Doctor Davis, for that reason, felt out of place. Cool, Hutch Davis was not, though he desperately wanted to be. He had carefully cultivated his image so as to not appear as the dry professorial type, even going so far as to introduce himself as “Hutch” rather than his actual first name, Harvey. Hutch was a diminutive of his middle name, Hutchinson, which was his mother’s maiden name.
The truth was all of his style and any ‘cool’ factor was entirely manufactured. His carefully crafted image was like a Batman costume worn by a child. No matter how authentic the costume, everyone knew that underneath the cape and cowl was just a ten-year old kid. And everyone knew that behind the rough and tumble field researcher style was an awkward academic with a fancy degree in a field that, until this mission, required no field work whatsoever.
Doctor Davis was an authentic academic, but his stylish cool was all counterfeit.
“Doctor Davis,” the feminine voice called.
He turned in the direction of the voice and saw her. Seated at a small table in the corner was Doctor Xenia Xayasith. The woman’s long, luxuriant hair fell well past her shoulders. Her green eyes had a twinkle and her smile lit up the room. Xenia’s long, sinuous body was conspicuous even when seated. The woman was thick and thin in all the right places, and every curve or angle was pleasing to the eye.
He inclined his head and offered a smile, then walked dutifully toward her.
“Ah, Doctor Xayasith,” he said, his educated voice sounding very out of place in this room filled with seasoned space jockeys and marines.
“I saved you a seat,” Xenia said with a pleasant smile.
“You are a true gem of a lady,” Davis replied. “A veritable diamond amongst this rough and tumble clientele.”
She giggled softly. “Why thank you, Doctor. You’re a true gentleman. Shall we order?”
“Isn’t there a waiter or waitress? Or don’t we have to go up to the counter?”
“No, silly – just use the interface here. A drone waiter brings us what we order.”
“That’s not how it was before,” he protested, embarrassed at being so clueless.
“That’s because we hadn’t landed. Now, we have people engaged in their duties and preparing the outpost.”
“Well then,” he said, giving up. “Let’s order.”
They input their orders into the interface; burgers and soda with a side of fries. Davis supposed that this would allow them to talk without interruption from any wait staff.
Then, everyone’s attention shifted.
The café door opened, and Ken Royce walked in, his white-haired wife on his arm. The man had the commanding presence that only a rock star could. It did not matter that he was a lowly lieutenant aboard his own ship and that his wife and half the science team outranked him. He was Ken Royce. The rock and roll pilot had the admiring eyes of practically every woman in the café on his trim, muscular form. Even Xenia looked at him and sighed.
Ken Royce was cool. Nothing was manufactured or affected. The soldiers walked – Royce swaggered. Soldiers stood ramrod straight. Royce had a straight, but relaxed posture. His uniform accentuated rather than hid his muscular physique, while at the same time, not being tight or showy.
His white-haired wife had an unearthly beauty, and her tanzanite eyes looked up at him like he was a demigod, even as the men, and some women, in the room looked at her like she was a goddess made flesh. The two looked like they had just stepped out of a vid trailer or off of a space adventure book cover.
“She’s the experiment we seek to duplicate,” Xayasith reminded him.
“I suppose so,” he sighed, his ego defeated at the sight of the Royces. “We have all of the pieces in place.”
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about, Hutch. Once we move over to the lab, I will need my own dedicated laboratory for this experiment. You and I can be the only ones with access.”
“I … is that something we can do?”
“No, but it is something you can do.” She reached across and took his hand. “You are the head of the science team, Hutch – not Miss Reddy. You can have the labs configured however you wish. This project is vital, and you and I are the only ones who know just how vital. But if any of them knew ….”
“They’d shut us down before we could even get started,” he finished.
“Then, you know what must be done, Hutch.” She squeezed his hand. “I believe in you, Hutch. You’re amazing and inspiring!” Then, she blushed slightly. “It may sound silly, but you’re a hero to me. It should be you getting praise and accolades, not that flyboy.”
Hutch beamed at her praise. At last, he thought, someone who truly understands. Davis smiled back at her, feeling his cheeks redden.
“You flatter me, Xenia,” he tried to maintain his professionalism, but with her soft, warm hand holding his, Hutch felt like a schoolboy. “You’re an incredible woman, and they hinder you just because you’re a working scientist. I totally agree with you, Xenia. This project is ours. I will make the arrangements as soon as I get back to my cabin tonight.”
“Tonight?” Xenia flashed him a coy smile. “I thought maybe you’d do that in the morning … after you get back to your cabin.”
“Back to my cabin ….” He felt his face flush when he realized what she meant.
Xenia nodded and smiled. “Mm-hmm.”
He just smiled back at her, holding her hand as the food arrived. Hutch Davis felt like all his dreams were coming true. She held his gaze, her twinkling eyes and wide grin captivating him.
Xenia nodded again, continuing to smile. She had him. Now, Xenia Xayasith could get everything she wanted; and everything NessCorp wanted.
10
Doctor Biggs sat at the desk of his new office in the outpost. With the outpost now physically established, and drawing surface water for the occupants, the medical and science teams were finally able to move in their equipment and set up the infirmary and the labs. The modular buildings were a far cry from the advanced facilities back on Earth, and most of the equipment was for field work. In the coming months, supply ships would arrive and bring more building supplies and state of the art scientific equipment, but in the meantime, the Ceres outpost was very much a frontier settlement.
The first part of the outpost to be finished and operational was the infirmary. In the event of injuries or illness, something far more likely now that they were out of stasis and away from the protection of the ship, the infirmary had to be up and running. Because of this, Doctor Biggs had been able to move his things over first.
As the scientists and medical team set up, the engineers began to work on the auxiliary structures and outpost defenses. While Starfleet was the only presence on Ceres at this time, none had any illusions that pirates might not eventually follow them. Ceres was remote enough that pirates could attack and even take control of the outpost long before any reinforcements could arrive. Hence, defenses were part of the outpost plans.
The engineers were now constructing a formal landing area for shuttles, and a bay for the two new General Motors built J2000 “Rock Crusher” rovers, one of which the science team had taken to the crater where they would further study the egg. The team had left only assistants and one of the doctors to catalogue and study the samples from Ceres’ surface. Since another group would be coming now that the outpost was established, study of the crater took precedence.
While the engineers continued to build the landing area, the rest of the marines were engaged in a variety of tasks and duties. One group had gone with the science team, others were setting up defenses for the outpost at Jax’s insistence. Still others were transporting equipment from the Selene to the newly assembled buildings. The Starfleet crew remained on the ship by order of Captain Giffords.
While Kendrick and Fiona remained aboard the ship, Doctor Biggs decided that it was time to contact the captain. He was not sure that he would have the opportunity later, so he sent her a message requesting her presence in the outpost infir
mary to go over some medical issues with some of the crewmembers. He hoped that this would be vague enough not to arouse Fiona’s suspicions.
Fifteen minutes later, he heard the airlock in the modular building open to the outside, close and pressurize, then he heard the inner door open. Moments later, the doors to the infirmary opened, and Captain Giffords stepped inside.
“What is it, Doctor Biggs? I have a lot going on.”
Biggs nodded. “I understand, Captain, but I think you’ll want to see this.”
“See what?”
He angled his screen to face her. “The results of Doctor Fiona Kinsale-Royce’s scans and blood tests.”
The captain looked at the charts and her face drained of color.
“You see it too,” Biggs noted.
Giffords nodded. “I see it. It’s … far worse than I thought.”
“You don’t know the half of it. That woman can make more like her.”
The captain was silent for a long moment before responding, collecting her thoughts. Finally, she asked, “So … what do we do about it? Or do you think we need to do anything?”
“So far, she seems non-hostile, but if we actively tried to restrain her or otherwise confine her, that could change. In terms of the threat level she represents, most of it is long-term ramifications for humanity as a species. In the short term, she’s much stronger and tougher than she appears. I can’t say how strong—not without calling her in and asking her to show us, which I don’t recommend at this point.”
“Is she bulletproof?”
“You mean, can we kill her?” Biggs was a little surprised that the captain had gone there so quickly, but, she had a ship full of people for whom she was responsible.
“Yes; can we kill her if she goes rogue?”
Biggs nodded. “We can… but this woman is also a patient, and a fellow Starfleet doctor. Captain, she’s one of us.”
“Doctor Biggs, I have a science team off studying a giant space egg filled with hundreds of little eggs, none of which should have been floating in space—at least not by human understandings of how eggs work—and a team of marines that will be outnumbered by these creatures should they actually hatch.”
Biggs’s eyes widened at this. “How big are the eggs?”
“Approximately three decimeters in diameter, and four decimeters in length.”
“That isn’t that large …”
Captain Giffords stood, almost angrily. “Doctor, there are hundreds of those things! I’ve got a crew of people that I’m responsible for and I’m not going to take any chances! Those things hatch, there’s only one viable food source on this rock, and that’s us! If it were up to me, I’d have Royce blast it with masers from the air!” Then, she sighed and took her seat again. “But, it’s not up to me—Starfleet protocol gives our science officer authority on this until a defined threat to the ship and crew is identified, which hasn’t happened yet.”
“When you put it that way…”
“Yeah,” Giffords snorted. “And we don’t even know how effective our weapons are against them, or if they have any real defenses. Miss Reddy and the science team seem convinced that the military crew is just a bunch of gung-ho iguanas waiting to open fire on something at the first opportunity. It’s not true, but if it comes down to the safety of this crew, yes: I’ll obliterate those things. And don’t even get me started on what could happen if any of those things got aboard the ship and made the trip home to Earth.”
He felt his eyes go wide and the color drain from his face at this. Jacob Biggs had seen plenty of alien monster movies in his life, but those were all science fiction monsters. He never dreamed that the possibility could actually become real. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the outpost.
“Are the modular units breached?” Biggs asked, but the captain shook her head.
“That was outside!” She activated her com. “Royce, what the hell is going on?”
“One of our shuttles just blew up in the shuttle bay!”
“What? How?” Captain Giffords was now standing. “And what’s the damage to the Selene?”
“Heather and I are sounding the decks,” Royce said, “but the bay door is inoperative. Selene is showing damage to the port engine fuel lines, and four crewmen died in the explosion.”
Carol winced at that last part. Not even forty-eight hours on Ceres and four of her crew were dead. “Those poor people… so, we’ve got damage to fuel lines and the shuttle bay door; what does that mean for us?”
“It means we’re dead in the fucking water until we fix the damage, that’s what.”
Giffords was silent for a long moment, then asked, “Was it a bomb, or was the shuttle rigged to explode?”
“Don’t know yet,” Royce replied. “We’re still assessing the damage. I can’t see it bein’ no malfunction, though; shuttle was completely powered down. Not sayin’ it ain’t possible, but if you ask me—an’ Fiona agrees—I’d say we have a saboteur.”
Giffords let out a loud hiss. “Of all the times for something like this to happen—alright, Royce; keep me in the loop. Giffords out.”
She looked over at Doctor Biggs. “You just heard, so you know how bad this can get. Jax is signaling; probably wants to know what the hell is going on here. Have the Med-Bay ready to receive wounded should this go as sideways as I think it will.” With that, the captain turned and left.
11
“Almost have it…” Doctor Hutch Davis slowly extracted one of the eggs from the giant sack through the hole they had drilled into its surface.
Davis, Reddy and Xayasith, along with three of their research assistants, stood in the crater at the westerly side of the egg, clad in their space suits. Not far from them was a team of marines led by Lieutenant Fleischer. They had ridden to the crater in the new J2000 Rock Crusher. The ride out to the crater had been rather bouncy due to the rough surface and the lack of gravity, but now that they were here studying the egg and taking samples, the rover’s rough ride was all but forgotten.
Miss Reddy shook her head. “Are you certain we should be removing the eggs from within, Davis? I mean Jax does have a point about the safety of the crew … and us. I mean, keep in mind; we’re the only food source on the planet.”
Davis extracted the egg, saying, “There we are,” before placing it into a specimen container being held by one of his assistants; Steve Whitman. Whitman, a fresh-faced young man who had graduated at the top of his class, had landed the dream job of being Doctor Hutch Davis’s research assistant on the Ceres mission. Then Davis turned to Vanya.
“Mister Jax is not a scientist, Miss Reddy. We’ll never be able to study these things if we don’t get a sample.”
Vanya recalled their conversation the previous day, and while she actually did agree with him, her thoughts were colored by the knowledge that Davis seemed to be completely amoral with regards to the pursuit of science.
“What if the hole in the shell of this thing kills them?” Whitman asked.
Davis shook his head. “It might kill the ones near the hole, but our instruments show that they’re generating their own heat from within.”
“Still,” Vanya noted, “we should plug the hole with something. We did initiate experimentation on them, after all.”
“Agreed,” Davis replied before turning to his assistant. “Take the specimen to the rover, and then fill the hole with a silicone plug, Mister Whitman.”
“Right away,” his assistant replied before scurrying off to store the sample and retrieve a silicone plug kit.
“You geniuses sure you want to poke it this much?” The woman’s voice came through their helmets’ earpieces—as did her sarcasm when she used the word, geniuses.
Vanya and Hutch turned to see Lieutenant Fleischer standing a few meters away, rifle at the ready, flanked by two of her marines. “Giffords will shit a fucking brick when she sees that you’ve brought one of those things back to the lab!”
“We should probably use the lab aboard Selene,
” Davis noted. “It’s ….”
“No fucking way you’re bringing any of that shit aboard the Selene,” Fleischer barked.
“As science officer,” Vanya countered, suddenly closing ranks with Davis, “that’s my call!”
Fleischer shook her head. “We have orders to shoot anyone attempting to bring any of that shit aboard the Selene on sight.”
“You can tell Jax…” Vanya began, but Fleischer cut her off.
“This comes from Giffords, Miss Reddy. You have functioning labs at the outpost now, thanks to my engineers. Whatever shit you find on Ceres stays on Ceres. The team on Earth is already cleared for departure. If they want to make that bonehead move, it’ll be up to them, but it ain’t happening on my watch.” Fleischer shook her head and laughed derisively. “Commander Jax was right; you’re too smart for your own goddam good—and ours!”
Davis just smiled. “We can work with the modular labs, Lieutenant. No need to bring guns into the topic.”
The marine lieutenant lowered her weapon. Vanya relaxed, though her heart was still racing. She was unaccustomed to having guns pointed at her, even after the hijacking attempt. Vanya also had no doubt that Fleischer would make good on the promise to shoot anyone attempting to bring specimens aboard the Selene. She wanted to shout at the marine for such a display, but deep down, she knew that Giffords’ order was the right call.
“Understood, Lieutenant,” Vanya said with resignation. “All specimens stay in the labs here on Ceres.”
Fleischer seemed satisfied, but she and her marines remained vigilant. Vanya could not blame them. After all that had happened on the voyage to Ceres, everyone was a little on edge. Lives had already been lost. No need for more to be lost because of the science team letting down their guard. This egg was potentially dangerous, and Vanya was concerned that Doctor Davis seemed to ignore this fact.
The Silver Liner: Sails to the Edge! Page 5
