The crash woke up him from a cocooned slumber. What had once been a small section of biomass coverage had spread quite far into the room when he came to. It had even created a face cover. It took a few seconds for the biomass to retreat off of him and he managed to cut the remainder of himself out falling onto the slimy floor in the process. The darkness was permanent now.

‘You saved me.’

Sergei used the soft squishy corrupted wall to pull himself back to his feet. That voice sounded like Lazarus but he sounded more gravelly than usual. ‘Lazarus, are you okay where is Archon?’

That surprised him. ‘What do you need me to do?’

‘What do you need from him?’

Sergei stumbled into the dark corridor and looked around aimlessly. ‘I would love to find him but I don’t know where I even am. It’s a maze of corridors.’

‘I can see you, you’re in the right sector. Go left, keep following the corridor until you find the medical station.’

Sergei did so and began to notice it more as he went, the biomass had begun manifesting in other places. It looked like he wasn’t the only one who created it to protect himself from the crash. As Lazarus had advised he soon entered what looked to be the alien’s equivalent of a medical station or on-board hospital.

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‘The crew all have biomonitors. The captain’s is in their equivalent of a morgue some ways down the corridor that you can see in front of you.’

‘Lazarus, you sound different.’

‘I have become something new. In the struggle, I had to change permanently. It was the only way. We will have our Core Mind very soon.’

Sergei did not question the man as he pressed forward. He passed by one of the windows when a shot rang out and the glass shattered behind him. The Deterrent within took over and he looked into the room to see a human lying with his back against the wall. He had bruises all over him. He fired again but the bullets barely made a dent on Sergei’s tough external skin.

‘He’s not worth our time. He’s already dead.’

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled against the amorphous skin that covered him. The symbiote didn’t like the idea of not getting its way. Sergei pressed on until he reached a massive room, on both sides were slots made to store dead bodies. The room itself was a sterile silver and white and the first thing he noticed was the growing blob in the middle. It was not Deterrent coloured. The True Mortalis got to him first.

The Captain stirred from his body of sludge and simply gave a hacking laugh. ‘You are not actually with them, are you? I know you can understand me. Your master has infected enough of us.’

‘You mean the True Mortes.’

‘We called them to the Primor. Please, you have to help me. I have something you need. You can have it just kill me already.’

Sergei approached the large mass and manifested the aetherial blade. Without a single word said he created an opening and pulled a bulbous mess that appeared to be a much larger symbiotic organism. He wasted no time in pulling apart the bulbous mass until he found what he needed. An access that would give Deterrent some control over the ship, even in its dead state.

‘I have the key. I’m heading back to the station.’

‘Be careful, you are not alone. Another group moves against us.’

‘Do you know who they are?’ asked Sergei.

‘They call themselves the Welcome Wagon.’