Children Of Gaia

Chapter 18

Erranos spent almost an hour working on a device able to interface with human technology. Something with enough storage capacity to accommodate for all of Gaia, with the addition of the human archives. His finished device was no larger than a briefcase and Felix was rather sceptical about its capacity.

"Are you sure it will be enough?" Felix asked as he poked at the device with his index finger, not that he knew what he was looking for.

"Of course. There should be enough room left over for a few movies and some music too," stated Erranos.

Felix hesitated, replaying in his mind what he had just heard, "Erranos, was that a joke?" he asked cautiously.

"Yes," Erranos confirmed, making no other movements.

Felix was stunned momentarily, "why I had no idea the Tarrax had a sense of humour. I guess it is easy for us to forget you were once flesh and blood like us. I thank you for trying to lighten the mood at least," smiled Felix.

"It would seem as though you meatbags are rubbing off on me," Erranos admitted causing Felix to nearly fall over.

"Please don't listen to Lloyd, I feel he will mostly be a bad influence on you," Felix sighed as he shook his head.

The boarding party was busy making their last preparations as Erranos activated twenty drones that stood by the airlock at the ready. Maddison argued that they should take at least fifty but Felix had to explain that they would not all fit in the corridor. Erranos approached a wall and a panel opened exposing a rack of exotic looking weapons that glistened in the artificial lighting. He removed three of the weapons all the same and handed them to Felix, Lloyd and Eva. He explained they were a standard weapon for use against the Scourge, firing a metered dose of energy in a scaled-down version of their ship's weapons. He showed them the features of the weapon, there was no safety, only the ability to lower the rate of fire to increase the size of the energy bolts for larger targets. Erranos advised that they leave the weapons on their current setting as firing larger bolts within a confined space would carry a high risk of injuring themselves.

Leaving Maddison and Emelia at the airlock the boarding party entered Gaia, Felix could see that Maddison's eyes were already starting. He gave a wave as he took off then didn't look back. The drones walked ahead in pairs with weapons at the ready, with four drones stationed at the tail end of the party. The sound of their mechanical feet marching over the deck plating produced a deafening echo. Gaia directed them as they walked, arriving at the junction of the access point within a few minutes. The four rear drones remained close by as personal protection whereas the main body moved into position to secure the passageway and prevent anything from coming down the corridor ahead of them.

Eva activated the panel and typed her access code. A portion opened and a dermal scanner appeared, she laid her right hand down for verification. The next level of security activated producing a retinal scanner. Satisfied with her identity the last panel opened to reveal a portion of circuit board with an available port and three unnamed buttons. Eva stepped back and Erranos produced a corded plug from his device.

"Ready when you are," stated Gaia, "good luck everyone, see you on the other side."

Lloyd gave Erranos the nod. The second Erranos plugged his device into Gaia, the passageway illumination altered to red emergency lighting and all the doors down the corridor flew open in rapid succession. The sound of the opening doors continued for a few seconds, it slowly drifted further away growing more faint.

An ominous sound could be heard in the distance, the Scourge forces were well aware of the human presence back on the station. The sound grew in volume until the first of the creatures appeared in the distance. A vile appearance at the least, the grotesque creature moved swiftly carried by 4 short legs supporting its tall body. The only feature of its face was the large drooling opening, one would only assume was a mouth. Its arms appeared as large curved blades with filthy jagged edges. Before long there were ten more behind it and closing, each appearing slightly different in physical proportions.