AfterLife

by BL Craig

  “Human go!” The Rannit prodded him with a gauntlet gun.

  “Ok!” he said, putting his hands up. “OK, I’m going!”

  “How do you feel about taking a walk outside?” Sarah asked, fake enthusiasm layering her voice.

  “I feel like that is a thing I would not like.”

  Three of the Rannit closed on him looking what he guessed was supposed to be stern.

  He sidled toward the airlock. The crew looked grim.

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  Sarah watched as the Rannit herded William into the airlock. He feigned tripping, snatched the goggles from the wall, and shoved them into his pocket. She looked around the various hold cameras for something promising. “What’s the plan, Clarke?” the Captain asked.

  “I’ll open the outer airlock door and make the Rannit think they’ve accidently spaced William. Freeman has found a hatch in the outside of the Rannit ship. William should be able to get it open. Then he can infiltrate the Rannit ship and take out the drives.”

  “I don’t love this plan,” William said as the airlock doors were closing behind him. “How are we going to jump? Everyone else is still under guard and we’re attached to this other ship.”

  “Just worry about your part, William,” said the Captain. “I have a plan.”

  “Right,” said Sarah. “They don’t know we’re vacuum resistant. Play it up, fake passing out and float away. Grab the tether on the way out and then you can jump to the other ship.”

  “How long can I survive out there.”

  “The longest I know of is 10 minutes.”

  William breathed deep, closing his eyes. “OK, blow me out the airlock.”

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  Elva tried to give William a reassuring look and nod. Voluntarily exposing oneself to hard vacuum was suicidal, even for reanimates. On the other hand, if William could get into the other ship without the Rannit knowing, then between him and Sarah, they would have a chance at taking the Tilly back. She needed him to focus on the other ship. She knew he would like the rest of the plan a lot less than the space walk.

  The Rannit were looking a bit woozy to her eyes. The thinner atmosphere in the ship was similar to high altitudes planet-side. They might be getting mild cases of hypoxia. That could be good or bad. Oxygen deprivation could cause paranoid hallucinations in humans. Who knew what it might do to the Rannit. If they began imagining bugs crawling on their skin then they might start shooting.

  “First an unprovoked attack, and now you put my crew member in the airlock,” she stated flatly to the Rannit commander.

  “Stay back human, or the other human will die!”

  “What do you want?”

  “Tell us why you are here.”

  “We are surveying this system.”

  “Your government plans to invade Rannit space. This is why you spy.”

  “Not to my knowledge. We just wanted to know what is here.”

  “You lie. Your people have traveled to our space several times before. Tell us your plan or we eject that one into space.”

  “We’re done with our assignment. My plan is to leave here,” she said.

  “You are spying. What have you learned? Last chance or this one dies!” The Rannit commander looked at his compatriots like he had just told the sneakiest lie ever. “You have more crew, Captain. We will send one out for each lie you tell.”

  It seemed odd to the Captain that she could read a different species so easily. It was like being lied to by a five-year-old. Overheard conversation notwithstanding, she would never have believed him.

  “I don’t believe you.” She stood, feet apart, arms crossed, looking down at the Rannit leader.

  “Excrement,” the Rannit whispered under its breath. “This was stupid. Take it out of the airlock.” He signaled the other Rannit guard closest to the airlock door.

  “This isn’t going to work,” said William. “The safeties won’t actually allow you to space me.”

  “Ha,” Sarah barked. “You overestimate how much AfterLife cares about our well-being and how hard safeties are to override when you have the bridge.”

  The guard pushed the door open button, but the lock did not open. Instead, flashing lights turned on, William recognized the cargo crane’s “in use” lights, and a loud sound piped out of the ship speakers. It was not a klaxon. Music? It took a moment for William to pick out the tune, only to realize Sarah had put the recording of him singing the Major General song on full volume to throw the Rannit off balance. “I am the very model of a modern Major General.”

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  Sarah knew that William had lived in space for years. He knew that no airlock actually opens quickly, ejecting the air and contents into space, like they did in the movies. That is a waste of perfectly fine atmosphere. In a real airlock, it takes at least four minutes to cycle—first, the air is vacuumed out of the lock, and then the door slowly creeps open. It was, in fact, a distinct letdown compared to how media liked to depict rapid decompression, in which villains got blown into space as their just desserts.

  “Don’t forget to exhale,” she told William, ordering the exterior door to open. It did so swiftly and dramatically, instantly emptying the room of air.

  William looked genuinely surprised when the door zipped open and the oxygen fled. He kept his wits though, and put on a good show, clinging to the lip of the small window and screaming until the vacuum stole the sound. He had to look down to make eye contact with the panicked Rannit as he let his eyes roll up into his head and then gently drifted out the door into space (aided by a careful toe nudge).

  Sarah could hear the Rannit screaming. The VI translated into her ear. “What did you do? Stop it! No, no, no! We killed him. He was a prisoner. Who makes an airlock like this? Get him back!”

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  John used the chaos of Butcher’s dramatic exit to creep closer to the Captain. One of the Rannit with a bit better focus chirped and waved its gun arm at him in a clear indication he was to stop right where he was. He was fairly certain that even if the Rannit shot him, he could get up enough momentum to crash into it anyway.

  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the Captain move her hand sharply in a signal of negation. He did not like that their escape was now dependent on Butcher not dying horribly in vacuum. He had to give the kid credit. John was not sure he would have been so calm at being spaced.

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  The Rannit had all run to the airlock door to do different useless things. One was pressing every button on the disabled control panel. Two were trying to pry the inner door open, as if that would not make the situation worse. A fourth was, for some inexplicable reason, pounding on the small window. How they thought any of this could have helped William, John did not know. The poor alien that had “spaced” William looked to have gone into shock. It was board-straight, rolling on the floor like a stop, drop, and roll PSA.

  John wondered if he was witnessing a Rannit trauma response, like the human fetal position. He felt bad for the little creatures. None of them were paying attention to the rest of the crew, so John moved forward and grabbed the pack full of nexuses abandoned by the Rannit in their hast to get to the airlock. There were still too many of them to rush. Even distracted, several of them would be able to get off shots before the crew could disarm them all.

  He could hear the Captain outlining her plan for Sarah while Butcher drifted through space. “We need to override the outer bay doors. Just a crack will be enough to drop the pressure in here and knock the Rannit out. You’ll need to trigger the bay door override. Be careful. Once the Rannit aboard are disabled we can focus on getting free.”

  “Alright,” Sarah said. “I’m overriding the doors now. Hold on to something.”

  The crew in the hold were ready. When it happened
, the effect was underwhelming. The flashing lights and klaxons were impressive, almost drowning out the Major General Song on loop, but no amount of folderol was going to make the big slow doors move any faster. John grabbed a cargo net, but really, the rushing air was more like a brisk fall breeze than a dangerous gale. By the time the boarders looked away from the small airlock door it was too late. The bay doors moved slowly, but they were large. After the first ten centimeters were open, it only took a few moments for the atmosphere to thin out enough for the Rannit to keel over.

  The door started closing back up long before it got anywhere close to open, and air rushed back in from the vents as the inner doors flung open.

  “Quick,” the Captain said to John and Alex, “Get them in the bio crates as quick as you can and put them out the airlock. Maybe a few will survive. I’ll start a burn as soon as William gets the other ships’ drive down.” She grabbed Addy by the arm and headed toward the interior doors.

  “Addy,” she said. “With just the Tilly’s engines on you will be able to do the mass calculations. Be ready with the numbers when we need them.” Then she headed to the bridge to prepare.

  “Forget the crates,” said John. It’ll take too long to suit up and push them out the airlock. I have a better idea.” He began grabbing the tiny bodies and piling them up on a pallet lift.

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  Just because one can choose not to breathe, does not mean it is an easy or pleasant affair. William hoped the Rannit had not noticed him grabbing the tether on the way out. He had done his best to nudge himself out the opening at an angle so he would not be visible to them through the airlock window as he pulled himself back in. He could feel the moisture in his eyes and nostrils boiling away. Through the implant he heard his own voice “With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.”

  “Pull yourself over to the starboard side and grab hold next to the door control,” Sarah said. “Once you’ve got a hold, you can put on the goggles and aim your jump. Try to click your tongue or something when you grab the rung, so I know you’re there. Freeman is waving at you from the Rannit ship. It’s nice and wide, just push off easy.”

  William tugged on the tether hard to get the lock to engage so he could pull himself back to the Tilly. He had drifted further out than intended. He kept sneaking peaks to make sure he was on target, but opening his eyes was becoming painful. He grabbed the rung with numb fingers, snapping his teeth together hoping Sarah heard the ‘chomp’ sound. “I know the croaking chorus from The Frogs of Aristophanes!” He hooked a foot into the rung and pulled out the goggles. He put them over his eyes and realized, all they did was contain a smaller vacuum. The moisture was still sucking out of his eyeballs. He pulled them away from his face and breathed the last bit of air out of his nose into the lens pockets and quickly slapped them back in place. His frozen fingers made a hash of it, but enough of the air stayed in so he could keep his eyes open for more than a blink. That taken care of he turned and faced the other ship.

  He could see the construction ship’s hull about ten meters away. Freeman was waving its black tentacles at him from a point near the center of the side that faced William. It should be a simple thing to push off and float over to the other ship. Of course, there was plenty of room for error, and if he missed, he would float off into space forever. He positioned himself against the Tilly, bunched his legs, and jumped.

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  Sarah watched William tensely from Freeman’s camera. She babbled nonsense at him while he lined up his jump and pushed off. “Just about there, good, good. OK, you’re right on target.” She did not stop to catch a breath until he hit the other ship. There was not anything to hold onto, but Freeman wrapped a tentacle around William’s leg and anchored him to the other ship.

  The little squid bot had found a small exterior hatch on the Rannit ship. It looked like a drone port of some sort. That or a small airlock for space fairies. Freeman guided William to a series of rungs that lead to the port.

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  Once he reached the rungs, William kept his eyes screwed shut, pulling hand over hand and trying not to spin off awkwardly from the Rannit vessel. “I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical.” Blind and weightless, time stretched on, surely longer in his mind than in reality, Sarah’s voice, the tone more than the words, kept him anchored. “OK, you’re almost there. The hatch will be right in front of you. I can see a big button that must be an external safety override, just like any other airlock.”

  He felt Freeman crawling beside him along the hull, one tentacle gently brushing against his leg, ready to grab if William slipped. Going fast was less a matter of pulling hard than it was keeping himself balanced in zero G. He needed to pull himself along smoothly without spinning around the rungs. “In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General.” The song had started over. William knew from all the repetitious practice he had done that the song was just under three minutes long. If he was past second verse of the song again then he had been outside the ship for going on four minutes. “I answer hard acrostics, I’ve a pretty taste for paradox.”

  Sarah kept speaking in his ear, “Just keep going, hand over hand. You can do this. And when It’s all done you can have a hot bath. I’ll whip up a really strong batch of cocoa scent and whiff it up your nose. You can pretend you’ve just gotten back to the lodge after a long day skiing.” Could she really make a cocoa smell in the bio lab? And if so, could she make it really strong enough for him to smell? He wanted to find out.

  The cold was penetrating his limbs and it hurt. It hurt in a way he had not felt since dying. He reached for the next rung and it was not there. Shit. He looked around frantically and then saw the hatch with an old-fashioned manual wheel.

  Freeman was waiting nearby and wrapped a tentacle around William, holding him in place so he had both hands free to open the hatch. His hands were mostly numb, but after a panic inducing false start (evidently the Rannit were righty-loosy, lefty-tighty) he got the wheel spinning. There was a clunk and the door swung open. Freeman crawled inside, pulling William with him. He used his fading strength to swing the outer door shut and secured it. He was ludicrously proud of himself for turning it the correct way the first time. Sarah must have been directing the little bot because it immediately went for a large button with Rannit script. He passed out as the air started hissing in. As awareness faded, he wondered if he had a “pretty taste for paradox.”

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  Some of the Rannit were already starting to moan as the oxygen recyclers kicked in on overdrive to replenish the atmosphere. John pushed the pallet stacked comically with a heap of Rannit through the doors to the adjacent EVA bay. “Quick, put them in Rover 1,” he said to Alex.

  They shoved 14 Rannit into the vehicle they used for surface surveys on larger asteroids and small moons. It was meant to seat four adult humans. The Rannit inside looked like nothing so much as a clown car act once John closed the hatch on them.

  “Hurry,” he said to Alex and ran for the doors back into the main bay. “Sarah, once Alex and I are out of the EVA bay we need you to blow the bay door.”

  There was a pause, then Sarah came back. “Roger,” she said crisply. They cleared the door and it slammed shut behind them. John turned to look through the glass and saw the EVA bay door rising faster than the main bay door had. The atmosphere vented quickly.

  As soon as the doors were retracted enough, John put Rover 1 into gear and drove it out of the bay. Now he just had to figure out how to use the jump boosters to get it clear of the constructor ship cradle.

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  William must only have been out for a moment. “William, William, get up,” Sarah’s voice said in his ear. The music loop ha
d stopped. Freeman was perched on his chest, not-so-gently shaking him with its tentacles.

  “I’m up, I’m up,” he said in a drawl reminiscent of his teenage years.

  “Hurry! You’ve got to get to engineering and turn off the drive. I’m going to send Freeman ahead to scout for you.”

  He levered himself up as the little drone opened the inner door, climbed to the ceiling using its suction cups, and took off into the ship. William put his hands into his armpits in an attempt to warm them. His right wrist bumped into something in his left breast pocket. The Rannit had missed Addy’s little pen stunner. Well, at least he was not completely helpless. Surely the Rannit on the construction ship must have gotten an alert from the airlock door opening. He had better move.

  “Exit to your right,” said Sarah, as he moved to the door. “The way looks clear down to the juncture. Freeman is scouting out the two hallways, but I’m pretty sure the engine room is left.”

  He banged his head on the Rannit-sized door frame despite his attempt to bend over.

  William shuffled down the hallway, numb limbs slowly, painfully regaining feeling. Reanimate resistance to pain clearly ended at hard vacuum freezing. The low ceilings made his walk into a half crouch, slowing his progress. He reached the perpendicular junction in time to see Freeman sliding back from the right and heading left.

  “Follow it,” Sarah said.

  * * *

  …

  * * *

  Elva barreled into the Rannit guard stationed at the corridor juncture between the bays and the lab level. Its back was to her and she easily bowled it over, sending the tiny creature sprawling. It fell to the ground, limp. She grabbed the wrist weapon from its hand and threw it down a recycle receptacle. She did not have time to try and figure out how to use the thing. She delivered a swift kick to the prone figure’s head and continued toward the bridge.