System of the Damned

Chapter 1- Roderick

Stolen Ark

The Terran Federation was in its second year of life when the fleet yards around Venus started to work on the Voyager, humanity’s first large-scale warp ship. Thankfully the Voyager was named after the recovered probe, which had been retrieved at the end of the war, and not the Star Trek ship. The new world government was ripping off anything and everything that could possibly get them more approval from the populace. The annoying part was that it was working, but winning a war tends to help, and we’d won. 

I was proud as any father could be that my daughter Angela O’Connell had been chosen as its Captain of the Voyager. In just a few years she’d be traveling out into the stars on the warp capable explorer and colony ship, the first official scout of humanity breaching the stars. She wasn’t the first to breach the stars though, the Chicoms had been experimenting at their base on Titan. 

I watched the gradual spin of the stars, moons, and Saturn from an observation deck of the Yangtze, a massive ship the Chicoms had been building in secret to try and colonize other worlds before the Allied countries could. Luckily the ship had only been half loaded, and it was the useful half. Scientists, engineers, workers, and of course the occasional spy that we kindly fired out an airlock into space. Special police, military, all of those lovely people were either questioned and sent back to Earth, Mars, or chucked out an airlock. We weren’t being cruel, but people with Chicom implants couldn’t be trusted to not suddenly be triggered and go insane. It had been seen enough during the years of the war, sadly most of them had no idea they’d been given the implants, and we couldn’t remove them safely. Generally we’d kill the person before spacing them, but there was the occasional special case where we just tossed them out an airlock.

My name’s Roderic O’Connell and I was the ripe age of sixty five when I was put in charge of security for the Yangtze mission. Gene treatments took years off and gave me the pep I needed to do the job, though I’d heard the Federation was banning that sort of research. There had been too many horrors seen during the war and parts of the planet would be radioactive for a hundred years at least. That wasn’t counting the crater that had been the UN’s lunar colony project or the actually glowing crater that was a former Mars colony, or several asteroid belt projects that had been destroyed. A good bit of Gene mods had been used for less than good reasons, and politicians never changed. Hey look, here is this evil horror! You don’t want your kids risked by these evils now do you? Yes, sign here and oh by the way, here’s some free shots to make sure you never get cancer! Politicians…bleh. They love to wave one hand to grab your attention so you don’t see what the other is doing.

Gene mods were what most called the gene therapy and genetic modification treatments many soldiers and spacers had gotten. Little tweaks here and there to make someone stronger, able to see in the dark, faster, more flexible, or even heal at inhuman speeds. The ones that had made it around as general “therapies” were the ones that’d gotten rid of risks for things like cancer and bone density loss in space, along with some of the nastier diseases. Those who were going to work in space or planning on being on a ship for a long time had been forced to get the treatments, after all, ships couldn’t keep up pseudo gravity forever. Many older combat pilots actually had some bird dna in them to help them handle the g’s of combat maneuvers. 

I myself had some wolf and other canine dna that had changed my eyes and made my senses much stronger than a normal human. I was just usually damned near looking at things in black and white, “colorblind” people got to see some color variations. One of my last checkups, the doctor had called it “muted” coloring, because ok, I could see some color, but I was ok with it since I could see in almost total darkness.

I knew that the Terran Federation, which is a horribly crap name in my opinion, were calling the new gene therapies “treatments”, like they had nothing to do with recoding your dna. Though this is coming from a first generation “Gen” as some called us, usually when trying to pick a fight. First generations like me, which I think a total of possibly forty lived through the war, have horrid issues with large bits of permanent memory loss. Loss of skills like talking or walking in many cases. Some of us, myself included, had been “tweaked” multiple times before the new ways of doing it came along, and I can’t remember how many times I’ve had to be put through refresher courses on various trainings...literally I have no damned idea. 

Luckily for everyone, it was only the old monsters like myself that had been tinkered with using animal dna. “Your sacrifice and service have allowed us to hone in on and enhance human dna to untold levels without using animal dna now. You should be proud!” That particular military funded scientist now has all false teeth and a nice new jaw. It was worth the week I spent chained to a bed afterward. That, kids, is what you call a core memory.

Having to relearn your family history, friends, or family is hell, and I have no idea how many times I’ve done it. That is thanks to a large portion of my files being redacted, so I guess my government didn’t want to admit the things they’d had me do, even to me. The newer treatments were much better and much easier on the body, lucky kids just get laid on a hospital bed and put into a medical coma for a day or two. Not like first generations like myself, who got to wake up in some creepy bubbly liquid filled tank and have a panic attack. They get nice friendly nurses, I got berated with questions and stabbed with needles after getting dumped out of the bath. 

Thanks to my last gene mods I looked about thirty again, and had kept a small calico beard to go with my shaggy reddish brown hair. I’d been off duty for a busted knee when I’d gotten surgery and the last mods, putting me back up to my six foot five inch height and humped my weight up to closer to four hundred pounds. Heavier bone density, reinforcements, and stronger muscles would do that though. I just wish they’d managed to thin the mangy fur I’d built up over the years, but a check up and repair job was the best I was gonna get. When I was just a young private my commander had given me the team name of Hound, which was only in part thanks to being a mangy panda, and mainly because I’d been an unwed manwhore. At least that is what my files said had happened.

Six months of hard work by the tech teams had unlocked the systems that had been locked down when we’d stormed the base. An entire valley of the planetoid had been ringed with fission and fusion power plants that were hooked into humanity’s first interstellar gate. I remembered the old shows about stargates and personally wanted to kick the idiot that’d chosen to name the new governing body. “The Terran Federation.” What was next, Starfleet? Space elves? Bah, but I knew what I was looking at from orbit as I stared down at the planet.

It was a gateway, and once powered fully at the proper time, it would hurl us to Kepler-62F in the blink of an eye. I wasn’t as much of a nerd as some, I’d earned my keep in being a rifle toter, a grunt. Now I was responsible for eight thousand lives aboard a five kilometer long and one and a half wide cigar tube. Thankfully it was a heavily armored cigar tube, but I wasn’t happy about the rushed plan to use the gate. I understood not wanting to wait the two years it would take for the gate to come in line enough to use again.

“Everyone is stowed in the hibernation chambers aside from the operating crew, supplies are aboard and checked, and the Captain is waiting for you on the bridge.”  Came from Hellena “Hel” Evans as she walked up behind me, I’d heard her heavy step halfway down the hall though, magnetic boots had that certain clomp to them. Tall and wiry, she had a few non-standard gene mods too, I couldn’t help but think they were shipping us all out on this run to get rid of us. The platinum blonde was former British army, since she was in recon, she had an eye for trouble that I’d learned to trust these last years.

I just smiled a little and nodded, taking one last look out the armored port before turning to look at her. “Good, and I saw we have all the medical gear I asked for as well, including the extra tranquilizers for when one of the workers loses their mind.” I was rather lax with protocols like saluting or the honorific “sir”s tossed at me, plus I’d dropped two ranks to take this mission. The rank of Major just went wrong with my handle.

“Or you hit on the wrong woman again, or try to get into my bed again.” She said and had a little smile, teasing minx knew I’d had issues in the past. Hell there had been a time or two I’d been catching up on forgotten life and gotten smacked by a woman for something I’d done...and couldn’t remember. Military regs were hard for me to keep locked into my brain most of the time, they were one of the many things that I’d forgotten too many times and it seemed damaged. I wasn’t down to eating crayons, but I knew I had a severe case of CRS (Can’t Remember Shit) as my last trainer had put it.

“I thought you liked the last time we shared a bunk. I even fed your wolves for you and let you sleep in.” I added as I moved down the corridor and she followed half a step behind me. She’d also gotten those wolves sent with us on this mission, they like us, were genetically modded. Highly intelligent, gods own sense of smell, and Evans was alpha for them, and once a wolf claims a human...you can forget trying to get it to claim another.

“Of course it was fun Major...Hound.” She almost purred behind me and punched me lightly in the back. “You are a damned Hound though, not that I mind much since you’re at least slightly picky on who’s crotch you sniff.” We’d met up originally toward the last years of the war, our units had been tasked to work together on cleaning out bases while the armor units tried to see who’s armor was thicker. 

I lightly pushed myself from the floor as we left the gravity area produced by the ship’s spin, my body twisting a little to give her a bow. “That’s Lieutenant Hound, and I’m a picky eater after all.” I teased and caught a bar, swinging myself up into a corridor to kick off a wall and float up through the ship. The walls lazily spun around us as we glided through the micro gravity, because everything had gravitational effects. I’d had that annoying lecture about three dozen times during the war, possibly many more before it thanks to my memory gaps.

“Captain Rowland was right, you’re a shameless Hound. I thought he was joking about your old handle, but I actually looked it up.” She huffed as she followed me up through the corridor to one of the powered assist systems, just a handle in a track that ran the length of this section of corridor. What I wasn’t expecting was for her to kick off of a wall and then me to grab it. “Catch me if you can, O’Connell!” Her thumb jammed down on the toggle, jerking her away from me at an annoying pace.

I snarled as my head thudded against a wall, twisting my body around and kicking off of a hatchway. “I’m gonna give your wolves garlic treats!” I yelled as I flew up the corridor after her, kicking off the walls with my hands and feet. Zues and Hera seemed to love garlic, but their stomachs didn’t like it and produced a gas that made even marines like me run for air. Luckily they weren’t normal wolves, or I couldn’t give them the wonderful gas makers.

She looked back and laughed as she watched me. “Oh look, the Hound is running on all fours!”

“All Hands! Prepare for ship movement!” Came over the 1mc of the Yangtze at a volume that would wake the dead. Though the com systems always seemed to be stuck at a setting fit for a rock concert, like they wanted you to hear the orders in your sleep, in a coffin, with earplugs in, sitting next to one of the steam turbines for the fission power plant. Or just constantly testing to see if you could hear it in vacuum outside the ship.

I cursed and kicked off the wall harder, managing to grab hold of her ankle. My other hand came up and grabbed her belt, trying to climb her to get hold of the bar pulling her up the corridor. Then both of us cursed as the ship’s engines fired lightly to start moving us into position. There was a shift and I heard a squeal of panic as I was suddenly holding onto pants that were hung up on her ankles. “I swear I’m going to space you for this, you yank!” She snarled and at least the corridor was empty.

Sadly for her modesty, the bridge was fully staffed when we shot through its floor. I jerked her down and curled my larger form around her. The ship rushed back up to meet us and the hatch sealed before we landed on our sides.

“Bring the drive up slowly, one eighth of a g thrust until we’re in position.” Came from Captain Rowland who didn’t even look over at us, instead he just held out a hand toward his XO. “I take it that I won?” It was more of a statement than a question. He was another tall wiry brit, gene modded, but his mods made him a hell of a pilot. His dark eyes could focus in on distant things and he reminded me of a raven the way he was never bothered. 

Commander Igor “Mishka” Wulf looked over at us and shook his head. The tall salt and pepper brick of Russian muscle pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and put them in the Captain’s hand. “One is not fully dressed. Master Sergeant Evans, you may don your pants now, and start wearing underwear.” His dark eyes moved back to the main screens, like the Captain, he was completely unphased.

“And, no striking a superior on the bridge.” The Captain said casually, again without looking toward us. 

Evans lowered her raised fist that’d been no doubt planned for my nose or jaw, instead she jerked her pants up. “I will wait until we’re off the bridge then.” She promised and I heard a snort from the Captain.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Oh I have no doubt that my primary E-8 will be assaulting my primary O-2, though why you two accepted the reductions in rank I’ll never know.” Captain Andy “Voodoo” Rowland hadn’t taken a rank reduction like myself or others had to join the crew. He also had been promoted properly, and not through battlefield promotions like I had. Or the “posthumous” promotions from the time they’d thought I’d died. Or the time a Major had cracked and started giving suicidal orders as shit went worse and worse…I swear he tripped and broke his neck. No clue why his head had been spun one eighty.

Evans stood and grunted when I clapped her on the shoulder to keep her from floating up, my magnetic boots already locked to the deck. “Because, there ain’t anything left back on earth. My last surviving kid is going to be captaining the Voyager.” I said as Evans righted herself and got her boots to click to the deck. Though I managed to remember to add “Sir.” after a second. Most of us had lost family during the war and aside from myself, my daughter was the only person I had left, and she herself was leaving Earth. Poor kid got her looks from me, and her temper, earning her the callsign Burner...because she used shuttle thrusters to set people and buildings on fire.

“Same for most of us really, not much left back home and we’re not exactly loved by most of the wankers that are left in charge.” Evans growled out as she and I swayed a little with the thrust of the ship coming into position. “Besides...I couldn’t risk leaving security to the Yanks. Sir.” She also didn’t have the lack of proper lifelong memories that I had, chunks missing yes, not a total lack.

That got a rare grin to form on the Commander’s face as the Captain snorted. “Yes, but a yank I’m used to dealing with. I’ve hot dropped O’Connell out of a shuttle into combat zones, but like a bad penny he always shows back up.” 

“Titan Tower to Yangtze, we’re beginning power cycling of the gate. T-minus two minutes until you should begin thrust.” Came over the 1mc.

“Copy that Titan control, let us know when to power for the gate. I don’t want to go early and slam into the surface.” The Captain said as he adjusted his straps, motioning for everyone to sit.

“Nothing worse than ramming your big rod into an unprepped hole.” I said with a grin as I walked over to an auxiliary station and strapped in. Evans paused as the 1mc exploded with a single braying laugh that cut off with the tower signal.

Captain Rowland finally looked away from the screens and right at me, a disapproving glare spread over his face. “One of our last signals to the Federation and you fit in a knob joke…” He was trying to give me that commander’s glare that all Navy seem to learn, but I was a Marine, I was immune.

The XO cleared his throat. “It is rather fitting sir, though I think they could have made the gate ring less virginal and a little wider.”

“Like a hotdog down a hallway instead of being pretty sure you’ll fit?” Came from one of the techs controlling a console, it was a weapons console, so he looked slightly bored. At a pointed look from the XO, he went back to staring at his console screens.

“I thought the boys always liked it tight?” Evans said as she looked around, making several blush and not meet her eye.

The captain just shook his head. “Enough…I need to make an all hands announcement!” He ordered and then flicked a few switches. “All hands, this is the Captain. The gate is powering up, everyone strap in for when we trigger the engines. Hopefully it will be a smooth ride, but strap in either way.” He clicked it off and looked around to make sure the bridge team had all buckled themselves in fully.

The XO’s console slowly started to light up as sections sent confirmations that they were ready. “Soft rumble in three….two….” The titanic ship shuddered softly, and an external monitor showed a bright flash. “Engineering found another bomb. they swear it has to be the last one.” He sighed and rubbed his face with his hands. “Of all of the Federation countries...why did they get the primary engineers from mine?”

“Because you can give Russians a bunch of raw ore and in two weeks they’ll give you back a main battle tank that works?” Came from Evans.

“Cause Muricans would’ve wanted to add more thrusters onto it or dissect the engines to see how they worked, or argued for six years on it.” I added and settled back into my chair, checking the neck braces.

“No, from what I hear, it's because they were the only ones left after the first bomb was found and announced, and our current engineering chief disarmed it.” The Captain said before sighing softly. “While smoking and giving a lecture on scotch and vodka.”

I just chuckled. “Both very good drinks, and both from Russia. And XO, if you think engineering is bad, I’ve had soldiers handed to me from ten or so countries.” I just shook my head. “I have French and Germans arguing and fighting, German and Russian combat engineers that argue. Not to mention the North, central, and south american soldiers. I swear it's like herding cats.”

Captain Rowland laughed. “I’ve been down to the barracks sections, it's more like cranky tigers. Makes me think of a zoo with all new additions.” Then he looked up as a timer popped up on one of the screens.

Down on Titan a bright light started to pulse around the gate ring as power was being fed through it. Fission and fusion power systems started to cycle up their output and fed almost every scrap of power on the moon into the ring. “Checks are good, systems are powering up, gate formation in one minute. Yangtze, begin movement for the gate.” Came the controller’s voice, and it was obvious he was trying not to say anything that could be used as an innuendo. 

“Bring us up to speed gently. Half gravity thrust for ten then one full gravity thrust into the gate.” Came from Captain Rowland and Commander Wulf hit the intercom and barked the warning about the ship beginning movement. 

I could feel the thrust pushing me down into my seat and sighed as I brought up a screen to watch what was going on. We’d gotten to watch the gate be cycled on a few times already, scouts had gone through and come back with data showing that the system had a world that we could start terraforming and living on. It was more of a moon, but the gravity was decent enough as well. I was looking forward to the fun of setting up a new station on a peaceful and quiet world, one without a war, or any of the problems of earth. 

Evans grunted beside me as the thrust picked up more, the surface of the gate snapping into existence ahead of us. “It looks like a silver pool…” She said softly and let out a squeak as something popped up on one of her consoles. “Um…” She tapped a few keys on the console as I looked over.

“What is that?” I asked curiously and then looked away as a tech cursed.

Ensign Takahashi was cursing fluently in Japanese as a warning klaxon sounded on the bridge. “Captain! One of the backup fusion power plants just went up!”

I had to hand it to the Captain, he was calm as a monk while he tapped controls and brought up the various telescopes on the Yangtze. “Bollocks! XO, sound all stations to brace for possible impact and high G maneuvers.”

“Zaebis! Aye sir!” The XO went to typing in the commands as alarms started to sound throughout the ship. 

“Bloody cock-up, that was one of the research bunkers. Pilot! Full thrust, full seven gravities! Now!” That was something that he knew most of us hadn’t really prepped for, sure some of us had dealt with high gravity maneuvers, but the pilot just slammed his throttle controls to the limiters.

I grunted as I suddenly weighed seven times my weight, clenching my stomach muscles and fighting to tap a few controls. If the gate failed, we’d slam into the planet like a rogue comet, if we made it through, we’d fire out the other side like a missile. My eyes caught a bit of worry on the Captain’s face and I punched up what he had on his personal display. 

The control tower for the gate had lights flashing madly and people in suits rushing for shuttles, no doubt hoping to evacuate. I couldn’t figure out why until I saw the flash appear on one of the telescope feeds. It was about that time that I remembered a terrifying thing we’d found at one of the research bunkers, something that we’d hoped to just fire into space. The Chicoms had been producing antimatter in hopes of using it for weapons, which was now causing a rolling stormfront of pure energy and fiery atmosphere to flow across the moon. “Aw, fuck me. Couldn’t they have disposed of that shit before now!?” I growled out, because I had a horse sitting on my chest.

“Anti...matter…” Came from Evans as most of the bridge crew was just trying not to scream or pass out. Clenched muscles and panicked looks at screens as plasma started to roll off of the armored nose of the Yangtze, while it screamed down at the gate. “This….sucks…” She managed to grunt out. Luckily for all of us, the nose of the ship had an ion plasma shield, like the “bottom” of the ship where it was meant to land.

“We have to get through the gate before the blast wave hits us.” Damned speed junky of a former shuttle pilot seemed calm as could be, and mostly unbothered by the g forces. “Pilot! As soon as we pass through fully into the gate, cut thrust to a single gravity on exit.” How did he keep his grunts loud and calm?

“Aye sir!” Came from the pilot as he kept having to make small adjustments to keep us in line with the shimmering surface of the gate. “If the gate fails, we’re screwed.” He grunted that all too normal voice pilots were able to have below a certain G force, which annoyed the hell out of me as I was fighting to keep crunched and breathing. How the hell do these damned pilots always sound so calm, and speak normally in higher g movements?

If the gate failed though, we’d smash into the planet, and smashing into the planet at the speeds we were getting to, meant pain. That pain would be intense, but short, because we’d either die during that intense pain, or when the blast wave hit us. I could see one of the mountains being blasted apart as the energy wave and superheated plasma hit it. People always thought vaporizing something was like disintegrating, sure antimatter disintegrated anything it touched. The bad part of the blast wave was the materials that’d been vaporized and turned into a rolling storm of superheated plasma. It was going to be far more destructive to the ship than the plasma building up on the hull as it screamed down through the atmosphere.

“This is gonna be close!” Ok, now the Captain decides to sound worried? It’s not like we had a choice either way, we’d been past the point of no return when the facility went up. One of my telescope views let me watch as shuttles screamed at full throttle through the atmosphere trying to escape the blast wave. “Good luck!” Was all the captain could grunt out on the coms to the racing ships they shot past us.

“You too. You can make it Yangtze!”

“Get that piece of Chicom shit through that gate Captain!” 

“See you in hell Voodoo.” Came a grizzled voice as AA missile batteries swiveled and started to launch every single missile they had in their racks into the base of the blast wave, trying to deform or slow it.

“See you in hell Admiral, Thanks.” Captain Rowland growled out as he slowly saluted a screen showing an admiral saluting him from inside the gate control station. Several of us forced ourselves to stiffen up enough to salute him. Because that’s what you did when a high ranking officer committed suicide to try and save you.

As the missile launchers started to run low and then dry, I wanted to smile and nod as I saw the plasma shockwave had been deformed some. The camera views vanished from the front of the ship as it plunged into the gate. Soon enough we all felt the odd shift of passing into it, but instead of instantly passing into a new star system, we were given an odd light show. The plasma and energy wave had touched the outer power plants along with the outside of the ring before we’d fully passed, and the main ring no doubt by the time we’d been almost totally through.

The pilot though was bringing down the thrust on the engines and looking confused at the bent waves of light outside of the odd tunnel we seemed to be in. “Um...sir?” He half said and half asked as his draw down on the engines only reduced the feeling of gravity for us, not altering the outside view in the least.

Captain Rowland was looking down at his screens and pulled out the pack of smokes he’d won from his second in command, pulling out one for himself and one for Command Wulf. “Set condition one throughout the ship, all damage and tech crews are to fully suit up and start checking the ship and engine systems for damage. Med teams are to check for wounded.” He looked up at the main screens. “Has lowering our thrust slowed us down at all?”

The astrogation officer, First Lieutenant Bakir didn’t look up, instead he was looking over the six screens in front of him and typing rapidly on his keyboard. “Moment Sir.” He mumbled as he ran his calculations. “It appears the explosion shifted Titan. I’m trying to clean up the view from the telescopes enough to tell where we are or how fast we’re going. My best guess is no, and I have no idea why we didn’t exit like always.” 

Commander Wulf drew in a breath of smoke and held it, before letting it out in a long sigh. “This is not good, we could come out near a star or in deep space. This ship does not have a faster than light drive.” He looked down at the cigarette in his hand and sighed again before drawing in another large lungful of nicotine filled calm. “I am not a quantum physicist either, we are off course and do not have a supply line.” His accent always got more thick when he was stressed.

I looked around and sighed as I undid my restraints and stood, moving my arm to test the force on my body. “I’d recommend half a G of thrust for now, get the ship checked and make sure nothing is broken. Then we see how things pan out. I’d rather be prepared and fire out into an open area of a star system than worry about slamming into a star.” I bent and twisted, making my vertebrae and several joints crack loudly.

The Captain looked over at me and gave a soft nod before tossing over a cigarette. “Head down and get your teams policing the ship. I want the pilots for the scout ships and shuttles ready to go. Get everything fueled, armed, and ready to move.” He paused for a moment and looked over at the XO. “Have one of the science teams woken up that has a few physicists in it, I don’t know if this tunnel will last another minute or sling us out into another dimension, or galaxy.” He looked back at the main screen, which was now showing where the techs were trying to clear up the images. 

The XO moved away and down a ladder to start getting one of the science teams woken up, the 1mc buzzed softly. “All hands, this is your Captain. We’re not dead, we made it through the gate, but we’re not going to be going to Kepler apparently. On-duty teams are to check over all gear, Security personnel will be meeting with Lieutenant O’Connell in the barracks in ten.” And then the Captain nodded to me and Evans. “Why did you go from being a Major to Lieutenant?”

I sighed and had to think of how to put it. “I’m a Sergeant at heart, never did like the officer life. Too much paperwork. Besides...I couldn’t outrank you without causing issues, and surviving a few battles isn’t a reason to be a Major.” I said and sucked in the last bit of smokey calm before crushing the butt and pocketing it.

“You still have to do paperwork, but I get your point.” He nodded toward us. “Besides with your mods, they’d have axed you back on earth. Get to work, Hound.”

I saluted him and stepped on the button to open the hatch under my feet, dropping out of the bridge and siding down the ladder below. “C’mon Evans, time to earn our pay!” I called out.

I could hear her boots and hands sliding along the ladder above me, a sigh flowing from her in a huff. “Are we there yet?”

I just let out a sigh as my feet slammed down to the deck and I moved to the side for Evans. “Damned kids. Adam, can you put in for our three sleeping squads and the like to be defrosted? I have a feeling this is going to be a standard hurry up and get bored, but I’d rather be prepared.”

My com clicked and then the gentle voice of the ship’s Ai came over it. “I have already gotten one of the medical teams to start bringing them out of cryogenics. I have timed it so that they and the two science teams will be fully roused at the same time. Human scientists seem to behave better when there are disgruntled soldiers around them.” I didn’t talk a ton with the Ai, but I liked him well enough. “I am also tallying bets on if we’ll survive this trip and what sort of general spatial anomaly we’re in. Would you like to put in your own bets? Major? Captain?”

We’d been moving down a corridor and hit another ladder well as he spoke, but I let out a snort at his question. “But me down for a thousand that we live…”

Evans cut me off. “Some kind of wormhole, same bet.”

“Will that be credits, cigarettes, or bullets?” Adam asked curiously.

I smiled as we made it to my quarters and I climbed down to grab my revolver and gun belt. “Whichever I have the most of or need the most when the betting pans out.” 

We stopped by Evans room and she grabbed her service pistol, thankfully her pups had been secure in the labs. They were our next stop. “Is it bad that Adam is already tainted by the ways of servicemen and women like us?”

“I quite enjoy your love of gambling and betting on so many things. Though your ready teams are waiting for you in the barracks. Some of them are banged up as I’ve heard you humans say the phrase.” He seemed distracted. “I must focus on other issues, it seems we may need to have your teams move through the ship to help check for damage.” I just sighed hearing that and nodded, moving down the drab colored corridors to the barracks.