by Sean Clark
“No thank you, we can just grab the check and be out of your hair for now.” Lia announces.
Cecil takes in a few more modest bites before the girl could come back, placing down the tiny faux leather folder holding the receipt. “Do you need a box, sir?” She looks at Cecil.
“No thank you.” He shakes his head. Lia opens up the folder quickly and glances down at the tiny slip of paper inside.
“Even if the director won’t agree…” Lia sighs. “I’ll get it done on my own, in any means.” Out of her purse, Lia pulls out her wallet, a big pouch made of dark leather. Cecil watches as she produces out a shiny silver credit card. He catches a glimpse of the word ‘Executive’ on it. The waitress glides by the table and snatches it up.
Cecil and Lia stare at each other awkwardly for the next moment. Linus looks down into the bottom of his coffee cup. With rushed footsteps, the waitress returns and quickly sets down the folder, along with a handful of red and white mints in clear plastic wrappers. “Thank you for patronage today.” The girl responds, wavering, before running off one final time. Lia pulls out the final receipt and begins scribbling on it.
“Whoa, why are you giving her such a big tip?” Linus complains, looking over at her filling out the bottom line.
“Because you just had to be scary to that poor girl… and also because it’s the company card.” Lia finishes, clicking the pen closed. “I could say easily that the information we got today was well worth our business.” She says smugly.
“Whatever, she didn’t even bring me more coffee.” Linus slides out of the booth, catching a big yawn. Cecil follows.
The drive back to Cecil’s place was quiet. As they pull up to the apartment building, Lia grabs Cecil’s attention away from the window. “We’ll be in contact.” She squints at him.
Cecil quickly jumps out, closing the door behind him. He hurries up the stairs, spotting someone at the top pacing back and forth in front of his door. “Alika!” Cecil shouts, recognizing him.
“Cecil, what the hell?” Alika jumps to attention. “I’ve been trying to call you for over an hour. I came by to see if you were okay after the first couple times I called. I was just about to knock down the door, or call the landlord, or call the cops.” Clouds of breath pour out of his mouth as he speaks nonstop.
“It’s okay. I was just kidnapped by the goddamn space service.” Cecil complains loudly.
“You can’t be serious.” Alika looks out over the balcony, scanning the parking lot. The car Cecil had come in had already disappeared down the road.
“Only sort of. That message I sent yesterday… they looked into it. They pulled me in to interrogate me.”
“What did you tell them?”
“Not a lot. Rather, they ended up telling me more. It’s a mess to explain.” Cecil pulls out his keys, moving to unlock the door.
Chapter 22
The guards at the gate waved the car though with barely a second look. With a simple look into the passenger seat at Cecil, they motioned to have the gate slid open. The empty roads of the complex continue on before them as Alika carefully continues on, scanning the buildings. Beyond the library lies a familiar building that Cecil never liked to see, the hospital.
Painful memories pass through Cecil’s mind. After he had awoken, it was weeks before he was able to leave, let alone get out of his bed or his room without the help of someone else. His body had been weak and in a form of withdrawal, his mind delirious as well.
“Are you going to be okay?” Alika peers over at Cecil.
“I’ll know better once I know what’s going on.” Cecil sighs, eyes turned down at his lap. “Before the call this morning, I’d been forced to just brood on the words that girl told me… ‘We’d be in touch’. It’s been killing me.” As they pull up into the modest parking lot, Cecil spots Lia standing at the front of the building, waiting. After parking, the two head towards the door.
Alika elbows Cecil in the side, looking at Lia. “Her?” He whispers. “You said you were kidnapped, huh?” Cecil shoves him back, making a distance between them.
“You must be Alika.” Lia says, nodding. “Thank you for bringing him here. We have some things to show you two.” She turns quickly on her heel, and sliding through the automatic doors.
Alika and Cecil follow her inside, eventually heading into the spacious lobby elevator. Holding her same binder of papers, Lia stares at the doors as they slide shit, enclosing them inside the metal box. Lia taps the nametag on her lanyard against the sensor in the machine and waits for a quick beep, following it with a press of a button. Cecil stands unevenly in the elevator, his stomach swaying under the movement. The lights above the door flash, counting downwards. Before Cecil’s body can adjust to the feeling, the machine comes to a halt with a subtle jolt, the doors sliding open. Lia is the first to step out.
“Where exactly are we going?” Alika peeps up. “It felt like we descended quite a few floors.”
“Just our little laboratory down here.” Lia turns around to face them. “Just to be clear, you’re not to tell anyone about this place.”
A draft curls up from the floor and runs over Cecil’s skin. Behind Lia is a dull hallway, grey and gloomy, vastly different from the bright white interior Cecil had seen before inside the upper levels. Cecil tugs on his jacket, blinking to adjust to the light. The fixtures built into the ceiling are a bright orange, reminiscent of a parking garage. Cecil fixes his gaze at the floor, scanning the concrete coated in a fine layer of paint that hadn’t been redone in years. Looking back up to track Lia, he notices a white fluorescent glow that spills over into the otherwise dingy hallway.
Down the hallway, they arrive at a set of double doors, lacking any nameplates or hardware for them to open by. Lia pushes her nametag once again to the center of the doors, causing them to spring open with a loud click. Lia grabs at the edge of the doors and yanks them open, revealing the pristine looking lab space. Inside, a man dressed in a white lab coat looks up quickly, sending a criticizing gaze their way.
“Lia, I can get why we’re dealing with all this secrecy but… this is really off-putting. Please just tell me why we’re here.” Cecil plants his feet in the doorway.
“The less I tell you upfront, the less you have to worry.” Lia slams her binder down on the back counter, turning to glare down at Cecil’s feet sitting atop the threshold. “You should know that unsanctioned tests like these could lose me my job…and possibly more. I’m trying to spare you some of the possible recoil if it comes to that.”
Cecil slides his feet a few steps forward across the hard concrete floor, allowing Alika to follow inside. “A test, huh?” The door shuts loudly behind him, sending an echo reverberating through the hall behind them. “If you brought me here, then I must be the one you’re testing, no?”
“Just hear her out, Cecil.” Alika pleads. “You heard her, she has stakes in this too, it seems.”
“Thank you. Now, if I may continue…” Lia adjusts her glasses, nodding to the man in the lab coat. “So far, we’ve been testing the Martian water samples for anything we might have missed… specifically, the supposed bacterium that killed Qaseem, and supposedly infected you, Cecil.” She turns back to her binder, flipping it open to begin flipping through the various pages.
“I thought Atreo said that the appropriate tests were done on the samples you got from the planet.” Cecil accuses her.
“They were, but… you heard what he said regarding those. All the samples were frozen for transportation over here.” She turns quickly to look up at him. “You said it yourself… that going through cryo again did something to the bacterium. Any microbes we found in those samples were long dead. Their chromosome- basically their DNA, was almost completely deteriorated. They were ruled out as being some sort of harmless amoeba. Maybe not exactly potable in that state, but with a little bit of chemicals here and there, plus some filtering, it would be fine for a setup like we have up there… hydroponics.”
“How
do you plan to test ones that are still in their original state? There can’t be any other samples, can there?” Cecil folds his arms. “Ones that didn’t get frozen.”
“Don’t play dumb, Cecil. We have some…” Lia points to Cecil. “…right here.”
“I was frozen though…” Cecil holds up his hand in front of himself. “The cells they found on me that they tested were probably the same as your just described.”
“Cecil, Cecil.” Lia flips through the binder some more. “One of our connections… Mansus. Well, you know him obviously. You went to him, and he told you about the after effects of the cryo process. Your amygdala was never completely frozen, right?”
“You bitch, just going though Cecil’s records like that.” Alika stomps his foot loudly. “You guys are just vultures.”
“Stop it.” Cecil sends his elbow back in Alika’s direction, missing him intentionally. “I figured this would happen, after I told you all that stuff too. I already know what you’re getting at, Lia, but... entertain me.”
Lia huffs, putting her hands on her hips. “I want a sample from some tissue deeper in your skull. We can get some from your pituitary gland without causing any damage. We just have to send a tiny probe up your nose… and well, you get it.” Lia mimes the motion of prodding at her nostril. “If we can find cells that were unaffected by cryo, they may give us the answers we’re seeking.”
“I’m assuming you’ve already prepared for this?” Cecil tilts his head knowingly. “Not that I can say no, having come this far.”
“Come with me to this back room.” Lia waves over Cecil. The white coated man in the room had been standing, hands folded behind him. He quickly moves to action, following Cecil as they file into the neighboring room.
Under a bright yet ominous light sits a large mechanical chair like one out of a dentist’s office. A tray full of thin, shiny instruments sit beside it on a rolling cart. Beside him, Cecil hears the doctor snap on a pair of blue gloves, before motioning to the chair. “Please have a seat, Mr. Ruiz.”
Alika leans against the door as Cecil gives a quick look back. Laying back in their chair, the fake leather gives a high-pitched squeak as his body presses into the cushions. The bright white light above him glares into his eyes. Through the blinding brightness, Cecil can see the white coated man appear above him, now sporting a surgical mask and magnification lenses on his face.
Taking a quick look to the side out of the light, Cecil can see Lia holding her own nose and face, head swaying back and forth as if she is about to faint. Ungraciously, Cecil feels the man’s hand grab at his chin, turning it back up towards the light.
“Normally, Mr. Ruiz…” He speaks, almost invisible in the brightness. “We would have better prepared you, but the lady has us on a tight schedule. This may feel strange, but stay still, please.”
A drip of liquid hit’s Cecil’s nose, flowing down into his nostril. Cecil coughs, feeling the burning sensation enter his sinuses. His eyes water, closed tightly to block out the light. A numbing sensation overcomes his nostril, slowly creeping deeper into his head. A few silent seconds pass, the hand still fixed on his chin.
Taking a deep breath, Cecil flares his nostrils, still filled with the strange feeling. “Here we go, this shouldn’t take but a second.” The man mumbles. Before he can react, Cecil feels a long, thin object slide into his nostril, moving inwards slowly but smoothly. The back of his throat twists up, and he tries to suppress the feeling of wanting to gag. The instrument slides deeper before a strange feeling of pressure arrives behind his eyes. A quick sharp feeling sends out a jolt of pain into his face, and his arms grip tightly onto the armrests out of reflex.
The instrument is slowly extracted from his nostril, and the doctor pulls away. Cecil sits up quickly, bringing his hands to his face. Sliding his glasses up, he rubs at his nose furiously with the base of his palm, sucking in air through his nostrils. “What the fuck.” He exclaims.
“That’s all we needed.” The white coated-man announces. “I’ll start working on these, miss.”
Cecil’s eyes adjust to the darkness again, turning over to Lia standing against the wall, face turned away. “You’re a better man than me, Cecil.” Alika speaks up, moving out of the way of the man passing back into the lab space. “I would have decked you had you done that to me.” He says as the man glides by him.
“Well then.” Lia regains her composure. “There are tests to run now. Thank you for putting up with… that, Cecil. I’ll lead you two out of her for now while we get to work.”
Alika moves out of the doorway, and the three file out into the hallway, eventually to the elevator. Lia pushes the up button, and the machinery beyond the door hums to life. “I’ll be in contact once again… As soon as we get results, I’ll call you back down here.” Lia finishes as the elevator doors slide open. Cecil and Alika enter.
“Good day.” Alika eyeballs her as the doors come back together.
◆◆◆
Two days later, Cecil and Alika find themselves following the tapping of Lia’s heels down the concrete hallway, same as before. “I think you’ll be impressed with these results.” She chimes, coming to a stop in front of the laboratory doors.
“Somehow, I don’t think impressed is the right word.” Cecil grumbles, looking back to Alika.
“Let me put it this way.” Lia retorts, touching her badge to the door. “There’s no way this data can be ignored now.”
“So, you did find the bacteria, then?” Cecil asks, moving out of the way of the door swinging open.
“Yes, it’s still inside of you. Mostly likely, though, your body has vaccinated itself, especially on the miniscule amount left in you from cryo. That’s one less thing to worry about, at least.” Lia nudged the two through the door, closing it after she enters. “However, for anybody else… the bacterium is another story. Doctor.”
Inside the room, the man from before turns to greet them, hands encased in neoprene gloves as he works over an array of microscopes. Petri dishes sit on top of the counter before him. Making an adjustment to the microscope, he speaks up.
“Right. Well, the bacteria on you were dormant as previous tests have shown. Even though they weren’t entirely frozen in the cryo process, it was probably enough to cause them to enter a sort of emergency rest state. They just stopped proliferating… dividing if you will.”
“I’m no expert, but that’s not very potent bacteria, then.” Alika declares, arms crossed. He looks over at Cecil who had walked over to the microscopes. “Am I right?”
“Well, you’re not wrong.” Lia rolls her eyes. “After we found the correct… conditions for them, they started to go crazy.” Lia walks over to motion to a particular microscope. Cecil peers in, looking back and forth. Alika pushes his way in.
“There’s tons.” Cecil blinks, pulling back from the lenses and readjusting his glasses. “What happened here?”
“The samples of organic matter we were using started to rot, for lack of a better word.” The man starts to explain. “Ground beef was one of the samples we used. The other night, I worked late and forgot to put away some of the dishes into the sample cooler. When I came back the next day, to the meat was spoiled… and the bacteria had spread like nothing I had seen with any other sample.”
“How can that be?” Cecil bites his bottom lip, looking down at the tray under the microscope’s lens.
“It took me a bit to determine that myself. Normally decomposition happens over a much longer course of time, and only in the presence of some sort of fungal spore- mold in laymen’s terms. However, this room is sufficiently cool and sterile enough that it should have taken longer to get to such a state. I finally decided to take a look at the sample and I saw what had happened. It seemed as if it was the naturally occurring bacteria in the meat itself that had caused the sample to deteriorate. More precisely, it was that bacteria interacting with the one we introduced… they had merged. It then found it within itself to start dividing once again a
s a completely new species.”
“So basically, it needs an active source of another bacteria to propagate.” Alika questions.
“Basically, yes.” The scientist nods. “Decomposition is the perfect environment for it.”
“That makes sense.” Cecil pipes up.
“Go on…” Lia tilts her head at him.
“When I came in… you know, burned up, I must have been crawling in the dormant bacteria. They took that chance in my cooked flesh to enter my body. After I woke up from the coma, they had long since settled in, creating a nice comfortable colony inside my body. After that, they took me for a ride until I underwent cryo again.”
“Cecil, this is bad. There could be the bacteria crawling over the station now, either from you, or the water from that pool.” Lia squints her eyes. “Do you happen to know what practices they have up there in dealing with waste, specifically with food?”
“You mean like compost? I would assume it gets all aggregated and left to do its thing, eventually to be used for nutrients in the hydroponics...” Cecil stops short.
“All of that organic matter… it’s just a breeding ground for the bacteria waiting to happen.” Lia leans against the back counter, trying to keep the concern from showing on her face. “The plants they’re growing up there are in contact with the contaminated water too, and some of the bacteria probably ends up in the food. As soon as the food ends up in your gut, it starts breaking down, and the bacteria spreads.”
“That’s all plausible, miss.” The scientist nods emphatically.
“I think we’ll be able to prove what we need to with this information.” Lia grinds her teeth. “I can go to Atreo with this and show him the danger we’re facing up there....”
“Won’t you get in trouble once he finds out you were doing this research underground?” Cecil corners her.
“It doesn’t matter at this point. There is a whole station of people up there who could be infected by this. Besides, with these findings, there is no way he could do away with me.”