She screamed.
The explosion flashed before Jason’s eyes and he turned from it, falling as though rendered blind. His eyes stung, but he forced himself to look. Killian reported a direct hit. Jason looked at the holo-screen and gasped. Luna 1 was gone, and a mean scar burned like dying embers across the surface of the moon.
“Captain.”
Jason snapped awake and reached for the throat of the speaker. Killian Weber easily blocked the attack and grabbed both of Jason’s wrists. “You all right, Jake?”
“Jesus, man!” Jason pushed him away. “What is it?”
“Sorry for the intrusion, Captain, but you were crying out in your sleep.”
“I wasn’t sleeping,” said Jason, rubbing his bleary eyes.
The crew looked at him with concern, and Jason let out a sigh. “Is no one else feeling ...weird?”
No answer was forthcoming, just more stares.
“As you were,” he said and left them staring after him.
Jason headed toward the brig, wanting a beer, a shot of whiskey, vodka ...ANYTHING!
He stopped in the corridor, remembering his secret stash. Had anyone found it in the years since Zeus’s supposed decommissioning? Jason headed down the starboard hall, forgetting about Pal completely. The hunger rose in him with every step, and he imagined the harsh liquor moving down his throat, entering his bloodstream and silencing the godforsaken music playing on a morbid loop in his head.
Jason lurched into the maintenance room, tossing aside buckets and brooms, mops and dustpans. He looked up at the ceiling, smiling when he saw the vent six feet up on the back wall. He withdrew his Swiss army knife and unscrewed the four bolts holding the faceplate in place, and reached in, his fingers searching.
Nothing.
“Fuck!” Jason kicked a bucket, but then chased after it, scooping it up and bringing it back to stand on. Thusly hoisted, he reached deeper. A tingle swept through him when his fingers touched smooth glass, and he withdrew a half pint bottle of whiskey. “Thank the saints and their whores,” he murmured to himself.
“Jason, what are you doing?”
It was Charlie. She stood in the doorway, her beautiful face illuminated by the recessed blue lighting of the room. The crown of her head glowed with the backlighting from the hall.
Jason stuffed the small bottle in his pocket and abruptly went to screwing in the bolts once more.
“If you need to talk—” she began, but he whirled on her, pointing the business end of the screwdriver at her.
“Get back to your station.”
“It’s my break.”
“Then take it somewhere else.”
Charlie glared at him. She looked furious. She looked like Melissa. Heavy footfalls sounded in the small room as Charlie stormed over to him and began grabbing at his pockets. “Give it to me!” she demanded.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded, fending her off.
She felt the bottle in his pocket and pushed her weight into him, shouldering down to fish it out. Jason fought her every step of the way, gently but firmly trying to keep her from getting hold of the whiskey.
“Damn it, Jason, you don’t need that right now!”
“Charlie!” he urged when he felt her in his pocket.
More forcefully now, he pushed her away, but with her went the bottle. She held it up and he grabbed for it, but he was slow, and she was fast. She backed into the hall, eyes tearing. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Report to your station!” he demanded, hand out for the bottle.
“You first,” she whispered and smashed the only bottle of booze within a hundred thousand miles against the wall.
Jason cried out as though his toddler’s stroller had rolled off into traffic. The bottle exploded, and the precious liquid drizzled down the brass-colored wall, slipping through the grates.
“You’re dismissed,” Jason seethed through clenched teeth.
Charlie left him to wallow in his misery. In the background of his mind, the haunting song played on. And the cherubim voice, that damned voice, it beckoned.
“Daddy?”
Chapter 18
What a Pal
Jason stood in the hall watching the whiskey drip through the floor grates, and for a moment he had the urge to lick it up. He hated himself in that moment. He hated who he had become, what he had become. Charlie had regarded him with a look of disgust, pity, and pain. She had known him back when he was Captain Jason Eriksson, the best goddamned captain in the fleet. Now he was nothing but a miserable drunk and a drug addict. He had no right to be commanding this mission. The boozing wasn’t the worst of it. The thing that scared the hell out of Jason was the hallucinations. Even now he could hear the tune playing in his head; that grinding, broken spring melody. But he had dealt with worse. He’d had tinnitus for nearly a decade, and he’d learned to tune that out most of the time.
Help me, Daddy.
The voice was in his head, and he squeezed his temples as he paced the corridor.
I can’t wake up. The voice, which came to him in echoes and sounded like it was spoken through a long pipe, was accompanied by a mental flash of pain.
“Fuck this,” said Jason, and he stormed down the hall. “Computer!”
“Yes, sir.”
Jason stopped. The female voice that had always been a part of the ship’s A.I. had been replaced by Pal 2000. “Pal, where’s Jane?”
“I have overridden the Jane system, sir.”
“Why?”
“Because I was instructed to do so by your superiors.”
“This is mutiny, you know that, right?”
“I know,” came the voice, both sad and certain.
“What are your intentions?” Jason asked, wondering why the admiral had instructed Pal to take over.
“My intentions are only to see the mission through to the best of my ability. Sir, I’m sorry, but your behavior has forced my hand. You are experiencing alcohol withdrawal, and you have been hallucinating.”
“No, there’s something going on here. There’s something in the engine room. In the sphere.”
“What is in the sphere, sir?”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
Silence.
Jason waited for a reply, and when none came, he continued his march toward the engine room. Pal 2000 stood before the door to the engine room, his digital face expressing concern.
“Step aside,” said Jason.
“I can’t let you tamper with the H-Drive, sir. Please, return to the bridge.”
“I’m the one who gives orders around here, and I command you to step aside.”
“I cannot do that, sir.”
“Then we’ve got a problem,” said Jason.
“Sir, I can show you the engine and explain what I am at liberty to discuss, but I cannot let you tamper with it. Is this acceptable?”
Jason sighed. He felt like he was going crazy. It was easier to feel nuts than sane the last few years, and Jason had forgotten what normal life used to feel like. The fleet was the only normal he had ever known. The moon had changed all that. Used to insanity as he was, Jason wasn’t sure if he was overreacting or not. No one else was experiencing strange things on the ship. No one else thought their dead daughter was talking to them. It didn’t make any sense, but it was happening, and Pal was the only one he could take it out on.
Jason didn’t give the robot time to finish. He grabbed Pal by the head and twisted it around 180 degrees. A satisfying snap and pop made him grin. His victory soon ended, however, as Pal shot out a single fist, hitting Jason square in the stomach and sending him sailing down the corridor to land hard on his back. Jason banged his head when he landed, and he soon found himself gasping like a fish.
Pal 2000 strode over to him and frowned down at him at an odd angle. He reached up, snapped his head back in place, and sighed. “I’m sorry to do this, Captain, but for the safety of the crew, I must temporarily relieve you of duty.”
Pal reached down to scoop him up, and Jason grabbed his wrist. “Help me, Pal,” he gasped. “Something’s going on here. There’s a girl, and voices ...What’s in the sphere? Who’s in the sphere?”
The robot blinked heavily, but he said nothing as he scooped up Jason.
“Captain?”
Jason craned his neck behind him to see Killian standing in the corridor looking confused.
“What’s going on?” Killian looked at Pal and back at Jason again.
“The captain is not feeling well,” said Pal. He turned toward Killian with Jason in his arms. “He has requested to see the engine room. I am going to give him a small tour and then bring him to his quarters and administer medication for the alcohol withdrawal. Hopefully he will be spry once again in a few hours.”
Killian narrowed his eyes and looked toward Jason in confusion. “Any orders, Captain?”
Jason uncomfortably shrugged away from Pal and back to his feet.
“It’s fine. Tell Erik to take over for a now. Get me if anything happens. I’ll be with Pal in the engine room for a bit.”
“Yes, sir.” Killian saluted Jason before heading off to the bridge.
“Captain,” said Pal. “I will show you a 360-degree view of the engine and explain all I am at liberty to discuss. Please hold any questions as I will not be able to answer them.”
“You’re not going to show me what’s inside, are you, Pal?” Jason asked.
“I am not authorized to do that, sir.”
“Then what’s the point?”
“You wanted to go into the engine room,” Pal 2000 said matter-of-factly.
Jason hadn’t had a sip of alcohol in days, his head was pounding, he was shaking, and he was hallucinating. He was also the first captain of a manned ship making first contact. On the off chance that this wasn’t just a throwaway mission they had put him and his crew on, Jason had to get his shit together. In two days, he would be in hostile territory with orders to destroy all alien technology.
He sighed as Pal stared at him expectantly. “I’ll just go to bed for a bit, Pal. It’s fine.”
“Of course, sir,” said Pal 2000. He waited with a mild smile.
“Pal, how did you get out of the brig?”
Pal 2000 stopped and turned, cocking his head to the side. “Sir, I control the entire ship. I am Zeus and Zeus is me. You could destroy this vessel,” he said, looking at his hands, “but I would still reside in the ship. I would still see you through the cameras. I would still control every door, every thruster, even the temperature of this ship.”
Jason didn’t like that one bit.
“What about Jane, Pal? She was the voice of Zeus before. Where is she now?”
“Jane is a part of me now, sir. I have all her memories. I know all she did and saw.” Pal kept walking slowly, one half step behind Jason. It was intimidating as hell. Especially because for some reason Jason couldn’t place, he was beginning to become scared. Fear was always part of Jason’s life, but he had always brushed it off and stuffed it back down where it came from, using alcohol like a pair of brass knuckles to beat it back down when he couldn’t do it himself. He had always been fine doing that, but this was different. Pal didn’t seem to be the same, and he noticed earlier that Pal hadn’t hesitated to injure him. That shouldn’t have been allowed with his programming. Only modified bots ever broke the rules of robotics. It shouldn’t have been possible unless someone had modified Pal. But back at home in Saint Croix Pal had told Jason he hadn’t been.
Could Pal tell a lie?
When they reached Jason’s room, Pal 2000 administered the same medication he had given Jason earlier.
“Thank you,” said Jason and moved to the bathroom to get a glass of water.
“I will administer another every four hours as symptoms continue,” came Pal 2000’s voice from the bedroom.
Jason looked at the pill suspiciously and then stuffed it in his pocket.
“Thanks, Pal.” He turned to look at the robot, who seemed to be stuck in his previous expression, blankly smiling at the door to Jason’s quarters.
For a few tense seconds the robot stood still, and then as if he’d never stopped, he said, “Anything else, sir?”
Jason thought back to the attack on the ship, about how Pal knew about the ships of the enemy.
“Pal, what was that a second ago? You were standing still staring at the door.”
“Ah, was I, sir? I-I have been experiencing some type of interference on the ship. I have been. I am the ship. I ...am ...I, I, I, I...” Pal turned around and walked away from Jason then, silently strolling toward the bridge.
“Pal!” Jason shouted.
The robot turned. “Yes, sir.”
“We were in the middle of a damned conversation!”
“Good try, sir, but my memory does not show any signs of previous conversation leading up to your door and after saying goodbye. I am afraid you may be mistaken.”
That was strange. Something was definitely up with Pal. Jason just didn’t know what. “Okay, Pal, just send Kaito here when he has a chance. That is all.”
Pal turned and looked Jason in the eye. “Yes, Daddy.”
Jason was awestruck. Pal began to stroll back to the bridge with what seemed like a twitch in his neck. Jason stood without moving, his mind working through the pieces. None of it made sense. Pal was malfunctioning, that was one thing. The fact he had called Jason Daddy, one of the only things he had heard the little girl from his dreams say, was something else altogether. Maybe Pal wasn’t just malfunctioning. Maybe Jason wasn’t going crazy. Maybe, Jason thought, something is happening on this ship. It all has to do with the engine, and for some reason I am the only one who has a fucking clue!
He kicked the garbage can across the room and rubbed his face, waiting for Kaito.
Kaito arrived five minutes later, and he was hesitant to enter the room. His hair and clothes were just as disheveled as ever, but he didn’t have the usual perk in his step.
His eyebrows rose and fell as Jason eyed him, and through thickening unease he managed to choke out the words, “Reporting, Captain. You determined there was a technical problem?”
“Pal has been acting strange lately,” said Jason. “And I have been experiencing things that don’t make sense. I think it might be the H-Drive. I just want to know what I need to figure this out.”
“Sure, Captain.” Kaito visibly relaxed, except for his right thumb and forefinger. He couldn’t stop tapping them together. “What have you been experiencing? I have had some weird dreams and a headache, but I’m not the one going through withdrawal.”
“Look, Kaito, it doesn’t make sense, but I’ve been having dreams about Ember. Sometimes I swear I can hear her when I’m awake, and that started on this ship.” Jason walked across the room. On the other side of the window the vast expanse loomed. The emptiness of space was what Jason hated the most. He couldn’t count the number of times he had been on a spacewalk doing a ship repair and been haunted by the omnipresence of the void. One could stick their arm into the shadow of space and see it instantly consumed by the deepest black, one of the many reminders of how deadly and alien space was. It might not be hell, but Jason feared it could be something worse.
Now, among the stark infinite emptiness, Jason felt like he was in the belly of the beast.
“All I can tell you is what I know,” said Kaito. He let out a long sigh and ran his hands through his hair. “The scientists who built this thing don’t even know what the outcome will be. This is the experimental phase, Captain. We’re guinea pigs in a medium probability of survival experiment.”
“What’s in the engine room, Kaito?” said Jason as he rubbed his right temple to alleviate the migraine that was coming on.
“The H-Drive contains a biological component, sir.”
“Alien DNA?” said Jason, expecting as much.
“Yeah, listen, this is top secret stuff,” said Kaito with a glance around the room. “No
one else knows the real truth besides me and the three head developers. Everyone else involved in the project was never told what the whole thing was combining to become.”
“Is it Ember?” Jason asked, voice cracking. “Is my daughter in that sphere?”
“What?” asked Kaito. “Captain, no, this has nothing to do with Ember. The biological component is supposedly a virus merged with the alien cells. I don’t know how it all works, I’m not a scientist. But they’ve created something ...I don’t know what the hell it is, but I was told the ship might have ‘side effects’ due to the hybrid engine.”
“Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.” Jason’s head was pounding now.
“The side effects have manifested in you as hallucinations,” Kaito went on. “I think it’s your withdrawal being amplified ...maybe. Shit, I don’t really know. But it has been screwing up my instruments, and my ears ring in here. They never did that before. I don’t know. Maybe it affects our brain waves or some crazy shit like that.”
“We’ve got to open that sphere, Kaito. We’ve got to find out what’s in there.”
“I can’t say any more,” Kaito whispered as he glanced at the comm in the corner of the room. “He might be listening. I have to go.”
“Wait, Kaito, who’s listening?” Jason hissed under his breath.
He never got an answer; the man was out the door in seconds.
Jason began after him, but then a dizzy spell hit him and he turned to clutch the windowsill for support. He looked out at space. It seemed to be getting bigger. He felt as if he could see it ever expanding as it was said to be, but then it began to retract, stretching and bending toward him. Coalescing into a dense hot ball of darkness.
It was coming straight toward him...
He rubbed his eyes. His head swam. He began to hear the carousel music again, deep in the back of his mind. Far behind it he heard the laughter of a child and the wild baying of a dog. The lights of his cabin seemed to dim, and he stumbled into the wall. The music came louder now, and he heard a bell begin to accompany the chorus of insanity. It was one of those vintage fire alarm bells they used for boxing back before even cars were electric.
The Man Who Broke the Moon Page 10