In A Universe Without Stars 1: Skyeater (12 page)

“Yes,
professor,” Perry says. He turns and leaves.

 That
was Wilker’s last class of the day. Now he can take care of Isabel and whatever
the hell happened to her last night. But first…

He
checks his computer on his desk. He was running the simulation all day. He needs
to finish it so he can figure out what to fix on it next. As he wakes up his
computer the simulation pops up. The stars that should be there are gone. He
clicks through the info and pulls up a page full of numbers.

He
falls to his chair, his hands clutching the desk. He closes his eyes.

Finally.

The
ratio in error is twenty-eight percent, which means most, if not all the stars
in his simulation that are gone, truly gone. After all the ridicule he’s
endured he finally might be able to prove that he was right.

“Matthews!”
he yells. Wilker closes the simulation, pulls out the flash drive and runs out
of the room.

Matthews
is talking to a colleague down the hall.

“Matthews!”
They look at him as Wilker runs up. The other man wants no part and walks away
as Matthews rolls his eyes.

”What
is it? I was just in your room making rounds. Nothing else,” Matthews says.

“I
need a favor,” Wilker says.

“I’m
not doing any favors for you. Not a bloody damn thing.”

“Come
on-“

“NO.”

“Please,
my simulation finally works. I have proof,” Wilker pleads. He clutches the
flash drive his hand near to the point of snapping it in half.

“This
shit again? I was this close to saying yes and you pull this bull. I’m not
going to support you nor your crack pot theories,” Matthews says stepping away.

“Do
you know why I am even speaking to you? And why you still have a job here? It’s
because you decided to marry one of the greatest minds in the world, Wilker.
From this point on, I’m not your friend, I don’t do you favors. I don’t ‘help’.
You just do what I tell you to do and you will do it,” Matthews says.

Wilker
looks down. He wishes he can really tell him how he feels, how much of an
asshole Matthews is, how much of a dumb cock he is. But Wilker loves his job,
despite everybody hating him.

“Yes,”
Wilker mutters. It’s all he can say at this moment. Matthews starts to walk
away but stops.

“I
thought you had potential once, to be in line with the greatest. Above the
rest. But your arrogance got the better of you,” Matthews says.

 He
speaks as if he’s decades older than Wilker. But Wilker is a year older and
smarter. And Wilker is always right. For the most part.

“I
may be above average but that only makes me smarter than the first half of
humanity,” Wilker says. Matthew stops and chuckles.

“And
that’s what’s holding you back. I’m surprised you didn’t ask Alexander, he
believed and supported you more than we did.” With that Matthews walks away,
leaving Wilker with his flash drive in hand.

…

Alexander
sits alone at a table in the Quad. Wilker sits down in front of him. Alexander
looks up from his Caesar salad. He sighs, he didn’t even get to start it yet.

“No,”
he simply mutters.

“You
don’t even know what I’m going to ask, Alex,” Wilker says.

“I
have this thing called a cell phone, it gets this little one hundred-forty
character message from the air streams like magic. ‘Amazing!’ we have a group
chat dedicated just to you. Do you feel special?” Alexander says.

“I’m
not a one trick pony, Alex. That’s not the only thing I talk about… I was going
to ask for you to be my best man, I found this hot piece of tail down in
Manchester and was planning on marrying her.”

“Oh
really?” Alexander says.

“Yes,
I was planning on dumping the broad I have now. To high class for me,” Wilker
says with a grin.

Alexander
chuckles but stops. At least he got something from him. Wilker looks down.

“I
need your help, nobody will listen to me. I need you to vouch for me,” Wilker
says.

“I
need this, I need that! I did vouch for you! We all did, the whole fucking
university! But when we told you our calculations weren’t complete you decided
to host a conference using all of our names and the school’s anyway,” Alexander
says.

“I
already apologized,” Wilker responds.

“Is
your ego so immense to think a simple apology is enough? You tarnished all our
names when your calculations were torn apart. Millions of dollars in funding is
gone, Wilker. As the head of this school that hangs over me. Not you,”
Alexander says.

Before
this mess they were once best friends.

“I’m
sure of it this time. I place my tenure on it,” Wilker says quietly. Alexander
doesn’t answer.

“You
know how much I don’t like to beg,” Wilker says. Alexander looks at him. “Get
on your knees,” he says.

“I’m
not going to
su
—“

“No
you dolt, get on your knees and beg,” Alexander says with a smile. Wilker looks
around, the quad is mostly empty. He stands up and goes next to Alexander. He
breathes in deeply. He bends over as to kneel but instead murmurs into
Alexander’s ear.

“I
will never stoop that low, I will never kneel or beg. Not even to the queen
herself,” Wilker says.

“I
never expected you too,” Alexander says.

Alexander
sighs and puts out his hand. Wilker pulls the flash drive from his pocket and
places it in his hand. He doesn’t let go.

“Will
you please help me with the greatest discovery our generation has ever seen?”
Wilker says.

“Yes.”

Wilker
lets go and Alexander places it into his bag. It’s good to have his friend
back.

“I
don’t know when I’ll be able to get to it but I will. Sometime. Maybe. It’s not
my priority,” Alexander says.

“Thanks
my friend.”

…

Isabel
stares out of her kitchen window. Looking at nothing really. Her mind lost in
her thoughts, she sits at a chair at the island in her massive kitchen. The
front door slams.

“Isabel!”
Wilker yells. Wilker strides into the kitchen with a purpose. She continues to
stare forward out the window.

He
walks up next to her. “Isabel,” He mutters. He places a hand on her shoulder.

A
couple of balled up bloodied napkins are strewn across the marble counter.

“Isabel.”

She
doesn’t hear him, his words pass right through her.

“Isabel!”
he damn near yells.

She
looks around. She snaps out of whatever state she was in. “Oh, Tom,” she
mutters. She looks at her phone. “You’re a few hours early,” she says.

“Nobody
really likes my class so I gave them time to study other subjects.”

“Stop,
you know that is untrue. I listen to what the students say about you. They love
you… barring your repetitiveness,” she says.

“Isabel
stop.”

Her
hazel eyes seem to glaze over as if she’s looking through him, as if she’s
contemplating something.

“Tell
me what happened to you. I’m your husband and I deserve that much. You’re
scaring me,” he says.

She
places a hand on his right cheek. “I’ll show you.”

…

Isabel
stares straight ahead as she drives down a field road. Wilker sits in the
passenger seat, looking at her. She doesn’t twitch or stir. She just stares
ahead driving, like a machine. She’s always like that when she’s preoccupied.
She hasn’t said a single thing the whole drive, it’s pissing Wilker the hell
off.

Wilker
adjusts in his seat; the silence making him sweat. They come to a stop, Isabel
pulls to the side of the road. She sits still, hands clutching the steering
wheel.

“This
is where I am supposed to meet him,” Isabel says calmly.

“Meet
who?” Wilker asks.

“This
is where I made contact,” she says finally looking at him.

Wilker
looks confused. “Contact with whom?”

“Alien
life forms, I fucking made contact with them,” she says slamming her hands on
the steering wheel. She laughs to herself.

She
never curses
,
thinks Wilker.
Never.

“His
name is Jahum. He made contact with me. He projected in front of my car and
told me the coordinates to meet him here today. Last night, I got a little
ahead of myself and wandered through the woods to find out where it was, that’s
why I was such a mess. Here we are now,” she says.

Wilker
looks to the wooded area to his left. An open field is to his right.

“That’s
all you are going on? How in the bloody hell do you know it wasn’t some trick?!
A prank even?! They fucking brought back Tupac and Michael Jackson and you
believe this shit! I can’t believe you had
me
worried
for this crap.”

“I’m
a scientist, Thomas! I only believe in the things I’ve seen with my very own
eyes and I know what I saw! I know this isn’t a trick or some bloody prank!” she
yells. She tries to calm herself by closing her eyes and breathing in. “This is
real, he spoke to me and told me things that only
you
would know!
Personal things!” She gets flustered, tears wailing up in her eyes.

He’s
never seen her like this. She is usually so composed and calm, even in the
worst situations, even when she found out about her illness and learned that
she was going to die. This is something else entirely, it’s inexpiable and
illogical, and it’s shaken her to her core. And that scares him.

“Jahum
told me of my childhood, of secrets I’ve never told a single soul. He said he
can see the past, present, future, and proved it.”

What’s
wrong with her? She usually never thinks in this kind of way. “But you cannot
be a hundred percent-“

“It’s
my intuition and I know I’m right,” she snaps.

 Wilker
looks out into the woods. He doesn’t believe a word of it. But—

He
looks at her, he looks at the mess of hair on her head, the same hair she gets
up so early to do every morning so he wouldn’t see her in that state; he looks
at her bloodshot eyes and the pleading look on her face. He needs to calm her
down, even if he has to entertain this little idea of hers.

“Okay,”
he simply says. Her face lights up, her smile creasing the tears running down
her face.

“Thank
you Tom,” she says. She hugs him. “I want you with me through all of this, as a
friend and as my husband.”

Maybe
this is the sickness talking. Creating the illusion so she can believe she’s
seen her dream before she dies. So she can have some kind of hope.

Maybe
she went made. The strain from her illness...

She
needs someone to believe in her and help hold up the possible weight of the
situation. She did for him, when he was ridiculed at the university, when
nobody believed him. Wilker doesn’t believe her but he’s going to support her
every step of the way.

“Let’s
go.”

…

Isabel
sits on a rock in a clearing in the forest. Wilker paces up and down. It’s been
thirty minutes since ‘he’ was supposed to arrive. Jahum takes out his phone, no
reception. He stops.

Wait.

If
he didn’t leave work during their supposed meeting, was Isabel going to come
here without him? He looks at her as she slumps on the rock. He walks over and
places his hand on her shoulder. “Isabel…” he stops.

Whatever
she thought this was, wasn’t. It must be her sickness, she’s hallucinating.

“Sorry
for my tardiness, thank you for waiting.” a deep voice says. Wilker pauses in
his tracks. Jahum walks into the clearing. Wilker and Isabel stare at him.

Holy
shit.

Jahum’s
triangular head…it’s just
wrong
. Not human, not… The thing stands up
straight on two legs like a human, but the body is oddly like a gorilla’s. His
body is humanoid and masculine, with pecs, abs, two legs and two human like
arms. There is two extra limb like appendages that hang off his hunched
shoulder like dead things. His two large black eyes stare right into Wilker’s
soul.

Wilker’s
heart skips. His heart shudders at the
thing
that stands before him. Oh
god. An alien, a being not from this planet, living proof that they are not alone
in the Universe. Wilker feels a sudden coldness in his heart and bottomless
fear. His breathes labor.

Isabel
was right. Wilker glances at her; she stares at the alien with the same shocked
look. Maybe
she
really didn’t believe it after all. Her fists are
clenched. A tear rolls from her eye. Wilker has to say something but must first
calm down. Isabel starts to shake.