Phillip Peterson - The Dark Ship

“Forget it,” Jeff said shortly. “We’ll risk it without keeping watch.”

“OK,” Green said. He yawned and curled up on the bare floor. After just a few seconds, he started to snore.

It took Jeff longer to fall asleep. He couldn’t stop going over and over his encounter with the alien. Too many questions were still unanswered. And he was terrified of failing.

“How far to the sphere again?” Jeff asked.

He looked up at the dark-gray orb—the ship’s epicenter.

“Six miles,” the engineer answered. “Who’ll take Joanne?”

Jeff sighed. “I’ll do it.” He leaned over his still unconscious companion and activated the levitation belt. He adjusted the inertia negation. Joanne no longer weighed anything and Jeff lifted her up effortlessly until she was hovering level with his waist. He attached her belt to his own with a hook and placed his left arm under her hip.

“Let’s go!” Jeff said. “You fly ahead.”

Green didn’t answer but drifted upward like a helium balloon whose string had broken.

With his right hand, Jeff activated his own levitator and followed the engineer up into the alien sky.

The inner wall of the outer part of the ship was so smooth and featureless, it was very difficult to judge how high above the ground they were—and how far it was to the surface of the sphere. Only the radar on his suit provided numbers, which the computer projected onto the HUD of his helmet.

The view was truly breathtaking. Surreal. As if he had taken off from the bottom of an enormous bowl and was now steering toward the huge orb that hovered over it. It was the stuff of a feverish dream.

Jeff was almost level with Green when his legs suddenly jerked upward. Frantically, he manipulated his flight belt, trying to stabilize himself. It took a while until he stopped spinning around his own axis.

Green was having an easier time of it. But he wasn’t carrying Joanne, who did add extra bulk although she weighed nothing.

“The vector of gravity has changed again,” Green stated. As if Jeff hadn’t noticed. The ground was now no longer the inner shell of the outer ship area, but the surface of the central sphere.

He felt like he was about to vomit.

These damn gravity changes!

Finally they reached the new ground. Green pointed at a light-gray square a few miles away. “That could be the door to the lock,” he said.

Jeff shrugged. “Let’s give it a try. Lead the way.”

Green flew ahead, and a few minutes later they landed next to a square door that really did seem to be an airlock hatch. Several feet in diameter, it was more than big enough for them to get through. Jeff carefully laid Joanne down on the ground, but made sure her belt was still activated. Somehow they had to get into the airlock. He looked around. There were no control mechanisms. If the interior really was hermetically sealed, they would never be able to get in, and this whole journey would have been in vain.

“Hey,” Green nodded at the hatch. “It’s opening on its own.”

He was right. The hatch retracted slightly and then slid sideways into the wall. The chamber behind it came into view.

Green stood on the threshold, jumped up, and floated inside with the help of his belt.

Jeff hesitated. It made no sense to hermetically seal off the interior, if the hatch simply opened every time someone came along. He was pretty sure it was an invitation. Did the demon really want them to enter the epicenter of his kingdom? And if so, why? What made them so damned valuable? Or was this all just some kind of perfidious game?

“Are you coming?” Green asked. “I don’t want the hatch to close again and end up in here by myself.”

Jeff nodded. Their aim had always been to get to the center. But they had to stay on their guard more than ever. Gently, he picked up Joanne, stepped onto the threshold, and sank to the ground on the other side. He had barely reached the bottom when the hatch closed behind them. This was followed almost immediately by the whistle of incoming air.

Finally, a hatch opened on the opposite wall. Jeff checked the air pressure and opened the helmet of his suit. Cool, fresh air stroked his face.

“Ahhh,” Green closed his eyes in appreciation after also taking off his helmet.

“Wow, for the first time since we’ve been on board this ship, the air is good.” Jeff stepped through the hatch and found himself in a sterile white room about the size of a small auditorium. It was a typical airlock antechamber; it could have been on board a terrestrial ship. Cabinets, shelves, and equipment were dotted around the room. Double doors led to the other side. Green was already heading for the doors. Jeff followed with Joanne.

Green punched a button on the wall and the hatch slid open easily. Behind it was a room only a few square feet in size. Controls were mounted in the wall, and when Jeff entered, he realized he was standing in an elevator.

He laid Joanne down on the ground and stood next to Green to inspect the panel. There were two rows of vertically arranged buttons, with golden lettering next to each one.

Jeff took a deep breath. “Hmm, now what?”

“I’d say we want to go right down to the bottom,” Green said, and pressed the lowest button on the panel without waiting for a reply. Immediately, the door closed behind them, and the whole cabin shuddered slightly. Was it supposed to be this easy?

There was no indicator panel to show their current position. Only the constant vibration suggested they were actually heading toward the core of the ship. They were still twenty-five miles from the center, so the ride might take a while. On the other hand, they had no idea how fast the elevator was traveling.

After less than a minute, the elevator came to an abrupt stop. The doors opened with a hiss. Jeff lifted Joanne out of the elevator, and as he looked around, his eyes widened. By now, nothing ought to surprise him, but this …?

They were in a huge hall. It was dark, and Jeff could only make out vague outlines. The elevator they had just stepped out of was embedded in a huge, gray pillar, hundreds of feet high, which is what they must have traveled down. And there were more pillars all over this chamber, but at odd angles that led upward and sideways to a hemispherical ceiling that was so high above them, you could have fit several cathedrals on top of one another. The entire room was in fact a vast hemisphere with a diameter of at least a third of a mile. There were hatches at irregular intervals along the walls, some of which were open and emitting a shimmering reddish light. In the center of the room was another hemisphere, the shell of which was so black, it was like an enormous blind spot in Jeff’s field of vision.

“Well, I guess that’s the center of the ship,” Green said, marching resolutely toward a dark-gray hatch around eighty feet away from them.

Could it be? Was this hemisphere the control center of the ship? Had they really found it? And would the demon—or rather its hermetically sealed cryopod—be waiting for them inside?

Green seemed pretty convinced that they had reached their goal. Having almost reached the hatch, he beckoned to Jeff. “Come on. We’re there.” He grinned.

Jeff stood rooted to the spot. Something about Green bothered him. It had been bothering him the whole time. Subconsciously. The engineer had changed since coming on board this ship. True, they had all changed, but Green more than the others. Jeff remembered how sick the engineer had felt after they had moved into their accommodation. What had been the matter with him? A headache… dizziness. He’d had the same symptoms before. But where? That was it! On the Charon—during the attack on Acheron-4. When they had been hit by psychorays and Green had discovered his deflective shield was defective.