Waiting for the Machines to Fall Asleep

by Waiting for the Machines to Fall Asleep- The Best New Science Fiction from Sweden (retail) (epub)

  "It's right behind us. Hurry!"

  Grule gets to the ladder first and starts climbing. Trinn is right behind him. Marta waits at the bottom of the ladder, shining the light at where they came from. The hiss is constant. She squints in the gloom and tries to see.

  "Is that a gas leak? Steam venting?"

  Nobody hears her, and her thoughts are interrupted by Trinn screaming. She drops from the ladder, frantically shaking her hands.

  "What is it?!"

  Marta turns her light on Trinn. She is red all over. Sticky red dripping from her face and hands.

  "Oh no ..."

  She looks up. Blood is trickling from the top of the hatch and Grule is gone.

  "It took him! It took him!"

  Trinn is hyperventilating and slumps to the floor. Marta pulls her up again.

  "Trinn! Pull yourself together! Is there another ladder? Trinn!"

  She just shakes her head, going "No, no, no, no ..."

  Marta turns around, spots a narrow passage between some pipes and two large machines. She should know what they are but her memory isn't serving her right now. She grabs Trinn by the arm and pulls her along. Another corridor on the other side. Or is it the same? Everything is different in the dark, and she hasn't been down to engineering in years. She was a mission specialist, working in operations analyzing data from the sensors. Alongside Warren.

  She bolts down the corridor, turns right around another large machine. There is a wheezing sound coming from behind it, like the labored breathing of a sleeping giant.

  She stops. Behind some pipes there's a shape – like an extended shadow, vaguely human, but still monstrous. The arms appear to reach the floor and the head is elongated. She backs away, slowly. Turns left behind the machines and enters a dead end.

  "Trinn, where do we go?"

  Trinn stares at her, her eyes blank.

  "It took him ..."

  Marta draws a deep breath and puts her hands on Trinn's cheeks.

  "Trinn, listen to me. Is there another ladder up?"

  Trinn only shakes her head and starts to slump down again. She is about to faint. Marta feels her own hands starting to tingle and her head is spinning. She presses her forehead on the cold metal and closes her eyes.

  Think.

  Five years on this station. She knows this. She clenches her teeth. The answer lies there, somewhere in her brain.

  A hissing. It's coming closer.

  There is no more time. She grabs Trinn by the arm and starts running. Just running, away from the hissing, away from the thing that killed Grule. Killed Warren. The thought comes from nowhere, like an unexpected punch in the gut. She imagines him on his back, his beautiful eyes staring into space. Dead.

  No. Push away all thoughts. She has responsibilities. For her crew, for the woman she's dragging behind her, for Sing and Sandan. For the station. She needs to get back to operations. Make a plan.

  Suddenly, it all comes back to her. The layout of engineering. She just needs to go right after that cluster of wires. She turns to see if the creature is still behind them. She can't see it anymore. Rounding the air filtration unit, she spots the ladder.

  "Trinn, climb!"

  She's pushing the engineer up the ladder. Still sobbing, her panic seems to lessen and she starts climbing like a mad woman. Marta follows her up, slams the hatch behind them and locks it.

  "Next ladder!" she shouts, at the same time realizing there must already be a creature on this floor as well. Or is it the same? They never closed the hatch where Grule died. No matter, she's not about to stay and find out.

  Trinn starts up the ladder. Marta flies up behind her and locks the hatch behind them.

  Trinn is coming back. Her blank stare is replaced by red eyes.

  "Are there any more hatches on this level?"

  Trinn shakes her head.

  "Not on this level. This is the only one between third and fourth."

  Marta lies down on the floor and draws a deep breath, but the air seems thin.

  "I'm sorry," Trinn says. "I didn't think I was like that. Someone who loses it."

  "Don't apologize." Marta reaches out and pats her leg. She tries to sit up, but can't. Her entire body is shaking, coming off the adrenaline. Trinn helps her up.

  "We must get to operations, try to figure out a plan."

  Trinn nods.

  "The next ladder is over there."

  "Show the way."

  The hatch is heavy, but by joining forces they get it open. Marta sticks her head up.

  "Sing? Sandan? Are you here?"

  Quick steps approaching.

  "Commander, is that you?"

  "It's us."

  Marta climbs up and turns to help Trinn.

  "Where's Grule?" Sing asks and goes silent when she sees Trinn's blood spattered face.

  "Grule is dead," Marta says.

  "And Warren," Trinn says.

  Marta wants to protest, but the realization aches in her chest.

  "Why does nothing work?" Sandan asks.

  "We don't know. Some sort of suppression field maybe."

  Marta takes a few steps towards the console, but stops when she sees they are dim, just like the console in engineering.

  "Any news about the cloud?"

  Sandan shakes his head.

  "Still nothing. But we lost sensors when the power went out, so I couldn't say for sure."

  "It's starting to get cold in here," Sing says. "In a couple of hours it'll be freezing."

  "Yes, we noticed. Is there any way we can send a message to Central Prime?"

  Sing shakes her head.

  "There isn't enough power to send a hyperspace message. Maybe a normal one, but that would take decades to arrive."

  Trinn looks at Marta.

  "We have bigger problems. There is something onboard."

  "What?"

  "We don't know. It's not human."

  "From the cloud?"

  They all know the stories. Half mad space captains saying that something lives inside the clouds. Something alien. Many want to believe it, given that no other intelligent life has been found in explored space. At the same time, so many theories exist that nobody knows fact from fiction.

  "Where else would it come from?" Trinn asks, looking out the window.

  "But how did it get here?"

  "Maybe a part of the cloud has broken loose without us noticing it?"

  Sandan shrugs.

  "That's highly unlikely."

  "But what should we do?"

  "We evacuate," Marta says and looks at the floor. A few hours as commander, and she is giving the order to evacuate. "We don't have a choice. We need to warn Central Prime about what's happening. We have something on board that's killing us and we've seen changes in the cloud."

  "You'll get no argument from me," Sandan says and lets out a chuckle which sounds very inappropriate.

  She understands him. Part of her feels the relief as well. The other part wonders if Warren is still out there somewhere.

  Every outpost has an escape ship. Sending for transport is out of the question, since it would take months for rescue to arrive. Outpost Eleven's escape ship is called Runner Eleven. Marta can see its outline as they walk across the bridge above the hangar, and at this moment she has never seen a more beautiful ship.

  Sandan is on point, tightly followed by Sing.

  Just as he takes the first step on the stairs leading down to the hangar deck, he is stopped by Trinn, whispering.

  "It's there."

  Marta strains her eyes and sweeps the hangar with her light, and then she sees it. A presence, moving in the shadows.

  "Is it the same one?"

  "I can't tell."

  Their breath is fogging on the icy air, but Marta feels the cold worse than that, like the sweat on her back is freezing.

  "What do we do?" Sing asks.

  Marta bites the flesh of her lip.

  "Somebody has to lure it away from the ship."
r />   She looks around. Nobody meets her eyes.

  "How?" Sing whispers.

  "I'll do it," Trinn says, still looking at the floor.

  Marta shakes her head.

  "No, I will. The rest of you, get on board and get her ready for takeoff. I need you there, Trinn. In case something is wrong with the ship."

  "Grule always made sure the runner was in top condition. He never talked about it, but I know how much pride he took in that part of the job. He always loved ships more than space stations."

  "I still want you on board. If the suppression field is affecting the runner we might need a little engineering wizardry to get us going."

  Marta takes the note from her pocket. She dares not fold it open to see his handwriting, but she needs to feel it under her fingers. For luck. And in case it's the last time. The paper feels warm against her cold fingers. She closes her eyes and draws a deep breath through her nose. The air is thin. It's becoming harder and harder to breathe and they are all out of breath.

  Runner Eleven will have air. And heat. They just have to get inside.

  "When you hear me whistle, head straight for the ship. Sandan, do you have the key for the access hatch by the landing gear? We can't expect the loading ramp to work right now."

  "I have it."

  Marta feels nauseous. She doesn't want to die, but she doesn't feel like she has a lot to live for either. And maybe in death she won't have this feeling of rusty screws slowly drilling into her heart.

  She licks her lips and takes a couple of steps down the stairs. The steel creaks and all of a sudden she is on the hangar floor. Her heart is racing. She feels like a five horned gazelle on the savanna of Jabez 6. She can feel the presence of the predator, but she can't see it. She turns. Tries to bathe the hangar in light, but her light source isn't nearly powerful enough.

  Maybe it's more cunning than they think. Maybe it expects them to behave this way, and is two steps ahead already. What if it doesn't work? Marta shakes her head. That is a forbidden thought. She can't think like that. Not now. Not ever. She must focus on the job at hand.

  She treads towards the wall, where the hangar door's magnetic lock release is located. She breathes, but she can't get enough oxygen. The air is so thin. Is the outpost leaking oxygen into space? Is that why the reserves are depleting so quickly?

  The lever is freezing and the cold hurts her hands. The metal creaks as she puts her entire weight on it and starts pushing it down. A crack, like ice breaking, and the lever gives. She pushes it all the way down.

  A sound, from across the hangar. She flicks the light in the direction and sees something moving along the wall, very quickly.

  "Here, you bastard! Come and get me!"

  She whistles, and immediately hears the sounds of steps on the metal staircase. The creature hisses and she hears the sickening sound of its alien feet. The sound makes her skin crawl – underlining the fact that what they are dealing with is nowhere near human. Rather something from a nightmare – from everybody's nightmares. A collection of the most horrible things humanity has ever dreamed up, given physical form. Is that what the clouds are made of? Humanity's dark imagination? Of course not. She forgets she's a scientist. She feels light-headed.

  She throws her light at the shadow and runs in the other direction. Angry hissing and the shuffling steps moving closer. Something behind her in the darkness, closing in. She sees Trinn's foot disappearing into the ship. Lights flickering from the opening in the ships abdomen. She is alone now, the monster right behind her. She screams. She wants to live. If she dies now, Warren's death has been in vain. Everything blurs except for the lights from the hatch. Hands reaching down to help her. The steps behind her, closing in. Alien hands tugging on her clothes. She screams.

  "Help me! Pull me up, pull me up!"

  She throws herself the last bit and tries to grab hold of the hands. She swings forward and feels fingers around her wrists, pulling her up. The wind is knocked out of her as her stomach hits the side of the hatch. The next moment, she is inside, panting.

  "Close the hatch, close it!"

  Sandan throws the hatch shut and turns the locking mechanism until the studs lock in from all sides.

  The ship jars as the engines start up.

  "Sandan, Sing. Stay here and keep a close eye on that hatch. Don't let that thing get in here."

  Marta's legs are shaking as she finds her way through the ship. It's not very large. Just an engine room, a hypersleep chamber, a small galley and the captain's ready room – her ready room. She climbs the ladder into the cockpit. Trinn is in the pilots chair, going through checklists.

  "Are we ready? Can we open the doors?" Marta asks.

  "Extending twist beam now." Trinn pulls a lever and a metal shaft extends from the ship, towards the hexagonal lock by the hangar doors. The shaft locks into the socket and starts spinning. The electric humming is almost drowned under the roar of the engines, but slowly, the hangar doors are opening. Air seeping out as white mist into the icy vacuum of space.

  "I hope the fucker chokes to death," Trinn says.

  Marta says nothing. She's just staring out through the window with her jaw clenched.

  "Ready to go, captain."

  "Take us out."

  "Aye, aye."

  Marta stands besides Sandan and Sing, looking out through the back window in the cockpit. The lower half of Outpost Eleven is wrapped inside a portion of the master cloud, protruding like some sort of tentacle-like tongue.

  "Ready for hyperspace, captain."

  "Good."

  "How did we miss that?" Sing says, staring at the cloud.

  "The sensors," Sandan says. "Why didn't they detect it?"

  "Maybe they didn't see it," Marta says. "Black clouds don't always show up on sensors."

  "Not regular sensors. But ours were made to monitor the cloud."

  "Maybe they weren't good enough."

  A moment later the stars stretch into thin lines, surrounding them in a tunnel, leaving Outpost Eleven behind.

  "Sing, would you go and prepare the hypersleep chamber. Me and Sandan will fix us something to eat before we go to sleep."

  Sing nods, and climbs down the ladder.

  "How is the ship?"

  "Everything is running smoothly. The course for Central Prime was preprogrammed and everything is in good shape. He did a good job," she says, her voice trembling.

  Grule's blood has dried into dark brown spots on her face. Marta is about to say something about it, but stops herself. Trinn will see them when it's time to wash up and she deserves a few minutes of peace without being reminded of what happened to her colleague.

  Marta climbs down the ladder and walks towards the galley when she sees a shadow moving in the corner of her eye. Sandan comes down the ladder behind her.

  "What's the matter? You look all pale."

  "I thought I saw something."

  Now Sandan's face turns white.

  "Do you mean ... it?"

  Marta shakes her head.

  "There's nothing there now," she says and nods towards the corner. "I'm just jumpy, I guess. The ship is working fine. In a couple of months, we'll be home."

  "I can tell you one thing," Sandan says. "I'll never work on an outpost again. It doesn't matter what they pay me."

  "I'm with you there. Would you tell Sing to come eat something."

  "Okay."

  Sandan leaves, but he is back just a minute later.

  "She's not there."

  "What?"

  "She's gone."

  The lights in the ceiling blink. Then they go out.

  Marta is crouched in the corner of the captain's ready room – the only lockable room on board.

  Everything happened so fast. First Sing disappeared, then Sandan. In the end she was alone with Trinn – and the creatures. There is more than one.

  She saw one of them once, when it came for Trinn. She can't remember what it looked like, except that it wasn't remotely human.
But still, there was something familiar about it, something that made her think about Warren.

  At least two weeks left until the outer colonies. That's what Trinn said. Before the thing took her. It came out of the shadows – out of nowhere – grabbed her, and then they were gone. But she could still hear her screams, and then that sickening gurgling sound when she became one of them, like she was drowning in her own blood.

  She understands that now. That's what happens when you're taken. They do something to you, make you into one of their own. Her crew – raw material to breed new monsters.

  They scratch the steel on the other side of the door.

  Two weeks left. They changed the course, her and Trinn, before they took her. Or at least they tried to change the course. Nothing worked any more. Could be they're heading for the center of a star. Or, the course was locked – unchangeable – and she'll come tumbling out of hyperspace at Central Prime in a couple of months.

  There are emergency rations in the room, so it's possible for her to survive. But the sounds. The scratching. They are taunting her, trying to crack her, luring her.

  She hugs her legs and buries her head against her knees. She will never make it. Not two months. Not even two weeks of this, alone with the monsters outside the door.

  Then she hears another sound.

  "Mmmaaarrtaaaa ..."

  Soft hissing. Like it's whispering into the door frame.

  "Mmmmmmmaaaaaaaarrrttaaaaaaaaaa ..."

  "Be quiet!"

  It sounds like Warren. It can't be, but it sounds like him. He wants her. Marta shakes her head.

  "Mmaaaaaarrtaaaa."

  "Shut up!" she screams until her voice cracks.

  She clamps her palms against her ears. Two weeks. Two. Weeks. She shakes her head. The scratching again. Claws against metal. Something out there, wanting to come in. Something that sounds like Warren, but isn't.

  Not anymore.

  * * *

  Angesum Bard likes his job. He is space travel controller of sector four. The station, in permanent orbit around Eskwan 4 – one of the up and coming colonies in the sector – is comfortable. He likes to be alone at night. When the others go down to the surface to be with their families. Or try to create a family to be with.