“There you are.”
Ugh, not now. The emotionless android grabbed for my arm, but I lunged out of reach and ran towards the stairs. It was gaining; its perfectly measured steps following behind me. Once I ran far enough in front of the android, I hid behind a banister and waited. I clutched my wrench tightly, knuckles turning white. A faint whirring sound was coming closer. I crouched, ready to lunge. As soon as it came into view I swung right at it’s neck.
“You need assistance. I will escort you.”
“NO I DON’T! GET AWAY!” I continued to swing at it as it smashed its metal fist into my chest. My breath flew out with an “oomph”, but I continued to swing the wrench. With one last swing the android fell to the ground, a silver fluid pooled around it. Funny how a wrench does more damage than a revolver to those things. And the bolt gun would've taken to long to charge anyway. Holding a hand to my now bruised chest I took deep breaths.
What even happened here? It’s against the android’s synthetic programming to attack us. Something’s not right. After catching my breath, I quickly whipped out my tracker and swiveled around in a circle. No dots were showing. Good. Cautiously, I ran back into the transbus and pushed the on the down arrow. Ok, think. Where can I communicate with my ship? Since the main communication center was out of function, I needed to try the old radio tower. This was going to be a risk; the isolated tower was far away from the main deck where I was. Not to mention there is only one way in and one way out. I know there is something much more sinister roaming the halls of this ship than those androids. I can hear its steps above in the vents, and see the same silvery fluid dripping from above. The transbus doors opened, but I remained crouched behind a lopsided seat. I waved the tracker around again and groaned when a dot was on the radar. I peered above the seat and saw an android at a control panel, its back turned. It slowly turned around.
“Is anyone need of assistance?”
I held my breath. It turned back around, thank god. Just to be safe I unstrapped my bolt gun, and used the seat I was behind to prop my gun on. It buzzed, crackling with electricity as I focused on the android. Bam! It nailed the android in the head, splattering silver everywhere.
Bullseye.
Slowly, I crept out of the transbus and went right, all the while keeping my tracker out. No dots. When I looked up, a comms-box was in sight. Yes! I opened it, and saw the options of either surveillance or ventilation; surveillance, bingo! I turned off all cameras in that section, and continued peeking in rooms. I pulled up a holo-map of the station, and checked which way to go. I needed to go straight ahead, turn left, and go through a shortcut vent. Continuing down the hallway I stopped at the section where it split into two other hallways. The right side had a sign saying “Med Unit”, and the left said “Transport Hold”. I went down the transport hold hallway and stopped where wreckage blocked the hallway. According to the map, there should be a ventilation hole here somewhere.
Ah ha! There it was. The closed hole shuttered open as soon as I neared it. I turned on my flashlight and crawled through the hole, cringing when my wrench banged against the side of the vent. Finally, I reached the other side, and the hole shuttered open.
“Go, go ,go!” Two people, a man and a woman, were sprinting from the left. It was the first sign of human life I’d seen here! I quickly climbed out and chased after them; this is my chance to get some answers.
“Hey! Hey guys! Whats going on?!” I asked breathlessly running beside them now.
“Who are you? And shut up! It will hear us!” the man said.
I bristled, but didn’t say anything. We continued running until we reached a transbus. I looked across, and based of their haggard appearance, they must have been here for more than a week.
“OK, what is going on? Are you running from the androids or something else?” I asked once the doors closed. I thought back to the suspicious silvery fluid and loud noises in the vents. I had seen some pretty gruesome corpses, but some didn't look like they were killed by an android.
“Something else. It’s not an android, but it’s not alive yet either,” the woman responded. I could tell by the look on her face that she was tired. She had dark eye circles, and her hair was greasy after not being washed for so long. She had a slight limp in her left leg, probably from traversing through the station.
“What do you mean?”
“Something happened to one of the androids. One of them must of been exposed to space radiation from the broken parts of the station. It’s some kind of hybrid now, like an android-animal. I’m not sure what happened, but the synthetic intelligence of it has evolved into something more primal.” So the androids have been killing the people of the station, but now a robotic beast roams the vents? Great.
The woman sighed and introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Turner, and this is Drew. We were sent to investigate this station after it fell silent. Our ship is the Castor.” I studied them carefully. They had weapons strapped to them similar to me, and carried a supply backpack.
“I’m Astrid. My ship’s the Nostalgia, and we were sent here for the same reason. Except a rock cut the extension line anchoring us from the ship to the station. I’ve lost two of my crew members, I don’t know if they made it.” I said looking away, tears forming thinking about Steve and Angie. Angie was the on-ship surgeon, and Steven was the Computer analyst. Maybe they also found their way one the ship like I did? It’s unlikely though, we were all flung so far apart.
“Were you headed towards the radio tower too?” Turner asked.
“Yeah, before I saw you guys running. You are the only sign of life I have seen so far.”
“Well let’s get going. I believe we need to go up, and past the Control unit,”Turner said pulling out her own map. Drew and Turner pulled out a stun baton, and shotgun. Those are no match for my wrench! But just to be safe I took out my bolt gun.  We crept up the stairs stepping over abandoned toolboxes, and overturned chairs. The Control unit’s hallway lights flickered as we went past abandoned offices. One office had blood smearing through the doorway and led to a body slumped against the wall. The man’s stomach had a gaping hole, a perfect cavity, like it had been drilled.
“That is what that thing does. It comes up behind you silently, only a faint whirring noise. And by the time you look down, there's a spear right through you,” Drew shook his head in disgust.
We kept walking down the hallway, and then finally saw a sign hidden away in a corner says “Radio Tower”. The radio tower was barely used; it's old technology forgotten. It was quiet, too quiet. I took out my tracker; that's weird there's a dot on the radar. Suddenly, in the corner of my eye I saw something shiny. I looked up. In the dark of the vent hole, something that looked suspiciously like razors shone.
“RUN!” Drew screamed as we whipped around and ran back the way we came.  THUD. Something dropped from the ceiling, and I didn’t turn around to see what. As I was running, I pulled out the wrench and blindly chucked it behind me. A loud clank was heard and the footsteps slowed down. I think I just bought us some time to hide. When the offices came in view, we split into two different rooms. Drew and Turner went into an office across from mine and hid under a corner desk. There was nowhere for me to hide; the only desk was split into broken splinters. Quick thuds came from down the hallway reminding me that I only have seconds to hide. Wait, the lockers! I yanked a locker open and jammed myself in. I heard an electric drill as the hybrid slowed down and hunted for its prey. I gasped. Finally I saw what Drew meant. It was repulsive. Mish-mash of wires, gears, and metal parts were put together in the form of some metal exoskeleton. The legs were long pieces of metal, and its claws were sharp blades. The backbone of it had ridges along the spine of deadly spinning gears, and sparks flew every time it moved. The tail had a spear, a rotating spear. Like a drill. The creepiest part of it all, was its face. The face of it was the emotionless rubber android face, except it had no eyes, nose, or mouth in the cut-outs. Just the rubber skin stretched over a ball of wires. It was terrifying. The slight movement of the office chair caught the attention of the hybrid.
“You need assistance,” it said garbled as it stormed into office across mine and ripped apart the desk.
“NO!” Turner screamed, fear painted on her face.
  It grabbed Turner, hooking its claws into her shoulder, piercing all the way through. Her eyes glazed in pain and then she went limp. And in the next second it shoved its tail right through Drew as he was trying to escape. The tail spun like a drill, killing him immediately. He fell face forward, his back had a bloody hole going straight through him.  No this couldn’t be. I stifled a sob, as it spun around, its head raised in the air again.
It was looking for me.
The tail whirred again as it flicked around, like it had a mind of its own. The hybrid stopped in the hallway, looked around, but then jumped into the air vent above. The banging noises of it running in the vents echoed. It- it was going away from the radio tower! I still didn’t move, it could be back. I took out the tracker again, no dots. In shock I tumbled out of the locker and moved towards the bodies of Turner and Drew.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry,” I cried. I backed up gagging at all the blood; the metallic stench was too much. I quietly crept down the hallway again, my tracker out the whole time. No dots, no dots, no dots.
“Yes! YES!” I whispered. The radio tower’s control panel came into view. A large glass window was above the panel. There it was, the planet the station was orbiting. The gas giant glowed a bright blue with a misty purple gas on the surface. Debris of the destroyed station floated among the stars, but luckily the satellite was still intact. Grabbing the speaker, I tuned to the Nostalgia’s radio wave.
“Hello, hello! This is Astrid aboard the station calling the Nostalgia. Help! I need to be rescued! I am closest to dock S7 near the radio tower. It isn’t safe on here, there is some android hybrid, and two people were just lost, and -and never mind. Hello, hello!....This is Astrid….”