Deep Space Dead

by Chilvers, Edward

  Arianna tried her best to snap Jak out of his stunned malaise over the next few days. She tried taking him for walks in the arboretum, discussing the Council’s affairs with him and trying to get him to spend time with Ambra. It was all to no avail. Jak’s expression remained blank and impassive. At night he shut himself in a separate room and sat alone, but awake, in the darkness until Arianna came to collect him again the following day. For the moment it was agreed to keep him out of the sight of the rest of the Council.

  “You do not like me anymore,” said Jak when Arianna came to see him one evening. Arianna jumped. She was used to Jak sitting in silence whenever she came to see him, barely even acknowledging her presence. The fact of him having initiated conversation for almost the first time since they had returned to the Tula II filled Arianna with hope that there may be hope for him after all. “Of course I like you, Jak,” she told him gently. “A few days of coldness cannot erase the years we have had together, the trials we have undergone together since the revenants attacked us.”

  “No,” said Jak briskly, with something approaching firmness. “You do not like what I have become. You do not like that I am now better than I once was. Perhaps you even think I am a burden to you?”

  “No Jak,” said Arianna emphatically. “But you must realise you are not the man I fell in love with any longer. What happened to you, Jak? Why won’t you say? Have they done to other colonists what they did to you?”

  Jak shook his head, waving her questions away. “I have changed in other ways,” he told her. “And I still have my memories of what we once had. I still remember the dangers we faced together, Arianna, and I am aware of the revenants outside. But I can still be of use to you.”

  “What do you mean?” Asked Arianna.

  Jak did not reply. Instead he stood up and left the room, walking at a slow pace, heading towards the front of the starship. Arianna followed cautiously behind. Sol joined them as they passed through the administration quarters. “What is happening?” Demanded Sol. “We seem to be heading towards the landing bay.”

  But Arianna could only shrug her shoulders. The three of them entered the chamber of the landing bay. Jak turned to them. “The two of you should wait outside,” he said flatly. “This is just a demonstration and will not take long. All the same it is best if you wait outside.” And with that Jak turned and stepped through into the landing bay, closing the doors behind him.

  Arianna knew what was coming. Jak secured the immediate vicinity then went over to the control booth within the control room itself, long disused since the revenant attack in favour of the remote switches in the main chamber. He pressed a few buttons. There came a whirring sound above. Arianna and Sol both looked up through the reinforced windows to see the roof slowly opening to reveal the blue sky beyond. As they gaped, open mouthed, three revenants dropped down to the iron floor below. Arianna braced herself, too scared to cry out but within the confines of the landing bay Jak simply turned calmly to face them. The revenants spun around to face him, crouched down as though to attack and then paused. Still Jak did not move. His face betrayed no emotion, no fear. The revenants began to circle him cautiously, and Arianna almost imagined they were sniffing the air before him. Jak continued to stare at them impassively. Finally the revenants took a step back and turned around. They began to prowl around the perimeter of the landing bay, ignoring Jak completely now and it was as though he was not there at all. Finally they looked upwards towards the sky, stepped back and took giant leaps to the roof of the landing bay before disappearing back into the open world. Jak calmly walked back over to the control booth and closed the roof up again before leaving the landing bay to re-join Arianna and Sol. “You see,” said Jak calmly. “I can be of great use to you. Your worries regarding food and sustenance are practically over so long as you are prepared to trust me. All I need is the rover. There is no need for you to ever leave this starship again.” And with that he turned and walked off.

  “He has a point you know,” said Sol gravely when the ranger had departed. “He could be a great help to us now he seems to be immune to the revenants. He has great strength as well.”

  “Is that all you can say?” Demanded Arianna, rounding on him furiously. “Can you not see what he has become? Why he is just another revenant like all the rest of them.”

  “No,” said Sol firmly. “Revenants attack us. He is on our side.”

  “Only just,” retorted Arianna. “Who knows what he really is? What he is really thinking?”

  “I doubt he is thinking much at all,” replied Sol warily.

  “I have lost him,” sighed Arianna, and she appeared on the verge of tears.

  “He is still here,” muttered Sol dismissively as he began to walk away. “At least in some form. Do not forget thousands of people on this ship have lost far more than just their minds.”

  Arianna looked up sharply at Sol, ready to retort, but the policeman was already walking briskly back down the corridor, his shoulders hunched, deep in thought.

  Sol and Arianna avoided one another for the next few days. Meanwhile all transportation to the Suki II were abruptly ceased. The remaining colonists on board the Tula IV complained bitterly of course, and Sol knew his half-hearted explanation, that the initial pioneers were still clearing space for their arrival, would only placate them for so long.

  Exactly one week after the travel embargo to the Suki II Barra Herr approached Sol and informed him that Guya was on the line, requesting to speak with him. Sol had been expecting the humanoid’s call and was surprised it had taken so long. Before heading for the communications room he went to fetch Arianna and the two went down together.

  “Good evening Sol,” came Guya’s voice, so clear over the radio it was almost as though he were in the room with them. Arianna shuddered.

  “I know why you are calling,” replied Sol warily. “You want to know why we have stopped sending people over to you.”

  “I am not stupid,” replied Guya’s voice. “I know full well why you have ceased the evacuation. It is because of Jak. I am calling to warn you of the mistake you will be making if you do not resume the transportations immediately.”

  Perhaps it was just her imagination but Arianna was sure she could detect a note of menace in Guya’s otherwise flat monotone. Nonetheless she was angry. “There will be no more people sent over to be lobotomised by your vile experiments,” she declared vehemently down the radio.

  “Nobody has been lobotomised,” replied Guya. “The human condition has only been improved. Jak is simply the next stage in our evolution, a natural step albeit one brought forwards thousands of years before its time.”

  “It is no improvement,” snapped Arianna. “Rather it is retardation! You have taken away his emotions to the point of nothingness. His humanity has not been improved – why he is barely human at all anymore!”

  The line went silent for a long time. Arianna wondered whether Guya might have disconnected. Finally his voice came through once more. “You are dependent upon us,” said Guya calmly. “Your remaining people will not tolerate being denied the opportunity for salvation.”

  “Our people have the free will to do as they please,” put in Sol, his tone measured and wary. “But we shall tell them the truth. There shall be no more illusions. And besides, now we have Jak he is immune to the revenants. He can help us survive on this ship.”

  “You said yourself he has lost his humanity,” pointed out Guya. “And this in itself makes him a very dangerous man indeed.”

  “You are more dangerous,” replied Arianna archly. “At least Jak is still on our side.”

  “Nominally at least,” replied Guya. “But it is still not good that you on the Tula IV fall out with us, Arianna. We are, after all, the dominant species on this planet and your only hope of a long term solution to the revenant problem.”

  “You haven’t exactly done much in the thousands of years you’ve been here,” retorted Arianna.

  “This is because t
here were so few of us,” replied Guya. “This has changed now, but that does not matter for the purposes of our conversation now. Perhaps you are correct, Arianna. I should have explained my plans to you more clearly. I was not entirely honest although at the same time I never sought to deceive you. Allow me to come and visit you on your own starship. There is much I have to explain.”

  “You must be joking,” retorted Arianna contemptuously. “You think there is the slightest chance we trust you?”

  “It does not matter whether you trust us or not,” said Guya. “You know as well as I do I could come to visit whenever I wanted. Now you’re going to have to live with us Arianna. It would be best you heard what we have to say.”

  Arianna looked at Sol nervously. Sol shrugged and nodded. He could see they had no choice. “Very well,” he said firmly, emanating more confidence than he felt. “You may come and visit, Guya. But you shall stay for no longer than one hour. Let it be known too that you are wrong if you think you hold all the cards over us. There is much we could do to make your life difficult, even at the risk of our own destruction.”

  “We cannot take this Guya fellow on if he decides to turn on us,” said Sol to Arianna after Guya had gone offline. “We cannot defeat him.”

  “So we are at his mercy then,” sighed Arianna. “But I won’t let them do anything to Ambra, do you hear me?”

  “Nobody is going to hurt Ambra,” said Sol firmly. “We shall make sure she is well out of sight by the time Guya gets here, and I shall be ready myself. He has the build of one of those things and those creatures die hard, but they do die. I will not leave him long if he decides to cause us trouble.”

  The Council told none of the other colonists that Guya would be arriving. They did not wish to cause any undue alarm and so Sol, Arianna, Dr Palk and Barra Herr waited for the humanoid near the landing bay when he arrived in one of the Rovers. The four of them took Guya straight into one of the side rooms without a word. As they walked Guya looked here and there at the makeup of the starship, taking everything in and there was something approaching curiosity in his otherwise dead eyes.

  “I have already seen enough of this starship to realise you would not survive long here without tearing one another apart,” said Guya critically when they were alone in the side room. “For the last few years you were kept going by the promise of paradise. Now this hope is gone you remaining people will not be prepared to wait the rest of their lives out between these four metal walls, surrounded by the baying revenants.”

  “Enough taunting,” snapped Arianna. She alone of the four of them was not in the slightest bit afraid of Guya. “Just tell us what you have to say and leave us alone.”

  “I am here to tell you what you want to know,” said Guya. “You are yearning to know why. I can see it in your eyes. Perhaps I am more perceptive and human than you give me credit for Arianna.”

  “Get to the point,” urged Arianna irritably.

  “Very well.” Guya looked from one Councillor to the other. Despite their clear hostility each was giving him their full attention. “When a species is threatened it must either adapt or die,” began Guya. “This is the rule of the natural world and it is the rule too for humans. In the thousands of years since we achieved mastery of the galaxy we have forgotten this, for no alien species have some to challenge us. Now this new mutation has developed within our very selves and we either embrace it or we perish. I understand it is a frightening prospect to you. it was frightening to us as well; frightening to me when I was still the science officer Xen, and as human as the four of you.”

  “Tell us what happened,” urged Dr Palk. “What was it that caused the infection? Was it some sort of mutation on the ship, or did you discover it when you arrived on Hearthstone? Were the revenants already here?”

  Guya shook his head. “The infection is a mutation of the human host,” he replied. “It began when one of the miners became sick; a strange gas of some sort from deep underground, exposed during a drilling operation. The infection emerged suddenly and spread rapidly. Thousands of people became sick and turned. I never had the chance to research the source. It does not really matter anyway. The point is it occurred and needed to be dealt with. As one of the few survivors of the initial pandemic I saw straight away there was no chance of leaving the planet. As a man of science the changes induced by the parasitic infection both impressed and repulsed me. I realised straight away our only chance of survival was to become as one with them. We needed to become more powerful, we needed to become their equals.”

  “And so you destroyed yourselves to make yourselves more like them,” finished Arianna. “Deliberately stripped yourselves of your emotions and humanity.”

  “We have no emotions left except those we truly need,” replied Guya. “Emotions hold us back, make us weak. The revenants have no such scruples. They are single minded and thus through their strength and remorselessness they come to dominate. If we want any life on this planet we must learn to adapt.”

  “You want to breed humans like they are pets,” spat Arianna in disgust.

  “There will be no force,” said Guya. “If you do not wish to come to us then that is up to you. Go back to your own ship and survive as best you can. You will soon see that it is futile. The human mind is restless and takes action even when none needs to be taken. It is patience that has sustained us humanoids over the past eon.”

  “But why Jak?” Demanded Sol. “Why did he have to be the first?”

  “Jak was the first because he was the strongest, the one who impressed us the most,” replied the humanoid. “Has he not shown you how he is now immune to the attentions of the revenants? It would be useful to you, would it not, to be able to walk outside and re-establish your city? You could carry on as you intended, only you would do it better, faster, stronger. You could become almost invincible. You could live forever.”

  “You destroyed him.”

  “We did not destroy Jak,” said Guya flatly. “We saved him, we improved him. He was a strong specimen and we have not had the opportunity to use our serum on many of those lately. We are most pleased with his development, and you should be pleased too Arianna. In fact you should all join us.”

  “The cost is too high,” declared Arianna. “There is no way.”

  “Do as you wish,” said Guya. “Nobody will force you to come. It simply means certain death if you refuse to do so.”

  “It is blackmail,” spat Arianna.

  “It is not,” replied Guya. “It makes no difference to me whether you come. We have more than enough people on board our ship already to meet our needs. You cannot challenge us, you cannot defeat us. All you can do is close yourself off in this smaller ship of yours and hope your arboretum holds out to save you. In a few years time you will either all have died off or your numbers will have swollen to the extent that the arboretum is unable to sustain you. Meanwhile the revenants will remain as numerous as they were before, perhaps more so. Still, perhaps your end will come sooner than that. The human mind is inherently curious, inherently hopeful. No doubt you will try and think of ways to eliminate the revenant threat once and for all. Instead you will fail miserably, destroying yourselves in the process. You also wish to kill me. I can see it in all your eyes. It is your choice. There are nine more to take my place and now we have your colonists our numbers will soon be legion. Rest assured, however, you cannot count on neutral relations without me. If you become a threat to us we will soon retaliate in kind and your elimination will come all the sooner.”

  21

  Guya left without trouble and Arianna and the rest of the Council were most relieved about this. Still, the humanoid’s words had chilled them all to the bone and each was adamant there could be no more departures from the Tula IV. Later that evening the remainder of the Council was summoned to the administrative chamber. “There will be no more departures,” said Sol without preamble. “I am sorry to tell you we have been deceived and that, far from being our saviours the humano
ids have instead taken to vile experimentation upon our people.” And with that he outlined the events of the past few days and the transformation that had taken place on Jak. The Council listened to his words in stunned silence.

  “So you are saying we are doomed?” Said Col Gayze quietly after Sol had finished.

  “Not at all,” replied Sol, sounding more confident than he felt. “Now that numbers have slimmed down we stand as good a chance as any of surviving in the arboretum.”

  “I wonder if Gan Cuk would agree,” replied Col Gayze. “From what I can see the arboretum on this ship has been left to rot in anticipation of the transfer. Even if it could be restored I doubt very much whether there is enough food to sustain all of us.”

  “Nonetheless,” replied Sol, his voice strained. “At present it would seem there is no alternative. Unless of course you would prefer to go over and become as one of the revenants.”

  “You mean the humanoids,” put in Col Gayze. “There is a very distinct difference. And Jak does not seem that much different to me. A little quieter perhaps, but far, far stronger. It is as Guya said. His new situation gives him many distinct advantages.”

  “You can’t seriously be suggesting going over there anyway?” Asked Arianna in astonishment. “When you know what they are going to do to you?”

  “It is still far preferable to what the revenants would do to us outside,” retorted Col Gayze.

  “I suppose I can see your point,” sighed Barra Herr. “This whole situation is a disaster from start to finish. I can see how you might consider becoming a humanoid to be the least worst option.”