Kael drifted through the shattered remains of the station like a shadow stitched to wreckage. One arm hooked the tether line, the other wrapped around the unconscious survivor—Lira. The young man's biometrics fluttered erratically on Kael's HUD, heartbeat shallow, oxygen low, but stable. For now.
Patch hovered beside them, its spherical chassis spinning slowly as it kept pace. The AI's light pulsed a steady green, casting faint illumination across scorched bulkheads and floating debris. Behind them, the shuttle shimmered in the dark like a predator holding still in the grass, its upgraded frame bristling with hardpoints and defensive plates.
Only ten meters to the airlock.
"Kael," came Renn's voice, crackling through the comms. "What the hell kind of upgrades did you install on this thing? It's running like a recon unit. Damn near military spec."
Kael grunted, adjusting Lira's position with practiced ease. The weight wasn't the problem—it was the trajectory. One wrong push and you'd spin off forever. "Didn't install anything myself."
A pause.
"…Come again?"
Kael flicked his gaze to Patch. "It was the AI. Woke up after the collapse. Said it was built for adaptive response in catastrophic events. Self-learning protocols, black box tier."
"You're telling me the damn ship upgraded itself?"
Kael rotated, giving a gentle push off a twisted beam. "That's exactly what I'm saying. The AI reactivated dormant fabrication subroutines, retrofitted fusion rails, rerouted power nodes. Hell, it even rebuilt the drone bay. Said we were in a combat zone and needed to adapt."
Renn let out a low whistle. "No wonder it moves like it's hunting something."
"More like prey that learned to bite back," Kael muttered, adjusting the trajectory again. The wreckage here was thicker. He had to weave through it with surgical care. Torn beams, chunks of plating, and scorched insulation floated around him like the bones of a dead god.
Only a few more meters.
Then Lira stirred.
At first it was a twitch—fingers curling against Kael's suit. Then came a low moan over the helmet comm. The young man's eyes fluttered behind his visor, wild and unfocused. A sharp gasp, and then—
He screamed.
It wasn't words. Just raw panic. A feral, mindless terror.
"Hey!" Kael said sharply, tightening his grip. "You're alright. You're safe—on my shuttle. Just hold still—"
Lira jerked suddenly, kicking off Kael's chest with surprising strength. The force spun Kael backwards, and Lira tumbled away into the void.
"Patch!" Kael barked. "Seal the airlock. Disable hatch controls!"
"Confirmed," came the calm AI response. But it didn't end there. "Kael… you need to look."
Kael steadied himself, grabbing a nearby girder. His eyes snapped to Lira, now floating ten meters out. The survivor's limbs twitched erratically. Then they locked up.
Something was wrong.
Lira's body arched violently, spine bending backwards at an impossible angle. His suit bulged. Cracks spidered across the armor. His face twisted in agony behind the visor. A muffled scream escaped, lost to the vacuum.
Then his back split open.
A geyser of blood burst through the suit's seals as vertebrae tore upward, shredding flesh, bone, and armor. Kael reeled in horror as a pale, serpentine shape pushed free—its cartilage ridged and wet, its eyeless head writhing with feelers.
The baby creature—same species as the one he'd dissected weeks ago.
Only this one was alive.
It clung to the remnants of Lira's spine, squirming forward as it shed the last of the body like a chrysalis. Then it turned.
And locked onto Kael.
Its jaws opened in a grotesque, silent screech. Four mandibles split wide, revealing rows of needled teeth.
Kael bolted.
He twisted mid-space, engaging his suit thrusters with a double burst. Momentum snapped him forward. He hit a jagged corridor frame, kicked off, and spun around a floating bulkhead. The shuttle loomed ahead—only twenty meters now.
"Patch! Activate defense grid!"
"Drones deploying."
Kael didn't look back. He didn't need to.
He could feel it closing in.
Behind him, the creature launched through the void like a whip, undulating in hard, fast arcs. It hit a spinning plate, ricocheted off a loose beam, and closed the distance.
Kael's boots scraped the shuttle's outer plating. He yanked the tether, spun into the airlock hatch, and slammed his hand on the override.
"Patch, now!"
The hatch peeled open just as Kael hurtled through it. He dove inside, pulling hard on the tether to collapse it. Patch zipped through behind him.
The moment the outer seal shut, the shuttle trembled.
A plasma bolt fired.
Through the viewport, Kael saw the lead drone—a compact, gunmetal cylinder with forward-mounted blasters—open fire. The bolt struck the creature mid-lunge, spinning it off-course. Two more drones launched from under the shuttle's ventral bay, fanning into a triangle.
The monster screeched soundlessly, turning its writhing form toward them.
Then a repulsor mine detonated.
The explosion rippled through the wreckage, throwing metallic shards and superheated vapor into a widening cloud. The creature twisted, its pale flesh blistering. But it wasn't dead. It flailed, then darted behind a spinning engine pod.
Kael strapped himself into the pilot harness, adrenaline surging. "Patch, track it!"
"Tracking," the AI replied. "Minimal damage sustained. Target is evading drone perimeter."
Kael looked to the viewport. The creature lurked just out of sight, beyond a bent segment of Transit Deck C.
He tapped his comm. "Renn, we've got a problem."
No answer.
Static.
Then, "Kael? What the hell was that? I'm seeing bursts on the sensors—was that hostile fire?"
Kael clenched his jaw. "The survivor. He was infected. Parasite erupted from his spine. Thing's out there now. And pissed."
Silence.
"…Another one?"
Kael nodded grimly. "Smaller than the one you described, but faster. More aggressive. Same breed."
Renn exhaled hard. "That confirms it. The baby you found before… was just a scout. A larval stage."
Kael felt a cold ripple run down his spine.
"They're not just surviving," he said slowly. "They're growing."
Outside, one of the drones opened fire again, forcing the creature into open view. It skittered across the hull of a ruined corridor segment—limbs moving like knives through silk—before disappearing again.
"Patch," Kael said, voice tight, "I want a full scan grid on that zone. Don't let it vanish."
"Grid initializing. Combat drones entering patrol pattern alpha."
Kael stared out the viewport, heart pounding.
This wasn't salvage anymore. It wasn't rescue.
It was war.
And they were already behind.
He floated weightless for a long moment, watching the drones spread into formation, engines pulsing against the cold dark.
The creature wasn't gone. It was waiting.
But so was Kael.
And this time… he wasn't alone.