Catharsis of Cthulhu
You are running through your recordings, as well as those of the other humans, for perhaps the thousandth time when one of your systems notifies you that Eve Catharsis has recovered consciousness. You waste no time in making your way back to the sick bay.
It is strange to see the hallways that you had once been so used to seeing empty suddenly so teeming with humans. Regular crew members and soldiers mill about the interior of the ship, doing unnecessary checks of your work. You wonder idly why the Earth government thinks you need so many people on an exploratory ship, but you were not built with politics or tactics in mind, so you do not worry over the thought overly long.
Before long, you are in front of the Medical Bay. You are frustrated when you find that the door does not open automatically for you. In fact, it does not even open you push the emergency release button. In the end, you have to over ride the locking system from within the ship's mainframe, an embarrassing need. You are glad that there is no one there to see you struggling. It would only be exceedingly embarrassing.
All thoughts of embarrassment drop as soon as you observe the chaos within the Medical Bay. Only a few banks of fluorescent lights flicker in the ceiling, leaving most of the bay in darkness. You are aghast at how you could possibly miss such extreme violence. You can only assume you were so absorbed in reviewing the material you collected today, that you missed listening to the ship's reports of action.
All around you is blood, smeared on the floor, splashed on the wall, and flecking the ceiling. Gelatinous pieces of gore litter the floor. It's only as you're tentatively stepping toward what you think might be a finger that you see a flicker of movement behind you.
Two human forms shoot past you out the door. Before you can chase them, two more bodies come charging out of the darkness towards you.
These bodies have only a residual heat signature and no heart beat. This is why you think of them exclusively as bodies. Bodies dressed as nurses that are lunging for your carriage with their bloody broken teeth exposed.
You soundly cuff one around the ear and feel her skull give under your metal fist like soft clay. She goes down and doesn't get back up. You toss the other against the wall and cannot help to hear bones creak and snap under the force of impact. The second body does not stir. But, there are still the two that escaped.
It is strange to see the hallways that you had once been so used to seeing empty suddenly so teeming with humans. Regular crew members and soldiers mill about the interior of the ship, doing unnecessary checks of your work. You wonder idly why the Earth government thinks you need so many people on an exploratory ship, but you were not built with politics or tactics in mind, so you do not worry over the thought overly long.
Before long, you are in front of the Medical Bay. You are frustrated when you find that the door does not open automatically for you. In fact, it does not even open you push the emergency release button. In the end, you have to over ride the locking system from within the ship's mainframe, an embarrassing need. You are glad that there is no one there to see you struggling. It would only be exceedingly embarrassing.
All thoughts of embarrassment drop as soon as you observe the chaos within the Medical Bay. Only a few banks of fluorescent lights flicker in the ceiling, leaving most of the bay in darkness. You are aghast at how you could possibly miss such extreme violence. You can only assume you were so absorbed in reviewing the material you collected today, that you missed listening to the ship's reports of action.
All around you is blood, smeared on the floor, splashed on the wall, and flecking the ceiling. Gelatinous pieces of gore litter the floor. It's only as you're tentatively stepping toward what you think might be a finger that you see a flicker of movement behind you.
Two human forms shoot past you out the door. Before you can chase them, two more bodies come charging out of the darkness towards you.
These bodies have only a residual heat signature and no heart beat. This is why you think of them exclusively as bodies. Bodies dressed as nurses that are lunging for your carriage with their bloody broken teeth exposed.
You soundly cuff one around the ear and feel her skull give under your metal fist like soft clay. She goes down and doesn't get back up. You toss the other against the wall and cannot help to hear bones creak and snap under the force of impact. The second body does not stir. But, there are still the two that escaped.