Distance

Reaction

Chapter Five

Reaction

"James." Dallas contacted with a concerned look on his face. "We've got another problem. You're not gonna like this."

"Do I ever like it?"

"The ship's automatic readout scanners just picked up a massive energy surge in the ship's Core Reactor. It looks like the Particle Accelerator is being depleted...rapidly."

"The Reactor is shutting down."

"Exactly. And when that happens the ship will enter orbital decay. The Provenience will crash into the surface of Polyphemus's moon, Ostensus, and according to the ship's computer, eighty percent of the ship will remain intact for the impact, twelve percent will remain after impact. But everyone on board will have either died in the searing heat clouds or burned in the Hydrogen-Nitrogen atmosphere."

"How long do we have?"

"A little over two hours. It must be that woman. I can't tell where exactly she's shutting it down from but there are only four places on the ship she could do that from: The bridge, the ship's secondary control room in the crew deck, the Captain's quarters, or the reactor control centre. From what I can tell, the command signal for the deactivation protocol on the reactor came from the secondary control room in the crew deck. But earlier there was another signal that came from the Captain's quarters."

"Keep trying, I can't keep running around cleaning up her mess."

"Yeah,sure, but James, you'd better get going."

"Yeah,I'lll et you know when I get over there."

"We'll keep in touch."

James reactivated his helmet and checked his bolt gun before setting off for the maglev tramway again. The darkness of the ship was unsettling to walk through, especially knowing the dangers that lurked there, but James continued regardless, still keeping hope that the others, including Miranda, we still alive, hiding it beneath his pessimistic exterior. Heading down the hallway leading to the tramway James found another log, an audio log from Engineer Edna Grey. James activated it and stopped to listen.

"This is Ultima Biologist Edna Grey. UEC Provenience. Ultima Industries. October 12th, 2424. The Captain and the First Mate have been talking about something, something on the ship. MacReady thinks it's a new species of alien. I doubt it. From what I've heard over their conversations, it'snot living. But it is causing a lot of talk among other crew members. Whatever it is, it'son this ship, I'm sure of that. I started looking for whatever it is a few days ago,after I heard MacReady talking about something moving around and screaming down by the Core Reactor. Mills and Tate just brushed it off as a crew member with Elysium Effect but I don'tthink that's what it was. He looked scared, really scared. I had never seen morefear in a man's eyes than I did in MacReady's that day. I went looking for whatever is on this ship, whatever Ultima Industries is hiding from us, yesterday. I got near the restricted areas of the cargo hold and the Core Reactor areas before a group of armed security soldiers stopped me. Whatever it is, they really don't want us finding it, it's deep within this ship. I'm gonna keep looking into this, keep MacReady at arm's length...I think something's wrong with him, PTSD, whatever. He hasn't been right since he saw what he saw down there that day. Whoever finds this...be careful. Ultima Industries is definitely hiding secrets on this ship...they need to be brought out. This is Biologist Edna Grey, signing off"

James then got back to getting to the tramway. Placing the audio log back down before turning around to face the tramway to suddenly see a Hunter emerging from a vent panel in the ceiling. James'reflexes weren't fast enough...the Hunter knocked his bolt rifle away before grabbing hold of him with its four sharp-ended appendages and attempting to bite and kill him. James began struggling, attempting to force the creature away before finally using his IPGM to send one of the Hunter's arms into cryo. James then knocked the Hunter away before drawing his Plasma pistol and shooting the creature's head right off, killing it. James fixed a piece of his now damaged armour as he looked at the body of the creature before heading over to grab his Bolt rifle back. However, he found himself paused by a realization. James went over and went down on one knew to grab the patch on the shoulder of the clothing covering the creature to read the bloodied nametag. Realizing...the nametag read "Edna Grey".