As Jens and his crew secured and barricaded the door to the communications room, everyone kept asking the same question and each was answered with more questions, because the truth was, nobody knew what was going on. As Fang finished welding the door, he turned back to see his sister on her knees sobbing.
"We're not going to make it," the female Shistavanen said through her tears. It was hard to see his sister like this and Fang couldn't take it.
He rushed over to Kenna, grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her as he shouted, "Calm down! Get a hold of yourself!" When that failed, Fang slapped her across the face.
Well, Kenna didn't like that, but it did seem to help. She threw her arms around her brother and just held him like this was going to be their last time together.
Aleah turned to Rusty who was busy trying to get some of the monitors to work. It seemed like the droid was very interested in the creatures on the other side of the door. Finally, after a bit of splicing wires, he was able to get a monitor running. His metallic hands switched to another security image. There was one of the mutants, dragging a helpless crew member of the Star Gazer away.
Rusty followed the mutant's path all the way to the main reactor room, there, once he switched to the image, everyone could only stare in awe at what they saw.
Siv was alive, but he wasn't alone.
Siv didn't know how long he was out, but the throbbing pain he felt in his head made him wish he still was. But the moment he was able to regain some form of clarity, and his eyes began to adjust to the dim light, he DEFINITELY wished he could unsee the horror before him.
Strewn around what could only be the main reactor were the hordes of mutant drones, each ranging in terms of species, from humans, to Twi'leks, to Pantorans. But what Siv really took note of was their rotting, decaying skin, and their pale, soulless eyes, features he had not been able to see before. And really, he wished he didn't have to. But from what he could see is that these mutants were not really mutants…
But some form of undead creature.
And they really weren't paying them any mind, their attention solely on giving sustenance to the monstrous black form seated in a crude throne made of tangled metal…and bones.
And while Siv wished he could get a closer look at this creature, it's monstrous form lank, but very muscular, he couldn't as his whole body, from the shoulders down, was encased in a strange gelatinous chrysalis. No doubt the same material that he had found on the blaster in the corridors. But the moment Siv heard a strange clicking noise, he looked at the creature as it spoke to one of the mutants. And while it's speech, a combination of those clicks and gurgles, seemed to resemble something of cross between a Geonosian and a Tuk'ata, Siv knew this alien was not of their galaxy.
No doubt it came from another galaxy not yet discovered.
That was when the monster looked at a captured member of the Star Gazer crew laying before it. It reached down and picked up the human, then shot its long tongue into the neck of poor man, before dropping him to the floor. Siv watched in horror as the man thrashed around on the floor before getting up to join the ranks of the undead and mutants.
The Mandalorian now knew that this monster was the hive mind; a creature so powerful it could mutate the living and control any lifeforms after death.
"Siv!"
The sharp whisper came from the Mandalorian's left, the young male looking in that direction of the voice, finding on the cold floor with him, bound in the same slimy, gelatinous goo as had been found in the corridors, was Danny, accompanied by Feline, as well as two other individuals, a boy and a girl, teenagers a few years older than Princess. But, given that they processed the sane red hair that Princess had, it took no thinking at all for Danny and Feline to connect the dots.
They were the girl's brother and sister.
"Danny, Feline!" Siv whispered back, careful not to attract too much attention to themselves.
"Are you guy alright?"
"Where fine," Feline whispered back, the Zygerrian trying her best to keep her racing heart in check.
"What about the others?" Siv quickly inquired.
"Safe, I hope." Danny whispered back, the Mirialin shaking in fear, though he was able to keep his voice even, "They were before I got taken."
"And who are these two?" Siv inquired next, nodding his head toward the two terrified youngsters among them.
"Survivors," Feline whispered.
The young boy looked at the others cocooned next to him. "I'm Jared. She's Donna," he said gesturing towards his sister.
"What happened here? And what is that thing?" Danny asked looking at monster, who was now commanding its followers to go claim more victims.
When most of the mutants and undead left the reactor room, Jared began to explain everything from the beginning. "Our mother and father divorced about a year ago. We were passengers going to stay with our father on Alderaan when that…THING was brought aboard by a Republic research team that had been exploring beyond the Outer Rim. At first, everything seemed alright, but then the crew began to lose their minds..."
"Lose their minds?" Siv asked.
Jared nodded. "Yeah, at first it was just headaches, but then the crew started turning violent. The captain tried to maintain order but then it broke lose."
"Started infecting the crew it killed when they tried to contain it, then they came back, started going after the ones who were uninfected."
Looking in the direction of the mentioned beast, Siv felt a shudder run up his spine as he watched the creature feast on the remain of one of the Ember Moon's decaying crew. And he knew, that if they didn't find a way out soon…they would be dessert.
"And as you can see, once the creature was out, the ship was quickly overtaken by the infected."
Siv looked up at the security camera, taking notice that it was active. "Aleah!" he shouted. "Don't worry about us, just get off this ship and warn the rest of the Voyagers about what happened here!"
The monster turned its attention to the Mandalorian, he seemed somewhat curious by his shouting, but it quickly went back to eating.
Back in the communications room, Aleah and the others heard what Siv had said, but even if he wanted them to leave without him, Danny and Feline, and the youngsters, they weren't going to do that. No, they were first going to get Princess back to the Nova Star, then go and rescue the others. They just needed to wait until the mutants got distracted by something.
Down three levels, Captain Jay Maxim found himself lost. He came to a door that was marked with a warning. Written in blood was the words: Infected! Go back!
Well, the Nazzar captain could hear the mutants drawing closer, so he opened the door and stepped through without hesitating—and then froze.
The lights in this room were a little subdued. When he looked up, only briefly, he saw that a few of the illumination panels set into the high ceiling had been smashed. Glass crunched under his feet. There was blood splattered against the nearby wall to Captain Jay Maxim's left, and the ruined, almost shredded corpse of a mutant in the corner near the door up ahead.
But the thing that caught him off guard most was … survivors? Ahead of him, slightly at an angle to his departure, was the hall leading out and into the medical wing. It was blocked off by what looked like a couple of shelfing stacks, knocked over onto their sides. And in front of those, lay a bloodied and mangled corpse, propped up lifelessly against someone who was clearly still alive.
The woman wore the red-patched white outfit of the Ember Moon's medical staff. She had short, brown hair to her shoulders, and a bloody bandage was wrapped around her left eye and forehead. Instantly, Captain Jay Maxim's gut wrenched inside him, and he rushed over to her, unable to stop himself thinking of how this woman could have survived this long.
"Are you OK?" he asked her frantically, dropping to his knees and set his blaster aside.
The woman paid him no mind as she turned her gaze down at the dead crewmate in her arms. "Shhh …" she cooed gently, as if she thought the corpse was still alive. "Shhh, it's all right, Nate. The rescue team is here. There's nothing to be afraid of."
She chuckled then as she ran her hand over what Captain Jay Maxim now realised wasn't even a complete corpse. It was bloody, and missing its legs, low intestines and everything above its lifeless eyes. But the woman didn't seem to realise this.
"I knew you'd come," she said suddenly, looking up at Captain Jay Maxim, though he doubted she could see him properly with only one eye that had dried blood around it. "Just like you said! I …" she faltered and staggered back, her elbow crashing into the deck. Captain Jay Maxim watched helplessly as she reached around behind the body of "Nate" and lifted something small, metallic, and functional. "I saved this … for you. Now… save… us."
She raised her hand slowly, lifting the device higher for Captain Jay Maxim to grasp. But as he started to reach for it, suddenly her arm slackened. The device slipped from her slightly turned hand, and her arm fell into her lap, motionless. She gasped once, twice, and the slumped backwards against the wall.
"How can I save you, ma'am?" Captain Jay Maxim asked her, genuinely concerned.
But she ignored his words, turning her half-covered face up to the ceiling and whispering a prayer. "The God of all creation protect me," she murmured, exhaling with the last syllable. "I die now…" And then she was silent, motionless. She slid down the wall sideways until her head hit the deck.
Captain Jay Maxim felt a wave of sadness roll over him then, guilt that he hadn't been able to help her. If only he'd arrived a couple of minutes earlier, he might have been able to administer bacta, to ease her passing at the very least. But he'd failed in even that respect. And because she was now dead, Captain Jay Maxim had no one, again, to answer his questions. He wanted to know if there were other survivors. What had happened to the crew? The knowledge that this woman had survived this long rekindled hope in Captain Jay Maxim that there were possibly other crew members out there that had as well.
Perhaps the devise the woman gave him had the answers. Picking it up, Jay's eyes lit up, it was the access card to activate the ship's self destruct. The only place that the card could work was on the bridge, but to get there, Captain Jay Maxim would have to fight his way through the mutants and avoid the monster that had now made the Ember Moon its home.
Meanwhile, after the mutants had left to find other survivors, the remainder of the Nova Star crew, with their new little member, slowly crept their way through the eerie corridors of the Ember Moon, jumping ever so slightly with each groan of metal or spark of exposed wires. And while they wished they could be looking for their friends, as well as Princess's siblings, the reason being that the first course of action was to get Princess back to the Star.
She would be safer there.
Luckily, they reached the hanger bay with little to no difficulty Jens leaving Kenna, Rusty and Cutie to watch Princess as she settled into the mess, the girl's worries temporarily relieved as Kenna brought her a more up-to-date ration pack, which the girl happily gobbled down.
"Hey, hey," the Shistavanen medic cooed with a laugh, "slow down sweetie. You'll get a stomachache if you gobble it down like that."
"Right," Jens said, getting everyone's attention as he raised his blaster.
"Let's get to it."
Needless to say, the rest of the crew needed no further persuasion.
Within minutes, they were back in the foreboding corridors of the Ember Moon.
"Lyra," Jens whispered as he shined his light off of the walls, Dray and Aleah flanking him, lightsabers off, but still at the ready in case they ran into trouble, "got anything."
The Chiss female focused primarily on her scanner, set to pick up heat signatures in the hull. Though the navigator was rather inept, as this more in Feline's field of expertise. But, she did manage to pick up five heat signatures near the center of the ship…and several cold as well.
"I got five heat signatures in a cluster of cold readings, somewhere near the center of the ship…I think it's the main reactor room."
"Then that's our play," Jens said, only to be abruptly stopped by Aleah and Dray.
"STOP!" Dray harshly whispered as he held up his hand, is and Aleah's wide eyes and twitching ears a clear indication that their senses had caught on to something. At this point, Fang and Faolahd had caught onto it, all at the ready, along with the others as they raised their weapons. Looking away from the two lupine aliens, Jens cautiously stepped back to them, as his own eyes strained to see what they were seeing.
"What is it?" he whispered as he looked the Bothan, both he and the Nelvaanian female igniting their sabers as they took a defensive stance ahead of the crew, who's attention suddenly focused on something ahead. Following the duo's gaze, Jens froze when he saw their sabers dimly illuminate the form a blue-skinned, mutant Pantoran, a female, her dull-grey eyes made even more terrifying by the glow of the sabers. Eyes widening in realization, Jens leaned toward Dray as the others leveled their blasters at the undead Pantoran.
But before any of them could squeeze off a shot, the undead being suddenly turned tail and ran down the adjoining tunnel, her form quickly disappearing into the shadows as she did so. At that moment, Dray had to stop Jens and a few of the others from charging after the udead crew member.
"No," he said, placing a hand on Jen's chest in order to keep the captain in place, "something's off…it's like she wants us to follow."
"Dray's right," Lyra added in, "she ran toward the main reactor."
Looking to Dray, Jens and the Bothan shared a knowing look, silently agreeing on the next course of action.
"Lyra, we can keep going from here. You and Faolahd get back to the ship and prep it for launch," Jens addressed the Chiss and Wookie, who although very hesitant, agreed with a nod. However, the unease they felt with what Jens said next made the matter all the more difficult.
"If we're not back in ten minutes…"
"We will not leave you," Faolahd replied definitely only to receive a perturbed look from Jens, which slowly melted into a teasing smile.
"No, I was going to say wait ten more minutes."
"Yes Sir!" the wookie responded with a small huff as they turned back the way they came, leaving the remainder of the group to contemplate their next course of action.
Captain Jay Maxim came to the door of the bridge, his uniform soaked with the blood a few mutants that had tried to attack him just awhile ago. The Nazzar didn't care it was time to set the timer and get off this doomed ship. Removing the captain's body from his chair, Jay sat down, inserted the card into the monitor and watched the screen light up.
"Yes," he cheered. "We're back in business." A few seconds later, Jay had set the ship to self destruct in twenty minutes. As the Nazzar hurried to get to the hanger bay, he quickly stopped. There standing before him was a member of the Ember Moon's security officers. He spotted Jay and was about to call out to him when a dozen mutants attacked, they were eating the poor man while he was still alive. Jay ran into the first room he saw that was clear.
Once inside, Captain Jay Maxim sealed the door behind him. Another desk and chair in that room, with more charts of the monster and a few charts of others he had seen so far. four lockers near the second door, three unlocked, opened, empty.
He went past them and through the other door into a short corridor. He rounded the bend in the corridor and found himself in a longer extension of it. There were windows at the other end, and through them he could see the pale green glow of growth tanks. He approached slowly at first, until he saw movement through the glass. Then he picked up his speed. There was someone in there!
It was Jens!
Jens rushed over to the window when he spotted Captain Jay Maxim and banged on the glass. "Jay! You're alive!" he shouted through the glass. It wasn't soundproof. Jay could hear him clearly. Fang and the others were happy to see him alive as well.
Suddenly, Jen noticed something behind the Nazzar, and that only served to ratchet the man's panic. "Look out!" he shouted to Jay, the other Star crew members also tried to warn him.
Before Captain Jay Maxim could respond, his left hand was pinned to the glass. He screamed in pain, and Jens and the others, on instinct, took a step backwards.
And that's when Jens saw it rise up. It looked like the monster, but no bigger than a child. Its skin was a sickly green-yellow, veined and distorted. Its eyes were red. A small proboscis-like tail, waved around in the air, the barbs ever pointed in Captain Jay's direction as the creature's jaw opened wide and it howled into the air in triumph. The Nazzar started screaming pain.
The tail flicked forward, and the tip thudded into the small of Jay's back. He cried out again in pain and jerked at the strike. But he was still alive, still whimpering, still trying to pry his hand free of the barb that had it pinned to the glass.
The creature behind him turned away and jumped up to cling to the wall. He climbed about a meter and circled around, craning its neck around to look at the Nazzar it had just struck. Its tail came around again to strike. It flicked forward again, and the barb from its tip were shot out. It impacted Jay between his shoulder blades with enough force that it caused his chest to explode, showering the glass with blood, clothing and bits of flesh.
"Self… destruct… activated," Jay said with his dying breath.
"BY THE FORCE!" Aleah screamed. The creature dropped to the ground and skittered out of sight.
Jens and his group rushed around the double bend in the hall to the door. It didn't take too much time to key the release, and they rushed through to kneel beside Jay's body. Blood was pooling around him now, and his arm had come off at the shoulder; the hand was still pinned to the glass as the rest of the body slumped with enough force to tear free.
Everyone lowered their heads in sadness, taking a quick moment to mourn for Captain Jay Maxim. But as for the Wookie and Chiss, they were about to get more than they bargained for.
"I don't like this place," Lyra murmured to Faolahd, her voice resonating off the dimly lit walls of the corridor as they entered a spacious anti-chamber, "Gives me the creeps."
The Wookie could not agree more. "Well," Faolahd responded, "the quicker we get moving, the quicker we can get out of here."
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps could be heard from behind them, making the two friends do a double-take to see if they were being followed, their blaster and bowcaster leveled in that direction. After a few moments, the two looked nervously at each other.
"P-probably the ship just playing tricks on us," Faolahd suggested, earning a nervous nod from his friend. But, just as they turned to continue on their way, the duo were suddenly met by the nightmarish sight of a trio of mutants, who swiftly picked Lyra up by the neck, prompting a terrified Faolahd to pry his friend from the demon warriors grip, ripping off a few arms in the process
"I GOT YA!" he shouted, only to be suddenly pulled by back by two pairs of arms. Pulling himself free, Faolahd soon found himself being forced back into one of the chamber's corners, his eyes widening in horror as the mutant horde bore down on him, his screams joining Lyra's as the sound traveled to the others, who quickly rushed to their colleague's aid. Unfortunately, when they arrived in the chamber…
They were nowhere to be seen.
At this point, Jens knew that thew were in big trouble.
"They're dead." Fang gasped catching sight of the Wookie's bowcaster lying on the floor.
At that moment, a sickening sound filled the chamber as two mutants stepped out of the shadows, flanked on either side by a few more, the clicking and gurgling coming from their mouths sending chills down the crews' spines.
"That sound," Jens said, raising his blaster toward the threat. "It's…Echo-communication."
Aleah knew then that the more the mutants evolved, the more decayed they looked, so that meant that would start to lose parts of themselves. A closer looked confirmed her uncertainty, these mutants were blind. All she and the others had to do was just not make any noise, then they could go and rescue their friends.
Back in the cargo bay, Siv and the others were happy to see that Lyra and Faolahd was unharmed, but it lowered his chances of surviving this nightmare. The Nova Star crew were now only seven strong, how were they going to get out of this?
The sound of clicking and gurgling grew louder as a female mutant human began to advance toward the helpless Mandalorian. A feeling of ominous dread was the first thing he felt, but it was replaced with a strong will to survive. He looked around and noticed a dead cocooned male Twi'lek. Siv saw that he was still armed. A blaster was still in the Twi'lek shoulder holster.
"Get his blaster!" Siv called to the others.
Faolahd, Jared and Feline who were closest, all tried to break their arms lose to try and get the blaster. The mutant was shambling closer to the Mandalorian. Jared felt his right arm break free a little from the cocoon. He could just barely touch the but of the weapon.
The mutant was now face to face with Siv, her mouth opened as black slime dripped off her teeth. She was going to infect Siv!
Summoning all of his strength, Jared threw his body forward until his fingers closed on the handle. As the mutant lowered her head to the Mandalorian's neck, Jared pulled the blaster out of its holster and fired off a shot.
The mutant's head blew apart. Pieces of bone and brains splattered the floor, Siv smiled as he looked up at Jared.
"Score one for the Caldans," he said.
Though sweet, Jared's triumph was short-lived. He and the others looked up to see a dozen mutants and undead moving towards them.
"DANK FERRIK!" Jared cursed loudly.