Creature Page 2

  “What are you doing?” Hammond asked.

  “You want me to catch it? This is the trade off.”

  “One swipe will tear through your suit,” Hammond said. “You can’t fight it as you are now.”

  “Maybe I won’t have to.”

  “Come again?”

  Helene took mental notes the alien’s behavior and had contemplated a few patterns along the brunt of her jogging experience so far. It stayed clear of occupied quarters and chose a dark cleaning room as its nest. It seemed to indicate the fact that it preferred an environment similar to its former asteroid dwelling, though there was more to it.

  “I think it hates the light,” Helene said. “It only ventured to dark places and any place with active lighting makes it go berserk.”

  Hammond paused.

  “I doubt that’s correct for a life form with no eyes,” Hammond said. He paused again. “But you may be onto something. It may be sensitive to the electric fields created by current.”

  “Is it worth a shot?” Helene asked.

  “No, probably not. The creature can withstand a lit hallway, so I doubt anything exists on Solus to more than anger it.”

  Helene grabbed hold of her rifle, the only piece of her armaments she cared to carry with her. She bolted down the hallway, following the trail of murky blue drips until she came to a T-junction. The liquid ran up the wall to her left and into a ventilation shaft. Those air ducts ran all across the station. If it could fit inside one of those, then it pretty well had free access to any portion of the station. Helene frowned and leaned up against a corner while she eyed the shaft.

  “Wait a second,” she said. “What about the command deck?”

  Chapter VII

  About Time

  Helene sunk back in the corner of the command deck with her finger poised on the trigger of her rifle. Hammond sat beside her, most of the crew having left the confines of the steel prison. They switched the lights off and powered down each computer, a process that took long enough that it wasn’t finished by the time Helene arrived.

  The main entrance was sealed shut and she eyed the vents on either side of the room through a haze of darkness. Her eyes eventually adjusted to the lighting, though not enough to see more than general shapes and not very far into the depths of the room.

  The plan was simple. Hammond and his crew juiced up the station’s power reserves and lit up the extremities one by one to drive the extremophile deeper into the heart of Solus. Eventually, it would slither its way into the room with the least amount of running current. When it did … Helene was prepared to handle the situation if their plan deviated from the outline.

  A faint sound echoed from farther down, followed by the crashing of a metal vent grating that fell on the floor. Second came the crackling thud of four limbs landing on top of it. Footsteps trampled the grating and thick knuckles scraped across the floor as the alien made its way to the safest location. Helene squinted, but she couldn’t see it from where she sat.

  “I don’t like this,” Hammond said.

  “You stay put.”

  Helene stood up and walked forward. The creature twitched at the sound of her own footsteps, though it seemed occupied by other matters, since it didn’t slink toward her, at least not yet. This was a new environment and even the dark of Solus seemed to overload its senses. Helene stared down the sight of her rifle once she caught glimpse of some movement, but she waited a few more seconds. Slowly, she eased in and began to make out a tail and two long arms with bony-clawed knuckles. She spotted the wound on its left arm, though the trail of blood eluded her.

  Helene raised one hand and shouted, “Now!”

  Hammond flipped a series of breakers one by one, and the room’s computer terminals and fixtures lit up with a blinding ferocity as the alien jerked in reaction. Helene fired volleys of bursts ripping through its skin and a single shot severed its arm. The alien laid paralyzed from the shock, and maybe the electricity was doing the trick, though that was irrelevant by now. She continued pumping bolts into the creature’s hide until it stopped moving, a moping mass of severed flesh that leaked a murky blue ooze.

  Hammond walked over and peered down at it. He slicked back his hair and nodded, placing a hand on Helene’s shoulder.

  “Well done,” he said. “It’s a shame though. I would have liked to study it.”

  “You don’t pay me to keep things alive,” Helene replied with a smirk.

  Hammond sighed and shoved his hands through his pockets. He took a step back before turning tail and walking off, but he let one phrase slip past his lips.

  “I’m thinking after this, you deserve a raise.”