Corruption_Age Of Expansion_A Kurtherian Gambit Series

by Sarah Noffke

  Its leathery green skin glistened where the water slipped off it. Apparently, these creatures had been called ‘alligators’ on Earth. Here, with the mix of strange algae, they were a little smaller—but still deadly. This one was three feet long and had cold, black eyes.

  Bailey thought about taking a step back, but she couldn’t remember what her father had told her about them. Do I run? Do I stay still, like with the large cats?

  She couldn’t remember, and her blood was beating loudly in her head.

  The monster took a step toward her, and she didn’t move. She remained quite frozen. Behind her, she heard the rustling again, even closer.

  The monster charged toward her, its eyes hungry and teeth chomping.

  Later, all Bailey would remember was being swooped up by her father’s strong arms. He’d kicked at the beast and hurried her back toward the house. When he set her down, he put both hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes.

  “Bay, you run. If you ever encounter a monster like that again, you run,” her father had said, his voice harsh with fear. “You don’t stop until you’re safe, you hear me?”

  She had nodded, taking in her father’s words and saving them until the day she’d need them again.

  The door to the backup server room slid back, and Bailey took in a full breath, the long ago memory washing away.

  It was strange that her father’s words had come back to her right then, but also incredibly right.

  She waited, her pulse beating rapidly as her eyes searched the open doorway for the slightest movement of the beast, anything indicative of the monster. The temperature wasn’t hot, so the monster would be mostly translucent, but she knew how to spot it now.

  A sound like a helicopter starting up echoed from the backup server room. Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.

  Bailey stepped away from the wall. She wanted to run right then, but timing was key. If she ran now, the monster wouldn’t follow her. If she stayed too long, she’d be uploaded.

  The sound grew in intensity, making her feel like the wind from a helicopter was beating against her ears. Bailey resisted the urge to cover her head. The noise was so loud, it vibrated in her chest, like the bass from a speaker.

  Smoke slipped along the ground like a swarm of rodents that was suddenly freed and looking for food. It rolled forward, the gray tendrils wrapping in on itself.

  The urge to flee was strong, screaming in Bailey’s mind, urging her to listen. She shook away the pleas. Bailey had to wait until the monster fully materialized.

  As if waiting for a silent invitation, the mass of whirling darkness filled the area in front of the door. Bailey could almost see through it, and yet she couldn’t. The more she stared into the dark storm, the more complex it became. Sparks shot through the monster, reminiscent of lightning. For the briefest of moments, the light illuminated gears and mechanical parts and faces. It was so wrong and yet, it was as mesmerizing as standing in front of a storm. She wanted to throw her head back, and allow the wind to tangle her hair.

  Instead, she lunged into a fighting stance, although she had no inclination to throw a punch. With her fists in front of her face, she looked straight at the monster and said, “Hey jerk-face, want a piece of this? You’re going to have to catch me first.”

  The monster didn’t roll forward, as it had in the backup server room. It began to expand, spreading out in all directions like a gas bomb that had been set off.

  Bailey spun on her toes and ran, feeling her hands and feet going numb. She barreled down the hallway, her legs not moving as fast as she wanted them to for some reason.

  She looked down to find her legs taking on the same grayish tone as the monster. The upload had started. They had less than two minutes.

  Bailey pulled her head up, and something thumped in her chest. The sight of Lewis standing squarely in the hallway, waiting for the relay, was the most welcome sight she’d seen in too long. He stood with his feet shoulder-width apart, his hands by his side, and a proud smile on his face.

  “You’re it,” she said, tapping his hand as she veered to the right, taking an alternate hallway.

  Lewis spun around upon being tagged, and sprinted forward, his head over his shoulder, looking back at the approaching monster.

  Bailey made a quick note that parts of Lewis were turning gray. The monster was quick to accumulate and start the upload; all it needed was a bit of access.

  She didn’t stop as she continued down a different corridor, but she did look over her shoulder, watching as the monster rushed on behind her, following after Lewis.

  So far, it had worked. The monster was a bunny rabbit, following the carrot dangling in front of its face.

  To Lewis’s surprise, he’d felt the strange paralysis take over before he’d seen Bailey turn around to start running. That meant that the monster had started the upload before it was even in sight, which meant that their two minutes had started earlier than he’d originally guessed.

  How long do we have? A minute until we’re uploaded? Less?

  When Bailey tagged his hand, he took off running, taking the path they’d mapped out. The key was to keep the monster following them, leading it to its doom. Lewis was almost to the bend in the hallway when he checked over his shoulder. To his surprise, the monster had paused several yards away.

  The beast covered the hallway like a wall, making it almost impossible to see what lay on the other side of it. But more surprising was that Lewis thought he could see the heart of the monster, now that it was allowed to expand and show its true form. It was like there was a nucleus inside of it, its head and heart and center. Everything else, its blurry, amorphous edges, was its legs and arms, reaching out, trying to grab ahold of more, leech more.

  “Hey, asshole!” Lewis yelled to the monster. “I get that you’re trying to erase me.” He motioned down to this body. “But I’ve got news for you. I’ve got a ship waiting for me. So piss off, you freaking boogie man.”

  He didn’t know if insults would work on the monster. Does it think and feel like an AI, or is it purely programmed?

  The center of the beast glowed brightly, and several red lights flickered inside it.

  That seemed like the cue to start running, so Lewis spun around and sprinted for the far end of the hallway. If the next part of the plan didn’t work, there were no backups. There was no ship waiting to whisk him and Bailey away. They would be uploaded in less than a minute.

  Lewis didn’t have to guess if the monster was following him; he could hear it barreling in his direction like a runaway train. He kept his eyes focused on the intersecting corridor in front of him. When he spotted Bailey, his chest lightened, but only slightly. Here was the hard part. He had to be enticing enough to follow, but not more alluring than what stood in the room to the left.

  The monster already had its hooks into Lewis, anyway. Why would it want to continue after him when something better was laying in the room ahead? He pushed past Bailey, hardly seeing her. She raised her arm, something black and fuzzy floating in her hand.

  Lewis pushed on faster, the drumming of the monster deafening him. When he passed the room on the left, he twisted around the next corner and threw himself against the wall. He peered down at his body, which was gray from the waist down. All he could do was rely on hope now, something he had rarely ever done.

  Bailey was surprised when she opened the case for the tracker and found a tiny, black, gaseous monster in her hand. She almost dropped it, but then remembered what Hatch had used to make the tracker: the monster itself. This would absorb into the monster, like a piece of putty being mushed into a larger mound of putty.

  The drumming of the monster started up again, growing louder. Bailey had been relieved the moment she’d parted ways from the monster, but it was a false hope. She knew the upload was happening even if the monster wasn’t trailing her. Every second of every moment, she felt herself slipping away. If she tried, she couldn’t remember her parents’ names, or what her f
avorite subject used to be, or her own shoe size. She was slipping away, and so was Lewis. If this didn’t work, they’d be gone…somewhere else, no longer living the way they always had.

  When Lewis rushed by her, Bailey’s eyes connected with him. He was red-faced, and to her horror, half his body was a grayish haze. Behind him, the monster barreled on, rushing forward like a dust storm. It slowed upon nearing the room on the left.

  Standing in the center of the room that connected to an airlock was Hatch—or rather, a very real hologram of Hatch, projected with a sliver of his consciousness. It wasn’t a full version of the scientist, but Bailey hoped it was enough to fool the monster. That’s all they needed to do. Fool it a little longer.

  The monster slowed, shrank in on itself. Pulsed, almost like it was thinking. Bailey watched, tucked into the far corner. She peered at the small tracker in her graying hands. The upload had reached all the way to her shoulders. We don’t have long.

  She watched the monster hesitate and look at the room where Hatch stood. The monster would perceive him as being both in close proximity and also far away. It had to be enough to make the monster want more. To make it want to engulf the scientist, and complete the task it was sent for all along.

  The monster lurched forward, its center leading the way into the room adjacent as the rest of it floated in waves. Bailey suppressed the excited yelp waiting to escape. Instead, she pulled her hand back and launched the tracker across the hallway. It hung in midair for a moment, seemingly suspended, before being yanked down in the direction of the monster, where it disappeared amid the graying blackness. The monster spilled into the next room, taking its roaring engines with it.

  “Now!” Bailey yelled.

  The door to the room shut. Through the window in the center of the door, she watched the figure of Hatch disappear. On the far end of the room, the airlock opened, and the monster was sucked away into the blackness of space, where it mingled with stars and moons as it disappeared.

  “Jump us now,” she yelled, throwing her back against the wall, accosted by the rough assault she’d done to herself.

  “Jumping now,” Ricky Bobby stated overhead.

  Bailey peered down at her closed hand, her pale fingers one of the best sights she’d seen in a long time. Lewis materialized around the corner, a wash of real colors. The upload had stopped.

  “Did you place the tracker?” he asked, looking out the window at the airlock as the ship jumped.

  Bailey nodded, hardly feeling the jolts and shocks coursing through her body. She simply let out a breath, highly aware of how her lungs expanded and deflated.

  Life was a beautiful thing.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Hatch’s Lab, Ricky Bobby, Lorialis System

  Jack lifted the pen light and flashed it into Lewis’s eyes. “How do you feel?”

  “He’s fine,” Hatch croaked, almost all of his tentacles busy typing on various keyboards at his main workstation.

  Jack pursed his lips, leaning back. “I’d like for Lewis and Bailey to answer that question for themselves.”

  Bailey was beside Lewis, having her vitals checked by Liesel. Dejoure was sitting on a crate, kicking her lanky legs, Harley by her side.

  “If they weren’t fine, they wouldn’t be here now,” Hatch pointed out.

  Jack looked back at the Londil. “But the upload started. What if there’s long-term damage to their bodies? We know that the physical form is converted to energy for the transfer.”

  Hatch beat rapidly on the keyboards, his face nearly pressing into the monitors. “Which didn’t happen, because they interrupted the download when they shot the monster out of the airlock.”

  “Is everything all right?” Bailey asked him.

  “No, everything isn’t all right,” he snapped. “The tracker doesn’t appear to be working. You placed it, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, but maybe it came off after the monster was dislodged,” Bailey reasoned.

  Hatch shook his head. “It’s hard for us to know. This is all new territory.”

  “Without the tracker, how are we going to find the monster?” Liesel asked.

  Hatch shook his head. “We’ll have to resort to the less efficient method. It will take some time, but I can devise a way to detect D-factor. Looks like you two will be exploring every place containing that mineral until it leads us back to the monster.” Hatch looked at Bailey and Lewis, an irritated look on his face.

  Jack sighed. “It will be time-consuming, checking out each place with a high concentration of D-factor.”

  “But what if we didn’t have to do that to find the crew?” Lewis asked, standing suddenly.

  Jack gave him a curious expression. “What do you have in mind, Lew?”

  Hatch turned around, shaking his head. “It won’t work.”

  “You don’t know that,” Bailey cut in, standing next to Lewis.

  “What are they talking about?” Jack asked.

  Hatch ignored the chief strategist. “We haven’t had time to test it.”

  “Why not test her abilities with the real thing,” Bailey urged.

  Lewis looked at Jack. “We think that DJ can find Julianna using Pip, since he was a part of her.”

  “Or that we can find where she was at some point,” Bailey explained. “They aren’t linked anymore.”

  “It’s worth a try,” Lewis encouraged.

  “What if it doesn’t work, and this leads us on a wild goose chase?” Hatch asked.

  “But what if it works, and we rescue everyone,” Pip countered from overhead.

  Bailey strode over to Hatch. “It’s a viable option. Can we please try it?”

  The Londil’s sour expression softened. “It depends.” His eyes darted to Dejoure. “How does it work for you?”

  Dejoure slid off the box and walked over to the workstation, Harley following her. “Honestly, in the past, someone just asked me to help them find something they lost. When they do, I see an image in my head. It’s usually only a flash, but it’s enough to help me recognize the location.”

  “I’m guessing that Julianna’s not going to be in a location that you recognize,” Hatch stated.

  Bailey shook her head, a heavy conviction on her face. “This hurts nothing. We’re trying it. Pip?”

  The AI cleared his throat. “Ring, ring.”

  Dejoure’s eyes darted side to side with uncertainty.

  “Ring, ring,” Pip said again.

  Bailey motioned to pick up a phone.

  The girl nodded, lifting her hand to the side of her face. “Hello, this is Dejoure.”

  “Hi, Door. My name is Pip, and I’m looking for a missing person.”

  Dejoure unleashed a nervous smile, her hand still beside her ear. “Yes, I can help you with that. Can you tell me more?”

  “Her name is Commander Julianna Fregin, and she was my human. She’s been missing for some time now, and I want her back.”

  Dejoure’s eyes closed as her hand drifted back down by her side. After a moment, she nodded, opening her eyes. Like a robot, she walked over to a workstation where a pad had been left out, a few charcoal pencils scattered beside it. One of Liesel’s hobbies. She made thick dots and then sketched out a line that zigzagged between the points. She then made a large spiral around the line and dots several times and looked up.

  She held up the picture, a bashful look on her face. “This is where the commander is.”

  Hatch shook his head. “Complete. Waste.”

  Lewis strode over, his shoulders hunched as he leaned forward, trying to make out the picture. “Wait. I think I know what that is.”

  “A hairball?” Hatch asked, unimpressed.

  Lewis grabbed the paper. “No, it’s a star system. Actually, it’s a series of star systems.”

  “I believe we call that a galaxy,” Hatch said, his tone bored.

  “Yes, that’s exactly what it is.” Lewis held up the paper, a triumphant look on his face.

  Hatc
h’s tentacle reached across the space, plucking the sketch from Lewis’s grasp. The appendage retracted, and Hatch peered at the drawing.

  “No, it can’t be…”

  He spun around, continuing to clutch the sketch in one tentacle as the others furiously typed on three different keyboards.

  “What is it?” Jack asked, coming to stand at Hatch’s shoulder.

  An image of a blue and pink cloud mixed with purplish fog that bled through the center of a giant spiral popped onto the screen. There were five large bright spots in the spiral, which were connected by a faint, zigzagging, green line.

  Hatch held the paper that Dejoure had drawn up to the screen, almost overlaying the images that lined up perfectly.

  “That’s it,” the girl said, her voice a hush. “That’s where the commander is located.”

  “Where is that?” Bailey asked, looking at Hatch.

  His mouth was hanging open, a look of disbelief on his face. “That’s the Precious Galaxy.”

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Bridge, Ricky Bobby, Lorialis System

  Hatch looked away from the files Lewis had shared with him from Starboards Corp.

  “Well?” Jack asked, all eyes centered on the mechanic.

  Hatch nodded, as if stuck in a daze. “The detective is correct. The reports lead me to believe that Starboards has dealings in another galaxy.”

  “The Precious Galaxy,” Bailey said, looking up at the image of the galaxy on the main screen.

  “How do we get there?” Lewis asked.

  Hatch laughed. “That’s the thing. Traveling to another galaxy isn’t easy or fast. It would take a week to do this safely, though I’d prefer more like three weeks.”

  Bailey shook her head. “But Starboards and the monster, and probably Monstre Corp, have been traveling between this galaxy and that one. If they have the tech, we can too.”