Ann
Her head felt like it was being squeezed by two enormous hands. Every sound and light sent a different, mild pain into her skull, but because the sounds were the buzzing of the alarm and the swirling of the emergency lights, what should have been a minor irritation had turned into a full-fledged migraine. Spots floated behind her eyelids every time she closed them (which she did as often as possible), and the right side of her tongue had gone numb. The tips of her right finger likewise had lost feeling. On the whole, Ann felt sick. She had none to blame but herself, as everything had unraveled what felt like moments--but was probably closer to twenty minutes--after she'd taken the Calm and read her sister's comm. Then Senton and Korryn had arrived, trying to make an argument that was cut off when Senton started yelping about a breach in his lab. The distance from Ann's office to Senton's lab was long enough that a hover-pod would have been nice, but there weren't any available--too many other needs from the repair crews and those trying to get that blasted Portal ready--and they'd been forced to get there under their own power. She'd managed to sneak a downer pill to help cut off the effects of the Calm, but that had brought on her migraine. Seeing all the blood had made it much worse. When Senton had said that it had escaped, Ann had pulled rank and ordered a delay on in- and outgoing traffic as a precaution. The last thing she needed was for the creature to sneak onto a departing shuttle and get off planet. When they'd arrived at the lab itself, it was clear this was a full-blown emergency. There was so much blood. Now she regretted putting the lockdown into effect. Not only was Captain Rall trying to raise her via aedee (which she kept dismissing, despite the heat on her temple letting her know she had a voicecomm coming through), but it was clear that someone had been in here, which meant that there was a possibility that the creature had escaped in someone's arms. The problems were large, and the captain's insistence on being briefed didn't help. Finally, as Senton finished cleaning up his own puke, Ann took the call. "Yes, sir?" she asked with a sigh. "You're on lockdown without authority!" said Captain Rall without preamble. "Yes, sir." She explained the situation. "It seemed the best choice." "There's a xeno in our Compound?" Ann closed her eyes. Usually Rall was a reasonable person, willing to listen to whatever his subordinates had to say. But this was an uncharted world and unexpected things led to unexpected choices, few of which would be considered good. He was understandably, if a touch too loudly, concerned. "Yes, sir." "Who authorized that?" Ann winced at the sound of the shout as it ricocheted in her ears. Stroking down on her temple, she indicated to the aedee to lower the volume. "I did, sir." "Are you insane?" "Sir, it was captured by one of our scientists. He made a compelling case that we could benefit from studying it." In the background, Korryn was muttering to Senton in a low tone that Ann couldn't easily overhear. She tweaked her aedee so that it would record the conversation and Ann could play it back at her leisure. "And is this what he had in mind?" "No, sir. There was…a breach." "You don't damn say," snapped the captain. "What happened?" "Near as we can tell from the logs, the janitor--" Captain Rall swore softly and profanely under his breath, but it was clear he wasn't interrupting her. "--entered the room. Approximately fifteen minutes later, he opened the door. Then, five minutes after that, he opened it again." "Okay. So hunt him down. What's his aedee signal?" "Sir, he's still with us." "He is? What's his name?" "Theodore Culley." "I want his ass in my office--" "I should have said, sir, that he's the late Theodore Culley." "What? Speak sense, Chief. I'm in no mood for games." "I am standing in the lab, sir, and there is…a lot of blood. It looks like whoever killed Culley also removed most of his organs." Rall gasped. "The thing is, sir, he's an Anachronist." "Piss and hell," snarled Captain Rall. "So what data do we have?" "His handheld is missing--we only know he entered because he scanned it, as I said, three times. My visual check verifies that he's a janitor and is authorized to be here. But who killed him and why we don't know. The point is, sir, the door opened after he died. We can see bloody streaks." "You think he was murdered?" "It's the most likely scenario," said Ann in a cool voice. "The janitor was doing his job, someone pounded on the door, he opened it up, he died." "Any visual feeds?" Ann shook her head, then regretted the movement. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she gave a long look at the ceiling. "No, sir. This is a classified containment lab. Per DP instructions, this room is to be kept blind and deaf--" "Yes, yes, I know. I was hoping it was a different room." Ann didn't give voice to the fact that she had strenuously opposed the DP policy when she'd heard it. Unfortunately for her, she had been overruled. "And the creature?" "That's the lockdown, sir. We've lost it." "What, it walked away?" Ann looked around. Senton and Korryn were done talking now, and were waiting for her to finish her conversation. "I don't know, sir. That's what I'm trying to find out." "Then do your job. But let's do it quietly." Ann drew up in surprise. "Are you saying to stop the lockdown?" "Heightened security, yes. Lockdown? No. Once the morning breaks and we have direct sunlight, we're going to fire up the Portal. The last thing I need is a wide-scale lockdown screwing everything up." "Sir, I don't think that's advisable." Rall, his voice suddenly sharp, said, "I don't care. See to it." "Yes, sir," said Ann, disconnecting her aedee and pushing aside her anger at being so hastily dismissed. It wasn't personal; she knew that. Didn't change the fact that she felt her authority had been undercut. Raising her hand to utilize her flesh-display, Ann turned off the authority for the lockdown and sent out the command from her aedee. Sometimes it was nice to have one's entire body be the computer by which one did things. In this case, it meant that the entire Compound could instantly receive the message that the lockdown was over--it was just a drill--and thank you for your cooperation. The silence was a welcome reprieve. Ann looked around the room again. There were speckles of blood all the way up to the ceiling, with splatters headed in many different directions. Running a forensic protocol on her aedee, it didn't take long for Ann to see that whatever had torn up this guy had done so with a great deal of gusto. And the fact that she couldn't see traces of any of the organs? That was an alarming reality, too. "Chief," said Senton, his voice raspy still from his sick-up, "we need to find the lura." "We? We don't. You do." Korryn interrupted, "Chief, it wasn't his fault…" "You two came to tell me you thought of something different to do with the creature. You left the room, didn't you." It wasn't a question. She didn't even need to wait for a response. "You were negligent, and now a person is dead and that creature is escaped. There could even be a murderer on the loose." "No, sir, that isn't the case," said Senton, pointing at the bloody streaks on the ground. The blood had been drying for the better part of an hour, but it still glistened in the harsh light of the lab. "See that?" "I see bloodstains." "No, they're not stains. It's what we were talking about," he said, gesturing to himself and Korryn, who nodded her agreement. "They're too regular. See? They head from the corpse toward the ventilation system. The lura escaped through there." "So who left?" "I don't know," said Korryn, "but I noticed this." She pointed at a partial footprint close to the door. "It's like mine. She hastily added, "But not exactly. They're standard issue footwear for most women in the Compound." She held up her left foot, and Ann could see that the treads were similar to those left behind in the blood of the floor. "Okay. I'm going to find this woman and talk to her. You two," she said, pointing an angry finger at Senton and Korryn, "figure out how to find the creature. And, while you're at it, stay here. Don't touch anything." "Do we…do we have to stay with the body?" "I'll send some of my crew to help clean up in a minute. But they're going to need your testimonies." "Chief Timpson," said Senton, his nervousness apparent in the way he shook his hands, "please don't kill the lura." "What? Why?" "It's important." "People are important, Senton. People's lives and security are important." "I know, but I don't want anything to happen to the Dentolura. I'm…" He didn't finish his sentence, as Ann received a call. She put her hand up, then extended her thumb and pinky, letting the aedee connect the communication. It was Nolan Lannings. "Sir," he said, his voice strained. "Sir, where are you?" "I'm in the containment laboratory. Why? Where are you?" "I, um…I went to pick up the Envoy." The word made Ann's head clench and her stomach flop. She'd almost forgotten that her sister was planetside now. "Yes. And is she here?" "Yes, Chief, but…well…" Irritation welled within her. "Spit it out, man. What's the problem?" "I think she found something that you might be interested in seeing." |
What is this?This is a NaNoWriMo project that publishes, day by day, the chapters I'm writing for 2017. If you're confused, go to Chapter 1 Ann and start there. ArchivesCategories
All
|