"What's the situation?" Finley asked.
Adams, taking notice of the bandage on Finley's nose and the beat up Shen, replied, "It got away."
"Now what?" Finley asked a slight annoyed expression on his face.
"We're going to look for it. Kra'tak said he can't help, not without his equipment," Adams answered, "How are you guys doing, you look a little beat up?" he asked.
Finley smiled slightly, "We're okay. Could've been a heckuva' lot worse."
"Alright, you take the west side of the building. Let us know if you spot anything, especially that glowing blood." Adams instructed as he moved off.
"Got it." Finley affirmed and moved off with his own team.
Tom was still sitting, thinking when Amy and the group entered the medicentre. He looked up, let out a heavy sigh, and then stood up. Amy walked in first, overshadowed by Kra'tak who barely fit through the doorway as he walked directly behind Amy. It was as if a great shadow was following the scientist, the lights outside silhouetting Kra'tak's figure.
Keitaro, who had been talking to a doctor further back in the room, almost lost his balance and fell when he saw Kra'tak walk in. He looked on in fear and awe, mixed with the feelings from his last encounter with a similar being. He'd already faced one of these things and had seen what it was capable of.
Tom, however, did not hesitate at all and walked straight to Kra'tak to meet him halfway. Heather and her team took up positions inside and outside the entrance to the medicentre, joining the two guards already there. They shared friendly greetings as they walked past, the guards having watched Kra'tak approach from a distance.
"Hello Kra'tak. I hear you have been making great progress." Tom half stated, half questioned.
"Yes, thank you Amy." Kra'tak replied, bowing his head slightly in Amy's direction.
She let out a small smile at Kra'tak in turn, turned to Tom and saw the grim expression on his face.
"Kra'tak we have an important matter to discuss. Do you understand?" Tom asked him.
Kra'tak looked at Tom with his masked face for a few seemingly long seconds, "I understand."
"Those others like you out there, are they your friends?" Tom asked.
"Yes." Kra'tak answered without a pause.
"Do you know why they are attacking and killing our people?"
"Yes. They look for me. You were my captors."
Both Amy and Tom picked up on the fact that Kra'tak had just used the word 'were' and not 'are'. An important difference.
"They have come to free you from us. I understand." Tom said as he looked seemingly through Kra'tak.
He stayed that way for a little while before looking back at Kra'tak.
"I'm sorry but we were forced to defend ourselves against them and one of your friends was slain when he attacked us. Do you understand?" Tom asked again.
Kra'tak's posture did not change at all. He continued standing as he had been since he entered the medicentre.
"I understand. The others will not." he replied, mimicking Tom's voice even better than before.
To the guards situated outside, listening in on the conversation, it seemed as if Tom was having a discussion with himself.
"We know that there is one more of your friends on the base. We'd like to stop any more of us being killed, including your friend. Could you stop the other from continuing to attack us?" Tom asked bluntly, a slight weight seemingly lifted from his shoulders now.
"They are seeking me. When they find me I will explain. I will ensure that no more are harmed then."
Tom let out a slight sigh of relief and visibly relaxed. Amy stood next to Kra'tak listening to the conversation intently. Kra'tak turned to look towards Amy.
"The elder may decide to leave if the ship is working." Kra'tak informed her, "If the elder is alive," he added.
"That's why I think that it would be best if you were taken to see your friend's body." Tom said sombrely, "I also think it best that you leave too. The Aliens will be attacking soon and we'll be evacuating most of the base."
"The attack is probably also the reason the Aliens left you alone for the day that you were out there," Amy said, joining in on the conversation. "They're increasing in numbers and aren't using many of themselves to attack the base anymore."
"Yeah, the trek there and back was considerably easy. We only came into contact with a few of them, or we wouldn't have been able to bring you back with us." Heather added.
Kra'tak turned to face the group, "I must find the others. I cannot allow them to kill any more of my friends and we must decide our own course of action now." Kra'tak said.
The group looked up at Kra'tak in mild surprise.
"Friends. I hope we can all be friends with each other." Tom said.
"It is not a simple matter. We have hunted your kind before. You have proven to have some formidable opponents throughout time." Kra'tak said, sounding respectful in Tom's voice, "We also hunt the creatures you speak of. We respect some of your kind, but many we do not."
"If you don't mind me asking," Tom said cautiously, "Where were you going before your ship crashed here?"
"We were going to a planet on which we have hunted those creatures for many centuries," Kra'tak replied, "We also discovered that you're kind had set up a base since the last hunt there, unaware of the creatures."
"That doesn't sound good." Heather spoke up.
"No, it doesn't," Tom agreed. "Heather," he called, turning in her direction, "We'll take Kra'tak to the communications building. Then we'll decide what to do from there."
Just then Heather's radio burst into life. It was the communications operators calling for a team check in. She replied and turned her attention back to Tom and Kra'tak.
"We're ready," she said.
"I'll come too." Amy added.
The group now moved out together, just as when they had travelled to the medicentre a little while ago. This time with Tom as well.
Keitaro had continued to watch from the back of the room. The doctor he was talking to watching with the same fascination. They both began to relax as they watched the group leave the room.
"I think I'd like my sword back now," Keitaro managed to say, looking at the doctor.
"It's with your equipment in the locker room," the doctor replied.
Keitaro brought himself together again and walked off awkwardly towards the locker room.
"Number thirty two," the doctor called out to him.
Stephan looked on as the drying blood was quickly cleared away by a couple of soldiers from the same team. The children and adults were being kept inside the library and were beginning to recover from their shock. They would be allowed to leave once the sight at the front entrance was cleared away. The bodies of Joe and Tyler had already been taken away, to be cremated when the current threat was over.
The sickening smell hung strong in the hallway. Stephan grabbed a soldiers arm as he was walking past to obtain his attention.
"What're we going to do about that smell?" she asked.
"Somebody's on the way with a spray that'll get rid of it," the soldier answered.
She let go off him and he continued on his way. At the far end of the corridor the group that had been completely incapacitated, in a matter of a few seconds, were being attended to by a medic.
They were all conscious now and had picked their helmets and weapons back up from the floor where they had scattered. The soldier whose rifle had been smashed by the Predator was being calmed by one of his team mates.
Stephan continued to look on, astonished by the speed with which the Predator had decimated an entire group of fully armed and aware soldiers. Lost in her own thoughts, the smell became less noticeable.
In a different part of the building a few children occupied their time by playing games. They were sent here when most of the civilians left the mess hall a few hours earlier. Caley, Zara and a couple of others were currently playing a game of 'I spy'.
Caley's mum, Smith's wife, Patia, was sleeping on the only bed in the room. She had been supervising them and had felt it was safe enough to go to sleep. The guards outside would make sure there were no problems.
The sounds of the distant gunfire a little while ago had barely made it to the room. None of the children had noticed it. The guards outside had been informed about the situation over the radio.
"This is boring," one of the children complained.
"I agree," Zara, the eldest of them, replied.
"Let's have a look at the cages!" Caley suggested excitedly.
"But we'll get caught if we leave the building," the fourth child said whiningly.
"No we won't. I think I know how to get to where the cages are without being caught," Zara said, mischief in her voice.
"Lets go now..." the third child started to speak.
"NO!" Zara cut him off, "It's too dangerous," she said with finality.
There were a few disappointed sighs from them. They were already bored of the games they had been playing so far. Sitting in one room for so long was difficult for them to bear. The four of them were eager to resume their mindless running about, as they had before the lock down situation they now faced.
Even though it was nearing the middle of the night none of them were particularly tired. Having had an excessive amount of sleep in the last few weeks due to there being even less for them to do then was normal. Now the children were just beginning to feel irritable.
"Well, we have to wait until breakfast before we can even leave this room," Caley said, "What should we do until then?"
"We'll discuss how we're going to see the cages without being found out," Zara replied.
"You find anything?" Finley asked.
"No. We circled the building and the area around it. No blood, no signs." Adams replied feeling defeated, "It's as if it just disappeared."
"Neither did we, what do we do now?" Finley said.
"We'll leave those guys up there on the roof for now." Adams said pointing to the top of the civilian building. "Our best bet is Kra'tak, lets just hope Amy and the others can get him to do something to help us out."
"Well, I'll take these two with me to go check on Hurst and Smith. It's been a while, we'll see how they're doing," Finley said looking at Shen and Dena in turn.
"Agreed. We'll head back to the communications building and keep an eye on things from there." Adams said.
They were about to move off when Dena put a hand on Adams shoulder. He turned towards her in response with a questioning expression.
"Hey Adams, got a question for you. Back at the communications building you said you needed six guys," Dena said in a slightly teasing tone, "Why'd you say guys?"
Adams smirked in understanding. He feigned innocence and put his hands up mockingly, "I was under pressure, had to think fast."
Baseer and Knight, both looking calmer now were standing at the ready in covering position around Adams. Finley and his team moved off as Adams' team did the same. They walked towards their destinations, fully alert and aware to their surroundings. Adams unhooked his radio as he led his team to inform the group on the roof of the situation.
The soldier on the roof gave Adams an acknowledgement. He went to hook the radio back onto his belt when a spine-chilling roar came from within the bases perimeter. He nearly lost his balance and fell off the edge of the roof he was standing on, only to be saved by a hand from another soldier. His radio, unwillingly dropped, fell straight off the side of the civilians building to shatter into pieces on the ground far below.
"Anyone locate that sound?" came the question on the other soldiers' radios.
A lot of negatives came over the radio in reply.
"The sound was too loud. It reverberated all over the place," a voice came over the radio.
Adams and Finley both stopped at the sound, listened to the ensuing radio chatter, and then resumed the journey to their destinations at a more hurried pace.
"You're right." Colonel Rayner said simply, throwing off the argument she was ready to unload on him.
The Colonel was sitting with the three infected personnel. The woman who was ready to argue now sitting, still with a look of terror, and the two other men. Both of whom had kept quiet so far.
"You can't do this to us," the woman repeated with a trembling voice.
"Karla..." the Colonel trailed off in thought.
She looked at him in a slightly confused way.
The Colonel looked up again, "You're right, we can't treat you like this. You are all members of my crew," he looked at each of them in turn. "What do you suggest we do?"
They all looked at him with the obvious answer visible in the expressions on each of their faces. An answer the Colonel had not wanted. He'd thought long and hard on his walk over to the room he was now in. He had come to only one real conclusion to the problem. A conclusion he did not like.
"It's not quick nor is it painless," the Colonel reminded them needlessly, pain obvious in his normally controlled voice.
"We know," Karla said looking at the other two, both looking back at her, "But we can't spare the medical equipment. We've thought through it, we've had plenty of time. This ship is equipped for a military mission, not a medical one. You'll need the medical equipment to keep your people alive, not to help them die."
The Colonel looked eye to eye straight at Karla as she said this. She was right, the painful truth echoing in his thoughts.
"Do you all agree to this?" the Colonel asked for confirmation.
"We do." Karla answered followed by confirmations from the other two.
"However, if there are other infected personnel, they may not." the Colonel thought aloud.
Now he was facing another problem. He could either wait until all personnel had been scanned, by which time some of those infected would die painfully as the Aliens within released themselves. The other option was to allow them a choice and take immediate action after that choice had been made. There was also the additional problem of there not being much of the medical equipment needed to help those, who chose to, to die peacefully. A problem which didn't make sense, there should've been a lot more of the required medical equipment on the Colonel's ship as standard.
"I'm going to talk to a few people," the colonel said grimly, his expression again emotionless. "I will be back with an answer soon."
And with that the Colonel left the three alone again, his boots clanking on the metal walkway, as he went on his way to decide the fate of the three sitting in their makeshift cell.