by Aaron Bunce
The memories blurred and flashed, the blue sky and mountains suddenly replaced by the silent, solemn and dusty lunar landscape. She was crawling through service ducts barely three feet high by three feet wide, condenser lubricant and coolant water dripping down onto her back and head. She felt the ache in her hands and knees, the tension bunching up her lower back like a million stabbing needles.
The hum of the fusion reactor pulsed all around her, the deep thrum-thrum-thrum buzzing clear through to her bones. Anna squeezed her body into their small economy apartment at the end of her shift, her hair slicked down with grease, dirt, and sweat. She felt the small space close in – the walls barely wide enough to allow her to spread her arms. Anna crawled in next to Jacoby, smearing dirt on his pants in the process. The space was only large enough to allow them to sit facing one another.
They choked down vat-grown noodles and meat, and not the good stuff either – she felt the strange meat shift and pop between her teeth, the odd, almost plastic taste filling her nose and mouth. She gagged, the smell and taste covering her tongue.
Anna broke free from the memories, the dark bedroom washing back in. She was on her knees and not entirely sure how she got there. Soraya was next to her, their hands still clasped together. She looked up just as Soraya pulled away, rocking back onto her bare feet and standing.
“What was that? I saw…I smelled, tasted, everything. L-L-Like I was there? That horrible taste…was that food?” Soraya gasped. She patted the jumpsuit down and even reached for the zipper.
“I just started thinking about all of it, the road out of…”
“Home. You hitchhiked and stole rides on magna trains all the way to the mountains,” Soraya cut in.
Anna nodded. “Yes, the orbital launch station in Colorado. My parents called every station on the east coast to keep us from making it off world. We did whatever we had to.”
“That little room, the dirt…the grease…that food? You lived that way in the lunar colony? I thought they banned corporations from housing workers in such slums.”
“Anna zipped one of her thigh pockets closed, but she couldn’t ignore the question. Somehow, Soraya shared in all of it…the vivid memories, as if they were a video stream playing live in her brain.
“They did on Earth, but the Lunar Colonies operated under their own jurisdiction, so enforcement fell to the corporations on some hilarious version of the honor system. We were beyond broke when we got to the moon. We did what it took to survive. I ate some things I never thought possible to keep from starving. Half of the crap they sold to the poor workers could hardly be described as food. That stuff does horrible things to your body, and we ate it for several years. When Jacoby got the contract out here, it took me several months of a proper diet and exercise to get right again. Never again…never again,” Anna said, shuddering. She patted her stomach as she eyed the jumpsuit Soraya wore, remembering how tight it had been at the end, when they’d almost given up.
“But how did I see it? It’s like we connected somehow.”
Anna met Soraya’s gaze, puzzling through the strange moments before, during, and immediately after, trying to connect them in some rational fashion. Nothing fit, until she considered something Preston said in the hall.
“Out in the hall, what was Preston talking about…with you and Jacoby?”
Soraya recoiled and immediately wrapped her arms around her body.
“Soraya, please. It’s important that we think about this. That we try to make sense of what is happening. When I was at the clinic earlier…when things got really strange, I got sick. It was gross…blue with bits of blood and stuff, like it wasn’t all just food in my stomach. I don’t know, I can’t explain what it was or why. I’ve never had anything like that happen to me before. When we were in the bathroom, you got sick. I saw it. It looked the same, smelled the same, too. Something is happening to people on this station – sickness, well worse than sickness.”
Anna pushed off the ground and held out her hand.
“Preston was telling the truth – about Jacoby. The power cycled off, and when we went out in the hall to see what was going on, Jacoby was on the ground outside our door. Preston wasn’t feeling well, and I thought Jacoby was sick, too, or maybe he just fell down, so I offered to help him back to your place,” Soraya said, eyeing Anna’s hand warily, but then accepted it and stood.
“That’s what friends do for each other–”
“You don’t understand,” Soraya interrupted, shaking her head. “When I was around him, something came over me. I don’t know what it was – the way he smelled, or felt, but once we were in your place I just sort of lost control. It was like a dream. There was no Preston, nothing beyond a sudden and overwhelming…need, like my body was on fire. I tried to force myself on him, Anna. That’s not me…I’ve never…would never do that. Jacoby is your friend, and you guys…well, we’ve always been friendly. When I left, it hit me. I think Preston knew, even when I tried to lie.”
She watched Soraya struggle and reached out, grasping her hand. She gave it a reassuring squeeze, a spark igniting inside from the contact between them. Anna felt it – Soraya’s shame, her confusion, and pain. But somehow, she’d already known. Was it a feeling, an intuition? Or had she seen it in Jacoby’s eyes when she first came home that night after the explosion?
All of it, she realized.
“It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Anna said, squeezing her hand again.
Soraya looked up, her confusion deepening. “What do you mean? I just told you I tried to force myself on your friend! Preston, he thought Jacoby tried to take advantage of me, but it was the other way around. I got scared that he would leave me, so I started kissing him and tried to pull him into our bedroom to have sex, but he was sick. He wasn’t up for any of that. And now…now Preston is…”
“I felt it, too, Soraya. Lately when I’ve been around Jacoby the air seemed to grow thicker, every smell becoming that much more intense. Everything else would melt away until it was just him and I. He’s different somehow, although I can’t say how or why…something in him, maybe. It’s in me now, and you, too. I can feel it.”
“This is crazy. All of it…just fucking crazy. I don’t know what to do…where to go. Are we sick…will we die?” Soraya reached down and wiggled, managing to pull the zipper a little further up her chest. The worn fabric hugged her curves like it was tailored just for her, the splayed zipper teasing the valley between her shapely breasts. Even in a maintenance jumpsuit she looked beautiful and strong, like the goddesses that stood above their male counterparts in all the old stories.
“There is an answer to all of it, and I have a feeling Jacoby might be at the middle of it. We need to get to the clinic. The doctor…he’ll have machines, tests, maybe he has answers. If anyone can figure this out, it is him.” Anna squeezed Soraya’s hand again, forcing as much optimism and confidence forward as she could muster.
Soraya’s back visibly straightened and her shoulders squared. She squeezed Anna’s hand in return, wiped a stray tear from her eye, and nodded.
“I need boots,” Soraya said, breaking the silence.
Anna looked down at her bare feet, sizing them up against her own.
“I have spare boots, but they’re small. Jacoby’s might fit you, but he’s a guy and well, he’s only got like one pair.”
Soraya eyed her for a moment, lifting her feet off the floor before settling her weight back down and lifting the other. It was cold and only getting colder, Anna couldn’t imagine how that felt on bare feet.
“I’ll find some somewhere,” she whispered and they moved slowly out into the hall, stopping before the damaged door. Anna ducked under the broken ceiling tile, and looked back to Soraya to make sure she was ready.
“We can’t just pull the door open if the motor is still energized. It might still open on its own, which I don’t believe it will, but if it does, be ready to run! Run as fast as you can straight for the elevato
r and don’t stop, no matter what you see or hear.”
“What if it isn’t working? The power…if it is out, will the elevators even run?”
“The elevators are supposed to be supported by emergency power generation, supported by a completely different and isolated circuit. They should work,” Anna whispered in response, although she wasn’t nearly as confident in the answer as she would have been even a day earlier.
“We can’t stay here forever,” Soraya said and nodded.
Anna turned, and without hesitation tapped the door control panel. Nothing happened. She leaned back, exhaling quietly and started scanning the wall panels, wondering where and how she was going to gain access to the motor and inner workings. Her gaze flitted over the small control pad again just as the screen flickered, and the door open icon abruptly glowed into view. Anna leaned back in and pressed the button eagerly.
The door shuddered with a loud clunk and slid free of the frame almost an inch before grinding to a halt. The motor started to whine, gears and metal parts grinding loudly in the wall.
“It’s so loud,” Soraya hissed, “stop it!”
Anna smashed the controls on the dim panel, but they didn’t respond. The motor continued to grind and squeal, like some horrible, wounded animal trapped inside the wall.
“Do something,” Anna whispered, urging herself into action. She dropped to her knees and tapped the small light on her headset, and then started fumbling and pulling on the damaged wall panels. She squeezed her fingers between the gap and with strength that surprised even her, ripped it free. The door rattled and shook, the horrible squealing echoing out into the hall as Anna found a mass of wires in the hollow wall space, and wrenched them into the light.
0315 Hours
Voices and chaotic thoughts filled the darkness of Jacoby’s mind, but he wasn’t dreaming. Somehow he knew he was sleeping, but also felt powerless to change it.
Jacoby tried to make sense of the voices – they sounded urgent, desperate, but without clarity or meaning. He felt pain, too. Something was happening to his body – cold and hot mixing together in succinct pinpoints of pain in what he was sure were his arms.
Other noises punctuated the darkness around him, some clear enough through the smothering presence covering his ears, others just distant, jumbled sounds. He heard coughing, sniffling, and retching. Was it him? Was he dying?
The darkness parted suddenly, as if in answer to his unspoken question. He blinked away the blur in time to find the syringe from an auto injector pulling free from his right arm.
Jacoby groaned and struggled to collect his wits, but the room appeared to be different. The glass wall to his right was gone, now replaced by a large, complicated piece of medical equipment.
“…is he ready?” someone asked nearby, their voice muffled by a strange-looking mask. An airline snaked down from the ceiling and into their faceplate. They wore a rubber suit as well, the protective garment merging seamlessly with the mask.
Why are they wearing those suits…? he wondered, but his temples throbbed again and his thoughts scattered.
Jacoby tried to reach out to the closest figure in the suit, to get their attention, only to have a painfully bright bank of overhead lights blaze to life. He pressed his eyes shut and drifted off.
He opened his eyes again and the light was gone. He was in a small, dark space, a clattering noise banging loudly all around him. A twinge bit into his temples and he was sliding from the darkness. The room around him glided out of the fog.
“…antibodies…showing indication of infection,” a man said as Jacoby tried to clear his throat and rouse himself. He inhaled deeply, the stabbing pain almost constantly burning at his temples now.
“…it could be a parasite…brain mass. Take…blood, tissue, and bone marrow…cerebrospinal fluid samples,” the man continued, but he could only seem to grab every other word.
“…alter behavior? Is…dangerous?” a woman asked, her voice stronger and closer.
“We can’t know the true scope…contamination…him. Middle…outbreak…strange but…of our worries. Virus…we don’t understand. It appears to have been isolated…and those in the clinic. The orderly…cardiac failure…autopsy and…tissue analysis.”
Something in Jacoby stirred, a distant glimmer of strength returning. He opened his eyes and fought for clarity. He puckered his lips and sucked in a breath – the strength had been fleeting, his heart pounding weakly in his chest as the predictable pain stabbed into his arm and the cold crept in a moment later.
No…fight it…don’t…sleep. He peeled one eye open just as a long needle slid into his right arm. The black claimed him again.
“Jacoby, can you hear me?” a man asked, his voice quiet but close. He recognized the voice, and when he peeled his eyes open again, found his bed surrounded by what looked like a clear, plastic tent. Time had passed, that much was clear, but Jacoby didn’t know how much.
Doctor Reeds stood on the other side of the barrier, his differently colored eyes wide with what looked like concern.
Doctor. Jacoby thought, putting the man’s face and the idea together in his mind.
Jacoby tried to say yes, but couldn’t seem to feel his mouth, so he simply nodded. The doctor’s face clarified, the rest of the room slowly materializing out of the fog. He was in a large, long room, his bed just one of many in a long row. He could see people lying in beds just like his, similar tents covering them as well. Some writhed in place, kicking and clawing at their sheets, while others lay still, occasionally coughing or holding their heads. They all looked sick.
Jacoby reached up to scratch his nose, but his arm still wouldn’t move. He wiggled it, growling inaudibly in frustration. Something on his arm beeped, so he stopped fighting.
“I’m happy to see that you are awake, Jacoby. I know this all has to be very confusing, but I assure you, I’m here now and plan to find out exactly what is going on,” Reeds said.
What is going on? Jacoby thought, blinking again to clear away the sleep. He didn’t understand why the doctor wouldn’t know.
A shadow fell over him as someone approached the left side of his clear enclosure, their profile blocking one of the lights. Jacoby turned to see back-lit red hair and the sparkle of green eyes. He peeled his head off the pillow only to find the thick, black restraints were still binding his wrists and ankles to the bed.
“This is Alexandria, she is with station security. She is here to ask you some questions about the…uh, incident in the clinic,” Reeds said, nervously favoring a bruise on his cheek, “but before we get to that, I think we need to talk about your…situation.”
“Situation?” Jacoby mouthed, but he couldn’t form the word properly. His tongue was thick and dry.
Jacoby waited for the voice in his head to chime in, while silently praying it wouldn’t. Oh how he wished the last few days were just a bad dream.
He eyed Doctor Reeds, his heart beating like a sluggish drum in his chest, but only the silence of his muddled thoughts filled his head.
“Yes…the results from your tests? Has no one told you anything?”
Jacoby found that he had to watch the doctor’s mouth move as he talked. He couldn’t seem to catch all the words, but could fill in the gaps by reading his lips.
“No, but I’m…not…sick.”
“Well, no, at least not like the rest of your bed mates, here.”
“Where…am…I?” Jacoby interrupted. Reeds glanced to the white coat next to him, then Lex on the other side of the enclosure, before he spoke.
“You’re in the station labs. I must admit it took me a fair amount of searching to find you. They told us they were moving you and some of your sicker counterparts to, uh, better manage your health and recuperation.”
He doesn’t know. The lies, he’s eaten the lies, the voice chimed in suddenly, but it was quieter and weaker than ever. A heartbeat later, a sharp pain stabbed into his temples and his thoughts scattered.
“…yo
ur condition has been a great deal more confusing to us, but I think we have finally dug down to the heart of the matter. The truth, however frightening, is actually a good thing when you think about it. It’s not a good prognosis, but…misery and company, as I usually say,” the doctor said, repeatedly lifting his tablet before letting it drop down to his side. Jacoby could see it, the doctor was uncomfortable.
Don’t listen…to…him! the voice echoed distantly in his thoughts, but it was so quiet he almost couldn’t make it out. His temples tingled and a cold, creeping sensation filled his left arm.
He opened his eyes again, only his confusion matching his pain.
“My head? The pain…? What is…on my…arm?” Jacoby whispered.
“Yes, that brings us right to it. As you know…when you came into the clinic, your vitals were elevated dangerously. We found abnormalities in your blood which prompted us to pursue other tests. Your second blood test showed the same elevated and confusing amounts of testosterone and androstadienone, as well as other hormones and compounds present that normally indicate the presence of a…well, tumor. Antibodies were also present, indicating a number of possible problems, well…parasitic infection, and…” Reeds mumbled and drifted off.
Jacoby glanced to his left, his gaze crawling sluggishly up from the strap restraining his left arm, to Lex’s tight-fitting suit. She returned his gaze, her green eyes seemingly saying “I approve of the restraints”. Another pain in his temple forced his eyes down, over the name badge sewn into the fabric above her left breast. She pulled a data point out of her pocket and scrolled down through glowing messages, her eyebrows drawing down into an angry line.
“All of these numbers didn’t add up…well, they were downright confusing…until we analyzed the brain scans we took in the clinic. The image resolution wasn’t the best, but we found this.” Doctor Reeds was still talking, but an uptick in volume drew his attention back to his side of the bed. His large acrylic tablet was held up before the clear plastic, a brightly colored image of what Jacoby figured to be a brain filling the screen. The doctor swiped to another image, which appeared to show the brain from the side.
