Chapter 1
THE IMPACT WAS ENORMOUS. Much harder than I’d expected. The hull of our spaceship groaned and screeched. The walls warped and bulged. The panel closest to Val, one of our pilots, caved in, somehow breaking through the protective energy barrier around her chair. She screamed in pain as the armrest snapped, digging into her side.
Jose, the captain, had lost control during the landing, which turned into a crash. I’d caught the moment it happened. His eyes grew larger as he frantically ran his fingers over the control panel. His skin paled, and perspiration beaded on his forehead. No matter how hard he worked, he couldn’t prevent our ship from slamming into the edge of the anomaly harder than even the worst of the landings during our training sessions.
Then, all went still and dark.
A moment later, the auxiliary system kicked in, flicking on the lights.
“Val!” Jose climbed out of his seat and rushed to his second-in-command who doubled over in her seat. “Are you okay?”
“I’m pretty sure I broke my rib,” she groaned, pressing her hand to her side. “And I think I’m bleeding.”
Like all of us, Val was wearing a pale-blue suit, covered with colorful logos from the collar to the boots. I saw no tearing in the material and no blood. It didn’t mean she wasn’t bleeding underneath it.
Lee, the scientist on board, clicked his seat belt off and jumped out of his chair. “We need to get her into the medical capsule.”
Val groaned softly as Lee led her to the wall with the medical bed concealed inside.
“How is everyone else doing?” Jose rose to his feet, surveying the rest of us—two on-board engineers and me, the movie producer.
Yes, that was what I was—the movie producer. My sole purpose on the team was to record everything that could later be assembled into a movie, a documentary, or a series to air for profit. The footage would also provide visual evidence of whatever we discovered here.
The Earth Space Coalition had stopped exploration of the Anomaly GR-A8502 shortly after the disappearance of the scientist Svetlana Kostyk. She had been part of the team studying the mysterious anomaly from a station that orbited the nearby water world Omphi. She’d gone missing during a solo mission a little over fifty years ago. Her ship had lost all communications with the station, and neither the ship nor Svetlana Kostyk had ever been found.
Passionate about her work and new discoveries, it was believed that Svetlana might have come too close to the Anomaly and had been sucked in along with her ship.
Instead of shedding some light on the mysterious Anomaly, Svetlana had only added more mystery to this celestial body. Her disappearance sparked a number of speculations on what might be inside of it.
Five years ago, it had been proven that a solid core lay at the center of the unpredictable force field, renewing keen interest in exploring it further. The mission was deemed too risky by the Earth governments who refused to finance it. Luckily, several private corporations had stepped in, outfitting our expedition.
“Nadia? Are you okay?” Jose glanced my way, not leaving Val’s side.
I climbed out of my chair, unsteadily. “I’m fine, I think—”
A screeching noise cut me off, then a fountain of sparks shot from the wall. Another malfunction? Were we not done crashing yet?
Both engineers rushed to the wall but were forced to keep their distance as the spray of sparks fanned in a wide circle. The melting paneling material dripped to the floor.
“Get in the suits, everyone!” Jose ordered. “We have a hull breach.”
Lee quickly turned Val toward the hatch where our suits were kept. I ran after them.
With a slamming sound, an uneven oval cut-out of the wall fell in, followed by a smoky cloud with a chemical smell.
“What the—” I heard the confused voice of one of the engineers who was fully enveloped into the smoke. His voice was cut off by a wet crunching sound that I couldn’t place at first.
A tall, dark figure emerged from the dissipating smoke that rolled off his shoulders like a cloak.
Then the motionless body of the engineer came into view. He lay on the floor, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. My stomach roiled when it dawned on me what that wet-snappy sound had been. The monster that had just barged onto our ship had snapped my teammate’s neck.
I stepped back, frozen in shock and horror. I’d never witnessed a murder before. Heck, I’d never seen any crime being committed right in front of me. Crime, in general, had been all but eliminated on all the main planets of the Federation, including Earth.
I kept staring at the motionless body on the floor, unable to move a muscle. The man who’d been a living, breathing, thinking individual just moments ago, was nothing but a corpse with its neck snapped.
Jose recovered first.
“We are a peaceful delegation!” He faced the newcomer—the errock, I recognized his species.
His yellow eyes narrowed as he gave each of us an assessing glare.
At least a few inches taller than the biggest man of my crew, the errock seemed twice as broad. His reddish skin darkened to gray on the hard ridges running along his arms and bald head. Wearing black pants, dark boots, and a wide utility belt, the male was topless.
Errocks were a civilized nation. Yet this individual’s behavior was that of a feral, murderous animal.
The second engineer suddenly leaped on the newcomer’s back with a laser knife clutched in his hand.
With a grunt, the errock grabbed the engineer’s head and yanked it, twisting it with his hands. The human’s neck snapped with the same wet cracking noise I’d heard earlier. I swayed on my feet, ready to barf.
“Oh, my God...” Val whimpered. She staggered backwards to the wall while pressing an arm to her side. Her face as white as the wall behind her, she slid to the floor.
“Run!” Jose shoved me aside, grabbing a long, heavy tool from the shelf in the suit storage.
Run! But where?
According to the glowing sign over the airlock by the control panel, outer space lay behind it. I had no time to get into my spacesuit. We were trapped on the ship, with the huge, murderous errock blocking the only exit he’d created. Where did he come from? Why was he killing everyone unprovoked?
I had no idea, but it was clear he wasn’t going to stop. A murderous glimmer in his eyes, lips curved in a menacing smile, he faced Jose.
I anxiously darted my gaze along the walls and the ceiling around me, searching for an escape route, a place to hide, anything. Running to our sleeping cabin would only make it easier for the errock to corner me there.
My body shook. Everything inside me vibrated with horror and the need to escape.
The escape capsule!
Tripping over my feet, I dashed for the round door next to the suit storage.
From the corner of my eye, I caught the sight of Jose being hurled against the wall by the monstrous errock. Our captain’s head dangled awkwardly, only attached to his body with muscles and skin.
Lee ran for the opening the errock had cut out, probably hoping to escape that way.
Val was lying on the floor next to the round table in our common area in the middle of the ship.
“Val!” I yelled. “Here!”
Curled into a ball, she didn’t move. Was she dead, too? The monster must’ve gotten her already.
“Lee!” I screamed, stabbing my fingers into the control panel next to the entrance of the escape capsule. The door slid open, and I climbed in.