Vessel

by Andrew J. Morgan

  A familiar buzzing fizzed through his leg, and he withdrew his phone. It was Aleks' number. 'Hello?'

  The voice that answered was not the same as before: it was Aleks himself. 'Hello, Sean, it's Aleks.'

  'Aleks! Are you alright? Where are you?'

  'I'm fine, I'm fine. Look, I need you to do me a favour.'

  'Sure, anything.'

  'I —' Aleks sounded nervous. 'I need you to give yourself up. Bales will kill me if you don't.'

  Sean slowed, his heart and mind racing. 'Okay …'

  'Listen carefully to what I'm about to say and do exactly as I tell you,' Aleks said.

  Sean wedged the phone between his ear and shoulder and grabbed his pad and pen from his bag.

  'Come to the RFSA office,' Aleks said in a slow and deliberate voice. 'Be here in thirty. Bring your phone, too. You'll be met by some guards. Don't try to fight them — it's no use. Bales just wants what belongs to him back. Oh, and meet them at the main entrance.'

  Sean scribbled as fast as he could.

  'I don't want to end up like Lev's cat …' Aleks said. He stuttered a nervous laugh.

  'Okay,' Sean said, reading the transcript over. 'I'll be there soon.'

  * * *

  'He's not here …' Sally whispered, not believing what she was seeing.

  Chris unclipped his helmet, and Sally did the same. Pushing himself into Soyuz, Chris negotiated the cramped vehicle and returned with a confused look on his face. 'The airlock bolt would be open if he'd left Soyuz. He can't close it again from the outside. But it's still completely sealed. He's — vanished.'

  A chill prickled Sally's skin. It didn't take much thinking to realise where Romanenko had gone. 'UV One,' she breathed.

  'What's that?' Chris said, drifting closer to her, head cocked to one side.

  'UV One.'

  Chris heard her this time, and recoiled at the words. 'But — why? Why would it take him? And how?' He looked over his shoulder into Soyuz, as if expecting to see something he didn't want to. Pushing Sally away, he heaved the airlock shut again and sealed it.

  'Can this take us home?' Sally asked.

  'Uh, yeah,' Chris said, pulling the locking lever tight. 'Seems in good condition to me.'

  'Do you think the communication system still works? I wonder if Romanenko got to that as well?'

  'I don't know,' Chris said, floating by to reopen the module hatches. 'I'll run what we've found by Novitskiy before I do anything else.'

  Sally could see it in his face and hear it in his voice: he was scared. Not just scared, terrified. The silent ghost ship had returned, the man he blamed himself for killing, gone. Worst of all, obvious physical evidence that UV One was not just in his mind, or any of their minds, had turned up right at their front door. The cage was open for him to leave, but just outside its safety lurked something he didn't want to see.

  'How long do you think it'll take before we can go home?' Sally asked as Chris opened the final hatch, the one down into the MLM.

  He stopped, flushed pink, the exertion of opening all the hatches painting a sheen of sweat on his face. 'Couple of days or so at the most. Got to make sure the hull is structurally sound and all the systems are operating as they should.' His eyes were big and white, an expression that looked out of place on a man like him. He gave Sally a curt nod, then retreated from the module, leaving Sally by herself.

  A couple of days, she thought. A couple of days and we can go home.

  Later that day they all reconvened for the evening meal. Eating together was an unspoken tradition that brought Sally comfort, even if the atmosphere at the table was tainted with nerves. They shared a joke or two between them, cursed Novitskiy's cooking and recounted amusing anecdotes about their individual lives back on Earth. It wasn't until they'd finished eating that the subject of the craft docked right above their heads came up, and only because Sally forced it to.

  'So I hear it's just a few days until we can pack our things and leave,' she said, broaching the topic like it was no big deal.

  Chris looked at Novitskiy. Novitskiy looked at his lap.

  'What?' Sally said, picking some food from between her teeth. 'Will it be more?' She looked between Chris and Novitskiy, their silence turning her nonchalance into concern, then worry. 'What's wrong?'

  Novitskiy sighed deep and slow. 'I'm sorry, Sally,' he said, not looking up at her. 'I should have mentioned it sooner, but I didn't. I didn't want you to worry.'

  Sally's mouth went dry. She tried to speak, but couldn't.

  'Soyuz should be fine,' Novitskiy said, 'and it'll only take a few days to check it over. But we have a problem.' He looked up, straight into Sally's eyes, and she could almost feel his weariness weighing her down. 'There are four of us, and only space for three on board Soyuz.'

  'There's enough space to squeeze a fourth person in, surely?' Sally said. 'It looked like there was — I checked.'

  Novitskiy looked more and more broken up. 'I'm afraid not. The extra mass would likely kill all of us on re-entry.'

  The silence after Novitskiy had finished speaking echoed in Sally's ears. 'So who's going to stay?' she whispered.

  'I don't know,' Novitskiy said, looking down again.

  Chris shuffled on the spot. 'Why don't we leave Gardner?' he said in a low voice, almost as if he didn't want Gardner's frozen body at the other end of the station to hear.

  Novitskiy looked at Chris, then at Sally, his face expectant.

  'We're not leaving him here,' Sally said. 'I can't believe you'd even think that.' She folded her arms, appalled by the suggestion.

  Chris shuffled again. 'But he's in a coma —'

  'No!' Sally snapped, and Chris stopped talking. Silence resumed.

  'We don't have to leave him like this,' Novitskiy said. 'We can — you know — help him …'

  Sally stared at him. 'Are you serious? You want to kill Gardner?' She leaned back, shaking her head. 'I can't believe I'm hearing this.'

  Novitskiy didn't respond. He just floated at the table, frail and exhausted-looking, his neck so thin his coveralls looked several sizes too big. As her anger washed away, a sympathy grew — for both of them. It was easy to forget how long they'd been up here and what had happened to them, the fragile wrecks they'd become. She suspected that if she met their former selves before they'd left Earth, she wouldn't recognise them. 'Okay then,' she said. 'In that case, I'll stay.'

  Novitskiy and Chris exchanged glances, then looked at her, expressions cautious.

  'You mean it?' Chris said.

  Sally nodded.

  'No, Sally,' Novitskiy said. 'I'm not going to let you do this.' His tone was flat, as if he were fighting an urge to stay quiet.

  'I want to. You've both been through way more than I have. I can hang on a bit longer.'

  'But you don't know how to look after the station —'

  'You can show me,' Sally interrupted. 'I've seen you doing it. It doesn’t look like too much work.'

  Novitskiy's eyes had gone distant and he was shaking his head. 'I won't have it,' he said. 'I'm staying. Me. Not you.'

  'You're not staying —' Sally began, but Novitskiy slammed his fist down onto the table, shocking her into silence.

  'I outrank you, and I'm telling you that you will be going, on Soyuz, back to Earth. And I won't hear another word of it.'

  With that, he left the module, leaving Sally and Chris by themselves. Sally didn't know what to think: on the one hand, she was mortified at the thought of leaving Novitskiy up here on his own with nothing to keep him company but UV One, and on the other, she could already feel an elation fizzing like electricity in her chest at the thought of returning to Earth. She couldn't believe it — she was going home.

  * * *

  'Someone get Bales, quick — I'm getting a signal.'

  Scott Thomas, the NASA scientist appointed as CAPCOM in Aleks' absence, watched as a junior-level staff member scooted from his post and out the door. 'Can you get me noise clean-up, please?' he
said. 'And put this on the main speakers.'

  His Russian counterpart leaned across the desk and tweaked the controls. Scott listened to his headset again.

  'TsUP, do you read?' an American voice said over the speaker. 'Come back, TsUP.'

  Scott pressed his broadcast button. 'This is TsUP, reading you five by five. Is this RS0ISS?' He waited for the response, his breath caught in his throat.

  'Copy, TsUP, this is RS0ISS.'

  A cheer rose up from Mission Control.

  'Quiet please, people,' Scott said, and the murmur faded. 'RS0ISS, what is your present situation?'

  'We're comin' home!'

  A long whoop followed the message, and it was met by another cheer from Mission Control. Behind Scott, the double doors swung open and he turned to see Bales march through.

  'What've we got?' he said. He seemed distracted.

  'RS0ISS, Flight,' Scott said pulling off his headset. 'They're back online.'

  'Sitrep?'

  'Uh, I don’t know yet, we've just made contact this minute.'

  'Get on it.'

  Scott nodded, returned the headset to his head and pushed the broadcast button.

  'RS0ISS, please confirm your situation.'

  They waited for the signal to reach its target and come back.

  'Not so good. Romanenko's dead, Gardner's in a coma. But we've recovered TMA Ten M so we should be able to return in a couple of days.' Chris' voice paused. 'Say, where's Aleks?'

  Bales beckoned, and Scott handed the headset over to him. He held it to his ear and signalled to Scott to broadcast. 'Williams, Flight Director John Bales speaking. The severity of the situation has required NASA to take command, so you will be speaking to me from now on. Please repeat last.'

  'Okay — we've, uh, lost Mikhail, and Gardner is in a coma.'

  'Causes?'

  'UV One.'

  Bales chewed his lip. Scott thought he seemed nervous.

  'There's four of you still alive. Who are you leaving behind?'

  'Novitskiy volunteered.'

  Bales frowned. This didn't seem to be the answer he wanted to hear. 'Okay, that's not a problem. We can work around this. Good job — you've done well.'

  Bales passed the headset back to Scott, who put it on.

  'Make sure everything is in place for their return,' Bales said to him. 'I've got something I need to take care of.'

  * * *

  The RFSA building stood tall and ominous in front of Sean, the small windows peering down at him from on high. He patted the stun gun in his pocket to make sure it was still there. 'Well, here goes nothing,' he said aloud to himself.

  * * *

  'He's on his way, sir.'

  'Thanks,' Bales said, and put the phone back in his pocket, feeling pleased with himself. It was all coming together. He looked at Aleks, whose eyes widened at his stare. 'I'm a man of my word, Aleks. You've given me Sean Jacob, and I will give you your life back in return.'

  'Don't hurt him,' Aleks pleaded. His bruises had swollen overnight and he looked a mess. Ignoring him, Bales left the room, and without looking back, said, 'If it helps ease your conscience, he won't feel a thing.'

  A guard closed the door behind him, muting Aleks' cries, and he set off down the corridor. He unclipped his chest holster, pulled out his pistol, cocked it, checked the round was seated in the chamber, made sure the silencer was tight, and returned it. At the end of the corridor, another guard waited for him.

  'Come with me,' Bales said to him, and they walked on through the building, navigating their way through the long, beige corridors to the entrance lobby. Bales felt his chest holster under his jacket again, double-checking the clip was released and ready for a quick withdrawal. The entrance lobby was deserted, just how he needed it to be.

  'Room's clear, sir,' the guard said.

  'Good. He should be here soon.'

  They waited, watching through the glass frontage for Sean to arrive. They waited ten minutes, then twenty, and by half an hour, Bales checked his watch.

  'Where is that son-of-a-bitch?' he murmured to himself. He pulled out his phone, re-dialled the last number and put it to his ear. 'Where is he?'

  'We last saw him turning into the entrance about a half hour ago. You haven't got him yet?'

  Bales hung up the phone and broke into a run back towards the cell. 'Secure the building!' he yelled to the guard as he ran off. He sprinted back through the corridors, taking a left turn, then a right, not slowing until he reached his destination. But it was too late. Seeing a pair of bodies lying in a heap outside Aleks' temporary cell was enough for him to know what had happened. He stepped over one of the dazed guards and entered the room. Emptiness yawned back.

  Chapter 18

  Sally slept well that night. The relief of her imminent departure made the station a much more pleasant place to be, and her quarters didn't feel quite as claustrophobic as they had done before. The mood of her companions was the best it had been since she had arrived, the good cheer even rubbing off onto Novitskiy. Although, he was probably just being polite in sharing the good news with them, holding back his real feelings to keep her and Chris in high spirits for the journey home. This thought made her feel sad and, if she was honest with herself, a bit guilty. She wished she could do something to help him, but he wouldn't let her, dismissing her with his new mantra that he delivered with a warm smile: 'I'll be alright.' As for Chris — he was a changed man. After he'd discovered a functional comms system on board Soyuz and made contact with Mission Control, his grin had become permanent.

  The next day, while Chris continued his inspection of Soyuz, Sally chatted with Novitskiy as they tended to Gardner. Even Gardner's unnerving stare couldn't sway the cheer.

  'I promise you, as soon as we get back to Earth, I won't leave NASA and the RFSA be until they send someone back up to get you,' Sally said, as she watched Novitskiy unclip Gardner's IV bag. 'In fact I'll make it my life's work to bring you home.'

  Novitskiy laughed. 'I'm sure you will,' he said. He passed Sally the IV bag, which she set aside. 'And I'm sure I'll be fine up here in the meantime.'

  'You're taking this very well.'

  Novitskiy's smile stretched from ear to ear, although Sally couldn't be sure it carried any depth.

  'I'll be alright.'

  The more Sally spoke with Novitskiy, the more she thought he was at peace with staying. A spike of endorphin-fuelled generosity would have worn off by now, but he continued to smile and engage in light conversation without showing any signs of distress. Perhaps there was even some relief in there, but relief at what? She figured it must have been because Chris was leaving. He was a handful, teetering on the brink of an unpredictable breakdown, and being up here without him would be something of a respite. What was it that Bales had said? The ISS can be a lonely, claustrophobic place, and it may have had an adverse effect on some of the crew. He'd got that right.

  And what of UV One? What if it sent Novitskiy crazy and drove him out the airlock like it had done Romanenko? What if it broke him down into an emotional mess like it had done Chris, or worse, the comatose state of Gardner? The more she contemplated, the more she believed — hoped, even — their minds had been playing tricks on them the whole time. Cabin fever, isolation sickness, whatever they wanted to call it, it must be happening here, and she was almost ashamed to have been caught up in it. The brain was a powerful tool, she knew that much, but she had also discovered just how easily led it was. With any luck, some time alone would give Novitskiy the space to clear his mind and rid himself of the contagious paranoia that had built up between them. But what about the empty Soyuz module, the disappearance of Romanenko? She tried not to think about it as she passed Novitskiy a new IV bag, which he took with a thankful grin. She had no idea if the thoughts she was having were anything like the ones going on in his own head; perhaps he was relieved to have some time to himself. Or perhaps he was terrified.

  A muffled yelp came from the Russian end of the station, and t
hey both looked up.

  'Are you okay?' Novitskiy called out, but got no response. 'I'd better go check that out.' He stuck down the IV bag and pushed off. Sally followed, drifting after him through the station.

  'Chris?' Novitskiy called again. Silence.

  'I hope he hasn't hurt himself,' Sally said, a horrible feeling of dread swelling in her abdomen.

  As they entered the FGB, a small bead darted past.

  'What was that?' Sally said, but before Novitskiy could respond, another bead shot towards her. It hit her on the arm, leaving a deep red splat.

  'I think it's — blood,' Novitskiy said, his voice weak.

  Looking at the stain on her arm and not where she was going, Sally bumped into the back of him. She looked up to see more beads of blood coming towards her, a mass of droplets expanding from a central point. That point was in the middle of the service module, curled up in a floating ball: Chris. His hands, soaked in blood, covered his eyes. Thick globules of life-giving liquid seeped out from between his fingers, floating away and smearing anything they touched with a dark red sheen.

  'Chris …' Novitskiy said. 'What happened?'

  Chris sobbed, drawing his hands away to look up at them. Where his eyes had once been were two gaping holes. 'I just wanted to get it out of my head,' he gurgled, covering his face again. 'I couldn't get it out of my head …'

  Novitskiy swore, grabbed a first aid kit from the wall and took it to Chris, who was moaning something incomprehensible under his breath. Sally, frozen, could only watch on in horror as Novitskiy did his best to patch Chris up. Once he was sure Chris was stable, Novitskiy took him to the medical bay, leaving Sally to clean the mess he left behind. Before she knew it, Novitskiy was back, alone.

  'I have to go,' Novitskiy said, lifting a shaking hand to run his fingers through his hair. He hadn't yet changed his coveralls, which were streaked with red. His face was too, a stark contrast to the whites of his wide eyes. Sally had managed to mop up most of the floating blood with a couple of towels, but still a dark sheen covered several large patches on the walls, and a metallic smell lingered in the air.