After a pain staking minute of silence, Solomon's ears pricked up, picking up the hint of movement at his rear, and at the same time, the distinct sound of a round entering the chamber of the defence turret and the explosion of the round as the firing pin made contact and the projectile soared through the still dank air of the wrecked ship to find its new home in the chest cavity of something truly horrifying.
Solomon caught a glimpse of the shiny skin as it reflected and glistened in the light created from the muzzle flash and saw teeth. Hundreds of teeth, the sheer size of the creature brought many doubts into his mind, making him second guess his own ability to detect something sneaking up on him. Question after question quickly ran through his shocked mind. How did he not hear it? How did it get so far without triggering a defence turret? What the actual fuck is it?
The beast let out a shrill, nerve splitting roar, sounding as a chorus from ten beasts instead of the single one that Solomon saw in the flash of light. When he saw the defence turret let out a volley of projectiles as the single bullet did not put the thing down, Solomon saw it charge, moving as a stop motion figure through the muzzle flash and darkness, charging and ripping the gun from its mounting. Solomon cared not if the man on the other side of the door had a gun, he fancied his chances more with him, than this creature of teeth.
Slipping through the half open door, Solomon smashed his shoulder against the metal and pushed with all his might. The damaged hunk of metal slowly began to grind its way back to its closed position, His heart racing from the appearance of the creature and the obvious sound of the defence turret becoming a small junk pile, he managed to get the door mostly closed before the wretched creature could force its arm through the opening. The limb had a red skin, as horribly muscled as an extreme body builder, it had circles of small bone spikes protruding from the skin in strange gruesome symmetrical circles all the way up the length of the forearm that forced its way through the gap.
A cry of anger rushed towards Solomon as he put more force into closer the door. As the cry came closer, Solomon made out the dirty torn form of a man, ramming a knife into the flesh of the muscled arm, a shrill cry out of pain and hatred erupted, abruptly silenced by the slamming of the metal door.
"Thanks." said Solomon breathing heavily, his heart returning to a normal pace. "Theo." replied the man as he slapped the hull of the door for good luck before walking away and dropping himself in Kyrils chair. "No. choose another one." commanded Solomon sourly, and Theo removed himself from the previous commanding captains chair. Solomon looked around the Bridge, vast tangles of wiring hung from the ceiling, looking like tumour growths. Panelling hand fallen from the ceiling and most of the terminals sparked with shorted electrics or lay dead and silent. It took Solomon only a minute to find the midnight blue coat covering a body in the corner. He knew instantly that Kyril lay beneath the coat covering. "Found him over the helm. Must have been the only one aboard." explained Theo. Solomon simply grunted in acknowledgement and would say no more as his brain returned into a stage of mourning for the corpse of the father figure he would so dearly miss.
The two men stood for a moment, Solomon reminiscing of the conversation of old from this room, Theo slowly rocked on the soles of his feet, like an anxious child awaiting a parents approval.
Solomon, considering his options, approached the command console that was home to the internal defence systems and pressed the blinking red button to turn them off, hearing the tell tale signs of the system winding down and an electronic sigh, he turned and made his way to his chair, taking care not to disturb the broken glass and electrical components on the floor as he stepped down the tiers to where his leather chair still stood tall. Theo asked what he was doing, a question Solomon didn't respond to before opening the rear of his chair, liquid poured out and soaked the floor as a powerful odour of whiskey flooded the room, quickly followed by Solomon cursing aloud. After a minute or so of rummaging through the broken bottles that once contained various alcohol, he found an unmarked, unopened bottle. "Of course. Which other could it be." said Solomon to himself. "Sorry?" asked Theo as he came closer to see what Solomon was doing and had an empty tumbler glass pushed into his hand when he reached Solomon's side. Solomon took two more and walked over to Kyril's body, and sat on the floor next to him, his tired knee's cracking and he lowered himself with a groan. "Getting old, ay." muttered Solomon to himself with a smirk, and poured out two generous measures of the honey yellow liquid and then gestured to Theo to come closer, and filled his glass up too. "To Captain Kyril Sinderman. May others command as good and fair as he did." moving the glass in a motion fit to toast with before draining more than half of the measure, Theo did the same with a sympathetic smile as he saw Solomon pour the contents of the third glass over the carpet next to the body of Kyril. Solomon sniffed and went deep into thought. Forgetting the three survivors in the air vent and focused desperately on fond memories between him and Kyril.