Here Be Dragons

by Alan, Craig

  “Good company.”

  “But now she did just that, on Gideon. She hurt me. She never would have done that before. It’s like she doesn’t know me.”

  “She loves you, Elena.”

  “Then why did she leave me?”

  “I am certain that she would have brought you with her if she could,” Vijay said. “As her executive officer.”

  “Maybe,” Elena said. “Apparently I didn’t fit the profile for Metatron.”

  “Which was?”

  “Orphans.”

  The word had left her mouth before she had seen it in her head. Elena looked Vijay in the face, and he smiled once more. His eyes were flat and clear, and he didn’t blink as he searched hers.

  “Maybe they will pick me next time.”

  “Maybe,” Elena said.

  She raised her pouch to her lips and drank long and slow. The stateroom had narrow walls and a low ceiling, and now they seemed closer still. Nearly everything in the room had been tied down.

  “How many other nukes are there?” she asked.

  Vijay started, but it was with the mannered theatricality of an actor who already knows how the story ends.

  “How would I know that?”

  “Don’t fuck with me,” Elena said. Her voice held neither fire nor steel. “Ikenna is searching the missiles right now.”

  Vijay was silent for a long moment. When he finally spoke, he would not look at her.

  “You should have reported the material. You should have called the cleanup crew. All this could have been avoided.”

  “What else were they going to find? Answer me.”

  “Elevated radiation levels in Ikenna Okoye’s cabin and effects,” Vijay said.

  “Casus belli,” she said. Elena brought the pouch to her mouth and found that it was empty. “Why?”

  “No one is sure how many reactors the independents built altogether. We do not know if we destroyed them all. But this time, we will do it right. This time, no stone will be left atop another.”

  “We’re supposed to end wars, not start them.”

  “The war is coming whether we start it, or they do. I spent nine months in the forbidden zone, Captain. By rights, I should have died in the womb. I believe that someone else paid that price for me, and I will forever be in her debt. What happened to Nishtha shall never happen again.”

  “You broke the Treaty to save it.”

  “We did.”

  “How many times?”

  “It is as I told you that day in forward control,” Vijay said. “We only needed the one.”

  Elena rose from her desk and floated past him, to the galley in the corner. She hooked her pouch into the coffee machine.

  “I wish I could believe you,” she said.

  Vijay stood slowly, and watched her empty the grinds into the press. He spoke to her back.

  “What do you plan to do, Captain?”

  “You know exactly what I’m going to do.”

  “Overstar,” Vijay said in a low voice behind her. Elena watched him shake his head in the hopper’s polished surface. “I should have seen that coming. I protected you, you know.”

  “You knew the whole time.”

  “I did. And I was ordered to continue with the plan anyway, but I could not. I could not bear to see you harmed.”

  “Thank you.” The press appeared to jam. Elena fiddled with the machine a bit, and removed the guard from the spout. “Es verdad.”

  “Elena. You know that I love you.”

  She couldn’t bring herself to turn and look at him.

  “I know, Vijay. And I love you too.”

  Elena clamped the press down on the beans, and turned on the hot water hose.

  “Then for both our sakes. Do not do this again.”

  “I have to, Vijay,” Elena said. She listened to the boiling water roast the grinds and fill the spout. “I’m sorry.”

  “I am sorry also,” he said. “I did not want it come to this. Captain Gonzales, as your executive officer and pursuant to General Order Thirteen, I hereby relieve of command of this vess—”

  Elena hit the switch, and the spout opened up. A jet of hot coffee struck Vijay full in the face. He screamed and threw up his arms, and Elena dove for the door. Before she was halfway she saw that Vijay had put it in lockdown.

  His flailing arm caught her, and he grabbed her and threw her back with one hand. Elena struck the desk and bounced off into the air. The spout had emptied and the stateroom was awash in hot coffee, and her scalp stung as she flew through it. She could see the skin bubble on Vijay’s face as he braced himself against the wall.

  Her momentum carried her past the hammock, and she coiled her legs against the far wall and launched. They collided in midair and bounded away from each other. Elena felt her arm burn, and a trail of red bubbled from her bicep. She twisted in the air and saw the work knife in Vijay’s hand, its nanoscopic edge bloodied. It had sunk right through the fibers of her suit.

  Elena glanced into the wall above her desk and knocked the maps loose. They went flying and joined her helmet and toolkit as they careened about the stateroom. Elena slammed into a ceiling corner and shot out both legs and arms against the walls to brake her momentum. Vijay came in low, one eye scalded shut, and she struck out high and launched herself across the ceiling. He flailed with the knife and missed her by centimeters.

  The tumbling helmet banged off her leg, and Elena crunched to grab it. She struck the far wall next to the door, and then Vijay was on top of her. He swung. Elena parried with the helmet, and the blade slid across the faceplate and slashed her knuckles. She flipped the helmet and punched with it. Vijay’s knife hand sank into the space meant for her head and crunched against the inside. She swung sharply. His arm bent at a bad angle, and the helmet floated away with the knife buried within it.

  Vijay caught her by the hair. He jerked and nearly pulled it out by the roots. She dug her fingers into his wrists as he dragged her in close. Vijay wrapped one arm around hers and twisted Elena around. She felt something tear in her shoulder as he locked her arm against her back. Then he pressed the crook of his elbow to her windpipe and held tight.

  Elena couldn’t breathe. She clawed for his eyes, but he bent his head back and kept pressing. She elbowed him in the stomach and felt her arm thump softly against his uniform. The cabin was awash with coffee and blood, and bright black spots swam in the air to join them.

  She felt her legs brush the desk. Elena kicked out with all her power, and the two of them flew up into the air. Vijay’s head struck the ceiling and blunted her impact. They ricocheted. Elena twisted in midair, and Vijay hit the corner of the desk on the small of his back. He gasped against her ear, and his grip loosened and she could breathe. They tumbled apart, and Elena fell into her hammock as she gulped for air. She grabbed at it with her good hand and pulled herself to a halt. With each breath, her vision returned a little more.

  When she looked up, Vijay held her toolkit in one hand, and the grappling hook in another. He slid the safety off with his thumb, and pressed the trigger. The shaft rippled as the electric current flexed it. Vijay flicked his wrist lightly, and the grapple lashed her across her torso.

  Elena didn’t feel much of anything, not at first. Just a gentle pressure against her chest and abdomen as thousands of barbed needles cut her through her uniform and sank beneath her skin.

  He pulled with his whip hand, and she shrieked as the burrs snagged against her flesh and dragged her, flailing, across the space between them. She put one hand to the grapple without thinking, and couldn’t pull it away. He drew her close, ignoring her kicks, and caught her by the throat with one big hand.

  Vijay held Elena at arm’s length and began to choke the life out of her once more. She put her free hand to her neck and scrabbled at the fingers that gripped her windpip
e. The walls of the room went dark, as if the lights were slowly dying. The last thing she would see would be the skin bubbling on his face.

  Elena gripped the arm at her neck and swung her legs up to her chest, parallel to Vijay’s arm. She stretched out and planted both feet on Vijay’s forehead. Then she twisted. Elena felt molten skin slough off from beneath her boots, and saw dull gray bone beneath them. Vijay screamed and put his hands to his face as it disappeared behind a cloud of blood. She kicked off him and tumbled backwards into her sleeping tube with the grapple still caught in her chest.

  She grabbed the handle. She could feel the trigger beneath her finger, but if she pressed now she would be electrocuted, and then she would be dead. Elena put one foot to the desk, braced her shoulders against the doorjamb, and ripped the hooks free.

  A spray of scarlet leapt into the air and painted her face and filled her screaming mouth. The limber whip twisted before her like a charmed snake. The air was hot and wet and stank like burnt metal. Half blind from the pain and blood, Elena groped for the trigger and disarmed the grapple.

  Elena wiped the back of her hand across her face and blinked the blood away just in time to see him coming. Vijay slammed her against the wall. His forearm smashed her across the face and into the bulkhead. She reached out blindly and felt her fingers scrape his bare skull. Vijay braced his feet against the desk, and held her down with one hand. With the other he punched her once, twice, and ground his fist against her abdomen, just beneath her ribs. He pulled back, and a gout of blood rushed against the glinting knife in his hand.

  Elena whipped the grapple across Vijay’s neck. It snapped back and wrapped itself around his throat. When she pulled it tight he knew what was coming.

  “Deja!” she said. “Deja, Vijay, we have to st—“

  His hand struck out and buried the blade into her chest to the hilt, just above her heart. Elena pulled the trigger.

  The current shot through the lash and into him. Vijay went rigid, and he dropped the knife handle and clutched his neck. His leg beat against the chair, and his eyes went wide and white in his ruined face. There was no blood, not yet. Elena hit the trigger again and the grapple collapsed as he convulsed once more. She tugged on the handle and the shaft slithered free of his neck.

  Vijay floated there before her, his gloves wrapped around his throat. His lips moved, but no sound came out. Slowly, tendrils of red mist seeped between his fingers and rolled into a tide that swept across his hands. Elena watched him struggle to try to hold it in. The million tiny wounds that the grapple had carved into his neck were nearly invisible, and they bled slowly and surely.

  He seemed to relax all at once, and his hands fell from his throat. Vijay hung gently above the desk where she had spent so many hours, arms at his side and legs slightly bowed, for all the world as if he were swimming in his own pool. His brown eyes met hers. There was no rage in them, not anymore, and no fear either. For a moment, Elena thought she saw the corners of his mouth twitch. But then the crimson cloud had grown so thick that his face was lost within it.

  Vijay Nishtha died and left her floating alone in a lake of their blood.

  The world had faded around her.

  Elena didn’t know she long she had been asleep. She didn’t even know what direction she was facing. With an effort she brought her wrist to her face. Her arm felt heavier than she had ever known it, despite the lack of gravity, and her bracelet was so smeared with blood that it took her finger close to a minute to locate the intercom control. As soon as Elena found it she realized that it was voice activated, and that she hadn’t need needed to search for it at all.

  For a second, she didn’t know what to say.

  “Rivkah.”

  The softness of her own voice startled her. Elena wondered if the bracelet had picked it up, and brought her wrist back to her mouth say it again. She found that she couldn’t get the word out this time. There was a fire in her stomach, and with each breath smoke billowed in her lungs. Her limbs were cold and heavy, and felt like they didn’t belong to her. She couldn’t move. It seemed so much easier to simply float, and so she did.

  She could hear voices in her dream, calling to her as she watched the sun set over the Pacific. Its light caught the air just right and turned the sky a burning crimson. As the day ended, Elena could feel the first of the night’s chill come upon her.

  “Captain.”

  This voice was inside the room with her. Two hands seized her, and two fingers were placed to her bruised carotid. The hands disappeared, and she heard a metallic clatter, and a rustling noise. Something soft was pressed hard to her abdomen, and then she was tugged to the door, limbs splayed out behind her. Elena opened her eyes, and stared at the black tunnel of the air vent over the door. Someone had removed the grate.

  “Captain, your door code.”

  All she wanted was to sleep.

  “Captain, please.”

  She knew that voice. It was persistent. Maybe if she told it the code it would shut up, and leave her alone.

  “Uno, uno, tres, ocho.”

  A black finger punched in the numbers, and the hatch hissed open.

  “Jesus Christ.”

  What was Marco doing on the beach?

  “Get out of the way.”

  She felt a second pair of hands grab her again and pull her out of the stateroom and into the corridor.

  “And get me some line to tie her down with.”

  Suddenly Elena could no longer float freely in the ocean. She was held down in the surf, and could not have moved even if she had wanted to. She was so cold. One of the hands caressed her face, and it was warm and soft. Elena opened her eyes again as Rivkah checked to see that her airway was clear.

  “Captain, what happened?”

  Marco was at her side. Elena felt an oxygen mask slide over her head, and cold air washed over her face. She breathed deep and felt the wounds tear further.

  “Motín,” she said.

  “Should we cut off the uniform?”

  That was Wen, one of the medics.

  “That uniform is why she’s still alive,” Rivkah said. “The pressure on the torn vessels saved her. Otherwise she would have bled out by now. Captain, can you breathe?”

  “Eso duele.”

  “I know, but can you do it?”

  She pulled in a deep breath to show that she could.

  “Si.”

  “No sucking. Lungs are intact. Must have missed by a whisker. Marco, get out of my damned way.”

  Rivkah pulled a spraygun from her black bag, and fixed a canister to the magazine. Wen’s hands moved near Elena’s waist, and she felt something pull free of her uniform. A pile of bloodstained blue cloth rippled in the medic’s arms, and when he tossed it aside orange handprints remained imprinted upon the shimmering fabric.

  The doctor briefly examined the wounds beneath Elena’s ribs. Rivkah held the spraygun to Elena’s stomach, and inserted the long nozzle between the torn rubber and flesh. She pulled the trigger. A blast of foam forced its way into the severed vessels and blocked them off, and immediately hardened into a solid paste.

  “Where’s my plasma?

  Something jabbed Elena beneath the jaw, and warmth spread from her neck into her chest. Rivkah plugged up the laceration on her arm, and hastily sprayed the bloody arc that the grapple had left across Elena’s chest. Wen followed and slapped bandages over each of the injuries. Soon there was only the knife, protruding from beneath her collarbone. Rivkah wrapped one hand around it, and one around the ladder.

  “Morphine.”

  “No!”

  Elena shouted so loudly that they jumped. She slapped the ampule out of Wen’s hand.

  “Captain, you’re in pain. You need to relax.”

  “I need to think,” Elena said. The English came to her slowly, bubbling to the surface. “And I
need to be on the bridge.”

  “You’re bleeding internally, and you’re courting major organ failure. If I don’t get you to the medical office, you will die.”

  “If I don’t get to the bridge, we’re all going to die.”

  The doctor resisted as Wen prepared a second morphine drip. The water was warm now, and she had to fight to keep awake as it lapped her.

  “Where’s Ikenna?”

  He appeared at Rivkah’s side, his face slick and darkly listening.

  “Did you find the nukes?” Elena asked.

  “No, Captain,” Ikenna said. “A radio transmitter, inside the warhead. Burst mode, low power.”

  Elena had to shut her eyes again.

  “Metatron tracked us,” she said.

  “She could have killed us at any time,” Rivkah said. “Muller said she wanted our computer codes. Give them to her, and let us be gone.”

  “No,” Elena said.

  “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t knock you out and carry you to my office,” Rivkah said.

  Elena licked her bloody lips.

  “Next year, on Earth.”

  Rivkah went still.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “Tell the truth.”

  “Captain,” Rivkah said. “I would never be able to repay you. And I mean that in every sense. There will be a price. Do you understand me?”

  Elena nodded.

  “Are you sure this is what you want?”

  Elena thought of her home on the mountains, and the life that waited for her there. What she was leaving behind. She nodded again.

  Rivkah smiled. She did not look happy.

  “Local anesthetic only, Wen. And someone call the bridge and tell them to up their O2 concentration. Captain.”

  She felt another jabbing pain, in her solar plexus, and then it was gone. The chill at her center faded, and Elena’s eyes fluttered beneath the mask.

  “Captain, I’m going to remove the blade.”

  Elena nodded, afraid that if she tried to speak, nothing would come out.

  Rivkah pulled. Blood jetted from the wound and into her face, and Elena shrieked. Wen reached in with a spraygun and dammed the hole in her chest.