The Scourge Between Stars

by Ness Brown

“Hey,” she said. “Tough palates out there?”

I read this as "tough pilates" 3 times before it registered as palates and my brain still said pilates

Space was silent, but that didn’t stop Jacklyn from hearing screams.

The next bang followed her back the other way. Jacklyn kicked into a coltish sprint—she couldn’t fight the impulse to run, not with her animal hindbrain shouting down her rational mind.

I'd be running too, girl xD

“Did they just cut power?” Jacklyn asked sharply.

You know the Aliens line went through my head xD

She leaned on the button for the lift doors; when she got a notification that the lift was between floors, she input an override and forced the doors open. She was stuck halfway between the labs deck and the command quarters deck. There was just enough room for her to pull herself onto the former by her fingernails and squeeze through the opening. She deliberated whether she wanted to risk being cut in half by the lift falling while she was shimmying out or waste valuable time stuck in here waiting for a droid to help. The handle for the ceiling hatch wiggled.

FUCK THAT XDDDD

They all sprinted down the gangway toward the unidentified red dot.

Storytelling-wise, the ability to see all the lifeforms on the ship is going to have to be compromised at some point because it's too much of an advantage

She turned to Watson. “Can you hear the intruder? Are they still in the silo?” “No,” Watson said. Its eyes glowed blue again. “They’re currently not in any place on the ship with a live feed or sensors.”

Boom. There it is like 2min after I said something xD

“Behind this bulkhead is the third mate’s station,” Jacklyn said quietly. “Then the second’s, and then mine. There should only be a desk with a terminal in each one. If you see anything else…” “Shoot,” Yanis finished, moving forward.

You know, I just realized we've completely forgotten about the captain xD

Smears of red led away from the corner, even farther back through the data towers. They traded positions methodically as they followed the trail toward the rear of the Archives. Jacklyn was glad for Yanis’s clear hand signals because she couldn’t hear anything over the rush of her own blood. The smears stopped right under a vent. Two team members went to either side while the rest knelt and fixed their weapons on the opening. At Yanis’s countdown they pried off the vent’s grate and flung their weapons inside.

Doesn't this mean the creature put the vent grate back in place? Edit: the creatures aren't careful at all with the vent grates so this is a tiny oversight here

“If you liked that,” Jacklyn quipped without humor, “you’re going to love this.”

Okay, so we're directly quoting Aliens now lol

Jacklyn was about to press the button for Sickbay, when a horrifying realization froze her hand in midair. “Shit,” she whispered, and then slammed her hand on the lift wall. “Shit!” The security teams had cleared every deck—except one.

Gee, I wonder who they forgot about 🤣🤣🤣

All her life she had stared at this tiny thread—now it was the center of a new tapestry, one both unfamiliar and known. She fixed her eyes on the planet sitting like a tiny jewel in the embroidered starscape on the screen. It was home.

So are all the other ships dead in the water or are they still floating out there completely screwed? Judging by how many are on this ship, that's tens of thousands of people unaccounted for. I mean, the characters here won't ever know for sure either so this isn't a complaint note, just some musing~