by J. J. Green
Her fist thumped the screen and the hologram of the planet wobbled. The officers at the table jumped in their seats. Haggardy got up and backed away. “I’m chief security officer, and I’m telling you that planet isn’t safe. I can’t tell you why, and I can’t tell you when or where an attack might come from, but I know it will come, and I’m not giving the all clear. You might like to play fast and loose with the lives of two hundred people for the sake of a fat bonus and a regular supply of mythranil, but I sure as hell don’t.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth—before, even—she knew she’d gone too far. As she finished, she drew back from the screen. Everyone was still except Lee, who raised a nervous finger to her lips as her gaze flicked between Loba and Jas.
Without taking his eyes from his security officer, Loba murmured, “Hologram, off.” The slowly spinning image disappeared and without its illumination, the room became dim. No one moved a muscle to switch on the lights.
Loba was an addict. The whole crew knew. It was why no one was allowed to disturb him for six hours of the quiet shift, on threat of dismissal. It was why he dyed his hair white, to cover up the tell-tale crimson tinge. It was why he breathed quickly even when not exerting himself. In the silence his quiet panting was plain to hear.
“Your judgment is clearly impaired, C.S.O. Harrington. For your own safety and the safety of this ship’s crew, you are confined to your cabin until further notice. Should you leave your cabin without permission, you will be placed in the brig for the remainder of the mission. I’ll consider your release if you pass a mental health assessment. Haggardy, accompany her.”
The first mate rose to his feet and moved toward the door.
Jas whirled on her heel, her fists clenched at her sides, looking for a single sign of support from the other officers. Officers whose lives she’d protected on every planet they’d visited that mission. None met her gaze but Lee, who only grimaced in sympathy.
Haggardy was at the open door, waiting for her. There was nothing to do but leave. She stomped over and exited without another word to Loba or the rest of them. Haggardy struggled to keep up as she marched through the corridors to her cabin. What did it matter if she couldn’t tell them why the planet wasn’t safe? Didn’t her years of experience count for anything?
But though Jas was furious, a stronger emotion overrode her anger: fear. In her eleven years in the job, she’d never been wrong when it came to sensing danger. And all her alarm bells were ringing.
The first mate was the closest person to take out her frustration on. “Thanks for your support.”
“Harrington,” replied Haggardy, “your case is weak, and we’re on a schedule. And you certainly didn’t do yourself any favors back there. You shouldn’t have lost your temper like that. Mentioning the master’s indulgences? Bad move.”
Jas turned to him as they arrived at her cabin. “There’s something down there. I know there is,” she said quietly.
“Been running the blood yourself?” was his reply as her cabin door closed.
Chapter Three
Carl Lingiari wished for a storm. A super cell or a tornado, like the ones that swept the western New South Wales plains of his boyhood. Storms he’d grown up learning to dodge while crop dusting the family farm. Oh sure, he’d encountered a few. At the last planet but one—he never could remember those strings of Kepler numbers—the place he’d mentally dubbed Arse End of Hell, there’d been a beauty of a buster to dodge. He grinned as he remembered the RA team’s cheer when they made it back to the ship. Though the passenger cabin still smelled faintly of vomit, that had been the kind of ride that made piloting worthwhile.
Not this ferry tripping. He took his feet down from his console and scanned the instrument panel. Descent was going smoothly. All readings were normal. They were nearly there. He thumbed the mic on his headset. “Touchdown in five.” The 'five’ was drawn out as he fought to stifle a yawn. He thumbed his mic off and put up his feet again. The shuttle could just about fly itself. It did fly itself most of the time. He was like a parent holding a toddler’s reins: only there to stop the kid from doing something stupid.
One day, Carl would pilot a starship. A starship like the Galathea. Massive starjump engines below, Raptor Xs to the rear, control and living quarters long, sleek and neat along the top. A handful of pulse cannons on the off chance they encountered a hostile space-faring life form. It hadn’t happened in the history human space travel, but you never knew. That was the kind of bird he’d fly.
Carl wouldn’t be copilot, understudy, backup-in-case-of-disaster anymore. He wouldn’t be stuck doing the school run in a rustbucket while someone else got to commute in the latest model. He stretched his arms wide, put his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes.
In his imagination, he was sitting at the control panel of the Galathea. His Polestar Corp uniform was clean, crease-free, and neatly buttoned to the neck. His pilot’s hat was on his head, set at just enough of an angle to make him look sneck. Wearing your hat while aboard ship wasn’t strictly required according to regulations, but he had the corporation’s image to consider.
Yeah, he would fly that bird through space with style.
A tall, shapely female figure appeared in his daydream. She moved to his side in the pilot’s seat on the Galathea’s flight deck. Who was this? Could it be C.S.O. Harrington, in her tight-fitting combat suit? And what was she doing? She leaned down to whisper in his ear. She had to tell him something important and personal, something that couldn’t wait. As she leaned toward him, her breasts came so close to his face he could feel their warmth—
“Landing gear lowered.” The shuttle’s announcement sounded in the cabin, loud and formal. Krat. Drawn roughly back to reality, Carl’s feet landed on the floor with a thump. He checked the instruments again. No problems. Through the plexiglass window, he saw the planet’s surface rising rapidly. To one side, about five K from the landing site, was one of those hexagonal structures. The rest of the view was mostly ocean. The RA was to take place at a shoreline.
The sun was coming up, and the RA team would have about five and a half hours before it set. The day promised to be uneventful for Carl, who would wait for the team to take their samples before he had to shuttle them back to the Galathea. He wasn’t allowed to leave the immediate vicinity of the shuttle in case there was an emergency and they had to make a quick getaway, but that wasn’t so bad on this planet. He didn’t think he’d ever been anywhere so boring. The shuttle touched down and rolled across the stony beach to a stop.
“Prepare to disembark,” Carl said into his mic before pressing the switch to open the airlock. He removed his headset, undid his harness, got up, and pulled on a jacket. They were on a warmer landmass compared to some on the planet, but the temperature remained chilly. By the time he opened the cabin door, the RA team had left, and the passenger cabin was empty but for First Mate Haggardy, who was supervisor this trip. The team was sticking to the master’s orders to get a move on and gather their samples and data. Carl went between the rows of seats and out the airlock. He jumped off the ramp, landing roughly on loose pebbles. He staggered.
As he straightened up, he saw that one of the RA was lingering by the shoreline, her back to the others, who were retrieving their equipment from the hold and setting out to get their samples. Her shoulders were shaking.
Carl went over and stood behind the woman, unsure what to do. He glanced back, but no one else seemed to have noticed her. Gently, he laid a hand on her shoulder. The woman jumped a little and turned to him, hastily wiping her eyes.
“You okay?” Carl asked.
“Yeah,” the woman replied. She looked at her feet. “It’s just...it isn’t how I imagined it would be. Space travel, I mean. I thought it would be exciting, adventurous, you know? But instead it’s...kinda...”
“Boring, right? Is this your first mission?”
“Yep. I signed up straight out of college. Everyone else on board seems to have fr
iends already. People they know from previous trips.” She looked down again. “I don’t seem to fit in anywhere.”
Now Carl remembered her. He’d seen her sitting by herself at meals. He’d thought that was what she liked to do, or he would have sat with her. Some people were loners. Was her name Pasha or Sasha? He couldn’t remember, and it would be embarrassing to ask. He had a feeling she was with geo-phys.
“You fly the shuttle really well,” the woman said. “I hardly felt that landing.”
“Huh, the shuttle just about flies...I mean, I trained for five years...to fly starships, and...” He faltered. “Looking forward to a good day...taking...rock samples?”
She laughed. “I don’t take rock samples. I operate that.” She pointed to a large metal instrument another member of geo-phys was pulling out of the cargo hold. It looked like a device for torturing medium-sized, warm-blooded mammals. Like humans.
“Right,” replied Carl, nodding, “I see. And that’s a...”
“GPR. Ground Penetrating Radar.”
“Hmm...” He rubbed his chin. “Thought I recognized it.”
The woman laughed again. “You’re funny.” She paused a moment to look at the ocean, then back at Carl. She pulled on an earlobe. “After we get back, I don’t suppose...” She paused and looked away. “Do you want to meet up for dinner?”
His eyes widened. “Sure, that’d be great.” But where? The ship’s refectory was the last place aboard for a potentially romantic dinner. “I tell you what, meet me in the shuttle bay when you’ve freshened up, and I’ll bring something special to eat.”
Carl had been hoarding a care package his mother had sent him for the mission. She did it every time he went away. Now would be a good time to break into the tinned and packaged luxury foods.
“Okay,” said the woman, smiling. “See you then.”
Carl watched as Pasha or Sasha went to the other side of the shuttle to pick up her torture device. She wasn’t Harrington, but she seemed really nice and in need of a friend. Harrington was confined to quarters anyway. Personally, he thought the woman’s quick temper was sneck, but Loba didn’t agree. But Carl wasn’t going to pine over her. It wasn’t every day a Pasha or Sasha invited you on a date.
***
The day passed slowly for Carl due to the promise of a pleasant evening with the geo-phys scientist. He spent some of the time watching the RA team surveying and sampling the air, plants, water, rocks, sand, and dirt of the planet. He tried not to be too obvious about paying special attention to Pasha or Sasha, but then she and the rest of geo-phys went away over the sand dunes in the direction of the hexagonal structure. After Haggardy fell asleep in the passenger cabin—he hadn’t set foot outside the shuttle the entire time—Carl played the games he’d surreptitiously uploaded to the shuttle’s console while he waited for the RA team to return.
As the sun began to set, PashaorSasha came back, walking with the rest of geo-phys as they returned from the alien structure. They’d been gone two or three hours, and Carl wondered what they had all been doing inside the building for so long. The team made their way down the beach dunes, and at the same time other RA members began to straggle back to the shuttle. The sampling session was over. Haggardy sat up and rubbed his eyes, before asking the team members vaguely how the session had gone.
When everyone was aboard, Carl put on his headset and did a final passenger check. He closed the airlock, fastened his harness, and smiled to himself at the promise of an enjoyable dinner ahead.
Chapter Four
Three days in her cabin hadn’t lessened Jas’ anger at Loba for putting his bonus before the crew’s safety, but it had evened it out somewhat. If she were to see him, she didn’t think she would throw him in a garbage airlock and press Purge right away. She might give him time for some last words first.
She turned on the screen angled above her bunk. A menu of entertainment options appeared: vids, games, music, recorded fly-on-the-wall cam footage, and educational programs. You could watch or play almost anything aboard ship that you could on Earth. The crew of the Galathea also had access to mail and videos from home on their private comm systems, options that might have made being cooped up more bearable for Jas, but she had nothing in that vein. No family. No ties to Earth or Mars. At first, she’d thought that made her better off than most others aboard the prospecting ships on their long voyages in deep space. No one to miss and no one to miss her. But over the years, she’d realized that it made it worse. Unlike the rest of the crew, she didn’t look forward to the end of a mission. After a year or longer away from the closest thing she had to home, stepping off the ship with no one to meet her was hard.
She blinked and shook her head. It was no good allowing depressing thoughts to take hold. That was what she hated most about being confined. It gave her time to brood. She needed to do something, anything. Her cabin was already spotless, and she’d arranged and rearranged her scant possessions countless times. Looking up at the screen, she could barely focus on it.
Her door chimed. She raised herself on her elbows. Who was risking Loba’s wrath by fraternizing with her? Or was it the master himself? She’d told the few crew members she was friendly with to stay away for their own sakes. “Door, open.”
Navigator Lee stood waiting. The petite officer was cringing slightly as she looked in.
Jas turned off her screen and swung her legs off her bunk as she sat up. “Come in.” Lee checked from side to side along the corridor before entering the room. She relaxed a little as the door closed behind her.
“Don’t want to be seen visiting me, huh?” said Jas. “Wouldn’t do much for your reputation, would it?”
Lee looked taken aback. “Maybe I should go.” She half-turned.
“Sorry,” Jas said. Why did she always push people away? “Don’t go. Come and sit down. I’m just stir crazy.”
The navigator relented. She pulled out the chair tucked under Jas’ desk and sat down. She opened her mouth to speak, but Jas interrupted.
“I’m glad you came. I wanted to thank you for sticking up for me in the mission room. It was brave of you, and I appreciate it. You were the only one who dared side with me against Loba. That took some guts.”
The frown on Lee’s forehead faded a little. “Thanks, but I wouldn’t put it like that. I didn’t mind helping you out and all, but I meant what I said. You did save our lives back on 87593g. I’ve seen you work. You know what you’re doing, and if you say 67092d isn’t safe I believe you, even if you can’t say why. That’s what you’re paid for, right? To protect us from all those hostile life forms that’re out to get us. I mean, what’s your incentive for making shit up? What’s in it for you? Nothing, right? So if you’re saying we need to steer clear, I’m right there beside you. Don’t matter what Loba says. There’s more important things than money, you know?
“I’ve read plenty about what can happen to RA teams,” Lee continued, “and seen plenty on the news.” She gave a shudder. “It ain’t safe down there. One of my cousin’s friends...or was it someone at his work?...anyway, he knew someone who was just petting a little alien creature for five minutes, and three days later he was dead. Radiation sickness. Wasn’t nothing they could do for him. And in another case I heard about, an animal just brushed up against a researcher and ran off. The woman didn’t think much of it, but the fur that touched her hand was coated in a poison that penetrated human skin. She lasted a week, and she contaminated a couple of others in her team before they knew about it.”
Jas wondered how many more disaster stories Lee had.
“And there was that attack I heard about a while ago,” continued Lee. “The ship’s security officer didn’t even LIV the site the RA team landed at. I heard no one survived. Did you hear about it too? I think they kept it quiet, you know? Didn’t want to scare folks? Now, what was that other one...?”
“Yeah, well, like I said,” said Jas, standing. “I appreciate the support. Thanks for stopping by.” She was beginn
ing to remember why she’d never been more than acquaintances with Navigator Lee.
The navigator smoothed her cropped blonde hair, appearing not to notice Jas’ hint. “How have you been? It’s been three days now, right? Have you heard anything from the master? Any idea when he might let you out? I’d go crazy sitting in my cabin day after day with no one to talk to. I mean, what on Earth do you do? Do you have comm to the rest of the ship? Can you talk to people?”
Jas sighed and sat down. “No, no contact with the rest of the ship. And you’re my first visitor. Loba said something about a mental health assessment, but I haven’t heard anything about that either.”
“Well, if there is something terrible on that planet, at least it can’t get you while you’re up here. We’re safe here, right?” Lee’s eyebrows rose questioningly. When Jas didn’t answer, she said, “That’s what I think anyway. That’s why I never leave the ship.”
“You never leave the ship? You’ve never been planetside? Ever?”
The navigator pinched her lips together and shook her head. “The only planet surface I’ve ever been on is good ol’ Earth. You wouldn’t catch me down there. God only knows what might happen.”
Jas took a moment to process this statement. “Then...what are you doing here? Why work on a prospecting ship? Why not stay home and get a nice, safe desk job on Earth?”
Lee gave her a questioning look. “Uh, I’m a navigator? My daddy suggested it when I was choosing my degree, and he was right. It’s easy for me, and the pay’s good. As long as I never leave the ship, I can pretend to myself I only have to step through an airlock to be home.”
Jas put her head in her hands. The only supporter she had among all the senior officers was paranoid. What did that say about her? Was she wrong about K. 67092d? Was she crazy too? After her years of service, was she beginning to crack?
