Kestrel Run (Galaxy's End Universe) by J. T. Solo

Author:J. T. Solo [Solo, J. T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Future House Publishing
Published: 2019-04-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8: The Source of Doom

Phaser had once forgotten a half-eaten sandwich on a workbench while loading the cargo for his clients. When the Fox arrived at its destination, Phaser had gone into the cargo hold to find that sandwich being devoured by an army of pulsating maggots. Thoroughly grossed out, he blasted the sandwich off the bench with his sidearm. The sandwich hadn’t survived, but the maggots were unharmed.

Sitting with his hands clenching and unclenching around the railing of his beloved ship, Phaser stared out at the 20 or more of the pulsating space worms. Phaser watched as they rolled, wriggled, and writhed their way out of the asteroids like the maggots that had invaded his sandwich.

“TC, close those blast doors. Bash, get us out of here before those worms finish hatching and find a sweet tooth for the Iridium Fox.”

TC-99 and Bash made no response other than to instantaneously obey Phaser’s commands.

Phaser wobbled his way to his controls and strapped himself into the captain’s chair, feeling a bruise start to well up on his knee from when he had toppled down the stairs.

As the Iridium Fox lurched away, more tremors announced the hatching of even more space worms. Phaser listened numbly to each tremor. A grating noise like metal scraping against metal accompanied each rumble as flying bits of asteroid skimmed off the ship’s hull. Phaser winced with every screech.

“TC-99, scan the Fox for damage. We can’t afford to lose more auxiliaries,” Phaser said.

TC-99 responded speedily, “No further auxiliaries have been damaged, sir. The leftover bits of asteroid are not big enough to cause damage to the Fox’s reinforced hull.”

“Sure sounds like it.” He cocked his head to the side and listened. “Where is that noise coming from?”

“I can run a trace on the source of the noise and determine a possible location.”

“Do it, and today, would ya?” Phaser called as the noise and tremors grew in force and pitch.

After a few seconds, TC-99 responded. “I’ve concluded my trace and the noise appears to be within the ship itself.”

“What? You’re kidding?” Phaser said, eyebrows raised.

Phaser unfastened his safety harness and crawled out of the cockpit. Phaser gritted his teeth at the painful sound that assaulted his ears and used the wall to brace himself through the tremors as he made his way to the cargo hold.

When the next tremor hit, the tile that covered the secret smuggling compartment rattled in its frame.

“What in the Voids?” Phaser muttered. He had built the compartment and the hatch to be air-locked. It should have been secured. Yet the strong iridium frame shook like it was made of plastic. He pressed the button on his wristcom.

“Bash, TC, cut the throttle and get down to the cargo hold now. We’ve got problems.”

Phaser felt the power to the ships propulsion system stutter slowly to a halt, leaving the Fox to drift wistfully into a slow yaw.

Bash followed TC-99 into the cargo hold, wearing a headlamp to provide some consistent light amidst the flickering stutter of the floor lamps.

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