“We’ve … lost enough of our team already,” Doc said, glancing around the room avoiding eye contact for a moment.
Carrie nodded, feeling that lump trying to return to her throat. “Okay. I’ll promise. If it comes to that, then I’ll hold on, in case … in case you’re crazy enough to do that.”
“Crazy like you volunteering to do this? Or being crazy enough to hang around and wait for the other team? It’s crazy either way.”
She looked up at his face and fought the urge to touch his cheek. His brown eyes were looking into hers, still trying to say something she couldn’t figure out. She could feel the lump in her throat growing, and her chest felt tight. God, what is it about him?
“I’ll go and get it,” he said, disappearing into the examination room.
She followed and watched as he took three syringes and filled them up with a pink fluid from his cabinet. She placed her headset down on the bench, as he put the safety covers on each of the needles, then turned to her.
“There are three of them left, and there are three syringes,” he said, handing them to her.
And there are three of us going out there, she thought.
“Stab it anywhere, preferably the thigh muscle and pump it all in,” he continued. “You’ll have a couple of minutes to hold out before you should be able to get away.”
“Thank you,” she said softly.
He looked back at her, clenching his jaw. The urge to touch his face swept over her again. She wished he wouldn’t look at her like that.
She took the three syringes and separated them, placing them in different pockets.
“Well, they’ll be waiting for you,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
She nodded and headed for the door, but noticed that he wasn’t following her. She turned and saw him standing there, his jaw still clenched, looking at her with those eyes, like he desperately wanted to say something but couldn’t.
She felt a sudden urge wash over her to say “Why not?” She was going out there to face the unknown and there was a good chance she could die, so what did it matter right? This could be her only chance. And for once in her life, Carrie threw caution to the wind.
She hit the lever, closing the door between his examination room and office. He threw her a confused look.
“Doc,” she said walking back up to him, “if I don’t make it back …”
“You will, Welles. You will, and you have to keep telling yourself that!” he said firmly.
“But if I don’t …” her voice was soft and husky with nerves as she stood in front of him, “I just want to …”
“What?” he rested his hands on his hips and a strange look came across his face.
She took a moment, looking into his warm brown eyes, then down at his mouth. She quickly reached up, slid her hand over his cheek and kissed him. She closed her eyes, moved her mouth and kissed him again. Then she suddenly realized that he wasn’t kissing her back.
Her heart stopped, her eyes flashed open and she slowly pulled away. His face was expressionless. Her heart kick-started again and was almost belting out of her chest now. Oh, shit … What have I done?
“Sorry, Doc,” she mumbled, moving back from him. “I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.” She turned to walk away, but his hand shot out and caught her arm. She glanced at his grasp, then back to his face.
He was looking down at the floor in front of him. “Welles … I can’t,” he said quietly.
“I know. I understand. I shouldn’t have. It’s okay, really …” she said, trying to free her arm from his grasp. She turned to walk off again, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible, but his arm caught her around her waist and didn’t let go.
She looked back at him. “It’s okay, Doc. Don’t feel bad. It’s my fault, really. I shouldn’t have. It was just a stupid last minute thing … Heading off to die and all that …” The words continued to dribble from her mouth, like a verbal diarrhea.
He started reeling her in toward him. She was confused now. He was still looking at the ground, his brow furrowed but his arm brought her in very close, so that her body was almost against his.
“I really shouldn’t be doing this,” he said finally, his eyes showing signs of some internal struggle.
“Doing what?” she asked breathlessly, his face just centimeters from hers.
He pulled her tightly against him and kissed her back.
Carrie was stunned. It was firm but gentle, and took her breath away. He raised his free hand to her cheek and slowly pulled his face back. Their eyes connected, before she moved back in and they kissed again. It was like a chain reaction, as if they had started something that couldn’t be stopped. Her hands traveled up his arms, over his shoulders, and around his neck, as he moved her up against the bench behind them. The soft kiss was now deep, heavy, breathy.
But as quickly as the wave had formed, it rolled away. Doc placed his hands on her hips and moved himself back from her. They looked into each other’s eyes, as her hands fell back down to his arms.
“We’ll continue this conversation when you get back,” he said quietly.
She nodded. She couldn’t speak. She could’ve sworn Doc had stolen all the air from her lungs. He took another step back, their arms falling to their sides and he glanced over at the door.
“They’ll be waiting for you. You’d better go.”
She stood up straight, took a deep breath and nodded. She slowly headed over to where she had left her headset, brushing her body past Doc’s as she did, taking his hand in hers briefly. Then she walked out the door and didn’t look back.
*
“Welles, where the fuck have you been? We gotta go!” Harris barked upon her return.
“I got these off Doc,” she said holding up one of the syringes. “Just in case.”
“For you or for them?” McKinley asked, eyes narrowed in study.
“For them, I hope.”
“Test your comms,” Harris ordered.
She snapped the headset on around her left ear, plugging the earpiece within. “Flight deck, this is Corporal Welles. Do you copy? Over.” She spoke firmly into her mouthpiece.
“We copy you. Visuals are fine too. Over,” Packham’s voice answered.
Harris stared at the syringe, then locked eyes with her again. “Alright, let’s move out!”
She nodded, then followed Harris and McKinley to the exit of the Aurora.
*
Harris and his lieutenant sprang out of the doors, weapons held tightly in a cross-cover. Sensing it was clear, they quickly advanced to the Darwin’s entrance, as Welles followed closely behind, surveying the dock and its walls for shooters. Harris was hoping she was going to be able to handle this, but couldn’t stop to think about it right now. He had to trust that she would, and focus his mind on the Jumbos that awaited them.
Once inside the Darwin, they continued their formation slowly through Section One without incident. They noticed that Grolsh’s body was gone; all that remained was a trail of blood smeared along the floor, running parallel to that of Louis’s. They crept into Section Two and made their way slowly, but surely to the control room. It was a little too easy, he thought. He wondered whether a trap was being set, but pushed it from his mind. They had to get their power back and fast.
“We’ll guard the door, you get in there,” he told Welles. She gave a firm nod and quickly made her way to one of the consoles and took a seat.
“Okay, flight deck,” she said quietly over their headsets, “lay it on me.”
Packham and Brown coached Welles on how to get into the Darwin’s mainframe and its security files, and then how to enable a remote access link from the Aurora. She seemed to understand their instructions, which made the tension around Harris’s neck ease up just that little bit. It took about 20 minutes, but she did it and they now had access to try and crack the code from the flight deck.
Harris motioned for
Welles to swap and take up his position on the door. He wanted to get a good look at what they were up against in terms of cracking that code, and figure out just how long they were going to have to guard the control room for. He took a seat at the console and eyed his soldiers standing watch at the door for a moment. McKinley and his gun faced west down the corridor, and Welles faced east. Although it looked somewhat like David and Goliath, it was actually a reassuring sight to have his two best shooters on guard. Nobody will make it past that line of defense!
Now it was just a waiting game, for Brown and Packham to crack the access. He looked at his watch. 04:53. It would be hours yet. They were in for a very long night and he was glad that Doc had given them the sugar concentrate. They were going to need it.
*
An hour passed without incident. Harris watched the monitor while Brown had the system going, cracking the code. It was made up of 12 characters, which could consist of a mixture of letters—English or foreign—numbers, and symbols. So far they had three locked in. At this rate it was going to be another three hours. He pulled out the pouches that Doc had given him, tore one off and downed it. It was sickly sweet and hurt his teeth. He winced, then stood and walked to the door.
“McKinley, take a break,” he ordered.
McKinley relaxed his gun and moved into the control room. He took a seat, put his feet up on the desk, and began to stretch out his neck and shoulders.
“How are you holding up?” Harris asked Welles.
She quickly glanced at him and nodded, then returned her eyes to the east corridor.
“You’ve been standing here an hour,” he said. “Take your sugar solution.”
“I’ll wait until I’m in there, sir,” she motioned to the control room. “I don’t want to drop my gun.”
“I got it. Take it,” he ordered her.
She lowered her gun for a moment, and poured one of the pouches into her mouth. She too, winced. Harris noted that his heart was beating faster now, the solution already working. He felt alive, he felt awake, he felt ready for anything. After a few minutes, he saw Welles glance over at him with wide eyes, nodding to herself. The solution had obviously begun working on her too.
“Good stuff, huh,” he said quietly.
“I feel like running a marathon,” she whispered back.
He gave a short, sharp laugh. “That’s the point of it.” He thought for a second, then dropped his smile and looked down at her small frame. “You probably should’ve only had half a pouch, if we’re having whole ones.”
Welles looked back at him and nodded. “Possibly. How long do they last?”
“A couple hours.”
Welles nodded again, staring down the corridor, eyes wide.
“Just watch your trigger finger,” Harris whispered.
*
Another hour passed without incident. He heard Brown say over the headsets that they now had seven characters, which meant there were only five to go. McKinley sucked down his first pouch and came over to relieve Welles on the door.
She went into the control room, sat down and eyed the monitor, but after a few minutes, Harris saw her get up and start looking around the room.
“Welles, sit the fuck down and rest your feet!” he said quietly, but firmly, into his mouthpiece.
She moved back over to the table and sat down.
“Put your feet up on the desk like McKinley did,” he ordered.
She did, but he could tell she wasn’t exactly relaxing, too wired from the solution still.
“That’s another one,” Brown announced over their headsets. “Four left.”
*
About 40 minutes passed. Brown had announced yet another two characters. Two left. Once Packham got the Aurora in, all Brown had to do was enable access for the Aurora to hook onto the external power source again and start charging, then reset the access code so the survivors couldn’t change it. At least, not for as long as it had taken their team to get their access back.
Harris estimated about another hour; then it was simply a matter of waiting until the Aurora had charged its power cells enough to get them back to Earth, or a nearby station, depending on how Hunter and Colt were holding up.
He looked back down the corridor. His body was starting to feel the sugar concentrate wearing off. He looked at his watch. 07:42. He was curious as to why the Jumbos had not tried to attack them yet. Perhaps they were waiting … giving us false hope. Letting us get near the end, then making their move when our guard is down thinking we’re home safe? This is a game, remember. They like to mind-fuck people.
He reached in his pocket and took out another pouch. He wanted to be ready for anything. He glanced down at the pouch and went to tear the top off, when he saw something dart across the corridor up ahead.
“Fuck! What was that?” he said, dropping it and swinging his gun up.
“What?” McKinley asked, eyes focused sharply down the east side of the corridor.
“I saw something. One of them … dart across the hall up ahead.”
McKinley brought his gun up tighter to his sight-line. It was deathly quiet for a few moments as they both scanned their sides of the corridor. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Welles sit up straight and look attentively at them.
McKinley suddenly fired down his side of the corridor.
“Fuck,” he whispered, obviously missing his target, “one just ran past my side.”
“Which one?” Harris asked.
“Didn’t recognize him. Ginger hair.”
“Oxer?”
One raced past Harris’s side again. He fired, and he too missed.
“That was Logan,” he said.
“What are they doing?” Welles asked, directly behind them now.
“Playing with us,” McKinley answered quietly, eyes fixed on the east corridor.
“Captain, I’ll relieve you now,” Welles said eagerly.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he told her, focusing on his sight-line.
She picked his pouch up off the floor and tucked it back in his pocket. A few minutes passed in complete silence.
“Just got another one! Can’t be much longer, captain,” Brown reassured him over the headsets.
Just then, Logan came running back across the hall, a laser-fire rifle in his hands, firing aimlessly in their direction. Harris and McKinley quickly pulled back into the room, knocking Welles out of the way in the process.
“Stay back!” Harris barked at her.
He ducked back around the doorway and aimed, but Logan was gone. Then from the opposite direction, Oxer ran past and shot at him. He ducked back into the room as laser fire hit the doorway.
“Jesus!” Harris said.
“Captain, I’ll go! I’ll lead them away!” Welles’s voice was edgy.
“No, Welles. Just sit tight!”
“But we’re so close! We can’t let them stop us. Let me lead them away.”
“Stand back, Welles, that’s an order.”
Brown’s voice came over their headsets then. “Captain, we just got the last number. We’re in. Packham’s just gotta grant us access and remove theirs. Hold ’em off,” he said anxiously over the headsets.
Harris reached in his pocket for his solution. He tore the top open and began to pour it in his mouth. More laser fire.
“They’re getting closer,” McKinley said. He quickly stepped out of the doorway and fired, then ducked back in.
Things went quiet again. Minutes passed and nothing. Harris and his lieutenant stood in the doorway, again. Watching. Waiting. Ready.
“Where’d they go?” Harris said, thinking aloud.
Another fifteen minutes passed. Welles was pacing right behind them in the control room.
“Is it just me or is it fuckin’ hot in here?” McKinley asked, wiping sweat from his brow.
Harris suddenly realized just how hot he was, and wiped his saturated brow as well.
&nb
sp; “They’ve turned up the heat,” he said, as he ducked back into the room. He quickly removed his bullaser vest and long-sleeved shirt, then placed the vest back on over his singlet. When he was done, McKinley followed suit.
Just then they heard smashing glass. Short bursts of it. Harris looked as far down the corridor as he could, before it curved off into Section One. It suddenly looked darker down there.
“Some lights go out down your way?” he asked McKinley.
“Mm-hmm.”
Harris nodded to himself. “They don’t need the lights to see like we do,” he said quietly.
“Captain, we’ve got access!” Brown announced. “We’re connecting the Aurora now!”
“As soon as he disables their access, we move back to the ship and fast!” Harris told his David and Goliath soldiers.
“Their aim was for shit,” McKinley said, thinking aloud as he stared down the hall. “It was way off …”
“They couldn’t risk hitting Welles, or they’d have a repeat of Colt,” Harris said. “Like you said, they’re just playing with us, trying to mind-fuck us. When we make a move back to the ship, they’re going to come for you and me. We have to be ready.”
“I was born ready, captain,” McKinley replied.
24
Darkness and Light
Carrie was pacing the control room floor now. They were so close. Brown was in, and the Aurora was powering up. As soon as he disabled the Jumbo’s access, they were to make for the ship, but it wasn’t going to be easy. They had one and a half sections to clear, plus the dock. They were so close, but still so far. She pictured the Aurora, sitting docked and focused on it. That was their safe haven. That was where the others waited for them. That was where Doc waited.
“Okay, captain. Access has been disabled. The Aurora is locked in. We’re done!” Brown announced excitedly.
“Okay, Brown. We’re heading back,” Harris said, then motioned for Carrie to move over toward them, which she quickly did. “Alright,” he said, “we head back to the dock, slowly. We be real careful about each room we pass. I need you to be on the lookout, Welles, because when they come, they’re going to come at me and McKinley. When they do, I want you to try and get a shot in. They’re quick, they’re strong, and they’ll know we’re coming way before we know they are. Understand?”
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