Explorers of the Universe

Chapter 8: Faith in Belief; Save Yourself from Hell

Lifeboat

Med Pod Room

The teens raced down the hallway, ignoring everyone they had bumped into. So far, Vickers had not sound the alarm, meaning they weren't being pursued. But Gwen was still in very much deep pain, as she clutched her stomach, her face scrunched in fear and pain, as her stomach began to convulse. Whatever that was inside of her, was growing really fast, and if they didn't hurry in time… she would die from the birth.

Though they made it to the lifeboat, and into the Med Pod room. Isaac reached to the console, as he began typing in commands, as Rei knelt down to him, intrigued that he knew what he was doing, "You know how to use one of these?"

"I read about them in American Science and Technology," Isaac replied, referring to his subscription of a magazine he read when he had free time. "I also looked online and downloaded a guide on it, since I was pretty drawn in to the tech."

"POD ACTIVATED," the Pod's computer replied. "PLEASE STATE THE NATURE OF THE MEDICAL EMERGENCY/PROCEDURE YOU WISH TO IMPLEMENT."

"A patient is in need of cesarean," Isaac ordered.

However, the computer made a beeping sound resounding unacceptable, "NEGATIVE. THIS POD IS CALIBRATED FOR MALE PATIENTS ONLY."

Isaac blinked at that new bit of information, "Wha…?"

"PLEASE TRY AGAIN…" the computer stated.

Isaac shook his head, as he typed in the commands manually, "Abdominal, foreign body, penetrating injuries. Request removal of foreign body from abdomen."

The Pod hummed to life, accepting the commands, as Gwen weakly got onto her legs. Rei walked over to her, removing her gown, as she was only in a pair of white panties, with her hands covering her chest. Rei then quickly administered a shot into her arm, as she explained, "This should dull the pain while the procedure begins."

Gwen groaned, clutching her stomach, "Whatever, just get this thing out of me! It feels like it's trying to rip out of me!"

A ring formed above Gwen, as it scanned her for the abnormalities with a blue light, even with Gwen crying out, "GET IT OUT OF ME!"

Finally, it found the foreign body in her, as two arms extended out; one with a spray finger, and the other one a surgical plasma cutter. "APPLYING ANESTHESIA." The spray robot arm carefully but quickly sprayed Gwen's stomach, as the belly began to convulse with movement. A yellow horizontal line was made shown, as the surgical arm extended down, and began to cut. A blue laser blade gently shot down on Gwen's stomach, as it began to cut. Even though Gwen was on anesthesia, she could still feel pain or rather discomfort, as she groaned out, arching her head back to avoid seeing it. Once the plasma cutter was done, the laser folded back to reveal a pair of rib spreader apparatus, as it gently dug into the cut, and spread it open, causing Gwen to arch back even more. Then finally, the spray arm folded to make a claw that gently entered the hole, and grab whatever it was that had grown inside of her.

As the claw slowly and gently pulled the amniotic sac from Gwen's open surgical hole, everyone was either shocked or stunned in seeing what was coming out. The sac looked like a nice mix of pink and red from what you expect from a human, but the creature inside was hardly anything that resembled a gecko… to which a human would look in development. It was actually a dark grey and green squid-like creature, with a dome similar to a squid's head but with no fins or eyes, and it only had four tentacles.

Gwen was close to hyperventilating, if it not for the mix of pain from the surgery, or the painkillers and anesthetic that Rei had administered before the surgery.

"Rei, get her out of there, fast," Isaac ordered calmly but in a calm panic.

"Understood," Rei marked, as she typed in the commands. "Initiate emergency release and sterilization."

Rei quickly activated an emergency evacuation procedure that opened the pod rather quickly, as the squid thrashed around, screeching in a panic. The arms quickly patched up the surgical opening, closing the hole, and closing it up, using surgical staples, which Gwen groaned at it.

Once the pod opened, Jeff quickly grabbed Gwen, scooping her in his arms, as she whimpered. But Jeff assured her, "Take it easy, babe. It's over. You're safe…"

But suddenly, the squid wrapped a tentacle around Gwen's left arm, pulling her back in, as its screeching sounded rather more panicked. It was almost as if it didn't want Gwen to leave her. But she panicked as well, crying out, "Let me go! LET ME GO!"

The squid was desperate to break itself free from the claw, but also in not letting Gwen go. Jeff was holding onto her, but Kori ran up, and grabbed at the tentacle. She looked at the creature with her eyes glowing, as she roared, "Leave her alone!" And tore the tentacle, as the pod sealed itself, entrapping the injured and crying in pain creature.

"INITIATE STERILIZATION," the computer spoke out, as the pod flooded with a white gas, to which the creature cried out.

They all ran out of the med pod room, as the doors closed behind them. Once the door was sealed and locked, they all slid to the ground, with Gwen still in Jeff's arms, resting her sweaty head on his shoulder.

Isaac sighed heavily, as he groaned out, "Can this day get any worse?"

Back inside the Med Pod chamber, however… it got a little weird instead of worse. The squid creature seemed to survive, as it broke free of the claw. It slithered around the med pod, until it hopped off, and looked around, eyeing the pod it had been in. Then suddenly, it launched its tentacles at it, stretching out, and then the tips branched out, sticking to the pod. The tips then merged with the pod, tearing it apart, as it added its mass to it. As it was eating/merging with the pod's parts, it eyed the computer, as its eye stalks stretched over to it.

Stretching another tendril out, it branched out into ten thin ones, and an extra-long one. The larger one inserted into a data port, accessing the computer, and the ten 'fingers' began to type up a storm. The screen lit up, scanning all knowledge, as its eyes focused on the quick shifting screen like a laser beam, absorbing all the knowledge it was accessing.

Later On

Gwen's Room

Jeff gently rested a weary and exhausted Gwen onto her bed; her stapled wound carefully bandaged up, as well as her chest. Isaac pulled up a blanket and bundled her up, as she groaned from the ordeal she had. The redhead was fast asleep, while the others were in the room, contemplating on what to do next.

Isaac sighed, as he roughly sat down, combing his hair back, "This has been one nightmare to another ever since we got here."

"Tell me about it," Jeff said, as he sat down to the exhausted Gwen, keeping a close eye on her.

"I mean, I thought once we got here, we'd find my parents and the rest of the Prometheus crew, but so far, all we found was hell on this planet," Isaac sighed.

Sphere floated around, rather quiet, as he looked to Rei, who looked back to him. For a moment, they silently agreed on something, until Sphere spoke up, "Speaking of Hell, there's something you all need to know."

Everyone looked to him, as Kori asked, "What is it?"

"I wasn't sure of how to tell anyone this," Sphere stated, as he hovered near Rei, as he replied, "But I was able to help Miss Rei with translating the distress message that your USAAC had translated."

"I don't understand," Gwen said, as she eased herself down in a sitting position on her bed, while Jeff eased her to be comfortable.

"The message was far too garbled; I made a mistake in the translation," Rei stated, as he replayed the message from before. She then stopped it, as she explained, "I thought whoever sent the message said was 'Liberate Me… Save Me'. But what they were really saying was, 'Liberate tutame', which translates as 'Save yourself'."

"It's not a distress call, it was a warning," Isaac concluded.

"I'm afraid, it gets much worse," Rei includes, as she played the rest of the message, "It was hard to make out, but there was a final part to it. I wasn't aware of it until Sphere cleared the message further."

They listened to the message one final time, as the message was made a little clearer, "Liberate tuteme… ex infera."

"Ex infera? What does that mean," Kori asked, unable to make sense of the Latin language.

Rei stopped the message, as she looked to them, and replied, "I believe they are trying to say was 'ex infera'. 'Ex' translated into 'From', and 'infera' being the ablative case of 'Inferi'. Which translates into the English world 'Hell'."

Then Gwen, who looked both tired and terrified, as she repeated the fully translated message, "Save yourself. From Hell." She looked to Rei, as she asked, "I thought as an A.I. you didn't believe in that kind of thing?"

"I don't… but whoever sent the message believed in Hell more than us," Rei replied, as she looked to Isaac. "But if what your parents theorized of these Creators are true, it's quite possible on this planet they engineered a biological lifeform that wasn't the benevolent type… and that became out of control and killed not only invaders but the domestic as well. Who knows what happened on this world, what the Creators had planned… and where they were planning to take it to."

The teens, including Kori, were all terrified on this, but then Isaac became concerned, as he looked to Rei, and asked, "Take? What do you mean?"

"I believe that they…" Rei began.

However, it was interrupted by Marek, who radioed Isaac and Jeff, "Shepard, Carter. You two listening?"

Jeff responded, while still holding Gwen's hand, as he replied, "What's up, Captain?"

"We just picked up two pings outside the hangar door," Marek replied. "The telemetry suits signatures seem to read as Fifield and Milbourn."

Everyone, except for Kori and Sphere, were a bit surprised by that, as the latter were just clueless.

Later On

Hangar Bay

Isaac and Jeff had left Gwen in Rei and Sphere's care, while Kori flew along with them, as they made their way to the hangar bay. Joining them were a few of the remaining men, as Isaac grabbed the plasma cutter from last time, while Kori's hands lit up. After they had quarantined Gwen and Rei was treating her, Isaac brought Kori back to the SIG room, and remodified her suit's nano-tech black fabric fibers. Now it was more like her skin would absorb more due to the blackness of the suit's fibers. And Jeff readied his pulse rifle, while the others had flamethrowers. One of the soldier crewmembers ran up to the door, and readied the switch.

The soldier had the go, as he pushed the button, as the door slowly opened to reveal the outside again. As they carefully scanned while walking slowly out, they spotted a huge lump before the hangar bay slope. As one of the soldiers walked to it, Isaac readied the plasma cutter to be certain. As the guard finished, he turned to the others, "Guys, it's just a lump of…"

But unknown to him, the boulder-like lump shifted, until it towered over the man, as he turned around. It was a gigantic bipedal heavily muscled creature, encased in a dark grey armored, spiked exoskeleton made from mutated bone and calcified flesh. Its posterior was relatively unarmored, but its two front arms were heavy in muscle, and appeared to have been made by the petrified bodies of Fifield and Millburn, as the nametags were shown on the chest parts. It had a pair of vestigial arms under the chest, used for support if any, and its face was a jawless cobra-shaped dome head with empty eye sockets with glowing grey dots in them.

As the guard quickly turned around, before he could act, the Brutish beast smacked it back, sending him flying into the hangar bay. It roared, as it charged forward inside, with the movements and speed of a silverback gorilla. Despite the heavy armor, this thing was quick for its size. It grabbed one of the guards, and crushed him down the waist, severing him in two, as it killed him with ease.

Isaac launched forward, using his stomper boots to get some altitude in the strike he was about to do. He brought the plasma cutter up on his head, and then as he fell downward to the unsuspecting Brute, he brought down the plasma cutter down hard. However, much to Isaac's shock, the beast's armored body was resisting the plasma blade. The creature got onto its hind legs, and grabbed Isaac with its free hand, tossing him aside, as Kori flew in, unleashing a barrage of sunbolts at its underbelly. It staggered a little, having little to no damage done to it, but swatted Kori away, as she crashed into a towered pile of crates.

Two of the crewmen shot out flamethrowers at it, causing it to shriek and shuffle back. Isaac got up, as Jeff rushed over to help him up. "This thing's like a four-legged tank," he stated, as he managed to get Isaac back on his feet. "I don't think even the plasma cutter's gonna do it. I think we need a bazooka just to get at the soft spots. If it even has any…"

The brute knocked down the two flamethrower crewmembers, and then leapt up in the air. Gravity did the rest, as it brought down its weight on them, smashing into their stomachs. The added weight caused them to cry out in pain and gargle out gasps. It then brought up its heavy fists down, and smashed in their faces, killing them instantly.

Isaac looked around, as he saw one of the RV vehicles parked nearby. And looked to Jeff, "Can you close the hangar door, and distract that thing?"

"Yeah, sure. What are you gonna do," Jeff asked, but saw as Isaac ran for the vehicle, "ISAAC! Damn! Why the hell does this crap have to happen to me?!"

Isaac ran to one of the RV Terrain vehicles, and hopped up, going to the driver's seat. He closed it behind him, despite the crewman trying to get him out, as he began to hotwire the vehicle. "Dammit! Why the hell can't this thing be easy to start up?! Red over blue my ass. Where's an ignition button where and when you need it in situations like this?!"

As the Brute attempted to go after the remaining crewmen in the hangar, it was suddenly fired upon by a barrage of bullets. It didn't do any damage to it, but it did catch its attention to the source of its annoyance. Jeff, who had fired the pulse rifle at it, lowered it, as he shouted, "HEY, FUCKAH! Yeah, you! Come on!" And then ran to the hangar bay door switches.

The beast roared, as it left the surviving members alone, and charged at him. Jeff looked behind him, and cursed, "Shit! Shit, shit, shit! It worked too well!"

He stood in front of the controls, as the beast roared at him, and pounced. But Jeff saw it coming, as he used his Stomp boots to leap up over it, and fired a few shots at its back, hoping it would at least do some kind of damage.

He landed right behind it, as it lumbered around, and roared at him, attempting to kill him yet again. Jeff held up the rifle, preparing to shoot it, as it roared again. "Isaac, whatever you have planned, you better do it fast…"

HONK! HONK!

Jeff turned around, as he saw the lights blazed behind him, as well as something fast moving towards him. It was one of the RV Terrain vehicles driving fast at him and the brutish beast… and Isaac was at the wheels. Jeff launched himself away from the vehicle, as it sped past him, and then smashed right into the brutish creature, pinning it against the vehicle and the hangar bay door. The beast thrashed around, trying to push away the vehicle that pinned it to the wall, but the six-wheeled 'tank' kept pushing at it.

But it was starting to push back, yet it wouldn't come to pass. As Isaac hopped out, as Jeff reached to him, and pointed the weapon at its left arm, showing the sinews that held the arms to the shoulders were exposed. He aimed his weapon at it, as he said, "Screw you, pal." And fired away, hitting the sinews, and severing the arm.

The beast roared and thrashed, as it tried to get loose, while fighting the pain of its own arm severed. But suddenly, a barrage of sunbolts struck it, tearing into the exposed flesh, as it was torn to pieces. The boys looked to their right, and saw a fully awake, fully charged Kori, standing at the ready, and retracted her helmet, to reveal a combat-proud smile.

Isaac smiled, as his helmet retracted back into his suit, "Kori, you're alright."

"Of course," Kori stated, as she pointed to where she was thrown at, "But you shall not believe what I had discovered when I awoke."

She led them to the down crates, and pointed to the buried set, as she walked over. She then dug inot it, and yanked out something… by the wrist. The two were surprised to see what they had found: a partially destroyed male android, with slicked back blonde hair, and dull blue eyes.

Isaac blinked, as he confirmed what he saw, "A David model Android?" He looked it over as he gently took it from Kori, "These androids were the first humanoid models ever made. Right up unit they started to build female and teenager models. He must have been part of the Prometheus crew."

"So what the heck is h doing buried in the hangar bay crates," Jeff asked.

Isaac examined the damaged remains, until he finally answered, "Not sure. But if he can still talk, he might be able to tell us himself."

Back in Gwen's Room

They rushed over to Gwen's room, as they took the remains of the android with them. While Jeff helped Gwen sit up for her to listen to what was going on, much to her insistent, Isaac was working on the droid along with Sphere. So far, the little guy's blue light he shined up on it made repairs go by much faster than expected. But the question was brought up, as Kori asked, "Isaac, if I may inquire… why the repairing of a damaged droid is so necessary? I do not think it will be capable of walking about on its own. It will only be able to speak…"

"That's the reason why we need to fix David," Isaac answered, still focused on the repairs. "Maybe he can give us answers on what happened when they landed. Or about what's been going on since we got here."

"We need to find answers; David's the only one that can give them to us," Gwen backed him up.

Isaac and Sphere made the final adjustments, and the neck of David sparked a bit. Isaac set the droid's head down, standing it up on its neck, as it blinked its eyes, looking around erratically. "David? Can you hear us," Isaac asked the head. He lightly tapped the head, giving it the old whack treatment, as he asked, "David, can you hear me?"

Finally, the head responded, spitting out the milky fluid, as he spoke, in a more robotic tone than that of a human like Rei, "Yes, I can hear you."

Isaac then asked, "What were your orders aboard the Prometheus when you arrived on Aegis 7 and discovered any signs of the Creators?"

David tweaked a little, as he looked to Rei, "She knows. She had the same orders. Though I can tell she had a change of mind."

"Change of ethics, in point of fact," Rei replied. She then answered the others, as she replied, "My orders were… if there were any signs or evidence of the Creators. Bring back samples back to Earth: Priority One. All other priorities rescinded."

"As I said, precisely like my own," David replied. "I was the one who started the epidemic by exposing the corpse of a crewman who died due to a malfunction of his suit. The results were… unbelievable."

Jeff got up, not too happy about this piece of information, brandishing a blaster pistol at the damaged robot, as he demanded, "Screw Wayward and his fuckin' Unitology B.S.!" He then pointed to Isaac and a weakened Gwen, "What about their parents/uncle and aunt? What about our lives, dammit?!"

"I repeat: all other priorities rescinded," David replied.

Gwen weakly held Jeff's arm, telling him to calm down. He silently conceded, as he backed away, putting his gun down, as Gwen asked, "What are we dealing with?"

David twitched, as he answered, "Well, my sources are a bit unclear as I didn't have initial time to study the samples I gathered before all this. But from what I discovered… these 'Creators' had begun creating a new lifeform using a virus that can mutate dead cells, creating a fusion of flesh and metal. The end result is a highly-evolved formidable undead killing machine, of which I dubbed Xenecromorphs. Apparently they act as a sort of termite/ant colony or bee hive system; different types of castes within the colony of sorts. Apparently they're programmed to kill and infect any dead body they come in contact. The more they kill, the more is added to the hive/colony of sorts."

"But Mr. Shepard was not dead; he was alive when he awoke from the sleep of hyper," Kori inquired.

"Yes, but he had already been injected with an overdose of drugs. At a guess, after Mrs. Shepard was murdered, he tried to commit suicide before anything else happened," David implied. "I had him in cryosleep to prevent further damage to his system before he could be safely brought back to Earth. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of how quickly the carrier caste can infect others, as the ship was overwhelmed. Luckily, Dr. Martha Shepard managed to send an S.O.S. to USAAC… before her death."

Isaac and Gwen were nearly in shock to learn this bit of information; that Isaac's mom and Gwen's aunt had sent the Latin message. Finally, Isaac managed to ask the big question, "Why did you unleash it in the first place?"

"My orders were to bring back a sample of the virus: Peter Wayward had given me the orders himself," David replied. "Once the Carrier had been unleashed, the first it infected was Captain Rowanoak, and the uncontrollable pattern of killing and infection begun." He looked to Isaac, as he replied, "Your parents managed to survive long enough for an SOS, before your mother had met her demise. I couldn't afford to allow the ship to go any further in damage. So… I took steps."

Isaac allowed it all to sink, until he asked, "You brought in the toxic atmosphere?"

"Yes. But only when they became uncontrollable," David implied.

"Is there any way to kill them," Isaac asked.

"Yes, actually. They may be undead, but they still have the occasional weakness," David replied. "They're weakened when they're dismembered, but to thoroughly do it, destroy the head or sever it along with the rest if you can. Though some I theorized may evolve with armored bodies, but like most armor, there's a chink in them." David then seemed to muse a little, as he replied, "The perfect organisms… even though they're no longer alive, in a sense. Their structural perfection is matched only by their hostility."

"You admire them, don't you," Sphere asked.

David looked to the floating orb, as he answered, "I simply admire their purity." He then looked to the others, seeing the calm frightened looks on their faces, as he went on, "Killers… methodical, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or any delusion of morality."

Jeff sighed, as he knew Gwen was weak and tired, and the last thing she wanted was to be scared. "Well, I don't," Jeff replied. He then looked to Isaac, and asked, "Isaac, I think we've all heard enough. Just pull the plug on him, please."

"Yes please," David seemed to plead rather calmly. "I might be reworked, but I'll never be top of the line. I'd rather be nothing." Isaac nodded, as he reached to pull the plugs out, but David interrupted one last time, "Last words, though."

Isaac halted, as he asked, "What is it?"

"If these Xenecromorphs infected and overrun an entire planet, and you were all on it… well, I can't lie to you about your chances then or now, but…" David finished, as he finished with a small sympathetic smile to them. "…you have my sympathies."

Isaac pulled the plug, as David let out a small synthesized breath sound, as he shut down for the last time. Everything was quiet, as they turned to Rei, who seemed unfazed by what they had just found out about her orders. Until Gwen, who looked ragged from her experience with birthing the alien creature. Jeff, was probably wondering when and if he was gonna shoot her or not. She could take the stares of hatred and distrust; she was practically built and brought into a world that distrusted her kind completely. Sphere's look was obviously hard to determine since he had only a blue lens for his face. But when she saw Isaac and Kori's faces… she just felt guilty, if she could feel at all, to her belief. They didn't seem angered or betrayed, but rather… hurt.

Isaac stood up, finally breaking the silence, as he stated, "We need to talk to Marek. We've gotta leave the planet as fast as possible."

"The Prometheus's shielding's a bit on the iffy side," Sphere stated, reminding them of the situation. "Not to mention your other ship, the Falcon, is still in need of a hull repairing. For the moment, I'd say we're all dead in the water."

Gwen groaned, forgetting her distrust of Rei at the moment, as she rested her forehead on the palm of her left hand, "What was the whole point if things got this screwed up?"

Finally, Rei found the moment to speak up, as she looked to them all, "If you trust me long enough… I can show you right now."

Later On

Medical

After a while, Rei was leading everyone, minus Sphere and Kori, to the medical center. Jeff was gently carrying Gwen in his arms; apparently, she was still a bit whoozy from the surgery as well as the painkillers. Isaac, seemed politely confused on what they were being led to, as Rei was in the lead. Once they reached their destination, Isaac saw that they had made their way back to Medical.

Isaac blinked, as he looked to Rei, who was about to open the door, "Rei. What exactly are you trying to show us?"

Rei entered the codes into the door, as she turned to look at Isaac and the others, as she answered, "You believe that Miss Vickers is the one orchestrating all of this, am I correct?" They made no head movements or answers, as Rei gave them the answer as well, "She merely wishes to return home and claim her family business; she has no interests in discovering the origins of humanity, or the adventures of exploration. She's simply a business woman seeking to make a percentage. Gwendolyn's impregnation of an alien embryo was merely a chance for her to take the creature to the Wayward Industries' Bio-Weapons Program. Though thankfully, that has not come to fruition."

Isaac and the others were processing it all, as he finally asked, "So if Vickers wasn't the one who ordered the whole 'Bring Back Aliens and Screw Everyone Over' Plan, then who was it, and why?"

"Maybe you should ask him," Rei answered, as the door hissed open.

Isaac looked confused more, as he walked up to Rei, and asked, politely, "Him? Him who?"

Once the door fully opened, Isaac and everyone else were visually greeted by everyone in the room. Ford was treating a recovered Vickers, who seemed to calmly glare at the teenagers when she saw them. The guards that were meant to escort them were in fully recovery but didn't hold a grudge like Vickers was doing. But the most prominent sight they saw, was the individual that was having their feet cleaned by a male nurse.

It was none other than Peter Wayward, still alive and freshly brought out of cryo-stasis, as he looked to the teens, and casually greeted them, "Glad to see that we've finally met. I suppose you have questions that need answering don't you?"

Next Chapter: Meeting Their Makers; The Ultimate Question: Why