Seeder Saga (6 page)

Catastrophe

They were about to wake the colonists to conduct interrogations when a siren started to wail. They felt the ship jerk to the side, throwing them all into the wall. Michael stood up first and said, “That can’t be good.”

Jane said, “Computer, what just happened?”

The computer didn’t respond.

Jacob ran out of the room. They were about to follow after him when he returned, out of breath. “The door to the pod chamber is locked up tight.”

“No way,” exclaimed Melanie.

Michael said, “If there was a breach in the hull in the pod chamber
, then all of the colonists are in danger. We have to help them.”

Jane was about to agree until she saw the view on the monitor. There was shredded metal and busted plastic all over the place. She would have missed it except the hull breach had sent the ship spinning. The monitor was showing the long tail of wreckage coming from the back of the ship. And the pods were tumbling away with the rest of it. She took a little solace in the fact that she couldn’t see what was going on inside any of those pods. Those people would be waking now that the pods were disconnected from power. She imagined someone waking languidly and popping the hatch to their pod from the inside, only to be sucked into the void. The image in her head was so vivid and terrifying, she had to turn the monitor off just in case it actually happened.

The others were watching, mouths agape, as she switched it off.

She said, “We need to get on with damage control.”

“It’s too late for that,” whimpered Melanie. “We’re all going to die now.”

Just then Jacob doubled over in agony. He yelled out, “I told you I was partially revived. My cells are bursting. Help me
, Melanie.”

Melanie said matter of factly, “You are going to die
, Jacob.” Her tone was flat, inhuman. Then she seemed to change. It was nearly imperceptible, but it was there. She said in a cold, unforgiving voice, “I was the one who launched those three colonists out of the airlock. I partially thawed you to make it look like you did it. I knew Michael already didn’t trust you, and if your body was in a different position, you’d take the blame for it.”

Jacob yelled out, “Why!”

“Because you’re a jerk and you deserve to die.”

“No. Why did you launch the colonists?”

“Because we ran out of replacement pods. If we lost another pod, we’d have some serious decisions to make. Like who was going to do without their pod so that all the colonists made it in one piece.”

Jane’s anger nearly immobilized her but she managed to say, “And you thought we’d decide that you weren’t necessary, right?”

“That’s the gist of it. I figured if I got rid of a few colonists and then we lost a pod to malfunction, we’d have spares.”

Michael stepped forward and punched her right in the face. She fell on her ass and started to sob. “I’m sorry. I lost my senses. I was so afraid you’d leave me behind. But none of that matters anymore. Now we’re all going to die out here.”

Michael barked, “What makes you think we’d just sacrifice you anyway?”

Jane interrupted, “She’s right. She can't have children. I've read her medical records. She wasn’t going to benefit the colony in any way. I would've made the decision to leave her out if it came right down to it.”

Jacob fell on the floor, rolled up like a pill bug. He managed to say, “I was a little worried about losing another pod too. No one likes me. I thought I’d be the one to have to sacrifice my life for everyone else. But I left it up to fate because I’m not a sociopath.”

Melanie began to sob more violently now.

Jacob beckoned Michael over. Michael bent down and listened to him wheeze as he whispered. Then he left the command station and returned with one of Melanie’s medical kits. He riffled through it until he found a syringe and several small vials.

Jane said, “Don’t do it,” when she figured out that Jacob had asked Michael to end his suffering.

Michael smirked. “We’re all going to die out here now. The only pod left is yours. We can’t all go in it.”

She knew he was right. But they weren’t that far away from rescue. She said, “I’ll send out a distress call. If we’re lucky, they’ll send someone to rescue us.”

“Why would they do that? We had one purpose and we failed. They’ll let us die for failing. I say we let this busted ship keep on traveling towards the seed planet and keep our fingers crossed that the explosion didn’t alter its flight path by too much.”

Jacob coughed. “No use. You’ll all die unless you right the ship. If you get it back under control, you stand half a chance at making it.”

Melanie asked, “Then who gets the pod?”

Michael said, “Not you. When I’m done with Jacob, I’m putting you off my ship.”

Melanie stood up on wobbly legs and then took off running for her life.

Jane saw something in Michael’s eyes she’d never seen before. He was overflowing with rage. Not only that, but he had just called this
his
ship. Not her ship:
his
. She knew he would kill her when he was done with Melanie and Jacob.

When Michael bent down and stuck Jacob with the needle, she ran out of the command station. She wasn’t a coward
, but she stood no chance in a fair fight against Michael.

She was thankful that the pod chamber was the only part of the ship to fall away or else there’d be nowhere left to hide.

She ran for the kitchen. She opened one of the top cabinets, climbed up on the countertop and got inside. She closed the door, confident that Michael would never think to look for her in here. If she waited this out, maybe his anger would subside. Maybe he’d give up trying to find her and put himself in her pod. It would be easy enough to subdue him while he was in stasis. A horrible thought crossed her mind: she would have to kill him. Subduing him for the duration of the trip was a death sentence anyway. But she had to survive long enough to get the upper hand, and for that she’d need luck to be on her side.

She tried to control her breathing
, but it was pointless. The harder she tried the harder it was to do.

Michael’s Ship

After several minutes passed, she heard a scream. It rose and fell in pitch, part fear and part pain. It was moving away from her. It was Melanie. Apparently Michael had found her and he was dragging her off somewhere.

Then she heard Melanie’s distant voice say, “I’m sorry.” Then Melanie screamed again but the scream was cut short by a dull thunk. Jane didn’t know for sure
, but Michael had probably just killed her with a blunt object to the head.

When Jane heard the airlock doors hiss open and then close, she knew what Michael was up to. He was shooting
Melanie’s corpse into the vacuum of space.

Her breathing became frantic again knowing that he would be coming for her next.

Several minutes passed. Then she felt the ship turn about. He must be in her command station altering their course.

Over the loudspeaker he said, “Jane, this is Michael. I’m sorry to have to do this
, but I am locking you out of the command station. If I were you, I’d try and find a way to retrieve one of those pods, hook it up, and join me in stasis. I would offer to help you but apparently none of you bastards can be trusted. I’ve left a schematic for you on the kitchen table. You can come out of the cabinet any time you feel like it. I promise you’re safe.”

Suiting up

She allowed herself to fall out of the cabinet. She hit the countertop on all fours. Sure enough, there was a schematic right there on the kitchen table. She called out for the computer and then remembered that it had gone off-line after the explosion. She wondered what had caused the explosion. Was it Melanie’s doing too? No, Melanie
had been terrified when the explosion happened. Could it have been Michael?

Michael was right though:
she had to retrieve one of those floating pods from outside. The idea of going out the airlock scared her half to death, because if Michael wanted to, he could shut her outside. If she cut through the pod chamber door, she could grab a pod — there might even be one still inside — and then seal the door back up.

She made her way to the airlock and suited up. Then she went to the storage room and found a cutting torch. She knew it would take days to cut through the pod chamber door, but time was plentiful now.

She dragged it to the door and started to cut. To her utter amazement, the torch cut all the way through right away. Even more amazing was the fact that she saw none of her atmosphere escaping into the hole the torch had made. The pod chamber was open to space, which meant it should’ve sucked up her air greedily.

She stuffed her disbelief down and kept cutting. She sluiced through the last of it and stood back. When the door failed to fall
, she stepped forward and kicked it down. Normally that would be a stupid idea because the vacuum would’ve sucked her out with all the air, but in this instance it didn’t matter.

Th
e pod chamber was completely intact.

There was no gaping hole. There were no floating bodies. All was as it should be. Well, except that on further inspection, every single pod was empty.

What the hell did this mean?

Jane called over the intercom, “Michael, this is Jane. The pod chamber is untouched. We’ve been tricked.”

As soon as she said it she knew he wouldn’t believe her. She wouldn’t believe it if she hadn’t seen it with her own two eyes.

“I’m sorry
, Jane, but it’s over. I’m going into stasis now. I’m sure you know there’s no way you’ll be able to cut through the command station door. I don’t care if you try, but I’d hate for you to waste valuable time on that instead of getting to one of those pods.”

She hated to admit it, but his voice was reassuring, as though he actually hoped she’d succeed in retrieving one of the pods. But those pods were a ruse, or at the very least, some kind of misdirection.

What was on the monitors was fake. Did the now unresponsive computer have something to do with that?

She started to plead for Michael to come down and see the fully intact pod chamber for himself when all of the lights suddenly went out.

“Oh shit.”

She lit the torch so she could see.

Her heart skipped a beat when Michael came right up to her and demanded, “What the hell did you do?”

She said, “I didn’t do that. But look at this.” She turned around and pointed the torch into the pod chamber.

Michael gasped when he saw it. Then he squinted, shook the confusion from his thoughts and said, “What the hell is going on around here?”

Airlock

Jane’s stomach lurched when the unmistakable sound of the airlock opening reached her ears.

She said, “Who’s operating that? Melanie’s dead, right?”

“Yeah, I made sure she was dead before I ejected her. Jacob’s developing rigor mortis so I know it’s not him.”

“Maybe it’s one of the colonists?”

“Aren’t they all in stasis?”

“Nope. I checked out all the pods and they’re empty.”

Now the confusion had Michael by the balls. “None of this makes a bit of sense.”

A strange voice said over the intercom, “Lay down on the ground and you will come to no harm.”

Michael got down first. Jane mulled over her options and then joined him. She heard the airlock door again, which meant that the inner and outer doors were now open. Why weren’t they being sucked out into space?

She heard footsteps approach hurriedly. Then a male voice barked, “Hands behind your backs.”

They both complied
, and the distinct sound of zip-ties being cinched tight around their wrists was unmistakable. Jane didn’t have the proper mental tools available to figure out what the hell was going on.

Michael turned his head to her and said, “They’re human. Did you send out a distress signal?”

She furrowed her brow. It would’ve taken months for a rescue party to reach them. They were roughly yanked to their feet and led towards the airlock.

When they rounded the corner, Michael gasped and Jane almost fainted at what they saw. The airlock didn’t lead to outer space. It led out to a cavernous room, littered with equipment and personnel.

Passing Grade

A man stood in the doorway ahead of them and introduced himself, “I’m Doctor Davis. I’m pleased to tell you that you both passed the test.

Michael made to lunge at the man but he was held back by the guy holding his zip-tied wrists.

Jane yelled, “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means that we simulated the voyage and added a few obstacles to see if you and your crew could overcome them.”

Jane’s heart leapt. “Does that mean that Jacob and Melanie are alright?”

“No. They are quite dead. Michael here killed them both. But the colonists are fine. They were actors hired to add an element of realism.”

Michael snarled, “I’ll kill you all.”

Dr. Davis smirked. “Then you’ll lose your spot on the
Seeder
.”

Michael visibly calmed. He’d gone mad, but he was still lucid enough to comprehend what was at stake if he acted upon his impulses.

Jane yelled, “What you’ve done is cruel. I’m glad you’re all going to bake after we take off.”

“That’s the spirit,” said the doctor without a hint of sarcasm.

Jane looked back over her shoulder. What should have been the outside of the ship was just a nondescript block with pulleys and hydraulic lifts attached to it. It was a humungous simulator like they use in the movies.

Beside it was a similar apparatus
, but a slightly different shape, and it looked to be brand new whereas the one they’d left looked like it had been to hell and back. A dozen men were busy wheeling a large tube towards the entrance of the other one.

She asked accusatorially, “What’s going on over there?”

“Another crew is docking with the
Seeder
,” Davis said with a smile. “They’ve launched from Earth’s orbit and are about to set out on the journey of a lifetime.”

“How many of those poor people will die before your sadistic experiment is concluded?”

“This mission is far too important to just wing it without doing a trial run. As you saw, not everyone is fit for such a mission.”

Michael said, “When do we launch for real?”

“We’ll schedule the launch as soon as we find a captain for the mission.” He looked over his shoulder at the new simulator. “Captain Sarah Miller is a fine candidate, should she survive this test.”

Jane angrily said, “I thought I was the captain?”

“No, no. You ran off and hid in a cupboard when things went bad. You’re lucky you’re even part of the crew after that little display of cowardice.”

Michael gave her a guilty look, and then looked away when she stared hard into his eyes.

They heard the large tube as it bumped into the unused simulator. Men at controls fiddled with switches and the simulator jerked as though it had been docked. An audible hiss issued, as though an airtight seal was being achieved.

Jane heard footsteps as the new crew of the fake
Seeder
made their way on board to wait for confirmation from ground control that they could leave Earth’s orbit.