“In the event of an emergency we were supposed to head to our living quarters and strap down while we waited to be ejected in our life pods. My whole living area was meant to detach from the station and begin the descent to Dusk somewhere down in the dust fields for as soft of a landing as possible. I remember being scared out of my mind and feeling my heart race faster than I’ve ever felt in my life. I think I passed out because things started becoming really hazy, but I was also in such a panic that things get confusing when I try to remember it clearly.”
“In your mind, what was causing you the most distress when it happened?” Doctor Singh asked.
“Other than the whole station going into lock down and seeing people being trampled to death?” Erin asked sarcastically.
Doctor Singh glared at her and Erin fell into submission.
“Sorry…” Erin said grudgingly. “Look, I can’t pinpoint a specific thing that scared me the most. I was losing my mind and the whole station was rumbling with explosions…” Erin thought about it for a few seconds and eventually came up with her biggest fear. “I guess… the thing I was most scared of was getting spaced. Sometimes, whenever I looked outside my window, I would see the stars and feel a sense of pride that I had made it into space, but at the same time I never wanted to be out in that suffocating blackness. I think I saw a movie once as a kid where an astronaut got his line severed from the ship and he twirled out into infinity forever… alone. I never got that image out of my head as a kid and for the two decades I was aboard Sky Base 10, it was always there in the forethoughts of my mind.”
“Thank you for sharing that with me, Erin,” Doctor Singh said with a fragment of compassionate bedside manner. “Please continue. You were strapped into your life pod, you say?”
Erin nodded. “Yeah, I strapped myself down and hit the emergency button to confirm that I was ready to launch and that was when the lights went out. I wasn’t sure if it was part of the procedure or what, but I continued sitting there shaking like an idiot. Something then went through me like an electric current and the lights came back on. I think something discharged into me and I was trying to figure out what it was, but then everything in front of me began to slowly pull away and I was certain that I was finally launching. I honestly remember Sky Base 10 rushing away from me through my port window and I thought for sure that I had detached from the station, but I didn’t. I think it was a combination of fear and passing out to a vivid dream. I don’t know, can you have a hallucination brought on by fear?”
“It is rare, but not unheard of,” Doctor Singh admitted.
“That would make a lot of sense if that were the case…” Erin said weakly.
“You did not detach from the station; this much is clear and if not, then I would find it difficult to believe that you had positioned yourself in the wreckage with all your broken bones and burns covering your body. So, tell me, Erin. What happened?”
Erin continued to fidget beneath her bindings and it was clear that her discomfort originated somewhere beyond a physical realm. “When I came to, I was still strapped in and uhh… 20 days had passed…”
Doctor Singh nodded and jotted down a few notes. “Yes, I read about this claim in the report I received from nurse Hisaishi. He said that it could not be true and quite frankly, Erin, I agree with him. 20 days is a long time to lay dormant. Any normal person would have died under such circumstances.”
“I know…” Erin admitted. “I’m not lying though. It felt like a blink of the eye to me, but everyone I met after that kept telling me how long I had been stuck in my room for and I had to believe them. Besides… That station had changed so much that I could only be led to believe that I was out for nearly three weeks.”
“What sort of condition were you in when you awoke?” Doctor Singh asked.
Erin grimaced. “Not a good one, I’ll tell you that. I was nearly dead from starvation and thirst. I was barely able to move and there was an infection running rampant down my legs where all my bodily waste had been pooling for weeks. I tried to move several times, but my body was stiff and incapable of doing so. I felt like I was completely congealed on the inside and it was a really gross feeling that I would rather not remember. Parts of my body had begun to decay and the burning sensation I felt in my infections made me want to scream… I remember feeling so sickly and vile that I wished I was dead…”
“And how did you escape?” Doctor Singh prodded.
“Major Tom found me,” Erin said shortly.
Doctor Singh nodded and jotted down some more notes. “Yes, I have heard you mention this name before. We did a check and found his name on the registry. He was a decorated soldier and he had even been honored at the end of the last colonial war. I must admit that I find it odd for a war hero to be working security on a run-down space station that was being considered for decommission.”
“Maybe he was looking for quiet work,” Erin guessed. “Sky Base 10 was certainly dull and to him, it must have seemed far away from the horrors of a colonial war. If you ask me, he seemed more interested in keeping the peace than firing a weapon, but I never asked him personally. It was just the impression I got.”
“I see…” Doctor Singh said in thought. “Let us move on. How did Major Tom find you? Did you call for help or…?”
Erin shook her head slightly. “No, I couldn’t speak at all and I was quite hazy. What had snapped me awake was the sound of metal grinding and twisting outside my door. There were voices out in the hall and I tried to call for help, but only a woefully small moan escaped my throat. I eventually mustered up the strength to move my atrophied arms enough to nudge some debris off my armrest and onto the floor and it managed to make enough noise for the voices to quiet down and a flashlight to shine through the bulkhead window of my door. The light hurt my eyes, but I stared into it so I could let them know that I was alive and wanted out of that festering pit. I smelled so bad that even I noticed it and by all rights, I should have been accustomed to it if I had been breathing in my own funk for 20 days, but it was honestly that awful and if I had anything in my stomach, I’m sure I would have thrown up all over myself several times.”
“Could you go into more detail about your physical condition?” Doctor Singh asked.
“I’m not too sure,” Erin admitted. “It was a lot like when I woke up here. I was infirmed and barely responsive. I hardly knew where I was and a lot of things happened to me that were out of my power.”
“I need you to try. It is important that I know as much about your history as I can in order to grasp this situation,” Doctor Singh reasoned.
“Is this for my benefit or to satisfy your own curiosity?” Erin asked slyly. “Your questions seem to be straying away from medical relevance. I guess it’s not every day that the latest biohazard gets wheeled into your examination room. I bet someone could easily profit off of my story…”
Doctor Singh glared at her once more, but it did not have the same effect as it did last time. Erin was wise to the world and could easily look into the Doctor’s soul and get a glimpse of the truth. Doctor Singh stayed quiet and Erin took that as her victory.
“Look doc, all I can tell you is what I know for sure and adding exaggeration or speculation won’t help anyone. I was weak, weaker than I had ever been in my entire life. I couldn’t stand on my own and it was Major Tom and his search party that carried me to the med bay. Once I was hooked up to the IV, I think I slept for another two days as the doctors worked on me. I was a mess. They couldn’t believe I was alive, especially when you take into consideration that most humans would die of thirst before a week was up. I wasn’t the only one they found, though. The med bay was full of people that were just as withered and starved as I was. Some of the people that were rescued early on made it, but most of the people that were found after the fifth day, died before their treatment could take effect. The doctors later told me that searches had stopped after the second week and that my being alive was a miracle, although, I think they w
ere trying to make me feel better about my legs needing to be amputated.”
Doctor Singh could not help but turn her gaze down towards Erin’s missing legs and take a moment to assess the damage. “Do you resent what the doctors did to you?”
Erin grimaced and thought about it in the most honest way she could. “Maybe at first I did. I certainly wasn’t happy about it. I mean, it took a long time to get used to. Under normal circumstances they probably could have saved my legs with surgery and antibiotics, but with the overflow of patients and an unknown amount of supplies available, it was dictated that desperate measures needed to be taken and if I was in their shoes, I may have made the same call. My heart was pumping poisonous blood through me and it was all coming from my slowly decomposing legs, so I understood how it was, how it needed to be, but I was still depressed for weeks. I tried to look on the bright side, sort of like not having to shave my legs anymore, but the loss still hurt quite a bit. I guess I shouldn’t complain, the doctors were doing the best they could with the limited options they were given and I think they chose the most logical route.”
“Were you satisfied with the outcome of your treatment?” Doctor Singh asked.
“I guess so…” Erin said noncommittally. “I did feel a little dejected at first, but it’s hard not to when you think that the universe is working against you. I’ll admit it, I was self-involved and I didn’t really notice everyone else’s suffering at the time and I was fairly bitter about it. They gave me a wheelchair while I waited for the 3D printer to make my prosthetics and I was kind of shoved into a corner and forgotten about for nearly a week. That wheelchair was useless by the way. Sky Base 10 looked as though a violent earthquake had hit it and power was out all throughout the station. I could barely move anywhere beyond the medical bay and I ended up going a bit stir crazy. I’m getting a little stir crazy right now to be honest…”
“Would you like to take a short break?” Doctor Singh offered.
“Sure. I’m kind of thirsty and I wouldn’t mind seeing Joe again,” Erin said casually.
“Nurse Hisaishi? Do you prefer him?” Doctor Singh asked.
“Yeah, he’s a nice guy and… well… Just between us more refined ladies, I think he’s kind of a cute young thing. Don’t you agree?” Erin asked with a sly smile.
“I am a professional, Misses Wilco. I do not mingle with my staff on an intimate level,” Doctor Singh said coldly.
Erin’s smile grew wider and slyer. “That’s not what I asked you, Doctor Singh.”
Chapter 04 – Forsaken Space Station
Doctor Singh was uploading the latest recording onto her computer while also looking up Major Tom’s profile. Despite what she had told Erin, Major Tom was not, in fact, on the registry for Sky Base 10. He was supposed to be planet side and had been since the end of the colonial wars. She had purposefully lied to Erin about that piece of information and Erin had not even blinked an eye when she was told the fabrication. She accepted it as truth and moved on without a second thought. Doctor Singh’s outside sources were busy looking for the Major, but the guy was not at his home and it looked as though he had been missing for months.
That put two people in the category of not being on the registry for Sky Base 10 and one of them was sitting in quarantine and talking about the other. By the description that Erin had given nurse Hisaishi, it was possible that Erin may have met the Major at some point, but he had also been a war hero and it was not exactly difficult to find his images online. A small part of Doctor Singh wished that Erin was crazy and if her outside sources in the media could track down the Major and find him to be alive and well, then Erin’s story would immediately be blown out of the water and she could stop wasting her time with another crazy, but until then, she wasn’t. With Major Tom missing, there were an unknown amount of possibilities and Doctor Singh was nearly ready to pull out her trump card and lay it on the table to buy herself some time. A little piece of information that only she and no one else knew at that moment.
There was a knock on her office door and soon a man of Japanese descent walked through the door wearing his scrubs. “Hey, Doctor Singh. Misses Wilco is cleaned up and ready for round two.”
“Thank you, Joe. Did she say anything interesting to you?” she inquired.
Joe shrugged. “Same old stuff. Small talk and what not. I think she made a pass at me, but I could be mistaken.”
“Nothing more about the events on Sky Base 10?” Doctor Singh asked.
“She’s uhh… I don’t think she’s comfortable talking about it, quite honestly. I will say this though; she’s obviously well educated. More than I’d expect from a janitor. If you try talking to her about science and politics, she’ll light up and start gabbing away.”
“Anything else?” Doctor Singh prodded.
Joe gave it some thought and he eventually shook his head. “Nah, nothing much that can help you, other than saying that if she is crazy, then she’s a charming type of crazy that knows her stuff. Sort of like Hector from years back. Do you remember him?”
“He nearly strangled me to death,” Doctor Singh said coldly.
“Oh… Right… I forgot that you were the doctor on that case,” Joe said bashfully. “I thought it was Doctor Holtz for some reason.”
“It was Doctor Holtz,” Doctor Singh clarified. “But he grew ill and I replaced him for the last three weeks of Hector’s treatment.”
“Right, right,” Joe said as it came back to him. “Well, luckily Misses Wilco is strapped down, so the risk of a surprise strangling will be quite low this time around. Are you sure you don’t want me in the room during the exam? I know that you can handle yourself and everything, but safety in numbers, right?” Joe suggested.
Doctor Singh just shook her head passively. “I prefer to work without distractions.”
Joe shrugged casually. “Alright, but the offer is there if you need it, doc.”
“Thank you, Joe. The sentiment is appreciated,” she said in an unfeeling tone.
Doctor Singh left her office with her clipboard in hand and repeated her usual routine to enter Erin’s room. She wished to take Erin out of quarantine to avoid the hassle, but with the amount of attempts that had been made on Erin’s life, she needed a bulletproof prison more than anything else at that moment. She was somewhat surprised to see Erin humming to herself in delight and looking rather smug. It was odd because it was not often that one could see a burn victim smile, but that usually meant that the painkillers were taking effect.
“You seem happy,” Doctor Singh said conversationally.
“Yeah, I like Joe,” Erin said with glee. “He’s a good kid and when he was moving me earlier, I think we accidentally made it to second base. I’m a lucky girl. It’s probably the last bit of action I’ll ever receive.”
“Likely, but not definite,” Doctor Singh said with a noncommittal tone.
“What does that mean?” Erin asked.
Doctor Singh sighed as she jotted down a few notes. “It means that nothing is truly set in stone, Misses Wilco. One never knows what the future may hold. I know I don’t look it or even remotely sound like it, but I am, in fact, an optimist.”
Erin let out a small laugh. “Well, you’re a hell of a lot more optimistic than I am. Do you know something I don’t? Because I’ve got a moon colony that wants me dead and I don’t have a ship off this rock, let alone a plan to get out of here. I don’t even have my legs attached… I guess I should mention that I’m getting phantom pains again. I can feel my calves tingling which I doubt will ever stop being weird.”
“You know that I am bound by protocol, Misses Wilco,” Doctor Singh said in a dull tone. “I can send a thousand requests to reattach your legs and wire up the artificial nerves, but the powers that be, will not allow it. Convicted criminals have very few rights on Dusk and quite frankly I agree with such procedures. This is a dangerous line of work not just for me, but everyone working in this hospital.”
“Do you really find me
that dangerous?” Erin asked with a smirk.
“That is what I am here to determine. Would you like to continue where we left off?” Doctor Singh asked.
“Sure,” Erin said as she pushed her chest out and cracked her spine beneath the bindings. Her eyes nearly rolled back in ecstasy. “Oh my god… I have been trying to crack my back for days now. You have no idea how good that felt.”
“I am happy for you,” Doctor Singh said with clear disinterest. “You said that you were confined to a wheelchair and unable to move as freely as you wished. I would like to know more about the situation you found yourself in.”
Erin chewed her lip for a few seconds as she went back into the depths of her mind. “Well, many parts of the station were inaccessible due to fallen debris. I think I described it earlier as looking like an earthquake hit the station, but maybe a tornado is a better way to put it. I wasn’t awake for it, but I heard that gravity had turned on and off several times and it was making the clean up efforts difficult and dangerous.”
“How so?” Doctor Singh asked.
Erin scoffed. “Would you like to be floating down a corridor with a ton of scrap metal trailing behind you when the gravity suddenly turned back on without warning?”
“Good point. Please continue,” Doctor Singh goaded.
“It was through communications that we discovered our section was one of the least affected areas in the incident, so I guess I should have counted myself as lucky. Our gravity seemed to be the most stable, though we did have a couple of malfunctions here and there, and we also had a decent reserve of supplies because our medical bay and a bunch of restaurants were pretty much spared in the explosions. I heard that section twelve was apparently a horror show, but I never saw it personally. I can’t give you an accurate number, but I think it is safe to say that over 90% were dead within the first two days of the meltdown and for those that had survived, they found themselves wedged between two supply zones with no hope of reaching them without help.”
Romeo Delta 2 Page 3
