Hidden Death (part 1)

ASA cargo transport just behind the Moon, 2218 AD

“Shane Melniz?” Captain Haris Corik of the ASA was slightly flabbergasted.

Major Hoshea Whitmer sat in the pilot chair of the Void Crosser, facing him with a slight grin. Hoshea nodded, “Yeah, Shane Melniz. I always wanted to meet him, but I never thought I would get to work with him.”

The message came in from Moon City while flying back to Earth after a successful supply routine. The ASA (American Space Association, formed by the militarization of the now nearly forgotten NASA when humankind discovered hostile aliens) wanted him to transport operative Melniz, as in: Solite Operative Melniz, to a certain point in the deeps of space, nowhere near any planet or system, and close to the edge of the known galaxy. The ‘known galaxy’ was a term people used to describe the area of space around the planets bearing life that the ASA discovered. The known galaxy held nearly a thousand planets, fewer than a dozen that could sustain life with minor terraforming, and only five planets with life on them. Earth, the humans; Zylistia, the Zytoc; Marquesh, the Marqui; Aquain, the Aqainians; and Yi’up with the grouchy Yi’up aliens on its stormy surface.

Captain Corik nodded, “Yeah. I always thought I would be ferrying supplies my whole life. I’ll tell the crew. Did they give us any more information on what we are doing?”

“Well,” Hoshea said, “it was kind of a last-minute, and I think we’re investigating something rather secret, so they want us to know as little as possible about what is happening out there. I mean, they didn’t want to take the extra hour or two to prep a troop transport, but would rather use a ship already ready.”

The Void Crosser came close to the Moon, which glittered and shone with a thousand lights. Moon City was the largest city in the entire solar system, as well as the entire known galaxy. Many other big cities build taller buildings because they ran out of room to spread. Moon City had fewer skyscrapers and covered almost half the surface of the Moon. Below them, somewhere down there was the legendary Shane Melniz, waiting for transport.

It was rare for a Solite to be famous before his death; most of what they did remained classified for much longer after them and their successors. Shane was an exception to that rule; he was famous in the military for having foiled a dangerous Zylistian coup, saving a fleet of disabled ships from pirates and other such feats of skill along with his partner, Daniel. All Solites worked in pairs, but Shane was an exception yet again, since Daniel Georges died on one of their missions, he had worked alone. People who knew him described him as a changed man; he didn’t act the same, but he could still kill the same, and he was maybe even more ruthless now. That was all the ASA cared about.

They landed and almost immediately (after being moved to the front of the line and skipping the paperwork), Shane Melniz quickly stepped aboard ship. He was a Solite, and a good one. He hid what he thought and felt like a master. Hoshea sat in the pilot seat of the vessel, wondering if the famous Solite was impressed. Unlike most giant cargo vessels, the Void Crosser’s purpose was for small, secret transport of men and weapons, hence its small size. It was a mere three rooms, four if you counted the closet of an engine room stuck to the side of the wall.

Shane sat on a bench that lined the larger room just off the cockpit, where they put the cargo. The rest of Hoshea’s crew sat on the other benches. “We have only ten hours left to make it to our target. Can you do that?”

Hoshea nodded. “Yes, sir.” He pulled the ship off the Moon City space-port known throughout all the known galaxy as the best and up into space. 

The Void Crosser’s wings folded in as it reached the edges of the Moon’s atmosphere. It had been a hard trick to colonize the Moon, but increasing its mass with super-heavy elements found on other worlds had allowed it to retain an atmosphere. Now, most of the surface not covered with buildings was growing with plants. Shane stared silently at the shrinking surface of the Moon. Hoshea glanced over his shoulder at the legendary warrior, “Are we to be briefed as to what we will find when we arrive at these quadrantes?”

Shane shrugged, “I don’t know, did they not tell you?”

“They said you would explain what I needed to know.”

“What you need to know, Major, is that I need to be there ASAP.” Shane sounded very tense. He was on edge as if he knew something horrid was coming.

There were five members of the Void Crosser’s crew. Hoshea was the commander and pilot, and Captain Haris Corik was the co-pilot. The lieutenants Warder and Anderson were responsible for organization, loading, unloading, and defending the ship if anyone ever attacked. Lt. Kyle Gordon was the engineer.

Shane looked over the small ship and crew. He drummed out a tuneless beat on his knees. He seemed highly agitated. Hoshea told Haris about this quietly, and Haris agreed. He said that if whatever they were heading towards made a Solite, one of the most powerful warriors, afraid, they better be quaking in their boots. Hoshea reluctantly agreed, wondering what on Earth or out of could possibly be this bad.

• • • • •

Shane stood up, “Well, well, well,” he said mostly to himself.

Hoshea glanced out of the view window, which wasn’t actually a window; no window could withstand what this ship had to. It was a camera on the outside sending feed into a screen on the inside. As such, Hoshea could tilt the view out the window around. He focused on the ship Shane had seen. It was big.

An ASA cruiser of some type, although it wasn’t bristling with weapons like most cruisers he’d seen. This ship looked like one of those big ones built in space, never able to land or take off, how heavy they were. They had to land troops or supplies onto planets via smaller ships inside them.

“What do we do?” Hoshea asked Shane who had come to stand over him, glancing down at the control panels. Haris didn’t seem to have the courage to speak in front of this hero, so he moved silently out of the way.

“Dock up to the side of the ship.” Shane said, nodding, “We need to get on board.”

“Ready docking maneuver,” Hoshea said dramatically. Anderson and Warder already were doing so, but Hoshea was trying to impress the Solite by acting like a real commander. Hoshea radioed the ship ahead for permission to come alongside. No one answered.

Haris apparently had the same idea; he looked up at Hoshea in confusion. “We aren’t getting a reply.”

“No lights,” Shane said, stepping back solemnly.

Hoshea looked at him over his shoulder, “What?”

“The ship has no lights on it.”

Haris agreed, saying he’d just checked. Aside from life support, nothing on the ship was on, not even the shields.

The Void Crosser pulled up to the larger ship and linked onto one of its universal ports. Lt. Anderson called out that they were ready, and the door slid open to reveal a dark hallway of an ASA cruiser on the other side.

Shane stood up, taking command now that they were on his ground. Or at least the area where he actually understood what was happening. “Fan out, keep in radio contact at all times. Weapons ready, stay in pairs, and look for survivors.”

“Survivors,” Anderson asked, “What exactly happened here?”

“That is what I intend to find out, Lieutenant!” Shane said, face hardening.

Everyone paired up. Shane went with Lt. Warder, and Captain Kyle Gordon went with Hoshea, which left Captain Corik with Lt. Anderson.

“Move out,” Shane said in a quiet voice, and then they moved away down the halls, glancing occasionally at strange, darkened corners and opening doors to check for people. Hoshea came to a halt along one corridor exit. A man lay face down on the ground. Hoshea clocked in with Shane with his radio, “Commander?”

“What do you got, Major?”

“There is a man here.”

“Is he alive?”

Kyle checked and shook his head. Hoshea responded hesitantly, “Negative, sir.”

“Keep looking around. How was he killed?”

Hoshea looked, “No sign of any wounds, he just died, it appears.”

“Roger, over and out.”

Kyle got to his feet. “Never seen anything like it.”

Hoshea scanned the next hallway with his weapon and marched quickly down it, “What? The death without injury? That is strange.”

“No, the agony.”

“Huh?”

Kyle grabbed Hoshea’s arm. “I have never seen anything like the agony on that man’s face.”

Hoshea shivered in spite of himself. “This is weird, man.”

Something clicked and shivered across the ceiling. Kyle let out a startled yelp and swung his gun across the ceiling, its flashlight beam illuminating the empty metal plates. Hoshea glanced around at the walls. “What the heck was that?”

“I don’t know,” Kyle muttered, “maybe a faulty air duct?”

Kyle opened the next door, clearing it before Hoshea ran in, scanning the contents, which were also empty. Kyle’s radio squealed out static; they both jumped, then it was Lt. Anderson’s voice, “We found two more men, also dead.”

Shane responded from wherever he was, “Any sign of injury?”

“None, sir, but they have the most terrifying expression of pain I’ve ever seen.”

Silence reigned. Shane calmly continued, “Continue searching. We need to find a specific room, which should be near the front. We secure its contents, we leave.”

The lieutenant came on again, “Hang on. They have small burns. One on his ankle, one on his neck, they don’t look at all serious, though.”

Shane spoke slowly, “It could easily be the marks of an energy weapon. Keep your eyes peeled.”

Hoshea wanted to scream, “For what?” but didn’t.

Hoshea and Kyle moved together towards the front of the ship, a faint scuttling just below hearing threshold accompanying them the whole way, fading out as soon as they stopped walking. Kyle began to mutter to himself as he took the next lead, opening the door and covering Hoshea as he moved in, “I don’t like this, I don’t like this.”

Hoshea let out a hoarse, choked-off cry of alarm. Kyle peered through the door in horror. “Commander,” Hoshea whispered faintly, “We found more than two dozen men here. They are all dead.”

The Commander’s voice was drowned out by screaming. Anderson was shouting into his radio, running, requesting backup.

“What is going on!?” Shane asked, “Who is attacking you?”

Silence from the radio, no response, “Haris, Anderson?” Shane asked with increasing desperation. They didn’t answer. They could hear Shane breathing heavily, muttering something under his breath, then, “Fall back, they’re still on board, fall back to the ship!”

“Who is?” Hoshea asked in a panic.

“I don’t know, but whoever they are, they managed to kill off everyone on board. Fall back, I’m going ahead!”

Hoshea sprinted back across the hallway, Kyle running behind him, the soft pattering increased to a rush as a hundred small beings cralled across the ground towards them. Kyle pulled down his gun in unison with Hoshea, and they blasted away at the metallic bug-like creatures that swarmed across the hallway floor. Lasers struck off all across the hall, denting walls, scorching doors, and blasting apart metallic monsters for the most part.

“Come in, crew! Come in! Lieutenant Corik, Commander Melniz, anybody, we’re being overrun!” Hoshea screamed into his radio. Static and voices, other screams mixed in, called back through his set.

The spidery creatures crawled up floors, walls, and ceilings. They each had six legs attached to a central circular, flattened body. Many had small head-like projections that boasted something like a camera lens.

The lenses slid back, revealing snouts that fired a green light, striking randomly around the hallway. Hoshea backed up, grabbing Kyle’s collar to pull him back as one drilled his leg. He let out a yell of pain and clawed at his foot, wincing in pain. “It’s like a broken ankle! But ten times worse.” He moaned, trying to hobble.

Hoshea shoved Kyle behind him and continued his fire, blast after blast, striking into his oncoming attackers. He frantically grabbed the radio again and again, calling for help. Until his finger slipped, sending it skidding across the floor. Kyle slumped to the floor with a shout. Hoshea dragged him around a corner into a closet space, while the bugs came. More of them, swarming across floors and along walls. Hoshea crouched low and picked them off until bits and pieces lay around him. Then, they scattered when his radial-21 was about to drop out its power cartridge.

“Ha! Take that, you little insects, you come back, you get more of that!”

Kyle moaned again. Hoshea turned to him. He grinned weakly, “I’m fine, really.” Neither he nor Hoshea believed it; they both remembered the agonized expressions of the dead men with burns like Kyle’s, only worse. Worse, like what the larger creature heading their way might do.

Something different was coming. It slid along the ceiling, and it headed straight for them. This metallic creature had a sense of purpose that the mindless robots lacked. It was large, sleek, and deadly. Hoshea pulled Kyle up, aiming his weapon, firing off a few rounds at the approaching attacker. He desperately heaved Kyle forward, who limped along leaning on him.

This ‘thing’, bent over, missing most of the shots, and then dropped to the floor when Hoshea fired again, it moved like a liquid up the wall, across the ceiling, and down the other wall. In the dim light of weapon fire and starlight coming through the window screens that still worked, Hoshea saw a large, spidery monstrosity, but something small and humanoid in the center. It was nearly on them, Hoshea fired again, only to hear the tell-tale sound of an empty radial power capsule dropping out of the gun. He had replacements, but that would take time. Instead, he tried to increase his pace, but failed. The creature bowled them over, knocking Kyle into the wall and Hoshea across the hall.

Hoshea struggled to a standing position, dodging as a beam of green light lanced forward from his attacker. It sparked and fizzed across the ground, sending up little bolts of lightning where it hit and leaving a scorch mark behind. Hoshea fumbled with his gun as the continuous beam struck out towards him. He rolled beneath it, fitting a new power capsule to his gun and preparing to fire. Kyle struggled forward and grabbed his own weapon. He fired straight up into the monster ahead of him. It staggered backward with an inhuman scream. The sound was so high-pitched as to barely be heard. A thin wavering sound, somewhat like a small child. It was the scream of something that had never felt pain before. The entire universe seemed to dim with the sound.

The alien beast rounded on Kyle, stabbing one of its feet through his coat, pinning him to the ground as it aimed its weapon. Hoshea yelled in horror and disbelief as the green light felt forward like lightning striking into Kyle’s back. He seized up for a moment, but died. Died before he even had the chance to make a noise. Hoshea saw the lifeless face staring blankly down the hall, face frozen in agony, a small, innocent burn on his back.

The being turned to face Hoshea and lifted its weapon. The spider legs spread away from what was definitely a short humanish shape in the center, with thin arms, one of which was equipped with the deadly laser. Hoshea didn’t want to move; he didn’t know what to do. No way to run, no way to hide, his mind and body froze, froze like the seized up body of Kyle on the floor. Hoshea stood and waited for the monster to take him. What he didn’t expect was for it to speak.

“You must die.” It said in a high matter-of-fact voice, a soft voice that belonged to a child rather than to a monster. “I wish you a better death than your friend. He deserved as much pain as I could give him; you deserve little. However, this universe is unfair, so you both will receive the same punishment.”

Hoshea was too stunned to speak. The only thing he could think of was how strange it was that an alien spoke his language; he just stood and waited for it to take him.

TO BE CONTINUED…