LOST REVENGE (2 page)

NO. 5, Bertha. This
is a tricky one. I know she likes me and we used to fuck a lot when we got
trained in Luna station on the moon. Later Lily joined the team and stole my
heart. Bertha quitted and gave us her bless. She is not that kind of woman who
plays tricks under table. But you know what, you can never guess what a woman
is thinking. I need to talk to her as well.

NO. 6, Lisa. Another
woman but this is a geologist and a nerd. She is a nerd inside and outside. She
looks like someone from Middle Ages but with baggy eyes and a very man eagle
nose. In private she is actually more like a man. I really think she marries
herself to rocks. In her eyes, the ring is probably a circle.

NO. 7, Akio. I can’t
read what he is thinking and I don’t know him very well except the fact that he
loves Sushi. He is always polite but cold. He acts the same between his working
hours and private time. For him, I really don’t know. I will put him on the
list.

NO. 8, Roy. He is an
astronomer from Russia, strong like a bear and hairy like a bear. His beards
are longer than his hair and he is just too lazy to cut them. He has a solid
pride of his motherland and his personality is straight like an arrow. He loves
chatting but not in Bertha’s way and can tell some funny adult-only jokes. It
seems to me that he doesn’t take anything seriously. He first started no
business during dinner rule and now we all adhere to it. He won’t lower himself
to keep the ring.

So now I have three
people on the list.

I suddenly feel sorry
for myself. They are my crew and I should trust every one of them with my life.

What am I doing?
Shame on you.

The ring could fly to
anywhere. It could be in drawers or cabinets or trash cans.

I walk back and forth
in the kitchen, rubbing my temples to alleviate the head pain.

I need evidence.

Asking around? No,
nobody wants to be a rat.

“The video records!”
I shout in excitement.

Yep! Kitchen is one
of the areas monitored all day and every day. The record is kept in blackbox. Thinking
about this, I head straight to where the blackbox is located.

Nobody onboard
Achilles has the access to the blackbox. I actually wonder whether others know
where it is. I know it because I was actively involved in the design of
Achilles. Others only saw the blueprint after the ship was complete and I doubt
anyone even notice it.

Near compartment six,
there is an escape pod that is only slightly bigger than a coffin and of course
there is only one seat. I guess we will have to do a draw when that particular
moment comes. Right under the seat in the escape pod lays the blackbox. I pop
open the seat and there it is. A steel box welded on the base of the chair. Two
locks secure the lid and nobody knows the password. I take out my laser knife
and cut through the steel. After about 40 minutes, I prize the lid up.

“What the hell!”

There is nothing in
it!

“Yea, I guess they
really have a tight budget.”

I look into the box
again just to be sure.

Yep! It is empty.

I don’t really know
what to do. Since I am here already, at least I can check when lid was opened
last time.

I activate the screen
in the escape pod and choose the activity option. A window pops out and it
reads,

“Blackbox content
Installed at 9:35 AM, Central Time, 01/27/2055. Lid closed at 10:04 AM, Central
Time, 01/27/2055.

Lid opened at 10:20
AM, Central time, 09/13/2055. Blackbox content removed at 10:23 AM, Central
time, 09/13/2055. Lid closed at 10:25 AM, Central time, 09/13/2055.”

Wait! 09/13?

I check it again. The
record indeed says 09/13 and right now the clock shows 11:34 PM 09/14/2055.

But why?

As the commander, if
I knew I was out for seven days, what would I do first? I would check what
happened in the past seven days and I would check all recordings.

Someone did it just
to fool me.

Someone doesn’t want
me to find out what happened in the past seven days.

I look out of the
window from the escape pod. On this side of the ship, Jupiter steals most of
the sky and its great red spot looks angry. There is also...something on the
window.

Inside or outside?

I get closer to the
window. It looks like smears or something. I blow hot air to the window. The
smear grows darker. Three large fingerprints, much larger than any human, with
no friction ridges; instead they have dozens of suckers like the one on the
tentacles of squids.

“What?”

Goose bumps start
crawling all over me. Holding on to the wall, I stumble out of the escape pod.

“Calm down. Calm
down.” I recite it again, again and again.

Remember you training!
Well, there is one universal rule. It says if you feel you are fucked up, you
are indeed fucked up.

Boy, isn’t that
right!

OK. OK. OK. At least
I still have Lily, so it is not that bad. Thank god she can’t see this.

I start walking along
the corridor very slowly, buying some time to think it through. I don’t know
where I should go or who to talk to. If Lily were awake, I can ask her for
opinion.

First scenario, this
is just a prank. My crews are playing with me.

Second scenario,
something went onboard Achilles and it is intelligent. This will be something
like close encounters of the third kind. How fucked up is that!

The door at the end
of the corridor slides open and I lumber into another corridor. Not far away,
Lisa is checking the robot janitor. She throws me a cold glance and goes back
to her work.

“How is everything
going?” I say as I stand next to her.

“It’s going, but I
don’t know where it’s going.” Her voice is cold.

“What do you mean?”

“Look like you are
sick and you still don’t want others to share your burden.”

“I’m fine. It’s just
head pain. In the past seven days, you notice anything...weird?” That is the
best word I can find.

“Weird? What do you
mean?”

“You know like
something strange, something unusual.” I am hesitating whether to tell her or
not.

“Nothing. Just daily
stuff.”

“Roy kept you guys
busy?” I am joking.

“You should give the
access code to him.” Lisa says with her very man voice.

I don’t know why she
suddenly said that, but I can tell from her face that she is serious.

“I will think about
it.”

I walk away and
somehow go back into the kitchen. I pull a chair, sit next to the oval table
and rest my head on it.

Let’s prepare for the
worst scenario. Something intelligent is onboard Achilles. It is probably not
friendly. It took the blackbox, because it did something that it doesn’t want
anyone to know, something not good. What is it? What is it?!

I don’t know.

When did it come
aboard?

I don’t know.

Where is it?

Hiding somewhere in
the ship.

What form is it
taking?

It can be anything
even one of my crew.

Speaking of my crew,
I haven’t seen all of them since I woke up.

But killing my crew
and me doesn’t need seven days. I am still human.

Maybe this
intelligent thing just wants a lift to Mars. I guess it is too shy to ask us
directly.

I sigh and press my
head harder and harder against the table, wishing the pain from the outside can
kill the pain from inside. Suddenly I smell something. It is such a familiar
smell. I sniff around and it comes from under the table.

I take a deep breath.
It is the dish cleaner, but why?

I go under the table
and locate the exact spot where the smell comes from. It looks like some stain.
I take out my flashlight and shine some light on it.

A faded red hand mark
with only four fingers and they are way too long for human fingers.

Another round of
goose bumps.

The red is blood and
someone was trying to wipe it off with dish cleaner. It happened very recently.
If not, the smell would be long gone.

That alien, if there
is just one, was bleeding and it tried to remove its trace. Or it killed at
least one of my crew and tried to cover it.

Think.

First, how do I find
out which one is alien?

Check DNA. There are
DNA analyzers in medical bay. They look like credit cards and can perform DNA
analysis in less than 10 seconds. I do need to figure out a way to let my crew
breath in front of it.

Alright. This is
priority number one. Before checking their DNA, I can’t trust any of my crew.
It could be one of them.

I let out a long
sigh. So much surprise for one day and now I am hungry. I take out a quick
dinner and press the button on the box. It is hot and steamy in 30 seconds. I
enjoy it very much. It is one of the best meals in my life.

Since this alien
thing didn’t kill me when I was in coma, it probably doesn’t plan to kill me
right away. I guess I still have some time on hand.

Tired and sleepy, I
head to my cabin. When I walk past Lily and Lisa’s cabin, I stop and go inside.
Lisa is still doing her job, so the cabin is empty. There are two bunker beds
stacking along one side of the wall. On the other side, there are one table and
two chairs. Lily’s bed is the bottom one. I lay down on her bed

It is so comfy except
something pointy is pressing under my right shoulder. I reach over behind my
right shoulder and touch on that pointy thing. It feels like a screw and it is
big. I sit up and pull off the sheet. There it is. A big screw, the size of my
index finger.

“Oh, Lily, I didn’t
know you like to sleep with this as well.” I put the screw in my chest pocket.

My head is still
hurting, but the leftover scent from Lily’s body calm me down quickly and lead
me to dream.

The next day when I
open my eyes, it is 10 AM. This is way too late. I am surprised Lisa didn’t
wake me up when she saw me. However, I still need my breakfast.

When I get into the
kitchen, I see all my crew sitting at the oval table.

“Commander, we have
been waiting for you. Come on!” Bertha says happily and waves at me.

I am kind of moved,
but I still remember the conclusion I drew last night. Can’t trust any of them!

I squeeze out a
reluctant smile and don’t know what to say. My breakfast is waiting at my usual
place. For breakfast, we eat what is called synthetic bread that resembles the
look and texture of bread but has all vitamins and calories you need before
lunch.

“Thank you. That is
very nice of all of you. I hope you guys didn’t just wait for me for the past
three hours.”

“Not me, I still work
on the communication problem,” says Jim.

“So the antenna is
working now?” I ask.

“It still needs more
work.” Charle says quickly and goes back to his breakfast.

“Like what?”

“Bad shape.” Lisa
adds.

“You know we have a
backup antenna, right?” I say.

“We have some problem
on that one as well.” Jim sighs.

“Do you mind me
taking a look?” I am looking at Jim.

“That won’t be
necessary. I will take care of it.”

I nod at him and take
a bite of the bread in front of me. It tastes like a piece of aluminum covered
in corn oil. I cover my mouth with both hands so that I won’t throw it up.
After several seconds, I finally swallow it, the metallic taste still lingering
in my mouth.

Just at this moment,
Dr. Akio hands me a cup of water and I quickly empty it, splattering water over
myself.

“Excuse me.”

“It’s OK. After brain
trauma, things taste differently,” says Dr. Akio with a tone of an expert.

“So you know it
tastes like shit.” I say grudgingly.

“Not like shit.” Dr.
Akio says seriously as if he knows what shit tastes like.

I drop the fork,
stand up and go to the fridge. There I find the quick dinner, the same one I
had last night.

“I need to try
something different this morning. You guys wouldn’t mind, right?” I press the
button on the box before anyone can utter a word.

Once it’s ready, I
carefully try a bite. It tastes just like the bread and my face gives me away
immediately.

“Told you.” Dr. Akio
shows everyone his signature successful smile, the corners of his mouth going
up so high that the upper lip is being pulled apart.

“Thank you.”

How come? Last night
it was delicious, but now it is like shit.