David Garnet - Bikini Planet

When they spoke, he’d understood them even without a slate. They hadn’t used words, he now realised, but thoughts. His mind had picked up their meaning.

Kiru reached down for one of the ghostly guns.

“No!” warned Norton.

But he was too late. As soon as she touched the barrel, her fingers sank into the weapon, and she screamed with pain.

“It’s cold!” She jumped back, shaking her hand, then stopped and stared. “My hand! It’s gone! It’s gone!”

“It hasn’t,” said Norton. “It’s a trick. I can see it.” He reached for her hand. “I can feel it.” He put his other arm around her shoulders, holding her close.

“Where? Where?” said Kiru.

“Here. Here.” Norton rubbed her icy wrist and palm and fingers.

“I see it,” Kiru whispered, holding her hand in front of her face. “It’s coming back.”

The gun was as out of place as the ethereal guards. From what Diana had said, such a powerful weapon couldn’t be used on board a spaceship because it would puncture the hull.

But maybe that was what had already happened, why there was an emergency, why the siren was screaming louder and louder.

YEE-Yaw-YOW-Yaw-YEE-Yaw-YOW-Yaw.

“Look,” said Kiru.

Norton glanced around in time to see the two amorphous aliens float upward and touch, then overlap, their shapes merging as they absorbed one another. Two became one, still no more substantial than before, but now each upper limb held a weapon of its own. One barrel was aimed at Norton, one at Kiru.

Then the double alien’s single head turned slowly away. A second later, its body twisted around more quickly. Another second, and the pair of guns also changed direction. The guard sped away, quickly fading into the darkness, its feet never touching the ground.

“Now we should go,” said Kiru.

“We’re on a spaceship,” said Norton. “There’s nowhere to go.”

“Are you coming?”

“Where?”

“With me.”

“Yeah.”

Hand in hand, they hurried along the passageway.

“It must be great being a cop,” said Kiru. “You’ve got to teach me how to hit people.”

“I don’t believe in violence,” Norton said. “That’s why I became a law-enforcement officer, to help prevent senseless violence.”

“Sensible violence, James, that’s what the universe needs.”

Yow-YAW-Yee-YAW-Yow-YAW-Yee-YAW-Yow.

They dashed along corridors, down steps, down ramps, always down, and it seemed to be getting colder, colder, the air thinner, always pluming into white clouds as they exhaled, but the clouds growing paler as the ship ran out of air.

“What’s going on, Kiru?”

“The ship’s in danger. I don’t know why. We don’t have time to find out. But blow-ups happen. We’re getting out of here.”

“How?”

“By lifeboat.”

She led the way, never hesitating.

“How do you know where to go?” he asked.

“Didn’t you learn emergency procedure on your voyage to Hideaway?”

“No.”

“Maybe there were only lifeboats for the crew. Like here. You can bet there aren’t any capsules for prisoners.”

“On my ship it must have been women and children first.”

“First class, you mean? No lifeboats for anyone else?”

“No, I mean women and children first into the lifeboats.”

“How quaint. Women and children first. That’s me twice over.”

“You’re not a child.”

“I am compared to you, old man. But neither of us will get any older if we keep talking. Save your breath, James, and follow the lights.”

Norton had been aware of the pulsating orange lights which lined their route, but it was only now that he realised the lights actually marked the escape route.

YOW-Yaw-YEE-Yaw-YOW-Yaw-YEE-Yaw-YOW.

Apart from the siren and the soft sound of their feet slapping against the floor, there was no noise. There was no one else around, no one else running for the lifeboats.

“Why’s there no panic?” said Norton. “Where is everyone?”

“If this is a convict ship,” said Kiru, “they’re still locked in their cells. That’s where the panic is.”

Norton halted. “We’ve got to get them out.”

Kiru also stopped, ran back to Norton, grabbed his hand, and pulled. “No, we haven’t. Come on! It’s too late.”

Norton didn’t move.

“You can’t get them out,” said Kiru. “You can’t open the locks.”

“But you can.”

“What? Grawl could be on board. You expect me to free him, give him another chance to wipe my mind?” Kiru stared at Norton. “And what do you think they’ll do to you, James? They won’t thank you, they’ll kill you.”

“Because I’m in GalactiCop?”

“That’s a bonus. They’ll kill you because you’re not a pirate. Compared to what Grawl will do to me, you’ll be the lucky one.”

Kiru let go of Norton’s hand and stepped away. In the gloom, he saw her shrug her shoulders.

“But I could be wrong,” she said.

“They wouldn’t hurt us, you mean?”

“No, I mean we could be the only ones on board. We weren’t captured with the pirates, so we might not be with them now.”

Yow-YAW! Yee-YAW! Yow-YAW! Yee-YAW! Yow-YAW!

“And the ship might not be about to go supernova,” added Kiru. “This could be a false alarm.” She turned away. “Goodbye, James, it was nice knowing you.”

“Wait.”

He caught up with her, their fingers interlocked, their icy lips briefly brushed together, and they continued their descent through the doomed ship.

“Almost there,” said Kiru, as they rushed down to another level.

Norton wondered how she could tell, but didn’t have the energy to ask.

They turned another dark corner and Kiru stopped.

Ahead of them, in the dim light, a handful of bulbous hatches sprouted from the bulkhead.

“They all seem to be there,” said Kiru. “I thought we might have been too late, that the crew would have taken them all.”

Norton’s theory was that this was a ghost ship, without even a skeleton crew.

“Escape capsules,” Kiru continued. “Spacers call them ‘coffins.’ ”

“I’ve already spent three hundred years in a coffin.”

“You came out of it alive, James. And I want to get off this ship alive. You’re my good-luck charm.”

“How do we get inside?” asked Norton.

Kiru reached up, and a moment later one of the hatches swung open.

“Told you,” she said.

“Women and children first,” said Norton, and he cupped his hands for her to step into. “I hope you know how to drive one of these things.”

“So do I,” she said, and she kissed his lips.

As Kiru rose up to the capsule, he kissed her shoulder her breast, her hip, her knee, her ankle.

YEE-YAW-YOW-YAW-YEE-YAW-YOW.

“Now you.” Kiru reached down for him.

Norton raised his arms, and their wrists and hands locked together. Then a hint of movement in the gloom caught his eye and he looked around.

One of the shadow guards glided through the icy darkness, straight at him. It carried no weapon, but its arms were poised to haul him away from safety. If Norton fell, he’d also drag Kiru out of the capsule.

“Let go!” Norton yelled.

“No!” cried Kiru.

He tore himself free, saw Kiru fall back into the lifeboat.

As he began to drop, the spectre collided with him.

But instead of a violent impact, instead of thudding against Norton’s body, the alien passed through him…

Every atom of Norton’s body was drained of heat. His entire being was plunged into the abyss of absolute zero. His blood froze in his veins. His heart ceased to beat. His whole existence ended.