Page 44 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars

Throughout the command center bodies were strewn about slumped where they had passed their last moments of life. The putrid musk of decomposition sideswiped her, and Daisy blinked back the stinging tears that sprung painfully to her eyes. The modest-sized crew of the merchant ship lay in various stages of decay.

She grimaced. With her extremely rudimentary knowledge, she knew that, with the environmental controls in place on the ship, they had to have died some time ago to be so deteriorated. Daisy gagged as her foot brushed one of the bodies. She could have done without witnessing any of this.

Despite the worries that people had of traveling to Earth colonies, she knew that there were a number of protocols that were closely followed in order to make the transition as safe as possible. For this situation alone in which there was ship failure or some other catastrophic event, the cryopod had enough power to keep them going for hundreds of years in wait of rescue. It was all outlined in detail in the pamphlet she had carefully scoured over the days leading up to her departure.

Something like this shouldn’t have been able to happen!

She should still be asleep. According to the pamphlet, in a situation in which the transport crew was killed, she should have slept through retrieval and transference to a rescue unit, where she would have been carefully revived by medics.

This was… impossible.

Gingerly stepping around a body slumped over the console, she squinted at the system display. She had no idea what she was looking at but hoped that the flashing light at the station was a good sign.

Please let the AI be operational .

“Starship… Delfor IX?” she rasped.

“Unknown passenger. Please identify yourself,” the AI replied dutifully.

“Daisy McGillin. I am the sole passenger on route to Galaxoros Colony.”

Gods, she hoped that she had remembered the name right. She should as many times as she looked at her transport clearance, but doubt ate at her until the AI pinged back in reply.

“Please confirm your identity.”

A screen lit up on the panel just inches from the hand of the dead crewmember. Daisy never considered herself particularly squeamish, not with an elder brother who had enjoyed terrorizing her the entire time they were growing up, but corpses were another matter. She cringed as she hastily shoved the gray hand aside. She pressed her hand against the screen and felt a flash of warmth.

“Identity confirmed, Passenger McGillin. What is your emergency?”

Seriously? Did the AI not even know that its entire crew was dead? She glanced around helplessly for a moment.

“Umm… I need assistance.”

“Please clarify your emergency.”

“Well, everyone is dead. I think that is pretty self-explanatory.”

Silence fell for a long, disturbing moment.

“Negative. My systems detect twenty-five humans. All crew is accounted for.”

“But they are all dead,” she said, aware that her voice was rising with alarm.

Silence fell once more.

“Captain Barlet, initiate bioform scan…Captain Barlet…First Officer Zary…”

Daisy’s eyes swept over the command chair where the captain was sprawled as the computer systematically went through its list of the crew, hailing them one by one. She tuned it out. It wasn’t going to get any answer from anyone. Certainly not the captain. His head had fallen back, and he was staring sightlessly at the ceiling, his mouth hanging open slightly as if he had been screaming at the moment of death. As her eyes slid down his body and cataloged the brutal wounds that were still visible on his torso, she shivered and stepped away.

She didn’t consider herself superstitious and certainly didn’t believe in ghosts, but this whole thing was seriously creeping her the fuck out.

“Passenger McGillin…”

“Yes?” she replied as she continued to look over the crew.

She was feeling more and more uncomfortable, and with the weapons littering the command center, she knew that she wasn’t going to feel any measure of security until she had one in hand. She frowned at the plasma pistols and the blasters that lay fallen everywhere. She didn’t have any training with any of those. Licensing for blasters was expensive and generally reserved for the military and merchants who had to keep an eye out for alien ships. Few citizens had the special license required to train with and possess one.

Another shiver stole through her.

Had this been an alien attack? There were several factions among the known spacefaring species who were known to attack supply ships…

Her eyes fell on a small handheld particle pistol and she sighed with relief, her train of thought abandoned as she bent to scoop it up. She promptly checked its charge and let out a sound of relief when she saw that it was just above half charge. Thank the gods for the long charge of the model.

“Passenger McGillin, with no crew responding to hails, emergency protocol two-six-four-dash-three-B immediately confers command to the active human on deck. Please initiate bioform scan.”

“Delfor IX, confirmed,” she said woodenly. “Please initiate bioform scan for any and all human lifeforms, clearance Daisy McGillin.”

“Authorization confirmed.” There was a long pause before the AI’s voice returned. “One human lifeform detected. Systems have been corrupted. Attempting to dispatch emergency beacon.”

Daisy nodded her head, but a thought occurred to her.

“Delfor IX, what is the likelihood that cryostasis would fail?”

“Cryostasis is ninety-nine-point-eight percent incapable of failing.”

“And the other point two percent?”

“There is a slight probability of failure in the event of an entire systemwide override shutdown.”

A loud clang somewhere outside of the command deck made her stiffen, the small hairs on her arms and the back of her neck rising with alarm.

“Delfor IX, do your systems have record of a systems shutdown and reboot override?”

There was another pause that felt lengthier than it probably was, one that was punctuated with several loud crashes and bangs, each one making her flinch and back further in the command center.

“Confirmed,” the AI responded. “There is a detection of override shutdown and reboot two earth standard hours ago.”

Another crash, this one closer, made Daisy jump.

“Delfor IX, lock down the command center immediately and sweep for nonhuman bioforms,” she croaked.

The doors, which were sporadically still sliding open and shut in an error loop, suddenly snapped closed as an interior light flashed red twice in response.

“Lockdown confirmed. One biotech Daranthiki lifeform detected.”

An ungodly screech filled the command center as the doors wobbled. Daisy immediately ducked down behind the left command station; her eyes fastened on the door. The squeal of metal proceeded the appearance of huge pale gray hands suddenly slipping inside. Daisy cupped her hands over her ears as the metal protested even louder as the door was gradually forced open. She dropped herself flat to the ground behind to command center unable to look away.

A loud rumbling sound filled the room, followed by one heavy footstep and then another. Glimpsing low around the station, she caught a glimpse of grayish feet modeled after something that looked more appropriate on a creature from the Triassic period. Four toes flexed, claws skimming the floor briefly as it stepped forward again.

Panicked, Daisy tried to recall anything she had ever heard about the Daranthiki species.

Far-flung, humanoid, somewhat warlike. Droids! They rarely went into space themselves unless as part of a large war party. Hostile, but with a current peace treaty with Earth. With humans out so far near bordering territory, there was a mutual agreement in place to offer aid and assistance. Thank the gods—she was saved.

Glancing back around the console, she frowned. Where was it?

Something heavy dropped right in front of her, a gray body corded with muscle, and inhuman eyes glowed at her from a vaguely humanoid face with pronouncedly pointed ears. She didn’t know where the fuck to look. That thing looked vaguely like a Daranthiki, but it was definitely not the same thing as Earth’s allies. It was considerably larger, and unlike the rosy hues of the Daranthiki brightened with crimson markings, this thing only resembled it loosely in structure, and it was much larger. Yet the finger features certainly bore similarity to the aliens.

Its lips were pulling back from savagely sharp teeth, and a long gray tail whipped up high behind it. The heavy red markings on its face and the sides of its head seemed to almost glow beneath the long strip of hair that ran down the center of its head. A pair of exceedingly long threefold pointed ears rose and snapped forward toward her. A forked tongue slipped out, likely drawing in information from its environment to its systems. The mechanics in its red glowing eyes shifted, narrowing in on her.

It wasn’t an alien. Her breath escaped her in a short burst with the realization that she was looking what had to be a Daranthiki battle droid. She thought they had been decommissioned in the border territories. She recalled seeing it on the news. Well, if it was here, that must mean it was programmed for assistance and retrieval.

That relief lasted for only half a second before a red light targeted her from the large blaster it held in its hand.

“Identify yourself,” it barked in a deep, resonant voice.

“Fuuuuck,” she hissed.