Deep Space Dead

by Chilvers, Edward

  “I didn’t know we were going to find that,” snapped Arianna.

  “But you knew there were people missing and you knew something must have happened to them,” retorted Sol.

  “You’re not in charge of me,” said Arianna.

  “No but I’m still Ambra’s father and I wouldn’t much enjoy having to explain to her why her mother wasn’t coming back.”

  Arianna laughed bitterly. “You’d have a difficult job,” she told him. “I’m not even sure of what happened myself.”

  “What could it be?” Said Sol, his features creased with worry. “They sent pods to this planet long before we came along and they said it was completely devoid of sentient life, just like all the others.”

  “They were wrong,” said Arianna simply. “I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.”

  Sol went to look out of the window, thinking hard. He saw the late afternoon sun shining in the sky. It was close and radiant, and its heat still shone brightly. It was an even better sun to that on Jupiter which was colder and faraway; indeed the sun here reminded him of his holiday to Earth, that veritable paradise from which all human life was created. He looked over the plains and the meadows which would soon become fertile fields and grazing pastures, the virgin mountains ripe for mining. It was too much to believe that there were creatures out there capable of ripping people apart with their bare hands, creatures which meant to do them serious harm. He was relieved Arianna had returned safely but at the same time couldn’t quite believe she wasn’t exaggerating. Perhaps it was simply the case that Wal and his party had gone mad and the fumes had affected Arianna and the others too. Just then there came a knock at the front door. Sol went over and answered, not at all surprised to see Jak standing before him. “The Admiral wants to see us all,” he said without preamble. “She’s called an emergency meeting of the Council to be held in the administrative chambers in half an hour.”

  Jen Henna was found and quickly agreed to look after Ambra whilst the three of them attended the meeting. All the councillors were there. The Admiral quickly briefed them before handing the floor to the doctor.

  “Those bites were severe,” said Dr Palk with concern. “Yalor Hain was lucky, he should pull through fine but Bratten’s neck had been severely ripped and she was lucky not to sever an artery. I find it hard to believe a human could have done it, albeit one that was completely deranged.”

  “I cannot believe there is alien life on this planet,” said Banda Ure decisively. “The pods do not lie. We have computer systems that are accurate to a fraction of a fraction of one thousand times nought one percent. Nothing has been turned up.”

  “Our eyes do not lie,” said Jak bluntly. “We did not imagine those creatures and neither did Bratten imagine her terrible wounds.”

  “I do not doubt you were attacked,” replied Banda Ure kindly. “You were attacked by Wal, Fratia Bel and the other rangers. They were sent mad by something, most probably the dark conditions, perhaps even a mysterious sort of gas.”

  “Let us try and come to a consensus,” said the Admiral, as Jak made to rebuff her. “Whatever those things are they are far away. We did a sweep of the planet and we found nothing above the surface, and of that we can be sure. If there are any aliens or insane members of our party out there they are in no position to threaten us. What is more we hardly need that sulphur and we’re certainly not going to start settling down and making towns in that volcanic region. Of course this all requires further investigation – from the air. In time we shall send out the rovers to fly over, take some more readings and see what we can find.”

  “What about sending a transmission?” Asked the communications representative Barra Herr. “We should seek advice from the Confederation.”

  “No,” said Kalp quickly. “Any sign of alien life and they’ll want us to drop everything and make a full search. We’re busy enough here for the time being and I’m not prepared to move until we’ve got the full facts.” As she spoke she regarded Jak and Arianna doubtfully and Arianna knew the Admiral doubted their story.

  “We can’t ignore that sort of threat,” objected Jak immediately. “These caves might be connected, or there might be more of them down there. What would we do if they popped up outside the city? We’d have no chance.”

  “We’re not ignoring them,” replied the Admiral. “We’ll keep our ears to the ground, don’t worry about that. In the meantime however I’m concerned that we’ve lost almost our entire contingent of rangers in the space of a week.” He turned to Sol. “Do you and your men know how to operate the rovers?”

  “Of course,” replied Sol. “We were given some training back on Jupiter but we haven’t done any flight training since we set off.”

  “You need to brush up,” Kalp told him. “You’ll have to step up to the fore now.”

  Jak sat up at this news and appeared about to object but in the end he said nothing.

  After the meeting Kalp caught up with Arianna and Jak. “Come along,” she said. “Let’s go with Dr Palk and see how Bratten is getting on. I’d be curious to hear her perspective on things.”

  The three of them walked together along the corridor. “I still think you’re making a mistake,” said Jak. “Even one of those in the city could cause horrible damage. It doesn’t bear thinking about. We should at least warn the colonists.”

  “We need to keep everybody calm,” said Kalp firmly. “If we send for the Confederation saying we’ve discovered alien life then all of a sudden the place will be turned into a research centre, a fortress. That isn’t what we’ve signed up for and we’re in no position to go and investigate, and especially not to fight.”

  “Those things are dangerous,” replied Jak. “If they attacked us we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Kalp. “Whatever they are they’re miles away, on the other side of the world. Do you have any idea how many hostile beasts the humans of old Earth had to contend with? We’re perfectly safe where we are.”

  Dr Palk had already returned to the medical bay and was studiously examining his two patients. His colleague, Dr Brig, was standing over the stricken engineer. “She isn’t good,” muttered the doctor gravely with a sad shake of his head. “I’m afraid she’s lapsed into unconsciousness.”

  Dr Palk raised his eyes. “See this,” he said, pointing to the wound around Bratten’s neck. “Her wound has become infected, and faster than I would have thought possible.”

  Arianna looked and saw that it was true. Pus was seeping through the bandage, a cold sweat had formed on the engineer’s skin and she appeared a deathly white.

  Kalp approached the engineer’s bed, put her head down low and spoke into Bratten’s ear. “Bratten,” she said softly. “Can you hear me, Bratten?”

  The engineer slowly opened her eyes, which were red and watering, and looked across towards the Admiral. “I can’t…” she murmured desperately. “…The dreams…. I can’t control…”

  Kalp looked up in bewilderment. “She is deluded,” said Dr Brig knowledgably. He nodded down and Arianna saw for the first time that Bratten’s hands and feet were secured with leather straps. Dr Palk raised his eyes at this. “Was this really necessary?” He asked his colleague.

  “I’m afraid so,” replied Dr Brig. “She has moments of severe delirium during which her pulse rate rises and falls erratically and she becomes completely out of control. The first time she did it she tried to latch her teeth on to one of the nurses.”

  “She tried to bite somebody?” Said Arianna with mounting alarm. “But this is…”

  “It isn’t the same,” snapped Kalp irritably. “She has a fever and is delirious, nothing more.”

  At that moment Bratten’s entire body began to convulse violently and she strained against the straps. The two doctors rushed to assist her with Dr Palk calling for the nurses and orderlies to come and give them a hand. A multitude of people descended upon the bed. Arianna stepped back and watched as they struggled. Finally the s
cene calmed. Bratten was still. “Is that what a spasm looks like?” Asked Kalp.

  “It was not a spasm,” said Dr Palk gravely. “It was a final convulsion. I am afraid Bratten is dead.”

  Kalp bent over the engineer’s body. The colour had drained from Bratten’s face and she went deathly white before their eyes so that she was practically unrecognisable from the woman Arianna had known all these years. “I didn’t think it would prove fatal,” said Arianna softly. “The bite I mean. I knew it was a nasty one but surely…”

  “We are all puzzled,” put in Dr Palk. “I shall have to run some tests, conduct a post mortem. Perhaps she had some sort of blood disease we didn’t know about although certainly she never came to me with any ailments during the whole time we were travelling.”

  “This is a tragedy,” said Palk gravely. “Bratten was one of the best we had.” She reached forward and gently placed her hand on the engineer’s forehead.

  All of a sudden the Bratten’s eyes flashed open. She lurched upwards and seized a hold of Kalp, sinking her teeth into the Admiral’s neck. Kalp cried out and struggled free, leaving a large piece of her flesh in Bratten’s mouth. The engineer now rose up and threw the bed across the room with a single movement, snapping her leather bonds as though they were made of paper. Arianna staggered back in astonishment. “Bratten!” He cried out. Bratten turned towards him and bared her teeth. There was a look of the purest hatred in her eyes. She charged forwards, clawing a hand at him. Jak ducked down and dived out of the way just in time as the momentum of the charge carried Bratten forwards and her hands scythed the wall, colliding with the sheer metal walls and leaving a hideous jagged dent. Jak seized hold of Arianna’s hand and charged out of the door. From the corner of her eye Arianna could see the Admiral staggering to the storage cupboard and slamming the door shut behind her. Dr Palk and the rest of the medical team hurried after them into the corridor and they slid the door shut, locking it firmly behind them.

  “Where is the Admiral?” Demanded Jak.

  “Still inside!” Exclaimed Arianna. “Trapped in the storage cupboard. We have to go back!”

  “No!” Cried Jak. “There is nothing we can do to help her now.”

  “What do you mean?” Demanded Arianna.

  “Open your eyes,” snapped Jak. “Bratten was bitten and she became one of those things. Now she has sunk her teeth into the Admiral in turn.”

  “Jak is right,” said Dr Palk gently. “We simply cannot afford to take the risk.”

  Arianna, Jak and Dr Palk hurried back to the administrative chamber to discover most of the Council were still there, milling around and informally discussing the crisis amongst themselves. Those who had left were quickly rounded up and the meeting hastily reconvened.

  “You mean to say you’ve just left the Admiral to bleed to death?” Exclaimed Sol in astonishment after Dr Palk had finished briefing them.

  “We had no choice,” replied Jak quickly. “We can’t get to her, not with Bratten rampaging up and down like that. If we hadn’t turned on the anti-asteroid fields she would have busted straight out through the steel.”

  “It is true,” confirmed Dr Palk sadly. “I have never seen anything like it.”

  “It is already too late for the Admiral,” said Arianna quietly. “Think about it. Wal and his team went down into that cave, got bitten and turned into monsters. Then they went ahead and bit Bratten and she turned as well.”

  “But what are those things?” Demanded Barra Herr.

  Arianna turned to Dr Palk. “Bratten was dead,” she said flatly. “You said so yourself and we all saw it from the equipment she was hooked up to. The heart rate stopped and all brain activity ceased. Then she came back. Meanwhile the equipment on the rovers picked up no sign of life. This is because those things are not alive. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

  “It makes no sense at all,” muttered Banda Ure. “But then none of this makes any sense. Are you sure Bratten wasn’t just out of her mind?”

  “I saw it with my own eyes,” said Dr Palk. “An ordinary human being simply doesn’t possess that sort of strength. And Arianna is right; Bratten was dead.”

  Magnuj Bol tutted loudly, attracting the Council’s attention. “Right now this is all hearsay,” he said doubtfully. “The truth is we simply can’t be sure what those things are, not until we’ve conducted the appropriate scientific tests. But we can talk about that once we’ve dealt with more pressing concerns. The Admiral is trapped.”

  “The Admiral is dead,” said Jak, with such vehemence as to make the whole room give a start. “If not now then as good as. I’m sure as hell not about to risk my life or those of my rangers on a rescue mission to get her out when she’ll only turn and attack us.”

  Barra Herr got up and went to the communications station at the side of the room. “I can get a live feed to that storage room,” he said thoughtfully. “Let’s hook it up and we’ll see just what sort of state the Admiral is in.”

  The radio whirred into life amidst a blur of static. There came the sound of groaning and heavy breathing. “Admiral?” Said Barra Herr authoritatively. “Are you okay in there?”

  “I’m trapped!” Came the Admiral’s voice, sounding more terrified than Arianna had ever heard her before. “I can hear it, slamming against the door! I’m bleeding. I’m looking at my arm, it looks like its hanging off. I’m losing blood. Shoot it, Jak! For crying out loud get your rangers in here and shoot it dead!”

  Everyone appeared ashen faced. The other councillors turned to Jak, their faces beseeching him for an answer.

  “How do you feel?” Asked Dr Palk down the intercome. “In your own mind, I mean?”

  “I’m getting these hallucinations,” replied Kalp faintly. “I feel like I’m passing out and then dreaming that I’m a wolf or something. For some reason I’m hungry. Really, really hungry.”

  “For meat?” asked the doctor.

  “Yes,” breathed the Admiral. “How did you know? Oh but to hell with that. Where are the damned rangers? Why aren’t they in here?”

  Jak reached forward and removed the transmitter from the doctor’s hands and flicked it off. The Admiral’s voice was gone in an instant. “We have no choice” Said Jak defensively, looking around at the shocked faces of the other councillors. “Does anybody here have any better idea? Anybody else want to tell the Admiral why we’re not coming to get her?”

  “Then what will we do about Bratten?” Demanded Sol.

  Jak swallowed hard and gritted his teeth. “We’ll close off the air supply,” he said firmly. “We’ll suffocate that thing.”

  “You can’t be serious!” Exclaimed Arianna. “Why that would…”

  “I told you the Admiral is already dead,” snapped Jak harshly. “If anything we’d be doing her a favour, not letting her turn into one of those things.”

  “But it is barbaric!” Persisted Arianna.

  “One bite is fatal,” said Jak. “It did for Wal and his team, it did for Bratten. It will…”

  “Yalor Hain!” Yelled Arianna suddenly. “Where is he?”

  “He was discharged back to his quarters,” replied Dr Palk. “I bandaged him up as best I could and sterilised the wound.”

  Jak drew his pistol and charged out of the room, shouting for his rangers to join him. Sol, Arianna and the doctor hurried after him.

  The rangers’ quarters had been detached from the main body of the starship and now lay just across the road on the main street of Grumium. Jak, Sol, Arianna and Dr Palk hurried out and charged across the street, joined by two of Jak’s rangers who also had their pistols drawn. The four of them let themselves into the apartment block and rushed upstairs to Yalor’s second floor apartment. As they reached the top of the landing the air was wrought by a blood curdling scream. It was the scream of a woman and it was coming from behind the door. Jak pulled up short and ordered the doctor, Sol and Arianna to hold back, the three of them being unarmed. Suddenly the door was flung open from the inside
and a woman Jak recognised as Sveta Hain, Yalor’s wife, rushed out and threw herself down the stairs. She was bleeding profusely from her right arm, which had been ripped right down to the bone. There came the sound of scuffling from inside the apartment, of chairs and furniture being knocked over, of windows smashing. Fast footsteps hurtled towards the door.

  “Look out!” Cried Jak.

  Adrianna dived down as shots rang out. She looked up to see Yalor Hain’s blood and flesh exploding out in all directions as the rangers pumped shots into his writhing body.

  When it was over the doctor went to bend over Yalor’s body and began a cursory examination. “Any one of those shots would have been enough to kill an ordinary man,” he said in astonishment. “And yet Yalor Hain was still moving even after entire clips had been unloaded into him.”

  There came a groaning from below. Looking down they saw Sveta Hain, collapsed in a foetal position at the bottom of the stairwell, a trail of blood snaking down the wall in her wake. Blood was seeping freely from her arm. “Get bandages,” ordered the doctor. Arianna hurried into the apartment and came back a moment later with the first aid kit. The doctor began to bandage her up as best he could. “We need to get her to the public hospital now the medical bay in the starship is out of use,” said Arianna.

  “No,” said Jak decisively. “We need to get her down to the brig and keep our weapons trained on her at all times.”

  Arianna realised that Jak was right. She looked down at Sveta, whose face was a grimace of pain and suffering, at her butchered arm that was pulsating blood. She did not have long left, she could see that well enough.

  “I have sewn her up as best I can,” said the doctor sadly. “It was all I could do to tie up the arteries so she doesn’t bleed out and that injection should dull her pain somewhat.” He whispered so Sveta could not hear him. “Between us I doubt she would survive even if we weren’t worried about infection and whilst she is in the brig I cannot offer her proper medical treatment.” Jak ordered two of his rangers to carry Sveta to the brig whilst Jak followed behind with the gun trained on the stricken woman, ready to cut her down the moment she started to turn.