by David Gill
Declan returned to the bedroom and found Jenna awake with the lights on.
'I heard you talking to someone,' said Jenna. 'I presume it was Gil.'
'It was,' said Declan, 'and there is some good news. He is on the case again. The other news is that we are all going back to Kalmis tomorrow evening.'
Jenna stared at Declan. 'This is all going wrong. First it was Slater and his sidekick, then the surveillance and now even Gil is cutting us short. What's happening?'
'Gil has not told me everything, but I think he considers it safer to get away from here.' Declan had no idea what had gone on or why, but all he was now concerned about was Jenna's safety. 'You mustn't worry. We will make sure that you come to no harm.'
'It's hard not to worry with all that brainwashing coming my way.'
'That is the last option. Several things have to take place before you need to consider that.'
Jenna lay on her back, pensively staring at the bedroom ceiling. She propped herself on one elbow and turned to face Declan. 'Are you absolutely positive that the surveillance has been shut down and no-one is listening to us?'
'Gil confirmed that the surveillance had been withdrawn and that he was happy for the team to leave.'
'So you are pretty certain that we are not being overheard?'
'Yes.'
'Then this is definitely our last night together and there is something I really need to tell you.'
The tone of Jenna's voice made Declan suddenly alert.
'Firstly: don't worry about what is going to happen to me - the brainwashing is not going to take place.'
'It remains a distinct possibility,' said Declan.
'Whatever,' said Jenna. 'Now listen to me. The woman who came snooping round yesterday, Glen was it?'
Declan nodded.
'Well, she thinks I am not telling the truth and wanted me to talk to her about what really happened on Bouron.'
Declan stared at her. 'Are you saying that these things you told me did not happen?'
'Not exactly. A lot of what I told you was made up.'
'Why? And why are you telling me this now?'
'Look, I was not happy doing any of this but I was questioned by dozens of people before you appeared on the scene and each time I told them the truth and each time not one person believed a word I said, so I knew that there was no point in coming out with the same old story again.'
'That is not what we agreed,' said Declan.
'Do I need to remind you that a lot has happened in the last few days that wasn't agreed,' said Jenna. 'But now we must move on and I assure you that you will not be disappointed to hear what I have to say.' Jenna pulled the covers around her and sat back against the bedroom wall. 'When Brant and I arrived back in Vennica we brought with us evidence which proved that we were completely innocent of any wrongdoing and of the charges that were being laid against us.'
'What evidence?'
'We had video of the bodies we found in the tracker station and we had video Vance took of Brant after he died.'
'What bodies?'
'We found the bodies of the missing crew inside the tracker station.'
'What happened to them?'
'Not so fast, this story has a way to run. Ellen also left a diary which gave a vivid account of what happened to her crew.'
'Where is all this evidence? If it helps your case, where is it?
Jenna shrugged. 'It was all taken by the Phasewave Company and nobody has seen it since. There was a coordinated attempt by the Company to discredit us, and that evidence just disappeared. It was probably destroyed, for all I know. Even the reports we wrote and left in the base logs were removed.'
Declan remained silent, shocked by the way events were turning out. 'How much of what you told me was true?'
'I made things up as I went along because I needed time, but all the important bits were included. To put your mind to rest, I can assure you that an alien is involved and guarantee that you are going to meet it.'
Declan dismissed the last comment; he had now heard so many stories that he had stopped listening. 'Why did you need time?'
'Let me continue. I promise you that what I now say is the truth and is exactly what happened up to this point. There are some things I cannot tell you yet because I need to find out what has developed since we came to Plano, but I will tell you everything because I owe you and you deserve to know what happened to me. Let me start at the beginning, when we arrived on Bouron. From the very start of our stay nothing felt quite right. We discovered signs of damage throughout the base buildings and some of the furnishings - tables and chairs - had been replaced and were mismatched. Then we found that Unit Nine was down, as was one of the trackers. All the base logs had been deleted, and there were no records anywhere of the unit failures - even the written records and worksheets were missing. We took a look at Unit Nine and found that it had suffered severe explosion damage and was a complete write-off.'
'What about the modifications made to it by the other crew?'
'There were no modifications because there was not much left inside the unit to modify. Anyway, Brant then found a pile of broken furniture and fittings in a storeroom at the back of the quarters, so we began to suspect that the Giran's crew had not searched everywhere and had just tidied up the mess they found when they arrived to remove evidence of what had happened. I then went into the base mainframe and established that the logs had been deleted after the Giran's shuttle had landed, which could only have been done by the Giran's crew.'
'Why would they do that?'
'We reckoned it was probably because of the bodies they suspected they might find. After all, no ships had visited the planet since the original crew had arrived, so their remains must have been somewhere nearby. Under space convention the crew of the Giran were duty bound to attempt to retrieve any human remains they discovered and transport them to back to Spaceport, but if they did return with bodies on board the Giran and its crew and passengers would have to go into quarantine after arrival and stay in quarantine until they were given the all clear, which could take weeks, longer if disease was confirmed. Also, the ship would have to be completely sterilized, so I can see their point of view in that respect, faced with the task of carrying four bodies home. After we checked Unit Nine we were still none the wiser until one day Brant and I were looking at the line-scans taken by the Giran when we noticed something buried in the dust outside Tracker Five. It looked like a skimmer had been parked outside and had sunk into the dust. We then checked the cargo bays and there were two skimmers and two suits missing. So our next call was to visit the tracker, which Vance violently objected to. He just wanted an easy life and suspected, like we did, that the bodies were probably inside the tracker. We ignored Vance and went anyway and when we got there yes, there was a skimmer buried under the dust and another inside the tracker airlock. The airlock itself had been smashed open at some time and was not functioning, and the inside of the tracker looked like a butcher's shop. Three of the bodies had been dismembered and their parts laid out on the floor in some strange pattern. Their severed heads were lined up on a rack. It was a blood-bath in there. The only intact body was Carrick's.'
'This sounds like another of your stories,' said Declan.
Jenna reached over the bed into a wardrobe. She pulled out a sheaf of papers and sat next to Declan. 'Take a look at these illustrations before you call this a story.'
Declan took the drawings from Jenna. The first one depicted a gruesome scene of carnage which Declan assumed was the interior of the tracker station. Body parts were strewn around the floor and heads stood on a bench. Even though the pen drawing lacked colour, it was so graphically correct that it completely conveyed the visual impact of the scene. Jenna handed him some other selected drawings which were mainly of body parts and viscera.
'Did you draw these from memory?' he asked.
Jenna nodded. 'I draw them at night when I can't sleep. I've got over a hundred to show you. Now, do yo
u still think this is a story?'
Declan studied the drawings again. They made him feel nauseous. He returned them to Jenna. 'No, I have to admit that I don't. However, I am not sure that everyone would be of the same opinion.'
'I understand. Before we left Bouron, Brant and I were very careful to record all our actions, particularly before we torched the tracker building. You can't just go around destroying bodies and installations, especially when they are Phasewave's property. We even completed death certificates and listed all our actions because we knew that we would face an investigation when we returned to Vennica. The whole tracker building was a sickening mess, and the bodies were decaying and leaking contamination out onto the planet through the broken airlock. There was nothing we could do to secure the building. How I wish you could have read those reports and seen the video; it would have saved all of us a lot of time instead of fooling about in this place.' Jenna became visibly agitated. 'You know, all the time I was being questioned by those investigators I never knew their names or who they were working for, because they refused to answer any of my questions. All I know is that a lot of people were involved and I cannot remember how many times I related what had happened. They tried everything they could think of to make me change my story, but became increasingly aggressive and threatening when I stuck to my original statements. It all came to an end after a particularly bad interview. There was one guy who was worse than the rest, and I just knew he wanted me out of the way. He was present all through the last grilling sessions before Gil took over, and at one point he called the team outside and they had a huge argument in the next room, which I overheard. He wanted them to do something really bad to me and the others refused, but he was obviously a powerful person, right up there. The others were afraid of him, but in the end they stood up to him and would not me come to any harm. Whatever he intended to do, I will never forget him or forgive him. He was pure evil. You people have a lot to answer for.'
'The person you just mentioned - can you describe him?'
'I can do better,' said Jenna. She shuffled through the pile of drawings and handed one to Declan.
Declan stared in amazement at the drawing. 'This is Goldman, the Law Lord. You must be mistaken.'
'I have no idea who you are talking about, but I have a photographic memory and will remember him to my dying day. But let me continue. Before Vance died we had lots of questions and we had no idea what to do. It looked like Carrick had killed and dismembered the others, but we could not work out why, which is why we filmed it all and reported it. There were problems because the senior base engineer could sign a death certificate only if the death was accidental or from natural causes, after which the body could be routinely destroyed. In this case we had four bodies in a state of decay and three of them at least had died violently and been dismembered. So, even though contamination was coming through the airlock door we were not sure what to do about it. Technically we would be carrying out a criminal act by destroying the evidence, but we also had a directive to prevent the planet from becoming polluted. Then, before we could decide what to do, Brant went missing, and Vance and I searched the base and found him lying dead on the floor of Unit Nine. We were devastated and reckoned that he must have received some kind of electric shock from the Phasewave, so we videoed the event and then took his body out and sealed off the unit. It was a really bad time for us, but thankfully Vance offered to put Brant into a bag and destroy his corpse. I did not want to be involved so I went to my cabin and cried my eyes out. Then Vance came running into my room and said Brant was still alive.
Jenna lit a cigarette and Declan saw that her hands were trembling. 'So we both went to the sick bay where we had left Brant and he was lying there, stone cold and white, but he was twitching his head and rolling his eyes. He had no pulse and was not breathing, and we had no idea what to do with him. This continued for a few days, but all the time his body was decaying and starting to turn black and fluids were leaking from him.' Jenna pulled out another drawing of Brant's blackened and distorted body and gave it to Declan. 'The body movements got worse until we had to restrain his arms to stop him hurting himself, and then he started to make grunting noises, even though he was not breathing. His flesh became so bad that it started to separate from his arms where the bandages cut in. It smelt like only a dead body can, and it was almost unbearable. Vance said we cannot go on like this, he is not only dead but his body is decomposing and will infect the base and us, so we have to do something about it. He said he could only think of cutting Brant's head off to stop the movements. I felt really sick at the thought, but said I would help him because I knew that Brant was already beyond help and that we could not just stand by and watch him deteriorate further. We were not sure if he felt anything at all, because by all normal definitions he was already dead - as in rotting corpse. We were both exhausted by that time and I went to lie down in my cabin while Vance went to look for some cutting tools. Vance had told me he would wake me up when he was ready, but I must have slept longer than I expected because I woke up and Vance had not called, so I went to Vance's cabin and found him lying dead on the floor. He must have been dead for some time because his skin was cold. It looked like his heart had finally given out under all the stress. I must say that I had reached the point where I just wanted to end it all, but I knew I could not abandon Brant so I had a few stiff drinks and then took the knife and hammer from Vance's room and went to finish the job. What happened next was when I reached his bed he raised his head, looked me straight in the eye and said "Jenna, help me". That was the absolute lowest point in my life, but I somehow summoned enough strength to go over to him and cut his bandages free. The violent body movements had stopped and I noticed that colour had returned to his face. He also had a pulse and was breathing again. To cut a long story short, I washed his body and looked after him until, after a day or two, the decay stopped and new flesh and skin started to appear. After three days he took water and liquid foods and then it was all uphill until he literally returned to normal, although he did have a few memory lapses at first. So we settled down into a routine and when Brant was fit enough we destroyed the tracker and also Vance's body at the same time.'
Declan sat in silence, unable to grasp most of what Jenna had just told him. 'I'll come back to these drawings later. If the evidence was destroyed, how did you come to find Ellen's diary?'
'Well Declan, I did think that you might have picked up a few inconsistencies in my timescales. How did you think we got back to Vennica?'
'You told me that Brant called the supply ship, the Amar, from within Phasewave shadow.'
'That didn't happen. Actually, the supply ship could never have taken us off because they do not carry relief engineers. It was always going to be one year out there for us, whatever happened.'
'So how did you return?'
'We got VIP treatment - the Phasewave Company sent a special ship out to bring us back to Vennica.'
'How could they know something had gone wrong if you weren't in radio contact?'
'Now I am really glad you asked that, because it proves that you are listening to me. When the crew of the Giran stripped the base of any records they found Ellen's diary, but she was from the Colonies and wrote her diary in the old language, which they could not read. On the way back to Vennica the crew destroyed all the logs and electronic records they had taken from the base, but became curious about the contents of the diary and ran it through a translator. What they found made them reconsider their actions. I don't think it was necessarily what they wanted to do, but I suspect they twigged how deep into the mess they were getting, especially in the belief that there was something on Bouron that might have been responsible for the deaths of the old crew and that they had put the replacement crew at risk of suffering the same fate. If that did happen, they must have been aware that they would come under a lot of scrutiny back on Vennica, so they decided to come clean and, once they were out of the Phasewave shadow, let the Company know wha
t Ellen had put in her diary. The diary recorded everything that had occurred, starting with the comet tail problem and the failure of Unit Nine. It was almost as if Ellen was looking to the future and writing the diary to help protect the next arrivals. Unit Nine failed after ingesting fragments of the comet tail and a couple of weeks later Carrick found Rogan lying dead on the floor of the unit. Then Sewell was trying to find out what had happened when he became affected as well. He was discovered wandering around the base in a state of distress complaining of severe head pains, after which his condition rapidly deteriorated until eventually his mind went. Shortly afterwards he died. At that time Ellen had no inkling as to what had caused the deaths of the two men. In the meantime, Tracker Five had also malfunctioned, so they stored both bodies in the tracker for safekeeping because it was cold inside the building and they needed to preserve the bodies for later examination. Carrick and Ellen thought that the two men may have received shocks from the Phasewave machine and sealed off Unit Nine, but Carrick could not resist revisiting the unit for one last look and he, too, was affected and came out of it literally raving mad. He attacked Ellen, who locked him in one of the domestic rooms where he wrecked the furniture. Concerned about her own safety, Ellen wrote that she knew she had to kill Carrick before he killed her, but they were lovers and she could not face doing it. She wrote that she thought he would soon die anyway, like the others, and that if he did manage to escape from the room he was locked in she would take a skimmer and hide in Tracker Five. I speak the old language and later I actually read her diary – her very last words were "as I live and die, I swear that there is something inside the Phasewave that is killing us, one by one". So you can imagine the reaction from the Phasewave Company when they received a copy of the diary from the Giran. The Company sent out a ship as fast as possible, with a relief crew on board and two very nice gentlemen who returned with us and patiently listened to everything that Brant and I had to say and let me read Ellen's diary. The next time I met them after we reached Vennica they were part of my first interrogation team.