The Sun Rises

Chapter Two

"I just came inside and started to warm up when I noticed they weren't at their stations. I found them semi-conscious in the hall." Renna says.

"What? Are they hurt?" Dave asks.

"Not that I can tell. I can't see any obvious wounds but I've moved them into the infirmary and I'm running a scan. Sade seemed much worse than Jonlin. He's woken up a bit on the way over but never long enough to say a complete sentence and she's been out the whole time. They both seem to be in pain. Both coughing and moaning but Sade more so." Muffled sounds make it through the coms. "They're getting worse. I'm gonna go in... Jonlin's waking up!"

"Be careful! We don't know what we're dealing with." He says as the infirmary doors hiss open.

"I am. I triple checked them with the bio-scanners and all results were negative." She replies.

Yeah, and we know who supplied those.

"Renna?" Another voice comes through the coms.

"Yes. You need to stay awake, Jonlin." She quickly taps several buttons. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"We were working at our stations like normal." A fit of coughs shakes him and that static jumps slightly. "When shifts started we both felt pretty rubbish but we decided to press on. At first, it was nothing but dead ends like the past six days but then we started making progress. I noticed I was feeling worse and Sade said she was too. But neither of us wanted to stop when things were finally moving. Then it turned out to be another dead end. It was horrible. Then we felt upset and sick. She was convinced that we missed something. Something about complex structures. She said we were close. I couldn't see anything from a chemical or material standpoint so I suggested taking a break. She agreed and said she was gonna take a hot shower to relax. And that they usually make her feel better. I went to the kitchen for a bite." Sade gets a fit of coughs and moans in pain. A couple button taps and the moans fade while the static increases.

"That's weird." Says Renna. She messes with another control panel. "Interference is getting worse. That should work for now though." Jonlin does his best to continue.

"Less than ten minutes later she called me from the hallway outside the showers in bad shape. She was trying to tell me something but collapsed before she could finish. All she got out was 'It's intelligent... mimicking... Orchid Mantis...' before she passed out. I ran down there and tried getting her to the infirmary but passed out when I tried to pick her up. The last thing I saw was Sadie lying in my arms in pain." Says Jonlin holding back tears. He's clearly in a lot of pain himself despite what Dave assumes is a large dose of meds.

"That's awful. I'm glad I found you before something worse happened." Renna is clearly shaken. What is going on? "Sade must have found something. Or figured something out." She says.

"But what could it be?" Asks Jonlin.

"And what does 'Orchid Mantis' mean? What's the significance?" Dave asks.

"It sounds familiar but I can't place it. Her expertise was in xenobiology and genetics so we should start there." Renna says.

"Yeah, maybe it's the name of some kind of organism. Although that still doesn't help us understand what's going on. And what's with all the sudden interference?" He says.

"We were looking at the molecular structure of the Mercurium. Was she talking about the sludge? There were things we couldn't identify but to say that inanimate matter is somehow intelli..." Jonlin says as coughs start to rack his body. Then he starts to convulse and slips out of consciousness. The static gets even worse.

"No. No. No!" Says Renna. Dave can hear her racing to help him. Then Sade starts to convulse as well. It's getting hard to make out what they're saying.