“Central computer systems restored. Ship diagnostics completed. First post-diagnostic report compiling. Stand by.” This was followed by a pause. Neither the initial announcement nor the subsequent delay woke Daniels.
When next it spoke, she woke from her sleep immediately.
“Attention! Captain Daniels! Urgent! Please report to the medbay. Urgent! Please report to the medbay!”
“What?” Lifting her head, she glanced at the time readout and rubbed at her eyes. “Why?”
“Sergeant Lopé is dead. There is an unidentified life-form on the ship.”
Within seconds she was up, out of the bed, and slipping into uniform. The corridor outside her cabin was empty, as was the one she subsequently turned into. Rounding a corner and running full out into a third accessway, she nearly ran over Tennessee.
“Medbay,” she snapped. There was neither time nor need for further explanation. He just nodded his understanding. His expression was bleak.
“Mother woke me, too.”
Together they raced up a third corridor, slowing only as they approached their destination. The entrance stood open. Eschewing the gaping, welcoming portal they advanced cautiously to peer through the observation window.
The interior of the medbay was no longer a sterile white. Blood and viscera were splattered everywhere. All had belonged to the unfortunate Lopé, who lay on his back in the med pod with his torso blown open. Nutrient tubes still ran into his face and body. With luck, an appalled Daniels thought, he had still been in the induced coma when his chest had exploded. Turning away in revulsion, she addressed her suit comm.
“Walter!”
“I heard,” his voice replied. “I am on my way to check on you.”
“I’m okay,” she said. “I’m with Tennessee. Location of unidentified life-form! Any sign of movement?”
There was a pause, then, “Stand by, I have something. Yes, B deck between hex three and four, heading for general crew quarters.”
“Who’s down there?”
“Ricks and Upworth.”
“Shit! Get them out of there! Sound general alarm five—tell them to lock themselves in their cabin until we can get down to them.”
“Will do.” A pause. “Do you want me to join you?”
She thought a moment. “No. I need you to track the thing. Tennessee and I are heading for the armory.”
Designed to accommodate several of the crew at once, the communal shower room was spacious and empty save for two figures. Recycled water beat down on the entwined, naked pair. Filling the room with steam from sourced hot water was a luxury—one of the few available to revived personnel.
Husband and wife enjoyed the privacy, reveled in the intimacy. There was no need for them on the bridge now. Daniels was back, Tennessee had everything in hand, and Mother was once again in charge.
Emergency lighting was everywhere on the ship. Abruptly sealed beacons began to blaze redly, crimson flashes only slightly diluted by the drifting steam. At the same time, a klaxon blared, its insistent wail echoing off the interior of the shower area. Bemused, Ricks pulled back slightly from his spouse.
“I wonder what’s going on?”
She looked around uncertainly. “Post-diagnostic test of the emergency warning system, maybe?”
He frowned. “Probably, but we’d better respond. In a minute.” He favored her with a last, extended kiss. He did not see the shadow behind him. Nor did she, with her eyes closed as they embraced.
It was huge and wet and the flashing red lights glistened off the massive curved skull. Leaning toward him, it nearly touched the back of his neck as the dreadful mouth yawned.
The inner mouth struck, spearing into the back of his spinal column. Metalized teeth tore through flesh, bone, and sinew to pass all the way through his head, emerging from his open mouth. Eyes wide in shock, he stood there for a moment in the steam and falling water, impaled through the skull.
Then the inner jaws withdrew, and he fell.
Blinded by blood, water, and her own wet hair, Upworth recoiled in shock. Wiping frantically at all of it, she finally cleared her vision enough to see the face staring back at her. It was not that of her husband.
She screamed.
Weapons at the ready, Tennessee and Daniels slowed as they approached the shower room. The only sound came from water spattering on the floor, while steam emerging from the open doorway provided the only movement. When they saw the water seeping out of the room and into the corridor, it showed dark streaks.
Inside was worse than any abattoir. Blood ran everywhere, dripping slowly off walls not struck by the showers’ cleansing spray. No corner of the room was without its quota of dismembered body parts. Viscera clogged drains, causing the mix of water and blood to pool. That explained the overflow out into the corridor.
Picking his way through the carnage, Tennessee shut down the multiple nozzles as Daniels surveyed the butchery. Rage suffused her expression. She had left her fear behind on the world of the Engineers.
“Where is it? Walter!”
Ensconced at his station on the bridge, the synthetic peered anxiously into a holo of the Covenant’s interior. Moving faster than any human hands, his fingers played over the instrumentation, shrinking one section of the vessel while magnifying another. Daniels and Tennessee he had already located. Now he was searching for the intrusion—with no luck.
“Lost it. Had it once, in the shower, but it’s moving fast. Hard to maintain a fix once I’ve got it.”
“Keep on it.”
She turned to Tennessee. “What do you do with an opponent that’s faster than you, stronger than you, and damned hard to bring down?”
He looked over at her. “Call for backup?”
She almost—but not quite—smiled. “Too many light years to cross to get here. If we try to track it, it’ll come up behind us. If we’re in an open space, we’ll have no cover. If we follow it down a corridor, it can come at us through the vents. Or for all we know, from under the floor. Let’s choose our ground. Instead of waiting to be victimized, we’ll bring it to us.”
“Makes sense,” he agreed. “But where?”
“My home turf. My area of expertise.” She addressed her pickup. “Walter, anything?”
“I see it, heading aft on B deck.”
“That’ll work,” she told him with dour satisfaction. “We’re heading for terraforming bay. Seal all doors except those leading to it.”
“Complying,” the synthetic told her.
As he tracked the Alien he shut the relevant doors behind it, while opening the appropriate ones in front of it, easing the creature toward the sector Daniels had specified. The identifying image of the creature within the holo responded at every door, pausing before each open portal before charging through.
It ignored those that slammed shut behind it. All the while, Walter utilized the system to herd it toward the terraforming bay. Daniels and Tennessee were not as fast as the intruder, but they kept up a steady pace as human and Alien trails began to converge.
“You still on it, Walter?”
“I still have it, yes,” the synthetic replied. “It is moving in the direction you wished.”
“Right. Open hatch to level C and corridors five and six.”
“Hatch open.” Walter’s synthetic gaze was fixed on the tiny images moving across the enhanced section of holo. “It’s passing through. Opening corridors five and six.”
“Delay it on deck C hex six.”
Walter waited. For a terrible moment it appeared as if this time the creature would fail to take the bait. Then its image resumed moving forward.