S69Q_1

by Aline Riva

  The kettle was heating up. Jackie had her back to him.

  “You must have noticed things are a bit unusual in here....” she cast a glance over her shoulder and smiled and he smiled back, giving her a wink.

  “I'm just like you, darling,” he replied, and as he stepped closer he reached behind and as he slipped one arm around her waist and she pressed her body against him, he grabbed the knife from the chopping board.

  “There's no way I'd miss a party like this,” he whispered in her ear, “I swear I could smell the blood from halfway across the galaxy...you've done it, you adapted and survived..I know, it's a great feeling...”

  She turned to face him, eyes dark with desire.

  “Fuck me!” she said urgently.

  Jinx rammed the knife straight into her gut, she gave a gasp as he stepped back and she collided with the kitchen work surface, looking down in alarm at the knife buried to the hilt into her belly. Blood began to run from the corner of her mouth as her face paled and she choked and tried to snatch a last breath.

  “Bastard...” she gasped, then fell heavily to the floor, blood pooled from the wound, spreading through her clothing and then making a growing puddle on the floor.

  He heard a shout from the open door to the freezer room, where the head fucker had dropped the head and picked up a meat hook. Jinx ran over, blaster in hand as the man turned to him with a crazed look in his eyes.

  As he raised the hook and came at him, Jinx slammed the door of the freezer, there was a moment of resistance and then a crunch of bone, a scream sounded from behind the door and then Jinx slammed it again, as the severed hand still holding on to the meat hook fell to the floor. The door closed and he locked it, turning down the temperature further as through the round window to the ice chamber he saw the man, dick still hanging out, screaming as he clutched at his bloody wrist stump and blood showered over the head on the floor. His screams were muted now by his weakened state and the thick door. Jinx turned away and ran, leaping over a puddle of blood and bolting from the kitchen.

  “You two have to get back to the ship – go!”

  Neve and Sin had already jumped up from their seats on hearing a commotion beyond the door, and now as that door swung on its hinges and they saw the carnage within, Neve's face paled as terror reflected in Sin's eyes.

  “Go back to the ship!” Jinx said again, “I have to make sure these lunatics never leave – I'm going to set the main engine on a manual run and overload the power core. I'm blowing up this ship!”

  Sin shook her head.

  “No way, I'm not leaving with out you!”

  “Yes you fucking are! Go!”

  Neve grabbed her arm and gave it a tug, then headed for the door, dragging Sin with her. She looked back once at Jinx, but he still had that same look of determination burning in his eyes, then she was gone, running with Neve, heading back the way they came in, clutching their weapons as they made their escape.

  Jinx hurried from the room, out to the walkway and ran down it, stopping breathlessly as he studied a map on the wall, then he found the route to the engine room and made a dash for it.

  As he entered the open doorway, the maze of pipes and machinery were almost silent save for the odd hiss of steam. He thought about the size of the ship and made a quick calculation based on his passion for space vessel design – there would be no more than twelve people on board this ship, he had seen one body in the freezer, head fucker had joined her and the severed hand in the kitchen next to the chopping board meant someone else had been lunch already. The captain was now dead too. That meant around eight left, possibly less if a couple of crew members had skills that doubled as functional on board ship and to act as active research members... the ship was empty, they were all out there somewhere, being crazy, killing one of their own most likely, or collecting vast samples of soil – it made sense the parasite would urge that, and they would do its bidding...

  He reached the power core and fell to his knees, struggled with the metallic cover, failed to loosen it and then got up again, kicking at it until the cover fell back with a clatter. Jinx reached inside and began to set a timer for manual lift off, at the same time turning a dial on the heat regulator until it wouldn't go any higher.

  “What a way to treat a mark seven off world research cruiser,” he muttered, then he threw a switch and as the core began to glow and power shuddered through the ship he felt the vibration beneath his boots and he looked about the empty room.

  “Sorry lady, I have to blow you up,” he said with genuine regret, then he turned and ran as the flickering lights in the corridor beyond burned brightly and the ship jumped to life, preparing for a sudden take off.

  Jinx cleared the ship before the power had hit anything close to critical, the vessel was shaking and about to initiate blast off as he jumped from the hatch to the ground, landed well but heavily, then sprang to his feet and started to run. He headed back the way he came as behind him he heard a building whine and them a roar as the ship tried to lift off but alerts began to scream as the power core headed into over load.

  It would be one hell of an explosion.

  As a vessel enthusiast, he felt sad for the shiny white ship that was about to be scattered in bits across the alien landscape, but it was the only way, and one that meant at least if he grounded them instead of killing them, less blood would be on his hands – they would have no other way out and once earth defence knew about the parasite, this place would be nuked anyway...

  The explosion happened without warning, there was a boom that shook the ground and threw Jinx to the floor of the forest, he landed face first as the ground shuddered and the limbs of trees shook and debris rained down and over his head, flaming like balls of fire as shards of metal hit the ground and carried on burning. He waited for the last of the debris to fall and then got up, feeling slightly disoriented as the sound of the distant explosion still rang in his ears. Here in the dense undergrowth where he had run for cover was slightly off his planned path, the trees were taller and the greenery more like jungle than woodland. He looked about, remembered the alien robots were allegedly not real – but the deranged remaining crew members of the research party were certainly real, they were out here somewhere – and so were Sin and Neve and he could see no sign of them.

  Jinx checked his weapon, then looked to the place where the trees thinned and finally spotted the route out as beyond, the way back to his own ship was suddenly visible.

  “Please be there, be safe,” he whispered as he headed for the break in the treeline, “Please, Sin...I can't lose you now...”

  Chapter 7

  As Jinx was heading for the ship, Sin and Neve had scrambled down a bank on hearing the explosion, then as a plume of smoke billowed skyward in the distance and flames licked the remaining part of the shattered ship and ignited trees far off, Sin had got up, looking fearfully towards the explosion.

  “Jinx!” was all she said, then as Neve screamed and Sin turned in time to see Neve dragged off by the hair into a dark wooded place where little sunlight escaped through the heavy boughs, she stood there in terror, clutching at her gun, eyes darting left and right as she trembled.

  Neve screamed again and as she caught sight of her boots digging into the earth as she tried to flight back Sin ran in, clearing the fallen branch of a tree where dead wood rotted into the damp and moss-covered ground, in time to see a deranged man, tall and heavy and powerfully built, his hands were stained with blood and he had Neve's hair so tight her head was snapped back, she was struggling and slipping as she tried to get up but he had her held firmly. In his other hand he carried a scythe and his dark eyes glittered with wild savagery as he saw her standing there.

  Sin raised the weapon.

  “Let her go!”

  “The man looked at her, laughed as Neve struggled again, then raised the scythe and as Sin screamed there was a flash of curved blade as a shard of sunlight hit the scythe, then the blade sliced across Neve's exposed thro
at. Blood gushed as she struggled in vain, her hands flying to the gaping wound to try and stem the flow. She was dying, weakening fast as the blood flowed from her body and turned the floor of the forest deep crimson. The man with the bloody scythe grinned on seeing how Sin's hand shook as she aimed the weapon.

  “I'll cut you in half...” he said darkly, advancing with the scythe raised.

  She pulled the trigger, felt a jolt pass through her body as the powerful beam discharged and hit him in the chest, then his chest exploded and as the flesh and guts flew about the forest, sticking to tree bark and splattering the woodland floor, she stared at the sight of his exposed spine rocking as it tried to adjust to bearing the weight of a body with its mid section missing. Then with a look of shock frozen on his face, the dead man crashed to the ground.

  Sin looked down at Neve. Her throat was a bloody gash of ripped flesh and shining with the last of the blood that was tricking out. The ground beneath her was soaked and her lifeless eyes stared upward to the canopy of green where heavy boughs blocked out the sunlight.

  “Sorry,” she said, wishing she could have been faster, braver, reacted sooner... but it was too late now. She hurried past the body cut in half by the blaster then stepped over Neve and caught sight of the break in the treeline. She ran for the source of the sunlight without looking back.

  On reaching the ship Jinx had heard screams, but these had come from around the other side of the clearing where his own vessel had landed. He looked up, saw the hatch was closed and that brought some relief – the savages had no way of getting on board. Then he heard a scream again, it was a sharp, desperate cry that echoed about the clearing. He kept a tight hold on his weapon, stayed close to the ship and began to make his way towards what ever terrible sight awaited on the other side.

  What he saw as he looked around the corner staying tight to the hull of the ship was something he was not ready for, as the sight of it turned his stomach he was only comforted by the fact that nothing in his shattered mind identified with this – it was a depth he had thankfully not sunk to even when under the parasite's influence:

  There was a woman on the ground, two others were leaning over her, one had a bloody knife in his hand as the other plunged his hand slippery into her guts and began unravelling her intestines. And she was still alive...The woman was growing weaker now, pale and barely breathing as she looked skyward, her face streaked with tears, she was clearly a member of the research team because she wore the same black clothing, he felt bad for being thankful the victim was one of their own and not his Sin – but they were scooping up shiny guts now and biting down and she was too weak to cry out, if she could feel anything at all...

  Jinx stepped out of hiding and took up firing stance, blasting both men as they rose away from the body, setting their sights on the intruder. The first blast hit the knife man in the face, blasting away flesh from bone as he was thrown back. He caught the second man in the throat as the powerful blast cut through the maniac's neck, leaving his head hanging by a thread of flesh and as he crashed to the floor landing on his side, the head bounced on impact, the thread of flesh snapped and the head rolled across the clearing, hitting the base of a wide tree stump with a crack.

  And the woman on the ground was still breathing.

  Jinx had hoped that she would be dead by now, the assault had been horrific and her wounds were not survivable, but she was holding on, gasping for breath as she turned her head a fraction, looking to him with pleading eyes. Her dark hair was fanned out around her, making her dead-white face look like that of a corpse before she drew a final breath, life still shone in her eyes but the middle of her body was torn open, guts shining horrible and scarlet in the sunlight.

  “Help....me...” she whispered.

  Jinx looked about the clearing and saw no sign of more of the crew. He hoped Sin and Neve had made it, he knew what the infected were capable of – he felt it even though he recalled little of his own action whilst under the influence of a parasite, he knew all of its deeds and capabilities and nothing registered as shock any more. Deep compassion shone in his eyes as he knelt down beside her, then he put an arm about her shoulders and raised her from the ground. As her body moved another length of intestine slipped out but she seemed oblivious to it.

  “What's your name?” Jinx asked softly as he held on to her with one arm as he moved his other arm to her back, adjusted the power setting on the blaster and began to slide the weapon up to the back of her head.

  She was barely aware of anything, but she heard his voice and looked up at him, saying nothing.

  “I'm Jinx,” he told her, “And I'm here to help you... there's not much I can do, but I can stop you hurting. I'm so sorry about this...”

  Suddenly she started to smile, then her lips parted and she laughed. For a brief moment he felt confused, then he realised as she raised a bloody hand clutching at her own intestine and took a bite, that she was also infected.

  He gave the trigger a quick squeeze, the woman's head jerked with the impact and then she slumped lifeless, her own guts still slippery in her hand.

  Jinx laid her down on the ground and turned away, his thoughts were now back with Sin and Neve, after seeing the horror that had just unfolded, his fears for both women deepened.

  As he dashed around to the entrance to the ship, Sin was running across the cracked ground. Blood spattered her clothing and there was a look of shock on her face.

  “She's dead!”

  “Who is?” Jinx was still feeling somewhere caught between revulsion and pity for the woman who had just been slit open and then tried to eat her own insides.

  “Neve!”

  There was no time to allow the shock of the news to register as he grabbed her hand, leading her up the steps as he activated the door and they entered the ship. He locked the hatch behind them and then leant heavily against the metallic wall of the corridor, breathless from the final dash.

  “How?” he asked.

  “One of the crew... he came out of the woods and sliced her throat...I tried to save her, but she was being dragged in there and by the time I followed -”

  “Sin, you're not a soldier. You're not trained for life or death situations. I only know how to handle it because I used to be infected. You couldn't have saved her. I'm just glad that you made it back!”

  He grabbed her and hugged her tightly, needing to feel her solid in his arms to be sure she really was here and unharmed, then he let go again.

  “We'll have to warn earth about the parasite... I didn't want to be linked to this in any way but I'll use Neve's story and say she gave me the creature and asked me to pass on the message. They'll go back to Karashi and find her clinic empty. People go missing all time in that part of the galaxy, most of them have a past they want to get away from and she was no exception – they'll think she's left to avoid contact with the authorities.”

  Jinx began to walk off, heading for the flight deck as Sin hurried to catch up with him.

  “Rik? Wait for me, I need to talk to you!”

  They had reached the door to the flight deck. He opened it and looked back at her with a weary expression in his eyes.

  “What now?”

  “Are we going straight back to earth?”

  Jinx gave no reply. His heart weighed heavy as he went over to the controls, sat down and plotted a course. Sin took her usual seat and watched as he worked, saying nothing as the silence was broken by the hum of power coursing through the ship as it readied for flight. As the controls lit up and he began to initiate lift off, she finally asked him again.

  “Are we going home, Jinx?”

  “No,” Jinx looked back at her as the ship fired up ready to leave S69Q-1, “You're not going home yet, Sin – but I am. I can't leave Mack and the others, they need my help. I'm going to back to Shyra-K1.”

  Before she could reply the ship was ready and Jinx wasted no time, taking it up above the clearing, into the skies and then higher as the ship's engines fir
ed into full power and the vessel headed past the expanse of blue and back through the haze, up into dark space peppered by stars.

  Once out of the orbit of the planet, he set the course on auto, then unbuckled his seat belt and got up and Sin did the same. He paused to glance back at the view of dark space but now it offered no comfort, no shelter from the harsh reality of what was to come.

  “Neve just died because of one crazy crew!” Sin told him sharply, “Do you think our chances are any better, going back to Shyra-K1?”

  “I used to lead these people, they'll listen to me.”

  “Rik, they won't listen once they know you don't think like them any more! They'll kill both of us!”

  He paused for thought, wishing again he had not asked for his memories to be removed. It would have made his choices in this situation more clearly defined, his decisions right now felt like guess work...

  “Mack is my best friend. He won't kill me. Even if he thought I'd changed, he'd try and make me understand...I could play along with him, at least until I can deal with them one by one, all we have to do is drug them or stun them, lock them up securely on the ship...I could find another doctor like Neve...”