Deviation

by A. J. Maguire

  Even at the distance, Matt saw Andrew clench his fists, nodding at the image as though his father could see it.

  "And Cadena," Blake smiled, a real smile this time. "You made my life something important."

  The woman's head bowed, shading her eyes from view. She was crying, he knew. Her shoulders quivered as she suppressed emotion, trying desperately to hold onto her composure. For reasons he couldn't understand, Matthew Borden felt his usual distance from humanity crack. Leadership required a cold, almost aloof standard of living, and no one had done this as well as Matt. But the sight of that woman, pained not because she was losing stability and position in society, but because she was losing the man himself; it struck him someplace inside. Someplace he hadn't known existed.

  His fist had clenched and he had to force himself to relax, focusing on the final goodbyes of his fallen soldier.

  ***

  Reesa was half tossed into the cramped, white and metallic room. She spotted Kate's slumbering form in the padded, shelf-like bed against the far wall and scrambled to get to her. God's honest truth, Reesa hadn't known what she was thinking when she'd made her dash for her friend. It was foolhardy and she knew it, but for the life of her she couldn't let Kate suffer this fate alone.

  As much as she wanted to hold onto the idea of a hallucination, it was becoming quite apparent that this was really happening. For one, her face still stung where Jellison had hit her. And for another, the metal under her bare knees was cold and absolutely real. Compounding the fact that all of her senses were working properly was the image of Hedric's face, the way he had looked at Kate kept replaying itself in her mind. There had been a bald, heartbreaking truth to the way he touched Kate. It was such a tragically beautiful scene that she prayed she could convey it one day in her work.

  If they managed to survive the next few moments, her mind corrected.

  The ship made a drastic turn that sent Reesa sprawling across the floor again. Her head smacked into the corner of the floor-to-ceiling cabinet built into the left wall. She was still cursing, holding her forehead in pain, when Jellison made an abrupt return. The bulky man opened the hatchway door to their room just long enough to toss two beige robes at her before sealing them in again. She might not have known what they were except that one flung open in its descent, its long, heavy fabric looking somehow ominous on the floor.

  The little pocket of a room came into sudden, sharp focus. Mostly bare, it had only the cabinet jutting from the wall and the slab-like bed where Kate still slept. Half crawling to the cabinet, Reesa had to support herself on the edge of the bed just to keep upright. With shaky hands, she fumbled the cabinet open, realizing only after she did so that the latch was magnetized. Just as she had written it, she thought. It was such a startling realization that she stayed there, fear creeping up her spine and making her immobile.

  There was very little inside the cabinet; an extra, half-flattened pillow and one drab wool blanket. In the back of her mind she'd known what would be there, just as she knew where they were located on the ship. These were the "guest" accommodations. Passenger or prisoner, this was where the Lothogy crew kept anyone who couldn't pull their weight during flight. It was out of the way, adjacent to the engine room where Keats could keep an eye on the door.

  The hull groaned under pressure, startling Reesa back into movement. With numb fingers, she took the blanket and scooted to Kate. Her friend was unresponsive as Reesa tucked the blanket around her. Small clanks and odd sounds reverberated into their room, clanging off the walls and increasing her sense of unease.

  "Kate," she tapped her cheek. "Kate, come on. I need you to wake up."

  Kate mumbled a complaint and turned her head away.

  Reesa tapped her cheek a little harder. Kate's face scrunched in irritation, but her eyes stayed closed. "Kate, ladybug, we've got real problems and I need your ninja action right now, so wake up."

  A loud crashing sound hit just overhead and freezing water came gushing through the ceiling just beside her. Shrieking with the sudden cold and painful thrust of water, Reesa scrambled up and onto the bed. Kate woke, sputtering and dazed, but even Reesa could see the girl was still sluggish.

  "What the ... " Kate said, holding her head.

  "Oh, God." Reesa caught sight of the rapidly growing pool and helped Kate to a sitting position.

  They exchanged horrified glances before Kate launched out of the bed and hurried for the door. Within the seconds following the initial push of water into their room, it had risen to mid-calf. Kate inhaled sharply, pushing her way to the door, weaving to avoid the continued waterfall.

  Water coursed into the room at a steady pace, looking like some angry sheet of white, frothy death. Reesa forced herself to move again, plunging her feet into the frigid water and rushing to help Kate at the door. She wasn't certain what could be done, but her friend's active attempts at escape seemed better than just watching the room fill with seawater. Sloshing through the suddenly knee-deep water set her teeth to chattering, but she tried to ignore the chill.

  "What the hell is going on!" Kate screamed at the door, pounding on it again. "Let us out of here!"

  Striking the door, Reesa hissed as sharp pain radiated through her palm.

  "Son of a bitch!" Kate turned from the door.

  She'd never heard Kate swear before and Reesa stared. Scanning the room with a feverish, unhealthy gleam, Kate suddenly splashed away from the door and back to the bed. Snagging the blanket, she balled it up while climbing onto the edge of the bed. Kate glared up at the gushing hole before leaning out and shoving the blanket over the opening.

  It must have taken tremendous effort because Kate made a growling shout as she levered herself against both blanket and hole. The progression of water slowed but did not stop, spurting out around the edges of Kate's grip.

  Reesa ran for the cabinet, yanked out the pillow and hurried to help. Her feet slipped on the slick surface of the bed and she banged her knee, but her entire body was so cold that the pain felt dull. Struggling to a standing position beside Kate, Reesa pushed the pillow up to cover the blanket and add a further seal to the hole.

  Water fell around them, between them, over them, soaking through tank top and shorts and skin. The cold of it sunk deep inside, her body going painfully stiff as patches of her skin went numb under the assault. The water level rose over the bed, its flimsy cloth pad sliding against the metal frame and forcing them to teeter on the edge to keep their footing.

  Reesa glanced at Kate and was startled by the furious determination twisting on her face. She looked like Mesa. Not just the physical attributes that Reesa had stolen for her writing, but the iron-hard quality of the character as well. Mesa had been good under pressure, focused and quick on her feet. It seemed that Kate shared this trait as well because her eyes fell on Reesa's purse. During the chaotic chase and the insanity of their abduction, Reesa had completely forgotten the item was there, slung haphazard across her chest the way she preferred to carry it. It was soaked through with seawater now, hanging limp against her side.

  "Don't let go!" Kate shouted at her.

  Reesa nodded.

  With careful movements, Kate slid her hands away from the hole, leaving the full press of intruding water to shove against Reesa's hold on the pillow. The cottony material only partially aided the blanket in its plight against the throng of water, its sodden weight felt like more of a hindrance than a help, but she didn't dare move. Kate rifled through her purse, hunting for anything useful.

  Her arms strained against the pillow, burning with exertion, but she kept hold. She had to turn her head away as a spout of water sprayed into her face. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her voice recorder plop into the raging depths. A handful of 3x5 cards followed, fanning out into the churn of water.

  Kate found her wallet, fumbled with it for a moment before snagging a credit card and rushing for the door again. It was an old trick, trying to jimmy a lock with the edge of a card, and Reesa frow
ned at the cliche. It wasn't going to work. The doors of the Lothogy were magnetized.

  She almost called out to warn her, but stopped. This couldn't be the Lothogy, she remembered. It was a pretend ship, a fake, so there was a chance that Kate's plan could work.

  The ship accelerated, pitching her backward and into the wall. Even had the hole remained semi-plugged, Reesa knew she'd still have been submerged. The movement of the ship had tilted their room and the flow of water tilted to follow, pushing up against her. She was pretty sure she lost a contact lens, but the blur of water made it impossible to know for sure.

  Reesa pushed off the back wall with her feet, angling for the surface. She strained upward, forcing her already weak and wobbly arms to work. When she broke the surface, she found that Kate had managed to grab hold of the cabinet and reached out to her. Slippery, icy fingers closed around her wrist and Reesa was pulled to the security of the cabinet.

  "This is bad," Kate said. Her gaze was locked on the geyser in the ceiling.

  The acceleration came to an abrupt halt, slamming the water back toward the door and sending them both with it. Reesa smacked into Kate at full force. Her chin whacked solidly into some bony part of Kate's left side and she chomped down on her lip, breaking skin. For an achingly breathless moment, she was submerged again, water pressing her flat against the door. Just as suddenly, the water retreated, tearing them both away from the door and back into the room. Her head surface and she sucked in a breath of air, fighting to get her feet back on the floor.

  All of the lights went out at once.

  What little sense of control Reesa had managed to hold on to flicked out with them and she screamed.

  ***

  When the lights came back on, Kate spotted a button just beside the door. It had a small hole next to it and her mind flashed to the books. There was an intercom system on the Lothogy, she remembered. With the water finally settling around their waists and the hole in the ceiling still gushing, she decided she didn't care if the people who rescued them were deranged.

  Wading around Reesa, Kate smacked the intercom button and prayed the water hadn't shorted a circuit or something. "Let us out of here before we drown, you psychopaths!"

  Her voice echoed back at her and she knew it had worked. It was getting hard to move her legs and she wondered for a brief moment if she'd be lucky enough to die of hypothermia before given the chance to drown. That seemed preferable. And Reesa certainly looked like she was about to collapse. The girl was huddled in on herself, teeth clanking, body shivering, mouth smeared in blood. Kate had a brief thought to hug her, share body heat, stay alive, but there was shuffling outside the door and urgent voices shouting at each other and she knew they'd be out soon.

  Or at least out of the room, if not out of the situation, she thought. Shivering, Kate tugged on her sodden shirt and wished for a moment that she'd chosen to wear a full t-shirt instead of the sleeveless garment. For that matter, she wished she'd worn pants. Her cutoffs came to mid-thigh and she could feel every inch of her skin pimple up and tingle with the icy water.

  The door opened a crack, spilling water out at the men pushing to get it open. Kate grabbed hold of the door, helping to muscle it past the flow until she could position herself better. Back against the doorjamb, Kate lifted her sandaled feet and set them to the lip of the door. Growling with effort, she levered herself between wall and door, shoving with her feet for added strength. The pink nail polish on her toes looked ridiculous given the situation and she focused on them, fighting the metal door that much more open.

  The opening widened enough for two of the men to get through. Two of the men awkwardly climbed over her, passing a large, curved sheet of metal between them before charging for the hole. The course of water began to slow as it emptied out into the hallway, and she was able to release the door. Reesa stood paralyzed, her gaze fixed on the men patching the hole.

  Kate glanced at the third man; a scrawny, awkwardly tall man who made his white uniform look ridiculous. As odd as it was, she knew who that man was pretending to be; Alexander Keats, the engineer. He was her favorite character because he was the unassuming hero, the dependable one who always got them out of trouble.

  Not that his portrayal of the fictional character was in any way able to excuse abduction.

  She scowled at him, which seemed to take him by surprise, and moved to Reesa's side. Gathering the still trembling woman to her side, Kate tried for rational thought.

  They had obviously been moved onto some sort of boat, which presented several problems. One, they would need some kind of life preserver if they ditched. This was not a feasible option since she had no idea how far away from land they'd gotten and would not be able to leave a distress signal before going overboard. Not without a crewmember noticing anyway. As it was, all three men sent her frequent surreptitious glances, as though they were looking at a ghost.

  Clutching Reesa closer, she wondered just how deep their delusions had to be to keep up such an act.

  She turned her focus to the only option left. They would have to wait until they came to a harbor somewhere. Until then, Kate needed to pay attention to details. Her old Drill Sergeant's voice barked through her memory; "Stay alert, stay alive."

  The intercom crackled to life, "Report."

  Keats moved to answer, "Hole patched."

  "Mesa?"

  "Both women are fine."

  Kate felt the hair on her arms prickle. There was no mistaking who the men were more concerned with. It was going to be more difficult than she'd thought to escape. Maybe she could smuggle Reesa out and depend on her friend to get help. Glancing at the woman's face told her otherwise. Shock remained plastered to her features, her blue eyes glazed with that distant look that Kate had come to recognize in their friendship. Reesa was miles away from the situation, bodily functioning but otherwise incapable of coherent thought.

  "Bring them to the cockpit," Hedric ordered through the intercom.

  There was a respectful sort of distance in the men as they began to lead the way. Kate kept Reesa close, who remained silent through the ordeal, and prayed she could get them out of this alive.

  The internal workings of the boat were startlingly impressive. If she hadn't known better she would have thought she'd walked onto a set in Hollywood. There seemed to be a mix of cyberpunk tendencies with the more elegant "Rodenberry" style battling for dominance in the place. She thought for a moment that it was a good deal like a house under constant renovation, old things making way for new things and such. Sleek, bluish metal curved along the walls, leaving no corners to be dealt with. The walkways were more practical, meshed so she could see the level below where there appeared to be a large storage space.

  Large bits of machinery intruded along the outer walls, looking very foreign and unsettling her nerves further. There was something altogether familiar with the sight, something that made her glance at Reesa. But her friend was still gone, staring straight ahead, lost somewhere in her thoughts, and Kate sensed that it would be difficult to draw her back to reality. Her heart ached at that, worry firm in the pit of her stomach that Reesa Zimms had finally lost her mind.

  Kate's thoughts flicked to Quinn.

  Her fingers tightened on Reesa as images of her son bombarded her.

  Quinn asking Ben where Mommy was.

  Quinn as a smaller boy, the way she often remembered him, crying because he'd woken up alone in his crib. She could feel him cuddle against her shoulder, little arms holding her as close as possible. He used to pat her arm, a light pat, as though he were reassuring himself that she was solid and present. She must have made a sound because the men looked at her, but she couldn't do more than focus on the utter heartbreak that filled her.

  By the time they reached the cockpit, Kate had grasped hold of the memory and determined - with that steely resolve that only a mother could appreciate - that she would kill every man that tried to keep her from getting home.

  But if the rest of the
ship was impressive, then the cockpit was outright mind-blowing.

  One large screen showed an underwater view crowded with sea life and she knew by instinct it was real. There was a sense of pressure all around her, an obtrusive knowledge that the ship was blanketed by water. Control panels slanted around the oblong room, making space for three seats at the floor level. One chair, the pilot's chair, was held aloft by a gyrating bit of machinery, tilting here and there as the man sitting in it commanded.

  Pilot, she assumed, and then remembered his name from the books; Myron.

  Hedric glanced between her and Reesa, his mouth contorting in something that looked like disapproval, "I thought I sent them robes."

  "They were delivered," the big man behind her replied.

  "Where to, Captain?" Myron asked.

  "Take us off the map," Hedric's frown deepened as he stared at her. "I want five minutes to figure out what's going on."

  As much as Kate wanted to squirm under the unwavering scrutiny Hedric gave her, she found the willpower to straighten her back and lift her chin; "If you know what's best for you, you'll take us back home and turn yourselves in."

  Myron glanced over at her and shock knotted hard into her belly. "Ben?" she gasped.

  But then, she knew it couldn't be Ben. Her husband would never abduct her, number one, and there was something strange about his eyes. Something harder that Ben had never displayed in their twelve year marriage. But it certainly looked like Ben, straight down to the scar on his upper lip; same high cheekbones, same curved jaw; same wavy brown hair curling in disarray around his head.

  The moment stretched as the pilot stared back at her, his expression cautious and his features paling under halogen lights. Hedric - the Hedric wannabe, she corrected herself - glanced between them with growing agitation. An alarm squealed and the pilot had to turn away.

  "That's Myron," Reesa said in an odd voice. "I wrote him to look like Ben."

  "What?" Kate blinked up at her friend, the confusion of the last moments suddenly coming clear. "You wrote Ben into your books?"