by Z. M. Wilmot
~Daniel Fetherkap, in a lecture at the Tigris University on Eden
“Come to us, Jakken. We will protect you. You will never be alone with us. We need you. We will be so alone without you. We are so lonely…”
I found myself in the swirling mist once again. I walked through it, and it began to disappear. I was walking on nothing, surrounded by a sea of stars. I felt warmth and kindness flowing out from them, and I wanted nothing more than to go out and join them. I stretched out my arms and took huge steps, closing my eyes, waiting for their embrace…
Something shoved me back. I opened my eyes to see a man standing in front of me. He was a head taller than me, and wore a short, dark green cloak that fell only to his knees. A dark grey, dull metallic mask covered the lower part of his face, from right below his eyes to his chin. His eyes were grey. A hood obscured the rest of his face and all of his hair – if he had any. He had two dark brown leather gloves, and matching knee-high boots. One hand held a coiled whip, and the other three crossbow bolts.
“It is not your time to visit the stars, Jakken. You have other duties to attend to. Return to yourself. Now.”
I sat up in bed, sweat streaming down my face. Repeated dreams always made me nervous – they always seemed to be a sign of something. When I was younger, I had dreams that our house was robbed for five nights in a row. On the sixth night, our house actually was robbed. Since then, I had always paid attention to my dreams.
I spent a few moments pondering the absurdity of the figure that had confronted me. He had been wearing a ridiculous outfit, and he had carried a whip… as well as crossbow bolts. Where was the crossbow for the bolts? Who was he? And who was the owner of the lonely voice that had spoken to me so invitingly? Was it one of the stars I had seen? I tried for several minutes to interpret the dream, but soon gave up and lay back down, staring up at the ceiling. I turned my head to check the chronometer; I still had another hour before I had to report to Joseph. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep. I couldn’t do it. After five minutes, I gave up and rolled out of bed. I got dressed and walked out of my chambers. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, so I decided to take a risk and let my feet lead me wherever they chose to go. I didn’t let down my guard, and I was ready to run the instant I saw anyone dangerous about.
I ended up in the main engine room, where I had seen Korzos and Mather plant and remove some object from a panel near the engine itself. I walked to the center of the dark room, up to the panel they had tampered with, hesitated, then opened it. Inside was a grid of unlabeled buttons. After staring at it for a while, I decided that I shouldn’t mess with it and closed it. I turned around to find a pistol leveled at my head. Ivor’s grinning face was behind it.
“Just because you’re friends with the captain doesn’t make you safe, boy. And I don’t like you much.” He drew closer to me, and I felt something sharp poke me gently in the stomach. I moved my eyes to glance down, and saw a knife in his hand. Panicking, I looked around, frantically searching for the cameras. I couldn’t see any in the dark room.
“Don’t move or you’re dead.” I decided that it would be a good idea to do as he said.
“What do you want, Ivor?” It took me a few seconds to realize that I had spoken.
The Ryussan raised an eyebrow. “Getting cocky – never a good idea.” He pressed the knife slightly deeper into my stomach. I sucked it in to move it away from the sharp tip.
“Did Vincent set you to spy on me?” I didn’t answer – I thought Vincent might disapprove of me if I did. I was a member of his crew, and I would act as such.
He sighed. “Do you expect Crydgar to save you this time? He may be formidable in combat, but he’s a military man. No real competence at all. Or originality.
“So,” he continued, licking his lips in a disturbing manner, “how should I kill you?”
Another voice sounded from the doorway. “Both of you, sneaking into the engine room while most of the crew is asleep? Mighty suspicious behavior.” Ivor turned his head completely around, and his arms followed suit for a split second. I took advantage of his momentary lapse and dove to the left, out of his reach. I heard him snarl and he aimed his gun at me as I rose to my feet.
A beam suddenly struck the gun in his hand, sending it flying past me into the opposite wall. I finally turned to see who stood in the door.
Daniel Fetherkap sauntered slowly into the room, a pistol in each hand, aiming at both of us. “Drop the knife, Karanov.” Ivor growled and did so. It clattered loudly on the floor.
“Good. Now, both of you, explain what you’re doing here. Jak?”
I decided to tell the truth. “I couldn’t sleep, so I wandered around the ship. M-my sh-shift starts in less than an hour anyway, so I just followed my feet.” Fetherkap nodded, and I took that as acceptance of my answer. He looked around at Ivor.
“And you?”
Ivor spat on the ground. “I don’t need to answer to the likes of you, Fetherkap. Damn Edenite.” I blinked. So Fetherkap was from Eden – the third planet colonized by earth. I was surprised – Edenites were known for their arrogance and seclusion, as well as their hatred of non-Edenites. Only a few years ago, a group of Edenite terrorists had attacked Thygorad in Ryussa, demanding that Eden be recognized as independent from the Home Rule.
Fetherkap sighed dramatically. “But you do need to answer to the likes of this, Karanov.” He twitched the hand holding the gun he was aiming at Ivor.
The Ryussan mimicked Fetherkap’s sigh. “I’m here to rape the boy. Happy?” I stiffened as he smirked at me.
“Bullshit. What did you do to the engine?”
Ivor shrugged. “I just rigged a VC up on it. Nothing much. What are you doing up so early, when the rest of the crew is sound asleep in their little beds?”
“A vanishing charge?” Fetherkap’s voice was incredulous. “Do you realize how much those cost? I was going to settle for a simple rewiring to cause a spark to fall into the second auxiliary shaft.”
I didn’t catch Ivor’s response to that, as I was distracted by a shadow crossing the doorway. A few seconds later, it returned, blocking out the light from the corridor.
“Well, well, what have we here?” Fetherkap whirled around, but it was too late. A baton appeared in Adam Sansson’s hand, and he smashed it into Daniel’s skull. He was dead before he hit the ground. Sansson’s baton vanished, and he walked cautiously into the room as I stood staring at the body lying at the entrance. “The Edenite fanatic reveals himself now, eh? Guess he got sick of seeing the Earthlings be so successful.”
He nudged Fetherkap’s corpse and grimaced. “Oh, I hate killing. Goddamn Bajans. I wish they’d given me an easier way to earn back my freedom.” He turned his attention to us. Or at least I think he did. He was wearing the thick sunglasses he always did, even in the dim light of the room, so I had to go by the movement of his head.
“And Karanov? Still trying to sabotage our mission? Or trying to rape the boy?” The Ryussan didn’t move. I wondered why he hadn’t rushed to pick up his weapons, as Adam clearly didn’t have anything he could attack with at range.
The light from the corridor was blocked again. I wondered why every single conspirator on the ship seemed to be awake and converging on this room. I also wondered why security was taking so long to get here.
Crydgar’s silhouette stepped inside. His voice followed shortly thereafter. He sounded frustrated. “Jak, you fool. You are interfering in affairs you needn’t be concerned with.” He unslung his scythe and turned to Adam. “Security is dead. I think it was Ivor’s work. And now he’s here to take out the engine. He needs to go – and I think so does the boy, regrettably.” I swallowed hard.
Ivor laughed. “Go on then, you noble bastards.” His accent began to slip further into Ryussan as he continued speaking. “Kill me,” he hissed, followed by something in his native tongue that I didn’t understand.
Adam smiled. “If you insist.” He drew his baton with lightning
speed, and a bolt of electricity shot out from it, slamming into Ivor. He flew backwards, forcing me to duck and roll out of the way. I used my momentum to bring myself behind the engine, hidden from view. I crawled further away from the engine, and the two standing on the other side of it. The Ryussan hit the wall with a loud thud, and collapsed on the ground.
“I’m really sorry about this, Jak – we don’t really want to kill you. But if word got out that an isolationist Edenite terrorist and a Ryussan assassin got on board the ship, we’d have a riot on our hands. We cannot compromise the mission.”
Crydgar spoke next. “We won’t shame you, boy – there was merely an engine malfunction, and the device sucked up your bodies before they could be found. It’d be best just to get this over with.”
“Come out, boy. It won’t hurt… that much.” I heard both Sansson’s and Crydgar’s footsteps slowly advance towards me. Suddenly, one pair stopped.
“Adam… is this thing supposed to be attached to the engine?”
Adam’s steps stopped. “What thing?”
My vision exploded in a blinding flash of white light. I gasped and covered my eyes. I curled up, shaking and clutching my throbbing head. When I could finally open my eyes again, the engine was gone. So was Crydgar.
Adam lay groaning on the floor, his baton nowhere in sight. His sunglasses were on the floor nearby. I stood up and walked towards him. Soon I was able to make out his muttering. “My eyes… oh, my poor eyes…” Looking around, I saw that Fetherkap’s body had vanished as well, but Ivor’s remained, sprawled next to the wall.
Several people ran into the room. At the head of the crowd was Vincent. His eyes were opened wide with shock. “What the hell?”
He turned to me. “Jak? What happened here? Where’s the engine?”
I looked again at where the engine had been, registering fully the fact that the engine was no longer there. Where it had been moments before there now was… nothing. There was a hole in the ceiling and in the floor, but no engine. “Ivor said something about a… vanishing charge… I couldn’t sleep, so I wandered around, and ended up here. Ivor pinned me against the engine, then Fetherkap came, then Adam killed him, then Crydgar came, and Adam killed Ivor… then they tried to get me, but everything exploded… Crydgar said that security had been killed.” Someone turned on the lights just in time for me to see Vincent begin to shake with rage. He said nothing.
Silence reigned in the room until Rafael timidly asked a question from the back. “What does it mean that we have no main engine? Do our secondary ones work?”
Vincent inhaled deeply, and the rage slowly faded from his eyes. He blinked, and it was gone. He turned around. “Michaela, Eugene, go check the lower engines. Nemhet, Kyle, check the upper ones. Oldman and Allon, central. Mikhail, right aft, Rafael, left aft. Rasjane, fore.” Half of the gathered crew scattered. Silence again reigned.
They returned within five minutes. All reported that the engines were gone. Not damaged or exploded, but gone, much like the main engine. Everyone looked to Vincent. He sighed and drew himself up. “Well, we’re down a physicist – and an engineer. We’ll have to rely on Matthias and Methuselah.” I quailed at the thought. Neither of them had seemed particularly competent to me.
“And… we’re also done with our mission… all of our engines are gone, in addition to our scientists. We’ll have to coast to a nearby planet. I’ll set the EO’s and the engineers to working out which one. Allon, get Stephen and go find Matthias and Methuselah.” Allon nodded and left. “The rest of you, don’t worry. We’ll be fine. We still have lots of coasting momentum, and Fineas is a superb helmsman. We just have to find some way to replace the engines… and find food… and water…” Despite his attempt to put some hope in his words, we could all feel the despair in his voice.
We weren’t going back.
14
“It’s hard to fly a ship with no engines – it severely limits steering capabilities, and forces you to do all manners of complex math in your head as you fly – it’s a miracle that Fineas has managed to keep us going for so long. The rest of the crew thinks it’s easy, that there’s nothing dangerous in space that we might hit, but I know better. Yes I do.”