Wind Runner: The Complete Collection

by Edmund Hughes

  “I’m going to press one of them,” said Malcolm. “Okay?”

  “Why are you asking me?” Malcolm could see Tapestry’s reflection in the observation window. She had her arms crossed, and was chewing on her lower lip.

  “I just want to make sure you’re on board,” said Malcolm. “No pun intended.”

  Tapestry didn’t say anything. Malcolm took her silence for assent, and pressed his finger down on the first of the labeled buttons. One of the monitors to the right of his chair turned on, but didn’t show anything except a black screen.

  “Well, that’s encouraging,” said Malcolm.

  Tapestry frowned. “How is that encouraging?”

  “We’re still alive,” he said. “Nothing bad happened.”

  He pressed the second button. Nothing happened. He pressed third, fourth, and then the fifth.

  A bald man appeared on the screen. Malcolm furrowed his brow.

  “Hello?” he called. “Hello? Can you hear us?”

  There was a tiny webcam built into the top of the monitor. Malcolm waved his hand in front of it, trying to get the attention of the bald man on the other side.

  “He’s not going to react right away,” said Tapestry.

  “Why not?” asked Malcolm. “Do you think the webcam is off?”

  “Malcolm,” said Tapestry, in the voice of a patient teacher. “We are billions of miles away from Earth, at the moment. So far away that there is a communications delay measured in minutes, rather than seconds.”

  “How many minutes?”

  Tapestry shrugged.

  “I guess we’ll have to wait and find out,” she said.

  CHAPTER 18

  The two of them waited. Malcolm was hungry, and he started to wonder about some of the crates that had been labeled as food back in the storage room. He was about to pitch opening one of them to Tapestry when the bald man on the monitor reacted.

  It was reminiscent of watching someone have a heart attack. The man pushed his chair back and brought a hand to his chest. Malcolm and Tapestry could hear him gasping in surprise. The man shook his head in disbelief, and then finally focused his attention back on his own webcam.

  “How… is this possible?” he asked. “Is this some kind of prank?”

  “It’s not a prank,” said Malcolm.

  “He’s not going to hear you for another half hour,” said Tapestry. “Let me do the talking.” She floated over Malcolm in his seat and crouched beside him. “Hello, whoever is on the other end of this connection? My name is Aubrey Kennison, and this is Malcolm Caldwell. We’re both former members of the Champion Authority who were transported here by a spryte with teleportation abilities.”

  She went on to explain what their original plan had been, pausing each time the man spoke so they could listen. It was surreal, a conversation where neither party was able to listen to the other in real time, but both were desperate to get information across.

  “Don’t press anything else,” said the man, who’d introduced himself as Melvin. “Wait! No! Actually, press the fourth button from the left on the third row. It should look a bit like the space bar on a computer. Then press the button directly to the right of it twice.”

  Malcolm glanced at Tapestry. She gave a small nod, as though giving him permission. He pressed the button sequence.

  The LEDs lighting the ship switched to full power, and a new, gentle hum came from some newly activated machine.

  “We have power,” said Malcolm. “Thanks, Melvin.”

  “You’re in a very tricky situation,” said Melvin, his words still out of sync with the moment. “We don’t know how the crew was lost. Ground control doesn’t have feeds from the cameras outside of the cockpit, so I don’t know the current state of things. If their bodies are aboard, you will need to dispose of them”

  “We haven’t seen any bodies,” said Tapestry, talking quickly as not to speak over Melvin as he continued.

  “It will take time for me to run a full diagnostic of the ship,” said Melvin. “I’ll have to call in the rest of the ground control team. We were not expecting… We’d given up the mission. This is so impossible, but so wonderful. We might be able to accomplish this! The first manned mission to Europa!”

  Tapestry frowned.

  “We aren’t interested in completing the mission,” she said. “Look, please, we came here through a portal. There is a spryte in Halter City, at the Lady of Mercy Hospital. If you go there and find her, she can bring us back.”

  Malcolm listened, but he could already tell from the excitement he saw on Melvin’s face that it would be a dead end.

  He’s not going to do that. He’ll give us an excuse as to why it’s too dangerous.

  The conversation continued in a confusing, delayed back and forth for close to two hours. By the end of it, Melvin had given them a list of things they should and shouldn’t do. At the top of the list was for the two of them to stay calm.

  The ship’s features were more automated than Malcolm had expected. Melvin explained that it might actually be possible for them to fulfill the crew’s original mission if they were very attentive and listened to the instructions of the ground control team.

  Tapestry fumed at Melvin’s refusal to even acknowledge her request to find Jade Portal. Malcolm tried to lighten the mood a little with his jokes, but she was clearly in no mood for them.

  “That’s all I can do for you, for now,” said Melvin. “I have to meet with the rest of my team. It might take several hours for us to come up with a solidified plan for you. Don’t do anything in the mean time! Actually, perhaps it would be good for the two of you to get some rest. I know this is a lot to take in.”

  The connection cut off. Tapestry made a noise and glared at the black monitor. Malcolm squeezed her shoulders from behind.

  “Hey,” he said. “This is good. We’re making progress. At least now we have hope.”

  “Malcolm,” said Tapestry. “We’re still days out from Jupiter, and that’s only the halfway point for this mission. If we don’t get a portal out of here, we’ll be stuck on this ship for more than three months.”

  He wasn’t sure what to say to that, so instead, he gave her an awkward, zero gravity hug.

  “It will be okay,” Malcolm finally managed.

  “For you,” said Tapestry. “What about Melanie?”

  Malcolm scowled.

  What about Rose? What’s she going to think if she starts remembering me, and I’m nowhere to be found?

  “It’s not an ideal situation for either of us,” he said. “But we don’t have another choice right now. And I hate to rub it in… but this was your idea.”

  Tapestry glared at him.

  “Yes, I’m sure you hate to rub it in, don’t you?” she said.

  Malcolm rolled his eyes as she floated down the connecting hallway. He took another look around the cockpit, feeling a bit overwhelmed by the extent of the controls, despite Melvin’s reassurance.

  The interior of the spaceship felt very different with the power reengaged. Before, it had bordered on being creepy, given what little they knew of the crew’s disappearance and the poor lighting.

  Now, there was a warm, almost soothing quality to it that Malcolm was sure had been an essential part of the original design. It felt like someone had merged a futuristic living habitat with an expensive hospital room, comfortable, but antiseptic.

  The room they’d first entered when they’d flung themselves through the portal now felt more like a kitchen than a conference room. Malcolm noticed that the table had a latch on it. He lifted it open and found a variety of food packed neatly away.

  He picked out some beef jerky sealed in airtight wrapping, and a pouch of some kind of juice with a straw attached to drink from. Tapestry had gone deeper into the ship. He figured she could probably use some time to herself.

  He settled down into one of the seats, strapping himself in and carefully opening the packages. Crumbs and liquid droplets were not something he w
anted to experience in zero gravity.

  The food improved his mood almost instantly. Malcolm could see a path forward now. They would make it to Europa, find Savior, rescue him, and then return to Earth. Savior would be able to stand a chance against Second Wind. The Champion Authority would rise again.

  And then, I’ll live happily ever after. It’s all so simple and straightforward… And it will never go that smoothly.

  The spaceship suddenly felt confining to him. Which, he had to grant, it was. He and Tapestry were basically prisoners of their circumstances. They were in the same situation as men living aboard submarines, trapped in a small, unchanging vessel for months at a time.

  He took a slow breath, forcing himself to stay calm. Malcolm had just finished eating his food when he heard Tapestry scream.

  CHAPTER 19

  Malcolm threw himself down the hallway, flying faster than it was safe to as he hurtled toward the origin of Tapestry’s scream. It had come from the direction of the exercise chamber. Malcolm noticed immediately as he entered that the hatch to the small chamber he’d seen before was now closed.

  “Tapestry!” he shouted.

  “I’m… okay,” she said. “I just… wasn’t expecting this.”

  There was a switch next to the hatch. Malcolm pressed it, and the hatch opened. Tapestry was floating inside the tiny room, but what caught his attention wasn’t her, but the walls.

  Each one, along with the ceiling, the floor, and even the back of the hatch, was covered with a high definition display. All of them were currently showcasing a park on Earth, grass, trees, and people walking around. The room was a simulation chamber, and Tapestry had apparently activated it by accident.

  “Neat,” said Malcolm. “This must be for the crew’s entertainment.”

  “That sounds about right,” said Tapestry. “I’m not sure how I feel about it.”

  “Maybe you should try it again after a month or two of staring at blank walls,” said Malcolm.

  Tapestry slid out through the hatch, scowling as she went by him.

  “You haven’t eaten yet,” said Malcolm. “Come on. I think you’ll be in a better mood once you have a full stomach.”

  He showed her what he’d discovered under the table. Tapestry didn’t seem that enamored with the selection of food, though she eventually picked a few things out to nibble at.

  While she ate, Malcolm’s curiosity got the better of him. He floated back to the simulation chamber, pausing outside briefly before slipping in. The screens activated as soon as he closed the hatch, plunging him into a darkness lit only by the blue menu on one of the screens in front of him. The options “Past”, “Present”, “Future”, and “Personal” stood in a neat little row.

  Malcolm considered for a moment before selecting “Past”. The screens shifted, displaying rows of tiny thumbnails, like the viewing gallery for the camera on his old phone. He singled out one that was of a park and pressed it with a finger.

  A park seems safe enough. Right?

  All the screens shifted. Malcolm found himself in a wide open park, with green grass displayed by the screen underneath his feet and a deep blue sky smudged with cotton candy like clouds above. There was a large pond in front of him with a man and a woman pedaling a swan boat. They were holding hands and appeared to be very much in love. A family sat on a blanket to his left, with three children playing monkey in the middle with foam ball.

  It brought a nostalgic ache to Malcolm’s heart. He’d played games like that with Danny and his friends, as a child. How long had it been? He didn’t even know if there were any safe parks left in the country, anymore.

  The wind was blowing in the simulation, and he felt a little frustrated by the fact that he could see the grass swaying without being able to feel it. He suddenly wanted to be in the simulation, or rather, he wanted to make it real.

  The simulation chamber, Malcolm realized, was there as much for motivation as it was for recreation. It was there to remind the astronauts of what the world had been like, and presumably, what it could be like again.

  It didn’t motivate Malcolm, at least not during his first experience with it. It made him want to lie down in bed, and deepened the weight on his shoulders. Failing was not an option for him and Tapestry, and that opened them both up to so many desperate situations, and so much danger.

  He left the simulation chamber in a daze, his eyes only slowly adjusting to the bright LED lights of the rest of the ship. He floated through the ship slowly, feeling half tempted to curl up into a little ball, or maybe crawl into one of the tethered sleeping bags he’d seen before.

  Malcolm found Tapestry in the cockpit, sitting in the captain’s chair. She had a scowl on her face and was pressing the buttons that controlled the communication system, to no avail.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  She made a noise and turned her scowl onto him.

  “I need to get a message to Melanie,” said Tapestry. “So much has happened that I didn’t even stop to think about letting her know that I’m okay when we were talking to Melvin.”

  “I think they closed the communications channel from their side,” said Malcolm. “You might have to wait until they get in touch with us.”

  Tapestry glared at him.

  “Don’t you have anyone back on Earth that you care enough about to check in with?” she asked.

  Rose… If she even remembers me.

  He shook his head, avoiding her gaze.

  “No,” he said. “Not anymore.”

  “Liar.” Tapestry’s fingers left the command console, and she turned her full attention onto him. “I know the truth, Malcolm. All of it.”

  The tone of her voice let him know that it was finally time for them to have a certain conversation. One they’d both been avoiding since the start of their post collapse reunion. The shadow of Second Wind hung over them both. The shadow of Malcolm’s lies, mistakes, and deception.

  “He told me,” said Tapestry. “Your copy. He explained everything on that night he confronted us in my house. His first night as a demon. He gave me… a detailed series of events. A timeline, practically, from when Rose first came into your life. Of how she’d been living in your apartment, and you’d been hiding her from me, right under my nose. Like I was just some kind of… idiot. Just your idiot partner who didn’t deserve any part of the truth.”

  Malcolm felt his face burning with shame. It was only made more intense by the anger and hurt he could hear in Tapestry’s voice. He’d kept secrets from her for far too long. How could he expect she’d react to the truth?

  “He told me that you loved her,” said Tapestry, in a quiet voice. “That you and her were… involved like that. And that it was more serious than what we…” She paused, and blinked her eyes several times. “Anyway, I know about it. So don’t waste your time making yourself sound like a fool with more lies.”

  Malcolm hung his head. He didn’t have any defense for what he’d done, for what he’d kept from her.

  “I’m sorry, Tapestry,” he said. “I wish… I’d done things differently.”

  “I do, too.” For a moment, it seemed as though she’d leave it at that. But then Tapestry shook her head, and a cracked smile came across her face. “I don’t think you fully understand how much it hurt when… he betrayed me. The callousness of it. I’d actually fallen in love, with him. Your copy, Malcolm. Not you. And then…”

  She closed her eyes and let out a small, bitter laugh.

  “He didn’t stab me in the back,” she said. “He stabbed me in the heart, and twisted the blade. As though it wasn’t enough for him to turn into a demon and push me away… He had to explain it all to me, and make me aware of just how badly duped I’d been. It was a double betrayal, once by him… and once by you.”

  “Tapestry…” Malcolm wanted to apologize again, and again, if he could. But he knew she wouldn’t let him. It wouldn’t do anything to solve her pain or change the past.

  Tapestry waited
, as though expecting more from him. Several seconds went by, and Malcolm realized that by saying nothing, he’d also done the wrong thing. He could already feel her pulling away from him, trudging up old emotions, and reminding herself of all the reasons why he couldn’t be trusted.

  She gave up, both on the communications console and on him. He reached for her as she floated by him and through the connecting hallway. She slapped his hand away, not hard, but with enough deliberateness to be a solid rebuke.

  CHAPTER 20

  Malcolm spent several hours in the exercise room, trying to tamp down his emotions with exhaustion. The stationary bike worked about the same as it would have back on Earth, though it felt much floatier without gravity.

  He found clean clothes for the both of them in one of the storage rooms. There was a small bathroom and shower, specially designed for the sealed environmental conditions of the ship, and he rinsed off his sweaty body before changing into one of the plain blue jumpsuits that composed the standard astronaut wardrobe.

  Tapestry had already zipped herself into one of the sleeping bags and managed to fall asleep, or was at least very good at pretending. It was a bit unnerving to look at her. Her head peaked out from the top of the sleeping bag, but the rest of her was securely zipped in. It was like looking at a cross between a body bag and a balloon on a string.

  Malcolm settled into one of the sleeping bags himself. He closed his eyes once he was zipped in. He thought about comforting memories from back on Earth. He thought about what Melvin might have to report to them and how things would change when they finally got Savior back to earth.

  It took him far longer than expected to drift off. The lights on the ship were bright and omnipresent, and between the glare and his usual troubled thoughts, he slept fitfully.

  When he awoke, Tapestry had already left her bag and was in another part of the ship. Malcolm took his time getting up, dreading having to talk to her after the discussion they’d had the night before.