Mermaidia: A Limited Edition Anthology

by Pauline Creeden

  Zedec nodded. "There is one crate I should mention, Captain," he said. Holloway gazed at him impassively, as he continued, "I've got an entirely benign experiment, to see if I can get a certain type of flower to grow in space. It's called an Essedi Mataura. A Watermaid," he said.

  Holloway nodded, finally understanding a possible reason for the assignment, and said, "Yeah, we're swinging by Calibri on the way out to deliver you and the vaccines, I'm assuming you need some samples from the air and water there?" Zedec’s face looked momentarily stunned, then shuttered off again, and he nodded. "Yes, the Watermaid seems to like that specific configuration of molecular sustenance, but I'm not sure why. It was brought back from the asteroid belt as an inert sample they'd taken out of one of the drilling sites, so I'm curious if the asteroid belt and Calibri were once something bigger, and the Watermaid might hold the key to that."

  Holloway considered this. "We have a quar-bay off the sickbay. As long as no one needs to live in there while we travel, you're welcome to use it." Zedec smiled and offered a curt nod, then boarded the platform. Holloway hesitated before unlocking the Quar-bay and setting it to sterilise completely. He had all the right paperwork; as long as the casket it was travelling in released, it would be ok. For it to be in the bay to load, it had to have passed through quarantine somehow. With a shake, he put a small note by Jessi's name to have him orient Zedec. Something - some initial impression though, wasn't sitting quite right with him. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he got the feeling that Zedec wasn't staying with the crew long.

  Maybe he was just tired - his downtime had been cut short from this, and he was summoning everyone back - Jessi and Marek would have to take the other week owed to them. Outbreaks mobilised everyone, and when those outbreaks were in a sector of space where only a few ships could travel - would travel - then they took the work they were given. Because of the vast spread of this outbreak, Holloway had agreed - reluctantly - to return to the station out past the Calliba belts, Themisa. Eight weeks out, then they'd see what was coming back. Apathy’s Maw frequently floated where the space tides took it, but Holloway was growing weary and began to wish that he could just wash up on a beach somewhere and just...relax. He hated that he felt this bone-weary, but 18 months straight of running vaccines and supplies did that to anyone, and of all his crew, he'd had only a day or two off while berthed.

  After this one, I'm turning down stuff. I'll see if the Ex-O wants to do a couple of small runs. I'll see what savings I have. Maybe I can give everyone a week and a half off.

  Jessi and Marek arrived just as the last boxes were moving up the ramp, and, paging the doctor back down to sign off on the final paperwork; everyone was scanned, pinprick virus checks completed, and then, after a 15-minute wait while Zedec dithered over the current paperwork, and signed for his plants, then they were on their way. They had five high quarantine boxes, not two as he'd initially signed off on, but that meant a bigger bonus. Therefore, Holloway was going to propose his downtime suggestion on the way back. He did have to admit, though, that the first hour after they left the station, he began to feel all of his cares melting away. He found a freedom in space that he couldn't describe. His sister, who remained planetside, as a reporter, got travel sick, but he…he really didn't. It was freedom and space.The other new crew member though was a no-show, so he was down one man. It meant that Marek and Jessi could have a bay to themselves instead of sharing the three-room dorm and that there was definitely less of a worry about the Quar-Bay, but he did have a few problems.

  And they were all attached to their scientists-medic. He'd worried he'd be a problem from the start, but he didn't think it was going to be as bad as it could be, but only by keeping the man in the dark. For example, the mag box that held the gravity constant for Zedec’s experiment was on a faulty part of the grid. Something he'd had Eli look into and quietly run lines the first night from the central bay. He also knew that he'd magnetized that box, based on the swearing and growling Eli had done after coming out from under him. It was something he wasn't happy about, but his trade warrant wasn't worth the trouble. By the rules that governed all ships that were not military, but used military resources and outposts. It meant all scientists, medics and engineers travelled for free on the nearest transport ship that was going to arrive first at the destination. So, he had no choice but to agree to the change of medic, but he didn't need to ignore what was going on, on his ship.

  So, he decided, early on, that he'd casually drop by and try to catch a glimpse of the flower that was causing all this fuss. Watermaids were reputed to hold strands of a better cure for the current virus kicking about the outer reaches. If that was the case, the plant - or plants - would be valuable.

  He'd seen a Watermaid before. Leaves in the shape of shells, flowers in the form of a vase of tapered fishtails, as if they were encircling a point, wrapping their tails into a container. They were called Watermaids - or Mermaids - on many planets, but they didn't grow easily. Temperamental about light, heat, gravity, nutrients... The last time he'd seen one, the opalescent sheen coming off the flowers had made the water beneath it sparkle. It was a brief thing though - even as he'd visited it at the botanical research unit, it's edges, the fins of its 'tails' were browning and curling in on itself. Three days later, pictures of the curled in, curled up. A brown ball that was left appeared on the news. Until then, though, he had a lot of other things to do. But he knew that he could do it once they were in transit.

  Den's Warning

  Just as he was strapping in to leave, Den peeked into his office.

  "Ah, change and report," Holloway said with a smile, but there was a look in Denneer's eyes that made him think otherwise.

  "That, yes, and something else," he said hesitantly.

  "Which do you want to start with?" Holloway asked, gesturing him to the other strap in seat, then holding up a hand. He flicked a switch and said "Cycle up the engines, strap in and signal clear," he commanded. He nodded, and Den flicked his clear switch on his belt. Den, Eli and Jessi had their switches on their person. Everyone else had a station.

  As he watched all the lights illuminate, Eli stated crisply, "Eli Harper at the con, clear to launch Captain?""Clear," Holloway confirmed. "Channel open to Ganymede until clear of their bubble,"

  "Roger Captain. Ganymede bay 9, the Apathy’s Maw requesting clearance to leave," As the routine exchange went on in the background, and he turned to Den and said, "What's up?"

  Den pushed some information on a tablet across the table, and some chits, less than he'd left with and said "Good, or bad news first?"

  "Go with the smaller of amounts?""That would be the good." Holloway sighed and spun.

  "Coffee?" Holloway said. Den grunted. He tapped two buttons, and placed two beakers in the machine, and listened to it grind, gurgle and complain. With a hiss, it finished, and he put lids on the cups, then passed them to Den. Random gravity flux on old ships left him feeling like he couldn't, in all good conscience allow liquid ever to be uncapped onboard the vessel. Eli laughed and called the ship 'Sippy-cup central', but given the choice between the scalding by globes of liquid or Sippy cups, every member of the crew did that, or had a straw pouch.

  Den sighed. "OK. I think there are one or two really positive things. I got some parts," he said. The continued with a wince, "that's where the good news ends. Those parts aren't recyc, or Scap, sorry. I took my initiative and invested in extra 9 couplings, because they had a surplus here, and that's rare," Holloway nodded. "But..."

  He stopped, took a long slug of his coffee, and Holloway sipped judiciously. Den swallowed and said "You know that group we brushed up against. The ones that want to terraform the Earth by reconstituting...""You mean, Maratas?"

  "Yeah...them. I saw their sigil on one of the boxes. And one of the boxes that boarded with us has one of the words that they use to declare things 'fit'. Though it's a universal code word, so maybe I'm overreacting." he said in a rush.

  "Axios?" Hollowa
y said, and Den nodded. "Yeah. Well...while I was there, looking around. Someone...they brushed up against me. I felt sick for a minute, so I went to get checked and was cleared. No cuts, no sub-q irritation, but I wanted to make you aware. I've got a bad feeling about the fact I saw some of them on Ganymede. I mean..."

  Holloway nodded. Denneer had escaped from a doomsday cult to travel the stars, so was twitchy and cautious around others, to the point of over cautiousness. Once he'd refused to eat food from a crate that had random scrapes and paint sigils that reminded him of the things on the walls of his cell. As if watching a piece of his childhood, he insisted that the box should be jettisoned. Eventually, the last medic had sedated him, before he'd discarded the food and Jessi had painted the box, creating another out of scrap and letting him jettison that. Der was a great second pilot and an amazing mechanic, but the balance of his mind often teetered, and it was hard to deal with him when he was in the grip of those fears.

  "Axios is old earth for worthy. Grecian, or Roman maybe. Nothing more. We’ve got some settlers coming from a colony that doesn't speak English, perhaps it's one of theirs?"

  Den shrugged. Holloway watched him, If this keeps up, we may have to look at putting Den in for a more extended leave. It'd be hard to leave him behind, but this might be getting out of control. Every time we send him to collect supplies, he reports something odd.

  "...and then there was the pollen," he finished, and Holloway swung back to him.

  "Sorry?"

  "There's purple pollen in smears on some of the boxes. Everything is sterile leaving Gany....why would there be purple pollen all over our boxes?"

  Holloway thought again, sipping again for a longer period. "Maybe a crate cracked. We've got a new medic with an...he calls it a Watermaid. They leak pollen everywhere, don't they?" Den stiffened.

  "An Essendi?"

  Holloway nodded. Den sighed "And I'll be on a complete filter recyc after this," he said, and visibly relaxed. "you're right, I'm jumping at shadows. I guess."

  We're all too tired for this, Holloway thought, I will announce that downtime when we drop the vaccines.

  Sprouts and Seeds

  Zedec waited until they were a full day out before disabling locks, warnings and letting the variant of his Watermaid sprout fully. Dropping the force shield around it, he fed it nine vials of various liquids, moved it to the centre of the room, enabled the maglock, and then, with a mournful glance, closed the door, disabled the bay doors, and opened doors to space.

  Everyone else had tried to grow their mermaids in various environments - every variation of every atmosphere and nutrient condition, and of course, every single way they'd tried had ultimately resulted in failure. So. He wanted to expose his - one that had taken nine months to grow and was now taking the ultimate risk.

  I hope it pays off.

  He opened a log. "Master medicae Invictus, Praetorius Sanctum, log report," he began, then paused, looking through the window. There was a glow coming from the Quar bay. Leaves in the shape of tails and shells spilled out of the pot that he had locked to the floor. "Experiment started. Record Quar-Bay 1. Field 99-01, code Alpha-Zeta-Halo. It seems to be responding to a signal in the direction we're travelling in but whether it's Calliba, or further into the belt, remains to be seen. All I know is that in the night, I hear the flowers singing. Sirens in the night. Sirens. In the night." He switched off the recorder, and drifted to the Quar bay lock, and reached his hand towards the door. A leaf stretched back, a flower turning his way. It was unfurling as he watched. The small, baby seedling was camouflage, and as he watched, it began to unfold, and fill the room. Spores and dust sprinkled onto the floor, vines greedily swiping at it.

  "Siren," he whispered.

  Out in the Empty

  As Jessi sank down on her bed and tried to work out what lever to pull to switch the config of the sleeping space, and Marek put a few things away, she let out a loud, harsh sigh. And the growled, realising that the config was outside of the room, and not merely rotating the bunk, much to her annoyance.

  "I know," he said, softly, his blue skin dull and flaking. Sunburn on the first day of their honeymoon combined with being back on station two days in advance of departure had left him shedding, itchy and grumpy. His snake-like gold eyes though still glinted in the half-light of the storage area of their quarters. "But we can't refuse the Captain, you know that," he continued. There was a soft smile and a touch of reproach in his voice that she recognised for the time that they'd spent talking to one another across endless voids, as they travelled different paths.

  They'd met three years previously, at a ball being thrown for the escort ships of the Prince of Cerulean, and it's cargo of the Presidents of Earth, Mars and Jupiter for their leap year meet. The Prince of Cerulean was one of the first ships built since the last wave of colonisation, and it was a gorgeous machine. All sleek lines and power. But the viruses had cut a lot of their assignments short. The convention had been abridged. They'd escorted the President of Jupiter back to his station, before heading for Proxima. From there, carrying a load of supplies from Ganymede to Kepler-16b, where they'd loaded up to head out to Calliba. Something about a planet with two suns, no matter how geeky he found it was unnatural. No matter how often Eli referred to it as Tattine - which wasn't quite right - there was something... abnormal for Holloway's earth-grown mind to see two stars at the centre of the system of planets. Two suns from the surface. Jessi and Marek, however, had been on Kepler-16B - called Anathema by most that visited - enjoying the sights and joining in on a disappointingly short archaeological dig, before the recall.

  "You're right, we can't refuse him anything," she sighed, then motioned for him to leave the room for a minute. He cocked an eyebrow, and she winked at him, before thumbing the intercom outside. "Does anyone object to a B-zone reconfig? We're the only ones sleeping here, and half the storage isn't used, so I'd like to change the floor space of our room," she said. Marek clapped his hands over his mouth, laughing, as he heard Eli and Holloway both swear at the same time.

  "Sorry Jess," Eli's voice finally crackled. Let me switch to the lockdown and stop the ship, so all energy can go to that. Captain, as a married couple, they're entitled to more space, aren't they?"

  "Affirmative," Holloway said. He was moving through from his ready room to the front deck, to lock his own key, pulling it out from around his neck. "Marek, once we've done this, you better carry her over the threshold. You've got no excuse in this environment - she's half her normal weight,"

  "OI!" Jessi squeaked, and Holloway laughed.

  "All quarters. In space ship configuration initiating. Please ensure all doors are locked and sealed, and all atmo units are switched to priority,"

  He watched each light, except the med-bay, go green. Waiting, he tapped the light, and it remained resolutely red.

  "Zedec, please acknowledge," he said, a touch of annoyance in his voice.

  "Captain, I can't lock down the Quar-bay," came the annoyed reply. "Shouldn't this have been done before we undocked?" Holloway sighed and looked over his panels.

  "Yes, we should have, but we originally thought we'd have an extra crew member, so we can combine those rooms. It's not a difficult reconfig," he said.

  "Fine," he grunted, finally. "But if the change of pressure disrupts my experiment, I'll have wasted six months of..."

  "Medic Zedec. Unless we have an explosive decompression, the ONLY reason we lock the doors is in case something is in the spaces between that breaks loose and floats around. We contain it in the corridors. Apathy's Maw has a history of configuring by spitting liquid and turning off the gravity. I know your experiment is in a locked grav box. I also know that the box is magnetised to the floor. I know all of this because I've seen the power drain. I've seen the box." And it was true, he had, while it was being loaded into the Quar-bay dropper - a device that lowered the whole room, so that it, as a berth, could be unloaded with a full forcefield. It was true, Eli had pointed to anoma
lous readings coming from that end of the ship, but they all knew that things

  Eli gazed up curiously, and Holloway mouthed ‘later’.

  "Affirmative Captain," Zedec said. There was a smouldering note in his voice though, barely contained anger. "I will lodge this as a formal complaint, however," he said.

  "Your displeasure is noted," Holloway said, then clicked off the intercom. He sent a direct line back to Jessi. "Locked down and clear,".

  The Quar-bay light and med bay light flickered on, and a second later, the lights dimmed, and the ship slowed. It wasn't exactly evident that they'd come to a stop, but they had."Clear to config," he said and flicked a switch.

  All lights in the halls turned yellow, and Eli sent the commands that configured the room the way Jessi had requested.

  A loud rumble passed through the whole of the ship, moving out in a wave from Jessi's room. A few grinds, thumps and clanks, and Eli looked over at Holloway. A small, red symbol had appeared. "B-zone is reporting a small leak in the outer hull, and...Uhm...I wired the stuff to quarantine through that bay too," he said.

  Holloway cursed under his breath. "I clear you to go out and repair the leak and wires - I'll watch the deck,"

  Eli nodded. Holloway then added, "I'll go down and have a chat with the doctor. See if he's noticed anything elsewhere you're out there." He opened a panel and bumped a button under it, sending an alarm and lockdown notice throughout the ship.

  Repairing the Gash

  Eli loved going out into the outside of the spaceship. He knew every edge of her, every piece of her an inch of his own body.