by Peter Knyte
CHAPTER 28 - REUNION
The trip over to the Staten Island Sanatorium took almost no time, though I did pop up to the ship first to pick up some of Ariel’s own clothes, which I’d imagined would just be a spare uniform until I actually entered her quarters and realised she also had a small number of dresses and skirts, casual trousers, blouses, jumpers and of course other altogether more feminine items.
I’d seen Ariel wear clothes that weren’t uniform from time to time before we went into the Expanse while we were on our shakedown flight, but the Expanse had been the equivalent of a battlefield environment, and as such we’d practically lived in uniform.
Pulling myself together, I fished out one of Ariel’s suitcases from under her bunk, and simply filled it with a selection of items of all types, including a dressing-gown a spare uniform, as well as few other items I thought she might like, depending on how mobile she was.
I noticed she also had a spare lensing rig on her desk, which looked like she’d been making a few adjustments to, so I also pocketed that and her tools on the off chance she wanted them.
I briefly thought about picking some flowers up on the way, but decided against it on this occasion, as I still didn’t know what condition she might be in.
As I entered the sanatorium I was feeling distinctly nervous. The ordeal she’d been through could not have been easy, and I had no idea how that might affect her psychologically, but there was also all the other news, the dead and missing members of the crew, not to mention those still seriously injured, the fact we were on a world that wasn’t our home, and countless other pieces of news that would all add yet further strain.
As always the reception staff were prepped and waiting for me, and as soon as I arrived they had me escorted straight through to the area of the hospital where Ariel was recuperating, but instead of being shown straight in to see Ariel, I was first taken to see Dr Bach.
‘I’m sorry to delay you on your way to visit your friend Mr Hall,’ he began. ‘This won’t take long I assure you.
‘We thought it would be best if some of the more difficult news were to come from a friendly face,’ he continued sombrely. ‘So we haven’t explained anything explicitly to Ms Shilling yet about the circumstances she now finds herself in.
‘Firstly, we need you to explain that she appears to have gone through some kind of physical and biological change that we don’t yet understand, and while she still looks relatively normal, even on our x-rays, we know her blood chemistry has been radically altered, and that’s likely to impact on several of her other systems.
‘For example - We don’t know what she can safely eat, or whether her sense of taste and smell will have been affected. We know her vision appears to have been affected as she’s currently demonstrating acute sensitivity to light, but her sense of hearing seems normal, her skin and sense of touch seem extremely delicate, though that might change now her skin is exposed to the open air again.
‘I could go on, but the point that it’s imperative for her to understand is that she’ll have to take things easy for a while until she figures out what’s what. On the plus side the wounds from the surgery have already healed more than I would expect a normal person to heal in a couple of weeks.’
With that he escorted me through to Ariel’s room, where after knocking and receiving a reply he opened the door and we stepped in.
There she was sitting upright in bed with the curtains at the window half drawn to dim the bright sunlight that would otherwise have been streaming in.
‘Ash, is that you?’ She said with more than a hint of hope in her voice.
‘Yes, it’s me Ariel,’ I replied, unexpectedly relieved at being able to speak to her again, after thinking she’d been dead for all this time.
‘I think they’ve been waiting for you to arrive, so you can be the bearer of bad news,’ she guessed, before I’d had chance to say another word.
‘A lot has happened,’ I admitted openly. ‘Most of it is not so good, but first, why don’t you tell me how you feel and what you remember?’
Her memory was patchy to say the least after the Captain released the Arc energy around the ship. She remembered breaking free of the seat she’d been tied into by the traitors, just as one of the Lamphrey had broken past the dead or dying traitors to attack her, after which it was a blur of light and pain. The next thing she remembered was waking up on one of the rooftops near to where the ship had appeared, looking up at the clearly stricken vessel and struggling at first to understand why she couldn’t see things properly, or feel or move her body.
For a long time as she lay there the only idea that made any sense to her was that she must’ve broken her back in the fall, and was lying paralysed, but gradually some sensation returned and was followed little by little with movement, only for her to discover that the limbs she could move were now those of the creature she’d been attacked by.
Thinking her mind must’ve been transferred to the creatures body in some way was another shock, but days later when she’d first sensed and then seen the creature in her body that was almost unbearable.
I tried not to interrupt her to ask what she meant by sensing the creature, but she clearly saw something in my expression.
‘I didn’t understand it at first,’ she explained. ‘I kept getting this impression that somebody was watching me, looking over my shoulder, even when I holed up in places where nothing could be behind me. And then I started to see these glimmering images of places and people that I was sure I’d never been to or seen.
‘It was only ever for a few minutes at a time, and I got a clear sense of the direction they were coming from at the same time, so the next time it happened I followed the signal and came across the creature, just as it killed that first poor homeless man.
‘I was too far away to help, but even if I’d been closer the strength of the image became so powerful during the attack and the feeding, that I could barely stand, let alone move, and then as it finished, it turned toward me and I saw my own blood stained face and hands with that creature trapped behind my eyes, just as I was trapped in its body.
‘I was confused and fled the scene to try and get away from it all. But of course as soon as my nerves settled I realised the dire situation I was in. Nobody would be able to tell we’d swapped bodies, so if I ever wanted my own body back it would be up to me to fix things. Otherwise either I would be hunted and killed, or the creature in my body would be, and then I guessed any chance of reversing the process would be gone.’
She went on to explain how after tracking her own body for a couple of days she’d decided to try and enlist our help, but before she could figure out how to communicate with us without being killed in the process we’d found her and chased her across the warehouse rooftops.
As she described the pain of those incendiary bullets I’d fired into her as she fled, I wanted to stop her and apologise but she pushed on clearly wanting to get the rest of her account out.
‘If it hadn’t been for the pain of those bullets burning a hole in me, I think I could’ve seen the opportunity when it happened more quickly. After you fell and were hanging from the edge of the building all I could feel was relief that you weren’t firing even more bullets into me, and then just as it occurred to me that you’d dropped your gun so if I helped you back up onto the roof you might just realise something was off. But then those other people were firing at me and I knew I’d missed my opportunity.
‘How I swore at myself for that Ash, you would’ve been shocked,’ she continued, nearing the end of her story. ‘The rest you can probably figure out. I holed up long enough for the incendiaries to burn out, and recover slightly and then I slipped past the search teams and found somewhere to hide out while I healed.
‘I hadn’t eaten properly in several days by that point so was already feeling weak, and then of course you found me and shot me . . . again!’ she said with a small smile while slapping my arm as though I’d merely stepped on her foot
at a dance. ‘The next thing I know I’m waking up, still starving incidentally and you’ve somehow go me back in my own body.’
She obviously saw something in my expression as she said this last bit.
‘Ok, out with it Ash. I know my eyesight is messed up for some reason, but these look a lot like my own hands and feet, not claws or pincers, and this is definitely hair and skin rather than shell, so what gives?’
I wasn’t sure where to begin with it all, but I couldn’t not answer so I went right back to the start.
‘From what we can tell Ariel, it wasn’t just you mind that was moved from your body to that of the creature, when the Captain flipped the switch.
‘Somehow, you and the Lamphrey were mixed together and then separated back out into two living beings.’ I explained as carefully as I could.
She went very pale as I described how we’d found her body somehow intact and inside the shell of the Lamphrey. How the doctors had to surgically remove the extra limbs that had been attached to her spine, in the process discovering that her body chemistry amongst other things was now different, meaning they didn’t even know what kind of food it would be safe for her to eat let alone what medications would work.
‘So you mean that creature is still running around in something that looks like my body, hurting and killing people?’
‘Yes, though it’s also hurt quite badly itself at the moment.’
I gave an orderly that had been waiting outside with some different types of food the nod, and he brought in a whole tray full of different food types from raw vegetables and fish right the way through to a well-cooked burger, cheese, pickles, seeds, salad, chocolate.
As she tried each thing I described what had happened to the ship and the crew, the disastrous encounter with the creature in the rail yard that had only been saved by the arrival of the ship, right up to our most recent hunt for it through the sewers and the odd piles of debris we’d discovered, as well as Frasers theories for them.
She was attentive throughout, but as I described the nests of debris and then the theories that Fraser had come up with she stopped eating and looked at me clearly slightly shocked.
‘I should try and connect with it,’ she finally commented. ‘I don’t know whether I still can now that I’ve been separated from the shell of the creature that I was inside, but if there’s any chance it could be trying to make others of its own kind I’ve got try and find out anything I can.’
‘Will the creature be able to tell what you’re doing?’ I asked, concerned. ‘Or even see where you are?’
‘Yes, it can sense me and I can sense it, that’s just how it worked. It might not think I’m still alive after I was shot, but it’s a risk I think we should probably take.’
I could only agree, despite my concerns about whether she was yet recovered enough, any information about where the creature was and what it was doing could be priceless.
I moved the tray of food aside and helped to settle Ariel back into a more relaxed position, so she could concentrate on what she was doing.
‘Yes, I can still sense it,’ she said almost immediately. ‘If anything it seems easier than before.’
‘Something feels different though,’ she continued, frowning slightly. ‘It’s aware of me . . . though it doesn’t know I’m watching yet. I think it’s moving.’
Then suddenly, after only another moment she sat bolt upright with a gasp and looked straight at me. ‘Ash, it’s coming. It’s been sensing me for a while, I think it’s coming for me!’
CHAPTER 29 - HUNTED
The creature was coming for Ariel, to a hospital full of sick and infirm people, not to mention doctors and medical staff who were trained and naturally inclined to saving lives rather than taking them, but for a single heartbeat the rage that smouldered within me wanted it to come so I could kill it.
But I knew I couldn’t allow this place of healing to become a battlefield, so with my next heartbeat I gave Ariel her lenses and the suitcase full of clothes and told her to quickly get dressed, while I went to the nurses station down the corridor, to summon Dr Bach.
There was a second phone on the desk and without asking I called through to the police command centre in the park and quickly explained to Platt what was happening and how I was going to try and get Ariel away in the police car before the creature came to the hospital, and then as soon as she was dressed I was back with Ariel and the doctor, who’d arrived almost immediately.
He trusted me enough to allow me to explain while walked to the car with Ariel in a wheelchair, and went visibly pale when I explained how we knew the creature which had recently killed so many vagrants and police officers was now hunting Ariel, and was on its way to his hospital.
I didn’t need to check my gun, I knew it was fully loaded with Manstopper rounds and in perfect working order, but as we crossed the reception approaching the main doors I placed my hand on my gun ready to draw it the moment we stepped outside if the creature was there.
I felt the rage flowing in my veins again, controlled, but only just, as I used my other hand to set my lenses in motion. A full spectrum of a hundred lens combinations per eye running at thirty cycles a second, an automatic sequence that few Lensmen ever trained could withstand for any length of time. Even for me the pressure of so many lens changes and so much information bombarding my retinas and brain was a strain, which I knew at the very least would result in a splitting headache, and far more likely would induce extreme epileptic seizures if I used it for long, but it left nowhere for anything to hide.
As I scanned the world outside, absorbing information from every part of the spectrum I saw that Ariel alone had noticed and understood what I’d done, the blood draining from her already pale face in exquisite slow motion, multi-spectrum detail.
The police driver was stood by his car enjoying the fine warm weather and reading a newspaper, but as he glanced up he understood the situation in an instant, and was grabbing for the door-handle of his car before his falling newspaper had even hit the floor. I saw everything. How his pupils dilated with surprise, his heart rate quickening and his face flushed almost imperceptibly. I absorbed every detail of the newspaper he was reading right down to the normally invisible watermark. Every detail of the area around the front of the hospital entered my consciousness a fraction of a second later. As our driver brought the car to meet us, I saw him register the gun in my hand, and my speeding lenses while I scanned the perimeter, all as he manoeuvred the vehicle to meet us.
A moment later and Ariel was being bustled into the back seat by an orderly, while the driver scanned the perimeter himself for any sign of motion.
The police car left two deep ruts in the gravel of the Sanatorium’s drive as we sped away, while I scanned and re-scanned the grounds around us.
‘Ariel,’ I said, without looking at her for more than a fraction of a heartbeat. ‘Can you try to re-connect with the creature to see if you can tell how close it is.’
‘Of course,’ was all she said as she closed her eyes and bowed her head to concentrate.
We were heading north to the Bayonne Bridge, which must surely be the way the creature would get to the island, if it wasn’t already here.
A moment later, just as we were about to drive onto the bridge Ariel made contact.
‘I’ve got it, its swimming through water, beneath a bridge’ she said concentrating. ‘It’s north and east of us. It senses me and knows I’m moving toward it, but I can’t tell how close it is.’
As we neared the bridge I scanned the ironwork along the underside of the bridge as well as the countless girders that crossed the road but could see no sign of it, but there were so many angles and corners where it could be hidden.
The bridge was where we’d be most vulnerable, so I was almost tempted to tell the driver to stop and to find another route off the island and back to Manhattan, but there was no guessing what the thing would do if it felt us travelling away from it faster than it could follow, s
o as we rounded the corner toward the bridge I turned to the driver and instructed him to increase our speed as much as possible.
‘Crossing the bridge will leave us exposed,’ I told him, earnestly. ‘The creature could be hiding behind any one of those girders or other metalwork, and all we can do is speed up to make the car a more difficult target for it to intercept.’
He didn’t need telling twice, as soon as I’d finished speaking his foot pressed the accelerator to the floor.
‘Yes, yes sir,’ he replied rather wide eyed, never taking his eyes from the road.
The bridge was a full mile long, but it felt like the longest mile I’d ever travelled. I scanned and re-scanned the girders to the sides of the bridge and above us, as we sped on.
Ariel still had her eyes closed and head back against the seat, trying to sense where the creature was and what it was doing, until eventually she got something.
‘I think we’ve passed it, she finally said. It’s still in the water somewhere, but the direction is changing quite markedly, yes we must’ve passed it.’
I heard the police driver next to me let out a breath, as he glanced over to me before looking back at the road ahead.
‘In that case we can slow down to a slightly more sane speed,’ I suggested, scanning the water beneath the bridge for any sign of the creature, before gradually turning down the cycle rate on my lenses, and finally switching them off. I was sure to get a headache for a while, but by gradually cycling back down to normal vision it wouldn’t be quite so bad.
Ariel continued to try and sense the creature in order to detect where it was or how far away from us it might be, but after a while she gave up exhausted.
‘I think it can tell when I’m trying to sense it, and it’s deliberately blocking or hiding where it is,’ she said, sounding frustrated.
