With a final shove, Lucy pulled the switch. David and Walter held on as the ship quickly jumped through space itself and landed with a thud. They were on board. Lucy let out a small sigh of relief. She hadn't been entirely sure she wouldn't miss her target. After a glance to David and Walter, she opened the door.
A white corridor greeted them. D'Artagnan quickly turned into a mouse to hide in her coat pocket as Lucy braced herself to leave the ship. A hand on her shoulder made her feel a little more sure, and she smiled at David before walking out the door. Lucy locked the door after David and Walter. She couldn't have Evil David stealing her ship. No words were said as they separated. All of them knew the plan.
Down the corridor and to the right would lead to the bulk of the crew while the left would take her closer to David. There would likely be sealed doors, but a laser screwdriver would have no problem with those. Lucy took a deep breath before extracting the screwdriver from her arm. David had said there would be a door sealed shut nearby. It was the most efficient way to test whatever monster Evil David had created while keeping most of the colonists safe.
With a loud creak, it opened. Lucy shut and sealed the door behind her. Walter and David would be busy enough with the colonists; they didn't need an extra guest. It seemed that David had been right when guessing his alternate self's strategies. The corridors where the ship had landed were pristine. These however… blood splattered the halls along with a trail of odd mucus. Saliva maybe? But it most likely something much worse. Lucy tried not to think about it as she walked stealthily through the hall.
"Hello there," David's voice echoed through the speakers. "And who might you be? I don't remember releasing you to my beast."
Lucy kept her mouth shut. No doubt his theatrical nonsense was going to attract the creature, and she wasn't going to give it a clue to her location.
"A woman of few words. Well, I have little doubt my creature will take care of you shortly. Don't worry. I won't give it hints to your location. That would hardly be fair… Survive and I will award you for your efforts. Now the game begins."
A loud thump made Lucy stop and hide under a desk. She waited for something to appear, but the room was completely silent. Perhaps it moved on. A sudden movement caught her eye as something dripped from an overhead vent. A coffee mug caught Lucy's eye. Tossing it to the far side of the room, she waited.
A hiss made the hair on her arms stand up. With a lithe movement, something dark fell out of the vent. It looked vaguely humanoid but with a sharp tail. Close to the creature they had found on the planet but more… mechanical. David had clearly decided to upgrade his "beast." The creature turned, and Lucy went completely still. A woman. The creature had once been a woman.
A woman's face, marked by odd black veins, was now the only clue that this had been one of the colonists. Her eyes were gone. They had been replaced by an odd mass of writhing black tissue. As the creature hissed again, Lucy noticed an odd extension of its protruding from its head. When the creature stood, Lucy noticed that her body had elongated. What had likely been an average sized woman now stood at an impressive ten feet. There was no humanity left in its behavior as it scanned the room. Whoever this had been was gone. Only a monster remained.
David's voice echoed from the speakers, "I'll be broadcasting throughout the ship. My creation is intelligent enough to recognize that I only speak to survivors, which makes for a very dull challenge. I have made quite a few improvements although I must admit… the eyes are a shame. I didn't know they would mutate that much… But that should give you a little bit of an edge. Use it wisely."
Lucy bit her lip to keep herself from swearing. The creature gave a frustrated roar before it left the room in the exact direction that Lucy needed to go. Taking out the map, she plotted her next move. She was still a ways from the cockpit. Maybe there was a way to reroute the creature to a different part of the ship.
It hadn't noticed her under the table, so its vision must be poor if at all useful. Lucy looked around for something to use. The open vent was tempting, but she knew it would hear her moving. Suddenly a door opened and slammed shut. The creature ran with ungodly speed into the room on her left. The door shut behind it.
"Run, dammit!" Anti shouted, and Lucy bolted out of the room.
Sealing the next door she found shut behind her, she continued down the corridor. A thump in the vent alerted her to the creature's new location. Whispering an expletive, she bolted into another room, taking refuge in a closet.
"That was an interesting trick. I'd ask you how you did it, but you likely won't be alive for much longer," David teased from the speakers.
Without a doubt, Lucy would be breaking one of his hands later, but for now she needed to survive. A soft thud alerted her to the creature entering the room. Lucy held her breath as the creature looked blindly around the room. After a moment of hesitation, Lucy turned up the dial on the laser screwdriver to its maximum setting. Now it could cut through most things… even metal.
The creature's tail swerved along the floor. It seemed to not notice the closet, or perhaps it was playing with her. Lucy used the small opening in the doorway to aim.
"How did they get on the ship? Who are you with?!" David snarled. "No matter… she can handle them. Even Synthetics can't compete with perfection."
Lucy heard David's voice from down the hall. The creature growled before following the sound, and Lucy sat stunned for a moment.
"Lucy! I can't shut the doors. This bitch won't let me!" Anti screamed in frustration as a woman's voice sounded over the intercom, "Access denied. Controls locked."
Lucy bolted out of the closet and aimed the screwdriver at the charging creature. The laser hit the base of its tail, and it let out a feral shriek. Lucy jumped into another room before it turned around and hid behind a cryo pod. Loud footsteps echoed closer before the creature charged into the room where Lucy had hidden in the closet. She changed the setting on the screwdriver and fired at the door. Perhaps a manual override would work.
The door closed. Lucy quickly ran out of the cryo pod room and through the hallways. The sound of metal shrieking followed her down the hall. How was it that strong? Did she have time to open the door to the cockpit before it broke free? The answer became apparent as the door slammed into the wall in front of it. Lucy dived behind a doorway. It was a closet.
"Hey, Lady. Yoo hoo! I've got some stuff to say to you!" Anti's voice echoed from the speakers at the other end of the hall. "Come this way! Free champagne!"
"You do not have authorized access," the female voice continued, but Anti just cackled madly.
His voice got further away as Lucy heard the creatures footsteps move along behind. She jumped out of the closet and unlocked the door before sealing it behind her. She hoped that Anti was luring the creature into an escape pod or out of an airlock. She looked around the area as she walked. It seemed that David had managed to keep the creature away from this section.
"Impressive," David said as he approached with a smug confidence. "You can tell me how you managed that trick before I kill you."
Taking a moment to analyze him, she felt oddly calm. The rage had cooled into something more useful. This wasn't her David. From the way he stood to the deranged look in his eyes, he was a completely different person. And that was what she had been looking for.
Lucy glared at him and replied calmly, "David. I am going to rip out whatever you have as a spine… and I'm gonna beat you with it, but first I want answers."
David raised his eyebrow with a look of bemusement and asked, "And you think I will just give them to you?"
D'Artagnan leapt out of Lucy's pocket and transformed into a bo staff. Lucy used David's confusion to slam him into a control panel. He crashed into the ground and glared at Lucy with pure fury.
"Yeah, you're gonna give them to me," Lucy informed with cold malice. "Because I'm Lucy Allen, and you've never met a bitch quite like me."