Ship of Fools (25 page)

I opened the command channel link to the
Argonos
, tried calling Communications. Nothing. I wondered if all the translators Hollings had set up were still functioning. Maybe something was blocking the transmission.

My heart was pounding, I felt my pulse thumping in my throat. Breathe slowly, I told myself, slowly. . . . I couldn’t afford to lose control here.

Francis had his suit on, but held his helmet at his side, looking at me.

“Come on,” I said.

“They did it, didn’t they?” he said.

Don’t say any more, I wanted to tell him. But my throat was stuck, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t swallow.

“These aliens. They did this, they killed all those people in there, and they killed all those people on Antioch.”

“Yes,” I managed to say. “Get your helmet on now. We have to go.”

“We can’t take this ship with us,” he went on. “They’ll kill us.”

I grabbed the helmet from him and put it over his head. Finally he reached up and worked the neck seals. I turned off the external speakers. “Is the open channel activated, Francis?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go. Quickly now. But don’t run. Don’t act like you’re scared.”

“I understand,” he replied. “I’m
not
scared.”

He really wasn’t, I could tell, but I didn’t know if that was a good thing. Maybe in the short run. I nodded, and we started off.

We didn’t talk. We moved at a steady pace, turning lamps off as we went, as if we needed to conserve their batteries for our next excursion. Light ahead of us, darkness behind.

Every ten minutes I tried to contact the
Argonos
, but always without success. I was on edge, expecting at any moment . . . something, I didn’t know what. A horde of aliens pouring out of a hatchway. Barriers sliding across
our path, cutting us off. Sharp, vicious hooks springing from the walls.

Nothing happened, and I couldn’t understand why. We continued unimpeded, the alien ship still empty, silent, and dead.

Finally, when we were only fifteen minutes and a few rooms from the outer air lock, I got through to the
Argonos
. I had them patch me through to Taggart at the med center. He wasn’t there. I finally got him in his quarters, as sleepy as I had been when Catherine called me.

“Bartolomeo, why are—?”

“Listen to me, Taggart, this is important. The old woman from the ship.”

“Sarah, yeah.”

“Sarah, nothing. You’ve got to get up there right now and secure her room. Do
not
let her out of that room, do you understand?”

“Dr. G.’s probably in there with her. She’s set up a cot and sleeps in there. Wants to make her feel safe.”

“The old woman is plenty safe, Taggart. She’s dangerous. Get Dr. G. out of there, I don’t care what you have to do, get her out of there and get that damn room secure.”

“Where the hell are you, Bartolomeo?”

“I’m on my way back to the
Argonos
. I’m inside the alien ship.”

“Did you find something—?”

“And get her sedated.”

“I’ll secure the room, but I won’t sedate her without authorization from the captain or the Executive Council.”

“Fine, damn it, but at least secure the room!”

“I will,” he said, and broke the connection. Then I had Communications patch me through to Nikos.

“Crash session of the Executive Council, Nikos.
Now
.”

“Where are you, Bartolomeo? Why isn’t there any video?”

I patched through the suit camera transmission to him. “How’s that for video?”

“You’re in the alien ship? Who’s that with you?”

“Never mind who. I’m on my way out. Just get the damn session called!”

“What is it, Bartolomeo?”

“I’ve got no time. But we’re in trouble, Nikos. Just call it. And call Taggart, authorize him to sedate the old woman. I’ll be there as soon as I can get in.”

“The old woman? What—?”

“Just do it.”

I broke the connection. Ten minutes later, we emerged from the hull of the alien ship and drifted away from it. We fired our suit jets, and headed back to the
Argonos
. Nothing tried to stop us.

I
did not get a warm reception in the council chambers. Most of the council members had obviously been awakened, and none were happy about it. Someone had brought in two pots of coffee, and they were already working on the second. Even Toller looked annoyed—unhappy, no doubt, at being called away from the Church archives. He was about to get more than just annoyed.

“A crash session, and we have to wait for
him
,” the bishop said, waving toward me. “I know we have a serious problem.”

I looked at Nikos. “You talk to Taggart?”

“Yes, I gave him the order. He should be taking care of it right now.”

“Taking care of what?” Costino demanded.

I ignored him and sat at the foot of the table. “Yes, we have a serious problem. The alien ship. We’ve got to undock from it, and we’ve got to get out of here.”

I expected a sarcastic remark from the bishop, but he didn’t say a thing. No one else did either. There must have been something in my tone that warned them. They all waited intently for me to explain.

I told them then what I’d seen, what Francis had
discovered. I had difficulty talking about it, but I gave them enough detail so they would appreciate the enormity of what was there, and the implications. My pulse had become rapid again, and I felt dizzy. Breathe deeply, I told myself, breathe; this was no time to collapse.

When I had finished, Cardenas stood.

“Unless there is going to be some insane vote in the next five minutes, I’m going to get us undocked from that ship. Any objections?”

There weren’t any, and she hurried from the room.

Susanna Hingen was the first to speak. “Okay, okay . . . the obvious conclusion is the aliens killed all the people you saw on their ship. But their ship is dead now. No signs of life. That’s what we keep hearing. Doesn’t it seem likely that something happened to them, to the aliens, that they’ve died out, or abandoned ship, something like that?”

Before anyone had a chance to respond, Nikos said, “What about what the old woman said, Bartolomeo?”

“What old woman?” Geller asked.

“Sarah,” I answered.

“Sarah?” snapped Costino. “Who the hell is Sarah?”

“The old woman from the alien ship?” asked the bishop. As always, he understood more than the others. Or more quickly.

I nodded. “Yes, the old woman from the ship.”

“I assume she started talking,” the bishop said, “and you did not feel it necessary to inform us.”

“Jesus Christ!” Costino exclaimed. “What the hell is going on around here?”

“Please don’t use His name in that manner.” The bishop’s tone was stern and unyielding.

“I’m sorry. But what
is
going on?”

“Yes,” Nikos said, “the old woman started talking. But she didn’t say much. Dr. G. was with her. The old woman seemed to be comfortable with Dr. G., and she finally came around a little, and started talking. In Standard English. She said her name was Sarah. It was all a little disjointed, but she seemed to be saying that someone had been killing people on Antioch. Not aliens, but other people. Madmen,
she said. She said the aliens rescued her and others from the slaughter. She also said she was a young woman at the time, so it must have happened years ago.” He paused. “She said something had happened to the aliens, and they’d apparently died.”

“Antioch is the problem,” I said. “The old woman said ‘Antioch.’ She said she’d been rescued from Antioch.” I left it there, hoping they would truly understand.

The bishop did, of course. “
I
gave that world the name of Antioch,” he said quietly. “I refuse to believe those living there all those years ago had given it exactly the same name.”

I watched the understanding work its way through the other council members. Even Michel Tournier got it; but he was confused.

“What are you saying? That the old woman is . . . what? She’s an alien?”

“She isn’t human,” I said.

“What? The aliens look just like us?”

“I don’t know, Michel; I won’t even pretend to know. It could be anything. An alien . . . essence animating an old woman’s body they kept alive. Or some creature that can take on the form of an old woman. I . . . don’t . . . know. And it doesn’t matter. What matters is, she isn’t human.” I paused. “And we’ve got to get her off this ship.”

“How?” the bishop asked.

“I told Taggart to get Dr. G. out and secure the room, and Nikos gave him the order to sedate the old woman.”

“Then what?” asked Geller. “After she’s sedated.”

“Then we give her a burial,” I said. “We seal her in one of the coffins and jettison her from the ship. Just like we did to Casterman.”

“She’ll die,” Toller said.

“Yes, she will.”

“What if you’re mistaken? What if she’s just what she says she is? A confused, traumatized old woman who heard someone mention Antioch?”

“I’m not mistaken.”

Nikos tapped at the table controls and the wall screen came to life. A few moments later it was filled with Taggart’s face.

“Damn, I’m glad it’s you,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get through, but I was told you were in emergency session and couldn’t be interrupted. I told Communications the survival of the ship was at stake, but they didn’t believe me. I’m not sure I believe it myself.”

“You get Dr. G. out?” I asked.

“Yeah, I got her out.” Dr. G. moved into the picture behind Taggart, nodding toward us. “As soon as I got her out and secured the room, I started pumping in an aerosol sedative. The old woman woke up and went crazy. She’s been trying to get out ever since.” He shook his head. “Only she’s not an old woman. I don’t know what she is, but she’s definitely not human.”

Without warning, Taggart switched the video, changing the transmission to the video from a camera in the room. The old woman was clawing at the door with a hand now larger and darker with thick, crusted talons. She appeared to have shrunk in height but gained bulk, limbs now heavily muscled; yet, except for the one hand, she still maintained human form. The talons made slight gouges in the metal, but it appeared the door would remain secure.

Taggart’s voice cut in, although the picture didn’t change. “I’m pumping in the sedative at maximum rate, but I don’t know how long it will take to put her under.” The woman picked up the chair and slammed it against the door, again and again. Her strength was incredible. “It’ll get her eventually,” Taggart said. “I hope to God before she manages to break out.” He paused and switched the picture back to himself. “When she’s under, then what do we do?”

“I’m sending a security team right now,” Nikos said. He was already tapping out commands on the table. “They’ll have a coffin. When you’re certain,
absolutely
certain that thing is sedated, we’ll send the team in. They’ll seal her up in the coffin and dispose of her. Just hold on until they get there.”

“We’ll be all right here,” Taggart said.

Nikos broke the connection, then finished tapping out the orders.

“Why don’t we just kill it?” Susanna interjected.

Nikos shook his head. “We don’t know what it would take to kill that thing. We don’t know what would happen if we tried. Poison defense? Energy feedback? Shit, anything is possible. We don’t take chances. Clean as we can make it.”

“Should we attack the ship?” Tournier asked.

Everyone turned to look at him incredulously.

“Once we get undocked,” he added. “Shouldn’t we attack?”

“Michel,” Nikos said, “I’ve wanted to tell you this many times over the years, and I’m going to tell you now. Sometimes, you have the brains of a carrot. Once we get undocked, we get the hell out of here as fast we can, period. We are not going to complicate this mess by launching an attack. We just might be able to get away without much trouble if we do nothing at all.” He punched in more commands. “Unless I hear any objections, I’m ordering Navigation to set course and Engineering to run the drive start-up sequence.” He glanced up, then back down at the table console and resumed keying.

We waited to hear from Cardenas, or Taggart, or maybe even someone else who would be calling through with more bad news. Time stretched painfully with the silence and tension.

Finally the wall screen flickered, and Cardenas appeared. She looked haggard. She was in a darkened control room, mute-lighted instrument panels in the background.

“We can’t undock,” she said.

“Explain,” Nikos demanded.

“The docking mechanism has become nonfunctional. It does not respond to commands. We’ve been trying every alternative routing, but there is no response. The whole thing has gone dead.”

“Diagnostics?”

“Dead also. I’ve got a team suiting up right now to go
out and try to disengage manually. If they can’t do that, they’ve got equipment to cut and burn us the hell off that damn ship.”

“Wait,” Nikos said. “Hold off on the burning. That’s too risky.”

“We have no choice, Captain.”

Nikos slowly nodded. We all knew Cardenas was right.

“All right,” Nikos said. “Keep us informed.”

“I will.”

The screen blanked out. The silence and tension returned.

After some time, the bishop turned toward me and said, “You.” He paused for a moment, then went on. “You are responsible for this. You’ve doomed us all.”

“Don’t be so damned melodramatic,” Nikos said. “We’re not dead yet.”

The bishop laughed. “You don’t think so? What world are you living in, Captain?” His expression turned hard and bitter. “We are all dead men.”

With that he got up and left the room.

No one would look at me. No one except Nikos, who almost imperceptibly shook his head as if to say, Don’t worry about it. But I couldn’t blame them. We had taken votes, but this had been
my
idea, and I had persuaded the Planning Committee to go along.

“What do we do now?” Costino asked.

“We wait,” Nikos replied. “The bishop shouldn’t have gone. Our job isn’t done.”

Costino started the pot of coffee around. There was no cup for me, and no one offered to find one or have one brought in.

No one had the heart for small talk. Costino obsessively rubbed his right thumb and forefinger together while staring down into his own lap. Susanna bounced a leg up and down. Tournier chewed on his lip. Toller, Nikos, and Geller tried unsuccessfully to appear calm.

Costino finally broke the silence. “I’ll do it,” he said. “I’ll ask the question no one wants to ask. What do we do if we can’t break free?
I
don’t have any good ideas. I don’t even have any bad ideas. But we’d better start working on
it, because I have a strong suspicion we’re going to need an answer.”

“Not now,” Nikos said.

“Why not?”

“Because we may not have to deal with that. And even if the problem
does
arise, we can’t anticipate the circumstances. For now, we just wait.”

“Brilliant leadership from our captain.”

“You want to take over, Costino, I will step down right now in your favor.”

Costino’s only response was to slump in his chair and jam his chin into his fist.

“Quarreling isn’t going to help,” Geller said quietly.

“Fine,” said Costino. “Why don’t
you
be captain? Hell, I’ll gladly support you.”

“This isn’t the time for leadership changes.”

The room lapsed into silence again. A few minutes later we were shaken by a rolling vibration. It persisted for two full minutes, rattling the coffee cups, shaking the chairs and table. I wondered if this was what an earthquake felt like. Then the vibrations abruptly ceased.

Nikos had started keying the console when Cardenas’s face appeared on the wall.

“The alien starship is coming alive, Captain. We don’t know whether that was engines starting up, or some other internal machinery, or what.”

“What about the docking mechanism?”

“The crew’s out there now. They’ve just started working on it. Nothing yet.”

“Maybe we should call them back.”

“No, Captain. If anything, it’s become more imperative we find a way to break free. I’ve given them orders to continue.”

“All right.”

Cardenas’s face disappeared.

“Maybe my idea of attacking is not so crazy after all,” Tournier said.

“It’s still not a good idea,” Toller responded.

“And why not?”

“We’re still locked together with that ship, that’s why not. We risk damaging the
Argonos
. Retaliation’s also much easier since we’re so close.”

“Launch missiles at those areas of their ship farthest away from us.”

“To what end, Michel?”

“Maybe it’ll frighten them enough to let us go.”

Toller just shook his head.

“How do we know that’s such a bad idea?” Costino asked. He was rubbing his thumb and finger again.

“It may come to something like that,” Nikos said. “But we’re not close. We’ve got alternatives. Give Cardenas’s crew a chance. They may get it done.”

The waiting dragged on, with increasing tension. I wanted to leave, to get away from the hostility and fear being directed indirectly at me. I didn’t know how long I could stand it.

An hour passed, maybe more. People began to talk a little, trying to fill the void, but the conversations were forced and awkward. No one talked to me. Nikos might have, but he was at the far end of the table, which made it impossible.

A faint jolt; then another. We all turned expectantly to the wall screen. It remained dormant. Maybe it was nothing.

No such luck. There was no image, but Cardenas’s voice came through the speakers. She was breathing hard.

“I haven’t got much time,” she said. “I’m suited up and on my way out. We don’t know what happened, some kind of massive energy feedback, an explosion of some kind, some . . . we just don’t know. The crew’s down. Telemetry tells us we’ve got three dead, the others badly injured and crashing hard. No one’s responding to our calls. We’re on our way out to bring them back in.”

“I’m on my way,” Nikos said. “What kind of support do you need?”

“Nothing,” Cardenas answered. “Med teams are on their way. You don’t need to come, Captain. By the time you get here—”