Amish Vampires in Space (50 page)

That
family had failed, though. Alabaster had not. It had thrived. Received manifold blessings. Because they followed the Ordnung. Obeyed God’s laws.

They must continue to do so, regardless of the situation.

The flooring in this captain’s office had a pattern to it, Samuel noticed. Symbols of some sort. Diamonds and stars. Doubtless a machine created it. No man could stitch in such a way. So precise and fine. Samuel’s knees began to ache. He winced.

Mark laid a hand on his arm. Samuel nodded and looked at the young man’s face. They’d lost James to sin, but this follower remained strong. A true Timothy to Samuel, whereas James had been a John Mark.

Samuel patted Mark’s hand. Forced a smile. “I’m fine. No need to worry.”

Mark nodded. “I need to ask a question, Samuel.”

“Of course. We will find answers together.” He turned his head so he could see those immediately behind him. “For all of us. The Lord will provide.”

The captain sat with legs crossed, elbow on the arm of his chair, and chin resting in that hand. Waiting for a response from Samuel that would not come. That
could
not come.

“Yes, of course He will,” Mark said. “But for our current dilemma, for the captain’s request…couldn’t we help?”

Samuel frowned. “You know the Scripture, Mark. The Lord is to fight our battles. Not we ourselves. Or is murder no longer a sin?”

“Yes, Samuel, but our community…” Mark’s voice trembled. He looked at the floor.

Samuel knew that Mark’s children and wife weren’t in the room. They were lost, like his own wife. Samuel patted Mark’s hand again. “I know. It is difficult. Painful. But think what the Lord suffered in our place. Are we immune?”

“This is breaking me,” Mark said.

“We will wait for His provision.” Samuel said. “His will.” In his heart he knew, though: Sometimes the Lord gave. But many times, often without reason, He took away.

• • •

Darly stood with a hand clutching her chin, thinking. The body of Candle was now covered with a sheet and pushed to one corner of the examination room. Darly had documented everything she’d seen, everything that hadn’t been right. Hadn’t been human. There was a lot of that.

Sarah reclined in one of the room’s two chairs. She held Darly’s medpad in her hand. She squinted at it and occasionally touched the surface. Shook her head. “It
is
like Jeb’s desk, isn’t it? But in something the size of a single slice of bread?”

Darly grinned. “I suppose it is.” She lapsed into thought again, paced, looked at Candle’s body. “I think it is a symbiote.”

“A sim-be-what?”

“A symbiotic life form. My first guess was parasite, but that’s not right. It doesn’t just take—it gives back too. Candle’s body is remarkably enhanced. Her vocal chords have grown. Her eyesight has been refined.” She pointed to Sarah’s arm. “I would guess she could tell what portions of your skin surface are warmer. That’s how sensitive it is. And there’s an extra flap of skin on her external ear. A possible tragus.”

“And what’s that, dear?”

Darly took a few steps toward Candle, frowned. “Well, bats use them for locating things at night. As part of their bio sonar.”

“All these new words.”

Darly smiled again. “I apologize. I’m mostly thinking out loud here. Bats are able to hunt, to
see
in the dark, by emitting sound waves. They send out a high-pitched scream and are able to use the change in the echo to navigate and feed.”

“Oh, my…”

“Right,” Darly said. “That’s a big ‘oh, my,’ because modifying the human genome is illegal on all Guild-serviced planets. There was a war fought over the technology, in fact.”

Sarah nodded. “Jeb mentioned that war. Said it was near Alabaster.”

Darly shrugged. “I wouldn’t know about that. I think it was fought all over. But my guess is that this symbiote is a dodge of some sort. A way of getting around the technicalities of the law. See, it isn’t ‘man manipulating man’ if you can get another creature to do the dirty work for you, is it?”

Darly looked at the floor tiles. “And it can clearly self-replicate. Maybe one bite won’t do it, but a prolonged feeding certainly would. Expose the victim to enough of your tainted blood, weaken their immune system enough, and good griffin, they become one of you too.”

Sarah nodded. “But the changes in behavior? The way it was described, it is like they’re a different person. The symbiote does that too?”

Darly nodded. “There are similar examples in nature. For instance, there is a parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, that infects both rats and cats. Or rather, it
begins
its life cycle in a rat but ends in a cat. How? By convincing the rat that it is attracted to the odor of cat urine. The rat seeks out the smell, finds a cat, gets eaten by the cat, and the parasite moves into the cat. Ingenious, isn’t it?”

Sarah smoothed her belly. Grew thoughtful. “Yes, I think I can understand that concept. Being controlled by something within.”

Darly hiccupped a laugh. “Yes, there is some similarity there. What the baby wants is generally beneficial to you both…so, it’s like a symbiote in that respect.” She looked toward Candle’s sheet-draped body. “Except in this case, the symbiote doesn’t want to leave the host body. Ever.” She shrugged. “And from what I’ve seen, I don’t think the human could survive again without it. The systems and organs have been so transformed…” She shook her head. “The symbiote
needs
to be there.”

Sarah’s face whitened. “So, they’re doomed. All of them.”

Darly brought a hand to her neck. Massaged the base of it. “Unfortunately, I think so. They are no longer human beings, exactly. I—”

There was a loud rap on the door. Darly looked at Sarah. Mouthed, “Congi?”

Sarah pushed herself to her feet. “I’m ready for him,” she said. “Troublesome leech. He won’t attack you again.”

Darly frowned. “We should’ve moved,” she whispered. “Gone somewhere else. I’m sorry, Sarah. I’m dangerously curious by nature.”

Sarah shook her head. “No troubling about it now. What you’ve learned is important, I gather.”

Darly remembered her cutting tool and quickly retrieved it from the examination table. It wasn’t much, but it could put a nice slash in something. Sting a little.

Another thump. “Darly!” Singer’s voice said. “Are you in there?”

“Singer!” Darly exhaled, walked to the door—but stopped herself before releasing the lock. “How do I know you’re you?”

A pause. “I don’t know…”

Darly noticed the medpad still in Sarah’s lap. Motioned for her to give it to her. “Wait…” Darly held the device close to the door. “I don’t know how well it will work through the door.” She put it in analyze mode. Watched the readouts closely. “Are there four of you out there? Because that’s what I’m getting.”

“Yes, there’s four,” Singer said. “Greels needs some attention, but otherwise we’re fine.”

Darly squinted. “Okay, I guess I can trust you.” She unlocked the door.

The blond crewmember, Singer, was there with Greels, an Amish man, and a woman Darly didn’t recognize. The woman was dressed in a blue jumpsuit that was unlike anything she’d seen on a crewmember aboard the
Raven.
She doubted it was in the company catalog.

Sarah gasped and hurried to the doorway. “Jebediah!” She first touched Jebediah’s arms and hand, but then she leaned through the threshold to hug him.

Jebediah put his arms around his wife and returned her embrace. “You look well, my frau,” he said, pulling away. “The child?”

“Is fine,” Darly said. “Normal. Healthy.”

He nodded. “The Lord is good.”

Greels snorted but said nothing.

It was then that Darly noticed the bloodstained cloth around his left leg. “You’re injured,” she said. “Come in where I can look at you. All of you, come in. Lock the door.”

Greels took a hobbled step forward and Darly directed him to the seat Sarah had vacated.

The woman in the jumpsuit looked strained too. Her face was flushed and her forehead was lifted so high it stood in wrinkles. Like she’d just run a long race. She closed her eyes and began to massage her temples. “Wow, that hurts,” she said.

Singer glanced at the woman, looked embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Darly. This is Tenra. The scientist…um intern?”

“‘Scientist’ is fine,” Tenra said, still squinting. “I’ll be okay, I think. I just got out of a matrix, you know?”

Darly nodded. “You probably need more water. It isn’t much different than scuba diving. The more liquid you have in your system, the easier the recovery after.” She stooped to look at Greels’s leg. Slowly unwound the makeshift bandage. “There’s a water machine in the reception area.”

Greels lurched. “I’ll get it for you,” he said.

Darly scowled at him. “You will not. Stay still.” His was a nasty cut, but nothing a synthetic suture wouldn’t fix.

“I think I can find it,” Tenra said and hurried away.

Sarah remained near the doorway. “If you don’t mind,” she said, “I could use some water, as well. And the…um…water closet.”

“The excretorium?” Darly nodded. “Follow Tenra.”

Sarah placed her arm on Jebediah’s elbow. “Not to worry. My husband will escort me.”

Jebediah smiled. Put his hand over hers. “It will be a pleasure.”

Singer watched the couple leave then entered the room too. “At least there’s that.” She forced a smile. “Them back together.” She looked in the direction of the covered body. “Is that Candle?”

Darly frowned. “I would say yes, but it is a bit more complicated than that.” She went to one of the cabinets and found some antimicrobial spray and a packet of suture material, then returned to Greels’s leg. He winced as the spray was applied.

A few moments later, Tenra returned with a cup in hand. She didn’t look much better. Without being prompted, she walked to the room’s other seat and sat down.

Darly watched her closely. Frowned. “No change?”

The young woman smiled. “Actually, just sitting down feels better. Thanks.”

Darly nodded. “Then we need to talk.”

• • •

Seal scowled at his desk. Anger ruled him now. Fear was a distant second.

On his desk, Darly’s image was visible, as was another connection rectangle, currently being shared by Singer and the unfrozen scientist, Tenra. Though she was attractive, and clearly quite timid, he had a difficult time not cursing her to her face. It was a good thing Singer was in the frame with her.

“So let me get this straight,” he said. “We haven’t found any aliens on any planet we’ve discovered, so your people decided to make some. Is that about it?”

Tenra’s eyes widened. “Um…no, Captain… We meant to help. Really. At least, I know I did.”

“How? How does this symbiote genesplicer thing help?
Who
does it help?”

“For colonization, sir.”

Seal slapped the desk, leaving an impression that lingered a few seconds. “Colonization?.” He looked toward the Amish in the room. “I’m sitting with a room full of colonists. They all seem normal.”

“Yes, sir, I’m sure they are. But the world they lived on took centuries to reach the point where genetically pure humans could occupy it. We were looking for a better way. A quicker way.”

“So you created
bat
people?”

“They aren’t bat people exactly,” Darly said. “They’re genetic hybrids. More than a simple bat-human blend.”

“How much more?” Seal said. “
What
more?” He looked at the Singer/Tenra box. “Tenra?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. I was only an intern, remember. But most of it is bat, I think. It was Dr. Scott’s experiment. He picked vampire bats for their resilience. And the efficiency of their metabolism, their hunting abilities, their feeding method—”

Samuel cleared his throat. “We know all about their feeding methods,” he said. “Like ticks on a bull.”

“Yes,” Seal said. “Good metaphor. Thanks.” He drew in a long breath. “Listen. We are approximately nine hours from Obelisk. We are outnumbered and have no control of the ship. If your bloodsucking bat-people get loose on Obelisk… Well, I think you can imagine the results.”

“And until then, we’re here with them on the ship for another nine hours,” Singer said. “These things are good hunters. They will find us. All.”

“It can’t be about just survival now, obviously,” Darly said. “We need to stop this. Or at least get a message out.”

“Unfortunately, the scraddlebox is right under the bubble,” Singer said.

“And there are doubtless hundreds of these…” Seal frowned. “Why don’t we just call them
vampires
now? Hundreds of vampires in between us and the bubble. Crewmember vampires, loader vampires, Amish vampires.”

“Animal vampires,” Singer added.

Deacon Mark lifted his chin. “There is no hope for our people then,” he said. “For those we’ve lost. No way for them to be restored?”

Darly shook her head. “They are modified beyond repair now. Controlled by their symbiotes.”

“Which are programmed to survive,” Tenra said. “All of our prototypes were geared that way: survival first.”

Singer’s image took on a thoughtful look. “First? One of those that attacked us used that word like it was a name. Talked about how ‘First is wise.’ Also talked about
pens
. Like they may be confining people even now.”

Tenra looked at her. “
First
could be a carryover from the bat genome. Typically, bats are organized into harems, with a single male being the dominant one.”

“But there are many men on this ship who are vampires now.” Seal looked at Samuel and Mark. “You saw them, right? Dozens of men and women.”

They both nodded. “But one young man did seem to lead them,” Mark said. “Young David.”

“Wait, David?” Darly said. “Then what about Congi? Wasn’t he the first one infested?”

“There may be more than one group now,” Tenra said. “With separate leaders. But yes, he could be the first they’re talking about. The
real
first.”

“So,” Seal asked, “would eliminating him change anything?”

Tenra tipped her head. “It is all guesswork now, Captain.”