Europa Mon Amour

Chapter 18

I slowly made my way to the bottom of the shuttle and began my search for the last hitchhiking creature. The SOB had wedged itself into where a landing strut connects to the bottom section of the shuttle. I looked at it and knew that what I was about to do next would be dangerous. If the damn thing jumped on me, I would be a goner. I had to make sure that I stunned it enough to get it into the SCC.

I slowly moved the shock stick into the crevice where the creature was located. It didn’t react to my move, and that’s what I wanted. But when I moved the stick closer, it swiped its claw at it. I had to take a bold move or it would be game over. I quickly pushed the stick into the creature and activated the shocking mechanism at full power. Electrical sparks flashed into brilliant balls of fire. The creature tried to get out, but I kept up the attack and subdued it. All that remained was for me to sweep the damn thing into the container and secure the lid. I felt a surge of fear, but I overcame it and used the stick to whack the creature into the container. I wasted no time in screwing down the lid.

“I got you,” I yelled, mostly to myself because no one was listening. “I got you, you dirty bastard!”

I saw a big smile on Marie’s face when I appeared at the hatch. I tossed the SCC in and unhooked my safety cable before entering and closing the hatch.

“I got the damn thing,” I told her. “Now we can move this shuttle into the bay.”

“Thank goodness,” she said in a weak voice.

“COMA, open the bay hatch.”

I watched the hatch slowly move up and lock into place. I used the joystick to turn the shuttle around backwards and then I used the thrusters to slowly back it into the bay. Once inside, COMA closed the hatch. Now comes the fun part. I have to get Marie and me out of the spacesuits and ready to go through decontamination. Since Marie had a possible broken leg, the task fell to me to keep her from suffering further injury.

But first, I had to get out of my suit.

“Gee,” she said grinning with difficulty. “I haven’t had anyone strip me before.”

I returned a strong smile. “Believe me, the pleasure is mine, but it’s not going to be easy in zero gravity.”

“You can do it, Ryan Taylor,” she said. “You are my hero.”

I didn’t feel like a hero. I felt like a damn fool for allowing the military to trick us into coming here and risking our lives for something that should be left alone. This creature is dangerous and a threat to humanity. Those bastards think it’s a weapon. They’re nuts. But, I felt that the creature would never make a good weapon because it had a one-track mind. All it wanted to do is eat other living things.

After I stripped her, I grabbed her under her arms and moved her to the decontamination chamber. We had to go through decontamination in order to enter the tunnel that led to the crew compartment. We were bathed with mist and then blasted with air at high velocity. It was as if we were in a hurricane. We shielded our eyes from intense UV and then watched the hatch to the tunnel open. I dragged Marie through the tunnel and tried as best I could not to have her collide with anything.

“COMA, reduce the G-force to 0.25.”

A lower gravity would make it easier for me to get her down to the bottom of the wheel, but it was still a chore. I just didn’t want to cause her more harm. After I got her down to the wheel’s floor, I literally carried her to the Auto-Doctor. Once I got her strapped onto the examination table, I activated the doctor. It didn’t take long for the system to identify the problem.

“Patient has a fracture of the lateral tibial plateau of her left leg, accompanied by a mild knee effusion.”

Give me a break. “Show the image.”