Entity [ONC 2024]

5

This was far beyond Porter's duties, beyond any of their duties. The ice had started to melt at a rapid pace, rivulets of water pouring down the scorched walls, and the captain did nothing but continue surveying the room and the redoubt. She rushed across to him, turning him around, her helmet light casting a shadow behind his faceplate but she still couldn't see his features.

"We have to leave!" Even her own comms had started to crackle as some kind of interference began to affect her tech. "We have to go now! Something is very wrong here. Look at this place!"

"I will not let anyone take my legacy from me!" The captain ripped his arm from Porter, heading back to the door. "I'm going to find the bridge of this thing and I'm going to secure a future for my family."

"This is crazy!" Porter had to rush to keep up, noting the ice outside the room had also started to melt. "I'm going back to the shuttle."

"You stay with me!" Now it was the captain's turn to grab hold of her.

"Cap?" Finnegan's voice came over the headset, barely intelligible, the crackling worsening. "We're noticing a rapid rise in temperature here. We've passed zero Celsius, and rising. Is this localised? Maybe ..."

The communication cut off, becoming little more than static until the helmet comms switched off, only playing when receiving something. To Porter's horror, the captain didn't begin to head back the other way. Instead, he turned, pointing a finger at her before heading in the other direction. Porter didn't know what to do. She looked both ways, noticing even the black puddle beneath the crate had started to thaw, spreading once more in a slow, miasmic flow.

By the time she looked back, the captain had disappeared from view and, if nothing else, she didn't want to pass through these hallways and corridors alone. Something about this place had her stomach turning flips, but the thought of being alone here terrified her more than anything. Taking a decision she hoped she wouldn't regret, she turned to follow the captain.

Puddles had started to form everywhere on the floor as she ran through the corridor, almost running into the back of the captain as he stood before a half-opened door where she hadn't seen one in a good distance. Beyond the door, Porter could see several objects pressed against it. A makeshift barrier, but a barrier against what?

Without uttering a word, the captain started to push at the objects, sending some pieces cascading back into the room in silence. Of course, with the comms on the fritz, the captain could be talking right now and she may not hear it. She had no way of knowing. No way of stopping the captain's obsession with this ship and claiming it.

More of the barricade fell inward, to the point where the captain managed to take a grip of one side of the sliding doors. He pointed to the other side and waited until Porter had weighed up her options. She took a glance at her EV suit's monitors, but even that had started to glitch. She couldn't tell how much air they had left, but she felt certain they all still had at least four hours. Less if they wasted it with superfluous activities like this.

Nevertheless, she took a hold of the other side of the sliding doors and, with a nod from the captain, she began to pull. At first, neither side moved and Porter began to figure out a way of telling the captain the effort was all but wasted. Then, with a jerk, something gave inside the room and both doors juddered open.

The captain stepped between the two halves, pushing them further apart and then kicking the remaining barrier out of the way. Once cleared, he stepped into the darkened room beyond, sweeping his helmet light everywhere. The light moved too fast for Porter to catch a clear look at anything, but she saw the edges of things, highlighted by the passing of the captain's helmet light.