LOST REVENGE

by Yang, Hao

  “You want to ask something?”

  “Yea, actually, I thought we didn’t have the chance to sit down and chat a little. We use to find some time to chat every three days.”

  “I forget about it. I am still thinking about Dr. Akio.”

  “Me too.” I say quickly and look away. After I started dating Lily, I didn’t have the luxury to have casual chat with Bertha. Lily was a jealous girl and she didn’t even like to see me talk with other girls. Bertha understands that and she only talks with me when it comes to business.

  “You know, I was thinking the other day to pay you back the money I borrowed for the wedding ring. Was it 400 or 600?”

  “Ah... I don’t really remember the exact number. Let’s deal with it when we finish this mission.” She gives me that sweet smile of hers.

  “Sure.” I never borrowed money from her for the ring. Lock lent me 1200 dollars and I haven’t paid him back.

  “You know, your parents will be so proud of you. What is your mother’s name again? I remember it is Anita, right?”

  “Right. I am quite sure she will be.”

  “Good. Good.” I let out a silent sigh. I remember Bertha once told me she made a mistake when she filled in the forms for ESA. Her mother’s name is Anika and her aunt’s name is Anita. She even joked that she loved her aunt more than her mom.

  I yank back and push the spoon off the table.

  “How clumsy of me! Can you get me another spoon?” I ask using my softest voice.

  “Sure.” Bertha stands up and walks to the cabinet.

  I quickly pour some soup into her water. It gets a little murky, but one has to look hard to notice that.

  She comes back with a spoon.

  “Thanks. You see, I am doing all the talking here. Usually you are the talking one.” I say while taking over the spoon.

  “It’s just I have a lot of things in my mind. I am a little—”

  “Nervous. That sometimes happens to me as well. Drink some water. It usually helps.”

  Bertha smiles and takes a sip. Then her face changes right away as if someone is choking her. She falls from the chair, her eyes staring at me, her hands quivering. Now I think she knows what I did.

  “I thought it just tasted awful.” I say slowly.

  She wants to say something, but couldn’t utter a word. Now she is changing, her body shrinking, her arms extending, her head swelling sideway. Her five fingers on each hand are morphing into four long fingers with dozens of suckers on each finger; her eyes red, her nose gone, her skin bluish.

  “So this is what you look like.” I murmur in a rather calm tone.

  Still trembling, she starts to change back to human form. After back and forth between human and alien forms several times, it finally stops at the human form.

  I carefully stick my head out of the kitchen door. No one in the corridor. I go back to the table, remove the water and leave the soup as it is. For a second, I am thinking wipe off my finger prints, but I give up that idea. My crew can show up in any minute. I need to get out of here.

  When I run back to my cabin, a brilliant idea starts to surface in my brain. This will save the trouble of memory tests.

  Now I know there were at least three of them. Apparently they are messing with my food, but why? They are trying to poison me? I have been eating that shit for three days. They couldn’t find a better poison?

  “Commander? Commander?” Roy’s voice from intercom breaks my thought.

  “Yes.”

  “We need you at medical bay.”

  “On my way.”

  Please don’t tell me Lily is awake.

  In the medical bay, all my crews are standing around one bed, but not Lily’s bed. They are talking something I can’t really hear. When I get close enough, they stop and open a path for me. Now I see Bertha lying on a bed. It will be interesting to see her real form.

  “Now at least Lily has a company.” I try to sound funny.

  Nobody laughs.

  “Sorry. What is going on?”

  They all look at Roy as if he is now Dr. Akio.

  “I don’t know.” Roy says, eyes on Bertha.

  “Is she alright?” I ask.

  “Not good.” Roy says, one hand pointing at the screen next to the bed.

  I don’t understand all those numbers on the screen.

  “We have to get the medicine soon. If—” Bud says with tears in eyes, but he stops immediately when he meets Roy’s cold eyes.

  “Where is the medicine? On Earth?” I ask.

  A long silence.

  Damn! I guess they really don’t like me. Maybe Roy and Bud are also aliens. We will know soon.

  We are just standing there silently.

  “Where was she found?” I break the silence again.

  “In the kitchen,” says Lisa.

  “Anything abnormal?” I ask.

  “We see a cup of soup on the table,” says Charle.

  “Is it expired?” I ask.

  “No, it looks fine. I drunk one yesterday.” says Lock.

  “Me too,” says Charle.

  “And me,” says Lisa.

  “I will run some experiments on the soup,” says Roy.

  “Please do that. In the meanwhile, we also need to share Bertha’s duty. Now we don’t have pilots on duty. I will do that.”

  “The rest of us can share her other duties.” Lock looks around others.

  “Also put in schedule one more thing. We take turns to look after these two.” I add.

  “No problem.” Roy says gratefully and others nod.

  Lock volunteers to take the first round to look after the two girls. Then we leave the medical bay one after another.

  I go to check the mainframe. I am the only one who knows the access code to Achilles’ mainframe. It is located in a special compartment built in the center of Achilles. Everyone can get into this compartment, but only I can access the mainframe. Most operations don’t require access to the mainframe and can be done at the bridge.

  The access code is actually a slew of numbers. At the very beginning, the design was a combination of several biometric identifications. Later I made the request to change it so that if I was incapacitated, someone can still access the mainframe. I certainly hope I never need to deal with that.

  I should have checked the mainframe right after I woke up three days ago. Now I can see from the flight record that nine days ago the crew opened the door at the docking bay. Then there must be another ship. I guess this happened after the asteroid shower.

  Hold on.

  I quickly scan through the data, but couldn’t find any record of the asteroid shower.

  Why?

  “Commander, Commander?” It’s Jim.

  “Yes.”

  “We just resumed communication with flight control at Luna station.”

  “Good. Finally. On my way.” I sprint off the chair and dash to the door.

  In the bridge, my crews are looking at the main screen. When I join them, they don’t even glance at me.

  The message reads, “Achilles, we have been trying to contact you since 09/06/2055. Please reply this message as soon as possible. Fight control, Luna station. Message sent 16:35, central time, 09/16 /2055.”

  Now is 17:01, so they sent it about 26 minutes ago.

  “How are we going to reply?” Roy asks.

  “Start recording.” I say.

  Roy touches the screen and a window pops out.

  “Flight control, this is Achilles. We were hit by an asteroid shower on September 6th 2055. Our main antenna sustained severe damage and the backup antenna malfunctioned. Only today we were able to fix it. Jim did a very good job.” I stop for a second looking for Jim, but he is not among us.

  “Except communication problem, we are also short on manpower. Dr. Akio left us in the escape pod. I still don’t know what really happened. Lily and Bertha are sick and in coma. Right now we have seven people here to do all the work. Commander Jason Yang.”


  Roy presses the send on the screen.

  A window pops out. It reads, “Message sent successfully. Received at 17:02, central time, 09/16/2055.”

  “Yes!” I yell.

  Others are rather calm and quiet.

  I kind of feel bad, because right now it is not the time for cheering.

  It will take some time for us to get reply from Luna station.

  Silence in the bridge.

  We are all waiting patiently.

  A window pops out in the main screen. It reads, “New message.”

  “Open it.” I say quickly.

  The message reads, “Judging by the current situation and your physical condition, we suggest you step down from Commander. We recommend Roy to succeed your position. Please hand over the access code to him. Flight control, Luna station. Message sent 17:03, central time, 09/16/2055.”

  Staring at the screen, I can feel everyone is looking at me. It is like they are poking me with thousands of blades. Every second is now dragging like an hour.

  I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. If I am going to surrender the commandership, I need to do one last thing before that.

  “Start recording.” I say quietly. I can barely hear myself.

  A window pops out.

  “Suggestion accepted. I will hand over the commandership and access code right after the dinner. Commander Jason Yang.”

  I bat on Roy’s shoulder and leave the bridge.

  Now I am going to do that one last thing.

  In the kitchen, I take out one quick-soup and seven meals from fridge. I set up the table with meals and glasses of water. Then I ready the quick-soup and take a sip of the soup. It tastes like shit, but this time I don’t feel so bad about it, because it is exactly what I want. I pour the soup in each meal and glass. Those aliens probably messed up all those meals here already, but I don’t want to take chances.

  Five minutes to the dinner.

  My headache is hurting so bad that I can barely feel anything else around me. I sit down in my usual place. Bertha is probably the last alien, so three of them came aboard Achilles. Three is always the magic number. At least I hope so. If there is more, the soup will paralyze them and I will take care of them one by one. Worst case scenario, I overload the reactor and destroy Achilles.

  Oh, I almost forget. I still have a bomb in my hat. I won’t need it any more. I take off the hat, not sure where to put it. Lily bought this hat for me before we left Earth. It is an old-fashioned Yankee baseball hat. Very difficult to find these days. She knows I have a thing for casual antique stuff.

  “Lily, I will kill them all. I will make them pay what they did. I am not afraid. If I die, I die.”

  I look at the hat and put it back on.

  Roy walks into the kitchen and nods at me.

  “Commander, you prepare the dinner. How nice!” Roy says coldly.

  I don’t like his tone, but I guess that is what you get when you are going to hand over commandership.

  “That is my way of saying thank you.”

  Bud and Charle come in and walk past Roy.

  “Looks great,” says Bud.

  “Smell great too,” says Charle.

  They quickly settle down on their seats, ready to get started.

  “I am actually thinking about that bottle of champagne. You think we can drink it today?” I ask smiling at Charle.

  Charle looks confused and shies away.

  Roy clears his throat and says, “Commander, I understand your feeling. I think this is the best decision for all of us.”

  “Thank you. Let’s not stand here. Get seated.”

  When Roy is taking his seat, Lisa, Lock and Jim walks in.

  “Dinner is ready!” I say happily.

  “Thank you, Commander,” says Jim.

  “Thank you for getting the communication back online.” I say, but my voice is a little stiff, so it sounds like I am blaming him.

  He still flashes me a kind smile.

  Lock and Lisa nod at me and they are seated.

  A short silence.

  “Before we get started, may I propose a toast?” I say while standing up and raising the glass of water in front of me.

  “I am honored to have crews like you guys. I prepare this dinner to say thanks to every one of you. I appreciate what you have done and you guys are my family. Like I said, I will step down from Commander and surrender the access code after this dinner. Roy will be in charge and I will support him in every way possible.”

  I raise the glass to the level of my eyes.

  Bud and Lisa pick up their glasses and stand up, but others still sit there.

  This is a bad sign.

  Why Roy, Lock, Jim and Charles just sit there? Are they all aliens?

  I stare at them, my face muscles twitching. I have to know for sure.

  “OK, let’s drink first. I know this is not wine, but you know it is just symbolic.” I squeeze out a smile.

  “Put down the glasses,” Roy shouts to Bud and Lisa who are about to take a sip.

  Bud and Lisa first look confused, and then their eyes widen. They slowly set the glasses on the table, their face calm and cold.

  Now I know Roy, Bud and Lisa are aliens.

  Who else?

  Charle, Jim and Lock?

  It can’t be.

  It can’t be! Waves of chill are running through my entire body.

  I glower at Roy realizing we both know what is going on.

  “Guys, we don’t need the disguise anymore.” Says Roy with a relax tone.

  Others turn to Roy for a second and then every one of them slowly change to the alien form Betha had earlier. Bluish skin, red eyes, big face without nose. The one used to be Roy has a black mark, the size of a coin, on his forehead that others don’t have. It is a triangle with several lines in it. He must be the leader.

  Looking at them, I know this is the end. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “I am sorry I have to introduce myself under this circumstance. I am Commander Asuak. We live in a planet far far away from your solar system. We can copy the appearance of any life form without even touching them, but apparently we didn’t do a very good job. How did you find out?” The thing used to be Roy says.

  “My wife!” I say coldly.

  “Oh, yes. She was special. She interrupted the process and destroyed all sedatives. That was how you woke up. She also burned herself. I guess she thought we had to use her body to assimilate her. If things happened as I planned, we would wake you up after we get the access code to the mainframe.” Asuak continues.

  “Fuck you!” I shout.

  “Be honest with you, we have decided not to kill you, even though you killed one of my crews and injured another one. Our civilization despise killing. We didn’t want to kill your crew. Your crew tried to kill my crew in the first place, but I guess you won’t believe me.” Asuak says sadly, his voice low and coarse.

  “Damn right!”

  “Tell me what you want.” Asuak says with a serious face.

  “You killed all my crew. What do you think?” I say angrily.

  Except Asuak, they are all looking at me with frightened faces, their red eyes widened and their mouths opened.

  Asuak sighed and says, “So now what?”

  I am staring at Asuak, but thinking about Lily’s death in the incinerator.

  Lily, I will make them pay what they did.

  “Lily” I shout at the top of my lung. Then I smile at Asuak.

  One second.

  Two second.

  Three second.

  I am waiting for the big bang.

  Dead silence.

  Clock is ticking, but nothing happens.

  Now Asuak throws me a disdainful smile and says, “Use voice to activate the procedure to overload the reactor is a very smart idea. Actually, I just found it out before the dinner. I didn’t know you would use the word Lily though. You really love her, don’t you? Now listen, we lost our ship and we ne
ed the access code to the mainframe to send out distress call to my species. After we are done, we will leave.”

  “You will never get it!” I shout.

  Asuak turns to the alien sits at his right and says, “You were right. At least we have the bug.”

  “What bug?” I ask. Now I remember the three levels of fucked up and I am at the third level where everyone knows you are fucked up.

  I look around in panic while they are standing up from their seats.

  A red button near the door catches my eyes. It is the emergency button for fire suppression. I sprint off my chair, dash to the button and hit it hard with my right hand.

  “Swoosh.” White power busts into the compartment like a descending snow storm, blinding everyone. I hold my breath, keep my head low and stumble to the door. I have my hand on the door open button. As soon as the fire suppression is off, I will be able to open the door.

  “Get him. Get him!” It’s Asuak’s angry voice.

  “Where is he?”

  “Near the door! Near the door!”

  “Get the door. Now!”

  Heavy footsteps are getting closer and closer.

  Swoosh stops and white power is settling down. I press the button and get out right away. While running flat out in the corridor, another idea pops up in my head. I quickly make a left turn, heading for the mainframe compartment.

  It isn’t far. I clutch to the door handle and key in the code.

  Asuak is coming around the corner and heading right for me, followed by others.

  “Beep.” Door slides open.

  I rush in, shut the door and lock it from inside.

  “Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam.” It sounds like bullets hitting the door.

  No time to waste.

  I wipe off the sweat on my face, fly to the second door, key in the code and get into the mainframe compartment.

  It is only as large as a normal living room and filled with all kinds of panels, drives and devices, many of which I can’t even name. In the center of the room, a big screen and a keyboard rest on a table. I speed to the keyboard and type in the username and password. The supercomputer named Zeus goes online at once.

  “Commander Jason Yang, Welcome. What can I do for you?”

  “Seal mainframe compartment.”

  “Clank, clank, clank.”

  “Hiss.”

  “The compartment is sealed. Please be aware oxygen supply to the compartment is shut off.”