Alice Unbound

by Colleen Anderson

  “You fucking bug,” Alis hissed, using the common insult.

  Et’Eruca shrugged its four shoulders. “I’ve got only two years left on my apprenticeship, and with the Snark and her cargo gone, I’ve got nothing to show for it. I weighed my options. The bounty on Risus will buy my family’s forgiveness for failing.”

  “I took you in when you were fired from your last post,” said Risus slowly. Her whiskers flattened against her cheeks.

  A jump-suited man entered the hangar, carrying a large pistol. “A touching sentiment. Thank you, bug,” he said.

  Et’Eruca stiffened. “The Chys is yours, as promised,” it said calmly. “The human is of no concern to me.”

  The man’s icy blue eyes swept over Alis. She fought back a shudder. There’s a man who’ll shoot me as soon as look at me.

  “I am happy to have been of service,” said Et’Eruca. “My account information is on a cred-stick. We can settle things and I can ride the next ship out of here.”

  The man fired. Et’Eruca squealed and cradled its newly perforated arm. A second shot tore through a shoulder and a third through its chest as its stunner clattered to the floor. The P’lar slumped to the ground and lay still, a greenish substance oozing from its wounds, its mandibles twitching for a few seconds. “Consider things settled,” he said. He turned to Alis. “It’s nothing personal, you understand.” He levelled his pistol at Alis.

  An icy cold ball settled in her chest. She fought for breath. “Wait! I’ve got useful info!”

  “So does everyone, in your situation,” said the man.

  “I’m serious. I know the black market on Bellman’s World. I’ve been looking for people – my own people – to make connections.”

  “Why are you with this crew?” he asked.

  “I’ve got a record,” said Alis. That wasn’t far from the truth. “I needed a way off-planet, no questions asked.” She looked away from Risus’s hurt expression. If this works, I’ll make it up to you.

  “Put the Chys in a cage and come with me.” He directed Risus to an empty cage with his pistol. She shuffled inside and winced as the door clanged shut. She did not meet Alis’s gaze.

  The man marched Alis back down the corridor. “We’ll have a talk to see if we can use you,” he said.

  If we can use you. She didn’t like the sound of what would probably be an interrogation. She had bought herself time, but she would be drawn into their web or she’d slip up before long. Whatever Risus had done, and however indifferently she’d treated Alis, she didn’t deserve her likely fate. She asked, “What are you manufacturing here?”

  “Those mome-rats are the highest form of life here. They’re stupid buggers, but they make useful pheromones for pharmaceuticals when they’re scared. And the Alliance can’t touch us in neutral territory.”

  Alis gritted her teeth. At least the conglomerates fed their toves and let them out once a day. “What about the Chys?” she asked.

  “That thing was our best distributor, until she had an expensive change of heart that lost us shipments and some of our boys.”

  They approached the guard post in the anteroom. The guard she had attacked before was nowhere to be seen. “Could I have a tea? It’s been a while,” she said, pointing to the corner table holding the Nutrimat machine.

  The man shrugged and punched a few buttons on the machine. A plastic cup plopped into a small hopper and black, steaming liquid smelling of bergamot and crisp dry leaves in autumn poured into it. When the machine gurgled to a finish, he handed her the cup. “Here you g—” His words devolved into an ear-splitting wail as hot liquid splattered his face.

  Alis sprinted back to the hangar before the man had finished his first scream. She maintained a white-knuckled grip on the cup. A crappy weapon, but better than nothing. Death is the final role. Risus would just pick herself up again and move in a new direction. Alis could do no less. She’d been a rancher, an activist, and a cargo master, but she’d never been a fighter. Until now.

  A uniformed woman stepped into the corridor, drawing her pistol. “She’s heading to the hangar,” she shouted into a badge clipped to her shoulder. She fired. Alis winced as a bullet grazed her arm. She plowed into the woman, and crashed to the floor. Her jaw exploded in heat from the pistol butt’s impact.

  Alis punched her adversary on the side of the head. She fell sideways and Alis rolled away, snatching the pistol from the woman’s hand and running. She burst into the hangar. Risus was out of her cage and inspecting the freighters. The hangar doors were open. Humid air snaked around her and constricted her chest. Alis turned back to the doors and shot at the control panel. The bullet embedded itself in a crate. The third shot hit its target, creating a small rain of sparks. That would slow them down. Maybe.

  “You’re back,” said Risus.

  “Did you think I’d stay?”

  “I knew you were buying time. I’d understand you wanting to be with your own people, but I’m glad these aren’t your people.”

  “I had more in common with Et’Eruca.” Alis checked their back.

  Risus opened the freighter hatch. “Where does that leave us?”

  “I know where I belong,” said Alis. “I’ll stay on, if you’ll have me.”

  Risus blinked. “I’m starting over. Again. In a new ship with no guarantee of profit. You might get fifty percent of nothing.”

  “You’ve done this before and seem to be okay.”

  “All right, then.” Risus grinned. “I need someone to help me run this thing if any money’s to be made.” She gave a low, throaty rumble of amusement.

  Alis looked back at the cages. “One last thing before we blast out of here”

  She let the mome-rats run free.

  Settling into The Wunderland, Alis turned to Risus. Their new mission was to rescue the imprisoned, no matter where they were. To rise up the meek. But, they had time to kill before their next port of call. Alis smiled, put the ship on autopilot, and pulled out a deck of cards that she had found beside her seat. “Poker?”

  A wide, toothy grin spread across Risus’s face and she purred in agreement.

  Alis dealt out the cards. “Five-card draw, Queen of Hearts is wild.”

  THE SMOKE

  Costi Gurgu

  Gabriel stared at the human skeleton in the room’s centre. One of its arms was missing and a sticker hung on its ribs, reading “Mr. Bones” written with pink marker. He recognized Maya’s writing, loving her gothic penmanship. She had a way of making everything hers in the most unpossessive way. Her touch infused almost everything in the university’s dusty old basement. Spider webs covered dirty windows so high that nobody had probably opened them in decades.

  If their project succeeded, they could create humanity’s future among the stars. At least that’s what Gabriel had told Maya, to draw her on board. Some guys played maleness, or their coolness card, to get the attention of their fellow female students. Gabriel was seen as a weirdo and a geek, not in a good way, considering that weirdo was the same qualifier as geek. He didn’t care what others thought, as long as Maya’s opinion wasn’t influenced.

  Gabriel tied on a leather apron. Mr. Bones was covered in a metallic mesh that dripped liquid. Wires spread from more than sixty sensors stuck to the skeleton, creating a web throughout the basement.

  Maya also wore a leather apron and large leather welding gloves. She walked to the ancient power box on the wall, where seven levers stuck out. She tapped one lever and smiled expectantly at Gabriel. He bent over his laptop and activated the sensors on the digital skeleton. Mr. Bones lit up like a Christmas tree. Finally, he pressed record on the video camera.

  Maya placed welder’s goggles over her eyes. “Ready to go, Dr. Frankenstein.” She’d stuck a paper label on her overalls. With the same pink marker, she’d scrawled “Igora Maya” in gothic script. To Gabriel, she was the real thing, and his idea had become quickly their idea.

  “All right, baby. Let’s do it!” Gabriel’s hand wavered
over the laptop’s display.

  Maya laughed maniacally, grinned, and struck a ready stance.

  “Trial number one, parameters version one-point-one for inanimate objects starting in three, two, one!” He pointed to Maya.

  She pulled the levers. Electricity crackled the air and sparks exploded around the skeleton.

  “We’ve reached the critical point. Let’s teleport Mr. Bones a couple metres away.”

  Gabriel touched a command button. Energy arced between the sensors with loud snaps and pops, turning the room into a fairyland. The power box exploded, throwing Maya onto her back.

  Light left the basement. Then, a ripping sound shook the room and before Gabriel could reach Maya, he saw the darkness tearing and glowing red in the centre of the room. The skeleton appeared black against it. Gabriel glanced at Maya who shakily pushed herself up. He walked carefully toward the glowing rip. Maya stood a few steps away.

  Then whoosh, and the skeleton disappeared, leaving only the bloody tear.

  Where the bones had stood, something else plopped through, splashing loudly in the puddle. A huge, dark shadow.

  “Gabe!” Maya screeched.

  Gabriel used his cellphone flashlight. The sensor-covered mesh lay in the puddle, wires still stretching to the walls and ceiling. In the web’s middle stood a nightmarish creature – worm-like, wrinkled, hairy body, spikes protruding here and there, several pairs of legs, some writhing in the air. Worst of all, its head…was only an excrescence on the body, with the face of an old man!

  Gabriel shuddered. Suddenly, the creature’s eyes sprung open, and it exhaled. A cloud of smoke poured from his cavernous mouth, straight for Gabriel’s face. He couldn’t prevent inhaling the substance.

  Gabriel heard screaming, and his stomach clenched. What the… He opened his eyes, saw the scene, and closed them again. Voices continued to rise. Certain he couldn’t be dreaming, he opened his eyes once more.

  Emergency lights threw some red light in the basement, displaying a worm the size of a gorilla leaning against a wall, partially hidden behind some crates, smoking nervously and exchanging words with Maya.

  Gabriel rose, feeling dizzy. He stopped for a couple of seconds to breathe and his vision cleared. He grabbed a chair and turned to strike the monster.

  Maya stopped speaking, keeping her hand stretched toward the worm, and said, “Are you all right, Gabe?”

  Gabriel paused, chair above his head, and noticed Maya was untouched, her face creased with worry, but no terror. “A bit sick…” He put the chair down and pointed at the worm. “What. Is. That?”

  “Dear sir, my name is—”

  “Shut up!” Maya blustered.

  “I’m really losing my patience, young lady!”

  Gabriel swallowed. “Is it really talking? Am I going nuts?”

  Maya spoke in a low voice for him, alone, and the worm puffed angrily. “You’re not going nuts. It’s talking and I don’t know what it is.”

  “Where’s Mr. Bones?”

  “We lost Mr. Bones…something else replaced it…”

  “My dear sir, may I present myself?”

  “It’s talking again,” said Gabriel, feeling the cold sweat of reality.

  Maya pointed her cellphone at the monster.

  The worm said, “I can only assume from your gesture that you’re using that device to threaten me.”

  “Keep it there while I check the parameters,” Gabriel said.

  At his laptop, Gabriel confirmed that Mr. Bones no longer registered on the sensors. The experiment had succeeded… not as they’d hoped. He looked at the worm. It was ugly, no doubt about that. But the humanoid face made it appear… approachable. No, it was more like a…it looked quite similar to… Gabriel bent over, coughing violently.

  “Put that cigar out!” Maya growled at the worm. “Don’t you see it bothers him?”

  “I’m sorry. It calms me.”

  She waved the smoke away. “I don’t care!”

  Examining the cigar’s burning tip, the worm muttered, “Someone is very rude.” It made a show of extinguishing the cigar on its tongue, then threw the butt into its mouth and chewed with an annoyed expression.

  Gabriel breathed in a few times to relax and studied the worm. It resembled a giant caterpillar, but with a face mimicking human expressions. That’s why it seemed so… normal, for lack of a better label. He considered the data, trying to determine what happened the moment the swap occurred.

  Maya continued to “threaten” the caterpillar. “Are you all right, Gabe? Do you feel funny? Should we go to the hospital?”

  Her attention and concern made him feel good. But if this was real… The basement felt surreal, and yet, they stood face to face with a horrific caterpillar, and somehow managed to retain their composure. What else could they do? Panic and run? No, they needed to restrain and study it. He looked around for cable or rope. To buy time, he said, “You were saying?”

  The wrinkled human face composed itself, speaking with the voice of an elderly English gentleman. “I am Absolem, and I don’t know where I am. I would be profoundly grateful if you could point me in the direction of the Mushroom Village.”

  Gabriel swallowed hard. Maya giggled. Between giggles, she managed, “If you’re the Caterpillar, I must be Alice!”

  Absolem indignantly replied, “Oh! Could that be true? If so, it’s quite a shock! I must say.”

  She lowered her cellphone. “I think we’re hallucinating.”

  “If you are hallucinating,” said the creature, “that means I must be as well, because this land looks quite peculiar.”

  Maya erupted into laughter. Gabriel didn’t feel amused. The lack of proper illumination, the caterpillar’s presence, the…he wrinkled his nose – yes, the stench it brought with it – everything unsettled him. He felt a looming threat, and the fact that he didn’t know what to do frustrated him. He couldn’t use the wires on Absolem or he’d ruin the experiment.

  Gabriel coughed for a long time, leaning against Maya. He turned to her. “The problem is, if we are talking to the Caterpillar from the Alice in Wonderland, what reality are we in?” He pointed to Absolem. “What is it?”

  “It is not a what, it is a who.” Absolem cleared his throat and moved around, exploring the basement.

  “You’re right,” confirmed Maya. “What shall we do?”

  Absolem snapped, “You should ask the right questions.”

  “If he is real, we’re in a very bad situation,” Gabriel finally uttered.

  “Why?”

  Lowering his voice, Gabriel said, “We may have a biohazard situation. The question is – do we call the CDC or do we risk a serious widespread contagion?”

  “Although I heard every word, I didn’t understand any of it, dear sir. This is a strange land indeed.”

  “The fact that the creature keeps talking is very creepy,” said Gabriel.

  Absolem turned toward them. “I don’t know where I am, but I must say that people seem to be very rude here.”

  Gabriel tapped his chin. “So, we sent Mr. Bones somewhere, in exchange for Absolem.”

  Maya pointed to a chalk mark on the floor. “We set the parameters to five metres.”

  The caterpillar leaned in, listening.

  “So,” Gabriel began, but his legs gave away.

  Maya caught him and gently lowered him to the floor. Turning to the caterpillar, she asked, “What did you do? What was that gas you blew into his face?”

  “It wasn’t gas, young lady. It was smoke.”

  “What was it made of, then?”

  “Mushrooms…”

  “What?”

  “I believe, young one, that you meant to say excuse me.”

  Maya stepped closer to Absolem, and raised her cellphone once more. “What kind of mushrooms?

  “Leave that for now,” said Gabriel. “I have saved three versions for inanimate objects and two separate protocols for live beings. I only had to finish inputting the data from th
e trials.”

  “All right…” Maya encouraged him to finish.

  “We may want to send Absolem back to Wonderland… I can’t believe I just said that.”

  “Oh, no, young sir, I’d really appreciate you doing me this favour.”

  Gabriel said, “Well, that would save us the trouble of having to deal with the CDC.”

  “You know that if it, if he really brought something like a virus, bacteria, or parasite, anything to our world, the CDC would only be able to find a cure through the original carrier.”

  She was right. This was not something to pretend didn’t happen. That brought them back to searching for a restraint.

  Before Gabriel could reply, the room blurred. He felt a jolt, and everything disappeared in a vortex of colours.

  The kaleidoscope faded as Gabriel returned from wherever he had been. The scene before him looked different. The basement looked better, flooded in light. The caterpillar explored the laptop. It looked more grotesque fully illuminated. Maya studied something under the quantum microscope they’d stolen to observe changes in Mr. Bones’ molecular structure after the first teleportation. Something didn’t seem right. He thought that a brief episode of vertigo had overwhelmed him, and when his head cleared, it looked as though he’d been gone for hours. He cleared his throat.

  Maya jumped from her chair. “You’re back!”

  “Yes, but from where?” Cold fear creeped through his body.

  Absolem looked at Gabriel, his face a portrait of intrigue. “Now that’s a good question.”

  “We don’t know, Gabe. But you’ve been gone for two hours.”

  The caterpillar asked, “Have you been to Wonderland?”

  Gabriel looked at them, feeling as though he had become the butt of a bad joke. Recognizing the worried expression on Maya’s face, he knew they weren’t joking. “I never left.” He tried to make sense of what had happened, and immediately doubted himself.

  “Young man, you disappeared in front of our astounded eyes and reappeared two hours later in the same spot. When all physical evidence leads to the same conclusion, you must admit that your deduction can only be the truth.”

  Gabriel looked at his watch. “What time is it?” he asked Maya.