Cleo brought her weapon up and kept her eye though the sight of the rifle’s targeting system. She slowly moved deeper into the room. Her body was on edge and her mind was screaming at her to get out. This was some kind of horror movie that had come to life, complete with dead bodies, broken glass, flashing lights, moving shadows and an alien creature hidden somewhere in the darkness. Yet like a scene of a bad accident, she simply couldn’t pull away.
As she slowly and cautiously rounded one of the cryo sleeping chambers, she saw what had caught her attention. One of the aliens had been badly stunned. It looked as if its body had been slammed hard against the wall of the room several times and it was trying to recover its plight. The others must have left it behind believing it to be dead or perhaps they had more important things to do besides making sure that their kind was taken care of.
She had to think about that second issue. The first would be what most primal animals would do. They would leave the weakest so that the rest of the herd could survive. But, if these species was more intelligent, then it was possible that these creatures were on a mission and that mission was more important than their own lives. This would be a revelation in understanding them, in how they think, in how they reason, and how they follow a larger community concept rather than just the herd as a whole. This could be the basis of their culture and would be worth studying. If only she could study them alive and up close…in a controlled environment...
Her primary mission had come back to her in that one moment. She had been willing to abandon it for the sake of her survival. She had been promised a contingent of Space Marines to help out and she was still sure that “Mister Smith” was still doing something either immoral, illegal or both and this was another factor to take into consideration in regards to abandoning her mission. Yet, she was still a scientist and if she could understand these creatures and study them then she could learn so much. All she needed to do was get one home. Rather or not she was going to deliver her specimen to her benefactor, “Mister Smith”, was something that she was going to have to consider at a later time. Right now, she had one in her sights and if she played this out correctly, and everything fell into place, then she would at least have one to take back to Earth.
Cleo set her sonic weapon on a lower setting and opened fire. The air rippled with the shockwave of the sonic beam that went sailing toward the creature. It hit with a powerful punch that sent the alien bouncing off of the wall, through the air, off the ground and into the wall again before coming to a complete rest, motionless.
The biologist moved closer. She hoped that she had only stunned the creature, not killed it. Her research was dependent upon the alien’s survival. Yet, she wasn’t going to be stupid about getting this new species back home. If it made one wrong move, one move at all, then she would turn her rifle to its fullest strength and continue to blast it until it was nothing but a pile of goo and both her mission and “Mister Smith” be damned.
Her heart beat fast and it felt as if it would pound its way through her chest. Sweat poured from her forehead. Her muscles twitched with suspense. She was ready for anything as she continued to take one small step after another.
The space squid twitched and Cleo brought up her blaster. The creature inhaled through its gills and Cleo’s finger moved closer on the trigger.
Seconds passed and nothing else happened. The reflexes of the creature were only involuntary. It was, in fact, stunned beyond its ability to deal with. Its biological and perhaps even its neurological system had been overloaded. It needed time to rest. It was time that it would never have.
Cleo moved quickly. She moved to her cryo sleeping chamber and opened the hatch under it. She found the specially made container, right where she had been told where it would be.
‘At least there is something that they told me that was the truth,’ she thought to herself as she pulled it out.
Moving with as much speed as she could muster, she opened the container and scooped up the stunned alien. Without as much as another look to make sure that the alien was still alive, she snapped the container closed and shoved it back under her cryo chamber.
Suddenly the thoughts that she should have thought about earlier entered her mind. What if she was taking the alien away from an environmental element that would sustain its life? What if it had a short life span and wouldn’t live long enough to make it back to Earth? What should she feed it so it didn’t starve to death? These were questions that she would normally ask about any species, yet she was so wrapped up in trying to stay alive and now wrapped up with the fact that she had obtained a living alien, that these conceptions had eluded her. Now, everything that she was hoping to obtain and all of the efforts to get there could be destroyed by her carelessness and thoughtlessness.
Yet, she didn’t have time to give any of these things consideration. She had to make sure that the specimen was safely put away, secretly hidden, and she had to hurry back before anyone missed her or started to come looking for her. If the alien did die between here and Earth, she would simply have to make do and try to draw upon her experiences and observations while she was still around a living creature.
With one last look back at her cryo chamber where the alien was hidden and then another toward Bruce’s corpse, Cleo brought herself to terms with what had all happened here. She wondered how many had died so that she could bring one of these creatures back to Earth. With better understandings of this species she could help humans become more adaptive, she could also learn how to defeat these creatures easier and end the war between humans and these aliens. She was actually going to do some good for the survival of humanity. She had to keep telling herself that. Perhaps one day she might actually believe it. Perhaps one day she might be able to sleep at night.
Then, without any further thought, Cleo turned and headed toward their command center. With any luck, no one would know that she had been missing for too long. With any luck, she just might be able to pull off her mission.
Chapter: 29
Eric stood there, looking at the advancing hoard that was coming toward them. There was nothing he could do. They were trapped between those ahead of them, cutting off their route to their command center and from the creatures behind them that Vincent was barely holding off. If only he had another weapon, something that he could fight with, then he could at least help Vincent take out as many of these creatures before they died.
Suddenly Eric felt an odd sensation. It was a tug on his pant leg, or at least that’s what he initially thought at first. Then he realized, it wasn’t really his pant leg, it was a utility pocket on the side of his pants. Vincent was reaching for something.
Vincent shot off a couple of rounds to keep the building hoard behind them from overwhelming him. Then, suddenly, he bent down and started to rummage through the utility compartments of Eric’s pants. Vincent had gone through most of his clips and the few that he had left he wanted to put to good use by keeping the squids at bay. However, since Eric was out of a weapon, he didn’t need his clips. Vincent had initially given thought to the notion of using Eric’s clips for his own plasma rifle, but the clips weren’t interchangeable. This didn’t mean that they couldn’t be used for something else and now was the time to put these to the function that he had in mind.
After Vincent pulled two plasma clips he tossed the first one ahead of them, past Eric and slightly past the front line of the oncoming Dagons. As the clip passed over the first of the squids, Vincent brought his plasma blaster up and shot off a couple of rounds. The first two shots missed but the third struck the clip.
The explosion rocked this section of the ship. The fiery blast blew with extreme heat. The fireball exploded with power and violence, with extreme prejudice and vengeance.
The aliens were blown in all directions and slammed against the walls with such a force that they were immediately squashed into piles of goo. Their bodies were scorched and burned to a crisp. Their ichor boiled away.
As the ball
of plasma rolled toward them, Vincent spun in place and tossed the other down the hall from where they had come from followed by another series of shots. A second explosion rocked the ship. Like the first, the blast devastated the incoming Dagons. Ichor and body parts flew in all directions and what was left over was burned and boiled and fried beyond recognition. Blacked and fried tentacles lay twitching uncontrollably across the hall.
The stench of the aliens’ incinerated forms permeated the air. Both Eric and Vincent had to hold their breaths in hope to not lose their dignity by losing what little food they had in their system. The stench was so horrible that their eyes watered and their stomachs churned despite their best efforts to compose themselves.
“I thought we agreed that we were going to warn each other when we decide to blow up half the ship,” Eric shot toward Vincent the first moment he had after composing himself.
“There was no time. Besides, it was hardly half the ship.”
Eric had to frown at Vincent’s sarcastic re-quote that he had given the senior security officer only a few minutes earlier. He wasn’t in the mood for sarcasm.
“You better get going,” Vincent continued, “before reinforcements arrive.”
As Eric turned into the control room, he had to think about Vincent’s statement. He wondered how many more of these creatures were they going to run into. They had killed so many; could there really be more that would come as reinforcements? And, if so, why wouldn’t they just cut their losses and flee? Even the most simplest of creatures would have figured out that this was now a suicidal mission. What could have been so important that they would continue to throw their lives away?
Eric tossed the thoughts from his mind. There will be time to think about these things later, that was, if there was a later. Right now, he had to ensure that they would live long enough to think about the motives of an alien species at a later time.
His eyes darted across the laptops that were all hooked up. Once he found the one that was regulating the coolant supply, he stopped. His fingers started to fly across the keyboard until he found what he was looking for.
The image of the coolant supply and its controls came up on the screen. It was easy enough to figure out the controls. There was a layout of the ship and from here he could open and close any valves that he wanted to. Currently there were several that were automatically shut off due to the loss of the integrity of the ship. The rest, however, were open and were allowing the coolant to slowly vent throughout the whole ship. Leaving the valves where they were, Eric moved to the output control and current supply.
The control for the output was relatively simple. It was a virtual slider bar that would correlate with his finger motions. All he would have to do was place his fingers on the slider bar and push upwards.
A tap on the coolant supply gauge brought Eric’s attention to the last and final screen. Vincent was trying to draw his attention to the one major factor of the whole plan.
“There’s not enough coolant.”
“I’m sure we don’t need to use all of it,” Eric explained. “We could…”
“We won’t have enough coolant to make this work and then to make it back home. The engines would fry long before we got to our destination.”
“We’ll go as far as we can and send emergency signals along the way. Hopefully we can get enough momentum to let us drift into a known shipping route. Perhaps we could be seen or our distress signal could be heard. It’s the only chance we have.”
Vincent had to nod that at. He wasn’t sure if he was starting to like the kid or if he wanted to punch him. Eric always seemed to have an optimistic plan, some deep down gut feeling that if they worked hard enough, if they tried hard enough, then everything would turn out alright. Vincent remembered when he used to be like that, as if the will of the universe would obey him if he simply kept trying. Where this made Eric likeable and respectable, it also made Vincent remember what he used to be like until the realities of life had knocked him down enough times. The odds were entirely against them and they had already pushed the odds beyond any limit that he had ever believed possible. Their luck was bound to run out and soon. Yet, it was the only way left to secure the shipment and ensure that there was a possibility that it would make it to its destination.
“Well, you better hurry it up; I can hear more of those squids coming back.”
Eric turned to the coolant controls. As his fingers touched the slider bar he could hear Vincent head back out of the room. It was only a heartbeat later that he heard the distinct sound of the plasma rifle and the splatter of more of the aliens. Quickly his fingers pushed the bar to the up position. The bar lit up the path that his fingers took and the computer registered the command to increase the flow of the coolant. The only question now was, were they too late?
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Richard had finally been able to calm Tracy down. She was starting to become beyond hysterical and he ended up having to slap her to shock her back into some form of rationality. This wasn’t a medical or even a psychological method that he had ever used and he had hated to hear that it had been done to some patients in the past. As a matter of fact, he could lose his license because of this. Yet, he needed to get her attention or they would both end up dying. He only hoped that she would forgive him once this was all over and if they survived.
“We’re all going to die!” Tracy screamed. “Where’s Bruce? Where’s Cleo? Where’s…”
“It’s ok. We’ll get out of this if we work together.” Although the words came from Richard’s mouth, he wasn’t sure that he believed them and if he didn’t believe them, then how could he convince her? “Cleo went back for Bruce. I’m sure that they’ll both be…”
“I’m sorry but...Bruce is dead.”
The voice behind them startled the both of them and the news hit like a fist.
“The aliens got to him,” Cleo continued between her panting of her breath. She had run down the hall to catch up with the two of them. She didn’t want to be caught out in the open if these creatures decided to come back. Besides, there was always safety in numbers and the quicker she caught up with everyone the safer everyone would be.
“It seemed that they did a lot of damage quickly. I don’t think he suffered long.” As soon as she had said it she realized how hollow it seemed. She had meant it to be a comfort for Richard and Tracy but in reality, Bruce was still dead and it didn’t really matter how he had died, he simply wasn’t coming back. But to make matters worse, she was sure that his death had, in fact, been very painful.
Although Richard didn’t believe Cleo’s statement, he did understand her sentiment. She was trying her best to not worry anyone any further. However, the undertone of her statement was also recognizable. They needed to get back to their control room and wait for Eric and Vincent. They would be safer there and more so under their military protection. It was time to head off immediately before…
The explosion from up ahead, toward the mock-control center that they were heading toward, could be felt throughout the ship. The energy rippled across the floor and walls. The concussion of the blast could almost be felt. The rise in temperature was slight, but was enough to know that something had created an intense fireball.
Fear had swept over the three of them. It was hard to tell if the explosion had anything to do with their control room or even with anything to do with their route. For one moment they stood there, waiting for some sign to show them what to do next, if they should precede any further post haste or run for their very lives.
Then the second blast occurred. It seemed louder and closer, if that were possible. This time the concussion was stronger and heat of the blast could definitely be felt.
As they stood there, waiting to see if there would be a third explosion and where it would come from, they trembled in fear. Since they didn’t know what had caused it or where it would strike next, their section of the
ship could easily be blown into space with them with the next one that came.
Nothing came. There was no other sound and no other movement. There wasn’t a lack of atmosphere or the feel of vacuum of space. Whatever had happened didn’t seem to interfere with the ship’s integrity. It was time to move on, with caution and haste. They needed to know if there was even a control room to get to.
However, before they made a move, another sound echoed through the hallway. It was a familiar sound, a sound of suction being applied and removed, and the sound of alien space squids coming from all directions.
Cleo spun to face the hall behind her, the hall that she had just come down to join the others here, and blindly pulled the trigger to her rifle. She was already jumpy in regards to any sound and this one in particular was a nightmare. She wasn’t going to waste any time to figure out if she was right or wrong, she simply fired.
The air rippled with the waves of the sonic blast that emanated from the weapon. The sound echoed off of the walls. The force slammed into the oncoming squids that had come upon them. Their bodies flew through the air as if some hurricane force had picked them up and swept them away.
Harbinger Page 19
