Chapter Text
Being Colonist #23757723-A7 was exciting, a chance at a new life. You weren’t exceptionally skilled like some of the other colonists, some who were medical personnel, military, mechanical, engineering, public service or construction. You worked in cyber security and had to wait until the base was built on the new planet to set up the security systems.
Lights were flashing over your eyelids, muffled conversations and the sounds of hissing and coughing pulled you from your stasis sleep. A harsh choke left you as the intubation tube inserted to keep you breathing while in stasis was eased from your throat. A strong set of hands held you down as you struggled, attempting to yank out the tube that was suffocating you.
“Shhhh, easy, easy there… it will be out in just a moment, I know it’s scary…”
Finally managing you wrench open your eyes, you see the faces of three medics standing at your chamber, two holding you still as the other removes the tube. Once it was finally removed, you took your first proper breath in 5 years, followed by a hacking cough. As one medic moved onto their next colonist, the two others stayed with you, helping you out of the chamber, supporting your weak frame.
Sitting you on the medical bed they ran over your vitals, not that you picked up on much of it. Your eyesight and hearing were intermittent at best, one of the side effects of stasis unfortunately.
Unhappy with your vitals and your state of hearing and vision loss, the medics had you carted off to the medical wing of the ship, due to a buildup of fluid in your lungs, as well as prescribing rest and observation to make sure your sight and hearing returned to normal within the expected timeframe.
A couple others in the medical wing were in similar shape, with sharp pains in their chests, most likely from irritation caused by the tubes during the solar storm which took the lives of the primary crew as they worked to fix the ship. The whole ship was talking about it, how David had managed to save a couple crew members only for them to pass during stasis, most likely from radiation poisoning from the storm, which wasn’t picked up in time.
You felt like you were out of the loop, being among the third wave of colonists to be woken up as the ship approached the planet. The medical staff were among the first to be woken, as well as anyone essential for ship maintenance. Next was ship staff, this was individuals who were designated authorities, team leaders if you will. There to help and direct the thousands of colonists on board.
Curling up on your cot, you let your body slip into sleep. You had been assured that this was normal, after all, stasis held your body in a state of unconscious consciousness. You weren’t awake, but you also weren’t asleep. Perhaps that was the best thing as it allowed you to miss the wet cracking sounds of some patients chests bursting open, and the sounds of rapidly scrambling claws running over the floors and into the vents. What did wake you however, was the armed guard, shaking you awake whilst another one jammed an adrenaline shot into your thigh.
Bolting upright you groan at the sharp sting, a voice whispering to you, “can you hear me?”, you shake your head and gesture to your ears, signalling no as you watch his mouth move, but no sound reaches you, confused and slightly dazed, your hearing yet to come back.
The guard spoke to another, helping you off the cot. The lights on the ship were dimmed and a smooth red light faded in and out. What the hell happened? A hand was thrust in front of your face and you instinctively brushed it away, concern growing as you took in the sight of other armed guards around the other beds, helping colonists.
A pad was pushed into your hands that read, ‘David has betrayed the colony. Footage has been discovered that he brought a parasite from another planet on board and infected two passengers. He has been detained and terminated; however the creatures are loose in the ship and are deadly. For your safety we are moving you back to stasis.’
You struggled to take the information in as you were tugged along by a guard, sandwiched between them with one on all sides as the moved out of the medical wing. You faltered in your steps as you passed bodies littering the halls, soaked in blood. You felt the panic rising in your chest and let out a choked sound and froze up as your foot landed in a puddle of warm, sticky liquid.
You refuse to look down, refusing to accept that what you were standing in was what you knew it to be. Blood. The guards around you attempted to move you along, one taking your hand and tugging whilst holding a finger to his lips, indicating for you to keep quiet.
Maybe it was the mix of shock and terror on your face that caused the distraction, or maybe it was the scream that left you as you pointed over their shoulders to the looming black silhouette in the dim hall, but that was all it needed to lunge at the group.
Flashes and sparks filled the hall, and you were pushed down, behind one of the men, silent commands being yelled over the gunfire. The guard on your left was taken out as a long, slender bladed tail sliced through his armour and chest like a hot knife through butter.
You stayed there kneeling, staring into his dull eyes until another was pulling you up. It was another guard from a different group who tugged you along, away from the firefight with that thing and down a different hall. There were more of you here, all terrified.
A young man grabbed your hand and made sure you kept up with him, somewhere in the back of your mind knew him as Colonist #23757724, the one after you. While rushing through the halls, the military and armed personnel checking everything and everywhere as they made their way through the ship, #23757724 gestured to his ears with his free hand then pointed at you. Shaking your head no, you then nod yes when he gestured to his eyes. Yes, you could see, but you still couldn’t hear.
You were led into a small room, with only one door, the guards herded the group of what you guessed was 10 individuals into a circle and stood in a semi-circular barrier between you and the door, weapons drawn and aimed. From the look on the others faces, perhaps it was good that you couldn’t hear. You were missing the screams and the banging, the screaming hissing noises that echoed through the ship…
You couldn’t be sure how long you stayed there before your eyes noticed something in the corner of the dark room. With a shaking hand, you tugged on the sleeve of the guard in front of you. Gaining their attention, they give you a side eye, and then glance at where you were pointing….
“Oh shit, it’s inside! It’s inside!” The shout was cut off by a screech and the sound of weapons being fired. You had flung yourself to the floor and crawled away from the massacre dealt by the claws of that beast. You open the door and sprint through the halls, stumbling over bodies and slipping in blood pools.
There had to be a safe place… there had to be…
You didn’t recognise the ship, you had barely paid attention on the tour, knowing that you would be remaining on your floor until arrival as you didn’t have a key role. Your panicked and thoughtless running brought you back to the stasis vaults. You smiled as you approached what you believed to be safety, this is where they were initially leading you.
The doors hissed open, to reveal a horrific sight. All remaining chambers had been destroyed or detached, leaving corpses lying in metal coffins meant to keep them alive. It didn’t hit you until much later that the only way for that to happen would be is someone disengaged the security measures. And given the information that you came to understand, it was David who deliberately killed thousands of colonists still in stasis by shutting off the power.
Stumbling back, you change direction, heading somewhere, anywhere. After a while you find a supply cupboard and scramble to hide in it as that horrifying hiss echoed in the halls. It was close. You looked at the pad still clutched in your hand, knuckles white from how tight you were holding it.
Rapidly typing on the screen you hack into the security footage of the ship and watch the decent into chaos… tears streamed down your cheeks as you caught up on the footage. You watched as David killed the remaining primary crew as well as unleashed the two parasites onto two passengers still in stasis, who had both been woken in the third wave just like you.
Swiping from video to video you watch as the creatures burst out of their hosts chests just beds away from where you laid unconscious. You watch as they rip through the ship destroying all those who they come in contact with.
You click onto a live stream from loading bay I-7 and watch as a group of men lure that crawling skeleton like thing into the airlock, you could barely hear what was being said so you muted the video and watched helplessly as they shoot at the creature, guiding it to the doors of the loading bay. The warning lights filled the bay, red and orange lights flashing and you imagined that the alarms were sounding.
You watched as the thing closed in on the men, and gasped wetly as one of them slammed his hand down on the control console, opening the doors and then again, releasing the supports on the machines and heavy vehicles. The breach of the airlock sucked everything out into the vacuum of space, killing the men instantly. You watched in horror as the creature attempted to crawl back into the bay, only to be pulled into the vast emptiness of space.
You stayed like that, staring at the footage as the bay was destroyed. Coming back to yourself you start tapping away again, accessing security measures and shutting the bay doors. The lights stoped flashing as the airlock was reset.
Taking a breath you wipe your face and go back to the security cameras, frantically searching for anyone else who was alive. Your search was futile, every screen showed the dead. It wasn’t until you swiped past a service corridor that you saw something slinking past a camera. Freezing in place, you flick to the next one in that area, which so happened to be just outside of the cupboard you were sat in.
You see the creature stalking round the corner, it’s elongated domed skull only detectible by the dim lights reflecting off it. Quickly sitting up you press the lock button on the door and press yourself back into the wall, watching as it draws closer and past your hiding place.
Breathing heavily you set the cameras up to track its movements, letting you keep tabs on the creature. You had to find a way to get off this ship.. or to get it off the ship.
Once it moved far enough away you exit the cupboard and make your way to the landing deck F-6. You knew that they had smaller ships there, ones that you could attempt to operate. You were running out of time. Either this thing found and killed you, you die of starvation or from lack of oxygen as the life support gives out on the ship, or you get on one of these ships and you then die…. Yeah, you weren’t going to survive this, but you weren’t going to lay down and wait for death.
You miss the alert from the pad as you make your way down a hall, it was now on the same level as you. Chills prickled up your spine and you glanced around you, focusing on the shadows and dim areas in the hall. It seemed empty but you had seen what that thing could do, hiding in plain sight. You glance at the pad, relieved to see it still a couple corridors away from you, but still growing closer. As you reach an intersection you have a brief thought, what if you trapped it?
Putting your back to the wall you gain access to the security system and then into the door activation. Initiating all the doors to shut one by one you watch the progress as you monitored the progress of the creature.
Now you faced a problem, as the doors were shutting it created a tunnel leading directly to you.
Shit shit shit….
Tapping frantically you keep looking at the hall before you, watching as it grows closer and closer. Panic filled you, and as every second ticked by the thought of dying in that cupboard seemed more and more appealing than your stupid moment of bravo. You were no hero, no skilled individual as seen in the movies back on earth, you were just another ordinary person.
You watched in horror as the thing entered the end of the hall, illuminated by the emergency lights. It faced you, it’s tail swaying. It looked like a lion, tense and ready to pounce. In a split second it charged, a scream ripped itself from your throat as it drew closer, death raised its scythe in those claws.
Your knees gave out and you hit the floor, eyes slamming shut and your arms coming up over your head. However, the swift blow never came. Nor did your screaming stop.
Hiccuping sobs wracked your body and you peaked through your arms, it had been sliced in half by the doors, it’s strange green blood sizzling the metal and burning holes wherever it was. It’s arms laid outstretched, only about a foot or so away from you. All you could do was sob out a laugh, until you dissolved into full blown hysterics…