Deep Space Dead

by Chilvers, Edward

  “For now,” said Sol darkly. “Although I know for a fact there have been emissaries trying to get Barra Herr to switch sides. If he does so it means we might as well throw ourselves out of the garbage chutes.”

  Arianna went and spent some time with Ambra. The little girl was pleased to see her and clung tightly to her mother, did not understand why she was not allowed to leave the arboretum. Arianna had tears in her eyes when she left but there was much still to be done. She went to join Dr Palk in the medical bay where he was in the process of conducting an autopsy on the revenant.

  “There are, as we would expect, distinct differences between this long term revenant and the revenants that our colleagues became,” said Dr Palk when the autopsy was underway. “Although I see similar signs of the mutation. I am of the opinion that this particular revenant, in common with many of his kind, was born this way. I estimate this particular revenant to be around two hundred years old, and I make this assumption based on the state of the bone structure using a similar method to the ones I would use when determining the age of a tree. The growth metabolism is extremely strong and there are signs of a brief youth and adolescence followed by almost unprecedented growth. The body appears to work on the principles of a plant, requiring only air and moisture in order to survive, and not a great deal of the latter. There are definite signs of humanoid origin. It is my opinion that these creatures evolved from the original human colonists from aboard the Suki II.”

  “What the doctor is saying would seemingly defy all medical knowledge,” said the naturalist Banda Ure. “But I have observed the autopsy and concur with every one of his findings. These are truly remarkable creatures like nothing we have seen before.”

  “Not human then?” Said Arianna.

  “Not humans, no, and not aliens either but rather a mutation.”

  “You said they were dead?”

  “They were born dead,” replied Dr Palk. “And that is why they don’t require the things that sustain us humans. They do not need to eat or sleep. I see a brain that is both primitive and instinctive and almost completely incapable of independent thought.”

  “When those revenants came upon us in the forests earlier they knew exactly where we were,” said Arianna. “Something must have been communicating with them, something must have been giving them instructions.”

  “Perhaps,” acknowledged Dr Palk. “But if so it is a kind of revenant we have not seen before. Unless…” He bent down and began to carefully study his data. “Hmm,” he said at last. “Hard to say for certain but it almost seems as though the thing has been deliberately wired, genetically modified.”

  “But what does it mean?” Demanded Jak. “Do they have any weaknesses we can exploit, any allergies?”

  “You want to know if there is any way of wiping them out,” said Dr Palk with a thin and humourless smile. “Well their skin is tough and has a natural aversion to fire and explosives but a direct hit would finish them off as would extreme heat. Both of these have already been attempted with limited results. The revenants can be suffocated and they can be shot, preferably through the heads. Again, these two methods have already been attempted. Otherwise I’m afraid I have no good news.”

  Jak went back through the ship towards the Council Chambers. The autopsy had been interesting but told them nothing useful. They still needed real results. “How are we doing with the engines?” He asked. “Any sign of getting this crate back up in the air yet?”

  “as you know the engineers and pilots were hit hard,” said Jared Bynce sadly. “And the recent disunity has hardly helped. Still, we’ve got people inside the engine rooms at all hours dismantling and trying things out and there are researchers in the libraries all the time. Perhaps we’ll figure something out, perhaps not.”

  16

  Barra Herr was waiting for them when they reached the Council Chambers. Still shut inside the control room it had been decided he would not open the door to anyone, not even his fellow Councillors. It had not taken the communications man long to become bored in his cramped new quarters and he was glad of the opportunity to make himself useful analysing the strange new recording the rover had picked up during Jak and Arianna’s flight earlier.

  Barra Herr pressed the button to play back the recording. What came back was a sort of hissing sound, but it was a hissing as though made by a human. There was much static in the background.

  “Maybe it’s just a signal being given off by the satellite,” said Barra Herr. “Maybe it wasn’t completely crushed after all.”

  “I doubt it,” said Jak. “I’’ve been out there, remember? Believe me there’s nothing left. Nothing except the damned revenants.”

  “It could be a ghost reading,” acknowledged Barra Herr. “But if so then it’s the strangest I’ve ever heard.”

  “All I’m interested in at the moment is whether or not it offers us any hope,” said Sol frankly. “Could it have been a signal from a passing ship?”

  “Unlikely,” replied Barra Herr. “We’re nowhere near the flight path of anything and nothing could possibly have overtaken us along the way here.”

  “Well whatever it is it doesn’t sound like anything we can use,” said Sol. “Did you reply?”

  “Of course,” replied Barra Herr. “But there was nothing. Perhaps there is nothing out there.”

  “If it was somebody intending to help us they wouldn’t just have hissed down the line at us then gone off air,” said Jak. “I think Sol is right. This is nothing we can use.”

  “What about the Suki II?” Demanded Arianna excitedly. “What if it is a distress call from the old craft?”

  “Come along now Arianna,” said Barra Herr sceptically. “You cannot surely think the old colony has somehow survived?”

  “I mean the ship!” Exclaimed Arianna. “What if the ship has survived? And the arboretum too? The Suki was far larger than the Tula. What if we could get it working again?”

  “If the Suki II has survived it means there may be some equipment inside,” said Prima Blak excitedly. “Equipment we can use!”

  “I’m not so sure,” muttered Barra Herr. “Let me run a little more analysis, see what I can come up with.”

  “I feel like I’m trapped in a siege within a siege,” said Barra Herr a little later. “I suppose you didn’t tell Hari you were coming here?”

  “No fear,” replied Sol. “And I made sure we weren’t followed so nobody could have burst in. even though Jak and Arianna have done well today I don’t doubt the situation would change dramatically if they were ever able to seize hold of this room.”

  “We’re trusting everyone with our lives,” said Arianna. “And the longer time goes on and the worse they get the less reason there is to trust people.”

  The nut mush, as Arianna christened it, was edible enough but not something she would want to eat for the rest of her life, which seemed likely at this moment in time. Arianna and Ambra slept in a small lean to set near to the bandstand in the arboretum. It was a far cry from their comfortable quarters in the administration sector but Arianna was just glad to be close to her daughter.

  “They won’t let me go and play with the other children, mummy,” said Ambra. “They said I have to stay here in the gardens and people follow me around all the time. They said it was because of daddy but all the other children get to play where they want.”

  “We’re going to be alright, Ambra,” said Arianna. “Whatever happens to everybody else you and I are going to be alright. That’s a promise.”

  There were cracks in the roof of the lean to, which had been hastily put up. Arianna lay on her back and looked up towards the roof on which she saw the milky white revenants prowling around. It made her shudder to see them and she wished she could tear her eyes away from them but they were an ever present threat.

  “It is confirmed!” Exclaimed Barra Herr triumphantly when the remainder of the Council was gathered together in the chambers the following morning. “The signal does indeed origina
te with a large manmade craft that can only be the Suki II.”

  A wave of elation swept through the room followed immediately afterwards by a chorus of excited chatter. Sol raised his hand for silence. “Any sign as to what sort of state the thing is in?” He asked.

  “It is intact,” replied Barra Herr confidently. “I’m pretty sure of that.”

  “As long as the arboretum is intact that’s all that matters,” said Sol. “And that ship catered for over fifty thousand people.”

  “Do you really think the signal might have come from there?” Asked Arianna.

  “If it did it means the thing is in better shape that we could have possibly imagined,” said Barra Herr. “But the news is not entirely positive. According to my data that ship is right slap bang in the middle of the Polar region dead north of here.”

  “I suppose that explains what must have happened to it,” said Jak solemnly. “Why the colony did not thrive. It must have crash landed.”

  “All the same we must make an expedition as soon as possible,” said Sol with determination. “It may be the only chance we have.”

  “It’ll be minus forty degrees in that polar region,” said Banda Ure. “You can’t just set out there and come back on the same day. You’ll need to prepare well for this.”

  “We have two rovers left,” said Jak. “We’ll need to take the best.”

  “What do we tell Hari?” Asked Prima Blak.

  “Nothing to begin with,” replied Jak. “If this gets out they’ll demand we set out at once. I want all the data you’ve got on that region. I want to know temperatures and mountain ranges, any obstacles we might encounter. And above all I want to know if there are any creatures up there waiting to spring a surprise on us.”

  “There will be something waiting for us there,” said Prima Blak with trepidation. “Although if the Suki has indeed survived all this time we may well find it buried beneath many hundred feet of ice.”

  For some reason Arianna’s hopes had largely evaporated and now she was feeling despondent once more. Hope had been raised so many times during this disaster, only to be cruelly dashed again at the last moment. Arianna was concerned she was not spending as much time with Ambra as she would have liked. Considering this could well be their final few days together she supposed she should have been making the most of them.

  “I saw the moon man again, mummy,” said the little girl as they ate dinner in their makeshift shack in the arboretum a little later.

  “There are tens of thousands of those things out there,” said Arianna gently. “All of them look the same as one another.”

  “I can tell the difference,” replied Ambra with certainty. “This one was tall and looked at me as well.”

  When Ambra was asleep Arianna decided to go for a walk through the starship. Hari Shorr had posted guards on either side of the doors who begrudgingly allowed her to pass once they had satisfied themselves she didn’t have Ambra in tow with her. For some reason Arianna wanted to avoid Jak and Sol and so walked in the opposite direction to the administrative section to what was left of the engine rooms. Just before reaching the entrance she became aware of one of the creatures at the window. Arianna looked closer. This revenant, although similar in appearance to the others, nonetheless stood out from the thousands of others. The creature stood upright and alert and its eyes seemed to be critically scanning the entire starship, as though looking for weaknesses. Suddenly it turned and looked her straight in the eye. Arianna froze. The eyes entranced her, took hold of her; she was trapped within the creature’s line of vision. It was, in short, the most human revenant she had ever seen. Suddenly the creature turned and the other revenants seemed to part to let him through. He took off at top speed, heading north.

  Arianna thought hard about what she had just seen and wondered whether she ought to report it to the Council. In the end she decided against it, not even mentioning the even to Jak. She decided it wasn’t anything too important and should not distract from their main goal of exploring the Suki II. There were some differences from revenant to revenant. Perhaps this one had simply been more distinct than most. She tried to push the matter from her mind and concentrate on the next few days. She was to join Jak on the expedition to the Suki II, something she was not relishing at all. The only reason she was going was because he had asked her to.

  That evening there was some unrest in the arboretum. Although things had settled down a little since the ascendancy of Hari Shorr there were still isolated pockets of trouble, mostly by those grieving the loss of their loved ones. There was also a small but persistent group of troublemakers who felt Hari Shorr hadn’t gone far enough and should be calling for the blood of the Council. So far Hari had been able to keep these people in check but as time went on their voices were bound to grow louder. On this occasion the unrest was not too serious, yet more drunken behaviour that Sol, Jak and the few remaining officers were well able to deal with. Sol was not sorry he’d had the excuse to come here. It meant he could spend some time with Ambra.

  “Once again it seems it’s all going to be down to us,” said Arianna bitterly.

  “That’s not true,” said Sol. “There will be a much larger contingent this time. Many of the counsellors will be going; Banda Ure and Prima Blak for example.”

  “The Suki II is our only chance, you know that? If it turns out to be just a busted shell we’re right back to where we started.”

  The Council meeting of the following day was dominated with plans to rescue the starship. “The best we can hope for is an evacuation,” said Banda Ure. “We certainly cannot hope to remain here. From what I have heard of the Suki II it was a large starship and should contain more than enough supplies to see us through for the foreseeable future, at least until we get its arboretum working again.”

  “Imagine if there is nothing aboard the Suki II,” said Sol. “Imagine what that will do to people. At the moment everyone is calm over the food supplies. If we come back with loot from the other starship we’ll all be saved and our problems will be over. If not we’re facing another war whether or not we have possession of the control room.”

  Just then there came a loud banging on the door of the meeting room. Hari Shorr strutted in without being asked, accompanied by four of his supporters.

  “You’re planning something,” said Hari Shorr accusingly. “And you’re cutting me out of it. Why is this? Are you planning to flee, is that it?”

  “Of course not,” replied Arianna defensively. “Where would we go?”

  “Perhaps you found somewhere the other day,” said Hari Shorr archly.

  “I would never flee,” said Arianna sternly. “You still have my daughter, remember?”

  “We want action,” declared Hari Shorr.

  “You had action the other day,” replied Jak. “Myself and Arianna went out to risk our lives, remember? If you would like to go out and risk your own lives you’re more than welcome, although come to think of it none of you know how to fly a rover and I can’t see anyone getting past those revenants on foot without being ripped to pieces where they stand.”

  “You’re in no position to start getting flippant with us,” sneered Hari. “You’re the ones who got us into this mess. If you hadn’t have stumbled upon that nest of vipers we’d still be sitting pretty in our homes.”

  “And just waiting for the revenants to find us and tear into us anew,” interrupted Sol. “Yet as it happens we do have a plan.”

  “Really?” Said Hari Shorr. “What is it?”

  “You are still not a member of the Council,” said Sol cagily. “I still consider myself in charge here.”

  “Oh really?” Spat Hari Shorr. “Then what am I?”

  “A minor inconvenience,” said Sol, narrowing his eyes.

  “And aren’t all of us in the arboretum just that to you?” Sneered Hari Shorr. “I think we had better look after your daughter a little while longer, Chairman. It is clear you are planning to sell us out at the earliest opportu
nity.”

  “Nobody is going to sell anybody out,” said Jak firmly, stepping up to face Hari Shorr. “As a matter of fact we have today come across a discovery which might have saved us all.”

  “Have you indeed?” Asked Hari Shorr sceptically. “And what, pray tell, might that be?”

  “Tomorrow,” said Jak abruptly. “You will have to await the announcement.”

  Hari Shorr’s face twisted into a dark expression and he eyed the communications room hopefully, wondering if there might by a chink in the defences through which he might rush and take control of the ship once and for all. But it was a futile hope. “You had best be true to your word, Chairman,” he said at last, addressing Sol. “For your daughter’s sake as well as your own.”

  “I’m not having him disrupting our plans,” said Banda Ure after the rebel leader had left. “The idiot doesn’t know what he’s doing. I’m still a day or so away from getting everything ready. The last thing I need is him breathing down my neck.”

  “Maybe there will be something on the Suki II that will allow us to be rid of that cockroach once and for all,” muttered Jared Bynce.

  “We need to undermine him,” said Sol. “Take the wind out of his sails; gain ourselves a quick triumph to give the people confidence in us. The people want action.

  “Very well,” said Jak decisively. “If they want action we’ll give them action. Get ready to fire up the engines.”

  “You can’t seriously be suggesting we try to take off?” Said Sol in astonishment.

  “I’m not,” said Jak.

  Jak shot the rover up into the air and ascended almost to the clouds at a rapid pace so that he was but a speck against the clear blue sky. He rose with expert precision, too fast for even the lightening reflexes of the revenants who belatedly leapt after him. Suddenly Jak swooped the rover down low. The revenants were upon him at once of course, a huge multitude leaping into the air in order to claim him but he was able to swerve out of the way in time. The revenants rushed towards the other side of the starship, piling one on top of the other. Jak pulled up high once more and at that moment Jared Brynce fired up the engines. Thousands of revenants were disintegrated in a fraction of a second. In time the engine jets ceased leaving behind an intense firestorm. Revenants ran this way and that, for this was a far greater heat than that of the explosives. Arianna watched revenants fall and writhe in agony upon the ground, and like the rest of the colonists she revelled in the agony they were suffering. Twisted black lumps of burnt flesh littered the area. She almost imagined she could smell the blackened meat of their corpses. Cheers rang out across the starship and the cry rang out in unison; “Again! Again!” The revenants were dispirited and disorientated. They herded around the scorched earth seemingly oblivious to any danger and did not attempt to jump on the rover, meaning that Jak could land the craft at his leisure. All the same many had survived, albeit with horrific injuries but for now it did not seem to matter. This display of fire and scorched flesh had been a great morale booster and it had purchased the Council all the time they needed to make plans for the expedition to the Suki II.