“What was odd?”
“The helmet must have malfunctioned.”
“How so? She seemed to be fine.”
“Yes, she was. She was unconscious when we brought her in. No one touched her helmet. Yet, when we went to remove it just now, the air lock wasn’t activated. You must slide the throat switch all the way to right side to form the air lock and the switch was all the way to the left. Yet, when we released the helmet, she was alive. There must have been breathable air in there. The helmet must have malfunctioned but not enough to risk her life.”
He knew that was impossible just as much as I did. If what he was saying was true, that woman should have died days ago. She shouldn’t be alive, and the good doctor knew it. I shared none of this. I only nodded like a good stone should.
Chapter Sixteen
We found the Icarus the next day. The alarms went off around five in the morning with another dry female voice announcing the number that signified what was happening. We were all told to stay in our rooms, but of course, no one really did. Everyone seemed to gather on the observation level, so Salem and I joined them.
There was such an awed hush about the room—I barely knew when we had arrived. No idle chatter filled the air. Not one person seemed to want to say anything. Tiny murmurs of wonder and horror were passed around like a collection plates at Sunday mass.
“What is happening?” I asked Salem.
Her hand had squeezed tightly around mine, and her breath was caught in her throat. I knew we must be near a great window. On the observation level, there were few spots that didn’t face a large window.
“Salem, what does it look like?”
I squeezed her hand harder, and she snapped to attention.
“It’s… um… the Icarus… I think. Yes, there. I can see the writing now. It’s the Icarus. Oh God, Shadow Man, it’s the Icarus!”
“Details, Salem. I need details.”
“Sorry. It’s just doesn’t look like a ship anymore. I couldn’t tell. It’s mangled. It looks like something crushed it from the outside. Parts are burned or blackened somehow. God, it looks like a giant octopus came and strangled the ship until it was crushed like a soda can.”
“Is there anything else?”
“Like what?”
“Do you see the dragons? The Icarus was stationed near the dragons. Do you see them anywhere?”
“No. I don’t see anything except a huge rock, like a moon. There’s a moon or asteroid or something in the distance. I don’t see anything else.”
Just then, something soft yet firm hit the giant window in front of us. Everyone shrieked, including Salem. The object bounced away silently, but the crowd was not the same afterward. Several women wept. People crowded for the door, and pushed one another to get to the corridors. One man yelled loudly to see the captain.
“Body?”
“Y-y-yes.”
She was a little shaken. I could tell.
“Were their eyes missing?”
“What?”
“The corpse, were its eyes missing?”
“I think it was a he.”
She was distant and shocked.
“Were his eyes missing?”
“I don’t know. I think so. I didn’t want to look.”
“Must have been a breach in the hull. Was he wearing a survival suit?”
“No.”
“Are any of them?”
“What?”
I gently put my hand on her back and led her forward. She resisted only a little. Almost everyone around us had left. The horror had been too much. Something in me told me Salem could handle this. I knew she was made of tougher stuff.
“I need you to look closer. I’m right here. Look carefully around any rips in the hull. What do you see?”
She paused as she concentrated.
“There’s something there. I see it. It’s like tiny bits of debris around a big gash in the side of the ship. It’s… oh. Oh God.”
I felt her gasp within her ribcage rather than heard it. The inhalation of air felt like it was going to break her bones. I knew the second she saw it, and I cursed myself for making her stay to look.
“Oh God, they’re bodies. There must be hundreds…thousands maybe. They are all dead. All of them.”
There were Metal Heads at the door to the med lab when we got there, but one flash of Salem’s breasts distracted them long enough for us to run past them. I had a moment where I thanked the stars above they had not posted women at the door. I burst into the med lab with Salem at my heels, replacing her shirt as we went.
“Dr. Mellar!”
A voice answered me off to the far right.
“Ah, Mr. Killer. What can I do for you?”
The voice was moving, so I could tell he was approaching me.
“I want to speak with the survivor. Tio was her name? I want to talk with her.”
“Why?”
“Have you looked out any of windows? The Icarus is dead. Everyone on that ship is dead. Tio is the only survivor.”
“I am aware of that, sir.”
“Have you questioned her?”
“Yes I have. I am not a moron, but the girl is, I am afraid.”
“What do you mean?”
“The trauma of the experience has pickled her mind. She is in shock. Everything that comes out of her mouth is garbage. Tio makes no sense. Every attempt to reach her has been met with riddles and childish banter.”
“Really?”
“Yes, now if you excuse me, I have some serious work to accomplish. I have to program the drones to go scout the wreckage of the Icarus. Since Miss Crass cannot help us, we will have to investigate.”
I was losing this battle. I was losing this battle, and Salem needed me.
“Let me talk to her.”
“What?”
“She said she knew me. You saw that. Maybe she will talk to me.”
There was a skeptical silence. I could almost hear his brain mulling this over. His breath was uneven. Despite his calm tone, he was afraid underneath.
“I told you that you saving my life was going to earn you no more favors.”
“It’s not a favor. I want to help. Besides, if she is useless, what could it possible hurt?”
Another silence followed, this one was not nearly as skeptical.
“Alright, you can talk to her. See what you two can glean from the basket case. Be mindful I won’t accept riddles as fact.”
“Consider me warned.”
“Guard, take this man and his companion to Tio’s room.”
We were escorted through med lab and into a quiet room in the far corner. Even the locked door was silent save for the muffled click of the lock releasing as the guard opened it for us. Inside the room, the air was different. It was calm and quiet, but I could feel her. She was here, hiding in the shadows.
“Tio, you have visitors,” said the guard far too loudly.
There was the tiniest shuffling of feet in a far corner and then nothing.
“Listen you two, this bitch gives me the fucking creeps, so if it’s all the same to you, I’m gonna just make my escape and lock you in here with her. Yell real loud if stuff gets nasty.”
“Uh sure. Thanks?”
“Don’t mention it.”
The Metal Head left us, and I heard the muffled slam and click of the locked door. Then, there was silence. An uncomfortable, stirring silence. Salem was right behind me holding my hand, but I couldn’t gauge where Tio was.
“Where is she?” I asked.
“Directly in front of you. Ten paces. She’s looking at us,” whispered Salem.
I faced due front and addressed the silent space.
“Tio, do you know me?”
Salem yelped behind me, and I heard the lightest breath only a few paces away. Tio must have moved very quickly and very silently closer to us. I didn’t even hear her footfalls. That notion alone worried me. A person had to be awfully quiet for me not to hear them.
“Tio, do you know me?”
“Of course I know you, Mr. Rabbit. You are the one we all seem to follow down the bunny hole. Naughty, naughty you are.”
I wasn’t sure what this meant, so I continued.
“Tio, I am a friend, and this is my friend, Salem. She is very nice. We would love to talk to you, if you don’t mind.”
“They all want to talk to me now. All of them. I have precious knowledge. The funny thing is I’m the only one. I’m the only one. They want to talk, but that’s the only reason. No one wants to just see how I am.”
That made more sense. I decided to press again.
“We just want to know what happened to you. What happened to your ship?”
I sensed a quick movement, and Salem backed away from me suddenly. She didn’t let go of my hand, but the jerk reaction told me Tio was now only inches from my face. This girl was fast. She was faster than most I had known.
“Things happened. Things didn’t make sense. But I knew. I knew the stars and the planets and the world of things. Dragons don’t fool me. I saw what was happening. I saw the world turn. When the world turns, you fucking run. So you know what I mean. You run. I closed my eyes, and there was the sign of all things to end. I ran the way you do when you see things. You see things no one believes, so you keep quiet. The dragons know though. They always do. You cut the throat, and they show you everything. All you have to do is cut the throat.”
She was inches from my face. Her fingertips lightly tapped against my chin as she spoke. It was unnerving, but I tried not to show my discomfort. Salem’s frightened breath continued just behind me.
“You are uncomfortable with me. I know. I know all the things. I’m too close. I’ll move away. Things tell me. I’m sorry.”
She took a few steps backwards, and I suddenly got a full picture of what was happening. The garbled words she had said before suddenly made more sense. It was like a beam of sunlight shining through an overcast day. Beneath the riddles and nonsense, there was a meaning.
“Salem, leave us now and get the doctor.”
“What?”
“Do it now. Go and get the doctor. Tell him I know what happened. Hurry up.”
“Ah,” said Tio. “Mr. Rabbit knows the path now. All are welcome to stay, but only the rabbit can follow the lead to the real truth.”
Chapter Seventeen
“It was the dragons.”
“Come again?”
“You heard me. The dragons took down the Icarus.”
Tio was quiet and sitting off in the corner of the room. She didn’t seem to want to talk as soon as the doctor entered the room. I heard her shift away and move the second he entered with two Metal Heads by his side.
“That’s impossible.”
“Why is it impossible?”
“Because they have no real mass we can detect. We’ve been receiving reports from the Icarus since they first encountered the dragons. They have been studying the entities for weeks. They don’t seem to have any real mass. You can send drones and they fly right through them. I’ve seen the footage. The dragons seem to have a general form, but no mass. They just float around that huge rock, docile as plants.”
“Rock? That rock is not a rock. It wasn’t just a rock. It’s a rock now,” said Tio agitated from her corner.
“I’ll help her,” said Salem.
She walked over to her and sat down next to her. I could hear her comforting coos as she rubbed the girl’s back.
“Dr. Mellar, Tio told us the dragons did this.”
“She did, did she? In those words or was it in one of her riddles?”
I stood still for a moment. This was going to be a hard sell.
“She’s a psyche.”
“A what?”
“She’s a psyche, and the trauma of her experience has caused her current condition.”
“That’s impossible. The military doesn’t allow psyches in their units.”
“Maybe she hid it, or maybe it was lying dormant until the trauma brought it out. Either way, I can prove she’s a psyche.”
“Alright then, prove it.”
“Your pen, please.”
The air around him already told me he didn’t believe any of this was true. I would have to be very convincing. He handed me a pen, and I wrote an equation on my hand.
“Forty-two,” answered Tio from her corner.
I held out my hand to the doctor. He saw the equation I wrote on my hand was eight plus thirty-four. He sighed in frustration. I tried not to smile.
“Okay, she might be a psyche, but that still doesn’t prove her ramblings mean anything. It still doesn’t mean the dragons did this. We have had the Icarus positioned next to them for weeks with no incidents. Why would the dragons attack it now?”
“Perhaps they did something that made the dragons feel threatened? I mean, where are they now? They aren’t here. If there was a struggle, it would make sense they would flee afterwards.”
“The blues and greens are fine,” interrupted Tio. “They are kind and sweet. Pretty, pretty blues. It’s the reds you have to run from. Reds are hungry. They come from nowhere.”
“See. What the hell is that supposed to mean? Everything that comes out of her mouth is a riddle or just nonsense. I thank you for your input, sir, but I am not going to abort this mission based on the ramblings of one psyche girl.”
“What about the dragons?”
“We will finish our drone surveillance on the Icarus, notify Artemis they need to supply us with a recovery vessel, and use the dragon’s energy signature to find where they’ve moved.”
“Understood.”
There was nothing to do about it. The best course was to go along with his plan. If I argued, he would shut me out of the med lab, and we needed free reign of this place and the dozen or so survival suits I knew to be housed here. All med labs had them.
“Smart, Mr. Rabbit,” whispered Tio.
Dr. Mellar sighed deeply at the girl he didn’t understand.
“You may stay and visit with her. She seems to like you two. If you get anything that makes any sense, let me know.”
“We will. Thank you.”
He left with his guards, and then there was just the three of us. I walked over to where I last heard the two women and sat beside them. We were quiet there for a while, not knowing what to say. I supposed with Tio in the room, we didn’t need to say anything.
“I saw an escape pod docking bay near the observation level. It was through the corridor that led to the galley. Looked like there were several pods docked there,” said Salem.
“There should be escape pods docked in groups all over the ship like that. That’s the closest one you’ve seen?”
“Yes. I’m sure there’s more in the sectors civilians aren’t allowed, but that one I remember perfectly. We could duck out tonight. Those things can hold up to half a dozen people. We can come get Tio, and—”
“You would steal me? You would bring me, too? Even though you are afraid of me?”
“I’m not afraid of you,” whispered Salem.
“You are a little.”
“Alright, I am a little, but it doesn’t mean I would leave you. You warned us, and in my book, it means you come with us. You could do it tonight, Shadow Man.”
“No, not tonight. They would see the escape pod leaving. If an unauthorized pod leaves, alarms sound. Metal Heads would be on us in seconds, and even if we got away, they’d just send drones out to collect us and bring us back. If we left tonight, by morning we’d all be locked up.”
“Then, what do we do?”
“Listen, let’s stay vigilant. At the first sign of trouble, we come get Tio and take a pod in the confusion.”
Silence filled the air between us for a while. We all felt helpless.
“Tio, do you know where the dragons went?”
“Yes.”
“Where did they go?”
“They are here. They’ve always been here.”
; “They’re here? But Tio, there’s nothing out there,” whispered Salem.
“Wait. Only a moment of wait. Oh Rabbit, it’s coming back. You’d better hop down that rabbit hole.”
“Tio, we need you to not go all Alice in fucking Wonderland on us now. Come on dear, we need you to make some sense,” said Salem.
I wondered if Salem was going to shake the girl.
“They’re here. Here, here. You’ll see soon.”
“How long, Tio?”
“Ten, nine, eight…”
“Salem, go to the window. Watch for it.”
“Watch for what?”
“Six, five, four…”
“Anything new. Please, go to the window. Tell me what you see.”
“Three, two, one.”
“Oh God. Oh my God. Where did that come from?”
Chapter Eighteen
I had no problem getting a description of the dragons in the following days. Everyone wanted to give me their opinion of what they looked like. Beautiful is what just about everyone said, even the scientists. Some called them heavenly sea horses. Others said they looked more like jelly fish, the ones that lived in the deepest dark parts of the ocean because of their iridescent glow and pockets of glowing lights. Salem said she could see a face in a part that looked like a head. Other passengers said there was no face. They were only the vibrant blue green tentacles and lights that made up its amoebic form.
There were two distinct dragons, a large one and a smaller one. Everyone speculated as to what they were to one another. Were they a couple? Was this a mating place? Did they mate? Were they a mother and child? Was this area of space a nursery for them?
The religious speculated one was the Alpha and the other the Omega. Their chants and prayers rang throughout the corridors day and night. There was a constant vigil of worshippers on the observation deck. They seemed to take shifts. It became a challenge between them. Who could take the longest shift without sleep? Who could stand watch and pray the longest before taking any food? It was as if the more they tortured themselves, the closer they felt to the dragons floating just outside the ship.
By the fourth day, Tio would not to look at the window at all. I knew she had more reason than any of us to be afraid. Only the three of us had any idea of the danger we courted with these beings. She knew better than anyone. Luckily, the longer we were with her, the more she relaxed and the more sense she made.
Vacuum (The Cataclysm Series Book 1) Page 7