In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream

Penny sat on the ground, her hands were bound. Liz and Alejandro were tied and bound as well. The Major had jammed communications on the ship. Logan, Kit and Jordan had no clue what was happening. She continued to look around, noticing that the marines were nervous. Something had certainly gone wrong. After a few minutes more, she finally spoke up. "What's going on? I thought this was a liner."

The Major looked at her. He scoffed, "of course it is a liner. There was a full crew here. There were a few hundred passengers too."

"Then what's going on?" She asked.

"There was an engine failure, we had to evacuate the passengers. I elected to remain behind with my group, secure the damage."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Oh?" He said. His expression was humourous. "Well if you don't want to believe it, then that's your choice. I, on the other hand, know what happened."

She was silent. There had been no word from Depa, Gabriel or anyone else. Her only thought was that they might be dead. Caught by more marines. It didn't seem likely though. The marines-- and the Major-- didn't want to leave the bridge for a moment. Something else was going on here. Something beyond their own control. After another moment, she decided to say something. "I detected no engine failure, Major. Something's gone wrong, hasn't it?"

The older man looked at her. "It's not your concern."

"Oh, I'd beg to differ," she said. "We thought the ship was abandoned. We came to salvage it and we find you here. You don't want to leave the con, so tell me, what is wrong? I have others on this ship and they may be in danger."

"Well, Penny-- can I call you that?-- , you see, everyone who is on the bridge, is my concern. Now, your crew that are gallivanting on the decks of this ship are probably long gone now. So get over it."

She locked her eyes with his. Their icy glares continued for a moment until a loud beeping came. The motion detectors were picking up 3 forms moving towards the bridge. The beeping became more constant, the trio of something was making its way towards the door. Suddenly, there came a bang at the door. Something was at the door and hitting it incredibly hard. Dents were being made.

Large dents that no human could have done.

Those doors were iron.

"What the hell is that!" She yelled.

The marines brought their pulse rifles to point at the door. The Major picked up his own pulse rifle and aimed it at the door. The banging stopped suddenly. The beeping had stopped as well. The motion detector picked up nothing.

"Kowalski," the Major said calmly. "You have any reading?"

The young man walked up to the door, aiming his electronic device in its direction. "Nothing, sir," he said stiffly. As soon as the young man had finished that sentence, there came three more blips on the motion tracker. "I am picking up three of them. Uh, 10 metres, 9, 8...7." As soon as he said that, the beeping stopped. They were at the door. There was no impact. Suddenly, a shot rang out.

"What the hell?" One of the marines called out.

"Stow it, trooper," The Major commanded.

There was no sound. Suddenly, someone on the other side swore.

"Fuck! What the hell is that!"

"Shut up, Bob," came another voice. "Whatever it is, it's certainly dead."

"Yeah, your shotgun saw to that," Bobby snorted.

"Open the door, Lyna. Whatever else tries to come here, we'll take care of it," came the calm voice again. A shotgun cocked and an empty shell landed on the grid floor.

Immediately, the door opened and Lyna came face to face with several pulse rifles.

"Stand down," an older man barked. "They're with Ms. Fel."

"Dad?" A confused expression lit up on the ex-marine's face. "What are you doing here?"

"You're a bright boy, Gabriel, take a wild guess." The Major turned around and began to bark orders. "Untie Ms. Fel and her people. We're leaving and from this point on, no one is left behind."

After she was untied, Penny and the others made their way to Gabriel, curious to look behind them and see what had melted a huge portion of the floor.

"What was that?" She asked the former marine.

"I don't know. Whatever it was—"

"Consider it a liability we do not want to take with us, Ms. Fel. From this point on, you do not ask any questions. We're leaving. Where is your ship?"

Her ire now fully risen, Penny gazed fiercely into the eyes of the hard-as-nails Major. "You want to get out of here? Then you will answer my questions, otherwise you will find yourself floating home."

The Major, slightly aggravated, nodded and forced a smile. "Very well, ma'am, I'll indulge your questions."

"Good." She gathered her belongings and looked at the military commander. "What's going on?"

He sighed, bringing his index finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose, pinching it for a few moments before he let go and explained it. "This ship was carrying specimens from another planet—a crash site that was found on a colony planet that had been destroyed. These are—well—extra-terrestrials. They're unlike anything we've ever encountered. They're strong, aggressive and perfect for the Company."

"And they got loose," Penny filled in.

He nodded.

"And now you've got a ship filled with these things. So what happened to the passengers?"

"Some have disappeared into the depths of the ship—most likely to the engineering reactor room where the Queen is laying her eggs."

"There's a what?" Bobby cocked his rifle. "What the hell do you mean there's a 'Queen?'" He glanced at Gabriel who sighed visibly.

"These are alien species that use us as hosts for their eggs," the Major continued undaunted. "Now, we've lost too many of our folks and most of them have probably been cocooned. There's nothing we can do except to leave the ship and blow it up from the outside."

Penny sighed, running a hand through her hair. "And we just happen to come along and this is just perfect." She looked at Gabriel, who maintained his stoic expression.

"What do you think, Gabe?"

He shrugged. "I guess we're better off running for our lives and hoping that we make it to the ship."

"And the others?"

"Forget them, Ms. Fel," the Major cut in. "They're already gone."

She sighed and faced Lyna. "Call up Logan and tell him to load the weapons bay on the Norman." She turned to Liz and then said, "tell Kit to prep the Hagakure for dust-off. We're getting off this deathtrap."

"Kit's ready," Gabriel interjected, catching the attention of his father and Penny. "We commed him before we made our way to the bridge."

Penny nodded, grateful that the former marine had taken up the initiative. He had made things a lot easier since his arrival.

Gabriel paid little to no attention to his father, who merely responded in kind. The former marine looked at his comrades and nodded to Penny.

"Let's go," she said, inhaling deeply and hoping that they would find the others out of harm's way.

The group raced through the annals of the ship, picking up no sign of Depa and the others. They reached towards the hallways of the turbolifts, hoping to catch one of them or failing that, to find another access to the hangar.

It became apparent that nothing worked and that most power had dropped to minimal in the vessel. Gabriel continued to tap away at the control panel, hoping to activate the turbolift, but to no avail. He sighed and turned to face the group, who seemed to pale at the thought of being trapped on a ship of horrors with no means of escape.

The Major glanced at a pair of his marines and nodded towards the elevator, causing them to brush past Gabriel, none too gently.

The former marine took it all in stride and stepped back, though his grip tightened on his pulse rifle and eagerly hoped that they would trip up.

Unfortunately, one of the marines, Kowalski, had gotten it working and soon enough a lift was already on its way.

Penny glanced at Gabriel and she inhaled sharply. This had better work out, she couldn't help but muse as her grip tightened on the rifle Gabriel had acquired for her.

"There," the Major acknowledged, smiling with a hint of pride as he made his way to the lift's doors that were beginning to open. "This mutual alliance will all be of benefit to us. My boys can do their job while yours can sit there and provide the transport" Before he could even finish his sentence, he witnessed a pair of large, black talon-shaped hands reach out from the darkness and grab hold of Kowalski's partner.

Kowalski managed to barely notice it in time, as he jumped and rolled away, listening to his partner scream as he was dragged back inside.

Gabriel pulled up his rifle to point at the alien, only to have the Major brush the barrel to face the ceiling.

"Stop," he ordered quietly, not even noticing that only Gabriel and he were standing closest to the lift, while everyone had gone several feet away from it.

The soldier screamed as he was pulled into the tunnel and his echo rang out on deaf ears.

"There's nothing you could have done that wouldn't have blasted us all out of the hull, if you fired."

It was then that Gabriel noticed the weary lines in his father and that the lift hadn't actually come until after the doors closed again and reopened after a few more moments.

Even then, they were reluctant to take it and waited for another one.

As the second one arrived, Gabriel and Kowalski carefully ensured that it had come and there were no breaches in it.

After a few more minutes of cajoling Lyna into the lift, they quickly and quietly made their descent to the upper decks.