"What?!" Felix bellowed as he slammed his fist onto the reinforced glass table, and then immediately flinched as shards of broken glass sliced his knuckles and pain shot up.
The hectic room fell silent as the executive coordinator stood at the conference table, with his bloody fist resting on top of the synthetic glass mesh.
"Why can't you dimwits ever take care of yourselves? I sit back for 10 minutes and one of you DIES? Do you even know how much a death during an emergency operation is going to cost us? Are you honestly that incompetent I have to baby-sit and monitor you throughout every single solitary individual task? I ought to fire every single one of you and hire myself some people with at least more than half the brainpower of a damn fish!" Felix spat out in a wrath.
Ashley was stunned, her ears were left ringing after receiving Felix's angry outburst, and she had never seen her boss in a trance of rage such as this. She quickly located and grabbed the nearest first aid package and rushed towards the furious coordinator. Taking out a dermal-regenerator, Ashley turned to face all other equally astonished personnel in the command centre and ordered, "What are you all standing still for? Get back to work!" As the crowd of engineers, scientists and inspectors went about their respective tasks in a disgruntled murmur, Ashley approached Felix.
Still stuck in a trance like state of anger, Felix stared blankly into the distance. Veins on his forehead which otherwise remained hidden protruded and writhed. Blood was dripping from the wounds from his hands but Felix was oblivious to the pain by now. Felix slouched back down onto his comfortable chair and gazed up to the metallic ceiling. Ashley took a nearby chair and began to treat Felix's wounds in silence while noticing the tiniest of movement across her secret lover's emotionless face.
"It's not your fault you know," Ashley said quietly, finally breaking the small pocket of silence between the two, "since when have you started to care about the people who work for you?"
Noticing Ashley's light hearted attempt to sooth his frenzy, Felix squeezed out an expression barely recognisable as a dry smile but remained speechless.
Finishing up with the acceleration of the dermal cells regeneration on Felix's hand, Ashley switched off the dermal regenerator and was about to tidy up the equipment when Felix suddenly stood up and surprised her with a tender embrace.
"Felix, c'mon, there're people watching." Ashley whispered into Felix's ear.
"I love you." For the first time ever, Felix opened up to his faithful secretary. He would never know how much these simple words had warmed up Ashley's broken heart.
Moments later, no more words were spoken as the couple split and went about their usual routines again.
Felix picked up his communicator and after a few presses his following transmission was routed to all control team leaders.
"This is a high priority message from Executive Coordinator Cabulb to all leaders of Cryer emergency response control teams.
As you no doubt have heard, one of our colleagues was shot and killed in a hostage situation. This incidence has effectively raised the threat level of the entire containment operation from moderate to high. I hereby authorise the usage of discriminating non-lethal force against any non Cryer personnel onboard the Hawaii in compliance with CECS-015.2A, article 3.1. Exercise extreme caution and don't hesitate to pacify situations as you see fit.
Cabulb out"
Felix ended the transmission after receiving the swift confirmation of his order from the grunts. He sighed and set the communicator to record a relayed transmission directed at the liner's captain.
"Captain Frial, this is Executive Coordinator Cabulb and I wish to inform you about something important.
Due to the recent incidence resulting in one of Cryer's employee's death, I had no other option but to raise the overall threat level your liner possesses. This means our control teams will be making more frequent patrols, checking suspicious individuals and their living areas as they see fit. They're also allowed to use discriminating non lethal force to… resolve violent situations should one arise again.
Be careful captain, one more accident like this and I'll be forced to increase the tension between us even more, by authorising my men to use full lethal equipment. I hope it won't come to this, as our control teams and your security teams are already at each others' throats."
Completing his message, Felix put his communicator down and drew his side arm. He then reached into one of the hidden pockets in his suit jacket and took out a blue, glowing canister just bigger than his thumb. He opened the hatch of the energy cell compartment on his weapon and slid the canister in. With a few firm clicks, the weapon came to life with a hum increasing in pitch which eventually subsided. After setting the weapon to produce optimal performance, Felix hesitated on the lethal rating. A short pause elapsed and reluctantly, he turned the dial to point at "kill".
Researcher Kitaen slinked her way to deck three as she received another alert about a passenger for whom the psychological complications of the situation, had become too much to bear. She absently rubbed her buttocks: mildly perturbed by the dull ache at the site of her vaccine injections. Minutes passed as she daintily trotted toward sector five, stopping momentarily to distractedly pass a scanner over the bodies she passed. Priscilla Mused as she travelled ''¦problem with the higher echelons of society in a crisis: is that they still go where they want and do as they please. Well, let's see if this next one is of any use to us.'
The illumination from the schematic she surveyed lit her face as she approached the target area. Several of the ships systems had been re-routed to this location, which was now handling inordinate amounts of energy for some unknown purpose. Ross' information had been a boon, since he'd been keeping an eye on systems and noticed this curious activity.
A dull, rhythmic hum resounded from the doors to artificial persons maintenance bay two, Priscillas' spine tingled. She tapped in an order for a control team and patched into to a nearby service console. A detailed series of readouts showed her that someone had purposefully re-wired door control and that the door to the bay was locked. Curious recurring waves of energy seemed to be circulating the perimeter of the room. She began attempting to un-weave the insane reprogramming.
A guest meandered into view looking to the busy Priscilla and then the humming door 'What are you doing here? Anything I can help with?'
'I'm trying to get into this room' Priscilla gestured offhandedly without glancing up from her work.
The guest walked over to the door and pressed his palm to the control panel in the usual manner. Suddenly the corridor was lit with a terrible white light and the stench of scorched flesh, Priscilla flinched at the light and glanced up to see the guests body had been flung back toward the wall, and now lay slumped on the ground, smouldering. Small tongues of flame licked up from the corpse, its' skin blackened and red raw patches: unrecognisable as the person it used to be.
Priscilla cursed herself in frustration, she should have realised that those unknown waves had been an electrical-barrier. The poor sot who lay smoking on the floor had just shown her the brutal defences of whoever lay within the room beyond.
'I'm sorry' she offered the body as she went back to 'hacking' the bay controls. With a start she realised that someone else was active in the system, purposefully trying to sabotage her work and perpetuate the near artistic madness that had been set-up. What had begun as unpicking the multiple crossed threads of an ad-hoc system hi-jacking, had become a maddeningly paced game of checkers with gates, routines, overrides and fail-safes as the pieces.
One of the convincing artificial people onboard suddenly sprinted from around the corner, its' white eyes flickered manically as they locked upon Priscilla. With barely enough time to react, Priscilla leapt up to protect her station and was met with a flurry of blows from the synthetic. The fake flesh sheathing of its forearms came loose as the mechanical humanoid pummelled Priscilla backward. Her arms raised: barely able to keep up a defence; Priscilla heard a snap as white-hot pain shot through her left arm. The humanoid quickly followed up with a kick to her mid-section which sent Priscilla sprawling backward, the breath knocked out of her. Arm broken, Priscilla lay facing the monster, scrambling backwards as it advanced with murderous intent. Suddenly she heard the crackly voice of the emergency response control team leader 'Move!' as a line of security operatives quickly intercepted the android and began a blistering, mob-like beating of the artificial creature with their stun-batons.
Pain lanced through her yet she grinned as she awkwardly drew a 'slap-patch' from her pocket and slapped it onto her chest. 'right in the nick of time!' she said to the team leader 'There's'¦subject in there'¦sent that thing down here'¦be ready for more'¦electric door: don't touch! Get me'¦Medic!' Priscilla drawled as the anaesthetic effects of the patch spread a comfortable glow through her battered, smiling form.
***
The order had come down from the executive co-ordinator himself: High-alert and a death meant one thing to Isiah; gloves off and guard up. He and the team had been looking for trouble, so they had pounced like a pack of hounds upon sight of the evil-automaton.
Isiah Knelt over the barely-conscious form of Miss Kitaen, her last words still lingering in his mind as the sub-coordinators orders came through ''¦forget that vapid cow: she probably got hurt on purpose so she could dose up: now get me that sample and get your team to remove that problem!'
'Yes sir' Isiah replied, turning to his security control team to see one approaching the electrified door. 'No!' he halted the eager guard 'its trapped see' he pointed to the charred body and began to bring the team to order, after their gleeful beating and dismemberment of the android.
'Ralph, sammy: go get us the 'pinch', Jones get that thing flushed, rest of your two by two either side of the door, sticks and any implants off until after the flash.' Moments later sammy and Ralph returned, a large cube carried between them which emitted an escalating pitch. 'Alright, you two slide that thing over there and then follow us in, power up after the flash fellas.' As the box slid toward the crackling doors, the pitch reached its peak and crashed into a sonorous boom. A white flash filled the corridor, a blinding light for a split-second followed by darkness as the lights simultaneously winked out.
The control teams mounted lights flickered on, batons buzzed into life as two of the team pried the doors apart with old fashioned bars allowing the rest to march into the bay. Light beams scanned around the bay, illuminating a chaotic assembly of naked machinery and artificial persons, hammers and tools lifted like some frozen clockwork army. In the centre of this orchestrated mess sat a well dressed man, wearing some kind of strange helmet from which wires reached to the systems around him.
Like a demonic spider in the middle of its' web, the man sat sobbing, sheathed in sweat and grinding his teeth, he pointed at Isiah. 'mother spatching, feculent, pond-scum! Do you realise what you have done!? I was so close to achieving perfection! You will pay for this!' the man rose in a frenzy, clearly raving. Making a beeline for Isiah, he aimed an expensive looking firearm and pulled the trigger. His wild eyes registered shock as the weapon failed to fire.
'Whatever you like genius. Take him down fellas.' Isiahs' deadpan voice rang flat through the communicator. The team leapt toward the unfortunate maniac, the familiar 'kwoom' noise of the batons rhythmically resounded through the otherwise silent room. 'Alright that's enough. Jones take a needle-full, we're dragging this guy to a medic.' Isiah made his report to his sub-coordinator across the secure channel and requested a cleanup team to re-organise the chaotic bay. 'Soon' he thought, he would be off this, uncomfortably-shiny, pleasure-cruiser-from-hell and back to satisfaction of beating up drug-addicts.
***
After hours upon hours of ceaseless toil, Cryer teams reported into their sub-coordinators, made their reports and sent copies to the shared database.
The atmospherics teams had finished their internal refit of the ventilation systems. With a significant kick given to these systems, and the new filters, the technicians were confident that a contagion like this would not be able to spread again. Nevertheless they insisted on running isolated cycles to better track any particles passing through each, separable system.
The crews in the kitchens had finished their annoyances, and had escaped with only one knife injury from the chefs onboard.
Leff and Tor stood in the now gleaming waste disposal chamber, its sheer walls reflective and flawless. Tor shed his biohazard suit, walked to a long carry-all, opened it and produced a napkin, cutlery, pate, crackers and a small salad. He proceeded to sit down on the spotless floor of the metal room, arrange the food, and began dining.
'I seen proud, and I seen stupid; now I think I've seen the epitome of both.' Leff muttered in disbelief.
Tor replied around a mouthful of lettuce 'Come on now Leffy: you and I both know this is probably the cleanest place on the ship right now. Now come on over and help me with the main course.' Other Biohazard cleanup teams were enacting similar, less eccentric celebrations of relief around the ship.
***
Stella, aglow with bliss, stood before Doctor Whitesun as he gracefully gestured her to take a seat. She could hardly believe how well this was going, as she struggled not to faint again, she gestured to one of the entourage to loosen a tie at the back of her bodice. Her heart went out to the doctor as he explained the autopsy mystery: his face plainly showing his good conscience, with worry about the danger to human life. And through this Stella could almost see his mind working away behind those azure eyes. Her face lit up as Doctor Whitesun easily understood and appraised the situation, and graciously offered his help. He took another easy sip of his coffee, putting Stella in mind of a more-handsome Sunbucks ad. She enjoyed the moment before hearing of the doctors impressive initiative and the undoubtedly less-handsome Hammersmith.
'Oh: Doctor Whitesun! You have sublimely summed up that terrible mess much better than I, thank you. And I should not be surprised that a man of your calibre was so forward thinking.' She took a moment before rising with the help on an attendant, her heart hammered in her chest before she asked ''¦would you care to accompany me to Deck A-Two to see if we can locate Tiberius Maxwell for some insight?'
***
Deck two, conference room three:
Andrew and Julian sat discussing the possible mutation of the infectious agent, as well as arranging their pooled facts in chronological order.
'We are looking at an incubation time in of likely, eight days'¦'
'Or one hundred and ninety two hours.'
'Yes, so we agree that infectious agent also has a significant state of dormancy at the five day mark, only to manifest again after twenty four hours?'
'Indeed, and after that dormancy, it may possibly be stronger.'
The pair continued finishing each others sentences, and went on to dissect the second problem.
''¦Implies that ruptures in organs or weakness in membranes, allows the agent to infect systems other than the lungs'¦'
''¦and therefore adapt to its' new environment. Exactly! In this case the mutant aberration of the agent acts as an acid'¦'
''¦yes! Or converts body-fluids into acids: which then consume everything within'¦O dear.'
'I took the liberty of forwarding 'Sams' Particulars to the subordinates of both Doctor Hartford and Doctor Palmer. Initial classification defined the agent as a form of 'gaian pneumonia' however: further developments reveal something much more virulent and aggressive.'
He finished his coffee, and placed it on the table. He then grabbed a labcoat from a coat hanger and turned to the other doctor.
"Jason, you stay here, in case anyone has questions. I'll be going with the Cryer miss here."
As he walked with her, his curiosity forced him to ask some questions.
"Tell me, 'Stella'. How did you end up here? This is a rather horrid place for such a lady as you, is it not? With all these terrible diseases and horrible deaths."
Stellas' cheeks reddened slightly as she smiled and replied to the charm of Doctor Whitesun 'O why yes indeed, the resort isn't what it once was. As to how I ended up here in this mess well;
I had been out in the Taus' tending to orphans, attending galas' and the like, and was due to visit baden-baden to see Mummy and Daddy and attend gran-mamas' funeral. Dear Guinevere (such a gem of a debutante) gave me a call and told me that the one and only 'Blahnik' would be onboard the Hawaii! Since it was on the way, I decided to see if I could track down the designer and acquire the perfect shoes for Nanas' wake, and of course, one can hardly pass up such an opportunity. So you see, it was just happenstance that I was caught up in this..chaos. However, I would sorely regret having not paid this visit: for I would not have met such wonderful, caring people, such as your-self Doctor." She motioned for one of the entourage to fan her as they walked. "So I suppose you see this kind of thing a lot: do you have to 'get-your-hands-dirty' often doctor?" She probed.
"Our numbers are small and the amount of work large. Every single one of us will have to get their hands dirty. Besides, it is what we stand for. We do not make a difference between people, all the same to us, we treat everyone, rich man or thug. As long as they respect us we respect them."
As he talks it is clear he fanatically believes in what he says.
"So it is only normal that we are all equal ourselves as well. It might seem like small-scale communism to you perhaps, maybe it is. All I know is that for getting our hands dirty, people are grateful."
Hiran was still there, a peaceful giant unaffected by events on its orbit. Promenade deck provided a magnificent view on the planet and surrounding clouds, with all passengers either in their cabins or in queue for the medical it was now empty, except for leisurely strolling figures of John and Tanya.
"... a gas giant. Have you ever thought of how important part gas plays in our universe? Planets, clouds, nebulas, even stars and alike are made of it. Given enough temperature, everything turns into gas, as in an eternal cycle..." A signal on his communication device made John interrupt his impromptu speech, which would have made any competent tour-guide or astrophysicist scream in terror. "Excuse me, Tanya, just a moment"
John listened to the transmission and flinched slightly. The urge to express everything he thought of this one certain Cryer coordinator was overwhelming, but he could not afford such luxury as even more strained relations. "Damn diplomacy," John though as he recorded his reply.
"Executive Coordinator Cabulb, let me express my condolences for the loss of life of your employee. It was a tragic accident, caused by a mentally unstable individual driven over the edge by the stress of the situation. I am sure nothing like this will repeat.
I understand that you need to ensure the safety of your employees. I also recall that I already authorized the use of non-lethal equipment upon you arrival. Liner's security staff is overworked already, so I believe there will be conflicts of interest if your employees patrol near your workplaces. However, I request that any incidents are reported to me personally.
I've noticed a decline of activity of Cryer's teams. I hope that it marks that maintenance work is nearing the end. Hopefully, we will be able to talk about this event in a past tense soon enough."
With the transmission sent, John returned to Tanya, "We shall continue to hospital. Let's see how the progress of distribution goes"
Stella kept her face turned toward Raimon as he explained The Medics equality in treatment and organisation. She nodded agreement, as she attempted to imagine living with a linear hierarchy. 'Yes of course, I imagine your patients are Very grateful doctor whitesun: I know I would be very ~appreciative~ of your... ministrations; were I in need of course.' she attempted to cover her stumbling words 'and I would never describe your group as Communists: though somewhat alien to me; I find the notion of working with ones peers exclusively to be interesting. Of course I couldn't bear to be without a maid or two on hand, but 'roughing-it' for a while might prove...educational.' She chattered on in ignorance: attempting to convey respect for The Medics' methods; yet simply highlighting her own privileged, insular detachment. 'Oh! And won't it be nice to meet Doctors Maxwell and Ross?! Exchanging our findings and meeting other keen minds, all in one place, well: that is unprecedented as far as I am aware.'
***
Tanya was enjoying her casual stroll with Captain Frial, gazing outward from the promenade deck at the beautiful swirling patterns that danced across Hiran. The captains' mind had proved a source of pleasant surprise again, as his insight stirred something in her thoughts. A profound moment of awareness passed, as Tanya felt that perhaps it were just her, the captain, and the cosmos that existed in one vast embrace.
The moment passed as a transmission alert interrupted the Captains' speech. She caught of flash of irritation as he walked a short distance away to attend to the call, his shoulders rose and set sadly, his deep voice rumbled seriously. After a moment he returned, she caught a glimpse of sorrow leave his eyes, before he assumed his usual charming demeanour. Tanya smiled in sympathy as she looked upon this dutiful man and the burden he must shoulder. '... Let's see how the progress of distribution goes" he offered.
'Of course, I hope that the doctors and nurses have made some progress with those poor people.' she commiserated as she linked arms with her escort as they made their way back to the Hospital area.
"I see that you do not understand it. No matter, our situation vastly differs from yours of course.
But yes, finding at least one those two men would already be a very good idea. Although Doctor Maxwell hasn't been sighted for a little. Very odd, though I'm sure that we can find mister Ross and perhaps another person from ExoGeni."
And just as he finished speaking and woman approached them.
"Doctor Whitesun and... miss Barravici V?"
She spoke Stella's name with difficulty and uncertainty.
"I'm Ailis Frosthearth, Executive Director of ExoGeni. As you can understand Doctor Maxwell is a very busy person, that's why I'll be around instead."
Tanya and John walked hand in hand back to Hospital area. The transmission had disturbed the carefree flow of captain's thoughts and made him return in harsh reality of two quarantined liners in the middle of cold dead space. For a moment a specific sense of vertigo reminded of itself, a feeling not experienced for years, but still uncomfortably familiar from days long gone.
The presence of Tanya by his side brought John back to present. They did not talk much for the rest of the way, but that was not an awkward silence. An understanding one, it was soothing more deeply than any idle chatter could be.
In Hospital they found few last passengers queued and were told that Dr. Whitesun had gone to Deck A-Two with "some fainting Cryer lady". Unsure of what does that mean, John turned to Tanya and took her hand,
"Tanya, let the medics to do their magic, then take some rest. You've been through a lot today. I'll go and find out what the representatives of our resident magicians are up to. I promise to visit you later to see if you are all right" He looked deep in her eyes, for the first time, then broke off and walked away towards Deck A-Two.
***
As John went, he remembered he hasn't seen Andrew almost since arrival of Cryer and ExoGeni teams. After a moment of consideration, he got a communication device and sent a short transmission,
"Hey, Ross. It seems that powers that be are gathering on deck A-Two. Unless you are too busy taking the ship's systems apart, I think it may be a good idea for you to come and offer your insight."
A signal of confirmation came a minute later, just as John turned around a corner and noticed a figure of Dr. Whitesun in company of two women he did not recognize. Frial waved and approached the small group.
***
Andrew was still excited from the discussion and was trying to calm down. That was exactly the feeling he loved so much - the shell of a problem gradually falling to pieces and revealing the essentials. By the power of human mind, logic and knowledge alone. That, and finally talking to someone just as enthusiastic over the scientific side of the situation made Andrew feel at least twenty years younger.
"I should re-specialize. Treating animals only gets you so far, dealing with humans is where the real excitement lies."
The transmission John had sent came through. Andrew read it and hit the reply button without much of a thought, then he turned to Julian,
"There's a meeting of sorts there, somewhere. I figure captain wants me to be there. There are things to be told, I shall hurry. I don't know if they are able to appreciate the beauty of our discovery, but anyway..."
He walked back and forth in the medium-sized room, then dashed out of the door. After a second he appeared again, "Oh, excuse my rudeness, I, eh, hmm.... what's appropriate in such situations... Invite you too, no, yes?" Then he disappeared without waiting for an answer.
Isiahs hyper-encrypted report to the Executive Co-ordinators nexus was brief: detailing only the apparently insane intelligence of the subject, the megalomaniacal tendencies and that his sample would be in care of Researcher Kitaen.
Priscilla awoke groggily from her painkiller induced stupor and stared about the suite-turned-med-bay. A nurse stooped over her, checking her vitals, as a suited response team officer stood patiently to her right. The nurse nodded in satisfaction at Priscilla 'We did some knitting on your left radius Researcher, try not to brawl for the next few days at least' she suggested as she left to aid in the exit clean-up.
The response team member approached Priscilla once they were alone. 'Researcher, I have a sample for the Executive co-ordinator' his tone was hushed as he reached drew a Vial from the dark folds of his bulky suit and handed it to her. Priscilla glanced at his markings as she palmed the vial 'Thank you Team leader: well done, I'm sure your team will be well rewarded' she smiled as she collected her belongings and secreted the sample.
***
Tanya almost fell into those deep, brown eyes as Captain Frials' smooth voice reassured her. The regret she recognised there sent a guilty spark of gratification to her mind, the idea blossomed as she watched her protector stride toward yet another task of great responsibility. Feeling significantly less-safe Tanya allowed herself to be led off by a nurse as she dreamily Imagined a nautically themed wedding on a pristine beach, with little uniformed ushers and flower-girls, and a ship-shaped wedding cake.
***
After making a concerted effort to tear her eyes from Raimon, Stella curtseyed to Ailis Frosthearth 'Yes, I am Lady Octavia Barr-a-vicci the fifth delighted to meet you Executive Director Frosthearth. I'm sure your resources will be well appreciated shortly.' She looked to Raimon to observe whether this fiery damsel would capture his romantic attentions. A moment of panic gripped her as she looked upon the womans' enviable porcelain skin and shock red hair 'Well, it appears that we are nearly a complete assembly...' Stella began before raising a hand to her forehead, swooning, and fainting again.
***
'..Ah yes: be right with you!' Julian sat astounded for a moment as he absorbed Ross' words. The man was definitely smarter than some surgeons Julian had worked with and, in the wrong hands: dangerously capable. Although he sensed nothing of malice in Ross or his demeanor, he decided keeping the man close would be the prudent course of action; and left to follow the excited doctor.
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