The Black
an excerpt

"Alright, recording. For the record. Recovery of unknown patient, in suit. Unknown exposure, unknown duration. Found dead on the scene, in hard vacuum. This is... ah... standard testing rig," DOC narrated, as he guided the heavy drill rig into position. He clamped the helmet into place, then set the point of the drill against the face plate. "I anticipate vacuum in the suit, but can't be sure, so..." A suction collar went into place, partially surrounding the drill. "And... right. OK, here we go."

The drill whined its high pitched drone as the bit formed a faint divot, then slowly worked deeper toward the dead spacer's obscured face. After ten seconds or so, the suit shifted position as a sharp 'sssst!' filled the room.

"Shit!" hissed ENG1, relieved to notice that everyone else had jumped sharply, too.

"Gah. I hate that," DOC grumbled. "Ahh... yeah, vac in the suit. That's good, pretty much no chance of contamination. Still... we'll do this right. First hole finished, pipe in place. Second hole..." And so the procedure went, until the second hole was in place, and gasses could be cycled through the suit, then run through various analysis until all known contaminants were ruled out.

"Little bit high on copper, salt, iodine and a few other things. Kind of high in some odd trace elements, but nothing bad. Probably just vapor from the micro's or something," DOC continued distractedly. "I... can't see any external way of opening the visor, or pulling the helmet. Looks like motorized clasps, and they failed safe. So... time to get noisy."

The suit cutter was big, and though it was effectively weightless, it still took fair amount of strength to get into position, and hold there. The pincers grabbed hold, then the saw started. Sparks and dust flew, and though mostly contained by the powerful suction plates near the cut, some still bounced around the small space until the ventilation system pulled them away. The first cut went from mid body to the base of the helmet, before he re-adjusted, and continued up into the helmet, cutting through the thick collar, heavy shielding, and then more quickly through the frosted plate itself.

"Well?" CAP wondered, frustrated by the poor view the cameras provided.

"It'll be a bit. This suit's too tough to just break open with half a cut. Let me change the blade, and do up the back side of the helmet, then we can get in."

Impatient, and still a bit spooked the three waiting immediately outside the surgical bay chattered quietly until the grating whine of the saw started again.

"Second half of helmet, done," DOC muttered, putting the saw to the side. "Looks like a fair amount of bloodfrost, about normal for one of these. Alright... let me..." He grunted, shoving the hydraulic spreader in at the front of the neck. It hissed... then with a sharp snap the remaining structure gave way, and the helmet spread apart a few inches.

"Not likely to be pretty," DOC absently warned those watching, as he worked the halves further apart. And then he stopped suddenly, and pushed back away from the table, eyes wide.

"Holy mother of penguins," CHEM whispered, staring at his display.

"DOC... any chance that's... uh..." CAP began.

"Decompression? Disfigurement? No," DOC answered sharply, but a bit unsteadily. "That's..."

"Alien," ENG2 whispered.

"Well son of a bitch," PIL muttered, shaking her head.