Mare Space

Sky and Sergei continued to walk through the corridors at a slow, cautious pace. The individual lights on their visors illuminated their surroundings as they passed through, shining off of walls, vents, and the ground.

"I... haven't really asked, but what station does Charcoal work with on this ship?" the changeling decided to inquire in a soft voice.

"She worked with the medical staff, as a senior medical officer," Sky responded. "I... she wanted to work here, on the Pinkimura, because of all the perks that could help her career in the long run, and the fact that the ship was going to be retired when the year ended. Charcoal was unsure about it at first, but I... I... convinced her to go."

The unicorn stopped in her tracks as she finished her sentence. "If she... if she's dead, it's... it will be all my fault."

"She's alive, Sky. We both know that," her friend spoke back. Before Sky could reply, they both went silent as the metallic sound of something clambering through the vents above went out. They stood still as stone a minute after the noise subsided before continuing on again, a little quieter than before.

"I didn't pay much attention to who else works aboard here," the unicorn said, as she used the kinesis module on her helm to gently move a large, metal crate that was in their way. "Do you know anything?"

"Not myself, no, but I still have some of the information that security terminal from before showed us," he spoke, as a hologram of the Pinkimura flashed up in front of him and Sky. "It says that... about sixty percent of the crew are ponies, twenty percent are griffons, and twenty percent are changelings. Out of all of the one thousand, three-hundred-and-thirty-two crew, five percent are children, and ten percent of the crew in total were complete, nonworking civilians, or familial individuals related to working crew members. Other than that, the terminal's schematic didn't show me anything else worth much."

"Where are we now?"

"Nearing a med lab," he responded, as the hologram disappeared. "And after that is an area adjacent to the tram station. It's where we'll meet the others, if they got away."

No sooner had he said that, they both took a final turn in the dank tunnel, and spotted a closed door at the hallway's far end. While their steps made small, barely-noticeable clanging noises on the ground thanks to the metal their hoofwear was made of, the two approached it, and Sky went to hacking the door.

"Why does your close friends and girlfriend call you "Skysaac?"" the changeling asked, as a minute passed. Sky chuckled.

"It was a nickname I got in college," she started to reply. "My granduncle was an engineer like me, and went by that name. When my friends found out and started to call me it, it spread like wildfire, and stuck like glue." When she finished hacking it, the door slid open, and Sky was the first to enter, plasma cutter raised on the defensive.

The first two grisly things Sky saw as she entered the small room was what she recognized as the severed lower half of a changeling, it's translucent, greenish blood soaking the nearby floor, and another, blindfolded changeling that sat next to it, clad in a white uniform that was stained with some of the greenish blood. It moved when it heard Sky walk about, somewhat startling her in the process.

"Shh... it's okay, Locus. Your supey-dupey friendsy-friends are here to take you away from the necromorphs..." the blind changeling said in a disturbingly calm, light, whispery, tone identifying her as a female. She said this as she patted the other, dead changeling's torso next to her, as if oblivious that half of him was gone. "They'll take you away from the necromorphs, and we'll all be happy... tee-hee. Happy, happy, happy! Just like you said..."

Sky slowly lowered her weapon as she approached the injured, unwell being. When Sergei came into the room and had a look for himself, his mouth gaped in surprise from behind his helmet.

"By the hive..." Sergei gasped, hurriedly running up to and kneeling down beside the injured creature. He instantly set to work seeing what other parts of her were injured besides her eyes, finding a large gash by her side, and multiple bite marks when his search was done.

"We've been waiting for you, you know..." the blind changeling spoke as he examined her, patting parts of his body with one of her hole-filled, chitinous hooves. "Locus said you were going to come, tee-hee."

Finished speaking to him, she turned her blind face to Sky, as if seeing her through the stained cloth on her face. "Here," she said again, lifting her other hoof to Sky. "Locus wanted me to give this to you." In it was what the unicorn instantly recognized as a stasis module. As she took the device in her hoof, the injured changeling went into a more relaxed position, and started to enter a small sob, tears streaming down her dry face from behind the cloth wrapped around it.

"She's in a critical state with that wound of hers, but I can save her," Sergei spoke, lowering and cushioning the whimpering fellow changeling's head. "Quick, pass me that med pack over there."

Sky did as she was told, and ran over to where the medic motioned. Without time to spare, she snatched the small medical canister she found on the nearby counter in her mouth, and dashed back to Sergei, who grabbed the cylinder in his armored hooves, and immediately undid its cover. Quickly pouring some of the cyan-colored gel into one of his hooves, he placed it on the injured changeling's side, where she was most grievously wounded, and translucent blood continued to drain out of. The weak creature let out a small yelp of pain as she felt her deep wounds reseal, and heal up until it was no longer a damaged mess, but mended flesh, and then pure chitin; all thanks to the synthetic magic the healing wares were based off of.

Medical gel, kinesis, stasis, and many other tools and modules the ponies of today used were forms of "synthetic magic" that were invented many hundreds and hundreds of years ago, after the magical currents that originally allowed unicorns, alicorns, and the like to use magic mysteriously vanished from the universe, rendering their natural abilities inert. Scientists still have no idea how this event happened, but most attributed it to the death of the aged Princess Celestia, as the history books show it was around that time that magic disappeared. Since then, ponies have relied on special technologies for everyday life, and the resources used to power them were becoming scarcer as the centuries dragged on.

"Her condition's stable," Sergei spoke in a relieved tone, checking the hologram and seeing her now-normal heart rate. "She'll pull through, but she needs to rest for a little while."

"I don't think we have a little while, Sergei," Sky warned, eyeing the ceiling suspiciously after thinking she heard a noise go overhead.

"Well I'm not leaving her. She's blind, for goodness sake," the changeling said, unflinchingly.

"I didn't say we should leave her, I'm just saying one those creatures could be lurking around here somewhere, and we have a rendezvous to meet at."

"S-y? Sky is th- you?" the sound of Wire's impeded voice suddenly spoke up in Sky's com, the static covering it slowly dissipating. "Are you there, Sky? Come in."

"I'm here," the unicorn replied, allowing the image of his face to appear on her holoscreen. "Sergei and I are alive and well, and we found an injured survivor. It's a blind changeling."

"I can't believe you made it. Wait, a survivor? A blind survivor?" Crystal Clear's voice went on in the background. "If they're blind, they're dead weight. We can't have dead weight now."

"Let me talk," Wire bickered, turning back to face Sky Lark through the holocamera. "Listen, those... those things killed the others. Only Crystal and I are left. We're both holed up in the tram station, and we sent the Epyllion unit out to look for something of aid a few minutes ago."

"What the hell do you think those things even were? Were they the crew?" Crystal asked, her face appearing on her own holoscreen.

"I think the survivor here called them "necromorphs," or something," Sky answered, turning to Sergei and the blind changeling she spoke of. Crystal let out a sigh.

"We're all gonna die here, aren't we?" she inquired in a slightly louder voice.

"Keep your voice down," Wire warned his colleague. "You both heard them. They move around in the vents. For all we know, they're everywhere."

He faced Sky again, his voice much calmer, but no less quiet. "Listen, half the doors on this ship are locked because of the quarantine, and we need to get to the bridge if we have any hope of finding out what's going on. Now, to do that we need this tram system to be repaired, but we have no way to do it. We need you for this one, Sky."

"That's crazy, Cord. You're going to get us all killed," Crystal objected.

"If you listen to me, I will get you out. Alive," Wire replied to her. "Now, what's wrong with the tram?"

Sky watched the screen as Crystal trotted over to the control panel, and let out a frustrated shrug. "The data board's fried. If you ask me, there's a probably a spare in the maintenance bay. Sky, you're "team" and you are the closest to it. Think you could go fetch it for us?"

"I'll get right on it," she said, nodding. "Just give Sergei and I a few minutes, that's all I ask."

"Fine, but please make haste," Wire agreed in a semi-reluctant tone, signing out with his next words. "And be careful."