Page 19

Aboard her Spacehawk, Jane examined the structure ahead of her.

“They don’t build them for beauty, do they, Lieutenant?” the man sitting just aft of her said, leaning forward.

“No, they do not, Sergeant,” she replied.

The man was Sergeant Racine, of the Unitary Marine Corps. He was aboard her starfighter, along with his squad, consisting of four other men and one woman, all crammed together in the aft portion of the Spacehawk.

The Spacehawk, though small and nimble relative to other spacecraft, was one of the larger models of starfighters in use. One of its features was a personnel/cargo space aft of the cockpit. It allowed pilots to carry troops to battle sites, rescue individuals from planet surfaces or other damaged ships, and transport supplies or equipment.

Jane and her passengers were looking at what everyone guessed was a space station, rather than a spaceship. According to the Fordham’s analysis, there weren’t any known significant forms of propulsion attached to the structure beyond what appeared to be small maneuvering thrusters, so it had apparently been placed here to stay put. But here was the middle of nowhere. There weren’t any planets anywhere near this point—even accounting for the vast distances one dealt with in outer space.

In the Milky Way, such a remote space station would probably be a supply depot, a communications relay station, a science lab, or even a prison.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t…attractive. Jane was no space architect, but she was certain that even she could design something more aesthetically pleasing.

The space station was very…boxy. It was made up of over twenty different modules, all of them with straight lines and sharp corners, and all of them joined together in an asymmetrical and haphazard fashion that was kind of harsh to look at through Jane’s human eyes.

There was what looked to be some form of writing on each of the modules, but of course it was all gibberish to Jane.

This was the source of what was being called a distress signal on the Fordham . But all attempts to elicit some form of communication with whoever was onboard this station had failed—despite the fact that sensors had shown that there were lifeforms within its walls.

The mighty starship was parked half a million klicks away, but three of the starfighters of Sabre Squadron were up close and personal to this structure, with Jane being the absolute closest.

Raven and Sapphire were nearby as well, providing mobile cover for Jane, while Colonel Mbuwe and Lieutenant Colonel Chang were stationed in their fighters 500 kilometers away. Colonel Chang was in charge of the other Sabre Squadron ships, who were on screening patrol at various distances around the space station, while Colonel Mbuwe was providing operational command over this segment of the mission.

“I’d say that’s our way in,” Jane announced, eyeballing a feature on the station. “Looks like Meg was right. I’d say this is definitely an airlock hatch.”

Earlier, Meg had identified three points on this structure which she determined could be airlocks, and Jane was now looking at what seemed to be an entrance to the space station. She made sure that her Spacehawk’s camera had a good view of it to share with the others.

“ Rascal, ” Mbuwe began, “ what do you think? Can you bypass? ”

Everyone in Sabre Squadron, in addition to being crack pilots, had ancillary skillsets that often came into service during missions. Sapphire, for example, spoke twelve different Unitary languages—not that that would come into much use here in Andromeda, but it did mean that she had the type of brain that was good at deciphering stuff.

Raven was an excellent medic, which was why she had also been chosen to be standing by near the station. Although one of the Marines in Jane’s ship was also a medic, if it was determined that additional medical help was needed, Raven and her squad of Marines would also enter the structure.

Jane’s ancillary skillset was that she was great at breaking into things. There wasn’t a lock she couldn’t get past. Of course, that was back in the Milky Way. Here…who knew what kind of locks the Andromeda Galaxy had?

“I can only try, Colonel,” she replied.

She brought her Spacehawk very close to the structure and positioned it so that she could extend her universal docking collar from the starboard side. According to sensor measurements, the collar would fit over that hatch easily and be able clamp securely to the ferromagnetic metal the station had been constructed with.

“Holly, hold the ship steady and extend the collar,” she instructed her AI.

“Acknowledged,” Holly responded. After a moment, she added, “Collar extended and securely attached. Beginning pressurization.”

Jane unbuckled herself from her seat.

“Excuse me, Sergeant,” she said, working her way past the Marine and then past his squadmates in order to access the starboard hatch. She and the Marines were all wearing environmental suits, but the suits allowed for easy maneuverability.

“Pressurization complete,” Holly told her.

Jane opened the hatch and stared at the other hatch which was less than two meters away at the other end of the docking collar.

“Rascal to Thrasher,” she said, summoning Mbuwe. “I’m docked and can see the airlock door.”

“ Copy, ” Mbuwe acknowledged. “ Pressure inside the airlock and the station is 1.3, according to our readings. Atmosphere is within tolerable levels for breathing. Attempt entry when you’re ready. ”

“Copy,” Jane said. “Holly, increase atmospheric pressure to 1.3.”

Jane felt her environmental suit adjust to the increased air pressure surrounding it.

The air inside the station might be tolerable for breathing, but naturally they would all try to avoid inhaling any of it.

“Okay, Marines,” she told her passengers, “get ready.”

She entered the collar and positioned herself in front of the airlock hatch…

Discussing this back on the Fordham, the agreed upon tactic was to alert whoever was inside that someone was answering their distress signal, and so to that end Jane reached into a pocket on her spacesuit, withdrew a small steel hammer, and used it to knock on the door, so to speak.

She waited a few moments and then knocked again. She waited another few moments and then knocked yet again.

“Rascal to Fordham ,” she said. “Anything?”

Commander Dell answered.

“ Negative, Lieutenant, ” she said. “ The lifeforms haven’t moved from their location. They are still in a compartment about thirty meters from where you are. ”

This airlock had been chosen because it was the closest to the lifeforms the Fordham had detected, yet still far enough away so that whatever those beings were, they couldn’t easily rush a squad of trained Marines.

“Understood, Fordham. Rascal to Thrasher, no joy on knocking,” she told her boss.

“ Copy, ” Mbuwe answered. “ Proceed. ”

Jane examined the outer hatch of the airlock. There was writing similar to what was on the outside of the space station printed on the metal. She wished she could read it, and hoped it didn’t say, Do Not Open Because…Boom!

“Oh, this looks easy,” she muttered to no one in particular after studying the hatch and its controls, but apparently Sergeant Racine deemed it necessary to respond.

“Famous last words,” he said.

Jane smirked as she continued examining the entry point.

“Don’t worry, Sergeant,” she said. “I’m good at this.”

“ Also famous last words,” Racine retorted.

Jane reached for the all-in-one scanner attached to her belt and ran it over a section of the hatch that interested her. It revealed a quantum X-ray image of the mechanics and wiring under the metal cover.

Just as she thought…this section was the key to everything.

Holding the scanner with one hand, with the other she reached for her laser cutter.

“Sorry whoever you people are for breaking your lovely hatch…” she muttered.

She activated the laser cutter, guiding its pencil-thin red beam along the metal. It sliced through the material easily. More importantly, it sliced through the thick bolt under the metal, which the X-ray scan showed held the hatch shut.

Switching the cutter off, she said, “Then I think I have to pull this thingamajig here…” She pulled the thingamajig. “Then I have to pull this other thingamajig here upwards.” She pulled the other thingamajig upwards. “And then grab this thingamajig here and…”

With a grunt, she pulled with all her strength, and the hatch swung outwards.

“Rascal to Thrasher,” she said, “I’m in.”

“ Remind me to keep my jewelry in a bigger safe, ” Mbuwe quipped.

“Eh, I’ll still get to them, Colonel,” Jane said. “Holly, send my helmetcam footage to Raven and Sapphire in case they need to break in also. Thrasher, we’re going in…”

“ Copy, ” Mbuwe replied.

“Once you get in the airlock, Lieutenant, work on getting the inner hatch open, and then let us take point,” Sergeant Racine said. Now that they were inside, operational command had switched to the Marines.

In her helmet, Jane nodded.

“I won’t argue with soldiers carrying Zed-Seven pulse rifles,” she said, stepping into the airlock.

Sergeant Racine gave a snort.

“Let’s hope whoever is in there agrees with you,” he said.

***

Inside the station, Jane was walking down a passageway, following Sergeant Racine and Corporal Byron. On either side of her two other Marines flanked her, while behind her the remaining two Marines she had ferried here brought up the rear, effectively surrounding her.

Jane—like all fighter pilots—had ground combat training, but not to the extent that Unitary Marines had. Nonetheless, she wouldn’t be useless in a fight—if it came to that, which she hoped it wouldn’t.

For now, however, she was keeping her HM-F9 blaster pistol holstered, and was simply serving as another pair of eyes.

So far, no one’s eyes had seen much of anything…

The interior of this section of the space station was brightly lit, its walls a canary yellow color, giving it a cheery aspect. Jane thought she might enjoy working here because of this color scheme…despite not knowing exactly what type of work this station did. Meg’s best guess—based on her scans—was that it could be a type of biological research facility. That was apparently based on the types of machinery in place here, as well as the presence of certain chemicals she could identify in the various compartments.

“Coming up on a corner, people,” Sergeant Racine said quietly. Right now, all helmet comms were set to internal only, meaning no one’s voice would carry through the passageways of the station. “Byron…”

The sergeant, Jane, and the other soldiers stopped, but Corporal Byron suddenly rushed forward and swung to his left, aiming his weapon down another passageway that joined with this one.

“Clear,” he announced.

“Let’s keep going, people,” Sergeant Racine ordered, proceeding forward.

“The compartment is ten meters ahead,” Commander Dell told them from the starship.

“Vaughan, Morley…hold back and cover us,” Racine ordered.

The two Marines behind Jane stopped and took up positions guarding the direction back to the airlock. Jane suddenly felt exposed. She drew her blaster, pointing it down as she continued following the other soldiers.

“Coming up on what looks like a door, people,” the sergeant said quietly. “Lieutenant Belivet, hold position here and keep an eye out. We’ll handle this.”

“Copy,” Jane acknowledged.

The door they were approaching was closed, and it didn’t have a window. It looked to be made of metal and was about two meters high. It was painted blue and had more of that strange writing on it, stenciled in white.

The sergeant and Byron took up positions on one side of the door, while the other two Marines took the other side.

“Alright, here we go, people,” Racine said. He then banged on the door several times. “Unitary Marines!” he shouted, having switched his comms to external.

Of course, Jane recognized the absurdity of announcing who was knocking—in English, no less—here on a space station in the Andromeda Galaxy, but what else would the sergeant have said?

“ Whatever you just did, ” Commander Dell’s voice said, “ that woke them up. We’ve got movement. But it’s odd…the lifeforms have scattered, as if you frightened them. ”

Sergeant Racine shared a look with his soldiers, and then looked at Jane. Without him having to say anything, she knew what he wanted.

She scanned the door while avoiding standing directly in front of it.

“It’s locked, Sergeant,” she stated. “Like, really locked.”

The quantum X-ray scan revealed the door had three thick bolts keeping it shut. Her little laser cutter would take hours to cut through them, but would lose power long before it did. There was what looked to be a keypad attached to the wall beside the door, with seven odd-shaped buttons of different colors, but Jane ruled that out. She may be good at bypassing electronic security measures in her home galaxy, but there wasn’t time on this mission to figure out how to jailbreak the system here, especially if there were beings that needed help.

“I can’t help with the lock,” she said, still looking at her scanner. “But I can tell you that the door swings open inwards, and the hinges are on the right side.”

“Swyburne, take care of this!” the sergeant ordered.

Private Swyburne approached the door and then rummaged in a small bag attached to the belt of her environmental suit. She withdrew a round, metallic object about the size of the puck used in zero-g hockey. It was a standard breach charge. She then looked at Jane.

Jane approached the door and, using the scanner as a guide, pointed to where the corporal should place the first charge, and then suggested she set another one about a dozen centimeters above it. All three bolts should easily be blasted away with that placement.

Private Swyburne then used her two thumbs to press the activation button on each charge simultaneously.

“Ten seconds!” she said, forcing everyone to retreat several meters from the door and turn themselves away from it. Breach charges weren’t spectacularly powerful, and they directed their explosive blast inwards. Nonetheless, an explosion was an explosion, and the last thing any of them wanted was an errant piece of shrapnel tearing their suits.

With a muted Puh-kwhooomph , the charges detonated. Jane and the others turned to look at the door again. It had now had two somewhat neat holes blasted through it, blackened around their edges, and it had been pushed slightly ajar.

All of the Marines once more had their pulse rifles trained on the door, with the exception of Morley and Vaughan, who continued to make sure nothing was sneaking up behind the squad. Jane plastered herself against the opposite wall, her blaster pistol raised. She had a really bad feeling about this all of a sudden, and no longer did the pleasing yellow of the walls provide any sense of calm and comfort.

What had happened here?

Where was everybody?

And if they were all in this compartment the Marines had just broken into, why had they scattered when Racine had knocked? It was obvious this station had been built by an intelligent, space-faring species, and yet scattering as they had seemed more like the behavior of…animals.

“Banks, Swyburne!” Sergeant Racine ordered.

Private Banks was an imposing man, about as big as they come. Tall and muscular, he looked like he could have just punched his way through the door earlier, saving the Unitary Marines a couple of breach charges. He approached the entry to the mysterious compartment and used his boot to swing the door open slowly, keeping his rifle ready. When the door was opened enough, he rushed inside, followed by Swyburne, and then the sergeant.

Jane waited where she was. After about thirty seconds, however…

“What the ever-loving fuck?” Sergeant Racine muttered.

“What the hell?” Private Swyburne added.

“Nobody touch anything!” Racine ordered. “Vaughan, Morley…keep a sharp lookout!”

Jane decided she was done waiting. Keeping her blaster in her hand, she entered the compartment, wanting to know what was going on.

Yep…what the ever-loving fuck? she thought as soon as stepped in past the door.

The compartment appeared to be a laboratory of some sort—at least that was Jane’s first impression. Much of what was in here looked familiar, but alien at the same time…

There were several tables, each of which had an assortment of metal implements, and what seemed to be glass containers and vials on them—some of them with colored liquids in them. Circular monitors which hung from the ceiling displayed data in neat rows and columns. A piece of equipment on one of the tables looked to Jane like it could be a giant microscope of some sort, while on another table there appeared to be a printing device, with sheets of a clear, paper-like substance stacked next to it.

The far wall of this compartment was comprised of nothing but cages—very orderly rows of enclosures that were approximately a meter square. Four up and five across, Jane’s eyes quickly tallied.

All of them with their doors open.

If she was back home in her galaxy, she would consider this place nothing more than a boring lab, an impression helped by the fact that all of the walls and most of the surfaces in here were white.

A very sterile white.

Except for the areas that were splattered with blood…

***

They had to be the scientists, Jane determined.

She counted six bodies on the floor. Based on what was left of them, they appeared to be bipedal, and about the size of an average human adult, but with longer arms—at least, the torso that still had an arm attached to it bore one that was longer than the typical human’s.

They had incredibly large eyes but very small mouths on an oval shaped head, and because the mouths on all of them were open—in pain…in screams that were cut off—Jane could see their teeth, which evolution had designed to be unsettlingly human-like in faces that bore no resemblance to Earth’s natives. It was a juxtaposition that made her a little queasy.

There were two openings beneath the mouth, on the chin, and the only conclusion she could make was that those were their nostrils.

Were the two heads with longer brown hair female?

Was the scientist whose jawline seemed more squared off and rugged a male?

Jane had no idea—primarily because there was very little left of these beings to look for secondary sexual characteristics.

They had been torn apart. Viciously, animalistically. What’s more, the blood on the floor—red like most terrestrial lifeforms, at least in the Milky Way—was still wet, which meant whatever had done this, had done it recently.

“ Fordham , are you getting this?” Sergeant Racine asked, keeping his helmetcam trained on the dead aliens.

“ Copy, Alpha Squad, ” Commander Dell’s voice replied.

“Where are those lifeforms?” Private Swyburne asked. Her head was on a swivel, looking this way and that.

Jane wanted to know the same thing.

She didn’t like the answer when it came…

“ Alpha Squad, you’ve got one of the lifeforms in that compartment with you ,” Dell announced. “ The rest have scattered deeper into the station. ”

Jane didn’t see anything, but then again, there was so much large equipment in this room for something to hide behind…

“Personal trackers, people!” Sergeant Racine ordered.

Holly heard the command and activated the tracking system in Jane’s helmet.

A tracking display appeared on her visor, overlaying what her eyes were showing her. Instantly, several small red arrows appeared, pointing to her left. She turned in that direction.

Shit!

Something was behind a tall piece of equipment that was standing about five meters to her left. The equipment resembled a cabinet of some sort, except it had an array of blinking lights along its top edge.

Unlike the Fordham , which was half a million klicks away, Jane’s tracker was able to show her more detail by virtue of being much, much closer.

Whatever was behind that cabinet, it definitely wasn’t one of the scientists…

The infrared scan showed a muscular creature on four legs about the size of a spaniel or a collie.

The Marines saw it as well…

“Banks…” Sergeant Racine said. Taking one hand off his rifle, he gestured to the left.

Private Banks approached the item the creature was hiding behind from the left, while Racine approached from the right, the two of them flanking it, with Swyburne covering them from the front. Jane positioned herself to Swyburne’s right, and about two meters behind the private.

Racine then cautiously peered behind the piece of equipment…

No sooner had he done so when the thing attacked. With surprising speed, it leaped from behind where it was hiding and pounced onto Sergeant Racine. Racine, startled, uttered an exclamation and fell backwards, his rifle firing as he did so, tearing holes in the ceiling with its plasma-energized laser bolts.

The creature stayed on Racine, grasping him with paws that were tipped with long white claws, as the sergeant fell to the floor.

“I don’t have a shot!” Swyburne shouted.

Racine was on his back, grappling with the creature in an attempt to prevent it from sinking its jaws full of teeth into him. Jane knew that if either of the two privates took a shot with their Zed-7 pulse rifles, they could hit the sergeant. Even if one of them scored a clean hit on the animal, there was a good chance the high-energy laser bolts would tear through the creature and hit Racine.

Banks quickly shouldered his weapon and moved to pull the animal off his sergeant, but no sooner had he bent over to try to grab the thing when it shot out one hind leg and unleashed a kick that sent the gargantuan Banks staggering backwards to collide with a wall. It was an unbelievable display of power, and made Jane mutter, “Holy fuck!” and wonder just what the hell this thing was.

Nonetheless, she saw her chance…

Without overthinking it, she took three purposeful strides towards where Racine and the creature were struggling. She was approaching from their sides, out of range of that powerful kick, and when the creature turned its head to snarl at her, she calmly raised her blaster pistol, aimed it straight into the animal’s mouth, and fired.

The creature’s head exploded, splattering blood and tissue, causing the body to slump onto Sergeant Racine’s torso.

“I’m fine!” the sergeant said after Jane kicked the animal off him and started helping him up. “My suit is toast, though…”

This was true. The front of his environmental suit bore several tears. This was testament to the sharpness of the animal’s claws because the material of these suits was the latest in metfab—metal-infused fabric—designed to withstand most things that could puncture or lacerate it.

Jane examined the damage. The tears were deep but not deep enough to have broken through the material entirely, which meant Racine himself hadn’t been wounded by the creature. Nonetheless, his suit needed to be considered as compromised, even though all of the diagnostic readings on it revealed that its seal against the atmosphere outside of it was still intact.

Banks picked himself up from the floor.

“Fucking hell!” he exclaimed. “It was like getting hit with a sledgehammer.”

“Good job, Lieutenant,” Private Swyburne complimented Jane, giving her a pat on the shoulder. “Wanna leave your soft life as a pilot behind and join the Marines? You know…actually work for a living?”

Jane laughed. The Marines and Air Defense personnel were constantly ribbing one another. It usually only became physical if there was booze involved as well.

“Thanks, Private, I’ll consider it,” Jane began. She paused. “But tell me…is it true that I’d need to have most of my brain removed?”

Swyburne laughed and clapped her on the shoulder again.

Jane stood over the creature she had killed, capturing it with her helmetcam.

“ Fordham ,” she said, “one dead… something .”

“ We see it, ” Commander Dell responded. “ Are you sure it’s dead? ”

Jane shot it again.

“I’m sure,” she reported back.

***

Despite the damage to his suit, Sergeant Racine wanted to complete the sweep of this section of the space station. Jane had rolled her eyes at that proclamation. Heaven forbid a Marine bows out of a mission just because the space suit helping to keep him alive had been damaged.

There were three extra suits in her Spacehawk! All pilots were required to carry them. Although, quite frankly, Jane wasn’t entirely sure what condition her spare suits were in. She probably needed to run diagnostics on them the next time she checked her ship’s stores.

Jane and the Marines were about to exit the laboratory when suddenly Commander Dell started speaking.

“ Alpha Squad, we’ve got movement behind you! ” Dell announced, her voice urgent.

Everyone started looking around, their weapons held at the ready, but the tracking system in Jane’s helmet didn’t reveal anything.

“ Fordham , say again. Movement?” Sergeant Racine asked. “Uh…we see nothing behind us in here.”

“ It’s not in there, it’s out in the other passages, ” Dell said. “ I don’t know where they came from! One second they weren’t there, and the next they suddenly popped up on our sensors! Um…we’re tracking fifteen—no…seventeen targets, all heading in your direction. ”

No sooner had the commander provided that update when…

“ Contact! Contact! ”

It was one of the Marines that had been left behind in the passageway. His report was then followed by gunfire, and then that was followed by screams.

Those in the laboratory rushed outside, with Jane bringing up the rear.

They encountered a scene of bedlam…

Many more of those creatures were in the passageway, and they had overrun Morley and Vaughan. In fact, those two Marines each had three of the creatures on them, clawing and biting them. The remaining beasts were now targeting the humans that had come out of the lab.

Jane ducked as one of them launched itself at her. She then spun in a crouch and shot it, but then felt another one latch onto her back.

She drove herself backwards until she collided hard with the nearest wall. The creature on her gave a yelp but didn’t relinquish its grip on her. So, she did the next thing that came to mind: she brought her gun arm up until her blaster was upside down and pointed behind her. She felt the muzzle make contact with the animal, and she fired three times, instantly feeling the creature drop off her.

Shit!

Her eyes just caught sight of one of the animals running along the ceiling , just as easily as she would run along a street. It had its yellow eyes trained on her, but she took aim and blasted it to oblivion.

She saw her comrades trying their hardest to keep up with the onslaught of creatures…

Sergeant Racine and Privates Byron and Swyburne had formed themselves into a tight group, with their backs to each other, forming a killing unit with a 360-degree range.

Private Banks was providing cover for Morley and Vaughan, who were still down on the ground. One of them—Morley or Vaughan…Jane had no idea which—was still shooting even though he was flat on his back, while the other one was not moving at all.

A screech made Jane look to her left.

One of the animals had made it past the Marines and was charging her. Just as it looked about to pounce, she shot it, but then movement on her right caught her attention. Another creature was on the ceiling and had her sized up. It was about five meters away, and just as she turned to face it, it leaped at her, its claws pointed right at her. Unfortunately, because of the angle at which it was coming, and the fact that she’d had to change her center of gravity from her left to her right, she wasn’t able to get her blaster into firing position to kill the thing, so instead, she balled her left fist, and as she completed her turn punched the animal out of the air.

The force of the contact caused her to lose her balance and tumble to the floor, but she had the presence of mind to quickly relocate the creature and then shoot it while she was still down.

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

“Clear!”

Three different Marines called that out. Jane scrambled to her feet and looked around.

The passageway was littered with dead animals, and blood was splattered over the walls and floor. There were also several blaster holes in the walls and ceiling, from errant shots.

“Sarge, we need to get these two back to the Fordham, ” Private Banks said. “Both of their suits are compromised and they’re both cut up pretty bad. Vaughan has lost a lot of blood and is unconscious.”

Sergeant Racine gave the order to return back to the Spacehawk. He then started advising the Fordham of their status. Jane ran ahead in order to get to the ship first and prep it for undocking. She kept her eyes peeled for any more of those… things , but didn’t see any.

She was certain that the powers that be on the Fordham would want to land more troops on this space station in an attempt to come to some sort of conclusion about what had happened. After the troops would come the techs and the scientists. It was the right thing to do. The Fordham and all hands aboard her had been sent to this galaxy to explore, and if this wasn’t something to explore then nothing was.

Right now, all she wanted to do was get clear of this place and get those wounded Marines back to the Fordham so they could be treated.

And she wanted to do it before she and her soldier buddies needed to send out a distress call of their own…