The Dark Ship

by Phillip P. Peterson

  “No,” Joanne said. “All I have is the pictures of the projection of the star map. I need to make an estimate, as best I can, there’s no other way. And then I need to do a coordinate transformation, because the axes don’t match up with the ones we use. So zip it, boys.”

  “I thought women were supposed to be good at multitasking,” Shorty grinned.

  “Pah! Most of the women I know can’t even manage a decent sixty-nine,” Mac gave a dirty laugh, and Shorty joined in.

  Jeff could feel Irons’ gaze on him. He had to react, otherwise he’d get an earful later on. Jeff stood up. “Private Short, Private Mac! That’s enough. All right?” He shuddered at the way he sounded as if he were begging.

  Mac grinned and opened his mouth to say something. Then he remembered that Irons was in the room. He glanced quickly to his left and shut his mouth again. “Of course, Sir.” He practically spat out the word “Sir.”

  Shorty turned to his colleague and whispered something in his ear. Both of them looked first at Joanne, then at Jeff, and started laughing.

  “Private Short, Private Mac,” Irons said. “Final warning.” Irons’ voice sounded weak and feeble, it seemed to come from a completely different person than the usually energetic and charismatic major.

  “Aren’t you hungry, Major?” Finni asked.

  As if in slow motion, Irons raised his head and stared at Finni. Finally he nodded, got up, and helped himself from the pot.

  Jeff looked over at Joanne. Her brow was furrowed as she concentrated in turn on the two handhelds and wrote down numbers on the piece of paper. “Joanne, come and eat,” he said firmly.

  She waved her hand without raising her eyes. “I want to get this finished. I’m nearly done. A few more minutes.”

  “And tomorrow we’re going back to the map room?” Owl asked.

  “Yes,” the major said. “I want to take a closer look at that projector. Maybe it can show us other things apart from the star map.”

  “Like what?” Jeff asked.

  The major briefly raised his eyes, then turned listlessly back to his stew. “I don’t want to speculate. Let’s wait and see.”

  If there were chairs in the room, maybe it used to be a lecture room. Or a library for accessing the ship’s databases. Maybe they would find information about the alien builders of the ship …. It would be incredible if they could somehow connect the database to their handhelds and make copies to analyze when they got home. “I want to join the expedition tomorrow,” Jeff said, though he already knew he’d be terrified the moment he got to the other side of the gate.

  “All right,” Irons answered, without looking up.

  “Major?” Joanne’s voice was barely more than a whisper. Jeff looked over at his colleague, his spoon suspended midway between his plate and his mouth. Her face was ashen. Jeff knew immediately what had happened.

  The coordinates! We’re not on the way back home!

  “What is it?” Everyone was staring at Joanne.

  “We’re not headed toward Sigma-7,” she said. “We’ve moved four light years from our original position, but not in the direction the computer told us.”

  “Holy shit …” Owl said.

  “That bastard of a computer lied to us,” Castle spat out his words.

  “What do we do now?” Shorty asked.

  Jeff closed his eyes. It was what he had feared most—and it was really happening. They were at the mercy of an alien spaceship and its onboard computer, which in the beginning had been so hospitable and accommodating. They had trusted it. No! They’d had no choice but to trust it, there had been no alternative. It had lied to them. But why?

  Or was it a misunderstanding? Had the artificial intelligence misinterpreted the coordinates given to it by Joanne and flown in a different direction? But the computer had confirmed they were heading for the Sigma system.

  “How far is the ship’s trajectory from what we originally specified?” Irons asked.

  “Thirty degrees,” Joanne replied.

  “That’s too far off to explain as a necessary course correction. Where is our present course taking us?”

  Joanne picked up the handheld from the table and swiped and tapped on the screen. “Deeper into the core area of the Empire. Hang on …” She picked up the other handheld and typed something into it. “Oh ….” She opened her eyes wide. “If I extend the course, then we’re heading straight for Earth!”

  What the hell …?

  That couldn’t be a coincidence. What did the ship want on Earth? Jeff couldn’t see the sense in it. Did the ship’s computer want to deliver them to the central planet of the Empire to enter into diplomatic relations? But that didn’t tally with what the AI had told them.

  “This is crazy,” Owl murmured.

  Irons stood up. “Computer,” he said loudly. His tone of voice was unusually aggressive.

  No answer.

  “Computer! Answer me!”

  “Obviously busy again,” Green said dryly.

  “I can’t wait to hear what it has to say,” Owl said.

  “That son-of-a-bitch computer has been lying to us the whole time!” Castle screamed hysterically. “That’s why it didn’t want us to go outside!”

  “The billion-dollar question is: where does it want to take us?” Owl drummed his fingers on the table.

  “Are you dumb or stupid?” Castle snapped. “You just heard! We’re heading toward Earth.”

  “But why?” Joanne asked. She was rooted to the spot in the middle of the room, still clutching the handheld.

  “Maybe it wants to blackmail the Emperor and take us hostage,” said Shorty.

  “Stop these ridiculous guessing games!” Irons ordered.

  “Why ridiculous …?” Shorty asked before falling silent.

  “And what do we do now?” Joanne wanted to know.

  Irons stood up. “I have to think. I’m going to my room and will make a decision by tomorrow morning. If the computer contacts us, please get me immediately. I don’t want anyone to talk to it except me. Nobody! Understood?” He fixed everyone in turn with an icy stare. After nobody responded, he turned to Jeff. “Captain Austin, please follow me to my room.”

  Jeff nodded and stood up. His plate was still almost full, but he knew he wouldn’t manage any more food today. He walked around the table and followed Irons out of the room. His thoughts were racing. What was happening on this ship? Did Irons have a theory?

  When they got to his room, the major closed the door behind him and pointed at one of the two chairs by the table against the far wall. Jeff took a seat. The major sat down opposite him.

  Jeff cleared his throat. “Major, why do you think—”

  “Stop!” Irons’ voice was stern. “I have not asked you here to make more conjectures. I need to think about the situation alone first. Tomorrow we can talk about it.”

  Jeff nodded. “But why did you want to talk to me?”

  Irons reached down to his belt and pulled out his handheld. “You remember the red button on the back of this device?”

  “The self-destruct button. Yes.”

  “On this device are the transponder codes that enable us to fly into the systems of the core worlds without being attacked. But if we’re captured, it’s my duty too destroy the memory chip.”

  Why was Irons talking about being captured? He’d never talked like this before. He seemed to be fundamentally reassessing the situation they were in. Jeff swallowed. Captured … yes, they really were prisoners on this ship, and nobody knew what the computer was up to. “Then destroy the chip,” Jeff said.

  Irons cradled the handheld in his right hand. “Something tells me we’re still going to need these codes. In fact, our lives might depend on them.”

  Jeff got goose bumps. “What makes you say that, Sir?”

  The major shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t know. It’s just a hunch. Call it intuition.”

  Jeff raised his eyebrows. It was unusual for Irons to be guided by a hunc
h. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because I have another hunch. A premonition, if you like.”

  Hunches? And now premonitions? “What do you mean, Sir?” Jeff asked in confusion.

  Instead of answering, the major grabbed Jeff’s hand and pressed his forefinger on the display of the handheld.

  “Major, I …”

  It beeped once, and Irons released Jeff’s hand. “Now the device knows your fingerprint. You are authorized to use it, if necessary. If somebody else tries to activate it, it will self-destruct.”

  “I don’t understand …” Jeff fell silent and sagged in on himself.

  “I’m convinced Fields won’t be the only one to die on this ship,” the major said.

  Earlier, Irons had reprimanded Castle for having the exact same thought. What was up with the major? “Is everything OK, Major Irons?”

  Irons sighed and raised his hand. “Everything’s fine, Austin. Don’t worry. My only concern is that you have access to my handheld in case anything happens to me. If you find a way of escaping, you’ll need the codes as soon as you enter the central system. Otherwise you’ll be shot down without warning. But if you don’t escape, you must destroy the chip before this ship enters Earth’s solar system, so that the space fleet can fend it off in time. Is that clear?”

  Jeff shook his head in a daze. Was it really that bad? Was it possible this ship wanted to attack Earth? Yesterday, they had been the guests of a helpful extraterrestrial onboard computer, and suddenly they were prisoners of a possibly malevolent artificial intelligence? Hopefully it was all a big misunderstanding.

  “Have I made myself clear, Captain Austin?” the major repeated.

  Jeff nodded.

  “The security of Earth comes first. Destroy the chip if you feel threatened!”

  Jeff nodded again.

  “Good,” Irons said. “And now please leave me alone. I need to think.”

  Jeff got up and staggered outside. Like in a bad dream, he had the feeling that the ground was moving beneath his feet. The walls of the corridor seemed to be closing in on him.

  Jeff staggered back to his own room and collapsed on his bed. He doubted he would have a very restful night.

  15.

  “Man, you look like shit,” Mac said as Jeff walked into the rec room the next day. Castle was sitting next to Mac and grinned. Joanne frowned. Jeff didn’t consider reprimanding the mechanic. He was too tired, and in any case, Mac was probably right. He went straight to the kitchen, where he made himself a coffee with hot water and instant granules, before sitting down at the table with the others. Apart from the major, everyone was up and about.

  Jeff grabbed a slice of bread and slapped some peanut butter on it. He took a bite and chewed slowly.

  “Who had the last shift?” Joanne asked.

  Finni raised his hand, without looking up.

  “Did the computer contact us?”

  “Nope,” Finni replied.

  “Boy, we’re gonna give him an earful,” Shorty said.

  “Pfft,” said Mac. “It won’t give a rat’s ass what we have to say.”

  “I want to know why it lied to us like that,” Shorty said.

  “And what makes you think it’s going to tell you the truth? All it does is lie.”

  “It’s time we took things into our own hands,” Castle said.

  Joanne rolled her eyes. “And how do you suggest we do that?”

  “We confront it with the facts, and order it to take us to Sigma-7.”

  Joanne laughed. “Order it? How do we do that?” Castle stuttered, searching for words, but Joanne continued. “We’re in no position to give orders.”

  “We could go to the airlock and use the plastic explosives to create a hole to the outside,” Owl suggested.

  “Great,” Mac said sarcastically. “And then?”

  “Then at least we’re out of this prison.”

  “We should wait and see what Major Irons has to say. I reckon he’s made a decision,” Jeff said, but nobody took any notice of him.

  Finni laughed in Owl’s face. “Sure—let’s break our way out and we can have fun floating around in the interstellar void. Jesus. We might as well shoot ourselves now.”

  “I just want to get out of here,” Owl said in a whiny tone of voice.

  “What do you think we should do?” Joanne asked Green, who was sitting opposite her at the table. The engineer was no longer as pale as the day before, but he hadn’t joined in the conversation at all so far. He was sitting and staring at the ceiling, as if all of this had nothing to do with him.

  “Dave!” Joanne repeated.

  Finally, Green lowered his gaze and fixed his eyes on Joanne. He shrugged. “No idea. Maybe we should go to the center of the ship. Maybe we’ll find some answers to our questions there. After all, it’s where the control center is supposed to be.”

  “Are you mad?” Owl cried. “I want to get out of this thing, and not go deeper inside it. Who knows what might be waiting for us there.”

  “Calm down!” Joanne ordered in a loud voice.

  But Owl wouldn’t calm down. “This ghost ship is cursed! We need to get out of here, or it’ll steal our souls!”

  Joanne guffawed. “Woah, did you have a bad dream or something? Jeff, what do you think?”

  Now all eyes were on him. He sighed. “Major Irons will decide what to do. I’m sure he’ll let us know what he decided as soon as he gets up.”

  Castle looked at his watch. “It’s not like the major to sleep this long. Was he on guard duty?”

  Jeff shook his head and looked at his own watch. It was already nine o’clock. True; Irons had never slept this late.

  “Maybe he’s thinking things through,” Joanne said.

  Jeff was suddenly overcome by a strange feeling as he remembered the almost surreal conversation he’d had with the major the night before. Irons had been so despondent, depressed almost. Surely he hadn’t done anything stupid?

  Jeff got up. “I’ll go and see if he’s up already.”

  “Majors need to sleep late sometimes, too!” Mac said. He wanted it to sound like a joke, but nobody laughed.

  Jeff went into the back corridor and put an ear to the major’s door. There was no sound. Maybe he really was still asleep. “Major? Are you awake?”

  Jeff listened again. No answer. He knocked again. “Major?” He must have heard him this time. Still no answer.

  Jeff felt his stomach clench. His hands were trembling. He tapped on the square on the wall next to the door.

  From the corner of his eye, he saw the major lying in bed. He sighed with relief. So he was still sleeping. Everything was OK. He was about to close the door again, when the foul smell of blood and dead flesh leapt into his nostrils. He opened the door wider and took a step into the room.

  Blood! Blood everywhere!

  Jeff let out a twisted scream.

  Within seconds, the others had arrived and jostled him further into the room as they tried to get a look for themselves.

  The major—or what was left of him—was lying in a red pool on the bed. Blood was dripping onto the floor—there was too much for all of it to be absorbed by the sheets. As Jeff approached the bed, his shoes made a squelching noise in the sticky liquid. He looked at the major and retched.

  It was even worse than Fields. A huge wound stretched from his chest, across his stomach, and down to his crotch. Because of all the blood, Jeff couldn’t see the organs. He looked into the major’s face. His eye patch was missing, revealing the deep cavity of the socket. The other eye was dangling onto his cheek from a twisted thread. His mouth was ripped wide open, as if he were screaming in pain even in death. Jeff tried to look away, but then he noticed that Irons’ head was no longer connected to his neck, but lying severed on the pillow.

  Shorty pushed his way out of the room, vomiting.

  “Oh my God,” Joanne whispered. She shoved Finni aside so she could examine the major’s body.

  �
��Was it …” Owl began and choked. “Was it an animal?”

  Joanne ran her fingers very gently over the bottom of the severed head. “If it was an animal, it must have had damned sharp claws.”

  Jeff had to force himself not to look away. In any case, it must have all happened very fast, because the major’s pistol was untouched in his holster. “He didn’t even defend himself.” They’d been so nearby in their rooms, and hadn’t heard a thing.

  Joanne nodded, lifting the major’s hands one at a time. “The fingernails are clean. He must have been taken by surprise while he was sleeping. Here, this was lying next to his hand.”

  Jeff took the piece of paper and turned it over. It was a photo of a little boy lying in the grass and laughing at the camera. It must be Jack—Irons’ son. Jeff put the picture back on the bed and shook his head. “I can’t imagine he was sleeping when it happened.” But something must have taken him by surprise, otherwise he would have tried to defend himself. And suddenly Jeff realized that his own room was right next door. It could have been him lying on his bed like this. Jeff remembered his bizarre conversation with the major the night before. Had the major really had some kind of premonition of what was going to happen to him? But how was that possible? And how had the … animal? … got into the room?

  “Who was on guard duty last night?” Jeff asked.

  “I had the first shift, then Green and Finni,” Joanne answered.

  “You didn’t fall asleep?”

  “No—at least, I didn’t,” Green said. Joanne and Finni shook their heads, too.

  “Did you notice anything? Anything at all? Strange noises, maybe?”

  All three shook their heads.

  “What a fucking nightmare,” Owl whispered. “Either we’re dealing with some invisible being, or an animal that can walk through walls.”

  “The light alien!” Castle said. “It must have followed us from the other side of the gate.”

  Jeff walked around the bed, careful not to step into the puddle of blood again. He glanced into the bathroom, but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Although … part of the wall was slightly dented. He went in and kicked gently at the spot. With a clatter, the piece of wall fell to the ground. Not a wall, a cover. Horrified, Jeff saw a hole that was big enough for a man to crawl through.