SHEDDING LIGHT

by Michael Edelson

  Once again cooped up in his capsule, Jack was about to initiate the hop when the captain’s voice sounded over his com system.

  “Are you sure about this, Roberts? Leaving the galaxy?”

  “Yes sir,” Jack said, his voice filled with confidence he didn’t have. “The boundary is mostly in our heads. Nothing will change.”

  “Did Merrick tell you why he needed to get that far out?”

  Jack cursed silently. The captain had never shown much interest in the particulars of Merrick’s work, and Jack had been hoping that wouldn’t change. Still, he actually didn’t know what the professor wanted at that distance, so he wouldn’t technically be lying.

  “I’m not sure, sir. Maybe it’s something to do with the bible again.”

  “Figures. You’re sure you can get us home?”

  “Yes sir, no problem.”

  There was silence for a moment. “Go ahead then.”

  “Good night, captain.”

  As soon as the acceleration began, Jack put them all to sleep, then went over his calculations for what had to be the fifteenth time. Once he was sure everything was in order, he activated his own neural pacifier and went to sleep.

  * * * * *

  “VAN TESSEL FIELD HOLDING at four astronomical units!” Yelena said. “Field integrity at seventy-eight percent!” This far outside the galaxy there was less interference from cosmic radiation. A four astronomical unit field would be able to compensate for the distance and get images nearly as sharp as the ones from Egypt.

  “Excellent!” Merrick said, then started working the controls. He did not link his station with the main view screen, so no one knew what he was looking at.

  For next several hours, Merrick only left his station to go to the bathroom. Jack wanted to sleep off his grogginess, but he had work to do and he didn’t dare put it off. He spent the time plotting their return trip, though the few minutes every hour Merrick gave him on the VTF scope made progress slow. He had the authority to override him, but there was no justifiable reason other than his fear of being lost outside the galaxy. A fear that was, for the most part, irrational and best kept to himself.

  “I have it, I think,” Merrick said after seven hours had passed. Jack rubbed his tired eyes, looking up from his station.

  “Have what?” he asked, stifling a yawn.

  “The proof I need.”

  “Really? What?” Jack got up and approached the professor’s console, trying to see what he was working on. Merrick hit a button and the screen went blank.

  “I want to announce it to everyone, if you could ask the captain to call a meeting…”

  They were interrupted by a deafening crack, followed by a thunderous rush of air and the groaning and shaking of the hull. The ship shuddered, knocking a few books off console surfaces. An alarm sounded, blaring loudly.

  “What was that?” Merrick gasped, blinking rapidly. “Did we hit something?”

  “No,” Jack said. They weren’t moving, relatively speaking, and anything they couldn’t see that was slow enough to hit them would be destroyed by the disruptor field.

  Jack ran out of the observation deck and nearly flew up the chute to the bridge. Yelena was there, looking startled. She was exactly where Jack had assigned her, at the navigation console monitoring their position to maintain perfect alignment with their return vector.

  “What happened?” she asked, almost in a daze.

  “I don’t know,” he said as he rushed over to the diagnostic station. Everything was green. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. “The hull has not been compromised.”

  “Thank God,” she said, shaking off her daze. “Where is the captain?”

  Jack grabbed the nearest intercom. “Captain Perpignan please respond. Repeat, Captain Perpignan, respond.”

  There was nothing for a few long seconds, then a voice crackled, “Jack, come to engineering right away!” It was Carl. With a growing lump in his throat, Jack made haste to the engine bay.

  As soon as he ran through the hatch, the source of the explosion became evident. Amidst a cloud of black smoke that grew thinner as air filters worked overtime, the Van Tessel field generator lay dark and dead, fragments of plastic and aluminum scattered about the chamber. A pair of jumpsuited legs protruded from an open access panel.

  Carl was there, kneeling over the body. He looked up at Jack with a grim expression.

  “He’s dead.”

  “Are you sure it’s a he?” A brief sensation of panic washed over Jack until he got close enough to see the size and shape of the body. Definitely male. Why was that such a relief? He shook his head to clear it.

  “Let’s get him out of there.”

  “Aye aye, sir,” Carl said, taking hold of the dead man’s legs. Together, he and Jack yanked until the head, or what was left of it, emerged from the panel. The arms, lifted straight above the head, were still inside.

  Jack felt bile rise up in his throat. The man’s face was a bloody pulp, all features mangled beyond recognition. Fighting back revulsion, he wiped something lumpy and soft off of the man’s collar. A bloodied silver eagle told him more than he wanted to know.

  “It can’t be!” Carl said.

  “Let’s get the rest of him out,” Jack said. They pulled until his arms were free. His hands were lumps of featureless flesh, all of the fingers missing. Turning him over, they saw the short black hair that confirmed their fears.

  “It’s the captain,” Jack said slowly, trying to control his shivering. “My God.”

  “He must have found another bomb,” Carl said, staring at the man’s hands. “Why didn’t he call me?”

  “Get Yelena over here,” Jack commanded. Captain Perpignan was far beyond medical assistance, but she was the only one he could think of who would know what to do.

  “I’ll go get her,” Debbie said from the open hatch. Jack was momentarily startled by her voice, but then nodded.

  “Hurry up.”

  The major arrived in just a few minutes, her eyes wide with terror. Debbie stood behind her, followed by Professor Merrick.

  “Oh my,” the professor said, wiping his brow. “Oh my!”

  Yelena ran over to the captain, knelt by him and took a small device from her tool belt. Holding the object in one hand, she pulled an attachment from it and placed it on the captain’s neck.

  “He’s dead,” Carl said. “He’s not breathing.”

  “That doesn’t mean anything,” she said. “But you’re right. He is dead. His heart stopped a while ago and his brain is not functioning.” She stared at the captain grimly, stowing her device back on her belt. “What are we going to do with him?”

  It took Jack a while to realize she was talking to him. With the captain dead, he was now in command of the ship. His heart sank even further as the oppression of responsibility loomed over him.

  After a moment of hesitation, he said, “Do we have, um, body bags?”

  “No, but we have something that will do the job,” Carl said. “I’ll go get one.”

  “Alright. Yelena, help Carl with the body when he comes back. I’ll reduce gravity when you are ready to move him.”

  “Yes sir,” she said, looking at him dubiously. He didn’t blame her, he was a poor choice for command. He wasn’t even supposed to be here. He could only imagine NASA’s reaction if they could somehow learn he was in charge. No matter though. With the field generator destroyed, they had no choice but to head home. If they were still able.

  Carl returned, carrying a large transparent plastic bag.

  “Carl,” Jack said, doing his best to appear calm. “When you are done here, I want to see the camera footage. Then I need you to run a full diagnostic on the ship. Check every system. I want to make sure nothing else was affected.” The centron accelerator appeared normal, as did the state inducer and mass interface. However, there could be internal damage that was not readily discernable.

  “Aye, sir.”

  Jack prayed that the VTF scope was
the only affected system. They were very far from home and no one could save them if they couldn’t make it back. Almost immediately, he realized the irony of prayer. They were here to disprove God. What chance that he would answer?

  CHAPTER 10

  “WHAT DO YOU MEAN we ran out of space? We’re supposed to have more space than we know what to do with.” Jack was getting irritated. The cameras had shut down about two hours before the explosion because of insufficient storage space. They would never know what happened in the engineering bay.

  “Someone partitioned the data block,” Carl said, his fingers hovering over the terminal keyboard.

  “Why would someone do that?”

  “I don’t know,” Carl admitted. “The volume that was assigned to the cameras was very small and filled up quickly. Whoever did the partitioning, they had administrative access.”

  “So it was one of us three. Dammit!”

  “It sure as hell wasn’t me,” Carl said. “I was with Debbie for at least three hours before the explosion. She wanted to photograph the hull of the ship, so I took her outside. Takes forever to get suited up. The captain authorized it, in case you were wondering.”

  Jack felt a momentary pang of jealousy, which he quickly shoved aside. Why hadn’t she asked him to take her?

  “Well it wasn’t me, I was on the observation deck with Merrick all day.”

  “That only leaves the captain,” Carl said, avoiding Jack’s gaze.

  “Why would the captain do that? Is there some benefit to partitioning the block?”

  Carl rubbed his chin. “Not that I can think of, but I don’t know everything. There could be something.”

  “Was the captain particularly knowledgeable in this area?” Jack didn’t think so.

  “I don’t know,” Carl said.

  “Alright, go ahead and restore the original partition. We need those cameras.”

  “I’ll do it right now. Wait…here it is. The captain used his personal password, not the group one. It was the captain, definitely. He wasn’t trying to hide the fact that he did, so I guess there was a reason to do it. Or he just made a mistake.”

  * * * * *

  THE BRIDGE WAS A large and lonely place without its captain. Jack sat at his navigation station trying to fight back sleep. Plotting a course back to Earth without the aid of the Van Tessel telescope was very hard work. In theory, space was so monstrously huge and empty that he could just point to Earth and fly home in a straight line, needing only the slightest calculations to account for galactic rotation and the Earth’s orbit. One of the first informal lessons he learned at MIT, however, was the all important Murphy’s Law of Astrogation. If you look for it, it won’t be there. If you don’t, you’ll crash into it and die.

  The “quantum” computer was a big help, processing equations seemingly quicker than he could click the ‘execute’ button. Still, despite all of mankind’s recent innovations, one thing hadn’t changed: computers were stupid, no matter how powerful they were. He still had to do all the really hard work himself. With the scope inoperable, he had to retrace the ship’s path as close as he could, and that wasn’t an easy task. A fraction of a millimetre difference in the angle of attack could result in a thousand light year gap between their intended destination and where they would end up.

  “Commander Roberts?” Yelena’s voice jerked him out of his reflections. She stood in the hatchway, hesitant to enter.

  “What is it?” he said, swivelling around in his chair.

  “I, uh…” She hesitated. “I found something in the captain’s cranial cavity. I thought you should see it.”

  “That’s, um, very disgusting, Lena. I suppose I’d better take a look.”

  She handed him a plastic bag that contained a twisted metal disk about the size of a half-dollar, then took a few steps back to watch him.

  Opening the bag, he took the disk out of the bag and looked it over. It was warped and pitted, the only discernable characteristic was a letter stamped in the surface. A Greek letter; Omega.

  “Thank you, Major. That will be all,” he said, placing the disk in a pocket of his jumpsuit.

  “But what is it?” she protested. “Do you know?”

  “Yes, I believe I do,” he said. “But I’m not ready to share just yet. Give me a little while to get my facts straight.” As he talked, he nonchalantly glanced at her wrist.

  “Yes sir.”

  When he was sure she was gone, he shut down his station and left the bridge, headed for the observation deck. Professor Merrick was there alone, pouring over his data.

  “I would like to announce my discovery,” he said almost apologetically, looking up from his work when he noticed Jack enter. “The captain’s death is a tragedy, but we can’t let that destroy the entire mission.”

  “The mission is fairly well destroyed on its own.”

  “No.” The professor shook his head. “I have everything I need. Even without the data that lout Jonathan erased. I need to present it, to make sure I have everything in order.”

  “Very well,” Jack said. “But not just yet. Give me a few more hours to finish plotting our course, then we’ll call everyone together.” That was a lie. He had already finished. When Yelena brought him her discovery, he had been checking his calculations for the third time.

  “Alright,” Merrick said. “Thank you.” Jack nodded, then left in search of the others.

  He found Debbie on the observation lounge, working on a portable computer. The holographic display shut off as soon as he walked in.

  “Oh,” she said, looking up. “It’s just you.” The display popped back up. As her fingers worked the keyboard, he noticed her watch. She wore it loose on her wrist, like a bracelet. He felt somewhat relieved.

  “Are you busy?” he asked, getting a cup of water from the dispenser.

  “Why?” He noticed by the slight twitch of her upper lip that she had been about to make a witty comment, but had thought better of it. The atmosphere on the ship had been very grim since the captain’s death.

  “I have a hunch to test, and I’d like you to tag along. I could use that reporter’s intuition of yours.”

  “In that case, I’m not busy. Let’s go.”

  They made a brief stop in Engineering, where Carl was still running his diagnostics. He had his watch as well, Jack noticed.

  “How are things?” he asked.

  “Still not sure,” Carl replied. “Looks good so far. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”

  “What was that all about?” she asked him as they made their way to the captain’s quarters.

  “The watch thing again,” he explained, taking out the stainless steel disk. “Yelena found this embedded in the captain’s skull.” He handed it to her.

  “What is it?” She turned it over in her hand. Before he could answer, she said, “Omega. It’s the back of the watch case, right? Here is a portion of the serial number.”

  “Yes,” he said, impressed. He hadn’t noticed the number.

  “So he found a bomb and it went off in his face, right?”

  “That’s what it looks like. But there’s a problem.”

  “It’s the same bomb, right?”

  “Dammit!” he swore. “How do you do that?”

  She smiled. “It’s my job, remember?”

  “Maybe you picked the wrong career then. You should have been a detective.”

  “I am a detective,” she said. “I just don’t work for the police. So anyway, if that was the same bomb, how did it get there? Where would the captain have kept it?”

  “His cabin. It was the only place in the ship secure enough. I am the only other person who can get in, and if I did, he would know it right away.”

  “So maybe you planted the bomb,” she teased. “And the captain found out and went to diffuse it.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I would have had plenty of opportunity while you and Carl were lollygagging outside.”

  She stopped walking momentarily and r
aised an eyebrow.

  “What?” he said, looking around to see if anything was wrong.

  “Nothing,” she said, a hint of a smile on her lips. “I just didn’t think…never mind.”

  “Fine,” he said, thinking he shouldn’t have mentioned it. They continued on their way.

  “Here we are.” The captain’s room was situated between the bridge and the observation deck at what was pretty much the heart of the ship. A simple ten-digit keypad glowed ominously on the right side of the hatch.

  Jack punched in his command code. A red light above the keypad turned green. At the same time, a chime played three times through the ship’s intercom.

  “That’s how the captain is notified that someone accessed his room,” Jack explained. “Since you don’t remember hearing that, it means no one but the captain was in here.”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I was frolicking outside with Carl, remember?”

  “Right. Well, I didn’t hear it, and I wasn’t. Frolicking, I mean.”

  “You’re sure no one else could get in here?”

  “No,” he admitted. “Not a hundred percent sure. Someone could have discovered the captain’s personal code. That would not have set off the chime.”

  He opened the hatch and stepped inside. Debbie followed.

  “Where would he have put it?” he asked, looking around.

  “Medal of Valour, Silver Star,” Debbie read. “Impressive. Do you have any medals?”

  Jack frowned. “You know I don’t. Not counting the ones they give everybody." Standing in this room, he felt completely out of place pretending to be in command. It was an acute reminder that he did not belong on the ship at all.

  “What’s Buds?” she asked.

  “Basic underwater demolition,” he said. “Part of SeAL school. You know, navy special forces?”

  “I know what a SeAL is. But I don’t know why a space officer would go to their school.”

  “It’s a career booster,” he explained, feeling glum. What was he doing here? The lead he had been following suddenly seemed ridiculous or even worse, spiteful. He looked around, but his eyes kept returning to the medals.