It felt good to work with his paws again. More often than not the two-tailed fox was resigned to supervise repairs or designed upgrades. Rarely did he get a chance to tinker on his own, although the kit wished it was under different circumstances.

Tails was about to break all the rules. A plasma cutter was a class five device and subsequently never supposed to receive any type of modification under any circumstances. He would have been lying if he said he didn't dream of making some 'improvements' to the tool, but the prospect of loosing both his job and his engineering license was not appealing.

Gently, the two-tailed fox tightened a screw, adjusting the lens that controlled the refracting laser that super heated a pocket of condensed gas. With a sharper more intense beam, the projectile of plasma would burn hotter and travel further before dissipating. It was one of the obvious changes that made the device more like a weapon than a tool.

In an even more brutal attempt at some quick changes, Tails pried off one of the arc resistors that limited the flow of current, and subsequently the width of the plasma arc. It wasn't unheard of for techs to do this on the fly when they wanted to cut a larger section of pipe or girder in one clean cut instead of two possibly misaligned ones. In this case the kit was hoping the line of plasma might stretch wide enough sever these creatures at their mid section so he didn't have to hack them to pieces with multiple shots.

The storage lockers, typically brimming with spare supplies, had been picked near clean. Only two spare batteries remained, enough for a couple dozen cuts at most. Tails wasn't in a position to complain though, anything at this point was better than the nothing he had moments ago.

At least all the tools are still here, he remarked to himself as he finished up the last of his adjustments.

Turning, he scanned the small room one more time for anything of use. A security locker hung near the bulkhead, locked with a coded keypad. His administrator privileges would be useless for this. The entire security system was on a different network.

"Where's that other fox when I need her?" Tails asked aloud. "She would know this."

Eying it for a moment he was convinced there must be a way to get in, if only I had something to pry it open… or cut, he laughed as he looked down at his improved plasma cutter.

It was as good of a test as anything. The last thing he needed was to arrive in an unusually grim situation only to discover the changes he made to his weapon caused it to no longer work, or worse, malfunction.

Lining it up perpendicular to the hinges, the kit closed his eyes and squeezed the trigger. Despite having done the calculations a thousand times over in his head, he still wasn't sure what might happen.

The bright blue bolt of molten plasma tore through the metal like nothings was there, causing the door to fall promptly to the floor in a less than subtle way. The clank it made could probably be heard through half the ship.

"Great," he whispered sarcastically while rolling his eyes.

On the plus side, he now had access to the locker's myriad of contents, which included new magazines for his pistol. The useless weapon was only made slightly less useful with ammunition. Bullets did not seem to have much of an effect on these creatures, but he wasn't about to complain.

More useful however, was one of the smaller variants of the Plasma Riffle Fiona had been using. It's sleek graphite surface was a low reflective matt surface and weighed even less than the contents of his tool belt.

"This is a weapon," he reminded himself.

It was designed for close corridor combat, not for work. The compact rifle ran on larger energy cells that were good for a couple hundred shots apiece. Inserting one, the auto loading mechanism took hold of battery and instantly charged the weapon. It began to pulse blue with power he could feel humming just below its surface.

Subtle clanks were now emanating from the hallway; a not so pleasant reminder that he wasn't alone. Opening the pressure sealed hatch of the engineering room, Tails stepped back out into the corridor prepared to do battle. However, there was nothing but the same stale old air that had been there when he entered.

"Fiona?" the fox asked aloud, hoping that the vixen had managed to circle back around.

Unsurprisingly there wasn't an answer. He was going to have to find his own way through this maze. Stepping tepidly down the hall the two-tailed fox raised his new weapon to his shoulder just like the other fox had. Tails had no doubt he was probably doing a few things wrong, but up until today he had never held a weapon, let alone fired one.

Leaning around the next corner, the kit scanned the corridor as best he could. It was as dark and desolate as the rest with a healthy amount of silence closing in around him, only adding to the overwhelming feeling that he was being watched.

Aside from being stuck on a ship full of mutated crewman that wanted to kill him, things were finally starting to look up. Each new piece of equipment that he passed looked considerably more medical related than the last.

"There you are Tails," someone giggled from his left.

Spinning he brought the rifle around just in time to put a hole in his own reflection. The pressure proof glass was no longer air tight, but he didn't care about that.

His head throbbed in pain as he struggled to say, "Who's there?"

Even if it sounded like Cosmo, he knew more than well enough to know it wasn't.

"It's in here," the Seedran's voice assured him.

"What is?"

When no response came, the kit did his best to laugh off the fact that he was having a conversation with himself. Nothing he was hearing could be real, but it certainly gave him one hell of a headache.

Now I am having my own 'episodes'...this must be what that other fox was talking about.

Pressing his face against the glass, the two-tailed fox tried to make out the inside of the room, but it was too dark to see much besides the feint glow of LEDs on the medical equipment. Stepping over to the door, he raised the RFID chip in his suit to the scanner next to the door. A hatch hissed as it let him into a decontamination area.

This room, up until he had put a hole in the glass, had been completely sealed off from the outside world. He recognized it from the schematics. It was a quarantine room and had its very own redundant air supply. Anyone who showed signs of a highly contagious diseases would be brought to one of these.

Tails flicked the switch for the tactical light on the Plasma Rifle. The solitary beam of light cut through darkness, exposing the countless patients who still lay dead on operating tables. Surprisingly, all of them still looked normal.

"The captain," Tails whispered when the glint of golden stripes caught his eyes.

Walking slowly over to a man that would have stood nearly twice his height, the kit paused in a small sign of reverence. Even though he was a different species, they were all in this together, suffering at the mercy of the unknown. The humans, after all, had been roaming the stars nearly as long as the Mobians.

Space is a big place, Tails noted to himself before stepping up onto a nearby stool. This ship had been designed before the human's happened upon Mobius, meaning nothing had been made with the often shorter creatures in mind.

It had taken the two species nearly a century to find one another, and by accident no less. A miscalculated hyperspace jump had sent a human vessel millions of light-years off course and into the Mobian's local system. Discovering that you're not alone was shocking for all parties involved. However, that initial shock led to a well forged relationship. Space exploration was difficult yet rewarding work, and through their combined knowledge the universe started to become slightly less infinite.

The discovery of the Seedrians was not made long after, which ironically began to fuel the idea of Unification. So many species incomprehensibly far-flung now suddenly drawn together as if by some divine force. Tails had a feeling that people like Doctor Ivo Robotnik were mistaking fate for something their statistics couldn't account for. If it was to be believed, unifying the cosmos would make it a utopia. Tails however, had a hard time picturing anything but an unusually dull existence.

The two-tailed fox began to search the Captain's pockets, hoping desperately to discover his PDA or dog tags. The inside of the man's jacket turned up a small handheld computer. Just holding it in the palm of his hand would allow him to transfer data. When the stream started, some alarming revelations were coming to light. The captain had apparently known about things well before they got out of hand.

This so-called marker had been causing problems long before it arrived on board. The extraction team sent down to the surface had reported all types of psychosis and other paranormal phenomenon. Unitoligist were quick to point out the unsafe working conditions of the workers and that stress had more than likely induced these 'episodes' despite contradictions made by medical professionals.

It was becoming obvious the captain might be a closet Unitologist or was bending to their whim. He had given the organization untold access to the ship for research purposes. At every turn he sided with their ludicrous theories that the universe and all its living beings were somehow destined to connect into one entity.

Certainly someone such as a captain would never buy into the idea of Unification, he thought.

"How did they get to you? Power?Money?"

When Tails heard the subtle ripping of fabric he knew he had stayed too long. The very first thing he acquired was the access code, yet the kit had felt compelled to pour over the man's personal life. Setting the PDA down, Tails scanned the room with his flashlight again, looking for the source the noise.

Words were getting harder and harder to come by as the day progressed. The things he had seen recently were scarcely describable and even if he could manage it. No one who didn't see it for themselves would ever believe him.

Currently, the likes of a creature he had never seen before was floating above one of the deceased, forcing a tube down one of the dead human's esophagus. The stingray like creature hovered silently in the air on leather wings, injecting its lifeless prey with something that seemed to make the man grow larger by the second. Muscles doubled and tripled in size while massive cleavers grew out of his back, tearing the fabric of his clothes at the seams.

How did that get in here, the kit panicked as he looked over at the door he had left open. With the power out, the quarantine system hadn't done a thing to stop it.

Raising the rifle, Tails didn't waste anytime pulling the trigger. The plasma round burned its way through the flying monster's hide causing it to roll to the ground in a screech. Leaping over the captain, the two-tailed fox drove his heel into the creatures seemingly fragile body, crushing it in a dazzling display of gore.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Tails tried to control the pounding of his heart. Whatever this thing was it wasn't as deadly as the others, or at least so he thought. His attention was once again brought back to the ripping fabric. The kit had forgotten about the crew members still dead on the slabs behind him.

Gulping, he turned slowly, knowing in advance he wouldn't like what he was about to see. The fiend stood nearly three times his height, a hulking 8 feet and made of nothing but muscle and daggers. The first plasma round through the monster's chest did little more than piss it off, and the next sent it into a frenzy.

Back peddling towards his only exit, Tails realized he wasn't going to win this battle. Whatever this thing was, it didn't feel pain and was significantly more impervious to his weaponry than anything he had faced thus far.

Just as the fox made it into the hallway, the freakishly large necromorph bolted at him. Hoping it wasn't too late he palmed the panel near the door and watched as it slid shut just in time.

"Phew," he managed out loud right before one the monster's dagger like arms broke through the steel door nearly impaling him the process.

He tried to laugh it off as he backed up further, "I forgot they could do that."

Then there was another renting sound as a second blade cleaved its way through the bulkhead.

"It couldn't possible break through the…" but his words were cut short as the door flew off its track.

Lungs gasping for air, the two-tailed fox sprinted down the hallway, leaping over whatever equipment was strewn in his path. A monster derived from every child's nightmares was closing in behind him, ready to carve him up like some type of filet. Tilting his rifle over his head, the kit fire blindly, praying to whatever gods existed that he might deter what was chasing him.

If he didn't know better he could feel it breathing on the back of his neck. Do they breath? He found the time to ponder as felt his speed somehow double. The fox's adrenal gland was working overtime, and preforming its job admirably. The fiend chasing him may have been fueled by whatever steroidal mixture had been pumped into it, but it still wasn't going to be easy to catch a fox.

When he reached the end of the hall, Tails scampered right, fumbling for traction. The crash behind him indicated that he was still being followed by the tyrannical blade wielding zombie. Having run enough, the kit darted left into another medical ward, slamming his fist against the panel as he passed beneath the bulkhead. It snapped into place, locking behind him, it's doors twice as thick as the previous.

"Get through that," Tails snorted right before the monster banged a blade hard enough to put a visible dent in the door.

Catching his breath with deep inhalations, the kit turned around to get a fix on his location. Almost immediately he was no longer concerned with what was more than likely still lurking outside the room, but rather inside it.

"What in the…" was all he could manage before he ran a gloved hand along a chilled amniotic tube.

It was the maternity wing of the med bay. On a ship this big out of port for such long halls, children being born were simple facts. Every deep space cruiser and the like had these types of facilities aboard.

"Aren't they beautiful, Tails?" someone asked as his head erupted in pain.

Cosmo.

There was a blur to his right where he heard something skitter. The two-tailed fox hoped with all his might it wasn't the same thing that hung in suspended animation before him. However, as it came out into the light Tails was sad to learn he was wrong. The room was spinning faster now as the hideous creatures closed in around him.

"No!" He stammered through the fog the clouded his mind and electrified his nerve endings. They're not beautiful, "Abominations," he screamed at them. Did this infestation know no limit, these are children! Is nothing sacred?!

"To think we could have had one of these someday," Cosmo's voice retorted with pity.

It was torture in so many ways. Hearing the Seedrian inside his head was ripping it apart, but part of him longed to hear angelic voice again. The idea of a child was preposterous given their differences, but what was to stop him from dreaming. Cosmo meant everything to him.

Focus, Tails he reminded himself as he doubled over attempting to deal with a new onslaught of pain.

The infested children crawled around on all fours, claws where their finger should be and worm like spears protruding from their backs. They hissed at him before flinging daggered bone fragments that traveled near as fast as a bullet. He watched as the cartilage became lodged in the steel plated wall.

Taking cover behind a cabinet he found tears at his eyes for the first time all day. Had the fox finally reached his limit? Between the pain of Cosmo inside his head and the idea of hurting what was once a child he couldn't figure out what to do.

"Tails," she pleaded, "there's no reason to cry, I am here to help."

"Get out of my head!" the kit finally screamed as he exited his cover, finger pressed down on the trigger of his plasma rifle that he unwillingly pointed at the shrieking creatures.

When he finally let it go, it was to the sound of the weapon chirping at him due to a depleted charge. The scene before him was likely to be seared into his mind for far too long. They were dead, all of them. Nothing remained but bloody pulp and charred marks on the ships deteriorating hull.

"They're nasty little bugger's aren't they?" a voice startled him.

Turning he aimed his empty weapon at the vixen for a second time that day.

"Voices in your head?" a familiar voice asked before placing a paw on his shoulder.

Tears still streaming down his face, the kit gave in and nodded, "Now I am the one who has to be sorry about my episode."

"Fun isn't it?"

"Torture," he managed.

"You handled it pretty well I would say."

"Does it get easier?"

Fiona started laughing manically, "if by easier, you mean impossible, then yes. I am pretty sure anyone who spends longer than a couple of hours on this stupid ship will teeter indefinitely on the precipice of insanity."

Slumping down to the floor, Tails took a much needed moment to rest before reloading his weapon.

"What do you hear?" he asked reluctantly, sliding a fresh battery into the rifle.

The red fox looked away, "Someone I shouldn't, someone who isn't here, someone who can't be here…"

Tails nodded in an approving way. He wished he could say the same, but the Seedrian could very well be on board somewhere, calling out for him to save her. The kit only hoped it wasn't too late.

So my apologies about never updating. I am not going to make excuses, I have just haven't devoted the same amount of time to writing as I have in the past. Hopefully there are a few of you out there who are still with me. I would really appreciate your feed back. What new characters do you want to see? Any particular direction you want the story to go in?

Cheers,

M.D