I, Spaceman

by Anthony North

  He was half way down the cliff path when he saw it. He could understand how people had been so frightened by the appearance. It was a humanoid shape, dressed in black, but with red eyes that seemed to pierce you. It stood on the path, staring blankly, and a slight howling was evident in Newton 2's ears.

  He stopped and considered the form in front of him. Slowly, he moved forward, came face to face with the ghost, and stared. And he was immediately aware that the facial expression didn't change.

  A smile crossed Newton 2's lips. Then he raised his hand and passed it through the ghost. He noticed immediately that rather than passing without resistance, a kind of force pushed against him. Looking down towards the space port, he noticed several more such apparitions, seeming to wander aimlessly.

  Walking through the apparition, he continued his journey down. But as he did so, he noticed the light in the sky, and the inevitable arrival of a freighter.

  He hid - observed as the freighter landed. Two humans and an Envin came out to meet it. The Envin was typical of the race, about four feet tall with pointy ears, and with the general appearance of an elf.

  A couple of minutes later the freighter departed, the Envin having organised the unloading of the cargo. And now the two humans drove away in land transporters.

  Immediately, Newton 2 realised what was going on. It was a simple smuggling operation. Indeed, smuggling and piracy seemed to be the main occupation of the Envin entrepreneur.

  Waiting for calm to descend on the space port, Newton 2 continued his journey, this time keeping under cover, until he found himself by the wall of the central building. Looking through a view port, he checked that the interior was quiet. Then, picking the lock of the building, he stepped inside.

  He immediately viewed the interior, and found what he was looking for in one corner. The control panel was rudimentary, and some fine adjustments increased power and placed him in charge of the system, transferring the command codes to his own control system on his arm.

  It was at this point that the Envin appeared in the building, saw the intruder and raised his sonic gun. Behind him, two more humans were also armed.

  'And who are you?' asked Newton 2, taking control of the situation.

  'Maybe I should ask the questions,' said the Envin.

  Newton 2 remained silent. Stared. Eventually the Envin said: 'My name is Dote - not that it is any use to you, for you are about to be dead.'

  At that point, four apparitions appeared in the building. Dote looked around him, wondering what in Overmind they were doing there.

  As if to answer the question, Newton 2 said: 'I like your holograms. A useful way to keep prying eyes away from your operation.'

  'But not, it seems, yourself.'

  At that point, Newton 2 selected a command on his console, and the four apparitions moved forward, power boosted to the point that they became solid.

  The fight was a brief one. Newton 2 hated violence himself, never carrying a sonic gun, and well aware that there were always other ways to handle a situation.

  The two humans were quite shocked to be apprehended by ghosts. But Dote was a far cleverer individual, just managing to quit the building before the ghosts got him.

  Newton 2 thought about giving chase, but realised it was pointless. Dote was bound to have an escape shuttle; and by the time Newton 2 had made it to the top of the cliff, he would be clean away.

  Instead, as he watched Dote fly off, he pressed his communicator and advised Nulyn the space port was back in business. And as Dote became a mere pin-prick in space, Newton 2 was aware that their paths would cross once more.

  SPACE SHIP VIRAL

  Newton 2 sat behind his desk and relaxed. He loved this place. Around him were walls covered in books - the classics of Earth and the planets in the Graveyard Sector; great scientific and religious tracts; encyclopedias and mammoth histories. And every one made of paper with real printed words. Such things seemed to have gone out of fashion, replaced by holo-volumes. But Newton 2 loved the feel of books, and loved the mind calculations made whilst reading them.

  The study was the centre piece of what he called his castle. He had fallen in love with the small mountain in his early days on Angeria, and vowed that if he ever returned he would build his home atop it. And he had. Before he would even take up his post as a Decider, he built this retreat. And he came to it whenever he could - to read, and with a profusion of scientific apparatus, to experiment on the remaining mysteries of the universe.

  He had just arrived back from one of his missions, and as he sat there, he thought of the implications of his present work.

  It had begun over a week ago when Dr Fresco had visited him. 'It's a severe problem,' Fresco had said. 'One of the Lustacean moons has had to be quarantined. I'm not sure what kind of virus it is - I've never seen anything quite like it. And it is so virulent that conventional medicine just doesn't seem to affect it.'

  Newton 2 had spent several days examining the virus, and he, too, was at a loss to explain it. The Lustaceans were a promiscuous species, tall, thin, and not particularly good looking. But they secreted certain pheromones that made them highly sexually attractive. And he was convinced that the virus was in some way associated with their practices. And it was vital that the virus was combated, for if it spread to the planet proper, then the Graveyard Sector would lose its most popular recreational resort.

  As the great scientist he was, failure to identify the virus did not preclude cure, and it was because of Newton 2's extensive knowledge in many areas that Dr Fresco had come to him.

  Finally, after a few more days of work, he recalled Fresco to his castle. 'Please watch the view screen, doctor,' he said as he settled down in his chair.

  A new form of space craft seemed to appear before them, and as it flew, it came across zillions of bodies, which Fresco identified as the virus, but much larger. As the ship approached, it fired beams from every angle, and the virus seemed to glow, become almost machine-like itself, and began reflecting the beams to attack its own kind.

  Eventually, before Fresco's eyes, the virus became inert.

  'I don't understand,' said Fresco eventually. 'Is this a metaphor that we should in some way approach the virus as if a great space battle?'

  Newton 2 smiled; handed the doctor a small vial. 'What you have just seen is not a metaphor, doctor. It was a highly magnified reality. Rather than fight the virus chemically or biologically, I decided to fight it physically. The ships exist. They are minute nano-technology ships, and there are millions in that single phial.'

  Dr Fresco held up the phial and was amazed.

  The following day the doctor and Newton 2 flew a shuttle to the Lustacean moon. The Lustaceans on the moon had lost their zeal, and were clearly ill. It was Fresco himself who injected just one Lustacean from the phial, and sat back and waited for the ships to work.

  Soon a glow seemed to come from the patient as the great battle went on within his atoms, and as battle raged, and as the virus transformed itself to kill its own, the nano ships became a technological virus in its own way. And the glow spread from one Lustacean to another, and exponentially among the entire population of the moon.

  At one point, passing freighters reported back upon the magnificent phenomenon of the actual moon beginning to glow, and within days the virus was dead.

  On their return to Angeria, Space Commander Nulyn recalled Newton 2 to Space Station Tiryns. 'A magnificent idea, Newton 2,' he said. 'You must pass on the technology you used for the benefit of us all.'

  Newton 2 shook his head. Said: 'You mean so you can manufacture it as a weapon.'

  Nulyn retained his blank expression, as Newton 2 knew he would.

  'I'm afraid not, space commander,' he eventually said. 'Medicine is medicine, and a weapon is a weapon, and the two must never meet or we face our extinction.'

  'And if I insist?'

  'Then you'll be disappointed. I worked it into the program that the ships would self-destruct when
their mission was complete. And they destructed themselves with the same finality as I destroyed all my notes.'

  DREAM TIME

  Newton 2 sat in Space Commander Nulyn's office, annoyed that he had been taken from his latest research.

  'I know you're not happy, Newton 2,' said Nulyn, 'but I simply have no choice.'

  'So what is the problem,' said Newton 2, attempting to replace his latest compulsion with a clear mind. Indeed, he knew, as soon as he agreed to be a Decider, that there would be times like these.

  Nulyn sat back and began. 'Over the last two weeks, we've had six crews arrive at Space Station Tiryns with acute psychological problems. Most are simply depressed but some have become quite psychotic, whereas others, from the same crews, are perfectly alright, even more optimistic than usual.'

  'And are there signs of similar problems with other crews going to other locations?'

  'No. It seems to be a local phenomenon. But we can see no explanation for it.'

  Newton 2 thought about the problem - asked: 'And how many ships have arrived in total since the phenomenon began?'

  Nulyn checked his records. 'In total, twenty three,' he said.

  Newton 2 rose from his seat. 'I think I need to interview some of the patients,' he said.

  Soon afterwards, he entered the space station's sick bay. Dr Fresco was waiting for him. 'And what do you make of it?' he asked.

  Dr Fresco scratched his head. 'I'm at a loss,' he replied, taking the Decider into the ward.

  The patients were, indeed, as Nulyn had described. Varying from freighter crews to elite B-Mover crews, the situation was the same. And Newton 2 decided that the most likely answer would not be found in the patients themselves.

  'What do you mean?' asked Fresco when he said this.

  'What I want,' said Newton 2, 'are the personal files on all the people involved, including those who were unaffected.'

  It took him two days and hundreds of communications before Newton 2 had the first indication of what was going on.

  He reported to Nulyn. 'It seems clear that those who are affected have undergone some form of trauma in their earlier lives, whilst those who appear unaffected had none. Even more surprising, those who have become more optimistic seem to have been those who led a reasonably happy and rewarding life.'

  'And what significance do you draw from this?' asked Nulyn.

  Newton 2 sat forward. 'I would suggest that somehow they have all been trapped in an attitude of mind based on a previous emotional state experienced at a particular moment in their lives.'

  Nulyn looked bemused. 'Now Newton 2, I know you're an advanced and controversial thinker, but isn't this going a bit too far?'

  'Not at all,' said Newton 2. 'We simply have to see this as an effect, and work back to discover the cause.'

  'And how do you propose to do that?'

  The answer came in the form of a chart of all twenty three flights, interposed upon each other. Looking at the chart, Newton 2 said: 'What I suggest is that some phenomenon is out there, and all six of the affected ships experienced it. So what we are looking for is a position true to the affected six but not the remaining seventeen.'

  And as the flights were recreated in front of them, it didn't take long for the point in space to be identified.

  'And what do we do now?' asked Nulyn.

  'I go to that point in space and find out what it is.'

  And so it was that, alone, Newton 2 took his shuttle to the designated point in space and waited.

  Momentarily, Nulyn came through the communicator. 'Newton 2,' he said, agitated, 'where in Overmind have you been?'

  'I beg your pardon,' said Newton 2. 'I've only just arrived.'

  'Are you mad,' replied Nulyn. 'You've been out of contact for three days.'

  'So that appears to be your answer,' said Newton 2 the following day, back on Space Station Tiryns. 'A time anomaly has appeared on the approach to the station. As ships flew through it, it trapped their minds in the most emotional point of their lives, and trapped them in their nightmares.'

  'And your advice?' asked Nulyn.

  'Intense therapy for the patients, including the optimistic ones, who have been trapped in their most beautiful dream, and quarantine the area in question.'

  Dr Fresco spoke then. 'But there's one thing I don't quite understand.'

  'And what is that, doctor,' said Newton 2.

  'You were inside the anomaly for three days, but you seem unaffected.'

  'That, dear doctor, is the sign of a healthy life,' said Newton 2.

  DECIDEDLY DODGY

  Newton 2 sat in the huge armchair in his book-laden study.

  His mind wasn't really on the book on his lap, but he persevered. Space Commander Nulyn's recent communication had disturbed him, but he felt that reading a volume of Sherlock Holmes might put his mind at ease.

  His revelries were interrupted by the arrival of Decider Hooke, a colleague with whom he didn't always see eye to eye.

  'Newton 2,' said Decider Hooke in a most official voice. 'I am arresting you for smuggling.'

  Newton 2 closed the volume and looked at Hooke. 'You are joking,' he said. 'I am the best smuggler catching Decider in the whole sector. And you think that I'm a smuggler myself?'

  Decider Hooke activated the control panel on his arm and before him a holographic image appeared of Newton 2 in a secret den with a gang of known smugglers.

  'The evidence,' said Decider Hooke, 'seems pretty damning to me.'

  As Newton 2 was deposited in the detention centre aboard Space Station Tiryns, Jackson Omega sat in a bar. It was any bar, in any colony, on any of the moons or planets of the Graveyard Sector. He swilled his Angerian mead thirstily, for he had much on his mind. Next to him, two Envins sat, their legs not quite reaching the floor and their pointy ears giving them an almost comical air.

  The first Envin looked at Jackson and said: 'Now you're sure the holo-picture cannot be found out to be a fake.'

  Jackson said: 'Absolutely sure. I do know what I'm doing.' He stroked his balding head, tweaked his abnormally large nose. A theatrical pause. 'But that doesn't mean that I like it,’ he continued. 'I'm thinking of calling the whole thing off - getting in touch with the Deciders and telling them I faked the whole thing.'

  Which was just the news the two Envins didn't want to hear. After leaving the bar they immediately reported to their boss, the Envin, Dote. 'I m telling you, Dote,' said the first Envin, 'he's shaky. I don't think he's going to go through with it.'

  Dote's mind was racing. He was normally a cool and collected operator, but ever since that damn Newton 2 arrived in the sector, he seems to have been on a personal mission to destroy him. Indeed, that is why Dote took the decision to try to have Newton 2 arrested himself. And when Jackson Omega appeared on the scene, with such brilliant abilities in faking evidence, he decided his time had come. But of course, that required the man himself to stay on course. And the thought of stitching up a Decider had obviously become too much.

  'Well he's not going to fail me now,' said Dote. 'The evidence is in place, so do we really need Omega?'

  It was the next day that Decider Hooke complained to Space Commander Nulyn. 'What seems to be problem,' said the latter, as the former stormed in.

  'Space Commander,' said Hooke, 'I really must object. I am well aware that Newton 2 is your favourite Decider, but to keep me from interviewing him at the detention centre is an absolute disgrace.

  Nulyn smiled at Hooke and was just about to explain what was going on when a communication came through for him.

  Gesturing Hooke to the screen, the two men observed as the Envin walked into the room. Sat in the corner was Jackson Omega. And as Dote raised the sonic gun to kill him, Omega removed the latex mask he was wearing and disclosed himself as Newton 2.

  'Well I really must object to being made a fool of,' said Hooke as Dote was finally arrested. To which Nulyn thought, he usually managed to do that perfectly well himself.

&nbs
p; THE GENESIS FACTOR

  Newton 2 sat in Space Commander Nulyn's office looking at the holographic image before him. He remembered well the time anomaly that had formed on the approach to Space Station Tiryns. But, like everyone else, he thought the warning buoys put in place would be adequate. Yet, here he was, observing that very space, and a B-Mover veering clear.

  'And watch what happens next,' said Nulyn.

  Newton 2 leaned forward, squinted his eyes, and before him a glow began to emanate, passing the buoys and catching the ship. Slowly, it began to disintegrate, until there was nothing left.

  Turning off the halo-image, Nulyn continued: 'Since then, we've sent six probes into the area, and each one self destructed. But most disconcerting is that each probe destructed at a position increasingly further away from the anomaly.'

  Newton 2 said: 'It seems obvious, then, that whatever the anomaly is, it is growing with each interception.'

  'So what does that mean?' asked Nulyn.

  'It is feeding, and each time it feeds, it grows.'

  The problem was a severe one indeed. And for over a week, Newton 2 locked himself in his castle, experimenting and experimenting to try to discover what the anomaly was.

  The only thing that was clear in his mind to begin with was the fact that it might not be a simple anomaly, but a life form. Or at least, something that acted as if it was a life form.

  'How is it going,' asked Nulyn a couple of days into his enquiries.

  'It has got to be a life form, replied Newton 2. 'I've done every test imaginable, and it has nothing to do with any fundamental force in a physical sense. Absolutely nothing registers on any monitor. It gives off no known energy, has no effect on the electromagnetic or gravitational field, and is totally benign in any physical way.'

  'So where do we go from here?'

  That was the question. And Newton 2's answer had been a revelation indeed. 'It is clear that, in some way, this life form has appeared from a time anomaly. So that suggests it is from another time. If that time is the future, then we can find out nothing about it. But if that time is the past, we may find something in past documentation to describe it.'