Wayfarer: AV494

by Matthew S. Cox

  He put his hands on his hips. “I guess it’s like that old joke about a plane crash or a sinking ship. What else to lose, right?”

  Kerys shivered. “This is Corporal Gina Mitchell. She was nineteen years old.” She thrust her left hand out, pointing. “That’s MacLeod… Andrew I think. I have no idea how old he was, but he didn’t deserve to die either! Neither did Hellerman. The doctor was a really sweet guy before those things ate his brain!”

  “I know.” He looked down. “I’m sorry. If I could go back―”

  “Bullshit! I know you broke the phial on purpose. It wasn’t an accident at all. Who’s Adam Broussard? Will… I almost wanted to trust you. I almost wanted to give you another chance, but you’re far more of a bastard than I ever thought you capable of.”

  “Kerys, you’re not―”

  “I’m not what? Heartless? Focused only on money and to hell with anyone and everything else? You’re just like your father. You’ll step on anyone’s throat to get ahead. I’m…” She pulled away, sliding a few feet to the right. “I don’t know what to say to you.”

  “You were in my room.”

  She snapped her head up, glaring at him. “Gee. Wonder who I learned that from.”

  His smile faded to a determined frown. “If you know that name, then you know what I said to him. I didn’t want you to get hurt. When I saw you step off the shuttle, I almost passed out. I know you ‘left’ and I know we’re not ‘officially’ dating anymore, but some guys find that one person and that’s it for them. I’ll never let another woman into my heart but you. If you won’t have me, then I’ll die alone.”

  “You’re not a stupid person. How could you be so damned foolish as to release that stuff on purpose? Maybe this thing is what killed the aliens who used to live here? Don thought that complex was some kind of medical facility.”

  He glided closer, threading his arm around her back. “It’s fine. It’s completely under control. You and me? We’re all the proof of concept Avasar needed.”

  “No, Will.” She jumped away, yanking the handgun out and pointing it at his chest. “You, and whatever cohorts you conspired with at Avasar murdered almost a hundred people. Good people. I… you made me kill people I cared about. Friends. Gina had such a shitty life, and she didn’t deserve to die before she’d even gotten old enough to buy a goddamned beer. Paula has a family waiting for her back home. How many other people here had families?”

  Will scratched behind his ear. “Ehh, most who came out here were loners. Only a handful really had anyone. When I told you that I accepted this job not caring if it killed me, I was being totally honest. I couldn’t bear the thought of growing old without you.”

  “Stop trying to manipulate me!”

  “I’m not. Truth isn’t manipulation when it’s true.”

  She twitched. “That doesn’t make any sense. You killed all these people. Sergeant Gensch, Marco… Don….”

  Will chuckled.

  “It’s not funny, you sociopath! Because of you, I’ve shot five people―one with a damned rock-coring laser. I watched a man get dissected. I had someone try to drown me in a vat of burning crap. I thought I was going to starve in the reservoir chamber. I watched Ellen and her giant effing steel suit cook two feet away from me. Dammit, Will, you’re laughing?!”

  “Sorry.” He put on a grim face. “I was just thinking of the irony when you mentioned Don.”

  “You’re really clueless aren’t you? You can’t comprehend what you did. What the hell is wrong with you, Will? I’m pointing a loaded gun at you and you’re acting like it’s not even there.”

  “Oh, you wouldn’t kill me. As much as I could never let anything hurt you.”

  Kerys narrowed her eyes. “You still set that shit loose with me here.”

  “I knew it wouldn’t work on you. I spent days going over and over my notes. If I wasn’t perfectly confident you’d be okay, I would’ve told Adam to eat a dick.” He leaned on the counter by Gina’s hand, smiling again. “You should at least find this somewhat amusing… Old Don thought Captain Chen was in on the project. I don’t know how he figured out the AM-3 release was intentional, but he got all kinds of lathered up and stormed in there with an excavating laser. He went there to”―Will chuckled again―“talk her out of it, but she’d already gone so loopy she thought the whole thing was his fault because it all started after he got here. The two of them were trying to kill each other; each one believing the other responsible for releasing a biological weapon.”

  “You’re wrong. There’s nothing at all funny about that.” Kerys bowed her head. “You’re wrong about something else too.”

  “I know you’re upset right now, but you have to believe that I never stopped loving you.”

  “That’s not what I mean.” She glanced over her shoulder at him, squeezing and releasing her grip on the gun. “You see nothing wrong with what happened here. You’re wrong about the spores. That stuff worked on you. You are insane.”

  “I’m fine.” He swooped close, grabbing her by the arms above each elbow. “AM-3 microbes have long ‘hairs’ that let them ride the wind. They get into a host via the nose, migrating to the brain where they replicate. Their activity excites neurons while they’re being digested, causing symptoms like hallucinations, vivid memories coming back, voices, muscle weakness, spasms. There’s some similarity to amoebic encephalitis, but AM-3 seems intelligent enough not to cause so much damage the host dies directly from the infestation.”

  “Will. Let go of me.”

  He moved with her as she tried to back away. “I can’t explain what happened to that one guy outside. There’s got to be something in the native atmosphere that caused the microbes to explode in an exponential leap. I think they took over the body or something after he died. You know, now I’m wondering about it. Maybe the effect we saw in here with the insanity was unique due to our air. Think you found the aliens’ seeds or something? Wait for some other species to find that stash of microbes, and they get to come back from the dead.”

  “Will!” Kerys pulled back until she hit the corner where the counter met the wall. “Get off me! You went too far. Why did you help them kill all these people?”

  He pressed close, pinning her. Nose to nose, she froze in panic. That night in the bedroom he almost didn’t stop at ‘no.’ Out here, with no one to get in the way, he could do whatever he wanted.

  “Please don’t…”

  Will leaned closer, but rather than kiss her, he whispered at her ear, “You don’t know anything about what happened here. You couldn’t understand what I went through after you arrived! You think I wanted to do this? If you hadn’t walked out on me, we’d both still be back on Earth and every one of these people might still be alive.”

  She shoved at him. “This is not my fault!”

  “You’re so damn beautiful.” Will grasped her hip, his eyes half closed as he leaned in for a kiss.

  He’s crazy! Kerys let off a wild shriek and swung the handgun into the side of his head with every ounce of power a surge of panic gave her. Will made a “gyuhh” noise and crumpled to the floor, unconscious. A trickle of blood ran down the side of his head.

  Kerys edged to the door, aiming at his face with a two-handed grip. “He’s got it. He’s gone nuts. I have to… I should… He’s dead already.”

  Her finger teased at the trigger. Memories flooded back in a chain of images: the beach, him carrying her home after a party, the way his laugh once made her feel so loved and cherished. Her arms drooped. She couldn’t do it. Not after Gensch and Gina. She couldn’t kill a person. Not without knowing. Not even Will.

  That could just be Desperate Will close to getting what he wants… and worried he’ll lose it. He’s… he’s not acting like he’s hearing voices.

  Kerys backed out the door, keeping the gun pointed at him. Not wanting to be anywhere near him when he woke up, she sprinted for the safety of her room.

  28

  Thirty Minutes Out

&
nbsp; Gun pointed at the door, Kerys sat on the floor of her quarters until her butt went numb. No sound came from the hallway outside, no sign of Will coming after her. He had to be awake by now. I didn’t hit him hard enough to kill. She shivered, dreading how he’d react when they crossed paths again. Did he lie in wait for her somewhere? What if she’d allowed sentiment to get the better of her and she refused to see that he had succumbed to the microbes? The others had resisted the insanity for a short time by clinging to their emotions toward her. Sarge for his protectiveness, Gina for her crush. Walloping him across the head might’ve changed how he felt about her.

  Kerys’ vision focused on the tip of the gun, the door beyond blurring.

  “What am I doing?” She tried to stop trembling, to minimal success. “Hiding in my room like a scared kid.” She pictured Captain Chen telling her not to let it off the planet. Gensch’s voice filled in after, ordering her to ‘get the hell off this rock.’ She gripped his dog tags in her left thigh pocket. “I have to stop him. That shit stays on this planet.”

  She stood, took a breath for confidence, and slid her door open. Nothing sprang at her. She leaned out with the gun ready, checking left and right before stepping forth into the corpse-fetid air. On the way to the ladder, she aimed at every open door, expecting Will to be there. At the ladder shaft, she aimed down at emptiness and managed a one-handed climb to keep the gun trained on the opening to the hallway.

  Her breaths seemed deafening. Seven steps away from the ladder, an alarm clock erupted, blaring music from a room on the right. She whirled and shot the device, staring at the sparking pile of debris for a few seconds while trying to get her heart to move again.

  He’d have heard that…

  She got up to a brisk walk. At the end of the residence pod, she hid behind the corner and peered around. The upper half of the tube consisted mostly of window, offering a clear view of the flexible tunnel that linked back to the dome. No sign of Will. She ran out and headed east, grateful that the door to Residence Pod 1 remained closed. If he did wait there to ambush her, she’d hear it opening.

  At the end of the passage, she pressed herself to the wall; her shoulder hit metal at the link ring where the tunnel met the outside of the dome. Seconds passed as she caught her breath, listening to silence. He had said the ship was maybe mere hours away, but how long had she hidden in her room? The residence pods sat close to the landing pad. If a shuttle had come down, she would’ve noticed.

  Will thinks I’m brittle. He might believe I panicked. Okay… I did panic, but I’m back together now.

  Kerys slipped around the link ring, aiming into the atrium toward the cafeteria. Once she felt confident nothing moved, she advanced and headed for the stairwell. A small door on the right creaked. She swung her arms, gun pointed, and stopped breathing.

  A moment later, the door drifted a little on the breeze.

  “Shit,” she whispered, relaxing her arms.

  She spun around while creeping toward the stairs, watching in all directions in case he came after her. He was about to force himself on me. He thinks I’m his… probably going to try again. Kerys stopped at the opening to the stairwell, her brain stewing on the thought of killing him. She had to stop him from taking AM-3 off the planet, but she couldn’t put a bullet in a man she’d loved with the coldness of a trained soldier. No, she’d have to at least try to talk sense into him.

  This is Will after all. I’m going to wind up shooting him, but it’ll be his fault.

  Raising the gun high, she aimed at the corner where the stairwell wrapped around at the first switchback. Step by step, she climbed to the landing, hesitated for a second, and whipped around, pointing her weapon up the stairs.

  Nothing.

  She crept up to the next landing and peered out into darkness. The lights on the second floor were off. Had Will gone in there to hide? Somewhere beyond the ghostly forms of grey fabric cubes, Anna lay dead. Though Kerys hadn’t been the one to kill her, she still felt guilty. A minute or so passed in silence, yet nothing within the shadows moved. Disregarding the second floor, she eased up the stairs, careful to set her shoes down without making any noise. The third floor looked empty. It seemed more likely that aside from Will, everyone else who had been on this planet had died already. Perhaps someone lingered, hiding in the vents, their insanity manifesting as severe phobia instead of aggression. With a ship hours away, she didn’t have time to scour every inch of the place. Besides, if they’d succumbed to the microbes, the only thing she could offer them would be a bullet. Wasting time, possibly missing the shuttle, wouldn’t be worth it.

  The crunch of glass fragments underfoot in the hall raised the hairs on the backs of her arms and got her heart racing with dread. Every shadow became suspect. She edged to the left against the wall and crept toward the command room with her gun poised to kill anything that moved without warning.

  Faint beeping grew louder the farther she went, and by the time she reached the command room, the noise seemed to slither into her ears and slide down her back. One of the terminals on the right, a workstation with a bank of five monitors and a large component covered in switches and dials, appeared to be the source.

  Kerys spun around once in search of Will before rushing to the desk. A screen displayed an ‘incoming message alert’ window. The timestamp showed it came in three hours and fifty-one minutes ago. She touched an orange ‘open’ button at the bottom right of the pop-up box.

  A fortyish man with a thin face, crows’ feet, and greying hair appeared on the screen; the edges of a charcoal-colored military style jacket framed the bottom. “Braxton, you down there? We dropped out of TL about fifteen minutes ago. Getting the team thawed and some coffee in them now. Should be making landfall in about five or six hours. Get your shit together and get ready. What’s this about a second person? Some girl? Couldn’t keep it in your pants, huh Braxton?” The man chuckled. “See you soon.”

  She stared at the frozen face. Five or six hours… almost four hours ago. They’re almost here! A storm of emotions swam from terror to hope, anger, and worry. “Where the hell is he?” She ran out of the command room and jogged across the hall to the security station. Ignoring the dead man in the chair by the bank of screens, she searched the closed-circuit feeds that covered almost everywhere inside the outpost except for private quarters and bathrooms.

  Something moved on the ninth monitor in the third row down from the top. Kerys leaned closer to that screen.

  Will collected beer-can sized canisters from a cabinet and stuffed them into a rigid, foam-lined carrying case. Text at the bottom of the video identified the feed as Lab 4, Unit 1.

  “Oh, no you don’t…”

  She pushed off the desk, knocking the poor dead man out of his chair in her haste, and ran as fast as she could move herself to the stairs, down to the first floor, and to the south end of the dome. Before the tube link to the lab area came into view, the hissing of leaking air confirmed that he’d opened the tube Gensch sealed. Seconds later, she rounded the corner past the battery room and rushed down the tube to the lab, slowing to a cautious walk at the end of the tunnel.

  Vast windows around each lab made it easy to spot him three rooms in on the right side. Tingling infused her sinuses as she entered, filling her mind with jitters at the idea that fresh microbes battled spores deep in her skull.

  Trepidation exploded into anger at the sight of him closing the case over the deadly organism.

  Kerys shoved the door marked 4A open, no longer caring about quiet, and shouted, “Will!”

  He jumped with a brief cry, and whirled to stare at her.

  “You’re not thinking. What will those people do with that shit if you give it to them? You have no idea. Once you let it out of here, you have no control. It got everyone in this place in hours. Do you want to be responsible for destroying humanity?”

  “Relax, babe. You’re overreacting.”

  She aimed at his head. “Am I?”

  “J
ust a bit.” He smiled.

  “How long does the organism last in the air before it dies if it doesn’t find a nose to climb into?”

  “About twenty….”

  “Hours?”

  He looked down. “Months.”

  Her jaw hung open.

  “Relax―the microbes stay in our system for two weeks, probably longer given the concentration people here sucked up in a sealed air system. However, our bodies are toxic to them. The spores kill it in under an hour. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  “Twenty months! Seriously? How the hell do you expect anyone to use that as a weapon? They can’t control it. They drop it on, what, a camp of insurgents somewhere and a month later, the entire country is gone. Two months later, humanity is gone. Okay, so maybe your spore vaccine protects the soldiers handling the ‘weapon,’ but are you going to vaccinate all the citizens before you drop these things on the target? A few carry off on the wind and we’re all dead.”

  He raised his left hand. “That’s not my part of the job. I’m not a combat strategist.”

  “Braxton…” A voice emanated from his pocket, laced with radio crackle. “We are twenty-eight minutes out. Get your ass to the shuttle pad. I want to be back in orbit pronto.”

  “Will, please,” whispered Kerys. “Tell them something went wrong… the machine malfunctioned or got damaged when everyone freaked out. Blame Captain Chen even. Just don’t do this. Don’t bring that evil shit to Earth. Think about the kind of death and destruction that would happen if this stuff got loose. Look what it did here. Do you want to be responsible for that on a global scale?”

  “Sure, that could happen if someone fucks up… but they know how dangerous AM-3 is. It’s worth trillions.”

  Kerys grasped the gun with both hands. A surge of anger almost made her squeeze the trigger. “Money… What good is money if everyone’s dead?”