Arrival (51 page)

Frank’s eyes opened, slowly at first. The light over his head was bright, too bright. It hurt his eyes.
Where am I? What happened?
Frank sat up slowly, his head spinning. He looked around, his eyes still squinting in the blinding light. Gradually, his eyes began to focus; his mind began to recognize his surroundings.
The med-lab
, he thought.
I’m in the med-lab.
It was slowly coming back to him.
I must’ve passed out.

Frank turned his head to look at the bio-monitor at the head of the exam table. Most of his readings were just barely in the green. Not ideal, but they would have to do. He looked at the clock on the wall. Seventeen thirty hours.
How long have I been out?

It didn’t really matter at that point. Frank forced himself to stand, staggering over to the counter, where he fumbled around with the container of RMS serum. Despite his hand tremors, he managed to open it and draw his dose up into a syringe.

Suddenly, a faint beeping sound echoed down the hallway from outside the med-lab.
What is that sound?

Frank looked around for several seconds before he realized that it was not coming from within the lab. He dropped the syringe full of RMS serum back on the counter, hobbling toward the door.

Frank still couldn’t figure out what the strange sound was, or what it might mean. All he knew was that it warranted his attention. He was barely able to make his way up the few steps to the cockpit where the sound was coming from. On the display screen in front of him, the words ‘Perimeter Alert’ were flashing at him.

Perimeter alert?

Somehow, Frank managed to punch the right buttons, calling up the perimeter sensors display. Something had crossed the sensor line. Something alive. Something moving toward them. Something big. Frank punched a few more buttons, some of them correct, some not. But eventually, he managed to get the results he was looking for. Whatever it was, it was close and it was getting closer.

Frank rose from his chair to look out the starboard window, finding that the storm had dissipated. He scanned the starboard side of the camp, fighting to adjust his eyes to the brightness of the afternoon sun outside. Everything was blurry, but…

There!

About one hundred meters out at the ship’s three o’clock! Something moving. Something large, furry. Franked squinted, trying to force his eyes to focus. It had a long snout, and horns. Whatever it was, it was still headed right for the camp, moving very fast.
Some kind of animal?

No, it’s walking upright!

Something clicked in Frank’s mind, a memory. Something about a creature, in the medical log.
A creature; it attacked Laura; the TCS virus. Maria had been convinced that the creature introduced the virus to the crew.

Frank rose and exited the cockpit, nearly falling back down the steps to the airlock deck. The ship was still buttoned up tight, just as it had been before the last storm had hit.
Surely that would keep the creature out of the ship,
he thought. But Frank wasn’t taking any chances, not now, not when they were so vulnerable.

Must… protect… ship!

He made his way down the gangway to the EVA deck below. He clumsily donned his jacket, taking a rifle out of the weapons locker, as he stumbled across the airlock deck toward the inner hatch.
Not this time, you fucker!
he thought as he activated the airlock’s exit cycle and flipped off the safety on his weapon.
Not this time!

Jack was in a dead run, flying like the wind toward the camp that he had spent so many months trying to find.
Had it really been months?
Jack wondered. He had always known the date, at least for the first part of his journey. But ever since Will’s death, he had lost all sense of time.
How long has it truly been?

Jack struck the thought from his mind. It didn’t really matter now. He was here, back where he belonged. And soon he would return to the bosom of his friends, his people, no longer alone in this vast alien wilderness.

The hatch on the LRV dropped open, and Frank stumbled down the ramp. Weak and disoriented, he managed to bring himself out from under the nose of the ship, exiting to starboard. He stumbled forward a few steps, peering out across the field at the approaching creature.
It’s one of them, one of those disease-carrying bastards!
If it was the last thing he ever did, he would get his revenge.

Jack saw Frank step out from under the LRV and began waving his arms wildly over his head as he ran. “Frank!” he hollered with excitement. “Frank!”

Frank watched as the gruesome creature rapidly approached. He had never seen anything move that fast, even across open ground. The creature was now waving its arms over its head, growling some unintelligible, angry battle cry.
Is this creature seeking its revenge? Did they killed its mate, or its offspring?

“Not this time, you ugly fucker,” Frank mumbled as he adjusted his stance and raised his rifle to take aim. “Not this time.”

Jack couldn’t believe his eyes.
Is that a rifle?

Frank squeezed the trigger.

Jack saw the flash and instinctively twisted his body sideways. The bullet whizzed past his torso and struck the ground behind him with a thump, throwing snow, soil, and grass up around the impact site.

Is he firing at me?
Again, Jack couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but the rifle flashed again. By now, the shock of what he was seeing had dulled his instincts and Jack failed to take evasive action. It was just dumb luck that the bullet struck the ground in front of him, spewing dirt and snow in his face as he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Damn it!” Frank knew his illness was making it difficult to hold the rifle steady to fire at the onrushing alien. He adjusted his stance again and steadied himself, determined not to miss again. “Hold still, you fucker.”

Now there was no denying it, Frank was firing at him.
Is he mad?
Jack thought.
Doesn’t he recognize me?
Jack tried again, waving his arms in the air and hollering. “Frank! Don’t shoot! It’s me! It’s Jack!”

Frank watched as the creature stood there, again waving his arms about madly and growling at him in anger. Frank squeezed the trigger several more times.

Jack dove to his left, tucking and rolling as he hit the ground. The first round struck the ground a few meters behind him right where he had been standing, with the other two landing nearby. Jack scrambled on his hands and knees to a clump of nearby boulders for cover as he heard the repeated shots of Frank’s rifle.

Frank watched through the rifle’s scope as he squeezed off each successive round. He followed the creature, tracking from left to right as he fired, each round striking the dirt just behind his scrambling target.

Jack took cover behind the rocks as the last few rounds struck his cover, sending chips of rock flying. “Frank! Are you nuts?” he cried in desperation.

“Shit!” Frank swore. “You’re a fast little fucker, aren’t you?” Frank began to move toward the pile of boulders, slowly at first, then picking up speed as he gained confidence in his superiority over the creature. He could hear the creature howling from behind the rocks. Like a trapped animal, it was almost as if…

“Frank!” Jack cried again. “Please! Stop firing! It’s me!”

…As if it were pleading for its life to be spared. It should have pleased Frank, but it did not. He
needed
to kill that thing.

Frank slowed as he approached the creature’s hiding place. The creature was fast, and Frank wasn’t about to be caught by surprise. He had seen plenty of documentaries as a boy in school back on the Daedalus. He knew that a trapped animal was supposed to be the most dangerous kind.

Jack remained crouched behind the rocks, fearing for his life. Thoughts raced through his head, clouding his instincts. Every fiber of his being was telling him to attack, to strike out at his attacker, to get the upper hand somehow. But this was Frank, his friend. Through his panting, he thought he could hear Frank’s footsteps in the snow.
What the hell is wrong with him?

Frank could hear the creature panting as he closed on his hiding place. He raised his rifle and took aim as he began to circle around the rocks. Only a few moments more, and he would have his revenge.

Suddenly, instinct took over. Jack spun around to look behind him to the right of his hiding place. There was Frank, rifle held high up to his shoulder and aiming right at him. Jack fell backwards, his hands held up over his face in terror. “Frank! No!”

With vengeance in his eyes, Frank tightened his grip on the rifle’s trigger stock. His target cried out, making one last unintelligible plea for mercy.

“Frank! Please, no!” Jack begged.

“Say goodbye,” Frank muttered calmly as he moved the rifle upward slightly, placing the targeting reticle of his rifle’s scope squarely between the creatures eyes. Big gray eyes. Surreal eyes, with just a hint of blue in them. Trusting eyes, reminiscent of…something.

Jack moved his left hand in front of his face, palm outward, as if to block the projectile, and turned his face away in fear. Jack couldn’t believe what was happening. After all he had been through, his life was about to end, at the hands of his best friend.

Then something caught Frank’s eye. A reflection of light, off something metallic, something on the creature’s hand. Something gold, on his finger. His ring finger.

A wedding ring!

“What the…” Frank lowered his rifle, peering over the top of the scope to get a better look.
A wedding ring?

Frank was suddenly very confused. How could this creature be wearing a wedding ring? That was a
human
ritual. Frank stepped closer, keeping the rifle pointed at the creature, ready to fire. Bravery or curiosity, Frank didn’t know which it was, drew him toward the ring.

Frank reached out and grabbed the creature’s left wrist firmly, clearly demonstrating who was in charge. He yanked the creature’s left hand up closer to him, staring at the ring in disbelief.

Jack held his right hand higher in response, his palm also held outward, sure that this madman who once was his best friend was about to slit his throat in some delusional, schizophrenic rage.

Frank saw the creature’s right hand come up, showing his palm. Frank let go of the rifle in shock, letting it drop to the snow covered ground, taking the creature’s left hand with his right and grabbing the creature’s right hand with his left. Frank stared at the scar across the creature’s right palm. It looked exactly like the scar on Jack’s hand, the very one Maria had stitched up a few days before they had crashed here! And then he realized it was
Jack’s
wedding ring on the creature’s left hand. It was
Jack’s
eyes that he saw in this creature’s blue-gray eyes.

“Jack?” Frank mumbled, barely able to comprehend what his mind was thinking. The creature groaned meekly, as if agreeing with him. Then he heard it. Not with his ears, but in his head. It was
Jack’s
voice, and it was pleading with him…

Please don’t kill me, Frank
.

Frank stumbled back a step, dropping the creature’s hand. No, not a creature. The realization hit him, and it knocked him backwards onto his ass. He heard it again…

Please! It’s me! It’s Jack!

“Jack?” Frank asked again, still only half believing it himself.

Yes! Oh my God, yes! Frank! It’s me! It’s Jack!

“What the…?” Frank asked, his confusion growing as he scrambled back to his feet, still retreating backward.

Frank, what’s wrong?
Jack asked as Frank continued to back away from him, dropping his rifle to the ground.

Frank’s mind was spinning. He looked around him in a panic. Nothing made sense. He had to be hallucinating.
Where am I? What’s going on?

Jack slowly rose to his feet, noticing that something was terribly wrong with his friend.
Frank? Are you all right?

“Aaah!” Frank screamed, his hands grabbing at his head, as if he were in pain. “There it is again!” Frank was sure he was hallucinating. But the creature was rising to his feet, and coming toward him. Frank realized his rifle was lying on the ground between him and the advancing creature. “No! Stay away from me!”

Frank?

Frank turned and began running back to the LRV in a blind panic, confusion filling in his head with each step until his head felt as if it were going to explode. Everything began to go dark. From the edges first, quickly shrinking in from his periphery, until all he could see was darkness.

Jack followed slowly out from behind the rocks, just in time to see his friend lying facedown in the snow, unmoving. A vision of Will’s twisted, blood-stained body flashed through his mind. “Frank!” he cried as he ran toward him.

* * *

Jack carried Frank’s unconscious body through the snow and back to the LRV. His friend’s pulse was weak and irregular, and he knew that Frank’s blood pressure had to be dangerously low. He had to get him to the LRV where Maria could care for him.

Where is everybody?
Surely they were watching from the LRV? Why haven’t they shown themselves?
A dozen horrifying scenarios ran through Jack’s head. It was completely against mission protocols for Frank to be out alone. Especially when investigating an unexpected visitor.
And why was he shooting at me?

Everything looked strangely quiet when Jack entered the camp around the LRV. Everything was in place, the cargo pods clustered along either side of the LRV, the various utility-huts in between them. But there was something else. The snow. Drifts of white powder lying against the doors and hatches, as if nobody had used them recently. Paths of frequent travel were covered with new fallen snow, like no one had walked them for days, perhaps weeks.

Maybe the weather has kept them inside
, Jack thought as he approached the LRV. But there was no one looking out the windows.
Surely, they knew what Frank had been doing?
Jack was dumbfounded.
What kind of operation is Lynn running here?

Jack crouched down low, struggling to keep Frank from falling off his shoulder, while he ducked under the nose of the ship to head up the boarding ramp. He looked up the ramp and found the inner hatch standing wide open. It was yet another breach of mission protocol.

Jack’s boots clanked across the ramp as he ascended. It was an unusual feeling after all these months, to be walking on man-made surfaces again. Although it felt a little strange, it was a welcome feeling. Despite the confusion of the last few minutes, he couldn’t help thinking,
I’m home.