Sneak Peek: The Serpent's Garden, Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Crouched behind a pile of crates, Iresk-Tolem clutched the stunner in his hands tightly. Sweat dripped down his neck, matting his thin fur. He heard the clicking chatter of the enemy as as it moved through the hallway. Huddled next to him was quartermaster Hearl-Taso. It was just the two of them now. Her near-death experience had shaken her to her core and she’d barely left his side over the last few days. He hadn’t had it in him to remonstrate her. He could only imagine what the woman was going through; he’d never had anyone die for him, nor had he nearly been pulled into the rip to be...

...he honestly didn’t know what came after that. The most common consensus was that an organic body, far more fragile than even the most primitive of faster-than-light craft, would simply be torn apart, eventually rendered down into nothing but subatomic particles. There were claims that someone pulled into the rip might not be instantly dissolved, but seized by the current. Unable to breathe, eyes filled with the unfiltered incomprehensibility of another dimension, mind eroding, body screaming, pulled farther into the depths and knowing that no one could ever find you in time as you died by degrees...

And there were other, still darker whispers that claimed the rip consumed its victims’ bodies, but their minds stayed intact, trapped forever within the rip. Unable to truly die, unable communicate, unable to feel anything but their own terror and despair, howling a single futile thought over and over again. Let it end. Let it end. Let it end...

No, he couldn’t fault anyone, man or woman, for having a severe reaction to such an event, and Hearl-Taso had hardly been a cringing cub. As the rest of the crew had worked to repair Unveiling of Satisfactory Emolument, she had been taking stock of the remaining supplies – what had been lost, what was damaged or inaccessible – to provide Engineering, Medical and other departments clear ideas of what they had left and coming up with rationing plans to make the most out of Emolument’s foodstuffs.

As it turned out, all that work hadn’t been necessary. They’d barely begun to realize the gravity of the situation when it became clear that they were not alone in this system. Something else was here with them, and it was not at all friendly.

There was a crash from down the corridor as the enemy kicked an empty crate, staving in its side and sending it lurching to one side. Iresk’s hands tightened on the useless stunner. It was designed for security personnel who had to sort out unruly or drunken crew members, directing a variable-intensity jolt of energy that temporarily disrupted the nervous system and left its targets woozy, disoriented, limp and as weak as a newborn cub.

Against the thing stalking the corridor, it was about as useful as throwing rotten fruit.

Iresk’s comm lay silent in his jacket pocket. All communications aboard Emolument had been disabled, save for the intruders’ own radios. When they’d been boarded, he’d locked the bridge down and evacuated it with the intention to regroup at auxiliary control. They’d never made it. Unveiling of Satisfactory Emolument was a xebec, not a Pride ship. Its greatest defence against attack was not being attacked at all. As heavily damaged as it was, it stood no chance of repelling an assault. They would have surrendered...

..if only they’d let us.