Deep Space Dead (11 page)

“Where is the Admiral?” Demanded Jak.

“Still inside!” Exclaimed Arianna. “Trapped in the storage cupboard. We have to go back!”

“No!” Cried Jak. “There is nothing we can do to help her now.”

“What do you mean?” Demanded Arianna.
“Open your eyes,” snapped Jak. “Bratten was bitten and she became one of those things. Now she has sunk her teeth into the Admiral in turn.”

“Jak is right,” said Dr Palk gently. “We simply cannot afford to take the risk.”

Arianna, Jak and Dr Palk hurried back to the administrative chamber to discover most of the Council were still there, milling around and informally discussing the crisis amongst themselves. Those who had left were quickly rounded up and the meeting hastily reconvened.

“You mean to say you’ve just left the Admiral to bleed to death?” Exclaimed Sol in astonishment after Dr Palk had finished briefing them.

“We had no choice,” replied Jak quickly. “We can’t get to her, not with Bratten rampaging up and down like that. If we hadn’t turned on the anti-asteroid fields she would have busted straight out through the steel.”

“It is true,” confirmed Dr Palk sadly. “I have never seen anything like it.”

“It is already too late for the Admiral,” said Arianna quietly. “Think about it. Wal and his team went down into that cave, got bitten and turned into monsters. Then they went ahead and bit Bratten and she turned as well.”

“But what are those things?” Demanded Barra Herr.

Arianna turned to Dr Palk. “Bratten was dead,” she said flatly. “You said so yourself and we all saw it from the equipment she was hooked up to. The heart rate stopped and all brain activity ceased. Then she came back. Meanwhile the equipment on the rovers picked up no sign of life. This is because those things are not alive. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“It makes no sense at all,” muttered Banda Ure. “But then none of this makes any sense. Are you sure Bratten wasn’t just out of her mind?”

“I saw it with my own eyes,” said Dr Palk. “An ordinary human being simply doesn’t possess that sort of strength. And Arianna is right; Bratten was dead.”

Magnuj Bol tutted loudly, attracting the Council’s attention. “Right now this is all hearsay,” he said doubtfully. “The truth is we simply can’t be sure what those things are, not until we’ve conducted the appropriate scientific tests. But we can talk about that once we’ve dealt with more pressing concerns. The Admiral is trapped.”

“The Admiral is dead,” said Jak, with such vehemence as to make the whole room give a start. “If not now then as good as. I’m sure as hell not about to risk my life or those of my rangers on a rescue mission to get her out when she’ll only turn and attack us.”

Barra Herr got up and went to the communications station at the side of the room. “I can get a live feed to that storage room,” he said thoughtfully. “Let’s hook it up and we’ll see just what sort of state the Admiral is in.”

The radio whirred into life amidst a blur of static. There came the sound of groaning and heavy breathing. “Admiral?” Said Barra Herr authoritatively. “Are you okay in there?”

“I’m trapped!” Came the Admiral’s voice, sounding more terrified than Arianna had ever heard her before. “I can hear it, slamming against the door! I’m bleeding. I’m looking at my arm, it looks like its hanging off. I’m losing blood. Shoot it, Jak! For crying out loud get your rangers in here and shoot it dead!”

Everyone appeared ashen faced. The other councillors turned to Jak, their faces beseeching him for an answer.

“How do you feel?” Asked Dr Palk down the intercome. “In your own mind, I mean?”

“I’m getting these hallucinations,” replied Kalp faintly. “I feel like I’m passing out and then dreaming that I’m a wolf or something. For some reason I’m hungry. Really, really hungry.”

“For meat?” asked the doctor.

“Yes,” breathed the Admiral. “How did you know? Oh but to hell with that. Where are the damned rangers? Why aren’t they in here?”

Jak reached forward and removed the transmitter from the doctor’s hands and flicked it off. The Admiral’s voice was gone in an instant. “We have no choice” Said Jak defensively, looking around at the shocked faces of the other councillors. “Does anybody here have any better idea? Anybody else want to tell the Admiral why we’re not coming to get her?”

“Then what will we do about Bratten?” Demanded Sol.

Jak swallowed hard and gritted his teeth. “We’ll close off the air supply,” he said firmly. “We’ll suffocate that thing.”

“You can’t be serious!” Exclaimed Arianna. “Why that would…”

“I told you the Admiral is already dead,” snapped Jak harshly. “If anything we’d be doing her a favour, not letting her turn into one of those things.”

“But it is barbaric!” Persisted Arianna.

“One bite is fatal,” said Jak. “It did for Wal and his team, it did for Bratten. It will…”

“Yalor Hain!” Yelled Arianna suddenly. “Where is he?”

“He was discharged back to his quarters,” replied Dr Palk. “I bandaged him up as best I could and sterilised the wound.”

Jak drew his pistol and charged out of the room, shouting for his rangers to join him. Sol, Arianna and the doctor hurried after him.

The rangers’ quarters had been detached from the main body of the starship and now lay just across the road on the main street of Grumium. Jak, Sol, Arianna and Dr Palk hurried out and charged across the street, joined by two of Jak’s rangers who also had their pistols drawn. The four of them let themselves into the apartment block and rushed upstairs to Yalor’s second floor apartment. As they reached the top of the landing the air was wrought by a blood curdling scream. It was the scream of a woman and it was coming from behind the door. Jak pulled up short and ordered the doctor, Sol and Arianna to hold back, the three of them being unarmed. Suddenly the door was flung open from the inside and a woman Jak recognised as Sveta Hain, Yalor’s wife, rushed out and threw herself down the stairs. She was bleeding profusely from her right arm, which had been ripped right down to the bone. There came the sound of scuffling from inside the apartment, of chairs and furniture being knocked over, of windows smashing. Fast footsteps hurtled towards the door.

“Look out!” Cried Jak.

Adrianna dived down as shots rang out. She looked up to see Yalor Hain’s blood and flesh exploding out in all directions as the rangers pumped shots into his writhing body.

When it was over the doctor went to bend over Yalor’s body and began a cursory examination. “Any one of those shots would have been enough to kill an ordinary man,” he said in astonishment. “And yet Yalor Hain was still moving even after entire clips had been unloaded into him.”

There came a groaning from below. Looking down they saw Sveta Hain, collapsed in a foetal position at the bottom of the stairwell, a trail of blood snaking down the wall in her wake. Blood was seeping freely from her arm. “Get bandages,” ordered the doctor. Arianna hurried into the apartment and came back a moment later with the first aid kit. The doctor began to bandage her up as best he could. “We need to get her to the public hospital now the medical bay in the starship is out of use,” said Arianna.

“No,” said Jak decisively. “We need to get her down to the brig and keep our weapons trained on her at all times.”

Arianna realised that Jak was right. She looked down at Sveta, whose face was a grimace of pain and suffering, at her butchered arm that was pulsating blood. She did not have long left, she could see that well enough.

“I have sewn her up as best I can,” said the doctor sadly. “It was all I could do to tie up the arteries so she doesn’t bleed out and that injection should dull her pain somewhat.” He whispered so Sveta could not hear him. “Between us I doubt she would survive even if we weren’t worried about infection and whilst she is in the brig I cannot offer her proper medical treatment.” Jak ordered two of his rangers to carry Sveta to the brig whilst Jak followed behind with the gun trained on the stricken woman, ready to cut her down the moment she started to turn.

Half an hour later the air supply to the medical bay and all of its directly adjoining rooms was switched off. Jak watched gravely from the window as the rampaging beast that had been Bratten Jorg choked and gagged, her chalk like face turning an ugly shade of blue before finally collapsing down on to the floor where she was still. After a few minutes of intense monitoring Jak ordered the doors opened. He went inside with his pistol drawn and fired three shots into the creature’s head, taking no chances. The Admiral lay dead in the storage room. Whether she had bled to death or suffocated when the air had been turned off Jak could not tell, but at least she had not turned into one of those creatures.

“The civilian leadership must be continued,” said Dr Palk, after the Council had reconvened in the administration chamber. “Of that I am adamant.” Here several of the other Councillors murmured in agreement.

“I concur,” said Banda Ure. “The admiral was due to retire and hand over and this is exactly what should happen. The only difference is it is happening sooner than we would have expected.”

A new leader had to be chosen. In the end the verdict was unanimous. The ponderous administration man Magnuj Bol was elected. Sol was the last to raise his hand in the vote. Arianna could see he was disappointed and had harboured hopes of the taking the leadership for himself.

“How much danger are we really in?” Asked Magnuj Bol when the formalities were out of the way. “The danger has been contained. Those who have been bitten have been isolated and the threat itself is thousands of miles away on the other side of the world, in a spot which will surely be one of the last places we would think of colonising. We still have enough rangers to explore and map out the planet. In the meantime the veil of secrecy must continue.”

“Less than a fortnight into the colonisation and we’re already imposing censorship,” muttered Sol.

“The threat will be observed and further readings will be taken,” said Magnuj Bol, ignoring him. “We need to scout and map the rest of the planet anyway. To that end I shall send out another two rovers in the next few days. You can fly back over that sulphur hole and see what sort of state it is in. We’ll need to try and get some of those rovers back anyway.”

“And afterwards?” Asked Arianna. “What do we do then?”

“We get rid of them,” said Magnuj Bol firmly. “The creatures I mean. We take nuclear fuel rods from the ship’s engines and we set them into meltdown right inside that cave of theirs. It’ll be dangerous, of course it will, but it should do the job well enough.”

The new chairman now pressed a button. A hologram of the entire planet flashed up. Some parts were more detailed than others. These were the parts the rovers of Wal’s doomed expedition had already explored.

“You can see deserts, mountain ranges, volcanic regions, vast plains, lakes and rivers,” said Banda Ure. “A whole varied terrain. Those revenants would have to cross it all before they came anywhere near us and although the may certainly do so in time if left unchecked for now we are safe enough to plan forwards.”

“What of the tunnels?” Asked Sol doubtfully.

“The tunnels are not connected,” said Banda Ure. “Our scanners have picked up all the caves within a five hundred mile radius. None of them lead anywhere.”

“I still don’t like it,” muttered Arianna.

“It is only a disease,” said Magnuj Bol. “Colonisers have suffered strange diseases before. You as a librarian must be well aware of that, Arianna. Come the next rover sortie we’ll take some proper readings and that should give us a good idea of what to send back to the Confederation.”

“I don’t mind going,” said Arianna. “Like I said, I’ve got experience with these things and if we’re not going to be landing I don’t see that it will be too dangerous.”

“I shall go to,” said Dr Palk. “I want to observe this habitat of theirs for myself.”

“There is no hurry,” said the Chairman. “We have other pressing matters to attend to.”

The talk now turned back towards the building work and crop rotation. Arianna couldn’t believe they were discussing such things after all that had taken place that day.

9

“They’re in denial,” muttered Arianna, when she and Jak were making their way back to their quarters with Sol in tow. “They haven’t seen what we’ve seen, haven’t seen their vast numbers.”

“I can see the chairman’s point,” said Jak. “He doesn’t want to spook anyone.”

“I saw how fast that thing moved,” said Sol, his voice haunted. “And I saw its strength and how hard it went down. Just imagine if even one of those things made it back to Grumium and we couldn’t put it down in time. Imagine how many people it could turn in even a minute. It hardly bears thinking about.”

“You might have to get used to it,” said Jak. “With so many rangers killed you and your men are going to have to step up as replacements.”

“I don’t relish having to be a ranger,” muttered Sol. “My people and I are going to have to brush up on riding the rovers. We’re not going to be able to come along on this reconnaissance of yours.”