FSE

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Asuka looked around slowly as her boots touched the hangar deck. The bay was big enough to hold all the shuttles and fighters they'd taken from the Challenger. The other ships' doors had opened and the passengers were filing out onto the floor, looking around with mixed awe, relief, and apprehension.

Asuka walked toward one of the fighters who'd joined them. Its canopy opened and the pilot climbed out. Female, slim and athletic, with digitigrade feet and a tail. She pulled her helmet off, revealing a feline head with shoulder-length brown hair tied into a ponytail.

"Breathable air," she mumbled. She closed her eyes and took in a slow, deep breath. She placed the helmet in the cockpit, untied her ponytail, ran her hands through her hair, and turned around. "Oh. Asuka, right?"

She nodded. "Lt. Orr."

The panther-woman nodded, unzipped the front of her flight suit, and pulled her gloves off. As she turned to toss them into the cockpit, Asuka caught a glimpse of the name on her suit--Lt. Rebecca Orr. Beneath the name was the callsign, "Gasm."

Asuka chuckled.

Orr glanced at her and noted the direction of her gaze. "Heh. Some people go straight for the obvious ones, don't they?" She shrugged and walked toward Asuka. "But if you complain too much about it, someone will think up a nickname that's even worse."

"Sometimes it feels like high school never ends, huh?" Smiling, Asuka reached out and shook Orr's hand. "If you prefer to be called Lt. Orr, I'll go along with it."

"Eh, 'Gasm' is fine. It's what I'm used to being called." She glanced around, found her squad, and nodded at them. Two were female, one human and one who looked somewhat canine; of the three males, two were human and one appeared to be reptilian. Gasm introduced the human woman as Tickles, the canine as Huevos, the human men as Half-Stroke and Pancake, and the lizard dude as Splat.

I've got to find out how they got callsigns like those. Asuka forced herself to keep a straight face as she greeted each of them. At the appropriate time, of course.

"I'm sorry more of you didn't make it," she said.

"So are we," Gasm said. That haunted look returned to her face.

"What happened on the Challenger, anyway?"

"I'm not clear on some of the details. Three or four of the things attached to a shuttle returning from a planetary survey. They tried to quarantine the creatures, but the damned things started attacking and infecting everyone who got near them. And they reproduced, too. Within days, there were thousands of them." She shuddered.

"Damn." Asuka shook her head slowly. "Any idea what they are?"

"I heard one of the scientists say they appear to be biomechanical. I'm thinking they were created in a lab to be used as weapons, or a natural life form was modified into a weapon." She shivered and rubbed her arms. "From what I saw, they inject a nanotech solution into their victims that attacks the brain and nervous system. Rewrites the brain, basically, and alters other parts of the body."

"Horrifying." She shook her head again. "I can't imagine anything like that developing naturally, and the thought that someone would intentionally create something that dangerous--"

"Yeah. I sure hope we never run into anything like that again."

"Or worse," Pancake muttered.

"I couldn't agree more." Though, the way their luck had been working, it was only a matter of time before they stumbled across something that made this look like butterflies flitting around a rosebush. She kept it to herself and waved at a few of the others as they walked toward her and the pilots. Seth, Marissa, Hitomi, Tank, and Lopez waved back and stopped in front of them. Asuka introduced both groups to each other.

Splat stepped forward to take a closer look at Lopez. "Wow. Last time I saw one of these was in a museum."

"Excuse me?" The quadruped tank-bot turned one of his cameras toward the pilot. "I've been in service for less than two years. I may not be cutting-edge anymore, but I'm hardly a relic."

Splat stared at him and worked his mouth for several seconds before he found his voice. "Uh, sorry, I didn't mean any offense. I just--well, we appear to have come from two different points in history."

"No problemo." Lopez raised his arms in what passed for a shrug. "It's cool."

"Aww, that voice!" Tickles grinned. "He's adorable!"

"Thank you, Señorita."

"Well," Marissa said, looking around at the hangar and nodding at a door on the far side. "I guess we should have a look around and see what shape this ship is in."

Seth sighed and walked along with the rest of the group. "I'm almost afraid to find out."

#

"I don't suppose we could find our way back to our shuttles?" Morrison said, groaning in pain as he limped along, dragging his dead right leg. Roger helped support him on one side, Luana on the other.

Kamala, having slithered a bit ahead of the others, scanned their surroundings and couldn't find the transponder on either shuttle. "Sorry, they're both out of my ultratool's range. Or damaged by one of the--"

The corridor jolted sideways and everyone plowed into the wall on the left. As they picked themselves up, Roger looked ahead and his face turned pale.

Oh, no, now what? Kamala turned and found the distant end of the corridor in flames. The flames snuffed out in a sudden gust of wind, and in their place was a view of open space. Wherever the corridor had lead, it had broken off or exploded.

Wind howled past her for a few seconds before the walls, floor, and ceiling twenty feet away melted and flowed together, sealing off this section of the ship and keeping the atmosphere in.

As well as cutting off their escape route.

Kamala looked at the walls up and down the corridor, hoping to find a door leading around the hull breach, but no, the walls were featureless--even though they hadn't been a few minutes ago.

"Back the way we came, I guess," Morrison grunted. "Maybe there'll be a hallway branching off from this one by the time we--"

A muffled sound of tearing metal reverberated through the walls. Something seemed to snap loose and the corridor swung down and to the left, sending everyone into the air for a moment.

Then gravity cut out.

Kamala glanced around frantically, both hearts pounding hard enough to shake her whole body. She found Roger staring at her with just as much fear in his eyes. She pushed away from the ceiling, floated into his arms, and they clung to each other. In the corner of her eye, Luana and Morrison did the same.

"I think this might be it," Morrison said softly.

Roger looked into Kamala's eyes. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Both of them held on tighter, bracing themselves for an impact that might shear the corridor in half.

Something impacted the other side of the wall directly beside them with a deafening clang. Luana screamed and pulled Morrison into a tighter embrace.

"I love you, Henry," she whispered.

"I love you." He nuzzled her and stroked her hair.

Sparks pierced the wall and zipped downward, and Kamala's hearts almost burst through her chest. She cried out and recoiled from the fountain of sparks, then frowned and raised one hand to shield her eyes.

"Okay, not an explosion. Someone's cutting through."

"Probably more of those goddamned ovoid things." Morrison grasped Luana's hand and used his good leg to kick off from the wall.

"I'm ready for 'em." Luana glared at the circle being cut in the wall and aimed her gun.

The torch--or whatever the hell it was--completed its circle and the sparks vanished. Something pulled the section away, leaving a hole big enough for all four of them to pass through side by side. Kamala almost panicked again, but then she noticed the atmosphere wasn't venting.

Everyone waited a few more seconds, but nothing happened.

Kamala let go of Roger and flicked her tail against the wall behind her, pushing her toward the new opening.

Roger reached out to grab her hand. "Kamala, wait!"

She braced her upper-right hand on the edge of the hole to stop her forward motion. There was a new tunnel, this one made of distinctly different metals than the corridors of the ship.

"It's a docking umbilical. Someone's boarding the ship." She stared into the darkness and thought she could make out shapes moving around at the far end.

The shapes surged forward.

"Uh--" Kamala pushed away from the opening. "Roger, something's in--"

Four black, metal tentacles the thickness of Kamala's body shot out of the opening. One coiled around each of them and pulled them into the umbilical. The tentacles retracted through the opening at the far end, whipping them inside before any of them had a chance to react.

"Kamala!" Roger reached out to her, but she was too far away.

"What the fuck?" Luana shrieked as she struggled against the tentacle wrapped around her. It had pinned her arms to her side, preventing her from aiming her gun.

Kamala focused her attention on the tentacles themselves, hoping to find a way to disable them. Her gaze tracked along her own tentacle to the point where it joined the ceiling.

They're running along tracks in the ceiling and walls.

A door up ahead irised open and the tentacles shoved everyone through. Kamala caught a glimpse of a huge room with rectangular platforms placed along the walls before the tentacle deposited her on one. She tried to push away from it, but realized something was pinning her against it. She glanced around and found nothing covering or restraining her. It was as if an invisible weight was pressing down on her, immobilizing her.

"What the hell is this?" Luana said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Kamala turned her head to the right and found Roger mounted on one of the platforms just out of her reach. He looked back at her with wide, frightened eyes.

"Roger...."

Panels slid open in the floor and ceiling directly in front of each of them.

Luana's eyes flicked up and down between the ceiling and floor. Her breaths came in quick gasps and her face contorted in sheer terror.

A cylinder rose from each opening in the floor and descended from each opening in the ceiling. Slots on the sides of each cylinder slid open and sprouted mechanical arms tipped with a variety of instrumentation, none of which Kamala could identify.

"What the fuck is going on?" Luana whimpered.

Morrison watched the instruments approaching him, and he pressed his lips together and tried to turn away from them.

"Maybe something just wants to examine us," Kamala said, fighting to keep her voice steady.

"Define 'examine,'" Morrison muttered.

Looks like they're going to dissect us. She kept her mouth shut. There was no point in scaring Luana--or any of the others--any more than they already were.

She looked over at Roger. "Baby...."

"I know." He looked into her eyes, held her gaze, and clamped his mouth shut.

"Luana?" Morrison mumbled, and both of them turned to look at him and Luana. Her eyes were closed and her head had lolled to the side. Morrison sighed and stared straight ahead. "I think she fainted. Wish I could, too."

"Yeah," Roger whispered. "Me, too."

"Same here." The devices continued their approach. When they were inches away from her, Kamala squeezed her eyes shut, held her breath, and clenched her fists.

#

"Okay, this is starting to freak me out a little," Seth said as the last door on the left opened.

"Join the club," Asuka muttered. This had been going on for the past half hour, ever since the entire group had left the hangar bay. First a door leading out of the hanger had opened before anyone had gotten near it, then more doors opened for them while most others remained locked.

"At least the corridors on this ship are big enough for me to fit through," Lopez said. "So far, at least."

"True," Hitomi said. "But it's like we're being herded along a specific path."

Asuka arched an eyebrow at her. Well, the sexbot's full of surprises. It wasn't the first insightful comment she'd heard from Hitomi, but each one had been a surprise. The software modifications the gynoid's boyfriend made must've been pretty extensive.

Splat groaned. "Why'd you have to put that idea in my head?"

"Sorry. Just making an observation."

"She's right, though." Marissa paused at a door on the left long enough to tap the buttons on the control panel beside it, and moved on when nothing happened. She returned to Seth and Hitomi, rubbed a hand over her bald head, and sighed. "Still, I'll take this over more creepy-crawlies like the ones on the Challenger."

"Oh, me too," Asuka said, nodding. "Any day."

They reached the end of the corridor and passed through the open door. Stretching out ahead of them was another long, wide hallway. Everyone looked at each other, some of them shrugged, and all of them continued on, fanning out to try the doors as they walked.

Up ahead on the left, the fifth door from the far end slid open. Everyone approached it cautiously and peeked inside. It led to a plain room large enough for all of them to fit into.

"I don't like this," Seth muttered.

"It seems we don't have much choice." Hitomi took a slow look around and stepped hesitantly into the room. Gradually, the rest of the group followed her.

"Okay," Asuka said. "Now what?"

Nothing happened for several seconds. Then the floor lurched upward and everyone staggered.

"Oh, wonderful." Marissa sighed.

Asuka watched the walls slide downward. "It's an elevator. Like, a freight elevator. Or maybe one for shuttles."

"I just hope we're not being taken to a cargo bay where we'll be airlocked," Seth mumbled. Marissa put her arm around him.

The lift stopped and the ceiling split into four sections which retracted. Beyond it lay open space. Marissa sucked in a startled breath, then looked surprised that she'd been able to do so.

Asuka looked around slowly, taking in the familiar view of the debris around them and the stellar material drifting past in its death spiral into the distant black hole.

Hitomi pivoted slowly, scanning the chamber, and pointed. "Consoles along the walls. And over there, a central console. This must be a navigation room like the one we found on the Challenger."

"This looks promising." Seth relaxed slightly and walked over to the central controls. "This ship is clearly more advanced than anything we've seen so far, so there's a chance it's got records on the ship that captured our friends."

"Maybe even a way to track it." Marissa joined him with a smile. "And maybe some star charts that'll tell us where we are."

"Even more, if we're lucky." Asuka grinned and rubbed her hands together. "Let's see if we can find some answers."

#

A tingling sensation washed over her, accompanied by a faint light through her eyelids.

Then...nothing.

The light faded and the tingling stopped. She waited a few more seconds and released the breath she'd been holding. Gasping, she opened her eyes. The two cylinders were still in front of her, but the instruments had retracted.

She looked at Roger and found the same thing in front of him. He appeared to still be in one piece. He looked at her and fired off a relieved grin.

She tried to reach out to him, but still couldn't move.

She looked to the left and found Luana still passed out. Beside her...

The gadgetry was still hovering in front of Morrison. Kamala stared at him.

"What...?"

"Beats me," he muttered through clenched teeth, keeping his eyes locked onto the devices. "Looked like they scanned you, then closed down. This thing, though...."

"They're hovering around your leg. Your injured one, I mean."

He looked down at them. "Huh. Well, they scanned me, too, so there's no way they didn't notice it."

One of the instruments zipped forward and traced its tip down the right leg of his cargo shorts. The material split open and two sets of micro-pincers lifted it away. Another new, syringe-like device moved forward, pointing at the spot on his thigh where, not that long ago, he'd pointed out as the place where all feeling in his leg had vanished.

Yet another arm reached out, holding a small metal box. It placed the box on his thigh, above the point where the syringe was aimed. Morrison winced and gasped, then looked surprised.

"It doesn't hurt as much, all of a sudden." A few seconds later, he added, "Okay, now it doesn't hurt at all. Some kind of anesthetic, I guess." His eyes opened wider. "Oh, shit."

The tip of the syringe glowed red as the device swept from one side of his leg to the other, cutting through flesh, muscle, and bone like a knife through Jello.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, _ whoa _!" Morrison launched into a full-throttle panic and tried to struggle, but whatever had pinned him to the table prevented him from moving.

"Christ," Roger moaned, sounding as if he were about to throw up.

A pair of arms came down from the cylinder on the ceiling and carried the amputated leg away. Another set of instruments continued working on the end of his thigh.

"Fuck me," he moaned, finally relaxing. "Good to get that over with before it had time to poison the rest of my body, but would it have killed 'em to warn me first?"

"It doesn't hurt?" Kamala said, gaping at him.

"Nope. Dunno if it'll stay that way, but for now, no. Feels better than it did a few minutes ago." He sucked in a deep breath and let it out in a rush. "Well, that's one thing I don't have to worry about anymore."

The force holding Kamala down cut out suddenly and she floated free. In the corner of her eye, Roger also drifted away from his table. He made a sound that was half sigh and half sob, kicked off from the wall and practically tackled her. They held each other tightly for a long moment, then kissed.

Finally, grinning, Kamala turned to Luana and Morrison. She'd been released as well, but was still unconscious. He remained pinned down. The gadgetry finished doing whatever they'd been doing, and waited.

"Oh, come on, they're letting you go but keeping me?"

"Well, in all fairness, we didn't just have a leg amputated." Roger shrugged. "They might be waiting to make sure you're well enough first."

"Okay, fair enough." He sighed again.

Another panel opened in the floor and a set of robot arms appeared, holding a metal leg that matched the one that had just been removed.

Roger stared at it and scratched his head. "Or they could just be getting ready to attach a new leg.

Morrison raised a brow. "Honestly, I was okay as-is, but hell, I'm not gonna complain."

He watched, fascinated, as the instruments attached the leg and fused it to his bones, nerve endings, and flesh. Another arm came up, holding a second metal box, which it attached to his left arm. He winced again.

"Ow. Needles." He looked at the box as the mechanical arm backed away. "I'm guessing that's antibiotics and stuff to prevent my body from rejecting the new leg."

Eventually, the arms finished their work and he floated free. He looked down at both legs.

"Well, they look the same length, at least." He chuckled. "I guess it's about time we met some helpful aliens."

An iris door at the far end of the room opened. The three of them glanced at each other and shrugged. Not knowing what else to do, Kamala took Roger's hand, pushed off from the wall, and floated with him into the corridor. Morrison scooped Luana up in his arms and followed.

After passing through a series of tunnels and rooms, they emerged into a huge, spherical chamber lined with handholds, pedestals, viewscreens, consoles, and light fixtures.

And hovering in the center of the chamber...people.

Kamala sucked in a quick breath. Humans, anthros, a few who were either cyborgs or fully robotic, and some that could've been aliens. She didn't recognize any of them.

"Where did all these guys come from?" Roger said.

"Let's go ask 'em." Kamala grasped a handhold on the wall and pulled herself toward a clump of humans floating near the wall.

"Hey, check that out," Roger said, lowering his voice. He touched her upper-right shoulder and pointed at a Caucasian teenager and a dark-skinned, chubby woman with long dreadlocks. "That kid look familiar to you?"

"Not really." She studied him as they continued their approach. He looked about thirteen or fourteen, wore a black T-shirt and cargo pants and sneakers, and had a bald head except for a frill of bright red hair spikes running up the middle.

Then she took a good look at his face.

"Wait a minute. Yeah, that looks like--oh, holy shit!" She stared in disbelief and shook her head slowly. "It's Otto!"