Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 5
Uninhabited Island /Tunnels near Yard Ship
Galactic Standard Time / 1140
Paige panted as she took stock of what had happened. She had to admit that this was beyond anything that she thought she would experience today. Form the wolves, the plant thing and now being hunted by Apes. She had to admit, that she was happy with how she was handling it. As she looked down, catching her breath she started to smell rotten meat.
“So I guess we came into an old food storage room then? Must have gone rotten a long time ago!” Paige said with a slight joking edge to her voice. But as Sk’p and Callahin stayed silent, she started to get worried. “What’s wrong guys? I mean sure, this will be hard to clean up. But that’s what they……”
Paige felt someone grab her head and she was forced to see what was in the chamber. She felt her stomach lurch and then she bent over, throwing up part of her last meal.
“You okay Paige?” Sk’p asked a kind tone in his voice.
“As good as I could be,” Paige said before she looked up.
In front Of them was a large chamber, a hundred feet wide and two hundred long. There were ten rows of metal poles that went from one side of the room to the other. And along those were bodies. Skeletons with handcuffs with wires connecting them to the poles, at least a thousand of them! To her horror, the bodies were different sizes, and that had to mean children! And while the skeletons were of different races, she could see human children here and there.
“What is this?” Callahin asked, horror in his voice.
Paige barely kept from screaming at him. She could feel the awe and respect he felt, and that disgusted him.
“We told you that this ship was from a self-styled Pirate lord, I guess he was a slave trader too. I always hated him,” Sk’p said as he walked between one of the rows.
Paige was about to say something when they heard screaming from behind him. Without a word, Paige steeled herself. She felt the same emotional echo from those Apes as before, but now it was greater. There was something else there now, something more focused. Its hate and anger were like lava, burning so hot she was surprised they were still active. And as the pounding continued, she didn’t feel the anger grow. It just kept at the level it was at, and it seemed to be looking for something.
Without a word, she looked from the door to the rows of dead and swallowed. “We don’t have a choice. Let’s move!”
Paige ran after Sk’p who led the way. She kept her eyes on him, not letting her focus shift away. She might have to run through these bodies, but she didn’t have to let this final horror break him. All she could do was plan to move these later and give them a burning burial later.
As soon as they reached the end they looked around and found the Interface Pad. As she walked over she took a deep breath and prepared for the horror that this was going to be. She knew that these things sometimes had commands that only went to the room they were in. And she felt horror at what pirate slavers could have used this tech to do.
“We could try to break the door down,” Sk’p said, looking at her.
Paige felt his worry and smiled at the door, sighing as she did. She knew that he had to have done a few raids on pirate ships. How slaver ships had been set up. She figured that he knew what she might find here. But if they could break the door down, then the Apes would do the same behind them. No, the best thing to do was to open the door with Interface Pad, not even let the chance exist that the door could be broken.
“No, I have to. You know that,” Paige said with a sigh.
“Am I missing something here?” Callahin asked from behind him.
“Yeah, this here? It’s on the middle of what the worst scum could do with tech. I don’t know what they could have done with commands in the room and on the other side,” Sk’p bit out.
Paige ignored them and touched the Interface Pad with her free hand. In a moment, she felt her mind being accessed and blinked. She was ‘in’ a virtual space that hadn’t been there the last time she had accessed the ship. “What happened? What is this? Was the ship not awake the last time I opened it? Did it need something else to fully boot up?”
As Paige looked around, she found something. It was a glowing green square floating in the ‘space’ before her. But what was more shocking was a symbol on it, the symbol of the Spirit of Adventure. She couldn’t believe it, what did this mean? But then she grinned as she realized who had left this for her. “They made it! They're alive! All we need to make it back to them!”
But as soon as she touched the square, her face started to fall. Her eyes widened as she took in the data, her mouth dropped open as she tried to understand it. Suddenly, everything made sense. Every question she had about Callahin was answered, and she didn’t want to know this.
Without a second, she looked around the virtual space and found the command she needed. She looked at it, and with a single moment she sent the command, and she blinked. She was ‘back’ in the chamber, and without a word, she tried to figure out how much time had passed.
“…….So yes, this here? I’ve seen and heard of a lot worse,” Sk’p said with a hard edge to his voice.
Paige could barely keep from moving, the time had passed in barely a nanosecond. She knew that programming tech had advanced in the last few years. But this was beyond anything that she thought was possible. She had a strange desire to talk to Al about how he had done this, she could see a lot of things this could do. “Not now.”
“You okay?” Sk’p asked as he and the monster they were with turned to look at her.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Paige kept from screaming as she turned her gaze at Callahin. She had to play it cool, keep from exploding, and find a way to get away from him. With everything that she had just learned, she wanted to shoot him herself. But he might have another ability that he could use to defend against them, and then feed on them. No, the best thing to do was to keep doing what she had been doing.
“Yeah, it just shocked me. come on, we need to move!” Paige said as she looked at the door as it opened. At least she was getting out of this slaughterhouse, there was that.
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As she followed after Al, Racha kept looking around. Something about this place was bothering her, and she couldn’t figure out why. So far, they had been making good time. The one thing that she could think about was that this seemed to be familiar to her. She couldn’t figure out what was making her feel this way, that danger was just hiding out of reach.
The passageway they were going down wasn’t that wide, only six feet. And it was a unitary white with lights overhead. Every now and then, they came across doors that they left alone. Their goal was farther ahead of them, and they would know it when they saw it. The few signs they passed were normal, ‘galley one’, ‘main storage’, what she expected on a yard ship. But one sign that looked new said ‘product holding’, that one made her pause. She had a feeling what it was used for, but she still hoped that she was wrong.
“So, this is the interior?” Burt said with a strange look on his face. “I’ve been inside part of one once, but it had been used overgrown with vines. But this must make it easy to move around.”
“That’s the idea behind them really. All for letting security forces move around borders,” Al said with a laugh ahead of them.
“Still, are you sure this will work? We could use these things to track down that scum and save those two!” Burt said with a hard edge to his voice.
For a second, Racha thought her old teacher was speaking to her. He always used that tone of voice whenever he was talking about some old foes that escaped him.
“Don’t like that Callahin got one over you?” Racha asked, a smirk on her face.
“It was more the sentient eater thing really. That’s the one thing that most people on this world will agree with. Those things are to be hunted down whenever possible!” Burt said an artic chill in his voice.
Racha looked back and saw the scowl on his face, nodding as she turned around.
“That’s one of the few things on this planet that everyone follows! The supremacist even tracks down their own. I heard that they kill them slowly!” Burt said with a growl as he looked at Racha. “What about your people? Have many of them appear amongst you all?”
For a second, all Racha could do was look at his eyes. He glared back at her, and his eyes were even shrinking as she watched him.
“We only have a few appear every decade or so. And most of them usually had an external factor that made them that way. The ones caused by sickness or bioweapons results are the worst!” Racha said as she looked at him.
Seeing him take a step back made her feel a bit of joy. She didn’t know what had brought this out of him. But it seemed that he had beliefs about this, strong ones. For a moment, she wondered just where they came from, but then she just knew.
“Keep moving! From what I saw on the map, we’re almost there! Another ten at the most!” Al called out with a forced cheerfulness.
Burt sighed and nodded, stepping past Racha. He looked at her for a few moments before whispering a single word. “Sorry.”
Racha only kept her face blank by practice. The way that he had reacted just now told her enough. Somehow, there Burt had run into a Sentient Eater before. She didn’t know exactly how to feel about that. She wasn’t lying, most of those she had fought with were the results of external factors. But the ones that did it by choice? Those were the true monsters that haunted the void.
After another minute of silent walking, Burt finally spoke again. “So, you’ve ever been in a ship like this? Either of you?”
“A friend of mine was working on a VR walk-through of a later class of these. That was the most for me. What about you? Got any stories you can talk about Racha?” Al asked from the front.
Racha kept quiet for a few moments. Finally, she released a sigh. “Once, a long time ago. It was another class, but supposedly a pirate had stolen it. I never bought it, not when the hijackers all killed themselves.”
“False Flag? Makes sense. The city-states in the Desert Realm would sometimes do that according to rumors. But then most people believe that’s propaganda really. Don't know what to believe myself,” Burt said with a sigh as they reached an intersection.
As they passed by it, Racha looked to the right and went still. She was staring right at blaster marks on the walls. “Hello! We’ve got something!”
“What!?” Burt exclaimed as he and Al turned. They followed her gaze and saw the same marks she had. For a moment they said nothing, and then Al looked closer.
“I think this was a while ago. Could this have been part of what Callahin did? No, how would he have gotten in here? A raid then?” Al asked as he touched the marks.
“But if it’s there, then it came from…… what’s that?” Burt asked softly.
They followed his gaze down the left passageway, and Racha went still.
There to the left was the broken body of a robot. It was a vehicle frame, with two rail legs leading to a central platform. It was around five feet long and had two blasters built into the body.
“That’s a ‘Rail Skimmer’,” Al breathed in awe. “Those were some of the earliest models of controlled mobile defenses! But they were created years after Zeelitrix died!”
Racha went still and slowly turned her head towards Al. He must have noticed this because he looked at her and gulped. Burt seemed to figure something was up because he looked between them with a confused look in her eyes.
“What is it?” Burt asked, but Racha ignored him.
All she did was look at Al as she slowly moved her hand to her pistol.
“Zeelitrix!? What does Zeelitrix have to do with this ship!?” Racha demanded.
Al blinked and then winced. “Oh, I forgot. This was one of his ships.”
“IT WAS WHAT!? You idiot! Why didn’t you say anything?!” Racha exploded before she looked around. Suddenly the passageway looked that much more deadly. Every shadow was a place that could hide a trap that could kill them all. And the signs that they had passed, their meaning took on a darker tone.
“What’s wrong?” Al asked as he looked at her. “This place is asleep! Whatever he might have used it for doesn’t matter.”
“It matters! He used these ships as prison barges, slave carriers, and troop transports! The troops were all in cryo-sleep! And the Service found a crashed ship that scavengers had woke up an army! It almost sparked another war!” Racha barked as she drew out her weapon.
She looked at the Rail Skimmer and tried to think of where others of them might be. Al meanwhile had his mouth open and she glared at him.
“We’ll talk later! For now, move! If any of those things are stuck in here, I want to be able to leave fast!” Racha barked before she went still. She blinked as she looked at the Rail Skimmer and then lunged at Al. She pushed him down moments before it fired and hit the wall.
Burt reacted, firing his weapon and blowing the main body of the robot apart.
Racha got off Al and looked at the remains, finding where a wire had been plugged into the wall from the robot. “NOVA! Someone hardwired this to the ship! We need to move now! That’s had to have called for help!”
“Right! Follow me!” Al said as he scrammed to his feet and ran towards their goal.
“I’ve got rear, go!” Burt said before he looked down the right passageway and fired. “Four of those Rail Skimmers! Move, I got the one in the lead but run!”
Racha didn’t wait, she just ran. She knew that they had only moments to reach a place to get out of the corridors. If they could trap these things in here, then maybe they could still take this place. The others would have to stay outside for a bit, but it was still something they could do. It would take more effort than they expected, but this place could be theirs.
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Jinn ran down the hallway, Sara, Jess, and Karakpace with his bugs following behind him. He had used his abilities to ‘dash’ ahead to take the lead, saying with his weapons it was the perfect place for him. So far, they hadn’t found anything yet, nothing that showed the Apes had passed them. But Al had said the sensors found them going this way, so that was that. It just meant that they were ahead of them, and that was another reason he was here. With his ‘Dash ability,’ he could get away from them, and then fire at them once he reappeared.
But as he came around a right corner, he stopped. A door had what looked like scratch marks on it, with a large single line done the middle. That was something that bothered him the most, as he had no idea where it could have come from.
“Hey, Jinn!” Al’s voice caused him to turn, seeing the others coming around the corner. As they came closer their eyes found the door.
“What is this?” Sara asked as she put her hand over a set of scratches. She splayed out her fingers and then stepped back. “The Apes made this!? Why?”
Karakpace stepped forward and seemed to breathe deeply. He stepped back and looked at the door. “This smells of dead beasts. But the scent, it’s like that of the Apes. They used this as their own hive to wait for him. They must have tried to break down the door, give them a line of retreat. Smarter than I thought possible for them.”
Jinn looked at the door and then down the hallway. The Apes had to have gone that way, and that meant that the others were that way.
“Good sign, let’s move!” Jinn said but before he could take a step, Al grabbed his arm.
Al looked at Jinn with a hard look. “We’re going into the fire now. You stay with us for now Jinn!” Al said sternly.
Jinn only nodded as Karakpace walked by.
“I’ll take point. My armor will handle the Apes much better than yours. And my hunters will be able to tell me when we get closer,” Karakpace rumbled.
Jinn only nodded, willing to let Karakpace lead. But as they walked on, Sara stayed where she was for a moment longer.
“So quick question. We know they went way by that door. So they're between us and the others, right? And we need to make sure that we can get to our people before those things do. But the question I’ve got is this. If we kill Callahin, will that cause these Apes to want to kill us?” Sara asked point blank.