Acheron Chapter 10 – The Midnight Hour is Close at Hand
A/N- This chapter starts off while Kevin is leading the search of the APP complex, right before the birth of the Queen and while Marie is fighting for her life at the crash site. We are still in the same day since chapter 5, just thought I would let you know, I would say by the end of this chapter it will be roughly 7 at night.
After the town hall meeting Edd wished Kevin good luck with the search and headed toward the med lab to see if there was anything else he could learn from Mr. Jorden's corpse. Giving the good Major the stink eye as he passed him, who does that man think he is to blame this whole thing on him, everything happened so fast that there was no time to react and the escape of the creature just couldn't be helped. He wasn't there, he didn't have to witness a man's chest exploding open like that, and that memory that was still fresh in Edd's mind was keeping his nerves on edge. But now wasn't the time to show such weakness, now was the time to strengthen his resolve so he could learn all he could about the creature in a hope that he might find a way to prevent this from happening again. Just in case someone from the expedition the Major has sent out to that crashed ship returns with one of those things attached to them. Edd, however, kept up hope that the Major's reckless decision hadn't brought misfortune to some unlucky soul, and that everyone would return from there safe and sound.
Entering the lab Edd was confronted by his failure, a failure that had cost a man his life, Mr. Jorden's corpse was still lying upon the operating table with a white sheet hiding him from the world. Dr. Van Bartonschmeer exits her office as the door closes behind him, carrying the toe tag to place on Mr. Jorden's body. Looking in the direction of the door she halfheartedly greets Edd when she makes eye contact with him, "How can I help you doctor?"
"We need to do an autopsy as soon as possible."
"Is there a reason for the rush?"
"That fool has sent more people out there." Edd knew that the Major was only doing what he thought was right and was just look out for the safety of the people under his command. But that didn't stop Edd from being a little irritated with the man right now.
She walks over and places a hand upon his shoulder, "I understand, you don't want this to happen to anybody else." Giving him a smile that was mixed with sadness she removes her hand, "Come on, I was just about to get started, for the death certificate, if you would like to assist me."
The pair walked over to the table the corpse was upon, Nazz taking the opposite side from Edd, she punches in a few commands into the control panel and the scanners imbedded within the table spring to life. Doing an in-depth scan of the body took the devices a few minutes to complete, during this time Edd assisted Nazz as she drew a few vials of blood for testing from the man's arm. Wheeling the tray of surgical tools over to the table was the final preparation before they began, a chime from the control panel told them that the scan was complete and ready to be viewed. Hitting a button, an in-depth 3D holographic model appeared over the table slowly turning with several markers of interest pointing at different locations on the model with a prompt for a dialog box attached to them.
Below the rupture in the man's chest was a small mass which Edd surmised must have been the placenta the creature used to nourish itself while it gestated within that man. From this mass extended several tube like growths that attached themselves to the lungs, heart, stomach and intestines. Pointing to the marker in the intestinal track with the pen the 3D model zooms into the area and the dialog box opens to display its information. "Unknown organism detected, it is parasitic in nature attaching itself throughout the small and large intestines, graphing to each organ to absorb nutrients to feed itself, it has a growth rate of two thousand cells per second at this sight." Damn it's still growing, but why, isn't its purpose over with the birth of the creature, what could this mean?
Zooming back out they examined each marker and all of them told the same story, "These findings are unsettling," Nazz's expression told of her worry as she examined the placenta. "Even if we were to extract the organism before it was born, this network that it forms to collect nutrients would eventually kill the host."
"I think are main concern should be removing the parasite, I feel we gave up to quickly the last time," Edd's expression was noticeably bothered, their choice to gather more information on the creature instead of taking it off was haunting him.
Recognizing it Nazz speaks up, "It wasn't anyone's fault, no one could have predicted what was going to happen and you shouldn't blame yourself for it."
"You're right, but I still feel like I should have tried harder, I am not going to let this happen again."
"Alright, but let's think logically and look at several outcomes instead of putting all our eggs in one basket," Edd motions for her to continue. "If we have multiple patients for example and we can't remove all the parasites before implantation, or we can't safely remove the parasite, then we are going to have to operate as quickly as possible to remove the growth."
Edd nods, "I agree, it is imperative to remove the embryo and placenta as quickly as possible and as early as possible, before it starts reaching out to the patients organs."
"And if speed is not possible, then what are we going to do? Because we are going have to reach behind their heart and lungs to remove it from the spine, which is going to cause one operation to take several hours, at the minimum." She enlarged the model to zoom into the area of the spine the mass was attached to, "At the early stages it should be easy to remove, but at the later stages we might only be able to get the organism out and nothing more." She brought his attention to where the fully formed mass was firmly attached to the spine, they were almost one and the same.
They both took a moment to ponder this information until Edd broke the silence with a question, "Do you think the cancer treatment would work against this?"
"It's possible but a long shot at best," this creature seemed to have an uncanny ability to put up road blocks for saving its host life. "I have already put in an order for some though, but it will take some time before it gets here, so until then I'll ask Ang if any of her connections might have some available."
"That might be a good idea."
With the possible scenarios covered Nazz snaps on the latex gloves, then hands him a pair of them o put on, then puts on a pair of protective glasses, "Well it's time to get our hands dirty." The physical part of the autopsy took an hour, as they examined the fibers that crisscrossed through the body, taking various samples to study closer under the microscope. Removing the man's heart Nazz takes a better look at the attachment point of the mass, "It looks like it's trying to burrow to the other side of the spi…." The evacuation alarms begin to blare throughout the complex, the two of them removed their protective gear quickly. Exiting the lab they ran down the hall to the designated gathering point to await further instructions. Was some critical system damaged in the APP and now all the non essential personal needed to evacuate for safety reasons, or was it more?
As they reached the garage and waited to be informed of the situation the roar of the shuttles engines was heard over head as it was coming in for a landing. "Attention," a voice called over the speaker system a few moments later, "All clear, all clear, please return to your designated search areas." The voice repeated the message one more time then added, "Dr. Van Bartonschmeer and Dr. Vincent-Barr please report to the med lab immediately."
Rushing back to the med lab they were both greeted by five gurneys being carried through the door, each occupant had a parasite firmly attached to them. Their worst fears had just been realized, not only would they have to quickly remove these things, but they had five lives in their hands and the clock was ticking. "We need more hands," Edd states as they enter the room and cleared the operating table for the first patient, Marachuk, John J. He called for a few of his assistance to aid them while Nazz called upon her nurse. Nazz oversaw the removal of the parasite from Rodriguez while Edd took care of Marachuk, each person on the team worked in tandem with each other to try and keep the parasite from strangling its victim while working to remove it. The diagnostic equipment keeping a close eye on the patient's vitals, Edd's team was slowly pulling back the creature from the man's face as Nazz's team wasn't far from removing it as well.
They had the digits and tail removed from around the victim's throat and head and was now in the process of extracting the proboscis from his mouth when a set of alarms started to blare from the monitoring devices and the patient started to convulse. Looking up the warning read, Shock, and a list of warnings for the man's vitals started to scroll rapidly before he flat lined as the creature was finally removed. Throwing it in a specimen jar that was filled with water and locking it in there, he returns to his patient and begins chest compressions and mouth to mouth. Nazz had the same issue with her patient and was now trying to resuscitate him with the defibrillator, but shortly after the five minutes it takes for the brain to die, Nazz called their times of death.