Explorer X Alpha

by LM. Preston

  “Yeah, I am with you on that Dakota. I would give my left pinky finger to have her smiling at me that way,” Scott replied and slapped Aadi on the back.

  “Will you boys grow up? We have more important things to discuss - like what we need to discover about the reason we are all really here!” Eirena said with tightness in her voice.

  “What are you talking about?” Damien inquired and stood up then leaned in to face Eirena.

  “We found some crazy stuff out about our team, Explorer X, that seems fishy to me. It referred to an experiment that we are all part of. I want to get to the bottom of this,” Eirena said quietly but clearly to the others seated around her. Then she returned Damien’s stare.

  Chapter 33

  “What do you expect us to do? Why should we care? I know I don’t,” Damien said and looked Eirena directly in the eye.

  “I have a map of the ship - one that is not easily available to the campers. It shows some places I think we should investigate before the expedition,” Eirena said. She started to sit, and Damien followed with a frown.

  “Where are these places? Now, I must say, I am a bit interested,” Damien said, then cut his eyes at Aadi.

  “Well, this is the map,” she said as she pulled the folded piece of paper out of her jeans pocket. She laid the map down, and they all gathered around to look at it.

  “See… this here is the infirmary. I think that is where they put the kids that got sick after the immunizations. Here are the staff quarters. It is a lot bigger than they stated on the camp map that they gave us upon boarding. Lastly, here is what they call the cave,” said Eirena.

  “Man, I didn’t even know they had an infirmary that big. That place is huge! Why would they need one that big for this size of ship?” asked Scott as he pointed at it.

  “I bet they need it because they expected a lot more of us campers to get sick. But sick from what is the question,” said Damien.

  “Also, look here… this place called The Cave is not so small either. What’s in there, and why would they call it The Cave? Is it like a prison or something? Is that where they take kids that get caught doing crimes?” Aadi asked.

  “Well, we can go check these places out today while everyone is moving around. We won’t be missed that way, and we figured we could use the oxygen vents to travel from place to place on the ship without being seen,” said Eirena.

  “Yeah, I say we meet in the engineering area near the basketball courts. They have an oxygen vent there that’s close to the ground and easy to get in and out of,” Aadi said.

  “Who’s in, and where do you want to go?” asked Eirena.

  “Me and Dakota will take the cave,” said Damien while he winked at Dakota and nodded his head.

  “I’ll take the staff quarters. I know where their meeting room is, and they usually hang out there after meetings,” Carter said.

  “Raiko and I will come with you, Carter,” Scott added as he nodded at Raiko.

  “Well, I guess I’ll take the infirmary. Tacitus and Eirena will be coming with me,” said Aadi with heaviness in his voice. “I have some things I want to bring that are in my room. Let’s meet in the engineering room in about thirty minutes,” Aadi said while he gathered his tray up and left. Everyone got up and followed.

  Chapter 34

  They all met in front of the engineering room door just as they had planned, a side door next to the basketball courts. The door wasn’t lit up like most of the others on the ship, as it was mainly used for the maintenance crews only. Aadi and the others had stopped at their rooms to gather whatever they could find to protect them or hide them from view. They were all equipped with their backpacks, and Eirena brought the extra copies of the map she had printed.

  “Okay… here. Everyone take a copy of the map,” Eirena said.

  “I have two scrambling devices and some hearing amplification devices for everyone,” said Dakota as he held out his hand for Scott to grab one. Damien grabbed the other.

  “Wow, Dakota, you think of everything!” said Eirena. She shook her head in wonderment and laughed lightly to herself.

  “Don’t worry about us. I have a device,” said Aadi.

  “I’ll lead the group through and use my scrambler device along the way as Tacitus, Eirena, and I have the last stop through the ducts. We only have two hours before they call lights out, so let’s meet back here just before then,” Aadi said. They all nodded and stood behind Dakota as he used Carter’s key card to gain access to the engineering room.

  The plain gray door slid open, and they all entered. The room was filled with pipes and ducts. It had gray walls and dim lighting brightened as anyone moved through.

  “Okay, according to the map, the ducts entrance we should use is on the left wall. The places we will be going are all in the belly of the ship. Let’s try not to get caught, ‘cause I don’t want to end up in the cave ourselves,” said Aadi as he led the way to the oxygen ducts. The duct was square and had a steady breeze as oxygen pumped through. He pulled out his toolaid and rubbed it to activate the small screwdriver. He screwed off the covering over the oxygen duct and moved the lattice covering aside. He moved quickly to put some space between him and the others and told Ebu to come out and go in front of him toward the infirmary. Ebu unzipped Aadi’s backpack and scurried out of the top of the bag and ahead of Aadi down the dark square duct. Aadi put on his glasses that allowed him to see in the dark and followed Ebu down the duct. They all traveled through the ducts silently, waiting for Aadi’s queue for the first stop, the staff quarters.

  Aadi gave the queue and pointed toward the duct leading off to the right. Scott, Raiko, and Carter went down toward the staff quarters. Aadi kept on going quietly, slowly following the light up above, leaving space between himself and Ebu. He then pointed left, and Damien and Dakota went down the left duct toward The Cave. He, Eirena, and Tacitus had a ways to go before they reached the infirmary, and he took some time to look around the ducts. They were spotless with no cobwebs or dust. He wondered how they had gotten so clean. He spied Ebu stopping up ahead and knew it was his signal that they had made it to the infirmary. Aadi lay down and signaled to Eirena and Tacitus to come a little closer.

  “Hey, the infirmary is up ahead. We can look through the duct, and when we get a chance, one of us can go investigate. Eirena, you can go first since you are the lightest and I can easily pull you back up. You will go check things out when it’s clear,” said Aadi, looking directly at Eirena.

  Eirena pondered over the formality of his voice. She thought to herself, Oh yeah, he is still mad, then she replied, “Sure, anything you say, boss.” Aadi turned around and went forward, expecting the others to slowly and quietly follow.

  When he got to the vent, Ebu was waiting for him, but he was on the other side of the lattice opening hiding in the darkness. Aadi stopped, turned toward Eirena and Tacitus in the rear and said, “I’ll climb over it and watch from the other side.” Without waiting for a reply, Aadi climbed over the lattice vent opening. They made sure that they were very quiet as they heard machines and the hustle and bustle of people coming and going. They all gathered around the opening and peered down. They put in the ear devices that Dakota gave Damien, which amplified the sound so they could hear the conversations in the room.

  The infirmary was a white walled room with gray floors and no windows. There was a smell of strong medicine looming heavily in the air. The acrid strength of the medicine was so overpowering that Aadi could almost taste it. There were medical staff walking around and a few of the security staff at the door at the far entrance into the infirmary. The vent they were in was on the far corner of the facility where there were only a few patients. The staff didn’t seem to visit this group of patients as often as the others on the opposite side of the large room. The workers wore clear, flexible face coverings over their noses and mouths, which allowed them to breathe and talk easily.

  As the Cadets looked down on the room, they saw rows of patients on b
eds with a clear, hard covering curved over their bodies that reminded Aadi of the incubators he had seen that are used for sick newboms. However, the clear, glass-like covering had a side door, which the staff used for insertion of everything from IVs to vital monitoring devices. It was hard to see the patients’ faces or bodies, as they were also covered in white sheets inside the incubators. With the help of the amplifier, Aadi could hear the breathing machines but didn’t see any patients that were using them. The group of patients closest to them was not in the incubators, but were covered in white sheets from their necks down and were not moving at all.

  Eirena tapped Aadi’s shoulder and pointed to a boy with sandy blond hair, a gray complexion, and boils all over his face. The boy looked to be about their age. Aadi looked at the other patients around the boy and noticed that the boy was the only one with the boils that appeared to have a moving substance in them. However, the other patients surrounding him had other oddities. Some of them had skin so red it looked as if they were burn victims with some sort of grotesque infection, as puss was oozing out of some of them. What is going on here? Aadi asked himself.

  “You know, these kids aren’t getting any better,” said a female nurse who tended to a kid who was pale and covered in a white blanket up to his chest.

  “Did you really expect any of them to? We lost two today, and one of them had to be taken to The Cave. I hate this job,” said the male nurse who lifted up the child and took him out of the room.

  Aadi looked up at Eirena. She pointed at the boy with the strange boils and whispered, “That is Trevor, one of Team Fire Six members.”

  Aadi, looked back down at the boy, and he weakly opened his eyes for a moment, seemingly staring right at them. Aadi knew the boy couldn’t see them through the vent, but even still, the boy moved his lips, and a wispy sound came out. “Help, help,” he said.

  Aadi’s gaze jerked up at Eirena’s, and they were both very disturbed. A couple minutes later, Aadi noticed that the staff started to clear out of this section of the room, and he figured it was a good time to get a closer look at what was wrong with some of these kids.

  Aadi took out his toolaid and started to unscrew the vent. Tacitus put his hand on Aadi’s to get his attention. Aadi looked up at Tacitus and saw the strangest look in his eyes. Tacitus looked directly at Aadi and shook his head as he said, “No,” very firmly.

  Aadi shook Tacitus’s hand off of his and continued to unscrew the vent. “Hey, move down. I am going to come on that side with you two. Eirena, trade places with me, and that way, both you and Tacitus can pull me up,” Aadi said as he started to climb over the vent. He kept his eyes on Ebu who was still hiding in the darkness. Eirena climbed over Tacitus to the opposite side of the vent, being careful not to touch Aadi at all.

  “Okay, here is the last screw. Let’s slowly remove the vent and put it over there with Eirena,” Aadi whispered.

  “Aadi, this is not a good idea,” Tacitus said in a low, stern voice.

  “Well, how else are we going to get to the bottom of this? We have no choice, Tacitus. Are you with us or not?” Aadi asked in rough, frustrated whisper.

  “Yes,” Tacitus said and lowered his eyes.

  Aadi continued to remove the vent and passed it to Eirena, who leaned it onto the vent. They all pulled away from the vent to make sure they didn’t hear the same bustling of the staff below. Eirena pulled out her sensing device that would tell her of any movement in the room. She held up her hand to let Tacitus and Aadi know that it was clear.

  “There is just one guard at the far entrance on the other side of the room. However, there is a screen that separates us from his view,” Eirena whispered. As soon as Eirena finished speaking, Ebu sped through the darkness behind her and jumped through the vent opening. Aadi tried to grab him and slipped through the vent. Tacitus grabbed his legs, and Eirena held tightly onto his shirt.

  “Aadi, come back up, now. The guard is on the way to check out the noise,” Eirena whispered.

  “I got him,” Tacitus said, and then with a strong pull, he jerked Aadi back into the vent. Eirena quickly and quietly put the vent temporarily in place. They were breathing fast with the apprehension of possibly getting caught. Aadi hoped that Ebu stayed undetected. He really couldn’t deal with losing his robot on this ship, only to have the strange scientists pulling him apart in the name of research. They watched in silence as the large man with a black and gray guard uniform walked by the patients and pointed his flashlight at the vent.

  “I got to find a new job. This sucks,” the guard mumbled and started to walk away.

  However, the kid that Eirena said was Trevor pulled at the guard’s arm and said, “Water… help… water,” as the guard walked by his bed.

  “Get off me. Get off! Ugh,” the guard said as if he was spooked or scared of catching something. He jerked his arm away, but the kid held on tightly, with more strength than thought possible for someone that looked gray with sickness. The child lay perfectly still with his head tilted toward the guard, and begged, “Help… water… help…”

  “I said get off me!” the guard repeated and with a sharp jerk snatched his arm away while bumping into the bed across from Trevor. The guard jumped again as the hand of the other patient fell from under the covers, but that child did not move or speak. The guard turned to look at the patient across from Trevor and studied her to make sure she was asleep. Aadi observed that the girl’s face was red and disfigured, but the hand that slipped out was transparent. The skin on her hand was clear, and Aadi could see her veins with blood moving through them. Her fingers were dead still, just as were her eyes and any other part of her body. It was apparent that the only reason she moved was because the guard bumped up against her bed. Without further hesitation, the guard left the room through the curtains and then went out the door with a slam.

  They all watched the horrific scene play out in front of them, secretly wishing that it could be virtual reality, but this was all too real. Aadi knew he had to help the boy in some way, for no one deserved to suffer in such a cold, callous way. He spied the glass of water on the table near Trevor. Aadi thought to himself, Why would they treat these kids so badly? Can’t they see how sick they are?

  “Hey, I am going to go down to give that boy some water and check out the rest of the place,” Aadi said to Eirena and Tacitus.

  “We’ll stay here to pull you up if you need us,” said Tacitus.

  “Okay. Take this. It’s an electric pulse gun in case you get in a tough spot,” Eirena said as she handed him the handheld device that would make its victim bend in excruciating pain while blacking out their sight so that the owner of the device could get away.

  “Uh, thanks. I am not even going to ask where you got this… and to think, my mom is the one who works for the security department,” said Aadi as he grabbed it and put it on his hip belt, hoping he wouldn’t have to use it.

  “Okay, I am ready,” Aadi said. He handed the vent cover to Eirena, and Tacitus backed up to give him room to turn around and slide down through the vent. Aadi slid down, feet first, already quite prepared for the long jump from his many years of extreme sports training. As he fell through the air, he relaxed his muscles to accept the impact of the fall and hit the ground like the average cat, perfectly steadily landing on his feet. He glanced around the room, which was dim now that the staff had gone, and glanced back up to the vent. Eirena and Tacitus gave him the thumbs up that all was still clear.

  Aadi first went over to Trevor. He looked closely at his boiled face and noticed that the boils were mainly on his cheeks and forehead. Trevor glanced at him but didn’t move as a tear fell down the side of his face.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll get you some water, dude,” Aadi said as he went to the gray table near the wall and poured some water into the cup next to the water pitcher. He hurriedly went back to where Trevor was and took a quick glance around the room to make sure no one was coming. He lifted the cup to Trevor’s mouth, and the boy drank g
reedily as best he could. The water ran out of the sides of his mouth.

  “Hey, now, slow down, dude. You’re going to make yourself choke,” said Aadi as he pulled the cup away and went to set it back on the table. “Is your name Trevor?” Aadi asked the boy as he stood over him.

  “Yes,” Trevor replied in a raspy voice and glanced over at Aadi with bloodshot brown eyes.

  “Do you know what happened to you? Who are all these kids?” Aadi asked and looked down at Trevor.

  “Got sick after immunization, and so did they. Run… while you can,” Trevor said and closed his eyes as tears continued to fall.

  “Trevor? Trevor…” Aadi whispered, but Trevor didn’t respond. Aadi walked around the room and quickly glanced at some of the deathly still kids in the section nearest the vent. He walked to the edge of the curtain where the kids were held in the incubators. All of them were covered in white sheets except for one. He walked over to the incubator that was closest to the curtain and looked inside at a young boy with brown hair. However, that’s all he could say about the boy’s features, as the kid’s eyes were shut, and he was completely transparent from head to foot except for the shock of brown hair on top of his head. Aadi could see the blood pumping through the veins in his face and down his chest to his beating heart. Aadi took a pair of gloves that were sitting on the table next to the kid’s incubator and put them on.

  Aadi was so fascinated with the kid’s skin and its transparency that he thought he could touch it to see if the kid was firm with fat and muscle under the transparent layer of skin and pumping veins. Just as he put on the gloves, he looked up, and the boy’s hand was on the glass of the incubator. His eyes were bloodshot red with blue pupils. The boy immediately looked exhausted and collapsed back down in the bed. The monitor on the side of the incubator started to beep. The alarm for his vitals was going off.