“Ice, what do you have for us?”
“I know we aren’t supposed to access the data we were sent to retrieve, but because you guys sounded so concerned I combed through it anyway. What I found was disturbing, to say the least.”
I looked across the table and noticed that the doctor had joined us. “Doctor, I just want to be clear anything that is discussed here is strictly confidential.”
He nodded in acceptance. “Captain, you saved my life. I’m in your debt.”
“Your debt to me ended when you saved Kyra.” I found her eyes across the table. She looked healthy. That was more than enough for me. I needed my mechanic, without her we were dead in the water. Alright, I’ll admit it was more than that. Kyra was like a beacon of light in the darkness. She did more for this crew then just fix our ship, without her I wouldn’t know what to do.
“Continue, Ice.”
“I put together a video of a few of the logs the staff had recorded. I think you need to see them.”
I motioned for her to start playing the video. I knew whatever we were going to see next it wouldn’t be good, but at least it might shed some light on a few things. Either way, we had done our job, and we couldn’t report any of what we found out to the N.E.A. Our contract with the mercenary guild required us to remain impartial, and each job came with a confidentiality agreement. No matter what the corporation did, we wouldn’t be able to leak it without it coming back on us.”
The video started.
“Welcome to Alphamerix project code name Methuselah. If you’ve been selected to work with us, then you’re one of the best and the brightest. On this project, we will be working to slow the aging process to a near standstill. Our goal is to be able to expand human life almost indefinitely. We have more than a few exciting breakthroughs to share with you.”
The video skipped ahead.
“Project Methuselah, Day Ninety-Five. Today we are commencing our first human trial. The subject has been procured from one of the prison worlds. His family will receive compensation for his cooperation in the project.” The video panned out to show a man strapped to a gurney. An IV was placed in his arm. A woman in a lab coat stepped forward and adjusted the settings on the machines surrounding the subject. She lifted one hand, and we could just make out a syringe, as she injected something into the liquid. The solution turned from clear to almost pure black on the screen as she walked away.
“The subject has been given a single dose of IM-95. Over eighty percent of the lab animals we tested on survived the initial injection. Our employers have deemed that enough of a success to begin human trials. Even knowing that subsequent injections rendered over seventy percent of those subjects worthless. We have no idea how the formula will interact with a human subject at this time. We are stepping out of the realm of wild speculation, and hopefully into a bright new future.”
The video continued to play. The man on the gurney started to buck as if he were having a seizure. The playback for this part was silent, but you could tell he was screaming and pulling against the restraints. The doctor ran back into the room and tried to calm him while checking over his vitals. She must have trusted the readout on the machine because she put her hand to the subject’s neck. She looked away for a moment as if listening to someone talking and then it happened. The man on the gurney leaned forward and bit her hand.
Blood sprayed from the wound as she ripped her hand free. Two more doctors rushed into the room. One of them stuck a syringe in the patient’s thigh while the other ran towards the doctor. She tried to wave him off, but he continued towards her. They sprayed her hand with some kind of solution before wrapping it up and leaving the room.
“Project Methuselah, Day Ninety Eight. It’s been three days since I was bitten by the first test subject. Since that time, subject one has died, and the other doctors have been examining his remains. It seems as though the serum had an unintended effect. The body has been able to continue to move after the subject’s death. That means we are close to something. Now we must dig back into the science and figure out how to translate this breakthrough into living tissue. If we can do that, then the project will have been a success.”
“Project Methuselah, Day One Hundred. I’ve been able to hide the black lines on my arm from everyone, but they are spreading. Soon they will reach my neck, and I will no longer be able to conceal what is happening to me. Sometimes I hear voices telling me to do horrible things, and I have a hunger that I cannot seem to satisfy. Just this morning I caught myself sniffing one of my colleagues and thinking about how delicious they smelled. I know that I should report this, but I do not want to spend the rest of my life being examined by my colleagues.”
“Project Methuselah, Day One Hundred, and Three. Someone noticed the faint lines on my neck today. It won’t be long now before they come for me, but I’ll be ready. I’m not going down without a fight. Why am I so hungry?”
She stares into the camera. Her face is thin almost to the point of starvation, her eyes keep moving from side to side as if she is searching for something. She jumps when a knock sounds at the door. She screams as three men enter the room and grab her. Somehow she manages to throw one of them off. Her teeth sink into the next man’s throat, and she rips a chunk of flesh from it. She is chewing delightedly on the morsel of flesh as the man staggers away hand clamped to his throat. The other two orderlies manage to restrain her. The woman’s teeth continue to open and close as they drag her away.
“Project Methuselah, Day One Hundred and Ten. Due to Dr. Green’s incapacitation, I will continue to make these videos as acting director of the project. We haven’t been able to continue to study the subjects, due to their increased hostility. It seems the longer they have been infected, the worse their symptoms become. Yesterday I gave the order to gas the patients so we could examine them. Unfortunately while the gas robbed them of their lives, they continue to move. I can’t risk further contamination to the facility. The disease is too easily transferable for me to risk putting any more of the staff in contact with the patients. For now, we must keep them contained until we figure out a better solution.”
“Project Methuselah, Day One Hundred, and Thirty. Somehow the subjects have escaped their cells. A few people have gone missing. Myself and all senior staff are heading to one of the ships to evacuate. Security and the lower level physicians will have to worry about containment from here. While the project may bear some fruit in the future, we will need a much better facility to continue our work.”
The footage cuts to the doctor running towards the ship. He doesn’t look behind him to see Dr. Green following him. Her shirt and mouth are covered in blood. Somehow she manages to climb onto the ship before the cargo bay doors close. She turns and looks back at the camera and her eyes flash in the light. The door closes, and the ship flies away. The video flips through multiple camera angles and different locations inside of the facility showing people getting attacked by their friends and colleagues. There is no sound on the video, but we don’t need it to understand just how horrible what we are witnessing is. All of us are fixated the time stamp for the footage. Within five days every single person in the facility has been infected or become one of the walking dead. The last thing we see is thirty days later when the ship lands back in the hangar. The cargo bay door opens and six of the twenty people on board shuffle down the ramp, and into the facility.
Looking around the room, I met the eyes of my crew one by one. None of us are feeling like talking about what we just witnessed. The doctors had been trying to create life, and they had succeeded. Just not in the way they had anticipated. Sweeping this under the rug felt wrong, but I didn’t see another option for now. The risk to everyone if this spread was catastrophic.
“Ice, make us a copy of this but don’t do anything with it.”
“You got it, Captain. I’m just glad you all made it back ok.”
“Me too.” Echoed Kyra.
I turned to look at Gabe. “Let’s see that
foot.”
“Captain, I had on my steel toed boots. Nothing could have bitten through those. I’m fine. I swear.”
I motioned to Maze. Without a word she drew her pistol and stepped up behind Gabe placing it against the back of his head.
“Captain, what is going on?” Ice asked.
“One of those things clamped down on Gabe’s foot.” I turned from Ice to look back at Gabe. “I’m sorry about this, but we have to be sure. You saw what happened in the video.”
“I get it, Captain.” He bent down and started taking off his boot. He lifted his foot up to show us it looked fine.
“It was the other foot, Gabe.”
Maze nudged him in the back of the head with her pistol.
“I’m telling you. I’m fine.”
“Then prove it.”
He bent down again and untied his other boot before lifting his foot into the air. All of us stepped back as we noticed the yellow and black bruising around it. “Doc, you mind checking that out.”
He pulled out a pair of plastic gloves from his coat and stepped forward. He turned Gabe’s foot back and forth a few times, running his hands gently over the surface as Gabe winced. “As far as I can tell Captain, the skin hasn’t been punctured. It’s just badly bruised.”
All of us let out a collective sigh of relief, and Maze holstered her pistol.
Gabe looked up at me. “See Captain. I’m fine.” I could tell by the quiver in his voice that he wasn’t so sure that he had been until the doc cleared him.
“Even so, I’d like to restrict you to the medbay for a couple of days. If you haven’t shown any signs by the time we are ready to jump into FTL, you’re good to go.”
“More than happy to oblige, Captain.”
The doctor gave Gabe a friendly pat on the shoulder before turning back towards me. “I’d like to review some of their data, see if there is anything I can come up with.”
I gave the doctor a long level look, trying to gauge whether he was trying to do the right thing or looking to make a profit. Everything I knew about the doc so far pointed to him being an ok guy. That didn’t mean I could trust him yet. I hadn’t known him long enough to be sure. He didn’t blink or look away under my continued stare.
“Ice, get the doctor whatever he needs. I’ll prepare a message for Quaid. We’ve got three days to relax before we go back into cryo. Make the most of it.”
Chapter Fourteen
We came out of cryo the day before we were set to break FTL. After getting over my usual post FTL sickness, I checked the holo on my wrist. There was an urgent message from Quaid, asking me to call him right away. I grabbed an everything bar off the counter and headed down to my quarters. For the first time in a long time, Quaid picked up on the first ring.
“Drake, it’s about time.”
“Sorry, I couldn’t call you from cryo.”
“Listen, what in the hell happened out there? The suits at Alphamerix are up in arms over this one. They said the ship you sent back had been through some kind of bloodbath.”
“Our job was to send the ship back, and we sent it back just as we found it.”
“Next time hose the damn thing off or something. Jesus Drake, what were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that after we saw what happened to the people out there, that we shouldn’t be on that damn planet any longer than we had to be.”
“Alright, alright. Listen, Alphamerix want the data as soon as possible. I set up a meet for tomorrow on Zimmora. The rep’s name is Flinn. Just give him what you have. The company has already completed the funds transfer for the remaining balance on your contract.”
“Quaid, try not to book us anything else with Alphamerix. They seem willing to take things a little bit further than I’m comfortable with.”
“I’m sorry to hear you say that. I had the next job all set up for you with them. They liked what you did on this last job and they even upped the reward. I’d hate to lose the commission on two million credits.”
I didn’t realize the low whistle I heard came from my lips until it stopped. “Did you say two million credits?”
“I did. Why don’t you sleep on it and get back to me? I can give you twenty-four hours before I have to put it back into the queue.”
“I’ll call you either way.”
My commlink buzzed against my ear. I opened the channel only to hear Ice singing along with some pop song I had never heard before. “Ice?”
The music stopped, and she coughed a few times before responding. “Sorry about that, Captain. I just requested docking with Zimmora. They moved us in priority alpha to Kitra’s private docks.”
“Perfect.”
“You sure that isn’t a mistake? We’ve never been granted that kind of access before.”
“No mistake, it's payment for some information that we found for her.”
“I’m accepting their instructions now.”
I felt the ship shift subtly below my feet as the autopilot engaged. You knew your pilot had real skill when her flying was smoother than the auto. Damn machines calculated everything in real time now. They made corrections before most pilots could even do more than glance at the information. Not Ice, she had a feel for the ship that I had never experienced before. Maybe if the crew was willing we could upgrade this junker with our two million credits.
The ship flew smoothly into the station's orbit. Then we slowly circled until we could line up with our dock. The ship moved, and I felt it lurch to the side as we locked into place. I had the corporation’s information in my pocket, but we had a day before their rep got here. I needed to stop in and pay my respects to Kitra.
When I made it into our cargo bay, the doctor was waiting there with Maze and Ice.
“Captain, I’m going to see about upgrading some of our hardware. It’s never been an issue before but after our run in with those pirates, I need to replace a few things.” Ice blurted out.
“I’m going with her to make sure she doesn’t spend all of our money.” Maze said leading her out of the room.
“Guess that just leaves you, Doc. If you’d like to get off here I can give you enough credits to get you anywhere you need to go. Or we would be more than happy to take you there ourselves.”
“Actually Captain, I was wondering if you needed a medic on your ship.”
“That’s awfully kind of you Doc, but we don’t get back to civilization all that often, and I’m sure you have family that will miss you.”
“All of my family was aboard our ship when the pirates came.”
I hoped it hadn’t been something like that. The doctor still hadn’t told me the entire story of what had happened to land him on that pirate vessel in the first place, and now I knew why. “I’m sorry to hear that.” It must have been hard for him to say. I couldn’t imagine surviving when your family had been killed. The guilt and anger he felt must have been crushing.
“So if you’d take me on, I’d like to join your crew.”
“It’s hard to say no to having a doctor on board, more than likely we will need your service more than I would care to admit. Let’s call it a trial run for the time being. Half of the money from our jobs goes back into the ship’s fund. That goes to cover our living expenses, fuel, food, and anything I deem a necessity to keep us going. Everything else we split evenly. For now, you will earn half a share. After a few more jobs we’ll bump you up to a full. Sound good?” I stuck out my hand for a shake.
“It sounds delightful, Captain.”
“You can pick any of the open bunks. Why don’t you try and catch up with the ladies? If you need anything for the medbay let Maze know, she will get it for you.”
“I will. Thank you, Captain.” He said running through the door and out to the station.
Crusoe’s was the exact same as the last time I had come to find Kitra. The light dinner music wafted down from hidden speakers. Everyone was dressed to impress, except for me. I preferred function and comfort over style. When I wal
ked in it dropped the class of the place by an entire star. Kitra caught my eye as I breezed past the maître d’. The man looked flustered that I did it to him again, but who was he kidding. I wasn’t the kind of guy to ask permission.
Two goons in suits moved to either side of the table before Kitra waved them off. That was something new. She had never needed bodyguards in plain sight before. I slid into my seat at the table and noticed that she already had a bottle of whiskey chilling in a bucket of ice. That was my kind of lady. I reached out and grabbed the bottle. I met her eyes and indicated if she would like me to pour her a measure. She held her hand out to say no. I shrugged, it was her loss. This whiskey looked too good to pass up.
“I take it, the information I provided you worked out?”
“It did, very nicely in fact.”
“Then what’s up with the two goons?” I asked pointing at the two huge sides of beef standing behind her.
“Oh, a few of Felix’s former followers have been lashing out. Nothing I can’t handle, but my chief of security decided it was better to be safe than sorry.”
”I’m gIad to know that you’re safe.” I took a sip from the glass of whiskey. She had really outdone herself this time. It was simply the best whiskey I had ever tasted. “And before you ask, I just came to thank you for your generosity.”
“I always reward those that help me. You have always proved to be reliable, Drake. It’s something I find lacking in most men.”
The smile that stretched out across her lips and the purr that escaped from her throat sent me a message I couldn’t deny. At least, I thought that was what she was doing. With Kitra, you could never be sure. It could have just been another one of her little games. “Maybe you could show me just how grateful you were for my help.” I felt her foot move against the inside of my thigh. Yep, that was the signal.
“Captain Drake, are you asking to accompany me to my quarters?” She asked with just the right hint of indignation in her voice.
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