Surviving The Theseus

by Randy Noble

  With a forced smile on his face, Brett said, “Shuttle bay, engineering, crew’s quarters, four levels of passenger rooms, casino/restaurants/shops level, two sports and leisure levels, an amusement level with more shopping and restaurants, and the observation level.” Brett sensed Mary’s face contorting in defeat.

  Mary composed herself, back to her usual expressionless demeanor, or maybe it had been there the whole time. He didn’t care. “Where is the control room located?” Mary asked him.

  Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! pulsed over and over again in his mind. Distracted by Travis. “Ummmm . . . on the crew’s quarters level.”

  “Well, I guess you have some more studying to do. So get to it and never you mind what sordid tales Travis is creating.”

  Brett scowled at her, looked longingly to his left where Travis started another story, and then back at the control device on his wrist. But now he knew he had some time. Just a little longer. One more story.

  Travis sat in the same column of seats as Mary, two seats back. George sat in front of Travis, facing forward, studying his control device. Paula and John sat across from Travis, facing him as he spoke, both with a smile on their faces. Brett caught all of this when he turned his head left. Neither John nor Paula smoked, because no one but them would tolerate it. Brett tried it once, for a couple weeks, but couldn’t find the thrill in it. He guessed he didn’t have an addictive personality, finding smoking a disgusting habit that he would never understand. But, what he would do is keep it to himself. He learned early on you don’t talk a smoker out of smoking, without them turning into fire breathing dragons.

  “There was this other woman,” Travis said, “you wouldn’t believe.”

  “With you,” Paula said, “I’d believe just about anything.” Brett would have liked to believe anything was possible with Paula, but she liked older guys, and he didn’t think he could handle dating a smoker. Still staring down at his wrist device, he pictured her giving her head a little shake and blowing her silky, shoulder length, dark hair out of her face as she set in to listen to Travis. On second thought, he figured sex would not be out of the question, not by his standards, even if she smoked.

  “Well, you let me know what you think after I tell you what happened,” Travis said, probably winking at Paula, as he was apt to do regardless of the gender he spoke to.

  “Hey, no hitting on my partner,” John said. Brett smiled, knowing he hit the nail on the head. John almost never got pissed off so the response was genial; likely a smile came with it.

  Brett dared a look just as Travis kissed the air towards John, who, even though higher in rank than Travis, just shook his head and smiled. Travis said, “I was eating this chick out one time, and she was really into it, because -- well -- I really know how to pleasure a woman.”

  Brett whipped his head back, not missing the irritated glare from Mary, probably partly irritated at him and at Travis’s stories.

  “All right, Casanova, on with it already,” Paula said.

  “Just thought you should know. She was totally moaning and grinding her crotch into my face, and then it happened . . . she farted.”

  Paula and John laughed.

  Brett dared another look, a quick glance, and caught George shaking his head. “My partner,” George said. “God help me.”

  “I lifted my head for a second,” Travis continued, “but she didn’t say anything and I thought it slipped out by accident because she was so relaxed. You know? Because I’m so good.” He laughed, joking, but maybe not. Brett wasn’t sure. Travis didn’t come across as smug, so it must have just been playful banter to make the story more interesting. Brett wanted to smile but held back because Mary would know he was listening if he did. “So I went back down, breathing through my mouth so I didn’t have to smell it, because, you know, it’s an erection killer.”

  Brett saw Mary turn and look back in disgust and then she turned back around without saying anything. It almost seemed like George let Travis’s antics go unchecked just to piss Mary off. Or, at least, that’s what Brett liked to think.

  Travis either didn’t notice Mary or didn’t care, because he kept going. “So, I’m going at it again, and a few seconds later she rips off another one. And what does she do? She giggles. So, I’m like ‘What the fuck?’ and she’s like ‘What? What’s the big deal?’ and she lets off another one. Well, that did it. I was pissed off, and my boner was gone, so I stood up on the bed and pissed on her.”

  Mary whipped around. “That’s enough, Travis. Jesus Christ!”

  George didn’t say anything. It was weird. Maybe George was trying to teach her patience, because she was obscenely low on it.

  Travis kept talking. “Yep, I pissed all over her. It was her bed so I didn’t really care. And you know what she did?”

  “I can guess,” John said.

  “I don’t think you can,” Travis said.

  “She liked it, didn’t she?” John said.

  “Well, well, Johnny boy, it sounds like you might have some stories of your own. Yeah, she started moaning and wanted more.”

  “Disgusting!” Paula said. “What did you do?”

  “Sorry, Paula, but this is the censored version. The rest is best left for porno forums, but you can use your imagination.”

  “Rip off,” Paula said.

  “All right, you guys,” George said. “Study your control devices. We’re running low on time before we get to the last known location of Pyramid One, and I want everyone to be ready for anything.”

  *****

  Michael stared at his control device, but his mind was elsewhere. He had already memorized the levels of Pyramid One and the different floor plans. He tried to remember the last time he did anything other than work, which he loved to do, and he came up empty. He knew he should take a break, but he just couldn’t. It wasn’t because he would be bored or because he needed a constant adrenaline rush. His father. Everything was for him, because of him. Everything he had was because of that man, and he wouldn’t ever tarnish that gift, even if his father was no longer alive to see what Michael had achieved.

  “You have to work hard” is what his dad always told him. “Work hard and everything you’ll ever need will be yours.” Growing up on a mining farm had forced him to be a hard worker, but his dad never forgot to make him laugh.

  One warm, summer day, he and his father were surveying with a hover vehicle sixteen feet long and twelve feet wide, with a large clear deck allowing them to see the ground below. It had short walls and two seats with a control panel at the back and in the front.

  His dad drove from the front while he sat in the back, following a grid that they had laid out earlier with flashing beacons on foot high poles. The beacons were placed fifty feet apart, running for what looked like miles of flashing lights along the flat, rocky terrain. You could see rows and rows of them, with each row one hundred feet across from the other.

  They stopped a few feet over some rocks, and then his dad hit a switch and a purple light emanated from beneath the glass, covering the ground with a bright, fluorescent color. As soon as his dad hit the light, Michael could see they had found large batches of the moss they were looking for. The moss glowed bright white in the wash of purple light. His dad flicked the light off, and the moss was no longer visible.

  “Where is she?” his father said. “First day and she’s already late by nearly an hour. Your hiring days may be short lived, buddy-boy.” His father smiled. He pushed his round-rimmed glasses up on his nose, and then looked up. Another hover vehicle approached. The approaching vehicle looked much smaller than theirs, no bigger than a few feet long and no doors because it had low walls like the mining vehicle.

  The passenger hover vehicle pulled up beside them and stopped.

  Michael’s mom drove, and a petite eighteen-year-old girl, Angel, was the passenger. Michael’s father let him hire Angel, even though he was fifteen at the time. His father’s mouth popped open as his father got his first look at the new hire.
She was small, had low-cut shorts on, a white halter-top showing her midriff, and tanned all over. Her black hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

  When they were all on the ground, his mother gone, abstracting the moss from the rocks with a vacuum-like device while the purple light washed over them from the hover vehicle above, Michael’s father whispered to him. “God bless you, boy. I was worried you wouldn’t get me a good, experienced moss abstracter, but now I don’t care.” Michael laughed and so did his father. Angel looked up at them and smiled, and both Michael and his dad stopped laughing and couldn’t help but smile back. “God bless you, boy,” his father said once again.

  Michael looked up from his control device, smiling. Cindy looked over at him. “What are you smiling at?” Cindy said.

  A steady beeping noise sounded off, and a red light flashed on the monitor in front of Michael. “Proximity alert,” Michael said. “We’re within a kilometer of the last known location. Do you see it anywhere?”

  “No.”

  “I can’t find it anywhere on the system scan.” Stars flashed by his eyes on the three-dimensional monitor in front of him as it scanned for any foreign object, finding none. And Pyramid would be a hard target to miss.

  “Why would they veer off course? It’s like they vanished,” Cindy said.

  “That’s not the weird thing though,” Michael said. “The markers we’ve been following are the only ones between the gate we came through, and the gate at the other end. Pyramid came through the gate at the opposite end and never went through the other one.”

  “Could they have gone back through the other gate?”

  “They could have, but gate patrol did not report them going back through, and, as you well know, they wouldn’t be able to go through without authorization from gate patrol. Plus, I’m not reading anything along the markers before the next gate. If they were there, somewhere down the line, I’d pick them up.”

  Michael didn’t understand all the physics of space travel, but he knew a big ship like Pyramid would require a lot of energy to move it, and he was sure it had very large engines to do so. On the flip side, the markers would also need significant energy to stop such a massive object. He knew there were advancements in energy development, and he also knew that the markers would garner energy from as many other markers as they could, in order to bring a vessel to a stop and tow it back. If Pyramid went 500 meters past the markers, the ship’s engines would disable, and immediately the markers would calculate the necessary energy to stop the ship and then tow it back within range. But the facts in front of him said otherwise. “Cindy, they’ve gone off the markers.”

  Cindy sighed. “Why? Why the hell would anyone do that? And how? Wouldn’t the markers stop them?”

  “I’m no expert, but if a big ship like Pyramid blasted its engines, getting up to a high speed quickly, I doubt the markers would be able to stop it. Its engines would die, the markers would likely slow it down somewhat, but then it would be off, with nothing to stop it, unless it either hits something or some gravitational force acts upon it.”

  It occurred to Michael that someone may have found a way to tamper with the device in the ship that links with the markers. He had never heard of it working though. Since he could remember, there were always people who tried, but always failed. Always. The device, upon any attempt at a tamper, would explode and the ship’s engines would die. The markers would stop them and there would be no engine restart, only the long wait until authorities arrive. All cases led to serious jail time.

  Cindy nodded in agreement. “So, now what?”

  That was the question. Now what, indeed. Pyramid out of contact for over ten hours. Depending how fast it got away from the pull of the markers, it could be a great distance away, and they had no long range-tracking device. No military division did. With the markers and the gates, it was never necessary, until now. Michael looked over at Cindy, who waited patiently for some sort of response from him. “I honestly don’t know, Cindy.”

  Chapter 19

  Regina let Blair and Rachel lead her by twenty feet. They all walked down the stairs as quickly as they dared, which was slower than they would have down a less treacherous descent.

  Not even the next level down and Blair started whispering to Rachel, which Regina picked up with the multidirectional microphone on her glasses.

  “I think we should tell her,” Blair said.

  Rachel scrunched her face up with what looked like contempt. It was hard to tell for sure since all Rachel offered to Regina was a side view. “And what would that gain anybody?” Rachel said. “And this is no place to talk about it, especially with her right behind us.”

  Regina could hear everything they were saying, even though they were whispering as quietly as they could.

  Blair stopped. “It’s driving me crazy. Someone else needs to know . . . in case we don’t make it.”

  “Your guilty conscience is not bringing me down. No more about it.”

  “It’s just --“

  “Stop it. Just let it go. We didn’t do anything wrong.”

  Blair didn’t pursue the matter, but it didn’t matter. Regina knew they knew something. Hell, she knew it before she heard them whispering, and this just proved it. She would confront them, but not until they got where they needed to go. She knew a gun in Blair’s face would get her the needed information, but Rachel was an unknown. Regina couldn’t read her, who she might be, or what she might do.

  The descent went on, with no more whispering. They passed three levels, and kept on going.

  As Blair and Rachel passed the fourth level down, Regina, still wearing her glasses, heard a woman scream. “Stop,” Regina said, as loudly as she dared, and then held her index finger up to her mouth, hoping they wouldn’t respond.

  Regina climbed down the stairs a little more quickly, got to the platform, and looked over at the door, which read: Casino, Restaurants, and Shops.

  She had to trust them, even though she had no reason to, because she couldn’t let them go through the door first in case there was something right there. Regina waved them to come back up to her.

  As soon as Blair and Rachel came up beside her, Regina whispered, “I think I heard a scream. We’re going to check it out.”

  “What?” Blair whispered. “I didn’t hear a scream. What’s to check out?” His last few words came out louder, not normal speaking volume, but no whisper either.

  Regina held both her hands up at him in a tone-it-down-now gesture.

  Rachel didn’t say a word, just nodded.

  “It’s not open for debate,” Regina whispered. “I’ll lead, and I want you two right behind me.” She whispered the word “right” with gritted teeth and pointed down hard behind her to emphasize her point. Regina looked both of them in the eyes. “Try anything and I will not hesitate to kill you both. Just one of you tries something, and you both die. Get it?”

  Rachel nodded.

  “Yeah, yeah, we got it,” Blair said, not without some disdain.

  Regina readied her weapon at her side and pushed the door. The door opened to the usual scene, which was an empty, wide hallway with no people anywhere. Across from the door, a large casino was filled with flashing lights and the noise of all the games in demo mode.

  Regina walked into the middle of the hallway, Rachel followed, and Blair crept out slowly, all of them looking around.

  “There,” Rachel whispered as she pointed toward the casino.

  Two people, a woman in her forties and a ten-year-old boy, were huddled down, hiding behind a large holographic game of jousting men in armor on flying ships that looked like fancy motorcycles. They were in line of sight of Regina, Rachel, and Blair, but the woman and child did not see them.

  Regina moved towards them, quickly and quietly. Rachel and Blair followed suit. Regina never took her eyes off of them, in case they looked over. She wanted to yell out, but had no idea what might be around.

  The power in the casino went out, and all
the games and lights blinked to darkness; Regina was getting tired of the all too familiar quiet.

  The woman panicked, jumped up, and screamed, “WHAT DO YOU WANT? JUST LEAVE US ALONE!” She started crying.

  Regina hunkered down as she came up into the casino, hiding behind a wall by the opening. “Shut up,” she whispered, not loud enough for the woman to hear, but more wishful thinking out loud.

  Rachel and Blair came up behind Regina, their eyes wide, probably knowing, as Regina did, that something was going to happen.

  Just as Regina peeked around the wall, she saw the woman and her child get up and start running towards them. Regina wasn’t sure if they saw her yet, but as they got closer, the boy made eye contact, tears streaming down his face.

  The boy pointed toward Regina. “Mommy! Mommy! Look! Look!”

  Regina pulled off her glasses and put them inside her jacket.

  The woman looked where her boy pointed and her tear-filled eyes locked on Regina’s.

  Regina waved them over to her.

  The mother and child raced towards Regina, only forty feet away, when, in a fraction of a second, the boy’s and then the mother’s bodies went rigid and toppled forward.

  Rachel tugged at Regina’s jacket when it happened, and Regina waved her to stay back. The woman and child’s bodies fell hard to the ground, and not another word escaped them. It looked like something oozed out of their eyes, ears, and mouth, but Regina couldn’t make it out.

  “Jesus Christ,” Regina whispered. She turned toward Blair and Rachel, a tear streaming out of her right eye.

  Rachel mouthed “dead” and Regina nodded. Dead, yes, but she didn’t know how. All she knew for sure was that death occurred very quickly.

  Regina squeezed the gun handle, her hands sweating, and dared a peak around the corner. The bodies were gone. Not even a few seconds passed since she looked and there was no sign of the woman or child, just their clothes piled on the floor like she had seen so many times.