Laughing at himself, he embarked again on his quest to find the train terminal. How could he be so superstitious? Living in the midst of all those graves for so long had messed with his head. That much was certain. He was convinced of it, and that’s why he was so shocked at what he heard next.
“Run, Crane! Run! But you know you can’t hide!”
He spun to find Broders in life-sized detail, eyes wide, an accusing finger pointed his direction. Harvey’s lungs failed him at that moment, when the ghostly projection seemed to soar from its normal limited range and came straight at him.
Harvey twirled on his heels and started running. His lack of energy didn’t matter anymore. To his right, the bluish glow of another holomemorial began to shine. The faint outline of a human form. Before he took another step, the figure came into full resolution. A woman, old and feeble, but in her mannerisms she was all business. She snapped her stare at Harvey and he froze. Her eyes were both ice cold and on fire at the same time, and her voice made his flesh curl.
“Hello, Harvey,” she said with a hostile smile. “We’ve been waiting for you!”
Harvey was too scared to do anything but run. So he ran, so fast and so far his legs felt like jelly, his lungs like burning coals in his chest. A low air alert grew louder and louder in his ears, but he paid it no mind. He had no choice, no ability to stop.
The suit’s batteries were failing, along with its air supply, and the more he exerted himself, the less likely he would make it to the terminal. Still, he ran, on complete autopilot, a slave to his own debilitating fear. Stride after stride he went, ignoring the alarms screaming at him to stop, ignoring his own muscles transforming to mush. He ignored everything, even the toppled headstone in front of him, thinking he could jump over it. He thought wrong. When he leapt, the tip of his left boot caught just so, taking him to the gritty ground.
All he saw was darkness. But then he saw something else. A light, glowing in a curious way, surrounded by glare. He knew it was one of those haunted holomemorials, coming to get him. He knew they wanted to keep him there, and he fought to summon the energy for his escape.
Negative. His legs wouldn’t work. His arms were shot. His lungs felt like they’d collapsed. As the last of the air and the remaining few watts of power wound down, the approaching light grew so bright he could see nothing else. He expected something sinister. But instead of a surly old ghoul, bent on sucking the life force out of him, it was the headlamps of a…a PMD!
He rejoiced with a silent prayer of thanks. Then confusion set in. Though some PMDs had automation capabilities, the ones on Cemetery Planet did not. Not cost effective for DeepSix. Did he mention they were cheap? He didn’t have time for questions. His suit’s systems were beyond dangerously low. Fortunately, the PMD had an umbilical that he could plug in and recharge. He did so immediately, and breathed in a big, well-received lungful of canned and stale, yet perfectly suitable air. Hoisting himself onto the seat, he noticed the coordinates had already been set, and the PMD started off in a south by southwestern direction. Before he could think about how and why, the display screen lit up, and a fresh and friendly face appeared.
“Lea,” he breathed deeply once again, feeling the weight of a million worries melt away at the sight of her.
3.
“DeepSix, this is an urgent message from Harvey Crane, Cemetery Planet caretaker number 1830. Interstellar shuttle has disintegrated. Escape pod has returned me to Cemetery Planet. Awaiting word on my course of action. Please advise. What the hell am I supposed to do!”
Harvey filed his report right away, though he was sure they knew about the shuttle being lost, and was also sure they were sending an alternate shuttle, or something, to get him off this godforsaken planet.
The train’s computer had all the functions as any other, and should have worked just fine to get the message out. Only it didn’t seem to get the message out.
“Something’s wrong,” he said aloud.
“What is it?” Lea’s faint visage fluctuated on the screen.
“They’re not answering. Something’s wrong.”
“Maybe it just takes a little time to get the message to them. We are light years away, aren’t we?”
“That might have been a problem eight hundred years ago. The ionic stream allows for real-time messaging, across almost unfathomable distances. No, something’s wrong, and I don’t like it one bit.”
“Communication is out,” Lea said. “And the shuttle…it was in the ionic stream when it was destroyed, right?”
“Yes, why?”
“Maybe it has something to do with this ionic stream itself. Maybe something’s happening to it.”
“It can’t be,” he said. “Nothing like this has ever happened before. The stream has always been reliable. This doesn’t make sense.”
He couldn’t get it off his mind the whole trip back to the visitor station, which took quite a chunk of time. Zone 6 was about as remote as it could get on an already remote planet, and every kilometer the maglev train put between it and Harvey was a little less he had to worry. Never again did he want to go back to Zone 6, and he vowed he never would.
The ride to the visitor station brought up a whole new set of concerns. The alien predator was dead, but it could have friends. Vindictive friends. That thought left Harvey positively wrecked. However, he had no alternative, and instead of allowing it to consume him with fear, he let Lea’s soft voice soothe him. She spoke of her life, her childhood in Northern California, and how her mother and father divorced when she was very young. He sat in the observation deck, in his favorite chair, and let her words lull him to sleep.
Upon arrival at the visitor station, Harvey woke up to an audio and video alarm. He gave the voice command for the message to play, and a robotic voice read:
DeepSix Command to Harvey Crane. Received message about your circumstances but cannot send alternate shuttle. Ionic stream experiencing unprecedented fluctuations. No indications how soon abnormalities will subside. In meantime, you are ordered to follow protocol and return Cemetery Planet to full working order. Restore disturbed gravesites. Implement any and every repair necessary to infrastructure. Most importantly, dispose of extraterrestrial remains by means of incineration and burial. DO NOT, repeat DO NOT examine extraterrestrial organism. Risk of disease too great. You are to begin immediately. Bonus pay is one billion geos. DeepSix out.
“Those bastards!” he slammed the armrests. “They can’t do this!”
“Harvey, try to relax,” Lea faded onto the screen. “Getting upset about it doesn’t help. We’ll get through this.”
“But they want me to risk my life out there,” he couldn’t look, but the train terminal sat directly adjacent to Section A-1, where most of the graves had been exhumed and where the piles of bones were most grotesque. “There’s no telling how many more of those-those monsters are out there. The damn sensors don’t pick them up.”
“Then don’t do it,” she said indignantly. “You said it yourself. Screw those DeepSix bastards. What are they going to do, come and fire you? Kick you off the planet?”
They both laughed at that.
“You’re right,” he puffed his chest. “I’m not doing it!”
“Right!”
“I mean, can you imagine? They actually want me to go out there…with that alien. No way!”
“No way!” Lea imitated him.
“And those graves the damn thing dug up…do you realize how much work that’s gonna be? Sorting through all those bones? That’ll take forever! Forget it!”
“Forget it,” she agreed.
Then Harvey reread the message from DeepSix, particularly the part about the one billion geo bonus.
“Then again,” he pursed his lips. “I could use that billion. Imagine that. Me with a billion geos. I could finally get an autoserve of my own. One that I can program to make a decent bowl of ice cream.”
“Money isn’t everything, you know,” Lea’s image became sharper in
the display.
“That’s easy for you to say,” he answered her. “You’re a…well, you know.”
“A what? Say it, Harvey.”
“A spirit.”
“And does that make you feel any different about me?”
“No, no! Of course not,” he raised his palms. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then what did you mean?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted.
She appeared even brighter, sharper, as she spoke her next words.
“I don’t know either, Harvey. I don’t know what’s happening, why you’re still here, or why I’m here for that matter. I don’t know why I’m able to talk to you and be near you and…and…” she hesitated. Harvey wanted to say something. More than that, he wanted to be closer to her, touch her. What she said next only made his feelings stronger.
“Neither of us knows what fate has in store, but one thing is clear. Fate has brought us together, and for that I’ll be eternally grateful. I’m a spirit. But you’re a spirit too. We both are. This planet is forbidding and horribly, horribly lonely. But we’re here together. We have each other.”
Lea’s declaration put a smile on chapped lips. When he gazed into her smoldering eyes, everything dissolved away. No more DeepSix. No more jumbled mess of corpses. No alien threat. No lonely and monotonous existence on a forgotten rock in a forgotten part of the galaxy. Lea was right. They had each other, and, as he allowed himself to think about it, he felt like he could conquer just about anything that was thrown at him as long as she was with him, as long as she loved him. He considered this his finest moment, and couldn’t think of anywhere else he’d rather be.
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“You know what?” he said. “I know DeepSix doesn’t deserve this, but dammit, I take pride in my work. Hell with it. I’m not going to shirk my duties.”
“What are you talking about?” she sounded nervous. “You’re not talking about going out there, are you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. I’m the caretaker on this planet. It’s my job to take care of the residents here. That’s what I’m going to do!”
“Then I’m going with you,” she insisted.
“Lea, my dear. There’s nothing I would enjoy more.”
4.
DNA scan complete. Skeletal remains identified. Gordano Roma. Plot number 456853. All remains present and accounted for. Okay to commence reburial?
“Okay,” Harvey gave the verbal command, and the digger, a brute of a machine if there ever was one, began burying the skeleton of Mr. Roma. Harvey couldn’t help but notice the job was a lot easier than he’d expected.
“This is really strange,” he let his sights roam across the gently sloping valley. Grave after grave after grave had been opened, violated, molested.
“Strange doesn’t even begin to cover it,” Lea said. Harvey heard and saw her in his helmet’s communication system.
“No. I mean the bones look like they’ve been thrown around randomly, but that’s not the case. They’ve all been placed in piles pretty carefully, as if that alien was…”
“Was what?”
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “When I first saw the alien had dug up all these graves, I thought maybe it was eating them. But now, looking closer, it just doesn’t make sense. The bones aren’t damaged in any way. In fact it seemed quite the opposite, almost like they’ve been handled meticulously,” he scanned the piles of bones. What at first appeared an unorganized jumble was actually a thorough inventory of each site.
“You know what?” he said. “This reminds me of the kind of work an archeologist does. Careful and detailed. A scientific research study. That’s the impression I’m getting.”
“I don’t think so, Harvey. If that alien was only doing research, then why did it try to attack you?”
He had no answer to that. His only solution was an examination of the alien’s corpse.
He decided to operate the digger on manual and take care of the dead ET himself, against DeepSix’s orders, against Lea’s protestations, and against his own better judgment. He couldn’t help it. Curiosity was in control now, and he let that curiosity get the best of him when he rolled to the other side of the space elevator and, with the digger’s massive jaws, scooped up the alien.
“DNA scan,” he commanded the computer.
“What are you doing that for?” Lea asked. She sounded curious too.
“Just checking something.”
“Well I wish you’d just bury the damn thing. It gives me the creeps.”
“Just hold on,” he said. The computer signaled that the DNA scan results were imminent.
Scan complete. Results negative. Life forms negative.
“Life forms negative!” he pounded the steering controls. “How can you keep telling me there are no life forms when the damn thing is right here…it’s right here!”
“Harvey,” Lea was serene and sweet. “Please don’t get excited.”
“No!” he slammed the switch that opened the hatch. “I’m tired of these damn scanners always screwing up!”
Harvey climbed out the hatch and made his way to the front where the alien’s leg, crushed and lifeless, dangled over the edge of the big metal jaws. Lea was in his helmet, and begged him to stay away from this thing. But he couldn’t stop. He had to know. The riddle of this mysterious alien was driving him mad, and the solution was right in front of him.
He inched ahead, suddenly reticent at the sight of the scaly and muscular limb. A thick, strangely-colored hide covered the contours and sinew of the deceptively large creature. Harvey could only picture the thing in all its living splendor, rising over him and wielding its razor-sharp talons. In that split second he was back in the moment, when he’d nearly lost his life to this savage and mysterious beast. Now he just wanted to know what this thing was, and swallowed down his terror long enough to peel back an area of its torn flesh. Maybe with a look at its soft tissue, Harvey could determine something about it.
But he didn’t see soft tissue. No bone either. What he did see shook him to his foundations. Optic fibers. Actuators. Metal components. Circuitry. The thing was artificial. A machine made to look like an extraterrestrial being. An alien cyborg.
5.
Over the next several days, Harvey pondered the odd finding. The alien being was no being after all. The first and most obvious question the discovery raised was—who? Who owned the machine? Who built it? And who sent it to exhume those graves and, ultimately, try to kill Harvey? Who? That question he mulled over again and again, and the dearth of answers was starting to make him paranoid. His only solution—work.
And there was no shortage of work.
He spent a good amount of time overseeing the reburials of nearly four thousand residents of Cemetery Planet. The automated machines took care of most of the groundwork, so to speak, though he did get down in the dirt on many occasions, manually operating a digger, overseeing the DNA scans and making damn sure the right bodies were being placed in the right graves. It was a round-the-clock operation, and Harvey took almost no time off, never letting his mind or body go idle for even a moment. If he did, he knew where his thoughts would turn—to the myriad unanswered riddles surrounding him like a fog.
Along with cleaning up the gravesites, there was much work to be done on, in, and around the visitor station. The main power generators still needed attention, and after what that robotic monster did to it, Harvey needed to give it quite a lot of care before he got it running at peak capacity. One good thing, the life support and air-conditioning systems only needed minor repairs.
Lea helped more than he could ever measure by just being there. She appeared to him most times over the computer terminals which were ubiquitous throughout the station. At times, only rarely, she materialized out of thin air, manifesting as a blurry medley of color and light and prismatic shapes.
Of course she didn’t follow him every second of every day.
There were those hours, usually when she thought he was sleeping, when she would go off somewhere and leave him alone with his thoughts. He spent that time working on something special. Something he knew both he and Lea would appreciate. It took him several days of lost sleep, and he had to actually lie to her once, only it was a white lie, and he knew she’d forgive him…once she saw.
After a week of preparation, gutting the old architecture to bare metal, starting basically from scratch, recreating and recovering every last qubit of data. After rebuilding every centimeter, faithfully restoring every optic fiber, every nanoconnection, he was ready.
Cemetery Planet: The Complete Series Page 6