Arrival (53 page)

It was fairly dark outside, and with only minimal power set throughout the ship, the inside seemed empty and mysterious. Jack had not felt so alone since Will had died. Even then, the thought that he might be just one more mountain away from his crew had given him some comfort. At least it was hope of some sort. But now, after all he had been through, he was still alone in this cold, metal box.

Jack pushed the claustrophobia to the back of his mind. It was as if some primal instinct was telling him that it was not safe to be closed up from all sides with only one exit through which to escape danger. But he knew, logically, that he was as safe here as anywhere on the planet. His only threat now was the virus.

After finishing his dinner of roots, Jack checked on Frank’s condition. Other than his glucose levels being slightly higher, there had been no significant change. But his vital signs and body chemistry seemed to be holding for now, and Jack felt confident that Frank would make it through the night. With any luck, he might even be a little better by morning.

Jack set the alarms on Frank’s bio-monitors to alert him of any negative changes, before leaving the med-lab for the night. It had been a long and difficult day, and now that his friend was somewhat stable, he was looking forward to some rest.

Jack climbed into his berth for the first time since setting foot on this world. It was comfortable, yet foreign. He reached inside his breast pocket and pulled out a photograph of his family. It was worn, dirty, and crinkled from months of riding in his pocket as he had struggled to make his way across the planet. It had become a ritual for him, each night, to take it out and look at their faces before going to sleep. For weeks after Will’s death, it was all he had to remind himself of why he was here, and why he was trying so hard to survive and rejoin them.

He carefully placed the edge of the picture in the crack between the overhead and side bulkheads, where it could now rest comfortably. Although he was still alone, at least he was home.

* * *

“Captain? You got a minute?”

The captain turned from his desk to see who was hailing him from the door of his ready room. “Annie?” he responded, recognizing the woman at his door, but surprised to see her there. Only flight personnel occupied these decks. And although her position as the lead radio astronomer and sensors officer on the Daedalus did give her access to the flight deck, he couldn’t remember the last time he had seen her around this area. “What brings you down here?” he asked as he rose from his seat to greet her.

“Our instruments picked up something strange about an hour ago,” she explained as she entered the room.

“Have a seat,” he offered.

“Thank you.”

“Please continue,”

“Well, we were doing a detailed scan of the system, looking for rogue bodies that might cause a problem on our way into the Tau Ceti system.”

“Good idea,” the captain admitted.

“The funny thing is, we were getting back more signals than we were sending out.”

“I don’t follow.”

She handed him her data pad. “You can see it, here and here. At first, we thought maybe part of the sensor pulse was bouncing off of something not entirely solid, sending back an early return while the rest of the pulse energy continued on. But then we found something else.”

“What?” he asked, becoming more intrigued.

“Something odd about the pulse return. It wasn’t a return at all, but rather an original pulse.”

“It can’t be, it’s far too weak.”

“That’s why we originally thought it was a return. But it’s not, the signatures don’t match.”

“Signatures?”

“Every sensor pulse has a signature coded into it…”

“So that we can calculate for the effects of relativity,” the captain remembered.

“Exactly,” Annie nodded.

“But that would mean…”

“That it was coming from another sensor array,” she finished for him.

The captain leaned back in his chair, thinking. “The Icarus?”

“We can’t be sure, sir. We haven’t heard from the Icarus in over six months. And the signal is too weak and spread out. But we’re sure it came from within the Tau Ceti system.”

“Can you identify the set signature in the pulse?”

“No sir. It’s been replaced.”

“Replaced? By what?”

“A message, sir.”

“A message?”

“Yes sir, from the Icarus’s crew.” In the silence, she reached over and advanced the data pad’s display to the next page.

The captain read the message on the display, dumfounded. “Holy cripes,” he commented as his finger punched the intercom button. “XO to the ready room, ASAP!”

* * *

Frank’s eyes opened slowly. He looked around, trying to see where he was.
A room?
His head hurt, he was nauseous, and he could barely lift his arms. He blinked several times to try to clear his vision.
I’m in the med-lab,
he realized.
But how?
There was a tube in his nose, and an IV in his arm.
What’s going on?

Frank sat up slowly, fighting off waves of nausea. The room was dark, except for a light on at the workstation in the corner.

Frank tugged at the tube in his nose, finding it taped in place. He removed the tape, then yanked the tube out in one swift motion, nearly vomiting as it came out. Next, he pulled the IV line out of his arm, holding his hand over the IV site while he waited for it to stop bleeding. After a few minutes, the bleeding stopped, and the dizziness was tolerable.

He slid off the edge of the exam table, clinging onto the sides until his balance grew steadier. Slowly, he moved toward the hatch, but found he had forgotten about the sensor leads attached to his chest, wrist, and temples. Grabbing hold of the bundle of wires, he yanked hard, pulling off various sensor pads from his body.

There was no doubt in his mind, he was still very sick. And disconnecting himself from the various medical devices was probably a bad idea. But he needed answers. How did he get there? Who had hooked him up and cared for him? As far as he knew, he was the only one left. In his confusion, he failed to notice the beeping alarms of the bio-monitor as he left the med-lab.

Jack jerked awake to the cacophony of alarms from the med-lab.
Frank!
He slid out of his berth, landing on his bare feet on the cold, metal deck, turning to his left, and heading forward through the wardroom. But then, just as suddenly as he had awakened, he was stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of Frank, standing on the opposite side of the wardroom by the forward hatch to the large compartment. He was frozen still, staring at him, blood dripping from his left arm where he had yanked out his IV. “Frank!”

Frank was paralyzed with fear and uncertainty. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There, on the opposite side of the wardroom, was one of those creatures! It was tall, lean, and muscular, covered with short, blue-gray hair. Its head was covered with the same hair, only much longer, blending in a shaggy fashion with the hair from the creature’s snout-like face. And it was wearing something, some kind of clothing that Frank didn’t recognize. It was similar to the clothing they usually wore, only old and tattered, and covered with stains. The creature was growling something at him, like it was trying to communicate in some strange, unintelligible alien language.

“What the……” Frank began. Then he noticed the stains on the tattered clothing the creature was wearing. They were blood stains. The creature growled at him again.

“Frank!” Jack called.

Suddenly, Frank’s instincts kicked in, as he turned and headed quickly forward.
That fucker has somehow gotten into the ship and is killing the others!
he thought as he headed forward.

“Frank! Wait!” Jack called after him. But Frank wasn’t hearing him as he disappeared down the corridor.

I’ve got to get to the weapons locker!
Frank thought as he stumbled down the corridor past the med-lab.

Frank nearly fell through the hatchway between the habitat section and the airlock deck, stumbling down the gangway to the EVA deck below. Struggling to regain his balance, Frank pulled the weapons locker open and reached inside. But it was too late.

Jack grabbed Frank’s shoulder, pulling him backwards. He had no idea what was wrong with his friend or why he was trying to get to the weapons, but Jack wasn’t about to relive that frightening moment over again.

Jack had Frank pinned against the lockers, holding him firm as he yelled. “Frank! What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Frank’s hands came up firmly against Jack’s face, trying desperately to push him away.

Please, Frank, please
.

Frank heard something in his head, a voice, begging him to stop. A familiar voice. Frank continued to push hard against the creature’s face, his right hand sliding up against the creature’s upper jaw, holding it open, afraid it was going to try to eat him as well.

Jack tried to tell him to calm down, but couldn’t speak with his jaw pried open by Frank’s right hand.
Snap out of it,
he thought.
It’s me!

Frank heard the familiar voice in his head again. He tried to shut the voice out, afraid he was losing his mind.

It’s Jack!
he thought as he raised his left hand from Frank’s shoulder and pushed his face to the left.

Frank heard the voice come again, despite his best efforts to block it out.
Please, stop it
, the voice continued.
Don’t you remember? It’s me! It’s Jack!

There was something else, something metallic, on the creature’s finger, pushing against his eyebrow. It was a ring. Suddenly, a memory flashed through Frank’s mind. A ring, a scar, a pair of familiar eyes, and a voice.
Jack’s voice.

Frank knew he was going to lose the struggle. “Please don’t hurt me,” he begged as his strength faded.

I won’t hurt you, Frank,
Jack thought as he began to ease his hold on Frank, feeling Frank’s body giving up the struggle.

Suddenly, the creature released him, letting him fall to the floor, rolling clumsily to the side near the gangway. Frank watched in amazement as the creature—or Jack, he hadn’t decided yet—stepped back, leaning against the port bulkhead. Then he realized whose voice he had been hearing in his head. It was Jack’s voice, but it was coming from… All the pieces began to fall into place. He remembered confronting the creature out in the snow. He remembered the wedding ring on the alien’s finger. He remembered the scar on his right palm. And he remembered Jack’s voice in his head, confused and scared as he held the rifle to its head.

Frank was confused. Nothing was making sense.
Could this thing really be Jack?

What the hell,
Jack’s voice said inside Frank’s head.
Go ahead and kill me, if that’s what you want.

“Jack?” Frank asked tentatively. “Is it really you? Or am I having some fucked up, disease-induced hallucination?”

“Finally,” Jack answered.

All Frank heard was another unintelligible grunt coming from the Jack’s mouth. “Can you speak?”

“Of course I can speak, you dumbass.”

Again, Frank heard only a series of grunt and growls from Jack.

“I can’t understand what you’re saying, Jack. Is it really you?”

Jesus, he can’t hear now, either?
Jack thought.

“I can hear just fine,” Frank retorted.

Jack looked at him, surprised. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Stop growling at me, Jack. I can’t understand you when you do that.”

What the hell is wrong with you?
Jack thought.

“What the hell’s wrong with me?” Frank answered Jack’s voice in his head. “What the hell’s wrong with you?”

Jack looked puzzled for a moment.
Can you hear what I’m thinking?
he thought.

Frank realized for the first time that he was hearing Jack’s voice just as if Jack were speaking to him. Only Jack’s mouth wasn’t moving. “Yeah, I guess so. What the hell is going on? What happened to you?”

This is weird
, Jack admitted in his head.
We got out in the emergency escape pod as the Icarus was breaking up. We crashed a few hundred kilometers east of here,
he explained to Frank.

“No, I mean what happened to
you
?” he inquired. “Look at yourself.”

Well, I know I probably look a bit shaggy, but I have been roughing it for a few months, you know.

“Shaggy? Look at yourself, Jack. You’re not even…
human!
”

Well, thanks a lot. You don’t look so hot yourself, pal.

“Jack, do you even know what’s happened to you?”

What?
Jack thought.
What are you talking about, Frank?

“Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

I think we’d better get you back to the med-lab…

“Jack! You’ve changed. I don’t know how or why, but you’ve changed into something else. Something like, well, one of those creatures. Like the one that attacked Laura.”

“What?” Jack growled aloud. He was becoming confused again. But then it started making sense. The change in his hair color, the extra hair growth on his extremities and torso, his newfound athletic abilities, and this sudden ability to communicate with Frank,
telepathically!

Jack turned and ran aft, out of the airlock deck, and down the corridor past the med-lab.

Jack burst into the port bathroom at the aft end of the LRV’s habitat section, stopping just short of the mirror above the sink. Slowly, he stepped to his right, moving in front of the mirror to see himself, somehow knowing that he wouldn’t like what he saw.

It wasn’t his image in the mirror staring back at him. It was someone else,
something
else. He reached up and touched his face. His nose and jaw had become longer, almost snout-like. His lips had lost their pink hue and become tough and brown in color. His face, his entire face, was covered with a fine, blue-gray hair that was short around his eyes and forehead, becoming longer around his cheeks and jowls. The hair on his head, also blue-gray, was long and shaggy. The pupils in his eyes had become elongated. He opened his mouth and looked at his teeth. His incisors were longer, like fangs. His body, also covered with the same fine, blue-gray hair, had stretched, lean and muscular, his proportions more simian than human.