Ashkelon Station: In Orbit of GL382

07/23/2183

From the shadows behind the bath, a wheelchair was brought forward for The General as the Alien birthling growing out of his abdomen continued to squirm restlessly, hissing and spitting like a strangled cat, still dripping with blood. He looked down upon it with lidless, black eyes and said, “Your father Guo asked me once, 'why haven't I rid myself of this abomination? How could I permit such a creature to live as part of me?' I told him that there are places in our souls so remote, no light can reach them. And that truth's that inhabit them grow accustomed to the darkness. They cannot fathom ever escaping it. And they do not want to be disturbed.”

“You're a monster!” Sheren croaked, clutching to Keren's arm tightly.

The General nodded while reaching for the Alien birthling, attempting to caress it and calm it down. At first it recoiled, as eager to sink its teeth into him as much as anything else so he had to be careful to avoid its jaws. After a few minutes however, it seemed to respond favorably to the touch and grow docile. At that point he tied his robe up again and sat down on the wheelchair.

One of the bodyguards moved over to whisper in his ear again. Others in the bathhouse also started talking excitedly. Whatever the cause was for the hull breach sirens and the red-flashing alarms, Keren wasn't sure she should be glad for the interruption or not?

Apparently whatever it was didn't please The General. If anything it seemed to make him more “I can take you to your father now, but I must warn you he rests in darkness. I cannot promise how he will react to the light. Each soul must find its own way, according to its nature.”

Keren didn't know what to say, or what to think, except that they had come too far now to turn back. “We need to see him,” is all she said.

The General's wheelchair was motorized and fixed with attachments for his IV drips and oxygen tanks. The same medical nurse who pushed the wheelchair forward transferred everything over and then stepped away as he wheeled it around. Keren and Sheren followed behind along with Miss Chen. Two of The Generals bodyguards walked in front of him, the other pair behind him.

Once they left the baths under brighter lighting, Keren glimpsed something odd on the back of The General's skull. A metal plate? It was mostly obscured by his hanging braid, weathered and oxidized, but to her familiar eye it had the look of high-grade Titanium-alloy. The sort of material used in high-end medical procedures a long time ago.

They passed through the same abattoir they entered earlier, with the same two dozen Asian men and women in aprons, goggles and gloves. They passed through another set of double doors and found themselves in a holding area with about a dozen stalls for live steer, only about half of which were occupied.

A Russian man in a lab coat walked around between the stalls pushing a cart. On the cart was a clipboard, a stethoscope, a thermometer, syringes and dozens of vials of drugs of some sort or another. The man was tall, balding and cheerful, seeming to hum and murmur; talking to himself, or perhaps the animals as he examined them closely placing adhesive electrode patches to their hides reading data on heart rate and other vital signs. Each stall had sort of a treadmill beneath it forcing a few of the animals to exercise. These treadmills also had the useful function of dumping away their dung.

This man bowed low at The General's approach. He kept his head down until The General and his bodyguards passed by, then raised it again and smiled broadly at Miss Chen. She bowed her head back to him respectfully and smiled back, “Hello Feliks! How's the stock looking today?” she asked.

“Very fine!” he stated happily. “I think I have three here that are worth sending back to the Union!”

Beyond the stalls they approached a heavy, caged, freight elevator on the far side of the room which Keren imagined probably moved the animals up from a larger holding pen. She knew there were a few of those on the station when live animals were brought up on the shuttles. Quality beef was a valuable commodity anywhere.

Once on the elevator, one of the bodyguards pulled a lever to descend. As Keren expected the elevator passed down into a holding pen. There were about three dozen animals here, kept within a fenced corral. The air smelled strongly of cow dung, hay and urine, despite the heavy fans circulating a strong artificial breeze. Animal handlers rolled around the corral on a wheeled cart equipped with cattle-prods, lasso's on poles, dung-scrapers and other tools of their trade. They didn't give them so much as a glance.

Behind them the freight elevator moved up again, but the doors did not close after it. Instead a hidden trap door opened up on the deck beneath it, revealing a secondary elevator platform that rose up with four Triad Enforcers holding assault rifles. They stepped off and bowed their heads to The General, taking up positions nearby while the rest of them stepped unto the secondary elevator descending further into the station under the watchful eyes of cameras situated at the top of the shaft.

Keren felt a sense of growing dread as the squeal of old cables and screeching pulleys that were rarely put to use echoed all around them. Smells of old grease and overworked electrical motors wafted up through vents and old machinery. She even glimpsed the glowing pipes of superheated lead coolant. They were descending down deep into the reactor level, Keren realized.

The elevator came to an abrupt halt before a thick, magnetically sealed, lead-core radiation containment door. There, additional cameras panned and zoomed to take a careful look at each of their faces before the door swung inwards on heavy hydraulic motors. Beyond were immaculate white tiles, stainless steel benches, shower fixtures, and lockers. A decontamination prep chamber, Keren ascertained.

Two more Triad enforcers were inside wearing thickly armored radiation utility suits, air-scrubber re-breather helmets, emergency air tanks and portable flame-thrower units held at the ready in their hands. The Generals bodyguards spread out to each corner of the room and stood at ease, apparently intending to go no further.

“Please suit up,” Miss Chen asked Keren and Sheren gesturing to thick, rubbery, hazmat radiation suits hanging on pegs. Keren had a thought about the pistol she took from Miss Chen, which was still concealed under the Gung Fu training uniform she was presently wearing. Wearing a hazmat suit over that would seriously hinder her ability to retrieve it; especially since there were no pockets on the exterior of the suit to conceal it with.

Fortunately they were not expected to strip down and place their clothing into the lockers so she kept the pistol where it was and put a hazmat suit on over it. The General, likewise, suited up with the aid of his bodyguards before trading his current wheelchair for a specially sterilized one. Once everyone was ready they entered a decontamination chamber full of drains, vents, sprinklers and chemical jets. A multi-stage decontamination process took place, blasting them with air, harsh chemicals and disinfectant before the exit opened into a short corridor, the terminus of which was another magnetically sealed, lead-core radiation containment door.

This one opened into a specially-equipped lab guarded by two more suited Triad Enforcers holding flame-throwers. Half a dozen lab techs in hazmat suits connected to air hoses worked within conducting various types of experiments in brightly-lit cubicles and workshops. Keren noted the walls and the ceiling around them were visibly curved, as if the lab itself was constructed inside a huge cylindrical tank of some sort. Large enough to hold a small orbital shuttle, she reasoned.

“Originally this lab was an auxiliary reactor coolant storage tank,” Miss Chen explained catching the way she was looking around, “It was decommissioned shortly after the station finished construction. Routine leak-testing indicated it was unsafe, but of course we falsified that testing. We also arranged for the tank manufacturer to go out of business to make it available for our other needs.”

Keren had to admit she was impressed, or perhaps disturbed was a better word. She imagined the primary use of this lab might be to study and reverse-engineer experimental biological or chemical weapons being developed in the Jĭngtì Lóng labs far above? The UPP always had the reputation of being fiendishly effective at espionage. With labs like this operating in secret it was easy to see why. But what did all this have to do with her father?!

At the rear of the lab was another lead-lined barrier, sectioning off what she guessed was the last third of available space in the tank. The security door here was heavily labeled with bio-hazard and radiation warnings in both Chinese and Russian. Two more Triad Enforcers stood guard here with flame-throwers as more cameras swiveled to examine them.

The General rolled forward in his chair and reached his hand into a cubby beside the security door concealing an electronic combination key pad. After entering an access code a voice on an intercom spoke up, speaking Russian in a tone that was clipped, curt, and anything but deferential. Keren couldn't understand what was being said, but it certainly sounded like whoever was on the other side of this security door answered to a higher authority than The General and they weren't pleased by his visit. They also seemed to have a huge problem with unexpected visitors, blurting further expletives as the cameras zoomed in on Keren and Sheren.

The General glanced at them once or twice while making arguments of his own, eventually demanding that they open the door with his most stern and forceful voice. For several moments, there was only silence. Keren had the sickening feeling that this was her last chance to see her father and it was going to be denied.

Even the Enforcers holding the flame-throwers seemed to sense this, fidgeting nervously as if they dreaded the possibility they might have to raise their weapons up against The General in some sort of threat. Keren also realized it if came down to a fight in these close-confines she would never have a chance to get her hands on her gun before they were all burned to a crisp.

Then at last, reluctantly, the security door opened revealing two Russian physicians in hazmat suits with irritable, unhappy scowls visible through their tempered-glass face shields. Around them was an extremely well-outfitted medical lab. Keren recognized much of the same equipment in use here as they had down on Temple Colony in the Stern private family hospital.

There was an electron-microscope, a DNA sequencer, a clinical chemistry analyzer, a cryostat, a mass spectrometer, a fast protein liquid chromatograph machine, a clinical centrifuge, clinical laboratory incubator, cell counter, microplate spectrophotometer, PCR DNA amplifier, and even more she was not familiar with.

In the middle of the far wall was a large observation window looking into a sterile, clean-room where an advanced cryogenic medical-diagnostic incubator pod was held on a stilted, robotic platform. Within that, resting in stasis was her father, Guo Ho. His physical condition was far worse than she expected, but she recognized him immediately. It couldn't be anyone else.

Sheren immediately cried out and rushed towards the glass, only to be forcefully shoved back by one of the physicians who cursed something at her in Russian. It took all Keren's willpower not to physically assault him on the spot. Miss Chen meanwhile, clutched Sheren by the arm and counseled her to remain calm.

The General rose up from his chair and stepped forward. It was clear the physician who shoved Sheren was the same man The General was arguing with over the intercom just a minute earlier. This man didn't flinch or demonstrate any signs of cowering, even standing eye-to-eye with the scariest Triad boss anywhere. Instead, he continued to complain and curse in a harsh, vituperative tone, eyeballing Sheren and her older sister, gesturing repeatedly that they should leave.

“What's he saying?” Keren asked Miss Chen in a low voice, unhappy with the feeling that she and The General were her only allies at the moment.

Miss Chen shook her head, “He says you have no permission to be here.”

“Guo is our father! We have a right to be here!” Keren proclaimed a bit louder than she intended.

“No! You have no rights!” The physician spat back in a heavy Russian accent, shaking his finger towards them. The man obviously understood Chinese perfectly well, he just chose not to speak the language in front of them until now.

Was this gonna be more nonsense about vows and oath's of service to the Union? Keren wondered as her jaw clenched in anger, The fucking nerve of these assholes!

In that moment, as the physician was distracted and taking in another breath to exhale further vitriol towards the sisters, The General smashed his fist through his face plate. Blood splatter burst from the mans helmet as he instantly collapsed. For a second, no one moved, then the other physician dove towards a big red button on a nearby control console.

Miss Chen moved first to leap after him but it was Keren who was closer. She kicked outwards into his ribs, forcing him to stumble wildly off his feet. Miss Chen fell upon him an instant later, shattering vertebrae in the back of his neck with one savage chop from the side of her hand.

Sheren gasped, It all happened so fast!

The General looked back at Sheren, gesturing for her to step forward with his right hand still dripping with blood. Sheren did so, taking care to step around the red puddle leaking out of the dead physicians helmet as she approached the large observation window. Keren joined her and put her arm around her.

He looks so weak, Keren thought, unable to rectify the look of her father in such a state as this. A stasis pod was supposed to preserve his health! The comatose state of hypersleep should maintain his bodily functions perfectly. Guo was always so strong, handsome and healthy. Now he was breathing through a tube and his hair was falling out, that which was otherwise not shaved off at least.

His skin was sallow and much of his muscle mass had degenerated as if by atrophy. Intravenous tubes were stuck into his neck, arms, abdomen and legs. Flexible silicone sensors and many other medical devices were affixed to his skin, most notably around his chest and abdomen.

“What's wrong with him?!” Sheren cried out, clutching at Keren and starting to tear up within her helmet.

“The same thing that is wrong with me,” The General answered plaintively.

Sheren turning to stare at him in disbelief, “No! That's impossible!”

“Show them,” The General ordered Miss Chen, settling back into his chair and breathing deeply from his oxygen tank supply connected to his suit helmet. The exertion of standing and killing the physician with his bare hands had apparently drained much of his strength.

Miss Chen moved to one side of the observation window, on either side of which were highly sophisticated medical computer consoles. There beneath high-resolution display monitors, keyboards and touch-screen tablets, each computer station had special, tactic-feedback gloves for robotic manipulator arms permitting physicians to manipulate equipment inside the isolation chamber as easily as if they were physically inside.

Miss Chen rapidly entered codes and commands into the control interface. Suddenly, every known type of magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography scanners and bone densitometers were put to use displaying Guo's skeleton and all his organs on the monitors.

Sheren gasped. Something Alien was curled up tightly in Guo's chest cavity, just beneath his rib cage. Keren recognized the long, arching skull and sharp teeth of the same monstrous creature that devoured Dasha's face. Her stomach churned as she felt herself wanting to retch.

“What is that?!” Sheren cried out, immediately convulsing into sobs. Keren hugged her little sister tightly and turned her away from the screens.

“That is what the Russians at the highest levels of our government refer too as Baba-Khorkhore, 'The beast who eats everything',” The General replied in a hoarse, lugubrious voice.

“How did it get inside him?” Keren asked.

“Speaking from experience, that's not something you ever want to know,” The General stated sagaciously.

“Is he safe in there? While he's sleeping?” Sheren asked between sobs.

“No one is safe from that,” The General said in with a tenebrous wilt to his voice, “But so long as he sleeps, the monster sleeps. The only reason he's lasted this long is because he's in stasis.”

“Why cant it be surgically removed?” Keren asked, incredulous.

“Not possible. Not without killing him. I would have removed mine a long time ago were it otherwise,” he added in a tone as honest as it was exhausted.

Keren looked around, “So then what is all this equipment for?!”

“An experiment. An effort to kill the creature without surgery,” Miss Chen explained taking over in this regard from The General who was tiring from so much conversation.

“It's been four years! Why isn't that monster dead yet?!” Sheren croaked.

As if in response to hearing its name, the Alien on the monitor shifted ever so slightly.

Miss Chen sighed, “Killing it isn't as difficult as keeping Guo alive in the process.”

“What have you tried?” Keren asked, regretting it even as she said it.

“Everything you can imagine. We've had the most success with proton beams,” Miss Chen answered, “Unlike x-rays, proton particles spread very little radiation beyond the targeted area. The idea was to bombard the creature with doses high enough to kill it without killing Guo in the process.

Unfortunately, even in stasis, the creature has enough reflexes to move around in response to injury. The more we persisted, the more agitated it got. At a certain point, it became obvious the creature was capable of waking itself up out of stasis and killing its host in an effort to escape it.

What's worse, the more injured it became the worse off the host suffers. Somehow, even in stasis, the Alien can heal itself draining the host of additional nutrients. That's why Guo looks this bad. Unlike the Alien, his body won't heal until it wakes up. Thus, all their efforts to kill it, ultimately, are also slowly killing Guo.”

“Their bodies are joined now, on a genetic level. The same as myself and my own symbiont,” The General murmured in affirmation.

“So if he wakes up now, he'll become a monster just like you?” Sheren asked, horrified.

“No. What happened to me isn't the norm,” The General explained, “With me they attempted to kill the Alien with huge doses of radiation, never expecting I would outlive it in the process. Instead, the radiation mutated my genes to the point that I will never be free of it. By a further, callous twist of irony, the monster within me has kept me alive in abject misery and constant torment. Its tenacity and will to live have extended my own suffering far beyond what any man should endure.

Trust me when I say this is not a life you should wish for your father. I am as much of a monster as that creature is. You've seen that with your own eyes. I had hoped advances in technology would offer Guo a better chance to survive this thing. The Union obliged me every effort to save his life, but is isn't working.”

“It's not too late!” Sheren exclaimed angrily, “He's not dead yet!”

“He is dead in every sense that matters,” Miss Chen stated coldly. “In stasis he is only technically alive. What use is that if he can never wake up?”

“No! I don't accept that!” Sheren shouted, “We aren't giving up on him!”

Keren looked to Miss Chen, “You said our father is a hero! You said his efforts served his people. You also said his sacrifice will create a better future for the Union. Why?”

“The Alien inside him is the threat there ever was to the UPP,” Miss Chen answered immediately. “If he cannot be rid of it, he must die with it.”

“It's not even that big!” Sheren blubbered. “How can an Alien the size of a cat threaten millions of people from so far away?”

Keren immediately thought about Eva and the loss of the colony on LV-426. It was all starting to make sense now.

“You sent our father after Eva didn't you? That's why he disappeared! He was trying to salvage your plans for her, and for me. My friendship with Eva, and my fathers marriage to my mother. All this was a plot of the UPP to establish useful relationships with my mothers family, The Sterns, and Ze'ev's family, the Darkons, for the sake of gleaning information and exerting influential on Technion Interstellar.”

“That's right,” Miss Chen nodded, “Those plans were years in the making, all undone by these Alien horrors. Guo went to LV-426 to investigate the blackout of Hadley's Hope Colony, where Eva and her father were last heard from. To his credit he accomplished that mission. Unfortunately he didn't escape that place completely inviolate.”

Keren rose her voice towards Miss Chen heatedly, “You said the Union honors its own! You said there was safety here. You said we have family here. You even said we have a future here. So why did these physicians try to stop us from seeing him?” Next she turned to The General, “Why did they feel the need to disrespect and defy you, the Master of the Red Triad, so much that you had had to kill them both?!”

The General said, “The powers at the highest level of the UPP have always hoped to find a cure against birthing these monsters, ever since we encountered them when I was still an officer aboard the CSCSS Ivan Petlin a very long time ago.”

Keren remembered how Dasha mentioned that ship, and a photograph of its crew that Ze'ev had hidden in one of his books. She also remembered that ship was presumed lost with all hands and never heard from again. Yet if anyone was old enough to make such a wild claim as serving as one of its crew, it was The General, she had to admit, astounded.

“I wasn't the only officer to survive of course. Ze'ev's father, Aleksandr Nikolayevich Chilingarov, fled with me from the surface of that moon. We eventually found our way here to GL-382 and Temple Colony. He established a new identity for himself and became its first governor. I served him from the shadows, as his red right hand,” he gestured, holding up his right hand still splattered in blood.

Miss Chen took over again as an orator, “Other survivors of the CSCSS Ivan Petlin spread elsewhere, helping to colonize the first worlds of the Union of Progressive Peoples. Just like The General of course, the loss of the CSCSS Ivan Petlin and its encounter with the Aliens hardened their hearts and steeled their resolve. They swore to guard themselves and the rest of the population against them at any cost. Towards that end the UPP was bent towards a militant, socialist, communist society. Our government is determined to serve and protect the people.

Most of the population are never told about these lifeforms of course. All such knowledge is held as protected state secrets, but enough of our leaders at the highest levels are educated about them so that none of these lifeforms, in any form, are ever permitted into UPP controlled space. That's also why this lab, and others like it, exist so far outside our own borders. For only through isolation, and constant vigilance, will we protect ourselves.”

“That's also why I am permanently banished,” The General added, “Exiled. The General of outcasts. I will never stroll through the plaza of the Memorial of Hero's or visit the graves of honored old friends long dead. In fact I have never set one foot in The Union whatsoever.”

If you expect me to feel sorry for you, you're mistaken, Keren thought, but she let him talk, Every word is information worth having.

The General continued, “These physicians were only trying to save Guo so that someday, powerful leaders in the hierarchy of the UPP have the option for a cure. Towards that end they will sacrifice anyone. They would have continued to pump him full of poisons and cook him with radiation until there was nothing left of him to save. Then they would have simply found another.

It has always been my wish that Guo would succeed me. I am older than any man has a right to be, but I am not immortal. I can feel myself slipping away with every passing day. Were it not for Guo, I would have already ended it years ago. I've forced myself to keep going for his sake.”

The General sighed, a sound almost like a death-rattle, “Guo was like a son to me. I want to see him cured, but I won't continue to watch him waste away without hope, and I don't know how much longer I can hold on.”

“What can I do?” Keren asked. Not because she cared one whit for The General, or the Union, but because she was desperate. Desperate for information. Desperate for options. Desperate for some way to save her fathers life.

“Were it not for Victor Li Shing, you would have never arrived at my doorstep to begin this journey,” Miss Chen commented. “It was Guo's wish that you and your sister wouldn't be involved. Yet as the wise often say, 'blessings sometimes come in disguise.' There is something you can do. It involves a potential cure for your father which has the best possible chance of success.”

“What's that?” Keren asked.

“It involves the use of antimatter,” Miss Chen stated.

“Antimatter?!” Keren stated in disbelief, “That's just theoretical. Isn't it?”

“Not anymore,” The General huffed, “Technion Interstellar have been producing it for decades. They have a sizable stockpile stored in various underground vaults near their huge particle accelerator down on GL-382. We shouldn't need much however. Whatever is on hand in here on the station, in their labs, should be more than sufficient. Provided, they also lend us their expertise in its use.”

“Eve Einat-Darkon, Eva's mother, is their chief executive of research,” Miss Chen added.

“I know that!” Keren snapped, shaking her head. “How am I supposed to explain this to her?! She knows Guo disappeared the same as Eva did, but she has no idea you sent him after her, or what actually occurred on LV-426. You think she wants to hear this? You think she wants to imagine how Eva died from one of these... things...?!” Keren croaked, her eyes stinging with tears. Just now the thought of that was too much for her to imagine. Poor Eva!

“Ze'ev sent your father after Eva, not us,” Miss Chen said.

“Ze'ev sent him?!” Sheren gasped at the same time Keren's mouth dropped. Immediately she recalled all the conversations they had after her fathers disappearance. All the visits. All the tears. All the hugs. All the bullshit!

“Yes. Guo was working for Ze'ev, as part of his role for us.” The General stated.

“What sort of work?” Keren asked between clenched teeth.

“Ze'ev launched his own private investigation into Eva's disappearance shortly after it happened. An effort he maintains to this day. Sending Guo to LV-426 so soon after Eva's disappearance was his best and only chance to get a first hand account about what transpired down there with eyes on the ground. Now, after the blast, LV-426 is off-limits as the Colonial Administration conducts their investigation.”

“That son of a bitch!” Sheren cried out, “He never told us!”

“No he didn't,” Keren agreed bitterly. I'll never forgive him for that, she swore internally, “Dasha was spying on Ze'ev trying to get more information about that investigation wasn't she? Is that why you killed her?” Keren asked The General.

“No. I killed her because she was sloppy. The truth about the Triad, and what we know about these Aliens must be kept secret at any cost. Her failures drew attention. Failures are a liability. Victor Li Shing would learn far more from her than he would have learned from you. I couldn't allow that.”

“Why do you think Ze'ev will help us now? Dasha was his friend. Guo is my father. They both lied to him, used him. He lied to me, and to his own daughter Eve. Why now, should they make allies with the Triad for the sake of my father? Why would they share with you such a dangerous and powerful force as antimatter? Because of me?” She wondered dubiously.

“Show her,” The General ordered.

Miss Chen moved back to the control panel and started entering commands again. Equipment within the isolation chamber that was crowded around Guo's cryogenic medical-diagnostic incubator pod began to move and shift around.

Meanwhile The General kept speaking, “They will help us because Victor Li Shing is our mutual enemy. They will help us for the sake of a grudge and security against these Aliens, who are the enemy of all mankind. But mostly...” he paused.

Within the isolation chamber Guo's incubator pod rotated on its platform, revealing a second pod behind it. This pod was covered in frost, its occupant also deep in stasis. A beautiful young woman with long brown hair.

“EVA!” Keren gasped.

_ _ _

THE END