by Adam Moon
Jacob said, “We could conserve fuel if we jettison it.”
But Michael said, “Let’s keep it. We can use it for parts.”
“Is there anything left of it that’s salvageable?” asked Jane.
Jacob said, “Nothing that’ll make a difference. Michael’s just arguing with me because it’s the fashionable thing to do.”
Michael nodded. “I guess he’s right. The components apparently received a surge of power. They’re all fried. I’ll yank the hoses and anything else that’s salvageable, then I’ll weigh what we’re cutting loose to space.”
Jacob stifled a smile, but they all knew he was beside himself.
They dragged the husk of the damaged pod into the airlock after it had been weighed. Then they watched it spin away from the ship on the monitor in the command station. Jane sealed up the outer airlock door and then ordered everyone to go back into stasis. No one said it aloud, but she knew they must all be thinking, What happens if we lose another pod?
They didn’t have any more spares.
They left for stasis without complaint.
In a month and a half she’d get to join them in the sweet bliss of nothingness.
Freeze Dried Jane
The trip to the Kuiper belt was entirely too long and boring, but the belt itself was just as boring. She thought she’d at least have to make a couple small course corrections to avoid minor planets or asteroids never before seen, but the ship encountered nothing big enough to do any damage.
She was glad for that but she couldn’t help thinking, If I’d known we’d encounter nothing of significance, I would’ve gone into stasis along with the others and avoided all of this monotony.
Once she was half a million miles past the known reach of the belt, she disrobed and got inside her pod. She inserted the IV’s and closed the lid. There was an audible hissing as the atmosphere within was evacuated. She felt the IV’s pump their fluids through her veins. Then, just as the atmosphere became a vacuum, the frigid mist filled the cavity. It was oily between her fingers. Right before she lost consciousness from lack of oxygen, the freeze took all perception of time from her.
Awake
Her head was spinning and her vision too. A dark, undefined shape loomed over her as she felt the thaw taking effect. She was shaking uncontrollably as she sat up. The figure placed a warming blanket over her shoulders and helped her to her feet.
She mumbled, “Are we there?”
Michael’s voice came from the dark shape. “No. We encountered a problem. Apparently three of the colonists have gone missing.”
“Did you search the ship?”
“No. I came right up here as soon as the computer woke me.”
“Why did it wake you first?”
“I couldn’t tell you.”
“Computer, why did you wake Michael before waking me?”
The tinny voice said, “Because you were only recently put into stasis. I thought it was unwise to wake you before the freeze took effect completely.”
Michael yelled at it, “Well, you could’ve warned me.”
Jane put her clothes on and asked, “How long have I been in stasis?”
“Five hours.”
Michael whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.”
“It’s okay. It just means I’ll have to stay out of the pod for a few hours longer.” To the computer she said, “How long do I need to stay out of the pod?”
“Six hours would be safe. Any longer is even safer.”
Michael said, “I’ll stay with you for the six hours. When you’re up to it, how about we search this ship for the missing colonists?”
Jane nodded and addressed the computer again. “When did the colonists go missing?”
“I come on-line every twelve hours to do a systems check. I came on-line twenty-one minutes ago, noticed the empty pods, and woke up Mr. Stevens.”
“So you don’t know because you were off-line? I want you to come on-line at four hour intervals from now on.”
“That’s impossible. If I power up that often the ship’s energy reserves will deplete before we arrive at the seed planet.”
Michael asked, “Are you equipped with motion detectors? If so, then I could set you to come on-line whenever there’s motion.”
“I am not. The engineers toyed with the idea of installing it, but they deemed it unnecessary.”
“They probably didn’t know the colonists would find a way to wake up and wander off.”
Jane said, “Let’s find the sleepwalkers before they cause any problems. They’re probably terrified.”
Suspicion
They searched up and down the ship, but the escaped colonists were nowhere to be seen.
Michael stopped at Jacob’s pod and leaned in. He said, “I froze him myself.”
“So?”
“So his body is in a different position now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean he’s been out of his pod since I put him in it.”
“Computer, open this pod. We have some questions we’d like to ask Sleeping Beauty here.”
Their imaginations were running wild while they waited for Jacob to thaw. Why had his body moved? Either his pod was malfunctioning or else he’d woken up ahead of schedule. But what for? Did he have anything to do with the missing colonists?
Jacob sat up and coughed. After a full minute to gather himself, he said, “What the hell is going on? Someone thawed me halfway and then they froze me again.”
“What are you talking about?”
I saw a dark shape as I was waking up, then I felt the cold take me again, and now here I am. What happened?”
“Why would someone thaw you and then refreeze you?”
“I don’t know, but you’ll need to wake Melanie up. I’ll need to be put under observation while I thaw out.”
“That’s not what we’re here for. We want to know why your body was in a different position. We want to know what you know about the missing colonists.”
“I can only guess that I moved a little bit before I was frozen again. And this is the first I’ve heard about any missing colonists.”
Michael barked, “Bullshit,” as Jacob climbed out of his pod and got dressed.
“I’m not lying. Whoever woke me up and then refroze me might know what happened to the missing people, but I’m clueless.”
Jacob walked over to Melanie’s pod and opened it.
“Hey, we’re only waking people when it’s necessary,” said Jane.
“She’s a medic and my life might be in danger from the freeze I had to endure right in the middle of a thaw.”
“I’d agree with you if I believed your story,” said Michael.
Melanie woke slowly. “Are we at the seed planet?”
“No,” Jane replied. “There are three colonists missing. Jacob claims he was partially thawed and then refrozen. We need you to keep an eye on him and also help us look for the missing people.”
“Jesus Christ. When did they go missing?”
Jacob said ruefully, “Yeah, don’t worry about me.”
“If you were in any danger you’d feel the effects by now.”
Michael said, “That just confirms my suspicions. What did you do to the colonists?”
“I sure hope I don’t have to die to prove my innocence.”
“It would help your case, that’s for sure.”
Just then they heard a light thud from the command station.
Jane took the lead, but when they got there, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
On a whim, Michael turned the monitor on.
Plain as day, there was a frozen body hovering in front of the ship. It looked to be male. What was worse was that his eyes were open.
Melanie said, “No way. Is that one of the missing colonists?”
Jacob said sarcastically, “No, it’s probably a human asteroid. Of course it’s a colonist.”
“But if it was shot out of the airlock, why is
it still with us?”
Jacob said, “Even though it was sucked out of the airlock, it was still traveling at the same speed and in the same direction as the ship. And in space this empty, the gravity of the ship probably caught it and brought it back. Shit, it might even be orbiting us.”
“Why are his eyes open?” asked Michael.
Jane said what they all feared: “Because he was waking up from stasis when he was sucked out.”
Jacob sucked in a breath. “If we can get to him, we might be able to revive him still.”
Melanie asked, “How? He’s clearly dead.”
“If there were any stasis fluids left pumping through his veins, and if he was still mostly frozen, then we could thaw him out. He might survive long enough to tell us who did this to him.”
Melanie was the first to say, “That’s inhumane. I’m all for catching the culprit, but not if it means torturing that poor guy.”
“She’s right,” said Jane. “Plus, the maneuvers we’d have to make to get his body close to the airlock would screw up our trajectory.”
“I could go fetch him,” offered Jacob.
“I understand you want to clear your name, but I won’t allow it.”
Michael added, “I’ve changed my mind anyway. I don’t think you’d have the strength to drag that guy from his pod to the airlock. Someone else killed him.”
Jacob rolled his eyes at the obvious slight. But he said, “Well, I’m glad to be off the hook.”
Jane said, “We can’t go back into stasis until we find out who did this. We’re all at risk until then.”
Jacob said, “I wish I’d seen who it was that partially woke me up.”
None of them noticed Melanie breathe a sigh of relief.
Catastrophe
They were about to wake the colonists to conduct interrogations when a siren started to wail. They felt the ship jerk to the side, throwing them all into the wall. Michael stood up first and said, “That can’t be good.”
Jane said, “Computer, what just happened?”
The computer didn’t respond.
Jacob ran out of the room. They were about to follow after him when he returned, out of breath. “The door to the pod chamber is locked up tight.”
“No way,” exclaimed Melanie.
Michael said, “If there was a breach in the hull in the pod chamber, then all of the colonists are in danger. We have to help them.”
Jane was about to agree until she saw the view on the monitor. There was shredded metal and busted plastic all over the place. She would have missed it except the hull breach had sent the ship spinning. The monitor was showing the long tail of wreckage coming from the back of the ship. And the pods were tumbling away with the rest of it. She took a little solace in the fact that she couldn’t see what was going on inside any of those pods. Those people would be waking now that the pods were disconnected from power. She imagined someone waking languidly and popping the hatch to their pod from the inside, only to be sucked into the void. The image in her head was so vivid and terrifying, she had to turn the monitor off just in case it actually happened.
The others were watching, mouths agape, as she switched it off.
She said, “We need to get on with damage control.”
“It’s too late for that,” whimpered Melanie. “We’re all going to die now.”
Just then Jacob doubled over in agony. He yelled out, “I told you I was partially revived. My cells are bursting. Help me, Melanie.”
Melanie said matter of factly, “You are going to die, Jacob.” Her tone was flat, inhuman. Then she seemed to change. It was nearly imperceptible, but it was there. She said in a cold, unforgiving voice, “I was the one who launched those three colonists out of the airlock. I partially thawed you to make it look like you did it. I knew Michael already didn’t trust you, and if your body was in a different position, you’d take the blame for it.”
Jacob yelled out, “Why!”
“Because you’re a jerk and you deserve to die.”
“No. Why did you launch the colonists?”
“Because we ran out of replacement pods. If we lost another pod, we’d have some serious decisions to make. Like who was going to do without their pod so that all the colonists made it in one piece.”
Jane’s anger nearly immobilized her but she managed to say, “And you thought we’d decide that you weren’t necessary, right?”
“That’s the gist of it. I figured if I got rid of a few colonists and then we lost a pod to malfunction, we’d have spares.”
Michael stepped forward and punched her right in the face. She fell on her ass and started to sob. “I’m sorry. I lost my senses. I was so afraid you’d leave me behind. But none of that matters anymore. Now we’re all going to die out here.”
Michael barked, “What makes you think we’d just sacrifice you anyway?”
Jane interrupted, “She’s right. She can't have children. I've read her medical records. She wasn’t going to benefit the colony in any way. I would've made the decision to leave her out if it came right down to it.”
Jacob fell on the floor, rolled up like a pill bug. He managed to say, “I was a little worried about losing another pod too. No one likes me. I thought I’d be the one to have to sacrifice my life for everyone else. But I left it up to fate because I’m not a sociopath.”
Melanie began to sob more violently now.
Jacob beckoned Michael over. Michael bent down and listened to him wheeze as he whispered. Then he left the command station and returned with one of Melanie’s medical kits. He riffled through it until he found a syringe and several small vials.
Jane said, “Don’t do it,” when she figured out that Jacob had asked Michael to end his suffering.
Michael smirked. “We’re all going to die out here now. The only pod left is yours. We can’t all go in it.”
She knew he was right. But they weren’t that far away from rescue. She said, “I’ll send out a distress call. If we’re lucky, they’ll send someone to rescue us.”
“Why would they do that? We had one purpose and we failed. They’ll let us die for failing. I say we let this busted ship keep on traveling towards the seed planet and keep our fingers crossed that the explosion didn’t alter its flight path by too much.”
Jacob coughed. “No use. You’ll all die unless you right the ship. If you get it back under control, you stand half a chance at making it.”
Melanie asked, “Then who gets the pod?”
Michael said, “Not you. When I’m done with Jacob, I’m putting you off my ship.”
Melanie stood up on wobbly legs and then took off running for her life.
Jane saw something in Michael’s eyes she’d never seen before. He was overflowing with rage. Not only that, but he had just called this his ship. Not her ship: his. She knew he would kill her when he was done with Melanie and Jacob.
When Michael bent down and stuck Jacob with the needle, she ran out of the command station. She wasn’t a coward, but she stood no chance in a fair fight against Michael.
She was thankful that the pod chamber was the only part of the ship to fall away or else there’d be nowhere left to hide.
She ran for the kitchen. She opened one of the top cabinets, climbed up on the countertop and got inside. She closed the door, confident that Michael would never think to look for her in here. If she waited this out, maybe his anger would subside. Maybe he’d give up trying to find her and put himself in her pod. It would be easy enough to subdue him while he was in stasis. A horrible thought crossed her mind: she would have to kill him. Subduing him for the duration of the trip was a death sentence anyway. But she had to survive long enough to get the upper hand, and for that she’d need luck to be on her side.
She tried to control her breathing, but it was pointless. The harder she tried the harder it was to do.
Michael’s Ship
After several minutes passed, she heard a scream. It rose and fell in pitch, part fear and p
art pain. It was moving away from her. It was Melanie. Apparently Michael had found her and he was dragging her off somewhere.
Then she heard Melanie’s distant voice say, “I’m sorry.” Then Melanie screamed again but the scream was cut short by a dull thunk. Jane didn’t know for sure, but Michael had probably just killed her with a blunt object to the head.
When Jane heard the airlock doors hiss open and then close, she knew what Michael was up to. He was shooting Melanie’s corpse into the vacuum of space.
Her breathing became frantic again knowing that he would be coming for her next.
Several minutes passed. Then she felt the ship turn about. He must be in her command station altering their course.
Over the loudspeaker he said, “Jane, this is Michael. I’m sorry to have to do this, but I am locking you out of the command station. If I were you, I’d try and find a way to retrieve one of those pods, hook it up, and join me in stasis. I would offer to help you but apparently none of you bastards can be trusted. I’ve left a schematic for you on the kitchen table. You can come out of the cabinet any time you feel like it. I promise you’re safe.”
Suiting up
She allowed herself to fall out of the cabinet. She hit the countertop on all fours. Sure enough, there was a schematic right there on the kitchen table. She called out for the computer and then remembered that it had gone off-line after the explosion. She wondered what had caused the explosion. Was it Melanie’s doing too? No, Melanie had been terrified when the explosion happened. Could it have been Michael?
Michael was right though: she had to retrieve one of those floating pods from outside. The idea of going out the airlock scared her half to death, because if Michael wanted to, he could shut her outside. If she cut through the pod chamber door, she could grab a pod — there might even be one still inside — and then seal the door back up.
She made her way to the airlock and suited up. Then she went to the storage room and found a cutting torch. She knew it would take days to cut through the pod chamber door, but time was plentiful now.