I had just touched down when I heard a sound. It was a hollow knock that reverberated down the tunnel and into my ears. I turned to Sam and saw a small trail of sweat on the side of his cheek.
'What was that?' I asked. My pistol wobbled in my hand.
'It's just debris, Teabags. Bits and pieces floating around, nothing to worry abou—'
He was cut off by another thump. I wheezed in surprise and tottered backwards. My torchlight danced up the walls and onto the ceiling.
'Got you,' Sam caught my arm before I hit the ground and pulled me to my feet.
Another dull thud rang out and my chest tightened up. It sounded like someone using a hammer to thump a tree trunk over and over, but the oddest part is that there was no rhythm to the banging. Sometimes there would be two beats within a minute, sometimes none.
We waited.
'It's not a machine,' Sam concluded. The LED's in his helmet illuminated his shifting eyes.
'What makes you say that?'
'Whatever's making that noise; they're doing it all herky-jerky. Machines don't do that, not unless they're—'
'Broken,' I said, finishing his sentence. A sinking feeling started to grow in my chest.
Sam squatted down and planted a palm against the floor. 'I can't feel anything, so whatever's running, it can't be big.'
'It's just loud.' I shone my lights, but the shadows devoured my beams.
'So, Teabags, what do you reckon is down there?'
'No idea.' I sniffed.
'Me neither.'
'Do we call it in?' I lifted my forearm and waved the touchscreen.
'Olga would say we're wasting her time. Think about it on an objective level; all we've done is boarded a dead ship and it's making a banging sound. Could be anything.'
'I suppose.'
Sam stood back up and put his hands on his hips. 'Shame you don't have those goggles on. Quite useful, they were.'
I shook my head and kept my lips closed. Internally, I shot every swear word I could at Sam's stupid face.
'Onwards,' he announced and hurtled on.
It took me a moment to close in on my teammate, but soon we were flying side by side down the seemingly infinite corridor. The noise carried on. Sometimes we'd hear a series of short smacks, and other times it'd be one large hit followed by silence. Every echoing knock made me pant harder.
We stopped about ten minutes later at another tear. Sam and me both surveyed the cut and came to the same conclusion: it was identical to the previous one.
Without another word said, we passed into the next chamber and kept moving towards the relentless banging.
I looked at the screen on my arm. Twenty minutes had passed since we left the Eagle and we were still no closer to unravelling the mysteries of the Wreath.
'Maybe it's a storage facility,' I blurted. My lips flapped the words out before I could shut myself up.
'What?' Sam banked to the right to get a good look at me.
'Like, a trailer, you know? Maybe this thing was towed by something bigger. It's got no engines, so it could--?' Another slamming sound cut me off.
'So what do you think is going on up there?'
'Could be something that's been left on. Could be a communication system of some kind.'
Sam said, 'could be,' and pumped a little gas through his jetpack to put himself in front of me. 'Could also be something alive.'
'If it is, we have to play nice. We can't kill it.'
'And what if it tries to kill us?'
'We run.'
'Just like how we ran last time?'
'Last time was an accident.'
I dropped my chest and moved my feet. Doing my best to look stern, I said, 'was it? Why did you bring that bag onto the Martini? Surely that was too much to bring? We just needed the saw, right?'
'Are you saying I wanted to blow something up? Is that what you're saying?'
'I know you, Sam. I know you love a good bit of action.'
He ducked and copied my pose. 'So you're saying I purposely left my rucksack behind? I bet you think I detonated it all, too!'
'Anything's possible,' I said, shrugging. I knew that the chance of Sam causing that calibre of havoc was small, but it wasn't impossible. Back on Earth, Sam had been known to be a little reckless on his time off. Once he stepped off the firing range, his disciplined demeanour would dissolve away and he'd set up the odd practical joke.
Sam poked the middle of my chest with his finger. 'Watch it.'
'What's that supposed to mean?' I pushed his digit away.
'It means you should think with this,' he pointed at his head, 'before opening this,' he aimed at his lips.
'Oh? And this is coming from the guy who—!'
'Who what? Saved your life back there? Taught you all you know about shooting?' Sam moved his head inches from mine, 'I didn't make that bag blow up on purpose, but I wish I did. That fungus would've killed me, and you, and I bet it would've tried its best to get to the Pangaea, too. We dealt with something dangerous there, Teabags, don't act like it was in its right mind.'
'What about this place? What about that knocking? Are you going to kill whatever's up there?'
'If I need to protect you, if I need to protect the rest of the crew, then yeah, I will,' he put his hand on the front of my suit and pushed me. The piercing clink of my jetpack meeting the cold metal walls echoed around the room.
'But--!'
A strip of lights above my head turned on. Where there had once been nothing but steel, there were now bright white holes shooting out beams of incandescence. Sam and me watched as the rest of the corridor was gradually brightened and all the shadows were blasted away.
Sam let go of me. He retreated and aimed his gun at the end of the room. A set of double doors, shaped like two halves of a circle, had been coated with something that looked like black paint. One of the round doors was ajar. The lights, however, hadn't activated in there.
'What is that stuff?' I gasped, pushing my body off the wall.
'Get your gun,' Sam replied. 'On my mark.'
I looked at my pistol. 'Wait, what?'
'We're moving in.' Sam dived and advanced to the doorway. He brought up his left hand and gestured for me to follow.
The drumming got louder. Every tap and thump made me flinch and reach for the trigger, but I somehow kept my cool and didn't fire a shot. Through the opening, I could make out something round and shiny. The top layer of the object shimmered like sunlight dancing on water.
Sam pointed to the left hand side of the doorway and made his hand into a fist. I nodded and placed my back against the door, holding my gun upright. He put one foot down and bounced over to other side.
'Slice the pie, got it?' he whispered.
'Got it,' I said. I understood what he meant, but following through was a whole other thing. I thought back to the long days at the gun range, with Sam bellowing out order after order.
'Ready?' He breathed out through puckered lips and bobbed his head once.
We moved in unison. With our weapons charged and our eyes open, we swung round and into the noisy chamber. I kept my elbows tucked and my neck extended. Floating, aiming and moving at the same time is a real juggling act, and I caught myself shaking with nerves. Sam, on the other hand, advanced like a wolf on the prowl.
His torchlight bounced around and he brought up his palm. 'Hold. Give me light on that thing there.'
I moved my beams and hit the shining thing I saw earlier. It was a ball, about four feet wide, positioned in the middle of the room with nothing around it. Our rays of light rebounded off the surface and hit the walls, causing a flickering lightshow. Flashes of blues, greens and reds washed over our bodies and surged around the room. The orb itself looked like a gigantic snow globe, but instead of being filled with water and flakes, there was a pair of white antlers sloshing around in a thick orange solution. The knotted horns would emerge and bang against the sides of the sphere and then return under the liquid.
I turned to Sam and put down my gun. 'So that's what was causing the banging.'
'I suppose,' he stared at the swirling mixture.
I looked at my feet. The black paint-like liquid I saw earlier was spread over the ground and all over the walls. It looked as if someone had tossed a paint can around and revelled in making a mess. A frightening thought entered my mind. 'Do you think all this is blood?'
'I think so,' Sam moved an inch to the orange ball, 'but if it's not, and there's a slim chance it isn't, I'd say that something leaked in a pretty unusual way.'
'Leaked? Maybe it's the stuff in there.'
'No,' Sam grumbled, 'it's not.'
'Why not?'
'Because the stuff on the floor is black.'
'Oh,' I swallowed. 'Yeah, but it could've changed colour when it came out. Are you sure it's blood?'
'Teabags, trust me on this. I know what a blood splatter looks like,' he frowned. 'Someone met a sticky end in here.'
My fingers ached with how tightly I held the grip of my gun. My whole forearm begged for me to let go, or at least switch hands, but my left hand kept my weapon as if it was the most precious thing in the solar system. 'I don't like it here,' I said. 'We should be going.'
'Why's that? Is it because we're on a dark ship in the middle of nowhere with bloodstains all over it?'
I pivoted round and tried to make out the Eagle through the darkness. 'I don't like how there are no signs, no screens, no markings. It's just—'
'You might want to take that back,' Sam said.
'Why?'
'Eyes forward,' he commanded and tipped his head.
Sam had pointed his torch at the back of the room. There, bathed in a colourless beam, was a symbol I had seen before, but the first time I'd seen it, it was on a screen. Now it was staring back at me, written in inky blood.
'That's the same thing we saw earlier, right?' Sam asked me.
'I don't believe it...' I stared at the sign and drifted in its direction.
'Teabags, yes or no?'
'This is...' I passed the turbulent orb and reached out a hand to touch the marking. My mind started to spin and come up with hundreds of theories. Was this a signature? A warning? A tribute? A blessing? Who did it? When? Was this meant for us?
'Hey! No touching!' Sam's voice carried across the room, but I barely heard it.
'It's the swirl and the thunderbolt...' I loosened the grip on my gun.
'You're sure? What does it mean? What is it?'
'To answer your question, Sam,' I inspected the marking, noting the thickness of the strokes and the fluidity of the brush marks, 'yes, we saw this earlier. Right after the virus attacked our ship.'
'So, something out there is on the offensive, and that's their calling sign?'
'Could be. It could be anything, really. I don't have enough data to know,' I positioned my head so I was looking alongside the wall. The raised bumps of congealed blood stood out like miniature hills, 'but going off the way it was done, I'd say that someone took their time here.'
'What makes you say that?'
'It's not a rush job. No part of this piece is faint or messy. It's all extremely well crafted.' I admit, I was exaggerating my movements a little, but it felt good to finally teach Sam something, instead of him leading the way.
'We should go,' he said, looking over his shoulder.
'Go? Sam, this is a massive discovery! We should study this. We should call Captain Maxim--!'
'No!' he roared, 'we should go! Now!'
I looked at Sam. His eyes were flicking from left to right and he'd put both his hands around his pistol. I felt a rush of fear rip through me. 'What do you know that I don't?'
'Me? What about you? You're supposed to be the best brain in the business when it comes to this stuff and you're as stumped as I am. That doesn't sit well with me.'
'I just need more time. I need to study it.'
'No,' he pressed, 'we get out now. Not knowing leads to us getting caught in something bad.'
'Something bad?' I left the marking and swam past the ball. 'Sam, no one else is here! We've got to take a look at this. This is a direct link to what we saw on the Pangaea.'
'And it's written in blood!' he yelled. His voice was a shrill scream. 'I thought you might have an idea of what that mark means, but since you don't, we should go. Hoshi is dying, Teabags. We don't have time to sit here and look at bloody doodles on a wall. Yes, there's a connection, but we've also got to find things to help her out and get us home. That thing there is going to do neither. You don't know anything about it, you said that yourself. We're going.'
'I just...' I said, but I couldn't argue. Sam was right again.
'Stupid thing!' Sam charged at the orb and kicked it with his foot. His silver boot knocked the orange liquid back and made the antlers sick to the bottom of the container. 'Came all the way here for some bones in orange juice! Wasted our time! Our precious time!'
The strip lighting outside the room turned from white to tangerine. I could hear the sound of gears and metal clanking together beneath my feet. Something whined behind me. I could feel something buzzing to my left. Ominous noises were now coming from every direction and it took everything in me not to freeze up.
'We move as fast as we can when I give the mark, okay?' Sam touched the pad on his arm, 'full thrust. It's a straight shot, so you don't need to worry about steering.'
'Sam?' I said, putting my gun back in its holster.
'Yeah?'
'Why did you kick the ball?'
'That's what you do with balls, right?'
I snorted and set my jetpack to full blast. As I turned the dials and fiddled with the straps on my back, I wondered just how fast I was about to go. 'You know, zero gravity mixed with a huge amount of force could throw us into the Eagle like bugs at a windshield.'
'I'll tell you when to reverse thrust,' Sam put the soles of his feet on the ground and leaned forward like a downhill skier.
'Sure,' I said, copying his stance. The scraping sounds were getting louder and I was sure I could feel something behind me.
'Three...' Sam began.
I closed my eyes. I told myself it was my imagination.
'Two...'
There wasn't anything there. There couldn't be. Could there?
'One!'
I opened my eyes and punched a purple button attached to my shoulder. The nozzles on my back fizzled with escaping air and I was rushed off my feet and propelled out of the room before I could even think straight.
The doorway shrank behind me and turned into a blur. I could just about make out the oncoming gap in the wall. The pieces of curled metal looked so much more dangerous as I hurtled towards them at an unholy speed.
Sam revolved in the air and positioned his arms by his side. 'That hole seems smaller, don't you think?' he said.
'Yeah,' I mumbled. The clear plastic visor on my helmet was now reflecting spotlight after spotlight and it was getting hard to see straight. I scrunched my eyelids shut and then opened them, hoping I could regain my focus.
'That means one of us has to speed up. Single file.'
'Sam, we ca--!'
'Don't worry about it. This is what we were trained for, right?' And with that, Sam accelerated. I saw his jetpack wobble as he pushed ahead. With pinpoint accuracy, my teammate cruised through the gap and zipped away.
I burst through the next room. The orange lights had turned brighter and it was becoming a strain to look ahead. Something behind us crumpled and made a harrowing crack.
'Coming up to the exit,' Sam said, performing a corkscrew. 'Put everything you got into the reverse thrusters.'
'Sam, I don't know if I can do this!' I wailed. It was too much. The lights, the speed, the feeling of weightlessness... I never liked going fast. Even as a kid, I'd ride my bike slower than everyone else.
'All you do is pull back! That's all you have to do! Pull back! Pull back, Teabags!'
I swore. Loud. I thumped the purple button again and felt two tubes coil around my armpits. Two button sized holes opened up near my clavicles and hissed violently. My ankles also received the same treatment, with tubes running over my feet. I felt myself slowing down.
It was a glorious feeling. Blood started to return to my face and I even found time to smile. The Eagle was now in sight and I couldn't be happier to see its beautiful silver hull.
My happiness was short lived. Sam's jetpack was still running on overdrive and he was now mere feet from the opening. The distance between us grew with every passing second.
He shot out the Wreath like a bullet from a gun. I followed him, gracefully floating along like a feather in the breeze.
'Teabags,' his voice crackled in my helmet, 'I got good news and bad news for you,'
'What's the good news?' I asked as I watched Sam sail over the roof of the Eagle, 'because you just totally overshot your ride.'
'The good news is that my trigger is jammed and I can't slow myself down.'
'That doesn't sound like good news.' My feet touched down on the left wing of our craft and I veered my body towards the airlock.
'I can just about steer, too. That's another piece good news.'
'So, when does the bad news happen?'
'You're going to have to catch me with the Eagle.'
I hit the button to open the airlock doors. Muted vapour brushed against my helmet. 'Excuse me?'
'Teabags, if you don't catch me soon, I'm a goner. I'll go right through those asteroids and if I'm not smashed by a rock, I'll be drifting in space.'
'Yes, I know, but can't you just turn around? Or rip out some wires or do something to help you stop?'
'I wish I had that kind of turning circle, but as it stands, I got limited options. Ruining this pack would just make things harder.'
'Okay,' I said as I stepped into the Eagle. The door shut and the ship started up the decontamination process. I unzipped my suit and leapt towards the door to the cockpit. 'I'll be with you in a second.'
'Stay with me, man. I'm not exactly loving this.'
'Decontamination complete!' the ship computer added. 'Please notify—!'
'Yeah, yeah, if we feel any medical abnormalities, yeah, I know! Just let me out!' I said, pulling off my helmet.
The door opened and I tumbled through the corridor. I jumped against the walls and did my best not to whirl out of control. With one hand grabbing a handle and another reaching for my goggles, I aimed myself at my chair.
My abs felt like they were on fire. Every little twitch would throw streams of pain across my torso. My biceps begged me to stop. They wanted me to sit down, relax, and massage them better. I realised then that I hadn't had a chance to regain my energy. From waking up on the Pangaea to exploring the Wreath had been one long punishing ride.
'I'm going to move myself thirty degrees to the right,' Sam's voice was getting a little faint through interference, but I could still hear his unwavering determination. 'I'm travelling at one fifty miles per hour and climbing.'
I thrust myself into my seat and buckled the seatbelt. 'I'm coming, Sam. Hold on.' I grabbed my goggles off the back of my chair and put them on. 'I'll be right there, mate, I promise.'
I put one hand on the joystick and another on a fat silver lever. I was told to never push the thrusters to maximum, not even if it was an emergency, as the heat build up could be too much for the ship to take, but in that moment, I ignored my teachings. I had to help Sam.
The Eagle jounced. I swore and shoved the lever again. I heard the engines groan and then cut out. 'No, you are not doing that! Not today!' I rolled to my left and whacked the restart switch. The Eagle, in response, growled and shook.
'Talk to me,' Sam demanded. 'What's going on?'
'Doing the best I can,' I snapped, hitting more buttons.
'Hurry up.'
I tipped the wings down and banked round in a tight ring. I faced Sam's direction and told the engines to go as fast as they could. The goggles provided me with an intricate HUD, and through that, I locked onto Sam's position. 'I got you,' I said, watching as a blue line led me towards my teammate.
The Eagle whined at me. The joysticks were juddering in my hands and I could feel my legs shaking. I knew I had to slow down soon, or I would blow the engine and not be able to collect Sam, but I looked past the red lights on the dashboard and powered along. I had to get to him.
'It's times like these that I start to be thankful for the little things,' Sam sighed over the communications link, 'like how my jets are keeping me upright, and how I haven't hit a rock yet.'
'You just keep those optimistic thoughts going, mate,' I wrestled a gearstick to the left and forced the Eagle into an arc.
With my tongue poking out of my lips, I brought the Eagle round and closed in on Sam. I could feel my stomach knotting itself into a tangle as I brought the ship level.
'All right, Teabags, I see you,' he said, 'but you're going a bit too fast for me.'
'I will roger that,' I twisted a handle and watched as the needle on the speedometer fell.
'Nice and easy, man. Go under me and I'll grab on.'
I tussled with the controls and brought the Eagle to a steady speed. 'I think we're going at the same rate,' I said, wincing.
'Good going, buddy. Good going.'
It occurred to me then that Sam looked like a tiny Lego man and that our situation could've been dreamt up by an imaginative six year old playing with their toys. The thought didn't stay in my head for long, and as I dived with the Eagle, my insides gurgled. 'Are you sure about this?'
'It's the only option we have. I'm just thankful these packs actually do something. If I'd lost—'
'We don't need to think of that,' I snapped. The circumstances were bad enough without thinking of more things to go wrong. I was just about holding my nerve.
'Right, yeah, you're right. Okay, I'm going to grab onto the tailfin. Once I do that, you slow down and stop. I'll get in and we won't tell Olga this happened. Got it?'
'Got it.'
'Okay, do it quick before I meet that asteroid.'
'Wait, what?' I moved my eyes ahead of us.
A particularly bumpy rock, with a coating of ice on one side, had invaded Sam's trajectory. I knew that we had one minute, at most, until Sam wouldn't have time to dodge the stone, even if he wanted to steer away.
'I bet you're glad you're in there, huh?' Sam said. Another small monitor on my dashboard showed me a real time view of the roof. There, with a hundred million stars behind him, I saw Sam reaching for the Eagle's silver fin.
'I'd rather be on Earth,' I kept looking from Sam to the rock outside my windscreen. Every second counted. My HUD was going wild with readings. Bright yellow squares appeared in the corner of my eyes, demanding my attention.
'Just keep thinking about that green grass, man. Don't lose yourself now, you got that?'
'Yeah. Sorry. Goggles going haywire.' I pulled the strap and moved the lenses to my forehead. With my eyes now unobstructed, I sailed the Eagle into Sam's hands.
'Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown!' He sang, 'confirmed touchdown! I'm on!'
'Really?' A smile grew across my lips. 'You're--?'
'Stop asking me stupid questions and go! Come on, go!'
I hesitated. Even as we edged closer and closer to the rock, I felt worry rule my mind. 'Sam, what if you slip off when I turn?'
'We're just going to have to risk it. There's no time. You have to move. We have to move.'
I breathed in through my nose and closed my eyes. 'I hope you're right.'
'Yeah, me too.'
I pulled the joysticks and forced the Eagle away from the asteroid. Thankfully, we gave it a wide berth, and although I did my best to be as delicate as possible, it didn't stop Sam from swearing.
I brought the ship to a stop, let go of all the controls and put my head in my hands. 'Oh, bloody hell,' I said, feeling relief wash over me, 'let's not do that again. Let's never do that again.'
I heard Sam clambering around outside. I relished every bang and thump his hands and feet made, and I made a squeak of joy when I heard the airlock door open.
A minute or two later, Sam emerged with his suit tied around his waist. He shook his head at me and said, 'I hate space.'
I laughed and got out of my chair. 'I hate it, too.'
'We're not telling Olga about that, okay? She doesn't need to know.'
'But we're telling her about the orange ball, right?'
'Oh, yeah, obviously,' Sam got into his own chair and ignited the engines, 'but as we're telling her about that, we're going to the third ship.'
'Got a name for that one?' I got into my seat and clicked the straps across my chest.
'You know what? I don't.'
'Really?'
'I know! Anyway, let's see what our fearless leader is up to,' he snatched a small plastic tablet from the side and held it near his mouth. 'This is Eagle One calling home, does anyone hear me?'
'This is Captain Maximova, what do you have for me? What did you find?'
Sam shuffled in his seat. 'For one thing, Captain, we didn't blow anything up.'
'Do you want an award?'
'I suppose I deserved that one. We checked out the Wreath and there was no one on board.'
'I'm assuming the "Wreath" is the name of the second ship?'
'It is.'
'And there was no one on it?'
'We found remnants of a... Teabags, help me out.'
'It was evident that someone had forced their way in,' I said.
'Or out!' Sam squawked, 'I think they went out!'
Captain Maximova grumbled. 'You two are idiots.'
I put my goggles back on and said, 'Captain, the Wreath did contain something quite strange.'
'Stranger than a talking fungus?'
'Not quite, Captain. We found a ball filled with what looked to be organic material soaked in orange liquid.'
'Did you take a sample?'
Sam itched his head. 'Well, you see, we would've but--!'
'Oh great, here we go.'
'No, listen!' Sam argued. 'There were these weird antlers in the ball and they were just rolling round and around, and--!'
'So you explored the Wreath, found a ball, found some horns, shrugged your shoulders and went home? Is this why you're calling me?'
I shook my head. 'No, Captain, we found something very interesting. Something you need to know about.'
'Yes, Fletcher?'
'On one of the walls, I found the same icon I saw on the screens when the virus attacked the Pangaea. It was written in blood, Captain.'
'Are you sure? Do you think there's a connection there? Do you think that whatever hit us, also hit the Wreath?'
'Well, yes, I'd say that seems to be the case, Captain,' I pulled my goggles back down, 'but we didn't have anyone come onto our ship and paint on the walls.'
'Was it fresh blood?' the Captain said. I heard her rustle some papers.
'It was dry.'
'I see. Without forensics we're going to have to assume it's recent, which means that someone is in this vicinity and they're leaving messages for us.'
'But where would they be?' I said, adjusting my lenses. 'There's nowhere to hide out here.'
'Except there.' Sam pointed out the windscreen at the looming silver sphere.