I was sitting in the comfortable lounger, placed in front of the large circular viewport in my quarters aboard the Elegance of Light, torn between the hypnotic swirls of hyperspace, and the engineering textbook I was attempting to read.
It turned out that the Giobhioni used a different kind of hyperdrive technology that any of the races the Commonwealth was familiar with. Our drives basically worked by sort of, burrowing a tunnel through hyperspace, which was why it was referred to as a Tunnel Drive. It created a sort of conduit around the ship that kept it safe from the eddies and sheer currents that existed in hyperspace. Anything that slipped beyond that conduit could get lost in a maelstrom of chaos that would either tear them apart, or mutate their DNA beyond viability.
The Giobhioni, and others from their region of space (and time period), had figured out a way to use those eddies and currents to their advantage. It was almost like their engines could redirect the currents into a kind of laminar flow around the ship, allowing them to travel with greater freedom, but with greater efficiency.
We couldn’t change course within hyperspace, you see. Once we set a course, the conduit, the “Tunnel” was locked in. The only way you could change course was to bridge the tunnel back to normal space, and set a new course from there. It took a lot of energy every time you did this, and therefore a fair amount of fuel. With the Giobhioni method, it was as “simple” as knowing the coordinates for where you needed to go.
Back in their time, they’d had a system of beacons they used for navigating. They could use them to triangulate their position, and the course they wished to set. But 3500 years seems to have deteriorated that network of beacons, and it never did reach out into the region of space the Commonwealth inhabited.
Stacy informed me that Captain Jophixa was using a more dangerous, and little known method which relied on the knowledge of how gravity wells in normal space affected hyperspace. It meant she still had to drop out of hyperspace every so often to check her navigation, but we were making good headway back to the closest Commonwealth system I knew of.
I say all of this to explain that I found myself intensely curious about the technical aspects behind the drive. I was an engineer on a ship where I knew nothing about the way it was being propelled. So I got authorization from Jophixa to study their technical manuals and see if I couldn’t get myself educated on it.
But I couldn’t focus.
The swirling chaos of hyperspace, being funneled through the scientific wizardry of the Giobhioni drive effects into tendrils of laminar lines kept drawing my eye, and sending my mind into thoughts of what we were chasing. I still hadn’t managed to pry any information regarding the nature of this “contagion” out of either Stacy, or any of the Giobhioni. I couldn’t figure out if it was a security issue, or merely an extremely strong taboo to talk about. I understood that they were all grieving the loss of most of their kind, and the assumption that it was this contagion that caused it, but if it was about to surge back into activity, we needed to know what we were dealing with!
I’d pushed Jophixa about it again the previous night. If we weren’t fast enough to prevent Barstol from getting that derelict ship to a starport, people were going to need information about this plague that wiped out a whole sector of spacefaring civilization! Taboo or whatever, she needed to tell me!
She had, as she usually did when I brought the subject up, brushed me off gruffly. There was always an excuse: You’ll find out soon, It’s not time for that yet, I’m busy right now. I honestly felt like I was going to have to try hacking into the computer, or catching her sleeping, tying her up and not letting her go until she told me.
That thought distracted me for a moment, as it usually did. Geesh Thomas, get your mind back on track.
It was an idea that likely wouldn’t work though. I’m sure the other two Giobhioni on board would not take kindly to me assaulting their commander, and if they could hit as hard as Jophixa could, I’d be in for a world of hurt.
I was just about ready to get up and head to the bridge to make an annoyance of myself again when the door-chime sounded.
“Come in”
The door slid open and Jophixa stepped in, and for the time since he’d met her, she was not in uniform. Instead of the pristine, razor creased uniform of black and red, she was wearing a loose top of some soft purple fabric that matched her undercut hair, and pants that resembled what on earth they’d have called harem pants. The shirt was cut just short enough to give glimpses of a well toned abdomen. The overall effect was one that kinda said she was trying to be casual and off-duty.
It also had me making a conscious effort not to stare at the teasing flashes of green abdomen being revealed by her shirt. What the hell is wrong with me? I asked myself, giving myself a mental shake, I haven’t gotten this distracted over a woman since highschool.
“Aacen, I want to apologize.” she looked uncomfortable with the words, which wasn’t surprising. I’d met any number of security chiefs over the years, and most of them were extremely sure of themselves, apologies didn’t come easy. “You’re right, you do need to know more about the contagion, and you’ve been pretty patient about the matter. The subject is just…hard to discuss. Even before we went into stasis, it took a lot of our people. And the way it did so made it even worse”
I waved her to the other chair, “I get it, I mean, I have no first hand experience, but that shit has to be traumatizing. Earth has gone through a number of plagues over our history, and it’s always left scars. If it weren’t for the situation…”
“If that were the only problem,” she sighed, resting her head in her hand, elbow propped on the arm of the chair. I’d made sure there were at least one or two places to sit in my quarters that were sized for Giobhioni, since I was the only human on board, otherwise it might have looked comical. I’m glad I had; it wouldn’t have gone well with the mood for me to chuckle right then. “But it’s easier to just start from the beginning if I’m going to explain this.”
“I want to make it clear that our sector of the galaxy was not all peace and love. I’m not going to try to blow smoke up your ass and make us out to be better than we were. We had our fair share of conflicts, our political leaders could be self-serving and short sighted, getting us into trouble with our neighbors. Or we’d have to beat off neighbors whose leaders were self-serving themselves. We tried to avoid war when we could, but even barring political idiocy, there were certain things we couldn’t walk away from.
“Like genocide.
“No half decent, reasoning race with anything approaching compassion and logic stands by and watches while that kind of thing happens! It’s not right, and it makes you as guilty as the ones perpetrating it!
“So when our merchants and scouts started to bring back stories of entire races going silent off at the edge of our sphere of contacts, we started paying attention. Civilizations just don’t suddenly go quiet for no reason. If nothing else, we wanted advanced warning if something was coming our way.”
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She rubbed her eyes for a moment, looking tired, so I got up and went over to the food dispenser and ordered a pot of graptak with two cups, setting it down on the table between us and pouring it for each of us. She gave me a grateful smile and sipped hers before continuing.
“After some investigating, we managed to learn of a new power at the edges of known space. The name that was given for them was the Ktonshi, and the stories of them were not pleasant. They were not as you and I, not gremensha, not… humanoid, is the word I believe your people use. Reports described something dark, with many limbs, and a great many eyes. They sounded like something out of a tale told to scare younglings.
“But we never saw one in person, not for at least 400 years. We did not even get an image of one. One of the stories was that they went absolutely crazy about any sort of recording technology capturing their likeness. They would suicide in order to destroy those records!
“They were the worst kind of xenophobes, Aacen. Everything we found out said that they didn’t just want nothing to do with aliens outside their kind, but that they wanted to wipe out anything that wasn’t their kind. Those races that had gone dark? We got stealth ships in to investigate, and they found nothing but ruins left. Whole swaths of space that had been densely populated, had been reduced to graveyards and tombs.
“Once we learned that, we were on high alert, as were our neighbors. We created defence pacts against these Ktonshi, and set up fleets to monitor that region of space, and react if anything strange should appear. We would not be caught unaware like those others. We would not stand divided against an enemy whose entire goal was our complete destruction.
“And they did come,” she sighed, taking a long sip of her graptak, “and we fought them off. Our preparations worked, we sent them packing back to where they came from. A lot of people on our side died in the process, but we kept them away from any civilian populations, and drove them off.”
I frowned, not understanding what this had to do with the contagion we were in a race to stop. I was about to voice my confusion, when she held up her small hand, “I know. What’s this got to do with the contagion?” she gulped down the rest of her graptak and leaned forward to pour herself another cup. “They might have gone after us head on at first, but they were smart enough to change tactics when we proved strong enough to drive them off. The contagion isn’t natural Aacen, it’s a bio-weapon.”
Feeling the graptak sour in my stomach, my face twisted, “Monstrous. We outlawed the use of that kind of thing centuries ago on Earth.”
“As had most of our allies. It was seen as too horrific a means to make war, too reprehensible. But the Ktonshi seemed to have no limits on what they would do to wipe out anything that wasn’t themselves, and if they couldn’t defeat us by simple warfare, they’d resort to another method.
“But the thing about this contagion Aacen, the thing that makes it so difficult for us to talk about is what it does. It doesn’t actually kill those it infects, or at least, not generally. What’s so insidious about it, is that once infected, it rips into your DNA and begins rewriting it, turning you into one of THEM!”
“It what?”
“Yeah, it was quite a shock to us, when we found the first of the infected.” She took a small flask out of a pocket in her harem pants, unstopped the top, and poured a small measure into her cup, looked at me and held it out. “Doc says it's safe for you.” I nodded and held my cup out and she poured a small dollop into mine as well, then leaned back to take a sip from hers, closing her eyes. “They’d all, the crew of the ship we found, gone into some sort of chrysalis, and when they emerged again a few days later… They’d become Ktonshi, and as far as we could tell, there was no discernible difference. The only way we could tell they were the crew was that the one or two we managed to kill and retrieve before they hijacked the ship and headed back through the Quiet Zone, had remnants of Giobhioni DNA.”
“So we’re not looking at a plague that’ll leave corpses in its wake, but still kills regardless?” I asked, still trying to come to grips with the information. “And worst of all, when they finish the process, they could be in a position to infect many others?”
Jophixa merely nodded.
“By the stars…”
----------------------------------------
At Enigma Osiris research station, security teams were on high alert, scrambling for defense fighters, boarding shuttles and industrial tugs.
Twenty minutes earlier, the M.S. Gladstone had emerged from its hyperspace tunnel with an alien ship being towed behind it. It was on a collision course with the station, and thus far station control had been unable to establish communications with the crew. Last known communication with the ship’s captain had reportedly been 3 days earlier, through the company’s Chief Research Officer.
With no contact with the crew, and distance rapidly closing between ship and station, teams were dispatched to board the ship, investigate, and divert its course if possible. The CRO was adamant that the ship being towed must be preserved at all cost, even if they had to shoot the tethers and maneuver it using the tugs.
At full burn, the boarding shuttles got to The Gladstone in under 5 minutes, and had breached a docking airlock shortly after. Corporal Steven Traynor led the first time through the hatch.
“Control, this is Alpha One, we’re on board.” he reported back, waving his men down the corridor, “proceeding to bridge, over”
“Roger that Alpha One,” was the reply from station control, “Sensors still only reading faint life signs. RC1 reiterates, keep suits buckled up, the captain looked ill on last contact. They might have brought something on board with them from that alien ship.”
“Roger, sealed up until fumigated”
Proceeding through the ship, they encountered not a soul. Corridors, workspaces, and finally the bridge, all were empty, The Gladstone seemed to be a ghost ship. But sensor readings from station control reported lifesigns on board. So where was everyone?
“Station Control, this is Alpha One, the bridge is clear.” Traynor reported in, as they stormed through the bridge’s entry hatch. “Proceeding to deploy braking maneuvers, then will continue to sweep command deck for personnel”
“Roger Alpha One. Be aware sensors have enough resolution for some location data. One lifesign within 20 meters of your location. Keep your guard up”
“Always Station Control, always.” Traynor looked over at his private seated at the helmsman’s station, who finished tapping at the control surface before giving him a thumbs up.
“Braking sequence initiated Boss”
“Primary objective complete then. “Roberts, Andrews, keep the bridge secure, everyone else, let's see if we can’t find Captain Barstol.”
There was no joy in either the bridge head, or the conference room, which left the captain’s office left on this deck. As they approached the door, Traynor’s comms squelched. “Alpha One, this is Alpha Three.”
“Alpha One here, go ahead.”
“We’ve located the other lifesigns Corporal, in sickbay. It’s… weird corporal”
He watched as his men proceeded into the captain’s office as he took the report from Alpha Three, then slowly proceeded after them, “Weird how Alpha Three?”
“It’s the crew. All but the Captain. They’re here, wrapped up in some sort of white filament Corporal, almost like spider webs. We can’t really figure out who’s who, Corporal, there’s…they don’t look right. They don’t look…”
“Corporal! You need to see this!”
“Hold that thought Alpha Three, I’ll get back to you” he hurried into the room where his team was, turning the corner to find himself staring at just what Alpha Three had just described. Behind Barstol’s desk, was an enormous wadding of what looked like spider web, wrapped around a pulsating sack that might have been a human body. He felt his fingers tighten on his weapon, the silken strands of the “web” spread out from that pulsating sack to cover most of the room, giving him the feeling as if they’d just stepped into some giant arachnid’s nest.
“Station Control, anomaly discovered in captain’s office.” he reported through comms. “Initiating visual feed.”
“Roger Alpha One, receiving.”
“What am I looking at Station Control? Is that Barstol in there?”
“Stand By, Alpha One”
Traynor grimaced, he did not like this situation. No matter what training he’d gone through over his years in Sable Serpent PMC, spiders still gave him the creeps. It didn’t help that whatever the fuck created this mess was either big as fuck, or more numerous than he wanted contemplate. He wanted nothing more at that moment then to retreat back to the boarding shuttle and blow this whole ship into a navigation hazard. They could clean it up later.
He watched Private Jameson slowly approaching the sack at the center of the webbing, his handheld sensor device extended to get better readings. “I am reading residual traces of Barstol’s DNA in there Corporal.” he reported. “If it's not him in there, whatever it is had to have taken a bite out of him or something.”
“Control, please advise. Do we pull them out or what?”
“Alpha One, please stand….” the transmission cut off suddenly
“Corporal, This is Benson Fisch, CRO. Back away from the webbing and get back to your shuttle with all possible haste”
“Roger sir, evacuate the ship.” He turned and signalled the rest of his team, then tapped his earpiece “All teams, return to shuttle, we’re getting the hell out of this creepshow!”
He’d just turned to leave the room when he heard a sharp ripping sound, and a loud, wet thunk. Turning back, he was just in time to see Private Jameson’s rigid, spasming body go limp, and collapse to the floor, a 3cm bleeding, gaping hole, straight through the top of his helmet and into his skull.
And in that moment, comms erupted in frantic screams.