New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Iago jetted down the corridor that felt longer than it should have.  Any door around him could contain an active hostile, or a civilian.

His system was still not functioning, so his HUD couldn’t give him an active mini-map.

It was the best way to reach his squad’s rally point, and theoretically shouldn’t have enemy present.  But everything was down around him; the lights, the gravity.

That was extremely bad.  It seemed unlikely that the P’G’Maig boarders could have taken down so many systems that the power was fully out.

Where was everyone?  There should be Response Teams all over this area, dealing with the breach.  At least drones.

Things had gone terribly wrong.  He increased his speed.

Keeping his hand to the wall, he felt the ship.  Normally, the Craton hummed.  It was never loud, all steps taken to keep things calm and quiet in most areas.

Despite that, there was always a feel to a ship.  Every spacer grew to know the feel of their ship when things were normal.

But right now there was nothing.  She was as still as a tomb.

He felt a small shudder.  Someone was not far away, perhaps in the room whose door lay just ahead.

If he was feeling it, then they had just fired their thrusters.  The blast had impacted a wall, and . . .

They were alive, and could be a threat.

He placed himself next to the door, guessing as to when it might open.  Perhaps on five or six.

He started counting, and had just reached five when the door opened.

And he rushed the target, shoving his pistol into the crook of his neck, where the armor was thinnest.

“Commander Caraval!” he heard.  It was a male Dessei voice, filtering just barely through the contact of their suits.

He blinked, his finger on the trigger, ready to pull it.  With a great effort, he let go, and leaned in to press his helmet to the other being’s.

“Kessissiin,” he said, panting.  “It’s you.”

The Dessei’s eyes were wide with concern, his crest higher still – at least as high as the confines of his helmet would let it go.

“Sorry,” Iago told him.  “I thought you were a Hev.”

“I had to patch my suit,” Kessissiin told him.  “Took some hits that ripped it, but I’m unhurt, sir.  The detonation of their landing pod caused some disruption to local systems, so I also acquired some replacement radio pieces.”  He offered one to Iago.

He gratefully took it and connected it to his helmet.  His speaker crackled to life.

“Good job,” Iago said to him, now over the radio.  “We should . . . get moving.”

“Yes, hook up with whatever unit we can,” Kessissiin replied.

Iago didn’t echo the sentiment.  At the moment, he was just glad that the first person he’d run into was someone he could trust.

Someone not from the Craton.

“If I were the Hev,” Iago said, “And I had landed there, I think the obvious place to head would be Reactor Two.”

“True,” Kessissiin agreed.  “It’s a prime target.”

Iago unslung the rifle he’d taken, trying not to picture Ackerman’s face.  “Let’s move out.  If we catch them from behind, we can take a few.”

They had no drone defenses left.  It was much more likely they’d be shot down before they could do much.

But they had to try.

Kessissiin clearly knew that.  But he nodded along.  “Yes, sir.  You will know the best path – I will be with you.”

---

Kell had felt it.

Apollonia Nor had awoken something, and that something, however briefly and ephemerally it had been here, had come.

Every part of the ship felt strange to him, but the area Apollonia had been in had turned to a shade of reality he was all-too familiar with – and loathed.

He could travel where he wished; locked doors were nothing to him, the security of the ship was nothing, and he made his way there, straying to the edges of the fabric, until he arrived.

The bodies of the Hev were torn, twisted in ways that could not be achieved with tooth, claw, or human weaponry.  Not even he could have tortured them into the shapes they had become.

Unnatural shapes that stirred within him ancient hate and even, to an extent, horror.

Oh, when he was fully awake, how he hated the force that had done this.

Even if they had done his immediate job for him.

Scurrying animals, using their tricks and technology to confuse and kill each other.  It was all beneath him, their games, and these were not the first of the secret Hev teams he had found and dealt with.

His body flowed like a liquid, over their corpses.  He left behind all the parts that were artificial.  But their bodies, their flesh, was consumed.  Bone, fur, tissue.

They were alien, yes.  But . . . he savored the uniqueness of their matter.  Truly, he’d never had anything like it.

He had known he’d get to eat an alien eventually.  What a pleasant novelty.

When the last of their twisted corpses was consumed, he moved on, into the room they had sought entry into.  The door was still standing, but he moved past it, flowing through the gaps, and into what was beyond.

A creature that he still did not know was dead here, punctured and oozing orange ichor across the floor.  Doctor Arn Logus was in a puddle of his own blood, his wounds covered now with drones that were focused entirely on keeping him stabilized.  Lights flashed on them, some sort of call for help.  Perhaps it would come; he knew that should he even bother to intervene the man would be certain to die.

Logus should be thankful he didn’t try.

More importantly beyond him, was the woman.

Apollonia Nor was unconscious, blood running from her nose, ears, and eyes.  The natural result of what she had unleashed.

But she still lived.  And she was not going to die, not from that.

Something wanted her to live, and he saw suddenly, how the thing, so often asleep, much like most of his mass, subtly twisted the world around itself.

All to protect Apollonia Nor.  And by extension . . . itself.

But like Nor, it was now dormant.  Exhausted into a stupor.

Looking down at her, he wondered.  Would he be doing them all a favor by killing her?

Would it be the greatest gift he could ever give Apollonia Nor, to free her?

---

< Ep 6 Part 49 | Ep 6 Part 51 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Consciousness flooded back to Iago.

He gasped, spat, trying to keep from choking on his own saliva.

He was floating, and flailed for something, anything solid to anchor himself on.  His hands found nothing, and he struggled through the instinctive panic to speak through bleeding lips.

“Three-dimensional map projection,” he told his system.  “Orient me upright.”

He could see lights in his suit, he could hear the air pumps working.  But no visual appeared on his hud, and he reached up, to feel if the face plate was even still there.

It was.  At least that was something.

“Ackerman?  Hernandez?  Anyone there?” he said into his radio.  There was no response.

His higher systems must be out.  It was a strange problem to have, with the heavily-distributed nature of the suit’s computer meaning something should be working as long as the suit was even partially intact.

But it was a situation he’d drilled for.  His breaths loud in his ears, he reached for his manual thruster controls on his side and gave a burst from his shoulders.

He did not know what his orientation was, only that he was floating in a room.  It was dark, so he couldn’t tell one bulkhead from another, but if he got into a gentle spin he might just figure out up and down.

As he rotated, he realized that he’d been perpendicular to the floor, and was now seeing the windows of the Equator ring.  The area they’d taken on to defend.

And they had failed.  Because he saw that the explosion from earlier had not just torn open the protective shutters over the doors and windows, but blasted out the solid blocks of transparent titanium.

Large shards were floating, still carrying momentum.

Out of reflex he felt his body for air holes, for sharp pains, for the sight of spherical droplets of his own blood floating by.

But he felt, he saw, nothing.

“Emergency recording log,” he said, hoping that system was working.  He didn’t get an indicator, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t working.  Their black boxes were quite hardy.

“An explosion has opened the windows of the equator ring.  I’m sorry, but we failed.  Most of my unit are KIA, and I cannot find the rest.  I seem to have no serious injuries and no suit punctures.  Primary systems are all offline.”

The Hev pod was gone, he realized – and it had been the epicenter of the explosion.  It was expected that a pod would explode if its team died – because why not?  It would make it easier on the next wave.

Had they killed the entire boarding party?  That didn’t seem likely, there had been a hell of a lot of Hev, at least forty.  He knew for sure he’d only taken down about three.  His battery likely hadn’t killed any.  So it probably wasn’t that the Hev were gone.

Maybe the pod had malfunctioned and exploded, taking their own party with it.

He couldn’t count on them all being dead, though.  If he’d survived, they might have as well.

He didn’t know where his mag rifle had gone, but he knew his duty wasn’t done.  Groping to his side, he found his sidearm and drew it.

“I do not know if any of the boarding party is still alive.  I will keep this running in case I fall.  I hope it serves someone . . .”

With the artificial gravity out, he’d have to get around with thrusters.  Keeping a close eye on his reserve fuel and reaction mass in case he needed to make an emergency burn towards cover, he headed towards the messiest area.  Tables, chairs, silverware, even plates and dishes, had been thrown by the explosion, towards the walls.

Fuck.  This was Watchito’s, wasn’t it?  Elliot’s favorite restaurant.  They had the best pizza on the Craton.

The place was eerie in the darkness.  Lit only by starlight . . . it should really be almost pitch-black, and he wasn’t sure why he was seeing as much as he was.  There had to be some dim light sources still on, but wherever he looked he could not see them.

A sound came from behind him.  That was impossible, of course, because he wasn’t even touching anything that could carry sound, and it clearly had come from outside of his suit.

With a quick hiss he spun to face behind himself, lifting his sidearm.  A second burst shook him as it arrested his spin.

He saw nothing behind him.  Certainly nothing so close it was touching him.

But he scanned the dark room more carefully.

There!  Was that irregular shape a limb?

It wasn’t moving, so he jetted over.  The size and shape didn’t look Hev, and it was hopefully one of his own team, just unconscious.

As he got closer, he saw that his first thought was correct, but his second was not.

It was Ackerman.  Bloody droplets in perfect spheres were leaking from a dozen punctures through his armor.  It had been pieces of the windows.  Flying at high speeds, even his armor hadn’t stood a chance.

The man’s O2 meter was at zero; his tanks must have gotten voided.

He’d survived for at least a little bit, Iago realized.  He’d grappled onto a metal railing.

A small decompression wouldn’t have sucked people out, but one this big . . . Ackerman must have barely had time to connect himself here.

“Ackerman is KIA,” he said for his black box.  He rotated the man around, finding that his rifle had been slung and hooked.  Taking it off, he tapped in the code to convert it to his system, and slung it.  He’d need it.  If the Hev had succeeded here, it was only a matter of time before another landing party came.  Now he just had to find a way to alert command-

His eyes flickered over Ackerman’s face.  The plate was gone, his face exposed to the bare vacuum.

His eyes were bloodshot, his face swollen, looking like putty.  His mouth was open, tongue dry – all the water on it had boiled away.

But his lips were moving.

It wasn’t just some kind of twitch.  Despite the fact that he could not be alive, despite the fact that dead men did not talk, Len Ackerman was mouthing words.

He seemed to be repeating himself, and Iago tried to make sense of this bizarre death message.

But he couldn’t.  And his eyes were drawn upwards, to the man’s own eyes.  Despite being dry and bloodshot, he saw they were moving.  Widening, as if in terror.

“Ackerman!” he called, pressing his helmet to the man’s.  It wouldn’t help without air to transfer the vibrations, but he did it out of habit.

His eyes were inches from the other man, and they moved – for an instant locking onto his own.

“. . . as terrible . . . time . . .”

Shaking, Iago pushed Ackerman’s body away.  Its safety link kept it from drifting far, but he had to get it away from him.

He jetted back, feeling a surge of nausea, he tried to fight it back.  He failed.  A hose and mouthpiece dropped in front of him, and he bit onto it.  The hose had a gentle suction, taking his vomit away so he didn’t choke.

He focused hard on not breathing in while it worked, and when it was done the mouthpiece retracted.

Breathing hard for a moment, his helmet still smelling horrible, he struggled to regain composure.

He forced himself to go back to Ackerman, he had to confirm what he’d just seen.

And as he put his face nearer the man’s, he saw no movement.  His eyes were not moving, nor his lips.  He was blue.

His heart thudded in his chest.  Panic and adrenaline did things to men, he knew that – him, in this case.  He tried to shake the image of Len’s lips moving from his mind.

He knew he had to find someone from his unit, or another unit.  He had to do his duty . . . even if . . .

Even if he was terrified.

Because he was certain that Len Ackerman had said those words to him.

---

< Ep 6 Part 48 | Ep 6 Part 50 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

The camera view wasn’t a good one, but it showed enough, Apollonia thought.  The Hev were armed to the teeth.

“Did I . . . lead them here?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.

Logus looked at her, and the memory of that old, irrational fear of him rose inside her – but she wasn’t sure what she felt at the moment, not from him.  It wasn’t fear.

The man was smiling reassuringly.  “No, Ms. Nor.  They were headed here already, I’m sure.  An Armory is an important place on a ship, and if they were to set charges in here . . .”

“A lot of vital assets gone,” Squats on Sand said.  “Weapons and munitions we could have used against them.  And the boom it’d make . . .”  His sections all rotated, his tentacles flailing.  “It’s about the most damage they could hope to do to the ship, outside of attacking the bridge, a reactor, or the coilguns.  Yep, we’re an obvious target.”

He focused his eyes on her.  “Why did you come here, though?  I thought you were in a Volunteer unit!”

“I, uh . . . I wasn’t able to make it to my team,” she lied through dry lips.  “And then I got locked out of a bunker and then I remembered you worked here . . .”

“Ah, that’s a pity!  You could be out there in the excitement, but I’m afraid you’re in for a boring time.  They’re not going to break through these doors!” Squats on Sand said confidently.  His tentacles were operating a panel, though, and he seemed to deflate slightly.

“Though . . . I can’t seem to contact any other part of the ship.  I don’t know how they could have interrupted that . . .”

“The Fesha,” Logus said, the thought popping into his mind.  “We believe they were selling arms and equipment to the P’G’Maig.  This might be some of that.”

Squats on Sand was quiet for several long moments.  “In that case, it’s slightly alarming,” he admitted.  Then, quickly, he added; “But don’t worry yourselves too much!”

Apollonia didn’t find it very comforting.

Logus slid up next to her, and she leaned away.

He clearly noticed.  “I’m sorry,” he said.  “I know you don’t like to speak with me, but I have to ask again; are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” she said, not meeting his eyes.

“Why didn’t you meet your Volunteer team?” he asked.  “We saw that you disappeared after leaving your bunker – we feared you were hurt!”

“I . . .”  She was struggling to talk.  “I got scared,” she admitted.

The shame punched her in the gut again, and she pulled her knees up to her chin, burying her head.

Logus said nothing for a long moment.

“That’s very natural,” he told her.

She didn’t raise her head.  “I’m a coward.”

He reached up, slowly, and put a hand on her shoulder.  “You aren’t a coward, Apollonia.  Fear is a perfectly normal and rational response, and . . . you are going through one of the toughest transitions a person can possibly make.”

“That’s easy for you to say.  You aren’t a coward like me.”  She looked up at him, and he saw the tears streaking down her face.  “You really came out to find me, during all this?”

Logus was caught off-guard by the question.  “Ah, yes,” he said.  “I did.  Because it was my duty, and-“

“I failed my duty,” she said.

He swallowed.  “No one knows how they will react when they first face action,” he told her.  “The bravest can turn to cowards, and the meekest turn to killers.  That you found out you could not face the dangers you thought you could . . .  I can no more judge you for it than I can judge anyone else.  But you have learned something about yourself, and in time you will be able to look at it dispassionately, and know yourself better.”

She laughed.  “I know I puke in space suits,” she told him.

He laughed.  “As do I.”

She turned to face him, her eyes meeting his.  “I never hated you, you know.”

“Ah, well that’s good to know-” he began.

“I had a reason for not talking to you.”

“You’ve said before.  But Apollonia, you don’t have to go into it now-“

But she felt like she did.  Her eyes became more intense, and Logus felt the back of his neck tingle.

“I see too much, sometimes,” she said.  “I never thought you were a bad person, but I saw . . . I just knew . . .  If I spoke to you, it would lead me – somehow – down a path I couldn’t go.”

There were many meanings he could take from her words, but something about them chilled him.  Whatever she spoke of, he could see, it terrified her.

“I saw blood and death,” she breathed.  “I saw an ocean of blood, the stars turned crimson with it, and death on a scale that I . . . I can’t even . . .”

She turned away.

And though Logus had met people who were delusional before, people who believed that they were dead historical persons reincarnated, or that they were the only real person in the universe, never before had he believed they spoke the truth.

Until now.

“We have to tell this to the Captain,” he told her softly.  “Do you . . . see this path coming as a result of our talking now?”

“No,” she admitted.  “I don’t know why, but I realized just now when we got in here that I didn’t feel the creeping dread like every other time.  And I . . .  I had to say it while I could.  Just in case-“

Logus had been absently rubbing his neck as she talked, but she was cut off, as He That Squats on Yellow Sand spoke.

His voice, usually so genial in his rumbling way, had taken on a note of perfect calmness and seriousness.

“Get down.”

Apollonia threw herself to the floor, off to the side.  But Logus did not have her reactions; instead of obeying, confusion went over his face, and his eyes went to the screen, to see what the Abmon was speaking of.

There was a terrible sound and things flew through the door.

A weapon of some kind had been discharged, something designed to breach the heaviest armor.  There were multiple projectiles, and they tore through it at critical contact points – through it, and beyond.

Through Logus, and beyond.

The man’s face was still caught in shock as he realized that it was not simply his entire arm gone – but most of his right shoulder.

And jaw.

Apollonia realized she was screaming.

Logus tried to speak, but only a spitting sound came out, and he began to fall away from the wall that his blood had painted red.

“GET HELP!” she was screaming, though she hadn’t even thought about the words.

She looked up, and saw that the door was now starting to fall inward, slowly, the door-breaching weapon having worked perfectly.

But Squats on Sand was rushing as fast as he could to catch it.  His tentacles grabbed the massive slab, and pushed.  His stout legs dug into the deck, claws grinding against metal.

“I’ll hold it!” he roared.

He stopped the door from falling; and began to push it back.

He roared out triumphantly.  “I can hold it!” he shouted.

Apollonia looked down at Logus.  He had fallen into her lap, his eyes gazing at her in shock.

Blood was everywhere.  “Medical drone!” she called out, hoping one of her words would trigger some kind of system.  There had to be a medical drone in here, right?

Right?

“Emergency!” she screamed.

Then the weapon outside fired again.

Despite his armored body, they went through Squats on Sand as easily as they had the door.  Yellowish-orange blood splattered out of him in great gouts.

He still held the door.

They fired again.  Part of Squats on Sand’s main body was blasted off.  But he didn’t drop the door.

But his legs began to give way.

“I’ll . . . hold it . . .” he said, his voice quiet.

A light seemed to fade from his eyes, and he fell.  His body still propped against the door.

She heard pounding on it, the Hev outside now trying to force it the rest of the way.  Though it was tilted inwards now, Squats on Sand’s body still blocked it, still held it.

But they’d force it eventually.  They’d manage to push his body back, or fire their fucking giant weapon until they’d shredded so much of the door that it would break apart.

And then, or perhaps even before then, she’d be dead.  She knew why, now, she hadn’t seen any danger in talking to Logus.

She’d been a coward.  But she didn’t have to die like one, at least.  And now that it was here, she remembered the feeling she’d had on New Vitriol, when she’d felt sure she was going to be executed.

That this was a good thing.  That, for her, it would be an escape from powerlessness, and an evasion of something far more terrible.

She screamed again, curses and slander, every terrible thing she could muster at the P’G’Maig.  They would pay, if not now, then someday.

Some . . . day . . .

The room swam, consciousness not so much slipping as being taken from her by something big, something powerful.

Something that was a part of her.  And she had the realization that they would not pay someday.  They would pay now.

Because something had woken up inside her.

All went red.

---

< Ep 6 Part 47 | Ep 6 Part 49 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Logus felt a stitch in his side as he ran, but he didn’t want to stop.

He’d been searching for Apollonia for, it seemed, twenty minutes.

So far, there had been nothing but dead ends – and he had little to go on.  Despite his degree, he wasn’t a wizard who could predict all facets of human behavior.

Especially for someone who had always refused to talk to him.

Christ, he hoped she wouldn’t pull that now.  What a terrible choice he was for this, yet he had to try, he was the only reasonable choice.

“Show all people who Apollonia Nor has had a conversation lasting more than one minute . . . over the last six months,” he wheezed to his system.

He gave his doctor’s authorization for such a grievous violation of her privacy, and saw a list.  It was surprisingly long, and he had to narrow it.  “Longer than five minutes!” he said.  “Include data from off the ship if possible!  Sort by duration and level of perceived intimacy.”

The system worked a little longer.  Telling it to guess at intimacy level was a shot in the dark, but the system should be able to make a guess, and all he needed was a clue.

The list popped up, and he saw now; after Dr. Y and Captain Brooks . . .  He That Squats on Yellow Sand.

She had a knack for making alien friends, didn’t she?

He tracked down the Abmon, finding that he was, currently in one of the armories.

Which wasn’t far from the bunker Apollonia had left her tablet in.

The system indicated her going there was unlikely; the armory would not, after all, open up to let civilians in.

But that didn’t mean Apollonia wouldn’t try.

His system charted him the fastest route, and he tried to increase his speed.

“Armorer!” he messaged ahead.  “This is Dr. Arn Logus, prepare to open armory doors on my signal!  Override code . . .”  He sent it.

“Acknowledged, Doctor,” the Abmon came back.  “This is a very strange request, though . . .”

“Just be ready to open the bloody doors!” he said.

The hall he was in was a very gentle curve along the inner hull, and he knew it wasn’t much further.  Coming to a junction, he skidded around the corner-

And Apollonia was standing not ten feet away.

She whipped around to look at him, eyes wide, and he let out a gasp of relief.

“Apollonia!” he said.  “Come with me, immediately!”

“What?  What are you doing here?!” she asked.

“I came to find you – we have to get you to the armory-“

“I was heading to the armory,” she said, their words jumbling over each other.  They paused.

“Move,” he said.

“Is that the right way?  I got lost!” she said.

“Yes, it’s right-“

His system blared a warning as they turned into the short, defensible hall that led to the Armory door.  Aside from that feature, it was unmarked to anyone not connected to the Craton’s system.

But something was moving behind them, and it was not a part of the crew.

Shoving Apollonia ahead of himself, he caught the barest glimpse as he moved past the corner.

An enemy drone.

It fired, and he felt something sting on his temple.

“Open doors!” he barked.

Apollonia fell through, and he jumped in.

The door slammed shut just behind him – and he heard the sound of more shots hit the reinforced metal.

He That Squats on Yellow Sand was towering over him, leaning his heavy body over to peer at him on the floor.

“That was close,” the Abmon said.  “Sorry – the doors closed on their own when they sensed the hostile drone.  You’re . . . actually pretty lucky it didn’t get you.  The door or the drone.”

Logus put a hand on the side of his face, feeling the blood.  “I . . .  I think it did,” he said softly.

The Abmon rattled.  “Even I can tell that’s a scratch, Doctor!  You just had a close call!”

He was quickly realizing that Squats on Sand was right.

“Second close call today,” he said, his neck hurting even more now.

“Let’s hope you don’t have a third!” the Abmon replied, tromping up to the door, eyeing it and him and Apollonia all at once.

“Are you okay?” Logus asked Apollonia.  She had moved away, watching him with wide eyes.

She nodded, saying nothing.

“They’re outside,” Squats on Sand said.  “But don’t worry, unless they have something really big, they can’t get through this door.”

A screen turned on, and the Abmon trundled over to it, but it only showed an error text.

“They’re knocking out the cameras,” he grumbled.  “So I guess they’re really going to want in.  Let’s see if . . . ah, they missed one!”

An image appeared.  It showed a group of Hev espatiers and their drones.  They were setting up just outside the doors to the armory.

---

< Ep 6 Part 46 | Ep 6 Part 48 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

“Second boarding party accounted for,” Pirra said over her system.

It hadn’t gone as smoothly as the last, with Squad Two being caught in their pincer as the Hev had pulled back.  The fight had gotten messy, and the boarders scattered.

But none had escaped.

The Hev were in their territory, and even more than their technological edge, this was their biggest advantage.  The ship tracked everything; even if somehow they could avoid sensors, the ship would know if a door was opened or hell – even detect the movements of air where it didn’t think there were beings.

The Craton was a smart ship.

Pirra felt a swell of pride at that thought, and her mind jumped for a moment to Alexander – who she checked again and confirmed was safe deeper in the ship, in one of her many bunkers.  Short of a direct hit by a relativistic projectile, he’d be safe in there . . .

But she couldn’t spend more time on him now.  Not only because of the more important work, but because she couldn’t let her guard down.

“We have two down,” Kiseleva told her.  “Lal is injured, and Suarez is KIA.”

Pirra took a deep breath.  “Is Mwanajuma looking at Lal?”

“Yes,” Kiseleva said flatly.

“And how about you?” Pirra asked, noticing the human woman’s limp.

“I am fine.  There is no blood, is just minor sprain,” she replied.

Pirra was not convinced, and checking the woman’s vital signs, she saw that the woman’s suit was administering some decently strong painkillers to keep her going.  But nothing seemed broken or bleeding, so that was good.

“Go to Squad Three.  Send Zivai and Guoming to reinforce squad two.  Come back with Hesson.  If you still think you can fight then, you can stay.”

Kiseleva frowned severely, but nodded.

She looked to the rest of her squad.  “Najafi, LaMarr, you’re with me.  We’ve got another Hev boarding team on the scopes, and-“

A boom shook the ship.

“What the hell was that?!” LaMarr asked.

Pirra’s system flooded with new data.  “Looks like a Hev boarding pod just detonated.  On the Equator Ring . . . damn, it’s done a number on the local systems.”  She shook her head.  “We can’t account for the whole group.  We need to go check it out – make sure none of the boarders are still alive.”

They were currently holding a crossroads from the outer parts of the ship to the inner, where they’d ambushed the last Hev group.  Pirra made a chopping motion down the hall.  “Open this blast door, we can meet-“

The door began to open, too quickly, she thought.

Even before it was open more than a crack, her drones began to fire.  She hadn’t even registered what she was seeing, when a muzzle flash blinded her.

Stumbling back, she had caught only a glimpse of the Hev’s weapon as it lifted – and suddenly she was thrown back.

Shots were going off above her, and she heard voices calling out over the radio, drones whizzing by above her.

Above her?  She realized she was on her back, and moving – someone was pulling her.

Tilting her head back, she saw that it was Kiseleva, dragging her away.  Others rushed past on the flanks, firing.  Second and third squads had arrived to reinforce them.

The firefight was intense, but brief.  In only a handful of seconds, the fire stopped, and she looked back towards the now-open blast doors, seeing an entire unit of Hev on the ground.  All of her team was still standing.

“I’m all right!” she said, before she was even sure she was.  If her armor hadn’t held, she’d be dead.

Her faceplate was cracked, she could see it now.

Kiseleva stopped and looked down at her face.  “You look in one piece.”

“I think I’m fine,” she said.  “Thank the sky for armor . . .  Is anyone else hurt?”

“No,” she heard Jack Lal call.  He had bandages on his upper arm, but seemed all right.  “The one that shot you was the only one who got a shot off.  I think something was distracting them.”

“You were very lucky,” Kiseleva said to her.  “The officer only had a pistol.  If he’d had a rifle . . .”

“It was just a pistol?  It looked . . . a lot bigger than that,” Pirra said.

“I imagine so, when you’re staring down it.”

Pirra got to her feet, a little shaky, but forcing herself not to show it.  She could have nightmares later.  Right now she needed to focus.

“We didn’t know about this squad,” she realized.

Hesson leaned out of a room.  “They were using cutting frames to go through the walls and avoid chokepoints,” he said.  “Still, the ship’s systems should have known about them and been tracking them . . .”

Pirra’s stomach twisted.  She turned on her radio.  “Commander Pirra to all commands; some Hev are evading the ship’s tracking through means we’re not yet sure of.  Have everyone keep their eyes open.”

Kai Yong Fan’s voice came back to her.  “We read you, Commander.  Be advised that Hev bodies may be rigged with biological or chemical weapons that activate on death.”

Her eyes widened.  “Everyone back out of the corridor!” she called.  “The Hev-“

“Shit, I’m getting the warning!” someone called.  “Some kind of poison cocktail.  Shouldn’t be an issue unless your suit is compromised, though-“

Pirra snapped her gaze to Lal.  His eyes had gone wide.

Then hers fixed onto the cracks in her own helmet.

“Move!” she barked.

They moved, and she ran a diagnostic over herself.  Her vitals were elevated, and her system began to figure out what the hell the chemical compound was.

“Jack, are you okay?” she asked.

The man coughed.  “I think I got a whiff of something, Commander, but-”  He lurched, and began to spasm.

“We need a med unit down here,” she barked.  “Anti-tox team!”

Kiseleva put a hand on her shoulder.

“It won’t affect you,” she said calmly.  “It’s designed for humans.”

Pirra’s eyes went back to Lal, who was foaming at the mouth.  Med drones were hovering around him, and two heavier ones lifted him.

His vitals were dropping fast.

A drone was checking her, and she saw the confirmation of what Kiseleva was saying appear.  The compound had been identified, and while it was toxic to her kind in large doses, in small amounts like she’d gotten her body would detoxify it in a few hours.

Pirra watched for only a moment before tearing her eyes away.

“We have a job to do still,” she said, her voice hoarse.  “Spread out the drones to search for stealth Hev teams.  I don’t want a single one of them getting past us.  And get me a replacement helmet.”

---

< Ep 6 Part 44 | Ep 6 Part 46 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

Logus felt like his neck still wasn’t quite right.

He was lucky, really, that he got to be in one of the many safety bunkers on the ship, rather than having to be out there.  And lucky that Dr. Y had given him something for the pain, after telling him to avoid strenuous neck activity and to try and sit.  But he hadn’t told him the nature of his injury, and that concerned him.

Kell had saved his life, and he wasn’t going to complain about that, but the acceleration he’d experienced when the being grabbed and pulled him had been comparable to a low-altitude flying accident.  He was, if he was being honest, lucky it hadn’t killed him.

He wondered if Kell had known that.  He felt very confident that the being had killed enough over its long life to know just the amount of force it could apply without killing a man.

But he hadn’t helped Decinus.  Perhaps he’d calculated he couldn’t have pulled him over without killing him.  Or perhaps he just hadn’t cared.

Because it certainly seemed Kell had cared very little about the man’s life.  So perhaps, he reasoned, the Shoggoth simply had something of an attachment to him and Brooks – and the latter more strongly, given that Kell mostly avoided him.

Maybe their psychologies were understandable, with enough observation, he thought.  It was a naive thought, he knew, even as he had it – but this was how he dealt with stress.

The sounds of another impact made some of the other people sheltering in the bunker scream.  For a ship the size of a Craton, to feel such an impact meant it had to be close – or very, very large.

“It’s all right, it’s all right,” Zeela Cann said loudly.  “Just a thump – if it were something bad the bunker would get ejected, and that certainly hasn’t happened.”

Her words seemed to have some effect, with a few people nodding, seeing the logic in them.

Logus was glad that he was not the only person of rank in here.  Every bunker on the ship had several designated Morale Officers, working to keep hope up and panic down.  He would have been one, but a backup had had to take his spot in another bunker, since this was the closest one to him when the alarm went out.  And there was no way in hell anyone wanted to be caught outside if something serious happened to the ship – or a firefight got near.

He shuddered, thinking of the injuries he’d seen in medical school of people caught in espatier fights.  Shredded was the word he’d use – the tiny, flying pieces of shattered bullets could be stopped by good armor, but against clothing and skin?  It wasn’t pretty.

He shuddered, and another pain wracked him.  It was good he wasn’t being morale officer, he didn’t think he could possibly have been convincing right now . . .

He wished his neck would stop hurting.

The dull ache in it felt unlike any injury he’d had before.  On some level, he had a feeling it was serious.

He’d never been seriously injured before.  Never even had surgery, beyond the basic implants and such that everyone got.

Next to him, Elliot, Iago Caraval’s son, huddled closer.  No one in here was fully panicked yet, and he certainly hoped it didn’t happen.  These bunkers were fully capable of tranquilizing them all if emotions got out of hand . . .

It helped, though, that they had one of the Space Hounds in here.  The dog was moving between individuals who seemed most frightened, and would sit stoically beside them.  People hugged or petted it, and it helped.  And the Station Terrier, Angel, was snuggled in Elliot’s arms.

“Do you think my dad is okay?” Elliot asked him, petting the dog, who seemed almost to be falling asleep.

“I think he is,” he told the boy.  “He’s not supposed to be anywhere near the action, you know.  And he’s got a lot of experience.  I’m sure he’s out there saving lives right now.”

The boy nodded, and then clammed up, just looking down at Angel.

Elliot had said very little.  He was the only child in this bunker – or on the ship right now.

He shouldn’t be here.  Iago should have left him in the Sol System, and the question of just why he hadn’t was burning in his mind.

Something was wrong there.

The ship shuddered again, and he looked up.  Elliot looked up with him, but there was a peculiar lack of fear in him that was disturbing.  Like the boy was already past that.  Even his earlier question had been . . . monotone.

“Dr. Logus,” he heard Zeela Cann call.

He looked up, and saw the woman was beckoning him over.

“I’ll be right back,” he told Elliot.

The boy nodded flatly.

“What is it?” he asked Cann as he got closer.  The Space Hound also came over, listening.

“Apollonia Nor is missing,” she told him without preamble.  “She was a volunteer, but never showed up to her assigned team.  She still hasn’t reported in to them, and left her tablet in a bunker, but hasn’t been located in any other since, or at a medical center.  Without her having her tablet on her, we cannot track her.”
That was serious, and his mind raced to find a proper response.

“Is anyone else unaccounted for?” he asked.

Cann pursed her lips.  “Ambassador Kell disappeared not long after Apollonia did.”

Another one, just as important, if not more so.  Had someone else been dispatched to find him?  Though if the Shoggoth did not want to be found, he had a feeling that no one would ever find him.  They would have to focus on who they potentially could locate.

“Try dispatching drones to some of the likely places she would go,” Logus suggested.

“I tried that,” Zeela replied.  “But right now, I’m not exactly swimming in resources, and she’s been here such a short time, with no system history, that nothing panned out.  Literally just stabs in the dark.”

“Help search?” the Space Hound, Apollo, asked.

“No, you had best stay here, you sweet boy,” Zeela told the hound, forcing a smile.  The dog cocked its head to the side, surprised.  “Unless you know her scent?” she asked.

“No,” the hound replied.

Logus wracked his mind.  “The ship should still be able to track her by doors opening, or air movement-“

“In a battle, Dr. Logus, those systems are not reliable,” Zeela said, her words alarmingly calm and knowing.  “All I can tell you for sure is that it does not seem that any of the movement out there is her.  If she is out there, she is in an area that is blacked out, outside a bunker.  Or . . . she is not moving.”

He realized just what Zeela was getting at.

And he should have realized it sooner.

This bunker had two officers in it, and they needed to find Apollonia.  She was more important than the two of them combined.  And he – at least theoretically – might have better odds of figuring out where she might have gone, if she was hiding.

Zeela didn’t want to have to give him the order, Logus thought.  And he wouldn’t make her.

“I’ll go search for her,” he said.

He saw the regret etched onto her face, how much she hated putting him into this position.

“And I’ll sit with Elliot,” she said gently.

Taking a deep breath, Logus moved to the door, overriding it.

“Don’t worry everyone,” he said, as eyes went upon him.  “Just going for a bit of a stroll.”

---

< Ep 6 Part 42 | Ep 6 Part 44 >

New to Other-Terrestrial? Check here! Or if you need to, jump to the beginning of the episode here!

---

“HOSTILE BOARDING PARTIES DETECTED!”

The words were louder even than the blaring sirens, as Iago rushed towards the armory.

His team was not meant for combat, he knew.  But they could fight – and the breaching pod had smashed into the ship near their area of operation.

Two of his people had been killed.

As soon as word had come that pods were inbound, he’d given orders to pull his team out.  But Conrad and Pavlov had been too slow, dragging between them an injured crewman.

It had been brave to try and save him.  But it had cost them their lives.

And now he was seeing red.

They had no weapons, but an armory was near, and as he reached it, he saw it was locked.  He sent his command codes – and the door did not open.

He looked at his system – the room was empty.  There was no Armorer.

“Blast your eyes!” he yelled.  “Who the hell abandons their post!?”  He pounded on the door, all his confusion, anxiety, and fear pouring into his words.

“I’m here!” he heard a rumbling voice, and turned back to see a large Abmon trundling as fast as it could.  “I’m sorry, I was helping another team-“

“Just open the fiscing doors!” Iago screamed at him.  “We have enemy espatiers boarding!”

The Abmon got the doors open, and Iago rushed in.  He tried his codes, but found that they’d been shut down, and had to wait as the Abmon unlocked the weapons safes.

Kessissiin was right behind him, and Iago tossed him a rifle.  “Pass these out to the rest of the team!”

His comm blasted in his ear.

“We have contact with enemy boarders,” the voice said.  It was Pirra.

---

Her breathing was so loud in her ears.

She was only aware of it in moments when she was not yelling orders or the fire was not so loud, but there was never a moment of silence.

Chemicals pumped through her veins, putting her in a state more heightened than even adrenaline in a human.  Her heart rate per minute was almost 250, high for her kind but not so high she was in danger.

It was to be expected in combat.

And she could think icily clearly.

All ordinary thoughts were gone; as alien to her as any being from another planet.

She just commanded, because that was her job.

“Fire team two left!” she barked, her throat hurting from the shouting – not even necessary through helmets connected by radio, but it was automatic.

The Hev were driving straight for Reactor Five, counting on speed to succeed.  But their moves were obvious, the goal predictable, and both her own mind and the tactical simulators did not see any significant likelihood of them altering that.

Her Fire Team One would block them.  Fire Team Two would come around from behind them.

Pincer, destroy, move on.  Fire Team Three was in reserve.

Alarms rose from her drone cloud ahead of her; contact.

It was not even combat yet, at the smallest level their drone squad were essentially just floating sensors, no intelligence or ability to fight.  They encountered the Hev advance drones seconds later.

Technologically, the P’G’Maig were so far behind them.  The had simple and crude firearms, their drones large and clunky in comparison.

But at close range a bullet could still hit a lucky spot and kill any one of them.

The firing drone lines engaged; hers fired first, quicker to get target lock.  Their drones firing back.  This was their assault wave, ready to burst through a defensive line and clear a path.  For each shot of her drones, they fired seven.  Yet hers outnumbered theirs.

They still managed to force the first wave, but it cost them valuable ammo.  Her side had more, and if they could bring it to bear, then the Hev would lose.

At least with this wave.  If there was a second, a twentieth, a two hundredth, then eventually they’d fire every single bullet on the Craton, every potential bullet would have been made, and they’d lose.

No time to think on that, and she shoved the thought aside.

“Contact!” Kiseleva yelled.  The Hev had come around a corner, firing.

Bullets were intercepted by guardian drones, their own shots intercepting those that would have killed her.  A veritable wall of fire from each side met, grinding against each other.

Small bits of shrapnel from shattered bullets pinged off her armor.  A dusting of it began to cover the walls and floor.

No one needed the order to fire.  They already were.

Her rifle was in her shoulder without a thought and she was aiming, firing.  Where the Hev drones were focused on offense, their Guardian drones were few in number.  After her first couple bursts were intercepted, she saw her next punch through the armor of the opposing squad leader, and he slumped to the floor without drama.

She took fresh aim and fired.  Another Hev, this one recklessly charging, took it and fell forward.  The third took several bursts to stop.  Others fell.

She heard “I’m hit!” from her team, but she was the point of the lance of battle and the medic drones were already indicating they were moving in.

She kept firing.  A round somehow got through her guardian fire and pinged her shoulder, but she shrugged it off.

More Hev fell.  Fire Team Two was taking them out from behind, as planned.

In a few moments her sensors were blaring an all-clear.

“Hold fire!” she ordered, raising a hand.

Her breathing was so loud in her helmet.

“Confirmed Hev vanguard down in Layer 1, Section 5,” she signalled to command.  It was acknowledged, and she received further orders.

“Regroup,” she said.  “Fire Team Two, advance to Hev breaching pod to disable and disarm.”

It was expected that when the drop pod detected all its soldiers as being down it would detonate.  It was what she would expect, at least.  Not only was it some consolation, but would rip a larger gash into the hull that further waves of boarders could exploit.

Right now she knew the Craton’s powerful computer system had probably breached their security and was mimicking that their espatiers were still alive.

Fire Team Two acknowledged and moved closer.  She gathered her fire team and moved forward, sending Team Three instructions of where to go for support.

---

< Ep 6 Part 41 | Ep 6 Part 43 >