on Koli before we left." Jina says under her breath.

“It wouldn't have mattered. That armor only gives us more durability, the ability to lift a standard metric ton without strain, and slightly increases our speed. We couldn't out run all of those grabbing hands. They grab and won’t let go until they get to the good bits.” BB tells Jina.  

“Our dispensers have definitely cooled down so we could try and kill as many as we can from up here.” I suggest, trying to add to the conversation, “But, once they overheat then we’re going to need to wait a couple hours, in that time we don’t know if they can climb. Good chance they can, since they semi-speak, synchronize, and crawl, climbing is not out of the realm of possibilities.” 

“Out of curiosity, why did we never stop at the armory on this ship? Wouldn't that have been a good Lifedamn idea?” Del asks, with very strained patience. No one answers because it would have been but it wasn’t on the top of our lists while being constantly chased. Now that we’re here though, it’s come to bite us in the ass metaphorically and, let’s hope, not literally. 

“So we’re fucked. Stuck between a rock and hard place.” BB says. 

I respond, “It would appear so.” We all let out a collective sigh of disappointment. How were we able to get this far but not even take into account this shit show, “Let’s just open fire and pray to Life that we’ll take out enough to make a dash and initiate lockdown procedures.” They give a mock salute, followed by a nod. 

Aiming our weapons and firing, we now have the attention of the entirety of the bay's occupants. Thousands of hungry voices scream the same word we’ve heard, and thousands of grabbing hands try and reach up, impossibly, for us. With this many bodies clumped up together our bullets hit their marks. All the noise we’re making draws more from beyond the doors into the bay, replacing the ones that have been killed. 

Thirty minutes later the bodies have started piling up, leaving a layer of caked blood and gore on the floor as well as residual splatter on the other ships, and it seems like a significant dent but still not enough to guarantee our survival from here to our escape. Slowly we notice the muzzles on our dispensers start heating up, turning a shade of orangish-red until they our weapons stop firing and we're left standing fifty feet in the air looking down at our demise.   

"Fuck, I'm done." Del says, followed by Jina, BB, and myself. As we slowly stop firing, the Zeds slowly lower their arms but remain staring up at us. 

"What the hell are they doing now?" BB shouts out in confusion. The undead, shambling, make their way over to the ladders up to the catwalk, "Well that answers the Lifedamn question, now doesn't it." Looking for another way down, we can only see the ladders that are being flooded with Zeds. 

Looking at the catwalk, I say, "I have an idea, no one is going to enjoy it. At all." 

"I'll take anything over being eaten." Jina yells. 

"Del and I take our blades and cut the poles holding this up, if I'm right they'll fall and we can run down them and make a mad dash toward the DuskWalker." 

"You're right, I hate it!" BB says, "Fuck it, we have nothing to lose, do it, Ro." I nod and motion Del to rush with me to the far end so we can work our way back so that we don't fall flat. 

Getting into position, and being mindful about the slow climbing death all around us, we start cutting the poles and immediately hear a creak causing us to go faster. Cutting ten more the panels behind us start falling and the poles in front of us start snapping due to the weight and the panels follow as we run over them back to Jina and BB. 

Grabbing the other two by the arm, we sprint down our made exit route toward our ship as the dead things on the ground notice us and start shambling toward us as fast as they're able to. Approaching our ship we notice that the door is still wide open and bolt right in, preparing for anything to be inside. We shut the door behind us, as soon as we do hundreds of hungry hands slam against the door, and Del rushes to the cockpit to put down the external shielding. Hearing metal sliding down the outside we know the shield has been lowered and we'll be fully safe. 

BB, Jina, and I all release a breath we had been holding unknowingly as the metal shutters clamp down onto the floor, thankful to be currently safe. Going through the disinfection chamber and then into the common to plop down on the couches. 

"For whatever reason, none of those Zeds got into our ship, thank Life." BB says as he opens a container of water and drinks it in one gulp, thirsty like the rest of us, "Now let's get out of here and not look back." 

"It's going to be a lot harder without Al, you know?" Jina says, "I wonder what happened to his body after you killed him," She turns to me, "You said that you went back to the science center when we got split, did you take a detour back to that room, Ro?" 

Gulping and taking a breath, "I did, to pay my final respects, but his body..wasn't there," they got very quiet, "Either he turned, the Zeds dragged his body off or Pale did. Regardless, I really don't know." BB avoids any eye contact with us and quietly drinks another container. I get up and go over to Del. Stopping in the entry way, I say over my shoulder to BB, "Please go to the Computer room and keep an eye on the scanners for Pale." I walk away before I hear his response. 

Making my way to the cockpit I place a soft hand on Del as I place myself into the seat next to him, "You think you can fly us out?" 

Not looking at me as he flicks the switches and pushes the engine ready buttons Del responds, "All I need to do is get us out of this area and then engage the auto pilot. At that point you need to call Yareck and the Guild to get us the fuck out of here." 

"I was already planning on it," I look straight at him, "Del, something odd happened to me when I was back, alone, at the center." 

He stops and looks at me, "What do you mean?" 

"Do you remember that thing in the smaller cryo, that thing they called a reaver?" He nods, "It was on the floor and I was going to just leave it there but...something else happened. For whatever reason I got turned around and watched myself hack into it with my Ionblade until it stopped squirming. I think that's what happened with BB and Al." 

"Ro, you think that, that thing caused BB to kill Al and you to kill it?" Del asks, not fully believing me. 

"I think that something influenced our decisions and amplified our emotions to cause us to do over the top actions." I say to him, almost pleadingly, "This is my only working theory and you're the only one I wanted to tell." 

"Why didn't you tell that to BB? Wouldn't you confiding this information to him, make him feel better about killing Al?" 

"I don't know, truly." With these softly mumbled words we go into silence and he goes back to getting the ship ready. I just sit there next to him, actually feeling safe in his presence after all this time not feeling like I was going to live through this. When get back home I'm going to quit this or at least extend my thirty year break.

Suddenly, our ships alarms start blaring, Lifedamn not now, not when we're so close. Del reaches over to a wallcom, "You sent BB back to the computer room?" I nod my head and he rings BB, "Kid, what's on the scanner?" 

"Just the multiple organics one would see in a zombie infested ship, as well as inorganics  because of the other dead ships. I do not know what's causing the alarms." 

"Then switch feeds until you figure it out!" Del shouts with reaffirmed authority, "Check if we have any external cams left after the original Zed attack."  

"Aye Aye, second in command." BB says with tired sarcasm. Del mumbles a string of curses and shuts off the line and sets back to prep the ship, this time with renewed speed. After a few minutes the wallcom rings and Del picks up and BB is already speaking, "-get out now!"

"BB reel it in, what's wrong?" Del asks. 

BB, taking an audible breath, "Del, we need to leave right now. We need to get out now. Al is outside, with an ax walking toward us. The Zeds aren't attacking him. I reiterate, we need to leave right now!" 

"What do you mean Al is outside? He's dead." 

"Tell that to the now walking corpse!" BB shouts so loud that I can hear from where I'm sitting. BB puts the singular camera feed in front of us and we watch as a lone Zed walks towards us with, as BB said, a fire ax on his shoulder. Del rapidly presses the buttons and as we hear the engines powering up we watch as Al runs towards us and starts hacking into the engines. 

Watching this feed with refounded fear, Al, whose face has been butchered and head split in two above the mouth, starts speaking in twisted harmony with two tones as the words echo, "Cap'n, I'm here, don't leave without me!"

"What in the fuck!" I shout. Seeing that this one can speak, unlike the rest, I go to reach over to grab the com that leads to the external speaker but Del grabs my arm before I can speak, "Don't engage." 

"Last time I checked, I'm the one in charge and I will communicate to the thing speaking through my dead pilot." Pulling my arm free Del doesn't attempt to stop me again. I turn my attention to my pilot and activate the external speakers, "Who and what are you?" 

It looks directly into the camera and, with the same two octave voices, responds, "Interesting, it seems like you can talk to me indirectly. What I am is of none of your concern, Minung." It spits with pungent malice.  

"You still have yet to directly answer my previous question." I spit back. 

"Yes, I am more than aware. I'm not one of you, whatever you call your species, and I am an outside thing. My species has a name but it doesn't translate to your tongue and I'm certain you have a name for us since your kind has taken one of ours." Thinking about what it's talking about, I remember the reaver in the science center, "I can feel, by your emotions, that you know exactly what I vocalize." 

Taking a deep breath, "My crew and I have only just learned about your kind but from what I've gathered the name your species has been given is "The Reaver" or "Reavers", and we mean no harm but it looks like you mean us harm as you have trapped us on this larger vessel."  

On the screen Del and I can see it bare Al's teeth, "Mean us no harm? She only knows what harm has come upon one of us. Mean us no harm, the first conversation I've had with your kind and you lie." It spits on the floor, "Your species deserves this, this end you call a hell." It speaks with such beautiful malice. That recording of Dr.Kelly mentioned a hierarchy and a Queen at the top, and what does this Reaver mean by it's the first conversation this particular one has had, has there been previous communication? 

Intrigued, with so many questions now, I ask, "What do you mean, this is the first conversation you've had? Are you saying more of your kind has talked with us? And how is it that you're able to control my pilot?"  

Unblinking It says, "You're much more clever than the rest of these," It gestures to the dead that're just standing there, un-moving, unfeeling, "There are only four possible of my kind, myself included, that have the capability of doing what I am currently doing. Aside from us, the others of my race do not possess what your species call psionic abilities, but not to such lengths as myself." 

 These things having psionic capabilities would make sense, with BB and I having committed horrendous acts recently. Plus the fact that it can feel my emotions, "I wish to continue this conversation, and to show you my crew and I mean no harm to you or your species. I just need to know what is the closest thing that you call yourself in our tongue?" 

Quick with a response, "My Queen has called the three of us, who have these power to control, Angels."