The doors to the infirmary banged open and white-clad army nurses wheeled in a gurney, followed by several stern-faced doctors, and two severe-looking military men. They wheeled the gurney into the operating room and stopped it under the blinding light; it shone down on a young woman of 28 or 29, two deep, wide gun shot wounds in her chest, blood seeping all over.
The lead doctor turned to the military men and held up his hand. “I’m sorry gentlemen,” he said, “this is the farthest you can come. You can watch the operation from the observation room.” And he closed the doors on them, turning to the dying woman on the gurney.
The men paced up and down the corridor outside the O.R. for hours, waiting for the doctors to re-emerge and tell them the news. Finally, after 12 long hours the doors opened again, and the nurses wheeled the gurney past the military men. The doctors followed, except for the lead M.D. who stopped by the men’s side.
“We managed it. A successful procedure I think. We’re putting her in cryo for the transfer to D.C. Then we’ll know for sure whether or not it worked. I have to go now and take all of this down, but you can send word to your superiors that it’s done.” The doctor turned and strode after his colleagues, leaving the two men standing alone in the hallway.
“Do you think it will actually work this time?” the one asked.
“Who’s to say?” said the other. “None of the other tests worked. What’s going to make this one so different?”
“I don’t know.”
“No one knows, that’s the problem.”
They left the dimly lit corridor and proceeded to their temporary quarters, where they turned in. But they were rudely awakened three hours later by a fiercely ringing alarm and flashing red lights.
“What’s going on!?” yelled the younger military man as doctors, nurses and other staff members raced past their room.
“There’s a fire!” yelled a frantic orderly.
The military men raced out into the hallway and joined the surging masses headed for the exits, but unbeknownst to them they were heading to their doom.
600 years later
Captain Nelson Randell of the salvage ship Dòchas stared out at Kalaxa 3 from the observation window on the bridge. Kalaxa 3 was a trash planet, used mostly by the Suppression—the Galactic Empire that ruled over most of this galaxy. Captain Randell—or Nell as he was called by his friends—trod a thin line between legal and not with his salvage ship and crew. Right now, they were about to tread onto the not-so-legal side of the line.
“Prepare to land,” Nell said to his pilot and friend, a tall wiry woman named Chess.
Nell turned away from the view of the planet and the stars beyond and walked through the bowels of the ship to the loading bay, where Red, Dex, and Nell’s sister Maria waited to board the Suppression’s trash planet. Red and Dex—twin brothers from Metlas Prime—stepped forward to open the hatch doors. They put on their helmets and stepped out into the weightlessness that was space.
“Spread out,” said Nell. “You know your assignments.” Their assignments were to look for anything and everything that could be salvaged, repaired, and sold at a profit.
This was where they began to tread across the line. If the Suppression traced the sales back to the Dòchas, then Nell and his crew could be arrested and their ship taken away for selling government goods. But they were professionals, and they knew how to avoid being caught.
Nell moved away from his men, looking out across the vast expanse of garbage, looking for anything that could be saved. Suddenly, his eye caught on something—something different. He moved over towards it, pushing his way past heaps of metal scraps, old power couplings, and heating coils. Finally he reached what he was trying to; it was long, bulky, and shaped like a coffin. It had many strange and unusual buttons and levers that Nell didn’t recognize. It was very strange, and seemingly not useful. And yet something drew him to this strange hunk of trash, something that he couldn’t explain.
“Oi!” he called to the others over the intercom. “Over here!” The others, who had been loading various things onto the ship turned and headed over to Nell’s side.
“What is it?” Maria asked.
“It’s a dead person,” said Red.
“No, you moron. No one uses coffins anymore. It’s probably food or supplies,” said his brother.
“Well, whatever it is we’re loading it onto the ship,” said Nell.
“What?” said Maria, spinning around to look at her brother with a look of concern. “We don’t know what this thing is. Anything could be inside it.”
“Exactly,” said her brother, still staring at the strange capsule. “Anything could be inside, and anything could be worth a lot of money.”
“Nell,” she said pleadingly.
“Drop it, Ri. We’re taking it. Load it in, boys.”
They loaded the capsule and then the last of their cargo. When they were in the loading bay, Red and Dex sealed up the hatch doors and Nell signaled Chess to take the ship off of the planet.
“Keep us in orbit, Chess,” said Maria, right on the tail of her brother’s command.
“Excuse me?” he said, turning to her and looking stern. “I believe I am the captain here. And you are…? Oh yes, the engineer. So what gives the right to give orders on my ship?”
“First of all, I’m your sister; second of all, with Darcy gone I’m the second in command...” Nell opened his mouth to speak but his sister cut over him. “I’m the second in command so it’s my duty to recognize when things are a danger to this ship. This thing could be dangerous, and if it is, we need to be in orbit so that we can put it back.”
“Oh, fine,” said Nell, “but it won’t be dangerous. I can tell.”
“Whatever.”
They slowly moved over to the capsule’s side, surrounding it. By this time Chess had come down from the bridge and their resident doctor and Maria’s fiancé, Jason, had also joined them. The only one missing was Darcy, Chess’ husband who they had left on their base planet of Paralta 5.
“What is it?” asked Jason, staring at it with interest.
“We don’t know yet,” said Nell, moving over to stand next to Dex, who was working on trying to get it open. “Well?”
“There are so many knobs and gadgets I don’t know what’s what.” But all of the sudden, the capsule lit up and the top started to rise up; a thick silvery steam began issuing from under the cracks.
“What did you do?” Nell asked nervously.
“I don’t know.”
They began to back away slowly, all except for Nell, who crept closer. The lid reached its top height and then stopped, splitting down the center. The two sides of the lid slid apart and folded down so that they were vertical. They slowly slid down until they were resting against the sides of the capsule, and steadily the steam began to clear. Nell stared down into the depths of the capsule and gasped.
“Oh…my…”
A bluish-white hand shot up from the capsule and grabbed Nell’s throat, cutting him off mid-sentence. Maria screamed as her brother choked and fought the hand that was holding him. Suddenly, the hand began to move forward, and up from the capsule sat a bluish-white woman.
Long black hair that looked half frozen clung to her face and obscured it some. She was wearing a tight black top, and—though only Nell could see them—matching skin-tight shorts. Hanging around her neck were silver dog tags, frosted over by what everyone had now figured out was a cryo chamber. She put all her strength into pushing Nell as far as he would go, and he did, stumbling back about 15 feet to land on the floor at his sister’s feet, holding his throat.
“Who are you?” he rasped as the woman got to her feet in the capsule.
She just looked at him, cocking her head slightly to the side like a cat does, before placing her hands on the edge of the capsule and swinging herself out. She landed gracefully on the balls of her feet, her frosty hair falling in front of her face.
“Who are you?” Maria demanded more forcefully.
The woman’s icy gaze shifted from Nell lying on the floor to his sister standing behind him. She cocked her head to the other side, as if she was trying to take Maria in from all angles. But eventually she turned, surveying the crew spread out, most of them nearly brushing up against the loading bay walls. She rotated all the way around, taking everything in, and when her gaze fell on Nell and Maria once again she turned, and took off into the ship before anyone could do anything.
