Wayfarer: AV494

by Matthew S. Cox

  Wayfarer: AV494

  Matthew S. Cox

  Wayfarer: AV494

  A Novel

  © 2016 Matthew S. Cox

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real persons, places, or hostile alien environments is purely coincidental.

  No portion of this work may be reproduced without written permission from the author.

  Cover by Dean Samed

  ISBN (ebook): 978-1-949174-68-7

  ISBN (print): 978-1-949174-69-4

  Contents

  1. Perseus

  2. Reentry

  3. Routine

  4. Day One

  5. Mess

  6. The Forest for the Trees

  7. Lamiaceae Advena

  8. Advanced Civilization

  9. Spooked

  10. Overtime

  11. Off Limits

  12. Cabin Fever

  13. Disintegrating

  14. Omnis Moriar

  15. Last Bullet

  16. Degrees of Sanity

  17. On Edge

  18. Malpractice

  19. Not Cut Out

  20. Reckless

  21. Breathless

  22. Daddy Issues

  23. Distress Call

  24. Not On You

  25. Primitive Creatures

  26. What Ifs

  27. No

  28. Thirty Minutes Out

  29. Evac

  30. A Home So Far

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Other books by Matthew S. Cox

  1

  Perseus

  Unease permeated a vast expanse of endless blackness, silent as the void of space. Kerys reached out, or at least believed an impulse traversed a nerve in her arm. She floated in the vast nothingness, wondering why the dream had stopped. Dread built, pressing into her chest, constricting her lungs. Yet the harder she tried to breathe, the stronger her awareness that she couldn’t became.

  Panic swirled into the need to scream―her body refused to obey.

  A faint beep broke the silence and derailed her spiraling sense of suffocation. Her mind tried to seize on the direction, to construct any meaningful representation of environment, but reality slipped through her fingers, ephemeral and nonexistent.

  Beep.

  Kerys stared at the void, trying to spin toward the noise.

  Again and again, the weak electronic chirp taunted her, an ever-moving raven, black as midnight in a darkened room. She clung to the electronic disturbance, the only reality aside from blankness, and counted as it pulsed. Its tempo increased; the source drawing closer with each chime until it sounded as though it emanated from a point inside her skull.

  Beep. Beep. Beep.

  The noise became intolerable. She tried to scream again, to grab her head, but couldn’t move.

  When her count reached fifty-eight, an explosion of tingling needlepoints swam over her body, every vein and capillary of her circulatory system on fire. She gasped; the rush of her breath seemed deafening, echoing within a confined space. A sense of physical form reached her brain, a body as leaden as stone.

  I’m in stasis.

  Her eyes snapped open.

  Dim light suffused her reality, making her plain white tank top and panties glow. Her breath misted on the cover of a transparent cylinder, mere inches from her face. Loud beeping continued from above and behind her head.

  I can’t move… Something’s wrong.

  A human-shaped shadow drifted across the folds of a drab grey privacy curtain beyond the foot of her chamber. Her gaze focused on a blurry smear. After a moment of staring, it resolved into words printed upon the plastic:

  Avasar Biotech

  The slogan ‘worlds better’ in much smaller text underlined the block lettering.

  Kerys forced air into her chest, her nostrils freezing from the intake of post-cryonic mist hanging in her chamber. Seconds became minutes. The first sign the chemical paralytic began to wear off came in the form of shivering. She struggled to raise her arms and breathe warmth into her hands.

  The beeping stopped the instant she moved.

  In the distance, a deep, resonant yawn echoed off the walls, a bellow appropriate for the end of a years-long sleep. Her pod shuddered with a heavy, mechanical thud. Kerys grabbed the cushions and yelped in surprise as the hatch opened, emitting a subdued hiss of pneumatics.

  She sat up, brushing frost from her thighs and arms before swinging her legs over the side of the chair-bed. Dizziness convinced her not to try standing, so she slumped, head down and shivering, waiting for the fogginess of deep-freeze to fade.

  “Hello,” said a man outside the curtain along with a faint knock. “Miss Loring? I’m Chris, with medical. Is it all right if I check a few things?”

  “Yeah. Come on in.” She reached up and massaged her left shoulder.

  The curtain slid to the left with a shhht, revealing an athletic man, bald, with dark skin and a broad smile. His white jumpsuit bore the six-armed Shiva logo of Avasar Biotech on the left breast pocket. Chris held up a thin silver tablet the size of a clipboard. Light from its screen tinted the front of his uniform azure.

  “How do you feel?”

  “Like a piece of steak that’s been put in the freezer unwrapped.” She let her arm fall limp in her lap. “How are you so… animated?”

  Chris chuckled. “Medical team thawed out two days ago so we’d be at a hundred percent for waking up the rest.”

  “That had to be boring.” She forced a smile and stared at her blurry toes. “When are they going to turn the heat on? It’s colder out here than it was in the pod.”

  A grid of blue laser light crawled up and down her chest. Whatever appeared on the screen made Chris smile. “Well, looks like everything is normal… mostly.”

  “Mostly?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “I think the pre-stasis agent hit you a little harder than normal.” He tapped the screen twice. “Hmm. The dosage looks right for your recorded weight.”

  She kept her eyes down, thinking of the doctor back on Earth chiding her for not eating enough. “Is that bad?”

  “How groggy do you feel? Are you experiencing any dizziness or feelings of vertigo?” He moved to stand in front of her and used a small light on the underside of his e-pad to examine her eyes.

  Kerys sat straight, stretched, and exhaled. “It’s not that bad. Like I overslept. Little dizziness, but it’s going away.”

  “Good. I wouldn’t worry about it then.” Chris held the e-pad to his chest. “Best to get up and about and move. Scan didn’t pick up any ice crystals in your blood, so if you want to warm up with a shower, go right ahead.”

  She nodded.

  “Welcome to the middle of nowhere.” He started to leave the room, but paused at the curtain. “If you experience anything unusual―muscle soreness, numbness, inexplicable sharp pains―make sure you let one of us know.”

  “Yeah. I’ll do that.” She bent forward and raked both hands at her scalp, staring down a tunnel of light brown hair at the dull steel floor between her feet. “Thanks.”

  “S’all good.” Chris pulled the curtain closed and walked off, his shoes squeaking a few times before he stopped. “Hey, Mr. Trem, mind if I check on a few things?”

  A man muttered in response. Another curtain scraped open on metal rings.

  Kerys forced herself to stand, weathering a momentary bout of pins and needles in her legs. She ambled over and opened the single locker on the left wall of her chamber, which held a dark blue jumpsuit and a pair of black boots. Her company ID already dangled from a plastic clip at the right breast pocket.

  Voices filled in the quiet outside in the hall, a few men and at least one woman. Everyone sounded as grog
gy as she felt. Gaze down, she shuffled out of her chamber and headed right, past another ten curtains on both sides. Two bathrooms, one marked ‘women’ and one marked ‘men’ branched off from the T at the end.

  She turned left and walked into a cloud of steam hanging in front of a row of lockers along the wall on the right. To the left, beyond a small steel bench, an older woman with streaks of grey in black hair stood under one of five showerheads, basking in the warmth. Kerys stuck her jumpsuit and boots in a random locker and peeled off the underwear she’d been stuck in for…

  Kerys stared at the tank top in her hand. How long was I out? Two? Three years? Regret for taking this job and excitement at what she might discover crashed head to head, leaving her feeling numb. She dropped the underwear on the bench and padded over to the far left showerhead, leaving one empty space between her and the other woman.

  “Oh, hi there,” said the woman. “You look happy to be awake.”

  “Hey.” A touchscreen offered several presets for water temp. She poked a blue square marked 105 degrees, and let out a moan of relief as water fell on her from above. “Sorry. I know you introduced yourself before, but it’s taking all my concentration to remember how to walk right now.”

  The woman chuckled. “That’s okay, dear. I’m drawing a blank on your name too. I don’t remember anyone else really. Paula Driscoll, with Don’s team.”

  A wave of embarrassment rose and fell. Crap. She’s my boss. “Umm. Sorry… I’m Kerys Loring.”

  “Oh, yes. We’ll be working together.” Paula smiled, turning so the spray got her back. “And I’m sure this is more of me than you ever wanted to see. Don’t mind my red face. I’ve never done one of these expeditions before.”

  “I’m not seeing much of anything at the moment but the backs of my eyelids,” said Kerys.

  Hot water molded around her skull and ran down her body, chasing numbness from her toes. No one had bothered turning on the lights in the shower room, not that she cared.

  “If I remember correctly, you were with the crew that made the find on Copernicus?”

  Most of her grogginess evaporated. She grinned with a sense of pride. “Yeah. I’m actually the one who found the first―and still largest―validated relic.”

  Paula frowned. “Shameful how they treated you. Suppose that’s why you’re here now?”

  Kerys glanced to the right and caught herself staring at a sprawl of stretch marks on the woman’s stomach. “Umm. Yeah. Thanks.” She looked away, her enthusiasm dampened. “173 hours of work, and I barely got a footnote on the research paper. Doctor Furroughs got six million, and Doctor Teplitsky two-point-five. I guess it could be worse. That experience did get me this job.”

  Two fleshy claps came from Paula’s hand meeting her belly. “Got two. Son and a daughter. No shame here, kiddo.”

  “Wow… You left your kids behind to come out here?”

  The other shower cut off with an electric chirp. “Well, that’s enough water for this old bird. Yes and no. Addison’s almost twenty-five… or at least she was when I left. Alan turned twenty the day I accepted the job offer. They can survive without me for a couple years. I’d just be in their way.”

  Kerys basked in the warm water without a word. The sound of the spray and the rustling of Paula drying off and getting dressed soothed her. Eventually, the woman walked out, muttering about finding a break room. Enjoying being alone, Kerys stretched a bit, letting the shower loosen her muscles. Other than Jaden, her younger brother, she hadn’t left much behind on Earth she cared about. Of course, she’d also left behind her ex.

  Maybe a few thousand light years will give him a hint.

  She jabbed her finger on the console to kill the water, dried herself off, and got dressed in her company-issued jumpsuit as well as the clean socks and underwear she’d stuffed into her boots before cryo.

  After walking back past sixteen pairs of curtains, she reached an opening in the wall at the far end of the corridor where a ladder ran the length of a vertical shaft. A sign pointing up indicated ‘flight deck,’ ‘staterooms,’ and ‘observation deck.’ ‘Shuttle bay,’ and ‘engineering’ sat by a down-pointing arrow.

  To her right, a closed door reduced several voices to indistinct murmurs. Kerys headed that way, eager to remind herself who else had been thrilled/foolish/reckless/careless/desperate enough to sign up for this job.

  Five people sat around a cafeteria-style steel table at the center of a small lounge. A counter on the left held a Hydra machine as well as two racks full of the octagonal plastic trays containing dehydrated meals. The others picked at Salisbury steak, something pretending to be chicken, and an entrée she assumed to be meatloaf. Though all of it looked like a science project gone awry, the smell in the air proved intoxicating.

  Don Bouchard, PhD, the head of the archaeology team, leaned over a tray with three light-brown lumps atop what appeared to be mashed potatoes. He scratched at his head, making his wild white-grey hair dance. “I’ve studied quite a few alien substances in my day, but I’m at a loss to explain what this is supposed to be.”

  “Fried chicken strips, I think,” said a confident-sounding man.

  Kerys glanced over at the source of the voice, and caught herself staring at a fair-skinned soldier in a green camouflage jumpsuit. His sharp jawline and perfect-proportioned face made her wonder whatever had possessed him to join the military. He should be in movies… The instant the glow in his blond hair from the overhead lights made her brain conjure up an angelic fantasy, he made eye contact… and she looked away.

  “This food’s like my ex-girlfriend,” said a skinny guy with brown hair in a blue jumpsuit like hers. “Tastes a lot better if you close your eyes.”

  “Must you?” muttered Paula, sounding disgusted.

  “Hmph,” said Don.

  A younger man in a military uniform next to Mr. Angel laughed until gravy dribbled from his nose.

  Not wanting to become a target, Kerys faked smile at the crass remark and helped herself to the next available meal in the rack. Hard nuggets rattled around in the plastic as she slid it into the Hydra. When she hit the ‘go’ button, the machine whirred as it rehydrated the contents.

  Don sliced one of the nuggets in half. “I suspect you may be correct in your theory this is, or is at least attempting to be, chicken.”

  “Don’t matter what it is―it’s all we got,” said the younger soldier. “Eventually, Hydra meals all wind up tasting the same: hot mush.”

  Mr. Angel chuckled. “Don’t mind the FNG. This is his second hop, so he thinks he’s a veteran.”

  The younger soldier picked at his eye with a middle finger.

  A ping came from the Hydra. Kerys collected the steaming tray in two pinched grips, hurrying to drop it on the table before it burned her fingers. Everyone paused to look at her as she stepped over the bench and sat. She managed a weak smile while picking at the clear plastic film covering her meal tray.

  “You ever been this far out before, Foster?” asked Mr. Angel.

  Kerys leaned forward to take a knife and fork from a small mesh bucket in the center of the table filled with utensils, staying stretched long enough to read the name over Mr. Angel’s breast pocket: CPL Guillen, R.

  He seemed to catch her staring, and suppressed a smile.

  “Naw.” Foster shook his head. “Pretty sure this is a new record for me.”

  Corporal Guillen winked. “AV494 ain’t far compared to some colonies. My first tour came with six years in the freezer, one way.”

  Kerys coughed on a mouthful of green beans.

  “Oh, this planet isn’t too far.” Don plucked an e-pad off the table by his meal and held it up. A few finger taps opened an image of the Milky Way. “We’re about here…” He pointed to a spot. “On the Perseus arm. Just a short hop from Earth, which is on the Orion Spur”―he slid his finger about a half-inch upward and to the right―“here.”

  “That don’t look too far,” said Foster.

 
; “It’s a matter of scale.” Don closed the map and set the e-pad down. “It doesn’t appear very long, but you’d be surprised.”

  “That’s what she said.” The skinny man winked.

  “Must you, Marco?” asked Paula.

  He grinned, shaking his head. “Oh, come on. We’re inside a giant beer can out in the middle of space.” Marco held up his little finger. “One rock the size of my pinky nail could kill us all if it hits the ship wrong. Lighten up a little.”

  Kerys swallowed hard.

  “A little esprit de corps is not an unwise idea.” Don examined a lump of chicken on his fork. “However, I would appreciate it if you’d tone down the sexual references.”

  The room hung in awkward silence for a few minutes. Kerys nibbled at her entrée, which might’ve been an attempt at pot roast.

  “Hey, new girl,” said Marco. “Somethin’ wrong? You don’t look too hungry.”

  She shrugged one shoulder. “Oh, you know… hurtling through space inside a beer can. Nervous… and excited about what’s waiting for us down there.”

  Marco bobbed his head in an exaggerated nod. “Yeah. Say, anyone know why exactly we’re here? I mean, aside from the giant paycheck?”

  “The compensation for this job isn’t unusual for the type of work,” said Paula. “As far as I know, some of Avasar’s people stumbled on something they think shows evidence of non-human civilization.”

  “There’s been a facility here for quite some time already.” Don chewed a nugget, made an appraising face, and eventually seemed to like the flavor.

  Kerys pushed food around the tray, staring at the whorls of steam wafting past her fork. “It’s not like it’s unheard of. We’ve found alien construction and artifacts before.”