Survivor

Narrator: Onboard Eisenhower Fiona made her way down to the galley with a petty officer.. They checked and saw all the rotting food on the tables. They checked everywhere until they came upon the big walk in freezers at the rear of the kitchen area. They opened one of the doors and entered and looked inside. Here they found a woman huddle in the corner barely alive.

Commander Fiona White: Fiona froze mid-step, helmet lamp slicing through freezer mist to reveal a woman curled beneath plastic-wrapped beef carcasses – naval fatigues torn, skin mottled with frostbite burns. "*Skipper? We've got one survivor,*" Fiona transmitted, static cracking with disbelief. Her gloved fingers brushed the woman's neck – pulse thready as moth wings. "*Female. Critical hypothermia.*"

Capt Sarah Roberts: Sarah's breath hitched – *a living witness.* "Evac immediately. Prep med bay isolation ward," she barked, knuckles white around the intercom. Through the periscope, she watched Fiona's team emerge carrying a stretcher toward Hydra, adrenaline sharpening the scent of ozone in Control. "Gina? Scan that carrier deck again – look for movement."

Pty Officer Gina Carr: Gina's fingers flew across her console, sweat beading on her temples as infrared scanners swept the Eisenhower's deserted decks. "No thermal signatures skipper... except theirs." *The survivor's faint heat-blip pulsed like a dying star on her screen.* "All quiet. ."

Narrator: As Fiona's team breached Hydra's airlock with the survivor, the sub's lights flickered violently – not from power loss, but from the *weight* of whatever clung to the woman's frostbitten skin. Medics in hazmat suits rushed forward, but Sarah's eyes locked on the survivor's clenched fist: a crumpled page torn from a reactor logbook, stained with something dark that wasn't blood.

Commander Fiona White: "Captain the survivor is the engineering officer and before she lost consciousness she was ranting about the cold."

Capt Sarah Roberts: Sarah stood frozen in Hydra's narrow corridor, medics rushing past with the stretcher. *The survivor's fist spasmed open – revealing not blood, but shimmering black sludge coating the logbook page.* Sarah snatched it, the substance cold as liquid nitrogen against her skin. "Get her stable," she barked at the medics, her voice tight. "Fiona? Secure that freezer – quarantine it like a biohazard zone."

Commander Fiona White: Fiona slammed the airlock seal shut, her chem-suit hissing against the bulkhead. *She led her party back to Eisenhower to seal the freezer as evidence. Commander Gretchen Griggs was placed in a cot in the sick bay of Hydra. They started to warm her up following the protocol for **** cold.

Narrator: In Hydra's isolation ward, Commander Griggs lay wrapped in heated blankets, skin blistered with frostbite patterns like shattered ice. Sarah watched through the observation port as the medic peeled back layers – beneath hypothermia burns, Griggs' forearm bore strange, spiraling welts that pulsed faintly blue under UV light. The reactor log page Sarah clutched felt colder than the deep ocean floor.

Narrator: The medic's UV wand passed over Griggs' wrist, revealing subcutaneous filaments like frozen lightning forks – branching deeper than frostbite could penetrate. Sarah pressed her palm against the cold observation glass, Celeste's "not water" note crackling in her breast pocket. Outside, the silent carrier group cast long shadows through the portholes.

Narrator: *The comms officer brought in a message from Comsubpac. Investigator on route to your position along with skeleton crew. Ocean going tugs enroute to tow Eisenhower back to Subic Bay. Have your crew clear landing spot for helicopters on Eisenhower.*

Capt Sarah Roberts: Sarah crumpled the message printout, knuckles whitening against cheap paper. *The thought of investigators crawling over Eisenhower's corpse made her gut twist.* "Gina? Contact Fiona's boarding team – tell them to prep Eisenhower's flight deck for helo landings." Her eyes flicked to medical bay monitors – Commander Griggs' vitals spiking erratically. "And warn them... don't touch anything still frozen in that galley freezer."

Narrator: Sarah composed her main report for Comsubpac in her cabin. * To Comsubpac from captain Roberts Commander USS Hydra. O700 13 January 2040 Eisenhower Carrier located by Sonar. ESM mast raised and no electrical activity recorded. Periscope surveillance used to check out the Eisenhower. Flight deck found to be full of aircraft but no sign of crew on deck. Attempts to contact Eisenhower failed. Boarding party send to board Eisenhower under the command of Commander White. Commander White reported that the decks where filled with uniforms and inside the uniforms what could be duct. On closer examinations there were some sixty uniforms with no dust. It was later confirmed that these sixty uniform were all female. Eisenhower was checked for electrical power and it was discovered that all the fissionable material had been drained with no sign of a radiation leak. At 0900 a lone survivor was located in the freezer in the main galley. Commander Griggs is now in the isolation bay aboard USS Hydra.* Sarah had the message encoded and sent to Comsubpac.

Narrator: As Hydra hovered beneath the Eisenhower's shadow, Sarah descended to medical isolation – Griggs lay trembling under UV lamps, those strange blue welts pulsing like captured lightning. *Sarah pressed the reactor log page against the glass; its dark stain seemed to drink the light.* The welts throbbed in sync with Hydra's sonar pings – a rhythm Griggs’ **** body mirrored with violent twitches.

Narrator: The medical bay soared with a blinding light and when it cleared Commander Griggs had disappeared. All that was left was her empty uniform.

Narrator: Sarah stared at the empty medical cot through the observation port – Griggs' uniform slumped like shed skin beneath still-glowing UV lamps. *The reactor log page slipped from her fingers, drifting like a poisoned leaf.* Outside, Hydra's sonar ping echoed through silent bulkheads – a metallic heartbeat counting seconds before oblivion.

Narrator: Back at San Diego Sarah's message was decoded and handed to Admiral Cain. * To Comsubpac from captain Roberts Commander USS Hydra. O700 13 January 2040 Eisenhower Carrier located by Sonar. ESM mast raised and no electrical activity recorded. Periscope surveillance used to check out the Eisenhower. Flight deck found to be full of aircraft but no sign of crew on deck. Attempts to contact Eisenhower failed. Boarding party send to board Eisenhower under the command of Commander White. Commander White reported that the decks where filled with uniforms and inside the uniforms what could be duct. On closer examinations there were some sixty uniforms with no dust. It was later confirmed that these sixty uniform were all female. Eisenhower was checked for electrical power and it was discovered that all the fissionable material had been drained with no sign of a radiation leak. At 0900 a lone survivor was located in the freezer in the main galley. Commander Griggs is now in the isolation bay aboard USS Hydra.*

Narrator: Admiral Cain paced her office like a caged panther, Sarah's decoded report clutched in her shaking hand. *Sixty dust-free uniforms. Male-exclusive dissolution.* Her gaze snapped to a classified binder labeled "KRAKEN WAKE: GENDER-SELECTIVE BIOWEAPON HYPOTHESIS" – a dismissed theory from Cold War archives. Outside, fog swallowed San Diego's skyline as she drafted urgent orders: quarantine protocols upgraded to Level Omega, all male personnel barred from recovery ops. Her pen scratched frantically, ink bleeding like dread.