Organism Ch. 02

This was a nightmare. An honest to God nightmare. Any moment now the ground team was going to arrive at the airlock of the shuttle with their severely sick science officer in tow. Brooke was now forced to make an impossible decision for the sake of the crew. And to make matters worse, those still aboard were not taking it well.

"What do you mean we can't let them on the shuttle?" Owen asked in a mixture of anger and disbelief as they had a standoff near the airlock.

Brooke shook her head. "Not with Jacob, we can't. Whatever he was just exposed to, it could infect the whole crew. I can't take that risk."

"But you're not the Captain," Rebecca, who was standing next to Owen, argued with her. "Who says you can make that call?"

"Protocol does," she explained, doing her best to keep her voice even despite the emotions she was fighting through. "In the instance of matters pertaining to ship safety involving possibly infectious diseases or pathogens, the acting medical officer has final say. Not the Captain."

"I can confirm," Mira spoke up. "Nurse Holloway is also the acting executive officer of the ship. She has command of the deck."

"So you're really gonna leave him out there to die?" Rebecca asked in appalled disbelief.

She shook her head. "Not necessarily. I just have to run a few tests on him first. Shouldn't take longer than an hour."

Owen laughed incredulously at that. "An hour?! Brooke, he has maybe five minutes of oxygen left."

"And we don't have the capacity to replace his tank outside the shuttle either," Rebecca added. "A decision needs to be made. I say we take it to a vote."

"Look, there is no decision to be made here!" she insisted, her eyes starting to well up and her lip quivering. "We have no earthly idea what he was just exposed to. I cannot risk the safety of the entire crew by bringing an unknown pathogen aboard."

Rebecca folded her arms and glared at her. "If it had been the Captain instead of Jacob, would you still think that?"

She didn't respond. Owen sighed at her in disappointment.

"If you can't give her an answer, then you have no right to make this call."

"Look, you think I want to do this?" Brooke asked while tears streamed down her face. "You think I like having to make this decision? He's my best friend! If I could..."

"It shouldn't be your decision to make," Owen interrupted. "And I'll have you know he's my friend too."

"And mine," Rebecca chimed in. "We've both known the doctor for years."

"If it had been any one of us out there, you know the Doc would have our backs," the engineer insisted. "You leave him out there, you're signing his death warrant."

Pain racked her being. Why? Why did it have to be this way? Why did she have to make this call?

At that moment, her radio kicked on.

"Brooke, we're right outside the shuttle! Let us in!"

Both Rebecca and Owen glared at her expectantly. With a trembling hand, she queued up her mic.

"Captain...you need to put Jacob down first."

"What do you mean? Look, we don't have time for this! He doesn't have much O2 left. We need to..."

"Captain..." she repeated with severe emphasis. Every word was a strain, every breath painful at that moment. "...you need to put him down. I can't let you in until you do."

There was a long silence on the other end.

"Brooke...don't do this."

The despair in his voice at that moment broke her heart all over again. "Chris, you know I don't have a choice. Protocol is clear on this matter. If we bring whatever he was exposed to onboard, it could..."

"Look, fuck protocol!" Samantha shouted, interrupting her. "Brooke, he just saved the Captain's life!"

She gasped sharply, her eyes bulging.

"It's true," he insisted desperately. "It would have been me had Jacob not intervened. Brooke, I am begging you. Please! I cannot leave this man to die out here after what he just did."

Her mind was being split in about a hundred different directions at that moment. How the hell was she supposed to do this? Make this choice knowing what she did? Jacob still had feelings for her, but he sacrificed himself just to protect the man she loved. Why did it have to be this way? Why her? Why him?

A decision needed to be made. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Manual override detected. Airlock security function disengaged."

Before she could say a word, the ship AI did it for her. Whatever pain she felt before was now replaced with a hideous knot as it slowly dawned on her what just happened. Brooke, Owen, and Rebecca all spun toward the direction of the airlock at the exact same time. They'd been so busy arguing with each other...

...no one was paying attention to what Jess was doing.

At that very moment, the youngest member of the crew was punching keys into the nearby pad on the wall. Forcing a manual override of the door. How it was this little fool learned to do that, or when, was not something she had time to ponder on.

"Stop!" Brooke shouted at the top of her lungs before pushing Rebecca aside and running over to her.

Jess turned the nearby handle moments before she could jerk her away. Brooke quickly checked to see if she could undo the override, but of course it was too late.

"Airlocks open, Captain. You can come in," Jess informed over the radio.

"Thanks, Jess. We're coming in."

A surge of white-hot rage flashed across Brooke's features, whereupon she spun around and glared at Jess, who stared back at her defiantly, a hateful scowl on her face.

"Do you have any earthly idea what you've just done?"

"I saved the doctor's life," she retorted, a noticeable edge to her voice that wasn't there before. "Since you were too much of a coward to do it yourself."

Livid was nowhere near strong enough of a word. Moments before Brooke could go off on her, however, the inner door to the airlock opened.

"Everyone make room!" Chris shouted.

They all scrambled to clear a space as Jacob was brought into the shuttle and placed down on the floor. Putting aside her personal feelings on the matter for now, Brooke went to go check on her friend.

"What've you got?" she asked the Captain, choosing not to look at him.

"He's been out since whatever that thing was attacked him," Chris explained. "Vitals are all stable, but he won't wake up."

Brooke did a quick first impression of the patient. Aside from the fact he was noticeably diaphoretic he seemed to be in otherwise okay condition. But she knew better than to base her judgment on first impressions alone.

"Someone get me my field kit!" she instructed sharply.

"Here." Samantha grabbed the pack containing her medical supplies and handed it over to her. Brooke wasted no time pulling out her portable medical scanner and syncing it up to his suit.

"No signs of any extensive trauma," she reported, a hint of relief in her voice. "No fractures, no bleeds, and he doesn't appear to be concussed either."

"Are you sure?" Kevin sounded slightly surprised. "That was a pretty nasty fall he took down those stairs."

"What about signs of infection?" Chris asked worriedly.

She shook her head. "Nothing I can see on this thing, but that's honestly not much. I'll need to do a full body scan back on the Cordoba before we know the true extent of what he's been exposed to."

He nodded in understanding before addressing the crew. "Alright, let's refill his oxygen and get him onto the gurney. We'll leave the suit on for now to contain the infection."

"You understand that probably won't be enough, right?" Brooke insisted, a sharp edge to her voice. "We could all be exposed right now, Captain. By bringing him aboard, you've violated..."

"...just about every major safety protocol we have," he finished, cutting her off in the process. "You can cite me for negligence later, Nurse Holloway. Right now, I just want to get as far away from this God-forsaken planet as humanly possible."

She glared at him for a moment before sighing in weary resignation.

"Get him on the stretcher. I'll warm up the engines."

--

As soon as the crew was back on the ship, they carted Jacob to the medical bay, where he was placed in the quarantine unit. Chris and Brooke both suited up in full hazmat gear before removing his helmet and meticulously cutting away at his suit and the clothing underneath with a micro-laser, exposing the skin. While they worked, the rest of the crew watched on nervously from the outside.

"No signs of any mottling or jaundice," she noted as they peeled the space suit away. "He's breathing at a stable rate, clear lung sounds bilaterally. Vitals are...improving, actually."

"Maybe he just needed to get out of the cold," the Captain offered in an attempt to liven the mood.

"You understand we're not done talking about this, right?"

"It can wait until after the scan," Chris insisted.

"There are only two people on this ship who are supposed to know the manual override code for the shuttle airlock. Me and you."

He decided not to comment.

"That blonde airhead didn't get the code from me, is all I'm saying, Captain."

He sighed in frustration, finally looking up from his work. "Would you be nice to her? She's been through a lot today. We all have."

"We have these protocols in place for a reason. What she did back there was not only hideously irresponsible but highly unethical as well. By breaking quarantine, all our lives are in danger. To say nothing of what we may be bringing back to the station."

"If that's the case, I'll take full responsibility," he assured. "This is exactly why I gave the crew access to the override command in the first place. I didn't want to put you in that position, Brooke."

Hearing that caused her to start seeing red again. Completely fed up, Brooke slammed her gloved hands down onto the table and shouted.

"That's not your call to make, Chris!"

He didn't respond, so she continued.

"We're supposed to be a team. You and me. That's how this works. That's how it's always worked."

"And we still are," he promised. "Brooke, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the override code. I was just trying to protect you."

She looked away from him, clear hurt in her eyes.

"You've never had a friend's death on your conscience before. You have no idea what it's like living with that guilt."

Slowly, her expression began to soften as she gently turned her gaze back to him.

"I wouldn't wish it on anyone," he insisted, returning to his work. "Much less...the woman I love."

Upon hearing that, her smile finally returned, and her cheeks flushed. For now, she decided to put the issue aside and just focus on the task at hand. Back outside the quarantine zone, Samantha and Kevin were busy explaining to the crew what it was they saw that attacked the doctor.

"Look, I don't know what else the fuck to tell you guys," Kevin insisted in exasperation. "It looked like a giant...blob thing."

"Blob thing?" Rebecca repeated his words with a raised brow of disbelief. "Did you ever actually go to a primary school?"

He flipped her off in response.

"Either way, it went down easily enough after a few plasma bolts," Samantha spoke pridefully while patting her sidearm still in its holster. "Guess this makes me the first woman in history to ever shoot an alien, huh?"

Owen shook his head in amazement. "Still so hard to believe. Alien life..." He chuckled at the thought. "...never thought I'd live to see the day."

Jess clutched her chest fretfully, her eyes having never once left the quarantine unit. "I just really hope the doctor's going to be okay."

Rebecca patted her shoulder reassuringly. "I'm sure he's gonna be just fine, sweetie. I mean, his vitals are all good. He's breathing on his own."

"He almost wasn't," Kevin spoke up, glaring at Brooke. "Still can't believe that bitch was gonna just let him suffocate."

Owen sighed. "Maybe we should take it easy on her. She seemed pretty devastated having to make that call."

Rebecca nodded in agreement. "I'll admit, I was pretty hot in the moment, but she does have a point. We could very well all have caught whatever the fuck that stuff was bringing him onboard this ship.

"Still doesn't sit right with me," Kevin insisted. "Imagine if it had been any one of us in that situation. She would have left us to die without so much as a second thought."

"It's not like we couldn't just override the door," Samantha argued.

"Yeah, but that's not the point," he retorted. "Brooke has never been a team player. Not for so long as she's been on this ship. The only one she really listens to is Chris, and she's constantly acting like she's co-captain or some shit. Like we aren't all glaringly aware she's riding the boss's dick."

She scoffed at him. "Like you're any better, asshole. Before you go judging the nurse for her choices, how about you take a good look at yourself, first?"

Kevin glared down at Samantha angrily. "What did you just call me?"

Samantha placed her hands on her hips and got right in his face. "You heard what I said. All you've done since the moment this whole debacle started is gripe and bitch about everything. And frankly, I'm sick of it."

"Yeah, well, I'm sick of your attitude!" he lashed back at her. "And for the record, I was the first one to say exploring that crazy alien pyramid was a bad idea."

"Oh, don't try to act like you were actually concerned," she retorted. "You were more than happy to help out when Jacob dangled a huge payday in front of your fat nose."

"You were right there beside me, bitch. What's your excuse?"

"Greedy pig!"

"Blood-sucking vampire!"

"Slack-jawed troglodyte!"

"Fucking bitch!"

They stared each other down for a moment, both huffing and red in the face, whereupon Samantha turned sharply around and stormed away before looking over her shoulder and shouting back at him.

"Crew bunks! Now!"

Kevin grumbled a series of curses as he stormed off, following her back to the crew bunks while the others all sighed in exasperation.

"Why do they feel the need to do that?" Rebecca asked. "Can't they just fuck like normal adults?"

Owen shrugged. "Maybe anger adds to the experience. More than likely, they're just blowing off steam. It's been a long day."

Rebecca stretched and popped her back. "Speaking of which, I could use a nap after all that excitement. If anyone needs me, I'll be in the crew lounge passed out on the couch."

With that, she left. Owen turned to leave as well before glancing over at Jess.

"You gonna be alright here by yourself, hun?"

She nodded, still not turning her head away from the doctor. "I'll be just fine. I wanna be here when he wakes up."

Owen left to go decompress after that harrowing ordeal, leaving Jess to quietly watch as Rebecca and Chris performed a full medical scan on Jacob. Once they were done, they exited the room, entering a small decontamination chamber where their suits were completely sterilized, before finally stepping out into the med bay proper.

"So, how'd it go?" Jess asked nervously.

Brooke removed her suit and headed for the nearby terminal, completely ignoring her. Chris, meanwhile, pulled his suit off before addressing Jess.

"Results from the scan should be coming up now."

She followed him over to the terminal, where Brooke was inputting a series of commands. The results of the scan appeared on the screen in front of her, and she quickly looked them over. Her eyes grew wide at what was on her screen.

"So what's the prognosis, Brooke?"

"Clean..." she declared as if not quite believing it. "...not a single trace of any form of pathogenic infection. Nothing viral, bacterial, or parasitic to be found."

"Well, that's...good, right?" Jess insisted, hope returning to her voice. "That means he's going to be okay, right?"

Brooke's hardened scowl returned as she started typing away again. "I'll need to run several more tests before we can say conclusively he's not infected with anything. And the doctor will need to quarantine for at least a week."

"A week? Brooke, that's gonna put us way behind schedule. Can't we just..."

She spun around and glared at him, a nasty look in her eyes. "Both of you have already put the crew at risk once today by breaking protocol. I'm not letting you do it again."

"You know, you don't sound terribly happy the doctor is going to be okay," Jess spoke, that biting edge returning to her voice. "It's almost like you want him to be sick."

She laughed at her furiously. "Excuse me?!"

Jess shrugged her shoulders, her hands on her hips defiantly. "I'm just saying. It sounds to me like you want there to be something wrong with him."

With an incredulous look in her eyes, Brooke got right in her face. "Where do you get the fucking nerve, little girl?"

She just rolled her eyes at that. "You can deny it if you want to, but we all see what's really going on here. Ordering all these superfluous tests. Double-checking everything. You're feeling guilty because you know good and well if he's not sick, you would have left him out there to die for no reason."

"He was exposed to an unknown contaminant!" the nurse shouted irately, her face turning beet red. "I did my job!"

Jess crooked a brow at her, that same catty, judgemental look in her eyes there was before.

"I wonder what he'll have to say about it when he wakes up."

At that, guilt seized her like a vice all over again, and she looked away. Jess smirked at her victoriously.

"That is...if you can even stomach to look him in the eye again."

With those words, Jess turned and walked back to the quarantine unit, placing her hands against the glass and watching the doctor. Brooke, meanwhile, turned sharply around and got back to work. Chris sighed and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Brooke. Maybe you should take a break. This can wait until..."

"I'm fine," she insisted, though it was clear she was not.

"Five minutes won't kill you. You should at least..."

"I said I'm fine." The nurse quickly wiped her tears away before he could see them. "Just go, Chris. I'll find you once I'm done here."

He wanted to protest, but there was no point whenever Brooke got like this. It was clear she was dealing with a lot right now, and if working would help get her mind off of it, then he'd leave her be.

The moment Chris left the room, she quietly broke down sobbing.

"I did my job...I did the right thing."

~~

Kevin may have been an ugly man both inside and out, but if there was one thing the miner knew he had going for him, it was that his cock was a goldmine to the right party. In this case, that was always Samantha. Under normal circumstances, she'd have never given this jackass the time of day.

But a girl has needs, especially in space, where all forms of smoking, drinking, and other normal distractions are outright prohibited as massive safety violations. Being trapped in a metal tin can without anything substantial to do for weeks or even months at a time necessitates a certain level of compromise when it comes to blowing off steam. And if there was one thing she could always count on the fat bastard for, it was that he always left her thoroughly satisfied after a good hard rutting.

That still didn't change the fact she couldn't stand him most of the time. Which was why whenever they did end up fucking in the crew quarters, it usually had a very particular kind of energy to it. Which, in all honesty, she was perfectly fine with. Angry sex, when done right, could be one of the most cathartic forms of physical gratification there was.

For forty straight minutes, the two of them shouted every four-letter word they could think of at one another while rutting like animals. There was no pageantry to it, no performance, no showboating. They'd been doing this for so long, the two reluctant lovers had broken the process down to the bare mechanics of it. She'd claw his back and bite his neck, reminding him over and over again just how much she hated his fat ass, whereupon he'd force her down onto the mattress on all fours, pull back on her hair and slap the absolute fire out of her rump.