"So, what?"
"Jack…. You've been drinking more and more."
He waved Reaper off. Grabbed the other glass from its velcro hold and filled it with water.
Reaper pushed himself away from the couch and grabbed the edge of the counter.
"If you want it, I have a job."
"Really? What is it this time? Delivering more supplies?" Jackal rolled his eyes.
"Assassination."
"Whoa, thought we were above that, Cap."
"You fucking smell." Reaper's face twisted.
"Shut up."
"Shower. Fix your hair and make yourself presentable. I'll give you the details when you come to the bridge." He headed from the door.
Jackal grumbled like an upset teenager.
"Also, have you heard about the missing panels?" He paused in thought. "Lieutenant Whiskers seems to be missing too."
"Damned cat still hasn't shown up?"
"Would you mind looking for it and figuring out what's going on with the missing pieces? Thus far, nothing vital has vanished, but we need to figure it out before we're stranded in the void."
Jackal grumbled under his breath.
Reaper headed out, shutting the door on his way.
The bridge was quiet. Soft chatter among the few there. Pilots running the morning system checks. Navigator checking the surrounding area.
"Set course for Tarkeav."
"Isn't that a raven station, sir?" Willis turned around in his seat.
"It is."
"So, there's a closer station that isn't raven."
"We have orders."
"Oh." He turned back around. "Feels like they're sending us into the wolf's den. I don't like this."
"Well, that's the funny thing about orders, Lieutenant. You don't have to like them, just have to follow them."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"Captain Phillips," the intercom cracked to life with a high-pitched voice.
"What is it?"
"One of my boys just found a whole slew of missing panels from coolant D's housing. The whole damned thing is exposed!"
"Is it still operational?"
"Yeah, but we've got a severe radiation leak because of it. Coolant D is the runoff from the core. I've got my boys on it as we speak, but this issue is getting worse."
"Any idea of the cause yet?"
"Fuck no. I ain't seen something like this before! I don't think my grandfather even has! These things are disappearing in thin air, bolts and all!"
"Have we checked for any anomalies? Something we could have passed through?"
"The scanner has picked nothing up." Irzazee stated.
"Captain, one of my boys just found some cuts on one of the pipes."
"I'll send someone down there."
Reaper put his chin in his hand. That definitely rules out anomalies. Something must have been tearing the panels off. Where were the panels going, though? He thought about the Utopia. There were scratches all over the walls.
Oh, no... they didn't happen to bring a stray, did they? One of those monsters from that ship would be the end of them. They had no hope of scanning for one either. They didn't pick those creatures up on the Utopia.
Fenris would know though, wouldn't it? It sensed them on the ship, or at least Reaper thought so.
"So, what's this job?" Jackal grabbed the back of Reaper's chair.
He actually jumped a little. His thoughts broken, he looked up to Jackal floating just barely above him.
He smelled good. Hair slicked back. He even trimmed that scruffy beard away. He didn't even look hungover.
"Good morning." Reaper said.
"Busy day, huh?"
"Need you to head down to the engine room. Coolant D is exposed, and they found cuts on a pipe."
"Whoa, serious? You don't think…"
"I don't know what to think about it. Do you know where Fenris has been? I haven't seen him in a few days."
"The core." Jackal said it like Reaper should have known.
"What? Why there?"
He shrugged. “Probably to avoid contact. Not sure he enjoys being touched.”
“You touched it?”
"Why?"
"Reynolds cut her hand open when she touched him. Said the armor was made of knives?"
"I touched his head. I mean... he was a dog... I thought."
"You see it, too?"
"I think we all see it," Willis chimed in. "That thing... phases between whatever it is."
"It's quite interesting!" Irzazee sang. "I've never heard of any creature who can do such a thing! I can't even imagine how it's possible."
"Smoke and mirrors. CGI." Willis said.
"He's not a hologram. He's a real living thing." Jackal corrected. "This isn't a movie."
"Then you explain it!"
"We haven't even explored ten percent of our galaxy. We don't know anything about the endless possibilities that God could have given life."
"I'll check out the damage. What about that job you mentioned earlier?"
"The Admiral got word that a raven lieutenant was found dead in the street early one morning. Right now there are no leads, but he wants us to investigate the matter and apprehend the assassin before the ravens do."
"Show of power?"
"Bureaucratic pissing match."
"And we're the piss."
Reaper chuckled.
"Just like old times!" He kicked off from the back of the chair. "Call me when we get there."
Down in the core room, the rodent engineers were hard at work as they always were. Several of them were complaining about the sudden extra work load. There was a mystery afoot, and no one had a clue to solve it. For weeks now parts of the ship were disappearing without a trace. Like an anomaly was eating them.
It could have been too many horror movies setting off the paranoia. There were only rare cases of anomalies destroying ships, and none of them, not even a movie, described anything like this.
Before I even got to enter the core room, the kotoli on point yelled at me to put a hazmat suit on. A radiation leak caused by the runoff coolant being exposed made the area too dangerous. They only let me in on behalf of the Captain's order, and because of my rank. It was my job after all to investigate any crimes on board the ship, and this was certainly calling for that signature yellow tape.
Lieutenant Torch was standing on a few crates, waving a wrench around as he shouted orders at his rodent underlings. The kotoli were actually pretty cute when they were kids, but once they got as old as Torch, they looked like fat, hairy kung fu masters.
"It's about time you showed up!" Torch yelled at me. "You damned kids are too lazy these days!"
"Hey, I'm here, ain't I?"
"Just move your ass so you can get out of our way! Those marks are down that way."
"Grumpy bastard."
"What was that?" He stomped his tiny foot down onto the crate.
"I said shut your buck toothed mouth so I can get to work!"
He stared at me in silence. I was ready to dodge the wrench. Yet he laughed.
I got out of his way before he stopped laughing. Last time he was pissed off, he sealed someone inside of one of his tunnels. Not a prison I'd like to be in.
I dodged around the scurrying kotoli, doing my best to not step on any of them, and to stay out of their way. They were like tortoises. They had a chosen path and nothing would stop them. Worse than a tortoise, one should never interrupt a working kotoli. They had a bad temper.
The marks were easy to spot once I made it down to the exposed piping. Just like Reaper said, cuts etched into the pipe. Three, to be exact. Deep, but not deep enough to cause a water leak.
If it were a crime scene, it was already contaminated to hell. The rodents scurried over everything. I found nothing on the floor. No marks, no loose items.
Just above where the panel had disappeared that exposed the first set of marks was a set of four.
I lined my hand up with the cuts to better
understand them. Definitely intentional. A hand. Or paw. Or something. Strange how the set on the pipe was three fingered, but on the wall it was four. The smallest mark was awfully close to the third mark, like it had a second claw on a finger.
Definitely not an anomaly. Well, not the mysterious space kind. Something ripped the panel off. Probably ripped off all the panels.
So, where were the panels disappearing to?
I gave a look around the core room. No sign of them anywhere. Vanished in thin air.
"Jack, meet me at landing platform 1. I already have Mjolnir, Ruby, and Sparrow down here." Reaper came in over the radio.
"Roger that. Be there shortly."
"Any luck?"
"They seem to be claw marks. Makes me think of the ones we saw on the Utopia."
"I see…."
On my way out of the core room, I spotted Fenris where he always was. Curled into a ball up against the protective wall of the core. Maybe he saw something?
"Hey, Fen." I said as I approached.
The cracks for eyes lit up. He looked right at me.
"You happen to see anything strange down here?"
No sign of a response.
"One of those monsters from the Utopia? Anything?"
He sat up, head tilted to the side.
I hummed to myself. Thought about it.
"We have a job. Gotta go planet side. Did you want to tag along? Sure, we could use a big guy like you. Those ravens really don't like us humans."
It stood, nodded.
Well, that was a good sign. Got something from it, at least. Maybe if we exercised some trust in it, it would trust us.
We headed to the exit. I stepped into the decontamination room that had been set up within the new makeshift wall that blocked the radiation from leaking out of the core room. Fenris just stared at me like I was stupid. I waved him in.
"You, too, buddy. It's safe. Just gonna scrub off the radiation so we don't get anyone sick."
He poked his head inside, ducking down to get a good view.
I could tell it had no trust. Maybe it had no idea what sort of chamber this was.
If it was anything like a dog, it acted as if it had been abused before. As if every human it came into contact with kicked it, or worse.
I hoped that wasn't the case. Nobody deserves that kind of treatment.
Fenris slowly floated inside. Watched me the whole while, even when the air nozzles sprayed us down. I was never a fan of this either. It was uncomfortable. Like being pelted in a sandstorm. I could imagine on its body how much it probably hurt.
When the room lit up green, the outer door unlocked and opened, letting us out.
I removed the hazmat suit and hung it up on the rack labeled 'out'. We headed down the hall to the shuttle bay. The whole way I couldn’t shake that feeling of impending doom. It felt like I was in an ocean of cold water lapping at the shore. I could feel my body being tugged gently down deeper.
I did my best to ignore the strange feeling. Hardly even looked back to make sure Fenris was keeping up. The shuttle door was still open. Everyone was sitting inside, chatting and throwing things around.
I pulled myself in halfway and gave a grin to everyone.
“Starting the party without me?”
“Damn, did you have to rub one out before getting here?” Ruby groaned.
“Oh, ho, damn right I did!” I floated inside.
Reaper bit back a chuckle, trying to keep up the serious captain appearance in front of the kids.
Everyone’s faces shifted from laughs and smiles to confusion and cynicism.
For a second I thought my zipper was down. A quick check confirmed it wasn’t.
It was Fenris. He hovered perfectly centered between all the walls, not touching a damned thing.
“You’re joining us?” Reaper crossed his arms over his chest. Strapped down to his seat, he had no worry of floating away.
“A good chance to get to know each other!” Mjolnir grinned.
“You’re really fucking creepy.” Sparrow slapped her hands to her mouth, shocked she said that aloud.
“You just need to get to know him. I’m sure he’s a wonderful... whatever he is.” Reaper said.
“It’s hard to trust something when you don’t know what it is.” Ruby grumbled.
The door to the shuttle lowered until it locked in place. Willis accelerated the shuttle out of the bay.
“If it’s a station, why don’t we dock the ship there?” Sparrow asked.
“The ravens have a habit of detaining whole human ships. It’s best we use the shuttle.” I told her.
Willis went through protocol, announcing his presence and following directions. Sure enough, there was an escort waiting for us. He docked. The door opened.
Three eldiravan towered over everyone but me, Fenris, and Mjolnir. Out here, there was no atmosphere, we were out in space. The maglocks on our boots kept us on the ground.
“What’s your business here?” The raven in the front said with a harsh voice.
“We’re looking for someone.” Reaper answered.
“You have a lot of weapons to be looking for someone.”
“He’s not exactly friendly.”
“There haven’t been any humans passing through here.” One of the others chimed in.
“There was someone.” The third said. That one had a higher-pitched voice. In fact, a closer inspection of his suit showed a much thinner waist compared to the other two and a deeper, narrow chest. A female.
“What?” The leader turned around to look at her.
“Yeah, a little thing.” She held her free hand up to her hips. “Black clothes, a hood. Seen it wandering around the station.”
“Sounds like our guy.” Reaper crossed his arms over his chest.
The leader hummed in thought and turned to Reaper.
“Very well, Captain Reaper. You and your...band of miscreants may stay long enough to get your man.”
“You know who I am?”
“You decommissioned my father in the war.”
“I am sorry for that.”
“Don’t be! War is a dangerous game. My father is well now.”
“God was watching over him. May he continue to do so.” Reaper gave a bow of his head.
“Move your ass and get out of here before you overstay your welcome.” They stepped to the side to allow us to pass.
We wasted no time in getting out of the docking area. The sooner the better. I had not seen Reaper tense up like that sense the war. Then again, even I was tensed. It’s hard to make friends when you spent years shooting at each other. Even worse, when you were the one that nearly killed a man’s father. Or did.
We were stared at everywhere we went. The ravens whispered about us. Open doors and windows were slammed shut and locked when we passed by. Anyone calling attention to their stores shut up as we approached, turned around as if we didn’t exist. Not like we wanted to buy anything from those scaly bastards.
I would rather be in a fight right now than going through this. They kept their distance out of disgust. Wanted nothing to do with any of us. I saw some approach Mjolnir, attempt to pull him to the side and question why he walked with us.
The ardrizi shrugged them off. Gave them no answer. He owed them no explanation.
Reaper actually tried to stop some folk to talk. Ask about the hooded man running amok. He didn’t exist to these ravens. He was outright ignored. He even tried to stop a child in hopes the child could spill any information, but its mother pulled it away.
Every time he was denied, he barely even pouted. He sighed and moved on. Not a clenched fist. Not a stomp. He never even raised his voice. Even when one raven had the balls to spit on him when he tried to say something.
I was not so collected. I gritted my teeth. My hands would have been in my pockets had I any in this damned suit. Instead, I gripped the straps of my vest and bit my tongue. Reaper turned the other cheek every time and kept on smiling.
We eventually found the bar that had been mentioned in the report. Raven officers were still at the scene. The body had been recovered. The area roped off to keep anyone out who should not have been there.
Reaper turned to us, scratching his cheek.
“They won’t talk to us.” He stated.
“What makes you think that?” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“I will talk to them.” Mjolnir said.
“What? Are you sure?” Reaper looked up to him.
“Yes! They will talk with me.” He grinned real big, showing off all his sharp teeth.
Fenris’ head tilted to the side. I got the feeling he was analyzing the ardrizi.
“All right. Find out everything you can.”
Mjolnir headed right for the nearest eldiravan.
I knew I shouldn’t feel the way I did about them, but I was still disgusted by them. Too many years of them being labeled the enemy for a hundred reasons. They drilled it into your head during boot camp. This is your enemy. Now we were trying to work with them. Solve their murders. Befriend them. It made my stomach churn. How could we be allies with these monsters?
The eldiravan were everything we as the Federation stood against. They were military run. When they were born they were trained to fight, to be soldiers. They apparently destroyed their own home world in a territorial feud, and now they were running amok in the galaxy, destroying other planets and everybody who lived on them. They lacked freedom and personality. They were all the same. Hot blooded, war mongering creatures that killed anybody who did not live to their standards. How the hell did they end up joining the Alliance to begin with?
I couldn’t hear what Mjolnir was saying, but it seemed they were having a pleasant conversation. The eldiravan even took him around the scene, though didn’t let him beyond the rope. We watched from afar, kept an eye out in case for whatever reason the suspect happened back by the scene of the crime.
“This place is really pretty. Do all raven outposts look like this?” Sparrow said.
I kept my mouth shut; I had nothing nice to say.
“All the gold and red really makes the white stand out, don’t it? I always hated destroying their places in the war.” Reaper said. “I would much rather admire it. There’s no telling how old any of their designs really are.”
“Aren’t you from Earth, Captain?” Ruby asked.
The Soul Eaters (The Thin Hex Line Book 1) Page 10