by S D Tanner
Catching up with them and overhearing the end of their discussion, Hawk asked, “Maybe we’re not far from Earth.”
If they weren’t lost in space then they were in orbit around something. The ship was under observation, Jessica had said as much. They had half a million people deliberately kept in stasis and orbiting an unknown location. To keep the sleepers alive someone was sending supplies. It meant the ship was set up to look right, but never intended to function in deep space. What was the point? Just as Hawk suggested they might be closer to home than they knew. Was the ruse simply a way to get the people on board? If so, why? Lolo had said none of the people onboard was wanted or needed on Earth, meaning they were expendable. Dumping them onto the ship must have solved a problem, possibly more than one. Lunar had gotten rid of people in power, but there had to be more to their plan. He was still missing a piece and, eyeing the door to the next dome, he hoped it contained answers.
“Open sesame,” Rok said.
Although Jessica had orders to open doors when they approached them, Rok was distracting himself by clowning around. Losing his buddy, Ash, appeared to have no effect on Rok, but he didn’t believe his act. Since Ash had been injured, Rok had gotten even rowdier, which was a surefire sign he wasn’t happy. The two of them had been tight as ticks. Like him, they had a history neither of them could remember, but forgetting why he cared about Daisy and Lisa hadn’t changed how he felt about them. Rok might not remember who Ash was to him, but having emotions without the reasoning didn’t make them any less powerful.
As the doors opened, he patted Rok’s shoulder. “Ash is going to be fine.”
Rok’s broad features twisted into a worried frown. “I know, but it’s weird not having him around.”
By the time they reached the airlock they were wearing their helmets and had secured their suits. It was another blank looking set of double doors. The lack of signage was only further evidence the ship wasn’t designed for anyone to live onboard. Without clear signs and locks on doors people could wander anywhere, safe or otherwise. Although made to look like it was made for sleepers, the ship hadn’t really been built for them. There was nowhere for them to live or any food supplies other than the insects. He was beginning to suspect the sleepers were never supposed to wake up.
As the next set of doors opened, his feet lifted from the floor. This time he was prepared and already holding onto a handhold by the door. The dome wasn’t like the habitat. It had multiple levels and on each were long rows of lockers. The room, which hummed and vibrated with energy, clearly used a lot of power. The rows of lockers acted like thick barriers with at least ten feet between them. Every locker door had a set of handholds and handles. Some lockers were only a few feet wide and tall and others were significantly larger. There were at least several hundred rows of lockers spread across twelve levels. Gray and shimmering with energy there were no labels on the blank faced lockers.
“What do think is in them?” He asked.
“Feels like an engine room,” Judge replied.
Through his earpiece, he heard Lolo speak. “It’s not.”
“Do you recognize them?” He asked.
“They look like the storage bays we had at Lunar.”
“What’s inside the lockers?”
“It could be all sorts of stuff. This style of locker is used to store anything that needs strict temperature control and air quality.”
Gently pushing away from the wall, he tumbled as he drifted toward the first set of lockers. Pulling himself from one locker to the next, he said, “Judge, follow me. We need to open them.”
After moving deeper inside the dome, he stopped at one of the larger lockers. Just as he expected, it wasn’t locked; nothing on the ship ever was. He clung to a handhold beside the locker, yanking on the handle. Once the door swung open, he grabbed a handhold on the interior wall of the locker. A foot beyond the door was a glass wall and behind it were tube shaped containers seated snugly inside perfectly shaped slots. Each tube was at least eight inches long and two inches in diameter. Inside were odd shapes in different shades of brown that barely took any room inside the tube.
“Lolo, what are they?”
“I don’t know, but they look like the sort of containers we used to hold vaccinations and viruses.”
“What sort of viruses?”
“All the regular ones. You know, colds, flus and stomach bugs. We also kept all the good ones like Ebola, Marburg, Lassa and SARS. We even had the oldies like Smallpox, Rabies, HIV, Hantavirus and Dengue.”
“Why did you have them?”
Sounding uncertain, Lolo replied, “I don’t know. I mean, I’m a virologist and so was Mark. Being surrounded by viruses came with my job.”
“Why would anyone have these viruses in space?”
“To keep them, I guess. We’ve spent a lot of centuries eliminating them so they’re not that easy to find anymore.”
“Why would we want to keep them?”
“We kind of need to otherwise how could we develop vaccines? If there was ever another outbreak of the diseases we’d need to create a vaccine really fast.” Sounding uncertain, she added, “But…when bacteria grows in zero gravity it’s significantly deadlier.”
“Are you saying they could deliberately be making the viruses even more dangerous?”
“It’s a side effect of growing them in zero gravity, but that doesn’t mean it’s deliberate.”
If what Lolo thought was inside the tubes was true then they could wipe out the entire ship or even Earth. He was about to move on when Lolo spoke again. “You should take them.”
“What for?”
“They might kill the fleas.”
“Or at least slow them down,” Judge added.
The sleepers were in sealed pods so they would be safe from any airborne virus, and he didn’t think the Defensors could be killed. The tube running through his body was keeping him alive, not his human body parts. It might be a long shot, but that was all he had. Although Lolo annoyed him and he wasn’t sure he trusted her, maybe she was right.
“Hawk, get over here. Grab some of these tubes.”
The tubes weren’t marked so he had no idea what they’d be taking. Maybe he could release the contents of the tubes and hope one of them did something to the fleas. Leaving Hawk to collect the tubes he grabbed the handhold above the locker and pulled himself along. Unlike the previous dome this one was interesting and he wanted to see what else the lockers contained. Further along the row, and deeper inside the dome, were lockers with much larger doors.
“Judge, I want to see what’s inside the larger lockers.”
While their bodies twisted and drifted, they used one handhold after another to slowly move across the lockers. It was never easy to move intentionally in zero-g. If they lost their hold on the lockers they would drift across the dome. He vaguely recalled being trained to move in zero-g inside a padded room, but the lockers were metallic with sharp corners. Pushing off from the locker could be dangerous. Without gravity, he would fire across the room and collide into the next locker, or even the wall of the dome.
Their slow movement was annoying him, but he counseled himself to be patient. Waiting for anything never rested well with him. He lived life to the tilt, enjoying every moment it offered, no matter how trivial. Forced to move slowly from one locker to the next was giving him time to think, which wasn’t something he wanted to do.
Every time he wasn’t distracted by problems on the ship a picture of Daisy or Lisa would come into his mind. The image that bothered him the most was the one of Lisa crying. Wishing he could remember them clearly, he grabbed for the next handhold. Why had Lisa been crying? What had he done wrong? Who had their arm around her? Without gravity giving him any sensation, the memory of her filled his arms with warmth. Lisa had been soft and rounded in the way a woman should be. Her hair had smelled of perfume and he remembered the dampness on his hands after they’d made love.
Daisy had been a surprise. They hadn’t planned for her and he’d feared what a child would do to their near perfect life. Lisa had carried him through his worry until a wrapped bundle had been placed in his arms. She’d been so tiny he’d worried he might drop her. Emotions he didn’t want to feel were flooding through him. Love, and the fear of loss, were followed by anger. Lisa had been crying over him. Although he couldn’t remember what he’d done wrong, he’d hurt her and Daisy in a way that would never heal. Why had he left them? Nothing inside him believed he would have done so willingly. Had Lunar kidnapped him? Was that why he was so angry?
Reaching one of the large lockers his mind was once again distracted. He grabbed the handhold, grateful to let go of emotions that only left him devastated. The door was six feet wide and tall. Like the smaller lockers there was a silver metal handle. He twisted it and the door swung open. Pulling at the edge of the open locker he struggled to see through the visor on his helmet.
After turning his head and body to peer through the open door he decided everyone in Lunar Horizon had to die.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Little Deaths
They were only the size of his fist, but their identity was unmistakable. “Why did they do this?”
Judge appeared to be hanging upside down while holding onto the locker. With his head over the edge of the door his helmet hit the side of the locker as he scanned the contents. Stacked inside one on top of the other were glass boxes. Each was a foot square and full of fluid. Suspended within the liquid were tiny, squid like creatures. Although most of their tentacles were wrapped around the shapeless bodies, a few drifted in what could have been described as amniotic fluid. They weren’t quite jellyfish, more like the creatures that lived in the deepest part of Earth’s oceans.
Now he knew how the fleas had gotten onboard. Lunar Horizon had put them there. Along the row there were at least twenty more large lockers like the one they were in. How many more of the tiny aliens were onboard? Judging by the number of stacked boxes inside the locker there could be almost as many embryonic fleas as there were sleepers.
“Are the sleepers being used as food for the fleas?” Judge asked.
“Sleepers don’t eat the fleas, so it’s not the other way around.”
“Why in space? Why didn’t Lunar grow the fleas on Earth?”
“Maybe they can’t survive on Earth. Or maybe it’s like the viruses. They grow differently in space.”
There had to be a reason the fleas were reared in space. Viruses and bacteria grown in zero gravity were more lethal than those on Earth. Maybe the fleas were the same. Spawned in zero gravity they grew to their fullest potential in space. That realization made him wonder what their end state would be. Where did they go once they were fully grown? Mark had surmised the fleas took on the appearance of their host and that had certainly been true on the Animax. Although they’d started out squid-like they evolved into humanoids. What was the final stage of their transformation? Would they eventually look like a normal person?
Dismay followed anger as the truth about the ship slowly dawned on him. “What in the hell is this ship?”
“Nothing good,” Judge replied.
“It has to go.”
“If you destroy the ship then we go with it.”
Judge was right, only he didn’t care. One way or another the game ended now, but he’d rather stay alive and find whoever had done this to them. He was about to declare death to Lunar when Rok shouted, “Incoming!”
Once again, the fleas had used their transparency to hide. Seeming to drift toward them from every direction were large, squid shaped fleas. Using their long tentacles, they were latching onto the handles on the lockers. The fleas, able to reach further than they could, were hooking onto the next handle and propelling themselves forward. If he and Judge kicked off the locker they were on they could miss the small doorway to the corridor. If they moved one handhold at a time it would slow them down and the fleas would reach them before they could escape.
“Head to the exit.”
He didn’t need to tell anyone to retreat. Rok and Hawk hadn’t been as far into the dome as he and Judge. They were already grabbing one handhold after another and heading toward the door. Most of the fleas were ignoring Rok and Hawk. He and Judge were not in a good position. Fleas were already making their way toward the lockers they’d been investigating. Some were humanoid and others were more like the original squids they’d found in the arterial corridor. It meant some were bombs, but he doubted they’d dare explode inside the dome. They clearly saw he and Judge as the main threat, meaning they valued the contents of the lockers.
“Open more of the lockers. They won’t kill their own.”
“Are you sure about that?” Judge asked as he yanked open a locker.
He wasn’t; all he had was a hunch. Pulling open the next locker in the row confirmed his suspicion. The larger lockers were full of small squids floating in fluid. He floated away as the door slowly swung open, still holding the handle. Moving in slow motion was annoying him. He brought his hand to his toolbelt, fumbling around it and trying to feel the hilt of his blade through the multiple layers of gloves. The dome might not have gravity, but it was pressurized. With the squids drifting and swinging their way toward him he figured it probably had oxygen as well.
More than fearing the incoming assault he welcomed it. Everything that had happened since he’d woken had pissed him off. A squid fight might not end Lunar Horizon, but a little payback was better than none. Letting go of the handle he drifted away from the locker. With both hands free he used one to pull the glove from his right hand. Tumbling head over feet, using his now free hand he released the latches on his helmet. He hadn’t bothered wearing the skull cap under the round helmet, and his skin tightened with the sudden lower temperature. The cold was invigorating and his focus sharpened. Now that his vision wasn’t hampered by the narrow visor on the helmet, he could see squids converging on their position.
“Judge, we have pressure and oxygen.”
The air might have been thinner inside the dome, but there was enough of it. A tentacle drifted across his face and he reached out to grab it. He squeezed the squishy limb in his fist and the tentacle whipped wildly as it tried to escape. It squelched under his grasp as he pulled the limb toward his other hand and ran the sharp blade across it. The pressure inside the flea’s body forced the blood to spurt in a stream of large globules. Round, red bubbles fired across the dome where they slammed into lockers. The blood, exploding against the doors, broke into smaller pea sized bubbles. A single cut would drain the flea of blood, so he let go of the tentacle and began looking for his next target.
Another squid-like flea presented itself by wrapping a tentacle around his leg. He was drifting between two racks only attached to the wall of lockers by a squid-like flea. The one he’d cut was spinning away, leaving a trail of fat, round, blood particles. Bending over, he reached for the limb around his lower leg. He stabbed at the tentacle, tumbling with the movement. All it took was the smallest slice and blood burst from the wound.
In some ways, he was enjoying himself, but he was used to a faster fight. Hundreds of fleas were slowly making their way toward him and there was no way he could kill them all. While he slowly spun head over heel he caught sight of Judge. He’d removed his helmet and was cutting into a squid shaped flea.
“Judge, head back to the door.”
His order was easier said than done. Moving across the gap between the lockers he’d lost all sense of where he was. Now he’d removed his helmet at least he could see the door to the dome. With even more fleas between him and the door it wasn’t a good sight. Their escape route was slowly being blocked by the fleas of both types. Even as he floated toward the next set of lockers another tentacle was winding its way around his body. The flea, still hooked to the handle on a locker, was stretching three tentacles toward him. Instead of cutting the limb, he grabbed so that it squishe
d inside his tightening fist. By placing one hand over the other he could use the tentacle like a rope until he reached the locker. Instead of being grateful for its help he grabbed the first handhold and slashed the flea. The locker he was clinging onto was open. Inside were boxes of baby fleas he knew would feed and grow, thanks to the sleepers. Pulling himself forward he jammed the barrel of the rifle strapped to his arm into the glass. Firing at close quarters probably wasn’t a good idea, but his temper was getting the better of him.
Using the voice control, he ordered, “Short Range. Fire!”
A bullet in zero-g would go forever, but the glass inside the lockers should be enough to stop it, or so he hoped. The bullet slammed through the glass leaving a tiny hole. Lumpy globules of fluid leaked from the tiny break and then cracks appeared in the glass. The lines spread quickly until the entire wall inside the locker began leaking bubbles of fluid.
A flea appeared behind him and let out a high-pitched wail. The oscillations of sound broke the rubbery surface tension on the water from the glass inside the tube and on the bubbles of blood. Tiny droplets of blood and clear fluid fired in all directions. The fleas didn’t seem to care about dying, but they didn’t like it when he slaughtered the little ones. In his mind, given the fleas were killing the sleepers, then the tiny squids had to go. Turning until he faced the wailing flea behind him, he slashed it open. Globules of blood leaked from the open wound as he pushed past it and began grabbing at the handholds on the lockers. Judge was also cutting fleas as he moved from one locker to the next. They were on opposite sides of the two rows of lockers and moving in tandem toward the door.
“Move faster,” Rok warned.
The space between them and the door was thickening with the glistening bodies of more fleas. Some had splashes of blood from the globules drifting around the lockers. A few of the fleas around them were drifting with their tentacles flaring around their fat transparent bodies. Round globules of blood were bumping into the lockers leaving smears of red. The humanoid-shaped fleas didn’t have the benefit of long tentacles, but they were nearing their position. They had to make it back to the door before they caught them. If one of them latched on and exploded then they would die, but the dome might survive.