Chapter 3
The Elizabeth
The Calypso was roughly 1/50th the size of the Elizabeth, she was massive. There were docking ports fore, aft and in-between. Gaining access wasn’t the problem, it was the nebula; the ionized gasses were mucking up the calypso’s sensors, making it difficult to navigate or scan the Elizabeth for any useful data.
Cal opened up a channel, “Elizabeth this is the Calypso requesting permission to dock.”
Doc was faced the other way so he couldn’t see what Cal was seeing, “Why are you asking permission to dock on a vessel with no crew?”
Cal said, “I am detecting anomalous readings, suggesting that something or someone is alive on board.”
Doc spun around, “People are alive in there?”
Cal showed his usual impatience, “How the hell should I know. It could be interference from the nebula or something on board. I just thought I would knock before bashing the door down. I found a strong reading suggesting that the device is on the bridge. We are going to dock into one of the escape pod ports there. It will give you the highest chance of success.” Cal pointed as he piloted the moon-hopper.
Doc looked at Cal, “Oh you’re coming with me flyboy.”
Cal became very sarcastic, “There could be demon spawn on board.”
Doc crossed his arms, “Thus why you are coming with me, to watch my back.”
Cal grinned behind his jitteriness, “You could always radio me if there’s trouble.”
Doc looked appraisingly, “Think of the stories you’ll be able to tell all those hungry harlots in the Perseus Cluster.”
Cal smiled, “You think they will trade lovin’ for those stories?”
Doc smiled, “Maybe, if you let me teach you how to talk to ladies.”
Cal became serious, “I wouldn’t call that lot lady like.”
Cal’s grin widened like a shark, “Ah hell Doc, I wasn’t gonna let you go in alone anyway. Orders are orders.”
The Calypso was small enough that the ship easily docked into the empty escape port. The sound of docking clamps gripping the Elizabeth could be heard inside, KAT KAT KAT KAT KAT, followed by the decompression of the Calypso PSSSSSSHHOOOO.
Doc looked at the clock counting, it read twenty-two minutes. “We have 30 minutes to get in, and back to the Calypso. We are gonna be using grav boots, so, it’s gonna be slow, but we have enough time. If we are engaged the primary concern is to keep the path to the Calypso open. Copy?”
Cal chambered a round. “Copy.”
Cal and Doc were carrying Mk III assault rifles with class IV ammunition; the ammunition carried everything it needed to fire, including its own oxygen. It was state of the art, and according to Cal, it saved his life on countless occasions. Doc was grateful for Cal’s propensity for violence and would be glad to have him at his back, even if he detested its necessity.
The escape hatch door was already open, so when the door to the Calypso arose, the cones of light shone from their weapons into the corridor, illuminating floating debris hugging the edges of the long passageway that slightly bent to the right out of view of the two would-be plunderers.
Doc stepped out first. As the grav boots grabbed the ceiling, a light on the ankle and toe of the gravity boots went from red to green, the light changing color before and after every step was taken. The lights were not bright, but they created an eerie glow as the debris cascaded off the brave explorers, showering the corridor with long twisting shadows.
As Doc and Cal made their way forward, a floating corpse of a crewman became visible. The skin was cracked and split like a dried desert lakebed, a common and gruesome sight that accompanied explosive decompression. The face caught in mid-scream through the glare of the light kept Doc from looking to close as he attempted to treat the remains with respect, but with his attention on the closed bulkhead, and the corpse constantly bumping into his shoulder, he finally turned to shove her down the corridor. The moment he touched her, a residual memory flashed into Doc’s mind.
Specialist Ashley Casa was dumped out of her rack by an earthquake. Ashley was confused, ships didn’t have earthquakes. The first dumped her on the floor, the second slammed her against the wall, and the third slid her under the bed. The lighting flickered before stabilizing.
The ship-wide intercom squawked, “General Quarters. Security to deck seven. General Quarters, Security to deck seven, followed by a whooping siren before repeating.”
Specialist Ashley Casa had just been reassigned to the bridge team. It was a big promotion, but she hadn’t even set foot on the bridge yet, tomorrow was her first day.
Within moments Ashley Casa had regained her footing and had made her way outside her quarters. As Ashley tried to remember where she was going, people were heading to their assigned stations with practiced, hurried ease. Panic wasn’t something you usually saw on the faces of the crew, and it was comforting to see everyone moving with purpose; it gave Ashley Casa the wits to remember where the bridge was, and she beelined it to a Go-To, which was just down the corridor.
As Specialist Ashley Casa entered the Go-To and began entering the bridge location data an eruption of gunfire and screams could be heard from the direction from whence she came. Just as the Go-To glass tube slid down around her, a man by the name of Daniel Cummings, ghost white in complexion, was running at a full sprint with sheer terror, presumably to the very Go-To station that she occupied.
Daniel’s panicked face smooshed up against the glass tube, “Open up Specialist, I have priority!”
The sheer terror felt by Specialist Ashley Casa caused her to unconsciously shake her head in slow short burst, as she confirmed her location on the keypad superimposed on the glass tube of the Go-To. The confirmation started the customary twenty-second countdown.
Ashley never noticed before, but Daniel had the prettiest blue eyes. It’s funny what you notice, she thought. You see, she didn’t notice the countdown superimposed on the glass or even the gun that Daniel was pointing at her head through the glass. She saw the life in Daniel’s beautiful brilliant blue eyes.
The lights flickered and then they went out altogether. When the red emergency lights kicked on everything stopped: her heart, her breath, the blood in her veins. It all just froze. The lithe shadow creature was twice the height of Daniel, as it stood behind him. Daniel noticed Ashley’s skin turn white as the blood pooled away from her extremities. He didn’t have a chance to turn around: the shadow…thing picked Daniel up like he was an infant, turned him so they faced each other, and they locked gazes. Daniel pissed himself, and then brilliant white light cracked and lined his face and arms, it shined through his clothes. The shadow pulled the light right out of Daniel, devouring it. When it was done, what was left of Daniel was tossed to the ground. Daniels’ body was covered in large hollow crevices where light burst forth from his body, but there was no blood, not a drop. Just a husk that Ashley swore was going to blow away like fine grains of dust.
The slinky shadow stood motionless, except the creatures’ face took on the countenance of Daniel, his eyes, they were Daniels’, until they weren’t. The black bottomless versions locked gazes with Ashley and the shadow uttered in hollow words that sounded like Daniel but somehow very distant, “Don’t let them take you.” The Shadow became faceless once more, looked right through Specialist Ashley Casa, the countdown reached zero and she vanished…but Doc was still seeing the shadow, and the shadow was seeing him, when the hand reached through the glass and grabbed him by the throat, Doc screamed, “AHHHHH!”
“AHHHH!”
“Doc!”, Cal shook Doc by the shoulder, and if it were possible Doc would have slinked away from Cal’s concern, but his grave boots held him in place, so he fell to his rump in a slow zero-G fashion.
Doc let out a scream, as the world came back, “NOOO!”
Cal had never seen the Doc like this, and it was shaking his cool, “Doc! Pull your shit together. We have to get this bulkhead open.”
Doc just sat there eating up his oxygen in quick breaths, but a minute passed and the shadow had not come back to finish the job. Doc slowed his breathing, stood up, and looked Cal in the eyes so he knew the gravity of the situation, “A light-eater was here, and…and I think it might know we’re here.”
Cal didn’t wait for Doc to explain, he grabbed a silver disc that was attached to his suit, placed it on the sealed bulkhead. Sequential lights began blinking along the edge of the disc, coming full circle. The bulkhead door arose, showing a war-torn bridge covered in scorching and scarring in all directions. Bodies like the one in the adjoining hall were floating with grotesque visages of their final moments pasted all over their terrified faces. Empty shell casings were so numerous that when Cal stepped in to clear his side of the bridge, his suit collided with the casings causing them to domino out.
Cal has been in twenty-seven firefights, half of those on space vessels, and half of those at some point became zero-G environments, and never has he seen anything like this.
Cal looked to the Doc, “No relic, and I only see one form of ammo discharged. There doesn’t seem to be a concentrated point of fire, they fired their weapons in every direction, that is not what a firefight supposed to look like.”
Doc moved to the dead consoles attempting to ascertain the last moments before the ship went dark. He pushed the customary buttons that would usually prompt the console to come to life, but like everything else on the bridge, it was dead.
Cal, realizing what Doc was doing spoke up, “Check under that console to the left of the one you just tried; sometimes these old military freighters would put old power supplies under the consoles in case of unexpected power drains.”
Doc looked, stood up, and shook his head.
Cal shrugged, “Ah hell, when have I ever been that lucky?”
Doc continued to search the terminals. “We may not have found the artifact, but we are not leaving here empty-handed. I am going to pull ships logs, maybe Kassy can recover them once we get back to the Nightingale.”
Cal positioned himself so that he could watch Doc’s back. “Hurry up, this place doesn’t add up, and I don’t want to stick around to find out why.”
The Adventures of the Traveling Philosopher 