Deep Space Dead

by Chilvers, Edward

  “Why it is huge!” Said Dr Palk. “And almost completely intact as well. I cannot believe the starship has maintained its atmosphere for so long.”

  “But does it save us?” Demanded Hari Shorr impatiently.

  “It more than saves us,” said Prima Blak, unable to take her eyes off the wonder before her. “It allows us to thrive! Why we could build a town within this very arboretum even without the fully intact dormitory rooms below. We are saved!”

  “Let us not get too ahead of ourselves,” said Jak cautiously. “We still have the voice on the ship to contend with.”

  “That is true,” replied Dr Palk. “And I am concerned we have not seen any other sign of life on this ship. It looks as though the arboretum has been left to grow wild and there does not appear to be even the slightest trace of personal effect anywhere throughout this craft. If humankind have survived they do not appear to have done so in any great numbers.”

  They climbed another flight of steps, high towards the top of the starship. Arianna looked and saw the wall to the right was glass and gave out to a view of the arboretum. She peered at the thick trees, weeds and knotted vines and tried to imagine the lush artificial pastureland it must once have given out to. They reached the top of the steps and turned right. “I have a feeling we have not far to go now,” said Dr Palk warily. “We are near the top of the craft.”

  Sure enough they rounded another corner to find a door wide open ahead of them. The room was dark and dim but from it there came a buzzing sound. Arianna was aware of flashing lights and for some reason felt a presence within. She held her breath and stepped forwards through the doorway.

  18

  Arianna gasped and instinctively stepped back, her hand reaching for the pistol by her side for she stood starring into the glassy eyes of a revenant. And yet the creature made no move to attack her and there was a strange familiarity in its otherwise indistinguishable features. Perhaps it was a statue, for it made no move towards her. No, it was most certainly alive. There was no doubting that. Arianna cautiously looked around and saw that the creature was not alone. There were ten of them in all. It was impossible to distinguish their sex. The other humans also gasped when they entered into the room and all were rooted to the spot. When the chief of the revenants, for this is surely what they were, finally spoke up its voice was low and monotone; completely without emotion. “Call me Guya,” said the creature, without preamble.

  The group of humans just stood there gaping. Prima Blak was the first to break the silence. “Are you… an alien?” She asked cautiously.

  Guya shook his head, neither amused nor offended at the question. “It is as your comrade Arianna said,” it said flatly. “We are all that is left of the first colonists of this planet, the original pioneers of the Suki II.”

  “You mean you have evolved to this?” Asked Dr Palk in astonishment.

  “Not evolved,” replied Guya. “Modified. Genetically modified. Once I was the leading scientist aboard the Suki II. I was called Xen. We arrived her the same as you, filled with hope and optimism and the promise of a new life in paradise. But what we found was a strange new disease the like of which humankind had never seen before. I spent many days trapped inside this very office searching desperately for a cure as thousands died all around me. The closest I could find made us the creatures you see before us today.”

  “And what of the revenants?” Asked Jak. “Did you create them as well?”

  “The revenants are what became of the colonists,” replied Guya. “They bred and multiplied, evolved into the mindless revenants. It was all I could do to develop a serum which allowed the ten of us to retain a scrap of our original humanity once we too fell victim to the virus.”

  Arianna looked around. Aside from the flashing lights on the control panel the room was pristine and yet noticeable by its greyness. Arianna could not believe anybody could live here for any length of time without going mad. “It must have been awful,” said Arianna,

  “It has indeed been a dull existence,” acknowledged Guya. “I always assumed the Confederation would come looking for us. It seems they have decided to forget about us and begin the re-colonisation anew. Regardless, the results will be the same.”

  “We can talk about the far future later,” said Jak, his tone becoming business-like. “Because from what I can here you have a flourishing arboretum, a stable atmosphere on the ship and more than enough space to accommodate us all. The question is will you help us?”

  “We do indeed have food and supplies,” replied Guya. “You may help yourselves as you see fit. It is of no use to us.”

  A sudden realisation dawned on Arianna. “It was you,” she breathed. “It was you who were speaking to my daughter.”

  “Indeed so,” replied Guya. “The young mind is undeveloped and filled with questions and yet most often truthful. At the same time the immaturity of the child means its outlandish stories are unlikely to be believed.”

  “I saw you myself,” said Arianna. “I almost fancy you looked into my eyes as I stood at the window. The revenants did not try to attack you.”

  “What you are saying would defy all sensible thinking if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” remarked Dr Palk. He looked towards the other humanoid half revenants, none of whom had moved or even spoke. “But why did you come all the way up here, in the middle of nowhere?”

  “We do not feel the cold,” replied Guya. “Before we were able to effect a solution I ordered the starship brought here so we might have time to work on our formula. There has never been any reason to move.”

  “You mean you have been waiting all this time?” Said Dr Palk in astonishment.

  “We are able to wait indefinitely,” replied Guya. “We did not know who you were. We did not know what you wanted. If you were the rescue party you arrived some five thousand years too late.”

  “Why have you not tried to destroy those things?” Asked Sol.

  “What makes you think we can destroy those things?” Asked Guya. “It is true they do not attack us but if we attempted to fight them they would soon turn on us once more. And besides, we are only ten of us. It would not take much to wipe us out.”

  “We hardly have that luxury,” pointed out Jak. “We sought nothing from them and they wipe us out at the first opportunity.”

  “As it was with us at first,” replied Guya slowly. “But I have said we shall help you. Stay here for the night, explore the ship at your leisure and then go back to your people tomorrow. Tell them what you have seen and bring them back with you.”

  “This would take many journeys,” mused Jak. “For we have but two rovers left.”

  “I regret we cannot assist you,” said Guya. “Our own rovers were destroyed at the start of our own disaster. Still, you can at least take food and supplies back to aid you until you can bring everybody across.”

  “Thank you,” said Arianna. “You are most kind.” She was indeed grateful for what Guya was offering but at the same time could not help but feel extremely uneasy for Guya continued to speak in the same flat tone with neither kindness nor compassion towards them.

  The colonists were saved! The arboretum was ripe for the harvest, supplies were plentiful and there was an abundance of living space in which to expand. It was possible too the ship might still have some salvageable communications equipment they might use to send word to the Confederation to come to their aid. Hearthstone might still be saved for human colonisation. Why was it then, wondered Arianna, that she was so relieved to be away from Guya and the rest of the silent statues within the control room?

  After they were dismissed the group of humans went downstairs to choose quarters that had formally belonged to the officers on the old ship, larger than the other rooms and just as neatly maintained. Prima Blak took some readings on her portable holoscreen. It seemed as though the starship had been well maintained and was functioning completely although it’s fuel supplies had been more or less completely drained and it was currently
functioning on its wind turbines, wind being about the only resource in abundance aside from snow in this Arctic terrain. That evening they ate well from supplies Guya had sent to them. The talk was filled with the future. “It isn’t exactly what we planned for,” said Dr Palk. “We are hardly going to thrive here beyond a certain point. The next generation will have to put in place policies of birth control to prevent the population from growing any larger.”

  “Now we have the time perhaps we can put our minds to defeating the revenant threat once and for all,” said Jak hopefully. “This Guya fellow seems to know more about them than anyone and if what he says is true he has had thousands of years to study them.”

  “But Guya is one of the revenants,” said Arianna in a low voice, as though the humanoid might be listening in. “Just because he doesn’t attack us we cannot forget he and his crew have virtually morphed themselves into them. That was his way of defeating the revenants; to become them.”

  “Guya gives me the creeps too,” said Prima Blak. “But he has offered us sanctuary here. We cannot possibly turn him down.”

  “If we accept his sanctuary we will be beholden to him,” said Arianna doubtfully. “He will be in charge of us all, our leader. You all realise that don’t you?”

  “So what would you have us do then?” Demanded Hari Shorr haughtily. “Tell him we would rather starve to death?”

  “Of course not,” snapped Arianna. She had just about had enough of Hari Shorr. “I’m just saying we should tread carefully, that is all.”

  “If they wanted to do us harm they could have done it as soon as we landed,” said Dr Palk reasonably. “They don’t look the type to start toying us. That Guya chap in particular seems pretty blunt about everything.”

  “Do you trust him?” Asked Arianna.

  “Of course not,” replied the doctor. “But what choice do we have other than to go along with what he says? Of course I’d rather the place was deserted and we just plain moved in. There’s more than enough food to keep everyone sustained indefinitely, and space to multiply for generations as well.”

  “Their communications room seems to be completely intact,” said Prima Blak. “Makes me wonder why they didn’t call the Confederation for help straight off.”

  “They don’t seem to care about being stuck here,” said Arianna. “Think about it. They’ve been here on this ship for thousands of years and it seems all they’ve done is stood about and done nothing. Why it would drive me insane. Perhaps they are insane.”

  “They really don’t seem that interested in us,” said Dr Palk. “If they don’t need to eat or sleep I daresay they’ll just leave us to our own devices and keep themselves to that control room of theirs. After all, it isn’t as though we really have that much in common with them.”

  “I suppose it’s only natural if they went a little crazy,” acknowledged Jak. “They have known about us ever since we arrived here and yet they did nothing to help us, did nothing to warn us. Why that Guya even went up to the starship and watched the chaos unfolding.”

  “It shows how bad things are for us when this place seems like heaven,” said Arianna with a wry smile. “An ancient starship with metal walls stuck in the middle of never-ending snowstorms. Is this really going to be our future?”

  “We can make it habitable,” replied Jak with a sigh. “The arboretum is far bigger than ours and the forest can soon be cleared.”

  “I suppose Ambra has known almost nothing else all her life,” said Arianna. “Nothing except artificial air and a glass dome over her head. Those few days she spent in a real world will soon seem like a distant dream to her. Now it seems we’re not even to be the master of our own destiny. Rather we are to be beholden to a humanoid who looks exactly like the very cause of our recent nightmares.”

  “Maybe we can work on this Guya chap and the rest of them,” said Jak. “After all, he said himself there’s only ten of them and if five thousand years alone in this crate isn’t enough to sink your spirits I don’t know what is. Of course they come across as being strange, of course they’re out of ideas; they must have suffered badly all this time.”

  “It must have been an agonising decision to do what they did,” said Arianna, shaking her head. “Making themselves half revenant in order to ward off those things. I’m glad it never came to that with us.”

  “Enough of this talk,” snapped Hari Shorr. “We must decide what we are to do now.”

  “We go back,” replied Arianna. “And we tell everyone the good news and we start the evacuation as soon as possible.”

  “I will come back here with the first wave,” said Jak. “It will be important to have somebody here to greet the colonists and set them to work.”

  “Are you sure that’s wise?” Said Arianna worriedly. “After all, we still hardly know these creatures.”

  “If not me then who?” Asked Jak. Arianna said nothing.

  Arianna slept soundly that night. It was strange not having to worry about the revenants outside and yet she woke up missing Ambra and wishing to have her back here at the Suki II as soon as possible. Later on the rover was loaded up with food and supplies at the behest of Guya, along with a few flares. “You will find these flares disorient them,” said Guya. “Fire one up when you take your rovers out. They will be dazzled and thus unable to jump at you.”

  “That fellow seems to have an answer for everything,” said Dr Palk with a wry shake of his head as the rover took off for the Tula II.

  “In the old times they had God,” said Arianna worriedly. “And God had an answer for everything and was immortal. Guya is our God now, there can be no doubt about that.”

  Back on the Tula IVC Jak hoped to reveal the news in an official announcement although of course Hari Shorr got there first, announcing news of their salvation to raucous cheers from a makeshift stage in the arboretum. Arianna guessed he was making a pitch for leadership in what he thought would be a new regime on the Suki II. She wondered if he realised that Guya was unlikely to let go of such supreme power easily, despite the humanoid’s relative ambivalence towards them. Of course the view of most of the colonists was to set off straight away but there was much to be done in the meantime. The rovers would have to be maintained as well as a steady supply of food to feed the remaining colonists until the evacuation was complete. Barra Herr and some of the more conservative minds on the Council wanted to delay setting off for a week or so but of course Hari Shorr and his shadow regime would not hear of it.

  “Perhaps it will be for the best to rid ourselves of some of the troublemakers,” said Sol. “It will give us some breathing room to at last take control of this ship and get everything ready, allow Barra Herr to leave his self-imposed prison.”

  “Leaving Jak stuck on the Suki II with the majority of rebels,” said Arianna doubtfully.

  “If anybody can handle it Jak can,” said Sol with an air which suggested he did not much care either way. “And besides, from what you’ve told me this Guya chap is very much in charge either way. He’ll keep everything in order I’m sure.”

  Arianna had wanted to take Ambra and go with Jak but Sol and the rest of the Council talked her out of it. For now Jak would be the only one from the Council to go in order not to give the impression that they were gaining special favours. Places on the rovers were, after all, limited and it would take many months before everyone was across. So it was with a heavy heart that Arianna bade farewell to Jak one morning, knowing she would most likely not see him again for many weeks. “I know you worry,” said Jak as he kissed her and Ambra goodbye that morning. “But really, it’s going to be okay. Guya and the others simply aren’t interested in us. They’ll most likely keep to their command centre, not sleeping or skulking around or whatever it is they do and we’ll never see them from one year to the next.”

  “I’m sure you’re right,” smiled Arianna, trying to remain cheerful although deep down she was anything but.

  Jak’s mind was abuzz as he rose up into the clo
uds to convey the first of the colonists to make the exodus. The Suki II was built to cater for fifty thousand people so there was more than enough time for everyone to grow into it. The starship would sustain them for hundreds of years if the population only grew at a steady rate. For a long while it would appear too big for them. Still, there remained much to be done. The arboretum needed to be cleared and jobs would have to be allocated. Even though Guya and the rest of the humanoids seemed to be taking care of most things Jak did not want the colonists to become feckless and idle. Now that they had secured some long term immediate stability he planned to work on a solution for clearing the world of revenants. He was surprised Guya, with all his time and intelligence, had not already done this but then the humanoid had been noncommittal and monosyllabic in his answers to the radio contact made over the past few days. It was clear there was something in his new genetic makeup that had completely robbed him of any ambition or passion. He felt a pang of guilt for leaving Arianna and Ambra. He knew conditions on the Tula IV would remain tense with everybody clamouring to be aboard the Suki II as soon as possible and that there was a long road ahead before everyone was across.

  19

  Three rovers set out per day, each carrying ten colonists plus as many supplies as could be loaded. It would be a long time before the Tula IV was completely evacuated but in the meantime the rovers returned from the Suki II with plentiful supplies of food. Even though she missed Jak a great deal Arianna had decided that she would be one of the last to leave. The exodus to the Suki II lifted the atmosphere of doom and dispelled the distrust between the Council and the colonists. Ambra was released and permitted to go back to live in the administrative apartment with her mother. The children went first; all except Ambra that was. Having gotten her back Arianna was determined not to let her daughter out of her sight.