In the Nick of Time

Screams echoed through the metallic halls of the space station, not the sounds of fear, but the bone shattering sounds of people in mortal agony. Silence followed the screams, stark in its contrast and deadly in its intent.

Tomath flicked her long pointed ears and huddled further under her parent’s bed. She was scared, more scared than she had ever been in her nine years of life.

Another sound this time, loud cracks like bones snapping or maybe gunshots. She tried to cover her ears with her four fingered hands, but it was no good. Her hearing was too good. As a final resort she tried to stuff the ends of her small blanket into her ears and it seemed to help a little.

She was confused, Father and Mother had left her alone as they did. She was plenty old enough to take care of herself. That’s what Papa kept telling her anyways. Now as the sounds of chaos and death drew nearer, she was no longer so sure of herself.

She hugged her long otter-like tail to her chest as she lay curled on her side under the bed. The bad sounds were coming, and yet here she sat like a scared little znot. Just waiting to be snapped up like a tasty morsel.

She uncurled, no.. she would not be taken so easily. She crawled out from under the bed slowly, her retractable claws unsheathing of their own accord in response to the mounting stress she was feeling. She wasn’t sure what was coming, it could be pirates, marauders or worse. For all she knew the station was under attack by anti-unity extremists. Abrithom station wasn’t much of a target though and the army of mining drones that it piloted were worth even less.

Her own parents were drone operators, and they traveled a lot. They had only been on the station for a few months so far. She looked around the room as she tried to remember where she had put her backpack after getting home from classes the other day.

After scrambling around a bit she found it draped across the side of the living room sofa, she snatched it and emptied the contents across the floor. Books and small dataslates went scattering across the floor as she rushed off towards the kitchen. She quickly grabbed some preserved meat from the fridge and stuffed it in her bag along with some water, scissors and a knife from the kitchen counter.

Zipping up the pack, Tomath made her way to the front door. She could hear the sounds of yelling and shouts coming from nearby, but nothing sounded directly outside her apartment. She cracked the door and immediately wished she hadn’t. The slight smells of blood and death that had been detectable earlier were magnified a hundredfold as the door was pushed open.

She gingerly stepped out into the hall, keeping her stance low with her long arms on the floor in preparation to bolt if she saw danger.

But there was nothing. No danger, no bad guys with knives and guns and murderous intent. No, she looked both ways into a slightly curving hallway that was eerily quiet. Like a tomb.

Tomath started walking towards the main pavilion of the station. The large central clearing was usually patrolled by a few lightly armed system defense force troops. She liked them, they were professional but friendly. There was one, a human woman named Jessica, that always smiled wide with her strangely blunt teeth and called her kitten and gave her ear scratches which she loved. Those dull fingernails seemed just made for the optimal amount of scratching, her own fingers were nailless unless she unsheathed her claws. But that would be a bad idea, she would only have succeeded in flaying her own scalp.

She rounded the bend and stopped as she heard raised voices and a strange chunky cutting, sawing noise. Tomath moved towards the sound slowly like she was stalking prey. Her soft foot pads made no sound on the hard tile of the deck and after a moment she was at the source of the noise.

There was an open doorway to her left, the sounds were coming from inside. She knew that she should run, the smell of blood wafting from inside was giving her all the warning she might have needed. But another part of her needed to know. This was the room of one of her friends' family, the scaly slaaveth had always treated her and her family with respect. If she could just see if they were alright…

Tomath poked a single chatoyant blue eye around the corner, and almost cried out in distress at the sight that greeted her horrified eyes.

In the center of the room was a group of four people, people wearing the flayed skins of what looked suspiciously like other people to her. Two were humans while the third was a ratty looking swanith, their feathers were matted and unkempt. The last figure was hard to tell, but from the hunched posture she could just see twin pink skinned horns peeking from their dirty black hair. A nerivith then.

That was all well and good, but the thing that made her despair was the object of their distraction. Upon the floor lay two piles of raw meat, the flensed scales piled around them and their ribs smashed open. One of them was smaller than the other, and she felt a tear leak from the corner of her eye as she realised what had happened.

She had heard enough scary stories from the grizzled spacers that frequented the station to know that they were probably the dreaded flesh tearers. Monstrous cannibals that suffered from deep-dark insanity, they would kill and plunder for the sake of killing and plundering. Their appetites for slaughter and wanton cruelty well known across all of civilised space.

They were worse than pirates, worse than marauders and far far worse than anything she had ever seen or encountered in her young life. And they were currently eating her friend as if she had been naught but meat.

She must have made a noise as the nearer human’s head perked up and snapped in her direction. A loud yell followed by the sound of feet on the decking made her scramble into a dead sprint. Using all four of her limbs she tore across the deck far faster than a biped could have, her long tail stretched out straight behind her for balance as she skated across the smooth tiles. She was fast, but still young, and after only a hundred meters of her breakneck pace she faltered. Her breathing grew laboured and her long tongue lolled out of her mouth as she panted heavily.

She had gotten ahead of them, but for how long? She needed to find a place to hide, and fast.

Tomath looked around as she desperately tried to regain her breath. There was an apartment across from her, but she shook her head. No, that would only cause her to become trapped. What had Papa told her about being chased? Always have an exit strategy.

She kept walking, looking for something, anything, to keep her safe without becoming an easy target. She gave a small whine of fear as she started to hear the sounds of savage voices and the pounding of feet on tile from behind her. They were catching back up, humans and nerivith alike were known for their endurance. And while you could outrun them in the short term, they would always end up catching you when your energy was gone and you could run no farther.

She paused and then darted for a set of double doors to the side of the hall. She entered into a small room filled with computers and shelves of old style holotapes. It was the station’s library. Oh how she had wasted many a long day in here with her friends watching holodramas and playing games on the retro consoles. Aside from the dusty old chairs and creaky desks the room was largely devoid of cover or hiding places.

She rushed to the far side of the room and grabbed one of the tall shelves. She gave it a tug, causing it to shudder slightly. But it stayed put. She growled low in her throat before pulling off some of the old boxes of tapes and then trying again. Fear fueled her youthful muscles as she was able to pull it far enough away to expose the slightly rusty ventilation shaft cover in the wall behind it.

She wrapped her fingers around the grate and pulled experimentally, it shifted slightly as a trickle of degraded mortar dust fell from the corner bolts. Thank Frine not everything on the station was metal. She gave it another pull, harder this time as she attempted to dislodge the cover. It groaned and moved a little, but not enough. She glanced over her shoulder as the voices got close enough to make out.

“Where is the meat gotten too?” Hissed one. The insinuation that she was simply their next meal filled her with dread.

Another voice, this one gravelly and entirely emotionless as it spoke. “Yes, meat has fled. We like to chase the meat, is so much sweeter than dead meat.”

There was a sound like something heavy slamming into something meaty followed by an animalistic grunt. “No, the meat is mine. I saw it, I want to use the meat. Then you can have it when I am done!”

Another snarl and the sound of a minor scuffle. Amid the noise she continued to pry at the vent cover and finally succeeded with a screech of metal on stone that echoed through the vent and beyond. The hall went silent and she threw the vent cover aside as she stuffed herself into the small space inside. It was too tight a squeeze, but not impossible if she stretched out and used her knees to move after she discarded the backpack.

There was another clatter right behind her that made her whimper again, but she was already committed and unable to turn around to so much as see what was happening behind her. She heard the sounds of a scuffle and then something thudded into the vent with enough force to make the thin metal vibrate, she sped up. The vent would not keep her safe forever though, it was a straight shot through the station wall to the next available room. She wasn’t exactly sure where she would end up, but it had to be better than where she was.

After another tense minute of squirming through the tight space she reached another grate. She pushed on it but this one seemed solid. She growled and pushed on it harder. No luck. She beat on it with her long arms, the metal deforming under her fear fueled blows. Finally with a last screeching noise the vent gave way partially and swung into the floor with a clatter. Not that it was really any louder than her beating upon the metal had been.

She winced as she dragged herself from the vent, her hands were bruised and bleeding from the furious assault she had laid into the metal. It wasn’t her priority though. While she couldn't straight up ignore the pain like a human, she was able to at least put the worst of it to the side as she moved deeper into the room. It was large with tall ceilings and many tables scattered around.

The mess hall, she had crawled into the station’s cafeteria. She could smell blood again though, not a good sign.

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As Tomath crept around on all fours she heard more voices. These voices seemed to be less agitated, though still gruff and violent. She poked her head around the corner slowly and took a look. More flesh tearers, more dismembered bodies. She shuddered. No child should ever have to see such things, she wanted to puke. She wanted to spit. But she could do neither.

So instead she crept back into the far rear of the room and tried to find a good place to hide or escape. Not long after she had moved away from the main concentration of the flesh tearers she heard a loud commotion and the sound of distant gunfire. Maybe that was help arriving she hoped. But as she listened the gunfire died down far too quickly to have been a long fight. Her heart seemed to sink out of her chest and to the base of her tail. There was no hope of rescue, she could only try and survive through this nightmare.

More shouting, more footsteps. She tensed, these were coming her way. Fast!

She moved to hide behind one of the nearby tables, hoping that the chairs would serve to shield her given the low light conditions. She could see easily however, her species had superior night vision and her reflective eyes lit the room as if by torchlight despite the gloom. Her people, the yeown, had evolved on a world covered in huge trees. The perpetual gloom of the underforest giving rise to their extraordinary sight.

The same four cannibals rushed into the main part of the room, the lead human pointing towards the vent she had climbed from. “Meat has escaped! I told you that small one would try to run and hide. Meat is too scared, fear makes meat more sweet though.”

Another of the tearers agreed. Their voice like raw acid pouring directly into her ears. “Yes, we will cut and slice. Slice and cut, cut the meat, meat so sweet it sings. Screaming songs of singing sweet meat.” They seemed to say in a sing-song manner.

The stories were true, she thought, they must be utterly insane. Something about the depths of space could drive a man to slaughter his fellows, instilling an insatiable hunger into their very soul. She shivered again and ducked her head lower as one of the humans looked in her way.

They couldn't see her? Could they?

Her question was answered to her horror as the human slapped the other flesh tearer and spoke, “Meat is there, meat hoarder.”

The grimy swanith was the first to leap into action. Their light body making them quick in a way that the heavier humans and nerivith weren't. Tomath darted out from under the table just as the screeching avian alien landed on top of it, their arm-wings spread wide in a threatening display.

The dirty swanith lashed out at her with a clawed foot and she did the only thing she could think of. Tomath swiped back with her claws extended as hard as she could, she was small. Only a child by her own people’s standards, but even at her tender age she was more than a match for the diminutive alien.

Her claws sliced through feathers and flesh alike, the bright spray of dark green arterial blood misted the air as the thing was sent flying back into the ground from the force of her attack. She felt pain, at least one of her claws had snapped off at the root as it embedded itself in the creature’s breastbone. But she had fared far better than her attacker.

The swanith convulsed, its body leaking spurts of its poisonous green blood. She fled, the two tone warble of pain becoming a rasping gurgle as the flesh tearer died choking on its own vital fluids. Instead of being angry, the other flesh tearers seemed amused by her actions.

The lead human grunted loudly after her as she fled, “A clean kill, it is bad to eat this meat though. Leave it, we will catch new meat for pack.”

Tomath didn’t catch the rest of what was said though as she made her way to the main doors. She skidded to a stop in the hall and yelped as she saw another two of the cannibals not more than ten meters distant. She tore down the hall in the direction she had heard the gunshots from earlier in the hope that she might find help.

She might have made it farther had something not smashed her in the shoulder, knocking her from her feet in an explosion of pain. She tried to stand again but cried out in pain. She felt wetness on her fur and looked down. She was bleeding.

She looked over her shoulder at the two cannibals who were now advancing on her. One held what looked like some sort of large spiked cudgel, and the other held a gun of unknown make. It looked cobbled together from pipes and fittings, the scope little more than a can with a wire cross sight. But it had been enough to put her down, and now she would die and have her body consumed by the vicious cannibals.

She would have cried had she not been so terrified. She whimpered as she tried to crawl away with her remaining good arm, but then something even more terrible happened.

“No, that meat is mine. Back off from my new meat!”

It was the voice of the large bloody human. She heard footsteps and then she was grabbed by the back of her shirt and roughly dragged across the floor back towards the cafeteria. She cried, she struggled but all it was met with was a kick to the side and violent threats that made her gasp.

The human threw her to the ground and she curled into a tight ball as the three of them surrounded her. The nerivith drew a large knife from somewhere under their skin robes and waved it in the air. “Do we carve now, please let me carve the meat. Meat so tender, flesh so sweet.”

The larger human growled, “No. This meat gutted my soft and warm like it was base meat itself. They will be my new soft and warm. You will share the meat only when I say to share, I am pack and you are not!”

That seemed to elicit a reaction out of the nerivith who spat a challenge. “Well, I want to be pack now! You are always pack, you are greedy hunger lover.”

She didn’t even see what happened, but the human in charge moved so fast that she jerked in surprise. One moment they were across from her, then the next they held the skinny nerivith by the throat with a huge hand, the other gripping their knife holding wrist.

They leaned in close to the choking nerivith and growled, “Maybe I make you my new soft and warm. Maybe you like to feel used. You are weak meat, only good for carving. If not for carving I would make meat of you. That is why you will never be pack.” And then they released the coughing alien to the ground, their long tail lashing in anger as they slammed the large knife back into the holster at their waist.

“Fine!” They spat.

The human looked down at her and then at the others, “Do not worry. I am pack, but I will share my new meat. After I use it first.”

She shivered, as much from fear as from the pain of her wounds. She gave a little yelp as the human reached out for her, but she scrambled back as best she could. She tried her best to snarl at them aggressively, but it came out as more of a hiccuping wheeze as she sobbed.

The large human smiled, chipped and bloody teeth flashed in the dim light as they grabbed her feet and dragged her closer.

“No, stop! Get away from me!” She yelled, but it mattered little. There was hunger in those dark eyes, and something else. Something far deeper, a hunger that went beyond the mere desires of the flesh. It was as if she were looking through a telescope directly into the void itself.

She saw no soul. No pity or remorse. No yeownity in those hungry pits. Only death.

The man gripped her legs together tightly as he pulled her closer to him. Close enough that she could smell his foul breath, the smell of rotting meat emanating from deep inside that bloody tear of a mouth.

He laughed cruelly as she struggled more. “Yes meat, struggle. You will be warmer, I like the meat hot!” The way he said it made shivers go down her spine and she screamed as loudly as she could. The sound tearing itself from deep deep inside of her chest and bursting forth like the blood curdling screech of a mountain lion.

The nerivith wiped a hand over their mouth as they chuckled. “Yes, break the meat. Make it tender. Tender meat to whip and tear, rip and chew the meat.” they continued like that, cackling as their ramblings got progressively less distinguishable. But Tomath’s attention wasn’t on that.

She yelled again as the man reached for her clothing and started to pull it off, so she swiped at his arm with her remaining three claws on her right arm. The human drew back, hissing in anger and pain as she carved the light gouges out of the offending arm.

She didn't even see the blow, stars filling her eyes as her head was rocked back by a punch that snapped off at least one of her fangs. She tasted blood in her mouth and gurgled in pain as her body was once more pulled violently towards the man. He smiled again as he licked the blood welling from his own arm.

“This flesh is stronger than that meat. You cannot make me meat like you did to my soft and warm.” She shook her head and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to look at the horrid man any more. The dead eyes, the way the skins he wore folded and moved wetly as if they were still fresh. And they might have been.

She felt him reach for her clothing again and wound up to take another swing when something grabbed her arms. She snapped her eyes up, the other smaller human was drooling as he laughed maniacally. Her long arms held in their iron grip, she cried out as they twisted them cruelly. Darkness clouded her vision as the pain in her shoulder mounted.

She struggled again and let out another scream as she felt the human tug her shirt up and over her head, but then they stopped.

Another sound reached her, the sound of footsteps. Heavy and fast, something running on all fours. There was another gunshot and then the sound of something heavy being slammed into a wall. This was followed by a roar, the sound so utterly primal with rage and hatred that she couldn’t recognise it. But the large human seemed to, and he shivered in fear at the sound of it.

She trembled, what was it, what could be so horrible that even these monsters quaked at the very sound of it? It could not possibly be worse than the dark fate she had already been resigned to, could it?

As if to answer her question directly she jerked as the cafeteria doors were smashed inwards with such violence that one of them flew entirely off its hinges to slam into one of the nearby tables.

The beast that at once leapt through the door made her feel strangely calm. As if some deep part of her recognised this whirlwind of frenzied teeth and rending claws. One of the other flesh tearers from the hall was held struggling in the beast’s huge hands, their struggling ceased as the monster bit their entire throat out and the screamed so loudly it seemed to shake the walls.

“Let go of my daughter you filth!”

She blanched, it was mother. But she had never seen her mother like this, she was wounded and bleeding from multiple places on her muscular body, the fur of her face and hands stained with the blood of several different species.

Without another word she launched herself across the hall with a speed that could only be described as terrifying. The larger human dove out of the way, but the other human wasn’t so lucky.

Tomath’s arms were suddenly free as the man was slammed to the ground behind her. She struggled weakly, her body beaten and bruised from her experience as she watched the nerivith pull the knife and rush her with a yell of blood maddened fury.

Their head snapped back with such violence that she actually heard their neck vertebrae shatter as a bright blue flower seemed to appear in the middle of their face. They crumpled to the ground as another roar echoed through the space, this time she was able to recognise the voice of her father. He burst through the door alongside a tall human female in a bloodstained blue uniform. The white congressional seal of the union emblazoned across her shoulder as she raised the gun in her grip and fired it at the remaining cannibal.

The large flesh tearer dodged towards her father while drawing a knife. She screamed in terror at the sight, “Papa! Look out!” But he reacted a little too slowly.

She screeched as her father’s arm was slashed by the blade. The big yeown grunting as he slammed into a table. The big human grunted something and rushed him, knife raised.

Time seemed to move in slow motion, her father was rolling over. His clothing torn and bloody, his bright green eyes filled with a kind of anger she had never seen in them before. It almost scared her, almost.

The blow never landed. The man jerked forwards and then flailed a bit as if trying to scratch an itch on their back they could not reach. Tomath saw their legs give out as they coughed bright red blood and fell forwards to lay still. Behind the man, hackles raised in extreme stress, was her mother.

She tried to stand, her good arm reaching out towards her parents as she cried pitifully. But there was no need, something scooped her up in a tight embrace. For a second she struggled, and then went still as a soft hand scrubbed gently through the fur on the top of her head.

A voice spoke into her ear, soft and loving. “It’s okay, kitten. Autie Jessica has got you, you are safe now. Don’t cry, oh please don’t cry.” But she couldn't help herself. All the stress and pain and fear welled up and spilled from her bloody mouth in a wail that wouldn't stop.

She saw her father being helped to his feet by her mother, the large yeown woman was breathing heavily. Her chest heaving as she tried to calm the rage that had fueled her near-superhuman actions.

Jessice carried her to her father, the young kid struggling to be free as she was released into her father’s embrace. She nuzzled her head deep into the fur of his shoulder and hugged him tightly with her uninjured arm. She was aware of her mother speaking to the human woman. But she didn’t care anymore. She didn’t want to think anymore, she only wanted to be with her family.

Jessica spoke up, her calm voice cutting through the veneer of bliss that surrounded Tomath’s mind like a blanket of safety. “She is hurt. And so are both of you, we need to get to medical right away. That adrenaline stick I popped on you isn’t going to keep you going for much longer and we both know that I don’t stand a chance carrying you there myself.”

Her mother spoke, her voice rough with pain and anger. The low growl still conveying the concern she had though and making Tomath smile. “Yes, Tomath is all that matters to me. When I heard her cry, I knew it was her. I just felt something come over me, I don't know what it was.”

Jessica seemed to smile, the woman looking over at Tomath as she buried half her face in her father’s fur. “It’s a mother’s intuition. Your kind may differ from mine in many ways. But a mothers love for her children is a powerful bond in any maternal species. I am just glad that we got here before..” She stopped and then grunted as mother placed a heavy hand on her small human shoulder.

“You will always be welcome in our den, Jessica. I will never forget what you did for us today, but we need to go. There are more of those monsters on the ship.” She seemed to want to speak more but Jessica’s communicator crackled to life.

“Abrithorn station security, this is the CMS navy vessel Lovely Day. We picked up your distress signal and tried to get there as fast as we could. We are boarding now, hold tight. We have got things from here, help is on the way. CMS Lovely Day, out.” The feed cut and the air was silent.

Tomath didn’t know exactly what a CMS Lovely Day was, but it sounded safe. But not as safe as her Papa’s arms. She hugged him tighter and squeezed her eyes shut, she was safe and the monsters were gone. She sobbed a little more but relaxed as her father hugged her back, but in the back of her mind she knew that everything was going to be okay now.

End of Story