Deep Space Dead (25 page)

“I suppose they will all survive in the short term,” replied Jak without enthusiasm. “But whether they survive the rest of their lives on the ship or whether the revenants claim them is all academic. They are bound to die eventually, as are you and Arianna, Sol.”

“He is sick,” said Arianna quickly, noting Sol’s expression of alarm. “We shall get him to the doctor as soon as we are back. Something has happened to him; he’s had some sort of breakdown, that’s all. That’s all.”

Back on the starship Arianna and Sol whisked Jak straight off to the medical bay where Dr Palk was waiting for them. Arianna had told nobody else Jak was going to be with them when they returned. Dr Palk raised his eyes when he saw the changes in Jak. His  body was lean and muscular. Arianna gasped in astonishment when he removed his shirt. “Have you been exercising much?” Asked Dr Palk in surprise.

“Not especially,” replied Jak. “I have just been working hard.”

“You look as if you haven’t stopped lifting heavy weights for days,” said the doctor with surprise. “You haven’t got an ounce of body fat on you.”

“I have had a great deal on my mind,” said Jak. “I am feeling slightly sick; not my usual self.” He said the words flatly and in a way that put Arianna in mind of a very poor actor delivering lines from a script.

“Well you’re certainly not your usual self,” agreed Dr Palk. “Why if you don’t mind me saying so I cannot quite comprehend the change that has come over you in so short a space of time, both physically and mentally.”

“They have made him one of them,” said Arianna, her voice panicked. “I don’t know how they did it but they have.”

“Don’t be too hasty,” warned Dr Palk. “I cannot see any bite or needle marks on him. More tests are required.”

“There must be something you can do,” said Arianna desperately.

“I will take some samples and x-rays,” replied Dr Palk. “But I admit I am at a loss as to what to do. I myself am not capable of splicing, or rather re-splicing, anybody’s DNA.”

Jak’s mind was a fog. He remembered the emotions he had held for Arianna and Ambra but for some reason could no longer express him. It was as though his mind had been placed under a heavy sedative whilst keeping his senses unimpaired. He felt his muscles bulging beneath his skin and a constant electric current of energy ran through him. He appeared completely incapable of sleep. At night he would take himself off for walks up and down the starship or just stand sentry for hours staring out of the window at the revenants beyond.

“I know I’ve lost you, Jak,” said Arianna tearfully when they were alone together one evening.

“Still you cry,” said Jak with a shrug. “And outside the revenants stand ready to tear us all apart. Even after it all you still cry, you still care. It makes no sense to me anymore, Arianna. It is amazing, don’t you think, that we still care for all this? After all we have been through I mean. It is amazing that this happened to us and yet instead of focusing on our own survival we went back to arguing over our petty problems. After seeing so much death we continued to love and fear to lose. Would it not be better, Arianna, if we never loved in the first place? Would it not be best if we all worked together for the common good without our petty, selfish hang-ups getting in the way?”

“A breakdown,” said Arianna firmly. “You’ve had a breakdown, that’s what it is. All this stress and the revenants coming and having to take charge; having to go out and fight those things all by yourself. You’ve had a breakdown.”

“Breakdown or not it makes no difference,” said Jak. “Once we are all on the starship things will change completely. We will have confirmed our survival and we will be ready to go on and thrive once more.”

“And what about us?” Demanded Arianna frantically. “Does what we had mean nothing to you?”

“Go with Sol if the need takes you,” said Jak. “He is after all the father of your child.”

Arianna was too shocked to speak.

20

“We need to cease contact,” declared Arianna with determination. “No more to go over. Why it makes me sick enough to realise we’ve effectively doomed those we’ve already transported but at least we’ll save who we can.”

Sol paced up and down the room, trying to think clearly. He too was shocked at the transformation that had come over Jak but at the same time he was trying to be realistic. “Listen, Arianna,” he said at last. “Don’t think I’m doubting you here. I don’t like what has happened to Jak any more than you do. But right now the Suki II is our only lifeline. Just imagine what would happen if we suddenly announced we were ceasing all contact.”

“How can we still let people go?” Demanded Arianna. “How can we send them to this, a fate worse than death, without telling them?”

“There are still too many of us to survive here alone,” said Sol. “The arboretum cannot accommodate us. If we stay here our problem remains the same. We will be trapped her surrounded by revenants. We will starve to death.”

“So you suggest we just go?” Asked Arianna. “Go and get ourselves lobotomised as they surely lobotomised Jak? Would you have it so you are no longer able to love Ambra? Or that she regards you as just another grey humanoid completely indistinct from all the others?”

“Of course not,” snapped Sol. He though fast. “Very well,” he said eventually. “Let’s cut off contact for a while. Nobody in, nobody out. if the colonists ask why not we’ll say they need to build accommodation blocks or something, anything to distract them. All we need is a few days to come up with a working plan, see if we can get the arboretum up and running again now there are fewer of us.”

Arianna tried her best to snap Jak out of his stunned malaise over the next few days. She tried taking him for walks in the arboretum, discussing the Council’s affairs with him and trying to get him to spend time with Ambra. It was all to no avail. Jak’s expression remained blank and impassive. At night he shut himself in a separate room and sat alone, but awake, in the darkness until Arianna came to collect him again the following day. For the moment it was agreed to keep him out of the sight of the rest of the Council.

“You do not like me anymore,” said Jak when Arianna came to see him one evening. Arianna jumped. She was used to Jak sitting in silence whenever she came to see him, barely even acknowledging her presence. The fact of him having initiated conversation for almost the first time since they had returned to the
Tula II
filled Arianna with hope that there may be hope for him after all. “Of course I like you, Jak,” she told him gently. “A few days of coldness cannot erase the years we have had together, the trials we have undergone together since the revenants attacked us.”

“No,” said Jak briskly, with something approaching firmness. “You do not like what I have become. You do not like that I am now better than I once was. Perhaps you even think I am a burden to you?”
“No Jak,” said Arianna emphatically. “But you must realise you are not the man I fell in love with any longer. What happened to you, Jak? Why won’t you say? Have they done to other colonists what they did to you?”

Jak shook his head, waving her questions away. “I have changed in other ways,” he told her. “And I still have my memories of what we once had. I still remember the dangers we faced together, Arianna, and I am aware of the revenants outside. But I can still be of use to you.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Arianna.

Jak did not reply. Instead he stood up and left the room, walking at a slow pace, heading towards the front of the starship. Arianna followed cautiously behind. Sol joined them as they passed through the administration quarters. “What is happening?” Demanded Sol. “We seem to be heading towards the landing bay.”

But Arianna could only shrug her shoulders. The three of them entered the chamber of the landing bay. Jak turned to them. “The two of you should wait outside,” he said flatly. “This is just a demonstration and will not take long. All the same it is best if you wait outside.” And with that Jak turned and stepped through into the landing bay, closing the doors behind him.

Arianna knew what was coming. Jak secured the immediate vicinity then went over to the control booth within the control room itself, long disused since the revenant attack in favour of the remote switches in the main chamber. He pressed a few buttons. There came a whirring sound above. Arianna and Sol both looked up through the reinforced windows to see the roof slowly opening to reveal the blue sky beyond. As they gaped, open mouthed, three revenants dropped down to the iron floor below. Arianna braced herself, too scared to cry out but within the confines of the landing bay Jak simply turned calmly to face them. The revenants spun around to face him, crouched down as though to attack and then paused. Still Jak did not move. His face betrayed no emotion, no fear. The revenants began to circle him cautiously, and Arianna almost imagined they were sniffing the air before him. Jak continued to stare at them impassively. Finally the revenants took a step back and turned around. They began to prowl around the perimeter of the landing bay, ignoring Jak completely now and it was as though he was not there at all. Finally they looked upwards towards the sky, stepped back and took giant leaps to the roof of the landing bay before disappearing back into the open world. Jak calmly walked back over to the control booth and closed the roof up again before leaving the landing bay to re-join Arianna and Sol. “You see,” said Jak calmly. “I can be of great use to you. Your worries regarding food and sustenance are practically over so long as you are prepared to trust me. All I need is the rover. There is no need for you to ever leave this starship again.” And with that he turned and walked off.

“He has a point you know,” said Sol gravely when the ranger had departed. “He could be a great help to us now he seems to be immune to the revenants. He has great strength as well.”

“Is that all you can say?” Demanded Arianna, rounding on him furiously. “Can you not see what he has become? Why he is just another revenant like all the rest of them.”

“No,” said Sol firmly. “Revenants attack us. He is on our side.”

“Only just,” retorted Arianna. “Who knows what he really is? What he is really thinking?”

“I doubt he is thinking much at all,” replied Sol warily.

“I have lost him,” sighed Arianna, and she appeared on the verge of tears.

“He is still here,” muttered Sol dismissively as he began to walk away. “At least in some form. Do not forget thousands of people on this ship have lost far more than just their minds.”

Arianna looked up sharply at Sol, ready to retort, but the policeman was already walking briskly back down the corridor, his shoulders hunched, deep in thought.

Sol and Arianna avoided one another for the next few days. Meanwhile all transportation to the
Suki II
were abruptly ceased. The remaining colonists on board the
Tula IV
complained bitterly of course, and Sol knew his half-hearted explanation, that the initial pioneers were still clearing space for their arrival, would only placate them for so long.

Exactly one week after the travel embargo to the
Suki II
Barra Herr approached Sol and informed him that Guya was on the line, requesting to speak with him. Sol had been expecting the humanoid’s call and was surprised it had taken so long. Before heading for the communications room he went to fetch Arianna and the two went down together.

“Good evening Sol,” came Guya’s voice, so clear over the radio it was almost as though he were in the room with them. Arianna shuddered.

“I know why you are calling,” replied Sol warily. “You want to know why we have stopped sending people over to you.”

“I am not stupid,” replied Guya’s voice. “I know full well why you have ceased the evacuation. It is because of Jak. I am calling to warn you of the mistake you will be making if you do not resume the transportations immediately.”
Perhaps it was just her imagination but Arianna was sure she could detect a note of menace in Guya’s otherwise flat monotone. Nonetheless she was angry. “There will be no more people sent over to be lobotomised by your vile experiments,” she declared vehemently down the radio.

“Nobody has been lobotomised,” replied Guya. “The human condition has only been improved. Jak is simply the next stage in our evolution, a natural step albeit one brought forwards thousands of years before its time.”

“It is no improvement,” snapped Arianna. “Rather it is retardation! You have taken away his emotions to the point of nothingness. His humanity has not been improved – why he is barely human at all anymore!”

The line went silent for a long time. Arianna wondered whether Guya might have disconnected. Finally his voice came through once more. “You are dependent upon us,” said Guya calmly. “Your remaining people will not tolerate being denied the opportunity for salvation.”

“Our people have the free will to do as they please,” put in Sol, his tone measured and wary. “But we shall tell them the truth. There shall be no more illusions. And besides, now we have Jak he is immune to the revenants. He can help us survive on this ship.”

“You said yourself he has lost his humanity,” pointed out Guya. “And this in itself makes him a very dangerous man indeed.”