Season of Passage, The (49 page)

Mark looked up. 'Are you al right?'

Lauren closed her eyes. It was dark. That was fine, too. The cold and the dark went together. Mars had taught her that. 'I think I'l be al right,' she

said softly. 'I think I'l miss her, though. I real y think I wil .'

Mark had been in his hibernaculum for two hours. Lauren was alone, as she had been on Mars when she had thought she was going to lose Gary.

But even then she'd had her daydreams, of al the wonderful things she was going to do with Jennifer when she got home, the places they would go,

the talks they would have.

The Nova was quiet now, and peaceful. Most of the lights were off. Lauren sat by a porthole with the stars. Astronomy had never been a big interest

of hers, not as it was with many astronauts. She knew little of the constel ations. But Jennifer had known al the Greek and Roman myths, al the

stories about the heavenly gods. She even used to wish on fal ing stars. But what wishes she made, Lauren never knew, for Jennifer said they had

to be kept secret to become magical. Lauren hoped some of Jennifer's wishes had come true before she died.

A tear fel from Lauren's cheek and landed on her shirt. Jennifer had kil ed herself. Mark hadn't told her that, But the papers she had cal ed up from

Friend's memory - why, to them it was big news. They had al kinds of theories, too, as to why.

Why, God? Or is it, why not?

The stars were beautiful, Lauren thought. She promised herself to pay more attention to them in the future. She also promised herself to read the

story Jennifer had been

working on. Terry had told her about it before their communications had been interrupted.

The monster gave me two alternatives: die or be worse than dead.

But was there a third? Was there a reason, for anything?

Lauren took the silver ring and for the first time placed it on her finger. She needed love. She needed Terry. He would be blaming himself for what

had happened. If she could get a word to him, one word, it would do so much for him, and her.

Lauren stood and went to Jim's personal locker. Taking a pen and a piece of paper, she began a letter:

Dear Terry,

I need to talk to you, but you're far away and the radio's broken. I thought if I wrote this letter, though, you would know how I felt. My thoughts would

cross space, and you would hear me in that silent place inside where you listen for inspiration for your stories. I want to inspire you. I want to tel you

beautiful things. But it's hard right now.

I know Jenny's dead. I know both of us feel like dying. But we can't do that. Mars taught me that much. You see, Terry, there are things on Mars...

After Lauren had finished her letter, she took an envelope from Jim's locker - only Jim would have thought he could mail a letter from another planet

- and careful y sealed her note inside. She wrote on the outside, simply: Terry.

Then Lauren returned to the porthole and looked at the stars for a long time.

THIRTY-TWO

Lauren lay in her hibernaculum, waiting to fal asleep. Two tubes fastened to her artery shunt, circulating blood from her left arm through the filtration

system and feeding the Antabolene into her system. Already she felt drowsy. Soon she would black out, and forget everything. At her order, Friend

had turned off the lights, and now only the faint glow of the Nova's controls lit the dark spaceship. Above her, green lines traced across the

physiological monitors, wel within the proper parameters. Gary and Mark were both doing wel . There was nothing left to worry about.

'Goodnight, Friend,' she said.

[Goodnight, Lori.]

Yet Lauren was suddenly troubled.

'Goodnight, Friend,' she repeated.

[Goodnight, Lauren.]

Strange, but Lauren could have sworn Friend had addressed her as Lori a moment ago. That was impossible, of course, unless the computer had

undergone a change in program. She was just being paranoid.

Goodnight, Lori.

Then again, the Hawk's computer banks were now integrated with the Nova's, and wasn't it true that they were now one and the same unit? Lauren

had been worried

about the computer earlier, when they had redocked with the Nova. She'd had Mark examine the programming, and he had reported that he found

no tampering. But if he was using a tampered computer itself to look for tampering, would he have found it? A fascinating question, to be sure.

Lauren decided once more she was being sil y. One computer could not possess another.

Yet her disquiet remained. Bil had been an expert in computer design, and he had spent hours fooling with the Hawk's computer. And Bil had been

a fucking Martian.

'Goodnight, Friend,' Lauren said.

[Goodnight, Lauren.]

'Friend, why did you cal me Lori a moment ago?'

[I did not, Lauren.]

'I'm sure you did.'

[I did not, Lauren.]

'I must have heard wrong.'

[Yes, Lauren.]

Al that time Bil had spent in the Hawk's control room bothered her...

Despite al their hardships, she and Gary had escaped from the planet fairly easily. Why hadn't Bil put an overriding program on the Hawk's

controls that only he could unlock? Since Mars had got to him, Bil had been very clever. A clever intel igence would have taken precautions. It was

true Gary had explained that Bil hadn't sabotaged the controls because he needed them for his own evil purposes, but that didn't make sense. She

had only believed Gary's explanation because she had wanted to believe it.

An annoying voice whispered at Lauren's shoulder. A practical voice. A frightened voice. If Bil had put a lock on the Hawk's controls, how had Gary

managed to blast off?

Lauren started to doze but fought it. There were so many

coincidences; it was the same pattern al over again. They were out of communication with Earth. She had blamed herself for the destruction of the

antenna, but Gary had told her to turn that dial - not another one - ninety degrees counter-clockwise. In fact, there hadn't been another dial anywhere

near where he had pointed. Then they had rammed the antenna without even scratching the hul of the Nova, a minor miracle in itself. When the

antenna had gone their link to Earth had gone. They were alone, and nobody knew better than she the terrible things that could happen when you

were alone.

Stop it!

Lauren tried for a third time to convince herself she was being foolish. The Antabolene had taken her halfway to sleep and the semi-conscious mind

was a fertile ground for paranoid thoughts. Friend wouldn't lie to her. Probably Bil had been overconfident, too proud to think his plans could fail. He

must have left the Hawk's controls alone. It was the only explanation that made sense. Gary was so sweet, and his eyes were so warm. Why, as he

was going under, he even snored.

But what if?

The question terrified her.

When she had returned from the Karamazov the last time, Gary had been near death. Yet only a few gulps of the wine and he had risen to his feet.

She had been too relieved to question his incredible revival. But there was another miracle.

Two miracles in the same day.

Logical y, Ivan should have destroyed Dmitri's diary. The diary was a vivid warning of what the planet was capable of doing to people. If any of them

had read it earlier, most of their problems might have been avoided. Why had Ivan left the diary out where others could find it?

Was it possible, that even though Dmitri's record was revealing, it somehow served Ivan's purpose? But how could that be? The only thing in the

diary that had influenced her had been Dmitri's casual comment about his bottle of wine...

Mars made everybody thirsty. For something delicious. Something red and sweet.

When she had found the bottle she assumed it hadn't been opened because the wine reached the top and the seal was stil in the place. But what

was the seal? It was a wound piece of lead foil. She hadn't looked at it that closely. There was every possibility the seal could have been broken,

the bottle opened, and then resealed.

The cold!

Lauren felt sick. The Karamazov had been below freezing. Yet the wine had not been frozen. It had been in liquid form, just as Ivan's bloody bedside

drink had been. Wine and blood: both red. If you mixed one with the other, no one would know the difference, until too late.

Gary had drunk half the bottle. Then he had risen from the fringe of a coma to master the controls of a spaceship that had been rigged by a

monster. He had done so easily. Then he had sabotaged their communications, and made her think it was her fault.

Lauren pul ed herself up and opened the lid of her hibernaculum. Tears stung her eyes. It wasn't Gary in the next room. It was Mars. She had left

Gary dead on Mars. She had kil ed him. She had fed him the immortal elixir and cursed his soul forever.

Lauren tried to stop her trembling. There was a terrible thing to be done, and she was the only one who could do it. But first Friend had to be taken

out of the picture. Friend control ed the ship. He could stop her before she could begin.

Lauren opened her hibernaculum and removed the tubes from her artery shunt. She swung her feet to the floor. Her head spun. The Antabolene was

at work.

[Are you awake, Lauren?]

Lauren froze. 'Yes.'

[I have a loss of pressure in your hibernaculum. Your blood is not circulating properly.]

Lauren tried to remember where Friend's cameras were. The goddamn floating eyes - they fol owed you everywhere.

'I'l attend to it myself,' she said.

[Yes, Lauren.]

The computer banks in the Hawk were the ones that Bil had manipulated. They were the infected section, and like Gary's infected arm, they had to

be removed. But she had to move quickly, secretly. The computer could wake Gary up.

There was a puzzle. Was Gary real y asleep? When did vampires need to rest, except during the day? It was always nighttime in space. But one

thing was sure. The other three had perished when their hosts' bodies had been destroyed. That meant they must be subjected to certain limitations

imposed by the flesh they inhabited. With the Antabolene flooding his system, it was likely Gary was asleep.

Lauren sure hoped so.

'Friend,' she said. 'I'm going to recheck the Hawk. I think we may have overlooked a Martian soil sample. I want you to turn on the floodlights in the

hub of the Nova, and then open al the doors that lead to the Hawk. I also want you to open al the doors inside the Hawk.'

[Yes, Lauren.]

Lauren eased to her feet and stood shaking in her white shorts and oversized Houston Oilers T-shirt. She lacked the expertise to repair Friend's

program. She didn't even

know where to break the connections between the Hawk and Nova, if that was even possible. Yet Lauren had a plan.

She would dynamite the Hawk's control room.

Then she would deal with the Martian.

Lauren walked slowly toward the adjoining room, where Mark and Gary slept. The doorway was a shadow, and she was reminded of the entrance

to the cave. The Antabolene in her blood seemed to gain momentum. She had to hug the wal s for support. Time was against her. If she lost

consciousness now, she would be under for a month, and that long a time outside her hibernaculum would kil her. Already the urge to close her

eyes and sleep was overwhelming.

She entered the room and glanced at Gary. He looked the same, she thought, but Lorraine looked like Kathy, and Lorraine was insane. Lauren

sniffed the air. Just one sniff was al it took. How come she hadn't noticed it before? He must have hypnotized her. The reek of decay, the corpse

rotting on the bug-infested ground - it was there, right there in front of her nose. She wasn't paranoid. She was doomed.

'It's good?'

'Very good.'

Lauren began to cry again. She couldn't help it. Quickly her silent tears turned to racking sobs.

[Why are you crying, Lauren?]

'My sister,' she moaned. 'You remember my sister, Friend? She died. Jenny died. That's why I'm crying.'

[Let me offer my deepest sympathy, Lauren. She was a fine girl. I enjoyed the conversation I had with her before the start of our mission.]

The devil and his sweet tongue. They would pay, she would make them pay. 'I'm glad you did,' she whispered.

Lauren climbed a ladder, away from the rotating hub,

toward the weightless axis. Friend had obeyed her order and activated the lights. Moments later, free of the restrictions of artificial gravity, she

floated through the padded tunnel that led to the Hawk's airlock. Here, she knew, there were no electric eyes. She stopped at a supply closet and

col ected a packet of plastique explosives. Tucking it out of sight inside her shorts, she continued on her way.

A minute later Lauren found the entrance to the Martian lander wide open. She rested for a moment and then drifted into the laboratory, where she

turned her back to one of Friend's cameras and pocketed a smal lighter. Next she reached for the door that led to the Hawk's garage. This one

was shut, and locked. The manual controls didn't respond to her touch.

'Open the door to the garage, Friend,' Lauren said.

[The Martian samples were stored in the laboratory, Lauren.]

A reasonable reminder, in keeping with the original design.

'No, Friend,' she said. 'I think I left one in the garage.'

The fuses were in the garage.

[Yes, Lauren.]

The door rifled open. The room was wel lit and empty. The tractor had been dismantled to make the boat, of course, and they had left Hummingbird