Future's Past Ch. 01 - Past Perfect

She waited for the other woman to move halfway down the corridor before she moved herself, smoothly closing the door behind her. Standing up straight, she marched forward with authority, making sure to keep her eyes on the heels of the scientist.

When the scientist made a left turn, she followed, pacing herself. This hallway was not as long, a large window on the right built into a blue concrete wall. A long row of servers in racks extended in both directions, green and blue lights blinking in random cacophony.

Their path up ahead was blocked by a solid steel door. As Katy leaned over to run her card over the reader, Kate noted a strange, discolored spot on the back of her head. Curious, she stepped in closer to examine it.

At first she thought it was a birthmark, but it certainly wasn't natural. The hair follicles in the affected area had been seared away, leaving a large raised red welt in the shape of an oval. It was the size of a plum, with small, spidery black legs extending off underneath her remaining hair.

It would be easy to mistake for a tattoo from a distance, but at this angle it was obviously a lump. Unable to stop herself, she reached out and prodded the surface. The rubbery surface distended, soft like a grape. Something black shifted inside, disturbed by the presence of her finger. Yuck!

She jumped backwards in fright as Katy stood up. Turning, Katy stared at her with a questioning glare. "What was that for?"

"There's an... egg shaped thing on the back of your head!" exclaimed Kate. "How could you not know that?"

Confused, Katy reached up behind her skull, feeling around with her hands. Her jaw dropped open as her fingers prodded against the bulge, her throat gulping. "What the fuck is that?" she hissed.

Wild eyed, she grabbed Kate's arm. "I've been infested. Get it off me! Please!"

Pulse pounding, Kate blinked, trying to think. "I don't know how. I'm not a surgeon."

The woman gritted her teeth. "Then we need to get in there and kill them before... I'm no longer me."

Turning decisively, she pushed open the doors and marched into the room, a burst of cold air whipping through Kate's hair. She proceeded directly towards a console mounted in the middle of the floor. A series of four monitors were fixed to the rear of the table, providing different views of the room with the Gate in it... and the aliens.

Kate, jittery from the revelation that her new partner was infected by the aliens, resolved to stay on her game. She turned to the right, following an L-shaped bend in the room to make sure there were no surprises.

She was nonplussed to find the racks of computers she had seen through the window in the entryway. The two rows had been partitioned from each other by a wall, with two doors in the center. A large hood built above the contained box served to draw hot air away from the powerful servers.

Someone or something could hide in here, if they wanted to. Seeing the egg-shaped blob attached to the back of Katy's head had really spooked her. She had better check it out, or her imagination would never stop spinning ever more grotesque monsters waiting in the dark for her to let her guard down.

"I'm going to take a look around," she said, cautiously moving over next to the wall to limit lines of sight.

"Fine," replied Katy. "I need a few minutes to get this set up anyway. I'll let you know when it's ready."

Kate slid along the wall past a series of tanks as tall as she was, peeking down the aisle facing the window. Nothing. There could still be something in the other aisle, or in the room between the computer banks.

Scurrying across the raised floor, she flattened her petite form against the side of the door. All she could hear was hissing from the A/C units, air being eaten by the hungry servers and expelled as heat. She took a glance through one of the windows, but could see nothing. It was pretty dark in there towards the rear. She would need to check it out.

"Are you having fun playing secret agent?" asked the scientist, fiddling with the console. "It's after normal operating hours. There should only be a skeleton crew on duty, and they're not going to perform experiments with the Gate without everyone here."

"It never hurts to be careful," Kate replied, sliding her hand into the door handle and opening it carefully.

A blast of hot, dry air almost took her by surprise, her throat feeling scratchy. Ducking inside, she jumped a little as overhead lighting popped on. There was no reason to freak out - they must be run by motion detectors.

This was one of those times she wished she had ice water flowing through her veins, like some of the other agents she knew. She would never let it show, but when her adrenaline spiked, it was harder to concentrate on what she was doing. So far, it hadn't compromised any of her missions, but it had come close a few times.

She just needed to concentrate. There was nothing here but a long aisle of computers, their exhaust fans facing inwards. Taking a cautious step forward, her anxiety slowly bled away as the calming hum of the exhaust fans whirred in her ears.

The racks were full, the heat they produced blowing against her lab coat. She was starting to sweat. She wouldn't lie, it was a bit uncomfortable, but it wouldn't take long for her to march down to the other end, where there was another pair of double doors.

As she walked, she glanced at the different sized units in the racks. She didn't know much about servers, but the cable management was professionally done. They hadn't cut corners here.

These would all need to be destroyed, of course, for her to consider her mission complete. She made a metal note, tallying up the material she would need to get it done. Of course, if the Gate was properly destroyed by an overload, as the scientist suggested, that would solve at least one of her problems for her.

She knew better than to trust the other woman. She could be signaling for security while she was distracted with the racks. She increased her pace, making a beeline for the doors.

A rumbling bumping noise came from somewhere above, causing her to slow to a halt and look up. The overhead lighting seared her eyes, but did little to illuminate the ductwork.

She hissed and slowly backed up as small, fist sized creatures tumbled from above, landing on top of the racks. Spreading out, they made soft chirps at each other.

They looked like giant beetles, their hairy legs picking their way easily among the networking cables. Their abdomens were swollen, transparent, a spherical bubble of green liquid trapping a small, white oval inside.

She had never seen anything like them, and this wasn't the time to admire their speed. Dropping all caution, she turned and ran, sprinting the last few feet to the door. With a yelp, she tugged it open and rushed through, sighing with relief as the door pulled itself shut behind her magnetically.

"Katy?" She shouted, her voice rising in alarm. "We have a problem! Look out for small, beetle shaped critters!"

She turned left, scanning the remaining aisle. Nothing. They must not have figured out a way to get through the A/C ducting. Fortunately, at least for now, they were trapped in the hot aisle containment.

That didn't mean things couldn't change in an instant. She was used to evolving her plans to fit the situation, but this was far out of her experience. Extra guards in unexpected places? No problem. Alien lifeforms with unknown abilities. No freaking way!

Marching down the aisle, she kept her right shoulder against the far wall. She almost expected more of the tiny things to show up once she rounded the corner, but to her surprise, the room was empty. Katy was missing from the console.

"Shit!" she exclaimed, moving fast towards the exit. This had gone wrong, worse than she could salvage. She'd have to make a new plan and come back again later - with heavier equipment, and reinforcements. Burn it all to the ground.

"Watch out!" shouted Katy, grabbing hold of her head and pulling it firmly to one side.

Kate experienced momentary vertigo, scrabbling for a weapon that wasn't there. In the few moments it took for her to gather herself, the scientist screeched, slamming her foot against the floor.

There came a disgusting pop, purplish red viscera spreading out from underneath her shoe. Kate's dazed mind registered for a brief moment that the scientist wore the same model of shoe as her, her eyes skittering over the discolored blotch.

The legs of the beetle-like creature were bent at odd angles, its abdomen smushed to a pulp. Whatever creature had been incubating within had been destroyed, its body a gooey dark shadow in the midst of the creature's ichor.

"Oh crap!" declared the scientist, looking at the smashed blob with atavistic fear. "They're escaping containment."

She clenched her fists. "We must hurry. If they are moving through the ducts, they've decided that they no longer wish to be contained. We are likely to encounter more of them."

Kate shook her head and closed her eyes briefly to clear the horrid looking mess from her mind. "I agree with you. Are you ready?"

"Yes!" exclaimed the woman excitedly, running back to the console. "See? Here, the power flows into the secondary coils, then it spins up the magnets. If I increase the current here, it should excite the primary coils past their design specifications, leading to an inevitable overload!"

Scientists and engineers, always so excited about inanimate objects. Ugh. "Okay, then, what are you waiting for? Do it!"

The woman played her fingers over a touch screen, and various orange and red bars began to increase. An ominous sounding hum flooded the room. "There, it's done," she said, raising her voice over the noise. "We'll have to confirm that it worked, and even if it does, that won't take care of the aliens that have already made it over here. For that, we'd need to do something about that monstrous worm."

Kate scratched the back of her head absently, casting about for a plan. Her eyes slid over to the tanks stored near the entryway. "What about those?" she asked, moving to look at them more closely.

They were tall, thin, and made of stainless steel. A circular loop of steel had been welded to the top above the valves to prevent damage, a four foot long rubber hose attached to a valve with a green handle. Blazoned across the middle of each was a warning label, stating "NITROGEN, COMPRESSED, NF. EXTREMELY COLD LIQUID NITROGEN, DO NOT TOUCH."

She took hold of the dewar by the circular loop of steel, leaning the tank over. It was clearly full. Giving Katy a grin, she rolled the cylinder over the ground with ease. "We'll freeze them out!" she declared.

Katy seemed a little uncertain, wrinkling her brows, but she eventually shrugged. "It's not a bad idea. Let's give it a try."

She grabbed a second cylinder for herself, and they proceeded to roll them towards the door. It was a bit more difficult to do than Kate had anticipated, as the hose kept getting in the way. "How far is it to the lab entrance?" she asked, hoping that she wouldn't have to roll this thing half a mile.

"It's not far," replied Katy, handling her cylinder with surprising ease. "Turn right beyond the doors, into the decontamination airlock. The entrance is just beyond."

Relieved, Kate pushed the door open with her shoulder slightly, peering down the hallway. Still clear. No aliens or anything else.

Rounding the corner, she came up against a set of serious looking double doors, without any handles. Katy paused to run her badge over the access scanner, hitting a square box mounted on the wall.

"They don't want people touching things with their hands," she explained as the doors slid open. "Easier to clean."

Kate grunted, rolling the edge of her cylinder over the threshold. The interior was small and claustrophobic, two steel pipes running overhead with sprinklers installed at regular intervals.

Katy followed her, and a spinning yellow light on the ceiling flicked on, casting amber shadows on both of them. The doors ground to a shut behind them, and the light swapped to red.

There came a faint hiss, and a smoky mist from the pipes above descended over their bodies. "Don't worry, it's just a light decontaminant," explained Katy. "They really should be using something stronger now that the aliens have shown up, but they designed this only to ensure we don't bring bacteria to other worlds. They hadn't expected aliens would infest ours. Cheapskates haven't bothered upgrading."

The hissing stopped, a light mist dusting Kate's cheeks. The spinning light turned green, and the doors on the other side began to creak open. She clutched her tank as if it was a rifle, eyes straining to see if there were any alien critters waiting for them that she could blast.

Just beyond the doorway, there was a ramp downwards, leading to an array of desks facing the large, circular structure beyond. These were probably used to configure and monitor the Gate while in operation, but right now they were empty, yellow lights indicating unused displays.

The organic carpet had overwhelmed these positions, the purplish mass pushing some of the chairs out of the way like a lava flow. Some of the desks had risen off the floor, the power cables still connected.

From this new vantage point, it was easy to see that the carpet had come from the portal, not the alien creatures. A strip of the organic mass led right up to the center of the arching circle, at which point it stopped.

Kate could easily believe that the mass had exploded outwards as soon as the portal had connected to whatever alien realm had spawned these creatures, but she didn't know why the scientists hadn't cleaned it up. Too dangerous?

The Gate itself was active, the low hum she had heard in the power control room more obvious here. A bright blue light shone around the arch, two bars of white cycling through the circle as if in a racetrack. If she moved her head, she could barely make out a strange twisting of the light in the middle.

"Is it overloading?" she asked, running her eyes over the extensive system of pipes that connected to either side of the Gate.

"It takes time for it to spool up," replied Katy, rolling her cylinder down the ramp. "We don't want to be too close when it goes, so let's get to work."

Kate nodded her assent, looking with dismay at the purplish carpet in front of them. It would be impossible to roll the tanks onto that mess. Maybe she could work her way around from the side?

When she got up to the edge, she touched the end with her shoe, which sank into the mass an inch or two. It was spongy, like a pancake. Eww.

Looking up, her breath caught. They were being watched by the humanoid alien. Her slitted, green eyes were following both of them intently, the tails of the creatures gripping her skull and ass standing perfectly still.

Ah. It wasn't going to be as easy as she had hoped to creep up on the large worm - not when she had to grapple with this unwieldy cylinder to get it into the proper position. She pressed her lips together, mind racing.

Katy tapped her on the shoulder, whispering. "I can see the target! It's hiding behind some of the Gate's plumbing, off to the right of the creature. Keep moving! I'll distract it for you!"

The scientist dropped her tank upright on the floor with a thud. "I'm over here!" she screamed. "Come and get me, you bastard!"

With one hand, she opened the valve of the tank, waving the attached tube at the alien. A hissing liquid poured from the end, some of it turning into a hazy mist. What remained spattered against the purple carpet, fizzing as it boiled off.

The alien wouldn't be threatened at this distance, but hopefully it would be distracted. Katy was certainly attracting plenty of attention with her antics - some of the beetle-like aliens she had seen in the computer lab were scurrying across the organic mass.

They weren't particularly fast, but looked unsettling, their bulbous backs lifting towards the ceiling with every stride. She could only imagine what kind of foul cargo they carried.

There was no time to waste. Kate rolled her cylinder sideways, skirting the organic carpet, hiding herself behind a row of tanks. More liquid nitrogen? She wasn't sure, but at least they provided some cover. "Good luck!" she whispered, not believing for a moment that the other woman would survive the attack.

There was a chance she could freeze some of the scuttling creatures with her liquid nitrogen, but it seemed unlikely that she would get them all. That also didn't account for the humanoid creature, either, and she was likely to be far more mobile than the smaller aliens.

Peering to the side of the tank, she spotted the small section of computer racks nearer the Gate. The organic mat had infiltrated the racks, shifting a few of them from their bearings. One of them tilted at an odd angle, the fat tail of the alien worm wrapped around the side.

Perfect. Whatever that thing might call a head definitely wasn't watching her. She could spray it down and get out of here without it even detecting her. She would feel bad about leaving Katy behind, but quite frankly, she was expendable.

She concentrated on the tank, rolling it along the concrete floor. She didn't want to catch it on anything, and there were several small diamond plated ramps she had to navigate to get past a series of pipes that connected to the tanks.

It was making more noise than she would have liked, but there was no time to worry about that. Speed was of the essence - the bulging, ridged edge of the worm was just ahead.

The purplish tube flexed, drawing together as it constricted. A large bulge moved down its length, pushing out towards the other side where the end rested on the organic mat.

She detected an odd smell. It wasn't unpleasant, but didn't match anything she recognized. An aroma from another world.

She halted, pushing the tank over until it stood up straight. A frisson ran down her back, cold sweat on her neck. This was her opportunity!

Seizing the end of the hose, she reached for the valve. As her fingertips touched its webbed surface, a pinprick of pain shot through her neck.

"What the?" she slapped a hand against her neck, shocked to feel a small dart embedded in the surface.

Dazed, she pulled it out and examined the small container in her bloody hand. Carfentanil. Shit, she didn't have much time. She was already finding it hard to read the words.

Feeling shocked, she crouched, pulling up her pant leg. There was her blowgun, and it was still loaded, too. The other scientist couldn't possibly have stolen it from her. It was right there!

Looking up, her heart lurched. Katy had rounded the corner, a similar looking blowgun in her hands. Where had she gotten that from?

"Why?" she asked, her words thick. Legs wobbling, she dropped to the ground, blinking rapidly.

"Shhh," whispered Katy as she leaned over to stroke a strand of Kate's hair. "It will become obvious soon. You'll feel better about everything, I promise."

Kate closed her eyes, and suddenly, the world was gone.

***

Breath catching, her lungs heaved. She was staring at a tiled ceiling, high above, bright hanging lights spearing her vision. She blinked, feeling hoarse. Her head felt as though it was full of cotton. So hard to think or do anything.

Why was her head so damn itchy? She couldn't stop her hands from rising to scratch at her skull, intensely surprised to find herself touching something wet and squishy.

"It's almost ready," declared a guttural voice that she vaguely recognized as belonging to the scientist, Katy.

The tickling on her skull ceased, replaced by a sharp pain. She reflexively clenched her jaw, a sudden rush of tension flooding her shoulders. The nerves on the back of her head were tingling with pinpricks, as if she had gone numb.