Firmament: Reversal Zone

by Pennington,J. Grace

  The silence grew heavier. I think we forgot to breath. No one dared offer an exclamation or even a curse.

  “I was an idiot not to see it...” the Doctor went on, as if talking to himself. “All of us so tired... so frequently hungry... our body chemistry affects more than our personalities...”

  His voice trailed off and I guessed, barely above a whisper, “Digestive enzymes... reversed as well?”

  He nodded.

  No one moved or spoke for a moment. Then the Captain pushed himself out of his chair. “McMillan, Crash, I want you two working with August on his plan. We have no choice. I want it ready before morning. Gerry, you and Andi get to work on finding a solution to the nutrition problem. Guilders, I want you to go to your quarters and rest.”

  “Captain...” he protested.

  “No. One of us needs to be rested. If I don't make it, you'll have to carry on. That's an order.”

  Guilders opened his mouth, closed it, stood up, and left the room. The Doctor looked at me and then turned and walked out.

  I hurried to catch up. “Doctor...”

  “What plan do they have?” he asked, voice more drained of energy than I'd ever heard it.

  I swallowed and hesitated in the doorway of the lab as he started towards one of the supply cabinets. “That's what I was going to tell you. You won't like it.”

  He turned around and looked calmly at me. “I won't?”

  “No sir. They're going to use me... hook all the systems together and keep me there to keep the cloud away so we can warp out.”

  Silence for a moment. Then, “Is it dangerous?”

  “We don't know. It... would require a lot of extra reactor power. I'm not sure what that could do to the radialloy.”

  He stepped towards me. “Worst case scenario?”

  I didn't reply at first. Then I faltered, “We can't really know.”

  His only answer was to stride over to where I stood and wrap me in a tight, silent embrace for six seconds. Then he let go, turned without a word, and walked back to the supply cabinet. I followed, trying to calm the nervous beating of my heart.

  “We don't have much to go on,” he said, taking bottles out of the cabinet as if nothing had happened. “We'll need a healthy volunteer to allow us to get some enzyme samples to study... see if we can figure out any way to... reverse engineer something that they can break down.”

  I pinched my lips together and frowned. I was the healthiest one on board, but we needed someone with the reversed enzymes. Everyone besides me was weak and getting weaker. Although—

  “Doctor... Crash and August have eaten with me several times the past few days.”

  “So?” He held one bottle up to the light to read its label.

  “So... the radialloy affects what's around me.”

  He lowered the bottle, cocked his head, and looked at me. Then he nodded. “Get Crash.”

  I rushed out.

  ***

  We worked for hours, studying Crash's enzymes under the microscope, comparing their molecular structure to that of the normal enzymes described in the Doctor's medical journals, conferring with Whales, mixing chemicals, comparing them to normal food, mixing more chemicals. At nine hundred hours the Doctor sent me to bed, insisting I would need strength for my task.

  I reluctantly laid down in my quarters, not expecting to sleep long enough to enter REM, if at all. But I barely had time to think a full thought after I crawled under the covers. I slept too hard to dream and jerked awake at the pressure of a hand resting on my shoulder.

  “Andi. Andi, we're almost ready.”

  I opened my eyes, instantly and completely alert. The Captain's face hovered above me, shadowed and unshaven.

  I sat up. “Ready?” I was awake—fully awake—and feeling oddly calm, like someone in a dream who knows it's only a dream.

  “Almost. They want to go ahead and get you in position.” The skin under his eyes was tinted dark purple, and his eyelids drooped.

  I nodded and stood up, and he let his hand slide off of my shoulder. “Andi, are you sure...”

  “I'm ready, sir.”

  He nodded, reached out, and squeezed my arm. The touch seemed to make everything real, and the dream feeling dropped like a broken curtain, leaving me trembling. I pulled away, fearing that if I didn't I'd turn and cling to him the way a scared child would.

  As a starship officer, I’d do what needed to be done.

  I walked out of the room, resisting the urge to turn and look at him.

  The cold bit into me as I rode down to engineering, and I tensed every muscle to force myself to stop shivering.

  The elevator stopped at E-Deck, and the doors slid open to reveal the bright engineering section. Only it didn't have the same sterile but bustling environment that I remembered from my other visits. It was silent with the silence of urgency, and vacant except for four men and a woman working near the center of the room. Cables ran from every corner of the eight-sided room, supported by makeshift scaffolds that were bolted to the floor at intervals, creating a dense undergrowth of dark metal through which the white walls were barely visible.

  Crash saw me and beckoned, and I hurried forward to the center of the room. McMillan and August bent over a panel beside the reactor, and Lieutenant Payne, the woman, stood on a ladder and tightened the bolts on a seat that was attached to the reactor about three meters up.

  Crash sidestepped to me and put an arm around my shoulders. “You don't have to do this, you know...”

  I pulled away, not allowing myself to look at him. “Of course I do. Don't be silly.”

  He said nothing else.

  “Miss Lloyd,” Lieutenant Payne called, stepping down the ladder.

  I scurried to her.

  Brushing her hands down the front of her masculine coveralls, she handed her welder to a mate standing next to her, who rushed to put it away. “That's where you'll be positioned.” She pointed to the seat. “We've installed two harnesses. I'm going to put them on for you, but I want to explain the purposes first.”

  I nodded, and realized I was only half listening. I forced my mind to focus on her words.

  “One of them is to attach you firmly to the chair. It will hold you there for the duration of the operation, and if all goes well, that's the only one you'll need. The other one is a safety harness for emergencies. If something goes wrong you can release the first harness and jump off the seat, and the second harness will lower you to the floor safely.”

  My eyes drifted from her face to her hair, which was blond with streaks of silver, woven into a french herringbone braid halfway down her back.

  “Miss Lloyd, are you listening?”

  I nodded, then looked back at her face. I knew her by sight, but had never spoken to her before. The dream feeling crawled over me again as I said, “Your hair is so beautiful.”

  Her frown vanished and she stared at me. Then she absently touched the tip of her braid and said, “Thank you.”

  Which was the real Lieutenant Payne? The capable worker in men's clothes, or the blushing woman with the beautiful hair? They were both there. The Doctor had said so.

  “We're ready, Andi.”

  August's voice, tired but firm.

  I started to shake again as I turned to him. The pain had been unbearable when the radialloy intensified several months ago, and panic tightened around me. I gripped his arms. “August... I can't...”

  He squeezed my shoulders and pushed me away. “Good luck,” he whispered, and nudged me closer to the ladder.

  “No...” I leaned back against his hands. What would the surge of radiation do to me? How bad would it hurt?

  A long-fingered hand slipped into mine and squeezed, then guided me gently to the ladder. The voice I loved best in the world said, “I'm so proud of you, Andi.”

  I turned to look at the Doctor's face and gripped his hand as tightly as I could. He kissed my forehead, then let my hand go.

  Still shaking, I climbed the ladder,
squeezing each rung as though I were hanging onto it for dear life. Seven rungs up I came to the seat, and I hesitated.

  “Hold onto the arms to pull yourself up,” the voice of Lieutenant Payne instructed, not too far below me. I reached up and gripped the gray metal arms, took a deep breath, and hoisted myself up, letting my knees land on the edge of the seat. I froze.

  “Turn around,” Payne told me, and I slowly did, adjusting my weight until my back pressed against the back of the seat, and my legs hung over the edge.

  Payne's head popped up next to me, and she reached over and yanked a black harness from behind me. “Hold out your arms.”

  I did, and she hooked the harness over first one arm, then the other. She told me to put my legs apart, and I did, and she pulled another harness between my legs and hooked it to the straps around my arms. Then she reached around and pulled out a lighter harness and strapped it across my body.

  “This is the cord you pull to release the first harness,” she said, pointing to a black cord that dangled over my shoulder.

  I looked at it and nodded. My throat was too dry to speak. She looked me in the eyes and rested a hand on my knee for a moment, then she slowly climbed back down the ladder.

  My heartbeat increased by the second. I could hear it, thundering in my ears, as I peered over the edge of my seat and saw McMillan, August, Payne, and the Doctor down there. McMillan nodded to the others and they backed away, all staring at me as they edged towards the elevator.

  “We're ready, Captain,” I heard McMillan announce into his intercom.

  The Captain's voice replied. “Double check everything while we get ready up here.”

  I felt like an angel looking down on the world as McMillan worked his panel below me. Payne slipped into the elevator on the other side of the room, then August, and the Doctor gave me one last long look before he too left.

  “Can you hear me, Andi?” The Captain's voice echoed through the room from the intercom.

  “Yes sir,” I called.

  “Are you sure you're ready?”

  I could say “no” and stop everything right now.

  “Yes,” I replied before I had more time to consider backing down.

  A second of silence, then his voice came again. “Go ahead, McMillan. Get out of there as soon as you're finished.”

  “Will do,” McMillan replied, and looked up at me for a moment. I looked back, wishing my legs would stop shaking so he wouldn't see how scared I was. “If anything goes wrong... anything at all... get out of here.”

  “Yes sir,” I said, my voice shaking.

  He let his finger hover over the panel for a moment, then looked at me again. “I will stay if you want me to.”

  I wanted to yell out a yes. He had never been a personal friend of the Doctor or I; I rarely even spoke with him, but having anyone there with me was almost too tempting to turn down. But no matter what happened, the Surveyor was going to need her first engineer. And he was a married man. Not trusting myself to speak, I shook my head.

  “God bless you,” he said, then activated the panel.

  Instantly, the cables that were hooked through the room came to life. Engines whirred, lights flashed, and the air popped with static. “All yours, bridge!” McMillan yelled into the intercom, and fled the room.

  I watched, shaking uncontrollably as he darted into the elevator and the doors closed behind him. A twinge pinched my knee, and I dug my nails into my palms.

  As the temperature skyrocketed, I searched for a prayer. Panic seemed to have driven every word from my head. Help...

  My seat shook, and my head thumped against the reactor. I felt the heat through my hair, just as a stronger spasm pulsed in my knee, and I stiffened my body, forcing it to stop shaking. I prayed wordless prayers for the plan to work.

  My knee spasmed again, this time sharply, then again. I clamped my teeth down on my lower lip, then pinched my lips together, fearing that the shaking of the room would cause my teeth to draw blood.

  The whole room shook now, creating rattling sounds all around me. A pipe on the wall facing me burst free and spewed white smoke.

  Pain shot through my knee and I screamed. It burned me from the inside. Fire licked through my veins and I screamed again, clenching my body into a rigid shape. The wall on my left exploded into sparks, and my legs and arms floated slowly up, no longer pulled towards the floor.

  I screamed again. My blood was lava; I couldn't move my fingers, even to clench them into a fist. My heart pumped so fast that my vision quivered. Thunder rumbled behind my head and another explosion burst on my right. The harness straps burned my shoulders.

  I couldn't breathe. Moving in slow motion I forced my arm back towards myself and gripped the cord at my chest with two fingers. A breathless shriek passed my throat as my knee seemed to explode, and I yanked at the cord.

  I expected to go flying headlong out of the seat, but instead I floated away at leisure, again seeming to move in slow motion while everything burst and shook around me. Heat throbbed through my body and I couldn't move. I watched through half-closed lids as sparks burst over the cables that were everywhere. One popped free, and I watched it arc with electricity. I couldn't feel my knee at all.

  Another jolt shook the room, and the harness flung me towards the floor. I screamed, then drums sounded in my ears and my eyes stopped working.

  Chapter XVIII

  A brief kiss on the cheek woke me, then a hand on my forehead that shook like a leaf in a storm.

  “Is she okay?”

  Fingers pulled at the harness around my torso.

  “I don't know.”

  “Hurry,” a third voice said.

  My head labeled the voices. August, Doctor, Captain.

  Normal. They all sounded normal. I sucked in a deep breath. We were out, then? It had worked?

  “Andi, wake up,” the Doctor's voice ordered.

  The straps around me loosened, and I opened my eyes just as I realized my body wasn't touching anything.

  I blinked and looked around. I was still in engineering. Sparks still flew through the smoke. My knee throbbed, but my blood had cooled.

  The Captain reached out and gripped me in the tightest hug I'd ever had. “Thank God...”

  “Are we out?” I whispered. I hadn't meant to whisper, but somehow it was hard to move even my lips.

  “Not yet,” the Doctor replied. “Come on.”

  My heart froze as the Captain released me, letting me float away a few inches. “What...”

  August turned and began swimming slowly through the air towards the elevator, which was far below.

  Was I dreaming?

  “I can't move...”

  The Captain and the Doctor each gripped one of my hands. “We don't have much time,” the Captain urged.

  They began swimming after August. My head spun.

  “I can't breathe...” I whispered. My lungs burned.

  “Don't talk,” the Doctor ordered, and with another couple strokes, we reached the elevator. August was holding the door open for us, and the men guided me in. The doors closed, and the Captain commanded, “B-Deck.”

  The elevator floor moved up towards us, caught us, and continued moving with us on top of it.

  “What's happening?” I whispered.

  “Not yet,” the Doctor replied quietly. “Save your air.”

  We reached B-Deck and the door opened to a silent, empty corridor. The Doctor put an arm around my waist and began to swim me out as a voice rang through the halls. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, it seems that engineering has been evacuated at last! I guess all that's left now is to wait. You can't hide forever!”

  The voice of the night captain. But he'd been arrested... I forced myself not to ask questions as I was helplessly guided down the hall. I sucked in a deep breath of stale air and the burning in my chest decreased, but I still couldn't move my arms.

  They guided me towards sickbay. We paused as the Doctor entered his code into the keyp
ad next to the closed door. I strained my fingers and found I could move them a little, but the motion released heat from my knuckles and exhausted me. The doors slid open and the Doctor swam through. The Captain gripped my hand and pulled me in, August followed, then the Doctor turned and locked the door behind us.

  I looked around the room. People floated freely and gently, surrounded by pillows, bottles, gauze, scanners, and record pads. I saw Crash, Guilders, Almira, Eduardo, Katharina, Olive, Ralston, McMillan, Whales, Yanendale, Orstin, and a handful of others. They all stared at us, silent, motionless except the slight motion of their drifting bodies.

  It was almost a humorous sight.

  The Captain kept hold of my hand and turned slowly to face me. “I'm sorry, Andi...”

  I just looked at him in the pause, waiting for an explanation. He sighed.

  “Stacey escaped somehow. He locked himself in the computer room, disabled the gravity, and shut down life support on the bridge.”

  “Why?” I asked, just above a whisper. I looked back and forth between the Doctor and the Captain. The Doctor shook his head.

  The Captain continued. “When we evacuated the bridge, he sealed it off. Then he started shutting down life support in the other common areas... the mess hall, lounges, and then engineering... and he disconnected some of our systems. That's why the plan... didn't work.”

  “But how did he get out?” I asked. I tried again to wiggle my fingers and did, but stiffly and uncomfortably.

  The Doctor shook his head again. “Someone must have let him out.”

  “Can't the Captain override his commands?”

  “No. The night captain has full captain privileges; access to all the same codes.”

  “And we can't just go up to the computer room and break him out?”

  “Andi...” The Captain closed his eyes.

  August finished for him. “The only way would be for someone to go up with air tanks and manually cut through the wiring for the door, and without gravity, that would take so long the air might not last.”

  “And with gravity,” the Doctor added, “most of us would be too tired to move.”