Playing the Waiting Game

Posted on Tue Dec 10th, 2019 @ 2:32pm by

1,062 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: What Stalks The Night
Location: Away Team

With armed security close behind her, Bianca had started scouring the lab for anything resembling food and water that might be beneficial seeing as how it seemed that they were stuck there, at least for the moment.

The desk drawers had turned up an array of assorted candy and snacks. Gathering it up, she dumped it all in the middle of one desk before moving through to the back of the room where the experimental vats were. Beyond the vats she had earlier noticed a few storage cupboards that might be helpful. Prying them open one by one, she sifted through the various supplies until finally in the third cupboard they found success.

Four shelves of water and ration packs, along with a third of a bottle of vodka. Giving the rations to the two security officers to distribute, Bianca picked up the bottle and a couple of sealed beakers and returned to the other side of the room, walking across to Xavier who was sitting at one of the desks, poring over the papers that had been on the desk.

Bianca set the bottle down before she pulled herself up to sit on the edge of the desk. "How about a drink?" she asked, offering a smile filled with bravado.

Xavier had been neck deep in notes, records, journals of what had been going on in this room. Part of him was fascinated, the other sickened. Xavier was fascinated not in what they were doing but more so the techniques they were using, some of it was cutting edge. "Oh, uh sure." He'd not noticed that he'd not drank anything for some time, nor the several piles of stacked PADD's that had almost encircled him.

Pouring measures of vodka into the beakers, Bianca handed one across to him along with a bottle of water, leaning forward to peek at the PaDD that he was now looking at. "So they created this creature?" she asked quietly, her eyes darting momentarily to Stefan. "And in return it killed them all." She sighed softly, taking a sip of the vodka and wincing at the bitter taste. "I don't suppose any of these tell you how to kill it?" she asked finally, motioning toward the stacks of PaDD's.

"I'm afraid not, for the most part its documentation about what they did, tests they ran, observations. They ran tests of several specimens it seems.." Evident enough by the many small vats with segments of flesh, tissue and parts for preservation. "From what I can tell, it started with Human trials but the tests promptly killed the subject, so they resorted to cloning technology where they could splice what they wanted into the developing genome directly." Xavier explained as he dropped the PaDD he was reading down onto the table and picked up the glass.

"From what I can tell, strength, agility, speed, raw physical power but it lacks heightened intelligence and physical mass. As you saw out the window when it came for us, it was pretty thin." Xavier continued. "The notes briefly mentioned a documented history of hostility as it matured. Several scientists were killed while trying to collect samples from it. That tells me that they were not finished with testing. They wanted a weapon, but a smart weapon lasts longer, so its instincts are mostly primal, hunting, nesting, stalking."

Bianca nodded slowly, sipping her drink again. "It seems to have this hunting thing down, seeing what it did to Jack, I can only assume that Vonnie met a similar fate... and then Casey... it didn't even enter the room, it just hauled her into the vents.." She sighed and shook her head. "I don't know how safe we are in here, but short of going back out there... I don't see we have a choice in the right here and right now."

"I would suggest we get back to the control room, with the power restored maybe James can fix some of the systems, computers, sensors, comms or anything that would help us." Xavier was no engineer so he only could hope James would be in a position to do something. "From what I have read, it has heightened sensitivity to sound, which would explain how it managed to come for us in here from where ever it was. I've not seen any notes on eye sight or sense of smell but considering the amount of blood thats around and the body odour we are putting off, I would suggest we move quickly because as soon as that door opens, all of our odours will go wafting out the door."

Bianca nodded. "We found some ration packs in the back and security have managed to barricade us in as much as possible, so I want to give everyone a little bit to get some food and water happening. We should take this while we can, God knows what happens once we get out of here. Can you gather up as much documentation and evidence as you can from here to take with us? We might need it later on, i...when we get back to the Dreadnought."

When... it wasn't 'if', it was definitely when. They would get back. There had been enough loss of life on this away mission already. She drew in a sharp breath and shook her head quickly, clearing her thoughts away. "Are you holding up okay?" she asked, a hint of genuine concern in her voice. "None of this is easy for any of us."

Before Xavier could even begin to formulate a response, a bone chilling shriek echoed through the vents at the side of the room, the sound of scratching easily heard.

Bianca finished her drink, leaving the glass on the table as she slid down, landing lightly on her feet. "That's our bell, times up kiddos," she said, her voice dropping to a hushed whisper. "Lieutenant Hebron, Lieutenant Bradshaw, lead the way back to the control room. Commander Patrovski, grab anything you want to take, let's go."

The away team fell back into formation, footfalls silent on the floor as the headed back into the corridor, moving swiftly back in the direction of the control room, the only thought occupying Bianca's mind was the hope that they could get communications or transporters or something happening and get back to the ship before anyone else died.

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