Irini slipped through the door, eager for a scavenger hunt. She found herself in a small, dim entryway and stopped.

Blue emergency light glowed from staggered points along the floor. The hall extended for a longish way. Rooms rested between the lights, giving off no glow of their own.

Irini looked inside one room; her heart beating fast. She could barely see through the darkness, but the shadowed shapes inside appeared to be hospital equipment and a bed. Irini had been free of the hospital for six months, and her stay hadn’t been long. Still, she would never forget the atmosphere of a place for the sick.

Irini passed more hospital rooms, just five in total: three one side of the hall and two on the other.

She reached a midpoint in the hall and found herself at a crossroads. One hallway led to what looked like a waiting room. Irini could see chairs in the dim blue light. Another hall led back to a big metal door. A key card reader rested on one side. Irini didn’t have a card, so she continued to the third hall. It took her through more hospital. She found five more rooms, and they mirrored the first set.

At the end of the hospital, she found another room blocked by a key card, except this room stood open, propped into the position by a simple doorstop.

Irini entered.

The room was large, and the blue emergency lights struggled to illuminate it. Irini paused and stared at the room’s center, where the least light reached.

Three glass cylinders dominated the space. Each possessed a control panel plopped in front. Again, Irini couldn’t read the controls. She found little writing, and what she did find was meant for Soffigen. Irini fingered the panel and found its metal cold to the touch. All three sets of controls rested, inert.

Irini raised her eyes and looked into one cylinder. A large blob, almost like a bag, dangled at the center. Wires and tubes reached from the top and bottom of the cylinder to connect to the bag, trapped inside the glass.

Irini started to circle the cylinder and stopped. A port rested one side, sealed by a material akin to black rubber. The port led to the bag inside the cylinder.

Irini frowned. She took several steps back. The port smelled a little of bodily fluids – blood and mucus.

What is this place?

Irini’s thread traced a golden path through the air, around to the base of one cylinder. Irini knelt and found a metal plaque.

Most Scaldin could speak the interspecies language but struggled to read it. Since Irini traveled on a spacecraft for most of her young life, she was blessed with both the ability to speak and read interspecies.

Though, blessed was not how she felt when she read: Artificial Womb, product of Litin.

Irini stood up and backed away from the cylinder.

“Time for me to go,” she whispered.

A door at the back of the room swung open, and a scream flowed out. A Soffigen man in a labcoat inched over the threshold. He kept his back to Irini and said harsh words in his native tongue to something inside the door.

A quiet gasp escaped Irini, and she clapped her hands over her mouth. She backpedaled and bumped into one of the cylinders. To her surprise, the glass rang, sending a high-pitched tone through the room.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

The scientist whirled to face her. “What the…?”

His arm jerked, and fear entered his face. In Soffigen, he shouted and tried to beat something off his arm. As he lost the fight and slowly slipped back inside the room, he started to scream incoherent Soffigen words.

Irini ran.

She crossed the threshold to the artificial womb room, flew down the hall and found the door to the lab. She grabbed the handle and pulled. It was locked by keycard. The door wouldn’t budge.

Irini banged the door and called, “Aria! Pan!”

“Pan! Pan!” A soft voice screamed.

Pan pushed the lab door open.

Irini popped through the half-opened door, moving at the speed of desperation. She grabbed the door and pulled it shut. “There’s a monster back there, and it ate the scientist.”

Pan stared at Irini for a beat. “Get to the corner of the room.” She nodded in the direction she wanted Irini to go. “You too, Aria.”

The bitchy scientist, the one who was always angry, hit the table and pushed to his feet. “The three of you are going to get Guntre killed. We’ve got another failed arcane back there. Who knows what she’ll do to him?”

Pan crossed the room and grabbed the man by his collar. “Let’s go rescue him. You and me. There isn’t much time.” With a telekinetic shove, Pan pushed the angry scientist towards the door that Irini had just escaped through.

“Are you nuts?” He asked. “We can’t. We need to protect ourselves.” The angry scientist pushed back against Pan’s telekinesis.

She barely felt the resistance and pressed him against the door. It started to slip open.

“I’ll protect me and everyone else, but we might need to feed you to the arcane. From what we’ve observed, they seem to be more aggressive when they’re hungry.” Pan forced the door open and slid the scientist through.

His feet didn’t move. His shoes squeaked along the floor. Objections rose from a few scientists behind Pan. She thought their pleas half-hearted. She exerted the least force necessary to keep them in their seats. They required a pinky fingers worth of telekinesis and no more.

“By the way, what’s your name, dead man?” Pan asked.

“Don’t kill him!” Aria called. “Don’t you dare.”

Pan glanced back. “I’m just going to scare him a little. You ruined the fun, Aria.”

Pan only saw a glimpse, but she thought Aria’s expression rested somewhere between grim and mad.

“Don’t go!” Irini shouted. “There’s still men here.”

Pan stopped. She left the lab door open and the angry scientist hanging out, like unintentional bait.

“What if the other scientists try to overpower us?” Aria asked.

Good point.

“Alright fine. We’ll leave that guy for dead.” Pan wouldn’t leave Aria and Irini at the mercy of five men.

She stepped back, about to let the angry scientist go, so he could scramble back to his comrades.

But, she waited a moment too long.

“Oh, star gods!” the angry scientist shouted. “Here she comes.” He fell back into the lab and half-crawled, half ran to the counter, where the other scientists waited.

Pan backed away to the center of the room.

The lab door started to swing closed, and Pan pulled telekinetically. She tried to bring the door to its locked position.

A shot of light and a musical crash warped the door into a slab of twisted metal. A moment later, it flew off its hinges, aimed for the scientists. The men screamed and ducked.

Pan looked into the doorway and saw another Soffigen arcane. The arcane refused to touch the floor and instead grabbed the doorframe with sticky hands and feet. Extra limbs dangled from her back, and a shredded hospital gown just preserved her modesty.

Pan stood her ground, studying the would be arcane, with wide eyes.

The arcane screamed. Blood painted her legs and hands. She dropped to the floor and ran for the scientists.

“Pan!” Aria shouted.

Pan drew a portal, and the arcane skidded through. The arcane stopped, suddenly facing the way she’d come once again. Slowly, she turned and spotted the scientists. She twisted to face them and took a running step.

“Oh, they’re not worth it. Go free. Find the cafeteria.” Pan drew another portal, again to shield the scientists.

The arcane slid through. This time, she appeared on the other side of the glass, outside the lab. She whirled around, checking her new surroundings. Then, she banged the glass and threw something against the door. With another flash of light, the windows shattered.

Aria and Irini squealed from their place in the corner. A couple of men screamed. Pan just shielded her head.

The sound of fleeing footsteps followed, and Pan slowly raised her eyes. She looked beyond the broken glass to see an empty hall.

Long silence gripped the room. The scientists breathed heavy. Aria and Irini remained frozen and still.

Pan started to laugh. She put a hand over her heart and laughed harder.

“Pan,” Aria said darkly. “Have you lost your mind?”

Pan struggled to stop. She knew she should take it seriously, but she couldn’t help wondering if part two of their story might involve six scientists being picked off from the group by an angry experiment they’d created.