He punched the switch, and the hatch swung slightly open and jammed. With his foot he kicked it the rest of the way open. He stood in the hatch and looked into the darkness of the engine room.
The only light came from the holes in the hull. Tobias knew that some of those flickers were stars, but most of them were too bright for that. The bright ones were the remains of the crumbled planets that formed the Oids Belt in orbit around a sun called Mantchee.
Merchant crews don’t like the Oids Belt and never go there. The union even got it in the contract. Asteroids, planetoids, and paranoids. Tobias still had one of the buttons that says I AVOID THE OIDS.
But there were passengers and parts to pick up and deliver to strange and wonderful places, and a pilot who believed in shortcuts more than he did in minimum safety or union contracts. Tobias swore that if he and the pilot managed to live through the landing, Tobias’s first planet-side act would be to murder Mikizu.
First things first.
He returned, grabbed Osborn, and dislodged the engineering chiefs body from the rapidly freezing fluids that were pinning his ass to the deck.
Pulling the body to the hatch, Tobias pushed it toward the large hole at his feet.
The still form somersaulted slowly toward the hole and jerked to a halt. Tobias pulled the light from his belt and aimed the beam at the opening.
The back of Osborn’s head had been speared and snagged by the hole’s ragged edge. One of the thick splinters of metal protruded from Osborn’s left eye.
Someday the geniuses will figure out how to puke in a space suit. He turned away.
“this thing will serve us if we obey it”
“how will it serve’’
“it will stop pain and death”
“this thing brought us pain
and death”
“we must obey”
“this thing now wants us to kill”
“Forrest is still torturing the rocks.” It was Lady Name’s voice.
Tobias buried his head more deeply into his pillow. “If you don’t get out of here, I’ll rip out your spine and strangle you with it.”
No footsteps moving away. He could feel the woman’s hurt gaze on his back. The flimsy shelter almost radiated with terminal sulk. Tobias chased away his nightmares and rolled over on his cot. “Go away, Lady. Take up a hobby, go play with yourself, anything. Anything but tattling on Forrest. I don’t find forty-year-old children amusing.”
“I am not tattling, Tobias. I am reporting. One of your men is torturing the rocks. Those rocks are alive.”
“Lady, first, they are not my men. If anyone is in charge, it’s Forrest. Second, I don’t care about the rocks. I really don’t. My only problem is keeping sane until someone picks up our signal. Rescue, Lady. Think rescue.”
“No one will pick up the signal. Forrest told you it can’t get through the radiation.”
“You don’t know that. Forrest doesn’t know that for certain. There’s a chance.”
She stared at him for a moment, almost looking sane, then nodded toward the shack’s doorway. “What are you going to do about Forrest?”
He turned his back and burrowed into his pillow. “Nothing.”
Footsteps, finally.
The beacon signal would get through. It had to. Then a curious thought entered his mind. He felt he should be rooting for the beacon signal’s success. A moral thing. What generations of humans would say was the thing he should be doing right then. The curious thought was that he didn’t really care whether the signal got through or not.
“soon the dark”
“soon we kill”
“it is the wish of this thing”
Mantchee rode half-hidden by the horizon. Tobias entered the main shelter, the red glare of the week-long sunset casting the interior of the dome in blood.
They were all seated around the low table. Lady Name, as usual, was watching Forrest. Forrest was entertaining himself with his own thoughts while Tillson struggled, probably uncomfortable with the unfamiliar feeling of wearing clothes. Nelson Cage was heavily into a wiring diagram, the symbols and the problems their relationships represented providing as much entertainment for him as the rocks did for Forrest.
As he pulled a ration pack from the dispenser, Tobias heard Cage announce. “I have the computer working.”
Tillson: “God doesn’t like computers.”
Lady Name: “What are you going to kill time with now, Cage?”
Forrest: “Break it, Cage. Break the computer and fix it again.”
Cage’s face Hushed red. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you people. After five months of hard work I’ve managed to—”
Forrest leaned forward holding a finger before his lips. “Shhh.” He brought his finger down and smiled. “No one cares, Cage.”
Tobias lowered himself into the chair to Forrest’s right, sipped at the acid-tasting hot beverage, and gnawed on a nutribar as Cage leaned back, his voice becoming brittle. “We can use the computer-”
“For what?” Tobias shook his head as he bit again at the nutribar. “Except for getting rescued, all our solvable problems are solved. We have oxygen, water, rations, and a livable temperature spread. The only things in short supply are patience and sanity. Do you have any games you can play on that thing? We could use some entertainment.”
Cage snorted and sat back in his chair. “Games,” he repeated in disgust. He looked over at Lady Name. “At least I know who you are now.”
She looked away from Forrest for a split second. As she resumed her watch on the pebble persecutor she replied, “Cage, you haven’t a clue who I am.”
Cage smirked. “Barbara Striker. Doctor Barbara Striker. I managed to retrieve the passenger manifest. It says you are Doctor Barbara Striker, a biologist formerly with the Dison System colonization effort, currently relieved of your post because you are a fucking crazy.”
“Words.” She slowly turned her head toward Cage. “I’ll be using the computer.”
“You will not! I just finished repairing it.”
Lady Name grinned as she stood and walked from the dome, obviously headed for the wreck and the computer. Cage leaned toward Tobias. “You must do something!”
Forrest chuckled and shook his head. “Calm down. Let her play with the machine. It’s got to be better than having her perched like a vulture on my shoulder all the time.”
“What if she breaks it?”
“Then you can fix it again. It really isn’t very important.”
Cage stood abruptly and walked rapidly from the dome. Again Forrest chuckled. “Cage is on his way to the ship to lay down the law to Lady Name.”
“Yeah, and when she flashes that blade of hers he’ll be back with a wet crotch.” Tobias pointed with his thumb toward the door. “How come you aren’t out playing with your rocks?”
“Things are arranged.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I have initiated certain things out there. I’m teaching them to serve. When it becomes light again you should be able to see how my subjects have responded.”
Tobias finished off the remaining portion of his nutribar and tossed the wrapper on the plastic floor. If Forrest wants to play god, at least he doesn’t make a lot of noise. But they’re all crazy he thought. Every single last one of them. Am I?
There was a scream from the wreckage, and a moment later Cage could be seen, holding his arm, running toward his individual shelter. Forrest nodded, his eyes still closed. “It looks as though they’ve decided that Lady Name gets to use the computer.” He opened one eye and aimed it at Tobias. “Is it true that you piss on Mikizu’s grave?”