The Genesis Echo (Chapters 3 & 4)

3


Lyn surveyed the storage room, dropping her pack to the floor to brace the door. It had been hard enough wrenching it open among the debris - not about to let myself get locked in, she thought. The sheer idea of which was frightening; not the being locked in, but the never-ending jabs the entire crew would throw at her for it. Even the Captain wouldn’t be able to resist. She pulled the rifle back up to a more ready posture with both hands and stepped through the opening. The light was dim, but adequate, and she eyed her prize right away. A stack of shipping crates were piled against the wall. The stack was haphazard and showed signs that someone else had been through them, but the dust gave evidence that it had been quite some time. Maybe during the final moments before evacuation, someone was trying to find a tool for hope. Several seals were unbroken, and she could see that at least three crates had electronic security locks; one was a biometric scanner. She allowed herself a half grin as she knelt down to the first of the sealed ones, setting her rifle to lean beside her. She ran her hand across the seal imprinted on the lid. The stars and wings of the United Republic. Later it would be worth wondering why there was so much military hardware on an abandoned mining colony, but for now, she pulled the dual levers and pried the lid open.
Lyn tore through half a dozen crates before turning back to the biometrically sealed container. She had already found rifles, foodstuffs, and an assortment of different security and personnel equipment. After the rifles in a sealed container and ammunitions in an unsealed one, the thought of a more secure crate was a child’s dream gift just waiting to be unwrapped. As Lyn stacked the crates at the entryway, she could not help but look around the room again. So much untouched stuff. Clickers were usually more thorough, even when they left stuff as trap bait.
Two stacks, six boxes in total. Three of the crates were filled with a collection of bits left from previously rummaged containers. She hoisted the secure crate with the biometric lock to the top of the pile. She found a small metal box to replace her pack as a doorstop. She gathered a few stray items, filling her pack and hefting it fully onto her back when her earpiece came to life.
“Incoming party crashers. Lyn, get Addy. Captain wants out of there in five.” Brist’s voice rang with urgency, and Lyn uttered a short curse.
She opened full comms, “Captain, I’ve got a score you aren’t going to want to leave behind.”
“May not have a choice. Get Addy, maybe come back ‘round for it.”
She could see Khenu, in her mind’s eye, holding a finger on the control to raise the loading ramp. He was always serious about time limits. She brought her rifle back up as she moved across the open space between buildings and across the gangway leading into the main power building. Addy should have heard that same comm transmission, but she knew he was likely to have dropped the earpiece as he settled into his boyish glee tinkering with electronics. She only hoped he had the fuel cells pulled and ready to go, and had been using the extra time to tear apart whatever random thing that caught his eye in the room.
The door to the main power supply room was meant to be closed. The left side of the two-piece door was half broken from its automated slide track, the other side stuck in a half-open position from where he pushed it. The room was in shambles. The Clickers had done more to ransack the place than she had previously given them credit for. She could hear Addy humming to himself and recognized the melody. She hated the song. Something to do with flowers from a star for tomorrow or some pseudo dream image. Rubbish. His feet were the only part visible from under the console, and they were tapping in sync with his humming.
“Time to pack up the juice. Clickers are coming.” She saw his earpiece sitting on the console, next to his sidearm. Two fuel cells lay on the floor. “What are you doing now? You already got the fuel cells.”
“They’re not a match. I have to have the control module or we can’t wire ‘em up,” he snapped. He was always snappy when anyone interrupted his games or his music, and of course, she had just done both.
“Can you finish in less than two minutes? Captain’s pulling up the gears in four minutes now.”
“Don’t you know you can’t rush perfection?” His quip came without slowing his movements, though his mind paused to reflect on the eye roll that he was sure was coming from above the console.
“Good thing I never expect perfection then.” She rolled her eyes.
Lyn moved to the door, weapon postured up, eyes on the gangway. She reached up, tapped the earpiece.
“Captain, do you have any eyes on our party crashers?”
“Negative,” it was Brist who answered, “readings only. South side of the structure. Looks like it’s a full party.”
“You two get out. We’re coming up to meet you at the north end,” Captain Khenu’s deep voice echoed between pants. He sounded winded. Had he already been running? Her gut locked itself down. If he was moving in that fast then the readings were worse than she feared. She flexed her hand and re-tightened her grip on the rifle.
“Addy, let’s go,” she said. “Time’s up.”
“One more second.”
“I don’t think we have...” Her voice trailed off as she saw the first Clicker round the corner at the far end. It’s leathery, gray-skinned head topping off it’s broad, semi-humanoid body. It’s four legs made it look almost bug-like, but the arms and the presence of a hand-aimed shoulder cannon was a quick reminder that they were far more dangerous just a bug. The first one stopped, pointing forward as it began to communicate with the two behind it. Their discordant voices resonated with a series of whistles and clicks. Their posture said they hadn’t seen her, just the broken down door. Well, let me introduce myself, she thought.
Lyn dropped to a knee, using the partially open door as cover, and let the first shots fly. The first two shots found their mark opening up a hole in the chest of the lead Clicker. Its blood - a red so dark it appeared black in all but the brightest light - sprayed the one closest to it, coating its face. In its dismay, it began to fire blindly back in her direction. Well, I certainly have their attention, she thought as Addy slid up behind her against the door.
“As usual, I have to do all the heavy lifting, while you get to have all the fun. Typical.” He said as he hefted the fuel cells, one in each hand.
“Drop low. Fire from ground level, upward at the base of their torso.”
“You do like to be on top, don’t you?” He smiled as he looked at her.
“If I didn’t always have to show you how to do it...” His smile made her smile as she fired again. She dropped the second one, but the third took cover at the edge of the gangway. She thought of the crates, stacked and waiting for her, and the ones she had yet to go through. These things were now in her way. She held a long blink through the rifle sights to clear her head. She thought of that girl, little Beth, back on URP-113. Addy was lying below her as he began to fire. Her eyes tightened to match her jaw. Down together or walk away together; the thought loosened her jaw enough for a second smile as she fired again.
The Clickers fired relentlessly. Their heated plasma shots coming in rapid succession with no fear or hesitation from the barrage of projectile slugs Lyn and Addy sent their way. Lyn knew the heated plasma beams would slowly break apart and erode their cover. It was only a matter of time, and that clock began to wind faster, as a second group of Clickers showed up to the party.
“Captain, we are pinned down. Two down. Four clickers still blocking the exit. More behind them.”
“Copy.” His voice still sounded as though he was gasping for air. He had broken the word up into multiple syllables.
Lyn could feel Addy beside her leg, leaning out with his sidearm. The two fired several alternating shots and were answered with a flurry of bursts from the other end. The acrid smell of burnt edge metal joined the hot oil odor emitted from their own rifles. The scent surged through her, causing an adrenaline-fueled anger and excitement that mixed with equal parts horror. It hit all her senses. She felt the first beads of sweat on her brow. Her vision narrowed down. It was war and protection, love and hate, joy and fear, life or death, all rolled up into one.
Time slowed as she culled shot after shot. She saw each round as it found flesh or armored body, or missed and struck the walls and flooring, further tearing apart the dying building. Addy fired in rapid succession from under her. One more Clicker fell forward with half of its head removed, as chunks of gray matter flew back against the bulkhead at the end of the gangway. She squeezed off another round. And then another.
A third group of Clickers joined the fray, or was it the fourth? There were too many in the confined space, and coming from around the corner, to know for sure. They could not fit in the opening all at once, but she could see the subtle differences in the head shapes and the shifts in gray to gray-brown as they leaned in and out. The walls and floor at the other end of the gangway were painted with a thickening black-red, but Lyn and Addy’s doors were beginning to fold. She spaced her shots, picking her targets, and tried to use Addy’s gravitation toward hurried shooting to keep them off balance. There was less care being put into their blasts. Her heartbeat picked up. The calm of battle slipping; their cover would not hold. Their shooting was weakening the metal framing with every impact. The clicks and whistles got louder and their shots came faster and wilder. They, too, knew the cover wouldn’t hold.
There were at least five still standing she concluded, as another issued its last whistle on the way to the floor. Her ears filled with the rasping sound as its neck and lower jaw disintegrated from an array of shots. Addy may have actually hit one, she mused. He was brave in his brashness, but his aim never matched his courage or foolishness. He let out a whooping sound in between more shots of his own.
Her breathing slowed and she reset her grip, a bead of sweat ran down her temple. She pulled back on the trigger one more time, confident the round would find its mark.
White.
Everything was white.
A blinding flash that crackled with blue-white electricity and an explosive roar that removed all other sounds. Lyn was thrown back, landing face up on Addy’s face down form. The room blurred before her eyes, then it went black. There was noise under a blanket of ringing. More shots.
Lyn shook head to clear her vision and saw the face of Captain Khenu standing above her. Somehow, she noted, it seemed to be even darker. Her face crinkled with a spasm of muscle as she moved. She could see his mouth shouting at her, but the only sound she heard was a ringing that was tearing her brain apart cell by cell. She pulled in a deep breath but it burned high in her chest. She tried to watch his mouth; something about bought time being gone. He had his hand reaching for her and kept looking back over his shoulder. She took his hand, gripping his wrist, with her rifle in the other hand. She looked down and saw Addy on his hands and knees. He was straining to climb to his feet using the wall for support and shaking his head. Slone was there helping him. She felt a breath ease from her chest without burning.
She could see the far end of the gangway. It’s opening enlarged and smoking. Clickers, or pieces of them, decorated the floor. The Captain and Slone had done something. The explosion must have been them. He led them through the gangway and across the open courtyard of buildings. Lyn thought she almost heard him yell to follow. He was moving faster than her, and she could feel her feet keeping pace with the ringing in her ears. Her limbs ached and her lungs burned. Her muscles filled with an ooze that her pulsing brain tried to make sense of. Normally she could outrun the Captain, but every fiber of her body was straining to find the next step. Addy ran beside her with a stumbling gait, and Slone pulled up the rear. Addy looked as though he was learning to use his legs for the first time in his life and the fuel cells, one in each hand, swung with no discernible rhythm.
The main cargo ramp was still down, but the engines were already roaring. Lyn could hear them. She smiled as she ran the final few steps, knowing her hearing was not a total loss. She dropped to her knee, as she spun to see behind her. She pulled her rifle up and scanned back the way they came. Her vision was still marred by the edge of blackness that threatened to remove it from her altogether. Khenu was already on board and sprinting towards the flight deck, as Addy and Slone were just hitting the edge of the ramp. Ten steps in Addy dropped the fuel cells and fell flat to the deck before they stopped moving on their cylindrical bases. Lyn saw two Clickers coming around the final corner. The first with a dark gray head poking out of its layered body armor. The second one was moving faster. Its gray-brown legs skittering out, widening its approach on them. Lyn let three shots fly. She turned to board the ramp never looking to see if her shots found their target. She knew they had, and it was time to go. The ship pitched and yawed as it lifted before the ramp was fully closed. She dropped to the floor beside Addy. He smiled at her and held up a hand, with a small circuit board with a bundle of wires hanging from it. She barely heard his voice, though she could see the yell on his lips, “Got it!”
She looked across the floor of the main bay and saw a stack of shipping crates. One lay open on the floor. Its biometric locks bypassed, or rather, broken. Its padded interior held four impressions meant for cylindrical canisters. One was missing. She laughed.




4


“Not a bad haul.”
Khenu ran a hand along the atmo filters that Slone and Brist had secured, prior to extracting Addy and Lyn from their predicament.
“Those fuel cells will help. I had to pull a new control module, but I’ll get it all hooked up and let Blank know when he can switch it over,” Addy said, Khenu nodded.
Lyn was left staring at the empty crate with its biometric security system, “Damn funny. And fitting I guess.” She shook her head as she looked through the contents of the others more carefully.
“Some of this stuff will fetch a decent price. It’ll help, given the lack of work lately. Slone, I’m goin’ to need you to check on a few, well, back door establishments. Some of that hardware is goin’ to be tricky to unload.” Khenu said as he tapped his fingers on the stars and wings emblem on the stack of containers.
“Captain. Incoming message.” Blank on the ship’s intercom.
“See, Captain, the sky’s of Tentallie will always grant a great bounty,” Lyn offered a sarcastic grin. His head turned towards her, one eyebrow slightly raised. “Or when it rains it pours?” she added.
Khenu gave a small grunt, and rolled his offset eyes, as he exited the cargo bay heading toward the front of the ship. Slone and Lyn were left to store the crates and secure the filter rods.
“So, was it your idea to use the lightning flash you found?”
“You mean you found… Yeah. We picked up your find and then headed to you. I thought you could handle things, but I was getting bored waiting for you to quit playing around with those Clickers.”
“Well, you know me. Besides, why not a little fun since we keep getting lucky? The couple times we’ve run into them, it has been just small scouting groups. I haven’t seen a full raiding party since,” her voice hesitated, “since URP-113.”
Slone looked her, with the slightest tilt of his head, “Hmm, should've have been my last mission before I got out, but my unit was called off at the last minute. Big brass decided the whole place was a loss. You’ve still never told me how it was on that little forsaken rock.
“You’re right. And I’m not gonna today, either.” She rubbed the scar on the back of her hand, and then brushed away the locks of hair that escaped the tail.
Little more was said as the two secured the load. They stowed the most sensitive materials behind recessed panels that appeared to be maintenance access ports, rather than storage. Once complete, the cargo bay was emptied of its two crew members and the warehouse like expanse, that accounted for over half the ship’s total space, was quiet. The Genesis was just a ship, but one could swear if you stood still enough, you’d feel her smile as she religiously kept vigil over her crew as they settled into their quarters or went about their own solitary routines.
Lyn did not choose to go for solitary. Instead, she found herself on the floor of her quarters leaning against her bunk watching Addy at the little table he had turned into his own tinker station. She studied the back of his head, and his tousled hair as he fidgeted with some tiny contraption. She imagined his eyes - a green-gold that matched her own - squinted down as he unfolded the secrets of some object he had never before seen or worked on. His fingers, the end of limbs that looked clumsy, deftly removing and rebuilding each component. His curiosity always amazed her, though she could remember first meeting him and wondering how this man had survived long enough to become an adult. She didn’t much care for him at first, and then it happened. She swore she could almost nail it down to a single instant, almost. The way he looked at her. The slightly angled nature of his chin. His eyes, the way she could see all the way into him in a way she had never known. It was as if they were cut from the same stone; as if they had just been waiting to run into each other for a millennia. They’d shared their quarters ever since.
“What is that thing?”
His head half turned, never completely away from the project. “Not really sure. It seems to be a gauge of some kind. Never seen it before, or even one like it. I picked it up in the control room back on Palladium. I almost forgot about it during all the fun.”
There was some more small talk, but she was more focused on watching him and the small tangle of wires and buttons not much bigger than her fist. The ship’s intercom interrupted her quiet little cessation of serenity.
“We have another job. All-crew dinner tonight.”
It was the Captain speaking, of course. While they often ate together, Khenu had only called for a crew dinner twice before. A crew dinner meant things were about to get interesting.
“Well, that’s ominous,” Addy said.
Lyn shrugged her shoulders in a half-agreement, and half ‘oh-well, that’s why we get paid’ as she stood up.
“Well, I’m getting cleaned up first. You should too.” She said.
“Can I join you?”
“You can’t put that thing down long enough to make it worth my time,” she smiled at him. “And you can’t bring it with you. Maybe later.”
He turned his own smile back to his new toy. He was set on figuring out what it was for.

* * * *

“What is this?” Slone said. His fire-colored eyebrows raised, twisting the scar on his forehead, as he looked down into his bowl. In it was something that loosely resembled a soup with strange things floating in it. Strange things he could not identify.
“You scared?” Lyn added as she scooped a full helping into her own bowl.
“Only of how much weight I’m going to lose if we keep letting him cook.”
“It’s a recipe from my mother. Eat it. Like it. I should be charging you for this. It is well-balanced. It has everything a growing boy needs,” Brist flashed a smile toward Lyn as he spoke, “Guess you’ll just have to suffer.”
The whole of the crew, minus the Captain, began eating the strange soupy-stew brew with its greenish broth that Brist had prepared. Each of them moving at various speeds through their first bites. Lyn watched each face in turn. She stopped on Blank, briefly, so as not offend. His hairless face, devoid even of eyebrows, and lacking the lines that characterized most other human species, amazed her. He commented on the food, giving it measured praise. Whenever she heard his stoic voice, she always imagined his smooth face and head mocking them in expressions that could never be seen unless you stared intensely at him. She had asked him once, but he looked at her in that same inexpressive manner that only hinted at emotion, and told her no. He told it would be rude to mock the gestures of others. She wondered, would it have been rude to tell his co-pilot his culinary skills were… lacking?
Captain Khenu entered the galley and studied the ladle's contents, as he pulled the first scoop toward his bowl. With his head tilted to the side, his face showed signs of a suppressed grimace. He dropped into his usual place at the irregular oval table and spoke while holding his first bite.
“For those that don’t know yet, the transmission received wasn’t intended for us. At least not specifically.” He inserted the spoon into his mouth. He grimaced, and Lyn swore his hair was paler than it had been the day before. Maybe it’s just Brist’s cooking, she thought and silently snickered.
“Open broadcasting?” Slone asked. Lyn watched as Khenu looked at the empty spoon with a furrowed brow.
“Distress call to be exact, but yes, open broadcastin’.” He set the spoon down without reaching for a second bite.
“Do we know who it’s from?” Addy asked before anyone could draw a breath.
“Not really. The signal was compromised. Empty transmission mostly.”
“Survivors?” Slone sat up straight as he spoke.
“Doubtful. Based on the time stamp, if there were any, they’re long gone. The transmission appears to be merchant vessel in origin, but because Blank couldn’t quite filter out all the compromised data, I am mostly makin’ assumptions. Either way, the time stamp was good. I was lookin’ it over again just before comin’ in here. It’s been a few weeks. It appears there is a chance that no one else has been around because the open beacon has yet to be disabled. I know it is of a less savory type, pickin’ the bones of a fallen crew, but it’s still a job. When we get there, if the ship is whole enough, we can just tow the whole thing and pick up the recovery price from the company. Assumin’ they want it. If not, we see what there is. And it is on the way to Susa Station.”
“So, we are still going to Susa?” Lyn finally spoke.
“Yes. Slone set up contact with a buyer for some goods on Susa. So we’ll be off loadin’ what we’ve already got, and maybe with this extra stop, pickin’ up some extra coin while we’re at.” Khenu picked his spoon back up, hoisted a second bite into a reluctant mouth with much the same reaction as the first. There was no third bite.