2. An Encounter at Sea

Aliens: Rivans, Humans, Igneons, ???

Location: Lux III (Formerly Hegemony Small Crew Craft #240-AA); Shipwreck

“Look alive,” Captain Kairi barks to her crew. Alarms are going off, flashing lights and klaxons wreaking havoc on her hungover brain. “Tango, I should have known what we’re dealing with an hour ago,” she says to one of her crew. These old ships, they have one kind of alarm and it goes off for everything from an approaching asteroid belt to someone burning food in the galley.

“The alarms just started-” Tang tries to reason, but Kairi turns around in her chair to give him a withering look. “Yes, Captain,” he says instead. His massive bulk is hunched over the computer as he tries to delicately tap the right buttons. Tang’s fingers, like slabs of rough hewn marble, keep pressing multiple keys at once. The display was never meant for Igneon operators. And whoever it was made for probably died 50 years ago, Kairi thinks to herself, back when the ship should have been scrapped for parts. This would be the last Hegemony hunk of junk she’d buy from auction. Nevermind the last three ships were also the last ones, too. Here she sat commanding Lux III, formerly Hegemony Small Crew Craft #240-AA.

“Laser armaments charged,” Silco says from another terminal. Kairi didn’t ask her to do that, but she had thought it, and that’s all a Rivan needs. Instead of saying anything, Kairi leans her head against her hand, rubbing her temples.

“Can I at least get a look at the thing?” Kairi yells over the alarms. “And shut those damn things off!” she screams, the shrill ringing ending just before the end of her sentence.

“Visuals established,” Tang says. A loud thunk issues from the front of the bridge and an ancient glass screen, like a dead cyclopean eye, flickers to life, static electricity crackling off of its surface. It’s hard to tell through the horrendous quality of the image, but Kairi thinks she sees another ship, firmly lodged into an asteroid. The ship’s design is clunky and utilitarian, a long box made of smaller boxes. “A Hegemony cargo rig,” Tang says, bits of dust falling from his mouth. He gingerly tries to blow it off the keys in front of him, only embedding it deeper in the cracks between.

“One life sign,” Silco answers before Kairi can ask the question. “Powering down weapons systems now,” she adds. Kairi stands from her chair and walks to the screen. She can feel heat rolling off of it. The image dances as the individual points of light making the asteroid and the ship quiver.

“The alarm was in response to a distress signal,” Tang says, proud of himself for finally getting an answer to Captain Kairi. “Critical life support systems are still in operation,” he says.

“Who knows how long they’ve been out here,” Kairi says, mostly to herself. “The ship’s from before the big bang, it looks like, but that doesn’t tell us much.”

“I’m almost positive their cargo bay door is exposed,” Tang says, squinting at the terminal in front of him. “I can’t get a read on what they were transporting, but we can enter there.”

Kairi returns to her chair and assumes manual control of the ship's navigation. She eases it forward and tilts it slightly so the exterior hatch of the Lux III is in rough alignment with the cargo bay at the back of the stranded ship. Silco establishes a docking corridor and confirms the airlock is stable. Kairi orders Tang to stay behind as she and Silco disembark.

For a few brief moments, Kairi and Silco are floating, weightless, through the corridor. At the other ship’s door, they pause to make sure their pistols are charged. Kairi tells Silco they’ll talk telepathically until they confirm what the life sign is.

Once inside, Kairi notes the gravity field within the ship is slightly off kilter. She and Silco drift in through the open hatch and are pulled downward but not by their full weight. The crash into the asteroid probably knocked a lot of things loose, she thinks and Silco nods. The cargo bay is filled with boxes and drums, hanging askew in the not-quite 0 gravity. Some of them spill their contents out in frozen spray. Mostly food, slowly spoiling in the artificial atmosphere of the ship.

Kairi remarks that the interior of the ship is as drab and depressing as Hegemony ships typically are. As labyrinthine as well, Silco notes. The modular design of the ships meant any piece could work with another, but not always in an elegant way. Case in point, Kairi and Silco found the cargo bay opened into a cramped hallway lined with doors on either side. Kairi takes the right and Silco takes the left. Kairi finds that most of the doors are malfunctioning, either locked by dysfunction or frozen halfway on their tracks sliding into the wall.

Silco lets out a scream, the sudden sound in physical space sounding like a plasma cannon firing. Kairi wheels around, gun held level, finger on the trigger. Silco squeals again, this time Kairi noticing that it’s a shout of excitement. Kairi kicks off a nearby wall and flies over to see what Silco is looking at.

Inside of a bubbling tank of fluorescent green liquid is a hideous creature. “It’s not hideous!” Silco says, squeezing through the half-open door. Kairi cautiously follows. The room looks to be a private quarters, but this equipment seems complex. The creature is covered in dark hair, its long body ending in a pointed head. Kairi can see pointed teeth beneath gently twitching lips. “It’s being kept in suspension,” Silco says, trailing a finger over the control panel.

“Good, then we can leave it that way,” Kairi says, turning to leave.

“Oh, captain, please,” Silco says, reaching out and grabbing Kairi by the arm. “Can I at least bring it aboard to study?”

“How do we know this thing didn’t cause the ship to crash in the first place?” Kairi asks, half serious. She really doesn’t want this thing anywhere close to her.

“That’s nonsense and you know it,” Silco says, but she’s smiling. She knows Kairi has a hard time being the reason to see that smile fade. “The people on the ship must have abandoned it when they crashed. It’s all alone,” she says, placing a hand on the glass. Kairi instantly regrets it, but she thinks to herself it wouldn’t be right to leave it. Who knows if anyone else will answer this distress call. “I’ll keep it in my quarters,” Silco says, pleading. “Besides, it’s fauna from Earth,” Silco says, “you’re always talking about how much you want to know more about your heritage.” Kairi checks the information on the display again, and Silco points to the planet of origin.

“Maybe we left the planet to get away from these things,” Kairi says, and she knows Silco can feel her softening resolve. “Fine,” Kairi says with a sigh. “But it stays in stasis,” she says, wagging her finger.

The three of them, Kairi, Silco, and the Earth beast, fly back up the corridor and into the ship. Tang is immediately enamored, tapping the side of the jar. Kairi looks back and sees a fleshy tongue dangling out of the thing’s mouth. She sees the end of its body is tapered into a tail of some kind. As she watches, the tail swings to one side, then the other.