Deep Space Dead (10 page)

Blood had soaked through the strip of uniform that had been turned into a makeshift bandage but it had done much to stem the flow from Bratten’s neck and the engineer was now able to sit up and converse, albeit weakly. Jak doubted her injuries were serious, although she would retain a nasty scar for the rest of her life.

“We’ve been wiped out,” said Jak despondently. “I can’t imagine any of the other rangers survived an onslaught like that; you saw the blood. That means we’ve got barely any rangers left, and against all that lot.”

“They weren’t human,” said Arianna. “They could never have been human, did you see how many there were?”

“Ten thousand years of the Confederation and not a single alien sighting except primitive bacteria and now we get them on our watch,” muttered Jak bitterly.

“It isn’t so bad,” coughed Bratten. “We can be rid of them soon enough and I doubt they’ll follow us far. Most likely they’re confined to the sulphurous atmosphere of the caves. We’ll have to go back with some uranium canisters, set them off and wipe them out; it might seem extreme but we can hardly run the risk of encountering them at a later date.”

Yalor Hain was pale and quiet. A cold sweat was running down his forehead and he looked straight ahead of him with a glassy stare, saying nothing.

8

“We need to play this carefully,” said Jak as the rover came in sight of the Tula IV. “The last thing we need is to bring back two injured people then have to explain ourselves to the entire colony.”

“What can we tell them except the truth?” Asked Arianna. “What happened was a catastrophe, and to think we’re stuck on this planet with those things and no hope of the Confederation coming to rescue us for years.”

“Those beasts are miles away and native to an entirely separate climate,” snapped Jak irritably. “It is like Bratten said. This means nothing to the future success of our mission.”

Jak remained inside with the injured whilst Arianna leapt out of the rover and hurried to find Dr Palk, although all she told him was that the two of the crew had been hurt. The doctor came at once, accompanied by a nurse and four of his orderlies and together they carried Bratten and Yalor Hain over to the infirmary which was located to the side of the bridge and therefore still part of what remained of the starship. Jak made to follow but Arianna walked off, outside and into the arboretum. Once there she sat down heavily on a bench, put her head in her hands and took in great gasps of air, trying not to burst into tears. Jak doubled back and came to find her, put his arms around her and held her close. “I know it’s hard,” he said comfortingly. “But the Admiral is going to want to know what happened.”

“I know,” replied Arianna, then a thought struck her. “Ambra!” She exclaimed, leaping up and hurrying off. “I need to see her.”

Adrianna hurried out of the arboretum, through the corridors, out of the door and through the main street of Grumium. She did not stop running until she had reached the police station and burst through Sol’s front door without knocking. Ambra and Sol were watching a film on the holoscreen. Adrianna brushed past him and grabbed Ambra in her arms, embracing her tightly, the collapsed on to the sofa and began sobbing uncontrollably. Sol stood up, both worried and embarrassed. He wanted to go over and comfort Arianna but he wasn’t very good at this sort of thing. He supposed she had not been away from Ambra for this long before, or perhaps she’d had an argument with Jak. It never occurred to him that something might have gone very seriously wrong with the mission. He was not to be kept in the dark for long.

“You shouldn’t have gone,” said Sol sternly after she had finished providing him with an albeit garbled account of what had just taken place.

“I didn’t know we were going to find that,” snapped Arianna.

“But you knew there were people missing and you knew something must have happened to them,” retorted Sol.

“You’re not in charge of me,” said Arianna.

“No but I’m still Ambra’s father and I wouldn’t much enjoy having to explain to her why her mother wasn’t coming back.”

Arianna laughed bitterly. “You’d have a difficult job,” she told him. “I’m not even sure of what happened myself.”

“What could it be?” Said Sol, his features creased with worry. “They sent pods to this planet long before we came along and they said it was completely devoid of sentient life, just like all the others.”

“They were wrong,” said Arianna simply. “I’ve seen it with my own two eyes.”

Sol went to look out of the window, thinking hard. He saw the late afternoon sun shining in the sky. It was close and radiant, and its heat still shone brightly. It was an even better sun to that on Jupiter which was colder and faraway; indeed the sun here reminded him of his holiday to Earth, that veritable paradise from which all human life was created. He looked over the plains and the meadows which would soon become fertile fields and grazing pastures, the virgin mountains ripe for mining. It was too much to believe that there were creatures out there capable of ripping people apart with their bare hands, creatures which meant to do them serious harm. He was relieved Arianna had returned safely but at the same time couldn’t quite believe she wasn’t exaggerating. Perhaps it was simply the case that Wal and his party had gone mad and the fumes had affected Arianna and the others too. Just then there came a knock at the front door. Sol went over and answered, not at all surprised to see Jak standing before him. “The Admiral wants to see us all,” he said without preamble. “She’s called an emergency meeting of the Council to be held in the administrative chambers in half an hour.”

Jen Henna was found and quickly agreed to look after Ambra whilst the three of them attended the meeting. All the councillors were there. The Admiral quickly briefed them before handing the floor to the doctor.

“Those bites were severe,” said Dr Palk with concern. “Yalor Hain was lucky, he should pull through fine but Bratten’s neck had been severely ripped and she was lucky not to sever an artery. I find it hard to believe a human could have done it, albeit one that was completely deranged.”

“I cannot believe there is alien life on this planet,” said Banda Ure decisively. “The pods do not lie. We have computer systems that are accurate to a fraction of a fraction of one thousand times nought one percent. Nothing has been turned up.”

“Our eyes do not lie,” said Jak bluntly. “We did not imagine those creatures and neither did Bratten imagine her terrible wounds.”

“I do not doubt you were attacked,” replied Banda Ure kindly. “You were attacked by Wal, Fratia Bel and the other rangers. They were sent mad by something, most probably the dark conditions, perhaps even a mysterious sort of gas.”

“Let us try and come to a consensus,” said the Admiral, as Jak made to rebuff her. “Whatever those things are they are far away. We did a sweep of the planet and we found nothing above the surface, and of that we
can
be sure. If there are any aliens or insane members of our party out there they are in no position to threaten us. What is more we hardly need that sulphur and we’re certainly not going to start settling down and making towns in that volcanic region. Of course this all requires further investigation – from the air. In time we shall send out the rovers to fly over, take some more readings and see what we can find.”

“What about sending a transmission?” Asked the communications representative Barra Herr. “We should seek advice from the Confederation.”

“No,” said Kalp quickly. “Any sign of alien life and they’ll want us to drop everything and make a full search. We’re busy enough here for the time being and I’m not prepared to move until we’ve got the full facts.” As she spoke she regarded Jak and Arianna doubtfully and Arianna knew the Admiral doubted their story.

“We can’t ignore that sort of threat,” objected Jak immediately. “These caves might be connected, or there might be more of them down there. What would we do if they popped up outside the city? We’d have no chance.”

“We’re not ignoring them,” replied the Admiral. “We’ll keep our ears to the ground, don’t worry about that. In the meantime however I’m concerned that we’ve lost almost our entire contingent of rangers in the space of a week.” He turned to Sol. “Do you and your men know how to operate the rovers?”

“Of course,” replied Sol. “We were given some training back on Jupiter but we haven’t done any flight training since we set off.”

“You need to brush up,” Kalp told him. “You’ll have to step up to the fore now.”

Jak sat up at this news and appeared about to object but in the end he said nothing.

After the meeting Kalp caught up with Arianna and Jak. “Come along,” she said. “Let’s go with Dr Palk and see how Bratten is getting on. I’d be curious to hear her perspective on things.”

The three of them walked together along the corridor. “I still think you’re making a mistake,” said Jak. “Even one of those in the city could cause horrible damage. It doesn’t bear thinking about. We should at least warn the colonists.”

“We need to keep everybody calm,” said Kalp firmly. “If we send for the Confederation saying we’ve discovered alien life then all of a sudden the place will be turned into a research centre, a fortress. That isn’t what we’ve signed up for and we’re in no position to go and investigate, and especially not to fight.”

“Those things are dangerous,” replied Jak. “If they attacked us we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Don’t worry,” said Kalp. “Whatever they are they’re miles away, on the other side of the world. Do you have any idea how many hostile beasts the humans of old Earth had to contend with? We’re perfectly safe where we are.”

Dr Palk had already returned to the medical bay and was studiously examining his two patients. His colleague, Dr Brig, was standing over the stricken engineer. “She isn’t good,” muttered the doctor gravely with a sad shake of his head. “I’m afraid she’s lapsed into unconsciousness.”

Dr Palk raised his eyes. “See this,” he said, pointing to the wound around Bratten’s neck. “Her wound has become infected, and faster than I would have thought possible.”

Arianna looked and saw that it was true. Pus was seeping through the bandage, a cold sweat had formed on the engineer’s skin and she appeared a deathly white.

Kalp approached the engineer’s bed, put her head down low and spoke into Bratten’s ear. “Bratten,” she said softly. “Can you hear me, Bratten?”

The engineer slowly opened her eyes, which were red and watering, and looked across towards the Admiral. “I can’t…” she murmured desperately. “…The dreams…. I can’t control…”

Kalp looked up in bewilderment. “She is deluded,” said Dr Brig knowledgably. He nodded down and Arianna saw for the first time that Bratten’s hands and feet were secured with leather straps. Dr Palk raised his eyes at this. “Was this really necessary?” He asked his colleague.

“I’m afraid so,” replied Dr Brig. “She has moments of severe delirium during which her pulse rate rises and falls erratically and she becomes completely out of control. The first time she did it she tried to latch her teeth on to one of the nurses.”

“She tried to bite somebody?” Said Arianna with mounting alarm. “But this is…”

“It isn’t the same,” snapped Kalp irritably. “She has a fever and is delirious, nothing more.”

At that moment Bratten’s entire body began to convulse violently and she strained against the straps. The two doctors rushed to assist her with Dr Palk calling for the nurses and orderlies to come and give them a hand. A multitude of people descended upon the bed. Arianna stepped back and watched as they struggled. Finally the scene calmed. Bratten was still. “Is that what a spasm looks like?” Asked Kalp.

“It was not a spasm,” said Dr Palk gravely. “It was a final convulsion. I am afraid Bratten is dead.”

Kalp bent over the engineer’s body. The colour had drained from Bratten’s face and she went deathly white before their eyes so that she was practically unrecognisable from the woman Arianna had known all these years. “I didn’t think it would prove fatal,” said Arianna softly. “The bite I mean. I knew it was a nasty one but surely…”
“We are all puzzled,” put in Dr Palk. “I shall have to run some tests, conduct a post mortem. Perhaps she had some sort of blood disease we didn’t know about although certainly she never came to me with any ailments during the whole time we were travelling.”

“This is a tragedy,” said Palk gravely. “Bratten was one of the best we had.” She reached forward and gently placed her hand on the engineer’s forehead.

All of a sudden the Bratten’s eyes flashed open. She lurched upwards and seized a hold of Kalp, sinking her teeth into the Admiral’s neck. Kalp cried out and struggled free, leaving a large piece of her flesh in Bratten’s mouth. The engineer now rose up and threw the bed across the room with a single movement, snapping her leather bonds as though they were made of paper. Arianna staggered back in astonishment. “Bratten!” He cried out. Bratten turned towards him and bared her teeth. There was a look of the purest hatred in her eyes. She charged forwards, clawing a hand at him. Jak ducked down and dived out of the way just in time as the momentum of the charge carried Bratten forwards and her hands scythed the wall, colliding with the sheer metal walls and leaving a hideous jagged dent. Jak seized hold of Arianna’s hand and charged out of the door. From the corner of her eye Arianna could see the Admiral staggering to the storage cupboard and slamming the door shut behind her. Dr Palk and the rest of the medical team hurried after them into the corridor and they slid the door shut, locking it firmly behind them.