The Odyssey had become a silent battleground. Hallways once filled with friendly banter now lay in darkness, lit only by emergency red beacons casting long shadows. By Captain Voss's orders, all non-essential crew were locked down in their quarters. Only security teams and a few key personnel roamed the passages, hunting the hunter.
Lieutenant Commander Raines led a four-person security detail through Deck 3, pulse rifles at the ready. The quiet was oppressive; even the hum of the engines felt muted, as if the ship itself were holding its breath.
Raines raised a fist, halting her team at a junction. She spoke into her headset mic, voice a bare whisper, "Team Alpha, Deck 3, junction C. No sign yet. Moving toward engineering sector."
A crackle answered, then Reed's voice: "Team Bravo here, Deck 5 starboard. Negative contact. Stay sharp."
Somewhere in the dark, a metal clang echoed. The security officers tensed, swinging rifles toward the sound.
"Probably just the hull cooling," one of them murmured.
Raines wasn't so sure. She motioned two officers to take the left corridor while she and the remaining one took the right. They moved in practiced silence.
In the dim auxiliary lighting, shapes and angles played tricks on the eyes. Raines thought she saw a silhouette at the far end of the hall – a human figure. She signaled her partner to cover her and advanced a few steps.
"This is Lieutenant Commander Raines," she called out, keeping her rifle trained. "Caleb, if you can hear me, surrender now. Let's end this without more bloodshed."
Her voice faded to an echo. No response.
She inched forward. "Caleb... we know something happened to you. We can help. But you have to put down any weapons and surrender."
Still nothing. She dared another step.
Suddenly, her earpiece hissed with static, followed by a sound that turned her blood to ice – a soft chuckle. It was Caleb's voice, but warped, as if layered with a faint double. The laughter cut off abruptly, and the lights overhead flickered.
"Raines, report!" Reed's voice came urgently.
Before she could respond, a scream tore through the comm channel – one of her team, back at the junction. Gunfire erupted, the sharp retorts deafening in the enclosed corridor.
Raines spun and sprinted back toward the intersection. She nearly collided with Officer Dela, one of the two she'd sent left. His eyes were wild. "He's there! Behind us –" Dela shouted, raising his weapon to fire down the hallway he'd come from.
A shadow moved in that darkness. Two muzzle flashes lit up the hall as Dela fired. In the strobe of light, Raines glimpsed Caleb charging forward impossibly fast, something like a blade in his hand.
In a heartbeat, Caleb was upon Dela, knocking the rifle aside with his left arm while his right plunged the blade deep into Dela's gut. Raines cried out and fired a burst, but Caleb had already used the dying officer as a shield. Dela's body jerked as Raines's shots hit him instead. Caleb flung the corpse toward Raines with shocking strength, causing her to stumble backward.
By then, Caleb had vanished down a side ladder well, retreating cat-quick into the decks below.
Raines pushed the dead officer off her, heart pounding. She heard sobbing and saw her other officer – Perez – huddled against a bulkhead, bleeding from a gash on his thigh but alive. The fourth member of the team was nowhere to be seen – presumably the scream on the radio had been their end.
"Team Alpha, report!" Reed's voice again, urgent.
Raines coughed, trying to steady her voice. "He ambushed us. Two down, one injured. Caleb's headed toward Deck 4, port side, via ladder C."
"Copy. We're moving to cut him off," Reed replied.
Raines dragged Perez to his feet, supporting his weight. "Go, get to medbay," she ordered. The man nodded, limping away in the opposite direction, anguish on his face from leaving her alone.
She retrieved Dela's dropped rifle (hers had skidded away when the body hit her) and, teeth gritted, pursued Caleb's route.
On the bridge, Nova watched the ship's internal sensors on the main screen. The crew left on duty there were few – Nova at comm/ops, Captain Voss overseeing positions at tactical and engineering consoles operated by two pale-faced ensigns. The tension was thick.
"I lost Team Alpha's biosigns," Nova said quietly, dreading in her voice. "Two blips just went dark on Deck 3. Commander Raines and one other still active."
Captain Voss closed her eyes briefly. "Damn it."
Nova's hands hovered over her console. "I'm trying to seal sections ahead of Caleb's path. But he's moving unpredictably. He must have a crew patch to open doors – the system reads him as authorized security, I think."
Voss nodded. "He likely took Zhang's or had his own." With his security credentials, some of their containment measures were moot. "What about internal comms? Can we talk to him directly?"
Nova bit her lip. "We could try an open channel broadcast... But if he's not wearing an earpiece or has discarded his comm, he might not hear."
Voss grimaced. "He's not likely to listen anyway. We saw the footage. That wasn't a man in his right mind."
Nova shuddered at the memory of Caleb's empty, cold expression on the video. "Captain... I keep thinking, on the feed, when he... when he smiled, it didn't look like him. It was like someone else looking through him."
Voss put a hand on Nova's shoulder. "I know. Whatever the cause, our duty now is to stop him. We'll figure out the why later – if we survive."
Nova gave a quick nod and blinked away tears of frustration and fear. Her console pinged with a motion alert. "Movement in engineering bay 2."
She tapped the camera feed. On screen, the silhouette of Caleb slipped through the rows of humming engine conduits on Deck 4. Reed's team – Bravo – was entering from the opposite side, sweeping their lights in formation.
Nova patched their audio into the bridge speakers for Voss to hear:
[Security Channel]
Reed: "Team Bravo closing in on Engineering Bay 2. No visuals yet."
Officer Jalen: "He could be hiding behind the turbines... thermal's negative."
Officer Ito: "Sir, I— wait, above!"
On the video, Nova saw it happen: Caleb dropping from an upper maintenance rail into the midst of Team Bravo like a panther. Blade flashed; one officer went down, clutching his neck. Reed spun, firing point blank, but Caleb twisted impossibly, the shot grazing his shoulder with little effect.
Ito tried to sidestep, but Caleb was faster – he grabbed her by the throat and flung her into the bulkhead; she crumpled.
Jalen managed a single burst of gunfire that sparked off a pipe as Caleb ducked. In a fluid motion, Caleb closed the gap and drove his knife upward under Jalen's chin. The officer fell without a sound.
Reed was the last standing. Nova's heart pounded as she watched the Commander face off against Caleb in the stark red glow of the engineering bay. Reed had drawn a combat baton in his other hand. Caleb tossed aside his dripping knife, and for a moment, the two circled each other.
[Security Channel]
Reed: "Caleb... you don't want to do this."
Caleb: (voice oddly serene) "There is no Caleb."
Reed: "Whatever's been done to you, we can help. We can fix it."
Caleb: (soft chuckle) "No need to fix what isn't broken, Commander."
On the bridge, Voss and Nova listened, riveted and horrified. Caleb's voice had an eerie, echoing calm.
Reed lunged first, swinging the baton while simultaneously firing his sidearm. Caleb moved like water – he sidestepped the baton, the bullet grazing his flank without slowing him.
He counterattacked, landing a vicious palm strike to Reed's chest that sent the XO sprawling against a console. Reed's pistol skittered away.
Nova cried out involuntarily as Caleb pounced on Reed. The two men grappled. Reed was strong, military-trained, but Caleb's movements were feral, unpredictable – and it was as if pain didn't affect him. Reed landed a solid punch to Caleb's jaw, but Caleb responded by raking his fingers across Reed's face, drawing blood, then head-butting him with a sickening crack.
Reed collapsed, dazed. Caleb lifted him effortlessly by the collar and slammed him onto a workbench. Reed struggled weakly as Caleb's hands closed around his throat.
Captain Voss had seen enough. She barked into the comm, "All available units to Engineering Bay 2, now! Lethal force authorized on Royce!"
Nova's eyes darted between the live feed and the sensor panel. Raines was on her way, but she wouldn't make it in time. Reed was seconds from death.
Suddenly, from behind a large coolant tank on the video, a figure appeared – it was Chief Engineer Singh, who had been hiding in terror nearby. Mustering his courage, Singh raised a hefty wrench and smashed it across the back of Caleb's skull with a desperate yell.
Caleb staggered forward, releasing Reed, who gasped and rolled off the bench, choking for air. Caleb turned, almost leisurely, to face the engineer.
Singh swung again, but this time Caleb caught the wrench mid-swing with one hand. He tilted his head at Singh, as if in curiosity, then yanked the wrench free and backhanded Singh across the face with it. Singh fell, crumpling.
Before Caleb could finish him, a flurry of gunshots echoed as Raines arrived at the bay entrance and opened fire. Caleb jerked as two rounds hit his side. He snarled – an animalistic sound – and vaulted up a ladder, vanishing into an upper crawlspace in the ceiling.
Raines ran to Reed's side. "Commander! Dominic, are you—?"
Reed, coughing and bruised, waved her off and pointed to Singh. "Ch-check him," he rasped.
Singh was unconscious but breathing; his jaw looked broken. The other Bravo team members, however, were either dead or dying.
On the bridge, Voss allowed herself a breath of relief seeing Reed sit up with Raines's help. "Nova, any sign of Royce now?"
Nova scanned. "He's moving toward the habitat sections, Deck 2. Might be going for the crew quarters... or—" Her stomach dropped. "Or the bridge, Captain."
Voss stiffened. "Let's not wait to find out. We need to end this, now." She keyed open the ship-wide channel again. "All crew, this is Captain Voss. Our target is headed for Deck 2. Anyone not in a secure location, get clear of Deck 2. Senior staff to intercept."
She turned to the two bridge ensigns. "You two, arm yourselves from the emergency locker and stay here to guard the bridge. Nova, you're with me."