The muted pounding at the insulted, bolted door continued for a few quiet, stressful minutes before a flicker was seen high up on the wall as a large, previously unnoticed video panel came to life.
On the newly activated monitor appeared the exhausted face of the Virrilian in question. “Is everyone accounted for?” she asked quickly while panting as if out of breath.
“Yes, they are all safely in the room and the doors have been shut.” Fairbanks informed the large glowing image. “Everyone except you that is, Doctor.”
Valesque’s warm brown eyes scanned the instruments before her; she had come out of hunting mode as her body had become too weak to keep her senses that pumped up.
“Good, then I am going to seal you in and activate the biohazard clean up.” she told them as she glanced up at her monitor and watched in the video feed as the doors to their room hissed tight and lighted red.
“The program will begin in about one minute. You can come out again when the lights turn green.” she instructed as she quickly worked her controls in the room that overlooked the dual Life Pod levels.
“Wait! What about you!?” Sanic called urgently.
Valesque acted as if she had not heard him as she turned her head suddenly to the right and looked off screen thinking she heard something.
As she did this the crew in the safety room got a good view of the deep red liquid that was streaming down the left side of her head.
Captain Fairbanks became alarmed at the sight of the severe wound on her lower officer.
But she was not nearly as concerned as Tim and Sanic who upon seeing their friend’s condition rushed to open the Emergency room’s heavy doors.
“This is unacceptable, Ensign. I demand you return to the Control Deck at once.” Fairbanks ordered, she was not about to allow the Virrilian to take all the credit for saving everyone except herself.
The Virrilian gave an amused smile, just showing the tips of her top fangs.
“ I am sorry, but I don’t take orders from you, Captain.”
“And I advise you not to try opening those doors.” she warned the two men, “Let alone are the Pirates out there but breaking that seal would mean the death of everyone in the room when the clean up starts.”
Tim and Sanic turned to look at Valesque’s bemused half smile on the monitor behind them.
The young woman glanced to the right again at a loud noise off screen.
“It seems they have found me.” she tisked her annoyance, rushing to finish the job at hand by punching in the start time and pressing the confirmation button.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine. Just remember not to go out of that room for at least an hour.” she said quickly just before switching off the video.
The room fell silent as the screen blacked out leaving the shocked crew to wait in the dark as the thudding continued outside.
Valesque reached into her hip pouch to retrieve the anti-grav discs as the powerful aliens worked on battered in the door the control room.
Her hand wrapped around something small, cool and hard in her pouch, she pulled it out to find it was her rusty can of anti-static spray she had used earlier while trying to dismantle the Space Tripper.
An idea suddenly flashed in her head as she place the metal discs back on the bottom of her boots and gripped the small red-stained can.
The intruders were almost through the door as Valesque threw her already injured body at the room’s windows.
Jagged shards of glass glittered in the dim light as the Virrilian broke through the wall with a loud crash and flew off into the rows of inactive life pods.
She put a hand tightly over her aching shoulder, dripping a red trail behind her as she disappeared into the upper level of the holding bay, just as the control room door gave way.
“Isn’t Valesque coming?” Lola asked Sanic in a quiet, worried voice. She was not sure what was happening, but it seemed they were all worrying about the Engineer not returning. Lola felt very lonesome and disturbed herself; she did not know what she would do without her wise friend to look after her.
“She'll be alright.” Sanic replied trying to assure himself more than the android next to him, as he looked over to where the levelheaded Pilot stood leaning against the doors Valesque had sealed.
Tim stood against the door, staring up at the dark, empty video panel with deep concern. Valesque was out there, injured and alone, trying to save them all. Perhaps they should have stayed with her after all, he pondered, at least then they would not be having to wait here in powerless suspense.
The light above the door began to flash red as the biohazard-cleaning program initiated. The pounding on the door slowed before ceasing completely, to both the relief and concern of the imprisoned crew.
A solemn silence permeated the room as they all anxiously waited for either another attack to begin or the program to end.
Chapter Ten: Costs And Circumstances
Time passed slowly for the two hundred or so people trapped in the Safety room. The hour seemed to stretch into an eternity as they began to tire from the tension, restless to be free of their confinement.
Finally when they thought they could take it no longer the light above the doors changed from flashing red to solid green. A low hiss was heard as the doors shifted, releasing the seal on the room.
As soon as the doors were open Tim, Sanic and a reluctant Lola immediately exited the room. Not even thinking to be concerned that the enemy might still be there waiting, they rushed out into the open, immediately beginning their search for the missing Virrilian.
Lola lagged a bit behind the two impetuous men, she was not sure she wanted to find Valesque if there was a chance she might be dead. Lola did not want to find her like that. She would rather not confirm it in person and be able to deny to herself that her friend was gone. Besides, she did not think there would be any room for the Engineer under the sheets in the hydroponics morgue.
However, Sanic had Lola firmly in tow as they rushed to a Hydro-lift with Valesque’s controlling Vid-screen.
They were not sure where Valesque had been last so they decided to check the deck they had left her on first.
When they arrived, they found the corridors empty and silent with only scared traces of the skirmish that had taken place there.
At intervals along the top of the wall were melted and scorched laser marks. On the floor were the remains of the defenseless cleaning Bots who were lying around quivering and groaning as they still tried to carry out their duties, half their small metal bodies liquefied by enemy fire.
As they searched the level and its many rooms they discovered the open escape shaft the aliens had been fooled into going down earlier.
Tim cautiously peered into the opening, to assure himself nothing was lurking in there ready to spring at them, before he led the other two in scaling down the ladder to where the intruders had exited. While they retraced Valesque’s pursuers’ tracks they noted thankfully that there were no more of the ugly lumbering Pirates to be seen anywhere. They only traces of them were the ripped open doors and the occasional pock marks in the walls and sizzling Bots.
The threesome eventually found themselves back down in the small room that separated the two halves of the Space Deck. Before them was a narrow stairwell that led up to the small control room that looked out over the two levels of life pods. To their left was the door to the hanger, it was tightly sealed with the light above it flashing in warning.
Tim curiously led the way out of the room and into the holding area, looking up at the room on the wall and recognizing it as the background they had seen in Valesque’s last transmission.
Hard crunching sounds came from under their boots as they moved to look up at the control room above them.
The three looked down at what had made the sound to discover shattered glass all over the floor around them and a jagged hole in the windows surrounding the control room above.
Lola spotted something in the dim lig
ht and nervously pointed it out to the two concerned men. Edging several large glass shards was an all too familiar deep red.
Whether Valesque had jumped through the glass window herself or was forced by her attackers, it was impossible for them to tell. But it was obvious someone had gone through it and had been severely injured in the process.
Lola’s highly sensitive robotic eyes picked up more small traces of red liquid dotted across the floor. The trail led to the edge of the life pod area and disappeared.
Sanic realized that if Valesque had been wearing his anti-gravity discs that the trail suddenly ending meant she had flown into the top life pod floor.
The search area was immense and the light dim as the worried group looked out woefully over the sea of pods on the upper deck.
They made their way back towards the middle of the ship to where the drops had ended below and followed the continuing trail as it weaved through the aisles of inert pods.
The group stopped short as they spotted a disturbing scene ahead.
About sixty feet down the aisle a pod was in bad shape, it had numerous holes melted halfway through its exterior and the latch looked like something had tried to force it open. The assaulted pod smoked and sizzled as its damaged circuitry sparked yellow and blue in the semi-darkness.
Tim approached cautiously, noting to his dismay that the trail of red ended at the side of a closed life pod.
The somber Pilot touched his communicator in his right ear. “Captain, I think we have located the missing Doctor, on Space level in the upper Life Pod holding area .” he announced dispassionately as he computer connected him to his Superior.
“Acknowledged.” came her instant reply. “I am sending the M.M.U to the area and I am on my way down there now.”
Sanic and Lola slowly edged their way to where Tim stood looking down at the locked pod.
“We are going to have to pry it open.” he informed them as he surveyed the locking system and the scratches on the pod’s slick surface where the assailants had obviously attempted to force open the pod before them.
The three lined up along the length of the silver oval’s lid and reluctantly prepared to force the container open, not sure they really wanted to see what they all feared was inside.
The pod’s lock popped and broke as Lola’s super human strength came against it, the brutally damaged lid creaked as it lifted off the base and revealed the interior to the three apprehensive friends.
However, as the lid moved out of the way all they saw was an empty pod with nothing but a small metal spray can lying on its side in a small puddle of rusty fluid.
Picking up the can and looking at the floor Tim gradually realized they had been following a trail of rust spots the whole time.
The Pilot tossed the old can back into the damaged pod with a small laugh of amused relief.
“It seems we were fooled by her trick as much as the aliens were.” he chuckled.
If she had taken the time to set this elaborate decoy she must not have been too terribly bad off, they all thought hopefully.
The small group’s attention was captured by the whoosh of the approaching Mobile Medical Unit as it hurriedly flew towards them followed almost immediately by the bedraggled Captain. Her usually smooth red hair in a bit of disarray from her hasty trip down the escape shaft from the Control Deck.
“How is she?” Fairbanks called out a bit worrisomely as she spied the smoking life pod in the distance.
“I am afraid we haven’t actually located her yet.” her lieutenant replied gesturing to the rusty can that sat innocently in the smoldering pod.
“What is this?” she asked at the strange sight before her.
“An elaborate ruse, of rusty 'blood' drops and a sealed life pod.” Tim informed her with an amused grin.
Captain Fairbanks straightened out her blue uniform smartly and smoothed back her hair once again. The enemy had been heard at the door just before the Doctor had ended the transmission.
Fairbanks turned to look back across the wide open area towards the shattered window of the Life Pod Control Room, she had apparently left that room in quite a hurry, only to set up this decoy to distract her pursuers as the Biohazard program began.
That meant she could not have had much time left after all that to get very far.
“She must still be somewhere on this level.” the Captain concluded aloud as she turned back to her lower officer. “She would not have had the time to get much farther without being spotted after she set this up.”
The four of them began to scan the deck as they split up to search for the missing crew member until finally spotting something about ten aisles away from the baited pod.
Among the rows of ready, open Life Pods was one lone one with its lid down and sealed. This pod was not damaged like the last one, meaning the Pirates had not noticed it before they were driven from the ship by the toxic gases released by the biohazard program.
Captain Fairbanks made a determined beeline for this pod as the three others followed at a respectful distance.
Fairbanks marched purposefully to the side of the container and pressed the release switch on the smooth, rounded lid. The unharmed pod instantly clicked open to expose the still, tattered body of the missing Doctor.
Fairbanks brow furrowed, “She looks pale.” she observed impassively.
“She's Virrilian, she always looks pale.” Tim reminded her, as he and the other two looked into the pod from beside the Captain.
Valesque did indeed look even whiter than usual. The long black lashes of her closed eyes lay still against her tranquil face, her deep red lips and trails of sticky blood on the side of her head looking stark against her eerily light skin.
She lay stiffly in the confinement her right arm bent with her hand posed on her abdomen over an open wound. Blood slowly creeping down her hand and arm, her chest not showing any sign of breath.
Her left shoulder glistened with wet blood and glass as her arm lay limp by her side, with Sanic’s two anti-grav units resting in her relaxed fist. The Engineer’s plain green clothing and normally white lab coat had taken quite a beating; they were torn, seared and bloodstained as they hung on her motionless form.
The M.M.U prompted the lifeless woman’s Commanding Officer to check her pupils for dilation and her limp wrist for a pulse before pronouncing the Virrilian Doctor dead from substantial trauma and blood-loss.
Tim and Sanic’s faces darkened with grief over the announcement, their hopes had been raised at discovering her clever decoy.
They thought if she had the strength to pull that off she must not be too terribly injured, and they would surely find her alive, giving them sneering looks and sarcastic comments about their having been worried about her.
They could not have known that in reality she had been starting to loose consciousness as she flew down the aisles, spraying the anti-static into her hand and letting the rusty chemical drip down to the floor.
She was really struggling by the time she threw the can into a pod and zapped the side with Tim’s taser in order to freeze the locking mechanism, before flying off to find herself a shelter as the noxious fumes began to fill the room and her lungs.
Lola did not take the M.M.U’s news as well as everyone else.
The slight girl shook her cotton candy hair in frantic denial as the others conceded to the diagnosis.
“No!” Lola exclaimed, shaking her head and backing away from the others with her green eyes scrunched tightly closed as she tried to fend of the unwelcome report. “No, no, she can’t be dead; she’s not allowed to be. She can’t die, cause I don’t want her to die!” she cried passionately echoing the inner feelings of the two men who glanced grimly at one another by the deceased girl’s side.
As Lola argued for the impossibility of the Virrilians demise Sanic and Tim looked over Valesque’s still body once again, looking for anything that might even remotely indicate she was still alive.
Sanic’s gaze fell on th
e Engineer’s wounded midsection where the Captain had replaced Valesque’s hand after checking her pulse and saw the tiny communication earpiece that must have fallen out of her lifeless hand.
Space Trippers Book 1: Trippin' Page 22
