Tandem of Terror (14 page)

Stars streamed by, ice and debris bumped
against the ship then lilted into the distance. The view screen
twitched with static briefly and for an instant Darius saw his
wife's face in it.

"
No..."

"
Darius, you ok?" Landon
asked.

"
It's nothing." Darius
rubbed his eyes and attempted a smile.

"
I know you better than that
Dar."

"
I'm just not sure.
Something doesn't feel right. Ever since we picked up that survivor
something's been off. I've been dreaming about my wife
again."

"
Sophie? You haven't thought
of her in years."

"
Ever since we came into
range of that ship I have. It's happening while I'm
awake."

"
It wasn't your fault
Darius."

"
I know."

"
She asked you to end the
pain. What else could you do?"

"
I asked myself that a
million times, old friend."

"
It's just stress, Dar.
We're cut off from Earth. A stranger onboard."

"
Something about him bothers
me." Darius clicked the security monitor to the medical lab. He saw
Lucian sleeping soundly in bed. "I can't get his name out of my
head."

"
It's an old name," Landon
said. "No one uses it anymore."

"
How do you know
that?"

"
Before flying my parents
wanted me to be some sort of scholar. I used to study languages.
Origins, histories. Real boring, real fast."

"
You're full of surprises,
huh Landon? I wonder if some old Earth archives would tell us
more?" Darius moved from his chair and turned on the nearest
terminal.

Tinkering for hours, Jared checked power
grids and rerouted energy to various systems to ever improve the
Tiamat's performance. He'd spend days down in the bowels if the
captain would let him. Of course he wouldn't. The captain didn't
believe in hermits...they were a team.

Jared stepped from the ventilation tubes, his
face soiled, his hair tussled and damp with sweat and flinched when
he bumped into the most stunning man he'd ever seen. Lucian, bathed
in the amber light of the ship's engineering halls, smiled at him
with a dimpled face and glittering eyes. Jared stepped back, his
words escaping him.

"
Don't be afraid," Lucian
said, his voice soft and soothing.

"
Am I dreaming?"

"
Not at all."

"
Who are you? What are you
doing down here?'

"
I'm Lucian. I've been
recovering aboard your ship. She's quite a beauty."

"
Isn't she? A perfect
machine." Jared smiled with pride

"
Just like you." Lucian
flashed a sly grin and put his hand on Jared's shoulder.

"
Th-Thank you, I bet you say
that to all the..."

Lucian leaned in and kissed Jared, gently
slipping his tongue into Jared's mouth. The two embraced, hands
exploring in the shadows, panting filling the narrow corridor.

Jared pulled away. "We shouldn't be..."

"
This is what you like
Jared, isn't it? The touch of a man. The feel of his body against
yours. The smell of his skin."

"
Yes...but... I'm on duty..."
Jared's eyes widened. "H-How did you know my name?"

"
I know all about you."
Lucian pulled Jared towards him again and kissed him deeply. Jared
melted in his arms, surrendering to the irresistible sensations
filling his every fiber. He moaned slightly and grew
aroused.

Lucian stopped kissing and looked into
Jared's eyes. "It's too bad your boyfriend didn't know all about
you. The pain he felt when you abandoned him was agonizing. He died
a slow, wasting death and in the end he cursed you. Not the cancer.
You. He never thought you'd leave him, but you did. Even after you
told him you wouldn't. He died scared and alone. He hates you for
that and he'll never forgive you."

"
I couldn't..." Tears streamed
Jared's rosy cheeks as his heart sank. "It was too hard." His voice
cracked as the sobs came harder. "I tried...really I did but...I'm
sorry...so sorry that I left."

"
If only you could tell him
that."

"
I would...I want
to...I..."

"
I know a way." Lucian
smirked.

Darius scanned the text on the green-tinted
terminal screen. He read over various names in Latin until he
arrived on a name familiar yet obscure-- -a blip in his unconscious,
a faint whisper in the back of his mind.

He squinted against the harsh computer light
as the name Lucian came up. Darius read intensely, his gaze locked
on the screen.
Related to the Latin: Lucius meaning light. Other
variations seem to derive from one source, the name of the fallen
one, also known as the light-bearer: Lucifer.

"
Aw shit, Jared!" Landon
screamed.

Darius looked up at the view screen to see
Jared float across it, he was outside the ship, engulfed by the
cold of space. Vacant eyes stared directly at Darius. Jared's face
was frozen in a state of perpetual anguish.

"
Hit the security alarm!"
Darius roared. A siren resounded through the ship. Darius turned to
his monitors to locate his crew but the screens instantly filled
with static.

"
Stay here," he called to
Landon. "Keep us on course. If anyone but me tries to get in here
shoot them. I'm gonna track down the rest of our
people."

The captain raced to the medical lab and
threw the doors open. He nearly slipped on the crimson pool on the
floor but steadied himself while stifling a cry. All color drained
from his face.

After Finn had finished dissecting his wife,
he turned the blade on himself. The laser scalpel was still in his
remaining hand. His other was across the room, having hit the wall
in a smear of blood.

Sick to his stomach, Darius climbed from the
lab and pushed the com on his belt. He hailed Dianna but there was
no response. He looked around. Lucian was nowhere to be found.
Darius started off towards Dianna's quarters when a loud crack
erupted from the mess hall.

He rushed into the mess hall to find the
entire security team in pieces. The room smelled of burnt flesh.
The walls were scorched. Body parts littered the floor like
shrapnel. Darius looked up from the battle zone and saw Dianna at
the back of the room, brandishing a pulse rifle.

"
Dianna, what have you
done?' He moved slowly, easing his hand to the side arm strapped to
his belt.

"
I knew no one here trusted
me but I didn't think they'd try to kill me. I heard them all
planning to kill me...I won't be conspired against by my own
men!"

"
Dianna, put down the
weapon. That's an order."

Her face turned red, her eyes narrowed.
"You've come to kill me too, huh captain? Well, I won't let
you!"

Before Darius could say another word, Dianna
aimed and fired. The burst soared through the room and narrowly
missed. The door beside Darius shattered, metal debris ripping into
the air.

Darius tried to dodge out of the way but some
of the metal bit into his right leg and he went down. Dianna
laughed maniacally and advanced on him as he crawled into the
corridor.

"
Dianna stop...I don't want to
hurt you."

She screamed and took aim again. Despite his
hesitation, Darius slung his gun out of its holster and fired.
There was a small pop and a scarlet blossom spread across Dianna's
forehead. She crumpled to the floor.

Darius pulled himself up and limped to the
nearest room. The doors slid open and he caught a flash of Lucian's
face in the room. He lifted his gun but discovered the room was
empty except for the transport suits lining the walls.

He limped to one and pulled it from the wall.
He hit his com link as he put the suit on. "Landon, lock down the
command center and prepare for evac..."

"
Say what Dar?
Evac?"

"
Yes, It's Lucian, don't let
him in command. I'll be there...Landon can you hear me?" Static
answered his frantic calls. Landon's voice turned to garble as the
reception died.

"
You're breaking up...I'll be
rightt-- -" Landon's voice went dead.

"
Damn it." Darius broke off
and finished getting into the transport suit. The lights flickered
in the room. Footsteps bounced softly off the floor behind him. He
turned slowly to see the ravaged visage of his wife lumbering
towards him within the shades of light and dark.

"
Sophie?"

"
Why Darius? Why did you
kill me?" Her face was gaunt, her skin translucent. Her naked legs
were covered in bleeding sores. A puddle of urine surrounded her
feet. "You killed me."

"
You begged me to end the
pain," Darius whimpered. His eyes welled. His knees buckled.
"No...Sophie no! You're not here. This is a lie!" Darius lifted his
gun and fired, then again and again.

His wife's body hit the floor but when the
lights stopped flickering and Darius looked down it wasn't Sophie
but Landon. Darius's mouth gaped and he seethed, screaming
furiously. "No!" He dashed to Landon's side but it was too late.
His closest friend was gone.

Laughter filled the room. Darius knew the
laugh. He dialed the command center from his transport suit and
disappeared in a flash of light.

Upon materializing in command, Darius cut the
tractor beam from the missionary ship and worked frantically to
enter a sequence code into his ship's mainframe.

"
Leaving so soon?" Lucian
hovered just above the captain's chair.

"
You move and I'll shoot
you." Darius aimed his gun up at him. "Who...W-What are
you?"

"
What is that saying,"
Lucian asked. "My greatest weapon is making man think I don't
exist? I think you already know who I am, Darius."

"
You destroyed my crew!
Why?"

Lucian grinned and clasped his hands
together. "I just love you guys. You're such a godless people. You
deny your maker and ask why bad things happen to you. You fly into
space and think the universe is yours and that evil is forgotten.
Well, I'm still here. You no longer even honor your own savior's
birth. It was only days ago. Do you even know what Christmas
is?"

"
What does an old Earth
custom have to do with anything, you son of a bitch?"

Lucian shook his head. "Exactly."

"
Lucian, Lucifer, whatever
you are, it's over."

"
Yes, I believe it is.
You're a bit stronger then the others. Guess that's why they call
you captain. Let me give you a proper goodbye." Lucian started
towards Darius. His eyes ignited with fire, his yellow hair
glowed.

Darius fired.

The shot hit Lucian in the head, sending him
to the floor. He lay motionless then moments later sat up as if
nothing had happened. Darius frantically plugged new coordinates
into his transport suit with trembling fingers. Sweat dripped down
his face.

Lucian got up slowly and began towards Darius
again but it was too late, he vanished in a flash of light-- -

And reappeared on the missionary ship. He
leapt to one of the ship's windows and sneered. "If God can throw
you out of Heaven, I can sure as Hell throw you off my ship!"

The Tiamat exploded into a fireball and the
force blew the missionary ship into space, out of any orbit and
without direction.

Darius tumbled to the floor as the ship
hurled through space. Finally it slowed enough for him to sit up,
and notice the dead all around him. The missionaries, cold and
lifeless, gawked at him as if in judgment.

He stood and went to the window again,
watching the stars drift by, hoping that at some point he'd be
discovered by another salvage crew...until then he would drift
powerless through space in a ship that was now a tomb.

Out of the
Fire...

Eric S. Brown

The waves slapped against the Manta's armor
rocking the tiny, deadly craft as a parent would a child. The Manta
wasn't truly tiny in the normal sense of the word. Its sleek,
curved black body was large enough for its two pilots to climb out
onto its hull into the rays of the blistering sun and stare into
the horizon. For a vessel carrying more firepower than a standard
destroyer, the Manta was incredibly compact. It was the first of
its kind, a prototype for a new line of assault craft with which
the former United States hoped to turn the tide of the war with the
Lemurians. The mission was supposed to have been its first combat
run but things hadn't gone according to plan.

Steve sipped a bottle of water that was
already warm from the outside heat. He and Brook hadn't spoken
since the attack run on the Lemurian base had failed. He held out
his hand towards her offering the water. She shook her head but
said nothing.

"
Brook, it wasn't your
fault," he said knowing he was opening a can of worms.

"
Like heck it wasn't," he
heard her mutter then suddenly she turned to face him. "I let us
get hit didn't I?"

"
Look on the brightside,
we're still alive," Steve faked a smile.

"
For how long?" Brook asked
him, "For how long?"

"
The Manta has enough
emergency supplies to keep us alive for a week or more if we're
careful and we have unlimited power. Its fusion drive will keep it
running for years."