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cREATURE

  Brett P. S.

  Copyright © 2015 Brett P. S.

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER I – DOCKING BAY

  CHAPTER II – STOW AWAY

  CHAPTER III – GEARED UP

  CHAPTER IV – CLOSE ENCOUNTER

  CHAPTER V – NARROW ESCAPE

  CHAPTER VI – BARE ESSENTIALS

  CHAPTER VII – ABOUT TIME

  Chapter I

  Docking Bay

  Helene jumped down from the cockpit of her repurposed S3-81 fighter and planted her feet on the riveted flooring of Solus Station. Her boots met the ground with a clang as the metal clashed with a titanium panel. The docking bay stood practically silent while a handful of mechanics pushed half-filled carts around, hovering haulers fitted to carry scrap ore and other raw materials brought in by the other exploration modules.

  Modules one and two arrived a few minutes before she did, carrying hefty loads of iron ore from the outer limits of the asteroid belt. Modules four and five flew in empty handed, however, returning with little more than mined asteroid rock that Hammond’s people might be able to salvage into something useful. Helene, on the other hand, rode in with an empty cargo pod and a leaking one at that. Whatever rubble remained inside froze over from the flight. Unusable garbage.

  She stared down at the rip in her space suit just above the wrist. The orange fabric tore in a jagged manner. Helene rolled her eyes, surprised that was all the damage she took from the extremophile. Hammond needed to hear about her encounter in detail. Speak of the devil, Helene thought as she looked up.

  Hammond himself walked across the cargo bay and made his way over with a hurried stride and a wide gait. Hammond was an older individual, with hair the color of salt and a thick beard covering his face. Eric Hammond, though the station’s crew mostly called him by his last name. It was more of a rank and status sort of thing. He strode up in front of her, wearing a gray and steel blue jumpsuit.

  “You’re back in one piece, Ms. Kirsch,” Hammond said.

  “Not entirely,” Helene said, holding up her arm.

  Hammond ran his thumb around the edges of the tear. Hammond lacked the expertise to repair such a thing, and Helene doubted he knew much about EV suits, but he was well versed in biology. He knew a bite or claw mark when he saw it.

  “Very interesting,” he said. “You’ll have to use a spare if you go out in the next few days. I need my science crew to examine this one.”

  “What do you think it was?” Helene asked.

  “Something dangerous,” he said. “Something I don’t want my crew blundering into a cavern to meet.”

  Helene rolled her eyes while Hammond wasn’t looking. He released her arm and took a step back to meet her gaze. He stood shorter than most, requiring her to tilt her head down a peg or two. Hammond glared at her with a concerned look. He didn’t notice her rolling her eyes, did he? She was almost certain he couldn’t have.

  “Be careful next time, Helene. You’re the best we’ve got.”

  Chapter II

  Stow Away

  Bobby hustled over to exploration Module Three’s cargo pod with a manic pace and a wide grin. His crewmate and fellow custodian, Joseph, shambled close behind while the both of them walked through Solus Station’s docking bay. Dim lights remained on to light their way while the rest of the crew slumbered.

  Bobby, along with a few other members of the crew, worked on a different biological clock than the majority of residents. Hammond found it necessary to effectively maintain the station’s systems and clean the halls. Bobby didn’t mind much. It gave him an opportunity to walk the station’s halls without the constant noise. On top of that, the crew lived in space, so it really didn’t matter what Hammond considered day or night.

  “Did you hear?” Bobby said. “Lady Kirsch went toe to toe with a space alien!”

  “I doubt it,” Joseph replied.

  “I swear she did. I heard it from three people.”

  Bobby smiled as he leaned against Helene’s fighter. He almost fell back too far, misjudging the distance. Thankfully, though, his shoulder caught in time and Bobby struck a laid-back pose while Joseph pulled out a sonic brush. Joseph took to the hull of the cargo pod and began scrubbing. His brush whizzed as it tore off the caked on space debris caught on Helene’s spacecraft.

  “Did you hear it from Helene?” Joseph said moments later.

  Bobby paused. He recalled those individuals who recanted the story.

  “No, not her,” he said, “But her space suit had a tear in it. I saw that one myself.”

  “That’s not proof, Bobby. Those things tear all the time. Heck, my suit’s made of better material, and I ripped it two weeks ago.”

  Bobby frowned and crossed his arms. Maybe Joseph was right. He whipped out his own sonic brush and dialed up to the proper setting. Joseph snagged the side of the cargo pod, so he walked around to clean to rear. Bobby failed to grasp space terms like aft or starboard. He didn’t know what they meant, though he heard pilots using them from time to time. One surely stood for the back of a fighter like this one. Bobby reached forward, about to scrub when his eyes lit up.

  “See,” he shouted. “I told you it was a space alien! Come look over here!”

  Joseph walked over and grimaced while Bobby showed him a tiny tear in the lining of the pod. The crack looked massive, considering, big enough to fit a small person through if it needed.

  “It’s been there,” Joseph said.

  “I know,” Bobby stammered. “But it’s bigger this time.”

  “Bigger?”

  “Yes, by about ten centimeters up the seam.”

  “You keep track?” Joseph asked.

  “Not all of them.”

  Bobby examined the damage done since his previous examination. About ten centimeters exactly. Ms. Kirsch let this pod go for two weeks on guts alone, but if she collected anything at all, she wouldn’t have flown in with much remaining at this point. Another trip and Bobby feared not much would remain of the junked hauler. The problem was, it took cargo to burst out from the inside, but Helene never brought back anything.

  “Look, cracks get bigger. It’s nothing special.”

  “Let me have a look inside,” Bobby stammered. “Just for a minute.”

  Joseph knocked on the pod a few times to signal both his frustration and that he’d allow it. Bobby nodded and climbed up the railing in back to twist off the console cap. A few screws and the cap fell off, hanging by a loose, sturdy wire. He looked down at a pin pad that reminded him of a calculator. Bobby memorized the cargo pod manual release codes for each ship. He had to. It was part of his job.

  His fingers jittered from the excitement as he entered in the four-digit pin, and the back dome of the cargo pod swung open on a hinge to his left. Bobby jumped down and switched his sonic brush to a flashlight as he ran around. Once in a decent position, he pointed it at the interior.

  “Joe, you need to come look at this.”

  His flashlight illuminated scars and oddly cut grooves marking up the interior of the pod, leaving it a torn mess that made Bobby’s heart thump. A mixture of excitement and fear coursed blood through his veins and made his fingertips tingle. Joseph, having finally walked over, dropped his sonic brush and froze in place.

  “This isn’t good,” he said. “We need to tell Hammond … now.”

  Chapter III

  Geared Up

  Hel
ene bolted through the station’s halls at break neck speed in her regular orange and red jumpsuit. She left her quarters without a chance to suit up into anything refined, but Hammond wanted her now. She glanced down at her watch to check the time, 2:00 AM. She ached from lack of restful sleep and her poor positioning prior to her attempt at sleep. This was getting old, and her paycheck was still late.

  She stopped in front of the command deck’s metallic door and waved her hand across the width of it. The titanium monolith slid open to reveal Hammond and some armed crew working ahead. She ran over to Hammond with shortness of breath, and she sucked in some air while he paced in a circle with his arms crossed. Hammond didn’t appear to notice her until he turned in her direction. He looked up with a shocked expression and shook her hand.

  “Good, you made it,” he said. “Please, take a seat.”

  “I prefer to stand,” Helene said. “What’s all this about?”

  Hammond ran his fingers up over his scalp to slick back some hair that had fallen across his forehead. She glanced around to see more of the command deck lit up than usual. Some of the service crew she recognized toiled away at computer terminals. A bit out of the ordinary for hardware people, though the techies weren’t awake yet. Hammond must have pieced together a working team from willing participants in the mess he scraped up.

  “Something’s loose on Solus,” he said.

  “Some … thing?” Helene asked.

  “The extremophile you encountered. It climbed aboard your spacecraft, and now it resides somewhere on this station.”

  “That’s not likely. I never saw it climb aboard.”

  “Perhaps there were two,” he said. “One to guard the gems. Another to venture out and find them.” Helene caught her second wind, having a hard time believing him. “Take a look at these pictures.”

  Hammond held up a fist-sized tablet and scrolled images of the inside of her fighter’s cargo pod with his thumb. The imagery was striking because the markings reminded her of the rip in her EV suit. She glanced down and pressed her hand against her wrist, and Hammond shot her a serious stare as well.

  “If that’s the case, then we need to put the staff on alert. The thing is dangerous.”

  “I’ve already informed those awake. I asked everyone to remain in their quarters until we’ve dealt with the issue.”

  “That’s a start,” Helene said. “Suit me up. I know its kind best, so I’ll deal with it.”

  Hammond gestured over to a pair of service crewmembers, and they took to it, moving on to the weapons locker toward the leftmost nook of the command deck. The wall there contained assorted battle grade EV suits and boasted a wide variety of laser weaponry in the unlikely case of invasion. The munitions stashed away could supply a team of trained soldiers, but Solus lacked willing volunteers. This Station floated on the outskirts of ordinary civilization, though pirates and rogue elements lurked in all corners of the galaxy.

  “You know you need to pay me on time from now on,” Helene said. “No more extensions, you hear?”

  “I’m doing the best I can,” Hammond explained.

  Helene placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “Listen, I’ll clean this up because I brought it aboard. We can talk about payments after this is over.”

  Helene smiled at him before casually walking past. To say Hammond and his crew on Solus were financially lacking would be putting it lightly. However, Helene liked her job and harbored no thought of leaving any time soon … but if she spotted an opportunity to nudge along her paycheck, she’d jump on it.

  Chapter IV

  Close Encounter

  Helene walked slowly down a narrow hall within Solus. The boots of her EV suit clanked on the flooring and sent vibrations through the walls and rooms beyond. The ringing from each step drove tiny spikes through her ears, so she only imagined what it must be like for the extremophile.

  The alien creature, at least the one she first encountered, didn’t see like a normal animal. It had no eyes to speak of and instead relied on a form of tremor sense. Its long arms and tail slid on the ground or a wall and picked up vibrations. Using all three, it gathered a rudimentary location of anything that moved or breathed for that matter. The accuracy was uncanny, and she understood for good reason.

  “Has it moved yet?” Helene said, tapping her earpiece.

  As she spoke, Helene wrestled to wield her massive rifle. The EV suit boasted thick padded armor able to stop just about anything except a plasma bolt at least once, but what it granted her in defense, it lacked in mobility. The suit restricted the movement of her limbs and torso. She didn’t like it.

  Helene put up with the limitations, however, for two reasons. Primarily, donning the armor kept Hammond and the crew in high spirits, thinking a human tank would mow down the alien menace. Sure thing boss. Second, to be frank, she had no idea how fast the extremophile moved. If it were anything like back on the asteroid, her quickness wouldn’t count for much in a straight fight.

  “No,” Hammond said. “Camera feed shows it nesting for now.”

  “It’s like warming the eggs until the mother returns,” she replied.

  “That is a likely scenario. It’s been making frequent runs to gather precious stones from empty quarters.”

  Helene paused in thought for a moment. Strange. She almost expected there to be at least a few casualties by now.

  “Has it been intentionally avoiding occupied rooms?” she asked.

  “Seems so,” Hammond said. “There must be a reason, though as of yet, I’m in the dark about it.”

  “Let me know if you figure anything out.”

  “Hold on, Madame Kirsch,” Hammond said. “You’re coming up on the cleaning room. Two doors down on your right.”

  Helene held up her rifle and slowly walked over, her eyes and ears scanning for changes in the environment. A changing in shadow. A sudden noise. She imagined a creature living in space didn’t make noises, but a slithering tail and bony arms did. The cleaning room’s door appeared cracked open. She reached over with one hand and gently pushed it aside. Somehow, she felt that if she made as few vibrations as possible, the creature might not sense her. At the least, it might not consider her a threat. She didn’t know if her method would work, but so far, it hadn’t jumped at her.

  Helene brushed away the door with her hand and peered into the deep, dark room. The dim light from her rifle casted a soft glow reflected in the many precious gems nestled at the base of the beast. A long white spiny tail swatted the jewelry, as if bathing in them. She couldn’t make out the details or the form of the alien from the weak light on her rifle. A pitch-black fog covered the depths of the room where it slept.

  “Hammond, it’s too dark to make my shot,” Helene said.

  “Hold on a moment. I’ll turn on the lights.”

  Helene gripped her rifle and peered down the sight, ready to fire once Hammond flipped the breaker. She eyed a spot deep inside with her finger hovering above the trigger, and she exhaled one long breath as the lights flickered on. Helene fired once she caught wind of a moving form, but the creature jumped as soon as the humming electricity coursed through the bulbs and fixtures. It lunged at her and struck before she had a chance to fire a second shot.

  Chapter V

  Narrow Escape

  The creature pinned her down on the floor, her rifle nestled between its powerful jaws. The teeth secreted a thick ooze she hadn’t noticed during her previous encounter. Helene wrestled to break her gun free, but it jerked her weapon from side to side with almost spasmodic movements. Her EV suit did little good besides protecting her vitals as it slashed at her rib cage and carved notches in her chest armor. The blasted thing was too cumbersome, and that was the reason she fell flat on her back.

  “My, you’re feisty,” she said, finally shoving it off.

  She shambled to her feet, trying to acclimate herself to the battle
armor, and gripped her rifle. The creature landed about two meters from her and jerked up to claw her a second time, but Helene fired two bursts from the rifle that cleaved neat holes in the alien’s shoulders. The injury caused one of its arms to give way, and it fell to the floor, skidding a few meters with a body like a rag doll. Helene jumped out of the way, though only barely.

  She readied her aim again and took fire, but the creature jumped and slithered around her with a series of movements she couldn’t accurately observe, slinking its tail like a whip as it flew across walls and ceilings. She caught a glimpse while it slithered past, and she fired three bursts that burned holes through titanium.

  “It’s getting away!” Hammond yelled through her earpiece.

  “Don’t you think I know?” Helene shouted back.

  She whirled around in time to see the remnants of a spiny tail curl past the end of the hallway some meters ahead. Helene reacted with her hand on the trigger, but she held her finger back with force of will. It would do no good to put more holes in the ship. Hammond might dock it from her paycheck. Besides, she wounded the alien.

  “Sorry. I lost it,” Helene said, gasping for air.

  “We’ll investigate camera feeds around the station. It’ll show up soon,” Hammond said.

  “Oh, that won’t be a problem,” Helene replied.

  “Why?”

  Helene grinned as her eyes followed a trail of icy blue liquid running around the bend. The color was different and some patches were thicker than others were, but she knew.

  “I made it bleed.”

  Chapter VI

  Bare Essentials

  Helene broke into a light jog a few hallways back, though it was best she could do sporting her armor. She was used to zero gravity and took to three-dimensional fighting like a fish to water, but this method of combat proved far too limiting for her tastes. Worse yet, the gravity on Solus dragged down her EV suit and crippled her movement speed.

  Helene stopped, decidedly fed up with her current predicament. She lacked the raw speed to keep up with the monster on foot, so she uncoupled her chest armor from her suit and threw it on the ground. Afterwards, she reached down to uncouple her leg fittings. Then the boots.