Belters

by Greg Alldredge

  The dead flesh that once covered his body had been replaced by bright red splotches where the new skin worked hard to repair the damage. At least nothing important had fallen off. He was still alive. Each day the ship’s medical unit kept pumping them all full of drugs, trying to keep the crew alive while the radiation continued to work against them.

  The women were in no better shape. Neither started with long hair, but most of it had fallen out while waiting for rescue. They both kept their hair cut short and lost a great deal of weight. Jacob should follow suit and cut his hair short, shave his face, but he hadn’t the energy.

  Given time and better treatment, if lucky, they might one day look nearly normal. Today wasn’t that day.

  “Hey, jack-off. You coming?” Ava shouted from the suit out room. He didn’t need to see her to know she was suited up, her duffle in hand, waiting to be free of their prison.

  Jacob wanted to watch a moment longer. There was still a chance they had led the unsuspecting ship into a bug trap, that at any second, a swarm of spiders might leap from the Frazier and destroy the ship that came to the rescue. It would be a fitting end to his life, to watch in horror as his worst nightmare attacked his only salvation.

  Jacob forced himself to focus on the reflection once more. He looked like a madman. Any peep about space-borne insects would surely get him confined in lockdown as having a case of the Gonzos. “Yeah, on my way.”

  He needed time to get into his mining suit. Ava and he both decided it would be best for the transfer. Sweets wanted to try her armor, even if it was still glitching badly. It was her life. She could do with it as she wished. Jacob only hoped they all made it. He’d seen enough death for his lifetime.

  The EVA should only take a short time, but if the suits stopped working, it might be a lifetime. None of the survivors had learned to breathe in space during their confinement.

  <=OO=>

  AD 2100 Inner Belt – Virgil

  Sweat poured from his brow. His tongue licked the sweat from his upper lip. “What’s that sound?” Reo glanced away from the gated wall that blocked their progress. No matter what spell he cast, nothing seemed to happen. Fire, lightning, and ice, he tried them all. The gate remained locked tight. Best he could tell, there wasn’t a dent in it. In frustration, he slammed his fist into the timber frame. “Shut up for a second!” It hurt his hand a great deal more than the wall.

  “I don’t hear anything.” Tian glanced behind them before returning her attention to the still-locked barrier.

  Lea scowled. “Just open the damned thing already.” She was never one to hide her anger. “Stop fucking around. We don’t have all night!” She never got the hang of a pep talk.

  “I’m sure he is doing the best he can… Reo dear, I know you have a hard time… under pressure, but now is not the time to go all… flaccid.” Mindy cooed with her soft voice.

  Reo grit his teeth. “Damn it, I hear something behind us, and it is growing closer.” He turned, using his filthy sleeve to wipe the sweat from his brow. He searched the dark path the foursome had traveled.

  The hours of unsuccessful attempts at opening the portal had taxed his energy. He wasn’t sure how he could be so damned tired in a dream.

  His three female tormentors fell into step behind him. For once, their chattering held as he cocked his head and listened harder, trying to identify the unfamiliar sound. A noise that grew more pronounced with each passing second.

  Despite the lack of any discernible vegetation, the noise Reo now faced sounded like leaves blowing along a dry field of rice. The sound made his skin crawl. There was no wind and only rocks as far as the darkness allowed him to see.

  The twin moons gave enough light to spot movement down the gorge that had brought them to this damned dream hell. In the distance marched what could only be described as a horde of spiders.

  “Fuck me,” Reo whispered. Despite the fact he knew they were not real, his skin still crawled. These spiders were huge, the size of his fist, and they came closer with every second that passed.

  The three women screamed. Not in fear, as he expected, but in rage. Primal screams of an attack, each a different pitch but somehow in a demonic harmony.

  “Wait!” Reo tried to stop them, but his words fell on deaf ears.

  Mindy pulled her double-handed sword and launched herself into the swarm, swiping at the mass with abandon.

  Lea pulled a matched pair of ivory-handled daggers from behind her back and followed suit. Each blade stabbed in quick succession as the spiders swarmed her.

  Tian started to chant and waded into the fray. A soft glow radiated from her hands. The invading insects burst into flame when they reached her aura.

  The trio slaughtered hundreds of the arachnids, but they kept coming.

  Reo crossed his arms and waited. “Why are you attacking? They haven’t done anything…” His words were ignored as the women smashed the creatures with reckless abandon. After all, they were only spiders, even if they were huge. More like tarantulas, moving slower now that they were closer to the gate.

  “Maybe we don’t need to kill them?” Reo returned to the gate. Certain the spiders were not the big bad, he focused on the barrier. He’d spent hours trying to force his way inside. Maybe he should take his own advice. Rather than throw another attack spell at the gate, he walked up to the roughhewn timbers and knocked three times with his right knuckles.

  There was a click, and the gate unlatched from the far side. At his feet, a hairy spider hurried past Reo and beyond the gate. Others followed up, pushing the gate wide.

  “Don’t kill the spiders!” Reo shouted once more.

  <=OO=>

  AD 2100 Inner Belt – Virgil

  Lea watched with others as the strangers, dressed out in medical gowns, were led into the med bay. The word stranger was better than the others that came to mind. Given the time spent lost in space, she had assumed the trio would look like shit. More like the insane homeless people of Earth who littered the streets of every city and town. Their bodies showed the damage done by a huge dose of radiation. She knew it was a painfully slow way to die. Lea whispered a silent prayer she never suffered the pain firsthand. She shook her head, amazed how quickly the irreligious prayed when faced with the unthinkable.

  She wanted in that room, but only Doctor Patel, Master Baal, Doctor Mindy, and a few attendants were allowed inside. The med bay was already overcrowded. One more would have made little difference.

  From nowhere, a voice shrieked in horror, “Don’t kill the spiders!” It was Reo who shouted, while struggling against the bindings. Spittle flew from his lips. The man foamed in… fear, rage, insanity, Lea couldn’t tell.

  The timing couldn’t have been worse. The screams of the doubi startled the others in the room. Honestly, who expected a man lost in a near coma to wake up just like that, screaming bloody murder about spiders.

  The strangers who had been brought into the room jumped in shock. Hell, everyone jumped best they could in the limited gravity.

  The broad-shouldered female survivor reacted quickly and fought off the two strongarms in orange jumpsuits. Even sick as she obviously was, the broad had training. The two men were caught off guard, and she quickly had the pair at arm’s length.

  Pandemonium quickly ensued. The male survivor broke free. It was clear to Lea his legs didn’t work, but he was still able to pull himself into a corner of the room and hide, curled into the fetal position, lifeless legs gripped in shaking arms.

  “Shut those windows!” In a rush, Doctor Patel cut the audio feed. A nurse followed his orders and turned the electrochromic windows opaque. Now they were in the dark.

  Strangely, those who gathered outside to watch the proceedings let their feelings be known with disappointed groans. The crew had little to keep them occupied, and this was the best show on board.

  “Baal will let us know what we need to know,” someone muttered unconvincingly.

  Lea reached for the pen of Reo’s dr
ugs she held in her pocket. What if they were all hopped-up space crazy or, worse, suffering from some drug-induced hallucination? Screw that… If Lea’s well-being was in jeopardy, she didn’t want to wait for the high and mighty of the ship to slip them tidbits of information.

  Against the odds, the small mob started to disperse. Lea stayed on when the others left, waiting for the hatch to open with the hope of catching any clue about what was going on inside the medical spaces.

  “Come with me…” Tian tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Where we—”

  Before she finished the question, Tian placed her left hand over Lea’s mouth, her right index finger held to her own lips. Her friend led her off down a strange passage.

  Lea had been to Tian’s room several times, but this was not the way to her quarters. When the androgynous woman opened the door to a space no larger than a storage locker, Lea was slightly concerned.

  Tian whispered, “DiSanto helped set this up for me,” before motioning her into the tiny compartment.

  Too small for even the tiny Tian to lie down in, there was nowhere for either to sit.

  Crossing her legs, Tian turned and floated free of the deck. With some work, Lea finally forced her body to stop its forward motion. The women faced each other, bodies nearly touching.

  “I don’t like being left in the dark.” She pulled out a flexible monitor.

  “What’s this?” Lea had a pretty good idea but didn’t want to tip her hand.

  “DiSanto, he helped me hack into the ship’s security system. Like I said, I don’t like being left in the dark. They are keeping secrets. I can feel it in my bones.” With a flash of fingers over the flexible screen, Tian shifted the view from a normal infinity operating system to show the security footage live feed from the medical section of the ship.

  “How the…?” Lea had used a myriad of ways to hack into a company’s system, but she was no hacker. Normally she would phish, Trojan, or simply steal a password to gain the needed access. More often than not, once she was taken into the company fold as an employee, she would simply use her clearance and friendship to gain the information she needed. Lea hated to admit it, but she was no superspy, only an extraordinary thief with a relatively mundane skillset. She was not afraid to push hard to reach her goal. Maybe that was her major skill… or maybe it was all bullshit, and she was just lucky as hell.

  She watched the tense scene as it unfolded in the med bay. Little had changed.

  The taller of the two women had rushed to the crippled man’s side. Lea assumed they might be lovers. The larger woman held the others off, ready to launch into an attack.

  One of the burly security guards worked hard with attendants to staunch the flow of blood from what had to be a broken nose. Two others stood ready to attack. Crimson blobs of blood floated free now between the two crews.

  Her eyes shifted to her only real concern, the doubi Reo. She needed access to him. Her heart sank.

  Doctor Patel stood over the struggling Reo, injector pressed against his upper arm. The target quickly calmed once the injection reached his bloodstream, sending him to sleep. No answers yet, damn it.

  “What are they talking about?” Tian asked.

  Focused on Reo, she hadn’t paid much attention to the rest of the drama. Now she listened to what was being whispered back and forth in terse, guarded words.

  Doctor Mindy Abe, with her tiny frame, floated before the massive woman, hands outstretched, speaking in hushed tones. If the Amazon attacked, she would break the little doctor before anyone could separate them.

  “Can you turn up the volume?” Lea asked.

  Tian tapped a few more times and shook her head. “It is at max… Why are they whispering?”

  “I imagine, trying to calm the situation.” Lea half-guessed. Her other thought was Doctor Abe worked hard to keep her secrets. Even in a roomful of her own people, she played her cards close to her chest.

  A voice boomed in the small room. “Master… you’re needed on the bridge.” It was the unseen woman officer calling over the intercom. With the volume at max, both women huddled in the tiny room flinched at the voice.

  Tian pressed the volume lower.

  “I’m busy at the moment. Just tell me what it is.” Baal and his normally calm voice shifted toward the angry.

  “We found something… A heat signature, a possible contact.”

  The Amazon relaxed briefly and called out, “The Miyajima?”

  “Too soon to tell,” the voice answered back. “But we are hopeful.”

  Master Baal looked over to the three. “Can we end this insanity now? We are still working a recovery mission here, and this is not helping anyone’s cause.”

  With Reo sedated, the room became silent, none willing to say a word.

  Lea held her breath.

  The crippled man finally spoke up. “I’m sorry…” The man’s words sounded as hollow as the survivors’ faces looked. “I didn’t mean to overreact. It was just his words… the way he jumped… startled me. It has been a trying experience… I overreacted.”

  From the monitor, it looked like the man fought back sobs as he spoke. He reached out and touched the Amazon’s back. “It’s okay… Can we leave now?” His last words broke the tension.

  Master Baal lowered his voice. It nearly sounded kind. “I can’t imagine what the three of you have been through. Please consider my ship your new home for as long as you need it… We will keep you on until we reach a port of your liking.” Baal looked to the overhead. “Bridge, finish up and secure operations. Drop a repeater for salvage, send an encrypted message to Ceres on our location… You know the drill. Time to get us underway. We need to investigate that signature.”

  “Aye, aye,” the voice from the bridge called back.

  “Where to now?” Tian asked.

  Lea only shook her head. “Ask your boyfriend.” The words sounded childish, but what else was she going to say?

  Chapter 21:

  AD 2100 Inner Belt – Virgil

  With gravity returned, the added weight pressed Jacob into his wheelchair. For most Earthers, the feeling was welcome. Jacob wasn’t like others from Earth.

  After so many months in nearly zero gravity, the weight of his own body was oppressive. The design of his mining suit offered resistance feedback, so he used muscles while loading ore, but it was a different feeling than the constant pressure of acceleration or the gravity of Earth.

  The med crew of the Virgil seemed kind enough, once things calmed down… Once Jacob had calmed down, Doctor Patel ran a series of tests, poked and prodded. Shot him full of drugs and handed him a bottle of pills before the ship started maneuvers.

  “Take two of these with meals each morning and night. They will help you gain some weight back.” He thrust a foil package of pills into Jacob’s hands. “We will check your body mass once we come out of maneuvers.”

  So much for bedside manners.

  A single nod was the only response from Jacob. Too many emotions flooded his mind to think straight. He held his tongue. His litany of questions would wait. Right now, he only wanted to escape the prying eyes of the crew of ETs. He was certain they watched him, waiting for the next breakdown.

  Two thugs in orange FlyRight jumpsuits escorted him and his chair to a cabin. They might have locked him in. Jacob never checked the hatch. He strapped into his chair and waited for the gravity to come with acceleration. That was hours ago.

  Now he sat alone with only his thoughts to keep him company. At least he would have some time alone to gather his composure. There was no way the crew of ETs of this family ship could endure the pressure of one gravity for long. A few days at most. From the feel of it, they worked hard to reach speed. If the Miyajima was out there needing help, they weren’t wasting time getting there.

  They had to be traveling a great distance out into the black. This part of the belt, the rocks were far apart. Jacob was not sure of the distance they needed to go, but Allen once to
ld him the tidal forces pulled most asteroids closer to Mars or Jupiter. Few ships ventured out here once the planets moved on. There was no profit in it.

  The next stop might be several million kilometers away, days or weeks of flight time. Space was just so damn big.

  Under gravity, however slight, he was forced to acknowledge his legs and how they would probably never work again. He missed being in the mines and the freedom his suit gave him. More, he missed his suit. The smelly thing offered him freedom.

  A slight movement caught his eye.

  Across from where he sat, the mirrored surface of the stainless locker reflected his haggard face. Not a perfect mirror, the distortion gave his face a gruesome twist that reflected his inner torment. He wasn’t sure he’d ever forgive himself for his cowardice. His loss of control in front of a new crew. In front of his friends.

  Not much of a drinker, now was a time he wished there was a bottle in this room he’d been moved to. Anything strong enough to drown his sorrows would do the trick.

  His room—Master Baal promised the survivors of the Frazier a place on his ship until they reached a place they wanted off. That was a generous offer. Problem was the Master never said how long it might be until they made call in a safe haven.

  Jacob knew the rock Allen took them to was way outside the normal, what many miners might consider a safe zone. In this section of space, the rocks were separated by several million kilometers. Far away from the influence of Mars and Jupiter, days away from Ceres, well off the beaten path, it was a minor miracle their weak transmission was picked up and they were rescued.

  The crew of the Frazier should have all died on that rock. There was no logical reason why a family ship filled with FlyRight personnel were so far out in the dark.

  His concentration returned to the warped image in the locker. Despite the ship’s doctor proclaiming he should recover from the radiation, he looked like shit.