Richard Russo - Ship of Fools

There was something wrong here, terribly wrong. I thought about what the old woman had implied, that this ship, the aliens on this ship, had rescued her and others from Antioch where they were being slaughtered. They may have rescued them, and they may have kept her alive, but the aliens had surely killed all these others.

What had happened here?

I had to get out. We had to get out.

I pushed myself to my feet and staggered back to the blue-lit room. Francis was where I’d left him. He looked at me as I came through the doorway.

“You saw?”

“I saw. Get your suit on. We’re going back.”

“Was it this bad on Antioch?”

“No,” I said.

And that’s when my stomach tightened and turned on itself. Antioch. Antioch . The old woman had said she’d been rescued from Antioch. How had she known that’s what we had called that world? I knew then that this ship was no longer dead, if it ever had been.

“Get your suit on, Francis. Now .”

He nodded. He stood and walked across the room and began to work himself into his suit. All of his movements were slow and deliberate, like an awakening somnambulist; too slow for me, but I was afraid to rush him, afraid to sound afraid. I was sure that we were being watched, and I did not want to let whatever was watching think there was any panic, any rush to get away. It was crazy, but that’s what I was thinking: show no fear, and we might get out alive.

I opened the command channel link to the Argonos , tried calling Communications. Nothing. I wondered if all the translators Hollings had set up were still functioning. Maybe something was blocking the transmission.

My heart was pounding, I felt my pulse thumping in my throat. Breathe slowly, I told myself, slowly…. I couldn’t afford to lose control here.

Francis had his suit on, but held his helmet at his side, looking at me.

“Come on,” I said.

“They did it, didn’t they?” he said.

Don’t say any more, I wanted to tell him. But my throat was stuck, I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t swallow.

“These aliens. They did this, they killed all those people in there, and they killed all those people on Antioch.”

“Yes,” I managed to say. “Get your helmet on now. We have to go.”

“We can’t take this ship with us,” he went on. “They’ll kill us.”

I grabbed the helmet from him and put it over his head. Finally he reached up and worked the neck seals. I turned off the external speakers. “Is the open channel activated, Francis?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go. Quickly now. But don’t run. Don’t act like you’re scared.”

“I understand,” he replied. “I’m not scared.”

He really wasn’t, I could tell, but I didn’t know if that was a good thing. Maybe in the short run. I nodded, and we started off.

We didn’t talk. We moved at a steady pace, turning lamps off as we went, as if we needed to conserve their batteries for our next excursion. Light ahead of us, darkness behind.

Every ten minutes I tried to contact the Argonos , but always without success. I was on edge, expecting at any moment… something, I didn’t know what. A horde of aliens pouring out of a hatchway. Barriers sliding across our path, cutting us off. Sharp, vicious hooks springing from the walls.

Nothing happened, and I couldn’t understand why. We continued unimpeded, the alien ship still empty, silent, and dead.

Finally, when we were only fifteen minutes and a few rooms from the outer air lock, I got through to the Argonos . I had them patch me through to Taggart at the med center. He wasn’t there. I finally got him in his quarters, as sleepy as I had been when Catherine called me.

“Bartolomeo, why are—?”

“Listen to me, Taggart, this is important. The old woman from the ship.”

“Sarah, yeah.”

“Sarah, nothing. You’ve got to get up there right now and secure her room. Do not let her out of that room, do you understand?”

“Dr. G.’s probably in there with her. She’s set up a cot and sleeps in there. Wants to make her feel safe.”

“The old woman is plenty safe, Taggart. She’s dangerous. Get Dr. G. out of there, I don’t care what you have to do, get her out of there and get that damn room secure.”

“Where the hell are you, Bartolomeo?”

“I’m on my way back to the Argonos . I’m inside the alien ship.”

“Did you find something—?”

“And get her sedated.”

“I’ll secure the room, but I won’t sedate her without authorization from the captain or the Executive Council.”

“Fine, damn it, but at least secure the room!”

“I will,” he said, and broke the connection. Then I had Communications patch me through to Nikos.

“Crash session of the Executive Council, Nikos. Now .”

“Where are you, Bartolomeo? Why isn’t there any video?”

I patched through the suit camera transmission to him. “How’s that for video?”

“You’re in the alien ship? Who’s that with you?”

“Never mind who. I’m on my way out. Just get the damn session called!”

“What is it, Bartolomeo?”

“I’ve got no time. But we’re in trouble, Nikos. Just call it. And call Taggart, authorize him to sedate the old woman. I’ll be there as soon as I can get in.”

“The old woman? What—?”

“Just do it.”

I broke the connection. Ten minutes later, we emerged from the hull of the alien ship and drifted away from it. We fired our suit jets, and headed back to the Argonos . Nothing tried to stop us.

Idid not get a warm reception in the council chambers. Most of the council members had obviously been awakened, and none were happy about it. Someone had brought in two pots of coffee, and they were already working on the second. Even Toller looked annoyed—unhappy, no doubt, at being called away from the Church archives. He was about to get more than just annoyed.

“A crash session, and we have to wait for him ,” the bishop said, waving toward me. “I know we have a serious problem.”

I looked at Nikos. “You talk to Taggart?”

“Yes, I gave him the order. He should be taking care of it right now.”

“Taking care of what?” Costino demanded.

I ignored him and sat at the foot of the table. “Yes, we have a serious problem. The alien ship. We’ve got to undock from it, and we’ve got to get out of here.”

I expected a sarcastic remark from the bishop, but he didn’t say a thing. No one else did either. There must have been something in my tone that warned them. They all waited intently for me to explain.

I told them then what I’d seen, what Francis had discovered. I had difficulty talking about it, but I gave them enough detail so they would appreciate the enormity of what was there, and the implications. My pulse had become rapid again, and I felt dizzy. Breathe deeply, I told myself, breathe; this was no time to collapse.

When I had finished, Cardenas stood.

“Unless there is going to be some insane vote in the next five minutes, I’m going to get us undocked from that ship. Any objections?”

There weren’t any, and she hurried from the room.

Susanna Hingen was the first to speak. “Okay, okay… the obvious conclusion is the aliens killed all the people you saw on their ship. But their ship is dead now. No signs of life. That’s what we keep hearing. Doesn’t it seem likely that something happened to them, to the aliens, that they’ve died out, or abandoned ship, something like that?”

Before anyone had a chance to respond, Nikos said, “What about what the old woman said, Bartolomeo?”