Flight of the Mystere (Part II) (Patreon)

A Week Later: Avenger DSCV-A8905

“There it is again, sir,” the commtech said, subconsciously leaning forward as if that could help her hear. The bomber commander lazily turned her chair around to face the communications officer.

“Can you get a solid feed on it?” she asked. For two days they had been trying to track down a mystery signal that had so far eluded them. Now, the older Tchienn woman at the communications board gestured excitedly at her. OverLieutenant Ranya Savan had not seen her communications chief so worked up before. “What is it?” she asked.

“I’ve got a fix, sir,” she told her, “and it is definitely an artificial signal. I am having the computer work on it now.” As if to prove her point, she fed the noise through the intercom of the small starship so that all six crewmembers could hear it-- not that it made any difference. Some sort of mechanical chattering in a very alien language, that appeared to be repeated at a regular interval.

“Give me a feed,” the intelligence officer demanded, furiously looking for something to do after nearly a week in space aboard the cramped confines of the combat ship. The computer games, unofficially loaded into the bomber’s computer core, had long since ceased to be amusing. “I can run it through the crypto section,” he justified himself lamely. Ranya smiled her understanding at him. The weapons officer shrugged his indifference and went back to his game of janko with the computer, occasionally doing sweeps with the gun turret scanners. All the serious scanning had been done automatically from the intel officer’s board.

“Alright, Ja’la,” Ranya said to her comm officer, “record, triangulate, and send a package to the Mystere. We’ll see what they want us to do then.” The commtech nodded, her experienced hands flying across the board in response to Ranya’s orders. The commander looked back at the darkened corner of the engineering board, to see her chief engineer’s furry body slumped over a console, eyes glazed. “Somebody wake up Leeda?” she hinted as she spun her chair back towards the front of the ship. The pilot, a wiry young wanni that seemed to be more at one with his ship than with other people, looked across at her.

“So, development important, contact new, what think?” 

Ranya shrugged. “Only contact we have so far and it sounds more like an automated beacon than a real contact,” she summed up. “But still, it is evidence that someone is out here. I am actually surprised that we found something after a week. I thought we would be out here longer.”

“Please. Jinx not,” he replied. Ranya raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him.

“Ensign Khalal, I had no idea you were superstitious.”

“Am not. Tempt fate not, though. Safe, hm?” Before Ranya could think of a sarcastic reply she was interrupted by her commtech, Lieutenant Ja’la.

“I have a triangulation,” she informed. “It’s a small rockball planet, maybe twenty lights away. It falls within our patrol area,” she continued, looking at her commander with some bit of interest in her large, black eyes. “We would have stumbled across it eventually.” Ranya nodded.

“I understand, but no scouting off without alerting our bosses first. Send a burst of everything we have so far to comscan on Mystere. Ensign Bansan, have you been able to unspool anything from that yet?”

“Nothing solid,” the intelligence officer replied, focused and calm now that he had something interesting to do. He stroked his light fuzz of a beard that was just at the stage that Ranya felt made men look mangy. If he kept it trimmed within regulation, she would not have to say anything, but an excuse for her would have been more than welcome. “It has a reciprocating pattern, not very long and with short intervals. A cross ref between crypto and lingo gives three possibilities.” Ranya looked at him as he leaned forward, reading intently at his screen.

“Don’t keep us in suspense, mister Bansan,” she said pointedly.

“Uhh, sir, according to the computer it could be either a distress signal, a navigation beacon, or. . . a warning.” He paused at his own drama, but Ranya was unimpressed.

“A border warning? Or an area quarantine?”

“No preference given by the computer,” the young man assured, “but that is the third most likely possibility.”

“A distress call,” Ranya considered aloud. “Ensign Khalal, plot a course towards the beacon, Lieutenant Ja’la, include Ensign Bansan’s expert opinion in your report to the Mystere,” she instructed, with a slight smile at the intelligence officer. “Mister Bansan, you may have earned a prize today. Perhaps a jar of beard cream, if you’ve run out?”

“Sir! I am within regulation length,” he protested.

“But with a lot of interpretation of regulation tidiness. The operative words are not just trimmed but neat appearance. Tomorrow there’ll be some improvement, sig?”

“Yes, sir,” Bansan replied, nervously smoothing his face as Ranya shared a smile with the pilot.

“Course plot, sir, complete,” he said, as the ship began its arc towards the planet of interest. Around them, the other Avengers had been alerted and were adjusting their flight patterns accordingly. Ranya Savan, being the flight leader of the complete raptor of four bombers covering their sector, reassigned everyone according to her needs, and coordinated directly with the Aurora-class BattleCruiser that was their home in this new, alien location. Replies were quick, and before an hour had passed, Lieutenant Ja’la’s comm board lit up with a holo of Lieutenent-Commander Jiad.

“Eagle Eight-Nine-Zero,” he said evenly, “we have examined your data and concur with the findings of your intel analyst--” in the corner of her eye, Ranya could see Ensign Bansan smile with vindication. “--with one correction. We do not see any evidence to back up the theory of a navigation beacon. Linguistics analysis support either a distress or warning beacon as the most likely possibilities.” Ranya nodded her understanding.

“Yes sir,” she acknowledged, “I have plotted a course to the planet. What are my instructions upon arrival?” The image of Jiad was pushed aside as Commander Mita Cairn, the second in command and intelligence chief, took over.

“Your instructions are to approach with utmost caution,” she instructed. Ranya bit her lip and kept her face impassive; Ranya did not care much for Mita Cairn. “We’re going to treat this primarily as a distress call but with a mind towards it being a warning. Land close to the source of the beacon and hold position, we are sending a cutter and medical shuttle along as backup,” she paused, adding, “you’ll be in charge of the landing party. Wait for them, then scout as the situation dictates. Mystere out,” the transmission abruptly ended. Ranya sat back and faced the crew.

“Okay, you heard the Commander. Prep for entry,” she instructed. Everyone began making preparations.

“Orders from the queen,” Bansan remarked, drawing a smile from Lattimer.

“At ease. Ensign Khalal, give us a hyperlight jump to the planet. Ensign Bansan: one active scan and then full passive ops, Masker engaged. Lieutenant Lattimer, battlecarry HEX, weapons at alert condition two, shields max density. Commo--” she looked at Lieutenant Ja’la, “--silent running, record and burst transmit status reports at regular intervals. Engineering, be ready for emergency procedures. Any questions?” there were none. “Engage.”

The sleek, grey dagger-like ship shot forward, while inside there was no perception of movement except for the viewscreen. The stars shifted briefly to blue and almost immediately shifted out again as the torpedo bomber emerged from hyperlight velocity. The computer automatically scanned the are and the gun turrets remained locked in place, facing out over the stern of the ship. Apparently, there was nothing in the immediate area that the ship’s AI could perceive as a danger to the vessel. That’s good, Ranya thought, considering that Avenger AI’s are supposed to be notoriously paranoid of the outside world.

“Anything out there?” she asked nonchalantly. Ensign Bansan shook his head.

“Nothing I can see, sir,” he said with a slight tone of uncertainty to his voice.

“Something you’d like to add, Ensign Bansan?” Ranya asked. The younger man furrowed his brow and locked his sensors onto something that looked to Ranya like empty space.

“I have what looks like a trail of ionized particles,” he said, “a bit thicker than background radiation. Some sort of a residue from an old power plant, maybe. A nuclear powered vessel of some sort came through here. . . “ he paused for a moment, “Thyssa, I can’t tell for sure.” He swept the area around the radiation patch. “I think they moved off in this direction,” he said, indicating an area on his viewscreen, “but I’m not sure. It’s very weak, and I’m still not sure it isn’t just background rads,” he looked at her, almost apologetic. Ranya nodded encouragement.

“No worries,” she said, “the ship doesn’t seem to think it’s a threat, and probably no one else would have caught it. Good job, you’re doing fine. See what you can dig up on that while we do a quick orbit. Lattimer, you handle groundscan, sig?” she directed, giving the bored weapons officer something to do. It was not long before they had a fix on the source of the beacon, a large metal object configured like no ship they had ever seen before.

“Looks like a wishbone,” Ranya muttered when she got a feed from Lattimer’s board. “What kind of damnfool silly aliens are we dealing with here, anyway?” she joked, “alright, let’s get our feet dirty. Lattimer, what kind of climate are we looking at?”

“According to the system model we’ve constructed, it should be a brilliant spring day down there. Full protective armor and oxygen tanks a must.” Even the weapons officer’s announcement did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the crew. After a week of being lost in god-knows-where deep space, they finally found evidence of another civilization.

“I’ll leave the tanning lotion aboard then,” Ranya quipped. “Alright, Khalal, bring us down. I want to be within walking distance of the galactic wishbone.” The Avenger plunged through the clouds, leaving a vapor trail and heat signature that effectively made their Masker pointless. Ranya turned off the stealth device and had the bomber land in plain sight. There was no reaction whatsoever from the alien ship, just the continuous repeating of the beacon. The ship itself was quite large, and if it was a distress call, what sort of resources could a lost and alone BattleCruiser offer to a stranded crew of hundreds of aliens? Communications would be hard enough if they were in good shape, she thought, how do we communicate, ‘where does it hurt’?

With a slight vibration, the torpedo boat settled on its grav cushion, resting a meter above the planet’s soil. Outside, the wind howled, scattering dust and debris everywhere. It was bad enough that Ranya kept the navigational deflectors on after dropping the battle shielding. Inside, she picked who was going to suit up and join her on her “nature stroll”.

“I want Ja’la to stay here and be a commo relay, and Khalal always stays with the ship. I want Leeda along to get a look at their tech, Ensign Bansan will keep his eyes open for intelligence interests, and Lieutenant Lattimer will provide additional security. Suit up and check out your weapons,” she ordered, and went to retrieve her own gear. The crewers usually wore their thermal body gloves under their uniforms, and so it was only a matter of minutes to change into armor. They chose the extended-range backpacks supplied to the Central Star Navy for EVA operations, giving each of them twelve hours of oxygen apiece. With their helmets on, they looked like any of the Central Army’s standard armored combat soldiers, the exception being the Naval insignia on their breastplates.

“Commo check,” Ranya ordered. One by one, the crew checked their communications, then their oxygen flow and suit seals. Satisfied, they picked up their weapons-- three blaster carbines with replacement cells and a shotgun for Lieutenant Lattimer. From the bridge above, Lieutenant Ja’la called them.

“Our backup is here,” she informed them, “I have three ships pulling into orbit.” Ranya frowned.

“There’s only supposed to be two,” she reminded her, “a cutter and a medical shuttle.”

“I remember,” came the reply, “but the shuttle and cutter are parking in geosynch over the wishbone, and the third ship-- a Corsair class combat drop shuttle-- is coming to park next to us.” Ranya shrugged.

“Whatever. Extra support is fine with me.” The crew made their way to the airlock and cycled it, then lowered the ladder and climbed down, buffeted by the strong winds.

“What a shithole!” Bansan muttered. Ranya ignored him, watching as the Corsair class shuttle came to rest on its own antigravity field. The Corsair was basically just a modified Avenger, with the lower weapons bay hollowed out and fitted with a pair of large pods on either side to accommodate extra cargo. Ranya wondered what gifts they were supposed to receive. She soon had her answer: the rear ramps opened and out came a pair of VM-95 gravjeeps. A small group of armored crewers surrounded the vehicles, a couple of which had medical insignia on their armor. Ranya noticed that the others also had weapons. A Deck Officer separated himself from the group and approached her, saluting.

“Sir,” he said, “I’m Deck Chief 1st class Davidi.” Ranya returned his salute.

“Good to meet you, Davidi,” she replied, “what do we have here?” she motioned towards the jeeps, which she now noticed had extra boxes of equipment piled into them, most of which was marked with medical insignia.

“Two medics are with us and we got a TransMat to the medical shuttle,” he informed her. “I also got two jeep drivers from the Regiment and a couple of troops to act as security,” he added, motioning to the armor-clad figures standing near the vehicles. Ranya could see that these were regular Army troops, and carried not carbines but full AR-71 blaster rifles. The medics had pistols on their belts. Davidi carried a Navy carbine. No one else came down the ramp, the Corsair crew had no intention of joining them in the inhospitable climate. A voice in her ear turned her to see Lattimer, gesturing at a bare patch of land between the two Centrality ships.

“Check this out,” he announced, “blast patterns. The rock is scorched, like somebody landed here awhile ago.” Ranya thought about what Bansan had theorized-- that another ship, an older one, may have also stopped by here. Was it another potential rescuer? Did it happen before the alien ship crashed? Was it an enemy that had shot down the alien? She dismissed it as something that only investigation would reveal.

“Alright, let’s get the party going,” she insisted. The jeeps could easily hold up to eight people apiece, and it was a matter of moments before they were gliding towards the alien ship, its silhouette eerie against the rocky landscape. It had the appearance of something that had been out in the weather for quite awhile, and Ranya had a sinking feeling that they were probably not going to find anyone helpful aboard. “I think we’re just going to end up marking a cemetery site, folks,” she announced. In the other jeep, she could see Davidi nod his helmeted head in agreement. The security troops relaxed their posture a bit, but not by much. It was plain to all that the derelict had been grounded for quite some time.

They pulled up to the side of the derelict, finding a hole torn in the side that would allow them entry if they dismounted the jeeps. Scans had shown nothing alive on the planet so far besides themselves, so Ranya had the drivers lock the controls on the jeeps and follow them inside. There, the mood shifted, and the Army troops became more defensive, leveling their rifles out in a standard field-of-cover pattern. They also found that the alien ship effectively cut off communications once they entered it, so they set a time limit with the ships of three hours.

“Look at this place,” Leeda murmured aloud, gazing around at the structure of the ship. “It all has an organic look to it.” The small wanni female instantly shoulder-strapped her carbine and started examining the consoles. Everything was blended together, and it was hard to tell where one type of machinery ended and another began-- or if it even was machinery of any sort.

“No hard corners at all,” Lattimer noted as well. He also lowered his carbine and joined the chief engineer in her examination of the ship. Ahead, the Army troops stopped and looked at them, then each other, before going back to their defensive posture. Ranya grimaced inside her helmet.

“Alright, kids,” she said, “we’ll have plenty of time to check this out later. Right now, let’s see if we can find the crew.” She moved her crewers forward, and looked over at Davidi, who had a powerful hand scanner out. “Anything?” she asked. The Deck Chief shook his head. She motioned ahead and strode past the Army troops, her carbine at the ready. “Keep an eye out,” she said unnecessarily. They stalked forward, alternately examining the fascinating organic design of the alien ship and watching for any signs of danger. It was beginning to get almost monotonous when one of the Army troops called out.

“Got one here! Check him out!” The others dashed forward, carefully, and Ranya rounded the corner to see what the excitement was. The troops stood, still in their defensive stances but looking up at a huge figure reclined on a. . . a what? Was it a chair? An instrument panel? A weapon? Whatever it was, the creature-- easily twice as tall as a human being-- had died long ago. Its skeletal remains were obvious underneath stretched, dried skin. Ranya’s eyes were drawn to the obvious cause of the creature’s death: a large hole, punched through the alien’s chest. The ribs-- she called them ribs only because that was what they resembled-- were forced outward. She wondered if there was a corresponding entry wound on the creature’s back as well, and if so, why would it be lying down on it?

“Looks like something exploded out of his chest,” one trooper remarked casually. “Fucked up way to go,” he added, before returning to watching down the corridor they had yet to go down. Ranya silently agreed.

“Well, if this guy is any indication,” she said, motioning towards the body, “there probably won’t be any work for you guys,” she said to the medics. The medics shrugged and picked out their scanners, asking permission to examine the alien carcass. Ranya nodded, looking around at the rest of the chamber. It was fairly barren, and she wondered how much of the alien technology was based on organic tech, and if so, how much of it had simply decayed before they arrived. No one around to water the hyperdrive, she decided, and look what happens. The medics pored over the creature while Lattimer and Leeda scrounged for technological clues. Davidi and Ensign Bansan had found their way over to a hatch that opened into a deck below. The black hatch yawned before them, and they shone their lights down to see only vague shapes in the darkness. Nothing moved.

“There’s something down there alright,” Davidi noted, “I got organic scans all over, very low level. It looks like there are a whole bunch of things alive down there,” he said, leveling his helmeted gaze at her. Ranya called everyone else over immediately.

“Hypotheses?” she asked in general.

“Possible hibernation chambers,” Davidi replied, “rest of the crew went downstairs to sleep it off, wait for rescue. Ship is obviously not going anywhere.” A few heads nodded in agreement, the medics kept looking into the hole with interest. The Army troopers continued to watch the corridors and keep a wary eye on the hatch as well. No one else had any other ideas.

“Well, that just leaves the question, who wants to head down first,” she stated plainly. Bansan seemed about ready to step forward but suddenly thought better of it, he hesitated for a moment-- long enough for Lattimer to make the first move.

“Hell, I’ll check it out,” the older man said. “You’ll trip on yourself,” he chided Bansan as he pulled out a length of cable from his pack. Ranya motioned for the rest of her crew to cover him from the hatch as they attached the cable and lowered it down. Lattimer shouldered his shotgun and lowered himself into the inky darkness. “This is huge,” he said over the comm, “Probably a cargo hold or something. I hope nobody thinks I’m a pirate,” he added with some humor. Actually, if there is some crew alive, that may be problematic, Ranya decided. She switched her carbine’s sight to thermal and couldn’t see any better, so she kept it on standard and tried to follow Lattimer’s actions. Finally, the cable went slack.

“Okay, I’m on the deck,” he said, looking around. He unshouldered his shotgun and held it even at his hip, not really looking for trouble. “There’s a walkway here, with two large pits off to either side,” he described, looking back and forth. “There’s a bunch of shapes down here, round, but they are way too small to be related to our guy upstairs,” he said. Mentioning the creature made the Army troopers look down the corridor they had come from where the dead giant lay. For some reason, Ranya thought, they looked edgy.

“What are the shapes?” Davidi asked.

“I dunno,” Lattimer replied, “there’s a mist of some sort hovering above them. They look like . . . here, let me get a closer look,” he said, and Ranya heard him grunt as he lowered himself down into one of the pits.

“How deep are those pits?” she demanded.

“Not too deep, I can climb out easy,” Lattimer reassured her. “The round things look like big eggs of some sort, but without shells. Like they’re eggs with skins instead.” One of the medics shifted.

“There’s a mist? Are the eggs respirating?” he asked. Lattimer was silent for a moment.

“Like breathing? I dunno. Something is definitely alive inside them, a couple of them look like there is something kicking around in them.” On the upper deck, excitement and curiosity stirred. “One of them is opened over here,” he said. Ranya suddenly felt nervous.

“It’s hatching?” she asked.

“No,” the weapons officer replied, “It was already hatched. Some time ago, looks like,” he said, “it looks like it’s partially decayed. I wonder if these are their young? Egg-layers?” he was silent for a moment, then, “Maybe the hatched one is our dead guy up top?” A few of the others began to mutter among themselves, the medics debating whether or not to pull the eggs up from the hold. One of them was already moving to climb down and looked to Ranya for permission.

“Lieutenant Savan?” he asked, letting the question hang. Ranya motioned for him to stay. She was getting a bad feeling about the situation.

“Lieutenant Lattimer, I want you to return to us. We’ll get a more qualified team to take a look at all these.”

“Yes sir,” he replied, and then, “Hey! One of them is moving!”

“Moving? How?” she demanded, both fascinated and concerned. In the back of her mind a voice sternly warned her to get Lattimer out.

“Just quivering a bit,” he replied, “there’s an organism of some sort squirming around.” Ranya’s mind was made up.

“Get out of there, we don’t know what this is. We can see what happens from up here, just get your ass back up here.”

“Yes sir,” he acknowledged, “If I may sir, if something is being born it might need assistance,” he added. The medic nodded in agreement and motioned towards the cable again. Ranya pointed at him to stay put.

“Yeah,” Ensign Bansan pointed out, “but when it pops out, it may well also be hungry.”

“Alright, I’m on my way, but this thing is opening up,” he said. He turned to face the walkway to search for a handhold. From the corner of his eye, he could see the four corners of the egg’s leathery skin fold back. He looked back at the thing and was shocked to see something dart out. It looked like a huge, leathery spider. “What the fuck was that!?” he hollered, his heart racing. Ranya leaned forward, looking into the pit and scanning the area with her weapons sight. Everyone tensed and the troops dropped to kneeling firing positions and started scanning the corridors.

“Lattimer, talk to me!” she demanded. For a second, only his adrenaline enhanced breathing could be heard.

“Something popped out of the egg,” he said, forcing his voice to be calm, “it’s alive. It looked like a big spider, with a tail. It was bigger then my hands put together,” he said, more normally now. “I can’t see it now.”

“Fuck it, Lieutenant! Get your ass up here now!” She heard Lattimer grunt, lifting his way up onto the walkway.

“Huh?” she heard him say, then, “Thyssa! Get off me you fuck!” Ranya launched herself down the cable before anyone could react, the medic immediately followed, then Bansan.

“Rest of you, stay there and cover us!” she ordered. Ahead, Lattimer writhed on the ground. The medic rushed for him while Ranya and Bansan looked to either side at the vast warehouse full of leathery eggs. A sinking feeling overcame her as she looked down at the freshly opened shell, still venting steam into the cold atmosphere. Nearby, a few other eggs seemed to quiver.

“Goddamn!” the medic cursed. Ranya looked over at Lattimer, rolled over on his side as much as his pack would allow. A large, spiderlike creature had latched onto Lattimer’s faceplate. The edges of the helmet were bubbling and corroded, as if they had been hit with acid. The medic shook his head. “We have to get him out of here,” he said. Ranya motioned Bansan to help the medic carry Lattimer out, while she scooped up his dropped shotgun. Bansan grunted with one leg while struggling with his weapon. Ranya grabbed the other leg while the medic anchored his arms under Lattimer’s armpits. The other medic was lowering a stretcher that had been hastily inflated and filled with hardening gel. It came with a powered hoist. Lattimer’s limp body was put in it and he was winched up.

“Oh, Thyssa,” Bansan moaned, and Ranya could see a pair of eggs begin to open up. Ranya settled her sights on one of the creatures just beginning to crawl out the opening and fired a burst of energy into it. There was enough atmosphere to transmit sound, and Bansan jumped at the sudden noise so close to him. He brought his own weapon up and started firing into the eggs as well, and soon he and Ranya were working the rows up each side of the walkway, carving into the leathery skins with lances of energy. The medic reached for the shotgun and Ranya tossed it to him, and he added to the destruction.

The hoist was lowered again and Ranya had the medic get in, and told Bansan to take the cable up. From the hatchway, the others added their fire to cover the escape. Most of the eggs in their immediate sight had already been destroyed, but the cargo hold stretched off far beyond the light of the open hatch. Who knew what stirred beyond their sight? When the stretcher was lowered for the last time, Ranya was sure that she could see vague little shapes crawling along the walkway from the dark cavern, and she practically leaped from the stretcher into the light of the corridor.

Lattimer lay on the deck, both medics looking at him. The creature had completely fastened itself to his face and resisted any attempts to be pulled off. The troops were jumpy and kept glancing between the hatch, the halls, Lattimer and Ranya. Nearby, she saw Bansan, collapsed against a wall, his head in his hands, and she could hear him mumbling incoherently over the comm.

“Get your asses together,” she commanded to everyone, “Let’s head back to the jeeps-- you,” she motioned towards the soldiers, “you have grenades, right?”

“Yes sir,” their leader, a corporal, said. They moved to the edges of the hatch and combed the area with their rifle sights. Davidi used the scanner and pulled back, surprise evident in his body posture.

“The place is crawling with them,” he said. The soldiers fired a few bursts from their weapons at full power, then lobbed grenades down into the darkness. Muffled thumps rolled up through the open hole. Lattimer was secured back aboard the stretcher, which was now connected to a remote-controlled antigrav sled. Grenades expended, the troops took up guard positions at the front and led the way back out, followed by Ranya and Davidi, his eyes glued to the scanner. No other life forms appeared on his screen. The medics followed, guiding Lattimer’s body out, and Bansan and Leeda brought up the rear. They piled into the jeeps and raced back to the ships, transmitting distress calls the whole way.

They went to the Corsair first, Lattimer and the medics jogging right past them all and into the TransMat, which placed them immediately in the medical shuttle.

“They’ve got him,” Lieutenant Ja’la called out, “Heading back to the Mystere right now!”

“Let’s go,” she ordered to Davidi. His crew hastily re-stowed the jeeps and piled aboard as Ranya and her crew did the same. They did not bother to remove their armor, just cycled a quick decontamination through the airlock, secured their weapons and flew into the bridge. Khalal already had the engines idling.

“Commander Cairn wants you to report to her the instant we return,” Ja’la informed her. Ranya growled her reply.

“Imagine that. Let’s get off this goddamn rock!” she barked, noting Bansan in the corner of her eye. He seemed catatonic at his board, sweat plastering his dark hair to his head. The Avenger lifted from its grav field and shot into the atmosphere while Ranya slaved the weapons station to her board and shut it down. 

Within a few minutes, they were at hyperlight, and racing for the Mystere. The image of Lattimer’s body, his face covered with that alien thing haunted her. The stars shifted briefly to red as the bomber emerged from hyperlight just in time to see the cutter and medical shuttle enter the bay. Ranya’s Avenger followed and she was almost out the airlock before the vessel had settled in its berth.

Commander Cairn stood, waiting, at the end of the walkway. To either side, Ranya could imagine rows of leathery eggs, bursting, spewing forth face-hugging death spiders. Why not Commander Cairn? she wondered briefly, her teeth grinding. This is the last thing I need now. Mita Cairn shifted to attention and returned Ranya’s salute.

“Your crewman has already been sent to sickbay,” the ship’s second-in-command informed her. “He’s in the biohazard section, and stable. They are preparing surgery, and it will be awhile before there will be any progress.” She stopped and informed Ranya that, since that was the case, they had time for a briefing.

“You can get what you need from the helmet recorders,” Ranya insisted. Cairn shook her head.

“I can get the images, sequence. . . but I will also want to know why you did the things you did, and only you can answer that.” Ranya closed her eyes and sighed for a moment, forcing the tension out of her body. There was no way out of this, and she could nothing for her crewman now, and this would keep her focused until she could see him.

“Of course, sir,” Ranya replied finally. “let’s take care of this.”

(To be continued...)