The Search for Cleo

by Aaron J. Ethridge

  “Did the whole crew die?” Azure asked.

  “Eventually,” Robert nodded. “I'd really rather not talk about it, though.”

  “What about our shields?” Morgan asked.

  “They'll hold,” the traveler assured him. “Vox and I have beefed them up over the last couple of weeks. We won't have any problems dealing with the storms.”

  “I mean; our personal shields.”

  “We won't have any,” Robert explained. “One of the things Vox and I did was use the personal generators to boost the ship's shields.”

  “Then, why is it still so cold?” Cleo asked.

  “We configured them to keep ions out; not heat in.”

  “So,” Morgan said, “conventional weapons and no shields? I'm not sure I like this.”

  “I know I don't,” Azure replied.

  “Neither do I,” Cleo added. “Why didn't you tell us about this before, Rob?”

  “Telling you wouldn't have changed anything,” he said. “On top of which, there's absolutely nothing to be worried about. Being armed is just part of 'being prepared'. I'm positive we won't need weapons, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't take them, just in case.”

  “Then, there's no reason for me and Azure not to come along, is there, love?”

  “Not at all...” Robert said. “Eventually...”

  “What do you mean 'eventually'?” she asked.

  “The atmosphere is a little thin,” he explained. “It also happens to contain almost no oxygen. Fortunately, though, the crashed ship has plenty of spacesuits on it.”

  “Rob...” Morgan said thoughtfully. “Seeing as how our ship could be bombarded with ions at any moment, we'll have to be careful not to spread our shields out too thin while we're in the area. Is that right?”

  “It is.”

  “Which means, of course, that we can't just extend our shields into the crashed ship.”

  “That's a good point, Morgan! I should have thought of that myself.”

  “As the planet doesn't have any oxygen,” he continued, “and, as we won't be able to make a bubble using our shields... we're going to have to hold our breath while we we're searching for spacesuits.”

  “You're right again!” Robert replied, pretending to be absolutely stunned. “It sure is lucky that we spent the last couple of weeks playing that hold-your-breath game.”

  “Yeah,” Morgan nodded. “Lucky.”

  “You are a genius, Rob,” Cleo said, gazing at him with a slightly disapproving look, “but, you're also an idiot. You should have immediately realized that we wouldn't let you go through with this plan of yours.”

  “Who's 'we'?”

  “Azure and I,” she explained. “We're not about the let our significant-others asphyxiate on some airless planet.”

  “No,” Azure agreed, “we're not.”

  “It's not 'airless',” he pointed out, “and, we won't 'asphyxiate'.”

  “No, you won't,” she smiled. “Because you're not going.”

  “Let us not forget,” he said, lifting her from her seat, slipping his arms around her waist, and gazing down into her eyes, “just who is in command of whom.”

  “I'm not,” she replied, tilting her head to the side. “When it comes to the ship, the crew, and our missions, I obey you implicitly.”

  “I'm hoping you have more 'implicitly' in you than that,” he interjected with a mischievous grin. “I have some big plans. It's just going to be a while before I can put them into motion.”

  “You're not going to distract me, Rob,” she said with a tone of warning, pushing him a short distance back from her. “You don't have the right – not even as captain – to risk the life of my fiancé without my permission.”

  “Would you at least listen to the plan before you shoot it down?” he asked, letting her go and striding across the room.

  “I'm listening,” she replied, resuming her seat. “Start talking.”

  “We're going to fly over the shipwreck searching for holes in the hull,” he explained. “With any luck, we'll be able find at least one where spacesuits are visible through it. Then, we'll land our ship on the wreck. Morgan and I will tie ropes around our waists (Vox holding onto one and Doc the other), and we'll go grab a couple of suits. If anything goes wrong, Vox and/or Doc will reel us in. If worst comes to worst, they can run out and grab us.”

  “You'll have to stay where we can see you the entire time,” she demanded.

  “Of course, dear,” he smiled. “That was my plan from the very beginning.”

  “Alright,” she replied, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “I suppose you can do this. But, if anything goes wrong...”

  “It won't!” he interjected. “It'll be a piece of cake, trust me.”

  Twenty minutes after this conversation, they reached the planet they were in search of. A careful inspection of the hull did reveal a breach, but it was one Cleo didn't like the look of.

  “That has to be at least twenty feet deep, Rob,” she observed.

  “I wonder what made that hole?” Morgan mused aloud.

  “It's hard to say,” Robert replied, chasing away the shadows beneath them with the flashlight in his hand. “But, I think I see a suit.”

  “Where, boss?” Vox asked, gazing into the wreck.

  “Right there,” he said, pointing as he spoke. “That bit of orange. I think the suits were orange.”

  “What makes you think that?” Azure asked.

  “Optimism,” he replied. “Doc, how long will it take you and Vox to pull us up?”

  “Thirty seconds.”

  “That's plenty of time.”

  “You're not going down there, Rob,” Cleo asserted. “You'll end up out of sight.”

  “Not if you keep your eyes on us.”

  “I don't like this, Rob,” Azure added.

  “It's four minutes,” he replied. “In four minutes, we'll either have some suits or we'll be searching for another hole in the hull.”

  “I guess,” she sighed.

  “I said 'no',” Cleo pointed out.

  “Try to stay in the light,” Robert whispered to Morgan before taking Cleo in his arms and kissing her.

  Morgan instantly followed this example, offering Azure the same attention.

  “Wish me luck,” Robert said the moment he was finished.

  Before Cleo could stop him, the traveler took a deep breath, leapt out of The Morgan-mobile, and began to repel down into the hole.

  “Robert Hood!” Cleo yelled as Morgan followed behind him. “Would you get back in here?! This can't be the only hole in this ship's hull! We can find one that isn't twenty feet deep! You lied to me, Robert! Pretending to care how I feel and then ignoring me is lying! You think you can get away with that just because...”

  At that point, Morgan stopped paying attention. She was still screaming, but she would be for at least the next four minutes. On top of which, whatever she was saying was all nonsense. As soon as Robert was back on the ship, safe and sound, she'd forgive him completely. Plus, of course, he was having to focus on holding his breath as Doc lowered him into the unknown.

  Robert had told him to stay in the light. Why? That question began to play on his mind more and more during the fifteen seconds it took for him to reach the floor. Why should he stay in the light? What was in the not light that he should worry about? Robert had assured the entire crew that none of the native lifeforms were in any way dangerous. But, as he was perhaps the most prolific liar the universe had ever seen, this didn't fill Morgan with a sense of confidence.

  What little confidence he did feel was further shaken when the 'orange' that Robert had spotted turned out to be a uniform, not a spacesuit. It was the uniform of a dead space traveler. Morgan was sure that they were dead, because they were nothing but bones. Under the circumstances, he sincerely hoped that forty-years-of-rot was what had reduced their body to that state.

  Robert glanced around the room they were in, shining his light into every
corner. Morgan didn't see anything that struck him either as dangerous or useful. Danger was certainly something he wanted to avoid but, as it had already been a minute, he wanted them to find something useful before very much longer.

  The traveler nodded toward one of the two doors that led away from the room. After just over thirty seconds, the pair had managed to manually crank it open enough for them to squeeze through it. Thirty more seconds of exploration led them to no new discoveries. It did, however, lead them out of the view of their companions, and into the dark.

  They quickly made their way back to the first chamber – where they could hear Cleo screaming something – and opened the second door. At the three-minute mark, Morgan was more than ready to head back. Robert, however, had spotted what they were in search of. Up the hall just ahead of them, lay two spacesuits side-by-side. Each of the companions quickly grabbed one of these before dragging them back to the entrance.

  Morgan's lungs felt as if they were on fire as Doc pulled him into the air. It took everything he had not to just let the suit go. If it hadn't been for the idea of having to hold his breath again in order to retrieve it, he'd have given up and let it drop.

  Just before he passed out, Doc dragged him back on board the ship. With almost unimaginable gratitude, he took one deep breath after another. Before he reached the third of these, Robert was at his side, panting away.

  “I can't believe you found two on your first try!” Cleo exclaimed excitedly.

  “I told you it'd be a piece of cake,” Robert smiled. “The ship was loaded with them.”

  “You also told me that you'd stay where I could see you,” she pointed out.

  “I did,” he nodded, “but...”

  “But, you didn't!” she snapped, slapping him in the face.

  “You know,” he said, refusing to look at her, “I really don't like it when you do that.”

  “I don't like it when you lie to me!” she retorted. “Or when you take risks that you promise me you won't! Do you have any idea what you just put me through?! It might all be fun and games for you, but I had to stand up here staring helplessly into the dark wondering if you were alright. What would we have done if you'd have passed out down there and the ropes had gotten tangled up while you were wandering around in some hallway twenty feet below us?!”

  Robert took a deep breath and let it out slowly while the rest of the couple's companions silently minded their own business.

  “It wasn't as risky as you...” he began.

  “That doesn't alter the fact that...” she interrupted.

  “No, it doesn't,” he interrupted in turn. “You're right. I'm extremely sorry and I'll never do it again.”

  “You're a liar.”

  “Yes,” he nodded. “I am. But, I'll try to keep it to a minimum, and I'll do my best to at least attempt to consider things from your point of view in the future.”

  “That's all I'm asking,” she explained, gently touching his face where she had struck him. “For my part, I'll try not to slap you so hard next time you infuriate me.”

  “I'd appreciate that.”

  After he said this, she went to kiss him again, but Morgan stopped her.

  “We've got work to finish,” he pointed out, stepping between the pair, “and, you'll never teach him anything, Cleo, if you reward him just because you had to punish him.”

  “Thanks, Morgan,” Robert laughed.

  “Anytime,” the young man nodded. “What's next?”

  “Considering the borderline psychopathic mood Cleo is in at the moment...” the traveler began.

  “The mood you just put me in,” she pointed out.

  “I suppose we'd better slip these on and go find two more for the girls.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Morgan said, pulling the helmet off one of the suits.

  He froze. Inside it was a humanoid skeleton.

  “My suit is full of dead guy, Rob,” he pointed out.

  “What did you expect, Morgan?” the traveler laughed. “You didn't think these suits had just been left lying around in that hall did you?”

  “I can't slip into some dead-guy-suit.”

  “Sure, you can.”

  “We're going to catch some disease.”

  “I'm immune.”

  “You weren't the last time.”

  In order to bring this argument to a speedy end, Doc helped Morgan empty the bones out of the soon-to-be-his suit and checked it for medical dangers. There weren't any.

  As a result, the two companions were each wearing a formerly-dead-guy-suit just minutes later. Amazingly – at least to Morgan – they were still filled with breathable oxygen. Robert explained that this was because the suits automatically recycled their air-supply. So, after their original owners had died, the suits completely scrubbed the oxygen they contained – in between the ion storms that wracked the planet.

  Dressed in their new attire, the two headed back into the wreck. In just minutes, they had found two more suits, dumped the dead out of them, and taken them back to the ship. Unfortunately for the crew, the species that were the original owners of the ship never got to be over six-foot-two. That being the case, suits couldn't be found to fit Celeste, Vox, or Doc (even the helmets were too small for them). Robert assured them that this wouldn't be a problem, however, as he was certain that he and Morgan would be able to pull an engine by themselves. Cleo further pointed out that it would be even less of a problem than that, as she and Azure would be there to help them.

  The four companions got as prepared as they could under the circumstances; arming themselves with an array of conventional weapons before they left the ship. Each of them was carrying a bullpup loaded with a magazine of high-penetration ammunition (which Vox had grabbed several of as he was fleeing The Cleo) as well as a sidearm. When Morgan asked Rob why they were using regular ammo as opposed to tranq-darts, he merely said 'in case'.

  Before they left The Morgan-mobile, Robert had Vox move it a few feet back from the edge of the hole in the wreck's hull. This allowed him (as well as his companions) to step out onto the surface of the crashed ship in order to inspect it more carefully. For several minutes, he explored the area before pointing at what appeared to be a small satellite-dish.

  “I'll bet the ship's main communications center is right below that dish,” he said.

  “Maybe,” Cleo replied without conviction.

  “I was thinking that some of their comm equipment might come in useful.”

  “It might,” she nodded.

  “I'd also like to grab some of the hull,” Robert said, tapping his foot on the ship's shell.

  “Why?” Morgan asked.

  “With enough of it,” he explained, “we could build a second hull around The Morgan-mobile, as well as expand it a little.”

  “I suppose we could,” Morgan nodded. “How do we get it pulled off the wreck, though?”

  “The MCB.”

  “What about the ion storms?”

  “They're intermittent,” Robert replied dismissively. “The real problem is that it'll take forever. I don't want to end up retiring here. Of course, once we've got the plates cut loose, we can take them with us and work during our travel time.”

  “That is crazy, Rob,” the young man asserted.

  “What's crazy about it?” Azure asked.

  “We don't have room on the ship to load another hull's worth of metal plates on board.”

  “We won't need to,” she replied. “We can use the gravity beam emitter to drag it along behind us.”

  “Will we have enough power for that?”

  “We will, once we've grabbed an engine,” Robert nodded. “It should allow us to squeeze a little more energy out of our generators. I expect it'll be enough.”

  “Could we pull a generator off the wreck, as well?” Morgan asked.

  “Probably,” the traveler replied. “Although, we may have to expand our ship a little to get it to fit. One way or the other, it’s a good idea.”

&
nbsp; Having said this, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “Cleo,” he said, turning to his love, “I know you're not going to like this plan...”

  “No,” she interjected.

  “But, I want us back underway as soon as possible...” he continued, ignoring her immediate rejection of his suggestion.

  “I said 'no',” she reiterated.

  “Morgan and I can pull the engine by ourselves...”

  “No.”

  “While you and Azure use the MCB...”

  “No.”

  “To start cutting some of the plating loose.”

  “No.”

  “Cleo,” he said, taking her by the shoulders and gazing directly into her eyes. “There's no point in all four of us working on one two-man job at a time.”

  “No.”

  “Would you please listen to what I'm saying?”

  “I can't,” she said, crossing her arms and tilting her head. “If I do, you'll persuade me to do something I don't want to do.”

  “You might thank me for doing that someday,” he smiled.

  “I might,” she admitted with a blush that no one could see through her helmet, “but today isn't that day.”

  “We are not going to waste the time it would take...”

  “Alright,” she replied. “I'll go with you, and Morgan can help Azure.”

  “Perfect,” Morgan nodded.

  “No, it isn't,” Robert asserted.

  “Why not, Rob?” Cleo asked with a knowing smile.

  “Mister Harker,” the traveler said, “please lift Miss Zelbizarre from the ground.”

  “Okay...” he said, scooping her up in his arms and standing at the ready.

  “Put me down, Morgan.”

  “Alright,” he replied, doing as he was asked.

  “Miss Zelbizarre, please lift Mister Harker from the ground.”

  “I'm not going to do that, Rob,” she replied, shaking her head. “What point are you trying to make?”