Empyrean Iris Story Collection

Zombie

The outer Messier 32 deep space relay station hung suspended in the night sky overlooking the not-so-distant spiral vortex of it's larger companion galaxy Messier 31, more commonly known as the Andromeda galaxy. As close as it was, it absolutely dominated the night sky seeming close enough that you could reach out a hand and touch its sweeping spiral arms, when in reality, it was thousands of light-years away.

The relay station itself was a small affair compared to your average UNSC or even GA transport vessel, about the size of a small range asteroid, designed and staffed by members of most of the major GA species, Rundi, Tesraki, and Vrul being the major players. The relay station was primarily there to intercept inter-warp communications between Andromeda and the Milky Way galaxy. Though there were more major communications hubs on the moons of the Rundi home world, transmissions tended to get jumbled, and remote relay stations had become a necessity to drown out some of the major noise and spearhead some of the less urgent transmissions.

Their engineering specialist, a Vrul with a sandy grey skin and red-orange eyes turned from where he floated by his console towards one of his Tesraki underlings, "We didn't schedule any maintenance for the auxiliary docking bays did we?"

The Tesraki turned in his chair batlike ears twitching, "No, we finished that maintenance two cycles ago, why?"

"Strange." The Vrul muttered turning back to his console, "The power to that sector just went off..... Perhaps we made a mistake with the wiring, have someone from maintenance head down there and take a look at the main breaker system."

Across the room, the Rundi relay director frowned and then turned to look at them, "Did any of you get a proximity alert on decks 6-7?"

"No, sir ... wait , aren't those the decks for the auxiliary docking bays?"

The Vrul nodded his large insectoid head prismatic eyes flashing in the dim spilling in from the uncovered observation window, "Yes..... perhaps the power shorted to the proximity sensors on the outer hull, why?"

THe Rundi turned back to his station, "I am getting some strange interference signals from a point on our outer hull, can't tell what it is. Could just be a magnetic field artifact." He turned back to the controls engaging the intercom as he sent someone down to check.

***

Down on the seventh deck, the tesraki and Vrul engineering contractors stepped their way from the automated lift and out onto the silent, dark floors. Like the rest of the ship, the lights were supposed to be automated, but the entire deck was silent and filled with shadow. This may not have been a problem for the vrul, who could see somewhat onto the infrared spectrum, but for the Tesraki it was a little more difficult. The Vrul engineer waited in impatient silence as the Tesraki, reached into his tool belt and removed a brightly glowing white stone.

The vrul and the tesraki didn't particularly enjoy each other's company. One of them was here for the science and the other was here for the paycheck, neither of them saw much of a value in the other's lifestyle, but they kept it civil as the tesraki engaged the comm attached to one of his large- batlike ears, "This is engineering."

"Go on engineering what do you see?"

"Not much of anything to be honest, but the lights are out..... I'm thinking an issue with the electrical."

It the Vrul had the ability to roll his eyes, he probably would have, but he settled for floating further onto the deck and into the darkness. The Tesraki followed after casting his light upwards towards the ceiling trying to find any exposed wiring, sparks or any other indication where the problem might be located.

The Vrul hummed transmitting a shortwave radio signal directly to the comms system as only a vrul could, "I don't see any hot spots on the walls, and the issue doesn't seem to be localized. With all the lights out on this level, I am willing to bet that the problem lies with the main breaker system, there can be no other explanation."