That's right I’m half dwarf and half elf. The taboo of both dwarves and elves. As such, I was an outcast of both societies and lived in the frontier to escape the heavy racism from both groups.
The airlock soon opened revealing Holly and the security bots from earlier. She gave us all a quick medical check to make sure we were all okay. Then turned to me and said.
“You sure are an idiot Teage. Who in their right mind would board a ship with those possible on it.”
She pointed at the corpse of the infected orc I had killed earlier.
“And the only backup you had was your experimental robot which you and George are still testing right?”
“I told you, Holly, that we have completed the Alpha testing and we still needed more field data so I thought that some experience would be good for BT to see how he did.”
“Well, you should have at least had had Blake or Matt go with you as well instead of letting them sit around back at base twiddling their thumbs.”
“They are on break right now and I thought it was just a small raider team had taken over the ship and not a full blown outbreak of whatever that is.” Pointing to the dead body.
“That's another thing I wanted to ask you about what the hell is this. I thought this thing was an orc, but when I examined his chest and back I saw some strange things. Its chest had been eaten away and something had taken over near its heart growing the limbs extruding from its back. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Yeah, but the good news is that the threat they posed has been disposed of by the void. Have the bots take him to the doc and tell him to do an autopsy to see exactly what happened on that ship. Cause the captain wasn't looking too happy last time I checked.”
I turned just in time to see him approaching me with his fist aimed towards my jaw. Reacting too late I took the blow directly and was knocked back. “Why the Hell did you blow up my ship you damned half spawn. She was my baby and has served me well for the past twenty years. You better explain to me why you deemed her too dangerous to save, and also thank you for getting my men to safety.”
He bowed at that last part and genuinely looked thankful for us saving them. But, his punch still left me a pissed at him so I just said: “Whatever if you want a better explanation you can talk to the captain at headquarters where we'll be taking you all for questioning on what exactly happened on that ship of yours ‘captain’.”
I quickly turned away and went back towards the base to do an equipment check and refill my expended ammunition. As I headed back I saw the other person on duty Alex who was dealing with a disagreement between mage and a shopkeeper about some defective product they had purchased. He looked tired and annoyed but I sure was glad it wasn't me in his position. Mages were a bit crazy out here near the frontier. As they usually came here either on wild spirit journeys, practiced unlawful magic, or were being hired for some science expeditions (the last one being a rarity).
I soon arrived in the armory to find DJ polishing his double headed battle ax and checking his equipment before his shift came up.
“Hey DJ docking bay 1 is all under control so it's back to things as usual.”
“You don't look too good kid. Did it not go well?”
“You could say that. The ship was heavily infested and George deemed it too much of a security risk to cleanse so he ordered us to blow it up. But as you can see the captain of the vessel was less than pleased by the decision.”
I open up my locker and proceeded to fill my empty mags with fresh cartridges.
“Well, how did BT hold up? I know you and George have been working on him for a while now. Did he perform as you'd hoped?”
“BT handled himself well and considering the circumstances even better than I handled myself during the mission. He stayed perfectly calm and collected during the whole thing making sure I kept a cool head. Which considering what I saw was hard enough as it was.”
“What do you mean?”
Stowing my rifle and shield unit I turned to DJ.
“There was a lot of blood in the corridors, but what was strange was there were no bodies and the few bodies we saw attacked us with a certain savage drive that seemed almost feral. The captain of the ship seemed scared shitless by these things.He seemed to know more about them, but he seemed scared to tell more.”
“Probably doesn't want to lose his insurance coverage because of a self-imposed accident.”
He laughed and then got up to walk out saying
“Well for what it's worth good job kid and make sure to leave me some grub for when I get back.”
“Alright see you later DJ.”
After stowing the rest of my gear I make my way to the Situation Command room to report back to George about the ship. This was going to be a huge mountain of paperwork I could already tell. Guess I’ll have to stay late and finish it up instead of hitting up the pub for my usual drink tonight. I wonder if I could get BT to do it all? No George would notice straight away and yell at me for slacking off.
‘Authorization code please’
“BT45725”
‘Welcome back Teage I hope your mission was a success?’
‘It was but not without a few mess ups. I had to scuttle the shuttle so the captain’s quite pissed with me.”
‘At least you made it back. It’s a pain finding new help these days. Men like you are in short supply out here.’
“Thanks, SIS. Can you let George know I’m here?”
‘I’ve already alerted him to your presence and he’s already expecting you.’
“That’s right! Now stop flirting with SIS and get in here!”
“Sorry Boss.”
I make my way to his office and sit down in one of the two chairs in front of his desk.
“Good work out there Teage. You did well in handling that situation. Systems are running an all clear on the scuttled ship. We’ll have crews handle cleanup in a bit to clean up the mess. What I want to know is what was on that ship?”
“That’s what I want to know as well boss. They looked to have originally been some kind of science crew, but they were all mutated. Which I believe caused the crew to turn hostile resulting in a hostile takeover of the ship. I could not tell how this mutation spread and deemed it necessary to scuttle the ship and decrease the chance of it breaching the station. One of the hostiles was eliminated on the station. Holly is in the middle of investigating the specimen now and taking it to Doc for an autopsy to see if it can shed some light on the situation.”
“That is quite odd. There have been no reports or records of an instance like this happening before. It might be something new from the frontier. For now, we’ll just send out a PSA to look out for and report such creatures. If this infects more ships we could be in trouble. SIS, what did the black box report?”
‘Most of the ship's records were hastily deleted. I’m trying to recover what I can, but it will take me a couple hours to compile a complete report.’
“Keep me, updated SIS. Teage I want you to get some shut eye. Afterwards, I want you to interrogate the prisoners and if Doc hasn’t sent me a report yet I’ll email you and have you go check up on him. For now, that’s all. Dismissed.”
I then left the office and went back to the armory. Changing out of my merc uniform for civilian clothes and my trusty M1911. It was a pain to find and the ammo had to be special ordered. But I had a thing for the classics and it was a souvenir from the war. I just couldn’t get myself to change sidearms and it was more for show than anything.
No one picked a fight with us and for good reason. We controlled all the station’s defense systems and if you picked a fight with us you were usually launched into space before you could get another shot off.
I made my way the dormitory which just so happened to be right next to our bar. We each had our brews on tap and made bets on who would sell the most for the month. I was currently in the lead at 1,013 glasses with DJ in second place at 1,000 because that was all he makes per month. He usually sells out first as a result. Matt and Blake were sitting at the bar playing on some old console they had managed to fix. They enjoyed go hang out and play at the bar drinking then hook up to the net.
I couldn’t blame them all multiplayer net games were almost impossible to play due to us being so close to the frontier. There were a couple servers on the station but they were empty most of the time.The bar was quiet which was quite unusual especially due to how no one’s internal clocks were in sync out here. This place was usually bustling all the time with the sound of glasses and laughter.
“Sup guys. How’s it hanging?”
“Quite good to be honest. The bar cleared up when you scuttled that ship as almost all the captains called their crews back to ship in case there was an attack.”
“Well I guess I do have some good luck today. Contrary to how I feel. I’ll take a Matt special bartender.”
The robotic bartender poured a tall glass of a dark beer and slid it down the counter to me.
“Hey, how come you didn’t order mine?’
“Sorry Blake but your drink is just too sweet for me. I prefer Matt’s which is more bitter.”
“See I told you it was too sweet and that you should have cut back on the sugar.”
“Shut it, Matt. My drink is still beating yours so shut your trap.”
“That’s because I have a more niche consumer base compared to yours. A real man like his brew dark and rich not sweet and light. Brenner here is a prime example. Besides your concentration is waning.”
There was then a message on Blake’s side saying ‘You Lose’.
“Dang it! I almost had you that time.”
“Like you’ve almost beat me this whole week? Yeah, you still have a lot of practice ahead of you before that’s happening.”
“I’m going to catch a few winks before going to check on the Doc’s autopsy report. You two better not slack off and get some rest yourselves.”
“We’ll get some shut eye don’t you worry I just got to beat him one last time before he gets too depressed to try again.”
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“That’s not true! I only have time for one more game. I have other things I need to do.”
“Other than get your ass kicked by me?”
“Hey, I’ve beaten you plenty of times.”
“Let’s see. I think the record is 357:43. RIght SIS?”
‘From my internal station records I have only recorded around two hundred of your ‘games’ and in that time you have only won twenty games. Putting your win percentage at 10%. Also, you only seem to win if he goofs off or is trying something new.’
“That’s not true! What about last year’s smash tournament?”
“Yeah, I kinda let you win that one. I had to go meet a certain trader of mine during that so I lost on purpose.”
“So my victory was a lie!”
“No, you won. It just goes to show that I’m the best in the station with you firmly remaining in second place.”
“I’ll show you this time that I can, and will surpass you.”
They then went for a round two with the robotic bartender still cleaning glasses silently spectating their rivalry.
I then made my way through barracks security and made my way to my personal quarters. Inside I kept it roughly organized. With a small table with a thermal and small little knick knacks, I was working on with tools lazily strewn about. I had a small garden against one of my walls that I practiced with my elven nature affinity. I also had a locked cabinet that went from the floor to the ceiling full of ancient books that I’d managed to have found. Most books now were digital and while I enjoyed many of them. I still had a thing for classical literature and having a heavy book in hand. It just felt, right, I don’t know just a personal pleasure I had.
I take off my shoes and flop onto my bed releasing all the stress I had built up. If BT hadn’t come with me inside of the ship I would’ve died. If I had taken almost anyone else from our security detail they probably would have died.
It wasn’t anything against them, but there were certain things that if BT wasn’t there they would’ve been forced into more firefights with those monsters. He got the blueprints and navigated us to our objectives and he was able to keep calm since he had no emotions. Thermal vision finding the hidden monsters on the ceiling and just his sheer strength and decision making that allowed us to protect the crew and even save my life.
It just felt like things worked out to coincidentally. I might just have to thank god one of these days. Through which god or gods I’m still not entirely sure. I never really looked too deep into it and just remained agnostic when I couldn’t choose.
“SIS wake me up in two hours.”
‘Alarm set’
With that, I closed my eyes and went to a fitful sleep. I never had trouble going to sleep what I had trouble with was my sleep.
‘BEEP, BEEP, BE-’
I mentally turn off the alarm before getting out of bed and assessing the situation. My sheets were thrown across the room while my mattress was halfway off the bed. Another restless night from what I could tell.
I check my email to see that of course, Doc failed to email his report to George. Guess I’ll hit him up first before interrogating the crew. I was quite interested in knowing what had tried to kill me.
I quickly made my bed before heading out into the bar area to see the usual customers milling about. I approached the bartender and asked for a wake-up bar. The robot tossed me one and I made my way to the armory gearing up before making my way to Doc. The station was bustling with its usual customers but everyone was a little more armed than usual with more rifles openly being carried about. I open the door to Doc’s lab right as a can ricochets off the wall and into the trash can while Doc was yelling hysterically.
“This makes no GODDAMN SENSE!!! What the hell kind of organism hijacks a living host while changing its own DNA to match its host. I would say it is transforming into its host. But it has parts that still retain this new unchanged DNA. Along with these weird reading meaning, some kind of signal is being sent from the creature but it is entirely organic in nature.”
“What are you saying Doc?”
“Ah Teage you’re here good I need to speak with you. Come over here.”
He led me to the autopsy of the orc I killed. Its insides were messed up quite badly from my rifle barrage but what surprised me was that its heart was like a black tumor that spread this weird substance across its chest region. I saw it strewn about and a giant hole from the explosion that my barrage caused.
“You were very lucky Teage. You were able to hit the creature’s center of mass killing the thing that was inhabiting the orc’s, heart. I’ve never seen anything like this and I hope this is the last time we’ll see it. Its composition is unlike most biological life forms being almost like a cancerous parasite. Feeding off its host while flooding it with its own fluid. Our main problem is that we don’t have any more samples because they were all lost along with that ship.”
“So an unknown life form infected the crew and took over the ship as it was coming back?”
“That’s all that I can tell from this corpse. I wish I could have found out more but it has spoiled faster than I anticipated so this is as much as I can learn from this corpse.”
“Guess it’s time to interrogate the crew then. Guess I’ll go grab Shino, do you know where is?”
“How the heck would I know! I never leave my lab. Now get out so I can clean up this mess and go back to my research.”
“Alright see you later Doc. Try not to blow up the station.”
“Hey that was one time and there was only a 23% that would have happened.”
“That was still too high a chance Doc. See you later.”
I walk out of his lab and make my way to the brig, but before I arrive I stop by to go see a friend.
“Hey, Jenkins how is business today?”
“Quite well due to that incident yesterday. So what brings you to me today?”
“I need to request some more of that ammo. It worked like a charm yesterday and I want to purchase a bulk order of it.”
“How bulk are we talken?”
“About 3,000 rounds. You said this was a limited stock right so if I’m going to keep my hands on it I got to keep a good store of rounds on me.”
“That’s going to be a problem.”
“Why?”
“I only got 100,000 rounds from my supplier and I was setting a 500 round limit so I could attract more customers.”
“Is there a new expedition happening? Cause if not your customer base has stayed pretty much the same over the years.”
“I just have high hopes with this stock is all. If everyone bought like you after using it I’ll make a killing off these new rounds.”
“I’ll buy it off you for $1000.”
“No way this stock is worth $3000. A credit a round and that is lowest I’m willing to go for you friend.”
“I’ll pick it up later then. Email me when you have the order ready and I’ll pick it up.”
“I want half of the payment upfront. I’m not working up your order for free.”
“Of course.” I pull up my arm and transfer the money to his device. “There you go.”
“That’s the one thing I like about doing business with you Teage you always pay up front.”
He smiled at the nice bonus before going into his store room to get my order ready while his robotic attendant watched the store. I left a happy customer whistling as I made my way to the brig.
Jenkins was a cool dude and always had just what I wanted. Even helped me snag my M1911 for a good price. I’d met him after one of his more volatile customers tried to shot up his store after he wouldn’t hand over his good for a cheaper price. I’d subdued the guy before he had a chance to fire and after that Jenkins showed me his stock and after a good buy he found himself quite the devoted customer.
I opened the door to the brig to see Gary watching the prisoners from his desk while watching some show on a neighboring monitor.
Ah, you’re finally here Teage. Heard about the whole thing who do you want to talk to first. From what I could tell it sounds like one of the scientists is disguised as one of the grunts in there. Want me to drag him to interrogation.
“Sounds good maybe we can find out what exactly happened on their ship.”
I made my way to interrogation and sat down in one of the chairs while I waited for Gary to bring me the scientist. After a minute he came with the guy throwing him in before closing the door behind him.
“Hello I think we met on the ship but I don’t think I caught your name.”
“I have rights you can’t treat us like this. I’ll sue you for all you are worth.”
“You know this station isn’t governed by any government right? So I’m not sure how exactly you’d sue us. We’re too far out to warrant the cost of governing and the sector we are in are all deemed dead worlds so we aren’t even worth it as an outpost. We own the station so we make the rules. Now what were all of you researching and why were you out this far in deep space.”
He tensed up realizing what I’d meant. He was probably ignorant of the ship's flight plan meaning he was on the lower end of the command chain.
“It was just a standard science expedition. One of our observation station picked up an anomaly and we were sent to study it. … … … … … ”
“And?”
“And what?”
“And what did you find that caused your crew to be taken over by those things and nearly let them find a new hunting ground to infest.”
“I can’t say, it’s, confidential.”
I threw the table between us towards him and he falls back in surprise as it goes over his head.
“Do you think I honestly care! Your ship and its research endangered this entire station. If what was on your ship got onto ours I’m not sure we could have contained it. So you're going to tell me every detail of your research or I’m going to pound it out of you.”
He slowly backs up into the wall behind him bumping into the overturned table. His face is filled with fear as he contemplates the repercussions of his actions, but that isn’t long as my fists linger above his vulnerable face.
“We were exploring a barren world to see if someone had missed something of value. We weren’t finding anything until an asteroid impacted the other side of the planet. After a while, we decided to see if the asteroid had any valuable resources that could hopefully be more easily extracted on the planet. A team was sent to investigate and were attacked by an unknown lifeform. Only one of the team survived and was later found to be infected with some unknown disease. So we quarantined him and studied him. But one night the guard on duty fell asleep and the infected individual escaped and infected the guard. From there the crew quarters were attacked and the remaining crew held up in corners of the ship. Scrounging whatever weapons they could to fight back. Slowly they took over the ship and its systems. We soon lost the ship AI and were left in the dark. I thought we were doomed to die drifting in space when we docked with your station. Then you saved us and the rest is as you know.”
“So what is this ‘disease’ then?”
“I don’t know! It was unlike any lifeform we’d ever seen. It spread by bite and these infectious spore like creatures that would scurry about. They would burrow straight into your chest bypassing any armor you had on with ease. Then they’d hijack a person. The bites were worse though. It would slowly infect you until you were hijacked. It would happen so quickly though no one could tell how much time you had left. But the usual infection time was about 24 hours. So lasted only an hour while others would last twenty I couldn’t discern any patterns.”
“How did you obtain this information in the bridge?”
“The cameras allowed us a limited view of the ship. But no one wanted to risk going through an empty hall that we saw on camera for fear that they’d come out of the vents and grab you. So we fortified what we had and watched in fear.”
I picked the guy up onto his feet and drag him out putting him back in his cell. I’d heard enough for now.
“So did you find out what you needed? That had to be one of your fastest interrogations. I think it might even be the new record.”
“I wasn't going to get anything useful out of him. He’s in the dark as much as we are. The only difference was that spent more time with it than us. All we have is speculation until we either get more samples or incidents. Either of which I don’t think we want to happen. These things don’t sound like something I’d like to fight.”
“So more mysteries than answers. What else is new out here.”
“It’s unfortunate but what can we do. I’ll tell George to keep the station on higher alert but other than that there isn’t really much we can do.”
“Guess that means you’re back to your boring old patrols after finishing the paperwork for this. I bet you $100 credits it’ll happen again within a month.”
Ah yeah, I forgot to finish my report didn’t I. Guess I’ll finish that real quick before making my rounds.
“Don’t start saying that Gary. You're just going to bring us all bad luck.”
“At least there would be something to do. Hasn’t been much going on other than that raid three months ago.”
“Hey! Being bored is infinitely better than being shot at. I’d rather be bored to death and have the occasion fight than being invaded by those things.”
“Now you're going to jinx us, man.”
“I’ll make sure to knock on some wood then.”
“Don’t forget about your report George will get all pissy if you don’t get it done in time, and I prefer him not being pissy.”
“Fine, I’ll get it done. Well enjoy your show then I’m off to go finish it.”
I leave the brig and make my way to a cafe ordering a drink before sitting down at a table and finishing the report.
Nice, thing about station wide wifi means your office is the whole station and you get to enjoy changing the scenery every day.
I take a sip of my drink which happened to be some kind of tea Holly told me to try out. I cough at the bitter taste. I have no idea how she’d drink something this sweet.
Well, guess it’s back to patrolling until another incident happens.
Dang it! I jinxed it again, didn’t I?