The Thing in the vents that eats people

8

I spend the next several hours trying to rally survivors and help them to hide in a few storage rooms that have no vents. I find only a few. Most who I do find refuse to come with me.
"What authority do you have?"
"Like none but I have a not bad idea????" I cry, as they close the door in my face, "It's coming through the VENTS your room has VENTS—never mind."
I move on. Some don't believe me and insist on seeing the carnage for themselves.
"My ship was attacked, it was a research ship, I know a bit about these monsters, please come with me," I sigh, when I find a group of passengers huddled in a storage room. "I found a few rooms without vents."
"Can we survive in there until we land?" A woman asks, timidly.
"Maybe not but you really won't survive here," I gesture to a vent.
"What's your plan?" A man asks.
"I'm going to try to lead it away," I sigh.
In the end I get one of the rooms mostly full and the other half. The rest of the survivors won't listen to me or think that their plan is better, be their plan praying or arming themselves with various home made weapons. In the end I quit arguing and lead them to it.
By now, I should be one of the few beings alive and on the ship. Good. I can, then, hopefully, lead it to the airlock, and out onto the hull of the ship. It can eat me, but if I fake it out and hide for a bit, then perhaps I can distract it long enough for everyone inside to secure the ship better, or be much closer to Alpha Centari or something like that. I am aware it's not a great plan, but it's the one I have.
I'm making my way to the airlock, slowly accelerating my heart rate. The louder it is, the more likely the Kestryl will be to follow me and not one of the humans.
"Big chap, on your left."
I'd forgotten I even still had the earpiece in so it takes me a moment to react. As it is, I just duck in time before a tentacle slaps across my face, another snagging around my legs. I have a knife out and I slash wildly, ducking away.
"I thought you weren't speaking to me," I breath, heavily.
"So did I. Are you leading him out the airlock?"
"Trying," I pant, as more tentacles ooze around me. I'm almost to the airlock. And the Kestryl is almost out of the vents. It's filling up the room, flooding it like so much sentient slime.
"I have a plan. I'm aware it's terrible, ergo I am not currently accepting constructive criticism on it. Get him out of the airlock, meet me on the flight deck in ten minutes," he pants.
"Are you okay?" I gasp, finally getting a hold of the airlock door only for a tentacle to seal around my waist. But most of it is in here with me. I slam the door, as hard as I can, severing tentacle as I do.
"Yes Candy, I'm simply divine. I'm fucking brilliant. Couldn't be better now do your bit and meet me down on the flight deck all right? I can't open doors for you for a while so you're on your own on that."
"I've got it," and I do, the airlock rushes open, and I and the Kestryl are immediately sucked out.
I cling to the door, and the Kestryl clings to me, a tentacle around my foot as it sucks onto the hull of the ship. I gasp, the lack of air is killing me but of course not quickly. That said I can't stay sentient for very much longer, more than a few minutes and I'll be comatose.
I whip myself around, clinging to the inside door, but I can't get the tentacle off of my foot. Shit. Shit.
I slam the door, severing the foot. I scream into the void, no sound coming out of course but the pain is immense.
But the door is sealed. It bangs, the creature is trying to get back in. And slowly the mental begins to dent.