by Aline Riva
Much later as the ship touched down on the colony planet, Sin woke up as Jinx said her name.
"While we're docked you should change into your flight suit," he reminded her, "Stay on board, I'm going to take Janey and Harvey to find a ride home."
She sat up, took off her belt and nodded, blinking away sleep.
Jinx left the flight deck and made his way to the locked room, he opened up the door and saw the landing had stirred the passengers from sleep. Harvey and Janey looked at each other, then alarm registered in their eyes as they realised their hands were cuffed.
"Sorry about that," Jinx said, trying to push away the thought that it would be so much better to kill and eat them as he unlocked the cuffs, "You were both very confused when I found you. Your ship had a malfunction, I set up a transfer corridor and managed to get you both out..."
Harvey looked at him in horror.
"Was anyone else on board?"
"I'm sorry but I managed to get a list of names.. Tyler, Wolf, Voss... They didn't make it. The ship exploded. I nearly died too. I got you inside just in time."
Harvey's eyes filled with tears as Janey gave a sob.
"I...I don't understand... I don't remember leaving earth!"
"Neither do I...Tyler, my best mate? He's dead?"
Jinx helped Janey from her seat as Harvey got up by himself, then he led them out of the room and across the walkway, opened up the hatch and they went unsteadily down the steps to the docking bay.
"Where are we?" Harvey said, looking about the vast open space port where ships of all shapes and sizes were docked.
"Orius H2," he replied, "There's an earth transporter at docking bay twelve..."
He led them away from his ship and over to a departure area, paused at a vending machine and slid a thin, blank slice of gold into it and paid for two one way tickets back to earth.
"That's untraceable currency," Janey said.
"Yes, I know, I always pay this way," Jinx replied, waiting by the machine and then as two tickets for a public transporter came out, he handed them to Harvey.
"I'm sorry about your friends," he added, leading the way across the vast and busy area towards the open waiting point, "I'm just a passing trader – I have to be on my way."
"But who are you?" Harvey asked, blinking away more tears as the loss of the others sunk in, "You saved us, I want to know your name."
'I'm the man who could have killed and ate you,' Jinx thought, then he shrugged, pushing dark thoughts away by picturing Sin, sleeping in that seat, her gown transparent, that piercing looking so lovely, so deadly but lovely...
"I don't want to get involved, paperwork, statements – you said the power core overheated...That's something that can't be predicted, don't blame yourself. Just go home and tell them it was a terrible accident because that's the truth."
"Why can't we remember anything?" Janey demanded.
"Your ship was burning up.. a lot of gasses about. That would be the reason, a lot of gasses. You'll be okay, just get on that transporter."
"What's the name of your ship?" Harvey asked.
"The Pussyeater," Jinx replied with a smirk as he thought of Sin, then he turned away and walked off, his thoughts still on Sin as he tried to fight off the darkness that tugged at his mind.
As Janey and Harvey wept for their lost companions, they turned to one another and hugged as they stood in the queue bound for earth, and neither saw Jinx disappear into the crowd, nor did they see him reach up to the necklace tied about his throat and tear it off, then toss it away as the leather strung with human teeth hit the floor.
Jinx was back on his ship and cleared for take off within thirty minutes, by then Sin had changed into a flight suit, and as he took his place at the controls and fired up the ship, the dark thoughts had retreated, replaced by a weight of worry as he thought of the task that lie ahead.
By the time the ship had broken free of the planet[s atmosphere and punched through into blackness once more, Jinx felt his mind float free as he wondered if that thing inside his head was sleeping, soothed by the starlight that reflected in his eyes as he watched the endless dark of space pass by. He set the course for Karashi and then hit auto, took off his belt and turned to Sin.
"When we land, I don't know what will happen to me. I don't know if my contact can help you with the zestion, I don't know if it's possible to help me at all – I'm aware that cutting this thing out of my head might kill me."
Sin's eyes misted as she blinked.
"Don't even think about giving up, Rik! You're not that person any more, you're not Jinx the lunatic – it's a parasite, it did those things, it used you. Remember that, you have to fight this all the way."
Gratitude shone in his gaze.
"Thank you for seeing past the madness. I don't know how you saw me in the middle of all that, but I'm glad you did. I believe you now. I know I'm not insane - because when I looked up the planet where the Pharaoh crashed, I knew I was still Rik Jinx the flier..."
He hesitated as he thought of the defining moment that had pulled him back from the brink, then he turned in his seat and took hold of her hands.
"You have to make me a promise, Sin."
"What is it?" she asked.
"If I don't make it, you have to promise me you will warn them. They have to be stopped!"
"Who needs to be stopped? What are you talking about?" Sin asked.
Intensity burned in his gaze as he gave his reply, in that moment she knew for sure Jinx had found enough strength to fight back against the darkness in his mind, enough grasp a moment of clarity.
"The planet where we crashed, where the parasite infected me and the others, is due a visit by a research team. S69Q-1 is being considered for colonization."
Her eyes widened in alarm at the thought of more people becoming infected, possibly thousands...
"We have to stop them!"
"Maybe not me, maybe just you if I don't make it through," he reminded her, "This thing might end up killing me but it won't kill anyone else – it needs to be out of my head and analysed, we need to know what it is and how to kill it. I'm done with giving into it. Now I know what it is, I'm fighting it all the way."
Then as he turned back to the view of deep space and stars reflected dark in his gaze, he thought only of his destination and his purpose as they headed onward, the ship on a path away from the insanity of Shyra-K1 and into the unknown as he silently his fate:
There was no turning back from this.
It was over, the madness ended here, and maybe soon his life would end, too. Jinx didn't know if he was all the more insane for trying to fight the darkness inside him, but it made sense to try and he clung to that thought as they headed on, through the blankness of space as he fought the dark inside his mind and knew his old life was behind him, gone forever, leaving perhaps nothing but this drifting void and a handful of stars to light the way, as the ship moved onward, heading into the only certainty he could be sure of:
No matter what the future held, the madness of life on Shyra- K1 was gone forever and all he could do now was the one thing that had saved him before, after Mack's ship had crashed on a desolate planet and their lives had changed for the worse - adapt and survive again - but this time, differently...
End
The Cosmic Inferno Series, Book 3: S69Q-1
Here is a glimpse into the third book in The Cosmic Inferno Series, Book 3: S69Q-1:
The planet was at the back end of the galaxy, one of those shit pits that Sin had been expecting, its barren surface had been over come by building underground, where streets and alleys and markets and houses were all set out under a high artificial sky that changed from sunlight to darkness, simulating the switch from day to night, earth style. At first the place had made her nervous, with the strange and shady people and their shady dealings and the looks they shot her as she passed them by.
There was no good and bad side of town, all existed side by side, the grand buildings and the s
lums, here in Sector Three, each offered its own service or product, all at the buyer or user's risk, there was no regulation here, no earth rules thanks to the outer limit independence claim staked on the planets out in Delta, where it was pretty much travel, buy and try with no safety net. It was a place for the brave or the stupid, she had not yet decided which, but had soon understood it was a place of great risk and danger to the ordinary traveller.
In the three months Sin had been in Karashi, she had learned much, now wearing a body suit of smooth black fabric that clung to her body, the holstered blaster at her hip looked very fitting, resting next to her hip and set to kill mode, a warning to would be robbers and would be rapists, and worse.
The Princess Galaxy was docked above ground, it was a long ride to the top but she took that ride almost every day, to stay above ground, on board the ship to watch over Jinx...
The thought of Rik Jinx stayed bright in her mind as she left the below ground world far behind and the doors opened to a barren surface where winds kicked up dust clouds. She pulled up a silk scarf she wore about her neck, covered the lower half of her face and headed towards the place where the ship had been docked since arrival.
On reaching the ship and opening up the hatch she stepped inside, greeted by the calm of the vessel and the instant promise of escape from the harsh surface made it feel like coming home. As the hatch closed and shut out the dust and the wind, she pulled down the scarf and headed straight for the medical bay.
Entering the room, she went over to the bed where Jinx had spent the past three months, his eyes were closed, he was breathing slowly and easily but the coma that had lasted since the surgery showed no sign of lifting.
She crossed the room and went over to the locked, sealed case set into the wall and her eyes turned cold as she glared at the sliced open creature preserved within, this was the beast that had lived inside the head of the man she loved, turning Rik Jinx the flier into a monster...
Time was slipping away like sand through an hourglass as the dead creature sat preserved. They had the parasite, they had isolated its weakness and understood how it functioned. But it was a matter of days before the research team landed on S69Q -1.
This mattered more than her own situation, something Jinx would not recall after being given the amnesia drug, he would remember none of it... As she twisted the gold band on her finger she wondered if there had been any sense in the five minute wedding ceremony she had agreed to on the day they had landed here. It was all forgotten now, if he woke he wouldn't even recall what had happened to her because of the zestion ring – or its later removal... He would remember nothing of his actions or their consequences regarding her or others - if he woke up again. He needed to wake and quickly, because they needed him, she and the Professor could not take on the parasites alone...
As she turned away from the dead creature she looked to Jinx, who was still far from waking after the complicated procedure he had barely survived to remove the alien parasite that had been feeding in his head. Time was running out.
"Please Rik," she whispered, "Please wake up – we need you, I need you – these monsters have to be stopped and we can't do this without you..."
Then she looked back at the dissected thing in the preservative, its worm-like structure split wide, as she thought of Jinx and how it had taken his sanity and could still claim his life, then she went back to his bedside and sat down, silently willing him to recover, to open his eyes, to remember her in some way despite all he had been through, but most of all, to be able to take on the biggest battle he would ever face:
The parasites had to be stopped before they took over one planet at a time, turning their hosts into sex crazed, cannibalistic killers – until their work was done and humanity had been entirely wiped out.
So much was at stake. Jinx had to wake up, because if ever there was a time to redeem himself, this was it – the hourglass was nearly out of sand, time was almost gone...
The Cosmic Inferno Series, Book 3: S69Q-1
Coming Soon.
The Cosmic Inferno Series
Copyright © Aline Riva 2017