Next, Candy tried to bless my room, and thus exorcise the spirit. She burned the sage, walking about to make it waft throughout my quarters. Even the lavatory was ‘smudged’ as she called it. Then she sprinkled holy water while reciting verses from the bible about how greater Jesus, Mohammed, and Moses were than Satan and how evil could not triumph over good. She said a prayer and then informed us we were done with my quarters. We turned the lights on and tried the other places Candy intended to investigate.
Except for the corridor, which had to remain lit and was too busy for interviewing ghosts, we did the same. In the corridor, we simply recorded vid where the ghost had been witnessed melting into a wall. We got some funny looks from passersby. Otherwise, we saw and heard nothing amiss. I had the idea the whole exercise was a wash.
Candy smiled apologetically when we wrapped up. “If you found that boring, analysis is doubly so. This will take a few hours, so let’s grab lunch and plenty of coffee.”
We did so, swallowing our meal in about fifteen minutes. Then we went to work, staring at the vids we’d shot and listening to our audio files.
Three hours later, my eyes felt ready to fall out of my skull. My ears wanted to leak brain matter. We’d found nothing ghostly or otherwise in all our recordings. Just as I’d suspected, it was a bust.
Katrina looked as exhausted as I felt. Candy managed a wan smile. “The ghost didn’t come out to play, but maybe the exorcism will keep it gone for good.”
In the end, I lost a few hours I’ll never get back. If I never see that dark shape again, I’ll count it as time well spent.
April 6, early
On Earth, we would have celebrated what was known as April Fool’s Day almost a week ago. It might be late, but I think Betra is feeling a little of its sting after last night.
Because I planned to remain alert to my nighttime visitor, aka the Pussy ‘Porter poltergeist, I decided to not take my sleeping meds. I was more than a little ripe for a nightmare. I had one, a real doozey. Its blazing vividness made it even more awful.
I dreamed I woke up, so I was sure I wasn’t dreaming. I hate it when that happens, because no matter how outlandish the nightmare becomes, I’m positive it’s for real. Thanks a lot, stupid trauma and stupid subconscious. I’d like to give my mind a – well, a piece of my mind.
Anyway, I dreamed I woke up to find my shadow ghost standing by the bed. It was big as ever and definitely the shape of a Kalquorian. I jolted in terror but kept my head. I thought of all the techniques Candy had shared with me about dealing with spirits. I especially remembered her questions during our ghost hunt.
I tried to sit up, thinking this was the best manner to cope with a ghost determined to scare me. I wanted to face it from a more assertive pose than flat on my back. Unfortunately, this was one of those damned nightmares where I’m pinned down and unable to move. Clue Number 1. After a few seconds of trying to make myself rise, I surrendered to the uselessness.
Pretending I wasn’t terrified, I offered the shadow over me an interested smile. Just have a nice conversation as Candy told us to do. “Hello there. Do you wish to send me a message?”
My shadowy visitor simply stood there, big and hard to see. I heard breathing. Clue Number 2 that I didn’t pick up on, which would have reassured me this was a dream...a breathing ghost. Duh.
“I wish to help you if possible.” Yeah, right. I wanted to run out screaming. I couldn’t move. Trust me, I tried. “Are you the Nobek who was murdered on board this ship? Are you Frin?”
No answer.
“Are you someone else? Are you just pretending to be Kalquorian?” I stubbornly persisted in my bizarre interrogation. This game of 20 Questions was pretty ludicrous, but I wasn’t moving anyhow. “Are you the man I met on Finiuld’s ship? Are you the Earther I had to let my friend torment?”
Something happened then. The form started to shift. It drew in on itself, shrinking to become smaller.
I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. I was scared, however. That had the welcome effect of pissing me off. Damn it, I had gotten my fill of terror. I yelled at the mutating shadow.
“Who the hell are you? What do you want from me?”
The shadow collapsed in on itself, becoming very small. Then all at once I could make it out clearly.
It was an Ofetuchan. It wore Finiuld’s horrid green waistcoat and had his spiked orange hair and black eyes. The face wasn’t Finiuld’s, though. It was mine.
The creature smiled at me, showing sharp fanged teeth. I screamed and woke up.
My heart beat so hard I expected it to burst through my chest. I couldn’t catch my breath as I yelled for the lights to come on. I stared at my surroundings, sure I would discover some hideous fusion of me and Finiuld standing there, ready to rip my throat out. I even checked the damned closet to make sure that hobgoblin wasn’t real and hiding.
Even as I realized nothing was amiss, I was wrecked. What else screws with a person’s head so bad as a nightmare that wakes you with such terror? I couldn’t calm down. I couldn’t banish that awful image from my head.
I yanked my robe on and left my quarters. My first inclination was to find Oses, the hero of my days in captivity. However, I didn’t know if he was pulling another double shift. Plus his quarters were so far and I wanted companionship then and there. So instead, I hotfooted it to Betra’s place.
He answered his door seconds after I sobbed it was me. He wasted not a second in wrapping me up in his strong arms. “What’s wrong, sweetling? What happened?”
“A nightmare,” I wept. “It was just a nightmare, but Betra, it was so bad.”
“All right,” he soothed, drawing me across the threshold of his doorway, bringing me into the sanctuary of his sleeping room. “It’s okay, Shalia. I have you and I’m—”
He suddenly turned silent and stiff as a board. He gasped. I followed his startled gaze to the corridor behind me.
A large, shadowed figure, moving too fast for its features to be discerned, disappeared around the corner.
His eyes as round as dinner plates, Betra whispered, “Shalia, was that—”
“Fuck yeah, that was the ghost,” I gasped. My heart was at a full gallop again. When Betra shifted as if to follow it, I shoved him into his quarters and wormed myself in there too. The door shut behind us.
“You are not going after that damned thing and leaving me alone,” I announced in a screamy voice. My dream bravery was long gone at that point. I was having a very damsel-in-distress moment, and I won’t apologize for it.
“I need to find out where that – that – whatever it was went.” Betra’s gaze was still shocked.
“You can call Oses. Let his security handle it; that’s what they’re supposed to do.” I was determined the Imdiko would not leave me.
“You’re right,” he said, to my immense relief. “This is definitely a matter for them.”
He called Oses. I guessed the big guy was on duty since he answered his portable com and not the one in his quarters. The weapons commander showed up at Betra’s quarters in less than a minute.
“He’s a Kalquorian,” Betra said immediately. “I caught only the quickest glimpse, and it was fuzzy and shimmering like he – like he wasn’t quite there.”
“Describe what you saw.” Oses began recording the interview on his handheld.
“Shalia was in front of me at the door, facing me. To my right and a few feet away from us, some dark shape – like a shadow, kind of – appeared. It had the form of a man, a massive one.”
“Did you recognize a face?”
Betra’s mouth opened and closed again. “I saw the suggestion of one.”
Oses’s brow rose. “Explain.”
“Well, it was there, lighter colored than the hair and clothing, which appeared to be black. I saw dark round spots where the eyes should be, and maybe the suggestion of a mouth and nose. It was really hard to tell, because I could see through it too.”
Oses’s other brow shot up. The Imdiko made a
gesture of confusion.
“I realize how it sounds. I don’t care. I’m telling you there was someone there, but not all there. The moment it became visible, it turned and ran. I would have gone after it, but Shalia was upset and didn’t want me to.”
“Damned straight,” I said.
Oses gave him a severe expression. “You were not armed, were you Betra? You have no business chasing after what may be a dangerous person. You call me and keep yourself and Shalia safe.”
Betra’s jaw jutted in stubbornness. “Whatever it is, it’s stalking Shalia. From what the women have reported, it always appears in her vicinity.”
“Except the once,” I remembered. “The first I heard about the ghost was from Candy. She saw it in her suite first.”
“Since then, it’s been all about you, hasn’t it?” Betra said. “Maybe it was roaming around at the start and spying on Mataras, but it appears to have fixated on you.”
I sighed unhappily. “I would love to catch a break from all the drama. Can’t I have a few weeks of no weird or freaky shit happening?”
Oses turned off his handheld and attached it to his belt. Quietly, as if he was talking to himself, he muttered, “This has to stop.”
“I’m all for that,” I agreed. “Betra, you understand that I’m not returning to my room alone.”
“You’ll spend tonight with me in here.” My liaison gazed at Oses. “Since her quarters are more comfortable, I’ll stay there for the next few nights. Perhaps you’ll join us when you are available, Commander?”
My jaw nearly hit the floor. Betra was inviting Oses on a sleepover? With him and me? Oh boy, I owed that ghost big time if that was about to happen.
Oses wasn’t as obvious in his surprise, but it took him a few beats before he was able to answer. When he did, his voice sounded somewhat strained. “I’m available now.”
It was Betra’s turn to be taken aback. “Oh. When you failed to answer the com in your quarters, I assumed you were on duty.”
Oses started to talk and had to stop to clear his throat. “No, I couldn’t sleep. I was taking a walk when you called for me. Would you rather I not spend tonight with the two of you?”
Betra looked over his sleeping room, which was as cramped as Oses’s. “I suppose we’d all fit in here. Or we can go to Shalia’s quarters—”
“Not to be the whiny baby of the group, but I’m still not ready to face my place,” I interrupted. I gave Oses a shamefaced grin. “I had a nightmare, a really nasty one. That’s why I showed up on Betra’s doorstep.”
The Nobek nodded his understanding. “Sleep is still a rather difficult notion in the wake of what we went through.”
I committed the sin of probing, “Are you having trouble too?”
He took no offense, fortunately. Oses shrugged, his face inscrutable. “It would be odd if I didn’t have the occasional issue, wouldn’t it? Since returning, I often worry if everyone on board the ship is all right even when I’m positive they are. I am the most responsible for the safety of the crew and passengers, especially given what happened to us a few weeks ago.”
Betra was careful to not show too much sympathy, lest he insult Oses. “I’ve often heard a properly protective Nobek is a sleepless Nobek.”
That made the tough guy chuckle. “That sums it up rather well.”
The humor made us all relax. Oses eyed both Betra and me speculatively. “I suppose this is a guard detail, Imdiko? I have no hope of allowing for distractions?”
Betra folded his arms over his chest. “You and I are keeping a watch while Shalia gets some rest. Perhaps if you join us early enough when we gather tomorrow night, we can figure something out.”
I was shocked again, but why should I have been? Betra had found someone who would indulge his interest in humiliation. Oses knew to keep his hands and other appendages off the Imdiko. We were finding some common ground for them to be together. It might not be quite the relationship either truly wanted, but Betra seemed willing to offer what he could. I guess nearly losing Oses to Finiuld had instilled in him some appreciation for his would-be suitor.
Oses sighed. “Shalia does need her rest. I’m not sure if I can join you two tomorrow, however. We’re making another portal jump.”
“Oh yeah,” I remembered the bulletin that had gone out a few days ago. “I completely forgot about that.”
“We should be fine because we have a full complement of destroyers guarding the other side. But we know better than to assume. I’ll be busy monitoring the situation.”
“It sounds like it’s only you and me,” I told Betra.
Oses was quick to say, “I’ll come tomorrow if I can. I will probably show up too late for any activity but sleep though.” He wrinkled his nose.
“He’s so deprived,” I oozed mock sympathy.
Betra grinned. “He’s Oses. He’ll manage, somehow. Meanwhile, little mother, you need to climb into bed and get some sleep.”
“Right, right,” I groused as I climbed onto his sleeping mat. I was tired, so I didn’t really miss that we wouldn’t be romping tonight. Now that I had my two favorite shipmates to snuggle with and the scare of my nightmare and stalking ghost was fading, I thought sleep would be a pretty excellent objective to tackle.
Oses undressed and Betra shed the skirt-like covering he’d pulled on before answering my summons at his door. Their skin was welcome warmth as they climbed up next to me, making me the very happy filling of our Shalia sandwich. Feeling secure, I fell asleep quickly.
Betra roused me this morning. By the time he woke me, Oses had already left to prepare for his shift. They’d spied nothing all during their vigil. Of course. The ghost doesn’t show up when someone actually wants it to.
Betra was a little cranky that Oses had been so dismissive of what the Imdiko had witnessed with his own eyes. Oses maintains that Betra had been too startled to realize he was seeing some man, possibly an innocent passerby, walking around the corner.
I hated to feel vindicated that Betra was experiencing a little of what he’d given me. I swear I tried not to feel smug over his pique that Oses doubted his word. I wasn’t entirely successful.
Hey, I’m only human.
April 7, later
Since our first portal jump had ended with Tragooms boarding our vessel, we were on edge about doing it again. Fortunately, nothing happened on this passage. The destroyers guarding the other side of the wormhole reported the situation was fine before we entered. All three of our escorts went in ahead of us, ready to fight anyway. When we emerged, all was quiet. I could determine why, due to the view on the vid: the Kalquorians had five of their lethal ships patrolling the immediate area, and all their fighters had been launched in case some other species got stupid. None had, and the Pussy ‘Porter continued on its way.
There was good and bad news surrounding our jump. The bad is that we’ll now suffer a week-long delay in transmissions to Earth. That’s a bit depressing when it comes to talking to my dads.
The good news was that I received a message from them before we passed into the portal. I’m glad it arrived when it did.
Nayun, Bitev, and Rak beamed at me from the vid they’d sent. Nayun was darned near bubbly. “We got your message, Shalia. You look so heatlhy! Reports from Dr. Feru have been encouraging as well. Don’t worry about the nightmares; they will pass, my daughter. You just need time. The important issue is that the hallucinations have stopped and you’re no longer hiding from them.”
“I am glad the trauma is passing, my daughter,” Bitev added. “Dr. Tep says the pregnancy is progressing perfectly too. It’s such a delight to hear only happy information.”
Rak was the one person who wasn’t as upbeat as the rest of his clan. “I’m concerned about this ‘ghost’ you told us about. It sounds as if someone has snuck on board and is stalking you. I hope it was confirmed that all the Ofetuchans on that ship were killed.”
Bitev rolled his eyes a little at the Nobek. “It was confirmed. The
vessels in Shalia’s convoy have all been scanned for alien life forms and searches have been performed. Besides, Shalia isn’t worried about it.”
Nayun nudged Rak. “After all she’s been through, our daughter would be the last person to make light of such an issue.” His eyes twinkled, and I almost felt he was watching me. “Ghosts and spirits, huh? I used to love such stories as a child.”
Rak, suspicious Nobek that he is, didn’t appear convinced. I’m betting he’d seen through my glib account of the strange goings-on. He knew I was worried about it much more than I let on. I decided I would not say another word about the restless spirit, to save him from fretting over me.
Bitev prodded my Nobek dad. “Tell Shalia something nice. She’ll want to hear about Clan Seot.”
Shalia's Diary Omnibus Page 96
