Holly led the crew back to Habitation. Robbie welcomed them with a cheerful greeting. Nobody responded in kind. She poured up a cup of coffee for a caffeine fix. Many of the others did too. They all needed some good rest – especially Qureshi, who was sweating heavily from a fever. The lack of sleep was becoming a critical problem. But they couldn’t afford it yet.
She leaned back against the aquarium on the Mess and watched as the bulk of the crew took seats. A few chose to stand. Their eyes kept coming back to her. She wished they didn’t.
What do you expect from me? You saw the same thing I did. The three most perfect people were in Systems Access together and they couldn’t kill it. I’m as plain of a woman as they come. I can never measure up to them. And I’m as scared as you! You want to know what I can do for you? I can turn this ship outbound and plot the most efficient route out of Delta Hydri. And I’ve already done that.
“The Captain should be back with us shortly. Let’s just wait a bit for Sci-Med to provide an update.” She dreaded the awkward feeling of silent waiting. Minutes and minutes of feeling naked and inadequate.
“It could be a long while before we even get that,” Garvey said. “They got to wash, run tests, they got to treat Stocky… And the Captain doesn’t look good either.”
“Are they going to be alright?” Nieves asked.
“They should.”
“The Captain was just startled,” Moussa said. He leaned forward, propping himself up with his arms against the back of a seat. “It could have happened to any of us. We haven’t been under as much stress as he has and we’re shaken up. And now we’re getting tired, making it hard to stay calm and focused. So the Captain just got rattled the same as we all could in these circumstances. He’s fine. I’m more worried about Stocky, but I think he’ll be alright too.”
“He will be.” She was more worried about the psychological health of the crew than Stocky’s physical injuries.
“He was shot at point blank,” Ginting said.
“He can handle that much better than you realize,” Samoylova said.
“What do we do until they come back?” Ginting asked. He yawned while speaking.
Don’t do that, it spreads.
All those eyes were boring holes through her skull. She felt the urge to retreat to the Bridge – concern herself with the ship’s track and the celestial objects. But she would be judged for cowardice.
And they were right. That alien creature had now killed three men and none of them had caught so much as a glimpse of it. And Fuller was a man who could make most things look easy. It might be that only Stocky could kill it. That was a terrifying thought.
Moussa spoke up. “Well, do any of you have an idea on how to kill it? Let’s get anything on the table, and we can refine our plans when the Captain and Sam come back.”
“We tried fighting it,” Nieves said. “It didn’t work.”
“We learned it hides better than we thought,” Moussa said. “So who’s got ideas for improving our search capability? Then we fight it, trap it, poison it…I don’t care.”
“We have explosives aboard, right?”
“Yeah,” Garvey said timidly.
Moussa nodded. “We brought twice the usual stock. We didn’t know how many doors and structural members we would have to blast through to survey the alien ship.”
“I say we embed explosives into the deck plates, pressure hull, and exterior hull of the accessway between Propulsion Two and Aux Two. We can then blow them if the creature breaks into the accessway. We’ll need to space them out to open up a hole at least three or four square meters. Our rotation will throw it clear of the Nineveh.”
Moussa looked like he wanted to respond but held back, as if having second thoughts about it. Most of them looked hesitant.
“Sweet,” Garvey said enthusiastically. “That’s the kind of crazy plan that actually works.”
“Hold up,” Moussa said, extending a hand in a dismissive gesture. “Let’s try to think of other options before explosives.”
“Would you rather lose control of Propulsion Two? The Propulsion Gates gets us back to our families. And if the abomination finds out how to get through the door on the Aux Two side of the accessway then it can figure out how to get through the other one easily enough. And since it’s breached Gates before I have to acknowledge that it’s possible for it to do so again. What I’m proposing is a last course of action to keep it from contaminating another Gate.”
“Last course,” Ginting said, nodding affirmatively. Although his words appeared accepting of the idea, his face showed considerable apprehension.
Garvey reached over and slapped Moussa on the shoulder. “The science goons are going to cut out that whole Gate anyways.”
“I know that,” Moussa said. “But this can cause more damage on the journey home. And it could really impede damage control efforts. We better make sure it’s our last option.”
“Nobody is saying otherwise,” Nieves said. “We just keep it from getting into the other Gates. You said you were okay with ideas to trap it.”
She estimated that a quarter of the team had a positive perception of the idea. She couldn’t read most of the others, but Moussa was the only one who seemed to strongly dislike it. “Alright, let’s do it. TURING, log that I am the acting Captain until De Silva is cleared by Sci-Med, and that I’ve made the decision to rig the accessway with explosives to protect the ship.”
“Your command decision is logged,” TURING reported.
“Moussa will review the ship’s plans with TURING and identify where we need to place the charges. Garvey, take this time to get your suit ready for the EVA work.”
“Aye, acting Captain!” He got up with a grin, poured himself a glass of water, and then headed out.
Qureshi got up after him. “I’ll help you get your suit ready.” She began to walk out with him while coughing.
Holly noticed Qureshi coughing and also saw that she seemed particularly fatigued. She knew that Qureshi needed to soon be isolated from the others and allowed rest and so she called her.
“Yes,” she said.
“Get some rest when we’re done with this.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The Captain is either going to be really proud of me or tear me a new butt.
----------------------------------------
Patterson wore a bath robe while she sat in Imaging within Sci-Med. She casually dried her hair while watching an MRI display of Stocky’s upper torso. She wasn’t concerned about his wounds anymore. She was now concerned about how her relationship with him would change.
Stocky, De Silva, and her had all showered together after returning from Aux Two. (Per decontamination protocol.) De Silva was sedated and hardly noticed anything – they both had to help him. But Stocky was fully aware and his attention was (not always discreetly) focused on every inch of her naked body. He had tried to hide his erection. She had tried not to look. He would certainly commit the moment to memory, and it would change their relationship.
She hoped his infatuation would still be manageable. She knew Stocky wouldn’t hurt her or cause her any disgrace. And they had become something of friends during his time on the Nineveh. But she feared things would get awkward. The whole crew would find out about any sexual fantasies he developed toward her, just like they knew about his current infatuation.
She looked across the room at De Silva and Samoylova waiting impatiently as the MRI machine finished its scan. De Silva seemed better, though tired. She had told him to let Holly command the ship for the next few hours until his body fully worked the medication out of his system. Hopefully, he would listen. It would be even better if he grabbed a nap and slept it off. They were all sleep deprived.
She saw that the MRI machine’s platform had withdrew. “Come out now,” she said over comms. She watched him as he got up from the bench and then wiped it down. The muscles in his back, shoulders, and arms rippled as he moved.
Chandna came up to her while Stocky walked out of the MRI room. She looked at two fleshy, gelatinous masses that he held on a tray – tissue patches grown from some of Stocky’s stem cells. “Is that them?” she asked.
“Yes, all ready to go,” he said.
She set her towel down and turned to Stocky with a smile as he approached, towering over her. “I have good news. The spidroin protein fibers in your skin and your skeletal muscle layer stopped the rounds. There’s no appreciable trauma to rib cartilage or organs. I’ll get you patched in Examination and then you’re clear for duty. You should fully heal over the next three to four days with proper dressing.”
He nodded as if he knew it all along and she gave him a smile. “You’re fortunate to be built the way you are.”
“Very much so,” De Silva said. “We’re blessed with this news.” He slurred his speech.
Stocky nodded affirmatively. “I told you it wasn’t a deep wound,” he said. “I can smell the difference.”
She smiled. “I know you can.”
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De Silva got up from his chair with difficulty. “You and I should be getting back, Sam. We got to come up with a better plan to drive it out in the open. We have to get it in the open.”
“If you don’t mind a suggestion,” Samoylova said, “I think we should take one more go at Systems Access.”
He shook his head. “That’s out of the question. Too dangerous and we don’t know where it’s hiding.”
“I think we do know where to find it,” Samoylova said. “It’s going to be feeding on the bodies. I think that Creature deliberately avoided you and Stocky. It stalked the one which it perceived to be the weakest. If the three of you go in then I don’t think it will know what to do. You can pair me up with one of you if you’re still concerned. Nieves can manage the remotes.”
“It’s probably worth a shot,” Patterson said. The Creature did seem predatory and it may have been hunting just as Samoylova said. Sending natural predators after it was a good idea. “I’m not familiar with those ducts. Give me a few hours to go through our engineering training material – learn the layout and what’s in there. I’ll be ready then. De Silva needs time to rest anyways.”
De Silva leaned against the nearby bulkhead and folded his arms across his chest in silence. Patterson knew him well enough to see that he was thinking of ways to refuse the option, and not considering the merit of it.
“Actually, Patterson should take the trunk,” Stocky said. “That way she doesn’t need to know the layout. I can go in by myself and you can go in together with Samoylova. We’ll retrieve our fallen and kill the creature. And I believe I can kill it – whether it’s in the ducts or the void space.”
The suggestion sounded good and she nodded in approval.
De Silva kept silent for several moments, and then sighed. “No. There are too many places where you won’t fit. And Patterson and Chandna are busy. We need to generate some new ideas, and then we can plan again.”
“Captain,” Stocky said, “I can rip open the paneling and go wherever I want. The creature is certainly doing that too – its nest probably isn’t even in those ducts. It’s in the void space between the hull layers.”
“No,” De Silva said, “we’ll wait for more information.” He then left without waiting for a reply. Samoylova started to follow him but then turned back towards them. “May God bless your efforts. The crew needs a morale boost.”
“May He bless yours as well.”
“I’ll try to think of something more agreeable to the Captain. Keep me appraised of anything you learn.”
“Will do.”
Samoylova left and Patterson turned back to Stocky. “Go lay down in Examination.” He turned for the door across the hall and Patterson and Chandna followed. He lay down flat on the table with his head resting under his hands and she sterilized her hands. Then they leaned over him and carefully removed the temporary bandages and inserted the tissue patches in the two gunshot wounds with robotic assistance, making certain that there were no gaps between his tissue and the patches.
She adjusted her magnification glass and directed a very fine set of tweezers. “You’ll feel a bit of pulling,” she said as she connected the major capillaries to his new tissue. The stem cell impregnated collagen-elastin gel would seal with his tissue and assist with the healing work.
“You’ll look a bit funny with your shirt off for a while.”
He breathed slow and deep. “I’m not a vain man.”
She smiled and looked up at his eyes. They were fixed down at her chest, and she remembered that she was not wearing a shirt. Her cleavage was exposed through the neckline of her robe, which hung low as she bent over. A quick glance confirmed he was already getting a bit of an erection. She glanced at Chandna and saw that he was strangely not reacting at all. Either he didn’t notice or he had an impervious poker face. She carefully finished, and then bandaged him.
Stocky sat up when done and slid a t-shirt on.
“Try not to let anything bump the injuries, but you can work. Holly has the crew trying to shore up the barriers to Aux Two on the Propulsion Module side. We should probably do the same on our end in case the Pazuzu alien tries to make a breach.”
“Probably so,” he said. He breathed in through his nose with slow, deep breaths.
“What do you think we should do?” Chandna asked. His eyes darted back and forth between them.
“I can grab supplies from the Workshop and set up motion sensors,” Stocky said. “They’ll give us additional warning if it gets through the airlock defenses or bypasses them.”
“Get what’s needed. We should also disinfect the travel route again, just to be safe. We can resume in the labs after that. Start and I’ll join you once I clean up and properly dress.” She watched them leave and then took the tray and tools across the hall for sterilization.
----------------------------------------
Holly and her crew had the deckplates pulled up and the side paneling removed in the accessway between Propulsion Two and Aux Two. The accessway was now no more than the bare tube of the pressure hull and its many spars and ribs for strength. And the paneling was stacked in piles near Propulsion Two. Dozens of small buckets had been affixed against structural members and would soon hold explosives.
She worked against the door to Aux Two to place mirrors, while trying to keep the monster on the other side out of her mind. She fastened the seventh one to the door and then looked back at Nieves who was at the other side of the accessway setting up the targeting lasers. Others strung wire for the explosives, and they minimized their time near the access door to Aux Two. She now knew that she would never have got a volunteer for her job and so it was good that she hadn’t asked.
Nieves quickly aligned the laser to its target. (Holly was so thankful for her speedy work.) Each laser would reflect off the mirrors on the Aux Two doorway and hit individual receivers located near the Propulsion Two accessway door. If the Creature managed to open the Aux Two door or cut a section out, the receivers would lose signal. And that would trigger the explosives that they were yet to place.
Nieves gave her a thumbs up signifying that she was done.
“Do we need more?” Holly asked.
Moussa walked over to her. “Just one each in the vent and service accessway in case it finds a way to get in there.” He handed her one of the goggles they had made earlier to search Systems Access. “Let’s take a look at it.”
She put it on. “TURING, cut the lights.” The area became exceptionally dark, with only the dim lighting from Propulsion Two shining in. Those who didn’t have goggles took hold of the structure of the ship and waited for the light to be restored.
Holly didn’t notice the darkness, however, because she wore the goggles and saw its simple textured imagery. She tried to imagine what De Silva felt while looking through this contraption and being confined in a duct much smaller than the accessway. So constricted that you couldn’t run. And they still didn’t know for certain whether they could see the monster with this technology. It was only a theory.
“I don’t notice the lasers,” Moussa said while bending over to try to pick up the beam.
“You will if you put your head in the beam,” Samoylova said.
Holly watched him lift his head up and ask if the alien could see the beams. She listened to them while looking at both the mirrors and the sensors. The alien creature had evaded the hunting party in Systems Access and so she understood the nature of the question. They had reason to suspect that it had seen the laser light and avoided it. She saw the sensors and the mirrors in clear, distinct shades of color. The creature could too if it saw like their visors did and was expecting such a trap. Hopefully, it didn’t know what to look for.
“We don’t know what that alien can see,” Samoylova said. “But it shouldn’t matter if we trigger the bombs fast enough. Once this is fully wired up, the sensors will trigger the Propulsion Two accessway door to close immediately and detonate the bombs fifty milliseconds later. Even if it can react that fast and duck back to avoid the blast, Aux Two will go to vacuum.”
“We found it in vacuum.”
“In a body actually,” Samoylova said, “that’s not the same thing.”
She conceded her point. The creature’s initial habitat was closer to a block of ice. Still, it had to know that it could find itself within a vacuumed ship again. It had more intelligence than a mere animal, that was for certain. It had a plan. “Okay, but let’s assume it can develop some way of exploring our defenses without endangering itself or has a way to survive the explosion. What then?”
Samoylova turned her head all around, seemingly examining all the areas they had marked for explosives installation. It was hard to see the markings in the virtual reality viewer, but they had strung most of the wire. And that ran along each emplacement. “I don’t think that’s possible,” she finally said.
Holly wished that she could see Sam’s eyes. Although her voice sounded confident, she wanted to be certain about this. The Nineveh would be in much worse condition if the detonation failed to kill the creature. And much worse if Propulsion Two was damaged. The initial simulations had proven that to be a small possibility – which meant it could happen.
She dismissed her fears and gave Sam a silent nod. Samoylova had seen the effects of explosives firsthand on multiple occasions. She didn’t have anything to add to that.
Moussa told them he had a point to consider once he saw that Holly was done. “Let’s say it cuts a small peep hole to see through before it tries to open the door. And let’s say it can see our trap. What then?” Holly and everyone else turned to Samoylova again.
Samoylova pointed toward Propulsion Two. “We put a camera on the other side of the accessway and watch what it’s doing. Manually detonate.” She pointed at Robbie standing in Propulsion Two, and who they had earlier planned to leave there to initiate the detonation in case the automatic trigger failed.
Holly’s doubts returned. And it wasn’t according to standard operations to so easily dismiss a potential vulnerability. “Let’s say we don’t see it’s work.”
Samoylova leaned against the bulkhead and sighed in exasperation. After a long pause she said, “That might actually be better.” She started tightening up the installed wiring.
Holly stiffened with surprise.
“What?” Nieves asked. “It won’t die!”
“And what will it do?” Samoylova asked. “It will try to get out through Sci-Med instead.”
“How does that help us?”
Samoylova didn’t immediately answer but instead looked across the accessway to each of them in turn. “It’s going to run into them,” she said. “They will know of the intrusion because of the quarantine monitoring systems. It will run into them head on.”
“I don’t want to endanger them either.”
“It escaped Sci-Med to get away from them,” Samoylova said.
“You can’t know that,” Moussa said.
“It could have attacked a person anywhere in Sci-Med, Moussa,” she thundered back. “It waited for an opportunity near the airlock because it wanted to get out.”
“I think she has a point,” Ginting said. “Stocky could kill any of us if he wanted. Maybe all of us. We haven’t seen anything to think the alien creature is any more dangerous.”
“And what if the thing attacks someone else?”
Samoylova sighed. “Patterson is a monster any time she wants to be. And Chandna…he’s tougher than he looks. They’ll hold off until help arrives. Stocky’s right there and it won’t take me long to respond now that we’re carrying weapons.” She patted her holstered .44 Russian to make the point.
Samoylova continued walking by the buckets and tightening the wire so that it wouldn’t be in the way when they reinstalled the paneling. “I do have a lot of respect for Patterson’s intelligence. But there is no way to implement a scientific solution for a completely alien infestation in a few weeks. So the only way we’re going to solve this problem is using lots of violence.”
Holly stiffened her posture when hearing Sam mention using violence. She largely agreed with the assessment. There wasn’t any realistic path where Sci-Med could conjure a way of eliminating the threat in a short time. And that is why she had pushed the crew to set explosives. But Sam seemed intent on fighting the Creature up close. And they didn’t know enough about it yet to try that.
She could sense the tension in several of the others too. And Moussa turned on the lights with a remote he held. A subtle way of trying to get back to work. She nodded at him and then looked back at Samoylova. “I don’t think acting like Rambo is our best approach.”
She regretted her statement immediately. Samoylova was a veteran but was in no way a one-man army. She may have had some lingering emotional trauma from conflict, but she wasn’t a loner. She was sociable, liked old Westerns, wore cowboy boots, and she carried around an heirloom Smith & Wesson model 3 revolver from the last decades of the old Czars.
Samoylova grinned while removing her goggles. “I know better than that. I didn’t fight in the brushfires, I survived them. I organized my team from a well concealed hole in the dirt. And when the enemy came near enough to be a threat, I mobilized enough cover to keep me safe while I ran to another trench or pit. I was lucky to be a light sleeper and awake from the slightest alarm. God was with me.
The actual fighting is done by drones and droids, and replicants. There are also splicers who are so biohacked that they are on the verge of leaving homo sapien behind. And they’re good at their jobs! And then I’ll tell you about the dogs one day.”
Samoylova sat down, leaning her back against a pile of interior paneling. “People like us ceased to be apex predators ages ago. I’ve seen human enemy forces try to sway the tide in battle. They died and I never heard of anyone succeeding. Humans usually don’t even have time to scream when they meet the manmade killers. I know that we shouldn’t take point in fighting this demon.”
Samoylova then grinned. “But I will be elated if it doubles back into Sci-Med. Because there are apex predators there. That will work better for us than blowing up part of the ship.”
Holly looked around and saw the fright in people’s eyes. She wished she had never pressed Samoylova on this matter. What did she know about killing or war?