PERIL (23 page)

“ISIS, is that you?” Bains asks.

“Yes, Captain. I’m online. However, I can’t see you,” ISIS states.

Bains and the others breathe a sigh of relief.

“ISIS, can you redeploy the Umbilical?” Bains asks.

“Not without exposing the ship’s interior. Currently, the Decima is secure, but I am detecting several non-
humanoid signatures around its perimeter. Getting you onboard without company will be difficult enough,” ISIS replies.

“So we gotta get to the Titan or the Grey Goose in the Launch Bay, make the drive over to the Decima, and then open up the ship without letting those things onboard. It’s gonna be tight,” Bains strategizes.

“I hate to add to your troubles, Captain, but some active sensors indicate that several compartments of the habitat have been breached. I’d advise you to put on environmental suits or use the DCU before leaving Med Lab,” ISIS warns.

“The cryo-tubes are portable, but we’d have to push them. Pendersen is not in any shape to push unless he’s in one of the DCU’s,” Bains states.

“Well I’m sure as hell not getting back into a DCU!” Cruise quips.

“Ok there are two mechanical suits and we have access to two environmental suits. Pierce keeps one here in the lab and the other is, uh…” Magruder says.

She looks over at Reed’s decapitated body. He is wearing the other suit.

“…I’m sorry, Bains, I know you two were close,” Magruder states.

“I’m putting on Pierce’s suit!” Cruise declares.

Pendersen’s bandages are saturated with blood. He complains about the
excruciating pain he is in.

“ISIS, do you have access to the cryo-system’s,” Bains inquires.

“Yes, Captain.”

“Pendersen, suffered severe burns to his arm and shoulder.”

“If you place him in the cryo-tube I can heal his injuries. The cryo-tube should be able to regenerate skin tissue,” ISIS informs.

Bains helps Pendersen to his feet and over to the four cryo-units. Cruise refuses to assist them. He suspects that they are infected.

“Can she scan for infection too?” Cruise asks.

“I have access to, HAB 1’s, Memory Bus. I’m aware of the organism,” ISIS replies.

“Good, scan him while he’s in there,” Cruise orders.

Bains is annoyed with Cruise, but she knows he’s right. Anyone of them could be infected. Pendersen gets into the unit Mya was previously in and the lid closes. ISIS begins diagnosing Pendersen’s injuries. The alien cells lurking within the mattress sense the warmth of his body and forms microscopic tentacles. They attach themselves to his back and slowly invade his body. They form a sticky residue, which causes his burn wounds to maturate.

“FOREIGN ORGANISM DETECTED!” ISIS warns.

“I knew it!” Cruise exclaims.

Pendersen arches his back in pain. He begins to struggle hitting the lid of the cryo-tube.

“OUCH! LET ME OUT!” He screams.

As he struggles, Bains can see that his back is quickly deteriorating. She covers her mouth and her eyes widened at the sight.

“It hurts. Oh, God, it hurts!”

Bains doesn’t know what to do. She wants to let him out, but she knows he was a goner.

“ISIS, seal his cryo-tube!” Bain orders reluctantly.

Pendersen’s body doubles in size. It continues to swell until it bursts open. Mist forms around the huge chunks of his body and a creature begins to emerge. Pendersen’s remains liquefy and bubble until the monster is fully formed. Incased in the cryo-tube is a soup of compacted living tissue, slimy mist and the beast. It struggles to get out.

“ISIS, how long will it stay contained?” Bains asks.

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that, Captain. There are too many variables to consider. Mass, weight, strength, pressure…”

“I get it! Okay–––Magruder, quick put, Mya, in an environmental suit. You and I will use the DCU!”

Magruder places the infant down and darts over to the locker housing Pierce’s suit. Cruise scrambles to the locker. He shoves Magruder aside and starts to put on Pierce’s suit.

“Cruise, you bastard!” Magruder yells.

Magruder scurries over to Reed’s decapitated body and struggles to get it out of its suit. Bains charges over and helps her. Bains looks at Cruise with disdain and he cuts her a smirk. 

“ISIS!”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Enable my security access code!”

“Access code enabled. You do realize no one but you will be able to launch the Decima with the access code enabled?” ISIS inquires.

“You bet I do,” Bains replies sharply.

Bains glares at Cruise while she helps Magruder. The access code is her insurance policy should Cruise try to leave them behind.

Cruise slips his legs into Pierce’s suit and glares back at her.

“You better give me that code, girl,” Cruise grumbles as he zips up his suit.

“We all go together, asshole––––or not at all!” Bains replies.

The creature in the cryo-tude continues to grow. It struggles to break free of the cryo-tube. Bains, Cruise and Magruder are in a race against inevitable danger. The women finally get most of Reed’s body out of its environmental suit.

“Bains, I got it! Go prep the DCU and I’ll get Mya into the suit!” Magruder yells as she pulls the environmental suit free from Reed’s body.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah! Go I got!”

Magruder doesn’t want Bains to see Mya’s infected body. Bains rushes over to the console.

“ISIS, prep DCU cryo-tubes one and two for transfer and transport!” Bains commands.

The glass lids slides open on the cryo-tubes and large chassis’ elevate them. Magruder slips Mya’s tiny body into the environmental suit. She then places the helmet over the baby’s head. Bains finds a large satchel in the locker and dumps its medical contents on the floor. She hands the satchel to Magruder. Magruder stuffs Mya’s body into it allowing only the baby’s helmet to stick out. After widening the strap, she drapes it over the handle bar at the foot of the cyro-tube. Cruise grabs his plasma rifle. He sees the creature continuing to struggle in the cryo-unit.

“You two better hurry up!” Cruise goads.

Bains leaps into her unit and Magruder into the unit that Mya dangles from. Their lids close simultaneously.

“ISIS!” Bains yells.

“The DCU is ready for transfer, Captain,” ISIS confirms.

“Initiate transfers!” Bains commands.

Cruise darts to the hatch and prepares to open it. Bains and Magruder’s consciousnesses are snatched from the cryo-units and transferred into the robotic suits. The mechanical giants spring to life. The women’s faces appear on the suits’ visors. The robotic suits disengage from the wall spikes and approach their cryo-tubes. Bains and Magruder places the smaller weapons Cruise made onto the lids of their cryo-tubes. Then they grab the handlebars of their units and begin to push their bodies towards the hatch.

“Alright, Cruise, we’re ready!” Bains indicates anxiously.

The creature inside the remaining cryo-tube begins to crack the lid. With haste, Cruise opens the hatch and enters the corridor. Magruder pushes her body following him. Bains then does the same. Cruise quickly move to close the hatch behind them. He hesitates a moment and sees the creature break free from its cylindrical prison. It screams as it spouts out like a geyser. Cruise closes the hatch and fires on the keypad disabling it.

He turns and is shocked to find that the corridor is hardly recognizable. The misty atmosphere short-circuited the corridor’s lighting system. The walls are covered with a liquid residue that has hardened in places. They hang from the ceiling of the corridor like stalactites. Inside these o
dd looking funnels are baby mist creatures. Bains and Magruder’s mechanical suits stand still as they too gaze at the transformed passageway.

Chapter Twenty-Five

“Oh my, God, what is this?” Magruder gasps.

Cruise rushes pass them holding tightly onto his weapon. He moves quickly down the corridor careful not to touch the strange growths hanging from the
ceiling. The scratching sounds of tiny tentacles signals the funnels are ready to hatch.

Bains and Magruder try to keep pace with Cruise, but their robotic suits are slow. Pushing their cryo-units only makes them lag further behind. Their robotic suits occasionally crash into the hanging formations knocking them down onto their cryo- tubes. Baby mist creatures rise, turn into mist and retreat into the air ducts.

At the end of the corridor is a sharp turn. Magruder misjudges the turn and slams her unit into the wall. She finds it difficult to maneuver her robotic suit, push her cryo-unit, keep an eye on Mya and watch out for any creatures that are undoubtedly lurking about. Cruise quickens his pace. When Bains and Magruder turn the next corner they see that Cruise is far ahead of them.

“Cruise wait! Slow down!” Bains yells.

“Shit! I knew he couldn’t be trusted. He’s gonna leave us!” Magruder blasts.

“He’s not going to leave us. He can’t launch the ship without us. CRUISE, GET BACK HERE!” Bains yells.

Cruise can hear the women calling for him. He knows he needs Bains’ access code, which prompts him turn back and re-join them.

“Look, you two better get the lead out your asses or I will leave you behind–––code or no code!” Cruise snaps.

They make their way to the final corridor. They can see the holographic atrium ahead of them. Its projected image of a holographic forest flickers in the darkness. It is malfunctioning. The stalactite formations, mist and liquid covered walls make the atrium appear forbidding. 

The group instinctively knows that something sinister waits on them. They have no choice, but to proceed. They need to cross that section of the habitat to reach the vehicles in the Launch Bay. The mist thickens as they make their approach. The only sounds
they can hear are of Cruise’s breathing and Mya’s cooing over their suit’s internal intercom systems.

They enter the holographic atrium.

“All stop!” Bains whispers.

She picks up her weapon from the lid of her unit. She strains to hear over their breathing.

“Bains what is it?” Magruder asks.

“Keep moving,” Cruise whispers as he quickly gla
nces in every direction.

“Shhh! Wait listen,” Bain whispers.

The group gets quiet. Bleep…bleep. Bleep…bleep. The subtle sounds stop abruptly. Then it starts again––––bleep…bleep. Its pace quickens––––bleep, bleep, bleep!

“What is that?” Margruder asks nervously.

“I don’t know,” Bains replies.

She looks at Mya and sees she is fine. Magruder then walks around to the front of her cyro-unit and looks in it. She sees her body resting motionless in its unit, but the tone is now louder. BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP! She looks down at the controls on the cryo-unit. To her horror, she realizes the cause of the mysterious noise. There are codes being entered into the front keyboard controls of her cryo-unit. Her display reads, “4,3,2” then, “ERROR” then, “4,3,3” and again, “ERROR.” A creature of the mist has entered the keypad and is unsuccessfully trying to open her cryo-unit to get at her sleeping body.

“NO!” Magruder screams.

Bains joins her at the front of her unit. Steadily, Cruise moves away from the women.

“They’re trying to open my unit!” Magruder shrieks.

Bains looks at Magruder helplessly. She doesn’t know how to stop the intrusion.

“We’ve got to do something!” Magruder insists.

“I don’t know that we can do anything! It’s already in the control unit,” Bains replies.

“Magruder shoves Bains’ robot aside. She begins entering random codes trying to overload the system.

“Move out of the way. I’m not going to die like this! Maybe I can force it out!”

“If you overload the circuits your unit will shut down!” Bains yells.

Suddenly, a large tentacle emerges from the misty darkness and latched onto Magruder’s cryo-tube. It drags the unit into the darkness.

“NOOOO!” Magruder screams.

A smaller creature leaps from the mist and lands on top of Bains’ cryo unit. It viciously strikes the glass lid attempting to break it. Bains aims her weapon at the creature and fires upon it, knocking it clear. The creatures in the misty darkness begin to hiss.

“Move!” Bains yells to Magruder.

Bains grabs her unit and begins to push it.

Cruise sees the hatch leading to the Launch Bay and dashes for it. A creature appears before him blocking his way. He cranks his weapon and fires, killing it instantly.

Bains tries following Cruise, but a mist creature comes at her from the side. She grabs her weapon, but the creature lashes out knocking it out of her robotic hands. The creature hisses at Bains then charges at her. They clash with extreme force.