An unexpected arrival Part 3

With her forward decks missing, the Event Horizon's suite of sensors was rather abysmal. In fact, Captain Miller wasn't even sure where some of the readings were coming from.

Currently, the ship was hanging in orbit above a lush jungle planet. If there were any structures down there, they were far too sparse to pick up. Not that it mattered. The Event Horizon couldn't land, had no landing craft onboard, and couldn't even attempt communication. If the remainder of the system was equally devoid of intelligent life... well, Miller wasn't quite sure what he'd do. Without charts of the neighboring systems, he'd be picking a direction at random if he struck out.

One by one, the Event Horizon moved through the planets of the system. Eventually, she ended her search in the heavens above a blackened, ice world. So little heat reached it that the chances of surface life were infinitely small.

And yet, find something he did. Not on the planet, however. Or even in its orbit. One of the gravitational anomalies had apparently wrecked havoc on a passing ships Nav-Com AI, and caused it to fall out of hyperspace. The vessel was about twice the size of the Event Horizon and shaped like an elongated pyramid- truly alien looking.

"Bring us in nice and slow. Once they scan us, they should see we're no threat to them," Miller said.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that," Weir whispered.

And as if on que, the ship turned and opened fire. A trio of turbo-laser blasts struck the hull and caused the ship to lurch. Somewhere, the hull was breached and air began to hiss out.

A sense of anger welled up inside the Event Horizon and for once, Captain Miller sympathized. Any fool could see the extent of their damage. There was no obvious reason to open fire!

"Okay," was all he said.

Behind him, the three rings of the gravity drive which had been turning and rotating ceaselessly, came to an abrupt halt. The darkness within was unfathomable, swallowing up all light. Something unseen within stirred and a wave of energy spilled out.

The wave hit the other ship like a typhoon swamping a fishing trawler. Miller could neither see nor hear the hapless crew members, but he could sense them... gouging their own eyes out and shooting themselves to escape the horrors thrust upon them. The ship, itself also damaged by the Event Horizon's attack, went silent and began to drift.

Through careful manipulation of the gravity drive, he was able to pull the crippled vessel into orbit around the ice-world.

"Captain Miller... you just killed everyone onboard that ship. And you think I'm the monster?" Weir said.

"Doctor, I'm not in the mood for a debate on morality. What I need are warm bodies to help me salvage this hulk," Miller said.

"Well, I already know you won't let her bring me back. But I'm hardly the only one who's died on here," Weir said.

Miller's eyes went wide, "You can't be serious."

"You're the master of the Event Horizon. It's your choice...," Weir's voice faded into the steady hiss of escaping gasses from the hull breach.