Heavenly Light

Grant and Linda entered the flooded sickbay and lay William down on an exam table, who let out a moan as they did so.  A pipe in the corner was leaking water into the room through a gash that looked like it was caused by a circular saw.

“Why’s it so wet here?” Linda asked, looking down into the water level that was almost up to her knees.

“Looks like something tore open a water pipe.”

“Where’s the doctor?”

“I don’t know, we’re gonna have to do this ourselves.”

“How much medicine do you know?”

“Let’s find out.  Raid the drugs locker, I’ll go look for some equipment.”

Linda opened the medicine cabinet and began to rout through it as Grant explored.  He walked behind a curtain and let out a “Whoa,” as he was taken aback by what he saw.

“What is it?” Linda said.

“Found the doctor,” he replied, pulling the curtain round to cover the disgusting carnage that floated before him.

Linda sloshed back to the exam table with an armful of drugs as Grant returned with some supplies.  “I have no idea what this stuff is,” she said, dropping it on the table.

“You got morphine at least?” he said.

“Err…yeah,” she said, looking through the bottles.  “Here it is.”

“Alright.  Shoot him full of it.”

“I don’t know how to do that.  What if I hurt him?”

“You can hardly hurt him any more than that thing did,” Grant said, handing her a syringe, which she took hesitantly.

With a quivering hand, Linda did her best to fill the needle with morphine as Grant attempted to staunch the bleeding with a handful of bandages.  Blood ran over his fingers and down the table, dropping into the shallow water below as Linda injected him with morphine.

***

Rob lay on his back in a tram as it travelled up to A-Deck.

“Rob, you there?” Grant’s voice came through his communicator.

“Yeah I’m here,” Rob said.  “How you guys doing?  You at the escape pods?”

“No, we’re at sickbay.”

“What?  Why?  Is Linda hurt?”

“No, we came across someone still alive so we moved him there.  I’ve stitched him up as best as I could but he’s still sleeping off the sedative.”

“Why are you still hanging around?  Get out of here.”

“I’m afraid to move him.  He could start bleeding again.  Where are you right now?”

“On route to A-Deck.  If I can get the generator working, it’ll be easier to find Mariella.”

***

“Well good luck,” Grant said into the communicator before putting it away and splashing through the floodwater to check on William.

“How’s he doing?” Linda said.

“Dead.”

Linda looked down at William in shock as Grant felt for a pulse that wasn’t there.

“What?” she said.  “Did I give him too much morphine?”

“No,” Grant said.  “I think he just bled to death.  That wound was deep.  I only stitched him up outside.  He was probably still bleeding internally.”

“So what now?” she said.

“We leave him and head for the escape pods.  I did my best but I’m no doctor.”

***

Grant and Linda made their way through a dark hallway with Sunlight streaming in from a window.

“Do you have any idea what’s doing all this?” Linda said.

“I’ve got no clue.  It looked like a robot.”

“Do you think someone built it here?  In one of the labs?”

“I don’t know.  I just want to leave.”

“Which way are the escape pods?  I’ve never been.”

“They should be right…” Grant said as they arrived at a dead end.  “…This way.”

“Why’s there no way through?”

“I think we’ll have to go around.”

“What about that vent?  It looks like it’ll take us through.”

“You really want to squeeze in there?”

“Why not?” Linda said.  “I prefer it to out in the open.”

“Because this thing looks like it crawls faster than it runs and I don’t want to be in an enclosed space when it comes.  Come on…we’ll go around.”

***

They arrived at a locked door with bloody corpses scattered about, as if they were cut down while trying to open it.

Grant attempted to open the door but failed.  “It’s not working.  The controls are soaked in blood.”

“So what now?” Linda said.

“There should be a security station round here that’ll override it.”

***

Rob entered the dark cramped maintenance closet and climbed up on the shelves, opening a vent on the wall before climbing through.  After crawling with great difficulty through the narrow ventilation shaft, Rob kicked the vent out of the end and climbed down into the generator room.

The space was large and dark with the only light coming from behind a huge wall fan that covered most of the opposite wall.

Rob handled his communicator and said, “I’m at the generator.  I’m gonna see if I can turn the lights back on manually.”

He put it away and approached the large machine that dominated the room, before taking out his tools and getting to work.

***

Grant activated the security console and said, “That should do it.  I think it’ll be open now.”

The lights suddenly came on, prompting Linda to say, “Did you do that?”

“Not me,” Grant admitted.  “Rob must’ve been successful.  Come on, let’s go.”

***

Linda and Grant walked through the now open door when the lights went off again.  As they looked around nervously, Grant said, “That can’t be good.”

***

Moments earlier, as Rob fixed the generator, the lights reactivated and revealed Sanguis standing behind him.

As Rob stood up, he heard the sound of metal feet advancing on him.  Accepting his new challenge, he turned around and faced his mechanical foe before very slowly reaching for a power drill from his tool belt and holding it like a weapon.

“I’m ready robot,” he said.

Rob looked up into the face of Sanguis looming over him and attempted to thrust the drill into his abdomen, but Sanguis caught his arm easily with a metal claw and broke his wrist, causing the drill to fall to the floor

Sanguis’ tentacles circled round and stabbed into Rob, who cried out in pain.  Rob punched Sanguis as hard as he could with his good hand, which also broke as it collided with the dense metal skull.

Sanguis then pulled Rob to the ground and pierced his body over and over again until he was clearly dead.  When it was finished, Sanguis stabbed at the generator, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks and Heaven’s lights went out once again.