“Let me do the talking. It’s just about time for us to take a meal. Why not join us inside? We’ll be more comfortable there.”
“Sure, why not?”
“John, may I have a word with you?” Ari said, motioning to the side.
“Okay. Ray, Richter, would you show our guest to the galley? Ari and I will be there shortly.”
Ray nodded and the others boarded the ship. Ari and John walked a few meters away. John shifted the weight of his rifle and scanned the woods.
“What’s up?”
“Are you sure this is such a good idea? Even if she is who she says she is, she could have a different agenda.”
“I think we have to take a bit of a chance on this one, Ari. Having a friend within the Solar Police Force has obvious advantages. She might even be able to get the mercenaries off of our back. I’m prepared to tell her a limited version of our story and see where things go from there. We’re still going to be Perditians, but I won’t lie about Seth, building the ship, and our intentions toward Umber.”
Ari lit a cigarette. “I hope you’re right.”
“Listen, I want you to see if you can find the tracker module that she supposedly planted on Byron. Test it to find out if our stealth shield can actually block the signal.”
“Sure thing. So are you jealous or not?”
“I don’t have time to be jealous anymore,” said John, turning to go aboard. “Are you coming or what?”
“I think I’ll stay out here for awhile. I want to soak up some more of this cool air.”
“You’re going to stand out here by yourself smoking a cigarette? Why don’t you just put on a siren and a big neon sign that says ‘shoot me?’ I... oh, forget it. Don’t be long, Ari.”
John climbed the ramp and hit the button to close it. Ari sighed and headed back towards the ruins of the mill.
So she was going to have to deal with Byron again. Maybe for once he wouldn’t be such a jerk. Ari took some pleasure from messing with him, but all things considered it still would have been better if he was more agreeable. At least Dana hadn’t taken any shit from him. That made her much more respectable in Ari’s eyes.
That Rylie woman had better not try to double cross them. The prospect of gaining an off-world ally was reassuring, but only time would tell if that would be true. She was quite attractive and she did look damn cool. Ari couldn’t help but wonder if her physical appearance had influenced John’s decision to trust her. The effect was palpable. Ari wanted Rylie to be on their side.
The inside of the mill was covered in moss and mushrooms. Ari poked around slowly. There was that feeling again, the same feeling as when Seth first appeared in orb form back on Earth. Ari began to think her mind was playing tricks on her. This corner of Delta did look an awful lot like New Hampshire. Ari thought about John and how she’d tried to come on to him that night. If Seth hadn’t shown up, she had no doubt that she and John would have tried a relationship. Suddenly, the regret of such a thing never having come to pass gripped her tightly. It was the first time Ari had ever regretted running into Seth and the resultant adventure. While the feeling soon passed, it left a single clear thought behind.
Ari really did love John.
“I’m such a fool.”
Walking towards the far side of the mill, Ari began to feel dizzy. She stopped, and looked curiously down at her feet. She had trodden through a thick patch of toadstools, and had kicked up a small cloud of dust. Ari felt her balance slipping and her cigarette tumbled to the ground.
“Bad mushrooms?” she squeaked, and passed out.
__________
“She’ll be fine. The sedative wasn’t harmful.”
A door slid shut. Ari resisted the urge to jump at the noise, instead remaining motionless. She listened carefully to her surroundings. She’d spent enough time aboard a space ship to know she was on one now. It wasn’t the Faith.
“I know you’re awake,” said a voice nearby. “You don’t have to pretend.”
Ari opened her eyes. The room was dimly lit, with a blue light on one side and a red light on the other. There was a desk with a single chair in the center of the room, and a man was seated there. He had a crew cut and a goatee, and wore a jacket with a high collar. It was too dark to make out any more. Ari was lying on a cot, so she sat up.
“Where am I?”
“You are aboard my ship.”
Ari could guess the results, but she checked anyway. Her Glock had been removed from her holster.
“Who are you?”
“I am Aldebaran.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“You haven’t heard of me. That’s good.”
Through one of the four windows, Ari could see that the ship was still on Delta. She sensed they weren’t far from the Faith.
“Why have you taken me?” she asked.
Ari felt a presence poke at her mind. This was nothing new, she’d joined with Seth before. This time, however, there was something strange about it. It didn’t feel alien or uncomfortable like Seth. It felt warm, safe, and pleasant. Ari suddenly knew exactly what Aldebaran looked like despite the darkness.
“You will answer my questions,” he said.
“Okay.”
It seemed like a perfectly reasonable demand to Ari. She felt like she had just taken the first sip of a hot cup of tea after skiing all day. Or was it a rum toddy?
“Where are you from?”
“We’re from Earth.”
“How did you end up on an Umberian ship?”
“A probe was sent from Umber during the last days of the war with the Zendreen. It ended up on my planet and showed us how to build a ship. We were supposed to build ten thousand ships like it and return to liberate Umber. Seth was damaged, though, so we only built the one.”
“Seth?”
“The artificial intelligence computer from the probe. It became our central processing computer once the ship was built.”
Aldebaran stood up slowly. “You will help me capture your ship.”
Despite feeling like she was getting a backrub from the world’s most skilled masseuse, Ari resisted. It reminded her strongly of the first time she was able to resist Silas’ advances. It angered her, and the good feeling went away.
“Sorry, bub. No can do.”
Aldebaran pushed at Ari’s mind. He’d failed to grasp it and had lost it entirely. This was going to be more difficult than he thought. He cleared his own mind and began to passively listen to Ari’s brain patterns.
“You’re a player,” he said.
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
“You’re an... actor. This world is your stage. You play the part of the strong and capable female. This earns you respect, if not admiration. There’s something else, however. Something that explains your play. The actor acts for self-discovery, yes?”
“We all present the best sides of ourselves. It’s no different for any of us, nor is it especially objectionable. I discovered long ago that I could get what I wanted in life by acting a certain way. Nobody took me seriously, and they played the part they wanted to as well. That’s how it goes.”
Ari stood up and crossed to one of the windows. Aldebaran moved slowly toward her. She pulled out her pack of cigarettes and realized she’d given the last one to John.
“Do you really think that everyone recognized the play for the stage? Not everyone could sense your act... Arianna.”
“I can feel you fumbling around inside. Dropping my name all of a sudden isn’t going to impress me.”
“You will help me. I know this because I see the willingness to bring control back into your life. This voyage was meant to be liberating in more than one way, but you find that it’s been frustrating all the same. It’s different from your life back on Earth but it can’t make you feel truly free. Is there anything in this universe that you would find meaningful, Ari? Anything at all?”
“John.”
“Ah, I s
ee now. John is the only one you’ve never been able to fool. Fitting, then, that you would come to care for him so much. You’ve come hundreds of thousands of light years and you still can’t get him to reciprocate. Irony doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
“So what?”
“So even John wouldn’t have approved of you if you’d killed that man like you wanted to.”
Ari turned to face Aldebaran, shocked. “You know about... but... of course you do. I’m an open book to you, aren’t I?”
“Don’t feel bad. No one can hide themselves from me.”
“Killing Byron would have been a mistake. Seth stopped me, and rightly so.”
“An artificial intelligence acting as your conscience? Are you so bereft of your own?”
“I may have been, but I’ve learned from it since then. Besides, there are plenty of true enemies out there for me to fight now.”
“It is the warrior in you that led me to capture you. I can see your lust for violence. It is an admirable quality not appreciated by those who have never fought for something in which they wholeheartedly believe. It is not part of the play, it is who you are.”
“Tell that to John.”
“John can’t give you what I can give you. The other man can’t give you what I can give you, although he is at least wise enough to see into your heart. This is why you will help me. I can give you what you desire.”
“And yet I’ve never cared for goatees.”
Ari was overcome with pleasurable sensations. A gorgeous sunset, the smell of a bakery, beautiful music, chocolate after lent and the embrace of a lover. Aldebaran had seized upon his chance. He molded and guided the sensations until they were focused on himself. Ari fell to one knee.
“Join me, and together we will take back this nebula. You will be who you’ve always wanted to be and no one, not even I, will stand in your way. Once we have the Faith, the fastest and most powerful ships in the nebula will stand side by side against all who would oppose us. And they will fall.”
There was one last strand. Ari saw it in her mind. She was hanging from the side of a badly listing platform high above the floor of the Complexium, held there by one hand by a man who wanted with all his heart to save her. Except in this image, it was John grasping her tightly. The scene snapped like a branch and Ari was filled with the desire for something more. The desire for everything. For Aldebaran.
17.
“So there you have it. We stopped here to upgrade the weaponry, and ran into you.”
John leaned back in his chair. Fernwyn had her head propped up in her arms on the conference table. Ray, Richter and Christie were also seated at the table, while Dana stood in the corner of the room with her arms crossed.
Friday leapt into John’s lap as soon as it became available. Fernwyn leaned back and looked at the others.
“What’s the deal with... Byron, is that his name?” she asked.
“Byron is a stowaway. He’s caused nothing but trouble for us since we met him. I think he’s a good guy at heart, but he just doesn’t know how to work with the crew. He has one more chance, and then he’s off this ship.”
“Why not leave him right here? If you give him some food and a weapon he should be fine for a few weeks. The chances of anyone else landing in the exact same place are slim, and there aren’t any dangerous animals in this area. I think he’d be fine.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Christie.
“I’ll consider it,” said John. “It might be a good idea. We’ll see how he behaves from here on out.”
“So what do you think the Perditian government is going say to your request?” Fernwyn asked.
“There is no centralized Perditian government,” began John, “there are several independent nation states who share the planet. Ours is the most likely to help, but that’s not particularly encouraging. One reason why the Perditians withdrew from universal trading and exploration was because of internal politics. We’ve always been way too busy dealing with our local situation to worry about the rest of the galaxy.”
“And yet, such a political situation could be advantageous for us,” said Christie.
“How do you figure that?” asked Ray.
“Since our government is always looking to improve its military standing on Perditia, they may be more willing to play ball if our mission is seen to do so. After all, if they help us they gain all of Umber’s best technology.”
“Great, then we just beam Saddam Hussein or Arafat or whomever we please into a pile of dust and call the war over,” said Dana.
“It would be handy,” said Richter.
John shook his head. “I’d much rather leave Perditia out of it entirely. You see what kind of ethical can of worms this opens.”
“As if our current situation isn’t enough of an ethical challenge,” said Christie.
“I don’t know, this situation seems pretty clear cut to me. Umber got screwed into signing a non-aggression pact with the SUF, and then they got hung out to dry when the Zendreen showed up. They deserve our help.”
“When we agreed to take the mission from Seth we accepted an obligation to help Umber,” Ray added.
“That’s right. It’s the duty of this ship to help Umber however it can. Those who choose to be part of its crew assume that duty. Everyone is here by their own free will.”
“There may be more to Umber’s side of the story than we’ve been led to believe,” said Dana.
“Indeed there is,” said Fernwyn. “The SUF wouldn’t have sought political sanctions against Umber just because of their burgeoning military technology.”
John looked at his watch. “Where’s Ari?”
The others looked at each other quizzically. John stood up.
“What’s wrong?” asked Dana.
“It’s been more than an hour since we left Ari outside.”
“You let her wander around outside alone?” said Christie incredulously.
“I’m not her mother, she can do with herself as she pleases. Seth, locate Ari.”
“Ari is outside the ship,” replied Seth calmly.
“How far?”
“One hundred meters and closing. She’s perfectly all right, John.”
“Good, I was worried for a moment. Everybody sit tight, I don’t want her to miss any more of this conversation.”
Dana shrugged as John exited the conference room. He descended the stairs to the cargo bay and opened the ramp. As the ramp lowered into place, Ari appeared from the woods.
“Where have you been?” said John loudly.
“Going for a walk, just like I said,” Ari replied.
“You were gone for over an hour without reporting in.”
Ari walked up the ramp and ascended the stairs to the armory. John watched her do so in silence before following her up. He didn’t want to criticize Ari too much, but found he had no choice.
“Well, you shouldn’t do that. It’s irresponsible.”
“Come on, John, this is the first real peace and quiet we’ve had since arriving in this nebula. I wanted to relax alone for a little while, that’s all.”
Ari put down her M1A and picked up Richter’s M4.
“We’re having a conference with the solar police officer upstairs. I just finished telling her our story; well, a modified version thereof anyway. I think you should be there.”
Grabbing a magazine pouch for the carbine, Ari turned to leave the armory.
“Is the conference room still a no-smoking area?” she asked, descending the stairs.
“Per Dana’s request, yes.”
“I’m all out of cigarettes.”
Ari headed for the ramp. John suddenly realized she wasn’t going upstairs.
“What the hell are you doing?” he said.
“There’s someone I want you to meet.”
“What?”
Pressing the key to her radio, Ari called the crew. “Everyone, this is Ari. Meet me at the bottom of the cargo ramp immediately. Bring Byron,
this concerns him as well.”
“Roger that,” replied Ray.
“What are you talking about?” demanded John. “Who did you meet? Where?”
“It’s perfectly all right, John,” said Ari. “I’m not going to put anyone’s life in jeopardy. I just met someone out there that I want to introduce to you.”
“Then why’d you swap out for the full-auto? Hold it a minute, Ari.”
The others, including a forlorn-looking Byron, gathered at the base of the ramp.
“What’s up?” asked Richter.
“I want you to meet someone,” said Ari, motioning towards the woods. “Come on, but be careful, I don’t want you to scare it.”
“Tell us more first,” said John.
“Shh!” said Ari sharply.
Ari waved to the others. Christie shrugged and went forward. The others began to follow. John nodded knowingly at Ray, and Ray returned the gesture. Before exiting, Ray reached behind a bulkhead support and grabbed his shotgun. When he drew beside John he leaned in close.
“Go back inside and scan for life forms again,” John whispered.
“There was nothing but animal life last time,” said Ray.
“You think she’s talking about some animal she found?”
“Probably.”
“Come on guys, before it’s too late,” said Ari.
“Ray, this looks extraordinarily bad,” said John.
“So do something about it.”
“Damn it, hold up!” yelled John, running forward.
“John, you’re going to ruin the surprise,” said Ari.
“Fuck this bullshit, Ari. I don’t like this one bit. Tell us what’s going on.”
Ray joined John and the rest of the group. Ari was at the treeline and turned around.
Ari smiled coyly. “I’m sorry, John, I didn’t mean to worry you. I guess I’m just a drama queen at heart. Besides, the man I wanted you to meet is right there.”
Ari pointed back toward the ship. Three figures were standing at the top of the ramp. The two on either side had long arms, while the man in the center had a pistol.
“Drop your weapons, nice and easy,” the man said.
The Tarantula Nebula Page 22