Manifest Destiny by Allen Ivers

Author:Allen Ivers [Ivers, Allen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-11-24T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Murcielago

There was no reasonable way to make sure something the size of a translucent house cat was present in any given compartment. There was no metric for oxygen consumption, no pressure differential, no motion trackers or tricorders.

They could either bunker in for an extremely long voyage separated from their only sources of food and water; or, they could search compartment by compartment for this parasite, and stab it with many sharp pointy sticks they didn’t actually have.

Maybe just give it a jail cell. Assuming it couldn’t worm its way through the cracks.

The notion had been floated to simply vent the air in every other compartment and wait for a suitable lethal exposure time, but it was decided that this would damage some living areas and do very little to calm everyone’s fears. Determining the critter’s exact locale and sealing it off was the only way to guarantee safety.

They vented the air anyway, and after a half an hour of vacuum exposure, they began their search. The crew was broken into two teams, and they would sweep the Murci from aft to stern. With each pre-fab structure, every channel cleared, they would seal it and vent the air, securing each subsequent area until the whole ship was covered.

That was the theory anyway. If they found this thing, it would almost certainly defend itself, and Leo knew somebody was going to get the raw end of that exchange.

In reality, this was the most blind way of choosing lots.

Leo was paired with Rook and Kieran. Doc Gamble didn’t trust Piotr and Leo alone together. Suppose they’d either end up making out or at the very least not pay attention to what they were doing. Or maybe she was just sick of Rook’s moaning and groaning.

Lord knows Leo was done with him, as Rook carefully eased himself down the sixth ladder with the same winging and sluggish attitude of a man on his third hip replacement. The simulated gravity this far back on the ship was at its heaviest, but that was still only a half G.

If he could only move it along like both of his legs worked. If Leo hadn’t known the man’s slothful proclivities for the last three months, he’d have chalked this up to anxiety. After all, they had an appointment with a mind-controlling starfish.

Kieran was much more patient for Rook’s hesitation, more out of personality quirk than acceptance. Rook’s angst might be justified given the circumstances, but Kieran was just being himself, permanent grin beveled on to his stone-cut jaw.

This was the deadliest scavenger hunt to this large child, like the gravity of the situation slipped in one ear and out the other so fast that it whistled.

Once Rook was clear of the ladder, the meat head slid down like he was still on the playground at home. All the exercise doing some good for someone, at least.

“What… what should I look for?” Rook stammered out of his balding skull.

“You tell me,” Leo snapped. “You’re the ones that saw it.

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