Richard Russo - Ship of Fools

“What old woman?” Geller asked.

“Sarah,” I answered.

“Sarah?” snapped Costino. “Who the hell is Sarah?”

“The old woman from the alien ship?” asked the bishop. As always, he understood more than the others. Or more quickly.

I nodded. “Yes, the old woman from the ship.”

“I assume she started talking,” the bishop said, “and you did not feel it necessary to inform us.”

“Jesus Christ!” Costino exclaimed. “What the hell is going on around here?”

“Please don’t use His name in that manner.” The bishop’s tone was stern and unyielding.

“I’m sorry. But what is going on?”

“Yes,” Nikos said, “the old woman started talking. But she didn’t say much. Dr. G. was with her. The old woman seemed to be comfortable with Dr. G., and she finally came around a little, and started talking. In Standard English. She said her name was Sarah. It was all a little disjointed, but she seemed to be saying that someone had been killing people on Antioch. Not aliens, but other people. Madmen, she said. She said the aliens rescued her and others from the slaughter. She also said she was a young woman at the time, so it must have happened years ago.” He paused. “She said something had happened to the aliens, and they’d apparently died.”

“Antioch is the problem,” I said. “The old woman said ‘Antioch.’ She said she’d been rescued from Antioch.” I left it there, hoping they would truly understand.

The bishop did, of course. “ I gave that world the name of Antioch,” he said quietly. “I refuse to believe those living there all those years ago had given it exactly the same name.”

I watched the understanding work its way through the other council members. Even Michel Tournier got it; but he was confused.

“What are you saying? That the old woman is… what? She’s an alien?”

“She isn’t human,” I said.

“What? The aliens look just like us?”

“I don’t know, Michel; I won’t even pretend to know. It could be anything. An alien… essence animating an old woman’s body they kept alive. Or some creature that can take on the form of an old woman. I… don’t… know. And it doesn’t matter. What matters is, she isn’t human.” I paused. “And we’ve got to get her off this ship.”

“How?” the bishop asked.

“I told Taggart to get Dr. G. out and secure the room, and Nikos gave him the order to sedate the old woman.”

“Then what?” asked Geller. “After she’s sedated.”

“Then we give her a burial,” I said. “We seal her in one of the coffins and jettison her from the ship. Just like we did to Casterman.”

“She’ll die,” Toller said.

“Yes, she will.”

“What if you’re mistaken? What if she’s just what she says she is? A confused, traumatized old woman who heard someone mention Antioch?”

“I’m not mistaken.”

Nikos tapped at the table controls and the wall screen came to life. A few moments later it was filled with Taggart’s face.

“Damn, I’m glad it’s you,” he said. “I’ve been trying to get through, but I was told you were in emergency session and couldn’t be interrupted. I told Communications the survival of the ship was at stake, but they didn’t believe me. I’m not sure I believe it myself.”

“You get Dr. G. out?” I asked.

“Yeah, I got her out.” Dr. G. moved into the picture behind Taggart, nodding toward us. “As soon as I got her out and secured the room, I started pumping in an aerosol sedative. The old woman woke up and went crazy. She’s been trying to get out ever since.” He shook his head. “Only she’s not an old woman. I don’t know what she is, but she’s definitely not human.”

Without warning, Taggart switched the video, changing the transmission to the video from a camera in the room. The old woman was clawing at the door with a hand now larger and darker with thick, crusted talons. She appeared to have shrunk in height but gained bulk, limbs now heavily muscled; yet, except for the one hand, she still maintained human form. The talons made slight gouges in the metal, but it appeared the door would remain secure.

Taggart’s voice cut in, although the picture didn’t change. “I’m pumping in the sedative at maximum rate, but I don’t know how long it will take to put her under.” The woman picked up the chair and slammed it against the door, again and again. Her strength was incredible. “It’ll get her eventually,” Taggart said. “I hope to God before she manages to break out.” He paused and switched the picture back to himself. “When she’s under, then what do we do?”

“I’m sending a security team right now,” Nikos said. He was already tapping out commands on the table. “They’ll have a coffin. When you’re certain, absolutely certain that thing is sedated, we’ll send the team in. They’ll seal her up in the coffin and dispose of her. Just hold on until they get there.”

“We’ll be all right here,” Taggart said.

Nikos broke the connection, then finished tapping out the orders.

“Why don’t we just kill it?” Susanna interjected.

Nikos shook his head. “We don’t know what it would take to kill that thing. We don’t know what would happen if we tried. Poison defense? Energy feedback? Shit, anything is possible. We don’t take chances. Clean as we can make it.”

“Should we attack the ship?” Tournier asked.

Everyone turned to look at him incredulously.

“Once we get undocked,” he added. “Shouldn’t we attack?”

“Michel,” Nikos said, “I’ve wanted to tell you this many times over the years, and I’m going to tell you now. Sometimes, you have the brains of a carrot. Once we get undocked, we get the hell out of here as fast we can, period. We are not going to complicate this mess by launching an attack. We just might be able to get away without much trouble if we do nothing at all.” He punched in more commands. “Unless I hear any objections, I’m ordering Navigation to set course and Engineering to run the drive start-up sequence.” He glanced up, then back down at the table console and resumed keying.

We waited to hear from Cardenas, or Taggart, or maybe even someone else who would be calling through with more bad news. Time stretched painfully with the silence and tension.

Finally the wall screen flickered, and Cardenas appeared. She looked haggard. She was in a darkened control room, mute-lighted instrument panels in the background.

“We can’t undock,” she said.

“Explain,” Nikos demanded.

“The docking mechanism has become nonfunctional. It does not respond to commands. We’ve been trying every alternative routing, but there is no response. The whole thing has gone dead.”

“Diagnostics?”

“Dead also. I’ve got a team suiting up right now to go out and try to disengage manually. If they can’t do that, they’ve got equipment to cut and burn us the hell off that damn ship.”

“Wait,” Nikos said. “Hold off on the burning. That’s too risky.”

“We have no choice, Captain.”

Nikos slowly nodded. We all knew Cardenas was right.

“All right,” Nikos said. “Keep us informed.”

“I will.”

The screen blanked out. The silence and tension returned.

After some time, the bishop turned toward me and said, “You.” He paused for a moment, then went on. “You are responsible for this. You’ve doomed us all.”

“Don’t be so damned melodramatic,” Nikos said. “We’re not dead yet.”

The bishop laughed. “You don’t think so? What world are you living in, Captain?” His expression turned hard and bitter. “We are all dead men.”

With that he got up and left the room.