“Get behind something,” Nutrene screamed through her mask and dived behind the flight deck.
“Help m-me…” Tor’s head hung by a thread of synthetic skin down the back of the Shanta, “I n-need help.”
“Open fire.”
BAM-BAM-BAM!
Tor’s bottom half ran out of the control deck, carrying its six half-formed limbs with it.
“God damn it,” Tripp turned to Manuel. “Raise the alarm, now. It’s run off into the ship.”
“Yes, of course.”
ARRROOOOO-GAH!
The control deck dimmed as red lights swiveled around the walls and floor.
Tripp, Alex, Nutrene, and Jaycee bolted through the door after the screaming monstrosity.
AROOOOOO-GAH!
“Emergency,” came the recorded voice, “The alarm has been raised. Please be advised. Remain where you are until instructed otherwise. Thank you, and have a nice day.”
Poz turned to Neg and bounced on the spot. They were alone at last.
“I dunno why they’re bothering trying to kill it. The whole place is gonna be history soon.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”
Excited, Neg rolled back and opened up her orb-shaped back. A stack of canisters clanged to the floor, “Want me to prime them?”
“If you would be so kind, yes,” Poz peeked at his transfer cable, “Sixty seconds and we have the data. We’re going back home with Anderson, dead or alive. Preferably dead.”
“Aww,” Neg squealed over the racket of the alarms, “Why dead?”
“Because the only good pussy is a dead pussy.”
“Huh,” Neg knocked into the canisters. The green light on top flashed, indicating they were set. Her eyebulbs turned white as she rolled her head up to the windshield, “Oxade, this is Neg Bass.”
“Come in, Neg. What the hell is all that fuss I’m hearing on Beta?”
“Oh, they threatened to shoot each other. Nothing to do with us—”
“—They what?” Oxade screamed in both Poz and Neg’s heads, “What do you mean threatened to shoot each other?”
“Rabinovich is on board Beta, Oxade,” Poz said. “He turned into a man-spider thing and ran off. It was horrendous, quite frankly.”
“Have you gone insane? Right, that’s enough. I’m boarding Beta.”
Neg knocked the canisters on the floor and threw a blue beam over them, “Ah, actually, I wouldn’t do that.”
Oxade pulled the weapons cupboard open. He unhooked the D-REZ semi-automatic, extended its shoulder holster and booted the door shut.
“The nukes?” Oxade roared into his headgear and ran out of the deck, “Please tell me you planted the nukes?”
“Yes,” Poz’s voice rumbled into his ear, “They’re primed to go.”
“Good. You’ve just saved yourself a messy execution,” Oxade snatched a gelatin swab from the wall and raced along the walkway, “I’m boarding Beta and taking care of this. Stay there and wait for me.”
SCHLOOP.
He smeared the gelatinous mush around his face as he walked. The compound material stretched across his skin. Pockets of air burst out of his skin. The end result made his face look like it was covered in cellophane.
“Primary airlock, ETA twenty seconds.”
“There’s really no need to do that, Captain,” Poz’s voice reached Oxade’s helmet headgear, “We’d rather you not leave Charlie unmanned—”
“—I’d rather you not be a useless tin opener but you don’t hear me complaining, do you?”
Poz thought about Oxade’s retort, “Actually, yes I do—”
“—Shut up and open the damn bridge.”
SWISH!
The inner airlock door flew up and offered Oxade into the chamber.
“As you desire, Captain. In your own time.”
“Don’t patronize me, you mechanical moron.”
Tor stumbled down the steps. His swinging, most-severely head clanged against the railings. Its mouth squealed in pain.
Six limbs shot out from his ribcage and pressed against the wall, aiding his decent.
His left leg slammed to the next step and broke apart. The connective flesh slipped away from his metallic femur ‘bone’ and swiped its talon.
His right leg fell off when it connected with the next step. Another limb burst out through his metallic ball joint. Tor was no longer an Androgyne but a fully-formed Shanta.
Tripp, Jaycee, Alex, and Nutrene reached the top step with their weapons aimed at the half-man, half-Shanta monstrosity, “Tor, stay where you are.”
“Screeeeeeeee,” the Shanta widened its slit and whipped Tor’s head into the air.
SCHOMP-CLOTCH!
It caught Tor’s jaw between its teeth and yanked it away from the top of his skull.
“Damn,” Alex gasped, “That virus really kicks ass, doesn’t it?”
BLAM-BLAM-BLAM!
Tripp and Jaycee opened fire on the creature. It gripped the railings with all twelve limbs and scurried down the next set of steps.
“Get it,” Tripp shouted after it and continued down the staircase.
“Screeeeee,” The Shanta’s two front limbs hit the next step, tripped on something unexpected and crashed against the level two sign on the wall.
“Miew,” came a whine of protest from the step.
The Shanta stomped four of its limbs to the floor and the remaining eight against the wall and ceiling and screeched in pain.
Jelly shifted her weight and stood to her feet, “Not again.”
SCHTANG-SCHTANG!
She flung out her infinity claws by her sides and prepared to slash the creature.
“Jelly,” Jaycee aimed his Rez-9 at the creature, “Get out of the way.”
She turned over her shoulder and licked her lips, ready for war, “No.”
“I mean it, Jelly.”
The Shanta pushed itself from the wall like an octopus and bolted towards Jelly. She pulled her elbows back, ready to swipe at the monstrosity.
“That’s Anderson?” Alex lowered his gun, trying to take the information in, “But sh-she’s…”
“Yeah. Difficult to believe, huh?” Tripp spat. “Would you believe me if I told you she’s pregnant, too?”
SWIPE-SWISH-CRACK!
Jelly right-hooked the Shanta, sending it hurtling over the rails between the stairs, “Meow.”
WHOOOSH!
The Shanta plummeted between the stairs. Its limbs smashed against the stairs as it tumbled down.
The signage for levels two, three, and four flew past its slit as its screams echoed up the stairwell.
“Jelly, what did you do?” Jaycee barged past her and hopped down the next flight of stairs.
“I killed it,” she said and followed him.
Tripp, Alex, and Nutrene ran down after them.
“Are you gonna tell us what that thing is, now?” Nutrene shouted after Tripp and Jaycee as they jumped down to the level three gantry.
“We’ve called it Symphonium,” Tripp explained. “Some sort of messed up evolutionary virus.”
Jelly peered over the staircase, “It came from the ocean. It turned the algae into fish. The fish into mammals. The mammals into apes. The apes into humans, and the humans into—”
“—Shaaantaaa,” the monstrosity squealed from two floors below. Everyone jumped in their shoes as the volume of its voice rattled their ears.
Jelly pointed at Alex and Nutrene’s faces, “Keep those masks on, humans.”
“Yes, we will,” Alex failed to comprehend the absurdity of his findings.