Physics of the Crowbar

Up Reactor

The big steel roll-up door at the back of the loading bay was closed. He heard the shuffling, grunting movement of alien soldiers, but no whir of projectiles. Perfect, they were standing around waiting for him. Round three of the gauntlet.

He had one explosive pack he'd picked up from a supply cache hours ago and been saving for a special occasion.

He keyed the door's up-arrow, slid the pack through the gap, slammed the reverse button and detonated the pack. Metal screamed and the door buckled outward. Dust and smoke hazed the air, carrying with it the stench of burned flesh. He stepped through the gap, shotgun up, and finished off the last two wounded grunts.

The next loading door had been hastily welded shut, but there was a light on in the bay office, and he saw movement. White-coated shoulders, grey hair. Human. He climbed the ladder and rapped on the door.

A stranger stared at him through the observation window, then opened the door. "Freeman!" he said. "You're alive!" He was trembling all over. "I heard the explosion and I feared the worst. Those... things have been out there since yesterday. Just waiting. I've been hiding here since then. I am supposed to wait for you and let you in. This is the last entrance, you see. I was to let you in if you made it. Yes. Open the door." His eyes darted over Freeman, outside, to the windows, and back to Freeman's face. He sat down suddenly in the office chair before the little observation desk and put his face in his hands. "Let Freeman in. Just let him in, and that's all. Short straw, you see. Three of us. Three short straws. Something else... let me think."

Freeman waited. He sat on a laboratory supply crate, glad to take weight off his feet, and let the man work through his anxiety attack. The explosion may not have been the most subtle entrance, but it had been effective. Freeman could hardly blame the man for coming unglued around the edges, if he'd spent the last twenty-four hours hunkered in a fishbowl of an office while the grunts prowled outside, sent to wait and die for a man who might never show up at all.

Three men? Yes, there was blood splatter on the walls. Drag marks. Parasites, maybe. Or suicide.

"The reactor. It's powered down. Emergency protocols. As you go up, flood the tanks and turn it on. It'll open the door. Yes. That's it. Open Freeman's door, then Freeman opens the reactor door. Find the teleportation labs. Upstairs. Not authorized. You are not authorized. But you must go up." His eyes went wide, white-rimmed and bloodshot, and he deflated like an empty sack into the chair. "That's all," he said. "That's all I have."

Freeman nodded his thanks to the man, but knew he didn't see it. The eyes were unfocused, staring up at the cheap tile drop-ceiling. The man had existed in a state of panic for days, been sent to do one job that would almost certainly kill him, and now he'd finished it. Maybe he'd sleep for a few hours and wake up better, or maybe he'd walk out the door and off the catwalk and let himself fall.

A job to do. A door to open. A reactor to start. Unlike the man in the chair, Freeman still had work in front of him. He slid off the crate, rearranged his arsenal for best access to the shotgun, and followed the drab grey corridors out of the office.

He found a suit repair box, a surprisingly advanced one, at the lift. The suit tightened around him as the fibers energized and reorganized themselves. He winced as it moved over scars and tugged on half-regrown flesh, but it was worth the small discomforts to see the hole in the leg armor close. The orange plating was still ruptured but at least the underlayment was solid again. He felt more secure, being unable to feel air on his skin below the neck.

The lift took him down to the reactor basement. He followed yellow arrows towards maintenance and auxiliary tank access. He saw blood splatter, brought up the shotgun, and dodged the searing green flash of a pentapod discharge. Two of them crouched over a dead technician, claws and jaws bloody. They'd been feeding. He shot them both as they recharged their strange energy weapon.