#
... pain ...... disturbance ...
A matter/energy cluster sweeps into the sleeping cloud. Swirling ion jets spout from the cluster.
... pain ... stirring ...
Waving, eddying curls of potency agitate the cloud.
... pain ... wake ... investigate ...
The cluster rests in the cloud. A shell of dead matter.
... puzzlement ... yawn ... what to do? ... wait ... try to sleep ... fitful sleep ...
#
Batus Ganebi studied the readouts of the samples they had scooped up. "Looks good." He grinned his wide, gap-toothed grin. "Looks real good."
The pilot, Sergai Vladovich, reached forward, his worn G-couch creaking in protest, to flip a contact. "Containment field activated."
"Shit, man. You ever get excited? Look at these specs. One cube-liter of this cloud mass could blast a warp-hole in the space/time continuum, big enough for a motherlovin' starliner. This is big."
"Universe is big, Ganebi." Sergai shrugged his shoulders. "This is cloud ... poeben' spooky one. Don't you feel it? Like someone watching us behind back."
Batus shook his head. "This is a fuckin' great cloud -- jammed full of energy. I've never seen anything this good before."
Sergai eyed him. "Lots of things you never see." He turned back to locking down systems, muttering to himself. "Like wedding ring on finger of friend's wife."
Batus ignored him as he always did. "Man, this is so close to home, we could spit a load there. You know what this is worth."
Sergai sighed, his thick lips pursed in a frown of pity. "Worth? Is all you think of -- is it waluable?"
"Now comes the 'Doing it For the Good of Humanity' speech."
Sergai grinned, his ripe old pockmarked face creasing up in ragged lines. "Shut up you face, okay? This time is your turn. Deploy the zlo'ebuchy extractor nozzle and get out there and suck it up. I want get out of here. This cloud give me creeps."
#
... wake ...
Stirrings from the matter shell intruder. An opening. Energy spilling out. A smaller object emerges. Spurts of energy. The small shell moves, dragging a sinewy line of matter behind it.
... an intelligent life form ... it had to be ...
#
"Extractor in place, man. Start it up."
Sergai leaned forward to flip the contact. A low drone back in the engine section told him the Promius's aged extractors had actually decided to function without coaxing today. He fingered the commlink, keeping his eyes on the sensors. "Pumping begins. Move to right. Slow."
"Damn, I know how to do this, okay?"
"Just want to finish ... fast."
#
... pain ... draining ...
The small object with the line of matter. Must surround it. Study it.
Matter -- just inert matter. Wait. A small opening to the inside. Energy escaping in short bursts. Inside, more energy. Organic life energy.
... I knew that was a mistake ...
#
Sergai watched the monitors, guiding Ganebi to the highest concentrations of ZPE, but his uneasiness increased.
Against a possible EVA-glitch he wore his pressure suit, the helmet resting on a locker behind him. He flipped the commlink. "What you are doing? I said left and down. Hello?" No answer. He wiped his forehead. "Ganebi?"
On the monitor he watched his partner release the extractor and rotate back to the ship. A spray of ions, white against the gray of the cloud, jetted him toward the EVA hatch.
"Hey, what you are doing? We not finish."
"I'm..." Ganebi's voice trailed off.
"What?"
"... not ... feeling ... good." Ganebi's voice came in bursts now, with moaning between words and funny squeaking sounds. "Returning ... to ... ship ..."
"Ebat'-kopat'!" Sergai slammed his fist down on the control panel. "I knew cloud was bad news."
"Open ... the hatch."
Out of long habit Sergai's hand reached for the contact to let Ganebi in. But this time he paused. "What if ... whatever you got, gets in here?"
"Hey, Sergeman." Ganebi sounded suddenly stronger. "It's just a ... queasy stomach. C'mon, let me in. I just need to ... take something for it ... then I'll get back out and finish the job."
Sergai hesitated a moment longer, thinking how he owed this guy nothing, then stabbed his finger down. The EVA hatch condition-light lit up -- OPEN. "Okay. But hurry, this place give me creeps."
"Coming up."
"Close EVA hatch first. Dolboy'eb!"
No answer.
"Ganebi?" Sweat soaked Sergai's face. "What you doing?"
The airlock-hatch condition light still glowed OPEN. Then the decompression-warning buzzer went off.
"Ganebi!" Sergai slapped the emergency cabin-hatch seal switch and scrambled to his locker, slamming his helmet on and twist-locking it. The hiss of pressurization and the touch of cool air on his face bolstered him some.
He sat at the controls and switched the monitor to the airlock cam. His view showed the open EVA-hatch. Stars, barely visible through the haze of the cloud, wheeled in the opening -- a universal circle dance.
He punched the EVA-hatch emergency override. The door refused to close. Zooming in, he spotted where Ganebi had cut the hydraulic hose. The only way to close it now was to go down there and crank it shut. But he wasn't leaving the bridge until he knew what his partner, he snorted, was up to.
Flipping through the various cameras, he finally located him standing outside the cabin-hatch, waiting.
"Ganebi? What is problem? Why you rig EVA-hatch open?"
"Let me in, Sergai. Need medicine."
"Am not letting you in until you tell me what fuck you doing."
"Everything's okay. Just need the medpak. C'mon, open up."
"Is vacuum out there. I crack hatch, you be blown into bulkhead. Me too."
"Then vent the cabin pressure, man."
"No way I am going to do that. Go down, crank EVA-hatch closed, then we return to station. You get med-help there."
"Listen, Sergai. We can't do that. You said it yourself: something is wrong with this cloud. Well, I figured it out. I know what to do. Just cut me some slack and open up, hey?"
"But you said you feel bad. Bad stomach."
"Had to say that. Someone, or something, was listening. They can't hear us now. Trust me."
"Is pirates?"
"Yeah. Vent cabin pressure and open up. I know what to do. I was Security, remember?"
It was true -- he'd been Security. Sergai was Engineering, what did he know about this kind of situation? But it boiled down to a matter of trust. How could you trust a man that stole your wife then dumped her on some planet? Even if she had begged him to do it, how could a man do that to a friend?
Damn it all, if pirates were around, he had to stick with the man despite his feelings. Just like he had all these years to make a living. But why had the idiot left the hatch open? Why depressurize the whole ship? He lacked answers, but knew Ganebi familiar with this kind of situation.
Sergai pivoted to the controls. "Okay." Slapping off the vacuum warning, he hit the emergency vent switch, which opened after several minutes. Damn old tub! Sergai had served on starliners -- they should have orbited this chemical-burning fossil into the nearest star decades ago. But as long as it could find and suck up high concentrations of Zero Point Energy, it still had a job to do.
His suit stiffened as pressure fell. In a few minutes the vacuum warning light glowed. He faced the door, reaching back to flip the cabin-hatch contact. The door opened. Ganebi's space-suited figure stood at the hatch, not moving -- his faceplate a black mirror.
"Ganebi?"
The figure shook as if waking. "What?"
"Hatch is open."
"Yeah. Right. Hey, switch off the gravity, will ya?"
"Switch off gravity generators?"
"And life support, engineering -- everything. Shut it down. Shut the whole ship down."
"Why?"
"It's ... necessary. Trust me."
Sergai sat at the controls and ran his hand down the bank of emergency cutoffs. Overhead lights blinked out, then flickered back on, dim on battery power. He rose to face Ganebi, feet lifting off the deck until he remembered to power up his boot magnets. His partner floated in the hatch, not heeding the lack of gravity.
Ganebi's hands grasped his helmet. "Hey, Sergai ... got something to show you."
"What? What can you show me?"
He twisted the helmet.
"No! I depressurized the ship -- don't take off helmet."
"It's okay. Gotta show you something."
With a jerk, he cracked the seal. Misty air expelled as he lifted the helmet off and tossed it aside, then unzipped his suit, spreading it open.
Sergai grabbed a bulkhead support and screamed like a child thrown into a ditch full of spiders.
Ganebi's head, his whole body, was a mass of tiny whirling lights, like millions of gnats buzzing around, confined in the shape of a man. It floated in front of Sergai doing nothing until the old man got control of himself and stopped shrieking.
"Ganebi, what happened? What is this?"
There was no mouth to move, but a hole opened-and-closed in the swirling, lighted head as Ganebi answered.
"Eing'hjels, Sergai. They're all over me. All in me."
"What are they doing? What do they want?"
"They're like us. They want Zero Point. Only they want to make it."
"Make Zero Point? Nothing can do that."
"These can. They turn organic matter into Zero Point Energy. This started with just one little helper. From my cells, my organic matter, it produced replicas of itself. Then the replicas made more copies. Now they want more. Much more."
The luminous shape of Batus Ganebi fluxed, wavered, then gushed out of the floating suit. Streams of eing'hjels surrounded Sergai, who screamed again as they found the opening of his waste exhaust. Bypassing the valve they flooded in, overwhelming, attacking -- altering every living cell they encountered into a clone of themselves.
In time Sergai stopped screaming. His clumsy suit settled into the G-couch before the controls. After the cloud had moved away, he powered up the engine and boosted toward station.
#
The matter shell spurts hot energy and eases farther away from the cloud.
... not long now ... not long ... wait ... try to sleep ... follow later ... sleep ... sweet sleep ...
#
"Sergai, have you gone batty or what?" Assistant Docking Officer of Fycus Station, Bryan O'Hara, couldn't believe his instruments. He rapped a knuckle on them, but nothing changed.
"Don't know what you are talking about."
"You've depressurized your ship, shut down life support. Your EVA hatch is rigged open, and you're dragging your extractor hose behind you -- half of it burnt off by your exhaust. Are you really telling me there's no problem?"
"Trust me. You know old Sergai. Yes, something happened. Ganebi is hurt, unconscious. But danger is over. He needs medical help. Please, let me dock."
"Hold on ... not yet. Uh, try explaining this again. From right where you are."
"My pleasure. I just think old Ganebi here can't last much longer."
"Bugger. Okay, but you'd better not be pulling anything." Bryan unlocked a docking ring. "You have docking clearance at B-level, dock three, ring nine."
Bryan watched the Promius shudder into position. What was wrong with Sergai? He could jockey better than that. Should he wake the commander?
He hit the intercom. "DockConn to Medical. Who's there?"
After a short delay the relay clicked. "Hey, Bryan. It's just me, Kaveka. What's up?"
Kaveka. What a break!
"Hi, Kav. Listen, old Sergai's docking the Promius at B-three-niner. Says Batus is unconscious or something. Grab a medpak and hustle down there, will ya?"
"Sure thing, on my way."
He exhaled. Kaveka was stable and competent. Attractive too. Which didn't matter for this, but--
The Promius fired its port thruster again. Why did he have to do that so many times just to line up for final approach? Bryan wiped his brow. Cripes, it was just old Sergai and Batus. Still, it was strange. He flicked the ShipComm relay. "Cut your buggin' speed, Sergai. You want to dock ... or ram us?"
No answer, but the braking jets fired a last pulse. Promius made contact, locking on with no damage -- barely.
Sergai's a better pilot than that. What was going on? Bryan decided to inspect the ring port himself. He checked his proximity sensors. No local traffic. He pocketed his handcomm and dashed out.
He rendezvoused with Kaveka at the ring lock. She was adjusting the lock's purge parameters. She smiled at him. A friendly, lopsided grin. "Thought I'd better run a bio-filter purge. Never know what these old farts will drag home."
"Yeah. Good thinking." He pulled his eyes away from counting the sprinkle of freckles on her nose. "Make sure you seal that outer hatch. They came in depressurized."
"Always do that anyway." She turned her head to him, her long black hair forming a halo around her head in the zero grav. "Did you say depressurized? What the hell are they playing at?"
"Don't know." Their eyes locked for an awkward moment. He managed to tear his gaze away from her golden irises long enough to check the dial for her. "Uh, cycle's done."
She grinned at him before turning back to flip the unlock switch. The hatch dilated with a low hiss. Sergai faced them, his helmet visor blacked out.
Bryan visually inspected the air lock. "Sergai? Hey, where's Batus? You said he was hurt."
The pressure-suited figure took a few clumsy steps toward them. Kaveka grabbed Bryan's arm, while her other hand stabbed at the hatch switch, but Sergai moved out into the corridor before the cover slid shut.
He lifted his hands to twist his helmet free. "Have something to show you."
Bryan and Kaveka took a step back and froze, her slim, soft hand clinging to his arm.
#
... wake ... follow ion trail ... so many life forms ... absorb ... send eing'hjels to next link ... try to sleep ...
#
No one at Solar Central Station seemed surprised to hear Bryan O'Hara's voice announce the arrival of the starliner Crestabal. Lots of people got promoted out in the perimeter.
The ship docked as usual, but when her huge air locks opened to let the passengers and crew out, bursts of buzzing points of brilliance exploded throughout the tremendous space station.
Below, the Earth glimmered in full sunlight ... waiting.
#
Just a few billion more and peace is restored.
... wake me up in the middle of eternity will they? ... look at the time ... must get up soon ... start the whole thing over ... crate the universe and everything in it ... seven tough days before I can rest again ... got to sleep ... maybe this next time I'll skip the intelligent life forms ... more trouble than they're worth ... always waking a god up ...
---- END ----
Ralan Conley lives in Scandinavia and earns his living writing. He's the editor/owner of the author's resource web site, Ralan.com. His work has and will appear in numerous publications, and many of his stories have won contests, awards, & reader's polls.
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