It’s right on the other side. It’s listening for me as I’m listening for it. Robert is dead. Fresh meat.
Norah imagined a horrible nightmare mirroring her in the hallway. Waiting. Bloodthirsty and hungry. She lost track of time again while she was frozen in fear, imagining noises and the terrible scenarios that went with them.
She didn’t know what to do, having never trained for combat; having never thought that she would be prey to a predator.
She was a chemist. The only dangers she was supposed to face were runaway reactions and unpredicted products. She had undergone emergency preparedness training, as was required for anyone going to an uncolonized world, and was equipped with everything she would need to wait for help from Earth.
Norah moved away from the door and took a deep breath.
First, she found the discarded fire blanket and hung it on an open drawer to dry. Then scrambled under the table where the rest of the emergency supplies were stored, shoved back for her doomed samples.
She dug through it like a wild woman, blinded, until her hand landed on the flashlight. She turned it on, and appreciated the miracle of light more than she ever had before.
Her lab was destroyed. It hurt. Robert’s body made it worse, and she went to work with the mindset of someone who didn’t want to die but knew full well that she might.
A shriek, an ear-splitting wail rose up in the distance and echoed off the walls. Her heart raced. Her body convulsed with shivers. But she didn’t let it stop her. If she was going to survive, she was going to have to toughen up.
She found the receiver and telecom stored in her bag and broadcast a distress call, shouting a frightened whisper into the recorder. Norah begged for help she didn’t believe would come in time.
Axone was in Euthenia and Euthenia was as far out as any human colony could currently go. It was one of a dozen settlements that fell under the administrative umbrella of “The Next Great Frontier”that the government had been forced to create in order to satisfy private organizations, like hers, that couldn’t be told ‘No’.
Help wasn’t coming.
Not until we’re missed. Not until they decide to investigate…They wouldn’t leave millions of dollars of equipment. Would they?
Her doubt was as strong as her fear.
She only hoped that someone at the ship was still alive and would come back for her. Her eyes landed on Robert’s body.
She was expendable, she knew she was, but some of her coworkers were not. David, the xenobiologist, was an expert in his field and Elton was a virologist and bacteriologist that had had a hand in finding cures for half a dozen intergalactic illnesses. They analyzed habitable planets, habitable locales for future development.That was valuable. We’re valuable.She told herself in comfort.
Norah went to Robert’s corpse. She needed to get him out of the water before further decomposition set in. She grabbed his arms and dragged him across the floor to the door, letting him drop beside it.
In spite of her despair, she took out her pistol and, with the flashlight, she nudged the door open. Norah aimed the light toward the ground, not wanting to give herself away.
But it didn’t matter.
She was trapped.
The ceiling had caved in and filled the hallway with plaster, cement, and insulation. A waterfall of rain fell from the crushed and burned ceiling, the victim of an errant lightning bolt, at least she hoped. Norah could smell the smoke and charred plastic. If there was a god then she was surely under his thumb.
No, she was under the heel of his boot.
Or that the devil was smiling down at her.
Either way, she was screwed.
Norah could still hear the monsters screeching outside; her nose began to bleed again.
***
He wasn’t headed for Ghost; he hadn’t even told Matt that he’d turned his ship around.
It didn’t matter anyway, Matt was stuck with him and his perfectionism.
The man had a chance to bail like everyone else had in his crew, but he’d chosen to stay.
Stryker had finally stopped trying to prevent his inevitable descent into a life alone out in space. A life interrupted only by machines like himself. He already felt he wasn’t answerable for his actions.
