Chapter 5: Lost and stranded

[Awesomoman]

Lance made his way down the steel plated hallway, keeping his weapons at the ready. The only noise for a long time was his own footsteps, then he heard something coming from the shadows, it sounded like some sort of breathing. He surveyed the area, but there was nothing around him. He heard it again behind him, he quickly turned around and aimed his gun, but again there was only the empty hallway. Holding his position he waited for whatever was there to move again, but nothing happened, even his motion sensor had nothing. Assuming it to be his imagination, he continued on but at a slower pace. As he walked he noticed a large steel door on his left was slightly ajar, and to make things worse, this room didn't exist on his map. Whatever thing he heard, it must have hid in here. Slowly and carefully he opened the door and looked in, It was someones old quarters, and it looked like someone had torn it apart. There was a bed that look like it had been used recently, several shelves and a dresser knocked over, and a broken picture frame. Keeping his guard up he entered the room and checked everything, the only life in this room was him. Before he left he picked up the frame and looked at the picture. the picture was covered in blood, all he could make out was a smiling little girl in a dress. Something about her was familiar, but he couldn't figure out what. As he was thinking the door behind him slammed closed. Not even hesitating he dropped the picture and burst out of the room hoping to catch the creature messing with him. Once more there was nothing, with a deep breath he turned back to inspect the room some more. It was gone. The door was no longer there, and the room still didn't show up on his map. He didn't know what was going on, but the faster he got off this floor, the better.

[Nohiki]

Ariaka was walking down a corridor, weapons holstered as she didn't anticipate anything to happen. Wrong. The closer she got to the source of the interference, the worse it was. First it was just flashes of terrible stuff. now she was hearing noises she knew couldn't be there. What's going on? Am i damaged that much? she tried to find reasonable solution to her trouble. She turned the corner and froze.

There was a pistol pressed against the back of her head. She let her combat AI kick in. She quickly did 180° turn and hit the attacker's hand with her own, forcing the weapon out of the hand. Then she froze again. She saw Rucha holding that pistol, and an energy blade. "What are you doing?" she yelled at the Ceretai. Rucha only tilted her head. then a massive amount of blood erupted from her mouth, along with terrible scream. Ariaka backed away a little, shaking in her boots. She turned to run, but the Ceretai was somehow there, only two feet in front of her. thens he felt the blade impair her chest, along with terrible pain.

She spazmed into life. Ariaka was lying flat on her back in the corridor, but not where she just saw herself to be. She was passing through here a full minute ago. What was that?... Must have had rebooted and... Dreamt? How... What is causing this? she asked herself, but didn't have any answer. She collected herself and got up, weapons in her hands this time and proceeded along her former course.

[Morty]

After a few moments of sitting in her stupor, water pooling around her body, Kiruza regained her senses and shook herself soundly. Rising to her usual height she brushed herself off with all four limbs. Now was not the time to fall to pieces. She cast a glance about the hallway, regaining her bearings. She was out of water. If she wanted to reach the cryogenics lab, she would have to do something... drastic. Her gaze turned to the pool of water at her base. If she could wear an expression recognizable to humans, it would be distaste. Crest up, Kiruza, it's perfectly sanitary... she told herself as she lowered herself to the ground, splashing her gills with precious water, and pressing her mane against the floor to absorb as much of it as possible. It would have to suffice. Hopefully this undignified maneuver would provide her with enough water to make it to the laboratory. There, she could fill a tub with water and simply wait for the ship to come back online, or maybe even find a replacement for her chest plate. She proceeded down the abandoned corridor, brushing aside the occasional build-up of debris with a swish of her tail. Almost there.
With a start, she remembered what she had done with the bodies of the former crew. If she continued to the freeze lab she would be sharing the space with dozens upon dozens of dead humans. The thought struck her as disturbing, to say the least. It was stranger still, though, because the dead didn't usually frighten her. And yet, the thought of being so close to that decomposing mass filled her with an indescribable dread.
Resolute, she continued on her path, the darkness suddenly crawling with the hundred naked, contorted bodies of the defunct crew. The sound of her own slithering became the inexorable advance of that terrible, chthonian host, dragging itself along on clammy, alien limbs. Thoracic pump glowing with fright beneath her ruined chest plate, Kiruza rushed the rest of the way to the laboratory. At least there she would be able to verify that the bodies were still in their place..

[Midnightmoon]

...
"He-hey, ee-easy there." Lee stumbled, waving his hands slowly. The thing stopped twirling and stood quivering. "... Ok then, uh..." The Kri-Yakap was starting to settle down again to rest in a crouch. "Gepka, you shouldn't be jumping around, everything is a mess and... ah, Gepka, that's you right? Do you know what's happened- Do you remember-" There was a gust of air coming from down the hall, puffing Lee's hair back and the rushing noise didn't stop there, it continued. Before Lee could question the Kri-Yakap further a current of water slammed into the wall. Time slowed as Lee stared in gripping fear at the oncoming rapids. When the firsts sprays reached him he was pulled out of his fear lock and found himself at the other end of the fall, slamming into the wall himself before continuing his mad rush.

[Nohiki]

Ariaka was making her way towards her target. After the last apparition, she shut down and programmed the armor to walk her towards the destination. She still creeped out because of nothing once in a while, but this fear was easily pushed back without any audio-visual effect to back it up.

She turned on when she reached the place: Auxiliary engineering room. She tapped the keyboard on the side of large metal door. Nothing. She sighed mentally and looked around for something to use as lever to pry the door open. finding nothing, she growled and reached for nearby valve, turning the knob. with a weak hiss, something stopped flowing through local pipes. She took a firm hold on the pipe and ripped it off the wall, deciding to duct tape it back later. She put it between the door's parts and pulled, pushed, but the door didn't move. "ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT! I'VE HAD IT!!!" she yelled, pulled out the plasma rifle and fired a good long blast at the door in her rage. To her surprise, the door was still intact. A blazing fury was upon her. She just ran towards the door, but instead of splashing on them, she found herself flying right through and hitting her head on the floor. When she turned, she could see the remnants of the door still glowing with heat from the rifle blast. "AAAAAH! WHAT'S GOING ON! I HATE THIS SHIP!"

[Morty]

"Wait! Where are you.. going.." Gepka called out after the fleeing life-form, dismayed. He clicked his mouthparts together in annoyance. He'd just woken up on this strange ship a few minutes ago, and the first sign of life he'd encountered had treated his friendly greeting like a full-on assault! Gepka was very confused. His memory was a mess, and he felt decidedly ill. What had the lanky two-legged thing said again? That was his name, wasn't it? Gepka. Bobbing resolutely, the Kri-Yakap scuttled after the terrified Lalungil, determined to find someone that could tell him what was going on.

[Nohiki]

Ariaka got a jolt out of the wires again, but to her relief, a simple machine lit up nearby in the hall. "Thank the boss engineer for including the good ol fashioned telephone as a backup." she said and pushed a button on the device, causing hundreds, if not thousands of the same devices throughout the ship to ring. As a wired form of communication, these would hopefully not be jammed unlike the wireless. "This is Ariaka, anyone hearing me?" she said, watching the display of the devide carefully for indication if anyone was listening. "Is everyone all right?"

[Morty]

Kiruza rested against the door of to the cryogenic chamber, collecting herself once more. She advanced towards the opposite end of the room, at which end lay the cold locker, the place where she had stored the expired crew. DdDRIIIiiiiiIIiIiINg! Kiruza nearly jumped out of her exoskeleton at the sound. Her gaze snapped towards the source of the disturbance; her tail fan bristling. Immediately she saw that it was only a telephone, mounted next to the lab interface panel. She crept over to the obtrusive device and raised the receiver to her hearing duct tentatively. To her relief, a familiar voice emanated from the other side.
"Ariiiiiaka? Yes, I-I-I-I'm alright. I'm in the cryo-cryo-cryo-cryo-- I'm in the freeze lab. IIII hAven't seen a-a-any signofthe o---thers though." she relayed, looking around for a replacement for her translator. There had been no other Shis amongst the dead crew members. It looked as if she would have to make do with the one she had, for now. Clutching the receiver, she continued, inexplicably nervous. "I can-n-n't cOntaaact anyyone through the inter-ter-tercooom, III think my commuuunicatOr mAy be brO-O-Oken... What happened, to youu and Ruuuucha?"

[Kauria]

Rucha jabbed a finger at Tal'set and bared her teeth. "Not right now, you don't. We need to find out what's going on inside the ship. I'm going to the armory. You make yourself useful. I don't care how." She turned and sprinted down the hallway, the echoes of Ariaka's improvised cane long since faded into eerie silence.

------

The armory was abandoned. Rucha's dim reflection warped and traveled over the near-perfect rows of arms and armor. Ariaka had said life support, but the Ceretai wasn't sure what exactly that entailed. Hopefully not donning one of the restrictive-looking suits that sat uncomfortably against the wall like so many deflated lungs.
Rucha turned away from them and stopped in front of a curved breastplate that lay carelessly on the floor. She tapped its rim with a foot, and it rocked back and forth with a quiet metallic clatter. The shape seemed unsuited for any creature she'd encountered thus far.
Skip the life support, then. Arms time. Rucha shrugged on a shoulder holster and placed her mismatched pistols in it, leaving her backpack behind on the shelf. Nothing I could really need in it right now, anyways, she thought, absentmindedly scrubbing at the pigment on her face with one rough hand.
No sooner had the Ceretai stuck her head out into the hallway than she was struck with a sudden need for caution, in addition to the urgency that already pushed her onward. She lifted her claws and slunk into the dimness, listening for any sound louder than her own breathing.

When the phone rang, Rucha just about had a heart attack. She whipped out a pistol, her heart in her ears, and whirled to face . . . the telephone. Her breath coming in rapid gasps, she simply stood there a moment, gun leveled on the wall-mounted phone, watching the device ring again. Not giving it another chance, Rucha snatched up the receiver in time to hear her own distorted name.
"—nd Ruuuucha?"
"Who's there?" she demanded, her voice a bit shakier than she would have liked.

[Awesomoman]

Lance was proceeding with extreme caution, watching for any sign of movement. A sudden noise sounded in the distance, Lance pulled the trigger half way before realizing what it was, some sort of ringing, a phone? Lance held his position, was this an actual phone or another trick? He began taking slow steps toward the phone, keeping his gun raised and ready the entire time. He reached the old devise and made a quick check. It was plugged in, seemed to be functioning, perhaps someone was actually calling. Keeping his gun up in his right hand he slowly reached and picked up the phone. "Hello, is anyone there?"

[Kauria]

"Lance?" Rucha's body relaxed only slightly, and she leaned against one wall, taking a quick glance in both directions. "You're all right, then? I mean, I didn't think you'd died or anything, not with that armor on." Rucha winced. "Er, never mind. It's good to hear a familiar voice. Everything okay where you are?"

[Nohiki]

"I'll meet you there, we'll get the communicator fixed. Sounds like everybody else is OK. Did somebody see Tal or Keil?" Ariaka asked, checking on her map what's the closest way to the cryo chamber, when she froze again. She felt a hand on her shoulder, which was nonsense on it's own. When she turned around, nothing was there. Nothing. "Oh my god... Oh my god, OH MY GOD, HELP ME!" she yelled, as she was sucked out into space. Then she heard a loud clang and suddenly she was seeing the ceiling again. She realized that clang must have been her hitting the floor once more. Great. As if nobody though i was crazy, now i cried into the phone. she thought, getting up and picking the phone up again. "I must be damaged more than i thought, i am seeing things every minute since we jumped. I'm starting to wonder if being lost was one of them."

[Midnightmoon]

Lee was gasping, panicked. He could feal the spray of water at his back and he wwas frantic to avoid the liquid. He couldn't drown again, never again! He reached another wall and this time lept and jumped off it into the perpendicular corridor. When he had straitened himself from the resulting stumble he ran head long into another object. He fell into a tangled mess on the metal grate and rolled to his feat again ready to continue his escape. But he wasn't over come by the rapids because there were no rapids. Lee panted, out of breath, as he stared down the hall where he came and where he had been going. Then he noticed the cyborg Lance, "Ah, eheheh. You saw it all right? A supply tank must have burst or... Something." Lee reasoned, though he sounded very unsure of himself by the end. He patted doen his uniform and straitened it out while he glanced around for what he feared the most.

[Morty]

Kiruza was surprised when several other voices joined in the conversation; there must exist several phones on the ship, she'd simply never noticed them. "Ruucha! Lance! ThAAnk g-g-oodness you t-t-two are alr-r-r--" Ariaka's sudden panic and then a loud clang cut her off mid-sentence, leaving the Shis feeling even more unnerved than before. "What-t-t jjust haaappened? Is everything alr-r-r--" The Shis began again, but this time a soft, unfamiliar voice cut in, one she didn't at all recognize.
"Helloooooo?"
It sounded nearly human, but with an uncanny accent, as if it were being forced out of a very thin, very long metal tube, and slightly gravelly. Kiruza stood like a statue as all the blood in her body seemed to freeze. She dropped the phone and turned slowly towards the cold locker. No, it couldn't be. They were all dead. Slowly, very slowly she dragged herself towards the frozen metal door, unable to muffle the grating sound of her own advance. She had reached the locker. Set into the door was a tiny window, frosted over, that she wiped off, then, with some hesitation, peered through.
All was well. The old crew was there, exactly as she had left them, stacked neatly in rows and piled only three or four high; not in any way a pile of slithering, murderous cadavers. The Shis relaxed. This ship was playing tricks on them.

Far away, in some other corner of the ship, Gepka's unhurried pursuit of the terrified Lalungil was interrupted by a very loud ringing noise coming from one of the rooms along the corridor. He followed the sound to where the obnoxious object was ringing and tried to get it to stop. In his fumbled attempt he dropped the receiver. He could hear voices coming from the other end. Perhaps the rest of the crew? Relieved, he picked up the phone and said in his best human voice, "Helloooooo?"

[Nohiki]

Ariaka was running to the cryo lab. Her current objective gave her enough focus to utterly disregard another apparition of a fellow crewman dying. IT was only the second one that stopped her. This time, it was jsut a grey mist, swirling around her like gusts of wind. Suddenly, the most terrifying thought went through her mind. "Wh... Who are you?" she asked, not sure why. "We.... HUNGER!" she heard a low, growling voice. At those words, she felt another touch on her back. frightened, she turned around. Nothing, just an empty corridor. A stabbing pain went through her chest again. She collapsed on her knees."Why are you doing this to us?" she cried out. The light... Kept us WARM! Now, the light is... DIM! WE! HUNGER! she heard. Then the scene around shifted. She was back on that planet. They were fleeing, but a missile shot down the shuttle with her crew. Overwhelming sorrow fell upon her, quickly overpowered by anger. She wanted to fire at the crowds, but she was on the ship again. "Answer me!" she yelled at the thing. The light... FAINTED! We need to... FEED! We.. DEVOUR.. your anger... your sorrow, your... PAIN! she heard, and a few gears were starting to spin in her head. The mist seemed to disappear for now. The light... hunger... it must want an energy source... The STARDRIVE! she figured out. Somehow, whatever it was, used to feed on the stardrive, and now that in was down, it was feeding on the crew. She decided that her teammates will have to take care of themselves, before it kills them all, like on the research station. She didn't know why she knew what the something was, but she did, and knew how it would end unless she does something.