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Ch 3.
Blinking twice, he sat up on the bed. The lighting was dim and almost in response, the room seemed to fade into shades of grey. He brushed his hand over the place where the strange needle had imbedded itself and felt nothing. No trace of the injection.
"If you're looking for a scar or something," a deep voice rumbled from the shadows. In seconds he was off the bed, springing off his hands into midair, and halfway across the room before the voice continued, "The hyber units don't leave none."
Looking around, he saw a large man in the faded light smirking at him. "You're the guy that..."
"Yeah," he smiled, "I'm the guy that had that gun on you. The name's Hank Steadman." The large, well-muscled man reclined back against the wall; his arms crossed behind his head "I'd shake your hand if I didn't think you'd bite off my arm."
"Why don't you just tell me what the hell is going on?"
"Well, have you got a name? Or do I have to call you 'Hey you nutjob' forever?" Hank paused for a second before continuing with a smirk. "If we'd a wanted you dead boyo, we wouldn't 'a saved your skin back there."
"Chartrand," the young man said, lowering his fists and letting his guard down slightly, "Wade Chartrand."
"Funny name," Steadman heartily chuckled.
"Ok, we've done the small talk bullshit and now I want some answers." Wade walked back over towards the large man, "I'm not fond of being grabbed from the middle of a mission by a bunch of space cowboys."
"Space Cowboys?" Hank was off the wall in seconds, his large, scarred face just inches from Wade's. "Boy, we saved your hide and that's all you can say?"
"We were trying to gather information about the enemy before it all went tits-up," Wade crossed his arms and turned his back to Hank. "Then you guys came busting in waving your space suits around like some kind of cyborg call girls."
"Saved yer hide is what we did yah daft whelp," Hank spat.
"You had a funny way of shooting a guy you were supposedly trying to save."
"What did you expect? That we'd all jus' jump out of our suits and have a tea party while we get infected?"
"Infected?" Wade fixed the other man with an icy gaze, "What the hell are you blathering about? None of you were touched."
Hank stopped dead, his jaw slack. He started laughing - full out belly laughing.
"What the hell is so funny?" Wade snarled. "I watched many good men die and you're here laughing like a complete idiot who has just discovered his own asshole."
Hank took a moment to calm down as the other man seethed. "You're a hell of a trained soldier by the looks of how you handled yourself out there," Hank smiled as he wiped away tears of laughter, "but how could you not know anything about the infection?" Chartrand glared at him unrelentingly, but he continued, "Didn't you wonder why your comrades were dropping dead right in front of you just from breathing? Or why they suddenly started changing into those things without a mark on them?"
Wade's eyes clouded over with memories of the slaughter, hearing the screams of men, women and children in his mind. One man in particular stood out in his eyes. His hair was ash blond against the backdrop of a fiery sky.
He shook his mind clear and cradled his head in his hands. "How?.... How did they do it?" he asked finally.
"Aside from full on injection as I'm sure you've seen, it was also in the air," Hank said evenly. "It was in everything. If it doesn't turn you, you slowly die, in a painful mixture of.." He stopped. "Well, I'm sure you know that much by now."
"So then the medical tests on me?"
"Were clean," Hank said, staring at the far wall, "The others we found weren't so lucky."
"How is it that I'm clean?"
Hank fixed him with a solid gaze but remained silent.
After a moment Wade asked quietly, "What about the blond guy?" Hank's ears perked up, "Where's he?"
"Officer Kylan Jones," Hank said as if the title would bite him in the ass, "you sure must have made an impression."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning he took a bullet for you," Hank spat, "Meaning he's one room over still recovering."
Wade pulled his arms in closer around his slim body, "What happened....?"
Hank chucked deep in his throat, "We didn't have enough fast acting hyber kits ready is what happened. When they found us, we had no choice but to break orbit and gun it." He nodded towards the far wall, "my boy over there made one of those. Waddyah call it?" he mused, "Executive decisions and ended up dealing with the spatial sickness on his own."
Wade frowned, "He'll get over it right?"
Hank huffed, pushing himself off of the far bed and strolled across the room, ignoring Wade's question. "I don't see what he sees in you kid. Even asked me to check in on you once we docked with the station. Before he passed out again that is."
Wade could only stare at Hank. "I don't follow..."
"Oh and kid," he turned back, "Don't break anything when you look around the station," he said as he walked out of the room, the mechanical door to sliding back into place with a resounding 'zip'.
It took Wade only moments to change into the pile of clothes that were set out beside his bed. Amazingly the sleek black and brown material fit the contours of his body perfectly and seemed functional enough. He steeled himself as images of a large blond man he once knew danced before his eyes once more. Wade could feel them start to mist over before he squeezed them shut. The past was gone, they were different men he chided himself. Different men, this wasn't the same. He walked slowly out of the room.
Another grey and white corridor greeted him, it was almost the same as the non-descript corridors of the ship. Were they still in the ship? He didn't know. All that he knew was that the room next to his was open. He hesitated for a brief second before walking in.
"Ugh....." a deep moan sounded through the darkened room. Wade stopped. There in the bed, partially covered with a thin sheet that seemed to shimmer in the dim light thrashed the body of a young man. The body of the man who had saved his life. The body of the man who still haunted his mind. No, he told himself, that wasn't entirely true.
Cautiously, Wade walked over to the bed and gazed at the large man who had now stopped thrashing, and was lying there panting with a light perspiration covering his smooth, expansive chest. Wade's cheeks flushed, "Why?" he asked, as if expecting the man to answer him. "Why did you do that for me?" he said.
Wade sat down on the white metallic chair next to the bed and rested his chin on his hands. The likeness was incredible but it couldn't be true. Allan was dead and there was nothing that could bring him back. Memories of that date threatened to engulf the young man with more grief than one person could bear.
"It's not your fault."
Wade's head snapped back to the man in front of him, his eyes were closed. He stumbled backwards nearly falling out of the chair. He cupped his forehead. "I'm losing it," he muttered.
The rest of the station as Hank had said was abuzz. People mulled about him like so many locusts on a diet. They looked with their eyes but didn't say anything or approach him to feed. That suited him just fine.
As Wade passed a translucent screen he stopped. A planet he didn't recognise loomed into view and nearly filled the entire screen. He could see clear waters, and busy continents. They must be very happy he thought absently to himself while in the back of his mind it seemed a little disconcerting, like some kind of parody on the destruction that had been his home.
"Amazing isn't it?" a masculine voice stated more than asked.
"I suppose," Wade replied, turning around.
The young man continued as if he hadn't heard the reply, "It's all interconnected and untouched by the corruption. It's all run and centralized by our guardian and protector-Unity. I'm sorry," he blurted offering his hand, "I'm Charles Jameson; Chuck actually. I am the main navigation officer on the ship that picked you up."
"Wade Chartrand." The two shook hands. "How is it that this planet hasn't been infected yet?"
Chuck positively beamed, "That's the thing isn't it?" he said. "With Unity maintaining the subatomic shield around the planet and with our growing military we've had no trouble fending off their advances." Wade looked once more at the swirling mass of blue and white that made up the planet below. "Without Unity our whole planet would have been destroyed with all the rest." Charles paused, "I... I'm sorry," he said, "I didn't mean to..."
"Don't worry about it," Wade muttered quietly.
"Kylan must see something pretty amazing in you," Chuck smiled at him.
Wade looked back out to the planet below, but he could still see the reflection of the interior of the station on the screen. "So I've heard," he replied. For a brief second Wade could see Chuck's face light up with an emotion that he couldn't quite recognise.
"Anyway," Chuck nodded, his expression returning to normal, "It won't be long until we're cleared through decon and get clearance to leave the station and return to the surface. Then we can have some fun!"
"Yeah," Wade had stopped paying attention. He had heard enough. "I - I'll catch you later Chuck, I need to look after a few things."
"Well, if you need anything," he younger man smiled, "Just ask; I also help outfit the missions with supplies if you're after anything special."
"Why would I be going on a mission?"
Charles just shrugged, "We'll see," he called back.
Confused, Wade thanked the man and left. Slowly and deliberately, he wove his way back across the station to his room. He rested his hand on the sleek metal door for a moment before entering the far room where Kylan Jones lay sleeping.
The noise of the station died away as the door closed. Wade stood, rooted in place, unsure of himself for the first time in many years. He looked at the bed that supported the prone form of the large man. As he passed, Wade gently brushed the golden strands of hair to the side of Kylan's strong face. His hand lingered on the side of Kylan's face for a brief moment before Wade found a place on the cold floor next to the bed and closed his eyes.
Author's note:
Love it? Hate it? Comments and concerns are always welcome (corporeal09@yahoo.com).
I also would like to thank Kane for some fantastic editing :)! Your input and advice is greatly appreciated, thank you.
-G