But Sam did.

  “Come on!” the XO hissed, yanking on Trip’s arm.

  He followed Sam, moving quickly, yet quietly. Seconds later, they slid into Donovan’s room. The door was wide open, eerily inviting in a way. Just as they entered, a growl reverberated down the hall, originating back the way they’d come.

  Cringing when Donovan’s door squeaked as it shut, Sam bit his lip and engaged the deadbolt. Then, he cautiously backed away from it, mumbling something incoherently to himself. Trip didn’t pay attention to the nervous man’s words. Instead, he focused on the feral noises back in the corridor.

  They grew louder and more frenetic with every passing heartbeat. Then, just outside of the room, the thing on the other side shrieked into the air. Sam was still talking to himself, and it took Trip until he was almost finished speaking to realize that he was in the middle of a phone call.

  “Yes, sir,” Sam said, obviously conversing with Captain House. “Good luck to you too.

  “Yes?” Sam asked in response to a question.

  Trip really hated not hearing the other end of the conversation.

  Sam laughed and glanced at Trip. “Will do—”

  BOOM!

  Trip and Sam’s entry into Donovan’s cabin hadn’t gone unnoticed. Both men rushed to the thin metal door and held it in place as it was rammed over and over again.

  Looking to the XO for courage in a trying time, Trip’s stomach dropped when Sam’s face was full of fear, instead of overflowing with the steadfast strength he was hoping to see.

  19

  House and Gianna desperately looked for Damon Becker. Both of them tried multiple times to contact him through their comms but were unsuccessful. Either he was already dead, or worse, dead and a part of Coalesce.

  “You know, maybe he just lost his earpiece, and he’s okay,” Gianna suggested. “You almost lost yours back there too.”

  House knew she was right. There was a chance, no matter how slim it felt, that Becker was alive and only missing his earpiece. Unfortunately, he was also the least likely candidate to survive alone on a ship full of mind-controlled monsters.

  He glanced at his daughter. “Keep trying him either way.”

  She nodded and spoke softly into her own unit, barely above a whisper. While she did that, House focused on keeping them alive. Doing so would be easier if there were more of his men around. So, he called Sam and went over things.

  “Negative, sir,” Sam replied, keeping his voice down. “Trip and I are fine for now. We’re going to do a little recon before meeting up with you.”

  House didn’t like it, but he didn’t have a better option. Knowledge was power right now. The more they knew about their enemy—Donovan and the rest of Coalesce—the better.

  “Alright,” he said, still not liking it, “stay safe. I’ll call you back in thirty minutes. I don’t care what you’ve found by then. You two are meeting up with us, is that understood?”

  “Yes, sir,” Sam replied. “Good luck to you too.”

  House added more to the conversation before hanging up. “Oh, Sam?”

  “Yes?”

  “Tell Trip that if he dies, Gianna is going to kill him.”

  Sam laughed. “Will do—”

  His voice was interrupted by a loud bang on the other end. House stopped in place and listened carefully, hearing both Sam and Trip grunt in protest. Then, he overheard a second impact—then, a third. Whoever it was that found them, they were trying to force their way into Donovan’s cabin.

  “Shit…” House said, seeing the worry in his daughter’s eyes. “We may have to switch courses.”

  She squinted at him, not being able to hear the struggle for herself. The only thing she knew was that something was wrong. House’s face said as much.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Trip and Sam are having some…issues.”

  Her eyes got serious. “What kind of issues?”

  He sighed. “Blue ones.”

  Gianna spun on a heel and headed back the other way, to the nearest staircase. They were two levels above the guys and half the length of the ship away. Knowing he wasn’t going to talk her out of going, House quickly caught up to her and led the way. Not only was the ADS pilot someone special to his own flesh-and-blood, but Cole Triplett and Sam Ferguson were both damn good men—House’s men to boot.

  The floor beneath them contained mostly offices and smaller, lightly used labs and workshops, but it also held the ship’s gym and heated swimming pool. When House was told that these fitness items were aboard the ship, he snorted a laugh and said, “Seems like an awful waste of space.”

  Becker shrugged, not understanding what was so bad about having either on board. House wasn’t at all surprised by his reaction. Then again, House wasn’t so sure how much say Becker had in anything at all.

  Becker, like House, was a stooge at the end of the day. If Uncle Sam wanted a swimming pool on a ship, then he got his damn swimming pool—plain and simple.

  Still, even after the initial disagreement about the pool and gym, House found himself using the latter frequently. The pool, however, very few, including himself, gave it the time of day. Something about swimming in water while being afloat on the water didn’t feel right to most of the crew.

  It felt dumb.

  The Houses snuck past the first two offices, finding them locked. Softly, House rapped on the first one’s door and called out Becker’s name. Gianna left his side and knocked on the door of the office across the hall. As soon as her knuckle found the smooth, hard surface of the metal door, it was thrown off its hinges by something huge.

  Gianna was struck in the head and slammed right into House’s back. The force of her hitting him pounded his own skull against the opposite door and knocked him for a loop. Not out of it entirely, but slightly dazed, House felt his daughter go limp and quickly caught her under the armpits. From there, he immediately began dragging her further down the hall and into the onboard gym. It had no door, allowing them unperturbed access to the large, forty-by-thirty room.

  Ducking inside the gym, House saw the man that had been waiting for them, at least, that’s what House figured he was doing. Then, he heard multiple sets of footsteps follow the giant out of the door.

  House cursed under his breath. Nova, and he turned more of them.

  The man called Nova wasn’t simply hiding, he was adding bodies to the Coalesce army—to Donovan’s ranks. Whoever was on the other side of that door was either dead, or worse, joined. House saw two more people from Donovan’s science team, and if Nova had been successfully turned…

  Buddy, no!

  Throughout his and Gianna’s retreat, House tried multiple times to raise the old fool but was unsuccessful. He knew Buddy hated the system, especially the latest update that had added the WiMP into the fold. Even without the newest addition, Buddy rarely answered it anyway. House didn’t necessarily like it either, but he couldn’t deny the convenience it provided them.

  He hurried them both down the gym’s center aisle, between a half-dozen weight machines. The free weights were in the rear of the room. Those are the ones that House, himself, preferred. Even having free weights on board was a surprise considering the damage they could do if they came loose during a storm.

  “Experimentation with no consequences.” It’s how House described the thinking behind the ship’s designers. If something terrible happened as a result of the experimental changes, it wouldn't physically affect any of them, only being left to deal with the results. Those outcomes would lead to nothing more than a stack of paperwork, which was ludicrous to House.

  Sliding Gianna’s unconscious, bleeding body behind a rack of thick, rubber weights, House ducked down beside her and waited. She’d taken a blow to the forehead and was bleeding from the cut just beneath her hairline. Peeking between two thirty-pound plates, House witnessed the blood-splattered Nova step into the room and stop just inside the arched entryway. From the looks of it, a few of the people he’d tried to turn fought back with gusto.

  And probably died for their efforts. House closed his eyes and sighed.

  He was losing men left and right. Those that didn’t take to the joining, as Donovan called it, died. And those that successfully bonded with him also died but were reborn as one of Satan’s spawn.

  Gianna began to rouse awake, moaning in pain. House called Sam and whispered their predicament.

  “You sure, sir?” Sam asked.

  “Yes,” he replied, “forget about staying apart and get your asses over here now!” The now was a little too loud. Nova’s head snapped toward their hiding spot. With the extra-large engineer blocking their exit, and with Gianna’s moans turning into increasing groans, House needed to buy the two men some time until they arrived.

  Right, he thought, my noncombative XO and my kid’s geeky twig-of-a-boyfriend as our only backup. He stood, balling his fists. This should go well.

  To those that didn’t know him, George Novacek was just a big, dumb ox, unable to properly communicate with the average human being. There were even rumors that he had a learning disability of some kind, but House could never find anything in his file to confirm as much.

  House didn’t care, though. Put Nova in front of an engine block, or any other mechanized piece of equipment, for that matter, and the man spoke its language perfectly. He loved being an engineer aboard the Endeavor. What he didn’t like were the other humans around him.

  None of them.

  Except for Buddy. Somehow, out of all the people in the world, Nova got along with Buddy Malone—another person that wasn’t well-liked. Two peas in a pod.

  Nova’s glowing eyes pulsated wildly upon seeing House. He stepped forward, sporting a bloodied pair of grey coveralls. House tried desperately to delay the man any way he could. First, he attempted to reason with the already unreasonable behemoth. Few people ever got through to him. House doubted that even Buddy, the only man that had, could remind the brainwashed corpse-of-a-man that he was usually one of the good guys.

  “Easy there, George,” he said softly, raising his hands. “It’s me, Sebastian House.”

  No reaction at all. Nova didn’t recognize him as anything besides his next target.

  Slowly moving away from the weights, and Gianna, House needed the beefy addition to Coalesce to keep his attention on him and not his vulnerable daughter. Even healthy, Gianna was no match for the rage-machine. House doubted that even he could’ve ever bested the man one on one on an average day.

  “Come on, Sam…” House mumbled, eyes shifting toward the entrance. He was hoping he’d see both Sam and Trip tackle Nova from behind, one going high, and the other taking out his knees. Instead, he only saw the monstrous beast step forward again, inching closer, but limping.

  Interesting…

  House still had his axe in hand. He also had Grigson’s pistol and knife. Everything inside him told him to draw the gun and put two in the creature’s head. Unlike the movies, however, this was actually happening, and House wasn’t a badass marksman with perfect aim. He couldn’t even remember the last time he fired a gun! He’d probably wind up missing the lug’s melon with most of the rounds, wasting them on the wall behind him instead.

  Axe it is, he thought, gripping it tighter.

  Even a man of House’s physical size and customary in-control demeanor staggered back when Nova backhanded an entire weight machine out of his way. The larger man could’ve just as easily taken a step to his left, but didn’t, opting for the straight-line approach instead.

  House winced when the bones in Nova’s hand cracked and shifted back into place. It was both impressive and disgusting.

  Then why not his leg? he thought. Unless the injury occurred pre-joining?

  House didn’t wait to see what Nova would do to him. If he let the massive man attack first, the fight would be over even before it got started. So, he launched his own assault and swung the axe in a long-swooping arch, aiming for the Engineer Assistant’s gut. He didn’t care if the dead felt pain or not, disembowelment should still be enough of a debilitating injury to allow House and Gianna to get away relatively unscathed.

  Nova’s left hand caught the blade, the steel head cutting him deep. But the powerful strike did little else. Staring at the axe head, Nova’s furious, swirling eyes slowly panned from it over to House’s sweat-soaked face. The captain was doing everything he could to continue the axe on its intended path, through the infected sailor’s hand.

  Come on…

  House gritted his teeth and leaned into the axe handle. For his part, Nova slowly balled his right hand into the biggest fist House had ever seen. Not only was the mechanic huge, but so were his thick, meaty paws. About to slug House with the force of a sledgehammer, the axe gratefully tore through Nova’s fingers and plunged deep into his left side.

  The sudden movement startled House. He was stunned with the ease that Nova lost four of his fingers. It made no sense.

  The stuff? he thought. Are they weaker in some ways now?

  Before he could comprehend what it truly meant, he was tossed away, scrambling backward as soon as he hit the floor. In horror, he watched as the base of Nova’s missing fingers spewed the same blue plasma that covered House during his fight with Agent Grigson. But, almost immediately after the injury, the firehose-like spray halted, and the goo began to solidify into what reminded House of tiny cobalt traffic cones.

  “Damn,” House mumbled, dread washing over his body. His victory, no matter how small it was in the first place, was too good to be true.

  Nova was growing back missing fingers.

  Unable to move or turn away, House could only watch in fascinating disgust as the jelly continued to harden. Then, within the pulsing, mostly see-through ooze, he witnessed bones quickly reanimate beneath the forming skin. The entity residing inside Nova was reacting like an octopus would’ve when facing the same situation.

  Regeneration was one of the many talents the species possessed. In this case, Nova, along with the rest of Coalesce, owned that ability too. Grigson’s missing hand didn’t start growing back before her parasite died, but House believed, without a shadow of a doubt, it would’ve eventually grown back, given more time.

  Unless each creature is unique in their own way.

  Standing, House was too dumbfounded to block Nova as he reached out and gripped his shirt. Then, House was thrown straight back, over the weight rack and his daughter. He smashed into the glass wall at the rear of the gym. The impact knocked the wind out of him, and his noisy arrival sufficiently stirred Gianna awake.

  She shot to her feet and screamed in horror when she saw Nova. Woozy, she tried desperately to pull her father up, but failed in her attempt, too discombobulated to do so. House groaned in pain, but quickly shook the cobwebs free and staggered to his feet just before Nova could advance his assault further. With the rack between them, House took a moment to collect himself.

  Just then, Sam and Trip came into view at the gym entrance. Hearing them, Nova glanced over his shoulder and sneered. Then, he turned toward the new, healthier threat, his left hand nearly intact. House’s eyes darted back and forth from his people to the creature in the middle of them all.

  “Oh no…” he said, knowing what was about to happen. House’s personal fight with the undead engineer wasn’t over. The battle would ensue once Nova was finished with Sam and Trip.

  The beast turned and stomped toward the two unarmed men. House needed to stop him before his people were either killed or joined. It was hard enough for House to fight Nova, someone he had an above-average rapport with. If he was forced to take down Sam, Trip, or God forbid, Gianna, he knew it would break him. His skin broke out in goosebumps just thinking about it.

  Knowing what needed to be done, House planted a hand on the weight rack and vaulted over it, charging after the imposing mechanic as soon as his feet hit the ground.

  20

  House’s shoulder met the small of Nova’s back just as the bigger man stepped back into the corridor outside of the gym. Mid-impact, Sam and Trip dove to either side, allowing the two combatants to stumble through unperturbed. Unable to turn around in time, Nova was thrown off balance and couldn’t stop House from driving him forward into the room across the hall.

  The floor disappeared beneath their feet just as House reached for his combat knife. They fell two feet before plunging into the warm water of the indoor pool. The eight-foot-deep pool was only filled with six feet of water, which House had thought was odd, but he was told it was so the water could slosh around and not spill out while the Endeavor was at sea.

  The rim was two feet taller than House. The only easy way out would be the ladders on either side of it. But he had bigger fish to fry first before even thinking of exiting.

  As soon as they went underwater, House felt Nova’s body convulse and then, just as quickly, the man relaxed and went limp. The guy had been rigid and on edge since stepping foot into the gym. Now, beneath the soothing, comforting water, Nova seemed more at ease.

  House thought the water felt amazing. The air aboard the Endeavor, though warmer than outside, still carried with it a permanent, sometimes uncomfortable chill. Being a southerner, House naturally preferred “front porch weather,” the kind that consisted of a warm sunset and a cold drink.

  Unsure of what Nova would do next, House was about to let go and stand. He didn’t, though, holding on with all his might just as Nova’s back arched. Next, blue gunk grossly spewed out of his mouth, diluting as it mixed with the chlorinated pool water. Even beneath the surface, House heard Nova’s jaw unhinge. He looked on in horror as the creature squirmed its way free with a second pop, wiggling out of his mouth and throat.

  Nova’s body went limp again. Without the life-sustaining effects of the entity, the dead man was actually dead.

  Wanting nothing more than to surface and jump from the water like a frightened seal, House instead, remained below and stayed perfectly still. Remarkably, the tubular, three-foot-long parasite did nothing else except jet around the pool like a dolphin, twisting and spinning, seemingly loving life. It didn’t seem to notice that House was there too.