Saturday Gazette - Octopus in Space - Episode 2: Unidentified Organism on Board: Saturday Gazette - Octopus in Space, #2

By A. Ashley Straker

Having narrowly escaped the destruction of the starship Shaxixith'th, the octopus known as Saturday Gazette must now contend with the mercenaries who attacked it – the infamous Ghutarn!

• Language: English
• Publisher: A. Ashley Straker
• Release date: Jun 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9798227388612

A. Ashley Straker

A. Ashley Straker lives in the UK. She likes cake and monster movies.

Book preview

Episode 2

Unidentified Organism on Board

Act I

'S uggestion :' the Mixcycli data buddy says. 'Brace for impact.'

We're trapped in an armoured suit, bunched up in the helmet, squished between the face of its recently-deceased occupant and the hard external visor.

There isn't much to brace against.

We curl our arms around the head of the dead creature and hope for the best.

The suit itself floats high above the oceans of Earth. Bright blueness fills our vision, slowly rotating. An incandescent streak cuts through the blue, spinning and spitting sparks and vapour – the Mixcycli ship called the Shaxixith'th – burning up as it enters the atmosphere.

A sudden jolt sends the suit spinning and a hazy horizon shears into view, revealing just how thin that atmosphere actually is. There comes a second jolt, and out of the visor we see a pair of segmented, shining, prehensile tethers. They have the suit in their grip and grow taut as we watch. When there's no more slack a mighty wrench comes, and we start to move. Earth slips further out of view, and above us we see a sleek starship.

Its edges are indistinct, and it seems to avoid reflecting the glow from the planet beneath. Hiding, but not prey. Everything about it seems predatory – it's even shaped a little like a shark – if that shark had a second head where its tail should be, upturned and facing backwards. And instead of a single large dorsal fin, it has four such fins, spaced evenly around its body. One of these is shattered and bent close to the body of the vessel, and the hull alongside it is buckled and caved-in. We guess this is where it was rammed by the stricken Shaxixith'th.

The tethers pull us towards a thin diagonal gash that looks like a lone gill beside the nearer of its heads.

They draw us inside a wide space studded with dim orange lights, and the aperture closes behind us, cutting out