Chilling Effect_A Novel

by Valerie Valdes

  Eva fought the urge to vomit.

  Leroy had also obtained a new neck ornament. Its myriad legs lovingly caressed the sides of his neck. Eva couldn’t feel the thing on her, but if it looked anything like that, she’d try to avoid any mirrors for the duration of this job.

  “Now can we collect our cargo?” she asked sourly.

  “Certainly,” the first monk said. “Follow me.”

  The small entrance door of the monastery was set into a larger door that remained closed. Both were made of a reddish metal, or possibly the brown stuff everything else was being built from. The aesthetic was austere, remote, perfect for a holy place.

  Inside was the opposite. Garish colors decorated the walls, textured to form different geometric shapes depending on the placement of each piece. Strange submerged gardens, like a mixture between coral reefs and tiny underwater volcanoes, seemed to be creating more rock. She thought some of the parasites were lounging in the gardens, but she couldn’t be sure since they weren’t moving and they matched the environment. Also, the water was a cloudy yellow.

  Too much protein, she thought.

  And the inhabitants . . . This place was almost as mixed as Omicron, for all that it was much smaller. Truateg, walluk, even a tall watery yf wandered the halls. Not to mention a few humans here and there. They all seemed to be in a mighty hurry, but Eva couldn’t figure out where they were hurrying to, exactly.

  {{Isn’t this delightful?}} Eva thought. Only she didn’t think that. More like someone whispered it into her brain.

  “Aw, seriously?” she said out loud. Ministrations indeed.

  Leroy shot her a nervous glance. “Are you hearing things, boss?” he asked.

  She nodded. “It’s the parasites, I’ll bet. Just ignore it. We’ll be out of here soon.” She resisted the urge to rip the thing off Leroy; if a cat could melt him into a giddy puddle, a critter latched onto his spinal cord was bad news.

  Past the strange gardens were a series of tunnels that sloped gently downward. Set into the packed earth walls of the tunnels were small plaques next to opaque glass containers. They were mostly the same size, roughly two meters long, but a few were smaller or larger.

  “What are these?” Eva asked.

  {{They are the Redeemed,}} the voice in her head said. It was louder now, which made her nervous. {{Have the wonders of redemption been explained to you?}}

  “Nope.” Why was she talking to the thing? She should ignore it like she’d told Leroy to do.

  {{Redemption is wonderful,}} the creature said. {{We lived in the warm dark once and redeemed who we could. But then the Great Voice told us of the Above, which was filled with the Unredeemed, and so we came.}}

  “I’m not in the market for a new religion, thanks.” She wasn’t exactly practicing anything, but she respected the saints, more or less, and she prayed to the Virgin out of habit when things looked ugly.

  The tunnel spilled into a huge room encased in a transparent shell. It was like looking up from the bottom of the sea, the way the sunlight danced on the ceiling. Eva reached a hand up as if she could touch it, as if she could rise and break the surface and take in the warm air outside. She lowered her hand, embarrassed, and found Leroy standing slack-jawed in the same posture.

  “Leroy,” she said. His attention snapped to her. “I think the parasite is doing more than talking. We may need a full scrub when we get back to the ship.”

  He nodded. “I got tagged by a beagelian spore cloud once. Thought I was a sunflower for a week. I can handle this.”

  “A sunflower?”

  “A painting of a sunflower. But that makes even less sense, so I don’t usually bother explaining.”

  “How much farther?” Eva asked the monk who was leading them.

  {{Not far,}} her parasite replied. {{We are almost to the room of redemption. First we must pass through the room of communion.}}

  “I wasn’t asking you,” Eva snapped.

  {{There is no need to take that tone.}}

  She focused on the walls of the tunnel they had entered. More of those opaque windows with their plaques—no, they were screens that gave information about . . . what?

  The room of communion was dark where the other one had been light, the inside visible only thanks to the open door.

  Until the door closed behind them.

  “Qué rayo?” she said. With a thought, she called up a light from the collar of her suit. Leroy did the same, and the two of them stood back to back in the middle of the room, weapons drawn.

  {{You need not be alarmed.}}

  “The hell I need not.”

  The monk who had been leading them was gone. It was just the two of them and the neck suckers.

  {{Do not be unreasonable. Redemption is not painful. Subsuming your will to ours requires only your silent complicity.}}

  She ignored the voice again, searching the walls for a way out. They were seamless, smooth stone like the volcanic rocks in the garden pools at the entrance to the monastery.

  “There must be a control panel,” she told Leroy.

  {{Our arguments for redemption are highly logical. For example, you will enjoy the nutrient pastes prepared under our careful supervision to sustain your biological functions.}}

  “I think the controls are on the outside,” Leroy said. His tone was calm, detached, and she hated herself more for bringing him. He’d be in PTSD hell later and it was all her fault.

  Assuming there was a later.

  {{Why do you refuse to discourse with us? You are very rude.}} There was a tightening at the nape of her neck where the fingers gripped her.

  “Did you bring an EMP?” she asked. Leroy nodded, reaching for the pack slung across his broad shoulder.

  {{It would be very unethical of you to damage our holy room.}}

  “It’s not going to damage your room,” she snapped. “It’ll disrupt any electronic locks temporarily.”

  {{How good of you to speak with us again. Surely we can maintain a pleasant and open dialogue. For example, we are happy to inform you that the locks on the room are not electronic.}}

  “I thought you said not to talk to it,” Leroy said. “Mine has been pretty quiet.”

  Eva sighed. “Don’t waste the EMP. It says the locks are mechanical.”

  Leroy put the device away, crossing his arms over his chest. “What now, then? Wait in here until the bugs drive us crazy?”

  {{We are not bugs. We are the Redeemers. There is no need to address us using pejorative terms.}}

  “Shut up,” she growled. “If you don’t shut up, I’ll tear you off my neck so fast, you’ll redshift.”

  {{Threats are not very ethical. We have done you no harm. We are only talking.}}

  “Boss, you want me to break down the door?”

  She stared at Leroy in the dim light of their commlinks. “What, with your hands? Or did you get explosives in here somehow?”

  He grinned. “I can rig the EMP to blow if you give me three minutes and one of your gravboots.”

  {{That would be very unethical.}}

  “You don’t like it, open the door.” She sat down and unsealed the gravboot from her space suit.

  {{We will be unable to conclude our business transaction if you damage our holy room.}}

  “Oh, now it’s about business.” Her fingers groped for the place where the boot material overlapped her suit, and she pulled the boot off and tossed it to Leroy. He immediately got to work on his rigged EMP.

  “All right,” he said finally. “I’ll set it up, you wait on the other side of the room.”

  {{Why do you persist in rejecting redemption? You have not offered cogent arguments against our generous offer.}}

  “I’m a person, not an exosuit!” she shouted. “I don’t want you riding around on my neck telling me what to do. Madre de dios, how is that so hard for you to understand?”

  She froze. Leroy had closed his eyes and was breathing in a controlled way. Shit. She’d probably triggered him hard with
that line.

  {{We understand the words you are using, we simply reject them as false and invalid.}}

  “Nothing more to talk about, then. See you on the ugly end of a blaster.” Eva punched Leroy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “I know this is a hot mess, but I’ll make it up to you as soon as we get out of here.”

  Leroy continued to inhale and exhale rhythmically.

  “Leroy?”

  {{Perhaps we might negotiate favorable terms.}}

  The room began to feel warm, cozy, like someone had flipped a switch from crazy to Christmas and handed Eva a cup of coquito. Probably manipulating the dopamine levels in her brain, she thought. Sneaky bastard.

  She ignored it, wondering how many monks they’d have to blast through to escape. Wondering how she’d explain to her handler exactly how this whole deal had gone to the crow’s nest and then taken a dive. They had fronted her money for fuel and supplies so she could make it here to get the cargo, and that would be added to her debt if she didn’t succeed. More debt meant her sister was stuck in cryo longer, and Eva would have more chances to screw up as badly as she had on this job. More chances to let her crew get hurt because of her poor choices.

  {{None of your concerns would continue if you would simply be redeemed. There is safety in silence.}}

  Eva was so tired. She hadn’t even noticed; she’d been busy dealing with one crisis after another. First Mari, then Glorious, then Miles Erck . . . It was all too much at once. The stress of it had finally caught up with her, but if she gave up, accepted that she would inevitably fail . . . Some of the tension slipped from her shoulders, first one breath, then another coming more easily. Everything would be fine if she’d give up, thanks to the annoying, invasive, kind, concerned spiritual guide humbly imploring her to stop fighting its attempts at communion and embrace redemption.

  “Tu madre,” Eva said. This thing was sneaky, and very tempting. “Leroy, you okay?”

  He didn’t answer.

  {{He has begun his communion. Are you prepared for yours?}}

  Gritting her teeth, Eva raised her pistol. “I’m going to prepare a communion for your buddy over there if they don’t leave my crew alone.”

  {{We are not a hive mind. We operate individually for the greater good. You may speak to them yourself if you like.}}

  She shook Leroy’s arm. “Leroy, or alien dude, listen up. I’m going to put a hole in you if you don’t back off.”

  Leroy dropped the rigged EMP and grabbed Eva’s wrist. She tried to wrench out of his grip, but he had a hand like a power loader’s claw. He shook her until she dropped her gun.

  “You will not harm us,” Leroy said.

  “That’s debatable,” she said.

  “We will wait with you until your communion is complete. If you attempt violence again, we will respond in kind.”

  Eva didn’t want to hurt Leroy, though she was pretty sure she could take him if necessary. Maybe if she could get the door open . . . But then she’d have to fight her way through Leroy and a whole lot of monks by herself. Assuming they fought, which they might not, but she couldn’t take that chance. And then how would she get the stupid liquor they’d come for in the first place?

  {{There is no need for violence.}}

  “You do realize that what you’re doing to me and my buddy is a form of violence, right?” she snapped.

  {{We are not harming you physically in any way.}}

  “That’s not the only kind of violence,” she said. “You go on and on about being unethical, but you’re forcing your will on people.”

  {{Redemption is entirely voluntary. It is your choice to accept communion.}}

  “But what’s the alternative? You’re not giving me the choice to go back to my life as it was before, and that’s unethical. It’s unreasonable. You’re treating me like an object instead of a person. If that’s how you want to play it, then why bother with the bullshit choice? Why pretend this is anything but you keeping me locked up until I do what you want, no matter what I want?”

  {{You will be released as soon as our communion is complete. Is that not what you desire?}}

  She let that thought sit like a stone in her hand. All she had to do was give up, and she’d be free. Not a chance; she hadn’t rolled over for Glorious, and he didn’t live in a literal shithole. But how long did she have? Could she hold out in hopes of rescue?

  What was the thing doing to her, anyway? She didn’t want to end up like Leroy, but how else would she get out?

  How else indeed. She replayed what the parasite had said to her earlier and grinned.

  {{No, that will not work.}}

  Eva tilted her head sideways and let her mouth fall open. She unfocused her eyes, crossing them slightly.

  “Our communion is complete,” she said, trying to match the phrasing and intonation of the parasite. “We may now depart for the room of redemption.”

  {{Stop what you are doing. This is highly unethical.}}

  A rustle of clothes. Steady breaths. Then Leroy knocked at the door, a staccato pattern using the tips of his fingers rather than his knuckles.

  After a long pause, locks moved outside the room. The door opened inward, letting in a bright yellow light and a blast of warm air.

  That was one problem solved, then. Now she had to figure out how to get the cargo, get off-planet, and get that thing off Leroy without hurting him. Hurting him more than she already had, anyway.

  How could she possibly make this up to him later? She couldn’t. She had really fucked up this time, and there was no coming back from it. Hopefully he would forgive her eventually, but if he didn’t, she would understand.

  I’m so sorry, she thought, staring numbly at the broad outline of his back. She scooped up her pistol and the EMP and followed Leroy through the door.

  The room beyond was strangely clinical compared to the rest of the monastery. Low ceilings were lit by yellow orbs that hung in nets suspended at regular intervals. The floors and walls were the same reflective stone of the communion room, but less polished. At the far end, a giant lift platform hovered in a cylindrical hollow in the rock.

  But what caught Eva’s attention were the rows upon rows of beds on which people lay facedown, naked as they came.

  Next to the beds, containers of some unknown material waited to be used, or had been filled and were waiting to be collected by the monks who walked the aisles, murmuring softly to the people. The liquid inside was an electric yellow that could have come from the light, or could have been the natural color of the stuff.

  And it was coming from the back ends of the parasites clinging to the necks of all the people in the beds.

  Please tell me that is not what I think it is, she thought. No answer from the parasite. Just as well, since it was a rhetorical question.

  “Are you ready to be redeemed?” The ahirk monk who had led them there reappeared at her side, wiggling their tendrils drunkenly.

  “I, uh . . .” She struggled to regain her composure. “We should deliver the cargo as promised, before the crew of this one’s ship becomes suspicious and violent.”

  “Why would you not call them to inform them of your redemption, that they might be drawn to be redeemed themselves?” asked the monk.

  “That is . . . a thought. But I—we do not think they would believe the redemption was voluntary, no matter what we told them.”

  Leroy stepped in. “This is logical. This one’s memories suggest the one called Eva was volatile and not prone to reasonable choices.”

  Eva’s mouth twitched but she said nothing.

  “Very well. Deliveries must be made. I am sorry to see two newly Redeemed leave so quickly, before their first true redemption.” The monk gestured for another to approach, and together they led Eva and Leroy to the back of the room.

  The second monk began loading containers of butt juice onto a cargo pallet next to the lift, and Leroy joined him after a moment, which twisted a knife in Eva’s guts. She had seen him
do the same thing so many times on La Sirena Negra, but now the easy sway of his muscles was stiffened by the awkward control of the parasite. She wondered whether Pink would be able to get the thing off without hurting him. Whether he was too far gone to save.

  {{If you remove the Redeemer on your ship, they will die.}}

  Oh, welcome back, you little comemierda, she thought. I had hoped you’d given up.

  {{Our failure to ensure communion will mark us as unworthy. We will be rebuked.}}

  Not my problem, she thought. It’s either you get off my neck before I get off this rock, or my medic figures out how to remove you, and you get to do the vacuum rhumba until you freeze and pop.

  Silence replied. Should she ask the thing about getting a parasite off? Probably a waste of time. Why would it want to tell her such valuable information, even if it might save their lives?

  Instead, she continued to watch Leroy and the monk load cargo. Her hands kept wanting to pick at the scab on her neck, but of course there was a giant thing in the way.

  “This is sufficient to fulfill the contract,” the monk said.

  “Then let us return to the surface and load the ship.” Leroy pushed the floating pallet onto the lift.

  They all climbed on and it started to rise. There were a few windows here and there, but mostly the ride was smooth and boring, a straight shot up from the bowels of the monastery to the original room where they had entered.

  The only one in the antechamber was the muk monk who had put the parasites on them, what felt like a million years before but had probably been a couple of hours. Now she should be in commlink range to reach the ship, with any luck.

  ((Pickup,)) she pinged at everyone on the ship. She didn’t know what the monks’ defensive capabilities were, and she didn’t want to find out the hard way.

  {{Our ideas are the only defense we need. Our arguments are impenetrable.}}

  Eva’s eyes rolled so hard she thought they would fall out. She hoped the monks didn’t see it.

  {{You are very cynical.}}

  Eat a turd, she thought.

  {{You are also very rude.}}

  “And you’re a parasite attached to my skull who can’t seem to understand the meaning of the phrase ‘Jódete, coño!’”