Stranded (Shadows of the Void Space Opera Serial Book 2) Read online

  When Carl hesitated, the man said, “We’ve found your pet. Come with me. I’ll take you to him.”

  Carl jogged over and followed the man as he set off. “Where is he?”

  “Flight deck.”

  “What’s he doing there? Is he okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah. He’s fine.”

  Carl’s pace slowed. If Flux was fine, why was he going to him, instead of the other way round? “How come he’s on the flight deck?”

  The man glanced over his shoulder at the pilot. “He’s, er, he’s hurt himself. Just a little. Didn’t want to worry you too much.”

  Slowing his run to a walk, Carl asked, “How’d he hurt himself?”

  “It’s his, er, wing. He flew into something.”

  Carl stopped. Flux had never flown into anything in his life. Except that one time he’d drunk a bit too much of Carl’s beer. Something wasn’t right.

  Noticing Carl had stopped, the man called out, but not to Carl. “The pilot’s here. This way.”

  It was a trap.

  Carl started running in the opposite direction, but he wasn’t quick enough.

  Two explosions against his back were all he remembered before waking up. He was on the flight deck. Haggardy’s face was the first thing that swam into focus. How had he got out of the brig? The next thing he noticed was the trussed up form of his little friend. They really did have him. That part about getting Carl to go to the flight deck had been true. Easier than searching the ship for him and running him down, he supposed. He wondered why Haggardy hadn’t killed him. Yet, he mentally added.

  “Pilot Lingiari, so glad to see you’re awake. That was quite the massacre of the officers, wasn’t it? You and Harrington should be congratulated.”

  Harrington. Was she aboard ship yet? Did Haggardy know when she was coming back?

  “We didn’t kill anyone,” Carl said. “They died when the ship crashed. And it crashed because the master who you brown-nosed ordered Grantwise to land on the planet.”

  “Hmpf. Let’s just say it was very convenient for you. I’ll let Polestar and the Global Government decide the truth. For now, my confinement to the brig was unjustified, and it’s fortunate for you that I was somewhat inadvertently released. As first mate, I am next in command, therefore the running of the Galathea is now down to me.

  “However, I’m quite sure C.S.O. Harrington will hold a different opinion, and that’s where you come in. It’s clear you and she are close, and I’m sure it would pain her deeply to see you harmed. You, my lovely Australian flyboy, are my collateral. You’d better hope she accepts me as the rightful master of the ship. If she refuses, either you or your little friend here will persuade her with your suffering.”

  He turned to regard the strung up Flux.

  “I don’t mind which of you it is. I’ll let you decide.”

  “***** *** ***** ** *******,” said Flux.

  Haggardy’s eyebrows rose. “Well, I’ve never heard such language from an alien before.” He turned to the man who had tricked Carl into following him. “Put a gag on that filthy-mouthed beast, will you?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Jas didn’t know how long the starship had lain there, or how it had arrived in its position deep underground. Built to withstand the rigors of space travel, something had worn it to pieces.

  Weapons at the ready, she easily found access through its crumbling walls. Her mind whirled over the possibilities. Did the starship belong to the aliens who had infected the officers of the Galathea? Was it somewhere like this that Margret and the others had been when they’d become possessed?

  It seemed unlikely. This place was rotten with decay. It reminded her of an ancient wasps’ nest, the occupants long gone, and the narrow passages crumbling. She stepped over holes in the floor, placing her hands carefully against the soft walls for balance. She imagined that air had smelled musty and close.

  How could a starship end up so far underground? If it had crashed or flown directly into the planet’s surface, Jas didn’t think it would have gone so deep without entirely disintegrating, and there would be an impact crater. Or was it some kind of tunneling machine that had been abandoned there?

  She went deeper into the ship, following the path secured by AX7 and AX12. They led her to a cylindrical room that had a ring of holes at eye level in the wall encircling it. Shining her headlight into a hole, the beams glinted on a material like glass at the end of a short tunnel. Beyond the glass was rock. She was looking out of one of the same kind of windows she’d seen from the outside. It definitely seemed like the ship had been intended originally for travelling through space. Or could it be a deep-water vessel? The planetary survey had revealed three deep oceans, but they were all far from where the Galathea had crashed.

  Drawing back from the hole, she turned, and stopped. Her headlight had swept the center of the room and glanced upon something she hadn’t noticed before—something different from the rest of the place. Something alive. Jas lowered her head to focus the light on the object.

  Fleshy lumps were spread over the floor of the chamber, about as high as Jas’ waist. They weren’t old and decaying like the rest of the ship. They looked like some kind of fungus or inverted living bags.

  Jas took a step toward the lumps. Immediately, joy overwhelmed her. She fell to her knees. Her heart lifted. She wept.

  Through the excess of emotion, she tried to understand where the feeling was coming from, but mostly, she didn’t care. She remained kneeling, unable to do anything within the grip of her feelings.

  AX7 and AX12 remained motionless, awaiting her instruction, for long time. Every so often, Jas would sob or gasp.

  Some time later, the waves of raw feeling subsided a little, and Jas broke away from their hold on her. She got up, finally registering the pain in her knees, and turned, puzzled, trying to understand what it was she was experiencing. What had happened immediately prior to the explosion of emotion? She had stepped toward the fleshy objects in the room’s center. She swung around to them once more, lighting their smooth, satiny surfaces with her flashlight. Another surge of ecstatic happiness arose, and Jas fought to prevent herself from being overwhelmed by it.

  It was those things. It had to be. Somehow, they were affecting her emotionally. Were they projecting their own feelings into her? If they had been alone down here while the ship had been decaying, it would be natural that they would feel joy at being finally found.

  She turned on her mic to broadcast outside her helmet. “Hello?” she said. She took a step toward the lumps, but hesitated. Were these the aliens that had infected the crew? She knew she should get out of there, but she found she didn’t want to. Something was telling her the aliens weren’t harmful. She had to approach them, and it wasn’t that she couldn’t fight the compulsion, but that she didn’t want to fight it.

  Ripples of happiness coursed through her. In spite of herself, she grinned. The aliens seemed very pleased to have her attention, whatever they were. She gently prodded one with a gloved hand. A brief moment of fear sparked inside her, then pleasure.

  In all her years in space, Jas had never encountered an alien so weird. How on Earth did they survive down there?

  “What are you? How are you making me feel like this?” Jas didn’t often pay much attention to her emotions. In fact, she would have described herself as pretty emotionless. These creatures were making her uncomfortable.

  “AX7,” she asked the unit, “do you notice anything different in your systems?” The defense units were intelligent in a sense, but they weren’t supposed to feel any emotion, though she had never quite believed that.

  “I notice no change in my systems, C.S.O. Harrington.”

  Jas was relieved. At least the defense units weren’t vulnerable to these aliens.

  She didn’t know what to do next. She’d come here to find the aliens who had infected the crew, but instead she seemed to have found something entirely different. Were these fungi left behind by whatever
had flown this starship? What should she do about them?

  And should she continue the search for the hostile aliens? She’d been through the entire alien structure and found nothing. Nothing had approached her or tried to infect her, to her knowledge. She was none the wiser for her trip.

  The joy the fungal bodies had somehow transmitted when they realized they’d been found indicated that they wanted to be rescued. Looking around her, it wasn’t difficult to see why. If they remained there, the starship would eventually collapse and crush them. Also, these strange organisms might have benefits to offer. They’d survived all this time within the trap of the hostile aliens.

  She couldn’t decide what to do. To give herself time to think, she left the chamber to continue her search of the ship. In response to the sensations of despair that threatened to take over her, she turned to the creatures, and said, “I’ll be back. I promise.”

  Commanding AX7 and AX12 to go first, she hadn’t taken more than a few steps when the floor collapsed, already weakened by the heavy tread of the units. Jas tumbled down, hitting and then breaking through three floors in succession, until she struck hard metal. The surface was uneven, and her combat suit didn’t completely protect her from the knobs and spikes that thrust into her back and thighs.

  She was lying on top of a huge, complex machine. It looked like the starship’s engine. She quickly checked her helmet display. No radiation. Unlike the rest of the ship, the engine looked comparatively untouched. Could MacAdam possibly use parts from this machine to fix their own engine? It seemed unlikely that the technology of different galactic species would be similar enough for that to work, but it was worth investigating.

  It was time to get back to the Galathea. She had one, possibly two, important discoveries to report, and Lingiari had made her promise she would be back before sunset. She had been in the bowels of the alien structure too long.

  By the time Jas had worked her way out of the starship and then up through the structure to the surface, she was bone weary. She gratefully strapped herself to the back of AX7 and told it to return to the ship. It was already dark, and brilliant stars were piercing the deep black sky. As AX7 jogged across the plain, she wondered what had been going on aboard ship while she’d been gone. She hoped MacAdam had made some headway with the engine schematics.

  The access hatch was a dark hole in the side of the downed ship. MacAdam had opened it as instructed, and Lingiari must have kept it open, despite her lateness. She looked forward to seeing the pilot again. She would also go straight to see Lee. She’d been neglecting the navigator.

  AX7 methodically climbed the side of the ship and swung up and through the hatch. As it entered the corridor, Jas unhitched herself from it and slid to the floor.

  When she looked up, she found that her welcoming committee was somewhat different from what she’d anticipated. MacAdam was there, but there was no sign of Lingiari. In his place was the last person she’d expected—Haggardy, out of the brig.

  Haggardy, free as a bird, standing right in front of her, an oily grin on his face.

  “C.S.O. Harrington. How nice to see you again.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jas was trapped. Sitting across from Haggardy in the mission room, next to MacAdam, she might as well have been as tied up as Lingiari. Haggardy not only had the pilot as hostage, but he could also command the defense units, and that meant he could do just about whatever he wanted. Maybe he already knew he didn’t need Lingiari, and he was just having fun. Or maybe he knew that if it weren’t for the fact that he might harm the pilot, she would be far more reckless about risking her life to go against him.

  “So, Harrington, what’s your assessment? You say there’s a starship beneath the structure you visited, and that it’s of alien make. Is it native to the planet?”

  “I don’t know. You tell me. Did you see anything like upturned bags when you supposedly managed to escape the alien infection that took the others?”

  Haggardy’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t.”

  “The creatures I found seem to be kind of telepathic, only with emotions, not thoughts. When I found them, they communicated that they were overjoyed, as if they’d been alone a very long time, or in fear of something, or both.”

  “A telepathic species?” He rubbed his chin. “Polestar might be very interested in those. Could be worth more than a penny. Did they seem dangerous?”

  “Not at all. I touched one. It didn’t respond, except emotionally.”

  Haggardy put his hands together, overlapping his fingers. “First things first, we need to get this ship spaceborne. You’ve heard nothing from Earth?”

  “No,” replied Jas, “though we don’t know whether it’s because they haven’t sent anything, or the comm hasn’t picked up the packet.”

  “How far have you got with repairing the engines?” he asked MacAdam.

  “Not far,” the engineer replied. “I don’t think I can fix them.”

  “Hmpf,” said Haggardy. “Nothing from Earth, and we can’t repair our engines. It looks as though this alien craft might be our best avenue for exploration at the moment. And I’m very curious about those creatures.

  “Right. At first light, you and you,” he pointed at Jas and MacAdam, “go back to that ship and see what you can find. Take portable scanners. And bring back those creatures. All of them if you can.” He stood. “Meanwhile, I’m going to keep all my eggs in one basket. All three of you can spend the night here. The brig’s occupied at the moment, with my rescuers.” He gave a small smile, and after ordering defense units to bind Jas and MacAdam, he left.

  ***

  The following day, Jas insisted that MacAdam cover herself up entirely before entering the alien structure with her. Lingiari had explained Lee’s theory to them overnight, about how the structures might require a sample of their DNA to begin the infection process. Jas wished she’d had combat suit to lend the engineer that would fit her stocky frame.

  The woman had been mostly silent as they’d journeyed across the plain, and she remained taciturn as they made their way into the structure. Jas wasn’t one for talking much, either, but she sensed there was more to MacAdam’s behavior than her laconic personality.

  “What do you think your chances are of finding something to fix the engines?” she asked her.

  MacAdam snorted. “Honestly? Next to zero.”

  “Is that because it’s alien technology? I suppose the two wouldn’t marry well.”

  “It’s not that,” said MacAdam. “I looked at those engine plans all day yesterday. I read the manuals till my eyes were sore, but I’m not confident that I understand them. I’m sorry. I’m just not cut out for the job. I should never have taken it. It was just...” Her words faltered to silence.

  “What?” Jas asked.

  “Never mind.”

  “You need a good reason to work aboard a prospecting ship,” said Jas. “Me, I had nothing to keep me on Earth. All the family I had, as far as I know, died on Mars. The colony domes exploded when I was a baby. My parents had just enough time to put me into a safety capsule. I was nearly dead when the rescuers found me. I don’t even know who my parents were. The records were destroyed in the explosion. I could be one of several couples’ child. No one knows.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Jas shrugged. “I don’t dwell on it. How about you? Why did you sign up?”

  The engineer didn’t answer for a moment, then she said, “If I tell you, do you promise not to laugh?”

  “I promise.”

  “I...er...I signed up to get away from drink and drugs.”

  It was a struggle, but Jas managed to keep a straight face. “You thought you’d get away from addictive substances aboard a prospector?”

  “I know,” said MacAdam, shaking her head, “what was I thinking? Months of travel, confined to a starship with nothing to do but the same boring tasks over and over again. Not likely to find much drug abuse there.”

  Both women laug
hed. As their laughs faded, MacAdam said, more quietly, “I wanted to get my kids back. They got taken off me, you see, years ago.”

  “Now it’s my turn to be sorry.”

  “No, don’t feel sorry for me. I deserved it. They deserved better than me, rather. They deserved a chance at a good life. But I thought, I hoped, if I could get my life straight, maybe we could be a family again. But when I think about it, it’s probably for the best that they don’t see me. They’ll be settled with new parents now, and they’ll have forgotten about me. If I turn up to claim them, it’ll only upset everyone. I should leave them be.”

  Jas wasn’t sure that MacAdam was right. If the children were naturals, there were unlikely to be many couples interested in them. Nowadays, even couples who produced no sperm or eggs could have their own children and shape them to their desires. There were very few people who were altruistic enough to take on someone else’s natural offspring, the result of a random genetic lottery with who knew what physical or mental problems waiting to emerge.

  The two women followed the defense units down to the base of the structure. Jas led MacAdam into the cavern.

  “Is that it?” asked the engineer as the side of the alien ship came into view.

  “That’s it. We can get in over there. But I warn you, when we approach the creatures I was telling you about, you’ll probably feel overwhelmed with happiness for a while, until they get used to us and calm down a bit.”

  “Overwhelmed with happiness? I can deal with that. I haven’t felt that way for a long time.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  A block. It was a single, simple hexagonal block Toirien and Harrington had found next to the Galathea when they’d returned to the ship. No entrance or other break showed in its smooth gray surface. Harrington had paled at the sight of it, but she’d offered no comment. There seemed to be nothing for either of them to say. Whatever that was living on the planet that had infected the officers, it seemed like they knew the ship was there, and they had plans for it. On the backs of the defense units, they gone quickly into the ship and left it to the units to bring up the telepathic aliens. Toirien had secured the hatch tightly once everyone was inside.