He was jolted awake by the feeling of something crawling across his chest. He leaped off the bed, swiping frantically at his torso. His eyes caught a glimpse of something black as it scurried under the bed. He got on his knees, but couldn’t locate whatever it was. Roger jumped and hit his head on the bed when he felt something bite his ankle. He groaned in pain and slid out enough to turn around.
He could see a trickle of blood from his ankle dripping under his leg. The pain was intense. He scanned the area around him for the culprit, but couldn’t see anything. He rocked back and forth holding his leg. Something foreign, and apparently hostile, was on board the ship. “Aliens,” he murmured. Out of nowhere, at lightning speed, the black thing he saw earlier slithered across his right leg and bit straight through his pants, into his thigh just above the knee. He grabbed at it, but it was too slippery. He watched in terror as it burrowed in. His skin morphed as the thing slithered around under his skin. He grabbed at his leg. The pain was excruciating as it drilled down deeper and deeper. Roger screamed out in horrific agony until he passed out. No one heard his cries.
He woke up a half an hour later to a pounding on his door. Roger tried to call out, but his throat felt raw.
Back in the control room, John picked up the receiver and called down to the engine room. No one answered. “Athena, check to see if Roger went to the engine room?”
“Roger has been in his quarters for the past forty-five minutes.”
“Keep trying to contact Travis or Lucas. I’m going to check on Roger.” He hurried toward Roger’s room. He pounded on the door, but there was no response. He did this several times before he heard a faint reply.
“Co... Com... Come in.”
“Can’t, it’s locked. Are you okay?” John’s voice echoed through the locked door.
“No... get the... doctor.”
“On it,” John said with urgency.
John returned with Liam and Sam in tow. Sam punched in an override code and unlocked Roger’s door. Roger was lying on splatters of blood. Parts of his skin were waxy with visible holes. Just like Nico’s, thought John.
“Back up,” John ordered. He quickly shut the door. “Dammit, not again.” He dropped his hand to his hip and realized he’d left his gun in his quarters. “No one enters until we have done a full sweep of that room.”
“Roger’s in pain, he could die,” Liam stressed, with a shake in his voice. Conflicted with wanting to save Roger and yet at the same time wanting to get the hell off the ship. His left eye started twitching again. He rubbed it and it only seemed to aggravate it more.
“Captain’s order’s. No one goes in until I have given the okay. I’ll be right back,” John said. While running down the corridor, he reached his quarters, entered and retrieved the weapon. He raced back and had a bewildered Sam open the door.
“No one in but me.” John said, slipping inside of Roger’s room. He hovered by the door for a minute, then turned the entire room upside down. He paused a few times when he heard Roger moaning. When he was sure the room was clean, he let the others in.”
“There you go Liam, your answer is here. That thing inside of Nico is clearly out!” John said.
Sam was irritated. Liam refused to talk to him, no one was answering his questions.
“What the hell did this, Doc?” Sam questioned anxiously, as he trailed behind Liam and John carrying Roger to the med bay. Sam’s irritation grew when again he was ignored.
“Hey, where are you guys going? What’s wrong with Roger? Is the ship fixed yet?” Paul called out, catching up to the others. His face was lined with sheet marks. “Hey, stop for a second, tell me what’s going on,” he said, through a yawn and stretch.
John abruptly stopped, which forced Liam to stop. John carefully turned his head, just enough to see Paul. “I see you’ve been napping again?”
“Yeah, nothing else to do. After I cleaned up, everyone was busy fixing the ship. Is it ready? Why aren’t we moving, and what is wrong with Roger?” Paul said, while scratching his chin.
“Aliens, I think,” Sam blurted, then added,” They aren’t telling me anything.”
Neither John nor Liam answered for a moment, both of them stood still holding Roger’s body; John had his legs, Liam held under Roger’s armpits. They looked at each other. John could see Liam was about to burst into full-on explanation. They didn’t have time for any of it. Roger was getting heavy and all John wanted to do was get him to Medical.
“Listen, Paul, the ship’s not fixed and we do have a breech. I need you to do a sweep on this level, and if you see anything suspicious, report back to me.”
“Wait, what am I looking for exactly?”
“You’ll know it when you see it. Just don’t touch it. Don’t get close and get yourself a weapon,” John said, sternly. He started out and Liam continued forward.
“Fine. I might be the damn cook, but do I really gotta deal with all the sloppy jobs. I’m not a soldier. I’m just a cook!” Paul whined as he trudged off to weapons bay and armed himself. He hoped to bump into Bridgette, an urge stirred in his groin at the thought of her and a smile filled his face. “Aliens! They gotta ruin everything. I was so close to getting Bridgette to say yes. I know she loves me. I just know it.”
“Come on, Captain,” Sam said. “I have a right to know more than what you told Paul. What is going on?”
“Yes, Sam, you do.” John turned and looked right into Sam’s eyes. “It appears we have an alien hitchhiker. Liam is still researching the particular species.” John and Liam put Roger’s body on the cot in Medical.
Liam rubbed his eyes and then looked at Sam. “I can tell you this much, it’s a parasite. When it infected Nico, it appears to have unleashed something far more advanced and sinister. I found reference to it from another mission’s records. The more I read about this parasite the more I’m positive that this is what killed Nico.”
“Is it airborne or what?” Sam quizzed worriedly.
“No. From the data I’ve read, it starts out as a liquid from within a rock. It penetrates the skin through a cut. Then it feasts on the organs, like a leech, until it multiplies. Nico, the poor soul, was the first host. From him to Roger. Each time gaining a growth rate like nothing we’ve ever seen. With each new host it will continue to grow bigger and more aggressive. Until it no longer needs a host. At which stage it then just kills for the sake of killing.”
Sam turned to face John, his face pale and his voice shaky. “Holy hell... John, what are we going to do?”
“Stick to protocols and we’ll be okay. I was on my way down to the engine room when I found Roger. I need you to get down there and find out what is going on.”
Sam gave John a quick nod and raced off. It didn’t take him long to reach the engine room. He was greeted by sparks coming from exposed wires that flailed and twisted around like hissing snakes at the doorway. Unable to see anything more, he tentatively paced forward.
“Travis... Lucas... are you here?”
He only got about three feet in before he heard the sizzling and hissing of more exposed wires up ahead. He was about to take another step when he noticed the liquid on the floor. Fuel! A spark from the frayed wires could send the ship up in flames. He rushed to the wall panel and flipped the power switch, plunging the area into total darkness. In a matter of seconds, the emergency lighting came on. It illuminated the area in a red glow.
He carefully inspected the room for any other exposed live-wires that might be a threat. When he was certain that things were clear, he started to search for his shipmates. He tripped over Lucas’s lifeless body. He fell spread out over Lucas’s cold, pale form. He scurried away from the body. The skin was taut, and the lips frozen in an open scream. Sam couldn’t look away from that face with its dead eyes staring at him. He hesitantly reached over and closed Lucas’s eyelids. He stood squinting in the dim light. He saw a silhouette of a body across the wall in front of him. He wasn’t sure if it was human or alien. He breathed heavily,
willing his quivering body forward. He started to breathe faster as his feet found the courage to walk slowly ahead. A foot away and he realized it was Travis. He let out a large gulp of air that he had not realized he was holding. He carefully maneuvered around, stepping over fallen metal and other debris to get to his shipmate. With a deep sigh, he discovered that Travis was also dead.
Sam kicked himself for not having grabbed a weapon. He hadn’t signed up for this. This was supposed to be an exploratory mission, not a first-contact event. Knowing none of them had training for such an encounter. He felt as though his balls had been hit by a bat. A noise brought his mind back to the room around him. He stood up, frantically searching. He could hear scuttling along the back wall under the machinery. He had to get out of there. Without a weapon he wasn’t about to go alien hunting. He retreated, closed and locked the door.
Back in the med bay, Liam gave Roger a sedative. Once he was asleep, the doctor went to work.
“Can I be of assistance, Liam?” Bridgette asked, over the commlink to the isolated room.
Liam looked Bridgette right in the eyes, through the glass doors. “If you feel like stitching up, I can get back to my research.”
Bridgette nodded and asked, “Is it the same thing that happened to Nico?”
“Did John fill you in?”
“John told us that Nico died, but not how. Is it?” Bridgette went straight for the hazmat suits.
“No need for the suit, he isn’t contagious.”
“I haven’t had time to finalize my tests,” Liam said. Stuff protocol. “Look, we are all in danger. There is a parasite, maybe several parasites, loose on the ship. Whatever bit Roger could still be inside of him right now. Or it could have already exited out of those wounds you are stitching up. I’ve done what I can, but at this point I don’t know what to do.” Liam wanted to scream.
Bridgette felt an urge to jump back, and leave. She said, “Well, we need to get smarter than this... I say we dump the bodies in space. If you can’t stop what is inside Roger, then we are all in line to becoming this damn creature’s host!” Bridgette cautiously removed the bandage from Roger’s leg to stitch it up.
Liam nodded in agreement, but his face was knotted in anger. “Floating people into space is not an option. I swore to protect life. If you can’t work calmly, then you need to leave.” He took a deep breath. “Maybe with a bit more knowledge you’ll understand. From the research I’ve read, and the data I’ve collected, it is clear that the incubation of the alien parasite within the host is not contagious. I remembered reading about a case on Tridentol that sounded very similar to what is happening here. The alien is small, it has no legs, no arms and resembles a black blob with teeth. It hides. It can go anywhere without any of us seeing it. The article went on to say that it was a highly intelligent species that can destroy an entire planet in one month of being freed from its original host. They never found a way to kill it.”
Bridgette could hear and almost feel the vibration of Liam’s fear.
Before he moved away, he added, “Tell me, Bridgette, how the hell do we find something when it hides in the vents and can crawl faster than we can blink?”
Bridgette looked at Liam with shock. He’d told her to calm down? “It sounds like you have already thrown in the towel, Liam.”
“This is a dire situation. We both know how hostile aliens can be.” Liam mopped his sweat-drenched face with a towel. “Our lives are at risk. I’m terrified. You should be too. I’ve been researching about this particular parasite since Nico died, comparing notes, studying his blood for clues. Now, I need to compare his with Roger’s. This shit isn’t what I signed up for. It’s out of my pay grade. So, forgive me for being a little passive-aggressive. I think we are both on edge, and I suggest we both chill out,” Liam sat down at his desk and looked at Nico’s and Roger’s blood, comparing them side by side with the data collected from Planet Tridentol. An hour passed. He was no closer to an answer than when he’d started. He hadn’t even heard Bridgette leave.
Dead Reckoning
“Athena, can you find John, and see if you can patch me in, somehow?” Sam asked. “Can you override the intercom?”
“I will do my best. I believe Captain Lancaster requested you fix the intercom. Do you need help with that?”
“Just find a way to get John’s attention,” Sam said, in irritation. “We’ll worry about the intercom system later.”
“Very well, Sam.”
Sam was unable to sit still. His left leg bounced up and down as his finger beat a tattoo on the control panel.
“I have located John for you, Sam. I’ll patch you through now. He won’t be able to answer you, but he will hear you.”
“John, you are needed urgently in the control room,” Sam said, while pacing the bridge. “I repeat, report to the control room ASAP!”
Upon entering the room, John was shocked to see the state of Sam. He was pale and his face was slick with sweat. His hands were black with soot. He was pacing the area in front of the large glass windows.
“What is it, Sam?” John asked.
“Lucas, and Travis. They’re both dead.”
“Crap! Did something go wrong in the engine room? Don’t say it was aliens. Don’t say it!” John tried to keep composed, but he knew he was failing dismally.
Sam fiddled with his hands, interlocking them into one another while he paced on the spot. “Alien. They have the same wounds on their bodies as Roger and Nico, only bigger. The damn engine room was a mess. I had to cut the power because of live wires. The decking is covered with fuel. Those sparks could have ignited it and we would have been toast.” He indicated the explosion with a spread of his hands.
John looked around the bridge, blankly staring at the empty seats. With no one to fix the engines, it was time they made plans to abandon the ship. His thoughts turned to that task and the remaining members of his crew, Bridgette and Paul. “You’ve done a great job, Sam. Now, I need you to do one more. I need you to assist the doctor. Have you seen either Paul or Bridgette?”
“No. Haven’t seen anyone.”
“Change of plans. Go find Paul. He should have reported back by now, but with the intercom down, who knows what he might have run into. Dammit!”
Sam rolled his eyes and then gave John a nod.
“Get yourself a weapon first. You know where they are.”
“Roger that.” Sam went straight to the armory and took out a pulse rifle.
Using the coms, John tried to call the remainder of his crew, but all he got was static interference.
“Athena, did you manage a workaround with the coms?” John asked.
“I have fixed it so that you can broadcast a message. Your crew will hear you, but they won’t be able to respond.”
“Thanks, Athena.” John put out his message to the remainder of his crew. “Paul... Bridgette... Doc... Come to the control room immediately.” He was about to give the order again when Bridgette arrived. She held a taser in her right hand and a Colt .45 in the other. She stomped over to John and swiftly kicked his ankle, hard.
“What the hell was that for?”
“You are the worst captain ever! You are supposed to let us know about alien life forms infiltrating our ship. I had to hear it from Liam. You should have called a briefing. You deserve more than a damned kick to your shin.” Bridgette did everything she could to stop herself from aiming her weapon at John.
He was so taken aback he spoke with a stutter. “I... I... I wanted to be sure first. I didn’t need the crew in a panic when the ship needed attention.”
“You can make all the excuses you want, John. Captain or not, you’ve not followed standard procedures and now people are dead. That’s on you!” She hissed at him, with a scolding look of anger and disappointment.
“I screwed up. Take it up with the director when we get home. We have to get off this ship. While I’m still Captain, you will hold that anger of yours and listen to my orders. I can have you wri
tten up for insubordination.”
“I’d like to see you try,” she snapped. “Where the hell is everyone else?”
“Still waiting. Sam has gone on the hunt for Paul. Athena said you were with Liam, where is he?”
“He said he’d be here in half an hour. He’s locked himself in his lab to finish his research on our intruder. What is the plan, John?” Bridgette struggled to keep her composure. She hated being so filled with anger.
“When Sam returns, you will go with him to the escape pods. Get yourselves off this ship. Am I clear?”
“Yes... gladly... and do not take this as me giving a crap about you, but setting your stupidities aside, what about you and Liam?”
John had known Bridgette for ten years. He knew she cared about him, and though he’d royally screwed up, they were both under an enormous burden of stress. He knew this feud between them would blow over. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll see to it that Liam is on a pod.”
“Roger that, Captain.” In a tense motion Bridgette took her seat, placing her weapons on the panel in front of her. However, agitation had her up and pacing the bridge.
“Go easy on that pacing. I don’t need any more holes in my ship,” John said, hoping to lighten the mood.
She briefly paused and glanced up at John. “I can’t just sit on my ass. I have to do something.” She carried on pacing.
John couldn’t look at her without feeling guilty. He was determined to get everyone home. At least, everyone left alive on the ship.
“I’m going to see Liam. He needs to gather his data and be ready to leave.” John didn’t wait for a reply. He was out the door and heading straight for Medical.
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