Chapter Four
Cerberus Station
Quietus Star System
Colt chuckled and congratulated Sara on bringing the station back to life. Finally they will have light and fresh air in the formally dark corridors of the station. Colt undid the air seals to his helmet and removed the stifling object. He took a deep breath of the stale air and exhaled. He noticed everyone was looking at him. "Stale, but welcoming." He smiled at them and collapsed his helmet, clipping it to his belt.
Sara shook her head and pulled off her helmet. "Eager as always, some day you are going to take a breath of some really foul stuff."
Colt chuckled. "I'm a Colonial Marine. I've breathed some pretty foul things."
Chris patted Colt on the back. "Ex-marine you mean."
Colt hit Chris on the back of head and smiled. "There are no ex-marines. Once a marine, always a marine."
Sara called out to them as she looked at the computer console she was working on. "Stop measuring your dicks and listen up fixer-upers." Colt realized she was talking to her mechanic team. "I need Shanti and Chris to head over to primary cooling. We got a leak, go lock it down. We don't need the reactor to go critical now."
Eric seemed to take the news a little hard. "Why does Chris go with Shanti?"
Colt looked at Eric. The little super nova looked distraught. "I think it's because Sara knows Chris and Shanti will get the job done and not end up fucking on some overpriced company refrigerator. " Colt smiled.
Sara shook her head at them. "No it's because I need Eric here to help me re-distribute power throughout the station."
Colt looked at Sara with a worried expression. "Not all of the station has life support?"
Sara smiled and shook her head. "It's not that. The station has full life support but not all of it has power. This station has been floating unmanned for years, it clearly has damaged systems."
Colt nodded. What she said did make sense. A station left to its own to float in space for years would need some repairs. Colt heard the captain's voice come over his headset. Colt held up his hand to the others, to show that he needed to listen. "Go ahead, Captain." Colt spoke into the microphone.
"Colt, James is working on hacking the stations database, good work on the life support. I need you up here, I'm at the station commander's office."
Colt smiled. She expected him to know exactly where the hell that was? "That's in the control center I assume?"
Colt heard Sandra chuckle over the comm, he found it to be rather soothing. Funny how even they broke up, her laugh could make him feel so warm inside. "Yes, Sam. I'll be waiting." She purred.
Colt turned red in the face and the others chuckled. "Hey Sam, are you banging our sweet Captain?" Chris spoke up.
Colt turned the man and looked at him dead in the eyes. Colt took a step forward and got right in the man's face. The room grew silent. "Listen to me snot dick." Colt's voice grew hoarse as he spoke to Chris, the man that just stepped in a load of shit. "If you served with us longer than two years then you'd fucking know that Sandra and I have a past." Colt made a sound like he was about to spit. "Now if you fucking dare speak another disgracefully piece of filth again, I will personally shove my boot, clear up your ass that you will have to hop to the infirmary to get it surgically removed. Do I make myself clear?"
Colt watched as the idiot chewed on his lip. Colt saw a bit of tongue slid over the man's lips. Chris opened his mouth. "Yes sir." He whispered.
Colt growled. "I can't hear you!" Colt grabbed the man by his shoulder and pulled Chris to him.
Chris cried. "It won't happen again, sir!"
Colt smiled and nodded. He pushed Chris back and the man landed on his ass in a heap. Colt glared at the man and he could see Chris for the coward that he was. Colt turned his head and looked at blonde Sara. Her eyes were wide. "Sara, make sure Chris here behaves himself, if I come back here and find him out of line, it's on your head." Colt turned and left the room before the startled girl could even protest.
Colt walked down the corridors he covered moments before. He needed to reach the command center and he remembered the corridor by the airlock lead to the command center. He made his way toward the ladder access that he climbed down. He could see it in the distance of the dimly lit corridor. Clearly they station was suffering some form of a brown out, the lighting sucked in here but at least it wasn't entirely black like last time. He noticed the section of piping that distracted him. He stopped at the section and looked for his bone pipe again. His eyes widen. Colt couldn't find the pipe. It was gone. He bent over into the alcove of pipes and looked around, trying to find the pipe. Where the blasted living hell did that pipe go?
Colt didn't understand how a pipe just mysteriously ups and moves? He was damn sure this is where he saw it the first time. He saw a glistening liquid on top of another pipe. It was the pipe directly below the one he got interested by. He stuck his gloved hand in the liquid. He pulled back his hand and saw that it was the same goo he found couple levels above. "The fuck is this shit?" He whispered.
Colt leaned his head toward his hand for a smell. He shook his head, it didn't smell like anything. He rubbed it between his fingers. The texture was a lot like saliva just a little stickier. Yuck, he didn't like it. He rubbed the gunk off on another pipe. He heard a hatch behind him open. Colt unslung his rifle and turned around all in a single motion. He aimed through the open doorway. He couldn't see shit, the room was entirely black, clearly one of the sections that needs power. "Hey Colt, you on your way?" Sandra came over his headset again.
Colt ignored her and continued looking in the blackness. His heart raced, he felt like something was watching him, from the darkness. He squint his eyes. He swore he could see a reflection of light, looked to be on some elongated surface. He could barely make out the gleam. His eyes widened as the gleam of light moved. Something was defiantly moving inside there. Colt could hear a faint hiss from inside the room. "Colt, answer me!" Sandra barked over the comm.
Sandra's voice snapped him out of his trance. He looked down and spoke into the comm. "Yeah, I'm on my way." He looked back up and saw the gleam was gone.
Colt shook his head. The light and darkness was just playing with his head. He slung his rifle and walked to the ladder. He climbed up the ladder to the level where the air lock was, the whole way his head was reeling about the missing pipe and that dark room. He figured he was going crazy. Colt smiled at the thought of him being afraid of monsters hiding in dark closets. He was growing soft, he had to be. Colt got off on level B and started walking toward the airlock.
He was pleased to see that the entire level seemed to be brightly lit by overhead lighting. Colt shrugged his shoulder, feeling the weight of his rifle pull against his shoulder. He smiled, as long as he had god old Rose, he'd be safe from any monsters.
#
Eric watched as good old drunkard Chris walked his lovely Shanti down to the station's cooling towers. He really wanted to go with his African beauty. He glared at Sara's back, the fucking bitch. "So what am I doing?" Eric asked with a tint of anger to his voice.
Sara looked up at him. Eric figured Sara was lost in her work from her startled expression. The damn girl barely ever looked up from the console ever since they got life support back online. Eric groaned. It made him wonder how much work he was going to have to do. "I'm reading a short by secondary electrical, go check it out." Sara ordered with lack of emotion.
Eric bowed. "Yes oh great slave master." He turned to leave and then stopped and turned around. "Where the hell is that by the way?"
Sara looked up at him and shrugged. She looked back down at her console. "It looks to be right by that mysterious pipe Colt found."
Eric chuckled at the memory of badass Colt getting suspicious of a pipe. He waved his thanks and left Sara to her own devices. Eric made his way down the dimly lit corridors of the engineering level. Yeah clearly there was a short. Great, he hated playing with electricity. He remembered seeing a friend of his trip the wrong circuit. Eric shuddered at the thought of old Johnny getting fried from his careless mistake. The guy smelt like burnt bacon and ass as the Eliza's power rendered the guy into the world's brightest light bulb. Eric shook his head. It was Johnny's death that they got Chris. He sighed. Chris was a waste of money.
Eric stopped and looked at the familiar section of piping. That was the section of piping that Colt found interesting, alright. So the hatch to his left had to be secondary electrical. Eric noticed the hatch was already open. He shrugged and pulled a flash light from his suit pocket. The light blazed to life with a cone of bright white light. He shone it into the room. He saw a mess of wires along the far wall. Eric shook his head, yeah that's definitely secondary electrical. Eric walked into the room.
It was dark alright, darker than the devil's anus, Eric figured. He pivoted on his feet as he walked to look at the entire compartment. The walls were covered in different shades of wiring. The room felt dry, so that was a good sign. He sniffed the air and snorted. Yeah there is a short. He could smell the burnt circuitry. All that he had to do was find it. Eric continued to pan the room. He stopped and looked at a torn open circuit breaker. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It looked like someone took a can opener to it. He walked over to it. The breaker's casing was torn open in sharp metal petals. "The fuck, did someone put a bomb in here?" Eric muttered as he slid his gloved hand along the torn casing.
Eric shined the light inside the casing and saw that its innards were a complete mess. He swore. How the fuck was he going to fix this? The circuits, wiring and even the insulation were torn completely apart. The insides were literally shredded to scraps. He couldn't find a wire longer than his damn pinky finger. He shook his head. This was no fucking short. It was out right goddamn sabotage. He noticed one of the circuits was smoking. The fucking old girl still had power running. Eric looked at the emergency shut-off lever on the side of the breaker. Maybe it will still work. He pulled on it and the circuit stopped smoking. He smiled. At least he prevented a damn electrical fire. He thought too soon, some of the wires suddenly caught fire. Eric swore, he thought he shut off the damn power. Eric looked around for a fire extinguisher. He couldn't let the fire start to spread. Eric saw a red cylinder with a blue circle on it hanging on the far wall. He smiled and raced for the extinguisher.
Eric fell face flat, he tripped on something. He groaned and looked for what he tripped over. The fuck? He couldn't find what he tripped over. He heard a hiss and looked back at the circuit breaker. The flames roared inside the casing. He cursed and got back up. He ran over to the extinguisher. Eric stuck his flash light inside his mouth and pulled the extinguisher from the wall. He hoped it still worked, no telling how dead the extinguisher is after five years of being forgotten. Eric moved over to the breaker. He pulled the pin on the extinguisher. The extinguisher coughed once and then a white cloud of carbon dioxide came blasting from the nozzle. Eric smiled, happy that the extinguisher still worked. This had to be his lucky day.
Eric dropped the extinguisher and took the flash light out of his mouth. The fire was out and the room was a few degrees colder than it was now. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. Good job you charming bastard, you stopped a fire. Eric praised himself. He smiled happily at his work. "Hey Sara, come in." Eric spoke into his headset; he might as well report the good and bad news now.
"Yeah go ahead, Eric?" Sara's high pitched voice came over his headset.
"That short, turned into a fire. The breaker is toast. Nothing I can do about it." Eric said.
"Damn, you put out the fire right?" Sara asked.
Eric rolled his eyes. Of course he put out the fire. He swore Sara could be such a dumb cunt at times. "No, I'm sitting here using it to lite my bloody cigarettes." He barked back.
"Damnit Eric, put out the damn fire, this is no time for a smoke break!" Sara barked back at him.
Eric stood there, just trying to understand the sure idiocy he just heard. Did Sara really believe he was fucking serious? Eric shook his head. He had lost all the remaining respect he had for Sara. "Sara, you do know I was joking right?" He asked.
"You were?" Sara sounded puzzled. "Oh right, of course you were, yeah who would really use a flaming circuit breaker for a lighter?" She laughed nervously.
All that Eric could do was stand in the dark and put his face in his palm. That had to be the dumbest moment of his whole life. "I'll head back now." Eric said and turned off his headset before Sara could speak, he couldn't stand her voice anymore.
Eric sighed and rolled his neck, finally a moment of peace. He has spent six years as a salvager. He paid back all of his debts and he had several hundred thousand dollars to retire on. He smiled. Yeah soon they will tear this station apart and go home to sell. Yeah, he will make sure this will be his last haul. He didn't know how much longer he could stand being out here in space. He figured he'd propose to Shanti on pay day.
Eric shrugged and turned around. He took a step forward and crashed into something. He pulled back holding his head. The fuck? He shone his light ahead of him and blinked. What the flying fuck of Saint Patrick's ass was he looking at? He cocked his head to the side. Looked like some sort of a black metallic torso. Clearly wasn't a human torso, he looked down. He saw it was standing on two feet, clawed feet.
Eric's eyes widened. He looked up with his light. Whatever it was, it was tall. God this thing had to be at least seven feet tall. Eric froze when he got to its head. He just stared at it. The head was large and elongated. His light reflected off the smooth surface of its head. Eric swallowed and he had the faint realization that its head looked awfully alike Colt's mysterious pipe. The head rose up from its chest and Eric saw its silver fangs. So much for alien space monster's ripping your face off…
The alien opened its mouth. Eric dropped his flashlight, the bulb shattered from impact. He was engulfed in darkness. He tried to scream but all that came out was a groan of pain as something rammed into his chest. He heard his ribs crack. Eric fell to his knees in the darkness. He held his chest. His hand was warm and sticky. He coughed and tasted blood. Eric was dizzy, he fell forward into the blackness and the black caught him. He closed his eyes, his strength leaving him. The pain subsided. He felt nothing…