Eve On Station

Chapter Twenty

Ensign Steven Horowitz was getting really bored. He knew guarding the safe cabin where the Earth Agent Thea Ferguson was stashed was important, but it was also horribly boring. He heard footsteps coming from around the corner in the direction of the lift and looked that way with his hand resting dutifully on the grip of his stun weapon. He relaxed when he saw Mrs. Waverly come around the corner, the middle aged woman who lived one door on the other side of the one he was guarding had become a familiar sight. Mrs. Waverly had gone out an hour or so ago to get something to eat and had even stopped to offer to get him something, an offer he had been forced to decline due to being on duty.

"Hello Mrs. Waverly," Horowitz greeted her, "did you get the teriyaki chicken after all?"

Mrs. Waverly paused and looked for a second as if she didn't know what he was talking about, but then smiled and nodded, "Yes, it was very good." By this time, the middle aged woman had come even with Horowitz and started to reach out a hand towards him. Horowitz didn't understand what she was doing this for and then he felt a searing pain in his chest.

*

"Horowitz, come in," called Eve into her wrist communicator, but there was no answer. Eve swore and pressed a series of buttons on her device. A few seconds later an alarm began to ring throughout the station.

"Ms. Gold, what the fuck is going on?" demanded Katherine Reynolds a few seconds later. "Why did you declare a station wide red alert without clearing it with me first."

"Frankly Kathy, I don't have time to chat," replied Eve heading for the door to Medical. "If we are all still alive in a few hours, I will explain then. Right now, I recommend you get to your emergency station." Eve cut off the Station Administrator's protests and turned to the others in the room. "You three with me," she said indicating the Security trio. "Null, I suspect you will be needed in Engineering and Dr. Lee, stand by with a medical team, but keep them off Plus Six level until I can secure it." With that, Eve bolted for the lift and everyone scrambled to follow her instructions without bothering to ask questions.

"Just be careful, I still want that third date," Null called after Eve as they headed for the Engineering lift.

The red alert Eve had declared meant that everyone was to clear the halls and public spaces to go to their designated emergency stations, or to the closest safe site if too far away to reach their designated location in five minutes. After that, safety doors and bulkheads would start slamming into place to create airtight compartments in the case of depressurization elsewhere on the station. It might not save many people if there was some catastrophic event, but it might save a few at least and it was the best Eve could do at the moment.

Sam, Singh and Fitzgibbons followed Eve into the lift and Eve didn't even consider telling Fitzgibbons that he was supposed to be resting. She knew he wouldn't have listened to her if she had and she was probably going to need him. "These things have claws that can eviscerate you even if they look human, so use your batons and try and keep your distance if you can," she said briskly as the lift reached Plus Six and she exited the lift at full speed. That meant, Eve was a good ten meters ahead of the trio when she rounded the corner and saw Horowitz's body lying in a growing pool of blood. There were half a dozen Hunters near the door, which had just been forced open to let the being who had been impersonating Thea Ferguson to emerge.

"Kill her," the imposter said to the Hunters and pointed at Eve.

Eve barreled into the squad of Hunters like a bowling ball trying to knock over as many pins as she could to let her allies get a chance to use their batons to take them out before they could recover. She managed to take four of the six down, but went down herself. Rolling to her feet, Eve dodged a claw swipe from one of the two Hunters remaining upright and then punched the Hunter in the face sending it staggering backwards. By then the other three security personnel had reached the fight and started swinging their batons. Blows, however, that would likely have rendered a human unconscious merely staggered the Hunters briefly and Sam, Singh and Fitzgibbons were all hard pressed to hold off one of the Hunters. The fourth Hunter who Eve had initially taken down took advantage of Singh being engaged with his foe to attack and the Sikh went down with a scream of pain.