Lady Lucky, Part 2

Lady Lucky, Part 2

By Matthew "Snooglebum" Wasik

[Missed the beginning of the series? Click here to go to part 1.]

“So.” said Melody, putting down the book. “Personal question?”

Whisper opened an eye, turning to look at Melody. The two were still in the medbay, Melody having stopped reading mid-sentence. The day was turning to evening, amd the next jump was the last on the Lady Lucky’s journey to the nearest space station.

“Come on babe, we’ve come way too far to worry about that shit. Ask me anything.” said Whisper, grinning. “I mean, it’s our two-year anniversary in, what, a month?”

“Three weeks.” said Melody, smiling. “You were close. I’d give you a prize, but… you already won my heart.”

“Hah! Real smooth, girl. Real smooth.”

“I think you’re exaggerating, but thank you.” said Melody, her smile stretching further.

“So… what was your question?”
The smile slowly vanished from Melody’s face, and her expression turned serious.

“I was just curious…” she started hesitantly, “I know Brands have a sort of mental link to their Patrons… does yours ever talk to you?”

“Hmm.” said Whisper, looking at the back of her hand where her Brand would normally appear. She reflected quietly on the nature of the uncanny being who had given her supernatural abilities-- her Patron, an Outsider, hailing from the mysterious dimension known as the Silent World. When she answered, her tone was matter-of-fact.

“I think so.” she said, staring at the ceiling. “Sometimes. When I’m asleep. I never remember what the fucker says, but I remember its… presence. Overpowering. Thank god I’m a Frenzy Brand and not an Augur, those poor motherfuckers get off rough.”

“They have the highest rate of being influenced by their Patrons, right?” said Melody. “I think I read that somewhere, although gosh dang if I can remember where.”

“Yeah. I’m actually pretty lucky to have been Branded as a Frenzy, honestly. As long as I keep beating the shit out of people, he seems happy.”

“Wow.” said Melody. “Easy to please, I guess. What was it like when you were first Branded?”

“Wait, I’ve never told you?” replied Whisper, looking surprised. “After two years?”

“I’ve never asked.”

“Huh. Well I’ll tell you: it was terrifying. And painful. Happened when I was fourteen. It was the first day of school, and this bully was picking on some younger kids. I was about to give him a bit of a whooping-- you know, nothing serious, just something to teach him not to fuck with people, and then I heard this voice. ‘PHARAH ABBOUD.’ it said. And all of a sudden, it felt like I was being crushed, like...fucking, I dunno, plastic in a hand press or something. Nothing’s ever hurt as much. And the room goes dark, and suddenly it looks like I’m being held in the fist of something massive. You’ve seen pictures of Myrmidons, yeah?”

“I have.” said Melody, leaning forward with interest. “They’re the muscular red things with chains coming out of their bodies, right? With horns?”
“Yeah, that’s them,” said Whisper. “So I’m being crushed, and everything except the Patron is dark, and it speaks to me. ‘I AM CRUSHES-FOES-UNDERFOOT. AND YOU… ARE NOW MINE.’ the thing lets me go, and suddenly I’m back in the school, and I’ve got glowing red demon faces on my hands. And and all of a sudden, I feel angry. No, fuck that, I’m furious. I’ve never been more angry in my life. I wanted to kill something. And this bully is standing in front of me, so…” she went quiet for a few moments, before continuing. “So I beat the shit out of him. And now I’ve got super-strength, so instead of bruising him, I’m breaking bones with each punch. He… wasn’t recognizable when I got done with him.

“Wow.” said Melody, her voice hushed. “What happened next?”

“Well, I came to my senses after a little while. I wasn’t sure whether he was alive or dead, and I didn’t care. I ran, and kept running. It’s not like there was much left for me in the orphanage.” she was silent for a second or two before continuing. “I still wonder, y’know? Whether he survived.”

“You never found out?”
“Nope. I think the reason I never told you this is… well, I feel kind of ashamed, honestly. I guess I thought you’d… fucking see less of me or something.” Whisper looked away from Melody, a hint of shame in her voice.

“Oh no, honey, of course not.” said Melody, her tone comforting. She got up out of the chair, and walked over to the operating table. She gave Whisper a tight hug, which Whisper reciprocated. “It wasn’t your fault that it happened, it’s just Outsiders screwing with humanity.”

“Yeah.” said Whisper quietly. “Thanks, Melody.”

“Any time, my love.” Melody replied. “Any time.”

***

Mirth sat in his cell. It was an improvised thing-- metal bars had been nanoshaped into place to cordon off one section of what was once living quarters. He was sitting on a small cot, next to which sat several books on various subjects, while whistling a merry tune to himself. The situation he was in was bad, it was true, but hey, he’d been in worse scrapes before! He was confident he’d come out fine. Probably.

Leomund Skavis walked into the room, carrying a plate of piping hot food. He pulled up a stool in front of the bars and sat down, staring at Mirth.

“Oh hey, guy!” said Mirth. “Is that for me?”
“Nope.” said Skavis, and began to eat the food. “I was having my lunch, and I thought you might enjoy watching, seeing as how we still haven’t fed you yet.”

“Ahh, I get it. Can I have some? I am hungry, after all.”

“That depends. Are you going to tell us where the Vault is?”

“Hmm.” said Mirth. “Let me think about that one. How aboooouuuuuuut no. No Vault for you.”

“Then there’s no food for you.” said Skavis, and began eating with every sign of enjoyment.

“Oh really? That’s a shame.” said Mirth. “That stuff looks good. Guess I’ll have to make do!”

“Yup.” said Skavis. “That’s all, just thought I’d stop by and let you know what you’re missing.”

“Good to know!” said Mirth, his fixed grin growing wider. “I’m sure I’ll find something to eat.”

“Hah! Good luck with that.” said Skavis, leaving the room.

Mirth’s intense stare followed him as he left.

***

“Captain.” came Raythius’s voice over the comm. “The computer estimates us dropping out of warp in five minutes.”

“Thank you, Raythius.” said Elizabeth, and pressed the medbay comms button. “Hey, Melody, how is Whisper doing? Can she move?”

“She can, although I’d advise she avoid anything strenuous.”

“I’m fine!” called Whisper in the background.

“Oh shush.” replied Melody. “You are not fine. I just pulled a foot-long hunk of metal out of you, that’s not the sort of thing you just casually shrug off.”

“I’m mostly fine!” said Whisper. “Just a flesh wound!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sakes.” said Melody, sighing. “You’re going to be the death of me, my love.” Whisper’s grinding laughter could be heard in the background.

“I’m just fucking with you, babe.” she said, mirth still suffusing her voice.

“Can she man the turret safely?” asked Elizabeth, unfazed.

“That should be alright. As long as she doesn’t try to jump out and punch the enemy ship, she should be fine.”

“Oh man!” said Whisper excitedly. “That’s a fucking great idea! I bet I could punch through a ship hull!”

“We can try it another day.” replied Elizabeth. “I want you and Dialer on the turrets, just in case our friends managed to track us.”

“Gotcha.” replied Whisper. Elizabeth closed the comms.

“Do you really think they followed us?” said Ty, looking at Elizabeth. “Raythius said it was probably impossible.”

“I think I want to be careful.” replied Elizabeth, checking dials and readouts. “Better safe than sorry.”

There was a lurching sensation, a sound like a massive tissue tearing slowly, and the flickering white of the Veil gave way to the Void proper, and to an entirely new vista-- a system full of clouds of a white gas, partially concealing the impossibly large and impossibly distant black hole that the Void orbited around.

“Looks clear so far-- no, wait a minute.” said Elizabeth. “Contact. Make that contacts. Let me get a visual.”

The tension in the Lady Lucky’s cockpit ratcheted up as Elizabeth punched keys and calibrated the viewscreen. The screen showed a faraway gas cloud, and reveal moving shapes within it, too obscured for easy identification.

“Shit.” said Ty nervously. “What are those? Oh man, I hope they aren’t space monsters. I really don’t want them to be space monsters.”

“Me neither.” said Elizabeth. “Raythius, how long till we’re spun--”

She was interrupted as an enormous ball of fire materialized outside of the cockpit with a whoosh. Its vibrant, painfully bright light cast heavy shadows in the cockpit. The shields activated instantly, absorbing most of the heat, although what little heat did bleed through temporarily turned the cockpit into a sauna.

“HOLY SHIT!” cried Ty, recoiling back in his seat. Elizabeth reacted similarly, albeit silently. As the temperature rose, the ship’s computer detected the dangerously high heat levels, and began emergency venting procedures. A loud hiss pervaded the ship as hidden hatches opened, and the atmospheric control system vented the hot air. Ty frantically put the Lady Lucky into reverse, blasting away from the conflagration at top speed. The fire continued to rage, despite there being no visible fuel source for it. As the Lady Lucky retreated, so did the heat, the cockpit turning pleasantly cool again.

“Oooooooomigod. What the fuck is that?” said Ty, staring at the roiling flames.

“Burner anomaly.” answered Elizabeth matter-of-factly. “Seen a couple before. They don’t move, so we should be safe here. In fact, if you wait a few seconds-- yep, there it goes.” as she spoke, the flames died out, leaving nothing but empty Void in their place. “It flares on and off at regular intervals.”

“Hoo boy. Well, that woke me up.” said Ty, taking a sip of coffee anyway. “Oh damn, those things in the gas cloud are still there. Hey Raythius, how long till we’re spun up?”

“After that last jump? I’d say eight minutes or so. It was pretty rough on the warp drive, and I’m still running repairs.”

“Alright. Keep me posted.”

“Will do, Ty.” replied Raythius seriously.

“They’re emerging from the cloud.” said Elizabeth urgently. Both Ty and Elizabeth peered intently at the viewscreen, trying to identify the mysterious contacts. What they saw was not to their liking. Visible on the screen was a horde of alien creatures, each easily the size of a van. Each resembled a lamprey, a circular maw of teeth surrounding a tube-like frame. Dozens of barbed tentacles protruded out from several points on its body. Their means of propulsion wasn’t obvious, but in defiance of all physics, they was undulating through the Void like an eel through water.

“Shit! Space monsters!” shouted Ty. “Laser laser laser!”

Ty fired the Lady Lucky’s laser cannon at the mass of creatures, which screeched and broke formation, scattered by the superhot beam. Several creatures were burned to a crisp, while others were merely singed. The laser had put a dent in their formation, but there were still several left, and they had spread out to guard against future laser shots.

“Oh man, these fuckers are smart.” said Ty unhappily, as the sound of the ship’s turrets began to ring out. Whisper and Dialer took out several of the creatures, and the remaining ones began to juke and weave to avoid being killed in a similar fashion.

“This is bad, this is bad.” said Ty, and fired the laser again. He only managed to catch two of the creatures in its beam this time, the rest dodging out of the way nimbly.

Then the creatures reached the ship. The turret and laser fire had weeded out most of them, leaving only two left. One had pulled in front of the others, and was dodging the turrets nimbly.

“Oh, you wanna get close and personal?” said Ty, toggling off a switch called “SAFETY”  and gripping the controls tightly. “Well how do you like this!?”

On the last word, he pulled the Lady Lucky into a rapid lateral spin. The maneuver was incredibly fast-- dangerously so. The ship’s kinetic stabilizers absorbed a large amount of the momentum, but still, everything that was not nailed down in the Lady Lucky was sent flying sideways at high speed. Ty’s mug of coffee smashed against the side of the cockpit, the paintings in the medbay crashed against the wall, and Melody herself was sent flying and hit the wall of the medbay with an audible crunch.

But the maneuver had the intended effect. Just as the creature was above the ship, the Lady Lucky slammed into it at high speed, breaking bones and covering the shield in a spray of bright red blood. The creature screeched horribly and then went silent as it was flung away violently from the impact.

“Yes!” cried Ty. “Also, ow!”

“You’re insane.” said Elizabeth in disbelief.

“Yeah, but it worked, didn’t it!?”

“Guess so. Watch out, one left.”

***

The creature slithered and swam towards Whisper’s turret at high speed, successfully avoiding her hail of minigun fire.

“Oh my fucking god, you piece of shit! Stand still!” shouted Whisper, opening fire on the creature.

Just then, Ty pulled his maneuver, and the Lady Lucky slammed into the creature, killing it and sending it flying away.

“Ow.” said Whisper. “Well, I guess that works.”

***

Meanwhile, Dialer continued to fire at the creature on his side. Ty spun the ship, and Dialer’s aim was thrown off, his shots going wild. He accepted this in annoyed silence. The creature, undaunted by the ship’s violent movement, landed on the ship, it’s hail of barbed tentacles chewing through the ship’s shield in moments. With the shield down, the creature began to tear its way into the hull. Dialer took the opportunity and spun the turret to face it, opening fire as he did so. A hail of bullet fire raked across the thing’s side, spewing blood everywhere… just as the turret abruptly fell silent, the sound of gunfire replaced by forlorn clicking. The turret readout blinked with red text reading “AMMUNITION RACK EMPTY.”

“Hmm.” said Dialer, looking out. “Annoying.” as he spoke, the creature slowly pulled itself toward the turret mount. It was clearly wounded, but still alive, and was hell-bent on vengeance.

Dialer decided it was time for a more direct method.

He slammed his fist into a button labeled “MAINTAINANCE”, and the turret mounting opened up to the outside of the ship. There was a loud WOOSH! as the turret mount depressurized. Dialer climbed out, activating the magnetic grippers in his feet. He stood on the hull and faced the approaching creature, deploying his weapons. His left arm unfolded into a machine gun, ammunition falling into place with a clink. Out of his right arm slid a long blade, which began to crackle with electricity. He regarded the rapidly approaching creature, and spoke:

“Flesh is inferior.”

Then he opened fire. His gun spat out bullets at a breakneck pace, tearing into the creature like tissue paper. It let out a screech of pain and began to advance, blood flowing from multiple wounds.

“Machine is superior!” shouted Dialer. Then he lept.

The creature, which was not expecting the small enemy to charge, was taken utterly off-guard. Dialer stabbed his sword into the creature and pulled it out in a great arcing slash, sparks flying from the wound. The creature screeched again and tried to attack Dialer with its swarm of tentacles, but Dialer had already leapt back, and proceeded to empty the rest of his gun’s magazine into the creature. It shuddered, screamed once, and went still, drifting off into the Void. It drifted until it reached the empty space where the Burner anomaly was, and was incinerated a few seconds later as the anomaly coincidentally fired to life.

Dialer watched it for a few moments, his shadow wavering on the hull of the ship, and then calmly reloaded his gun.

“Dialer!” came Elizabeth’s voice over his internal comm. “Dialer, are you ok? Sound off!”
“I am fine.” he said, walking back to the turret. “I dealt with the creature in an unconventional manner.”

“And what manner was that?”

“Unconventional.”

There was a moment of silence before Elizabeth spoke again: “did you just do something really dangerous, and you don’t want to tell me what it is?”

“No.”
“Glad to hear it.” said Elizabeth, sounding utterly unconvinced. “Well, get back in here and help Melody with her right arm-- Ty’s little stunt broke the cybernetics.”

“It was a reckless maneuver. I do not approve.”

“Says the guy who I’m pretty sure just jumped out onto the hull and one-V-one’d a space monster.” came Whisper’s gravelly voice. She sounded amused.

“That is different.” said Dialer stiffly.

“How is that different?” asked Elizabeth skeptically

“I was the one doing it.” said Dialer matter-of-factly.

Whisper snorted over the comms. “Get in here, you robotic idiot.”

“I am a cyborg, not a robot.” said Dialer, as he made his way to the medbay.

***

“Well, that was intense.” said Ty, breathing out a sigh of relief.

“That little maneuver of yours was clever.” said Elizabeth, stretching and wincing. “If painful. We really need to get a tether installed in the medbay.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” said Ty, rubbing the back of his head. “It was the only way I could think of to get that thing off our tail.”

“Well, it worked.” said Elizabeth. The console beeped, and she swore and began calibrating the viewscreen.

“God damn it, another contact. What is it this--” Elizabeth began, before abruptly falling silent.

“What? What is it?” said Ty. He pointed his own viewscreen at the object, and then also fell silent for a several seconds before slowly pressing the comm button.

“Raythius?” he said carefully. “How long till we spin up?”

“Mmm, five minutes, I’d say. Why, what is it now?”

“Turn on your viewscreen.” said Ty flatly.

There was a few seconds of silence before Raythius spoke:

“Oh, lord strike me down.” he said, weakly.

The viewscreen revealed a sight out of a nightmare. There was one more of the creatures emerging from the gas cloud, and was significantly different from the others-- it was huge. Based on what few reference objects the crew had, it was easily the size of a city block, large enough to swallow the Lady Lucky whole. And it was coming straight towards the ship, ringed maw agape.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” said Elizabeth urgently, looking at Ty. “Run.”

“What?”

“Run!”

“Right!” Ty said, finally breaking out of his horrified trance and spinning the ship around. “Leaving now!” he pushed the throttle all the way to the maximum and the ship accelerated to full speed, the force noticeable even through the kinetic stabilizers. The creature gave chase eagerly, letting out a bellow that shook the frame of the ship.

“It’s gaining on us.” said Elizabeth grimly, watching her viewscreen. “Raythius, there’s no way to speed up things on your end, is there?”

“I’m afraid not.” said Raythius, his tone morose. “Oh dear, is this where it all ends? That would be a most ignoble end for us, eaten by a space monster.”

“Where were you hoping to die?” asked Whisper, the lightness in her tone obviously forced.

“On a nice beach somewhere, preferably, feeling the sun on my-- well, on a nice beach, at least.”

“Oh man.” said Ty, staring at the viewscreen as the creature approached. “Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man do I not want to die. Does that make me a coward? Cause I really really don’t want to die.”

Elizabeth was staring intently at the wall, thinking furiously, while Ty continued his moaning. Then she had an idea.

“Turn the ship around.” she said.

Ty blinked and stared at her. “What?” he said blankly. “You’re not thinking of fighting that thing, are you?”

“We’re not going to fight it.” said Elizabeth grimly. “We’re going to cook it.”

Ty stared at her for a few moments, then his jaw dropped open.

“You want to lure it into the anomaly.” he said, in awe.

“Yeah, I do, so turn the God damn ship around.”

Ty obliged, setting a course for the anomaly. The creature loomed large in the cockpit’s view, drawing ever closer.

“It’s going to be a race.” said Ty. “It’s not a straight shot-- I’m going to have to get closer to it and lure it to the left. It’s going to be really really close.”

“No it fucking isn’t.” snapped Elizabeth. “Raythius! I want you to route all power to the engines! Shields, stabilizers, life support, everything that isn’t venting!”

“Yes captain!” said Raythius. “Strap yourselves in everybody, we’re about to go very fast!”

***

In the engineering room, Raythius attached himself to the wall with a tether, and began rerouting power using the main computer. His nimble fingers danced across the keyboard like spiders, inputting commands at lightning speed. The computer made a “BRANK!” sound in protest.

“Let’s see…” he mumbled to himself. “You don’t want me to move that much power at once, do you? Getting feisty, hmm? Bad news, my friend: I’m the one in charge here! So transfer!” on the last word, Raythius triumphantly hit the “ENTER” key. Red warning lights began to flash and klaxons began to blare. The lights in the Lady Lucky flickered, then went out. Something in the engineering bay exploded, spraying sparks everywhere.

Oh dear, I hope that wasn’t important. thought Raythius to himself.

The ship accelerated to three times its previous pace, the extreme speed sending loose objects (such as Raythius) flying. Raythius hit the end of his tether, and his internal sensors registered extreme G-forces.

“It worked! Oh god!” he said frantically, as the ship shot forward.

***

“We’re almost there!” said Ty, straining against the force of the Lady Lucky’s velocity. The creature continued to approach them, making disgusting slurping noises as it did. Its bulk was beginning to take up the entire right section of the cockpit, blotting out the view of the Void behind it.

“Stop slowly!” said Elizabeth urgently. “A sudden stop could kill us at this speed!”

“Right!” he said. “Good idea!” he began throttling down, and Ty and Elizabeth were pushed forward in their chairs as the ship’s momentum was arrested.

“Alright.” said Ty. “We’re in position. I really hope you timed this right, captain.”

“I hope so too.” said Elizabeth grimly.

The creature sped towards the ship, towards the empty space where the Burner anomaly sat dormant. There was a terrifying moment as it moved through the empty space unimpeded, and then--

FWOOSH! The anomaly roared to life, bathing the creature in flames. The temperature inside the ship rose sharply as emergency venting protocols frantically tried to cool it down. The creature writhed and spat inside the anomaly, it’s flesh cooking and charring. It let out a bellow of pain that shook the Lady Lucky with it’s sheer volume. Then the creature reversed course, speeding away from the anomaly and away from the Lady Lucky.

“YES!” roared Ty. “WE DID IT! WE FUCKING DID IT! I’M NOT GOING TO GET EATEN! I HAVE NEVER FELT SO ALIVE!”

Elizabeth leaned back in her seat, huffing out a sigh. Throughout the rest of the ship, the crew expressed their relief as well. Whisper picked up Melody and spun joyously through the medbay, falling over as she put too much weight on her injured leg. The two collapsed into a heap, Melody attempting to scold Whisper despite her laughing happily herself. Raythius gave the ship computer a hug, saying soothing things to it, and Dialer nodded approvingly. Ty continued to loudly express how happy he was to be alive.

“Ty, take us away from here, just in case the thing decides to come back.” said Elizabeth, interrupting Ty’s ranting.

“THIS IS THE BEST-- oh, yeah, good idea.” he pulled the ship around and throttled up, flying away from the creature.

“Raythius, how are things holding up back there?” asked Elizabeth.

“Wonderfully! The Lady Lucky performed wonderfully! That said, I hope we’re going to reach a space station soon, because things--”

A loud popping noise could be heard over the comm, as well as metal falling to the floor.

“--are positively falling apart back here. Oh dear.”

“There should be one at the site of our next jump.” Ty provided helpfully.

“Thank goodness. Oh, and we’ll be spun up in the next minute or so.”

“Great.” said Elizabeth. “Everybody, you’ve made me proud today. Get some rest. You’ve earned it.”

***

Skavis once again walked into Mirth’s cell, carrying a plate of food. Mirth was lying on the cot, his hands behind his head, for all appearances appearing totally relaxed. He opened an eye when the door opened, and sprung up to a sitting position in a flurry of motion, his never-ending grin reasserting itself.

“Skavis! Buddy! How you doing?”

Skavis said down, smiling maliciously. “Oh, pretty good, pretty good. Hungry yet?”

“Nope!” said Mirth happily. “I just ate.”

This stopped Skavis in his tracks, his smiling faltering.

“You… did?” he said. “Who fed you? Did you bribe somebody?”

“Nope!” said Mirth. “I ate a book.”

There was a pregnant pause.

“...You did what?” said Skavis carefully, staring at Mirth. “Are you joking, you little asshole?”

Mirth just stared at him, grinning. As he did so, Skavis looked around at the nightstand that held the books, and noticed that there was one missing. Then he looked at Mirth’s cot and noticed the few scraps of leftover paper sitting forlornly on the bed.

“You actually ate a book.” said Skavis in disbelief.

“Yup! It tasted like knowledge.”

Skavis stared at him. “What are you?” he asked, eyes wide.

“I’m Mirth! Oh, but you knew that already.”

Skavis continued to stare at him, becoming angrier and angrier with each passing moment.

“Ok, you little fucker, here’s the deal.” he said, his voice brimming with cold fury. “I’m going to leave this room, and I’m going to give you another day to think about this-- and I want you to really think. And when I come back, I’m bringing a gun. And if you don’t tell me where the Vault is, I’m going to shoot you in your stupid smiling head. Got it?”

“Got it!” said Mirth. “No Vault equals head-shoots bangy bang.” he giggled to himself. “Ah, sorry, I crack myself up.”

“Good, glad we’re clear.” said Skavis forcefully. He left, slamming the door behind him.

“Well, I’m in trouble.” said Mirth to no one particular, the smile never leaving his face.

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