by Gary Moreau
Marta had been snarling softly since Sabine’s appearance. When he laughed, Marta jumped off Casey lap and began growling loudly, teeth barred. Sabine smiled. He withdrew the pink gun with the over-sized barrel from his holster and activated it; a soft “whine” could be heard.
“No!” Casey yelled.
“You stole my gold chain, you thieving bastard. If you tell me where you hid it, I might be persuaded to spare your mangy dog.”
“I can’t. I threw it into ship recycling.”
“You must think I’m the stupid one. Who would throw a gold chain into recycling? Last chance.”
“Honest! I’m telling the truth. Please, don’t hurt—”
There was an innocent sounding “pop”, followed by the squealing cry of intolerable pain. The little dog’s fur was smoking as it writhed on the deck, crying piteously as she tried to crawl back to her friend and protector but, once started, the fire burned with a relentless consumption. The puppy stopped its hopeless struggle and became quiet and still in death, but the fire burned on until Marta had been reduced to a small pile of ash. The room filled with the odor of burnt fur and flesh.
Casey’s heart was torn. He could withhold tears for himself, but not for his little puppy, faithful and innocent. It was a grief too intense for sound. With blurred vision, he turned his gaze to Sabine. When he spoke his voice was a feral growl of pain and anger.
“I’m not afraid of you, Sabine. I’m not afraid of death. There is nothing for me here, nothing for any of us really, but I have one last duty to perform, so that what remains of this colony’s existence will not be fouled further by the existence of an evil creature like you.”
While Casey spoke he slipped his hand under the edge of the bedding and then secretly brought it out again. “It’s not a metabolic problem with you, an imbalance that could be treated with proper molecular therapy. It’s functional. It is you. The pleasure you take in other’s suffering, the total lack of regard you have for others, is so much a part of you, that to remove it, would be to remove you and that is what I intend to do.”
Sabine smiled his predatory smile, pleased to see the pain he had caused. He had scored. He swaggered over to Casey and spoke. “You are a weak, old man.” For emphasis he slapped Casey’s face with the back of his hand. “You make me sick with your whining talk and empty threats.” He brought the burn-gun up to Casey’s forehead. “Makes you sweat, doesn’t it? But it’s not going to be that easy for you. That would be too quick. I want you to know what I’m going to do, so you can think about it. I’m going to place the burn pellet in your foot. Do you know how long it will take for the fire to reach up and kill you?” He grabbed Casey’s neck. “Do you know, Conklin?”
Casey said nothing.
“I’ll tell you. It’ll be four or possibly five minutes of the most excruciating pain it’s possible for a human to feel. It’ll seem like a lifetime. You’ll beg me to kill you before you die. And after I’ve finished with you, I’ll treat that bloated Yamaguchi to the same and watch with pleasure as he withers away to nothing.” Sabine kept a tight hold on Casey’s neck as he spoke, but he pulled the barrel of the gun away from Casey’s forehead.
With a barely noticeable gesture, Casey reached up and touched the hand that squeezed his throat. Where Casey’s fingers touched Sabine, there was now a black disk. The smile fled from Sabine’s face. Casey could see him struggling to raise the burn gun, but he could not. His hand fell away from Casey’s neck and he collapsed into a limp heap on the deck, eyelids partially open.
Casey spoke in a quiet voice to the motionless body crumpled next to his pallet. “Only you could force me to do something as repugnant as this. Only you could hurt me so deeply, when I thought I was safely beyond such feelings. I know you’re awake. It must be terrible to be awake, but unable to breath, unable to move. I will keep you company until you die. I’m sorry to be so barbaric about your eradication but, as you say, I’m only a weak, old man.”
Casey took a moment to stare at the ash that had been his little dog and then returned his attention to the crumpled and motionless man lying on the deck. He knew that Sabine was not yet dead.
“It’s based on an ancient chemical,” Casey said, “from Earth itself, called curare. I altered it to make it ultra-fast acting. I was hoping I would never have to use it, but you have forced my last act to be one of violence. You are probably unconscious by now, but I’ll sit with you for the next few minutes to ensure that you’ll never return to haunt this colony after I’m gone.”
When the minutes had passed, Casey felt empty and incredibly sad. He felt alone and defiled. He reached up and ripped the blue disk off his chest, and then tossed it onto the deck, searching for oblivion.
Before Slater could organize a response, Yamaguchi entered the room. He quickly deduced the events that had transpired, from the pink gun, to the small mound of ashes, to the lifeless form of Sabine with the black disk showing plainly on the back of his hand, to the blank stare and bare chest of Casey, who sat cross-legged on his pallet.
He did not hesitate. He scooped up Casey and re-entered the passage. Running swiftly down the curve of the corridor, he dropped into the down-tube and exited on the Storage Deck. With no wasted motion, he climbed the land-shaper ladder and lowered Casey through the hatch. He laid Casey out on the powdery deck of the cabin and activated the closing mechanism. Then he sat down next to him to wait.
Chapter 39
Slater stood looking up at the control cabin of the land-shaper. Black-suited Olson stood to his left and white-suited Glancy to his right. Lisa Bouviet had come rushing over when she heard the rumors and a short time later Aleksandr Protonov arrived.
“They’re in there all right,” Slater said, and then turned to the power-tech who was standing behind him. “Tabor, make sure the energy conduits are interrupted. I don’t want them to power up and break out of here. I want their heads.”
Tabor nodded and trotted over to the oversized machine where he removed a panel. After inspecting it, he used insulated tongs to remove a blue, crystalline cylinder and then returned to stand near Slater.
“The storage cells have a minimal charge,” Tabor reported. “They’ll still have limited back-up power in the cabin, but not enough to activate the land-shaper. With this transducer out of the circuit, they won’t be able to access ship’s power,” he added with pride.
Glancy stared at the man, but said nothing about the fact that Casey had saved his life.
“Good! Good,” Slater rubbed his hands together. “I want you to go up to the bridge and monitor energy use so you can take action if they’ve set up a backup system.”
“Yes, Commander.” Tabor hurried away and disappeared into the up-tube.
Next, Slater turned to Glancy. “How long will it take you to prepare a lethal toxin that can be pumped into the land-shaper?”
Glancy stared at the hawk-faced man before he answered. “Don’t you think we should try to find out what happened? Find out if they did it and if so why?”
Slater turned to face him fully. “I saw the blood around that cryo-capsule and Sabine’s corpse. He was a good man. You saw it too.”
“A good man? Sabine?”
“You’re one to talk.”
“I never took pleasure––”
“Shut the hell up. There’s no explanation that would make one iota of difference. They are baby killers.”
“Geoff, please. I’ve seen some strange things lately. We should at least hear their side of what happened.”
“Glancy, you may be the current receptacle of medical knowledge, but I have the information cubes that Casey so thoughtfully prepared and I have Li Quon. You are dispensable. Am I making myself clear?”
Glancy looked down at the gray deck.
“I asked you how long it’d take to make a poison. I think a gas would suit our purposes.”
“About an hour,” Glancy mumbled.
“Then what are you waiting for!” Slater screamed.
Glancy turned away and slowly walked toward the stairs that led to the up-tube.
After he had disappeared into the tube, Slater leaned close to Olson. “Glancy’s not the same man he was. Somehow Conklin has subverted him, just like he subverted Yamaguchi. I don’t trust him anymore. When I give the word, I want you to kill him. Do you think you can take him?”
“Not a problem. It’ll be my pleasure. You do realize with Yamaguchi, Sabine and Glancy no longer with us, I’ll be your last man.”
“Aren’t you up to it?”
“I am and I can recruit a few solid men from the guilds. I know who they are.”
“Excellent. You’ll be Captain of the Guard and…you’ll be compensated appropriately.”
Slater patted Olson on his back and walked over to where Lisa and Protonov were standing.
“Good afternoon, Aleksandr. We have the baby kidnappers trapped in the land-shaper.”
“Who are they?” Protonov asked.
“Casey Conklin and Yamaguchi. They also killed Jack Sabine.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call that a loss.” Protonov scratched his beard as he thought. “Conklin is no surprise, but Yamaguchi?”
“Conklin did something medical to him. Gave him some sort of mind altering drug.”
“And the baby?” Protonov asked.
“Still missing. I think we should prepare ourselves for the worst. How’s Brita doing?”
“Badly, of course. When I think about her missing baby all I can think about is our little Luka. You plan to kill the bastards, I assume.”
“Of course.” Slater turned his attention to Lisa. “What do you think? Will this make the ‘Gazette’?”
Lisa smiled brightly. “Great story.”
“I’ll want to see the copy before you print it.”
“Not a problem.”
Slater took to a deep, satisfying breath. Things were finally coming together. All the loose ends were tied up, except one.
“Would you excuse me for a moment?” he asked with a slight bow at the waist.
“Of course, Commander,” Lisa answered with a curtsey.
He took a few steps away and waved Olson over.
“Sten, you said you knew of a few colonists who could be enlisted in the…we’ll call it the Public Safety Service.”
“Yes.”
“Does that also mean that you know of some who don’t support my leadership, other than the obvious, like Li Quon?”
“Yes, I do.”
Slater nodded while he thought and then refocused on Sten. “Did you know Mitchell Mason?”
“Not really. I only met him once. He was the one who recruited me.”
“Well, he taught me once a leader has a person or group under control to never let up, to never give even a sliver of an opportunity for them to resist. What would happen if a dissident group gained control of the Pinnacle and lifted off to land elsewhere on the planet to start a competing colony? We need the technology of the Pinnacle and the instrumentation and machinery. Ultimately, they’d win.”
“But, Commander, how could that possibly happen?”
“I admit, it’s not likely. Still, it’s not impossible.” Slater tapped a tooth with his index finger as he thought and then suddenly stopped. He touched his collar. “Jane, connect me with Mika Ishida.”
A few seconds later, Mika’s soft voice came through. “Commander, what can I do for you?”
“Mika, can the Pinnacle’s engines lift it off Eden?”
There was a pause and then, “Yes, but why would you ask that? This is a perfect planet and a perfect location on the planet.”
“I’m not suggesting that we move the Pinnacle, exactly the opposite. I want to make certain it stays where it is. Can you permanently disable the engines while keeping the power and other functions intact?”
There was another pause and then Mika answered. “Yes, we could do that but it would never lift off again. You do realize that, right?”
“That’s exactly what I want.”
“Very well. I’ll be over with a crew. Shouldn’t take long. May I ask a question?”
“Certainly.”
“I heard you caught the person who stole Brita’s baby. I bet it’s Casey Conklin.”
“Bingo. But he did have an accomplice…Yamaguchi.”
“No kidding. That’s really something. I guess you never know. We’ll be over shortly. When we get done, I’ll be able to guarantee you that the Pinnacle will never be a spaceship again.”
“Excellent. See you soon.” Such joy and satisfaction.
Slater walked with Olson back toward Lisa and Protonov and noticed another person had joined them.
Slater paused. “Wheeler? Why are you here?”
“We cannot allow you to disable the ship. We have need of it,” Wheeler said.
“Excuse me. Who the hell do you think you are? Get the fuck out of here! You have no say in this matter and who the hell is ‘we’?” Slater asked.
The question was never answered. Darkness descended upon all the humans of Eden. All sensory in-put ceased, external and internal. There was no feedback to even verify existence. It was a disembodiment, like a mind floating in the deepest void of a starless space. It could easily have been the feeling of death.
Chapter 40
Casey was floating in a warm sea. Years led to decades and decades led to centuries and centuries led to millennia. He was safe and content, but then there came a cooling change. He was irritated at being disturbed. His consciousness began to coalesce, returning from a place of comfort and softness to a place of hard edges and pain. He was angry. Rage began pumping through him. It was an unwelcome intrusion, an interruption of serenity, and then there was light. He opened his eyes more and saw an indistinct glow. He was aware of his body. It felt young and powerful. He could feel the position of his arms and legs and against his skin a warm, moist surface, hugging every square centimeter, except for the crack of light and the light was growing. As it grew, he shut his eyes again. He wanted to return to where he’d been, but the comfortable warmth continued to retreat.
He was being pushed out. His place of security and love was disappearing. He fell forward and found himself lying on a resilient surface. He opened his eyes and saw mint-green. He moaned and rolled onto his side. Moment by moment he became an individual again.
He looked across the pastel green surface and saw other bodies. He pushed his torso off the surface and swung around to sit cross-legged, feeling vaguely at home in that position.
The others were moving. He heard groans and then a soft sobbing from one of them. They looked strange, like babies, yet they were adults. They looked like animated mannequins, smooth, hairless. Their heads were bald and round; they had no ears. One of them turned toward Casey. There was something familiar. He felt he should know this person. The person sat up and stared back at Casey with an answering look of confusion. The person had no breasts, no nipples, and no genitals.
Casey turned his attention to himself, hardly recognizing his own body: no penis, no scrotum, no pubic hair or umbilicus. He touched his chest, no nipples. It felt like he was touching himself, yet, it was not himself. The others were also touching and examining their bodies, as if they had never seen themselves before.
One of the strange bodies stood. It was not a man and not a woman, but there could be no mistaking that physique.
“Yamaguchi?” Casey whispered.
The giant turned toward Casey. His head, without his small ears, was more like a ball than ever.
Casey stood and glanced down at himself, embarrassed by his lack of genitals, but Yamaguchi seemed unconcerned. The others remained sitting, looking at themselves and each other. Besides Yamaguchi, there were four others. They all looked familiar, yet so different.
“What’s happened?” Casey asked, his voice hoarse and tight.
“It is not time to ask questions, Teacher. It is time to observe,” Yamaguchi responded with his steady rumble.
Casey found comfort in its sameness.
“Who are you?” a person began squealing, and then scooted on hands and knees like a crab, until he-she-it was up against the resilient green wall, pressing into it, as if to escape. “Who are you?” the person screamed.
Casey’s memories began to gather back into a linear continuity. There had to be a relationship between that beastly planet and their current predicament.
“Who are you?” the voice cried out.
It was a reasonable question. “I am Casey Conklin. I suggest we all introduce ourselves. I think I know who most of you are, but let’s firm up our perceptions.” Casey nodded toward a person who was sitting quietly and watching.
“I am Commander Geoffrey Slater.”
Just as arrogant and presumptuous as ever, thought Casey. That hadn’t changed.
“And you?” Casey said, pointing to a person who was staring straight ahead, motionless.
The person didn’t respond. His physique suggested he was a man, or at least had been. Casey walked over to him and gently pushed on his shoulder, causing him to sway slightly, but then he returned to his prior position.
“And you?” Casey repeated softly. “Who are you?”
There was no response, no indication of sentience in his gray eyes.
Slater spoke. “Looks like Protonov to me.”
Casey studied the man again. His sharp, authoritarian beard had been covering a weak, receding chin but, otherwise, with the addition of hair and ears, the person would look like Protonov. Protonov, a man who took great pains to establish control and order, a man who preferred to exist in the realm of exacting mathematics, was unable to break through into their current reality.
When Slater had identified the man as Protonov, the person sitting next to him began scooting away. She was still beautiful, hair or no hair. Her green eyes looked to Casey, beseeching, but then she bent forward, trying to cover her chest when she no longer had breasts. It was a contradiction to see her now modest when there was nothing to hide.