The sickbay was a mess. Literally and figuratively. Kelly and Teale arrived to find one of the doors hanging off its hinges and the other in a constant state of opening and closing. Sliding between the malfunctioning door, they quickly established they should’ve stayed outside. Every single bio-bed had been destroyed. Either broken in half or launched across the room. Beneath the wreckage were several severed limbs, varying in size and type, but Kelly counted at least two dozen. Directly above the pile was an enormous hole in the ceiling, three light panels ripped free to create the gap.
“We’re being hunted,” she said out loud to Teale, who shrugged her injured arm free of her sling. “What are you doing?”
Teale swung her shoulder around a few times to achieve some mobility.
“Figured I’d probably need two hands for whatever shit we’re about to get into. Besides, no offence Sir, but if you go to shoot me again, this is my punching arm.”
Kelly smiled briefly, before moving toward the pile of human remains. Blood stained the outline of the hole, and Kelly could see in the beam of her rifle torch that the hole went right through to the deck above. It looked as if something had simply torn its way through the metal.
A beep emanated from Kelly’s wrist communicator.
“Go ahead.”
“Commander, we’ve just reached engineering. You’re gonna wanna see this, Sir.”
Deciding there was nothing they could do here, Kelly and Teale made their way back out into the hallway, but a loud clang from behind them in sickbay stopped them in their tracks. Kelly gestured for Teale to wait in the corridor, and she stepped back inside. Another clang, from somewhere inside the chief medical officer’s room. Kelly could make out a gargling noise, and she knew somebody was in there. She took one step further, and under her foot, a shattered beaker crunched loudly. She stopped dead.
“Shit.”
The glass in the office erupted outwards as a mangled torso was thrown from the room, landing in a heap, the brittle and damaged bones audibly cracking on impact. But it was the beast that followed the body through the now broken window that made Kelly’s blood run cold. The creature stood at least eight feet tall, perhaps more, and its torso appeared to be armoured. Whether it was artificial or part of an exoskeleton, she couldn’t tell. It’s head was similar to a humanoid design, but had an elongated look, sweeping back tightly from the face. It’s hands were claws with six inch talons on each of the four fingers, and the feet were the same, but four times the size. The claws on the feet were actually tearing into the floor as the creature turned to look at Kelly.
It's face was a contorted construction. No lips to speak of, but long yellowed razor sharp teeth spanned the gap in two rows, drool cascading from the mouth onto the floor. And the eyes. They were a piercing red, almost glowing like fire. Kelly was so transfixed by the stature of this alien creature, that she had failed to notice its scorpion-like tail whipping through the air. The blade like fins attached to the tail sliced three large gashes into Kelly’s arm, and she dropped her rifle falling to the floor in agony. Again, the tail whipped through the air, but she just managed to roll out of the way as it cut clean through the floor where she had been just seconds before. Wasting no time, she scrambled to her feet, and fumbled her way through the darkness clutching her arm, the blood seeping between her fingers as she headed back towards the exit.
“Teale! Run! Get out of here!” she screamed.
She heard a scrambling noise, and the sound of more metal twisting behind her. She dared to look over her shoulder and found the edge of the creature’s tail vanishing up into the hole in the ceiling. The savaged torso was also gone. As Kelly fell through the door into the corridor, Teale rushed over to her.
“Oh my god, are you alright? What the fuck was that thing?” she spluttered as she tried to wrap her sling around Kelly’s arm as a bandage.
“I don’t know, but we have to get the fuck out of here. Screw engineering, we’re going back to the bridge.”
Almost as if on cue, the first team that had been assigned to engineering, rounded the corner at pace.
“Commander! There’s some kind of… nest in engineering! We tried to take a reading, but they started to open up, so we ran. Whatever these things are, they’re fast. We passed the cargo bay on the way, and they were… eating Grayson and Hunt!”
What the fuck were these things? Nests? They’d only been in the expanse for a matter of hours… hadn’t they? Either way, the bridge was the safest place. But they wouldn’t all make it.
The tip of the tail burst through Sanderson’s chest like a medieval sword, his back arching in response. Blood began to flow through his mouth like a waterfall as he was lifted gradually from the floor, one of the creatures standing behind him. The tail jerked to the left, and Sanderson’s trembling body was launched against the bulkhead, his neck snapping as his head collided with the metal first.
Before anyone could react, the tail sliced through the air again, and the sound of tearing flesh filled their senses as Grant was sliced in two from the top of the skull through to the ground. Kelly watched in horror as the two halves of the security officer fell apart in opposite directions. Something came over Teale, and she opened fire on the creature, screaming as she did so. The hallway lit up with the constant stream of disruptor fire, and the creature for a moment seemed to weather the assault. It then seemed to think better of it, and turned and leapt upwards, before spearing its tail downwards again, to collect first the skewered body of Sanderson, and then swiftly returned for the two pieces of officer Grant.
Kelly and Teale didn’t look back. They ran, and ran until they reached the bridge, more screams echoing down the corridors all over the ship.