Quarters | 04:25
Wren uses the bed frame to drag herself upright, one leg hanging over the raised bed's left side, rolling a stress ball under her foot.
Her attention's only half on the blue scrubbed ball under her heel. The rest is focused on the regulation monitors at the end of her twin bed, each casting a dull white light back at Wren's face. The strip lighting slicing her green eyes into thirds.
The live footage from medical is being loaded onto the smaller of the view-screens. A single blue line layered over a bitmapped loading bar occasionally flashes — Wrens leg swings to the blinking beat.
The loading sequence rests at ninety-four percent before it shuts off and opens onto all four screens. The log-in and data bars spread along the bottom, resting and expanding depending on the footage Wren clicks on.
TENTS77854-Cormac E. Welsch: user log-in. Successful.
Access granted - Medical Surveillance Loading.
The footage opens in corridor A17 just outside Medical Bay 5.
The audio comes through first. A layered noise of voices, the rhythm of boots, and the metallic crack from the access electrical interference thanks to the storm outside the compound. The result is a distortion in the sound that's more static than anything else.
The footage reloads, separating inches of screen in a wave line. A remnant of the TRACE activation blip and a sign that Cormac is doing his job. It gives Wren a few extra minutes to poke around on the security server using Cormacs I.D.
Less red tape this way.
One of the Medtech walks into the frame. Archie Grant. Rookie by nickname and reputation. He sure looks the part being the only one in medical, not in a starched lab coat.
The lights in corridor A17 are all motion activated. A trend that's spreading to the other areas of Tents. Cost-saving or something. The strip lighting anticipates Archies' destination, highlighting all of the other corridors and blinking shut behind him.
Wren follows Archie. When he walks out of frame, she changes her view, going between corridors and restricted labs, using her extra time for mild amusement — waiting for him to walk right up to the lab she wanted.
All of the data entries she went through cut short when TRACE went down, making it impossible to figure out where they brought the thing she was looking for.
The chip in Wren's ear beeps twice.
"You in bed?" Stanley's voice floods her comms. There's a hiss of air through the chip on his side.
"I am." Wren changes the footage again following Archies lead. There are only two more people in the medical wing, finishing testing in sealed labs a floor above him. Judging by his relaxed movements, Archie must be alone for the night.
"Want company?"
"Depends. Can you tell me about your day? Anything exciting happens?" Lab 5-1. Stanley's lab, and it just so happens to be the same one Archies walking into.
"Classified, but I can bring dinner, or I guess it would be breakfast." Wren clicks after him, typing in the lab designation on the view-screen monitor. The security override was easy enough now that she had a destination and not just a series of empty hallways.
Archies got his feet high on the control counter, hands unwrapping a candy bar. No doubt from the vending machine one floor up.
Wren eyes the timer, counting down her free minutes. She has maybe ten minutes left before Cormac needs to log in to input all of Archies scans. Just like she told him to.
"Fruit-loops?" Stanley lets out a breath. A laugh.
"I can deliver. Leave the door unlocked."
"Should you be walking around on that leg of yours?" Wren keeps her tone light, knowing that he'd clamp up if he thought she was babying him even if that's what she was doing.
"I've been cleared for all kinds of exercise." A ping echo's in Wren's ear, followed by the sound of aimless chatter and the steady rhythm of feet. He's made it up to the cafeteria.
"The doors unlocked. Don't spill my cereal." Wren taps her chip, cutting the link.
Wren eyes the glass separating the rookie and the classified thing on the table in the surgery suite. The light from the chamber reflects through the glass in two almost circles. It blinks.
A space about a foot wide on the cameras left corner shows a slice of the surgery suite. The bottom of the metal slab table is visible along with Archies' brown shoes' tips in the two-way glass. Archie throws his balled up candy wrapper in the wastebasket by his colleagues' lab coats.
He misses.
The wrapper lands in the corner about a foot off target. The rookie grunts lifting himself off the chair he'd placed himself in. The cushions moulded into their new shape.
The restricted lab access door's entirely out of frame, but the red wrapper's reflection is visible enough to Wren. She watches Archie palm the plastic before pocketing it.
Wren transfers the footage to the surgery suite. She's leaning over the view-screen, ignoring the timer counting down against automatic disconnection. Because of the storm interference, the footage lags. The dark shadows spreading as the camera adjusts to the dark corners of the room.
Over the next fifteen seconds, the frame rate catches up with the footage input.
Wren's stomach drops out of her body. The restricted access door is open about a hand width, and there's a spattered mess of crimson dripping from the hanging lab coats.
TENTS087-Cormac E. Welsch: user log-in. Disconnected.
YOU ARE READING
Geminus Anomaly (Novella)
Short StoryOne dead. One sedated. One awake. The risks were simple. If anything were to have gone wrong, the entire lab was to be decommissioned. The entire project terminated. All personal included, no loose ends. - - - - Director, it's Dr Prescott. I've j...
