The Death of the Universe: Ghost Kingdom: Hard Science Fiction (Big Rip Book 2)

by Brandon Q Morris

  Kepler pressed himself against the roof of the side passage. If someone was to briefly shine a light in there, he’d remain hidden. A beam of light was now bouncing around frantically in the shaft. It was probably hanging from one of the thieves’ belts. Out of the corner of his eye Kepler could see the hose creeping down past him like a giant caterpillar. He could also make out the arms and legs of the thief. The hose was obscuring his body. But the other man wasn’t there yet, so Kepler remained in his hiding place. Maybe he was still waiting up top until the hatch to the interior was opened.

  Now a second beam of light wandered down slowly. Kepler remained unobserved. He drew his weapon. He didn't intend to fire it—that would be dangerous. The plan was to surround the thieves. He and Ada would come from above, while Zhenyi waited in the middle, and the butler and Valja would come out of the side passage below. Hopefully, the thieves would surrender when they realized they were outnumbered.

  Kepler left his passageway and pointed his lamp downward, but didn’t turn it on.

  “Stop, you’re under arrest,” Ada said in a commanding tone on the universal frequency.

  The hose jerked. Kepler turned his lamp on. A man in a spacesuit came toward him. Kepler pointed the weapon at him. The man raised his arms.

  “You’re under arrest,” Ada repeated. “Give yourself up.”

  The man below Kepler appeared to be obeying the command. Ada sank down toward him. She had mechanical handcuffs in one of her left hands. The man cooperatively put his hands behind his back. Ada moved behind him and then he kicked out at her with his legs. He caught her abdomen and she was pushed sideways by the momentum.

  “Uff,” said Ada, but didn’t let it show. She shoved off with her lower right arm, then lunged with her upper arms and struck the man hard on the neck from both sides. He yelped and gave up the fight. Ada cuffed him. “Everything okay with you guys?” she inquired.

  “We’ve got the other one,” replied Zhenyi. “Puppy is taking care of the hatch.”

  “Good. Let’s bring them both up to the surface,” Ada said, and then asked her captive, “Is there anyone else?”

  “No.”

  She raised her upper arms again.

  “No, it’s just the two of us.”

  “If that’s not true, you’re dead,” said Ada, and it sounded as though she meant it.

  Fresh air! Kepler was the last to stumble out of the airlock. The thieves’ shuttle was equipped for a crew of two. For the six of them to fit on two seats, they had to literally lie on top of one another. The butler had volunteered to remain on the surface of the Gigadyson. The shuttle would return for him later.

  The thieves’ spaceship seemed quite modest. It was a ninety-fiver—Kepler had recognized that from the size of the propulsion units as they were approaching. Going from 95 to 99 percent of light speed took an enormous amount of power, which required much larger propulsion units. But a ninety-fiver was perfect for the theft of fuel. A ninety-niner would have to keep consuming a much greater portion of the spoils.

  Kepler held onto the repainted, partially rusty metal wall. The gravity felt Earth-like. They found themselves in a rotating ring of cabins that circled around the storage bays. The ship was showing its age. Wires and cables ran across its panels, most probably rerouted connections. What would the sanitation area look like? They had decided that he and Ada, who had been at the bottom of the pile in the shuttle, would be allowed to take the first showers. Clean water—he’d be willing to endure anything for that. But looking at the ship’s hardware filled him with doubt.

  “The bathroom is on the right side down here,” directed one of the thieves with a head nod.

  The two men looked so similar that he kept mixing them up. They were allegedly uncle and nephew. The younger of the two was called Billy Mason, the elder said his name was Klaus Störtebeker. Kepler didn’t think that either of them was registered under these dubious-sounding names, but they’d soon find out.

  Ada turned into the passage the thief had indicated and Kepler followed. He would rather have showered with Zhenyi, but there was no way she would have volunteered to sit at the bottom of the heap. The passage ended in a white-painted metal door. Kepler opened it and let Ada through. The room behind it contained a washbasin, a toilet equipped with a suction mechanism for low gravity, and two shower cubicles—capsules with matte glass walls. Good. The toilet was open to the rest of the room, but that urge could wait.

  Then he realized he’d have to undress before showering. And there was no curtain to provide any privacy.

  “Shall I leave the room?” he asked.

  “It’s okay,” said Ada. “I’m not interested in men, and I don’t have a problem seeing colleagues naked.”

  Kepler hesitated. But Ada always said what she thought. It was more his own sense of shame nagging at him. Everything would take twice as long if they all used the bathroom individually, and he couldn’t make the others wait unnecessarily.

  “If you say so,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to a shower.”

  “So am I,” agreed Ada.

  And he could tell. She didn’t undress so much as tore the suit and underwear from her body. With four arms, this looked so impressive that Kepler forgot to undress. In less than two minutes Ada stood naked next to him, and he was still wearing the lower part of the spacesuit.

  “Never seen a four-armed person naked before?” Ada asked.

  Kepler nodded, then shook his head, and then realized he was staring at her. The double-arm setup on her sides was fascinating. It made Ada look like an athletic Indian goddess of war. Kepler averted his gaze.

  “You’re sweet,” said Ada.

  The glass door of her shower cubicle squeaked as she climbed in. Kepler snapped out of his trance when he heard the rushing water. That’s what he was here for! Steam poured out of the chinks in Ada’s cubicle. He hurriedly finished undressing and finally he too was standing under the shower.

  The water was hot and heavenly. He let it pelt his body. It felt like several layers of filth were being washed away at once. Hopefully the life support system’s recycling processor would be able to cope with it. But it didn’t really matter. They would only be on board until the case was solved. Then the impounded ninety-fiver would fly back to the Convention with its former crew as prisoners, and they’d returned home in the Mario.

  There was a knocking on the shower cubicle. Kepler turned off the water and wiped the panel until he could make out Ada’s outline.

  “Leave some water for the others,” she said. “Quarter of an hour should be enough.”

  Did that mean he’d already been under the shower for 15 minutes? Kepler couldn’t believe it.

  “I’m already dressed,” said Ada, “and I’m going back to the control room.”

  “Thanks for reminding me. I’ll hurry up.”

  He met Zhenyi in the corridor.

  “Oh, you smell good,” she said.

  That must be the aftershave he’d found on the washbasin and applied liberally. His fresh clothes were still waiting on board the Mario and he’d only been able to change his underwear.

  “Have fun in the shower,” he said.

  “I’m looking forward to showering together again once we’re back home,” said Zhenyi.

  He nodded. If only they were already there. Did that comment indicate the interrogation of the thieves was going well?

  Kepler entered the control room. It was much smaller than the one on their ship. The screens in front of the two captain’s seats had been torn out of their brackets and replaced by other models that didn’t quite fit. Cables were slung from the ceiling. A bucket stood in a corner to catch drips. What did the crew do when the ship accelerated, or was operating in zero gravity?

  The two thieves obviously weren’t living in the lap of luxury. They were now sitting on a low bench off to one side. Valentina was evidently questioning them.

  “We flew straight to the coordinates and unloaded,” explain
ed Störtebeker, the older of the two.

  He reminded Kepler of the former Secretary of the Convention, Christopher Columbus. Störtebeker looked incredibly stiff. Kepler could easily imagine him in a shabby gray suit in place of the blue overall he was currently wearing. How had he ever come to be doing this job?

  “And after the landing?” asked Valentina.

  “We rolled out the hose and went to the maintenance hatch,” said Billy Mason, Störtebeker’s sidekick. “Then we entered the code.”

  Although Mason did look a lot like his alleged uncle, he seemed to be much less intelligent. But maybe he was deliberately giving that impression so they all thought Störtebeker was the mastermind, hoping he—as only the accomplice—would receive a lesser sentence. Kepler didn’t believe they were actually related. Where could they have met? He imagined them both dropping in at a bar one evening after work. Then he realized that the last public bar had closed many megacycles ago due to a lack of customers. It was weird that his own recollection of it was still so vivid.

  “And how’d you get your hands on the code?” asked Valentina.

  Kepler watched her. Was she deliberately changing the way she spoke, or was that just an empathetic reaction? This Mason seemed to have a talent for influencing other people.

  “No idea,” said Mason. “My uncle arranged that.”

  “You’re the one who said I shouldn’t worry about the code,” Störtebeker contradicted him.

  Mason shot him a piercing look, which Kepler noticed

  Apparently Valentina did, too. “You two should have gotten your stories straight,” she said.

  “It ain’t no story,” said Mason. “The onboard computer just spat out the code when I asked for it.”

  “And how did the onboard computer come to have the code?”

  “What do I care?” said Mason.

  “Are you trying to say the computer knew the coordinates of the shafts with the lowest chance of being monitored, and the corresponding codes, without your input?”

  “Yes, Staff Sergeant, that’s exactly what happened,” said Mason.

  “Valentina, let me take over,” said Ada. “You’ve really earned your shower.”

  “Thanks, honey,” said Valentina, and she left the control room.

  “One more time,” said Ada. “You maintain that you simply followed the computer’s instructions. So the computer is actually the main culprit.”

  “Yeah, you could say that,” said Störtebeker.

  “The problem is, it’s only a level 2 AI. It’s not capable of manipulating a human.”

  “Maybe it’s defective,” said Mason. “I’ve heard of AIs like this that could do more than people thought they could.”

  “We’ll look into that,” said Ada.

  “As soon as the butler’s on board, he can take care of that,” said Kepler. “He’s at least a level 9 AI and isn’t easily fooled.”

  At that moment someone flung open the door to the control room from outside. A pile of scrap was pushed into the room. Kepler recognized the butler behind it. He’d just mentioned him! Sometimes it really felt like he was in some kind of scripted reality. Was this all coincidence? Was there even such a thing as coincidence in his life, or had some higher power already planned everything?

  “Good timing,” said Kepler. “We’ve got a couple of uncooperative storytellers and we were just talking about you.”

  “I’m glad, Johannes, I’m always happy to help. But first let me get this scrap out of the way. I found it in the intermediate storage depot.”

  “What is it?” asked Kepler. “Couldn’t you have left it there?”

  “It’s evidence,” said the butler. “Allow me to introduce autonomous unit BM13.” He held up a piece of metal that may have been part of a solar panel.

  “You were responsible for BM13?” Ada stood between the thieves and held both their heads up with two hands each. “Well? Talk already!” She manipulated the criminals’ jaws. Her arms were so muscular that she probably could easily have dislocated their jaws. Or torn them out.

  That’s probably the effect Ada is going for, thought Kepler.

  “We found it,” said Störtebeker.

  “Found it? Are you bullshitting me?”

  “No, boss, what my uncle says is true. We found it. Honest.”

  “Let me summarize. You stole the fuel with the help of the codes that randomly happened to be in your computer, and then, just as randomly, you found a defective probe that had been shot down over the scene of the crime. And you had nothing to do with its destruction.”

  “No, boss, we’re innocent. Please don’t do anything to us.”

  Ada slammed their mouths shut forcefully. That must have hurt, but neither Störtebeker nor Mason complained. Then she turned away from them. “It’s pointless continuing with this,” she said. “Other people can deal with you. As far as I’m concerned, the interrogation’s over. Maybe you’ll be subjected to a consciousness analysis. There must be others behind this who you’re much more afraid of than you are of us.”

  “Can I talk to you for a moment, Ada?” Kepler asked.

  She gestured toward the door. He let her go first.

  The butler followed them. “May I?” he asked.

  “Of course,” replied Kepler. “I just wanted to say, everything seems to have gone too smoothly. I bet when Puppy examines the onboard computer he’ll find the codes. And if we evaluate BM13’s memory, I guarantee it will show that the autonomous unit was shot down by the two thieves, just like FF02.”

  “I’ll commence the examination now,” said the butler.

  “I don’t see what the problem is,” Ada declared. “I think we’ve fulfilled our assignment. We caught the thieves in the act and can prove they committed the theft. They won’t escape the law. I agree there must be someone else behind this, probably very high up. But we won’t find out who they are anyway. The lovely Madame Secretary will have to take care of that herself.”

  “That all just sounds too obvious, don’t you think?” asked Kepler.

  Ada shook her head. “It’s unusual for the evidence to be so overwhelming. That’s true. But we should be all the more happy when that’s the case!”

  Kepler put his hands on his hips. “I’m sorry I can’t convince you. But I don’t believe the story ends here.”

  “Maybe, Johannes, but it does for us. Other people will handle things, at a level that’s above our pay grade.”

  Cycle HM 9.6, Inner Milky Way, 3 Kiloparsec Arm

  “We left too soon.”

  Kepler lifted a strand of hair from Zhenyi’s face. She lay beside him on her back, and he was on his side. There wasn’t room for much else on the bed they shared on the Mario.

  Zhenyi took a deep breath. “Not this again.”

  Yes, this again. For some reason he couldn’t let it go. It had all gone too smoothly, and the others didn’t want to look into it. Was he going crazy? “Two men in an ancient spaceship are supposed to be responsible for all those incidents? I just can’t imagine that,” he said.

  His girlfriend sighed, and he felt annoyed with himself. He shouldn’t have started with this obsession again, not now. He’d ruined the erotic mood. The Mario was only going to fly unpowered for a couple of days. Then they’d have to get back in the gel beds, alone.

  But he couldn’t shake the thought. Even if you assumed that the two had help from high up, it didn’t make things any more logical. Why would someone who had access to the maintenance shaft codes work with guys like Störtebeker and Mason? What was the real motive? The proceeds of this robbery were just high enough for the two criminals to be able to live reasonably well off them. For their unknown accomplice, that must be peanuts. And if Störtebeker and Mason were telling the truth—which he believed, contrary to Zhenyi—then the two men didn’t know their patron at all. So how was this man—or this woman—supposed to get his—or her—share?

  “Oh, babe,” said Zhenyi, gently stroking the creases on his fore
head. “Let go of your gloomy thoughts. Don’t concern yourself with those criminals. They don’t deserve it. Concern yourself with me. Tomorrow we have to get back into the gel.”

  She was right. Kepler tried to banish his thoughts by peeling back the sheet that Zhenyi was lying under. It worked. She was beautiful. His hands automatically traced the lines of her elegant contours.

  Cycle HO 3.1, Convention

  Maria Sybille Merian was once again waiting for them on her terrace in orbit around the diamond planet. The canopy had been removed. Five lounge chairs, each with its own umbrella, stood around a small pool in the middle of the platform. The Secretary really knew how to set the scene. Kepler had been wondering why she’d suggested they show up in swimwear.

  “Welcome,” said the Secretary. Then she greeted each of them with a kiss on the cheek. Her body was flawless. Only the blue skin ruined the effect. Does it really protect against the star’s UV radiation? Kepler wondered.

  Maria handed Zhenyi a small bottle of sunscreen lotion.

  “Thank you very much, but my body is protected from UV,” said Zhenyi, passing it to Kepler. He carefully applied the lotion, with Zhenyi’s help to coat his back. He had made almost no modifications to his body. Even though his nano-machines protected him from life-threatening diseases, they couldn’t prevent a sunburn. He passed the bottle on to Ada. She used the sunscreen on herself first, then rapidly applied it to Valja with all four arms. Ada must give excellent massages. Should he ask her? Maybe they’d still have some time after the meeting.

  “Nice to have you all here,” said Maria. “I wanted to offer you a pleasant change after your long period on the ship. I have a few things to take care of after the meeting, but you are welcome to use the pool for as long as you like.”