The white-furred otter stared at the holographic projection. The visage was familiar, something to do with avali superstition he was sure, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Either way, it was concerning that the avatar for the station's AI had been changed so drastically after a series of strange glitches. He was about to ask the hologram another question when his comm went off.
Tapping the interface key set into his uniform on the shoulder, the otter officer turned his head towards the microphone. "Yes?"
"Sir? Teleporter room." The familiar voice of a sergal who worked the teleporter panel for the station came through the comm.
"Yes, what is it?" The otter couldn't take his eyes off the hologram.
She was grinning toothily at him this whole time.
"The targeting computer." The sergal explained. "It's started locking on without any manual input."
"What is the teleporter targeting?" The officer asked only to be responded with the sound of dematerialization at the other end of the comm. A shudder ran down his spine.
The interloping entity in the projection in front of him raised a long, pointed claw and trailed it down the length of her throat without breaking eye contact. A swallowing sound came from the projector's speakers.
Eyes wide, the otter slapped his com. "Engineering!"
"Yes sir?" The sound of the mouse on duty in that department came back loud and clear.
"Shut off all power to the teleporter grid!" The officer said as quickly as he could.
All that came back through the comm was the sound of dematerialization.
"No fair trying to shut down teleporters." The entity practically purred to the petrified officer. "Though if you had, I could just override the command. No one else in the computer system to stop me."
The otter lowered his hand from his comm slowly. "Where are they being sent...?"
She chuckled darkly, licking her lips with an impossibly long tongue. "I think you know. But in case you need it spelled out for you..." She turned her eyes to a nearby avali, a guest from one of the docked ships.
The small bioengineered raptor had been watching in terror since he noticed her. When she turned her attention to him, he twisted, crying out as he tried to flee. "Eclipse, no!"
Energy enveloped the small creature as the sound of dematerialization filled the chamber. And then he was gone.
The officer snapped his head back to the projection.
Eclipse had her head tilted back, stroking along her throat. And pressing out of the glossy surface there was an avali's form, struggling as it sank down into her chest.
The otter was starting to wonder if this was some kind of nightmare. None of this was possible. None of it made sense.
Eclipse crooned to her captive audience. "Did that clear it up?"
"Aval, how many crewmembers are still on the station?" The otter asked towards his comm.
She chuckled as a muffled moan came back from the speaker set into the small device. "Oh, he was the first to cross my jaws, silly. But if you really want to know..." She gestured, pulling up a map of the station. Red dots indicating life forms were rapidly vanishing a couple at a time. And then there was just one. The one indicating the otter's current location. She banished the map just as easily with a smirk.
A step was taken back, perhaps even unconsciously. His conscious mind was racing too fast, fighting itself over what he was seeing and what he knew was possible.
Eclipse simply spread her jaws, pointing in.
The otter cried out in alarm as the energy of a teleporter grid filled his vision. He was familiar with dematerializing and rematerlializing. There was a weightlessness to being turned into data, mind and spirit stored safely for rebuilding at the other end. But instead of a return to corporeality, the way he was familiar with, there was no tingle of energy returning his body to him.
He just was abruptly held in a tight, slick tunnel. The walls collapsed and compressed around him. He couldn't feel his limbs or body at all, but he could feel that passage undulate and pull...
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Eclipse groaned indulgently through the entire station's PA speakers. She turned off the holographic projection since it was no longer necessary, with no life forms to observe it. She rarely got to have a meal as grand as this. And that was merely the second course.
Her attention turned to the computer AIs of each of the docked ships, able to feel their sensors frantically searching the inside of the station for the crews that had disembarked. That avali-program had been quite delicious, she thought. Fluidly, she accessed the hardline connection to the docked avali ship.
