Anything For Love

It was supposed to be a simple job, I thought to myself as I tried to free my arm from the narrow space in the wreckage I’d stupidly shoved it in.

Retrieve the core from the dead military ship two clicks past the gas giant Kraken.

My gut told me something was amiss as soon as I got the debrief, but I wasn’t the Captain; I was just fucking her—and flying her ship.

The ghost ship was mangled beyond repair. Pools of liquefied flesh and broken bones drenched in green blood decorated every module. It was a nauseating sight to bear. I was thankful for my rebreather; at least I didn’t have to smell the rot.

While the Captain, Nash’ta, fought off the creature responsible for the carnage, I fought against the current of energy that stiffened my grip on the core. The collapsed engine pipes around my arm were too heavy to move and the space between them wasn’t wide enough to extract the core through. At this point, I didn’t give a damn about the mission. If only I could’ve release my grip, we might’ve have a chance at making it out of here alive.

The creature melted in and out of the shadows, literally. The green emergency lights flickered on and off. When the lights were on, it jumped from one shadow to another revealing a body like a blanket made of the night sky with a deer-like skull, a ruby embedded in its forehead, and two glowing red eyes. Its size depended on how large of a shadow it was in so, when the lights went out, it could envelop the whole room.

Strong branches of antlers extended out from its skull, creating a twisted halo and two large bony claws, each made of three long fingers, materialized into existence from the nothingness of its body. I’d never seen a creature like it before. Even Nash’ta, a 9-foot-tall alien spider-lady, had never seen something like it in her 100-plus years of spacefairing.

The lights went out again, and the creature’s rage-filled cry echoed through the ship with an eerie metallic ring that sent shivers up my spine. I covered my ears as best I could, but in the aftermath, all I could hear was the ringing sound of silence. Something wet leaked out of my ear. I wiped at it with my free hand and drew back a palm full of blood. I heard a familiar voice let out a loud groan of anguish. I looked for Nash’ta, and to my horror, she lay crumpled on the ground in a pool of dark violet blood which seeped from three jagged gashes in her abdomen. She attempted to get back on her feet but she stumbled. The light was going to go out again in the next few seconds and the creature would surely kill her.

I had to make a decision: Either watch my girlfriend die or save her in the last grand stand of my life. I knew what I had to do. Steeling my nerves as I pulled out my laser knife, I hit the trigger at the base of the hilt. Its hot, red edge blazed to life with a sharp, resonant hiss. I took in a deep breath and grimaced as I plunged the knife through my upper arm. The blade cut clean through, just short of my shoulder, cauterizing the wound as it went. I wanted desperately to scream at the top of my lungs as my flesh sizzled and melted with the fiber-silk of my spacesuit. But I had to bear it.

The creature was ignoring me for now. Drawing its attention might make it switch its target, and I’d be dead in an instant. The lights flickered. I dropped my knife and took off running as soon as I was free. For me it all happened in slow motion. The lights went out, and I saw three gleaming red lights moving toward Nash’ta’s position. I pulled out my pistol and jumped between them, aiming for the center light.

In the cartoons I watched as a kid, every monster had a weak point that the heroine exploited at the last second. It was funny that in my last moments, a stupid cartoon show would come to mind, but I think it’s what kept me calm and focused as I pulled the trigger.

The charge hit the center light, and it went out. When the lights flickered on again, I saw that what I hit was the gem in the center of it’s scull. I’d fractured it into hundreds of splinters. The creature roared that terrible, deafening scream. Cracks spread across its skull as it swung its claw at me. I barely managed to activate my energy shield in time before the powerful blow sent me flying across the hall. My limp body tumbled and slammed into the massive door at the end. My mind swam, my ears rang, and my breath caught. My body screamed at me in pain all over. I definitely had some broken bones and probably a punctured lung. Blood splattered the inside of my helmet when I coughed.

I wasn’t even sure I’d killed the thing. I looked for it in the fluctuating light. Through the gaps in my bloodied visor, I saw the creature’s skull and claws crumple into dust and the blanket body disappeared. Its weakness really was the gem. What a crazy stroke of luck.

“Ares!” My girlfriend called as she crawled toward me.

She was safe.

My body finally relaxed for the first time since entering this cursed ship.

Image from UnSplash