VII
Eventually, I started to calm down. My breathing returned to normal, and I opened my eyes. The initial shock of the incident was over. But still, I struggled to believe that what had just happened was real. Some kind of creature had attacked the XH-12, and snuck aboard its escape craft with a few crew members. Ultimately, it killed them all, and laid eggs in the engine bay, one of which had 'hatched', and was now latched onto Cara's face. I remembered her expression when the thing had jumped out. She was almost in a trance, until that moment. Her face had turned instantly to a look of horror, a look which I myself now displayed, at the mere thought of what this creature had done to her. Was she dead? Was it hurting her? Once again, my head began to fill with questions.
After another minute or so, I got to my feet and stepped out into the corridor. Despite what had just happened, the ship had to maintain current operations, and I was no use to anyone laid on the floor of an airlock. Obviously, my first port of call was Science and Medical, which, as I discovered upon entering, was full. Ryan and Brad stood at the left side of the room, leaning against a wall, probably discussing recent events, given the circumstances. Alan stood opposite them, examining a large computer monitor on the right wall, which currently displayed information on heart-rate, breathing and cognitive activity. Nathan took centre stage, leaning over a medpod in the centre of the room. As I stepped closer, I saw that in the medpod lay Cara. I could tell that she was still breathing, which came as a huge relief, but as far as being conscious… well, she wasn't.
"Ah, Matthew," Nathan said as I approached the medpod. He was dressed in a black lab-coat now, complete with white apron and latex gloves. "Alright now?" I simply nodded, looking down at Cara, and more importantly, the thing on her face. It was almost like a giant insect, dirty beige-yellow in colour, and had a long, thick tail, which wrapped several times around its host's neck. It also had a number of bony limbs, almost reminiscent of human fingers, which gripped firmly onto the cheeks and jaw. The thing lay perfectly still, completely covering Cara's mouth, nose and eyes, and neither it nor her seemed to be aware of each other's presence.
"Look, I know you and Cara are close, mate," Nathan continued, removing a glove and placing a hand on my shoulder. "But you're not the only one who saw what happened. I was devastated, too. But-"
"I know, I know," I interrupted. "I should have stayed calm. I compromised our own safety by panicking, didn't I?"
"Don't worry about it, Matt," Nathan assured me, directing my attention to the monitor behind. "Look, her life signs are stable. Whatever this thing is, it hasn't killed her. If we can remove it, she'll be fine. Only problem is… you know what, why don't you ask Ryan? He's our resident Xenomorph expert at the moment." I was hesitant at first, given Ryan's tendency to be completely unlikable by even his own family, but if he could help me to understand what was going on, I was all ears.
Walking over to the left-hand side of the room where Ryan and Brad were stood, I noticed that the two of them were speaking to each other in hushed tones. Their conversation seemed to end quite abruptly when I arrived. I shrugged this off, and asked Brad if he wouldn't mind giving me a minute to talk to Ryan. He agreed, and wandered over to the medpod in the centre of the room. Once he was out of earshot, I seized the opportunity to ask Ryan to tell me everything he knew.
"Ok, Ryan," I began, already anticipating the man's stubborn attitude towards my questions. "I know you don't know a great deal about this… 'Xenomorph', but it's still a great deal more than the rest of us. So what is it?"
Ryan sighed, and crossed his arms over his front. "Well, you're right in saying I don't know much," He said. "Weyland-Yutani were very secretive about what went on behind closed doors. Still are. But from what I've heard, the thing that attacked the XH-12 was definitely a Xenomorph. That thing on Cara's face? That's one of them. A Facehugger."
"Facehugger?" I asked, glancing back over at Cara and her parasitic friend. "What will it do to her?"
"I'm not sure." Ryan replied, and I could tell by the look in his eye that he was serious. "But we can't get it off. Mad to try."
"How come?" I enquired, desperate for more information. Surely we could just pull out a bone saw and cut it off?
"It has a defense mechanism" He assured me. "When cut, it releases acid, strong enough to melt through 8 metres of solid concrete. By some accounts, it can go through thin sheets of diamond and lead." I was unsure whether to believe him or not. Such an acidic substance seemed impossible. Then again, I'd already seen enough of the impossible today. I decided it was best to believe what Ryan said, which ruled out cutting Cara's 'Facehugger' off. Perhaps it would eventually leave her; I just didn't know. But she was still alive, for now, at least, so I tried to stay optimistic.
For several minutes after my brief discussion with Ryan, the room was completely silent. Nobody said a word as Nathan continued to examine Cara, and the Facehugger that clung to her head so desperately. Eventually, he asked that we all leave him to concentrate, to which Alan agreed, reminding us that the ship was still adrift, and that we should all head to the bridge to get us back on course. Despite the fact that I wanted to stay and wait, at least until I knew that Cara was better, I understood that Nathan needed complete silence, so I went, along with Ryan, Brad and Alan, upstairs to the bridge.
Upon reaching the bridge, I immediately realised that without the help of Nathan and Cara, the responsibility of flying the ship lay with myself and Alan, since Ryan and Brad weren't qualified enough. Fortunately, Archie could provide some help, but we'd still struggle to control the ship with only half the required personnel.
"Ok," I said, sitting down in front of the drive computer. I flicked a couple of switches and the monitor flickered to life. "Radar's online now. Grike, can you find out how far we've drifted?"
"Working on it, now." Alan replied, punching a few buttons on the wall behind. "Here we go. Forward six, starboard twelve."
"Got it." I replied. "Archie, can you re-plot our course?"
"Certainly, sir. Plotting now." Archie announced in his usual indifferent tone. After a few seconds, he continued: "Course plotted. Destination: Dry Dock 17, Queen Elizabeth Ship Port, London, England, Earth. Continuing on a bearing of 357."
"Thanks, Archie." I said, as the new course loaded into the computer in front of me. "Goddard, Nicholson. Can you two head down to the engine bay for manual restart?" The two technicians agreed, and walked out of the room into the corridor.
A few minutes later, I heard Brad's voice over a speaker on the drive computer. He told me that he and Ryan had initiated the engine reboot sequence, and all but one generator were now back online. As I waited by the computer for the last generator to boot up, I thought about how much easier this whole thing would have been if the Archimedes had reverse thrusters. I mean, really. It would have been a damn sight easier to slow down by flicking on some reverse thrusters than to completely shut down the engines and drift to a standstill. Easier to start moving again afterwards, too.
"Ok, that's it," Brad finally announced, as the 'Engine 4' light on the wall behind came on. "Generator 12's online now."
"Thanks for that, guys." I replied. "You can come back up now. Oh, while you're down there, check in on Smith and Holmes, would you?"
"Roger that." He agreed. And with that, the radio fell silent. I turned to Alan, and told him that the engines were back online, then, after a few checks, we both agreed that it was safe to let Archie take back control of the ship. It wasn't until then that I realised the time was nearly one in the afternoon, and we hadn't eaten yet. Since it was Cara's turn to cook, and she was a little preoccupied right now, I boldly agreed to take the responsibility of asking Brad to do it. Of course, in order to do that, we'd have to go back down to Science and Medical to get him, so we decided to go down there now.
As we walked down the stairway and into the corridor towards Science and Medical, I did something that I scarcely ever did: I had an actual conversation with Alan. Of course, all we really talked about was Cara, and more importantly, the thing on her face. But it was rare all the same for us to have such a discussion. Usually, our conversations consisted of Alan being a total prick, and me swearing at Alan for being a total prick, so it was somewhat a welcome change for us to speak sincerely. As we reached Science and Medical, though, our conversation reached an abrupt end. This was because, as we rounded the corner before the door into the lab, I stopped Alan mid-sentence.
"Wait, Alan." I whispered, urging him to speak with the same level of caution. "Can you hear that?"
"What?" He asked, looking around. Clearly, he thought I was referring to an artificial sound, like the low throbbing of the ship's engines, or the stuttered buzzing of the overhead lights. But I was listening to a different noise.
"Listen." I replied, pointing towards the door into the lab. Voices came from inside the room: Nathan's, Brad's, Ryan's. But soon, another voice entered the mix. A voice which I knew instantly. Not Nathan, not Brad, not Ryan. It was Cara.
"She's alright…" I whispered, but it became almost a shout at the end. "She's alright!" I repeated, bursting through the door into Science and Medical. Sure enough, sat up at the end of the medpod, looking as well as ever, was Cara. The others were all stood around her, talking, asking if she was feeling alright. She looked over at me as they continued to chatter, and smiled. A huge feeling of relief encompassed me, and I smiled back. I could hardly believe that she was even alive, let alone well and able. But all the while, something didn't feel right about this whole thing. I continued to have my doubts as I walked further into the room, but I decided to push them aside for later.
As I approached the medpod, Cara stood up, clutching her side slightly, but otherwise quite well. I hugged her, which wasn't too abnormal under the circumstances. When I asked how she was, she said she was 'sick of hearing that question'. I refrained from asking her what she could remember; what she'd seen and what she'd heard. That could wait until later. For now, I was just glad she was Ok. Something still bothered me, though. Then, I realised what it was. I turned around to Nathan, and asked him about what had happened to the Facehugger.
"Oh, it jumped off," He said, shrugging. "Just loosened its grip and pushed itself onto the floor. It died a minute or so later."
"And what about Cara?" I asked. "I mean, did it do anything to her?"
"Nothing that I can see." He replied. "I've run an X-Ray and a CT scan, but she seems fine now." I had to admit, Nathan was right. Cara did seem absolutely fine now. No trace whatsoever of any kind of injury. Maybe this was the end of this whole ordeal, and we could go back into hypersleep tonight. Maybe we could put this entire incident behind us.
Or maybe not.
