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My face fell no sooner than the words had left Hinkonnoshi's mouth. Another body? And on one of the lower decks, as well. It had to be, didn't it? But I couldn't bring myself to accept it. I couldn't allow myself to accept that my son had now killed two people.
"Do you know anything about what happened?" I asked, trying to remain calm as I spoke.
"I'm afraid not, sir." He replied. "But I would assume that there is some link to Professor Oldman's suspected murder."
"Perhaps." I nodded, although I already knew full well that the likelihood of there not being a link between the two deaths was incredibly slim indeed. Even so, I couldn't say for sure until I knew the full story.
"I have to go down there." I told Hinkonnoshi sternly. "I need to know what's going on."
"I'm afraid I can't allow that, sir," Hinkonnoshi ordered, shaking his head. "Mr Kelvin has specifically instructed me to keep you up here at all times in case there is any development with your patient. Not only that, but the entire docking area has been deemed off-limits to civilians until the culprit has been found."
"No, you don't understand," I explained, pushing past the Doctor-Professor as I made my way into the corridor. "I have to go down there."
"Mr Jones, it may be dangerous." He pleaded. "If this is a multiple homicide case, the killer may still be on the loose."
"Yosuke…" I sighed, unsure how to word my response to avoid arousing his suspicions. "Look, let's just say I might be able to 'shed some light' on the matter." I turned to leave, making my way slowly towards the double doors at the end of the corridor.
"Matthew?" Yosuke called out just as I reached the doors.
"Yes?" I called back, turning to face the man, who was now a good thirty feet away from me.
"Just be careful, yeah?" He asked sincerely. It was nice to know that somebody other than me was actually concerned for my safety.
"I will." I assured him graciously. "I'll be back soon." And with that, I pushed my way through the thick metal doors behind me, and stumbled into the next corridor.
As I journeyed further down the station towards the docking area, I became more and more worried about what I'd find down there. I was still trying to come to terms with the fact that Xanthus may have killed two people already, and that there was likely to be more in the near future. I still didn't understand how this could have happened, though. Xenomorphs, of course, are killers by instinct, but Xena was far from dangerous. She was a calm, gentle, loving creature, more compassionate than any human I'd ever met. And I wasn't exactly Jack the Ripper myself, was I? So how could we have given birth to a child of such bloodthirsty nature? Perhaps it was a recessive gene or something like that. After all, Xena's twin brother had turned out to be nothing like her, hadn't he? If Ryan, Alan and Nathan hadn't killed that thing when they did, it would have surely gone on to eradicate everyone on board the ship, possibly even Xena herself. And I had always said that Xena was one of a kind, perhaps to the point that even her own children would not be fortunate enough to break free of their basic instincts. So was that it? There had never been a Xenomorph like Xena before, and now there never would be again? Almost felt like I'd been the only person in human history lucky enough to hit the jackpot at the Xenomorph lottery.
Another ten minutes or so later, I had reached an area of the station which I felt was probably low enough to be considered 'the lower decks'. As per Kelvin's request, there was not a single person in sight, dock staff, patient, or otherwise. The eeriest thing about this was that I couldn't hear a thing. Not even the sound of engines throbbing resounded through the empty corridors, which was odd considering that most space stations have their engines in the lower sections. Every now and then, I heard the fizzling of fluorescent ceiling lights as they struggled to keep themselves running, but that was about it. After several minutes of wandering the corridors aimlessly, however, I finally heard the sound of voices in the distance. From my current position, I was too far away to hear what was being discussed, but I could tell that Kelvin and at least three other men were involved in the conversation. I crept slowly in the direction of the voices, and soon reached the intersection between two corridors (or should that be the intersection between four corridors? I was never really sure). Anyway, stopping just before the corner, I could now hear the voices much more clearly. I listened in carefully, trying to make sense of what they were saying.
"So what are we going to do?" One of the men muttered. I seemed to remember his voice from somewhere, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
"What do you think we're going to do, James?" Kelvin snapped back at the man. "We need to find out who or what is behind these killings and put a stop to it."
"Do you really think it's as easy as that, Andrew?" The first voice replied, which I now realised belonged to Colonial Marshall James Ericson. "It's pretty difficult to track down a killer that leaves no witnesses, you know."
"Oh, I think we already know who's behind this." A new voice interrupted, this one belonging to Security Commander Liam Davison. "Wouldn't you agree, Officer Kelvin?"
"What's he talking about, Andrew?" Ericson demanded, his tone now becoming very condescending.
"Nothing, sir." Kelvin assured him, then said to Ericson through gritted teeth: "That situation has been dealt with appropriately, and does not require the Colonial Marshall's input. Does it, Davison?" There was a long pause at this point, presumably as Kelvin and Davison stared at each other coldly.
"I'm telling you, Brownway…" Ericson continued after a while. "If I found out that something has gotten through quarantine, you'll-"
"Oh, that's lovely, that is." A fourth and final voice argued. Obviously, I could tell from the context that it was Dock Sergeant Colin Brownway. "Two people die and suddenly everyone's all 'Oh, I bet this is that Sergeant Brownway's fault' for not searching people's ships thoroughly enough."
"Don't you take that tone with me, Brownway." Ericson snapped. "You'll do well to remember who's in charge here."
"Oh, like you have the faintest idea about what goes on aboard this station." Kelvin said sarcastically.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ericson asked, his voice now rising sharply in volume.
"Face it, James." Kelvin replied bluntly. "You're nothing more than a receptionist, taking people's docking requests whilst the rest of us do the big boy's work."
"Don't you dare try and pull that one on me, mate!" He snapped back, almost shouting at this point. "I do more than you think aboard this station."
"Do you bollocks!" Kelvin shouted, his voice now seething with rage. "In case you haven't noticed, two people have been killed, and so far you've done fuck all about it!"
Tensions were clearly running high at this point. I sensed that there was perhaps a long-standing rivalry between Ericson and Kelvin over who was truly in control of the Constantinople. They continued to shout at each other blindly, whilst Brownway and Davison tried to calm them down.
"Why don't you piss off back to med school, eh Andy?" Ericson shouted angrily. "Have a nice laugh with all the other stuck-up bastards?"
"Oh, I will if you scurry on back to your fucking help desk!" Kelvin bellowed in response.
"Right, come here you bell-end!" Ericson yelled, and I heard the sound of him lurching at Kelvin. I peered round the corner for the first time since my arrival, and saw Davison and Brownway desperately trying to pull the two men away from each other. It was almost laughable, two grown men having an argument over who was in charge. Given the circumstances, though, things looked bleak. If two murders brought the commanders of the station to this, what would happen if more bodies were found? It didn't bear thinking about.
Several moments later, Brownway and Davison had finally managed to bring Kelvin and Ericson down from their heated debate. As the conversation continued, it was evident that they were both still quite worked up, but they had at least managed to set their differences aside, and rightly so.
"Okay." Kelvin began, as calmly as he possibly could. "What we're going to do is this: Brownway, you will ensure that every ship that docks here from now on is searched from top to bottom. No exceptions. Got it?"
"Yes, sir." Brownway replied humbly. "I'll pass the message on to the rest of the dock staff."
"Good." Kelvin continued. "Now, Davison: You will personally see to it that all civilians are escorted to and from the docks to their quarters by at least two armed security operatives. Understand?"
"I don't know if we have enough operatives for…" Davison began, but Kelvin must have given him a very menacing look at this point, because he quickly changed his response to: "Right away, sir."
"As for you, Ericson…" Kelvin muttered to the Colonial Marshall. "I want you to instruct all non-medical and non-security personnel to remain in their quarters until the killer is found. Think you can manage that?"
"Don't patronise me, Kelvin." Ericson replied, annoyed. I almost feared that another argument was about to break out.
"Look, can you do it or not?" Kelvin repeated bluntly. Ericson told him that he could, and would, issue the order as soon as he had returned to his office. And with that, Kelvin dismissed the group. That was when I realised my mistake. As I heard the sound of footsteps approaching, I looked around the corridor frantically, in search of any nook or cranny I could hide in. But it was too late. As I was busy looking the other way down the corridor, I heard the footsteps halt directly behind me. I turned around slowly, and saw that Chief Medical Officer Kelvin was staring me square in the face. And he did not look pleased…