S69Q_1

by Aline Riva

  "It's four months until a survey team goes to the planet and risks infection. If I'm out too long Sin will have to go with you to warn the authorities. Or at least warn the survey team. If that happens, don't go to the surface, warn them remotely from space."

  "The ship is programmed to take me home if you die," Sin reminded him, speaking through a choking lump in her throat because she wanted to scream and cry as her fears for him started to rise and her last reserves of strength were al she had left to hold it back.

  "I'm sure you can take your vessel and warn them, it's got to be worth the reward money," Jinx said.

  Neve nodded.

  “Assuming you survive, I'll be working on dissecting the parasite and finding out how it works – after I've studied it live and figured out if there's a chemical way to destroy it or at least repel it from human prey. I'm not going to hand over an unknown parasite and toss it earth defence and say, Deal with this, I want to tell them how to deal with it. If I'm claiming the reward, they can call me the hero who found a way to beat this thing, too.”

  “You're going the extra mile considering the money will be reward enough.”

  Sadness flickered in her gaze.

  “No, Jinx. The whole universe might be my playground with the reward money, but I also want something else. I ended up here because I found my lover of nine years in bed with another woman. I put bullets in both of them and didn't stop firing until the ammo was gone. They called it a crime of passion, a moment of temporary madness. And my brilliant career was taken into consideration and I was exiled from earth. I want that lifted, I want to go home.”

  “I hope you get what you want,” he told her.

  “I hope you do too. We need to discuss the contents of the memory chip – I have to operate today. You really can't afford to waste time, I have to get that thing out of your head before it kills you.”

  Jinx glanced at Sin and as he saw tears in her eye he managed to smile.

  “She's right, Sin. Let's get this over with.”

  She nodded, saying nothing because she knew her voice would be choked with tears. Then she followed Jinx through to Neve's office, where he sat down and prepared to list everything the memory implant needed to contain.

  It was early afternoon by the time Jinx had finished making arrangements with Neve, then while she prepared a robotic machine with the programming required to carry out surgery, Sin watched with a heavy heart as the man she loved stood next to a bad in a small room where he would either recover – or not – if he made it through the procedure.

  "I know you're worried," he said as he unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, then he paused, standing there still half dressed as he turned to Sin and looked into her eyes. She was on the brink of tears and he had been expecting that. A thought crossed his mind as he placed his hands on her hips and stepped closer, and he smiled.

  "Even as I'm holding you I'm looking at you and thinking I want to kiss you for what could be the last time - or maybe I could slit your throat and drink your blood because that would be an instant fix for me. I could go back to Shyra-K1 and carry on like I did before..." he paused, an inner fight raging behind his eyes as he silently vowed he would snap her neck and eat her raw, "But I know the truth now. It's not me, it's the parasite making me do these things."

  Then he pulled her closer and their lips touched. He wanted to lose himself in her kiss forever, to freeze the moment even if it meant living with the madness, but as she started to tremble and tears spilled down her face, he pulled back and felt sure the separation had wounded them both.

  "You shouldn't cry over me, not after the things I've done."

  "It doesn't change the fact that I love you, Rik."

  "I love you too," he promised her, "You'll be my last thought before Neve puts me under for treatment. Don't worry, I'm going to get through this."

  Sin wiped her eyes and nodded, then gave him a final hug as she held on to his words long after he had let her go, and he had turned away, knowing he had just lied – he was quite sure the procedure to remove the parasite would kill him...

  As the sun lost its artificial glow, Sin went to the waiting area that looked out across the fields as she tried not to think of what Jinx was going through – it was an hour into the procedure, Neve would be working on the slow process of opening up his skull and carefully cutting into brain tissue to expose the parasite aided by an impressive array of robotic machinery that she had assured her was precise. But it took nothing away from the risks involved. She wanted to leave and take a walk outside, wander over the field as the sun sank but before preparing Jinx for surgery, Neve had warned her that those who entered the forest after dark didn't come out again – at least not alive... It was full, she had said, of the worst kind of people around here. Going by the rough and regular scumbag types she had seen on the streets by day, knowing this was enough to imagine exactly what lurked in those woods, so instead she stayed in the waiting area, found a seat next to a wide window, shifted the curtain aside and watched as the artificial land slowly lost is light and yielded to dusk.

  She didn't look at the clock on the wall. She knew it would be hours before she got the news she was fearing, Jinx hadn't kissed her to comfort her before the surgery, it had felt like a kiss goodbye. She had seen farewell in his eyes. He knew there was a strong chance he wouldn't make it through this...

  As the dusk shaded down to nightfall she watched as stars came out in a clear night sky, then a crescent moon began to glow and no matter how long she watched the scene, saw nothing about it to hint that it was not a real sky. She tried to think beyond it, up to the surface and through the real skies, out into space and across the galaxy, all the way back to earth and the place she called home. But home had never seemed so far away, and her thoughts could not quite reach it as they turned once again to Jinx as she felt that same horrible fear that had grabbed hold of her ever since she had left his side: She didn't know if he would make it and there was nothing she could do now but wait...

  Neve had worked slowly and painstakingly with the machine, watching as the program ran and the careful slices through exposed brain tissue mapped the way to the creature buried inside her patient's head. Jinx was deeply unconscious and seemed to know nothing of the difficulty of the procedure, yet when she had paused the machine to add a medication to his IV line to stabilise him as his condition turned critical, it seemed his condition had improved very rapidly – far more than she had expected. From that moment, she was sure Jinx had every intention of surviving and somehow was keeping that determination strong even while he was in surgery.

  The creature had been unnerving to look at, the first glance had sent a shudder through her body as she looked at the long, thin, grey creature shining under the lights, nestled inside the open brain of Jinx, whose vital signs were once again steady. The parasite was locked on to tissue by two barbed anchors on its snake like head, the barbs were tiny but as she saw how they bit deep she guessed she would have to increase the flow of the drugs to IV to stop a bleed as the creature was removed. Its many eyes were tiny and black, dotted on the back of its head as it squirmed weakly.

  Neve had stepped back, taken several deep breaths with her surgical mask off, then she had put it back on and worked with the machinery to successfully remove the parasite. It had squirmed like an eel as it was drawn free from the brain tissue, for a moment she had wondered what would happen if it had got free of the clamp that held it. Maybe burrowed through her surgical gown, straight into her body, or gone for an eye and sucked it out and dived into her head... It was the stuff of nightmares, yet it was real and like nothing she had ever seen before.

  Once the creature was sealed in a container she had taken on the awkward task of fitting the implant preprogrammed with memories Jinx had chosen to retain, then she had sealed off wounds, flushed them with a formula to speed healing and prevent swelling, then she had closed the skull and sealed the scalp and dressed the wound.

  Neve had mo
nitored his condition for more than two hours and placed him on life support and given the shot of Paromycin to take away the memories, just as he had asked. Her patient had made it through the procedure and survived, but the trauma of removing the creature was heavy and despite the medication she had given to improve his chances of a full recovery, he was for now in a coma - and she knew she could offer Sin no sure guarantee that Rik Jinx would ever wake up again...

  When Sin had taken a seat next to his bed where he had been placed on oxygen and equipment above monitored his vital signs, as a blue light covered him to speed healing, she had taken hold of his hand and spoken softly.

  "You've made it," she said, "It's almost morning and Neve says you're getting stronger. I'm going to be here every day, Rik. I won't leave you. I think you're going to wake up soon. I'm not giving up on that, you're just not ready yet..." Then she fell silent, looking to her lover as he lay with his eyes closed, unaware she was holding his hand as he breathed in the oxygen and the coma refused to lift.

  Jinx heard someone say his name, but as he opened his eyes he was in darkness. He was expecting to be on oxygen or at least have a line running to his arm, but as he sat up and the room came into dim focus as a lamp next to the bed glowed softly, he saw no sign of any equipment around him. Then he looked down at his body and a look of confusion came to his face as he realised he was wearing his flight suit.

  "I don't get this..." he murmured, then as he got out of bed and his boots hit the floor he looked down again, seeing his flight suit and boots – the same as he had worn when co piloting the Pharaoh...He looked about the room, then turned again, feeling a flicker of alarm as he realised this room was his quarters on board the Pharaoh.

  But the Pharaoh was a wreck lying on a distant planet.

  It had been that way for several years...

  Then as a figure stepped out of the shadows, he blinked, but she was still there and looking solid as life even though her mouldering corpse was buried back at Shyra-K1... It was Cora, she wore that same sheer gown that Sin had once borrowed and she stepped closer, reached up and looked into his eyes as she ran her fingers through his hair.

  "I'm right here," she told him, "I'm not going to forget you."

  He could feel her running her fingers through his hair. That confused him because he was sure that touching his scalp ought to be painful because Neve had told him she would be slicing him open and exposing a large area of brain tissue – yet he felt no pain or sign of a wound.

  "Am I dead?" he whispered.

  "No," she promised him, "You're just healing. You need to snap out of this."

  "Out of what?" he said.

  "You made a mistake."

  Her reply made no sense. Then he thought back to what the parasite had turned him into. He still had the memories, they were fading out, yet for now, he could recall there had been a creature inside his head. He saw a knife, he saw blood, he remembered a craving and then it all slipped away...

  "Did... did I do something wrong?" he asked, suddenly only able to recall the basics of his past and no more.

  "You're an idiot," Cora said as her eyes filled with tears, "But I love you, Rik. Isn't that crazy? How can I love you..."

  He felt utterly confused as he looked at her. He had the feeling she was someone he had once loved deeply and probably still did – but her name was gone and so were the memories as one by one those memories faded out.

  "What's your name?"

  "Cora," she said as she took his hands, "Oh Rik, Mack talks about you all the time...I keep asking him stupid stuff just so I can hear more. By the way – no one knows...about, you know..."

  He shook his head.

  "I don't know! What are you talking about?"

  "Adapt and survive," she stated, "That's what Mack said you did. So it doesn't matter about the rest. It's a secret, okay? Don't look so worried."

  She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him, then as she drew back her eyes were filled with love.

  "Even if you don't come out of this okay, I'll still be here for you," she promised him, "I'll take care of you. Jody lets me help look after you, I'm never away for long...You're someone I can never forget."

  As she 'let go of his hands, Jinx felt the odd stirring of a memory breaking through of a man named Mack who had been a close friend. The name Jody brought a face to mind, he got the feeling she was a medic...but that was all he remembered.

  "Don't leave me here the lights are going out..."

  "I'll see you again soon," Cora promised, then as the light dimmed to off, the room was plunged in darkness and Jinx drifted with it, lost in a sea of nothing but a calming black void where no stars shone, a void that reminded him of darkest space...

  A Sin spent the next two days watching over him, Jinx showed no sign of waking from the coma. She had left him once to go back to the ship and shower and change her clothing, the journey there and back had been an uneasy one as she had passed through the grimy streets, witnessing violence and robbery and on her return, she had been armed with a blaster.

  Now as she sat at his bedside she saw the equipment had been turned off, he was no longer on oxygen and the only sign of his true condition was the line that ran into his arm, he was on his back, breathing easily, looking like he was merely sleeping despite the heavy bandage that hid a huge scar that ran across his head.

  "He's out of danger," Neve said as she came into the room, and Sin breathed a sigh, smiling as relief shone in her gaze.

  "So he could be waking up soon?"

  "I don't know," Neve replied honestly, "He's tough, I'll give him that – he's come through a hell of a fight. But I can't guess at when he will wake – it could be next week or next year or never...I'm sorry, I don't know."

  Sin pushed away thoughts of never and gently stroked the back of his hand as she looked to Neve.

  "I'll be here for him always, as long as it takes..."

  "And I need to get to work on the parasite," Neve reminded her, "But first there's the matter of the zestion piercing – you really should have that removed, it's dangerous. The longer you leave it in, the greater risk of a shard entering the bloodstream. Would you like me to take a look at you now and see what can be done?"

  Sin felt her throat go tight.

  "I can't put it off any longer," she said in a hushed voice.

  As she got up from her seat she looked at Jinx, silently reminding herself that he had been through so much and had made it, and if he woke, he would need her – and she would need to be at his side, she wanted to be there for him and she might not be if the alien piercing put her life at risk. She knew from the dull pains that had flickered on and off in the heavy ring that something was trying to extend into her body, and it had to come out – even if it meant having the surgery she was dreading.

  Jinx would wake from his coma a changed man thanks to the memory treatment, now he would not be the cannibal or the killer – and she had already decided no matter what her own out come, he would not find out he was responsible, whilst under the influence of the parasite, for forcing a piercing on her that would most likely caused the loss of the most sensitive part of her body... He couldn't know that, just like he couldn't know about the evil the creature had forced him to inflict on others. She was yet to meet Jinx the flier, the man who had no memory of the past horrors, but she felt sure he would be a good man, one who could not live with knowing of such a terrible past, so she would not tell him, no matter what happened... She kept that thought in mind as she followed Neve through to a treatment room as the ring of alien metal weighed heavy, alternating between pain to reminder of its deadly risk and pleasure to torment her, as if the ring was determined to ensure all she felt as it tried to mildly arouse her would probably be her last ever memory of such a sensation...

  Chapter 3

  Jinx was still drifting in darkness. He was sure his memory had been tampered with, he was no stranger to experimenting with recreational substances and this felt much like a cra
zy trip on something new, that had faded out some of his memories yet others shone brightly... then something else crept in, a recollection that he had asked for this to be done, it was something to do with the treatment he was having...

  And there was a woman, her name was Sin. He loved her, he remembered that clearly and felt it in his heart. But Cora's face floated to the front of his mind again. He felt as if she ought to be a ghost, but he didn't know why. She hadn't felt like one when she had touched him...

  Something was tampering with the effect of the memory alteration. He recalled something about once being given a shot of antidote... before the memory wipe had happened? Wouldn't that mess up the effect? No wonder his brain felt as if it had been full of information that had been shaken up, tipped out and then randomly put back, with some pieces blank where there should have been images, people, places and names...

  “Rik...”

  Cora was back. He heard her voice as he floated in the darkness but saw no sign of her as she spoke softly to him as if her voice carried from far away.

  “I wasn't gone for long. I thought about you last night. I don't know if this is right or wrong but these days, lately when I'm trying to sleep and I close my eyes I see your face and I think of you and...” she paused, lowering her voice to a whisper, “I look at you a lot, Rik. Mack gave me some pictures of you, he let me download them. I look at them when I miss you. I've had so many orgasms thinking about you...not just because you're attractive, because I really feel something for you. Even Mack and Jody have been saying they think you and me have some kind of crazy story together, like it's meant to be... Isn't that crazy? Or maybe not, I'll just have to see what you think when you come back.”