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Volume 2 - Chapter 11

  The transport drone trundled on through the corridors of the station. I could feel the vibrations of its motors through its chassis and the bench I was sitting on. In fact, I was trying to use the rhythm of the vibrations as a focus to meditate. I could also half feel Stacy in the back of my mind, trying to send soothing impulses through the implant in my brain.

  It was an odd sensation, but it was partially helping. I could still feel my heartbeat pounding just a bit too fast, though, and my nerves wound too tight. It wasn’t until Stacy sent me an image of myself curled up in Boudya’s arms, the night I’d broken down and told her about that first mission for Barstol that something seemed to unclench just a little. It was a reminder that I had backup, that even if I did make mistakes, there were people that would be there for me.

  Slowly, ever so slowly, my heart rate lowered. I didn’t manage to get it completely back to normal, but close enough that Stacy whispered to me “Mmm, that’s better baby. Just like that! Tratsa says you’re doing better now. Certainly out of the danger zone and more in line with what is expected in the stressful situation. But we’ll need to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t get so out of hand again. Try not to become too worked up, okay Tommy-berry? Getting worked up is for when you get back! I understand Tratsa and Boudya are planning to team up against you, but you didn’t hear that from me!”

  I snorted out a laugh and found myself grinning as I opened my eyes. Stacy could be a hell of a lot to handle on occasion, but she was a friend that was always there for me since the day we met. I was never quite sure how serious she was with all her flirting, but I honestly couldn’t bring myself to care. She was just that kind of friend. The banter always kept my spirits up more than it annoyed me, and I often felt myself regretting I could not give her a hug in thanks.

  Looking around, I spotted Tindron and Jophixa near the ‘front’ of the transport drone, keeping watch on our progress. “Thanks Stacy. Not sure what I’d do without you. I also don’t know why I was so damned worked up.”

  “Boudya seems to believe that she does, but says she’ll talk to you when you get back. She doesn’t want to talk about it in front of the rest of us without you giving the go ahead. Likely worried it’ll embarrass you. She’s such a sweetie! Like a big blueberry candy! Don’t you just want to eat her all up?”

  Ignoring that last comment, I did a quick check of my suit’s chronometer to find that I’d been meditating for at least thirty minutes, which made me a bit surprised that Jophixa hadn’t said anything. I could only assume that Tratsa or Stacy had filled her in on my situation - which did make me feel a bit embarrassed - and since there was nothing pressing, she let me get things under control. Now however, it was time to see if I could figure out what was going on.

  Standing up, I stretched slightly, then walked over to where Jo and Tindron were standing. “Sorry about that Commander. Did I miss anything interesting?”

  They both glanced over at me, and Jophixa gave me a quick nod, an understanding look in her eye, before saying “We’ve gone through two more doors, passed by another one which looked like it opened into another landing bay, but otherwise it’s been uneventful. The bulkheads have been as featureless as ever, and there’s been no signs of life at all.”

  “Has there been any change in the atmospheric readings?” I asked

  “None so far. Sensor readings are still showing toxic levels of volatiles, and a below suitable amount of oxygen, whether that’s the normal atmosphere for the builders of this place, or is a result of some mishap, there’s no telling,” Tindron answered, eyes still alert and scanning the corridor. “With the lack of any interaction, it’s really starting to feel like this place is abandoned and being run by some kind of automation. But still, one would think any such automated system would still attempt to communicate with us?”

  I considered that, my hand coming up unconsciously to scratch at my short beard, only for it to impact my helmet’s visor with a thunk. I frowned at myself, I guess that’s becoming a habit. Maybe I should shave the thing off. I thought, then said out loud, “The only communication we’ve gotten from them was when we requested docking clearance. There was a delay, but then Jesse received clearance with instructions on where to land. Why that, but nothing since?”

  They both mirrored my frown, Jophixa then asked “Stacy, how exactly did the landing clearance come in? Was there audio or video communication? Text instructions?”

  “No commander,” Stacy explained, “the navigation computer simply activated with a course plotted towards the relevant landing bay, which was itself highlighted on the navigation console’s heads up display. No other form of communication was received.”

  “And we proceeded on that alone?” she asked incredulously.

  “Commander…” Stacy started to say, but Jophixa cut her off.

  “I know Stacy, regulations consider this acceptable clearance to proceed with docking or landing at a station given no hostile actions have been seen.” She signed, “Ms. Aacen cannot be faulted for accepting the authorization as it was. Notifying me of the unusual nature of the authorization would have helped before this point, perhaps.”

  “A thought for the next location on the list, I guess.” I said, letting my eyes watch out for anything different on the bulkheads, like access panels, maintenance tunnels, anything. Sometimes you really had to pay attention in order to spot them. If things went really sideways, access panels or maintenance crawl spaces could be our saving grace.

  Another half an hour later, I was still carefully examining the bulkheads as we trundled on, when movement in the corner of my eye caught my attention. My head snapped in that direction, and so did my coilgun. For just a fraction of a second, I could have sworn that I’d seen the eldritch, arachnid shape of a Ktonish darting along the ceiling. My rapid movement must have startled the others because only a half second later they were both crouched, alert, and aiming in that direction as well.

  “What is it, Mr. Aacen?” Jophixa asked urgently, “What did you see?”

  Heart once again pounding in my chest, I was still scanning that section of corridor, up near the ceiling, my coilgun weaving back and forth as I sought out the source of the movement, the shape, that had caught my attention as I explained, “Something moved…I swear I saw something up near the ceiling move out of the corner of my eye. A bit of dark shadow that shouldn’t have been there…” I could hear the blood rushing through my ears as my eyes continued to dart back and forth over the ceiling.

  “Thomas, I’ve been monitoring your sensor feeds continuously for threats. I’ve picked up no movement or anomalous shadows. Perhaps it was eye strain, focusing for too long without blinking can cause your eyes to dry out and…”

  I ground my teeth with irritation at myself, my eyes were feeling a bit dry. “False alarm then, I guess. Apologies Commander, I guess I’m literally jumping at shadows.”

  “Overall, I’d honestly rather you react because you thought you saw something than not react when something is there.” Jo replied, reaching over to punch my hip lightly, “You maintained good fire control, which is the important thing. If you’d actually shot at nothing, then I’d write you up.”

  “Noted Commander.” I sighed then, glanced at my heart-rate on my suit's HUD, took a long deep breath to try and slow it down again, then looked back in the direction we were headed, “I know this place is huge, but where in Void’s empty maw is this thing taking us?”

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  “I hope it’s taking us somewhere we can get answers about what happened to all the residents of this place.” Jophixa growled irritably, going back to keeping a watchful eye. “Or at least answer the question of if there’s anything here that will help us against the Ktonshi. If this whole trip was a waste of time, I’m going to need something to shoot.”

  “I’ll build you a target drone or something. As long as you promise not to shoot at me, okay?”

  “No promises.”

  The quarantine pod seal cracked open with a subdued hiss, startling Giselle slightly from the book she’d been reading. The small, green skinned face of the woman she’d come to know as Tzaki Tratsa peeked in from the opening, her silver hair held back in a neat bun. She handed her an AR visor, indicating she should put it on. When she did, the woman spoke, the words coming up as text on the visor, as well as translated by the bone conducting audio set.

  “Sorry for the delay in getting you out of there Lieutenant Kintzel.” The goblin-like alien told her, “There are some important things going on and it has us all a bit distracted, but it’s not fair to keep you cooped up in there. Come on out and we’ll get you to where you can clean up and settle into a bunk.”

  Giselle crawled out of the pod and stood up, hearing her vertebra pop as she did and grunted with relief at the release. She took a moment to stretch out the kinks that had built up in her athletic form during her forced idleness, causing more joints to pop and crack. Then she raked her fingers through her short blonde hair before saying, “Thanks. I appreciate you guys are being careful about this contagion that Tindron was talking about, but it’s good to be able to stretch my back again.”

  The tsaki, their word for doctor as she’d learned, chuckled. “I’m pretty sure he told you we had to slap that thing together on pretty short notice, otherwise we would have tried to make it larger for you. Thomas’s enclosure wasn’t anywhere near as well appointed as yours, just bare walls and a bed, but we hadn’t expected him to come face to face with a ktonshi out there. Thankfully his EVA suit was made of material we know is resistant to the contagion, so he didn’t need to be in quarantine as long.” She waved Giselle to follow her, leading her out a door and down a corridor.

  “Thomas was the one that pulled me out of my ship, right?”

  “Yup. Really glad you woke up in time to spot that ktonshi before it jumped you. We’ve gotten pretty fond of having the guy around.”

  With a shrug, she then scratched the back of her head, “Where is he anyway, I’d like to shake his hand and say thanks. I was pretty certain I was going to die out there.”

  They stepped into a lift and began to rise up through two decks as Giselle responded after a slight hesitation. “He’s off the ship at the moment. We’re currently investigating a derelict space station, he’s one of our engineers on board. I’m afraid that’s why we haven’t been able to get that call out to your sister. There is some unusual radiation in this system that is interfering with long range comms.”

  Giselle went rigid when she heard Tratsa's explanation, a deadly suspicion sending chills up her spine. Her reaction was so profound that Tratsa noticed and became worried, turning to her and pulling out a medical scanner. “Are you…”

  But Giselle snapped out of it before the doctor could begin scanning, “You said a derelict space station? It’s not - no, it can’t be, we weren’t in a tunnel for that long, we’d still be at least a week out from getting to H48948 even with the fastest Commonwealth ship!” she shook her head, “but that’s the only derelict station that’s in this area, and E.O. probed the region heavily.”

  “Hold on, Ms Kintzel, you’re on a giobhioni vessel. Our drives are much faster than your Commonwealth ones. What about the station at H48948 has you so disturbed?”

  A violent shiver ran down Giselle’s body. She only knew these details because she was supposed to be on the next escort team Enigma Osiris sent to the station and had been briefed on it. The mission was to take place directly after the confrontation with the rogue ship. “Doc, if we’re docked at the station orbiting H48948d, you need to warn your people.” she finally said, deciding keeping secrets wasn’t worth getting this whole crew killed, including herself. “Enigma Osiris already had a team here several months ago, and it did not go well for them. Something here killed every last person on the team!”

  “Commander, we have some new intel you and your team should be aware of.” Stacy broke their silent vigil suddenly.

  We’d been riding along on this transport drone for 4 hours at this point, and around a half an hour before, it had paused for a short time. Not long after, a concealed door in the wall whooshed open, revealing a relatively small room beyond. We’d then trundled inside, the door had closed back up, and we quickly began to feel the G forces of us ascending. Five minutes after, we exited the lift and began moving down another corridor.

  “Go ahead Stacy, we’re listening.”

  “Tzaki Tratsa took some time while you were enjoying your joyride to let our unexpected passenger out of her quarantine pod.” She explained, “And while escorting her to the bunk you had assigned to her, it was discovered that after the confrontation that left Lieutenant Kintzel stranded, her flotilla was supposed to be headed here.”

  I could see Jophixa’s ears lift with interest, “So we avoided a confrontation with them, good news, but not really that important to the situation right now.”

  “That’s because that’s not the important part, commander.” Stacy continued, “The important part was that the flotilla was on its way here to investigate what happened to the first team that was sent here. Apparently they know that the entire team died violent deaths once they were on board the station, but that’s about it. Their mission started much like yours has, and then communication got sporadic and confusing. Then the medical telemetry sent back by their ship reported each member dying one after the other.”

  We all stopped and looked at each other with the same looks in our eyes: dread.

  “Well, that would have been nice to know before we docked,” I grumbled, “I would have seen about upping the armor rating on this suit to go along with the weapons!”

  “Perhaps, but that might have delayed us from getting on board until it was too late, Thomas.” was Stacy’s reply “There’s more to report, this coming from Ms Mend’nasa in regards to the flight recorder. With Lieutenant Kintzel’s assistance, I was able to decrypt the data rather quickly. It seems she has some secrets that you’ll be interested in when you get back to the ship Commander, but are not important right now. The important part is that in decrypting the flight recorder data, and from information Lieutenant Kintzel has provided us, we can confirm that the flotilla she was part of was destroyed by a ktonshi vessel. Not only that, but it was the derelict ship that Captain Barstol salvaged with Thomas’s assistance. The ktonshi have transformed it completely into one of their own. As far as Enigma Osiris has been able to determine, the entire crew of the M.S. Gladstone has fallen to the contagion, and is now ktonshi. Not only that, but they believe some security personnel and mercenaries from one of their top secret facilities have been taken as well.”

  Jophixa began to swear, vehemently, and she didn’t just stick to giobhioni. Stacy was still translating for me, but I knew from the implant that the words were crossing at least ten different languages. “So we now have one hundred percent confirmation that the Ktonshi are now present and active in this region and this time period. Void’s Maw! And that ship was last seen only a stone's throw from here.”

  “Unfortunately, that’s not the last of it Commander.”

  “There’s more?”

  “Yes Commander, one last thing. When the Ktonshi ship destroyed the flotilla, it sent out a signal, which our systems interpolate to audio as this.” and a sound came through our headsets that was like the most demonic, eldritch spirit screaming out in tortuous pain. “I’m sure you’ll recognize this from the records as a Ktonshi victory cry. But a few short seconds after the signal was sent out, Lieutenant Kintzel’s ship recorded this.” and a second, quieter scream like an echo of the first, played through our headsets. I was no audiophile, but even I noticed a slight difference to the tonal sequence of the sound, it was not a simple echo of any kind.

  “Another one?” Tindron asked quietly. “There’s another ktonshi ship out there somewhere?”

  Jophixa smashed her fist against a railing, sending a metallic clang echoing through the corridor. “Yes, another one, Commander. Possibly much, much older. Shit just got a lot more dangerous gentlemen. I hope this drone gets us to wherever we’re going soon.”

  The Salvager’s Plague.

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