Authors: Glenn Douglass
Tags: #adventure, #travel, #dog, #future, #space, #rescue, #supercluster
Law's End (12 page)
At the center of the camp was a blackened fire
pit with just a hint of smoke rising from its embers. Adjacent to
the former fire was a stack of what presumably were the supplies
they'd brought with them from the survey platform. Around the stack
of supplies and fire pit torn and empty boxes lay strew amid
tattered reflective foil wrappers that waved in the thin breeze and
glinted in the dim sunlight.
Seeing it all in grey instead of day-glow
rescue colors made everything seem filthier and more forlorn than
should have been possible. "It looks like they followed the
survival protocols for as long as their minds held together."
Kassad observed.
Doing her best to hold herself together Greene
gasped, "Hank is in… that." It felt like ages since she had spoken
his name aloud and now the sound of it was almost as startling as
the scene before her.
To Greene's eyes the scene looked very much
like those archaic depictions from ancient history. What might have
been figures huddled under blankets or hid inside the shell of
their escape pods in squalid apathy. It was like something from the
dark ages when the Terran people were small, bitterly jealous of
each other, and their nations made war on one another.
From somewhere in Greene's mind came the words
to describe the scene before her; refugee camp. Yet these were not
the pitiable anonymous faces from ancient history, these were
modern people, some of the best and brightest of the hundred
thousand galaxies. Her husband was down there, in that.
"Time to take them home." Kassad said, and with
that he began working his way off the boulder and towards the edge
of the camp.
Not sure if she wanted to see what her husband
had been reduced to Greene hesitated before following Kassad down
the gentle slope of the boulder. Nothing in the camp reacted to
their presence as they approached. It was quiet and still. Even as
they broke the circle of the escape pods nothing reacted.
A figure squatted under an emergency blanket
near the fire pit. A long stick blackened at both ends extended
from the blanket to stir the few remaining embers. Somewhere nearby
a voice muttered profanity repetitively like a mantra.
"Who's there?" A muffled voice demanded from
the far end of the camp.
A figure emerged swathed in emergency blankets
from behind one of the escape pod curtains. Its face was obscured
by a rebreather mask. A bottle of pills was clutched desperately in
one filthy hand.
"Who's there?" It demanded more loudly,
blankets dropped away as it staggered forward.
The noise seemed to stir some of the camp's
denizens as another poked out their head from an escape pod shell
and inquired sharply, "Is someone there?"
Chapter 8: "Kookoos"
"In order to maximize odds of survival and
rescue all escape pods should be grouped together to maximize
surface area and pool resources."
-Excerpt from standard prerecorded survival
instructions.
"We've come to take you home."
"Is that you Michael?" The second figure
asked.
The first figure shouted, "No, it's not
Michael." then with an effort composed itself, eyes wandering
without ever coming to focus on anything. "I was beginning to lose
hope. It's been so long."
Stepping forward to take charge of the
conversation Kassad announced, "I'm Kassad, this is Greene, we're
here to rescue you."
Worriedly the figure inquired, "Did the
University send you?"
Greene opened her mouth to answer and then
closed it again. She wasn't sure how to answer that question, or
what the answer might in fact be. The questions of what and how
that she had turned a blind eye to in her desperation to reach
these people now began to hang heavily on her.
Kassad was quick to step into the void left by
Greene's hesitation saying, "Let's just focus on getting you and
your people out of here."
Another moment of confusion passed across the
man's face. "Ah, yes well, I'm lead researcher, Savorne. Yes,
that's who I am."
"Can your people walk?" Kassad inquired and
when Savorne didn't answer immediately he added, "We need to move
them back to the ship."
"Walk?" Savorne repeated the word as if it were
alien to him. "Yes they can walk. The muscles work, it's the
neurons in the brain related to sensory interpretation that are
impeded. Eyes went, ears went, and the mind quickly winds down
after that without sensory input. Most of are near catatonic."
"We need to start moving them back to the ship
right away." Kassad said more to Greene than Savorne before
addressing the man more directly. "Are they all here? We ran into
one already and have him onboard."
"I think everyone is here. I told them to stay.
That's the most important thing. Stick to the camp so they can find
us." He explained then apologized, "My eyes went out, and they're
all blind and deaf or nearly so. Most are in varying states of
catatonia and weakened by malnourishment." There was a sullen pause
then he concluded, "I tried to keep them together."
Kassad put a reassuring hand on Savorne's
shoulder. "I understand. Hard to make people eat when they can't
see or taste what they're eating." The scattered debris from the
supplies told the tale of hunger pains amid plenty and finally
Kassad asked, "How have you managed to keep yourself
together?"
"I've," Savorne hesitated as if embarrassed,
"I've been taking a trilutazen compound to offset the effects of
local space."
"Trilutazen?" Greene exclaimed in horror. "The
supply onboard was not for medical use. It's both toxic and
radioactive."
"Yes," Savorne's face acknowledged what he'd
done with regretful despair, "but it also promotes the same neural
activity that this region of space inhibits. It kept me sane. I
think. I decided to worry about the long term effects… if I lived."
Savorne's death grip on the bottle loosened and it fell from his
hand, lid wheeling away as it hit the ground to spill its contents
across the sand.
Ignoring the dubious judgment of consuming
radioactive Kassad proceeded with the business at hand saying,
"Sabha is about a hundred meters as straight as possible through
the boulder field. We'll start moving one or two at a time and get
you people out of here." and then gesturing towards the figure
hunched by the fire pit added, "Misses Greene just grab whoever you
can heft and haul them back to Sabha."
"We're just going to haul them out like…
salvaged cargo?" Greene's expression of disapproval was clearly
visible through the wide clear mask of her pressure suit.
"You are. I'm going to do a head count and make
sure we're not missing anyone." Seeing the uncertainty in Greene's
face Kassad suggested dubiously, "We could try strapping them hand
to hand and leading them out in a daisy chain."
Setting aside the distracting doubts she newly
held Greene sighed in exasperation at herself. "No, you're right,
let's get this done quickly."
Initially Greene's attempts to move the figure
stirring the ash and embers were rebuffed. "No! Must stay! They'll
find me! They'll come!"
Greene's attempts to coax or coerce the
individual fell upon deaf ears and blind eyes. Eventually she
resorted to hoisting the figure over her shoulder like a sack of
rice. In the low gravity the effort to do this wasn't great for
Greene, who was fit enough to manage the feat in a full gravity,
and she briefly considered grabbing another.
Quick to notice Greene's hesitation and guess
what she was thinking Kassad was just as quick to squelch the idea.
"Get used to moving with the extra mass. No need to rush things and
injuring yourself when we're so close to getting out of here."
Nodding at the wisdom of the suggestion Greene
began to make her way back to the Sabha, grateful that she could
focus on the physical task and wouldn't have to look too closely at
the faces. Making sure everyone was present was the first task of a
rescue team. Greene couldn't force herself to look through the camp
for fear of what she might find. Even the figure over her shoulders
was just a mass to be moved back to the ship. Within that simple
mechanical view of the task at hand everything was manageable.
Anything more risked an emotional release which could jeopardize
the mission.
As Greene departed at a jog Kassad began a head
count working counter clockwise around the camp. Some of the
figures were so ensconced in emergency blankets that it took the
prodding of the toe of Kassad's boot to reveal them to be people at
all. Most of them were completely catatonic, the rest were
hallucinating, rambling incoherently, and weak from
malnutrition.
Double checking the heaps of trash he'd
initially dismissed as habitation Kassad said, "Savorne, we're
short two. Do you have any idea who they are, or where they might
be?"
"No." Savorne said before immediately changing
his mind. "Maybe. Could be someone went to find firewood. Maybe
they got lost."
Checking to make sure Greene was out of earshot
Kassad asked, "Or maybe they were made to get lost?"
"No," Savorne insisted severely, "I kept
everyone together."
Keeping up the pressure was the only way to get
any answers and Kassad braced himself mentally for what he might
have to do. "But two aren't here. A third attacked us near my ship.
You're saying you don't know anything about those?"
There was a hostile edge to Savorne's defensive
reply but it was also filled with guilty despair. "I kept everyone
here as best I could. They're blind, deaf, and suffering sensory
deprivation hallucinations. I couldn't know. I tried."
With sarcastic reasonableness Kassad replied,
"Certainly, and if a few loose ends got tied up there's no one to
question that, is there Savorne?"
Earnestness of Savorne's protest marked him as
either an outstanding actor or honestly innocent. "I don't know
what you're talking about."
As far as Kassad was concerned it didn't matter
what Savorne was innocent of so long as he kept withholding
information he needed. "What about the Armhamon? Do you know about
that?"
"Armhamon?" Savorne repeated the word, his face
contorted in confusion. "Armhamon. You're not from the
Armhamon?"
"No." Kassad answered flatly.
Confused by this admission Savorne worked the
problem aloud. "But the University wouldn't have sent you. They
couldn't have sent you."
"No, I'm not from the University either, and I
think we both know what that means. Since you were expecting them
to make the pickup that means you knew about the Lawship." Kassad
gave Savorne a sidelong look. "So maybe you can tell me why there
is a Lawship lurking outside of this system on the other side of
Law's End? Did you call them in?"
Savorne shook his head, the rebreather mask
waggled loosely against his face. "I can't say."
Leaning in close and making his voice as deadly
serious as possible Kassad threatened, "Listen to me carefully old
man. We both know what's going on here and that this is the time to
clean up any loose ends. If I get hauled before a board of inquiry
I want the first words to come out of my mouth to be 'I can speak
without fear of contradiction' and if there's someone here who
might I need to know now."
Doubt and fear struggled for control of Savorne
who answered lamely, "I… I don't know who called in the
Lawship."
"But somebody squealed about what was really
going on here, didn't they? Otherwise why would that Lawship be
here?" Kassad asked rhetorically. "You do realize that they're
threatening to take you all into custody when we come out?"
Panic gripped Savorne and he blurted, "You
can't let them." He cut off whatever other words tried to follow
through his still moving lips.
Grabbing Savorne roughly by the shoulders
Kassad demanded, "Why not? Who are you afraid of them getting their
hands on?"
Sounding as if he were on the verge of crying
Savorne said, "No. It's not like that." Again Savorne's mouth
worked without making any sound then he firmly ordered, "Just get
us out of this place."
Sensing that he was close to an answer Kassad
shook Savorne so hard the man's rebreather slipped off and blind
hands desperately pushed it back onto his face. As Savorne
struggled with the mask Kassad realized that any answers would
require more force than was excusable for a rescue mission. Then
again knowing Professor Fitzgerald like he did the mission had
probably been about recovering information from the beginning, and
that hadn't changed when lives were put at risk.
Anger pushed Kassad to confirm his suspicions,
"It's not a 'who' is it. This is about what you don't want them
getting their hands on isn't it? The data set? Do you have
it?"
pit with just a hint of smoke rising from its embers. Adjacent to
the former fire was a stack of what presumably were the supplies
they'd brought with them from the survey platform. Around the stack
of supplies and fire pit torn and empty boxes lay strew amid
tattered reflective foil wrappers that waved in the thin breeze and
glinted in the dim sunlight.
Seeing it all in grey instead of day-glow
rescue colors made everything seem filthier and more forlorn than
should have been possible. "It looks like they followed the
survival protocols for as long as their minds held together."
Kassad observed.
Doing her best to hold herself together Greene
gasped, "Hank is in… that." It felt like ages since she had spoken
his name aloud and now the sound of it was almost as startling as
the scene before her.
To Greene's eyes the scene looked very much
like those archaic depictions from ancient history. What might have
been figures huddled under blankets or hid inside the shell of
their escape pods in squalid apathy. It was like something from the
dark ages when the Terran people were small, bitterly jealous of
each other, and their nations made war on one another.
From somewhere in Greene's mind came the words
to describe the scene before her; refugee camp. Yet these were not
the pitiable anonymous faces from ancient history, these were
modern people, some of the best and brightest of the hundred
thousand galaxies. Her husband was down there, in that.
"Time to take them home." Kassad said, and with
that he began working his way off the boulder and towards the edge
of the camp.
Not sure if she wanted to see what her husband
had been reduced to Greene hesitated before following Kassad down
the gentle slope of the boulder. Nothing in the camp reacted to
their presence as they approached. It was quiet and still. Even as
they broke the circle of the escape pods nothing reacted.
A figure squatted under an emergency blanket
near the fire pit. A long stick blackened at both ends extended
from the blanket to stir the few remaining embers. Somewhere nearby
a voice muttered profanity repetitively like a mantra.
"Who's there?" A muffled voice demanded from
the far end of the camp.
A figure emerged swathed in emergency blankets
from behind one of the escape pod curtains. Its face was obscured
by a rebreather mask. A bottle of pills was clutched desperately in
one filthy hand.
"Who's there?" It demanded more loudly,
blankets dropped away as it staggered forward.
The noise seemed to stir some of the camp's
denizens as another poked out their head from an escape pod shell
and inquired sharply, "Is someone there?"
Chapter 8: "Kookoos"
"In order to maximize odds of survival and
rescue all escape pods should be grouped together to maximize
surface area and pool resources."
-Excerpt from standard prerecorded survival
instructions.
"We've come to take you home."
"Is that you Michael?" The second figure
asked.
The first figure shouted, "No, it's not
Michael." then with an effort composed itself, eyes wandering
without ever coming to focus on anything. "I was beginning to lose
hope. It's been so long."
Stepping forward to take charge of the
conversation Kassad announced, "I'm Kassad, this is Greene, we're
here to rescue you."
Worriedly the figure inquired, "Did the
University send you?"
Greene opened her mouth to answer and then
closed it again. She wasn't sure how to answer that question, or
what the answer might in fact be. The questions of what and how
that she had turned a blind eye to in her desperation to reach
these people now began to hang heavily on her.
Kassad was quick to step into the void left by
Greene's hesitation saying, "Let's just focus on getting you and
your people out of here."
Another moment of confusion passed across the
man's face. "Ah, yes well, I'm lead researcher, Savorne. Yes,
that's who I am."
"Can your people walk?" Kassad inquired and
when Savorne didn't answer immediately he added, "We need to move
them back to the ship."
"Walk?" Savorne repeated the word as if it were
alien to him. "Yes they can walk. The muscles work, it's the
neurons in the brain related to sensory interpretation that are
impeded. Eyes went, ears went, and the mind quickly winds down
after that without sensory input. Most of are near catatonic."
"We need to start moving them back to the ship
right away." Kassad said more to Greene than Savorne before
addressing the man more directly. "Are they all here? We ran into
one already and have him onboard."
"I think everyone is here. I told them to stay.
That's the most important thing. Stick to the camp so they can find
us." He explained then apologized, "My eyes went out, and they're
all blind and deaf or nearly so. Most are in varying states of
catatonia and weakened by malnourishment." There was a sullen pause
then he concluded, "I tried to keep them together."
Kassad put a reassuring hand on Savorne's
shoulder. "I understand. Hard to make people eat when they can't
see or taste what they're eating." The scattered debris from the
supplies told the tale of hunger pains amid plenty and finally
Kassad asked, "How have you managed to keep yourself
together?"
"I've," Savorne hesitated as if embarrassed,
"I've been taking a trilutazen compound to offset the effects of
local space."
"Trilutazen?" Greene exclaimed in horror. "The
supply onboard was not for medical use. It's both toxic and
radioactive."
"Yes," Savorne's face acknowledged what he'd
done with regretful despair, "but it also promotes the same neural
activity that this region of space inhibits. It kept me sane. I
think. I decided to worry about the long term effects… if I lived."
Savorne's death grip on the bottle loosened and it fell from his
hand, lid wheeling away as it hit the ground to spill its contents
across the sand.
Ignoring the dubious judgment of consuming
radioactive Kassad proceeded with the business at hand saying,
"Sabha is about a hundred meters as straight as possible through
the boulder field. We'll start moving one or two at a time and get
you people out of here." and then gesturing towards the figure
hunched by the fire pit added, "Misses Greene just grab whoever you
can heft and haul them back to Sabha."
"We're just going to haul them out like…
salvaged cargo?" Greene's expression of disapproval was clearly
visible through the wide clear mask of her pressure suit.
"You are. I'm going to do a head count and make
sure we're not missing anyone." Seeing the uncertainty in Greene's
face Kassad suggested dubiously, "We could try strapping them hand
to hand and leading them out in a daisy chain."
Setting aside the distracting doubts she newly
held Greene sighed in exasperation at herself. "No, you're right,
let's get this done quickly."
Initially Greene's attempts to move the figure
stirring the ash and embers were rebuffed. "No! Must stay! They'll
find me! They'll come!"
Greene's attempts to coax or coerce the
individual fell upon deaf ears and blind eyes. Eventually she
resorted to hoisting the figure over her shoulder like a sack of
rice. In the low gravity the effort to do this wasn't great for
Greene, who was fit enough to manage the feat in a full gravity,
and she briefly considered grabbing another.
Quick to notice Greene's hesitation and guess
what she was thinking Kassad was just as quick to squelch the idea.
"Get used to moving with the extra mass. No need to rush things and
injuring yourself when we're so close to getting out of here."
Nodding at the wisdom of the suggestion Greene
began to make her way back to the Sabha, grateful that she could
focus on the physical task and wouldn't have to look too closely at
the faces. Making sure everyone was present was the first task of a
rescue team. Greene couldn't force herself to look through the camp
for fear of what she might find. Even the figure over her shoulders
was just a mass to be moved back to the ship. Within that simple
mechanical view of the task at hand everything was manageable.
Anything more risked an emotional release which could jeopardize
the mission.
As Greene departed at a jog Kassad began a head
count working counter clockwise around the camp. Some of the
figures were so ensconced in emergency blankets that it took the
prodding of the toe of Kassad's boot to reveal them to be people at
all. Most of them were completely catatonic, the rest were
hallucinating, rambling incoherently, and weak from
malnutrition.
Double checking the heaps of trash he'd
initially dismissed as habitation Kassad said, "Savorne, we're
short two. Do you have any idea who they are, or where they might
be?"
"No." Savorne said before immediately changing
his mind. "Maybe. Could be someone went to find firewood. Maybe
they got lost."
Checking to make sure Greene was out of earshot
Kassad asked, "Or maybe they were made to get lost?"
"No," Savorne insisted severely, "I kept
everyone together."
Keeping up the pressure was the only way to get
any answers and Kassad braced himself mentally for what he might
have to do. "But two aren't here. A third attacked us near my ship.
You're saying you don't know anything about those?"
There was a hostile edge to Savorne's defensive
reply but it was also filled with guilty despair. "I kept everyone
here as best I could. They're blind, deaf, and suffering sensory
deprivation hallucinations. I couldn't know. I tried."
With sarcastic reasonableness Kassad replied,
"Certainly, and if a few loose ends got tied up there's no one to
question that, is there Savorne?"
Earnestness of Savorne's protest marked him as
either an outstanding actor or honestly innocent. "I don't know
what you're talking about."
As far as Kassad was concerned it didn't matter
what Savorne was innocent of so long as he kept withholding
information he needed. "What about the Armhamon? Do you know about
that?"
"Armhamon?" Savorne repeated the word, his face
contorted in confusion. "Armhamon. You're not from the
Armhamon?"
"No." Kassad answered flatly.
Confused by this admission Savorne worked the
problem aloud. "But the University wouldn't have sent you. They
couldn't have sent you."
"No, I'm not from the University either, and I
think we both know what that means. Since you were expecting them
to make the pickup that means you knew about the Lawship." Kassad
gave Savorne a sidelong look. "So maybe you can tell me why there
is a Lawship lurking outside of this system on the other side of
Law's End? Did you call them in?"
Savorne shook his head, the rebreather mask
waggled loosely against his face. "I can't say."
Leaning in close and making his voice as deadly
serious as possible Kassad threatened, "Listen to me carefully old
man. We both know what's going on here and that this is the time to
clean up any loose ends. If I get hauled before a board of inquiry
I want the first words to come out of my mouth to be 'I can speak
without fear of contradiction' and if there's someone here who
might I need to know now."
Doubt and fear struggled for control of Savorne
who answered lamely, "I… I don't know who called in the
Lawship."
"But somebody squealed about what was really
going on here, didn't they? Otherwise why would that Lawship be
here?" Kassad asked rhetorically. "You do realize that they're
threatening to take you all into custody when we come out?"
Panic gripped Savorne and he blurted, "You
can't let them." He cut off whatever other words tried to follow
through his still moving lips.
Grabbing Savorne roughly by the shoulders
Kassad demanded, "Why not? Who are you afraid of them getting their
hands on?"
Sounding as if he were on the verge of crying
Savorne said, "No. It's not like that." Again Savorne's mouth
worked without making any sound then he firmly ordered, "Just get
us out of this place."
Sensing that he was close to an answer Kassad
shook Savorne so hard the man's rebreather slipped off and blind
hands desperately pushed it back onto his face. As Savorne
struggled with the mask Kassad realized that any answers would
require more force than was excusable for a rescue mission. Then
again knowing Professor Fitzgerald like he did the mission had
probably been about recovering information from the beginning, and
that hadn't changed when lives were put at risk.
Anger pushed Kassad to confirm his suspicions,
"It's not a 'who' is it. This is about what you don't want them
getting their hands on isn't it? The data set? Do you have
it?"
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