Chapter Ten

“Every time that we come here I feel more and more like we shouldn’t be here,” Aubrey whispered as they crept through the door and into the abandoned waiting room of the medical ward.

“Which is precisely why I think that this is the exact place that we are supposed to be,” Jonah replied. “Besides, it was your idea.”

“It was not my idea to come back here,” Aubrey said. “I just said that we should consider going to the Izalux factory and having a look around. You’re the one who took it from that point to us coming back here again.”

“I told you, I think that we need to get the patient records from the reception room before we go to the factory.”

“Yes, I know. But why? What are those patient records going to tell you that we don’t already know? We’ve gone over your record and all of the records for all of the people who were on the Nyx 23 crew. We have those records back at home. Why do we need the records for any of the other people who might have come in here for treatment? Especially before we go to the factory? And how do you even know that they are still here? Aren’t those records something that they would want to take with them when they are transferring into another medical facility? I mean, I know that they didn’t take their equipment or furniture or anything, but I can almost understand that. But records? If they are starting another medical facility just on the other side of the campus, wouldn’t they need those to keep seeing their regular patients?”

“You would think,” Jonah said. “But keep in mind that this facility was supposed to be destroyed. Them leaving the equipment and the furniture in it wasn’t something that was planned. Whoever made the decision to keep this ward rather than getting it torn down like originally planned made the decision to keep these things in it. Somewhere along the line the patient records for Nyx 23 were taken and brought down into the basement. All except for mine. Mine stayed here. No one ever thought about the fact that they didn’t see our records again. But you’re right. If they were going to keep up with their regular patients, they would need to have their records when they moved over to the new ward. So if we do find other records, it means that someone didn’t want anybody else thinking about the fact that those people came into this ward.”

“I don’t think that I’m following you.”

Jonah started across the waiting room toward what used to be the reception window. He rested his hands on the counter, a memory flashing through his mind of the last time that he had stood there. It had been so completely mundane, nothing that he would ever give a second thought because of every time that he had done the exact same thing throughout his time at the University. It was just another step. Another part of the preparation for this mission. That morning had been nothing unusual, nothing out of the ordinary of his day-to-day life. Jonah could remember eating breakfast with some friends, then taking a run around campus. He had gotten into a conversation with one of his colleagues and was nearly late for his appointment. When he arrived, he had stood right in this spot and apologized to the receptionist, who reassured him that getting to the appointment a few minutes before the scheduled time was still acceptable. The thought made Jonah laugh. He had always been so particular about time, reinforced in his scientific work that every second mattered.

“Your friend said that there were stories about the factory being haunted because there were sounds and people moving around in there. Then when your friend actually went in there, they found that strange room that they thought was some sort of ritual space.”

“Right. But that was just a few years ago. This place closed down a century ago.”

“We’ve already established that the Orion Corporation has been around for a long time. Just look at the labels of the bottles. They were making Izalux right around the time when the medical ward closed down. That factory was in action then. So what if it was in action before Nyx 23 left and in the years right after before they closed the ward? We already know that there has to be some kind of link between the Izalux and Nyx 23. What if it went beyond that? What if the factory was more than a factory?”

“I still don’t understand what that would have to do with the patient records.”

Jonah approached the door that led behind the reception counter and tried the doorknob. It was locked, but the thin wooden door gave way easily to one strong kick. They stepped into the office area and he saw rows of file cabinets, their drawers standing open.

“The records that the University kept were different from those kept by other hospitals and medical facilities at the time. They used computers that held all of the records for everyone. Medical teams could access them through any computer or device that they wanted to, but there was a tremendous security breach a few years before I entered the University.”

“A security breach?” Aubrey asked.

Jonah nodded as he approached one of the files and looked into the top drawer. Finding it empty, he closed it and looked into the next.

“It was considered an act of terrorist aggression at the time, but they weren’t ever able to identify exactly who did it. I’m surprised that you didn’t learn about it in school. The medical information for millions of people was accessed and compromised. Hundreds of thousands of people endured unnecessary procedures and were given the wrong medications or treatments. Many died and countless others were damaged in ways that impacted them for the rest of their lives.”

He glanced back at Aubrey and she looked as though something had just occurred to her.

“We did learn about something like that,” she said, “but all they told us was that there as widespread chaos, illness, and death as a result of a plague.”

“A plague?” Jonah asked. “That’s an interesting way to describe it. I suppose it makes sense, though. It’s the same reason that the University changed their medical records.”

“Why?” Aubrey asked.

“Panic,” Jonah said. “Everyone relies so much on things that they can’t see. They like to just believe that everything is happening the way that they think that it should. They put their trust into the unknown and if they didn’t think that it was going to work, it would drive them mad. Even when people figured out what was happening and started to fix it, there were people who tried to pretend that it wasn’t happening. The media went from sensationalizing the entire situation to totally glossing over it to going to great extents to reassure everyone that the danger was over and everything had been fixed.”

“But the University?”

“From then the lack of trust for larger technology and information sharing became integrated into nearly everything that the University did, particularly at the medical facility. Rather than keeping medical records for the patients that came here in a large computer system accessible by essentially anyone, each patient was given an individual, separate file not linked to anything or anyone else. It was similar to records from generations ago, when the information was kept on paper and stored in individual folders. There was no way to access that information unless you had that particular file. The University devised the type of files that you saw. Both computerized and individual. That meant that all of the information in them was completely secure, known only by the medical team that had been authorized to interact with that specific patient. That eliminated the risk of any tampering and ensured that no one could access it without permission.”

“But your file was tampered with,” Aubrey said.

“Exactly,” Jonah said. “That means that the doctor who handled our examinations that day was either a part of whatever was going to happen…”

“Or someone found your files later and used authorization to change them after the fact.”

“Right. But that means that the files themselves were part of the ruse all along, right up until we didn’t come back to Earth. Then we disappeared. They didn’t need our files anymore. But they also didn’t want anyone finding them at the new facility and noticing the discrepancies. That’s why they stayed here. Just because the Izalux has something to do with Nyx 23 doesn’t mean that that is the only strand of events. What if Nyx 23 wasn’t the beginning? What if there are other things that are connected, that could explain more of what all of this means? If that’s the case, then any other patient records that might still be here wouldn’t necessarily have to do with the crew. They could be linked to the factory and to all of this in another way.”

Jonah moved on to another of the file cabinets and closed the drawers one by one as he found them empty.

“Have I told you recently how amazing you are?”

He turned to look at Aubrey and smiled.

“No,” he said.

She smiled at him and took a few steps toward him.

“Well, you are. You are completely amazing. And I’m sorry for our fight yesterday.”

Jonah stood and closed the space between them.

“That wasn’t a fight. Was it?”

“I think so,” Aubrey said, nodding. “But it was my fault. You’re right. I have gotten totally wrapped up in this project at work and between that and this, I’ve lost all focus on everything else, even you, and that’s not alright.”

“It’s my fault, too,” Jonah said. “I know that you’ve worked so hard to get to where you are in your career. That shouldn’t change just because I came along. I am incredibly proud of you and shouldn’t put so much pressure on you. Especially when it comes to all of this. I’m the one who got obsessed with this and decided to keep looking into it.”

“Of course you did,” Aubrey said. “Anyone in your situation would. This isn’t just your fight, Jonah. It’s mine, too. I’m your wife and there are days when I need to remind myself just how lucky I am that you are my husband.”

“I am far luckier than you are,” Jonah said, reaching out and wrapping his arms around her waist.

“I don’t think so,” Aubrey said. “I don’t know any other women who come home from a long day at work to find that their husband has made a bath for them just because he wants to make her happy.”

“Well, if you did, I doubt that any of them would have been so willing to share with their husbands. They would have kept all of the bubbles for themselves.”

Aubrey smiled and pressed closer to him.

“I would never be so selfish with my bubbles,” she said. Her eyes took on a mischievous glint. “That reminds me. I believe that I got distracted right in the middle of something very important.”

Jonah licked his lips.

“You’re right,” he said, starting to guide her back toward the desk. “I think that we have some very important unfinished business that we need to attend to.”

Tightening his hands around her waist, Jonah lifted Aubrey from her feet and perched her on the edge of the desk. Taking the light that he wore around his neck off and placing it aside, he leaned forward and caught her mouth in a passionate kiss. He didn’t want to hesitate. Though the way that he had touched her in their shared bath had been slow and exploratory, he didn’t feel that he had that control at this moment. He desired her with a depth and a ferocity that went beyond anything that he ever could have imagined, and it only seemed to intensify with every passing day of their marriage. She comforted him and made him feel alive, soothed him and reaffirmed the motivation and drive that he had for every day.

Aubrey returned the passion that he showed her, parting her lips to welcome his tongue into her mouth and moaning softly when he parted her legs and stepped up between them. She pressed her hips forward and he felt the warmth of her body seeping through the thin panties that she wore beneath her skirt. His hands slid up her thighs, running along either side of her legs until they reached the waistband of her panties and began to draw them down. Aubrey lifted her hips so that he could remove them and Jonah dropped them to the floor before lowering himself to his knees in front of her.

In one swift movement Jonah lifted her legs up and draped them over his shoulders. The position opened her to him and he pushed her skirt up so that it pooled around her hips, revealing her sweet, ready core. Jonah groaned and dipped his head forward to run his tongue up though her folds. The warmth wetness of her rolled over his tongue and he eagerly lapped it up into his mouth. Aubrey cried out and parted her thighs further as she leaned back against the wall to support herself. As Jonah continued to explore her with his tongue, he lowered one hand from her leg to bring it to the front of his pants. His fully engorged cock sprang free as soon as he released the button and drew his zipper down, and Jonah wrapped his hand firmly around it. He felt Aubrey’s fingers dig into his hair and knew that she was losing herself in the pleasure that he was giving her.

Jonah stroked himself in the same rhythm that he licked her and quickly felt the sensations spiraling upward until he nearly felt like he was losing control. Aubrey’s body was opening to him, becoming wetter and softer the more attention that he lavished on her, and soon he couldn’t hold off any longer. Climbing to his feet and letting her legs drop away from his shoulders, Jonah wrapped one arm around her hips and pulled her forward so that she nearly fell off of the edge of the desk. He caught her just before she slipped off and plunged into her in one swift movement. His head fell back and he groaned loudly at the feeling of her walls closing in around his erection like they had around his fingers. He didn’t pause but started rolling his hips, thrusting further and further into her as Aubrey reached behind herself to rest on her hands. The support allowed Jonah to increase the speed and intensity of his thrusts and he opened his mouth to allow the stream of gasps and moans to escape unfettered.

In the light glowing up from where he had placed it on the desk Jonah could see Aubrey reclined in front of him. Even though she was fully dressed, something about her body being concealed was even more exciting to him. This was so much like their first time together, the impulsive, hurried decision that both brought them together and nearly tore them apart. Thinking about the overwhelming need he had had for her from the first moment that he saw her and the desperation that he had felt when he thought that he was never going to see her again peaked his arousal and he slammed into her. His cock throbbed with so much intensity it was almost painful and he dug his fingers into Aubrey’s hips to balance the sensation.

Aubrey sat up suddenly and reached forward to wrap one hand around the back of Jonah’s neck. Holding onto him tightly, she brought her other hand around and dipped it between her thighs. Jonah watched breathlessly as she ran her fingertips over her tightened pearl. After a few seconds she cried out and he felt the delicious tightening of her body around his, drawing him deeper into her and milking him with a frantic cascade of spasms.

A few moments later they held each other breathlessly, kissing along sweaty skin as they simply allowed the pleasure of their slowly waning climaxes to wash over them. He was thankful that they had waited until late into the night as they usually did to come down into the medical ward. It meant that there was less of a chance that there was anyone inside the laboratory to hear them. He knew that eventually they would have to reveal the presence of this section of the building and everything that they had discovered, but this was not the time. There was so much more that they needed to do, and as soon as they told anyone on Earth, he would no longer have the opportunity to do it.

Jonah gently withdrew from her and helped her down from the desk. He looked around at the floor to find her panties, and when he did, he leaned down to pick them up. As he was straightening, he noticed the bottom drawer of one of the file cabinets was not as far open as the others. He grasped the handle and pulled it open, gasping when he saw the stack of patient records inside. He took hold of a handful of them and stood, turning to Aubrey to show her what he had discovered.

Aubrey lifted the light so that they could see better as Jonah rested the records onto the desk. He scanned through them, trying to recognize some of the names that were engraved on the front of the computerized files. Some of them sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t place them. He was nearly to the bottom of the stack when he felt his heart tighten and the blood in his veins run cold. He thought he was tightening his grip on the records, but instead he allowed all but the one on the top of the stack to slip out of his grip and onto the floor with a crash that sounded far louder in his ears than it should have.

“What is it?” Aubrey asked.

Jonah held the file out to her, struggling to process what he was seeing.

“It’s yours.”