Humanity Endures

Part 9 - Infiltration | Chapter 3

Falmenec grimaced in pain, the gaping hole in his stomach, which was closing rapidly under the supervision of the pair of medics, causing him great agony; despite this, agonizingly drawing air into his mostly intact lungs, Falmenec spat back, "What in the Empire's name do you think happened? While the room was busy being blown up and gassed, I, in the chaos, was dragged here by a trio of aliens and almost killed! That's the whole story!"

While Falmenec, his innards dangerously close to becoming his outards, winced in pain, Velan's mind raced: a trio of aliens?

Velan saw only two alien corpses in the bloodied hallway, and a brief textcomm exchange with the marines who had saved Falmenec confirmed that only two had been slain: there was an alien running amok throughout the halls of the space station, and it was now too far away to hunt down. No doubt, the creature would start corrupting parts of the station; this revelation sent chilling sensations of despair racing down Velan's spine, as he imagined the ship which harbored him looking like a smaller version of the Cesspit. Velan was now competing against a merciless clock; to survive, he would need information, and Falmenec wasn't providing him with any. Masking his terror, Velan shot back a displeased glare that practically screamed "Elaborate," and "Stop being insubordinate," simultaneously. Falmenec sighed, though this caused him visible pain, and elaborated as per Velan's request.

"While the entire room was being rattled and stunned, those who were sitting next to me — Dacaemry from the Nemesis, and two Kalithiharians — partly transformed, grabbed me by the arms, and forced me into this hallway where they tried to kill me. It was only through the intervention of those three"—Falmenec cocked his head towards the marines a fair distance away from himself, though even this small motion shifted enough of his mangled body around that he yelped in abject pain a moment later—"That I survived, that two of the aliens were killed, and that, thanks to these kind medics, I'll remain human," he managed to finish, before swearing at least five times consecutively due to the pain.

Velan nodded, content with the answer he had received, and pitying the man before him all the while. A male medic adjacent Velan then inhaled sharply, and, the following instant, sprayed microbial shield over Falmenec's wounded back, reducing the man into a convulsing wreck of groans and shrieks as his genetically-enhanced body, aided by the goop, began to stitch his insides back together and fight the alien corruption. Such a treatment was effective, as microbial shield could heal damaged flesh just as it could slowly heal damaged metal, but it was, as could be seen by merely glancing at the thrashing Falmenec, unimaginably painful. Microbial shield was never meant to be used this way, or even on exposed human flesh, but the Empire's warships were never meant to fight alien ones, and Velan was never meant to turn a Kalithiharian space station into a space ship and fly it to Ihndrastar — adaptation was not always pretty, painless or elegant, but it was necessary. As the medics had used up so much MECS during the multiple battles they had endured, they could not spare any such medicine for Falmenec; in the absence of pain-reducing drugs, using microbial shield on an open wound was one of the most agonizing medical operations someone could go through, but Velan's medics deemed MECS something better spent during a battle, and their captain agreed with them. Velan did realize, however, that if he were the one writhing on the blood-stained ground, he might not have agreed so heartily with the rationing.

As his friend quickly recovered from the torturous procedure, Velan's mind pondered the implications of Falmenec's alien maiming, and these were almost as concerning as the loose alien itself. It provided concrete proof that there were alien infiltrators amongst not only his crew, but the Kalithiharians as well; it also meant that these aliens were numerous enough to possibly sacrifice three of their number, for trying to leave the room at that point had been a risky endeavor indeed. The fact that one of the aliens had escaped meant that there was an alien monster free to corrupt with impunity, for attempting to locate a single creature in such a massive station with so few crew members was an impossibility. No one could be trusted completely, Velan realized, save himself, and Falmenec; worse still, every second of time was now critical, as it would not take long for the loose alien to turn the station itself into a festering nightmare.