Chapter Text
Prologue
She ran.
She ran for her life.
On and on, past the endless gunmetal grey walls of the corridors deep in the bowels of the ship, she sprinted as fast as her legs could propel her.
The corridors themselves were eerily dark and cloaked in shadow. Stark evidence of the ship’s power issues, and enough of a change to the usual brightly lit interior of the vessel to cause the familiar surroundings to now feel alien and unsettling.
That feeling spurred her to run even faster. She skidded around a corner, almost colliding with the wall on the far side of the intersection as she did so. And still, she didn’t slow down.
Because she needed to escape.
To escape from what was behind her. Or possibly what was in front of her. Or, in fact, anywhere all around her. Even inside the walls of the bulkhead for all she knew.
She forced that especially unnerving thought out of her mind and gritted her teeth as she raced onwards, her feet thudding down onto the floor of the deck and her arms pumping back and forth to help propel her forwards.
Her lungs began to ache from the exertion and the muscles in her legs started to cry out for an end to the torturous workout. But she kept on running. The stakes were too high for her to consider doing anything else. The fear that she felt provided the extra fuel that her aching body needed.
And she knew her destination was getting nearer. The shuttlebay was now just a few more intersections away. There, she could make good her escape in one of the science vessel’s support craft.
We can make our escape, she silently corrected herself.
Assuming he was still alive, of course. She knew for a fact that nobody else was.
It had all been going so well. Their mission had been a complete success. They had made it to the rendezvous point well ahead of time, the package had been swiftly secured, and they were on their way home.
And then the package had escaped. And all hell had broken loose.
She fought off the wave of emotion that threatened to engulf her as she pictured the faces of some of the others. So many had died, so needlessly and so quickly. Picked off, one by one.
The package had learned fast. A lot faster than any of them had anticipated. Perhaps that had been their mistake, she thought bitterly as she sprinted past another darkened intersection. They hadn’t appreciated just how fast it could learn.
Or perhaps their mistake had been in simply taking the package in the first place. That was definitely another way of looking at it.
She rounded a final corner and felt the persistent thumping terror inside her chest subside just a fraction as she saw the huge grey doors of the shuttlebay looming large at the end of the latest stretch of dank corridor.
But it was only a fleeting relief. Because then the scant flickering emergency lighting still illuminating the corridor disappeared. The entire vista in front of her was plunged into total darkness. The last vestiges of emergency power were finally being depleted.
The sinking feeling in her stomach began to grow all over again as she realised what this would mean for her escape attempt. She skidded to a halt in front of the shuttlebay doors and desperately tapped at the controls. But they were completely dead. Out of power. And the doors themselves remained defiantly closed.
“No, no, no!” she whimpered to herself with a stifled sob, as she clawed helplessly at the tiny sliver of a panel gap in the middle of the unyielding metal doors.
On the other side was her salvation. Half a dozen shuttles and service vehicles, with enough capacity to evacuate the entire ship’s modestly sized crew in lieu of escape pods. Any one of which could be her own route away from this place.
But first she had to get to them.
She desperately looked around in a growing panic, looking for some sort of service hatch or access point, but there was no sign of anything. Stifling another sob, she quickly tapped the communicator badge attached to her dirt-streaked tunic top.
“Regaza!” she hissed into the ether, “I’m at the shuttlebay! Where the hell are you?!”
She waited for the only other surviving member of the crew to reply. Once they had realised that they were the only ones left, they had agreed over the crackling comms link to meet up right here, making their way over from opposite ends of the ship.
In truth, she hadn’t necessarily been intending to wait for him. Her all-consuming fear of what was chasing her was more than enough to override any sense of camaraderie. Her intention hadn’t been born out of callousness, but hysterical self-preservation. But now, she called out for him, hoping that the extra help might get them through the sealed doors and to the precious shuttles within.
Except, as she waited in the eerie darkness of the corridor, there was no response.
“Regaza! Come in, please!”
She whispered the call with a note of dread, and received only static back over the comms link. A tear of despair ran down her cheek.
And then she remembered. The shuttlebay doors were a priority system, especially in an emergency situation. Which meant that they would be fitted with a secondary mechanical release in the event of a complete power failure across the ship.
It was a logical design, to prioritise crew safety above all else, especially during a catastrophe. And it was a design feature that was about to save her life, just as intended.
She could picture the process in her mind right now. Remove the control panel, activate the mechanical door release, open the doors, get to a shuttle, and get the hell out of here. The whole process would take less than two minutes if she worked fast.
Easy.
She returned to the door controls and roughly prised the entire panel up and away, revealing the isolinear circuitry underneath. She wasn’t an engineer, but she spied the manual release immediately. Reaching out with a tendriled hand, she grabbed the bulky lever and pulled with all her might.
And nothing happened.
Her relief immediately gave way to a fresh chasm of terror that opened up inside her as she wrenched at the lever again and again. And still nothing happened. The doors in front of her remained shut. Someone must have tampered with the override.
The package really had learned fast.
She felt a fresh wave of despair rising up as she considered her dwindling options. Perhaps she could get back to engineering and find a laser cutter, or a tool to get through the door itself. Perhaps there was a chance that Regaza was still on his way here, and that the silence over the comms link was just a result of the power failure.
Perhaps there was still hope.
And then all hope was extinguished. Because she realised that she was no longer alone.
Something was behind her.
“You ran away.”
Quivering with fear, she slowly turned around in the direction of the voice. Even though she already knew what would be waiting there for her.
Behind her, a short distance back down the darkened corridor, stood a young girl.
“But I found you,” the girl added in a childish sing-song voice.
She looked barely eight years old, a picture of childhood innocence. She had smooth, light brown skin and wore a simple green dress. Even through the darkness that was all around them, her vibrant, piercing yellow eyes were clearly visible. And the sight of the cherub-like child made the sole remaining crew member of the otherwise lifeless ship weep with terror.
“Please,” the older woman cried out through tears as she sank to her knees, “Let me go! I beg you, let me live!”
The girl cocked her head to one side with a trace of curiosity, but the dark glare on her face didn’t soften one iota.
“You’re not very nice,” she said, scrunching up her nose with palpable disgust, “And you weren’t very nice to me.”
“I—I swear, I didn’t mean to—”
“I don’t like people who aren’t nice.”
The girl took a step forward. The woman’s eyes widened in horror.
“And I don’t like you…”
As the girl continued her advance, her face suddenly started to contort and fold in on itself. The innocent dusky face began to disappear, to be replaced by something else.
The woman stared at the unholy sight as it formed in front of her.
And she screamed.