Along one wall were a series of computer monitors. They were all blank, one of them cracked across the front where it looked as if someone had hit it with something heavy. The chairs in front of them were strewn about and the cabling along the back wall had been torn free and cut multiple times. Colorful cabling twisted outwards like the frayed ends of a weathered sweater. As Baker made his way into the room he exhaled deeply, relieved that it was the first room they entered that hadn’t looked like a crime scene. “Vuong, start earning that pay.”
Vuong nodded, examining the monitors and moving to the cables. “Well good news is the cables here, they were just for the monitoring station. Environmental controls are in the room back there.” He nodded to another door at the back to the L-shaped room.
“Corlin, pie that room.”
The marine turned and made his way to the door, pressing the button and standing ready as the door slid to the side. As it opened and the lights came to life he twitched to move forward and then stopped in his tracks. He instantly flinched backwards, staggering back two steps before leaning to the side and vomiting heavily into his helmet.
Dom stepped forward quickly as the vacuum pump in Corlin’s suit immediately purged the puke from within and misted the inside of his visor. “Jesus Christ,” he whispered, the color flushing from his face as the sight before him came into view. Behind them Baker tensed.
Seated in a chair facing the door was a man in a clean cut suit, the Xenocorp logo embroidered neatly on the lapel. His face was a visceral honeycomb of deep gashes and cuts, skin flayed outwards. Everything from his neck down was completely covered in a frosted layer of coagulated blood, and there was a large pool that had worked its way outwards, stretching towards the door, suspended by the sub-zero chill. Hanging loosely from one hand was a pair of gore covered scissors. Dom found himself thankful for a moment that environmental was still offline. He shuddered at the thought of the smell they would have unleashed when the door opened, and what three weeks of rot would have looked like.
Baker pushed Dom aside, allowing the sight before him to hit him full force. He felt the muscles in the back of his neck tighten and felt a ripple crawl across his skin. “Lanskey, please tell me you have an explanation for this.”
The chief medical officer made her way to the room, pausing as she reached the door. One hand came up to her mouth and she turned her gaze to the floor just outside as she composed herself. After a deep breath she stepped inside and leaned in to examine the body. “Severe lacerations and puncture wounds to the neck and face. Repeated stabbing.” She paused, turning to face the sergeant. “Sergeant….”
Baker nodded, not needing her to finish her diagnosis. The man in the chair had committed suicide in a way he struggled to find possible, by stabbing himself in the face repeatedly until his life had drained to the floor beneath him. Both his eyes were punctured out and there were multiple holes in his gums and cheeks. He had severed the skin across his forehead so bad that a flap was folded down past what remained of his blood matted eyebrows. Baker struggled to rationalize how someone could wrench past their bodies own defense mechanism, pushing beyond the limits one’s mind would allow. It should have been physically impossible for someone to inflict that much harm to themselves. The man’s system should have gone into shock after the first couple of blows, but the corpse in front of him had continued, again and again until only death forced his hand to stop.
“Hawkes,” Baker said softly, wrenching his gaze from the body in the chair. “Find something to cover this poor bastard.”
“That’s the director.”
Baker jerked his head around to see Talmadge standing directly behind him, his face blank, no emotion to be read behind the paled skin.
“Well I suppose that took care of the password problem,” he responded flatly, turning to push past Talmadge into the room, making sure the impact of his shoulder knocked him off balance. He had hoped this trip would be short; routine. He’d been looking forward to getting back to earth and setting his affairs into order. He had gladly taken this assignment, knowing it would give him just enough time to sort his thoughts before going back to the reality that waited for him. Now, as he made his way past the squad that stood silently in the room, he knew, their trip was going to be a lot longer than they had all expected.
Moments later Hawkes reappeared, a light grey tarp in his hand.
“Vuong, see if you can get us up and running will you,” Baker said, his jaw clenched tightly in his helmet.
“Roger that Sarge,” he replied, waiting for Hawkes to make his way back out with the wrapped corpse before entering the control room.
The sergeant took a deep breath, exhaling long and slow. Then he made his way to Corlin who was sitting with his back to the wall, arms hanging loosely over his knees. “You ok?” he asked, already knowing, there was no way he could be. None of them could.
“Yeah Sarge. Just wasn’t expecting that. Wasn’t expecting any of this.” His gaze moved up to meet his commanders. “This isn’t what we signed up for. Something really bad’s happened here, and I know I’m not supposed to be; we’re not allowed. But I’m scared.” Baker stared down at the man for a moment before replying, a response he wasn’t expecting coming out. “Me too. None of this is right. And I just wanna figure out what the hell has happened, clear any threat, and hightail it back to Earth as soon as we can. And trust me, I’m gonna put in for an extended leave for all of us once we get back earthside.”
Corlin nodded, his gaze moving back to the floor. “I’ll be all right Sarge, I just need a minute.”
Baker nodded, the only compassionate thing he could do. “Ok. We got this.”
“Sarge?”
Baker turned to see Lanskey approaching him.
“I think I should get to medical. There might be something in the logs that can help us figure out what the hell has happened here. Something had to have been reported before all of this occurred; some, I don’t know, symptoms. We need to know if this is a pathogen, or viral. We can’t risk bringing whatever this is, back, which means, before we can leave, we need to know what it is.” Baker nodded, glancing to the other men in the room. Her words wrapped his mind in a thick film. Before we can leave… “As soon as Vuong gets environmental back online, we should get to communications. We need to send a sit-rep to command and let them know the clusterfuck that’s happened here. Then I agree, there must be something in medical. If it’s some type of virus, then as much as I hate the fact that I’m about to say these words, I have to agree with you, we can’t risk bringing anything back to Earth with us.”
A loud hiss filled the room as plumes of mist billowed from the overhead vents, swirling the icy dust hanging in the air wildly. “Got it!” Vuong exclaimed from the room, stepping out a moment later as the facility began the process of purging the air and replacing it with a breathable atmosphere.
“How long till we’re green?” Baker asked, already seeing the temperature rise in his HUD.
“Twenty, thirty max till we’re at safe levels.”
“Good.” Baker turned. “Wilkes, I want this room sealed. No one comes in, or out. I want you to seal her up tighter than a Mormon girl on prom night, you hear me?”
“Roger that.”
“Vuong, how far to comms?”
“Back the way we came, end of the second hallway.”
“All right then. Let’s wrap this up.”
The group moved into the hallway, followed by Wilkes who turned and fired up a small ion torch he had pulled from a pack on his belt. He immediately began welding the doorframe, double welding along the seams. Baker watched as blue and white sparks fell to the floor beneath. His thoughts fell to medical, and he could feel the sweat beading across his brow as he wrestled with what they would do if it was in fact something communicable. He knew the events that would unfold in that scenario and they were a long list of things that would keep him from getting home; quarantine, followed by weeks of observation, followed by
psych exams and then more testing. It would be weeks until he was able to return, and all that time would be stuck at the derelict station, surrounded by the shadow of death. When Wilkes was finished, he pulled his sidearm and fired two rounds into the door panel. “Just an added preventative,” he said, turning to nod at Baker.
“All right. Let’s move out.”
7
The air in the facility had begun to circulate, the particles that had hung stationary in the air now gone, replaced by a thin haze of atmosphere that slowly spread through the hallways. The unit walked in silence, each of them stepping with frayed nerves as they doubled back. They passed the intersection that led back to the landing pad, following the sign that read Communications. As they made their way to the end of the hall Baker saw an illuminated poster on the wall. As he passed he saw a group of smiling factory workers, clean clothes and a perfectly placed smudge of oil on their cheeks. Above it read Xenocorp, better planets for all. ‘Not these poor bastards,’ he scoffed to himself, pausing as he read the words THEY LIE scrawled across the wall just below it. He realized the irony of it as he made his way past, following just behind Dom and Hawkes.
“Better planets…?”
Baker shook his head as Mills approached from behind.
“You think they’d have started by building a decent facility.”
Baker clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “You read that too huh?”
“Yeah,” Mills replied, shifting the rifle strap across his chest. “Guessing they have some type of protocol for when shit like this happens.”
“Shit like this doesn’t just happen. There’s something else going on, and I can’t shake the feeling we just haven’t found it yet.”
Ahead Dom and Hawkes had reached at the end of the corridor. Vuong approached the open door and stopped, staring for a moment before turning to look down the hall at them and cracking across the comms. “I think this might take a minute.”
Baker approached, stopping at the doorway. Inside the room was a series of control consoles along the walls, chairs cast aside carelessly. The main console against the back wall was completely destroyed, wires and metal twisting outwards, a shimmering pile of shattered computer components below. Someone had made short work of the equipment, ensuring whoever came after, would have a hell of a time trying to get any messages out.
Vuong stepped into the room and stopped, his hand raising to the top of his head. “Jesus. Looks like somebody took a sledgehammer to it.” He paused, turning around to look at Sarge. “One thing for sure, we won’t be making any long distance phone calls any time soon.”
“Can you get it working?” Baker asked, knowing the answer before he even formed the words, but hope forcing them out.
Vuong shook his head. “It’s dead Sarge. Whoever did this, made damn sure nobody was going to be sending any outgoing messages.”
“Shit.”
Baker brought his hands up to his mask and rubbed his cheeks. “Portofino, I need you to send a distress call. Tell command that our situation is compromised and that we need back up sent here immediately. Tell them we have a code 12 and there’s no salvage. I want that message sent on the double.”
“Sergeant!”
Baker turned to see Talmadge standing at the back of the group.
“I can’t authorize that. You’re under strict nondisclosure. Anything that goes out needs to be read and approved by myself, and I cannot allow you to send that message.”
Baker started forward, his hands balling to fists. “You listen here you son of a bitch. Do you not see what the fuck is happening here?” All protocol was off. He could feel the fury boiling in a torrent in his veins. The facility, the death, everything disappeared behind the rage that erupted in him. “Your little social experiment has gone and fucked itself inside out. Everyone here is dead!” He stopped, his mask inches away from Talmadge’s. “Now I don’t give two shits what you think you authorize. You and your company can kiss my ass. These folks are dead, and I’ll be God damned if I’m gonna let them stay here and rot so your company can cover its ass, nor will I stay here to join them. So stay the fuck out of my way and keep your god damn mouth shut.” Baker could feel his arms trembling. It had been a long time since he’d had to fight the urge to pound someone in the ground that bad. He wanted to beat him within an inch of his life, but he held his composure. He had a full squad of marines that were on the border of losing it, and if he faltered, then there would be no one to hold them together. That was the only thing that kept Talmadge from returning to the ship on a stretcher. “Portofino, do you read me?”
Baker stood with his mask three inches away from Talmadge. He didn’t blink, he didn’t flinch, he just held his gaze, staring deep into the portals beyond his soul. He wanted him to know his command had been taken, wanted everyone to see the company rat back down. He knew his unit would follow him to a full court-martial with no hesitation, but he wanted to make it crystal clear to the other. “Portofino?”
Talmadge unclenched his teeth, the coppery taste of blood slowly filling his mouth where they had pushed deep into his gums. He knew there was nothing he could do at that moment, he had lost, but once they got back to earth, or he found communications, he would have that man’s career. He had worked for the company for twenty-five years, and not once, had anyone ever spoken to him like that. No one in that unit knew what he was capable of; or the friends he had and the positions they held. Sergeant Williams had taken his last patrol, and by the time he was done with him, he’d be lucky to land a job scrubbing toilets in a fast food restaurant. With a scoff he turned around and pressed his back against the wall. He could see the condensation building around them as the temperature rose, pushing the layer of ice crystals back, the atmosphere slowly building in the facility.
“God damnit,” Baker spat, turning to his squad. “Corlin, Hawkes, get your asses back to the ship on the double. I wanna know why Portofino’s not responding. When you get there, you send a message to HQ and tell them in the nicest way possible, that things have gone ass over tits down here. And I want the two of you back before I have time to even notice you were gone. Do you copy?”
“Yes sir.”
“Come on,” Corlin said, tapping Hawkes in the chest.
The pair turned and made their way quickly down the hall, disappearing around the turn a short distance ahead.
“Vuong, where’s security?”
“Back the way we came, just past environmental.”
“I’m getting about sick and tired of this back and forth shit,” Baker growled.
“I need to get to the director’s office,” Talmadge sneered, his back still pressed into the wall.
“Does it look like I give a fuck about what you think you need Talmadge?”
The reps face scrunched to a knot as bitter anger warped his features.
“Dom, you take Lanskey and head to Medical. See if you can figure out what may have caused this, or if there was anything leading up to it. They found that thing out there, and then all this starts to happen… I don’t believe in coincidence. Let’s try and find out what the hell it was they really found.”
Again Talmadge tensed, but this time it wasn’t anger that rippled through him, it was the satisfaction of opportunity.
“We have to pass security to get to medical,” Vuong said, looking at the facility schematics on his holowrist.
“All right. Let’s get to Security, then you two, get to medical.”
“The information you want would be in the director’s files.”
Baker turned to Talmadge, who had pulled himself from the wall and was staring at him with a malevolent gaze that buzzed with the controlled thrill of a serial killer outsmarting a detective in an interview.
“Everything they found out there, all the files, everything. That’s what I’ve been trying to get to. You want that information, then there’s only one place it will be, and for you to get it, I have to get to the director’s office.”
<
br /> Sergeant Williams took a deep breath. He’d never played the game before, only heard about it from others, but at that moment, a single word popped into his mind; check. He maintained his composure. There was no way he was going to allow him to take that anger from him. He needed it to keep moving, to keep clear. “First security, then we’ll get you to your precious office.” He turned to the others. “Let’s go see what happened here.”
8
Moisture hung heavy in the dank air as the environmental system began to steady itself out. The air in the hall seemed to cling to them, sticking to their suits as they made their way back past. Every shadow stretched out, grasping desperately at them as they passed. As they approached the door leading to security and the rest of the facility Dom paused, his hand rising as the rest stopped behind him. For a breath of a moment he had thought he had heard something, a whisper, distant and thin. As his ears twitched in his helmet he let his eyes slowly move over the doorway, pausing as they reached the bottom. He stayed silent, his finger moving outwards to where the door met the floor beneath. The temperature had been steadily rising, and some of the frozen liquid had begun to thaw. Seeping out from behind the door was a thin stream of blood. It was partially congealed, but the water from the melted ice crystals gave it the viscosity it needed to begin flowing down the incline from behind. It inched forward, slowly passing his feet as he stared. He could feel something hiding behind the door, something black and course, with dagger-sharp claws and fangs, just waiting for the blocked portal to open just enough to allow it to rip into the first face that appeared. His eyes followed the thin stream as it reached the men standing behind him. He felt his skin tighten.
Baker signaled Mills and Dom to stack up on opposite sides of the door. He motioned silently for the rest to stay against the wall and then nodded to Dom who reached out and engaged the door switch. The entire unit held their breath, each of them seeing a different horror hiding beyond.
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