by Gary Gibson
‘Whatever it is,’ he said, moving ahead of her towards the lander, ‘maybe they’ll stop once we tell them we caught something.’
‘Assuming eating it doesn’t kill us!’ she yelled after him.
* * *
By the time he reached the lander, Karl had appeared from out of the cargo bay and taken up a position next to Angel and Wardell. Ethan was nearly nose-to-nose with Angel, Joshua and Kim standing shoulder to shoulder with him while Sun watched from nearby, twisting her hands together with worry.
‘Hey!’ Sam called out as he approached. ‘What the hell is it now?’
Joshua turned and blinked in surprise. ‘Where the hell have you been?’
‘Hunting.’ He stuck a thumb towards Irish, who had managed to drag the carcass of the bungee-bug closer to the campfire. ‘And we caught something.’
Suddenly they were all looking at him instead of fighting with each other. ‘You did?’ Wardell asked, sounding surprised.
‘More than enough for all of us, assuming the damn thing is edible.’ Perhaps it was better for the moment that he didn’t tell them what they’d brought back with them. ‘Anyone here knows how to butcher an animal?’
Wardell hopped down from the ramp, the argument, whatever it had been about, apparently forgotten. ‘I can do it, but I’m going to need something to cut it up with.’
‘Kevin’s printed a couple off,’ said Ethan, ‘along with some general tools. Which we could go get,’ he added, glaring at Angel and Karl, ‘if these idiots would let us inside.’
‘Ethan?’ asked Sam.
‘It’s Vic again,’ Ethan explained. ‘He beat the crap out of Amit—went up to the command deck and laid into him without any warning, is how I heard it from Kim. Now they’ve got Amit holed up in there and won’t let anyone else talk to him, even to find out what’s going on.’
Great. Sam took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then took Ethan’s place in front of Angel. ‘Either get Traynor down here right now to explain what’s going on,’ he told the soldier, ‘or get out of my way so I can ask him myself.’
‘Don’t push it,’ said Angel, his tone obstinate. His eyes widened, and he took a slight step back as the smell of dead bungee-bug hit him. ‘Vic’ll explain everything when he’s ready.’
‘This isn’t your ship, you assholes!’ Ethan bellowed from beside Sam. ‘There’s more of us than there are of you, or didn’t you notice? We had a vote!’
‘Vic knows what he’s doing,’ Angel insisted, his face stiff and angry. ‘You sure as fuck don’t.’
‘I won’t ask you to get out of the way again,’ Sam insisted, although he wondered how far the other man was willing to push a confrontation.
‘Do what he says.’
Sam turned to see Irish standing to one side of the ramp, an arrow nocked and aimed straight at Angel’s heart. Angel blanched, then slowly backed up the ramp.
‘I mean it,’ said Irish through gritted teeth. She looked a formidable sight, drenched as she was in bug juice. Either she’d lost all her fear from killing the bungee-bug, or she was doing an excellent job of hiding it. ‘Move.’
‘This might be the biggest mistake you ever made,’ said Angel.
‘Threatening a woman who can put an arrow through your throat from a hundred feet might be the biggest mistake you ever made,’ she told him, ‘unless you get the hell out of the way.’
Angel muttered something under his breath, then jumped down off the side of the ramp. Wardell and Karl moved to one side, allowing Sam and the others clear passage.
Sam turned to Ethan. ‘I want you to come up with me and take a look at Amit, see how badly he’s hurt.’
‘Hey!’ said Joshua. ‘What about us?’
Sam looked at them, suddenly weary beyond words. ‘Just…wait here until I find out what it is this time.’
* * *
Traynor looked up, clearly startled, when Sam and Ethan walked onto the command deck. Jess was leaning over a bruised and bloodied Amit, who had been pushed into a chair.
Traynor glared at him. ‘Wait just one minute!’
Sam ignored him and pushed past. ‘Step aside, Jess. Let Ethan check him over.’
Jess glanced at Traynor, who gave her a nod. She stepped back, her face twisted up in anger, and Ethan knelt by Amit.
Sam turned to Traynor and tried hard to look more confident than he felt. ‘What is it, Vic,’ he asked, ‘beating the shit out of Amit once wasn’t enough?’
Traynor flashed him a savage grin. ‘On the contrary.’ He stepped forward and pressed something into Sam’s hand. ‘Take a look at this.’
Sam looked down and saw the object in his hand was a tiny plastic box with a lens fixed to it. ‘It looks like—’
‘A camera,’ Traynor finished for him.
Sam looked up at him in confusion. ‘I don’t understand. Where did you get this?’
‘We were digging a latrine around the other side of the boulders. Jess found it stuck to a tree. It was angled so that it had a view of the entire clearing, including the lander.’
Sam looked at Jess, then back at Traynor. ‘So…who put it there?’
Jess glanced sullenly at Amit. ‘That’s what we wanted to find out.’
‘Wait.’ Sam shook his head, trying to make sense out of it all. ‘What has Amit got to do with this? Are you saying he put it there?’
‘Maybe,’ she replied. ‘Think for a second—if there’s a camera stuck to a tree, it means somebody has to be watching us. Correct?’
‘That’s impossible,’ said Sam, ‘given we’re the only people on this planet.’
‘And how the hell could you know that?’ Traynor spat. ‘You decided to let Amit stay up here on the command deck, getting up to God knows what. For all we know, he’s the one who’s been running the whole damn show from the beginning!’
Sam put his hands up in a calming gesture. ‘You’re still not making any sense.’
‘You ever heard of virtually aided interrogation?’ asked Jess. ‘It’s when you implant a chip in someone’s head and program it to feed them false visual and aural information. Means they see and hear anything you want them to, and they’re never any the wiser.’
‘I never heard of any such thing,’ said Ethan, looking up from beside Amit.
‘I have,’ said Sam. ‘I heard they tried using it on people under extraordinary rendition. Except it drove them all crazy, so they banned it.’
‘Say you’ve got some terrorist who won’t tell you where a bomb is planted,’ Jess said to Ethan. ‘You fix it so he thinks he’s home free and talking to his buddies when, really, he’s talking to an interrogator. They can’t tell the difference. Fuck whether it drives them crazy!’
‘Except whenever an interrogator got an answer they didn’t like, they refused to believe it,’ Sam pointed out. ‘The whole idea was junk. It never worked.’
Jess’s hands bunched into fists, and she took a step towards him. ‘Listen, you asshole—!’
Traynor moved between them and put a hand on Jess’s shoulder to stop her. ‘The point,’ he said, turning back to Sam, ‘is that everything we’ve seen and experienced since we woke up here could be a lie. Maybe we’re not on some other world at all, but somebody wants us to think we are. Maybe those stars we see up there are only projections mixed in with our natural vision. The camera is there so they can monitor us while we run about thinking we’re on an alien planet.’
‘You realise,’ Sam said carefully, ‘how completely nuts that sounds?’
‘And you think waking up on an alien planet who knows how many light-years from home makes for a better explanation?’
Sam folded his arms. ‘I’m still waiting for you to tell me what any of this has to do with Amit.’
‘He’s one of them,’ said Jess, stabbing a finger towards the engineer. ‘One of the people responsible for controlling our programmed scenario. That’s why he knew all about the lander, and why he had full root access to its computers. He’s helping run a game
on us!’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Ethan. ‘If we’re being programmed to see whatever somebody else wants us to see, then how come they let you see that damn camera?’
Traynor stared bug-eyed at the doctor.
‘Whatever killed Piper wasn’t a delusion,’ Sam reminded Traynor. ‘Neither is the fact we’re in real danger of starving to death.’
‘Yeah, and Sam managed to catch something,’ Ethan added. ‘More than you sons of bitches managed.’
Jess stared at Sam, her anger forgotten. ‘You did?’
‘Irish put an arrow through the same kind of animal that killed Piper. We might as well find out if they taste as good as we presumably taste to them.’
‘Staying alive,’ said Ethan. ‘That’s our priority, not beating the crap out of each other.’
‘That still doesn’t explain the camera,’ Traynor insisted, albeit with less confidence than a moment before.
‘I had nothing to do with it.’
Sam looked around at Amit, who had spoken. ‘Please believe me,’ he slurred through bruised lips. ‘I know nothing about any camera.’
‘We’ve got a surplus of engineers,’ said Ethan. ‘Didn’t any of you geniuses think about trying to figure out if it’s sending a signal somewhere, or where it might have come from?’
Traynor’s face coloured. ‘Now, listen—!’
‘You’re right that I can’t explain it,’ Sam interrupted him, ‘but neither can you. Beating someone up just because you think they might know something isn’t going to get you anywhere.’
‘You want to try and get to the bottom of all this?’ Traynor said with an angry scowl. ‘Fine. But if it turns out I’m right, and Amit is holding out on us, you’re the one responsible.’
He pushed past Sam, followed by Jess. Once they had descended the shaft and out of sight, Sam collapsed against a nearby console.
‘Got to say I wasn’t sure which way that was going to go,’ Ethan said with a nervous chuckle. ‘You know, if they really wanted to, they could take this lander for themselves and kick the rest of us out.’
‘It won’t come to that,’ said Sam.
‘You’re sure about that?’ asked Ethan.
‘Yes.’ No.
‘All I’m saying,’ said Ethan, ‘is however bad you think things are now, they’re going to get worse.’ He glanced towards the shaft entrance and lowered his voice. ‘Traynor’s going to keep pushing and pushing until he sees how far we bend before we break.’
‘I know,’ said Sam, fighting a sudden rush of hopelessness. ‘Maybe it’s better if Amit stays up here and out of his way.’
‘No.’ Ethan shook his head adamantly. ‘You can’t pussyfoot around this, Sam. The rest of them out there need to see what Vic did, or they’ll think we’re hiding Amit for some reason and wonder if it’s something even worse.’
* * *
Dusk had well and truly arrived by the time Sam made his way back outside, supporting Amit on one side, with Ethan on his other. Most of the others were back at the campfire, drawn by the sight and smell of roasting bug meat, except for Kevin and Joshua, who were waiting by the ramp.
Kevin stared, aghast, at Amit’s bruised face. ‘What the hell?’ he exclaimed, his voice full of outrage. ‘Were they trying to kill him?’
‘It was a misunderstanding,’ said Sam. Even to his own ears, the words sounded entirely inadequate.
‘That,’ said Joshua, ‘is one fuck of a misunderstanding.’
‘Jess found some kind of camera at the clearing’s edge, trained on the lander,’ Ethan explained. ‘Vic somehow got it into his head Amit had something to do with it.’
Kevin’s mouth flopped open. ‘A camera? Who—?’
‘Let’s get Amit settled first, and then we can all talk about what it means,’ said Sam.
‘Traynor’s getting out of control,’ said Joshua, his face red with anger.
‘I know,’ Sam agreed. ‘But now isn’t the time to discuss it.’
‘Then when is?’
I don’t know, Sam nearly said. Instead, he nodded to Ethan, and together they guided Amit over to the campfire.
* * *
Traynor and the soldiers were once again gathered in a loose knot on one side of the campfire from the rest of them. Kim jumped up with a furious scowl on his face once he saw Amit’s injuries.
Sam gave him a small shake of the head: don’t say anything. Kim’s hands twisted at his sides, but he sat back down without a word.
To Sam’s surprise, Wardell had already made short work of the bungee-bug, jamming a pair of forked branches into the soil on either side of the campfire and balancing an improvised roasting stick across them. A chunk of hacked-off bug-flesh speared on the stick bubbled and blackened above the flames, giving off an aroma that, while strange to Sam’s senses, was not necessarily unpleasant.
Irish stood as well when she saw the state Amit was in. She turned and looked at Traynor. ‘What the hell?’
‘Vic made a mistake,’ said Sam, making eye contact with Traynor as he spoke. ‘He and Jess found something, and they jumped to the wrong conclusion, as I’m sure they’ll tell you themselves.’
Traynor waited for several beats before he spoke. ‘We made a mistake,’ he said at last, his voice flat.
‘This is bullshit!’ Irish shouted. ‘This isn’t something where you just kiss and make up! He—!’
‘It’s exactly as Sam said,’ Amit interrupted her. ‘A misunderstanding—nothing more.’ He cleared his throat with difficulty. ‘Working out where the camera that caused all the confusion came from is of greater importance.’
Irish blinked at him. ‘Camera?’
Sam still had the device. He fished it out of a pocket and held it up so that they could all see it. ‘A camera,’ he said, making his way around the campfire and passing it to anyone who wanted to look at it. ‘Jess found it at the edge of the clearing, which means somebody must have put it there.’
‘You mean…somebody’s watching us?’ asked Irish in amazement. ‘Who?’
‘Does it matter?’ exclaimed Sun. ‘Don’t you see what this means? We’re not the only ones here! There are other people out there somewhere.’
‘Don’t make any assumptions about them being human,’ said Kim.
‘Whoever or whatever’s behind this,’ said Sam, ‘they’re not showing themselves. Obviously, we need to figure out why.’
‘I think,’ said Wardell, adjusting the roasting stick, ‘the best thing we can do right now is see if we can eat this. Because if it’s ever going to be ready, it’s ready now.’
‘Shouldn’t we talk about the camera first?’ asked Jess, staring daggers at Sam.
‘Later,’ said Sam, his stomach grumbling as he smelled the cooking meat. ‘First, I want to see if we can eat the damn thing.’
‘But…’ Sun looked at him with a troubled expression. ‘…surely, after what happened to you and DeWitt…?’
‘Personally,’ said Sam, ‘I’m willing to take my chances. We’ve waited too long. Either we can eat this, or we give up.’
‘I have to admit, I agree,’ said Traynor, meeting Sam’s gaze.
A fresh murmur of voices rose from around the fire, all in agreement.
‘I refuse to eat animal flesh under any circumstances,’ Kim insisted, sitting with his arms crossed tight against his chest. Even Amit managed to nod his agreement.
‘Then you’re wasting it,’ Irish told him. ‘Letting yourself starve to death when you don’t have to is completely dumb. Besides, that thing would have killed Sam if I hadn’t nailed it first.’
Kevin, holding the camera, came up to Sam. ‘Mind if we have a word?’ he asked, nodding towards the tree-line.
Sam cast a regretful glance at the cooked meat, then followed Kevin out of earshot of everyone else.
Kevin soon came to a halt and turned to face Sam. ‘If I didn’t know better,’ he said in a low voice, ‘I’d say this thing was fabricated aboard the lander.’
/> An uncomfortable feeling stole across Sam’s belly. ‘You think maybe one of us made it?’
‘I can’t see how.’ Kevin turned the device this way and that, thinking. ‘I’ve been in the fabrication bay pretty much all the time. There’s no way someone else could have done something like this without my noticing. But it’s at least possible.’
Sam’s gaze fell on Amit, and he wondered for a moment if Traynor might have been right about the Indian engineer after all. ‘Ethan wondered if the camera might be broadcasting to some place around here.’
Kevin shrugged. ‘Could be. If it is, it’ll be somewhere nearby, unless there’s radio relays out there we don’t know about. It might be worth seeing if we can find any more of these things hidden around the clearing.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ said Sam. He nodded towards the truck chassis. ‘Looks like you’re making fast progress.’
‘Maybe another day or two to scavenge or print the electronics I need, and we’ll finally have transport, so long as the angels are on our side. I’ve been stripping the ‘copter of a lot of its components.’ He grinned. ‘Then we’ll finally be able to see what’s really out there.’
* * *
Despite his ordeal of the last several days, Sam found to his surprise he was looking forward to sampling the bug meat. Kim and Amit kept to their word and abstained, announcing they would go in search of more roots and vegetables in the hope of finding something non-poisonous. In the meantime, Wardell speared chunks of charred meat onto twigs, passing them around.
When Sam at last bit into his share, he was ready to spit it back out at a moment’s notice. Instead, and to his considerable surprise, it tasted delicious. He pushed the rest of the fatty meat into his mouth and chewed with deep pleasure. He looked across the fire and saw Ethan doing the same, audibly moaning his appreciation.
Mannite or not, everyone, apart from Kim and Amit, ate the bug meat.
* * *
‘You want to call this place what?’ Sam overheard Joshua say to Amit.
By now, the bug had been reduced to almost nothing, and Kim overcame his Mannite sensibilities sufficiently to express his scientific interest, picking through the remains and peering at blackened shards of cartilage that functioned, he suggested, as a skeleton for the creature.