Defence Mechanism (Working Title)
UT (Universal Time) 4903.032
Earth Year 2744
John Dawson, weary, battered and bleeding managed to lock the hatch into the East Wing of the ship. The status of the rest of the ship was unknown. Dawson knew one thing for certain: the ship was no longer travelling at 4LS (four times the speed of light). In fact, the ship slowed right down to a 0.1LS. The only thing that Dawson had to be thankful for was that the East Wing carried the five hundred new citizens of New Earth. He lost contact with the other vessels one Earth month ago. Breathing frantically, Dawson observed the vital signals of the five hundred souls he was responsible for. Critical levels were reached for more than half of them. He took a deep breath and calmed his nerves.
The ship travelled in the uncharted area in space for the last two hundred years without an incident. Few Earth Days ago the ship named New Noah’s Ark went through an unexpected turbulence. Dawson and his crew didn’t think much of it. The only casualties were two baby cows in cryo-sleep. Then twenty-four hours ago, Hudson and Rodriguez, two of the security team members were found with their heads missing. The remaining four members of the security team conducted a search and destroy and recovery mission. That was six hours ago. They were all missing, resumed dead.
The ship was entirely impenetrable from the outside. Dawson was baffled as to what was picking off his crew. Whatever it was, it was in the engine room shutting down everything. Dawson felt completely helpless as he saw the nine engines being shut down one by one. He checked his pistol. He had five rounds in the magazine. He opened the sheath for a window to look outside. He could see the hosting star for New Earth twinkling as he felt the Ark come to a complete stop. He prayed that the gravity drive wasn’t touched by what ever was out there.
Suddenly his radio hissed. “Hello, anyone out there! This is Caroll, I’m in the med-bay”
That was the best thing Dawson heard in the last twenty four hours.
“Caroll, this is John, hang in there, I’ll think of a way to get to you!” Dawson said
“Dawson! It’s so good to hear from you! It’s not a good idea, that creature is walking around in the foyer. I barely made it in here. You have to see this thing, it’s not from Earth, and just nasty-looking”
Dawson’s heart dropped. What ever it was, it must have come on board during the unexplained turbulence.
“Caroll, just hang on, I’ll figure out a way”
Dawson saw that the vital signs on more than half the people in cry-sleep were in red. Dawson looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. The armoury room was next to the med-bay. Suddenly, he remembered living the tool kit to seal the cryo-chamber a month ago. He quickly ran over to the toolbox. His felt a burst of energy run through him when he saw all of his toys sitting inside.