Digital Ghosts: Book 2 of the Space Station At The Edge Of The Black Hole Series

by L. A. Johnson

“Ian,” Lyra said. “I guess everybody is messing with me now. Just for the fun of it.” She showed Arthur the message. He chuckled.

  “So, who was the other text from? Were they messing with you too?”

  “Callista, if you must know,” Lyra said.

  “So, what is that one about, is it a blood booty call?” Arthur smirked.

  When Lyra turned to him he held his hands up in the air. “I told you, Gorb and his version of the story, am I right?”

  “That little jellyfish better start learning to keep his mouth shut,” she said.

  The two of them went around the corner.

  “Listen,” Lyra said, jabbing a finger in Gorb’s direction. “I need you to stop spreading rumors about me and Callista.”

  “It’s not me,” Gorb said, a few tendrils in the air. “It’s the internet. The fans of Fear Zone Universe made internet memes about you stepping out on Ian. They’re all mad.”

  “But I didn’t step out on Ian. And I would never step out on Ian with Callista, that’s crazy. I’m just helping the woman.”

  “By giving her blood?” Arthur asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “She just needed a tiny vial,” Lyra said.

  “Why?” Gorb asked.

  “She’s kind of a vampire,” Lyra said.

  “No way,” Gorb replied. He sounded impressed. “Lyra fell for tall, dark, and creepy,” Gorb sing-songed.

  “No,” Lyra said. “I didn’t. That’s it,” Lyra said to everybody around her in general, “I’m leaving. Gorb, I want you to text me immediately when Maura’s out of surgery.”

  Lyra walked briskly out of the hospital. Callista had been texting and asking for the blood during their last text conversation, but there was no way she was going to admit that to Gorb or anybody else. Now she was kicking herself for not just leaving the dumb blood on Callista’s desk when she had the chance. Why had she put it back in her pocket?

  She used the time on the walk to Callista’s office to try to calm down, and was doing better as she approached the all-too-familiar, heavy wooden door.

  Lyra took a deep breath and then brought her fist near the door to knock.

  “Come,” Callista said.

  “Callista?” Lyra asked sweetly. “You’re not going to shoot at me again, right?”

  “I’m awake, already. You may enter.”

  Lyra took a nervous breath and then pushed through the doorway.

  Callista was sitting up this time. The charge cord was still stuck in her arm.

  “So it worked!” Lyra exclaimed, both a little too happily and a little too loud.

  “What worked?” Callista asked.

  Lyra sat down in the only other chair and scooted closer to her.

  “You see,” she said, “you plugged that cord into the wall earlier, but the voltage for the entire space station changed about twenty years ago, so that’s probably why it didn’t work.”

  “I went back to sleep,” she said, “after plugging myself in. It was very annoying.”

  “Yes,” Lyra said. “That’s how we found you. Then Ian saw the voltage numbers on your cord and remembered that he had an extra adapter in his apartment. He went and got it and we plugged you back in.”

  “Then what happened?” she asked. Her dark eyes darted around the room.

  “We don’t know. You started shooting and then I got called away to a medical emergency.”

  Callista’s eyes darted to Lyra’s face. “What did you do to your hand?”

  Lyra thought it through and as stupid as she felt telling Callista the truth again there wasn’t a single lie she could think of that would begin to cover it. Fine. She decided to lean into it.

  “I got bit by some weird ghost fox. Live on a web show for everybody to see. And that’s not even the weird part,” she said, crossing to Callista’s desk to get closer to her.

  “Do tell,” Callista said. If she was trying to be sarcastic, Lyra couldn’t tell.

  “A drop of blood hit the ground. At Ian’s apartment.”

  Callista considered this while tapping her long, pale fingers on the desk. “You’re saying that you bled real blood from a bite from a ghost animal.”

  “Yes.”

  “And that’s how you injured your hand?”

  “Yes.” That wasn’t a very difficult guess, so Lyra wasn’t going to press the issue on that one.

  “It’s how I knew that you were here outside my door,” Callista said.

  “What?” Lyra asked.

  Callista fixed her with a stare. “I could smell your blood.”

  Ew, Lyra thought. “You wouldn’t happen to have any advice about how to heal ghost wounds, would you?”

  “What do I look like? A shaman? Besides, I just woke up. Thank you, by the way, for the blood,” she said.

  Lyra was already uncomfortable with all of the talk of blood, so she decided to go for it, and ask a nagging question.

  “You want to stay conscious, right? Which is more important, the blood, or the electricity?”

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “The electricity woke me up. I’d like to thank you and Ian both for that.”

  “You’re welcome,” Lyra said. “What happens now? And if you stay awake, does that mean you won’t shoot at me?”

  “There are side-effects of my hibernation that I must apologize for. I mean you no harm. But now I need the blood, please.”

  The blood. Lyra could have smacked herself in the forehead. Why was she always forgetting? It was the number one reason she had even come here in the first place. Without another word, she pulled the vial out of her pocket and handed it to her.

  Lyra’s phone buzzed. It was the hospital. Maura was out of surgery. Thank goodness. “Ok, well, I’m afraid duty calls at the hospital. You stay awake, okay? And you know my cell number if you need anything.”

  Lyra beat a hasty retreat out of Callista’s office.

  Lyra burst into the waiting room. “I got your text, Gorb, how’s Maura?”

  “She’s doing better. You know Vax, he closed her up pretty good. Your timing is perfect, they said she’s actually awake right now.”

  “Thanks, Gorb.”

  Lyra went straight back to the room and found her friend lying there, awake. Just as Gorb said.

  “Maura! I’m so glad you’re okay. You had me worried.” She sat in the chair next to her bed. “Look, I know you’ve been through a lot, but I have a few questions.”

  “Yeah, if you want to know how I got a gaping chest wound, then you can join the club.”

  This surprised Lyra. That wasn’t even going to be one of her questions. She had assumed that Maura knew how she got injured, especially since she was the one who called the paramedics.

  What she was going to ask her was whether or not the wound played peekaboo, even though she already knew the answer. She was hoping Maura could shed some light on the subject, but now she was losing confidence. In the end she decided to ask her question first, and then and go back to the actual injury.

  “Maura, I know this is going to sound weird, but did the actual wound come and go? Like appear one minute and then disappear?”

  Maura considered it. “Maybe. I didn’t notice until I got home to take a shower and saw my clothes were soaked with blood.”

  “That’s when you called the paramedics?”

  She nodded.

  “And the wound was a complete surprise? You had no idea you were even injured?” Lyra asked.

  “Well, now that you mention it, there was that seven foot tall monster with the glowing eyes.”

  “I’m sorry, what now?” Lyra asked.

  “Check my phone. It’s all on there.” She pointed to the phone on the small table. “An orc sent that footage to me. I got a call about a creature bothering people. I went to check it out. This orc woman, Jane, told me that the creature passed right through my chest. I didn’t even notice at the time. I only remember it charging. Nothing afterward.”

  Lyra frowned. It was a ghost
wound after all. She grabbed Maura’s phone, hoping that she was greatly exaggerating the monster thing. She opened up the messages and hit play.

  There it was, a video of Maura in the hallway. She had a weapon in her hand and her eyes were wide and staring at something off-screen. Right on cue, the camera swung around in the other direction to see a giant, green monster with glowing eyes.

  Lyra stifled a gasp. The little ghost fox that bit her was tiny, but this thing that Maura had tangled with was huge. Its horns were glistening, and its eyes were glowing a ghostly, feral green that even on video made Lyra’s skin crawl. The creature snarled and pawed at the ground, showing savage teeth. It grew restless and angry.

  The camera swung back in Maura’s direction. Maura fired her weapon several times and screamed. The sound made it very clear that the creature charged at that point. Maura took a few steps backward but it wasn’t nearly enough. She closed her eyes at the last minute.

  That’s when the creature entered the video, dove right at her chest, and disappeared. Maura closed her eyes and fell to the ground. And then the video ended.

  Lyra was already breathing heavy just looking at it. Was it possible that the chest wound was from a giant monster running right through her? And where had that thing gone? It looked like it just disappeared. What was going on here?

  “Oh yeah, in my office drawer are two vials of purple liquid. Jane said that I would be in trouble after a while because I tangled with the monster. She said that the liquid in the vials would help.” She looked up at Lyra pleadingly. “Please go get them for me?”

  “I’ll go get them right now,” Lyra said. “Can I please look at the wound for a minute?”

  “Why?”

  “To make sure it’s still there.”

  “Whatever,” Maura said. “If it going away is an option, I’ll take that for three hundred galactic credits please.” She closed her eyes.

  “No,” Lyra said, shaking her head, “you don’t want that. Trust me. I have a much smaller wound than yours, and every time it disappears, it comes back twice as bad.”

  Lyra checked Maura and her chest wound was, in fact, still there. Vax and Nancy had done a good job. She checked her own hand, pulling the bandage aside. Not only was it still there, it still looked nice and clean from when Arthur treated it. Okay, so far so good.

  “How’d you get your wound?” Maura asked. “Another monster?”

  “Not a monster. I got bit by a ghost fox.”

  Maura looked surprised.

  “I’ll tell you all about it later, okay? You rest and I’m going to go get you your vials.”

  Lyra’s phone buzzed a notification. It was Callista again. She wanted Lyra to go back to her office. Not right now. Keep your shirt on, sister.

  “Who’s that?” Maura asked. Her eyes were closed, and she was resting comfortably, but she was obviously still listening to everything that was going on.

  “Just Callista. No biggie. Don’t worry. I’m getting you the vials you want first, then I’ll deal with her, okay?”

  “Oh,” Maura said. “I won a faceoff with the head of Celestica. I feel important now. Thanks, Lyra.”

  Lyra turned to go, but on her way out, she heard Maura gasp. She looked back and Maura’s eyes were wide.

  “What is it?” Lyra asked.

  “My injury,” she said. “Something’s wrong. Something feels different.”

  “Different bad or different good?”

  “I don’t know,” Maura answered. “Just different.”

  Lyra went back to the side of her bed and lifted up the sheet. The wound had disappeared. Oh no. If that chest injury came back even worse, then there was no way Maura would survive.

  “What is it?” Maura asked.

  Lyra thought about lying to her, but Maura wasn’t stupid. She’d only check herself anyway. “The injury’s disappeared.”

  “Wait,” Maura said. “Didn’t you say that when that happens it comes back even worse? What are we going to do?”

  Lyra thought about it. She couldn’t page Vax and tell him to rush over because the wound was gone.

  There really wasn’t anything she could do except go get those vials and hope that the orc medicine would help. It was a long shot, but she was out of ideas and Maura was running out of time.

  “Are you sure that this Orc, what was her name again?”

  “Jane, the contact information for her is in my phone if you need it.”

  “You sure Jane said that the vial would help?”

  “Yes,” Maura said, “she was very serious about it.”

  Lyra shook her head. “Okay. I’ll be right back. You hang in there.”

  Lyra ran out of Maura’s room and down the hall as fast as she could. The fear and adrenaline hit her and she couldn’t feel her body anymore anyway.

  “What’s the matter, Lyra?” Gorb asked.

  Lyra shook her head and took a quick breath. “There’s no time, Gorb. Stay with Maura until I get back. Maura has a ghost wound that keeps disappearing. If it comes back before I do, have Vax on standby or she won’t have chance, ok?”

  He nodded and swished seriously. “Where are you going?”

  “To get some orc medicine that might help,” Lyra yelled, because at that point she was already out the door.

  The hallways of Celestica were fairly crowded, but Maura was running fast and had that I don’t care look in her eye that made people get out of her way.

  She did have to occasionally slalom around larger groups. Five minutes later, she arrived at Maura’s desk out of breath. She wished she had remembered to tell Gorb to text her as well as Vax if the wound came back, but that didn’t matter as much at this point. There was nothing she could do about it anyway.

  While she was taking deep breaths, her phone buzzed again. The message was from Ian again.

  Lyra, I’m serious. This crazy ghost lady is going to kill me. Apparently, I’m going to be the groom of Frankenstein. I only have two hours!

  Lyra read the strange message twice. What was he playing at? Now was certainly not the time to mess around. She was about to lose a hand and Maura was at death’s door.

  That thought helped to focus her, and she ransacked Maura’s desk drawers quickly, locating the two ornately decorated vials with the purple liquid.

  Lyra held them up and couldn’t help but appreciate their beauty. She wondered if the liquid would help. No, scratch that, she hoped like hell that it would help.

  She put the two vials in her coat and began the sprint back to the hospital, wishing that she had had time for that second cup of coffee as the adrenaline was wearing off and she was starting to get tired.

  She stopped running when a severe pain hit her hand. She removed the bandage and grimaced. She screamed and cradled it against the throbbing pain. She fought back tears. Not even Vax would be able to save it now.

  Was she going to lose her hand and her livelihood? She could always go prosthetic. What are you doing, Lyra? she asked herself, remembering that no matter how much pain she was in or how bad her hand was, she had to get back to the hospital now to help Maura. She sprinted through the pain.

  Lyra entered the waiting room and Gorb wasn’t at his desk. He must be with Maura like she had asked. Gorb was the best.

  She ran past the waiting patients and into Maura’s room. Maura looked worried but okay.

  “Her wound is still gone,” Gorb said. “You got this, now? Just yell if you need me to page Vax. I’d better get back to my desk before Grayson pops in.”

  “Thanks, Gorb. I owe you one.”

  “You owe me a bunch of ones,” he answered.

  She thought that he probably grinned, but she couldn’t be sure.

  “Feel better, Maura. I have heard great things about orc medicine. It’s very powerful.” He shimmied out the door.

  “Okay,” said Lyra. She was bent over and breathing hard and cradling her hand.

  “Lyra, your hand!” Maura’s voice was weak.

>   “Forget it,” Lyra said. “We need to concentrate on you. Look, I got the vials,” she said triumphantly between breaths. She pulled one out of her pocket and held it up for Maura to see.

  The purple liquid shimmered. “These things really are quite pretty. Want me to open it? No time like the present, right?”

  Maura nodded. “Thanks, Lyra. Whether it helps or not, it makes me feel better. And that Jane person seemed to know what she was talking about.”

  “Good to know,” Lyra said, trying not to grimace as she held the vial with her aching hand so that she could twist the cap with her good one. She got it open and sniffed it. It smelled like grape Koolaid. Hey, she thought, at least it’ll go down easy.

  “Is there a dosage thing or do you just drink the whole thing down?” Lyra asked.

  Maura’s expression changed. Lyra ran over and lifted the sheet. The wound was back, and it did not look survivable. Lyra fought back tears and Maura started breathing rapidly. She was crashing. Alarms sounded all around the room.

  “Paging Vax right now!” Gorb yelled. He had said that he was going back to his desk, but he had really hovered nearby keeping an eye on them.

  Lyra did the only thing she could, knowing that even if Vax were already here there was nothing that he or even she herself could do at this point.

  She poured the vial into Maura’s mouth. Tears were streaking down her face. She hurried before the other doctors came in and wondered what the hell she was doing.

  Maura appeared to swallow some of the liquid and her eyes fluttered, but the alarms continued to sound.

  Lyra just stood there, not knowing what to do. Even if Lyra wanted to do something, it would have been physically impossible for her to operate with the condition that her hand was in. Gorb swished in and stood next to her, putting a tendril on her shoulder.

  Vax and Nancy came running into the room. Vax crossed to the bed and lifted up the sheet, looking at Maura’s wound. He frowned.

  “What happened here, Lyra?” he asked. “Why did you wait until it was too late to page me?”

  Nancy covered her mouth with her hand.

  “I told you,” Lyra said softly. “The wound just reappeared. And when it disappears like that and then reappears later, it gets worse. Much worse. See?”