Priest and Pariahs

by J. Alan Veerkamp

  The entire crew present went silent. Arbor was afraid to speak, as a growling inhale inflated Danverse’s ample chest. His thick arms went rigid at his side, fists clenching into cudgels. Every muscle in the captain’s formidable body was coiled to strike. Costa had no idea how precarious his situation was. It looked like he was about to be beaten within a centimeter of his life.

  Danverse let out all his air through his nose and relaxed his hands. “Mrs. Claus, contact Angus and have him come to the main engine room and escort passenger Costa McQuillen straight to the brig. I don’t want to see his skinny little ass for the rest of this voyage.”

  “I will not be dismissed, Captain.”

  “You just were.”

  Priest closed in and placed a hand on Costa’s quaking shoulder. “C’mon, Costa. Let’s get out of here.”

  “No! Don’t touch me!” Costa snatched his arm away and shoved Priest toward the others. A charge filled the air as his shoulders hunched and his brow furrowed. “We are going to Omoikane! Now!”

  Everyone froze in shock as the engines powered up and the control panels began an erratic dance on the screen.

  Danverse's reaction was far from pleased. “What the hell? Mac?”

  “I didn’t do anything.” Mac looked utterly bewildered as he craned his head around the room.

  Sheldon stared at Costa, awe coloring his voice. “Are you doing this? You need to stop. It’s not safe right now.”

  Priest shouted but didn't advance. “Costa! Stop this right now!”

  “What the fuck is going on?” The captain's confusion was dripping in anger.

  The outer door slid open and Angus entered in full security mode, utility belt and sidearm strapped to his hip, assessing the room. Forceful and intimidating, he locked onto Costa and stalked forward.

  With a panicked gasp, Costa reached out as he stumbled. “Don’t touch me!”

  Mrs. Claus’s voice chimed in the chaos. “Fire safety protocols initiated. Engine room isolation in progress.”

  A series of hybrid glass walls burst upward from the floor, knocking everyone back as the room found itself divided into sections. All the exterior doors slid shut. The stats from Arbor’s orientation said the transparent walls were dense enough to contain a fire on board until the ship systems could deal with the emergency. With them in place, Mac and Sheldon were trapped near the engine on the port side while everyone else was held at starboard. Costa trembled in the middle, segregated from everyone.

  “Costa, what are you doing?” Priest sounded frightened.

  Tremors raced through Costa’s slender hand as it brushed near his manic stare. “We have to get to Omoikane. I can’t afford any more delays!”

  Sheldon stepped over to the erratic control panel. “Captain, the engines are pushing to full speed. If we don’t shut down and recalibrate—”

  “Do you hear that, McQuillen?” Danverse pounded on the safety barrier to get Costa's attention. “I don’t know how you’re doing this, but if you don’t stop this bullshit, we may not make it at all.”

  “You’re just lying to me.” Facial twitches making his head shake, Costa’s composure was unraveling. “Normals can’t be trusted. I’ll get there on my own.”

  Mac called out to the ceiling. “Mrs. Claus, Shut down and isolate all engine functions for diagnostics—”

  “Stop that!” Costa screamed.

  Mrs. Claus's calm voice appeared again. “Fire safety protocol initiated. Oxygen removal from Engine Section Alpha-Six in progress.”

  Costa paused, confusion clouding his eyes. “What? No…that’s not right.”

  A ventilation hiss echoed through the engine room. Mac and Sheldon both blanched as they pressed their hands against the clear wall. A growing terror etched their faces as they both began gasping, trying to catch their breaths.

  Danverse's command was rapid. “Mrs. Claus. Initialize mainframe and purge foreign datastream.”

  “Access denied, Captain Danverse.”

  “Re-initialize all command codes.”

  “Access denied, Captain Danverse.”

  Danverse turned to face across the room. “Mac?” The whites of his eyes became all too visible as the reality set in. Danverse’s chest raced in quick, staccato breaths. “Mrs. Claus, shut down all fire safety protocols.”

  “Access denied, Captain Danverse.”

  “No!” Howling, the captain hurled himself at the wall, the desperate sound of his powerful fists beating the thick barrier reverberated a chill down Arbor’s spine.

  Arbor scrambled to pull his data pad out of his bag. The screen couldn’t start up fast enough. His fingers shook as he pulled up the menu of his most recent side project. It wasn’t complete. Most of his time had been spent figuring out how to shield his equipment from Costa’s influence. The last few lines of code were still waiting to be added. It was what he was working on when he received the urgent summons to the Engine Room.

  Code raced across the small screen as he typed as fast as he could, frantic to remember the last sequences. Arbor stopped and deleted a line. Shit, that wasn’t right. His fingers were clumsy under the pressure and there was only one chance to do this correctly.

  Mac was on his knees trying to take shallow breaths, his terror-stricken eyes locked on the captain’s. His skin was taking a sheen as his eyes glistened and his body spasmed in protest. Mac’s fingers tried to reach beyond the barrier to no avail. Sheldon was already thrashing on the floor, gasping for oxygen. They were both suffocating before their eyes.

  Arbor pushed himself to type faster.

  Costa stammered. “I…I didn’t mean to do that.” Fragile and quaking, he clutched his head as he winced painfully. “No. This isn’t what I wanted. I…I’ll stop this.”

  “Ship self-destruct in effect in T minus ten minutes and counting,” Mrs. Claus announced.

  Priest slapped the wall. “Costa, stop it!”

  “No! Priest! Help me! It’s not working! I can’t stop it!” With both hands at his temples, Costa folded to the floor, writhing in pain. “I can’t control it!”

  “Mrs. Claus, contact Doc Bosch!” Priest called out.

  “Engine room lockdown in progress. Communications suspended.”

  “Son of a bitch!” He kicked at the wall in a frenzy.

  Danverse turned on Arbor. The cords in his neck were strained and the anguish in his face was unmistakable. His characteristic self-control was fraying into nonexistence as he shook Arbor by the collar. “We have to get Mac out of there! This is a coding thing! Do something, Goddamn it! It’s what we’re paying you for!”

  “I’m working on it!” Arbor jerked himself free and returned to his screen. There wasn’t much more left to add, but there wouldn’t be an opportunity to test anything. It had to be perfect the first time. Mac was his only real friend. He’d never forgive himself if he failed.

  “Mac!” Danverse’s chilling scream was raw and broken. Mac fell over and didn’t seem to be breathing.

  Pulse hammering in his ears, Arbor’s jaw ached from the set of his teeth. The last line of code entered, he hovered his finger over the run command as he prayed out loud. “Please let this work.”

  Holding his breath, he struck the start command.

  Costa lurched in spasm, his hands slapping the floor as he lost control, gurgling repetitive nonsense as his eyes rolled up into his skull.

  Priest's eyes were wide in shock. “What the hell are you doing to him?”

  “Scrambling his thoughts so he can’t affect us. I hope.” Arbor adjusted the feed as his scan showed new foreign connections appearing in the sensor net. Continuously active and threaded throughout everything in the Santa Claus, it was the most fragile to contamination. Costa’s power, conscious or not, was looking for a new way into the system. The untested schematic for the software was in Costa’s Earthgov file. Like the rest of the cataloged para-humans, a method to contain him had already been waiting in the wings in spite of the pending termination order. It t
ook time to figure out how to implement it here, given the limitations of the ship, but Arbor was determined.

  “Is it hurting him?”

  Arbor's answer was quick and clipped. “I have no idea, but does it really matter at this point?” He tweaked his algorithm to lock Costa’s access out of another vulnerable feed. If there had been the time, he would have built the program to do this automatically. Instead, he would have to monitor Costa directly until they had him under control.

  Danverse grabbed Arbor's shoulder. “Arbor, what’s going on?”

  “I’m trying to save us! Mrs. Claus, reset all command functions! Shut down engines and all safety protocols for diagnostics.” He spun out of Danverse's hold. “Help Mac!”

  He'd never been happier to hear Mrs. Claus. “Command functions reset. Safety protocols shutting down. Powering down main engines, Mr. Kittering.” A loud hiss of air escaped as the clear walls lowered into the floor. The engine’s hum drifted away as the power was cut.

  Danverse yelled at the top of his lungs. “Shut down self-destruct. Now!”

  “Self-destruct sequence terminated, Captain Danverse.”

  Danverse was climbing over the hybrid walls before they’d completely receded into the deck. Passing Costa in the center, he snarled and kicked him in the face, flipping him onto his back. Without another pause, he raced to Mac, sliding into a kneeling position.

  “Mac? Mac? Fuck me, he’s not breathing.” The panic in his tone was far worse than the captain screaming. “Angus! Get Sheldon!” Rolling Mac onto his back, Danverse placed his mouth over his boy’s and breathed into him. Angus wasted no time doing the same for Sheldon.

  Priest wasted no time. “Mrs. Claus, contact Doc Bosch. Medical emergency! Main engine room. Two men down—oxygen deprivation. Make sure he brings his med synthesizer!”

  Rubbing his face, Priest kneeled near Costa. His troubled expression brought a keen of jealousy behind Arbor’s eyes. Costa continued to roll around in a languid state with drowsy eyes, and fresh blood spatter stained the tattoos on his cheek. A large bruise was already forming across his pretty face.

  The immediate threat might have been calmed, Arbor couldn’t stem the disquiet. Another tweak to the datapad program was necessary. Even half-conscious, Costa’s power was reaching out for a new link with Mrs. Claus. Until they could decide what to do, he would have to manually keep the scrambled feed of garbage binary streaming into Costa’s head.

  “I didn’t think it could get this bad.” Running his hands through his short hair, Priest's lower lip trembled as he tried to keep calm. “I never thought…”

  Arbor’s pulse had yet to quiet as he listened to the patterns of rhythmic breaths being performed on Mac and Sheldon. With Priest distraught over Costa and Danverse’s urgent gasps between breaths, everyone present was teetering on a knife’s edge. Dr. Bosch couldn’t get here fast enough.

  Short minutes lasted an eternity. The door slid open and Dr. Bosch rushed into the room with his burly medical aide, Carson, in tight formation. Carson sprinted over to the downed crewmen. When Bosch paused as he passed Costa’s half-conscious body, Priest latched onto his forearm.

  “Doc! Can you make Calm?”

  The doctor’s forehead twisted. “Of course I can. Why would I do such a thing? Do you even know what it’s for?”

  “Of course I do. It’s for him.” Priest pointed at Costa’s dazed body. “He needs to be dosed so we can get his powers under control before he accidentally kills us all.”

  Dr. Bosch looked down at Costa with his analyzing stare, assessing the immediate situation. Less than a second later, the doctor straightened, his razor-sharp gaze more dominant than one would expect from someone his size.

  “Are you telling me we have a sick para-human on board and no one informed me?”

  Priest withered at the inquisition, embarrassment staining his cheeks.

  “Doctor! Now’s not the time.” Arbor made another adjustment on his pad. “He’s not at risk. I have this under control. Go take care of Mac and Sheldon. They need you more.”

  “Priest…” Costa moaned, his voice was weak and thready. “We have to save Poll.”

  “What?”

  “He’s all that matters.” Costa’s voice drifted into incoherence as Arbor calibrated his program once again.

  “Doc, hurry! Mac’s still not breathing!” Danverse's voice was fracturing.

  Dr. Bosch rushed over to Mac, stiff-arming the captain to one side. Working quickly, he pulled out several devices Arbor didn’t recognize. Danverse stood, his footsteps in a shiftless disarray. Arbor had never seen the captain like this. He continued to hyperventilate as he circled the scene, lost and aimless, his natural strength bleeding out, leaving him bleary-eyed. The sight made Arbor’s chest ache.

  Haunted breaths became angry snarls as Danverse’s stare flitted back and forth between Mac and the one responsible. A new sense of dread filled Arbor as the captain’s stance grew more impatient and hostile.

  An inhuman snarl escaped the captain as he snatched Angus’s gun from its holster. The power cell hummed loud as he thumbed the control, increasing the phase pistol’s strength. He strode over to Costa, weapon poised.

  “Priest! Look out!”

  Priest turned and leaped. “Captain, no!” Pushing the gun toward the ceiling, Priest wrapped himself around the captain.

  “Let go of me!” Danverse was enraged. Priest wrestled with the captain, trying to keep a grip on his wrist and prevent him from aiming. They twisted and turned as Priest quickly lost ground. Danverse was larger and stronger, and Priest didn’t have his mad intentions.

  Priest begged through his teeth. “Don't do this!”

  Angus rushed over and added to the pile, lifting the captain’s hand as he attempted to aim at the addled man on the floor.

  “Get off me!” Danverse elbowed Angus in the face, causing him to stagger back, blood pouring out of his nose and mouth. With a shove, Priest wrapped his leg behind Danverse’s, holding on as they capsized.

  Both men landed on the deck with a grunt and the weapon discharged, showering them with white-hot sparks as the flash struck the hull. The particle beam burned and scarred the metal as it arced across the ceiling, down the wall, and across Arbor’s face and chest.

  Chapter Eleven

  EACH FRACTION OF a second stretched itself into an endless nightmare.

  Arbor’s body lurched, his limbs flailing even as the phaser beam faded. His personal datapad flipped end over end in the air. Embers flared and extinguished themselves across his clothing and skin as he slumped backward like a discarded rag doll. The handheld struck the deck, shattering the screen into tiny splinters.

  Priest couldn't stop himself from screaming. “Arbor!” His arms and legs were still wrapped with the captain’s, but the struggle for the gun was over. Angus held his face, continuing to bleed profusely from his nose. Dr. Bosch and Carson had paused treating the men, covering the unconscious bodies with their own after the gunshot.

  Fear swelled into purpose, and Priest wrenched himself free of the tangle with Danverse.

  “Priest…” Costa's moans bore little more weight than a feather. “Please help me…help me save Poll…”

  Torn between the two men, the soft entreaty stilled Priest’s progress even as the sound inflated into a harrowing wail. Costa arched, his scream pitching off the walls as the whole room went insane.

  The doors slammed shut and the main engine roared to life in uneven surges. The illumination strobed in white hot bursts. Every control panel and monitor went into seizure, flashing uncontrolled streams of data. Layers of cacophonous noise erupted from the audio array, forcing every man to the ground against the onslaught.

  Hands crushed over his ears, Priest could barely hear himself as he tried to scream over the volume. “Costa, stop! I have your meds!”

  The room went silent.

  The engine reduced to a rumbling hum and every screen calmed to a single point of information aime
d at Priest. An eerie sensation of being watched washed over him. Costa’s consciousness could be felt everywhere, threaded into every system. And he had its complete attention.

  Priest spun and roused Dr. Bosch, beckoning with his outstretched hand. With the unspoken request, Dr. Bosch tightened, his mouth a thin line. He knew the doctor hated what Priest was asking of him, but what choice did they have? Dr. Bosch reached into his medical bag and drew out his medication synthesizer. Tapping out a quick series on the device’s small control panel, he set the dosage and slid it over to Priest.

  Having been on the receiving end of Dr. Bosch’s care, Priest knew to place the transdermal aperture against Costa’s neck, near the shoulder, and pressed the pad. A gentle hiss escaped, followed by an instantaneous gasp of ecstasy from Costa’s lips. His slender body relaxed and he drifted away. The doctor had dosed him hard. All the commandeered tech reset itself, and the room fell back to normal in short order.

  Dr. Bosch sprang forward and snatched the synthesizer from Priest’s hand. “Mrs. Claus, medical emergency! Direct all crew with medical training to main engine room!” He slid to his knees next to Arbor’s side. “Four men down. One critical for immediate evac to sick bay. Sterilize Bed One and activate surgical theatre. Prepare protocols for massive phaser burns and system shock.”

  As Dr. Bosch shouted his orders, the reality weighed Priest down. The immediate world blurred and slowed. His rapid pulse and harsh breaths echoed with the other voices, overlapping into a droning dirge. Mired in the pandemonium, he could only bear witness as crew members flooded the room.

  Dr. Bosch directed everyone, assigning men to injured parties with an unbroken focus on Arbor. Everything happened as if Priest wasn’t on the same plane of existence. Crew members flew about the room ignoring him, their focal point on other men with greater need.

  Carson pulled out the portable gurney, placing the long cylinder on the floor at Arbor’s feet. Pressing the main control, a flexible, hyper-thin sheet scrolled out and slid itself under the unmoving dwarf. Touching another tab caused the sheeting’s surface to harden. Grabbing the new edge, they lifted Arbor off the ground and rushed him out of the room. The rest of the injured were either carried out over someone’s shoulder or left the room under their own power.