by S. W. Gunn
“Dang it.” Johnathan exclaimed as he dove towards the open doors.
He could hear a loud pop noise followed by a thumping sound above his head. He crawled through the doors and once clear he shuffled back up and onto his feet. He was unsure which way would be the best to go to escape. The sound of the creatures moving towards the door prompted him to start running so Johnathan turned to his left and began running as fast as he could. The first turn of the hallway was several meters away from Johnathan as he heard another pop sound behind him. He felt a sharp pain cut through the outer part of his left arm. The impact of whatever hit his arm caused him to spin and stumble to the ground. Johnathan was now on his side looking down the hallway towards the creatures. They started to move towards him. Johnathan looked up at the nearby wall and saw a door. He recognized it as one of the storage closets and immediately knew it was going to be his only opportunity to escape. Shuffling to his knees he dragged himself through the opening of the closet. Once the door closed behind him he reached up to the controls and locked the door. He then input a security code that would keep it locked without the code. It was the primary engineering code that only could be overridden by the command team. Johnathan shifted to try and pull himself to his feet. His arm screamed out in pain which caused him to yell out as he slumped back to the floor. Glancing at the wound he saw that it had just ripped through the outer muscles of his left shoulder. He was quite lucky but it sure hurt. It was very slightly bleeding so Johnathan decided to ignore the wound since the nanotechnology would cause it to stop bleeding very quickly.
Glancing around the closet Johnathan saw that there was no other way than through the door to get out so he muttered to himself, “Just great.”
He pulled himself to his feet as he ignored the pain in his shoulder. The only things in the closet were several large crates. They seemed familiar to him so he approached them. As he opened the top crate he saw that it was the crate of air skates from when he and Rose went air skating in the hangar bay. A banging noise rattled from the doors. Johnathan had no doubt the creatures were quite mad at him and intending to kill him.
“There has to be a way out of here.” Johnathan said to himself.
He paced slightly in the small closet trying to ignore the heavy banging from the door. Suddenly he was hit with an idea. The air skates were based off the same repulsor technology as the shields of the eco-ship. Surely he could use the air skates in some way. Reaching into the crate he pulled out one of the air skates. He did not have his tools so he could not do anything to the skate. Glancing around, he saw the shimmer of the band of his watch. He set the skate down and tried to activate his watch. It did not work. Examining it he saw that it was dented on the outside of his wrist, most likely from fighting to keep himself from being pulled out into the vacuum of space. He took off his watch and played with the band. Eventually he was able to get a sharp edge from the side of his watch after removing the back panel. He took the sharp edge of his watch and began to fiddle with the air skate. His plan was to remove the bottom plate of the skate so he could turn off the suppressor of the gravity controls. That would allow the air skate to push an object with a much higher level of power than normal. Johnathan was thinking to use them to push the creatures away from him. Johnathan set down the first skate that was ready to use. He then grabbed a second skate and set it up. After he finished the second skate he was ready so put the remains of his watch back and took a deep breath before picking up the first skate.
He stomach was tumbling as the banging at the door had continued but he said to himself, “Here goes nothing.”
Johnathan reached out with a finger and tapped the unlock code. Right as he finished entering the code the doors opened. The creatures paused for a moment, no doubt they were shocked. Johnathan raised both of the skates up and pointed them at the creatures before activating the skates. They pushed much harder than he thought that they would as the creatures were violently shoved away from him into the wall behind them. He too was pushed but was able to brace himself to keep from falling. There was a loud cracking noise that came from the creatures as they hit the wall. Their bodies slid down the wall and thumped to the floor. They did not move. Johnathan watched them as he cautiously stepped through the door and away from the creatures. He could tell that they were dead. As he began walking down the hall away from the hangar bay he heard a noise behind him. Johnathan turned back and spotted another one of the creatures. It was looking directly at him.
“Dang it.” He murmured as he turned away from it and started to run.
He heard the creature as it began to chase him. Johnathan was tired but he continued to push himself. The creature was getting very close so he swerved into a nearby door. The room he entered was the side door of the kitchen for the lower level cafeteria. Johnathan shuffled around the table and aimed the two skates at the door. Almost immediately the creature appeared. Johnathan triggered the skates to activate them and nothing happened. The creature hissed at Johnathan. He panicked before dropping the skates and starting to search for a weapon or something to fight off the creature. It shifted its body and leapt at him. Johnathan attempted to dodge it but failed as it crashed into him. He grimaced at the impact of the creature hitting him. It smelled foul. Its claws scratched into his shoulders as it hissed at him. Johnathan reached out to snatch something, anything, to hit the creature with. His hand came into contact with a metal container which Johnathan grabbed and violently slammed into the creature’s head. It dented and splashed a liquid onto the creature’s head. It seemed unphased by the impact of the blow but a sharp pop and sparking noise emanated from the creature’s metal plate on its head as it began twitching. Johnathan heaved as hard as he could to push it away from him. It fell to the ground and began twitching. Johnathan was surprised what had happened but he was glad to have survived. Curiosity struck him.
“What makes you tick?” He asked aloud.
Johnathan turned glanced around and found a knife sitting on a table. He picked it up and used it to pry open the metal plate of the dead creature. As the metal plate popped off Johnathan was surprised to see the innards of the creature seemed to be a mix of electronic wiring and flesh. It was a half robotic creature. Johnathan was unsure what exactly caused the creature to die from liquid hitting it. Normally electronics were specifically encased in a method to protect them from any sort of liquid damaging them. Johnathan examined the wiring closely and saw that they were indeed encased for protection. He poked a bit more at the electronics and realized that there must have been something about the liquid he randomly hit it with. Johnathan stood up and grabbed the container, which turned out to be a metal jug. It had a huge dent in it and was mostly empty. He smelled the opening to discover that it was lemonade. He had no idea what caused the creature to die but he had no complaints about it. He dropped the jug and collected his air skates. Examining them he saw that a fusing had become loose. Popping the fuse back in place Johnathan headed off. He had to get to the secondary mainframe. He was at the lowest level of the eco-ship so he had to climb up several levels.
He stopped at the elevator and saw that it was not working so he muttered, “Lovely.”
Now he would have no choice but to pry open the elevator doors and utilize the ladders that lined the interior of them. Johnathan opened the panel next to the controls and pulled the lever that unlocked the elevator doors. He then wedged the doors open enough to pass through them. Looking up and down he could not see the elevator in sight so he slipped over to the side and climbed onto the ladder. The ladder in the elevator shafts were set into a divot that kept anyone on them from being hit by the elevator if it started up again. Johnathan began climbing up the ladder. He would have to go up about ten levels and then go to the next elevator bank before going up two more levels to get to the secondary mainframe. He realized that he would have never been able to do all the things that he had without the exercise program that Rose tortured him with.
He grumbled alo
ud, “I’m going to have to apologize to her about all the complaining.”
With his shoulders and arms tiring he made his way up to the level he needed to get to so he glanced up and down to make sure no elevator was moving. Shifting over he grabbed the emergency release for the doors of the elevator before sliding over and going through the doors. Johnathan began walking. He had to go down a few corridors then he would have one more climb up before making it safely to the secondary mainframe. As he walked he heard loud noises coming from around the corner where he had to go. He slowed down to a virtual crawl walking up to the corner. What he saw when he poked his head around the corner shocked him. Strewn all the way down the hallway that he was looking down were about a dozen dead aliens. Closer to him was a blonde haired man holding a long metal rod that had the end furthest from his hand being sharpened. The man was swinging it wildly towards one of the creatures, smashing into its head. It fell to the ground with a loud squeal. It was twitching. There was only one other creature left standing. It pointed its weapon at the blonde haired man and the weapon made a loud popping noise. The man fell down. Johnathan knew that the man was in trouble. The alien walked up to the man and raised its weapon to fire again directly into his face. Johnathan clenched his jaw and raised up his skates. He had to save the man. Charging around the corner he raced at the alien. It flinched in response and began to raise its weapon. Johnathan lifted his skates and triggered them to activate them. The impact of the skates caused him to be pushed upwards slightly and off his feet. Johnathan stumbled as he landed to keep himself from falling. The impact on the alien forced it to bend awkwardly, which caused its back to emit a loud and odd rough snapping noise. It slumped to the ground and did not move. Johnathan cautiously approached the creature and poked it. It was bent slightly backwards and definitely dead.
“Technician.” The man behind Johnathan groaned out weakly.
Johnathan turned to look at him. He realized immediately who it was. It was Jans Johansson. He looked horrible. He had several wounds on his arms, legs, and abdomen. The worse injury was a massive deep hole in his chest that was oozing blood. Johnathan learned basic emergency care during his time in the education institution so he raced to kneel down next to Jans.
“Hold on Jans.” Johnathan told him as he pushed with his hands onto the large hole in his chest to staunch the bleeding.
With a weak coughing laugh Jans replied, “It’s too late for me.”
He struggled to breathe in and coughed out some blood when he attempted to exhale.
“My sword.” He said while gesturing off slightly behind Johnathan.
“You’re what?”
“I need my sword. A Norseman dies with his sword in his hands. My father didn’t because that bastard Tiberius. Every other man who wielded it died with it in hands. I must hold it.”
Johnathan turned around and saw the metal rod that he saw Jans wielding earlier. It was indeed a sword. He had forgotten what they were called as he was only half paying attention in the history classes during his time in the education center. Johnathan slowly picked it up to look at it. It was a solid steel and covered in the alien’s blood. Embedded into the center of the hilt was a large blue crest with a helmet along the top and centered in the middle of it was a bird. Gracefully written in a script underneath it was the name ‘Johansson’. Johnathan turned back towards Jans and passed the sword to his right hand.
Clutching the sword close to his chest Jans smiled widely before saying, “Thank you Technician.”
He gasped heavily as tears began to well in his eyes.
“Technician,” He began to speak softly.
Johnathan could tell he was struggling to breathe.
“Yes?”
He gasped heavily and coughed more blood before continuing, “My ancestors are smiling down on me.”
Johnathan could think of nothing to say in response. He felt utterly powerless to save the man. He just did not know enough about medical treatment.
With a cough Jans spoke even softer as he asked, “Can you say the same?”
He began gasping violently struggling to breath in air. Finally he exhaled one last time before going completely limp. His eyes were wide open staring at Johnathan eerily. Johnathan’s eyes began to well up in tears. He had never seen someone die. When the incident occurred Johnathan was alone working on computers. He sat there stunned not knowing what to do next. Jans died right in front of him and he was powerless to stop it. Finally the stun broke off as Johnathan remembered that he had to get to the secondary mainframe. Standing up Johnathan noticed that he was covered in blood. There was nothing he could do about it so he wiped his hands off on his trousers and bent down to grab his air skates. He popped the fuses back in place and he began jogging towards the elevator that he needed to climb up to get where he needed to be. Johnathan made his way to the elevator. He was exhausted. Between the constant climbing, running, fighting, and what happened with Jans he was just tired. On top of that he had no idea what Jans meant by his ancestors. Shrugging it off Johnathan popped the lock on the elevator doors before working his way up the ladder in the elevator shaft. Once he arrived at the level he got out of the shaft and walked towards the secondary mainframe. The doors to the secondary mainframe was locked. Johnathan punched in the engineering override code and he stepped through the doors as they opened.
“Johnathan!” Mark’s voice echoed in the room.
The secondary mainframe was just an empty room with a massive computer embedded into the back wall. There was two chairs next to the control panel of the computer. Johnathan walked in and sat down.
“What happened to you?” He asked.
“It was a pretty rough time.” Johnathan told him.
Johnathan explained everything from the moment they split up. He struggled to explain the whole incident with Jans because he did not fully understand it himself.
“What will you do now?” Mark asked.
“Rose wanted me to stay safe in the engineering port.”
“I really think they need you to tell them about what happened with that one you fought off with lemonade. There is something there.” Mark said.
“What are you thinking?”
“Maybe the liquid got into its circuits?”
“I opened up one of them and they appeared to be insulated from water.”
“Maybe it was the sugars? Or the acidity?”
Johnathan pondered about it some more. It could not have been the sugars. Electronics did not have that kind of reaction to sugar. Maybe the alien’s electronics were not properly insulated from acid and the acidity allowed the water from the lemonade to short circuit the electronics. He could only speculate that these aliens were cybernetic beings as they died from both electronic failure and physical damage. It was definitely fascinating. He knew that he had to do something.
“You’re right Mark. I need to at least let Rose and the command staff know.”
“Good call. It was quite creative to use the air skates.”
“It was all I had.” Johnathan replied with a chuckle.
“Alright be careful. Use the engineering tunnels when possible.”