Питер Филлипс - In Space No One Can Hear You Scream

“Sir, I don’t remember being in there for any time at all,” I said. “The chair went through the black whatever-it-is . . .”

“Whatever-it- was . It’s gone now. What did you do to turn it off?”

I was getting very annoyed. A drink probably wouldn’t have helped. At least I was two days’ closer to being a Proud Friggin’ Civilian again. “Once again, sir, the chair put me through it, and the next thing I remember was walking out through it, on my own feet. What happened to the chair?”

“As per the plan, after one minute the tractor pulled you out again. Or pulled the chair out again. You weren’t in it and the straps hadn’t been unbuckled. What are you hiding, Kelly?”

Then his face got a look that told me he had just had an idea. I was was sure I wouldn’t like it. I was right.

“If you are Kelly? Maybe I should put you in the brig until they can give you a full physical.” He stood up, and I stood up, and I don’t know if that’s what caused it. I was very upset, and I still don’t know if that caused it. But suddenly he was staring at my right and his eyes were very wide. And the shadow that was visible out of the corner of my eye was where he was staring as he pulled his gun from its holster. Then he was gone. Most of him.

There were pieces of his uniform scattered around his office, and little pieces of the colonel, and puddles of what looked like blood in unlikely places. But most of the colonel was gone.

They hadn’t let me take a gun on the mission through the gate, so I didn’t have mine, but Oberst’s gun was on the floor. I moved as fast as I could in the low gravity and grabbed it up. Then I turned around. Several times. But I was apparently alone in the office. I didn’t even see the shadow.

I thought about calling for help. Then I wondered which would be worse, being examined, maybe dissected, to see if I was really human—Oberst wouldn’t be the only one to get that idea—or put on trial for Oberst’s murder. There was enough of Oberst left to be identified, and I was the only one with him in his office when it happened. Whatever had happened.

On second thought, I probably wouldn’t get a trial. One of the crown princes of the Oberst family was dead and I was the only fall guy around. I’d probably just disappear, unless I disappeared on my own.

Then I thought I saw the shadow again. Or Shadow—I wasn’t thinking of it as capitalized yet, but I soon would. I turned quickly and aimed the gun, but there was nothing there.

Something had come through the gate with me. It was dangerous. Maybe it would attack me next, but if I went back to Earth—if they let me go back to Earth—it might attack someone else. Angie . . .

I left the office, saw there was nobody in sight, and went to get my pressure suit. On the way, Dr. Haber, one of the scientists, saw me and said, “Lieutenant Kelly, is it true you remember nothing of the time you were on the other side of the gate? We need to talk—”

“Right, Doctor. But I need to get something to eat first,” I brushed him off.

“Hmmm, I don’t know if you should eat anything until we’ve made an examina—”

“Later, please. I also need to use the latrine.”

“Maybe we should have samples—”

I managed to get away from him without either stunning or cold-cocking him. Once I was back in my pressure suit, I headed for the launch pads, and opened the hatch to the ship I had piloted there from Earth. There shouldn’t be anybody aboard, and there wasn’t. Nobody would have any reason to steal a ship.

Except me.

I strapped in and again thought about heading for Earth. If I had left the thing behind—then I saw the Shadow again out of the corner of my eye, in the control room.

Eventually, I would quit turning my head, trying to see it clearly. There was never anything there. And there was nothing causing a shadow this time, either. But it was on the ship with me. Suppose I went back to Earth with the thing on board, and once it got there it reproduced? Maybe it could divide like an amoeba. Lots of little shadow-things swarming across the Earth.

I couldn’t go back to Earth yet—maybe not ever.

I took off and ignored the anxious voices coming from the audio. Once I was far enough away, I’d set a course. My plans were vague, but I had to go somewhere to get supplies. The ship’s atomic generator could run the reactionless drive and the hyperwarp engines for years, but I wasn’t that well-supplied. I didn’t guess then that I would keep needing supplies for a very long time.

Besides, I had to get rid of the Fleet ship. I knew about some independent and not particularly ethical colonies where I could turn it into currency, enough to get a smaller and less conspicuous ship and plenty of supplies. When I needed more currency, I could make some hauling small cargoes. But no passengers. Never any passengers.

Maybe I could get rid of my Shadow somehow. Or maybe it would get rid of me. But I was going to keep it away from Earth. And Angie. Oh, Angie . . .

Selling the Fleet ship turned out to be harder than I had expected. I wasn’t going to land on the planet, and they wouldn’t let me near the space station, but I couldn’t blame them since I was piloting a fully-armed Fleet ship, nuke torpedoes and all. I asked the two in the ship that rendezvoused with me to stay in their ship. “Sure,” one of them said from the vision screen, “we’ll stay here and you’ll come over and join us.”

Somehow the old joke, “Why, are you coming apart?” didn’t seem very funny. We argued for a while, but I finally went across the connecting tube. The two had guns trained on me, of course.

“So, you’ve deserted the Fleet and you want to sell that ship. Selling stolen goods, eh?” said the fat one. “You think we’re pirates, maybe?”

I’d heard they didn’t like to be called pirates. “No,” I said, “just businessmen, trying to make a profit. Like I’m trying to make a deal.”

The tall, bald one said, “Oh, I think you think we’re pirates. You also think pirates are stupid, to believe a story like yours. I think right after we buy the ship, more Fleet ships’ll show up, accuse us of stealing Terran government property and illegal weapons, and use that as an excuse for taking over the colony. Nobody’ll care. After all, we’re just pirates.”

I was wondering if they were going to shoot me. I was a little surprised to find that I didn’t much care. But only a little. I think they saw that and it made them nervous.

“Okay, Fleet boy,” fat said, “let’s take you to the station and find out what you’re really up to.” Then he noticed that the bald one wasn’t there anymore. Most of him wasn’t there.

“What the hell—” was what he said before I slugged him. Maybe I did care if he shot me. But not much.

Back in my stolen ship, I headed for another rogue colony and wondered how big the Shadow was. I had gone from one ship to another through a connecting tube barely big enough for me to stand up in. Maybe it hadn’t needed the tube.

Much the same thing happened at my next stop. Maybe the dialogue was a little different. I had hoped I might have left the Shadow behind in the other ship, but hadn’t hoped very hard.

I eventually found a buyer, then bought a smaller ship, stocked it with supplies, and headed outsystem, not caring where. Before that, the woman I bought the ship from asked me if I wanted a new name on the hull. I was about to say, “No,” but I thought of something. “Name it Dutchman ,” I said. As in Flying Dutchman , I thought. I was going to keep flying for a long time, I thought. But I didn’t suspect then how long that would be. And how many other people would disappear at other stops.