The punch delivered to the head of the UNSC science team lead’s by Garcia was purely for personal relief. Blood trickled from the scientist’s mouth along with fragments of teeth, but even then the man of science seemed unperturbed by the assault.

The science lead, one Dr. Clapham West, didn’t strike Garcia as the mad scientist type. Sporting an immaculate lab coat, slicked back black hair, fair complexion, and no facial hair to speak off, West looked every bit the professional. Yet somewhere along the way he strayed from the ethics and morals of his craft to dig for dark things better left buried.

Crouching down to meet his eyes, Garcia asked, “Do you know what you’re messing with down in that cargo hold, Dr. West?”

“A medical breakthrough the likes of which mankind has never known,” the doctor answered with a bloody smile.

Garcia clenched his fist, but refrained from striking West again. “You’ll forgive me if I see little medical value in a monster that turns people into festering bloodthirsty animals, doc.”

West continued to smile though the crew from the Agricola were quickly becoming more agitated by the conversation. Thinking an up close encounter was in order, Garcia ordered Yamato and Bauer to begin bringing the detainees to the hidden hold. Once below, Garcia was able to see that the civilians clearly hadn’t known what they were getting involved in. One of them even vomited at the sight of the Flood specimens suspended in their pods.

“Let’s not waste anymore time, doctor,” Garcia said, sauntering over to West. “Tell me where you found these things and just what your plan was.”

The doctor shrugged, “I already told you, medical progress. Would you believe me if I told you all five of the human specimens had been deceased yet came back to life?”

“I think your definition of life could use some refining,” chimed in Yamato. “The infected might get up and walk again, but I don’t know many people living with their heads dangling from their left shoulder.”

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Dr. West looked at Yamato and let out a sign of exasperation. “Such shortsightedness is what got us to this position in the first place.”

“Let’s rewind this back to what I asked,” Garcia said while making a circular motion with his right index finger.

As West explained it, he had been attached to a UNSC colonization flotilla of three vessels to a recently discovered world designated for settlement. Such missions were periodically sent out to find Covenant War refugees new homes as resources became available after the war’s conclusion. That explained the presence of a child among the infected, they were likely one of the colonists.

Evidently though, West’s mission was plagued with setback after setback. Their flotilla was attacked and their military escort destroyed by Jackal pirate raiders. Ex-Covenant mercenaries, the avian-looking aliens had made names for themselves as ruthless raiders plundering whoever was unfortunate enough to cross their path in the void of space. Both the UNSC Beaker and the colony ship housing the cryogenically frozen colonists managed to perform random slipspace jumps and escape.

After about a week of no contact, the Beaker was able to get back into contact with the colony ship, but only discovered more tragedy.

“97% of the colonists, around 978 of a population of 1000, died in cryosleep,” West said. “Come to find out the UEG outsourced its supplier for the cytoprethaline drug that prevents damage to the sleeper’s cells by ice formation to a shoddy manufacturer. May as well have injected saline in their bodies for the good it did.”

It pained Garcia to have to admit that West’s grievance with the UEG here was a legitimate one. Rebuilding after the Covenant War was ruinously expensive and to ensure reconstruction matched the estimates provided by the government, deals with numerous corporations had been struck. Most were above-board and beneficial, after all none had a vested interest in human civilization remaining in a shattered state. Others were not as the case here demonstrated.

“But just when everything seemed hopeless we found salvation,” West continued, a resonance of hope and excitement building in his voice. “A strange signal reached our communications array and we traced it to a peculiar gas giant near the outer periphery of a supermassive black hole. Our scanners picked up the presence of a facility of some kind, a large clawlike structure hanging from a larger installation. Whatever sent out the signal then began to beckon us to it. They even sent a transport shuttle of some kind to get us from orbit.”

“And then?” Garcia asked.

“Then our new work began, the same work that will continue now.”

Suddenly, West leapt from the ground and tapped the central console in the middle of the hold.

“What are you-?” Garcia began to ask as the cryopods began to open, spilling their contents on the ground.