They moved through the ship like shadows, ducking into alcoves whenever the telltale squelching footsteps of the Purple Men echoed nearby. Jessica marveled at how naturally they fell back into their old dynamic—Kevin with his logical planning, Salina with her sarcastic quips masking genuine courage, and herself...

  Well, herself with literal fangs and claws now. Hopefully, her wolfish appearance would fade away before they returned home, or her dad would freak out.

  The ambient hum grew louder as they progressed deeper into the ship, a vibration that Jessica could feel in her teeth. The conduits above them pulsed with increasing intensity, the bluish glow becoming almost blinding.

  "We're close," Kevin whispered, his glasses reflecting the pulsing light. "Feel that? The energy signature is getting stronger."

  "Yeah, my witch senses are tingling," Salina deadpanned, but her dark eyes were wary.

  They rounded a last bend, and Jessica stopped dead in her tracks, her breath catching in her throat.

  Before them stretched a vast chamber, its ceiling disappearing into darkness high above. And in the center, suspended in a web of crackling energy beams and mechanical arms, hung a massive crystalline structure—a pulsating core that bathed the entire room in waves of vibrant, undulating light.

  "Holy shit," Salina breathed.

  "It's beautiful," Kevin said, his voice barely above a whisper.

  And it was. Jessica had expected something mechanical, cold, and industrial. But this—this was almost organic. The core pulsed like a heart, its rhythm hypnotic. Threads of energy flowed into and out of it through countless conduits, branching out like veins and arteries to power the rest of the ship.

  "It must be powering everything," Kevin said, his eyes wide with fear and fascination. "The abduction beams, the life support systems, those mutation chambers we saw. This should be the heart of it all."

  Jessica tore her gaze away from the core to scan the chamber. Around the perimeter, various consoles and control panels blinked and hummed, their purpose incomprehensible. No Purple Men were visible, but that didn't mean they weren't nearby.

  "So we just... what? Smash it?" Jessica asked, flexing her clawed hands.

  Kevin shook his head emphatically. "Are you crazy? That much energy—it could vaporize us all instantly if released uncontrolled."

  "Geez, why didn't I think of that?" Jessica muttered.

  "We need to trigger a controlled overload," Kevin said, already moving toward one console. "Something that'll give us time to escape before everything goes boom."

  "And you know how to do that because...?" Salina arched an eyebrow.

  Kevin flashed a tight grin. "Years of watching sci-fi movies and reading comic books. I always have lucky guesses.”

  Jessica giggled. Typical Kevin the nerd.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "What can we do to help?" she asked.

  Kevin studied the pulsing core, his face lit by its glow. "Salina, I need you to cast something—anything—directly into those conduits." He pointed to a cluster of tubes emerging from the base of the core. "The interference should disrupt the energy flow enough for me to access the deeper systems."

  "And me?" Jessica asked.

  Kevin's eyes lingered on her clawed hands. "When I give the signal, I need you to physically damage the housing around the core. Not the core itself—just the mechanical arms holding it in place."

  Jessica swallowed, the reality of what they were about to do finally sinking in. "And that'll destroy the ship?"

  "If my calculations are right? It'll trigger a cascade failure. The ship's automated systems will detect it and start an emergency shutdown, but by then, it'll be too late." He hesitated. "We'll have maybe ten minutes to get to the escape pods before the whole thing goes critical.”

  "What a freaky night this is," Salina said, but her voice lacked its usual edge. "Let's get this over with.”

  They moved into position. Kevin hunched over the alien console, his fingers hovering uncertainly before plunging into action. Jessica positioned herself near the mechanical arms that cradled the core, ready to strike when given the signal. And Salina stood before the energy conduits, her eyes closed, lips moving in silent incantation.

  The chamber felt suddenly quiet, despite the constant hum of alien machinery. Jessica realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to exhale slowly. Her gaze drifted around the chamber, taking in details she'd missed in their initial assessment—the way the walls seemed to pulse in rhythm with the core, the faint scent of ozone, and something else, something organic that reminded her disturbingly of blood.

  But gazing at the core, watching Kevin work and Salina prepare her spell, Jessica felt happy they were working hard to end this new nightmare.

  "Ready?" Kevin called, his voice tight with concentration.

  Salina opened her eyes, which now glowed with an inner light that matched the core's pulsations. "Hit it, Lebowski."

  Kevin's fingers flew across the alien interface. "Now, Salina! Jessica, stand by!"

  Salina thrust her hands forward, and a bolt of crackling energy—not quite electricity, not quite fire—shot from her palms into the conduits. The effect was immediate and dramatic. The steady blue glow of the energy flow stuttered and turned purple, then red. Alarms wailed somewhere deep in the ship.

  "It's working!" Kevin shouted over the growing cacophony. "The system's trying to compensate—Jessica, now! Hit the mechanical arms!"

  Jessica didn't hesitate. She launched herself at the nearest arm, claws extended. The metal, if it was metal, yielded beneath her enhanced strength like clay. She tore through connectors and wiring, ripped aside protective plating, and severed fluid-filled tubes that sprayed a noxious liquid across her arms.

  The ship shuddered beneath them. The core's pulsations became erratic, flaring bright, then dimming in rapid succession. More alarms joined the first, their wailing cutting through the chamber like physical pain.

  "That's it!" Kevin shouted, backing away from the console as it began to spark and smoke. "We need to go! The ship's starting emergency protocols!"

  Jessica landed in a crouch, bits of alien technology still clutched in her claws. She looked up at the core, now spinning erratically in its damaged housing. "How long do we have?"

  "Less time than I thought," Kevin admitted, his face pale. "The sabotage worked better than expected. The entire system's going into meltdown."

  "Fantastic," Salina growled, stumbling slightly as another tremor shook the ship. "So we either die by alien hand or by our own stupidity."

  "We're not dying today," Jessica said, shaking the alien fluid off her hands. "They should have a hangar bay or something, right?”

  Kevin nodded. "We just have to look before-”

  Another violent tremor cut him off, nearly throwing them all to the floor. The lights flickered ominously.

  "Move," Jessica ordered, grabbing both her friends by their arms and hauling them toward the exit. "We can do this. We have to."

  They fled the core chamber as panels detached from the ceiling, crashing to the floor behind them. The corridors, once eerily silent, now echoed with the sounds of the ship's death throes—metal tearing, systems failing, and somewhere, the shrill, panicked cries of the Purple Men.