Vessel

by Andrew J. Morgan

  'I have to go,' Novitskiy repeated.

  The instant Sally had seen Chris, covered eyes seeping blood, she knew she was staying. She couldn't pilot Soyuz, and she wasn't about to let either Chris or Gardner die up here. 'Will he make it?'

  'I've had to sedate him. Hopefully he's not done too much damage, other than — well.' He didn't finish the sentence.

  'Are you okay?' Sally said, touching his arm. He looked surprised at the question, as if it hadn't occurred to him how he felt.

  'I'll be fine,' he said, shaking his head. 'I'll be fine. We'll go tomorrow morning.' He looked like he was about to cry. His emotional barrier had crumbled.

  After they had cleaned themselves up, Novitskiy checked Chris over again, while Sally disposed of the bloodied towels. She did it without thinking, her chest hollow and her mind empty. When Novitskiy spoke to her again, she just smiled, reassuring his concerns with her new mantra: 'I'll be alright.'

  * * *

  Throat burning, Sean hailed the first cab he saw. It pulled over, and before it had even stopped, he bundled Aleks in, jumped in himself and yelled, 'Get us out of here!' The taxi driver was obviously no stranger to a client in need of distance from his current predicament, because he stepped on it. He took them east out of Korolyov, and it was only after the tall, industrial buildings began to thin that he pulled over and asked them where they wanted to go.

  'To Podolsk, the main road. I know a place where we can lie low for a while,' Sean said.

  They set off for Podolsk, and Sean wound the window down a little, letting the cool air chase the heat away, dabbing his brow with his sleeve.

  'How did you find me?' Aleks asked him.

  'It's surprising,' Sean said, eyes shut, 'how far you can get with an attitude that says, I belong here. That and a stun gun. Service entrance at the rear, a few corridors along to office thirty, and there you were.' He took the device from his pocket and returned it to his holdall. He'd completely discharged it on those two guards. Thank goodness he hadn't run into Bales or he'd have most likely been … well, he didn't want to think about it.

  'I think you had a little help from Lev's cat …' Aleks said, a smile coming through the swollen lumps and bruises on his face.

  Sean grinned. Then he laughed, an uncontrollable euphoria making him giddy and silly. He was happy to still be alive. 'Aleks, my friend, if it wasn't for you and Lev's damn cat, we'd both be smoking holes in the ground by now.' He took his notepad out from his bag and showed it to Aleks. 'Office thirty. Two guards. Use back entrance. A genius bit of secret code if ever I saw one.'

  'Well, what can I say. You learn fast.'

  'To be honest I thought there'd be more security. The only weapons I saw were in the hands of your two guards, thank goodness.'

  'It's a place of science, not the gulag …'

  The car made a left and they hurtled on down the country roads at the usual taxi-driver breakneck pace. As the adrenaline wore off, the soft fuzz of exhaustion enveloped Sean's senses, and he dozed for a while, only to be woken by Aleks jabbing him in the ribs. 'Huh? What?' he groaned, wiping drool from his chin.

  'Look,' Aleks said, pointing out in front of them.

  The taxi had stopped. They were in familiar surroundings, and Sean's sleepy brain took a few dopey seconds to realise they had arrived. What confused him was the smell of ash that blew in through the gap in his window. He traced the source of the ash and saw what was left of a dilapidated farm building. It rippled from within towering flames that turned the dreary afternoon orange. All at once he was awake, his throat bone dry and his stomach twisted into a hard knot. Without knowing what he was doing, he jumped out of the car and sprinted down the road, his lungs stinging as he ran, his eyes joining them as smoke engulfed him.

  'David!' he yelled as he tore up the driveway, but the deafening roar of the flames drowned out his voice. His streaming eyes blinded him and soon he was lost in among the smoke and ash, the searing heat of the fire sucking the oxygen from him and leaving him breathless. It was clear there was nothing he could do. The fire was so intense that if he went any further in, he knew he would be dead. Stumbling towards cooler air, he retreated, and once he was free of the smoke he toppled to the ground, great hacking coughs overwhelming his body. Thumping footsteps approached him, and in an instant Aleks was on him.

  'Are you okay?' he said, helping Sean sit up, brushing the ash from him. 'I thought you were gone for sure …'

  Sean said nothing. His coughing had subsided, and so had the stinging in his eyes, but tears still ran from them. David was innocent. He had never harmed anyone. He was the nicest, most welcoming person Sean had ever met. He was a shining light in a dark world full of bitter, nasty people — and now he was dead. Worst of all, Sean knew it was his own fault he was dead. He thumped the ground, grinding his flesh into the stony dirt, punishing himself with the pain. He had led Bales right to David, given him up on a silver platter. His death was a message, a warning.

  'I can't do this anymore,' he said, his voice barely a whimper. He tried to thump the ground again, but his swing was weak and pathetic, just like him. 'I can't do this.'

  Aleks sat down next to him and drew him close. The embrace was strange, but somehow comforting. Its warmth was different to the intense heat of the fire that had taken a man's life: it was kind. Sean knew that, without words, Aleks was telling him it was okay, and that to give up now would be a waste of David's life. After he had calmed, Aleks helped him up, and they hobbled together back to the taxi. Aleks said something Sean didn't understand to the taxi driver, who nodded, and they set off back the way they had come.

  'I have a brother,' Aleks said. 'He will look after us until we know what to do next.'

  'I don't want to bring anyone else into this.'

  'Grigory is strong man and can look after himself. It'll be fine.'

  Reluctant, Sean nodded. What other choice was there?

  The grey clouds turned deep purple as the sun sank below the horizon, and street lamps blinked on as they entered a small, quiet town. The taxi turned off the main road, weaving through a compact estate of rough housing, and pulled up at the kerb. Aleks paid the driver and they disembarked, Sean stretching the ache from his limbs as the taxi pulled away. A sting from his grazed hand made him flinch. He brushed off the dirt to inspect it.

  'Is your hand okay?' Aleks asked.

  'It's fine, I think,' Sean said, shaking the pain from it. He looked at Aleks, whose bruised face shone under the street light. He couldn't help but laugh at how pathetic his own graze was in comparison. 'More importantly, how are you? You look terrible.'

  'I've had worse.'

  Once the taxi was out of sight, Aleks led Sean down a side street, and they stopped outside a small, single-storey building with rickety shale walls and a moss-covered roof. They wandered up the path through the front garden, which was littered with old building materials. A bag of cement propped the porch door open, next to a pair of dirty trainers. Aleks knocked, and they waited.

  A light clicked on behind the door, which then opened. A wave of hot, nauseating smell flooded out, and following it came a man who was well over six feet tall, had a scratchy beard, deep-set features and a stained vest. In one hand he held a bottle of something that looked home-brewed, and in the other, a pistol. He lowered it as soon as he saw Aleks and a grin broke upon his face.

  'Aleks!' he boomed, pulling the man in and thumping his back. He let go, and they exchanged some cheerful chatter, and then Aleks explained their situation. The tone dipped; they both looked at Sean, and then back at each other. Grigory nodded, stepped back, and waved them in.

  'Thanks, Grigory, we really appreciate it,' Aleks said. 'Come on in, Sean.'

  Sean didn't respond. As he followed Aleks into the house, the hot odour grew stronger. The smell, he decided, was blood.

  * * *

  When Sally found Novitskiy the next day, he was already working on Soyuz. She could hear him talking to himself long before she
saw him, and as she helped herself to her morning meal, he carried on working, unaware of her presence. Her meal was half-finished before he realised she was there.

  'Oh, hello,' he said, stopping himself as he flew out of Soyuz at breakneck speed. The wide smile he had been carrying faded almost the instant he saw her. 'How are you today?'

  'Fine,' Sally said. In reality she was unsure how she felt; the dread that had overwhelmed her when she'd been alone in her quarters was gone, but it hadn't been pushed aside by fear, or regret, or even resentment. She just felt — numb. Tomorrow was a blank page with no clues on it to guide her, and she was left empty and unsure. She recognised it as a mental defence mechanism, and was grateful for it. 'How are you?'

  Novitskiy didn't answer right away. He looked like he wanted to speak, but he didn't, his lips twitching as they formed words, yet held them back. 'Look …' he said at last, but Sally already knew what he was going to say.

  'It's fine,' she reassured him. 'It's the only way.'

  'It's just that Gardner and Williams are injured, and I'm the only one that can —'

  'I know, I know. I've told you, it's fine.' She rubbed his arm, forcing as comforting a smile as she could manage. 'I mean it.'

  Novitskiy nodded, and behind his eyes a little glimmer of excitement twinkled. She could hardly blame him for that. 'Thank you,' he said, and left her to carry on with his preparations.

  Sally spent the rest of the morning helping Novitskiy ready Soyuz for departure. He also showed her what daily maintenance she needed to do on the station. It was straightforward stuff: pretty much all the systems were self-monitoring, and all she had to do was check readings and levels and tick them off a list, plus give the place the odd clean. It was nice to have something to do to take her mind off things, and the hours rolled by far quicker than she was accustomed. By the time they had buckled up a comatose Gardner and a sedated Chris, she had built up a healthy sweat.

  'What else can I do?' she said, moving herself towards an air outlet to let the cool stream wash over her.

  'That's it,' Novitskiy said. 'All you need to do now is seal the hatch behind me.'

  Sally tried to ignore the horrible flutter in her stomach. 'Well, I guess this is goodbye then.'

  'I will come back for you,' Novitskiy said, and before Sally could decide whether it was the light, or if his eyes were filling with tears, he had swung his arms around her and squeezed her tight. She reciprocated, although she couldn't match the desperation with which he clung to her, the trembling in his arms that he couldn't hide. He let go, and his eyes were indeed shining with tears.

  'I won't ever forget what you've done for me,' he said in a strained voice. He looked at her for a moment, then turned and entered Soyuz. Sally did as she had been instructed and manoeuvred the large hatch shut, watching through the shrinking gap to savour her last few moments of human interaction. Her eyes met Novitskiy's just before the hatch shut completely, and the flutter in her stomach became a nauseating jolt. Hatch met seal, and she pulled the locking lever home. That was it. She was now the loneliest human being to have ever existed.

  Chapter 19

  Grigory, as it turned out, was a gracious host, and made Sean and Aleks' stay a pleasant one. He was a former special forces operative, and through patchy English, had some fascinating stories to tell. He had been discharged following a leg injury on a tour of duty, and had so far spent his retirement in the countryside. He dabbled in hunting, particularly for musk deer, which were abundant in the area. It also turned out that he was a fantastic cook, and Sean's anxiety had dropped the instant the smell of cooking venison had overpowered the smell of blood. They would need to lay low for a while, stay off the grid, and this place was ideal.

  Once Sean had decided it was safe enough to report home on the satellite phone — having ditched his mobile — Grigory drove him twenty miles into the hills for him to make the call. Better to be traced to a knot of trees in the middle of nowhere than back to Grigory's house, Sean figured, and the others agreed.

  'Hi, it's Sean. Can you hear me okay?'

  'Sean — I've been wondering what happened to you. I was starting to get worried.'

  'I'm touched. Look, I've got to make this quick, so here's the gist: the US Department of Defence are planning on detonating a weapon to destroy an unidentified vessel they've codenamed UV One. Not only that, but they have a crew up there and —'

  'What are you talking about?'

  'What? I'm talking about the unidentified —'

  'Have you not heard?'

  'Heard what? I don't really get to read the news where I am at the moment.'

  'They've come back to Earth. The whole crew. It turned out to be a communications problem after the solar storm knocked out the main array. Nothing sinister at all.'

  'What …?' Sean said, the revelation disorientating his mind in one sucker punch.

  'They landed a few days ago. There is a story worth running though — the International Space Station is now empty. First time it has been since it was launched. NASA and the RFSA are sending another crew as soon as they can.'

  'But …' Sean stammered, searching his brain for something that made sense. 'But Aleks said —'

  'Aleks? Dezhurov? Jesus, you are out the loop, aren't you? There's a nationwide search going on for him after he was named chief suspect in the murder of Lev Ryumin. The man killed his best friend — can you believe it?'

  Sean had nothing to say. All the questions he had prepared in his mind escaped him in an instant.

  'Anyway, it looks like this whole thing is a dead duck. I suggest you get yourself back here for debrief and reassignment. There's some crazy stuff about to happen in North Korea, and I want you on it.'

  'How many people came back?'

  'What?'

  'How many people were on the Soyuz craft that returned?'

  'The same number of people that were on the station — three.'

  'What about Sally? And Gardner?'

  'What about them? I know what you're thinking, but they never went up. They were on the ground as consultant experts. And the Progress vehicle that went up had no one on it. We checked into that, and NASA confirmed.'

  'And you bought that?' Sean yelled, not believing what he was hearing.

  'It's a damn sight easier to swallow than aliens, Sean.'

  For the second time in that brief conversation, Sean was knocked speechless, but not by shock this time — by blind fury.

  The voice at the other end didn't wait for him to talk. 'Why don't you take a couple of weeks off before you come back. Have some time to get this whole thing out of your system. We've got people here I can put on the empty space station story, so take this opportunity to recharge your batteries. I know what you're like — you work too hard, get too involved, and I don't want you wearing yourself out. You're no good to me like that.'

  'This is bullshit.'

  'Alright, well I've got a meeting now,' the voice continued, ignoring him, 'so I'll speak to you later.'

  The speaker clicked. The voice was gone. Sean continued to hold the phone to his ear, lost in a flood of thoughts and feelings that pinned him to the spot. He stood like that for a long while before he made his way back to the house with Grigory, where he relayed the story to Aleks.

  'What?' Aleks said, his face looking like he'd just been slapped.

  'That's what he said. That you killed Lev.'

  'That's … that's …' Aleks spluttered, his cheeks blooming with red anger as he paced around Grigory's living room. He stopped, balled his fists and yelled something incomprehensible. Then he sat down. 'Bales …' he moaned through his hands. 'This is all Bales …'

  It made perfect sense. Bales could destroy Aleks without needing to point a weapon, without even needing Aleks at all.

  'I'm sorry,' Sean said. 'I'm sorry I got you into this.'

  Aleks dismissed him with a wave.

  'I'm a grown man. I chose to get involved. This isn't your fault.'

&nbs
p; 'So what do we do now?'

  Aleks sat back in his chair and sighed, his bushy, greying eyebrows forming a frown. 'We nail this son-of-a-bitch.'

  Sean tossed and turned that night, the phone conversation going round and round in his head. Was it true? Had he been misled by his trusting nature? That would make him an aide in all of this … He turned over again, the sheets clinging to his skin. No, Lev Ryumin had been killed by Bales. He knew it was true. Or was it? Perhaps Aleks had him roiled up in a big web of lies, all fabricated to protect himself from the long arm of the law. After all, the only person who had mentioned UV One to him was Aleks. Lev had only implied its existence. The whole thing seemed to be unravelling in his mind the more he thought about it, and it made his stomach heavy as a rock to realise how deep in he was. But what about the email from Bales, his orders to investigate and destroy UV One? Sean winced when he remembered he hadn't seen the email with his own eyes — everything he knew he'd been told by Aleks. All at once he felt anxious about being in a house in the middle of nowhere with a wanted criminal and his ex-special forces brother, who, he realised, was pretty handy with a butcher's blade.

  The next morning, Sean woke to find the house empty. There was no sign of either Aleks, who had been sleeping in the main bedroom, or Grigory, who had taken refuge on the sofa, and the house looked as it had done late the night before.

  'Hello?' Sean called, his voice loud in his ears. No answer came. He looked out the front window; Grigory's truck was gone. Trembling panic made his knees weak, and he stumbled to the front door to slide the bolt shut, which slammed home with a dull thud. What was he going to do now? He couldn't run, he was in the middle of nowhere, and … well, he was starting to feel silly. Sitting down, back leaning up against the door, he shut his eyes and took measure of the situation. Aleks couldn't have killed his best friend. Why would he? In the cold light of day, the voices in his head that had wound him into a stupor the night before seemed a lot fainter.