Titan: A Science Fiction Horror Adventure (NecroVerse Book 3)

by Aaron Bunce

  What a freaking revelation, she thought, and joined Jacoby and Lana by the door. Soraya joined them, standing on the far side of their little line, only Anna’s small headset lamp now splitting the darkness.

  “Any idea of how much time we’ve got left?” Jacoby asked.

  Lana grumbled under her breath, but no one else spoke. They all kept staring at the door, the frost-covered window dark and empty.

  “I can’t stand this standing around. Isn’t there something…anything we can be doing to help?” Soraya asked. Her voice was tight, choked off.

  Lana snorted and laughed quietly, and without seeing her face, Anna would doubt that tears were forming.

  “I don’t…know. I mean. There’s just so much…” she said, biting off her own words. She breathed heavily for several moments, words seemingly forming but dying just before they found voice. Then she sniffed. “I don’t want to die standing her, staring at this door. But there isn’t. There just isn’t.”

  Anna swallowed hard, that stupid lump having already formed in her throat. And waited.

  -2:16 Until Entry

  Lex grabbed the X-brace and pulled through, her hips and shoulders not quite narrow enough to fit through without brushing against the coolant pipe on the side.

  Pain bit into her thigh, the thin suit doing nothing to insulate her from the heat. She wrenched through quickly and flopped to the ground on the other side.

  “Good,” Ayo breathed. “Next time bend more. Flow through. You look stiff, rigid. Like someone who’s been ignoring their training.”

  “Oh, stuff it. I do what I can,” she growled and immediately pulled forward into a crawl. Ayo chuckled, his calming presence swirling inside. The burns on her arms, shoulders, and thighs ached, but it was already subsiding. He wasn’t trying to absorb the pain like Poole, but letting her body heal and manage the discomfort naturally.

  “How long are you going to stick around this time?” she asked, approaching the next brace in line, and immediately moving to unpin the right sensor bracket.

  “Looking to get rid of me already?”

  “Not…exactly,” she grunted, pulling herself through the gap, and this time dragging her left butt cheek across the pipe. “Damnit! That hurts!”

  “In all seriousness, Alex. It feels like Poole has given me the run of the place for now. I feel him, all around me, holding me together and pushing me to the surface, but there is definite hesitancy there…maybe shame. It’s weird, because I am a part of it–Poole, with shards of Jacoby, but there are others in there, too. Anna is there. But Soraya? There is a fragment here which isn’t quite her. Maybe it’s like me, a person she was incredibly close to. It is odd, like being stuck in a small room with several other people but not being able to see or hear them.”

  “I like the idea of just seeing and hearing you. You piss me off far less,” Lex whispered and made it through another brace junction. It was quick moving now, her ability to see and navigate the space not only allowing her to identify barriers, but it also boosted her confidence as well.

  “Alex, there is a lot here that Poole hasn’t tol…”

  Lex slid her arm forward but stopped, and Ayo’s voice abruptly cut off.

  “Ayo? I couldn’t hear all of that.” She tentatively slid forward one armlength and then another.

  “…if you’d know it, it might have changed your mind,” he abruptly said, his presence audibly popping back into the space ahead.

  “Okay, that was weird.”

  “Weird?”

  “You started talking, then disappeared and reappeared again, talking like nothing happened.”

  “Blast. Here, stop moving for a second.”

  Lex obliged, finding a comfortable position on her belly. She could see a break in the passage above, a definite ending in her enhanced, green-tinged vision.

  “I was…say before…that I was worried…”

  “Okay, you’re breaking up,” she said, and on a hunch, started sliding backwards. Ayo blipped out, reappeared, still talking, then blipped out again. Lex carefully backtracked all the way to the last X-brace before he seemed to stabilize.

  “Good. That is what I was trying to warn you about. Poole mentioned it before, but there is something with Erik that is interrupting his ability to communicate in his proximity. It is why he can’t reach Emiko. I don’t know if it will affect your vision or the rest of you…biologically speaking, but once you get close enough, you’re going to be on your own.”

  “I can handle him. It’ll only be a momentary issue, anyways,” she growled, fists clenching beneath her. Erik had been more than a little pain in their ass–the kind that could still get them killed. There was only one way to deal with people like that.

  “Alex. You can’t kill him.”

  “Shit. Watch me. Do you think he’ll hesitate if he gets me in his crosshairs? You had the same training as me, Ayo. You don’t kill the person; you neutralize the threat’s ability to harm you. And right now, he’s a threat to all of us.”

  “He is the immediate threat, yes. But we don’t know why, Alex, and that is what scares Poole and me. His ability to manipulate and negatively affect the connection between you all is an even greater threat.”

  Lex breathed out through her teeth, listening and trying to stay calm. She didn’t want to admit it, but he had a point.

  “What am I supposed to do, then? Ask him nicely to give up?”

  “Not a chance,” Ayo whispered, “get in, get the passage open so the others can help you, then together, subdue him. Poole, I mean we, have an idea. He’s blocking the signal to whichever of you is closest, but if Jacoby can get me, I mean Poole, close enough…like touching him, and the rest of you surround him, I think we can overwhelm him and figure out exactly what is happening.”

  “I’m already at a disadvantage. He has the weapon. I hate this idea.”

  “I do, too, Alex, but think about it for a second. It might be the only way we find out what we’re headed for on Titan. It might just show us what is at work behind all of this. And not just the Betty, but Hyde and the freighters. It is answers. And we need as many of those as we can find.”

  “Damnit. I hate it when you make sense. Fine. But if I get my head blown off, it’s your damn fault,” Lex hissed and crawled forward.

  “Deal,” Ayo said. “Just don’t take too many chances. If you can, get in, get the doors open, let the others help. Blood and steel, Alex. Crew forever.”

  “Because it’s always that easy,” she grumbled and pushed forward.

  “Come on. Say it,” he pushed, his connection weakening again.

  “Blood and steel. Crew forever.”

  A telltale shudder passed through the ship then, as a faint, liquid gurgle echoed in the pipe to her right. Spurred forward, she crawled as quickly as possible, unclipped the last sensor bracket, and slid through before the pipe could heat up again.

  The space was hot by the time she reached the end of the passage. It split off in two directions, straight down, while a necked-down path moved ahead with a gentle slope away.

  Follow the pipes, Lex. They lead to the reactor.

  Ayo supported the idea silently, although his presence felt far weaker now, distant.

  Lex leaned out over the drop off, wedged her shoulders into the much smaller passage ahead, and squeezed her legs down, kicking and probing with her right foot until she found the first bracket. Then slowly, and carefully, she eased her weight back and turned.

  “Just like the other side, just in reverse,” she whispered.

  “…cisely. Keep talking. Keep moving…”

  The heat, sweltering again, swirled around her, flowing from below. It became hotter with every stretching, reaching step down, Ayo’s presence weakening inversely.

  “You’re talking with them, right? Jacoby and Soraya?”

  “…se I am.”

  “Make sure they know the plan. Make sure they understand what to do when I open that door,” she grunted, quickly m
oving down the brackets. It was so much easier when she could see, and not have to cram a grease-covered flashlight into her mouth.

  Lex dropped off the last bracket and to the base of the access space, the heat now hitting her like waves from either side. Ayo didn’t respond. She sipped on the air and moved to whisper his name again, but knew it wouldn’t do her any good. His presence was just gone.

  Erik was close now. Apparently very close.

  Cursing the heat, darkness, Erik, and everything else she could think of, Lex immediately went to work on the access panel releases. She fumbled with the first, exploring it, pulling on it, before finally concluding that it was the same style latch on the outside.

  “I just have to pull. Okay, good. Easy. Grip, brace, pull,” she whispered, setting a boot against the side of the passage. Just no noise, or he’ll know where I am and what I’m doing before I do.

  The first latch resisted for a moment, then popped and swung out. The second slid open effortlessly. By the time Lex squatted down to release the third, she was feeling far more confident about the process. That latch released like the first–albeit squeaking as it moved. She shifted to the right for the last catch, found a hold, and started to pull before the thought settled into place.

  It took three of them to lower that damn thing to the ground. How am I supposed to ease that down by myself? I will push, it’ll crash down, and he’ll hear it.

  “Come on and think, Lex. The clock is ticking. We don’t have time for this crap!” she whispered and slunk back and forth, because there wasn’t room to pace. But there wasn’t time either.

  Lex reached up and wiped the sweat from her eyes, swept the damp hair out of her face, and wrenched the last lock open.

  “Charge in hard and fast, baby. First in, first out. Get him before he gets you,” she whispered, before she could think twice, put all of her weight into the panel. It didn’t move at first, the effort sliding her feet out behind her, so Lex kicked them up onto the wall and pushed off.

  The panel broke loose, the seal popping and peeling away from the wall. She felt it start to tip and pushed harder, cringing as she anticipated the impact and sound. Her heart immediately raced as a dozen thoughts rushed into mind–what she’d do first, what she’d find on the other side, all of it.

  The thick panel tipped, and she set her jaw, hoping that Erik was far enough away that she’d have time to get free of the opening and find cover. Maybe she could get him to burn up his ammo and give her an…

  The access panel groaned, picking up speed, and then it shuddered and just…stopped falling. Lex froze, momentarily startled dumb, and not by the noise and chaos, but by the complete lack of it. She started forward, stopped, and flinched again, staring at the heavy panel leaning out and away. In a moment of panic, she turned and reached for the bracket just above her head.

  “What…what are you doing, Lex?” she hissed, pounding a fist against her thigh.

  Another wave of smothering heat wafted over her face, and she jarred her body into motion. Lex forced her head out through the gap, a wave of startlingly cold air hitting her face. She involuntarily gasped from the shock, then jammed her shoulders up and through. It was a tight fit, but she didn’t want to be stuck hanging, flopping in the breeze if Crazy Spaz McTwitchyfingers were close.

  Her green vision flashed brighter, the ambient light washing everything out. Lex winced and pressed her eyes shut, but she didn’t stop moving. Her hands walked out and down from the access panel, fingers creeping over a flat metal surface.

  She lifted one leg up and squeezed her hips through the gap, blinking repeatedly. The washed-out haze in her vision faded, dimming by the heartbeat, until she could see her hands before her, groping against a large, metal crate.

  Large metal box, shiny cylinders, crates of wire, connectors, and other shit, she thought, taking a quick mental snapshot of the obstacles before her. The access panel groaned as she pushed off, but by sheer dumb luck, the clutter stashed in the tight corridor held it aloft.

  And to think, I would have screamed at someone to move this stuff out of the way. You got lucky, Lex, don’t expect it to continue.

  Her right foot lifted free, and she tipped forward, rolling free from the narrow gap. The air felt heavy and cold and by the time Lex crawled free from the clutter, she was shivering.

  A voice echoed from down the narrow maintenance passage, too garbled and weak for her to understand. She stopped and listened for a moment, holding her breath. No, not far away. It sounded like it was right around the corner, but there was something off about it, something that screwed with her ears. The more she listened, the stranger the voice made her feel—the hair on the back of her neck immediately stood on end and butterflies fluttered in her stomach. Then a terrible, creeping sensation filtered down into her legs, as if something horrible would happen to her if she didn’t immediately move them.

  Driven into motion by the weird sensation, Lex jumped forward and put all her body weight into the coolant passage’s access panel. The leaded door fought her for a moment, but slowly lifted and then tipped shut. Cursing and snorting with the effort, she jammed the top latches shut, then slumped back.

  “Tick tock…” Spurred into motion, Lex rubbed her arms and immediately picked her way around the clutter and moved down the tight maintenance corridor.

  Erik’s voice grew louder, as if bouncing off the ceiling directly above her. She lifted her gaze just to confirm that he wasn’t tucked away in the ceiling above, then slunk forward, only to have his voice echo off the wall to her right.

  Lex came to the end of the small corridor and paused, first listening, and then leaning out. The passage ended to her left in a large, shiny mass of twisted, branching pipes. To her right, was the voice.

  She crept out and around, sliding her back against the wall. Small and efficient lights glowed on the ceiling, but the maintenance space was nothing like the rest of the ship. Seemingly every inch of surface area on the walls and ceiling was covered with pipes, electrical components, or valves. And it was grimy, that patina of age–the bruising and scaring of countless heat cycles, overuse, and neglect just adding to the dust and grease–somehow absorbed the lion’s share of light, leaving the space dingy and dark.

  It felt like Hyde all over gain and Lex hated it.

  “Do you feel her yet? Do you? Do you? Do you?” Erik’s voice echoed from ahead. She froze mid-step as another voice–muffled, strangled, and obviously in pain–responded. But it wasn’t words, not that she could understand. It was agony, condensed into its purest form–an exhale, a groan, a meaning without the need for inflection or articulation.

  Lex swallowed, her strength and anger failing her. She’d never believed Erik capable of doing anything actively evil, just the cowardly, backstabbing crap she’d always seen meek, passive people do. This sounded different—like the serial killer documentaries she’d watched on leave—type.

  She moved to drop her foot but kicked the leg out and stretched. She almost stepped right on a toolbox, an array of sockets and other tools scattered out onto the floor around it. Lex never would have seen it without her enhanced sight, and the clatter would have given her away immediately.

  A twisted snarl of pipes crisscrossed the walkway ahead. One bundle down by her knees, and another branching down out of the ceiling. The wall of pipe left her with a roughly two-and-a-half-foot tall gap in the middle with which to pass through. She knelt and peered in, then started to crawl through.

  “Stop fighting it. Pain isn’t real. Blood isn’t real. None of this is…real,” Erik said suddenly, the laughter that followed modulating deeper.

  Lex froze, the voice once again splashing against her nerves like ice-cold water.

  “None of this is real. What is real? What is real? What is real?” he continued, speaking and forming questions in rapid succession. His inflection seemed to shift between words, as if more than one person were speaking. “No! Stop it. Stop! I can see it in your eyes. You’re
fighting her. Let her in. Let her take everything away. She will set you free. It is only flesh…ignore how it cuts and tears. It is just insulating you from the truth.”

  Lex slid through the gap as a voice responded, gasping, groaning, pleading, seemingly unable to form words. It was too deep to be Emiko.

  Shane. My god, what is he doing to him? she thought, pushing through the gap and taking more than a little of the pipe’s grimy coating with her.

  Lex moved cautiously forward to the next row–another narrow maintenance space like the one she’d emerged from. But it was a dead end–just more equipment and plumbing.

  “Tick tock…” she breathed, wondering, and doubting how they would ever make the ship work…enough to safely land anywhere. She was used to the Army, where every bird required double the time in repair and maintenance to every hour of actual flight.

  A light shone in from ahead and to the left. She quickly slipped across the opening and into the waiting shadows. The space beyond opened to the left, where a sizable machine rose out of the ground, and to the right, to what she could only blindly hope was the passage back to the galley and the living space. Maybe she would know when she saw it, but the maintenance passage was confusing as all hell–too much stuff and all of it branching and crawling, overlapping and chaotic.

  “There it is…I saw it. A flicker of her in your eyes. Listen…”

  Lex moved as soon as Erik spoke, using his noise to cancel out any of her own. She pushed out of the shadows and quickly glanced right, taking everything in with a quick, visual snapshot—a passage, relatively clutter free, ending in a pressure door, just like the one on the galley side. A small touchpad sat next to it. The screen was dark, and a small bundle of wiring hung out. Lex traced it to the ground, where Lana’s data point sat propped against the wall.

  Bingo, she thought, and swung her head back in the other direction. The light gleamed off the pulse engine, the massive, cylindrical chamber seemingly the only thing clean in the entire space. But it wasn’t the shine that caught her eyes and refused to let go, but a strange shape crudely scratched into its surface.