Chapter Two: The Derelict

Isaac burst into laughter. Alek could only stare. Rahn watched the sensors. Outside the main window, the region was littered with debris. In the middle of the field was the split remains of a massive battleship. “Prepare the ship, were going to land on that ship... Well? Say something dammit!”
“...I can't believe were not dead. If we had remained in warp another few seconds we would have slammed into that beast.”
“ Yes, yes, were not dead, good for you. Now pilot this thing over to that ship.”
“The impulse systems shorted from the hit. Rahn's repairing it now. We should be able to get over there in a few minutes.”
“Dammit. Well while were waiting run some scans on it. Find out what it is and where it came from.” Isaac hit the intercom. “Rahn, make those repairs fast. I want to see whats in that ship.”
“I can already tell it's been heavily modified. From what the sensors say it looks like it belonged to a pirate cartel. I'll repair the systems now. I'm as eager to see it as you are.”
Isaac clicked off the intercom and returned to his gaze. “I have to ask you, Isaac, why do you want to explore that derelict? A derelict that old is bound to fall apart as soon as you enter it. It's not like your going to find any hidden pirate gold in there or anything.”
“Hey screw you! I bet there IS pirate gold on that ship, and I'm gonna find it, you bastard. What are those scans saying?”
“It seems the debris is all from that ship over there. The ship itself is several hundred years old. It appears to be of Russian human origin, but has been modified with equipment from a variety of human sources from ages past. Scans suggest it was built before the destruction of earth. I can't find any reason for the ships destruction. If were going to enter that ship, we'd best be careful. Who knows wha-”
“Rahn here, the impulse is back up. We can move in now.”
“Thank God, I was going insane listening to Alek's report. Rahn, get up here and get into a combat suit.”
“I'll be waiting at the entrance hatch. Rahn out.”
“You coming too Alek?”
“Based on the circumstances, I think I'd be best to remain on board. That way I can continue running scans and also guard the ship from....whatever... might have destroyed this ship.”
“Your loss. I'm going to suit up. Tell me when we're there.”
“Aye, Captain.”
The landing was easy. It was decided it would be ideal to land on the half containing the ships bridge, so that it would be easier to discover the cause of the destruction. As soon as the ship was docked, Alek began running more scans. Isaac and Rahn grabbed their combat suits and prepared for the expedition.
“Remember to turn on the artificial gravity as soon as you reach the ships deck, otherwise you'll bounce off and I'll have to go find you, not to mention I don't think the derelict could survive the impact. He he.”
“God dammit Alek, I know how to work a combat suit. Just do your scans and get ready to go when we get back. You ready Rahn.”
“Affirmative, Captain.”
“Good. Lets go then. Maybe your cybernetics can interact with the ships bridge controls or something. That way we can find the treasure, and I'll be rich! Ha ha ha! I said lets go Rahn!”
The two men entered the airlock. The room depressurized, and the outer hatch opened. Rahn and Isaac both jumped out of the airlock towards the ship. As each arrived, they activated their artificial gravity and managed to land on the ship. They managed to walk up the hull till they arrived at an empty escape pod dock. “This is Isaac. Were entering the ship now Alek. Keep communications open. Update us on any important information about the ship.” The two arrived at the escape pod's entrance. They opened the door to find the room inside depressurized. “Alek, this is Isaac. We just entered the ship. This was definitely a pirate ship. The rooms filled with corpses.”

The escape pod room was filled with corpses with blood spattered everywhere. Some people had their faces bashed in, and others were dismembered, with their limbs stuck in the escape pod doors. “Looks like the pirates were in a hurry to escape from something,” said Rahn.
“Yeah, definitely,” said Isaac, “doesn't look pretty does it?”
“Eeh, doesn't really phase me.”
“Good, because we need to find that treasure.” Rahn and Isaac started walking towards the other end of the escape pod bay, pushing away the bodies of the pirates that were getting in their way. Some of the bodies just floated away and bounced off the walls. The two approached the door on the other end of the escape pod bay, to find it nonoperational. “Anyway you can get the door open?” said Isaac, “I don't see a computer anywhere close.”
“Yeah,” responded Rahn, “Give me a minute.” He started to investigate the door. Rahn slid his hands up and down the wall to find some sort of electronic device that operates the door. 'This door seems really weird,' thought Rahn, 'I can't find any sort of electronics on this door.' Rahn then started to search the rim of the door.
Meanwhile, Isaac wondered off from the door and was searching the escape pod bay. 'Jeez these things are old,' Isaac thought, referring to the escape pods, 'this ship really is old.' Coming up empty, he started back towards Rahn and got sidetracked with the numerous bodies floating around the ship. He pushed one of the bodies towards a wall of the bay. It bounced off and came back to him. Isaac caught the body and shoved it back at the wall. It bounced off again and came back. This time, Isaac caught the body and, with all he could, threw the body, but with poor accuracy and rammed into an escape pod, which cracked the glass on the pod. 'Okay, I think I'm done with that.' “Any news on the door Rahn?”
“The technology is primitive,” Rahn said, “It may take a little bit.”
“Wait, wait,” Isaac said, “I've got an idea.” Isaac ran towards the door and bashed it with his shoulder. Not a budge. So Isaac kicked the door and the door gave a little. “Help me kick down the door, Rahn.” Rahn joined in with the multiple kicks to the door, and soon the door floated away from them.
“Seems as though this room is depressurized too,” Rahn said.
“For all we know, this whole ship could be depressurized,” Isaac said.
~Most of the ship is depressurized,~ said Alek over the radio.
“Glad to know you are still with us, Alek.”
~Hey, you said 'keep the lines open' so it's kinda not hard to hear you. Also, I did a lifescan of the ship and there aren't any lifeforms in the area.~
“Thanks for that. Any signs of treasure from your scans?”
~Haven't done that scan yet. Just give me a couple minutes.~
“Alright fine, come on Rahn,” said Isaac as he gestured Rahn to follow him. They entered a hallway, to where they didn't know. It was a long hallway, shorter in height than most nowadays, and also more narrow. “Looks like this ship was just for humans. Guessing that the humans weren't friends with the aliens at the time.”
The two made their way to another door, but this one was working, opening upwards archaically. “Um... Alek?” questioned Isaac, “How is there still power to the ship?”
~That is a mystery to me,~ said Alek, ~There shouldn't be any power for how old this ship is. If there was backup power, that should've burnt out as well. And I haven't repaired any of the systems yet.~
“There's a computer over there flickering,” Rahn pointed out. He pointed to a single terminal that was flickering dimly along a row of other terminals. The room happened to look like a common lounge for recreational purposes. “I'm going to check it out.”
“Yeah you do that, tell us anything that could be of importance,” Isaac said. He could not care less in other situations, but he was becoming more and more infatuated with how this ship was and how it was destroyed.
“This terminal is not responding very well,” Rahn said, “Anyway you can get this room up and running Alek?”
~Ya no problem, give me a second.~ About a couple seconds later, the whole room started to buzz, and the lights and everything else inside started to kick on, with the buzz seceding. ~There we go.~
“Thanks,” Rahn said as he went back to his terminal.
“You guys and your computers,” Isaac said.

"Hmm, found a few logs here. They date back to around 190 years ago." Rahn said.
"Well that sure explains why this ship is a dinosaur, but still doesn't explain why there is power."
Isaac kept looking around while Rahn browsed through the ship's logs. Isaac walked down to the other end of the room, where there were two doorways, one straight ahead and the other to the right. Both doorways were dark, as the lights in the rooms through them no longer worked. He peered through the doorway ahead and shined his light through it. It appeared to be a kitchen from what he could see through the bodies and debris. He stepped inside and found an open window to a larger room past it.
"Must be the mess hall." he said to himself. He rummaged through a few drawers and cabinets to find some dried food in some of them.
"Hey Rahn, get over here!"
"What is it, captain?" Rahn said as he walked through the doorway.
"Do you think any of this food is still good? I'm tempted to take some of it, heh heh!"
"It's hard to say.." Rahn picked up a few packages and examined them. "..even if the food was edible, I doubt it would taste well."
"Did I hear 'edible'? Let's take some! I'm not leaving this ship empty handed."
Alek buzzed in - "Suddenly I don't feel too hungry."

They put some packages in each of their packs and stepped out of the kitchen, when suddenly:
"You aren't recognized, please identify yourself." A voice came from the other room. They both looked over to see a figure float toward them.
"Alek, I thought you said there was nobody on this ship!" Isaac yelled.
"There isn't," Rahn interrupted "it has no heat signature, so I'm assuming it's an android."
"I am led to believe you are intruders, please identify yourself or you will be terminated." The android floated closer to them going right underneath one of the lights, it appeared to have a thick metallic armor, but had a very acrobatic shape to it. It appeared to have nothing wielded or strapped to it.
"Ha, it doesn't even have weapons, how does it even expect to 'terminate' us?"
"If this ship is as old as I think it is, they probably weren't allowed to bring most weapons on board, seeing as how they risked puncturing a hole in the hull."
"So this should be a pretty easy fight!" Isaac pulled out his revolver and began to aim at the android when it suddenly pushed off one of the walls and darted behind some of the terminals.
"Did I mention to you that ships like these used battle-androids to defend themselves? This android could easily tear us limb from limb if it gets a hold of us." Rahn said rather casually.
"Thanks," Isaac said sarcastically "you first." Just then the android shot towards them at an alarming speed. Isaac quickly took a shot off, hitting the android in the shoulder and sending it flying back. The android smacked against the wall, but quickly regained it's pose. It wasn't even scratched.
Isaac stared in disbelief ~Oh shi-!~

Rahn and Isaac ducked behind an overturned table.
“What the hell can we do? Rahn, can you find any weaknesses?”
Rahn peered over the table. “None that I can tell. Also it's not there anymore.”
Isaac jumped up and looked over. The android was missing.
“Alek, can you find out where the android is?”
“It's emitting a faint signature. I can tell it's still in the room, but I can't tell you anymore than that.”
“Don't you have any special vision or anything Rahn?”
“I have a thermal occular implant, but I'm afraid the andriod's external temperatures are capable of matching the rooms, so I can't help you.”
“Captain, this is Alek, the signature just exited the room. He's taking a ventilation shaft. It appears he's heading towards the secondary engine room. Unfortunately, that's in the opposite direction of the bridge.”
“Dammit!” Isaac thought for a moment. “Okay how about this. Rahn, you keep heading towards the bridge. When you get there, you find out where that treasure is. I'll go after the android myself. Obviously my bullets can at least stop it, so perhaps something bigger will destroy it. Alek, give me directions to the armory.”
“It's in the direction of the secondary engine room. There's a small shaft branching off the main duct that will take you there.”
“Good enough. Alek, upload the coordinates to my wrist computer, then try and find out if there are any more surprises on this ship. Now everyone GET GOING AND DO WHAT I JUST SAID. RAHN STOP STANDING AROUND AND MOVE.”
Rahn started heading towards the next room, while Isaac headed over to the ventilation duct entrance. Looking at the gratting, he thought to himself what a nuisance this would be crawling through such a small space. Barely managing to fit himself in, he crawled for about five meters before reaching a drop point. He detached a cable from his suit and climbed down. The room he entered was much larger than he expected. The ventilation ducts were massive, spanning at least twice Isaac's height in his suit. The room was depressurized, so he switched off his artificial gravity unit in order to move faster through the cylindrical tunnel.
As he traveled, he would occasionally reach a fork, or encounter a bladed fan unit. Luckily, none of them had been active, or appeared to have been in some time. Alek buzzed in over the intercom. “Your nearing the location of the armory duct. Based on data I managed to acquire, your likely going to find some ZX-5 machine pistols. Those should be effective agains-”
“SCREW YOU ALEK. I'll grab what I want to grab.”
“Yes but not all those guns will work against that android.”
“Well then I guess I'll just have to grab a really big gun then, won't I?”
“...Well that might work, but it seems unecessar-”
“Yes, yes. I've heard it all before. I'll take what I want. End of discussion. Go help Rahn or something.”
“Alright Captain. Just so you know, the android has taken up a position in the secondary engine room. He appears to be tampering with the electronics there. Maybe Rahn can give us more details when he gets to the bridge. Alek out.”
Meanwhile, Rahn had been taking his time approaching the bridge. The room was relatively centralized, and so wouldn't be hard to get to. He continued to pass more corpses before reaching an emergency airlock. After tinkering with the computer terminal outside the door, he was able to enter. The room he was in pressurized after the door behind him closed. The next door opened. The air was stale, though it had enough oxygen to breath. A small barricade blocked the entrance, though Rahn had little trouble breaking through. A few corpses were scattered around the room. Some lay at their stations, resting over their control consoles. Others were huddled in corners of the room. Rahn deduced they had died of starvation, likely unable to or afraid to leave the room they were barricaded in. The captain of the ship was still sitting in his chair, looking off at the main window. All Rahn could see through it was the debris field they had just flow through. He started to fiddle with the console.
Alek was trying to identify the origins of this pirate ship, but was having difficulty coming up with any information. “Rahn, are you in the bridge yet? I need you to see if you can identify any of the command crew.”
“This is Rahn. I'm at the bridge. I'll send you a crew roster, but first we have some problems. I found out what that android is doing. He's trying to use backup terminals in the secondary engine room to reactivate another thirty or so of them.”
“My god. We need to warn Isaac!”
“But thats not the worst part. I'm going to upload you video footage from the main view window. Tell me what you see.”

Isaac reached the grating that lead into the armory, to his luck, the grating was close to the armory floor. Reaching the floor would be an ease. Isaac pulled the grating off and jumped into the armory. When Isaac looked up, he could've cried. Weapons of all sizes where housed in this room. From small ammunition guns, to RPG's and more. The armory had an assortment of bulletproof armors and gun attachments. Isaac didn't care about anything else at this point and went to work.
From what his gun did to the android, he decided to grab an assortment of guns. After grabbing a couple ammo belts, he went straight to the small ammunition guns. He grabbed a couple Colt Anacondas and ammo to go with and stashed them in the belts. He also grabbed an MP5 and a Remington 1100, with the respecting ammo. Isaac contemplated over bringing a rocket launcher with him, but discarded the idea, knowing that it would only slow him down. Before heading for the armory door, he grabbed a couple plasma and EMF grenades. Isaac reached the door, and as it opened, his mouth dropped once more.
The door lead to a giant warehouse, most likely the docking bay of the ship. The bay was huge, in proportion with his height. The bay was unpressurized as well, with the outside bulkhead open. There were still some small ships docked in the bay, but what surprised him the most where the vest amounts of androids that were sitting inactive in the bay. Regaining his composure, Isaac looked around for another door that lead back into the main part of the ship. Locating one, he made his way over to the door. As he was about to reach the door, he heard a slow build up of electricity all around him.
“Hey Alek, I thought most of the ship's power was off,” Isaac said over the comm. All that returned as an answer was static. “Hey Alek, stop using the fucking bathroom and answer me. I can't have you taking a tinkle break every 5 minutes while you are on my ship.” Static again. “Shit,” he cursed to himself. Isaac turned around to assess the situation. The lights in the docking bay where slowing gaining life, along with some of the terminals scattered around the area. Thinking nothing of it, he turned around a ran straight into a heavy and large object. “THE INTRUDERS SHALL BE ERADICATED,” shouted the android.
As if on cue, the other androids in the area burst to life saying the same line, “THE INTRUDERS SHALL BE ERADICATED!” The main android grabbed a hold of Isaac by his left arm. “Dammit! Let me go!”
“THE INTRUDERS SHALL BE ERADICATED!” Isaac reached for his Colt with his right hand, pulled it out and shot the android in the head. The blow caused the android to drop Isaac and stumble backwards towards the door out of the docking bay. Getting his footing, Isaac bolted for the door. Just as he entered the hallway, a couple other androids dashed for the door and grabbed a hold of Isaac's leg and, with a great force, flung Isaac towards the opposite side of the docking bay. Isaac hit the other wall, knocking him out.

“Isaac, ANSWER!” yelled Rahn through the comm.
“Rahn, stop screaming into the comm,” said Alek trying to calm Rahn, “there is obviously some interference between us and Isaac.”
“Well, do you know what is causing the interference?”
“It's most likely whatever the android did. Try accessing the terminals for the secondary engine room from there.” Rahn desperately pressed the keys on the terminal, trying to remotely access the terminals in the secondary engine room. “There's a lot of firewalls trying to block access. The only way to access the controls is if I actually went into the room and accessed them from there.”
“Crap. God damn the primitive computers. Well, I'm guessing there are two things now. The first is get to that room and try and stop whatever the android is planning on doing. And the second, is to find Isaac and to warn him of the danger we are in if we don't leave here.”
“Alright, I'll head to the engine room to stop that android.”
“Ok, I'll try to do whatever I can from here to aid you in anyway.”

Isaac woke up with a sharp pain in his right ankle, and found himself alone in the docking bay. He didn't hear one metal clunk of an android step, or the sound of any electrical equipment running. The docking bay's lights were even off. It was as if none of what he had experienced even happened, except for the fact that all of the androids were gone.
A crackle came over the comm, “kkkkkkkkkkkkaac? Isaac? Do you read?” said Alek.
“Aaaugh... yeah, I read”
“Crap Isaac, we nearly left without you. We thought you were dead.”
“Well, did you guys even try to find me?”
“Yes, Rahn searched all over the ship to find you. Where are you now?”
“I'm in the docking bay, I was just attacked by a scourge of androids.”
“I'm sorry to hear that, but Rahn needs help in the main bridge of the ship, he detected one of the androids near there.”
“Alright, I'm on my way there.” Isaac made an attempt to stand up, even with the injury he sustained to his ankle. Isaac started a slow walk, with a limp, towards the docking bay door, which slowly turning into a run as he made his way through the door and down the hallway towards the main part of the ship.

Isaac slowly limped his way through the ship, but kept very alert. Not a noise could be heard except from the noise he made; it started to get unnerving after a while. He kept his cool though, and kept making progress to the main bridge. When he finally arrived, there was no one there. He cautiously searched the entire room, only to find bullet holes and dents embedded in anything in the room. He then saw a doorway with thoroughly destroyed sliding doors barely holding to it.
"Where in the Hell are you Rahn?" He said to himself very quietly, as to not gather any attention to anything nearby. He approached the doorway only soon to see a still android standing past it, facing the other way. He quickly wielded his shotgun and snuck up closer behind it.
"If this doesn't work, I don't know what will.." Aiming for the back of the neck, he pulled the trigger. The android went flying on down the hall, but flung around loosely like a rag-doll. One of the arms brushed against a wall, causing the android to spin around, revealing a massive indent in the chest. Isaac quickly went up and inspected to find the shotgun shot itself barely put a dent on his mark.
"Did Rahn do this?" He muttered to himself again.
"Why am I still whispering? Nothing came after I made all that racket.. Alek! Where is Rahn?" He got no response other than a faint static.
"What is blocking the stupid signal?" Our comms should work even through 3 of these stupid ships.

"Rahn, come in Rahn.. Isaac, you there?" Alek sighed. He began to grow concerned about whether they were still alive or not, and what he should do if they were.
"Well," he thought "I suppose that would make The Traitor's Blade mine, and I'd be free to do whatever I wanted with it. Then again, it's going to be hard to get this anywhere soon if the warp drive is no longer working.." He then began to wonder if he'd really feel all that bad if they were dead. He didn't know either of them that well, but they did help him escape. Would he consider them friends? Or just mere acquaintances? After a while he decided it was silly to be troubling himself over pondering the matter and continued trying to get a hold of either of them. He did several scans on the ship earlier and decided just now to closely observe all of them. He found most scans though had something weird interfering with them, and their was missing data near the middle of the ship.
"Something on this ship is quite peculiar." He thought.

Isaac continued to follow the path of destruction left behind by whatever had destroyed that android. It could be Rahn that did the android in, but if it wasn't, they were in for some even greater troubles. Isaac reached the forward gunners station. The room itself was very cramped. Machinery jetted out from the sides of the room, all leading to a large artillery piece at the end of a hallway. A single empty chair lay at the end, risen above the ground. He noticed the chair was attached to the firing mechanism for the gun. He realized how much walking he had done, and thought sitting down for a few minutes would have no effect on anything. It's not like what he was doing was acomplishing anything anyways. Looking around, Isaac realized the room was surprisingly undamaged. Perhaps he had taken a wrong route. He looked at the gunner's terminal. In the left corner a small button flashed. He reached over and pushed it.
A loud blast suddenly emitted from the terminal. “Dammit!!” Isaac yelled as he cupped his ears. The noise quickly receeded.
The terminal had just displayed the turret being fired. Two men ran from the room. The gunner looked into the terminal. “The time issszz...I..zz......the guns are constan.tzzlzzyzzzz....were taking a lot of damage. The captain juszzshszz order to warp. Izshzz...to whoever finds thiszhs....” There was a pause for a second. Isaac looked around to see if anyone had heard the boom at the beginning of the video. “Thszhzz...zzz....am terminal always on the fritzsshs...They boarded the shizsss...aken the rear half. The captain says if we can't stop them hell detonate the cargo. I would hate to see tha.z.zsssszzz....kaboom. We'd all be dead. Issszz......the....” The video cut out for another second. “Dear God they'vessszzz......the androids aren't wor..zzss....the detonation didn't work, all it did was blow the ship in half. I have to go to the command deck with the othzssrs. I don.sssszzzzz....tell..zssszz....I love her. As for the treas.saszzz” Isaac's attention was suddenly caught. “szz...the maps on this.s.shzzz.....They must not know. Keep them awa...s.sssss.....”
The video ended. Isaac thought to himself what he could have referenced. He around the room, but didn't see anything unique. “Alek, do you read me?” Only static. “Rahn, this is your captain. What is your position?” Static. The video had said he was going back to the command deck. I'll just go back there and find the dead man's corpse. He must have the map on him. Isaac started to head back when he noticed in the corner of the room where he hadn't looked before, a gapping hole had been ripped through several layers of wiring and plating, and trailed off into darkness. Isaac crouched down to examine the hole. Suddenly the room started rocking. Isaac reached out and grabbed the chair to stay upright. Suddenly the lights went out. The room was as pitch black as the hole.
“Isaac, Rahn, if either of you hear me, please respond.” Nothing. The signature analysis had determined an ECM module near the front of the ship had recently come online, through unknown means. Alek wasn't sure if it was disrupting electronics inside the ship, but it was disrupting all communication in the area. Alek had even needed to turn on the Blade's ECCM to avoid the effects of the ECM waves. Alek went back to his thoughts as he ran another scan of the broken middle of the ship. That giant piece of debris had collided with the ship. He had no idea if Rahn or Isaac was alright. The forward part of the ship had remained intact, much to Alek's surprise. Rahn had said it would hold, but there would be a lot of damage. Looking at the wreck from where Alek was, Rahn was right. Alek wondered if he should leave again. He was trained to be a soldier, and it was expected to abandon fallen comrades on the battlefield. Of course in this case he couldn't confirm if they were dead of alive. MIA. Of course Alek really would have no reason to leave, even if they were dead. He was already dead in the eye's of the navy. Also he had given a pledge to Isaac. He didn't want to know what Isaac would do to him if he were still alive. The scans came back. “My God, androids, giant debris, now this? Truly this is a ghost ship if ever there was one. Dammit.” Alek left the science terminal and returned to the navigations terminal. “You two had best still be alive.” With that Alek unclamped the ship, and started the impulse engines, heading deeper into the field of debris surrounding the massive wreck.

“Well fuck, now what,” he blurted out to keep his mind off the darkness that surrounded him. He turned on the flood light that was mounted on his right shoulder. The light started to flicker a little. “Yeah, that is not a cliché at all.” Looking at the light's display showed otherwise, the batteries had 20% power to them. “Huh, the batteries are going dead after all.” Isaac looked back down in the hole that he discovered in the room. With a better lighting of the hole, he could assess the damage this hole possessed. The hole looked like something burrowed into the ship, like it was eating the ship. Whatever this thing was, it was not big at all. “Must be one of those random space worms floating around.”
“Comms are still open everybody, just letting the static know.”
“kkkkkkkkAY! MAYDAY! WE ARE UNkkkkkkkkkCK!”
“Woah woah! Hello? Who is on this broadcast?”
“HELkkkkkkkkkRE UNDkkkkkkkkkkk!”
“Hello? You are breaking up.”
“GET OUkkkkkkkkIS SECTOR! SEVERE DANGER IN THIS AREA!”
“What is the danger?”
“kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk”
“Hello?!”
“Turn around,” came clear as day over the radio. Thinking this was just all a joke to Isaac, turned around and faced the hallway.
“HOOOOLY SHIIIIIIT!”

Carefully navigating through the debris of the ship, Alek made his way over to the signature of the scan he picked up just a moment ago. Making his way to long visual range from the epicenter of the scan, he pulled up the outside display on the main screen. Everything on screen was just debris from the ship, except for one distinct object.
Alek himself was speechless, but was absolutely stunned of what was before him. It was a Jaquel^, the mighty monster of known space. The creature had a hole blown into the side of it. Determining the radius of the hole and the angle of trajectory it had, it was a phaser blast that came from the ship. This ship was most likely under attack from the creature, before the hunt^^.
Flashes and beeping, that was coming from the science terminal, cause the attention of Alek. Walking over to the terminal, he noticed that there were life signs coming from the ship. “Finally!” shouted Alek in relief, “One in the forward turret deck and one... in the bottom of the cargo bay?” Puzzled, Alek ran some scans on the second life sign, only to find no answers to his questions. “Isaac or Rahn, if you can hear me, please account yourselves.”

A body had come flying in from the hallway and was in front of Isaac's face as he turned around. The body collided with Isaac, knocking him down with some force into the chair he used for balance from the shaking of the ship from earlier. 'From earlier,' he thought, 'what was that shaking from anyway?'
Focusing his attention back at the body that nearly scared him to death, he shoved it into the hole in the ground, out of anger. “Fuckin' piece of shit,” he said aloud.
A low grumbling noise came from the hallway that caught his full attention. Pulling his revolvers back out, he hugged the wall and slowly peered around the corner into the hallway. His eyes had adjusted to the almost no lighting that was everywhere, but with some difficulty, he barely could see in the dark.
Isaac slowly made his way into the hallway and strafed his way down the hallway with his back to the wall, hoping he could blend into the wall. Reaching the main bridge of the ship, he stopped as he heard the low grumbling noise, now coming from the main hallway out of the bridge and heard it slowly fade away. 'That CANNOT be the sound of an android,' he thought to himself.

_________________________________________________________________

^ A Jaquel is a giant worm-like creature that can survive in the coldness of space without the need of any breathing aparatus.

^^ The hunt was a giant organization of nations to destroy as much Jaquels as possible.

Isaac kept continuing down the hallway, to a point where the grumbling noise seemed very close, but he still couldn't see anything. His mind was racing at the thought of what might be making the noise. Several ideas came to mind, but he would quickly rule them out for an alternate idea. He kept pursuing the noise.

Still hugging the wall tightly he took a right turn in one of the hallways from where he heard the noise; he went around the corner and still couldn't see anything. He took a few steps forward and suddenly the part of wall he was leaning on gave way, but the debris he was falling back on suddenly stopped on something solid. The noise quickly stopped, and the hallway became completely silent. Isaac felt like he had gasped all the air in his suit all at once, and just now started to slowly sigh with some restraint as he had noticed the noise stopped. He put one arm behind himself and began to push himself back up, when he realized his arm slipped on whatever he was pushing off of; he also noticed it was slightly spongy, as if it were..

Just then the object he was pushing off of began to move, and quickly, toward the direction he heard the noise coming from. He couldn't bring himself to even yell: he knew what it was. He heard the legends like most people have, and he bolted away. He could hear sections of hallway being bulldozed down by the powerful worm behind him, and knew he had to get as far away from that spot as possible. He started to run back to the room from which he first heard the noise when suddenly a part of the hallway in front of burst open and the worm came flying through like a train, going down the hall he was about to run through. He stopped and stood very still. He wasn't quite sure how the creature sensed things, but figured at this point he would want to be very quiet and slow going. He then figured, since he didn't have anywhere else to go at this point, to follow the worm, in hopes it could not sense him behind it.

"Maybe it wasn't going after me after all..." he thought, his curiosity peaked, he slowly followed it's debris-laden path.

Isaac proceeded to follow the worm, trying to keep up while still maintaining secrecy. At several points, the worm ceased moving and peered around. It took a path that led to a cargo hold near the bottom of the ship. The hold wasn't marked on any of the maps he had since seen while navigating the corridors. As Isaac began to study the room he was in, the worm began jolting around. Isaac dove behind some crates as an explosion rocked the side of the room. Rahn flew through the hole just created in the ceiling of the room, landing on the deck with a thud. He turned to Isaac and waved.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE? WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?”
Rahn carefully stood back up, then broke into a run towards Isaac.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DO YOU WANT THE WORM TO SEE US?”
Suddenly another explosion rocked the ceiling as five androids raced through. Another five flew out the hole Rahn had made. They faced the direction of the two men and prepared to attack. They were interrupted though when the worm began flailing. Two androids were sent flying while the other eight turned their attention towards the worm. As the remaining two engaged the worm, Isaac and Rahn thought of what they could do to get out of this room. A third explosion rocked the side of the room.
From the hole Isaac and Rahn could see an extended tunnel, the extended boarding hatch to the Traitor's Blade. Alex's voice boomed from an intercom on the side of the ship.
“Isaac. Rahn. We need to leave, now. The derelicts antimatter reactor that was activated earlier is about to breach. To make things worse, those crates your hiding under are smuggled singularity reactors. When that antimatter escapes, the ship will explode, and when those singularity reactors are destroyed, the whole debris field will implode into a miniature black hole. Let's go!”
Isaac peered at the crate he was hiding behind. He found the crates seal and opened it. Within was a two meter long tube with a tiny black hole inside. “Shit.”
Isaac and Rahn both broke into a run towards the Traitor's Blade. Meanwhile the fight between the worm and the androids were getting more violent. Any accidental shots or physical pressure against those crates would send the whole field into oblivion. Warning sirens began to sound and lights flashed. A computerized voice began over the derelict's intercom. “Warning, antimatter core breach imminent. Eject the secondary antimatter drive. Warning,...”
Isaac had just reached the Blade with Rahn trailing just behind as some of the androids noticed their escape and changed their target to them. An automated turret above the door began firing at the androids, not damaging them, but slowing them down. Isaac and Rahn quickly jumped inside the opening airlock. The door just finished closing as the ship jolted from the side of the derelict. As soon as the room depressurized and the two were let in, they ran to their stations.
“Alex get us the hell out of here!”
“Just as soon as Rahn finishes uploading the navigational data and logs he downloaded from the ships memory core.”
“So that was what he was doing.”
“Once the ships computers have that information we can make a safe jump.”
Rahn's voice emerged from the intercom. “The information has finished downloading.”
Isaac responded, “So we can make a safe jump now? Start firing up the warp engines.”
“I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Isaac.”
“What?”
“I am kidding. It was a joke. The warp drive is already starting up.”
“Of all times...”
Alex interrupted, “I've plotted a course, captain. We can warp out of here whenever your ready.”
A massive explosion engulfed the forward section of the derelict. “GO NOW!”
“Warp drive... engaged!”
The Traitor's Blade fled just as the explosion began receding, along with everything else in the area.