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  Kate shook her head slowly. “No. I’m not okay.” She couldn’t take her eyes off Ricky and she was shaking badly. “What got into him? I had no other choice.”

  “We know,” Gary tried to comfort her. “He went berserk, there’s no other explanation for it.”

  There was a question she had to ask. “How was he able to exist without his suit?”

  “We just don’t know,” Mark admitted. He glanced at Gary and then averted his eyes from Kate’s.

  She could tell there was more. “What else?”

  Gary stepped over to her and took her gloved hand in his. “Gail is dead.”

  “Dead?” She couldn’t believe it. “But how?”

  Gary’s eyes shifted to the heap on the ground. That was all the explanation necessary.

  Ricky and Gail’s bodies were returned to the complex. Holly officiated at a ceremony for which she had no taste. It was held in the laboratory. Both bodies were enveloped in plastic death-bags brought along for emergencies, but starched white sheets with Nova’s insignia spared the crew the ordeal of having to see their friends as they were. Holly kept her composure and said the appropriate words. When the short service was finished the bodies were to be returned to the freezer where they would rest until they could be shipped to the space station.

  After the others had gone, Karl turned to Holly. “I’d like permission to perform an autopsy on Ricky.”

  “What do you expect to find?”

  “I think we’d all like to know what made him act that way. I also would like to find out what caused the deterioration of his skin and his hair.”

  Holly considered the request. “If you think it might do some good, go ahead.”

  Karl removed the ceremonial covering, carefully folding it. He laid out his equipment on a table next to the slab on which Ricky’s body lay, and scrubbed up at the sink. He pulled on his paper-thin gloves and began to unzip the death-bag.

  “Help me with this will you, please?” he asked Sandy.

  She couldn’t look and averted her eyes as they lifted the body out of the sack. Sure, she had dissected cadavers in medical school but none of them were anything like this.

  “Hard for you?” Karl managed a weak smile.

  “I can’t handle seeing a friend like this. I’m sorry.”

  Karl came round to the other end of the table. He put his arm around Sandy and moved her away from the corpse. “This has been a rough day for all of us. A real rough day. Do yourself a favor and get out of here. I work better alone anyway.”

  “No, I’ll get over it. I just feel a little queasy in the gut.”

  “I think it’s better for you to miss this,” he said firmly.

  Sandy was relieved. “Are you sure you don’t need me?”

  “I’m positive. When I’m finished with Ricky, I’ll call you and we can get started on the creature. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Once Sandy was gone, Karl set about his gruesome task. He cut into Ricky’s skull with his laser scalpel. He separated the bone with his hands and what he found was totally beyond his understanding. There was no substance of any type remaining. Except for the bone and an orange-colored fluid it was empty. There was only a liquid similar—very similar—to that which remained when the crystals melted.

  Karl felt he had to share the information with Holly and called her immediately. “Can you come down here right away?”

  “What is it?”

  “I’d rather not talk about it over the communicator. Please come quickly.”

  Karl made a slide of the liquid from Ricky’s skull and placed it under the microscope. As he’d suspected, its composition was very similar to that of the dissolved crystals.

  “Can you let me in on it now?” Holly asked. She was bounding through the laboratory portal.

  “Take a look at both of these slides.”

  She did. “I’m no expert but they look identical to me.”

  Then Karl told her where each had come from.

  “There’s more, isn’t there?”

  Karl motioned her over to the examining table. He gripped the broken shell of Ricky’s skull in his hands and pulled it apart.

  “What have you done with his brain?” she asked.

  “He had no brain.”

  CHAPTER

  FOUR

  Gary didn’t usually mind doing night-watch. Usually, it meant the occasional glance at the monitor screens and a casual stroll up and down the corridors every few hours. He didn’t mind the assignment—not normally. But this night was different. Everyone was jumpy—real nervous after everything that had occurred. And Holly telling him to be particularly careful not to doze off hadn’t done anything for his nerves. She knew a few hours of shut-eye didn’t hurt anybody. After all, if she expected him to do a full day’s work the next day, he’d have to get some rest, wouldn’t he?

  He sat in the control room, his feet propped up on the console with a cheap novel resting in his lap. Even lurid sex and outrageous violence paled in comparison to the real-life adventure that day. They sure didn’t teach him about any of this in the Academy. Oh no! Not those tight-assed professors. They had no idea what it was like any more. Most of them had retired so long ago they wouldn’t recognise the inside of a module.

  “Oh well,” Gary shrugged. “I suppose if they were any good they’d be doing, not teaching.”

  Gary was a doer. He left home when he was fourteen years old. He packed one bag and stowed away on a craft programmed for a three-year journey. He hid in the supply chamber and didn’t come out until the ship had passed the point of no-return.

  The commander had no choice but to keep Gary aboard. But he worked hard and he learned. He paid his way with sweat and toil. The crew took to him and officially designated him cabin boy.

  The commander was a kindly man but he was strict. He laid out a regimented routine for Gary which included his chores, academic study and practical training. During his time on the craft—the Columbia—he did four different apprenticeships and mastered them all.

  When the craft returned, Gary was seventeen and he became the youngest person ever to be accepted by the Academy. It wasn’t an easy four years. He often found himself in heated arguments with his instructors. He’d gone through so much already that he couldn’t put up with their ivory-tower esoteric theories that had absolutely no relevance to contemporary space travel.

  Gary yawned and glanced at the digital time-piece set into the console. It was time for making the rounds. He finished his mug of coffee and reached for his clip-board. “Got to get moving,” he mumbled. He stuffed the keys into his pocket and strapped his laser around his waist. That was another of Holly’s new rules. “An armed watch! I wonder why they made an hysterical woman like that commander anyway!”

  Holly was nearly asleep. It had taken a while for her to relax. She’d considered downing a couple of pills but she didn’t want to be out of control should she be called upon during the night. She wanted to be ready to exert her full mental and physical powers if need be.

  Holly was just drifting off when she was brought back to consciousness by a noise outside her door. She got out of bed and listened for it again. She had a case of jitters and her heart beat rapidly. She took a step closer to the door and called out, “Is anybody there?”

  “It’s me—Kate. Are you still awake?”

  Holly’s tense shoulders dropped in relief. She opened the door. “What’s up?”

  “It’s cold out here in the hallway,” Kate complained. “Can I come in?”

  Holly stood to the side to let her pass, then closed the door behind her. “Okay, what can I do for you. It’s late.”

  Kate felt terribly uncomfortable in Holly’s presence at that moment. “Maybe I’d better leave.”

  Holly realised she was making it hard for Kate. She eased up and let some warmth flow into her manner. “Come on. Open up. What’s eating you?”

  Kate threw her head back causing her long brown curls to
tumble across her shoulders. “I . . . I can’t explain what I feel, but I want to try. Today I lost a good friend and I killed a colleague. Ricky and I were on rotation together. I mean, last night we were making love and today I killed him.” Kate was close to tears.

  Holly moved closer to her. “Here, sit on the bed next to me. Cry if it makes you feel better.”

  “I would, if only I could. You know, it’s so damn hard being a woman. We’re supposed to be hard as nails—chew up days like this and spit them out again, just like a man. Just like you, Holly. But damn it! It’s so difficult to be like that.”

  “We’re not born like that,” Holly told her. “It’s something that takes time to learn. We have to control our emotions. The only way I got where I am today is because when the chips were down I knew I could be hard as a rock.”

  “But . . .” Kate tried to interrupt.

  “Let me finish. You mentioned Ricky. That you slept with him and now you’ve killed him. Well, that just proves the concept of rotation works. If you had been emotionally involved with him you’d never have been able to pull the trigger. And where would it have got you? You’d both probably be dead right now.”

  Holly moved close to Kate their legs were pressed against each other. From above, the reading lamp shone down through their nightclothes revealing contrasting bodies. They were both the same age, twenty-six. Kate was taller, her breasts and hips smaller. Holly was muscular and buxom with nicely shaped round hips.

  Holly managed to get out a weak laugh. “You think it’s easy being hard? I don’t tell people this, but more than once I’ve come back to my cabin at night, locked myself in and cried my heart out. I don’t care what they teach you at the Academy. It’s impossible to block out all emotion. All human emotion. I know it has no place on intergalactic missions like this but hell, you spend two, maybe three months fucking a guy. You get to like it and you get to like him. Then it’s time to rotate and you’re landed with someone you can’t stand and he’s balling your best friend.”

  That brought a smile to Kate’s drawn and weary face. “I’m glad you understand. I really am. We never had a chance to talk like people, like friends, on expeditions like this. I feel better already.”

  Holly looked Kate in the eye. “If you want to get anywhere in this business, you’ve got to hide those feelings. Feelings, Kate, are perceived as a sign of weakness. Once an adversary senses that weakness, you can forget it! He’ll hammer away at it until you’re broken.”

  Kate was looking concerned again. “So what do I do?”

  “When it hurts inside, just bite your lip till it bleeds if you have to. Then, when you’re alone, let yourself go.”

  Suddenly Kate began to cry. The floodgates really opened. She tried to stop and compose herself but it was no use. The pain from that terrible day was being washed away by salty tears.

  Holly put her arms around Kate and pulled her close. “Hey, it’s okay. Let it all out. It’ll be our secret.”

  “Oh thank you, thank you, Holly,” she said between sobs.

  Holly continued to hold Kate close and she rocked her in her arms. Somehow her shirt had fallen open and a round bare breast rested comfortably against Kate’s. The warmth of the two touching bodies was reassuring. The feeling gave Holly unexpected pleasure. She was also surprised to feel a heated churning down below.

  Holly wondered if Kate was experiencing a similar sensation. The question was answered very soon. Kate lifted her head and met Holly’s lips. They kissed tenderly but there was an ever-increasing urgency in their embrace. Holly broke away and attempted to unfasten the remaining buttons on Kate’s shirt. But Kate stopped her.

  A sinking feeling came over Holly. She wondered if perhaps she’d made a terrible mistake. If Command got wind of it, she’d lose her commission. But her fears were soon calmed.

  Kate spread Holly out on the bed, unbuttoned the commander’s shirt and slipped off her panties. Then she brought herself to the same state of total nakedness. She lightly stroked Holly’s deeply tanned thighs, deliberately missing the warmth of her womanhood. Holly was being taken higher and higher until she couldn’t stand it any longer. She guided Kate’s eager tongue between her parted legs and enjoyed the pleasurable sensations. Holly bit her lip. This time, not to hold back the tears of pain, but the tears of joy.

  Across the corridor from Holly’s room, a similar activity was taking place, only between Mitch and Barbra, They also had their share of contrasts. Though both were tall, her skin was soft with a pink freshness to it. His black skin was tightly pulled over his muscular body.

  Barbra was turned on by the way they looked when they made love. She’d watch in the mirror as he slid his long and thick member into her. It fit so perfectly and it felt so nice. She especially enjoyed grinding her triangle of straight smooth blonde hair against his curly black strands. She often thought they made a good-looking couple. She prayed that one day they might have a child. Not now of course, because of his work—but one day. And she was sure the baby would be a beautiful shade of golden-brown.

  The lights coming from the laboratory were blazing. Gary might not have given them a second thought if Holly hadn’t told him to be extra-cautious. Anyway, he figured it was worth a look. Gary peered through the window in the door to observe Karl hard at work.

  He pushed his way in. “Hey, Doc, working late, eh?”

  Karl was at his desk. He was glad for the company and pushed the papers in front of him out of the way. “Good timing. How about a cup of coffee?”

  “Not for me. Just had one. What’re you up to?”

  “Just running some tests on our very strange Being. And let me emphasise, very strange.”

  Gary raised his eyebrows. “I don’t suppose you’d like to meet up with it in a dark alley.”

  “Ah, no. Not in a dark alley. Though I’d be willing to bet he and his buddies found themselves at a dead end. I hope Mitch can break that writing code, and fast. I’ve got a million questions that need answers. Then, at least we could all relax a bit. I’ve been handing out sleeping pills and tranquilizers like they were going outa style.”

  “Ever been on a mission like this before, Doc?” Gary probed. “I mean, where people have gone crazy like Ricky did.”

  Karl ran his fingers through his thin receding hair. “Yeah, but then it was just stress-induced.”

  “And you mean that with Ricky it wasn’t?” Gary was becoming very interested.

  Karl figured it was time to be open and frank. “That’s exactly what I mean. Something happened to his chemical make-up. There’s something very strange going on up here, almost evil. No,” he corrected himself. “Definitely evil!”

  Gary shot him a worried look.

  “I just don’t know what it is. Maybe we’ll get the answers from Mitch.”

  Gary turned to leave, more nervous than when he entered. “Going to be up all night?”

  Karl nodded. “Looks that way.”

  The door to the lab slid open and Sandy entered through the portal. She was refreshed after a good night’s sleep and eager to continue with the rest of the tests on the creature. Sandy had Karl figured out. For instance, she played a hunch he was still in the lab, and she was right on the mark. He had spent the night going through his battery of tests. Checking and rechecking the results, then feeding the data into the computer for an analysis. She wasn’t surprised when she found him slumped over his notes fast asleep.

  “Doctor, I’ve brought you some breakfast. You want to wake up or should I bring you a blanket and a pillow?”

  Karl slowly and with great effort opened his heavy eyelids. “Is it morning already? What time is it?”

  “About eight-thirty. How late were you at it?”

  He yawned. “Don’t know. I think I fell off at about five. Maybe a little later.”

  “You know we’re going to be here for at least another couple of months. If you push yourself like this you won’t make it.” She tried her best to sound convincing whe
n she scolded him, but somehow she just couldn’t pull it off.

  He looked up and immediately focused on the tray she was holding. “What’ve you got there?”

  Sandy set the tray before him on the desk. “I figured you might still be here and if you were you’d probably like some breakfast. Eggs, sausage and a very strong cup of coffee. How’s that sound?”

  “If they still used money like in the old days, I’d say it sounded like a million dollars. Let me at that coffee.”

  “Careful—it’s hot.”

  Karl took a sip. “But it’s good and right now I sure can use it.” Glancing at the slab in the corner of the room he added, “I wonder how long it’s been since he had breakfast. A thousand years, maybe?”

  “Any chance that Mitch will be able to figure that out from the writing on the tablets he found yesterday?”

  Karl shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know. As far as I can tell he hasn’t even broken the code. So many variables. No way to know how their dating system corresponds to ours unless some sort of astronomical occurrence has been chronicled. If it has then maybe we can tie it to something we know about and date it that way.” He swung his chair slowly around and looked across the lab at the creature. It lay deathly still. “Who knows, maybe when it wakes up—if it ever does—it’ll be able to communicate the secrets of its past.”

  “You mean talk?” Sandy’s eyes opened wide.

  “Possibly, although there are other ways of communication. We do know it had a developed intellect . . .” Karl cut himself off in mid-sentence.

  “What is it?”

  “I thought I saw our friend move.”

  Sandy stepped closer to Karl. “I didn’t see anything.”

  But the doctor had. He walked slowly over to where the Being lay. Bright green lidless and pupil-less eyes glowed from beneath the scaley folds of its face. A face reddish-brown in color.

  Sandy followed him at a safe distance.

  “Karl, I saw its claw move!”

  “Yeah, me too.” He leaned across the creature and felt along where the major arteries might be in a human arm for anything resembling a pulse. “Nothing,” he said, as much to himself as to Sandy. “Not a damn thing to indicate whether it’s alive or dead. By our standards if something doesn’t breathe, it should be dead, right? But there’s no perceptible heartbeat, no pulse—yet it moves!”