A short way down the corridor the lighting disappeared, replaced with small overhead emergency lights that glowed faintly against the pressing black. Atmosphere wafted upwards from the floor vents, the anti-slip material beneath disappearing in some spots all together. The light grey became splotched, with splatter trailing down the walls to more body bags taking up space on the floor, these much less organized than those at the entrance. Ahead of them a single gurney lay toppled on its side, a still corpse lying next to it with an IV unit still attached at the arm. As they passed, dead eyes stared up at them from a bloated face, grey splotched with purple and brown.
The makeshift triage spread from one end of the hall to the other, a patchwork of blood and gore littered with body bags and corpses. Above, a ventilation pipe hung down, hissing angrily as it spit condensation at their feet as they passed.
Wilkes stepped past, his arms trembling as he realized that his hands had cramped up from squeezing the grip on his rifle. He could feel the flesh beneath his suit covered in a layer of sweat, hot and clammy. There was a crippling uneasiness clawing at him and he fought desperately against the urge to turn around and run as fast as he could back to the ship. The station dug into him; peeled at his suit, and every corpse he walked past was waiting to spring to life and tear him from his suit to devour him. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, the blood beating heavily against his eardrums, and he knew that he was going to burst at any moment. Then Sarge’s voice snapped across the comms and pulled him back to the dimly lit hallway he was in, the panic slowly releasing its grip around his throat.
“Administrations is on the left. Let’s see if Lanskey has found anything out. Then we’ll get Mr. impatient here to the director’s office. After that, I think it’s safe to say, we can get the hell of this rock. I don’t wanna be here one second more than I have to, and it doesn’t look like there’s anything left for us to see.”
Wilkes exhaled deeply at Sarge’s words. ‘Thank you…’
Twenty feet later they were making their way into the administration’s section. A series of office style doors lined the short hallway, with a single door at the end that read Director Thomas on a small plaque above.
They made their way to the door and paused, exchanging glances before Fascio reached out and pressed the door switch. With a hiss it slid to the side and the small room opened up before them.
Lanskey turned quickly in her chair, Dom spinning at the sound of the door activating, his finger jerking against the trigger instinctively before he heard the intruder shout across his comm.
Fascio jerked to the side, shouting, “Jesus Christ Dom! It’s us,” as the other jerked his arm at the last second, sending a stray round blasting against the wall next to the door. “Fuck!”
“God damnit Fascio,” Dom yelled, lowering his rifle as he stepped towards the door. “Fucking tell me when you’re gonna sneak up on us like that. I almost dropped you just now.”
“What in the HELL are you thinking Marine?” Baker stepped into the room with anger blazing in his gaze. “You pull that shit again and I swear to God I’ll shoot you myself.” He paused, turning to the other directly behind him. “Wilkes, would you kindly relieve DiLeonardo of his firearm.”
“Sarge?” Dom said, starting to object, but instantly ceasing his plea as he saw the anger burning behind his sergeant’s eyes. He’d messed up, and regardless of his fear, or the state or their mission and the facility around them, had he shot at one of his fellow soldiers… He held out his rifle as Wilkes stepped over to him.
“Sorry man,” Wilkes mouthed as he took the soldier’s rifle and stepped back to the sergeant.
“You wait your ass in that hallway,” Baker growled. He didn’t even want Dom in the same room at the moment, and wrestled heavy against the urge to punch him in the side of the face as he walked past. If he had lost a man at the hands of one of his own… ‘Fucking idiot…’ He pushed the thought back and turned his attention back to Lanskey, taking a deep breath and waiting for the footsteps to disappear behind him before speaking. “What do you got for us doc?”
“I didn’t find anything at first Sarge, just the usual reports of space-sickness associated with atmospheric conditioning, and the common cold. Normal things that occur with the adjustment to deep space living. But then things began to get interesting. Right around the time they began unearthing whatever it is that they found, reports started coming in of patients experiencing severe headaches, disorientation and hallucinations. I have cases here of patients hearing voices, seeing relatives and friends they say had died years prior.” She paused, staring at Baker for a moment before continuing. “There is one thing that they all seem to have in common though. Every person reported hearing some type of whispering. Like a faint voice they couldn’t quite understand. I don’t think this is related to faulty atmospheric processing or artificial environment, and I ruled out classic isolation sickness; or cabin fever by simple terms.” She turned back to the console and pulled up a string of reports; dozens of names scrolling down the page. “A short time after these reports began coming in, the instances of physical injuries and suicide began to rise. Then a week after it skyrocketed. The doctors on the facility began treating more patients than they could handle. It looks like they were almost out of supplies even before the main outbreak occurred.”
“My question, is why was none of this reported?” Baker asked, his gaze moving to the names still scrolling downwards. “Why did none of this get out? Nobody thought to tell the company what was going on?”
“My only thought was that someone sabotaged the communications array before anyone had a chance to.”
“But why the hell would someone do that?” Baker paused, taking a deep breath as he stared at the console.
“None of this makes sense.”
“That’s not all sergeant. I found something else.” Baker lifted his gaze.
“All the patients reported seeing something in the facility; a shimmer of some sort, or, ripple in the atmosphere. There are dozens of reports, all describing the same thing in different ways, but the same thing none the less. Maybe something went wrong with environmental, maybe the atmosphere mixture was tampered with, I don’t know, but shortly after that the reports stopped.”
“People stopped seeing whatever it was they were seeing?”
Silence worked between them as Lanskey stared into his eyes.
“No. There were no more doctors to file them.”
Baker took everything in, his gaze moving to the screen in front of him as the names scrolling downwards stopped, a curser blinking at the bottom of the last name; Wierzbowski. “Talmadge,” he said after a moment, his eyes still locked to the screen. “You know more about this station than any of us. Would it be possible for something like that to happen? Could someone have tampered with atmosphere controls or environment, other than obviously shutting it off?”
“No,” Talmadge replied quietly from the doorway. “The canisters used to create the atmosphere are premixed on earth, and the converters that are designed to kick in after they run out, simply convert the planet’s atmosphere into a breathable atmosphere in the station. There’s no way for anyone to alter that. There’s not even a backdoor in programming. It was sealed before the station went online.”
“Doc?”
“I have to side with Talmadge on this one. Even if someone could have tampered with the environmental systems in here, there has never been anything recorded that would lead me to believe what has occurred here, was environment or atmosphere related. This had to be something else.”
“Sarge…”
Vuong’s voice cracked through the comms unit, pulling his attention away from the screen in front.
“I read you, what have you got for me?”
“You should to get back to security. There’s something I think you need to see.”
“What is it Vuong?” Baker asked, the tone behind the other’s voice raising the hairs at the base of his scalp.
“I’ve accessed the station-wide surveillance archives.”
There was a pause; deep silence hanging in the air as Baker waited for him to continue.
“Just… I don’t think I can describe it. You should really get back here.”
The knot twisting in his gut wrenched tighter as the skin across his back pulled taught. “Hold tight. We’re on our way.”
Baker looked to Lanskey who was still watching him over her shoulder, one hand poised on the keyboard. “You mentioned you had no belief this thing was airborne right? You don’t believe this is something communicable?”
Lanskey shook her head. “No sir. There’s no recorded traces of toxins, or any airborne anomalies on any of the sensors. Whatever’s caused this, it’s something else.”
“Ok. Good. Then it’s safe to assume we no longer need the suits?”
“Atmosphere is one hundred percent and environment has already begun leveling out. It’s still gonna be a little chilly for a while, but yes, I’d say we’re about as safe as we’re going to be in here.”
Baker clicked to an open channel. “All right everyone, you heard the lady. Let's stow these suits. We may need what’s left in the tanks later. Corlin, Hawkes, what’s your status?”
“En route Sarge,” Corlin replied behind a layer of static. “Passing comms now.”
“Copy that Corporal, meet us in security, Vuong has something for us.”
“Roger that.”
Baker hit the button on the envirosuit’s belt pack. There was a small click as the thin, nano-based fabric unsealed at his back and it was pulled inside the small rectangular box at his waist. He inhaled heavily, taking a deep breath of stale metallic tinged air and exhaling it in front of him. He was glad to be out of the suit. He’d always felt claustrophobic in it, and no matter how many times he’d put it on, he couldn’t wait to hit that button. He wiped his hands on his fatigues and removed his helmet long enough to wipe the sweat from his brow and run his hand across his shaved head. Then he fastened his helmet back into place and turned to the others.
“Let’s go see what Vuong has found for us.” He turned to Wilkes. “Corporal, you stay with Dom and Lanskey. I’ll click you when we find out what Vuong has. Keep me posted on what you find here. I wanna know the second anything new comes up, you got that?” His nose wrinkled as the distant odor of death began to waft past.
“Aye-firm.”
“And give DiLeonardo his weapon back. But reteach him where the fucking safety is.”
Dom looked at the sergeant, embarrassment flushing his face as he watched them walk away.
“Good one Dom,” Wilkes said as he walked up and held out the rifle. “Perfect timing as always…”
10
Time crept by, the seconds morphing to minutes, the latter making space for larger increments that passed imperceptibly. The smell of the facility had already begun to permeate the air, piercing the intruder’s nostrils as it filtered past in rancid wafts. They made their way back towards security, the sensation of endless backtracking and retracing of their steps beginning to wear on them. As they passed housing Fascio stopped long enough to close the doors to the units they had passed. As he closed the last door he paused, his gaze falling to the floor for a moment. He was still struggling to shake the image of the little boy half exposed in a sheet of ice from his head. He knew the tub would have been mostly melted by now, and lamented the fact that he could see the boy floating in a still pool of water, bloated and purple, skin loose and translucent, with his dead father next to him. He realized that by now the boy’s dead eyes would be staring at the ceiling through the stagnant water, yellowed and dull, and he cursed his mind for not being able to resist conjuring the sickening image. He felt moisture tugging at the corner of his eyes and his mouth beginning to salivate as bile crept upwards from his stomach. Apathetic to his pain the facility continued to groan around him as its cold steel and titanium skeleton flexed.
“Are you good Fascio?”
He startled. “Uh… Yeah Sarge, sorry.”
“Just hold it together marine,” Baker said as he walked past, placing his hand on his shoulder for a moment. “We’ll all be out of here soon, then it’s mai tai’s and piña colada’s on a Mexican beach.”
Fascio nodded softly, turning and followed Talmadge and the sergeant as they made their way into the main corridor.
“What do you got for me?” Baker asked as he stepped into the room.
“This place sounds like it’s falling apart,” Vuong said, turning to look at the Sarge, who stood impatiently waiting for the report.
Baker stared at him. He thought it would have been more accurate to say that is sounded like the station was being ripped apart, but he wasn’t here to discuss semantics.
“Ok.” Vuong spun his chair and clicked across the keyboard, pulling up a still image of a woman sitting at a desk in what appeared to be one of the unit’s bedrooms. “It took some digging, but I managed to access the personnel logs. I thought, if we wanted to learn what happened here, what better source than the people it happened to as it was happening.” He glanced over his shoulder for a moment, exhaling loudly, bringing the video to life.
“I can’t begin to describe how amazing this is,” the woman began, her eyes full of excitement and life. Baker’s focus fell to the slender woman with neatly brushed hair smiling back. If it wasn’t for the death that surrounded them, and the fact that this woman was undoubtedly just another corpse releasing noxious fumes into the air, he would have almost found her pretty. “Never would I have imagined that our family would be among the first humans to colonize Mars. I was so surprised when Paul agreed, you know, with Brandon being so young still. But I think he realized that the situation on Earth wasn’t going to get any better. Maybe he thought we’d have a better opportunity out here. Either way, I’m just happy he said yes. It’s surreal; I mean, just looking out the window is like—it’s unbelievable.” She sighed heavily, the smile growing slightly. “They’re still working on getting the basic social structures in place; the school and community center, but for the most part, we’ve all settled in to our daily routine. I work in the labs, and Paul is on the survey team. They’ve set up a basic daycare system for the parents. Brandon doesn’t seem to mind. He says he misses his friends, but I think he’s getting acclimated to the new change.” Behind the desk a little boy stepped into the room. “Mom, can I play my holo- game?” The woman turned and nodded. Yes, just turn it off when your father gets home.” She turned back to the camera, sighing with the lingering smile before reaching her hand out to click the video off, pausing at the last second. “I’m really happy mom, and I know you didn’t want me to leave, but this is the best thing we could have done. I hope you understand.”
Fascio stared at the screen, the face of the little boy stabbing him in the chest. He turned his gaze to the floor to avoid the others. There was a vice around his heart and it was wrenching tighter. The boy in the video was wearing the same light blue shirt and bright green shorts….
As Vuong was about to explain that there was more, Corlin and Hawkes entered the room.
“Message was sent Sarge,” Corlin said as the others nodded to their return. “Guess there was some issue with Portofino’s headset, minor malfunction. I switched it out. Should be working fine now.”
“Portofino, do you read me?”
“Yeah Sarge. Loud and clear.”
“I want comms check every hour at the top, starting now. I will not have us stranded on this rock because you’ve got a faulty wire, you understand?”
“Copy that Sergeant.”
“Good. What’s the status of my ship?”
“We’re green across the board, ready to go when you are sir.”
“Good. Keep her that way, over and out.”
He turned his focus back to Vuong and nodded.
The private took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Here’s another one. This one’s dated a week later.” He pressed
play and edged back from the screen, rubbing the sweat that begun to build across his palms on his pants.
The monitor came to life again, with the same woman sitting at the desk. Baker could see that something was off. The woman had dark rings under her eyes and her hair was messy and unkempt. There was a slight redness to her eyes and it looked like a long lack of sleep mixed with tears. She stared at the screen without blinking for a moment before her voice cracked through the small speakers. “I haven’t been sleeping well. None of us have. I keep hearing, voices. Like a whisper, hidden in the shadows. Nobody’s talking about it, but I know everyone else is hearing it too. Nobody wants to admit it for fear of landing a psych evaluation. I asked Paul. He said I was imagining it, and there was nothing to worry about. But I came home from work yesterday and he was staring into the closet. He didn’t see me… He was talking to someone.” The woman looked down at her lap for a moment. “I don’t know what’s happening, but people are dying. We had three accidents at the lab yesterday, and there were four in processing. Maybe people are… I think we’re all just tired.” The woman looked back up at the screen, her puffy eyes filled with concern. “The survey team found something out there. Some type of, structure. They think it’s alien. What are we doing here?” The woman stared at the monitor for another minute before letting her gaze fall to her lap again. Then her gaze lifted to the camera. “I know it sounds crazy, but I saw my uncle Phillip yesterday. He was standing outside our window. My uncle’s been dead for ten years… He wanted something. I’m not sure.” Her gaze turned to the wall. Then she reached out and turned the recording off.
Baker stared at the blank monitor before letting his gaze fall to the back of Vuong’s head. Dread began to worm into, eating at his skin just beneath the first layer. Even though temperature regulation was online, he felt his skin begin to prickle.
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