“C&S,” he sighed, appearing sick to his stomach.
“I need to,” Felina insisted to their surprise.
So, they informed her, and thus Loudon too, albeit using minimal details.
“What’s behind door number four, then?” Felina sighed.
“The suspense is killing me,” Connell said indolently. He approached it with Palmer directly behind him and the two women hanging back a few paces.
Felina kept her voice low and apologized to Loudon for running out earlier. She claimed, however, to have an idea as to where that man-creature-thing came from, the one that charged them fifteen minutes ago. Loudon’s face paled with dreadful curiosity but as Felina’s lips began to usher clarification, Connell’s voice lassoed them both.
“Thomas Asher! Are you hurt?”
Felina and Loudon rushed up to enter the fourth observation chamber and were surprised by how untainted it looked. There was some blood splatter but not much, including one that spread like a sensu fan across a louvered cabinet to the left of the auto-door. A headless corpse not far from it, white lab coat now a deep red color. On the examination slab was, quite possibly, the head that once belonged to the decapitated corpse; its neck was practically gone, and the face was beyond recognition, eyeballs upturned in their sockets belonging to a wretchedly pallid expression.
Asher himself sat on the countertop to the left of the silica-palladium panel, curled up beside a data terminal, practically hugging its hologram screen. Blotches of blood marked his face like a gruesome polka-dot pattern, although otherwise he was unsullied and appeared without injury.
“Asher, dammit, answer me!” Connell pressed, getting up in his face.
“Yes, oh yes…my apologies, I just…I kind of zoned out a little there, ya know? Like…” Asher trailed off into mumbling.
Connell slung his Seighty and turned to stare confusedly at Palmer, who raised his eyebrows, then over at the women. Connell then gestured them over, while he departed to arrive at the auto-door and shut it, sealing it behind him. He was shocked that, with such a feature, Asher hadn’t locked it himself.
“Asher, listen to me!” Felina snapped, taking his eyes off the terminal and aligning them with her own. He then glared judgmentally, but she ignored it. “You need to tell us the absolute truth…about the Xeno Project, and about their escape. The alarm. And just what the fuck is happening to the people they bite but don’t kill!”
This last statement threw everyone off guard, including Asher himself. Except for Asher it was a shock of familiarity, albeit surprise that the woman knew—or had wised up to it. The others were just startled by her insinuation, and slowly the clues began amounting in their heads, too.
“I’ve seen it all,” Asher said through a lopsided grin. “All of it. From the other observation chambers to their permeation through the rest of the vessel. They killed everyone in the Intermediate Facilities but didn’t jailbreak the defects; but they got the others out, before…and then went to Testing, there’s still some in there. No survivors, though. They’re so…so thorough. Survivors. Heh, no survivors. Not traditionally speaking.”
Felina lashed out at Asher, grabbing his lab coat lapels and dragging him off the counter into a messy upright stance. She shook him then slammed him against the edge of the counter, yelling in his face; through which he was all too calm.
“Tell us, Asher! Explain! Just fucking explain!”
Spittle sprayed Asher’s face and he blinked most of it away, otherwise appearing unfazed and even smiling intermittently. By her last exclamation Palmer pulled her away, in fear of witnessing her bite Asher’s face off. It would have been quite the sight, but not now.
Felina cursed at Palmer, absentmindedly and almost incoherently, flailing out of his arms. She caught herself on the examination table, panting.
Finally Asher readjusted his clothing and used Felina’s exclamatory saliva to help clean his face. The careless expression he wore was not unlike his disturbingly calm demeanor as he spoke in a gathered tone; he still smiled every now and then, adding to the spite in each of their hearts.
But they let him talk; because they needed to.
“Believe it or not,” Asher began, wiping his face, “not even I knew of their acidic bile. Regrettably, it got past our testing and all of our technology. Nonetheless, they used it to escape; I reviewed the security camera feeds belonging to the other observation cameras via my terminal here, as I have administrative access to all of MALBO’s CCTV footage. No audio, but I saw what I needed to; given, those in this room escaped their confines in the same manner that those in the other did…you know, the one with Reid—no need to play coy, I saw your encounter with her via the camera feeds. It’s a shame there’s no audio, I would’ve loved to hear her testimony. A shame, too, that she died without witnessing the metamorphosis process.”
Asher’s eyewitness account was sinking into the meat on their bones sure enough. Felina’s fist grew white against her side, while her other hand had long since dug into her back sleeve to activate the audio recording on her PDA.
“What ‘metamorphosis’ process?” Felina said through gritted teeth.
“Oh, I’m actually thrilled you asked. I can only imagine the fire of curiosity pent up inside you all after encountering that creature moments ago! A shame you had to kill it so mercilessly, but I suppose, in the event of survival…it was a necessarily evil thing to do.”
Connell turned his back on Asher to look at Felina and his facial expression said it all; Felina interpreted it as “I’m gonna kill this man.”
Fortunately Connell played the patience game a little while longer, knowing that Felina was as well and Palmer was doing better than he usually does, Loudon the same.
“As you know by now, assuming Reid told you, the bile of the Xeno carnem is acidic once it makes contact with oxygen. What you may not have realized until now is that it carries a biological contagion as well, transmittable via entrance to the bloodstream. Not via bite, because it is not the specimens’ saliva that is viral, but its bile…which is released when the animal so chooses to during an attack.”
“Supposing that it doesn’t kill the victim first,” Loudon said solemnly.
“Precisely!” Asher said, enthusiasm disturbingly present.
“So you’re telling me,” Connell said, facing Asher again and with newfound spite in not only his voice but his eyes too, “that these abominations you’ve bred can infinitely reproduce so long as it spits bile into a human wound and leaves us alive to slowly transform into one of them!?”
“You’re a very observant man, Caelen Connell,” Asher said, the vigor in his words suddenly siphoned out. He actually appeared to be rather insulted. “While you are more or less correct, you fail to see these specimens for what they really are. Not ‘abominations,’ but animals. Merely, a species of wild animal intent on one thing—procreation. By any means necessary. Now if that’s not admirable, then I don’t know what is.”
“Someone’s delusional,” Palmer rolled his eyes.
“Excuse me—” Asher started, jabbing a finger at Palmer but being interrupted by Loudon, who stepped forward.
“Monsters,” she blurted. “You’ve done nothing more than build your own killing machine. Savage monsters, they’re nothing more than that.”
“Oh, but you are the delusional ones,” Asher smiled, “for all animals are savage by nature—and man is no different. Afterall, the Xeno’s root DNA is human.”
Loudon snarled like a wolf pushed over its brink, lashing out and trying to grab Asher by the lapels if not the ears. She wanted to destroy him, clearly, for all that he was worth—so little, she seemed to feel, if anything at all. But she tasted the victory of defeating him, or at least crushing his pedestal, under the shadow of a fallacy. Because just as quickly as she had lunged, Connell held her back, Palmer assisting. While she thrashed and demanded to be released, Felina stepped forward to unleash that “fire” Asher not only mentioned but misinterpreted
earlier, which was pent up inside of her.
Meanwhile, in the background, Loudon finally calmed so the two Remoras detached from her.
And the ascending ire in Felina’s voice commanded their attention.
“Of course—it makes perfect sense; afterall, what you did here was bioengineer these creatures from DNA samples with the DNA of a human being…you essentially embodied the virus; what you misinterpreted as ‘the schematic of a perfect organism’ was really just a disguise for a fierce viral entity that could parade as a mere animal and yet multiply like a disease. I can’t even begin to imagine what your solution to this issue is.”
“Actually rather simple, albeit hard to grasp for the simpleminded folk you are, not grasping the bigger picture of this beautiful discovery, which blends creation with science in ways not previously imaginable.” Asher spoke fast-tongued, leaving no room for interjecting, until now, and even so his words of insult had them all reeling. Finally, he offered his solution. “We quarantine with Dingir to neutralize any threats while preserving the specimens’ DNA, and proceed from there. Just think about what this means for the future of mankind—human expansion, how far we’ve gone already and how much further we can still reach!”
Felina kneaded her brow.
“No,” she said resolutely, the energy slowly returning to her voice and sparking embers in her eyes. “What you’ve done, Asher, is replicate Ebola with teeth and claws and an appetite for killing, thrown onto a ship packed to the brim with human hosts. You see, Asher, the Manticore isn’t the vessel here—we are, for these creatures. And if you think quarantining with Dingir is going to help, you’re fucking out of your mind—more so than already. Because all that’s going to do is infect others, they’ll contact Columbus and Rüppell, before we know it they’ll bring your precious Xeno carnem to Earth and then you can kiss the ‘extraterrestrial’ aspect goodbye, because it’ll be all humans will ever know. So much for ‘human expansion’—”
Felina was interrupted, his aggressive rant abruptly ended by the back of Asher’s left hand, connecting with her cheek. As she staggered back a step, Connell lunged forward in the next instant, his right fist colliding with Asher’s brow. The man fell back into the counter, then crumpled to the floor, on the verge of unconsciousness. His brow was cut, and he groaned unpleasantly.
“Thanks,” Felina rubbed her face, looking at Connell. “Let’s get the hell out of here, then.”
“Where to, Testing?”
“No. He said there weren’t any survivors; he seemed pleased in speaking it, so my guess is he was telling the truth. Unfortunately.”
“Affirmative. Back to the security center, then?”
“Yeah. I’d say so.”
“We’re leaving him here?” Palmer asked.
Connell looked at Felina, inquisition in his gaze. Felina nodded, and Connell’s gaze solidified. He stooped over the groaning Asher and snagged his ID tag, ripping it from his neck.
“I advise you lock this door behind us,” Connell said before turning to leave. “Unless you really wanna meet your heroes face-to-face. We’ll be back once we get more help. ‘Til then, you can go fuck yourself.”
“Four years with USMB and nothin’ ever as FUBAR as this,” Palmer said as he followed. “A few months aboard an RD vessel and bam! Shit hits the van, ain’t no umbrella in sight.”
Felina followed them out the door, saying nothing else to Asher nor of their situation, and tacitly agreeing with Connell’s plan. Assuming it wasn’t a veneer for Asher. Loudon trailed Felina, spitting on Asher before reaching the door. They exited the observation chamber, the door shut, and they proceeded to leave with greater haste.
“You think he’ll actually stay?” Felina asked.
“I could care less,” Connell replied stoically.
They were halfway down the corridor leading away from the three MALBO entrances when Felina stopped midstride. It was almost immediately noticed, and Connell stopped to pirouette. He asked her what was wrong.
“Loudon,” she said. “Remember the defects?”
Loudon grimaced and nodded.
“I mean…do you really remember?” Felina restated, this time the wretchedness of her voice palpable not just to their ears but how they perceived her expression and eyes. She then shook her head solemnly. “I can’t just leave them like that. Even the Xeno’s abandoned them. So how can we?”
“Wait, Sabartinelli—” Loudon reached after her, as if she could stop her from so far away, much less that easily.
They watched her enter the middlemost auto-door, beneath a hologram sign that read ‘Intermediate Facilities.’ Loudon was quick to follow, Connell right behind her.
“I’m so fucking confused,” Palmer sighed, and trudged after them.
Felina, meanwhile, entered the leftmost auto-door after traversing the empty corridors leading to it. She hadn’t taken much anticipatory thought to running off on her own, and was fortunate enough that the corridors weren’t harboring any malicious surprises. Healthy specimens or metamorphosing humans, for that matter.
Now she was left with the staring game between herself, the demarcated silica-palladium panels, and the defective specimens themselves. They croaked and groaned and wailed as they had when Asher first led the documenters into the observation chamber. Their horrendous cacophony was still the worst plethora of sounds Felina’s ears had ever bore witness to, and the bloodcurdling sight exacerbating this experience.
She clutched at her stomach as she briefly recoiled.
Behind her the auto-door reopened to give way to Loudon, who immediately held her close like a mother to a child.
“Kill them,” Felina groaned. Just then Connell entered, before the auto-door could close, and quickly thereafter Palmer, too. Felina repressed sobs, not just from the defects but everything amounting to this moment. Her voice croaked, but did not waver this time. “We have to kill them.”
“What in the hell…” Connell said under his breath, voice hollowed. Palmer tried to clutch at words from salivated lips but found nothing except dry air.
“But how?” Loudon said. “That glass is impenetrable.”
“Kill-switch,” Felina muttered, her teeth grating. She detached herself from Loudon. “There has to be a kill-switch somewhere. Even Asher would’ve been wise enough to implement one…if not Keyes…”
Felina began perusing the data terminals and control console nearest the glass. The terminal appeared worthless, but the console offered various options.
“What if you accidentally let them out?” Loudon said, though the stagnancy in her voice kept the belief from filling her words. She knew that would be doubtful, that such an option would even exist without doubling confirmation steps. Then again, Felina subconsciously realized, it would probably be the same for a potential kill-switch.
“Sabartinelli,” Connell said, approaching past Loudon. He slung his Seighty. “We don’t have time for this.”
“Do we?” Felina said, her voice tired. He had arrived just in time to peer over her shoulder and see the hologram screen she stared at; it had popped up in a rectangular display above the manual control console, at the center of the glass panel. It offered four options—sedation, tranquilization, electrocution, or neutralization. Felina caught her ragged breaths, as her right thumb hovered over the fourth. “Do we?”
Connell took a step back. “I’ll get the others.”
Felina swallowed and waited until Connell and Palmer had left the chamber. She couldn’t even hear the auto-door open or close, nor the adjacent chamber’s. All she could hear were these wretched creatures howling and groaning in the pain that was living, in the horror that was their hunger and rage and confusion.
Felina thumbed the hologram button, and a secondary confirmation appeared. She stared through a warped haze at the option; her thumb quivered.
“Do it,” Loudon said, just behind her.
There was no more delay; Loudon barely got the word ‘it’ past her lips when Feli
na hit the button.
A guttural hiss sounded on the other side of the silica-palladium, geysering thick clouds of gaseous vapor through exhausts in the ceiling. The defective creatures wailed as the fumes filled their already malformed lungs, making their preexistent wheezing sounds even viler. Their awful cries of agony and slow death were a torment to hear, which made Felina sick to her stomach trying to grasp how it must feel.
Finally Loudon escorted her out the door, but only after witnessing two of the creatures actually collapse lifelessly. She knew it worked, then, and despite at a slow rate it was nonetheless effective.
Once in the outside corridor, Felina could discern the dying cries of the second chamber’s defective specimens. They were men once; DNA of convicted murderers and psychopaths, but human nonetheless.
“Asher was right,” Felina glowered. “Mankind is savage by nature. He’s living proof. But these things? Savagery didn’t apply to what we just put down. Their minds and bodies, corrupt. Unlike Asher…he chose to be this way. As have we chosen to defy nature’s mold.”
Loudon was speechless.
Connell emerged from the second auto-door, which paused open long enough for them to glimpse Palmer inside the room, vomiting. The morbid sounds of the dying began to fade.
Connell wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, although he appeared clean-lipped. His face indicated utter disgust.
“Let’s go, then,” he said, half question and half statement. Palmer punctuated by exiting the room with a straightening stagger, not saying a word to anyone, just trudging onward down the corridor with Seighty cradled in his arms.
“Let’s,” Felina said, beckoning that Connell take lead.
“So, do we have an alternate plan?” Palmer asked after twenty seconds of speechless walking.
“Anything but Dingir,” Connell said. “Sabartinelli was right. That’d be an end-all for us, and quite possibly Earth.”
“Depending on how bad they’ve spread,” Felina sighed, her composure restored, “and what the situation is with the others, I say we arm the self-destruct sequence and abandon ship.”
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