A loud scraping noise started to echo around the room, the corporal looked out of the skylight above him and could see it had started to rain heavily.
'At least the power is on,' he said to Qubis as he stretched his leg.
'Indeed,' came the reply.
The corporal glanced around the room and then climbed off the table and started to stretch and bend his wounded leg. He winced slightly but he seemed ok as Qubis watched him.
'I think that it is time for you to lay down Qubis…' said the corporal as he turned and faced Qubis, 'You are a miracle worker, my leg feels much better and the pain has numbed.
'The oxides I have inserted in your leg wound have stimulated your reflex muscles rather than your pain vessels so don't be alarmed if your leg switches a little,' came the reply.
The corporal rubbed his fingers over the bandage around his leg and then hobbled over to Qubis. He patted him on the back and then led him to the table where he made Qubis lay down. He could see that Qubis was in a lot of pain but he was obviously the type of person that is too proud to admit a weakness. The corporal went back to the cupboards which Qubis was in before and he routed around until he found a small canister of morphine.
'I think that you deserve a little bit of this to help the pain,' he said turning back to Qubis.
'It would be to risky, to inject morphine you need to know the correct balance and mixture before inject anything,' stuttered Qubis.
'We could inject it using a military standard syringe,'
'Pardon?'
'Wilks has one, its what field medics use on wounded soldiers during combat. They fill the syringe with morphine and inject it, the syringe only injects a small amount which wouldn't be harmful,'
'Ok,' replied Qubis with a nervous glance at the canister.
He corporal placed the canister of morphine on the ledge below the cupboard and then he walked over beside the table and he flicked a switch on his helmet and a small headset pulled itself down from the rim. He quickly spoke into it for Wilks to find the syringe and then he started to unscrew the lid of the canister.
The corporal opened the canister and placed it back on the ledge and then he walked out of the small medical lab and back into the main engineering room. There was a soft draft from the giant fan above and the chains hanging down attached to the giant canisters where swaying slightly.
He walked to his right towards the entrance into the engineering lobby and pressed a large button on the key panel. The door slid upwards into the ceiling and he stepped through it. As he stepped into the lobby he could see the remains of the two doors they had cut through to get into the engineering room. He walked through one of the simmered wholes and out into another room where he proceeded through the next one. This led him out into the hallway.
The corporal jumped back quickly as Wilks suddenly turned around the corner and scared him.
'What's up corporal?' He asked quickly
'Nothing,'
'Watson is coming down the hallway now with the rest of the science team. They also reported faint electromagnetic pulses on the tracker just outside the sector but they say it was heading in the other direction,'
'What?' demanded the corporal.
'They said that there was a signal big enough to be the xenomorph but it was to faint and weak as if it was dying. Watson suggested that it might have had a run in with the predator earlier on. He is bringing the equipment and he will set it up in the engineering room and get a proper lock on it. The scientists are also bringing all the equipment they could find, including the turrets.'
'Good, tell them to stay alert and be watchful and mindful at the same time and I will meet you back in the room. Oh and by the way…'
He was quickly cut off as Wilks held up his hand with the syringe held firmly in it.
'You want this?' Wilks said as the corporal took it from him.
'Remember, it might be weak but it can still kill,' these were the corporal's last words before he stepped back through the holes and back through the door into the engineering room.
Wilks turned back and focused his attention to the hallway. He shuffled around a little, trying to loosen the strap connecting the smart-gun to his body armour. He walked back and forth looking down the hallway waiting for Watson and the scientists. He could here them and they where extremely loud. He knew that they would be loud if they where carrying half of the field labs equipment.
He looked in the opposite direction for a second and he could have sworn he saw something move fast along the walls. He shook his head and muttered to himself. As he did this he heard one of the scientists cry out in pain.
'No, not again,' he said.
He locked tightened his smart0gun into place and then he ran down the hallway towards the cry. He swung himself around the corner bravely and then he suddenly stopped, shocked to see that one of the scientists was crouching on the floor grabbing his foot. His face lightened up as he could see that Watson was trying not to laugh.
'Hey, Wilks…' he shouted, 'We need a little help. Mel dropped one of the ammo cases on his foot,'
Wilks paused and then gave out a large sigh of relief. He walked forward and helped pick up the gear before turning and quickly saying.
'We have to get back quickly before the corporal realises I'm gone, the door is unguarded and I'm not supposed to leave my post.'
The others nodded and they hurried back down the hallway carrying the equipment along with the limping scientist. Wilks slid the ammo crate that Mel had dropped between his right arm while he held the smart-gun in his left. They all turned the corner in the hallway and they quickened as they saw he door open and the corporal step out.
'What happened?' Shouted the corporal as he watched Wilks and the others carry the equipment down the hallway.
'Mel had an accident with one of the ammo crates and when he screamed I thought he was being attacked so I went to help,' replied Wilks when he and the others finally reached the corporal.
The corporal glared past them back down the hallway and then turned to them and signalled them to come inside.
Once inside the scientists immediately went about finding the best locations for the different equipment and started to set it up. One of them carried Mel inside and laid him on the last table beside the one that Qubis was laying on. He seemed to glimpse at Qubis and his wound and then he looked as if he flinched a little. Once Mel was on the table he was about to walk outside the lab but the corporal stepped in front of him.
'Qubis and Mel need treatment, you can see to their wounds while I help the others. I have injected Qubis with a small dosage of morphine which should last him a few hours so try and finish before then,'
'Yes sir,' replied the scientist as he walked back to the two wounded scientists.
The corporal turned around and walked back out of the lab and he headed towards the scientist that was laying the smashed uplink on one of the repair tables by the large canisters. As he stepped out the glass, soundproof doors shut behind him. The scientist looked out of them and he thought to himself of how glad he was to finally get some silence. The lab was quiet, except for the slight groans of Qubis and Mel.
One the other side of the doors it was quite the opposite, the room was filled with loud shouts and bangs. The scientist where spread all over the place, some operating the repair arms which where busy cutting and welding bits of the uplink while the others walked around finishing up the other bits of equipment.
After about half an hour one of the scientists walked back through the door and said that he had set the turret up just outside in the hallway and that it was fully operational with several ammunition clips placed on its automatic loading device. Most of the machinery was set up, all that was left was the laptop computer which was used for processing the system relays so they would know how often the generators would run before one would shut down to stop over heating and then come back online while a different one shut down for the same length of time as its previous one.
The corporal was leaning over a desk with the large portable tracker set up on it, watching the screen while Watson was calibrating the dials on a small pad lying next to it. The tracker was slowly following a weak signal, numbers and calculations where appearing on the side as it tracked and moved around with the signal.
'Its down in the medical decks, maybe we could remote control the security cameras down there to get an idea of what we're dealing with,' said the corporal as he followed his index finger along with the signal.
'We could use the video set over there by Giles, he is patching in a few codes at the moment so it will be up in a couple of minutes,' replied Watson.
'Perfect, just keep a lock on it and don't lose it, and if you pick up another signal then tell me immediately,'
The corporal stepped back and then looked towards the medical section of the room. The doors where still closed but he could see through the glass and watched as the scientist paced back and forth trying to fix Mel's and Qubis's wounds. He then turned his attention away from the medical lab and focused on Giles typing in key codes on the monitoring set.
The corporal walked away from the tracker screen and headed back towards the medical lab but he stopped short as Watson urgently shouted him back. He turned around and as he approached the screen he could see another signal on the tracker. He leaned back over it and watched as the signals headed towards each other.
'What the hell?' whispered the corporal.
Eventually the two signals met and the figures beside the screen started to shoot up and down. The corporal and Watson nervously watched as one of the signals finally died away and the other hung around the area for while before finally continuing on.
'What the hell happened then,' Questioned the corporal with his gaze still fixed on the remaining signal.
'Maybe the xenomorph had a run in with the predator because they certainly weren't on friendly terms,' said Watson with his gaze also fixed on the signal.
'But Wilks killed it, we saw it mangled, it was a corpse,'
'But the body is missing or maybe there is more than one of them. Maybe the other one took the body and buried it just like we would bury our own team members.'
'I hope not, this is just getting more complex every minute,'
Before Watson could say anything more the corporal jumped back up and the headed back towards the scientist that had set up the turret. He walked up to him and then started pressing for answers about the turret just to make sure it was working properly. After this he turned back and then walked over to the medical lab, opening the doors he stepped inside and then quickly examined Qubis and Mel. Qubis was patched up and was lying asleep on the table while Mel was hopping around hopping around the place as instructed by the scientist so it would exercise the muscles, this way it wouldn't cramp up under the pressure of the bandages. The scientist himself was placing a few tubes of antiseptic cream and jars of bandages back in the cupboards.
'Can I help you corporal,' he asked politely.
'I'm just having a quick check up on Qubis and Mel,' he replied.
He was telling a lie, instead he found himself looking around the room for any easily breakable vent closing and he quickly checked the skylight. The skylight itself was bullet proof and he knew this, but he was just checking everything. Once he was satisfied he nodded and stepped back out, when the doors closed behind him the scientist raised an eyebrow in suspicion and then looked up at the skylight looking to see what the corporal was looking at.
Giles had finished with the key codes and when he had pressed the enter button the two monitors switched on displaying white static. Wilks came up behind him and then looked at the static.
'Hey man, I thought you where going to do something useful with these rather than for watching the snow show,' He said sarcastically.
'I haven't tuned them in yet. Watson is bypassing the codes for the security cameras down in the medical decks,' replied Giles sounding a little annoyed.
Wilks smacked Giles on the back and laughed and then walked off over to the other scientists. Giles sighed and then he talked into the portable headset he wore. A scientist signalled across the room from him and he signalled back. He then punched in another set of codes and the monitors lit up this time with numerous figures and lettering flying across the screen. He quickly scanned over them and then continued to type in more codes before finally telling Watson he was ready for the camera codes through his head set.
Watson read the codes back through the headset and Giles punched them in and both of the screens pictures split up into four sections to display each camera view. He quickly cycled through the information that they displayed along with the pictures before eventually switching on to the camera views.
'The cameras down in the medical deck are set up and ready,' he said speaking into the headsets microphone.
'Good work Giles,' came the reply from Watson that was now signalling Giles with the ok sign.
'If anything moves down there then we will see it, make no doubt about it, we have the entire area secured,'
Watson took his headset off and then looked at the corporal that was standing beside him.
'Lets just pray that all these precautions last us through the night until Wayland and his team get here in the morning,' he said softly.
To be continued…
