Virtual

by S A Pavli

  “We must all get into our space suits now, immediately,” she shouted. “Come, quickly.” She headed for the lift, shepherding them all ahead of her.

  “What’s happening Anja?” asked Leslie, her eyes staring in alarm. The Captain ignored her, gesturing them all into the lift.

  “It’s the alien life forms Doctor,” said the Major, pressing the button to take them down one floor where the space suits were stored. “The Captain thinks we are under attack and they have taken over the ship’s AI.”

  “But how can that be? We scanned for them,” said Leslie plaintively.

  “Maybe our scans are not good enough,” said the Major. He had barely finished talking when he gasped and staggered. His eyes went blank and he collapsed like an empty sack. Leslie was unable to restrain the scream of terror that was torn from her, although in a remote calm corner of her brain she noted that Melanie remained totally composed.

  “Leave him,” shouted Anja as the lift doors whooshed open. “We’ll come back for him later. Doctor, you must get your space suit on first. If we all go under you are the only one who can save us.” Walters staggered and collapsed. They looked on with horror, but Anja urged the others on and they bundled out of the lift at a run and headed for the suit room where Anja grabbed the first suit.

  “You first doctor, now,” she shouted pulling Leslie towards her. LeBlanc gurgled and staggered, then collapsed, his eyes staring and his mouth gaping.

  “Oh my God, oh my God…” moaned Leslie, her hands shaking as she tried to pull on the suit trousers. She felt on the edge of hysteria, and felt her mind going blank. Get a grip Leslie… she thought, but it was the last rational thought to go through her brain before the world of reason disappeared to be replaced by a nightmare world of shapes and shadows, a world in which she lost complete control of her body. Her eyes bulging and her mouth gaping she also collapsed.

  “Damn, damn, damn…!” screamed Anja. She released the slack body of the doctor and fought to put on her space suit, expecting any minute to be struck down. Next to her, Melanie was doggedly pulling on her suit, her face fixed with determination. It seemed to take Anja an eternity to put on the suit, but at last she had the helmet closed and the suits life support turned on. Why did they not take me as well she asked herself. Have I been spared to go through the same nightmare over again? Why is it these things can go through bulkheads but not through the thin fabric of the suit? The suit was made to protect the wearer against high levels of radiation, with magnetised linings to stop charged particles. That must be it, she thought, as she turned to help the less experienced woman finish connecting up her suit. But it was too late, with her suit almost on, Melanie had collapsed, her face a mask of imbecility like the others. Anja moaned in horror, her resolve beginning to crack. She wanted to scream and open her faceplate, invite the things to take her over so that she could sink into an unconsciousness that would blank out the despair and terror.

  “Captain, are you all right?” It was young Jimmy, the only other left standing. He was fully suited, and his voice came over the intercom like a splash of cold water.

  “Bless you Jimmy, yes, let’s go and see how the others are.” She turned quickly away and ran for the lift, with Jimmy close behind her. She avoided looking at the others, the sight of their contorted faces and bodies brought back the horrifying memories of her previous ordeal. We should have left here she thought desperately. We were arrogant to think we could beat these things.

  She exited at the Bridge and one glance told her all she wanted to know. The Captain’s body was sprawled in the pilot’s seat, his head lolling senselessly with Josephine and Andy crouched over him.

  “No point trying to revive him,” said Anja crisply. “What’s the state of the AI?” Andy looked up.

  “It’s down, off line.”

  “Just like the Chameleon,” said Anja. “It’s been infected.” Andy scowled, his rugged face taking on a fearsome expression. If these life forms were human, thought Anja, they would leave now at the sight of that face.

  “How is that possible?” he grated. “We were sure that none came back from the sortie.”

  “Maybe they didn’t,” said Anja thoughtfully. “Look, you two had better get your suits on. Then we can see about reviving the others.” Andy and Jo looked at each other.

  “C’mon baby, let’s get you suited up,” said Andy quickly, grabbing his wife’s hand. She nodded and they left at a run.

  “Jimmy, help me move the Captain,” said Anja. They tried to move the Captain from the pilot’s seat, but he began thrashing wildly and it took all of their combined strength to control him. They moved him into the corridor and sat him against the wall, where he quietened down.

  “That’s how they hurt themselves,” said Anja. “They have no control over their bodies.”

  “How are we going to cure them?” asked Jimmy.

  “In the same way the Doctor cured me. We are going to have to use the defib machine.”

  “I’ve had training in that,” said Jimmy.

  “You have Jimmy? That’s bloody marvellous,” said the Captain.

  “Yeah, we all get it in the military. You never know when you’re going to have to resuscitate a buddy.”

  “God bless the military,” said Anja, occupying the Captain’s seat, her hands flying over the controls.

  “Everything has switched over to the backup systems,” she said eventually. “The ship is safe.” She turned to Jimmy. “Jimmy, go and find the Doctor’s defib machine and get it ready. The quicker we get started the better.”

  With a crisp “Yes Ma’am,” Jimmy leapt up and bounded out of the room. When this is over, I’m going to offer that boy a job, thought Anja. That is if I still have my own ship. Thinking of her ship reminded her of a theory she had been mulling over. She made a careful count in her head. There had been eight infections on her ship, counting herself and the ship’s AI computer. She made the count of those infected on the Bounty Hunter; the AI computer, the Captain and Melanie, that made three. Walters, LeBlanc and the Doctor, that made six. Her infection had been cured, and the Chameleon’s AI was still infected. That made eight. It added up. The aliens had not come up from the moon, they had migrated from the Chameleon. We should never have connected the two ships she thought. They migrated through the air lock. The space suited figures of Andy and Jo appeared at the doorway.

  “Jo, take over the Bridge. Andy, give me a hand to get the Captain down to the medical room. Jimmy is setting up the defibrillator. We are going to have to treat all of them.” She suddenly realised that she had no right to be giving anybody orders. This was not her ship, and with the Captain incapacitated, Andy was the next in line for command. “Andy I apologise. Old habits die hard. You’re acting Captain.”

  “No problem Captain, no time to argue over protocol. You’ve got the Con Jo.” Manhandling the uncoordinated bulk of the Captain into the lift and down to the medical room was not an easy job and Anja could not have done it without Andy’s muscular assistance. In the medical room, Jimmy had Leslie’s prostate form strapped to the medical trolley.

  “Thought we’d do the Doctor first,” he said. “She could take over after that.”

  “She may not be in a fit state to take over Jimmy,” said Andy. “Let’s see how we get on. We’ll do the Captain next.”

  “Now…mmm… there’s only one problem,” said Jimmy hesitantly.

  “Don’t let us down now Jimmy…” said Anja through gritted teeth.

  “I’ll do me best Cap’n, but the problem is that the defib is normally used to resuscitate someone. What happens if you use it on someone who is still alive?” said Jimmy.

  “I see your problem…” said the Captain.

  “I’ll…er, set it on the lowest power setting and see what happens,” continued Jimmy.

  “Perhaps we should read the instructions,” suggested Andy.

  “The instructions tell you how to use it, not when,” said Jimmy. “I know how to use
it.”

  “I knew someone who suffered from irregular heart beat,” said Andy. “Um…atrial fibrillation. The doctors would use the defibrillator to re-sync his heart.”

  “Yep, but I’m worried that you use it one way to defibrillate, and another way to re-start the heart,” said Jimmy. He had undone Leslies blouse to reveal the full swell of her pale breasts.

  “Um…sorry Doc,” muttered Jimmy. He fiddled with the controls on the defibrillator before straightening up. The machine whined and then bleeped. “Ready,” said Jimmy. He placed the paddles on Leslie’s chest, carefully ensuring that they were in the correct position. “Here we go.” There was a thump from the machine and Leslie‘s body convulsed. She lay still and jimmy put the paddles down and peered anxiously into her face. “C’mon Doc, let’s have you,” he muttered, his voice shaking with anxiety. She moaned and her eyes focused on Jimmy, then she turned at looked at the other space suited figures.

  “Doc, how’re you feeling?” asked Jimmy, before realising that Leslie couldn’t hear him. But the question did not have to be asked. Leslie sat up, obviously in full command of her faculties.

  “You didn’t have to undo my blouse Jimmy, you louse,” she said. They heard her through the suits microphones. Anja and Andy laughed in delight, while Jimmy chuckled nervously. “God, I feel like shit,” she said, and promptly lay down again. Anja unclipped and opened her suit visor. The suit electronics beeped and shut down the life support.

  “They interfere with your body’s autonomous processes,” said Anja. “You’re going to feel tired for a bit until your body gets back to normal.” Leslie nodded and then looked with concern at Anja.

  “Why have you opened your visor? There could be more…”

  “I don’t think there are any more of them,” said Anja. “I have a theory.”

  “It had better be a good one,” remarked Leslie. “Jimmy, what setting did you use for the defibrillator?”

  “The lowest one doctor,” said Jimmy. Anja relayed the answer to the doctor.

  “Mmm. Seems to have done the trick,” said Leslie. She spotted Mark for the first time, sprawled on the floor. “Did the Captain…?” she began, then realised the obvious. She levered herself off the bed. “Sorry, I’m being selfish. Let’s do the others.”

  Chapter 17

  Mark did not believe that he had ever been called upon to make a more difficult decision in his life. He paced his room, scowling at the walls as if it was somehow their fault, and muttering to himself. His infestation by the alien organism had left him shaken. Not because the experience itself had been so bad, although he would not want to repeat it, but because of the possible consequences had they all been infected. A rescue ship would not have arrived here for ten days, if not longer. By that time, but for the fortunate circumstance that they had not all been infected, they would all have been dead for sure. The rescuers would have made the gruesome discovery of two starships with their crews all mysteriously dead. He berated himself for not even taking the precaution of logging everything that had happened to at least forewarn them. And they still had an infested ship’s AI. He missed Alden. His omnipresent intelligence had become so second nature that he felt as if a part of himself was missing. The difficult decision he was wrestling with was whether they should abandon their exploration of the planet and its moon as too dangerous. Despite their every precaution, they had still just avoided disaster.

  His responsibility for the safety of his ship, its crew and passengers dictated only one course of action, but like the others, he was not immune to the burning curiosity to explore the alien ruins. Or to the desire to please a certain dark eyed lady he mused, ruefully. He operated the intercom, manually dialling up his systems engineer.

  “Andy, can you meet me on the Bridge?” There was a few seconds delay before the reply came back.

  “Captain, I’m in the Bridge now. Running some checks on Alden.”

  “Anything?” enquired Mark.

  “Dead,” replied Andy shortly. “The AI is down, off line.”

  “OK. Andy, I’m not prepared to continue this mission with our AI disabled. We need some ideas. I’m on my way to the Bridge now.” On his way to the bridge, mark considered calling Melanie to join them, then decided against the idea. This was a technical problem. Andy was immersed in reading computer code when he entered the cockpit. He looked up briefly.

  “This is the result of some diagnostics,” he said, indicating the screen. “There appears to be massive corruption throughout the whole core.”

  “We know it’s due to this alien life form,” said Mark. “How do you think its interfering with the core?”

  “Well, it seems to be an extra random pattern of electrical activity that is superimposed on the normal one. Like two programs trying to use the same hardware, at the same time. The end result is garbage.”

  “It doesn’t make sense,” said Mark. “Electrical activity can’t exist independently. There must be some physical medium.”

  “There must be,” agreed Andy. “We just can’t detect it. For now.”

  “So if there is a physical medium, why are these things trying to take over our brains?” asked Mark.

  “Maybe they’re not,” said Andy. “Maybe, where they come from, merging with other brains is their way of communicating.”

  “If that’s true, then what they’re doing is not inimical. Just their way of communicating,” said Mark.

  “Perhaps,” agreed Andy, giving a vague shake of the head. “Or perhaps not.”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” said Mark. The two men remained scowling at the offending display for a few moments before Mark spoke again.

  “We can’t administer the sort of electric shock to Alden that cured the rest of us?”

  “Put the defibrillator across his metaphorical chest?” asked Andy. Mark grunted his agreement. “That would blow every logic gate in his brain. He may be cured of the alien infestation, but he will be dead.”

  “What if we just turn Alden off?” asked Mark.

  “That may liberate the alien,” said Andy. “Then we’ll have an alien floating free in the ship...” Mark nodded slowly.

  “To occupy the first brain it finds, allowing us to finish it off,” he said, finishing Andy’s sentence.

  “Could work,” agreed Andy. “Nasty experience for somebody.”

  “Nasty, but short,” said Mark. “We’ll soon have them back.”

  “Just as an aside,” began Andy. “If these things are sentient, then every time we zap one, we may be killing it.”

  “Or just persuading it to go away,” said Mark. Andy looked doubtful. “Whatever the case,” continued Mark, “We don’t have much choice. They are interfering with us, not us with them.”

  “If they are trying to communicate with us, they may not actually be aware that they are harming us,” said Andy thoughtfully. Mark was quiet for a few seconds.

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said.

  “Neither had I,” said Andy. “Until now…”

  “Is there any way…” began Mark, pausing to think about what he wanted to say.

  “That we can communicate with them?” asked Andy.

  “Yes,” agreed Mark. “Taking your idea that they are a sort of program without a computer, what if we provide an empty computer for them?” Andy considered this for a few seconds.

  “It might work,” he agreed. “Of course, every program is designed to work on a certain type of hardware. So they may be able to occupy our empty computer, but they wont be able to drive it, if you see what I mean.” Mark nodded his understanding.

  “And even if they could drive it, would we understand their language?” asked Mark. “These are metaphysical creatures, quite different from us. I wonder if we have anything in common?”

  “Quite a lot of ifs,” said Andy. “But I could build an empty computer,” he continued. “We have some spare AI modules which I can assemble into a working brain. Power it up, but don’t load
any program and see what happens.”

  “We’ll put it next to Alden’s brain, then power Alden down and see if the alien moves to our dummy computer,” said Mark. “It’s worth a try. But we’ll also have the Doc standing by in a Space suit ready to administer the defib if the thing takes over one of us.”

  “If we all suit up, the thing will have nowhere else to go,” said Andy.

  “Even better,” agreed Mark. “Let’s do it. Let me know when you have the dummy computer ready Andy.”

  “It’ll take me a couple of hours,” said Andy. Mark clapped him on the back and nodded.

  “I’ll brief the others,” he said, levering himself out of the pilot’s seat and heading for the door. He paused at the communicator and punched out the code for a general announcement.

  “Attention everyone. This is the Captain. Please assemble in the lounge for a meeting in, say ten minutes from now at seventeen hundred.”

  Mark stopped off at his apartment to change into his uniform before making his way to the lounge area. He tried to tell himself that he was just preserving standards, but he knew it was just vanity. Who are you trying to impress he asked himself, and the answer came back immediately from the irritatingly honest voice of his subconscious. He gruffly told it to shut up.

  He was pleased to see the object of his internal debate had arrived early and was deep in discussion with LeBlanc and Walters.

  “Ah..Melanie, James, Ray…” the Captain nodded politely to them, but his eyes strayed that little bit longer on the dark eyes and lustrous hair of the young woman.

  “There’s some fresh coffee…,” she said, eyes flashing in his direction.

  “Great, anybody else…” he asked nonchalantly. They all shook their heads, indicating the full mugs in front of them.

  “We were thinking,” began Melanie, as he moved to the bar to help himself to coffee. “That we should split into two parties, one to continue here on the moon, and the other to go to the planet. We haven’t looked closely at that yet, and if it was the home of the aliens who built this base here, there must be some sign left of their civilisation.”