Colony One (17 page)

Charlie had only split seconds to take the nightmarish apparition in because the man charged him almost immediately. Charlie instinctively dodged, lunging out of the way by throwing himself to the floor. The man crashed into to console instead of the pilot and there was a distinct sound of glass splintering under the weight and force of the blow. Undeterred by pain or sense, the wild man with wild eyes spun and attacked again.

Charlie rolled away and scrambled to his feet. He took a moment to search the room for anything he might be able to use to defend himself, but the pause was too long. The man tackled him and they hit the floor violently – Charlie’s head taking the brunt of the fall, smacking against the metal surface with a crack. He heard the noise but did not register how it related to him. Adrenaline all but numbed the pain after his vision swam for a fraction of a moment, only to return in sharp, horrifying focus. 

Instinctively, Charlie braced his hands on the man’s shoulders and used all his strength to push him away, locking his elbows as he did so. The man snarled and snapped his teeth as he tried to pull off Charlie’s grip.

The pilot struggled and wedged a knee between them and dug the toe of his boot into the man’s stomach. He kicked out and managed to dislodge the man who came back at him with feverish determination.

From where Charlie lay on his back, he timed a powerful kick to the man’s chest that made him fall over on his side. He coughed and sputtered but rolled into a crouch as he did so. Pain affected him, but only to a certain extent. There were other instincts compelling his actions and Charlie knew with sickening certainty it had to do with hunger and an acquired taste for human flesh.

From his crouched position, the shell of a man pulled something from the small of his back. It dripped with fresh blood as he brandished it at Charlie – it was what looked like a cross between a makeshift knife and spearhead.

The man adjusted his grip on it and Charlie watched with horror as every muscle in his body prepared to pounce. The pilot’s adrenaline transitioned into survival level fear that made his mouth taste like acid. Everything around him was bolted to the floor. He had nothing to protect himself. His heart raced so furiously that he almost did not notice the movement behind the crouched man.

The man, too intent on his prey, did not notice at all as Avery strode onto the bridge. She walked right up to the savage so that she was beside him. Only then did he snap his attention over and up at her. It was a split second before she placed the barrel of her pistol squarely between his eyes and pulled the trigger with a steady hand.

The man collapsed instantaneously, his weapon lost from his grasp.

The deafening noise of blood rushing in Charlie’s ears quieted somewhat, replaced by a ringing from the gunshot. He looked from the collapsed wild thing to Avery and back, attempting to regain control over his breathing.

“I bet you’re glad I brought this now,” Avery said and held the gun up.

Charlie nodded numbly.

“You OK Foxtrot?” She asked.

He nodded again.

“Good. Thanks for not dying. Now get up because we’ve got another problem.” She said as she holstered her side arm.

Charlie gripped his console chair and pulled himself up – or tried. His first attempt failed as his vision swam at the motion. He collapsed back to the floor in a graceless heap, his hand moving to the back of his head that suddenly throbbed angrily.

“Well, shit,” Avery said – his condition did not escape her. “New plan. Don’t move much.” She left the bridge and came back with relative quickness wielding a bio-freeze pack. She snapped the activator in it and put it in Charlie’s hand. “I’ll get the doc to give you some really good pain killer when he’s done stitching up our favorite engineer.” She said and Charlie’s shock made him recoil, then wince in pain. He applied the bio-freeze back to the back of his head and looked at the makeshift weapon the man had dropped.

“That’s her blood?” he asked with alarm in his voice.

“Unfortunately,” Avery confirmed. “Stay here. I’ve got a stretcher to find.” She instructed and left without further niceties.

Charlie’s eyes focused and unfocused and he settled on just closing them in an attempt to avoid the nausea that was building. His decision was also heavily influenced by not wanting to look at the haunting image of a dead cannibal and Niko’s now blood-spattered console.

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Margret Avery was, without question, one of the most clear headed people under pressure Niko had ever witnessed. He was certain that, without her, their group may have lost their collective composure and unraveled with the recent crisis into which they had been propelled. He considered himself to be a levelheaded person, but even this tested him.

She had returned in short order with a lightweight stretcher retrieved from the Hyperion’s small medical bay. She informed them without fanfare that the threat had been neutralized and that they could focus on getting Makenna safely back to the ship. She and Niko did most of the heavy lifting while Winston walked along side to monitor the engineer. He had used the time Avery was away to fashion a bandage from his medical kit, though it was soaked and Makenna had lost consciousness.

Finn jogged ahead of them, making sure the way was clear and calling lifts as much in advance as possible so they could travel between decks without too much delay.

When they boarded the Hyperion, they made a direct line to the medical bay. The Captain left them to work with Charlie to detach from Colony Two – just in case there had been more than one… survivor aboard the colony ship.

Niko and Finn stayed with Winston, making the medical bay feel cramped and smaller than it was. They watched as he began to cut Makenna’s shirt off to clear the wounded area. His hands shook as he did and he looked alarmingly nervous.

When he had the shirt completely removed, he pulled away the soaked bandage and tossed it into a bio-bin.

“She’s still bleeding,” Finn said with distress as she looked from the wound to Winston expectantly.

“Yes,” Winston agreed and stared at the wound.

Niko was shocked by his inaction, “Why aren’t you doing anything?” The slow pooling of blood made him uneasy for Makenna. He wasn’t sure how much she had lost, but even astronomers knew pools of blood were bad.

Winston wiped his brow with the sleeve of his shirt. He had begun sweating and color had drained from his face. “Well,” he said, leaning down to look at the wound from a different angle. “I am trying to… determine how to…” he trailed off.

“Damn it, Doctor, she’s going to bleed out!” Niko snapped and gnashed his teeth together in frustration and helplessness.

Finn put weight on one foot, then the other as she anxiously watched the doctor do nothing.

“I have not technically done this on a person before,” Winston blurted out.

“What?!” Finn and Niko exclaimed in unison.

“I, I, I… I am technically what you would call an accredited non-practicing medical scholar with a specialization in veterinary medicine.” Winston confessed all in one breath.

Though she knew it would accomplish nothing, Finn felt anger flair up in her – even more than shock. “Most animals on Earth are extinct!” She yelled. “It is not even a profession anymore!”

“Well, it was more of a theoretical study…”

“Theoretically figure this out!” Niko shouted. “Anatomy is anatomy.” He skipped the obvious question of why they were sent on a mission with a theoretical veterinarian masquerading as a practicing medical doctor because there was exactly nothing they could do about it in that moment.

This seemed to help the doctor as he nodded and straightened his back. “Yes. Okay. Can one of you get the surgical kit from that drawer?” He pointed to a drawer and Finn rushed to it, pulling the kit out and unrolling it on the counter. “I need a scalpel.” He instructed and turned away from Makenna to begin washing her blood off his hands, intending to sterilize them. He made quick work of it, pulled on a pair of blue rubber gloves and held out his hand while focusing on the wound.

Finn handed him what he needed and the man opened Makenna’s wound so he could inspect the surrounding organs for damage. Niko watched him with extra care considering the recent revelation about the so-called doctor.

Makenna stirred and Winston asked Niko to hold her by the shoulders to prevent her from doing any more damage. He complied and they worked over her for an hour. Finn wiped away blood so Winston had a better view as they went and he eventually was able to report with certainty that no organs appeared to be damaged, which he declared to be a miracle. He then moved onto the process of stitching up the wound, which he seemed adequate at doing.

As he was closing the last loop, Avery rejoined them.

“When you’re done with that, Doc, you’ll need to go see Foxtrot. Bring some quality pain meds.”

“What happened to Charlie?” Finn asked. She was exhausted but still felt a pang of worry spring up in her.

“He took a nasty hit to the head when our visitor introduced himself.” Avery explained. “Speaking of which – Niko, I’ll need your help with some cleanup on the Bridge.”

More blood
, Niko thought dismally but he nodded nonetheless.

Winston was setting up an IV drip for Makenna – a mixture of saline for rehydration and antibiotics because he could only guess at how unclean the weapon that was used to assault he was. “I’ll be with him as soon as I know Ms. Krasnov is stable,” Winston answered.

Niko and Finn shared a look that the Captain noticed but did not comment on. For now, the pair remained quiet and Niko left without any parting words.

“I’m going to stay with her,” Finn announced to no one in particular. Makenna’s normally pale sink was whiter than ever, but her breathing was thankfully regular. Her expression showed the ever-present pain, despite being unconscious. Finn supposed that was good – it meant she was still alive.

Winston retrieved a syringe from a cabinet and carefully pressed it into the bend of Makenna’s arm that was not already occupied by an IV. “Painkiller,” he answered Finn’s silent question and almost immediately Mak’s expression smoothed out, searing pain erased.

“What’s her expected recovery rate?” Avery asked.

Winston looked unsure, “In a few days she’ll be able to sit up – limited range of motion, however.”

Avery frowned but didn’t comment. She nodded, “Alright. Briefing room in thirty – and no, Ms. Connolly, it is not optional.”

“The pain medication will be in effect much longer than that,” Winston reassured Finn when he saw her defiant look. “We can trust she will be okay on her own for a while.”

Finn rewarded him with a cutting look, but she softened it when she realized what she had done. Again, it was not unnoticed by the Captain. She logged it and excused herself to handle the next task.

On her way out, she grabbed the still-bloodied stretcher they had used to bring Makenna back to the ship. With Niko’s help, she used it to move the intruder’s body to the cargo area where it was agreed that they’d jettison it as soon as possible. When they set the body down, clothes and hands both smeared with blood for their efforts, Niko looked down at the man and tilted his head, “Hold on a second,” he told Avery, who was already making to leave.

Niko wiped his hand off on the jumpsuit he wore and searched his pocket for his handheld. When he found it, he keyed it on with one hand, and then bent over the body to hold it over the man’s face, engaging the OMNI’s scanner. When the image was taken, he stood back up and initiated a search. Avery watched but did not comment.

After a moment, the device made a chime that meant whatever it had been asked to do was complete. Niko squinted at the results and then looked up at Avery, eyebrows raised. He held out his device so Avery could see, “He was Colony Two’s copilot.”

The device showed a picture of a smiling, well kept, clean shaven man with short hair. At first glance, he looked nothing like the aberration lying at their feet, but when studied closely, it was clear that if you removed the blood and scraggly appearance, the man in the picture and the man in the cargo bay were one in the same.

Avery’s eyes narrowed as she considered this new information, “He must have thought he could pilot the Hyperion himself.” She concluded. “If food was all he wanted, he could have taken us out one by one.” She observed.

The last thought made Niko shiver and he worked to disguise it. “Perhaps there was more man left in the beast than it appeared.” He commented.

Avery shrugged, not inclined to put any more thought into the matter, “Let’s go. I want to have the bridge back to normal as much as possible before our briefing. Sorry about your console,” She added.

“I’m just glad you got there in time,” Niko said. The intense feelings of the past few hours were wearing off and he felt suddenly tired and somewhat numb.

“Don’t check out on me, Andris.” Avery said. She had seen his look on many others throughout her career.

He shook his head in an attempt to shake the feeling. He locked eyes with her after a moment and gave a resolute nod before they made their way back to the Bridge.

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