Previously...

Narrative

Sandy grabbed the headlamp from his kit in the cargo hold of his ship and strapped on his blaster. Several hours ago, a hunter brought back something from Mirage that he thought was secured... contained... but he and three other deckhands paid with their lives when the thing got loose and scurried into the ventilation.

Since then, Corey and several other crew had managed to cordon off the bay where the hunter's ship - and the corpses - were so as to keep out the looky-loos, but word was already starting to spread... and with that word would soon come panic.

"We don't have a lot of time," Corey muttered up the cargo gangway, all the while casting sideways glances at the bodies still cooling on the deck.

"I know. I promise you, Corey - I'll track down that thing and put it down before it can hurt anyone else," Sandy said, his Black Iron medallion clenched in his fist. Even as he said it, though, the unspoken questions bounced back and forth between them:

• What the hell even was it?

• How far could it have gotten in the ventilation by now?

• Will a blaster even hurt it?

Only one way to find out, Sandy thought to himself and turned to the gruesome work at hand. Now armed, but not having been here for the attack, Dr. Barrera closed the gangway on Fortune's Favor and went to examine the dead and the ship's hold from which the beast had escaped.

The cargo doors on the hunter's ship were bent back, as if struck by something big. A few scales had dislodged in the twisted seams of the doors as the beast had plowed through them; they shimmered with an odd iridescence, almost translucent. The hunter had been crushed underfoot as he went to open the cargo hold, but the deckhands had not been so lucky. Their bodies were pitted, their skin split and peeling away from a noxious green, sticky ichor sprayed across their faces and torsos.

The environmental suit might help keep that ichor off me, Sandy thought, but I have no idea how I'm going to stop something that big. Heading back to the Favor, Sandy grabbed Corey to help him suit up, then followed the trail of battered boxes into the ventilation duct work...

The going was slow, and the duct work was tight, but Sandy managed to inch into the conduits until they started to widen up. Finally able to crouch, his pace quickened... but that was the doctor's first mistake. Misjudging the angle of the vent, he slipped, plunging about twenty feet at around a 30% grade into a widening section of ventilation near the primary outflow fans. He landed hard into one of the fan-support pylons but managed to keep his grip and not slide further into the whirling blades. Unfortunately, a deckhand who had gone missing a few weeks back apparently had not been so lucky... Sandy recognized the dried, bisected body of Badger and nearly lost his lunch in the helmet of his environmental suit.

Barely managing to pull himself together, Dr. Barrera also noted something else - more scales, caught in the crevices of one of the other offshoot ducts from this output fan... at least he still had a direction. Still, Badger's family would want to know what happened, if she suffered... unfortunately, Badger's upper torso was on the other side of the spinning blade, only leaving Sandy access to her legs. Her fall must have been like his, but she hadn't been so lucky... she had fallen headlong, just quickly enough to pass into the path of the blade to be struck at the waist. Something else caught his eye, though... the sheen of lubricant on the inner surface of the duct steel; his own feet were also slick with it.

"Badger didn't fallen by accident."

Narrative

Foul play would have to wait for later - there was still the matter of the beast in the vents. Rounding the corner into the offshoot, Dr. Barrera worked his way into the shafts above where he figured the marketplace must be... scales, ichor burns... was that movement?

Sandy managed to dodge the blast of ichor that flew passed him as the beast shimmered into view ahead, but just as quickly it began to fade, slithering surprisingly quickly for its size. Dr. Barrera gave chase. Down into the bowels of the station, following the sound of heavy footsteps... until they stopped. Sandy quickly threw himself behind a curve in the ductwork - right into the beast itself.

The creature reared back, slamming Sandy back into the wall and crushing him beneath its clawed foot. Caught, Sandy grabbed for his blaster pistol, intending to overload it and stun the beast back. Managing to prime the setting, the beast jerks and Sandy lost grip on the blaster... the overload ruptured the duct wall, and beast and doctor plummeted into the marketplace below them. Sandy managed to turn the beast enough to land on top of it instead of underneath, which helped to cushion the impact.

Managing to rise before the beast could regain its footing, Sandy grabbed a piece of wreckage from a market stall they had fallen into and tried to impale the monster, but it rolled away, swiping him harshly backwards with its massive tail. Barely able to turn, Dr. Barrera saw stars, but his suit took the brunt of the hit. He barely had time to set the haft of the broken pole he'd grabbed up before the monster was on him... but he managed to plant it firmly against a solid bulkhead, and the monster drove itself into the sharp end. Sandy scrambled underneath the flailing beast, taking a quick survey of the marketplace - there must be something heavy to drop on the beast.

The damaged piece of ductwork above could be knocked free. Grabbing up another chunk of wreckage, Sandy managed to knock it lose and onto the creature, but only glancingly, freeing it from the spike. It quickly rounded on the doctor, but Sandy had already started down the main thoroughfare of the marketplace, and it furiously gave chase. Planning to bring the blast door down on the creature, Sandy kept a haggard pace, swerving into and out of the stalls, making his way to the door with the creature hot on his heels. He slammed down on the button, but... Hearth is an old station, and the door was slow to react. The beast lunged at Sandy, managing to catch him before the door could close between them or on it, but the doctor threw himself clear of the monster.

The room he was now in with the beast had another ventilation access, which Sandy scrambled into, intent on leading the creature back to the main fans. It managed to hook a claw into his suit, and alarms started to sound in his headset, but the doctor pulled free. Pulling up into one of the widening air handlers, he managed to relock his suit seals (the beast had only loosened them), but he could hear it squeezing and clawing its way not far behind him.

Making it back to the main fans, Sandy rushed past Badger's body, scooping up a long-handled tool next to them and turned to face the approaching beast. He swung, but the beast simply knocked him back into the wall, rattling him. Sandy tried to position himself in front of the fan, hoping to duck and let the beast hit the fan when it charged again, but he wasn't quick enough, getting bashed back into the wall yet again.

"I'm fucking done with you!" he shouted, swinging Badger's tool smartly, catching the beast in an eye. It reared back, caught off guard; the doctor continued to press his attack, pushing the beast back towards another of the main fans. He managed to press it back into the spinning blades; it howled, trying to press forward, but the doctor held firm, stabbing it again with the tool. Its scales begun to splinter, and its body heaved as the heavy blade sliced into its back; from the wounds, a cloud of what looked like spores erupted into the whirling turbulent air, rapidly spreading through the station as the creature screeched one last time then fell still.

Shit, Sandy thought as he watched the spores wafting up from the carcass while fumbling for his comm link. "Corey - get everyone into environmental suits as fast as you can," he barked into the microphone. "I managed to kill this thing, but it's spewing out what looks like spores everywhere. I'm up in the vents near the main fans... and I also found Badger, or what's left of her."

"Understood. I'll get a crew up there to clear the thing out of the ducts and down to the markets to start clearing out the wreckage."

Narrative

Battered and bruised, Sandy made his way back to the Fortune to assess his suit and his injuries, but not before asking Corey and the other crewmates to try and get him a decent sample of the beast and the spores so he could analyze it back on the ship.

"That went about as well as the last time I was on Mirage," Sandy muttered to himself as the gangway sealed up behind him. One of his first survey missions upon arriving at Hearth had put him planet-side with a group of... well... tourists would be the best description. One of the other hunters had offered to provide a safari of sorts to some visitors from the Terminus and had asked Sandy if he could provide "science-talk to make it more 'legitimate-like," was how the hunter had put it. Dr. Barrera and the hunter, along with maybe half the people they had set down with, managed to make it back alive after one of the visitors had wandered off and ended up in the nest of some massive lizard. Sandy had spent the better part of a week in the infirmary with broken ribs and a punctured lung that time.

Luckily, he was more established now in Hearth, though - the people here knew him and trusted him. Sure... the spores situation was going to be trouble in the short term, but they'd dealt with worse. Hell, they were dealing with worse anyway, considering the sickness that had been moving through the residents for the last few months; doctors hadn't had a moment's peace since. But here... on the station, in his own ship, Sandy was able to rest.

His wounds were pretty extensive, but not serious - he had most of what he needed to bandage, stitch, and splint himself up right here in his medkit. After an hour or two, Corey came back from the cleaning work with Sandy's samples... and, more importantly, a bottle of hooch. The two sat in the galley of the doctor's ship and shared a quiet drink, needed and welcome after the day's excitement.

"How bad do you think this dust is gonna be, Doctor?" Corey finally asked after the second glass. "I mean, it definitely in the whole station now."

"That thing - it could camouflage... it was incredibly quiet, despite its size, and I get the feeling it tricked the hunter... like it wanted to get caught," Sandy replied. "Considering all that... I doubt it's good... but rarely any of the fauna from Mirage have been pleasant... but as much as I want to get right on the analysis, I need to rest - it will have to be first thing tomorrow."

Corey nodded. "I can see that - hell, you're lucky to be in one piece."

Sandy smiled weakly, but he had another thing on his mind. "Did you get Badger?"

Corey's smile faded. "We did - terrible what happened."

"It's worse than that - I think someone murdered her. I think someone slicked the vent shaft; I nearly bit it myself, but I managed to catch the pylon and not get dragged into the fan."

Corey stood. "Someone should tell her family - they'll want justice done."

"I'm sure they will, but I don't have anything to tell them yet - as much as I hate to ask you to do this, please keep it under your hat for a bit. I'm going to get to the bottom of this," the doctor said, taking his medallion in his fist. "I... I just don't know where to start."

"I'll ask around the crew, see if anyone knows about what Badger got up to off-shift," Corey offered. "Might at least give you awhere's to start... but I think we should both turn in for the night."

"Yeah... not going to get much more done tonight." Sandy grabbed his respirator and led Corey to the gangway. "Mask up and I'll let you out."

Narrative

Morning came too early, but there was work to be done. Heading back into the main hold, Sandy set up his table, grabbed his mask, and carefully started to examine the samples Corey and the crew had collected from the beast. Some of the spores had already managed to sprout, and under the scope, Dr. Barrera could see they had begun to infiltrate some skin cells that had contaminated the container.

"That's not good," he muttered, scribbling some notes. Spores appear to be co-opting some of the cellular mechanisms of the present skin cells. Exudate indicates the cells are producing some proteinaceous material - possible parasitism? Will need to further analyze these cellular products - might be important to counteracting any infiltration/parasitism.

Realizing the true gravity of this situation, Sandy took his medallion in hand. "I'll identify whatever this monster was and figure out a way to treat or counteract whatever these spores might be doing to the people here... I'm going to need to see if anyone on the station is getting sick from these spores already."

While Sandy was getting ready to head over to the Alima Chapterhouse down in the markets to talk with the medics, one of the crew showed up.

"Hey - have you seen Corey this morning?"

Sandy shook his head. "He was here last night to drop these samples, but I haven't seen him this morning."

The crewman frowned. "Yeah, he said he was going down to the bar to ask around after Badger, seeing how you found her up the vents, but he ain't turned up for shift this morning,"

Sandy gave the man a reassuring look. "I'll keep an eye out for him - I was heading down into the markets shortly myself."

* * *

"Look, you know I can't discuss patients with you - you might be a doctor, but not that kind of doctor," Doctor Murad scolded. Kei Marud was one of the Alima healers; their Chapterhouse was central to this sector's medical assistance. Sandy knew there were Alima medics on Lasthope and Vesper as well, but those medics had come from Hearth, and anything serious often required bringing injured from those remote stations here.

"Take a look at the images from my scope, Kei - please," Sandy urged, pulling up the scans. "You know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't serious."

Dr. Marud looked over the spore data and images, his frown growing the longer he looked. "Dammit, fine," he whispered, motioning Sandy to follow him into the back. "But I'm sticking my neck out for you - I need you to do something for me."

Sandy's brows raised. "Like what exactly?"

"One of the new arrivals in the Chapterhouse," Kei mumbled. "She's... I... Can you talk to her for me?"

Sandy chuckled. "You honestly want me to play match-maker for you with some new nurse?"

Kei paused typing on his terminal and squared up to Sandy. "Do you want access to my patient files or not?"

Sandy raised a hand, shaking his head. "Fine, yes - I'll... I'll talk to her for you. What's her name?"

"Kayla Taylan."

Narrative

Kei then motioned Sandy over to his terminal. "All loaded up. What do you think we're looking for?"

Dr. Barrera started looking through the database. "The cells in my samples were epidermal, so rashes, maybe some respiratory symptoms, but it would have to be in the last 24 hours."

Ten patients today, all sent home with creams for skin rashes or steroid inhalers for coughs. Sandy jotted down the names and addresses - at least it's a place to start.

"You haven't seen Corey Braddock today in here, have you?" Sandy asked as wrote. "He stopped in last night after I found Badger, but his crewmates said he never showed up this morning for shift."

Dr. Marud shook his head. "You can check the logs to see if anyone else saw him today, though, just in case I missed him."

No dice - none of the other medics had logged him in. "Guess I'll get moving on these folks, then."

* * *

One of the first people on the list was one of the Keeper deputies on Hearth; he'd come in this morning with a headache, short of breath, and a weird rash on his neck. The medic had given him a steroid inhaler, a topic cream for the rash, some meds for the headache, and then sent him home. Sandy knocked on his door... but no answer.

Crap... he could just be sleeping... or he could be really sick. Sandy knelt down and managed to override the door lock using something he'd kit-bashed together with his commlink and a few bits and bobs from his tool kit, but fried them (and the door lock) out in the process. At least the communicator still works...

The room beyond the door was dark - all the window sashes were down as was all the lighting... but there was an odd odor: something dank, almost fetid, but definitely fresh. Putting on his headlamp, Sandy was almost certain he saw something flit further into the back of the apartment when he cut on its light. Making his way cautiously through the living space, Dr. Barrera peered around the corner into the bathroom space to find what was left of the keeper curled up on the floor hugging the base of the toilet. Having apparently removed his shirt at some point after returning from the clinic, the neck rash had spread dramatically over his face and torso and had flourished into pulsing yellow pustules... but the worst part was the... 'rupture' along his back. More like a gaping rip, the entirely of the cervical spine and portions of the thoracic spine appeared to have been torn out of the man's neck and upper back, but the missing piece was nowhere to be seen. What was to be seen, though, was a switch-backing trail of blood and gore leading up to a damaged air vent cover.

"Call Dr. Marud," Sandy muttered into his communicator. "Kei - we have a major problem. That Keeper deputy on the patient list... just send a team in here in full gear to sterilize this room. I'm sending you visual now."

"Shit, man!" Kei gasped. "What the hell happened to him?!"

"Lock down the other nine patients - contact the Keepers and have them bring them all in immediately. They could be hosts for whatever that thing was that came up from Mirage."

Kneeling down to get a closer look, Sandy was certain the tearing had started inside the man's neck, like his spine ripped itself out. His moment of focus cost him, though - as if in answer, a snake-like mass of yellow and white skin with a misshapen maw dropped out of the vent and latched onto his arm. Sandy managed to bash the thing against the bathroom sink, knocking it off and stunning it. Sandy stomped on the thing's... neck? while it was down, and managed to hit it but slipped on the blood and gore covering the bathroom floor, toppling over as well. Throwing himself on top of the writhing thing, Sandy managed to snap its... neck? or some part of it so that it stopping struggling.

As he lay on the floor, covered in gore and breathing heavily, Dr. Marud's voice crackled over the commlink. "Keepers just told me there's three others like you described, Sandy."

Narrative

Fuck. Three more of these things loose in the vents, possibly more people infected that the station didn't know about... Sandy needed answers and fast. "Set the Keepers and your medics to start sweeping the residentials - the ones who came for treatment might not be the only ones affected." He snapped a video of the dead snake-thing and fed it to Dr. Marud. "Disseminate that out to everyone doing the sweeps, so they know what to watch out for; buggers can bite hard."

Gingerly scooping up the carcass into a bag, Sandy made his way back quickly back to the Chapterhouse; while he had some equipment on the Fortune, Dr. Marud would definitely have a better lab setup than he did currently on the ship.

* * *

An air of panic was already starting to spread across Hearth - the Keepers and the Alima were moving in teams through the corridors, the emergency lights had been activated, and there was just an uneasy bustle throughout the whole of the station. The Chapterhouse was even more abuzz than the rest of the marketplace, as medics worked on screening sick people for signs of this infection.

"I have four people in stasis already since you sent me the pictures," Kei barked as Sandy came into his office. "What the hell is this?"

"I need your lab," Sandy said gravely, jerking the bag up in front of Dr. Marud.

"Is that..."

"Yeah."

Kei nodded and started around his desk, gesturing for Barrera to follow him. "I figured you'd have what you needed."

"I just got the ship not too long ago - haven't had time to outfit her proper yet."

Kei chuckled. "Hopefully you live long enough to do that..."

The Chapterhouse's lab was decent enough - Dr. Barrera had seen better back in the Terminus in school, but not since. The two scientists set to work on the juvenile lizard, taking samples, slicing cell prep slides... Sandy also started analysis on some of the samples Corey had dropped him last night, figuring they might help add some additional insight.

"It's definitely the same organism, just different stages of its lifecycle," Sandy muttered, still peering down the microscope as he moved back and forth between preps from the beast from last night and the one he just killed in the Keeper's apartment. "But the juvenile has some distinct differences, like it didn't or couldn't fully bond with our cells."

"Makes sense," Dr. Marud said, still cycling samples through another analyzer. "We're not native to Mirage. It's like rabies back from in Sol - it can infect us, but we don't have the right machinery for it, so it just does... whatever it can... but I looking at these samples, it degrades pretty quick. I think... if we're going to produce a counteragent, I going to need a live one."

Sandy looked up from the scope. "A live one? Are you nuts?"

"Unfortunately, no. I'm going to need to take blood, cells, neural tissue, reproductive tissue... I'm going to need something alive to get good samples."

Great. "Well, it looks like a lizard, and it's from a desert world... Guess I'm going into Engineering."

* * *

The Keepers had quarantined healthy people to their quarters unless they were essential, so the Engineering deck was currently deserted; most of the station's core functions were automated, so unless something was being actively worked on or on the fritz, people weren't needed... however something was on the fritz - the doorway was cycling rapidly open and closed. Trying something similar to what he had done on the Keeper's door, Sandy rigged a bypass... with similar effects, frying it out but stopping the door cycle.

Inside, consoles read out energy production, heat production, oxygen/ventilation status, artificial gravity status... everything still in the green. However, wrapped around one of the chairs was something reminiscent of snake skin, meaning Sandy's assumption about where they'd go was correct, but at least one of these things had already molted. Based on the size of the skin, Sandy suspected this one was now about the size of a guard dog. "At least it's not the size of bus yet," Sandy grumbled.

The heat generators were deeper down into the Engineering bay, not too far from the ventilation main exchangers - the place where Sandy had killed the "mother" beast and found Badger. As he crouched to get in behind one of the generators, he was bowled over by the bigger juvenile barreling out from those very same shadows. As it knocked him over, Sandy could see its shimmering scales had also started to come in. Rolling over and back onto his feet, he whirled to see the thing lunging at him again, but he managed to turn it aside and dump it into a wall, putting it on its heels.

Gotta take it alive, Sandy thought, scanning the space for anything he could use to subdue the damned thing.