Free Starship Revenant (The Galactic Wars Book 3) by Tripp Ellis

Tyvelon ended the transmission.
    She huffed and threw the PDU on the bed. She grumbled for the next few minutes, then finally looked at the dress. Kyva picked it up and held it out, gazing at its splendor. She had to admit, it was quite tasteful.

17

Zoey
    Z oey’s body was covered in a slick greasy sweat. Not so much from heat, but from anxiety—though the suit was a little stuffy. The temperature regulator was malfunctioning and was overheating the suit.
    In contrast, the halls of the Revenant were well below zero. A thin film of frost coated the bulkheads.
    Zoey’s heavy breath filled her helmet. Her peripheral vision was obscured by the narrow visor of the old design. It didn’t have the panoramic view of the newer models, and it was starting to fog up.
    “We are on board,” Mitch said, transmitting back to the Zephyr .
    Declan’s voice crackled back over the comm system. “What condition is the ship in?”
    “There’s nothing here,” Mitch said. “This place is abandoned.”
    Their boots clanked against the deck as they crept down the passageway. The narrow beams of light from their helmets slashed the darkness.
    “We need to power the system up. Get the artificial gravity back on. Get the atmosphere replenished,” Zoey said.
    “How do we do that?”
    “We can run a diagnostic from the CIC.”
    “Lead the way.”
    It was uncanny how similar the ship was to the Scorpion , down to the smallest detail. Zoey moved forward toward the CIC. It was two decks up from where they were.
    As the two plodded through the hallway, Zoey’s flashlight beam swiped across the bulkhead. Something she saw in the brief illumination caught her attention. She stopped to examine it.
    The beam illuminated a crimson smear that streaked along the bulkhead for several feet.
    “What is it?” Mitch asked, wondering why she was stopping.
    “It looks like… blood.” She reached her gloved hand out to touch it. As she ran her fingertips across it, the blood seemed to smear. It appeared fresh—which was impossible.
    Zoey turned the palm of her glove to face her, expecting to see bloodstains on her fingertips. But nothing was there.
    Her face twisted up, perplexed. “Did you see that?”
    “See what?”
    Zoey glanced back to the bulkhead. The crimson smear looked like a swath of rust. It didn’t resemble blood at all.
    “Nothing, I guess.” Zoey shook it off. Her visor was fogged and milky. Maybe she had misinterpreted what she saw. She stared at the rusty bulkhead for a moment.
    The ship let out a low groan that lasted for a few seconds. The mammoth frame was likely creaking under some gravitational force.
    Mitch glanced around, concerned. It was an unnerving sound.
    “Come on. Let’s keep moving,” Zoey said.
    They snaked their way through the maze of corridors. Zoey climbed the ladder to the next deck. As she reached the landing and pulled herself up, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye—a shadowy figure running through the corridor.
    Zoey twisted to see. She almost lost her footing. Her flashlight beams scanned the hallway.
    “What is it?”
    “Nothing,” she said.
    Mitch climbed up after her.
    Declan’s voice crackled over the comm system. “Wh— g—ing o— in th—?”
    “Come again?” Zoey said. “You’re breaking up”
    Declan responded, but his voice was even more distorted.
    “I can’t hear you.”
    Nothing but crackling static remained on the line.
    “It’s probably just the nebula,” Mitch said. “Does funny things to electronics and communications.”
    Zoey felt like it was doing funny things to her mind. She could have sworn she saw someone running across the corridor. Without a suit, as if there was gravity on the ship. But none of that was possible. She was beginning to think there might be something to all the stories about the Revenant .
    She kept reminding herself that it was all just her imagination. It was quite common for your mind to play tricks on you after long stretches