Voyage

by E M Gale

“Bron, you don’t need to be that polite to her, even if she is a vampire,” said Petey.

  I raised an eyebrow at him. “What do you mean? I’m just a normal Homo sapiens sapiens, like you.”

  He grinned, showing off his teeth. They were pearly white.

  “She’s a vampire?” asked Connor, confused.

  ‘Ah, shit.’

  Connor turned and stared at me. I smiled guiltily.

  “You’re a vampire?” parroted Cliff.

  “But she had a pulse, right?” muttered Tim, a tall, thin mercenary with short-cut brown hair that did nothing to disguise his slightly over-large ears.

  “Was that why you yelled when you saw the weapons cupboard?” asked Stonewall, another s mate. He was blond and stocky with blue eyes and a serious, sometimes even dreamy, look.

  ‘Oh, great, second day and I’ve given it away.’

  “Shit,” I said with feeling. They grinned. “Guys, don’t tell anyone. Please. I’m supposed to be in disguise as a normal Homo sapiens and, er, my companions don’t know that I’m a human vampiricus.”

  “A vampire mercenary, who’da thought it,” said Petey.

  “Don’t turn me into a vampire!” said Cliff.

  “I won’t. Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you.”

  “She might seduce you though,” said Petey, grinning at me. “They do say that vampiresses make the best lovers.” I smirked at that.

  * * *

  I walked slowly towards the major’s quarters, somewhat perturbed.

  ‘He knows I am a vampire, and asked me in a surreptitious way to meet him privately in his quarters. Why? What’s wrong with his office? Is he going to kill me and doesn’t want it recorded? Or maybe he doesn’t want to be observed by the other staff.’

  I frowned.

  ‘This is bad. Very bad. Maybe the whole wooden sword thing was a veiled warning, or a veiled threat? He could have ordered them to stake me, and I presume that’s bad for vampires.’

  I sighed at my lack of knowledge.

  ‘I can’t think of a good way out of this. I don’t want to go to what is probably a trap, but if I don’t go he’ll have an opportunity to kill me tomorrow anyway. Plus, he’s friends with the captain, so the captain must know what he’s up to. At least if I go now, I won’t be worrying about it all night. Of course that might be as a result of my death…’

  I shook my head at my reasoning. It wasn’t really helping.

  ‘I guess the nice Doctor Cleckley won’t get to investigate me after all. Unless he’s in on it too and wants to cut up a dead vampire rather than a live one.’

  I was chewing on my lip when I rapped briskly on the major’s door. He opened the door and smiled at me, looking rather non-threatening. He was still wearing his work clothes: generic brown slacks and a smart khaki shirt. I supposed that even after you left the army you could still like khaki. He looked me up and down then held the door open for me. I walked in, feeling slightly perturbed but no longer in fear for my life; this didn’t feel like a trap.

  His quarters were bigger but contained nothing extra than mine. In fact, it looked a lot like my room in that there was nothing out. In my case it was because I owned very little. The major, it seemed, was Spartan in his living arrangements.

  On the coffee table by the white sofa were two glasses and a bottle of red wine, open and already warming. He gestured for me to sit down on the sofa. I did. He handed me one of the glasses with a smile.

  ‘Well, I guess this is why it doesn’t feel like a trap.’

  I took a sip from my wine, eyeing him curiously over the top of the glass. He didn’t look murderously inclined.

  ‘Unless the wine is poisoned… Nah, he seems to be a military man through and through. He wouldn’t poison me. Kill me, yes, but he’d use something more honourable than poison.’

  He sighed. “Long time no see, Clarke.”

  ‘No, not really. I only spent a few hours in the bar, making small talk with the mercs.’

  He seemed to be waiting for something.

  “The… er, weapons training today, was that on my account?” I asked.

  “Oh, did I want to perturb you by surrounding you with stakes?” He chuckled. “Let’s say that was a gift to you from me.”

  ‘A gift?’

  “Plus, I thought I ought to test your acting skills.”

  ‘Huh.’

  I relaxed back into the low couch, stretching my legs out under the coffee table.

  “I’m not really a very good actor,” I admitted.

  “Yes, I give it a week, two at most, before all the mercs know.”

  ‘To be honest, I think with my shock at the weapons locker, most have an idea already. And will Connor tell them to explain why he lost to me? Will Petey, Cliff and Tim gossip about it? I bet they’ll all know by tomorrow.’

  “Of course, all the orcs already know,” he commented.

  ‘Really? How? Are orcs naturally sensitive to these sorts of things? Can they smell vampires or something? Or maybe they’re just clever enough to check the teeth, not the pulse.’

  I nodded sagely at this. He did seem to be being quite nice to me. A nice glass of wine, a chat, a complete lack of stakes: in fact he didn’t seem to be scared of vampires.

  ‘I dunno, maybe he knew some in the military. If we’re good at combat it would make sense for there to be a few there.’

  I took a sip of my wine.

  ‘Much better than the stuff in the vending machine.’

  “Still, I was impressed with the lengths you went to in your attempts at acting,” he said.

  “Oh? Which attempts?”

  “I recognised the basic training kata.”

  ‘Ah, that.’

  “Oh, how very clever of you,” I purred, partway between flattery and amusement.

  ‘Hold on, am I flirting? That probably isn’t the way to talk to a superior officer, even in the future. He doesn’t seem too annoyed by it though. The secret meeting, the wine, the friendly chat… Oh, is that what this is? Well, I always did have a thing for confident, older men.’

  He smiled. “Of course, no one would believe that you were just a new recruit who had hit the sims–”

  ‘Has he been checking up on me? Does he know how much time I’ve spent in the sims already? Or that I am completely untrained? Thinking about it, my chance of survival might well go up if I tell him I know nothing.’

  “–especially not with the speed and grace you displayed.” He glanced at me. “But if you want to show off, it’s nice to see that even the basic moves can be useful if done properly.”

  I smiled at the compliment whilst I thought about how to tell him that I was a brand-new vampire with no knowledge.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, are you being hunted?”

  I stared at him. “I thought a ship like this was one where they didn’t ask about your past.”

  “Sorry. ‘The past is another country,’ they say.”

  I smiled. “Apparently they do things differently there.”

  The major looked at his half-full wine-glass and looked sad. “Clarke”–his eyes filled with some indefinable emotion–“it’s been a long time.” He was searching my face.

  ‘Since you’ve had sex? Is that what you’re talking about?’

  He looked down. “Am I…” He struggled to finish the question. I got the feeling that the next words would be ‘too old’. I didn’t want to be responsible for hurting such a strong man, and anyway, he wasn’t.

  I placed my wine glass down. “No,” I said with a grin.

  * * *

  Having spent some time engaged in non-military manoeuvres with the ex-major, I found myself entangled in the sheets with spare breath to talk. I ran my fingers over his stubbly chin.

  ‘Don’t military types go in for the clean-shaven look? Or is the stubble a deliberate thing to break with the past?’

  “So, you’re Major who?” I asked. It was not a well phrased question, but I’m not on great terms
with the English language at the best of times.

  He gave me an odd look that melted away to amusement.

  “Hemmingway,” he stated.

  “Ah, a famous name. You ever thought of writing books?”

  He laughed. “That was exactly what you said last time.”

  I felt like I was on a fairground ride just after it went over the drop. I felt like the universe had clicked into place and in one instant everything had changed utterly and unalterably.

  “I probably thought it was funny,” I commented emotionlessly.

  ‘He didn’t recognise me as a vampire, he recognised me as Clarke! He knew I was a vampire when I met him because he knew Clarke was a vampire. He’s met me before! In fact I’m getting the distinct feeling that he’s slept with me before. I suppose it’s the sort of thing I’d do. But since I’ve never met him before yesterday, that means he must have met a future version of myself!’

  I turned the idea around, looking at it from a few different angles. I couldn’t see anything wrong with my conclusion, but I left off consideration of what it implied for the moment.

  “You’re off on one of your jollies again, then?” he asked.

  I nodded mutely.

  ‘I have a habit of disguising myself as a normal human and appearing on smuggling ships, do I?’

  “Well, I suppose a vampire has to do something with her immortality. It’s probably what I would do.”

  ‘So… vampires are, or at least widely believed to be, immortal? Nice. And was that a hint?’

  I looked at him warily. I really didn’t want to have to pelt it out of there. I’d never be able to explain where I’d left my clothes.

  He laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to demand you turn me into a vampire.”

  ‘Oh, good.’

  But, me being me, I couldn’t leave the discussion there. “You sure you don’t want to be a vampire?”

  “No, Clarke. And don’t think that I don’t know that you wouldn’t do that anyway.”

  ‘Uh, I wouldn’t? Why?’

  This was quite interesting. I was hearing about someone else, someone who I would become.

  “There is, after all, only so much life a man can live,” he said.

  That sounded wise, so I nodded, but I was only twenty-three, what did I know?

  He leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. I could see the tiny puncture wounds in his neck. I concentrated on healing and they healed up to invisibility. I was new enough at vampirism that I was curious, but I didn’t want to give myself away.

  “I suppose you’ll be up to your old tricks with my underlings then?”

  ‘What exactly does that mean?’

  So I rolled over to lie partially on top of him and look him in the eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He laughed at that. “Yeah, right, Clarke. Have it your way.” He looked perplexed for a moment. “Of course, you usually do.”

  * * *

  I left the major to sleep, as I didn’t feel tired. Perhaps I ought to have done, but I had noticed that I seemed to need less sleep now than I had before I became a vampire. Normally. When I had been really tired after I had arrived, I had passed out and been practically unwakeable for hours. But since then, that hadn’t happened again.

  As I had spare time and I was preoccupied with the need to find out about my future, I walked back towards my room rather than towards the sims room.

  ‘The major has slept with me before, so he must have met me at some point in the past. For that to have happened, I must have gone back in time at some point.’

  ‘Does this mean vampires are immortal? Or, more accurately, immune to ageing?’ I stretched out my arms out to look at my hands. ‘I must admit, this does not seem like a bad deal to me.’

  ‘If the major has met me previously, and he didn’t seem surprised to see me, then it’s possible, in fact probable, that I’m still alive. Somewhere. In the galaxy. But if my friends and I go back to the time we left, then the version of me around now would be around 200 years old. Wow. Of course, if that is the case, why haven’t I turned up to help myself out?’

  I thought about that for a moment.

  ‘The answer is obvious. For my whole life I have daydreamed about meeting my future self. She would have all the answers, would tell me what to do with my life, and would tell me that whatever I was doing was right because what I was doing would turn me into her. She would free me from all the second-guessing, because she would be happy with who she was. I have thought for ages about what she would say. And the obvious conclusion is that she would say nothing. Because telling me that everything would be OK would make sure that I wouldn’t turn into her. Perhaps that is why she hasn’t come to find me?’

  Rounding the corner to my quarters, deep in thought, I noticed someone lurking outside my door.

  ‘Not good.’

  “Cleckley,” I said. He jumped. “Why are you staking out my quarters?”

  He smiled, seeing me: the guy was so enthusiastic he didn’t seem put out by an irritable vampire. “Hi, Clarke. I was wondering if you wanted to partake in a little practical biology?”

  That was one of the worst chat-up lines I’d ever heard. It was made even worse by the fact that I thought that he meant it literally rather than metaphorically.

  “Huh, I’m very busy at the moment.” I grinned. “And anyway, I just have.”

  “Oh?” He grabbed my wrist. I pulled it back and frowned. “Well, your heart’s still beating. What are you, some sort of half-caste? I would have thought you would have turned completely by now, if you were just turning.”

  I glared at him.

  ‘Damned if I know. The papers I read said that vampires didn’t have a pulse and I definitely possess one.’

  “I said I’m busy,” I growled.

  “No need to be like that. I’m just trying to help you. Don’t you want to know what you are?”

  ‘Well, yes. But there are other experiments I can do before I let the eager doctor work on me.’

  “OK, you have a point. Look… I’ll come and talk to you about it later,” I said, nodding at him and raising my eyebrows in a ‘stop asking’ gesture.

  He looked for a moment like he would argue with me, but then he shook his head and smiled. “I won’t hurt you.”

  I eyed him suspiciously.

  “You can trust me,” he added.

  I threw my head back and laughed. He took the opportunity to have a good look at my teeth. I slammed my mouth shut and spoke from behind my hand. “I don’t trust anyone.”

  ‘Is this why Mr. Does It Matter was so touchy about his teeth? Do people like to stare at them?’

  I dropped my hand.

  ‘I’m not going to go in for that shit. I’m not walking around with my hand clamped over my mouth pretending I’m something I’m not.’

  “Hey, tell you what, Cleckley, why don’t you come in and we can try a little practical biology if you want.” I said it with a hungry grin and a glint in my eyes. As I expected, he jumped back.

  “Huh, I’ll, er… I see you’re… very busy.”

  I smiled and he looked confused. I suspected he was wondering whether I was trying to threaten him, come on to him or get rid of him.

  “Heh.” I smirked, making sure he saw my canines.

  “Well… if you ever feel the need to talk… or you decide you want to know what you are, just come down to the med bay.”

  I sniffed. “Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen.” I opened my door, deliberately not turning the light on so all Cleckley could see was the darkened room, entered and shut the door behind me.

  ‘Still, Cleckley is right. I don’t have a clue what I am, or whether wood will hurt me, or even if I can break my word once I’ve given it.’

  I listened at the door for Cleckley’s footsteps to disappear down the hallway. When he’d gone, I let about five minutes pass, then snuck out of my room and headed to Anna’s. I knocked. No answer. I
wondered if she was at the main bar, the one with real genuine bar staff, or rather catering staff as it was the room next to the canteen and they shared staff. I knocked again and was about to head to the bar to look for her when the door opened. She was wearing pyjamas and her hair was messy.

  “Clarke… what?” she asked in confusion. I looked at my watch.

  ‘Oops. I forgot she doesn’t get weird shift rotations like the mercs.’

  “Oh, sorry! I didn’t realise it was so late. Did I wake you up?”

  “No… well, maybe. I’m not sure.” She looked at me groggily. “Come in,” she said, holding the door open.

  Her room was the same basic layout as mine, but in just two days she had made it her own. She had scattered the travel guides on a shelf and had her makeup and hair things laid out randomly on the surfaces.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  ‘Hmm, how to test this?’

  “This is going to seem a little weird and I don’t want you to tell anyone about what I’m going to do.”

  “What?” She sounded more awake now.

  I smiled at her, got down on one knee, put my fist over my heart and said seriously: “I, Clarke, do solemnly swear to never flick your right ear.” She was looking at me, very confused.

  I smiled at her, stood up and flicked her right ear with my finger. Just to be sure I flicked the left one too.

  “Clarke, are you crazy?” she asked.

  I chuckled. “Good night, Anna,” I said as I walked out of her room.

  ‘With luck, she’ll think all of that was a weird dream. Neat. So I can break my word if I want. Where on Earth did that stupid rumour come from?’

  Starship Corridors’ Wet Tee-Shirt Competition

  I didn’t want to go, no-one could make me, but in the end I found myself walking into the medical bay. The rooms smelt like the sick room at my old school, and I swore they had the same creepy posters with jogging, grinning hearts and piles of anaemic, yet happy-looking vegetables on them. I shuddered. There were several small rooms with beds in them and lots of implements I didn’t want to have anything to do with. Cleckley’s office was deep within this medical maze. I found it and knocked.