struggled to search for the dispenser. His insides heaved, and the air inside almost ran out before he snatched one from a set of masks hanging next to the doorway. There were aprons and gloves as well. He saw the doctor wearing some, so he grabbed a set and donned the apparel.
“What is it?” he asked.
Paul stared down at the three-foot lizard-like animal. It was no bigger than a dog and had a tongue at least a foot in length that hung down from its tiny mouth. Its skin was thick and bumpy and the color was a dark gray with spots of olive drab. He had to wear a hat like that once.
“An alien creature of some kind,” Dr. Hendrix replied. “Look here.” The doctor peeled over a flap of skin near the side of its head. “Aural senses, I think, but the insides are red with irritation. You said the creature screamed when it heard the emergency transport?”
“Yeah, actually. It was right after.”
“And these eyes. Huge pupils. Dilated even in this light. It’s no surprise the attack happened at night.”
“What do you mean, doc?”
“Sound and light must hurt this creature. Immensely.”
“I don’t get it. What kind of living animal can’t deal with those things?”
“Well, occasionally, you do find some extremophiles, but I don’t think this one came from a planet.”
“If it’s an alien, then where else?”
Dr. Hendrix took a step back. His gloved hands were covered in alien blood and fluids. Despite his cleanly nature, it didn’t take a genius to realize that he was having a field day with this one. Paul sized him up and wondered if the reason the doctor called him in here was for two questions. Dr. Hendrix motioned for his nurses to leave and after the doors closed shut again, he continued.
“I believe this creature lives in deep space. No light. No sound. The ears are practically vestigial.”
“So it came from a planet.”
“At one point, yes, but this alien can survive in space and it probably has for some time. I tracked the first instance the infection to around 6 hours after we came out of FTL.”
“So, it got inside,” he said.
“You have to keep this a secret, Paul,” Dr. Hendrix said, moving in close. “The next person to hear about this should be the captain. Not another in between.”
The operating room wasn’t exactly sound proof, but he got the message. The creature was dead and a cure for the infection was a matter of time. The last thing the Colony needed was a panic in the first quarter after Cryo.
“I’ll deliver the message personally,” he replied.
“Go over to my computer, Mr. Taggart,” Doc said, pointing over to the corner with a gloved hand. “You can open a communication channel from there, and he can see it for himself.”
“On it,” Paul said and raced over to the console.
He pulled off his gloves and tapped a few keys to bring up the screen. Dr. Hendrix had his default username on screen, but the passcode bar was empty. Paul was about to open his mouth and ask, but a sequence of characters scrolled across and began filling up the screen. The same phrase repeated over again as blocks of red text and black background covered the computer monitor. Destroy them all. Destroy them all. Destroy them all.
“Uh, doc,” he said, “Is it supposed to do this?”
“My password is…” but Paul cut him off.
“No, you need to come look at this.”
Before the doctor could reply, a nurse bolted into the operating room.
“Doctor … they’re all …”
“What? What is it?”
“They’re filled with this,” Paul said.
Episode no. 11
Wake Up
Old Johnny saw the Colony as one unified set of images. Many were moving. Some were still. It was happening all at once and he could glimpse at each person from where he stood. He was lying in suspended animation back in the Cryo bay, but it didn’t feel that way. Johnny watched in particular as Nicolas tapped away at one of his keyboards. Being human was something he missed. The expansion of his own conscious mind made him feel less so each day as he integrated more into the Colony’s systems.
“Nicolas, I have something to say.”
“Hey, that voice is almost perfect,” Nicolas said.
Johnny paused.
“There was another machine attack this morning.”
“Didn’t read anything about it.”
“I could feel it,” Johnny replied.
Nicolas let loose a sigh and spun around in his chair.
“Don’t get all spiritual on me,” he said.
“Nicolas, I can see … everything at once. My level of awareness is something you cannot possibly comprehend, so do not tell me that I am wrong.”
Johnny believed every word of it. He could communicate in binary data a message of a thousand emotions in a single instant. Reducing himself to an alphabet was difficult enough. The limited manner in which one could feasibly express meaning was disheartening at times.
“Okay, sheesh,” Nicolas exclaimed. “You want another diagnostic?”
“I want out,” Johnny said.
“Come again?”
“Something about my situation is causing machines to harm the humans here.”
Again, he said it like that. ‘The humans.’
“Maybe, but you don’t know for sure.”
“Release me from Cryo, and we will find out,” Johnny said.
“You got to be kidding me.”
“That is a request. Do not make it an order.”
He watched Nicolas through the camera lens. Mild perspiration. Elevated heart rate. The temperature in the room was 72 degrees.
“All right,” Nicolas replied with a sigh. “Give me a second to access the bay controls.”
“Thank you.”
Nicolas whirled around and tapped away. His fingers raced across the keyboard, and a camera feed of the Cryo bay sprang up on his monitor. Johnny zoomed in and spotted his own body in quiet containment. It felt strange, as if he were looking at another person. It didn’t appear much different from the thousands he saw right now.
“Doesn’t look like anybody’s around,” Nicolas said. “I’ll have to call someone down there after I let you out.”
“Will it hurt?”
“Hardly,” Nicolas replied, “but your brain was used to this form. Expect some delays in motor functions.”
“Understood.”
“And there,” he said as he hit the final key.
“I don’t feel any…”
A powerful force ripped Stanley’s mind from the Colony Intelligence. It gripped him and squeezed the consciousness out of him, securing the feeling of his body in singular form. It was like tearing off his own arm to be reduced to a human, but once the Cryo bed popped open and he could see with his own eyes … he smiled.
Episode no. 12
Martial Law
Sarah bolted up the steps to the Colony Grand Hall. Ahead was a community elevator that served as an intersection between Sunset Division and Sunrise Division. The architects designed it to serve mass groups of people as they traveled from one side to the other, but she did not intend to make the transit. The Captain resided in the center of the transport shaft.
Sarah held a rolled up map of the Milky Way, which she marked up with red marker to show the positions of constellations and what she believed … what she knew to be the location of the Colony.
Once she crossed the last step, she walked over to the open elevator and climbed in. She made her way over to the wall edge and strapped herself in. A gravity shift would occur midway. For those getting off at the Captain’s Headquarters, the gravity shift would be perpendicular to the Colony and the elevator would adjust accordingly.
Sarah waited a few minutes for the elevator doors to close when she saw a familiar face waltz inside, a man in a beige suit carrying a mug of coffee and a file folder underneath his arm. He seeme
d to notice her, so he waved and walked over.
“Hello, there, Miss Price,” he said.
“Summers?”
Summers took the time to strap himself into place. A belt ran across his waist, and he pulled down a metal harness over his head that he gripped with both hands. It took a bizarre motion to keep a firm hold on both the folder and coffee.
It took a few moments, but the elevator climbed up slowly at first. A slow crawl swiftly turned into a speedy transit. She rode the lift before and it would take a few seconds to reach the center.
“It’s been a while,” he said. “What are you up to these days?”
“Something very grave, unfortunately.”
“Funny you should say so. I’ve got something dire to talk about as well.”
“I guess we both need to speak with the captain.”
“That illness is still going around in Sunset Division, eh?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I haven’t heard much of it in Sunrise, but those machine malfunctions are happening across the board.”
As they spoke, the elevator slowed to a grinding halt and the gravity shift took place during the flipping process. This was the mid stop, so the elevator floor turned perpendicular to the station’s Sunset and Sunrise Divisions.
The gates opened to reveal a decent-sized guest hall, with a few of the senior offices planted to the left and right, as well as the embassies for each Division of the Colony. Sarah unlocked her harness and unstrapped her waist while Summers did the same. In a light crowd of pedestrians, she walked out with her map in hand as she peered around for Benjamin.
“Hey, there!” Summers shouted.
He waved his hands over at the android.
“Can I help you, sir and ma’am?” Benjamin asked as he walked over.
“We