by J. Benjamin
“My name is Val. We’re here to get you out. Please respond!”
They knocked loudly and forcefully on every door. Val and Thomas looked at each other, flabbergasted and surprised.
“Where the Hell is everybody?” Val wondered.
“Unless they’re hiding,” Thomas said, laser turret drawn.
“Hey! Easy buddy. We’re not here to kill anyone,” Val said.
“It’s not for that,” Thomas replied. He took his arm-mounted laser and aimed it at the nearest door. In a quick flash, he lasered through the lock and it swung open. They peered inside.
The room was small. Had a tiny desk and a twin sized bed welded into the metal walls. It was empty.
“I don’t think we have time to go into every room on this deck and see if someone is hiding under their bed,” Val said.
“Agreed,” Thomas replied. “Let’s go further down.” They left the living spaces and continued on their path, deeper into the heart of the station.
They entered a much wider deck, one that appeared to be used for research purposes. A state-of-the-art science lab complete with testing stations, microscopes, computer consoles, and test tubes lined the area. The consoles were still up and running.
“Hey! Can you pull up the creds Hollings sent?” Thomas asked.
“Yes, why?” Val replied.
“Perhaps we can log-in to one of these consoles and upload the most recent data,” He suggested.
“Do we have time for that?” Val wondered.
“Four minutes, and then we’re out,” Thomas said. “Trust me Val. If there is anything that can help us understand what happened here at Saturn, we need that information.”
“Very well,” she shrugged. Using the augmented controls in her glove, Val located the system-admin keys submitted by Hollings. Meanwhile, Thomas activated a hologram attached to the nearest computer. He typed in the information and then, a smile formed on his face.
“I’m in!” Thomas said. “Root folder on the station’s main drive.”
“Look for the logs,” Val reminded him.
“Actually, I think I just decrypted one better!” Thomas said. A large white screen appeared next to them, showing a line-item log of the various files. The names on the files were not nearly as interesting as the folder they were held it. It read ‘root/divanov.’
“Is this what I think it is?” Val asked, intrigued.
“Let’s check them out,” Thomas replied. He scrolled to the items at the top of the folder, which appeared to descend by most recent. “Let’s start four days back.” He clicked the third file down. A video message appeared. It was Ivanov himself. To Val, it felt surreal looking into the face of the newly-dead. Thomas played the clip.
“CEO’s log, April twelfth, two-thousand-and-eighty-three. The sequence is almost complete. We’ve managed to successfully crack the Aquarian node map. Although our first attempts resulted in failure, we now believe we’ve properly calculated the amount of energy meant to sustain a wormhole for longer periods. That is, until the permanent-bridge is established. Until now, all interstellar sequences were temporary affairs. We could prod into the Aquarian nodes, but we were limited by how deeply we could penetrate their inter-galactic web.”
“Jesus Christ he was a psycho,” Val said.
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Thomas added. He opened the newest clip, which had been posted only twelve hours before.
“I have spoken with Carlos Montez, and now we are ninety-nine-point-nine percent certain it works. The moment we have long waited for is finally here. My work over the last year has finally paid off. Today will mark a historic day in the long conquest of human destiny. No longer, will we be relegated to the simple star system which birthed us.
“We became a multi-planet species. Now we will become multi-system. When the Cosmineral Interstellar Jump Gate is prepared, we will be the gatekeepers to the universe. I will lead the first physical voyage beyond Sol since Edie Brenner. What the gammanauts achieved in the Great Spacetime Sequence of 2082 will look like golfing on the moon by comparison.
“We will form an alliance with the Aquarians. The power of the worlds’ governments will be rendered useless, as endless waves of new wealth and fortune are generated beyond Saturn’s Gate. And what’s even better is that we will control all of it. Cosmineral will be firmly in the driver’s seat of humanity’s future.”
“I’ve seen enough,” Thomas said, ending the clip.
“The nerve of this maniac. The delusion. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Val said.
“He was in the driver’s seat of humanity’s future alright,” Thomas said. “And he drove it off a cliff. This is so much worse than we thought. He didn’t just want to break the Aquarian map. He wanted to build the next node on it, and set it up right in Sol.”
“I’m sure that would have gone over well with everyone on Earth,” Val said. “Okay. We need to wrap it up here. Can you upload this information?”
“Already done,” Thomas replied. “For all the complaints of this God-forsaken ring, they do have fast cloud tech.”
“Let’s go.”
For a moment, Thomas didn’t respond.
“Thomas, come on,” Val urged.
“Val look!” He pointed to the screen, where a red alert flashed on the upper-right hand corner. “It’s a new message.”
“Do you think it was from Ivanov?” Val wondered.
“Impossible, this was uploaded in the last hour. Oh my God.”
“Click it,” Val said. It was another video log. Except now it was from a much different face, a woman. She appeared to be standing on a different deck in the ship. The stress on her face was palpable.
“This is Elle Rose, Bridge Officer of William Herschel Station. The station is badly damaged, and I don’t think we’re going to make it. Whatever Dev did down there, got everyone killed! I don’t know how to say this, shut down his fucking experiment! He’s destroyed Saturn. Earth is next. Take this damn technology of his and rip it apart! Do whatever you have to do!”
As she spoke, her attention turned off camera. She disappeared. The video ended.
“She must be downstairs,” Val said. “With the other survivors, if there are any.”
“Let’s go,” Thomas said. As they proceeded to the next set of stairs, Thomas reached out to Skylar. “Squad leader, do you copy?”
“Copy, Adler. What’s your status?”
“We are just leaving one of the research decks and getting deeper. Any success finding survivors?” Thomas asked.
“Negative,” Skylar said plainly.
“Check out this video log. I want your thoughts on it,” Thomas said. A few passing moments, and Skylar promptly responded.
“We need to move fast,” she said. “Our team is further ahead. We need to locate the survivors and get out of here pronto.”
“Affirmative,” Thomas said. “Let’s rendezvous at the bridge.”
Val’s attention was abruptly cut off by a loud clank. Val turned her gaze to look directly into the eyes of a floating, upside-down, dead body, less than an inch from her faceplate.
Chapter 58
Less than 40 minutes to point of no return
Val screamed. Thomas flinched, turned, and saw the lifeless human who floated directly into Val’s helmet. Val felt her heart racing a mile a second.
Thomas amplified the flashlight on his helmet. Aiming it at the space above. It wasn’t one dead body, but twelve dead bodies. All floated helplessly. All had deep wounds.
“Who the Hell did this?” Val shouted, still in shock. Thomas activated the laser mounts on his arms and held them in combat position.
“Whoever it is, they’re probably still on this station,” Thomas said. “Get your weapon out.”
Val quickly composed herself.
“Is everything okay there?” Skylar asked through the comms. “We heard a scream.”
“Squad leader, be advised. I am counting twelve casualties in
the deck closest to the bridge,” Thomas explained. “Inform your team that this just became a combat mission. If there are no survivors on the bridge, we are making a bee-line to the exits and getting the Hell off this station.”
“Twelve casualties? Acknowledged Command,” Skylar responded.
“Thomas, look!” Val interrupted. Her right finger pointed to one of the corpses. Thomas followed her line of sight. Elle Rose floated among the dead. Her throat was slashed, and she had a large puncture wound in her chest cavity. “Who the fuck would do something so brutal?”
“I don’t know,” Thomas admitted. “Whoever we’re dealing with, nihilistic. Maybe they thought this was it. Nobody was coming and went on a killing spree.”
They swept the area, picking up the pace as the clock ticked rapidly to the point of no return. When they turned the corner and finally reached the bridge, the quietness of the station was shattered by a blitzkrieg of gunfire.
Chapter 59
Val and Thomas entered a bloodbath. The first soldier was impaled and quickly discarded. The second one fired countless rounds at his hard-to-spot aggressor before he was decapitated through his spacesuit. With barely any time to react, the remaining three soldiers stood their ground as they unloaded their lasers at the enemy hiding in the shadows of the Herschel’s main bridge.
“Die!” Skylar shouted.
Thomas, not missing a beat, activated the rapid-fire turrets attached to the arms of his spacesuit and fired away. Sounds of grunts and guttural noises roared in reaction.
“Val! Take cover!” Thomas shouted.
Val ran to the nearest desk and dove underneath. She took the gun Thomas gave her. Thank the stars, she thought.
One of the three remaining soldiers screamed. Val peeked her head from behind the desk to see him flying into the air, dangling seven feet high by his left foot. What kind of human could do that? Val wondered. The soldier’s last utterance of sound pierced the comms in their helmets. Two blades, like machetes, ripped the soldier into three pieces.
Thomas, Skylar, and the other soldier took aim at where their fellow soldier had just met his violent end. A scream let out. The gun fire stopped.
“Did we get them?” Thomas asked.
The bridge fell silent. Everyone froze in place, confused and in disbelief. Then, a grunt. Val could hear it through her suit. Close.
The Herschel slowly spun on its axis as it barreled toward the point of no return. Sunlight suddenly poured through the windowpanes on the bridge.
A towering, anaconda-like monster slithered feet away from Val. Caterpillar-like legs held it to the ground, while its elongated body curved up in an S-shape. It’s upper-body, which had razor-sharp blades protruding from it, looked strong enough to rip through flesh as though it were paper.
It looked intently at Val. The disgusting thing opened its long mouth, exposing thousands of razor-sharp teeth in a circular pattern. It roared with the intensity of a pack of hungry bears.
Val screamed so loud that she was sure she popped a blood vessel.
“FIRE!” Thomas shouted. A flood of lasers hit the horrifying monster one by one. The creature, which surely had its sights on Val, tried to deflect from the laser fire which picked at its hardened, exoskeleton.
Val, having never fired a gun before in her life, took the weapon Thomas had given her. She struggled to get a solid grip, nearly dropping it in the process.
The deathly beast roared at her once again. It lunged right at Val. Not wasting a moment, she aimed what she assumed was the barrel and pulled the trigger. A flash of blue light soared from the silvery armament in her hands. It directly hit the creature point blank. Its head exploded and its body collapsed backward.
“Good shot, Val!” Thomas congratulated.
She jumped from under the table.
“What the fuck was that thing?” Val demanded.
“I don’t know,” Skylar said, “But it’s time to get the Hell off this station and evacuate Titan. We need to report to Earth what happened here.”
“Umm, guys?” the other soldier said nervously.
“What? Oh, shit,” Skylar reacted once she realized what was happening. A rush of footsteps could be heard from outside the bridge. Something, actually, multiple things were making their way down the command deck, in their direction. The grunts and roars made clear that they were also not human.
Thomas charged his weapons again. “Everybody, get ready. This is going to get ugly.” He assumed a defensive position with Skylar and the remaining soldier. Val’s mind raced in fear as the sounds grew louder.
They burst into the entrance on the main bridge. One by one, the monsters slithered their way on the floor and ceiling.
“Attack!” Thomas ordered. They fired everything they had. Skylar, remembering what worked for Val, aimed for the head each time. One of the caterpillar-like worms collapsed at her feet, but it wasn’t enough. Even as the bodies started piling up, the monsters kept pouring in, overwhelming the humans.
The poor soldier who outlived three of his comrades, lost control. Three of the monsters pinned him down and crushed him. Their blades punctured him in several places.
Skylar kept giving it everything she had. Like Thomas, she too came prepared with dual rapid-fire lasers. Yet even as she killed more and more of the invaders, more kept pouring in over the dead ones.
She kept firing for their underbellies. Then, unexpectedly, they fired back, from their mouths. A ball of black gunk landed on Skylar’s helmet, instantly melting through. She screamed in searing agony as the worm’s venom burned her face. Skylar fell to the ground. In the blink of an eye, several blades landed into her suit, pulling her into the crowd of alien savages.
Thomas and Val, now left to themselves, backed toward the glass pane of the bridge. They continued firing at the monsters, but by now, they felt like the underdogs in a losing battle.
Thomas kept firing, but suddenly his lasers stopped. Twin thump sounds indicated that his weapons overheated.
“Shit!” Thomas said.
“There’s too many of them,” Val said, still firing her handgun. Though at this point, it felt like shooting bullets at a tsunami.
Thomas looked out the glass, and then to the hordes of beasts bearing down on them. By now, they were so close, Val could smell them.
“I have an idea,” Thomas said. “But I need you to trust me.”
“I trust you,” Val said without hesitation.
“Latch onto my suit. Now,” Thomas ordered. “Aim your weapon at the glass, and whatever you do, hold on,” Thomas said. He lifted his hands, revealed two white orbs with blue lights at the center. Val’s eyes widened as soon as she realized what they were. The monsters fired their venom at them.
“Hold on!” Thomas shouted. He pressed the blue buttons on the orbs and threw them directly at the insects. They stared dumbfounded, as the quantum grenades landed at their feet.
Thomas rocketed off the ground with Val clinging onto his suit. She fired her weapon at the glass. They shot into the vacuum of space, as explosions ripped through the core of the Herschel, killing all of the invaders. Having barely escaped with their lives, they flew away from the station.
Val turned to look at the Herschel. As she did, a second ship came into focus. It was long, red, and shaped like an ax. It also happened to be docked on the Herschel.
“Holy shit! What is that thing?” Val said, finally realizing how the worms made it onto the Herschel. “They must have come through Dev’s portal. Jesus, they’re probably the ones who blew up Saturn. You seeing this Thomas? Thomas?”
Val heard a wheezing sound. She looked down at Thomas to see a black venom mark on his abdomen. His suit nanite-sealed before they fled the Herschel, but the damage was done. Thomas took a direct hit.
Chapter 60
Saturn Orbit - 8 minutes to the point of no return
“Thomas!” Val panicked. “Thomas, stay with me.”
“Val,” he replied weakly as they flo
ated on the orbital edge of the gas giant. “We have to get back to Minerva.”
“Of course,” Val said. She looked for Minerva. Seconds later, she found it. Already, the Aquarian flagship charged at the other alien ship in its hostile fuchsia color. As this happened, the other alien ship undocked from the Herschel.
“Minerva,” Val said through the comms. Those damn things tried to kill us. She watched eagerly, anticipating the moment when the Aquarians would drive the hostile aliens mad and end their miserable existence. Right now, she wanted nothing more.
She watched and waited. Then waited some more. Nothing was happening. Minerva stopped just a few hundred meters from the worms’ ship. Both ships simply floated side by side.
“Minerva. What’s going on? Attack that thing before it kills us all,” Val said. “Minerva?”
Val felt a knot form in the pit of her stomach.
She heard a whisper. Minerva was talking. Except something was wrong. This time it was different. It wasn’t just Minerva talking. Another presence of equal strength joined them. They weren’t trying to have a discussion with Val. They were coming to invade her mind.
Val felt a sharp pain worse than any migraine she had ever felt, shoot through her head. She yelled in agony. The voices grew louder with one goal in mind, to drive her insane.
Her head spun. She was desperate to keep the horrible thoughts out. Among them, what would a barbecued Thomas taste like?
Then, everything froze. The voices stopped. Her head found a degree of normalcy. A third presence was holding the other two back.
“Hello?”
“Dr. Alessi,” said the familiar voice, in her comms.
“Starscraper!” she shouted. “You’re alive?”
“Burrowed deep in the Aquarian anima. Val, listen to me. They can’t be trusted,” Starscraper said.
“Who can’t be trusted?”
“Both of them,” Starscraper said. “They are working together. Run! Run! Run!”
“Starscraper?” Val called out. “Starscraper. Starscraper, come back!” It was no use. His presence began to fade.