Surviving The Theseus (23 page)

"I think I understand you now, Regina. You
can't help who you are. When I first met you, you seemed
emotionless, like a robot with the kill switch thrown. But now I
know that to be the complete opposite. You have to find a way,
Regina, to let me go."

"You know I can't do that."

"The events on Pyramid were not caused by a
person you can hunt down and kill, Regina. It's bigger than that.
So much bigger."

Regina looked around again, taking in the
beautiful surroundings. "How did I get here? Is this Earth?"

"No, it’s not. It’s the planet the Theseus
never escaped from. And you are not actually here. You are back in
the shuttle, on Pyramid, encased in a protective shell."

"Protective? Protective against what?"

"Against what's coming. Relax, Regina. All
will be explained." Strangely, Regina was relaxed, against her
better judgment. This couldn’t be real. Recently dead Rachel
couldn’t be talking to her, especially with knowledge of what
happened on Pyramid.

A low rumble sounded from the sky above.
Regina looked up and saw a white trail of smoke, but not what was
creating it. She had to turn and look behind her to see it. As it
got closer, the rumble louder and louder, she knew it was a
ship.

It flew over her head, toward the forest. All
she could make out was the underside of a small ship, gray and
oblong, like the alien ship that just pursued Rachel and Regina,
but smaller.

The ship rocketed towards the forest at
suicidal speed, out of control. It scraped the tops of trees,
snapping and cracking them as if they were matchsticks, and then a
loud thud, followed by a brief scraping of metal against dirt and
rock, and silence.

In the blink of an eye, Regina appeared at
the top of a cliff edge above the massive city they had seen in the
video footage. It bustled. She could see the indigenous life forms
moving about in the city below and behind her in the field. They
were almost identical to what she had seen on the video, but they
were not featureless: most were very tall, maybe eight feet,
skeleton thin, their knees bent both ways, long legs, long arms,
large heads, with a tuft of black hair twirled up -- what looked
like a carrot to her before. The clothing was sparse, just some
cloth covering what she assumed must have been genitalia. Their
feet were large, hairy, and hard looking, like they were covered
with a green protective skin, darker than the light green skin of
the rest of their body. Other aliens moved about the larger ones,
smaller by a couple of feet, which she assumed were children.

Rachel stood beside Regina, watching her.
"This was a thriving planet before that ship crashed here. It
didn't take long before every living thing on the planet was dead,
everything but the vegetation."

As Regina watched, the creatures before her
fell to the ground, some of them twitching and convulsing, foaming
at the mouths, a dark, purple fluid coming out of every visible
orifice, what must have been blood. She watched a sped up version
of their deaths, what would have happened to everyone on Pyramid.
But why?

Rachel looked at her. "The ship that crashed
brought an infection of the likes none of us have ever seen. A
virus that multiplies as it feeds on you, eating you from the
inside out, slowly at first and then within hours, multiplying to
such an extent, always feeding, that the body's systems break down,
and everything shuts down. Depending where the virus spreads first
is how you react to it. From first infection, I was dead not
twenty-four hours later. Others go quicker and some longer, but
once infected, it's only a matter of time. When they don't have
anything to feed on, they feed on one another, ten more for every
one killed."

The sky, a beautiful blue, suddenly filled
with a snowy-like substance so thick it was like being in a
blizzard. It consumed everything that Regina could see.

"This is them, at one million times
magnification. At present time, they infest this whole planet and
almost every nook and cranny. They are everywhere."

"Jesus!" Regina said, closing her eyes as if
they would get inside. Her skin crawled, and she had a strong urge
to scratch every inch of her body.

And then they were gone, the sky clear.

"When we came here,” Rachel said, “the
military were infected immediately and brought it back onto the
shuttle. Blair and I didn't have a chance.”

Rachel looked sad to Regina, like she was
about to burst into tears.

Rachel continued. “The virus has some
intelligence as they did not all invade our bodies. Most of them
waited, seeming to know somehow that there would be more to feed
on. They got their wish. They spread throughout Pyramid, getting a
majority of the people on board. The advantage to Pyramid is the
size so it was not like Theseus. Some people made it, like
yourself. Once infected, the virus remains in the chosen body until
it is wholly consumed. Even though you were surrounded by the
infected, you would have been safe until they broke free from the
inside out, which almost happened on the shuttle, before you were
protected."

Regina, who had been looking around, looked
at Rachel. "Yeah, please explain that to me. What were those
creatures chasing us?"

"The ship that brought the virus also brought
a savior, of sorts. Before the indigenous life forms of this planet
perished, they found a silver case in the cockpit of the crashed
ship. They found it empty upon opening it. But it wasn't empty.
They just couldn't see what was in it. The spirits of those that
died could see: twenty suits and a ship were in that case, a case
that measured three feet by two feet. The alien spirits from this
planet, and some of the spirits from Theseus, were on Pyramid in
those suits, which by thought could shrink or grow to any size they
wanted. That's why they seemed to disappear at times, or how they
could get through very small areas, like through the opening of
landing gear in a ship. Had there been more of the suits, they
would have better protected Pyramid, but as it was, they could only
do so much and were not very organized. The ship from the case was
the same way, controllable size powered by thought.”

Rachel paused, maybe letting Regina take it
all in. Rachel seemed to have all the answers, and in a very short
period of time. The dead must travel fast.

Rachel continued. “The alien spirits still
don't know where this virus originated, but something knew about it
and tried to stop it. Whatever created those suits and ship, found
in the case, knew enough to develop suits that could only be
controlled by spirits. As far as the remaining spirits know, no
living creature or spirit occupied that ship when it crashed. The
crashed ship's origin is as unknown as whatever flew it."

Regina sighed. All she had wanted to do was
kill the creatures, or what she thought were creatures, and all the
creatures wanted to do was help. "So the orange light, I assume,
let them see who was infected and who was not?"

"Yes," Rachel said. "And the brown gooey
stuff protected those not infected, and allowed the dead to
communicate with the living as I am doing with you now. If they
found the infected, they would solidify the person with some sort
of gray resin, freezing any virus activity, and then disintegrate
the body, and the virus, to nothing, destroying any trace of it,
other than some carbon residue and any clothing the person was
wearing."

"Jesus, Rachel! Why couldn't they just tell
us, tell us what was going on?"

"They wanted to, but there was no way other
than through the protective covering. They know no other way. Only
when you are protected can they communicate."

"So, the others, Michael, are they okay?"

"Yes, all of the SPARS are alive and well,
protected like you. None were infected."

So now she knew. And now she knew why none of
the members on Theseus made it. A smaller ship back then, for sure,
and the dead would have no problem covering a small ship. Also to
their detriment, because the small ship ensured everyone on Theseus
was infected, none left alive to tell the tale.

Rachel grabbed Regina's hands. "Pyramid has
to be destroyed. The aliens knew it before they started saving as
many as they could. It's on a collision course with a nearby
system's sun. There is too much area to cover to ensure they have
gotten all of the infected and any free-floating virus. It's a
miracle you survived, Regina. It's a miracle any one did."

Regina teared up, wiping her eyes with her
right hand. "I've always been so sure about what I've been hunting,
but this, I had no idea. I should have left well enough alone."

"But you didn't know, Regina. You couldn't
have. You did what you always do: you looked out for everyone's
best interest. Nobody did any different."

"I envy you in a way. You're free from the
endless mind fuck we play on ourselves."

"If it makes you feel any better, Regina, I
don't disagree with what you do. Some people are just born or
raised wrong and they offer nothing to society but misery and
grief. Some people don't deserve the air they breathe, and need to
be wiped from existence. You're not a cold-blooded killer. You see
something that bothers you to your core and instinct kicks in. It's
not something you can do anything about. You've always been that
way, even before your mother's death. Maybe not to the degree you
react now, but it was always there. You are what you are."

"Maybe," Regina said. "Maybe I need to do
something else, get away from all this. Have a relationship, a
family."

"Nobody is saying you can't do those things,
only you. You are what you are. Just live, Regina. We'll see each
other again. Tell my mother I love her. All I ever wanted was to
make her proud."

Regina hugged Rachel. "I will." And she meant
it.

Regina opened her eyes, groggy as if she had
been asleep for hours. She lay on hard metal flooring, Michael
staring down at her.

"It's okay, Regina," Michael said. "Give it a
few seconds and you'll feel better."

Her hair was soaked to her head, her clothing
damp and sticky. Michael didn't look any better. She sat up and
looked around, not recognizing her environment. "Where --"

"We're with them, the dead, in their ship.
Everyone they saved from Pyramid. Three hundred and forty seven
survived, out of over ten thousand. Maybe more are uninfected, but
they were running out of time. They saved as many as they
could."

Regina thought about that. As many as they
could? Jesus! How many, sitting in a corner of the ship somewhere,
shivering in fear, flying to their death? But she understood it.
They did what they could. Pyramid Cruise Lines was not going to be
happy and this would probably shatter the company, but it had to be
done, the risk too great otherwise. She never thought she would
ever see the day that the dead protected the living, never a
thought in her mind that the dead could do anything. The dead were
always the dead to her, darkness, nothingness. A sense of hope
flared up in her that she might some day see her mother again, hug
her, tell her how much she loved her, and never let go again.

Regina took in more of the room she was in, a
circular room, with nothing in it but a metal floor, metal wall,
and lots of people. It looked very sterile, like a hospital
operating room empty of everything but people.

Closer to her were the ones she knew: Michael
staring at her; Brett listening intently to something Travis was
saying; George and Mary speaking quietly to one another; Paula and
John also listening to Travis; and Cindy, staring at Michael, not
saying a word. Regina respected them all, even Brett, for doing
what they did, risking their lives. She was glad all of them made
it.

Looking around at the other faces, she saw a
spectrum of emotions. People hugging, laughing, crying, arguing,
smiling, and frowning. Most looked happy, relieved, probably just
to be alive. She wondered if all of them were told the same things,
about Rachel, Blair, and the men who went down to the planet. And,
if they did know all that, were their lives in danger? She made a
mental note to herself that she would follow up with her superiors,
get a list of everyone who survived, and make sure nothing untoward
happened to any of them.

She missed Rachel. Even though she barely
knew her, she grew to respect her, understand her, something she
never bothered doing before, with anyone. She never wanted to
understand, to get to know anyone, because there could never be
trust, or that’s what she thought for most of her life. But she
trusted the SPARS -- well, most of them -- and that, also, gave her
hope.

Regina sat for awhile in silence, as did most
of the SPARS, everyone serene from just learning what had happened.
She smiled at anybody who looked her way but then turned away, lost
in her own thoughts.

It took them all by surprise when the ship
walls seemed to disappear before their eyes to reveal a panoramic
view of space, only the floor visible beneath their feet. They all
knew they were in the alien ship, the ship found in a small silver
case; a ship somehow made bigger by a spirit’s thoughts. But what
they didn’t know was where in space they were. As soon as the walls
disappeared and they saw Pyramid One, they knew what was happening.
They watched what needed to be done, what had been put in motion
hours before.

Pyramid shattered to pieces as the sun it had
been directed towards, since breaking free from the matchstick
grid, violently pulled it in. The ship -- shredded, torn, wrecked,
cursed -- bubbled, melted, and disintegrated, and any suffering
remaining on the ship ceased, virus destroyed.