Broken Worlds: The Awakening (A Sci-Fi Mystery) Read online

  “Poor things...” Lisa said.

  “Well, this is all very interesting,” Blake said. “But what does it have to do with our current situation?”

  “I thought that would be obvious,” Gatticus replied. “One or more of these species must have boarded us and hunted the crew to death.”

  “But they skipped you, huh?” Blake asked, his brown eyes pinching into thin slits. “Interesting.”

  “Have you seen any of these aliens on board?” Darius asked.

  “Not yet, but the U.S.O.S Deliverance is a big ship.”

  Darius looked around quickly, making sure nothing was sneaking up on them.

  “U.S.O.S?” Blake asked.

  “United Systems of Orion Ship.”

  “Cute. Okay, so you’ve been here, without power since...?”

  “Since I woke up two weeks ago.”

  “From cryo?” Darius asked.

  Gatticus shook his head. “I suffered a head injury that knocked me unconscious.”

  “You’ve been awake for two weeks? How come you didn’t freeze to death?” Blake asked.

  Gatticus hesitated. “There are shuttles and transports on board. They have independent power. I’ve been living on one of them for the past two weeks.”

  Darius nodded. “So you were the one who fixed the power in the rest of the ship?”

  “I didn’t have to fix it. Getting the power back was a simple matter of turning the reactor back on. Someone had deliberately turned it off.”

  “Why would they do that?” Lisa asked.

  “To hide the ship.”

  Blake snorted. “Well, that obviously didn’t work.”

  “Perhaps not,” Gatticus agreed. “Unfortunately, getting the Alckam reactor back online will not be as easy. There’s no antimatter in the core.”

  “Hold on, you’re going to have to slow down,” Darius said, holding up a hand. “What’s an Alckam reactor?”

  “It powers the Alcubierre-Kaminski Drive.”

  “The what now?” Blake asked.

  “Surely you recognize the first name. Miguel Alcubierre was alive during the twenty-first century.”

  Darius nodded slowly. “He came up with a theoretical warp drive.”

  “Warp, as in faster than the speed of light?” Lisa asked.

  “Correct,” Gatticus replied. “Ivan Kaminski developed the first working prototype by studying Phantom technology, so we called it the Alcubierre-Kaminski Drive—Alckam for short.”

  “Phantom technology?” Cassandra asked.

  “Ghouls and Banshees. They are collectively known as Phantoms—also Cygnians, since they come from the Cygnus Constellation.”

  “So no antimatter in this Alckam reactor means no fuel?” Blake asked. “How did you turn the lights back on if we’re running on fumes?”

  “The fusion reactors power the ship’s other systems and its sub-light drives. They have their own fuel supply. Antimatter is only used to power the Alckam drive.”

  Darius frowned. “If it was so easy to turn the power back on, then why’d you wait two weeks to do that?”

  “Because I had no way of knowing what’s out there. I still don’t. I had to assume that whoever shut down the reactors did it for a good reason. Without the Alckam Drive, we are like vonkats in a tar pit.”

  “Vonkats?” Cassandra asked.

  “They are a tree-dwelling—”

  “Never mind what they are,” Blake interrupted. “What changed your mind about the power?”

  “I began to find new bodies, naked ones. I realized that people were starting to wake from the cryo tanks, and that they were dying from exposure. I had to bring the power back or else you were all going to wake up and die.”

  “Thanks for that,” Darius said.

  “You are welcome.”

  “So what now, Slick?” Blake asked.

  Gatticus’s head canted to one side. “Slick?”

  “The hair,” Blake explained, pointing to Gatticus’s slicked-back hair.

  “Ah. I see.”

  “Do you remember what brought us here?” Lisa asked. “I mean, why are we waking up on a spaceship instead of Earth? And where are we, anyway?” Lisa asked.

  “I’m afraid I do not know why you are waking up here instead of Earth, though I suspect your pods must have been discovered during recent initiatives to rebuild Earth after it joined the USO. As for where we are, according to the ship’s nav system, the Deliverance is currently orbiting a planet called Hades.”

  “Sounds inviting,” Blake replied. “Back to my question. What now? We don’t have any fuel in the warp drive, so I’m guessing that means we’re stuck here.”

  “Alckam drive,” Gatticus corrected. “Warp drive is technically correct, too, but it denies credit to the original inventors.”

  Blake waved his hand to dismiss that objection. “Yeah, whatever. The point is, we can’t fly to another planet unless it’s in this star system, right?”

  “Oh, we could,” Gatticus replied, “But it would take a very long time to get there.”

  “Yeah, like how long?”

  Gatticus shrugged. “At least fifty years.”

  “No thanks,” Blake said. “What about this planet, Hades? We could go down there and start a colony. Assuming it’s habitable.”

  Darius frowned. “You can’t start a colony with five people.”

  “We’ll have six if we can find that missing woman,” Blake replied.

  “And then what?” Lisa demanded. “You men use us like brood mares to repopulate the species?”

  “Hey, lady, this isn’t about feminism, or—

  “You’re right, it’s about male chauvinism.”

  “No, it’s about the survival of the species,” Blake finished.

  Darius shook his head. “It wouldn’t work. The minimum viable population for a colony is between one and two hundred people. Not six.”

  “What about the ones in cryo?” Blake asked. “We’ll have more than enough if we wake them up.”

  “They’re all dying, just like us,” Cassandra said. “We won’t live long enough to start a colony.”

  Darius winced at the reminder.

  “The kid makes a good point,” Blake said.

  “Dying?” Gatticus asked. “I do not understand. Why are you dying?”

  “We all have terminal cancer—or something terminal, anyway,” Blake said. “That’s why we were in cryo; we were waiting for a cure.”

  “I see,” Gatticus replied. “That won’t be a problem. I can cure you.”

  Blake grinned. “No kidding? Well, what are we waiting for? Bring on the cure so we can go down to Hades!” Blake barked a laugh at that. “Now there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.”

  “Hades is not a good world to colonize,” Gatticus replied.

  “Why not?” Lisa asked.

  “You mean besides the name?” Blake asked.

  Lisa ignored him. “It’s not habitable?” she asked.

  “Oh, it is very habitable, but the ship’s nav computer lists Hades as an active hunting ground for the Phantoms.”

  Chapter 8

  Blake swore under his breath.

  And then Cassandra swore too.

  “Cass, language...” Darius intoned.

  “Why would you come here if you knew this was an active hunting ground?” Blake demanded.

  “I told you, I don’t remember. Perhaps the lack of fuel has something to do with it. The crew may have come here to steal fuel from the Phantoms. That would also explain why the Deliverance was powered down—to hide in orbit while a small team went down to the surface to get fuel.”

  “But the power is back now...” Darius replied. “Should we be expecting company?”

  “Don’t we have some kind of sensors on board that we can use to check?” Blake asked. “Radar, or lidar, or something?”

  “I just came from the bridge. So far there are no Phantom ships inbound, but our sensors are blocked by the planet, so we can o
nly see half of the system. There could be Phantom vessels in the part we can’t see.”

  “If the Phantoms are on the surface, then they must have ships here somewhere, right?” Darius asked. “And wouldn’t they detect us from the ground either way?”

  “The Phantoms don’t necessarily have ships here, no,” Gatticus replied. “After a world is conquered, the main hunting parties move on, leaving the survivors for unmated Phantoms and smaller families to hunt. Since those groups won’t have ships of their own, they pay for passage aboard commercial vessels to reach new hunting grounds—much the same way humans conduct tourism.”

  “So there’s a chance that we’re safe,” Lisa said.

  “For now, yes, but sooner or later a Phantom ship will come here, even if there isn’t one here now.”

  Blake shook his head quickly. “Then we need to shut down the power again!”

  “If we do that, more people will wake from cryo,” Gatticus explained. “And when they do, they will almost certainly die from exposure.”

  “There has to be some other way,” Darius mused. “Can’t we keep the heat on and provide power to the cryo pods, but still remain hidden?”

  “Heat, no. We’ll have to drop the internal temperature of the ship, or a thermal scan will find us. But we needn’t heat the ship if no one is on board.”

  “Hey, we’re on board, genius,” Blake said.

  “We don’t need to be. We can take refuge on one of the shuttles. Thermal scans will never detect a small heat signature inside of a larger vessel.”

  “What about the people in cryo?” Darius asked.

  “We can run the pods on reserve power as soon as the reactor has recharged the ship’s power cells.”

  “Great. How long will that take?”

  “A few days.”

  “So we’ll be exposed to detection for the next few days,” Lisa said.

  “We don’t need to fully charge the ship’s power cells. Running the reactor for a few hours should be enough to buy us a day or more of reserve power for the cryo pods. We can shut the reactor back down after that.”

  “Yeah, well even if we can avoid detection for now, it won’t keep us safe forever,” Blake said. “We need to get out of here, and in order to do that we need fuel for the Alcan drive.”

  “Alckam,” Gatticus said.

  “Whatever! You said maybe the crew came here to steal fuel. How could they do that if there aren’t any ships in the system?”

  “The planet will have a fuel depot for passing ships to refuel. We’ll need to find it and steal as much antimatter as we can,” Gatticus said.

  “How much do we need?” Blake asked.

  “At least ten kilograms. We’ve got a couple of hours before the ship’s power cells are sufficiently charged. We should make use of that time to prepare for our assault on the fuel depot.”

  Darius nodded. “Can you fly us down aboard a shuttle or something?”

  Gatticus nodded. “Yes, but I would recommend we take one of the SB-22’s instead of a shuttle.”

  “What’s that?” Blake asked.

  “The SB-22 Osprey is a bomber and troop transport.”

  Darius noticed that Cassandra was looking ill. “Are you okay, Cass?”

  She shook her head. “I think I’m going to...”

  A wretching sound burst from her lips, along with a stream of yellow bile.

  “Blah!” Blake said as some of it splashed off his arm.

  “Cass?!” Darius yelled.

  She was gasping for air, and her stomach was heaving but nothing was coming out. They’d all gone into cryo on an empty stomach, so besides that burst of bile, she had nothing left to give.

  “I think it’s the cancer,” she said. “I can’t...” she wheezed, gasping for air.

  “Just breathe... are you in pain?”

  “Always,” she croaked.

  He placed a hand on her back, and she doubled over with another spasm.

  Darius jerked his chin to Gatticus. “You mentioned you could cure us.”

  “We’ll need to visit the med bay...” Gatticus said slowly, his eyes on Cassandra.

  “Then let’s go!” Darius said. “Cass? Do you need me to carry you?”

  But she gave no reply.

  A jolt of adrenaline shot through him, and his heart began pounding. He shook her by one shoulder, but she didn’t even stir. She was just drifting there on her feet, doubled over in pain.

  “Cassandra?!” He went down on his haunches in front of her to look her in the eye, but her eyes were shut.

  Desperation clawed in Darius’s chest as he pressed two fingers to Cassandra’s neck.

  “What’s wrong?” Lisa asked, her boots clanking noisily as she came over for a closer look.

  “I can’t feel a pulse!”

  Chapter 9

  “Come on, Cass! Wake up!” Darius said between chest compressions. “I need help!”

  “Get out of the way!” Gatticus said, and shoved Darius aside with surprising strength. “You’re going to break her sternum in that suit!”

  Darius stumbled away, staring at his hands in horror as Gatticus began doing chest compressions of his own. Darius felt sick to his stomach, afraid that he’d already broken Cassandra’s chest.

  “You need to breathe into her lungs!” Darius said.

  “I know more about resuscitation than you!” Gatticus snapped.

  Blake muttered a curse under his breath, and Lisa looked on in horror. Darius stared sightlessly at Cassandra’s face. His eyes swimming out of focus.

  After Gatticus had performed at least thirty chest compressions to no effect, Darius began to grow desperate. They’d been on their way to cure her! She can’t die now. She can’t!

  “Come on, Cass,” he whispered as Gatticus placed his lips over hers and breathed into her lungs. “Come on!”

  “It’s not working,” Gatticus said.

  “Why not?!” Darius asked.

  Gatticus pointed to her face. Her lips were blue, but also puffy, and her face was swelling up like a basketball. “Anaphylactic shock. It’s not the cancer. Pass me a rifle!” he snapped, holding a hand out to Blake.

  “What?” Blake shook his head and backed away slowly. “What do you want with—”

  Gatticus leapt up and snatched one of his weapons from him.

  Irrational fears raced through Darius’s mind. What did he want with a rifle? Is he going to shoot Cassandra and put her out of her misery?

  Before Darius could do anything to stop him, Gatticus compressed the grip under the barrel of the rifle—

  And a wicked-looking bayonet sprang out. He bent back down as if to stab Cassandra with it.

  “Get the hell away from her!” Darius roared, already leaping toward the other man.

  “He’s going to trach her!” Lisa said, and stepped in front of him. They collided and Lisa fell over backward in slow motion with her boots still pinned to the deck.

  “What?” Darius demanded, blinking rapidly.

  “He’s going to slice open her trachea so she can breathe!” Lisa explained as she straightened. “It’s an allergic reaction.”

  “To what?” Blake asked, placing a hand to his mouth and nose, and looking around furtively as if he might be next.

  “Something in the air, maybe,” Lisa said. “Her windpipe must have closed off.”

  “Someone find me a breathing tube!” Gatticus said.

  Darius cast about wildly, desperate to help his daughter.

  But there was nothing in sight, nothing that would work. Except—

  His eyes skipped up to the exposed conduits in the ceiling. Spotting what looked like an electrical conduit, he leapt straight up off the deck, and drifted to the ceiling. He grabbed one of the conduits with both hands to keep from bouncing away.

  Picking the one he thought most likely, he wrapped one hand around it and used his other hand to push off the ceiling. He pulled on the conduit as hard as he could. Motors whirred inside his suit,
and the conduit groaned. Then something gave way with a ping, and the conduit came away from the ceiling, bent but not broken.

  “Hurry!” Gatticus urged.

  Darius bent the pipe back and forth as fast as he could until metal fatigue caused it to snap. A nest of electrical wires spilled out. He reached into the bundle for the thickest one and ripped it out. It snapped suddenly.

  “She’s not going to make it,” Gatticus said.

  “Shut up!” Darius replied as he pulled on the wire again. A piece of it snapped and came away in his hand. Working fast with shaking hands, he stripped away some of the insulation and pulled the metal wire out. The sheath formed a hollow tube about a centimeter in diameter. Darius pushed himself back down to the deck. His boots touched down with a clu-clunk, and he took two quick strides to reach Gatticus. “Take it!”

  Gatticus grabbed the sheathing and used the bayonet at the end of the rifle to slice Cassandra’s throat open. A small pool of blood formed, but went nowhere because her heart wasn’t beating. Gatticus pushed the tube into the slit in her throat and a few crimson drops of blood broke free, glinting and shimmering like rubies as they spun through the air.

  With the intrusion of the breathing tube, Darius expected to see Cassandra’s chest abruptly rise as she sucked in a breath, but nothing happened.

  Gatticus hurriedly unzipped the front of her jumpsuit, exposing her chest, and planted both hands there. A bright flash of blue light pooled under his palms, and Cassandra’s whole body jumped with a sudden jolt.

  “What the hell?” Blake said, stumbling back a step.

  Gatticus removed his hands and leaned forward to breathe into the tube protruding from Cassandra’s throat. Her chest rose swiftly with that influx of air. Then he withdrew again and placed his hands over Cassandra’s chest once more. There came another flash of blue light, even brighter than before.

  Again, Cassandra’s body jumped, but this time her eyes fluttered open and her mouth gaped in a soundless scream. Her throat was still shut, and her face was still swollen, but she was alive.

  Air whistled in and out of her breathing tube at a frantic pace, and Casandra’s hands flew up to her throat to check what was there.