Episode 6: Message Received Part 4

Conner eyes flicked open; he had been trying to get to sleep when he had heard a terrible scream come from a room nearby. He could hear a faint slashing of claws, and then it stopped. There were thudding footsteps outside the hospital room. The Rawrx was outside the room.


The Doctor, Georgia, Captain Fry, Hannah and Ryker sprinted down a corridor closely followed by Rufus. Captain Fry had attempted to contact Ysabelle but it had not worked.

“But you said you’d fixed it,” Captain Fry said as he sprinted after the Doctor down a corridor.
“That Rawrx is clever, it learnt from its mistakes,” the Doctor said.
“If the monster is clever then why would it just kill?” Hannah asked.
“It kills for fun,” the Doctor replied as he turned a corner and almost walked into the Rawrx. Hannah, Ryker and Captain Fry took guns out of their pockets and aimed at the Rawrx who scurried off.

“What?” the Doctor said then he turned to see the crew members with their guns out.
“Did we scare it off?” asked Georgia, “With the guns?”
“I don’t understand the laser beams that you fire out of your guns wouldn’t harm the Rawrx,”the Doctor explained, “Why did he run away?”
“Maybe, it didn’t know that the guns wouldn’t harm it,” Ryker suggested.
“We’d better see if Conner’s alright,” Georgia said.
“Good idea,” Captain Fry replied. Hannah typed in the door code and the door swung open. Georgia saw Conner lying on the bed and she hugged him.

“I’m so glad you’re OK,” Georgia said.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Conner asked.
“Well Ysabelle’s been killed by the Rawrx,” Georgia said.
“Poor Ysabelle,” Hannah said, “That’s three people dead in the last hour.”
“I’ve got a plan,” the Doctor said, “But you won’t like it.”
“Anything to stop this killing,” Captain Fry said.
“Do you have any remote controlled mines on board?” the Doctor asked.
“Yes, we have several which we trade,” Ryker replied, “They’re in a room near the Dining Room.”
“You mean the one with the hole in the wall?” the Doctor asked.
“No the other dining room, the one which we have dinner in,” Ryker explained, “Talking about dinner it is about time for some food.”

“Doctor, why do you need remote controlled mines?” Georgia asked.
“So I can blow up the monster,” the Doctor explained.
“But you’ll blow up the ship!” Hannah exclaimed, “I’m sorry but we cannot let you blow up the monster if it means we loose the ship too!”
“What else do you suggest?” the Doctor asked.
“How did you force it into that cell before Doctor, on the space base?” Conner asked.
“Daferage lured it in there,” the Doctor said, “She was brilliant Daferage was, she might have become my companion, but the plan went wrong. Daferage planned to run into the cell then run out using a secret door at the back of the cell, but that door was all rusty and it wouldn’t budge. The Rawrx ran into the cell and it killed her.”
“Poor her,” Georgia said, “But there aren’t any cells on board so...”
“Yes there are!” Hannah said, “But there’s no ways of getting out of them.”

“Look if we do my plan, then nobody gets killed,” the Doctor explained, “If you have an escape pod?”
“We have two escape pods, both of them are pretty big,” Ryker said.
“If we do my plan, nobody dies and we don’t loose the ship,” Hannah replied.
“But you said someone should lure the Rawrx into a cell,” the Doctor began.
“I never explained my plan fully, we don’t have to use a someone,” Hannah said, “We could use a something.”
“Not Rufus!” Captain Fry said.
“I don’t mean Rufus!” Hannah said, “He’s like a member of the crew.”
“Then what?” Georgia asked.
“There are several animals in one of the rooms, that we trade with the KassKass,” Hannah explained, “I mean some of them are easy to look after, but others, without Maria they will suffer. She always liked to keep the animals to herself.”
“But that’s animal cruelty,” Georgia said.
“It’ll be even crueler if we feed it the wrong things, or don’t look after it properly,” Hannah replied.

“Surely, you have books on board about looking after animals,” Conner said, “And who’s Rufus?” Georgia pointed at the Old English sheepdog, who was sitting on the floor, panting. Conner looked startled at first but calmed down after a few seconds.
“We do have books about how to look after some animals,” Ryker explained, “You can find them in the library.”
“You’ve got a library?” the Doctor asked.
“Yes,” Captain Fry said, “Why?”
“There may be some information in there concerning why the Rawrx chose to attack this ship,” the Doctor answered.
“Shall we go there first then?” Conner asked.
“Yes,” the Doctor replied simply.
“That way,” Ryker said pointing at a door leading even further away from the bridge.

“Are you OK to walk?” Hannah asked Conner.
“Yeah,” Conner replied, sliding out of the bed. He stood up and brushed himself down.


At the bridge Ethan and Niina were getting bored. Niina was trying to follow the Doctor’s progress using the ship’s camera system. Ethan, meanwhile, was trying to get the ship moving again, whilst trying and failing to contact the authorities.
“The Shadow Proclamation should hear about this,” Ethan said.
“Yes, but we can’t contact them,” Niina replied, “Why didn’t we get chosen to go out? Ah well they won’t get any dinner.” Niina stood up and walked over to the door.
“Where are you going?” Ethan asked.
“The Dining Room,” Niina replied, “I’m really hungry.” Ethan moved over to the computer screen which Niina had been looking at.

“Hang on,” Ethan said and Niina stopped, “Where’s Ysabelle?”
“In the hospital,” Niina suggested walking over to the screen. Ethan touched the screen and another picture appeared, it was the hospital and it was empty.
“It looks like they’re heading to the library,” Ethan said.
“But Ysabelle is nowhere,” Niina muttered, “Try and contact her.” Ethan got out his communicator and pressed a button on it.
“Ysabelle, where are you?” Ethan said into the communicator. There was no reply, not even a crackle.
“I think she’s dead,” Niina said with tears in her eyes.
“Niina, don’t cry please, we’ve got to be brave,” Ethan said.
“You’re right, we’ve been put in charge of the bridge,” Niina replied, “Here we should stay.”

“You know we’ve been through a lot of things together,” Ethan said, not looking at Niina.
“The crew has been through loads of things together,” Niina said.
“I’ve grown to like you,” Ethan said.
“So you didn’t like me at first then?” Niina asked.
“No I mean I’ve grown to like, like you,” Ethan said, “I suppose that didn’t really make sense, did it? Basically I really like you. Although I like the rest of the crew too, but I mean you in particular I like, like.”
“You love me?” Niina said.
“Well... yes,” Ethan said nervously.
“It’s nothing to be nervous about,” Niina replied, “I like like you too.”
“So are we going out now or something?” Ethan asked.
“I suppose so,” Niina said.
“Good, that’s great,” Ethan said quietly. Niina and Ethan looked at each other and hugged.


Ryker ran past dark rooms and chambers towards the library. He was followed closely by the Doctor, Georgia and Conner, then Captain Fry, Hannah and Rufus. Ryker pointed at a large circular door and typed in the door code. The door swung open to reveal a large circular room. If it was the same shape as the other circular rooms, you wouldn’t have been able to tell, as the room was full of tall, thick bookshelves.

“Didn’t you ever think to upgrade?” The Doctor asked.
“We preferred reading the books to reading books on screens,” Captain Fry answered.
“I agree,” the Doctor said, “But then Vashta Nerada.”
“Whata whata?” Georgia asked.
“Don’t worry,” the Doctor said, “They live in the shadows. Right find books, diaries perhaps anything that could explain why the Rawrx has come here. Captain, can you look at the ships log.” Captain Fry nodded and the crew, Georgia, Conner and the Doctor set to work reading.

“Here it says that an unnamed monster attacked an old space base,” Georgia said, pointing at the book she was holding, which was called, ‘Alien Attacks’.
“Keep reading, tell me anything you haven’t heard from me,” the Doctor told Georgia. She read that 45 members of the crew had been killed by a gruesome being with claws. Apparently, its current whereabouts are unknown.

“Here it says that a clawed monster attacked a KassKass ship,” Hannah said, “The monster was starving and attacked the ship closest to it, and ate the crew.”
“But the monster hasn’t eaten any of the crew,” Conner pointed out.
“The Rawrx feeds off the adrenaline of the hunt,” the Doctor explained, “It gets a real kick out of killing.” Georgia and Hannah both made disgusted faces.

“I’ve found something in the ships log,” Captain Fry said, “The ship has been putting many companies out of business in this area of space. One company owned by a Regal Youngblood was the most recent company to fail.”
“What?” the Doctor asked.
“But Regal said his company was failing,” Georgia said.
“But apparently it’s failed,” Conner said.
“Why would he lie?” the Doctor asked.
“Perhaps he didn’t want to admit to it,” Georgia said.
“Maybe officially his company has ended, but actually he’s doing some black market stuff,” Conner suggested.
“They are both possibilities,” the Doctor said.

“It says about a monster here,” Ryker said, “That was a killer, and the man who had it locked up set it free as long as it wiped out the local authorities, so that this man could do his black market deals without getting into trouble. It succeeded but the Shadow Proclamation got involved and arrested the man that let the monster free.”

“I’ve got another story concerning a clawed creature, there’s even a picture of it,” Hannah said, “It has an uncanny resemblance to the Rawrx, though in this book it has been called a Clawrittax.”
“Clawrittax?” a voice said.
“Yeah, have you heard of it before?” the Doctor said turning around to see nobody, “Who said that?”
“It wasn’t me,” Georgia said.
“Nor me,” Conner added. The Doctor looked at Hannah who shook her head, Ryker shrugged and turned to the Captain, who turned off the computer and also shook his head.
“Then who was it?” the Doctor asked.
“It was me,” the voice of the Rawrx said. The voice was coming from the communicators as it had done before.

“The Rawrx!” Hannah exclaimed, running to the door.
“Where?” Conner asked.
“Oh, I’m on the other side of the ship,” the Rawrx said, “The bridge is in trouble, I thought you should know that you’re next!”

TO BE CONTINUED