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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5336839" data-attributes="member: 143">I am working both on a new novel and on revising/editing one of the ones I wrote a few years back. I hope to have at least one new completed work to post on Smashwords by the time that this story wraps up, or shortly thereafter. Which won't be long now, as Alpha Team reaches the nerve center of the whole alien operation. But first they might have a wrong turn or two to contend with... * * * * * Session 30 (November 24, 2008)Chapter 135“Dead?”“Yes, and she’ll stay that way, if I can’t get to work.”  He tore the kit open, and spread its components out next to the body.  “There are mutons behind me,” he told the Russian as he worked.  “They were chasing me down here, we don’t have much time.”“How many?”He didn’t look up.  “Many.”“One thing at a time,” Vasily said.  “Can you… help her?”“Give me a sec,” he said.  The intervention kit represented the pinnacle of their medical technology, and he’d worked on each of its components himself.  But it was still experimental, and the conditions here were hardly ideal.  He paused just long enough to hook up his monitor to the biofeedback unit in her armor, then went to work.Hadrian materialized out of the smoke.  “Alien robot’s kaput,” he said.  “Looks like the blast took out those ethereals in the back as well.  Jane’s keeping an eye on the door.”“Allen says many mutons behind us,” Vasily said.  “Can you do something about that?”The Marine nodded and headed back into the smoke.  “Doc?” James ignored him as he worked.  The armor and the insulated suit under it had absorbed most of the energy of the alien laser, but her body was covered with full-thickness third degree burns, and he didn’t need to cut to know the condition of the organs underneath.  But her heart and lungs were probably intact, and he forced himself not to look at the silent EKG monitor as he injected first a dose of regenerative serum, then thickly smeared the burned area with the gelatinous intervention fluid.  That would get to work right away on the tissues, but he went ahead and inserted the long nanite probe directly into her body cavity, taping the control unit into place against her suit.  That wouldn’t start until he’d gotten her heart going again, but that was getting ahead of himself.“We’ll need to seal this up,” he said.  “Pressure’s higher down here than outside, but it’s still not healthy.  Where’s Doctor Ranma?”  “Mary!” Vasily yelled.  He turned to head off into the smoke, but before he could leave the Indian doctor appeared, dragging one leg behind her.  Sparks hissed from the crippled knee joint of the armor, and it was obvious even through her faceplate that she was in a great deal of pain.  “Sorry,” she said.  “Is she…”James laid a plastic sheet over the wound; the material automatically began to tighten, sealing the entire area he’d worked on, the plastic melding to the fabric of her pressure suit.  “We’ll know in a moment,” he said, activating a defibrillation patch, and touching it to her chest.  The tiny unit jolted her, but there was no change in her cardiogram.  “Help me,” she said to Vasily, who assisted her in kneeling next to him.  “Have you injected the nanites?”“Done,” he said, charging the unit again.  The portables had enough juice for ten jolts, but he was conservative, increasing the voltage only slightly before applying it again.  This time, Catalina stirred, sucking in a violent breath that came out in a groan of pain.  “Oooh, that hurts,” she managed. “Don’t move right away,” James said.  He checked the seals on his impromptu bandage, making sure it had restored the integrity of her suit, and that there were no pressure leaks that could be fatal later on.  There was a rumbling behind them, and Vasily turned, his plasma cannon held at the ready.  Hadrian reappeared.  “Time to go,” he said. James and Mary shared a look.  “Come on,” he said, taking Catalina from one side, while Mary lifted from the other.  They lifted her to her feet, and each took one arm across their shoulders, carrying her between them.  They crossed the room, to where Jane was warding the exit on the far side.  There was a pile of wreckage in the center of the room, still on fire, with just enough of it left for James to recognize the mechanical bulk of a sectopod.  It was the same type of alien mech that they’d confronted in the hangar under the French base.  James remembered how its laser had sliced through the steel doors of the hangar, and shuddered at the thought of how close he’d come to ending up like Catalina. “What happened?” he asked. “I couldn’t move,” Catalina said.  “Couldn’t…” she trailed off, coughing weakly. “Ethereals,” Mary said.  The door was both larger and more substantial than the others they’d encountered thus far.  But it opened when Jane operated the recessed trigger mechanism, the iris slowly retracting until a circle a full three meters across stood before them.  Jane moved through first, the doctors carrying Catalina after her, then Vasily and Hadrian bringing up the rear.  “Hold on,” Catalina said, stirring.  “Move me to the door controls on this side.”James and Mary complied, holding her up while she worked on the alien access panel.  She prodded at it with her tools, and the panels of the door twisted shut.  “Shoot it now,” she told them.  For a moment James and Mary just blinked at her, then she shook her head, took Mary’s pistol, and fired a plasma bolt into the mechanism.  The panel exploded.  James helped Catalina back, but she shrugged him off.  “I think… I think I can manage,” she said, grimacing as she took a few tentative steps away.  Mary was in little better shape; although a medikit had eased some of the pain of her wounded leg, the damaged actuator  in her armor meant that the best she could manage was an awkward limp.  They headed deeper into the complex, with Jane taking Catalina’s position as scout.  There were several corridors to choose from, so they steered toward the largest, a long cylinder bolstered by curving alien buttresses every fifteen paces.  The passage curved to the right and then forked.  They chose one path at random after a quick scan from Catalina’s sensor proved inconclusive. The tunnel started to twist back in upon itself, then deposited them into a broad circular chamber.  For a moment the Alphas merely stared in surprise; the place was certainly eye-catching.  Plumes of gas issued from vents in the walls, creating a thin fog in the air that slightly obscured their vision.  That wasn’t enough to fully conceal the bulbous pods that lined the perimeter of the room it two offset tiers, the upper level accessible via a tiny ledge that circled the room at about four meters above the floor.  The center of the room contained a narrow shaft, maybe two meters across, lined with curved protrusions that almost resembled teeth.  There was a freestanding panel adjacent to the shaft, familiar enough to possibly be some sort of alien control mechanism.  Jane was already halfway to the panel.  Catalina stared up at the pods, a dark sense of foreboding rising in her gut even before the sensor unit riding on her hip started to click.  “Hatching pods,” she said.The space between the pods came alive as dark forms shifted and emerged into view.  Chryssalids, nearly a dozen of them, hissing challenges as they came into view.  “OUT!” Catalina yelled, too late as the aliens surged forward from their perches, and sprang at the intruders.</blockquote>

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