Deep Space Dead

by Chilvers, Edward

  Half an hour later the air supply to the medical bay and all of its directly adjoining rooms was switched off. Jak watched gravely from the window as the rampaging beast that had been Bratten Jorg choked and gagged, her chalk like face turning an ugly shade of blue before finally collapsing down on to the floor where she was still. After a few minutes of intense monitoring Jak ordered the doors opened. He went inside with his pistol drawn and fired three shots into the creature’s head, taking no chances. The Admiral lay dead in the storage room. Whether she had bled to death or suffocated when the air had been turned off Jak could not tell, but at least she had not turned into one of those creatures.

  “The civilian leadership must be continued,” said Dr Palk, after the Council had reconvened in the administration chamber. “Of that I am adamant.” Here several of the other Councillors murmured in agreement.

  “I concur,” said Banda Ure. “The admiral was due to retire and hand over and this is exactly what should happen. The only difference is it is happening sooner than we would have expected.”

  A new leader had to be chosen. In the end the verdict was unanimous. The ponderous administration man Magnuj Bol was elected. Sol was the last to raise his hand in the vote. Arianna could see he was disappointed and had harboured hopes of the taking the leadership for himself.

  “How much danger are we really in?” Asked Magnuj Bol when the formalities were out of the way. “The danger has been contained. Those who have been bitten have been isolated and the threat itself is thousands of miles away on the other side of the world, in a spot which will surely be one of the last places we would think of colonising. We still have enough rangers to explore and map out the planet. In the meantime the veil of secrecy must continue.”

  “Less than a fortnight into the colonisation and we’re already imposing censorship,” muttered Sol.

  “The threat will be observed and further readings will be taken,” said Magnuj Bol, ignoring him. “We need to scout and map the rest of the planet anyway. To that end I shall send out another two rovers in the next few days. You can fly back over that sulphur hole and see what sort of state it is in. We’ll need to try and get some of those rovers back anyway.”

  “And afterwards?” Asked Arianna. “What do we do then?”

  “We get rid of them,” said Magnuj Bol firmly. “The creatures I mean. We take nuclear fuel rods from the ship’s engines and we set them into meltdown right inside that cave of theirs. It’ll be dangerous, of course it will, but it should do the job well enough.”

  The new chairman now pressed a button. A hologram of the entire planet flashed up. Some parts were more detailed than others. These were the parts the rovers of Wal’s doomed expedition had already explored.

  “You can see deserts, mountain ranges, volcanic regions, vast plains, lakes and rivers,” said Banda Ure. “A whole varied terrain. Those revenants would have to cross it all before they came anywhere near us and although the may certainly do so in time if left unchecked for now we are safe enough to plan forwards.”

  “What of the tunnels?” Asked Sol doubtfully.

  “The tunnels are not connected,” said Banda Ure. “Our scanners have picked up all the caves within a five hundred mile radius. None of them lead anywhere.”

  “I still don’t like it,” muttered Arianna.

  “It is only a disease,” said Magnuj Bol. “Colonisers have suffered strange diseases before. You as a librarian must be well aware of that, Arianna. Come the next rover sortie we’ll take some proper readings and that should give us a good idea of what to send back to the Confederation.”

  “I don’t mind going,” said Arianna. “Like I said, I’ve got experience with these things and if we’re not going to be landing I don’t see that it will be too dangerous.”

  “I shall go to,” said Dr Palk. “I want to observe this habitat of theirs for myself.”

  “There is no hurry,” said the Chairman. “We have other pressing matters to attend to.”

  The talk now turned back towards the building work and crop rotation. Arianna couldn’t believe they were discussing such things after all that had taken place that day.

  9

  “They’re in denial,” muttered Arianna, when she and Jak were making their way back to their quarters with Sol in tow. “They haven’t seen what we’ve seen, haven’t seen their vast numbers.”

  “I can see the chairman’s point,” said Jak. “He doesn’t want to spook anyone.”

  “I saw how fast that thing moved,” said Sol, his voice haunted. “And I saw its strength and how hard it went down. Just imagine if even one of those things made it back to Grumium and we couldn’t put it down in time. Imagine how many people it could turn in even a minute. It hardly bears thinking about.”

  “You might have to get used to it,” said Jak. “With so many rangers killed you and your men are going to have to step up as replacements.”

  “I don’t relish having to be a ranger,” muttered Sol. “My people and I are going to have to brush up on riding the rovers. We’re not going to be able to come along on this reconnaissance of yours.”

  “That’s fine,” said Jak. “I’ll take Arianna and the doctor to fly over the sulphur site whilst officer Jan Lybne can take the other two rangers with Banda Ure.”

  “How many pistols do we have?” Asked Sol.

  “Around five hundred,” replied Jak. “Enough for each of the miners with the capacity in the factories to make more should we so need.”

  “I can’t believe the Admiral is gone,” sighed Arianna. “After all these years together, after all that work she did for us, getting us here only to die like that.”

  “Her death covers none of us in glory,” muttered Sol.

  “Magnuj Bol will do fine,” said Jak decisively. “We need to look to the future.”

  “This place was supposed to be safe,” breathed Arianna, more to herself than to anyone else. “It was supposed to be our new paradise.”

  “It is still safe,” said Jak, placing a reassuring hand around her waist. “Those things are thousands of miles away and confined to their own separate habitat. They cannot come after us.”

  Sveta Hain was propped up in the bed, her hands hanging over it with a glazed expression on her face, presumably from the drugs. Her hands had been shackled with loosely fitted chains driven into the walls of the brig but she had clearly been moving about, for the mattress and blankets on which she lay was soaked with blood and there were bloodied handprints on the walls. Arianna looked upon the macabre scene with distaste.

  “Every now and again she’ll try and rise up and flail around,” said Dr Brig as they watched her from the other side of the bars. “Which she shouldn’t be able to do at all considering the dosage of sedatives she’s had. I should like to be able to go and examine her further.”

  “You know I cannot allow that,” said Dr Palk with a shake of his head.

  “Not helping somebody goes against all my training as a doctor,” protested Dr Brig.

  “It must be done,” said Dr Palk, his eyes not leaving Sveta for a moment.

  Sveta Hain reached up and groaned in a terrible convulsion. Jak and Jan Lybne tensed up and readied their weapons. Sveta turned and looked straight at them with bulging, bloodshot eyes. “Help.....me....” she muttered desperately. She threw herself back on to the bed and began to choke desperately. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, she lay still.

  “Is she dead?” Asked Arianna nervously.

  “She certainly isn’t moving,” replied Dr Palk. “And see how the colour drains from her face, just as it was with Bratten.”

  Jak raised his pistol and ordered Jan Lybne to do the same. “Now is the crucial time,” he said with intense concentration. “Be ready to fire as soon as you see any movement.”

  An uneasy, agonising silence descended. Maybe she stirred and they just didn’t notice, but they barely had time to react before the thing that was once Sveta Hain leapt up from the bed, tearing t
he chains from the walls and charging towards them in a single bound. A fraction of a second later she was up to the bars and scythed through them, ripping them in two like they were made of paper. At last Jak and Jan Lybne found time to react. Several shots rang out in quick succession. Sveta lurched back but her inhuman eyes remained fixed hungrily upon them. The two rangers continued to fire. Sveta fell to her knees. Jak aimed a shot at her head and fired three times until her skull exploded and she flopped back down on to the cold floor of the brig and was still at last.

  “Look at the bars!” Exclaimed Arianna in horror.

  “They brought us the crucial second we needed,” said Jak, but he too turned and stared in askance.

  “Impossible,” breathed Dr Palk. “Nothing could have been that strong, or that fast.” He reached out and touched the jagged shards of metal, pressed them with his thumb. There was no give against his force and yet they had given way so easily at the hands of the revenants. In life Sveta Hain had been a petite, diminutive woman. In death, it seemed, she had been next to impossible to put down.

  “I just wish the Chairman had been around to see it,” muttered Arianna.

  “I need to do an autopsy on all three bodies,” said Dr Palk. “We need to know what we’re dealing with so we can report back to the Confederation.”

  It was mid-morning of the following day by the time Arianna was finally able to stagger, exhausted, back to her apartment. From outside she could hear the happy colonisers going about their business, blissfully unaware at the events of the previous day and Arianna found it hard to believe she had not slept since that terrible encounter in the caves. Despite her urging him to come to bed Jak had insisted on going to the armoury to double check the stock of laser pistols was in working order. Ambra had already slept a full night and now wanted to go outside and play.

  “I told you I don’t want you going out on your own, especially not now,” said Arianna.

  “You just don’t want me to see the moon man,” said Ambra bitterly.

  Her daughter’s words caused Arianna to wake up. She turned to face Ambra.

  “What did this moon man look like?” She asked her with renewed interest.

  “I told you mummy. He was tall and strong.”

  “Did you ever have to run from him? Did he frighten you at all?”

  “I was scared of him,” admitted Ambra. “But only because he was so scary. I mean he looked scary. He didn’t try to hurt me. He just wanted to talk.”

  “And did anybody else see you talking to him?”

  “I don’t think so. I think he only wanted to talk to me.”

  Arianna tried to get her thoughts together. There was a passing resemblance to the moon man Ambra was describing and the revenants that had pursued them earlier, although the revenants had not attempted anything as sophisticated as conversation. She knew she was being paranoid. It was like Jak had said, those things were thousands of miles away now. “Fine,” she said at last. “You can go out and play in the arboretum but if I hear you’ve gone out on to the plains again you won’t go out again for the rest of the week.”

  Ambra put her shoes on then hurried downstairs to play in the arboretum. Arianna went to the window and watched her for a while, watched the colonists going about their daily business. Sooner or later the Admiral’s death would have to be announced and perhaps too the news of the other deaths would leak out. But that was a problem for the entire Council, not just for her.

  Arianna went to bed and fell asleep straight away. Her dreams were of moon white monsters with blood dripping from their teeth, severed limbs and her friends with deathly stares, of screaming colonists running through the corridors of the starship and of herself fleeing through the darkness of the caves. She awoke just two hours later and at that moment doubted she would ever sleep well again. Her dreams, like her thoughts, were whirring around in a kaleidoscope of different strands and she knew there was nothing to be done except wait it out. She was not relishing having to return to the caves, even if they were only going to be flying overhead.

  The medical bay had been cleaned up, the smashed equipment replaced. There was no sign of the chaos that had taken place here the previous day. Arianna observed three human shapes lying under white sheets whilst the doctor washed his hands. From the look of him Dr Palk was also a man existing on very little sleep. His clothes were creased, his face stubbly and his eyes bloodshot. He had already briefed the Council on the results of his autopsy and now he proceeded to fill Arianna in as well.

  “It appears to be some sort of parasitic virus,” began the doctor. “It multiplies fast as well, faster than I have ever seen a virus multiply before and is of what appears to be a completely unknown strain. I would almost go so far as to call the virus a completely living entity that assumes complete control of the brain in the moments leading up to death. In the two minutes between death and revival the muscles undergo a massive change and it is as if the person has been exercising and toning themselves non-stop for months; fantastical I know but it is the only way I can describe it.”

  “What about the behaviour of the revenants?” Asked Arianna. “Why do they suddenly feel the need to attack us like that?”

  “That is another interesting thing,” replied the doctor. “And in truth I cannot tell you. What I can see, however, is that the parasitic virus requires next to nothing in order to sustain itself, and by this I mean it can basically live on air. Bratten’s stomach contained the flesh of the Admiral which was being dissolved in an acid like substance and diffused to the rest of the body which in turn would have made it even stronger. But it would appear from what I can see that once the revenant obtains these increased functions it does not lose them again through simply not eating.”

  “Can you cure the virus?” Asked Arianna.

  The doctor shook his head. “You need to understand the parasitic nature of this affliction,” he told her. “The virus takes control of everything, and all in a matter of a few minutes. There is no way of cutting it out or killing it off. It dies only when its host dies and the best way to do this is via the imposition of a severe final trauma to the brain.”

  “That doesn’t give us a great deal of cause for optimism,” said Arianna worriedly.

  The doctor nodded. “Just pray and hope it doesn’t happen to you,” he said.

  “So what are we to tell the people?” Asked Arianna. “About the Admiral I mean?”

  “The Council has already met regarding the Admiral,” said Dr Palk. “We’re going to make an announcement shortly. The last thing we need is for people to panic unnecessarily.”

  “I don’t like this,” said Arianna. “I don’t like how everybody seems to be in denial and keeps insisting everything is going to be alright despite all the evidence to the contrary.”

  “It has to be okay,” said the doctor, his voice sounding faraway. “It can’t not be okay. We’ve got few weapons and no means of escape from this place. If we sent out for help the Confederation wouldn’t get here for eight years, that’s if they bothered at all. We have to succeed here, Arianna. The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.”

  In the end the Council said it had been an explosion that had killed the Admiral and the others, although they gave precious few details. Wal’s retinue of scouts was officially listed as missing, presumed lost, although publically the Council vowed that the search would go on. Privately the rangers’ families were told to assume the worst. The news was greeted with dismay amongst the colonists and three days of mourning was declared. In a carefully written speech Chairman Bol assured them the Admiral’s good work would not be forgotten. He said he hoped the colonists would be inspired by the example of the deceased and would come out of the whole thing stronger. The entertainers immediately set about planning a production which would eulogise the Admiral and the lost rangers whilst plans were made to name several municipal buildings after the Kalp. For most of the colonists this was the first great tragedy of their lives and it was not unu
sual to see people openly weeping in the streets.

  Although regarded as a tragedy the loss of lives was not seen as likely to directly affect the future colonisation of Hearthstone. Arianna didn’t doubt the truth would leak out eventually. She thought the Council’s explanation to be weak, far-fetched and lacking in any sort of detail. It would not be long, she surmised, before people overcame their grief and started asking more pertinent questions.

  The next few days passed peaceably enough although for a while Arianna imagined the congenial atmosphere amongst the colonists was gone forever. People walked with their heads down as they solemnly eulogised their lost Admiral. But there was work to be done and the colonists had not come all this way to be down-heartened. Soon the period of mourning was over and the work resumed once more. Now that the Admiral’s retirement home no longer had to be built Chairman Bol decreed that a museum named after the Kalp would instead be constructed on the site. But the museum was not the priority that the retirement mansion had been and manpower was soon diverted to other areas. The foresters and carpenters worked in earnest, the frames of houses appeared dotted over the site of Grumium and over spilled on to the plains. The miners started to tunnel deep holes down into the mountains and the ore flowed freely from the bowels. Plains were turned into fields, the soil ploughed in preparation for planting. Arianna returned to work at the library and for a time was busy once more. Sol and his police officers trained hard to master the rovers and to learn the duties of the rangers. Jak took charge of their training and was patient with Sol, although the relationship between the two men remained strained. Between training sessions Jak prepared for the second rover mission although the Council did not want them going out before the training of the police officers had been completed. Chairman Bol certainly didn’t seem to be in any kind of hurry.