Deep Space Dead

by Chilvers, Edward

  “Ambra has you,” retorted Sol, and he appeared close to tears.

  “You’re still her father,” replied Jak. “Come on, Sol. No good can come of this.”

  “I’ve got nothing,” replied Sol vacantly. “I’m alone.”

  “We need your help to get through this,” replied Jak, unwilling to get drawn into a counselling session. “We all need to think and quite possibly we’re going to need to fight. We can’t do that without you, Sol. It isn’t just your life on the line here. Look, nothing like this has ever happened before. We’re all going to have to do things we don’t want to do, things that would have seemed atrocious just a few hours ago but that’s just the way of the new world, Sol. You did it, Sol. She wasn’t a little girl. You came through and you saved my life, prevented me from turning into one of those things. Had you not shot the thing it might have broken out and infected the entire ship.”

  Sol simply shrugged. Jak put an arm around him and led him away. The policeman did not resist. He seemed like a broken man.

  Jak walked back with Sol to his quarters and made sure he got to his room okay. He decided not to tell Arianna what had happened. He was deeply worried, and it was not just because he was concerned for Sol’s life. The fact was Sol had been forced to an extreme, and if the siege dragged on it would simply be the first of many. Jak knew their survival depended on being just as ruthless towards the revenants as those creatures would be to them. If Sol didn’t have it in him to react when the going got tough he would not last long regardless of whether or not he took his own life. Jak was feeling slightly humbled too. Sol had saved his life despite the policeman’s blatant dislike of him. Jak turned and made his way back to the apartment he shared with Arianna. He had a lot to think about.

  Sol remained sat on his bed for a long time with his head in his hands. Jak had given him his pistol back. He wondered if the ranger wasn’t actually bothered if he committed suicide but just didn’t want it on his conscience, although Sol was not going to try again. Now that his own apartment had been conquered and demolished by the revenants Sol would set up a bed in his office. There was nothing else there in the way of personal effects. The room was bare and business-like.

  Night had fallen. Arianna walked into the corridor and stared out towards the landscape beyond. There was no sign of the revenants dispersing. They stood straight and still like statues, all eyes turned towards the starship. Arianna could still see blood on their gleaming white bodies. They were not going to leave and even though they had tested and probed the starship for weaknesses it was as though they knew the survivors were trapped inside with dwindling food supplies. It was simply a question of waiting. Arianna looked out but could see no traces left of what was once the burgeoning city of Grumium. In the arboretum the revenants were sat perched on the glass above, blotting out the natural light. She supposed the starship would soon be forced to revert back to the artificial sunlight.

  “If the worst comes to the worst there’s still the orbiter,” said Jak, coming to stand behind her and placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

  “What do you mean?” Asked Arianna

  “It contains a stasis pod,” replied the ranger. “For emergencies only of course. Switch it on and it’ll send you to sleep until help arrives, provided the help arrives within six months. It isn’t much, I’ll give you that but it might buy us a few months of comfort.”

  “Nobody would come,” said Arianna fearfully.

  “There is still hope,” Jak told her. “The agricultural people are working around the clock to find a solution to the food shortages. The geologists are scanning the maps looking for a safe place, or at least some fertile free growing land where we might make a smash and grab raid. The engineers are working to see if they might get the ship working again so we can take off.”

  “Take off?” Said Arianna. “Where would we go? We only had enough fuel to get us to Hearthstone and we’re running on empty as it is. Besides, most of the fuel rods were taken away to make up the power station which now lies in ruins and trampled under the feet of the revenants.”

  “Look,” said Jak. “Right now us rangers and police are busy trying to calm things down on the starship. There’s been a lot of unrest and people are naturally ill at ease. Once we’ve done that we can go out in the rovers again. Maybe we’ll find a sheltered spot, a valley surrounded by mountains or an island in the middle of the sea.”

  “Those things can climb any gradient and swim any sea,” muttered Arianna. “Of that you can be certain. And besides, how would we transport thousands of people? We’ve only got three rovers left and they’ll hold a maximum of five people each if you squeeze them in.”

  “We’ll think of something,” said Jak.

  “We’re not thinking of anything yet,” snapped Arianna, turning on him angrily. “You said yourself Chairman Bol is more interested in waiting it out.”

  “Bol isn’t the only one on this starship with ideas,” replied Jak.

  “The fact of the matter is this,” said Arianna darkly. “Even if we could lift off this ship, which we can’t, and fly off to a new destination on the other side of the world those things would be upon us before the sun was down.”

  “We have to remain hopeful,” said Jak firmly. “We have to keep hopeful and we have to keep thinking. It is all we can do, Arianna. We are humans, after all.”

  Chairman Bol declared it was to be business as usual and that the colonists were to act as though they were still travelling through space. Consequently Arianna was expected at work as normal. Yet on arriving at the police officer’s office-cum-apartment to drop Ambra off the following day she found that Sol was out and so, at a loss for anything else to do, she left a note outside his door then took Ambra to the library where she proceeded to work for several hours. There was much to do, although Arianna did not think much of it would be any use. Administrators, engineers and the agricultural committee were looking around for precedents, of which there were none. Ambra sat by herself in a corner and drew pictures. It was unlike her to be so quiet, in fact she had said very little since their escape from the revenants the previous day. Arianna worked a full day in the library before taking Arianna back to see if Sol was home. On the way she passed by the concert hall in the arboretum, which had now been cleared of bodies. People were being moved into the arboretum itself. Ramshackle shacks were being constructed by the surviving carpenters in order to house those who had lost everything.

  The policeman was at home this time. He had spent the day helping out at the arboretum as best he could and in truth had forgotten he was supposed to have been looking after his daughter. “People think they’re going to starve,” said Sol grimly. “And they’re right. They’re not stupid. They know we don’t have enough food in the arboretum to see us through for another month. I went to talk to Chairman Bol earlier, about the growing unrest inside the starship. Do you know he thinks all we have to do is wait it out?”

  “I heard,” muttered Arianna dismissively.

  “And what’s more it seems the majority of the Council agree with him.”

  “And you?” Asked Arianna. “What do you make of it all?”

  “I’ve hardly stopped all day,” said Sol. “This is the first time I’ve been back to my apartment since I left at four in the morning. There’s unrest up and down the ship and with people packed into so close a space it is only going to get worse. We jettisoned two thirds of the ship when we landed including most of the living quarters. I’ve been too busy to really think about what we’re going to do in the future.”

  “What kind of unrest?” Asked Arianna.

  “There have been fights, heavy drinking, that sort of thing,” replied Sol. “Rumours are flying up and down the ship that the Council are preparing to take off and leave people to their fate. Basically it’s despair. Until we can come up with a sure-fire plan that’s just going to continue. Nobody is going to stand around and await certain death.”

  “Any ideas so fa
r?”

  “We’ve got some flammable material on the ship we could detonate on the bastards. It’d certainly thin down their ranks and make it a whole lot easier to take them down.” He looked towards Ambra. “I’d sacrifice everything for her,” said Sol. “I’d sacrifice everything and everyone on this starship just so that she would be okay. I haven’t been thinking about how I or we are going to get out of this. I’ve been thinking about an escape for her.”

  Arianna shifted uncomfortably. These were not words she wanted to hear from a man tasked with ensuring the safety of thousands of people, although she could see his point.

  12

  The days passed slowly. Not even a walk around the greenery of the arboretum with the constant activity of the farmers offered any relief. The displaced in their hovels made for a grim sight, shuffling along with their heads down whilst revenants patrolled the glass roof above, an ever present reminder of what may soon be in store. People were staggering around drunk in the arboretum, an unthinkable state of affairs one week ago. Arianna later heard how twelve people had committed suicide since the siege had begun. What was worse Arianna now noticed how the colonists were starting to view her resentfully. They knew she was part of the Council, knew she still had her own apartment and furniture whilst most others had lost everything save the clothes on their back. Arianna tried to play with Ambra, tried to get her to cheer up but the little girl was morose and preoccupied and Arianna found herself wondering whether she would ever snap out of it.

  “This is Marya Skiee,” said Chairman Bol solemnly, motioning to a serious faced woman of forty-five who sat across from him at the high table. “Some of you may know her as a teacher. In the light of the large numbers of dead, however, I have asked her to become the Councillor for Orphans in order to cater for the large numbers of parentless children for whom we now find ourselves responsible.”

  It was a blessing most of the children had been spared, for during the day they had mostly played in the arboretum whilst the construction of the city was taking place although the appointment emphasised more than anything else the dire situation the colonists now found themselves in. Jared Bynce the mining Councillor appeared more despondent than anyone. His miners had been virtually wiped out by the revenants having been the furthest away from the starship when the invasion took place. Now there was next to nothing for him to do. There would be no mining on Hearthstone, not now. All those years wasted. His life’s work and purpose gone in a matter of moments.

  “The people are on the verge of rioting,” said Sol emphatically as the meeting got underway. “We couldn’t contain them even if we did have a full contingent of rangers and police officers, which we don’t. Besides, nobody wants to have to start shooting civilians for any reason, especially after what we’ve all been through.”

  “We’re planting up the arboretum as fast as we can go,” said Gan Cuk. “But with so many refugees housed inside space is more limited than I would like. Still, even if we were able to survive the eight months the crops will need to grow we’d still only feed four thousand people on starvation rations.”

  “So let them wipe one another out with rioting and disorder,” said Col Gayze flippantly. “We can’t feed everyone as it is. If we’re going to starve it may as well be survival of the fittest.”

  “It may not come to that,” said Arianna, alarmed at the direction in which the conversation was going.

  “You know as well as I do it’s going to come to that,” snapped Col Gayze. “Sure, at the moment everyone thinks I’m the bad guy for even suggesting it but in a fortnights time when the food is almost all gone we’re going to be sitting here around this table and discussing who we can jettison. If we were only a thousand we would survive, would we not? We could carry on indefinitely?”

  “Yes,” said Gan Cuk, his head bowed low. “Fewer could survive. The problem is we are too many.”

  “I can’t believe we’re even discussing this!” Exclaimed Arianna in horror.

  “Enough,” said Magnuj Bol. “I will not hear another word said about this matter. For now at least.”

  “The people are convinced the revenants are going to break through,” said Sol, turning the conversation back to the here and now. “This is one reason for the unrest. Their nerves are shredded to pieces by the very thought of it.”

  “That cannot happen,” put in Bacc Goor. “We’ve got the asteroid field switched on and that will repel anything.”

  “I know that,” snapped Sol. “The problem is the colonists don’t believe it. So far we’ve suffered only defeat and they can see how strong the things are. We need to fight back, and fast.”

  “We have some plasma explosives,” said Jared Bynce. “We kept them close to hand so they weren’t accidentally set off during the building works. Of course most of it went to the mines so is now lost but we’ve got a small stockpile available.”

  “We have to use it,” said Sol. “People need a show of strength, a sign that we are actually doing something. We can’t just wait around and hope these creatures go away. Even if they did they would come back and they are too strong and ruthless for us to begin to handle.”

  “Sol is right,” put in Jak. “We’re stretched too thinly to effectively police serious unrest.”

  “Well I don’t suppose well be needing the plasma explosive for anything else,” muttered Magnuj Bol. “Very well then, Officer Sol, we will try it your way.”

  An hour after the Council meeting Chariman Bol came on the speaker system and addressed the colonists. “Like many of you I imagined dark days such as this were confined to the distant past,” he told them gravely. “Never in the history of the Confederation have I encountered tales of a situation as grave as this. It would now appear that alien life does indeed exist, and it means us harm. It is clearly not possible to live peaceably, side by side, with these creatures. They seek to destroy us, to consume us completely. Ours is not an aggressive race. We have done them no wrong and seek only to live in peace. We have suffered a blow but we are defiant. The relentless march of humanity will not be stopped. As I speak our rangers and police officers are preparing to mount a decisive fight-back. The stockpile of explosives is being gathered up and will be deployed decisively as soon as we are ready. The human race will prevail as we have prevailed across this great galaxy of ours. We will reclaim what we have lost. We will go on and multiply.”

  The Chairman’s announcement served to buoy the colonists somewhat and the mood became one of defiance. Arianna was surprised at the transformation although at the same time she knew even if the revenants were repelled they had still lost much of their colonisation equipment and would not even be able to transmit a message to the Confederation requesting assistance. Still, the people wanted the creatures punished for what they had done and the news that there was shortly going to be an inferno gladdened their hearts no end.

  Jak, the rangers and the engineers went to and fro collecting the plasma explosives. The strike was planned for tomorrow. There were no large guns on the starships; such things were not thought necessary and so instead the explosives would be blasted out of the garbage chutes that were used to disperse rubbish whilst in space. Explosives were the domain of the miners and because most of them had been wiped out by the revenants only Jared Bynce the councillor was really on hand to supervise and advise along with a handful of lucky survivors. He set about this new task with gusto, pleased to have a purpose after all.

  Early the following morning the council gathered on the bridge of the ship. The colonists were out in force too and now gathered on the observation decks, chattering excitedly amongst themselves.

  “Not too close,” cautioned Bacc Goor. “Even with the gravity fields switched to maximum this ship wouldn’t stand a direct hit without having a hole blown right through it.”

  “At the very least a few loud bangs should prove an effective morale booster,” said Sol hopefully.

  “We’re going to need more than that,” replied Jak
warily, as he looked out towards the see of stony faces stretching to the horizon beyond the ship.

  The plasma bombs shot out of the garbage shoots at great speed. Arianna and the others watched from the windows as they blazed through the sky. A huge, blinding explosion wrought the air and the blast shook the entire ship. Arianna saw revenant bodies being thrown into the air. Severed limbs shot up into the sky. Those revenants just outside the zone of the direct hit were flattened to the floor like grass lain low by a harsh wind. Blood and intestines splashed and smeared against the windows of the ship. Arianna’s heart leapt with excitement at the bloody scene. The colonists throughout the starship cheered loudly. Here was a counter attack at last.

  The joy soon faded once the smoke had cleared. Revenants were walking around with arms hanging off or crawling around with no legs. There was a mass of blackened bodies around the centre of the explosion. Many of the revenants were on fire. But they were still alive. Slowly Arianna felt her joy turn to dread and then to sheer horror. She watched the revenants simply move into the circle vacated by their few vanquished comrades and in a moment there seemed to be as many of them as before. “According to the data we killed two hundred outright,” said Barra Herr, his voice shaking with despair as he starred into the holoscreens. “Two hundred out of the tens if not hundreds of thousands they have out there.”

  “But thousands of them were caught in the blast,” said Sol numbly.

  “And thousands survived,” declared Barra Herr. “My machine does not lie.”