[NO] King Xeros - Below the Decks

King Xeros - Below the Decks

 The seven moved deeper into the Xeros.

For the first thirty seconds, nobody spoke.

They were listening.

Not to footsteps.

To the ship.

The deck beneath their boots carried a faint vibration that had no mechanical rhythm. It rose and fell slowly, almost imperceptibly, as though something enormous were breathing somewhere below them.

Cat raised one hand.

The team stopped.

Kris moved half a step ahead and angled his weapon toward the passage.

Francis crouched beside the crystalline deck.

“What?”

Francis placed two fingers against the surface.

The crystal brightened beneath his glove.

He withdrew his hand.

“It responds to contact.”

Rome looked down.

“Pressure?”

“I don't know.”

“Electrical?”

“I don't know.”

“Thermal?”

Francis looked at him.

“I don't know.”

Rome considered that.

“Good.”

Francis gave him a flat look.

Rome turned away.

Kris watched the corridor.

“Enough.”

They continued.

The passage curved gently downward.

There were no exposed cables.

No maintenance conduits.

No ventilation ducts.

No standardized access panels.

The Xeros had none of the visual language of Neon Odyssey construction.

It had been built by people who had solved different problems.

Its walls were crystalline, but not smooth. The material had been shaped into beams, ribs, arches and supports. Some sections were translucent enough to reveal dim illumination beyond them. Others were opaque, patterned with natural-looking veins of pale light.

The architecture was unmistakably nautical.

Not metaphorically.

Not aesthetically.

Functionally.

The passage had the proportions of a ship.

There were raised thresholds between compartments. Handholds were built into the walls. Narrow stairways descended between decks. Storage recesses had been fitted beneath the walls. Doors were positioned like cabin doors.

The Xeros was not pretending to be a ship.

It was one.

Kris stopped at the first stairway.

“Down.”

Yosef looked over the railing.

The staircase disappeared into a lower deck.

Min-woo scanned it.

“No detectable structural failure.”

“Movement?”

“None.”

Yosef started down.

Min-woo followed.

Cat gestured for the others to move.

The stairway descended farther than the exterior of the vessel had suggested possible.

Stephen noticed it.

“Spatial distortion?”

Francis looked at him.

“Possibly.”

Rome glanced upward.

“Or the ship is larger inside.”

Francis frowned.

“That would be worse.”

They reached the next deck.

The difference was immediate.

The upper level had felt exposed and alien.

This deck felt occupied.

Not presently.

Historically.

There were doors along both sides of the passage. Some were open. Others had been shut. Personal storage compartments were built into the walls. A narrow table was fixed against one bulkhead.

There were marks in the surfaces.

Scratches.

Wear.

Repairs.

The accumulated evidence of people living aboard.

Stephen slowed.

“This was a crew vessel.”

Nobody answered.

They all knew it.

Kris examined one of the doors.

“Cabin.”

Yosef nodded.

“Crew quarters.”

Cat looked down the passage.

“How many?”

Francis scanned.

“Enough.”

The word carried more weight here than it had in the Construction Bay.

A ship this size could not have been built merely to transport cargo.

Someone had lived here.

Worked here.

Fought here.

Slept here.

And now the Xeros was empty.

Or almost empty.

A metallic sound came from behind them.

Kris spun.

The weapon was already raised.

Something dropped from the ceiling.

Min-woo fired.

The shot struck it in midair.

The object slammed against the wall and fell.

It was a GrimCo sensor assembly.

Francis approached cautiously.

“Automated surveillance.”

Yosef looked at the damaged device.

“Still active?”

Francis checked.

“Barely.”

“Disable it.”

Francis pulled a tool from his kit.

The sensor emitted a sharp pulse.

A red beam swept across the corridor.

Kris moved instantly.

“Down.”

The seven dropped.

The beam passed over them.

Where it touched the crystalline wall, the surface blackened.

Stephen looked at the scorched crystal.

“That would have gone through armor.”

Kris stood.

“Probably.”

He fired twice.

The sensor exploded.

Fragments struck the opposite wall.

Min-woo stepped forward and inspected the remains.

“GrimCo modification.”

Francis nodded.

“They've been placing these throughout the ship.”

“Why?”

“To monitor it.”

“From here?”

Francis looked at the dead sensor.

“No.”

He pointed farther down the passage.

“They're reporting somewhere.”

Cat looked toward the dark corridor.

“Then we find where.”

They moved.

The ship seemed to change around them as they descended.

The lower decks were tighter.

More functional.

The crystalline architecture gave way to darker materials in places, though even these were unfamiliar. Reinforced beams crossed overhead. Heavy doors separated compartments. Equipment was secured against the walls in ways that made sense only if the vessel expected violent motion.

The team passed a compartment filled with containers.

Yosef opened one.

Empty.

Another contained tools.

Not Neon Odyssey tools.

Different shapes.

Different materials.

Different assumptions.

Francis examined one without touching it.

“Hand tools.”

“For what?”

“Ship maintenance.”

Yosef looked at the mechanism.

“The fasteners aren't compatible with anything I've seen.”

Francis nodded.

“That seems deliberate.”

They moved on.

A low vibration passed through the deck.

Everyone stopped.

The sound became stronger.

Then weaker.

The Xeros remained perfectly still.

But the walls had moved.

Not physically.

The light within them had changed.

A faint blue-white pulse traveled through the crystalline ribs of the vessel.

From bow to stern.

Stephen watched it disappear into the distance.

“That wasn't power.”

Francis shook his head.

“No.”

“What was it?”

“I don't know.”

Rome was staring at the same structure.

“That was a signal.”

Francis turned.

“Why?”

“Because it traveled.”

Francis looked again.

The pulse repeated.

This time he tracked its direction.

His expression changed.

“It isn't traveling through the ship.”

Cat looked at him.

“Then what?”

Francis placed his hand against the wall.

The crystal brightened.

“The ship is transmitting through itself.”

Nobody spoke.

The next pulse was stronger.

Somewhere above them, something answered.

A distant metallic impact.

Then another.

Kris raised his weapon.

“Movement.”

Yosef listened.

“Below.”

They descended again.

The stairway opened into a larger chamber.

It was a cargo hold.

The realization came immediately.

Crates and containers had been secured along the walls. Heavy anchor points were embedded in the deck. Suspended cargo racks crossed the upper sections of the compartment.

Most of the containers were empty.

Several had been opened violently.

Others had been torn apart.

One had been cut open from the inside.

Kris approached it.

The edges were warped.

Not cut.

Melted.

“GrimCo?”

Francis shook his head.

“No.”

Rome crouched beside the damaged container.

“Something got out.”

Stephen looked around the hold.

“Something alive?”

Rome studied the residue.

“Possibly.”

Cat looked at him.

“You're not sure.”

“No.”

“Then assume nothing.”

Rome nodded.

That was the correct answer.

A sound came from the far side of the chamber.

Something moved behind the cargo racks.

Kris raised his weapon.

The rest of the team spread.

Stephen took the center.

Yosef and Min-woo covered the left.

Francis and Rome took the right.

Cat moved toward the middle of the chamber.

Nothing emerged.

Kris waited.

Then a shape dropped from above.

It hit the deck hard.

A creature unfolded from the darkness.

It was small.

Fast.

Armored.

Its body was pale and jointed, its limbs ending in hooked structures that scraped against the crystal.

Kris fired.

The first shot tore through its shoulder.

The creature screamed.

It lunged.

Min-woo intercepted it.

The impact drove him backward.

The creature's claws struck his armor.

Metal shrieked.

Yosef fired at point-blank range.

The creature twisted.

The shot punched through its torso.

Stephen caught Min-woo by the shoulder and pulled him clear as the creature collapsed.

Blood—or something close enough to blood—spread across the deck.

Min-woo looked down at the damage.

“Armor compromised.”

Yosef checked him.

“How badly?”

“Functional.”

Yosef inspected the torn plating.

“That's not what I asked.”

Min-woo looked at him.

“Then specify a measurement.”

Yosef stared at him for a second.

“Later.”

Cat was already moving.

“Everyone intact?”

Seven voices answered.

The dead creature remained on the deck.

Rome approached.

He studied it without touching.

“Not native to the station.”

Francis looked over.

“How do you know?”

“The station workers didn't look like this.”

Francis stared at him.

“That is technically true.”

Rome looked back at the body.

“I mean its composition.”

Francis scanned it.

His expression tightened.

“Not biological material I've encountered.”

Stephen crouched beside the creature.

“It was afraid.”

Kris looked at him.

“You can tell?”

Stephen examined the posture.

“Yes.”

He looked toward the dark cargo hold.

“It wasn't hunting us.”

A pause.

“It was running from something.”

The ship vibrated again.

This time the entire chamber trembled.

Crates shifted.

One fell.

Yosef caught it before it struck Stephen.

Min-woo grabbed the other end.

Together they set it down.

Francis looked toward the deck.

“That's getting worse.”

Cat nodded.

“How long?”

Francis checked the countermeasure.

“I can't estimate.”

“Then don't.”

She looked toward the passage leading deeper into the ship.

“We find the source.”

They left the cargo hold.

The next compartment contained a more substantial set of quarters.

Larger.

Better maintained.

There was a table.

A secured storage cabinet.

A writing surface.

A wall-mounted instrument.

A chair fixed to the deck.

Stephen entered first.

“This was someone's personal space.”

Yosef examined the cabinet.

“Command?”

Francis scanned the room.

“Possibly.”

Kris found a broken insignia beneath the table.

He handed it to Cat.

She turned it over.

No Neon Odyssey markings.

No GrimCo identification.

Nothing any of them could read.

Rome stared at it.

“It's old.”

Francis scanned it.

“Very.”

Cat placed it back.

“Leave it.”

They continued.

The corridor opened onto another staircase.

This one descended toward the center of the vessel.

The air changed.

It became warmer.

The crystalline walls glowed more strongly.

Francis stopped.

“There's a concentration of energy below us.”

Rome looked at him.

“Power source?”

Francis shook his head.

“No.”

“Then what?”

Francis hesitated.

“I don't know.”

Rome smiled faintly.

Not amusement.

Recognition.

“For once, we're equally uninformed.”

Francis looked at him.

“Don't get used to it.”

They descended.

At the bottom of the stairs stood a pair of massive doors.

They were unlike anything else aboard the vessel.

The doors were circular.

Their surfaces were covered in geometric patterns.

There was no handle.

No keypad.

No mechanical lock.

No visible interface.

Cat approached.

The doors opened.

Not because she touched them.

Because the ship recognized them.

The passage beyond was enormous.

A shaft descended through several levels.

Curved balconies surrounded the central space.

At its center was a platform.

And upon that platform stood a chair.

Not a command chair.

Not a pilot's seat in any Neon Odyssey sense.

It was a high-backed seat surrounded by crystalline structures that curved upward like branches.

The chair was empty.

The team stopped.

Rome stared.

Francis whispered, “That's the center.”

Kris asked, “Of what?”

Francis looked at the structure.

“I don't know.”

The Xeros pulsed.

The chair answered.

A faint light appeared beneath it.

The ship's vibration changed.

It became steadier.

Stronger.

Almost peaceful.

Then the voice returned.

This time it was closer.

The words remained unintelligible.

But there was something unmistakably deliberate about them.

The voice was not an automated warning.

It was not a computer.

It was speaking.

Stephen looked toward the empty chair.

“Someone is still aboard.”

Francis checked every sensor he had.

“No life signs.”

Stephen kept watching the chair.

“That's not what I said.”

The lights around the platform brightened.

A second presence moved somewhere above them.

Kris raised his weapon.

“Contact.”

Figures appeared along the upper balconies.

Not creatures.

Not crew.

GrimCo.

Three armored operatives emerged from concealed positions.

Their weapons were already trained downward.

The first fired.

The beam struck the railing beside Cat and exploded into crystal fragments.

Kris returned fire.

His first shot hit the operative in the chest.

The armor absorbed part of it.

The second shot struck the throat.

The operative fell backward over the railing.

Rome raised one hand.

Gravity changed.

The remaining two GrimCo operatives slammed sideways into the balcony wall.

Francis fired into the exposed power assembly on one operative's back.

The device ruptured.

The operative convulsed.

Min-woo moved forward.

Yosef covered him.

Stephen raised his weapon.

Cat shouted, “Alive if possible.”

Min-woo reached the first operative.

The soldier swung.

Min-woo caught the arm.

The force of the impact drove both of them into the railing.

The operative tried to bring his weapon up.

Min-woo broke the wrist.

The weapon fell.

Yosef kicked it away.

Stephen stepped between them.

“Stop.”

Min-woo released the arm.

The operative collapsed.

The second GrimCo soldier was still alive.

Barely.

Kris kept his weapon trained on him.

Francis approached.

“Who sent you?”

The operative said nothing.

Francis looked at the GrimCo equipment embedded around the chamber.

Then at the empty chair.

Then at the crystalline walls.

He understood one thing.

GrimCo had not merely boarded the Xeros.

They had been trying to reach this place.

Whatever was here, they believed it mattered.

Cat looked toward the chair.

The light beneath it pulsed again.

The voice spoke.

This time, for the briefest moment, something in the sound seemed to change.

Recognition.

The seven stood in silence.

The Xeros knew they were aboard.

And somewhere beyond the chamber, beneath decks they had not yet reached, something answered the ship.

Cat lowered her weapon slightly.

“We keep moving.”

Kris nodded.

Francis looked once more at the chair.

Then at the passage beyond it.

The seven crossed the chamber.

Behind them, the empty chair continued to glow.