"Very well. I believe we should take those two humans and lock them up until we get to a space station. They're dangerous. We know something happened on this ship and they survived. How could a small woman with no skills and an older doctor survive? It makes no sense to me unless they are somehow involved."
"Can't say I don't disagree," Smiley replied. "I've seen some things on the recording that are just odd."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, it's hard to explain. Like, I'd see a group of people talking then they'd all stop and look around, like they heard something then they'd scatter. Not run, just walk away. I listen to what they might have heard and I think I hear something, but I'm not sure."
"You should bring that Scrapper’s attention."
"I want to get more examples before I do."
"They were talking about a snake, perhaps that's what they hear."
"Why didn't our scanners find it? We're tearing this ship apart so I'm sure we'll run into it sooner or later."
"Let's hope it's not on the Jolly. I don't want to take something dangerous to a Space Station."
"We don't know what it is, and from what I've seen most of the people killed were killed by those three women."
"Ah, but didn't you say a lot of recordings were erased?"
"Yeah," Smiley replied. "But, you know, if I knew what method they used to erase them, we might be able to get them back. It's a long shot but I don't think they had much time to run anything other than a quick erase."
"Perhaps it's time we bring Naomi onto the ship. She might know what method they used." Yelolus said.
"A few minutes ago you said she should be locked up."
"If she's an asset then I might have been mistaken."
Smiley pulled out her communicator. "Scrapper."
"Go ahead."
"Can I talk to Naomi anytime soon? I need to ask her what they use to erase the recordings, that might help us restore them."
"Smiley, we don't have time for that. The UC ship will be here in eight hours, work on getting the drives then we'll worry about recovering the data. Scrapper out."
"He seemed upset," Yelolus said.
"Lot of pressure I'm sure." Smiley turned the communicator on again. "Trang?"
"I can't help you," Trang replied quickly. "I heard what Scrapper said."
"Oh, well then, can you at least ask Naomi? I want to get a head start on this but I promise not to let it prevent me from doing my work here."
There was a long pause. Smiley and Yelolus looked at each other, waiting for a reply. Finally, "I'll ask her. But you had better not stop working to try and retrieve the tapes."
"No worries, I won't. Thanks Trang, you're the best!"
"We should have talked to Trang first," Yelolus said, his shoulders raised to indicate humor.
"Yeah, Scrapper is being a bit of a pill."
"Once we get this ship taken care of I'm sure he'll go back to being who you believe he really is."
"I hope so, hate being around a grumpy Gus."
"What's a grumpy Gus?"
"Look it up when you get back to your room. We both have a lot of work to do."
Chapter seven
Scrapper found the Professor's office locked when he tried to open the door. Most of the rooms he came upon were open, and the few locked doors he found couldn't withstand the superheated plasma of his gun's torch mode. This door proved no different and after a few minutes he cut the lock and walked into the room then turned the lights on. A bed with a trunk at the bottom, some dressers for clothes and a desk with a computer attached to it was the only furniture in the room. Walking over to the computer he started it up. An instant later he was met with a log in screen asking for a password. He pulled out his communicator. "Smiley."
"Go for Smiley."
"Can you do anything to unlock the Professor's computer from the bridge?"
"Give me a few minutes. I should be able to find his password."
"Thanks," he disconnected and started opening the drawers of the dresser hoping to find something that could be helpful. If pairs of underwear and socks were helpful he didn't know how.
The trunk might help. He opened it and started sifting through some junk. Mostly old textbooks and a few holographic photo boxes. He played a few of the photo boxes and found them blank.
He opened the textbooks. Most of them dealt with genetics and evolution. Most were old, the theories in these books had long been disregarded. He must have been a collector, Scrapper thought then put them back.
The computer blinked for a second then booted up. His communicator beeped. "Scrapper?"
"Here."
"Got you going."
"Thanks, if I need you again I'll let you know. Hope to find some answers here."
"Good luck."
The communicator went dark. He walked over to the computer and sat down. Where do I start? He thought. "Computer, what's the last file accessed by Professor Litchen?"
On the screen a video started playing. A weary looking Professor faded onto the screen. His pale skin sagged as if the gravity on the ship had been turned up high. Red, tired eyes looked out from the screen. With a low, barely audible voice, he spoke. "We never should have done it. Never should have brought it back. But, how could we not? It was such an amazing find. Life on a gas giant! We never thought it was possible but it's evolving right before my eyes. I'm going to sleep. I'm excited to see what it looks like tomorrow."
There were no files after that. The date of the recording was four days before he arrived. Whatever happened, it happened within those days.
"Computer, play all videos from after the Professor started experimenting with alien life forms found on the gas planet."
Fifteen video boxes appeared, each one seeming to be longer than the one before. He didn't have time for this and neither did his crew. Still, he was sure the answer was in there somewhere. He pulled out his communicator. "Jolly, you there?"
"What?" the computer said, surprise in her voice. "You actually want to talk to me too? Must be my lucky day!"
Whoever programmed the Jolly had one heck a strange sense of humor. He wanted to change Jolly's personality more than once but a part of him thought that unethical. It might be a clever programing trick, but it still felt like the AI was alive. "No time for our usual dance, Jolly. Are you connected to the ship?"
"Yes, sir. I now control all the systems. It's easy really, I can project myself over two ships without a problem. Still have power to spare."
"Good because I'm going to need that power. Can you view my monitor?"
"Yup."
"Good, take all those videos and watch them."
"There are over seven hours of video here."
"I know, and you can watch them quickly, way more quickly than I ever could."
"True that."
"So, watch them and tell me if there's anything on them that might explain what happened on this ship. How long will that take you?"
"Give me fifteen minutes."
"Good, contact me when you're done." He disconnected the communicator and walked out of the room.
Naomi's room wasn't that far and he stood in front of it. Testing the door he was happy to see it wasn't locked. He walked in to find the room a mess. Naomi did not keep a clean room.
The trunk in front of her bed was open with clothes hanging out. Garments of all kind littered the floor, the dresser and even the computer chair. He pushed aside the undergarments hanging from the side of the trunk and looked inside. He found nothing of importance and moved onto her dresser. After a fruitless search he moved onto the computer.
He threw the clothes off the chair, sat and then turned the computer on. It booted to the main screen with no password to worry about. "Computer, show me the last video diary."
A file opened and played. A sad looking Naomi appeared, she wore a translucent nightgown. Scrapper blushed and glanced away to respect her privacy. "Janice and the others are so mean suddenly. They- I don'
t know how to explain it. Ever since Professor Litchen brought that thing on board all they want to do is play with it. All I wanted to do was hang out. I figured they'd want to do the same thing but no, they're too busy now. I guess I won't see them until the morning and then they'll just take some nanostims and go back to work." She turned the camera off.
He wasn't familiar with nanostims. "Jolly, what's a nanostim?"
"It's a stimulant that uses nanobots."
"Aren't those illegal?"
"Only on Earth and all UC stations. They are legal on ships as long as the ship is not within fifteen light-years of the nearest station."
"I guess the nearest station is further away?"
"The nearest station is the Duncan Makenzie and it's about twenty light-years from here."
"Why are they illegal?"
"They can cause lots of problems if abused."
"Like?"
"Hallucinations, paranoia, schizophrenia, diarrhea, vomiting-"
"All right, I get the picture."
"Those only happen if they've been abused. One dose every few days with normal sleep in between is recommended."
"These girls sound like they were abusing it. Wonder if that's why they went mad?"
"It does fall within the parameters of the side effects."
"Are there any reports on anything like this happening?"
"None that I can find."
"Okay. I want you to take all of Naomi's video files and watch them as well."
"That's over twenty hours!"
"I know, it'll take you a while, but I don't have the time either. Think you can handle it?"
"Yes, it'll just take some time."
"Good, get on it. I might have some more. I'm heading to Janice's room now. She seems to be the one Naomi was closest too. I might have more stuff for you to watch later."
He walked a few doors down until he found the room Janice stayed in. This one was unlocked as well and when he opened it he needed to hold his nose. An unbearable smell slammed his senses and he gagged. He closed the door quickly, knowing going inside would cause him a sickness he couldn't afford. "Jolly, can you tell me what the heck is going on in that room?"
"No, not now. They don't have security cams inside personal quarters."
"That makes sense," Scrapper replied. "Yelolus."
"Here."
"I need a cleanup crew here now. Tell them to bring personal force fields, they do not want to smell what's in that room. Bring one for me too."
"Okay, I'll send a few down now."
"Jolly."
"How can I help you, sir?"
"Can you access the computer in that room?"
"Give me a few minutes. A lot of my processing time is being used looking at your videos."
"I can wait." Scrapper leaned against the wall looking at his communicator. He scrolled through his messages, reading those that were important, ignoring those that were not. Messages came to him every few minutes as the crew updated him on their progress. Still no progress on finding that snake thing. Engines were up and running without any problems. Clean up of the bodies was going well. He felt bad for the families of those who he sent out into the dark but neither his, nor this ship, could store dead bodies for a long trip home. It was an acceptable practice as long as his crew took the proper time to get the name of the person and gather any personal belongings to return to the family.
Three of his crew turned the corner with different tools for cleaning. Yelolus lead the crew. "I thought you could use some help,” he said, tossing a personal force field at Scrapper.
"Thanks, it's not pretty in there, smells like nothing I've ever smelt before. We might have to lock it down when we're done."
"Scrapper," Jolly said. "I have the videos ready."
"Good, I'll take a look at them when we get inside."
"I watched the last one made, it's not very pretty."
"Thanks for the warning."
He clipped he personal force field to his belt and turned it on. His view shimmered for a moment as the force field surrounded his body. He felt his feet lift an inch or so off the ground. The field always felt slick under his feet even though he knew he could walk normally. The sounds of the ship faded and all he heard was his own breathing. Yelolus looked over at him and started talking. The built in communicator on the force field generator turned on. "All force fields are activated."
"All right, let's go in."
He opened the door and the memory of the smell caused him to pause. He couldn't smell anything through the force field so it had to be his imagination. Claw marks, much smaller than any he’s seen so far, dominated one of the walls. Shredded blankets, sheets, and bed stuffing littered the floor making it difficult the walk. Cloths and other personal belongs cluttered the corners. Near a badly destroyed desk lay a computer that was broken into several hundred plastic pieces.
"Looks like she marked her territory." Yelolus said, pointing to a mushy pile of brown.
"Oh," Scrapper replied, unable to think of anything else to say. "That would explain the smell."
"She became an animal," Yelolus continued. "How could something like this happen?"
Scrapper saw a needle on the ground. He bent down and picked it up. "Ever hear of a nanostim?"
"Yes, never had the need for one."
"This girl was abusing them. Wonder if that's what happened."
"How do you explain the claw marks?"
Scrapper looked at the marks on the wall and wondered if a human could actually make them. "I don't know. Hopefully the answers will come when we watch the videos and before the UC arrives. I don't want them to look at this and blame us."
"I can show you the last entry," Jolly said.
"Send it to me and Yelolus' communicator."
He held his communicator up and right away the video started playing. He saw a dark haired woman, her eyes wild in a way that frightened Scrapper to the core. He’d seen people go crazy in space, but nothing like this. Her brown eyes darted back and forth as if she waited for someone to attack her. Her teeth showed like a dog defending her territory. She growled at the camera, trying to form words. She heard something and whipped her head around toward the door. Satisfied no one was there she looked at the camera again. Her graveled voice spoke the only words Scrapper understood. "Evolution, evolution. That's the word, that's the word."
Razor sharp fingernails gleamed in the room’s light as she held her hand up to the camera. Scrapper cringed at the thought of someone this insane with those built in weapons running around ship terrorizing everyone onboard. She growled again and knocked the camera away. Now on its side he watched as she jumped around the room slashing at the walls, the screeching of metal drowning out any other sounds in the room. She reared her head back and, with her arms spread toward the sky, lead out a banshee like scream before darting out of the room.
"Stop it, Jolly. I get the message."
The video stopped. "Well, that should help clear us from any wrongdoing." Yelolus replied. "Reminds me of when an Ulliam goes into a battle rage."
"I've only heard about those, never saw one before."
"If you're on the other end of it you never want to see one."
"I bet." Scrapper turned to the men who were still looking through the room. "Find anything?"
"No," one of them said. "Looks like everything was destroyed."
"Clean this room up. If you find anything let me know. Jolly?"
"I'm going to guess you want me to review all her videos as well?"
"If you can manage it, how long will it take?"
"If I go over everyone's it'll take about twelve hours."
"We don't have that kind of time. Okay, prioritize it. Naomi first, the Professor, then Janice."
"Will do."
Scrapper turned to Yelolus. "I think I've seen all I can from here. You go back to help Smiley, I'm heading to my cabin to look over what we have so far."
Chapter eight
Naomi awok
e to find her pillow soaked in her tears and sweat. She tried to remember her dreams, tried to keep the images in her memory. Flashes, her running down the hall, nose to the ground. Her jumping into a vent. Her being followed by the other three. Followed, or chased?
Wiping the tears from her eyes she managed to calm down enough to slide over and hang her feet from the bed. Her legs felt weak when she stood on them, as if the weight of her experiences weighed her down.
She walked to the door, opened it and started her walk down the hallway toward the medical lab. The Professor was in there. Talking to him is what she needed to find out what happened.
She reached the medical bay and opened the door. She saw the Doc, his back away from her, sitting in a chair. He must have heard the door open and turned in his chair. "Can I help you, Naomi?"
"I came to see the Professor."
"Oh no, you can't, he's asleep right now."
"But I need to talk to him."
"I understand but-"
"Naomi?" the voice came from a doorway to her right.
She turned to see the Professor standing there. He looked stunned, almost as if he thought she might be a hallucination.
She smiled, attempting to soften the blow. "Hello, Professor."
"They told me you were dead. They told me I was the only one alive."
"I-I didn't know that,” Naomi turned to Doc. "Why?"
"Scrapper's idea, not mine."
"Well," The Professor said. "I'm sorry to see you survived."
"What?" Naomi gasped, her hands grew cold and her heart raced. "Why would you say such a cruel thing?"
"Naomi, don't you remember?"
"Remember what?" Her legs felt weaker as a wave of dizziness washed over her.
"You injected yourself with nanostims and went crazy. You killed people. Don't you remember?"
"What?" Naomi asked, searching her memory for the events. All she remembered was the attack, hiding inside the closet, fear from being hunted. She placed her hand on the edge of the table to keep her from falling over.
Doc stepped back and toward his computer. He pulled out his communicator. "Security, I need you here now."
"No," Naomi said, looking at the Doctor. A new wave of tears stained her cheeks. She shook her head. "I'm no threat. You can see that right?"
Scrapper's Hope Page 4