S69Q-1 (The Cosmic Inferno Book 3)

by Riva, Aline

  “He's okay. Give him a few minutes, he's had a lot of smart meds in his system, he should come around quickly now... Jinx? Can you hear me, it's Jody...”

  He turned his head, looking up at her shadowy form as she started to come into focus.

  “It's okay,” she said softly, “You're safe....”

  As she turned her head he looked past her, saw the tall, shadow figure of Mack standing further away.

  “Mack?” Jody said quietly, “He's conscious at last...are you okay?”

  “Yes I'm fine,” Mack replied, sounding choked with emotion, “Give me a minute...”

  Then he turned to another figure who was in shadow.

  “Oh no, not now, Mack!”

  It was Cora and she sounded tearful.

  “No, this is the perfect time. I want him to see all of this when he's properly awake... I'm recording, tell me why you're crying...”

  “Because I'm glad he's going to be okay...because when they started the final stage of the treatment and he didn't respond right away, they said if he doesn't wake in seven days he never will...I'm so relieved he's going to be okay...Please get the camera out of my face now, Mack!”

  “Thank you,” Mack said softly, and turned off the recording.

  The room was coming into focus now, it was a white room and he did not recognise this place at all. But as he looked up at Jody his vision cleared and she smiled.

  “Welcome back, Jinx, you've been gone a long time...” she looked back, “I think someone needs to speak to you now. Do you remember what happened?”

  Jinx searched his mind for an answer. The dream was slowly fading out and reality was taking its place:

  Take off. A transporter trailing flame heading straight for the Pharaoh, Mack reached for his space helmet and then Jinx did too, evasive manoeuvres by Mack, the ship clipped them and tore open the Pharaohs roof, slicing it like a tin can, knocking Mack out cold.

  Jinx felt invincible as he looked to the skies that turned a shade of neon purple as the craft began to turn into a nosedive.

  “No one dies today!” he yelled, catching the eye of Cora, who clung to her seat in terror as the wind whipped through the compartment. Then he transferred pilot command to his own area of the control panel, pulled up the ship and made a sharp turn as the transporter collided with a ship below that hit another and the debris headed for space port below.

  He took the ship over the city, out into countryside and headed in for an emergency landing, his last memory being the ground rushing closer...

  He could move now. Jinx struggled to sit up and his body ached all over but the sense of weakness was gone. He looked about the room, saw Jody and Mack at his bedside and then Jody rearranged his pillows so he could rest against them, even though rest was the last thing on his mind now the memories were coming back.

  The lingering recollection of the nightmare of the crash land on the alien planet and all the horror that had followed was still there, but slowly fading out as reality took over in clarity at last.

  “You've been in a coma for a long time,” Jody said to him, “You had a head injury that was difficult to heal and you needed a lot of smart drugs in your body to repair the damage.”

  “I was injured in the crash? How many died?” as he asked that question, this new version of events seemed to make complete sense.

  “At the space port, twenty thousand dead, forty thousand injured. It was the worst disaster in earth space flight history. A transporter was coming in to land and developed a fault that caused a fire, it went out of control and hit other ships on the way down. Mack managed to avoid collision but the crashing vessel clipped yours and ripped open the roof. Mack was knocked out, you took over the controls, steered the ship away from the crisis and made an emergency landing in a field outside of the city. You saved everyone on board, Jinx. And then you collapsed.”

  As he sat resting against soft pillows, Jinx stared at her in surprise.

  “I remember feeling invincible...I wasn't even scared!”

  “Oh yeah, I bet you felt invincible...” murmured Mack, who was standing over by a window. As Jinx looked at him he turned away, wiping a tear from his eye that he was not yet ready to shed in front of him.

  “What's that supposed to mean?” Jinx demanded.

  “I think I'd better let Mack explain the rest,” Jody said, “I'll leave you two alone to talk, you'll recover very quickly now now you're awake. You've had three years of the very best treatment. I hope you never have to go through this again – or put Mack through it!”

  “Through what?” Jinx asked, but she gave no reply as she left the room and closed the door behind her.

  He looked to Mack, who drew in a deep breath, then went over to his bedside and took a seat. There was a strange look in his eyes and Jinx could not work out why his best friend looked absolutely furious...

  For a moment, Mack said nothing. Jinx said nothing too, looking over to the place where Cora had been sitting. She was no longer in the room and he guessed she had left while Jody had been talking to him.

  “Mack... say something! Have I really been in a coma for three years?”

  Mack took another deep breath as he tried to hold back emotions that right now were all taking a back seat as anger pushed aside all else.

  “I've been waiting three years to say this to you!” Mack said sharply, leaning in closer as his eyes blazed with anger, “You stupid, irresponsible prick! You never did grow out of it, did you...all that get high with the skies, adapt and survive, you fucking spaced out idiot!”

  Jinx was thinking. His eyes widened. Something flashed to mind:

  Wolf, calling him to one side as he headed off to meet with Mack before the crash...

  “This is quality,” said the one eyed drug dealer, “Pure Gold. Drop one before take off and you'll be in acid skies and neon space...I'll do you a deal, three for two?”

  Jinx had nodded, glanced about the busy terminal and reached into his pocket for some cash.

  “It's a deal,” he had said...

  Now he remembered.

  “Oh... that...” Jinx said, feeling slightly guilty, “I bought a few a few tabs of Gold from Wolf... dropped two before take off.”

  “Yes, I know you did,” Mack replied, nodding as he tried to hold back his anger, “Remember what happened on the flight deck?”

  Jinx thought about it:

  Turning around to smile back at the female passengers, the high already hitting him as take off was started.

  “I'll just fire up my powerful thrusters!” he had announced loudly.

  It was then Mack had turned to him, just as the ship was heading out and upward.

  “Look at me... Oh fuck no...are you high? Are you fucking high?”

  “No, why?” Jinx had asked, as Mack saw his dilated pupils and glared at him in anger.

  “Shit, this is being recorded by the black box...I''ll have to wipe it...”

  “Did someone say the co pilot is high?” asked Zeke.

  “He's flying the ship on drugs?” Jody said in horror.

  “Fuck...” Mack muttered under his breath, then he turned to the passengers who now looked very worried as the ship headed up into the skies.

  “My co pilot has taken a legal performance enhancer,” Mack replied, “My mistake...”

  “I thought performance enhancers were illegal in earth airspace?” Zeke questioned.

  Then they had headed upward and just as the skies had turned a neon shade of purple and Jinx swore he was at one with the atmosphere above as he caught Mack mutter 'fucking wanker', the transporter had come hurtling downward, trailing smoke and flame...

  “Do you remember now?” Mack demanded.

  “Yeah, I was high as a kite! I remember feeling like nothing could touch me when I did the emergency landing.”

  “That's the only reason why you were able to withstand flying the ship in the state it were in, you saved us all. And then you collapsed because that fucking parasite Wol
f had sold you a bad batch!”

  Jinx blinked.

  “What?”

  The word parasite brought to mind the creature in his nightmare, and suddenly the reason for the dream made sense.

  “Have you been telling me all this while I was unconscious?”

  “Yes,” Mack replied, “Me, Jody, Zeke, Cora... everyone who was on the ship has been to see you. But mostly me and Jody because she's my fiancée now. She took up a post at this clinic so she could treat you personally. You've had the best treatment, the most expensive care to keep you alive!”

  He was still thinking about Wolf.

  “The Gold was fake? Wolf sold me a bad batch?”

  “It was the last batch he ever sold,” Mack replied darkly, recalling how he had tracked him down a few weeks later and rammed a solid fist into his face, “I kicked the shit out of him and left him bleeding with his drugs scattered all around him. He won't be out of prison for a very long time!”

  “The Gold was fake?” Jinx said again.

  “It was laced with pentasoline.”

  He thought for a moment.

  “But that's the stuff that goes through the cooling system on space vessels!”

  “Yes, and it made you collapse. We had landed in the middle of a field, all emergency crews were scrambling for the city to reach the disaster zone. It was only because Jody was on board that you survived. I told her what you'd taken and she recalled hearing about a laced batch of Gold. She took a gamble on the antidote and gave you a shot. It worked. Saying that, I mean it arrested the damage – it couldn't reverse what had already happened. She took you to the med bay and gave you emergency treatment, you would have been dead in fifteen minutes without it.”

  “What damage?” Jinx said in a hushed voice.

  Mack took his hand, guiding his fingertips through his hair as he felt scars that were long since healed.

  “Feel that tiny one? And this one next to it...one over here at the back of your head too...the chemical caused swelling and bleeding to the brain. She had to drill three holes to take the pressure off. But the time the SOS had been heard, a passing flight heading into the city stopped to pick us up. They airlifted you to a specialist clinic and the big scar you can feel that goes across your head is where you spent six days with your skull open while the swelling went down!”

  Now he had felt the scars, as Mack let go of his hand Jinx paused to run his fingers through his hair as his face paled and he considered all he had learned.

  “And then you were in a coma,” Mack continued, “For three years. We didn't know until you were in the last phase of the treatment if you would ever recover. But you saved everyone on board the Pharaoh and that's why we all made a pact not to mention the fact that the hero co pilot who landed us safely was high! That and the fact that I could have lost the ship and my license! I wiped the relevant content from the black box recorder and thanks to Jody giving you the antidote we could put exposure to the chemical down to line damage that popped a cable during the collision. It worked out okay, we all got compensation for being caught up in the disaster. But you put me through three years of not knowing if my best friend would ever wake up again! Don't you EVER mess around with drugs again, have you got that, Rik?”

  Jinx nodded. He was still feeling the shock of learning of all he had been through, the damage that been done by taking a bad batch of Gold...

  Mack's expression softened as he blinked and a tear ran down his face.

  “Okay, lecture over. Welcome back.”

  He kissed his cheek.

  “Never scare me like this again!”

  “I won't,” Jinx promised him.

  It was then his thoughts turned to the nightmare that had seemed so real.

  “I was dreaming the whole time,” he said to Mack, “I dreamed about all of us – we crashed on an alien planet, the women were evil and sexually dominant – and they were cannibals! But that was your dream and then it changed to me being the leader of all of us, I was the cannibal killer, I had so much sex, I met this girl who I took as my own and she had this clitoris piercing with alien metal and then I found out we were all mad because we were infected on S69Q-1 with an alien parasite! But I got it removed and I tried to save you all...What are you laughing at?”

  Mack threw back his head and laughed harder, not caring that Jinx was bewildered by his reaction.

  “Oh Rik, how like you to have a macho space adventure... aliens, violence, tits and clits...Oh this is so funny! At least you didn't have any drugs in there. You just had your other hobby instead.”

  “What other hobby? Jinx asked.

  “Masturbation!” said Mack and he laughed again.

  Jinx was still thinking, the dream was fading out but lingering and troubling him because it had been so clear, so real...

  “Have I ever killed anyone, Mack?”

  “I've died of embarrassment a few times on your behalf when you've been stupid, dabbling with designer drugs...I've covered up for you so many times. Too many!”

  “And I won't do it again,” he vowed, “I have learned my lesson, I swear.”

  Mack's smiled faded as emotion hit him and he blinked away tears.

  “I actually do believe you. I think it had to take something like this, as bad as this, to make you realise your luck would run out one day. I've been recording some of the stuff you've been through, I wanted to show it to you when you woke up...But not now. I think you've had enough to take in for one day, Rik.”

  Jinx was still thinking about the dream, or nightmare, or whatever it had been that had trapped him inside another reality for three years.

  “It wasn't all bad,”he said to Mack, “I had a princess galaxy cruiser, my own private planet! I lived like a cannibal billionaire!”

  Mack's eyes warmed with fondness for his best friend as he laughed again.

  “Oh Jinx, no! I have a princess galaxy cruiser – bought with part of the compensation money. We all got a lot of compensation for being caught up in the disaster. And we all paid into a fund for your treatment so that you still had a fortune waiting when you woke up.”

  “So I don't own a space vessel fit for a billionaire?”

  “No, but I do and you're welcome to share her. I don't use her all the time, I had the Pharaoh repaired and I still work part time to pay the bills and to stay sane. It's not been easy, waiting around to find out if my best friend would make it or not. I had to keep working.”

  Mack drew a small silver camera from his pocket and handed it to him.

  “Later on you might want to take a look at the recordings I made while you were in the coma. Just in case you need a reminder to keep away from illegal substances. I really couldn't go through this again. And by the way, someone's waiting to speak to you. She's waited for three years.”

  “Who?” Jinx asked.

  “Cora. She was so upset when you collapsed. I think she really fell for the handsome pilot who saved us all on the day of the disaster. I did tell her all about you and I reminded her several times exactly why you were in the coma, but it didn't put her off. She's been coming to see you every day for three years. She's devoted her time to you, talking to you, hoping you can hear her. Would you like me to send her in?”

  Jinx smiled as his heart skipped a beat and he felt sure that some of the love that had transferred through to his dreams had to have come from reality, Cora's voice had bled through into the other world many times, and in all of those recollections, she had loved him...

  “Yes please Mack!” he said.

  Mack got up and went over to the door, then he opened it and went outside the room, closing the door behind him. Jinx suddenly felt nervous, wondering exactly how he and Cora would get along – he wasn't Jinx the murderous cannibal infected with a parasite, he wasn't Jinx the man who had beat the parasite and set off on a mission to save the world and rescue his best friend...now he was just Ritchie Jinx, co pilot of an old banged up ship called the Pharaoh...

  By the
time the door opened again and Mack returned to the room, Jinx had sat up and adjusted his pillows, run his fingers through his hair to tidy it, and as he silently worried about meeting her properly for the first time, Cora entered the room behind Mack, who lingered in the doorway, placing a hand on her shoulder as he spoke to her gently.

  “Are you okay now?”

  She nodded.

  “Yes, I'm fine...”

  “No more crying in front of Jinx,” he reminded her, “He's okay now, he's going to recover fast – then maybe I can arrange for the two of you to get away and spend some time together?”

  “I'd love that,” she said, and Mack looked over at Jinx, smiled and then left the room.

  Cora turned towards the bed, as their eyes met and he smiled at her and she smiled back, Jinx felt as if this moment was yet another reminder that life had given him a second chance.

  “Hello,” he said, surprised at how shy he suddenly felt, “Thanks for being here for me. I think I dreamed about you talking to me.”

  She went over to his bed side and sat down, her golden hair fell to her shoulders and her pale summer dress clung to her curves and she was just as he recalled her on the day of the crash.

  “I'm so glad you're awake,” she said, and leant closer and kissed his cheek.

  Jinx felt his face flush.

  “I dreamed you said you asked Mack for pictures of me.”

  “I did, I have pictures and all his stories about the two of you. It was the only way I could get to know you.”

  Recollections of the dream flooded back and suddenly he felt caught between fantasy and reality as he remembered his deep love for her.

  “I had a crazy dream that we were together.”

  “That's nice!” she said as her eyes sparkled.

  “And I was a leader of cannibals – we were all cannibals!” he added excitedly.

  “Cannibals?” she said in confusion.

  “And I heard you say you had looked at my pictures...a lot.”

  She smiled as her face flushed too.

  “Oh...that time I told you things...”

  “Did you say you've come over me, because you did in the dream!”