“Don’t open the door.” This warning comes just a little bit too late for Jacklyn and her crew in The Scourge Between Stars, a stunning debut sci-fi thriller by Ness Brown that came out in April. This tense game of cat-and-mouse between a starship crew and unseen alien intruders lurking within the vessel’s walls is perfect for fans of the Alien film franchise who have been waiting for something new and fresh in that vein.
Jacklyn Albright has been acting as captain of the starship Calypso since her father went AWOL and locked himself in his cabin, refusing to communicate with anyone outside. With morale on the ship at an all-time low and infighting almost constant, Jack could really use her father’s guidance, or at least the air of confident authority he always exuded. Instead, she has to face alone the riots and mumbles of mutiny from the ship’s civilian wards, the ravings of the mad scientist whose creepy droid bears an uncanny resemblance to her little sister, and the recurring “engagements” from mysterious powers among the stars that shake up the ship, leaving ever more damage to the hardware and human beings alike each time. After her sister’s and mother’s deaths and now her father’s abandonment, Jack is barely holding it together, but she’s got to put on a brave face for the people in her charge. The Calypso contains one of the last vestiges of humanity—the descendants of those who fled Earth and tried unsuccessfully to start a new colony on Proxima b. Now, a generation who has never felt the rich soil of Earth nor the harsh solar flares of their exile planet is heading back where they came from, hoping the conditions have improved since their forefathers fled Earth. But with these mysterious engagements slowing their pace and the food stores running dangerously low, it’s hard to have hope in any kind of future. Then the bridge crew receives an ominous warning from one of their sister ships: “Don’t open the door.” When the bodies of several crew members are found rent apart by monstrous claws, it becomes apparent that the humans are not alone on the ship. Jack will have to hunt down and flush out their unwelcome stowaways if the Calypso’s crew is to have any hope of surviving long enough to make it back to Earth.
It’s hard not to think about the Alien movies when reading this tale of vicious extraterrestrial monsters picking off crew members one by one. But there are several elements of The Scourge Between Stars that make it unique. The biggest difference is that rather than a little space tug with half a dozen crew members, the Calypso is a massive generation ship with six thousand passengers. Jack not only has to look out for her own safety and those who fight alongside her, but she’s also responsible for a whole shipful of civilians. That massive population adds its own challenges. Jack is distracted by unrest and disputes between different factions of the crew in the critical moments before the alien creatures make their presence known. As acting captain, she has to not just be a skilled fighter but also an impeccable diplomat and a resolute leader.
Another interesting element of this book is its treatment of robots and artificial intelligence. Unlike the android in Alien who uses his ability to pass for human to infiltrate and undermine the crew, the droids aboard the Calypso are visibly nonhuman and treated as such. Jacklyn is disturbed when their resident mad scientist Otto Watson begins to blur those boundaries. He creates a particularly advanced droid that he names after himself (Watson) but gives the appearance of Jacklyn’s deceased little sister. Jacklyn is particularly upset by Otto’s decision to give Watson human-like breasts where other droids have a featureless breastplate. Watson, too, seems to be distressed by the way that she is sexualized by her creator. Jack is at first revolted by the droid, unnerved by its uncanny nature, disoriented by its resemblance to her sister, and disgusted by what Otto’s sexualization of the droid implies. As the story progresses and Jack comes to rely on the droid in her fight against the aliens, she slowly begins to treat Watson more like a friend and team member than an object of disgust. She even begins to find Watson’s resemblance to her sister comforting, while still viewing the droid as a unique individual.
No matter which dynamic you find most compelling—human vs. alien, human vs. robot, or human vs. human—The Scourge Between Stars has something interesting to say about human nature and relationships with those that are Other. This novella is a quick, light read, so pick it up the next time you need something both fun and frightening. You can find it on shelves now at your favorite local retailer, or order it online and support The Gothic Library in the process using this Bookshop.org affiliate link. If you’ve read it, let me know your thoughts in the comments!