Wayfarer: AV494

by Matthew S. Cox

  Will reached over and put a hand atop her right foot. “I’ve missed you so much, babe. I came out here not really caring if I returned. It’s dangerous.”

  “Too dangerous for me, right?” Indignation chipped away fear.

  He smiled. “Too dangerous for anyone with a future. Anything could happen. We could die in five minutes. Five days. A year. I know things didn’t work out before, but I’m in a different place now, mentally. It’s been what, six years, not counting our cryo? You’ll see things are different.”

  “Popping into my room in the middle of the night isn’t the right way to change my mind.” Her fingers dug into her leg from her effort not to tremble in front of him. ‘Shouting and kicking stuff’ Will had been scary, but he had nothing on creepy ‘watching her sleep for hours’ Will.

  “So there’s a chance.” He caressed her ankle through the bedding. “I see the doubt in your eyes. We can make up for a lot of lost time.”

  “You’re seriously asking for sex now?”

  He looked her in the eye for a long moment before hanging his head and gazing at whatever object he held out of sight. “I’d kind of been hoping you felt the same way I did.”

  Kerys twitched, flashing back to the night he’d become so upset when she said no. The rage that had taken him had convinced her to get out and not look back. He’d hit only furniture, but that’s always where it started. She eyed the door, teetering on the point of not caring if she had to run off into the outpost stark naked to get away from him. She could do that… or she could let him do what he wanted and then tell someone, but who would they believe?

  “I’m not ready, Will.” She cringed ever so slightly, bracing for the explosion.

  He sighed, but not the disappointed huff she’d come to expect. The resignation in his breath caught her off guard. “I understand.” Will tossed a clear plastic rectangle on the mattress, a holographic photo of the two of them leaning on a fence, both wearing Cal sweatshirts. Someone she didn’t recognize ran by in the background in a football uniform. Her twenty-year-old self smiled at the camera, one arm around Will, who made a goofy face. “Remember that?”

  Before he showed me his true colors. A tear ran down her cheek. Why couldn’t he have stayed like he was then? What happened? Did he change, or did he trust me enough to drop the act? He hadn’t always been an ass. “Yeah. You talked me out of studying to go to the game with you.”

  “Still got that A, didn’t you?”

  She sniffled, the urge to laugh crashed into her fear, dying to a weak smile by the time it reached her mouth. “Yeah. Barely.”

  “You had fun that night. This is the face I see in my mind every time I think of you.”

  She looked down. “It wasn’t me who changed.”

  “Things could’ve been done differently, but that’s the ‘us’ I cling to.” He withdrew his hand, lacing his fingers together, his elbows on his knees. “So, what did you think of the site?”

  “We’ve only scratched the surface. There’s at least seven more chambers we haven’t been able to access yet.” She shifted to the side, tucking her legs under her butt near the wall, out of his reach. “Hopefully, we’ll get farther in today.”

  “Sounds exciting. More exciting than picking flowers.” He chuckled.

  An awkward silence lingered.

  He sucked in a breath and clapped his hands on his knees, making her jump. “Right, well. Let me know if you change your mind.” He stood and started for the door.

  She kept quiet, staring to the right so he didn’t catch her looking at him. On the desk beside the terminal, a small plastic cup held a bizarre flower that hadn’t been there before. It reached about ten inches tall with seven incrementally larger rings of tiny florets that resembled neon violet broccoli in tiers a finger width apart.

  “Will?”

  He stopped. “Hmm?”

  “What’s that?”

  He turned to face her. “What’s what?”

  Kerys pulled one arm out from under the blanket to point at the flower. “That. Is that what I’ve been smelling?”

  “Oh, just something I found that I thought you’d like.”

  “Where did you get it?”

  He smiled. “The forest. It’s a bit of indigenous flora tentatively recorded as lamiaceae advena.”

  “Did it go through quarantine?”

  “I’m going to suggest they officially name it Lamiaceae Kerysinia.”

  She furrowed her eyebrows. “Will. Did that go through quarantine? How did you get an indigenous plant in here?”

  “Well… that would’ve actually required submitting it to the quarantine process.”

  Kerys gasped and covered her mouth and nose. After two seconds, she felt foolish since she’d been breathing it for however long he’d been here. “I’ve been inhaling that all damn night. We don’t know what the hell it is!”

  He held up a hand. “Relax, babe. Studying these plants is what I do here. Trust me. It’s fine. I’m in here breathing it too, right? You know I would never do anything to hurt you. It’s just a pleasant fragrance like any other flower.”

  She slipped out of bed, keeping the blanket wrapped around herself to the armpits, and padded over to the wall panel. A swipe of her finger brought the lights on to full strength, revealing a purplish tint to the entire slab of transparent amber material serving as her desk.

  “It’s shedding spores or something. Pollen? What’s all that dust?”

  “That particular flower reproduces via sporelike particles. Please relax. It’s not going to sprout in your lungs. I spent months studying every aspect of that thing, and it’s completely benign in terms of reactivity to humans.”

  “I thought you said you snuck it through quarantine? If you’ve been studying it for months…”

  He grinned. “I was referring to that particular sample. We haven’t had lamiaceae advena in inventory for a year. You might want to keep it quiet that it’s here. Certain people might not react well to undocumented specimens being in your quarters.”

  She glared at him. He’s trying to make up with me, and threatening me in the same night? What’s he doing? “I don’t understand you at all anymore, Will.”

  He stepped up and grasped her by the arms, a gentle touch, but it locked her body rigid nonetheless. “I’m only trying to keep you safe, babe.”

  She stopped breathing, expecting him to swoop in for an unwanted kiss, but he only winked before backing off. Noticing her foot landed in spore dust, she edged to her left. He paused at the door long enough for a brief smile before slipping out into a dim hallway and closing the door behind him.

  Kerys stared at the door for a full minute before her brain thawed out. She rushed over to re-lock the door before bundling her blanket and tossing it onto the bed. Seething, she paced back and forth with the occasional glare at the strange plant. Every breath saturated her senses with that mixture of lavender and peaches. What had started as pleasant grew cloying. The bottom of her right foot darkened as if she’d stepped on ink.

  “Dammit.”

  She lifted her leg and brushed at it, transferring the violet smear to her hand. “Will, you moron. What did you do?”

  Kerys raked her clean hand over her hair, scratching at her scalp. Of course, if she said anything, he’d claim she snuck it in. She already dropped a stone head on Marco’s foot. The bosses have to at least be questioning her. It wouldn’t take Will much effort to make her look even worse.

  No… I have to hide it. I can’t tell anyone he was in here.

  She searched around for something to put it in, not trusting the flower at all. Her quarters had a small closet with a three-drawer cabinet on the lower right. In one, she found a tall, clear box with a black endcap. From the shapes cut out of the foam inside it, she figured it the packaging her terminal came in. She popped the end off, dumped out the foam, and set the end cap on the desk.

  With as much care as if she transferred the nuclear payload of a warhead, she held he
r breath, grasped the cup of black dirt holding the flower, lifted it three inches, and moved it onto the square. After covering the flower with the clear plastic box, she resumed breathing.

  If anyone asks, I’ll say it’s some kind of decoration I’ve had since school.

  She threw on a bathrobe, ran to the women’s room at the north end of the hallway, and wet a towel. It both surprised her and didn’t to find cloth towels instead of paper. More expensive, but on the other hand, paper towels couldn’t be reused. She cleaned up the spore dust as best she could, and sink-washed the cloth until it merely looked like it had endured a bizarre cosmetics incident. Since no one had seen her scurrying about, she tossed it in the laundry bin and hurried back to her room. With any luck, no one would trace the purple towel back to her.

  Once again behind a locked door, she collapsed sitting on the side of her bed and held her face in her hands. Tears came unbidden, driven by anger and terror. Could Will get into her room whenever he wanted? Did he take photos of her while she slept? Did he do anything else? Shaking, she fell over sideways and curled into a ball.

  God dammit! Why the hell is he here? She thought about Anna’s offer and bit her lip. That’ll blow up in my face. Who knows what he’ll do if he doesn’t get his way? Six months… I only have to make it six months before I can get out of here. All her excitement to come here had, in one fell swoop, become desperation to leave as soon as possible. She hated Will even more for doing that to her.

  Frightened, and feeling more alone than she’d ever felt in her life, Kerys stared at the door, clinging to the couple of minutes she had left before she had to leave her little sanctuary and go to work.

  8

  Advanced Civilization

  The ghost of scrambled eggs and bacon bubbled up in the back of Kerys’s throat as she opened her locker in the ready room beside the airlock. She’d avoided eye contact with anyone so far, ducking into the cafeteria after everyone else had already finished. It had taken longer than she expected to compose herself enough to step outside her room again, but a quick text message to Don about not feeling well bought her a half hour. Not as if she had to punch in at nine on the nose so she could clock out on time and go have fun with friends.

  She ignored a few people getting ready behind her and stepped into the e-suit. Reaching for the fasteners gave her more of a stretch than her body wanted to tolerate, but she managed to secure two with a bit of squirming before Annapurna walked over.

  “Would you like a hand with the suit?”

  Kerys exhaled, nodding while bowing her head to avoid meeting the woman’s gaze. “Yeah, thanks.”

  The clips at her shoulders squeaked one after the next, pulling the suit tight to her front and back.

  “There you go.”

  Kerys didn’t look up. “Thanks. Are you going out too?”

  “Oh, no. I was only down here to bring a firmware update to Chris. It came in last night, and the remote station systems really need it. It should speed up the sample analysis by at least twenty percent. Saw you attempting yoga and figured you could use a little help.”

  She laughed. “Yeah.” Damn.

  “Something wrong?”

  “I’m that obvious?”

  Annapurna sat on the bench, smoothing the fabric of her emerald jumpsuit over her legs. “Is it something you feel comfortable talking about?”

  Kerys kept quiet until she felt confident her voice wouldn’t tremble. “I don’t want you to do anything yet, but maybe it would be better to stop holding this in.” She sank onto the bench as well, still staring at her heavy metal boots.

  “If it’s something I can in good conscience keep to myself, I will.”

  “Will visited me in my quarters last night,” she whispered. “Okay, maybe ‘visited’ isn’t the right word. He let himself in while I was sleeping. I woke up and he was right there, watching me.”

  Annapurna gasped, covering her mouth with one hand.

  “I… he wanted to… but, I said no and he backed off.” Kerys tapped her gloved fingers on her knee. “Last time I said no, he flipped out and started kicking things. I don’t know what to think that he just… that he didn’t flip out. I-I was so sure he’d lose it, but I said no and he left.”

  “It is only because you have asked me to keep your confidence that I’m going to let you handle this at your own pace, but entering your quarters like that is inexcusable. I strongly suggest you immediately file a report with HR.”

  Kerys looked up at her, reassured by the concern on the woman’s face. “He said I forgot to lock the door. I mean… it’s possible. I don’t even remember walking back to my room from your desk.”

  “That’s not an excuse, and you know it.” Annapurna reached over and took her hand. “If you need someone to go with you to HR, I’ll be there for you.”

  Kerys chuckled. “There’s HR out here?”

  “Of course. Keith is quite fair and open minded.”

  “I don’t know. We’re so far out. What would they even do? Will would be stuck here for months waiting for a transport and it would just make everything worse. I don’t want him back, but I’m going to wing it. Let him think I’m reconsidering until the next shuttle’s here in six months, then I’m out.”

  “But what about your work?” Annapurna gestured at the airlock. “Doctor Bouchard mentioned he thinks there may be an entire temple structure in that mountain. This could be the find of a lifetime… of an age. Are you going to let that man chase you away from that?”

  Hearing it put like that sounded too much like surrender. Kerys clenched her hands into fists. An e-suit offered far more confidence than being naked under a blanket. “No. No, you’re right. I’m not.” She stood and grabbed her helmet out of the locker. “I shouldn’t play with his head either. If he doesn’t back off, I’ll tell him there’s no chance.”

  “That is probably wise. Leading him along could make things worse in the long term. He’s with the botany team, so he shouldn’t have any reason to be around you. If he pulls a stunt like that again, you promise me you’ll do something.”

  “I will.” Kerys tucked her hair up and put her helmet on.

  “Or talk to Gensch. The man looks quite intimidating, but he is a gentle soul. I am sure he would convince Will to keep his distance.”

  Kerys cracked a smile, not quite able to reconcile the concept of ‘gentle soul’ with the white-haired soldier she’d seen. “I’m sure he would.”

  Dust swirled in the air within the main chamber. Freestanding light posts illuminated the walls, casting the ruin in a dull blue-grey sheen. A maze of thick cables crisscrossed the floor, most connecting to the lights, while two went to short-range excavator lasers dangling from the exo suits’ grip. Kerys stepped over the cables, some as thick as her arm, making her way over to the rest of the team. Ellen and Lars flanked the stone door on the east wall while Don and Paula examined the area on either side of it with handheld devices, mini microwave scanners. Corporal Mitchell sat on the corner of the huge case that held the 3D modeler, her rifle resting in her lap. Every ounce of her body language screamed boredom.

  Kerys approached Don. “Sorry I’m late.”

  He looked back at her, smiling past a layer of fog on his visor. “I hope you’re feeling better.”

  “Yeah. Didn’t sleep well over that incident with Marco.” She bit her lip. Not a total lie. I do feel awful about that.

  “He’ll be fine. He’s parsing our scan data from the comfort of his bed.”

  “Hello,” said Marco over the comm. “Got a screen set up with everyone’s camera feeds. Couldn’t miss all the fun, right?”

  “How’s your leg?” asked Kerys.

  “Fine. As long as I don’t try to move.” He chuckled. “Other than that, it hurts like hell.”

  She sighed. “Sorry.”

  “If you apologize one more time,” said Marco, “I’m going to fill your quarters with styrofoam packing peanuts.”

  “Okay, okay.” She peer
ed around. “Got a spare scanner? I could check the walls of that other room.”

  “Besides, how many guys can say they broke their leg from a woman giving them head?” asked Marco.

  Lars whistled. “Anyone who’s ever been with Ellen.”

  The big woman punched him in the shoulder, knocking Lars’ exo suit two steps to the left and making him laugh louder.

  “Mr. Trem. Please,” said Don, exasperated. “Despite us being at a remote site, this is still technically a work environment.”

  Paula pointed at one of the open cases. “In there. I’m reading some kind of mechanism in the wall here that I think connects to the door, but I can’t find any way to access it.”

  “If you want that door open, just say the word.” Lars hefted the excavating laser. “This thing’ll get through it in about twenty minutes.”

  Kerys walked up to the door and brushed her hand over the stone. “It might be something like wireless. Maybe sound activated?”

  “You’ve been playing too many fantasy games,” said Marco. “Like some wizard speaking a command word?”

  “Or musical notes,” said Kerys. “The aliens might communicate using tonal modulation rather than words.”

  “If they speak in a range we can even hear at all.” Paula tapped at the screen of her e-pad. “Until someone finds recordings or something of that sort, we have nothing to base any projection of spoken language on.”

  “Or shifts in electromagnetic radiance, or pheromones.” Don adjusted a setting on the scanner. “We don’t even know enough about them to understand how much we don’t know.”

  Marco chuckled. “Maybe the Atlanteans use, like, telepathy?”

  Paula sighed.

  “I’m hesitant to condone a destructive method of entry here, but it doesn’t seem we have another option.” Don collapsed a probe antenna on his handheld and made a ‘be my guest’ gesture to Lars and Ellen. “Do try and confine the cutting to the door itself?”

  “Sure, Doc.” Lars and his massive exo suit clomped over. He took a knee and pointed the excavator at the left bottom corner of the door.