by Ramy Vance
He sat on the floor, cradling his ribs and looking mournfully at a puddle of thick red liquid between his feet. It had splashed up his boots and white jumpsuit.
Jaeger watched, heart thudding in her ears, as the creature ran one long finger through the puddle and brought it up to his mouth, and sucked his finger clean. “That is disgusting.”
“That answers that question.” His finger traced in the pool of blood, “The fact that you think this is disgusting and I can’t wait to have more means you and I are not the same. Anyway, the battery on that multitool is dead. Suppose you can still bludgeon me with it, but it’s mostly useless.” He gave her a cocky smile.
Jaeger dared a glance at the battery meter. He was right.
She dropped the tool. It fell on the mattress with a bounce and clattered to the floor.
Catching her breath, Jaeger edged backward to press her spine to the wall. “Who are you? What do you want?” A few vague memories of the past day flickered inside her, and she glanced up to see the overhead hatch open. The communal living quarters above had lighting. “Virgil?” she croaked, then tried again. “Virgil!”
“I’m here, Captain.” The voice had come from behind her, and she turned to see a small speaker mounted in the wall.
“Our guest patched up your wounds,” the AI said sourly. “I’ve determined that he’s unlikely to be an immediate threat to you.”
“Immediate threat?” Jaeger’s gaze swung back to the pale man sitting on her floor. Her voice turned squeaky. “He tried to eat me!”
“Oh, come on.” He rolled his eyes. “I said I was sorry.”
“You did not!”
“Yeah, I did. You were asleep. Anyway, I had low blood sugar. If I wanted to hurt you, I would have while you were unconscious. Instead, I brought you here. Besides, I can’t eat you. I get this killer headache when I try.”
He rubbed that same spot in the back of his neck, near the base of his skull. “Absolute monster, and it popped up the instant I got teeth near you. It came from this lump. Haven’t had a chance to get a medscanner to look at it yet but I think I’m chipped or something. Might be for the best. I really don’t want to hurt you, I swear, but I was confused down there.
“Tell you what, though. I don’t think I’ll be trying to bite anybody again no matter how tired or confused I am. It was one hell of a nasty shock. That’s why I brought you here. To your room to…ahh…recuperate.”
He dipped another finger into the puddle and licked it clean. It left a bright red stain across the corner of his lips. He grimaced, and she caught the glint of sharp teeth. “I won’t eat you, promise.” Then he winked. “Well, that is, not unless you ask nicely.”
Jaeger stared for a long moment before realizing her mouth was hanging open.
“Ugh.” He looked down at the puddle, his nose wrinkling. He scrubbed his fingers on the fringe of her sheet and pushed himself to his feet. “That tastes pretty gross out in the open.” He held a hand out to her. “There’s a couple more packs up in the med cabinet. Come on. You look like you could use a pick-me-up, too.”
Jaeger stared at the offered hand. His fingers were long, thin, and bony, but there was a steely sort of strength in the pale bulge of his tendons and muscles.
“Virgil, what the fuck is going on?” Jaeger didn’t dare take her eyes off this space vampire.
“I don’t know.” The AI sounded distracted. “I’m rather occupied with repairing my files. He knows basic door access codes and seems to have a grasp of ship functioning. He came to his senses after you fainted.”
“I didn’t faint.”
“Yeah, you did. You went all possum on me.” He scratched the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “I know, I know, I scared the bejeezus out of you, but look, you’re not the only one struggling here. I mean, I woke up in an airless tube, hungry as hell. But now that I got this.” He pointed to the blood pack, “My head’s on straight now, I swear.” He offered out his hand again, with another smile. “So come on. Let’s get something to eat. Truce?”
Jaeger hesitated, and the vamp shook his head. “Look, the way I see it, you don’t got a choice. We’re both marooned God knows where with no memory, a faulty AI, and on a ship that should have a hell of a lot more people on it. Do you want to work together to figure this out or do you want to play the worst game of hide and seek on this damn thing?” He gave her a big smile, his hand still out. “So, truce?”
Something about this creature put her at ease. There was something about him, something familiar that…that comforted her. If only she could place it. Not that it mattered. He was right. They would have to work together to get things done.
She nodded but didn’t take his hand. She’d work with him for now, but trust…that would have to come later.
Looking around, Jaeger muttered, “I see we got gravity again.”
“Yep. You’ve been out a couple of hours. Most of the systems are coming back online.”
Which meant she’d been helpless at his mercy for a couple of hours—and she was still in one piece. So, Virgil was right—someone had refreshed the foam on her scalp and bandaged her hand.
She nodded at the ladder that led up to the hatch. “You first, buddy.”
He heaved a dramatic sigh but nodded and started up the ladder.
Jaeger stared at the jar the space vamp dropped onto the counter in front of her. It was the size of a coffee tin, clear, and full of thick, dark paste.
The drawers clattered and clanked as he rummaged through the galley kitchen. He found a large spoon and slapped it on the counter beside the jar. “There,” he said as he turned and walked to the end of the row of cabinets. “Eat up.”
Jaeger didn’t touch the jar, opting instead to watch as he opened a large medkit door and rustled around the cases of bandages and medicines. He came out with a silvery pouch, big enough to nestle comfortably in one of his long palms. He returned to the counter, fiddling with a small port at one end of the pouch. Jaeger saw a block of printed text on the side of the bag, too small to read.
“Well, go on.” The vamp nodded at the jar. “Eat.” He slid onto the stool across from her, fiddling with the port at the end of the pouch. He hissed. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me—the damn port is jammed.”
Jaeger stared with a mixture of fascination and horror as he brought it to his mouth and bit into the corner. Not the careful bite of front teeth to tear open a stubborn bag of candy, either—the creature unhinged his jaw and sunk two long, needle-sharp fangs into the pouch. His expression turned to one of utter delight when the red crimson liquid bubbled up around his lips.
He glanced guiltily at her, his tongue moving awkwardly beneath the pouch. “Thowwy.”
“Are you…drinking an emergency blood transfusion kit?” By Jaeger’s reckoning, this jaunt in an abandoned spaceship had taken a surreal turn.
He didn’t answer. Instead, there was a faint sucking noise as the pouch shriveled to a husk. In seconds, a pint of universal blood substitute was gone.
The apparent space vampire pulled the useless plastic off his teeth and tossed the pouch into a recycling chute behind him. “I mean.” He scratched his neck again. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
She shook her head slowly and unscrewed the cap of the jar. The smell of sugar and chocolate wafted around her. The vamp made a faint gagging noise and scooted backward as she dug out a scoop of the paste and licked it off the spoon. It tasted like hazelnuts and nostalgia and kicked her rumbling stomach back into gear.
“So,” she said between ravenous mouthfuls. “What do I call you?”
“You know, I’m not sure. But I did find this.” He touched his jump suit and pointed to the tag. She leaned forward to read L.M. Toner scrawled out in spidery handwriting.
“Toner? Is that your name?”
“Maybe. I think so, but the truth is, I have no idea. For all I know, I ate some guy named Toner and put it on.” He gave her a big smile.
She shuddered at the thought and
didn’t smile back.
“What? I’m joking.”
“Could be true.”
“Yeah, could be…” he muttered.
“And all this time I’ve been thinking of you as Jeffery.”
He cocked his head. “Why?”
“Because I found you in the Jefferies tubes.”
There was a moment of silence, then Toner tipped his head back and laughed, a rich, booming sound that belonged to the man who recited from Henry the IV and not the skinny, pale thing sitting in front of her. “No, no.” He grinned, showing her too many sharp teeth. “The last thing I want to be associated with is that place. Please, let’s go with Toner for now.”
“Fine, Toner, it is. Pleased to meet you, I think. I’m Jaeger. And I, like you, remember shit.”
Toner nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been noodling this since I woke up. I can recite most of King Lear’s first soliloquy. I also remember that vampires aren’t real, and yet, here I am. Hungry for blood and hard to kill.” He jerked a thumb at the recycling chute and shrugged. “Pretty weird, huh?”
Jaeger froze with a spoon of sweet chocolatey nut paste in her mouth. “Yeah, I know how to repair a ship, but beyond that…nothing.”
“If we are mark’d to die we are enough to do our country loss, and if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honor,” Toner recited, his voice falling into a rich baritone that echoed around the empty living quarters. “God’s will! I pray ye—”
“That’s Henry VI, not Lear.” Jaeger forced herself to swallow a lump. She pushed the jar away, suddenly no longer hungry.
“Ah-hah! A woman of culture.” Toner saw her expression and straightened, turning serious. “What’s wrong?”
“Virgil lost the ship’s log when it got damaged,” Jaeger muttered. She rubbed thoughtfully at the medfoam caked over her head wound. “I got a concussion when I got smacked in the head. I figured that was where my memory loss came from. But you don’t remember anything, either? And no,” she quickly said as he tilted his head back to belt more iambic pentameter. “Can it with the act. This is serious.”
Toner shook his head. “Nothing, sorry. I hoped you could tell me.”
“Why would I know anything about you?”
Toner sighed and rummaged around the pockets of his jumpsuit. He pulled out a wrinkled scrap of paper and proffered it to her. “I found this in my pocket.”
She wiped her chocolaty fingers on the table and took it. Someone had scribbled a hasty note across the lines.
Jeffries junction 6.1a, 2300h. Bring tools.
She handed the note back to him, puzzled. “What’s that got to do with me?”
“That’s your handwriting, isn’t it?”
“I have no idea.”
Toner stared at her.
She stared back.
She remembered, suddenly, the drawers hanging open beside her bed—and the stacks of disheveled journals spilling out of them.
“Holy shit. You went through the notebooks in my quarters.” She felt her stomach do a nauseous flip. She didn’t even know what was in those notebooks. She hadn’t had the time to stop and browse and try to get in touch with the person that was S.W Jaeger. The idea of the stranger sitting across from her knowing secrets about her made her feel sick. Violated.
“I had to,” he grumbled. “I figured whoever left me that note must have been a friend. Or a co-conspirator, at least. I needed to know if I could trust you. Look, I didn’t go digging through your diaries or anything, I just—”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to hear it.”
Although she’d known him for less than an hour, she was shocked by his respectful nod and the silence that fell between them as she grappled with the well of her lost memories.
“It wasn’t only the concussion that wiped my memory,” she muttered finally. “It must have been something else. The same thing that wiped yours. Maybe that’s what affected Virgil, too.”
“Could be,” Toner allowed.
Jaeger scrubbed her fingers across her temples. “There should be some nutritional water pouches in the cabinet behind you. Toss one here.”
He complied, and she sat back slowly, studying him. She let out a long breath as she popped the port and squeezed some of the mineral water into her mouth. “Work with what you have,” she muttered. “One step at a time.”
Funny how having someone to talk to took some of the panic out of her mantra. Even if that someone had tried to attack her.
“So,” she said finally. “You tried to eat me.”
“That’s really not fair,” the vampire started. Then he caught her stone look and winced. “Okay, I tried. But I didn’t. And I don’t want to. I just want blood. There are plenty of these packs lying around. I can smell them, so really, it’s not a problem.”
“Why didn’t you?” Jaeger was puzzled. “You had me dead to rights.”
“I had a change of heart?”
Jaeger frowned.
He rubbed that same spot in the back of his neck, near the base of his skull.
Jaeger nibbled her lip. “Can I take a look?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
She pushed to her feet and, after hesitating only an instant, walked around the counter to stand behind him. He pulled his long hair to the side and tilted his head forward, exposing the back of his neck to her. She could grab one of the kitchen knives strapped to the galley wall and slice his spinal cord open right here, she realized.
Either he truly did trust her, or he believed she was no threat to him, even if she had a knife to his neck.
She folded down the collar of his jumpsuit to see the patch of skin he indicated.
“Yeah, there’s a discolored lump,” she muttered. She hesitated, then pressed a finger to it. His skin, which had been cold as the dead down in the tubes, pulsed warm and living beneath her fingers. The implant lay wedged between vertebrae, black and curved. “Holy crap,” she muttered. “I think whoever put this in wrapped it around your spinal cord. Does Virgil have anything to say about this?”
Toner shook his head. “I asked the damn AI if vampires were real. Her response and I’m quoting, ‘Vampires are mythical creatures. Origins of their folklore: unknown. There are several European folklore legends that…yadda, yadda, yadda.’ After I got that useless answer my next question was—”
“Am I a vampire?” Jaeger muttered.
“Give the lady a prize. That’s exactly what I asked.”
“And the answer?”
“‘All bio scans match those of a normal human.’”
Jaeger lifted an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Her words, not mine.” Toner obviously shared Jaeger’s disbelief.
She shook her head. “All that tells me is we have a broken AI. Speaking of which.” Jaeger tipped her head back to eye a speaker mounted from the overhead support. “You’re awfully quiet, Virgil.”
“I am undergoing system reconstruction,” Virgil said. “Now that the generators are running and you’re out of immediate danger I see no need to monitor you closely.”
Jaeger and Toner exchanged bemused looks. “Sure,” she said finally. “How’s that log recovery going?”
“I’m repairing damaged databases. Notably, I’ve come across a series of files labeled Mission Introduction Series. I have some of the associated videos recovered.”
Jaeger sat up with a jolt. “A mission statement? You’ve found it?”
“Quite possibly. Would you like to review it now?”
Chapter Seven
There was a large viewing monitor in the communal living quarters, surrounded by low-slung, collapsible furniture. It would have been the perfect place to settle in and review Virgil’s recovered mission files if not for the silvery fire extinguisher smashed directly through the screen.
The next largest screen easily accessible in crew quarters was the one mounted to the wall in Jaeger’s bunk. She made Toner wait outside while she shoved her journals away and shut the cabinets, the
n gestured for him to come down the ladder.
“Virgil, cast the files up in my private quarters.” She gestured at Toner. “Queue up the files.”
“Aye aye.” Toner rolled his eyes and started fiddling with the settings as Jaeger wiped away the smear of blood drying on her floor. The light in the tiny quarters shifted as the monitor flared to life and she looked up to see an image frozen on the screen.
She opened her mouth to stop him, but Toner, moving carelessly, had already activated the video.
The farmhouse yard, glowing golden in the afternoon light of some sleepy summer.
The faded lilac print of the cushions wrapping the porch swing squished beneath the weight of two bodies.
Jaeger watched again, frozen, as the woman on the screen fell back, clutching a laughing little girl to her chest.
She didn't want a stranger to see this, but she couldn’t find it within her to open her mouth and make Toner turn it off. She could only stand there, petrified and fascinated, and watch.
The little girl was maybe seven or eight years old and round with baby fat. She had Jaeger’s crop of tight curls, dotted yellow with dandelion heads. She stared into the camera, smiling, her golden eyes shining like the sun. She shrieked with laughter as the woman tickled her ribs.
“Stop. Stop!” The little girl clutched the dandelion crown around her ears. “You’ll ruin my flowers!”
Jaeger had seen the woman before, and not only in the glimpse she had gotten of this video earlier. She had seen this woman in the medkit mirror. She watched, as if in a dream, as the Jaeger on the screen clutched the child and planted a long kiss on her cheek.
“I am going to find you a whole planet full of wildflowers,” screen Jaeger whispered fiercely. “You’ll have a new crown for every day of summer.”
The little girl’s face lit. “Promise?”
“I promise, Boo.”
“When? How long will it take?”