Entity [ONC 2024]

11

Porter peeked into the Rotunda before climbing back down to the rotating floor. Chen hadn't answered and that worried her, but, for some reason, she felt her more immediate problem lay in the stern, with Finnegan, in the engine section of the ship. The sudden change in the captain's priorities concerned her and if both Finnegan and the captain now wanted to get back to Earth, Porter felt certain that was the worst thing they could do.

From greed controlling the captain's actions to a sudden reversal. It didn't sit right, and that bruise upon the captain's neck told Porter something else had happened. The entity propagates/multiplies. She now had an idea how, but until she had either Finnegan or the captain on her medical bed, she couldn't know for certain.

Perhaps Finnegan had made a persuasive argument? That could be it. All Porter's worries dissipating with a the simple knowledge that the captain had decided what they had found was enough. That they had earned enough commission to set up his family following his upcoming death. And the ship would need dry dock facilities to fully repair. It could be it. Could be the reason.

"Porter." Chen's voice came through the earpiece and Porter clutched her chest in relief. "The captain's at the door and he's pretty insistent. You better have a good reason for this."

"I think both Finnegan and the captain are compromised. Infected by something. Something we brought back from that derelict." She talked as she headed toward the medical section of the Rotunda, no longer revelling in the feel of minimal weight. "They aren't acting rationally and I think the infection will spread if they come into contact with anyone else. Just sit tight. Remain calm. I'm working on it."

"Understood, but he is not happy out there." Chen sounded calm. A little too calm, but she hadn't seen the changes in Finnegan and the captain. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." She had a kernel of an idea, nothing more. "Patch GAIA in to this frequency and, whatever you do, do not open that door."

The doors of the medical section hissed apart at her approach and she headed straight for the locked drugs cabinet. Using her thumbprint, she opened the cabinet and began rifling through the various boxes and bottles, searching for her best option. She needed something strong and fast-acting. Something that could allow her to place both the captain and Finnegan into quarantine with minimal fuss. She paused. The aliens had tried quarantine and failed. She had to try, though.

They had a decent supply of drugs, but not near the selection she could find in any proper medical facility and finding the right drug could prove the difference between relaxing the two infected crew members and putting then out for hours. She had little choice but to choose a sedative that she would have to overdose the two with. Grabbing a gas syringe, Porter stopped before turning away. She grabbed several more ampules, tucking them into the chest pocket of her coveralls.

A quick glance out of the medical section, she closed and locked the doors behind her, heading back to the steps and, from there, the passage to the rear of the ship. She had never spent much time back here. It was the domain of Mats and she didn't suffer people invading her province. That she had said little when Finnegan had set out to do the engine repairs said much about the state of the environmental systems.

Before heading further into the relative unknown, Porter pressed an ampule into the gas syringe, checking that it sat right twice. All she needed was to distract Finnegan long enough to press the nozzle against his neck and push the button, compressed gasses sending the drug into the skin and the bloodstream. It would take a second or two to take effect, but it would do the trick. If it didn't kill him at this dosage.

Now she wished she had the silence of the rest of the ship as she pulled herself along the guiding rail. Here, countless moving parts and systems hissed and ground together. She hadn't the first idea how any of this worked, even though everyone had to pass through basic maintenance before getting the chance to head out into space.