“You don’t owe us anything, Doc. If you’re ready to go home then by all means, go back with the ship. You’ve endured enough.” He looked down at his feet and then back up to me. His eyes moistening slightly at the corners.
“With all due respect Captain Drake, I do think I owe you a great deal. If there are people down there that need help, the least I can do is make myself available for a few more days.”
“Alright then, it’s settled. Doc, you’re staying with us for the time being. When this is over, I meant what I said, anywhere you want to go, and we will get you there.” He nodded. “Ice, disengage us from the other ship, and get her to the guild office.”
“On it, Captain.”
The ship shook slightly as she released us. Ice started to move the Talon closer to the planet's surface. Once we were far enough away from the enemy ship, she sent it into FTL. “I’ll call Quaid and give him a heads up about the ship. That way they can collect it as soon as it comes out of FTL. Everyone else get some rest, we should arrive in the planet’s atmosphere about twelve hours from now. I need everyone to be sharp when we get there. Ice, keep scanning for life down there. They might have employed some kind of shielding that is preventing us from getting a reading.”
I made sure everyone understood what I was asking, and I left the room. Kyra was still in our tiny medbay, and I was going to make sure she didn’t wake up in there alone. I grabbed a few extra blankets on my way and some cushions from one of the couches. Once I was in the medbay, I made a nice little bed on the floor and curled up. Those pirates were lucky I had become a better man. A quick death had been too good for them. No one hurts a member of my crew. I fell asleep with thoughts about the past tickling at my senses. Not all of my thoughts could stay buried in the past no matter how much I wanted them to stay there.
Chapter Nine
The gentle beeping of my alarm woke me up. Rolling out of bed I hit my commlink. “Ice, what’s our status?”
“Half an hour out from breaking atmo, Captain.”
Perfect, just enough time to wash the sleep from my eyes and get geared up. Stumbling through my room, I found everything that I needed, except another few hours of sleep. Apparently killing pirates was a younger man’s game. That much shooting never used to leave me this sore. There was nothing I could do about it now. We had a job to finish.
I double checked my pistols before holstering them. One pistol under each arm, and one pistol on each thigh. The tactical vest I had on, held enough ammo to get us through a pretty prolonged fight. One thing I learned a long time ago was, although ammo is heavy, running out of it is worse. With all my gear ready to go I picked up my rifle and headed towards the door.
The bridge was quiet, except for Ice’s typing as she pushed the ship down through the planet's atmosphere. Gabe and Maze were already in the cargo hold waiting for instructions. Kyra had pulled through just fine and was talking with the doctor. Was this the inevitable calm before the storm? We would find out soon enough.
Ice brought us out of the descent smoothly, deploying our wings and switching to rear thrusters. The red sand covering the planet’s surface blew across the open landscape in a light breeze. The orange rays of the setting sun highlighted the red rocks and sand, making it almost look as if a fire was sweeping across the landscape. It was beautiful, too stunning to put into words.
Ice turned the ship, and the research facility came into view. The shiny silver building stood out against the red sand. It looked peaceful. The lack of any kind of movement outside worried me, though. A facility that size should be filled with hundreds if not thousands of people. To not have a single person visible wasn’t a good sign. I almost asked Ice to verify the atmospheric conditions, but I could do that myself. We hadn’t picked up any life signs, but I still almost couldn’t believe it.
The planet’s readings were all nominal. There was enough oxygen in the air that we wouldn’t need suits. The only thing missing was water. Creating that would have been the next major stage of the terraformer’s job if they planned on making the planet habitable for the long term. It was also the riskiest part of the job. If you set up your station and large machinery in the wrong area, you could wind up at the bottom of an ocean. Most capable crews knew exactly where to go, but more than one team had been lost due to incompetence.
The facility didn’t look like it was set up to finish terraforming the planet, so it was just a way station for the scientists. Who could blame the corporation? It’s not like you would be able to set up a colony this far out, at least not yet. It was expensive to get this far out. That meant not only moving here but bringing supplies would be a nightmare.
I looked over the readings again just to make sure that I hadn’t missed something. Everything still looked good. “Get us as close to the main facility as possible. We will locate the ship after we announce ourselves inside.”
“You got it, Captain. Stay safe out there.”
“I’ll do my best. You know the drill if anything happens, you bug out. Don’t come in looking for us.”
Ice nodded her head. I always had my doubts that she would actually follow that order, but I wasn’t going to waste time with it now. I walked by the medbay on my way to the cargo hold. The doctor looked like he had settled in nicely. Kyra waved at me as I walked by. I couldn’t help but wave back. There wasn’t a better engineer in the system, any system really. The crew I had was better than I deserved, by far.
Maze and Gabe both fell into position behind me as Ice landed our craft. Once we were settled she lowered the cargo bay doors. She had angled the ship on her landing, so we were facing the closed bay of the station on the diagonal. The wind was stronger than it had looked through the viewport, and the sand was blowing across the open space. I pulled up a mask to cover my nose and mouth and pulled on a pair of glasses to shield my eyes.
“Ice, we’re not seeing anything out here. It’s like the entire facility has been deserted.”
“Scanners are still showing no signs of life, Captain.”
“Have they picked up any biological threats?”
“Everything we are reading now shows the all clear. I can’t get a full read inside of the building, but nothing seems out of place.”
Yeah, except for all the missing people. I thought. Not to mention how in the hell had the ship landed down here. Maybe a self-recall program? Something was going on here, and chances were we weren’t going to like it. Gabe and Maze looked ready to go, so I started my descent onto the planet’s surface.
The blowing sand was pretty bad. It kept visibility low and I could already feel it trying to claw its way into my clothes. I had a spent a week on Primus Five once. The beaches there were supposed to be legendary. All I remembered about the trip now was trying to get the sand out of places it should have never been in the first place. Well, that and that night with Cindy. Ok, so the trip had been worth it, even with the sand. I shook my head, leaving the memory behind. Now was not the time to go strolling down memory lane. Doing something like that on a mission could get you killed.
My rifle snuggled against my shoulder and moved seamlessly with me as I swept the area. Ice was right, this place was a tomb. Until we knew why, we needed to stay on high alert. I lifted a hand, and Gabe moved to the left. Maze moved to the right taking cover and training her rifle on the door ahead. Moving forward I slowly made my way to the outer door lock’s panel.
This was creepy as hell. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that we should be seeing people around us working, going about their daily routines. This would be like waking up one day and just finding everyone gone. It just didn’t happen that way. People didn’t disappear without a trace unless they got spaced. Even then they sometimes found the bodies, before they got sucked back into the sun.
The door’s unlock code was flashing on my wrist. The one good thing about working for the company is we had all the right information to enter the facility. I plugged in the code and slowly backed away from the door a
s it opened. The door slid slowly open, giving us a perfect view of our missing ship. The cargo bay door leading into the back of the ship was open, and I didn’t see anyone else inside of the landing pad.
Moving into the center of the large open door, I signaled for the team to advance inside the building. They ran past me sweeping each side of the massive room for trouble. When they gave the all clear, I moved inside and started to close the door behind us. The thirty-foot tall door slid closed and then locked into place. When the lock clicked, it had a sound of finality to that I didn’t like. My gut told me to open the door again, but Alphamerix wouldn’t appreciate us turning their facility into a sandbox.
“Let’s sweep the room just to make sure anything isn’t going to jump out and surprise us and then we will go check out the ship.”
Maze took the lead, and we flanked her to either side. Sweeping the hanger took us about twenty minutes. The space was large enough to hold at least four more ships the size of the one we were looking at. When the sweep of the hanger came back with nothing, I did a scan from my data pad for signs of life. I had one faint trace of life coming from inside of the facility. For the faint reading, it was giving off, it might as well have been a lab animal.
“All right let’s sweep the ship, and then we can move into the facility.” The team signaled the ok. This time, I took the lead heading up the cargo ramp. My head cleared the surface of the ramp and my breath hitched in my chest. There was blood and lots of it.
Chapter Ten
Jesus, what could have possibly happened here? There was no way to tell how many people would have had to die to cover the walls and floor in so much blood. It had to have been a lot, my guess was at least seven, but hell it could have been much, much, more. It wasn’t just smeared on the walls. The walls were literally covered from the ceiling to the floor. You could see ridges on the walls letting you know they had been sprayed more than once over time. The floor was a wet puddle of half congealed blood.
Looking down I noticed footprints for the first time, as if someone had survived whatever happened here. I would hate to have seen whatever they had witnessed on this ship. That would explain why the ramp was down. But where had all the other bodies gone? Had someone stacked them further into the ship? There wasn’t a trail indicating that they had been removed from the cargo bay.
“Captain, I’m not walking through that sludge.” Maze said.
I turned to look at her, and almost laughed as she wrinkled her nose in disgust. “The order stands. We sweep the ship and then move into the facility.”
“But Captain….”
“But nothing, let’s get this over with.”
The first step into the cargo hold of the ship made me rethink the order I had just given. My boot squelched as it settled into the red liquid. It was slippery, and there was no way I was going to fall in this crap. “Take it slow.”
Maze lifted her boot out of the sludge and watched the blood drip back to the floor. “Sometimes I really hate you, Captain.”
“You won’t be saying that when you can finally afford that vacation you’ve been going on about.”
“After this, I’m not so sure about that.”
Laughter filled the room as Gabe listened to us. He didn’t look concerned about the ground at all. He only cared about getting the job done and getting paid. It made things easier for me most of the time. All I had to do was make sure his cut of the job was paid on time, and he never complained. He was a good soldier.
We moved farther into the ship. There were bloody footprints leading farther inside and what appeared to be drag marks. The footprints had all smeared together so it was hard to tell just how many people they would have belonged to. It could have just as easily been one person walking back and forth as it could have been ten people. Had some of these people lived through what happened, or had someone piled their lifeless bodies further into the ship? I checked my wrist again, no signs of life on the ship.
“Keep your weapons hot.”
There was no reason for me to check if they followed the order. They would, even if they thought it was silly. They would be getting the same readout that I was, no signs of life. Something didn’t feel right to me. I wanted us prepared for anything.
The first room off of the main corridor was closed. I popped the panel, and the team covered me. A cursory glance showed that the room was empty. Three rooms later and we still hadn’t found a body. The ship wasn’t that big, there had to be one somewhere, or else they had been moved. By who, and how had they done it without leaving a trail outside?
The medbay was spotless, not even a single hint of blood. So none of the injured or dying had made it in here for medical treatment. There were still a few light smudges of red on the ground but nothing that couldn’t be attributed to the red dust from outside. I didn’t really believe that, but I wanted to. The vessel could have been covered in mud or dust. It didn’t have to be blood.
That left the bridge in front of us and the common area to the left. A small clank sounded, the tiny noise traveled through the ship like an avalanche. All of our weapons snapped back up pointed in the direction of the sound. It came from the bridge. I checked my wrist again, no signs of life. Maybe something had been knocked loose by the ship’s landing over a week ago, and just now hit the ground.
The sound came again, this time, followed by a second noise. I desperately wanted to find out what was making the noises but leaving the common area un-cleared behind us wasn’t an option. I kept my gun trained on the door to the bridge. Gabe moved up to the door, and Maze stepped into position to cover him. I wasn’t willing to take my gun off the bridge while the banging continued. Gabe and Maze could cover one room. Chances were it was just as deserted as the rest of this place.
Gabe flipped open the door and Maze moved into the room. When no gunshots erupted from behind me, I felt my body relax slightly, and I let out the breath I had been holding. I waited for them to give me the all clear while listening to the sounds coming from the bridge. My imagination was running wild with the possibilities of what could be making them. The door remained closed, but the intensity of the noise continued to grow. It sounded like something was hitting the door and it wanted out.
“All clear, Captain.” Maze reported, sweeping back into position behind me.
“Time to find out what is making that racket,” Gabe said.
The door was less than ten steps away, but each time I lifted my foot it got harder to take the next step. My body was rebelling against the idea of going forward. Something of an internal fight or flight reflex was telling me to get the hell out of here. I shoved that feeling to the side and slowly continued to move. Each step forward felt as if someone added another weight to my legs, or that my boots had been filled with lead. By the time the panel was in reach I felt as if I had walked ten miles instead of ten steps. Lowering my gun I reached out for the panel.
Before I hit the button, I looked over my shoulder at the rest of my team. Maze had her rifle ready pointed just over where my shoulder would be. Her eyes were focused intently on the closed door. Gabe had a trickle of sweat on his forehead, but his eyes were determined. I knew whatever happened now, they had my back. It was a small but comforting gesture. It was too bad I hadn’t let Maze take point this time, but I knew I could count on the two people behind me as if they were family.
The door whooshed open as I hit the panel. Dropping to one knee, I scanned the room. The simple action also gave Maze and Gabe a clear sightline if they needed to fire. When nothing happened, I felt almost ridiculous kneeling on the ground. That was until my eyes roved over the pile of bodies on the floor. They had been ripped apart. I couldn’t tell from here, but it looked as if they had been gnawed on by an animal. You didn’t see that very often on a spaceship.
The noise came again, pulling my attention away from the pile of broken corpses. That was when I saw him for the first time. His clothes were ripped and bloody, and there was a wrench in his hand.
It rose and fell against one of the metal walls on the bridge. He didn’t move to acknowledge us at first. The hand rose and fell several more times before I broke the silence.
“Sir, this is Captain Drake of the Star Talon. We have been sent by Alphamerix to check on your status.” The wrench fell from his hand, and he started to turn around. When I saw his face, I almost threw up on my boots. Just what in the hell had we gotten ourselves into?
Chapter Eleven
The man’s face was half gone. It looked like something had bitten large chunks of flesh from it leaving his jawbone exposed on one side. I wasn’t sure how the man could even be standing, if what was in front of us could even be considered a man anymore. The pain from a wound like that must have been horrific. He took one shambling step forward almost falling to his knees. I started to dash forward when a hand grabbed my shoulder from behind.
“What in the hell Gabe, this man needs our help.”
“Boss, check your wrist. We still aren’t getting any life signs.”
“How is that even possible?” I watched with horror as the man took another step towards us. His arms came up stretching out almost as if he was going to try and hug me. I took an involuntary step back. A sound escaped his throat, a growl mixed with a wheeze.
“Do you think our scanners are broken?”
“I have the same reading, Captain.” Maze replied. She still had her rifle trained on the man. “Jesus, look at his arm.” She said almost in a whisper.
When I looked back, I could clearly see what she was talking about. One of his hands was missing. The bone poked out through the ragged strips of flesh hanging off of it. There was no blood coming from the wound, or the wound on his face. This man was dead, but how could he still be standing, let alone be moving towards us?
“Maze, put him down.”
Star Talon (Fortune Hunters Book 1) Page 6