Volume 5: Gamma-20, Chapter 5.31

Me, Durgo and Willa were so exhausted we couldn’t even properly celebrate—didn’t even cheer. Instead, we all just collapsed onto the ground and made various moans and groans of pain and relief.

My vision was still blurred as I tried to catch my breath, my whole body felt like it was on fire. I’d come to realize even though Eve modified me to have greatly enhanced strength and speed, I was still very much a human, and my human body seemed to suffer greatly when I overexerted myself. I needed to be careful from now on; no telling if my body really could handle all these enhancements, especially if I took things too far.

Durgo was the first to stand up, shaky in righting his bulky beetle body.

“Gadow, has Zyno confirmed on his sensor all traces of Predazoan biomass are gone from the ship? Absolutely no Predazoan DNA leftover?” He asked through the headset.

“Affirmative, Zyno had the sensor running the entire time;

Jessipie-90

is completely clear of all traces of your monster.” Gadow confirmed.

“Oh, thank all the gods in every galaxy.” Willa sighed, standing up as well.

I didn’t feel like moving yet, but I didn’t want to just stay there on the metal grating floor; I stood up then and looked over myself to see how bad the damage was.

My jumpsuit was ripped to shit, and I could see my left leg looked pretty mangled and was bleeding all over the place, my arms and torso were shredded too, but I didn’t think anything was broken this time around.

Durgo gestured towards me, “You should head to the med bay, have Reim check you out.”

I waved him off quickly, “I should be okay, I don’t think there’s anything—”

“Adam.” Durgo hissed through his voice modulator, “Please, please just shut the fuck up; for once in your life, keep that mouth of yours shut for at least a couple hours—give us all some peace for once.”

At how desperate Durgo sounded in getting me to stop talking, I couldn’t help but laugh, “Alright commander, I’ll go to the med bay.”

Durgo sighed so the modulator crackled quietly, “So he can actually listen to orders after all.”

***

It took us over an hour to get back into the main part of the ship, and I split off from Durgo and Willa and headed for the med bay. Durgo of course radioed ahead for me to have the only doctor on board, Reim, come check on me.

I walked into the pristine white med bay to find just Reim and Zyno there, and before Zyno could even say anything, Reim took a step in front of him.

“There, you saw he’s okay, now let me tend to my patient; you can see him again once he’s recovered.” Reim insisted.

Zyno smiled sheepishly, “You heard the doctor.” He said, then shook his head as he made his way for the exit, “Can’t believe you made it out of there alive, you’ve gotta tell me the whole story soon.”

I waved him off as I headed for the examination bed, “I will, don’t worry. See you in a bit.”

Zyno left me alone with the doctor then, but Reim stopped me before I could get into the bed.

“Strip out of those bloody clothes please, I need to examine all your injuries.” She ordered.

I looked at Reim and quirked up an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

Reim blushed and quickly turned away, “I’m a doctor, sir, and I’m telling you to strip out of that ratty old jumpsuit.” She insisted.

I rolled my eyes and decided to just comply, ripping off the tattered rags that were barely hanging onto me and tossed them aside, then I got onto the examination bed.

Reim had one of those medical guns that could scan for damage and then laser away injuries and started working all over me. She was blushing while looking at me at first and definitely snuck a few curious peeks at me, but then shifted into professional doctor-mode.

“You really took some serious damage out there; you’re lucky to be alive.” She said mildly.

I sighed, “Yeah, thanks to those genetic enhancements of mine—certainly wouldn’t have survived without them.”

Reim was silent again for a few moments, then finally looked up at my face, “Just you three survived, right? You, Durgo and Willa; what…happened to the others?” She asked.

I shook my head slowly, “Reim, you honestly don’t want to know.”

She nodded once, then let it drop completely and got back to zapping my wounds away.

It was wild how it didn’t even hurt, just felt like a strange kind of pleasant warmth that tickled and itched for a few seconds and then was done. Future-tech was crazy.

Reim finished with my arms and torso, then had to move down below my waist. She looked up at me once more, the blush returning on her face, “Adam, I need to continue the examination…down there.”

I crossed my arms and quirked up an eyebrow as I eyed her suspiciously, but again I didn’t say anything.

That just caused Reim to blush even more, “Will you stop that? You know I really

am

a doctor—I’m trained for this; I’m a

professional

.” She insisted.

I couldn’t help but chuckle then, “Yeah, but I see how you look at me—how you’ve

been

looking at me.”

Reim sighed and turned away, “Look, I’m not going to deny I’m infatuated with you; you saved my life—saved

all

our lives.” She gestured vaguely towards me with the healing gun, “Not to mention you’re probably the most beautiful alien I’ve ever seen in my life.” She looked back at me, “But you made it weirdly clear when you first came aboard

Jessipie-90

you have someone special in your life, so what kind of woman would I be if I tried to get in the middle of that?”

At her surprisingly honest confession, I decided to let it all go and leaned back on the bed and let her get on with the examination, using the healing gun on surprisingly sensitive areas.

“I’ll say one thing though; your woman, wherever she is, she’s very lucky.” Reim confirmed.

I chuckled, but it quickly turned into a sigh, “Nah, I’m the lucky one—beyond lucky. I miss her like crazy now, can’t wait to see her again.”

Reim seemed to be focusing a lot on my left leg, the one that looked mangled, “How did the two of you meet?” She asked conversationally.

I shook my head slowly, “It’s a long story, don’t really want to get into it now.”

It was weird, even though I couldn’t stop thinking about Eve, if I actively started thinking about her or visiting old memories, it would cause me even more pain—made it feel like there was ice in my chest I would miss her so badly. Honestly, it was better to try and distract myself rather than fester in my thoughts—better to focus on the mission and stay in the action.

Reim was really good about letting things go, and when I said I didn’t want to talk about something she let it drop without complaints.

“And just for the record, Lummy has a little crush on you too, so don’t think I’m the only one who’s getting flustered around you.” Reim admitted.

I laughed at that, “Really, you girls stay up at night talking about the boys you like?”

Reim glared at me, “Hardly, but when you live beside the people you work with every day—sharing quarters even, obviously we’re bound to talk about those kinds of things.”

“Anyone else on

Jessipie-90

interested in the random human who suddenly got thrown into your mix?” I asked.

Reim’s expression fell and she turned away from me again, “Well, Vola mentioned she thought you were funny and friendly—said you reminded her of an ex-boyfriend actually.”

Vola, one of our bunkmates, one of the more recent victims of Gamma-20 and her drones.

“Reim, I’m sorry.” I offered, but really, what could you even say after someone they’d known for over 20 years—days and nights, living and working together—dies in the most horrible way possible?

Reim patted my thigh, “Flip over, I need to examine your back now.” She said evenly.

I complied and turned onto my stomach, and Reim continued working the healing gun on me.

“Really, how are you people holding up? It’s a nightmare for us even though we know what we’re dealing with, and yet for you guys…” I sighed and shook my head, “I can’t even imagine how you’re all maintaining.”

Reim was quiet for a few more minutes while she worked, delicate and precise—almost like she was purposefully taking her time to avoid the question.

“Honestly, no one’s doing great, but I think a lot of us are just putting our hopes that you and your team can handle things. You already saved me once, I hope—I

believe

you’ll save me again.” She admitted.

I sighed again, “That puts a lot of pressure on us you know.”

“Yes, I know, and I’m sorry, but I think that’s the only way we can survive this nightmare.” She told me.

We were silent for the rest of the examination as she healed all my wounds, and when she was finished she patted my thigh again.

“All patched up, now just hang tight while I grab you a new set of clothes.” She said.

“Yeah, thanks.” I said, rolling to sit upright on the bed, finding it a little awkward I was still naked after the exam and treatment was over.

Reim pulled out some extra jumpsuit from a cabinet then brought it back over to me, but right before I made a grab for it, she pulled it back.

“Just one quick question.” She said, and I could see her blush was returning, so I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes at her as I grew suspicious.

“For the sake of my curiosity, with all your genetic enhancements, did you alter your…” She waved the jumpsuit at me, “Genitals at all?”

I smirked at that, “Why?”

Reim’s blush looked like it was about to overtake her completely then, “Just wondering if your—ahem,

impressive size

has anything to do with those modifications of yours.”

I snatched up the jumpsuit and couldn’t help but laugh as I got dressed, “Nope, that’s all me, honey.”

Once I was zipping up the jumpsuit, Reim looked back at me with her eyes wide, “Truly? Are all human males…

gifted

like you?”

I smiled brightly, “From what I’ve seen compared to a lot of alien males, humans in general are on the bigger side of things.” I leaned forward, my smile turning wicked, “But I’m on the bigger side compared to other humans too.”

Reim took in a quick breath, “My goodness…”

I laughed again and patted her on the shoulder, then turned and made for the exit, “Thanks for the treatment doc, be sure to share your

discovery

with Lummy during your next gal-pal chitchat.” I said, then left the awestruck doctor there to find out what our next plan would be.

***

I returned to the command center to find it was empty, and Reim met up with me there and threw me a pouty glare saying I didn’t need to duck out on her the way I did, and together we started looking around for the others.

“Gadow says they’re in the cafeteria, having some food and discussing what we’re all going to do next.” Reim told me, reading a message from her communicator.

“Works for me, I’m starving.” I said.

We headed to the cafeteria together to find everyone gathered together, a weird mood clearly hanging around everyone. People were grieving over everyone we’d lost—Vola, Wynana, Brunt and Toku, and of course the people from our team, Bryx and Roote. And yet it was obvious there was a renewed sense of hope; the ship had been purged of the Predazoan threat, the shielding was active to prevent her from coming back, so for now at least we were all totally safe.

Provided the warp gate didn’t collapse into a singularity at any moment.

There was synthesized food spread out all over the tables as though people were having a feast, and the few survivors who were left were all together at one table.

“There he is, the hero returns!” Zyno called out, rushing over towards me, “Dude, Durgo and Willa told everyone what you did; I can’t

believe

you stood up to a Predazoan like that.”

I shook my head, “No where even close to being able to destroy one on my own, just surviving was challenging enough.” I nodded over towards the table of food, “Got anything out there for me?”

Zyno nodded along, “Yeah, plenty of meat and sandwiches for you, follow me.”

Zyno dragged me along and pushed me into the table, and the survivors of

Jessipie-90

congratulated me on the successful mission, followed immediately by offering their condolences over the people we lost. Seemed like that was how it was for everyone; celebrate, then mourn, then celebrate again. It was exhausting.

I grabbed up some food while people wanted to hear about the fun from my side of things, but I insisted there were some details that needed to be skimmed over. I told them what Gamma-20 looked like, how I survived against her, how we successfully escaped the tank in time, but that was it; no gruesome details about those we lost on the inside.

I knew it would be hard for some after living and working with Brunt and Toku for 20 years, but they didn’t need to know one was cut in half and the other was eaten alive—

I

didn’t want to know that much, sure I’d have nightmares about it all for the next year or so.

PTSD, my old friend, sure to visit me again soon.

Once I was done telling my heavily censored story, I waved everyone off and asked what we were going to do next.

“Well, now that we have a little breathing room, we aren’t sure what we want to focus on next.” Gadow confirmed.

I nodded along, “Breathing room from the Predazoan, but we’re still concerned over the potential singularity, right?” I asked.

Gadow exchanged a look with Fierra, then turned back to me, “Yeah, but if we still have the time, the crew is thinking we should keep focusing on the warp reactor, see if we can’t get

Jessipie-90

out of this system in one piece after all.” He confirmed.

I just sighed then, “I thought you said your engineers can’t fix the warp reactor—and there’s only, what three of them left?”

Lummy, Zemman and Num, those were the only remaining engineers; Saba was a robotics technician—with no robots left to maintain, not much help. And then of course Gadow and Fierra were just officers overseeing the operations of the ship, and Reim was a back-up doctor—a nutritionist.

The

Jessipie-90

crew looked at each other, almost looking guilty, but quite determined too.

“Adam, after everything we’ve lost, how can we just give up on 20 years of work?” Lummy admitted.

Zemman shook his head, “We’ve got to try—we’ve just got to, you know?”

I held my hands up surrender, knowing I would never win that fight, “Fine; your ship, your engineers, your decision.” I looked back to Gadow, “But are we going to establish a timeline—how long you’re willing to work on the warp reactor before calling it quits?”

Gadow shrugged, “At least until the warp gate collapses into a singularity.” He gestured to Zyno, “After all, Zyno even said there’s a 14% chance it could restabilize.”

I rolled my eyes at that, “Willing to gamble on 14%? Casinos must love you.”

“To their credit, once the singularity forms, we’ll still have some time to work on fixing the emergency shuttle.” Zyno reasoned.

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head as I looked over at Zyno, “

You’re

siding with them on this too?”

Zyno shrugged, “Losing 20 years of work is a big deal, Adam. If that was me that would erase

both

of my published theses. And for you, you weren’t even a medic on Earth for 20 years; imagine if somehow that was all taken away from you—the money, the training, any accomplishments you had.” He looked over at the

Jessipie-90

crew, “It’s asking an awful lot to just give up and ship out when we still have time to fix things.”

Durgo nodded too, “And you know our mission parameters, we’re supposed to secure the cargo above all else, don’t forget that.” He insisted.

Shit, were they all just riding high after one brief victory? Now that we were safe from the Predazoan threat, time to refocus on the potential profits for this mission once more?

But really, they did all have a point; 20 years of work to be destroyed in an instant, talk about losing all hope.

I just sighed then, “Fine, alright I got it.” I turned to Zyno, “You’re going to help them with the warp reactor now though, right?”

Zyno waved me off, “Not like I have any other projects to work on; might as well help where I can.”

I looked at Durgo and Willa, then turned back to Gadow, “And what about us? Don’t need us working as security any longer—people don’t even need to stay in groups of four now.” I reasoned.

Gadow shrugged, “Help wherever you can.” He smirked, “Use those genetic modifications of yours to lift heavy objects for the engineers.” He said, and everyone laughed at my expense.

I let them have their laughs as I just rolled my eyes, “Yeah yeah.” I said, then gestured at the small food feast around us, “But now that we have a plan, I say we have a real celebration, okay?” I stood up from my seat, “Forget the warp reactor for now, we’ve suffered too many loses to keep working today; I say we relax and unwind.”

“And get drunk off our asses.” Zyno added.

I snapped and pointed at him, “Yeah, that. I need a drink like you wouldn’t fucking believe.”

Gadow stood up then, looking around at his crew, “Alright everyone, Adam’s right; why don’t we take the rest of the day to mourn and celebrate in whatever way you might wish—for the first time in a long time you can even do it alone, no reason to stay in groups any longer.”

“Fuck that.” Zemman said, standing up beside me, “With so few people left on the ship, I don’t think I’ll ever feel comfortable by myself.”

Lummy stood up next, “Yeah, it’s all so eerie and empty, gives me the creeps.”

Gadow waved them all off, “Right, stay in groups if you

want

, how about that?”

Everyone cheered at the new protocol change as we all started clambering away from the table, heading towards the cafeteria exit in a huge group—with one exception.

They weren’t being stealthy about it, but Gadow and Fierra were sneaking off on their own, finally able to have some alone time together.

Gadow turned back to see I caught him, and he just gave me a mischievous smirk as he left the cafeteria with his lady.

Even though we lost so much, even though I was exhausted beyond belief, and even though my heart still ached for my Evie, I couldn’t help but feel a brief flash of hope for the first time since we came to the Derrion System there wasn’t an immediate threat oppressing us to the point I’d forgotten what being safe felt like.

And it felt good.