Fields gave it a brief glance and shrugged.
“The emergency kit contains two kilos of FOX-7. That’s ten times enough to blow us through the outer shell of the ship.”
Jeff scratched his head. Could it work? Would the ship’s computer even allow it? Hopefully they would never get to the point where they would have to try it.
“And how do we check our position?” We have no way of finding out if the ship is really heading for Sigma-7.”
Irons nodded. “That’s true, and I would have liked to verify our position, but I’ll say it again, loud and clear. We have no reason to distrust our host. It could have just left us outside.”
“Do you think it doesn’t want us to check our position?” Joanne asked.
“It seems kind of far-fetched to me that the airlock can only be opened in emergencies,” Castle said.
“I disagree,” Irons retorted. “We have very similar protocols on our ships. In fact we should have expected it. Imagine we took a handful of shipwrecked aliens onto our ship, and they wanted to open the airlock during flight. What would we do?”
“Put them into a detention cell until we got to our destination,” Finni said dryly.
Irons had a point. Maybe they were being a bit paranoid.
“Lieutenant Green,” Irons said. “Everything OK?”
Jeff turned to look down the table. The engineer was sitting motionless in his seat and staring right through the major with glassy eyes. It suddenly occurred to Jeff that the normally loquacious Green hadn’t said a word during dinner. He obviously wasn’t feeling well. He was white as a sheet and drooling slightly from the corner of his mouth.
“Lieutenant Green?” Irons repeated.
Finally the engineer focused his gaze. “Sorry. I’m not feeling so great.” His voice was no more than a thin rasp.
“Is your headache still so bad? Do you want some painkillers?”
Green shook his head. “No, I’m starting to feel better.”
Jeff thought about his own headache, which he hadn’t mentioned to anyone. If it was infectious, then the major ought to know. “I didn’t feel too good this morning, either,” Jeff said quietly. “I had a terrible headache.”
Irons swung round to look at him. “Why didn’t you say anything? I would have sent someone in your place.”
“That’s just what I wanted to avoid,” Jeff said. “Besides, it wasn’t that bad.”
Joanne raised her right hand tentatively. “I didn’t feel too good yesterday.”
“You too?” Irons raised his eyebrows. He blinked.
“It went away very quickly.”
Irons nodded. “Well it seems there’s some kind of virus going around. Anyone else?”
Castle and Fields raised their hands.
“Yesterday,” the WSO replied.
“Last night,” said the mechanic. “I woke up two or three times in the night and nearly took a pill. But it wasn’t all that bad and this morning it had gone.”
“Then it seems to be some kid of mild infection, if nobody feels too bad,” Irons said.
“Apart from him,” Castle gestured with his thumb to Green, who was sitting beside him.
“We probably brought the virus with us from Sigma-7 and infected each other in the bomber during the incubation period.” Irons turned to Green. “Go to bed. It looks like you’re not hungry, anyway. Off with you, and have a proper lie-in tomorrow morning.”
Green nodded. “Thanks, Sir.” The engineer stood up and almost collapsed. He clung to the back of his chair with some difficulty.
“Lieutenant Castle, please bring your shipmate to his room,” Irons ordered.
The WSO was about to stand up but Green raised his hand. “S’OK. I’m all right.”
“You sure?” Castle asked.
“Sure,” Green answered, and dragged himself to the door.
“I hope we didn’t catch something on this ship,” Joanne said after Green had disappeared. “I mean, something alien.”
“Nonsense,” Fields retorted in a sharp voice.
Joanne’s face hardened. “Don’t snap at me like that, Corporal Fields!”
“I mean …” Fields’ face turned red and he stuttered. “I mean, if there were biological dangers here, they would have shown up on the scanner.”
Jeff smirked. Joanne was able to flip quickly between being chummy and standoffish. It was different from Irons’ predominantly authoritarian approach, but just as effective. Jeff sighed inwardly. He knew Joanne would have made a better XO than him. “What’s our next move?” he asked.
Irons took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “We’ll carry on exploring the ship. We’ve been through all the corridors between our quarters and the outer shell, without finding anything of interest. So we’ll start going deeper. But I’d like to change our strategy a little.”
“Strategy?” Finni asked. “What strategy?”
Irons turned his head and glared at the radar technician, eyes narrowed to slits. “So far, we’ve been systematically exploring all the turnoffs, in order to map out all accessible areas close to our quarters. We’ve been thorough, but we’ve only managed to expand our radius very slowly. Based on our explorations so far, there’s not much to discover. The rooms we’ve found are all empty. My guess is that there are other areas of the ship that are different from around here. And if that’s the case …”
Finni raised a hand. “But Green calculated that because of the fractal layout of the corridors—”
Irons interrupted him in a loud voice: “—perhaps the whole ship is as empty as the area around our quarters. That’s a hypothesis, no more.” He leaned forward. “And incidentally, I would ask that you do not interrupt me while I am speaking, Corporal Herrmanssson. Is that clear?”
Finni nodded.
“If other areas of the ship are structured differently, we’ll pursue another strategy and plan our reconnaissance missions so that we move as far away as possible from our quarters. We’ll guide the squads from HQ to the right turnoffs.” Irons turned to Joanne. “I suggest you go on the first of our modified missions tomorrow.”
Joanne nodded. “Sure.”
“Sir!” Shorty interjected. “You said two days ago that I could take over command of the squad tomorrow.”
Irons sighed and nodded. “You’re right, Private Short. I forgot. OK. You can join Private McGuinness tomorrow.”
“Do I have to?” Mac grumbled under his breath.
“Thank you, Sir,” Shorty said.
“We can send a second squad,” said Joanne. “Like we’ve been doing up to now, anyway.”
Irons tipped his head to the side uncertainly. Finally he nodded. “You’re right. Maybe we’ll make faster progress. Do you want to go?”
Joanne nodded. “Who’s coming with me? Any volunteers?” She looked at Jeff. “What about you?”
All eyes were on Jeff. If he refused or looked for a flimsy excuse, he would undermine his authority even further. “Sure. I’ll come with you.”
He didn’t actually want to go. He was spooked by the memory of being watched in the corridors. He couldn’t say why, but he couldn’t shake the feeling there was something waiting for them in the depths of the deserted ship.
9.
“That’s the turnoff,” Jeff said, glancing down at his handheld to be on the safe side. “Yes, G58. This is where Mac and I turned around a few days ago and went back. This is the furthest point we’ve been from HQ up to now.”
“Sure, I remember the spot,” Mac said. “I don’t need a handheld for that.”
Shorty nudged him. “We’re better scouts than our officers, eh? Like Lewis and Clarke!”
Mac bellowed with laughter.
“Get a hold of yourselves, boys,” Joanne said.
Jeff shook his head. The two technicians were in a surprisingly good mood this morning. The whole way down they’d been laughing and wisecracking. If Jeff hadn’t known better, he’d have guessed they’d knocked back a few beers be
fore setting out. But maybe it was just their usual form of communication when they were alone. Jeff was sure they would have behaved differently if Irons had been with them.
“I suggest you two go down the right-hand corridor. Joanne and I will go straight ahead. Both corridors seem to lead deeper into the ship.
“Sure boss, let’s do it,” Mac said, without even giving Jeff a second glance.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather come with us? Without us, you might get lost,” Shorty joked.
Joanne stuck out her tongue. Jeff thought the two of them were starting to go too far.
“Ahhh, the lovebirds would rather be alone,” Mac gave a big wink. “Have fun, kids. And don’t forget to use a rubber!”
Howling with laughter, the two men headed off down the corridor.
Joanne pursed her lips.
Jeff would have liked to ignore what they’d said, but he couldn’t do that in Joanne’s presence.
He straightened up. “Private Short! Private McGuinness!”
They stopped and turned around, both of them still grinning.
What should he say now?
“What is it?” Mac asked.
Should he give them both a warning? Or send them back to their quarters? Report them to Irons? It all seemed so childish.
He sighed. “Nothing. Go.”
Chuckling, the two men set off.
Jeff avoided looking at Joanne. Luckily he had to send a message to Irons. He gave their position and the direction the squads were taking.
Meanwhile, Joanne had switched on her flashlight and was shining it down the corridor. There were no more intersections in sight. Jeff put his handheld away and marched on. His shipmate stayed close on his heels.
“You shouldn’t have let Shorty and Mac get away with that,” she said finally.
Did he have to listen to another lecture now? He wasn’t in the mood. He knew he’d reacted the wrong way again. “Drop it—please,” he said.
“I didn’t want to undermine your authority, but next time I’m going to say something.”
“I get it.”
“You really need to start—”
He stopped in his tracks and clenched his fists. “Leave it!” His voice sounded angrier than he’d intended it to.
Joanne looked at him in astonishment for a moment, then began to laugh.
“What?” Jeff asked irritably. “What’s so funny?”
Joanne jabbed his chest lightly with her forefinger. She was still laughing. “You! You’re funny. That tone you just used with me—you would have been better off using it on Mac and Shorty. You sounded really pissed and authoritative. When you speak like that, you sound like a real XO.”
“Forget it,” Jeff said grumpily. “Come on, let’s go!”
Side by side, they continued down the corridor in silence. Jeff kept glancing down at his handheld. The corridor was surprisingly steep. Somewhere behind them, the gravitational vector had changed again. He hadn’t noticed the change, but his handheld showed him the spot where it had been registered by the acceleration sensor. They were now approaching a depth of just over half a mile. He kept wondering what else was waiting for them inside this strange ship, which had been abandoned for eons, and all of a sudden his hands began to shake. He was scared. Yes, scared!
Jeff took several deep breaths. “Do you think there are areas of this ship that are different from this one?” he asked, not so much out of interest, but more to break the awkward silence.
“I have no idea,” Joanne answered. “If we believe what the computer says, there’s nothing to find on this ship. In that case, it probably looks the same as it does here everywhere, and the machines and aggregates are all computer-controlled and hidden behind thick walls. In that case, all this running around is just a work-out. At least we’ll stay fit until we reach Sigma-7.”
“If we ever reach Sigma-7.”
“Do you doubt it?”
Jeff didn’t reply for a long time. He didn’t want to be a pessimist. Finally he shrugged. “I’m not sure if I really trust that computer. On the other hand, Major Irons doesn’t seem too worried.”
Joanne shrugged. “You know what the major’s like. He expresses just the amount of emotion that he wants us to see. My guess is, he doesn’t want to worry us unnecessarily, but I bet he is worried.” She sighed. “All I needed was for this one flight to go smoothly. Then I’d be done.”
Jeff looked up, surprised. Surely she couldn’t have completed the minimum number of missions already.
Joanne noticed his quizzical expression and laughed. “Yes, you heard right. After this flight I could have quit the unit.”
“But … how?”
“I applied for the intelligence service and was accepted.”
Now Jeff remembered: those who were assured a staff officer position in a non-combat unit had a certain number of flights deducted from their quota. After all, you didn’t want to lose your future executives in a routine mission gone wrong. As a historian, Jeff didn’t have that option. History lecturers counted as cannon fodder. But there was no reason to be bitter. He didn’t begrudge Joanne this advantage, especially now, when she was stuck in the same mess as he was.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She shrugged. “Every mission can go wrong. Others have been shredded to bits on their first flight. Besides, we’re still alive, and maybe this ship will get us back home and we’re just being paranoid.”
Jeff nodded. Maybe they really were being too pessimistic, and in half a year Joanne would take up her position in the intelligence service. If there was anyone in the crew that he wished well, it was Joanne. He’d liked her from the start. She was friendly, open, and sharp as a tack. Plus she got cute dimples when she smiled. At the start of their mission, he’d even caught himself watching her when she wasn’t looking. But just when he thought he was falling for her, it hit him that he wasn’t in her league. Joanne needed a sociable and adventurous guy by her side, and not a geek like him. It never would have worked, so Jeff had nipped his little crush in the bud. In fact, he’d even made a point of keeping out of her way. Only now, in this dark and gloomy place, did it occur to him that he didn’t actually know very much about her.
“This corridor is going on forever,” Joanne said, snapping him out of his reverie. He looked down at his handheld. It was true: they’d already covered a third of a mile since the last junction. The long corridors brought back memories of his childhood. “It’s a bit like on Luna—we also had endless corridors connecting one building complex to the next. Except they weren’t this dark or sinister …”
Joanne nodded. “We had those at home, too.”
He didn’t know where Joanne was from. “And your home is …?”
“I thought that as an XO you’d have seen all the personnel files.”
Jeff shrugged. “Obviously I failed on that front, too,” he said dryly.
Joanne grinned. “I’m from Ross 154/2.”
“Ashland?” Jeff asked.
She nodded. “Have you been?”
Jeff shook his head. “Not really. I once changed ships on one of its orbital stations on the way to Barnard. The connecting flight was delayed by half a day and I had some drinks with my buddy in the panorama lounge. We tried to count the active volcanoes on the surface, but gave up during our second drink.”
Joanne giggled. “I can imagine. We have one thing in common with Luna—you can’t move around outside without a space suit. There’s a monorail connecting the individual settlements and neighborhoods, but often sections aren’t running because a nearby volcano has erupted. Then the only option is to use the passageways that were drilled through the rocks to get from one dome to another.
Jeff shrugged. “Luna is just a boring heap of rocks. The only bright spot is Earth, which looks like a blue paradise. My parents and I used to spend every vacation there. My father bought a holiday home on the Mediterranean, and we went twice a year, usually Easter and Christmas. Even though w
e had big beach pods on Luna, it never came close to the feeling of lying on a real beach, with the breeze on your face under a blue sky …” He sighed. He wondered if he’d ever see the golden beaches of the Costa Brava again.
“There’s no Earth-like planet close to Ross 154. And no beach pods, either. It was too difficult to get enough water. The nearest beach was on Earth, and flights there were too expensive for my parents. The first time I saw the sea was when I was at the Academy, and we went for a weekend trip. I’ll never forget it. I stepped out of the bar of the hotel on the beachfront, and suddenly there was this huge surface of water in front of me. I panicked!”
“Panicked?”
“Yes, panicked!” Joanne opened her mouth and eyes wide and clutched her head with both hands in mock horror. Then she smiled again sweetly. “It moved like a living creature, the waves breaking on the beach, the foamy tips stirred by the wind … I’d also never seen a blue sky before, so at first I thought there was water everywhere. I really thought there was an endless wall of water in front of me that would devour me at any moment.”
She laughed and then became serious. “I heard your father was on Deneb-6.”
Jeff felt a wave of pain welling up inside him. He sighed. “Yes, he was on a business trip to carry out an inspection on a subcontractor. Deneb-6 was attacked by the rebels with Quagma bombs. A hundred thousand people died in an instant on the colony. My father was one of them. That day he’d actually wanted to—”
A flash of light! Right in front of them.
“Ssshh!” he hissed.
“I saw it,” Joanne whispered and switched off the flashlight. “What was it?”
“I’ve noticed it a few times before,” Jeff spoke as quietly as possible. “But I always thought I was imagining it.”
“I wish that were true. But that was real, for sure.” She pointed in front of her. “I think there’s another turnoff up ahead.”
There was another flash. Something was lurking in the passage behind the bend, which was still about eighty feet away. Jeff and Joanne pressed themselves against the wall and waited. But the light didn’t reappear. Now there were only stars dancing in front of Jeff’s eyes in the darkness. They kept multiplying, until he noticed he’d been holding his breath for a very long time. He barely managed to stop himself gasping noisily for air.
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