Entity [ONC 2024]

15

Something was wrong. Mats stopped her forward momentum, holding on to a pipe that must have scolded the flesh of her hand, but she showed no discomfort at all. Her head turned one way and then the other, eyes narrowing, and Porter held her breath. It was as though Mats, or the entity inside her, could sense the trap waiting for her.

She remained at the threshold of the doorway, hovering, head tilting in an inhuman fashion. Once again, her head turned, eyes passing across every piece of equipment, every length of piping, flickering toward escaping gasses as they hissed their release. For long moments, those unblinking eyes lingered upon the pipes that Porter huddled behind.

"I'm afraid you have made another error, Samantha." GAIA, her voice rising almost as though Porter had irritated the AI. "You must reset the system and start again, or risk critically damaging the engines."

The AI was improvising and Porter had to adjust her idea of what GAIA actually was. AI's weren't programmed for improvisation. They followed set patterns, their coding unchangeable. Somehow, GAIA had realised that Porter needed help, or perhaps she had simply become engrossed in the 'game'. Either way, it had the effect of catching Mats' attention. Her head whipped around, toward where she knew Porter must be to perform the engine shutdown, and reached up for the guiding rail to pull herself along.

Porter waited until Mats had passed beyond sight, and then a little longer, before she could force herself to move. Slipping out from behind the piping, she, too, reached a trembling hand up toward the guiding rail and began to pull herself in the opposite direction. Once past the threshold, she released her breath, spun in the air and slammed a hand against the engineering section's door release. It slid closed, juddering through lack of use.

"GAIA, cut off all internal communications from the engineering section and lock the door!" As she heard the satisfying sound of bolts sliding into place, Porter laid her forehead against the cold metal. "Thank you, GAIA. You're doing so well. Keep playing the game through the rest of the ship."

It wouldn't hold. Not against the mechanical brilliance of Mats, but it should keep her former colleague occupied. Porter only needed to push herself away, to continue with the rest of the plan, but she couldn't move. The palms of her hands pressed against the door. It was the only way she could stop them from shaking. Her chest felt so tight, her head pounding with an ache caused by all the stress and adrenaline that continued to course through her. It wasn't over. Far from it.

Thoughts of her parents came, unbidden, to her mind. They had always wanted the best for her, had cheered when Porter had decided to study medicine, but they had vehemently disagreed with her choice to go into space. They feared they would never see her again and Porter now realised those fears could well become realised. Billions of miles from the safety, the comfort, of Earth, and her parents. She hadn't communicated with them in months.

Her fingers coiled into fists. She wasn't going to let that happen without a fight. She couldn't. A sharp push and she sent herself floating along the corridor, turning in the air and reaching for the guiding rail as GAIA continued her instruction monologue over the ship's speakers. More remained to do before she could finish this and, if nothing else, the way Mats had reacted showed that she had been right. Right about the parasitic entity and right about the captain. Three crew members turned, three remaining. If she could get herself, Ndara and Chen out of this, she would count that as a win.

Reaching the Rotunda once again, she showed caution. Here, the bright lights and sterile white walls greeted her. A complete contrast from the dull lighting and dark spaces of the engineering section, but no less worrying. With only a glance, she could see that the medical section door had opened and she didn't need to look inside to know that Finnegan no longer lay sedated within. Of course he wasn't. That would make things far too easy.