Conversion - Part 18

Stone's eyes widened when he recognized the shapes in the mist. Human. He looked at his onyx for confirmation. He was right.

First to come out from the glowing cloud was Neil Tesper holding Tim Li close to him. Then a female trooper Stone recognized as Allanah Jennings and Lieutenant Jacques Murel and behind them, more crew members emerged, stumbling as they crossed over.

“Commander!” shouted Stone and helped them to the side. He tapped his scarab and called for the doctor. Meanwhile even more of the abducted crew came through, some walking, others leaning on each other.

They all collapsed as soon as they cleared the mist, falling hard on the metal floor of the cargo bay. The room was filling up fast with naked crewmen most of them looking dazed and disorientated. The security team called for backup and led some of the people out of the room and on the walkway.

Lieutenant Colfax didn't have time to catch his breath when he got to the bay and started carrying out as many crewmates as he could. He was lowering a crew member to the floor when he noticed that he was still leaking precum. Quickly and as discreetly he pinched his cockhead and wiped secretions on his uniform. From the corner of his eye he saw Nick Nelson tending to some men on the walkway. Unlike Colfax, the boy was in full-on action mode; he didn't seem to notice anything but the task at hand. Colfax realized that the boy was a trooper first, everything else was secondary. He felt an odd sense of pride that the Nelson was so dedicated. He smiled proudly when Nelson picked a man up, threw him over his shoulders and proceeded towards the infirmary. Such strength and commitment, marveled Colfax.

At the door Stone crouched down to check on Tesper who seemed to be more alert than the rest. Before he could say anything Tesper reached up and grabbed Stone by his shoulders.

“We need to get out of here, right now!”

“Don't worry commander, as soon as we have everyone-”

“You don't understand George, you won't every everyone!”

…

“How many?” asked Colonel Melanko sitting up.

“Thirty-four so far,” said the captain. “And there are casualties.”

“What? How are my people?”

“We don't have exact details right now. But Stone says that he doesn't expect to get everyone back. When people stop coming through the cloud, we have to be ready to leave. Perhaps within the hour. Colonel, you and Wong better get to the barge. And Lieutenant Wong, start reacquainting the colonel with the systems as soon as you get there. I want us to be ready to get out of this hellhole the first instant the last crewman is retrieved.”

…

When Commander Holts entered the crowded infirmary he was met with a scene of chaos. The medics had their hands full with getting people off the gurneys and onto the beds. Some crew members' conditions deteriorated while others were non-responsive and medical alerts were sounding throughout the infirmary as overlapping commands were given by the attending medics. Doctor DeSelle was in the thick of it trying to stabilize one patient after another. DeSelle saw Holts and told the medic next to him to take over. He rushed to the commander, his eyes wide with urgency.

“We need to open up an emergency triage. This room can't even hold everyone, to say nothing about treating them.”

“What is their condition?”

“Not much on the outside but their neurotransmitters are all out of whack.” DeSelle said.

“Meaning?”

“Well, except for Tesper and another trooper, everyone shows has extremely high levels of dopamine and serotonin. When I say high, I mean off the charts. The brain can't handle or process the amount of intense stimulation and electrical impulses. Whatever happened over there has short-circuited the body's nervous systems.”

Holts nodded. From what he understood based on the brief report by Tesper, the beings on the other side had the ability to manipulate all forms of energy. This must be how they were able to subdue and control those they abducted.

“What can you do?”

“We're still running scans, but the usual method to normalize the brain's electrical field would be to apply a targeted low-energy pulse.”

“Do what you need to doctor. Meanwhile I'll send some men to help you transfer some of the patients to the mess hall. That can be your temporary triage center.”

“There's another thing commander. Nearly all of them are suffering some form of sexual trauma.”

“Yeah, we saw how the aliens were torturing them.”

“No, these were definitely inflicted by humans. Aside from anal and vaginal tearing I've also noticed bruising on parts of the body consistent with sexual assault.”

Holts went cold. They were forced to rape each other, this was getting more horrific by the minute. Rape was something Holts had only read about in history books, there hasn't been a reported case of forced sex for centuries. He didn't know what to say. This was obviously not something they could deal with at the moment. He swallowed his disgust and nodded to the doctor.

“Do what you can for them doctor.”



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