War Angel: part forty-eight

Wilma circled the large table slowly, her eyes drifting between the skeleton and the dead body that Kate had retrieved from the Omegan ship. Every few steps, she would stop and rearrange a bone in the skeletal structure. Jack eyed her with curiosity, standing back and away from the table to let the doctor do her work.

“Fascinating,” Wilma exhaled. “I’ve never seen the like of it.”

“Any guesses?”

She ran her right hand through her hair. “I think I have the skeleton put together correctly now. Beyond that, I don’t want to jump the gun on anything. I’ll need to run DNA tests, blood tests… every test I can think of. It’ll take a while.” She paused. “Are we in a hurry?”

The question seemed to take Jack by surprise. “Huh. Not in a major hurry, I suppose. But some speed might be good. I’m thinking… I mean, I found the skeleton on our ship. A ship that had been buried for a hundred years. These things have been around for a while. So why haven’t we heard anything about them? Even my ancestor’s journals don’t mention anything about other creatures besides the Omegans.”

“Maybe… maybe whatever they are, the Omegans try to keep their existence a secret?”

Jack pointed at her with excitement. “Yes! Exactly! And if they are keeping these creatures a secret that could mean that either these things are something that points out a weakness in the Omegans…”

Wilma brightened. “Or they’re an enemy!”

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend, doctor.”

“I’ll start the autopsy and tests right away, Captain.”

Jack exited the medlab and tapped his comm. link. “Clover, do you read?”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Are we set for departure?”

“Scoop is extended and ready.”

The young commander began taking long strides, picking up his pace quickly. “Excellent. Head for the bridge and start prep. I will be there in five.” Jack rounded corner after corner until he finally came upon the landing bay, finding Kate and Gina finishing up the unloading of their new cargo. Gina was the first to spot him and looked at him with confusion. He stared back at her for a moment before she finally spoke.

“Are we supposed to do that ‘Captain on deck’ shit?” she asked, wary of what his response would be.

He shook his head. “Hell no. Let’s keep our focus on our survival and keeping this old heap flying instead. Fair?”

“More than,” she replied. “Want a status report?”

“More than,” he said, laughing.

“Water and food stores, if rationed appropriately, are up to around ten weeks worth.” Kate jumped in. “We also got two crates of guns, so we’re set for close quarters fighting if need be. Doc brought medical supplies that ought to hold us for a bit of we can learn from our mistakes and avoid the machinery breaking apart and slicing our faces off.”

“Good to know,” Jack replied, lost in thought for a moment. Then, with a jerk, he snapped back to focus. “Gina, can you spare Kate for a few? I need to talk to her.”

Kate and Gina looked at each other for a moment, wondering what was coming, before Gina waived Kate away. Kate threw off the gloves she had been wearing and walked toward Jack, who immediately exited the landing bay with her in tow.

“What’s going on, Jack?” she asked, stopping him in his tracks. He spun on his heel, facing her with a look of pained resolution on his face.

He exhaled slowly. “Kate, what would it take to create a vaccine to your experiment?”

She looked at him, puzzled. “It’s really nothing to worry about, Jack. I mean, if it’s troubling you, I can flush it out an airlock right now. I suppose if we took a horrible beating, the stasis field could collapse, so you’re right, I probably should…”

“I’m not asking you to destroy it, Kate. Just make everyone on this ship safe from it.”

“Jack?”

He straightened himself, cracking his back and tugging at his uniform. “Like you said earlier, Kate- you’ve created a biological weapon.” His eyes flickered. “We may need it someday.”

“If we release it on Earth, it would kill almost every person on it, Jack! Humans included!”

“Then let’s hope it never comes to that,” he said, walking away and leaving a stunned Kate Stinson in his wake.

END PART ONE

War Angel: part forty-seven

Jack finished laying out the skeleton’s bones on the deck and stared at his attempt at putting this particular puzzle together. Whatever it was, it was not human. Nor was it Omegan- the structure of the skull, the height of the body, all too small to be one of the enemy. “Not this particular enemy,” Jack corrected himself.

But curiosity had to wait. Jack picked up his tools and began working on repairing cannon three. This was war- discipline had to come first. Lack of discipline could mean death… an irony that left Jack shaking his head.

Kate reached the Omegan morgue and opened the door. She moved into the room carefully, gun pointed and at the ready in case a survivor had found refuge within. However, the room checked out clear, and she holstered her sidearm. Looking around, she did a quick assessment of the room- the walls were full of panels, small controls situated next to each one, and each panel had a data readout in its center. She approached one and studied it for a moment before shrugging her shoulders and tapping the comm. “F.A. to all points. I don’t suppose any of you reads Omegan?”

The system was silent for a beat before Wilma’s voice spoke up. “Mr. Drake does. But…”

“Shit!” Kate yelled. “Sorry. Okay, thanks. Back to it. Bye,” she said, closing the comm. link. She leaned her head against the wall for a moment, pondering her next move. “Bleah. Fine,” she thought. “trial and error it is. I’ll start with the obvious and go from there.”

Her hands began to tap buttons on the controls. Eight minutes passed before the panel slid open and revealed the body of a dead Omegan. She tugged on the body and it floated free of its compartment. “Huh. Really is just like a morgue. Bastards are strangely human in their own way.” She shoved the body back in and closed the panel. “Looks like another ten or so of these are occupied. Might as well get started.”

Five minutes later, Jack’s comm. link sprung to life. “F.A. to Desperado. What in the actual fuck???”

“Bring that one back,” he replied calmly.

Wilma exited the Omegan medlab, pushing a crate full of supplies that would do the War Angel well. Bandages, antibiotics, herbs used to make painkillers… the crossover between Omegan physiology and human physiology was truly a godsend when it came to healing. As she approached the landing bay, she saw Kate pushing a crate of her own towards the shuttle. “Are we all set?” Wilma asked.

Kate’s shoulders dropped, and Wilma realized that the young woman must be exhausted. “After all,” the doctor remembered, “she was forcibly awakened from a sedative-induced sleep. It has to be catching up to her by now.”

“I’m fine, doctor,” Kate rasped. “Just had my fill of this day.”

Wilma’s voice radiated positivity. “We all have. But we’ll be out of here shortly, head for shelter, and rest for a while.” Wilma patted Kate’s shoulder, her hand gently bouncing off the young woman’s pressure suit.

“Ha!” Kate snorted derisively. “That’s what you think.” She tapped the crate she had brought to the landing bay. “This is going to keep all of us busy for a while.”

The doctor approached the crate. “What is it?”

The shuttle doors opened and Kate pushed the crate into its storage area. “Hopefully,” she muttered, “you’ll be able to tell us.”

Sarah stared at the skeleton spread out on the deck. “What the fuck IS that?”

Jack tightened the panel covering cannon three’s circuitry back into place. “That is why cannon three was offline,” he replied.

“You’re kidding.”

He shook his head. “Nope. Whatever… whomever… this was, he or she was in the interior of the bulkhead. Maybe making a nest, I don’t know. But it knocked wires out, crushed some circuits.”

“Think it was an Omegan plant of some kind?”

“Hard to say. Maybe. If this thing had easy egress to the rest of the ship, it could have certainly sabotaged things easily enough. On the other hand… well, maybe it’s something unknown. I mean, living in the walls is the kind of thing a stowaway would do. Maybe this thing had nowhere else to go.”

Picking up a bone, Sarah examined it carefully. It was smooth, with few striations or hints of damage. “Huh. Well, however it died, either it wasn’t violent or its muscular structure protected must have been impressive. Would be amazing to see one with all the flesh and blood, maybe see what Dr. Gray can make of it.”

Jack smiled. “Your wish is my command.”

War Angel: part forty-six

Jack reached starboard south and found the nearest internal comm. unit. “Desperado to Clover, come in.”

In the engine room, beset by chaos, Richard lunged for the comm. panel. “This is Clover.”

“Status of propulsion systems, Clover?”

Richard’s eyes wandered the room. Most of the wall panels were on the floor, as he had decided to run a full inspection as he adjusted the inertial dampening system. Small pieces of equipment littered the floor, and Richard found himself realizing that his usual way of doing things was no longer going to work. Wartime work would require more focus and discipline.

Two things that were abundantly absent in Richard.

“Umm. Propulsion systems are green, Captain. Scoop is working, and inertial adjustment should be completed in about ten minutes.” He decided to cover his ass, adding, “I’m going to do a full inspection of engine systems just to be on the safe side.”

“Negative,” Jack responded across the comm. “Hime is on her way back with a load from the Omegan ship. Get down to shuttle bay and help her unload. Full inspection can wait until after our next jump.”

“Fuck,” Richard whispered to himself, punching himself in the forehead repeatedly. Finally, he hit the comm. button. “Roger that. On my way.”

He picked up a screwdriver and began hurriedly replacing panels. “I am such an asshole,” he said, quietly admonishing himself.

“I’ll be damned,” Jack said to no one. He sat down on the deck next to the hull panel covering the wiring and circuitry for cannon three. His eyes scanned the panel carefully, and he dived into his memories. No, he decided, this panel did not look like this the last time he was down in this area. The bowing and warping, though not destructive, was noticeable. “Must have happened when we engaged the scoop,” he thought. He ran his hands across it, then stood and began walking forward. It was slight, but definite- something had moved as the ship lurched. “Internal machinery must have been loose and came bouncing through.”

He walked back to his original spot and removed the panel gently, not wanting to lose whatever vital equipment might have found its way to that spot. He pulled from the top, hoping to use the panel as a catcher for screws and the like when he got the surprise of his life. Jack jerked away and slid backward across the floor hitting the opposite wall. His jaw went slack as he stared at the thing that had been disrupting his ship’s weaponry system:

It was the strangest skeleton he had ever seen.

Kate peered around the corner and suppressed a laugh. Only a minute earlier, she has been in a firefight with six Omegan soldiers who had been fortunate enough to find pressure suits before all of the ship’s oxygen escaped through its broken hull. Now they bobbed and bounced off of the corridor ceilings and walls like rubber balls, victims of her precision shooting and their astonishment at having been boarded.

“I needed this,” she thought. “As fun as strangling Ben was, this was far more cathartic.”

Her left hand reached instinctively for her abdomen. More than ever, she was certain that the decision she had reached was the correct one. It would have to wait until they had jumped away and gone back into hiding- she would require some time to recover- but it would have to be done. Just then, Kate’s reverie was disturbed when the comm crackled to life.

“F.A. this is Desperado, copy.”

She cleared her throat. “F.A. is go, Desperado.”

“I have a… strange… request.” Kate cocked an eyebrow. “I have been scouring the plans for that ship, and nowhere can I spot anything that looks like a morgue. We know that Omegans typically stored salvageable bodies so that they could be returned home to their families for death ceremonies, so it would seem like they would have a morgue.”

“Umm… sure,  Captain.” Kate thought about it for a second. “It’d be someplace they could keep nice and cold where it wouldn’t affect the rest of the ship, I’d think.”

Jack groaned. “Of course! I should have thought of that. There’s a room towards midship on the starboard side that has what looks to be a strong cooling system. That has to be it.”

“I’m assuming you’re curious about this for a reason, Desperado?”

“Hmm. Yeah. Listen, I need you to check out that room. Look for anything weird.”

Kate laughed. “I’m on an alien fucking spaceship in orbit around Saturn. This is officially the weirdest day of my life. So trust me when I tell you: I’m going to need something more to go on besides ‘anything weird.’”

Jack’s voice found its assertiveness. “Specifically then: I want you to check for bodies that aren’t Omegan.”

She stood motionless for a moment, letting Jack’s order sink in. “Huh. That’s more like it. On my way, Desperado.”

War Angel: part forty-five

Wilma entered the landing bay, a strange balloon floating behind her. She had used a number of ropes and tied them together to form a makeshift netting, allowing her to gather a number of crates into a “pile” and bring them to the shuttle in one trip. As she approached the shuttle’s storage area, she noticed that Gina was ahead of her, tying down and securing barrels that Wilma guessed had to be water. Seeing Wilma, Gina gave a thumbs up.

“Looks like we’ve got our first full load, Doctor,” Gina said into her comm.

“Go ahead and make a run back to the Angel,” Wilma replied. “I need to hit their medical facilities. I should have that done by the time you get back and still have time to grab more food.”

Gina nodded. “Sounds good. There’s more water, too.”

“I’ll let F.A. know if I see her,” Wilma said. “Shooting aliens is probably thirsty work.”

Sarah tore the panel away from the wall, flinging it down to the ground angrily. Her right hand darted through the wires and metal inside and found the biogel pack. She took a deep breath and then disconnected it from the War Angel’s electrical systems and gently pulled it out to examine it. It was coal black, limp and dead in her hand.

“Unfuckingbelievable,” she muttered under her breath.

“I’m sorry,” the voice echoed down the corridor.

Her head snapped around. She hadn’t heard Jack’s footsteps approaching and it took her off guard. The biogel pack slipped in her hand, but she caught it before it completely came out and hit the ground.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated.

Sarah sat the biogel pack down in her toolkit and then stood and straightened herself. “Don’t you dare,” she said.

He tilted his head sideways. “What?”

She ran her fingers through her hair. “Don’t you dare apologize to me.”

“What? Why not? I know I fucked things up. I overloaded the shielding system. I screamed at you on the bridge.” He bowed his head, contrition flowing from within. “I got you hurt.” His eyes rose to meet hers. “And for all of that, I am very, very sorry.”

Her hand whipped across his face, and the sound of the slap echoed down the corridor. “I told you not to apologize to me, and I damned well meant it.” Jack’s hand caressed his aching cheek, his face a mask of confusion. “You dumbass. You’re the fucking captain now, and the captain does not apologize.” He started to interrupt, but she cut him off. “We’re at war, Jack. Every minute of our lives could be our last. That means every decision you make is one between life and death. If it damages the ship but we live, then you’ve done the job. If your gunner freezes in a firefight and you need to scream at her to get her head out of her ass or we’re all going to die-“ she paused- “then you’d better scream at her or we’re all going to die.” Sarah knelt down and pulled a new biogel pack out, then stood again. “So don’t apologize to me. Or to anyone else. Do your job.”

“It wasn’t a job I wanted,” he said quietly.

She slid the biogel pack into the wall and hooked it into the ship’s systems. “Well, it’s the one you gave yourself. And honestly? No one else here is right for the job, so you’re stuck with it… and we’re stuck with you. So just do the damned job,” she said, walking over to the discarded panel and returning it to its proper place.

Jack stood and watched her for a moment, silent and mulling over what she had said. Innumerable thoughts crashed through his mind, but ultimately he realized that any disagreement was wrong-headed. She was right.

She was horribly, terribly, right.

Finally, he brushed off his uniform and turned on his heel. “I’ll be on starboard south, checking out cannon three. Get this done and join me there. I don’t want another fight without full weapons.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” she said, and then moved on to the next panel.