Voyage

by E M Gale

  I looked at her and then looked at the door.

  ‘Oh, yeah.’

  “Look,” she said, unfolding herself from the couch, “I’m just here to drop off a quick message.”

  “Oh?”

  “There are factions within the vampires–”

  “I’ve not met another vampire yet,” I informed her. “Where are they? How can I meet one?”

  She looked annoyed and forced the air out of the front of her mouth, making a ‘pschaw’ noise. “Listen, this is important.”

  I nodded.

  “There are factions within the vampires. The major on this ship is fighting on the right side. So, for now, follow the major. There will be an… interesting event on the ship. After that, the major will tell you something you didn’t know. Pretend that you already know everything he tells you.” She regarded me, looking calm, unruffled and slightly amused.

  I tilted my head to the side. “That’s it?”

  “Yup.”

  “Could you be any more cryptic?”

  “Yup.”

  “OK, that was an obvious answer.”

  She grinned. “Yup.” She started towards the door, and then paused and pointed at something wrapped up on the table. “Oh, and look at that package.”

  “What is it?”

  “Just open it.”

  “Can’t you tell me more?” I pleaded.

  “Nope.” She smiled, and waved over her shoulder. “Ja ne!”

  ‘What does that mean?’

  But she was gone out of the door. I was about to run after her, but I guessed it would be bad for the two of us to be seen together. How would I explain it?

  I rushed over to the table instead. The package was small and had a sticker on the top. It said: ‘You and Your Undeath’.

  ‘Oh, ha ha. Very bloody funny. My future self turns up and instead of helping me out, she takes the piss.’

  I sighed.

  ‘I would really have preferred her to tell me everything’s going to be OK. Instead she tells me I’m an idiot. Helpful.’

  I ripped open the package.

  ‘Two new computerised notebooks? Oh, I see. Language courses. Argh, I’m no linguist. But I suppose these must come in handy in the future. I guess I can’t rely on everyone being able to speak English. So what does she think I need to learn? Orcish and vampirish. Vampires have their own language? I wonder if it’s full of hissing.’

  And unsurprisingly that language course came with a warning to not let it fall into anyone else’s hands.

  ‘Maybe people don’t know that we have a language.’

  I sighed. Then I squatted down and looked under the bed; the weapons were still there, and I needed to find a much better hiding place for them.

  Just then there was a knock on my door. I placed the language courses under the bed as well and then crept over to the door. I smelt that it was the major and him alone.

  ‘Ah, have they discovered the missing weapons? It’s probably time to start simpering.’

  I opened the door and leaned against the door frame.

  “Hello, Major Hemmingway.” I spoke in a higher register than normal. “It’s nice to see my favourite person. And how are you today?” I shot him my most pleasant smile, the one with just a hint of sex.

  He stared at me. “I’m fine, Clarke. Why are you so polite?”

  “I’m always polite, Major Hemmingway.” I even batted my eyelashes.

  He sighed. “Oh, for goodness’ sake, I know what you’re like. Do you really think I’m going to tell you off about sleeping with my mercs?”

  ‘What? OK, he doesn’t know about the weapons. Good.’

  “Ah, don’t be stupid,” I said, waving my hands in a gesture to him to come in and sit down, the smile and faux politeness gone.

  “The captain wants to take on a passenger.”

  ‘Why is he telling me that? It is, at the moment at least, still the captain’s ship.’

  “Oh?”

  “A vampire,” said the major, closely watching my reaction.

  ‘My future self? Surely not!’

  “Uh… One who looks like me?”

  “No. He doesn’t.”

  “How do you know he’s a vampire?” I asked curiously.

  “Well, he’s pale, has no pulse, and travels with a coffin.”

  I sniggered. “I see. He could just be a goth.”

  “I want to know if he’s someone you know,” said the major, exasperated, by my humour, I thought.

  “Well,” I said, affecting a posture of deep thought, “from the description he does sound like someone I might know.”

  The major glared at me.

  “Clarke! Just wander down to the goods bay and check him out, please. The captain doesn’t want any ancient blood feuds on his ship!”

  I looked closely at him.

  ‘Well, I’m interested in meeting another vampire, haven’t I been looking for one? But now I feel rather nervous at the prospect.’

  “OK,” I said, “but why is the captain entertaining this idea at all? I thought he didn’t like vampires?”

  The major looked consternated. I got the feeling that there was something he would like to tell me, but couldn’t.

  “Come on, level with me.”

  “Well, the captain doesn’t like vampires as a rule, but we haven’t been smuggling that much recently. We need cargo.”

  ‘Smugglers who don’t smuggle much? Who’s paying the bills? And are vampires cargo?’

  “Yes, and whilst we’re on that subject, you don’t like the idea of smuggling, do you, Hemmingway?” I was watching him closely.

  His heartbeat rose. He avoided my stare and looked uncomfortable.

  ‘Hmm.’

  He said nothing.

  “So why are you here? You could do other things with your… retirement.”

  He started at that last word.

  “Obviously you and the captain go way back, but do you really owe him the favour of doing something… illegal?” I whispered the last word. Mark was wrong. There was no way the major was a pirate. He looked even more uncomfortable than he had been and he covered it up by yelling at me.

  “Clarke! Get down to the goods bay and tell me if that vampire will cause trouble with you! That is an order!”

  ‘Heh.’

  “OK, I’m going, but you’re not in the army now, Major, and I’m not on duty, so I’d appreciate you not yelling at me.” Then I smiled. He looked even more annoyed.

  ‘There’s definitely something going on here. Does it have something to do with the circumstances under which the major left the army? They must have been bad for him to be smuggling. Now where would I be able to get that information?’

  I stood up and shepherded him from my room, as I wasn’t going to run the risk of him finding my weapons stash. He was definitely annoyed about something and I thought that it was only tangentially related to me. With the major away from my stolen weapons, I made up for time wasted winding him up and pelted it down to the goods bay.

  I peered round the entrance and looked down. I had to look around a bit. I found some unfamiliar smells and followed them. There were several different, but odd, food types being loaded onto the ship. I paid attention to them just long enough to figure out that none of them looked like contraband. Unfortunately, the data I’d gathered didn’t include what the stuff smelt like. That got me thinking about a library of scents for vampires.

  I stopped daydreaming when I noticed something… odd walking up the ramp to the ship. That must be the vampire then. He smelt… interesting. I tongued my canines and then left consideration of that aside for now. He was about medium height, shockingly pale, wearing shades, unsurprisingly, and moving jittery, faster and more off-balance than a normal human, as if unsure of his speed.

  ‘Well, way to go on the disguise.’

  The vampire caught my scent and looked up at me. He looked intensely curious, which was curious in and of itself. But he didn’t look like he
recognised me, which was good. I didn’t know quite what the major had been talking about regarding blood feuds, but if my future self was running around, it wasn’t impossible that she had enemies who might go for me.

  Feet pounded down the corridor and I leant back to see the slightly amusing sight of the major running after me. When he stopped he didn’t look out of breath.

  ‘Heh, he’s in good shape, though I knew that already. Hold on, he ran all the way from my quarters? I must have been moving bloody quickly to have beaten him here by several minutes!’

  I frowned at that. Even I didn’t know how fast I could move.

  I moved out of sight and, I hoped, hearing range of the vampire to talk to the major.

  ‘I will need to figure out the range of vampiric senses.’

  “Do you know him then?” the major whispered.

  “Nope, and more importantly, he doesn’t seem to know me, which is good.”

  He looked confused at that. “Surely you’re quite famous, Clarke?”

  ‘Uh… am I? Oh.’

  “He does seem to be a bit green. Maybe he’s newly dead,” the major reasoned.

  ‘Does he mean green as in naive or green as in mouldy?’

  I glared at him anyway for the use of the word ‘dead’. I wanted to ask ‘how can you tell?’ but settled for: “Oh, you can tell that?”

  “Don’t insult me, Clarke.”

  ‘Ooh, tetchy.’

  I looked at him, managing to appear a little upset. “Sorry. I really didn’t mean to insult you,” I said. I think I came across as genuine, as he smiled. And anyway, I was being genuine.

  He sighed. “So I can tell the captain no trouble then?”

  ‘Well, I can’t promise that. I know nothing about vampires, so how would I know if there would be trouble or not?’

  “None from me.”

  Flow Like a River

  I’d spent a few hours having darts shot at me in an infantry exercise, but now my shift was over and I’d agreed to meet up with my friends in the bar–the nice bar, that was. I had thought about trying to get my friends to come down to the mercenary bar, just because I liked dive bars, but I didn’t think that they’d go. To be honest, I had mostly been drinking there as I was keen to avoid Rob; I didn’t want to have another discussion about my job.

  As I had arrived there first, I headed up to the bar to buy my wine and talk to Dr. Cleckley, who was there.

  “Cleckley,” I said, by way of a greeting.

  “Clarke,” he said back.

  ‘Oh, he is picking up my idiosyncrasies, is he? Poor thing.’

  “If you’re looking for the captain, he’s just left,” he said, pointing at a half-drunk pint.

  I shook my head. “I’m really sorry about your office,” I muttered.

  He turned around on the stool to regard me. “It’s OK, it was worth it to see you get soaked.”

  ‘Why?’

  Some of my sentiment must have shown as he laughed. “I was curious to see if you would melt.”

  I looked confused for a moment longer.

  ‘Oh, I get it.’

  “That’s witches.”

  He grinned. He seemed to have recovered from the shock at seeing me vanish, at least.

  “You got a thing about mythological creatures, Doc? What’s next, Werewolves? Zombies? Ghosts? Dragons?”

  Cleckley was staring at me. “You know about werewolves?”

  I shrugged.

  He was watching me, and then he sighed.

  “I’m just curious about the undead.” I glared at him. I didn’t like that term. Although, as I wasn’t sure it was strictly inaccurate, I wasn’t sure I could pull him up on it.

  “I would have thought the orcs would be more interesting to study. You could do proper xenobiology.”

  He shrugged. “They’re actually a pretty close relative.”

  I looked blank.

  “C’mon, Clarke, you must know about the common origin theory.”

  ‘Eh?’

  I shook my head.

  “Oh, I would have thought you would have, you knew all about blood transfusions.”

  I raised my eyebrows at that, amused. He understood.

  “OK, perhaps that’s more interesting for you. Anyway, it’s the theory that pretty much all the humanoid species in the galaxy are descended from a common ancestor species.”

  “Like the Out of Africa theory,” I commented. Cleckley raised his eyebrows.

  “You do have odd areas of knowledge. That’s a really old area of study. No one cares where humans originated on Earth, people are much more interested in where humanoids originated in the galaxy.”

  ‘Hmm. Maybe I ought not to discuss science, I’ll give myself away as a time traveller. Then again, he thinks I’m two hundred years old, why shouldn’t I have out-of-date knowledge?’

  “Then there’s the mystery of how they moved from planet to planet.” His eyes were shining.

  ‘Ah, I’ve hit on another area of his interest.’

  “Some people have suggested that there was another species that moved them around somehow, colonising planets with humans over five thousand years ago,” said Cleckley.

  “Hey, Clarke.” It was Rob and Mark.

  “Hi, guys, let’s get a table.” I nodded at Cleckley to join us. We sat down whilst Rob and Mark got their drinks.

  “But what species?” continued Cleckley. “How did they move humans from planet to planet five thousand years before the hyperdrive was invented? And where did that species go?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe they got bored? And went on to the next galaxy?”

  Cleckley ignored my comment. He was caught up in his wondering. He hit his fist against his palm. “But why? That’s the question. Why did they do it?”

  I nodded sagely. ‘Good question.’

  “And what about the plants?” I asked.

  “What?” Cleckley was frowning at me, distracted.

  “The plants, on the different planets. Are they related to each other too?” Rob and Mark sat down and smiled at the doctor.

  ‘Everyone likes Cleckley. I wonder if it’s because he has all the drugs?’

  “Plants?” repeated Cleckley. He was astounded, though I didn’t know why.

  “Yeah. Has anyone looked at the genetic code of plants to figure out how similar they are on each planet? ’Cos they don’t look it to me, but it might be interesting to know. For example, did similar shapes evolve because they were in similar places, or did they have the same ancestor?”

  Cleckley looked a bit confused about this.

  “But… who cares about plants?”

  ‘Oh, honestly.’

  “What’s wrong with plants? Why does no one care about them? Surely they’re just as valid a thing to think about as how humanoids got dumped around the galaxy?”

  “Ah, plants again,” said Mark with a nod to me.

  Cleckley narrowed his eyes. I just knew he was thinking, ‘Huh, she cares about plants, maybe vampires are part plant,’ or something dumb like that. He very carefully phrased his next question. “Clarke’s interested in plants then?”

  I rolled my eyes at his attempts at subtle information-gathering.

  “Yeah, she kept going on about trees,” Mark said.

  “And the sky,” added Rob, winking at me. I think he winked because I had been right.

  “We left her behind on Ragnarok IV ’cos she was more interested in watching fish than finding breakfast,” added Mark, gesturing with his beer bottle.

  “Don’t remind me.”

  “So… is it plants specifically, or fish as well?” asked Cleckley, eyeing me curiously.

  ‘Hmm, I bet he would be interested in mermaids too.’

  “I’m more interested in fish. You see, if my legs get wet I get a fishtail instead.”

  “Really?” Cleckley’s eyes boggled.

  ‘OK, that was dumb. What if he gives me away as a vampire? Maybe baiting the doctor isn’t such a good idea when
my friends are around.’

  “But you didn’t in my office?” he said, perplexed.

  Mark laughed.

  “You, a mermaid? Very funny, Clarke,” he said.

  “I thought you hated swimming.”

  ‘Eh? I don’t, I just don’t fancy going around with wet hair in winter and if I blow-dry it I end up with an afro.’

  “Ah… I see,” said Cleckley.

  “Thinking about it, this ship is really missing a swimming pool,” I added.

  “Clarke!” yelled Anna, rushing towards me, tailed by Jane. “There’s a vampire on the ship!” I stared at her in surprise, then looked around me in consternation.

  “Where? Where?” I said. People were looking at her for her outburst, but not at me. Technically, only the mercenaries, major, doctor and captain knew I was one.

  “Not here, on the ship somewhere!” she said. I sighed.

  ‘Well, I’ve not been made then. Good.’

  I relaxed. “Who told you that?” I asked. Cleckley was looking at me, slightly confused.

  “Everyone on the bridge knows,” said Jane as she took a seat next to Mark and grinned at him.

  “Eh?” said Rob. “Vampires exist?”

  I smiled.

  “I doubt it, they’re probably just winding you up, Anna,” I said. Now Cleckley looked suspicious.

  “They do exist! Seriously! Apparently, it’s just there aren’t that many of them. But there’s one on board now!” said Anna.

  I turned to the doctor and grinned guiltily. “I forgot, but that’s what I came over to tell you. I’m sure you can experiment on him.” The ‘instead of me’ was implicit.

  “You knew?” asked Anna.

  “Yeah, grunts gossip a lot.”

  “Gargh! Clarke! What’s he here for?”

  ‘Damn it, why is she asking me?’

  I managed not to frown though. Instead, I shrugged again, which might have been overdoing it.

  “Maybe he’s trying to smuggle himself somewhere. This is, after all, a smuggling ship.”

  Cleckley stared at me.

  “Have you seen it?” asked Mark.

  “No. I don’t know what he looks like,” I lied.

  “Do you know?” Rob asked Cleckley. I thought Cleckley had just about caught up with what was going on.

  “Well,” he said, “according to the literature, vampires are pale, sharp-toothed blood drinkers, with no pulse.”