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One Returns
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“Are you sure that clock hasn’t stopped?” snapped Grace, staring up at the read-out on the display wall.
“One minute before standing-point is achieved,” said a technician.
“Do we have security standing by at the chamber?” asked Grace in a whisper, when Jane approached her.
“And a medical unit — like you asked,” replied Jane in the same conspiratorial tone. “Just what are you expecting to find?”
“Thirty seconds,”
“I’m going down,” said Grace standing up.
“We need you here, Grace,” said Jane, laying her hand on Grace’s arm. “Besides, they’ll be out before you get halfway down.”
Grace slumped back into her seat.
“Array is at maximum — we have standing-point, in three, two, one...”
Even through the insulation of the walls and toughened glass, they could hear and feel the deep throb of the array.
“Security? Are they back yet?” called Grace through the intercom at her desk. “What was that? Say again, I can’t hear you.”
“Repeat, we are just letting the gases vent off,” said Adams, security team leader. “Then we can open the doors.” He turned back to see how the engineers were managing. They were on to the manual release for the hatch now.
“Okay people,” he said calmly. “Nobody moves till I give the word; security in first, and you guys —” he nodded to the paramedics waiting anxiously nearby; “keep well back till I give you the all-clear, okay?”
The two engineers pulled the final release on the hatch, and then skirted their way nervously past the five-man team, all of whom were armed with automatic rifles.
Adams cautiously approached the door and shone a flashlight through the small round observation window. It was completely misted up, and he cursed quietly as he grabbed the heavy lever on the hatch and pulled.
“Hello? Everybody okay in there?” he shouted, unable to see past the steam which billowed out from the chamber. “Anybody in there?” he called again.
He nodded to two of his team, and they darted into the blackness, crouching low as Adams covered them from the doorway.
He heard a muffled gasp, and then a frantic call:
“Oh shit — we’ve got a man down in here! Medic! Get the medic in here now!”
Grace listened to the distorted shouts over the intercom; she was as white as a ghost.
“Say again,” she said wearily. “What is the name on the suit?”
“It’s hard to make out, Control. The suit’s pretty badly damaged — oh wait a minute...” There was a burst of static, then she heard one word:
“Harvey.”
She slumped back in her chair.
“Pattie,” she whispered to Jane. “It’s Pattie’s body.”
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“And there’s nobody else? What was that he said about her injuries?” Jane asked hysterically, still in a state of shock. They had all been teasing Pattie about Alex just a few hours ago.
“They just said they couldn’t recognise her,” said Grace flatly. She stared off into space for a moment, then jumped as though she had been slapped across the face.
“I want another beacon recalibrated for five minutes. Is the chamber clear yet? Well, get it clear! I want the array ready to go again in twenty minutes — is that clear?”
* * *
Dan wiped the sweat off his brow, and looked down at the device. There was enough explosive wired throughout the array to knock out half a city, he thought. His hands shook violently, and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“Stay calm, stay calm,” he whispered to himself.
He thought of the amount of explosive again, and decided that when his shift changed, he was going to get in his car and just drive and drive. Sod the railway shuttle to the airport. If the train were delayed, like it usually was, he’d probably go up with the rest of them.
Now, just a few more connections and he could set the timer and relax; well, comparatively anyway. He stuck out his tongue in concentration, and gingerly held up several bare-ended wires, held his breath, then flicked the switch.
“There you are!” came a shout from behind him. “You’re in serious shit, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. What are you doing?” It was Keith Groves, that bumbling systems analyst.
Dan turned around in surprise, and a bare wire glanced across the contact of one of the batteries on the top of the device.
There was a brief spark.
He didn’t even have a chance to scream before the blast tore through him, crashing into Keith Groves, and hurling them across the room.
* * *
Davisson waited for his death — his body shaking uncontrollably, tears streaming down his cheeks. Another soul-splitting scream came from the creature, and he squeezed his eyes tighter shut.
Suddenly he felt himself grabbed from behind. He yelled, and then heard Starling hiss:
“Come on! While we still can!”
Davisson opened his eyes as Starling dragged him to his feet. The creature had returned to the circle of stones in a rage.
Pattie’s body was gone; the countdown had finished and she would be back in the chamber now. The creature pressed its face to the rock and sniffed suspiciously where Pattie had lain, its eyes darting around the circle.
“Come on!” pleaded Starling, and pulled Davisson away from the camp, into the impenetrable dust storm.
They both ran and ran. They stumbled blindly over red rocks, gripped totally by their panic now; simply running for their survival. At their backs, the outraged screams of the creature pushed them on faster.
Sometimes, in that seemingly endless pursuit, the cry would grow nearer, and they thought it was upon them. Once, they saw its dark shadow flash over their heads, and they threw themselves to the ground, sobbing in terror; but it missed them in the storm.
They didn’t care if Nicks and O’Keefe had escaped. They just ran for their lives, long after the cries of the creature had faded into the distance; until Starling fell exhausted to the dusty rock.
Davisson didn’t even notice. He just kept running — dragging the heavy bulk of his suit, until he too stumbled, and crumpled to the ground. He lay there, curled in a ball, and cried himself into unconsciousness.
* * *
“What the bloody hell was that?” breathed Grace quietly.
The ground shook slightly, and her coffee cup fell off the edge of the desk, spilling on to the floor. The lights dimmed, went off and came back on again. The fire alarms started.
“What’s happening?” she called above the shrill bells and sirens. Everybody in the room looked around, not knowing whether to continue work or start the evacuation.
“WILL SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON!” she yelled.
“All my displays have gone off!” shouted Morgan, a senior technician, from across the room.
“I think we should evacuate!” yelled Jane.
Grace looked at her without hope.
“But we’ve got to get the array powered up again! We need to send the beacon!”
The lights flickered again, and more displays went black.
“I’m not getting any response from B-sub-systems,” called Morgan, now standing at another desk. “Emergency shutdown procedures have commenced.”
“What the hell’s happening? Morgan, get B-sub-systems on the phone — find out what’s happening.” Grace held her head in her hands, muttering to herself in the chaos.
“All the lines are dead!” yelled Morgan anxiously over the din.
“Look, Grace,” said Jane, as calmly as she could over the alarms. “We don’t mind staying here to help try and get them out; but it’s useless; the array’s gone into shutdown; you know we can’t do anything more. Besides, we may be putting everyone here in danger. We need to evacuate, then find out what’s going on. That’s the best we can do for the team now. Come on.” She led Grace to the door, and nodded to the others. They grabbed their things and hurried towards the fire exits.
“Will they bring Pattie out with them?” murmured Grace in a state of shock, as Jane led her up the endless flights of stairs to the surface levels.
“I’m sure they will,” comforted Jane. “I’m sure they will.”