"Elundi Chapters 5-8" by James Sterling Scott

Chapter 5

            Whatever it was the Captain was hauling there sure was a lot of it.  Iron containers stacked in parallel rows stretching all the way to the back wall more then a hundred yards away.  I noticed the keypad locks on the front of each and realized that the Captain probably didn’t even know what he was carrying around.  Victoria followed at my heels like a puppy, her bare feet barely making a sound against the metal floor.  As we moved past row after row of the containers I was starting to think Marcus had already left the cargo hold.  As we rounded the corner my ability finally came within range of him.  I led Victoria towards the row of containers I knew he was down and stopped in my tracks as we reached the aisle.

            I don’t know what Marcus was up to but he had somehow managed to burn out a good portion of the lights down the aisle.  I couldn’t see him there in the dark but I could still tell that he was there.  I started to move forward down the aisle but Victoria grabbed hold of my hand.  She shook her head at me and started to tug trying to pull me back around the corner.

            “I’m not in the mood for games kid.”  I yanked my hand away from hers in one quick motion.  She stared at me with her eyes wide almost as if she was scarred of something.  Crazy kid must be afraid of the dark.  I took a step away from her and opened my lips to shout.  “He Mar…”  My words were cut off as Victoria reached from around me clapping her delicate fingers over my mouth.  I stared at her confused.  She lifted a finger across her lips telling me to be quiet.  She moved her hand away from my lips and lowered it onto my chest pushing me back against one of the containers.

            The world around me turned liquid, like I was underwater and looking up at everything from just below the surface.  At first I was disoriented and could feel my stomach turning.  It took me a moment to realize Victoria had used her trick on me.  I stared at her through the distortion of light moving across my eyes.  Every time I moved my head tiny ripples of light moved across my vision.  It was difficult to make out any details unless I stared straight ahead.  I wondered how she managed to sneak around like this but I suppose practice makes perfect.

            She motioned with her head and I craned my neck to the side to see what had her attention.  I don’t know how I had missed it before but there it was clear as day.  Halfway to the ceiling pinned to the side of one of the containers like a butterfly tacked to a piece of corkboard at a museum was one of the custodians I had seen drinking earlier.  I had been paying so much attention to the broken lights further up the aisle that I hadn’t seen him right above my head.  I was no stranger to violence but I was grateful for the ripples of light moving across my eyes to soften the gory details.  I tried to make out what he was pinned with but my eyes must have been playing tricks on me because it looked like a mop.  Those containers are solid iron there’s no way in hell a piece of wood could go through it.

            My head snapped towards the dark section of the aisle as it suddenly occurred to me that if that poor bastard on the wall was Marcus then who was I sensing down there.  He must have heard me shout but I couldn’t tell if he had seen us as well.  He stepped from out of the shadows.  A grim portrait of death painted in blood.  The crimson fluid dribbled from the ends of his fingertips, a smile plastered on his lips below the red double helix tattoo that ran down the left side of his face.  Just how many Psionic’s are on this ship anyway?  Maybe the others are right after all.  Maybe there was some Psionic conspiracy that they forgot to tell me about.

            His shaved head moved from side to side in an effort to find us.  I realized that I had been holding my breath and let my lungs finally relax.  He had heard us but apparently been too busy with something down the aisle to see our disappearing act.  The man was dressed in a pair of loose fitting pale green hospital scrubs.  Marcus’s blood splattered across the front of his green shirt reminded me of Christmas but there was nothing festive about him.

            He was still a few dozen paces away but with each step closer he took I could feel my heart beating faster.  Now that he was closer I could see that he had the beginnings of a beard just starting to form.  His skin was a sickly pale white and I wondered if he had ever seen a day of sunlight in his whole life.  Red inflamed track marks ran the length of his hairless arms.  “Hello is someone there?”  He looked confused but oddly enough he looked almost friendly.  He wiped the blood from his hands onto the legs of his pants before giving Marcus a questioning look.

            He lifted off the ground like he was a marionette puppet and there was some unseen hand pulling his strings.  At first it was only a few inches but within the space of a heartbeat he had cleared the distance to Marcus.  He stared at the dead man for a moment before tapping his knuckles on Marcus’s forehead.  “Did you say something my friend?”  He turned his head to the side moving his ear up against the dead man’s lips.  “Hmmm”  He drifted a few feet backwards as the dead mans body convulsed.  The mop jerked out of the corpse with a wet sucking sound.  Marcus fell limply to the floor landing with a thud, the mop handle following a moment later with a clatter as it connected with the metal floor.

            Marcus stared at us with cold dead eyes, his face frozen in his last moment of life.  I heard a sigh escape the crazed Psionic’s lips.  “Nope you’re still dead.”  His voice rose to a shout as he lifted himself to the ceiling trying to look out over the rows of containers.  “Is there anyone there?”  I could feel Victoria’s grip on my hand tighten.  I wanted to comfort her but in all honesty I was just as afraid as she was.  I could see her staring at Marcus’s corpse and couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.  A kid shouldn’t ever have to see such a thing.

            The madman’s body seemed to relax as he slowly lowered himself to the ground a look of defeat moving across his features.  We didn’t even flinch even though he was now almost close enough to reach out and touch.  His bare feet moved into the puddle of blood around Marcus as he kneeled down beside the dead man staring once more at the corpse across the aisle from us.  “Was that a friend of yours?”  He ran his fingers lightly across Marcus’s face turning his head to the side.  “Maybe I’m just hearing things.”  Laughter erupted from his lips filling the large room echoing against the containers.  His fingers interlaced through the dead man’s hair as his tone changed, his voice turning serious.  “No if I was hearing things that would mean I was crazy.”  He paused.  “It’s not nice to call people crazy human.”  Another pause as who knows what thoughts ran through the man’s mind.  “I told you once already about being nice.  I guess you didn’t learn your lesson.”  A gasp slipped out of Victoria’s lips and my heart skipped a beat.

            The sound had not gone unnoticed by the Psionic.  He whirled around coming to his feet as the world exploded around us.  The stack of crates we had been standing against toppled backwards as the telekinetic shockwave moved through the air.  We were thrown backwards and left lying flat on our back but thankfully Victoria had managed to maintain her grip on my hand keep us out of sight.  Around us the containers toppled like dominoes until the last row fell against the wall throwing the room into silence once again.  I knew there was no way in hell that would have gone unnoticed on the ship.

            He moved towards us with his hands balled into fist at his side.  “Show yourself!”  The rage in his eyes softened and his voice lowered almost to a whisper.  “I am not going to say it again.”

            I glanced over at Victoria lying beside me with her hand gripping mine so tightly I could feel the circulation draining from my fingers.  I forced a smile onto my lips to try and calm her but I knew it wouldn’t do much good.  I pulled her arm yanking her towards me.  She rolled over onto her chest nearly on top of me.  Whether I liked it or not the Captain was right, she was my responsibility.  She stared in my eyes shaking her head.  She knew what I had in mind but it had to be done.  I leaned towards her careful not to let the madman hear me.  “Get out of here kid.”  I shoved her aside tearing my hand free of her grip.  The ripples settled across my vision as the world became solid once more.

            Shadow eyed idiot thinks I’m just going to let him play the sacrifice card with me.  Well he ain’t getting off that easy.  If he wants to die then that’s his call but I sure as hell don’t want his ghost following me around for the rest of my life.

            Aelin pushed himself up on his elbows a glare plastered across his face.  “I’m here.”  The murdering bastard towered over him trying to decide what to do.  A twisted smile moved across his lips as Aelin began to life off the ground.

            Aelin looked shocked but he wasn’t hurt.  He was just playing with him but at least he was still alive.  He set Aelin gently onto his feet and to my surprise Aelin was quickly embraced in a hug by the psychotic.  He just stood there frozen with his arms out to his side looking just as confused as I was.

            “I do apologize brother.”  He patted Aelin on the shoulder mockingly dusting the dirt off his shoulder.  “There you are good as new!  No harm done.”  He sounded almost happy like Aelin was some long lost friend that he hadn’t seen in years.  “I thought you were another one of these humans.”    He laughed lightly looking back at Marcus.  “That one over there was very rude.  I was trying to ask him a question and he just started walking away from me can you believe that?”  He turned back to Aelin with that smile still plastered across his face and his hand extended.  “Name’s Calvin VanHook.”

            Aelin extended a hand and slowly accepted Calvin’s handshake although it was clear he was nervous.  “Aelin Stephens.  It’s nice to meet you Calvin.”  I looked around for something that I might be able to use as a weapon but the only thing in the room was the dead janitor and the shipping containers that I couldn’t open.  I smacked myself in the head as I remembered the mop that had been stuck in his chest.  “So Calvin what brings you to the Icarus?”  That’s it shadow eyes keep him talking while I look for, ah there it is!

            “What’s an Icarus?”

            “It’s the cruise ship were in.  Don’t you know how you got here?”  Aelin was still shaking his hand.  It was starting to get uncomfortably long for a handshake but neither of them seemed to want to stop.

            The mop was lying on the floor besides the janitor, the threads on the mop head oddly enough were the only part that hadn’t become soaked in blood.  As I took a step towards it I could feel the warm blood squishing between my toes and tried not to look down at what I was moving through.  “No the damn humans like to keep me drugged.  It’s not so bad sometimes I mean those docs do have some pretty good stuff.  Last thing I remember was…. Hey Aelin you wouldn’t happen to have an extra cigarette on you would you?”  I hefted the mop in one hand wrapping my bubble of light around it.  Small droplets of blood splashed down around the janitors corpse.  I crossed my fingers and hoped Calvin wouldn’t notice the droplets appearing out of thin air.

            “No sorry I don’t smoke.”  I heard a crack and whipped back around to see Aelin fall to his knees.  His right leg was bent at an impossible angle just below the knee.  Calvin’s back was to me but I could see he was still holding onto Aelin’s hand.  His face was contorted in pain as he stared straight at me his eyes pleading with me to run.  I found myself wondering if his tears would be black like his eyes but quickly shook the thought from my mind.

            “If you didn’t want to give me a cigarette you could have just said so.  You didn’t have to lie to me that was just rude.”  I moved across the floor as quickly as possible leaving a bloody footprint with each step I took.

            “I….I… wasn’t l… lying I really don’t smoke.”  His voice was shaky from the pain and it made me push myself into a full run.

            “Oh well in that case Ae…”  He spun at the last moment dropping Aelin’s hand.  The bastard had heard my running.  I swung the mop handle at his head as fast as I could with my fingers strung through the threads of the mop head.  The wooden handle smashed into an invisible wall inches from his face.  The vibration of the impact with the solid object set off nerve impulses all through my fingers.  The mop fell to the floor at my feet as Calvin’s hand wrapped around my throat cutting off my supply of oxygen.

            I fell to my knees as his other hand found its way to my neck crushing my windpipe.  Black spots swam across my vision as my light bubble collapsed.  I was slipping into unconsciousness and couldn’t keep up my concentration.

            Good job V, way to prove you’re not a kid.  Killed by a psychotic Psi on board a run down cruise ship in the middle of nowhere.  Maybe I should have told the OPR what was going on.  Maybe I should have told the Captain he was smuggling a red class fugitive telepath to the front lines of a war he knows nothing about.  I guess there’s a lot that I could have done, then again hind sight is always 20/20 isn’t it.  To make matters worse now Aelin was going to die thanks to my stupidity.  The world went dark around me as my eyes slid shut and reality started to drift away.

            Something heavy fell against me and I could just vaguely feel Calvin’s hands unclench from around my neck.  I fell backwards onto the floor my knees bent awkwardly under me.  Someone was shouting something but it sounded so far away I could not make out what they were saying.  The heavy weight rolled off my chest and I struggled for air but my throat burned with each breath.

            A sharp pain rang out across the side of my face and my eyes shot open from the shock.  I blinked trying to clear the tears from my eyes.  Slowly vision returned and I was greeted by Aelin’s smiling face as he leaned down over me.  “Welcome back to the land of the living kid.”  The back of my head was throbbing but when I checked my hand came back blood free.  Wasn’t as good as a trip to the doctor but I guess it meant my skull was still intact.  I tried to massage away the ache in my throat but something told me I might not want to look in the mirror for awhile.

            It took me a moment to realize that Calvin was laying next to me face down on the ground a line of blood trailing down the back of his head.  Aelin tossed the mop onto Calvin’s back, from this angle I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not.  I guess I should be grateful good ole shadow eyes decided to steal my triumph.  Aelin was sitting on the ground at my feet looking as bad as I felt but at least we were both still alive.

            “I told you to call me V.”

            He laughed.  “And I told you to get out of here so I guess were even.”

            The door on the other side of the room rolled open with a whine.  I expected it would be the under dressed ass of a Captain, but instead it was that other jack ass I think Aelin called him Gant but I was only half paying attention.  His eyes were wide as he glanced over the collapsed rows of shipping containers.  He ran towards us in a jog but quickly came to a halt as he got close enough to see the bloody remains of the janitor and the three of us on the ground not looking our best.

            “Aelin what the hell did you do?!?”

            Aelin dropped his head into his hands trying to process everything that had happened.  He tried to stand but it was a futile attempt with that busted leg of his.  “Not a word Gant.”  Aelin reached for his belt tugging at his small black radio now that we had a moment of silence.  Before he had a chance to tap the call button on the radio the emergency alarm ripped through the cargo hold.  Aelin threw a look at Gant but he shook his head in denial.

            “Hey Lieutenant I came to check things out and found yall it sure as hell wasn’ttttt.”  Time slowed as Gant's words stretched.  We stared at one another as the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling started to rattle.  Calvin was still on the ground dead or unconscious but the shacking grew worse as the containers bounced into the air.  Just as quickly as it had started the shaking abruptly came to a halt.

            Before any of us had time to speak I watched as Aelin, Gant, Calvin, the dead janitor, and even the shipping containers slowly lifted into the air.

            “Oh great now the artificial gravity is off line.”  Aelin let out a sigh.  “What the hell kind of nightmare shift is this.”

Chapter 6

            Ever since the others left I found myself starting at the vid screen and the violet purple ball as it followed behind us.  It was a thing of beauty but more then that it was my ticket off the Icarus.  An object just slightly bigger than someone’s head that is capable of achieving faster then light speeds.  I tried to work out all the possibilities of it’s origins but no matter what I came up with it was still good news for me.

            Was it some kind of naturally occurring mineral?  I was possible but its actions seemed sentient.  I suppose I could be some sort of deep space life form which would make me rich if the techs could figure out how it works.  My first thought had been that it was some sort of weapon but then again that didn’t make any sense.  I am a pilot second and an engineer first and although the techs could make smaller engines the amount of dark matter in the core was still proportional to the amount of speed the engine could achieve.  So if it was a weapon it was years more advanced then anything I had seen the military dealing with and even if that was true why would it be following a junker like the Icarus?  So what does that leave me with aliens, ha now there’s a thought.  United Nations has explored almost half the Milky Way and never found so much as a fragment of any alien culture.

            Of course that’s not to say we hadn’t found life out there.  We have colonies on dozens of different planets with earth class atmospheres and near earth gravity.  We have found plenty of life out there among the stars just not any intelligent life.  I remember the news reels coming in from Sigma Prime when they first stumbled on the Orochi named after the poor bastard that found them.

            Parasitic bugs the size of your hand.  There yellow with blue stripes and always reminded me of some crazy cross between a bee and a spider.  Four legs and a set of flimsy transparent wings.  Orochi was a farmer on Sigma when he stumbled on the damn things out in his field.  The settlers do there best to explore, scan, and tag life forms on new planets but every now and then they stumble on something that slips past.

            Sigma Prime was an ideal farming world full of fertile soil and aside from a few small insect and a couple of eagle looking birds it was animal free.  Small fish filled the oceans and the land was safe, at least until Orochi came along.  He got his ass bit by the damn thing and ran on back home excited to tell his family about the new creature he had discovered.  Aside from the small red irritated bite on his arm he had gotten off unharmed at least that’s what he thought.  He flew himself into the city to get checked out by the med techs to be on the safe side but he spent too many hours celebrating before getting himself checked out.

            By the time he got to the docs he had a fever and was too delirious to talk.  His heart stopped in the emergency room while they were wheeling him in and the docs figured they were too busy to find out what had happened so they just carted him off to the morgue to be autopsied later.  What nobody knew at the time was that the Orochi don’t inject poison into the body they inject there eggs.  Damn near microscopic at first but one bite put hundreds of eggs into him.  Once they hatch into the bloodstream the disgusting little things start feeding on red blood cells getting bigger by the minute.  Within a few hours they clog up your veins and arteries gorging themselves.  Once your blood starts to run cold the damn things eat through the skin for freedom and come out looking like little flies coated with blood.

            The Orochi laid low in hibernation for the first few days while there bodies grew inside cocoons.  When they emerged from there shells at full hand size the little yellow and blue stripped bugs spread all over the colony.  More then a hundred died the first week and by the end of the month the death toll reached more then a hundred thousand.

            The UN and the boys in the hazmat suits quarantined Sigma Prime but in the end it all fell to down the toilet.  The UN couldn’t risk letting anyone travel off world with Orochi swimming in there veins.  They grounded everyone including there own people.  Colonist tried to flee aboard shuttles but a single volley from the orbiting UN armada blew them out of the air.  People barricaded themselves in there homes but the Orochi swarmed so thick they almost blotted out the sun.  It wasn’t long before everyone on Sigma Prime had played incubator to the Orochi.  As much as the military wanted to study them for possible weaponry uses they realized the Orochi was simply too dangerous to leave lying around.  The techs figured that the Orochi were the reason we hadn’t found any animals on Sigma and they weren’t in any rush to watch it happen to another human colony.

            The Orochi were top of the food chain on Sigma Prime.  They were out of food and incubators for the eggs and they were on the verge of extinction.  If it hadn’t been for a farmer stumbling upon them in a field millions would still be alive and within a couple of generations the Orochi would have been gone from the galaxy without ever having taken a human life.

They bombed Sigma Prime from orbit, blanketing the planet with nukes.  Now the place is a radiation playground, just another dust ball planet that’s unfit for colonization.  Even though nobody ever goes there the military still keeps a carrier in orbit just in case.  It’s doubtful that any Orochi survived but the place is still off limits to everyone.  Sigma Prime taught us all a valuable lesson and no I don’t mean the lesson that says if you get bit by an alien but get your ass to the hospital.  I’m talking about the lesson that even though new discoveries can make you rich and famous they can also leave you lying on a slab with your veins ripped open and the galaxy remembering you for opening a Pandora’s box of pain and death.

            My eyes found there way back to the floating purple ball.  It must be my imagination from way too much time staring at the same image but it almost seems to be glowing.  The sensors still can’t pick it up so it’s damn near impossible to tell but it defiantly seems brighter.  The seconds ticked away and as each minute goes by it seems brighter until at last it is a blinding ball of purple light that I can hardly stand to look at.  The light burns my eyes and I can see little flashes swimming across my vision but still I don’t look away.  My finger moves over the red emergency alarm button but I can’t bring myself to push it.  The ball moved forward not just matching our speed but actually gaining on us.

            It collided against the side of the ship shattering into a thousand pieces against the titanium hull.  God damnit.  Just my luck I discover something that will make me rich and the damn thing decides to destroy itself.  My curses echo off the walls of the bridge as I try and restrain myself and keep from punching a fist through the nearest computer screen.  I was about to turn the camera off when my attention was suddenly drawn back to the shattered pieces of violet crystal.

            They began to expand slowly at first.  They stretch across the metal growing fresh crystals along the hull as they connected to one another looking like a pancake as the bumps along the surface flattened and took shape.  They formed a thin cover of crystal over the small area of the hull so thin I could almost make out one of the UN logos through the glass like covering.

            The panel attached to the Captain’s chair beeped a warning as the dark matter drive shut down.  I couldn’t tell by looking at the empty expanse of space through the bid screen but knew we had come to a halt.  My fingers reached for the emergency alarm but before I could press the button down the entire ship lurched violently knocking me flat to the floor with a thud.

            The glass like crystal circle began to expand across the surface of the ship.  Enveloping the hull like some nightmare ivy growing across the side of a Victorian style home.  Within seconds the cameras had been covered sending a wash of purple light through the bridge.  Thankfully my hand was clutching the side of one of the computer consoles as the artificial gravity shut off.  My cold half empty cup of coffee drifted into the air sending floating droplets of the brown liquid in every direction.  I reached up and let my hand smash down across the emergency button.  As the alarm sounded across the ship I found myself thinking back to Orochi once again.  I found myself wondering if I would go down in history and the poor bastard that discovered this… this…. Hodges crystal.

Chapter 7

            Pretty red blood trickled down the back of my neck and I couldn’t make the bells stop ringing in my brain.  My little sister was gone gone gone probably mad at me for chocking her.  “Where have you gone little sister?  I was mad and I do apologize.  If you come out I promise not to bash your skull into little red pieces.”  Nope no response.  Why is everyone so rude around here.  I was nice enough to put brother’s leg back together but when he got up he tried to hit me with that stick again.

            I think I showed some real restraint by not making his head go boom.  I can’t be mad at little bro and sis it’s not there fault they been brainwashed by those silly humans.  Promised them a cup of gold they did, or maybe a pink bunny I’ve always liked bunnies.  Hipity hop hipity hop.  I used to have a bunny but when I accidentally ripped it’s skin off they said I couldn’t have anymore pets.  It’s not my fault nobody ever said not to rip his skin off.  He was dirty and I couldn’t get his fur clean so I ripped it off.  I thought he would grow new fur but oh well what’s done is done.

            I keep tapping lil brother with my foot but he doesn’t want to get up big baby wants to sleep all day.  I only hit him on the head a little with that stick he was trying to hit me with.  I could have smashed his skull like that rude human that wouldn’t tell me where I was.  Speaking of which where the hell am I anyway.  One second Doc Michelle was giving me my medicine the next thing I know I’m waking up inside one of those dark metal boxes with a needle in my arm.  At first my head was killing me and I couldn’t get out but after awhile I remembered how to make things move.  It has been so long since Doc Michelle let me out to play and now I’m stuck.

            It was fun when I knocked all the boxes down.  They were like big silver dominoes except Timmy wasn’t playing with me and Doc Michelle wasn’t there to give me any juice.  At least my head doesn’t hurt so bad now and it seems to have stopped bleeding.  I should go find the Doc to look at me but if I don’t know where I am how am I going to find her?

            I was going to kill lil brother but I couldn’t find any cigs in his pockets so I guess he wasn’t lying to me.  I wish they would stop playing with the lights it’s very rude how they keep flicking them on and off.  And they won’t stop banging on the door.  I tried to shout but they won’t answer.  Probably more humans, I can handle them though but I can’t find little sister anywhere.  I need another door!  Yes a new door away from the humans.  And then I can go find Timmy and the Doc and we can go play Dominoes like we used to.

            I peeled the metal away from the wall like a banana.  It was easy enough to make a hole big enough to climb through but when I got past the metal there was another wall.  A sheet of some strange glowing purple crystal.  It was cool to the touch and made my skin tingle when I touched it.  I reached out my mind painting the picture of a giant fist in my thoughts.  I swung forward letting the phantom image in my head collide with the glass wall.  Instead of seeing the pretty glass shatter into a million pieces like I had hoped I was flung backwards onto the floor.  I had never been hit by my own powers before but it felt worse then when the Doc used to pull me around by the ear.

            I pushed myself back up and staggered for a few steps before shrugging off the numbness in my hands and feet.  “Did you see that little brother?  That wall attacked me.”  Sleepy head still didn’t move.  I focused on the image of a hand and casually hefted one of the large shipping containers off the ground.  It must have weighed a few tons but I wasn’t even starting to strain.  Once when I was a kid I managed to juggle all the tables in the cafeteria while keeping all the food and drinks from spilling but did I get congratulated or slapped on the back?  Nope not Calvin.  I tossed the metal box into the air casually a few times catching it in my invisible hand.

            When the box struck the wall I couldn’t help but giggle with glee at the sight of the shattering purple glass.  I had to shield my eyes from the sunlight filtering in through the hole.  It had been so long since I had been let outside that I had to stand and stare in awe at the vision of beauty stretched out before my eyes.  The sky looked weird and I had never seen trees like that before but I was free and that’s what mattered.  I gave one last look at that Aelin fellow still asleep on the ground.  “It was nice meeting you little brother but I have to go find Timmy and the Doc there probably worried about me.”

Chapter 8

            My leg was sore and still hurt but it didn’t feel broken anymore.  The last thing I could remember was that nut job Psionic waking up.  Wait no that’s not right.  Why are the emergency floodlights on?  It came back to me in a sudden flash and I found myself on my feet in an instant as the realization struck me.

            We had crash landed.  The hole in the wall with sunlight pouring through was as much of a hint as I needed.  I could still breathe so there was oxygen outside but without a full scan who knows what poisons I could be inhaling.  I remember the gravity shutting off and the emergency alarm ringing in my ears.  I sent Victoria and Gant to see what was going on.  I thought the nutjob would be out cold for awhile but I won’t make that mistake again.  Almost as soon as Victoria and Gant managed to swim there way through zero G and get out the rest of the power went offline.

            The emergency lights activated but without juice the doors were sealed shut leaving me inside the cargo hold and Victoria and Gant locked just outside.  I could hear the ship shaking but thanks to the zero G I was saved from most of the vibrations.  I wasn’t saved from smacking back down against the hard metal floor when we entered the gravity well of wherever we had landed.  Thankfully none of the shipping containers had fallen on me.  Unfortunately they missed Calvin too.

            Outright murder would have been wrong but if he had gotten himself crushed by one of the containers well that’s an act of god.  Not only had he survived but the jolt woke his ass up.  I still had the mop but he was ready for it.  He hit me with something and I blacked out but at least my head didn’t seem to be bleeding.  Calvin had snapped the bone back into place in my leg but he broke it when I wouldn’t give him one of my non existent cigarettes.  There was no telling what he would have done if I pissed him off again.  I had to try and take him out even if I did screw it up.

            As much as I wanted to take a look outside and get an idea of where we were it would have to wait.  I could see that some of the cargo containers had broken open spilling wooden crates across the floor.  Some how the Captains suspicious cargo didn’t seem as important anymore.  I forced my attention away from the boxes and towards the banging of metal against metal.  First things first get Victoria and Gant out then find the Captain and the rest of the crew and passengers and figure out just what the hell was going on and where we were.

            Getting the door open proved more difficult then I had hoped.  In the end it took a jagged piece of metal from one of the broken containers.  I managed to wedge the metal shard into the crack and use my body weight as leverage to force the crack open enough to get through.

            “What took you so long Lieutenant?  I thought you had forgotten about us.”  I resisted the urge to beat the smile off Gant’s face.

            “What about Calvin?”

            “He’s gone kid.”  I reached down to ruffle her blonde hair to somehow downplay the situation.  She darted to the side and folder her arms in annoyance.  “My apologies I mean he’s gone V.”

            “Gone?  Gone where?  This is the only way in and out.”  I shrugged and motioned over my shoulder towards the gaping hole in the wall along the other side of the room.  “He fixed my leg then made a new door.”  They were both as shocked as I had been at the sunlight filtering in.  Gant began to move past me to look outside but I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.  “We have to make sure everyone’s alright.  We can figure out where we are later.”

            Victoria glared in my direction.  “We have to find Calvin.”

            “V he had the chance to kill me but didn’t.  He’s gone and I don’t see how we could catch him.”

            “We did once.”

            “Yeah and that’s only because he thought I was the only one in the room.”  I gestured once more to the hole leading outside.  “And I don’t think that damage was caused by the crash.  If he can do that to the Icarus then I'm not in any rush to find him.”

            Gant raised his arm “I second that motion.”

            “We have to check on the others and make sure everyone is alright.”

            “No need Lieutenant.  While you were busy sleeping I got Ben on the radio.  He’s using a portable power supply from the computer and going deck by deck looking for survivors.”

            “Well don’t you think we should help Gant?  It’s going to take hours for him to track everyone down.”

            “With what Lieutenant?  He can power the doors one by one as he goes.  We on the other hand would have to pry each one open by hand.  Forget hours it would take us weeks.”

            “So what’s the plan then Gant just sit around and wait?”

            “Don’t ask me you’re the Lieutenant.”  I wanted to hit him again.  It was amazing how often Gant made me feel that way.  Instead I just shrugged.  “We might as well take a look around then.”

“Were not in Kansas anymore.”

            “Forget Kansas Gant were not even in UN controlled space.”

            Victoria had been quiet for the most part since we left the semi safety of the ship.  She looked just as confused as I felt.  “Forget about where we are for a second fellas.  Take a look at the ship.”

            I had been so entranced by the awe inspiring sight I hadn’t even bothered so much as a glance at the Icarus.  The entire ship from bow to stern, from port to starboard, from top to bottom was encased inside a cocoon of purple glass.  The material wrapped around every bump and piece of radio equipment on the hull in a protective film of glass.  The material wrapped around every bump and piece of radio equipment on the hull in a protective film of glass.  Stretching for nearly two miles the only slightly rounded bottom of the ship had settled only a few feet into the soft dirt letting the ship stay level.  There were no tracks to indicate that we had crashed it looked more like we had just been picked up and placed as gently as possible on the ground.  Aside from the hole Calvin had punched in the side and the flickering lights the Icarus was in pristine condition.  The better question was how the hell did we get here and where the hell here was.

            Although there was brown dirt underfoot it was abundantly clear this was no ordinary planet.  The land didn’t curve downward but rather upwards in every direction.  I looked up and tried to suppress a sense of vertigo as I looked past the violet sky and tiny white sun.  There were no stars, no moons, not even the smallest hint of outer space.  Past the sun an impossible distance away I could see continents of land that had to be hundreds of times bigger then Earth to still be visible from the distance.  It was as if someone had taken a planet larger then our entire solar system and turned it inside out wrapping it carefully around a tiny white dwarf star.

            We had set down inside a clearing in what I guessed was a forest.  Trees or rather what passed for trees surrounded the ship giving it a wide birth of a hundred feet in every direction as if the clearing had been specially molded to fin the Icarus.  Either that or the damn trees were sentient and had gotten out of the way to avoid being crushed.  I hoped it wasn’t the case; all our encounters with sentient plant life in the past had been well problematic I suppose you could say.

            Keep in mind sentient doesn’t necessarily mean intelligent.  You can’t have a conversation with sentient plants or anything like that but they do have basic synaptic function.  No central brain simply a network of cells that give the basic motor function.  As long as you leave them be no problem but have a settle take a swing with an axe and you’re in for big trouble.  I mean try telling someone who has no language that you’re sorry you just tried to chop off his leg.  They make colonization damn near impossible.

            The trees didn’t look like anything you would find on Earth but in principal they had the same basic shape.  The trunks stretching upwards with branches starting about halfway up reaching out and upwards to make a bigger surface area to capture the rays of sunlight.  The similarities stopped there however.  The wood of the trunk or rather what appeared to be wood was the same violet purple as the sky and the massive oceans I could see so far overhead.  The branches had no leaves but rather tiny diamond shaped crystals that varied from tree to tree in every color of the rainbow.  The branches and crystals intertwined like the trees in any forest back Earth side.  Here however there was no shade offered by the tree coverage but rather a kaleidoscope of color as the suns rays filtered down through the rainbow of crystals onto the soft brown soil on the ground.  Here and there I could spot patches of trees that consisted of only one color but for the most part there was no discernable placement.  Green crystal trees intertwined with blue, yellow, orange, red, purple, and even a few black to make up a forest that was breathtakingly beautiful.

            Gant stepped up beside me in just as much awe as I was.  “So where do you think the freak went?”  I shot him a glare and he quickly revised his question.  “Sorry Lieutenant.  Didn’t mean anything by it.  What I meant to say was were do you think the Psionic went?”  He ran a nervous hand through his hair as an uncomfortable silence settled around us.  I had never pegged Gant as a bigot but he did sometimes let comments like that slip out.  I often wondered how he felt about Psionic’s when I wasn’t around.

            “His tracks go off into the trees but he didn’t even know he was onboard the Icarus so he sure as hell doesn’t know anything about this place.  He is probably just trying to get as far from us a possible and I say good riddance.”  The three of us turned in unison as Hodges clamored out of the hole in the wall followed behind by a rather disheveled looking set of four survivors.  I kept my eyes on the hole but nobody else came out.  The three of us approached the small group and I quickly pulled Hodges to the side out of earshot of the other survivors.  “Where’s everyone else?  Where’s the Captain?”

            Hodges shook his head.  “There is nobody else.”  He wiped his hand down his white trousers and I noticed red blood smearing off against the pale fabric.  “I went for the Captain first.  It looked like he got up when the alarm went off and was heading to the bridge when the power failed.  The doors to his quarters sealed shut on him.”  He leaned against the side of the ship on hand on the thin purple glass for support as he bent forward and retched.  Nothing came up, I counted my blessings thankful that he had an empty stomach.  He stayed bent over but moved his hand away from the wall and onto his knees.  “The system went down and since it couldn’t tell if there had been any decompression the safety systems automatically triggered to seal all the doors.  It cut the Captains leg off well above his knee.  Probably clipped an artery.  I found him in the hall outside his quarters.  Jesus there was so much blood everywhere.”

            Gant placed a hand on his friends shoulder and squeezed lightly.  “It’s not your fault Ben.”

            Hodges wheeled on him shoving Gant away in a fit of rage.  “Not my fault!  Screw you Will.  I’m the one who hit the damn alarm if I hadn’t the Captain would still be alive.”  Victoria and the rest of the survivors were staring at us as the situation quickly got out of hand.  I grabbed Hodges spinning him back around to face me.  A quick glance to the others and they looked away back to the trees and the strange new world beyond.

            “What about everyone else Hodges?”

            “Mark, Abby, Erik, and Richard from security they made it out of there quarters when the alarm sounded and boarded one of the lifts to come to the bridge.  The power outage killed them too.  The safety systems on the lift should have stopped them but it didn’t.  The lift just kept going up in the shaft with it’s momentum until it smashed into the ceiling.  The damn thing crushed them like a tin can.”

            He paused to take a breath.  “And the cook?”

            Timothy.  He was getting breakfast ready.  He had the fryers going when the gravity shut off.  The oil was all over him.  Burned his skin right off the bone.  I found Ryan in his quarters.”

            I had been on the Icarus for way to long not to have everyone’s names memorized.  The crew was accounted for except the two janitors that hadn’t been killed by Calvin.  One of them was among the survivors so I guessed it was Ryan.  “And the other custodian?”

           “Paul.  It looked like he was trying to get power to his door by splicing juice from the emergency lights in his quarters.  He screwed something up and got fried.”  Damn drunk it serves him right.

            “Who are those other three?”

            “Passengers.  The red head is Michelle Carter, the brunette is Emma Monroe and the guy is Dominick Fitzgerald.  There a little shook up but otherwise alright.  I checked on the rest of the passengers.”  He shook his head.  It was clear the others hadn’t made it and I wasn’t going to make Hodges recap there grisly deaths.

            If we were going to be stuck here together I might as well try and remember there names.  Michelle Carter was standing away from the others having a conversation with Victoria.  She appeared to be in her mid fifties with wrinkles just starting to form around her green eyes.  I know she was probably closer to a hundred but still I couldn’t help but take notice of the way her black slacks and white dress shirt hugged her curves.  Her red hair was tied neatly into a ponytail with a yellow scrunchie and fell to the mid of her back.  She gave off an air of authority but Victoria didn’t seem to be impressed.

            The brunette, Emma Monroe was closer to my age in her mid twenties but she had an athletic body and a tomboy crew cut on top of her head that told me I didn’t want anything to do with her.  Her hands were tucked into the pockets of her green cargo pants.  I couldn’t help but be jealous of her well toned fore arms that put mine to shame.  A pale green baggy t-shirt with a United Nations Marine Core logo printed across the front in black ink.  The UNMC told me all I needed to know.

            Dominick Fitzgerald was a bit of a mystery though.  He wore a well tailored black suit with a matching black dress shirt and what appeared to be a black silk tie.  He looked like he had just come from a funeral.  His hair was short and well kept and I got the feeling he had quite a large bank account waiting for him back home.  There was a small gold band around his ring finger but other then that he wore no jewelry.  I know he couldn’t have gone to sleep that way and deduced that he had changed clothes after Hodges found him.

            Paul the custodian looked about ready to fall over as he swayed back and forth.  He was either still drunk or hung over I couldn’t tell which but at the point it was clear he needed sleep more then I did.

            I moved towards the improvised door in the side of the ship and cleared my throat to try and get everyone’s attention.  It had little effect.  I smashed my fist against the hull and had better luck.  Our small ragtag group of survivors gathered around in a semi circle all staring at me.  I don’t know how I got elected spokesman but somebody had to do it.  There little whispers and separate conversations died off as they looked to me for some kind of guidance.

            “Listen up everyone.  Here is the situation.  Right now we don’t know where we are or how we got here but we are…”  Hodges had his eyes to the ground and didn’t seem to sure of himself but that didn’t stop him from raising his hand to speak.  “Yes Hodges?”

            “It’s a Dyson Shell.”  Everyone aside from Paul and myself nodded in understanding.  Was I the only one here confused.

            “Alright Hodges what the hell is a Dyson Shell?”

            Hodges cleared his throat and looked up at the others trying to settle his shaking hands by rubbing them together.  “I apologize Lieutenant please allow me to explain.  In the mid twentieth century there was a theoretical physicist named Freeman Dyson who theorized that if we wanted to find intelligent life we should be looking for something like this.  He figured that advanced civilizations would need more energy then humans at the time.  He came up with quite a few theories about possible structures like this including a ring, and a bubble.  The Dyson shell however is a solid metal ball built around a star to harness all of the solar energy.  There were major issues with his theories concerning gravity such as why all of us aren’t floating off into that sun by now but I guess whoever was smart enough to build this was smart enough to solve that little problem.”

            The rest of them nodded but I just scratched my head.  “But if they trap all this energy… I mean I’m no genius but that’s way to much power to try and contain I mean even a structure this size can’t use so much power that they can keep up with the energy being spit out.  Why aren’t we getting cooked to death?  All this heat getting trapped in a big metal ball shouldn’t’ we just be getting hotter and hotter in here?”

            “They must have some way to vent the excess heat out of the shell but I mean really Lieutenant I can’t be sure about any of this it’s a little above my pay grade.”

            “How would someone even start to build something this size Hodges?  It’s impossible.”

            “Your right Lieutenant it is impossible and yet here we are.  Even if you took all the titanium, iron, steel, and other resources from every colonized planet in UN space you wouldn’t even have a fraction of the materials needed to build something this size.  This is called theoretical for a reason Lieutenant.”

            “Okay so were stranded on an object that can’t possibly be real.  We don’t know how we got here or even what part of the galaxy were in.  Even if the Icarus had been built capable of escaping a planets gravity well we would be out of luck.  The hull is breached but even if it wasn’t where could we go.  We can’t even get outside this shell to start looking for any way home.”  I shrugged crossing my arms.  “Any suggestions?”

            “What about Calvin?”  Victoria’s high pitched voice chimed in from her place behind Michelle.

            Looks of confusion moved across the others as it finally occurred to me that only Victoria, Gant, and I knew about that little tidbit of trouble.  Hodges was the first to ask “Calvin who?” Damn Victoria, as if I didn’t have enough problems to worry about and now you go and get everyone else asking questions about Calvin.

            “Calvin is well what he is you see…. Alright fine here goes.”  I threw my hands up in resignation.  “Calvin was, well is a stowaway.  We don’t know how or when he came on board.”  Okay so maybe we did know but we weren’t exactly going to admit to the Captain being a dirty smuggler.  “He murdered one of the crew.  But I don’t think we have to worry.  He was the first one off the ship; his tracks go into the crystal forest.  I don’t think he’s coming back.”

            Michelle raised her voice ever so slightly.  “We should go after him!”

            “Miss Carter that would be a bad idea.  What I didn’t tell you was that he was a red class telekinetic.”  Emma had turned to watch the forest ever since the word murder had left my lips.  I may not know anything about her but it felt good to have a marine here even if it meant spoiling her vacation on Miridian.  A few missing civilians in space would hardly make headlines but a marine going missing would defiantly draw the attention of the United Nations Military.

            Michelle seemed to be rolling that little tidbit of information around her head.  “I still think we should go after him.”  She quickly raised her hand.  “I volunteer to find him before he finds us.  Anyone else?”

            I sighed “Were not splitting up Miss Carter.  The co-pilot Hodges is going to rig up his backup generator to the ships distress beacon and were going back inside the Icarus to wait for help.”  Hodges nodded his approval to the group.

            “But Mr…..”

            “Stephens.  But he prefers to be called Lieutenant.”  Oh gee thanks a lot for that one Gant.  Don’t know what I would do without you.

            “Well Lieutenant Stephens don’t you think everyone would be able to sleep better if this killer weren’t running around out here.  He could come back and kill us all.”

            “Look Miss Carter I’m not going to argue with you on this.  Even if we found him we have no way to stop him.  Anyone that goes looking will be killed if not by him then maybe by some wild animal.  We know nothing about this place or what could be here.  Hell for all we know right now we are breathing in some wicked toxins that will eat us alive from the inside out.  There are too many unknowns for us to just go traipsing around the woods.  We are not leaving and that’s final.”

            But Lieutenant Stephens we….”

            Victoria stepped between the two of us but I could still see the annoyed look of Michelle’s face over the kids head.  “Lady he said it’s final.  I don’t know what world you’re from but where I’m from that means to shut the hell up!”

            Michelle glared at the girl taking a step forward to close the gap between them.  Michelle patted Victoria on the head in a condescending manner.  “This is grown up business let the adults handle it.”  She pushed Victoria to the side and began a brisk stride towards me.  It was clear she wasn’t used to not getting her way.  It was also abundantly clear that Victoria did not like being considered a child.

            “Hey bitch!”  Michelle spun at the words.  I saw her lips starting to form a response but before she could Victoria cut her off.  Victoria reached behind her back then quickly raised her arm towards the condescending red head.  A flash of light sparked in her outstretched hand and all eyes whipped around at the sudden show of power.  A pistol sparkled into existence in her open hand.  Guns were illegal on every planet and colony in UN space.  I couldn’t tell if I was more shocked that she had the weapon or the fact that she had such control of her abilities that she was able to keep us from seeing it even though it was tucked into the waistline of her pink jeans for who knows how long.

            Why hadn’t she used the weapon on Calvin if she… oh bloody hell.  Thank you very much again Captain Samson it wasn’t bad enough your smuggling a red class telepath your also transporting weapons.  If you weren’t already dead I swear I would kill you.  Victoria must have grabbed it out of one of the busted containers when I wasn’t looking.  She raised the weapon bringing it level with Michelle’s face but oddly enough Miss Carter didn’t seem worried.  Condescending bitch probably thought Victoria didn’t have the guts to do anything.  She had been ready enough to crack Calvin’s skull open so I know better.

            Nobody moved and aside from the rustle of the wind through the crystal leaves that reminded me of wind chimes there was no sound.  Why do I always have to be the one to break awkward silences?  “V put the gun down.  You are in enough trouble with the OPR already don’t make matters worse then they already are.”

            Victoria didn’t drop the gun instead she laughed and moved the weapon away from Michelle to train it on me.  “Stay out of this Aelin.  I would hate to have to shoot you shadow eyes but I will if I have to.”  Michelle took a step towards her but was halted when Victoria moved the weapon back onto her.  “That’s far enough Doctor Carter.”

            “Doctor?  I’m no Doctor little girl.”  Michelle tried to act casual but it was clear that Victoria’s remark had fazed her.

            “Enough lies Doctor.  I know who you are.  I know what you’re doing here.  The only thing I haven’t figured out is why you were heading to Miridian.”  She clicked the hammer back on the gun.  “I also know I’m not letting you go anywhere near Calvin.”

            “V you’re not thinking straight.  Just put down the gun and we can talk about this.”

            “Listen to your friend kid.  You’re confusing me with someone else.”  She slowly lifted her hands holding them open towards Victoria to show that she was no threat.  “Why don’t you just put that thing down before you hurt someone.”

            Another laugh came out past Victoria’s blue lips.  “Oh I’m going to hurt somebody alright Doctor.  No I have tried to do things nicely but I am going to make this simple for you.  You have until I count to three to tell me where you were going on Miridian.”

            “I was going on my vacation kid.”

            “One…”

            “I’m a teacher and I was just going to relax on the beach.”

            “Two…”

            “Kid please you don’t know what…”

            “Three.”  I watched her finger slide across the trigger.  I watched the barrel of the gun kick in her hand.  I watched the flash as the bullet left the barrel.  I watched as Michelle fell to the ground.