When at last she arrived at Xana’s office, she waited outside, leaning up against the wall. John was supposed to be meeting her, but she couldn’t see him coming in any direction.
The door slid open and a young couple exited, their faces glowing in excitement. She knew what news they had gotten. At least they were happy to have contributed.
Xana poked her head out into the hall. “You can come in Patricia. You’re next.”
Patricia walked in and door slid shut.
Xana walked around her desk and took a seat. “Take a seat. Is John coming?”
Patricia shrugged. “He was supposed to, but I guess not. It’s fine. Just tell me again that I’m not and I can tell him later.”
Xana rolled her eyes. “Well, I love being the one who gets to tell you this, but you’re wrong.”
Patricia stared at Xana a minute, thinking over what she had said. “I’m sorry? I’m wrong? About what?”
“You’re pregnant. You and John are going to have a kid.”
“That’s not possible.”
“You’re not that old.”
“No you don’t understand. He and I barely see each other. How the hell could this happen?”
“You don’t seem happy about this.”
Patricia took a deep breath and said, with as big a smile as she could muster, “I’m happy. It’s fine. It’s better than fine. This is great. I’ll go tell him.”
“Patricia,” Xana said. Her hand reached across the table presumably to grab Patricia’s, but Patricia stood up and moved backward toward the door. “You’ll need to see me in a month for a follow up. And during the jump, I’m recommending that all those who are pregnant be placed in the immobilization room as a safety precaution.”
Patricia nodded. She opened the door and quickly left, passing another couple who were patiently waiting their turn. Her feet carried her up to the first level, but she didn’t know why. She didn’t want to tell him and if he really wanted to know, he would have come. So with a quick walk from one elevator to the other, she turned back and headed to the third level to Tuft’s room.
“What do you want?” Tuft asked as the door slid open. He yawned and stretched high toward the ceiling. “Do you need something?”
“Yes.” Patricia pushed her way inside and, with one final check that no one had seen her, she activated the door to close and lock. “I need to talk to you about something.”
His eyes opened a little wider. “This sounds interesting.”
“It could be. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to pull it off, but I think we can, between the two of us. What I’m about to ask of you, you cannot share with anyone. Not Xana and especially not John. You got that?”
Tuft nodded.
“Good. Someone has come forward and has asked a pretty big favor of me. She needs me to get some information for her. A file of sorts from the archives. She claims it’s not very important, but given that she refuses to do it herself, I’m not sure how much I trust her.”
“Then why are you doing this.”
Patricia shrugged. “She made me an offer and, well, this place is kind of boring.”
“You should really do those virtual reality things sometime. That’ll give you some excitement.”
“That’s funny.” Patricia scowled. “John has access, but he’ll say no. I need you because you know this ship better than me. And every secret she has. Can you get me into that room?”
Tuft smirked. “That ain’t no problem.”
“Now?”
The smirk dropped from his face. “Of course not now, you’ll need to come back when my shift starts or they’ll know something’s up. You can come back later.”
Patricia sighed. “Alright.”
“Do you have to breathe so loud?” Patricia asked looking over her shoulder. They had just gotten into the room. She kept glancing in every direction, trying to find the cameras, but they were well hidden.
“How long’s this going to take?” Tuft asked.
Patricia shrugged. “She just gave me a file name. She said it wasn’t classified so I should be able to access it.” Patricia typed on the keyboard a few numbers and passcodes that she had learned from John; well, taken from John.
“What was the name?”
“Cynosure. Whatever that’s supposed to mean.” Patricia screwed around with the system until at last she was able to find the file. Then, with a clean tablet she’d taken from the storage office earlier that day, Patricia downloaded the file. “Done, let’s go.”
The moment she pushed the chair back, Patricia knew they’d been there too long. There was a soft hum that was slowly growing louder, the computer screen went black. Tuft opened the door and peaked out. “You need to go. I’ll take care of this. Wait one minute then take off to the left.” He didn’t wait for Patricia to respond. He just turned and took off to the right.
Patricia waited a minute, her heart pounding. Then, with an uneasiness, she took off at a run to the left. Looking over her shoulder, she couldn’t see anything. There was no one in the hall. So, it made more sense to slow down. Only the guilty ran. She had every right to walk where she wanted as long as she didn’t try to get into any restricted rooms. She rounded the last leg of the first floor toward the elevator, but stopped. There were two guards, both standing over an unmoving body. One was shaking his head and the other shrugged. Then, as though they had run out of options, they bent down and each grabbed an end and carried the body off.
Even from a distance, she could tell who it had been. She waited until they disappeared round the bend before making a move for the elevator. It took a moment for her to notice what they’d left behind on the floor, but Patricia bent down and picked it up. Tucking the item carefully into her pocket, Patricia got into the elevator.
“What are you doing here?” Xana asked.
Patricia pushed her way into the room and made sure the door was shut to the office. “I need to talk to you. Do you have any reports this morning? Any new patients come in overnight?”
Xana scowled. “Are you quite alright Patricia?”
Patricia bit her tongue. “Can you please just check?”
Xana consulted her records with a quick scroll. “No. No new patients, no injuries, no inquiries. Looks like it was a pretty boring night for the overnight crew.”
Patricia slumped down in the chair. She could feel her legs shaking and a horrible tightness in her chest. “Thanks for looking.”
“Are you okay?”
She shook her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“I think Tuft’s dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
Patricia raised her head to look Xana in the eye. “If I tell you something, I need to know that it’ll stay between us.”
“We’ve been through space and saved the Earth from being a complete wasteland together. I would never turn you in for anything.”
“And we’re not recorded in here.”
“Patient-doctor confidentiality. They cannot place any recording devices in this room. I made sure of that.”
Patricia smiled. She knew she liked Xana. “He helped me to hack the computer system last night using John’s access codes to take a file for Susanna Creighton, the captain’s wife so she could tell me where to suggest her son, Teral, be placed. When we left, he took off the opposite way from me. I saw him lifeless when I circled back toward the elevator. I just thought…hoped…he was knocked out or something.”
“Patricia, are you sure that it was him?”
“Definitely,” she said reaching into her pocket and placing the fake eye onto the desk.
“I’m a doctor and that’s still disgusting. Do you mind removing that?”
“Yeah, sorry. What do they do with the dead?”
“If someone dies during transit, not an expected outcome, I might add, but if it were to happen, protocol states that their bodies be placed in the airlock and jettisoned int
o space. If he’s dead, you won’t find his body anywhere on this ship.”
“And if he’s not dead, where do you think he’ll be?”
“Cryogenics. That’s the first place they would have dragged him if they thought he’d compromised the integrity of our mission.”
Patricia wrung her hands together. “How would I get in there?”
“You wouldn’t, but maybe John could. You might want to talk to him.”
Patricia grimaced. “I don’t think he’ll be as understanding as you’ve been.”
“Alright, suit yourself.” She smiled. “How did he take the news when you told him?”
“I didn’t.”
“What do you mean you didn’t?”
“I didn’t have the chance. I got back to the room late and left really early this morning.”
“Patricia, that’s not something you can keep a secret for too long. You’ll have to tell him.”
“I will.” Patricia started to stand up.
“Wait. What file did you take, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Patricia shrugged retaking her seat. “I never really looked at it.” She pulled the tablet from her pocket. “I kind of guessed it was more of a private thing.” She found herself accessing the file. “I’m not sure I understand any of this.”
Xana took the tablet from her. “I don’t get it either. Maybe you should have John look at it.”
“No can do. Thanks anyway.” She stood and walked away.
8
Contact
The ocean lapped below them as Gerald leaned over to catch a glimpse of anything at all. It seemed that maybe he, Wilk, and Fenny had just been hallucinating the night before. Maybe there was nothing there. Maybe there had never been anything there to begin with.
Wilk walked up beside him and leaned over as well. “Did you expect this?”
Gerald shook his head. “Of course not. I expected to find dust and water. An odd combination by this planets standards for the last twenty years or so. Do you think we really saw what we saw?”
“It's there. I guarantee that. Somewhere. Maybe it's shy.”
“Gerald, Wilk, you two are supposed to be watching, not chatting,” Luna said from somewhere up above.
Wilk leaned in close and whispered, “She's a bit cranky. I don't know what she thinks we're going to do if we find this thing. Take it back to Mars with us?”
Gerald laughed. “I'm curious why she felt a need to put us on a boat and not in the ship. This is stupid. We could see so much more from above than down here.”
Wilk turned around and then looked back at Gerald. “Sutton has a drone and we're on a highly skilled, hover capable water craft with water resistant turbo jets. It's open, safe and, to be quite honest, fun. We never get to use these on Mars. I bet if we figure out what this thing is, this place could easily be an amusement attraction ride of some kind. We could make a killing off trying to sell the experience to those on Mars.”
With a sigh, Gerald glanced back. Luna was gone. Fenny was on the other side of the central cabin and Sutton was below deck. Just he and Wilk were on the starboard side looking out over a vast new ocean that had somehow gained a new life form within a very short amount of time. In his pocket, he had the remains of a former life form, one that had never truly enjoyed the planet.
The ship began to slow down. “Gerald, Wilk, you two will be the first.”
“For what?” Gerald asked whipping around to see Luna had returned to her post. Her silhouette was blinding to look at in front of the setting sun.
“To go below. We need to see if anything is down there or if you three were all sleep deprived and hallucinating.”
“Hallucinating the same thing?” Wilk said. “And, all due respect, I am not going down there.”
“You will if you don't want me to tell Wallis about your extra excursion last night.”
Gerald tried not to glance at Wilk. That would have been an admission of guilt. But he knew that it didn't matter. Somehow she knew that they'd snuck off. How? Had Fenny noticed? He tried to contort his face into one of confusion; he was sure it wasn't coming off that way. “How are we going down there?”
“We'll put you in a pod. It should be enough to protect you in case that thing turns violent.”
“Should be?” Wilk asked in a worried voice. “Can I bribe you with anything to get out of this?”
Luna shook her head. “If you would like, I could call Wallis right now. I thought maybe you'd want to wait to tell him in person when you got back to Mars. You know, look at him with those confused, constipated faces you two always make. See if he buys it.”
Gerald sighed heavily. “Where's the pod?”
“Below deck. Go get suited up.”
Gerald grabbed Wilk by the arm and dragged him to the cabin door. The hovercraft was small. Just large enough to house them all. The whole thing was coated with an artificial durable material that almost felt like a metal to him. But he knew it wasn't metal. The cabin had an observation station above accessed by a lift. Below there were six cots and a bathroom. There were no extras, just a small food chamber with dehydrated, semi-edible things.
In the floor there was a hatch. Sutton stood from where he was seated, tablet in hand, and opened the hatch for them to go down further. “You'll need to put on the suits and helmets in case of craft failure.”
“Oh, great. Now I definitely want to go,” Wilk said. He tried to make a break for the stairs, but Gerald tightened his grip.
“Just get down there,” Gerald said, throwing Wilk toward to the hatch first. He then followed and they descended into the bowels. There were four suits hanging on the wall. “What happens if this thing starts sinking? We draw straws to see who has to go back without a suit?”
Wilk turned to him in confusion. “Draw straws?”
“Never mind. Just get dressed. If we're doing this, I want to get it over with.” Gerald grabbed one of the suits. They all looked to be the exact same size; not big enough. “I hope these stretch,” he mumbled under his breath. It took a little negotiating, but Gerald was able to squeeze into it. The suit was made from a material he had never seen before. It stretched out where he needed it to and was tight where it was supposed to be tight. There appeared to be a shine to it, but when he felt it, it almost felt rough on his fingers, like there were thousands of tiny fibers woven in. It was a bright yellow, almost neon colored, and had a red abacus insignia on the upper left side. Above the suits, on a shelf, were four helmets. Again they all appeared to the same size. He grabbed one and stared at the small opening for a minute before turning to Wilk. “How the hell is my fat head going to fit in this?”
Wilk rolled his eyes. “Just watch.” He grabbed a helmet. Turned it upside down and placed his hands inside the black rim. It pulled open and he bent over, slipping it over his head.
Gerald looked at his helmet. He turned it upside down and placed his hands inside the rim. It didn't stretch. Maybe he had to pull. With a gentle touch, he pulled it outward and the rim began to expand. He kept going until he was sure it was wide enough to accommodate his head. Then, with a slight bend forward, he slipped it on. The black rim immediately contracted back to its original state, fitting snuggly against his neck.
“Place a hand on each side of the rim,” Wilk said.
Gerald could hear him loud and clear inside the helmet, but he was sure that he wouldn't have been able to if it were still off.
“You should be able to feel a small node on each side. Push them in.”
Gerald felt around on the side of his neck. There was a button on each side no bigger than the tip of his finger. He pushed them in and there was a faint click.
“That connected the helmet to the suit to prevent any leaks. Now, that you're suited up, I think I'll let you do this on your own. Have fun down there.”
“Get in the damn pod.” Gerald waited for Wilk to climb in first and then he followed cautiously. The pod had two seats and a control panel. The entire top
was made of a clear metal material, the same used to make the domes back on Mars for those settlements that had physical domes. The same material that just confused Gerald. The moment they were inside, the panel lit up and the top closed. There was a soft hum, which encouraged Gerald that the thing was working. “Do you know how to use this thing?”
Wilk began to push a few buttons. “This is rudimentary. I'm surprised you don't know how.”
“Let's remember where I grew up, shall we.”
“Right. Look I'll operate. You have to be my eyes. Let me know if you see anything.”
“Are you two in yet?” Luna's voice came through loud and clear in their helmets. “You’re both useless, you know that right?”
“Can she hear us?” Gerald asked, holding back the comments he wanted to make.
“Every word,” Luna said. “You two had better be in the water in the next minute or I will have Wallis on the phone.” As though she'd pushed a button above, a timer counting down from one minute popped up on the dome in front of them.
Gerald turned to Wilk for some explanation, but he was busy with the controls. The pod lurched slightly then they fell. The floor must have slid open below them. Once in the water, the timer disappeared. They submerged and began to descend.
The further down they traveled in the soft glowing vessel, the darker, more velvety the water became. Gerald was sure that if the glow of the vessel were to suddenly go out, he would experience what total darkness was like for the first time in his life. He didn’t like it. “How the hell are we supposed to see anything?”
“It'll find us before we find it,” Wilk said.
“And if it does, we'll probably be swallowed whole. You saw the size of that thing,” Gerald said.
“Which is why I didn't want to come down here in the first place. But now that we are here, can you see anything?”
“Really?” Gerald looked around, squinting to catch a glimpse of movement in the water. “The only thing I can make out is our dumb reflections in the dome.”
“Maybe this will help,” Wilk said. He input a few commands and ship grew far brighter. There was a glow around them so powerful that it almost illuminated to five hundred feet out, but it wasn't blinding. Just enough power and light to give them the thing they needed; sight.
The Oceans of Emptiness Page 11
