Chapter 4

Gabriel and Shannon laid back in their bed, arms around each other, staring up at the image of their new home. All trepidation was gone from Gabriel as he had finally let her know all he had experienced, and she had not pushed him away. 

"Please tell me you didn't name it something stupid like Silva Alpha." She teased. 

"I haven't named it yet. Silva Alpha felt too sterile." he mused, "and as you are so fond of reminding me, I am terrible at naming things. I thought perhaps you would like to name it?"

"Hmmm. It's a big responsibility." She thought. She reached around and ran her fingers through his hair. He turned to look at her and she did the same. 

"You like Latin words so much, how about Aureolus? It reminds me of you." She said as she kissed him passionately. 

"Aureolus it is then. I'll edit the logs in the morning." He said as the two turned back to observing the newly named Aureolus. 

"The species that are native to this planet are fascinating. Many I can't identify, but I can clearly identify red pine, pitch pine and even sugar maple. Have you ever had maple syrup?" Shannon asked. 

"I have. They used to have it sometimes in the mess when I was in the navy. It was delicious, nothing like it where I grew up. What about you?" 

"I never did, maybe it wasn't high class enough for us or my parents just didn't like it. I have always wanted to try it though. Ever since I learned about it. Damn stuff is harder to get than you might think. It isn't easy to mass produce with machinery, and sugar maples only grow in specific regions on a small number of planets. How lucky that we can make it on ours." The two were quiet for a moment until Gabriel broke the silence. 

"Do you want kids?" he asked hopefully. 

"Gabriel, love, we are on a colony ship. It is practically mandatory for us to have children. At least enough to replace us." She laughed 

"Ok, maybe that was a stupid question." He said sheepishly.

"I don't just want kids; I want your kids my love." She said. He smiled at this. 

"Well, we should probably start thinking of names."

"You mean I should start thinking of names. I won't let you give our children Greek or Latin names, which means you will be useless." She scolded playfully. 

"Just because I name planets like that doesn't mean that I will be naming my kids the same way." He said in mock offense. 

"Well, what did you have in mind?" 

"What about James? Its traditional, but also unique. Or perhaps Justin?" 

"And if we have a girl?" She asked pointedly. 

"What about Jennifer?"

"Why do all your ideas start with the letter J?" she chuckled. "I like Jennifer... It was my mother's name." She let that hang in the air for a moment. 

"My mother's name was Maria. Sometimes I wonder if she is doing, ok?" He whispered. "I had two sisters. Both of them younger than me. Mom and dad had to work to keep all of us fed. At least that is what I told myself. Now I wonder if they did it just so they could further their careers. I practically raised my sisters. Was there to help with their homework, with their first crush, and with everything else. When I turned 18 I joined the navy. I don't remember if it was some ploy to make my parents actually pay attention to their kids, or if it was to just get back at them. Maybe a bit of both. Now that I am older, I am sure that they loved all three of us. I think they just got lost somewhere along the way." Shannon didn't speak at first; she only laid her head on his chest. and reached up to caress his cheek. 

"My parents sat on the board of Greentree. I thought the world of them. That they represented the one corporation in our system that didn't want to see humanity burn for profit. They built clean energy, everywhere and provided it to untold amounts of people. They are the reason I became a scientist. I wanted to work in their labs, change the world. Young me was completely blind to how they treated my sister. She was so good at management. She would be away for large chunks of time visiting factories or powerplants. I had always thought she was there for training or something, but instead she was there to put down unions. It ate away at Jasmine; she distanced herself from us and my parents didn't care. When I finally found out the truth. That our company was working its laborers to death in other systems, exploiting their planets to make our system clean? I left on the first ship out of there. I found out that the rest of the world was just as ugly, so I jumped on this mission and never looked back. Thinking I would either find a life out here or die." Gabriel wrapped his arm around her waist to comfort her.

"I am so thankful I found you." she said. 

"I am thankful we found each other." He added. "We can learn from our parents. We do not have to be them. We can build a life for our children where they will have a home and we will be in it." Shannon shifted and embraced him. kissing his cheek. 

"Slow down cowboy." She said. "You haven't even proposed to me yet." She said as they both drifted to sleep. 

Gabriel awoke abruptly as he was thrown from his bed and landed on the floor, hitting his head. He sat up dazed as he took in his surroundings. The emergency lights were flashing in his room. The distant sound of sirens made him fly into a panic. He stood up rapidly and almost fell again as the ship lurched underneath him. Had they hit something? he cried out for Shannon, but she was nowhere to be found. She normally was up before him, but he had no sense of the time. He hastily dressed himself and grabbed his data pad. He couldn't connect to the ships network; all he could access were his personal files. It didn't matter. He needed to find Shannon and figure out what in the void was happening. He opened the door to his quarters and found the dormitory in chaos. Officers in various states of dress were rushing past him, all with panicked looks on their face. He joined their number and began running towards his office. If Shannon would be anywhere, it would probably be there or hydroponics. As he rushed down the corridor the ship lurched again knocking everyone in the hallway to the ground. Behind him he heard the tearing of metal and turned to see a whole being ripped open in the side of the ship. He watched in terror as figures began lazily making their way through the hole. Whatever these creatures were, they were not human. They were grotesque mutants with what looked like massive, oversized weapons. They were mountains of oily flesh and spikes, like something out of a little kid's nightmare. One of them, a bulbus monster with too many teeth in his wide grin, turned a large barrel towards the gawking crew members. The alien next to the bulbus one said something in a harsh guttural language that shook his very soul, and Gabriel could see light building within the barrel. his shook him out of his trance, and he turned and ran just as blasts of energy began whizzing past him and colliding with his fellow crew mates who fell as burning corpses. Shannon, he needed to find Shannon. 

He rounded another corner and finally made it to his office. He threw the door open and was met face to face with a barrel, and his love standing behind it. 

"Thank the stars you are safe." She said lowering the barrel. The two embraced. "What in the void is happening Gabriel. The network is down. something is impacting the ship."

"I don't know my love, but on the way here I saw a squad of aliens, and they were ginning people down. We need to get the hell out of here." He said panicked. Shannon thought for a fraction of a second and then said. 

"The flight deck. That will be the closest to have suits, and we need a shuttle." They both nodded and then ran through the door, turning right to avoid the muscular alien of red flesh that was cleaving through people behind them. The flight deck was at the bottom of the ship, and Gabriels room was with the other officers at the top near the bridge. The quickest path would be to make their way towards the bridge and down the stairwell next to it, and so the pair ran. Dodging panicking people and others who ran towards the battle happing behind them. There was fear in their eyes, but they ran towards danger instead of away. It made Gabriel feel like a coward, but Shannon gripped his hand so tight, he knew he couldn't leave her alone.

They made it three quarters of the way to the stairwell when they were met with combat. Captain Theodore had rallied a small band of crew members that were attempting to fight back with their service weapons. Gabriel and Shannon watched in shock as they surrounded a towering muscular figure of purple pulsing flesh and veiny muscle. Concentrating their fire on him. The monster raised its massive, spiked club and brought it down on one of the crew, reducing him to nothing but a puddle on the floor. As the man died Gabriel saw a feint light from the monster's flesh. There was something woven into its chest with threads of blackened metal. At the center of this strange piece of jewelry, if you could call it that, was a small clear jewel that lit up softly. As it continued to kill the crew members, the light grew brighter. As the man died the rest of those surrounding this demonic figure opened fire. Bullets penetrated into the things flesh, ripping away at its muscle. The thing roared as it was filled with lead and swung wildly, catching brave men and women and throwing them against the walls of the bridge with a sickening crunch. Captain Theodore picked up the gun of the squashed man joining the fight. The walls were stained red, but the crew kept firing, unloading full magazines into the thing before finally it fell to the floor lifeless. the captain stood on the thing's chest and proclaimed 

"They can be slain!" Raising his gun high into the air. Gabriel let himself believe that there was hope. That maybe all was not lost, but just as he was thinking this something ripped its way through the floor of the bridge. A 15-foot-tall monstrosity with broad shoulders and cloven feet. As it entered the room it rose into the air, flying on pitch black webbed wings. The thing didn't have skin. It was all black bone and blood red muscle. It's head was sleek and jagged with spikes protruding from its cheek bones and jaw, and horns that we reminiscent of open wings. It held a large sword with a broad blade made of carved white bone. It was unnaturally clean. The figure was menacing and alien, and the open-mouthed smile it flashed as Theodore turned to meet chilled Gabriel to the bone. 

"Human." Its voice was like a knife jabbing into Gabriel's ear, and somehow, it knew their language. "Be thankful you will die today at the hands of Xerxis'Zarell, lord of this band. Others of your kind will not be so lucky." The creature said as he looked over at Gabriel, who froze with fear. Captain Theodore raised his gun to the beast but barely squeezed the trigger before Xerxis swung his sword and the captain fell in two separate pieces. Staining its blade red. Shannon pulled on Gabriel's arm and dragged him away from the deck and towards the stairs. Gabriel shook himself out of his trance and followed after Shannon. Behind them, both could hear the cackle of Xerxis accompanied by the screams of the dead, but they pressed on. 

After several flights of stairs, they made it to the flight deck. There were dead bodies everywhere, but no aliens to be found, one shuttle remained, the other two had been torn to shreds by the demonic aliens. The pair hurriedly flung open locker doors until they each found a void suit, and they helped each other get into their suits, and Shannon grabbed the control module for the final shuttle. The two ran towards salvation and were but a few strides away when something crashed through the ceiling of the flight deck. Xarxis unfurled his black leather wings, blocking the path to freedom. He turned towards Gabriel, not paying attention to Shannon who stood behind her partner. 

"Foolish mortal, you thought you could escape your fate. Xerxis'Zarell has marked you. You are the ancient enemy, and I will savor watching you bleed!" Cried the demon as it lunged towards him. The last thing Gabriel saw was the shuttle behind Xerxis light in flame and a moment later the explosion threw him backwards into the wall. 

Shannon struggled to get back to her feet. Gabriel was out, she prayed he was still breathing. He had been too close to the blast, but she had had no other options. The control module she had used to turn the engine into a bomb had been flung from her grasp. It was useless to her now anyway. Bodies and debris began moving towards the hole she had just blown into the side of the fortuna. The monster was on the floor. It had been the closest to the blast. She had thought the thing dead, but it began to stir. Even if it was still alive, she had done a number on it. Its left arm wasn't much more than a fleshy stump, and its left leg was bent out of shape. The creature's wings were ripped to shreds and its flesh had nasty burns all over it. Shannon felt out of breath, and that's when she noticed that there was a crack in her helmet. She was losing air. Her head was already getting light. Thinking fast, she sent a quick message to Gabriel's data pad. "Gabriel, know that I loved you with all my heart, and I hope that, if you survive this, you will forget about me and live your life." She sent her parting words as the darkness was closing in on around her vision. Her blurry sight caught a glimpse of two other demonic figures carrying Xerxis through the hole in the dying Fortuna, as the darkness enveloped her vison.