It was the pain that woke him. A pain like he’d never experienced before, even with the worst seizure that had ever hit him. It burned through his veins like super heated plasma from the colony’s power reactor. And the way that his muscles were convulsing, he wondered if maybe he was still in the midst of a massive seizure, one that might just be his last.

  Toren’s syndrome wasn’t supposed to be fatal; Not once they identified the right chemical cocktail to suppress the seizures at least. He’d thought they’d done that! It had been years since his last one! But then he saw the…

  The memory of that multitude of dull, magma black eyes peering at him from the darkness, framed within a demonic childlike face, pierced through the pain that wracked his body and mind, adding a new level of terror to the experience. Had it been a hallucination induced by the oncoming seizure, or had it actually been there.

  When he was finally able to gain enough control to force his eyes open, he found himself in a nightmarish chamber of shadows and silent screams. Faint light glistened off sickening silken filaments that reminded him of the arachnids back on Terra Prime. Putrid yellow liquid clung in drops to the filaments like polluted dewdrops. If his muscles and nerves were not alight with pain, he was sure he’d feel his skin crawling in an attempt to escape.

  Swiveling his eyes around, he was able to make out movement in the shadows. Horrible forms of multi-legged creatures scuttled back and forth, carrying long, writhing bundles above their terrible bodies as if they were some form of larva.

  His stomach heaved amidst the spasms that swept over him still, and he rolled his eyes away from the sight, only to find himself confronted by something just as terrible. There above him, wrapped up in the glistening fibers that filled the chamber, so covered he could barely make her out, face set in a rictus of pain and terror, was Miss Chen.

  Her eyes were wide open, but gazed at nothing. At first, Miles was sure that was because she had no eyes left to see with. All he could see of those almond shaped eyes was inky blackness, as if her eyes had been scooped out for some nefarious purpose. But then he caught the faint reflection of the chamber’s dim light on something glassy, and knew that something far worse had happened.

  In the shock of that moment, he felt himself jerk, attempting to pull away from the sight of his parent’s old friend, silently screaming into the dark. The movement was slight, but it tore his eyes away, only for them to land on another of the colonists. Another spasm, another face.

  In the terror of seeing the faces of so many that he knew, bundled up like food sacks in that demented alien fiber, more and more of his body started to respond to the deep, animalistic need to flee. He didn’t even think, he just thrashed and writhed within his own sticky silken prison, heart racing so fast he felt it should burst any moment.

  And then, incredibly, his arm slipped free.

  Desperation and hope, fueled by pain and terror, drove him to redouble his writhing war against his bonds now that it seemed possible to escape them. He had no idea how long he struggled, only that he feared his heart pounding in his ears would deafen him, and if he made even the slightest noise, it would catch the attention of the nightmarish creatures that prowled in the darkness.

  When he finally slipped free from the strands, it was so sudden that he did not expect the short fall to the smooth chamber floor beneath him.

  Landing drove the wind from his lungs, and the hard seal collar of his EVA suit bounced off the floor with what seemed like a horrifically loud clang. A moment later, the terrifying castinette clacking of scurrying chitinous legs filled the chamber as a trio of the creatures emerged from the darkness and spread out in search of what had made the sound.

  If he could have breathed in that instant, fear would have stopped the air in his lungs as surely as the fall had. Warring instincts tore him apart as he feared to move even a nanometer, while panic screamed at him to flee. And on top of it all, he knew that if he didn’t find some way to quiet the panic, it might bring another seizure, leaving him once again at the mercy of these monsters.

  So biting the inside of his cheek so hard he tasted blood, he pushed at the fear and panic, drove it back just enough to make a choice. He rolled over onto his hands and knees and carefully crept a short distance away, looking for any nook or cranny he could hide himself in. Maybe, just maybe they’d not find him, and he could find a way out of this.

  No sooner had he moved a meter away, then one of the hellspawned creatures scuttled over and lifted its bizarre baby doll face to the empty webbing he’d just escaped from. A startled screech came from beyond its pedipalps, and it cast his many horrifying eyes about, searching for where its prisoner had gotten too.

  It began to scurry back and forth along the wall, face pressed almost right up to the surface, and if Miles didn’t already think he was going insane, he’d have sworn the thing was panicking slightly.

  That’s when a second one of them emerged from the darkness. Larger than the first one, it stalked up to the first, its chittering somehow filled with a dire menace and command the first one’s noises hadn’t contained. As it stalked up close to the first, the smaller one backed up and chittered, and again Miles sensed it was afraid.

  The big one looked at the empty webbing, looked at the smaller creature, and lashed out with its two front legs in a scissor-like movement that ripped on of the smaller one’s legs clean off, sending it crashing to the ground right beside Miles, splashing thick, viscous goo across his face and causing him to have to fight to keep himself from dry heaving.

  Another screech from the small one threatened to deafen Miles, and he clapped his hands over his ears.

  The sound of his hands slapping against his ears drew the notice of the larger one, as the smaller was still quivering in pain at the loss of its leg. The twelve beady, magma black orbs peered directly in Miles’ direction, and it lashed out again at the smaller creature, this time in an arachnid approximation of a backhand, and an exclamation that Miles would swear later probably mean “shut the fuck up, toad!”. Then, it crept slowly towards him, eyes never drifting.

  This time, Miles held absolutely still, instinct telling him that moving while the creature’s gaze so unwaveringly focused towards him would be suicide. He forced himself, lungs now functioning again, to breathe as shallow and quiet as possible, fighting the urge to take deep gulping breaths to counteract the fuzzy feeling in his mind from lack of oxygen.

  The thing drew closer, until it loomed directly over him and, like the other had done previously, lowered its demented cupie doll head so close it was mere millimeters away from touching his. He was sure that at any moment, those horrible spear-like legs would come crashing down to impale him, hold him down while it feasted upon his insides.

  But instead, that demented face turned away, continuing to search the ground around him. It did bring those front legs forward, but in motions as if probing the floor for something it could not see. Several times, the questing appendages might even have connected with his body, but he took the chance to move just enough to avoid them.

  It can’t see me? He thought incredulously. How can it not see me? It’s right on top of me!

  A moment later, the thing jerked up, holding its demented doll-face high and scanned the room before scuttling away into the shadows. An urgent sounding, aggressive clicking filled the dark ominously for what seemed like hours afterwards.

  Miles lay there on the ground for what seemed like an eternity, staring into the dark, heart hammering in his ears, refusing to look back up at the silently shrieking face of Ms. Chen. He was terrified that with any slight movement, the creatures would spot him, and leap from out of the dark. But he knew he couldn’t stay frozen there indefinitely, it’d only be a matter of time before one of them tripped over him!

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  Taking a slow, deep breath, began to carefully crawl along the wall, using it to guide him along. Every centimeter he managed to put between him and the sight of Ms. Chen’s face emboldened him to move faster, and faster, until he finally pushed up onto his feet. He kept his eyes open as wide as they would go, stubbornly willing them to pick out more details in the gloom of that place. If he could get someplace isolated, somewhere he thought safe, maybe he could try to check his suit systems for power, but he dared not do it where they might catch even a peep of sound, or a flicker of light from the displays.

  If the comms worked, maybe, just maybe he could patch into the hypercomm array, and get out a message to CommSec and they’d send help. But for now, he needed to get the hell away from those things.

  “No ships on scans Commander.”

  “Thank you Ms. Aacen,” Jophixa replied from the command chair, “That’s your signal Cutlass, you are cleared to make your run towards the colony. We’re here to back you up if needed, fly safe.”

  “Acknowledged Elegance,” came the reply, “We won’t hesitate to shout if we encounter Typhoid Mary along the way.”

  “I still don’t think that codename is all that appropriate,” Jesse put in from her seat on the bridge, “She was just ignorant of the fact she could carry the virus but be asymptomatic.”

  I could hear the shrug over the ship's status channel when Jophixa replied, “I doubt anyone is going to call us on it in the history books Ms. Aacen. Besides, it’ll be attributed to the Kintzels in the logs. And it's not an official codename, not for us anyway.”

  “Sepaq, Commander.”

  “Vin’toosog, how’s the telemetry from their passenger?”

  “All systems green Commander,” I reported, my eyes pinned to the readouts from the surveillance drone Jophixa had convinced the twins to carry along with them. Their understanding was that I’d be operating it remotely via virtual interface once it was deployed, but in reality Stacy would be the one in direct control. I’d be playing the role of J.A.F.O just in case anything went wrong. “She’s still in standby mode as planned, but Stacy and I are prepped and standing by.”

  “Wonderful. Now it’s simply a matter of watching and waiting.”

  That was going to be a stressful part of this. The Void’s Cutlass was, according to Gertrude, the fastest and stealthiest ship in her class, and from what he could tell from here, she wasn’t kidding. But the Elegance’s position was, as planned, quite some distance from Eden’s Blessing. It’d take them at least four hours to reach orbit, and another to insert into the thin atmosphere.

  I’d been terrified that there would end up being some reason for me to go down with them on this initial investigation when we’d been going over plans. When we’d gone to the Keeper’s station, or when I’d done the EVA to rescue Giselle, there’d been a logical reason for me to be present. In this case, there really wasn’t, not until we were sure about the situation. And with the ktonshi having been seen only a couple light years from here… Let me tell you, I was not in a hurry to look into one of those creepy doll-like faces again anytime soon.

  Thankfully, one of the things Stacy, Boudya and I had put into the queue for the ships factory, were the components for a hybrid surveillance/maintenance drone, one that could be easily remotely piloted by any of us from the Elegance. So I could be there, but not be there at the same time, just in case there was an engineering emergency in the colony’s habitat systems.

  Speaking of - now that the terror twins were on their way, it was time to spend some more time reviewing specs on the colony’s systems.

  Two hours later, as I was leaning back in a chair with the specification sheets for the colony’s hardware up in my AR glasses, and the telemetry from the drone in a side window, we got the first solid scanner reports from the Cutlass.

  “Elegance, this is Cutlass,” came Gertrude's voice on the comms, “We’re now in range for passive sensor readouts. Resolution is nominal, and we’re getting some questionable readings from the colony’s main power core. Nothing critical, but it’s giving off some strange readings. We are also yet to pick up any lifesigns in the colony. Power core readings could be causing interference, but at this range we should be picking up something. Relaying sensor data back through the droid for analysis.”

  “Acknowledged Cutlass,” Jophixa replied, “We’ll have the tech-heads go over the data and see what they find. Still no sign of…Typhoid Marion?”

  “Negative Elegance, Mary has not been seen in the kitchen.”

  “Acknowledged. Stay vigilant.” I saw the audio channel switch to internal comms on my glasses UI, “Mr Aacen, Ms Mend’esa, please see if you can determine what’s going on with the power core from the sensor data, and if it could be causing the lack of life sign readings. Ms Aacen will be doing so as well up here.”

  “Sepaq, Commander.” Boudya and I replied in concert. I glanced over to where Boudya had been monitoring our energy emissions, and nodded to her as I brought up the telemetry the twins had sent back.

  There certainly was something hinky about the power core emissions coming from the colony, but just as Gertrude had said, it didn’t appear to be anything threatening - yet. They were the kind of readings I usually see on old derelicts whose reactor was still mostly stable, but had gone for a significant time without standard maintenance. Little things like fuel injection, flow rates, magnetic containment strength, needed to be adjusted on a regular schedule to ensure maximum efficiency and to keep errant emissions from interfering with any other equipment.

  The level of emissions being seen shouldn’t have been enough to block any lifesigns on in the colony, however. Not unless there was something else going on as well. I brought up the colony’s engineering charter and looked to see if there were signs of shielded subsurface areas that could affect sensors, especially when combined with the power core interference.

  “Commander,” I said after a moment’s review, “My bet is on the power core not having had proper maintenance for a while. Several days at minimum. But these readings should not be interfering with identifying lifesigns. We should still be getting something. That being said, the schematics for the colony show several heavily shielded chambers deep underground. They’re marked as being reserved for delicate lab facilities. What they’d have been researching they’d need that level of shielding, especially for such a young colony world is beyond me, but there’s a possibility at least some of the colonists are there.”

  “Would the entire population be able to fit in those labs?”

  “Not even if they packed themselves in there like sardines Ma’am. There’s simply not enough volume.”

  “So we still have a mystery about why there are no life signs,” she said thoughtfully, “Did you get that Cutlass?”

  “Affirmative Elegance. Power core anomalies should not be interfering with sensors, some colonists could be on lockdown in labs, but not all. Will continue to scan and update with any new information. Current ETA to orbit is 1 hour 23 minutes.”

  I swore the waiting was worse than I’d ever experienced, knowing we could be looking at a colony that had experienced some unknown disaster, had been exposed to the ktonshi in some way, or was perfectly fine and there was just something weird going on. It just had me wishing there was more I could do. But I knew all I could do right then was wait.

  At that moment I felt a soft hand on my shoulder, and lips brush against my ear. I turned to look at Boudya from inches away, frowning, knowing we’d get dressed down for that if Jophixa caught us - unprofessional activity in duty sections was a strict no no after all. But Boudya just nodded, squeezed my shoulder, then went back to her station to monitor the Elegance’s emissions.

  She’s got your back Tommybear. Stacy’s voice whispered through my implant. The chaos will come soon enough. Do you need help with a distraction for a bit? I’ve been researching benastian erotic dance technique, I could show you what a giobhioni would like performing the steps…

  I choked as her holographic persona as the giobhioni ambassador popped up in my glasses’ UI and started performing a slow, swaying gyration I’d seen Boudya perform on our first night together all those years ago. :stop that, you pervy witch!: I sent back to her :I don’t need that kind of distraction. But…maybe after we’re done here, ok?:

  Awww, if you say so.

  “Elegance!” Gertrude’s voice came loud through the comms, “we have picked up life signs! Repeat, we have detected signs of life on the colony!”

  The Salvager’s Plague

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