The Furnace

by Timothy S. Johnston

  He nodded. “They told me you’d ask for help.”

  My eyebrows arched. Interesting. “Who told you that?”

  He just stared at me, silent once more.

  “For fuck’s sake,” I hissed. “I’ve solved the murders! But there’s more going on here than I thought. I’ve discovered something more important. Now start answering my questions so I can make my report, dammit!”

  Some of his resolve seemed to fade. He slumped back in his chair. “Earth told me that if you called for help I was to ignore you. I’m not to allow anyone off the station.”

  “What else?” I growled.

  He looked around, as if to avoid prying ears. “They told us SOLEX had been contaminated. A hallucinogenic disease, they said. Highly contagious. Ends in death one hundred percent of the time.” Again he reached to terminate the signal.

  “Aren’t you concerned about Shaheen?” I said quickly.

  He paused, hand outstretched. Then he sighed. “Of course I am. But we broke up months ago, Tanner.”

  I hadn’t known that. “But you still must care for her,” I said, trying to reason with him. “You can’t just abandon her to—”

  “I have to follow orders, as do you.”

  “Listen, I have information that Earth needs. They don’t have to abandon us. We’re not all infected, for Christ’s sake!”

  He looked pained. “It doesn’t matter. You’ve all been exposed. There’s no help for you.”

  “That’s not true. If we can figure out who’s infected and who’s not—”

  “And how will you do that? How can you convince Earth?”

  “I’ll find a way,” I said. “We’ll come up with a test.”

  “Is Malichauk working on one?”

  I hesitated. “The doctor’s gone.”

  He looked concerned for the first time. “What do you mean? He’s dead?”

  “Just gone.” I clenched my fist under the console. He didn’t know the full truth, but it didn’t matter. What his bosses had told him meant our deaths, either way.

  He looked around and lowered his voice further. “Look, they have physical evidence of a dangerous infection.”

  Of course. “That must be Jarvis Riddel.”

  He looked taken aback. “Riddel? What about him? I thought he cracked up and had a heart attack weeks ago.”

  “He was...sick. That’s how Earth discovered this.” In fact, it was entirely possible that Riddel had tried to infect the men from Earth when they took him away. As a result, they’d removed his infection—his head and hands—and decided to send someone to investigate. Me.

  “Listen, if this disease is as bad as they say, they’re not going to let you off that station. Even if you find a way, they’ll capture and quarantine you. Maybe worse.”

  I frowned. He was right. “I have to figure out exactly what’s going on and who’s infected. When I’ve done that, I’ll be in touch.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t help you, Tanner. I’m sorry, but you’re on your own.”

  “Earth knew about it when they sent me,” I said. “They knew the infection was spreading on SOLEX!”

  He looked shocked. “Are you sure? They never told me that. I only just found out—”

  He was lying to my face now, and I knew it. “Bullshit,” I snapped. “Why demand all the reports from the scientists? Why the need for constant updates?”

  He shook his head. “I’m sorry I can’t say any more. Good luck.” He cut the link.

  I fell back in the chair, frustrated. Damn. He was perhaps the only help we could get, and I had pushed him too hard.

  But I had wanted someone to admit to my face that they had knowingly sent me to my death.

  * * *

  The next call I made was more important than the first. It was to Dr. Higby, also on Mercury. Manny watched with a worried expression; every second spent on the FTL meant less time for survival on SOLEX. Unfortunately, I had no choice.

  “Hello, Inspector,” the elderly man said when the connection came through. He squinted at the screen. “Say, what’s wrong with your transmission?”

  “We’re having some power problems.”

  “I hope you’re okay.” He looked concerned.

  I grunted. Sure, I’m just fine right now. How are you? “I have another question about Jarvis Riddel,” I said.

  “Go ahead.”

  “You said that when he first arrived, he was still delirious and hallucinating. But as the hours passed, he became much calmer.”

  “That’s right. He was like a different person.”

  “Did you take any blood samples or do any tests on him?”

  He nodded. “We always do blood tests, just to rule out drug use as the cause of the mental break. He was clean.”

  “Nothing showed up?”

  “Nothing at all.”

  I considered my next question carefully. It was important—if he was going to lie about anything, it would be this. “Dr. Higby, how long were you alone with Riddel?”

  He looked perplexed. “I was his doctor. I was with him on and off from his arrival through the next six hours or so. Until those men arrived and took him away.”

  “No, I mean alone. Just the two of you.”

  Pause. “I’m not sure I understand the question. What are you implying?” His expression bordered on anger.

  I thought furiously. I wanted to ask if Riddel had tried to infect Higby, but without actually coming out and saying it. The less Higby knew about the infection the better.

  “Did he try to pass you any information?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Did he try to touch you?”

  Higby snorted. “What exactly does that mean?”

  I sighed. Perhaps I could word it in a way that he would understand. “I’m worried that Riddel might have been sick. I was wondering if he...got you sick too.”

  A look of understanding. “I feel quite fine, I promise you. He never touched me. In fact, we restrained him.”

  That startled me. Finally, some good luck in all of this. “Really?”

  “During the entire trip from SOLEX until just before they removed him from my care.”

  My brow creased. “Why did you remove his restraints?”

  “As I mentioned earlier, he was doing much better. He was calm and quiet. I freed him as a sign of good faith.”

  “How long was he unrestrained and alone with you before they took him away?”

  He peered at the ceiling. “Oh, I’d say thirty minutes or so. Yes, he was unrestrained for a good thirty minutes while under my care.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I sat and stared at the blank communit for a long moment as Higby’s final words rang in my ears.

  Thirty minutes...

  Was it possible? Had Riddel used his first opportunity away from SOLEX to infect someone? Or was it more likely that he had bided his time until the people who cared for him trusted him more? Moreover, Higby seemed willing to talk with me, to help me understand what had happened. If he was under control—and one of them—then why tell me that he and Riddel had been alone?

  Manny watched me uneasily as I unplugged the jack from the comm and joined them.

  “How did it go?” he asked.

  I sighed. “Jase Lassiter isn’t willing to help.”

  “Why not?”

  “As I said earlier, they know about the infection.”

  He looked shocked. “Lassiter knows?”

  I shrugged. “Oh, he knows there’s something wrong, but he thinks it’s some kind of new disease. He doesn’t realize the full extent of the illness.”

  “He wasn’t compassionate at all?”

  I shook my head. “He even
warned me that we’re on our own.”

  He snorted. “Which means if we actually manage to capture those two and develop a test for the nanos, it won’t mean anything. We’ll be left to die.”

  I pursed my lips. He was right. No matter what we did to fight back, it might all be in vain.

  We were all dead, no matter what I did...

  The urge to give in to despair was always there, I realized suddenly. It hovered in the background at all times, and in a desperate situation like ours, it reared its ugly head, pushed itself into existence and called for attention. I was actually surprised how soon it appeared to me as an option. Disgusted, I shoved it aside and vowed never again to listen to that side of myself. I would survive this; I would fight it, as I had all my life.

  “So what are our options?” Manny continued.

  I paused before saying, “I do know some people. I’ve made a lot of contacts. I could try to pull some strings. But we’d have to be able to convince people that we can identify who’s infected and who’s not. That’s a big problem. Not the biggest, but it’s one of them.”

  “What’s the biggest?” Katrina asked.

  I scowled. “Brick and Bram. We need to find them.”

  “Maybe let them come to us?” Manny suggested.

  “Maybe. Though we really should catch them. Who knows what they’re doing to the station right now?”

  The captain studied me for a long moment, then flashed a glance to Sally. He cleared his throat. “Listen, Sally came up with a good idea. It’s risky, and if we do it, I’m going to be in deep shit, but my career is pretty much over anyway.”

  That piqued my curiosity. “What is it?”

  Sally said, “I was thinking we could jettison parts of the station.”

  I frowned. It was an interesting idea. Eject the modules—which Manny had sealed already—and leave us a more reasonable area to search. I glanced at the others seated in the command center; they gazed back, their expressions unreadable.

  I turned back to her. “It would limit the space that we can go if we get into trouble.”

  “That’s true. But it’ll limit Bram and Lieutenant Kayle’s space too.”

  “And Malichauk’s,” Katrina inserted.

  “It would force them closer to us,” I said.

  “You said we have to catch them,” Grossman rumbled. “This will help.”

  I mulled it over for a few more minutes. It was dangerous and could seriously compromise our safety. I swore under my breath. That was the understatement of the century. “There’s just too much space on the station, and we’re down to eight people now,” Katrina said. “It does make some sense.”

  I chewed my lip. “Let’s think on it,” I said. We couldn’t be rash about something irreversible like that. At best, it was last on my list of options.

  “Is it getting warmer in here?” I muttered, almost to myself.

  “A couple of degrees, yes,” Katrina answered. “Everything’s on batteries. The cooling system isn’t keeping up with the warming.”

  Damn. Something else to worry about.

  SOLEX seemed to be the most dangerous place in the galaxy.

  * * *

  Them. It was a simple euphemism for Brick and Bram. We were in a bizarre situation. They didn’t look any different. Until I exposed them, they had behaved exactly as they always had. They were friends of other people on the station. They seemed human in every way, except now microscopic nanomachines had taken control of individual neurons in their brains. The nanos had become a hive intelligence that had deviated from Dr. Malichauk’s original programming. As far as we knew, there was no link between infected individuals. But the nanos took over a person’s brain, and when exposed, they had to do anything to ensure survival. They had proved themselves violent and brutal at times. Killing now meant nothing to them; it was just another means to escape detection.

  And we were trapped on a remote station with two of the infected—possibly three, for we were still unsure about Malichauk—and no one was willing to come to our aid.

  There could be more.

  I studied the faces that surrounded me. The two who had been out in the corridor were back in the command center to help discuss options. Manny figured they should have a say in what happened next; personally, I didn’t much care what Grossman thought.

  I shut my eyes and tried to think, to plan, to figure a way out of this mess.

  Katrina Kyriakis. Sally Johnson. Ling Lee. Manfred Fredericks. Avery Rickets. Shaheen Ramachandra. Godfreid Grossman. Any one of them could have a hundred billion nanos circulating through their brain, getting ready to send a swarm to their fingertips to grasp my arm and squeeze as blood and nanos spilled onto my flesh to eat into my body—

  My eyes snapped open and I sat up straighter, startled.

  Weird. I had realized something about the situation I was in.

  It scared me.

  I had never faced anything like this.

  Lingly had been terrified since the whole affair began. The others were also nervous and edgy—all but Godfreid Grossman, that is, who had mostly become more belligerent as things spiraled out of control.

  He was the only crewman left. His friends on the station were gone. What was he thinking? Why was he always so angry? Maybe he just didn’t care anymore; maybe he had given up. He was tough to read.

  Or maybe he was infected.

  The three scientists sat together and spoke in hushed tones. Manny and Rickets discussed our power situation. Grossman was by himself; he glared silently at the dead viewscreens on the bulkhead. Shaheen had her head on her arms as she tried to catch a few winks.

  As if she could feel my gaze, she raised her head and fixed her blue eyes on me. The corners of her mouth tugged upward. I forced a smile in return. Don’t worry, I wanted to say. We’ll be fine. I opened my mouth to speak but couldn’t say the words. Perhaps I didn’t believe them myself.

  She put her head back down.

  I cleared my throat. “We need to pick a place to hole up. Somewhere easily defendable. From there we can coordinate our strategy. Try to find the others. Develop a test. We’re running out of time.”

  Shaheen looked up again. “We’re in a good position here. There’s only one hatch. We’re at the end of a corridor. It’ll be easy to defend.”

  Manny said, “And with the power working, it’ll be infinitely better to be here, in the command center.”

  I started at that. “Are you saying—”

  He nodded. “Yes. I’d like to try to get the power back.”

  A stunned silence. I frowned. “We’ll never be able to keep it up and running, not without posting someone in the engineering module to guard the systems.”

  “We should try, nonetheless.”

  His features were hard and uncompromising. He seemed to be trying to take control of the situation, and I couldn’t blame him. His station was in chaos right now. And despite my misgivings, his idea did have merit. After all, without power we would be dead in under twenty-four hours. I sighed. “Very well. We’ll stay here, set up some sentries just outside, and Shaheen can try to repair the equipment, again.”

  She bolted to her feet. “Now wait just a minute! I spent hours getting the systems up and running, and now they’re down again. This time it was deliberate. There might be no way to repair it!”

  When we had searched the modules earlier, the destroyed power-distribution console in the engineering cylinder had been obvious as hell. Either Brick or Bram had taken an axe to it. They had mangled Shaheen’s hard work in just a few minutes.

  “We have to try,” Manny said.

  Her eyes were daggers, and her nostrils flared. Despite her obvious anger, however, the captain just set a cold glare on her. He could be tough when he wanted, I realized. “I’ll send
two people with you,” he said. He turned to me. “Any ideas?”

  I pursed my lips and studied Shaheen. She had me in her sights again, and it was damn hard not to agree immediately to go with her. Her eyes pleaded with me. Unfortunately, there was something else I had to do. “I’d volunteer, but I can’t. Larry Balch and Anna Alvarez are down in the clinic right now. I want to autopsy their bodies to see if they were infected.”

  * * *

  I stepped over the threshold—and the pool of Balch’s blood—and entered the clinic. There was a disadvantage to holing up in the command center, I realized belatedly. The tools we needed to develop a test for the infection would be in the clinic. Granted, it was only one level below the command center, but without proper protection, travel to and from it could be dangerous.

  Autopsies were a common part of my occupation. I had learned long before how to perform cursory examinations of corpses to determine the cause of death and to identify any glaring oddities, but that was the extent of my doctoring abilities. In this case, at least, I knew what I was looking for, which would make the examination much easier.

  Godfreid had accompanied me to the clinic. Manny had tried to send Rickets as well, but I didn’t think it necessary; it would be better for him to be with Shaheen.

  “Grossman,” I said as I sealed the hatch. “Get these bodies onto the procedures tables.” He complied, quiet for a change, but grimaced as he handled his blood-soaked former friends. Anna’s mop of bloody hair flopped to the side as he hauled her onto the table, and he winced as her jaw fell open. He looked at her face, seemed almost to retch into his mouth, then continued, stoic and resolved once more, and laid her down as gently as he could.

  He shot me a glare when he finished with her and Balch, almost as if he blamed me for what had happened to them.

  I gestured to the chair. “Now sit.”

  His expression hardened. “Why?”

  “In case you have a surprise for me. I don’t want you too close.”

  “Me? Surprise you?” He sneered. “Maybe the other way around.”

  I collected the equipment I needed for the autopsy. Now where were Malichauk’s scalpels? “You don’t have anything to worry about, Grossman. I’m clean.”