Authors: Hao Yang
“Commander, I have a
proposition.” says Roy, his beard gone. I just notice that.
“Go ahead.” I am
getting myself ready for an adult joke.
“Commander, based on
the recent incident, I think you should give the mainframe access code to one
of us,” says Roy with a serious face.
I am still waiting
for the joke, but then I notice everyone look at me with the same serious face
Roy just put on.
“Well, I, I can
understand your concern. I will do that at the right moment.”
“May I ask when?” Roy
asks politely.
I am waiting there,
hoping someone can help me out of this.
“Commander?” Roy
again. Now he is descending on me like a bear.
“Yes.”
“When do you plan to
hand over the access code?”
Everyone is looking
at me. That is stressful. This isn’t our table manner. We set the rule that we
don’t talk about business at dinner.
“Commander, I know if
Lily is here, you would give her the access code. Unfortunately she is not. We
are all very sorry about what happened,” says Bud and continues with his steak.
“Thank you.” I simply
don’t know what else to say.
“Commander, I hate to
say this, based on your medical condition, you should give the access code to
one of us.” Dr. Akio points his fork at himself.
I nod at Dr. Akio and
give him an approval smile. Everyone else is showing their own confident look
and I lower my head to avoid the gaze.
“Cowboy, what do you
think?” I stare at my plate while saying that, hoping Lock can lend me some
support.
Silence.
I raise my head and
meet Lock’s gaze. He is wearing a steel face.
“You didn’t hear me?”
“Oh, sorry, I agree
with Roy. You should give the code to any of us.”
Silence again.
Why everyone is so
serious today? I am not dying for God’s sake.
“I see. OK. I promise
I will do that sometime soon. Above all, I made the suggestion to change the
setting of access code so that when it is necessary someone else can access
it.”
Everyone is still
waiting.
“But not right now.”
I add.
Apparently they are
not happy with such an ending, but they are kind enough to leave me alone and
we finish the dinner in silence.
I leave the kitchen
right after the dinner and go to check on Lily. She is still sleeping like a
baby. I can look at her like this all day.
“Lily. Lily.”
No response.
“Lily, I wish you
were at the table this morning. At least you will stand by my side. I
understand their concern. It’s not personal. It’s a good idea, actually. I have
this headache and who knows whether I will forget the code or not.” I let out a
long sigh and look out of the window. The white hull is shining like silver
with the red planet Mars behind. We are now seven months into the journey,
halfway to Jupiter. Soon we are going to pass the asteroid belt.
Who is the alien?
How do I have my crew
do the DNA test?
I think hard, but I
don’t know. After a while, I decide to change the subject, so I turn my
attention to the screw I found on Lily’s bed.
“What are you doing
in her bed?” I murmur.
Fortunately for me,
everything onboard Achilles, including screws, bolts and nuts, is logged into
the inventory system, one of the greatest inventions of NASA. In the old days
barcode was attached to each item. Now we just need to touch the item with a
pen like equipment named Toucher.
I go to my cabin,
find the Toucher and touch on the screw.
It reads, “Screw
model: NSW1286231. Serial NO.: 33245988-1. Batch NO.: WER11NHKE. Expiration
Date: Feb 2153. Location: Achilles Compartment Seven. Incinerator holder.
Position C2.”
I know you are
surprised. Yes, we do have an incinerator onboard. It is used for disposing of
all types of waste, especially organic waste. I guess the designers are
concerned that the future generations would hit on the shit we dump today, so
they decided to burn them.
I make my way to
compartment seven. It is as large as a master bedroom. Except the incinerator,
there are two huge water tanks, one water recycle system, two washers and two
drier. The incinerator is rather small. It can barely hold a grown man, if
someone determines to get in. I look behind the incinerator and locate the
holder. It is a piece of L shape steel attached to the hull.
“Now where is C2?”
There are six screw
positions, the top two being A1 and A2 and the bottom two being C1 and C2.
Wait. There is
something in that C2 hole. Something shining. I reach over and take it out.
It is the wedding
ring!
Hundreds of questions
flooding into my head all at once, my brain goes blank for several seconds. I
shake it hard and now it is restarting.
First, who would
leave it there?
Probably Lily.
Second, why there?
A clue for something?
I look hard into the
screw hole using a flashlight. Maybe it is deep inside? I force my pinky finger
deep into the hole inch by inch. It hurts. When the pain reaches my threshold,
my finger touches something. It is like a needle lying inside the hole. I get a
splinter forceps, grasp the needle and drag it out slowly.
It is a short needle,
the flash drive for our watch. Lily likes to use her watch to record messages.
“Lily, you are a
genius.” I sigh happily.
Holding the flash
drive, I suddenly become hesitated. On one hand, I can’t wait to see what is on
the flash drive. On the other hand, I have a bad feeling and I want to postpone
it as late as I can.
“You have to see the
content one way or another. Besides, Lily wants me to see it. OK. OK.”
Finally, I insert the
flash drive into my watch and here comes her voice.
“Jason, I don’t have
much time. An alien ship docked with Achilles six days ago. Aliens came aboard
before their ship disintegrated. After learning we couldn’t help them, they
started to kill us and assimilate us. I don’t know how many of us have been
killed. Don’t trust anyone. It seems they have to occupy the body in order to
copy it. They won’t get my body. I am sorry I can’t be with you. I love you.
Listen they need…”
That is all.
I am somehow not so
surprised that there are aliens. What I have seen in the past two days prepared
me for this. However...
“They won’t get my
body.”
What does she mean?
Then the body in the
medical bay?
If those aliens
stopped her and assimilated her, why that alien just lies on the bed? That
doesn’t make any sense.
If she stopped
recording herself, then did what?
“They won’t get my
body.”
How is she going to
do that?
The incinerator!
A shockwave ripples
through my body and I can’t help but start shaking.
We can use our watch
to control most of equipment onboard and the incinerator is one of them. If she
locked herself in it, she can still activate it.
It suddenly gets so
cold here that I feel my lung freezes. I can’t breathe and collapse on the
floor. I struggle to take several deep breaths and hold myself tight, shaking
out of control.
After several
minutes, I finally catch my breath.
“It can’t be. It
can’t be. Her, her, her body is still in the medical bay.” I splatter.
There is still one
more thing I can check.
I calm down, get up
from the floor, move over to the control panel and check the incinerator
operation log. We always use it once per day, but on 09/12/2055 there were two
runs. One of them was activated by Lily.
“It can’t be. It
can’t be.” I repeat it again and again, while pacing back and forth in the
compartment.
It won’t hurt just to
check. I know it is her. It must be her. OK?
OK! I sigh with no
relief and head to medical bay.
I try to walk but I
am running.
It’s OK. It’s OK.
It will be fine. It
will be alright.
I know her and that
is her.
I will just take a
close look at her and that is it.
Not a big deal.
Take it easy.
You are the
commander. Act like it.
Take it easy.
When I get there, I
am soaked in sweat, out of breath. Holding on to the door, I peek around to
make sure no one is in there. On my toes, I quietly tip to Lily, clasping my
shaking hands. I stop at the bed, hold my breath and lean forward as much as
possible, almost touching her face. Looking at her at such a close distance, I
find her even more beautiful than usual. Her shining skin, her cute nose and
her tasty lips are just the way they should be. I can’t hold my breath any
longer, so I take a deep breath to savor her scent.
Then it hits me like
a stone dropping in a perfectly smooth lake.
Something from my
memory starts to surface. I stand there still, letting it make its way up.
Her scent.
That is not her
scent!
I shiver for several
seconds, take a another deep breath and digest it.
No. This is not her
scent.
How come?
Hold on. Hold on.
Let’s check one more
thing.
Just be sure. Let’s
check one more thing.
I yank off the sheet,
unbutton her clothes and pull down her underwear.
The birthmark on her
left breast?
Where is it?
I look so hard that
my eyes hurt. It is not there.
“NOOOOO.” I scream
and collapse on the floor.
This is not her!
Tears running out of
control, I feel my heart breaking into pieces, each piece pulling me apart.
Everything is covered in black veils. I try to stand up, but I can’t. I give up
and just sit there, my brain blank. The headache is still there, but it doesn’t
matter anymore.
She is dead.
She is dead.
After a long while, I
don’t know how long, my brain starts to function again. I button up the clothes
this thing is wearing and pull over the sheet. I make it look like nothing
happened.
Just to double check,
I take a DNA analyzer, from a nearby cabinet and run a test on her. It beeps
and says, “Lily Huber, crew member of Achilles mission. DNA results match the
record.”
How come? This is
impossible!
While thinking about
it, I hear light footstep coming at my direction. I turn off the DNA analyzer
and stuff it in my pocket.
“Commander?” Akio
asks.
“Yes.”
“I heard scream. Is
that you?”
“Oh, yes, I was
upset.”
“I see. I understand.
Lily will be fine.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I am a doctor,”
Akio says with a confident smile, exposing his small teeth.
“Of course you are.
One question, you maintain all the equipment in this medical area, right?”
“Yes.”
“And they are all
working?”
“Yes. Every
equipment, large or small, is working just fine. I guarantee you that.”
“Good to know. I
better go back to work.”
I leave the medical
bay. Now I know what I am going to do. If there is only one alien on board
Achilles, I know who the alien is.
I have to find out
whether there is more or not, so I can’t just kill it. I need information. To
do that, I have to ask nicely, so I need an isolated environment. It can be a
compartment or something smaller. Something like...like the escape pod.
That is perfect!
I will lock that
thing in it. After I am done, I can just shoot the escape pod out.
Of course, some
modifications are required. First I disable the communication system in the
pod. This way that alien can’t call for help once I trap it there. Second I cut
the signal line, so the bridge won’t know the escape pod is gone if I have to
eject it. Then I made some changes on the pressure valve that is used for
equalizing the inside and outside pressure to open the door. Now I can remotely
control it to suck air out of the pod.
I have to prepare the
worst. There might be other aliens and if they didn’t kill me right away, they
would surely incapacitate me. I won’t give what they want, even though I still
don’t know what they want. We don’t have explosives on board, but we do have
some small and high energy batteries that are used for emergency situation.
These batteries are as small as quarters and they are stored in the compartment
for life support system. I take one of those batteries, attach it to the inside
of my hat and wire it with a controller. Now I just need to press the buttons
on my watch to detonate it. Considering the situation I am restrained and not
able to move my hands, I go to the reactor compartment and set up a procedure
to overload the reactor. The procedure can be activated by my voice and all I
need to do is say a particular word anywhere in the ship.