YMIR

MacDonald, frozen to death in his own
bedchamber. And the room was warm. Duncan stared at MacDonald’s frozen features until his leg began to cramp. Then he gently released the corpse back to its original position.

Duncan could not put the pieces together. This whole thing reeked of the bizarre, and Duncan hated the bizarre. He liked facts and he liked opponents who could be taken prisoner or incapacitated with a force pistol. Mysterious blood, missing crewmen and inexplicably frozen bodies put him in an extremely bad mood. And he liked the nagging feeling that tugged at
the back of his mind even less.

“Katrina,” he spoke into his headset, “What’s your location?”

“Level 3,” the reply came.

“What are you doing there?” he barked back. “I told you to go to the armory.”

“I did,” she answered. “I found Daniel shot, and no sign of Jack. He won’t respond to his com.”

“Why did you not report?” Duncan began to get angry. Stupid scientists. Why couldn’t he have some real help out here?

“Sorry, sir. I forgot. I just got scared.”

“Don’t let it happen again!” he snapped. “Meet me on the Surface level. Something weird is going on and we need to stick together.”

“Yes, sir.” She answered.

Duncan checked two more of the living quarters in search of more members of the crew of the YMIR but he found no one else alive, only chunks of frozen bodies shattered on the metal flooring of the base. He began to think that he and Katrina were the only ones left. He made a quick stop by the armory and the rushed towards the base’s lift and the surface level.

As the lift doors opened, Katrina stood waiting on him just as he knew she would be. She smiled at him, red lips parting as her eyes gleamed in a look of anticipation. It seemed her fear and her worries were gone.

Duncan stepped out the lift and stared at her. “You’re not Katrina at all are you?” he asked harshly.

She took a step back as if struck, feigning shock. “What. . .What do you mean by that? Are you okay, Duncan? Did something happen to you down there?”

Duncan smiled. “Katrina has never called me by my actual name in my whole life you bastard.”
Duncan shrugged open the heavy coat he wore, bringing up the muzzle of the flame unit he’d swiped from the armory on the way up to bare at Katrina’s chest. Its barrel sparked then fire was pouring out it over the form of the woman before him.

The creature howled as Katrina’s melted away from it like ice. It tried to “phase out” of alignment with the time the base existed in to make its self insubstantial but the pain from the heat was too great. It lived on heat, the heat of living beings like a vampire but flames were an altogether different matter, they could hurt it even outside of a host body. Still it was the last of its race, the sole survivor of its kind. It raged in the flames and managed to swing out with an arm that dripped melting purple flesh to knock Duncan’s flame unit from the Captain’s hands. It was too little, too late though. Duncan moved right up to it and shoved the barrel of a grenade pistol down passed it fangs and rotted cheeks into its throat. It tried to scream as Duncan pulled the trigger and a phosphorous explosive denoted inside of it. The walls and Duncan were splattered with blackened pulp.

“Fuckin’ vampires,” Duncan cursed and turned back towards the lift. It had been a really bad day and he needed a new crew now on top of everything else. He had no idea how he was going to explain how one of those things had gotten in past him and Jack. Duncan sighed. He didn’t think Command had ever forgiven him for the last time this had happened back on Rigel Eight at Ragsdil base. “Yep,” he muttered to himself, “It’s going to be a bad ass night too,” as he tried to figure out what to say and the lift doors closed behind him once more.

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