Titan: A Science Fiction Horror Adventure (NecroVerse Book 3)

by Aaron Bunce

  Jacoby coughed and savored another deep breath, his hands shaking as he covered his privates. Damn, he felt weak…no, empty was a more apt description, and hungry. And it did him so much good to hear her say that. He wanted to let it all spill out for so long now, but she’d never seemed willing, receptive. So absolutely unlike his lifelong friend.

  “We’ve all been forced to confront the things that happened, and what we did back there, in different ways. It is going to be difficult. I just had to confront some stuff that went deeper, like bone-deep,” he said, taking his time to string together his thoughts.

  Jacoby knew there wasn’t an easy way, a route that would allow them to bypass the immediate emotional aftermath. They would have to drive smack dab through the middle of the most recent stuff first, and somehow try not to get pulled in and claimed by the burning wreckage in the process–Soraya’s husband, Lex’s co-workers, Mike, and not to mention his decisions that led to Reeds’ death. Those things were just the tip of the iceberg, too, and would only continue to cloud everything they tried to do.

  “Everything must be accounted for, no matter how bad it looks to the others. Mistakes, regrets, grief, anger, doubt. All of it,” he said, his teeth starting to chatter together.

  “Why don’t we sit down and work our way through all of it, one thing at a time, no matter how long it takes. We can have something warm to eat and a cup of coffee. But first, maybe some clothes, Coby? You might make people uncomfortable if you just walk everywhere in your birthday suit.”

  Jacoby chuckled, that simple act doing more to warm him inside than any padded shirt or alien microbe. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in weeks. And yes, to the clothes. Very much yes.”

  He shifted to stand, the goose bumps having covered his arms and legs now. Jacoby didn’t know if the ship had gotten colder, or if it was him.

  Because I’m not regulating your internal temperature right now, Jacky-Boy. Don’t be a baby. Put on some clothes. He felt the pressure mount in his skull, the telltale sign that Poole was active returning like a long-lost pain.

  “Yeah,” Anna laughed and wiped her eyes again, “that’s probably not a bad idea. She stood and moved over by the door, turning around to provide him some privacy.

  Jumping into my thoughts again. Too shy to make that “grand” entrance you were talking about?

  Don’t be obtuse, Jacky-Boy. I’m abrasive, not a total jackass. You and Anna looked like you needed some privacy. Besides, I’m multitasking. And we sort of had to purge pretty much all the biological infrastructure out of your body back there. It’s taxing me to replace even the small amount I’ve managed to flood into your system so far. The girls are hashing it out, or trying, with Shane and the others. I’m afraid that my presence inside your cranium has not been as well received as I originally hoped.

  “Shit,” Jacoby cursed, tiptoeing to a locker.

  “What’s the matter?” Anna asked.

  “Oh…just the floor. It’s really cold,” Jacoby said and quickly pulled on a clean pair of modesty shorts and shirt, then reached for a thick pair of grip socks, followed by a Planitex jumpsuit.

  Even after all these years of being alive, you still haven’t mastered the art of nuanced communication.

  Perhaps some things aren’t meant to be mastered, brain slug. Maybe it is more meaningful that we spend our time identifying our weaknesses and seeking improvement, he thought in response.

  Brain slug? I like that. And look at you, defining the road of the scholar, a life of perpetual learning and improvement. Nice, Jacky-Boy, very nice.

  Jacoby turned and threw Anna a smile before zipping up the suit.

  Nothing in my life up to now helped prepare me for sharing my mental space with you. None of this is exactly normal, he thought, and reached for a hairbrush sitting on the middle shelf. Jacoby changed his mind and pulled out a gray Planitex beanie instead.

  Normal is boring, Jacky-Boy! Normal is running a cavitation chisel six out of seven days for a corporation that classifies you as a number, and for a boss that is a fossilized remnant from Lucifer’s fall from grace. Normal…sucks. Sentient life is about growth, survival, and exploration.

  At least I knew what to expect from Planitex and the Skeleton Queen. So far, this has been way too much excitement for my taste.

  She probably ate her young, Jacky. How can you ever know what to expect from a shrew like that? You’re lucky she didn’t sharpen her talons on your bleached bones. Cook your liver and grind it into paste.

  True, he thought, and barely suppressed a smile. How long before I’m back to full power? I’m wiped out. Tired. Hungry. All the above.

  Jacoby met Anna at the door. She bounced on the balls of her feet, swiped at her eyes one last time, and reached for the door control panel. Her hand froze an inch above the glass, however, her finger shaking for a long moment before pulling back.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’ve been meaning to tell you. I don’t think everything is right in my…” she said but seemed to struggle to spit out the rest. Anna pointed at her head just as the blue light flickered in her left eye. Her finger drooped, curling towards the ground, and then she blinked.

  “Your what?” Jacoby pressed, “Anna, what isn’t right? Are you okay?”

  Her eyes lost focus and she wavered for a minute before focusing again and locking onto him.

  “I, uh. What was I…?” she stammered, “I had something I really need to tell you. I know that I did. I mean, I can feel it, the urgency, and all the anxiety around whatever it was. It was on my tongue one moment and then it just, poof, evaporated. I can’t even…”

  Did you see that? She has been acting strange lately. Distracted, like she gets lost in her own thoughts. Is she okay?

  Jacoby watched Anna, his sense of unease about their lack of communication and her strange behavior flooding right back in. She didn’t look right, either. Her left eye, the one threaded with organic circuitry, hung open just a bit wider than the other, while the right side of her mouth drooped. A line of perspiration dotted her forehead.

  And the rest of you act normally since you met me? Soraya can do two hundred and thirty-five pushups in a minute and brush her teeth in five seconds. You glow gold and rage-smash things. Anna can interface with computers. I’m sure it’s just a little hiccup as her mind develops more synaptic pathways through her upgraded neural infrastructure. Just give her some time. Trust doctor Poole, the way I structure things in her skull, it’s best if everyone, even me, keeps their fingers out.

  “Maybe you just need to sit down,” Jacoby offered, and tapped the open icon. The door whisked open, and he helped her through. “Sometimes if I sit down and let my mind wander away from the thing I was trying to remember, it just kind of magically finds its way back.”

  You’re a doctor now?

  Jacoby helped Anna out into the galley. Lex was there to his immediately left, while Soraya was sitting in a chair by the round table. Her mouth hung open, as if she had paused mid-word. He stopped, Anna teetering on his arm as Lana swung her head around and looked right at him. She physically tensed, her eyes dropping to Jacoby’s crotch, and then seemed to realize it.

  I’ve done more for you “medically” than any licensed doctor you’ve ever seen. Yes, I’m claiming the title. If you don’t like it, sue me.

  “Are…” he tried to ask if everything was all right, but Lana jumped at the sound of his voice, made a strange choking noise, blushed crimson, and then turned to half-run, half-stumble out of the room and into a service corridor.

  “What was that?” Jacoby asked. Soraya reached up and rubbed her face. Lex laughed quietly. But Poole’s laugh boomed in his mind, overriding them all.

  “Let’s just say that we ‘laid it all out on the table for them’ and they weren’t terribly receptive. Evidently, even with everything they saw on the station, the truth is still a pretty hard thing to believe.”

  Lana knows about you and me now, bucko! And she knows you w
ant to…insert us into her, uh, life. Oh, man, do I want inside that brain. Honestly, you weren’t this shy about hooking up with random ladies before. Why so shy now?

  Jacoby helped Anna over to the table and tried to block Poole’s lewd thoughts and not-so-subtle mental images out. He eased her down into a chair, before pulling a fresh coffee packet out of a drawer, popped it into the machine, and started the brew cycle. He pressed the warmer icon, waited a few seconds, and then pulled a fresh mug out of the drawer. He turned, only to find all three women staring at him.

  No, four. Emiko stood beyond the table, the hold’s silver ladder framing her back. He hadn’t even noticed she was there.

  Don’t make any sudden moves, Jacky-Boy, or you’ll spook the wild critter.

  The coffee maker beeped, so Jacoby filled two cups, setting the first in front of Anna and taking the second for himself. He realized that he hadn’t spoken to Emiko since she’d saved him in the surgery on Hyde. Yes, he’d been avoiding it, because quite frankly every conversation he needed to have with people would inherently veer into uncomfortable or downright painful territory. He was an avoider, like that.

  Tear the damned bandage off, Jacky-Boy. Be a man. Thank the girl for saving your quasi-worthless behind and help her move ON! Besides, we need her onboard. If having you screw them to bring them over to Team Poole is asking too much, then she’s our best bet for coming up with a “reasonable” plan-B. Honestly though, she’s only a little younger than you, is quite attractive, and for some reason, thinks you are cute. Am I missing something?

  He looked up at Soraya and then subtly to Emiko, and back. As much as he hated Poole’s logic, he knew he wasn’t entirely wrong. Not about sleeping with Emiko, but about talking to her. Shit why did everything social have to be so difficult?

  Yes. What you are missing is about six feet tall, weighs one hundred and ninety pounds, and has two hands and two feet. I’m not going to have a debate with you about the idea of personal relationships. It’s more complicated than you know or are willing to admit.

  Ugh. Not from where I’m sitting. It all looks pretty straight forward. It’s not my fault you meat sacks convolute everything with so much mushy emotional garbage. Fine. FINE. F-I-N-E!

  Jacoby nodded his head at the nurse and Soraya’s eyebrows rose sharply.

  “I think it’s time for that…thing…we talked about earlier,” she said, nodding and quickly sliding sideways out of her seat.

  “What thing?” Lex asked, as Soraya hooked her by the arm and pulled her out of the room and towards the hold. Jacoby could hear them whispering as they moved down the ladder.

  0402 Hours

  Jacoby fiddled with his coffee cup for a moment and then took a sip. It was too hot and bitter. But not the good bitter, but the bad kind, like the bio freeze-dried brew cubes they had to reconstitute back on Hyde. It never seemed to be the right temperature or achieve anything resembling flavor balance. Maybe it was the dissolvable vacuum barrier, or hell, maybe it was just crappy coffee.

  He missed the java house on the lunar colony, it was only a fifteen-minute walk from their closet-sized apartment, roughly the distance of two or three city blocks on earth. They had to pass through several pressure hubs, mind you, which often malfunctioned and caused tram and foot traffic to back up. But it was worth the wait. They grew their own coffee beans there, utilizing a special grow dome and unique mixture of volcanic soil brought up from earth, layered with lunar sand and substrate. The result was phenomenal.

  Luna Joe, he thought, conjuring the name, an image of the smiling moon logo blossoming in his mind. He and Anna both had mugs. Unfortunately, they were still back on Hyde.

  Jacoby looked to Anna, who smiled, and up to Emiko. She looked like a mannequin–thin and motionless but folding and twisting on itself.

  Why are you just sitting there thinking about coffee shops? Talk to her? Ask her how she is handling everything? Here’s a novel idea…why don’t you ask her to join you? Idiot! She probably thinks you all hate her, blame her for what happened in the surgery.

  “Emiko, why don’t you join us,” he offered, barely managing to keep his voice low and even.

  Still, Emiko jumped at the sound of his voice. Her eyes widened and back straightened, and for a moment she turned between the various doors leading out of the galley.

  “Please don’t go, Emiko. I just want to talk to you,” Jacoby said, focusing all of his available willpower into the idea that he needed her to calm down and not run away. A small but noticeable spike of pressure formed in his head, a cool tickle flooding over his skin. His arm hair stood on end.

  Emiko mumbled something that he couldn’t quite make out and took a few quick steps towards the ladder to the hold. She was trying to flee again.

  “Stop!” he said, his desired outcome forming in his mind. He wanted her to stop, turn around, and come back and sit down. The pressure in his mind intensified, and the cool trickle on his skin turned to ice, his fingers and toes tingling in response. Magically, Emiko stopped, and then slowly turned.

  “Please. There are some things I need to tell you,” Jacoby said, easing back into his chair. “Mostly, how stupid I was.” He focused on her feet as she moved her left foot towards them. He maintained the focus, trying to replicate the moment in the operations control room when he’d somehow gotten a panicked and out of control Mike to calm.

  He watched Emiko’s shoulders twitch several times, as if she were trying to move, to fight him and fall back into panic, but her lower body seemed to be operating independently. And yet, with every subsequent beat of his heart, her body relaxed. Whatever strange power of influence Poole had unlocked within him, was working.

  “I’m sorry. I should have come and talked to you right away. But I’m crap with people. I’m crap with my own feelings, if that’ll give you any indicator. I always manage to say or do the wrong thing at just the right time. Just ask Anna…she’s the only one I haven’t managed to drive off or…” he said, pausing. Damn, he’d almost said “killed”.

  Smooth, two thirty-five. While you’re at it, why don’t you tell her about all the people you cut into little, bloody giblets back when you saved the ladies. Not only will she be so impressed, but it’ll also have the added benefit of helping her relax and trust you even more. Stories of bloody, power-tool murder rank second right behind a hot cup of tea in relaxation methods. At least we can rule out therapist as a potential career path for you.

  Jacoby maintained his focus on Emiko, the pressure forming a distinct ring inside his head, as if an inflatable donut were expanding to fill his skull. His control over the power started to feel exact, as if it were a skill he’d learned long ago but forgotten. A tingle formed at the base of his skull, an ache radiating both up into his brain and down his back.

  And seriously. What about “take it easy” do you not understand. I had to purge every beneficial microbe from your body and have been slowly replacing them, as I don’t know what thresholds will tip you back towards danger. If you push too hard now, you’ll rupture a lobe in your brain or something. That sounds painful.

  He tried to block Poole’s voice out of his thoughts and focus on the air around them. No, not air. But the chemicals and hormones, the tension flooding off Emiko’s body. Maybe it was the pheromones her body was releasing. Or maybe it was some other element to his new and confusing biology. And…it was working. Jacoby could feel the nurse’s body relaxing, her tension melting away. Shit, he could actually see them–a barely perceptible mist drifting off her body. And another, one he’d evidently produced, surrounding her.

  “Here,” he said, standing and pulling the seat next to his away from the table. The captured chair slid back and clicked, riding to the furthest extent of the track.

  Emiko took a breath, held it for a moment, and then let it out with an audible sigh. The pheromones around her abruptly changed, shifting from an almost smoke-like mass to a passive, translucent cloud. A massive well of relief rose inside as the nu
rse walked slowly over and eased down into the seat.

  “Hot tea?” he asked, trying to guess what she might like.

  Emiko sniffled, swiped a sleeve across her eyes, and cleared her throat.

  “I’ll take coffee. Never developed a taste for tea.”

  “Right away,” he said as Poole sighed loudly into his mind.

  What, she won’t like coffee because people of Asian descent only drink tea? Ugh.

  Jacoby returned a few moments later and set a mug of steaming coffee before her, then settled back into his seat. They all sat in silence for a long while, sipping in silence.

  After mapping out a dozen failed conversation starters in his mind, Jacoby drained the rest of his coffee and moved to push away from the table. Anna reached out suddenly and grabbed onto his arm. He looked her in the eyes, his attention naturally locking onto only her left, where the bio-mechanical latticework was now permanently fused into her anatomy. She nodded, and for perhaps the first time as an adult, he understood what she meant without her having to spell it out for him–say something.

  “When Anna got sick–” Jacoby said, turning to Emiko.

  “I’m sorry I ran,” she blurted, interrupting him. “I thought I could do it–be brave. Be strong. I never have been…couldn’t stand up to my parents, my grandparents, or Doctor Misra. They always told me what to do, who to be, or what to say, and I just nodded and did it, even when it wasn’t what I wanted. ‘Straighten your back. Don’t slouch. Head up, eyes up. Talk louder. Don’t wear that t-shirt, no one likes a girl that wears that.’ It got worse under Doctor Misra. Everything had to be done her way. And when it wasn’t the way she’d do it, she made sure everyone knew it and made you start again from the beginning. I wanted to be someone who spoke up, needed to be, like you were for her when she couldn’t speak for herself.” Emiko nodded at Anna, her red-rimmed eyes growing glassy with captured tears. “You were right…about getting her help, and actively trying to find help. I knew it. Just like Reeds. We felt it, too. We couldn’t just sit around and expect someone to show up and save us. You were the only one willing to do something. The only one willing to speak out and make a plan. To take a chance. We needed that, and you. But then that thing came out of the overhead and the stupid old me took over. It’s my fault, not yours. I panicked and Doctor Reeds paid the price. You should have left me back there. It would have been fair.”