It's Not a Game, You Know

I looked out into the void. The void may have been looking back, it didn't say. I could see the hulk of the ship we had come to pillage just ten or twenty metres away. It looked strange, with no lights of any sort showing. My implants scanned it for signals, transmissions of any sort, to no avail.

I took a heavy step towards the spacelock opening and heard the metallic clunk of my weighted paws against the deck.

I stood on the edge of the void and looked down.

Strangely I felt no vertigo. It didn't really seem down because I could see nothing below me. My eyes told my head I was looking up at stars, only a feint tug from my gravity boots tried to say differently. I looked back up and over at the deserted hulk. Glinting in the starlight I could just see the tether we had strung between our ships, it wasn't there to keep the ships close together - just to make it easier to get there without spinning off into space.

Over my implant came Bov's (translated) voice "Hurry up we haven't got all day."

I fumbled for a second and pulled out my personal tether from one of my waist pouches. I clicked the clip onto the ship-to-ship tether and raised my foot to step out into space.

I felt a pressure from behind and Bov pushed me out into the blackness.

Here I was, just a week ago I had never left my warren and now I was stepping into space with only a tether a few molecules thick to hold me.

Only a few days ago I had stepped on a foreign planet for the first time - at the spaceport Gortumixal.

---*---

I had accompanied Bov and Marm on their drunken path back to the ship. They didn't seem to notice that I'd hardly touched a drop. At least they had fun. I was holding myself back in anticipation. I had wanted to rush back to the ship to investigate my find, but I hadn't wanted to attract any attention to myself. I was scared of something, not sure what.

We stumbled into the ship, the first back from the spaceport and we all padded off to our respective cabins.

Cabin! The word makes it sound like a room. In reality it was more of a closet.

I walked into my cabin and shut the door behind me. It looked to all intents and purposes like a broom closet and was not much bigger. On one wall was a bed, the back wall was covered in drawers and cupboards, and the third wall was covered by a large view screen.

I sub-vocalised a command and the room shifted. "Down" moved gently from the floor to the wall with the bed and I settled back on the padding. When any wall could be your floor you didn't need much room. Well, that's what Spiron said. The others seemed to take the size of these cabins for granted. I assume no one was likely to want to mate on a spaceship. It would be a tricky thing in these enclosed spaces..

I was now laying on a bed which seemed to be at forty-five degrees to the horizontal - a good way of reading. I took the "Treasure Map" out of it's pocket and opened it up. I gulped.

The map showed Home. There was the warren there, with a slight tracing of the main burrows. There was the stream. There was the mashed-potato fields and the Cheesie Wotsit plantation.

Ah, I could date it. There was a part named "Cheesie Nik Nak bushes". They had all died out a year before, I just remember the beautiful taste as one of my baby bunny treats. I grew up to a world without Real Cheesie Nik Naks. One of my goals as a youngster was to try to find the last bush in the country and bring cuttings back so that we could repopulate our fields.

All the plants suffered damage in a small plague that left them tasteless and, well, ignored.

There were pen markings on the map, a large cross. "Treasure Here!" was written in blue biro and an arrow pointing..

Well. It's a good thing I can swim is all I say.

I stared at the map and instructed my implants to make a secure scan available to myself only.

Folding the map up I felt a tear in my eye.

Home.

I'd not been away a week and already I was feeling a little homesick? No, there must have been some dust on the map and it got into my eye.

---*---

I spun around the tether, cursing the hand that had pushed me. The space hulk in front of me spun uncontrollably. I shut my eyes. Strangely I was happy. Then I realised that the spin was making me think I had personal gravity. I triggered my suit's miniature rockets and satisfied myself with the readouts on the back of my eyelids until they said that I was still.

There wasn't any mention of this in the briefing.

---*---

"I'm glad you could all rise out of your pits to see me." Spiron said with a curl of his mouth.

He motioned towards the centre of the table and a projection appeared.

"We have been commissioned to locate this artefact."

"Looks like a pear." I volunteered.

"No," Spiron said predictably, "There's only one." I put my forehead in my hands.

"This artefact was being transported to our client. It left Mishing Port two weeks ago and was headed here to Gortumixal." He looked around the table at us all.

"It never arrived."

So tell me something I hadn't guessed, I thought.

"We have the route the ship was going to take." The projection of the pear slid over to a corner of the table and a starfield was projected in its place. A miniature pear appeared in the starfield and started moving through the stars, leaving a shiny trail behind it.

The worlds first pear-snail hybrid, I thought.

"Somewhere along this route..." Spiron said tracing the line with a fat blue finger. "Is our prize."

"Is this a general contract?" Kurl asked, "Or have we got a clean field?"

"At this moment." Spiron said as the starfield blinked out and the pear took up central position again., "At this moment we are the only crew with the contract. I cannot tell what will happen if we don't hurry."

"I'm going to grow a suit for Buck Herbert." Spiron said with a smile. "We've seen how well he has performed as a gunner and a socialiser. Let's see how he does as a real pirate."

"Do I have to swing from one ship to another with a dagger in my mouth?" I asked.

"Only if you want to cut your own chin off."

We padded off in our own directions.

"A pear that's been hanging around for a week, it'll attract bugs." I laughed to myself.

---*---

I was stationery in my brand-spanking newly grown spacesuit, state of the art (and how would I know) and armed to the gills; staring at the hulk just a few metres away.

This was a big ship. I thought back to our final briefing.

---*---

"We have it on the long range scanners. It's the Majesty-Class super transport "Wallbridge". Crew of about fifty. Could hold our ship in it's cargo hold and still have room for more than canapés. You can bet that there are supposed to be passengers as well as crates in the hold.

"It's only a couple of days out from Mishing, and shows no signs of power or life."

I felt a shiver run down my spine and make my fluffy tail quiver.

"What happened?" I asked, afraid. Spirion brought a projection of the ship up above the table.

"We can see signs of explosions here, and here." He pointed at places on the ship.

"We'll enter here, near the engineering section. Marm will attempt to bring power up. He's taking a bag full of useful items and some generic engineering nano. His primary tasks are lights and gravity. Full life support would be a luxury we probably can't afford.

"Kurl will aim for the flight-deck and assess the situation there. If we can just fly this hulk home it will be easier all round."

"Bov, Herbert and Vestock will start the search for the 'Pear', as I think Herbert called it. I've equipped your suits with scanners that should be able to locate it, but only from a short distance. Although this means you won't have to go through every drawer and locker on the ship you'll still have to go to every cabin and hold."

"I've equipped your suits with bolters and overwatch circuits."

I must have looked confused.

"Overwatch means that your bolter will automatically fire at ANY movement, unless it detects one our suits in that direction. If you have to fire at or behind a crew person you will need to have the overwatch off."

"You mean it fires without me doing anything?" I asked, incredulously. Spiron nodded. "But not at a shipmate?"

"It won't fire at a shipmate's SUIT." This is important. Even if you do get full life support on don't take your suit off because you will turn into a target for your friends.

"Also remember that you're equipped with projectile rounds, not energy rounds. We're not considering hull integrity here to be the highest goal seeing as how they have been hanging here for a week now."

"Do we know what happened?" Kurl asked. Spiron shook his head.

"We might know more when we get alongside. Suit up in ten minutes."

---*---

Something tapped my helmet from behind me and I nearly jumped out of my skin. Bov's voice came across my implant.

"Are we watching this all day?"

"Give me a break," I asked, "It's my first spacewalk." I kicked some mini rockets on and I sped towards the ship.

Touchdown! Jets of some matter puffed out from the front of my suit and I slowed and came to a halt, just centimetres away from the hulk. Bov appeared beside me. He let go of the tether immediately and stepped on the hull. He was perpendicular to me. I laughed, then spun myself around to do the same.

"The spacelock is there" He said pointing a metre away. We clunked towards it

"INCOMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!" Came Vestock's scream. I looked up to see the lunatic flying, untethered, towards our position. Bov took a single step backwards and waited.

Vestock landed in front of us. Both back paws touching down on the spacelock door itself. I looked back to see if the others were doing the same. Luckily Kurl and Marm were gently puffing along the tether.

Vestock stepped to one side of the door and pulled a panel off the hull. I could see a bright orange handle within.

Bov went to the opposite side of the door and pulled another panel off to reveal a similar handle. They pulled their handles simultaneously and the hatch popped off with some puffs of gas. I wondered why you needed two handles like that to open the door.

An arm floated gently out of the hatchway. With a grunt of disgust Bov reached out at the arm and pulled. It was not connected to anything.

Bov looked at Vestock and me. "Together?" He asked. We nodded. Kurl and Marm landed behind us.

As one Bov, Vestock and I peered into the spacelock. I closed my eyes and looked away.

Bov entered.

"I think there's only one body here." He said in a low voice. "It's a bit difficult to tell." Then he shouted "CLEAR!" and threw the pieces out.

Parts of a conanoid life-form span off into the void.

"What killed him?" Vestock asked.

"Don't know." Bov said from inside. "But I hope it's gone."

"Do you think it's after the same thing we're after?" Vestock asked.

"Calm down." Bov said, "There are no life-signs within."

"No conanoid life signs." Vestock said quietly.

"Are we going in?" Bov asked, "Are we men or mice?"

"Richard's back in the ship." I said. Bov grunted.

"Come on."

We all stepped into the spacelock. Opening this door was different, but just as easy as the external door.

We stepped into darkness. I kicked something. I looked down and nearly retched. It was the torso of a feathered life-form.

My left arm had a torch attachment. Bov and Marm both had two torches, in their lower arms. As one we flashed them everywhere. We were in a small chamber about the size of our briefing room on TB. It had, probably, about five dead bodies or rather pieces of about five dead bodies floating about. Bov moved to a wall.

"Carbon scoring." He said rubbing the hull. "Looks like a fire fight."

"I've got a very bad feeling about this." Vestock added, helpfully.

"Are you sure there are no life-signs aboard here?" I asked.

"As Vestock said." Kurl said as he started opening lockers. "No conanoid lifeforms."

"Also," Bov added with a very positive voice, "There is no discernable atmosphere in the ship."

"So nothing that has to breathe..." I said.

"Or with suits with good 'scrubbers." Vestock added.

Spiron's voice came over our implants. Solid and reassuring. "This hulk has been hanging here for a week. That's more than enough time for whoever did this to find what they want and to get out of here."

"That's fine," Vestock added, "Unless they were after the same thing we're after."

There was a moment's silence.

"Then we find out where they went and follow them." Spiron said. We groaned as one.

"Time to split up boys." Bov said.

Marm shouldered his carryall. "Engineering's not far off this way." He said going through a corridor heading down. "Keep in touch."

"Kurl you know where you're going?" The scaled face turned to us all. His eyes showed apprehension. He raised his right arm, where his bolter was attached and visibly checked the ammunition. He nodded and was off down a corridor leading away opposite to the engineering corridor.

"We've got to sweep the rest of the ship." Bov said striding towards the third exit.

---*---

The ship was a gigantic mortuary. Dead bodies, and parts of dead bodies, seemed to be floating everywhere. My search seemed pointless and empty. I would walk up to a room and pass the scanner over it and walk up to another room.

We kept up a chatter, trying to talk to each and every one in turn. It felt so alone walking through these corridors with only corpses for company.

"I think I can get some power." Marm said. "But she'll never fly again. There!" Suddenly the corridor was filled with a bright white light, drowning out my meagre suit lights. I smiled. We'd made some progress!

"Is that you Bov?" Marm's voice came.

"N..." Bov started to say when he was cut short by a scream from his brother.

I stopped in my tracks. My suit was hit by a sudden burst of chatter.

"What was that?"

"What the hell?"

"MARM!"

The last was Bov.

"I'm nearest to engineering!" I shouted, "I'll see what's up."

"I'll be there before you." Bov's voice came ragged.

I turned and started running as best as I could in the gravity-less environment, my boots sucking at the ground where they hit. I felt something scratch at my head and I was suddenly knocked over and lying on my back. My bolter came to life on it's own and sprayed bullets at the ceiling. Above me was a hole that had been cut in the ceiling that I didn't remember from the two minutes ago when I passed this place. I thought I saw something dark scuttle away.

"I saw one!" I screamed.

"One what?"

"Who?"

I heard a rattle and realised that someone else was firing their bolter.

"Bugs." Bov said. I thought he was swearing for a minute.

"Confirmed." Spiron's voice came through. "It's official boys. We have an infestation."

"Now he tells us!" Vestock said.

"Sorry boys. You have to have some idea of what you're scanning for."

"Regroup at engineering!" Bov shouted.

"No!" Spiron interjected, "We know there are bugs there. Regroup at the entrance point."

"My brother!" Bov shouted.

"Is dead." Spiron said coldly. "I want to stop that happening to all of you."

I had raised myself up and realised that my back was tight to the wall. I tried to push myself into the bulkhead. My head whipped from side to side.

Spiron's voice came through to my ears. "This is private, son." He said quietly. "I can see your life-signs and you need to calm down. Don't worry. It's a common space-born life-form. It's one we can deal with now we know it's here. You don't need to panic. Just take deep breaths and maybe take some Blue Calm from your med-kit. Just follow your nose back to the spacelock and we'll regroup and get back to our ship and tackle this problem the simple way."

My legs seemed to calm down. My arms didn't take much longer.

My breath rattled in the confines of my suit. I took a step, then another step.

I got my balance after two more steps then I broke out into a run and raced myself back to the spacelock.

I burst out into the entrance to see a forest of bolters aimed at me.

"We thought you were lost then." Vestock said. I looked around.

"Where's Bov?" I asked after counting heads. I didn't asked about Marm.

"He's turned off his comms. He's still there, but he's gone bug hunting."

"Bugs!" I said. I was swearing. "We can't leave him."

"Yes you can," Spiron's voice came, "I don't want to lose you all to some mindless insects."

I ignored Spiron. "Can we track him?"

Kurl nodded, "Your implant can track him, as long as he doesn't decide to block us. I've got his position now. He's been to engineering and left it."

I told my implant what I wanted and a bright yellow arrow appeared in my eyes, pointing to his position.

"Are you alright?" Vestock asked, "You seemed quite spooked back there." I nodded.

"I'll survive being scared. Will Bov survive without our help?" Vestock looked down.

We left the entrance hall, myself and Kurl two abreast in the front row, Vestock followed behind us walking backwards. "I've got a link to your optics so I can see roughly where I'm going." He said as we stepped off. "But I'm not letting one of those things up behind us."

"Silly question." I said to them, "Aren't Bov and Marm insects?"

"No," Kurl shook his head, "They are basically the same as your or I, just armoured. The extra arms aren't natural per se, they had them attached as young. It's common with their race."

"The bugs are not like us at all." Vestock said with a quiver in his voice "They don't breathe the way we do. They don't have hearts or stomachs or, well a normal body's organs. They don't even have a central brain. They don't think. They just act. Pure instinct."

I was sure I'd heard all this before. I decided that I knew enough of their physiology, "I take it we don't know what they want?" Silence.

Spiron's voice came on. "As a warning. Bov is down to fifty percent ammunition." I swore, but Spiron continued, "There are at least a hundred of the bugs still moving."

Vestock screamed and I heard a chatter of bolter fire. "There's one!"

I turned to stand beside him as a dark form skittered out of sight.

Kurl screamed and I felt someone push me. I fell over and rolled to see that one of the bugs had jumped down in our midst. Vestock and Kurl were pointing at the beast from both side but not firing. I realised that they would shoot each other and the overwatch circuitry was blocking their fire. The bug was ugly, like a giant cockroach but even uglier, if that's possible, It was swinging it's head back and forth from Vestock to Kurl and back again.

Slowly I raised my right arm and fire rained from my bolter into the belly of the beast. Green ichor spurted everywhere and the beast fell in pieces.

I dragged my leg out from underneath the thing and shivered. Vestock moved up to it and kicked the unmoving corpse. At least I hoped it was dead.

Vestock and I stared at the body.

"Come on." Kurl gained control first, "We've got to get to Bov before he runs out."

We went off at a trot. Vestock no longer looking behind us, so we could go faster.

We turned a corner and a bug appeared right in front of us. We all three let rip with our bolters. It didn't stand a chance. Another two bugs turned up behind the first and we let rip. Behind them we could see others.

"Back the way we came." I screamed. We turned tails and ran.

We came back to the last tee junction we'd seen and took the 'other' leg. This was away from Bov, but also away from the bugs.

"There're just behind us!" Vestock shouted.

I flicked my head back and I could see a hallway full of bugs. They were taking advantage of the lack of gravity and were using every wall and the ceiling as floor.

"Right, Door!" Kurl shouted.

We dived through an opening and spun round and shut the door behind us.

We were in a wide space. Possibly a cargo hold, it was empty.

"No cargo?" Kurl said. "Why would a freighter this big have an empty cargo hold?"

"Just how much is this Pear worth?" Vestock asked.

"Just get on with it." Spiron's voice came over the link. "Take the third door to your right." My optics made one of the exits glow. "You've actually found a short cut." He said.

We legged across the cargo hold and got to the door just as the bugs broke through our entrance. I fired off a round of shots at them and jumped through the door behind the others. We were in a long corridor. "This way!" I said following the yellow arrow in my optics.

At then end of the corridor I stood to one side and Kurl and Vestock stood with bolters ready. I punched the door and it swung open.

We could see a mass of bugs, in a circle, around Bov.

"Look what I've found!" His voice came onto the link for the first time in an eternity.

He held up a shape. It was pear shaped and about the size of a football to him. It glistened a bright silvery white.

The bugs circled him. All of their eyes on him, or rather on the pear.

"How's your ammo?" I asked in general.

"Out." Bov replied.

"Sixty", "Fifty five" my compatriots said .I looked down at mine. Fifty percent.

I looked at the bugs: they seemed hypnotised by the pear. They followed it's every move.

"Kill them." I said quietly, "All of them."

We jumped into the room and let rip with our bolters. Had they not been entranced by the pear we wouldn't have had a chance. As it was the overwatch circuits stopped us firing at the centre where Bov stood so we had to rush around the circle of bugs.

Like slaughtering innocents we mowed them down in what seemed like forever but, my implants told me, was about forty-five seconds.

We stood next to Bov and checked our ammunition.

"We could split the ammo and have a ten percent magazine each?" Kurl suggested. Vestock nodded. He was out of ammo. Bov shook his head. "I won't need any. They don't attack someone with this." He said holding out the pear.

"Is it made of platinum?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Don't know."

"They looked like they worshipped it, or some such." I said.

Bov nodded. "Seems like."

"So what will then do when they realise we're running off with their holy icon?"

"Lets hope they don't."

"Boys." Spiron's voice came, "I've worked out an optimal route back the entrance. I'm sending it now." My yellow arrow stopped pointing at Bov and pointed off to the right.

"It goes via the armoury. If there's any chance of re-supplying it'll be there."

"Thanks." Kurl said.

We pooled our ammo and headed out into the ship.