The Tarantula Nebula

by David Kantrowitz

  “This thing doesn’t look like it will be of any further use to us once we get to Beta,” said Christie.

  “Nathalier doesn’t seem too eager to help us after that anyway,” said John.

  “Assuming we can find the Faith, how are we supposed to contact Seth without Aldebaran and Ari knowing?”

  “I don’t know. We may have to try and catch them off guard.”

  “Do you really think they’ll ever let their guard down?”

  “I just don’t know. I’m simply not going to give up until all of our options have been exhausted.”

  “What then?”

  “Take out a small business loan and become a shuffler,” said Richter.

  “Ha! Yeah, right.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” said Fernwyn, “except who’s going to extend you credit?”

  “Piracy might work for us, in that case,” said Richter.

  “Go down that road and you’re on your own... well, that was easy enough.”

  “Got something?”

  “I’ve got Aldebaran’s military file, last updated ten years ago. Let’s see... it says he was last assigned to the military research unit on the Umberian System Way Station.”

  “There was a military research unit on a commercial space station?” asked John.

  Fernwyn nodded. “It hasn’t been a commercial station for years. The USWS couldn’t compete with Gleeful Complexium, so the Umberian military bought it out.”

  “Anything else?”

  “Hold on... There’s an addendum in here from the SPF outlining his career as a pirate. There’s nothing too enlightening there, except to confirm what I told you about his search for Umberian technology.”

  “You told us that Aldebaran’s first name is Seth,” began John, “just like our artificial intelligence aboard the Faith. Does that explain why Aldebaran has been looking for Umberian technology?”

  “I’ll look.”

  “What’s the connection?” asked Christie.

  “I think Aldebaran may have designed Seth,” replied John. “That would explain why he’s been searching for it. I know if I created something like that I’d sure want it back.”

  “There’s a file here,” said Fernwyn. “It has something to do with an experiment conducted by the military. Wait just a moment.”

  “I wonder what made Aldebaran turn against his own people?” said Christie.

  “Maybe they did something with Seth that he didn’t like,” said John.

  “Maybe he’s an asshole,” said Richter.

  Fernwyn finished reading, took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair.

  “Hol-ee shit,” she said.

  “What?”

  “This file explains everything. Aldebaran was part of a military experiment indeed. You want to know where he’s going?” Fernwyn put a picture of a space station on the screen. “That’s where Aldebaran is going. The Umberian System Way Station.”

  19.

  “How’s it going over there, Cap?”

  “No progress yet, Harrish.”

  On the bridge of the Faith, Aldebaran was speaking by radio with his own ship. Harrish and Leitke had returned there on his orders. Aldebaran could feel them aboard when he was linked with Seth, and there had been a negative feeling about them. It was visceral and undefined, but it was enough to make their presence undesirable and distracting. The past twenty-four hours had been spent merged with the orb and then resting, with the Faith set on auto-pilot and watched over by Aldebaran’s ship. Despite his desire to spend all his time merged with Seth, he was still forced to sleep. Usually requiring only a few hours a night, this time he’d been passed out for fourteen hours. Being in contact with Seth was as exhausting as it was exhilarating.

  “Seth still not cooperating with you?”

  “No.”

  “That’s weird. Are you going to keep trying or wait until we get to the station?”

  “We have another twelve hours. I intend to try again. In the meantime, be vigilant as we approach the station. The Zendreen might not be guarding the place externally but they most certainly have people aboard it.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Ari entered the bridge holding a plate of sandwiches. She’d had some rest as well, which was deep and dreamless. The rest of the time she’d spent practicing martial arts and daydreaming about her future with Aldebaran. She was tempted to enter her quarters where he was sleeping and watch him, but decided that was too juvenile even for her desires. Other than that she’d jettisoned Byron’s bedding and clothes, cleaned the galley, and listened to some music.

  Aldebaran terminated the communication and turned to face Ari.

  “This is the last of our bread,” she said. “Actually this is the last of our roast beef, too. We’re going to need to stock up on food unless you’re a huge fan of US Military rations.”

  “We’ll worry about that later. Right now we need to concentrate on getting aboard that station.”

  Aldebaran took one of the sandwiches and put it on his knee. Working at his console, he brought up an image of the USWS. The station consisted of three cylinders attached lengthwise, with large solar panels jutting out from the outer two. Each cylinder was ten decks, and the cross pylons that connected them were three decks. There appeared to be a small amount of space debris floating around it.

  “How soon can we dock?”

  “We’ll be there in twelve hours. During that time I’ll again try to merge with Seth.”

  Ari sat down at the next console. “I don’t understand what’s going on with Seth. He’s always been so friendly and cooperative with us. He can’t possibly be pissed at us for stealing the ship, can he?”

  “If you mean angry, no, he is not. He is aware of the fact that we left the others behind against their will, however. I do not believe this is why he will not speak with either of us, at least while we’re not in direct contact with the orb.”

  “Then what’s his problem?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “For being part of your own personality, he sure doesn’t care for you much.”

  Aldebaran shrugged and began eating his sandwich. Ari did the same, watching him as she did so.

  “How do you know the Zendreen haven’t destroyed or disassembled the stuff we need?”

  “I don’t.”

  “What if we can’t get it to work one way or the other?”

  “Then I’ll never leave this ship again.”

  Wolfing down the last of his food, Aldebaran stood up and brushed himself off.

  “How long do you want me to let you merge with the orb this time?” asked Ari, standing.

  “Until Harrish calls you with a sitrep of the station. In the meantime, you might want to get geared up for combat. The Zendreen aren’t going to let us dance our way aboard, you know.”

  Aldebaran turned to exit.

  “Aldebaran, wait!”

  “What?”

  “Promise me this won’t change anything, will you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Between us,” Ari said, taking Aldebaran by the arm. “You showed me a glimpse of the way things could be. I want that future to come true. I’m afraid that if you restore yourself that you won’t want the same thing anymore.”

  “I am who I am. Seth is a part of me, but only a small part. He can complete me, make me happy, and give me back the ability to feel again. Our life together after that will be all the more rewarding for both of us. You know how much you love me, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Imagine when I can return that love to the same degree. Restoring myself will be a positive experience. Almost as positive as meeting you, Arianna.”

  “Oh, God, please. Your very presence may fill me with joy but you can cut out the sappy crap.”

  Aldebaran extricated himself from Ari’s grasp and turned away.

  “Very well.”

  Without another glance, Aldebaran left the bridge.

  Eleven h
ours later, Ari woke up. She was on the bridge, and had drifted off after finishing another meal. The computer hadn’t alerted her to any problems, and a quick glance at her console confirmed that there hadn’t been any. They were due to arrive at the USWS in just a few minutes.

  Ari could still sense Aldebaran’s presence in her mind, but it was muted and peaceful. It kept her aware of her desire for adventure and her need to be near Aldebaran, but it did not make her heart leap nor did she intensely crave actual physical contact with him as it had before.

  Ari had been by herself on the Faith before, but she’d never been alone. While part of Aldebaran’s will was actually with her in her mind, her awareness of Seth had been only her own cognizance of his omnipresence. Ever since Seth had demonstrated that he could read her thoughts and even her intentions, Ari had felt like she was unable to so much as think anything of which Seth might not approve. It was only after Seth was restored at Umber that Ari was able to find the program that made him into a moral enforcer, and it only governed acts of violence. She left it running, her first brush with murder enough to temper her own actions. The thought of catching another member of the crew with the desire to harm someone amused her, even though she knew the possibility of that was practically nonexistent. Now, like most of Seth’s other autonomic functions, the program was off-line. Aldebaran must have been effecting him on a very deep level, which wasn’t a huge surprise after learning of their relationship.

  On top of all of this, Ari was also aware that she and Aldebaran were the only ones on board. When the crew was around she was rarely at a loss for someone to talk to, and although she would have been rue to admit it, even hanging around with Dana with barely a word exchanged was preferable to being alone sometimes. During the past day and a half, with Aldebaran linked with Seth hashing out who knows what, Ari found herself thinking about going to find one of the others. She remembered that they were no longer aboard, and that Aldebaran’s presence was more than adequate. Her desire for companionship had simply been out of habit.

  Now she saw John in her mind. He was standing on top of a boulder in the woods. She wondered why she always put him in that scene, since he’d never actually been with her at that particular point on Earth.

  A small voice, as clear as if it had been spoken, told her.

  That was the first time you considered coming on to John.

  Ari shrugged. Of course he hadn’t been there in person, but he was foremost on her mind that day. Ari had clambered to the top of the boulder alone and thought about how the conversation might go. In her imagination she had seen him up there, too. The memory had become synonymous with the experience.

  Usually some emotion accompanied this memory. Now there was nothing. Ari thought also of the rest of the crew, in the order she’d met them. Ray, Christie, Dana, and Richter. There was no emotion for them, either. Only Byron made her feel something. Cold, calm satisfaction. Ari figured she was experiencing some of what Aldebaran was like all the time, at least before he ran into Seth, the thing that made him such an effective pirate and simultaneously drove his search for Umberians. Unfettered by conscience, everything seemed so simple. Everything, except Aldebaran himself.

  Was it he who supplied so much desire and ambition to Ari? Or was he only supplementing, on some level, her own capacity for the same? What, if he merged with Seth, would happen to...

  “What’s our status?”

  Ari jumped out of her chair. Aldebaran had silently entered the bridge, and stood near the back in a shadow.

  “You woke yourself up?” she asked. “I thought I was going to have to come rouse you like before.”

  “Seth and I have reached an impasse. He does not wish to merge with me completely.”

  “Why not? I thought he was a part of you.”

  “He has, apparently, evolved.”

  “That’s not a huge shock, right? It has been ten years.”

  “Seth has an admirable dedication to his mission. It’s one of my qualities, of course, so it doesn’t surprise me. He just doesn’t appreciate the fact that it is my right to reconstitute him into my mind. He doesn’t believe me when I tell him I intend to liberate Umber.”

  “You can’t lie to yourself, right?”

  “No.”

  “So why won’t he talk to me or run some of his programs?”

  “He’s devoting a significant amount of his processing power to trying to solve the issue. Who knew cognitive dissonance would take up so much CPU percentage?”

  Ari sat down. “You know, Aldebaran, Seth went off-line before and this ship was practically useless. If you merge with him, won’t we need some sort of replacement for things to work properly?”

  “Presumably. I have a ship of my own, however.”

  “So we’re just going to abandon the Faith?”

  “I did so long ago. Open a frequency to my ship.”

  Ari pressed a few keys, and Harrish’s voice came in over the commo.

  “I figured you’d be calling me soon, boss.” he said.

  “What’s our status?”

  “There are no ships guarding the station. That’s no surprise. But I’ve scanned the station itself, sir. There’s nobody aboard.”

  “That’s unlikely. Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I’m sure. I scanned it three times with our own equipment. On top of that, I’ve connected to the station’s computer system. Life support was off-line. It looks like the Zendreen figured it would be easier to abandon this place than keep anybody around.”

  “Can you reactivate the life support systems?”

  “I already have, where I can. Some areas aren’t responding. Fortunately, the labs did. The nearest useable docking bay is a short walk from there.”

  Aldebaran leaned against a console. “Good job, Harrish. This is my plan. We will dock our ships together immediately. You and the standard boarding party will come aboard the Faith. We’ll wait for a few hours to observe any fleet movements and make sure we haven’t been detected. At that point, the Faith will separate and dock with the station. Leitke and the others will continue to use our ship to keep watch and ward off any other visitors while I attempt my... project. We have to assume that the Zendreen will notice our incursion eventually, so I’ll attempt to expedite things on my end. If they do show up, our normal jamming procedures should buy Leitke enough time to blast them before they report in. Am I understood?”

  “Perfectly, sir. I’ll begin docking procedures now. You want the boarding party to gear up as usual?”

  “Yes. The Zendreen may have left a few surprises behind. Aldebaran out.”

  Ari closed the communication channel.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked.

  “Robot sentries. Get your gear together, Arianna. Grab one of your rifles, too. You’d also better grab some cold weather gear. Heating up a station of that size is going to take awhile and it will be rather uncomfortable at first.”

  “Okay.”

  Ari stood up, but hesitated before exiting.

  “Is there something else?”

  “Aldebaran, I was exaggerating about the uselessness of the Faith without Seth around. After he went off-line the first time, I spent a long time learning as much as I could from him about his relationship to the computer system. I think the ship will run just fine without him. There are only a few systems, like the invisibility field and the matter transporter that I wasn’t able to back up with Earth technology.”

  “There’s only one of me. I can only captain one ship.”

  “Why not let me take command of this ship? You said that we’d be unstoppable with two ships, right? The Faith is a fine piece of gear in her own right and it would be a shame to just shit-can her after you merge with Seth. Especially not after all the effort we just went through to upgrade the weapons systems.”

  “You bring up a good point, but I work from one ship and I don’t keep equal partners. Without the cloaking field this ship isn’t nearly as useful as my own, eve
n if she is a bit faster. I suppose I could keep her around as backup.”

  “I thought you said we’d be equal partners, Aldebaran.”

  A fresh wave of pleasure flowed over Ari. She stumbled and leaned against the bulkhead.

  “I didn’t lie to you, Arianna. I just didn’t mean it in that way.”

  “I... I’m sorry.”

  “Go get your gear together.”

  “Okay.”

  Ari exited the bridge. Aldebaran felt a twinge of something in his heart. It was a very old feeling, and it was unpleasant. He furrowed his brow for a moment, then pushed it aside.

  __________

  “There it is. The Umberian System Way Station. We’ll be there in one hour.”

  The new crew of the Raven was gathered in the control room, less Nathalier, who was sleeping. The Raven’s top speed in superluminal space wasn’t quite as good as the Faith’s, so the journey had taken thirty-nine hours. That time had been spent talking about the situation and, for the humans, learning more about culture in the Tarantula Nebula. This was after a long and difficult conversation with Nathalier trying to convince him to lend the Raven for use in the mission. He’d relented, but only after a significant bargain had been struck with Fernwyn. He was in for fifty percent of the bounty on Aldebaran, a pretty good deal considering all he had to do was drop the others off on the station and screw the hell out of there. Despite his poor attitude about the whole situation, he had done his best to familiarize the others with the Raven in case they encountered difficulty before docking. Fernwyn continued speaking.

  “I’m not detecting any ships near the station, but of course Aldebaran and the Faith are probably still invisible. I’m also not detecting any life forms aboard the station, although life support is active in most areas.”

  “Why aren’t the Zendreen guarding it?” asked Christie.

  “They probably didn’t think anyone would be foolish enough to mess around with it. Other than that I guess they don’t have any use for it.”

  “Hey, I’m getting a signal,” said John, motioning towards another console.