De Silva was with Holly on the Bridge when the quarantine failure alarm sounded throughout the ship. A brief moment of pure panic had hit him and it was TURING who sealed off the Gates. They soon learned that they hadn’t responded quickly enough. Stocky had verified that Soliman had died in Aux Two. Sealing off that Gate prevented further spread, but the ship had now potentially lost one half of their auxiliary systems.
He had killed the general alarm and told the crew to stay put where they were. They were extremely fortunate that nobody was in Aux Two at the time. And now Holly and him were watching Sci-Med’s headcams while they evaluated the extent of the breach.
They needed to be sure the rest of the ship and crew were secure. They would delay any attempt to venture into Aux Sys Two until they knew that Sci-Med was clear of dangers. He had most of his men waiting on the Mess, and they had instructions to never be alone. A small team was stationed in Propulsion Two to ensure the accessway to Aux Two remained sealed.
All the new creatures – if there were more than one – were almost certainly trapped in Sci-Med or Aux Two. The remaining members of Sci-Med had grabbed headcams, drones, and tools. They were now patrolling through the labs and offices – every place that had been open and accessible since the quarantine was initiated. He was letting Patterson run the search for now, even though they looked disorganized. He could feel the fear from Holly beside him. But he was angry and disappointed. Sci-Med should have come to him if they were overworked.
He would have to tell another family that they had lost a son. And he hoped that Soliman had siblings. He would ask about it later; he didn’t know most of the crew hands as well as he did the Officers. He prayed inwardly, asking God what he could have done differently, and begging for no more deaths. Had he ever really been a good Captain?
“Moussa’s messaging me again,” Holly said.
He passed her a silent glance. He resumed watching Chandna inspect a glovestation on one of their equipment items. It appeared to be damaged. Torn open. Tell me you see that.
“What should I tell him?” she asked.
“Tell him to keep everyone together in Habitation and we’ll talk about finding this thing shortly.” He activated his mic. “Is that it, doctor?”
“I think so,” he said. “You can see where it tore through the fabric. All the containers are empty.”
“Who left that unattended?” Silence answered him.
“That was me, Captain,” Fuller said. “I’m sorry, I was focused on trying to save Zhu.”
“We all were,” Patterson said. “The station is automated. We typically will leave it unattended if another emergency is pressing. Besides, this doesn’t explain how it got down to the bottom deck.”
“The elevators,” Stocky said. He was walking slowly through the halls with a long poker, looking for any other alien creatures.
“What do you mean?” De Silva asked.
“We can’t hear in these suits,” Stocky said. “And we have to close our eyes in the decon stations while the EUV lights disinfect to protect our corneas from any high energy particles that get through the visor. It followed us in the elevators.”
“It can survive that?” De Silva asked. He was only shocked for a brief moment and then he realized that it would not be instantly fatal. And he began to hope. Maybe it would now die.
“It certainly could for a little while,” Patterson said. “If it’s a creature that molts, then it might not have suffered much at all.”
“Maybe it’s dying,” Holly whispered. “Samoylova could go scout.”
He thought silently for a second and then turned off the mic. It was best to get more information - maybe by sending drones into Aux Two. “I don’t think it’s wise to do anything right now. Not until we’re prepared. The crew is sloppy. None of them noticed this. Somebody thought it wise to lock the accessway doors to Aux Sys Two in the open position. And who painted that message?”
Holly shook her head. “I don’t know.”
He flipped the mic back on. “Patterson, was the message we saw painted on the inside of the airlock or the outside?”
She told them that she didn’t know and then she sent Fuller to check.
Fuller was on his knees, scrubbing the deck free of blood in the accessway between Sci-Med and Aux Sys Two. He looked around frequently as if he were spooked, and De Silva suspected he was. It was certainly understandable. Fuller looked back to the airlock door, which was now clean of blood. And the message was gone. “I already cleaned that part up.”
“Great,” De Silva mumbled. He immediately regretted saying it. The crew needed to be built back up, not debased for past mistakes. “Make certain that Sci-Med is secure and then call me…because we have to do something about Aux Two. And remember that we have a grav assist coming up to get outbound. Keep things organized down there.”
“Will do,” Patterson said.
He turned to Holly. “This is going to cost us.”
“You think they’ll be alright down there?” she asked.
“I think so. I can’t imagine Patterson or Stocky getting hurt. I’m a little worried about Fuller though.”
“Me too. He’s clearly stressed.”
“We all are, but he’s not handling it well. We should spend time with the crew and make sure they’re taking things okay. Sci-Med will be a while anyways.”
“Alright, let’s do that.”
“Not right away. First, let’s go to Propulsion Two. I want to see if there are any weaknesses in our isolations there.” It had been years since he had run an Engineering department, but he remembered.
She agreed and got up with him to leave. “I’m sorry. The ship and crew will have to be quarantined for sure now upon return. It could be a long while before you see your family again.”
“I know,” he said as they walked to the lift to go to deck one. Certainly, she was also saddened by the realization that she wouldn’t see her parents or brother for…who knows how long? “But put all your thoughts of family out of your mind. We’ll help one another and trust in God.” I pray I can do what I just said.
----------------------------------------
De Silva gathered the crew on the Mess as soon as Sci-Med told him that their Gate was clear. Those who weren’t physically present were on the main display via videoconference. He felt tense about the situation. His earlier confidence in their mission had evaporated with the past mistakes. He would make sure the job in Aux Two was done correctly.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
It wasn’t just the potential harm to half of the ship’s auxiliary systems that worried him. The crew’s mental state was the more immediate concern. Killing the creature would allow him to address both concerns.
“What is the risk of infection?”
“Low,” Patterson said. “The creature has a microbiome of its own, but none of it is airborne. If we dress to cover exposed skin – gloves, work coveralls, overshoes, hood – then we’ll be alright. We’ll create a decon station in Sci-Med to prevent spread, and we’ll don and doff our garments there.”
Patterson also told them that she had engineered a bacteriophage variant that kills most of the alien microbes by corrupting their ability to form proteins. This soon led to apoptosis. And she would use it within the decontamination wash. She admitted that it hadn’t been tested with human tissue, but stressed that any harmful effects would be short lived and confined to the skin. The virus was incapable of replication, and she had made its breeder bacteria also incapable of replication.
He was impressed by her report. Chandna and her were making a great pair.
“Can we biowarfare this thing straight out of existence?” Samoylova asked.
“No, that’s not realistic,” she said. “That will take months of research, and I still might not be able to do that with the equipment I have.”
“Guns then,” Samoylova said.
He looked in her eyes and she seemed confident in that assessment. He nodded in concurrence.
So, what are we supposed to use against it?” Moussa asked.
“Light firearms with the standard loading.”
“I can’t promise how effective that will be,” Patterson warned. “We don’t know anything about this creature’s anatomy. Enough trauma will certainly kill it, but it might not be easy.”
“Got any other ideas?” Samoylova asked. “If not, then we’ll just have to assume it is going to take multiple shots. Our tactical approach will be corner it and kill it.”
Patterson shrugged. Everyone else was silent.
“I have an idea that might help us corner it,” Chandna said, breaking the silence. “Let’s equip ourselves with some flame torches. Animals tend to flee from fire.”
“What are your thoughts about that, Patterson?”
She crossed her arms and thought for a few seconds. “It might work. We found this thing in a very cold environment. We know it has adaptations for that. But there is a decent chance that it struggles to cope with a hot one. I’d like to test temperature against it before we go in, actually. We should be able to increase the temperature in the Gate to fifty or sixty degrees Celsius, and keep it that way for twenty-four hours or more. We can then send in some remotes to see if the change has any effect.”
Pretty much everyone’s eyes widened when she mentioned those temperatures. They would rapidly result in death without temperature regulating measures. She reminded them that they could survive those conditions for a short while by using cold packs to keep their core body temperature stable. With enough people, they could sweep the whole Gate with a short foray.
He breathed deeply with unease. Those conditions would prove fatal to anybody who got stuck. And he knew they were likely going to have to venture into the Systems Access ducts where that risk was high. He looked his crew over and saw their fatigue and nervousness. They wouldn’t hold up long under that heat. Too dangerous.
He turned to Moussa. He always wanted Moussa's assessment even when he had already made up his own mind. “What do you think?”
“We have another Aux Systems Gate,” he said. “I’m fine with just about anything that will kill it. But, if it doesn’t, then doing that will just create more problems for us. Some of those systems aren’t going to handle those extreme temperatures well. We risk losing redundancy, and we could be in poor shape when we get home. And that temperature is dangerous for us too.”
“Yes or no.”
“No, until we know more,” he said.
“I guess that leaves me for tiebreaker.” He looked up. “TURING, can you provide any input on this?”
“No, Captain,” TURING said, “the available information is insufficient to make an informed decision. However, I may not be able to increase the ambient temperature anyways.”
“Explain.”
“There is an increasing unknown thermal energy loss from the Gate. I have been steadily increasing the power output of the heating coils to maintain temperature.”
“Smart little gremlin,” Fuller said.
De Silva felt some relief that they didn't need to consider raising the temperature. However, he was even more anxious to make a foray into the Gate. “Okay, we’ll scratch the idea of raising temperature.” He looked toward Samoylova. “How do we find it if it’s gone into Systems Access?”
“Yes,” Samoylova said. She fingered her tablet and brought up a scene on the wall display. “This is a little simulation that I put together.”
The display was a virtual recreation of inside the ducts. A simple tunnel rendered with plain colors. The simulation gave the perspective of a viewer that moved into the tunnel. There were a few obvious pipes and cable bundles shown, rendered in unique colors.
The viewer turned the bend in the simulation and looked down a new tunnel. Sitting a short way away was a cat shaped object which was textured with a golden, randomly sparkling glitter.
He understood the principles of pattern recognition that she was using. The program was highlighting what was not ordinary, and she needed to describe how so that they all understood it. “Okay, explain what we’re looking at.”
“We can’t shine a bright light in the tunnels,” Samoylova said, “because it will give away our position. And there is very little ambient light. This model lets us see in the dark. The ducts are made of titanium alloy. The pipes were stainless steel, and the cables have thermoset polymer insulation. I’m having the viewer emit short pulses of very low intensity light at select frequencies and then sensing the reflection. I’m using both long and short wave infrared, the middle of the visible spectrum (yellow-green light), and then low ultraviolet. Now, the program knows the coefficient of reflection for each of these frequencies for each material in the ductwork. And it has a memory buffer for the difference in time that the reflected light reaches the sensors, and that gives us our depth. There are also multiple receiver sensors for each wavelength, and comparisons between them are used to estimate the angle of reflection for weighting. After the math, it digitally renders the internal geometry and every material gets its own color shade. It’s not realistic, but the contrast is sharp – allowing you to distinguish between objects. Anything with unknown reflective properties gets the glitter texture.”
He liked it. They would be able to see it at least as well as it could see them, and likely better.
“This should work for us, Captain,” Moussa said. “TURING, we have a database of all the materials used in System Access and ventilation, right?”
“That is correct,” TURING replied. “I can provide the coefficients of reflection for whatever frequencies are chosen. We have adequate resources for manufacturing sensors in the Workshops with the necessary sensitivity and bandwidth.”
“I volunteer to hunt it,” Samoylova said.
He appreciated her courage. And he hated not utilizing volunteers for particularly dangerous assignments. But he couldn’t risk her because she would bring more value supervising their progress and giving advice.
“No.” He turned his gaze to her. “You’ll direct the fireteam’s actions. Position us to corner this thing.” He shifted his gaze toward Stocky. He was too big to move quickly in most of the accessways, but he could squeeze into the trunk, which also served as the intake for the ventilation system. “We’ll place Stocky in the trunk to block off the connecting paths. Fuller and I will hunt in the branches.” He then told everyone else to seal all access panels and openings. And provide fire support when called for.
Samoylova looked angrily at him but remained silent, and he was grateful for it. She had to know it was the best choice. He had to go because he couldn’t otherwise ask others too – particularly so when not using a volunteer. And Stocky had to go because he had the keenest senses, and he wouldn’t give any fuss. He hoped Fuller’s scientific background made him the next best choice. He didn’t have anyone else with a Sci-Med skillset that he could spare.
He looked at his companions. Stocky was both calm and attentive. Fuller looked scared. Truth be told, he was afraid too. And that was a feeling he seldom experienced. But Fuller seemed much deeper in fear. He momentarily thought about using Garvey instead but decided against it. Fuller certainly understood the danger better. And anyone else would be just as afraid.
“Does anyone have further input?”
“I’ll get my engineering team in the Workshops,” Moussa said. “We can fabricate some LEDs and sensors in a few hours. We’ll also need to expand the program – because there are a lot of different materials in there. I’m going to guess and say that we can have a prototype system available for fine tuning in six hours.”
“That sounds good, but we have our assist to make in just over four, and that will force us to suspend things for a short time. We’ll break here. Sci-Med, you return to your analysis. Brief us on everything you learn about this alien lifeform when we next meet – no matter how small.”
He listened while Moussa picked his team for prototyping and then he told the rest to verify that equipment was properly stowed for variable gee maneuvers. Everyone then got up to leave. He looked straight at Samoylova and caught her eyes. “That’s some very fine work, Sam.”
“Aye, Captain,” she said. “We’ll do you proud.”