by Nelson Lynch
his finger causing the dry tissues to crumble. Charlie saw some of her teeth through the hole his finger made before snatching his hand out of the unit.
Snow and static came for a slightly longer period of time. “The maintenance computer said she died during the first year in space. Her deep cooling unit developed a coolant leak and her body didn’t stay cold enough.” Her voice was softer.
Charlie glanced at the TV. The woman was dressed in black with a black veil. Charlie lifted the earflaps on his hat. “What would happen if I took her out?” He walked a few steps toward the TV. “I lay her on the floor and I use her unit.” He paused a moment. “Of course, that’s after we fix the leak.”
“I couldn’t hear you clearly. Did you say something about removing Barbara from her unit? Please move to the yellow tile.”
Charlie moved closer to the yellow tile and stopped one step away. “Something is rotten in Denmark. Why do you keep harping about the yellow tile? You can see and hear me from here.”
Static came and the picture shimmered. “You are imagining things. It’s just that that tile is the best point in the whole ship for me to see and hear you.” Her voice was low and she was back in her bikini.
Charlie removed his hat and shook his head slowly. “Something’s not right.” He leaned forward as if to move and then tossed his hat over the tile.
A shot rang out echoing around the room. His hat flew across the room, tiny bits of insulation making a dust cloud. Charlie jumped back in shock from the noise and the sight of his hat being hit with a bullet. “You tried to kill me, dammit. What the hell is wrong with you?”
The TV erupted with loud static as snow appeared.
Charlie wiped at the small amount of sweat on his forehead as he retrieved his hat. He poked his finger through the hole in the brim. The static stopped and a screen saver appeared. Then slowly a man appeared dressed in a black uniform. “That damn tile was booby trapped. You tried to kill me.”
“Sorry Charlie, but it has to be done. Why don’t you act like a true soldier and stand on the tile?”
Charlie stepped farther away from the tile. “Have you lost your mind? I’m not a soldier. Has the ship’s computer gone haywire?”
“Charlie, Charlie.” His voice was soft with a touch of sadness. “It has to be done. The ship can’t allow you to roam around for the rest of your life, using valuable resources that will be needed when the ship reaches our new planet.”
“Tough,” Charlie said putting his hat on. “I’m not letting you shoot me without a fight.” He walked out through the sliding door.
In the next room, he stayed near the wall, keeping his eyes on the floor looking for yellow tiles.
“Where are you going, Charlie? You are just prolonging the agony. I am thinking about lowering the temperature. How does that sound?”
“Go ahead. You’ll kill all the plants that are needed here and also on the new planet.” He paused in his walking and looked around. “When will we reach this new world?”
“Charlie, I’m so sorry, but, as you must surely realize, you aren’t going to see this new Garden of Eden. We are 97.2 years away. Even if we allowed you to live, you wouldn’t live that long.” The man in the uniform sighed and nodded. “Why don’t you come over here in front of the TV? Let’s get this over as painlessly as possible.”
“Forget that.” Charlie walked into the next room where hundreds of deep cooling units lay side by side. He stopped at the end of the first unit with a mummy. “A man. I wonder what happened to him?”
The uniformed man stared at Charlie but made no comments. His eyes seemed to follow Charlie around the edge of the room.
Charlie stopped and surveyed the room for the first time under bright lights the TV was using to keep him in sight. A ladder was built into the corner wall. “Where in the hell does it go?” He hurriedly climbed the ladder, opened the trap door and entered another room totally in darkness. From the little light coming from the open trapdoor he saw a light switch. Instantly the room was brightly lit. He closed the trap door and walked farther into the room.
He stopped completely still for a moment. The lid was up on an empty cooling unit. Carefully he walked by the unit into the next room. He stopped again looking at a naked dead man on the floor. “He hasn’t been dead too long.” Charlie gingerly stepped by the body and sat down in front of a computer. He tapped the enter key one time.
The screen instantly appeared. “Are you the new captain?”
Charlie grinned and typed “Yes.”
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