Waiting silently in the Grav well of the giant class 6 star for the merchants to go by on their lonely runs I sat pondering what I had really signed up for with this ADD thing. Months of shear boredom, a few moments of panic an excitement. More than once I’d felt like the bait rather than the hunter. Everything about the organization jus seemed a bit dodgy when yah got close. Politicians seemed to decide things that kept um in power an the people of earth totally in the dark. Sum how It didn’t seem right, but then right an wrong wuz no longer that thin line to me…more an more as I got older there seemed to be even more grey…kinda like space, a vastness that could be more grey than black or white.

Twirling the silver cylinder in me palm I had to wonder if this wuz what life came down to. I missed Hanaji…an others I could not talk ‘bout. A long line of flesh peeked back at me in the reflection of the blank monitors, pale gainst the black of the space uniform they issued us with. It seems so pointless at times, a chance to loose yourself for a half our of pleasure that really doesn’t fully satisfy…not like having a real person to share the experience with, to feel them…talk to them…be with them…

The com screen blinked…a long line of codes an text as me computer automatically ‘gan the sequence to initiate a conversation. Glaring I turned to the screen that was breaking the monotony of the moment an me preparations. A string of text…eyes a bit wider, punching in my own access codes, pressing me hand to the plate that would verify me DNA pattern.

Text spun it ribbon across the screen….all ready I could feel the hum in the deck plates as the computer brought the power up. “Lord I pray we may be in time … an if not in time that I may be the angel of vengeance to smite our enemies….Amen”

Rocking forwards I could feel the cool moist air settle gains the skin of me chest…’darn it’ swiftly I slid the seal from me mid thigh upwards to me neck on the suit, tucking me breasts in securely as I go. “Computer, coordinates primary screen, power an ship systems secondary screen….” Fingers danced over the buttons, numbers flared an rolled along the screen as me mind raced the computer….a few more taps…bottom right of the screen blinking green…

“Mistress, calculations match…should I start countdown?”

“on my mark…..now” fingers touching the button…then dancing across the other screen, punching up intel, downloading the feed as fast as the system would allow as data screamed into the banks of the computer. Snorting a bit…’finally….sum thing other than watching…sum doing…action…’ I thought.

The stars went white, streaks of light dancing across the view screen. A lurch in me tummy as the whole universe seemed to come apart. As far as I knew all humans jumped with drugs, all but me. Oh, I had um…but I loved this, an had to wonder what genetic tampering had allowed me this rare glimpse of nowhere…wuz it the same bit that let me breath under the water?

The ship become a ghost, a vessel a shifting bulkheads were colors came an went. In jump time went slowly…even though It went like hours to those that put themselves out of the mind altering state of it. For me, well lets jus say I thought I wuz all that much closer to god…that this must be as close to heaven as one could get.

I read…an read….playing the distress signal over. ISS Grendal, a long abandoned ship, dead to the Earth defense fleet had been spotted by a top-secret ADD research station. About the same time sum thing had struck, a single emergency message, set to automatically send o’er an o’er.


I leaned back as space slid by, an orange hue…the whisper of a dying sun….the terrifying growl of a black hole.

‘great….one could only hope my share in the salvage would set me up with a better ship and room for me partner…life would be much better then the one I lead now with a silver cylinder.

The particular research facility Cassie was being sent to investigate, the sprawling industrial complex that was home to Projects Typhon, Hydra, Chimera, and a literal slew of other bioweapon initiatives was, in truth, doomed two days before they even realized they were dead. The place was massive; located upon and inside of a large, difficult to navigate asteroid, Jareth had only heard rumors of the place from his days in the corps. It was said that only the most talented scientific minds were allowed to set foot in the facility. He took it as a personal affront that he’d never received an invitation. Indeed, the fate of the Burrow (so it was dubbed for the fact that a full 9/10ths of the facility was located below the crust of the asteroid. Also, the scientists sent to work there had a recurring incidence of being stout and shortsighted, looking rather like moles) was sealed long before anyone within even knew something was amiss.

Passing the Grendel overhead, Jareth dropped out one single air-tight pod, letting loose a lone Nictus parasite within the labyrinthine mass of tunnels and testing grounds. The little worm was perfectly adapted to scuttling through air vents, finding its way to and fro throughout the facility, completely unnoticed by the majority of the crew save for a few ghost sounds and dark shadows slipping quickly around corners, most often dismissed as the result of an overactive imagination or day of exhausting work. It went about its business, however, and as soon as one of their numerous animal experimentation subjects died, it dragged the poor creature off into a dark corner and pumped its corpse full of glistening parasitic eggs.

Within hours there were hundreds of the things roaming about the facility.

Within a half a day, the entire animal population of the testing grounds had been assimilated into Jareth’s swarm. He captured the human population himself, having far more… interesting plans for them.

As for the moment, he stalked the empty halls of the research facility alone. There was some ascetic of the blood of the fallen, strewn haphazard across the walls and the floor, corpses long removed or scavenged, that really appealed to him. He wasn’t honestly too sure what it was, just that it moved something in him. Making a mental note to structure his “lair” with that uniquely particular vernacular in mind, he found his feet bringing him towards the barracks of the station.

The beds, bunks the lot of them, lay in a state of disarray. He tsk’d to himself; the higher-ups would simply not approve of such a wasteful lack of elbow grease. Of course, the soldiers themselves were really in no shape to tidy up. Still, as he made his way to the armory, he reflected on that idea.

Shelves overturned, but everything was mostly intact. It was here that quite an intriguing idea right plopped into his mind. Picking up a pulled, he examined it under the flickering lights. A grin slowly spread over his face as he picked up a case of ammunition, carrying it back to the walkway extending between the facility and the Grendel, reminding himself to bring a little army with him for the next trip.

As Cassie approached the facility, she would notice that, from the looks of it, nothing seemed wrong. All the lights in the place shined brightly, the little specks of windows visible upon the surface of the asteroid. The only foul omen would be the looming shape of the Grendel, docked to the side of the Burrow, a thick walkway extending between the side of the massive battleship and the entrance to the research facility.

Small specks slide about in space, I watched the patterns they made an slected me path…fingers flying over the key pad, last minute corrections to the program that no sane person made in jump. No doubt the powers to be already thought a ghost sat here…an insane woman that did insane things in the depths of space were she should have been tranked out. Have to wonder what making love would be like as I feel the whisper of a stars light caressiung me flesh. Hitting the button ended it all….

Another nerve wrenching jerk, an me tummy fell a thousand feet…A hundred voices called out in fear an anger….A dark blue star, small an tiny shone…then twinkled out. The walls of the ship slowly closing in on me form all sides…me chair supporting more of me weight. The astronavigation screens blinked red…then green a thin line forming as the computer feeds of numbers coalesced an ran down the side of the split screen. Numbers…patterns…

One more time the floor fell away and the stars went from streaks to points. The alarm wnt off, me hand hitting the switch that silenced its deplorable peel. No matter what you said, the powers to be jus wuzn’t gonna give a ship an override on that infernal device. With me ears still ringing I set about monitoring the scanners an setting a course through the asteroid field tween me an me target. Hopefully I could come in undetected, cause frankly nobody jumped into a system that close to an asteroid field.

Perhaps it should be me that wuz surprised, an I wuz. Sitting at the base wuz the largest ole vessel I think I’d every seen. An there, tween um wuz an airlock tube…

“Mistress Red, the ISS Grendel is under power, base shows power readings as well. I can ascertain with a 98% accuracy that the there are sentient life forms at this location and that said life forms have found a way to operate the Grendel. Protocol dictates that we should continue to observe until sufficient reinforcements are available.”

Thar wuz nothing more that got me hackles all raised than telling me what to do. You’d think the ADD Psyche department would have known that an programmed the idiot computer better. If I’d been paranoid I’d have thought that’s what they’d gone done…but I ain’t an after seeing the bureaucratic idiocy well….no doubt it wuzn’t some sort of sordid plan at all to have me computer talking nonsense.

“Tell yah what, you stay here, call HQ an I’m going for a walk." Kicking the chair about an strolling out of me flight deck…weapons locker…nothing but the best…HVPP one each hip an the room clearer slung o’er me back. Some grenades…bit of explosive for those stuck doors…good…energy bars, water….good….everything a good girl could want.

Carefully I tucked the golden crucifix tween me breasts under the black uniform, an strapped me self into the TIT. Green lights going red…airlock cycling…an off…not a sound hits you in space, jus the small whirr of the motors driving oxygen into the helmet an taking the bad air away.

Up close I could tell the ship wuzn’t new. The surface pitted here an thar, the scares of battle marred the pristine surface. Once more I ordered up the schematics onto the hud…twirling the asteroid round Till I found the other airlocks away from the small compound that rode upon the rocky surface in a tangle of dark rectangles. A door, powered an functioning stood for me…my drifting through space uneventful. The panel flashed its red warning…the door opening and closing….sound…a faint hiss as the inner panel shifted color to green. I removed the TIT from me back, hefting the Room clearer as the door hissed back to reveal the pristine white of a blank corridor….

So far so good…the HUD flashing me path to engineering….stepping out into the ghostly still corridor I walked, the HUD blinking green…green…this wuz gonna be nerve wrackin’!

The scuttling of little feet was the only real sound left in the deserted base aside from the droning hum of the electric lights and the concealed, barely-audible groan of the generator. Jareth sat upon a large, sturdy crate, a number of tunnels away from Cassie’s entrance, picking idly at his nails as the nictus-infected animals trundled back and forth between the armory and his ship, loaded boxes of bullets and crates filled with rifles, grenades, sidearms, quite literally enough firepower to outfit a full military battalion, as it happened to belong to the grunts stationed at the facility before its unfortunate “accident.”

There was always a market for those sorts of things, he reasoned with himself, cradling a standard issue Gauss Assault Rifle on his lap, thumbing the bolt as he stared off into the distance. The raid on the station was most certainly a success, not only had he managed to infect enough of the beasts to grant himself the luxury of a working crew, he’d stocked up on enough ADD weaponry to cash in with a decent profit. Of course, there was always more to steal, more plunder to be had. Though, of course, considering the majority of the station’s crew was in no position to make any use of the items, he supposed he could term it “salvage.”

Of course, that’s what he was doing. Not looting, not stealing, he was “salvaging” scrap that the rest of the base had no use for. With this in mind, his footsteps took him deeper into the labyrinth of the facility, forever on the lookout for something that could turn him a profit.

***********************************************

The area where Cassie entered would be the companion lock to one of the larger loading bays in the facility. A map shone, still dimly lit by the flickering bulb above it, the electricity apparently beginning to fail after two days of running full-blast with no maintenance.

The map stated that, from her current position, she would have easy access to a number of storage areas to the North, primary civilian dormitories to the East, an access point to the lower levels to the Southeast, loading docks to the West, and the civilian cafeteria/reception area to the South.

The HUD in Cassie's helmet labeled the path to Engineering through the lower level access point, the main testing areas located on a lower deck.

A maze of corridors an levels in all thar 3D wonder spread outwards from the lil green dot that marked me progress forwards. Still now a soul whispered a greeting in the dead corridors. Light flickering overhead cast a series of eerie shadows along the wall, appearing an disappearing with each change in lighting. Still the oxygen content stayed right. It had to be a more series fault otherwise the repair bots would have gotten to it. It also meant that humans weren’t.

Level 3…Command level, rught below it wuz level 4 engineering. Turning right I followed the cue on me HUD…heart racing a bit in the confines of the hallways that should have been teeming with life.

“Mistress, I have read an increase in oxygen consumption an slightly elevated heart rate. Are you all right?”

Interruptions were not what I needed…no, I needed a clear head without distractions. There should have been someone…some indication of life or even death. Instead…nothing, not even a body to let me know what had happened. It wuz as if there’d been an alliance attack…cept the men would have been here, dead or rattled outta there minds. Well sum of them at least. The young healthy ones would have been taken. .
Breathing as I went, concentrating on slowing me heart…one blank corridor after another…a few more lights missing or gone…darkness descending the deeper into the complex I went as if orchestrated. Red doors….engineering. Jammed or not opening to a single code in the memory stash I had with me. Slinging the gun o’er me back an a pulling out the thin pliable material I started pushing it into the doors crevices….not long….time went…a slow countdown…

Perspiration ran tween me eyes with no way to wipe it away given me helmet. Still it was a small price to pay as the concussion of the explosion hit me with a soft slap an dust filled the hallway. What lights remained blinked out…an stayed out, the HUD reverting to thermal in order for me to see. Scanning engineering, the heat of computers glowing in the dark…..but not a soul moved…not even a ghost. I shivered…an prayed a bit, thanking the lord that nothing bad wuz a happening…If anybody wuz on this station they would have noted that explosion I reckoned….so it wuz time to move a bit faster an find a good place to watch an listen…..nothing like announcing sum body is in town.

Jareth’s head swiveled up, taking on a look of dismay at the sound. He hadn’t expected any organization to respond that quickly to a lack of contact. The dawning dread settled in his stomach, that someone had managed to send out an emergency call before he’d “secured” the whole of the station. He drove his fist into the wall with anger, seething through his pointed teeth. Mind reaching out, he snatched one of the smaller Nictus from his duties, sending the scuttling little scorpion off to spy, to report back on the activities of whomever disturbed his raid.

The little scorpion dropped its corner of the heavy box, a number of shells spilling out of the overfilled container onto the floor. It ignored them, a new command fresh in its mind. Skittering over towards one of the grates on the floor leading to the ventilation system, it pried the thing up, crawling down within, a quicker way to locate the source of the explosive sound than long, fruitless searches through desolate hallways.

Finally it found Cassie. Peeking out through one of the vents, its clawed feet made an audible clicking noise as it followed her progress, taking in everything, not missing a single detail in order to report back to its master later.

Jareth, however, had found his way into the hall of records. He stalked past the computer banks, over to the largely outdated system of paper files. Pulling out drawer after drawer, he sent the contents scattering across the ground, digging through them until he found what he was looking for.

Cargo manifests. All of them. He had to know how much he was selling, after all.

Sweat dripping down under me helmet threatens to run into me eyes. No matter how much I wanted to wipe it away I couldn’t move from me position without giving anything away. Minutes crawling by, an itch threatening me sanity, still nothing moves in the blown doorway, not even a ghost. With a sigh I stand, glancing back around me before moving on once again, a black clad shadow in a world of ghosts.

The access ladder looms ahead, jus where the plans say it is. Slinging the heavy room clearer o’er me shoulder, I begin the upward climb…a climb that will take me into the back of the command level. If there is anyone here, I should be able to find them from the central security control. If there is not the archives will be able to tell me what has happened.

Hope fills me again. The ascent into murky blackness going rung by rung, ever upwards into the dark abyss. The emergency exit clicks, a sound that echoes on the confines of me helmet. The hall’s emergency lights glow in small clumps that cast a circle of light at regular intervals down the corridor. I move, shadow to shadow, silence envelopes everything round me.

Sound shatters the silence, the sound of metal ‘gainst metal rings outwards from one of the rooms further up the corridor from the security access door I have stopped before. ‘finally’ the grin spreads…sum thing moves, an where sum thing moves thar is sum thing to be taken out. The black shadow moves faster, the form-fitting suit caressing me skin. Adrenaline begins to pump in me body, heart rate line going higher…breathing elevated.

“Found sum thing I think…talk to you in 10.”