Onekka - The Tragedy of Jaqui Fennet (13 page)

She looked at him sharply, remembering Helen talk about lists of test subjects
and what had been done to them, but she didn't answer.
"He really wasn't a very nice man, you know. It seems he oversaw many,
err, procedures, designed to control memory. These were conducted on every
member of staff - in Administration, that is - except for one." He paused
to look directly at her. "You. The report suggests you are impervious to
his, erm, techniques. Do you have any idea why that might be, Ms Fennet?"
Jaq tried to feign shock. "He was messing with people's heads? I don't
remember anything like that. I can't think why I'd be immune to it if nobody
else was."
Why the hell
was
I immune to it?
He smiled, resuming his walk. "The blood spatter here is not quite
correct. It burst in a circular dispersal when Mister DePennier's head popped,
spreading brain and skull fragments across the room. Except that, on the far
side, if you can see, the pattern isn't quite even. There is matter in the
appropriate places, but it hasn't been naturally dispersed."
You're getting excited again, Mr Henrickson. You're forgetting your
personality.
"I think," he held up a finger as he paced. "I think that
somebody was standing there with the air cannon, and DePennier was just inside
the door. Then he moved forward, and BAM!" Henrickson slapped his own
forehead with an open palm, causing a flat smacking sound. "He got it,
right in the head. The shooter tried to cover her tracks by taking what was on
her and throwing it to the floor, but it isn't quite right. What do you think
about that theory, Ms Fennet?"
You said 'her'. Was that for my benefit?
"I think, if that was how
it happened, there would be some more evidence."
He smiled, looking just above the line of her sight. "We found a hair.
It's at the lab right now."
She smiled in return, but gave him no answer. It didn't seem there was much to
say. He was looking at her like a hunter would a cornered prey. Did he fear
her? It didn't strike her as likely, but if he'd figured her out, he knew she
had the will to kill.
And you do have me cornered, Mr Henrickson.
"You see, I got to thinking. When I first arrived, DePennier had you
pinned to the wall in that interrogation room. He really wanted you to confess.
He'd put himself at considerable risk of exposure to get you in that room, and
he spent a very long time with just the two of you. I listened to the tapes, Ms
Fennet. I've heard every word. Now, why would he go to all that trouble, with
nobody else around, if he already knew he'd committed the crime? Wiping the tapes
would have been no issue for him, so it wasn't for evidence purposes. At no
point during that process did he give any indication of actually knowing what
happened to Garret. DePennier truly believed you were guilty, and that means he
was innocent."
He paused briefly, as if replaying all his thoughts to confirm his conclusion.
"I think you, Ms Fennet, were here. I think you were looking for
something, and DePennier caught you. I think he threatened you. And I
think," he finally looked directly into her eyes. "You shot him in
the face with an air cannon, and then tried to make it look self-inflicted.
That is my theory." The air went very still, as though all existence had
paused to watch the outcome of this moment. "Do you have anything to say
to me, Ms Fennet?"
"Yes," she whispered. "I'm sorry."
She pushed the trigger on the pulsar, and closed her eyes before the lights
could take her vision.

Henrickson
didn't go down quietly. Jaq hadn't known what to expect, but she'd hoped for a
silent reaction - a faint, or perhaps a simple closing of the eyes. Instead he
gasped, and there was a crashing sound as he fell, she thought, to his knees.
She kept her eyes closed, knowing the lights would have failed but feeling like
she needed the self-imposed barrier. Henrickson wasn't a bad sort, but she
simply couldn't risk his getting in her way. He snuffled like a boar seeking
truffles, and there was a metallic wheeze underlying the sound.
"You didn't ... have ... to," he blurted. Then a further crash sounded,
and all went quiet.
Jaq poked the pulsar back into her pouch and backed out into the corridor. Was
the DI dead? There was no easy way to know with a cybernetic. Perhaps his core
systems were shielded. Jaq certainly hoped so - she rather liked his bumbling
act and shrewd eyes.
She backtracked to Administration and closed the Sector 5 door, just in case
any of Henrickson's colleagues came looking. She was willing to bet they had no
way of opening the door without their boss. Then she padded across to the
bottom of the stairs. In the near-total darkness, interrupted only by a faint
light from somewhere up above, she eased her face close to where the web of
defensive light had been before.
As she'd hoped, the pulse had knocked it out.
Before the systems had any chance to recover, she hurried up the stairs, a cat
on velvet paws. She knew there was no way back, now. Everybody she knew was
dead, possibly even the cop who was after her. Only one thing mattered any more
- finding out why this had all happened in the first place. What was the big
secret Onekka hid in her upper reaches, and was it really worth the devastating
price she'd paid?
Jaq felt her eyes flutter shut and she stumbled on the stairs.
No!
She
knew what the dream companions would say - she'd done the right thing,
everything would be alright if she just found the secret. She knew they would
applaud her killing of Derek and escape from Henrickson. They would tell her it
needed to be done, that loose ends could not be allowed.
But Jaq was fighting a growing feeling that loose ends were all that mattered.
She was way beyond the human norm now, flying blind in a mental arena of
extreme emotions and barely understood motivation. The last thing she wanted
was a bunch of dream entities patronising her. Her life had taken this course,
and she was following it, through hell and murder and the betrayal of everyone
that knew her. That ought to be enough.
The steps rose in a straight ascent, and then turned into a slope, the walls
taking on an irregular, curved aspect. The corridor was lit at floor level by
long chevrons of LEDs, and the walls appeared to have a pale brown colour, like
softwood without the grain. Jaq followed the fluted corridor until it opened
into a gigantic space ahead of her.
Far from the lab she'd expected, 'upstairs' consisted of a curve-sided square
taking up, she judged, most of the top floor of the station. Above, the stars
massed. She didn't think they were vid screens, and that meant a wealth of
toughened, transparent plasti-glass beyond anything she'd previously imagined.
The corridor had brought her to an upper corner of the square, which spread out
below her like an arena. Down in the centre of the floor were several pieces of
furniture which looked, at this distance, like giant reclining chairs. At the
sides were cabins which must house equipment or offices of some kind. The whole
thing was lit, similarly to the corridor, from the bottom, giving it an eerie
glow, like an encampment at night in the centre of a quiet desert.
Jaq couldn't shake the feeling she was standing at the very edge of the largest
radar dish she'd ever imagined.
Is this just the sleep deprivation? How can
this possibly be up here?
There didn't seem to be anybody in the centre, so Jaq made her way down the
sloped side towards the objects in the centre. The scale of this place was
astonishing! She felt like an ant crawling into a swimming pool, half expecting
to be drowned at any moment. Despite the impact of such a secret, she couldn't
suppress the sense of wonder this room inspired. It seemed to take forever to
get to the flat area, which could easily have housed the arboretum.
She angled her descent to arrive behind one of the cabins, and then sneaked
round the edge of it to get a clear view of the objects in the centre. Sure
enough, there were four huge chairs reclined in the middle of the room, angled
so the heads almost touched, with the feet each pointing towards one of the
corners. They looked like pilot chairs, removed from their associated vehicles,
almost like ...
No. It can't be!
What did this place have to do with her dreams? She'd not been seeing the
chairs so much when she slept recently; she'd been more aware of the presences
that haunted her. That didn't mean they weren't there though. Was Onekka
herself somehow connected to Jaq's dreams? A wave of frustration washed through
her - she'd come up here to find answers, not more questions!
The distance across the floor to those chairs was daunting. Much as she wanted
to inspect them more closely, Jaq new she'd be completely exposed. Instead, she
edged round to the inside face of the cabin she was hugging until she found a
door. A minute with her ear to the flimsy portal revealed nothing, so she
opened it and slipped inside, only to stop dead at a sight she kicked herself
for not having expected.
Each side of the cabin played host to a row of display screens, and sitting at
those screens were more of the mummies like the one she'd seen in the security
room. Four of them covered perhaps twenty monitors, their semi-mechanical heads
jerking left and right to the tune of whirring servos.
Does everyone who
dies on station end up as one of these?
Careful not to step into view of any face-mounted cameras, Jaq walked the aisle
between dead backs, taking in the readouts on each of the screens. She passed
stock levels for mechanical and preserved bio parts, energy usage statistics,
and zones and areas.
That'll be all those 'restricted' plans I spent so long
wondering about.
Intrigued, she exited the cabin and headed to the next one - the second of
five. There were no mummies in this one. At least, no functioning ones. Jaq
almost gagged when she saw the upright cylinders and what they held. This must
be a storage shed, she realised, or perhaps a stage in the mummification
process. At least twenty cylinders filled the space, each taller than her and
filled with a milky, semi-translucent liquid. Headless bodies drifted,
suspended, inside. The only space left was a narrow corridor that ran the length
of the cabin, its wall lined with charts displaying readouts for each of the
cylinders.
Shivering, Jaq moved out, and into the next cabin. This one was partitioned
along one side by plastic curtains, each drawn across a bay with a metal-framed
bed in it. The beds were fitted with shackles, but not currently occupied. The
other side was lined with cryo-stasis cupboards, filled with every body part
imaginable and several bank's worth of blood supplies.
On Onekka, nothing
goes to waste.
Sickened but compelled, she moved through.
The fourth cabin looked like a workshop, replete with benches, shelves of
tools, and computer-operated lathes and circuit writers. Jaq quickly realised
that a workshop was exactly what she'd walked into. Drawers were filled with
metal fingers, plating, synthetic organs, and a wealth of fixing agents from
screws to organic glue. She'd seen the biological side of things; this was the
mechanical.
The fifth and final cabin proved to be a ground-shaker. Once again, it was
lined with monitors, and again served by surveillance mummies. But this time,
the information provided set Jaq's mind reeling.
First was an inventory of munitions. Great lists of rockets sat alongside
atomic batteries and air compression engines. Jaq was not a military expert,
but the sheer numbers spoke for themselves. This was no list of hand-held
weaponry. This was intergalactic war on a computer display. The next screen
along was a status monitor, and the items listed only confirmed Jaq's fears;
200K propulsion unit, 500mm rocket mount, corner mounted laser cannon battery -
times eight.
Numb, she moved to the next monitors; spatial navigation positions, and
tactical awareness grids. Anti-rocket measures and hull plating levels gave way
to galaxy charts and vid displays of Earth. Finally, she came to something that
turned her blood cold. It was a map of the planet below, and plotted on it were
points, each with a classification labelled 'target designation'. There were
figures surrounding each geographic location - blast radius, impact assessment,
target priority, and anticipated casualties.
Onekka, Onekka, not so benign after all.
So, which governments were truly in control of the station? The official line
had always been that Onekka stood apart, a sovereign state supported and funded
by every UN member. But if that was the case, who were the weapons aimed at?
Jaq couldn't begin to comprehend the implications. The world's first truly
independent, multi-cultural space station was a weapon.
She slumped on the floor between the dead backs of the surveillance mummies,
trying to comprehend the ramifications. In three years, she'd never suspected
anything was amiss. The station functioned for all the world to see as a
floating hub for research and development. Space was a perfect environment,
with the endless reaches just outside; a safe place to conduct tests that would
never be allowed on Earth.
And therein lies the problem.
Why had she not considered it before? The very thing that made Onekka
attractive as a research platform also rendered it the perfect place for
keeping things quiet. Jaqui Fennet, hater of secrets, had been complicit in
maintaining one of the greatest deceptions in human history.
As she sat there, her world swirling in confusion, the adrenalin of her
discoveries began to wear off. Her eyelids felt like they were made of sandbags
and all the energy seemed to have been sapped out of her. Even to lift her arm
felt too much like hard work. She really did need to sleep. Allowing her body
to collapse to the metal floor, Jaq did exactly that.
*
"Why have you been avoiding us, Jaqui?" Number thirty seven's voice
had an edge to it, but it was more plaintive than angry. "We were worried
about you. You should not be forging ahead with this endeavour without seeking
our support. We are here for you, Jaqui. We are your friends."
She couldn't hide the bitter note in her voice. "You made me kill Helen.
She didn't need to die!"
"And yet, once that was done, was your path not easier? Did you not see
what must happen once she was out of the way? Helen was your last true
impediment, Jaqui. Now nothing stands between you and perfect glory."
"Then why do I feel lost and numb, like the whole of existence means
nothing?"
"Because you are in a state of transition. You still cling instinctively
to the concept of normality, of justice and propriety, or morality. This will
pass as you transcend into the being you always knew you could be. All your
life you have quested for knowledge, exploring the 'why' at every opportunity.
You seek the meanings behind how things are, and to reach that goal, you must
first give up the meanings provided you by external influences."
"What's the point of knowledge if I have nobody to share it with? Everyone
I know is dead - by my hand, no less!"
"Think not that way, Jaqui, for what is the point in knowing people if you
have no knowledge, if those very acquaintances prevent you from ascertaining
what you seek?"
She sighed. "It's too late for complaints. I have chosen my path with
irrevocable actions. Now, there is nothing left but to follow the yellow brick
road to its destination. So, what would you have me do, my contrary dream
companions? You brought me this far; will you see things through?"
There was a waft of something like pleasure. "Our role was but to aid your
designs, Jaqui. To find your way forward, you need only listen to your
instincts. You have seen what Onekka can do, the extent of her vicious power.
You have the ability to stop her, or to allow her dominance. You know what
needs to be done."
She felt tears on her cheeks. "I need you to tell me. I've killed so many
people now, I'm not sure I have any genuine emotions left. How can I know if
what I feel is right?"
"There is only what is right, Jaqui Fennet. You make your own reality. It
is up to you to define its parameters."
A shiver ran through her body. "I don't want to kill anyone else."
"You do not need to. Everything will be okay. You are near your journey's
end, and we are so proud of you." Comfort bombarded her like a hail of
blankets. "So proud. You have fulfilled your purpose with aptitude and
alacrity. This is the final chapter of your transition."
"I have seen two of the signs you spoke of. They came to pass, and I
haven't fallen victim to them. I even beat Henrickson - a non-living being. The
third sign has not happened, or if it has, I missed it."
"You will know if it happens, Jaqui." More waves of bliss and calm
throbbed in the air. "Have you decided what you wish to do?"
Jaq felt her fist tighten with determination. The comfort they provided
alleviated the confusion that stress imposed, and she could see a resolution.
"They can't be allowed to carry on like this," she said. "They
must understand that what they do is wrong, against the very precepts that
defined this place. Onekka will be a symbol of peace once again."
The dream companions' pride filled her with wonder, and she fell away from the
realm of their consciousness with newfound peace.
*
Back in the cabin, Jaq dug out the pulsar. This item had become key to her
success, and she felt a fresh sense of regret that the man who got it for her
needed to die. Sometimes, she reflected, something came along that was just
more important than life. She was here because she was uniquely positioned to
stop the forces that kept secrets and threatened the peace of humanity. To give
up now would be a betrayal, and the people she'd killed would have died for
nothing.