Authors: Timothy Holloway
“AAAHHHYY! Just give me some drugs!” Cruise demands.
“Cruise, I can’t see to measure a proper dose in the dark. Hold still!” Doctor Pierce argues.
“Oh God, please get me through this and I swear my womanizing days are over!” Cruise cries.
“HAB, are you working on getting us some light in here?” Bains asks.
“Still attempting to reroute power Captain.”
“Ok that’s it, now, Cruise, I need you to push!” Doctor Pierce instructs.
“You said to stop pushing. Make up your fucking mind!” Cruise whimpers.
“C’mon, Cruise, women have been doing this, shit, since the beginning of mankind and just this once––––surely you can push!” Bains shouts.
Cruise pushes as hard as he can. The generator’s engines start to hum and the lights flicker creating a strobe effect. Cruise screams out in pain. The lights go dark again.
“Power redistribution insufficient. I’ll need to pull power from the environmental systems to get you lights,” HAB 1 informs the group.
“What about the systems you’re operating on HAB?” Pendersen asks.
“I’m afraid my systems are the only thing keeping life support online and the main generators from over heating.”
“HAB’s right. We don’t want to risk an explosion. That may be what happened to the other habitat,” Nickolette warns.
“Captain, shall I pull power from the environmental systems?” HAB 1 asks.
“Do it!” Bains replies.
“Be advised that pulling power from those systems may cause several relays
throughout the habitat to become fused…”
“We’ll cross that bridge later!” Bains interjects.
“…Also the temperature in this section will rise thirty-nine degrees or more.”
“The generators. They’re under this section of the habitat. They put out a lot of heat,” Reed explains.
“We don’t have any other options. HAB, just do it!” Bains orders.
“Acknowledged. Re-routing power.”
Magruder had just made it back to the habitat’s airlock with a few minutes of power left in her suit.
“Ok, HAB, what’s the status in Med Lab?” Magruder asks.
“Initiating decontamination scans…Scans complete no contaminants detected.”
The inner airlock door opens.
“HAB, what’s Med Lab’s status?” Magruder repeats.
“Lt. Cruise’s, consciousness has been downloaded into your body and there is a power failure in progress with the Med Lab systems, which I’m attempting to bypass.”
Magruder makes her way to Med Lab. When she arrives at the hatch it doesn’t open. She taps the control pad continuously. Still it doesn’t open. Then she breaks the small viewport glass and pries the door open. Shafts of light from the corridor pour into the Med Lab and onto the crew.
The robotic suit Magruder is in blocks some of the light as her shadowy figure stands in the doorway. She can barely see the crew or the cryo-tubes housing Cruise’s and her bodies. Cruise continues to wail as he delivers her baby.
“Oh thank, God,” Bains says to Magruder.
Magruder makes her way over to the wall unit and plugs herself in.
“Five seconds to power restoration,” HAB 1 indicates.
Just behind the crew, a misty cloud slowly pours out from an air duct and begins to form into a hideous creature.
“Full power restoration in progress,” HAB 1 states.
No one, but Magruder notices the horrific creature taking shape and even she strains to make it out. Cruise gives a final push and the baby is born. At that moment, HAB restores the power and Magruder’s consciousness is snatched from the suit. Magruder screams to warn the crew, but is too late. Her consciousness makes its way back to her awaiting body. Cruise’s consciousness is simultaneously transferred back into his.
The Med Lab lights came halfway up as Doctor Pierce holds the baby by one of its legs. He smacks the infant on its bottom and it let out a boisterous scream. Doctor Pierce smiles at the site of his child. Magruder and Cruise are revived.
“It’s a girl, Amanda!” Pierce says joyfully to Magruder.
He hands the chubby infant to Magruder. She takes the baby, but she has the most terrified look on her face.
“What’s wrong, Magruder? Bains asks.
She is so terrified she can’t speak. She can only point to the creature standing behind them. Cruise is awake and screaming in his cryo-unit. He too can see the creature. As the others turn around they can see the vicious monster standing before them.
Cruise’s unit reads, “LT. CRUISE UNIT: UNLOCKED” and the glass lid opens. He struggles with the interior holographic controls to close the unit. The creature lashes out and strikes Reed ripping his head from his body. Bains, Pendersen, Pierce and Nickolette look on in horror. Everyone except Doctor Pierce scrambles for cover.
Magruder struggles to reach the holographic controls to her unit trying desperately to close it. She holds onto her baby tightly as it wails. Cruise continues to fumble with his controls causing the glass lid to go from half-open to half-closed and visa-versa. Magruder lays flat in her unit.
“HAB, seal my unit!” Magruder screams.
“Sealing unit 2,” HAB states.
Cruise finally gets his unit to close. Noticing Magruder’s unit closing, the creature heads toward it. Her unit closes just in time. The creature furiously slams its clawed tentacles against the glass lid while Marguder and her baby scream in horror. The creature is relentless; it continues to try and break the glass lid. Doctor Pierce grabs a laser scalpel and charges at the creature.
“Get away from them!” He yells.
He slices one of the tentacles from the creature’s body. The severed limb falls to the floor and then turns into mist. The misty limb rises from the floor. As it solidifies, one end of it attaches itself to Pierce’s chest and the other end reattaches itself to the creature. The creature then rips Pierce’s heart from his chest killing him instantly. Nickolette and Pendersen hustle out of the lab. Bains hides behind one of the consoles. Suddenly, the creature resumes its gaseous form and retreats back into the air duct.
Bains stands up from behind the console. She is visibly shaken.
“Is it gone?” Pendersen asks from the corridor.
“What the hell was that?” Nickolette asks.
“I don’t know! I think it’s in the ventilation duct,” Bains states.
Nickolette stands over Doctor Pierce’s dead body.
“Did you see what it did to him and Reed? Pierce hit it with the laser scalpel and it just kept coming,” Nickolette says.
Bains rushes over to Magruder’s unit.
“HAB, can you track it?” Bains asks.
“Negative. Most of my internal systems are offline. Several relays were fused during the power restoration.”
“Nickolette and Pendersen, find something to seal off that air duct. HAB, seal the hatch to this room and guys seal that broken viewport on the hatch door. I don’t want that thing to find a way back in here!” Bains orders.
Cruise opens his unit; he hesitates before getting out of it. Bains looks over and sees Reed’s severed head lying in the corner. She weeps at the site of it. Her long time father figure and trusted friend, Reed, is now dead. She tries to compose herself. Bains understands that the surviving crewmembers need her and the only way they will make it out of this alive is if she keeps it together.
“HAB, open unit 2,” Bains orders.
“Unable to execute command. The unit is locked from the inside.”
Bains stands over Magruder’s stasis unit. The baby Magruder is holding cries uncontrollably.
“Magruder unlock the unit,” Bains urges.
“No way! That thing is still out there!”
“No, it’s gone see?”
Bains looks around to reassure her.
“She’s right and we’ve sealed off Med Lab,” Pendersen confirms.
Magruder can see duct tape covering the air vent and the viewport to the hatch.
“That’s not gonna keep that thing out!” She cries.
“Magruder, if the power goes out again you and the baby could suffocate in there. Now open the cryo-tube,” Bains, persuades, Magruder.
Magruder reluctantly unlocks the unit and it opens.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bains and the surviving crewmembers have welded metal plates over the taped air ducts and viewport windows with a laser scalpel. They discuss their predicament. Magruder breast feeds her baby and listen intently. She is still very distraught. HAB 1 monitors the conversation. His camera strip zooms in on the crew. His sights land on the infant Magruder is feeding.
“For the moment we’re secure,” Nickolette states.
“I think we have about an hour maybe two of breathable air in here,” Pendersen adds.
“Yeah, but Neil is still out there,” Bains argues.
“No, Neil, is dead,”
Magruder, reveals.
“What?” Bains murmurs.
“There was a malfunction with the Gambit out at the site. The damn thing just started and ran into him taking him over into the ravine.”
“What ravine?” Bains asks.
“There is a big ass fissure surrounding the fortress. We were trying to investigate what caused it and, Neil, was killed!”
Magruder becomes
hysterical as she recounts the event and Cruise interrupts her.
“Another malfunction! What the fuck is going on around here? Besides that thing running around we got a
saboteur on our hands! Somebody in this room can’t be trusted,” Cruise insinuates, staring directly at Magruder.
“Cruise, this is not helping!” Bains argues.
“Well then you explain it, cause’ were droppin’ like flies here!” Cruise raves furiously.
“I don’t know how to explain it! Maybe that thing affects our systems somehow,” Bains reasons.
“Are you kidding me? That thing is an animal of some kind–––it can’t do shit like that!”
“Maybe, one of the other teams compromised this station or perhaps, Nyna, before we put her down. My point is we don’t need to start turning on each other now. Not with that thing running around out there. Do you guys have anything constructive to report?” Bains asks.
“HAB’s, systems are functional. We’ve got power to doors, life support and environmental systems, but like the gear on this habitat they’re not reliable,” Nickolette informs her.
“Great. HAB, do you have anything to add?” Bains asks.
“Negative.”
“That’s it? Negative?” Bains says sarcastically.
While Bains and the others try to think up an escape plan, the outside area around the habitat is becoming very misty. The external keypad next to the outer hatch suddenly lights up and several codes cycle through it. An alarm is set off.
“External Sensors indicate that someone or something is attempting to open the outer hatch,” HAB 1 indicates.
The group is on edge.
“HAB can you lock them out?” Bains asks.
“The relay to the outer hatch has been fused. I can however, override the airlock, but that won’t prevent them from, how did Lt. Cruise put it–––– break down the damn door?” HAB 1 says sarcastically.
“Just seal that airlock, HAB. Is the Umbilical in tact?” Bains inquires.
“Yes, it hasn’t been compromised, yet,” HAB 1, states.
“Look, I’m for dusting off this rock right now! I say we head straight for the Decima and blast off! While those things are at the front door we sneak out the back, through the Umbilical!” Cruise insists.
“Yeah, let’s just get the hell outta here!” Magruder chimes in.
“For once I agree with Cruise. We can use the Titan or the Grey Goose to traverse the Umbilical to the Decima. The problem is getting there. There are at least five sections and corridors between here and the Launch Bay. We need to know exactly what we’re up against here,” Bains points out.
Pendersen activates a console and attaches his scanning device.
“This might be able to help. Reed, had me download it from the other habitat’s Med Lab Database,” Pendersen explains.
“Let’s see what you got,” Bains says.
Everyone except Cruise gathers around a holographic monitor as Pendersen peruses a list of files. Cruise is intent on making it out of there alive. He holds the laser scalpel and rummages through the pile of faulty equipment Doctor Pierce has on a table across the room.
Magruder’s baby becomes fussy as she rocks it and watches the monitor.
“Accessing their last video recording,” Pendersen states.
A video of Captain Satoh and his team begins to play. The quality of the video is poor, but sufficient. On the video, Satoh and his team are inside the fortress. They are standing at the wall. They point a device at it that seems to emit a high-pitched tone.
“What are they doing? Turn it up,” Bains
instructs.
Pendersen complies. The wall begins to ripple like waves of water. Then Captain Satoh begins to speak in Japanese.