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

by L. A. Johnson

  She unbandaged her hand.

  “Lyra!” Nancy said. “How is this even possible? It’s only been a few minutes.”

  “I don’t know. You’re the one with the crazy aunts. I was hoping you would have some answers.”

  “Well, I called all of the ghost people I know, and ghosts simply don’t do this sort of thing. They don’t physically injure people. They’re not aggressive. And they don’t cause physical wounds. And these ghosts did act like digital ghosts at first. Normally, they just lurk around and suck the juice out of your cellphones and tablets when you’re not looking.”

  “So how in the name of whatever did we end up with a killer digital ghost infestation?”

  Across the room, Maura took in a deep breath. Lyra, Vax, and Nancy looked at each other and then ran to Maura’s bedside. It simply wasn’t possible for her to be okay with the injuries she had sustained.

  Lyra pulled the sheet up again. The wound was gone again.

  Maura opened her eyes.

  “Maura!” Lyra was torn at the whole sequence of events. Was Maura back from the dead? Was she a ghost? Could she believe her eyes this time?

  Maura actually sat up. “It’s gone, Lyra!”

  “Whoa,” they all yelled at her. “Lay back! You take it easy.”

  “What do you mean it’s gone?” Lyra asked.

  “I can feel it,” Maura said. “The wound isn’t coming back. It’s not there anymore.”

  “What’s going on?” Vax asked.

  “Lyra gave Maura some powerful orc medicine and it cured her ghost monster wound,” Gorb said, summing it all up for him.

  That confirmed for Lyra that he had basically eavesdropped on their entire conversation, which for once came in handy.

  “Are you sure that it’s gone?” Lyra asked Maura. “I mean, how do you know?”

  “I just know,” Maura said. “I can’t explain it, but I’m absolutely, one hundred percent sure that I’m better. Oh, Lyra, your hand.” Maura pulled herself up to a sitting position this time without anybody stopping her. She was starting to look a lot better. Miraculously so.

  Lyra looked around self-consciously. “I’m sure I can probably get a prosthetic and be okay.”

  Vax took her hand very gently and studied it for a minute before sighing and shaking his head. “I can’t save it, Lyra. I can make the cut as clean as possible so that the transition to the prosthetic is as easy as possible. Okay?”

  Lyra nodded.

  “Wait!” Maura said. “The second vial. Of orc juice. You drink it. It saved me, maybe it can save your hand too.”

  Lyra remembered the other vial of purple Koolaid liquid in her pocket. She took it out and showed it to Vax and Nancy.

  “Where did you get that?” Nancy asked.

  “Maura got it from the orc woman, remember? The orc woman had two vials.”

  She glanced at Maura. “And frankly, it’s the only explanation for what happened. Are you sure I can have it, Maura? If that wound comes back-“

  “It’s not coming back, Lyra. I promise. And you would have probably taken care of your hand if you weren’t so busy trying to take care of me. I want you to drink it.”

  Gorb swished back and forth excitedly. “Yeah, Lyra. Drink the potion. What do you have to lose? Except your hand, of course.”

  Lyra took a deep breath. Everybody was looking at her. And she was willing to try anything to keep the hand. With one more glance at the rapidly healing Maura, she handed the vial to Vax. “A little help?”

  Vax opened the vial and handed it back.

  Lyra held it in her good hand and sniffed the liquid. It smelled exactly the same as the first vial.

  “Well,” she said, “here goes nothing.” She drank it down. Then she wiped her mouth and set the empty vial down next to the one that Maura had used.

  “How long does it take to work?” Vax asked.

  Lyra tried to think about it. She had given Maura the liquid when she had crashed. It was a few minutes later that she had woken up. She hadn’t been timing it or looking at a clock, however, so she couldn’t be sure.

  “I don’t know,” Lyra said. “At that point I wasn’t looking at the clock. It was a few minutes, I guess.” Lyra wasn’t sure what to do now. They all just stood there staring at her, including Maura, who continued to look healed.

  Gorb gasped and pointed a tendril at Lyra’s hand. “Look, your hand is better.”

  Lyra looked down, still cradling the hand. Gorb was right, though. There it was, all nice and pink and not open weeping and infected.

  She turned her hand over and over and flexed it. It felt fine. A different kind of fine than before. Now she knew what Maura had been talking about.

  “I can’t believe it,” she said. “I’m going to be able to keep my hand. I can actually help with patients again. Which is a great thing,” she said shaking her head, “because I never got around to telling Grayson that I was injured in the first place.”

  Before, even when the wound had disappeared and other people couldn’t see it, it had still felt the same and the pain and oozing feeling had stayed. She made a fist. There was no pain, no wound, and no blood.

  “How do you like that?” Lyra asked.

  Vax took her hand again and looked it over for himself. “Remarkable,” he said. “If I hadn’t been right here in the room with both of you when this happened I honestly wouldn’t believe it. I still don’t know exactly what’s going on and what’s in this crazy orc juice, but I gotta say, I’m a believer. I’m really happy for you two.”

  All of them were in the middle of giving Maura a group hug when Gorb came into the room. He must have gone back into the waiting room during all of the excitement of Lyra’s hand getting better. Instead of joining them, though, he stayed near the door and he didn’t seem happy.

  “Come on in, Gorb. I’ve never seen you miss out on a group hug before,” Nancy said.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “but the waiting room is full of people with injuries. And they all say that the wounds are playing peek-a-boo.”

  Uh-oh, Lyra thought. They had used both vials, and without that strange orc liquid, they had been powerless to stop the injuries from getting more and more serious. The more she thought about it, the more alarmed she became. The idea of being on constant standby to clean up these crazy, peekaboo, ghost wounds that were simply going to get progressively worse despite their best efforts was terrifying.

  “Hey Maura,” she said at last. “You said you had this orc woman’s contact information? Because it looks like we’re going to need a lot more of that fancy purple Koolaid.”

  “Jane,” Maura said. “Her name’s Jane. And that’s all I know.”

  “I think you’d better call Jane,” Vax said, “and hope she already has an assembly line going for more of that potion. I’ll stay here and triage whatever wounds are visible until you can get back.”

  “Good plan,” Lyra said to Vax.

  She turned to Maura. “Can I just call Jane back on your phone?”

  Maura nodded.

  She dialed Jane, who picked up on the second ring.

  “Hello? Jane? It’s Lyra, a friend of Maura’s. Yes, the Maura who took on the monster. Hey, look. Maura was infected with some sort of ghost wound. Oh, you know about that? Well, your vials worked. And now we have other patients who have similar wounds and we’re out of potion. We need some more. Those were all you had? Any other ideas on treating ghost wounds? No? Well, thanks for your time.”

  Lyra hung up and shook her head at Maura. “We’re going to have to find another way.”

  Her phone buzzed a notification. She put Maura’s phone back and took her phone out.

  It was Callista. Again.

  She texted Callista back. Hey, here’s an idea, Callista. Why don’t you come over to the hospital? We’re really busy right now, and I’ve been to your office like a dozen times already today. So if you really want to talk, you know where to find me.

  Callista’
s response was short and to the point. “Fine.”

  While Lyra was waiting for Callista to come to the hospital, she decided to make herself useful.

  Lyra and Nancy got on their work computers and started researching everything they could find on ghost wounds. Both came up empty.

  Holding her face in her hands, Lyra tried to think about what to do next. Then she thought about her hand. It was a good thing for Maura’s vial. Yay, at least my hand is better.

  Now, at least she could continue to help people as a doctor. She tried not to think about how close she had gotten to a major life adjustment.

  Gorb snuck up on her. “Hey, boss? I think you need to come and see this.”

  “It had better be good news,” Lyra said.

  Gorb shook his head.

  “You got me some coffee?” Lyra asked hopefully.

  “Double nope, boss. I’m sorry. It’s bad. Really bad. Hurry.” He floated back down the hallway without waiting for her.

  Oh no, Lyra thought.

  Her one overwhelming thought was that she didn’t, in fact, want to know what was going on if it was bad. Unless it was good, really good, save everybody good, she decided she would rather just hide here in her office.

  “Lyra, you’d better hurry,” Gorb’s voice rang out through the hallway. She hadn’t meant to ignore him, she was just getting to be in an overwhelmed, panicked state. “Ian needs you.”

  That last part spurred her into action. Lyra jumped up and sprinted frantically into the waiting room where Gorb was staring at his computer.

  “What did you just say?” Lyra asked. “What was that about Ian?”

  “See for yourself,” he said, pointing a tendril at his computer. “Oh here, I’ll rewind it to the beginning, but it doesn’t look good. It looks like he’s been kidnapped by ghosts.”

  “Oh,” Lyra said. “No, no, no, no. That can’t be.” She looked at her phone and had three more missed messages from him. She started pacing.

  “This can’t be happening. He’s been sending me these messages, saying he needed help. I thought he was messing with me, Gorb! Or I thought the communications were still all wonky. You know, like they were this morning?” She showed him her phone.

  “I don’t think he’s kidding this time,” Gorb said, “but if I were you I’d be jealous, that ghost girl looks really good on screen.”

  Lyra narrowed her eyes at Gorb and stepped behind his computer so she could watch whatever it was he was looking at. Gorb hit play.

  “Welcome to Fear Zone Universe!” Lyra watched as a knockout, glowing ginger announced Ian’s show.

  “Okay,” Lyra said, “who the hell is she and what is she doing on Ian’s show?”

  “Hey!” Ian objected on the screen. The camera panned over to him. “It’s my show. I’m the one who says welcome to Fear Zone Universe.”

  “Gorb, what am I looking at, here?” Lyra asked.

  “Don’t worry, boss. The ghost ginger lady will explain it all. And believe me, her special effects are top notch.”

  “You might want to pay attention to this next part, Ian dear, as it pertains to you,” ghost ginger continued cheerfully. “Welcome, fans. My name is Aquila. I’m your new host and I promise you won’t be disappointed.” She paused for a second and then stared at Ian. “Oh, that’s a good one, Ian. Tell them what you’re thinking, honey.”

  “Honey?” Lyra blurted out. “Just who does this ghost think she is? Hey wait a minute. Aquila, Aquila…that sounds familiar.”

  She looked up Ian’s texts and he did mention her name. Okay, at least now Lyra knew that the whole thing was real. Probably. And confusing as hell.

  “Fine, I was thinking that you’re a ghost host,” the Ian on the screen said. “And also, that I have a girlfriend, which I’ve told you repeatedly. And when she sees this video she’s going to kill me even though I have no idea what is going on. And then for sure she’s going to kill you.”

  Lyra studied his face. He was scared and confused. Her heart sank. She felt terrible now for not paying more attention to the text messages he had sent.

  In her defense, it had not been that long ago that Maura was on the verge of death. And she had also nearly lost her own hand to infection.

  Still, it was hard to see Ian like this. She had no choice except to keep watching.

  Aquila, on the screen, blinked at Ian and then turned her attention back to the camera. “Whatever, honey. We’ll talk about your ex-girlfriend later. But yes, the ghost-host thing was fun, let’s go with that.”

  “I know she didn’t just say that,” Gorb said, looking at Lyra and pausing it.

  “I thought you already saw this,” Lyra said.

  “I did, and that’s exactly what I said the first time. I’m recreating it for you.”

  “Thanks,” Lyra said. “Now keep going.”

  Gorb pressed play again.

  Aquila continued with her introduction. “And as your new ghost-host, that’s what I’m here for,” she said, shamefully mugging for the camera.

  And also wearing too much makeup, Lyra thought, you can’t get away with that in high definition, sweetie.

  “To tell you what’s going on in tonight’s absolutely ground breaking, never been done before television event of the century. To get things started, I have to tell you that I have good news and bad news.”

  On the screen, Aquila snapped her finger and a countdown clock appeared over her head with large, glowing, digital numbers. It was set to exactly two hours. She snapped her fingers again and the countdown clock started running, ticking down.

  “I’ll start with the bad news,” Aquila continued. She gave Ian an annoying, exaggerated frown. “Ian, here is going to mortally perish when the clock strikes zero.”

  The live audience gasped in unison.

  Ian gasped on the screen. It was a perfectly timed, heart-wrenching reaction shot that made Lyra want to reach into the screen and tear this Aquila ghost apart with her bare hands.

  There was a gasp behind Lyra, and she turned to see Nancy had snuck in behind her. “What the hell is going on, Lyra?”

  “Oh no. A clock. He mentioned something about time in one of his texts.” She looked it up. “He said he only had two hours left. And that was fifteen minutes ago.” A new rush of panic washed over her. And the worst thing was she had no idea what to do next. She kept watching.

  Ghost ginger continued her speech. “That’s okay, though, because you haven’t heard the good news yet. Once he sheds that weird, smelly body-“

  “Hey!” Ian on the screen objected, reflexively sniffing himself.

  “As I was saying,” Aquila continued, “I will digitize him. And then he and I and Fear Zone Universe will a part of your lives and a living part of the internet forever!”

  The ghosts around Aquila cheered and clapped.

  “How is that good news, exactly?” Ian asked. His face was nearly as white as the ghosts. “I’m going to die, right?”

  “You’ll only die physically,” Aquila replied. “And once you’ve been digitized, then we can be together.”

  Ian persisted. “No offense and all, but as I keep telling you. Over and over,” he muttered, “even though you don’t seem to be listening, is that I have a girlfriend. She’s a doctor named Lyra. And when she finds out about all of this, she’s going to be really mad.”

  “At you?” Aquila asked.

  “No!” Ian yelled. “At you. For killing me and everything. You really should start listening.”

  “Oh, you mean the girl who got bit by my Millie?”

  The adorable little ghost fox that bit Lyra was now on Aquila’s lap. Right there on the screen. Lyra’s mind raced. What the hell. That Aquila ghost chick caused all of this?

  “This whole thing was a setup?” Ian on the screen asked.

  “Yes. Trust me, Millie’s bite was worse than it looked. Your girlfriend will be gone even before you, if my math is correct. And my ghost minions have seriously injured more than enough
of the station’s residents to keep her busy until both of you are gone. So I wouldn’t count on her.”

  "Wow,” Lyra said, “if it weren’t for Maura’s potion I guess I would have lost more than my hand. What is that crazy ghost girl even doing here and why is she doing this to us?”

  The live feed then continued with Aquila apparently done with her speech and sitting down on what looked to be a throne. Then all of the ghosts in the neon room sat around in their throw chairs looking at their phones, which was something that Lyra didn’t think ghosts did, but there they were.

  “Is that it, Gorb? Or is there more to the video?”

  “Yes, there’s some more after that, but not anything exciting. They just sit around waiting for that clock to go down.”

  Lyra screamed in frustration. “This whole thing was a setup. All of it. For what? For her to take over a stupid web show?”

  “Sounds like she’s going to take over everything,” Nancy said. “Looks like she’s controlling entertainment right now, but if she’s physical enough to kill and has an army of ghosts, and also controls all of our information and communication? Well, she probably could take over everything. Everywhere. Who would be safe?”

  Lyra paced back and forth. “No woman, living or dead, is going to just sneak in here and take my man.” She paced some more.

  “Hey, Gorb? Something’s bothering me. What exactly is she? This Aquila? The other ghosts are pale, but she looks almost physical. Is she different than the rest of them? And where do you think they filmed that footage? I don’t recognize it as being on Celestica. Where do you think she took him?”

  Gorb shimmied back and forth. “No idea, boss.”

  “Nancy? Are there human-ghost hybrids?”

  “I don’t know, let me find out.”

  That’s when Callista came through the door. The ten minutes between Lyra’s irritated text and her arrival felt like an eternity. And everything had changed. Lyra wished it hadn’t. How could this day keep getting worse?

  “Hey,” Callista said, looking around at all the shocked and angry faces. “What did I miss?”

  Before anybody could answer, Callista got a text message and read it. She looked up. “Uh-oh, looks like we should get down to the communications hub.”