Mission Cure

CHAPTER TEN - M:FAC/3 - Adrian

ADRIAN

They would be able to scout the ship a lot faster if Clare would stop worrying about all the little details. Time was running out. They needed to make sure not a single one of those things got onto M:FAC/1 when the ships connected.

And they needed to find out where all of this started - hopefully, the source would offer the cure. Adrian had his suspicions, if only Clare would just follow his lead instead of chasing rabbits.

"What about the viewing rooms?" she asked.

Adrian clenched his teeth together. He didn't want to admit it, but, "You're right. We check viewing rooms. Then we go to Medic, Da?"

"Does da mean yes?" she asked. "I learned Spanish in high school. They didn't offer Russian. Maybe because it was California. A lot of people in California speak Spanish."

Adrian just stared at her. He didn't know what to say. "Da. I mean, yes. Da means yes."

"How do you say no?"

Adrian wasn't sure what was happening. Was this really the time for a Russian lesson? Still, he answered. "Nyet."

She nodded.

They combed the viewing rooms, carefully opening the drapes and peeking inside. So far, they hadn't seen a single one of those things. But that didn't mean they should let down their guard. Both Adrian and Clare held their dart guns, ready to shoot at anything that moved. When the last room was declared clear, Adrian closed the drape and nodded in the direction of Medic and the science labs.

Drawing closer to their destination, they couldn't help but notice all the bloody handprints on the walls. They paused at Medic, where the door was smeared with crimson lines.

"That's going to be hard to clean," Clare told Adrian.

He looked at her sideways before opening the door.

They held their breaths and their guns, but nothing jumped out at them. Inside, it was pure disaster. M:FAC/3 was the only ship with a full hospital wing. The other ships had a single room with basic medical supplies, but Three had anything you could need. Including X-Ray machines, labor and delivery equipment, an entire room dedicated to surgery. Unfortunately, half of their medical supplies were now on the floor, but it didn't look like the room had been destroyed on purpose. It was more like incidental damage - from groups of people stumbling around and bumping into things.

"They got blood on, literally, every surface." Clare was shaking her head as Adrian went to check the patient rooms and Dr. Moore's adjacent office.

"None of them are here," he stated after a quick search.

"That's good. That means they're all downstairs."

Adrian nodded, frowning. "Why were they all in this one room? How did they get here?"

"Maybe they came from the science lab," Clare suggested, nodding to a far wall with bloody double doors.

"That is science lab?" Adrian asked. He'd never actually seen the lab, only heard of it. It took up a third of Three's upper level and was completely top-secret. Only the science team was admitted through special clearance. They were supposedly working on everything space-travel, streamlining their journey, coming up with new building materials and energy sources, things like that. But Adrian was an engineer - he didn't work with intangibles, so he hadn't cared what was going on behind those doors.

Until now.

"This is separate entrance?" Adrian asked as he approached the doors.

"Yeah."