<\/p>\n
Dana gasped as she ran for the control center, ignoring the pain shooting\u00a0 up her leg. She spared a momentary glance, wincing at the bloody bone under her ripped black utility pants. There was a time that the sight of something so gruesome would have sent her into a tearful frenzy, but now she was too numb to care. At least the wound wasn\u2019t slowing her down too much, thanks to the parasites. Dana would\u2019ve snorted at the irony, if she\u2019d had any breath to do so.<\/p>\n
There! The pristine white polymer door that she\u2019d been shown not too long ago was spattered with oozing black blood, and punctured with a child-sized hole. She reckoned it was Dr. Kumar who had made it. That woman had been shorter than even her own five-foot two height. She stepped through it, not even feeling the jagged edges of the door against her skin. At least she didn\u2019t need to bypass the biometric scanner. It was the one area of the ship she didn\u2019t have access to.<\/p>\n
She avoided thinking about the body slumped against the Pilot chair, how that body used to be their soft-spoken IT engineer, Zimmerman, and instead focused on the issue of contacting headquarters back on Earth. All the colorful wires were ripped out of their electrical panels, sending occasional sparks into the air. Thankfully, the anti-zero mechanism in the backroom hadn\u2019t suffered the same fate, else her hair wouldn\u2019t be the only gravity defying thing on the Explorer 58<\/em>.<\/p>\n She eyed the contraption in her hands, frowning at the stray wires and shiny metal screws. What was she supposed to do with it? She frowned at the body beside her. Zimmerman couldn\u2019t help. David\u2013their crew\u2019s electrical engineer\u2013would have known, but he\u2019d been in the last stages of the infestation when he\u2019d built the thing.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n He shoved the battery into her hands and leapt back, knocking over the tools he\u2019d scattered over the floor. \u201cDo it now, Dana! Before it\u2019s too late!\u201d he exclaimed.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhat?! David, I\u2019m just an <\/em>assistant. You have to do it with me,\u201d she pleaded. He couldn\u2019t possibly make her go alone. She had no idea how the battery even worked!<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t get it,\u201d he whispered. The whites of his eyes were now shot through with black veins, and his rich brown skin had long turned papery white. \u201cI can feel them, crawling inside my skin. I don\u2019t have control anymore.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDavid, just calm-\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n His wild eyes met hers. His voice was fearful as he said, \u201cI\u2019ll hurt you, Dana.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n She gasped and took a horrified step backward, but she needn\u2019t have worried. David exited the storage pod and ran away from her, jumping over the safety railings to the doors of the airlock. He wasn\u2019t wearing an exo-suit.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDavid! Stop!\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n It was too late. He\u2019d already pulled the giant red lever that warned to connect to a cable beforehand. In a split second, the man who\u2019d serenaded the crew with Blues was sucked into the gaping darkness outside the ship. The hatchway automatically closed with a resounding thud.<\/em><\/p>\n ***<\/em><\/p>\n She broke her gaze from the blackout drapes against the windows and shrugged off the horrible memory. The crew had concealed the vision of the galaxy beyond, hoping the parasites weren\u2019t smart enough to realize they were on a ship that could be rerouted to any colonized planet in the galaxies. Dana suspected the drapes were also there for the saner part of the crew, so they couldn\u2019t see the enormous red ball of fire hurtling towards them at light speed. Once Dr. Kumar made it clear the only cure to the infestation was \u201cextreme temperatures,\u201d they\u2019d had little choice but to route their Explorer<\/em> into the Red Galaxy\u2019s sun. None of the crew had been worried about fiery fates because Dr. Kumar had also made it clear that the parasites would kill them long before their ship reached the sun. Dana was the only one left who wasn\u2019t dead now, except for Rogers, and he was chained to a pole up in med bay. She was the only one who could warn the people back home about the planet Achlys.<\/p>\n The clunky squarish battery didn\u2019t look like the thin disks she\u2019d used back on Earth. Maybe it worked like her grandfather\u2019s old cylindrical batteries. There was a positive charge and a negative charge, wasn\u2019t there? All she had to do was stick some wires in on each side, and\u2026 a visible crackle of electricity shot through the battery, and a steady hum sounded through the comms. David, you\u2019re a genius, <\/em>she thought. He\u2019d made the battery idiot proof. Dana frantically pushed the manual comms button- there was absolutely zero chance she could get the hologram screen to work\u2013and waited with a bated breath. They had to respond, they just had <\/em>to-<\/p>\n \u201cThis is mission control, we read you. Please state your Explorer <\/em>number and commander-\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t colonize the Red Galaxy planet!\u201d she shouted. \u201cAchlys isn’t hospitable. Everyone-everyone<\/em>-will die.\u201d<\/p>\n Tears choked her voice as the events of the last week caught up to her. It would have been perfect. She, at 25 years old, would have gotten to explore a newly discovered planet along with the galaxy renowned Dr. Kumar. She\u2019d endured the grueling vetting process for this opportunity, spending nearly every penny she\u2019d had for the training. This was supposed to be her big break, the start of a groundbreaking career in extra-planetary medical research. She was so excited to finally go to space, to see the stars up close.<\/p>\n It was just her luck that out of all the Explorers<\/em>, the 58th was cursed. The Red Galaxy only had a single potentially hospitable planet. It had the dusty landscapes of a darker Mars, but the mellower climate of Earth. It would have been the perfect vacation spot for the rich, if it hadn\u2019t been for the parasites. Individually, they were smaller than a human cell, but they replicated at a rate that left masses of grainy black hills on the surface of Achlys. The crew had thought they were sand dunes\u2026.<\/p>\n Dana gazed at the black veins spidering through her shriveled arms as static echoed through the comms. It sounded as if someone was fighting for control of communications on the other side. \u201cCommander Ryu!\u201d someone barked through the speakers. \u201cWhere the hell have you been?\u201d<\/p>\n That must have been the flight director. \u201cThe Commander is dead, Sir. The parasites got her first. This is Dana Nazarov speaking.\u201d She didn\u2019t tell him that it was the crew that ultimately had to kill her.<\/p>\n \u201cDana Nazarov. The assistant? This is surely not a prank, Ms. Nazarov. It\u2019s a capital offense to-\u201d<\/p>\n A prank?! \u201cYou are not listening<\/em>. Don’t send a recovery craft here. Stay away. There is nothing left to save.\u201d She and Rogers were soon to follow the rest of the crew\u2019s grisly deaths.<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Nazarov, please be calm. If there is some sort of\u2026 infection, you need to follow quarantine protocol.\u201d They\u2019d done<\/em> that. They\u2019d done everything right, but it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Smash! Dana shot up from her cot outside the med bay, shoving her brunette curls out of her sticky face. That was the sound of glass breaking. She crept to the sliding doors, slipping her lab coat on over her tank top. Did she dare open them to the horror fest within? <\/em>Smash!<\/p>\n She was the only one who could. Everyone else had locked themselves up in the quarantine blocks. She frantically searched the veins of her wrists, and to her relief they were still the same icy blue they\u2019d always been. She was glad she hadn\u2019t been infected, but that meant she was in charge of the six crew members locked up in their glass cells. She had to fetch food and water and Dr. Kumar\u2019s lab supplies, all the while staring at their horrible papery skin and bleak eyes. <\/em>Smash!<\/p>\n The sound of the crew screaming her name sent her into action. She shoved her hand into the biometric pad, wincing as yet another fingernail chipped off. As the doors slid open she worriedly glanced at the quarantine suits before running past them and all the equipment strewn across the normally neat med bay, only pausing once she reached the semi-circle of glass cells in the back. Zimmerman, Rogers, Dr. Kumar, David\u2026 her eyes widened as she observed the bloody, broken glass of the last two cells. One was empty, and in the other, Commander Ryu was ripping John Nullman\u2019s guts out with her bare hands.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhat on Earth\u2026\u201d This couldn\u2019t be real.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDANA!\u201d The cry had come from General Rogers, their military expert. He had always joked that he was a \u2018precautionary alien ass kicker\u2019, but she\u2019d never thought him a necessary addition to the team. How wrong she was. She ripped her eyes from John\u2019s lifeless, black eyes and rushed for Rogers\u2019 scanner, shoving her palm against it repeatedly, and even more frantically as the Commander began to notice her. Finally, the buzz sounded and Rogers rushed out, tackling Commander Ryu just as she was running\u2013or limping, rather\u2013for Dana\u2019s head. For once in her life, she felt thankful that the military wanted to stick its hand in everything.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDana, the guns!\u201d David frantically shouted from within his own glass cage. Right. She needed to help Rogers. Dana ran out the med bay\u2013observing too late that her feet were bare and punctured with broken glass\u2013to find one of the bright yellow cabinets that littered the space craft. She spotted one and unlocked it with her palm, grabbing the first weapon she saw. Running the ten feet or so back to the med bay, she wondered just when she had become this sweaty, wild haired, gun toting mess of a woman that barely registered the pain of broken glass. She\u2019d been in the Glee club, for Chrissake.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cGeneral!\u201d She tossed the gun to Rogers, and thankfully her aim was true, for once. He caught it in one hand, choking the Commander with the other. Then he shot her point blank through the head.<\/em><\/p>\n Dana shrieked in surprise and looked away, feeling tears prick her eyes. Rogers killed the Commander\u2026 but she wasn\u2019t exactly herself anymore. The parasites were controlling her. The thought didn\u2019t make her feel any better.<\/em><\/p>\n The rest of the crew shuffled out of their cells after the incident, except for Dr. Kumar, who\u2019d set an entire lab up for a cure within her glass cubicle. They\u2019d left it unlocked, anyways. There was no point in following quarantine protocol if the parasite ridden crew could smash through the reinforced plexiglass like it was just a hand mirror. They were all hinging their hopes on the doctor, at that point. Judging from Dr. Kumar\u2019s worried glances at John\u2019s and the Commander\u2019s corpses, a cure wasn\u2019t going to be developed any time soon.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHey.\u201d Rogers\u2019 rumbly voice snapped Dana out of her troubling thoughts. \u201cYou okay, kid?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Dana sniffled from her cot and nodded that yes, she was okay. Rogers mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like the familiar \u201cThey shouldn\u2019t have let her on the trip\u201d. Frankly, she had to agree this time. Awkwardly, he patted her on the shoulder. \u201cNo tears, kid. Soldiers don\u2019t cry. We\u2019ll make it through this, or we\u2019ll die with a brave face.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n With that, he turned on his booted heel and marched towards Dr. Kumar, leaving her alone again. She <\/em>was a soldier, wasn\u2019t she? The corpses a few feet away proved she was in a war zone. She rubbed her tears away, belatedly noticing the thin veins of black underneath the skin of her wrists.<\/em><\/p>\n ***<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWe did everything we were supposed to do, Director. It didn\u2019t work. The only option now is death, or the parasites will get to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Nazarov, stand down until we can get a recovery crew-\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNO!\u201d Had they been paying attention to anything she\u2019d said? She was just a puny medical assistant, unheard for most of the trip, but she was the only one left. They had to listen. \u201cThe parasites are on the ship. They\u2019re intelligent\u2013they want<\/em> to go to Earth, to have another host planet. We found skeletons, Director. They ravaged Achlys. It\u2019s too late for us. Our Explorer <\/em>is headed for the sun. The heat will kill the parasites.\u201d<\/p>\n Dana heard several loud clangs and winced. The only way Rogers could\u2019ve gotten out of those chains was to break both of his hands.<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Nazarov…\u201d It was all the Director could say.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease tell my parents that I love them,\u201d she whispered, so Rogers wouldn\u2019t hear. \u201cI hope I made them proud. I got to go to space. I died happy. Please tell them.\u201d She was actually quite miserable, but she thought it best to give her parents some solace.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t stop to hear the Director\u2019s response. She could already hear Rogers stomping towards her to the control center, where he would shove Zimmerman\u2019s body out of the Pilot chair and try to reroute the Explorer<\/em> 58 <\/em>back home, to Earth. It was the same thing that Dr. Kumar and Zimmerman had done. It was what she would do, when she succumbed to the parasites running through her veins, multiplying until they’d completely enclosed her brain synapses. She couldn\u2019t allow that to happen.<\/p>\n Dana ran through the crisp white halls speckled with dark droplets of blood, trying her hardest to sound as stompy as the 200-pound Rogers despite her injured leg, finally understanding why her shoes were called sneakers. He would follow. From what she observed, the parasites couldn\u2019t resist the promise of violence, even over routing the ship away from certain death.<\/p>\n She leapt over the guardrail and gingerly pressed her palm to the biometric scanner, feeling a sense of deja vu. Was this how David felt?<\/em> she wondered as she crossed the small space to the lever. She was only a quarter into her life. She\u2019d never gotten to do the things that normal twenty-somethings did, focusing on the space program instead. She should\u2019ve visited that weird dance club with Marylin, should\u2019ve taken her parents out to that dinner she was always too busy for, should\u2019ve asked that cute barista on a date.<\/p>\n \u201cDana, stop!\u201d Rogers\u2019 cry shocked her out of her regrets. They\u2019d never spoken once they reached the final stages of the infestation. Was it possible\u2026?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m cured, Dana. Look, I\u2019m talking\u2013that\u2019s proof. You don\u2019t have to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n She drifted her arms toward the lever, staring at Rogers\u2019 mangled hands. His wedding band was gone. \u201cYou can\u2019t know for sure, General. This is the only way.\u201d<\/p>\n Rogers stepped closer to her, fully into the airlock. Maybe the parasites weren\u2019t as intelligent as she\u2019d thought, or maybe Rogers was telling the truth, and this was his show of faith. The doors behind him snicked shut. \u201cPlease, Dana,\u201d he begged. \u201cLet\u2019s just go back home, together. I need to see my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n A few droplets of tears fell from his dull, spidery eyes, running through the scars in his face. Her own eyes stung as she had a sudden moment of clarity. Soldiers never cried. She closed her hand over the bright red lever and yanked hard. It gave too easily. Rogers\u2019 screams were instantly drowned out by the roar of outer space hurtling towards them.<\/p>\n She didn\u2019t freeze and die instantly, like she\u2019d predicted. For a few moments, she stared at the blazing red sun of the Red Galaxy, growing larger as she drifted towards it, marveling at how different it was from the twinkling specks of stars on Earth.<\/p>\n
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