Keystones: Tau Prime

by Alexander McKinney

  Serenity had been en route back to the Terra Rings since the accident. Everyone wanted to report both the good and bad news of their discovery.

  Green text lit up Deklan’s screen, signaling partial data recovery. New files appeared from the drive. They were videos. Deklan immediately opened one.

  The man staring at him from the screen was one of the two they had found on the bridge. He looked terrified, his eyes wide and his jaw clenched so tightly that the veins bulged. “This is Captain Martin Cranston,” he said. Deklan was struck by the man’s odd accent. “We don’t know who they are, or why they attacked us, but they have a ship unlike any we’ve seen and have refused all transmissions. They’ve shot at us repeatedly. Three of our sister ships have been obliterated. Our only hope is the wormhole. So far they haven’t followed us down it.” The video was interrupted by a violent impact and blaring alarm. Cranston’s head whipped to the side. “People, we have multiple hull breaches. Everyone get to your suits!”

  Deklan saw the effects of sudden depressurization that swept through the room. Objects near Cranston flew away as though touched by a godlike hand. The captain himself choked and then died, a slow process that was agonizing to watch.

  The video continued for some time, focused on the body, before ending. Turning in his seat, Deklan became aware that Jamie had been watching the video with him. “You’d better tell Calm that we may have company in this area,” he said, “and that it’s not necessarily friendly.”

  Jamie nodded, her face solemn. “What are you going to do?”

  “I need to sleep.”

  Refreshed after a long and dreamless slumber, Deklan woke up, showered, and headed to the galley. His clock indicated that it was two in the afternoon. Jamie was already there, a bowl of something steaming in hand.

  She looked at him analytically, smiling in a way that people generally reserve for the mentally handicapped. “You’re up,” she remarked. “You had us all a little worried. You weren’t acting like yourself after The Burningsworth.”

  Deklan shrugged. “Yeah, well, moving those bodies got to me.”

  “And staying up for two days helped you move past that?”

  Deklan thought about it. He did feel better. “Actually, yes.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know,” Deklan replied as he rifled through the supplies looking for something with which to make a hearty breakfast. “Ah, real bacon.”

  Jamie pulled her lemon face. “You know they had to kill an animal to make that, right?”

  Deklan didn’t care. “It tastes better than the vat-grown stuff.”

  Jamie rolled her eyes. “All of you planet-born people say that. It’s nonsense.”

  “It’s not nonsense, and don’t lump me into some faceless group. Some ‘planet-born’ are silly enough to leave real bacon for the rest of us.”

  “Oh, yes, mock the people who don’t believe in animal cruelty.”

  Deklan activated a heating element and laid bacon strips across it. The sound and smell of sizzling bacon wafted across the room. “I fully intend to,” he retorted, “starting with you.”

  “Thanks. I’ll take the vat-grown stuff. It tastes the same, and it’s much cheaper.”

  People always seemed to forget that he was a lawyer. He loved to argue, and right now it was therapeutic. “Right,” added Deklan. “Defend the morality by citing taste and price. That’s not a mixed message.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t worry about it. You lost, that’s all.”

  “What?” said Jamie again.

  “You lost. It’s not a big deal. Don’t let it bother you.” Deklan reached for a breakfast bar to tide him over while he waited for his meal to cook. “Were there any other debates that you wanted to have?”

  Jamie pouted. “No, not particularly.”

  Deklan mumbled his reply around a full mouth. “No one likes a graceless loser.”

  “I am not a graceless loser,” groaned Jamie.

  “Okay, I don’t need to be right.” Deklan shrugged in an insincere manner. “Sure you’re not.” He smirked and turned back to his bacon. “Ah, perfection.” With a spatula he lifted the bacon onto his plate and took a place opposite Jamie at the table.

  Halfway through his meal he was surprised to see Jonny sprinting past, presumably headed toward the bridge. “Oh good,” said Deklan, “a new emergency.”

  “What?” asked Jamie.

  “Jonny just went sprinting by, probably headed to the bridge. I can’t imagine that’s a good sign.” Deklan shoveled the rest of the bacon into his mouth. “Best to get ready.”

  “For what?”

  “Damned if I know.” He headed for the bridge with his mouth still working on the bacon.

  Both Jonny and Calm’s heads were craned over consoles. Jonny spared Deklan a brief glance. “You’re back,” he muttered, “just in time for a new problem.”

  The announcement failed to surprise Deklan. “Yeah.” He kept his voice terse and to the point. “What’s the problem?”

  “The wormhole leading home is missing,” replied Calm.

  “Missing? How can an entire wormhole go missing? How many wormholes does this system have?”

  The main screen lit up as Jonny said, “At least six active wormholes.”

  “How many have you sent probes down?”

  “All of them.”

  “None of them have encountered probes from other routes?” asked Deklan.

  Jonny turned in his chair. “Don’t you think we would have mentioned that?”

  “I wasn’t sure whether you’d even looked for it. Are the probes programmed to keep going or turn back if something like that happens? Do they even have a response ready for an eventuality like that?”

  “He might be right,” interjected Calm. “I didn’t think to expand much beyond the basic protocols.” Calm seemed thoughtful rather than irritated. “We might have a few probes out there that already have a map back. We just need to find them.”

  “How are we going to do that?” asked Jonny. “There are six wormholes and only one of us.”

  Deklan had another question. “Can the probes exchange data and instructions when they meet?”

  “Yes,” replied Calm.

  “I don’t see what the fuss is,” added Jonny. “We passed lots of systems with multiple wormholes. There’s bound to be another way home. We’ll find it. In the meantime, if we don’t know the way home, whoever attacked The Burningsworth probably doesn’t know either.”

  Deklan didn’t like the “probably,” but he didn’t have anything better to contribute.

  Calm had been nodding as everyone was speaking. “It’s decided then,” he declared. “We send probes down all six and choose one at random to follow ourselves. We will see Earth again.”

  Deklan wasn’t sure how eager he was to see Earth. What about Susan? Was she trapped behind a closed wormhole, just as lost as he was? Another thought nagged at him. How much of this had Cheshire known when he’d pointed Deklan in the direction of Serenity?

  Day 24

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  New Problems

  Deklan swore as he tried to get at some difficultly placed circuitry. No matter how easy the diagrams made it look, something always made the job harder.

  His left hand and forearm were buried deep within a damaged probe. The tips of his fingers brushed against the board that he was trying to reach. According to the diagnostics it had jostled loose. It was a wonder that the probe had remained viable. Deklan just needed to replace the board, if he could ever get a grip on it. It was irritating: Jonny and Calm were both pilots; Jamie was the ship’s doctor; and while Deklan had signed on as legal counsel, somehow he had become the repair technician, a post for which he was eminently unqualified.

  He pushed a little further. There! He had a grip and pulled, but his hand was stuck. He lifted the entire probe with both hands and walked over to an intercom, keying it to Jamie’s room. “I need your help down here.”
He tried not to sound sheepish and failed miserably.

  Her voice was almost cheerful. Jamie was the only one of them who was still upbeat after the Serenity had gotten lost. “What have you done this time?” she asked.

  Deklan sighed. “Could you just help me?”

  Her voice lost none of its cheer. “Why not? You’re the only person on this ship who ever needs medical attention.”

  Minutes later Jamie was in the bay with him. “There’s a medical term for these sorts of situations—haesit. It comes from Latin.”

  Deklan knew some Latin, mostly having to do with legalese, but this term didn’t ring a bell. “What does that mean?” he asked.

  Jamie looked at him, her cheerful face suddenly serious and her tone solemn. “Stuck.”

  He glowered at her. He probably would have laughed if Jonny had been the one with his hand in the probe. “Very funny. Help me.”

  “Sure.” Jamie put one hand on Deklan’s wrist and another on the probe.

  “No, that’s not going to. . . .” Deklan didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence. Jamie pushed and pulled before his hand came free with a tearing sensation accompanied by a burst of yellow light.

  The last time Deklan had seen that light he’d collapsed and woken up to Jamie’s inspecting him. This time it just gave him a severe headache. Jamie didn’t fare as well.

  She collapsed on the ground with her eyes rolled back into her head and showing only the whites. Then she changed. Her skin ran like wax, her features melting away and her hair vanishing. In seconds Deklan was looking at a pallid and featureless person.

  Stumbling back in shock, he slammed the back of his head against the wall behind him. A headache exploded like shrapnel piercing his skull, and his knees suddenly buckled.

  Down on the ground Jamie was inert save for the rise and fall of her chest.

  Deklan tried to ignore the obvious and focus on what needed to be done, but it was impossible. The resemblance was too strong.

  Jamie looked just like Slate.

  Deklan prepared to gather her up and carry her to the medical bay. However, the instant his hand made contact with her shoulder, she vanished.

  Deklan jumped again, his heart a freight train that had surged from the station without warning. He’d seen Slate teleport hundreds of times, but that didn’t make such occurrences any less surprising.

  He flipped the intercom and broadcast his voice throughout the ship. “Jamie, we mean you no harm. Jonny, Calm, I’m coming to the bridge.”

  Once there a winded Deklan abruptly announced, “We have a problem.”

  Calm sat alone at a console, caution written large on his face. “Go on,” he said.

  Deklan’s words burst out of him between recuperative breaths. “Jamie’s a Keystone. All of her features vanished, and she teleported.” Deklan panted twice. “I met a Keystone with those powers back in Boa Vista when I was trying to get to the Terra Rings. Jamie said that she was in Boa Vista at the same time as I was.”

  “Why don’t you sit down, Deklan?” Calm patted a chair. “Let’s go over this slowly. You’ve had a trying few days.”

  Deklan slammed his fist down on a console. “No! This is not a delusion. Jamie just vanished! We need to find her.”

  Calm held his hands up. “Okay, okay. We’ll find her.” He flicked a few icons. “Jamie,” said Calm, “can you hear me?”

  With barely a pause Jamie came back over the com system. “I’m a little busy, and I’ve got a headache. Can this wait?”

  Calm sounded apologetic. “Unfortunately, no. I need you here.”

  Deklan was shocked again when Jamie walked onto the bridge less than a minute later, a headache patch on her arm. “What’s the emergency?” she asked. Her voice was unusually low and waspish.

  What was Deklan going to say? His mouth worked up and down, but nothing came out.

  “Deklan,” said Jamie, “I have a headache. What’s wrong?”

  Calm replied, “Deklan needs some sedatives. He’s still overwrought from The Burningsworth.”

  Jamie bobbed her head back and forth a few times, measuring the statement. “Oh,” she answered flatly.

  Deklan knew that he wasn’t overwrought. “I don’t want sedatives,” he proclaimed.

  Calm’s words were adamant. “I’m going to have to insist.”

  “No! This is not the military. You’re just my employer, nothing more.” Deklan stormed off the bridge.

  Jamie found him a few minutes later. “Deklan, what’s wrong? Why does Calm think that you need sedatives?”

  “You know perfectly well why,” he said, his voice an angry snarl. “What was that? Who are you? Where did you go?”

  Jamie was an outstanding actress, managing to look baffled by his questions and accusations. She stepped back from him and wrapped her arms around herself defensively. She was so convincing that Deklan almost doubted himself. Almost.

  “Deklan,” she began, her voice tender. “It’s okay. Whatever it is, it’s okay.” She moved closer to him and brushed him on the shoulder.

  He jerked away.

  “You just need to sleep,” she continued in the same comforting way.

  Deklan opened his mouth to unleash an angry retort, but it was stifled by a yawn. He felt very sleepy.

  Jamie held up her hand and showed him the palm. There was a needle protruding from between two fingers. Deklan hadn’t even felt it. He yawned again and staggered against the wall. It was a challenge to keep his eyes focused on her.

  As his legs turned rubbery, he slid down the wall to the floor.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Glitches

  He heard an unpleasant screaming noise. Deklan swam into foggy consciousness. It wasn’t screaming but instead an alarm. He tried to reach up and rub his eyes, but metal cuffs around his wrists kept him stuck in place.

  At least he thought they were metal. It was hard to be sure because his eyes wouldn’t focus properly. He yawned. “Hello?” he said. “Hello?” There was no answer, only the alarm.

  The lights went out, not a good sign on a spaceship. He rattled his restraints, not knowing what he thought he’d accomplish. “Hello?”

  Still no one answered him. If the lights were out, the com system might be too. Deklan needed to get out of the bed.

  When the lights flickered back on, so did the com system. “Full power restored!” blared Jonny’s voice.

  “What happened? Let me out of this bed!” shouted Deklan.

  “Deklan?” queried Jonny. “You’re already awake?”

  They knew that Jamie had him in restraints, Deklan realized. “What happened?” he asked. “Why did the ship lose power?”

  “We don’t know,” replied Jonny evasively.

  “Let me out of here. I can at least try to help.”

  “Deklan. . . .” Jonny’s voice trailed off.

  Deklan tried to be reasonable. “If the ship loses power, we all die.”

  “You don’t.” The words were flat and cold.

  “Are you sure of that? I’m not.” Deklan hated begging. “Please, Jonny, let me help.”

  “Sorry, but I can’t take that chance.”

  Deklan lay in the bed for hours. Jamie checked on him twice, but was tight-lipped about what was going on in the ship. At least she didn’t drug him again. When Jamie wasn’t checking on him, he had nothing to do but use voice commands to scroll through documents, reading anything to stay occupied.

  The monotony was broken when a failure in gravity occurred. Sirens wailed again: “Decompression Alert,” “Decompression Alert.”

  Deklan shook the restraints that held him down. “Let me get to an EVA suit!” he shouted.

  The room was blanketed in total darkness. When the power came back a second later, Cheshire was floating in the air at the foot of his bed. His posture was such that he wouldn’t have looked out of place lounging in a beach chair and sipping a margarita. Cheshire looked much the same as when Deklan had last seen him, wearing a s
mile that indicated he knew more than he was telling. “Well, isn’t this exciting?” Cheshire emphasized the last word.

  “Where did you come from? Wait, no, I don’t care.” The first priority was freedom from the metal cuffs around his wrists. “Get me out of these.”

  Cheshire stoked his chin and stared off into the distance with a meditative expression. “Get me out of these, please?”

  “What’s going on here?” asked Deklan.

  “I’m trying to teach you some manners. It appears that it will be an uphill battle.”

  Deklan took a moment and exhaled, hoping that the throbbing vein in his temple wasn’t visible. “What’s going on with the ship? Why is the power going out? Why isn’t there gravity anymore?”

  “Oh, well, there’s a parasite onboard, and Serenity has been shot by an alien warship.”

  A tide of fear rose inside Deklan, and his mouth went dry. He didn’t trust Cheshire, but the man hadn’t ever directly lied to him before.

  Cheshire patted his forehead. “It has something to do with religious differences. I believe they think that sentient beings from other species are abominations who must be exterminated.” He shrugged his shoulders as though this were some sort of minor detail. “Anyway, it’s something like that.”

  “An alien warship?”

  “The aliens aren’t really the important thing right now,” replied Cheshire. “Well, yes, they are, but it’s the parasites that I wanted to tell you about. They’re a . . . let’s call them a sister species to the parasites that infect you and me, the ones that give us our Keystone abilities. They come from the wormholes. Instead of infecting higher life forms, they damage machinery and circuitry.” He snapped his fingers and grinned. “Very inconvenient for an advanced space-faring civilization like ours. Not even I know how to combat them.” Cheshire snapped his fingers again and feigned an expression as though he’d just remembered something. “Oh, that’s right. You wanted me to let you out of your restraints. Your crewmates are too busy right now, what with trying to survive and all.”