Stick It With The Pointy End

JP with Omni and redsword_7

USCSS Montero > B Deck > MedLab

As the laser scalpel lowered to make the incision in Jensen's face, the lights flickered and the power in the trauma Medbay went out.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”, Roku said, sitting in dim light of the Medbay. “It’s gotta be MUTHUR right? Maybe we can do some kind of override or reconnect the power cables elsewhere. Do we have a backup generator? Shit!”

"Relax. What do you need me to do?" asked Roberts. He looked around to see if he could get power from somewhere else.

“We need to get the power back on for this machine or else... we will be waiting for one of those alien organisms to burst from his face... we might have to kill Jensen... I mean the only other option is to do surgery manually, which I am not exactly qualified for, or go back on the Cronus to recover one of those inoculations.” Roku said, flustered.

"Captain, we need support on getting the power back." requested Roberts.

Roberts thought "Oh what the hell." He walked down the corridor to the DECON and quarantine area and pushed the comms button on the panel. "Any of you a tech!?"

The three Cronus crew members looked at each other.

"If it's a weapon, I can fire it, but I barely know how to setup a home vid system." said Albert Johns.

"What is it?" asked Lori Clayton. "I'm not exactly a tech... but I could take a look at it."

"We need power to the MedLab. Now." said Roberts.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Clayton said.

She walked over to a terminal in the quarantine rec area, stuck her card in the access port and pulled up the B Deck power schematic. With relative ease, she was able to reroute the power from B Deck decon, to B Deck Medlab.

In the Medlab, the power whirred back on just as Jensen regained consciousness. He looked around confused and then fell back under the fresh pulse of surgical anesthesia gas.

When Roberts heard the power come back he ran back to the Medbay thinking how he needed more exercise. This was too much; he thought he had left the Marines; maybe not.

Roku resumed running the automated surgery script, watching the machine do its work. It really was a state of the art, super machine. You didn’t need a field surgeon anymore if you had the skill to run one of these.

After about 15 minutes, the machine maneuvered one of its tiny clamping arms into position, expecting to perform tumor removal. The claw clamped onto the mass and pulled it out slowly.

Roku’s intuition was proved correct, it wasn’t a tumor at all. It was a tiny, pale, snake-like creature coiled up into a ball the size of a marble with tiny stubs where the legs hadn’t formed yet. It began to writhe around and the clamp dropped it.

The machine continued on with the wound closure procedures as the thing wiggled and flopped around on the Medpod bed next to Jensen.

"Kill it, Kill it now!" said Roberts as he pulled a knife and started to move over there.

“The lid is locked in place. We have to wait until the machine finishes with Jensen.”, Roku exclaimed. “Just another minute or two. I’ll get something to catch it in.”

"Catch it?" Roberts was not happy. "Put it in something after we kill it. I am not going to play around with these things. We have one on ice, we don't need two."

“I mean just in case it wiggles around. Don't worry, I fully intend to smash the damn thing.” Roku shouted back.

She scrounged around in the cabinets and drawers for a moment before returning with a stainless steel surgery bowl.

“I’m not even sure if it will survive outside the host. It hasn’t fully gestated.”

"With our luck, yes. I hope it does not bite him or all of this is for nothing." Roberts replied.

The moment arrived and the Medpod shield cover hissed as it unsealed its locking mechanism.

Roberts and Roku were poised to open the lid when they heard the faint sound of gunfire somewhere on the same deck. Roku dropped the bowl and it clanged around on the floor.

“Shit!”

"Let's do this. Hurry, Roku!"

She picked the bowl up and nodded to Roberts.

Robert keys his radio. "Gunfire on deck B near the Medbay." He walked over and tried to stick the alien baby with the tip of the knife.

The Captain’s voice crackled over the hand radio, “...Who the hell is discharging a weapon on my ship...”

Roberts' heart rate jumped as he saw the thing squirming. Sweat ran down his face with the flashback of the other little creature trying to bite him. He was not going to turn into one of those things. He pushed the fighting knife into the thing. It was harder than he expected, as if the creature had some sort of chitinous armor. Then with precision Roberts pushed the knife into it it made a soft squeal and stopped moving. He dropped it into the bowl.

"Dispose of this one, incinerate it." he ordered. He sprayed the knife with a sterilizing spray. "I will be back." he said walking back out. He keyed his radio. "Captain, I heard shots fired on Deck B. Heading that way now."