The Void (30 page)

When he opened the emergency airlock, the computer system on the
Singularity
automatically sealed the corridor behind him to prevent an explosive breech. But it didn't stop Ridley from being sucked into the cold vacuum of space. Ridley screamed silently. For almost a minute, until his brain finally, mercifully, lost the battle with unconsciousness,

Ridley stared back at the
Singularity
as it floated away from him, while the moisture in his eyes and mouth boiled away. The last thing he saw before death took him was the image of his mother, standing in the open airlock of the ship, smiling. Meanwhile, the little light on the holorecorder, the one that Ridley clutched in his hands even in death, continued to flash an angry red.

Chapter 24

Gravely, Aidan and Rebecca walked down the dark corridors of the
Singularity
, trying to retrace Rebecca's steps. Aidan thought they should look for Dr. Ridley first, but the captain had been insistent. She was afraid they might need the rifle.

“We had split up,” Gravely said, “a mistake I don't intend to make again. We were each covering one corridor of the crew's quarters. There was nothing worth finding. Personal logs, data recorders, that's about it. Nothing that I think will be of much help to you or Mr. Crawford.”

“Then what happened?” Aidan asked.

“Then,” she said, stopping and looking at both of them, “I had a very long conversation with a man who I believe was supposed to be my grandfather. Great, great, great grandfather.”

Neither Rebecca nor Aidan looked surprised. Gravely had expected their reaction.

“What did he say?”

“He was very clear. ‘Save this ship.’ He reminded me that as long as our family has been in the Navy, we've never lost one.”

“Save the ship,” Aidan whispered.

“I've seen him in my dreams, every mission the last twenty years. This is the first time he has spoken to me.”

“Then what?”

“Then he disappeared. After, I went to get Ridley. He was nowhere to be found. I checked the rooms, the corridors. Nothing.”

“He can't have just vanished. Once we hit the bridge, we can run a scan, something. We'll figure it out.”

“That's my intention.”

A glint of metal flashed from the floor. Gravely reached down and picked up a rifle. “Yours, I presume,” she said, handing it back to Rebecca. “Try not to lose it again.”

Rebecca couldn't fight back a shiver as they walked to where the bridge should be. She thought back to her last attempt to reach it, the one that had led her to walk in circles. Where she saw something that should not be. She was shocked, then, when they turned a corner and there it was. Jack was waiting for them, and so was Austin Crawford.

He'd appeared again, only a few minutes prior.

“They're coming,” he said. “They are going to try and make you leave the ship. You mustn't let them.”

Jack set his jaw, never looking at his father.

“I won't,” he said.

“Good, son, good. I'll be here with you. You'll be able to see me, but they won't. Remember. Above all things, you must protect the ship.”

He was standing, leaned against the forward console, when the three of them entered.

“Expecting something, Captain?” he said to Gravely, glancing down at the way she held her weapon, poised and ready to shoot.

“I don't know what to expect anymore, Mr. Crawford. Not on this ship. And that is why we need to leave.”

“Leave?” He laughed. “We’ve just arrived.”

“You know the situation,” Aidan said. “We're getting close to that black hole. Besides, we've got everything we need.”

“That's not true. Our primary objective is to save this ship.”

“No,” Rebecca interrupted, sounding confused, “that's not our objective at all. The data is what we came for, not the ship. We are only to save the ship if we can.”

“Dr. Kensington, I am in charge of this operation. I decide what our objectives are. And I say saving the
Singularity
is imperative.”

“What are you talking about, Jack? This is my command.”

Jack chuckled darkly. “Oh come now, Rebecca. Do you really think that they would leave you in charge of something like this? No, ISS wanted this to be a civilian operation. Officially, in case there were any problems. But make no mistake, I am in command.”

His father leaned over and whispered in his ear. “Good, son, good. Let them know you mean business.”

“Well it doesn't matter anyway, Jack,” Rebecca said. “The ship can't be saved. The engines are damaged. We can't move her.”

“Damaged?” Jack said, a hint of desperation creeping into his voice.

“Yes,” Aidan answered. “The standard drive's gone. Warp drive is intact, but this close to a black hole, we try to warp out and the ship goes boom.”

“They're lying to you,” his father said. “They can fix the damage.”

“And you can't fix it?” Jack shrieked.

“Weeell. . .” Rebecca stuttered. She had never seen Jack like this, and it scared her. “Maybe if we had an engineer, someone who was more familiar with the basic mechanical aspects of the standard drive . . .”

“But that's Cyrus,” Aidan interjected, “and as you know, he's in no condition. You just need to relax, Jack. This is not a tough call. We've got no choice.”

“There has to be a way! You people are useless to me. Useless! Why do you think I brought you along, Rebecca? This is supposed to be your area of expertise!”

Rebecca started to respond, but Gravely put a hand on her shoulder. “Why are you so concerned about saving this ship, Mr. Crawford? Is there something you want to tell us? Is there something we need to know?”

Jack's father whispered in his ear. “Calm down, son. You are losing them.”

“I believe this ship is invaluable, Captain Gravely. This ship has been places, seen things that we can hardly imagine. I am not about to let it slip into a black hole, not if we can save it.”

“The other ship's engine,” his father said, circling around Gravely, who felt something, even if she couldn't see it. “We can use it.”

“What about the engine of the
Chronos
?”

“What?”

“Wait,” Aidan said, “you're insane. Do you even know what you're talking about? That's not even under consideration.”

“Why not? We need an engine. It has one.”

“You're not taking my engine!” Gravely shouted. 

“If you remember correctly, Captain, as far as the computers are concerned, it's
my
engine. The
Chronos
isn't going anywhere without my authorization.” Jack looked around at the others, letting the impact of his reminder wash over them. He was back in control. “Look, it's very simple. The
Chronos
has the capability to transfer the engine to the
Singularity
. Installation is not difficult. What I am proposing is very possible. Isn't that right, Dr. Kensington?”

“Jack . . . no . . . Yes, we could move the engine from the
Chronos
, and we might even get it installed. But it would take hours. And more importantly, with a ship this size, chances are we'd run up the engine and the whole thing would overload. Then we'd have two dead engines and two dead ships. We just can't take that chance.”

“What you describe is a worst case scenario . . .”

“A not unlikely worst case scenario, Jack.”

“Well, that's a risk I am willing to accept.”

“This is madness,” Aidan said. “You're as crazy as Cyrus.”

Before Jack could say anymore, Rebecca noticed something. Something outside the ship that was approaching the great, glass dome of the bridge at high speed. Jack watched as her eyes fluttered upward, as they then grew wide with shock and fear. The scream came next. All of them followed her gaze upward just in time to see Ridley's body smack into the glass dome above them.

It hung for a second, the cold, frozen eyes seeming to lock on Captain Gravely. She wouldn't say she considered Dr. Ridley a friend, but he had been a man she'd known for a very long time. One that she trusted. A valued member of her crew. Someone under her command and therefore her responsibility. She did not know how he had come to this, whether by his own hand or that of another. She could conjure a thousand different explanations, each of them stranger, more bizarre than the last, but none of them would probably cover what had happened.

She removed a computer pad from her pocket, unfolded it, and issued one of the few commands left to her, despite Jack's control of the
Chronos'
s systems. From the ship floating above came two flashes. Two metal balls spun downward toward them, the Charlottes landing with a thud on the bridge ceiling. They grabbed on to Ridley's body. Their thrusters fired, pushing them away from the
Singularity
, back to the
Chronos
from whence they came.

“We'll take him home,” Gravely said. “It's the least we can do.” She turned to Jack. “Mr. Crawford, we're not giving you the engine from the
Chronos
, and we're not staying on this ship any longer. This mission is complete.”

“Captain Gravely, I think you've forgotten that I am the one that controls the
Chronos
, not you.”

“Well, I think you've forgotten something else as well. In a few hours, this ship is going to fall into a black hole. Now, if you want to be on it when it does, feel free. But I would rather die on my ship, my way, than to have whatever happened to Dr. Ridley happen to us. Now if you will excuse us, we'll be going back to the
Chronos
. You know where to find us when you come to your senses. Otherwise, enjoy the descent.”

“Come on, Jack, please,” Rebecca pleaded.

“Leave him be,” said Aidan. “He'll come around eventually.”

Jack watched as Aidan and Captain Gravely turned their backs on him and walked toward the door of the bridge. Rebecca stayed, her eyes pleading, but he didn't see it. He didn't hear her either. All he heard was the voice of his father.

“You can't let them go,” he said. “You can't let them leave. They are betraying you! They want you to fail! They want the mission to fail! If they go, you'll never escape. If this ship is lost, the nightmares will follow you all the days of your life. They will haunt you into the grave. Are you going to let that happen? Are you?”

Jack reached back and pulled his gun, aiming it at Gravely's head. He squeezed the trigger, and the sound of thunder echoed throughout the room Aidan spun around, his eyes moving from Gravely to Jack Crawford who still stood, arm outstretched, gun raised. Then he looked at Rebecca. She was holding her rifle, pointed up awkwardly. The end was smoking.

For another moment Jack stood, the dark red circle on his chest growing larger with every second. He was confused. His mind was telling his hand to pull the trigger, but something was wrong. Somehow, the message wasn't getting through. Then he realized that he had been shot.

The pain didn't come until the realization struck him. The gun dropped from his hand, clattering along the ground. He looked over to where his father still stood. The man was staring at him, his head cocked to the side. Then he turned his palms up in the air and shrugged, vanishing.

Jack's knees buckled and he fell to them. The pain that shot up through his legs was overshadowed by the throbbing in his chest. He collapsed onto his back, his eyes staring up at the glass dome to the dark heavens above. His breathing slowed, each breath shallower than the last.

The next few moments, Jack's thoughts divided in two. Half of his dying brain merely experienced, while the other half, the half that still remembered his training, the half that was still filled with the cold rationality that even death could not replace, questioned whether what he saw was real or merely a figment of his imagination in its death throes. A random firing of neurons as they flashed to life and then fell cold.

What did he see? A light, but not a warm one. Not the kind that welcomed him, but one he knew he would enter nonetheless. In that light were figures, men and women, old and young. One of them was his father, the man he had killed with his bare hands. That was what they all had in common. He had murdered them all and they had come for him in death.

Jack had one last moment of horrifying clarity before he died. The ones he had seen before? The spirits that had come to him in his dream? The ones that had stood on the bridge? They had been impostors. Liars who wore masks to confuse and coerce him, to make him do their bidding. No, these phantoms, these ghosts from beyond, they were real. And the light was their burning hatred, the raging fire of their passion for revenge.

“What do we do now?” Aidan asked as he put his arm around Rebecca, lowering the gun that sat frozen in her hands in the same position she had fired it.

“Let's get back to the
Chronos
,” Gravely said. “Leave him. He wanted to stay with the ship. At least now we can grant him that wish.”

*  *  *

The shadow returned to the
Chronos
. It walked with a purpose, seeking. It came to the infirmary, passing through the doorway and standing before the vessel.

“Your time has come,” it said. “You are our final hope.”

The shadow melted into smoke, the vapor entering the console beside the holding cell. It sparked once, flashed twice, and the gentle hum of the force field died away. The shadow was gone, but the thing that was Cyrus remained. It took one step forward, passed through where the force field had been, and was free.

Chapter 25

The
Chronos
had left orbit with a crew of four and two passengers. Now the three who remained sat on the bridge. Rebecca hadn't spoken since she’d killed Jack. It was necessary, she told herself. He had lost it, and if she hadn't acted, they might all be dead. But rationalizations, even true ones, were no comfort. A man was dead, a life was lost, and she had taken it.