Arrival (56 page)

“Come in slower and avoid the same problem.”

Exactly. And if I know Hal, he was already scheduling extra braking burns with the flight dynamics officer long before they even received your warning.
Jack rose and made his way toward the data terminal in the corner of the wardroom.
Look at this,
Jack instructed as he sat down and called up the navigation charts.
This was his original course,
Jack pointed at the course chart that painted itself across the monitor screen.
Pretty much the same as ours, with an intercept order of Five, Four, Six, right?

Frank nodded silently as he examined the all too familiar course.

Assume he decided to take the ship’s planned arrival speed down by ten percent. That would put him well under the safety margin. That would also delay their arrival by roughly three months, by which time the planets have moved.
Jack struck a key, causing the navigation program to recalculate the positions of the three target planets, displaying them on the screen in their new positions.
Now, he could no longer maintain the same intercept order, and still have enough fuel to achieve a safe parking orbit. That would force him to accept an intercept order of Six and then Four. And he could still execute a sling shot maneuver around the star to pick up Five on the far side. But that would take an extra year.

“Well, I don’t want to be stuck with you as my only dance partner any longer than I have to, my friend. But wouldn’t that give us even more time to be sure the cure works?”

Okay, now start thinking like a doctor. RMS only slows down the patient’s metabolism, it doesn’t stop it completely. Mac and Sara were already circling the drain when they were put under. They could still die before help arrives.

“But that still gives us an extra three months, right?”

No. Now put your captain’s hat back on. You’re already burning extra fuel with those additional braking burns. That means you can’t afford to make any radical, last minute course changes. It means, that if you wanted to change course to re-commit yourself to Tau Ceti Five again, you’d have to do it early enough to make a shallow, gentle turn, to save fuel.
Jack carefully struck a few more keys.
And that would be about here, at the latest.

“I’m no expert on interplanetary transfer orbits, Jack,” Frank argued. “But I
am
pretty good with the Daedalus’s fuel consumption rates. Couldn’t you make a turn as late as here, and still have enough fuel to make orbit around Five?”

You could, if you came in trailing behind Five playing catch-up. But if you turned that late, you’d be taking her head on, doubling your closure rate. You’d have to burn twice the fuel just to get barely under the safe-approach speed, let alone get well under it.

“So how much time does that give us?”

Well, normally I would guess their decision point to be about here, which is only a week from now. But, I served under Captain Ishkin for four years after my command training. I’d bet a month’s rations that regardless of what the council orders, he’ll milk it until the last possible moment, giving us as much time as possible to remedy the situation down here before he has to make his final course change toward another world. Maybe two weeks.

“Well, that still gives us two weeks, right?” Frank was always the optimist. “We can do it.”

Oh, yes. A mutant commander and an engineer,
Jack mused.
We’d need more like two years!

“Then we have no choice, do we,” Frank pointed out. “We have to try to revive Maria and give her the slurry.”

Jack stared at Frank for a long moment. What he was proposing was incredibly risky, and could very well kill their only hope.

“I know, Jack, but we don’t have any other choice. Even if we
could
figure out how to cure this on our own…”

The council would never bet the lives of the population on it,
Jack finished,
not without Maria’s signature on the message.
Frank was right, and Jack knew it.
Start studying up on the RMS revival protocols, Frank. I’ll start collecting more sweet root.

* * *

The stars shimmered above as Jack sat quietly at the foot of the LRV’s boarding ramp. The moons hung large in the sky, casting eerie double shadows of different hues on the landscape. The night sky on Tau Ceti Five had never seemed unusual to him. But he often wondered how it would seem to someone who had grown up under a Terran sky.

It had taken over an hour to prep Maria for the six-hour process of RMS reversal, and it would take even longer for her to wake up. Only then would they know if she was going to survive the revival process. After that, they would begin administering their concoction.

They had agreed to take turns monitoring Maria’s progress, each taking two-hour shifts, promising to alert the other if something changed. So far, everything seemed to be going according to the manual. But the thought of one little failure starting a catastrophic chain of events continued to worry him.

His fate also nagged at him. The rapid changing of day-to-day events as of late had left Jack with little time to contemplate his own future. But in quiet moments such as these, he could not keep his thoughts away from the most obvious question,
What is to become of me?

“I’m sure Maria will find a way to reverse whatever it is that has changed you, Jack.” Frank’s approach caught him by surprise. “Sorry, Jack. But you’re the one projecting the thoughts, not me.”

Then just pretend you didn’t hear them, for my sake. It still freaks me out a little.

“I’ll try.”

How’s she doing?
Jack asked, welcoming the distraction.

“By the numbers, so far.” Frank sat down on the ramp next to Jack. “Seriously though, Jack. There’s got to be a way to reverse what’s happened to you.”

And if there isn’t a way? What do I do then? How do I raise my children? How do I make love to my wife? How will I fit in at all, in this utopia we’re supposed to be building?

“Maybe we could just shave your whole body?” Frank joked.

Jack wasn’t laughing.

“Sorry. Bad timing, huh?”

Extremely.

“Just try not to dwell on it for now. We have enough to worry about right now.”

Jack smiled as best he could. His friend was right, even if he was tactless. There was plenty to worry about.

Am I up?

“You think I came out here to look at your ugly mug?”

Jack stood up slowly, stretching his long, simian frame. Despite his new physique, he still seemed to be carrying the aches and pains of all his years.
Why don’t you hit the sack for a few hours? Get some sleep. You are still recuperating, you know.

“Good idea. I am pretty tired. What time do you want me to relieve you?”

About zero four hundred, I guess.

“That’s six hours from now, Jack. When were you planning to sleep?”

One of the advantages of my new form. I don’t seem to need as much rest as you humans,
he joked as he started up the ramp.

Frank didn’t care much for the way Jack had already mentally separated himself from the human species. It couldn’t be a healthy attitude.

Frank also glanced up at the night sky. Somehow, even though they might still pass him by, it was comforting to know that his family was probably entering the Tau Ceti system about now. They were closer to him than they had been in the last nine months. And at least now there was a possibility that he might see them again. But what would become of Jack? Jack’s own thought had been supplanted into Frank’s mind, haunting him as well.

* * *

Jack woke suddenly, sitting bolt upright at the sound of the intercom beeping from the outer bulkhead at the head of his berth. “Yes!” he growled unintelligibly. Intercoms didn’t work well with telepathic communication.

“Jack! Get in here!”

Jack leapt from his berth, nearly ripping the curtains from their tracks in the process. Was something wrong with Maria?

What is it?
he asked as he entered the med-lab.

“She’s starting to come around.”

Jack looked around the room in surprise. Most of the tubes and wires that had supported Maria’s very existence were gone, and only an IV, an oxygen mask, and the standard bio-sensors remained.

You took her off life-support?
Jack asked.

“Around eight thirty.”

Why didn’t you call me?

“You needed your beauty sleep.” Frank looked Jack up and down. “I guess you still need a few more hours, huh?”

Sarcasm was Frank’s way to deal with uncomfortable situations. It always had been. But right now, Jack was too concerned about Maria to take offense at Frank’s tactless remarks.
Smart-ass
, was all Jack could muster.

“Who are we kidding, Jack. She’s going to be waking up soon. No offense, buddy, but your hairy mug might be a bit much for her right now.”

Jack couldn’t tell if Frank was still joking or not.

“Why don’t you go clean up a bit,” Frank suggested. “Maybe shave a little and trim back some of that wild mane of yours. It might help her accept what’s happened to you a little easier than I did if you at
least
look presentable.”

Jack was a little shocked by Frank’s suggestion, but he was making sense, despite his tactless presentation of the facts.

“And why don’t you take a shower while you’re at it? You smell like the waste processing compartment.”

For some reason, Jack didn’t feel offended by Frank’s remarks. Frank was treating him the same way he had always treated him, despite his outward appearance.

“Go,” Frank insisted. “She won’t be lucid for at least another hour.”

Jack stepped back, hesitant to leave.

“I’ll call you as soon as she wakes, I promise.”

Jack looked at Maria. Her skin was back to her usual olive color. Her chest rose and fell rhythmically even without the aid of a respirator. A quick glance confirmed what he was seeing. She was alive. And more importantly, her bio-sensor readings were awfully good.
It worked!

“You’re damn right it did!” Frank said, again hearing Jack’s every thought in his head. “Now get your ass in the shower before I toss you in there myself.”

A wonderful feeling swept over Jack as he left the med-lab and headed aft for the bathrooms. One that he had not felt for a long time. He had felt it when he first woke to find himself still alive after crash landing on this planet. He had felt it when he first picked up Frank’s repeater signal, and again when he saw the LRV. It was a feeling of hope. And it felt good.

* * *

Jack opened his hygiene kit. Everything was in its place, packed nine months ago before they had left the Daedalus. Jack paused to look at himself in the mirror.
How the hell do I clean this up?
He stroked his beard for a moment. It was long, bluish-gray, and it felt greasy. His hair was the same, wild and unkempt, blending in with his beard as it cascaded down the sides of his neck. For a moment, he thought about cutting it all off, but was afraid of what he might find underneath.

He decided to start by trimming his beard. Perhaps, if he could just neaten things up a little, that would be enough. Jack pulled out the electric hair trimmer from the general hygiene locker and turned it on. Besides being long and unruly, his beard was quite tough, more like fine steel wool than human hair. It took several passes to get it trimmed down. He finally had to settle for a beard about three centimeters in length, after struggling to get it even throughout.

He shaved close, down to the skin on his upper cheeks, trying to frame the beard in the way he remembered seeing in old historic photographs. No one on board the Daedalus had ever worn a beard. Shockingly, he found that his skin had also changed. It was tougher, and darker than before. It resembled soft leather. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t human.

Brushing his teeth was also a new experience. When he opened his mouth to look at his teeth, not only were they dirty and yellow, his incisors had become long and fang-like, dulled at their ends. With his snout-like jaw and mouth, they made him look like a cross between an ape and a wolf. It was frightening to look at, even to him.

The odd thing was… He
recognized
himself in the mirror.

After deciding that he had done all he could, Jack chose to attempt a shower. But after removing his clothing, he realized that it might be more difficult than he thought. Having not removed his clothing completely in several months, he didn’t realize how much his body hair had grown. His entire body was covered with a fine, blue-gray hair, giving the appearance of a thin layer of fur. It was thicker in some areas, such as those where he had previously had human body hair, like his legs, arms and chest.

Jack wondered if there would be enough water available to thoroughly wash his furry body. The showers were rationed, with each crewmember being given a weekly allotment for showering that they could only access using their personal four-digit code.

Jack stepped into the shower stall and carefully punched his personal code into the control unit. The display showing how much water was left in his allotment brought a chuckle. It seemed that no one had thought to reallocate his portion of the ship’s water supply. The control showed he had water available in his allotment for about one hundred showers.
I guess I’ll need it
, he thought, trying to remember the last time he had bathed.

* * *

Maria’s eyes opened slowly, immediately narrowing into a squint against the bright light of the med-lab. Her head felt like it was going to explode, throbbing with waves of pain that made her grimace. She tried to lift her hands, but found they seemed to weigh a ton. She felt cold, naked, and vulnerable. And for the moment, she had no idea where she was, or what had happened to her.

Her vision was blurry. She tried to keep her eyes open, but found she could not do so without extreme pain. What little she could see was too bright. Sterile white walls, shiny metal counters and trays…