In Death's Shadow Read online

  Jason waded through them, doing his best not to step on any of the poor souls. While he didn’t know what they looked like, their bulbous round skulls and short limbs made it clear they were of extraterrestrial origin.

  He reached the hatchway at the other end of the room and continued on through the rest of the ship where more bodies had fallen. Most had perished in their beds, while others were huddled together to see the end as one.

  Through another hatchway, he entered the vessel’s bridge. More skeletons had collapsed over their workstations, while at the heart in a solitary chair raised above everything else sat the ship’s captain.

  Jason stepped up beside him and peered at the surrounding tragedy. On the opposite side of the command center, another hatchway lit up with light from the moon.

  He walked through into what he assumed was the captain’s office. Behind the scattered chairs and table was a cabinet.

  Placed in it were trinkets. Most of the items he couldn’t recognize, but there were a few that he most certainly did.

  He picked one up and held it in the light. A medical scanner? On the back of it was a small inscription: SCORPIUS.

  He furrowed his brow and grabbed something else next to it. A data tablet. It had the same inscription. There was also a sidearm. Commonwealth issue…

  He took out the ammunition casing and checked it. It was empty. What happened here?

  Footsteps approached from behind, and a shadow formed over him. Jason turned around to find Max standing at the hatchway.

  The young man pointed a sidearm straight at him. “I told you this wasn’t the way to come, Cassidy.”

  Chapter 13

  June 13, 2214

  Scorpius Colony

  “Can you hear me, Marissa?”

  Susan clenched the Tribune reporter’s hands, and her patient’s eyes opened. It’d been her first sign of consciousness for hours. Like Kione, she struggled to speak, so Susan gave her a few sips of water.

  “Thank you,” Marissa stammered.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “It’s weird.” Marissa tried to sit herself up.

  Susan helped put her pillow a little more upright, and in the candlelight observed her features. She looked like the living dead. “What’s weird?”

  Marissa coughed and spluttered. “When I was asleep, I heard things. You, Doctor Erkens, Mister Tobias, Kione. Even Jason.”

  “That’s normal.” Susan offered her more water, which was promptly waved away.

  “You’ve had no luck finding a cure.”

  It wasn’t a question. “Doctor Erkens is in the lab checking over some ideas I’ve put together—”

  “I don’t know if Doctor Erkens will be so helpful.”

  Susan narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “There was something I saw in Tobias’s office when we first arrived.” She struggled, coughing once again. “Go there. I believe it holds the key to everything that’s going on here.”

  *

  Alien Ship

  Max’s trigger finger was a little too twitchy for Jason’s liking. “I think you should put that down.”

  The young colonist waved his gun around the alien captain’s office. “Why did you come here? I told you—”

  “Because you lied. I’ve learned how to read people really well over the years. Whose ship is this?”

  “I can’t tell you that.”

  “What are you going to do?” Jason pressed. “What did Tobias instruct you to do if I stumbled upon this secret? I doubt he wanted this.”

  Max hesitated, and then out of nowhere, like a lightning bolt from the sky, a fist struck the back of his head and threw him to the bulkhead. The gun rattled to the deck, and Jason quickly pounced on it.

  He darted his eyes upward at Althaus who rubbed his hand. “Damn, that kid has a hard noggin.”

  Jason couldn’t believe it. “How did you—?”

  “I saw you sneak out of camp—”

  “But you were asleep. Snoring so loud—”

  “I was in and out,” Althaus said. “I was snoring to piss you off, so you’d move a little farther away from me.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “When you left, it didn’t take long for this ginger bastard to figure out where you went. He took one of his friends with him while the other two stayed at the camp.” Althaus grabbed Max’s unconscious body by the scruff of the neck and put him in a chair. “When I had my chance, I put them out of action and rode here.”

  “What about the other one?”

  “He was standing guard outside this ship. By the time I’d snuck up on him, he had no idea what the hell was going on.”

  Jason smirked while the unfortunate soul in the chair before them came around. “All right, Max, let’s you and me have a little talk.”

  The colonist glanced at Jason then at Althaus.

  Jason dragged another chair opposite him. “Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?”

  *

  Scorpius Colony

  Even in her wheelchair, Susan entered Tobias’s house with ease. No one locked their doors at the settlement.

  She passed over the threshold and moved into his office. The moonlight from the window bathed it in an eerie glow. On the bookshelf in the corner was exactly what Marissa was talking about.

  It was on the highest shelf. Oh, for my legs!

  Susan dropped from her chair and reached for the first shelf. She pulled herself upward as if the cabinet were a ladder and each shelf were a rung. Her shoulders burned the higher she climbed.

  With the top in sight, she stretched out her left hand for what she was after, while the right carried the rest of her weight. Her shoulder strained, wanting to pop from its socket.

  With one final lunge, the small cube-shaped device tumbled into her hand, and with a quick flick, she threw it onto her chair.

  Ever so gently, Susan guided herself down and plopped herself back in her seat, pulling the mechanism from beneath her.

  She wiped the grime from its metallic surface and found her answer.

  Marissa was right.

  *

  Alien Ship

  “So, Max, what’s it to be? Will you tell me what happened here, or do I let my friend put a matching bruise on the other side of your head?”

  Althaus leaned in toward him and placed an intimidating grip on Max’s shoulder. The young man sat defiantly, saying nothing.

  Jason shook his head and pistol-whipped the bruised side of his face. Blood sprayed from his mouth.

  “You said I’d get to hit him.” Althaus glared at him with ire.

  “Sorry. You can hit him next time.” Jason stared into Max’s eyes. “That’s unless you cooperate with me. Don’t think I’ll be merciful. Not after the way you threatened me.”

  Max stayed silent, and Jason sighed. “Do it.”

  Althaus wound up a big right-hook, and Max cowered.

  “No! I’ll tell you everything.”

  Jason smiled. “Whose ship is this?”

  “We don’t know. From the stories they told me as a child when the Scorpius crashed down, these aliens were already here. We assume they came here the same way we did.”

  Jason nodded. “There’s a defense perimeter around this ship and trophies from the Scorpius here. The colonists were at war with these aliens.”

  “They attacked first. We lost a lot of people and had to defend ourselves. The battle waged back and forth for months. When it seemed as if we’d lose…”

  Jason glared at Max. “What happened?”

  *

  Scorpius Colony

  Susan approached Doctor Erkens in his laboratory. He stood hunched over a microscope, writing his findings on a notepad beside him.

  “Doctor,” she said to him.

  “Yes?”

  “I need to ask you a question.”

  “Of course.”

  “When did the Scorpius crash-land here?”

  His eyes shot up. “I believ
e Tobias told you in June 2194.”

  “I’d like to hear it from you” She held up the device she’d taken from Tobias’s office and handed it to him. “Do you recognize this?”

  He examined it in the candlelight. “It’s a manual chronometer.”

  “That’s right. It’s a component of the flight recorder from the Scorpius. Once it’s pulled from its housing, it ceases working. No doubt Tobias took it as a memento from the wreckage.” She moved to the other side of the counter and stared across at him. “Have a look at the date.”

  He checked it. “April nineteenth, 2194.”

  “Two months before your alleged arrival. So, the question is, why have you lied to us?”

  He placed the chronometer down and peered back through the microscope, clearly not wanting anything to do with the conversation.

  “You told us the deaths from this disease occurred in the weeks after the landing. I checked your records, and they match. The bulk of the deaths from this disease did take place in June of 2194. But then, how can the chronometer be wrong?”

  Susan moved to the other side of the counter beside him. “Those ripped pages from your journal were from April and May, weren’t they?”

  “How did the disease not take effect straight away?” She pulled a small hardback-bound book and plonked it down on the counter next to the microscope. “This was squirreled away in a cabinet. The Fight Against Biological Warfare by Doctor Julian Erkens.”

  He once again looked up. This time he couldn’t avert his gaze from what she presented.

  “I didn’t think much about it with all the other paperwork you’d given me, but remembering something Kione told me, made me twig,” Susan continued. “You’re an excellent recordkeeper. It seemed unusual you wouldn’t hand over this text to me. But then you wanted me to find this book, didn’t you?”

  His body froze.

  “After discovering the chronometer and having a flick through your book, I noticed something uncanny about this disease we’re fighting. It’s incredibly similar to the one in this text. Too much of a coincidence for my liking.

  “Your wife was on the list of colonists who died from the illness.” Susan crossed her arms. “Doctor, why did you kill her?”

  Erkens’s hand came down on the petri dish beside him, and it broke into a million bits. Blood ran from his fingers, and he finally locked eyes with her. “I didn’t have a choice.”

  Susan wouldn’t let him off the hook. Her glare burned through him. He’d bottled something up inside for a long time, and she wanted to know about it.

  He told her everything from the beginning. From the crash of the Scorpius to their first contact with an alien species in the desert beyond. Their dealings with their new neighbors got off on the wrong foot from the outset.

  “When they attacked, they caught us unawares. We were still picking up the pieces after the crash and mourning the people we lost.”

  Erkens walked over to a chair and sat. Sweat poured from his brow. “We went on the counterattack and did damage of our own, but we were outnumbered. It wasn’t a conflict we could win. In the ensuing months, the losses mounted. That’s when I approached Tobias with a plan.”

  Susan took a bandage from the drawer and wrapped his hand, allowing him to continue.

  “I’d studied their physiology and noticed a flaw to exploit. I formulated a bioweapon that could kill up to sixty percent of their population.”

  There it is… “It was more effective, though, wasn’t it?”

  He nodded. “It killed ninety-eight percent of every alien host body it came into contact with.”

  “But that isn’t all…”

  “There was a catch.” Erkens leaned back in his chair and sighed. “Before delivering the bioweapon, I knew there was a high possibility that several humans would also be susceptible to the disease. I projected three percent. At the time, we decided it was an acceptable risk.”

  Susan finished strapping the bandage tight and clasped his wrist. “Your wife—”

  “Fell by my hand.” A tear rolled down his cheek. “She never wanted to come on this voyage. We had so many arguments about it. But for whatever reason, she gave in and came with me.”

  He stared up to the ceiling. “And this disease I created killed her along with many others. Not the three percent I predicted, but fifteen.”

  He put his hands in his face and whimpered. Susan moved away from him, wondering how she could feel for the man. Would I have done the same in his situation? Would I have been so desperate?

  They weren’t questions she could answer, and ones she didn’t want to.

  Chapter 14

  The Sandy Desert

  While sending Max and the others back to the settlement made for a less awkward ride, the rest of the way to their destination was a much quieter affair.

  Jason and Althaus were never good at small talk. Jason always felt it easier to fight him rather than hold a conversation with him. No doubt his older colleague thought the same.

  He glanced across at Althaus struggling on his zillo, as he had the day earlier. “You still with me?”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he muttered under his breath.

  “Good. Don’t think for a second I’m dragging you back to the Argo after we’re done here.”

  Althaus straightened up, and they continued on their way toward the horizon. Simmering in the afternoon sun, Jason dropped onto the zillo’s reins. When he opened his eyelids and saw what was ahead, his whole body flinched. “How long was I out?”

  There was no answer on top of the other zillo.

  “Althaus!” Jason jumped from his saddle and hurried over to him to check his condition. He grabbed his canteen and threw it over Althaus’s face. “Wake up!”

  He jostled at his shoulder, and his companion came to, spluttering to life like an ancient internal combustion engine he’d once seen in a museum. Althaus climbed down from his zillo, and Jason handed him his water bottle.

  “Come on, we’re here,” Jason told him.

  Althaus drank the water down and followed him toward the rock formation, rising before the horizon. “If I’m too slow, just go on without me.”

  Jason chuckled. “Count on it.”

  The unlikely explorers found a path through the belly of the rocky cathedral and began their quest.

  For hours they searched. Up, down, and around.

  Jason fell to the ground with exhaustion. “Holy hell.”

  Farther ahead of him, higher up, Althaus stepped over a dangerous grouping of rocks.

  “Althaus, get down before you get yourself killed!”

  In reply, Althaus flipped him the bird and said something Jason didn’t hear properly. How mature…

  Jason pulled himself up. “What did you say?”

  Althaus pointed beneath his position over a small cliff face. Bits of dirt and rock kicked up under his feet.

  Oh no!

  “Althaus, get away from the edge!”

  But he didn’t hear him, putting his hand to his ear.

  “I said step back!”

  Althaus finally got the hint, but it was too late. The rocky edge gave way, and he stumbled backward, trying to grab hold of something. He slipped and tumbled downward, wailing at the top of his lungs.

  Silence then surrounded Jason. Not even the echo of Althaus’s last scream could be heard.

  Crap! Crap! Crap!

  He scaled up the rocks and reached Althaus’s last position where the ground had disintegrated beneath him. He crept to the edge and expected to see a body, but Althaus was nowhere to be seen. And where he assumed there’d be a pool of blood, something very different greeted him.

  What the hell is that?

  A fair way down, there was a shimmering of light two meters in diameter. Jason surveyed each side of the slipped rock and found a path down.

  He threw his legs over and clutched the rock tight. With a twist, he planted his feet into any footholds he could find and gradually climbed
downward. With a few scrapes and bruises, he reached the bottom and sized up the bizarre anomaly he’d seen from above.

  It was like a small swimming pool. There’s no water within a hundred kilometers…

  “Althaus, can you hear me?” Jason’s voice echoed around the rocks.

  He extended his hand toward the shimmering light, and another hand reached from the other side, pulling him in. Through the darkness, he entered a strange structure and came down on his head with a thud.

  The floor was cold and the walls dark. I’m underground…

  He flipped himself over, and the hand that had pulled him in, hauled him up.

  It belonged to Althaus, who was nursing an ever-growing bruise on his forehead. And above him was the other side of the weird shimmering passageway he’d seen from above.

  “What the hell is this place?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Althaus said, pointing upward, “but we found our way in.”

  “A rabbit hole?”

  “Huh?”

  “Never mind.” Jason smirked. “Let’s see what we can find down here, Alice.”

  *

  Scorpius Colony

  Susan entered the infirmary after a quick bite to eat with Tobias. She hated leaving Kione and Marissa when she still seemed so far from a cure, but the Scorpius community leader was very insistent on their meeting.

  He’d filled her in on all the nitty-gritty details of their time on the planet and did his best to justify what they’d done. He also apologized for what’d happened to Kione and Marissa.

  She tried not to be too judgmental, considering she was using their facilities. And through all Doctor Erkens’s faults, he was doing his utmost to help her develop a cure. She couldn’t imagine the kind of guilt he’d been carrying inside him for so many years.

  When she entered, Erkens was taking blood from Kione. There was a pep in the doctor’s step.

  “What is it?” she asked him.

  “Come with me,” he said, leaving the sleeping Kione behind.