Phillip Peterson - The Dark Ship

Jeff tugged at the bandage he had wrapped around his finger, got up and turned to the aliens. Jerry had remained by his side. “What happens now?”

“I will take you to a rescue pod that was intended for the ship’s controllers. It will take you to the next inhabited star system.”

Jeff sighed deeply. He and Joanne were the only ones left. Two out of the original ten. And he couldn’t stop thinking about his father, and all the other people still trapped in cryopods. “Do you have access to the cavitys again? And the avatar controls?”

Jeff looked around. The aliens had spread out around the room. They were standing at the consoles, which were flashing back to life one by one.

“Yes,” Jerry said. “The avatars have been deactivated and the cavitys are no longer in use.”

Finally there was an end to all the suffering.

“Good,” Jeff said shortly. He wondered what the safest way would be of transporting all the people to the next world?

“I suggest I take you and your shipmate to the escape pod now.”

Jeff shook his head. “No, thank you. We won’t leave our fellow humans alone here. We will stay until we’ve reached the next star system and disembark together.”

The alien shook his head. “I’m terribly sorry. But we can’t help the other members of your species.”

Can’t help them?

“Why not?”

“Because the ship will self-destruct in… forty minutes.”

Jeff couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was impossible. It couldn’t be. “What did you say?”

“I’m sorry. The ship will be destroyed in forty minutes.”

“But why?”

“It was the only way of stopping the demon. The button you pressed ejected the refrigerant used for the reactors. It was the only way to activate emergency access to the central area. Without sending the coolant into space, we couldn’t have come in here.”

“And what will happen to all those people?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Can’t we distribute them among the emergency escape pods?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Or rescue them some other way?”

“I’m very sorry.”

Jeff cupped his head in his hands. He had thought they could save those poor people. Now they had been freed from their nightmare but he had sentenced them to death.

His father! He had to at least save his father!

“I met my father in the cavitys. I won’t leave the ship without him,” he said firmly.

“I’m not sure there is enough time.”

“I won’t go without him.”

“Follow me,” Jerry ordered.

Jeff followed him to one of the consoles. Jerry fiddled around at the controls and several screens lit up.

“You met him? In the cavity? Did you talk to him?”

Jeff nodded.

Most of the screens were covered in symbols. It took several long seconds, and Jeff hopped nervously from one foot to the other. Finally a fuzzy image of his father appeared on the screen. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be asleep. The background was black. “That’s him!” Jeff cried.

Suddenly the screen went blank and Jerry turned around. “Follow me.”

Jeff followed Jerry to the exit and through the big antechamber. They turned into one of the dark corridors and after a few minutes’ walk reached an elevator. Jeff wasn’t sure if Jerry was taking him up or down. When the doors reopened, they stepped into the big warehouse with the countless cryogenic pods.

Hurriedly, Jerry led him past the endless rows of shelves, through which a reddish mist wafted. Finally, they stopped in front of one. Jerry punched something into a control panel and a few seconds later a small platform descended from above. On it was a cryopod. The platform with the coffin-like container made of black metal stopped directly at his feet.

Jerry punched several buttons on the console on the side of the container. First came the faint humming of a pump, then a metallic sound of latches snapping back. At last, the lid hissed open. Jeff’s heart was pounding.

He leaned forward. The container was filled with a greenish liquid, but it quickly receded. Floating in the liquid was an emaciated body, which bore little resemblance to his father’s formerly muscular physique.

“Oh my God!” Jeff whispered.

The person in the container turned his head slightly in Jeff’s direction and moaned softly. Then he opened his eyes and Jeff recognized their deep blue color.

“Jeff,” his father said in a weak voice and stretched out a hand.

“Dad!” Jeff sobbed, lifting out the bizarrely light body. Carefully he laid him on the metal floor and held him tight.

His father no longer had any hair. His skin was pale, almost transparent. His bones stuck out of parchment-like skin, beneath which there was no sign of fat or muscle.

“What happened to him?” Jeff asked, stroking his father’s cheek.

Jerry was still fiddling around with the console, on which a small screen displayed changing symbols.

“The demon,” Jerry said. “He changed the nutrient supply in the chambers. He must have wanted to ensure the bodies would no longer be viable outside of the cryopods.”

“You mean, my father is dying?” Jeff asked.

“His muscles have completely atrophied. His body can no longer function on its own. I fear the answer to your question is: yes. The man is dying.”

Jeff sobbed. His father opened his eyes again for a moment and his gaze was very clear. “Where are we?” he asked in a trembling voice.

“On the black ship,” Jeff whispered.

“Hell was really just an illusion? I’m alive?”

Jeff nodded. He wiped the tears from his cheeks.

“Yes.”

How could he explain it to his father? How could he tell him he had woken him from the dead, only to let him die again?

“But I’m so tired,” his father whispered. “I think I need to sleep now.”

Jeff nodded. He couldn’t speak because of the lump in his throat.

“Will you stay with me until I’ve fallen asleep?”

Jeff squeezed his father’s hand. “Yes.”

His father looked him straight in the eyes, as if he wanted to hold onto Jeff and to life with his eyes. But then they glazed over and his head fell limply back into Jeff’s arms.

The console made three long beeping sounds.

“I’m sorry,” Jerry said after a short silence.

Jeff sobbed and hugged his father’s body.

“I think you should make your way to the escape pod now. It is only another fifteen minutes until the reactors overheat.”

Jeff was unable to move. He couldn’t go on. All he wanted to do was curl up beside his father and close his eyes. But he had to think of Joanne. He was responsible for her, too. Jeff bit his lips, until the salty taste of blood filled his mouth. He had to get up. There would be time to mourn later.

Gently, he laid his father’s body on the ground and loosened the last cords and cables that connected him to the cryogenic pod. He stroked his cheek one last time and then got up.

“Let’s go.”

Jerry led the way. Jeff followed him into the elevator.

“What’ll become of you?” Jeff asked as they waited.

“We are tired after eons of roaming this ship, and now that the demon has been destroyed, we are looking forward to being finally released.”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not in the least.”

The doors of the elevator opened and Jeff followed Jerry into a narrow corridor at the end of which was an oval hatch.

Jeff frowned. “That doesn’t lead to the control center.”

“No, but to the escape pod.”

Jeff turned around. “I still have to get Joanne!”

“My friends have already taken her on board, everything is ready.”

Jerry opened the hatch, and then another one right behind it. Jeff found himself in an elongated, oval cabin with a few seats and two large windows at the front. Joanne was sitting unconscious in one of the seats, already strapped in. At the back of the capsule were five open cryogenic pods.