Wild Space Side Story: "...There Is No Longer Anywhere to Run."
The mechanical voice of the Hound Unit commander echoed coldly from the comm screen.
The Hound bastard was pressuring us with objective facts. In a normal situation, he wouldn't be wrong.
[Pathetic.]
Yeah. In a normal situation.
Nahibi's voice rang out.
[You think a few piles of scrap metal like that can threaten me? Back when I was on the battlefield, it took at least three warships and Constellations clinging to me just to grab my ankle. And these puny flotillas dare block Her Majesty's path? Pathetic, you lowly humans.]
Arrogant. But that arrogance had solid backing. Until now, we'd been hiding, evading the Federation's surveillance net, suppressing our power out of concern for law and order.
But we're no longer in Federation territory.
This was Wild Space. A lawless zone completely beyond the Federation's reach. They had no idea.
They thought they'd confidently surrounded us, but in truth, they'd walked right into the monster's maw of their own accord.
[Nahibi. I'm counting on you.]
I sent her a psychic pulse.
[Hmph. As if you need to 'count' on me, lowly human.]
[Yeah.]
I released the controls and sent a surrender signal. Then I glanced at Bani beside me. He already seemed to grasp the situation, wearing a relaxed expression.
"Bani. Just in case, suit up in your protective gear."
"Got it. Even though that destroyer flotilla's clearly got us surrounded, I haven't felt a lick of danger."
"Same here."
I nodded with a chuckle at his words and activated the comms.
"This is the Night Raven. Understood. Shutting down engines and surrendering."
The ship's navigation lights blinked white as it slowly approached the destroyers. Like offering up its own neck, nice and slow.
"Enemy ship engines stopped. Navigation lights flashing. Surrender signal confirmed."
The bridge tension eased slightly at the operator's report.
Captain Karka smirked satisfactorily from behind his red visor.
"Boring, but life's precious, after all."
He leaned back in his chair and issued orders.
"All fleet, maintain encirclement. Keep targeting the bridge—be ready to blow it if they try anything funny."
"Understood."
Executive Officer Krof approached with a report.
"Captain. Night Raven fully surrounded. Docking bay open and ready. First and Second Assault Squads standing by at the airlock."
"Good. Priority is capture alive, but kill if they resist. Especially recover that test subject. The Director's been waiting eagerly."
"Yes, sir."
Captain Karka was drunk on victory. Their skill in breaching the asteroid belt was impressive, but overwhelming force always wins. That was the logic of power.
"Initiate docking sequence. Reel in the Night Raven."
Just as the tractor beam fired up—
"Captain! Anomalous signs on the enemy ship's surface!"
The operator shouted urgently.
"Anomalous? Self-destruct?"
"Negative! No heat signatures. But... visual sensors picking up something weird. Bringing it up!"
The main screen showed a close-up of the Night Raven. The black hull was writhing with something white.
"What the hell is that? Coolant leak?"
"No. It's... liquid. Pouring out from inside the ship!"
White slime oozed from every seam in the Night Raven's armor.
The volume was unnatural. Like the ship itself was a massive pustule bursting, the white mass rapidly covered the hull.
A chill ran down Captain Karka's spine.
"What is that? Scan results!"
"Scanning! ...Analysis impossible! Unknown organic material! No metal reaction, energy readings... unmeasurable!"
"If it's coming up unidentifiable, halt the approaching escorts! All fleet to firing formation—!"
But before he could finish, the screen showed changes on the white-coated Night Raven.
From the white slime, a massive red eye emerged.
And that wasn't the end.
One, two, ten, a hundred...
In an instant, thousands of red eyes covered the ship, glaring at the destroyers and escorts.
The bridge crew froze at the blatant abnormality. An unknown monster wearing a spaceship shell.
Captain Karka instinctively spat a curse.
"Snap out of it and fire!! Fuck!!"
Too late.
A ship-crushing vibration traveled through their soles. The white slime engulfing the Night Raven expanded explosively.
A white wave surged across space, swallowing the Hound fleet's ships.
"Captain! Ship 3, Ship 4—comms lost! It's being eaten by that slime!"
"Aaaagh! It's on the bridge! Stuck to the bridge windows!"
Screams filled the bridge. It wrapped the smaller escorts with room to spare, then surrounded the destroyer.
The massive white tsunami devoured everything. Not darkness, but sticky, opaque white filled their view.
The crunch of state-of-the-art hulls—made of super-space alloys—crumpling like paper was nightmarish.
Cracks spiderwebbed the bridge windows. And through the gaps, white liquid seeped in.
"No... no...!"
Captain Karka staggered back.
But with the entire ship coated in slime, there was nowhere to run. White goo poured down like a waterfall.
"Aaaaagh—!"
That was his final scream.
......
I opened my eyes.
Or maybe I couldn't even tell if they were open. Everything was white.
I couldn't breathe. But there was no suffocating pain. My lungs were already filled with the sticky liquid.
Captain Karka tried to move. But not even a finger twitched. He was perfectly immobilized in the white slime, like a bug trapped in amber.
Where... am I? Am I dead?
He desperately rolled his eyes. Through blurry vision, he saw other shapes.
Executive Officer Krof, the operator, the helmsman... All his subordinates floated in the same state.
Their eyes bulged in terror, mouths agape and frozen.
They're... alive?
The moment he thought death might be better—
[Found you, little rat.]
A voice burrowed directly into his mind. Not through eardrums, but scraping his brain—disgustingly grating.
"...?!"
The slime before Karka's eyes coalesced. A massive single eye formed, staring him down.
[Kyahahaha! Who was calling who a pathetic insect? Pathetic.]
The eye brimmed with mockery and contempt.
[Lowly humans daring to block Her Majesty's path. You'll pay dearly for that arrogance.]
"Mmph! Mmph!"
Karka tried to scream, but the slime clogged his vocal cords.
[Shh. Quiet. I don't want to hear from vermin like you.]
Nahibi's voice sneered.
[I'll take the info myself.]
Something pierced his temples.
No physical pain. But something far worse flooded in.
A lukewarm, wet thing drilling through his skull, stirring his brain matter.
[Hmm. Apex Industries... Director. Victor.]
Nahibi savored his memories like fine cuisine.
Karka's past flashed before him in panorama: his hiring day, first kill, promotions, operations hunting Eve. Nahibi plucked only what she needed.
[They've muddled the info since some brains are involved... But.]
Her psychic pulse thickened.
[Even better. This despair and terror you're feeling right now? The perfect spice. Delicious.]
Nahibi wasn't just draining Karka—she simultaneously sucked memories and emotions from hundreds of trapped Hound crew.
The captain wished for death. His brain shriveled, his self fading.
[I'll savor you nice and slow, not enough to kill. Hang in there. Oh, the ship's too cramped, so I'll trim unnecessary parts. Hehe... Don't be scared. It won't hurt.]
Nahibi's whisper was the devil's mercy. Bloody tears streamed from Karka's eyes. He prayed for death. But his pleas went unanswered. This was the monster's stomach, and he was mere prey awaiting digestion.
[Now, on to the next course?]
Nahibi's red eyes flashed. In the white darkness, every crewmember of the Hound fleet that assaulted the Night Raven screamed silently, plunging into eternal torment.