Entity [ONC 2024]

13

With the privacy windows activated, Porter set the medical scanner to work. Getting Finnegan to the medical section had not proved as difficult as she feared, with the help of Ndara, but they had still needed to show care. The captain still roamed free and Ndara had said he had collected Mats along the way. That could mean nothing, but it could also mean that they now had Mats to contend with. This infection, this parasite, wanted to spread, to multiply and if the captain had become exposed, the parasite would no doubt have taken the opportunity to spread to Mats.

"I still cannot believe what you are saying." Ndara hovered at Porter's shoulder. "The captain seemed fine."

"Yeah. I've heard that a lot." As the scanner moved up and down Finnegan's secured body, she scowled at Ndara. "And stay by the doors! If anyone sets foot in here, you sedate them! We'll apologise later if we have to."

Ndara tapped the gas-powered syringe against his palm, frowning at Porter but, under her unwavering gaze, he demurred and moved to stand at the side of the sliding doors. Porter needed time to figure out whether Finnegan had only changed due to the concussion, or from something far more sinister.

The scanner took in all the technologies that would once have filled entire hospital floors at one time. From X-ray, to Magnetic Resonance Imaging. From ultrasound to electroencephalography. The entire gamut of medical investigation. At least the corporates hadn't skimped on that. As the results started to filter through, Porter noticed a twitch in Finnegan's fingers.

He had already taken more sedatives than any human could ordinarily withstand and live, yet his heart continued to beat, fast, but strong. She saw no reason how a concussion could cause that. As she adjusted the scan, she reached across and increased the intravenous drip, giving Finnegan even more sedatives. An amount that could knock out an elephant, by now. It seemed that he, or the entity within him, continued to adapt and overcome her attempts to keep him unconscious.

"Porter?" Through the earpiece, Chen's welcome voice interrupted Porter's concentration. "I need updates. The captain's outside demanding I open the door. And, Porter? Mats is with him. I can't ignore her, Porter."

"I know. I know. Just ... stay the course. I've nearly worked out what's happening." Porter lifted her hand, switching off the earpiece without ending the conversation. "Fuck me."

"What is it?" Ndara called from the door, itching to return to her side. "What have you found?"

"Nothing I've ever seen before." She transferred the images to the larger screen and gaped at what she saw. "This is ... this ... I just don't know what the fuck this is."

She zoomed in to the upper torso and head, turning the three-dimensional images to look at Finnegan's back. To his neck. Something sat at the base of his skull. At the base of his brain, for the sake of accuracy. Something that coiled around the spinal cord, that had tendrils growing and penetrating into Finnegan's brain, worming their way deep into his brain matter, with one especially dense set of tendrils almost entirely covering, and penetrating, the cerebral cortex.

To one side, she saw Finnegan's brain patterns, muted, but still functional. But there was something else there, too. A second set of brainwave patterns, stronger, that sat above Finnegan's. And a second set of bodily functions. A second heartbeat. The entity existed. She could see it, right there, feeding upon Finnegan, controlling him. Or worse.

"What is that?" Abandoning his position, yet again, Ndara bounced under the low gravity of the spinning rotunda, closer, his hand reaching out to the images. "Is it killing him?"

"No, I think it's sustaining him. It shares characteristics of both a parasite and a symbiote. My medical training could never have prepared me for this." She zoomed in even further. "Those tendrils, they've burrowed into every area of his brain, I couldn't remove it if I tried. I don't think anyone could. And this ..."