The Spider Queen

(Hydra Star System- Interplanetary Space Station)

(Transport Bay- Hangar 013)

Qiana stepped through the hole in the mechanical doors and entered a large open hall with several starships parked along the side of the walls.

She adjusted her glasses and ignored the painful moans that came from the other side of the doors.

It wasn't safe yet to remove her mask, so Qiana kept it on. Dryon gas could be classified as a bioweapon, and it was extremely dangerous.

Once inhaled the victim would die an extremely painful death as their organs rotted away from the inside.

Only those with high cultivation levels or an immunity to toxins would be able to survive and the cloaked figures who guarded the transport bay had neither.

Qiana walked towards the console in the middle of the room and stared thoughtfully at the monitor next to the machine.

No one else was present in the transport bay. It appeared as though the cloaked figures outside had done their job rather well.

The young woman reached into her storage bag and pulled out a mechanical device similar to a stick.

She plugged it in to the side of the console and the monitor above it began to flicker. Green lines of code appeared on the screen as Qiana waited for the hacking process to finish.

She needed to gain command of the transport bay in order to open the large doors on the other side of the hangar that led to the space outside.

BOOM!

The space station shuddered for a brief moment and Qiana had to grab on to the side of the console to prevent herself from falling.

Were the invaders lunatics?

Why in god's name were they trying to simultaneously take over and destroy the station at the same time?

It made no sense!

Qiana narrowed her eyes and brushed away a loose strand of hair that fell over her face. There was a mystery here, but it was not her concern.

Her only objective was to escape with the cargo and return to the family with a report of this incident.

[Please Input Your Commands...]

Lines of text appeared on the monitor and Qiana secretly let out a sigh of relief. She could have used other methods to escape the station, but this was by far the easiest one.

Her fingers danced across the monitor as she typed out a long line of code. Qiana pressed 'enter' and then walked towards one of the smaller sized spacecrafts.

Stealth and speed.

Those were the qualities that she needed in the spaceship. At the very least it needed to have a warp core so that she could flee this galaxy quickly.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Qiana could hear the steady beating of her heart as she raised up her hand and touched the cold metallic surface of the starship.

Most would mistake Qiana for a cold-blooded killer without fear but that could not be further from the truth.

She had too much to live for and was just as afraid of dying as everyone else. It was just that Qiana was capable of putting reason and logic above emotion.

The young woman planted another metalloid device on the outer surface of the spacecraft and waited as the rouge AI unit inside the device infiltrated the starship's defense systems.

It didn't take long for a hole to appear on the side of the spacecraft and a metalloid staircase slowly lowered itself to the ground.

Qiana entered the spacecraft and immediately headed towards the pilot seat. The interior of the spaceship was absolutely filthy.

Whoever was its current owner clearly did not care about good hygiene because there were numerous empty bottles and trash strewn across the ground.

A disgusted expression flashed across Qiana's face as she stepped over what she assumed was a sex toy that was covered in unknown liquids.

She had definitely made the wrong decision to pick this spacecraft but at this point it was too late to change.

The transport bay's doors would open automatically in less than seven minutes. Qiana kept her eyes firmly locked on the ground beneath her feet as she walked towards the front of the ship.

Just ignore it... just ignore it... just ignore it...

Qiana chanted that mantra over and over in her mind as she stepped or jumped over some additional pleasure devices.

Eventually she arrived at the pilot seat and mercifully it was at least relatively clean. Qiana swept the trash away from the control panel and began to power on the starship.

The lights inside the spacecraft flickered on and a soft humming noise could be heard coming from the engine room.

It was incredibly risky to activate the warp core before the starship left the hangar, but Qiana did not want to take any chances.

She had no idea what was waiting for her outside the station. The null field prevented any information from flowing in or out which meant that she was completely blind.

Qiana's fingers curled up into a tight fist as she waited patiently for the transport bay doors to finally open.

A red light began to flash, and an alarm sounded as the heavy metalloid doors at the end of the transport bay opened up to reveal the vast expanse of space.

Qiana drove the starship towards the doors and carefully navigated through the spacecrafts that were parked haphazardly in the way.

Freedom was beckoning to her.

BOOM!

A large explosion rocked the entire transport bay, and it came from the other side of the hall.

Qiana glanced back and muttered a silent curse as she saw dozens of cloaked figures emerge from the wreckage.

It seems like she had been discovered.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

An endless barrage of plasma fire was shot towards her starship but fortunately the shields barely managed to hold on.

The engine of the starship was now fully warmed up and without hesitation Qiana activated the acceleration command.

The spacecraft shot forward leaving behind a trail of flames in its wake. The young woman in the pilot seat did not even bother to look behind her as she inputted in a series of commands.

The warp core began to throb with power as blue electric sparks appeared along its outer surface.

Qiana managed to get a glimpse of a massive starship over one hundred kilometres in length hovering above the space station.

A heavy beam of dark light was being emitted from the underside of the gigantic starship which enveloped the entire space station.

Qiana assumed that it was responsible for the null field that blocked all communications. Was there a black-market organization that owned such an expensive starship?

Shaking her head slightly to push those thoughts to the back of her mind, Qiana activated the warp core and her stolen starship entered hyperspace.

The small spacecraft disappeared from the scene just as a large beam of plasma fire was shot towards its previous location.