Containment Breach

Containment Breach

By Megan Russ

“The damn thing is broken.” Jared snapped.

“It’s not broken.” Margaret snapped back, slamming the beeping sensor onto her palm trying to shut the siren off.

“One trip, that is all I ask, one trip through the tunnel without the thing scaring off every viable specimen in the entire forest.”

“Look, it's stopped.” She said holding up the sensor.

“I think that you might have actually broken it.” He pointed to a loose panel on the back. She pressed it back into its place and the alarm began to blare again. “Oh good you fixed it.” Margaret pulled the battery compartment open and popped the powercell out. The sensor gave one last mournful whine before falling silent.

“There happy now, some sharp toothed carnivore is probably watching us right now laughing to itself of how easy its next meal will be.”

“Maggy that thing goes off every time we come through, we have yet to even see a herbivore, I’m telling you the second it goes through the tunnel its wires get crossed.”

“It works just fine back in the lab.”

“Something about the journey makes it not work.”

“Then what good will it be to the tourist groups eventually.”

Jared just laughed. As he opened his bag of tools and sensors, and began to take air, soil and plant samples. “That’s not my problem to deal with, it’s yours, I’m just here to collect samples for the nerds, you are here to test the equipment meant to make the company money.” He shrugged, “Besides for all we know there isn’t even anything to see on this planet.”

“I refuse to believe that, there are trees, water, bacteria, there has to be higher life as well.” Margaret snapped, Jared looked up at her from where he was scooping small soil samples into glass vials.

“Maggy I’m with you on that, I’m just saying. Now do your other tests so we can open the tunnel back up, I don’t want to get stuck here for a week.”

Margaret cleared her throat and began to unpack her own tools and sensors. She set up the camera and motion sensors on the trees. Placed the plaque with communication runes, and formulas embossed on gold. It was the same set up as it was on every planet, instructions that the team would be back in seven days to collect their equipment, and how to set up communication with humans. The wireless cameras would record the area for the week, and the motion sensors would take pictures each time something moved. So far on their other expeditions the pictures were usually leaves falling from the trees.

“Eventually we’ll find something.” Margaret mumbled as she finished setting up the communications array.

“Eventually.” Jared agreed. “Open the tunnel back up and let’s get back home before something decides to eat us.”

Margaret dialed in the coordinates on the computer she wore on her left arm. The air before them rippled like a thermal wave off hot tar, then the air tore, there was a pop as the air from two separate worlds collided. The pair stepped through the hole and came out on the other side. Their boots tapping against the metallic floor of the containment chamber.

“Please put all samples in the collection unit.” The stations AI stated, as soon as the tunnel closed behind them. Jared dropped his bag into the robotic cart that the AI had referred too. “Please enter the decontamination chamber.” The first shower removed all debris, bacteria and any other possible tag along from the team’s protective suits. They stripped their suits off and hung them on the walls. “Please enter the decontamination chamber.” The AI repeated. The pair stripped out of the loose white smocks they wore under their suits and entered the second shower.

“No exfoliation for me tonight.” Jared laughed.

“Seriously, one time I would like to stand here in awkward silence.”

The shower shut off, and the team stepped into the locker room. Margaret let out a scream, as their eyes fell on the lower half of a human body lying in a pool of blood by the lockers. Now that they were out of the lead lined, containment unit they could make out the alarms blaring all over the station. “CONTAINMENT BREACH!” The AI roared repeatedly.

“What the hell?” Jared cried, he pulled on a jumpsuit, and opened the locker room door to the hall. The lights in the hall flickered.

“Maggy?” A voice cracked from the back of the locker room. Margaret went to the voice, it was the station manager Chuck.

“What happened?”

“Maggy, something came through, everyone else is dead, get to the escape pods, get back to Earth and tell them what happened.” He pressed a recording chip into her hand, and pushed her away, he had a hole in his abdomen the size of a basketball.

“Jared,” she whispered as she got to the door, he was still standing with the door cracked looking into the hallway. “We need to get to the escape pods, Chuck said everyone else is gone, we have to get this to Earth.”

“Let’s go, they are just down the hall.”

The pair snuck from the doorway and down the dark hallway, bodies of people in lab coats, black security armor and some in their plain clothes lay around the bloody hall.

Jared hit the button to open the escape pods at the end of the hall. “So, you must be the last of them.” A voice echoed down the blood stained hallway. They spun to see a very human looking face watching them in the flickering lights. “Only one of you can go.” They said holding up a weapon the size of a cannon.

Jared shoved Margaret into the escape pod and hit the button to eject the pod. “No, Jared, no!” She screamed but it was too late the pod’s door was shut and its engine was already firing up.

They were humans.

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