De Silva raced through the ship with Moussa, Chandna, and Samoylova behind him. They had firearms as a last resort but they also carried makeshift clubs. He couldn’t stomach the thought of accidentally shooting one of his own. He had not got an update from Holly and assumed it was a desperate fight. Or maybe a hunt. They would finish it.

He had forced all memory of the dark Systems Access ducts from his mind. This was a different environment – one that he could redeem himself in. He entered the lift as soon as he came to Habitation and he pushed for the second deck while his team was still entering. The bottom deck was quiet, although he did see blood. A lot of it.

He reached the second deck, ordered TURING to open doors in front of him and went straight to the Mess. And then he froze. So did his companions. Blood was everywhere. Two ghastly fiends banged on the door to the galley. One of them had been nearly decapitated. And he recognized them – or rather who they had been. Fuller and Qureshi weren’t human anymore. The Mess was dark in the emergency illumination. The smashed aquarium, broken tableware, and blood splatters gave testament to a violent fight. And then he saw Garvey – with no eyes.

Garvey rushed them first and hurled him over the table. He crashed into cups, poles, containers and got cut up by utensils. Garvey wasn’t human either. None of them were his people anymore. The screams and shouting behind him let him know that the creatures had attacked his companions. He heard several rounds from Samoylova’s shotgun.

He rolled off the table and collapsed awkwardly into the seats. He got up all bloody, ignoring the pain. And he was sure a lot of the blood wasn’t his anyways.

But then he felt a new pain, and this one he couldn’t ignore. It was vicious. His eyes watered and his skin began to itch and burn terribly. He frantically examined himself to see what had got on him but his torment was unexplainable. And now his eyes burned as bad as his skin. It was much worse than just catching a lash or some dust in the eye.

Moussa had already wrestled the Garvey creature to the deck, and it was subdued for now. Samoylova quickly shot the Qureshi-thing and the Fuller-thing in their knees, and then she and Chanda began to pummel them after they fell to the floor. He grabbed a hatchet on the deck and went to help Moussa.

“Captain, please!” the Garvey-thing shouted as he raised the hatchet for a killing blow.

It sees me? It’s got no eyes and it sees!

“It’s not Garvey, Cap!” Moussa shouted. He was crying and snot trickled out of his nose.

He froze, looking at him through tearing eyes, and now he could feel snot trickling down his lips. It might still be Garvey. He saw the substance on him and realized that he was being changed just like how Fuller and Qureshi had been. But Garvey wasn’t that far. He may be delirious, his perception and mental state was surely being altered just like how his body was. But he might still be alive.

He had to kill all the threats in order to help those still alive in the galley though. Forgive me.

He swung the hatchet and sliced open Garvey’s head, making a gush of blood as from a bursting pipe. He closed his eyes as the blade came down on target so that he wouldn’t see it. And some of the spray caught him in the face and so it was good that he had. Tears ran down his face. He had to kill to save the rest of his crew but he didn’t want the memory. Garvey now lay peacefully.

Over near the door to the galley, Samoylova drew her 9mm and emptied it into the two other creatures while Chandna beat them with a pry bar. They spasmed on the deck and then Chandna and her plunged their knives into them. De Silva finished them with the axe while Moussa cleaned himself off using the fabric of a storage bag for EABs. The monsters stopped twitching.

“What is this burning?” Samoylova shouted. She was crying too.

Chandna rubbed his hands and inspected the irregular bumpy patches forming on his skin. “A toxin. They must have covered themselves with it as a defense mechanism. We need to find the others because they could be in worse shape.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The other door to the Mess opened and they all faced it. De Silva readied his axe, while Moussa held a prybar and Sam pointed her empty pistol. Stocky stood dripping wet at the entrance wearing only his underwear and covered with vicious rashes. Snot ran over his mouth. His eyes were wrapped in nictitating membranes. He looked over the room and shouted over the alarm, “I killed two more outside Berthing. They use poison gas.”

“We know!” Moussa yelled. “Were the others with you?”

Stocky shook his head.

De Silva looked back toward the corpses on the deck and wiped a string of snot on the sleeve of his jacket. Two more? Did he kill the main creature that they had been hunting too? His gaze came to rest on Qureshi. Words whose origin he couldn’t remember passed through his mind.

Cold, hard, empty.

Light that has left me.

How could I know that you would die?

What had he done? Tears, not just from the sting of the air, ran down his cheeks, and he labored to breathe through his burning throat. This journey had brought disaster to them all. “TURING, kill the alarms.”

TURING acknowledged the order and the Mess was silent.

Moussa went to the Galley door and spoke into the comms box. “Open up!”

“We’re indecent,” Patterson said, “give us a moment.”

They could take their time. He had what he needed. “Chandna, you stay here and check everyone. Dry off, Stocky, and stay with the doctor. Moussa and Sam, come with me. We’re going to sweep this Gate.”

They rushed to the hall outside Berthing and turned their heads in disgust. Limbs were flung across the hall, a pulverized torso lay next to a storage locker, and an alien face rested upon a crushed skull in the middle of the hall, staring upwards lifelessly with terrified eyes. Blood and chunks of flesh were everywhere – even on the ceiling. A bloody lifting exoskeleton, with chunks of flesh attached, lay in pieces in the supply closet. Large bloody footprints led into the male head. He checked inside each berthing and head and quickly verified they were clear.

“I think these are Zhu and Soliman,” Moussa said.

“I think so too.” How did Zhu get here?

“So that other creature is still loose,” Samoylova said. “In this Gate?” She wiped her nose again. All of them now had streaks of snot across their shirt sleeves.

“Maybe. I think the air is bad here too. Let’s sweep Habitation, join the others, and wash this crap off.” He wiped his nose again with his sleeve, depositing a long run of snot. All his crying made it thin and watery.

He grew more worried about the alien creature’s absence while finishing the sweep. So far, the unknown agent that was affecting them just brought an awful pain. But what if it did more and the creature was waiting for its full effect.

He led them through the accessway to Propulsion Two. He went through and opened the door to it. Only the emergency lights were lit and there was a haze that looked like smoke – but no smell. But he probably couldn’t smell anyways. Robbie was nowhere to be found. He looked back at his companions. “I don’t like the look of this. You stay here and watch my back. I’ll take a quick look around.”

“We should go together,” Samoylova said, panning her shotgun around.

“No, I don’t want you taking this risk.”

De Silva drew a pulse laser pistol with both hands while he walked in. He only noticed now that his hands were sweating profusely and shook. Was it the effect of the poison? Or was he really a coward? The haze within the Gate didn’t seem to bother him (at least no more than the gas had), and the hum of the running machinery sounded normal. Had he missed something in Habitation?

“TURING, activate all lighting circuits in Propulsion Two.”

“All normal lighting circuits are indicating that they are operating,” TURING answered. “I’ve now activated emergency lighting too.

The emergency lights didn’t do much. They gave enough illumination along the walkways for evacuation but didn’t help for working beyond that. Large areas of the Gate was still dark and obscured with the haze.

“Let’s go back,” Moussa yelled. “This Gate is compromised. We should seal it up.”

“We need it!” God, please don’t let this thing strand us here. He walked further down the main aisle. Maybe he could seal the door to the accessway on the other end. Maybe the creature was in Aux Two – just waiting for a good report from the abominations they had destroyed. He could still save his ship.

“Captain!” Samoylova shouted.

He turned and saw a dark corridor with shadowy figures. The lighting had died in the accessway too. And then a new light formed above him – red. He drew his weapon up and was met with red fire falling in streams all around. Unseen arms seized him with terrible strength and he heard screaming and gunfire from his companions while he was raised into the air. Sharp pain pierced his neck and shoulder, and then spilled throughout his whole body.

He experienced a moment of fear and confusion and then he knew. The Nineveh would return. Pazuzu walked on the surface of every world, consuming them and multiplying. He saw his crew, and all of mankind, damned forever to a tortured existence where there was no peace in death. His wife and children suffered by his side, and they served. And then there was red light and he was no more.