Starck's Lament (The Shadow Wars Book 11)

by S. A. Lusher

  And then rending metal as the creature reached into the vent.

  Eric kept going, pushing himself as fast as physically possible. A few seconds later, he heard a furious roar. He'd made it, the thing couldn't reach him. It sure sounded like it was trying, though. More rending metal, tearing open as the creature tried to rip its way into the vent, but the wall around it was built too sturdily. Eric continued crawling as quickly as he could, putting as much distance between the monster and himself as possible. Soon, the sounds fell away and he was alone in the vent. Maybe he should just stay up here.

  He passed a few more grates, staring down into more offices, trying to get his bearings. If he had his directions right, he needed to make a right-hand turn somewhere. The eating areas were just adjacent to the office complex. Eric followed the vent until he spied a right turn and took it. He paused every couple of moments, listening for signs of life, trying to determine if the creature was still on his trail or not. Or if he had picked up a new one. So many possibilities, almost all of them terrible. But it was silent.

  Finally, he came to the mess hall he'd been looking for. It was done up in the style he'd gotten used to in the military. Although the map had called it the dining hall, it definitely looked more like a mess hall. Rows of tables and benches bolted to the deckplates, laid out in a mathematically precise grid for maximum occupants. Eric decided he'd pushed the whole vent thing far enough. It was way, way too easy to die up in there if one of the beasts decided to just reach up and grab him. He canvased the mess hall once more.

  It remained empty.

  Deciding it was now or never, Eric opened the grate and dropped down into the room. The lighting was poor. The edges of the room had been cast into thick shadows. He could just make out the door across the room that he had to pass through.

  As Eric began to step out of the shadows, he froze as that same door he was staring at suddenly slid open. He felt his body seize in fear and took a step back as one of the creatures began squeezing itself into the room. What were the odds?! He felt like the unluckiest person in the whole galaxy right then. And it wasn't as if he could just wait for it to go away, even if that was an option. He was working against the clock here. Eric took a deep breath and let it out as slowly as he could. The creature clearly hadn't seen him yet.

  Moving as slowly and cautiously as he could ever remember, Eric began heading to his left. The creature had veered off to the right, clearly interested in a large bloodstain over there. Maybe it was scouting for more parts of people. His movements didn't seem to draw its attention. Eric kept going, switching his gaze between what was in front of him, which he could barely see in the shadows, and the creature.

  Seconds crept by as he stalked through the shadows, each step seeming to take ages. It seemed like moss might grow faster than the progress he was making. Each time he set his foot down, he had to, as gently as possible, make contact with the floor first and then put pressure on it, so that almost no actual sound was produced. The creature continued its long gait and reached the bloodstain in a few seconds, where it crouched down and inspected the deckplates, as though deeply interested by what it saw. Eric kept going.

  He hit the corner and began making his way along the left wall, towards front wall that held the door and his escape. Despite his terror, part of him couldn't help but be at least partially interested in what he was seeing. Here was one of the creatures, not chasing him, not actively trying to kill him, with, as far as it was concerned, no other humans around. What was it like in a neutral situation? This further begged the question of whether or not these things were born or created, natural or artificial. What he was seeing didn't help.

  It was just kind of...standing there. Looking at the blood. As he made it to the halfway mark, the creature sat up slowly and stretched its arms out. It reached up, pushing itself to its fullest height and poked one of its arms into a broken open vent grate. Eric watched as it searched around the vent grate, then it pulled itself up and poked its hideous head inside. It was horrifying to watch, in a way. To see a kind of malignant intelligence in something so dangerous, something that looked so...evil, was incredibly creepy.

  After an age and an era passed, Eric reached the next corner and began scooting along the final wall. Now he had a real problem. The closer he got to the door, the more exposed he was, as it was more well-lit than the rest of the walls. If the creature were to turn around...well, he'd cross that bridge when and if he came to it. With this in mind, he began making towards the door, focusing all his attention on the creature, which was still rooting around in the vent. He took a few more cautious steps, now fully exposed in the light.

  He was so close to the door...

  With a resounding thud, the creature dropped from the vent. For a second he froze and thought that he was dead. He should have run, should have run right away...but the creature was still facing away from him. Trembling with a burst of adrenaline, he realized that if he had given in to his terror and run, the thing would be running after him. But he was still safe, it hadn't faced him yet. Eric moved up to the door and slipped through it. He took a quick look around the corridor beyond, saw nothing and hurried down it.

  As soon as he opened the next door on his journey and slipped through into the medical wing, he saw that he really was clear and let his breath out slowly. He was sweating heavily inside of his suit now. For the moment, he didn't care about power reserves and flipped on the A/C unit. A cool breath of air whispered into his suit, making him more comfortable. Eric took another look around his new environment as he got his breath back. He'd come to a reception area for the medical wing, a drab gray waiting room.

  It gave him an uncomfortable feeling.

  Waiting rooms had never been good areas. There was nothing quite similarity terrible to having to wait before something bad. Perhaps that's what made this situation so grim. Facing an enemy head on, usually screaming and with a machine gun in hand, was something he'd gotten at least somewhat used to. He knew he could do it and it didn't really leave any room for thoughts. Having to sneak around, on the other hand, left the door wide open for all manner of fears and paranoia. Eric checked his clock. He had just under thirty five minutes now. He was spending too much time traversing this place, he needed to pick up the pace.

  He flipped his A/C back off and began walking.

  The rest of his trip passed in a blur as he cut through a surgical bay, a supply room and a pair of infirmaries. He found the exit to the medical wing in another waiting room at the end of a long line of patient rooms. From there, it was a quick jog down a pair of intersecting corridors and he'd come to the cargo bay adjacent to the AI Core. The bay looked largely untouched by the slaughter that had overwhelmed Theseus Station, but it was obvious that it had been a nexus of activity for this portion of the base.

  There were several abandoned hover-dollies and small loaders packed with crates around. He spied a few workbenches that had clearly been in the process of being used when the storm had hit the station. There were tools and parts scattered across their tops. Even more interesting, he spied a large panel that had been pulled off the wall, exposing the guts of the installation. A large power relay had been exposed. It still shot sparks occasionally. Whatever repair that had been needed obviously hadn't been finished. Eric hurried through the bay, taking all this in at a glance. His destination was on the far side of the room, the bay terminal.

  Before he could get to the AI Core, he needed to pick up a few things, and they would most certainly be around here. He reached the terminal, booted it up and began checking through the inventory of the room. After a few moments, the information came back. Relief flooded through him. The parts he'd need were here. He began tracking them down, heading back into the bay. The power relay that siphoned out energy from the primary reactor into the AI Core had been damaged. It was still functioning partially, but that wouldn't last much longer. The AI had identified a pair of components that needed to be replaced.

 
On top of that, a simple component of the Core itself needed to be replaced. The strain placed on it by the lack of power had burned it out. Eric knew he could handle the actual process of doing the replacements, the only thing that worried him was the possibility of running into one of the beasts. It took close to ten minutes, but finally found and pocketed all three of the pieces. Feeling better about this whole thing, he headed for the door...

  Then he froze as it opened and another one of the demonic entities began shoving itself through. It came headfirst and locked eyes with him immediately, letting out a shrieking hiss of triumph as it spotted him. Eric felt his body react even as his mind went numb with total terror. He needed to take this thing out and fast. Raising his weapon, he opened fire on the creature even as he backed away towards the exposed power relay.

  They were susceptible to energy, it was like a match made in heaven.

  Now he had to get it to touch the exposed equipment.

  The creature finished pushing itself through the door and began heading for him at a cold sprint, arms outstretched. This one seemed to be less intelligent, more reacting on instincts. Eric finished rattling through his magazine, emptying his gun of bullets, and then turned and began sprinting himself, letting his gun hang by its sling. The creature let out a deep growl of frustration as he bolted away from it, towards the exposed relay.

  It was a very near thing.

  Eric almost ran into the damn relay himself but at the last second he managed to hurl himself to the right. Barely a second later he heard a loud zapping sound and the air was abruptly filled with the scent of charred meat. The creature began shrieking and jerking. Eric rolled onto his back and felt panic ignite in him as he saw that it was still reaching for him with its other clawed hand, jerking violently. It might have looked funny if it wasn't so fucking terrifying and life threatening. Eric began kicking, shoving himself backwards by digging in his heels. The thing's electrified claws slammed into the deckplates just barely an inch away from his feet. He shot up and backed away, watching in horrified awe as the thing died.

  Abruptly, the power surged and then all lights went out. For a second, Eric felt relief. It was dead. Then he felt terror. What if the AI Core had been damaged? What if there were more of them? As he hurried out of the cargo bay after flipping on his flashlight, he tried to soothe himself with the knowledge that it was very likely the AI Core ran on its own unique power system. Of course, given how shitty the wiring and general stability of Theseus Station was, for all he knew they could have hardwired it into another system to cut some corners. Stupid but he'd seen stupider decisions made before this.

  Eric felt a bit of relief as he opened the far door and saw light flood in. So it was probably just this room that was without power now. Fine by him. He checked his chronometer and nearly panicked. He had only ten minutes left now. Barely enough time to find and complete the repairs. Eric ran down the corridor, found the door to the AI Core and opened it up. He looked around inside, seeing that a stray shot had got in through a weak panel in the wall. Wasting no time, he got the appropriate panel open for the power relay.

  He got out his tools and the spare parts. Working as quickly and efficiently as possible, he killed power to the relay so he wouldn't get fried. Around him, the lights in the room dimmed. The AI itself would now be running on an emergency backup battery that would only last about five minutes, just enough time to get the work done. Once the power was dead, he pulled out the two parts and installed their replacements. As soon as they were in, he quickly moved over to the secondary panel, got it off and found the damaged part that had been burned out. Pulling out more tools, he removed it and then secured the replacement.

  Holding his breath, he reactivated the power.

  For a second, nothing happened, and he felt icy fear begin to fill him. Then there was a surging hum and the room lit up fully.

  “Oh, thank god,” Eric muttered, laughing softly as the tension was released. He'd at least gotten that part right.

  After replacing the panels in their proper locations, he moved over to a workstation and ran a diagnostic on the equipment in the area, to make absolutely sure he'd done his job right and that nothing else had gone wrong. Now that he had a moment to, he looked around the room. The AI Core actually looked like what it should look like. It was more sophisticated, paneled in white that was only somewhat faded and scuffed. There wasn't actually much in the room itself, just the workstation and a table with some parts and tools on it, as most of the actual equipment was buried behind the wall panels to keep it safe.

  The workstation chimed, his diagnostics report had come back. Eric took a quick look at it. Some of the parts were stressed and ultimately more repair work would have to be done, but this would hold for the moment.

  Eric let out a long sigh of relief. He'd done it. He'd actually fucking done it. One of the screens on the workstation cleared and text began to appear.

  THANK YOU, BUT THE JOB IS NOT YET FULLY FINISHED.

  I MUST BE REINITIALIZED.

  Instructions followed suit. They were simple, at least from a technical standpoint. It involved some walking though. He reached over and flipped the reinitialization switch on the workstation, confirmed that it still worked, then stood up. The corresponding switch, which normally would be flipped by someone on the other end of a radio, was back in the control tower. Of course it was. With a heavy sigh, Eric began backtracking.

  * * * * *

  He didn't run into any more of the creatures on the way back to the control tower, but he was definitely hearing them more often in the distance. Their horrible, blood-chilling sounds came echoing to him through the intricate network of ventilation shafts. He hurried mainly out of fear for his life but also because he was very curious. What did this AI have to say? Had it figured anything out? Did it know anything? It sure seemed to. It had been insistent that they were doing something and had to be stopped immediately.

  Or had it just been lying? Could AIs lie? He knew that they could if their programming allowed it. It was technically illegal but it wasn't all that hard to do if you knew your way around. Either way, he wanted to know what it had to say. It didn't seem to take him too long to get back to the control tower. Before he knew it, he was making his way quickly up the creaking stairs. He came into the control room and hunted down the reinitialization switch. He flipped it. Nothing happened. Eric sighed and took a seat.

  It might be a minute.

  He felt his mind wandering around, trying to come up with answers or possible scenarios. In the middle of this, suddenly, he was hit with an intense wave of loneliness. It was so immense and crushing that it drove the breath from his lungs. He sat up, hearing a small, sick moan of desperation escaping him. The full realization that everyone from the Liberation was dead seemed to hit home with all the power of a supernova.

  He felt tears stinging his eyes. It was all he could not to curl up into the fetal position beneath one of the workstations. It took every ounce of his strength not to give in and give up. He was alone in the universe. Utterly, totally alone. As far as he was concerned, everyone everywhere might as well be gone. He felt like the last living being in the whole of infinite creation. Slowly, Eric fought back, making himself sit back up, making himself unclench his fists. He didn't want to cry...not yet. It wasn't appropriate yet.

  As some measure of control came back over him, Eric reached up and took off his helmet. He rubbed at his eyes, freeing them of tears, and sniffed harshly. He turned in the chair and canvased the room, more out of reflexive paranoia than anything else, and his eyes fell on something he hadn't noticed before, something that had been dismissed outright because it didn't help him accomplish his mission.

  One corner of the control room had been converted into a mini break room. It had a pair of cabinets on the floor, on top of which sat a microwave and a mini-fridge. All at once, Eric realized how tremendously, ravenously hungry and thirsty he was. His stomach growled and for a moment it was actually
painful. As he stood, he checked his chronometer again, determining that he'd been on the installation for six hours now. And he'd eaten about two hours before that. Only eight hours since his last meal and he was positively starving. Well, he'd been doing basically nothing but running around for most of his time here.

  Now seemed like a perfect time to take a break and eat. While he waited for the AI to reboot, he crossed the room and opened up the fridge. It was still running, and he found a frozen beef and cheese burrito stuffed into the freezer section. He quickly tore into it and shoved it into the microwave. While that was going, he raided the rest of the fridge. There was a turkey, cheese and mayo sandwich, an apple, two cans of Vex and a bottle of water. Before doing anything else, he grabbed the water, unscrewed the cap and downed half of it in one go. Then he set it aside and tore into the sandwich, wolfing it down with a can of Vex on the side.

  He'd always liked Vex, though only the original.

  After finishing off the sandwich and the apple, the burrito was done and he ate that too. Draining the two cans of Vex and bottle of water, Eric returned to the workstation where he'd found the switch and sat back down.

  He wouldn't say that he felt good, but he at least felt better, calmer, his emotions coming back down to a simmer.

  Before him, one of the screens suddenly cleared. He expected new text to appear, but instead he suddenly heard a female voice.

  “Can you hear me?”

  “Yes...who is this?” he replied.

  “I'm the Artificial Intelligence you rescued. Thank you again. My name is Sierra.”

  “You're welcome Sierra. I'm Eric. Now...you said you had information on the creatures. Maybe you can fill me in on what actually went down here? I've got some of the clues, but not all of them,” Eric replied.

  “Okay, but we don't have all that much time to work with. Three days ago, a vessel arrived. The Discovery. It had developed power fluctuations and malfunctions. Within twelve hours, the creatures escaped the Discovery and tore into Theseus Station. The station was sparsely populated at the time, as it has only two hundred crew and there were no visitors but the crew of the Discovery. No one managed to escape the station, as we only had two functional shuttles at the time. One of them left the installation, but a creature got onboard and destroyed it, killing all aboard. Within forty eight hours, everyone on the installation was dead.