The Disciple and Other Stories of the Paranormal

by Jemma Chase

  “Of course, there’s only one way to get where you want to go, at least so far as I know.” I didn’t relish dying, but after being with and then without Ruby, if that was how I stayed with her, dying it would be.

  She shook her head with a sigh. “No. There are…other ways.” She dug a cell phone out of her backpack. “Making the call no one wants to make.” I raised my eyebrow as she hit 666. “Daddy? Yes, I’m fine. Freezing, but fine. Daddy…you were right. I don’t much like it here. I want to come home, and I’ve been trying to find the way by myself, but I can’t.”

  She looked at me. “Yes. Yes, I do. But…” Ruby looked worried. Then she brightened. “Really? Oh, thank you, Daddy! You’re the best! Yes, I love you, too. See you soon!”

  Ruby hung up. “Daddy says he can give you special dispensation.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “You don’t have to die, or cover all of the sins, or anything like that. You can just choose to come with me. Under one condition.”

  “And that is?”

  “The same condition my mother went under.”

  I thought about it. “She fell in love with the Devil himself?”

  “Daddy’s really charming, and not like most of the stories say. But yes, she did. And he took her home and married her, they had me, and the rest you know.”

  “So I’d have to marry you?”

  “And agree to carry on the family business when Daddy retires.” Ruby looked a little worried. “I was supposed to, but I’m not good at it. But Daddy says his replacement can marry in and carry on.”

  I contemplated my options again. I could drive away like the Devil himself was after me, because he was, or I could marry the daughter of the Devil himself. “Do you wear a lot of clothes when you’re at home?”

  “No, not really. I’m comfortable there.”

  Hell really isn’t like they say, at least not for me. Sure, there are some suffering there, but they deserve it. Hell has its purpose, but it also has a whole spectrum who are there simply because they want to be, not because they’re damned.

  Ruby wears almost nothing here, and that makes me happy. One day, one of our children will wander up to Earth, to try to find a better place to live. He or she won’t succeed, will find someone, and bring them back here. At least, that’s what Ol’ Nick says happens every time. He’s the umpteen-times-great grandson of the original, after all, so I guess he’d know.

  I’m suited to the job. It’s easy to spot what people try to hide. But I’d stay here even if I wasn’t. There may be no place hotter than Hell, but there’s also no place else Ruby can live, and as long as she’s with me, Hell’s a paradise.

  WAITING

  The ship floated in space. Systems were shut down, all but the beacon. Nothing else needed power or protection from the vast emptiness.

  The ship floated patiently. Waiting.

  Helene checked the systems. Only a few days away from Earth Solar now. She was in the dead zone – no solar systems, no asteroids, not even any passing comets. Just dark, empty space.

  She stretched, made sure the autopilot was on and all sensors set to identify the smallest issue, stood, stretched some more, then headed back to the galley. She made herself a bowl of noodles. Dull and tasteless, but cheap. She needed to be cheap.

  Her only companion stirred. His eyes glowed red. “Ah. Helene. Do you require assistance?”

  “No. You can power down again.”

  “How long now?”

  “Tired of waiting, Bin?”

  “I’m a machine. I don’t grow tired.”

  “Bored, then?”

  “Not bored, either. I’m not programmed for boredom. That’s a human thing.”

  “True.” Helene cleaned the bowl and put it away. She went to her bunk and turned on the holograph. The picture was grainy – it had traveled a long distance. She stared at the image as the sound came on.

  “…as you can see, your husband remains healthy within our correctional facility.”

  Ric didn’t look healthy. Every time she saw him, he looked a little thinner, a little more haggard. A little more desperate and ready to die, both. He was still handsome, still looked strong, though not as strong as he had been. Helene wondered what he’d think she looked like now. She was more muscled than when he’d been arrested, but she didn’t look in mirrors too often. There was no reason out here in the emptiness.

  “We commend you for your recent salvage. In due time, your account will be brought to rights and your husband will be freed.” It had been three years so far. They’d given her a decent, one-man and one-robot ship and simple orders – find all the useful scrap or salvage she could on the outer reaches of space, bring them back to Earth. Earn enough, get your husband, and your life, back.

  “We are waiting for your next delivery with much anticipation. You are by far our best salvage expert. We would be willing to offer you a permanent position once your debts are paid. We will wait for your reply.”

  Waiting. It was all she and Ric had done for three years. The Earth government could wait for their answer. She wasn’t in a position to give them the answer she wanted.

  Helene went back to the bridge. Bin followed. She checked the sensors. Nothing. She boosted the reach. She had almost enough in her cargo bay. But interest added onto the debt and she figured she needed more than almost or just enough. She needed something big, something that would force Earth to clear their debt and let Ric go.

  “Nothing.” She sighed. “I’m tired of waiting, Bin.”

  “I understand.” He put a metal hand on her shoulder.

  The ship’s autopilot program spoke. “Faint signal discovered, rimwards.”

  “Boost further, all power towards the sound,” Helene said. She listened. “That sounds like…a distress signal.”

  She and Bin looked at each other. “Who would be out this far?” Bin asked.

  “Another scavenger, maybe.” She wasn’t the only one pressed into this service, after all.

  “Could be a pirate trap.”

  “Could be, but what kind of pirate would be out here?”

  “Records indicate ancient Earth myths feel ships will be on the edges,” Bin replied.

  “What kinds of ships?”

  “Dangerous ones. Manned by…Dutch men?” They both exchanged a look. “Myths are usually based in some fact,” Bin said. It didn’t sound defensive, but that level of programming was beyond the kind of robot Earth had given her. She chuckled anyway. “Or,” Bin added, “stranded ones, those that have already been attacked.”

  “Or other ships that have misjudged their power charges.” She shook her head. “I wouldn’t want to be waiting out here near the galactic rim for help.”

  She programmed the computer to lock onto the signal and head towards it, but to stop outside of laser cannon range. Then she settled into the pilot’s chair, leaned back, and went to sleep.

  A persistent beeping woke her up. “Coming up on distressed spacer,” the autopilot advised.

  Helene rubbed her eyes and flipped controls to manual. She cut engines and drifted towards their target. Sensors showed nothing but the one ship. “No traps,” she murmured.

  “Doesn’t mean there aren’t any,” Bin reminded her. “Just none we can discern.”

  “Well, the ship could be the trap.”

  “True. What do you propose to do?”

  “See who’s there.” She turned on the space transmitter. “Hailing stranded ship in far Earth System solar space. What is your status?” There was no answer, only static. “Repeat, hailing stranded ship in far Earth System solar space. What is your status? Do you require aid?”

  “Helene, I’m scanning the ship. There seem to be no life forms on board and systems appear shut down.”

  “Down completely or just running silent or in power conservation mode?”

  “As far as I can discern, the only power is going to the beacon.”

  “Connect ship to ship?” the autopilot a
sked.

  Helene drummed her fingers against the chair’s arm. “Not yet.” She considered her options. It could be a trap and it could be a trap set by anyone. It could be a crew stranded, probably desperate, possibly dead or dying, maybe alive but suspended, to conserve power. Or it could be what it seemed – salvage, a way to sum up the debt and stop waiting for her life to begin again.

  “I hate choices like this. So let’s belay it for a bit.” She started the engines. “We’ll get closer. Bin, you man things, take us out at the slightest indication it’s a trap of some kind. I’m getting into gear.”

  Helene left the bridge and headed to the locker that held the spacesuits. She had more than one – scavenging wasn’t always simple or easy and you didn’t want to be out here alone without a spacesuit. The wait for rescue could be much longer than your life.

  She considered this as she carefully pulled the spacesuit on. If this ship was what its beacon indicated – a ship in need – then the chances were great that she’d find people in need of rescue. That wouldn’t win her anything with the Earth government. It wouldn’t lose her anything, but if there were living occupants, this wouldn’t count as salvage, it would count as rescue, and Earth would expect those rescued to reward her, not them.

  “Bin, what’s our status?”

  “Nothing has triggered, so no traps around the unidentified vessel. We’re now close enough for visual confirmation and identification. No markings on the ship.”

  “None whatsoever?”

  “None that are discernable. It looks like there may have been at one time, but they’ve been eroded, most likely by asteroids – the ship has signs of extensive external damage.”

  “Hull breach?”

  “None that are obvious, at least to our scans. I’ve run the schematic through the computer – it’s not a military ship. It’s not an active ship of any kind.”

  “What kind of inactive ship is it?” There was no answer. “Bin? What kind of ship is this?”

  “Earth class, pre-expansion.” Bin wasn’t programmed to show vocal expressions of any kind, but she knew he would have sounded awed if he was able.

  Helene felt an electric shock run through her. “That’s impossible. There are no pre-expansion Earth ships still in existence.” There were expansion ships on display on Earth and in some of the older colonized planets’ museums. But there was nothing that could honestly be said to be pre-expansion. If Bin was correct, they had the potential salvage of the ages in front of them.

  “Well, there’s one in existence. And we’re floating next to it.”

  “Now that we’re closer, can you determine if there are any life forms aboard?”

  “No. There’s some interference.

  “What kind of interference?”

  “So far, have been unable to determine.” Bin was quiet for a few moments. “I believe it could be a simple reason. The vessel is so old that its systems don’t work with ours. We can’t read or communicate with it because our technology is so far advanced.”

  “That makes some sense.” New considerations arose. “Think there are people on this ship that might attack us?”

  “Only if they could live for hundreds of years. It’s possible, but unlikely. Historicals indicate this type of ship held a crew of eight. That’s probably too few to breed throughout the centuries.”

  “Keep scanning. Let’s be as certain as we can that no attack’s coming. Also, look for how we’d link ship to ship.”

  Helene didn’t believe there could really be someone alive, not on a pre-expansion ship. However, she’d come across scavengers who’d been abandoned by their fellow spacers, for a variety of reasons. She didn’t want to make the discovery of a lifetime and be tricked out of claiming it, or worse.

  “Bin, send a transmission to Earth. Itemize and register all our current cargo on board. Once that’s confirmed, send them the information on the derelict. Ensure it registers as our claim.”

  “We’ll have to connect it ship to ship to ensure the claim is viewed as valid. I will need to provide proof it’s in your possession.”

  “Fine. Get our cargo listing over first. By then, I’ll be ready.”

  “Earth has confirmed and registered cargo listing,” Bin advised. “Salvage Affairs would like to speak with you. On com now.”

  This was a rarity. It was possible for Earth to do real-time communications with vessels this far out, but the cost was normally prohibitive.

  The screen in the hold went live. Helene recognized the man’s face. “Hello, Administrator Brennan.” It wasn’t every day the head of Salvage Affairs wanted to chat with her. He must be using an entire year’s communications budget on this transmission.

  He smiled. “Hello, Helene. Have I read your registry report correctly?”

  “Yes. I’m with an ancient pre-expansion vessel.”

  “Have you explored it yet?”

  “No. I wanted to register first. Just in case.”

  Brennan nodded. “Wise. You’re our best for a reason.” Helene didn’t reply to this. “I have everything registered,” he went on. “Please continue to send information as you get it. I will ensure, once you’re confident the ship is returning with you, that it remains a find registered to your account.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate that very much.” She did. It wasn’t unheard of for someone to register a claim and have it appear under someone else’s ownership, but Earth frowned on the practice. By registering all her cargo, she couldn’t sell it elsewhere for a better price, but it also couldn’t be stolen from her and resold to Earth or any of the other planets that had a trade agreement with them. And all the planets in Earth System had those agreements.

  “Keep me posted,” Brennan stressed. “This is extremely exciting, and I can guarantee that your debt will be more than paid with this find.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t believe it wise to tell your husband just yet, though. I believe the anticipation could make the…waiting harder.”

  “I agree. And thank you for your support, Administrator.”

  Brennan smiled. “I won’t press for the answer now, you’re too busy. But truly, let the past be the past and consider a full time position. I can assure you that you’ll get the best pay and benefits possible.”

  “I’ve been considering. And I’ll definitely put thought into it on the way back.” This was true, after all.

  “All we can ask for. Good luck.”

  “To you as well.” The screen went blank. “Bin, how are we doing with ship-to-ship connection?”

  “I have identified where we can attach safely. There is an airlock and our equipment should be able to trigger it.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  She felt the gentle bump that told her the ships had connected. There was a hiss as their outer connecting door opened. “Systems scan in progress,” the autopilot announced. “No toxins identified.”

  Bin joined her. “I’m going with you.”

  “It would be smarter for you to stay here.”

  “I’ve programmed the autopilot for a wide variety of eventualities. I doubt there will be any gravitational systems working, and I have a better chance of reviving the ship’s systems than you do.”

  “And?”

  “And it’s logical that I go to help you.”

  “No, it’s not. But I happen to enjoy this flaw in your programming.”

  “I don’t need a spacesuit, I’m immune to all diseases, and I’m stronger than you.”

  “And programmed for worrying, too.”

  “No, that’s a human trait.”

  “Apparently it’s a robotic trait, too.” The autopilot called the all clear and Helene hit the button to open the inner door. It slid aside. The passage created by their ship’s linking equipment was lit. Nothing else was.

  She and Bin headed towards the waiting darkness.

  Space is nothing but a lot of blackness. Ric had said that frequently. He’d been right. And the derelict was truly a ship of space
.

  Helene had never been inside a ship that was, for all intents and purposes, completely black and dead. The ones planet-side weren’t dead, merely dormant. And they were always lit.

  The ones in space that were derelict were normally not in one piece. No one left an intact spaceship floating aimlessly. They were worth too much. The ones that were whole, or mostly so, weren’t like this ship. Nothing she’d seen was like this ship.

  She’d had to turn on the light in her helmet she normally used only when she was outside the Searcher, and Bin’s eyes were working like headlamps. The three streams of light seemed weak in here, though, as if the darkness was swallowing them up.

  Bin had been correct – there was no gravity system, at least not one that was on. They floated through the ghost ship as if they were floating through space itself.

  “Any sign of life or a way to turn on light?” she asked Bin quietly.

  “Neither so far.”

  They went on, hand over hand in the dark, pulling themselves along. There were handholds welded onto the walls of the corridor they were in. Either there was no gravitation system on the ship, or it had been expected to fail regularly. Helene moved her head so her helmet light shone above her. There were handholds along the roof, too.

  She could have turned on her boots and had them magnetize to the floor. But this ship was ancient and she didn’t want to risk harming it. For all she knew, the magnetic pull of her boots or Bin’s feet would rip the flooring up.

  The darkness meant they needed to move slowly, lest they hit into something and injure either the ship or themselves. So it took some time to reach the bridge. The effort hardly seemed worth the work to get there.

  Two chairs sat in front of an archaic control panel and a windshield that didn’t look nearly thick enough for safety. It certainly wasn’t enhanced with telescopic sight, gelatinous reinforcement, or anything else remotely helpful. It was just thick glass. Helene suppressed a shudder.