Starship Alchemon

by Christopher Hinz

  A coffin had been suspended above a hole in the dirt, similar to the way the autobed was now positioned over the depression in the pool. Her classmates had giggled at the idea of a lifeless human sealed in a luxurious container for preservation. But LeaMarsa had found the ritual unsettling.

  The autobed’s vertical jets gradually extinguished, dropping the autobed into the waiting hole. Alexei disappeared from view.

  The surface grew agitated. More giant globules erupted and skid across the surface like billiard balls, beelining toward the hole. Some of the larger ones dragged flagella-like tails that cracked noisily against the liquid.

  The globules poured into the hole, filling it. The pool’s surface swept in from all sides. Within seconds, the aqueous lid had erased all traces of Alexei’s entombment.

  CHAPTER 28

  Some individuals looked comfortable in shieldsuits. June wasn’t one of them. Ericho watched as she walked onto the bridge with awkward strides.

  “How are you holding up?” she asked.

  “I’m fine. No change with the ship.”

  As far as I can tell, he added silently, wishing Jonomy would awaken. The lytic remained flat on his back, only halfway through his thirteen-minute sleep cycle.

  June stared into the HOD. The combo robot continued to float serenely in the void.

  “Why do you think it took Alexei?” she asked.

  “Doesn’t matter. We’re going to find him, get him back.”

  Their eyes met. She knew Ericho was projecting a confidence he didn’t feel.

  “Shouldn’t you be following your own advice?” she asked.

  “Which is?”

  “The rest of us are wearing shieldsuits.”

  “I’ll put one on as soon as Jonomy’s awake.”

  Rigel came over the intercom. “Faye and I have covered half of downdeck. We’re at the port storage pod. No sign of Hardy.”

  That the science rep had abandoned his makeshift lab was odd, considering how vociferously he’d insisted on staying there.

  “He wasn’t in his cabin or the main social room either,” Faye added. “We’re heading for the natatorium next.”

  June unfastened her suit’s thick utility belt, which she’d crammed with medical gear, and let it fall to the floor. She contorted her shieldsuit into a sitting position and assumed the lieutenant’s chair. Worry was etched across her face.

  “We’ll find Alexei,” Ericho promised.

  A non-critical alarm sounded, a series of rhythmic beeps. Ericho swiped through pages on his wafer to track down the cause. It was frustrating having to perform such a task manually. Jonomy would have honed in on the trouble in milliseconds.

  “Downdeck, port lander hold,” he uttered. “Some sort of power surge.”

  “What does that mean?” June asked.

  “I don’t know.” He kept working the screen, trying to pinpoint the issue. “Looks like something to do with the electrical feed to the lander interface system.” He hoped it was just another routine malfunction and not some new mode of attack. “I can’t track the event any deeper. LIS is Level Four. The creature must be blocking access.”

  Onscreen, a pulsing event light went from yellow to green, indicating the power surge had ended. But Ericho had an uneasy feeling that something noteworthy had occurred.

  He reviewed the incident for Rigel. “Any ideas?”

  “What was the strength and duration?”

  He couldn’t get any readings directly from LIS. But primary power was Level One and not yet under the creature’s control. It took him half a minute to locate the relevant numbers.

  “Fifteen kilowatts. Duration, twelve seconds.”

  “That just about what you’d need to prep the lander’s power systems for a launch,” Rigel said.

  Erich grasped the significance. “It’s going to send out its own rescue mission!”

  “With the lander on autopilot,” Rigel added. “Goddamn, I should have thought of that.”

  They’d all missed it, even Jonomy. Lack of sleep was taking its toll everywhere.

  “Rigel, what’s your location?”

  “We were approaching the natatorium but just made a U-turn. We’ve got to stop that lander.”

  In the HOD, nothing appeared to have changed. The combo robot remained isolated in space, still caught in the ship’s geonic field. But if the lander was launched, it could scoop up the robot and transport it back to the ship.

  Two more warning lights appeared. This time Ericho quickly accessed the relevant subsystem.

  “The lander hold has depressurized and the outer hatch is opening. Hurry!”

  “Almost there,” Rigel barked, his voice strained. He and Faye no doubt were running hard, pushing their amped-up suits to the limit.

  “How will they stop it?” June wondered.

  The intercom remained silent. Rigel would be formulating a plan. But he wasn’t going to risk talking about it.

  A new worry touched Ericho – the second lander. The tech officer likely had considered the possibility as well. But Rigel couldn’t be in two places at once. And Faye lacked the expertise to incapacitate a craft on her own.

  “We’re in the port hold airlock,” Rigel said. “Equalizing pressure. Ten seconds and we’re in.”

  “Hurry,” Ericho whispered.

  “Pressure at zero. Inner door opening.”

  Ericho scanned for power surges in the second lander hold, was relieved to discover none. A troubling thought occurred.

  This is too easy.

  The creature presumably had control of internal airseals, which were under the command of a Level Five system. Why hadn’t it hindered Rigel and Faye’s movement through the ship, considering they might stop the launch? The creature could have slowed them down, made their task impossible. Or, achieved the same goal by powering up the two landers simultaneously.

  “Rigel’s firing the Higgs,” Faye reported. “He’s burning out the external nav sensors.”

  It’s what Ericho would have done. The lander could still launch. But lacking navigational capacity, it would do little more than float in space. In the event they needed it again, the damage was repairable.

  “You have to knock out the other one too,” Ericho said.

  “Our next stop.”

  “A couple more sensors to go,” Faye said. There was a long pause. “OK, he’s down to the last one.”

  Ericho kept waiting for the other hold to register an identical power surge. That it remained green filled him with foreboding. What were they overlooking?

  “Nav system is toast,” Rigel said.

  “What’s that?” Faye asked, a quiver in her voice. “Something moved, behind the supply cabinet.”

  There was a moment of silence. Ericho hunched forward in the chair. “What’s happening?”

  “Oh my god, it’s inside!”

  “What’s inside?” he demanded.

  No response.

  “Rigel, Faye! Can you hear me?”

  “The combo robot!” Rigel yelled. “Goddamn thing’s in here with us!”

  Ericho whipped his gaze back to the HOD. The robot outside the ship hadn’t moved. It couldn’t be two places at once.

  “Look out!”

  Faye let out a shriek. More agonizing silence followed before the tech officer came back online.

  “The robot was hiding. It must have entered the hold when the hatch opened. Just flew past us like a bat out of hell.”

  “It’s in the inner airlock,” Faye added. “As soon as the lock repressurizes, it’ll have access to the ship.”

  Tricked again. Ericho glared at the HOD, realizing he must be looking at a false image used to disguise the robot’s movements. Somehow, it had returned to the hull and entered the lander hold.

  “What now?” Faye asked.

  “Try following it.”

  “What about Alexei?” Rigel asked.

  “Something tells me it’ll lead you to him.”

  Ericho checke
d the clock. Jonomy would awaken shortly. He hoped that a revitalized lytic would be brimming with ideas on how to fight an enemy that seemed beyond the capabilities of a mere ship’s captain.

  CHAPTER 29

  LeaMarsa didn’t know how long she’d stood at the edge of the pool, staring out at the spot where Alexei had gone under. She was still shocked at what had happened to the trainee. She wanted to help him but had no idea what to do. Diving in and trying to drag Alexei to the surface seemed sheer folly. Even if he remained alive, the water had assumed the guise of some carnivorous thing, poised to consume anyone challenging its depths.

  The white mists grew agitated, disturbed by a change in air currents. Once again, the airseal had opened.

  LeaMarsa whirled, squinted to penetrate the ghostly swirls. She heard the door whisk shut behind whatever had slipped into the natatorium.

  A silhouette appeared, gaining form as it approached. It was a robot, but of a type unfamiliar to her, as if cobbled together from bits and pieces. The robot floated to within three meters of her and stopped. Its spherical upper body began to glow red, as if the plastiform alloy was being superheated from within.

  Tiny cracks appeared on the surface. The cracks intersected, grew larger. The material melted; the sphere split open like some fantastic egg. Liquefied shards spilled to the floor, sizzled as they touched the moist deck.

  The diminutive creature within the cracked shell appeared to be a more mature version of Baby Blue. Yet it still bore a youthful appearance, reminding her of a toddler just learning to navigate the world.

  It leaped out of the cavity and onto the floor, landing on its feet. The skull-like face gazed up at her with unblinking green eyes. The organ between its mouth and nose bore a mirrorlike sheen.

  It waddled a step closer, extended a six-fingered palm. Alien or not, the gesture was universal.

  It wanted LeaMarsa to take hold of its hand.

  Sentinel Obey. Coalesce and Target. Implement Synchronicity.

  The cryptic set of instructions slammed into her, this time fueled by desperate urgency. Nanamistyne, the phantom woman, didn’t want LeaMarsa anywhere near the creature, let alone holding hands with it.

  Frightened, she backed away, realizing in a jarring instant that she’d come too close to the pool. Teetering on the lip, she flailed her arms wildly, barely kept from tumbling into the foul waters.

  The creature took a step back, giving her space. She sensed it had no desire to force her into the pool. But the hand remained extended, urging her to take hold. Whatever it wanted from her involved voluntary cooperation.

  She gauged the space on either side of the creature, wondering whether she could move fast enough to sprint around it. But with the natatorium sealed, where would she go?

  The creature opened its mouth, attempted to speak. But only faint guttural sounds emerged, like those of a baby still lacking the synaptic connections for speech.

  She sensed it didn’t want to harm her. Attempting to communicate with it might be important. Besides, what did she have to lose? The angry frustrated existence that was her life?

  She drew a deep breath to steady her courage and reached out her hand. The creature’s six fingers encircled her palm. Its flesh was warmer than expected but it was the psychic impact that was truly stunning. It was as if a superluminal highway had opened, allowing impulses to flow freely between them. Her attention was instantly drawn to the creature’s extra sensory organ. She found herself staring into that mirrorlike marble, hypnotically entranced.

  And suddenly she was inside the sensory organ, staring out at herself, a sad-looking figure at the edge of the pool.

  LeaMarsa de Host, the freaky ghost. For the first time in her tormented existence, she found herself acknowledging just how well the appellation fit. Seeing herself from this perspective induced the feeling that she was freaky, a psionic misfit, a warped genejob in a world of so-called normal people. She was a ghost, a tormented spectral presence drifting through life, unable to connect with others in any deep and fundamental way.

  LeaMarsa de Host, the freaky ghost. The phrase no longer felt hurtful. It was simply a statement of fact. Deep down, she perceived herself in exactly those terms.

  The natatorium disappeared. She found herself afloat in a place definable only by what it lacked. It possessed neither the tangibility of the physical universe nor the contours of neurospace. It was neither light nor dark. There were no sounds, no smells, no sensations of taste or touch; it was completely devoid of sensory input. It felt like death but wasn’t death. Instead, she recognized it as a kind of protected habitat, a psychic sanctuary deep within the very embodiment of the creature, a preview of what it offered.

  She could no longer feel the lurking presence of the reek.

  Relief washed through her. She felt a lightness of being, as if a heavy burden had been lifted. Or perhaps more accurately, the burden remained but had been rendered weightless, its soul-crushing effects impotent within this sanctuary.

  Not only had the reek disappeared but all the angers and pains and frustrations of her tormented life were gone as well. She felt giddy, overcome by a feeling of pure joy. That she felt so alive in a place where sensory input and connection to the real world was nullified didn’t matter.

  I’m free.

  The creature released her hand. The nothingness vanished. She was back in the natatorium, back in her body, back in the realm of sensory engagement. She felt warm moist air on her skin from the omnipresent fog.

  That glorious lightness was gone. Again, she felt the reek within her subliminal depths, ever poised to invade consciousness should she drop her guard. She acknowledged a desperate longing to return to the place where the reek and her other pains held no sway.

  She thrust her palm toward the creature, her whole body aching for reconnection.

  A flash of light pierced the fog, followed by a sputtering sound of incinerating metal. The disturbance momentarily swept the mists from the airseal.

  A Higgs cutter. Someone was burning through the door.

  The glowing beam shut off. A large rectangular opening had been cut in the center of the airseal. Rigel’s shieldsuited boot kicked in the dislodged section. The heavy clump twirled through the air, clanged against the natatorium floor.

  The creature raced past LeaMarsa and leaped out over the pool. There was no splash, just an unpleasant slurp, as if the foul liquid had swallowed it whole.

  “No,” she whispered to the spot where it had gone under. “Please stay.”

  “LeaMarsa, are you all right?”

  Faye’s voice was amplified by her shieldsuit’s speakers. The scientist was bounding through the hole in the airseal. Rigel was on her heels, lips moving behind his faceplate, on the intercom with someone.

  The pair froze as they reached the robot’s carcass. Rigel examined the remnants of the spherical upper portion from which the creature had hatched.

  “What happened?” Faye asked. “Are you OK?”

  LeaMarsa had an urge to describe that brief taste of freedom the creature had enabled her to experience. She wanted to share with someone what it felt like to be emancipated from the reek.

  “LeaMarsa, can you hear me? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Rigel’s tone bore none of Faye’s gentle concern. “Speak up, woman! Where the hell did that thing go?”

  She pointed to the water. “It jumped in.”

  “Have you seen Alexei?” Faye asked. “He was injured. The creature took control of his autobed and– ”

  “He’s under there too.” She described the incident.

  Faye shook her head in dismay. “We have to do something.”

  “You two stay here,” Rigel said.

  The tech officer lunged forward. Shieldsuit motors hummed loudly as he picked up speed.

  “Rigel, no!”

  Faye’s protest came too late. Momentum carried Rigel several meters out over the pool before gravity took hold. He landed on the pud
ding-like surface with a muffled splat. Submerged to the waist and slowly dropping, he twisted around to face them.

  “If I’m not back in ten minutes, get the hell out of here.”

  “Don’t do this!” Faye urged.

  “Gotta be done.”

  Those were his last words. The crown of his helmet disappeared beneath the surface, silencing external speakers. Faye’s lips mouthed his name over and over. But it was obvious Rigel’s intercom was dead as well.

  CHAPTER 30

  Ericho exchanged worried looks with June as they waited for Faye’s next update. Several minutes had passed since Rigel had gone into the pool. All they could do now was hope that the attempt to rescue Alexei succeeded.

  Had Ericho been asked, he would have forbidden the tech officer’s bold action. But spontaneity divorced from consideration of danger had always been one of Rigel’s failings.

  Ericho tabbed his shieldsuit intercom. He’d donned the garment moments ago.

  “Faye, anything?”

  “Still no sign of him.” The stress in her voice was palpable.

  “Keep monitoring.”

  The words sounded impotent even as he uttered them. The classic saying about a captain’s role and the limitations of command in an ascendant age of cyberlytic humans again coursed through him.

  The captain needs to master that the master’s not the captain.

  Nothing in his experience had prepared him for the troubles impacting the Alchemon. Nevertheless, it was his duty to remain strong, not surrender to doubts. The others were counting on him.

  Jonomy’s internal clock reached the thirteen-minute mark. His eyes popped open. The fleshy curtain covering his umbilical recep slid upward.

  The lytic took note of their distressed faces. “What did I miss?”

  Ericho filled him in as Jonomy grabbed the end of the umbilical to relink.

  “You should be in a shieldsuit too,” June said. The lytic had a special helmet that facilitated such a connection.