Stalwart Crest

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Rafe and Myra carried the injured Wyatt Vela to the laboratory for Aki to look over.

Aki quickly applied bandages and stopped outward signs of bleeding. She waved a medical scanner over him to find out if she could quickly do anything else. She grimaced when reading the report.

“Rafe, can I speak you at a distance, please?” She backed away from Wyatt.

The patient’s eyelids were opening and closing and he attempted to speak, but winced with pain at every attempt.

Myra stayed with him, hoping to get his story if he was able to provide it.

“Wyatt, what happened here” she asked.

He did not respond. Moving him seemed to do more harm than good.

Rafe and Aki returned a minute later. Hudd was still sifting through data logs. Myra would have been surprised if the technical expert had even noticed Wyatt’s arrival.

“Wyatt,” Rafe said. He knelt; moving to eye level with the injured scientist sprawled on the table. “Aki Chelan over there says you will not survive another move. I need you to make peace with whatever you need to and tell me what happened here.”

Rafe was not one for breaking news gently. In his view, news like this was just something to deal with. He hoped Wyatt was strong enough to take it in without breaking.

Wyatt did not flinch. Myra saw only the slightest tilt of a bloodied and cut eyebrow on his face. The dying scientist gathered the energy to nod his head, all at once acknowledging and accepting his fate.

“Good,” Rafe said, barking more than speaking. “Now what did you do?”

Wyatt coughed blood and winced, unable to scream despite the incredible pain. The beast in the hallway had ripped him nearly in half. It would not be long before he lost consciousness and took with him everything he knew of what happened on Platform Seven.

“You apologized earlier, why?” Aki asked.

Wyatt waved his hand, summoning Rafe closer.

“15. 6. 3.” Wyatt spoke softly into Rafe’s ear.

“What does that mean? Is that a combo? Where?” Rafe asked.

Wyatt continued, “198. 122. 74. 194.”

“What does that mean?” Rafe said, shouting.

Wyatt closed his eyes and his chest stopped moving.

Rafe slammed his fist on the desk. “Hudd, run those numbers through whatever program your arm can find. Aki, get a cleanup crew down here. Myra, you’re with me.”

The team moved on Rafe’s word.

Myra readied her rifle, but did not understand the order. Typically when a cleanup crew was called the mission was over. Cleanup crews only landed planet side when safety was guaranteed.  Only two rooms and a hallway were verified as clear.

“What’s the plan, Captain?” Myra asked.

“I’m not a captain” Rafe said in his gruffest voice, “we’re going to find out what is blocking our visors.”

“They aren’t just malfunctioning?” She asked.

“Hudd built these things. Have you ever known Hudd’s work to be shoddy?”

Myra pondered the question for the briefest moment. “Lead the way, sir”

“Would you just call me Rafe already?”

The two walked side by side back to the hallway. The smell of rot still present, but to Myra’s dismay it was becoming so commonplace it was hardly noticeable. She did not enjoy growing accustomed to something so vile.

“Look, rookie,” Rafe began. He was cut off by Myra tapping his shoulder.

“Rafe, you’ve gotta see this,” she said. She had stopped walking and began flipping her visor up and down, over and over.

“What do you have?” Rafe asked

Myra stepped closer to the wall opposite them, still pulling her visor up and down. When she reached the wall she tapped a small box with her finger.

“This box does not show up when our visor is down,” Myra said.

Rafe flipped his visor up and down. “Huh,” Rafe quipped, “take it down. We’ll get it back to the Crest and have Hudd take a look.”

Myra knocked the box off the wall with a swift whack from her rifle. Picking it off the floor, she noticed a familiar symbol on the back of the box, but could not place exactly where she had seen it before.

Rafe seemed content that the box was the source of their radar issues. He waved his hand and redirected their path back to the lab.

Hudd and Aki were standing at Wyatt’s side, still trying to make sense of the scene.

“Did you find anything?” Aki asked as Rafe and Myra entered the room.

“Mystery box. Matches our mystery numbers and really compliments the mystery scientist. Pack it up, we’re heading home. Myra will call down the scrub team when we hit orbit.” Rafe commanded.

“And what about Wyatt?” Hudd asked.

“He still has some answers to give us. Bring him with,” Rafe said as he holstered his trusted side arm, Freddy. He paused to look around the room.

“And Crest, no reports are to be filed with command just yet. Something other than this room stinks, we’re going to find out,” Rafe walked out of the lab.