Fatal Containment

Fatal Containment - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Captain Cantrell walked onto the cargo deck with Madison Spinoza as the first freight transport began landing. As of 1830 hours, they had reached Altair, and the first of the medicines began arriving on the cargo deck. They could feel the shuttles land on the deck above, where they were lowered on large elevators down to the loading deck. As the first of the large twin doors slid open, his freight handling team moved in with gravity pallets and load lifters, even as the first shuttle came sliding into the center of the track. Large overhead cranes also maneuvered into place to help.

He watched as the freight shuttle slid into the unloading position, and its doors began to hiss as they opened. At the nose of the bulbous shuttle, a smaller door opened, and the freight captain came out to meet with the ship's supply officer.

As they exchanged pleasantries, Cantrell strode up to meet with the freight captain.

"Welcome aboard the Dominion. I'm Captain Cantrell. Allow me to introduce my senior medical officer, Dr. Spinoza," Owen said.

"Yes, of course, Captain. I was told this shipment was especially hot, and some of your goons from third fleet called me off my normal runs to bring this stuff to you. Said you'd pay double the normal freight charges for getting it here in time to rendezvous with your ship," the freight captain said skeptically. "That had better be true because I've got a lot of angry customers back in my own sector," he finished, pointing a wrinkled finger at the captain.

"I can assure you; the Empire will compensate you for your expedited delivery. My deck master will provide you with the necessary credit documents once we have satisfied ourselves that the shipment is in good order."

"Hmff. In that case, you had better start offloading so I can get back on my way," he said, his tone of annoyance softening somewhat.

"I'll want to see the container diagnostics on each crate, please," Madison said. "I need to make sure that the Byrozium is still viable for what we need. I also need to verify the distilling hardware is in proper order before you go."

"I can assure you everything is exactly as it was loaded on my tubs," the man said, his gruff exterior ruffled once more.

"Shall we?" Owen said, pointing to where the crates were already being laid out on the cargo runs, even as the next massive shuttle was sliding into its berth.

Owen and Madison moved to inspect the first crate. At the top of each container was a small computer that gave precise readouts of the contents it contained. Atmospheric pressure and concentrations, temperature, humidity levels, electrostatic charge, and a host of other tell-tales were available for review. Although these were normally checked off by the supply master and his mates, Madison was taking no chances with something as volatile as Byrozium. It was an unstable yellow-grey compound in its raw form, and highly unpredictable. Once it was distilled into the more stable Thedrozine, it could be easily stored in the ship's medical stores.

Satisfied that the first two crates met with her approval, she looked at the third crate, and her lips tightened as she read the dials.

"Captain, this crate has been tampered with," she said. She held up her data pad and showed Owen the pressure curves expected for transporting raw Byrozium. Although Owen didn't see that much variance, he noticed that the expression on her face went from curiosity to alarm. He had learned long ago to trust Madison's gut instincts.

"There's something very wrong here, Owen," she said. She scanned another crate as Owen stepped back to observe the cargo workers. All of them were busy lifting or operating heavy machinery to move the crates from the cargo shuttles, but Owen noticed one of the men was watching him warily. Owen stepped casually over to the marine sergeant and nodded his head in the direction of the worker. The man had resumed his strenuous labors with renewed vigor.