Thanks for all the feedback. It just cheers me right up :)
Here's the long awaited(?) chapter ten.
Warning for the rest of the story: It's all gonna be very gory and gruesome. You have been warned.
Now ENJOY!!
Chapter 10
Trance's eyes were locked onto Harper's retreating form as he raced down the empty corridor away from her. Fear and helplessness grew in her as she felt Nixic taking over her body once again. She felt her mouth move and her vocal cords vibrate as Nixic commanded her voice to yell. "DAMN IT!!"
It was odd, all the feelings that Trance felt. She felt her emotions of hope that Harper got away and fear about losing control to Nixic while she also felt Nixic's emotions of frustration and anger at Harper getting away and at losing control of Trance. It was like a hurricane of emotions with different feelings hitting her from every direction each second. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on one emotion. Hope. The hope she felt as she saw the engineer's back disappear as he rounded the corner. All the other emotions were pushed aside. She was in the eye of the storm and the battle for her body had begun.
Nixic was strengthening and about to order her voice to contact the others to report the loose mudfoot. Trance couldn't let this happen. She had to give Harper more time to formulate his plan that she knew his genius mind was already formulating. Trust in the Harper, he would always say, and she always did.
Trance ordered her head, which was resting comfortable on the cold metal floors to rise, and surprisingly it followed her order. Then with all her might she slammed her head back down to the ground. The back of her skull made deafening contact with the hard surface. Her ears were ringing like a damage alarm in a failing ship. She painfully lifted her head back up when Nixic spoke through her own mouth.
"W-What do you think you're doing!?" her aghast voice asked herself. This was strange even to Trance.
Trance replied with her inner voice. "Knocking..." she slammed her head again... "us..." her golden dread locked head raised and trembled... "out." The battered head made connect with the floor once more as Trance and Nixic let out a collective scream in both pain and determination. The primal scream reverberated throughout the acoustic halls before returning to Trance's ears. Trance drew all her strength to lift her now overly heavy head once more. Her head fluttered on top of her shoulders like a flag on a windy day. Then, using every muscle in her neck and upper body, she hurtled her head to the floor. Metal, flesh and bone collided as Trance and Nixic collectively slipped into blissful unconscious.
*********
At the front of the brightly illuminated bridge, Beka/Velac was finishing up Galaver's tour of the ship. "And these are the controls for slipstreaming." Beka's hand pointed out the associated controls. She turned to address the inhospitable face of Galaver. "So, does the ship meet your expectations?"
The Alpha of the Pytho pride glanced around at the atheistically pleasing design of the bridge. He pressed his thin lips together as he gave a slight sneer. A short huff of a breath escaped through his pointed nose as he tipped his head back in a nod. His tight lips released as he answered, "The decor is a bit too cheerful and bright, but that can be dealt with. Otherwise, it's an impressive ship. I am pleased." Joy could almost be heard breaking through his stoic disposition.
A slight smile was growing on Beka's face. A smile was beyond the real Beka's control. Hell, she thought, everything was beyond her control. For a freighter control freak of a captain, this was a very frustrating situation. Then her voice spoke without her permission and the frustration level grew. "I'm glad you are pleased. I look forward to the work we will accomplish with this vessel."
Beka could feel Velac's blood lust grow as images of future carnage danced in her head. She had access to all of Velac's memories and knowledge, just as Velac had to hers. The growing sense of worry, frustration and hopelessness mixed with the complete lack of knowledge about these aliens compelled the freighters captain to go for a brief history lesson within Velac's memories.
Apparently the aliens were called Calastors. Their natural state was pure energy which makes sense when one lives in a nebula in the vacuum of space. Like the Pythos, they were a violent and brutal race. For fun, some of the more restless ones would take over ships, as they did to the Andromeda, and cause as much havoc as possible. Killing, plundering, torturing, or just playing mind games with the non-inhabited crew. The only thing that keep the Calastors in check was the fact that if they took over a body it meant they would die when the host dies. There was no way to return to their previous eternal energy state. Their energy would leave the host's as it died and would dissipate painfully throughout the universe. There were folklores about some who tried to be in the nebula when their host died and had successfully returned home alive, but those were just a children's tales.
When Beka reached this information, her heart sank even more. Damn it, she wanted her body back! Trying to occupy her mind, so to ignore the rising sense of panic, Beka went deeper into Velac's vast pits of knowledge.
The Pytho/Calastors relation was Beka's next lesson. A few years back, a group of restless Calastors took over a rather large Pytho warship. The group of ten were first looking forward to playing with the non-inhabited minds. When they got bored with that, they planned on taking the powerful warship to a nearby planet and wagging war on it's inhabitants. Images of screaming blood covered children raced through their minds as pure anticipation filled their energy built souls. But that plan never took off since that plan never took into account the even crueler, harsher Pythos that were aboard that ship. Within days the Pythos had figured out something was amiss and the ten strange acting crew members were shot on site. No warnings, no questions. A fellow Pytho just walked up behind them and fired.
The bodies and ship records were studied. The results pointed to the nebula they had passed a few days ago and to the strange energy burst they had experienced. The energy patterns recorded from the inhabited matched those of the nebula.
The large caravan of Pythos ship, called The Pack, surrounded the nebula within a month. The Pack is thousands of ships deep and wide and is the nomadic home of the brutal Nietzscheans. When a planet is eclipsed by the swarm of ships, the whole population would simultaneously bend over and kiss their asses goodbye...that was if that species had asses. The Calastors, being one of the latter species, could do nothing when the thousands of ships all locked onto their home with special designed weapons that could destroy a nebula. The wise Calastors send over an ambassador to discuss options with the current Alpha of the Pythos. A pack was reached that the Calastors would help out the Pythos on certain missions and the Pytho's would not destroy the nebula. The alliance worked out well for the destruction loving species as there was carnage involved. Ego fights were common during down times, but the arguments usually ended with faster species winning. The Pythos kept control by making sure the Calastors only inhabited less powerful species. This meant the Pythos usually won any argument and the Calastor and host usually ended up dead on the floor.
Beka had had enough. She pushed back all of the information from Velac. She always hate history lessons and this one proved to be no different. She hung her non-corporeal head down, cradling it in her non-corporeal hands. She could feel Velac's rising sense of excitement and giddiness now that the allies had the most powerful warship in the universe as their toy. Within the giddiness from Velac, Beka felt her own hopelessness floating around her void like glitter in a shaken snow globe. Tears fell from her eyes and sobs wracked through her mental self as she cried. She cried for the universe. She cried for her friends and she cried for herself. Over her sobs, she could still hear the conversation her body was having with Galaver.
"...you like it. So when do we get to destroy something?" her voice asked as the grin was glued on her face. Beka could feel that Velac was restraining her body from jumping up and down like a little kid before their birthday.
"Patience, patience. You Calastors are always in such a hurry. Remember, the longer the wait, the richer the reward." the deep voice lectured with a hint of joy in his tone.
A young voice spoke up from one of the rear consoles, "Sir, the other ships are awaiting your orders."
Part of the Galaver wanted to return home to his many wife and children. He knew several of his mates were in heat and were awaiting his arrival, but his childish urge to play with his new present amazing tugged stronger than his adult urge to procreate. His ancestors would be ashamed. "Tell them to proceed back to The Pack without us. We will meet up with them in a few days." A huge smile then broke through his stone face. One would have thought his face would shatter with such a show of emotion. "But first, we are going to test out our newest toy." Galaver paused as the young Pytho sent the order. "How close is the nearest populated planet?" he asked the now free Nietzschean.
The twenty-something punched in some commands on his console. "About two days away, sub-light speed. Sorry, no Slip Points between here and there."
"Population?" Galaver asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Umm," he punched in more commands, "In the billions, with five orbiting space stations. Minimal defenses." He added the last part hoping that his Alpha was planning what he thought he was planning.
"Perfect." Galaver turned to face Beka/Velac. "Can you and your friends manage to wait two days or do I need to let you have some more fun with that kludge?"
Beka's cold harsh voice answered, "We can wait, but we'll still take you up on your offer." The still sobbing Beka felt the rest of her stomach drop at the thought of another torture session with Harper. Her sobs were replace with an anguishing yell that only she and Velac could hear. Velac flooded Beka with feelings of pleasure and joy at her own suffering.
Galaver turned to face the lower pride member. "Set course, max speed."
******
About an hour later, the ship that was built to keep peace and hope alive was slowly increasing it's speed towards the now doomed innocent planet. Galaver was absentmindedly staring out the large view screen dreaming of the destruction to come. He could already hear the wonderful sounds of explosions, the cries for help, and the screams of the dieing. A tingling sensation was pacing up and down his spine while his bone blades were quivering with excitement. This is what Pythos lived for, the glory of the hunt and slaughter, the feeling of superiority. His inner child was singing and dancing with joy.
To keep herself occupied while they traveled, the equally anxious Velac was using Beka's knowledge to teach the lower Pythos how to use the ship's systems. This is what Tyr and Dylan had been doing throughout the ship since the Pythos boarded, playing Tour Guide. Velac was sure that the quiet peaceful activity was wearing them thin and that their natural urge to follow the Chaos Theory was building. That poor mudfoot was gonna get a good work over later today. Velac returned focus to the mindless, boring lesson she was giving.
"Here is how you bring up the damage report...here's radar...and here's the engine status..." Beka/Velac paused as she read the engine report. No, that can't be right she thought. Quickly, she punched in more commands and double checked the report. She looked up from the disturbing data and commanded the Alpha's attention. "Galaver, I think we have a problem."
The image of an exploding space station vanished from Galaver's mind as Beka's voice brought him back to the present. He sighed and turned to face her. "What is it?"
Beka's face was stern with a hint of worry but her voice was steady. "The engines just went off-line. They had only reached half speed when they went down. With that momentum, we will reach the planet in a little over four days. And I'm unsure as to why the engines went off-line. We need to send a team down to the engine room to check it out."
"Great, just great," complained Galaver. His felt like a kid who had suddenly had his birthday party delayed and his presents were placed on a shelf just beyond his reach. His crest fallen face stared into thin air as he activated his comms unit. "Belar, the engines just went offline. Take a team down to the engine room and see what the hell is wrong and fix it....NOW!!!!" he yelled as anger quickly replaced his short lived sadness.
"Yes sir!" the disembodied voice replied.
Galaver's pent up energy sent him on a mad pace in command. He walked his frustration out. With each spin on his heal, more anger dissipated and his normal stoic disposition returned. By the time he was almost back to normal, a familiar voice filled command. Belar was reporting back.
"Galaver, I think we found what stopped the engines. Did you happen to lose a very talkative and annoying kludge by any chance?"
"What?" Galaver spat out. He was desperately fighting his reflex to widen his eyes in shock. How did one of the original crew escape both his people and the Calastors? It couldn't be the pitiful excuse for a kludge that he first meet, could it?
The voice of Belar filled command once more, "Just what I said Galaver, a kludge, blond, bloody, short, annoying as hel..." The comms went silent. Galaver's right thin eyebrow slowly raised in reply to the sudden quiet.
The silence was broken by an annoying nasally high pitched voice, "Sorry you didn't get to see our tour."
A nano-second later Belar's deep voice sent shivers down all the spines on the bridge. "Shi---KA BOOM!!".......Static.....Silence.
Galaver's eyes narrowed at the sound. An explosion? An escaped inferior human? Not on his ship! "Get me video feed of the engine room!" he yelled as his paced-away anger returned with a vengeance.
Within seconds, the view screen had a live time shot of the engine room. Jaws all over the command hit the floor as stoic face after stoic face was filled with shock. Even Beka's non-existent eyes had stopped shedding tears and were locked on the view screen.
The image that widened the pupils of all in the room was the image of a massacre wrapped in a bloodbath surrounded by carnage. Through the blood that flowed down over the camera lens, the outcome of the explosion was revealed. Crimson colored oozing walls, what looked like organs dripping off the now very textured ceiling, a lake of obliterated body parts that covered the floor. And in the middle, slowly taking in the wrenching site, was a smiling unharmed kludge. No one dared to speak as they watched the blood bathed engineer examining a piece of an organ that had just rained down on his shoulder. The sick smile grew larger on his still purple and black bruised face as he flung the fleshy bit behind him. He then proceeded to wade through the new lake and strolled out the open door. The now lifeless engine room was reflected in all the unblinking eyes on the eerily quiet command.
"Turn it off," Galaver's quiet, tight voice ordered. When the image didn't disappear off the view screen the second he ended his sentence, he spun around. "NOW!!!" His voice almost vibrated the walls as his pale face was now the same sadistic crimson that filled the view screen. The flustered Pytho at the controls clumsily shut down the link to the carnage filled room.
Galaver had never felt such rage. His blood was almost literally boiling as it raced through his veins and arteries. How the hell did that pathetic injured kludge first escape his guards and that golden girl, and then how did he managed to obliterate twenty of his fellow Pythos? What the hell kind of bomb was that anyways? In all his life of killing, blowing things up and general carnage, he had never seen such a gruesome scene as had just filled his vision. He wanted that kludge for so many reasons now. To find out how to build that bomb and for painful, excruciating revenge. Nobody, especially not some inferior mudfoot, got the best of Galaver Merilis, out of Athenia by Mercurous, Alpha of the Pytho pride.
He spun around to face the still shell shocked Beka/Velac. "EXPLAIN!"
Beka was woken from her state of shock when Velac ordered her eyes off the now blank view screen and onto the furious Pytho. Beka still couldn't believe what her eyes had just seen. Was that really Harper? Her weak defenseless Harper? How'd he get by Trance and the guards. Had Trance managed to break Nixic's hold on her? If so, why wasn't she there with...Harper? Her mind still couldn't wrap around the idea that that blood bathed, cold smiling face could be her Seamus's. She knew that he had a bit of a dark side from growing up and surviving on Earth, but she never imagined he was capable of that much butchery. What the hell was he thinking anyways. He was gonna get himself killed if he was lucky. If unlucky...her mind wouldn't even let herself go there. Who knows what horrors the Pythos would put him through for doing this to them. She would have cried more tears but she had none left. She would have felt more fear and hopelessness, but she was too numb. All she could do was sink into the darkness of her conciseness and watch her life and her families' lives dissolve around her.
She felt Velac order her uneven voice to answer the outraged Galaver. "I-I-I don't know. Beka doesn't know either."
Galaver raced up to the rear station where Beka/Velac was standing and got within inches of her stunned face. His warm breath engulfed her senses as he responded through clenched teeth with a now more quiet restrained voice. "Not good enough. How did he escape my guards and your colleague?"
Velac's initial shock was wearing off and her normal irate self was returning. "Well how the hell am I suppose to know that!! I've been standing here the whole frelling time!! Contact her and ask her yourself you pathetic excuse of a Nietzs...." noticing that Galaver's hand was quickly heading for his gun, Velac just as quickly stopped her insult and backed down out of his face. "There is no need for that, sorry, the moment just got away from me. Just contact Nixic. We will get our answer from her."
Galaver kept a death stare locked on Beka/Velac as he slowly moved his hand away from his weapon. Right now, the information on that kludge that Beka held was more important than the enjoyment he would get from filling her blonde hair with her gray matter. His now calmer voice spoke as he activated his comms. "Nixic respond."
Silence.
"Nixic, respond," his voice was now louder, anger was seeping into each syllable.
Silence.
He lost it again. "NIXIC RESPOND OR DIE!!" Again, his ancestors would not be proud.
Finally, a voice answered. "Huh...What?...Ow."
Again semi-composed, the Alpha spoke, "What happened to the kludge Nixic?"
"Ow...um...he surprised your guards and killed them, then knocked me out...ow...Sorry." The wise Nixic purposely left out the information about Trance taking back control. If anyone found out, she would be killed on site.
Back on command, the still red faced Galaver began to grind his teeth. Within a few hours he would be grinding his gums. He locked his eyes back onto Beka's form. "How does Beka explain this? What is he capable of?" Teeth still grinding.
"She didn't know he was capable of this. She is just as shocked as we are. I even sense she now has some fear towards the boy." A small smile crept onto her face. Quickly, she regained her composure. "Sorry, I'm just enjoying her emotions. She's in quite a state." She paused realizing only she cared about Beka's emotional crisis. "Really, all she knows is that he did survive on a Drago-Kazov slave planet for twenty years and that he is a genius. How he took out to larger Nietzscheans and Trance, she is completely clueless on."
Galaver envisioned a bullet entering Beka's forehead and watched the blood and gray matter splatter out the back. His hand twitched towards his gun. What use was she?! He shook his head and realized that she wasn't worth the waste of a perfectly good bullet, not yet anyways. He turned his back to her and faced the empty view screen. Clearing his voice, he began to speak, "Ship wide. Attention Pythos. Be on the look out for a short blonde kludge. I want him captured and brought to me. Kill him and you will be killed. He's mine." He really didn't want to say the last part but he also didn't want a single kludge to wipe out his whole crew. That would just look bad. He sighed and continued, "Also, use caution. He's more dangerous than he looks."
*******
"He's more dangerous than he looks," echoed throughout the featureless dimly lit conduit that that short blonde kludge was currently crawling through. A snicker escaped his lips as he continued on his painfully slow struggle. Trying to move through the tight cramped space proved to be quite difficult with only one functional arm and a bomb-laden bag.
The corridor brighten up and widened at an upcoming junction. After a few more minutes of painful crawling, Harper finally reached said junction. After nervously glancing around for invisible enemies, he stretched his aching body in the slightly larger, but still cramped, space. After hearing bones crack and muscles expand, he got to work.
He managed to pull one of the panels off to expose a tangled mess of wires and circuitry. He pulled out his datapad and some connection wires from the specially deigned pockets on his pants. He connected the small palm device to one of the many wires and began to download certain programs and data. Programs that gave him up-to-the-minute reports on where everyone was located on the ship, data about nearby ships, and some other useful information. Harper noted that the three Pytho ship were already out of sensor range. "Finally, something goes right for the old Harper." he cheered. His plan did not include those ships. If they were still within range he was just gonna curl up in the conduit and will himself to death. 3,000 Pytho's he could handle, but three ships filled with Pythos was simply hopeless. Even The Harper was not that good.
He struggled to place the wall panel back with one arm. After much cursing and finally success, he returned to his datapad. He punched in a query for Medical. A crude image of Medical's layout and about fifteen green dots appeared. He reached down and rubbed his lucky rabbit foot that always hung on his pants. "Nice job Spooky. Keep dishing out that good luck." Green dots meant Pythos, blue triangles meant humans, a red star meant Tyr. Harper had keyed in the program to differentiate between Pytho genes and Kodiak genes. As much as he didn't care for Tyr sometimes, he still didn't want the Kodiak's guts to end up on the ceiling somewhere. Lastly a purple smiley face meant Trance. He was going to use gold, but sentiment got the better of him.
Shoving the wires and pad back in his pockets, he groaned as he re-entered the smaller conduits. A few feet in, he was already missing the wide open spaces of the junction. To ignore his aching body, his mind focused on his destination. Medical.
*********
Both of his arms were throbbing. His left arm from the earlier incident and from stupidly trying to move it and put weight on it and his right from being the sole support during the long crawl. He let out a sigh of relief when he spotted the grating that he wanted. If he focused, he could even hear the voices of some Pythos. Very carefully he slithered up to the opening that overlooked Medical. Again, he pulled out his datapad to double check who was in room below him. All green dots. He replaced the pad in his hand with another Harper Special which was just pulled from his Bag-O-Destruction, as he affectionately came to call it.
Crawling through cramped conduits for hours had given him time to name his bombs. This one was called Electro-Boogie. It would lock onto the electric charge that was transmitted between a living beings nerves. Once locked on, it would send out wickedly high voltage charge of electricity to the target. It could only lock onto the electric charges in open spaces because it could not penetrate walls.
Resting the bomb on the floor of the conduit, he took the Shriller that still hung around his neck, placed it on his dry cracked lips, and blew. Cries of pain bellowed up from below him. As quickly as a one armed man could, he cracked open the grated vent, activated the bomb and threw it down into the room. Dropping the vent back down, he quickly scurried back down the conduit. He wasn't sure if the bomb would lock onto his nerves through the grated opening or not. Either way, he wanted to be far away when it went off.
About fifteen seconds and two hundred feet later, Electro-Boogie went off. Screams of agony first filled the acoustic conduit. Then the smell of cooking flesh wafted into Harper's nostrils. The small endearing dimple appeared on his blood caked cheek as a lopsided smile broke onto his face.
Minutes later the screams had stopped. Harper took his cue and started his way back to the grate. Opening it again, he peaked his head down to see what damaged he caused.
Fifteen burnt, charred, and unrecognizable corpses littered the floor of Medical. Their hair was disintegrated and their faces were frozen in different states of chilling agony. Most of them were still smoldering, filling the air with a sickening stench. An image of Pythos incenses filled Harper's mind as he let out a chuckle.
The human hopped down from the opening in the ceiling. He landed in a crouching position with his face only inches away from one of his victims whose mouth was open in one last painful scream. Her white teeth stood out in sharp contrast to her otherwise charred face.
Harper moved his hand to her mouth and scraped her front teeth with one of his dirt covered fingernail. Pulling his hand back, he examined the scrapings. "Ahh. plaque, you need to brush more often." He wiped off his finger on his pants as he stood up and glanced around the room looking for what he came for. His eyes locked onto a cabinet and his legs took him to his acquired target.
Opening the cabinet revealed all sorts of bottles and jars filled with all types of drugs and chemicals. He glanced over the labels and picked up two liquid filled bottles and one powdered filled jar. He placed them in separate compartments in his blood coated bag.
He contemplated if he needed anything for himself here. Most of his earlier injures were better and the other two main injures he had no idea how to treat. He just hoped he could regain use of both his arm and port. He didn't' want to even contemplate life without his port, or even his arm for that matter.
Adding those fears to his overflowing worry box, he focused on his original question. He decided he should at least grab some nano-bots to have on hand just incase he needed them later. He went to the appropriate cabinet, grabbed the syringes he wanted, and placed them in one of the smaller pocket on the compartment abundant bag.
Pulling out his datapad again he noted his next target. Crawling back up into the conduit proved to be very, very difficult with one arm, but eventually he managed. Seeing the dark tunnel stretching out in front of him, he let out a deep sigh. It was gonna be a long next couple of days.
TBC....