Colonization Protocols

The Purge Aftermath

Paul's POV

From the basement airlock a high pitched hissing sound cuts the silence of the hall followed by a suppressed pop as the pressurized air began escaping into the vacuum of space.

As each rooms atmosphere dropped into negative pressures the next door would open and evacuate the rooms not unlike a giant vacuum cleaner sucking out objects indiscriminately with the force of a small tornado until finally the  maintenance door opened abruptly, violently hitting the wall from which it hung by its hinges.

From the monitors I could see  Ace and Marcel jerk backward into their seats headrest as the precious air left the room. Instruments and hand tools went flying past them and getting tossed like leaves into the  dark void of space.

Outside there is an expanding field of Man made objects . Amongst the debris of metal and plastic I could see the floating bodies of Androsian Warriors struggling to breath. Opening their mouth and finding nothing to inhale. Then surprisingly I saw one of them explode expelling all its innards and jerking it's limbs as its blood boiled and they burned flew off  in different directions. This repeated with each body that emerged and I turned away in disgust as it occurred. It was a horrific way to die. Some lasted a little longer but after five minutes it was all over. And the macabre scene floated away and I felt the operation was a success.

I brought a microphone up to the throat of my space suit to be heard and said,"Exelon, cease purge operations. Seal exterior doors and return the ship to normal operations. Let me know when the air is breatheable again."

"Yes Sir."

"Oh and give me the status of Ace and Marcel."

"They are in Maintenance Bay 1 Sir. Their vital signs are within acceptable parameters. But Marcel's heartbeat and blood pressure are highly elevated. It is recommended that he  see a medical professional. Ace is tense but his heartbeat is within an acceptable range."

"Ah! OK they're not in any immediate danger?"

"No Sir."

We brought Marcel to the bridge and had him monitor the ship as it continued along  a fixed orbit.

"Paul, you and I need to do a security sweep make sure we got rid of all the intruders." Ace said after a while.

"After what we just did? I purged the entire ship."

"Just a precaution. We don't know how tough these Androsians are."

"Well from my perspective they looked just as fragile as humans but I guess we can. We'll have to leave Marcel up here."

So we began our sweep on the the bottom floor and slowly made our way room by room to the top level. There wasn't much to see. Unless it was in a locked closet or drawer it was swept away. Luckily most Germinators travelled light. The greatest loss being personal pictures that they had hanging on their walls. Spare clothes were gone. The kitchen shelves were bare but the walk in freezer was spared.

As we got to the labs we found a trail of blood leading to the old incinerator. It was meant to eliminate debris and occasionally the bodies of crew members who died. It was rarely used.

"Do you think something's inside there?" I asked.

"It's obvious isn't it?"