Kepler-186f by Rachel Ford

Author:Rachel Ford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LGBTQIA+, science fiction, action/adventure, alien planet/alien creatures, space travelers, other-world, planetary settlement, lesbian, light romance, barbarians, cannibal vs. non-cannibal tribes, suspense, fear of other, combat/weapons/guns, military, scientists, illness/disease
Publisher: NineStar Press, LLC
Published: 2022-11-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven

DR. KIM WAS still thoughtful and quiet when morning rolled around but seemed in better spirits than he had the night before. I had gotten to sleep as soon as my shift ended and woke in decent spirits myself.

I didn’t have a chance to ruin it by thinking, either, as Caspersen wasted no time. Breakfast was the first order of business, and from there, we got straight to work. She had the idea of fortifying the hall facing the open end of the ship.

“No idea who or what might have picked up our trail,” she explained. “Before we start anything else, let’s make sure we don’t wind up getting taken off guard.”

We turned our attention to the pod doors down the hall from us. They were solid with high-quality windows, designed to withstand everything from bullets to deep-space conditions. They’d be a good barrier against pretty much anything—certainly, any of the weapons we’d seen the cannibals wielding.

In theory, the pods were supposed to disassemble easily. In theory. The reality was a little less rosy. The violence of the ship’s landing, in combination with subsequent years of exposure, had left many of the fasteners less than cooperative. A few were too twisted to budge at all, and others put up a hell of a fight. In the end, we managed to pull off four doors and a few wall panels. Put together, they assembled into a very serviceable barrier a few doors past our storeroom. It stretched from ceiling to floor, except in the very center, where Caspersen had fashioned a sort of machine gun nest.

The M60, propped up on its tripod behind the barrier, pointed ominously toward the open end of the ship.

“There.” Caspersen nodded with a satisfied grin that reached from under her mask to her eyes. “Nothing’s going to get past this. All right, let’s get this show on the road.”

The show, such as it was, would feature the scientists predominantly. But Act One was nothing more than a repeat of last night’s scene. Having left Matt and Ghoul with the gun, the rest of us did a sweep of the hall and pods we’d already cleared.

As on the previous night, we found the entire floor unoccupied. One feature of our search stood out to me, however. We’d seen the skeletal remains before, but in this light, we could pick out the strange scrapes and marks the recon team had reported. And I noticed a second feature they’d emphasized—the evidence of a gun battle.

The exterior of the ship and the frames of the pods were constructed to be as nearly indestructible as a ship could be. But inside the pods themselves, bullet holes marred the paneling and cabinets. Some areas remained untouched, but whatever had happened, it had clearly spilled into the crew’s quarters.

This was a curious point, to my mind. Whatever had come after the crew would have had to get past the doors into each of these chambers. Get in and get out, shutting the doors after them.

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