It was a scraping sound coming from the medical bay door, that roused Vincent from his sleep. Is there someone trying to get inside? He silently pulled the rifle out from under the bed and got to his feet. Whoever it was, it seemed that they had no access whatsoever. It sounded like they were trying to prise the door open from the outside. The medical bay only needed the lowest level access version of the control gene. The passenger allele was enough to be able to open the door and operate the emergency system inside. Then again, these days there were plenty of people aboard Palehost that didn’t even have that. As Vincent listened to the noises coming from the door, he could just about make out voices from outside.

“You said you saw the door open, and someone go inside!” He heard one of them say.

“I did, it was working earlier, I swear.” Replied another voice.

“It isn’t working now, and we’ll never open it like this.”

The voices sounded like they belonged to children. Realising this Vincent relaxed a little, but he couldn’t let his guard down. Just because they were children, didn’t mean they weren’t connected to the raiders that had hit the reserve. He walked across the room and stood a little to side of the door, where he would be just out of the line of sight as it opened. He held his rifle at the ready and pressed the control panel. The door started to open.

“See, I told you it opens!” One of children said excitedly.

Before they were even aware of his presence Vincent scanned the corridor, checking for anyone else that might be hiding nearby. There was no one ins sight, just two boys. They were probably twelve years old at most. He stepped into their field of view, and they froze for a moment as they spotted him and realised that he was pointing a rifle at them. Sensing he wasn’t going to fire they both turned and started to make a run for it.

“Hold it, or I’ll shoot.” Vincent shouted.

The pair didn’t stop, so he fired a warning shot several feet down the corridor in front of them. They stopped on the spot.

“What were you doing here and why were you trying to get inside?” He asked.

They slowly turned around, both shaking a little.  

“W-we w-were just trying to get inside, that’s all.” One of the pair answered.

“I could tell that, but why?”

They both looked at each other and exchanged glances, seemingly deciding it was best not to say anything more in this situation.

“Were you following us? Are you with the raiders?”

“Raiders, no we’re not with them!” The second boy answered.

“Tim!” The first boy said angrily.

“We don’t anyone thinking we’re with them!” Tim replied.

Still not sure what to make of the pair, Vincent stepped into the corridor.

“You’re not with them, good for you. Now tell me why you wanted to get inside, and I’ll let you go.” He said his rifle still trained on the pair.

“It’s our mother, she’s real sick... No one can do anything for her, but one of the old folks in town knew about this place. He said it could cure any illness if you could get inside. We’ve been trying to get inside for days with no luck, but then I saw you walk in yesterday… I thought we might be able to get inside too.” Tim explained.

“I see… Even if you made it inside you wouldn’t be able to help your mother.”

“It can’t cure illness?”

“It can, but if the door won’t open for you, then you won’t be able to work the machinery inside.”

“But you went inside. You know how it works. Can’t you work it for us? Please!”

“I can’t, I…” Vincent glanced back inside.

Sam’s operation was complete, and the capsule had ejected itself from the wall. Despite that, he was still out of it. There was some time to spare, he wanted Sam to rest at least a little before he woke him. He looked back at the boys. They didn’t say anything, but the expressions on their faces were pleading with him. They looked desperate. This could still be a trap. There’s a chance that if I let them go, they return with the rest of the gang, and they know I can access the room. Still, something in his gut told him not ignore their plea.

“Your mother, what’s wrong with her?” Vincent asked.

“It’s her chest, it won’t get better, nothing we do helps her. Just lately she coughs up blood when it’s really bad. She hardly ever gets out of bed anymore.” Tim said looking more upset as he explained.

“Can she walk?”

“She can… Just.”

“If the two of you went to fetch her, could you bring her here?”

“We could… Does that mean you can help her?” He asked a smile forming on his face for the first time.

“I don’t know, I can try, but you don’t have long. I’ll be leaving in an hour, but if you’re not back by then…”

“We’ll be back. Thank you, mister!”

The boys turned and ran off down the corridor. What am I doing? He still had his doubts, but the way they looked at him, they reminded him of Nathan and Ethan. He just couldn’t leave them like that. He stepped back inside the bay to check on Sam, he was still fast asleep. Seeing this he went to the control panel, there was something he needed to check as he brought the system back online. He didn’t have the time to wait around while their mother was being treated, he wanted to get back to searching for the raiders. He needed to find Felicia and Milo, before it was too late, but if the medical bay had the capability, there was something he could do for them.

The control gene applications were some of the most restricted systems on Palehost. There was no way of recreating the technology for the retrovirus, only the captain and the highest ranking council members, could authorise the production of the components required for that. That being the case this was a medical bay. Some of the crew and passengers decided to reproduce naturally, it wasn’t forbidden. This meant there were systems in place to facilitate their children. There was a chance that someone with his clearance level, would be able to synthesise the retrovirus needed to give the lowest level access control gene allele. He searched through the database while he waited for the pair to return. His guess turned out to be correct. There was only one entry, for the passenger level control variant. At the very least he would be able to pass it on to the two boys and their mother, so they could enter and make use of the medical bay. He would need to show them how to use the controls and start the treatment programme for them. If he did that, he could leave them safe in the knowledge that they would be able to leave the room.

After finding the right entry, he ran the protocol. The matter printer in the corner of the room started up. It quickly synthesised three vials of the retrovirus and the auto syringes needed to give the dose. As the machine was working away, Sam begun to stir in the capsule. He started slowly sitting up and feeling his stomach as he did so.

“How are you feeling?” Asked Vincent as he heard him wake.

Sam was still feeling his stomach. He had a look of surprise as he realised that there was no longer any sign of his injuries.

“It’s completely gone!” Sam said shocked.

“Yeah, the repair was a success. There shouldn’t even be a scar left.”

“But how?”

“That’s a class one medical capsule, that level of repair is nothing really.”

“It’s almost like magic!”

“I suppose I can see how it might look like that to you.”

Sam slipped himself out of the capsule and walked around the medical bay. He didn’t seem to be able to get to grips with what had happened.

“I feel great, better than before. I haven’t felt this good in years!”

“It ran the standard maintenance program while you were inside. You should be in perfect health.”

They were interrupted by the sound of heavy coughing coming from down the corridor.

“Someone’s coming!” Sam said nervously spinning towards the door.

“Calm down it’s okay, I’m expecting them.”

Vincent collected the vials from the matter printer and went to meet his guests.

“We’ve brought her!” Tim said as they reached the door.

The boys had helped their mother here, each of the holding an arm and taking some of her weight. She looked thin and pale. Vincent could hear her raspy breaths from here, it was clear why they were so worried about her state. She had a vacant look in her eyes, he wasn’t sure if it was from her illness or perhaps medication, that she had been taking for it. Whatever it was she didn’t seem to be aware of her surroundings, she barely took any notice of Vincent and Sam. Not giving them a second glance as the trio approached.

“Good, can you help walk her over here?” Answered Vincent waving them inside.

Vincent loaded up the auto syringes and walked over to meet them.

“We’ve got to get her inside that.” He said pointing to the capsule.

The boys walked their mother over to the capsule.

“Hello, I’m Vincent… Your boys want me to help you. To do that I’ll need you to climb inside here.” He said motioning at the capsule before offering her his hand.

She just looked up at him blankly.

“She doesn’t talk much, not to people she doesn’t know.” Explained Tim.

“Right, well that’s okay… We need to lift her inside. Can you help me?”

“Yes… Come on mum, we’re going to put you inside.”

Vincent helped the pair lift their mother inside. Once she was inside, he took her arm and injected her with the retrovirus. She just let him get on with it, seemingly too weak and half out of it to know what was going on.

“What’s that?” Asked Tim.

“It’ll help her, you both need one as well. It will let you use this room.”

The boys both offered them arms to Vincent, seemingly eager to be offered this ability.

“Come here.” He said after injecting them and walking over to the control panel. “You’ll need to watch this carefully, just in case you ever need to use it again.”

The capsule closed and reinserted itself into the wall. Vincent brought up the live feed as the scanning process begun. She had lung cancer, it was in both lungs and had started spreading to her other organs. The AI offered a procedure, it would take several hours for the treatment. So, there was no way, that he would be able to stay with them while it worked. At each stage he checked that the boys were following what he was doing. The system was set up to be simple in case of emergencies so a brief run through would be enough as long as they paid attention.

“Once it’s finished, it will eject itself and open. You just need to wait for her to wake up.” Vincent told the pair.

“Aren’t you going to stay with us?” Asked Tim sounding a little worried.

“I can’t, I’m sorry... Don’t worry though, it’s all automatic. Once the machine has finished your mother will be well again.”

“Thank you!”

“Just look after your mother and if you ever get ill again come here, or another room with this symbol on the door…” He said motioning at the sign. “But you need to be careful about who knows that you can use this.”

“We won’t let anyone find out.”

“Good.”  

“Thank you, mister!”

“I just did what I could…”

“Will we see you again?”

“I don’t know, maybe if I pass this way. I can’t promise anything.”

“We live a section down, in the E block.”

“Tim!” His brother said still unsure about Vincent.

“He’s helping us Matt… If you come this way, please come and say hello and if there is anything we can ever do to repay you…”

“I will, but you don’t need to worry about that.”

“What’s your name mister?” Asked Tim.

“It’s Vincent.”

Sam had just been watching quietly the whole time, but now that Vincent had finished helping the boys and their mother, he turned to him.

“We should get moving again. Are you ready to move?” He asked.

“Yes, I feel like I could run all the way there.”

“Great, but I think we’ll be okay just walking for now.” Vincent laughed and then turned to the boys. “Close the door behind us and don’t let anyone inside. If you hear someone out there, wait for them to leave before you go.”

“We will.” Answered Tim.

Are they too young for me to be leaving them to manage like this? They had probably fending for themselves for years. He didn’t like it, but he had to leave. After saying goodbye to Tim and Matt, they left the medical bay and headed out along the corridor.

“What was that all about?” Asked Sam.

“I just couldn’t leave them without doing what I could…”

“Who are you exactly?” Sam said looking at Vincent questioningly.

“You know who I am.”

“I thought I did, but I don’t know any other merchants that could do that…”

“I’m just a Merchant… But I wasn’t always a merchant… Anyway, this place you were held by the raiders, where is it?”

“It was on this level, it’s about seven sections along from here, on the very outskirts of town.”

“Let’s get a move on then.”

“Okay, but aren’t you going to explain anymore about yourself to me?”

Vincent sighed. Sam didn’t look as if he was going to drop it until he told him something.

“I was on the crew once. That was a long time ago now though.”

“The crew, I’ve heard about them! So, that’s why! Apart from the girl those raiders have as a captive, you’re only the second one I’ve met, and she could barely communicate.”

“They have one of the crew captive!?”

“Yes, the poor girl. They just drag her around on a rope, and she’s been drugged up to the eyeballs. She can’t even speak.”

“That is…” This is only getting worse. “Then I’ll have to try and free her too… Come on let’s go.”

The pair set out, this time on fresh legs and with a renewed urgency.