Darwin

by Amanda Bridgeman

  “Welles, you and I go first and we cross-cover. Colt, you follow and watch our back. Stay close to the ship. Do not go out in the open!”

  They both nodded in return.

  “Okay … one, two, three!” Hunter hit the lever and both he and Carrie aimed their weapons out the door.

  *

  Harris looked over at Brown.

  “It’s not working, captain. It won’t read it for some reason,” he said, looking down at his equipment, as static continued to filled their ears.

  “Don’t stop. Keep working on it,” Harris barked.

  “Flight deck, do you copy? Over,” Doc called again into his mouthpiece, as he paced the room, eyeing Harris with concern.

  Harris could feel himself mirroring the concern, while that funny feeling settled into his stomach again.

  “It might not just be us, captain,” Doc told him. “McKinley’s team could be running blind too.”

  *

  Carrie, Hunter and Colt slowly made their way onto the dock. Carrie’s eyes darted about everywhere, searching for a target. Then she paused and held very still, focusing on one spot, waiting for something to move around in her peripheral vision. Nothing. She made eye contact with Hunter and he nodded at Colt to hit the lever and close the door behind them.

  They made their way along the dock slowly, around to the front of the ship, sticking close to it as Hunter ordered. There were no signs of any of the survivors. Everything was quiet, the dock deserted. They reached the front of the ship and looked over at the external power source on the wall of the Darwin. It seemed okay from a distance, the lights flashing normally. Hunter then followed the power source cable to where it was connected to the ship, beside the anchor. It looked as though it was still coupled, but Carrie only glanced at it, quickly turning around to scan their perimeter again.

  “Cover me,” Hunter said, as he tucked his weapon down the back of his pants and knelt down to get a closer look. Carrie and Colt watched either side of the ship. Carrie’s eyes darted about looking for a target, then she paused again, focusing on the one spot. Still no movement in her periphery.

  “External power source is fine, so it has got to be something in here,” Hunter said quietly, as though to himself, poking and prodding around the anchor. After a minute or so he hissed, then stood and turned around to them. “Fucking connector chip’s gone. They’ve ripped it out!”

  Just then, something heavy collided with Hunter in a sickening thud, knocking him down to the ground. It was Fairmont. He’d come from on top of the ship. Carrie flashed her gun up to see if there were more, but saw no-one. She spun back around and tried to take aim as the two rolled about wrestling on the ground. Her eyes shot up to Colt, who was trying to take aim herself, and saw Grolsh quickly moving up behind her. For a nanosecond Carrie froze at the sight of his scratched face, a shiver shooting down her spine.

  “LOOK OUT,” she yelled at Colt, then quickly spun around to check whether someone was creeping up behind her as well. No-one. She turned back to Colt and saw her struggling with Grolsh over her gun. A hail of bullets fired, ricocheting off the ship’s protective coating, sending Carrie scrambling for cover. She saw Fairmont throw a hard punch at Hunter’s already bloodied face, knocking him onto his back, barely three meters in front of her. In one swift movement, he grabbed Hunter’s arm and twisted it, snapping it like a twig. Hunter screamed in pain and looked down at the bone protruding slightly from his arm. As Fairmont knelt over him, Carrie saw a clean shot and fired. It caught him in the shoulder. He grunted in pain and reeled back. Fairmont looked down at his wound, flashed her a ferocious look, then growled as he swiftly got to his feet and lunged for her. Heart racing, she quickly took aim again and fired. She saw part of his head blow away, then his body swirled and fell limp to the ground with a thud.

  Hunter glanced at Fairmont’s body, then shot Carrie a surprised yet grateful look. With teeth clenched, he grabbed the gun out of his pants with his good arm, groaning in pain as he did. Carrie turned back to Grolsh and Colt. Grolsh was behind her, his arm around her neck, her nose bloodied and he was pointing her gun at Carrie. He started shooting and she ducked back for cover. She saw Hunter scrambling for cover too, pulling himself along with one arm, trying to get to his feet. She stepped out to cover him, but Grolsh fired again sending her back. Then she heard more gunfire and saw Hunter’s body bounce in unison.

  “NO!” she screamed.

  She watched in horror as his body slumped to the ground and pools of blood quickly formed over the back of his good arm and the side of his thigh.

  *

  Harris saw Louis straighten and look carefully down the corridor.

  “What the fuck was that?” Louis blurted.

  Harris stared hard at him. “What?”

  “It sounded like gunfire,” Louis said.

  “Where?”

  They all stopped and listened. They heard it again.

  “It’s coming from the dock!” Louis exclaimed.

  “The dock?!” Harris asked. “Fuck! Fall out! FALL OUT.”

  *

  Carrie watched as Grolsh started to back away, dragging Colt with him. She couldn’t let him take her. Panicking, she stepped out and started firing around him to try and scare him.

  “DROP HER,” she yelled.

  Grolsh held Colt tight in front of him and started shooting back, and again Carrie was forced to duck for cover. Colt continued struggling with him, as he tried to drag her away. She started flailing her elbows at his ribs and scratching at his face. Whilst Grolsh was distracted, Carrie slowly stepped out and tried to take aim again. He saw her making her move, though. He went to raise the gun back up to her, but Colt knocked it out of the way and they began to struggle with it again. As they did, more shots fired and ricocheted off the Aurora. Suddenly she saw Colt’s body bounce and swing back. Grolsh looked down at her, wide-eyed and pulled her body back up to face him. Blood quickly oozed across Colt’s neck and down her arm.

  “NO! COLT,” she screamed.

  “FREEZE!” she heard another voice shout, and turned to see McKinley at the open exit door with his gun on Grolsh. Bolkov and Carter were behind him.

  Grolsh looked a little panicked now, his eyes darting between Carrie and McKinley. He kept moving back slowly toward the second emergency exit on the dock, keeping Colt’s limp body close to his. Carrie saw him suddenly look up high, as a rain of laser fire hailed down upon them. McKinley was forced to retreat back into the first emergency exit and shut the door. Carrie took cover alongside the ship and when she looked back at Grolsh, saw him dump Colt’s body to the ground and disappear through the second door, which had somehow opened for him.

  “COLT,” Carrie yelled, as Harris’s team appeared at the main entrance of the Darwin. They were looking around the dock, guns in the air, then over at Carrie and the three bodies lying on the dock with her. Doc immediately ran over to Colt and knelt down beside her.

  Carrie heard Hunter gargle in pain, where he lay on the floor. She dropped her eyes from Colt and rushed forward to him. She rolled him over and he opened his eyes, groaning, his face bloody, bruised and swollen. She saw McKinley was back out and both his and Harris’s teams were providing cover, so she tucked her weapon away and placed her hands over Hunter’s arm and leg to stop the bleeding. She looked over at Doc, who lifted Colt’s body off the ground and handed her to Brown, who began running toward the Aurora with Louis in tow providing cover. Doc turned and ran low toward Carrie, glancing over at Fairmont’s body as he did. He dropped down by Hunter’s side and saw the bone protruding from his arm and Carrie’s hands on his bloodied bullet wounds.

  “We have to get him inside,” he told her hurriedly.

  Bolkov ran over to them, from McKinley’s exit door.

  “Help me get him inside, Bulk,” Doc called out, then he turned to Carrie. “Try and keep your hands there.”

  Bolkov grabbed Hunter’s torso and Doc grabbed h
is legs and they lifted him up, as he groaned loudly in pain.

  *

  Harris watched as Doc, Bulk and Welles rushed Hunter onto the Aurora. He’d heard Hunter groaning in pain. That was a good sign. That meant he was still alive. He looked over at McKinley who was scouring the walls of the dock, looking for someone, as he slowly made his way over to him.

  “What the fuck happened?” Harris asked, standing next to Fairmont’s dead body, as his eyes and weapon still searched the walls for a target.

  “I don’t know. We heard gunfire, got the door open and saw Grolsh and Colt struggling, then him trying to take off using her as a shield,” McKinley said looking down curiously at Fairmont’s body. “I think he went through that exit.” He pointed to the opposite door from which he’d come.

  “We need to get to that fuckin’ hiding space!” Harris hissed. “Did you have any luck?”

  McKinley shook his head, just as Bolkov came running back off the ship.

  “Captain! You come quick!” he yelled.

  21

  Shards of Glass

  Carrie watched as Aurora’s hospital became a flurry of activity. Everyone was apprehensive after discovering Doc’s examination room had been ransacked. At least, the fluids had been. Chet and Logan must’ve boarded the ship somehow while they’d been checking the external power source. The glass cabinet had been smashed and many of the bottles stolen. The medical store across the corridor had been raided as well, its sliding door left ajar.

  Hunter was placed on one of the beds and Carrie was told to keep applying pressure to his wounds, while Doc quickly gave him a shot of morphine. He then tended to Colt, who was moaning in pain. The blood had soaked down the entire arm of her shirt and over her chest.

  “Is she going to be okay?” Carrie asked.

  “She’s been hit in the side of her neck. She’s damn lucky it missed her artery,” he said, as he gave her a shot of morphine too. “Brown, keep holding the wound and keep her torso elevated. I gotta fix Hunter first. He’s bleeding from three wounds.”

  Harris and Bolkov came striding into the hospital. Bolkov showed him the smashed glass and Harris examined the area closely.

  “How the hell did they get in?” he asked no-one in particular, then turned to Doc. “You locked the rooms, right?”

  Doc nodded hurriedly, not looking up from his patient.

  A sudden thought struck Carrie. “Where’s Packham?” she asked, worriedly. “Is she still on the flight deck?”

  “Bulk, check it out,” Harris ordered, and Bolkov left the room. “Doc, what was taken?”

  “I don’t know yet. I’m a little busy here,” The medic answered tightly, gathering together some tools to dig out Hunter’s bullets.

  “Welles, what happened?” Harris strode toward her. “Why did you leave the ship?”

  “They blacked us out.”

  “The ship?” he asked.

  “The power went out and the comms wouldn’t come back up. Colt checked down below, but everything was fine. Hunter had to check the external power source, so Colt and I covered him. We didn’t want to leave you guys blind out there.”

  “So what happened?”

  “They were hiding on the nose of the ship. Fairmont jumped Hunter and Grolsh got Colt.”

  “You kill Fairmont?”

  Carrie nodded. “Yeah. I tried to just wound him first, but he came at me. I had no choice.”

  “That’s fine, corporal,” Harris dismissed it quickly. “You did what you had to. Did Hunter figure out what was wrong with the comms?”

  “He said they’d ripped out the connector chip.”

  The captain nodded, glanced at the cabinet again briefly, then left the room.

  *

  Harris quickly caught up with Bolkov as he approached the door to the flight deck. They both paused when they noticed the door looked slightly dented, although it still appeared to be locked. He exchanged a look with Bulk, as they raised their weapons in readiness. Harris banged on the door.

  “Open up! This is Captain Harris,” he bellowed. He had the entry code but he wanted to see what the response was.

  After a few moments they heard the door unlock and it opened. Packham stood there with her gun pointed at them, albeit shakily. Harris held out his hand to her. “Relax, sergeant. It’s alright.”

  She dropped her gun. “Where’re the others?”

  “Hunter and Colt are down,” he said, walking onto the flight deck and looking around. “Welles is in the hospital helping out. You know what happened?” He turned back around to face her. She looked nervous. Or was that shaken?

  “We had a power blackout and the comms died. They went to check the external power source and that’s the last I saw of them.”

  “Did you know the survivors were on the ship?” Harris asked her.

  She nodded, her face looking paler than normal. “They were at the flight deck door. They were ramming it, trying to get in … but they went away.”

  Harris continued eyeing her for a moment, thinking.

  “Bulk,” he turned to the Russian, “get over to the console and do a scan on the heat sensors, and make sure there’s no-one else still on the ship, then I want you to see if you can fix the blackout problem. I’ll get Brown and Carter out on the external power source. Apparently the connector chip’s gone.”

  “Yes, sir.” He nodded, then moved over to the console and began tapping away.

  “Captain, are they going to be okay?” Packham asked.

  “I don’t know, but go to the hospital and relieve Brown. I need him out here,” he said.

  “Scan is clear, captain,” Bolkov announced. “Hospital is only room picking up heat.”

  “Good,” Harris answered, leaving the flight deck.

  He walked off the ship and back to where McKinley, Carter and Louis were, keeping their eyes peeled for the survivors.

  “Carter, I need you and Brown to try and fix this external power source. Apparently the connector chip’s missing. McKinley, you and Louis cover them. Keep your eyes sharp!”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Harris made his way back onto the ship, noticing that the Aurora’s entrance looked untouched. There were no signs of a forced entry. After studying the dented flight deck door again, and thinking to himself that Packham was lucky to be alive, he then made his way back down to the hospital. He wanted to take another look at Doc’s examination room. It would seem the survivors got on the ship specifically for one thing and as far as Harris could tell, it was something in Doc’s cabinet. As he approached the medic’s rooms, he stopped to study the medical store across the corridor. The door was ajar and the shelves the vials of fluids had been on were empty, with one or two of the bottles smashed on the floor.

  He walked into Doc’s office, glancing into the hospital to see Packham holding a bloodied bandage over Colt’s neck and Doc and Welles attending to Hunter, whose leg was bandaged and hanging out of his cut up clothing. Harris turned into the examination room and took a good look around. His feet crunched over the broken glass as he made his way to the cabinet. There appeared to be only one type of fluid taken. He guessed it was the same fluid that Doc had been injecting them with. Why on Earth would they want that? Did this have something to do with the experiment? Or was it something else?

  He turned and walked back into the hospital. “How they doing, Doc?”

  His lieutenant looked up at him, face somewhat strained. “I’ve got them both high on morphine. I’ve just fished a bullet out of Hunter’s leg, but it hadn’t gone too deep. The one in his arm went right through, so I’m just trying to patch it up now. Next, I’ll try and fish the one out of Colt’s neck, but it looks tricky. Then I’m going to try and set Hunter’s arm.”

  “So they’ll be okay?”

  “Well, we’re going to need to get them to a fully functional hospital; Hunter’s arm is fucked and if I can’t get that bullet out of Colt … I’m going to l
ock them both in a pod to keep them stable until we can get them to one.”

  Harris nodded grimly, just as Brown’s voice came over the PA.

  “Captain, this is Brown on the flight deck. Internal comms have been restored, but we got bigger problems. Over.”

  Harris and Doc exchanged a look, then Harris moved over to the intercom. “What is it, Brown?”

  “Well, firstly, there must have been some sort of surge during the blackout and it’s sucked a lot of power out of the Aurora’s cells. We’re currently sitting on only 9%. We’ve inserted a spare connector chip, but still can’t reconnect to the external power supply which means we’re running down those power cells as we speak. Bulk seems to think that they’ve put a block on us, to prevent us hooking back up. The block also excludes any external comms.”

  “So what does that mean?” Harris stared at the intercom on the wall, trying to ignore the crawling feeling along his spine.

  “Well, for one, it means that we can’t contact Command for help. It also means that if we can’t reconnect to the external power supply, we’ll run down the Aurora’s power cells and the ship won’t be able to take off, let alone make it home. Basically, as it stands, we’re grounded and we’re going to run out of power well before the other team arrives.”

  Harris shot Doc another look. “How long?” He spoke into the intercom, trying to keep his voice strong and steady.

  “I’d say we’ve got approximately seven hours left before we run out, and about another 40 hours on top of that before the other team arrives.”

  Harris exchanged a look with Doc.

  “The pods need power,” he said. “They can run on battery only so long.”

  Fuck! Harris hissed inside his mind.

  “So how do we fix it?” Harris spoke into the intercom.

  Bolkov’s voice came over the PA then. “Captain, we’ll need to go to Darwin’s control room and try and remove block, but it’s not simple task. We’ll need to decipher their security codes to access the system. This could take hours, captain.”