Chapter Fourteen
Betrayal
Beckett: Are we seriously about to interrogate a computer?
MIRA: Detective, the word interrogate implies you believe I'm guilty of something.
Of what do you think I am guilty?
Season 7 episode 18 "The Wrong Stuff"
Four dejected people shuffled into the Nostromo's once cramped bridge, devoid of the confidence that had been abundant when they'd left not even two hours before. The extra elbow room - which each of them had bemoaned the lack of at one time or another - made all of them feel self conscious, two empty seats conspicuous with their lack of occupants.
A few scant minutes later, the door slid open, admitting Mikhail Banhov bearing a second flamethrower in his arms, which he dumped into the captain's empty chair, a small spatter of blood above the pistol grip and the light-bar affixed to its casing - a modification clearly made by their captain - the only evidence of who had last carried it.
Kate stepped up to the Captain's chair, Castle right behind her, a reassuring hand at her back as she brushed the fingers of her right hand over the weapon, taking in the blood spatter on its surface before she cast a mournful glance at Banhov.
"Where did you find it?" she asked, when she could trust her voice not to shake, thankful for her husband's reassuring presence.
"On the floor of the mixing chamber, right below the walkway," Banhov muttered dully. "No sign of her. No significant blood trail. Nothing. I don't think she even got off a burst before it got her."
"And the alien?" Castle asked, when Kate couldn't seem to find the words.
"Nothing," Banhov replied. "Only sign of it was the hole it tore through the vent leading out into the central cooling complex. I didn't think anything was that strong."
"None of us did," Kate muttered darkly, barely able to reconcile this creature with her neat, orderly, logical world. "We've been two steps behind this thing since we first brought the hand-stage aboard. That's got to change. From now on, we assume it's capable of anything, even invisibility."
"No known creature is completely invisible," Ash insisted. Kate leveled a death glare back at him.
"No known creature can peel back three centimeter thick heat-shielded vent plating, either," Castle shot back at him.
Ash opened his mouth to say something but Rick silenced him with a glare of his own before he continued. "It's about time we all stop underestimating what we're up against."
When Castle finished speaking, the bridge fell silent but for the whirring of fans and the chirping of consoles for an agonizingly long several minutes.
"Beckett, guess this puts you in command," Banhov muttered, looking her right in the eye, "Congratulations."
"Okay," Kate replied. For the first time since she'd met the senior engineer, his sarcastic tone was gone along with his defiant posture. The Mikhail Banhov that all of them thought they'd known had been stripped away since Granger died.
Everyone on the bridge - with the exception of Ash - looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to tell them what to do, for her to have some answer the rest of them lacked. Only Castle knew her well enough to know she was still trying to process the last few hours like the rest of them.
Castle loved his wife dearly, but he knew from painful past experience that Kate Beckett really only knew two ways to function in situations like this. The first was to go on the attack, take the fight right down the enemy's throat, mindless of the consequences, and hope for the best. The second was to disengage completely and run away. Neither were entirely applicable to the situation they found themselves in.
They needed the ship to survive. It was the only way for them to get home safely so there was no realistic way for them to escape a creature that could tear through deck plates. The resources aboard the Narcissus were rudimentary at best. It had only one freezer, no stellar drive and only limited atmosphere processing.
They couldn't go balls to the wall against it either - provided they could find it - without getting everyone killed in the process. Even if they won, they risked destroying the ship anyway. Their ability to fight the creature was effectively hamstrung, which afforded the creature even more of an advantage than nature had already given it.
Kate had no idea how Captain Kim had been able to hold it together as long as she had.
"We're out of options, really," Kate stated, trying to keep the uncertainty out of her voice. "Unless someone's got a better idea, we proceed with the same plan as before."
"And wind up just like the Captain?" Olivera spat. "No, thanks."
"If you've got a better idea," Kate shot back, sick of her negative attitude, "let's hear it."
"Hell yes, I do," Olivera snapped at her. "We abandon ship, take the Narcissus and just bug out. Take our chances on making Earth orbit and getting picked up. Once we get back into the regular space lanes, someone's bound to hear our distress signal."
"Captain Kim might not be dead," Ash said softly, "from Banhov's account there wasn't nearly enough blood where her flamethrower was found. We can't abandon ship until we're sure."
Olivera opened her mouth to say something, but was silenced by a glare from Kate. It was clear that Kate was not prepared to surrender the ship to the alien without a fight, nor was she prepared to abandon the captain - not if there was a chance she was still alive. It simply wasn't in her nature.
"I hate to admit it, but Ash is right," Kate agreed. "We owe it to the Captain to at least try. This time we start on "A" deck, go room by room, level by level, and seal every bulkhead behind us until either we corner it, or it comes to us."
"Works for me," Banhov replied. He had no intention of running in either case. He'd stay alone if it came down to it.
"What about our weapons?" Kate asked, holding hers out to Banhov to inspect.
"Lines and nozzles are still clean," Banhov remarked when he finished looking over all of the flamethrowers. "They are a-ok, but I'll need to refill that one." The engineer nodded toward Kim's incinerator still laying in the Captain's chair. "The Captain used quite a bit of it."
"Get it refueled and get back here ASAP," Kate ordered. "Take Ash with you."
Banhov looked Ash up and down, his expression unreadable.
"I can manage," he muttered, before he slung the captain's flamethrower over one shoulder by the carry strap, hefted his own and stalked away without another word. His lack of trust in the science officer was left behind as an almost palpable presence long after his footfalls stopped echoing in the corridor.
"Ash, any other fresh ideas, suggestions, hints?" Kate asked, her eyes boring into Ash. "From you or from MIRA?"
Ash shrugged, almost apologetic. "Nothing we don't already know, I'm afraid. MIRA is still processing data."
If looks could kill, Kate's glare would have reduced Ash to a scorch mark on the deck.
"That is unacceptable," Kate barked.
"This is not simply some feral animal we're dealing with," Ash replied. "Like you said, it might be capable of anything. Not only is it fast, powerful and cunning, it's obviously sentient with high intelligence and an uncanny capacity to learn."
Ash turned, making sure everyone was paying attention, even as Castle straightened to his full height, his posture one of outrage that Ash would seek to undermine Kate in front of everyone.
"In less than forty-eight hours," Ash continued, "it has found the means to navigate the ship virtually undetected and killed two of us with near impunity - the second time after we knew how big it was. It even used Charlie as bait to lead one of us into a trap. This is clearly a predator the likes of which humankind has never encountered before. It's little wonder all of our efforts to track it down have met with failure."
"You sound like you're ready to give up," Kate shot back.
"I am only stating the glaringly obvious," Ash replied.
"You're telling me," Kate replied, "that with all of the resources at our disposal, we are inadequate to cope with this thing?"
"I'm sorry, Captain," Ash replied, his use of Kate's new title not lost on anyone, "but that is where we stand as I see it. For all of our technical prowess, we are simply at a loss to deal with this thing, given our current restrictions. Wanting the situation to be otherwise will not alter the facts."
"Your evaluation of our chances does not inspire confidence," Kate replied.
"What exactly do you want me to do, Captain?" Ash asked.
"Go back to MIRA," Kate ordered, "keep asking questions until you get some better answers.'
"I don't know what you're expecting me to find," Ash said. "MIRA is not programmed to hide information."
"Then try asking different questions," Kate suggested aggressively. "It worked on the alien signal."
"I remember," Ash conceded, his respect for her growing exponentially. "It's worth a try, I guess."
After Ash turned and left, Kate sat down next to a clearly deflated Olivera.
"Hang in there, Angela," Kim said softly, "the Captain would never have allowed us to abandon ship without being absolutely sure we wouldn't leave anyone behind."
"She also would never have asked us to stay and get picked off one by one," Olivera whispered, "she would have ordered us to go."
"Angela, I swear to you on my mother's grave," Kate whispered, her voice choking with emotion at the very mention of her mother, "if this doesn't work out, or it gets too hairy, I won't hesitate to give the order to bug out."
Banhov made the trip down to the maintenance bay in record time. He kept his head on a swivel, checking every shadow and air vent for movement as he collected everything he needed to top off the nearly empty fuel canister on Kim's flamethrower and threw them into a satchel – then threw in a couple extra tanks just to be sure. He didn't want to have to make this trip too many more times, not if he could help it. Wandering the corridors alone was not exactly a good idea with that thing crawling about with MIRA's sensors out on all but "A" deck.
He was sure that Captain Beckett would call his solo trek down to the maintenance bay reckless and foolhardy, but for some unfathomable reason, he just didn't trust Ash to have his back where that thing was concerned. There had been something off about the man ever since they'd brought Richwood back aboard, like he had an agenda of his own that did not necessarily take their best interests into account.
He turned the corner on "B" deck almost with only the main airlock between him and the stairwell back to the bridge. On the other side of the corridor, he saw something move in the shadows. He'd almost started ahead again, sure he was seeing things when he saw it a second time: a dark shadow moving almost without sound.
He crouched low and drew back around the corner to a wall comm and thumbed the switch beneath the grid.
"Beckett, you there?" he whispered as quietly as he could and still be picked up by the comm.
"Bridge, Beckett here," Kate replied into the comm.
"Keep it down!" Banhov whispered urgently. When he peeked around the corner, the shadow had stopped moving.
"I can barely read you," Kate whispered into the comm, exchanging a puzzled look with Castle, who shrugged his shoulders.
"I'm on "B" deck near the airlock," Banhov whispered. "The alien is within sight of the airlock door! Open it and when I give the word, close it and blow the outer hatch."
"Are you sure…?" Kate started to whisper, but he interrupted her.
"Beckett, it's right there," Banhov hissed back, trying to keep his voice low and calm, "we have it right where we want it! Just do as I tell you."
Kate only hesitated for a moment before she threw the switch to cycle the inner door.
Banhov did his best to be as invisible as possible, yet still be able to see what was going on when the airlock door popped from its housing and slid slowly aside with none of the usual warnings or alarms that generally accompanied a remote opening of the lock. Bless you, Captain Beckett, he thought to himself.
As the door slid quietly to a stop on its bearings, the alien seemed fascinated by the lights and indicators next to the inner door of the lock, but it appeared to be especially interested in the bright green outer lock status light as it moved soundlessly to stand on the threshold of the airlock door.
Come on, damn you, the engineer thought frantically. Look at the pretty, green light. That's right. Just step inside and see what all the fuss is about. God, just a couple of steps.
Fascinated by the steady pulsing of the door status indicator, the alien took one more stride and was fully inside.
"Now!" Banhov husked into the pickup. "It's in! Do it now!"
Just as Kate was about to throw the switch to seal the inner door, the Nostromo's emergency Klaxon screamed to life and everyone on the bridge froze as she finally threw the toggle over.
The alien sprang backward at the first wail of the alarm inside the airlock, clearing the lock in a single bound of its powerful legs. Unfortunately for the creature, the door was just a fraction of a second faster and one of its arms became entangled in the mechanism, the remorseless pressure of the metal door crushing chitin, muscle and then bone.
The alien let forth a high-pitched, blood curdling screech as it wrenched backward, rending the trapped, useless limb from its socket in a shower of acid as it tore itself free. Blinded by pain and mindless of the paralyzed engineer as it threw him aside, it bounced him off of a nearby wall before it turned and bolted down the corridor, and around the corner into the shadows.
As Banhov crumpled to the ground, the indicator on the airlock door flashed the words 'INNER HATCH CLOSED'. The metal around the alien's crushed and torn appendage continued to bubble and melt as the outer hatch swung open and a puff of frozen air from inside the chamber rushed into space.
"Banhov?" Beckett husked into the pickup. "Banhov, report! What's happening down there?"
"What's going on?" Castle asked, leaning over her console with a hand on her shoulder. "Did it work?"
"I'm not sure," Kate replied. "The inner hatch cycled and the outer one popped, but that's it."
"That should do it," Castle replied. "But what about Banhov?"
"I don't know," Kate whispered, "he isn't responding."
Kate waited a moment then came to a decision.
"I'm going down to take a look," Kate stated coolly as she rose from her seat and started for the door, Castle right on her heels as always. "Olivera, take over here."
Castle and Beckett raced for the "B" deck corridor. The alien was not uppermost in her mind, but Banhov, another human being, was. Now that she was captain, his life was her responsibility, just like everyone else. The captain had gone into that vent instead of her, trusting that she would be able to take care of the crew if something happened, and she took that responsibility to heart.
Before they rounded the corner on "B" deck leading to the main airlock, she waved Castle to a stop.
"Hang back and cover me, Castle," Kate whispered, nodding to his flamethrower, she'd left hers on the bridge, "I don't know if we got it or not, so keep your eyes open."
When Kate turned the corner within sight of the airlock, it was empty, except for the groggy, half conscious form of Mikhail Banhov sprawled on the deck. Castle watched from the corner, less than twenty paces away, his eyes carefully searching for signs of the alien as she knelt over the fallen engineer.
"Banhov, you look like hell. You okay?" Kate whispered. "Did it work?"
The engineer shook his head, trying to form words, gesturing feebly towards the airlock a few feet away. Kate looked at the airlock, the outer hatch still open and her eyes widened in terror when she saw the crushed limb and a familiar bubbling of greenish acid at the corner of the lock.
"Castle, stay back!" Kate shouted as she rose to her feet just as the acid ate completely through. With a sharp crack of departing air, the remaining barrier to the vacuum of empty space gave way, the air in the corridor began to rush out through the lock and red emergency lights began to flash in the corridor
"Warning: Hull breach in main airlock," MIRA's calm voice stated, "Critical depressurization in progress. Initiating containment. Outer airlock door not responding. Emergency bulkheads engaged.
Alarms sounded as the transparent emergency doors slammed down, beginning with the breached section and working outward in succession, one of them slammed down in front of Castle, preventing him from reaching Kate and Banhov.
The two of them should have been safely sealed off from the breached airlock in their section of corridor, but the emergency door separating them from the airlock vestibule had become jammed on one of the fuel canisters that had rolled free from the bag on Banhov's shoulder.
Castle banged on the emergency bulkhead with the butt of his flamethrower, mindlessly trying to get to his trapped wife even as his own traitorous mind told him it wouldn't work. The rush of escaping air continued to tear at her as she cast about for something to batter away the fuel canister that blocked the door bulkhead from sealing.
Kate's shaking fingers closed around another canister in the bag and began to hammer at the jammed cylinder with it, each successive swing weaker than the one before it as the lack of oxygen began to take its toll. Blood dripped from her nose and ears as she heaved at the trapped cylinder with the last of her strength.
The last thing she saw before her vision swam and she slid to the floor was the fuel canister popping free and the bulkhead slamming the rest of the way shut behind it. She was barely conscious of Castle continuing to pound on the bulkhead, his screams of her name unheard on her side of the glass.
On the bridge, Olivera watched the indicators on her board with dread.
"Hull breach contained, emergency bulkheads on "B" and "C" decks down and locked." Mira said calmly, "Atmosphere stabilized, Main airlock control re-established. Closing outer door."
"Warning: Primary airlock internal damage detected, deploying hard sealant. Disabling airlock controls and engaging sealant to both inner and outer doors to prevent further hull integrity breach. Primary airlock doors will not meet minimum inspection standards."
"Ash, grab portable oxygen and meet me on "B" deck," Olivera shouted as she rose from her seat.
"Understood," Ash replied. "On my way."
Kate was roused back to awareness by a low pounding vibration next to her head. She opened her eyes groggily to see Castle, still pounding weakly on the bulkhead with tears in his eyes. She stared at him as if drugged, a lazy smile on her face. His lips seemed to be forming words, but she couldn't hear them, as if she were watching in a dream. Something about an override.
She rose clumsily to her feet, groggy in the atmosphere-depleted chamber, her eyes locked on the emergency release. She depressed the red button, and too late saw to her horror that instead of hitting the override for the bulkhead to "B" corridor, she was at the one leading to the airlock vestibule. For just a moment she panicked, bracing herself to be sucked out into space, horrified that her husband would have to watch her be spaced.
But nothing happened.
Kate turned clumsily in her high heeled boots, nearly tripping over her own feet as she tried to aim herself at the opposite bulkhead control to stumble toward Castle, who was pounding frantically and pointing wildly at the access panel on her side of the transparent bulkhead. Sagging against it for support, she pecked at the indicator with numb fingers until she managed the appropriate digits of her access code.
The bulkhead slid up into the ceiling and she began to topple over, only to have gentle hands cradle her, easing her passage to the deck and something pressed against her face followed by a rush of clean, refreshing air before she lost consciousness.
When Kate began to rouse slowly, the first thing she felt was the oxygen mask over her nose and mouth, and Castle's gentle fingers running through her hair, the rest of her body seemed dysfunctional. Her arms and legs were sprawled in ungainly positions across her body and the deck, like the limbs of a slender, well-crafted doll. Her head was cradled in Castle's lap while he watched her breathe, sitting in what had to be a very uncomfortable position on the floor with his back against the wall.
"Hey, beautiful," he whispered, offering her a wan smile when her eyes cleared and met his, "we gotta stop meeting like this."
Kate smiled at his very uninspired attempt at humor and gave him a weak eye-roll before she moved her head very carefully to take in her surroundings, her brain still a little fuzzy, as the world slowly began to filter back into place. She breathed deeply and her body began to once again respond to her commands.
She watch Olivera and Ash across the corridor tending to Banhov, who was only now beginning to regain consciousness. Suspicion burned in her hazel eyes as she watched Ash go through the motions of checking on Banhov's injuries, which seemed to be relatively minor - a bump to the head, some bruises and a sprained wrist - judging from the snippets of conversation she had managed to overhear.
Kate pushed the mask aside but otherwise lay still, concentrating on breathing normally while noting to her satisfaction that full pressure had been restored. She could see the bulkhead doors automatically retracting as her eyes focused in the distance, a sure sign of the return of standard atmosphere. She brushed a hand to Castle's lips to keep him from speaking further so she could listen in to the conversation, without anyone but Castle the wiser that she was fully conscious.
"You all right, Banhov?" Ash asked him. "Do you remember what happened here?"
"I'll live," Banhov replied, brushing a crust of blood from the corner of his mouth. His lack of response to the science officer's last question hung conspicuously in the air between them.
"What about the alien?" Ash asked, a lot more forcefully than Kate thought was necessary.
"We didn't get it," Banhov spat at him. "The Goddamn airlock warning Klaxon went off and it jumped back into the corridor. Caught an arm in the closing inner door and just pulled itself free like a lizard shedding its tail."
"Seems like a logical response," Ash commented, "considering its capacity for regeneration."
"We had the bastard," Banhov lamented angrily. "We had him."
Banhov paused for a moment taking deep breaths from the oxygen mask. His eyes darkening into black cinders as he glared at the science officer.
"After it pulled free, the arm bled all over the place. Stump must've healed over fast or ship would have been hulled for sure. As it was... acid ate right through the inner hatch and set off flash decompression."
Banhov pointed shakily towards the only remaining emergency bulkhead still in place, which sealed off the airlock vestibule from the rest of the corridor. "You can clearly see the hole from here."
"Never mind that." Kate stated, rising shakily to her feet as Ash looked on curiously. "I want to know who hit the damned warning siren."
"I don't think I like what you're implying... Captain," Ash replied.
"I guess the alarm just happened to go off by itself, huh?" Kate shot back rhetorically. "A very coincidental malfunction when we had the creature right where we wanted it? Just some random wayward event?"
The science officer rose stiffly from his crouched position next to Banhov and glared directly at her. Castle interjected his bulk between them, but Ash made no further move towards her.
Her detective's mind still couldn't fathom the conflicting information presented to her by Ash's body language. He sounded angry, but it felt forced. It was like he was working off a script. Guilty or not, he should have been angry enough to lash out and at least try to be aggressive with her, only he wasn't, which she hadn't prepared for. It defied everything she had ever learned about male behavior in these sorts of situations. There were too many coincidences surrounding Ash for him to be innocent, but his body language was running counter to what her training practically screamed should be there.
"If you've got something to say, Captain, say it," Ash stated, "I'm getting sick of the coy insinuations. Either accuse me of something or drop it."
"I'm not accusing you of anything," Kate replied, her spine straightening in spite of how woozy she was feeling.
"Like hell you aren't," Ash shot back before lapsing into a sullen silence.
Kate gestured to Banhov, who was just barely picking himself up off the deck, supported by Olivera.
"Take Banhov to the infirmary and check him out," she ordered. "At least we know the auto-doc can handle that." Kate wasn't going to get into a pissing contest with him when she was still physically compromised, so she dismissed him with a wave. "Snap to it, mister."
Ash relieved Olivera and helped him down the corridor toward the infirmary, walking past Kate and Rick without looking at either of them or saying a word. Olivera turned to follow, but Kate snagged her arm loosely to keep her there until the two men disappeared around the corner. When Olivera tugged her arm free, Kate wobbled and swayed on her feet, leaning on Castle's bulk to support herself. The navigator reached out to help steady her with a look of genuine concern.
"I'll be okay," Kate whispered, brushing absently at the blood stains on her pants, before she remembered the question she was going to ask. "How much oxygen did we lose? I need you to go back to the bridge and get me an exact reading."
Olivera didn't move to comply, but simply stared speculatively at her.
"Did I stutter?" Kate asked harshly, weary of the navigator's attitude. "Oxygen readings no longer for public consumption?"
"Don't bite my head off," Olivera replied, turning on her heel to head up to the bridge, but inexplicably turned back.
"You were accusing him, weren't you?" she asked. "You think he sounded the alarm on purpose to save the alien."
"Yes, I do," Kate replied. "I think he's been lying to us since he let you guys bring that thing aboard, and once I've checked with MIRA, I'll be able to prove it."
"What are you hoping to prove?" Olivera shot back. "Even if he was responsible for the alarm going off, how can you prove it wasn't an accident?"
"The timing of that alarm was far too convenient if you ask me, and I was a detective for far too long to believe in coincidences."
"Why would Ash, or anyone else for that matter, want to protect the alien? It'll kill him just as easily as the rest of us."
"Always like to know who I can depend on when it counts," Kate replied before she strode purposefully down the corridor towards the companionway, supported by her husband.
Olivera watched her go, not certain she bought into the new captain's logic, but unable to refute it in her own head either. When she realized for the first time that she was alone in the corridor, she shrugged, gathered up Banhov's flamethrower and the satchel of fuel cylinders before she headed back for the relative safety of "A" deck and her seat on the bridge.
"Ash? Banhov? You in here?" Kate husked quietly, before she slipped cautiously into MIRA's central computer annex, one of the few places where she could interact with the Nostromo's computer directly without being seen. She'd asked Castle to wait for her in the galley and make her some coffee while she interrogated the ship's computer. She wanted this to go quickly, and there was little time for Rick's theories, no matter how entertaining she found them.
For what she was certain would be a very brief amount of time while Ash was busy tending to Banhov's injuries, she had the Nostromo's AI completely to herself. She slid into the seat at the main console, noting that her feet barely brushed the floor and had to stop herself from adjusting the chair. MIRA's feminine avatar coalesced into being as soon as Kate settled into the seat and pressed her palm against the identification plate. The lights in her blue box flickered.
"Good afternoon Acting Captain Katherine Beckett," MIRA's calm sounding voice stated clearly."How may I assist you?"
"MIRA, who activated the main airlock warning alarm?" Kate asked without preamble.
"Science officer Ash - ID# 111/C2/01X authorized a decompression event readiness drill for the primary airlock precisely three point five standard hours ago.
The confirmation from MIRA was the reply she'd expected, though she had hoped to be wrong. It was only the first question she had to ask, even though she wasn't sure she wanted the answer to that one either.
"Is Ash protecting the alien life form?" Kate asked.
"Yes," MIRA replied.
"Why?" Kate asked, leaning forward slightly in the direction of the holographic representation of a dark haired woman who inexplicably reminded her of her mother, hoping the computer would give her some insight into the science officer's odd behavior.
"Weyland-Yutani priority command override. Special order 937: Ensure return of organism for analysis. All other considerations secondary. Crew status: expendable".
Kate was just about to ask MIRA another question when a hand slammed down into the interface terminal next to her, sinking up to the elbow into the circuitry. MIRA's avatar projection went dark as Kate spun in the chair, her heart missing a beat, but instead of the nightmare visage of the Alien, it was someone more familiar. Kate was out of the chair and two paces away by the time Ash extricated his hand from MIRA's command interface station, carefully keeping the chair and console between them.
"Command seems a bit too much for you to handle, Captain Beckett, but, under the circumstances I guess that's to be expected," Ash said with a warm smile, his voice sounding almost conciliatory, even sympathetic, belied only by the violent menace of his body language as he stalked her, keeping himself between her and the door.
"The problem's not my ability to handle being in command, Ash," Kate shot back. "It's loyalty." She kept the wall at her back, started circling towards the doorway. Still grinning, he turned to face her.
"Loyalty?" Ash replied, his voice almost sounding light and charming as he stalked her, managing to get between her and the door as they circled each other warily. "I think we've all been doing our best. Olivera's getting a little pessimistic, but she's always been too emotional. She's very good at plotting the course of the ship, not so good at planning her own."
Kate waited for an opening to edge around him toward the door, forcing herself to smile back.
"I'm not worried about Olivera, or even Banhov for that matter," Kate shot back. "I'm worried about you."
"Everything will work out, Captain, you'll see," Ash replied. "You just need to get a little rest."
Before Ash even finished speaking, he swept toward her with almost preternatural speed, a pressure hypodermic in his outstretched hand. Kate ducked just underneath his arm and bolted for the door. Once she was in the corridor, she sprinted for "A" deck, too busy to scream for help, throwing emergency switches as she ran. Bulkhead doors dropped shut behind her, but Ash was too fast.
He finally cornered her in the mess chamber. There was nowhere left to run, so she turned to fight. She kicked out at the hypo in his hand, shattering the needle with the heel of her boot, just barely able to keep out of his grasp. She spun into a series of combinations, striking first with her fist then twice with her elbow, followed by a high kick to his face, none of which so much as fazed him.
From out of nowhere, Ash's fist snaked out, his closed fist connecting with her sternum, stealing the air from her lungs for the second time today, sending her sprawling to the deck, wheezing as she tried to breathe.
Ash gave her no such time. Stalking in on her with ruthless efficiency, he grasped her around the throat and hauled her to her feet, then his knee was in her stomach, doubling her over, followed by the side of his fist to her solar plexus dropping her face first to the deck, taking her apart with ridiculous ease.
He was about to kneel down and snap her neck, when he was assaulted from behind, as Castle entered the fray with a well placed metal chair which, given his precarious balance, sent him stumbling forward.
Castle dropped the unwieldy chair and came on swinging, hitting Ash in the face with one fist, then the other, pushing him back to place himself between Ash and his intended victim. Ash's right hand shot out with a punch to Castle's stomach, folding him over like a card table, then grasped Castle by the neck with his left, swung him around like a rag doll and slammed the back of his head into the doorway twice before dropping his limp form to the deck and once again advanced on Beckett, who was stumbling to her feet.
He was almost on her, when Banhov and Olivera arrived to investigate the alarms going off all over the deck. Though not the emergency they had anticipated, they leaped into the fray with little prompting. Olivera, though largely untrained in hand-to-hand combat was first in the door and jumped onto Ash's back, her arms around his neck.
Suitably distracted, Ash grabbed her by the hair 'til she let go, then threw her bodily across the room, sending her sprawling into the corner and turned back on Beckett.
Banhov's entry into the brawl was less immediate but much better thought out than Olivera's had been. Castle would have appreciated the irony as the engineer hefted one of the compact trackers by the grip and slipped behind Ash, as he started to choke Kate again.
Banhov swung the tracker with all his strength onto the back of Ash's neck, once... twice then a third time, sending Ash's head tumbling to the floor. There was no blood. Only a milky white fluid multi-hued tubing protruding from the stump of the science officer's neck.
Ash released Beckett, who collapsed on the floor, holding her throat. His hands performed a macabre pantomime above his shoulders, hunting for the missing skull, then stumbled backward to search the deck for its separated head.
'A synthetic… a goddamn synthetic!' Banhov muttered, the tracker hanging cracked in one hand.
Ash's body turned immediately at the sound of Banhov's voice and began to advance on him.
Raising the tracker, the engineer slammed it down on Ash's shoulders again, and again to no effect as his arms wrapped Banhov in a hug that was far from affectionate. One arm climbed upward, locked around his neck and squeezed hard, cutting off his airway.
Kate scrambled frantically until her hand closed on one of the shock batons Granger had made, noting briefly that it still carried a full charge.
Banhov's eyes were glazing over, wheezing faintly as he tried to breathe, Ash's body continuing to choke him while Kate jammed the prod deep into Ash's neck and depressed the trigger. Ash's grip on the engineer appeared to weaken so she pulled back and jabbed the prod further, twisted it and hit the discharge button again and again.
Blue sparks flew from the stump, followed by a bright flash and the smell of burnt insulation as Ash collapsed, finally releasing Banhov who dropped to his knees wheezing, his chest heaving as he struggled to regain his breath.
"Damn you," Banhov shouted hoarsely, spitting on the inhuman remains on the floor. "Goddamn company machine."
Kate turned her head to search for her husband. She briefly recalled him getting the worst of it.
"Castle?" she wheezed. "Castle, you okay?"
There was no response.
"CASTLE!" Kate screamed, as she lowered herself to his unconscious form lying crumpled against the doorway, a spatter of blood on the doorway panel. Panic rose in her chest as she knelt in front of him, her mind blank, not knowing what to do.
Banhov moved faster, shoving Kate aside to check Castle's pulse.
"He's alive, Beckett, but we have to get him to the infirmary," Banhov shouted at her. "Beckett, can you hear me? We can save him if we get him into the auto-doc."
Kate nodded slowly, her brain spinning out, refusing to respond to stimuli.
Banhov motioned for Olivera, who raced for the infirmary and came back moments later with the backboard. Mindful of Castle's neck, they eased him onto it, strapped him in and dragged him to the infirmary, Kate stumbling numbly alongside, Castle's limp hand gripped in her own.
It was a tense two hours in the infirmary after Banhov and Olivera slid Castle into the auto-doc. Kate sat in Ash's seat, staring blankly at the monitors, watching Castle's vitals scroll across the screen, her eyes unfocused. Olivera leaned over Kate after reading the diagnostic report.
"Captain, according to this, there wasn't any permanent damage," she whispered sympathetically. "Just a mild concussion. He's going to be okay."
Kate nodded, trying to get her roiling emotions under control. He's going to make it, she thought to herself, you gotta pull yourself together, the Captain is counting on you to get them out of this.
Banhov strode angrily back into the infirmary, his eyes flashing murderously.
"Will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?!" he bellowed, his loud voice shaking Kate out of her reverie and back to the moment. "Why the fuck would the company put a goddamn synthetic aboard? I thought the damn things weren't cleared for space duty."
"There's only one way to find out," Kate replied.
"What's that?" Olivera asked.
"Wire the head back up, it's primary CPU ought to be functional, we just have to power it up."
"That thing was trying to kill you," Olivera whispered, still confused by the whole situation, her own bruises still fresh. "I thought synthetics were hard-wired with Asimov's three laws of robotics."
"MIRA told me he was acting under some company directive called Special Order 937 before Ash attacked me," Kate replied. "He was acting under orders straight from the top, protecting the alien from the beginning, like I tried to tell you."
Kate took Olivera's shocked silence as a cue to continue.
"He let it on board, against regulations, using Richwood's life as an excuse, let that thing grow inside him, knowing all along what was happening to him. He set off the emergency airlock klaxon to save it."
"But why?" Olivera asked. "Why would the company do all of this?"
"I generally leave this sort of speculation to... to -" Kate begun, but she choked on Rick's name, barely keeping her fragile composure intact. "But the only reason I can come up with for secretly placing a synthetic aboard with the rest of us is that someone wanted a completely loyal observer to report back to them."
Kate looked up and bored her eyes into Olivera's. "Who assigns personnel to the ships, has the authority to make last-minute changes and would be the only entity capable of secretly slipping a synthetic programmed to mimic an actual human on board to suit their purposes?"
"Fucking pendejo company suits," Olivera replied, no longer confused by the situation, her eyes burning with an anger she hadn't felt in a long time.
Kate nodded and pressed Castle's flamethrower into Olivera's hands.
"Precisely, and I intend to find out what Ash knows. I'm trusting you to keep Castle safe, while Banhov and I wire his head up and get some answers. Once that's done and the auto-doc's finished its work, we're bugging out."
**Author's note** Okay, before the pitchforks and torches come out - and I'm sure that Garrae will note the minor cliffhanger - I have noted in the story that Castle will be okay. This story is only a chapter or from conclusion. Bear with me.
Oh and for those who might not know, here are Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics:
1.) A robot may not harm a human being or, by omission of action, allow a human being to come to harm.
2.) A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders conflict with the First Law.
3.) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.