A Rise In Ranks

Article 1.0
Article 1.01
Article 1.02
Article 1.03
Article 1.04

Article 1.0

 The day, simply put, started out interesting.

My orders were clear and simple enough, though it didn't make sense that they were given directly from the head of security himself. I didn't even work security.

I walked down the corridor as it slightly curved to the left, winding through the lower decks of the ship for, what seemed like, forever. I had just passed a small deep blue engraving on the wall to the right of me that read Blue-52. I mentally rolled my eyes with a slight hint of disgust. I was destined for Orange-52. The same floor obviously, only near a mile down the corridor.

These low level floors were mainly utility access. Not much for crew was seen down here. An engineer here, a technician there, like myself. Well, not like myself. Not today. I just couldn't get it out of my mind. Why was the head of security giving me this task?

I daydreamed to myself of the days training on the Armarantis academy vessel. They had horizontal lifts there. You could be from one end of the three mile long ship to the other in a matter of seconds. Not here of course. Here, it was just a long walk. Sure, it wasn't bad, but you do this every day and it gets to be a tad tedious.

The lights dimmed as I drew closer to my destination. Full power lighting wasn't needed so far back in the ship. Rarely do mechanics like us even make it back this far. Soon I came into view of another technician coming my way, obviously just finishing up some "cave" work herself. As she walked by I turned my head slightly and gave her a warm smile. She smiled back, with the slightest of effort, obviously not too interested in the likes of me.

After another hundred feet or so I made it to Orange-52. Only a few feet beyond this I reach a flat bend in the corridor which contained a lightly outlined access panel, no larger than a few feet square. The upper right corner of the panel contained a small, barely readable engraving, displaying the numbers 5572-682.

I reached down to my waist which wore a small grayish colored utility belt. To the right was a small flat communications pad and to the left side was a P-88 "Pea Shooter". We were all required to carry these, for, what they called, security reasons. That of course, was fine by me, as I considered it a rather nice perk of working for this place.

Reaching to the right, I tugged lightly on the communications pad, removing it from it's magnetic strip. Grasping it firmly, I lifted it to my lips, cleared my throat and spoke into it.

"Tech. Control, C212 here. Request release on 5572-682."

Within only a few moments the box replied with a grainy and very masculine voice. "C212, request 5572-682. One moment please."

I waited a few moments in front of the panel before it gave out a quiet "du du deet" sound. Another few moments I waited before it did something rather unexpected. A quiet gaseous sound could be heard for a moment before the panel suddenly blew open and flew straight back, striking me in the chest and face rather forcefully, regardless of its rather light weight structure. It and myself flew backwards several feed and struck the wall behind me.

The panel slid down my legs and fell sideways, and onto the floor next to me. I couldn't breathe.

I sat, for what seemed like minutes. Air only seemed to want to go out, and not in.

I've had the wind knocked out of me before, and this was no different. But no mater how many times it happens, it always feels like you're not going to be able to breath again. It's a horrible experience.

Finally a light gasp of air filled my lungs, and soon I could breathe again. I could feel my face, red in color. Still catching my breath, I slowly got onto my hands and knees, and finally stood up.

I took in a deep breath and lifted the communications pad to my mouth.

"Tech. Control, C212. What the hell was that?!"

"C212, come again."

"Tech. Control, what's wrong with panel..."

I leaned over and glanced at the panel laying on the floor.

"...5572-682?".

"C212, Panel 5572-682 has been released, everything is A-OK on our end."

I didn't respond.

I lowered the communications panel as it magnetically clamped itself to the belt. Looking up towards the now square hole in the wall, I noticed small wisps of smoke rolling from inside. I walked next to it, stuck my head in and peered around briefly. The smell of burnt electronics over powered my senses.

I took a step back from the wall and again grasped my communications pad.

"Tech. Control, C212."

"C212, go ahead."

"Tech. Control, board 5572-682 is fried. I'll need you to cut the power so I might replace some circ..."

I cut myself off as a sudden clicking sound emanated from within the wall.

"Tech. Control, are there any mechanics in 5572-682?"

"C212, negative. That board is mainly power regulation circuits."

"Are you sure?"

I didn't receive a response.

While contemplating the puzzlement my face must have shown, another click emanated from within the wall. I thought to myself, they must have it wrong.

I shrugged it off and took another look inside the wall. An eerie blue light illuminated most of the electronics in the vicinity. To my right hung various high powered cables. Not even I knew the power they transmitted. Straight forward hung more power cables, as well as several control switches and circuit boards. I began examining the boards over more closely when I heard a clicking sound again. This time it was different. It didn't sound, quite metallic. This was more...vocal. It came feet from the left of my head.

I cocked my head to the left and found myself staring into the small, pebble like eyes of a small, barbed and brown colored creature. It's jaw was fastened sideways and snapped together rapidly, creating the clicking sounds I heard all too clearly now.

I barely let out a scream before I sprung my head back suddenly, hitting it rather firmly on the top of the access hole. A yelped again, my mind torn between the sudden pain of my head and this...thing...inside the wall.

Before I managed to get out, it flung itself at me. Landing onto my face, it dug its barbed four legged structure into my skin. I screamed and pulled my head from within the hole in the wall.

I only took a few steps before I panicked and ripped the creature from my face. It cut into my skin as I wrenched it from my head.

Grasping it with two hands now, I threw it against the adjacent wall. Making two distinct thudding sounds, it smashed into the wall, then onto the floor. The small, rounded, four legged creature flailed wildly on its back, much like that of a small beetle trying to regain its stance.

It only took moments before it found itself on its feet again, far long before I even had time to think.

It ran at me, and it did so with incredible speed.

Being only a few feet away, it reached me in less than a moment. I had nothing else of a plan, and kicked it, and I kicked it hard. The small fleshy creature flew down the corridor, hit the wall, bouncing of it and sliding down the corridor some more, around the bend, and out of site.

Instinctively now, I reached to my left side and detached my fully charged P-88 "Pea Shooter" from its magnetic strip and held it with both hands. I pulled down a lever attached to the butt of the gun as it gave out a short whining sound, charging the capacitor.

I stood still, as I heard tiny feet scamper down the corridor, towards me. Within moments I had view of the determined creature. I took quick aim, and fired.

A bright blue streamed bolt of crackling electricity expelled itself from the tiny barrel of my handgun. With faster than bullet speeds, the bolt flew towards the creature, narrowly missing it. The bolt slammed into the floor of the passage and shot blue and red balls of sparks into the air as my gun began to let out its whine.

In moments I fired again.

Another miss, as more sparks flew into the air, some falling in front of the creature, who seemed to ignore the bright flashes of light.

My gun whining again, I bit my lower lip and let out something of a word which was rather unholy.

I took steady aim, the creature now directly in front of me, and fired.

The stream of electricity rained down on the creature and struck it with incredible force. Conducted electricity traveled through the creature and into the floor of the passageway. One noticeable spark made its way to the open panel to the right, blowing out its components.

A barely audible squeak emanated from the creature, just before it was blown to various bits of blood and skin, scattering itself across the corridor.

Article 1.01

I held my weapon, pointed towards the bloody mess for several moments, as if it could get up again. My heart pounded like it was trying to break free from my chest somehow.

Suddenly though, I somehow forced myself into a calm state of mind once again. I smirked and holstered my weapon against the magnetic strip, holding it in its place against my belt. My ears twitched as I suddenly noticed the alarms going off around me. I could hear someone's voice emanating from my utility belt. I reached down and detached my communications pad.

"Y-Yes?"

The panel replied immediately.

"Yes? What do you mean by, Yes? What the hell is going on down there?"

I paused for a moment before responding.

"Situation's under control."

"What situation? We have arms fire in your sector. And what happened to the panel you were assigned to? We detected some kind of electrical surge. Are you alright?"

I blinked sarcastically. "Sure."

I opened my mouth to add a few words of course, though, I was cut short as a drop of blood fell from my face and onto the communications pad. I touched two fingers to part of my face, a part that seemed to tingle a bit as first. It burned, horribly. I found my fingers suddenly wet with blood.

"Sir, I'm going to need a doctor."

"Stay put. We're on the way."

The thoughts `occupational hazard' came to mind as I smirked. I stood still and simply turned, to my left, then my right. I really did finish that thing off. A messy stain painted the floor while droplets of green, stuff, were splattered here and there. I also began to notice the smell of burnt flesh. At least, that is what I think it was.

Within minutes the medical team arrived. There were three, a doctor and two nurses apparently. The two nurses felt it was necessary to carry me on a stretcher, which I didn't really mind all too much. What bothered me though, was how little concerned the doctor was for me, and rather, seemed more concerned for the mess on the floor. I gave him a feint frown before being carried off on the stretcher. I was thinking to myself that I must have looked worse than I feel, at least, I hoped so.

I must have passed out. I woke up in a medical room. The walls were bright here, painted pure white, with only various pieces of medical equipment to stand out from the walls plain surface. My face felt constricted, yet numb. I raised a hand to touch my face and felt two small metal plates covering my forehead with one, and my cheeks and chin with the other. Out of the corner of my eye I could see a small, steady blinking light on one of the plates, obviously some sort of medical read out. I sat up from the bed I was lying on and threw off the medical blanket which covered me. The room was empty.

I reached at the metal plate on my chin and tugged at it. It fell off and onto the floor, clanking several times before coming to rest. I dragged two fingers across my cheeks. I didn't feel anything but smooth skin.

Another light tug removed the plate from my forehead. I held it in my hand while looking it over. The front side of it showed a small display, nothing but various graphical lines and some insignificant numbers. The back side was more oddly interesting though. It seemed to be slowly excreting some sort of jelly, obviously something to help the healing.

I set the plate down, leaped out of bed, and nearly fell over. I felt terribly dizzy. After leaning against the bed for some moments, gathering strength, I glanced around the room once again. Set into the adjacent wall was a small video screen, turned off and defaulted to almost black in color. I approached the black, glossy screen and gazed into it. I looked over my reflection and had some difficulty finding the cuts that once bled from my face. Little was seen now. Only four light scratches remained. Two near my temples, and two others, one on each cheek.

I turned around and spotted the door. I didn't care too much of anything at the moment, except maybe getting to my room for some badly needed sick leave. I only managed a couple of steps however, as I bumped into a small table supporting a glass case. Inside it held something I'd rather not see. It was one of the creatures legs. Nearly a foot and a half long, it laid there, surprisingly intact. Barbs covered the back of the leg and grew towards the end, where a deadly looking hook formed. That must have been what I had the pleasure of feeling for myself.

I smirked and left the medical bay.

As I walked down the hallway, various thoughts rummaged their way through my mind. Why was I suddenly taking orders from a security officer? Did he know of the creature before I had encountered it? How long had I been unconscious?

Do I get over-time for this?

I laughed to my self as I made my way towards, not my room, but the hydroponics.

A long walk, of course, before I made it to a large set of double doors with the inscription "Hydroponics Twenty Six." written boldly across them. I stepped through the sliding doors and found myself in the hydroponics science room. This immensely large room contained various tables, counters and cupboards, containing all kinds of strange yet interesting scientific instruments. I walked straight through this room and through another set of double doors.

The doors slid open as I found myself standing in the hydroponics' garden. Words can not describe this place. One can imagine it being something like the bio domes back on Earth. Only here, the gardens were riddled with plants that Earth couldn't even begin to support. An authentic cobble stone pathway lead through the gardens, plants overhanging the pathway as if reaching for the adjacent side.

To my left grew a group of flowers called Roses of Tyran. They didn't look anything like roses. More like, purple and red, overgrown daisies. To my right grew a very different set of flowers. I didn't remember the name but I had wished I did. They looked something like tulips I suppose, only very large and almost glossy black in color. Four inch thorns riddled the stems of the flowers, some with thorns growing from larger thorns, creating a web like matrix of potential pain, and poison as well, from what I can remember.

My eyes wandered over the various plants for a short while before I found myself standing before the most rare and beautiful flower of them all, Alexandra. She was standing, slightly leaned over. She tended and pruned to some Gulisis vines as she spotted me in the corner of her eye. She stood up right and brushed off her hands. I grinned and gave a sarcastic excuse.

"I umm, I think I'm lost."

She simply giggled and took a step towards me to say hello, but before more than that, the floor beneath us rumbled and shook. Both her and I nearly lost our balance as the entire ship quaked beneath us. We gave each other a concerned look just before a tall burly man dressed in a clean cut dark blue uniform ran in through the hydroponics' doors.

Suddenly stopping in his tracks he looked up to the two of us, panting as he spoke.

"The two of you are to come down to the captains briefing room, now."

There was fear and concern in the way he looked and talked.

Without another moment to loose, he turned about and began to head for the doors, but again, spun around, this time directing his vision towards me alone.

"Oh, and Todd, say goodbye to your tech career."

Oddly enough, he was grinning as he nodded.

"Welcome to the team."

Alexandra and I simply glanced at each other puzzlingly as the uniformed man dashed through the door, and out of sight.  

Article 1.02

I stepped into the doorway of the captains briefing room, and was welcomed by the on looking faces of nearly thirty or so men and women. I didn't move and only stood in the doorway for what seemed like minutes, murmurs arising from my, all too watchful audience. I would have even made more of a fool of myself if it wasn't for Alexandra only steps behind me who decided to give me a firm shove, forcing me to stumble into the room awkwardly. I was off to a good start.

A deep calm but intimidating voice boomed from the almost empty side of the room.

"Please, have yourself a seat."

My head snapped towards the voice. It was captain of the ship, Steward Crychoff. A somewhat tall man, even as he sat, leaned forward in his dark tan chair, its backrest still managing to reach up to the back of his head. His arms were rested on their elbows which sat upon the edge on an elongated glass table, of which half the rooms inhabitance sat around. The look upon his face was expressionless, but even so you could detect the seriousness in his eyes. He gazed upon me, waiting for my compliance as Alexandra had already worked a path around me and found a seat among the others, some place near the opposite end of the table.

I glanced around quickly for a moment and found a placing towards one middle side of the table. I sat down slowly and rested my folded hands upon the glass.

Crychoff slowly leaned backwards in his chair and began to speak.

"Now that everyone seems to be present, I see no sense in delaying this meeting any longer."

Crychoff lowered his hands to the armrests of his char and pushed himself upwards and away from his chair. The man towered before us all as he crossed his arms and began to pace back and fourth across half of the room.

"Here in this very room, are the men and woman that I have chosen in which, I feel, can best handle situations of such a nature in which others can not. We have here, the best in science, the best in diplomacy, relations and communications, my best tactical officers, my best pilots, and even better doctors of medicine. All of you have proven and exceeded your duties among this ship and I praise you for that with all that is true. However, right now, none of that means shit.:

The captain, still pacing, paused for a moment with his back turned to the crew before pivoting in his foot somewhat quickly and facing the crew.

"What we have here is a situation people."

I raised an eyebrow to him from back at my side of the table just before his stern eyes glanced back over in my direction.

"I'll be sure not to do that again any time soon", is all I thought to myself.

Crychoff shifted his stare to another seemingly tall man which sat almost straightly adjacent from where I sat. The man stood up abruptly and made his way across the room to stand before the captain. They both nodded simultaneously as the captain muttered,

"Allen..."

Allen returned the mutter.

"Right..."

He then nodded a second time before walking to a blank monitor set into the wall behind him.

"Six days ago we arrived near the edge of the Rolix Nebula. Command sent us orders to go ahead and scan for any ionized radio signatures."

Allen tapped a few buttons next to the monitor as it began to come alive. The screen filled with a green dotted square grid with the middle of the screen filled with a bright blue and green cloud of particles with a crude diagram of the ship laying stationary just outside of it.

"For those of you not familiar with the field, ionized radio signatures occur when you have radio transmissions which pass through a nebula. Since, as you all know, magnetism is the basis of radio waves, this magnetism can ionize nebula particles, particularly ones which lie on the outer rims of the nebula. When conditions are right, these ionized particles will remain as a radio signature, and given the fact of how enormous nebulas can be, it has been recently made possible through advanced sensory techniques to accurately detect those signatures without de-ionizing the particles..."

Suddenly the Captain coughed loudly.

Allen continued with,

"To make a long story short, we are able to scan the Nebula for recorded radio wave transitions."

A mans voice blurred out from somewhere in the back of the room.

"With all due respect sir, I'm familiar with the theory and all, but what's the point? I mean, there has been supposed alien signals being received for decades. Hell, we don't know what they mean, and probably never will."

Allen grinned.

"Indeed, but, what if we could trace them, straight to their origin even?"

The vocal man in the back leaned forward, most of the eyes in the room on him.

"Not possible. After everything a signal passes in space travel, you just can't trace it. Once, I heard they traced an alien signal that they thought came from some guys toilet."

Allen answered politely with,

"Ah, but consider this. With a nebula, it is quite different. Granted, there is some interference, there isn't a lot. You rarely find things orbiting a nebula. However, even more so is the fact that because of the nature of ionized radio signatures, they practically draw us a detectable straight line to the origin of the signal."

After this, the vocal man in the back of the room leaned back into his chair, an almost confused look on his face.

Allen, again, began to speak. As he did so however, he turned to his side to tap another sequence of buttons near the monitor.

The picture of the ship in the monitor suddenly grew a group of blinking lines, emanating into the nebula.

"It took a three day survey of the nebula before we began the experimental scans, looking for the desired signature readings on the fourth day. We had success within only a few hours. Unfortunately, this is when things start to get rather interesting."

Allen quickly tapped a button near the monitor.

A small diagram showed in one corner of the screen. It was difficult to make out until Allen pressed another button, enlarging the image to fill the entire screen. The detailed image shown before the crew was all too familiar to me now. Even though the medical bay took care and healed the wounds, I could still feel where its claws had torn their way against the side of my head.

"Shortly after the scan, several small organic life forms emanated from within the outer rim of the nebula. Before our defenses could be raised the creatures clung to the hull of the ship and within minutes, burrowed their way inside. It seems that because of their unique physiology to live within only a vacuum of space, our sensors had a hard time detecting them. It was only until recently that we were able to exterminate the last of them. I believe Dr. Grey and Dr. Colleman are following up on the autopsy and dissections.

Allen nodded first to Alexandra then an older man sitting a few seats down from hers as he listed the two names.

"However, it seems this is only the tip of the iceberg. On the fifth day, the day after the first experimentation, and a good length of discussion and debate, we decided to continue scans of the nebula. Very soon, we had found something we had not expected to see. It was a change in the original signature.

This of course, could only mean one thing. It means that something is still broadcasting a signal. The radio waves could have normally been received from short distances, though it was imperative at the time to disable all radio equipment as to not disturb the ionized radio signatures."

Allen again poked at a series of buttons beside the monitor.

"With short discussion we had decided to do what I had spoken of earlier."

The monitor screen suddenly returned to the view of ship and nebula. Again, the ship was emanating blinking lines into the nebula, but this time the ship rotated around the nebula somewhat, around twenty or thirty degrees.

"We went ahead and began triangulation of the signature so that we could trace the origin of the signal. However, for pinpoint accuracy, it was required to rotate the ship several degrees around the nebula. In doing so, we found something terribly interesting.

He tapped a single button beside the monitor. After doing so, a solid line grew from the ship and ended in the center of the nebula. The ship continued to rotate around the nebula as the solid line continued to point to the center of the nebula.

"We did indeed pinpoint the signal, though, it was not a signal which passed through the nebula from the other side. We found, in fact, that the signal was coming from somewhere inside the nebula itself."

A few murmurs arose from within the room.

"This, everyone, is why you are all here."

Allen paused for more than a few moments.

"The good captain and I have decided that tomorrow morning, we're taking her inside the nebula to find the source of this, quite possibly, alien signal."

A deep rumble of murmurs erupted from most of the crew within the room.

An elder woman sitting near the far end of the table leaned forward in her chair and began to speak, her hands folded and rested on the table in front of her.

“Wont taking the ship inside the nebula be risky at the very least? Surely the engines wouldn’t react well with all of the ionized gas within the nebula.”

Allen nodded very slightly.

“That’s the idea behind the tow ships.”

“Tow ships?”

“There will be three of them. I believe Jakobs one, seven, and twelve should serve the purpose well enough. The idea is simple. We’ll thrust Venture into the nebula a short distance and let her glide our determined distance. . Once Venture is moving along well enough, the Jakobs will maneuver around and bring her to a halt again. Their engines should better deal with the nebula’s particles. The maneuver is quite simple. “

“Yeah, and if you are wrong?”

“I’m not wrong, we thought this over plenty enough. This is the simplest plan with the resources available to us. A simple procedure with hopefully more than simple results.”

“And who will be assigned to the Jakobes?”

“With the exception to the captain and I, everyone in this room.”

Allen grinned.

Article 1.03

Glancing around, I could more feel, rather than see, the concerned looks on peoples faces. This wasn’t exactly a routine duty call.

I couldn’t stop thinking of how I ended up here. I work, and they pay me. I thought things would be like that for a long time, but now I’m in this room with all sorts of people, with their pips, their service medals, their science degrees, their legendary like skills that make me more of just another guy in the crowd.

One day I kill a really big bug, and here I am.

My mind began little humorous battles with itself.

“I’ll be interesting.” It said. “You’ll make those extra credits, I’m sure.”

“What? Making credits doing things I shouldn’t get myself into? This is a mistake, is what it is.”

The good captain stood straight for a moment as if at a semi-formal attention and threw his voice across the room.

“Get some rest people. Tomorrow at o-four hundred hours you will all report to bay thirteen and will be assigned to your designated tow ship. Dismissed.”

Most of the crew stood up with the Captain’s words and made their way for the exit, while a few remained behind, obviously they felt there needed to be a few words thrown out at the Captain, who probably wouldn’t hear it anyways.

I made my way out into the corridor and looked behind me into the small crowd of crew to see if I could spot Alexandra. With no sign, I stepped aside and leaned against the corridor wall, waiting for her to pass.

She never did. I peered back into the briefing room and only found Allen and the Captain quietly discussing details of the mission. It occurred to me now that Alexandra may have left just before I did. How nice of her to wait.

Taking my time, I made my way through the ship, passing through plenty of corridors and lifts before making it to the front door of my quarters.

Stepping uncomfortably close to the bright metallic colored door, I rasped my fist once upon its surface. Within a short moment, a soft hissing sound could be heard to one side of me before the door suddenly slid open, revealing my dark home. I calmly took three steps inside just as the door slid shut behind me. I, finding myself in total darkness now, muttered two dull words.

“I’m home.”

As I did so, a soft hum emanated from within the darkness above me, just before the room was flooded with bright warm light from above. Then, seconds later, soft classical music filled the room, quiet, but full of sound.

I made hardly a glance around the room. To my left, the doorway to the bathroom, white tiled and fairly small. To my right lay a comfortable queen bed, soft sheets and two white pillows. Beside it, a small table and lamp. Straight ahead rested a deep set black sofa, complete with pillows and a glass coffee table. Covering the table was nothing, except that of a small metal statue, a little crudely built but by hand none the less. It resembled that of a small falcon, its wings spread out wide. It was only suspended in the air by a small rod of dark metal, which was in turn attached to a small raised square base. It was the only thing within the room that gave the place any character at all.

I walked to my bed and allowed my body to fall upon it. I bounced slightly but then lay still as I did little but stare up at the glowing ceiling above me.

This was the last thing I remember before waking up quietly, into an even quieter, dark room. I felt oddly warm as I stirred a little in bed before sitting up and swinging my legs over the side. I hunched over slightly as I rubbed my face, my eyes puffy and a little sore.

I moistened my lips and cleared my throat. It was important that it heard my voice, and not that of someone else, like someone with a cold, or worse, someone with nasal fluid in their passageway.

“Time please.”

A small section of the wall to my left was illuminated with small but bright red numeric letters as it displayed the time of o-one hundred twenty hours. The middle of the night shift.

I slowly stood up from my seat on the bed and stretched lazily. Still in my uniform, I made my way to the bathroom.

Still in the dark, I reached my hands under the faucet of the bathroom sink and held them there for a short moment before water began to run. I cupped my hands and collected water as I leaned over and splashed some in my face. It was a little cold, but definitely refreshing. Sighing with relaxed relief, I reached for the hand towel which hung beside the sink. My hand brushed against the soft fabric just as a feint clicking sound became aware to me.

I quickly forgot about the towel as I stood motionless, listening for that sound which now eluded me. In a short time, it came again. This time I was quite sure of it.

My face still dripping with water, I creped through the doorway of the bathroom and made my way towards the living room area. It only took a single thought before I moved swiftly to the table beside my bed and slid open the drawer beneath it. Within, lay nothing except that of my pea shooter hand gun.

I couldn’t remember why, but for some reason I was surprised to find it laying there.

Quickly I took hold of the gun and grasped it firmly, its surface feeling somewhat slick from my still wet hands.

I readied to charge it, but suddenly realized that it might not be the best of ideas, with the noticeable sound it makes when doing so. Instead, I merely stood there, silent but watchful.

Whatever it was, it had to have known of my presence much more than I knew of its.

“Lights.” I shouted out.

The ceiling gave out the familiar hum before lighting up the room and revealing to me what I had feared this whole time.

There were dozens of them, coming through the door, my open door, from some where out in the corridor. They were like swarms of spiders, flooding out of the open end of a pipe. Only the pipe was the door, and I was the fly.

I cursed under my breath and tried to remain calm as I charged the pea shooter. Its whine feint in the now roaring clatter of clicking barbed feet. They crawled on the walls, ceiling and floor and began to flood all sides of the room, with me near the other end, now stepping backwards into the wall behind me.

I squeezed the trigger on my humble weapon with hardly a thought to aim and listened to nothing but the soft click of my trigger, tripping some kind of mechanical switch inside of the gun, but without any result. I pulled a second time and heard the same. I then realized that the gun was faulty. It wouldn’t charge and it continued to whine, its pitch high, screaming, and still climbing.

In almost the same moment, the useless weapon began to feel warm to the touch, almost hot. Instinctively I thought to unhand the gun, throwing it at the mass of now surrounding alien creatures. It whined for a second or two more as its pitch grew to that almost above my range of hearing.

Just then, as masses of creatures covered the weapon and almost completely surrounded myself, the weapon exploded, a bright flash of light and seemingly thousands of small bolts of electricity randomly firing through the air, darting into all sides of the room. At least several of the bolts struck the side of my face. It felt like someone had slapped a red hot frying pan to my cheek. I screamed in horror not at the pain but the overwhelming feel of defeat and of immanent death.

I noticed some of the creatures parts settling to the floor as bits of their blood splattered across the walls and ceiling.

The explosion seemed to cause a great majority of the creatures to scamper away from the center of the room and towards the walls. In fact, only one remained. Its hideous body positioned only a few feet in front of me. My eyes glanced around and caught a glimpse of something I thought I’d never forget.

As the creatures reached the walls of the room, they slowly vanished.

All had eventually made their way. All eventually vanished, except the one which still stood its ground in front of me. I looked at it, and it looked back at me. I could almost feel the intelligence in it, as if it could feel my fear.

It seemed to hesitate for a moment as it took several clicking steps away from me. Then it stopped and reared its body slowly away from me, leaning back and down towards the floor of the room.

Just then I realized to what it was about to do. I just barely began to raise my hands to my face as it hissed and leaped at me. Its body flying towards me, I only had begun to scream as its barbed legs were only inches from my face.

The instant before it clung its razor barbs into my flesh, I jutted my eyes opened and found myself screaming out it horror, my face and body covered in sweat, my head face down between two white pillows.

I rolled onto my back and sat up in my bed. My eyes darted around the room and found no sign of the brutal attack I had just endured.

“A dream.” I thought to myself.

“Lights.”

The ceiling hummed and flickered on as I sat up in bed.

“Time.”

The time on the wall displayed o-four-hundred seven hours.

My heart skipped a beat as I dashed out of bed and sprinted into the bathroom.

With a record time shower and probably the fastest I’ve ever run, I made my way down the corridors of the ship and made it finally to bay number thirteen.

At first I had thought that only half of the officers had shown up, but then realized that Jakob One had already departed and Jakob Twelve was in its preflight. The remaining officers had grouped around a rather short man holding a data pad.

“Susan Dwalert?” The man shouted.

“Right here.” A woman to whom I had found rather homely, replied.

“Jason Hatchert?”

“Yeah.”

“Brad Gunner?”

“Yo.”

“Cathy Stewart?”

“Present.”

“Nathan Scott?”

“Right here.” I called out.

The short man called out four more names, that of Oliver Taxerd, Elisabeth Jane, Greg Hewit, and Alex Keifton.

The short man continued, explaining the duties of each of us. It was apparently my duty to perform the preflight and, once aboard, work ship maintenance and tactical status overview. I wasn’t even sure what he meant by that last part.

He then went on to describe the on board supplies, which seemed to only include side arms, a days worth of emergency rations and water, which I am sure tastes just wonderful.

After this, he began to brief us on our mission.

“Alright. Listen up good now. You are to be the third ship in line that is to maneuver in front of the Venture when she gives ya the okay. Once you navigate through the nebula, round a click behind One and Twelve, you will position your craft behind the Venture in the central area, between the two others. Again, once the Venture gives the okay, you will fire up your engines and bring them to full power. Your neighboring ships will act as the maneuvering jets and will fire their engines only according to the Ventures correctable heading. Once in Jakob Seven, you will find detailed data pertaining to your mission. Are there any questions?”

No one answered as they all seemed to understand the procedure.

“Alright then, lets move it. You’re behind as it is.”

I quickly made my way to Jakob Seven and glanced at her before stepping up the boarding ramp and making my way inside. I expected to see noticeable differences from the inside to the outside but couldn’t find many. In both aspects, it didn’t resemble much more that a some how moveable hunk of metal. The hull of the ship didn’t help much to drown out the noise either. The engines were started as they let out a deep whine, their sound easily reaching the inside of the ship.

After a quick glance I found the preflight data pad and began my checklist. The first was structural damage. Needless to say, I skipped this. If there were cracks in the hull, she would be pulled from the active ship list and probably scrapped or sent up to bay three for major repairs. A crack in the hull was not something to look forward to.

Next was the ships damage control, navigation control, and tactical displays. All of these, from what I could tell from the data pads technical plans and information, seemed to be working properly.

Then was all of the life support systems, heat, oxygen, filtration system, and everything else on the ship that makes sure we don’t end up an endlessly floating hunk of frozen flesh.

Last was a series of minor mechanics and electronics, all of which, from what I could tell, checked out perfectly. I stepped back outside, walking down the ramp and reporting again to the short verbal man and handing him the preflight pad. He seemed to be a little angered with the time it took me to complete everything as he snatched the pad from my hands. He then only nodded and motioned me to return to the ship.

Soon, the other eight crew and I were aboard the ship and was given the go for launch. Bay thirteen bounced echoes through the area as flight control demanded clearance of the bay and soon after, announced depressurization.

All nine of us were gathered within the front of the ship, looking out of the front view window as the doors of the bay slowly slid open. They were twice the height of our Jakob Seven and probably four times as long. Within moments the ship bay went dark and only stars were shown in front of us. The whine of the engines roared now as the ship gave a slight thud and lifted somewhat unsteadily off the floor of the bay.

After a few moments, an explosion of power and fire erupted from the rear of the ship as it lurched forward and made its way through the bay doors and out into the deep of space.

We jetted outwards for a short while until the ship began to reverse the engines and come to a slowing halt. We were probably several kilometers from the Venture now while it was still visibly giant to our eyes.

After Cathy Stewart, who was apparently the head pilot, announced that the ship had made a full stop, the majority of the crew left the front of the ship and went on to their duties, most of them operating some sort of control device or monitoring a screen or two. I myself had a list of duties, most of which I wasn’t sure I knew how to perform.

I pulled away several service panels in the floor of the ship, half expecting some kind of ugly little creature to jump out at me and claw up my face again, but instead only revealed a slew of power conduits and several large chip panels. I physically touched several of them with my hand to feel their texture, checking for signs of acidic erosion or leakage.

Everything checked out and I replaced the panels quickly. While doing so, a radio call announced itself through the ship, alerting us to the now ready Venture. Within moments, the giant ship fired up its engines as a bright flash of light illuminated our ship like a spot light on the face of a wild animal.

With hardly any speed at all, the Venture accelerated as it moved itself towards the boarder of the Nebula, a huge cloud of gas to which we could hardly make out with such a large ship in front of us.

Huge white balls of light nearly engulfed the rear of the behemoth as its engines were brought to maximum power. A light almost too bright to look upon.

As the ship accelerated somewhat faster now, it soon reached the boarder of the nebula. Just as it had done so, Jakob One and Jakob Twelve streaked across space in front of us as they too headed for the nebula. Our own ship lurched suddenly as it followed the other Jakobs and headed for the deep cloud of gas.

Our ships accelerated much faster than that of the Venture and soon we struck the gaseous cloud, but only just before the Venture did. Wisps of colored particles flowed around the Venture and soon completely engulfed it. Our own vision was nearly blinded from the thick vapors which surrounded us, and from the sound of the pilots, it didn’t seem as if the scanners would help much either.

We continued to accelerate through blind space as the Venture slowly left sight behind us.

For quite a while we moved through the cloud, some of the crew abandoning their posts to instead take part in a rather unpleasant looking meal of emergency rations. Eventually though, our ship reversed her engines and began to slow.

As it did so, I too decided to take part in the meal, only to my dismay to find that it indeed did taste rather unpleasant. I think it was supposed to be beef stew while it tasted more like pork and some kind of bland vegetable. I only finished half the meal and instead decided to calmly wait for the ships arrival to meet with the other two.

In time we had arrived as the two other Jakobs were just barely visible. We slowly positioned ourselves into the middle of a line of three ships, waiting still now for the arrival of the Venture.

Quietly we all waited, once again huddled in a group towards the front of the ship. Stewart exchanged a few communications with our neighboring ships. Some of which I’m sure was important. It sounded much like that of navigation data, some of which was purely pilot humor.

“What’s your ex? Seven.” A deep voice spurred in through he speakers.

“I’ve got 772.87.” Stewart replied.

“Yeah, I confirm. Seven.”

“Should we have scanned Venture by now?”

“Negative. She shouldn’t be set until o-seven twenty two hours.”

“Copy.”

They continued to chat for a few more moments before an unmistaken look grew on Stewarts face.

“No, I read it. She’s fifteen clicks ahead and closing. Are you sure you‘ve got that time right?”

“Yeah, I read it too. She must be early.”

“Yeah, well from the looks of it, she’s moving way too fast.”

Stewart punched a few buttons on the panel in front of her and spoke again.

“Venture, this is Jakob Seven.”

We all waited a few moments before she repeated.

“Venture, this is Jakob Seven, do you read?”

Again, we didn’t receive a response.

Again, Stewart tapped several buttons on the panel.

“Uh guys, Venture isn’t responding to my calls.”

“No luck here either. I think maybe we should…Oh shit! Ten clicks and closing. We’re talking collision here!”

“I read.” Steward replied calmly.

Suddenly Steward leaped up from her chair as it fell backwards and clanked to the floor with a loud racket. She began almost slamming the control panel in front of her, and within moments the rear of our ship roared as the engines fired up, causing the ship to lurch forward suddenly. Several of the crew fell backwards and slid towards the back of the ship, along the rough surface of the floor. The ships engines roared even louder as we continued to accelerate. Within moments we passed the far side of our row of three ships, just barely passing over the hull of the Jakob Twelve.

I looked out the rear view window and watched as we left our formation and the other two ships. I could see the Jakob Twelve fire up her engines as well as it turned and followed us not too far away. As it did so, the Venture came into view, the giant ship was moving incredibly fast, as if an entire city was thrown at us. Jakob One finally cranked up her engines as well and began to turn but it was already obvious to what laid in store for them.

Venture crashed into the pathetic Jakob One as its hull ruptured almost instantly just before exploding into a violent ball of blue and yellow flames. Then, just as suddenly, the flames flickered out, snuffed from the vacuum of space that surrounded it. The Venture was virtually unharmed by the collision as it continued to fly past us, as it was seemingly going to miss the Jakob Twelve.

A protrusion of the Ventures hull brushed against the rear of the Jakob Twelve, its engines caught by the piece of passing metal. The engines were almost torn out of the ship before exploding in wisps of blue flame. Jakob Twelve was not destroyed, instead it spun out of control and outwards towards us.

At that moment I felt as though some mighty godly power of the universe was out to get me as I watched the spinning hunk of metal that was left of the Jakob Twelve hurl itself towards us.

I knew then, that within moments, it would all be over.

Article 1.04

Luckily I did awake. My vision was blurred, though I did make out two shadowy figures standing over me. I didn’t know whether I blacked out again or simply can’t remember, but I finally awoke a second time to the sound of a rough, feminine voice.

“Nathan…” muttered the voice.

“Nathan, can you hear me?”

“Think he’ll be alright?” another voice murmured.

“It seems to be only a mild concussion. It’s hard to tell though until he comes to.”

I opened my eyes once again and glanced at the group of figures standing over me. I only now just realized I was lying down, and it wasn’t upon the metal floor of Jakob Seven, but upon a firm dirt ground floor. I also began to realize the deep, sharp pain at the back of my head. As I did so, I winced in pain.

“How do you feel?” asked the feminine voice.

“Like someone stepped on my head.”

It hurt even more just as I talked.

“Well, you hit the back view port with your head rather hard.”

“How long was I unconscious?”

“Not half an hour.”

My eyes began to come to fine focus. Most of the crew stood around me though it seemed two were missing. I sat up slowly and examined the terrain surrounding us. Steep cliff faces and barren wasteland was all that was visible.

“What happened?” I questioned, reaching a hand to the back of my head. I could feel the now dried blood that stained itself upon my hair.

“Well, we went down. It all happened rather quickly. When we hit ground, we lost pressure. Luckily, the atmosphere is breathable, for the most part.”

“For the most part?”

“Mostly everything in the shuttle was disabled. There could be radiation, toxic fumes, or who knows what else. Without instruments, there’s no way of knowing. Well, not until we start showing symptoms.”

“Yeah? And what kinds of symptoms?” I didn’t like that word.

“If we’re talking radiation, it would start with headaches, fever, extreme exhaustion, even vomiting. Eventually there would be skin discoloration, internal bleeding, or worse. Though, at that point, it’s pretty hopeless.”

“Wonderful.”, I muttered.

I made my way to my feet and turned about me. It didn’t take long to spot the shuttle, Jakob Seven, and the two still bodies that lay before it.

Elisabeth, the roughly voiced woman, spoke out yet again as I stared upon the bodies.

“Jason and Cathy. They were dead before we hit the ground.”

I turned around again to face the crew.

“What about Jakob Twelve?”

“She went down too, though we aren’t sure where. When she rammed us our courses diverged. It could be any place.”

“We’re still in the nebula though?”

“Yeah. This planet’s magnetic fields are probably keeping a lot of the nebula gas outside the outer atmosphere.”

“What do we do now?” I asked, with no expectations of an answer.

One of the crew, Greg, chimed in.

“Heh. What can we do?”

“Well, I suggest we get some of this equipment working again. We may need it.”

There was no light of day, nor the darkness of night. The sky was cloudless, the space beyond illuminated with blues, reds, and oranges, casting its dim light upon the planets surface, creating an eerie dusk of day which remained timeless.

All seven of us worked quietly, doing our best to salvage what was left of the Jakob Seven.

Some food was found, but little water remained, the container’s contents strewn across the shuttle’s floor.

I took the liberty at examining the ships electrical systems. Even though most of its systems did seem to be in working order, the problem was the lack of electrical power. Her capacitor cells were fried, and there wasn’t much chance of repairing them. Little else was salvaged either, with the exception of a couple of emergency blankets and a first aid unit.

It is difficult to mark the passing of time on a planet with no sun, nor of passing stars, though, it didn’t mater much, since it was in fact time, which we had far too little of.

The glowing of our ship’s instrument panels was the only thing illuminating the hollow cavern around us. When the ship hit the planet’s surface, the ground beneath us gave way, and opened up a hole, not much bigger than the ship around us. The second impact was the one that killed most of the crew. Only three of us remained, that of Dr. Ted Colleman, Joe Kitman, and myself. The rest of the bodies were scattered about the place, not all in one whole.

Joe was hurt pretty badly. A piece of the ship’s hull passed through his foreleg and part way out the back side. He kept shouting for me and I was the only one able to help him. Colleman was in a state of panic and merely crawled around the cavern floor, convinced that the ceiling above would collapse.

“Alex...”

“Alexandra, something’s stuck in my leg.”

He kept tugging at the metal at the back of his leg, wincing in pain. I ran over to him, pulling away his worried hands. There wasn’t a lot of blood, but there could have been better news.

“I don’t think we should be pulling that out. It may be the only thing stopping you from bleeding to death.”

“But it hurts! I don’t think I can walk.”

“Just wait here, and don’t move. I’m going to go have a look around.”

With a quick look around the cavern, I discovered two separate passage ways, both oddly shaped, hidden behind the shadows. Their size was huge, more than three times my height and just as wide. Their walls looked as if they were formed my unnatural causes, well rounded and very symmetrical.

I returned to the shuttle, the larger half of it, and pulled from it a large grey metal crate. I uncoupled it’s two fasteners and removed the lid. Within it was crammed an entire array of medical supplies, food, water, and four ‘Pea Shooter’ side arms. I removed a first aid kit and returned to Joe, finding Colleman sitting beside him, his nerves still frayed.

From the medical kit, I pulled from it a tube of regenerative jelly and applied some of it to the base of Ted’s wound. After which, I removed a small square of a plastic looking, semi-transparent wrapping. I pulled on the plastic and stretched it apart. I then wrapped the self adhesive plastic around his wound. After a few moments, the warmth of his blood caused the plastic to contract somewhat, applying pressure on his wound.

I was leaning over the large metal container, replacing the medical kit when a sudden huge gust of wind blew from within one of the large passageways, filling the cavern with twirling winds that nearly knocked me over.

The winds continued as I sat down behind the metal container, it’s wide frame blocking most of the wind. Ted and Colleman curled themselves up as small fragments of rock and sand began flying through the air.

Moments later, the ground beneath me began to shake as the feint sound of thunder could be herd, emanating from within the windy passageway. I poked my head up over the top of the container as the rumble grew louder, with feint wailing sounds barely audible now.

Before long the sounds grew to a point that nearly hurt my ears. I felt something strike my shoulder as a sharp pain was shot from it, up through my neck. I fell backwards, laying on the ground underneath me.

Just then, something immerged from within the passageway. It wasn’t small by any standards. It was round, and had the skin the color and texture of an elephant. It’s body’s width took up most of the passage way, it’s length like that of a worm, only beyond giant, the majority of it extending back into the passageway and disappearing in its length. The front of the creature was without eyes. However, it’s huge, rounded teeth were unmistakable as they protruded from the circular opening, partially concealing them. The circular mouth opened and closed in a flexing like motion, much like that of an iris.

The cries of the creature were almost like a whale’s as it sped out of the passageway. It’s movement was incredibly fast, sliding along the ground at the speed of a subway train.

Before I could move, the creature slid just past me and smashed into our shuttle with incredible force. The shuttle’s fragments flew from the sides of the giant worm and bounced off the cavern walls, huge chunks of metal flying in every direction. The creature continued to fly past me, its body’s length only obvious when its tail finally immerged from the passageway behind it. The complete body had to have been a half a mile long, with it’s snake like tail trailing behind.

With another few moments, it was gone, and the cavern grew quiet, with the exception of some lingering wisps of wind.

To Be Continued...