Phillip Peterson - The Dark Ship

“There’s your girlfriend. She’s doing well,” Green said with a sneer. He was standing right behind Jeff.

Now or never!

With a fluid motion, Jeff rose to his feet and at the same time pulled the pistol out of his holster, spun round, and squeezed the trigger.

The bullet entered Green’s forehead and exited out of the back of his head. In an explosion of red, it tore out bits of skull, brain, and blood with it.

Green’s expression froze in disbelief and surprise. He staggered, but somehow remained on his feet. Then his face twisted into a nasty grin again. A thick trail of blood ran down his cheek from the wound on his forehead. He began to laugh again—and fell forward. He landed on the floor with a thud and fell silent.

“ Bastard! ”

Loud, inhuman laughter sounded from hidden loudspeakers that echoed around the room. Jeff knew he hadn’t killed the demon, but maybe it would buy him some time. He ran along the edge of the room. That button the alien had told him about—it must be here somewhere.

But Jeff hadn’t gone far when he heard the door hissing behind him. He spun round, clenching his hands. Who would enter the room now?

Or what?

It was Green. He stood in front of the door until it closed behind him, then made a histrionic gesture with his arms like an over-enthusiastic entertainer. “I told you—you can’t do me any harm here.”

“Green was just an avatar,” Jeff said dryly. “Since when?”

The demon grinned. “Oh, not long. If you hadn’t run off in a panic, your plan might have worked.” He cocked his head. “Or perhaps not. But then there would have been other ways and means. In any case, you won’t be leaving here.”

That was no surprise. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you doing this?”

Green grimaced and rolled his eyes. “Because it’s fun. Especially with you humans. You make such funny noises when you’re in pain.”

“You’re sick!” Jeff shouted.

Green shook his head slowly. “No I’m not. I’m God.” He paused a moment. “Or rather the other one. You know who.” He chuckled. “A very interesting concept, by the way, your hell. A place of eternal torment and punishment—I was delighted to hear of it when you humans came on board. I redecorated the cavitys especially!”

“You destroyed inhabited planets!”

Green nodded. “I found some bombs aboard a damaged ship and wanted to give them a try. You certainly like playing at war. In fact, there isn’t such a big difference between you homo sapiens and me. And I certainly had a lot of fun destroying your worlds after I’d taken several thousands of their inhabitants on board.”

“How did you even get them onto your ship?” Jeff asked, his throat completely dry.

“Teleportation, of course.”

Jeff swallowed. Humanity had been trying to master that technology for centuries—but in vain. “Teleportation?”

Green laughed. “What did you think? That billions of passengers were bought on board with ferries? That would have taken decades. No, the individuals were captured on their respective planets, teleported, and immediately rematerialized in the cryopods.”

Jeff shuddered.

One moment you might be walking down the street, the next moment you would be in this simulation of hell on the black ship. No wonder the people thought they had been killed in a surprise attack.

“Why didn’t you beam us straight into the cryopods when we turned up?”

Green shrugged. “I happened to be busy with a—shall we say, interesting—game in hell, and only noticed your presence rather late. What’s more, the teleportation process is rather time-consuming; the field projectors have to be prepared first.”

“You could have teleported us straight from our cabin to those pods.”

Green laughed. “You’re right, that would have been very convenient. But no. Because of the large projector surfaces, matter can only be brought aboard from a certain distance. There’s no other way, unfortunately.”

Jeff took a deep breath. “And what do you want from me now?”

“I want to show you something. Come with me.”

The demon turned around and strutted across the room toward a console. Jeff followed him at a distance of several feet.

When Green reached the console, he flipped a switch and a small door slid opened. Behind it was a compartment the size of a microwave oven, illuminated by a yellow light. “This is a universal analyzer. It scans everything you present it with, atom by atom, and transfers it as a model to the computer.”

Jeff was confused. “And?”

The demon grinned again. He seemed to be enjoying giving Jeff the runaround. Then he stretched out his right hand.

“What?” Jeff asked.

“Major Irons’ handheld, please.”

Jeff was frozen to the spot. Suddenly he understood what the demon was planning.

“No.”

The demon nodded. “Yes. I have already tried approaching your central worlds. But they are too well protected. But with the access code, I’ll have free rein, and once the people realize what’s happening, it will be too late.” He chuckled. “My first stop: Earth. How many inhabitants does it have again?”

“Ten billion,” Jeff croaked automatically.

Green clapped his hands. “And I have just about that many empty cryopods on board. What a wonderful coincidence. My, we’re going to have a lot of fun together!”

Jeff closed his eyes. He should have deleted the data long ago. Why hadn’t he? At the latest after they had encountered the light aliens—that would have been the time to do it. But perhaps it wasn’t too late. Very slowly, he reached down to his belt pouch, where Irons’ handheld was tucked in next to his own.

But before he could take it out, Green punched him in the stomach. Jeff dropped to his knees with a groan. He had to support himself with both hands and was only half aware of Green taking Irons’ handheld out of his pouch.

“I’d rather take no chances. I wouldn’t want you to do something stupid.”

The pain gradually subsided. At least he could lift his head again. He looked up just in time to see the demon close the door of the compartment and press a button.

“It should be quick,” Green said, rubbing his hands as he watched the hologram that had appeared in front of him, and which displayed symbols in the aliens’ language. “Yes, the analysis is starting. Ah, I see!”

He turned around and grinned. “It was a good idea to bring you here.”

Then the demon lunged at Jeff.

What the…?

Jeff tried to push Green away from him. He didn’t succeed. Then Green’s knee rammed into his stomach and he collapsed to the ground. Jeff felt his hand being tugged at. He tried desperately to pull it away, but it was useless.

Green’s head jerked forward. His bit into Jeff’s index finger, and Jeff felt his hand explode with pain. He screamed, and tears filled his eyes. He almost lost consciousness.

Then the searing pain suddenly stopped. Jeff groaned. Green let him go and fell to the ground. He blinked, and struggled to regain his vision. He propped himself up on his left elbow and looked at his right hand.

My finger!

His finger was missing. A small piece of white bone protruded from the wound. Blood was pulsing down his hand and dripping onto the floor in a steady stream.

Jeff looked up. Green’s chin was bloody. He reached into his mouth and pulled out Jeff’s finger.

He had bitten it off!

“Thank you for your fingerprint,” the demon said, licking his bloody lips. Then he placed the finger next to the handheld in the analyzer. “I really appreciate your sacrifice.”

It beeped, and then he reached into the device and pulled the handheld back out.