The Architect’s soldiers stormed into engineering through the melted hole accompanied by waves of smoke and heat. The shouts in their alien language and imposing presence forced the team to comply, paving the way for the soldiers to aggressively round everyone up. An overlord yelled at Rivera, probably demanding she push and float away from the terminal. It was a demand she refused to obey, and she continued to key in her message. It only pissed off the overlord and forced it to levitate toward her using its psionic powers.
She finished the task, and all that remained was to push the “send” button.
A task she thought she had enough time for. The overlord yanked her from behind and forced her away from the terminal. Her arms flailed about in a desperate act to hit the send button. Her fingers repeatedly missed the mark, panic was throwing her aim off, way off.
She fought, she kicked, she screamed, she had to hit it, she had to release her body from the armor-clad grip of the overlord.
She hit something on the terminal, she wasn’t sure if it was the send command. The screen did vanish and so did her vision as the overlord spun her body to face it, and delivered a painful backhanded slap across her face.
28 KOSTELECKY
ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 03:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)
“Jdi do hajzlu . . .” Kostelecky cursed in her native tongue at the situation unfolding.
She raced to a computer and began to lockdown sickbay, hoping it wouldn’t be necessary in the long run. The invaders had not breached the habitat ring, though it was only a matter of time before they did as engineering was the last section on the primary fuselage, and from what she discovered on one of her computer screens it was just taken.
She grimaced at the sight of Rivera’s tumbling body via security camera footage. There was a nasty gash across her forehead due to the fierce armored slap she got. Once sickbay was confirmed to be locked down she turned around to deal with her next problem, her Poniga patients and the recovering helmsman. From what she gathered the Poniga were enemies to the Architect and were probably going to be taken back aboard his ship once discovered.
Nobody leaves sickbay and her medical care without her saying it was OK.
She pushed the medical bed where the helmsman had been resting toward the back of sickbay and then began to address the visually frightened Poniga. “OK people, time for a change of scenery, follow me.”
EVE’s voice did not provide a translation.
Someone must have taken her off. Sakra!
Pushing, light shoving, and hand gestures eventually got the message across. With the Poniga where she needed them to be, Kostelecky raced into her office. Out from the drawer she took an ePistol, it powered on and hummed as she flicked its power switch. She may have sworn an oath to do no harm, but she also couldn’t heal her patients if she was dead. She aimed the pistol downward and step out of her office then stopped as she heard a new message notification beep on her personal computer. She returned to her desk and hoped she wasn’t wasting what little time she had left before the habitat ring was breached.
There was an encrypted message waiting for her.
29 BAILEY
ESRS Carl Sagan, Mess hall
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 03:54 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Alien invasion or not, Chef Demarion Bailey exited his quarters and rapidly darted to the kitchen in the mess hall. He spent top credits on his chef knives and could care less what happened to the ship. If he lost those knives, it would be the end of his world.
He quickly gathered his most prized possessions on the ship as he entered the galley and pivoted to run back to his quarters while he still had time. The aliens were on their way to the habitat ring. The main computer terminal in the kitchen beeped as he moved past it. He stopped and faced the screen, curious as to who would send a message to it during a time like this. His eyes shifted back and forth as he quickly read the contents of the message, it was directed toward him of all people.
Chief Rivera sent him a set of instructions as well as the pass code to enter her quarters. There was also an attachment to the message, a recipe. He shook his head. Tempted to ignore the request, Demarion left the mess hall and charged back toward the direction of the crew quarters, where it was safe for the time being. Rivera’s message . . . The more he thought about it, the more he questioned if ignoring it was the right thing to do. She did make it sound perfectly clear that he carry out the task she asked of him.
He stopped in front of the doors to his quarters, his finger was just inches away from pressing open command. He retracted his finger and moved deeper into the halls toward her quarters. The hairs on his body stood up on end as he ran past the elevator doors that lead to the rest of the ship. He was half expecting them to open with hostile forces storming out of them. Rivera’s quarters came into sight and his aged fingers quickly punched in the code to unlock the doors.
They slid open and his head shifted from left to right searching for her storage cabinet. He found it, ran over to it, and began a quick search through it looking for a particular item she requested of him.
30 KOSTELECKY
ESRS Carl Sagan, Sickbay
SC-149 AKA Meroien far orbit, Sirius C system
May 22, 2050, 04:15 SST (Sol Standard Time)
Thousands of shards of broken glass rained on the floor next to what was once the glass sliding door to sickbay. It was confirmation to Kostelecky that the Architect’s soldiers had made it to the habitat ring. They stormed into sickbay as she touched the ePistol that was concealed within her white lab coat’s pocket.
“Welcome, boys, what can I do for you?” she said to them.
The overlords ignored her, choosing to rummage through sickbay instead while the grunts with the overlords lifted their laser cannon arms up at her. The overlords gleamed at the resting body of the helmsman Ensign Collins before moving on with their search having found nothing else of interest. From what Kostelecky could tell, they were convinced she was alone in sickbay, or so she hoped, as her hands lowered closer to her lab coat’s pocket while droplets of sweat appeared across her forehead.
They weren’t buying it. The overlords smacked the butt of their spears on the floor, forcing their limping grunts to help with the search.
Two grunts began to examine an air vent, one she would rather they not look at. Their armored covered hands tapped the grille several times. An overlord took notice and moved over to see what had caught their attention. Kostelecky’s heart rate accelerated to the point she could feel every beat vibrate throughout her chest.
Her hands dipped inside of her pocket, her fingers wrapped around the handle of the pistol and she prepared her arms and legs for plan B.