Surviving The Theseus (21 page)

Deep Voice looked down at his pack, yanked
the helmet out, put it on, and jumped into the translucent green
transport tube and the television’s picture turned to static and
stayed like that.

"He's the one," Cindy said, "that you saw
come through into your ship?"

"Yes," Rachel replied. "He died soon after he
came through."

"So what are we missing here?" Regina said.
"Why would they pursue us? Revenge for stepping on their planet?
Did those men on that planet see something they weren’t supposed
to?"

"Maybe," Cindy said, "they felt they were
protecting their people, their young or something."

Rachel shook her head. "No. I don't think so.
If they were the creators of that city we saw, it would have been
bustling, don't you think? I don't think those creatures are
indigenous to that planet."

"I agree," Regina said. "Something is off
about this whole thing. They're not attacking just for sport or
protection."

Rachel nodded. "There are too few of them.
Wouldn't there be more if they were in a defensive attack?"

Cindy didn't say anything, just nodding as
she watched Regina and Rachel banter back and forth, reasoning it
out.

Regina sighed and shook her head in
frustration. "It makes no fucking sense. They are wiping out this
entire ship. For what? And what the hell is that gooey crap that
encases you?"

Rachel snapped her fingers. "Maybe it's some
sort of impregnating thing. They could be re-populating
themselves."

"Then why kill most of the others?" Regina
asked.

"Food," Rachel said.

Regina shook her head. “That makes no sense.
Why would they disintegrate their own food?” Rachel started to say
something, but Regina had had enough of the guessing and cut her
off. “Look, we don’t know anything about what’s going on. They
could be aliens or they’re humans with some advanced technology. If
the encasement is some sort of impregnation, we also have no idea
how many people are dead on the ship and how many are encased. We
could be overwhelmed by these things in no time. We need to leave
this ship.”

Rachel grabbed the glasses they just watched
the video from, and then Cindy took them from her. Cindy looked
them over and put them on. "Comm set,” Cindy said. “Go visual
spectrum set nine."

Rachel started to reach for the glasses to
grab them off of Cindy’s face and then pulled her hand back.

"Nothing,” Cindy said. “A voice told me that
I don't have authority."

Regina, whose security access was one of the
highest available to anyone, knew that did not include military
equipment, but it dawned on her that it didn't matter.

Cindy handed the glasses back to Rachel, and
then Rachel scrunched her face, eyes closed, tilting her head. She
almost dropped the glasses. As quickly as Rachel winced in pain, it
was gone. Rachel saw both Cindy and Regina staring at her.

“What?” Rachel said.

Cindy and Regina looked at each other.
“Something wrong?” Cindy asked.

Rachel shook her head. “Nope. Nothing. Just a
sharp pain there for a second, like a migraine coming on, but it’s
gone now.”

Regina didn’t say anything. It was obvious
that Rachel didn’t want to dwell on it so Regina didn’t.

On the plus side, the glasses had the
capability to see the creatures. And the glasses were already set
to the spectrum they needed, because that was the last setting the
deep voiced man on the planet left them at. “Try the glasses,
Rachel. We should be able to see whatever has been following
us."

Cindy was way out of her league. Regina knew
it, she was pretty sure Rachel knew it, and Cindy was way too quiet
with her opinions not to know it.

Rachel insisted she be the one to wear the
glasses, deeming them her property, still a hope of monetary gain
that Regina knew she wouldn’t get. They’d kill her. Why leave loose
ends, especially with all the corrupt governments around? She
didn’t have a chance, but her hopefulness superseded common sense.
Rachel could never hand the glasses over unencrypted. It was a
death sentence to all of them. And none of them had any idea how to
re-encrypt them.

Maybe it’s what Rachel needed to get through
everything; otherwise, it was all for nothing. Regina didn’t blame
her for what happened. If it wasn’t Rachel, some other pilot would
have been hired, no doubt, like Rachel, having no idea what they
were getting into until it was too late. Regina would put in a
request to her superiors and would find them, this government, and
do everything in her power to shut them down. Whatever they were up
to, curiosity or not, was nothing good.

It crossed Regina’s mind that this
government, or group of people, were somehow behind the hiring of
the buffoon squad to wipe out the SOADs. It made sense. No one
government controlled the SOAD, with each government containing one
SOAD board member, all of which decided on tactics, control, and
targets.

Most likely, the defective consisted of one
board member. Even though they would have to have agreed with the
other board members to target the killers of the SOADs, they
probably hoped the SOADs would be wiped out first, leaving the
whole SOAD division in chaos. The government or governments could
then do what they wanted with little or no repercussion if things
went wrong.

With SOAD out of the picture, it left others
free to do things, like send in soldiers to investigate a
mysterious planet and not have to worry how things went. They must
have taken into account that Pyramid One would be at risk of
compromise.

Rachel refused to carry a weapon so she led
the way, slightly ahead after they left Blair’s room. “Nothing so
far,” Rachel said.

They continued the walk forward on the path
they took to Blair’s room. The plan was to squeeze all of them into
a magnetic travel tube and get to the shuttle bay and then the hell
out.

Regina saw the sign for the travel tube, a
picture of a cylindrical tube with a stick figure in the middle of
it, and an arrow pointing to a hallway perpendicular to the one
they were in. She wasn’t sure why they had signs on how to get to
the tube, because only staff could use them, and herself, of
course. But regardless, the signs helped them out.

“Slow down, Rachel,” Regina said. Regina took
the rear, and Cindy was in the middle, her rifle at the ready, her
right eye down the site line of the barrel.

Rachel pulled twenty feet ahead of them,
making her way around the corner of the hallway. Regina watched
behind them and missed Rachel’s mistake.

An orange flash filled the hallway, seeming
to come from the hallway Rachel went into and from behind Regina.
They were surrounded.

“Jesus!” Rachel said, falling back on her
ass, into the hallway intersection.

Cindy, to her credit, started firing in front
of and just above Rachel in slow bursts, conserving ammo.

Regina whipped around, feeling with her right
hand, grasping at air. She fired the goo shots only, trying to find
one of the creatures. “Rachel, where the hell are they?” Regina
said.

Rachel’s eyes were wide. “Ahh, Cindy is
knocking this one back.”

Cindy walked in front of Rachel and kept
pressure on the creature she couldn’t see, Regina assuming she
gauged it by the explosive tipped bullets she fired.

Regina continued to fire, but her shots
revealed nothing. That scared her more than anything, because
that’s when she knew it got between them somehow. Regina turned
around.

Rachel looked over at Regina, and then over
at some unseen thing as she crawled toward the wall.

That was all Regina needed. She opened fire
with both goo and the charged pins and made contact. “Get out of
the way, Rachel, for Christ’s sake!”

Rachel got up and backed down the hallway,
away from Regina and the creature. “You’ve got it, Regina. Keep
firing.”

Regina did, one after the other. “Go!” Regina
yelled. “Go past Cindy and get to the tube. I’ll catch up.”

Rachel took off. Regina walked forward,
pushing the creature back, but it didn’t fall. Little purple
splotches appeared on its invisible body followed by percussive
explosions, ripping it to pieces. The creature didn’t wail in pain
or scream in anger, like the destruction of it didn’t faze it in
the least.

Regina looked to her right as she got to the
intersection, and saw Cindy firing barrage after barrage of bullets
on a creature lying on the floor. Rachel stood up the hallway a
ways, waiting. Regina walked backward toward Cindy, firing only goo
now, one after the other.

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

After ten goo shots, she fired one pin and a
large explosion erupted in the air, a small repercussion wave
washing over her, her clothing and hair rustling from the power of
it.

Regina grabbed Cindy by the shoulder to pull
her along, but lost her grip. Cindy continued to fire on the
creature, not taking the hint.

Regina kept moving backward as she yelled
back “Let’s go, Cindy!”

Cindy looked up after her clip emptied. She
reloaded.

Regina turned her head and saw Rachel running
toward them. “Look out!” Rachel said.

Regina whipped around, bringing her gun up,
but it was too late.

A brown blob was in the air, from the
creature Regina had been shooting at or another one joined the
party. The blob made contact with Cindy, before Regina could get
her gun up, consuming Cindy’s body in seconds. Cindy’s encased body
fell to the floor and lay still.

Regina stepped forward, towards Cindy's body,
her mouth open. "No! No, no, NO!"

As Regina reloaded her weapon, both clips, a
brown blob came at her from ten feet away. She dodged it and kept
moving forward, not looking back at where the blob went. After
reloading her gun, she brought it up at where the blob came from,
walked towards it, stepping around Cindy's body, and opened fire,
yelling "No!" with each explosive shot.

Rachel pulled at Regina's shoulder, tugging
her back, lightly at first and then with more force. "Goddamn it,
Regina!" Rachel pulled at Regina's left arm, tugging her away, just
as another brown blob appeared out of nowhere, flew at her head,
missing by an inch. It thumped into the wall beside her.

The other blob moved along the carpet towards
them.

Rachel pulled Regina away and Regina
continued to fire her weapon, hitting the unseen menace, her teeth
grinding, her lips quivering, her brow furrowed.

Only when Regina unloaded her clips into it
did she finally turn around. Both of them jumped over the gooey
blobs crawling towards them and then ran full out up the
hallway.

Regina and Rachel plummeted down to the
shuttle bay at lightening speed, using the tube, both of them
grasping the bar above their heads as leverage when it braked hard
just before the bottom.

They looked at each other as they got out,
Regina knowing Rachel thought magnetic tubes were suicide machines
just like she thought, but neither said a word.

Regina took her weapon out of its holster as
soon as the tube doors opened.

Rachel scanned the hallway and into the
shuttle bay through the glass partition in front of the tube they
came out of.

Regina looked at her and Rachel shook her
head, which Regina took to mean there were no threats. Regina
grabbed the handle to the glass door in front of her.

Both of them looked over to where the SPARS
parked their ship and saw no activity.

"Should we --" Rachel started, and then
Regina shook her head.

Either the SPARS crew they left behind were
disintegrated or they were encased, and Regina didn’t want to find
out which. "Where is the shuttle you used?"

Rachel led the way to the back of the shuttle
bay, turning her head left and right as she walked, scanning the
area. She stopped at the last shuttle in the back row of the
bay.

"Rachel," Regina said. "Watch our backs."

Rachel turned around.

Regina accessed a side panel on the shuttle.
She couldn’t believe their luck had finally changed. All of their
previous luck had gone from bad to worse, fraught with disaster,
and they finally caught a break to get themselves out of Pyramid.
What Regina didn’t know was where the hell they could get to in a
shuttle. They would have to wait for another rescue team to show up
and hope they get saved before they got boarded by the unfriendly
neighborhood aliens.

"Hurry!" Rachel said.

Regina didn't need to ask. They had company
and not the pleasant kind.

The door to the shuttle opened, stairs
folding out and down.

Both of them went right for the cockpit,
Rachel watching through the cockpit window.

"How many?" Regina asked.

"A lot. Fifteen at least. They're almost on
us. I locked the door, but that might not matter."

Regina looked over at Rachel, who stood and
watched what Regina couldn't see. Rachel would not take her eyes
off of it.

Regina, also standing, had no idea what to
do. She was no pilot and she didn’t have the matchstick enabling
device. "Rachel! Take those glasses off and get us the hell out of
here!"

Rachel snapped out of it and pulled off the
glasses. Regina grabbed them out of her hands as soon as she had
them off.

Rachel jumped into the pilot's seat and
strapped in. "Regina, you need to strap in."

Regina put the glasses on as she sat down and
couldn't believe her eyes, even though she knew what to expect. She
couldn't see them all, because they were probably trying to get on
the shuttle, but what she did see was similar to what they saw on
the planet. Everything was the same with the exception that the
creatures were shorter, maybe six feet, and not as thin. They
looked more human. Even the head wasn't as carrot shaped. It was
rounder, but it did still have a point on the top. No features on
the face, just a smooth, featureless body with a blue hue.