At least he could present a less insane appearance next time they met, once the acceleration ended. His quarters were well stocked. But for the lack of booze, it would be like a holiday retreat.
It didn’t take long for him to find an electric shaver. The shaggy beard and thinning hair came off quickly. The suction whisked the remnants of his hair deep into the workings of the ship. Where they went, he decided to not ponder. He assumed they were to be recycled somehow.
The only mirror in the compartment worked better than the metal reflection ever could. He still looked like shit but less crazy. It would take many days of protein packs for him to gain his lost weight back. Now his skin hung from his frame. His muscle mass had taken a beating. He’d seen historical pictures of survivors…
A chime at his door broke his morbid thoughts of human depravity towards others. He never looked at the door but called out, “Come in.” It was only a matter of time before the questions would come. Might as well get them over with.
The door slid open without a sound and in stepped the small Asian woman from the med bay. Her name escaped him for the moment. “Are you well enough to talk?” she asked. Her voice was soft and reassuring. Not what he expected. He was surprised she came alone. It showed guts to be so close to a person suffering from the Gonzos.
Several smart-assed comments rushed to his thoughts, but he didn’t have the energy. Rather than quip a comeback, he nodded.
“Good… I’m glad you seem to be… settling in.” She struggled to smile.
At least she didn’t return to the topic of his breakdown. He was sure she judged him from the scene in the med bay. Hell, he judged himself and his lack of spine. It might take several years for him to wipe the memory. The words still escaped him. His mind racing, he shrugged his answer.
The small woman cleared her throat. “Let’s start fresh, shall we?” She extended her hand. “I’m Doctor Abe…”
It took great effort, but Jacob straightened himself in his chair and took her hand with as much strength as he could muster. “Jacob, Jacob Williams.” Her hand was soft, like he imagined silk to feel like.
“Please call me Mindy if you like.” She let her hand linger before motioning to the bunk with a twist of her head. “Mind if I sit down?”
He reluctantly released her hand and nodded. A turn of the wheels and the chair faced her. The room was small but still larger than any berth Jacob had seen since leaving Earth.
She moved her hands, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles on the bunk before sitting. She placed a set of smart glasses on her knee, the mirrored lenses facing him. His gaunt reflection watched his every move.
Jacob felt shame. He had a hard time keeping his eyes off her slender body. He was in no shape to be contemplating sexual thoughts. Rather than stare like a lecher, he focused on the reflection in the glasses.
Her words came slowly, deliberately chosen. “We recovered the flight recorder from your ship, and the captain’s log, but we are not able to read any of the data. Both have been badly corrupted.”
Jacob nodded, glancing at her eyes, trying to read the young woman’s expression. “I’m not surprised. Everything on the ship was scrambled by the blast.”
“Blast?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
Jacob mentally cursed himself. He’d spent the better part of three months trying to get Ava to not talk like the event was an attack, and the first thing that slipped from his mouth made it sound like a weapon hit them.
He shook his head. “Sorry, poor choice of words. I have no proof, but I believe we were hit by some sort of cosmic event… Did it affect the rest of the solar system?”
Mindy cocked her head. “Why do you ask that?”
“After what I saw it do to our ship… to our crew, if the event was global in nature, if the blast… wave hit the Earth… it would be bad.”
She nodded, understanding. For once, Jacob felt his control coming back to him, or at least a sense of normalcy. “No, the Earth is safe. Can you explain what you know? About the event that is?”
“I will if you do the same.” Jacob cleared his throat.
“Fair enough, but I’m afraid it isn’t much.”
“Listen, we are miners, Ava and I… Sweets is another story…” Jacob cleared his throat once more and forced himself to gather his thoughts. “We were deep in the mineshaft when it hit. All manner of electronics were affected. Ava and I barely survived deep in the rock. Sweets had a better suit. If she’d been dressed out like us, she would have died like the rest of our crew.”
He continued to go over what they needed to do in order to survive. He left out as many bad parts as possible. The spiders and his falling off the ship were glossed over, as he forced the event to the back of his troubled mind.
It took time, but with each word pulled out to explain what happened to the trio, he started to feel better. So focused on survival, the three spoke little of their predicament. Each handled the stress alone. Jacob had buried the horror of it all deep. No wonder he was affected by the experience. Waiting to die for so long would drive anyone crazy. He had nothing to be ashamed of. That’s what he kept telling himself.
He’d developed a nervous tick. He found it hard to not keep clearing his throat. Now that it was all he could think of, it only made it worse. During the middle of the debrief, the slender woman finally retrieved a packet of cool water for him. The drink seemed to help.
The longer he spoke, the more normal he felt. Like the discussion took the events out of the memories and put them into the perspective of the now. Like a great weight was lifted from his psyche.
Once finished, he sat there, forcing himself to steady his breath. He didn’t realize drops of sweat had formed on his brow until they trickled into his eyes. Mindy handed him a cloth.
It took him a moment to recognize the gesture, but he finally took the towel and dried his forehead, pulling it down over his face. Hands resting in his lap, he asked with a calm voice, “Can you explain what happened to us?”
“You are not going to like my answer… I’m sorry, I can’t. I can tell you our sensors picked up the event, more precisely the afterglow of the event. With only a single data point, we are not sure of the coordinates of the origin. We came in search of it when we picked up your distress signal. It looks like you were caught in the beam.”
“Beam? Is it some kind of weapon?”
“I don’t think so. More like an unknown cosmic event.”
“Origin?”
“Outside the Oort cloud, we think. We are out here to learn as much about the event as possible. Following the breadcrumbs…”
“Could it happen again?”
“We hope not, but Master Baal has set a course outside the path of the beam if it should… flash once more.”
Jacob shook his head. What the woman said didn’t add up. “You have nothing else? Please give me some explanation for the death of so many.”
It was her turn to search her palms for an answer. “We don’t know much. I’m sorry, this is the first time an event of this nature and magnitude has been recorded… I can say we are picking up background energy in the forty-hertz range… a sine wave from space. The afterglow, we know the level of cosmic rays you were subjected to. From the… damage, we estimated the exposure. The three of you’re all lucky to be alive.”
Jacob didn’t feel lucky. The major emotion he felt was guilt. He should have died with the rest of the crew. Hopefully, Ava and Sweets were getting the same news. He suspected they hurt as much as he did, only hid it all better. “What does that mean? The forty-hertz part… what does any of that mean?”
“I’m sorry, we don’t know, but I believe it is affecting at least one of our crew.”
“The guy that… scared the shit out of us in sickbay?”
“Yes.” The doctor bit her lip. Not the reaction he expected.
Jacob pressed, “What is wrong with him?”
“We don’t know.” He was sure her voice caught a bit when she
spoke. There was fear there, or some other emotion.
“Could it be affecting us?” He didn’t hide the fear in his voice. Maybe some peculiar waves were causing him to act crazy. It was a better excuse than the alternative.
“We don’t know. I wish there was more I could tell you.”
“Can you tell me where we are going?”
She nodded. “We picked up a heat signature. We are hoping to find the Miyajima there. It is located near an abandoned outpost… Dyer’s rock.”
His heart skipped a beat. “So you… FlyRight… are looking to make a profit from it?” Jacob asked.
“No, we are here to research the cause, to understand and see if this… event might endanger the human race.” She sounded sincere, but her reason ran contrary to his experience.
“Listen… We both know Earth has been divided into individual corporate fiefdoms. Space is quickly turning into the same thing. We are little more than serfs to the combine overlords. Are you sure profit has nothing to do with it? We both know this would make a killer weapon.”
“Everyone is trying to get ahead in life. FlyRight is no different from any other corporation.”
That was what worried him.
“And that’s why your ship was on a claimed asteroid mining someone else’s property. I understand how hard it is to make it out here.”
The survivors of the Frazier might be in trouble. “Was it FlyRight’s claim?”
She shook her head. “No, Bakshi-Corp. As I’m assuming you’re aware, there is no love lost between my employer and Bakshi.”
Jacob held his breath, his freedom in question. “Did Master Baal lie? Are we under arrest?”
“No… We will not be turning you over to Bakshi. Master Baal did mark your ship. We will leave it up to the authorities once we return.”
“You misunderstand, I’m just a rockhound. The Frazier belonged to Captain Allen. We just worked our shift… did what we were told. Like I said, we are just rockhounds.”
“Convenient. People have used that excuse for centuries. It never ends well… Listen, I’m not here to debate the current economics of asteroid mining. Or if claim jumping is a viable business strategy. I’m a scientist.”
Jacob shifted gears. “And you have never heard of Dyer’s rock?”
“No. Why, should I?”
“Never mind. Just old ghost stories.” For Jacob, they were much more than that.
“I think you need some rest. We can talk more after you sleep.” The slender woman stood. “I’m going to check on the others. Any messages for them?”
Jacob shook his head. There were a million things he wanted to tell the two women, but it had to be face to face.
“I’ll send someone to check on you later then… If you need anything, simply ask.”
Before he replied, she disappeared out the door. It couldn’t be that easy.
How could the woman not know the stories of Dyer’s rock?
Any spacer who haunted a tavern knew the story of the abandoned mining station too far out in the black for mortals. Originally started when the rock was much closer to Mars, now it lay abandoned with tall tales of ghosts haunting the damned place. The crew of the Virgil surely heard the tales but chose to ignore them.
He slapped himself hard enough to make his eyes water.
If humans had time on their hands, they would make shit up. That was how they were wired. The chances of any ghost taking up residence in an abandoned mine were as likely as… spiders in space.
Shit.
He silently chanted dum spiro spero, anything to bring some sense of peace to his troubled mind. It did little to calm his nerves.
<=OO=>
AD 2100 Inner Belt – Virgil
Tian looked Lea in the eyes and mouthed the words, “Holy shit!” As if someone might overhear the pair.
They both sat cross-legged, knees touching, foreheads nearly meeting while they watched the flexible screen tablet. It was a minor miracle the two fit inside the tiny space.
The programmer whispered, “I never thought we would learn anything from this trick.”
Lea wasn’t sure what bothered her more, the fact the family ship had surveillance in every quarters or the fact Tian hacked into it so quickly. “We didn’t really learn anything.”
“True, but this proves the leadership… well, they are truly in the dark.”
“If Doctor Dragon Lady told the truth. She could be lying through her teeth.”
“What is there to gain from lying?”
Power, money, control of a new weapon, the list of motives was as long as human failings. “I’m not sure. I don’t think I trust her. No one reaches her height in the corporations without some bloody background.”
“Are you always so… cynical?”
“I prefer the term realistic. It really doesn’t matter. We have no way to know what motive the woman holds in her heart.”
“I… I don’t think she’s lying. Something about her mannerisms holds a ring of truth to them.”
“If you say so.” Lea shook her head. “Any update on Reo?”
“No, they still have him sedated.”
“Is the med crew clear of the spaces?”
She flipped the screen to a bookmarked camera. “Looks like it. Only a skeleton crew running the ship during acceleration.”
“Then I need to talk to him.”
“Is that wise?”
“Probably not.” It took some work, but Lea forced herself to stand. “Message me if it looks like someone is going to catch me.”
“It doesn’t really work like that…” Tian tried to explain more, but Lea ignored her warnings.
She had a spring in her step as she slipped out the door. Lea didn’t care. The more she learned, the more she knew the unconscious Reo played an important part in this journey. She needed to do something. Playing peeper with Tian accomplished nothing.
Limited in the research she could do from the cut-off coms, Lea was forced to rely on her memories. The quicksilver drug pen and the forty-hertz range all screamed the impossible. If her memory was correct, somehow, the fake science of parapsychology was involved. There was a huge possibility Reo had special powers. That might help explain how she ended up on this damned ship in the middle of nowhere.
Over her better judgment, she joined this crew on an insane quest with no questions asked. Maybe she was the one who should worry about her sanity.
The gravity of acceleration gave her step some spring. She missed the weight of her body between maneuvers. Flying in weightlessness was easy enough, but she would never be as good at it as the members of the crew.
Most of the FlyRight personnel where heavies. They remained about during maneuvers. Lea should have taken that into consideration before she headed to the infirmary.
She rounded the corner of the hall and ran into a no-neck, shaved-head grunt standing guard with a sidearm. The bright orange jumpsuit proclaimed who he worked for.
Rather than miss a beat, she nodded and continued on her way. One thing was for certain, Tian sucked as a lookout.
There was no way Lea was going to reach Reo. His ass would need to wait. This brought on a new set of problems. The most important question became why the hell did they post a guard on the braindead Reo?
Chapter 22:
AD 2100 Inner Belt – Virgil
Lea fully intended to keep from making friends on this trip, ship, or through her entire life. Social distancing was her mantra. There was no need, in her line of work. Attachments only served to make life more—difficult. Cozying up to Tian was a happy accident, committed out of boredom.
Now she needed to focus on getting her revenge and getting off this damned ship. The longer she stayed in space, the harder her task became.
What chapped her ass most was the fact she had no rational explanation for even being here. She wanted to press the crazy man Reo on the subject, but she was concerned about the appearance of her own sanity. Running around accusing others of min
d control didn’t sound too sane, even when she only thought about the scenario to herself. The quicksilver drug proved nothing. In the quiet times alone in her cabin with the lights turned low, she questioned her own sanity, now more than ever.
Lea didn’t need to work hard to distance herself from the others on the ship. In her blue coveralls, she stood out. Few of the gray or orange-clad team members approached her. It might have something to do with her resting bitch face, but more than likely she just exuded an air of “leave me the fuck alone.” Either way, she was happy with the results. It left her with more than enough time to agonize over her circumstances and lack of control in her life.
Two weeks since leaving Ceres, three months since leaving Earth. A quarter of a year lost in space, and she had nothing to show for it. Worse, her savings were probably gone. If she returned to Earth, she might be on the streets. Like all those poor homeless souls she spied in San Francisco.
The life she worked so hard to create probably lay in ruins. The inability to do anything constructive concerning her circumstances only drove her to contemplate harsh action. Three consecutive days of hard burn wore on Lea’s nerves. She didn’t know much, but she knew she wanted off this damned family ship that raced quickly to nowhere.
Her friend, the conspiracy-loving Tian, didn’t help her mood. The programmer’s constant prattle had started repeating. The same stories told over and over. Alcohol and coffee only relieved so much misery.
“Did you hear?” Tian asked for the umpteenth time, her voice lowered in her normal conspiracy-theory mode of conversation.
“Hear what?” The only good thing about the burn was it allowed the drip coffee maker to keep perking away. Lea might have taken a walk out the nearest airlock without the black gold, and the limited comfort it offered.
“They increased the acceleration again…” She cleared her throat, “There is something out there, something big.” Across from Lea, the woman’s eyes lit up with excitement. “We are going to a haunted outpost. Long abandoned and shunned by spacers in the know.” She ran her finger along the side of her nose, voice lowered further, like she shared some dark secret. “They call it Dyer’s rock.” She wiggled her fingers in front of Lea’s face like casting a spell.
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