The Void (23 page)

“That's better. Now why don't you lower the force field? Let me out of this cell so I can give you a hug.”

Ridley stood, his mouth open in a mixture of stupid amazement and fear.

“Who are you?” he said, his voice shaking.

The thing that was Cyrus cocked its head to the side, a look of confusion spreading across its broken face. “Who am I? David, surely you haven't forgotten your own mother.”

“No . . .” Ridley whispered, stumbling backward into a tray of instruments. They fell to the floor with a crash, skittering along the cold, metal surface. But Ridley paid them no mind. Instead he stood, staring at what could not be.

“No,” he repeated. “You're Cyrus McDonnell.”

The thing started to laugh, the sound pounding on Ridley's aching brain, driving him closer to madness than he ever thought possible. He wanted to shut it out, to run from that place, but something kept him there, locked in that spot. Frozen.

“That's simply not true. Cyrus is dead, honey. You know that. You've known it all along. That's why you drugged his body. That's why you wanted it to sleep. You were afraid. But there's nothing to fear. Mommy's here now.”

“But you died,” Ridley whispered, to himself as much as the thing across from him.

“No, not dead,” it said, almost soothingly. “Merely sleeping. Sleeping until, through sleep, I could come back to you. And now, I have returned. I'm sorry for how I left you, David. I'm sorry for what I did to you. I never meant to hurt you. But Mommy's mind wasn't right, you see? She needed help. But now I see things clearly.”

“No!” Ridley screamed, finally backing away. “No! This is impossible. How do you know all that? How can you?”

“Because I'm your mother, son. Do your ears deceive you? Do your eyes not see? I know this is not what you expected. But it is a gift. Through this empty shell, I have returned to you. Now come to Mommy. Come let me go so we can be together. Forever.”

“No!” And this time, Ridley did run, away from the thing with his mother's voice and another's face. Ran to anywhere, anywhere but that accursed infirmary.

The thing that had been Cyrus McDonnell stood in its cell, the smile it had plastered across its face beginning to fade away.

“Hmmm . . .” it murmured in a voice that was not Cyrus's, but wasn't that of Ridley's mother, either.

“How disappointing.”

Chapter 18

Rebecca, Aidan, Gravely and Ridley stood in the airlock, their skintight suits shimmering under the harsh lights above. They waited for Jack. Since the events on the bridge, Gravely had deferred to him. She didn't like it, but she liked having no control over her own ship even less. The sooner Jack found whatever he was looking for, the sooner things would be back to normal. Right now, she was more concerned with Dr. Ridley.

“You alright?” she whispered.

Ridley swallowed hard before he said, “Yeah. Of course.” The way his hands shook and the sweat that beaded along his hairline said differently.

Ridley had run from the infirmary like a madman. In truth, he had been a little bit mad and if anyone had come upon him in those moments of insanity, he would be sharing the isolation cell with Cyrus.

He had calmed himself though, cowering in the corner of some dark corridor of the ship, repeating that it was all a hallucination brought on by the lingering effects of the warp sleep or the increasing distortions created by the black holes. Still, he didn't go back to the infirmary afterwards. He wondered if he ever would.

The door slid open and in stepped Jack. He was already wearing his suit. He carried a pulse rifle in each hand and had three more slung over his shoulder. He threw one to Aidan, handed another to Rebecca, and then Gravely and Ridley.

“I see you opened the arms locker,” Gravely said.

“That's right,” Jack answered. “Based on what you found last time, I didn't think you would mind.”

“Of course not,” Gravely said. “It just would have been nice if you had asked.”

Jack almost grinned, but he stopped it at the last moment. He didn't have to ask, but there was no use rubbing it in.

“Right,” he said, looking around the group, “this time we are doing this by the book. No more pussyfooting around. Our time is running short. We are going to hit the ship and hit it hard. We'll find whoever is responsible for that body and neutralize him by any means necessary. Remember, the ship is our primary objective. If we can save the crew, all the better. But assume anyone you meet is the enemy. Err on the side of putting them down.”

Aidan couldn't say he was shocked by these ”orders,” but they bothered him nonetheless. He wondered what it was about the ship that was so valuable and questioned why those on board wouldn't be equally important. He had tried to pry some of the information out of Rebecca, but she wasn't talking. She apologized profusely and he knew that her guilt was such that he could probably force it out of her, but he hadn’t pushed. Now he wished he had.

“It's not important to you to have them alive?” Aidan asked. “Won't they have information you need?”

Jack frowned. Thirty minutes before, Aidan and all the rest were ready to leave any survivors behind. Why the sudden concern?

“The information they may have is important, yes. But our orders are to recover the ship at all costs. Something tells me we won't have to worry about survivors. Maybe one, and we all know what he did. Now, if there are no more questions, let's go.”

Jack didn't wait for them to respond. He pulled his helmet down over his head and walked to the airlock. He turned to the others and each gave him a reluctant thumbs-up. Jack engaged the vacuum pumps and opened the door to space.

He and Aidan went first, zipping down the lines to the ship below. Rebecca and Gravely followed, with Ridley bringing up the rear. Aidan looked up at the
Chronos
above them and he wished they were far from here. He thought how strange it would be when they returned, to ride the zip lines up to the ship instead of down. It was a silly thing; there was no up or down in space. But old habits died hard.  

With Jack in the lead, things moved much more quickly than

they had earlier. Aidan realized the man's strength when he spun the manual release with hardly any effort. The same thick darkness Gravely and Ridley had experienced met them again.

Jack switched on his helmet lamps. The others did the same without having to be told. Gravely thought it was strange; even with three more people and their lights, the room seemed as dark as ever, the blackness beyond as impenetrable as when she and Ridley had stood alone.

Jack took the point, stepping first into the empty airlock and opening the door beyond. He peered around the corner, shining his light left and then right. When he was sure their path was clear, he motioned with his hand and they followed.

Ridley was shaking. Even with the others, even with a rifle in his hands, he found no comfort. He had felt something, back in the infirmary with Cyrus. A presence, one beyond himself and the insane man just behind the force field wall.

He hadn't so much noticed it at the time. How could he with everything else? But it was there. Now in the silence and the blackness, with the same dark feeling bearing down upon him, he remembered. And remembering was the worst thing of all, for that presence was with him still.

Jack didn't bother to try the doors in the next corridor. He made a mental note to scour them later, when the power was back on and he was sure no one was hiding within. On they pressed, their feeble lights barely illuminating their path, until they came to the next door. They knew the body was lying beyond it. From here on was unexplored territory.

The door slid open and Jack stepped through. Then he stopped dead. He turned and looked at the four behind him. Aidan saw it first. The look of doubt, one he did not expect from Crawford. When Jack stepped to the side, Aidan knew why. The body was gone.

Gravely cursed under her breath. Ridley just stared. Rebecca glanced at Aidan and he tried to reassure her with his eyes. He wasn't sure he succeeded.

“So there
is
someone left on the ship,” Jack said. The doubt that had been in his eyes before was not mirrored in his voice. Instead, Aidan heard a steely resolve, the cold timbre of a man who was ready for action. “Stay close.”

Jack turned and raised his rifle to his shoulder. The others did the same, though only Captain Gravely looked comfortable doing it. They advanced down the hallway in the shape of a triangle, Jack at the point and oblivious to the rest of them. That was probably for the best. The others were scared and it showed. In every shadow, in every falling particle of dust, they saw movement. Enemies lurking in the darkness.

Aidan stopped and only started walking again when Ridley stumbled into him. It had been there, in the back of his mind, what all of this reminded him of. It was the shadow wall that he saw, the one from the dreams. It was ever before them, retreating from their lights, hiding unknown evils.

They pressed forward. Aidan noticed Jack was holding a computer pad in his free hand on which a map was displayed. So they weren't wandering aimlessly. He glanced over at Rebecca and felt a spark of anger. She still wasn't being completely forthright with him, whatever her reasons might be, and he didn’t like it. He didn't think on it long, however, as Jack threw up his hand and they all came to a stop.

Jack slipped his computer into his pocket and raised his gun, pointing it at something that none of them could see. They stood in silence, peering into the emptiness. Aidan opened his mouth to speak, but before he could break the silence, something else did.

It was a small sound; one he couldn't describe at first. How Jack had even noticed it, he couldn't say. It was a shuffling sound, a
whoosh whoosh whoosh
in three quick beats, followed by a pause, and then
whoosh, whoosh, whoosh
again. It sounded like cloth against metal, a dragging sound. A chill rippled across Aidan's skin. Yes, definitely dragging.

Gravely put a hand on Aidan's arm and looked up at him. He could see in her eyes that she had come to the same conclusion. Jack took a cautious step forward and they all matched it, inching along the hallway, their lights feebly picking at the darkness, failing to reveal what was beyond.

Aidan's eyes deceived him, and he saw demons dancing in the abyss. Then something else appeared—something more concrete. At first, he thought he was imagining it, the thing, dragging a body behind it. Pulling it along by one leg, as the arms hung limply behind.

“God,” Rebecca gasped.

Dr. Ridley raised his gun, his finger on the trigger. He didn't pull. “Shoot it,” he whispered.

Jack put his hand on the barrel of the rifle and pushed it down. “Not yet,” he said. “Follow him.”

They did, trailing behind, keeping the same distance. It was gruesome work, there in the shadows. Aidan had a nearly irresistible urge to fire his weapon, to end this slow motion pursuit once and for all. Whatever Jack was seeking, this thing did not possess it. Then it stopped walking.

The five of them stopped with it, the space that separated them seeming all too small. Aidan imagined it turning, dropping its carrion cargo and charging them. Blood-soaked body and face filled with insanity and rage. When it did turn, it was only ninety degrees. It pulled the body behind, disappearing into another room.

Jack turned to them and said, “Be ready.”

Aidan tightened his grip on the rifle. He didn't like Jack. In fact, he hated him. He cursed himself, for in that moment, he was glad Jack was there. The group crept forward, not saying a word as they approached the door, as if maybe they would surprise whatever was behind it. But how could it not already know of their presence with their beams of light the only illumination in this place?

In truth, the door was already open, someone having slid it back into the wall at some point earlier. Thus it came as a shock to Aidan when they turned and gazed into the open room. That shock did not last long before it was replaced by a newer and more terrible one.

The door was open, and the crews’ beams of light seemed to converge into one, illuminating the room beyond. Aidan noticed that the light seemed to finally have the effect one would expect. It was able to fully light the chamber while also casting grotesque shadows over the scene that met their eyes.

Dr. Ridley knew that he would not try and describe it later in the detailed record he had a habit of keeping about everything that transpired on the ship, for he had no words. Not for this.

What did they see? They stared into the pit that day and Satan was on his throne.

The room beyond was an observation deck of sorts, but much more majestic and—at some other time at least—beautiful than the one on the
Chronos
. The far wall was made entirely of glass, tempered, no doubt, against the dangers of space but still open to their wonder. They would notice it later, but not then. Their eyes were not on the heavens.

The room was bare. Empty, save for a single chair. A massive cathedra that sat in the center. A piece of furniture from an older time. A captain's chair, one that had been brought aboard by the master of this ship. The man who, by all accounts, was seated in it even now.

He stared at them. His eyes flashing coal black in the glare of their lights, his nostrils flaring, two strong hands gripping the sides of the chair so tightly the bones of his knuckles shone through his skin.

He still wore his regulation blues, the uniform of a naval officer, but they were torn in places. Ripped, cut, even gnashed by the teeth of those who would be his victims. The blood of those same had turned the cloth from blue to an unnatural reddish-black.

Perhaps he alone would have been a figure malevolent enough to send them all screaming into the darkness, even Jack. That there was more horror to see kept them rooted in place.

The captain, the king of this ship, sat on his throne amidst his subjects. They were there, spread out before him. Seven of them. Kneeled. Bowed. Like penitents at prayer. Or perhaps slaves, kowtowing before their emperor.