VI
"A mini-deck?" I repeated, watching as Cara followed Nathan into the hole above. "What's up there?"
"Just generators, by the looks of it," Nathan replied. "Come up and have a look." I looked around the room for a place on the wall where I could get a foothold, then clambered up towards the ceiling, reaching out to grab the hatch door, which now hung out on its hinges. Turning myself around, I reached through the hole in the ceiling, and grabbed onto the ledge. Hoisting myself up, I peered into the chamber, and saw that it was, as Nathan said, merely a generator house. As I pulled my legs up through the hole, the hatch below swung upwards and slammed itself shut. The sound of air rushing back into the room was music to my ears. The lights in this room were completely offline, so we could barely see our surroundings at all.
"Lights on, guys," I commanded, flicking the headlamp on my own helmet on. The others agreed, and did the same. Suddenly, the whole room was showered in bright white light, and we could see everything that the tiny chamber contained. What we did see was… unexpected, at best. Other words spring to mind: shocking, creepy and somewhat disgusting. But the room we now stood in did not seem to match the architecture of the rest of the craft. The walls, for instance, were coated in a thick, khaki-grey material, possibly organic. The ceiling was masked behind a similarly thick coating, and the generators themselves were concealed behind masses of a shiny, slimy liquid. I felt sick just looking at the place.
"What the fuck…" I heard Alan gasp over the radio. I looked to Cara and Nathan, who shared the same disgusted but confused expression as myself. Truthfully, this room alone made the rest of the ship seem completely unremarkable. The organic material on the wall, the slime-like substance over the generators, all of that was disturbing enough as it was. But that wasn't everything. What really confused me, and no doubt my fellow crewmates, who stood beside me in similar silence, were the cocoons at the far side of the chamber.
At first, none of us wanted to step towards the pod-like growths which sprouted up from the floor beside the far wall. Standing at about 3 feet tall, they appeared to be rooted to the ground like plants, but something about them seemed strangely less floral. They, like the coating of the walls around them, were made from a thick, khaki-grey resin, and upon approaching, we saw that they were sealed at the top in a cross. Nathan radioed the Archimedes, and asked if they could see what we were seeing. As he spoke, Cara stepped closer to one of the cocoons. Cautiously, I followed her, being careful not to slip on the squelchy floor.
"Alright, you two…" Nathan's voice buzzed over my radio, "Grike says he's going to put Goddard back on the radio now. Reckons he has more info for us." Before he'd even finished his sentence, Ryan's voice crackled through my left speaker.
"Yeah, it's me again," He said, with even clearer tension in his voice than before. "These cocoon… things that you've found? The camera footage isn't brilliant, but I think I know what they are. Th-" Suddenly, the broadcast failed.
"Ryan?" I asked, fiddling with a dial on the side of my helmet. By this point, I'd diverted my attention away from Cara, and was now looking over at Nathan, who shrugged his shoulders at the radio silence.
"Ryan?" I asked again, flicking my communication module off and back on. The oldest trick in the book, but I hoped that it would work. Sure enough, after the system quickly rebooted, Ryan's voice came through my radio once again.
"Sorry about that," Ryan said, frustrated. "Some sort of interference. Anyway, these pods that you've found?"
"Yes?" I replied, beginning to lose my patience. "For God's sake, Ryan, just tell us!"
"Ok, Ok!" He exclaimed, before taking a deep breath. "They're eggs."
Eggs? I asked myself over and over in my head. What sort of eggs? Could we scramble them, enjoy them with some sausage and bacon? What hatched out of them? And more worryingly, why were they three feet tall? As these thoughts continued to race through my mind, Ryan explained that the eggs were yet another product of our Xenomorph friend, as was the 'nest' around them. I couldn't really hear him, as I'd kind of zoned out and was now in deep thought. I managed to catch a few details, though, particularly the words 'extremely dangerous' and 'don't go near them'. It wasn't until I'd processed that last phrase in my mind that a horrifying realisation suddenly hit me.
Turning around almost instantaneously, I saw that Cara was now stood right beside one of the eggs. The top of the egg slowly began to open, with four 'petals' separating to reveal a soft interior. Cara was glued to the spot, as if mesmerised by the spectacle before her. Edging closer, I tried to speak to her over her radio, but she didn't answer. Instead, she gazed down happily into the pod in front of her.
"Cara?" I repeated over the radio, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Cara, we need to leave."
"Just look at it, Matthew…" She replied, dazed. "Isn't it beautiful?"
"Well, I don't see it personally." I assured her. "Look, Cara. Ryan says these things are dangerous. We need to leave." But it was no use. She simply shrugged my hand away, and leaned closer to the opening atop the egg. Suddenly, I noticed that the surface of the egg had begun to ripple. I knew at once that something was about to happen.
"Matthew," Ryan whispered hesitantly over the radio, "Get her away from there." I watched as the egg stopped rippling. Then, a second later, it began to shake violently. I found myself frozen with fear as the egg shuddered.
"Matthew, NOW!" Ryan shouted, snapping me out of my daze. I dived towards Cara, forcing her to the ground as something erupted from the egg and flung itself towards her. Nathan bolted towards us to assist as I struggled with her on the floor. But it was too late. As my fellow crewmate writhed around in pain, Nathan turned her onto her back, revealing her face to the light. What I saw that day shocked me in more ways than one. Not just the sight itself, but the very concept was spine-chilling. For at that moment in time, Warrant Officer Cara Holmes lay lifeless on the ground, her reinforced EVA visor shattered, with a small, bony creature latched onto her head.
"We need to go." Nathan said, as calmly as he could muster.
"It killed her…" I whispered, shivering with fear.
"Matt, we need to go!" He repeated more sternly, lifting our colleague's body from the ground.
"Nathan… it killed her…" I said again, choking up as I spoke. I suppose had it been any other crew member, I wouldn't have been so deeply hurt. Of course, I would have mourned the death of Nathan or Brad, and even Alan or Ryan. But Cara? Dead? Nathan refused to acknowledge that she had even been killed. He simply dragged her over to the hatch above the cargo bay below, and pulled it open. Then he radioed the Archimedes, told Brad and Ryan to prepare a medpod.
A little less than five minutes later, Nathan and I had pulled Cara back downstairs and over to the airlock. As we stood waiting for the tiny chamber to de-pressurize, I looked down at Cara's face. The thing that had latched itself onto her was terrifying. Like a bony hand, it wrapped itself around her head, with it's long, spiny tail constricting her neck. Nathan, who up until now had remained silent, stuttered over his radio to me.
"Matt…" He began, slowly. "It's gonna be ok, Matt."
"Is it, Nathan?" I replied, still recovering from the shock of what had just happened. "Is it? Because it looks like it's gonna be the exact fucking opposite! We don't know what this thing is; we don't know what it's done to her. She could be dead for all we know!" Nathan fell silent again, once more refusing to acknowledge the fact that Cara was most likely dead.
A minute or so later, the airlock de-pressurization sequence was complete, and the external door slid open silently. The Archimedes had moved forwards by several metres since we'd left it, but this turned out to work in our favour, as we were now aligned with airlock A-2, which was right beside Science and Medical. The airlock was also open, and Brad and Ryan stood waiting at the other side to help us get Cara inside. Nathan stepped out into the open first, maintaining his grip on Cara the whole time. I followed his lead, and the two of us were soon safely across the gap, and back aboard our own vessel. As the external door slid shut behind us, an emergency pressurization sequence initiated, and within seconds the internal door was flung open.
Brad, Ryan and Matthew wasted no time now. The three of them went straight across the corridor and into Science and Medical, taking Cara's still limp body with them. Still in the airlock, I slumped to the ground, and closed my eyes, trying desperately to hold back the huge range of emotions that ran through my mind. Was Cara really dead? Was this 'Xenomorph' responsible? I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream. But instead, I just sat there, eyes closed, breathing deeply. I sighed, and wished for this all to end. For it all to be some horrific nightmare. Perhaps I was still in hypersleep, and a leak in the pod had caused me to hallucinate? I tried to offer up any explanation I could, from the sensible to the radical. But deep down, I knew that this was all real. This was all happening. And to be honest, things looked bleak.
