Into the Void (Beyond Humanity Book 1)

by Kellie Sheridan

  Hands still gripping his useless gun in front of him, Oliver stayed near the wall and moved to get a better view of what was happening in front of him. There were at least three shapes not twenty-feet away from him, none standing on two feet, but Torque's dark-skinned companion had all their attention. Her body moved like liquid, her suit not inhibiting her at all as she landed downward toward one of her attackers, firing off a shot at another simultaneously.

  The largest form of the group went down, twitching once before it stopped moving, but not before another ball of green light came flying directly from what Oliver thought might be its head, barely missing puncturing her suit. She was good, but she'd been lucky too, moving at the right moment to avoid an incoming elbow.

  If they were all getting out of this alive, Oliver had to do something. Now!

  "Argarggha!" With a burst of speed and adrenaline, Oliver barreled toward the fight, firing off every round he had, not hoping to help beyond causing enough of a distraction to let the woman doing the actual ass-kicking keep the upper hand.

  She took full advantage, taking down one opponent as it turned to face Oliver, using her leg to trip him to the ground before shooting directly into his helmet. The only remaining incoming alien shot, or spit, another round headed straight toward Oliver. The resulting neon splatter missed only due to the impact of the shot he took to the guy from the alien woman.

  Shit, shit, shit. Oliver struggled to catch his breath

  A new set of footsteps penetrated the silence, but before Oliver could shoot, or even point his gun, Gwynn's voice came over the comms. "I'm less than a minute out. Is everyone okay??"

  Panting, Oliver looked up from the still bleeding body at his feet right as Gwynn swung around the corner, taking in the scene in front of her. It looked almost familiar, but not because the creature who had attacked them resembled aliens from his favorite programs. It looked more like an ant. A massive, angry ant, who had probably been merged with a wasp somewhere along the line. Its grayish body was segmented and long, with at least six legs that Oliver could see, and long, silver wings, and no space suit to speak of.

  Oliver forced himself to look away. Whatever it was, it was dead now.

  "It looks like that ship left some friends behind. I think they're gone, but keep your head down and get in here."

  "Did we win?" Safa asked, still crouched down behind a desk. "Oh! Gwynn. When did you get here? Did you save the day? Well done."

  "We didn't know the day needed to be saved," Gwynn said carefully. "All we got from the bridge was the signal that went out a few minutes ago. When you all stopped answering your comms even though our connection was fine, I ran here as fast as I could. When I got there, the fight was already over."

  "That was all." Oliver turned, gesturing at the woman now standing in the corner, studying them all, as stoic as ever.

  "Lin!" Safa said with an unnatural amount of glee. "Her name is Linna, or something that sounds like Linna."

  "How could you possibly know that?" Gwynn asked with a relieved chuckle.

  "She told me. Or, she named herself using our alphabet. She picked it up quickly while you were all figuring out what to do. She's incredibly intelligent." Coming from Safa, that was high praise, but Oliver was prepared to take her word for it rather than continue this conversation.

  "They probably sent out the signal before they attacked, once they realized we were here," Oliver said, shaking his head. "They just told their friends that they found something interesting here."

  Gwynn shook her head. "We don't know that."

  "Unless I see some proof to the contrary, that's what we're going with. Grab anything that looks like it could be a hard drive. You have two minutes, then it's back to the ship"

  Not waiting for everyone else, Oliver led his people through the office complex and right to the bridge of his own ship. "Time to go." Oliver flipped the ship back to full power.

  "You got them," Gwynn said, still out of breath. "And we killed the signal. We're okay. And where can we go that's safer than this? We don't even know that there's anywhere else to go."

  "We can't risk it. The signal went out, maybe even our exact specs. They know we're here now. We have to be long gone before anyone shows up to find out exactly who we are."

  The Lexiconis' engines came to life slower than they should have, still as damaged and weary as the crew. They couldn't go anywhere fast, but they could go and that was what mattered. Oliver sat to take the co-pilot position as Lincoln pulled the ship away from the remains of this place, never once asking for help.

  Good. Adrenaline wearing off quickly, Oliver realized he wasn't going to be in any shape to help anyone for long. He'd pushed his body as far as it would go.

  "Point the ship in the opposite direction of where that first ship came from, and wake me if you find anything."

  Chapter Fifteen – Sprocket

  Hiding out in the engine room, alone with his tools and the heart of the ship, helped to soothe Sprocket's rickety mood. He felt a bit better after getting some sleep, but the human body hadn't been built to sleep in such short bursts. He needed a good night—or week—of rest, and he needed it in his own bed, with Elaine beside him, his hand resting on her growing belly.

  How far away from him were they now? No one had offered any guesses.

  Elaine wouldn't even know he was missing yet. She wouldn't even know to be worried, which was for the best. The money this job had offered had gone a long way to ease some of the tension she'd been carrying with her, and with the bonus money already in their bank account at least she'd have a little something extra to help get her through the birth, and maybe a little beyond.

  But then what? She wasn't working, and Sprocket might never return home to meet his child and collect the rest of the payout for this disaster. He'd be a tragic story that his child grew up sharing with their friends, hopefully never really carrying the weight of. Not for the first time, Sprocket got lost in imagining what his daughter, or son, he admitted to himself grudgingly, might look like. Elaine's hair, and eyes, and nose, and height.

  He wanted a daughter who was yet another version of Elaine set loose upon the universe. Whoever she was, she'd be wonderful. And no matter where Sprocket was when she was born, she'd be his.

  She'd be one of only a few things Sprocket had ever done right, and there was nothing in the universe he'd been looking forward to more than meeting that baby and watching her grow.

  And now. One job had ruined everything. It was always a risk, but regulations and protocols had made most of the non-mining jobs out in space safer than ever. Accidents made global news, and people wanted to fly between worlds without worry.

  Would the story of the Lexiconis make the news too?

  If only he'd told Elaine not to answer the door that day, he'd still be home, about ready to go out on their next job, and be back only a few nights later before dinner.

  He had to make this right. He had to get home.

  But how? Even now, the Lexiconis was barely functioning, and if those ships showed up again, there would be nowhere to hide. The ship had taken a beating like nothing Sprocket had ever seen before. Back when he'd worked on Centuri Station as a mechanic for some old guy who liked to call himself McFixIt, he'd seen some weird stuff—people failing pretty impressively at installing illegal mods, others racing their ships through an asteroid field, someone trying to use parts from his ship to fix his car and regretting it.

  What had happened to the Lexiconis had gone far deeper. If they'd been stuck in that energy field much longer they could have easily been ripped apart. And now they were stranded with no access to new parts, old parts, or anything other than what Sprocket had brought along.

  At least, if you didn't count the bizarre alien haul they'd spent half-a-day accumulating, most of which now sat scattered along the floor of the engine room, in haphazard piles, based on uneducated guesses about what each thing was for. Some pieces looked eerily familiar, similar in design t
o things humans used all the time—cogs, wiring, bolts. But there was no manual to go through that would guarantee what any one piece should be used for, or if it was safe to integrate with human systems.

  But sitting around, just staring at all the different pieces he had wasn't going to help Sprocket solve the puzzle, and it wasn't going to get him back home to Elaine.

  First, he needed to repair the engine and get this ship moving a bit faster. He'd have to get the accelerator back up to peak efficiency. It was something he could do in twenty minutes if he had all the right pieces. Today? Well, it might take a little longer.

  Sprocket moved to pick up the piece closest to him what looked to be like a four-sided wrench sitting at his feet. But before his fingers could grasp for the cool metal whatever-it-was, a silver and brown blur swept by his feet. The next second, the piece was gone.

  "What in the actual hell?" Sprocket grumbled to himself, wondering if maybe he did need some more sleep after all.

  When he stood again, searching the room for an explanation, he found the furry critter hanging from the water pipes on the ceiling, dangling by one arm with the part he'd been about to examine hanging in the other. "Hey! I needed that!" Sprocket shouted, his frustration leaking out before he realized he was yelling what was essentially a sentient stuffed animal.

  He took a breath. Yelling had never gotten him anywhere. He needed another approach. "Can I have that back, you flea-bitten weirdo? I need it to get the accelerator going again."

  The little monster threw the part across the room, not once breaking eye contact with Sprocket. Great. As the beast scrambled down the pipes back to the floor, making a mad dash for a pile of stuff in the far corner. Immediately, he stood on two legs instead of his usual four and started picking up pieces at random before tossing them behind himself.

  Sprocket could already see his whole day devolving into chasing this thing around the engine room, never actually getting anything done, but he still had to laugh.

  Elaine would love this thing.

  And when the critter returned to Sprocket's feet, holding out two small cylindrical metal pieces that looked suspiciously like solenoids. Not perfect, but close enough to the one that had been damaged in the fuel transfer manifold.

  "Okay," Sprocket said, drawing out the word as worked through what it was he was dealing with as he picked up the piece closer in size to what he needed. "What about a reducing valve? Do we have anything like that."

  The creature cocked its head, then rushed back to a nearby pile. Well, if nothing else, this new project would help keep the thing busy.

  Sprocket set to work on replacing one of the less reliable looking solenoid coils. A minute later, the creature was back, a reduction valve clenched between his furry hands. Paws? It didn't matter. Sprocket hadn't actually needed the piece, but took it anyway. "Nicely done, buddy."

  What a strange little being. Cute and oddly helpful. And whatever it was, he looked happy just to be useful.

  Or was that condescending? If this thing was as intelligent as he was, Sprocket was officially embarrassed. But the creature purred out what sounded like a happy response, and rubbed its ears against Sprocket's palm. "I think you're officially my new assistant. If you're up for it."

  The little guy hopped in place before returning to settle on four legs, not unlike Sprocket had seen Torque do earlier. "I'll take that as a yes."

  The next hour was one of the most fun Sprocket had ever had at work, so long as he didn't let himself think too hard. The mixture of his new helper plus the challenge of trying to work out what different alien parts did and how they might be useful was an easy route to forgetting why it was he was there in the first place.

  "Are you occupied?" A voice interrupted as Sprocket sat on the floor for a break, sharing the granola bar he'd brought downstairs with the critter sitting at his side. "May I enter?"

  He looked up to find Torque watching him from the door. "Come on in," Sprocket said, finding he meant it. A little of the stress he'd been feeling had gone without him noticing, leaving him more than willing to deal with most of the others on board again. "Can I help with something?"

  The alien held out a small device, the equivalent of one of their portascreens. "I have been going through some of the data we found, and I think I found something. A report on the initial damage we took after we were brought here. Your Evelyn thought it might be useful, but neither one of us could make sense of the information or what it meant."

  Sprocket didn't bother pointing out that Evelyn wasn't theirs at all, too distracted by what he was being offered. Anything they could learn about how ships were brought here could help provide the answers on how to get out again.

  "Put it on the desk. I'll have a look, if you can read the translation for me."

  "But of course! It would be my honor."

  Handing the last of his snack to the creature, Sprocket stood, enjoying the stretch through his muscles. "Actually, I wanted to ask you something. Does this guy have a name? He's been incredibly useful, but I didn't want to call him something in case he already had a name. He's much smarter than I gave him credit for."

  "He is actually a female," Taroque answered congenially. "But if she has a name, I do not know it. And I doubt she would mind if you gave her a new one. Their species are classified with level-two intelligence, though many of them tend to have a talent toward some skill or another. They can be useful, but most people keep them for companionship."

  "That's pretty cool," Sprocket said, with an approving nod, looking down at his new friend. "What did you call it again?"

  "A knick. They're very popular on my world for their limited psychic ability. It is said they can learn to anticipate your needs even before you yourself know what you most desire. Unfortunately, I am somewhat allergic."

  "Knicks, eh? I like the sound of it. And this knick has a knack for engineering, which is pretty damn useful if you ask me. I probably wouldn't have made any progress at all yet if it weren't for her. What do you say, can I call you Knack?" he asked the creature, not expecting an answer. She purred, not raising any objections.

  This wasn't exactly what Sprocket had had in mind when he'd first brought up the idea of an assistant to Oliver. And Elaine had a bit of a pet allergy of her own, but for today this knick was exactly what Sprocket had needed in more ways than one. They still had a long way to go before the engine was fully functional again, but whether Knack had been reading his mind or had just gotten lucky, she was invaluable.

  "Okay, Knack. So, I have to go help Torque here for a bit. But I'm getting some pull on the aft thrusters. Can you have a look around to see if there's anything that might help?"

  Sprocket felt a little strange talking to Knack now that there was someone else around, but Torque didn't say a word and Knack looked happy for something to do as she scampered away.

  But if Sprocket had been lost when it came to repairing a ship he knew well with alien parts, deciphering data from a ship he didn't understand in a language he couldn't read was something altogether different. Torque did his best to be helpful, but didn't understand what it was he was reading any better than Sprocket understood the language.

  It was a matter of minutes before he wanted to retreat to the simpler time of engine repairs, but it didn't take long at all to realize that the information Torque was translating for him far surpassed the sensor data the Lexiconis had got. If he or anyone else on board could make sense of it, the data would go a long way toward showing them what they were up against, at least when it came to the void itself, if not the species that hunted within it.

  "I've got a question for you?" Sprocket asked, taking a break from noting all the numbers Torque was reading out, giving his cramping hand a break. "Have you ever had a cup of coffee before? Caffeine?"

  Torque shook his head. "If I have, I do not know the word."

  "It's a drink. And it's going to go a long way toward getting my brain moving again. And if you're up for seeing how well it mi
xes with your physiology, you're in for an experience. Let's take five minutes, I'll get Lincoln down here to keep going with Knack, and you and I can do some refueling of our own."

  Chapter Sixteen – Oliver

  Was going several days without finding anything bigger than a dumpster in the void a good sign or a bad one? They hadn’t been attacked, but they also hadn’t come across anyone or anything that could lead them to a way out. It was also becoming clear just how big this place was. Safa was theorizing that it was as big as the galaxy or even the entire universe, with some areas being more active than others, but refused to say anything with much certainty. Not enough data.

  Oliver already had all the data he needed. This place was bad news. What little they had found had been pieces of various ships, all completely destroyed and uninhabitable. They wouldn’t see evidence of any ships who had managed to escape, but that was hardly reassuring.

  At least Oliver had managed to sleep for six hours in a row, two nights running, leaving his mind clearer to solve the unsolvable.

  From the look of the canteen, he hadn’t been the first one awake, someone had left behind a spread of their remaining fruit and bread. All the things that wouldn’t last much longer, leaving them to rely on their canned supplies, both human and otherwise.

  One look at the pantry promised that while they were well stocked for now, eight people would go through what they had left extremely quickly. What they had would be gone in a matter of a little more than a week, even with rationing, and while it was nice to think that they'd all be back home by then, nothing was certain.

  And food wasn't the only thing they were going to need more of.

  Oliver had woken up that morning with the intention of starting each day with a walk through his ship, checking on the people who lived and worked on board, getting the rundown of how everything was running.

  Or at least, that was the theory. If he had actually run into another living being.