The Pampshifter: Chapter 7

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“Ship’s log: Day 491. Was unexpectedly woken up by Mother thanks to damage sustained to the hull,” said Ellis dejectedly as he lifted a cigarette to his mouth, savoring the flavor on his tongue before exhaling into a small vent to keep from stinking up the cabin, “Crewmates Devers and Sampson are currently repairing the ship. We are expected to be back on track in t-minus-”

“CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN, COME IN! OVER!”

Leaning his head back and sighing, Ellis glared at the ship’s internal comm box with complete disdain as he listened to a very panicked Meg calling for him. The last thing he wanted was to hear a single voice come through until the job was finished. Anything earlier would no doubt be caused by a delay of some kind. Moving at a snail's pace, he leaned forward into his mic, “What is it now, Meg? Have we been boarded by an alien craft this time? Or maybe-”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP, ELLIS! WE HAVE A CODE BLACK EMERGENCY! WE NEED YOU IN THE MEDICAL BAY NOW!”

Ellis’s eyes grew wider with each word that came through the comm box. Hastily stamping out his cigarette, he leaped out of his chair and sprinted out of the cockpit.

Over in the medical bay, Mason secured one last strap around Donnie’s waste before backing away in response to Donnie’s thrashing. He’d seen some freaky shit in his time with the Federation and even more since joining Ellis’s private crew. Whatever had attached itself to Donnie’s waste was something else entirely. He crouched down to get a better look at Donnie’s situation, watching as the seemingly lifeless goo continued to mold itself to his crewmate’s body.

Approaching Donnie with a needle in hand, Meg promptly injected a sedative into his veins without hesitation. Regardless of what was happening, they needed to keep Donnie from panicking while they took care of whatever substance had latched onto him. “Shhhh…it’s alright. You can sleep now,” she said, gently stroking Donnie’s head until his body relaxed and his eyes shuttered, “He’s out.”

The room let out a collective sigh of relief. “So, what happens now?” asked Luna, trying not to seem too eager about Donnie’s unfortunate circumstances. It was hard not to be, though, especially for a biologist such as herself. Observing as the goo on Donnie’s waste swirled as if it were in constant motion. However, the gelatinous mass never lost its shape nor its position on Donnie’s body. She whispered under her breath, “What a fascinating creature.”

“Meg! Talk to me, what…the fuck is that?!” shouted Ellis, his words derailed by the presence of a foreign substance aboard his ship, “Someone better catch me up now. This isn’t one of yours, is it, Vickers? We had a deal. No sentient lifeforms.”

Shaking her head, Luna was quick to clear her name with the captain. “No, it’s not mine. It was inside of whatever broke through the ship’s hull,” she said, not wanting to lose her good graces with Ellis. He’d done her a huge solid by letting her pay her way onto the ship. The last thing she needed was to give him any reason to distrust her.

“I want this…thing off my ship now,” demanded Ellis as his attention landed back on Donnie. He clenched his teeth hard, fighting off his emotions as any good captain would. Outside of Roland, he’d known Donnie longer than anyone else on his ship. He’d lost many good crewmates over the years but no matter what, Donnie had always stuck by his side as his number two. The thought of losing Donnie now over an unnecessary punishment that he had bestowed on him was almost too much to bear.

Placing a hand on Ellis’s shoulder, Meg solemnly shook her head. “I don’t think that’s possible. We don’t have the proper equipment to deal with something of this nature. And I don’t suppose you’d like to be the one to touch whatever Donnie got on him?” she said, offering a cold but sobering reality for the rest of the crew, “We need to freeze him until we get to Earth. As much as I hate to admit it, his best chance is with the Federation.

“No…no, fuck that. Not only would we be charged for bringing an alien lifeform back to Earth if they caught us, but we’d also be serving up Donnie on a silver fucking platter” said Ellis, subtly reminding Meg of Donnie’s several arrest warrants without tipping off their client to their shady dealings, “We’ll extract the lifeform from his body here and that’s final.”

Stomping up to Ellis, Meg grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the shuttered door behind him. “You think I don’t know what this decision means? Donnie’s my best friend. I’d rather see him behind bars than floating through space in a box,” she said starkly before releasing her grip on her captain’s shirt and easing back. Looking back at Luna and Mason briefly, she leaned forward into Donnie’s ear to ensure they couldn’t hear, “Besides, it’s not like this would be our first jailbreak.”

After listening to Meg’s plea, Ellis was far less certain than he’d previously been. He still wasn’t comfortable with letting the Federation get their hands on his second-in-command. What if they experimented on him due to whatever this thing was? Or worse, he could be “rehabilitated,” which was the Federation’s fancy way of saying brainwashed. At the same time, though, the prospect of losing yet another one of his friends was the last thing he wanted, and a botched extraction with shoddy equipment would no doubt provide all the nails necessary to seal Donnie’s coffin. And sadly, as captain, there was no one else he could shift this decision onto. The choice, and Donnie’s life, were solely in his hands.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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