While Luke and Zeke were repairing the engine, Nolan was pushing the other engines to the max, flying as fast as the ship could take it. Rayan, Aria and Leo were working on solving the oxygen problem. Every few moments something with the life support system went wrong. The lights flickered, the gravity stopped working or the temperature suddenly dropped. It felt like something was messing with the life support biomatrix at the power room.

After a while, Levi came back to the bridge with the spacesuits and everyone put one on. Ryan told everybody to let their helmets aside and continued to use their oxygen masks, because the life support system was acting strange. If the life support keeps malfunctioning the whole ship could be left without life support. They needed to conserve their oxygen supplies if the worst happens.

“Good work Levi. Go take the suits to Luke and Zeke too.” Ryan said.

“I already did. It wasn’t an easy task with all these malfunctions.” Levi said.

“Did you see anything strange in the engineering section or the power room while you were there?” Ryan asked.

“No, I didn’t see anything except the cell particles floating around.” Levi said and continued. “Now that you mention it, I only saw the particles in the engineering section.”

“That is strange. Why would they all be only there, in one place? Are you sure you didn’t see them anywhere else, like the armory or the living quarters?” Ryan asked.

“No, just the engineering section.” Levi said.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Ryan asked Aria with a slight shudder in her voice.

“I hope not, because we don’t have any antimatter.” Aria said looking at the floor, frowning.

“What? What are you two talking about?” Levi asked.

“You remember two years ago when a cargo ship towed a smaller ship with no life signs on board to the Lumia space station?” Aria asked.

“I know about it. I know that there was an alien on the ship and that it killed a bunch of people at the station before they killed it.” Levi said.

“Well, that’s not actually the whole truth. There was a ship that accidentally found a small ship and towed it back to the Lumia space station. But when they opened the ship there was no crew. They found just four piles of dust on the floor and a few forcefully ripped open power cells. As they explored the ship they found that the life support biomatrix was ruined beyond repair and a strange creature made out of the merged particles from power cells escaped from the ship. It wasn’t an alien” Ryan said.

“But I saw a power cell rupture a few times and never saw that happen. It had to be an alien.” Levi said.

“No, the creature that escaped from the small ship wasn’t an alien. It was made out of merged power cell particles and it killed a bunch of people on the space station by turning them into dust. The same way that the power cells poison and kill you. People on the station hunted the creature, but the normal plasma guns just distracted it, they didn’t do a lot of damage to it. They used every weapon on the space station and the only thing that did any damage to it was antimatter particles. That’s how they dispersed the merged power cell particles and were able to destroy it. It’s a shame that only the antimatter particles can disperse it’s merged form, because antimatter can’t be carried on ships traveling at hyperspeed. The antimatter particles, at hyperspeed, become unstable and cause space anomalies.” Aria said.

“You both think this is happening now, on our ship?” Levi asked.

“What’s happening on our ship?” Luke asked as he and Zeke entered the bridge and walked towards them.

“The same thing that happened at Lumia space station.” Ryan said.

“Why do you think that?” Luke asked.

“There are similarities from that incident and what’s happening now. On that ship the life support system didn’t work, there was a ruptured power cell, a few forcefully tore open power cells and the ship was found near a nebula similar to the one we passed through.” Rayan said.

“Yeah, and did you see any particles floating around the ship or were they all in the engineering section?” Aria asked.

“No, we saw them only in the engineering section and near the life support bio materials on the ship. It can’t be, can it?”

“I think it can. Now we just have to see if we are right and hope that we are wrong. But just in case, let’s make a plan if we are right.” Ryan said.

While they were thinking and talking about different strategies to get rid of the creature if the particles merged, the life support system started to fail. First the main lights turned off and the emergency lightning activated. The temperature started dropping and the air got thin. Ryan told everybody to put their space suit helmets on and as they did they heard a loud noise coming from the other side of the ship.

“Damn it!” Ryan shouted and continued. “Guess we were right. So, does everyone know what to do?”

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The rest of the crew nodded and the plan was put in motion.

Leo stayed on the bridge and closed the doors after the others left. “Nolan, keep your fingers crossed that we don’t see that blasted thing,” He said.

“Just keep it away from me if you do see it. I don’t feel like becoming a pile of dust today.” Nolan said.

The others went to the armory and grabbed as many weapons as they could carry. They all slowly walked towards the engineering room, looking behind every corner and in every suspicious place. When they cleared the engine room and the power room Zeke and Luke stayed behind to guard the engines and the other power cells so the creature couldn’t get to more of the ell particles. Aria and Ryan started walking through the rest of the ship, searching for the merged creature.

“Guys come back!” Ryan and Aria heard Zeke over the coms.

“What’s wrong?“ Ryan asked.

“The creature is here! It’s about the size of a dog but our weapons aren’t doing a damn thing to it!” Luke said. Ryan and Aria heard the gunshots coming from the engineering section, turned around and ran back.

“Hurry up guys! It ripped open two power cells and the particles are now floating around it. They’re merging to it making it bigger!” Luke said shouting trough the coms.

“We’re on our way! Just keep shooting at the damn thing. Keep it busy until we get there.” Ryan said and as Aria and he approached the engineering room they took out the strongest guns they had and Ryan signaled Aria to open the doors to the power cell room. As soon as the doors opened the creature, still surrounded by a swarm of power cell particles, ran trough them heading towards the living quarters. Ryan and Aria started shooting after it but in the dark, they quickly lost sight of it.

“Guys what did it look like?” Ryan asked Luke and Zeke.

“Like nothing I’ve seen in my life. It was the size of a dog but looked nothing like it. It ripped open this power cells and the particles started swarming around it, merging to it.” Luke said.

“I don’t think it looks like a dog any more. As you guys opened the door it was still shifting its shape.” Zeke said.

“Ok, you guys stay here and hide the rest of the power cells. We can’t let the creature near them again. Aria, you and me are going ahead with the plan.” Ryan said.

Aria and Ryan moved on to the living quarters, slowly walking and looking, guns pointed in front of them. As they were walking, they heard a silent growl coming somewhere near them. They stopped and listened, the growling repeated but the sound echoed off the walls, so it was hard to pinpoint the sound source. The corridor in which they were walking wasn’t big so the growling had to come from one of the rooms. They searched room by room but didn’t find anything in them.

“This would be a lot easier if we knew what we are searching for.” Aria whispered.

“Just shoot at anything that moves. Just don’t shoot me.” Ryan replied.

As they were searching the last room in the living quarters, they heard growling coming from somewhere outside the living quarters. They entered the corridor that led to the last place they had to search, the cargo room. The growling got louder, but the sound echoed off the walls. Ryan turned back, looking behind them while Aria looked in front of them. Positioned like that, they slowly started moving to the cargo room, thinking that the creature will follow them. As they moved the growling got even louder. They increased their pace and hurried towards the cargo room while the sound of growling followed them.

“Guys, we hear the creature and we are on our way to the cargo room. It’s following us.” Ryan said over the coms.

“Good. When you get in strap yourselves to something and tell us to open the cargo doors.” Leo said.

“Just keep your finger over the button.” Ryan said and as his words echoed off the walls the creature dropped from the ceiling, right in front of him and snarled.

The merged particles moved around giving the creature shape. A shape that looked like something you would only see in nightmares. It was taller than Rayan, it had four legs, long sharp claws and a mouth with teeth as long as Ryan’s forearm. The creature snarled and growled as it moved towards Ryan and Aria. Ryan started shooting at the creature, aiming at its head, and each shot dazed and slowed it a little, giving them time to move further away from it and closer to the cargo room.

“Aria, go open the door to the cargo room! We need to get this thing int there!” Ryan shouted and Aria ran down the corridor towards the cargo room. He emptied the gun he was holding and the creature used the moment to leap towards him. It bit his arm and clenched his jaw pulling Ryan’s arm and thrashing its head around. He used his other arm, took another gun and fired repeatedly at the creature’s eye. The creature released his arm and roared in pain as the particles started to disperse around the creature’s eye.

Ryan started running towards the cargo room shouting at Aria to strap herself onto something in the cargo room. As he entered the cargo room, he saw Aria strapping herself to a wall. The creature leaped through the door, landing beside Aria. Ryan fired at the Creature to distract it and give Aria enough time to strap herself to the wall. The shots did nothing, the creature concentrated on Aria the closer prey. Aria, now successfully strapped to the wall, took out her guns and started firing at the creature as it swung its claws throwing her guns out of her hands and tearing the top layer of her spacesuit.

Ryan, still not strapped in, ran towards the creature firing at it repeatedly, yelling at it to get its attention away from Aria. The creature turned its head and snarled at him. “Guys open the doors! NOW!!!” He yelled over the coms, quickly walking back to the wall, still shooting at the creature that was running towards him with its mouth open, ready to attack.

The cargo doors started to open and as the cargo room started to depressurize the creature dug his claws into the floor trying to not get pulled out into space. Ryan, holding on to the hook on the wall, strapped himself in and turned around. He saw the creature holding on to the floor with its claws and over the coms he said to Aria “Aria, concentrate your shots on its claws. When I concentrated my shots on its eye the particles dispersed.”

They both started shooting at the creature’s claws and the particles started to disperse. As the particles dispersed the creature started losing its grip. After a few more shots its claws completely dispersed and the creature was sucked out into space.

“Ha ha ha! We got it! It’s out. Close the doors guys.” Ryan said over the coms.

All he could hear over the coms were sounds of cheering from the rest of the crew. As the doors of the cargo room closed, Ryan and Aria released their straps and headed to the bridge. When they walked on the bridge the rest of the crew was waiting for them and started clapping and cheering.

“Ok guys, stop that. This was a team mission, we all deserve to celebrate. As soon as we reach the Zielara space station I’m giving all of you a week off.” Ryan said and the crew started to cheer even louder. As he stood there on the bridge smiling, a few cell particles flew away from the bite mark on his spacesuit and the claw marks on Aria’s suit.