Chapter 13: Vampire in Space Chapter 9: Prey

At 06:55 on Wednesday I stood before captain Guthrapali's room. I made a tentative knock and the door opened. Captain Guthrapali was standing next to her dresser grabbing some last-minute clothes to pack. She zipped up her bag and came to the door.  My brief view of her room was enough to see that it was bigger than mine. Her entire wall on the outside facing space was see through. Captain Guthrapali was wearing a burgundy formal dress uniform. Her black hair was in a long braid down her back. The burgundy of the dress brought out the mahogany of her eyes.

"Good you're on time." Several guards appeared in the doorway. I followed them as they walked towards the docking bay that held the scout ship. I took up a defensive position to the right of Captain Guthrapali. Eyes and ears sharp, assessing for any threats, we boarded the scout ship. The scout ship had two levels. The cockpit had seating for multiple people. I chose to sit in the back away from the crowd that surrounded Captain Guthrapali. The only occupants of the ship were the guards and the captain. The captain was piloting the ship. Captain Guthrapali said, "It will take us a few hours to get to the conference. You may relax as you see fit until then." I followed her encouragement to relax by finding a secluded spot on the ship to nap.

When next I opened my eyes, we were docking to a space station. The space station was a giant ring of metal with concentric rings leading to the docking station. Our little ship docked in the center ring. I immediately went down to the main deck to prepare to disembark. Captain Guthrapali carried her bag over one shoulder. My bag was left in the cargo hold with the rest of the guard's overnight bags. We would get our bags during our break from watching Captain Guthrapali. The crowds of rebels were large. There was barely enough room to breathe. The guards were thus in a tight ring around the captain as we walked to the hotel. I had an ongoing mantra in my head, do not drink their blood. Every single one of them looked tastier than the last. Especially that young woman with the voluptuous body, her scent drove me wild.

"Captain Guthrapali!" A voice yelled from within the swarming crowd. A woman pushed her way towards us. She looked familiar.

"Captain Guthrapali, welcome aboard the Limerick space station.  Have you eaten yet? Join me in the dining sector."

"Captain Wendel, it's good to see you. Let me get settled in my room first and then I'll come eat."

“Captain Guthrapali, you brought the vampire to the space station. Is that a good idea? You know I was there when 'it' massacred the entire Starburst.” Wendel looked at me directly.

“I have a name and I’m in full control.” I glared at Captain Wendel.

“I’m allowed my reservations after you murdered all of my crew. I worked along with captain Ando to get you imprisoned. At the time I wanted you dead, but that is the past. I’m one of the ones who recommended your little rescue.”

"You can take your break Ela, Captain Wendel and I have much to discuss." Guthrapali said as she put her stuff down.

I saluted and left the suite. Headed towards the ship I walked with purpose. The crowds seemed to part just for me. The tang of music drew a part of the crowd to the side of the big ring that formed the first corridor. I ignored the music until someone bumped into me. I hissed at them and hurried toward the next ring in the series of rings the space station had. As I got closer to the center ring the corridors became less and less populated. I came upon a group of people. There were twenty of them. At first, I thought everything was normal. Then I noticed the guns in their hands. The distinct scent of their lasers made my nose itch. They cocked their guns at me. I could either run or fight. The choice was simple. I quickly rushed at the person closest to me and knocked the gun out of their hand. I held them in front of me as I approached the next person. This one I knocked out in one blow and took their gun while still holding my hostage. I held the gun to their head. The rest of the group dropped their guns, unwilling to hit the hostage. One by one I knocked them out. The humans were weak, easy prey.

 

I tore into the vein of my hostage drinking up the warm blood that they offered. The hostage screamed as I tore into his flesh. His scream slowly turned into a chuckle. “You fell for it.” He gasped as I firmed my grip on his jugular.

“Fell for what?” I hissed before taking another bite.

“You drank my blood you stupid bitch. It’s poisoned. A special formula just for you. As we speak your DNA is being attacked by a nasty virus. Designed to destroy you.” He laughed hysterically. I coughed up his blood trying to rid myself of it, but it was too late. I became dizzy and could barely stand in place. Before I became too weak, I knocked out my virus infected hostage. I hurried towards the scout ship. Doctor Faust should be able to help repair my DNA. I just needed to get back to the ship.

 

 I stumbled with dizziness trying to remember my way back. Woozy and tired I was affected by the virus to a point that concerned me. Would I be able to make it to Doctor Faust? The walls and floors were white, and a periodic window gave a view into space. Every hall looked the same as any other. I used my wristcom to retrace my steps to get me back to the right hallway only taking a few wrong turns. As I finally approached the ship, I let out a sigh of relief. Now all I had to do was get to Dr. Faust. As I got closer to the ship another group was clustered in the hallway. I was so close to safety at first, I didn’t notice.

 Vampires! I knew immediately that they were here to stop me. Perhaps even kill me. The dock was right in front of me, past the throng of twenty or so bodies. For the first time in years, I was faced with a combat challenge. They could be faster and stronger than me. I’m stronger than most vampires but in my current state...

“Finally, our prey has arrived.” A female vampire said. They all glared at me with the very eyes that I gave my prey. 

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“Vampires don’t hunt other vampires.” I pleaded looking at the group as they fanned out to surround me.

A male in the group answered me, “There is a trillion-credit bounty on your head along with a full pardon for whoever kills you. Today we work for the federation and a vampire has become prey.”

Still dizzy and hacking up blood I raised the gun I had in my hand. I am no one’s prey. The vampires charged at me all at once. I shot at as many as I could. The laser beam went through their bodies to the other side. Five fell to my gun, the steam rose from their bodies in silent surrender. I hoped my shots were non-lethal, I didn’t want to break my vow, but I could hold nothing back. The sixth vampire took my gun and shattered it into a million pieces.

 I was surrounded. I punched the vampire in front of me and kicked the one next to him. I turned to strike the vampires behind me. All of them came in to deal a blow. I ducked out of the way and quickly came up to hit the vampire in front of me. He hissed at me and punched in return; I blocked the blow. The short female next to him kicked me in the chest with the force of a wrecking ball. I managed to catch her leg and knocked her to the ground. There was a loud thud as her head met the floor. The vampire in front threw a haymaker and I deflected his blow then grabbed his arm. I broke his arm and hit his neck effectively knocking him out. Another vampire took his place and punched me in the side. I screamed as my ribs broke. I punched back, landing a blow on his head. He held his hand to his cheek. I took the opportunity to knock him in the head and he fell out. A female vampire struck my back as I was focused on the last vampire. I heard an audible crack as my spine took the hit. I coughed up blood. My vision blurred for a moment, but I still held my hands up poised to strike. Another vampire, tall, a blur with red eyes, lips, and hair, threw a roundhouse kick at me and I caught her leg. Before I knocked her down another vampire came up behind me and grabbed my arms. Fangs sunk into my flesh. I was filled with rage that someone would make me prey. Despite that rage I laughed because my blood was infected.

“What are you doing? Don’t drink from her, she's tainted.”

The fangs left my flesh. I took the opportunity to step on their instep and elbow behind me. My attacker doubled over and was easy to knock out with a blow to the head. I need to knock them out and get to the ship. I looked around and saw that there was still a group of vampires surrounding me ready to strike at any moment. How I would survive was beyond me. I sent a silent prayer to the gods to help me. A vampire with mahogany skin and ruby eyes went to strike me in the head with a right hook. I ducked and hit them in the ribs with an uppercut. You could hear the crack. I finished off the vampire with a blow to the head that knocked them out. His face was frozen with pain. Another three descended upon me, they moved as one to strike me down. I dodged a left hook, parried a roundhouse kick and kicked the center attacker in the groin. The center attacker hissed in pain then extended his claws to scratch me. I was able to prevent him from hitting my body, but his claws struck my hand. The blood that spilled made their eyes become a haze of red. I threw the attacker on the right into a wall. A loud crunching sound came from the metal as the frame warped. 

 I knocked out 12 vampires. Their numbers are just thin enough that I could punch a hole through them and make it. I ran straight for the dock using all the strength and speed I had left. Two vampires were flanking me and were closing in. One vampire had short black hair in a pixie cut. The other had a scar from his eye down to his chin. Both of them came up behind me super-fast and I used my fangs to tear at the jugular of the vampire with the pixie cut. She hissed and fell back, blood pouring at a fast rate out of her neck. The other vampire came at me with a haymaker, I ducked and hit him with an uppercut then used my claws to gouge out his eyes. He screamed and slashed his claws out towards me, getting me in my upper torso. 

I pressed my keycard against the keypad and jumped inside the ship. Effectively shut the door against intruders. The vampires piled around the entrance to the ship trying to claw their way in. There were some trying to use the keypad. I threw up more blood and stumbled to the cockpit. I entered a flight plan for the station Dr. Faust worked on. I undocked the ship and put it into an HQ Tunnel. I was finally safe. I made it.

 A beeping sound erupted from the ship. “Warning catastrophic system failure. Failure to deploy Hartman Quantum Tunnel. Quantum energy field unstable. System will self-destruct, estimated time to destruction one minute. “The ship’s AI gave the warning. My first thought was where would I go, back to that hallway with the vampires? I can barely even move.

The interstellar communication array turned itself on. “Wow, I am impressed.” The voice was familiar. 

“Who is this?” I asked.

“Captain Ando, remember my crew captured you and put you in prison.”

I hissed. My broken ribs throbbed in pain. Blood oozed out of my hand where I was clawed. I was covered in blood head to toe, some of it mine and some of it my opponent’s. I was fading in and out struggling to listen to Captain Ando.

“You were supposed to die in the hall from the virus running through your veins. They told me that would work. If it didn’t you were supposed to be killed by that group of vampires. But no, you survived and made it onboard just in time for my final plan to kill you. You have been known as Ela the destroyer, Ela the ripper, Ela the crazed, but now you will be known as Ela the sick and Ela the weak. Should you somehow survive the explosion, you will be in the freezing vacuum of space and die. Ela the vampire in space.” 

“Wait, you’ve got me, I surrender. You can put me back in prison.”

“Even if I wanted to, I cannot.” The transmission cut off.

The ship began the countdown to the explosion. “Ten, nine, eight,” well shit, what do I do now? 

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