Requiem (16 page)

She smiled then
looked at the floor. 'I've been at Zackry's for about eight
years.'

'And why
haven't you left?'

'If you're
working for Zackry it's because there aren't any other options.
I've been in that position my whole life. It's hard to get out.
Real hard. To be honest, I think I've been waiting for something to
just drop out of the sky.' She almost laughed. 'I have absolutely
no idea what I'm gonna do after this. No job. No home. No
savings... but at least I don't have to see that prick again.'

Sear finished
ratcheting off the last of the bolts for the new bed frame.

'Thanks,' said
Seline, 'for fixing the bed. And, you know, getting me off
Earth.'

'You don't have
to thank me,' he said.

'Well... all
the same... thanks.'

Why the hell
do I keep saying that?

She thought she
could see a smile on Sear's lips but he turned away from her.

'Do you need
anything to drink or eat?' he asked.

A bottle of
whiskey would be good.

'A coffee,' she
said, 'I could do with another coffee.'

Thick columns
of plasma cut through the darkness of space. Hundreds of kilometres
long, the columns extended between each of the three oversized
mechanical joints. The large mechanical pieces, floating, detached
by all but the tether of the suspended beams of light. Hanging in
the centre of the three beams and the triangle they formed,
bleached white light shone from the rim of a bent and distorted
lens of the wormhole that formed the centre piece of Sol's only
known Atlas Gate. Nestled safely amongst the clusters of rock and
dust within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Sol's Atlas
Gate resided in silence until it, along with an untold number of
others across the galaxy, was mistakenly opened fifty years ago by
the first of the Yurrick exploration teams. With no known means of
altering the state of the now permanently opened gates the stars of
the Milky Way became irrevocably connected. The ancient roads of
the Atlas Gates became the most enduring legacy of the Sceril
race.

Through the
elliptical lens of Sol's Atlas Gate resided its two possible
resolutions. At one end – Saranture. At the other – Yeta, also
known as Cygnus X-1. Connected through the creation of a three way
wormhole, millions of years ago the Sceril united these siblings
through the mechanical umbilicus of the Atlas Gates.

A lone cruiser
approached the gate. Saranture its destination. A pale blue dot
shimmered meekly in the horizonless space behind it. It called to
one soul aboard that vessel like a mother crying for its lost
child. Its lungs were strong. Its voice would carry. Even through
that vast emptiness its voice would carry. It would mourn her back
into its arms and she in turn would mourn it. When the time came
she would mourn it like no other.

'It tastes like
shit.' Seline coughed and wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

'Try it again,'
said Mercer.

'Is there any
other way to do this?'

'Well there's
this way, where you sit in the tank, put the tube down your mouth,
breathe the fluid and survive and then there's the other way where
you don't breathe the fluid and your lungs are crushed and you
die.'

'Why not just
give me the sedative first?'

'Because we
need you to be fully conscious of what it's like to breathe without
air. You need to be aware of the difference so you don't panic if
the sedative wears off before we arrive. You'll be alone, inside a
closed space for eighty minutes decelerating at 50g's. If you
decide to pull the mask off because it suddenly feels strange to
you then having a little water in your lungs is going to be the
least of your problems.'

She scratched
the back of her head. 'Right.'

'Ready?'

She leaned back
and held the tube to her mouth again. 'No.'

'Good. On
three. One... two... three.'

She held her
mouth open and almost rammed the tube down. As soon as it began to
slide down her throat she yanked the tube out again.

She sat up in
the tank and spat on the grate covering the bottom of the tank.

'Maybe we
should've started this an hour ago instead of leaving it to the
last minute,' said Mercer.

Seline could
see that everyone else had already been laid back in their tanks
with their masks on and oxygenated fluid swallowed down. Their
tanks were beginning to fill.

'Sorry,' she
said.

Mercer took the
tube from Seline. 'I think we better speed things up a bit.'

He pulled
Seline's mouth open with one hand and held the tube to her mouth
with the other. She wrapped her hands around his wrist to stop
him.

'I'd watch
where you put those hands if I were you'. Sear leaned against the
side of the tank.

'He's trying to
force that thing down my throat. What do you expect me to do?' said
Seline.

'I was talking
to Mercer.'

'You can't get
an STD from a bite... can you?' asked Mercer.

'I don't have
an STD!'

'Not what I
meant,' said Sear. His eyes narrowed on the hose in Mercer's hand.
'Why are you holding it like that anyway?' he asked.

'This is how
you're supposed to do it,' said Mercer.

'You're not
supposed to hold it that tightly.'

Mercer sighed.
'Do you want to do this?'

'I think I
might have to.'

'No. Go
away.'

'Just try your
best to relax,' Sear said to Seline.

'That's the
first useful thing you've said since you got on this ship,' said
Mercer.

'That's one
more than you then.' Sear unfolded his arms. 'I'll see you on the
other side,' he said to Seline. He walked out of view. Seline heard
his footsteps on the steel panelled floor.

'Well. You
heard him. Just relax. Take a few deep breaths.'

'I can't relax
when you have that thing in my face.'

Mercer looked
over at Sear who was already lying back in his own tank. Mercer was
quiet for a moment.

'So... is there
something going on between you two?'

'Huh?'

'Is there
something going on between you and Sear?'

'What? No.
Why?'

'Oh, you know.
Just wondering why you went all tense when he came over.'

'I didn't go
'all tense'.'

'It's happened
before you know? To me I mean.'

Seline was
unsure what to say. She kept her mouth shut.

'Did you ever
ask him why he stayed on Earth so long?'

'Yeah.'

'Did he
answer?'

Her grip
loosened. She shook her head. 'Not really.'

'He won't tell
me either but I can't figure why. Any ideas?'

'I don-'

Still looking
at Sear, Mercer rammed the tube down Seline's throat. She grabbed
at his arm to stop him but it was too late. Her head was hard back
against the inside of the coffin.

Every muscle
locked into place. The liquid was pumped into her lungs. It was
like breathing in the air on a winter morning, except the coldness
ran all the way down her throat and into her lungs and wouldn't
leave again. With wide, desperate eyes she saw Mercer staring
blankly at her, completely at ease. It was reflex, not choice that
forced her to breathe. Her first breath was short and sharp. The
oxygen that circulated through her body told her everything was
fine but the millions of years of evolved habit told her that she
was drowning. There was no choice in the matter, her lungs accepted
their fate and inhaled again, pulling more oxygen from the fluid
inside them. The panic began to subside. It still felt like she was
drowning but the sensation of dying had at least been subdued.

She wanted to
punch him but before she could he sealed the tank shut.

She lay back
and tried to adjust to the new sensation. She could barely move
inside the tank but could still feel the weight inside her lungs
and chest.

His voice was
muffled but she could still hear him.

'Comfortable?'
he asked.

She wanted to
say something but the breather would have stopped her. She couldn't
think of anything anyway.

'The sedative
will kick in in about five minutes. We'll hit the gate in about
seven.' He looked at the side of her tank. 'Your vitals are pretty
good. Try get that heart-rate down.'

She nodded.

'I'm going to
fill your tank now. Ready?'

She looked down
at her feet then back at Mercer. She nodded.

'Good. I was
going to fill it anyway.'

'Why doesn't
that surprise me?' She mouthed the words but he didn't see.

He pushed
another button on the side of the tank. A small digital timer
displayed itself on the glass case. 'ETA: 1:31:46' it read and the
seconds started counting back.

'You're on your
own from here on out, Seline. Good luck.' He tapped lightly on the
glass and walked off.

She neither
floated nor sank as the tank filled. It was too thick to be water
but was surprisingly warm like an embryonic fluid. Out of instinct
she held her head above the water line but it quickly passed her
and filled to the top of the tank. She kept her eyes closed at
first. She was no longer lying on the bottom of the tank but
hovered uneasily in its centre, suspended within the density of the
fluid. It was comfortable. Warm. Adolescent.

She wondered if
the sedatives had kicked in yet.

There was a
beep inside her tank. She forced herself to open her eyes. She
looked up to try figure out where the sound came from. Another beep
came a few seconds later. Then another. She began to worry. She
still wasn't sure if the sedatives had kicked in. She kept looking
around for some indication of what was happening. She wondered if
they had passed through the Atlas Gate already. She wondered where
Sear had gone. She wanted to wonder what she was even doing aboard
a Yurrick cruiser submerged in a tank of mystery fluid but her mind
was struggling just to remember her own name. Everything was
slowing down. The sedatives had kicked in.

Just as the
euphoria began to wash over her, a second wave hit her. It pushed
through her skin and right into her bones. It strayed just beyond
the edge of pain, compressing her body and threatening to crush her
but restraining itself just enough.

She suddenly
felt tired. She wanted to sleep but the sensations running through
her demanded her attention. She could see thoughts tumble forth
from her unconscious. Each thought weighed a tonne. Their power
pulled her focus with them, through every snaking turn she followed
a haunting question for which she had no answer, like the pain that
pushed against her body the answer lay just out of reach leaving
her mind fumbling upon the only words that would reveal themselves
to the conscious part of her mind. The words came to her from
somewhere unknown, almost as a riddle to her drug addled mind.

What the hell
is a flapjack?

Round and round
it went, recycling itself indefinitely. Every thought that tried to
deviate came right back upon itself – back to the incessant
question that was surely the greatest and wisest of all.

What the hell
is a flapjack?

Her mind
continued its search, pushing the smothering embrace of gravity
further into the background. Eventually the voice in her head
became quieter and quieter until it too was nothing more than
background noise; a droning sound that was only mildly irritating.
She still couldn't sleep but she didn't want to anyway. She was
enjoying the quiet – the solitude from everything and everyone,
especially herself.

She didn't know
when it happened but the noise had returned as loud as ever. The
fluid in her tank was disappearing from wherever it came from and
the coldness in her lungs was slowly being sucked out. The glass
pane lifted away. She sat up and wrapped her hands around the mask
covering her mouth. She tore it from her face.

She threw up
thin strands of something pale and vile tasting and lay on her
back, taking in massive gulps of air and looking up at the bright
lights on the ceiling, waiting for them to come into focus.

'See I told you
I got the dosage right,' came a voice from somewhere in the
distance.

'So, how was
that?' Sear and Mercer were standing over the top of her tank.

'I feel sick,'
she said.

'Good to be
alive though isn't it?' said Mercer.

Sear offered
her his hand. She wrapped her weak grip around his wrist and was
pulled up.

'I need a
minute,' she said.

'Don't adjust
yourself too well,' said Sear. 'This gravity won't be here much
longer. Any minute now and we'll be orbiting Saranture.'

Mercer patted
Seline on the back and walked off. The crew had already dried off
and were beginning to clear out of the room and into the elevator
on the far side. Seline closed her eyes and tried not to think of
the wet, bitter taste in her mouth.

'Orbiting
what?' she asked.

'Saranture,'
said Sear, still standing next to Seline in her tank.

'Oh. Right.'
She knelt down in the tank and threw up again.

'If you plan to
do any more of that I suggest you get all of it out now,' said
Sear.

She heaved and
coughed until her stomach had nothing left to offer. She stumbled
to her feet and the pressure on her stomach began to fade. The pain
in her head was relieved slightly. Sear lifted her from the tank
and closed it just in time to contain the contents of her stomach
which she'd emptied into it. She looked up at the ceiling and
could've sworn it was closing down on her. She raised her arms as
if to stop it but realised that her legs were floating free. Sear
pulled her back down.

'It takes a
while to get used to all the gravity shifts,' said Sear.