Nurib picked up his helmet, and it was still slimy from when the creature spat on it to obscure his vision. He wiped it off, even though the slime has that peculiar smell. Christine, however, examined the creature curiously as she wondered if it was a genetic experiment gone wrong.

"Nurib, can you please take this creature to the lab? It's down across from here" she asked.

"Ok, lead the way" he said.

"You two lovebirds go on ahead, we'll catch up" said John.

Nurib nodded before picking up the creatures corpse and carried it in one arm, and then he followed Christine down the hall. They walk to the left and entered the lab, it was dimly lit due to the glow coming from the windows. Nurib placed the creatures corpse on the steel table, so Christine can dissect it or at least scan it's DNA to find out it's origins. He walked over to the windows, but the fog covered the glass thus making it blurry. Not to mention when he placed his hand on the glass, it felt ice cold. However, he can see what looked like a hypersleep pod in the room.

Christine, come look at this" he said as he gestures to her.

"What is it?" She asked as she came to him.

"I see a hypersleep pod at the room next to this lab, yet the glass felt ice cold" he said.

"Your point is?" She questioned.

"I might want to investigate the room, to see if the pods are empty or not. If it has some people like a personnel, it's a good time to wake them up and escort them here to safety" he said.

"You do that, and I'll continue my research into that creature" she said as she went back.

Nurib nodded and walked towards the steel door that leads into the room, but the freezing air leaked through the bottom of the door, making his bare feet ice cold. He pressed the buttons located at the ankle parts of his space suit, and it produced a yellow colored force field made of energy (it also warmed his feet). He then put on his helmet before opening the door. In the room, he can see eight hypersleep pods that are arranged into a circle at the walls. He noticed that they're all opened, but few of them were badly damaged as he can see steam and some kind of liquid leaking out. He opened his gauntlet to scan the liquid coming out of the damaged hypersleep pods, and the result is liquid nitrogen.

Liquid nitrogen is used for medicine and cryogenics, due to it acting as a cooling agent.

Something caught his eye, as there was something at the northwest corner of the room. He walked over to investigate, but he doesn't know what it was. It looked like eight people, but they were covered in frost and ice. He deduced that these were occupants of the hypersleep pods, but what sort of creature damaged the pods must've woke them up and they were in a panic the moment they saw, so they must've rushed over to the exit until it was too late when they must have frozen over. When he walked in front of the frozen people, he can see the terror on their faces as their mouths were open (which makes it look like they were screaming) while three were wearing oxygen masks that covered their mouths and noses (probably torn from their pods). Upon further examination on their hair, he soon learned that they're all Aureum due to their golden hair color and what remains of  yellow to gold eye colors.

"Yo, Nurib! We're here!" Said John.

"This must be the cryo room of this base" Valerie remarked.

Nurib looked at the two, it's hard to tell but underneath his helmet, he has a sad expression. When John and Valerie came over to the frozen Aureums, they examined them before looking at him.

"Dude, they're all naked!" John laughed, but Valerie smacked him at the back of his helmet.

"Be respectful! They must be the occupants of these hypersleep pods!" She scolded.

"These were... Aureum, my people" said Nurib.

"I am so sorry" said Valerie.

Nurib placed his hand on the shoulder of the female Aureum, and he felt there's still signs of life coming within her. He did the same thing to the slightly muscled male Aureum, and felt signs of life coming from within.

"Perhaps we should thaw them out" he said.

"Are you sure? Don't you think that they're dead from being frozen solid?" Valerie questioned.

"I felt their life energy, so in a sense, they're still alive but barely. We Aureum can survive from being frozen solid, but even we need oxygen to survive as much as you humans" he explained.

"Ok, I'll have to trust you on that. We have to be careful on handling these frozen Aureum popsicles, one wrong move and they'll shatter or broke one of their important body parts" said John.

Nurib nodded as he carefully lifted the frozen male Aureum with both hands, then John and Valerie carefully lifted the frozen female Aureum. They then took the two frozen Aureum into the lab to thaw them out, and come back for more. After the three carefully placed six frozen Aureum, they went for the last two. However, just as Nurib was carrying the female Aureum, John and Valerie were carrying the male Aureum.

*thunk!*

John's hands slipped and dropped the frozen male Aureums head onto the floor, and the ice broke off the head.

"Great! The moment that we thaw him out, he'll wake up with a headache since you cracked his skull!" Nurib scolded.

"Its not my fault! His frozen head was slippery!" John argued.

Nurib sighed before helping out, he carefully lifted the male Aureum with one arm and carried towards the lab. Before long, Christine saw the eight frozen Aureum and asked about them. Nurib explained to her that he assumed that they were in hypersleep before waking up when some creature damaged the pods, and they panicked and tried to go to the exit only to be frozen solid.

"There's only one question: how are we going to thaw all of them out?" Asked Valerie.

"We'll find something that brings heat to thaw them" replied Nurib.

Authors note: how was the concept of the frozen Aureum?