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  “You’re right, he was never the angry sort. Dammit! He was a good man. One of the best. To see this happen to him is beyond awful. In your professional opinion, do you think the alien is still inside him or running loose on the ship? I need more information. I’ll let the CDC know. In the meantime, if you can get in the room and take some samples it will help.”

  “I don’t know. I mean, it could still be inside of him. What if it enters me? I can’t just go in there and examine him. The thing is, John, both you and I know that no regular illness would have done that to Nico. Something extraterrestrial is responsible. It is the only logical reasoning. For that reason alone, I do not want to go in that room until I see from the safety of this glass door that there is nothing hostile in there.” Liam shoved his hands into his coat pockets and twisted every loose fiber he could.

  John let out an exasperated sigh. “Wait here,” John said, as he went to the hanger bay and pulled off one of the spacesuits. Then he ran to the armory and returned a few minutes later with a pulse-rifle. He pulled the suit on, and turned to Liam. “Open the door.” Liam put his palm on the panel and the door gave a hiss and then opened. When John was inside, Liam closed the door and with adrenaline pumping through him, he felt very jumpy. He watched with wide eyes.

  John got as close as he felt comfortable to Nico’s body. After eyeballing him for a few minutes, he got onto his knees and turned Nico’s body over. He gasped, fogging up his helmet. Nico’s face was pulled so tight that John could see his bones. He turned his eyes away and scanned the rest of the body. Noting the dark, black, gooey stuff that splattered in blotches on and near his corpse. He saw no evidence of anything alien. He got to his feet and looked around the room. Opening cupboards. Checking in every corner and over every inch of the room. The room was clear. He noticed the hazmat suits on hangers to the right of the wall. He walked over and removed one and then made his way out. Liam opened the doors for him and then as soon as John was out, Liam locked the doors closed again.

  “What did you find?” Liam asked, nervously.

  “Nothing. I think whatever killed him is still inside of him or dead. There is nothing in that room except for some dark-looking stuff near his body. Get samples of that straight away.”

  With a stern grip on top of Liam’s shoulders, John suppressed his frustrations with focus. “Try not to stress. We’re all running a marathon of problem-solving. Compose yourself and get the job done.”

  Liam rubbed his eyes and gazed dolefully at John. “But this! A friend has died. Horribly! I just need a moment to collect my thoughts.”

  “We all need a moment,” John said. “One we can’t have right now. Once you are inside, see if you can determine a cause of death. We do need something definite before we announce it to the rest of the crew. I’ll inform everyone that Nico has died, but we won’t say how, not until we can piece together a cause.”

  “Sounds good to me. Thanks, John.”

  Liam was in the middle of putting the hazmat suit on, but halted when John added, “If you need me, you’ll have to come to the control room. The intercom system isn’t working. Sam was meant to fix it, but he’s been sidetracked with other duties.”

  Liam nodded and fastened himself into the hazmat suit. Then he put the helmet on, unlocked the door and entered. He headed for the long, stainless-steel bench, pulled open a drawer, and took out six vials and a syringe. He went over to Nico and bent down to inspect him. Liam had to hold back the vomit that was fast rising. He swallowed hard and blinked several times.

  He sat down next to Nico’s body. He wondered what were those cavities that split Nico’s skin into sections as though he was being readied for the butcher. He felt his heart race and his left eye started to twitch. The idea that an alien was inside Nico was freaking him out, made worse with the possibility it had escaped and was now somewhere else. In the room with him. Liam glanced hesitantly around the room, his eyes darted left, then right, then repeated as the twitch in his eye grew more intense. He paused to gather himself. He closed his eyes tightly, struggling to control his rapid breathing before he hyperventilated. A few moments passed before he got up the courage to pick up Nico’s arm. When he did, he pushed in the syringe. As he was drawing blood, he couldn’t help but notice the difference in color. Instead of it being red, it was almost black. It was also thicker and slower to draw. He used an eyedropper to suck up some of the black goo and transferred that into a sterilized glass tube. After he finished, he got up and stored all the samples he took inside his chest pocket, while making his way to the door.

  Once outside, he tore off the helmet and breathed in the artificial air. Liam felt the cooler air and immediately felt more relaxed. He unzipped his hazmat suit, peeled himself out of the arms, and tied the sleeves around his waist. He realized he had forgotten his samples and quickly untied the sleeves and retrieved the syringe and vials.

  He stood facing the med bay, his feet started to tap, and he could feel his legs turning to jelly. He drew a deep breath, released it and repeated until he had pacified himself enough to suit back up. He unlocked the door and went back in. He put the collected blood into a quarantined space of the fridge and started collecting the other samples. He worked fast and hard; he didn’t want to be in there longer than he had to. Once he was done, he grabbed a sterile body bag and put Nico’s body into it. He hoisted him up onto a gurney. Then he fumigated the lab with a special vent that poured a sterilizing vapor into the room. When it was all completed, he felt safe enough to remove the suit. With sweaty hands, he took off the helmet and unzipped the suit, pulling it off his arms and tying the sleeves around his torso. He put on disposable gloves and wasted no time in his investigation. Comparing what he had already with the data on the computer. Almost two hours later, he was so deep in his analyzing that he didn’t hear John entering.

  “Doc, what’d you find out?”

  “It will take another couple of hours to run the tests for a definitive answer. What I have discovered in the last ninety minutes is odd, because I have no idea how Nico would have come into contact with it.”

  “With what?”

  “Years ago, there was a report of an alien substance found in rock formations on a planet called Tridentol. The stuff reported is similar to the black gunk I found on Nico’s body and on the floor. In the article I just finished reading, it is describing an almost identical situation.”

  John felt a tightness in his lower gut. His mind filled with an unexpected fear. “What happened?”

  “This organism acts as a living parasite within a host and multiplies. A kind of parasitic leech. Once it has drained the host of its nutrients, it abandons the host in search of another. The first host it inhabits takes roughly 12 to 16 hours before it exits. The second takes two to three hours, then the third host is an hour if not less. At which stage it has grown and no longer requires a host.”

  John thought back to the rock that he had shown Nico earlier; the very one that had broken when it hit Nico’s head. He felt consumed with guilt. He fought a conversation with himself over the rock and started to blame himself for Nico’s death.

  “Doc, is it the actual rock that is alien or something else? Would the rock infect everyone it came into contact with, or can some be immune somehow to it?”

  “From the little research I have done so far, it appears that something within the rock is the source of the alien. The rock itself seems to be just an incubator. As for infecting everyone that it contacts, yes, theoretically if they were to come into contact with the stuff inside of it. If the rock is empty, then no, you’d not be infected. I’d have to go back and read the reports to make sure. Why?”

  John’s voice started to tremble. “So, it can infect one person, but not another. Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Again, yes. I guess that is possible, but I need to do more research.” Liam fiddled with his jacket pockets, and gazed down, then slowly he raised his eyes to meet John’s. “The thing is John, what scares
the hell out of me the most is if it did not die inside of Nico then we are looking at a quarantine situation here. They won’t let us dock back on Earth or Sol for that matter. I don’t have the equipment here to know if that black stuff is just dead waste or if it was the extraterrestrial’s placenta of sorts.”

  John clenched his jaw and released it with a frustrated sigh. “Bugger! Do that research as fast as you can. I need to know. I think I know where Nico made contact with this stuff. Here, do a test on me first. Make sure I’m not infected.” John rolled up his sleeve and extended his arm to the confused doctor.

  “If you were infected, John, you’d show symptoms, and clearly you aren’t. What is this all about?”

  John told him about the rock he’d found, of how it broke and bled, then dried in seconds leaving no residue, and how he had sent it to his daughter. Liam could see the panic spreading across John’s face.

  “Can you please get Nico’s body into the infirmary? I’ll be here a while. I want to put your mind at ease and do this research.”

  John couldn’t stop thinking about his family. He took the gurney roughly and wheeled it into the infirmary, leaving it in the middle of the room. John’s need to reach his family was becoming urgent. He raced to his quarters and used the softphone, a communications device that managed the long-distance calls from space to Earth via computer. Over the years it had been upgraded to the Softphone Deluxe3000. Before calling his wife Alice, he sent off a second email to the CDC, marking it urgent. He also sent an urgent message to the medical team at NASA informing them of the possible threat.

  He then dialed his home number and waited for Alice to answer. When she didn’t pick up, he irrationally thought the medical team had already been to his house to collect his wife, his child, and the rock. Rationally, he realized it was impossible, so he tried again. By his calculations, it was only 4:00 pm back on Earth. He wondered where she could be. Then he remembered they would only have arrived back from Australia two hours earlier and she was most likely out buying essentials. He tried again, and she finally picked up.

  “Babe, what took you so long? Is everything all right?”

  “Yes, honey, everything’s fine. I was just getting back out of the car. We were going to go grocery shopping, but Lucy started to complain that she was tired. I think the long flight has just tuckered her out and she’s probably hungry. She’ll be having a very early night tonight. I think I will too.”

  “Oh! God, is she okay?”

  “She is. Is everything all right with you, John? You look panicked.”

  “It’s all good, sweetie. Is your mother okay? Did you receive the package I sent?”

  “Yes, Mom will be fine. It turned out to be angina. I got her settled back with Dad and we spent time with them both. It was nice. Lucy had a ball. Yes, we got the rocks and I gave them to Lucy. She hasn’t opened the box. I took a peek inside and they look pretty. She said she’d wait till the morning. She’s very tired. I think we both are. Fourteen-hour flights will do that. Honey, tell me what is wrong?”

  “I don’t want to alarm you, but there might be something wrong with the rocks. It is best you don’t remove them from the box. I’m relieved to hear that neither you nor Lucy have. You haven’t touched the rocks, have you? I need you to box it back up. Can you do that for me? I’ve already sent an email to the medical staff at NASA, and the infectious disease people at CDC have also been notified. They will be sending someone out to get you both.” John felt sick and was unable to hide the worry from Alice.

  “What the hell? You’re really scaring me now. I promise you we didn’t touch the rocks. Are we infected with something? You’ve got to be more specific, otherwise I’m going to be worried sick. Should I be worried?”

  “Alice, darling, I wish I had the answers for you. But I don’t. I’m working on a theory and I pray to God that I’m wrong. But for precautionary measures, I need to know that you and Lucy are safe. Which now I’ve talked to you, I’m confident that you both are.” John could hear Lucy in the background demanding to talk to him, but he couldn’t see her on the monitor.

  There was a slight pause before signals caught up with each other. When they did, Lucy was sitting on Alice’s knee waving hello. John looked her over and a sense of sadness rushed over him. He didn’t want Lucy or Alice to see, so he diverted his fears into a fun joke.

  “Hello, precious. I have a joke for you. What do elves learn in school?”

  “I dunno, Daddy, what?”

  “The elf-abet.”

  John watched his little girl’s face beam into a beautiful smile and giggle. John relished in her giggling and locked the memory in his heart.

  There was another long pause before the monitor caught up with the signals. John put his index finger to the screen and held it there. Lucy copied him, playing a game of trace the finger around the screen.

  “I have to go now. Be a good girl for Mommy.”

  “I will, Daddy.” Lucy blew John a kiss, got down off Alice’s lap, and rushed off to watch the television.

  “John, I’m scared, I think you’re hiding something. Hell, you wouldn’t have called the CDC unless you had good reason. So, before you end this call, I have a right to know.”

  “Okay, babe. I’ll level with you. I wouldn’t just call them if it weren’t for a good reason. In this case, I assure you it’s precautionary. The person who has been ill, may not have contracted anything from that rock. I’m being overprotective and covering every base. If it puts your mind at ease, I handled that rock. I found it, touched it, and here I am now, fine and healthy. Trust me, this is solely preventative.”

  “All right... I trust you. Just don’t scare me like that. I love you,” Alice said, as a tear streamed down her cheek.

  John felt ill and hated the situation, but he had to remain strong. He couldn’t let Alice know how deeply concerned he really was. He blew Alice a lingering kiss and said his goodbyes.

  With a heavy sigh, John replaced the Softphone and retreated to the control room.

  Deadlock

  Roger had taken back the controls of the craft. The repairs to the engine were taking longer than he wanted. He clenched his fist and a vein bulged out on the side of his neck. He swung his arm forward, striking the panel in front of him, angered at the delay.

  “Great, you’re back, John. What’s going on in Medical?” Roger grew alarmed at John’s sad-eyed, brooding look.

  In an attempt to hide his emotions, John tilted his head down and cast his eyes to the steel floor to avoid making eye contact with Roger. “There is no easy way to say this. Nico has died.”

  “Holy shit! What happened? Did something fall on him? Was it an accident? How’d he die?”

  John felt bombarded. He tried to formulate an answer. He kept his head down and answered with a troubled voice, all low, sad tones like the agonizing grief of a cello. “At this stage, Liam thinks he was exposed to something foreign. He is looking into what that might be and will inform me when he knows. Then, if it is a contagion, we can all work on how to deal with it.”

  “I hope it isn’t anything we need to worry about. Is it?” Roger held a strong gaze at John, but John kept his head down a moment longer and didn’t see.

  John finally lifted his head and made eye contact. “I don’t know at this time.”

  Roger studied John’s features, underneath his otherwise charming exterior he held a secret, he was sure of it. “John, what aren’t you telling me?”

  “If I had more information to tell you, I would. Right now, I’m just as much in the dark as what you are.” John gave Roger a gentle squeeze on his right shoulder and then turned to face the controls.

  “I won’t pressure you for answers you can’t give,” Roger said. “I know how close you and Nico were.” Roger shifted in his chair. Roger felt that John wasn’t being truthful. It loomed over him like a storm cloud, one he wasn’t able to fully shake off. He told himself that he would investigate things when he got the first chance
.

  John felt a tug of emotions, but he had to remain focused. He struggled with a string of uncertainties. His mind fired multiple scenarios and questions at him; his wife, his daughter, his best friend, the safety of the crew. The trauma of seeing Nico and the images that produced made him feel physically ill.

  “We need to get this ship in order,” John said. “Have you sent a distress call out?”

  “Not yet,” Roger said. “I was waiting on another report from Athena. Lucas and Travis have been working on the engine. They sealed off the visible hole, but it was still leaking fuel.”

  “Athena, report in,” John ordered.

  “Nothing has changed, Captain Lancaster. The engines are still inoperable.”

  John picked up the transceiver from the panel, which gave a direct line to the engine room. He waited for Travis or Lucas to answer. When they didn’t, he tried again. “Roger, I thought you said Lucas and Travis were in the engine room?” John didn’t wait for an answer. He turned to Athena. “Athena, check the engine room now.”

  “They are. They have not left.” Athena confirmed.

  John’s lips parted slightly and his eyes darkened with a mix of alarm and urgency. “Roger, go and check on them. Athena, send out a distress call to both NASA and to Sol. We need another craft to pick us up.”

  John checked the fuel gages. He shook his head at the rate of dumped fuel. They were down below a quarter on one tank, three quarters on another and the third tank was just over half full. Without fuel, warp drive wasn’t possible. Without the fuel, they would find themselves drifting in space. Without power, the location beacon wouldn’t transmit. There wouldn’t be any hope of NASA or Sol rescuing them. John listened to Athena’s distress message. With any luck, the call would be heard, and someone would be on the way to help before the power gave out. Worst case scenario, they had the escape pods. He had a contingency plan to get his crew off the ship.

  Roger decided to swing by his quarters on the way to the engine room. He needed to talk to his wife. John was hiding more information than he cared to share. Between Nico’s unexplained death and the ship’s damaged engines, he was anxious. He had to talk to his wife, Phoebe. He tossed his baseball hat on the bed before picking up the ship’s Softphone. He was upset when Phoebe didn’t answer. He sat at the edge of his bed. The adrenaline high he had been on from the control room to his bunk was subsiding. He lay back on the bunk and drifted off.