Chapter Five

Amelia Kyne was shaking as she sat in a chair, slumped, tired, disheveled and exhausted. It had been beyond a nightmare.

Dr. David Camp was in Critical Condition in ICU Pod Five, ironically, just feet from where the creature that had injured him lay. Had it not been for the fact he had been injured in Medical, he would not be alive. Amelia had to perform emergency surgery to save him, and as it was, she had no choice but to amputate what was left of his arm up to the shoulder. She was stunned at the damage the thing had done. They all were.

The acid had also burned through the floor and into the next level and the one below that, as well as everything in between. The holes were five inches in diameter. She had never seen an acid so powerful and so fast-acting. Not even Fluroantimonic Acid was that potent, and it was the most powerful acid known to humans. Thankfully, nobody had been passing by in the areas, and thus no one else had been injured.

"And this thing is using it for blood," she mused aloud, her voice as tired as she was.

As well as barking orders and yelling over sirens and alarms, Amelia's throat was raw from the fumes of the acid. Her eyes only now had finally stopped stinging. She was just thankful she had been able to see to save Camp's life.

"Stupid question, but how're you holding up?" Sammers asked. She glanced up at him where he stood with two cups of tea.

"Worse than I look," she replied. He handed her a cup of cold Green Tea, which she gratefully took.

"I'm going to implement a full colony quarantine. Need to draw up some plans and prepare, first," he said, sounding almost as tired as she was.

"Good," she replied. They were silent for a few moments.

"How's David?" he asked. Amelia sighed and tried not to think back on what it was like operating on someone she knew personally.

"Not good," she replied, trying to keep her voice even. She swallowed, thinking back to just before he had cut the thing.

"It's my fault," said Sammers. She looked up, and could see the pain on his face. "I knew it was a bad idea. I should have trusted my gut. Now we might lose not only one of our best doctors, but best people. Period." She smiled weakly at him.

"No, it's not. We all knew the risks. And beyond that, who could have expected this damn thing would have acid for blood? Let alone like that?" Sammers gave a shaky breath.

"Still doesn't make it right. I swear, I'll-" he was cut off by the alarms sounding again.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" he gawked. Amelia's face tightened as she saw the flashing yellow lights again, knew what it would mean. Not just for the colony, but for her as well. She downed the rest of her tea and stood.

"Duty calls," she said as she headed for Medical.

XXX

Amelia was not too surprised to find another pair of colonists with the strange creatures on their faces. One was found in the Megavents, the other in the vehicle Maintenance bay. They only found the pod with the man found in the Maintenance bay, and could not locate the one from the Megavents. However, they had worse news. Two more people had been reported missing. One had not shown up for their shift, and the other never clocked out. P-Sec was searching for them, but this made Amelia even more weary. She helped make sure they were stabilized, and checked on Camp last.

The doctor clung to life by the thinnest of threads in the sealed ICU pod. Amelia fought back tears. Had it not been for him, that would have been her. Her throat was tight. Judy came up and gently patted her shoulder.

"You should get some rest," said Judy. Amelia looked at her, and the younger woman also had dark rings under her eyes. Amelia huffed gently.

"I will once we get them all stabilized and quarantined," replied Amelia, who turned to help Russel and Jessica with the two new patients. They were careful to avoid touching the creatures at all costs.

Amelia and her crew worked into the night, but she had them go home first. They deserved a rest, and had done so much. Amelia then wrote up a report on everything that had happened and what she had learned about the creatures. She filed it, and sent a copy to the USG Castle. However, she was surprised when it came back with an error message. She raised an eyebrow. She brought up a window and contacted Chief Science Officer Dr. Brinks. She waited, and waited. There was no reply. It said the signal strength was weak. She recalled Sammers had said something about weak signals due to the asteroids from the planet crack, but had been too busy to really listen fully. She tried the Bridge of the Castle. It took a while, and she had been about to give up, but to her great relief, a face appeared, though they hissed and distorted with static.

"This is Senior Science Officer Amelia Kyne. I have an important message for Dr. Brinks. Tell him these creatures have acid for blood. It burned through two floors when we tried to cut it off. Make sure you don't try to cut it," she said. The face of a younger man with black hair with a gold streak in it distorted and filled with snow, then turned normal, before almost going out again.

". . . ay . . . gain? Wh . . . plan . . . good . . . up an . . ." The link finally went out and the signal was lost. Amelia sighed heavily. She knew she should try again, but she was so tired. She slowly stood up and stretched. She had to sleep. Tiredly, she headed for her apartment. She tried one last time, this time to send a message to Terry, but she had less luck than with the Castle. With a weary sigh, she went to bed.

XXX

The next day, Amelia woke up still feeling tired. She brewed up some quick coffee, had a snack bar, and headed for Medical first thing. She was surprised to find Jessica and Judy outside of Medical, Russel as well. As she approached, she saw Russel was hugging Judy. She felt a pit in her stomach. They noticed her. Jessica looked up at her from staring at her feet, her eyes red and puffy.

"Amelia . . . he's dead," she choked.

Amelia had been fearing this, but had hoped for the better. His wounds were severe, and he had a heart attack from the shock and, Amelia suspected, some of the effects of the acid on his bloodstream. Something in her knew he was not going to live through such wounds, but she had wanted to believe he would pull through. Amelia hugged Jessica and patted her back. Russel looked at her from where he comforted Judy.

"I already called Briggs. They'll be here shortly," he said, referring to Raymond Briggs, the Senior Pathologist and head of the Morgue. Amelia and the rest were silent as they wheeled Dr. Camp's body out of Medical and headed for the Morgue. Ethan stood with his pendant of the Black Marker in his hand, saying prayers.

The rest of the day they spent running various tests and doing what they could. Not that there was much else they could do. Amelia tested what she could from where the creatures blood had contacted the metal of the floor, and was able to isolate a few new compounds and things, but, again, most of it the computer had never seen before. About the only element present it was familiar with was fluorine. She shouldn't have been surprised. Finally, she stood, stretched and went to get something to eat.

Instead of going to the mess hall, she went to the hot food vending machines. She wasn't too surprised to see Sammers there as well. She inserted a loaded Credit Card and made her selection, getting a hot dog and chips. Well, synthetic protein made to look like it, anyway. Sammers nodded to her as he finished the last of his burger and Sun cola before tossing the can in the recycle bin. He sat at a bench with her while she ate.

"I saw the report from Briggs," he said once she had finished. She wiped her mouth and sighed.

"Yes. Cause of death was acute acidosis and heart failure," she stated flatly, trying to keep her composure. He glanced around, and, seeing few people within earshot, he glanced up at her.

"Glad I found you. I'd like you to meet me in my office so we can talk about the quarantine. I'd like to get it started as soon as-" They were interrupted by Amelia's RIGLINK window popping up to show Russel, looking alarmed.

"Amelia! We need you here!" he said quickly. She looked at Sammers, who nodded and ran with her towards Medical.

"What happened now?" she asked.

"The creatures. I came back in from lunch, and they were gone," he said, and they both almost tripped over their feet.

"What?!" Sammers almost yelled, Amelia barely refraining from the same.

They quickly dashed through the doors of Medical, Sammers panting. Amelia rushed over to one of the isolation pods. Sure enough, the woman inside was still unconscious, but the creature was gone from her face. Sammers' jaw dropped. "W-where the hell did it go?" he stammered. Amelia looked around in the pod. It was sealed, there was no way it could have- her head suddenly swung over to stare at Pod Three, the one where the acid had burned a hole through the floor. She hurried over, and was somewhat relieved to find the creature, but not on Mr. Ellison's face. It lay on the floor of the pod, looking like a dead spider, the legs curled inwards. Judy and Jessica came running in as well, along with Ethan. Amelia quickly donned her E-T RIG and grabbed up a long reach grabber and a metal bin, just in case. She looked at them as she prepared to open the door.

"Be ready in case it tries to run," she said. Judy and Jessica looked like they would rather jump in an engine turbine than touch the thing, but nodded. Russel, though, had grabbed up a heavy, metal IV post to use as a club. She opened the pod, and warily came in, closing the door behind her. She glanced around, and at the patient. Ellison's chest still rose and fell, now without aid from the creature. She turned her attention to the creature. The tail laid across the floor, the legs curled into the palm. Amelia held the metal bin in one hand like a shield, and poked at it like a knight poking a dragon with a lance. It didn't move. She poked again, same thing. She made sure she was between it and the hole in the floor, just in case. She gently used the grabber to grasp one of the curled fingers and pull. The creature didn't react at all, or move save for her own actions. "I . . . I think it's dead," said Amelia as she now grabbed it by the tail and pulled. Again, nothing. It was totally lifeless and floppy. Had Amelia not seen it alive with her own two eyes, she would think it was something fake and made of silicone. Russel, Judy, Jessica and Sammers all seemed to sigh with relief.

"Well, finally some good-aaah!" Russel began, and yelled as, to all their shock, Mr. Ellison sat up suddenly on the bed of the pod. Even Amelia jumped back.

"Wha, whe, wha?" he said in a hoarse and dazed voice, like a man who had just woken up from long stasis.

"Mr. Ellison?" she asked. His head turned slowly to face her. "Do you recognize me?" she asked. He blinked and looked at her blankly.

"You're a doc. But, I . . . I don't," he said, sounding lost.

"Do you know your name?" she asked.

"Clyde Ellison, Class Four miner, CEC. RIG number 994173," he replied. Amelia felt some of the tension finally leaving her gut.

"Do you remember what happened?" she asked. He frowned at this softly.

"What do you remember?" Sammers asked through the glass. Ellison thought for a moment.

"Some dream about . . . something, like a feeling I couldn't breathe. And then, something warm and, I don't know. Comfy?" This brought more than a few raised eyebrows.

"How're you feeling?" Russel asked. Ellison tilted his head at this.

"Thirsty, an my throat's dry," he said. Judy went to get him some water while Amelia put the dead creature in a waste container and sealed it quickly. Amelia opened the pod and handed Judy the container in exchange for the water, a trade the young woman was not happy with. Mr. Ellison downed the water quickly in a few gulps and asked for more. Amelia took the empty cup and left the pod as Sammers stared in both awe, and some relief.

"Thank god we finally got some good news," said Sammers. Ethan smiled at this as he held his pendant.

"Altman be praised," he said happily as Amelia filled a large pitcher of water for Ellison.

XXX

Slowly, the other affected people began to wake up as well. Like with Mr. Ellison, they had found the creature somewhere in the pods. One had crawled up into the overhead tools of one of the pods, another had wedged itself up into the underside of the bed, and one had been found laying under the bed, as if it had just dropped dead off the woman's face. Despite this seemingly miraculous turn of events, Amelia didn't yet let them out of quarantine. She scanned them over, but, oddly, found nothing out of the ordinary with them. She might not have been a Xenobiologist, but even she knew that couldn't be all there was to this. She checked and rechecked the scans and results, but all said the same thing. No bacteria or viruses were detected, no chemicals, they weren't even running fevers.

She then turned to the creatures themselves to find answers, and did find a few.

They were surprised when they saw the underside of the creatures, and how the whole underside was like one giant suction cup.

"No wonder we couldn't pull it off of them," Sammers mused as he watched on a screen. As Amelia examined the alien creatures in further detail. What interested her the most was the tube, right in the middle of the "palm" of the creature. Judy and Jessica shivered, and even Russel seemed a bit unnerved.

"Jeez, thing looks like a you-know-what," Russel said, referring to a certain part of a woman's anatomy. Amelia hardly heard as she took hemostats and gently pulled out the tube. It was pale and almost transparent. The rest of the creature was slowly turning pale and transparent in areas, and others seeming to calcify. She noted the creature did have a thin skin over what seemed like an exoskeleton of some kind, but the scans had also shown an internal skeleton as well. Very unusual, to say the least. The same could be said of the pods they had come from, which they had been studying as well since they had first encountered them. It was amazing, highly complex biology. However, her study of these creatures was only incidental to her care of the people they had attacked. Let Brinks or someone else study them in depth.

Sammers, though, was beyond relieved at the new development. That being said, though, he still was implementing the quarantine of the colony. They still were not sure if there were more of those things around, and he wanted to be safe rather than sorry. That being said, though, Amelia and her staff still did their jobs, and one common issue with all of them was they were thirsty and very hungry. Only made sense after being unconscious for a few days with an alien creature covering your face. Even so, Russel, Judy and Jessica couldn't help staring at Mr. Ellison as he gobbled down a whole helping of salad and synthetic protein, looking like he would quickly start on a second helping.

"Hey, slow down! You'll choke like that, man!" said Russel as Ellison wolfed down huge forkfuls of food. Thankfully, most of the others were not quite as greedy as he was, but were still awfully thirsty and hungry. Judy smiled at Russel.

"Isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?" she teased, recalling how the Nurse was at lunch. He frowned briefly, but ignored her. Amelia watched and observed. Something in her gut told her something was off. She tried not to let her unease show, but she knew it couldn't just be that easy. Her RIG beeped, indicating she had an audio message request. She tapped the hologram and turned to answer it.

"Yes?" she replied.

"Amelia, it's Sammers. How're things going?" he asked. She took a breath and tried to quell that feeling in her gut.

"Okay. They're all hungry and thirsty, but seem otherwise fine," she reported. She could hear the relief in Sammers' voice.

"Good. When they are feeling better, you can let them out of the isolation pods at your discretion, but not out of Medical just yet." She gave the softest of smiles. "And we might need the room. Two P-Sec officers have gone missing during their patrols." That erased her smile, and she sighed, knowing what would likely follow.

"All right. I'll make sure two of the pods are ready," she replied. She closed the link then walked over to observe Ellison.

"Hey! When can we get out?!" a woman called from where she was in her isolation pod. Amelia looked at her.

"We'll let you all out of the pods in a bit, Cynthia. We just need to make sure you all are safe and not carrying anything first," Amelia replied.

"Carrying anything? We don't even know what the flying fuck happened!" answered Travis, another miner.

"Can't we at least talk to our families? We don't even have our RIGs!" said Wilson, the Engineer.

"I can assure you that you all will be allowed to message your families shortly. We just have to make sure all precautions have been taken, first," Amelia replied. This was met with more than a few groans. Ellison, for his part, just sat and enjoyed himself.

"C'mon, guys! Look at the bright side!" said Ellison around a mouthful of food.

"What bright side?" Cynthia almost yelled. Ellison took another huge mouthful.

"We get to sit around, eat and take it easy and still get paid!" he laughed. Jessica winced as the man barely kept the food in his mouth. The others in the pods murmured at this. He swallowed his food and grinned. "Besides, the food's not that-" he stopped. He gave a soft belch, looking like he was having trouble. Judy sighed.

"I warned you about eating so much so fast," she said. He winced softly and shook his head.

"Naw, something else," he said. Russel huffed softly.

"Heartburn most likely," the Nurse stated. Ellison gave a sound almost like a hickup and a cough in one. He reached up and felt his nose. He pulled his hand back, and there was a trickle of blood. He tried to speak, and coughed. Amelia looked up as another cough wracked his body, and then he jerked. He gagged, and, to their shock, began to shake. Russel moved forward quickly.

"Take it easy. Breathe. Is some food caught?" he asked as Amelia hurried over. To their shock he began to thrash.

"What the hell?!" Russel yelled.

"Convulsions!" Amelia said as she threw open the door of the pod and hurried in. Ellison began to thrash violently. Amelia and Russel tried to hold him and keep him from falling onto the floor. "Roll him onto his side!" Amelia ordered as she looked up at Judy. "Get me a sedative!" she yelled. Before Judy could comply, Mr. Ellison screamed, loud and shrill. Amelia almost recoiled. That wasn't normal for convulsions. "Mr. Ellison! Can you hear me?! What's wrong?!" Ellison gagged, blood beginning to stream from his nose and mouth.

"It hurts!" he gurgled. Then, to all their shock, there was a sick, wet crack and Ellison's ribs bulged outwards against his shirt. Everyone stopped and leaped back.

"Holy shit!" Russel yelled, while Jessica screamed.

"Everyone out of the pod!" Amelia ordered, throwing open the door as they scrambled out as another wet crack was heard. Amelia closed and locked the door of the pod, the others yelling from their pods as Amelia and her team watched in horror. Ellison lay across the bed, his head dangling over the side as his chest bulged, shirt stained with blood. There was a final crack, blood spraying all over the inside of the pod as there was a loud, shrill screech as something moved inside the wound.

A pale, eyeless skull peeked out of the wound. Jessica turned and vomited, while Judy stepped back, eyes huge. Russel and Amelia watched, horrified as the little beast hissed and snarled as it wriggled free of Ellison's twitching body.

"My god . . ." Amelia gasped. Then, with horror, she noticed the hole in the floor left by the acid. "No!" she yelled as the small, wormlike creature scurried for the hole and disappeared through it literally as fast as she could blink. Judy whimpered in total fear, Russel no better. Amelia rushed for the wall and pressed an alarm button. Red lights began to flash and sirens blare. "This is Senior Science Officer Amelia Kyne! We have a Code Black and breach of quarantine containment! This is not a drill," she yelled into the comm. More alarms began to sound in the colony. Then, she heard someone scream and turned to see, to her horror, Wilson was having the same convulsions Ellison had. Judy and Jessica turned away, unable to watch.

"Oh my god!" Travis yelled as he pounded on the glass of the pod. "Please help me! I don't want to die!" he yelled. Amelia shook as she watched, knowing there was nothing she could do to help.

"I'm sorry," she said as a tear rolled down her face. Travis began to cough, blood flecking the glass and he too began to convulse and scream. Cynthia, though, was quiet, standing and looking at the surgical tools. She picked up the plasma scalpel, pressed the button to ignite it, the blade glowing blue. She glanced up as Wilson's chest broke open in a spectacular shower of gore. She activated the plasma scalpel and ran it across her throat, blood spraying in a fountain across the inside of the pod. Her body fell to the floor with a thud, head almost severed.

"Jesus Christ," Russel swore. Amelia could do nothing but watch. She could not risk breaking quarantine, especially now. Even then, there was nothing she could have done so quickly. At least Cynthia didn't suffer. Amelia wasn't too surprised when the dead woman's chest cracked and bulged, and another of the little horrors screeched as it was born.

A RIGLINK video window hissed to life, Sammers' face displayed.

"Amelia! What the hell is going on?!" Sammers asked. Amelia showed him by directing the video input inside the pod. Sammers' face was a mask of horror. "Holy shit," he breathed.

"One of them already escaped through the hole in Pod Three. Get West and his team here ASAP. They need to find and contain or kill the creature if they can. The rest are contained," she said, shutting off the message before he could reply. Amelia watched as the little nightmares hissed and screeched, looking for a way out, and, much to her horror, clung to the walls as they moved around the pods. Amelia looked in horror as she pieced it all together. They used them as hosts, she thought. The spider-hands had implanted some kind of eggs or embryos inside of them.

Suddenly, she remembered that Jenkins and another infected colonist were already on board the USG Castle. She brought up her RIG and hurried to contact the orbiting planetcracker. "USG Castle, this is Senior Science Officer Amelia Kyne! We have an emergency down here! Those creatures implanted some kind of embryo in the people they attacked! Put them into stasis immediately! Castle, respond! Anybody!"

XXX

Amelia's message did come through, though filled with static and garbled. However, there was no one on the Bridge to hear it. And even if there had been, they could not, as a huge hole through the central console led out into space, the Bridge silent in the eerie vacuum of space. Red warning lights silently spun, casting the Bridge in an eerie, crimson glow. All around was dried blood, holes from weapon fire, and larger holes that looked eerily similar to those burned by the acid down in the colony. These, though, were much larger. In the depths of space, no one could hear her message, nor could she hear the screams of ghosts that echoed the dead halls.