Starck's Lament (The Shadow Wars Book 11)

by S. A. Lusher

  “I hate being outside,” Ronnie muttered, jarring Eric back to reality.

  “Won't be for long,” Seth replied. “You'll be fine.”

  “Yeah, all it'll take is one suit malfunction, one micrometeorite strike, one-”

  “Cut the chatter,” Marco said.

  Ronnie fell silent. Eric appreciated it. They were all professionals, seasoned veterans of space travel and rescuing people, but even the most grizzled space walker could get rattled during EVA trips when all that stood between you and a very painful death were a few centimeters of suit material. Ronnie was right. Despite all of humanity's advancements, it was all too easy to die out here in the cold, airless vacuum of dead space.

  “Let's a get a move on,” Marco said, apparently satisfied with the cursory analysis of the immediate exterior.

  They moved across the landing pad and over to the short stairwell situated next to a ramp that would take them to the road. As they walked, all Eric could hear was the soft sounds of his own breathing and the occasional noises the others made that their mikes picked up. Overhead, he had a clear and perfect view of the infinite starscape that was the universe. Perfect, tiny pinpoints of light set against an eternity of midnight blackness. There was once a time when the sight would have given him comfort or joy, but now it only filled him with a bleak loneliness, a haunting isolation as he realized how truly insignificant he was.

  They made their way down the stairs and came to the road, heading towards the facility. Eric tried to stay focused, to keep his eyes open for any surprises. They were walking in almost literally blind, anything could be waiting for them.

  Normally there would be some chatter between the crew. Questions or theories or even simple jokes, but now the silence was whole and unbroken. Eric felt the urge to say something but he could think of nothing and, anyway, he thought that if he did say something it would come strained or awkward and make the tension even worse. So, instead, as they continued their walk, he turned his thoughts to Autumn.

  She'd already been there for three months by the time he'd signed up with the crew. Joining Search & Rescue hadn't been as difficult as he thought it might be. Given his good health and military background, they put him through a standard training course that he passed easily in a month. When he'd first met Autumn, there'd be a kind of immediate attraction there. His last relationship had been with a socially awkward medic during his previous job as a tech aboard a freighter. His name had been Robert and there hadn't been much passion in the relationship. Robert had been the third man he'd dated that year.

  Being bisexual, Eric had always heard from people on both sides of the fence that bisexual people tended to be attracted to both genders, with a preference for one. He'd once thought that was true for himself but now he wasn't so sure. Now it seemed that perhaps he was one of those people who was just near the center, that he had no preference, he was just as attracted to women as he was men. Unlike Robert, Autumn had sparked a tremendous passion in their relationship almost immediately. They'd taken a quick liking to each other, though it took a month of dancing around the issue before she finally asked him out.

  Though she hadn't quite so much asked him out as came onto him one night in his cabin and they ended up spending the night together.

  Autumn was very direct like that.

  They had arrived at the facility. Whatever brief respite from fear of the unknown that lurked within its metal walls he'd gained by thinking about Autumn, he now lost as they stood before the human-sized airlock bay.

  “Seth and I will go in first,” Marco said.

  Eric watched them disappear into the open airlock, the doors grinding shut behind them, as if the building itself was consuming them. He waited, turning to look back at the ship. It seemed distant and lonely, with a landscape of pockmarked gray rock dividing them. He was jerked back to reality as he heard Seth's voice.

  “We've got blood here.”

  “Damage, too,” Marco said quietly. “There's blood over here, as well.”

  “There's blood everywhere,” Seth whispered.

  “Cycle through, we need to get to work right away,” Marco commanded.

  Eric hesitated. Marco wasn't some brash idiot who would charge headlong into a dangerous situation regardless of the circumstances, but he was also a firm believer in the greater good. He would put his life and the lives of his crew at risk for the sake of rescuing others. It was a familiar creed: he would make a perfect solider.

  “Coming through now,” Eric said when no one else spoke up immediately.

  He led them to the airlock, this one large enough to hold them all. With varying levels of reluctance, they followed him into it. Once they were inside, Eric hit the control and the door slid shut behind them, sealing them in. When it finished its cycle and admitted them to the hangar beyond, Eric saw what the others had been talking about. As he stepped cautiously out into the next area, he saw that there was indeed a lot of blood.

  It looked like the hangar bay had been hit by some kind of combination of a fierce battle and an environmental disaster or an industrial accident. There were no ships in the vast expanse of the hangar bay, giving it an immensely lonely feeling. Overhead, some of the powerful work-lights that typically arced streams of white luminescence were out and others were flickering, giving the area an air of ominous menace.

  And the blood.

  There was a lot of it. Pools of it spilled and splashed across the deckplates, rivulets of it running down the walls like a mad rain. There were streaks of it in several different areas, as though bodies had been dragged forcefully out of room.

  Speaking of bodies...there were none.

  Almost automatically, Eric, and the others as well, switched over to exterior mikes and stopped using their suit's oxygen reserves.

  The reek of blood and death began to filter in through Eric's vents.

  “What the fuck happened here?” Ronnie whispered.

  “We need to find out,” Marco replied. Eric heard a note of real fear in his voice. “We're going to split up.”

  “That sounds like a terrible idea,” Ronnie moaned.

  “The less time we spend here, the better,” Marco replied. “Eric, Autumn, Amanda, you three will head for the main security hub. Seth, Ronnie and I will get to the control room. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything. Once we have access to their internal database and sensors, we'll have a more complete picture.”

  Everyone didn't quite seem as enthusiastic as they might have otherwise been on a different mission, even Seth seemed cautious and subdued, but they were here to do a job and that's what mattered. Everyone agreed to the plan and they made their way slowly across the immense hangar bay, towards the far exit.

  Their boots squelched loudly in the pools of blood.

  Eric studied his environment, looking for clues as to what must have occurred. The place was an absolute wreck. There were spilled cargo crates littering the floor with all kinds of random tools and spare parts. There was a single land rover across the way that was half-smashed, its cabin caved mostly in, windows shattered. It looked like it had been hit with a wrecking ball. There were bullet holes and spent shell casings and abandoned weapons all over the place, but no sign of what had been hit. What had they been shooting at?

  They left the hangar and split up, heading in opposite directions down a large corridor. It wasn't quite as battered and bloodied as the hangar had been, but it was obvious that something had gone similarly wrong. Eric had the impression that the entire facility was like this to varying degrees. Was anyone even left alive here? He couldn't imagine an entire outpost being slaughtered...and yet here was all this death and destruction.

  Though, again, he noted that they had yet to see any real corpses.

  Just blood. So much blood.

  The walls, he saw, were dented. As though something had smashed into them in passing, like some great, careless beast. It began to fill his mind with uncomfortable, frightening images. He felt lucky t
hat the security hub wasn't too far away. Eric listened intently as they walked down the main corridor, eventually coming to a smaller hallway that led them left, towards the hub. He listened for evidence of what might have caused all of this, what might still yet be ongoing. But he could hear nothing. Just the dismal sounds of the base's functions.

  “There it is,” Autumn said, startling him out of his thoughts.

  Indeed, Eric spied a large, powerful-looking door at the end of the corridor they were in. It was closed firmly and, above it, a simple, functional sign read simply: SECURITY HQ. It was definitely the place they were looking for.

  “Let's have a look inside,” Eric murmured as he approached the door. He hit the access button. The door buzzed angrily at him. “Shit,” he said, trying once more and receiving a similar response. Definitely not good.

  “What's wrong?” Autumn asked.

  “Not sure,” Eric replied, activating the screen built into the wall next to the door. It booted up easily enough and showed him the problem. “Shit, something has cut power to the doors. It's a quick fix, I just have to find it...” He checked out the map the screen displayed, showing him where the problem was. “There. I should be able to do it in about five minutes. Stay here and update Marco, I'll be right back.”

  “Be careful,” Autumn replied.

  He glanced at her. There was an obvious worry in her voice, in her eyes, behind her faceplate. It wasn't natural for her.

  “I'll be fine,” he replied.

  Then he set off.

  CHAPTER 03

  –They Have Arrived–

  A fresh layer of tense dread settled over Eric as soon as he was out of sight of the others.

  In his mind, he could see the job fairly easily. All he had to do was make some repairs to a power relay. Easy. Or, it should be. He'd done it often enough in his life. Technology was basically his second language now. Despite this, he couldn't shake the mounting tension. He was alone now, only...he didn't quite feel alone. He felt as if he was being watched. It was an intimately familiar feeling. You got it when you went to war and you had to constantly be on alert for enemies as you picked your way through a bombed-out city and any damned half-collapsed building could be holding a sniper or a small squad laying in wait, ready to spring an ambush...

  Eric reached the end of the corridor he'd stepped into when he'd left the entrance to the security center. It was a T junction. The wall in front of him was painted in a dried coat of blood. Whatever had happened here seemed to have happened at least a day or so ago, possibly longer. Though not too much longer, since this was a place for people to stop by and get refueled and repaired. On the other hand, this was a pretty isolated location...

  Eric realized that he was lingering, his thoughts drifting. Not good. He cast a glance right, to see if there was anything there, but all he saw was another lonely stretch of corridor. Turning left, he continued along his path. If he remembered the map properly, this corridor granted access to a small network of storage rooms meant to hold excess equipment. Or something or other. There had been a great many details to memorize in a pretty short period of time. As he made his way to where the power relay should be, Eric's mind wandered once again. The thought he kept finding himself coming back to was a question.

  Was he, in fact, suicidal?

  It didn't seem exactly in his character. He hadn't been the most happiest of men throughout his life, but he'd never been actually suicidal. He felt safe in his conclusion that these thoughts were an artifact of his time in combat, since these were new emotions. Except that, if he were to be asked right now, at this very moment, if he was suicidal, he would have to answer no...to an extent. The clearest, most concise way he could put it was simply that he didn't want to kill himself, but he wasn't necessarily bothered by the idea of his own death.

  What did that mean?

  Eric stopped as he came to the power relay. Or, at least, he came to the access point. About three quarters of the way down the corridor, along the left wall, was wall panel marked in scuffed, faded lettering. Here was his power relay. Placed, of course, behind the wall. Wonderful. With a sigh, Eric went about the procedure of getting it open. Once he did, he was admitted to a narrow alcove that was just tall enough for him to stand in and move along. It ran parallel to the corridor. He slipped inside and located the power relay.

  It was sparking slightly. Not the most desirable situation to be in: closer quarters with a sparking piece of equipment. But, such was the life of a technician. He saw what the problem was, and figured it shouldn't take too long to fix.

  As he set to work, he thought about his reasons to live. Right now, the biggest one was Autumn. She was a fantastic partner. He wasn't sure he loved her, though. He liked her, a lot. More than liked her, really. But he honestly didn't know if he loved her, and, he supposed, therein lay one of his biggest problems. At the moment, Autumn was probably the closest thing he had for a strong reason to live, and he knew that it wasn't fair, or healthy, to hang something that heavy on a partner. No matter what kind of relationship, it was never a good idea. He'd seen shit like that before, seen people who basically held themselves hostage.

  'Break up with me and I'll kill myself.'

  That kind of shit. It disgusted him and he didn't want anything even remotely close to that. So, if he was being honest with himself, it was probably the reason he had almost subconsciously kept her at a distance. Maybe if he'd been more stable, more well adjusted, they could be at a better point in the relationship.

  Maybe he could have been in love with her by now.

  There.

  With a sharp pop, the awkward, off-balance noises the power relay was making suddenly smoothed out. The relay was fully functional.

  Eric activated his radio. “All right, Autumn, it should be working fine now. Give it a try,” he said as he began packing his tools up.

  No response came.

  “Uh, Autumn, did you get that last transmission?”

  Still nothing. Dead air mocked him.

  He finished packing up his tools and opened his mouth once more, then froze, literally froze, as he heard a deep, threatening growl. It was like a bass rumble from a malfunctioning, particularly powerful speaker. For a few seconds, he didn't even breathe. Whatever had made that sound was in the corridor just on the other side of the thin wall separating him within the alcove. After a moment, he heard slow, ponderous and, most importantly, heavy footsteps. They rattled everything in the alcove. Even Eric inside of his suit.

  Except that it wasn't the footsteps themselves rattling him, Eric was trembling in raw, unfiltered, petrifying terror. That simple growl had sent waves upon waves of fear coursing through him, filling his veins with ice.

  The ponderous footsteps continued, coming closer, closer...

  They stopped just beyond the entrance to the alcove.

  Whatever it was, it was right next to him. Eric was just a few feet into the alcove. He could see the open door. Why hadn't he closed it?! He had no reason to close it then, no reason at all. That wasn't true, this was a dangerous place, he had plenty of reason...

  He'd just been careless.

  He could see the shadow of the thing just beyond the door.

  At no point did he ever doubt that this thing was not a human being. It was a creature. An entity. Something other. Something wholly and utterly alien. He could practically feel its presence radiating through the metal of the wall. Whatever it was, it was big. It didn't cast any kind of shape in its shadow, it simply blotted out all the light coming from the corridor. Whatever it was, it lingered just out of reach of him.

  He hoped, at least.

  Suddenly, a distant scream, a female scream, sounded. It was followed almost instantaneously by gunfire. Eric felt like screaming himself. Had that been Autumn? Or Amanda? What was happening? More gunfire, more screaming. Eric still couldn't move and none of the sound was coming over the radio. What had happened to their comms? Abruptly, the horror in the corridor beyond let
out a short growl that seemed to permeate the air around it and set off. Eric listened to its heavy footfalls as they disappeared the way he'd come.

  At once, the gunfire ceased.

  It become immensely, almost painfully, quiet and Eric was left trembling in this tiny, tight space that had spared his life. For the time being. For a few seconds more, he was paralyzed by his fear, but in the sudden silence, he remembered that scream. He remembered that Autumn was out there with those...with whatever they were and he moved. Even if he wasn't sure about his own state of mind, his own desire to live, he was sure about one thing: he wanted Autumn to live. She was a good person, she deserved to live.

  And he would make damned sure she walked out of here.

  Eric left the alcove.

  The corridor beyond was empty and he could no longer hear anything. Not gunshots, no screaming, no heavy breathing or footfalls. It was as though he were the last living thing in the entirety of the universe. Attempting to shake off the residual tension, Eric set off down the corridor, trying to keep quiet. But it was difficult given that he was wearing a suit of metal armor and he was walking on deckplates. His boots sounded hollow and lonely as he hurried back down the corridor. He realized, as he reached its end, that he hadn't even pulled his pistol out. Eric stopped, lingering in the T junction, considering this.

  Did a part of him think that it wouldn't really matter?

  A pistol seemed like a pretty piss poor option when measured against whatever was apparently lurking in the corridors. Nonetheless, Eric undid the latch and pulled the pistol out. It was better than his bare hands, and who knew? Maybe it wasn't as bad as it seemed. The mind did tend to fill in the blanks with the worst case scenario.