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Contagion

By Lisa Horn

By Lisa HornPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 4 min read
1

Contagion

Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Space is terrifying, you will find yourself in an environment which has zero accommodations for human existence, and rely solely on technology for survival, space is a vast place to be and will make you feel very alone. I am the chief science officer of the Fortuna Space Station, I have been on this station for 14 months now collecting data and doing various types of research trying to discover new species and looking for new possibilities in space, maybe even a new planet to start a new colony.

There has been several different excursions over the last few months, and I have been examining and experimenting on the different rocks and plant life brought back to me by the research crew, my main concern was to make sure nothing was deadly or contagious, so every bit of caution when handling this research was extremely important, and as chief officer it was my job to make sure every protocol was followed correctly, sometimes things can be overlooked and sometimes things go wrong.

It was the early hours of the morning when the science lab alarm started ringing through the hallways and echoing in my room, what as going on? I grabbed my alarm clock on the small bedside table, 2:35am, I quickly threw on some clothes and left my room to see what the commotion was, once outside I ran towards the main lab running into other science officers on the way, in event of an exposure to a deadly contagion the lab automatically seals itself to prevent any risk of an outbreak on the space station. My other colleagues and I stared anxiously into the sealed lab and looked to see what caused the alarms to trigger, I looked towards the new shipment of cargo that arrived from the latest expedition and noticed a strange vapor coming from one of the unopened boxes in the corner of the lab, we needed to get in to the lab to investigate further so I looked for the protective overalls and gas masks and securely put them on. I had to input my security code into the door panel to allow access into the lab, 2 other officers and I walked through into the outer airlock for decontamination where we were sprayed with a disinfectant, the inner airlock door opened and the 3 of us slowly and cautiously walked into the lab and headed towards to unopened boxes, as we walked nearer to the boxes and looked closer at the vapor it seemed to contain an unusual substance which looked like dust particles or even a type of spore, we all backed off from the boxes as were very apprehensive in what had escaped into the atmosphere, I needed to think of a way to contain this and see what was causing this.

I asked one of the other officers to grab a tool from the work bench which would help us open the container, I examined the box more closely and noticed that the box was damaged on one side, there was a huge crack properly caused by careless handling when being shipped here, although i needed to contain this straight away I suddenly thought about the other crew members that loaded the containers into the lab, had they been exposed to the substance? I doubt they were wearing any protective clothing, they don’t normally wear any, even after I inform them of the dangers involved with unknown substances, I needed to make this a priority, I instructed my colleagues to try to seal the container to stop any further leaks of the vapor, and disinfect and sanitize everything in sight, I headed over to my work desk to have a look at the paperwork regarding the shipments, and to see who had brought the containers into the lab, I looked at the roster and saw who was on duty when the containers were brought into the lab, there were 4 names on the list, I needed to track these crew members down to see if they have been infected.

I hurried into the airlock for decontamination and swiftly made my way to the staff quarters, I didn’t remove the protective clothing as wasn’t sure if the rest of the station was contaminated so didn’t want to get infected, once I had made it to the staff quarters, I searched on a nearby terminal for the location of the crew members room numbers, they were easy to locate, I ran towards the first name on my list, thankfully it wasn’t too far, I did get some strange looks from other crew members as they were properly wondering why I was wearing the protective gear, I just ignored them as I ran through the corridors, I reached the first room, the door was ajar, there was a flickering light coming from within the room, I slowly pushed open the door and walked in, the room looked like a bomb site, clothes were on the floor, there was a lamp laying broken on the ground which was causing the flickering, there was drops of blood on the carpet railing to the bathroom, I made my way across the room, not exactly sure what I was going to find in the bathroom but it I knew it wasn’t going to be good.

fiction
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About the Creator

Lisa Horn

I am a new writer, with an active imagination, hope you enjoy reading my stories.

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  • Jori T. Sheppard2 years ago

    Awesome story I, I loved reading it. It’s so creative and well written. Glad you are honing your talent on this site

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