“What is it though?” Moon took over for Rick while he calmed down.
“Same as any travel madness.” Why won’t they give straight answers?
“The usual. Hallucinations induced by boredom and existential crisis.” Thank you, Amy.
“Some fools have been known to go homicidal.” For fuck’s sake.
“Killing all their crewmates as an offering to Cthulhu!” Diego laughed.
“And don’t stare too long at a sun fool!”
“Or listen to the inter-dimensional ramblings from the Great Old Ones!” Brock scoffed. Dickheads.
Rick was wrestling with his thoughts. The guys were visibly cheering Moon up. They were being funny, he had to admit that. But something had definitely gone on in the cargo bay, and they were dismissive of that. What if one of them had gone mental and was trying to kill the others?
“Where’s Steve?”
The lights went off as if responding to an invisible queue. Moon gripped Rick’s hand and squeezed it. Hard. She's so strong, his display flashed. He pulled his hand and draped his arms around her. The lights came back on, and everybody exhaled.
“Apologies everyone I was rebooting some systems.” Mom came on the PA. “I have noted some unusual activity. The ship’s systems were accessed, and I was temporarily locked out of the cargo bay. I also noted that several cameras have been tampered with.” This was not good news. Rick had hoped he was just suffering a bout of madness.
“Mom. Where is Steve?”
“I don’t know. He was last spotted heading to his cabin forty hours ago.”
“We have to find Steve.”
“Does he have space madness?” Rick hoped not and shared that much with Moon.
Brock told everyone to stay together as he led them below to the crew quarters. There were twelve cabins as well as four ten-bed dormitories. Brock took them on a room-by-room search. They didn’t find him in any of the cabins. They stayed together and continued to search throughout the ship. It took hours, and they didn’t find him. Everyone was on edge.
Where is Steve?
Hours became days. Steve was nowhere to be found, and the light-outs and lock-ins continued. Rick lived in constant fear that an airlock would release and suck them out into the cold vacuum. Moon rarely left his side. That was the only good bit.
Mr Food started fucking with him again. The machine no longer took orders. It made what it wanted to, and it was never what Rick wanted to eat.
Gary and his AI, which Rick now knew was called Dan, had taken up Steve’s camera duties. Which involved capturing scenes of cowering in the darkness, scenes of verbal abuse towards the food maker and maybe some tender moments between he and Moon. Though not as many as Rick hoped, the constant unease was not sexually stimulating, contrary to what teen horror movies might have people believe.
She’d been short lately and he’d been distant. He knew he was. The dog would be the only source of smiles for this episode. Rick wondered what they might call it. “Space Madness” had a good ring to it.
How long had he been on this ship? Boredom had begun to set in. They had ample entertainment and access to virtual worlds. Rick could have been learning, Brock could have been training. But the fear made them paranoid. Incapable of doing anything apart from stew in their anxious anticipations. Rick eyed each shadow with suspicion. Moon jumped at every sound. Which made Rick even jumpier. They had searched for Steve again and again. Every time they failed to find him the general mood darkened a bit.
Rick had just finished another disappointing meal and was heading over to Moon’s cabin, she'd been in a foul mood and had left the mess without a word. He'd been torn between following and giving her space. Brock had come in on the link to tell him to give her space. Rick was about to find out if that had been sound advice.
Dan was floating behind him capturing pointless footage. The lights went out again, and Rick regretted turning down Brock’s offer to accompany him. The blood-curdling scream felt like ice in his blood. Moon. It had to be. He only had one floor down to go. The helmet came on, Rick ran and cycled to thermal vision. Dan overtook him and floated ahead.
Through the optics Dan appeared as red pinpoint in the centre of a blue-green blob. He hovered in front of him for a few instants and suddenly the red pinpoint expanded to fill his field of vision, and then there was a blinding hot flash.
Rick was thrown to the ground. His display was flashing, his ears were ringing. That was most definetely an explosion. Rick ran. Down the stairs and corridor and into Moon’s room.
The door slid shut behind him, and he rested against it. Slowly, he slumped to the ground. His heart was pounding. He was hot. He couldn’t breathe. He needed out of the suit. Off the ship. Moon was in bed trembling, she jumped out and ran towards him. She was going on about laughter and darkness and scratching against her door. Rick wasn’t make much more sense. Take a deep breath. The door slid open, and he fell backwards. He looked up at Brock’s crotch.
“What happened? I heard an explosion.”
“The fucking lights went out again, Moon screamed, and then Dan exploded.”
“Did you see someone shoot?”
“I didn’t see shit.”
“Mom, what's going on?”
“Someone is messing with the ship’s systems.”
“We need to find Steve.”
“Yeah we need to find Steve”, Rick sneered and Brock’s eyes narrowed, he didn’t like that.
Brock’s seemed very determined. But he’d seemed very determined the last few times as well. His newfound confidence, he explained, came from his examination of the ship’s schematics. Apparently, the craft had access corridors for engineering and maintenance. Corridors they’d previously neglected to search. Rick thought that was very un-Brock-like. But it was best not to poke the bear, so he kept the thought to himself.
◆◆◆
Mr T was displaying a map of the ship with access to engineering corridors highlighted. Seeing the ship layout brought some clarity to Rick. They were stood by the bridge’s doorway, there was a secret engineer floor beneath them and the IT floor beneath that. Diego had checked there and found nothing. The medbay was next, beneath it the mess and kitchen and beneath that crew quarters. These areas had been scoured and had no service hatches; still, Brock made them search again. They found nothing.
Rick caught up to Mr T to have another look at the map. There was an access hatch in between the armoury and training rooms. Every bit of the ship they checked increased the tension.
The further away they got from the flight deck the harder it was for Mom to maintain control. The lights began to flicker. The door to one of the dojos suddenly slid open, Brock shouted at everyone to get down as he drew a pistol and rolled towards the door. He crouched there while Amy and Mama scanned the room.
“There’s no one in there.”
“No one.”
“Mom, did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“The opening door!”
“No, sorry.”
“Mom check-in with us when you notice something wrong OK?
“Yes, Brock.”
They continued towards the access door, and Diego went in to check. The corridor was long and had another hatch on the other end. Rick shuddered to think about going into that corridor alone. The darkness and flickering lights and that constant feeling of being short of breath were about as much as he could handle. Rick would lose his mind for good if the space he was in got any more constrained. No access corridors for him.
They met Diego at the other end of the passage. Still no Steve anywhere. They’d be searching the cargo bay next. Rick avoided going back there as much as possible. He’d been twice with the others to conduct a search. He sensed Moon’s hand near his. Tight grip. Moon was not too keen on the cargo area either.
Some order had been restored to the room by Diego and Brock during the first search. They’d piled the crates back up nicely enough, though if there was any type of arrangement
to their storage, it had been lost.
The lighting was uneven, and the flickering was worse. The towering stacks cast worrying shadows across the box maze. Brock led them through the poorly illuminated labyrinth at a brisk pace. He too must have sensed that lingering here was ill-advised. The AIs were floating above scanning every nook and cranny. This did make Rick feel somewhat safer. Up until the point when the lights went out and he heard an explosion. One of the AIs had been shot. Panic washed over Rick’s body. He was frozen. Moon was squeezing his hand so hard he thought it would break.
In one swift Brock-tackle Moon, Rick, Gary and the dog were on the ground. The lights flickered wildly. The alarm began to ring. Brock was shouting at them to stay put.
Rick watched him roll away all special forces-like. Brock peered around his stack’s corner and up at the gangway. He repeated this manoeuvre several times before returning to them. He was going on about not seeing the shooter or something. Rick was not done with his shock phase yet. Please try again later.
More shots fired. The new shock snapped Rick out of his daze. The lights came back on, and the alarm stopped. Diego came on the neural link.
“I found Steve…”
“Where?” Even in neural link, the anticipation in Brock’s voice was palpable.
“Meet me at the exit hatch by the control room.”
Moon and Gary had about broken out of their stupor and were groggily following Rick who was stumbling behind Brock. They met Diego by the hatch, and he did not display the mood that corresponded to Rick’s imagined scenario.
“Where is he?” Gary ran towards Diego, “did you kill him?” Rick couldn’t see Gary’s face, but he was sure he was crying. Something in the voice gave it away.
“No…” Diego pointed at the hatch, “it’s not pretty.”
Gary rushed towards the hatch, but Brock grabbed him by the collar in an almost cartoonish moment. Brock went down first. He was down there a few minutes. Gary kept trying to go down, but Diego stopped him.
“Let me see him!”
“Calm down tonto!” Something darkened in Diego’s expression, he gently pushed Gary back, “amigo just wait a bit! It’s tight down there”, his tone had considerably softened.
Brock came back with the same dead look in his eyes Diego had. All he said was “fuck”. Gary pushed passed Brock and tumbled down the ladder.
Rick knew the moment he heard it, he’d never forget that howl of anguish. The spine-tingling sound felt like an electroshock to the soul. Gary didn’t come up for what seemed like a long time. Rick resolved to go down and see for himself. The vision matched the sound. He would never forget this either.
Steve’s mutilated body lay face down half-embedded in the ship’s circuitry. His face had been ripped off and forcibly connected to one of the ship’s information nodes. The back of his head had been cut open, and a makeshift terminal had been plugged into his nervous system. He’d been turned into a supercomputer to hack the ship. Rick was aghast. The savagery of the act went beyond anything he could imagine. And it seemed Gary, Diego and Brock were still under the spell of this brutal act. Rick was still mostly human. He got over the horror a little quicker. Which led to a far more terrifying realisation. There’s someone else on this ship.
Rick’s heart began to beat so hard he thought it would burst out of his ribcage. He looked down at Gary. Broken. His breath quickened. He was going to freeze again. He concentrated, focusing on his breathing. Don’t be a pussy. Deep breath
“Gary, let’s go useless cunt!”
Rick grabbed Gary by the collar and started pulling him. He wasn’t as strong as Brock, so the intended effect was diminished. But Gary came semi-willingly. He cried out for Steve and Dan the whole time, but he came nonetheless. Rick pulled him up the ladder and felt the light when Moon’s head popped over the opening. She reached down and helped hoist Gary up.
“What’s going on?” The others hadn’t bothered telling Moon about Steve. Rick would spare her the details.
“Steve is dead. And there's someone else on this ship.” That caught Brock and Diego’s attention. Their conjoined "fucks" made it clear to all within earshot. “Mom is there someone other than us on this ship?”
“I don’t know.”
“How do you not know?”
“Puta madre!”
“I’ve been running diagnostics, looking for Steve, fighting a hack and piloting this ship. I’ve had reduced systems for days, and my cameras in engineering and cargo were glitchy. Also, I’m a house.”
“OK, I’m sorry Mom. But you need to find this fucker before we all die!” Rick had to concede Mom had a lot on.
“Beginning camera cycle and ship scan.” Results came fast, without the Steve supercomputer mod Mom had full control over the ship. “Movement in engineering.”
A look of panic flashed over everyone’s faces. The engine room is not where you want someone mucking about. Even a simpleton like Rick could understand that.
Diego darted off first. Brock got Gary off the ground and pushed everyone towards engineering. As they marched through the shuttle bay Brock explained in no uncertain terms that if anything happened to any of the machines in that room, they would all die. Rick was hoping their guest wasn’t feeling suicidal.
Engineering was a different kind of maze. Fragile-looking devices, tubes, coils and wires connected glowing and flashing machinery Rick still struggled to identify without someone’s guidance. But he didn’t need to know what they did. He only needed to know that each and every one of them kept them alive and they needed to remain unexploded to carry out that function successfully.
Brock crept forward. He slowly turned the first couple of corners with his gun at the ready. Diego was out of sight, sneaking around, up on the gangway. Brock gestured at them to stop.
“Go back. Block the exit.” With that Brock was gone.
Rick looked at Moon and Gary, both seemed rattled, Moondog seemed OK though. Rick led his pack back to the entrance. Things were serious. This was the first time Brock had told him to fight. He started to think maybe he should have spent a bit of time in virtual training. He’d had five days to get acquainted with his upgraded combat abilities. Five days to practice using his suit in battle situations. He tried to think back on what he’d been up to. Sitting in the dark panicking, arguing with Mr Food and hanging with Moon. Not all bad then.
Rick imagined Moon and Gary might be decent in a fight if they weren’t debilitated by the events. Gary had spent his life pointing and shooting video, surely that skill adapted to shooting people. And Moon had demonstrated martial skills more than once when she handled him. Rick called Amy on the neural link. No answer.
“Where are the AIs?” Rick knew Gary had no idea from his babbling. “Amy’s not answering me.” Moon joined his link and called her cube.
“Mama? Mama where are you? Mama? Mama? Rick… Mama’s not answering.”
“Amy?”
“I’m here Rick, I’m sorry.”
“Where’s Mama?”
“I’m sorry Moon…”
Rick’s heart dropped a thousand floors and splattered on the ground. Probably right next to Moon’s. As reality dawned on her, she fell into catatonia. Rick sat her down and tried to comfort her. He wasn’t sure if she could hear anything through the whimpering. Gary plopped next to her quietly, and they both sat there sobbing. Fuck.
Shots rang out. The sound reverberated down the pipes and walls all the way to Rick. It was hard to tell where they’d come from. The distant hissing of some gas or steam or something reached Rick next. The sounds got closer, muffled shouts and clanking. More shots. A flare-up. The alarm started ringing again, and a localised sprinkler system activated.
Rick’s heart was beating fast again, his breathing was irregular. He closed his fist to rub his itchy palms. His helmet came on, and he began scanning engineering on heat vision. Everything was hot. He cycled back to normal and was able to detect Brock and Diego with his bioscanner. They we
re thirty metres away and moving a lot. The little waypoints jumped about on his display.
His scanner was trying to lock-on to a third point, but without the contact-list-assisted-targeting, CLAT for short, it was proving difficult. The waypoints stopped moving. Rick’s first thoughts were dark ones, he initiated a link.
“Brock? Are you OK?” Nothing. That feeling again. Rick’s pulse quickened. He took a deep breath and tried again. “Brock, can you hear me? Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, Rick. I can hear you. We’re fine, but we lost that prick. Be on the lookout.”
The line went dead. Rick scanned ahead, Brock and Diego were moving slowly in opposite directions. Then a new waypoint appeared. Directly in front of him.
The knowledge that this was an enemy they were hunting and not a ghost or friend gripped by space madness helped steel Rick. His display started flashing red, and a little voice inside of him suggested he jump back. He dodged the incoming projectiles and slid back into the shuttle bay. Before he could regain a fully upright position, a space-suited figure slammed into him. Rick went crashing into some crates and to the ground. He felt a kick to his side and another, he frantically rolled away as his assailant stomped at him.
In the chaos of it all Rick managed to point his charged wrist cannon and shoot. The attacker flew across the room over one of the shuttles. Rick got to his feet and ran towards him. He shouted at the others to hurry before remembering to use the neural link.
Their ghost-hacking-murderer lay sprawled over some crates. His helmet was cracked and his suit torn. A wisp of smoke rose from where Rick’s hot plasma had burnt suit, flesh and metal. His broken machinery whined and whirred like a defective robocat.
Rick slowly approached wrist cannons at the ready. Brock, Diego and Amy were shouting in the link, telling him to be careful, and Mr T was telling him to man up. That little fucker would be surprised.
Rick shouldn’t’ve dropped his guard. The shots missed him, but that slimy bastard was moving again. Though he wasn’t moving fast. Rick turned a couple of corners and found him leaning against some crates. Blood and robojuice streaked from his injuries, kindly leaving a handy trail for Rick and the others to follow.
Space Shenanigans Page 17