Geminus Anomaly (Novella)

BLOODLOSS

Medical Bay 5 | 04:07 

Stanley Adkens ran his hands over limbs, squeezing ribs and legs briefly. Subject 78-B didn't seem to be in any pain. It was an anomaly: aside from a cut across the scalp, it was fine. "I told you."

"That right? I don't remember you saying anything about rapid healing, Prescott. I can't find anything that comes close to the wound needed to leak that much blood."

"Doc said that Team C is cleared from medical. Nothing but surface wounds and a few bruises."

"Nothing from the 78-B?"

"All clean."

"That just doesn't make sense." Stanley runs his gloved hand over his eyes. The silicon blue clean of everything that should be on the gloves. "Where did all of that blood come from?"

Ava Prescott blinks her eyes up at Stanley. Her face was just as annoyed as his. The vital signs in the print report are constant with a healing body, meaning there should have a bruise or a scab, but when they've finally managed to lift the thing onto the table and clean it, everything on the surface was perfect flesh.

"Maybe they hit something on the way in." The rookie stepped into the chamber between surgery and observation, his left-hand flat on the comms, so Stanley and Prescott can hear him. He wasn't cleared to be in the surgery, but his badge let him into the closest space to it.

"It was certainly dark enough." Prescott surrendered with a sign. She sets the file closed on the assistant's table, which is empty save her cup of stale coffee since no surgery actually happened; everything in the room was cleared an hour or two ago.

Stanley's own cup lays empty at his feet. He was barely listening to the two of them. Instead, he was watching its ribs move in a steady rhythm, his hand flat on his thigh.

"Stan?" Prescott has her eyes on the medical tech. A little triangle on her forehead.

"What?"

"I'm calling it. Doc said you needed rest, and this isn't helping you." She's already taker her own set of gloves off. The fingers of which are peaking out of her lab coat pocket. Stanley relents with a snap of his own gloves against his wrist. He pulls from the tips of his fingers, one by one.

"You're right."

"Ask Wren about the Wrangler when you see her." Prescott shot him a grin, "and mention the cage, will you? It'll need repairs."

"Could the blood be from another animal?" Stanley said, thinking out loud. He dropped his gloves in the wastebasket by the door. Prescott palms the keypad. The light blinks at the two of them before it registered. With a hiss of air, the surgery opens into the chamber. "A hunt, maybe. The blood could be from its prey."

"How much do you think it eats?" Archie shoots the two medical staff a wide-eyed look. Sometimes after taking a trip to the vending machine, the rookie had settled his feet up and no longer needed to speak through the coms.

"Less than you. Considerably less than you."

"I'm a growing boy, Stan. What can I say?"

"Growing gut out, Archie." 

"With that, I'm going to take my leave. See you, boys, tomorrow." Another hiss of air and the door closed behind her. Prescott's marked lab coat hangs from the hook, gloves still sticking out of the pocket. Stanley sheds him, placing it up next to hers. The sweepers will come by and take them to be cleaned, and tomorrow, another will be in its place. The director had put that in place after a chemical spill leaked onto the floor in the chamber. The medical staff got strung out for that one.

"I'm going to retire too, Arch. Do you mind setting the TRACE? Use my pin."

"Not planning on getting much sleep, then?"

"You heard Ava. I'm going to find Wren. That alone could take all night." Archie settled his feet on the ground. Using them to push the small stool across the chamber grid floor. He punched in Stanley's code and waited for the blinking to change from red to green. A single line of green comes across the bottom of the screen. Spouting code and keystroke counters.

"Spider-monkey. That girl is a spider monkey."

"That she is." Archie waited till the door hissed behind Stanley. He waited till he couldn't hear the technicians limping gait shuffle down the hallway.

When Archie was sure he was alone, he reached into his pocket for another wrapped candy. The last in the vending machine. Above him, the lights flickered again, the only sign that the storm was still affecting the compound. He didn't even note it. Tents had been through more than a few storms.

The trace blinks with loss of power. Losing about ten seconds of code while it does. It would be nothing the rookie would find as an anomaly in his report tomorrow, and it wouldn't be anything the datatechs cared enough to mention. But in those ten seconds, the creature on the table blinked awake.

/unedited