S.S. Galileo

The incessant pounding upon the other side of the large metal door had at last invaded the doctor's mind. She had begun to rock with every rhythmic thud, like the beating of some monster's heart that reverberated through the door and surrounding metal framework. She could feel every shudder through the floor upon which she sat, her legs huddled up close so her chin rested upon her knees. Every vibration from the violent barrage shot through her body as if she were now part of each impact. It was making her sick.

Doctor Sheena Gibson was one of only a few civilians aboard the S.S. Galileo; a joint venture of military and civilian personnel, and Earth's first phase of space flight to the outer regions of the known galaxy.

Doctor Gibson sucked in breath through gritted teeth and snarled lips as the drumming continued to taunt her sanity and forced her to clench upon invisible reigns that she appeared to hold taut and shaking to her chest.

'I can't take it!' She screamed as she stared at the door to the medical bay. Her long red hair hung over her face, all tangled and wet with perspiration, clumps of it clinging to her cheeks and neck. Although in her late thirties, her shivering form huddled so tightly upon itself made her appear like a child; frightened by some nightmarish creature in her nursery. The truth however was much worse.

'Doctor.' A voice called from across the room. When no reply came the voice called again. 'Doctor!' This time the doctor's head turned and she stopped rocking. She looked at the man sat amongst the multitude of monitors and eyed him suspiciously. 'What?' She replied.

'You know you are beginning worry me, doctor.'

'It's not me you need to be worried about!' Her eyes returned to the door.

'Sheena!' This time the man's voice boomed. The woman again turned to face him. Her frown clearly expressed her annoyance. She launched herself up and stood indignantly facing him. 'What?'

'Come away from the door and look at this.'

Sheena strode across the room, past the examination beds and various pieces of medical equipment that filled the medical bay. The white tiled walls were scattered with glass fronted cupboards containing numerous vials and bottles of varying medicinal brands. Lieutenant Drefuss sat at a large desk at one end of the medical bay. He was an aged man, although surely looked older than his years. His grey hair was cut severely short and flat, and his face was pot-holed and scarred. His still toned yet slightly dried physique was tightly packed into his pristine uniform.

Upon the desk was a wall of six monitors, each screen humming with the electro static buzz of images. Five of the monitors surrounded one central screen that displayed an image of the ship's insignia revolving slowly. A full moon enveloped on both sides by laurel leaves and the motto 'Pro Totus Humanus Pius' emblazoned underneath.

As the doctor approached, the lieutenant pushed his chair aside to allow her a clear view of all of the screens.

'Each one of these five monitors displays the images currently being transmitted from twenty-seven surveillance cameras on this deck. As you may notice only three of them are still broadcasting.' The lieutenant gestured towards them. 'What we're dealing with here isn't some mindless attack, it's calculated and persistent. You know what we're dealing with doctor, you were at the briefing. We need to continue transmitting our signal on whatever shortwave frequencies we have left. Once the message has been received, confirmation will be displayed here.' The lieutenant nodded towards the central monitor. 'Then it's game over. Earth's defence system will blow us out of the sky and every last alien with us.'

'There!' The doctors finger touched one of the monitors as she pointed to the figure of someone running through a cameras line of sight. 'There! Did you see him? There's someone out there still alive!' Doctor Gibson stared at the lieutenant who calmly stared back at her. 'Well? Aren't you going to do something?' He continued to stare at her. Sheena clenched her teeth and then tensing her whole body she lashed out her hand and slapped the man across the face. 'You bastard!'

'Stand down doctor!' The man got to his feet and stepped towards the woman whom immediately backed away. The lieutenant reached for his holster and withdrew his gun. The doctor instinctively put her hands to her face and ducked behind the nearest examination bed. 'This is a standard issue military firearm. It holds eight rounds, each round capable of killing a man from two hundred yards with pin point accuracy. It currently contains three rounds. This deck alone is crawling with those alien bastards, and if we open that door I give us about ten seconds tops before our innards are splattered across these walls. Now we may be in one hell of a no win situation, but if you go anywhere near that door, I will use one of these rounds to bring you down! Do you understand?' The lieutenants face was beaming red and every vein in his neck and forehead was throbbing.

The doctor had recoiled to her knees. 'Do you understand doctor?' The lieutenant shouted again.

'Yes...I understand.'

'Good.' The gun was placed upon the desk top and the man sat back down in his chair. 'Check on the major.'

The doctor was dazed from the words of the lieutenant but she regardless managed to find her feet and wandered over to the glass walled quarantine cell.

She scanned the electronic readouts as they continually refreshed upon the monitor that displayed the Majors vitals. Blood pressure low, heart rate low, body temperature low, pulse low. The Major was teetering upon the brink of a cardiac arrest, as he had been since shortly after his containment.

'No change lieutenant. The Major could really do with more intensive medical attention, if he arrests then there is nothing I can do from out here.'
The lieutenant didn't even look away from his monitors.

'Doctor, considering our current situation, if he dies in there then he'll be one of the fortunate ones.' The doctor only briefly acknowledged the lieutenants comment, struggling with the truth to his words. The lieutenant continued, 'Doctor Henshaw was adamant that whatever our men were being infected by could be transmitted by contact and by air, isn't that right?'
Doctor Gibson nodded.

'Right well seeing as you don't have a bio-hazard suit in this lab you can't break his quarantine without risking exposure to yourself and me.'
The doctor stared at the Major's body lying upon the bed in the quarantine cell. She reached out and touched the transparent wall that separated them.

'You may think I'm a liability, but I'm only human. Not some war scarred shell of a man like you. I know the risks, I just don't accept them as easily as you.'

The lieutenant glanced at the doctor before again returning his attention to the monitors. 'That's exactly why I objected to having civilians on my ship. Whether its war or peace, there is no room for emotions when there is a job that needs doing.'

The door suddenly shuddered under another burst of impacts and a piece of framework fell away from the wall. The doctor dashed over to the lieutenant.

'Are you sure that door is gonna hold?'

The lieutenant looked up at the doctor and half smiled.

'It's only gotta hold another few minutes.'

There was suddenly a brief flickering of the lights and one by one the remaining monitors turned to images of static. Then the whole room plunged into darkness. The doctor screamed and lunged across to grab the lieutenant. A few seconds passed and the back-up systems kicked in and the room was lit up with the dull red beam of the emergency lighting. The monitors upon the lieutenants desk all flickered back to life and began to trawl through seemingly endless lines of text as they started to boot up. The doctor stared into the bloodshot eyes of the aged lieutenant, both seemingly caught in a moment of anticipation. In this new light the old man looked even more gruff and wretched than before. His hard features accentuated and every wrinkle and scar deepened. The melee of pounding attacks continued upon the door, getting faster and more persistent, like pulsating waves of rain drumming upon the metal. More pieces of now indiscernible framework fell from the wall surrounding the door.

A sudden noise from within the quarantine cell diverted the doctors attention. She rushed over to the transparent wall and stared with anguish at the major. His body shook and jerked upon the bed he lay as if in the throws of a seizure. The lieutenant left his seat and strode over to the doctors side where he too watched. They stood in silence as the man before them convulsed and shook violently, foaming sputum pouring from his mouth.

'The virus has gone to his brain. He's going into cardiac arrest.' The doctor rather solemnly announced.
The lieutenant said nothing, he just continued to watch until at last the Major's body collapsed to the floor and became still. He then silently returned to his desk.

The loud banging upon the large metal door continued and as the doctor backed away from the quarantine cell its invasive noise buried into her head once more. She raised her hands to her head and squeezed her temple tight between her palms in a futile attempt to crush out the throbbing pain.

'Shut up!' She shouted at the door, 'shut up!'
The lieutenant returned his gaze to the monitors.

'Ignore it doctor.'

'SHUT UP!' She screamed again before lunging towards the door and lashing out at it with her own fists. She punched and kick the door screaming over and over, 'shut up! Shut up!'

The lieutenant jumped from his seat and strode over to the doctor and in one quick movement grabbed her by the neck and pinned her against the wall.

'I'm not going to tell you again! Stay away from the fucking door!'

At that moment more framework fell from the wall and the door itself slide partially open, only a couple of inches but enough to allow a bloodied and muscular arm to reach into the room and grab the lieutenants exposed face. Fingers dug deep into his cheeks and mouth, one even penetrating an eye, bursting the liquid sack under its vice like grip. The lieutenant instantly released the doctor and raised his hands helplessly to his face in an attempt to remove the assailant from him. Before the doctor had the chance to process what was happening, she watched as the Lieutenant was dragged into the gap in the door. Numerous hands all reaching out and grabbing whatever bits of the lieutenant remained exposed.

The doctor stared into the darkness beyond the gap in the door, her eyes searching for whatever horrors lay there. Her screams drowning out the cracking of bones and the munching of flesh. From behind her more banging erupted as to her terror she turned to see the distorted figure of the Major now standing at the glass wall smashing his head against it. Blood and vomit were splattering in all directions. Sheena suddenly remembered the lieutenant's gun that still lay upon the desk. She ran over to it, past the examination beds and filing cabinets. Picked up the revolver and then stopped. The gravity of her predicament hit her. Was she really going to kill herself? Could she kill herself? She glanced over to the Major's flailing corpse as it continued to batter itself mindlessly against the glass wall. She then looked at the doorway where the remains of the lieutenant were still being torn apart and mercilessly dragged through the gap to whatever lay beyond. At that moment the central monitor flickered into life, the computer system had finally rebooted and the monitor proudly displayed the ship's insignia and a flashing text box that contained the words 'MESSAGE RECEIVED'. Sheena stared at the image and then scanned down to the motto emblazoned at the bottom of the screen in Latin. 'Pro totus humanus pius'. She spoke the words as she read them. Regaining her composure she drew the gun up to her head, and as she pulled the trigger she whispered,

'For all human kind'.