Chapter Three – The Body of Childs

The space cruiser punched through the Earth's atmosphere leaving a thick black smoke trail in its wake. There was now no way of controlling it as it roared toward the surface of the planet, its engines roared with a sound akin to a primal scream. It left vapour trails as it pierced clouds and ploughed through the Earth's relatively thick atmosphere. The three occupants of the vessel braced themselves for the inevitable impact. All three had been branded traitors to their race for violating the honour code of their home world in one way or another. They were not afraid; they would welcome death with open arms. Death was more favourable than their current sentence of a life without honour; a life of banishment on an alien planet. Their sentence was one of exile and forever being branded as "Bad Bloods".

As the cruiser screamed through the atmosphere it began to further pick up speed and was at this point plummeting toward the surface at breakneck velocity. The surrounding area shook with the shockwave as the vessel finally pounded into the icy, desolate wasteland. The freezing winds lapped at the hot chassis of the craft causing steam to raise to the heavens, sparks flew and lights flickered on the ship's mangled body. As the steam cleared, all that could be heard in the dead of the night was the cruel unrelenting Antarctic wind. The ship lay motionless for hours until shadows began to move on the inside.

Slowly the door started to open.

Navarro looked upon the now thawed body of MacReady with great interest. It was almost perfectly preserved. There were obvious signs of ice burns and the skin had started to break down but you would suspect that he had been dead less than 3 days rather than the thirty years it had actually been. His pale sullen face and closed sunken eyes suggested that although he died of exposure to the harsh elements, he died relatively peacefully. In short: Time had stood still for MacReady. His hand had still been clutching a bottle of whiskey which he must have been using to keep himself oblivious to the cold. The other body had been taken out of the cooler much later and as a result had only just begun to thaw. Navarro let his mind wander as he cleaned up MacReady's corpse. The post-mortem had shown nothing unusual. He had simply stopped living and been preserved in an icy tomb for decades. This meant that their mission had been a success. The joint commission had been reluctant to allow further scientific tests in the area due to the unexplained deaths of a team from Norway and the disappearance of a team from America. They were concerned that some form of contagion might have been responsible for the loss of so many people. Giving Macready's body the all-clear was encouraging. When the second body comes up clear the Commission will have no other option than to allow teams to take up permanent residence here again. Navarro relished the prospect of being permitted to lead expeditions to such an untapped archaeological location. "You mustn't be far off ready, my friend." he mused as he turned to look over the second body; it was still quite stiff, definitely still too cold for the post-mortem. In life, it had been a fairly broad shouldered male, his dark skin suggested that he was of African descent. Navarro placed his hands on the torso and noted that the clothing was now pliable. He slowly unzipped the body-warmer and looked for any passes or wallet to aid in identification, there was none, as he pulled slightly on the jacket he noted the embroidered name on the breast of the shirt. "Childs, eh? At least we know who you both are." He covered the bodies with silver sheets, removed his gloves and made to leave the medical area, stopping only to glance back at his subjects and finally switch off the lights.

Darkness filled the room with only the light from the corridor creeping in through the gap between the door and the tiled floor. The silence was then broken by a slight but constant sound. Nobody was around to hear the repetitive dripping sound of the ice melting on the suddenly quickly thawing corpse of Childs. Had somebody been there, they might have noticed that Navarro had not properly covered the bodies and had left Child's foot uncovered. It is pretty certain also that had somebody been in the room at the time, they also would have seen that uncovered foot twitch.

The recreation room was a very basic large cube shaped area with a few mismatched couches dotted around and dominated by a large metallic circular table. The room contained a few basic creature comforts. Navarro entered the recreation room and sat at the table. He glanced around at the others who had congregated there to wind down after their days work. Martinez, Baldur and Pollard all sat on a large squarish couch facing a wall painted brilliant white. The projector was currently in use and throwing a six foot high image of a large green monster chasing a screaming damsel against the wall. At the other side of the room, Kristanna was curled up on a smaller couch thoroughly engrossed in a battered old book, she looked over the top of the book and nodded, "Hi Doc"

"Hey, Krissy. What's that you've got? Another one of your horror books? What is it this time, Blood sucking Vampires or evil zombie rabbits?"

Kristanna smiled, "Neither. Its one I found in the Library. I've only just started it but I'm already hooked". Navarro shook his head, to him; bookish people were a certain way. Kristanna didn't meet his stereotype. She was smart, attractive and was actually very interesting to talk to. She just loved books. Navarro wished that she gave him half the attention she gave her books. He'd fallen in love with her within the first month of working with her. He would have told her how he felt if it wasn't for the fact that they got on so well. If she rejected him, things would probably become so awkward between them that they couldn't work together. He didn't want that at all so he had decided to settle for a close working relationship.

The server had crashed again but Morris was way past caring. He and Sverre sat on the floor, cross-legged and watching their third movie of the evening. Morris took a valiant swig from the vodka bottle, grimaced and passed it to Sverre; who, without looking away from the screen, took the bottle and added some into his glass. The glass now contained beer, schnapps, vodka and a small amount of Ethanol they had found in the cleaning cupboard. It was evident that Sverre was now extremely drunk. His speech was slurred, he had developed a squint and now sported a rather attractive pair of bunny ears that he had found in one of the desks. Morris opened yet another beer bottle and held it aloft, "Did I tell you, I'm gonna be a daddy?"

Sverre clanged his glass against the bottle and cheered drunkenly, "I know. I know; you must be so proud. I know when I had my first; I was so happy that I could have burst." Sverre suddenly looked uneasy.

"You alright mate?"

Sverre banged at his chest frantically, his eyes bulging. Morris slapped his hard on his back and Sverre release a loud, resonating belch that took Morris by surprise and the two fell about in fits of laughter. Morris looked up at the server screens. A light was flashing, one that never usually does. It was the proximity alarm. Morris struggled to his feet and made for the tannoy system. "Hey, proximity's going off. Anybody working on the doors?"

The speaker crackled into life, "This is Navarro, we're all in recreation. We're missing Sverre. Is he with you?"

Morris looked down at the, now snoring form, "Yeah, kinda."

"Ok, Can you check on Akira, she might have gotten out of her cage again. I'll check the doors."

"'Kay", Morris stepped over the sleeping Sverre and wandered down the corridor to the dog cage. Akira was curled up sleeping in one corner of the cage. Morris' presence caused her to stir slightly and through heavy blinks she stared at him for a short time. Realizing that she was in no danger, The gray husky stretched her mouth wide into a yawn and settled back to sleep.

Navarro walked to the main entryway and immediately felt the chilling breeze that whipped through the door that now hung loosely from its hinges. He pulled a fire axe from the wall and walked to the door, pushing it closed with his foot while propping it there with one of the trolleys. Had something tried to get in? Had something successfully gotten in? The polar bears were coming closer and closer to the camp but would they be capable of bringing the thick steel door down? He looked up the corridor to the dog cage, he could see Morris watching Akira sleep. He turned to face the medical section's corridor and froze. The lab door was swinging. Something had gotten into the labs. Had it harmed the bodies? He had to be sure. Navarro gingerly walked down the dark corridor toward the lab room. He peered into the room. There was nothing in there. What had caused so much damage? A bear would have ransacked the place for food. Everything in the room was intact. He could see the outline of MacReady's body in the shadows. He turned to flick the overhead lights on. As the room filled with light, a grim realisation grasped him.

Child's body was missing.