by Kit Walker
"How?" Asha's voice is flat. Hollow. Running on autopilot. "Ysal and Laela—"
"Who?"
"The aliens," Asha says. "They've never heard of Earth. They wouldn't have the slightest idea how to get a message through."
"We could fix up Frontier?" Mike suggests. "Fly back on our own?"
"Frontier is in no shape to make that kind of trip," Adam says, "especially considering how we have no idea where we are, or how far away the solar system is. It could take us another six hundred years to get back." He pinches the bridge of his nose. "What about the aliens?"
Asha says, "What about them?"
"This is clearly an interstellar ship. They must have more navigation data than we do, and more powerful engines. They could take us to Earth."
"I don't think they can," Asha says. "Laela mentioned a quarantine. I think Earth might be inside it."
"So what?"
"So, we'd be asking them to fly into a restricted zone."
"Who cares? This is more important than—" Adam breaks off with a wordless noise of frustration. "Fine. Fine."
He storms out of the medbay.
Mike watches him go, then turns back to Asha. "You okay?"
"No."
"Me, neither." Mike sighs loudly and leans against one of the exam tables, staring down at the floor.
"It doesn't... feel real," Asha says. "I keep thinking, any second now, someone will jump out and yell 'gotcha!'"
Mike raises an eyebrow at her. "People do that to you often?"
Asha shrugs.
Mike sighs again. "It feels real to me." He scrubs his hands over his face. "Do you think we're safe, here?"
Asha thinks on it for a second. "I don't think the aliens want to hurt us," she says. "I think they're not quite sure what to do with us."
Mike nods. "I'm going to have a look around. Will you be okay on your own?"
"Sure," Asha says. "Go explore."
•
It's only when Asha tries to take a nap on one of the exam tables that she realizes she's hungry.
She reluctantly levers herself up off the table, opens the medbay door, and looks up and down the hall. The hallway is lined with doors, every twenty feet or so, but none of them look particularly promising.
Asha wanders down the corridor until she passes through a wide doorway into a large, open space filled with tables and benches in military-precise rows. The far wall isn't a wall at all, but an enormous window. Beyond it is the utter blackness of deep space, pinpricked with stars.
She turns away from the sight and spots another door, next to the one she came through. It leads to the kitchen, which is—aside from the fact that all the appliances are bronze and serve arcane purposes that Asha can only guess at—reassuringly familiar.
The moment Asha starts opening and closing cupboards, Laela's voice comes over the PA: "What are you doing?"
Asha says, "Do you have anything to eat around here?"
"I'm not telling you that. You might contaminate our food supply."
"Ysal doesn't seem too worried about our horrible alien diseases."
"Ysal's a sivari. You could dunk her in medical waste and all she'd do is politely object to the smell. Get out of there."
"I haven't eaten in six hundred years, okay? I need a sandwich."
And that's when it hits.
Asha slides to the floor and buries her face in her hands. Shuddering sobs work their way up her throat, but there aren't any tears. A small, detached, observational part of Asha's brain wonders why.
"Are—are you okay?"
Asha takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself down. "I'm fine, just—shit. Shit. My mom." She takes another breath, and another, until she's back under control. More or less. "I was supposed to send her letters."
"You... left people behind, then."
"My mom," Asha says. "And an ex-girlfriend who thought this job would ruin my life."
"Well, she wasn't wrong." There's a pause. "Sorry, that was really—I just say things, sometimes. Sorry."
"I've heard worse." Asha contemplates whether it's worth the trouble to sit up and elects to stay on the floor, for now. "I signed up for Project Oasis after my dad died. Kelly told me I shouldn't make such a big, life-changing decision so soon after a loss. I think she might have been right."
"I, uh..." Laela clears her throat. "This probably won't help, but. I know what it's like. To have a door closed behind you forever like that. It sucks. I'm sorry."
Asha grabs the edge of the counter and pulls herself up. She looks back out at the mess hall and, desperate to change the subject, says, "This is a pretty big boat for two people."
"What? Oh. Yeah." There's a hint of pride in Laela's voice as she says, "Wayfarer used to be a Sentinel infantry transport during the war. I bought her off a junk dealer. Upgraded all her systems myself, automated most maintenance tasks. At this point, a full crew would be redundant."
"Still seems pretty lonely."
"I'm not a social person."
"Yeah, I guessed that. Are you still hiding on the command deck?"
"It's a precaution. I'm not hiding."
Asha picks at a loose thread on her uniform, thinking. "This quarantine you mentioned. What's inside it?"
"No idea. The Sentinels declared the quarantine about three hundred years ago and never told anybody why. And they destroy anything that tries to get in or out."
Through the PA, Asha hears an alert go off.
"What's that?"
"Movement," Laela says. "On your ship."
"It isn't Ysal?"
"No, she's in Wayfarer's cargo bay right now. And there are two moving bodies."
•
Asha runs into Mike on her way to the elevator. "Come with me," she says, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him along.
Mike says, "What's going on?"
"Something's moving around on Frontier. Two somethings. Have you seen Adam?"
"Not yet," Mike says. "Are these 'somethings' dangerous?"
"Don't know yet."
They take the elevator down to deck one and run into Ysal in the cargo bay, who asks, "Has Laela told you about the—?"
"Yeah," says Asha. "Any idea what they are?"
Ysal shakes her head and takes the lead as they pass through the corvus and onto Frontier. Asha still has Ysal's comm in her pocket; she fishes it out and says, "Laela, where are these things?"
"Right on the bow," Laela says. "I assume that's the cockpit?"
It's a long hike from the corvus to the cockpit, one that they all make in silence. The door requires a code, and as Asha keys it in, Ysal says, "Stay behind me."
The door slides open.
The cockpit is large but claustrophobic, thanks to the sheer amount of equipment and computer terminals crammed into it. The crowded, oppressive atmosphere is only mitigated by the window at the front of the room, looking out into space.
Adam is sitting in one of the chairs, scrolling through a readout on the computer screen. He looks up and says, "What do you want now?"
Ysal scans the room, alert, every muscle tensed. Mike squeezes past her and says, "Adam, what the fuck?"
"Don't 'what the fuck' me," Adam snaps. "I'm trying to figure out how we got here."
"Adam," Asha interrupts. "There's something in here with you."
Adam looks back at the computer screen and keeps scrolling. "I think I'd have noticed that."
Asha grabs the comm. "Laela, Adam's on Frontier. Where's the second moving body?"
"Nowhere," Laela says, annoyed. "I can't find it."
"So... what? It just disappeared?"
"Basically, yeah."
Mike says, "Maybe it was a glitch?"
"Either that, or the ship is haunted." Adam snaps his fingers. "Ashley—"
"It's Asha."
"Whatever. I found the main computer log. I need you to go through it, see if you can find anything useful."
In the flat tone Asha usually adopts whenever someone has a '
quick request,' she says, "You want me to go through six hundred years' worth of activity logs?"
"Do you have anything more important to do?"
"Well, no, but—"
"Good." Adam stands up and stretches. "I need to check something else. I'll be back later."
"Asha," Ysal says, "could you advise your associate not to leave Wayfarer without an escort? It is for his own safety."
Asha says, "Hey, Adam?"
"Not now," Adam calls back. The door closes behind him.
"Jackass," Asha mutters. "Mike, could you do me a favor? Go tell Adam not to wander around alone."
"Okay," Mike says, hesitant. "What about you?"
Asha sighs and sits down in front of the terminal Adam was using. "I've got work to do, apparently."
•
Asha is still sifting through the logs by the time Ysal comes back. There's a light tap on the door; Asha thumbs the release to open it, and Ysal steps into the cockpit.
"I have finished," Ysal says. "I would like to leave as soon as you are done. This ship's structural integrity worries me."
Asha makes an acknowledging noise and turns her attention back to the screen.
Ysal leans over her shoulder, peering at the lines of code. "You can read this?"
"Not all of it," Asha says, "but I know what I'm looking for." She taps back to the spot she marked a few hours ago: here, the log is a mess of zeros and error messages. "See this? It's the crash that shut Frontier down six hundred years ago."
"What was the cause?"
"That, I can't read. Some kind of power surge, I think. I'm going to ask Adam to take a look at it." Asha scrolls down a little. "After a hard reset, Frontier runs off her emergency battery until the crew can switch the generator back on. Only, they never did."
Ysal's breath rushes past Asha's ear, warm and surprisingly odorless. "And your ship has been running on emergency power ever since."
"Except that's not possible," Asha says. "The battery was designed to last the three hundred days it would take to get back to Earth. I don't think it could run even three cryo-pods for six hundred years." She chews her lip and glares at the screen. "Why are we still alive?"
"I am afraid I do not have an answer to that." Ysal steps back from Asha's terminal and looks around the cockpit. Her elbows are tucked in, her tail held close to her body, like she's worried she'll bump into something and break it.
Asha leans back in her chair, rubbing her hands over her eyes. Her headache has subsided a little, but it hasn't gone away. She's tempted to ask the aliens for painkillers, but that might not be such a smart idea.
Ysal studies Asha for a moment. "Perhaps you should rest."
"I'm okay," Asha says. She sits up again and taps back to the spot where she'd left off. The log is spectacularly boring, but in the last day or so, excitement has been accompanied by the threat of imminent and violent death. Asha can handle boring.
And if she's focused on her work, she doesn't have to think about anything else.
Asha's getting pretty close to the end of the log: the timestamps are from around twenty years ago. She scrolls down and hits another mess of error messages.
"Huh."
Ysal leans over Asha's shoulder again. "What have you found?"
Asha rereads the lines of code, puzzling through them. "There's something here about a 'foreign body' in the vents. The heat diffusion system went into lockdown to contain it."
"Which caused the generator to overheat when we reactivated it," Ysal guesses. "Where is this 'foreign body' now?"
The comm in Asha's pocket buzzes. Laela's voice comes through, muffled and mildly panicked: "Ysal? We have a problem."
Asha retrieves the comm. "What's wrong?"
"Your friend is doing something to the door," Laela says, all in a rush. "He's trying to get onto the command deck."
•
The moment the elevator doors open onto deck three, Asha can hear Adam and Mike yelling at each other. She turns the corner, then scrambles back as a gunshot ricochets off the wall, leaving a huge dent in the metal bulkhead.
"Adam! What the shit?"
"Just stay away from me!" Adam shouts. The gun in his hand is small, sleek, as bronze as the rest of the ship, and still vaguely pointed in Asha's direction.
Asha spots Mike at the other end of the hall, hiding around the opposite corner. "Where did he get a gun?"
Ysal peeks out of cover and says, "It is one of ours."
Adam has half his attention on them; the other half is devoted to the control panel next to the door. "We're going to Earth," he says. "If the aliens won't take us back, I'll fly the ship myself."
"Tell your friend that this is an enforced quarantine." Even over the PA, Asha can detect the edge of fear in Laela's voice. "The Sentinels have drones patrolling the border, and they're programmed to open fire on anyone who tries to enter or leave it. The only reason your ship made it through is because it's barely recognizable as a ship!"
"Adam, that's not possible," Asha says. "You're going to get us all killed."
"What other choice do we have?" Adam snarls.
Mike leans out into the hall and barks, "Adam! Put the goddamn gun down!"
They all duck back into cover as Adam fires wildly down both sides of the hall.
Asha and Ysal circle around—the corridor is one big ring around the deck—and approach Mike's corner. "You okay?" Asha asks.
"Yeah," Mike says, a little sheepish. "In my defense, that usually works."
"How did this even happen?"
Mike shrugs. "No idea. I lost track of him, and then he showed up and started waving the gun around."
Asha turns to Ysal. "Could Adam actually get through that door?"
"Your associate was, evidently, able to gain access to the armory," Ysal says. "It is safer to assume that he will eventually gain access to the command deck, as well. Do you believe he is willing to negotiate?"
"Right now? Not unless 'negotiate' means 'do exactly what he tells you to.'"
Ysal bobs her head. "That is unfortunate. Excuse me for a moment."
She steps around the corner and charges down the corridor.
Adam turns the gun on her; a shot connects with her shoulder, staggering her for a moment, but within seconds she's close enough to bring one long arm around and smack him across the hall.
Ysal arches her back, hunches over, and hisses, showing off a long blue tongue and several rows of small, sharp teeth.
Adam stumbles to his feet and runs for the elevator.
In the calm that follows, Laela says, "Tell me you're not going to let him run loose around the ship with a gun."
"I am not." Ysal straightens up and rolls her shoulders. She doesn't seem all that bothered by the gunshot wound. "Asha, are you and Mike willing to assist me?"
Asha blinks up at her. "You want our help?"
Mike looks at Asha, then at Ysal. "I'll need a gun."
•
Wayfarer's armory is down on deck one, across the hall from the cargo bay. It's not a small room, but the wide variety of guns lining every flat surface make it seem narrow, cramped, and terrifying.
Mike stands in the doorway and gapes, as if this is the most beautiful and terrible thing he's ever seen. "Why the hell do you have so many guns?"
Ysal says, "Laela insists on maintaining a well-stocked armory, in the event of attempted robberies."
Asha translates: "Pirates."
Mike steps into the armory and picks up a rifle. Holding it gingerly, with its muzzle pointed at the floor, he looks at Ysal and says, "Show me how to use this thing?"
Ysal communicates with Mike in gestures, correcting his grip and stance.
A low rumble vibrates through the floor.
Over the PA, Laela says, "Looks like Adam made it onto your ship. He just started the engines."
"Oh, no," Asha groans. "What is he doing? There's no way Frontier can make it back to Earth."
Ysal says, "The corvus is still deplo
yed. If your associate attempts to pull away, both ships will be severely damaged."
"Retracting the corvus now. We're leaving."
"We can't just leave Adam behind," Asha insists.
"He tried to hijack my ship. I am one hundred percent in favor of leaving him to die."
"Give us a chance to bring him back!"
"So he can cause even more trouble? No!"
"Laela," Ysal says, calm and patient. "Please."
"... Fine." An alert goes off. "Uh. You're all still in the armory, right?"
"Correct," Ysal says.
"I'm detecting two bodies moving around on Frontier. Again."
Mike, unable to understand more than half the conversation, says, "Asha?"
Asha says, "There was something in the vents."
"What?"
"The heat diffusion system was locked down because of a foreign object in the vents," Asha says. "That must be the second body. It got loose when we overrode the lockdown."
"'Got loose'?" Mike says. "Like an animal? In space?"
"You'd better get over there fast," Laela says. "Whatever that second body is, it's headed straight for your friend."
•
Mike opens the door to the cockpit and dives out of the way when Adam starts shooting.
"Don't fire a gun in here!" Mike shouts. "What is wrong with you?"
Adam doesn't bother to answer.
"Ysal," Asha says. "Any chance you could go in there and grab Adam? Maybe knock him out?"
"My movement would be restricted in such a small space," Ysal confesses. "I am willing to take the risk, but I may be—"
Asha glances at the bullet wound in Ysal's shoulder, which—thank god—has stopped bleeding. "Never mind." She sidles closer to the door. "Adam? Shut the engines down. If you try to leave, you'll damage Frontier."
"And the alien ship," Adam says. "I know."
Asha leans out of cover and stares at him in disbelief. "What?"
Adam squares his shoulders and stares right back at her. "Either the aliens take us back to Earth, or I wreck both ships."
"If he wasn't in a room full of computers and a big fucking window," Mike says, "I'd shoot him right now."
"Calm down," Asha says. "I'm about to try something really stupid and I need you to cover me."
"What are you—"