The Pampshifter: Chapter 11

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“Holy fuck! What the fuck even was that?!” cried Mason, who was left in a state of utter shock over Donnie’s living diaper. His brain started to cycle through all the crummy horror movies he’d seen in his life as he paced back and forth in the cockpit, terrified that he’d found himself smack dab in the middle of one, “This is bad! This is fucking bad! What the fuck are we gonna do now?! It’s game ov-”

Placing two hands on Mason’s shoulders, Meg stopped her crewmate in his tracks and proceeded to smack him across the face. “Pull yourself together, private!” she shouted with rigorous authority. Her forceful tone captured the attention of everyone in the cockpit, “Think about what Ellis said. We need to stay cool and alert. Not to go into panic mode. Besides, Ellis is in there right now dealing with so the best thing we can do now is sit tight and trust our captain.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” said Luna, her eyes darting up to the ceiling as she felt the heat of Meg’s death glare scorching her eyebrows, “The longer we sit here, the higher our odds are of ending up like Donnie. And banking on Ellis saving the day is…naïve at best.”

It took every ounce of restraint in Meg’s body to keep from socking Luna in the jaw. Gritting her teeth, she thought of what Ellis would do in this situation. “No offense, Vickers, but you’re not equipped to make that judgment. Chain of command places me in charge until Ellis or Donnie’s return, and I say we’re sitting tight and waiting.”

Raising his hand from the opposite side of the cockpit, Roland looked like he’d aged ten years in the past ten minutes. “Can I say something?” he asked, his voice gruff and devoid of any vibrancy.

“No,” shot back Meg, feeling the little control she had as temporary captain pulling apart at the seams.

Roland, however, was not in the mood to be shushed as he sat up in his seat with his arms crossed, “Well, too fucking bad. We have to seriously consider the possibility of abandoning ship,” he said, causing a stark, uncomfortable silence to fill the cockpit. He continued, swallowing hard, “The men in that room are two of my best friends. But I’ve seen gnarly space shit before. Whatever’s in that room with Ellis and Donnie is…something else.”

“Uhhhh, I don’t think that’s such a good idea. This far from Earth, life support couldn’t handle all four of us,” said Mason, cutting into Roland’s point, “And I don’t know about any of you but I’m not about to draw straws for who gets a seat.”

Another silence befell the crew, this one far more awkward as it became clear the room was split in half on what to do. “This conversation is getting us nowhere,” said Meg, hoping to pull the remaining crew together instead of letting them splinter into factions, “There will be time for drastic decisions later. We don’t even know what we’re dealing with yet.”

“Actually, I may be able to help with that,” said Luna, flashing a confident, condescending smile Meg’s way.

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Gathered around a desk in the med bay, Meg, Mason, and Roland watched with bated breath as Luna began to prod at the sample of the creature that Ellis had permitted her to collect. The resident biologist and botanist carefully used a pair of tweezers and a scalpel cut into its gelatin-like flesh.  “Practically no resistance when cut. You can see from the edge of the incision that…” she said, her words petering out as several tiny white balls spilled out onto the metal tray before the cut that she made began to repair itself, “Fascinating. Even detached from the host, the sample continues to self-replicate and reform.”

“So it’s a shapeshifter. That much was obvious from what happened in the kitchen,” said Meg, defensively widening her stance as she observed Luna’s work with heavy skepticism, “What’s the white shit that came out of it.

Shifting her magnifying glass, Luna picked up one of the orbs and gave it a light squeeze. “Surprisingly firm for a slime creature. Almost seems inorganic if I had to guess. This is definitely odd,” she said, twirling the small sphere around for any clues it might give her.

“Well, while Dr. Jekyll does her analysis, I’m suggesting a pair of us return to the kitchen to check on Ellis. I don’t like how long he’s taking,” said Meg, both worried for the sake of her crew as well as wanting to ditch the creepy science nerd as soon as possible.

“Oh, there’s no need to check on us.”

Suddenly, all eyes turned to look at the med bay’s entrance, where a familiar face was standing in the doorway. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the face Meg wanted to see. “Don’t worry, though, I can assure you we’re both doing more than okay,” said Donnie, his tone sending chills down the spine of each member of the Juventas crew. However, it was his blotchy, brown diaper that positioned itself at the center of everyone’s focus; the one that was oozing and swirling in place on Donnie’s hips.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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