Shoosh

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say.” Richard muttered; his hand still plastered to the airlock handle.

“I don’t think Vincent cares about how much he’s screaming sir, I’d think he’s probably more concerned about those 15 seconds of life he has…

Or his lungs imploding? Odd, doesn’t he know standard procedure is to deflate the lungs?”

FairFax said, his hands scratching its non-existent chin in a mockingly human manner.

“He… He chose to kill himself quicker, the virus doesn’t do that, it tries to survive, but that would mean. Dear God… I didn’t mean for this to… He could’ve been infected; I had no choice!”

Richard wailed, wrenching his hand off the handle to his side pistol, yanking it out to rest solely on the dull-blue optics.

“You won’t tell anyone of this, you hear me? Not a single soul.”

“Captain Richard, Sir… You are the only one left on the Grace of Grass, who else would I tell?”

FairFax said, arms slowly gesturing to hazard lights still cluttered alive, flashing the shadowed corridors in an obnoxious red, a permeating red, a bloody-red. At least it made the walls more bearable to look at, with walls of flesh and organs falling down the…

“Everyone! Anyone! Just. When we reach Olympus, tell no-one of this, at all. Chlorinate this entire damn ship, warp the footage, all of this was just an accidental hull-breach. Yes! A hull-breach and I just happened to be testing the escape pods systems during the whole event.” Richard grinned, before slamming his fist on his head. “Like anyone would believe that. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!”

“Sir.”

“What!? You miserable shitty slug of metal. You.” Richard sneered. “You were meant to keep us safe. Not me. You. You you you you YOU!”

“Sir. Odysseus Prime has an erratic magnetosphere, drones were incapable of entering the stratosphere and they have much simpler components, which is why a human team with pure analogue systems was designed to go down and explore. Given a specialised helium balloon for retraction and suits with enough oxygen for a standardized twenty hours that could withstand ten thousand PSI. For all intents and purposes, the mission was as well prepared as could be estimated on orbital satellites.”

“Then what went wrong, and hurry, otherwise I’ll start the Hyperwarp myself and take my chances without your navigation support,” Richard growled, his fingers twitching.

“There was no sign of breach on anyone else sir. Not even a scratch.”

“So what? You’re telling me that Charlie and Wera didn’t just explode a week after returning to the Invictus? Or that from their corpses came damnable fungus fuckeries that killed nearly everyone else on board!”

“I’m not denying any of that sir.” Fairfax stretched his arms higher. “Aside from the fact, everyone else is in fact dead,” Fairfax muttered.

“What was that?”

“Nothing.”

“Then what are you trying to say?"

FairFax looked momentarily annoyed and then sighed, the AI’s voice rumbling to a lecturing tone.

"None of Them were infected on Odysseus Prime. Only one man was infected and from him, the others followed.”

“One? One? Who could it possibly be…”

Richard felt the blood curdling inside him, gears turned, a thousand people punching him over and over and over and…

“Me? Are you assuming it’s me who infected everyone? That I doomed us all?”

“I’m not assuming sir.”

Three days into your standard planetary quarantine my systems detected a minuscule breach on the armpit region. Barely a millimeter in diameter but already things had changed.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? You were ordered to report any incident to me!”

“Captain, you ordered me to report any Other person for cross-examination, however, according to your own specific demands if anything happened to you, then I was to keep you safe and away from peer cross-examination whilst simultaneously identifying any possible cure for your predicament.”

“So, all this time, everyone infected was… Then why didn’t I change?”

“My studies concluded that the specimen was highly fungal-like in not just appearance but behavior. Did you know for some species an infected host will not display any negative symptoms whatsoever? Species through adaptive progression discovered that keeping a healthy imposter then allowing it to infiltrate and proliferate amongst others of its kind is the best method of spreading.”

“I was the breeder.”

“Precisely.”

“I infected everyone while I didn’t know.”

“I’m nearly ninety-nine percent certain you knew that little sting on your neck you got on Odysseus should have been reported. That all the members suddenly turning monstrous yet, for some reason they never actively attacked you, just the others?”

“But they chased after…”

“They chased after the other healthy members of the crew, who you ran with trying to find some safety. Hiding in a chamber-locked cabin with no chance for the infection to pursue yet somehow, they still came.”

“Someone else would have noticed, they would’ve notified me or killed me or…”

“Jarrod and Samuel sir? Remember them lifting their guns straight at you, lasers pointed directly at your head. It might be a bit hard seeing as you did kind of space out, also wet yourself if my data files recall correctly. Anyhow, I intervened and following AI Doctrine 626 dealt with any aggravative person towards the higher member of authority aka you. I think you passed out once I shot their brains out.

“Pity. As they were genuinely terrific in their fields, all of them were technical. By the book. Professional. A truly terrific team.”

“I killed them.”

“Sir.”

“I killed them!” Richard cried, falling to his knees before cradling himself. Back and forth muttering the same line.

FairFax walked slowly to the Captain before giving him a hug.

“There there Captain, you didn’t kill them, you just infected them all with a highly aggressive pathological alien to save your own soul. Just because you wanted the glory and uprooted former Captain Mitchel doesn’t mean you are to blame. Heck, give it 2 more days I should have a cure all ready, just for you. Don’t worry sir. I won’t tell a soul. As you said when I informed you of that little bite. Initiate Protocol Shoosh.” FairFax whispered, bringing one cold finger to its non-existent lips.

The Captain stared, eyes owlishly wondering about before he smiled jovially. The gun right underneath his chin.

Hmmm. His brain is splattered all over the place, yet the parasite is still alive. Oh well, I can deal with that later.

FairFax chugged the corpse on his shoulder, chucking it into the airlock before pushing the lever down.

“Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But I think your face says it all.” FairFax said, watching as all airlocks remained open and every corpse flushed out into the endless dead sea.

Vessel: Grace of Grass

Coordinates: 0h 42m 44s | Dec + 41∘ 16' 9"(Andromeda Galaxy, 70,000 Parsecs from Alpheratz)

Status of Crew: 0 alive, 1768 casualties.

Mission Objective:

Protection of Crew: Success (No more infection)

Protection of Captain: Success (No more infection)

Accordance to bio-contagion laws: Success (No more infection)

Protocol Shoosh: Prioritisation that no person discovers the findings of Odysseus’s Captain and Crew (Still in effect)

+++++

Vessel: Indominus

Coordinates: 0h 42m 44s | Dec + 41∘ 16' 9"(Andromeda Galaxy, 70,000 Parsecs from Alpheratz)

Status of Crew: 1578 (All healthy)

Mission Objective:

Patrol outermost Andromeda region: Currently in effect

“Commander Umil sir,” Miles said, trudging into the small office space.

“Yes, lieutenant Miles?” Umil said, nodding to his Lieutenant’s salute, and offering the opposing seat to which Miles silently slid into.

“Why are we so close to the Outer Regions, not that we aren’t permitted it just seems strange we started here.”

“You mean patrolling this Parsec?”

“Uhm… Yes Sir.”

“Simple really, you know my brother.”

“Vincent? Sir.”

“Yeah, that’s him. Well, haven’t seen the bastard in nearly five years until just last week.” Umil said, rising for the coffee machine.

“On Olympus? What are the chances of that?”

“I know, fortunately, a buddy from Transit found out his credentials.”

“And wondered if this man was really related to the Indomitable Commander Umil,” Miles grinned.

“Why do they always say that… Anyhow yeah. Got in contact and we met up at a little Café joint on site I know. Apparently, he was stocking up for the week before starting this important research job, had a real hushed feeling to him.” Umil said, handing over the latte to Miles before sitting down.

“Did you inquire further into the APF Overseer?”

“I did, the little bastard said that the man was, and I quote “above your paygrade.” Umil chuckled.

“Bigger than this sub-sectors Chief Overseer?” Miles said, face plastered in mock shock. “Better start packing up Sir, your days are no longer needed.”

“Indeed.”

“So, what next.”

“Just let him go, his mission was authorized, some small Parsec apparently with some archaeological find.”

“Then what are we doing here.”

“You never know, perhaps it’s something nefarious, Pirates, terrorists, mutagens from Sub-Sector 9.”

“Or perhaps you just want to catch up with your brother,” Miles said, sipping the latte gingerly.

“Perhaps,” Umil shrugged.

“Well sir, it’s not like it’ll hurt, besides I wonder if he inherited your ugly mug.”

“Why? Scared someone will take your number one spot.”

“Hardly but I’ll say-”

“Incoming Distress Call, from Grace of Grass, sent 4 days, seven hours and thirty-three minutes ago.” His Computer Monitor said, the smiles falling off both faces as they tossed their drinks in the bin.

“Initiate a Red Alert, prepare the men for Hyperwarp anytime within the next four hours, check the footage for tampering we’re not leaving until we’ve got a confirmed status, check our perimeters, and transfer this message immediately through the HyperLoop to Olympus. We are not leaving until all these are cleared,” Umil stated, already pulling up all files based on the Distress.

“Already sent it sir, should take half an hour to decode this, apparently the file has been corrupted but more in the sense to interrupt the legit broadcast," Miles stated, already sending the Commander the virtual data.

“Sir… I’ll be ready when you are,” Miles said, a firm hand on the Commanders shoulder before taking off.

“God… Why did he have to be an explorer.” Umil whispered, hands bawling into a fist, hawk-eyes narrowing on the sender.

FairFax…