Pathogenesis: A Close Call
Chapter 5
A Close Call
© Searska GreyRaven
_This is part of a rather lengthy series. It has heavy dark, horror elements later on. If you aren't a fan of the sci-fi horror genre, move along. If you are under 18 or you shouldn't be looking at this sort of thing, move along. If you have objections to graphic violence and adult themes, move along.
If, however, you love the idea of tentacles, alien parasites, vore, mind control, transformation, and hard-core weirdness...Let me introduce to you -- Pathogenesis!_
(This part includes parasites, bodily fluids, near-rape, mind control, horror elements, and scenes of a distubing nature.)
Logan had the strangest feeling that he was being watched. Ever since he left the morgue, the spot between his shoulder blades itched, as if unfriendly eyes followed his every move. He rubbed the back of his neck, ruffling grey fur, and shook his head. Just a bit spooked by Lev's discovery, that's all.
A parasite, able to turn its mammalian host into a living puppet, was loose in his station. The Rasi base had weathered outbreaks before, but nothing like this. No one, except perhaps the saurians or the dragons, knew how to stop this plague. And the saurians weren't speaking. That left only the dragons.
Logan shuddered. Dragons. Their ferocity was matched only with their aloofness. Their sudden withdraw from the galactic community was alarming and decades later still unexplained. Anyone who attempted to enter draconic space was expelled, or in a few instances, killed. The dragons had cut themselves off from the rest of the universe completely. Logan briefly wondered if their leaving was connected to the parasite, and quickly dismissed the thought. The dragons had withdrawn decades ago. This parasite was a new development in the squid-mammal war.
Logan looked over his shoulder anxiously. He still had that skin-crawling feeling like he was being watched. Damn, I didn't think Lev's autopsy rattled me that badly... Lev knew anatomy better than most critters knew themselves. If Lev didn't know about it, chances are that it didn't exist. But here it was, something that challenged the doctor for the first time in years. Lev called it the perfect parasite, and elaborated in detail the ingenious way it wrapped itself around its host's nerves, taking over its body bit by bit and forcing the host to-
Logan paused and glanced behind him. That nagging feeling just seemed to be getting worse. He knew that it wasn't Chira following him. She'd left before he did, to prepare her ship for launch. Chira was the captain of the only ship in the compound right now that could get them to dragon space. Not to mention that she had fought these things before, even if it was only a few days ago.
"Logan?"
Logan jumped and looked around. That voice..."Aurus?" He said. The lean raccoon's ears swiveled frantically, trying to locate the source of the voice. Silence. Logan shook his head. Not only was he getting paranoid, he was hearing things now as well! Logan began walking again, glancing over his shoulder every few steps. He was almost at Chira's ship.
"Logan!"
There it was again! This time, Logan knew he wasn't imagining it. He looked around anxiously.
"Aurus? Is that you?" Logan said, looking for his red panda engineer.
"Loooogaaaaan..." the voice crooned.
"Aurus? Where are you?" Logan said. A demented giggle echoed behind him. Logan frowned. Aurus never giggled, not even when he was drunk. The fur along Logan's back stood on end, though the coveralls hid most of it. His tail seemed to double in size, and it twitched nervously against his leg. He strained his ears and flared his whiskers, trying vainly to pick up a scent, a movement, anything out of place.
Something slammed into his back, and Logan yelped in surprise. He rolled and threw off his attacker. A blur of red and white flew across the hall and smashed into Chira's stall door.
Logan recovered and looked up. It was Aurus, but not the Aurus he knew. The red panda staggered to his feet and fixed an unblinking gaze on Logan. Aurus's fur was matted with dust, giving his usually russet fur the appearance of dried blood. Tattered remnants of his jumpsuit hung from Aurus's waist. Even from as far away as Logan was crouched, he could see a network of bulging veins under his friend's skin. Aurus pulled back his lips and growled, dripping saliva to the floor.
"Aurus, it's me. Logan. You remember Logan, don't you?" Logan said calmly. Aurus snarled, and a pair of translucent tendrils caressed his black lips like a profane tongue.
"Looogaaan..." Aurus cackled. "We need you Loooogaaaan." Aurus rasped. He reached down and tore the last of his jumpsuit off. Logan hissed. He didn't know much about red panda anatomy, but he knew that what he was seeing wasn't normal. Aurus's testicles were bloated to the size of tennis balls, and had moved up his belly until they bulged just under his erect sex. A drop of clear liquid fell from the tip to mingle with his drool on the cement floor. Aurus snatched for Logan. Logan scrambled away, evading Aurus's grab by a whisker.
"Stop running Logan. It's futile to run." Aurus said with a laugh. His cock bobbed ominously as he stalked toward Logan. Aurus made a jumping motion, and Logan dodged. Aurus laughed at his deception and tackled Logan, pinning him to the ground. Aurus snapped his teeth at Logan's exposed neck. Dull claws raked Logan's coveralls. Can't...let him...touch me! Logan grabbed Aurus and shoved him back. Aurus squeezed Logan between his thighs, thrusting his hips against Logan's body and coating the raccoon's jumpsuit with slick goop.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light, a loud crack, and Aurus collapsed. Logan wheezed under the weight, the wind knocked out of him by Aurus' body landing on his belly. A moment later, Chira appeared and kicked the infected red panda off with her boot. Logan glanced at Chira's feet and gave a rasping chuckle.
"That...a new fashion statement?" Logan gasped.
"Just for now." Chira replied, helping Logan up. Chiropterans preferred to be barefoot whenever possible. "We should call Lev."
Logan went for his com unit, but sighed. It had been damaged in the fight. He'd have to use the public one, which had no secure setting. Well, now that we know it's here, I guess it doesn't matter who knows we're having a quarantine lock-down. Logan thought. Chira helped him up, but kept her blaster pointed at Aurus' body.
"Is he alive?" Logan asked.
"I stunned him, but I don't know how long it will last. You'd better hurry." Chira said calmly. Logan nodded and turned on the com unit.
"All units this is not a drill. We have a biohazard situation, level four. As of right now, we are under a quarantine lock-down until further notice. I need a biohazard team at Stall Six immediately. All personal, get to a building and do not leave it until you hear the all-clear. Repeat, this is not a drill." Logan said.
"Biohazard team, Stall Six. Roger."
Logan turned off the com unit and stood next to Chira.
"You might want to take those coveralls off." Chira said, not taking her eyes off the fallen Aurus. Logan blinked and looked at his coveralls. Aurus had certainly made a mess of them. With a shudder, Logan unzipped them and dropped them next to Aurus. Chira glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and the ghost of a smile curled her lips.
"Working on ships all day certainly keeps you in shape." She said. Logan looked at her for a moment before he burst out laughing.
"We're waiting for a biohazard team after I was assaulted by my engineer and friend, and you want to flirt?" Logan said, still laughing.
"You're the one without pants." Chira said with a sly grin.
Before Logan could reply, the biohazard team arrived, with Lev in the lead. As the team closed off the area, Logan explained what happened to the doctor. The quickly sealed Aurus in a containment pod and began to sterilize the area. Logan and Chira were both given quick decon showers. Chira stepped out from behind the bright orange curtain and approached Logan and Lev. Both raccoons were conversing quietly but urgently.
"So, now what?" she asked Lev and Logan.
Lev glanced at the biohazard team. "Is your ship ready?" He whispered. Chira gave him a slight nod.
"Good, then listen closely. I have a data crystal with all the information you'll need. For heaven's sake be careful." Lev said, handing a small, green crystal to Logan. And with a nod, he motioned for the biohazard team to take Aurus and the samples they had collected to the lab.
Logan put his paw on the doctor's shoulder, stopping him. "What will happen to Aurus?" he asked.
"I'll do what I can for him. But no promises. This parasite is a nasty thing. Compassion may dictate that the only thing I can do is make him comfortable." Lev said, watching the pod as it floated past. Logan sighed and dropped his head.
"I understand. Just...make it quick and painless, please." Logan murmured.
"Your engineer is in good hands, Logan. If there's a way to stop this thing, I'll find it." Lev promised. Logan only nodded numbly. Lev gave him a reassuring smile and toddled off after his team.
"So what are we going to do?" Chira asked, flicking her ears. She played with her captain's earring nervously. Logan nodded towards Chira's ship, and the pair went inside, closing the hatch behind them.
"Lev will keep the med staff occupied. We should go." Logan said, strapping himself in to one of the passenger chairs. "The computer won't give you a clearance code, so you'll have to fly out of the bay blind."
" 'Blind as a bat' is only a saying, my procyonid companion." Chira slid into the captain's chair and pulled out the connecting cable. She plugged it into the jack in her arm and revved the engines. Her vision changed as her mind dove into the body of her ship. She put it into stealth mode and launched out of the stall. If security was looking at their radar, they would see nothing. Only infrared could pick up the heat signature of her engines, and even that was so faint as to go unnoticed. Chira pulled in "her" wings, and rocketed upward. Her ship burst out of the planet's atmosphere and dashed beyond the reach of its gravity. She paused to turn a mechanical eye back to the planet. Behind her, the thin layer of the atmosphere burned electric blue against a sea of black. She could eclipse the entire planet with her palm. So small, she thought, such a pale blue dot.
Chira turned her attention to the warp engines and brought them on line. With a thrum that sounded much like a giant purring cat, the warp engines kicked in and the pale blue dot vanished into a light-spattered ocean.
Chira put the ship into autopilot and carefully withdrew the plug from her arm. Logan was gripping the arm rests hard enough to leave fingerprints in the metal. He took a shuddering breath and slowly unclenched his hands. At some point, he had dropped the data crystal in his lap, and he picked it up with shaking paws. He unbuckled the seat belt and sat, cross-legged, looking at it.
"You don't like to fly, do you?" Chira asked.
"Usually I don't mind, but your ship is something else." Logan replied. "It flies more like an animal than a machine." Logan rolled the crystal between his palms.
"I'll need that to get our heading." she asked, gesturing to the crystal.
Logan nodded and dropped the crystal into her palm. His shoulders slumped. Chira went into her quarters and brought out a blanket and a pillow. Logan hadn't moved. She placed the folded blanket and pillow next to Logan.
"Logan?" she said. "I'm sorry."
"I couldn't help him." Logan murmured.
"There was nothing you could do." Chira replied.
"He had a girlfriend, a linsang. They met in college." Logan said, numbly. "She was a xenobiologist, specialized in alien parasitology. The last I heard, she was stationed near squid space. Next thing I know, we have three dead furs infected with an alien parasite aided by the squids, and an unregistered linsang vessel lands on my base. I can't help but wonder if the linsang captain was..." Logan trailed off and shook his head.
"We won't know until we go back, and we can't go back without finding some answers." Chira said. "If there's a way to save them, it lies out here." Logan nodded, and the pair fell asleep, cradled in a glittering blanket of stars.