To Distraction - Part 2 - krazydiamond
Consciousness was gradual, Kalla's senses and memories flowing across her mind like fine grains of sand, leaving her shaken and raw.
Hale felt the tears on her face as the plug disengaged. The feed tube was mercifully already gone, allowing her body to curl, hugging her knees and rocking as she tried to banish Kalla from her mind.
My god, she thought, biting back a sob. That pack of eggheads promised a full immersion experience, but nothing had prepared her for that. Each sensation sank its claws into her skin, pulling her so deep she couldn't separate the reality from the illusion, which made Kalla's demise all the more disturbing.
Why would the interface conjure an experience that ended in death? The experience had lulled her into a sense of false peace, of awe and wonder as she saw an alien world through alien eyes, while an ominous note hummed in the back of her mind. She'd lived in Kalla's skin to the end, through her unraveling mind, sensing the beasts creeping closer and closer to devour her.
Hale shook herself, forcing her legs over the side of the pod. The effort telegraphed the exhaustion throbbing through her muscles and bones. How could she be so tired? Standing ended in a stagger as she left the rec room on wobbly legs, threatening to give out on her every step of the way.
The eternal fluorescent daylight of the Ulysses furthered her disorientation. Systems, she had to check the systems. How long had she been under?
Hale leaned against the bulkhead wall of the corridor, letting the smooth surface anchor her until her head stopped spinning.
"I'm never doing that again," she muttered. Eff the VRI, eff the eggheads, eff the whole damn ship. She'd read Moby fricking Dick ten times over rather than experience that shit again. "Never again," she muttered. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth, fuzzy, and speaking gave her a whiff of her own dragon breath. Whatever was trickling down the back of her throat through that lovely little joyride certainly wasn't minty fresh.
"Systems check, come on Hale, systems check," she repeated the mantra, dragging herself along the wall until she made it to her destination. Focusing on the readouts was a challenge for her fatigued brain, but forced herself through the motions. Of course everything read out normal. It always read out normal. She could have left it for months and it would read out normal like clockwork because it was clockwork that ran the ship, in gears and circuits and empty robotic faces and HOLY CRAP.
Hale blinked at the time read out.
"That's not possible," she said, even as the digital numbers ticked onward despite the jolt to her sensibilities. Two days. She'd spent two days in the VRI. Two days without food or water or taking a piss. Why didn't she have to piss now? Hale gave her crotch a speculative glance, pondering the significance of her quiet bladder.
She didn't feel hungry, though the gummy feeling in her mouth begged for a drink. Mostly she felt that all consuming exhaustion and a grainy trickle in her joints each time she moved.
My blood is full of red dust.
She shook her head at that errant thought. Sleep, that's what she needed, and maybe a bucket of water. Though she couldn't decided if she wanted it on her or in her. The desire to rinse out her mouth finally drove her to her feet again. Her fingers trailed all the wall as she headed for her quarters.
She never noticed how her footsteps echoed before, the sound bouncing through the ship. Hale stopped, listening to the empty sound. For a moment she felt a flicker of Kalla's loneliness, secluded, cut off from her people, wandering alone across the sands. Death nipping at my heels....
Hale took a shuddering breath. She was never using that damn tech again.
Collapsing on her bunk at last, she stared up at the curved opaque ceiling overhead. Exhaustion pounded against the inside of her skull. It hurt to keep her eyes open. And yet she hesitated.
She stared at the ceiling until she couldn't fight the pull anymore.
She dreamt of red sand swirling through the sky.
It was the headache that woke her, her body catching up to its extended suspension in the VRI pod with a vengeance. She surged out of bed, fumbling with the med kit strapped above her bed until she wrestled a stim pack free and jabbed it in her thigh. The chemicals were instant relief, soothing away the teeth grinding pound to a dull ache. She hadn't felt a headache like this since she gave up smoking.
Hale exhaled. She'd just about murder someone for an Ecrivain's Special. She remembered that little detail from the VRI file, the memory within memory of a smoking man. Ecrivain's weren't a common brand. It must of been something the interface picked up when it rifled through her memories. She wondered what else it would pluck free, and snarled at the thought.
Who cared what it got from her memory? Not going back remember, she scowled at the empty stim pack in her hand. There was a slight tremor in her fingers.
"Woman, you need to eat something," she scolded herself. Hale bit back a groan as she got to her feet, fighting through the remnants of her headache to the mess hall.
Empty as always, not even the occasional busy bot was visible. The mess hall was designed for a much bigger crew than one. The size never bothered her before. But today...
Hale snagged a protein bar, promising herself a real meal later as she headed to her console station for the routine systems check. She had to shake this morose shit. Lonely? Seriously? Hale hated people. Even the handful of people she could stand, like Captain Jackson, were limited to short bursts of time. She considered herself a lone wolf, comfortable in her own skin.
Not itchy and twitchy and eyeing the empty halls, hoping to catch phantoms around every corner.
Readouts normal. Damn, not even a blip or anomaly to spare her the fresh hell of her unrelenting boredom. Much as she was loathe to admit it, after the VRI rabbit hole she stumbled in, the long hours seemed the trickle by at a snail's pace.
Free time sucked.
Not being able to smoke sucked.
Fuck, she wanted a cigarette.
Hale was stalking the halls by midday, refusing the mess hall in lieu of a hastily made sandwich she stuffed in her mouth as she walked. The leftover ache persisted throughout the day, pinching the nerves behind her eyes, making it impossible to read.
She wasn't really surprised when her footsteps took her to the rec room.
"I'm not doing this again," she told the VRI pod. The interface gave off a faint hum, warm and welcoming, waiting for her. "Not again," she insisted.
The readouts were normal, always normal. Why not lose a couple days in someone else's story?
"We really doing this?" Yes, yes she was. Hale lay back, her thumb stroking the touchpad to activate the pod. The feed tube didn't startle her this time, sliding with ease through her nasal cavity. The first trickle of cool fluid was already singing through her veins as the jack slid home.
System interfacing...
"Interface successful. Welcome back Lt. Myra Hale," said the A.I., the soothing voice appearing in an instant. The connection was faster, familiar.
"Run another file please," said Hale, "A different one." In the forced darkness of the VRI her headache finally vanished. "Something fun," she added, as the memories scrolled. Why check them again? Didn't it have her profile saved into the system?
Another cool trickle down her throat left her mind floating, adrift in fuzzed out memories.
"Proceeding with file four eight one, SteelSmithe."
---
SteelSmithe
by AllanFisher
"The blob of goo landed on my boot and I lost it. I mean for fucks sake, as if it isn't bad enough that the artificial gravity on this wreck doesn't work, and the water smells like piss, I have to share my quarters with a fat dirty pig. I reached down and touched the goo then brought my finger to my nose and sniffed... it was pudding, you know that shitty brown pudding we get a chow time. I jumped up from my bunk, reefed open the door to the head and there he was, sitting on the crapper looking up at me holding his prized Fray #7 Dark Horse Comic book. So I yelled at him 'Fitzsimmons! You arsehole, look at my boot!' but I swear I just meant to show him the goo... I have no idea why I started kicking him..."
The doc didn't look up from his notepad, instead he scribbled something with his pencil. Can you believe that, a friggin' pencil? "How did you feel while you were kicking him Nina?"
Now what the hell kind of question was that? I mean what's the right answer... there isn't one is there? So instead I say something noncommittal, "I dunno..."
Scribble scribble... the doc still doesn't look at me. Instead he pulls out a pack of smokes, Ecrivain's Specials, and offers me one. Now technically speaking we're not supposed to smoke on the ship but hell if the doc is offering who am I to say no? Not that smoking will hurt us, hell they cured cancer two hundred years ago, but it's bad for the ships oxy recyclers. He lights both of us up and I blow a long gray cloud of smoke up over our heads... fuckin' A.
"Thanks Doc!" 'Course, I know full well the only reason he's being so nice is to get me to let my guard down, he must think I'm pretty dumb.
"You're welcome," he says in that weird accent of his. Doc is part machine, what we call a Cyber, like a cyborg but different. His body is, vat grown, fully human, skin, bones, organs, but instead of a meat brain he has a computer in his head. He looks just like you and me but he's not really technically alive. I mean his body is but since he doesn't have a human brain, he doesn't count as alive. It's complicated. It also means he's not just smart, he's not even just a genius, he's way beyond that. He knows everything, the full and total accumulated knowledge of the human race, which sucks for me.
"So look Doc, I got core duty in thirty minutes, are we about done?" Heck, it's worth a shot.
He doesn't bite, instead he flicks the ash off of his cigarette into his tea cup and asks me another question. "So you don't know how you felt when you were kicking Corporal Fitzsimmons, okay, how do you feel about it now?"
That's easy, I feel great, he totally deserved it the fat pig. But what I actually say is, "I feel terrible Doc. Is Fitzy okay?" The sound of my own voice makes me wanna puke and I'm sure the Doc ain't buying what I'm selling, but to my surprise he looks up and smiles at me.
"He's going to be fine, Nina. Well that's about it for now, I might have some more questions later though."
I nod my head and smile like a good girl, 'cause that's what he expects. "Of course Doc, anytime," I squeak and he leaves. Just like that, he leaves. Fuckin' A.
Oh shit, I forgot to introduce myself, my name is Nina Cowslap and if you make fun of it I'll rip your balls off. I'm tough, tougher than you, mainly cuz I have to be. I'm the only girl on the good ship Steelsmithe. Another thing you may have figured out is that I hate dirt, which is a big problem seeing as the Steelsmithe is basically made of dirt which is being held together by, yup you guessed it, more dirt. Now legally the Steelsmithe is a freighter, but after we make a long haul delivery we have an empty hold that's just dying to be filled with whatever we can find... if you know what I mean. We're not pirates or anything like that, we're just... opportunists. The ship is huge, two miles long and half a mile wide with a gross tonnage of 1.5 million lbs. We carry a crew of 15 belligerent mother-fuckers who love nothing more than a good drunk, a good fight and a good fuck. Not necessarily in that order.
Now most of the guys on this tub are so ugly they couldn't get laid by a blind whore in dark alley, but let's face it, after two years in deep space with only your index finger for company a girl starts to lower her standards. I'm not a supermodel by any stretch of the imagination, shit I've got a mirror. But I'm not bad either. I've got nice blond hair, except for the fact that it's cut into a shitty crew cut cuz of a small lice problem aboard ship. I'm only 5 foot 2 but that's a good size for maneuvering in zero G. I'm completely ripped, you could grate cheese on my abs, and I can bench more than most of the guys which totally pisses them off. What else... uh... blue eyes, small tits, nice ass that's about it.
Dammit! I'm gonna be late for core duty! I grab my gray overalls and as I shrug them on I notice that Doc has forgotten the pack of cigs on the foot locker next to his tea cup. Fuckin' A! I grab the pack, jam it in my breast pocket and fly out the door and down the corridor. Now when I say fly, I do mean literally fly, cuz with the gravity off that's the easiest way to get around. There are G-bars everywhere to grab onto and pull yourself along since trying to walk in Zero G is harder than tattooing a gnat's ass. So I'm supergirling it down shaft 47 heading for the Cavern when up ahead Rick Prichard floats into view. Now Rick and I used to have a thing, you know. He's not bad looking for a guy born out in space. His parents were deep space techies and his mom gave birth to him on a trip out past Magellan's Spur. Babies born in space get kinda fucked-up. Without gravity they end up being really tall and thin. Rick is about six nine and probably only weighs a buck thirty, but he can screw like a Wookie on Ritalin. In fact only one part of him isn't skinny and that part kept us together for three months and inspired me to give him the nickname... Thick Rick.
He grabs a G-bar and pulls himself to a stop in front of me. "Hey Ninja," that's what everyone calls me, it's pretty lame but I put up with it. "I heard you kicked the shit outta Fitzie! What gives babe?"
I sail past him not bothering to slow down, then grab the next G-bar, summersault so I'm facing him but still flying in the opposite direction and give him the finger. "Shouldn't you be in a head somewhere whacking off to pictures of your mom Thick Rick?" I yell back at him.
Rick laughs grabs his crotch pretending to jerk off. "No need Ninja, I still have pics of you!"
Hilarious, unfortunately he probably does. It's a weird feeling knowing some guy is probably flogging his log to pictures of you, not good weird either.
I flipped over just in time to grab on and heave myself down shaft M. Getting around the ship is pretty easy, all the corridors going down the length of the ship are lettered A to Z and the ones going across the width are numbered 0 to 88. Each level has a color. The Cavern is what we call the huge space at the centre of the ship that holds the reactor core and that's where I work. My full title is Thermo-Nuclear-Thrust Specialist, or TNT Spec for short. If that sounds exotic, it ain't. I spend most of my time in cramped spaces with huge titanium pivot wrenches adjusting flow volumes and sweating through my panties. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly looking forward to my 12 hour shift. But I zoomed along corridor M until it intersected with 44, flung myself head first down the drop shaft leading to the cavern... and smashed right into Captain Ross, Chief Officer Peter Grimes and Second Officer Lenworth Chatham.
Well running into someone in zero G sucks, see the problem is momentum, you hit each other and that force sends you flying in directions that you can't control. I was lucky, I bounced of off Ross the Boss (not that we call him that to his face) and was able to grab a G-bar and overpower my momentum with brute strength. The captain was less fortunate, he was thrown backwards into the bulkhead with all of his momentum and a bit of mine to boot. Worse still a big ugly bolt caught him just above the temple and he was out like a light, which meant he couldn't stop himself from ricocheting back and forth across the shaft like a pinball hitting the bumpers. Peter just stood there with his mouth open but Lenworth immediately reoriented himself and kicked off after the Cap. He caught him by the leg on the third bounce clicked a tether to the nearest G-bar and reeled him in. Now Lenworth is special, first he's the strongest person I have ever met physically and mentally. He's also the nicest guy in the world and he always has your back. If he hadn't been there it could have been all over for Ross. As it was Lenny took it all in stride and got Ross into the recovery position to wait for Doc to come.
Meanwhile the Chief or Grimey as I call him was busy chewing me out, like I meant for it to happen.
"What the hell were you thinking Cowslap? Captain Ross could have been killed!"
I hate it when people use my last name and Grimey knew it. I was about to tell him to shove it up his ass when the Doc appeared from the shaft above us with a plastic yellow backboard and started barking orders at everyone.
In an emergency Doc is in charge so we did what we were told and within minutes Captain Ross was strapped to the board and Doc was floating him away to sick bay.
Lenworth turned to Grimey and I and smiled like only he can, totally diffusing the situation, "He'll be fine, Doc'll fix him up in no time."
Grimey grunted but said nothing.
"We should get to the bridge, come on Ninja you're with us." Lenworth took off up the shaft towards the bridge as if it was all decided and after a second Grimey gave me a dirty look and followed him so I guess it was.
Invitations to the bridge are few and far between so I went barreling up after them and a few minutes later we were standing in the nerve center of the ship. That's right I said standing. The bridge is the one place where the gravity always works and I gotta tell you after not feeling it for months on end my legs were a bit wobbly. Lenworth spotted my problem immediately and covertly grabbed the back of my belt to steady me without anyone knowing.
Everyone on the bridge was staring at the main viewer which was filled with the arc of a planet like none I'd ever seen. It was a hazy yellow colored rock about half the size of earth.
"What is it?" I ask Lenny.
"Gold, Ninja, it's a planet made of gold... and it looks like there's a mine to boot." He answered in a hushed tone, as if we were in church.
There have been rumors of gold planets before, tall tales told by men coming back from the depths of space with nothing to show for their efforts. The mythical planet of El Dorado.
"No fuckin' way!" I gasped. Grimey shot me a dirty look for using foul language on the bridge, but Len just smiled.
"Yes fuckin' way!" He laughed.
-~o0O0o~-
Over the next forty-eight hours landing teams were sent down to the surface, entered the mine and confirmed that we had indeed struck the mother lode. I'll never forget watching Perkins on the remote feed as scraped lichen-like algae from the fist sized stone in his hand then tested it with the mobile scanner. When the reader flashed the chemical signature AU, everyone let out a cheer and we all laughed and hugged and acted like idiots.
Once we knew what we had, Grimey set up a duty roster. Two teams of five working to fill our forward hold full of nuggets. The first team was Fitzy, Welker, Smiley and Thick Rick with Grimey calling the shots. The second bunch had Morgan, Hammer, Kent and R.C. with Lenworth in charge.
That left me, Doc, Cheng, Fitzy and Captain Ross aboard. Now the reason I didn't end up on a mining team was because if I don't manage the core the whole ship basically becomes a giant nuclear bomb, and we wouldn't want that now would we? Doc was needed in the medical bay to take care of the Cap who was in the automated recovery chamber while Cheng and Fitzy were left to man the bridge.
The two teams worked incredibly hard, the thought of riches beyond your wildest dreams is quite a motivator. We were all excited and making plans on how we would spend our millions when we got back to earth. Before we knew it the forward hold was full and the crews started filling the aft.
Then Doc dropped the bad news. Captain Ross was not responding to treatment and things looked bad... real bad. Like 'carve me a casket Queequeg' bad. Doc said there was no choice but to put him in a Cryopod and freeze him until we got back to earth. Even then he said Caps chances were only fifty-fifty, and it was all my fuckin' fault.
Len called a crew meeting and we all gathered in the Cryogenics Bay and there was the pod holding Ross, all shiny and cold. I walked up to it and laid my hand on top but I had no idea what to say. There was a little smear of bluish green mold on the side and I wiped it clean with the sleeve of my uniform. Then there was a ceremony that ended with the Doc sliding Cap into the vault and freezing him. It was supposed to be cathartic, but it felt more like a funeral to me.
The next morning everyone went back to work, but it wasn't like before. The smiles and high-fives were gone. The gold kept coming up but no one was celebrating anymore. Once the aft hold was full, we pulled up the teams from the surface and began preparing for the long haul back to earth. We should have been happy but Captain Ross was on everyone's mind and with nothing else to occupy their time the crew were beginning to look for someone to blame, and that someone was me. When I passed Cheng in the shafts he wouldn't make eye contact and Grimey was riding me hard for my reactor efficiency reports and giving me shitty shifts. They blamed me for what happened to the Cap and it didn't help that I agreed with them. In fact the whole crew was acting as if I did it on purpose except for Lenworth.
Two days later Fitzy moved out of the cabin. He didn't say a word, just took his stuff and left. I kicked his empty foot locker as hard as I could, sending it sliding across the floor. Fuck him... I never liked that guy anyway.
I was about to go and find him and maybe show him another up close view of my boot when I noticed the wall where his locker had been looked strange. On closer inspection I realized it was mold, the same bluish green mold that had been on Caps cryopod. Gross. I wanted to puke. I went balls-to-the-wall wearing my hazmat suit and scrubbed the whole room with bleach and ammonia then covered it with alcohol. I even took a detox shower just in case. Did I mention I hate dirt?
Lenworth came by later that day and we talked a bit. He told me he knew I hadn't hurt Captain Ross on purpose and the crew would get over it eventually. Damn he was talking like Ross was already dead. Next thing I knew I was balling my eyes out, like some high school girl who didn't get asked to the prom. Len said all the right things and rubbed my back until I got my shit under control. I tried to kiss him then... and he pulled back and patted my hand. He smiled at me sadly and said "No Nina, not like this..." Then he hugged me and let himself out.
I curled up on my bunk and swallowed by feelings as hard as I could. At some point I fell into a dreamless sleep.
I woke up screaming covered it sweat. The emergency klaxon was wailing and the beacon in my cabin was strobing blue and red. The light blinded me for a moment and when my vision cleared I was staring at the wall where Fitzy's locker had been. The mold was back and seemed even thicker.
As suddenly as they had started the siren and lights shut off. What the fuck?
I grabbed my overalls, zipped up and headed for the bridge. Halfway there I saw Len coming my way.
"Hey, I was just coming to see you. There's some weird mold shit growing in my cabin, and I think it was on Caps cryopod too..." I said.
Len stopped and nodded. "I know, I've seen it. But we have bigger problems. The bridge depressurized five minutes ago. Cheng and Fitzsimmons are dead."
I was shocked. "What? How the hell..." Accidents aren't unusual on a ship like the Steelsmithe but a vacuum on the bridge was unheard of. "...did we hit something?"
"Not we know of, Pete was on the bridge when it happened. He barely made it out. I'm headed down to secondary control, come on."
I followed Len down shaft 18 and then we dropped three levels and entered section G. Half way down the corridor Len grabbed a G-bar and stopped suddenly in front of me. I swore and he turned just in time to catch me before I crashed into him. He gently deposited me behind him and pushed me against the wall, then held his index finger to his lips.
"Shhhh, there's something up ahead, on the floor." He whispered.
About thirty feet ahead of us the corridor changed, from grey gunmetal to green carpet. When did we get green carpet? Then I realized it wasn't carpet, the floor and walls were covered in a thick algae-like growth. Further down, a man was laying in the horrible stuff. As I watched he lowered his head and bit into a particularly deep pile of blue green mold... he was eating it! The lighting suddenly flickered and went out above us. The man flinched and turned to face us, it was Morgan. His face was stark white with darker patches of mold growing on his cheeks, forehead and across the bridge of his nose. He stared at us blankly for a moment and then went back to grazing on the mold like a cow. He chewed slowly, making wet slurping sounds that sent shivers up my spine.
Quietly Len and I backtracked to shaft 17. Once we were out of earshot I grabbed his shoulder. "What the fuck was that?"
Lenworth sighed and shook his head. "Doc warned us but Pete wouldn't listen..."
I jumped ahead of him, "...warned you about what... the mold?"
"Yeah," Len answered sadly. "It's all over the planet. Doc tested it and he believed it could be a hallucinogen."
"So why the hell did we let it on board?"
Lenworth looked away unwilling to meet my gaze. "There was no way to decontaminate the gold... that stuff is mixed into it at the molecular level so... the Chief made the call."
"Grimey!" I spat. "Why didn't you stop him Len?"
He turned on me, angry and ashamed, "I tried, I told him we shouldn't, but Pete was in charge. If you hadn't put Captain Ross in the infirmary he would have been here to... well he wouldn't have allowed it" Len finished lamely.
I knew he didn't mean it as an accusation but it hit me like a slap to the face. He was right... Cap would never have allowed this to happen.
In the end it was all my fault.
We hung there in silence, neither of us knowing what to say. Finally Len let out a huge sigh, "Sorry Ninja, I didn't mean..."
The attack was so sudden Len didn't even have time to scream. John Hampton AKA 'Hammer' hit him from behind at an incredible rate of speed. Neither of us saw him coming and the impact sent the two of them sailing across the shaft into the wall. Len managed to pivot in mid air and take most of the impact on his shoulder. Hammer wasn't so lucky. He was naked from the waist down and almost completely covered in the mold. He went into the steel bulkhead back first, bounced twice and smashed his head into the ceiling. Len managed to snag him as he floated past but he was obviously dead.
"Are you okay?" I yelled down the shaft, my voice echoing loudly.
Len started towards me tugging Hammer behind, "Shhh, yeah I'm okay. He tore the hell outta my back though.
I pushed off to meet them and checked out Lens back, he was right, Hammer had torn his uniform and there were huge scratches across Len's back. Worse than that was the mold. Len's back was freckled with it. I didn't know what to say, but he understood the silence.
"Mold...?" he said quietly.
I nodded biting my bottom lip.
"Shit." He grabbed my hand and dragged me into an empty cabin. "Strip," he ordered.
I reluctantly shucked off my gear and stood there naked. He slowly examined every inch of me. Finally he nodded, "You're clear."
Len pointed to the emergency locker. Inside was a single spacesuit.
"What about you...?" I said quietly.
"Don't worry about me Nina, button up that suit. We need to get you to a lifeboat... the Steelsmithe can't go back to earth."
It felt strange being in the suit naked. The cold metal joints constantly touched my knees elbows and waist as I moved and the fabric inside was rough and abrasive against my skin. Len opened the hatch and we both jumped back as Hammers, dead mold covered, body floated into the room.
Len smiled at me ruefully and pushed Hammer out of the way. "All clear," He whispered and we started down the corridor, Morgan was gone.
We worked our way across the ship and dropped two levels to the medical bay without seeing anyone else. Doc was inside and as the door slid open he whirled around pointing a medical lazer at Len's head.
Welker and R.C. were laid out on the examination tables, covered in mold.
"Whoa, easy Doc!" I yelled. "What the hell's going on... are they dead?
Doc eyed us uneasily for a moment but finally answered, "Yes, they're dead. They killed each other. So far everyone who went down to the surface has tested positive for the mold. It affects the frontal lobe causing the victim to enter a violent rage. It also creates an extreme dependency..."
"That explains why we saw Morgan eating the stuff off of the floor..." I shuddered.
"Exactly... you didn't go down to the planet did you Nina?" He asked, his eyes flicking quickly to Len as he spoke.
Len answered, "She clean, I checked her myself, but I've got it... is there anything you can do?
Doc shook his head, "I could freeze you... maybe in time I could figure out a cure but..."
He was cut off by Peter's voice over the emergency address system.
"As you are probably aware, we have a slight contamination aboard the ship. Doc is working on the problem as we speak and I'm sure by the time we get back to earth everything will be fine. Lenworth please report to the secondary bridge immediately.
Len looked stunned, "What the fuck is he talking about? We can't go back to earth with this shit, it could infect the whole planet..."
As if in answer the engines cut in and I felt the familiar tremor across the main beam as the ship pulled out of orbit.
"Shit!" Len turned and opened the door to the medical bay and launched himself out.
Doc and I went out after him, "Len, what's the plan?" I yelled.
Len looked back at us over his shoulder, "First we get to the secondary bridge, I'll stop the ship and set the self destruct there. You two can head down to the escape pods before she blows."
"What about you and rest of the crew...?"
"You heard the Doc... everyone who went down to the planet is infected. You two are the only ones left who stayed aboard!"
-~o0O0o~-
Thick Rick was standing outside of the Secondary Bridge when we got there.
Doc grabbed us as we went to approach him. "Be careful..." he pointed at the mold growing on Rick's arms.
Len stepped out and yelled to them, "What's going on Rick?"
He turned slowly revealing a face covered in blue-green mold.
"Damn," Len whispered.
Rick leapt snarling like an animal. Doc brought up the medical laser and flicked it on just before he got to us. The laser flashed on its' highest setting and cut Rick vertically in half. He spasmed and his left side collided with Doc. The laser flew out of Doc's hand, spinning in zero G and cutting an arc out of the bulkhead as the beam narrowly missed my ear. I ducked my head and heard a sickly wheezing sound only to see Doc's head float by no longer attached to his body. There was a groan and the wall of shaft 14 began to buckle where the bulkhead had been cut. Len and I pulled open the hatch to the secondary bridge just as the seals gave way to hard vacuum.
He slammed the hatch closed and we turned to see Grimey sitting in the captains' chair holding a knife. Pete was naked, his entire body except for his head was coved in mold.
"Officer on the bridge...' he whispered.
Len moved slowly around the helm console towards him. "What are you doing Pete?" He asked.
Grimey cocked his head to one side. "Why, I'm taking us home Len..."
"Can't let you do that Pete." Len was only about ten feet away now.
"I've locked the controls Len, we have to go home. We're going to be rich..."
Len lunged at him and the two men hit the deck, Pete slashed with the knife and then plunged it into Len's abdomen. Len screamed and grabbed Grimey's head twisting hard. The sound of his neck breaking turned my stomach.
I helped Len to a sitting position... he was losing a lot of blood.
"...Gotta stop the ship Nina... gotta blow it up..." He gasped, coughing blood onto my suit as he died.
"Len!" I cried. I checked the controls and sure enough Grimey had locked everything. Suddenly I remembered Doc. He was a Cyber, just because his body was dead didn't mean his brain was dead too. I could use the comm system to log into his brain. I made the connection and the speakers crackled.
"Doc?"
"Yes, Nina, I'm here." He said over the static.
I explained what had happened and Doc said he could override Grimey's codes with his own, but he would have to be connected to the main computer. That connection was much tougher but I finally got it set up.
I flicked the switch and he screamed. I won't ever forget that scream until the day I die.
"Doc! Doc, are you okay!"
His voice boomed through the ship on every speaker deafeningly. "No, no. Feels great. Strong. Like I'm connected to a powerful all consuming evil that's gonna suck the world into a fiery oblivion. How about you?"
I laughed uneasily, and he went to work over-riding Grimey's codes. After another minute he said, "The remaining crew are all infected, you have thirty minutes to evacuate the ship Nina... I'm overloading the core."
"It's a bomb. Well, I hope it kills every fucking one of them!" I whispered. "Death will be better than the mold."
I watched the Steelsmithe explode in a huge fireball of destruction from the safety of my life boat half a light year away, lit the last of Docs' Ecrivain's Specials and cried for all of my lost friends. After a while I climbed into the on board cryo-pod and set the auto-nav for Proxima Centauri b. It's not earth but it'll do, until I'm sure I don't have the mold.