by Rexx Deane
William has returned! He looks a little gaunt and malnourished, but other than that, in good health physically. I tried to talk to him about what had happened on the planet below, but he seems unwilling to discuss any of it. He sits hugging something tiny, clenched in his fist, but won’t show me what it is. He almost has the symptoms of trauma repression. Cullen spoke to him but wasn’t able to get any information out of him, either. I’m concerned as to what’s happened to Duggan, since they only took one ship. He could be stuck on the planet with no support, or worse, dead. I hope he’s OK. Deep down, I really liked the guy.
2209-06-23
I tended to William today. He had cuts on his arms. I wonder if he has been subjected to something terrible and has started to self-harm because of it. He has a distant, wild look in his eyes sometimes, and almost seems like a different person.
2209-06-25
Cullen accused William of sabotaging one of the runners today. He claims that William’s cuts were due to him attempting to rip parts out of one of the ships without tools. There were traces of blood in the engine compartment, so it looks like compelling evidence.
DNA analysis has confirmed that it is William’s blood. He has been incarcerated in a makeshift prison stockade for the time being until the truth can be determined.
2209-06-27
William attacked Cullen today while he was questioning him (not threateningly, I must add) about the fate of Duggan. He wouldn’t answer any questions at all. Cullen had approached the prison enclosure (a little too closely for my liking) and William grabbed him by the neck and started to strangle him! We had to send men into the enclosure to get him off. He wouldn’t let go and one of them hit him over the head. The blow was beyond my means to minister to, and he died in moments.
Cullen wasn’t in a good state afterwards. He’d nearly been strangled to death and has fallen into a coma. I will keep a close eye on his condition. We can’t afford to lose our leader. These recent events have damaged the morale of the outpost too much.
I buried William myself. Poor lad looked strangely at peace.
‘Where’s the next bit about Cullen?’
Aryx took the book from Sebastian and leaned against the desk as he flicked through the pages. ‘Here.’
2209-06-29
Cullen has stabilised. He hasn’t woken up yet, but he has started to move and twitch, indicating a dream state, rather than coma.
2209-06-30
Cullen’s condition is slowly improving, although he stirs occasionally and seems delirious and feverish. I’ve tested him for viruses and infections, but there’s no evidence that William brought back anything with him that could have infected him.
2209-07-02
Cullen woke today. He seems a little disorientated, but I’m sure it’ll pass when he’s got some proper rest and started to recover. I’ve given him a mild sedative to help him sleep.
2209-07-03
Cullen left his bed today (against my recommendations, I must add). He seems to be getting a little agitated with being in the hospital. He’s expressed a desire to leave the medical building, but I’m worried about his psychological state. Perhaps he’s not handling the situation very well.
2209-07-04
Cullen disappeared from the hospital. I later found him in the town, just outside the pub. He seems to have changed his mind about the resources on the planet below and has convinced the others that we should leave and begin harvesting the resources there immediately. I didn’t think he’d got anything out of William about his experiences down there, so I don’t know what his motivation is, or why he’s in such a hurry to go.
2209-07-26
We’re all loaded up and ready to leave in the ship this afternoon. I questioned Cullen about his change of mind, but he still wouldn’t explain himself. I guess he doesn’t have to, since everyone else already agrees with him! The strange thing was, he had a similar look in his eyes to William. The way he stared at me, it was like I could almost see the reflection of distant stars in his eyes. I hope this isn’t the psychotropic side effect of some undetected infection that William brought back. I’m really worried about him.
Duggan, I wish you were here. I could use your help getting to the bottom of this.
‘That’s the last entry,’ Aryx said, sitting on a bed. ‘I assume they left and the medic forgot to take the diary with him.’
‘Or he left it in case Duggan came back.’
‘Do you think Duggan is your Paper Man?’
‘It sounds like it.’ Sebastian had a hundred questions rallying around inside his head, but forced himself to slow down. ‘Do you think there might have been a virus?’
‘I’m no medic, but I don’t think it would have been limited to infecting just Cullen if it was. Duggan seemed okay to you, didn’t he?’
‘Apart from being half invisible. He seemed to be quite coherent and rational. He must have repaired the sabotaged runner after the Folians dropped him off here. What are runners anyway? He mentioned them, but I didn’t think to ask further.’
‘Short-range craft. The design was innovative two hundred-odd years ago. They had kinetic ablative armour plating that could absorb the energy from an impact and convert it into a sudden burst of speed, hence the name. People used them for scouting and recon missions.’
‘Duggan was lucky, then, making it to the node in one of those.’ It was good to finally refer to The Paper Man by a proper name. ‘I need some air – this place smells.’ Sebastian turned and took the diary with him.
Aryx followed. ‘I don’t understand why they went to the planet below if it’s a gas giant. The diary says it’s habitable, but how can that be? The gravity alone would kill them.’
‘I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense. The Folians aren’t exactly high-pressure, high-gravity dwellers. Have you seen how skinny they are?’ Sebastian stared up at the faint orange crescent of the huge planet above the trees to the west and took a deep breath. His chest was beginning to tighten. ‘There’s something strange going on here.’
‘Do you think we should try to go there?’ Aryx asked. ‘I mean, nobody’s ever landed on a gas giant. They’re not exactly known for being solid. The giveaway is in the word “gas”. The pressure crushes probes before they get to anything solid.’
‘I know.’ Sebastian looked rapidly up and down the street. With all the freedom the Ultima gave them, he now felt trapped. ‘Somehow, Duggan and William survived landing and return, and Cullen was convinced enough to move the entire colony there. The strange thing is, Duggan didn’t say anything about meeting the colonists on the planet.’ He thumped the post of the veranda with his fist. ‘The answers must be there. I don’t see how the Folians can live there, but the only other planet in the system is a lump of molten rock and the ship would probably melt if we tried to even go near it.’ Every clue was leading to a dead end, again, and he hated it.
‘If Duggan was piloting a runner,’ Aryx said, ‘he wouldn’t have the range to reach other systems without the node, so the Folian homeworld has to be a planet in this system. Besides, he wouldn’t necessarily bump into the colonists if they landed there. It is an entire bloody planet, after all. If he hadn’t got a ship when they arrived, they wouldn’t have known where to find him – if they were bothered about finding him. It’s not like they all had wristcoms back in those days, and we didn’t detect any geosats in orbit when we arrived.’
Sebastian stepped off the veranda. ‘It must be the gas giant. We’ll have to go there. I don’t see that we have any alternative than to try.’
‘It’s your call, but I don’t think we’ll learn anything more here. Did you have any luck with your search?’
He tucked the diary into his bag. ‘Not really. I found some lamp oil and several gardens full of vegetables—’
‘Vegetables?’ Aryx’s eyes widened. ‘Where?’
‘The last few houses at the bottom of the street.’ Sebastian pointed. ‘There are loads in the gardens behind.
Beans, potatoes, cauliflower and who knows what else.’
Aryx grinned broadly. ‘We should take some back with us.
Sebastian extended his arms out from his sides, demonstrating his lack of pockets. ‘Do I look like I’ve got room to carry loads?’
‘Wait here a sec.’ Aryx ran into a building across the street. A faint tearing sound came from the doorway, and before Sebastian had time to investigate, Aryx came out carrying a large piece of ripped canvas. ‘I’ll use this to carry them,’ he said, folding the sheet and knotting the corners together to form a makeshift hamper. ‘I’m not passing up the opportunity of some fresh veg. Show me where they are.’
Sebastian led him back down the street to the houses with overgrown gardens. ‘I’ll wait here,’ he said, sitting on a step. ‘Given that most of the vegetables I’ve seen have been peeled and cooked, I don’t know the best ones to pick, and you’re the gardener.’
Aryx returned fifteen minutes later, makeshift sack bulging with produce. ‘These cost a fortune in the markets back on the station, and it would be nice to have real food.’
Sebastian folded his arms. ‘Are you quite done now?’
Aryx shrugged. ‘I suppose.’
‘Let’s get back to the ship, then.’ Sebastian stopped at the gate on the way out of town. ‘Do you think we should take a shortcut through the woods to the ship? It would be a lot quicker than going the way we came.’
‘I’d rather take the path we know, but it’s entirely up to you.’
He approached the large trees opposite the gate and stared into the dark under-canopy. ‘I don’t think it’s too difficult. There’s no undergrowth – it should just be a straight walk,’ he said, and strode in.
Aryx caught up and walked alongside him. His face dripped with sweat; the bag of vegetables looked heavy.
‘Are you alright?’ Sebastian asked.
‘I’m fine. Even though my legs haven’t got any weight on them, it’s still tiring to move them as much as this. They don’t get much exercise in a wheelchair, other than when I put the stimulators on them.’
‘Do you want me to carry it for a bit?’
‘No, I can manage. Keep going. The sooner I can sit down, the better. The straps are digging in again.’
After several minutes of walking through the cool, leafy woodland, the edge of the felled area in which they had landed appeared through the trees. A low rise, about three feet high, stood between them and the clearing. Aryx, walking several metres ahead, crested the mound and vanished.
‘Aryx!’ Sebastian ran to the top of the mound. Where was he?
‘I told you we should have gone the other way!’
Aryx was stuck in the ground, up to his knees, at the bottom of a long, mud-filled furrow that extended the length of the far side of the mound. He held up his mud-covered hands like a child about to cry.
Sebastian jogged down the slope, jumped the trench, and made a grab for Aryx’s hand.
Aryx’s face was red and scrunched into a scowl.
‘Get the bloody veg first!’ he said, pointing at the sack lying at the edge of the marsh.
Sebastian moved the sack, and tried to find the least boggy patch on which to stand and held his hands out. Aryx grabbed them, covering them in mud, and heaved himself out of the hole with a loud, slurping squelch. He staggered back with the shift in weight.
Mud clung to Aryx’s projected legs, seemingly against all laws of physics, and it stank. His nose wrinkled – he probably wouldn’t get rid of that stagnant smell, even if he could scour out his nostrils.
Aryx looked down at himself and flicked away a few blobs of mud from the bottom of his leggings. He raised his right leg, pressed a button on the mobipack’s harness, and the leg vanished. The mud fell to the floor and he reactivated the leg and repeated the process with the other.
Sebastian bent down to wipe the mud off his hands using a handful of leaves. ‘Very impressive. If you ever manage to make clothes out of those fields, I’m sure parents everywhere will thank you.’
‘Not if their kids are running around looking naked, they won’t.’ Aryx rubbed his hands on a nearby tree, leaving large brown prints on the white bark. ‘I’m lucky it wasn’t any deeper, or I’d smell all week.’
‘You’ll have to learn to look where you’re going.’ Sebastian handed him the sack of vegetables and Aryx tied it to the mobipack, leaving his hands free.
They stepped out of the dense tree cover into the clearing. The heat of the day was already beginning to build and a wall of hot, dry air hit them as it blew over the parched and splintering logs.
‘Get off me!’ Aryx, sweating profusely, batted away several large mosquito-like flies. Why weren’t they bothering him, too?
‘Are you alright?’
‘I’m okay so long as they don’t bite me. They’re probably attracted to my medication or something.’
The mosquitoes dispersed as they headed towards the ship, leaving Aryx alone. A darkening formed in the sky above the treeline ahead, and while Sebastian stared, the dark stain shifted.
He stopped. ‘What is that, smoke?’
Aryx shielded his eyes with his hand. ‘I can’t tell.’
Sebastian took a few steps forwards; he stood on a large stick and the snap echoed across the clearing.
The drifting cloud changed direction.
He froze. ‘Aryx, it’s moving.’ A faint hum, like the engine of a distant ship, met his ears.
‘Run,’ Aryx said, ‘it’s a swarm!’ He staggered over the logs as he picked up the pace.
Sebastian ran alongside and grabbed his arm to stop him falling. The ship was yards away. The drone emanating from the treeline became deafening.
‘Ultima Thule, verbal override!’ he yelled. ‘Unlock and open airlock doors, access code Heimdall seventy-six!’
The ship obliged, extending the force-field steps and opening both the inner and outer doors simultaneously. Aryx stumbled as his prosthetic feet passed through the step. Plasmic discharges flared. The sky darkened with the swarm.
Something black flitted past Sebastian. He shoved Aryx up into the ship, and the thing swooped around for another pass. Whatever it was, he couldn’t let it bite him.
The drone was so loud he couldn’t hear himself think.
The swarm was upon them.
Chapter 19
Sebastian dived through the opening, clearing both sets of doors and landing on the floor, as the airlock slammed shut. The pinging of insects spattering against the hull rang in his ears like machine-gun fire. Something smashed against the metal wall above his head.
He rolled over and a large, black sticky blob the size of a fist peeled off and fell to the floor beside him. Shards of black chitin with wings and legs protruded from the ichor. Aryx stood over him, holding a sleeve from the N-suit. It had a black stain on it.
‘Did I tell you I hate flies?’
‘I would never have guessed.’ Sebastian smiled and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. The droning still came through the hull, despite the two airlock doors.
On the other side of the observation window, black shapes floated about inside the chamber. Several of the evil things pummelled the glass and he jumped back.
‘Let’s get going.’
‘What about the ones in there?’
‘We’ll have to vent them into space.’
Aryx winced.
Sebastian folded his arms. ‘What else do you suggest? It’s either that or keep them in the airlock and never be able to get out again. You don’t—’ Aryx was looking at him strangely, staring at his folded arms.
There was a gash on his right arm, about two inches long; there was very little blood, but the edges were angry and swollen. He prodded the area; it throbbed painfully in response.
Aryx handed him the medical kit from the pressure suit compartment. ‘Use this. You don’t want it to get infected.’
He held the kit while Aryx took out bandages and anaestheptic – a combine
d anaesthetic and antiseptic spray. He winced as Aryx cleaned and bandaged the wound. It hurt like hell. ‘Despite not being a medic, you’re pretty good with a bandage.’
‘I’ve had plenty of practice. We don’t have any of those nanobots left to suture it, so you’ll have to put up with a bit of discomfort until we get back to the station. The anaestheptic will kick in soon.’
Already the wound was beginning to numb.
Aryx sat in his wheelchair, deactivated the prosthetic fields, and headed up the lift with his makeshift bag. Sebastian picked up his rucksack and, with one final glance back at the insectoids buzzing about in the airlock, followed him up.
Outside the ship, the swarm hammered murderously against the cockpit windows, blotting out the sky.
Unable to see outside, Sebastian punched in commands to take the ship out of the atmosphere vertically. The creatures stayed with the ship while it rose above the woodland, lifted by the Dyson hoops. A whine, followed by a loud bang, echoed from somewhere in the forward section.
‘What the hell was that?’ Aryx asked.
‘There are no warning lights. I expect it was just one of those things getting mangled by the thrusters.’
At an altitude of two hundred metres, the main engines powered up and Sebastian imagined the smell of burnt flesh, the swarm, torched by the fusion engine’s jets.
The windows cleared as the ship ascended through the atmosphere, losing the insects one by one, until there was no sign of them. The deepening blue of the sky gave way to the black of space, the stars still hidden by the bright contrast with the forest-moon’s reflected light. Above the ship hung the foreboding orange disc of the gas giant. Sebastian plotted a course for the planet, calculating a descent vector based on the assumed gravity, rotation and atmosphere density. The ship rolled one hundred and eighty degrees so their target lay below them, with the moon of Tradescantia overhead, and the main engines fired once more.
Aryx flicked through the medic’s journal. ‘Oh dear, I wish I’d seen that earlier.’