Dark Space Universe (Book 2): The Enemy Within

by Jasper T. Scott

  “Agaga!” Theola blurted.

  “What happened?” Atara asked.

  “You don’t remember?” Lucien asked.

  “I remember Brak carrying us, then the medics talking to me...” Atara’s eyes flew wide and her whole body tensed. She grabbed fistfuls of the sheets. “You were in my head!” she said, gazing accusingly up at her father.

  “Who was?” Tyra asked.

  “Dad!”

  “It wasn’t me, honey. That... thing, claimed we share the same name, but it wasn’t me. I killed him and rescued you.”

  Atara frowned uncertainly, but she nodded slowly, and her body relaxed.

  “I’m going to go get your doctor,” Lucien said. “He needs to know you’re awake.”

  “No need for that.” A new voice joined theirs, and Lucien turned to see the man in question come striding into the room. He had dark straight hair, slanted orange eyes, a moderate build, and golden skin. “Her monitors were set to alert me as soon as she woke up,” the doctor explained as he stopped in front of Tyra and held out a hand. “I’m Doctor Fushiwa.”

  Tyra shook his hand in a reversed, left-handed grip, since her right arm was still holding Theola. “Tyra Ortane,” she replied. “My husband tells me you were waiting on some more test results. I assume they came back fine?”

  “Yes, all normal. Whatever those Faros did to your daughter, it doesn’t appear to have harmed her. But...”

  “But?” Tyra demanded.

  Lucien’s guts clenched in anticipation of the bad news.

  “We’d like to submit her to a mind probe just to be sure. We need your consent for that.”

  “Absolutely not!” Tyra replied.

  “It won’t hurt her,” Doctor Fushiwa insisted.

  “You just said she was fine, so what’s the point of a probe?”

  The doctor glanced at Lucien, then Atara, and back to Tyra. A nurse strode by them, her mag-boots clomping noisily, on her way to check Atara’s IV.

  “Perhaps we should discuss this out in the hall while the nurse attends to your daughter?” Doctor Fushiwa said.

  Tyra scowled, and Lucien frowned. “We’ll be right back, Atara,” he said.

  She nodded weakly. “Okay...”

  Lucien felt a knot of tension forming between his eyes as he and Tyra followed the doctor out. As soon as they were in the hallway, Lucien jerked his chin to the doctor and crossed his arms over his chest. “So?”

  “We can’t tell what that alien was trying to do to Atara. As far as we can detect, it didn’t do anything besides put her into a coma.”

  “And that’s a bad thing?” Lucien asked.

  “No, but it is odd. According to the report you gave, the alien held her in some kind of trance, with his hand wrapped around her face, and neither your daughter nor the alien were responsive to external stimuli.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “There has to have been a reason that alien would risk its life and ultimately lose it just to reach your daughter.”

  “I don’t think he knew he was risking his life,” Lucien said. “He couldn’t have known I would steal one of their swords and use it to chop off his head.”

  “Yes, there’s that, which is encouraging, but the fact remains, he was trying to do something to her. Since it’s apparent that the alien only interacted with Atara’s mind, we need to get in there and see if anything changed. We’ll compare her probe data to the last backup of her memories and personality.”

  “Her last backup was a month ago, before we reached the cosmic horizon,” Tyra said. “A lot can change in a child’s brain over the course of a month.”

  The doctor inclined his head to that. “Agreed. The analysis will likely take some time.”

  “And what if you find that he did change something?” Tyra asked.

  “Then we’ll see the changes and undo whatever it is that he did. If need be, we’ll simply restore those areas from backups,” the doctor replied.

  Tyra looked as skeptical as Lucien felt.

  “Wouldn’t you rather know if there’s something wrong with your daughter?” the doctor pressed.

  “What about the others?” Tyra asked. “The command staff were subjected to the same trance that Atara was. Are you going to put them through mind probes and comparative analyses, too?”

  “Actually, their doctor is the one who suggested the procedure. He contacted me a few minutes ago, following up on a request I’d put in asking for information about any other cases of alien contact that resulted in the victim losing consciousness. Apparently, your daughter was the last to wake up. Admiral Stavos, General Graves, and Chief Councilor Ellis all woke up en route to the hospital, and they’ve already signed off on the mind probe.”

  Tyra chewed her bottom lip. Theola slipped down her hip, making a break for the floor, but Tyra adjusted her grip and pulled her back up, to which Theola screamed and struggled.

  “What happens if we say no?” Tyra asked.

  “I’m not sure I understand the question,” Doctor Fushiwa replied.

  “If we refuse the probe, will Atara be detained or kept under some kind of surveillance?”

  “I can’t comment on that, ma’am. For the time being there would be no consequences that I’m aware of.”

  “We’ll sign the consent forms,” Lucien said.

  Tyra turned to glare at him. “Just like that?”

  “There will be consequences if we don’t do this. You know that. Atara will be under suspicion forever. Do you want her to have to live like that? With everyone treating her like an outcast?”

  “No one needs to know what happened to her.”

  “They’ll find out. There were plenty of witnesses. It’ll be on the news if it isn’t already, and she will end up on a police watch list. If we have the probe report, all of that changes. We’ll have something to show nosy reporters and the police—even neighbors.”

  Tyra hesitated. “Fine. I’ll sign.”

  “You made the right decision, ma’am,” Doctor Fushiwa said. He held out a palm-sized holo projector and activated it. A blue-skinned alien strapped to a gleaming steel table sprang to life above his palm. Theola screamed and writhed in Tyra’s arms, trying to get away. Doctors walked up to the alien with gleaming scalpels and saws.

  “Sorry, sorry!” Doctor Fushiwa said, and waved quickly past the image to the consent form. “I was watching one of the alien autopsies.”

  Tyra glared at the doctor and cooed reassuringly in Theola’s ear, bouncing her to calm her down.

  Lucien glanced at the form before signing at the bottom with his index finger; then Tyra passed Theola to him and added her signature beside his. Theola whimpered in Lucien’s arms, the sound muffled by the thumb in her mouth.

  “I want something in exchange,” Tyra said.

  The doctor regarded her with eyebrows raised. “Yes?”

  “I want your best therapist to come see my daughters.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Lucien said as he kissed Theola’s tears away. “I killed that alien right in front of Theola, and before that, he beheaded a corpsman in front of both our girls.”

  The doctor grimaced. “They might require more than simple therapy. You may wish to have their memories of the events erased via another probe, but that’s a topic to discuss with a therapist. I’ll make sure that one gets in touch with you right away.”

  “Thank you,” Tyra replied.

  The doctor nodded and walked off. Lucien took Tyra’s hand and started back to Atara’s room, but after just a few steps in that direction, Tyra stopped to answer a comm call.

  “Acting Chief Councilor Ortane speaking...” she said.

  * * *

  Astralis

  “All hostiles have been eliminated, ma’am. Astralis is clear.”

  Tyra felt some of the tension in her chest release. “That’s a big relief, Commander. How are repairs to the hull breach in Fallside going?”

  “The Academy solved the problem. Li
terally. The whole building broke free and got sucked into the breach. It plugged the hole and repair bots welded it into place. Rescue efforts are underway to see about extracting the survivors trapped inside.”

  Tyra shook her head. “Incredible. We’ll figure out how to make more permanent repairs later. Do we have any idea about casualties yet?”

  “According to ship’s sensors, our population is down by more than five million. Most of those people were from Fallside.”

  Tyra blinked. “That many?” There were only nine million people in the entire city of Fallside. That meant more than half the people who’d lived there were now dead. She shuddered to think what her beloved city must look like now. “The Resurrection Center is going to be working around the clock to bring that many people back.”

  “Aye, it will. What are your orders, ma’am?”

  Tyra took a moment to consider that. “We stay where we are and lick our wounds. Prioritize getting the reactors online so we can turn the gravity back on. And keep jamming outbound comms. We don’t know if they planted a tracking device somewhere.”

  “Aye, we’ll do that, ma’am.”

  “I’ll get in touch with the other councilors and see about long-term plans, but with any luck, the Admiral and Chief Councilor will be cleared for duty soon.”

  “Hopefully, but it may be a while before that happens.”

  “Time will tell. Thanks for the update, Commander. Keep me posted.” Tyra ended that comm call, and a split second later another one started ringing inside her head. She answered it with a sigh. “Acting Chief Councilor Ortane speaking.”

  “This is the Resurrection Center. We have a priority update for you, ma’am.”

  Tyra’s brow furrowed. She hadn’t lost any loved ones. Besides Lucien and the girls, the rest of her family was back in the Etherian Empire. “What’s the update?”

  “We received a manual memory dump from you before Astralis jumped away, but it didn’t come from you, exactly... the transmission source was from somewhere off Astralis. Do you know anything about that?”

  “Are you sure the memories are mine? Maybe there was some kind of mix-up.”

  “The ID code and encryption checks out. The memories are definitely yours. I could look into them if you want to make sure, but I’d need your permission for that.”

  “No, that’s fine. Hold the data in my archive. I’ll be down to check it out as soon as I can.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Again, Tyra ended the comm call. Lucien stood in front of her, his green eyes wide and his brow furrowed. “What was all of that about?”

  “The acting commander called to tell me the aliens have all been eliminated.”

  Lucien’s shoulders slumped. “Thank Etherus for that.”

  Tyra arched an eyebrow at him. “You mean thank the Marines.”

  He waved a hand to dismiss that distinction. “What was the other call about?”

  “It seems like my clone from the Inquisitor may have transmitted her memories to Astralis before we jumped away.”

  “What?” Lucien shook his head. “Well... what are you going to do about that?”

  Tyra shrugged. “Assuming it’s true, I’ll likely have to integrate her memories and consciousness with mine.”

  “You don’t have to do anything,” Lucien replied. “This is unprecedented. We’re not supposed to have simultaneous clones, so there are no laws to govern what should happen when we do. She’s lived eight years without you! You won’t even be you anymore if you integrate with her.”

  “Actually, she only has about a month of memories that are different from mine. She spent the rest of the time in stasis. Any changes to my personality would be very minor.”

  “Still...” Lucien shook his head. “We need to think about this. Maybe you should be cloned and she should be revived in a new body.”

  Tyra frowned. “That might set a dangerous precedent for others to start copying themselves. Besides, would you want a copy of me running around on Astralis? What if she decides to fight for custody of our kids? Or tries to steal you from me.”

  Lucien frowned. “No one would give her custody, and she wouldn’t be able to steal me. Besides, are you the kind of person that would try to steal someone else’s husband?”

  Tyra narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s a gray area for both of us since it’s technically still me. How can you cheat on wife with your wife?”

  “Ever hear of role-playing?” Lucien asked, with a crooked smile.

  “Ha ha. I was being serious. You can’t be sure that you wouldn’t like her better. It’ll be me, but eight years ago. The exact same woman you met and fell in love with. How do you know you wouldn’t like her better?”

  Lucien’s smile flickered as he appeared to think about that.

  His expression said it all. He would prefer that Tyra. Of course he would.

  Putting those thoughts out of her mind, she went on, “Regardless of the personal consequences, legally this comes down to consent, and since we can’t get Captain Tyra’s consent, we’ll need to get a ruling from a judge before I do anything.”

  Lucien nodded slowly and held out his hand to her. Theola mimicked him, holding out one of her hands, too. “All of that can wait. We need to see if anything is wrong with Atara first.”

  Tyra took Lucien’s hand and allowed him to guide her back into Atara’s room. Doctor Fushiwa was there, along with two more nurses, and a probe technician with his probe machine. Tyra released Lucien’s hand and hurried to her daughter’s side, pushing Doctor Fushiwa out of the way.

  “I’m scared,” Atara whimpered.

  “It’s okay, darling,” Tyra said, and grabbed her daughter’s hand. “You won’t feel a thing.” She rounded on Doctor Fushiwa. “What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

  He flinched and confusion flickered through his eyes. “You gave your consent...”

  “And you couldn’t wait five minutes for us to get here before you got started?”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t think—”

  “Damn right you didn’t think.”

  “Do you want a moment alone with your daughter?”

  “And draw this out more? No, let’s get it over with.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Turning back to Atara, Tyra said, “Everything’s going to be fine, sweetheart.”

  Atara had the bedsheets pulled up under her chin. She’d managed to un-tuck them, and now they were floating above her in the zero-G environment. “You promise?”

  “I promise,” Tyra replied, and squeezed Atara’s hand.

  “We’ll be right here,” Lucien added, and walked up on the other side of her bed to take her other hand.

  The probe technician finished configuring his machine and said, “We’re ready. Atara, would you please start counting backwards from ten?”

  “Ten, nine, eight, seven...”

  Chapter 16

  Astralis

  Atara’s eyes rolled up in her head and her eyelids fluttered shut. Her eyes roved rapidly behind their lids, as if she were in the middle of a REM sleep cycle.

  “I’m going to begin by asking you a few questions, Atara,” the probe technician said. “What happened to you when the alien touched you?”

  “He said he was going to kill me.”

  “But he didn’t.”

  “No, because I told him that if he killed me, my daddy would kill him.”

  “And how did he react to that?”

  “He said that his name was Lucien, and he was my daddy.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I told him he was a liar, because my daddy would never hurt me. And he said he was only joking about killing me.”

  “Did you believe him?”

  “I don’t know... maybe.”

  “What happened next?”

  “He asked me about grandpa Ethan.”

  “What did he want to know?”

  “He asked if grandpa was a good person.”


  “And what did you answer?”

  “I said yes. I’ve never met him, but my dad’s told me stories.”

  “And then?”

  “He didn’t say anything else, but I could feel him there, watching me.”

  “Can you still feel him?”

  “No.”

  “Has he said anything to you since you woke up?”

  “No.”

  “Did he do anything to you while he was in your head?”

  “No... I don’t think so.”

  “Okay, Atara. Thank you for your help. I’m going to download the data from your brain now. When you wake up, you’ll be back with your parents and your sister.”

  “Okay.”

  The remainder of the procedure was silent, and didn’t take more than a few seconds. The technician raised his visor and nodded to them. “We’re done. She should wake up at any moment.”

  “How long before we’ll know the results?” Lucien asked.

  “Given the volume of data to sort through... at least two or three days.”

  “That long?” Tyra asked. “You expect us to wait two or three days before we can take our daughter home?”

  “Assuming we have a home to go back to,” Lucien pointed out. Tyra turned to glare at him and he held up his hands in defense. “Not the point. I get it.” He turned to the doctor. “Isn’t there something you can do to get her released sooner?”

  Doctor Fushiwa glanced at the probe technician, and the technician gave a slight shake of his head. “I’ll see what I can do, but for now you should make the most of your time here. I’ll have the therapist you requested meet with you to assess treatment options for your daughters.”

  Lucien nodded. “Thank you.”

  The medical staff turned and left the room. A few seconds after they’d left, Atara’s eyes cracked open.

  “Did they find something wrong with me?” she asked.

  “No, sweetheart. There’s nothing wrong with you,” Tyra said and leaned down to kiss Atara’s forehead.

  On the other side of the bed, Theola started screaming in Lucien’s arms. She was hungry and needed changing. Tyra looked pointedly at Lucien.