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 / 1110
Jess looked at the ship’s ramp and then at the others. “Well, those apes are going after our friends! I say we go in now and think later! We breach the ship and then we go from there!”
Jinn only chuckled as he nodded. “Smart idea, want point?”
Jess only nodded and ran, leading the way with her pistol drawn. Ahead of them, they heard the cries and screams of the White Apes slowly dying down. With a scowl, Jess ran up the ramp and into the ship. As soon as she saw the room she came into, her mind flashed back to the Spirit. “An airlock room this size? On a Yard-Ship?”
“Must be for work on the hull. Has to be,” Al said as he ran after her.
Jess nodded as Racha ran past her. Following the Special Services agent, Jess frowned as she saw her go to the side of the open door.
Racha looked in and swore under her breath. Looking back, her face showed her anger. “Those monsters wrecked it! A locker room and it’s wrecked!”
As the others joined her, Jess looked in and saw the lockers on their side and winced. She hadn’t seen such destruction outside of a movie or game in her life. She had heard of such things, but she had never seen it.
“I don’t like this, at all,” Jinn said bluntly. “This makes those Ape things that much more of a threat.”
As everyone looked at him Burt just chuckled. “Why not? They’re gone! So they destroyed this room, so what? What does this have to do with anything that those things could do to us?”
“Because this was done to slow us down,” Sara said bluntly.
Jess looked at her, then back into the room. With horror, she finally noticed what Sara and Jinn had. The lockers were thrown about, but they were set so that it would take effort to walk over them. The only reason that these things would have done that was to make the group’s efforts to chase them harder. And that could only have been possible if those things could plan and reason.
“Stars! Why didn’t those things hunt that monster down before he found us!?” Al asked with horror and anger in his voice.
“Something for later, move!” Racha snapped. As everyone looked at her she only glared back. “Jinn, go first with that trick of yours, take someone. Hold the doorway into the ship until we get there!”
“Got it. Who’s coming?” Jinn asked as he looked at the others
“Me!” Jess said as she stepped towards him.
Jinn only nodded before he grabbed her.
In a moment, Jess felt herself being pulled by Jinn. They appeared above the lockers in the air, but before they could fall, Jinn pulled her along and they were at the door. Jess fell to her knees and almost threw up but swallowed it back down.
“oh nova that was….. I just that,” Jess said before havening again.
“Yeah, I’m told that it's hard on others. By Racha, if you must know,” Jinn said from above her.
Jess just let that sink in and tried to keep her anger down. She had volunteered for this after all, but Racha should have said how it was. But that was something that she could talk to Racha about later.
Getting up, she looked out the door and almost sighed as she saw that the Apes were gone. She saw a console next to the door and almost yelled in joy. But then she saw the state of it and then had to fight down a curse. She looked up and saw Jinn looking down one way the hallway the door opened to and then nodded, looking the other way. She saw the signs of a primitive dwelling here, but it had all been destroyed. For a moment she wondered why the Apes had done that, but then she just shrugged as she looked down the corridor.
They stood there in silence for three minutes before Jinn nodded. “Clear! Hey Al, you said you’ve got nanites to talk to Interface Pads right?”
“That old control tech? Yeah! No console to hack into but that?!” Al called from behind them.
Looking back, she saw Burt leading the way with Karakpace. Some of his smaller bugs moved along the sides of the room. She almost fired at one when it reached them, but she forced down the action. Karakpace was helping them, they had the same enemy now. And that was worth some trust.
Racha crested the lockers and glared. “Stay silent!”
Jess only moved her hand across her lips before nodding. She went back to guarding the doorway, this time with help from the smaller bugs. They stayed silent for the next five minutes until Racha could lead the others to the door. They moved into the hallway and looked around. They stared at the destruction around them, trying to understand it.
“This must have been where Callahin lived. But why here? Why not in one of the quarters!?” Sara asked the question the others were thinking.
Jess looked around, trying to find anything that might tell her anything. But all she found were more questions. The way that Callahin had spoken of his past, growing up on that station, had been real. How could he have……Jess went still as she suddenly realized how. That one thing that made all the sense here, was how everything slotted together. She held her hand to her mouth, forcing down her horror. This revelation only raised questions that they would never know the answers to. But the questions changed everything about their 'friend'.
“That’s it,” Jess suddenly exclaimed loudly. “That waste of generics! That slime monster filth!”
As everyone looked at her, she just kept cursing Callahin. She called him every bad word she could, grabbed what had been his belongings, and destroyed one. She was going for another when something grabbed her arm. She looked and saw Burt’s hand over her forearm.
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“Hey! What is it?! What did you figure out!?” Burt demanded.
“That cursed power of his! He ate the memories of someone from that station! Callahin could be anyone from anywhere! This might be how he grew up for all we know!” Jess said with a snarl as she gestured to the materials around her.
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Al meanwhile had gone to the Interface Pad and put his hand on it. He closed his eyes and let the data flow into him, cutting him off from the world. He looked around at the data before him and whistled as he saw how old this ship was. Looking at who had commanded it caused him to raise a digital eyebrow before he looked at what he could access. Frowning he sent a few data packs to many locations, slowly letting them work in the infinite second.
After a few nanoseconds, he saw that the programming updates had finished. He looked inwards with the updates to the ship’s sensors he had made. But as he looked at the data, his eyes widened in horror at what he could see now.
“By the First Program!” Al cried as he stepped back, disconnecting as he took in what he had found.
“Al!” Jinn’s voice barked before Al felt someone grab him as he stumbled.
Al looked around and saw the others all looking at him. He forced a small smile as he looked at everyone. “I found everything we needed to know.”
“Good man!” Racha said as she nodded. “So where are our friends, our new target, the Apes, and the factory?”
“Wait! How did you find them!?” Sara asked shock in her voice.
“Easy,” Al said as he forced himself back to his feet. Shaking his limbs he looked at the others before reporting what he had done. “I sent in a program that changed the sensors, they can see into this thing now. From there I found everything here. The apes went that way, after their target.
Al points down the corridor with a dark look. “They might be able to lock down a few doors, force those things to come back this way. But I found a master map, that shows a way into the service tunnels. I need someone to go with me to the bridge, I can turn on the security systems there. That’s the best thing that can save us!”
“Save us!? From what!?” Burt asked horror in his voice.
Karakpace only released a rumbling growl.
“He used what that one knew then? There is a monster here?” Karakpace rumbled.
“Yeah. Something big moving on the other side from a ramp into the mountain. I couldn’t see what it was, but it was big. There are bones around it,” Al said bluntly. At the looks he was getting, Al just kept talking. “I need to drop a data pack. It’ll let Paige know we’re here and update her on where to go. If we can throw Callahin at those Apes they might leave if we show we want this place! And to do that, we need to get to the bridge!”
Al touched the Interface Pad again, and a door twenty feet away set into the wall opened.
“That should give us the fastest route to the bridge! Come on!” Al said.
“Wait, we need to split up!” Racha said before Al could move, grabbing his arm.
“Wait, what?! Oh,” Al said as he looked around and realized what Racha meant.
“I’m going after the Apes. I won’t budge on this,” Karakpace said bluntly.
“I’ll go with him, Racha you should go with Al,” Jinn said as he looked at her.
Jess saw Racha about to open her mouth but then she nodded.
“Fine, but I’ll need someone else to come with me. Jess, with me,” Racha said.
“ME!? Why?” Jess exclaimed in shock.
“Simple. I need someone alone who knows tech. And Sara’s powers and skills might be needed with the Apes. Plus Burt has that plasma weapon. I don’t want a stray shot to destroy the bridge,” Racha said bluntly.
“HEY! No, that’s fair. Very fair,” Burt said, looking away.
Jess looked from Jinn to Racha for a moment before she nodded. “I don’t like it, but it’s the best thing that we can do. Good luck!”
As the group split up, Jess looked back at the others before she followed Racha into the passageway. As the door closed behind her, she hoped that this was the right choice. But she had a strange feeling that there was going to be a mess at the end, a mess that might be deadly.
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Sk’p looked behind them as the three of them ran down the corridor. They had left the Apes behind them, but something was bothering him. But he just couldn’t figure out what it was, it seemed to be just out of reach. No matter what track he went down, that feeling of something being wrong stayed there.
“So you’ve never been here before?” Paige asked as she led the way.
“NOPE! The doors kept me out. I thought those pads had something to do with it, but I never got them to work. Guess the tech is too out of date for my Nanos!” Callahin said, a grin in his voice.
Sk’p tried to figure out what to think about Callahin, but he was a mystery. He was against going this way, but now he was all for it. It had to have something to do with the Apes behind them. He could see him being scared of them for some reason. For all he knew, the man had been attacked by an Ape as a child. He had seen and heard of strangers if he was honest.
“So how much of this place have you seen?” Sk’p asked, shamelessly fishing for anything that he could use.
“Well, not much. The corridor we came into is my kitchen. Well, I prepare my food there and cook outside if it’s not raining. I just go through the rooms to throw the bones away into the ocean. Very easy,” Callahin said looking over his shoulder at Sk’p with a grin.
Sk’p frowned. Something about that was bothering him. He remembered that Callahin was suffering from an injury that took a lot of his memories. So the man had to rebuild himself to survive here alone. But the way he spoke, it was like he had done that all his life. He wasn’t from this ship, it was too old. But what kind of world did he come from?
“You never moved beyond that corridor?” Paige asked a strange tone in her voice.
“Oh, I did!” Callahin exclaimed, laughing now. After a few moments, he grinned and walked ahead to turn around. Listen well! Beyond my cooking place, there’s my sleeping chamber a few minutes’ walk from there! I found something to use to block the door so I can sleep without worry! All in all, this place has been good to me,” Callahin said with a wide grin.
“So you never went to where we want to go through?” Sk’p asked pointedly.
“I think, no. I know the room you want if I’m seeing this ship in my mind right? The other way led there too, but it went by this other ramp thing that went into the mountain. I looked into that place and used it as a garbage dump on monsoon days. Good hiding place really,” Callahin said with a laugh. “But that way has another pad in front of the locked door! I only know it’s open because I saw it seaside once. I was out in a raft deep fishing, something my crew made before we tried to move into here.”
“So your crew found this ship? It wasn’t you alone?” Sk’p asked, pouncing on the answer. If he was right, then maybe there were some of the crew members of Callahin around here. They might be getting ready to ambush him and Paige!
“No, all crew dead. We died on track to ship. I alone made it into this place. Good people didn’t deserve their fates,” Callahin said, bringing a hand to his face to rub his eyes, turning around.
Sk’p almost bought the act, but Paige flashed him a sign behind her back. The sign was the Fed Sign for ‘liar’. At that, Sk’p forced his face to stay expression, to show the calm he didn’t feel. The term liar could mean many things, and none of them were good. If he was right, then this was the worst thing that could happen. The worst of all his bad ideas about Callahin.
“So we’re almost there Paige?” Sk’p asked a forced cheer in his voice.
“Yeah, after that I just need to find a platform that works and we could save the others!” Paige said with cheer. She flashed another sign, this one for ‘anger’.
Sk’p could only look at Callahin, and barely keep from exploding. He didn’t know but there really was something wrong with the man. He had to find a way to get him to keep ahead of them. The only time to expose your back was if you trusted the person there. And he had lost all trust in Callahin.
Suddenly Sk’p went still as he heard something echo off the walls. He slowly turned his head trying to figure out what it was. It was strange, it was like something he had heard once before.
“So I think we might find, but who knows how long it was exposed to the elements. I just want you to know we might have to find something else to save them. But this old thing has to have something that we can use!” Callahin said, excitement in his voice.
“Stay quiet!” Sk’p barked, a strange feeling going through him. He tried to keep thinking, listening to the sounds as they kept getting louder. He knew his race had better hearing than humans, but they had to hear something by now. But after a moment he finally heard it clearer, and he wished that he didn’t. “No. move!”
Sk’p ran, grabbing Paige and putting her under his right arm as he ran.
“Wait!” Callahin cried out from behind him, but he ran after them a moment later. “What is it!?”
“Those Apes! They found a way to get in here! I can hear them!” Sk’p cried out, his eyes looking for anything that they could use.
“What!? Move it!” Paige barked, fear in her voice.
As they traveled deeper into the ship, the screams slowly grew louder. It was when Paige cursed that Sk’p knew that she had finally heard them. He wanted to keep calm, but it was hard. They had only killed the last one because Callahin shot one of them through the head. If there were as many of them behind as he thought there were, then they would overwhelm the group. They had to move, find someplace they could make a stand or blockade.
“There! That door ahead!” Paige yelled suddenly.
Sk’p snapped his head up and saw what Paige had. An Interface Pads was just by the right turn on the wall across from them. It might only be a storeroom, but any port in an asteroid storm as the saying went.
He ran faster and stopped just in front of it.
“I can hear them, they’re close!” Call exclaimed, fear in his voice.
Sk’p barely kept from throttling the scum. His screams had to be bringing the monsters to them. After they had left the corridor with the door to the Apes, they passed three cross corridors. Were he apes tracking by scent? Were they hunting by sound? Either of those meant that whatever room they found would have the Apes staying outside it. But they had no other choice.
“Put me down, now!” Paige barked.
Sk’p looked down and felt the blood leave his face as he realized what he had done. When he grabbed her, the way he carried her forced Paige’s arms against her body.
He hastily put her down, and she slammed her hand on the pad. She stood there for a moment, blinking before the door opened.
“IN!” Paige bellowed.
“THEIR HERE!” Callahin yelled, fear in his voice.
Sk’p didn’t look back, he just ran into the doorway and then slammed against the wall, Paige behind him. Callahin followed, and Paige closed the doors, cutting off the sounds.
Sk’p grinned, then he looked up. He stared aghast at the horror they had walked into.