After Boson left the office, the girls were quick to start their search for the Discovery's documents. Both split up and started at different ends of the cabinets containing the documents on launched ships.
That specific shipyard had a lot of ships under its belt. They deserved much credit for their work yet seeing it all now with its questionable storage priorities and its manager changed its view into something sad indeed.
'Bingo!' the Huntress shouted. She yanked a full yellow folder from the cabinet and waved it above her head with a proud smile to match. Cassie wanted to be happy, but she was too tired. She gave a brief smile and sighed while slowly closing her cabinets door.
'About time' she said.
The Huntress wasted no time throwing the folder onto Boson's desk and opening it. There was surprisingly a lot on this one ship. From original blueprints of the ship's framework to detailed equipment installed, mainly advanced weaponry. Weaponry which seemed a little too advanced and could be considered inhuman.
Cassie decided to take the easy way of absorbing information by taking the summary sheet at the front and reading it whilst Huntress was scanning over multiple blueprints and crib-sheets at once.
'Okay. The Discovery. The official report classifies it as a classified, prototype vessel. Still untested officially. Was meant to be assigned to missions concerning extreme situations such as...'
'Alien invasions and global warfare' Huntress finished as Cassie's words trailed off, her eyes still glued to the blueprints. Every word written was being memorised and not taken gladly.
'This is a prototype warship. It wasn't just equipped with normal weapons either. These are alien. Probably scavenged from what remains of places like UNIT. That kind of technology is unpredictable and highly advanced. What were you humans thinking? For all they'd have known, one of those could just be a fancy hairdryer or simple climate controller. Fools!'
Clearly talking to herself rather than her, Cassie looked strangely at the Huntress as she listened. She may have spoken fast and as always was using strange terms, but some things made sense.
'Um, by any chance is one of those actually a climate controller?' she hesitantly asked while pointing slightly at the blueprint in her hand.
The Huntress slowly raised her head and looked at Cassie. Her look could only be described as surprise. 'How did you know?' she questioned while intensifying her stare.
Cassie quickly raised her hands into the air in a surrendering pose and looked away from her. 'You said it, not me! You have a habit of doing that!' she defended quite quickly.
Huntress lost focus for a moment, thinking to herself. This was followed by a smile pointed directly at Cassie.
'Really? I have a new habit. Now that is exciting, but talking to myself? That seems a little vain, or is it self-indulgent? Your version of emotion and representation is so weird. Makes no sense to me whatsoever' she babbled in response.
Cassie's mouth opened slightly as she listened to the Huntress ramble. From serious to weird once more. She certainly was a special kind of person, even though she wasn't human. Cassie was starting to find it harder and harder to remember that she was an alien. It took alien-esc moments to remind her.
'Never mind. The real point is that this warship was always going to be a problem, and not to anyone who was fighting it. The amount of alien tech installed here is so random and clearly the engineers had no idea what any of it does. Is the launch report in there?'
Cassie hurried as she sifted through the endless paperwork. She pushed aside crew registers, part lists, equipment instalments and other detailed documents.
As she searched, Huntress noticed a particular document which caught her eye and she grabbed it slyly, placing it folded into her jacket pocket. 'These really are bad. Not even bigger on the inside. I miss my own pants pockets' she whispered to herself.
Cassie finally found the paper near the bottom of the pile and yanked it out, lifting it above her head in victory. She made sure to take her time while reading this one.
Her face turned from strong concentration into a disheartened stare. Even though she was looking away from Huntress, it managed to pierce her right in the hearts as she waited for Cassie to speak.
'It seems that, that the ship was sent to investigate an anonymous phenomenon. A random black spot on every radar on earth located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. As soon as the ship reached the black spot, they were never heard from again. Vessel presumed sunk and crew presumed dead. Everyone. Rescue or investigation deemed unbeneficial. Ship's status, lost.'
As Cassie read the report, the whole room seemed to grow completely silent. Nothing could be heard but the beating of their hearts and the rough, deep breaths they took.
'Poor Gray' Huntress whispered as she lowered her head and looked once more at the blueprint of the vessel's framework with Discovery handwritten in the bottom right corner.
His sister was aboard that vessel. His own flesh and blood. How am I supposed to tell him that she's probably dead by now? True, he'd probably worked this out already but he was never truly sure. This vessel design only proves it. The military were sure that this black spot was extremely dangerous.
With heavy hearts, the Huntress slowly places the documents back into the folder along with the ones Cassie was holding and shuts it. Both of her hands lean on the cover firmly, as if she were trying to keep it shut. She hung her head and shook it.
'Ok. So this ships disappearance links with this attack. I can't see an alien presence missing out of this kind of technology. In the right hands, they could turn a hair dryer into a high-powered gun. They could...' she trailed off and started sifting through the documents again frantically.
'What? What is it? Huntress!' Cassie shouted over and over, desperate for answers.
Huntress quickly found the page she wanted and her mouth widened in shock as well as glad realisation, then changed into a smile followed by a satisfied laugh. 'Of course! How did I not see that sooner! That's it!' she exclaimed.
Before Cassie could question further, a phone rang. Huntress dismissed it as she read over the paper, but Cassie recognised that it wasn't her own phone. She quickly reached into the Huntress' jacket pocket and pulled Gray's mobile from it. Huntress stood to the side quickly as a reflex.
'Hey, what are you doing in there?' she quickly questioned.
Cassie held the phone up and waved it at her as it rang.
'Oh, right' Huntress added in a much calmer tone.
Knowing the Huntress couldn't use mobiles, Cassie answered the call for her and held it up to her ear for her. Huntress was beyond confused but went along with it, grabbing the phone from her and holding it up to her ear. 'Er, hello?'
'Huntress! I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but its good to hear ya voice! Things are pretty messed up down here!' Gray quickly spoke, practically shouting.
He was so loud that the Huntress had to hold the phone away from her ear and scrunch up her face in distaste.
'Alright! Alright. Good to hear from you too, Gray. Wait a minute, down here? Where are you two?' she asked curiously, now entranced on what she was hearing.
'We're inside the old wreck in warehouse 56. I think it was called the Salvation or something?' Gray answered.
Soon after he spoke however, Huntress heard the phone being moved around and was clearly in another person's hand now.
'It's the HMS Salvation. Nothing that strange, except it's been altered since it's been docked. We decided to look around onboard, then someone locked the door behind us. To make matters worse, someone with a male voice spoke over the loudspeaker. Certainly not a friend. That's not what were calling about though' Will said as he took over explaining.
Throughout this conversation, Huntress' eyes widened more and more as she listened. It wasn't until Will mentioned that they were calling about something else that her focus changed.
'Oh, really? That wasn't what you were calling about. You guys have some strange definitions of out of place or dangerous, that's for sure. Okay, so what's the actual problem? I'm all ears.'
'We managed to find an unflooded compartment. The quarters of a Teddy Hughs and Roy Wilson. It looks like they worked in the engineering section, keeping everything working at peak efficiency' Will began to explain before he was inevitably cut off by Gray.
'Just tell her already, ya nerd!' he shouted in the background. Even Huntress was taken aback by this.
'Fine. There was clearly a rupture in the hull in this room. However, the rupture has been securely sealed with some kind of red ice' Will finished.
Unable to keep still, the Huntress walked around to the front of Boson's desk and started pacing the open floor. Meanwhile, Cassie decided to put the folder back in the cabinet, leaving the documents Huntress was looking at out.
'Red ice? What do you mean by red ice? Can you describe it?' Huntress questioned logically.
'That's the best term for it. It's unmelting ice and its red, plus I think it's glowing. Its not like the water Gray described so I think were safe. In fact, I'd say that someone wanted us to be able to enter this room. Every room is flooded right now. Even parts of the ship that are well above the waterline.'
Huntress started rubbing her forehead and thought hard about everything that they'd found out so far. This puzzle was getting more and more puzzling even though more pieces were presented and fitting perfectly. It was all becoming such a nuisance.
'Ok, I get the picture. Study that room carefully, anything you find could be vital to that ship's connection. After that, try getting to the bridge. Wait, you said a voice came over the loudspeaker? Foe not friend, right? Did it say anything important?'
'They did say that "The party will begin when everyone arrives." Does that mean anything to you?'
Finally figuring it out, the Huntress' eyes turned cold and unforgiving. Her eyes moved up to look at the bookshelf on the other side of the office near the door. Amongst the many books was a statue of a mermaid. Using her trained vision, she focused her sight and spotted the tiny camera inside the water pot the mermaid was tipping over. They were being watched, and not by humans.
'Gotcha. I guess they're waiting for the latecomer then. Time to see whether I'm the party crashing type.'
Without her head or eyes leaving the camera, the Huntress pulls the phone away from her ear and presses the red button, hanging up on Will without a second thought or any kind of regret. Cassie notices the change in her behaviour and keeps her distance, just in case.
'Huntress? What's going on?' she asks with an unwillingly quiet voice.
Suddenly, the Huntress starts running out of the door and continues running back towards the old warehouses.
Panicking, Cassie staggers and starts following her as fast as she could run in her high heels, documents in hand. Though the Huntress wore strange clothes and should be thinking things through, her hearts were telling her to hurry to her friends. They were in much more danger they she could ever have anticipated. Determination pushed her through. Cassie however couldn't keep up. Eventually she was near tripping over with every step on the rough concrete.
Out of nowhere, Cassie stops dead in her tracks. She had a piercing feeling that she was being watched. She felt paralysed and couldn't move. Not knowing what else to do, she turns around to face whatever was glaring at her. Two aqua lights which looked much like eyes. As soon as she locked eyes with it, it was game over. Her mind and will were relinquished.
With no control over her thoughts or her body, Cassie started walking to the perilously dark warehouse were the two eyes waited.
Meanwhile, way ahead of her, the Huntress ran on with absolutely no idea that her other friend which she was supposed to protect was being taken away from her by the enemy. Right under her nose.
* * *
Will shook his mobile and checked the screen multiple times before he finally gave up. 'She's gone. Just hung up! She won't answer' Will informed Gray with a disappointed expression covering him. It hurt him that she figured something out and just hung up on him. Being left out wasn't something he accepted blindly.
'Well, what do we do then? What does she want us to do?' Gray continuously asked Will, trying to gain his full attention while being weary of his last attempt at getting his focus.
Will listened, but kept his eyes focused on the papers still lying on the desk and upon further inspection, the bunks.
'She said study the room carefully for any leads. After that, try to get to the bridge. That was it' Will almost recited her words rather than interpreted them.
He gently put his phone back into his pocket and held up the paper he was reading.
'Take a look at this. It seems that Teddy was taking notes of there voyage like diary logs. This one has the most recent date.'
Gray shuffled over to the desk. His feet were now shrivelled and frozen from the water, not to mention the fact that his soaking woollen socks were getting heavy.
'Alright. So sum it up for me then' he asked of Will.
Will cleared his throat and sat the paper back down once again.
'In summary, the ship had ventured through the Atlantic until it was stopped for no reason. Nothing worked. The ship was stuck adrift. They were trying to contact home when everything mechanical and technological shut down. Rumours soon started to spread amongst the crew that people were seeing strange figures aboard which would vanish soon after, but no one believed them. This man, Teddy, wrote this after he saw one himself. He believed that the ship had been boarded by ghosts. However, if we're assuming that this is linked to the Discovery, it probably wasn't ghosts they were seeing.'
'Aliens' Gray muttered in response. Will simply nodded in agreeance.
Gray's attention turned around to the door they came through. 'Right then. Bridge. We'd better go' he responded as he hurried to the door in haste, wanting to leave this room and eventually the ship as soon as possible.
'Wait!' Will shouted.
No sooner had he spoken that one word did that P.A. screech into life once more, causing both boys to cover their ears in pain.
Eventually the static cleared and both were horrified. Over the speaker, Will recognised the voice coming through. Weller. And she was singing. London bridge is falling down, like a psycho killer.
London bridge is falling down... Falling down... Falling down...
Gray scrambled for the door, but it flew shut and locked itself tight with both of them still inside. Gray used all of his strength in attempt to open the door, but to no avail.
Behind them, a new breached formed above the sealed one. Water flooded quickly into the compartment with no chance of being plugged. This however didn't stop them.
Both Will and Gray attempted to stop the flood with their hands for a start, but the breach was too big.
London bridge is falling down... My fair lady...
Will darted over to the bunk beds, grabbing every pillow and blanket in sight. Gray understood what he was trying to do and did the same.
At the same time, they tried to use the materials to plug the hole. To their dismay, the force of the water was too great. Nothing they used stayed put.
The water rose and rose until they were neck deep in sea water and struggling to stay above the waterline. Will had tried to save the documents on the desk by placing them on the upper bunk, but they too were soaked and ruined now.
Build it up with iron bars... Iron bars... Iron bars...
Will and Gray both knew how to swim, but their heads had finally reached the ceiling and no amount of breath-holding or floating skill was going to save them now. They were most certainly going to drown.
Gray was fighting tears of fear as he frantically flailed his arms and legs to keep himself afloat. Will meanwhile had accepted defeat. He assessed the situation and knew that unless a miracle opened that door they were done for.
Build it up with iron bars... My fair lady...
'I'm sorry, Huntress' he whispers with his eyes closed and head tilted upwards.
Iron bars will bend and break... Bend and br−
Almost like a call to fate herself, the P.A. cut out and both men were blessed with silence rather than that dreadful singing. To make matters even more incredible, the door flew open at great speed and the water gushed out of the room like a tsunami.
Will and Gray fell fast to the floor. Will managed to land on his feet while Gray fell flat on his back. Will quickly frisked his body in disbelief. He couldn't believe that he was still alive. He couldn't help but laugh in happy relief. 'Gray! Gray, we're okay! We're alive! Gray?'
Gray groaned as he slowly sat up and rubbed his back. He stared blankly upwards and drew in a massive breath. 'Ow!!!' he shouts extremely loud.