T-Plus 9

Five men stood in the corridor, staring down each other in a faceoff. As Oliver had last seen him, Toast was still in his flamingo pink attire. His silver tie was gone, a blessing on the eyes, and the scientist’s general appearance was scruffier than usual, proving that it was possible. The Chief was his usual stern self, his eyebrows drawn and scrunched together in some deep contemplation. His blue uniform was much neater than Oliver and Daniel’s, evidence that the older man had an easier time than the two. If anything, he looked more haggard than them.

On their side, they had three people, all the same level of messy. Both he and Daniel’s original blue uniforms were browned to unrecognizable states. Soup had also lost his lab coat, although his suit and tie were still in good shape, if no one paid attention to the fraying at the edges of his red tie. They had all traded their usual loafers for heavy duty boots that reached halfway up their calves. They were geared up for dangerous missions, compared to the other two across from them.

The five men held their stand-off, their faces in varying degrees of surprise that ranged from unperturbed to pleasantly shocked out of their wits. Toast was the first to break eye contact, rushing over to pat Soup’s shoulders, an accusatory expression on his face.

“Where’ve you been? You missed everything!”

Oliver swore he could hear Soup roll his eyes. The tall man shook his head, an audible sigh escaping him as he addressed his superior.

“Should I even want to know what you’ve been up to?”

“Nothing we couldn’t fix him up from,” the Chief said, waving away Soup’s concerns. “Professor Vaughn here did great work helping us map out our vent systems. Saved us the trouble of having to do it ourselves.”

“He did what?” Soup asked. Every word was a higher pitch than the last, each growing louder until the last word ended in an almost shout.

“I knew he’d get lost,” Oliver muttered Daniel. The other senior technician only chuckled, motioning for Oliver to hush.

“Don’t worry about it, Soup!” Toast laughed. “Getting to observe the outer layers of the vents twist in on themselves was actually inspirational.”

Before Soup could steam more than he already was, Oliver stepped up, patting the taller man’s shoulder in comfort. He could feel the engineer quiver, whether from anger or fear he couldn’t quite tell, but regardless they were all going to hear a university length lecture later even if Soup dragged Toast into another room.

“Come on, you can continue scolding him in a safer place.”

“This way,” the Chief said, heading back in the direction he and Toast had come from.

As they walked, the Chief glanced over his shoulder, raising his brow at two of his senior technicians. The stern gaze being directed toward him almost made Oliver jump to attention out of habit.

“So? Why’re you two still here? With your status, you could’ve easily evacuated with the lab coats, especially you, Jiang.”

“Chief, why are you asking us that when you’re also here?” Oliver scoffed. If the red band, similar in color and design to Toast’s, was any indicator, the Chief was considered a supervisor of his department and had the same rights as one. He could’ve left with management if he wanted to.

“I built this Station, I’m going down with this Station,” he declared.

“Chief... you’re not a ship captain from the pre-galactic era,” Daniel blanched. “If anything, the others should’ve dragged you off with them. Speaking of which, are there any others? We have Dr. Emerson and Joey waiting back at the Bay for us.”

“Sure there are. Command wouldn’t let me onto the evac pod without these suckers. Bunch of Navigators and some of their lab coats are still stuck somewhere. Unfortunately for me, I’ve only found a bunch of slow, low-priority lab coats. They’re being monitored by some of the other boys right now.”

“So that’s the real reason,” Oliver said. “Have you checked ARCNAV yet?”

“No. It’s hard enough to switch floors with those damned aliens crawling everywhere. Damned things have already eaten some of the guards that were with us, some of the slower lab coats too.”

Oliver shuddered at the memory of the aliens’ viscous bodies making contact with his legs. The feeling of them shredding the top layers of his skin was not a pleasant memory. He’d have to remember to thank Emerson again when they went back. Although, if there were deaths, once they contacted the UEA, they’d send someone to terminate the aliens.

“You haven’t gotten in contact with Triton, Chief?” Daniel asked.

“Do you think we’d be stuck here if I had? Nevermind that. What’s the situation everywhere else? Professor Vaughn already filled me in with what happened on the first floor.”

Switching between the three of them, they narrated what they’d encountered up on the third floor. Everything from Soup and Daniel’s climb up to the third floor, how Joey and Emerson had gotten up there and met with them, and from when Oliver ran into them. They mentioned the hole that connected the second and third floors, and the nest by the elevator.

“Chief!” Daniel said, exchanging looks with Soup and Oliver now that they were on the topic of the nest. “Have you seen a giant alien? There was one when we passed the second floor nest coming from this direction.”

“So you too, huh.”

“Too? So you have seen it.”

“That thing came from around the corner and ate some of the slower guards. Thing’s too big to squash and its arms are too fast to get close without getting caught. Dumb idiots tried and now we’re down five men. It’s a good thing you came along. I’ve resorted to taking lab coat volunteers to do the rounds with me, although I don’t know what I was expecting. Only this one bothered to come with me.”

The Chief jerked his thumb at Toast, giving a disgruntled huff about the scientist. A small smile was half hidden within the Chief’s moustache, however. Guess he didn’t mind Toast as much as he complained.

“How many survivors are there?” Daniel asked.

“About ten, not counting me and Professor Vaughn here. There used to be closer to twenty, but some either left or, well, as I said, got eaten. We’re based in Lab 16B. Luckily, one of the lab coats with us has access, otherwise we’d all be eaten by those things already.”

As they walked, they passed the wrecked entrance to the cafeteria. Several tables had smashed through the glass doors, which now rested on the left side of the corridor in neat piles. Some of the accompanying chairs had followed them out and were stacked neatly beside them. Some of the furniture had mixtures of red and pink, their trophies from the victims they’d claimed. What remained inside was a chaotic jumble of chairs and tables, like how most other rooms in the Station had decided to reorganize themselves. As their flashlights swept over the ground and walls, the splashes of dead aliens alongside covered the cafeteria. The spaces between them were very narrow, and the amount of pink was immeasurable.

“Was there a nest in there?” Oliver asked.

“Yeah, the second quake took care of them,” the Chief said, shooting a glare at the cafeteria. “Good riddance. We lost Charleston and Baker to them. Idiots tried to save some no good lab coats. They were good men.”

The Chief turned away from the entrance, his hands on his hips as he shook his head at the memory. He sniffed loudly, continuing to move away from the cafeteria. Oliver and Daniel paused at the entrance, giving their former coworkers a moment of silence. Without the usual lights and hubbub of activity, the empty cafeteria was desolate. The stains of chaos would be too deep to clean up even with their advanced technology.

With a parting glance, they continued onwards, following the bend of the corridor. Beside the cafeteria was the main hospital. The equipment held there was built to handle the more serious situations that the satellite clinics couldn’t. A team of doctors would usually man this place, but, like its neighbor, the hospital was dark and in disarray.

“You mentioned we had a team of doctors?” Oliver questioned as they passed the hospital entrance. He skirted the broken opening, not daring to step on the pink and red splotches. It was always a bad sign when there were questionable stains spilling out from hospital doors.

“A team? Nah, just three of them,” the Chief said. “Picked them up outside the evac pods. Said they didn’t arrive in time.”

The group passed the hospital and returned to the Chief’s main area of operations. The corridor on this side of the floor was clear, and at the far end there was even a blockade of debris marked off with lanterns. A pair of people in familiar blue uniforms patrolled toward them, swinging their flashlights left, right, up, and down. Seeing the arriving group come closer, they met up with them in the middle.

“Hensley! Jiang! You’re okay!” the shorter one cried, rushing up to them once their faces came clearer.

Hair tied in a high ponytail to keep the strands of curly red-hair out of her face, Lucky Lu, as the department called her, bounced to place in front of them, saluting the two senior technicians. Her uniform looked one size too large for her, despite it already being the smallest size available. Like them, her flashlight was the floodlight kind, and it beamed in their faces every time she swung her arms.

“Lucky, Johnson,” Daniel hailed, clasping their wrists in a handshake. “You made it.”

The other technician with Lucky was taller than even Soup, gangly, and looked much too awkward in his own skin. A bandana that suspiciously looked like one of Joey’s held back his cropped blonde hair. He gave a weak wave to Oliver and Daniel in greeting. The pair of Lucky and Johnson was a strange one, but the two of them were the best drone pilots the Station had.

“How’re the lab coats?” the Chief asked, bypassing their reunion and making his way toward the laboratory they were holed up in.

“The usual complaints,” Lucky replied, blowing her bangs out of her face. “‘When are we leaving?’ or ‘Have you contacted help yet?’ or, my favorite, ‘I’m hungry!’” she said, mimicking the researchers and doctors’ words with hand puppets.

“Can’t leave them for two minutes without them yakking my ears off,” the Chief agreed under his breath as he pulled the lab’s key card from his inner pocket.

He swiped the door open, and urged everyone inside. Like the corridor, this lab was organized and structured. Unlike their own base back up in the Engineering Bay, there was no need to pick their way around fallen or overturned furniture. Along the far wall, loose tables were stacked, and their matching stools were tucked beneath them. Several sleeping bags were laid atop the flat lab tables, a makeshift bed for some of the survivors. A glimpse through the window into the office showed a similar situation inside.

Sitting around one of the central tables were a mixed group of technicians, doctors, and scientists. At the sound of their arrival, they all stood to greet them. The technicians in the room rushed to Oliver and Daniel as the scientists rushed over to Soup and Toast. They all hopped around them, cheering so loudly and shouting their names, Oliver couldn’t tell one sentence from the other. Eventually, Daniel came to the rescue and calmed them all down.

“Guys, I can’t even hear myself think. Hush.”

The room quieted with his words, and they turned their hopeful eyes toward him. The Chief snorted, his hands crossed as he rolled his eyes at his subordinates. Even those wearing a different uniform turned to him and listened, a rare occurance as it was usually the other way around.

“Hensley, Jiang! Do you know when we’ll be able to leave?” one of the doctors asked. Oliver recognized her as Emerson's friend, the one that worked in the same clinic with her but on an earlier shift.

Oliver shook his head, answering, “We need to fix the power before we can do that, and that'll be difficult right now.”

“Have you met any other researchers?”

“We found Emerson. She’s with our intern up in the Bay.”

“Joey made it out okay? Good to hear,” one of the technicians said, sighing with relief. The other technicians nodded their heads, patted their chests, or wiped their brow. Joey was a collective responsibility, and hearing he was okay was one item off of their checklist of worries.

“Are you joining us?” another technician asked. At her question, everyone turned their attention on the arriving group again.

Daniel exchanged looks with Oliver and Soup. Oliver only shrugged. He didn’t mind, but they would have to go back and retrieve their other two companions upstairs. Soup only grabbed Toast, who was sneaking away, by the collar, a clear indication that regardless of where Soup was going, Toast was coming with him.

“We’ll have to see,” Oliver decided. “Regardless, we’d need to go back for Emerson and Joey. At the very least, we’ll share our resources. You guys have food, right? We’re starving up there.”

He added, whispering to his companions, “Let’s grab what we need, and then head back up. Rest while we can before fighting through those aliens again.”

The other three nodded, turning back to mingle with the coworkers they hadn’t seen since this mess started. Oliver's shoulders eased amongst the company of familiar faces. Just for the next thirty minutes, he could ease up and pretend nothing had changed. Well, he mused, getting beat up and wielding blowtorches hadn't really changed.

***