I

Patrols along the major warp routes were typically uneventful, which was part of the posting’s appeal. Receiving generous pay and military benefits to float around in a cruiser, admiring starscapes, was a good deal in my book. Our rare bouts of excitement were the occasional warp drive malfunction or medical emergency, neither of which imbued a sense of danger.

The Federation’s presence was enough to persuade criminal sects to steer clear of the main access points. More often than not, smugglers hauled their goods through backwater systems, and paid off local authorities to turn a blind eye. Pirates usually targeted ships departing from mining outposts, since that was simpler than knocking a ship out of hyperspace. Few would dare to flout galactic law under the watchful eye of a patrol.

That is why when my partner Jofi picked up a distress signal from an unpopulated system, we weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary. A mundane mechanical failure, perhaps, or a reckless teenager who had taken a ship for a joyride.

Following standard procedure, I hailed the ship as we came in comms range. “Unknown vessel, please state the nature of your emergency.”

Silence was the only response I received, which made me uneasy. Most pilots were all too quick to respond to their rescuers and beg for help. Maybe their communications were offline, or perhaps they didn’t speak Galactic Common? Whatever the case, it gave me an inkling that this was no standard response call.

“If this is another prank, I swear I’m going to kill those kids,” Jofi growled.

My whiskers twitched at the memory of Jofi, using lavtat leaves to banish “ghosts” from an empty cargo ship. Some local internet pranksters had rigged the ship to play prerecorded groaning noises, and flip the lights on and off at random intervals. Then, they abandoned it and waited for someone to find it; fifteen million views later, the rest is history.

“I hope that’s all it is. I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I muttered.

Jofi stared at the inky blackness ahead, a determined look on her face. “We’ll know soon enough. Ship’ll be in view in a few moments.”

Before the vessel was even visible, our data display lit up with bizarre findings. Strange energy readings emanated through the subspace field, like someone had detonated their drive mid-warp. How could anyone have survived such an incident to send out a distress signal in the first place?

Our sensors homed in on the target, magnifying the image on screen. It was obvious from the first glance that this was no civilian spacecraft. The vessel was a behemoth, with an angular shape that seemed designed to take a beating. My eye was drawn to the plasma cannon on the hull, which was glowing as though it was powered up.

As my gaze turned to the hull, I saw a golden landmass emblazoned on the blue plating.

Several curses slipped out of my mouth. “By the ancestors…that symbol. That’s a Terran ship.”

Jofi’s head snapped in my direction. “What?! Okay, time to high tail it out of here. Buckle up.”

“Wait, hold on! We can’t just leave them,” I protested, trying to keep the fear out of my voice. “Like it or not, the humans are Federation members, and as entitled to help as anyone else.”

“I’m not racist, Gorsh, you know that. But that is no civilian ship,” she pleaded. “There’s two possibilities. The first is they were testing something dangerous, or this is a trap.”

“You think it’s a trap?”

“Think about it. The ship isn’t answering us, and its weapons are powered on. For all we know, it could be human pirates, luring us in.”

“Pirates this close to the patrol routes?”

“Bold, even for humans. But if anyone would risk it, it’s them.”

I stared through the viewport, where the warship idled in a dead system. It was impossible to refute the logic in Jofi’s words; this did have all the markers of a trap. Humans were the most aggressive species in the galaxy, and the last people you wanted to face in close-quarters combat. If this was a set-up, it wouldn’t end well for us.

Yet some idiotic, soft-hearted part of me couldn’t bear the idea of leaving a sentient in distress. Even a warlike sentient that could snap us in half with a flick of the wrist.

“Send a transmission back to Federation Command. In case anything happens to us,” I said. “I’m sorry, Jo, we have to try.”

An exasperated look crossed her face, but she relayed the message as instructed. “Gods, I hate you, Gorsh. Where is your sense of self-preservation?”

“Gone, I suppose. Suit up.”

There was some discontented grumbling from Jofi as we clambered into our power armor suits. I knew that their protection would be no match for human weaponry, but they could protect against other perils. They would seal us off from any biohazards, and provide us with our own oxygen supply, in case the danger was atmospheric.

My heart was pounding as I picked up my plasma rifle, unhitching the safety. The ship’s computer steered us in to a docking port, connecting with an emergency airlock. I thought I was going to pass out.

“If anything happens to me, I want you to know it’s your fault,” Jofi barked over the headset.

I chuckled. “You always know how to make me feel better, Jo. I promise, I will be crippled by guilt forever.”

“Good. In that case, I’m ready to die.”

She pulled the lever to open the airlock, and I braced myself for a fight on the other side. However, as the door swung open, it revealed nothing but an empty tunnel. There were no humans lying in wait, which at least meant it wasn’t a trap. I took a few tentative steps down the corridor, and nearly slipped on the slick floor. A glance around revealed a healthy coating of frost on all surfaces, as though the ship had been buffeted by a snowstorm.

It was inexplicable.

“What the hell?” Jofi sounded as bewildered as I felt. “What happened here?”

My gaze swept around the room, searching for clues. “I don’t know, but humans can’t survive in temperatures this cold for long. We need to look for survivors.”

With careful steps, I inched down to the edge of the hallway, peering around a corner. A scream escaped my lips, and horror shot through my veins at the ghastly sight before us. The room, which appeared to be a mess hall, was littered with human corpses. Many of them had been killed in ways which, before today, I would have said were impossible.

Several bodies seemed to have fused with objects, their faces frozen in an eternal expression of terror. One man, whose torso was sunken into a wall, appeared to be mid-scream. The bulging eyes, mouth agape, hand outstretched…it took every ounce of my willpower not to flee from the ship then and there. What were the humans messing with?

“Gorsh, are you seeing this?” Jofi asked.

“Seeing, but still working on believing,” I replied.

She was kneeling by a body on the floor, checking it for vitals. “This one, I thought it might be alive. Seems to be the only one not grafted into the structure.”

“Any heartbeat?”

“No, it’s very much dead. There’s a stream of blood from the eye sockets. My guess, the eyes burst, and so did most of its other organs.”

“Ugh. I don’t think we’ll find any survivors, Jo.”

“Me neither. Let’s get out of here…before whatever happened to them, happens to us.”

“Wait. We need to get the data off the ship’s computer first, if we want to figure out what happened.”

“This is way over our heads, Gorsh. I’m not risking my life for a damn ship log.”

“It’s not about the log. What if something attacked them, and it’s still out there? All of us could be in danger. Look, just a quick trip to the bridge, then we can leave.”

There were no further protests, and as far as I was concerned, that was assent. The bridge was likely at the center of the ship, since that was the Terran preference, so we just needed to continue inward. The two of us maneuvered through several rooms, ignoring the grisly scenes laid out before us. If I stopped to dwell on each of them, I don’t think I could’ve carried on.

It only took a few minutes to reach the bridge, but by the time we arrived, I felt like I had aged a decade. The images of body parts and blood-soaked walls were burned into my mind, lodged there for all eternity. The command center was as gory as any of the other sectors; many of the human officers had merged with their workstations, and the others were in a pile of blood on the floor.

I pushed down another scream, trying to focus on the task at hand. The ship’s data needed to be retrieved. Once that was achieved, we could get as far away from here as possible.

The holodisplay at the heart of the bridge seemed like the best station to pull the data from. I walked over to it, careful to step over the corpse slumped in front of it. My hand waved over its sensors, hoping to wake it.

“Access denied.” An automated voice declared, scaring me half to death. “Biometric authorization required.”

There was a handprint reader in front of the holodisplay, which was probably what the computer wanted. With a grimace, I rolled over the body by my feet. It was difficult not to retch hauling a pallid carcass, but I tried my best. The idea of vomit rolling around in my visor did not appeal to me in the slightest.

I dragged the dead fellow’s hand on top of the reader, unlocking the display. After swiping through several tabs, I found the option to transfer all ship data, and selected our cruiser as the recipient. Thank the stars, we were almost out of this mess.

While waiting for the upload to complete, my gaze flitted down toward the body I had utilized. The scar across the right cheek and the missing eyes were new, but I recognized the face anyways.

“Shit. Jo, this isn’t just any human ship.” I paused, drawing a shaky breath. “We need to send word home immediately.”

“What, did you find something?” she asked.

I pointed to the body at my feet. “This guy here is the Federation’s top general. I don’t know what’s going on, but we might be at war.”

Whatever had killed these humans, we needed to figure out what it was, quickly.

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