Alvin Baylor Lives!

by Maximilian Gray

  Rinsler shook his head to say it wasn’t him.

  Odd.

  He walked out of the room.

  “Are you sure about this, Alvin?” said Buzz. “I mean, you got no arms.”

  Alvin shifted his butt in the hopper seat, then cringed as he bumped his elbow into the cabin wall.

  “Ow.”

  He recoiled and sank into the bucket seat. The cabin felt larger without his suit on. He had no way to get his busted arms through the dang thing. “I don’t need ’em. I’ll use my noggin.”

  “Your what?”

  “My head.”

  Buzz nodded excitedly. “Oh yes! I’ve heard that word.”

  “Close the hatch, Buzz, my ride gets here in eight hours.”

  “Good luck. I’ll go assess the damage at the water tanks.”

  “Thanks for all your help.”

  Buzz nodded and his plume of blond hair wavered in zero-g. He sealed the hopper’s roof.

  Alvin peeped the controls and started up the engine.

  How am I gonna find it?

  The hopper let go of the anchor-hold and lifted off the deck toward the airlock. Alvin bobbled in his seat.

  Listen for its call. You’re bonded. That’s what Rinsler said.

  He flew out among the stars. His synaptic implants luminesced as he controlled the ship. Without a helmet to cover them, they doused the tiny cabin in blue light.

  What the hell did he mean?

  A streak of white hung across the black expanse. He traveled closer to it.

  Alvin spun the hopper around to examine the white arc and spotted a gap right where Dactyl had been. The transmuted debris traveled outward in both directions along the ex-moon’s orbit. A ring was forming, irregular in shape owing to 243 Ida’s gravitational field. The curve warped inward or outward occasionally.

  He set the autopilot for Dactyl and the hopper began flying toward the gap.

  Bingo.

  He zoomed his view for a better look. Between the connecting arms was a maelstrom. Small pieces of ice circled around, obeying some gravitational force.

  “Must be the sphere,” he said to himself.

  He flew into the storm. Chunks whizzed by from different directions and a tiny snowball smacked the ship. An alert sounded.

  “Damn it. Can’t get hit. I’m dead without a suit,” he said.

  A voice whispered in his ear.

  What was that?

  Blue light from his implants dashed along the walls as he scanned the cabin. He heard it again. Louder this time.

  A chunk of ice suddenly came at the cockpit. He recovered his focus in time to dodge it. His temples grew warmer.

  “Where is it?”

  He looked into the vortex at the center, his eyes darting from one moving object to another. He zoomed the camera in at each spec, until he saw something that looked unusual. A cylinder with an outstretched rectangle carved out of ice.

  “The drones.”

  He studied the image for details and heard the whisper grow into a rushing wind. It startled him, and he hunkered down in his seat.

  What is that noise? It’s got to be there.

  He reached out with his mind, visualizing the little sphere like Rinsler had taught him. His head started to tingle and his consciousness melded with the orb. Abruptly he was wrapped in the icy grip of the frozen drone. He felt trapped, then a rush of sadness washed over him and he released the connection.

  Katy.

  He saw her in his mind’s eye and recoiled. His stomach went hollow.

  Another piece of ice came at the hopper. He took control and the ship came alive and bucked upward to dodge it.

  “I have to empty it.”

  He took a deep breath and scanned the area for more errant debris. It was safe for the moment. He released synaptic control of the ship and reached out to the sphere once again.

  He felt the buzzing and left his body.

  Frozen tendril tips wrapped about him now. The drones had clustered together and frozen into a solid block that gripped the little orb. He felt their cold embrace, but inside he felt something warm. Was it her?

  Good-bye.

  He let go and the orb released its contents. The warm feeling left him.

  The frozen drones cracked as gas radiated out into space. Their icy tendrils shattered, releasing the sphere.

  Alvin sensed all around. He felt nothing but ice and the void. He reached out farther until he could feel the edge of his hopper, then he backed off and the orb swallowed the area. He disconnected from the sphere and was back in the ship cabin.

  The world ahead was pitch then it rippled and belched the background of stars back into view.

  He dropped his pounding head and felt the skin on his temples sting. A sharp pain shot through the center of his forehead. He smelled something strange and recoiled.

  My implants are burning through. Have to finish this.

  The frozen drones were gone, along with the ice that surrounded them. The gap between two great arms of ice flow was clear now. He flew the hopper in closer. His head pounded.

  The whispering called him forward until he saw a colored light glowing in the dark of space. He flew in close to the glowing orb. A colored spectrum wrapped around its black surface. He took hold of it with a hopper tendril.

  Got the water. I’ve almost made this right.

  He spun the ship around and set the autopilot for 243 Ida. He felt his implants start to cool, but the headache persisted. By the time he came up on the airlock doors, he was ready to retch.

  “Buzz, you standing by? I’m back. I grabbed as much as I could. There’s more out here if you need it.”

  “We’ve got another problem,” crackled over the radio.

  Alvin laughed halfheartedly. “I can’t fix everything before I leave for Earth.”

  “You need to see this,” said Buzz. “I don’t think you’re going home.”

  The thin metallic floor gave beneath Alvin’s feet, then sprang back up. He tensed under the motion and his pulse jumped. The dull ache in his head returned to throbbing. He took a deep breath and slowly placed his right foot down. The floor flexed and sprang back up behind him. Buzz directed him forward over the concave deck. The room was as wide as the entire base. The water supply was embedded in the floor at the center.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?” said Buzz.

  “It’ll pass. This thing just gives me a headache.”

  Alvin cocked his head to the side to indicate the orb hanging in a pouch at his waist.

  Buzz eyed it with curiosity.

  “Alvin, you have more than a headache. Your implants burned your face. Your veins are inflamed.”

  Buzz studied Alvin’s face up close and grimaced.

  “I’m feeling better.”

  “You look like shit. What is that thing?”

  “It’s a magic ball. It makes stuff, gets rid of it.” Gets rid of people, too. He felt a hollowness inside his gut. “With two you can send stuff in between them.”

  “It all makes sense,” said Buzz. “Our lives are forfeit. They don’t need us anymore.”

  “They’ll just need fewer of you. That’s the way technology goes,” said Alvin.

  This place looks pristine.

  “Would this floor hold up under a stampede of people?”

  “No. This is the top of the hydrogen exchanger. Only a couple service techs allowed at a time.”

  They came to the edge of a cylindrical chasm. Buzz leaned over it and his blond hair whipped around in the air.

  “Look,” he said. His voice echoed.

  Alvin leaned over and felt the breeze dance across his cheeks. The empty tank went deep into the core. The inner surface was sheer save for two long service ladders and a row of staggered circular holes that lined opposite sides. The ladders were locked off behind protective cages.

  No one’s been down there.

  “Where’s the damage?” said Alvin.

  “There wasn’t any.
The backwash system was activated. The water was vented out the supply lines and into space.”

  “So someone got into the control system,” said Alvin.

  Buzz shook his head. He tapped in the air and a virtual control page appeared. His finger pressed a floating icon, and the circular holes inside the tank closed. The surface turned flush white, except for the ladders.

  Buzz tapped another control that said, “Log.” A list of commands with time stamps appeared. At the top was the Close command he had just sent. Below it was a backwash order, sent remotely by Alteris.

  Alvin was stunned.

  How could I be so stupid?

  “Meyer,” he said. “She did it. She wants us all dead.”

  “Yes,” said Buzz.

  Alvin felt his blood pressure rise.

  Rinsler was right.

  He scowled and looked Buzz in his blue eyes.

  We’re the same now, expendable ’roiders.

  “I can’t climb down.” Alvin shrugged his broken arm.

  “What do you need me to do?”

  “Take the device. Put it at the bottom of the tank and climb back up.”

  “Let me get the key for the ladder.”

  Alvin looked at the tiny padlock securing a cage over the ladder rungs.

  “Don’t bother. My multitool has a bolt cutter. It’s on my belt.”

  Buzz reached down and unclipped the tool. “This thing is handy.”

  “Keep it.”

  Buzz nodded solemnly. “What comes next?”

  “We find out if this ball floats.”

  Alvin leaned his left shoulder against the wall for balance. He closed his eyes and exhaled. His head was on fire.

  “I think we need to get you back to Choi,” said Buzz.

  “Yes.”

  He stood up straight and returned to walking up the sloping corridor. His left hand gripped the orb. Thankfully, it was light as a feather, whether in gravity or not. He was exhausted and his wrecked arms had sapped his strength.

  “You saved our asses, Alvin.”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t understand how that ball could hold so much water,” said Buzz.

  “Science,” said Alvin.

  He saw a notice pop up in his Opti-Comp. It was from Beckman. “All Hands Meeting. Now in the mess hall. CorpSec is en route.”

  Below it, Alvin saw Meyer’s last message to him, the one promising he’d be back on The Hope soon. He laughed.

  CorpSec is coming to kill us. If only I hadn’t let Katy inside.

  “Security is coming to destroy evidence and setup a PR story,” said Buzz.

  “Yes,” said Alvin. “And to kill us.”

  “They have no idea most of us are still alive.”

  “They can monitor our biometrics,” said Alvin.

  “No,” said Buzz. “Before you did your water trick, I shut down remote access. I had to stop them from resending the same command.”

  “Good thinking. You’re a solid dude. I don’t care what the others say about you.”

  Buzz tightened his shoulders and the hair on top of his head shook. “What do you mean? What do they say about me?”

  “I’m just kidding, Buzz. Take me to the mess hall. I need a drink before I go back to bed.”

  Alvin’s eyelids grew heavy. He slipped and Buzz caught him.

  “Okay,” said his friend.

  As they continued up the ramp toward the mess hall, the sounds of the crew became audible. They were loud and angry.

  At the doorway, Alvin paused to check his reflection in the metal room placard.

  There were dark circles under his eyes. The skin around his temples was red and scabby. Small spider-web veins of dark blue trickled down from the burns. He wore the same dirty jumpsuit he’d been in since Katy had arrived.

  Looking good, Baylor.

  Alvin stood up straight. He whispered to Buzz to hang back and ambled into the room. Beckman and Choi stood at the center island in front of the food printers. They saw him first. Beckman’s dark complexion went gray. Choi was shocked by the sight of him.

  He walked toward them and scanned the tables all around. Wherever he looked, packs of grumbling ’roiders fell silent. There were under two dozen of them. They looked wilted. Bandages covered many of their limbs. They stared with a mix of suspicion and fear.

  “Excuse me.” He stepped past Beckman to tap the front of the liquids dispenser. It dropped a plastic cup that began filling with water.

  The crowd oohed in desire.

  The dispenser finished filling the cup. Alvin instinctively flexed his right shoulder and felt an ache down his broken arm. He grimaced and slowly straightened the brace on his left to place the black orb on the counter. He felt the eyes of the crowd go to it. Then he grabbed the cup, muscled it up to his mouth, and drank.

  “What are you all waiting for?” he said. “Water’s back on.”

  The ’roiders jumped from their molded green seats. Some of them hobbled, some of them ran. Alvin grabbed the orb and stepped aside as they clamored up for a drink.

  He smiled at Beckman and Choi.

  She smiled back. Beckman scowled.

  “All right people. Order! Come to order!” shouted Beckman.

  He shuffled forward, shooing everyone into a line as he stepped front and center. It formed up and weaved around the tables. Alvin took an empty seat beside Buzz near the front of the room.

  “I have informed HQ of the dangers we are experiencing,” continued Beckman. “Unfortunately, I have received no return communications. However, the base sensors report that a CorpSec shuttle is on its way to us.”

  “It’s about damn time,” shouted Bossman.

  The security officer looked none the worse for wear as he downed two cups of water.

  The crowd shouted a selection of expletives at him.

  “Bossman, choose a new team,” said Alvin.

  The crowd oohed.

  “Pipe down, Baylor. You ain’t our messiah,” said Bossman.

  A ragged-looking man with piercing green eyes saluted Alvin with a cup of water. “Not unless he can make whiskey,” he said with a laugh.

  Laughter erupted from the ’roiders. Bossman squinted and walked back to his seat.

  Beckman placed his hands on his hips and pressed on undeterred. “Enough. Thank you, Mr. Baylor, for the water. I know we’re all hurting. Rest assured that help is on the way and that Corporate will get to the bottom of this incident.”

  “Alteris dumped the water,” said Alvin. “It wasn’t us. Their plan is to kill us. They’re coming to finish the job.”

  The room went silent.

  “Nonsense—they have no reason to do that,” said Beckman. “The water main suffered a software failure.”

  “Bullshit,” said Alvin. “You called in a riot and they tried to eliminate us.”

  The group jeered.

  Dr. Choi stepped forward. “How do you know this, Alvin?”

  “We found it in the logs,” he said.

  “He’s telling the truth,” said Buzz. “Alteris dumped our water supply.”

  “You cried for help, Beckman, and this was their solution,” said Alvin.

  “You brought that saboteur into our facility!” yelled Beckman. His dark complexion nearly flushed.

  Alvin rose to his feet. “Damn it, wake up! She was here to steal it! We’ve seen things they don’t want us to see. Look out there! I transformed an entire moon. Do you understand the power we possess? We have something they need,” said Alvin.

  Several ’roiders nodded in approval.

  Beckman’s voice rose. “Are you going to turn this whole base into ice, too?”

  “Only if I have to.”

  Half of the two dozen people seated around the mess hall looked intimidated by Alvin’s retort. The others howled with laughter.

  Fine, then. Fear me.

  He reached his mind into the orb in his hand and joined with it. The ball lifted off his palm into the air and sca
nned the room in all directions. He watched the ’roiders dive to the floor in terror. He saw Beckman’s eyes go wide in fear while a look of awe came over Choi. He watched Buzz recoil, and finally he saw himself.

  His eyes had rolled back, leaving only white spots. The synaptic implants at his temples glowed blue while crackles of electricity crawled over the blistering flesh. He heard a strange whispering voice. It said, “Zeus”—and he snapped back to his body.

  He felt the orb drop into his hand and smelled burning flesh. The pain was nearly intolerable.

  Buzz helped him to sit down again. Sweat poured down his face.

  Stay awake.

  The ’roiders climbed back into their seats.

  He spoke again. “Either we hand Rinsler and his invention over and let them kill us, or we keep them for ourselves.”

  “I’m no thief, no kidnapper,” said Beckman. “I don’t want any part of that thing. Look what it’s done to you. I’m going back home! To Earth!”

  “They won’t let us go home,” said Alvin. “We’re in their way. We either fight or we die.”

  He fell forward in his seat and Buzz caught him with an outstretched arm. Choi rushed forward to check on him.

  The ’roiders were energized. Some of them banged on the tables. Beckman put his hand to his head, dismayed by his loss of control.

  “How do you propose to fight them?” asked Choi.

  Alvin lifted his head upright. It hurt so bad, he couldn’t think clearly.

  Be strong.

  “When that shuttle gets here, we kill whoever the fuck is on it and we take everything they have.”

  A cheer went up, then a voice cut through. “Like you killed Henry and Chickowski?”

  He looked over his shoulder for the source. Near the back he saw Tosh in his hospital gown with a bandaged head. Sioux helped him stand at the doorway.

  He’s okay!

  “You caused this, Alvin!” yelled Tosh angrily. “Yumi may not wake up!”

  “I didn’t kill them,” said Alvin. “It was the girl. I’m sorry, Toshiro. I was taken advantage of. We all were. That’s not going to happen again if we stand together.”

  Tosh shook his head. Sioux looked concerned over the growing anger in the room.

  Alvin panted and continued, “The only other Corporate shuttle in the belt is docked here. Isn’t that right, Bossman?”