An Atmosphere Of Angels

by H C Turk

  “Oh. Why do you want to go to the closet?”

  “Parno, I want to verify the potentials of self-repair. That means I want to enter to see if the vessel is repairing itself.”

  “Oh. By the way, that black smear on your suit looks like ghost poop.”

  “By the way, Parno, when I first wrapped on a function retainer, I learned the true identity of your contraption. The alien vessel had to poop, so it left a turd. You’re dragging it behind.”

  Though Parno did not look to the device, he could hear it buzz. The dense plasoid shape crowded the lobby.

  “Kathlynn, this is the only erg adjunct remediator we have,” Parno replied. “With this erg easer, we’ll loosen enough energy in the hull for us to step through. I’m sure you’re looking forward to being happy again instead of snotty.”

  “Parno, your erg easer is still dripping snot. Are you going to wipe its hose?”

  “Shall we?” he said. Turning to the final door, Parno produced a one-hand flourish that made him wince from knee to shoulder.

  “That was punishment from the spirits of revenge,” Kathlynn grumbled, then stepped away, wincing.

  This panel opened at Kathlynn’s first toe tap. The contraption could pass through to the ribbon only because the panels expanded like stretched sphincters. The ribbon conveyor perceptibly slowed while dragging the vibrating mass.

  “I see your friend stopped peeing,” Kathlynn muttered.

  “My friend would never say that about you,” Parno mumbled.

  They did not speak again until arriving at the final chamber.

  “The last door,” Kathlynn said, looking toward that animal artwork.

  Cat or rat? From previous experience, Parno and Kathlynn had learned that the panels indicated the chambers’ contents in an alien manner.

  They entered beneath bluish clouds roiling across a low sky.

  “It looks like rain,” Kathlynn whispered, peering in.

  “On Alie, the home world of these aliens, that’s a snow sky,” Parno said loudly, boldly stepping past the fem.

  If surprises were to occur, Parno wanted to be the initiator. Kathlynn stood away, because Parno’s contraption followed its master.

  The dark clouds ended at the large chamber’s walls, but the sky continued below. For a moment, the Earthers were disoriented, looking toward walls and floor of the same transparent material, apparently air. The chamber was a 3D expanse of low-saturation bluish cyan. Parno and Kathlynn saw no corners, no delineation suggesting the flat planes of wall and floor. Looking down to his feet, Parno felt that he floated in the sky. Pressing down with one foot, Parno saw the sky compress.

  He continued walking, and Kathlynn followed.

  “Parno, it is so big,” she sighed, “the size of a flatball gymnasium. And it’s full of clouds.”

  She touched a miniature cumulus cloud. The size of a sofa, floating above the sky floor, the cloud had greater substance than its appearance implied. Kathlynn squeezed the fluffy whiteness, feeling a type of cushioning.

  “I’ve been in the clouds,” Parno pointed out, “and recently. They don’t look like this. In fact, the white appearance is only evident at a distance. Clouds, being accumulations of vapor, have the appearance of fog when viewed—”

  “Parno, please don’t ruin heaven for me,” Kathlynn complained. “I was in the clouds right beside you, and I prefer this. If we fall here, we won’t be smashed to pieces against our own shack.”

  Kathlynn then laughed, for she sat on a cloud. It conformed to her shape, whether she sat or reclined, supporting her sublimely.

  “Parno, even my head where you knocked me down on the island feels better,” she smiled. “Look, the clouds go all the way to the ceiling. They seem to extend for miles.”

  “I’m guessing the actual height is some thirty paces,” Parno said, neck craned backward.

  He required one long moment to lower his head. His shoulders had cramped, Parno feeling a pain in his back like a knife blade.

  “Oh, Parno, now I understand why this chamber is so lovely.”

  “Because I’m in it?”

  “No, I can’t view you without seeing your ugly pet. The walls, Parno. None of them are ghost ends.”

  Parno then watched a cloud fall. No, alien fabric. Kathlynn had unwrapped her environ abettor, dropping it at Parno’s feet. Though static on the floor, the suit seemed to be floating. The illusion of depth was so convincing to Parno that he had to look up or become dizzy.

  Kathlynn sneezed, then shook her head.

  “I must have inhaled some cloud.”

  “Kathlynn, where’s the rat?”

  She shrugged. Kathlynn now stood on her cloud, climbing to the next.

  “Kathlynn, we had better be careful. Keep your environ abettor wrapped on. Let’s continue examining the area. If the ghost enters wearing our suit, I’ll remain prepared to blast it with the, uh, with the contraption. Kathlynn?”

  “Parno, I can go all the way to the ceiling like this!”

  Parno stepped away, thinking: Don’t look down; dizzy. Feels good in here, except for this antsy suit.

  “Kathlynn, we had better be…careful. Something about this feeling of disorientation is…disorienting. I didn’t feel this odd floating through real clouds. The light in here, does it seem steady to you? Is it flickering?”

  “No, it’s perfect,” she said from the center of the sky, reclined on a higher cloud. Due to distance, her voice seemed softer. “I should know, being closer to the sun.”

  “Kathlynn, I’m thinking subliminal influence, light outside the visible spectrum, electrodynamics utilized influentially, electren wave/rays that can penetrate any matter, including…the clouds.”

  Kathlynn looked down, down from her cloud at that small figure wearing a funny suit. How ordinary of that person to remain at ground level.

  “Voodoo,” Kathlynn said, yawning. “That’s how the indigenes opened the door of this lovely hotel for us. That’s how they killed the aliens.”

  “Oh. I’m going to find the rat.”

  “Parno, I found your big vacuum cleaner.”

  “Be careful the maid doesn’t suck up your toys with it. That’s how I lost my little plastick soldiers. Sort of. The self-cleaning rug ate them.”

  From her own private cloud, Kathlynn added:

  “My favorite was the little farm with little plaswood fences and little plastick animals. When I was nine, my mommy and daddy gave me a bigger and better farm, and the crops grew. You had to plant tiny plastick corn kernels and water them, and they became little plascorn plants and tasseled. But it was a disappointment. Waiting for the crop to grow. Wait and wait and wait. With just the figures, I could make the crop grow as fast as I wanted. I used real corn cobs and set them out on the porch. The squirrels ate them. And my farm.”

  Kathlynn began sobbing.

  “That’s because the potentials of your imagination surpassed the possibilities of actual tissue growth achievable in a device on the level of a toy.”

  “The simple one was more fun,” Kathlynn said, no longer sobbing.

  “That’s what I meant,” Parno replied.

  “Parno, this is the best cloud I ever had. Much better than those clouds we fell through.”

  “I bet they were plasoid,” Parno suggested.

  The next sound Parno heard from Kathlynn was a snore. A ladylike snore.

  Parno unwrapped his function retainer. He would not be taking a nap in work clothes. He stepped away, and the function retainer remained behind. Walking, Parno had the impression that he should be going somewhere, doing something, but could not quite place the idea. Walking, walking, long enough, time to relax on a cloud. Yes, that would be fine. He walked just a trifle farther, thinking that he was not alone here, was he? Of course not. He was with that rat.

  On a small, spectacular cloud of brilliant white streaks like brushstrokes of a master painter, a small form sat, looking toward Parno with bright eyes. The size of his fist
, the animal resembled a kitten with a long snout. The snout twitched, and Parno wondered if he viewed an alien bunny rabbit. Though looking toward Parno, the small animal displayed scant interest. Stepping nearer to pat the furry little thing, Parno bumped against hard air. He had stepped against a wall, partition, door. Not hard enough to smash his nose, but the clear wall stopped his progress. Like the hardened air rollers of an air sled, he thought. Parno considered trying to find an entry panel to open, but reclined on the nearest cloud instead. He didn’t like rats, or cats.

  As a child, he had eaten rabbits.

  * * *

  Ensconced in heaven, Kathlynn dreamed of a pleasant storm. Though thunder shook her cloud, Kathlynn knew the lightning had struck outside of heaven, perhaps in hell.

  Finally able to rest after running and running and running, Parno was jostled by an approaching storm. The distance of that single thunder clap told sleeping Parno that the storm was too removed to harm him.

  The sleeping aliens dreamed. Therein, lightning struck their house, but no one was harmed. No person was harmed, because the damaged kitchen was empty of life. Though the outer wall was destroyed, the house patched itself in no time. Since the house’s foundation sat on good solid ground, none of the interior decor or appliances floated away.

  “Parno, are you sleeping?”

  He blinked and blinked, wondering of that voice.

  “Not any more,” he said, yawning.

  Parno sat. The kitty stared at him placidly.

  “Parno, I had a dream.”

  “I had the same dream. It was only a dream. Did you see my new kitty? It’s a cuter.”

  “Did you see my new vacuum cleaner? It’s a huger.”

  Parno turned away from the animal.

  “Kathlynn, wave so I can see you.”

  There, on high. He began walking cloud to cloud.

  “Oh, I see you, Parno. I’m coming to see your kitty.”

  “I’m going to see your vacuum cleaner. We’ll wave when we pass.”

  Seeing the vast, shiny shape ahead, Parno climbed down from the clouds. Kathlynn passed above his head.

  “Hi, Parno. I see your kitty. Yes, she is so cute. I think I’ll play with her.”

  “Hi, Kathlynn. I see your vac. Yes, it’s huge. I don’t think I’ll play with it. I’d only get in trouble. Besides, everything is very clean in here.”

  Kathlynn reached out for the kitty, but her hand hit something clear.

  “Please open up,” she requested, and tapped with her fingers.

  Kathlynn smiled as the door—which seemed as high as the sky—opened. The kitty then turned and bounded out. The door had to be as high as the sky, for when the apparent animal crossed the plane of containment, it achieved full size. Kathlynn looked up to see a furry elephant leap out at her.

  Instantaneously Kathlynn gained clear thinking, clear feeling. A huge animal leapt at her, all four limbs extended, teeth showing through a wide mouth that emitted a screech so loud that Kathlynn’s face shook. Falling to the floor and trying to roll away, Kathlynn saw the vast shadow of the animal fall too quickly for her to avoid. Kathlynn could only wonder of her foolishness to open that door, allowing the vicious creature to escape.

  Of course, her foolishness had been alien.

  Feeling no pain from old injuries, Kathlynn only managed to roll from her back onto her side before the animal fell against her. With the sound lessened due to that fur-covered body smothering her, Kathlynn in the instant of contact sensed its mass, which approached that of a cloud.

  Though feeling the creature pounce on her, Kathlynn felt no pain. Fully awake and cognizant, Kathlynn understood that she was not being harmed. The creature bounced up and down, rolling side to side on static Kathlynn, who could not react. She did not try to move, only closing her eyes to keep the fur out. The soft fur brushed against her body, her cheek, Kathlynn finding the experience comforting. The creature continued to growl loudly, a sound much more frightening than its actions.

  “Your kitty is loud, Kathlynn.”

  Kathlynn heard, but did not reply. She was giggling. She could not help it. Then the kitty bounded away, and Kathlynn rose to face it.

  The kitty was not cute. The kitty looked mean to Kathlynn. Not extremely mean. Though the kitty showed its teeth—each the size of Kathlynn’s face—the animal might have been smiling more than snarling. The kitty hissed now, a loud sound that intimidated Kathlynn without terrifying her. She wondered why she had not played with this darlin’ before.

  Kathlynn settled on all fours and smile-snarled in return. After rearing back with a terrific hiss, the kitty pounced on Kathlynn again. It rolled and flopped on the Earther. Kathlynn found herself being tossed through the clouds by paws the size of her torso. Kathlynn found that she had to laugh.

  “Parno! Your kitty is so much fun!”

  Parno looked over his shoulder to see Kathlynn flying—and laughing. The kitty had put on weight. Kathlynn bounced from paw to cloud, always landing softly. Parno knew fun when he saw it. He didn’t see any fun near the vacuum cleaner, especially when the door to the room opened and a space suit walked through. A space suit containing a demon.

  As soon as the ghost in the Earth suit entered, full awareness returned to Parno. Desperately twisting around, he reached for the erg easer’s nozzle, but the ghost reached Parno first. With his fingers just grazing the nozzle, Parno felt a blow to his lower back that rendered him unconscious for a moment, delivering a view of demons: endless, empty black. As Parno fell to the translucent floor, vision returned to him. So did the demon.

  “Parno!” Kathlynn cried out while upside down, “this is too much fun!”

  She landed on the floor, and the kitty rolled on her, causing such tickling that Kathlynn laughed aloud. The kitty bumped Kathlynn this way, and rubbed her that way. Finally, Kathlynn could speak again.

  “I’m sorry, Parno, but I won’t be asking you for a date. I think I’m having sex right now!”

  When the kitty next tossed Kathlynn into the sky, the Earth fem ascended laughing, and descended screaming. At apogee, she had seen the ghost playing with Parno.

  Kathlynn began running before her feet touched the floor, clawing the air with her limbs like a ghost. The kitty continued its attempts to entertain Kathlynn, reaching out with a paw to knock her flat. But Kathlynn grimaced and shoved the weightless limb aside, running not toward Parno, but toward his machine.

  Thoughtlessly grabbing the nozzle was easier for Kathlynn, for she did not have to look at the ghost first. In the suit, a black that beckoned death delivered inhuman blows against unmoving Parno.

  She did not consider usage. Filled with emotion and idea, Kathlynn practiced salvation. Grasping the hard nozzle with both hands, she pressed the end against the Earth suit and grimaced with her entire body.

  In that instant, she saw her worst memory. Kathlynn did not see smoke within that headpiece, but suffering. She saw the failure of grief’s unending affliction. She did not see ashes, which are the residue of fire, she saw unending flames. Flames so weary of burning eternally that the fire had turned black. She saw herself in a mirror so dark it could not reflect life. She saw all of her love and joy destroyed by despair, leaving intangible ashes of emotion.

  In the next moment, the memory dissipated, along with the ground suit. The plasfab shifted in her vision, refracted as though light through thick, irregular glass, then dissolved into vapor. Protectively Kathlynn threw her hands to her face, for a thick stench smothered her. Jerking her body around, she coughed while falling to the floor, looking up to see the truth of one’s worst memories. Though receding after confrontation, they always return.

  Unsettled information haunts the human mind.

  A black cloud filled the chamber. This weather did not dissipate, but began returning to a more compact form, that of a human. A former human, now an inhabitant of hell, an area he transferred to his enemies.

  Kathlynn grabbed Parno by his feet and dragged him
through the smoke. While immersed in the darkness, she could not see. Deepest space had greater light than this patch of floating ashes. Blind and barely able to sense Parno in her hands, Kathlynn tried to drag him through a black coldness that stole her energy. The deep shivering that struck her, like ice in her heart, seemed the onset of death.

  Kathlynn again entered heaven: light from the ribbon conveyor filled her eyes. She saw the smoke ghost condensing into palpable evil beyond, saw Parno’s ankles in her hands, but saw scant life in his eyes.

  As the ribbon pulled the Earthers away, Kathlynn bent to Parno, but her sight was taken by a more active vision. Unseen hands desperate to share their anguish pressed against the door, seducing the rigid panel into bending perversely. The sound was a screech stretched endlessly so that only emotion remained.

  Kathlynn had to look away, finding no alleviating view in Parno. Though trying to analyze his health, Kathlynn found religion. If the spirits of righteousness roamed this hell, they would not allow the demon to achieve repose by destroying a hero.

  Mortal people create their own afterlife. Though dead forever, they achieve heaven or hell via their own persuasion. The damned invoke hell by accompanying their mortal horrors into the ethereal afterlife, while the blessed find that heaven is created by the deity of peace.

  Chapter 18

  Gain Salvation

  The naked ghost could not follow along the ribbon rug. Kathlynn bent over Parno, her pose suggesting collapse. He seemed to be sleeping, breathing deeply. She saw no damage to his head, though blood dripped from one corner of his mouth.

  Down and around the ribbon ran, a lovely passage transporting the Earthers to each of hell’s chambers.

  “Parno?” Kathlynn whispered, stroking his brow.

  He opened his eyes, but did not focus on the fem. When Parno spoke, his first words were alien.

  “We’re safe,” he said, then winced, shuddering lightly.

  Since Parno had focused on Kathlynn, she spoke further.

  “What do you mean, Parno?”

  “You destroyed the second ground suit.” Though breathy, his voice was not weak. “The ghost can’t wrap on an alien suit. He can’t make himself tangible now. We only have to fight our own fear.”