I smile at Derek as we walk out. He's been very quiet this whole time, but it looks like he's enjoying me ruffling the sergeant's feathers. He smiles back.
The next two emergency tubes are the same. No pods. I wonder how they could all get away without anyone finding any trace of the pods in the area. Emergency pods aren't built for speed. I think back to the long scrapes on the side of the Valiant.
"Sergeant, is there any damage to the Tempest's hull?"
He stops and turns to me. "Yes, there was definitely some damage that indicated some sort of contact with another ship. All the signs point to a ship latching on to the Tempest by force." He narrows his eyes at me. "Another reason I feel we're wasting our time here. Wherever that ship is, they probably have the crew with them."
"But we haven't heard of any kind of ransom demands or threats?"
He stiffens. "No, not that I'm aware of."
I rub my temple as all the information plays through my head like a movie. I run through the designs of ships big enough to take on five escape pods. There aren't very many, other than barge ships, galactic cruisers, and maybe a large mining colony ship that could handle that kind of a load and still have the speed to travel fast.
I walk to the next pod door in a daze.
Outside pod 4, the sergeant goes through the same procedure. Except this time the door won't open for his commands.
That snaps me out of my thoughts and I hurry to join Derek over at the console to see what's going on.
"There's some sort of priority override on this door, keeping it closed." He runs his fingers over the controls. I hear a quiet click from the door. "Got it. Strange though, I didn't think anyone could do that to an emergency door. Or why someone would want to." He shrugs.
"Your crew hasn't physically come down here to check the pods out, right?" I try to keep my tone neutral.
"No, there was no need to. All the sensors showed all five pods launched."
"But there also has not been a trace of where the pods went to." I state flatly.
Redness is creeping up his neck. "The pods could've been picked up by another ship."
I hold up my hands. "I agree with you, Sergeant. I'm just trying to see all the possibilities." I point to the door. "Let's just finish checking out these last two."
He says nothing so Derek helps me manually pull the door open. We all enter, and everything seems just like the other pod entrances.
Except the exhaust smell in this one is stronger and is mixed with another scent. One I know very well. A shiver goes up my spine. I turn quickly to the sergeant who's at the miniature console. "Wait!" I place my hand on his arm. "Don't open that door yet."
The sergeant freezes. "Why?"
"I think maybe you and Derek should wait in the other room while I open this door." I try to keep my voice even.
Derek steps close. "Why, Bren? What's the matter? What did you see?"
I turn to Derek. He's so close right now, I can see his pulse fluttering in his neck. "Um. It's not exactly something I saw. It's what I can smell." I step away from him. "Decomposing bodies." I point to the pod door. "I think we've found some of our crew."
"What?" The sergeant turns back to the console. "Then we need to get it open immediately."
I step toward him. "Are you sure you want to be here for this? Not many people can handle bodies this far gone. They’ve been in there almost a week." I try to convey as much empathy as I can. I can see in his green eyes that he's at least contemplating my words.
Dark emotions pass over his face. "I've seen dead bodies before in accident recoveries."
I don't say anything but just step back. I look at Derek and raise my eyebrows in silent question.
"I need to stay here, get the experience. I've seen a few bad things over the years." He smiles a little, but in his dark eyes I can see that he's already emotionally detaching. Maybe he really has seen some bad stuff.
I walk over to the door. I take a few breaths, and then breathe shallowly out my nose. I motion for Scott to open the door.
The door cycles open and a wall of clothing, rotting entangled body parts, and space suits tumble toward me.
I step back quickly to avoid getting crushed. Behind me I hear Derek and the sergeant yell and start gagging. I ignore them and assess the scene, pulling my gloves out of my pack and my miniature vid cam. I attach the cam to my shirt and carefully step into the mass of bodies. I double check all of them to make sure that they're truly dead. Most of them have been dead for the whole week. Their bodies are bloated and off color.
As I get farther into the launch tube, the bodies are in better shape. Some may have only died yesterday. A wave of sadness washes over me. I won't know for sure until I get them back to the morgue.
I count bodies as I go.
Near the far door that separates us from cold space, I spot some movement. I carefully step over a few lifeless forms in spacesuits; their unseeing eyes stare at me behind the glass helmets.
I finally reach the spot where I saw movement and have to push a large piece of metal out of the way. There are a lot of random pieces of machinery here that I have no way of explaining where they came from. As I lift it off and shove it to the side, one of the space suits moves again. A face, a living and breathing face, looks out at me from inside her helmet. She looks terrified at first but then seems to relax when her eyes focus on me, and she struggles to get up.
"It's all right. I'm going to get you out of here." I reach down to untangle her legs from yet another piece of metal.
"Can you walk?"
She's weak, but with my help, she can stand.
"We have someone alive here! Call for the med team to meet us at the nearest airlock!" I yell down the tube.
Derek's head pops into view, above the mass of dead bodies. He's got his nose and mouth covered with cloth he's wrapped around his head. His gaze flicks all around, finally landing on me with wide eyes.
"It's okay, Derek, you just stay there. I'll bring her out."
I help the woman over the mass of bodies, as she shakes with sobs. We finally make it to the entrance and pull her into the outer room and close both doors. Derek helps me to sit her down against the wall. The sergeant is nowhere to be seen.
As I help the woman out of her rancid space suit, I keep an eye on Derek. He keeps the cloth over his face, and what I can see of him is very pale. But he helps me with the survivor without complaint.
11
Crew of Fifty
We get the survivor out of the suit and see she's wearing the uniform of an officer. I check her vital signs and wrap a foil blanket around her that Derek has found in an emergency kit. I dig into my pack and pull out my own small emergency kit. I place a med tab on her tongue. She closes her eyes and rests her head back against the wall, drawing in ragged breaths.
"What did you give her?" Derek sits down next to me. His voice is weak.
"Something to relax her and help her stomach with the smell." I smile at Derek and offer him one of the tabs. He takes it with a weak smile.
I lean back against the wall, the woman to my left and Derek to my right. "The sergeant went to get help?"
Derek looks a bit green. "Yes. After puking up all of his breakfast." He grimaces.
"Thanks for staying, Derek." I wrap my arms around my knees and stare at my shoes. I'm not afraid of the dead, but so many decomposed bodies in one area is something I haven’t experienced yet. Every death is unique and affects you in different ways. Although I was able to concentrate enough to get the woman out, it was more difficult for me than I'd ever experienced before.
Derek shifts slightly next to me and places his arm around my shoulder. I lean into him, the warm touch steadying me.
"How do you get used to that, Bren?" His voice is just a whisper, his head so close that his breath makes the dark curls around my face dance.
I shake my head. "This one was a bit tougher than some, but it's part of the job. I concentrate on what I needs to get do
ne, and the bodies taken care of with respect."
The woman stirs next to me and I reluctantly turn away from Derek to check on her. She tries to get up, so I put my hands gently on her shoulders. "Just rest for now. The medics will be here soon." But she keeps struggling, weak from malnutrition and dehydration.
I get up and kneel before her to look her in the eyes. "I know you've been through something horrific. I'm sorry for the loss of your crew members."
A small tear falls from her red and swollen eyes.
"All of them?" Her voice is hoarse, as she weakly grasps my hand.
I look toward the door we just brought her through. "I'm sorry. You were the only one left alive."
She drops her chin to her chest, and her shoulders shake although there are no more tears left in her body. She suddenly lifts her head up and looks at me with wide eyes. "And them?" She moves her chin toward the wall we're leaning against.
I sit back on my heels as my heart races and my skin tingles. "Them?"
She squeezes my hand softly. "The others. There." She moves her head again toward the wall.
I look up. We're leaning against the wall between this pod and the next one. My heart plummets in my chest. "Oh no! Are you saying there are more in the next pod?"
She nods her head as vigorously as her weakened state allows her.
I bolt to my feet. "You just stay here. The medics will be here any minute. I'll go check, okay?"
Her eyes widen as she leans her head back.
I turn toward the door. "Derek, can you come with me?" I plead.
"You think there are more crew in this pod?" His voice is strained.
"She seems to think so. And there were only twenty-nine bodies in Pod 4. That means there are still crew members unaccounted for."
We hurry to pod 5.
I try the door but it won't open.
Derek reaches around me and places his hand on the bio scanner next to the door and then enters the codes. The door opens.
"Thanks."
His face just inches away, his eyes lock on mine.
I force myself to look away and step into the room. As before, I can smell exhaust and decomp. I'm hoping that we'll find more survivors this time.
Derek hurries past me and starts the process of overriding whatever security protocol these people had placed on the system.
I look over his shoulder as he works. "Do you think this crew put all those overrides in place themselves? To hide from whoever boarded the ship?"
Derek looks sideways at me, his closeness sending a shiver down my spine. "That would make sense. But whoever did it can't be inside the tube, right? They would've had to eject the pod, then force the door open, put the crew inside, then program the overrides on the system from here." He looks back down.
So someone did this to the crew. But we didn't find anyone else, or any other bodies aboard the ship. So maybe that person was taken by whoever attacked the ship?
The door clicks, cycling open and I step away from Derek. I settle into shallow breathing automatically, and reach into my pocket for another set of gloves. The smell this time isn't as strong. I brace myself as the circular door slowly grinds opens to reveal bodies mashed up against the sides of the tube. There aren't as many this time, and I'm able to get inside easier. I hear some scraping and moaning noises that gives me hope.
I look back and see that Derek is trying to follow me in. He has his mouth covered again with the cloth and is holding on to the side of the tube for support. I smile at him and continue on.
Still recording, I carefully check each person. It seems like with the other pod, the crew placed the dead against the entry door on purpose. Either to give them extra protection against discovery, or just to keep the bodies as far away from the living as possible. They must’ve been hiding from something terrifying to do this to themselves.
Just as I take another step, a hand reaches out and touches my leg. I cry out and stumble backward but quickly recover my balance. I bend down to see where the hand came from. Stretched out along the wall is a young boy. My eyes widen as I realize he can't be more than eight years old. The helmet he's wearing is way too big, and the space suit is baggy. A woman's body has pinned him underneath her, protecting him with her last breath.
I carefully roll her off the boy. When I turn, I find Derek right behind me. Grateful he has made it this far with me, I point down to the boy. His eyes register the same shock I felt at seeing someone so young here on this ship. And alive.
I reach down, scoop the boy up and place him in Derek's arms. I gesture for him to take the boy out, and then I turn back to continue with my desperate search for survivors. I find another couple of bodies under large console panel covers. The metallic noise from moving the covers echoes in the quiet of the small tube. These people must've died within the last twenty-four hours, their bodies just barely settling into rigidity. More movement catches my eye, and I quickly move aside more space junk to find a man sitting with his back against the outside hatch door, laboring for breath.
His look of hope at seeing me is desperate. He struggles to stand up, so I put my arm under him for support. Although he struggles to breathe, he's able to stand with my help. I look toward the door, the floor strewn with bodies of his crewmembers and wince. There’s no other way out. I step forward, urging him to keep going despite the tragedy all around. We stumble out of the tube and through both doors. I keep him walking around the corner to where Derek sees me and gets up to help me. Together we set him down next to the other survivors and help him out of his helmet. He's crying dry tears as he pulls fresh air into his lungs.
I hear loud boot steps clanking toward us.
"The med techs are finally here." I stand up as they pour into the small room, trailed by the sergeant. "So far three survivors. I need to finish searching pod 5."
I push my way through the techs. I can hear Derek updating them on what we've found inside pods 4 and 5. I’m about to step into pod 5 when I hear someone behind me. I turn to see the sergeant.
"I'm sorry I bailed on you." His expression is grim. "I'm here to help now."
I have no time to appreciate this turn of events, so I nod for him to follow.
I double check all the bodies again for life as I walk through, counting as I go. The sergeant is breathing heavy but stays with me.
I get to the outside door where we found the man and discover another woman, barely alive. The sergeant helps me carry her out where we quickly hand her over to the medics.
After all the med techs leave I lean against the outer door to pod 4 and slide down to sit hard on the cold metal floor. I put my arms around my knees and rest my head on them. I mentally go over everything I've seen and what steps I need to take in order to take care of the rest of crew that didn't survive. We've found all fifty of them here, crammed into the launch tubes where the escape pods should've been. Only four survivors. What would make a crew take such a risk?
12
Derek’s Secret
I feel someone sit down next to me and put an arm around my shoulders. I lift my head to see Derek looking at me with concern on his face.
"Are you going to be all right?" he asks.
I give a halfhearted laugh. "I should be asking you that." I smile weakly.
He rests his head back against the wall, keeping his arm draped around me. "I don't think the full impact of what I saw here has sunk in yet."
I blow a stray curl off my face. "Sometimes it doesn't hit until days or weeks later. We do what needs to be done in the moment, but then when we no longer need to be strong and our minds and bodies no longer are distracted, we finally have time to reflect and remember. That's when it hits you like a blow to the head."
"Great. Something to look forward to." He pulls me closer, his warm body shivering from the adrenaline draining from him. "Then what do you do?" he whispers.
I lean into him, his warmth comforting. "You talk to someone about your experience, you allow the grief or anger
or fears to be recognized. Then you find something fun or happy to distract you. It's important not to ignore the feelings and emotions of seeing such ugliness, but also not to dwell on it so that it handicaps your life."
He's quiet as his shivering subsides. I close my eyes and just enjoy this moment; Derek’s warmth, having someone to talk to, and just sitting here not having to do anything. I try to forget what I'll be doing for the next couple of days.
I'm startled when Derek speaks. "I lost both my parents a few years back." I look up and find him watching me. "That's what I was trying to tell you yesterday after we got back from the Valiant."
I turn slightly, not wanting to move away from his warmth. "I'm sorry, Derek."
"They died in an electrical fire on our mining barge. We had a few bad years so our ship was pretty much cobbled together." He looks away.
Like the Valiant.
"They wouldn't get into the emergency pods. They put me in one and launched it. I wasn't found for several days." His breathing gets heavy and he closes his eyes.
I slip out from under his arm and scoot around to kneel in front of him. I wrap him in a hug as he silently cries. He pulls me onto his lap and holds me tight.
"That's why the electrical fire on the Valiant freaked you out so much." I whisper. "But this time you were able to help save us." There are a lot of people out here on the edge of the solar system that have lost family. It's a hard life being so far away from the social and economic hub of humanity.
His hair brushes against my cheek. I try to pull back, but he holds me tight, desperate for the connection.
"Thanks to you, Bren, I was able to face that fear."
We stay entwined like that for some time. The stress and anxiety from the day loosens as we embrace. We grudgingly release when we hear boot steps coming down the corridor,
I sit back next to him, not touching, yet still feeling the warm connection. All Derek's bravado and cocky attitude has been to cover up this huge fear and loss he's been stuffing down inside him. I wonder if he's ever really talked to anyone like this.
Delta Fringe Series Boxset: Books 1-3 Page 6
