“You okay?”
“I told you he was deranged.”
“I know, I know… you were right, what can I say?”
“What happened?”
“He was perfectly fine then he started talking crazy. Lu tried to talk to him, and he just… killed her. I couldn’t get to her in time. Then he ran off. I’ve been stalking him since.”
“What about the others? Paolio?”
“I don’t know, it all happened so fast. I don’t know where they are.”
“Hello, Malbec here. Paolio, Annis… please respond?” Jann spoke in her comm. Nothing. “Is no one wearing a headset?”
Kevin shrugged. “I took mine off in the operations area.”
“How long has the power been out?”
“Shortly after Decker went crazy.”
“Shit, look…”
She pointed at the spot where the commander had been—he was gone.
“Come on, let’s get out of here… now!” Kevin grabbed Jann and moved her towards the tunnel exit. He pushed her through the door and then started to close it. It was stiff.
“Shit, give me a hand, Jann, we can close him in here if we get this shut.” The short tunnel between the main biodome and the common area was designed as an airlock so each section could be sealed off. But the doors had been rigged to stay open. Jann had just turned back to help when Kevin’s eyes went wide and a large dark bloodstain spread across his abdomen. A metal spear protruded from its center. He dropped to his knees. “Kevin… no…”
Decker stood behind the stricken Novack holding the bloodied metal shaft. He looked at it with a vacant curiosity, like it was something alien. He seemed mesmerized by it. Jann backed slowly down the short tunnel. She grabbed the door at the far end and put all her weight behind it. It moved, but slowly. It was stiff and needed all her strength to operate. Decker’s head jerked up as he noticed the swinging door. He shot forward with frightening speed. But Jann had her shoulder to the heavy door—it was gaining momentum and clicked closed just as Decker crashed into it. She bounced off it with the force and slid across the floor, but the door held. She rushed back and spun the locking wheel, grabbed a bar from one of the scrap piles and wedged it into the handle. Just in time. She could see it rattle as the commander tried to open it. He stopped and for a brief moment silence returned to the colony. Then there was a massive crash as the door shook, and another, and another. He was throwing himself against it in a crazed frenzy. The entire facility resonated with the force, but the door held. Jann backed away.
The banging stopped. Jann wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. It probably was, but now she didn’t know what he was up to. The daylight was also fading fast. She needed to get out now and make a run for the HAB. Like she did this morning, running from the demented Decker.
She was about to flip her visor down and make for the airlock when she heard a low moan. She froze. It came from over by the workshop. There it was again. She picked up a heavy metal rod from one of the scrap tables and cautiously headed towards the sound. She kept low, moved behind a mound of disassembled machines and peered in. On the floor, in a gap between a row of storage boxes, she saw a pair of bloodied legs. She shifted closer to get a better view. The legs were attached to Dr. Paolio Corelli. He was sitting on the floor with his back resting against the dome wall, hiding as best he could. “Paolio.”
His face was bloodied but he was still alive, still breathing. She shook his shoulder. “Paolio, it’s me Jann.” His eyes opened slowly. “Jann.” He coughed and spat a bloody gob on the floor. She crouched down beside him. “Paolio, can you move?”
“My leg… broken, collar bone… ribs I think.”
“Decker is trapped in the biodome, for the moment. We need to get out of here.”
He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her closer. “Lu… where’s Lu?”
“She’s… dead, Paolio… so is Kevin. I don’t know about Annis.
Paolio let out a long, gut-wrenching moan. “No… not Lu.” Then he let go of her and slumped back. “I’m sorry, Jann. I screwed up… thought you had gone off the rails.” He spat again.
“It’s okay. You probably saved my life, Paolio. If I wasn’t out for the count I might be dead by now. Come on.” She put her arm under his and tried to help him up.
“Ahhhhh…” he collapsed again. “It’s no use, I’m too broken.”
“Don’t give up on me now, just get your shit together.” She raised her voice and put some sting into it. Anything to get him to move. “We’ve got to try and get to the HAB. If you can get outside I can call the mule and you can ride it there. You’ve got to try.”
“Okay…” He steeled himself and, with Jann’s help, managed to stand up on one leg. He was weak and unstable, but seemed to revive a little now that he was upright and had purpose.
“Where’s your EVA suit and helmet?”
Paolio rubbed his head as he balanced himself against the wall. “Over by the airlock… I think.”
Jann put his arm over her shoulder and propped him up. “Okay, ready?” He nodded, and they shuffled off. Paolio hopped on one leg, he could put no weight on the other. They made slow progress.
“Hold it… I’ve got to stop. Oh god, I’m a total mess.” He balanced himself against a workbench, breathing hard and looking deathly pale. “I don’t think I can make it.”
“Yes you can, just keep going, come on.”
“Jann, I’m a doctor, I know the story. I’m losing a lot of blood. I’ve already passed out once. Unless I get it stopped soon, I’ll bleed to death. I’m screwed, Jann.”
It was clear to her that Paolio had a point. Their only option now was to head for the medlab and take their chances.
“The medlab then. You can make it that far. Come on.”
“No Jann. Every thing’s gone to rat shit, leave me, get out of here, get off this planet… do you hear me? Get off while you still can… go now.”
“I’m not leaving you here, you can forget that idea. And I’m not leaving Annis either.” She threw his arm around her shoulders and hoisted him up.
“She may be dead too, Jann.”
“Move, we’re wasting time.”
Jann helped him onto the bed in the medlab and rushed back to shut the door. She needed to find something to wedge into the closing mechanism but time was running out for Paolio, so she left it and went back to him. His leg looked bad. His flight suit was saturated with blood. “I’m going to have to cut this off.” She hunted around for some surgical instruments and found several trays. She grabbed a set of cutters, probably designed for this exact job. She surveyed Paolio’s leg more closely. He had managed to apply a tourniquet to his upper leg just above the knee. Best not touch that for the moment.
“Are you sure you want me to do this?”
“My leg’s not much good to me if I’m dead.”
“Okay.” She started cutting. It didn’t take long to reveal the wound and to realize that it was worse than she thought. He had a large gash on the inside left calf, and the bone protruded from a gelatinous mass of blood. “Oh shit.” She hadn’t meant to alarm him, it just escaped out of her mouth. Paolio lifted himself up on one elbow and assessed the damage to his body. “Shit.” He collapsed back down again.
She found some gauze and started cleaning around the wound. Paolio groaned in pain. “Stop. Jann. Wait.” He raised himself up again and this time took a longer look at the wound. The bleeding seemed to have stopped, which was something at least. But he knew the score, what he wanted Jann to do next would either save him or kill him. It was fifty-fifty, at best.
“Jann, listen to me. Here’s what I want you to do…” before he could finish they heard an intense banging from across the dome. Jann ran to the lab door and looked out. Decker was trying to get the main biodome door opened. She could see the bar she used to wedge it closed was working itself loose with the vibration. They didn’t have much time.
“Jann!”
She shut the med
lab door and this time jammed a long, hardened steel surgical instrument in to the locking mechanism. It would buy them time, nothing more.
“Jann!”
“Paolio, Decker’s breaking his way out of the biodome.”
“Jann, listen to me, listen to me.”
She stopped. “Sure Paolio.”
“I want you to reset the bone and stitch me up.”
“Are you serious?”
He grabbed her arm and brought her face closer to his, and gritted his teeth. “Do it. Do it now before I change my mind.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll need to find some clean bandages first.” He released her arm and sunk back down on the bed. Jann backed off and started opening drawers and doors and pulling out everything she could find. She knew what he was asking. Resetting the bone would mean starting the bleeding again, as well as the excruciating agony. He might just pass out from the pain… if he was lucky. She found some bandages, still packaged so still sterile, if that actually mattered in the rarefied Colony One environment. There was loud crash outside. Decker was out of the biodome. She ran back to Paolio. If there was ever a time to get focused this is it. Do it now, she thought.
“Paolio, ready?”
“No,” he sighed. “Yes, yes.” He managed a hint of a smile.
She surveyed the wound as best she could, but there was no easy way to do this. She placed one hand gently on his leg just below the knee. Paolio screamed. She whipped her hand away, Paolio held his forehead and moaned. “Here, bite down on this.” She pushed a plastic handled instrument between his teeth, not that it was going to do much good, it was more psychological. She readied herself at the foot of the bed to reset the bone. “Ready in three.” Paolio groaned and nodded. She grabbed his calf just above the ankle. “One… “ and jerked it back with a twist. Paolio screamed in agony. The bone retracted back in through the open wound. She could feel it grind around inside as she tried to feel it back into place. Paolio raged and roared and she was sure he was going to pass out. Blood oozed out of the wound and pooled all around, it dripped on to the floor and her hands were wet and slippery. She couldn’t do this to him any more, when she felt it was right she stopped. “I think that’s it.” Paolio didn’t respond. She quickly wrapped his leg with a tight bandage to close the wound. It wasn’t pretty, but they were way beyond that now. She finished the bandage and the blood flow had lessened. He looked deathly white, his body drenched in sweat and his breathing shallow. He’s still alive, she thought, but for how much longer? I’ve probably just killed him.
She sunk down on to the cold floor of the lab and cradled her head in her hands, rocking back and forth, like some long-term inmate of a desolate gulag whose mind had been eroded by eternal hopelessness. How did everything get so messed up so quickly? Lu and Kevin were dead. Killed by the unhinged Decker, and Paolio, what hope was there for him now? Annis was probably dead as well. Soon, there would be just her.
Even if she were to run now there was no way out. She wasn’t going to leave Paolio. And there was no way she could get him into an EVA suit before Decker got out. They were stuck here. What’s more, with no power in the colony it was only a matter of time before the air became so saturated with CO2 it would be poisonous. How long, she had no idea. Hours, days, weeks? It didn't matter; Decker would get them long before that.
But there was no respite, the lab shook and reverberated as Decker tried to get in. She jumped up, “Shit,” and backed away as the door rocked again. There was nothing for it; she would have to make a stand—here, in this lab, on this desolate planet. It would be her end and she knew it. Jann swept the lab with the light from her helmet in search of anything she could use as a weapon. The door reverberated again. She picked up a long, sharp surgical knife and held it with both hands out in front of her. She hoped to God it would not be the instrument of her own death. Her body shook and sweat streamed down her face, stinging her eyes. She could smell her own fear. Hold fast old girl, she thought, focus.
The banging stopped and Jann entered a twilight zone of the unknown. At least with the noise she knew where he was. Once it stopped her anxiety ratcheted up, notch by notch, as she waited for the inevitable onslaught of the crazed commander. She held fast.
Time passed and the light from her helmet grew dim, soon she would see nothing but total blackness. She had stood rock solid just back from the door ready for the attack, But now, her legs began to shake as the initial surge of adrenaline began to ebb. How much longer could she keep this up? She rubbed her eyes. It seemed like the light in the lab was getting brighter. Was the power back on? She shook her head and blinked. Yes, it was much brighter, coming from behind. She spun around and standing in front of her was the strangest man she had ever seen.
He was thin and ragged with wild hair and a thick scrub of beard. The light came from behind him so she could only see him in silhouette. He had come in through the door from the other section of the Medlab, the module they had all assumed to be sealed and derelict. Then came a low buzzing noise and a small robot moved in beside him. It was a little over waist height. It stopped at his side, like a faithful dog.
“Is your colleague still alive?” He pointed over at the unconscious doctor.
“Yes, I think so.”
“Gizmo, would you be so kind as to look after the unfortunate individual.”
The little robot swung its head around to look up at its master, then it spoke.
“Certainly, Nills.” It whizzed over on sleek tracks, extended two arms under the body of the doctor and lifted him up with ease.
“Wait, stop… where are you taking him? Who are you?”
Nills paused and extended his hand. “If you want to stay alive, then you’d better come with us.”
12
Nills & Gizmo
Jann had no real choice. Either stay and face the homicidal Decker, and certain death, or follow the enigmatic colonist and his robotic sidekick to possible safety. So she followed them tentatively through the door and into the wide, brightly lit module. It was empty save for a large section of flooring, hinged up to reveal a long ramp sloping down into the subsurface. The little robot descended first. Nills turned to Jann and waved his hand towards the tunnel. “Quick, follow Gizmo.”
As she descended she could hear him closing the floor panel behind them. The light extinguished and the tunnel grew dim, lit solely by illumination from an open airlock door just ahead. Jann had a feeling that she was entering the proverbial rabbit hole.
They passed through the airlock and into a spacious underground cavern. It was hard to take it all in at once as it was dimly lit, with only patches of illumination here and there. The floor was flat and solid, and looked to be fashioned from some type of concrete. The sections of cave wall that Jann could see shimmered and glistened like they had been coated with some sort of sealant. The area was furnished like a workshop with equipment and machines of indeterminate function. Computer racks and monitors rested on scattered workbenches.
“Gizmo, would you be so kind as to place the injured human over there.”
The little robot wheeled around and set Paolio down on a bed with an uncanny gentleness. The doctor was still unconscious. He badly needed surgery on his broken leg and he needed blood, none of which was going to happen. There was not much Jann could do for him. His fate was in the lap of the Gods. She took her helmet off and looked over at the ragged colonist. “You’re Nills Langthrop.”
“Yes, and you are Dr. Jann Malbec. Science Officer with the International Space Agency Mars expedition.”
“Yes, how did you know that?”
Nills didn’t answer. Instead, he turned and waved a hand towards the little robot. “This is my friend Gizmo.” It rocked its head and spoke.
“Greetings Earthling,” said Gizmo.
“Eh… pleased to meet you,” she replied, a little uncertain. She turned back to Nills. “Where are we? Are there any more colonists?”
“All in good time. For the moment yo
u are safe.”
“Why were you hiding from us? We’ve been searching everywhere.”
He went quiet and scratched his beard. “It’s a long story.”
“Nills, I think the infected Earthling is getting ready to leave.” Gizmo was over by a bank of monitors. Nills rushed over, followed by Jann. On screen was a video feed from the main Colony One airlock entrance. Decker was putting on his EVA suit. They stood in silence for a while and watched.
“You know what’s wrong with him, don’t you?” said Jann.
“He’s infected. You all probably are.” He turned to face Jann who was visibly shocked. “But don’t worry, it only affects some. You’re okay, as is your colleague,” he nodded over at the unconscious Paolio.
“This is what you were talking about... in your last message.”
Nills nodded. “So you got that, interesting.”
“There must be something we can do.”
“Wait, just wait. Come, are you hungry?” He stood up and gestured in the direction of a makeshift galley.
“What? No. It’s not exactly high on my list of priorities at the moment. What about Annis, do you know if she's still alive?”
“Patience, we have plenty of time.” He walked off, the little robot followed after him. Nills sat down at another row of workstations and started looking at readouts on several monitors. Jann had so many questions going around in her head it was hard to know where to start. But it was clear that Nills was not going to respond well to an intense interrogation. She would have to take it slow. She was not in any immediate danger, as far as she could tell, so there was that at least. Jann also got the impression that Nills had the situation under control, as far as possible. So she decided to take a different tack.
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