Harry dropped me into the elevator.
“Wait here. William needs assistance.” He rushed out of the chamber, firing his other semi-repeater.
“Beta! Help me now!” I muttered to Beta vehemently. I saw that now William was running away from the Arachnid swarm. Harry took out another arachnid, but there were too many of them.
“Engage Dual Combat Protocols.” Beta thought out.
I felt the raw power filling my veins once more. I stumbled out of the elevator. Harry now started to run back to the elevator. He quickly outstripped William. William looked himself at the nearest arachnid, which screamed in his face.
I leapt towards him. The arachnid grabbed his arm.
“NO!” I screamed, not another person fed to the monsters. I leapt towards the Arachnid’s head. I landed on its head. William fell dazed to the floor, missing his upper arm. He yelled in agony.
I scooped up the semi-auto and fired into the arachnid’s head. It fell dead. I fired at the other spider as it attempted to kill William. It turned back to face me, and then the bullets entered its skull. The other Arachnids scattered, chasing after those watching the battle.
Suddenly the air was full of bullets. I looked up to see flashes of light emitted from the shuttle above me. The arachnids fell dead under the barrage.
“Thank goodness they’re dead.” William said. He looked down at his arm. He drew in a quick breath as he saw why. He looked around in a daze. I wanted to do something for him, but I had injuries of my own.
I breathed in, and then pulled him by his good arm. He leaned heavily on me, trying to stem the pain. I slipped on a puddle of blood but managed to stay upright. Slowly we made it to the elevator. Harry looked to still be in shock, staring at us and blinking now and again.
When finally, he came to himself we were inside the elevator. He pressed the button with an embarrassed look.
Disengage Dual Combat Protocols, I thought.
“I apologize for not helping you. I… I extremely dislike arachnids. If exposed for too long, I go into temporary shock.” He explained. He gave me a second look as my eyes switched back from red to blue.
The door closed, and the elevator shot upwards. As the elevator came to a halt, we floated upwards, now in zero-g.
The door opened to reveal a platform with a shuttle sitting on it. The shuttle was about 200 feet long, the cockpit facing towards space. The name, “Eternal Legend” was stenciled in white letters on the side facing me. A woman floated out of the shuttle with a worried look on her face, “Cap! You’re injured!”
“Thanks for the covering fire, Margarite.” He changed the subject. Will winced as a trail of blood floated behind him. Harry stayed behind, embarrassed by his lack of a role in the final fight.
“Our PD sufficed.” She answered crisply, “Let’s go to the MB.” I assumed that meant, “Medic Bay.”
She led us inside.
“Margarite. I need you to play captain for a little while. I’m incapacitated, and we needed to be gone yesterday. Show us out of this dock.” The captain spoke seriously.
“But Cap, I’m XO.” She replied.
“Do your job, XO. Get us out of here.”
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She saluted, “Yes, Cap.”
Another crew member led us through the cramped cockpit, through a grubby bunk room, and into a dimly lit closest. Harry entered, and then left with Margarite to the cockpit. I stayed.
“Captain. What happened?” asked a man in a white medic outfit.
“Giant spider took my arm for lunch. Can you get me a synthetic one?”
“Don’t worry, Captain. I have a stock of mechanic limbs for every single crew member on-board. Luckily I designed yours….” He screwed up his face to remember, “2 years and 248 days ago. Have you grown Captain?”
“Not in arm size, no.” The captain replied quickly.
“Good, it should fit perfectly.” The crew member who showed us in then left the room. The doctor pushed a button and then the wall behind him lifted to reveal an inner compartment. A rack of synthetic body parts was stored in it.
I looked away in disgust. The doctor, however, appeared to enjoy these appliances.
“Ah…. here it is, Captain. Your new right arm!” The doctor pulled a large, reflected metal arm from the rack. He then closed the wall to my relief.
“If you could get on this table here, captain.” The doctor gestured to the table which dominated the small room.
The captain got on the table and laid down. The doctor laid the arm where it was about to be attached and then pulled out an interesting machine.
“I’m going to give you an operation pill, here you are.” The doctor put the pill in the captain’s right hand. The captain inserted the pill into his mouth. His body relaxed, and he went unconscious.
I looked away, and then decided to leave the room. I exited and then shut the door behind me. I now stood in a large room where 10 bunks were spaced evenly across the floor, each with a certain amount of free space around it. No one was in here. I made my way carefully through all the personal belongings laid out on every piece of furniture.
I then entered the cockpit room. Eight people sat strapped, in at, their consoles, each console placed on its own wall. Harry had strapped himself into a chair below the captain’s seat. In the middle of the spacious room was a seat where Margarite sat uncomfortably. I assumed this was the captain’s chair.
Margarite swiveled the chair around to look at me.
“Who are you?”
Harry answered for me, “She decided to drop in onto our Aerial on our way back. She helped me fight off the Arachnids, which proved quite aggressive. I still don’t know why such a large number of them were stored here, and then used at this time. I believe we must have triggered some sort of special alarm.”
“Then the Alliance will be after us.” Margarite surmised. “Ship, detach and leave.” She ordered. The ship jerked but stayed in position.
Margarite frowned, and then ordered something in another language. The ship jerked again.
“The Alliance broke the DM. We’re stuck unless we blast it.”
“Why don’t we shoot it?”
“It will give us away. Stretched our luck already.”
“One of us could give the shuttle a shove.”
“Pushing won’t help.” She muttered and swung back around to face the crowd of consoles.
I turned and floated towards the airlock door. Maybe I was strong enough with Beta to dislodge the shuttle.
I pushed myself out of the shuttle and then I grabbed a rail on the outside of the shuttle. I worked my way backwards, towards where the massive engine waited. It was mounted at a little bit of an angle.
I pushed myself down on the platform. I almost bounced off in the low gravity. I snatched another rail nearby and held on. My drifted up so that I was vertical to the platform. I twisted my hands around to try to flip my body horizonal. It didn’t work.
Blood flowed into my head. My head throbbed.
“Beta, I don’t know how to maneuver in zero-g. Can you help me?”
I almost heard a laugh coming from Beta. Then I heard her say in my head, Engage Autopilot Protocols.
A heads-up display again appeared. I followed the motion described on it, and my body drifted back down to horizonal. Back at this comfortable position, I crawled forward underneath the shuttle. I almost bonked my head on another engine, set underneath the fuselage. It was much smaller than the main drive. I maneuvered around it, following Beta’s instructions.
Then I saw the docking port. The side attached to the shuttle looked intact, being a large disc with strange engraving on it. The docking port attached to the habitat was a massive of cables and metal, all fizzing with electricity.
What in the world is this, Beta?
“This is a messed-up docking port. Grab a rail and yank.”
I found a rail attached to the metal floor. I tugged it free of its socket and brandished it towards the metal mess.
“Impale the docking port with the rail. The only thing keeping the shuttle attached to the station is the magnetic attraction between the plate and the station.”
I thrust the pole into the docking port. It fizzled once more. I watched fascinated as electricity leaped from the pole to my hands. The electricity simply disappeared into my hands, and they started to glow.
The shuttle floated up a few inches, and then the secondary engine on the shuttle fired. The shuttle rocketed forward. My chance of escape was running away before my eyes.