<USS Avalon> log-Come out, come out, wherever you are!
- From: Doctors Kaiser and Fuller <thedoctorsareout@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2003 23:20:10 -0700 (PDT)
Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are!
A log by Doctors Lindsay Kaiser and Carson Fuller
Lindsay Kaiser felt immensely sick to her stomach. She looked over at Carson
who was still sleeping soundly, noted that he was in a rather awkward position
and remedied to ignore her nausea. The artificial gravity on the ship must be
fluctuating. That meant that life-support was faltering. Silently she hoped and
prayed that help was on it's way, then she realized her immense folly and
simply hoped that help was on it's way.
The ship shook in a dull and rather lazy fashion, dislodging various cables and
causing a great many things to creak, groan, crack or spark. Carson rolled over
in his sleep, now resembling a cat sleeping on it's side in a kind of relaxed
fetal position. One leg hung aimlessly over the side of his bed as did one arm.
His hand clutched some imagined dream thing and then relaxed. Lindsay took a
moment to watch Carson sleep, fascinated by his peaceful animation. No doubt he
was dreaming about some far off place where he wasn't six inches from death all
the time.
Unfortunately, that far off place didn't exist--their job required them to be
near death in one form or another at all times. She sighed, and the ship
groaned again, long and painfully. Lights flickered off for a moment and her
stomach lurched oddly. She felt like she were falling or hanging upside down.
The gravity had failed. For a handful of seconds she drifted a few centimeters
off the floor, being careful not to move lest she accidentally push herself
higher. The gravity restored itself momentarily and she turned to check on
Carson. He still slept soundly, apparently oblivious to the outside world.
Good. He was getting a bit pissy.
She stared at the doors to the hallway. Both were off their track and out of
power, in other words: useless. Carson had managed to pry them open about three
or four millimeters before they jammed hopelessly somewhere within the wall.
They had also opened the under floor passage that ran laterally beneath all of
the hull-lying crew quarters. No luck their either. A EM conduit had burst and
was leaking deadly plasma into one section where it melted into the unknown
bowels of the ship, while a bulkhead had collapsed the other section. They had
been unable to access either of the adjacent quarters, but it was just as well.
Power to the entire deck was non-existent, so they wouldn't be able to do
anything anyway.
Scattered debris floated past the three windows in their guest quarters. She
watched it for a while, realizing that sections of the hull had probably
decompressed and been blown out into space. Another sign that the life support
systems were failing. Life support was such a delicate and necessary core of
systems as it was without explosions and fires and god knows what else tearing
it apart. If the structural integrity fields went down or if the internal
pressure dropped too low, the entire hull could decompress and kill everyone
who was still alive...if anyone else was alive.
Her silent question was answered by the unmistakable sound of footsteps in the
hallway. The footsteps were soon accompanied by voices.
"I think it went this way."
"I-I don't like this. Can we go back to security now?"
"Sure, why not? Let's climb four or five decks...in the dark...without
gear...with that thing following us. What the hell are you thinking? Go back to
security, bah."
Lindsay had heard enough. "Help! Help us! We're in here!"
From the corridor, she could hear a positive response. "Did you hear that? Over
there! Look"
"Carson! Wake up! Someone's out there!"
Carson mumbled sleepily. "Piss off, mum. I'll be up in a few."
Lindsay's eyes narrowed. "You--Get--Up--Now!" She said through clenched teeth,
shoving him with both hands between words.
"Whaaat?!" he protested loudly, then: "Oh, Lindsay...sorry. I didn't, that is,
well...Hey, is someone trying to get in?"
Indeed, someone was trying to get into the room. The two security officers were
pounding and prying at the door, trying to get it open.
"Don't worry ma'am. We'll help you out. Stand back, we're going to use our
phasers to cut through the do--what the hell?!"
Something large and rather cumbersome-looking creature hulked into view through
the foggy smoke that was illuminated from some quietly burning fire down the
corridor. Flickering orange light gave the creature an awesome appearance if
not terrifying. It made a hissing grunt sound.
The two security guards screamed. Lindsay backed away from the door, unaware of
the bulky monstrosity that was currently not present in the hallway. She would
have been surprised at the fact that something so large and so grotesque could
become so non-existent so fast.
Needless to say, the two security guards were.
"Where the hell did it go?"
"I can't--I don't--That's impossible!"
Lindsay edged closer to the door that she had been instructed to get away from.
The ghostly orange glow pouring through the crack flashed rapidly twice
accompanied by a startled shriek and a gruesomely organic crunch. Lindsay
backed away from the door in nullified horror at the sounds of something
slippery and wet struggling, a frantic kind of slapping thud noise. Dark blood
seeped into the room through the crack. There was another scream, a long,
continuous, completely inhuman scream of horror. The scream was silenced with a
sickening thump. More blood sprayed into the room through the crack as one of
the security officers was apparently forced through...quite possibly against
his will, but then, one never knows.
The ship chose that moment to lose gravity again.
Tiny red orbs floated slowly away from the door, spinning and changing shape
but generally remaining in a somewhat spherical shape. Lindsay floated about
three feet away from the multitude of suspended blood droplets. The sounds of
struggle coming both from the no-doubt mangled security officers and from
Carson, who had been assaulted by the bedding materials that had come alive in
the absence of gravity drifted out of Lindsay's mind. Hanging there, she felt
that if she had been much younger, she would have wanted to reach out and touch
the floating masses. They ranged in size from the miniscule to about the size
of a tangerine, with varying amounts of organic mush embedded within. Lindsay
didn't know it, but it had become deathly silent in the corridor.
With an electronic hum, the gravity restored itself.
The suspended droplets hung for a moment more, as did Lindsay, the
sheet-entangled Carson, and various other metal and plastic rubble that
littered their quarters before dropping in unison to the floor. The blood
splashed and splattered, coating Lindsay's face and clothes. She pushed herself
back, slipped in the mess and bruised her elbows.
"Damn it!" she said under her breath. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed
the pleasant glowing light vanish for a second. Heavy breathing, a sort of
sickly wheezing, filled the tiny room with a silence colder than death itself.
She froze, mentally wishing the Grim Reaper away.
Carson stopped struggling and held perfectly still, a look of stifled horror on
his face. He had just seen the blood soaked Lindsay, lying stomach down on the
floor.
The strangled breathing continued, growing faster and more excited. Just as
Lindsay thought she could scream from terror, the creature slammed into the
door, denting it severely. Then all was silent.
One of the door panels, now shoved hopelessly off it's track, fell inward,
slamming into the bloody pool a few inches from Lindsay's face.
Not caring what happened, she screamed.
Carson stood up. "Lindsay!"
"What!" She too stood up, a look of maniacism haunting her every feature.
"You're alive!"
"No shit!"
Carson paused. "Why are we shouting."
Breathing heavily, Lindsay remained silent. Blood dripped off her chin and nose.
"Uh, Lindsay...are you okay?"
Without warning, she slugged him hard in the gut. He collapsed as the air took
leave from his lungs. She smiled brightly, the blood on her face giving her the
look of some mildly insane predatorily cannibal. "Just fine, thanks."
Carson regained his stature, holding his stomach and catching his breath. He
was used to such outbursts of uncontained Lindsay. After a few seconds, he
watched her tear a sheet and begin wiping the blood off her face with the air
of aristocracy that would normally be associated with a country club. He half
expected her to take out a personal mirror and apply lipstick. Shaking his head
and smiling, he stood up.
"It would appear that the door is open."
"Indeed. Shall we?" She made a sweeping gesture with her arm.
"Ladies first."
He followed her out into the corridor where the one of the security guards lay
what would have been face down, had he had a face. In fact, his entire head was
missing.
"Clean decapitation, possibly by some non-laser cutting device. See? There's no
burn marks." Lindsay became what is often referred to as 'all business'.
"Indeed. Any sign of the other body."
"No...wait. There. And there. And up there."
"It appears that the victim was shredded and then distributed along the
corridor." Carson returned to the semi-whole body lying on the floor. It
appears that his arms were dislocated from their sockets, possibly in the
process of decapitation. Speaking of which, where is the head?"
Lindsay looked around, then shook her head in a futile fashion. "No sign of the
upper portion anywhere."
Carson sighed. "Don't you just hate a guy who takes head but never gives it?"
"That's why I keep you around."
The two of them laughed in a somewhat suppressed manor.
"We should probably try and find somebody else. There's safety in numbers."
"Right. Then we're off!" Carson started off down the dimly lit corridor
shrouded in orange hued smoke.
"CARSON! DON'T STEP OVER THE GOD DAMN BODY!"
---------------------------------
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