“So, I guess there’s no hope of helping anyone back there, is there? The people of Civica are all just going to die?”
He forced himself not to wince. “There’s always hope,” he lied. “Besides, there are other things we might be able to do to help them besides recklessly chasing after a bunch of killer machines.”
“Such as?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe we can find a way to warn them somehow. Maybe Jessie can find a way to send a message, let them know what’s coming.”
“A message? Do you know how far—?”
“Okay,” he interrupted, “so it’s not a great idea. Let’s first see what’s working and what’s not before we decide what we can, or can’t, do.”
Her face brightened more than he had expected. Apparently, she found comfort in his apparent refusal to give up. This is what being a captain is all about, he mused. Pretending to be optimistic in the face of certain failure.
“All right, I’ll go up and give all bridge stations a full checkout,” she said, “and I’ll quietly ask Jessie to look into what we talked about. She’s a bright girl. If anyone can figure out how to send a message that far, she can.”
“And I’ll check the air supply, recycling, and these new capacitors Ash talked about,” Raines said from the staircase, startling them both. He then added with a wry smile, “You know, that engineering stuff I used to do for a living.”
As Raines continued down the second set of stairs to C-deck, Jake stood up and said to AJ, “I think I’ll take a walk through the ship. You know, tap the walls and listen to the feedback.”
She stood as well, and then leaned in, her face just centimeters away. “What will that tell you?” she whispered for no reason.
For equally no reason he whispered back, “It’ll tell me if she’s real. If she’s the Rogue Wave or just a close copy. See you in a bit.”
She grabbed his shoulder as he turned to leave. When he looked back, she kissed him on the lips. It was a quick kiss—more of a peck, but it nearly floored him. “Sorry, just feeling really good right now,” she said. He started to smile, but then saw Jane staring at them both from the stairwell, her face looking harder than he’d ever seen.
“Got to go,” he mumbled, and then hurried down the hallway without looking back.
Apocalypse 04
Jake started his survey with the two heads at the forward-end of the main hallway on B-deck. Both checked out with hot and cold running water in both sinks and showers, and the toilets flushed. Dr. Wood would be pleased.
Working his way aft, he peeked inside the Navigator’s quarters on the port side and then Acoustics’ across the hall; both checked out. At the next set of door, he peeked into AJ’s quarters. They looked in order as well, but he didn’t go all the way inside, feeling like he would be violating her space. Besides, his quarters on the opposite side of the hall were a mirror copy of hers.
“My room,” he said aloud when he stepped through the door and let it slide shut behind him. At least, it looks like my room, he thought. His quarters, like AJ’s, were a little larger than the rest of the crew’s and had their own head and shower. “Command has its privileges,” Captain Coal had once told him. It was the day he first came on board to ask his girlfriend’s father for a job. That moment seemed so long ago, and yet, standing in that room for the first time in many months, it seemed like only yesterday.
The image of Stacy lingered in his mind for several minutes. It had been a long time since he had last thought of her. She was even missing from his dreams; at least the ones he remembered.
Without consciously admitting to himself what he was doing—or planning to do—he left his room and walked past the galley and down the stairs to C-deck. He heard Dr. Wood’s voice inside the open medical bay door to his left, apparently carrying on a conversation with his equipment, but quickly walked past to the aft bulkhead door.
When he passed through it, he took the left corridor to where it dead-ended, right next to the lockout for the recreation room. If anyone had been there to ask him what he was doing, he would explain that he was simply going to make sure it worked, but that would have been a lie. He had only one goal in mind: to see if his Stacy program was still stored there. As he reached for the controls, he was shocked to see that the room was already running a program.
Confused, he jumped into the lockout and quickly sealed it. A moment later, he stepped into what appeared to be a dimly lit Guild bar, similar to the one back in New Braska. There was soft music playing from speakers mounted along the walls and a blue, smoke-like haze floated above the heads of the twenty or so men and women seated at small circular tables facing a raised stage. While the real bar had been filled with a motley collection of Shippers wearing mismatched, worn out clothes, these people were well dressed, like the kind you might see entering one of the exclusive clubs in Capitol City.
“The show is starting in a few minutes,” a short brown-haired woman wearing a shimmering red dress said. She glanced at a tablet in her hand. “I have one table left near the stage,” she said, then looked up at him. “Unless you’re here to meet someone?” He shook his head. “Well, in that case, maybe you would like some company for the evening,” she added with a wink.
“Maybe later,” he said as he looked at the stage. “Who... Who programmed this? I’ve never seen this place before.”
She wrapped her arm around his and walked him towards the stage. “I prefer not to speak out of character while I’m on duty,” she whispered, leaning in toward him. Her bare arm felt slightly cool against his. “Besides, the show’s about to start.” She stopped next to a small table with two empty chairs. “Sure you wouldn’t like a date for the evening? That second chair looks mighty lonely.”
“I’m sure,” he said as he sat down in the left chair. “But thanks.”
A man dressed as a waiter walked by and placed a green drink in a tall narrow glass on his table, and then walked away. “Try it,” the hostess said. He looked at the drink with trepidation, but then lifted it and took a sip. It was slightly sweet but had the burning kick of aged potato vodka.
“How did you do this?” he asked. “Rec rooms can’t create edible food or drinks. Certainly not alcohol.”
She shook her head and leaned down to his ear. “As I mentioned, the management doesn’t like us to speak out of character, but let’s just say you’ve been given an upgrade.”
“Upgrade?” he asked, looking up at her, but then realizing his face was nearly pressed against hers.
She brushed her lips against his cheek and whispered, “What did you think those new capacitors down in your D-deck were put there for?” When she saw his surprised expression, she stood up and added, “See? I spoiled the mood. This is why we don’t talk shop when you’re here to relax.”
“I understand.”
“Let me know if you need anything else, sweetie,” she said, “anything at all.” She slid her fingertips along his neck as she walked away, sending an involuntary shiver down his back.
He took another sip from his drink and then downed the rest of it in one gulp. As his eyes burned and watered, he realized he could get used to this upgrade. Another waiter walked by and replaced his drink without his asking for it. It came in the same tall, narrow glass, but this one contained a light brown liquid inside. Before he could ask what it was, the room’s lights flickered on and off three times in quick succession, then dimmed.
The dark green curtains on the stage began to open in the middle, and he realized the show was about to start. He thought briefly about the ship inspection he had been conducting, but then brushed it off. “Rank has its privileges,” he whispered as he sat back to watch the show.
The curtain opened all the way, revealing a blackened stage with a single focused-beam light shining down from above. A man with slicked-back black hair walked out carrying what appeared to be an old, wooden guitar. He then sat in a metal chair in the middle of the stage and began playing a slow me
lody on the stringed instrument.
Thinking this was the entertainment; Jake looked down at his glass and picked it up to smell it. Buttered rum? He took a sip to confirm what his nose told him and wondered just how many different drinks this simulation could produce.
A woman’s voice began singing, deep and sultry. Jake looked up to see a tall, thin figure step forward into the overhead light. Her face was hidden, silhouetted against the light, but her hair was short, black, and spiky. Her voice was pure and the words she sang told a story of lost love and sorrow. He felt himself being pulled into the story, and for a moment, wondered if it was her voice or the alcohol in his drinks.
At one particularly dramatic point in the song, the singer raised her face towards the light and Jake saw that it was AJ. He stood up suddenly, knocking his chair over. She didn’t seem to notice, or perhaps she didn’t care because she continued the song as he stood there in shock. Was it anger he was feeling, or just surprise? A part of him wondered if AJ could really sing like that. He knew so little about her personal life, or her past.
He felt his chair put back in its place, and a hand pulled on his shoulder. “Please sit down,” a woman’s voice said. Assuming that it was the hostess, he sat down.
Without looking away from the stage, he said, “I understand they upgraded the rec room, but they still shouldn’t use my crew as characters. It’s just not right.”
The woman sat in the chair next to him. “That was my father’s rule,” she said, “but it doesn’t mean you have to follow it, Jacob.”
“Your father?” he asked finally turning to look at her. Stacy Coal sat in the chair next to him, looking exactly like he remembered her.
“What the bilge?” he yelled, jumping to his feet again. “You can’t...”
“It’s been a very long time, my love,” she said.
“No,” he stammered, “it can’t be you. You can’t be here. You’re...”
“I’m here, Jake,” she said, standing and taking a step towards him.
“End this program,” he whispered. When she continued to move towards him, he yelled, “End this drowning program!”
On cue, the entire room, walls, tables, and people began to break apart and then quickly swarmed back into the now visible corner storage chambers. He closed his eyes and tried to calm his breathing. Just the upgrades, he assured himself. The program pulled Stacy’s likeness from memory, just like it did with AJ. It was an error that could be fixed.
He took one more deep breath and opened his eyes. Stacy was standing right in front of him, staring into his eyes. Even though she was frozen—obviously the program hadn’t disassembled her yet for some reason—he was spellbound by her face. He had forgotten just how blue her eyes were. The color of Capitol City’s western sky in the late afternoon. When he reached out to touch her cheek, she smiled. In shock, he jumped backward and slammed his head into the back wall, and the lights went out.
When he woke up, he found himself on his back with his head resting on Stacy’s lap, her beautiful face looking down at him. He could feel her fingers running through his hair. “You’ve let it grow out a bit,” she said, in the warm, slightly raspy voice he knew so well. She smiled and gently kissed his forehead. “I like it.”
“How are you here?” he asked, half believing it was just a dream.
“The bigger question is; how did you get here?” she countered.
He sat up and leaned against the rec room wall. The back of his head felt numb. “No, seriously. How did you get here? You disappeared into the Rift. The pressure. You couldn’t have...survived.”
Her eyes went distant. “I barely remember that night. Seems like a lifetime ago.” She refocused on him. “They rescued me, just like I assume they rescued you.”
“You mean the isopods?”
“Is that what you call them? Well then, yes, the isopods. Or, one isopod to be precise. It was down there, for whatever reason, deep inside the Rift.”
“You’re telling me there was an isopod hiding inside the Rift. And it just happened to be right there where you fell in?”
She nodded. “Well, it’s just a guess, because they didn’t exactly tell me what happened, or why it was down there in the first place. I only remember seeing you disappear, and a few minutes later, the hull began to creak. I closed my eyes, waiting for the end, and then I saw a huge, glowing object coming towards me from one side. It...sort of swallowed my Walker, and then I saw the pressure decreasing.” She stopped speaking, her eyes going distant again.
“What happened then?”
“Nothing for a long time. Just...darkness, but I could feel a strange movement in my chair, sort of an undulating motion. I figured out later it was how they swim, the isopods.”
“And it brought you back here?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ve been living here, all alone, for the past year?”
She looked puzzled. “Haven’t you met your father yet?”
Now he was confused. “You mean you know my father? How come he didn’t tell me about you?”
“Jake, your parents disappeared long before I met you. When your father told me his name, I realized who he was, but I didn’t tell him about us. I thought that would be too...painful for him.” She slid closer to him and put her hand on his arm. “Besides, neither of us had any idea you would end up here as well. It’s like a dream come true.”
“Wait a minute; do you know that my father died here? Do you know he’s a recreation?”
She narrowed her eyes. “That’s what you thought I was, isn’t it? You thought I was a recreation of me, didn’t you.” He nodded, and she kissed him. “Well, it’s really me, and to be honest, when I saw you I thought the same thing about you.”
His shoulders suddenly relaxed and he let out a sigh. “I was afraid to believe you were real. Talk about dreams coming true. When I found out how much the machines wanted us all to stay here and be happy, I assumed you were their way of trying to convince me to stay here and procreate.”
She sat up straight. “Jacob Stone. If you think you can just walk back into my life after more than a year apart and start procreating with me, then you have another think coming.” Then she smiled. “A girl like me needs to be courted a bit longer before being asked something like that.”
Now he smiled. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
She leaned in close and whispered, “I believe you will,” before pulling him down to the floor and kissing him.
Jane stood at the bottom of the bridge stairwell for several minutes, wondering whom she should tell, and how much she should tell. She felt time passing all around her, like a raging river flowing towards a deadly waterfall, pushing her towards her own death. The fact that her mind came up with those Pre-Fall symbols should have been enough to convince her that she wasn’t like anyone else on the Rogue Wave. “But I don’t remember,” she said aloud.
“What don’t you remember, Jane?” Jessie asked from the top of the stairs. “Were you coming up?”
Jane closed her eyes and ran silently up the stairs. Nine steps, she said to herself. When she reached the top and opened her eyes, Jessie was staring at her.
“You just can’t do anything normally, can you?”
She probably meant it as a joke, but it was just another indictment of her otherness. As Jessie returned to her acoustics console, AJ turned and saw her standing there.
“I told you it’s okay to come up to the bridge whenever you want,” she said, obviously misunderstanding the look on Jane’s face. “Those same rules apply on this ship as well,” she added before looking back down at her work.
“Don’t call her a ‘ship,’” Ash complained from the navigation console. “She has a name, and it’s Rogue Wave.”
“The captain and I’ll decide that when these tests are completed,” she replied. She then glanced back at Jane. “What’s wrong, Jane?”
“I have something,” she stammered, “that needs to be told, but I’m...I’m
not sure how...not sure that I can tell it.”
“Is it important?”
Jane nodded.
AJ dropped what she was doing and faced her. “Is it about this ship? Have you discovered something wrong with this ship?”
“This ship has a name,” Ash said from his console without looking up.
Jane shook her head. “It’s about home.” As she said the word, she realized it wasn’t true. The danger—that part was real—but Civica was not her home. “It’s about Civica.”
AJ took a step closer. “What about Civica?”
“It’s in danger.”
Jessie stood and patted her shoulder. “Sweetie, we know about that. We were all in the room when...”
“I’m not talking about the isopods. I’m talking about a much larger threat.”
Even Ash stopped what he was doing and stood to face her. “What are you talking about?”
“What would be a greater threat than a bunch of heavily-armed machines heading towards Civica?” AJ asked.
Jane felt the bridge collapsing all around her. She didn’t want to tell anyone, but there she was, right in the middle of it. She couldn’t turn back now. “I’m talking about Betas.”
AJ let out a sigh. “I don’t know what Dr. Wood has been telling you, Jane, but Beta’s are just another type of human. Some of us, myself included, have some Beta blood in us. It’s not...”
“I’m talking about the original Betas,” Jane said. “The ones from before the war, before the Fall of Man.”
“That’s just a myth,” Jessie said. “Children’s stories.”
“You don’t understand,” Jane said. Her legs felt like they were suddenly too weak to support her anymore and she dropped to her knees. Jessie grabbed her by the arm as AJ and Ash ran forward. “They’re coming,” she whispered.
“What did she say?” Jessie asked, but the room’s light began to dim. “They’re coming,” she tried to scream but in the darkness, she heard no sound but her own beating heart. Her lifeless, inhuman, monster heart.
Novum Chronicles: A Dystopian Undersea Saga Page 38