Chapter 1: Stranger and Stranger
Melissa Granger, Head of Security, Engine Deck 012, Saturday 18:07 hours, Earth time
"Ugh, it looked better over the camera…" Melissa said, looking about in the bloodied engine interior. "Holy shit, that's a lot of blood, sir." Rod Ferguson said, backing away from all the gore. Melissa nodded; it was easily enough blood to have been two, maybe three people. "Let's see what the damage is, shall we?" Melissa asked, stepping through the vent and into the dark engine. Hesitantly, the other three security members in her squad followed her into the hellish machine. Melissa stepped carefully around an empty, limbless torso. "This must have been the victim… or at least, one of them." Melissa said, turning on her shoulder mounted lamp to get a better view of the body, if that's what it could be called.
"Shit, that thing's empty. What sick fuck would take all the organs out of a torso?" Rod said, turning his gaze around the small area. "Don't know Rod, but there are some weird people out there, like our good captain." Nick Denser said, pulling what looked like it had once been an arm out of some gears. "Very funny Nick. One more comment like that, and you'll be cleaning this thing with your toothbrush." Melissa said as she continued her investigation of the torso. Nick always poked fun Melissa's way about her being Unitologist. Melissa usually took it in stride, but now didn't classify under "usually".
Fernando Shepard chuckled at the toothbrush comment, surprising the rest of his team. He was often a man of few words, priding himself in the "strong and silent" type, as others say. "Look at that Nick. I even got a chuckle out of Fernando there." Melissa said while grinning behind her security suit's helmet. Nick grumbled under his breath as he dropped the pile of flesh he found. "Hey, this important sir?" Rod said as he gestured to some writing on the wall. Melissa stood and walked over to where Rod stood, pointing to what looked to be Unitologist symbols on the wall written in blood. "That's odd… these look like Marker symbols…" Melissa said combing her memory for what the symbols meant.
"Permission to speak freely sir." Nick said playing with a loose gear that held the arm. "Granted." Melissa said still focusing her attention on the symbols. "That is fucking creepy. Sir." Nick said abandoning the gears. Fernando grunted in agreement as he slide a loose panel on the floor to the side. "Yes, yes it is." Melissa said, half way done deciphering the symbols. "I have something." Fernando said, holding part of a torn uniform in his hand. Melissa didn't turn from the symbols, "What is it?"
"A Medical officer's uniform, it has the med deck symbol on it. No ID, though." Fernando reported to Melissa. "Medical officer? What is a doctor doing down here?" Rod asked, looking over the piece of white fabric stained with dark red in his hands after Fernando offered it. "Don't know, but it makes as much sense as these symbols." Melissa said, standing back slightly from the wall. "If I remember correctly, it reads 'They obey him, they obey him. They want to be made whole.' Any ideas?" Melissa asked, turning to face her team.
"Last prayer to God, or who the fuck ever you worship? It would be ironic, given his current state." Nick said with a shrug. "Hope you don't like your toothbrush Nick. Anyone else?" Melissa asked, facing Rod and Fernando. "Fuck…" Nick mumbled as he turned to inspect a holographic monitor. "No idea sir." Rod said as he placed the torn uniform in an evidence bag. Melissa looked to Fernando who shook his head in response. "Well then gentlemen. Our work here is done. Coroner will be here shortly to analyze the… 'body'." Melissa said as she walked out of the engine. "Thank Christ…" Nick mumbled as he hurried out of the engine. "Don't get too happy Nick. We still need to look around the immediate area for other clues. Get to it people." Melissa said as she walked to the corner of the massive engine room for the camera on the ceiling that overlooked the vent.
"You got it sir." Rod said as he started to remove the panel that housed the door's controls. "Awesome…" Nick said as he climbed the ladder to the top of the engine. "Yes sir." Fernando replied as he made his way for the engine readout monitor on the opposite side of the room. Melissa opened her RIG screen to override the controls to the camera. After some basic commands, she had access to the camera and its footage. "Rod, based on the blood, what would your estimate on the time of death be?" Melissa asked as she browsed through the footage archives for the camera. "My guess would be one, two days, tops. Blood doesn't take too long to dry." Rod replied as he opened his own RIG screen.
'One to two days…' Melissa thought as she rewound to the correct date. 'Ah ha. Here we are.' Melissa opened the footage for that day, last Thursday, and played it at 120% speed, fast enough to not sit here for hours, but slow enough to not miss anything important. "Door open/close records seem normal. No sign of forced entry or tampering." Rod reported as he read the information off of his RIG screen. "So the killer had access to engineering level doors? That narrows it down at least." Melissa said as she watched time fly by in the empty room. "Yo, captain. Check Thursday at 22:17 hours. Engine reads physical damage was recorded then." Nick said as he navigated the engines computer log.
Melissa fast-forwarded to ten minutes before and played it at normal speed. "Fernando, anything to report?" Melissa asked as she watched the still-empty room. "No sir. Aside from the engine being broken." Fernando said. A man walked into the room on the footage and looked about before opening the vent on the side of the engine and climbing in. "Hey, I got something." Melissa said once she viewed this. "He isn't wearing an engineering suit. He can't be doing anything good." Rod said as the man climbed out of the vent and replaced the cover. "And he knows there is a camera here. He hid his face the whole time." Melissa noted. "He also didn't destroy the vent. No one else was in there, so he can't be the killer." Rod added.
"Yeah, but he was still doing something illegal. Nick, that wasn't the time of death. Anything else?" Melissa asked. "One sec… yeah, Friday, 01:47 hours, physical damage recorded." Nick reported. Melissa fast-forwarded to ten minutes prior again and played it to normal speed. A man opened the door and limped in, blood matting his pants to his leg. He looked around franticly before opening the vent and closing it after he was inside the engine. "He had a Medical officer's uniform, he must be the victim." Melissa said. Metal clattered down onto the top of the engine and a dark figure jumped down the side of the massive engine and slashed the vent cover apart and jumped in. Four minutes later, the same figure climbs out and jumps to the top of the engine and up out of sight.
"Holy shit, that guy is either not human or doing serious drugs." Rod said when the video concluded its grizzly show. "Nick, look for any metal up there." Melissa said, looking at the ceiling where another vent cover was torn apart. "We know how he got in now…" Melissa said to herself. "There's some metal up here, just like… you… said." Nick reported while following Melissa's gaze up to the exposed vent. "How did we miss that?" Nick asked. "Don't know." Melissa said as the door opened. A man in a white lab coat walked in and surveyed the security crew. "I'm Doctor Desmond Niles. Where's the lucky winner?" The man said in a slight English accent.
"Hello doctor. I'm Melissa Granger, Head of Security." Melissa said as she approached Desmond. "Charmed. What do we have… and where?" Desmond asked, looking around. Melissa pointed to the torn vent and watched as Desmond walked over and entered. "Well, you don't see that every day… and my wife says this job is boring." The security squad hears from the interior of the engine. Melissa turned to Rod, "Keep looking for anything else. I'm going to have a word with the good doctor." Melissa turned to enter the engine after him. "Yes sir." Rod said.
"Form what we've gathered doc, victim is a member of Medical. Anyone missing on your end?" Melissa asked as Desmond opened a small bag and pulled gloves on. "That is a question to ask those that deal with the patients still living. So, no, not that I'm aware of." Desmond said as he tilted the torso this way and that, looking for… Melissa didn't know what he was looking for. "I see. So, I'm guessing cause of death was blood loss?" Melissa asked, turning on her shoulder lamp once more. "Thank you. And I won't know until I get back to the lab for more extensive test. Assuming that they will be enough to tell cause of death. My guess, however, would be blood loss after decapitation of limbs. Blood in these amounts would require a still-beating heart and therefor the torso injuries are post-mortem." Desmond said. "There it is." He added, pulling a small metal chip out of what was left of the ribcage.
"There's what?" Melissa asked. "What we have here is a custom made medical chip. These little babies are put in people who undergo surgery so as to provide details on what happened, who did it, etc. I'll have an ID for you within ten hours." Desmond said, pocketing the small chip. "Well, that's convenient. Thank you for your help Dr. Niles. Please contact me when you have further information." Melissa said as she turned for the exit. "Oh, one more thing." Desmond said standing up. "Yes?" Melissa asked facing him. "While right now it's nothing more than speculation, but the wounds on the body seem more consistent with animal attacks than a human attacker with a weapon. But, like I said, I won't be sure until more tests are done." Desmond said. "Hmm. Interesting… thank you for your help Doctor. Squad! Let's move out. We're done here. Melissa said as she walked for the door.
Malcolm Smith, Head of Engineering, Personal Quarters, Sunday 9:48 hours, Earth time
Malcolm awoke slowly, looking over to the clock. 'Almost ten. She let me sleep in today.' Malcolm thought to himself as he stretched and rose out of his bed. Malcolm loved his bed, and there was no changing that fact. Most of his friends had one of those fancy levitation beds, but they creped Malcolm out. Not touching anything while you slept… ugh, it's just plain weird. And Malcolm heard horror stories of what happened when they malfunctioned. Of course it was rare, but the threat of it was always in the back of his mind when he contemplated buying one. Once you see something, you can't un-see it.
Malcolm pulled a tee-shirt down over his head and a pair of sweat pants before walking out to the kitchen. He started warming up a pan to begin cooking breakfast when Sara, his 7-year-old daughter, walked out while rubbing her eyes with one hand and her other holding a Rainbow Dash plush toy, her favorite. Malcolm didn't know where her fascination came from for the very, very old cartoon, but it made her happy. And that was good enough for Malcolm. "Good morning princess. How did you sleep?" Malcolm asked, cracking some eggs to make omelets.
"Good." Sara simply replied, too tired to go into further detail of her slumber. "Why are you so tired today?" Malcolm asked. "Usually you wake me up." Malcolm said with a playful smile to Sara. "I guess I stayed up watching My Little Pony longer than usual last night." Sara replied followed by an adorable yawn. "Why do you find that show so fascinating? I was never into old stuff like you. And not into talking horses either." Malcolm said as he flipped the first omelet, landing it perfectly with a nice sizzle as the uncooked side hit the hot pan. Sara shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe I get it from mom. And their ponies, not horses."
Malcolm shrugged as well. "My mistake. Here you are." He said as he placed the fresh omelet on a plate and placed it in front of Sara. He got to work on making his own when he heard Sara yelp in surprise as she spit out a half-chewed bite. "Careful, it's hot." Malcolm said with a devious grin. Sara glared at him, "Thanks a lot Captain Obvious." Malcolm chuckled while he awaited his omelet to cook sufficiently before he flipped it. "You know I love you Sara." Malcolm said as he flipped the omelet. "I love you too…" Sara mumbled before blowing on the piece of omelet before eating it. Malcolm let his omelet finish cooking before he put it on a plate and sat down to the left of Sara on their small dining table. Right as he went to bite his breakfast, a knock came from the door.
"Fantastic. Wonder who that is." Malcolm said as he rose to answer the door. He slide the door open to reveal Melissa, already in her security suit. "Hello Malcolm. You should come with me to the Coroner's office. It's… important that you hear what he has to say. Once you're dressed, of course." Melissa said after she retracted her helmet. "Oh. Uh, sure. Can I have breakfast first?" Malcolm asked with a playful smile. Melissa rolled her eyes, "Meet me at his office. I'll send the path to your RIG." And with that, Melissa's helmet climbed over her head and she walked off. Malcolm closed the door and returned to the breakfast table to resume eating. "Who was that dad?" Sara asked when he sat down. "Just a… co-worker. I'm going to be gone for a while, okay?" Malcolm said, taking a bite of his food. "She was kinda pretty. Is it a date?" Sara asked. Malcolm sighed, "No, no it is not." His omelet didn't taste quiet as good now.
Malcolm Smith, Head of Engineering, Coroner's Office, Sunday 10:27 hours, Earth time
"Glad I had breakfast first." Malcolm said distastefully as he looked upon the torso and assorted chunks of flesh that lay on the table. "You get used to it." Desmond said with a shrug and a chuckle form Melissa. "Now, as you can see, there wasn't a lot that I could do with the body, but what I could do was determine the cause of death. That being blood loss after the limbs were severed from the body, arms first, then legs and the head last. Once they were removed, the torso was opened along the middle and sternum and the organs removed." Desmond explained while gesturing to the torso at different parts as he went. "But, I'm sure you could have guessed that. What I found interesting though, is the lacerations found on the torso and what's left of the arms and legs; they are near-identical to animal attacks instead of a human, save the bite marks." Desmond said as he pointed out several examples.
"Whoa, whoa, back up. Human bite marks? As in, this guy-"Malcolm said before being cut off by Desmond, "Henry Mulberry, Doctor Henry Mulberry." Malcolm shook his head, "Yeah, whatever. But he got chewed on?" Desmond nodded. "That is correct." Desmond said as he pulled out a picture of one of the many bite marks present on the torso. "Holy shit…" Malcolm said as he studied the picture. "This leads to why I called you here, Malcolm." Melissa said. Malcolm handed the picture back to Desmond and faced Melissa. "One, I though you should know. Two, you cannot tell anybody about this, not even the crew that found the crime scene." Melissa said in a serious tone that unnerved Malcolm. "Why? What the hell do I tell them?" Malcolm asked.
Melissa looked to Desmond who nodded and gathered some papers before leaving the room with a quiet, "If you will excuse me for a moment." Melissa turned back to Malcolm, "If what Dr. Niles found is accurate, we could be looking at a first-contact scenario here. And not a pleasant one." Melissa said in a hushed tone. Malcolm looked at her dumbfounded. "Holy- are you saying there are aliens onboard?" Malcolm asked, also quietly. Melissa nodded, "And the only reason I told you is because I need to make a full report of this to the captain, and if you can confirm my report, he will be more inclined to take action. And… I know it must be tough, being a single parent. You should know so you can protect Sara." Melissa explained.
Malcolm took a deep breath and released it. "Thanks. But… we barely know each other. Why would you do something like this?" Malcolm asked slowly after a long pause. "Because Unitology preaches being one people. Not as strangers stumbling through life together, but friends." Melissa said softly before she turned to walk out of the room. "I'm going to meet the captain at 11:00 a.m. Be there at 10:50 or so." Melissa said as she walked out the door and down the hall. Malcolm stared after her for a moment before he sat down in one of the chairs about the room. His gaze found its way back to the decimated piles of flesh that lay on the table. 'First aliens, now Melissa… what the fuck is going on?' Malcolm thought to himself.
He wished he could find an answer.
Dr. Kirk Grawl, Religious Scientist (Unitology), His office on Medical deck, Sunday10:12 hours, Earth time
Dr. Grawl was looking over his notes from the test with Hank Friedman when a knock came from the door. "Enter." He called out and Dr. Howl walked in and sat in one of the two chairs that rested in front of his dark oak desk. "Ah, Dr. Howl. To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?" Dr. Grawl asked as he placed the notes in their respective folder. "I've come to report the successful test of the neural amplifier on subjects 1 through 74. They have all responded to the orders to the letter." Dr. Howl stated. A smile formed on Dr. Grawls lips. "That is excellent news my friend." Dr. Grawl said happily.
"Yes, but, I'm afraid that I have some bad news to report as well." Dr. Howl said uncertainly. Dr. Grawls smile vanished to be replaced with his customary frown. "And what would that be?" Dr. Grawl said in a disappointed tone. "It, uh… it appears one of the subjects was able to escape and kill a medical officer this morning at approximately 1:47 a.m. on the Engineering deck." Dr. Howl said slowly. "The subject was terminated at 1:55 a.m. by one of our staff and its remains shot out of airlock 49278." Dr. Howl said solemnly. "By Altman, this is a disaster! How the hell did it escape?" Dr. Grawl said angrily. "The subject was able to escape through an air vent in its cell." Dr. Howl said.
"See to it that all cells are revised to fix this problem immediately. What of the infection forms? Not to change the subject, of course. We will cross that bridge when we come to it." Dr. Grawl said coldly. "Yes, the infection forms. We have yet to successfully create one. The genetic coding is proving to be more complex than anticipated. We are close, however." Dr. Howl replied. Dr. Grawl sighed, "Very well. Thank you for the report. If you will excuse me, I must dwell on what has transpired." Dr. Grawl said, turning in his swivel chair to face out the window. Dr. Howl rose and left without another word. 'This is not good. It appears my plans are going to have to be accelerated. Gods work will be done… only later than I anticipated.' Dr. Grawl thought to himself.
In the cold reaches of space outside Dr. Grawls window, a necromorph head floated by.
Authors Note: Here we are, chapter 1 completed! Now, as for when 'action' will be introduced into the story (that is, necromorph fighting and generally undesirable things like that happening) will come in chapter 3 or so. If it's the main reason you came to read this story, just stick around until then. If you like a little lead up to the violence, then I hope you enjoyed the story so far! Please feel free to PM me or leave a review on what you think about the story so far, what I can improve on, etc. Until next time, CI signing off.
