The Icarus Void

by CK Burch

  The first door was open. Straub walked into the junction but Collins remained. ″What are you doing?″ he asked.

  ″Keep working,″ she said. ″Get the core open and then I'll follow.″

  Christ. Goddammit. He didn't want to go into the core first without her. Now he realized what a comfort her mindset had been, her going in first with the rifle while he worked the doors. Fuck. Okay. He moved into the junction and began working the manual primer into the core.

  ″There's more movement out here.″ Collins was whispering.

  ″How many do you think?″ Straub asked. He bit his teeth against the inside of his lips to ignore the screaming tissue in his shoulders and kept at it, pressing down and up and down and up as the doors opened a pitiful half inch at a time.

  ″Can't tell. Can't see. How are those doors coming?″ She sounded stressed.

  ″They're coming.″ They looked like they were open enough to squeeze through sideways, but if he stopped to attempt it, it would just slow them down. Had to be sure. He tried to go faster but the primer felt as if it were forced into place with glue and molasses.

  ″Oh Jesus,″ Collins whispered. Her authoritative voice was gone and for a moment, Straub felt like they were back on the dead star, seeing things no man had ever seen nor should. ″Oh my god. They're coming. I can see one. Two. Straub, how are we looking?″

  ″Almost.″ He spoke through grit teeth. He wanted to look back, see what these things looked like, but couldn't stop. Maybe two inches away from being open enough. Maybe.

  ″Fuck!″ Collins said. ″If you can understand me, stay back! I will fire!″

  Straub kept pumping. Don't look back.

  ″Goddammit!″ Collins opened fire, a quick three-round burst, and Straub jumped at the sound of it. He couldn't help it. He turned to look, and in the quick flash of the light and the gunfire from Collins's rifle he could see afterimages of humanoid things, armored arms outstretched and glistening wet torsos gleaming. The brief image was too much for him to look at; he quickly turned back to the primer, trying desperately to focus. His hands were shaking, his arms were too sore to keep moving, but now behind him, between volleys of gunfire, he heard their movement, probably jumping across the deck in zero g, moving, keeping themselves in motion. He pictured them again and almost couldn't press down on the primer in fear. One more pump. God, his arms were killing him, but he just needed to pump one more –

  ″Straub!″ More gunfire. No small bursts, full auto. The sound was deafening.

  ″It's open!″ Straub shouted. The doors were wide enough to go through, and he stood to walk in but as he did a hand reached between the doors through the darkness and grabbed him by the shoulder. There wasn't enough time to scream. He was pulled into the core room by someone wearing a HES and he stumbled inward, his boots keeping him from falling over. He turned and saw the engineer grab Collins from behind and pull her backwards into the core. Collins moved quickly, regaining her footing, still firing through the junction at whatever lay on the other side. Once she was in, the stranger placed a strange tool against the manual primer on the inside of the core. It turned into a blur of motion and the doors closed far quicker than Straub had opened them. They were sealed in.

  ″Fuck me,″ Straub said. ″I wish I had that thing.″

  The stranger turned around and Straub saw the projected, grimly smiling image of Chief Engineer MacConnel on the helmet. ″Fucking saved my life once I got up and running again. Glad to see the both of you are still alive.″

  Collins leaned over, gasping for breath, and she looked up at Mac. ″Goddamn it's good to see you, Chief. How the hell did you survive those fucking things?″

  Mac stopped smiling. ″That's my fucking team out there underneath those cancerous fucks, Commander. Have a care, okay?″ His mouth was a thin line pressed tightly together; there was a look in Mac's eye that suggested that he was a man mad with grief.

  Collins caught herself. ″Yes, of course. I'm sorry, Mac.″

  Mac nodded. ″Well. So am I. We're all a little on edge right now.″ He glanced around the core room which was a high-domed sphere. A wide walkway extended from the door and then circled around the core itself, which was suspended in the center of the bubble by pylons connected to the uppermost and lowest points of the dome. ″In here there's no ducts, no vents, just the two doors and the junction between them. Even in the engine bay there's ways for a man to get in without using the door, but in here it's sealed against accidental energy discharge. Once my HES got up and running...wait.″ He turned to them, blinking. ″My god. You've been gone this whole time. Do you even know...?″

  Straub nodded. ″We've met with Captain Markov. He filled us in.″

  ″Captain’s alive. Thank Christ. Okay. The EMP. Well, once I got up and running, I stole my way in here. I thought that those aliens had massacred my crew, but it's worse out there. Far worse. I wanted to shoot each and every one of them myself to put them out of their fucking misery, but I'm short on ammo and long on survival. So in here I came.″ He walked over to an exposed panel on the circular walkway, connected to the core. ″I've been trying to get the core up and running since the backup never kicked in, but I can't get the power flow to regulate for the life of me. I keep running into ICE blocks and I can't navigate around them.″ He looked over at Collins and Straub. ″Sorry. I bet that doesn't mean anything to you. I'm used to explaining my actions to the crew so they...″ His voice and his gaze drifted into a different place.

  ″ICE?″ Collins raised an eyebrow.

  ″Intrusion Countermeasure Executable,″ Straub said. ″Systems defenses. In case anyone tries to hack the mainframe, the ICE shows up to slow down the intruding user.″ Straub's mind raced quickly: if Mac had access to the core, why would the ICE protocols go into effect? With all the goddamn problems the ship had been having, it at least made a certain sort of sense for the mainframe to start blocking unauthorized users, especially if they were trying to reboot the core after an EMP. ″Do you mind if I take a look at it?″

  Mac turned and frowned. ″Chromosphere specialist and hacker? What are you, some kind of mad scientist?″

  ″It was a college hobby.″ And it had stayed that way for the most part, but Straub had stayed up-to-date on the latest in hacking software and had done enough hard practice runs to stay moderately able in his hack-fu. Well, excepting the override on the radiation systems, but he'd been under a lot of pressure in that moment. USDSE encryption codes were one thing, but ICE nodes in a reboot system? Easily done. Straub had a guess at something, and if he was right it could potentially be bad for everyone. He needed to take a look at the system.

  Mac stepped aside and Straub knelt next to the boot panel. It wasn't a holo control, but a battery powered LED touchscreen. Multiple pathways angled over the system control, a security lockout in effect. Which meant that the system hadn't recognized Mac's clearance codes and had dumped him out here as a precaution. Straub found the nodes in question, maneuvered around them, and connected the proper security strings together and the system gave him access to the startup procedure. All in all, it was a piece of cake. Like it should have been for Mac.

  ″Goddamn hackers,″ Mac said behind him. ″You always gotta make everything look so goddamn easy.″

  Straub smiled politely, but he now felt very cautious. He didn't like the implication of the Chief's difficulty with security clearance. Still, he graciously moved aside and said, ″The show's all yours, Chief. You loosened it for me, that's all.″

  Mac knelt down next to the touchscreen and began startup procedures.

  Straub clicked on to Collins's frequency. ″Hey.″

  ″What? Why the private call?″

  ″I'm concerned.″

  ″What the hell for? The core is starting up.″

  ″Keep your voice lowered.″

  ″He can't hear us outside the helmets, Straub, don't be so goddamn paranoid. What the hell is it?″

  ″Why couldn't he make security
clearance?″

  ″What?″

  ″Why couldn't Mac go through security clearance?″

  ″I don't know. The computer system has been messed up since we got close to the artifact. That's what's been happening. So it wouldn't let him in, good job hacking it.″

  ″What if he couldn't get in because he couldn't figure it out?″

  Collins scoffed. ″You're starting to reach now, kid.″

  ″I mean it. He couldn't access the security system. That's the only reason the security lockout would have come into affect at all. Mac couldn't access the system because he forgot how to.″

  Collins turned and glared. ″Kid. Gaines was a given. Kerrick, she proved that she was nutso. But the Chief Fucking Engineer forgetting how to access the ship's systems? What, are you going to tell me that he has a phobia of fixing things?″

  There was an audible bass rumble from the core and beneath their feet. Power surged and the core lit up slowly, a blue-white glow in the darkness that resembled a minor scale sun. Soon the light illuminated the entire chamber, and the rumble became a rhythmic beat that spread throughout the ship, thrumm-thrumm-thrumm. Power was back online.

  Mac grinned. ″And so, lady and sir, we are back in business.″ He looked around. Then his smile disappeared. ″Gravity hasn't kicked back in. Atmosphere hasn't, either. Shit. Where's the backup protocol?″

  Collins went back to public broadcast. ″It must have been fried after the EMP.″ She clicked over. ″Captain Udeh, this is Collins. We've found the chief engineer and the core is up and running. How's things on your end?″

  Straub turned to Mac. He had a thought. ″Chief, the captain said that he tried calling you. How's your comm looking?″

  ″It's fried,″ Mac explained. ″My HES came back online and I immediately went to make a call, but the fucking thing was down. Couldn't even bring it up. I didn't bother trying to fix it beyond basic repair, it's shot. I had more pressing matters at the time.″

  ″May I?″ Straub held his hand out toward the minipad on Mac's wrist, not moving further, waiting for the chief's acquiescence. Straub wanted to be wrong on this one. He really did. But there was that nagging feeling in his gut, the one that always told him that he was right, and it was strong and hard now.

  For a moment, Mac looked like he was going to punch Straub right in the face, helmet or no. The chief was pissed. Then he took a deep breath and held out his wrist. ″You going to fix my fucking comm, too? Pretty good at that shit, aren't you?″

  ″Sometimes.″ Sweat built up again. Not from the heat this time; now he was nervous. He didn't like Mac's tone.

  ″I told you, the goddamn thing is shot. I ran a diagnostic on it and the damn thing doesn't connect. The EMP must have blown out a connector or a port.″

  Straub looked at the minipad's display, looked at the comm linkup, and swallowed because it looked exactly like he hoped it wouldn't: the link was disabled, but functioning perfectly.

  Collins came over. She frowned. ″Straub, what are you doing?″

  ″Oh,″ he lied, ″just a little hacker's trick.″ He enabled Mac's comm and took a step back, clicking over to the chief's channel. ″Are you receiving, Chief?″

  Mac was visibly surprised. And taken aback. He looked at his wrist, checked the minipad, and then looked at Straub with dumbfounded shock. ″What did – how did you get it online?″

  Straub shrugged and smiled. It was all he could do to not show his nerves. How the fuck could he tell Mac that he didn't know how to operate basic systems functions at the moment? The chief engineer of the ship? ″Just a little trick for reactivating comms, Chief. Goddamn hacking crap, you know?″

  Collins looked back and forth between them. For a moment, Mac looked as though she was guessing at what was really going on, that somehow Mac was being affected by the radiation, but then Mac smiled weakly and held up his minipad. ″I must have done the diagnostic wrong. Huh. Good job, kid.″

  Straub kept on smiling, but he caught Collins's eye. Through the projection's reaction, he could see that she was now leaning a little bit more towards his theory. And if Mac couldn't access basic security or systems protocols...what else was going on with him? There were, however, more pressing concerns. ″How's Udeh?″ he asked the commander.

  Collins shook her head. ″He's going over the bridge consoles, but most of them are shot from the explosion. There's no way for him to bring back gravity or atmosphere from there. But it looks like basic systems are online: doors, lifts, consoles. So we can get the hell out of here.″

  ″What happened on the bridge?″ Mac asked.

  ″The communications console exploded. Udeh's guess was that it was a feedback malfunction from the EMP. Took out a lot of systems.″

  Mac nodded. ″Primary startup systems are activated via bridge control, but there's a way to bring them all back online one-by-one through the consoles on the science deck as well. The problem is that we have...guests.″ Mac's eyes looked down at the floor, moving, distant and lost in thought.

  ″Screw primary systems,″ Collins said. ″We have basic power throughout the ship. The consoles will be activated, and if there's anything we need to boot up we can do so with each individual station. All we need to do is get to the shuttle bay, open the bay doors and get the fuck out of here. Now we just need to get through engineering.″ She looked at Mac. ″Chief, if the time comes, can you...?″

  Mac responded by retrieving a plasma riveter from his magbelt. ″If comes down to me or them, I'm going to think of it as a mercy killing.″

  ″That thing goes through a HES?″

  ″It goes through bulkheads. A stray shot won't puncture the whole ship though, so if I miss it isn't a red alert. I'd just rather not miss. You know?″

  Straub held up his hand. ″Why do you care if it goes through a HES?″

  Collins turned to him and said, ″Because the crawlers do, too.″

  For a moment, Straub didn't follow. Then he got the picture. ″They can break open a HES shell.″

  ″All of the ones I shot were wearing suits. So if one of those things grabs on to you, don't expect your suit to keep you protected.″

  ″Shit.″ He thought again of the one on the dead star. How its beak had recoiled from touching the metal of his suit. Now he felt even more lucky. And sick. ″Ah, shit.″

  ″Yeah.″ Collins checked her rifle and the clips on her magbelt. ″I'm looking good on ammo. Chief?″

  ″I'm good. Doctor?″

  ″Yes. Fine.″ Too many thoughts were racing through Straub's mind, trying to stay a step ahead of everything happening around him. The crawlers were strong enough to crack open the suits and burrow through, to take over whoever was inside the suit. Oxygen and gravity were still off, which gave the crawlers more maneuverability. Mac was being affected by the radiation, or maybe he was just being affected by the loss of his crewmates. If Straub had seen the science team consumed and taken over by these things, he imagined it would affect the fuck out of him, too. So maybe Mac was fine, just distracted. There was just too much going on. Just too fucking much to sort through.

  Collins placed her hand on his shoulder. ″Straub. I need you here. You with me, Doctor?″

  He nodded and took a deep breath to clear his mind. ″Yes. Yeah. I'm fine.″ He checked his clips – he hadn't fired a shot yet – and nodded again. ″My ammo is good. Now we just have to make it out of here.″

  ″Right. We'll call the captains once we're out of engineering.″ Collins turned to the junction exit and opened the door, her pulse rifle trained and ready. The junction was empty, and the door leading into engineering was still open. Multiple consoles glowed in the dark now, providing a faint illumination like a fairytale world. Blues and whites and reds and greens, blinking, hovering, glowing. They moved forward into it, slowly, looking about from side to side and up onto the catwalks. No movement. The three of them moved back-to-back-to-back instinctively, Collins leading the way to the lift shaft.

  ″Where
are they?″ Straub whispered.

  ″Who cares? If we don't see them, then why give a fuck?″ Mac sounded tense. Understandable. He probably didn't want to go around shooting his former team, but under the circumstances there would be no choice.

  ″No. Something's wrong.″ Collins was looking left and right, up and down. ″There was movement before, sounds at least. It feels empty in here now.″

  Straub glanced at the external temperature readout on his display. The temp had dropped considerably since they had first arrived. ″Collins. It's cooled down in here.″

  ″Yeah? So?″

  ″So the crawlers gravitated towards the engines before, looking for heat. Maybe they stayed down here because of the heat. If it's cooled down – ″

  ″Christ,″ Mac said. ″Jesus Christ. If they've left engineering then they could be anywhere on the fucking ship.″

  Collins touched her minipad. ″Captain Udeh. Captain? Sir?″ She stopped and turned back. ″He's not answering. I'm going to call Captain Markov.″

  ***

  Udeh had gotten lucky with the first one.

  He'd been going over the remaining consoles after the power had come back online, looking for a way to get primary systems online again; so far the search had been a bust. The goddamn consoles were lit, but the control systems were fucked up to the degree of nonuse. The scene had become even more gruesome, the way the blood and the burnt bodies had lit up in the soft glow of the displays and running lights. Like a macabre circus. He had been about to call Collins over the comm when he'd heard a noise off to his left, and when he'd turned to look at what it was he froze.

  It looked like an octopus and a slug had had a bad fucking accident. Markov and Straub had both tried to describe it to him, but nothing they'd said had prepared him for the actual sight of it. It was a weird, fucked up sort of physiology. An octopus, a slug, a sea cucumber. It was strange and oily. The tentacles on the front of the creature moved tenderly, exploring the surrounding area with soft, caressing motions. It was climbing in over the edge of the shaft. Fuck, Udeh thought. Were these things starting to explore the ship? Christ, had Collins and Straub let them out?