Xenos

iii. Growth: July 9, 2126

Day Thirty-nine

A few days passed in the monotonous vein of long-distance travel.

Cin divided her days between checking—and double-checking—connections on the ship and worriedly discussing with Drake and Galen how they were becoming increasingly worse. Half of the time the channels were grey with static. They still had the connection to the ESC base, but Cin had ordered that personal calls no longer be made. She wasn't sure if it would help, but she wanted to lessen the pressure on the lines until they'd figured out the problems. Everyone was allowed a final call home to their loved ones in order to inform them of their radio silence, but that was all. They had to use that one call to contact whoever they'd wanted to, which resulted in sullen crew members and snappy tones. Those who made frequent calls back to Earth were very vocal in how they felt about the ban.

According to Gray, the substance had sat in the same state since it had grown the bulbs. Cin counted herself lucky that she even knew this at all. The small amount of information she knew had been passed on to her second-hand from Lixue, who was balancing the stress of research and dealing with Gray's obsessive tendencies. They'd exchanged words only in passing, when Lixue was darting between the bridge and the medbay after bolting down a dinner. Those moments hadn't given up many details. Cin and Galen spent many of their evenings holed up in one of their two cabins discussing Gray and the substance—and if it was safe to allow him to continue. Cin was growing concerned for Lixue, who had deep bags under her eyes and was quieter every time Cin saw her. 

They would have proceeded in much the same way had the substance not bloomed on the fourth day.

"We are continuing the ban until we've determined the origin of the static," Cin was dictating to her tablet, the words appearing on the screen in blue. The reports that needed to be sent back to Earth were becoming extensive enough that she didn't trust herself to remember everything without notes. "We would like some advice on how to handle the crew—" she broke off as Galen came storming through the rec-room.

"Galen?" she asked, his footsteps coming to a stop outside of the medbay. She half-rose, trying to see around the curve of the clouded glass of the gym.

His voice rose as his fist pounded on the door of the medbay. "Lixue, Teller, open up," he ordered, the vehemence in his voice startling Cin. It must have been heard down the hall because Gigi and Miles soon crowded into the doorway of the rec-room, their faces frozen in expressions of concern. Cin shook her head at them when they made to enter the room more fully, indicating that she was going to handle it. They remained in the room but didn't proceed further. Cin saved her work and set the tablet on the couch before going down the hallway.

Galen stood outside of the medbay, his fist against the metallic white door of the lab. He was watching something in the window of the door, anger in every line of his body. "Lixue, do you have him under control?"

Her reply was muted but Galen's was not.

"Gray, you are out of control. I will not hesitate to—" he broke off when he saw Cin. "Cin, I need you to leave immediately."

She startled, taken aback by his anger. "Is there anything I can do to—"

"Cin, that is an order. Follow it."

She stood still for a moment, her eyes on him as he stared her down. There was something in him that she didn't recognize, an anger she'd never seen before. He was normally mild mannered, so seeing him like this was like seeing another person. Turning on her heel she retreated to the rec-room, her eyes troubled as her mind whirred with possibilities of what was occurring in the lab. Had Lixue called to the bridge? Had Gray finally done something irreversible? She worried at the bottom of her lip, the flesh there already tender and sore from her earlier ministrations. She stopped when she saw that Miles and Gigi were waiting for her.