Another sample from "Somewhere Out There"
Story by Spiders Thrash on SoFurry
So here's another excerpt because I'm desperate and need to crank up as much interest in the story as I can. :P If I'm not mistaken, this is the very next scene after the end of the last chapter I posted here under the title "Elsewhere." Took me several years to get back to work on it, but now that the contract for "Chaser" (of which this story is a spinoff) will expire soon, and the publisher is shutting down anyway sometime in the next year, I went ahead and started serializing it on Tapas Media.
The full story is here: https://tapas.io/series/Somewhere-Out-There1
And if you enjoy my work and would like to "buy me a coffee" ... https://ko-fi.com/feel_boss
“Any new info yet?” Kamala slid up to the central console and stared at the holographic projection. Astra had dropped out of hyperspace while she and the others hurried from the mess hall to the flight deck. The image in front of her showed a spindly, bright orange ship tumbling through space with multiple hull breaches, the edges glowing white-hot.
Whatever had caused the damage, it had happened recently.
She glanced over her shoulder and found almost everyone from the mess hall had followed her, Roger, and Asuka. Even Graham and the cowboys were here, glancing around with wide eyes at the consoles and monitors around the room before settling on the holo-projection.
“I can’t identify the pursuing ship,” Astra said. “The damaged one appears to be a shonari design, though it’s less advanced than the ones I’m used to seeing.”
The view shifted to a second vessel in the background and zoomed in. This one resembled a slightly flattened cone with three fins extending from the base at equidistant points. Its metallic hull appeared to be partially covered by sheets of leathery organic material and black vines.
“That is the Hive,” whispered the alien who’d told them about the Hive a few minutes ago. She pointed at the image. “Their vines grow around a ship, find a way in, and spread throughout the interior. They release spores that, once inhaled, spread through their victims’ bodies, into the nervous system, and to the brain. In no more than a day, the victim’s mind is dead and the body is an empty husk controlled by the Hive.”
Kamala shuddered and Roger slipped his arm around her.
“And we’ve caught them in the act.” Asuka crossed her arms over her chest and frowned as the image pulled back enough to display both ships. “Looks like the shonari ship was too fast, so they had to knock out its engines before they could catch up. Inertia will keep it moving forward until something else interacts with it, but it won’t be able to continue accelerating.”
“Who are the shonari?” Shakira glanced at one of the speakers in the console, from which Astra’s voice had been coming.
“They are a bipedal species resembling depictions of devils or demons from human mythology,” Astra said. “They are quite friendly and tend to have an affinity for science and technology. Many of them are scientists, explorers, and engineers.”
“Well, at least it’s someone you know.” Asuka smiled. “Maybe they can bring us up to speed on where we are, once this is over.”
“Further scans have detected one hundred seventy-four life signs on the shonari vessel,” Astra said. “Their main engines are offline, but their pilot is trying to use the aft directional thrusters to continue accelerating as much as possible while attempting to counteract its tumble with the rest. Moving to intercept the enemy ship. Activating defense grid. Priming particle beam cannons, plasma-bolt batteries, and coilguns.”
The Hive ship fired a salvo of missiles.
In the holofield, a burst of plasma bolts intercepted the missiles and took them out in a series of rapid flashes.
“Continuing approach,” Astra said. “They are attempting to lock their weapons onto us. I am targeting their weapons systems.”
The coilguns hit the other ship with a hail of tiny projectiles that ripped through the vines and organic layer and punched into the hull under them. A few hundred of them struck another pair of missiles as they launched, detonating them while they were still halfway inside their tubes and gutting the ship. Flames spewed out through the opening before being snuffed out by the vacuum a few seconds later. The ship veered off course, but corrected a few seconds later and accelerated straight toward Astra.
“Their main engines are at maximum burn. They appear to be attempting a tactical collision.”
“They need only collide with us,” the alien woman whispered. “Their spores will infest the ship, the vines will grow over the hull and through the corridors, and they will produce more spores which will infect everyone here.”
“Incorrect.” Astra fired her main cannons. The particle beams seared into the onrushing ship, burned off the organic layer, and vaporized another huge section of the hull. Fires raged inside until they consumed the remaining oxygen.
Kamala caught glimpses of secondary explosions erupting deep inside before a large section of the ship’s dorsal surface burst open.
“Their weapons systems and engines appear to be offline. I’m changing course to intercept the shonari ship and attempting to contact them.”
Kamala let a long breath rush out and pulled Roger into an embrace.
“I don’t understand what just happened,” Graham muttered.
Zuri put her arm around his shoulders.
Asuka braced her hands on the console and smiled up at the image of the shonari vessel as it grew larger in the holofield. “Let’s see if we’ve found some allies.”