Infestation On The StarSmasher: The Voyage of the StarSmasher, #3

By Aksel Erzinclioglu

Kaquina finds herself squaring off with a new foe when a morphing, duplicating alien symbiote makes its way onto her ship. In a race against time, can Kaquina stop the infestation before the alien overruns the ship.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aksel Erzinclioglu
• Release date: Mar 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393886020

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Written by

Aksel Erzinclioglu

Published by Aksel Erzinçlioğlu

©2020 Cambridge

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Part 3

Infestation

on the StarSmasher

Captain’s Log #7206

Today is my forty-fifth birthday. I guess that’s something... a kinda useless fact. But that’s what it is.

It has been... twenty years, give or take, since the incident. Twenty years alone. Twenty years...

I’m finding new ways to keep myself from going insane. There’s a limit on how much I can do. The two encounters I had in the first ten years made them seem positively busy compared with the next decade.

There has been nothing. No sign of life, no sign of rescue. By my count, we began what should have been a thirty-year mission, twenty-five years ago. I have five more years until someone suspects that the ship is missing.

That is all that gets me through the days. The thought that one day... one day someone will come... someone has to come...

***

Kaquina marched with a brazen, drunken stumble through the corridor having just left the bridge. In her left hand she held a bottle of dark rum that sloshed from side to side; the black liquid spilling out of the top. From somewhere deep in the hidden storage of the ship, Kaquina had unearthed a cone-shaped party-hat that she had strapped on her head. She had a badge pinned to her chest that read ‘birthday girl’ and in her mouth she had a party blower.

The piercing sound rattled through the corridor as Kaquina blasted air into the blower and watched the rolled-up paper unravel into a straight line.

Ah-haaa! she laughed with drunken amusement as she clamped her teeth around the plastic mouthpiece. Then, as if instantly fed up and irritated, she spat the party blower out: it hindered her rum drinking. The blower bounced on the floor and Kaquina raised the rum to her lips. She began to swig several heartier than hearty mouthfuls. Her right arm hung by her side as she gulped the liquid.

It was not long before she emptied the bottle completely and so, with an enthusiastic holla, she hurled the bottle at the nearest wall and watched it shatter into tiny pieces.

Clean that up! she slurred as she pointed at the glass and pretended to bark instructions to an invisible crew member. Then, laughing to herself, she kicked a few shards and staggered on through the corridor.

Rum. Rum. Rum, rum, rum, she blurted out loudly as she tried to speed up her walk through the long corridor. After a few stumbles, trips and choice words, Kaquina made it to her chambers where she fell through the doorway and plummeted face first onto her bed.

She lay still for a moment, making strange, melancholy noises into her mattress before finally peeling herself away and looked up. Her eye scanned the room lazily until it fell upon the mirror on the far wall. She smiled.

In her drunken state she had drawn a brand-new eye onto her eye patch. She laughed as she looked at it, admiring her own handiwork.

"Now who doesn’t have depth-perception, Forkin," she spat the name of her robotic physician, clearly mocking some comment it had previously made.

Kaquina reached a lazy hand into the drawer at her bedside table and pulled out a large, thick cigar. She placed it between her teeth and reached in again, pulling out an old-fashioned zippo lighter. She flicked it open and ignited it, watching the flame dance in front of her. She lit the tip of her cigar, closed the lighter and placed it in her back pocket, puffing merrily.

Kaquina’s eye tracked across the room towards her wardrobe. She rolled off the bed and landed heavily on the ground. She let out a small groan before crawling over to a small section in her carpet that had been cut open.

Kaquina pulled it open and peered down at the small, black device. A sombre look fell across her face and her eye drooped a little.

You’ve caused me so much trouble... she slurred. And then, angry and upset, she threw the loose section of carpet back over the hole and slammed her fist against it.

Leave me alone! she moaned and threw an arm over her eye, sobbing into the crease of her elbow.

Her tears were interrupted by the familiar sound of clanging metal as something wheeled itself into her room. She removed her arm to see the fixed grin of Forkin looking down at her.

IT IS TIME FOR A PHYSICAL, CAPTAIN! it bellowed, and Kaquina’s one good eye rolled back in her head.

Forks, can’t you see I am celebrating? she grumbled.

YES, CAPTAIN, I UNDERSTAND. FORTY-FIVE EARTH YEARS. IT IS EXACTLY WHY WE NEED TO PERFORM A PHYSICAL EXAM. YOU ARE PAST YOUR PRIME NOW!

Kaquina knew the robot didn’t mean any, but, in her current state, she couldn’t help but take offence. She rose to her feet slowly and looked into the bright orange bulbs that symbolised its eyes.

Did you really just call me old, Forkin?

"I WOULD NOT SAY YOU ARE OLD, CAPTAIN. SIMPLY THAT YOU CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO TREAT YOUR BODY AS