The Gorison Traveler Incident - Laurann Dohner Page 0,3

the crew. The alarm would let them know there was trouble. She opened her mouth—

And abruptly paused. The aliens wore language translators. She was well familiar with the devices, having learned everything about them in her classes…including their flaws.

The most fundamental flaw—language translators only worked with spoken words.

“L.O.C.K.,” she quickly spelled out. “D.O.W.N.

“I repeat, L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N. The Ke’ters are attacking the crew. This is not a drill. Find S.H.E.L.T.E.R now! I repeat. Find S.H.E.L.T.E.R now. Total L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N in T.W.O.”

She ended coms and let her fingers fly over the controls, preparing to initiate lockdown. It would trap the aliens and hopefully protect the crew if they made it to their quarters or an emergency shelter room. There were two on each level.

The coms on the desk buzzed and she reached over, answering it.

“Who in the hell is this? What do you think you’re doing?”

She flinched, identifying Commander Alderson’s voice. She’d know his shouting tone anywhere. “The Ke’ters have attacked everyone in the team leader debriefing room, sir. Big M, Mikey, and every security team leader in attendance has been murdered or seriously injured. They aren’t moving.”

“What? That’s preposterous! Who is this?”

“Vivian Goss, sir. It’s true. Mikey Miller was on his vid device with me when they attacked. I watched the entire thing go down. I’m going to initiate lockdown to seal off the ship.”

“You’ll do no such thing! I’m sending security to handle whatever the hell you’re babbling on about, and you’re going to face a court-martial for panicking the crew with your little stunt, Miss Goss.”

“This isn’t a stunt! It’s all true! Laser fire does nothing to the Ke’ters, sir. It doesn’t hurt them at all. That’s the strongest weapon we have onboard.”

“This is bullshit. They wouldn’t attack. You were always the worst troublemaker as a girl. This is nothing more than a way to get back at me for telling you to stay away from our alien guests, and you’ve gone too far. You will immediately stop this nonsense and report to the brig. How dare you—”

She cut coms and repeated her earlier message, spelling out most of the words to prevent the aliens from understanding her intent.

The coms line buzzed but she ignored it. Instead, she watched the clock.

Two minutes passed—and then she initiated lockdown.

Sharp alarms continued to blast through the speakers all over the ship, and she knew emergency doors were being sealed, corridor access points were cut off by thick blast walls, and every venting shaft would go into crisis mode. They would seal off to prevent oxygen leaks in case of explosions but would pump in enough filtered air to keep everyone alive.

She turned the chair, facing the long-range communications controls. She turned them on to send a message but the device refused to give her access. She didn’t have an override code, but there was a general distress signal option.

Vivien initiated it. The Gorison Traveler was in dire need of help.

The auto-distress beacon blinked as it transmitted a standard S.O.S.

She turned back, still ignoring the coms buzzing at her, and began to pull up security feeds.

Medical had been devastated. It was clear some kind of incendiary device had gone off in the huge room. Bodies lie in pieces, scattered among the charred, broken equipment.

Tears blinded her, but Vivian blinked them back. The Ke’ters must have targeted Medical to cripple the Gorison Traveler’s efforts to help the injured. There was no longer a place to take their wounded. It also meant that poor man she’d come across in the corridor would die.

She continued flipping through various cameras on the ship to get an overview of the situation. No crew seemed to be stranded in the corridors, but she did see a few human bodies. She saw a few Ke’ters in random corridors, and also found three more trapped inside a lift.

“I hope you die in there, bastards.”

She found more of the aliens when she brought up the bridge. They were eating the pilots and other crew.

That’s when she remembered their intent to take over the ship. They would succeed, since they now had control of the bridge.

She reached over and flipped on the internal coms that kept buzzing at her.

“Goddamn you, Goss! You can get the death penalty for sealing off this ship!”

“The Ke’ters have the bridge.” She tried to keep her voice calm, despite the panic she felt. “They are going to steal the ship, sir. They’re eating the crew alive! I don’t know what else to do. How do we stop them?”

Commander Alderson disconnected