Intergalactic conquest with an AI

"Mmm? What's this?" Ys muttered, tugging at the appendage and realizing what it was. Slowly, she turned her head to glare at Carlos, her glowing eyes narrowing with accusation.

Carlos noticed her stare and immediately raised his hands defensively. "Hey! Don't look at me like that! I had no choice, okay?!"

Ys arched an eyebrow, holding up the severed spider leg that had been lodged in a rather compromising position on the creature's backside. "Really, Carlos? You stabbed it there? Was that necessary?"

"It was trying to eat me!" Carlos shouted, pointing at the corpse as if it could defend itself. "I had to use everything I had to fight back! It's not my fault; that's where the blade landed!"

She sighed heavily, shaking her head. "Sure, let's call it that," she said sarcastically, tossing the limb aside. "You humans are so weird sometimes."

Carlos glared at her, his frustration mounting. "Hey, I saved myself, didn't I? You should be impressed!"

Ys smirked slightly, folding her arms. "Impressed isn't the word I'd use. But fine. You survived. Good job, baldy."

As the tension settled, Ys stood, brushing off her hands. Her playful expression grew more serious as she adjusted her stance. "Anyway, enough of this. We need to regroup with Cleo at the medical bay. By the look of things, we don't have much time."

Carlos nodded, glancing down at the creature's mutilated body one last time before stepping over it. "Yeah, let's get moving. I don't want to deal with any more surprises like this one."

Ys was about to take off at full speed, but she stopped abruptly, turning her head slightly without looking at Carlos directly.

"Carlos," she said after a moment, her voice unusually calm.

Carlos frowned, tilting his head. "Mmm? What is it now?"

Ys hesitated for a moment before asking, "I'm just curious... How exactly are you walking so normally when there's no gravity?"

Carlos froze midstep, his gaze flicking between Ys and his own feet.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence. Then Carlos let out a nervous chuckle, scratching the back of his bald head. "Uh… well… I guess I'm just, uh, naturally gifted?"

Ys finally turned to face him, her expression blank but her glowing eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Naturally gifted, huh?"

Carlos coughed awkwardly, muttering under his breath. "Yeah, let's go with that."

"Uh-huh," Ys said, her lips curling into a faint smirk. Without another word, she turned around and didn't say anything; she just stood there.

As Ys turned her head slightly to face Carlos, her sharp gaze caught something unusual. Her playful smirk froze, replaced by a look of confusion, then alarm.

Carlos's mouth... it was changing.

The edges of his lips twitched unnaturally, stretching wider than they should have been. The skin around his jawline started to split and peel back, revealing something grotesque beneath a jagged, serrated set of spider-like mandibles.

His teeth sharpened unnaturally as the transformation continued, and a sickening wet sound accompanied the grotesque change.

"What the..." Ys muttered, her glowing green eyes narrowing in disbelief.

Carlos's head tilted at an unnatural angle, his eyes glinting with an inhuman, predatory gleam. His voice, distorted and unnatural, echoed through the corridor. "Something wrong, grandma?"

On the other side of the ship, Cleo and Sharon had just arrived at the sealed medical bay. The corridor around them was eerily silent, save for the faint humming of systems struggling to maintain basic life support functions.

Cleo glanced at the sealed door, analyzing it with her enhanced vision. "Sharon, I'll let you float to the roof for now. I need to handle this door, and I can't do that while holding you. Be careful not to bump your head."

"Okay, don't worry. I'll manage," Sharon said, letting Cleo gently release her. She floated upward, grabbing hold of a ceiling vent to steady herself while Cleo got to work.

Cleo scanned the door carefully, her golden eyes glowing faintly. "Hmm," she muttered, examining the locking mechanism. It had a manual override switch, but the switch was on the inside of the room, making it useless from their position.

"So much for subtlety," Cleo sighed, her voice as neutral as ever. She extended her hand, crafting a glowing energy blade. The blade was similar to Rex's plasma sword, drawing power directly from her internal energy core. Its light cast a faint golden glow across the corridor.

Cleo brought the blade forward, pressing its searing edge against the door. The reinforced material began to melt under the intense heat, glowing red before finally giving way. Carefully, she carved an entrance large enough for both of them to fit through.

Once finished, she stepped back and looked up at Sharon. "Alright, it's done. Extend your hand."

Sharon reached down, her hand brushing against Cleo's, and she easily pulled her through the opening. They both landed softly inside the medical bay.

The room was dark, save for the faint emergency lights that flickered sporadically. Medical equipment and supplies were scattered everywhere, floating aimlessly in the zero-gravity environment.

Cleo's night vision activated automatically, turning the room into a crisp grayscale view, while Sharon stuck close behind her.

"I'll search for the oxygen masks and tanks," Sharon said, moving cautiously toward one of the storage cabinets.

"Good idea," Cleo replied, scanning the room for any signs of immediate danger.

A few moments later, Sharon called out. "Cleo, I found the masks. They're in this cabinet, but... it's locked."

Cleo turned and approached the cabinet, observing the bulletproof glass. "Understood. Stand back."

Sharon floated aside as Cleo activated her energy blade again. The blade cut cleanly through the glass, the intense heat causing it to crack and shatter within seconds. Cleo reached inside, pulling out two oxygen masks and tossing one to Sharon.

"Here, take these," Cleo said. "I'll grab the oxygen tanks from over there."

Sharon caught the mask, her hands trembling slightly as she fitted it over her face. Meanwhile, Cleo moved to a larger storage unit and retrieved two small oxygen tanks, strapping one to Sharon's waist.

"Alright, that's taken care of," Cleo said, her voice calm but firm. "Let's sit tight until Ys and Carlos regroup with us."

As they waited, Cleo decided to make the most of the time. She began crafting a pair of gravity boots for Sharon, using leftover materials from the medical bay and components from her nanomaterials. She also assembled temporary batteries for the boots to ensure they'd last long enough.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Sharon, now seated on one of the medical beds, kept glancing nervously toward the broken door. Her anxiety was evident in the way she fidgeted with her mask straps. "They're taking too long," she muttered. "Do you think something bad happened to them?"

Cleo, who was working on one of the room's maintenance terminals, didn't look up as she responded. "It's possible. This situation isn't normal. But Ys is capable, and Carlos, well, he's stubborn enough to survive anything. I'm more worried about what else is out there."

As if on cue, Cleo's radar pinged faintly in her HUD. Her golden eyes flickered as the radar feed projected a silhouette of something moving in the corridor outside.

Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Sharon, stay away from the door. Something's coming."

Sharon frozen, her eyes widening. "What? Could it be another passenger?"

Cleo shook her head, her voice cold and firm. "I don't think so. The radar signature doesn't match any of the passenger profiles in my database."

Sharon's breath hitched. "What does that mean?"

Cleo didn't answer immediately. Instead, she studied the radar feed closely. The images showed multiple humanoid figures, but they weren't moving like normal passengers. Some were crawling on the walls, others on the ceiling.

Their movements were erratic, unnervingly fast, and accompanied by the faint clicking sound of metallic limbs scraping against the corridor.

"They're all over the place," Cleo muttered under her breath, gripping her energy blade tightly.

The sound of skittering legs grew louder, echoing through the medical bay. Cleo's body tensed, her golden eyes scanning the room for entry points. She tossed a small laser pistol to Sharon, along with two energy cells.

"Take this," Cleo said. "For self-defense."

Sharon stared at the weapon, her hands trembling as she clutched it tightly. She nodded silently, her fear palpable as she moved to take cover behind one of the medical desks.

The clicking sounds grew louder, almost deafening now. Cleo pressed herself against the wall beside the broken door, her energy blade poised to strike at anything that entered.

The tension in the room was suffocating. Sharon held her breath, gripping the pistol tightly as her eyes darted toward the open doorway.

And then they saw it.

A long, skeletal leg with jagged metal edges slowly reached through the doorway, tapping against the ground. Another followed, then another. The creature crawled into view, its emaciated body hunched over unnaturally.

Its eyes glowed a sickly green, and its back was adorned with jagged, spider-like limbs made of bone and metal.

Behind it, more figures appeared, crawling along the walls and ceiling, their glowing eyes piercing through the darkness.

Cleo's grip on her energy blade tightened. "Sharon," she whispered without turning her head. "Stay behind cover. Don't make a sound."

Sharon nodded, barely able to breathe as the creatures began spilling into the room.

Cleo's golden eyes glowed faintly in the dim light, her voice cold and steady. "Come on, then," she muttered under her breath.

She then jumped from the dark corner and swinged her energy sword toward the head of the first creature that stepped inside.