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Hidden: Chapter 8

Power Overwhelming

It had been nearly an hour since squad four was killed by what the late Captain Wellington described as werewolves. I didn't entirely agree with the description, but it was what we ended up going with. By that point I had most of the communications equipment set up. It was simple, but high tech. On the outside, it looked like a bunch of small boxes connected by an assortment of wires with a small dish on top, but it was capable of sending out clear messages over a range of a 200,000 miles in any direction. I just needed to calibrate it correctly.

The rest of my squad had taken the time to relax a bit and get themselves together. Sergeant Crane had pulled a deck of cards out and was playing a game of king's corner with Sergeant Millard. Ivan was just pacing around nervously. He couldn't do his part until power to the ship was restored. Captain Luther of squad two had told the rest of us that his squad was working on the main reactor, but it would take time since the damage to it was extensive. He thought that sabotage was the most likely scenario. Captain Krauss on the other hand, had some interesting information. He had captured several armed men who were guarding the jammer and was now heading to the bridge to rendezvous with us. I had shared information from Captain Cunning's recording and what we saw on the bridge. The other captains agreed that it would be best to contact Colonel Mathews about the current situation and to receive additional instructions.

"There." I stood up and wiped my hands off. "Finally finished."

"About time cap." Sergeant Crane left the card game and came over to admire my work. "God, that's one ugly piece of machinery you got there."

"Hey, as long as it works I'm happy." I gave the sergeant a light shove. "I want to wait for Captain Krauss to get here before we start a transmission." I pressed a button on my arm to switch to Krauss' frequency. "How much longer until you get here? I've got coms set up, just waiting on you."

"We're almost there." Krauss was a large German man, but spent a lot of time in France, giving him an accent that was a blend of both dialects. He was in the German KSK or their special forces for 13 years before he was selected to join the Spec Enforcers. "It doesn't help that we have to cut through every single door we come across. Squad two needs to hurry up."

Captain Luther must have been on the same frequency because he quickly began to talk. "Hey, you try to fix a reactor with duct tape. It's not easy work, you know."

"Duct tape," Krauss exclaimed. "Are you trying to blow up the ship?"

"If anyone's going to blow up the ship, it going to be you." Luther was Irish. Thank god it wasn't thick. "If you keep cutting through everything that gets in your way that is."

"Right now it's your lack of progress that's..."

I disconnected, not caring for their squabbles. I looked up, Sergeant Crane was standing there with his hands on his hips and his head tilted slightly to the right. He must have been listening in as well.

"They argue like my parents." He put his finger where is chin would be. "Except my parents aren't threatening to strangle each other right now."

"Are you still listening to them?" I asked.

"Yeah, this is gold." His shoulders moved up and down as he laughed. "It's not every day you get to listen to two highly trained soldiers lose it."

I walked over to him and pressed the button on his wrist that controlled his radio. "It's not polite to eavesdrop on people's conversations."

"Why don't you get that stick out of your ass and go after the werewolves with it." He pointed at me accusingly. "It's doing a fine job killing all of the joy here."

I rolled my eyes and swatted his finger away from me. He shrugged and went back to his card game.

It was another half an hour before Captain Krauss and his squad reached the bridge. By the way he was moving his hands around the air, he was still in a heated argument with Luther. He quickly stopped when he saw the blood and the pile of bodies. "Damn, you weren't joking when you said the bridge was a mess. Those fucking werewolves did a number on them." He had switched over to my squads frequency.

"Yeah, this was the work of only one as far as I can tell." I pointed at the bodies.

"To think that Captain Wellington said he was dealing with thousands." The mention of the dead captain's name forced everyone to stop for a moment. "Let's get in contact with the colonel and give him a report. He's probably going to blow a gasket," Krauss said to change the subject.

"Yeah, it's all ready, just have to turn it on." I walked over to the coms equipment and flipped a switch. A whirring noise came from it and a few lights started to blink.

"Captain Anderson." The colonel's voice came it loud, causing me to fumble with my controls to lower the volume. "What the hell took you so long? You were due to have the coms set up hours ago."

"Sir, my apologies, but there has been a major development here." I talked in a monotone and stern voice.

"Well, they better be good. NATO command is getting anxious to know what's going on."

"The gas is some kind of transformative agent, a... a mutagen of sorts. It causes a percentage of those exposed to turn into... well we've been calling them werewolves." I was stumbling over my words. "Captain Wellington and his entire squad was wiped out by them about an hour and a half ago."

"Fuck." It was all the colonel said and I could hear him going through papers on his desk and scribbling things down with a pen.

"Sir."

"What," he snapped at me.

"There's more sir."

"Of course there is." He said sarcastically.

"Captain Cunning is dead, we found him on the bridge with an audio recording. He mentioned a Dr. Ruse, who I think has vital information pertaining to what happened here."

I heard a long sigh on the other end. "Send over the recording and I'll contact you once I've made a decision. Don't move from your current locations. Not just you, but everyone, is that understood."

"Yes sir." Everyone, including Luther and his squad replied at once and the transmission ended.

I turned to Ivan who was standing off to the side. "Ivan, prepare the audio recording and send it off to the colonel."

"Sir, you forgot to mention the prisoners that Captain Krauss has." Sergeant Millard, who had been quiet this entire time spoke up.

I rolled my head back and moaned. "Shit." I looked at the three prisoners who were guarded by two of Captain Krauss' men. They looked scared. Each wore common civilian clothing. One even had what appeared to be real denim jeans. Most stuff today was made of plastic, stuff that started with poly. They were all very pale, a sign that they were born in space and each wore a gas mask that protected them. "Captain, I suppose you should begin your interrogation and we'll report when the colonel contacts us."

"With pleasure." There something in the way Krauss spoke that caused me to shiver. He went over to the prisoners who cowered before the large German and he picked up one of them by the scruff of his shirt with one hand. The man shrieked even though Krauss didn't do anything to cause harm. "This won't take long," he laughed.

It didn't take long at all. They began to spill everything they knew as soon as Krauss threatened to remove their masks one by one. They talked so fast that it was impossible to understand and most of it was just gibberish and pleas for mercy anyways.

"Shut it." Krauss banged on the wall and the three quickly stopped talking, staring wide eyed at him. He pointed at the shortest of them, who had also pissed his pants. "What were you doing on the ship?" The man was petrified. "Talk, before I make you talk."

"We... we... we were hired by J&H t... to retrieve a Dr. Ruse," He barely managed to sputter.

"And." Krauss said it slowly.

"We... We stowed away and disguised ourselves as passengers, there were 15 of us. Supplies were smuggled in through a gate where the guards were bribed. We waited until the ship was well into its journey before we made our move. W... When we tried to get to him, a fight started with some people who were protecting him." He took a moment and gulped. "Se... Security got involved and we were forced to back off. We tried to get to his quarters a few hours later when we heard he was taken to the infirmary, bu... but his guards were already there. Another fight broke out and at some point a bullet hit one of the doctor's bags which then exploded. We ran after that." He was out breath at this point and looked like he was about to faint.

Krauss nodded and turned to the next man. "I know you have more to add to your friend's story. Speak." Everyone in the room had gathered around to listen to what they had to say. Seeing eight men in black armored suits and not being able to see our faces must have compounded their fears.

The man gave us one look and like the one before him spoke, but in a more controlled manner. "After the explosion, we split into three groups of five. The other two who were in our group were exposed to whatever was in the bag and quickly died. A lot of people began to die and we would have as well if we didn't have these masks. Our group was to set up a jammer and defend it, before you disabled it, to prevent an SOS from getting out so we could get the doctor. and escape before you military types got here. Obviously that part failed. The other groups were to disable to main reactor and then to get the doctor and meet us at the jammer." He looked down at his hands which were bonded. "That was days ago, we haven't heard anything from the other groups. My guess is that they were killed by those things."

"So you've seen them and survived?" I stepped forward to get his attention.

"Yeah, when we were making our way to set up the jammer, before the power went out, we spied a large group of people gathering in a cafeteria. It seemed that everyone had begun to gather into large groups. That's why parts of the ship seem so empty. Some groups managed to avoid the gas and some didn't. The group in the cafeteria wasn't exposed, but they were close to another group that was. Before long, one of those creatures, werewolves, you call them, broke in and started killing them all." He shuddered and turned a bit green. "We didn't stay to watch."

"Well." Krauss turned to me, still using the speaker. "Once the power is back on and if the colonel gives the go ahead, we should be able to use the security cameras to find this Dr. Ruse easily while avoiding the werewolved."

The third man, who had looked like he was in a dream stood up quickly. The two guards put their hands on him to stop him from doing anymore. He ignored them and began yelling. "The power has to stay off. It has to."

Krauss slowly turned back around. "Why? We need power to access the computers."

The man was shaking and just pouring off sweat. "Don't you know what happens when the entire ship's power is reset? Do you? You can't turn the power back on, you're going to kill us all." He screamed the last part and fell to his knees and started muttering to himself. "Power. Off. Power. Off. We're all going to die."

I went over to him and shook him lightly on his shoulders to get him to look up. His mask was fogged up and the bottom of it was beginning to fill with tears. "Calm down, what happens when the power comes back on."

His voice was quiet, but audible to me. "When the power comes back on, all the doors open and they all come out. Don't you understand? The closed doors are the only reason why we're still alive." He looked at me with pleading eyes.

I quickly stood up and took a few steps back as if the man had a plague. No one else had heard and were looking at me questionable. Ignoring them, I fumbled with my radio to get in contact with Luther. "Captain Luther, do not...."

The lights in the bridge turned back on, blinding me and Captain Luther cut me off. "Aha, we've done it?" His voice was elated and there was cheering in the background, a complete opposite of the third man who had completely broken down into tears.

"Turn it off," I desperately yelled. "Turn it back off."

"What?" His voiced peaked in pitch at the end of the word. "Do you know how difficult it was to get this thing started? We've been working non-stop to..."

"I don't care, turn it off." My speaker was still on as I yelled and the entire conversation was being broadcasted to everyone in the room. I was acting just like the man who was sitting with his knees pulled tightly to his chest.

"I can't." Luther had caught onto my worried tone and now had one of his one. "Turning it off at this state could cause a catastrophic failure, it would blow up essentially... it..."

A thousand howls could be heard on the other side of the radio. The third man vomited into his mask.