Proteus II

“Wake the fuck up, Kystinia! Everything’s going to shit!”

Red lights flashing, her mattress shaking violently, something that smelled like oil hit her in the face. Sitting up in bed, Kystinia blinked and removed the mask from her face. Almost instantly her head began to clear.

“What’s going on, Zia?” she croaked, attempting to stand up and nearly toppling to the floor, thermal blanket wrapped around her legs. “Fire?”

The other woman in the tiny sleep quarters shook her head, face thoroughly horrified. “No, no fire. Get ready. We have to get to the emergency bay and we have to get there NOW.”

Kystinia managed to stand up, realizing that the oily thing in her lap was a mechanic jumpsuit, her own much-stained one of the standard gray material, her name sewn onto it in blocky letters over her right breast.

“Why?” continued Kystinia, shaking her leg into the jumpsuit. She was clad in skin-tight navy blue lycrex from her chin to her wrists and ankles, the standard material used for sleep wear because it insulated and cooled according to body temperature. Kystinia slipped her jumpsuit on over it easily, once it was zipped up she worked on tying her long black hair into a ponytail and locating her protective goggles in her bedside table. While she dug in the rather scattered drawer she found her access card, but the goggles were nowhere to be found.

Zia was stressed, pacing Kystinia’s room with a hand in her bright red hair. She was already in her own mechanic’s uniform, a smudge of dirt or oil on her cheek and the palms of her hands similarly blackened. Zia was a head shorter than Kystinia, and slightly plumper, but she was just as good at her job as the younger woman. They had been working together on the Proteus II since it first launched. Five years now.

“There are things on the ship. I’ve only talked to a few other engineers and one of the lower deck pilots, and none of them knew what was going on. They must have got on somehow during that supply delivery, or maybe escaped one of the labs. I don’t know, but it’s bad. We have to hurry, Kystinia.”

Shoving her feet into her work boots, Kystinia tried to process what her friend was saying. “Things? What do you mean ‘things’?”

“Bad things!” shouted Zia, stopping her pacing to seethe at Kystinia’s sluggish tying of her boots. “Things that want to fucking kill us, so we have to evacuate as many people as we can and get the hell out of here!”

With the grog of her sleep mask wearing away Kystinia began to panic. “Okay, okay. Let’s go.”

Kystinia thought of several things as Zia pressed the release button for the door. Mostly she was grateful she didn’t have any family, knowing that Zia was probably thinking of her family on Earth. She was considering the distance between her room and the emergency bay, knowing it was far and becoming increasingly nervous. She wished the gas from the apparatus she wore to bed would wear off more quickly, wanting to be on full alert if the situation was as bad as Zia was making it out to be, and Kystinia had never heard Zia exaggerate.

“Be as quiet as you can.” whispered Zia, looking over her shoulder at Kystinia with grim brown eyes.

Kystinia nodded, crouching a bit so she could slink along the wall behind Zia. Her lithe, double jointed body sunk easily into the cat-like position.

Proteus II was the most advanced technology the government had to offer, most floors and walls in the ship built out of a hybrid metal scientists were calling molyanium. It was lightweight and almost indestructible, something Zia and Kystinia were very familiar with after five years working with the metal. They were part of a team of over two hundred engineers on the massive space station, assigned to sector 3 towards the front of the ship. Proteus II was enormous, almost the size of the moon it was named for. Its main purpose was research and discovery, but there was also a section of the ship devoted to tourism, containing a hotel and multiple museums, and an observation dome overlooking Neptune that had become quite famous in the galaxy.

They were creeping down the short hall reserved for engineers and other non-scientist crew members. Zia had been on a rampage one day because she had to fix a faulty wire in one of the scientist’s rooms and found that they were much larger than those of the engineers. Kystinia had been indifferent, having been low class all her life and learning long ago that it wasn’t worth it to get upset.

Now the usually active corridor was desolate, so quiet that the hard soles of their boots made loud clunks on the molyanium floors. Kystinia felt an animalistic pulsing begin to grow in her chest and stomach, telling her that she needed a weapon and she needed it now. Her ears pricked and she grabbed Zia’s shoulder harshly.

“There’s something around the corner.” she mostly mouthed.

Zia nodded, swallowing to wet her dry throat. “What do we do?”

Kystinia used her hold on Zia to edge in front of her, motioning for Zia to move back. Her heart raced and her vision sharpened, nostrils flaring. Kystinia peered around the corner, unable to move or think when she saw the source of the quiet snuffling and scraping.

It looked like it had been human once. Between the deadly black spikes on its back there were shredded bits of what looked like human skin, and it had a finger sticking out of the area that Kystinia assumed was its elbow. It was big, but moved hunched over, its head to the ground. The limbs were long and thin, bending in unnatural ways to move the thing along the floor. Occasionally it would shiver, a ripple shuddering across the shiny black skin covering its body. From where she was Kystinia couldn’t see its face, but it was sniffing the floor, letting out squeaky growls once in a while.

Inching herself back, Kystinia turned to Zia, eyes wide and horrified. Her friend nodded grimly. Kystinia had seen some of the weird alien specimens kept in the labs, but none of them were alive. And none of them were so big or dangerous-looking. It was a code white, and most of her training meant nothing. Her fingers flexed, her veins throbbing with the need to kill the thing. A threat to her and her friend. It had to die. Kystinia shook her head, trying to remain sensible.

Zia placed a warm hand on the back of Kystinia’s neck, knowing what was going on in her friend’s head. Kystinia pushed back the instincts that were usually dormant, gesturing for Zia to move back the way they came. They would have to find an alternate route. Kystinia remembered a maintenance hatch not too far from them, one she’d had to use to fix a leaking pipe in the daycare once.

“Hatch.” she moved her lips silently.

They nodded at each other and crept back along the hallway. It took a few more minutes of their cautious movement to find the hatch. Zia turned the handle and opened it, wincing when it made a rusty creak. The hairs on Kystinia’s arms suddenly stood. She swiveled in her crouched position, pupils dilating and staring towards where the thing had been.

It was at the end of the hall. Looking at them with tiny black eyes, its four spidery limbs tensed. It had no jaw, a large black stinger extending from its drooling face. Kystinia heard Zia suck in a frightened breath. The thing let out a high-pitched roar and came at them.

It moved like a scorpion, shrieking and raising its head to brandish the dripping spike at them. Zia screamed and Kystinia had no choice but to fall victim to the impulses she’d tried so hard to bury for all of her life.

The next few moments were a blur of hot liquid and eerie gurgles.