Gorian whistles. “Wow, something bad happened. Let’s shimmy down and get a closer look.”
Bets, English, and I exchange worried glances but we follow Gorian and Iggy down a small gulley into the valley. As we approach the bottom, I’m overwhelmed by a smell that reminds me of the air after a huge thunderstorm. The hairs on my arms tingle — all my instincts tell me to flee.
Gorian cautiously approaches the front of the Raven. She produces her tablet and begins gesturing wildly at it. In response, a crack opens on the bottom of the ship, and the air around us calms a bit. My anxiety has now turned to whatever may emerge from the vessel.
The crack becomes an open hatch and a set of stairs like those on the Fuerst descends. We crouch, pointing our weapons at the opening. We’re greeted by silence — nothing seems to be enticed by the activity. Gorian walks to the stairs and ascends, with Iggy following close behind. The rest of us remain motionless, waiting for something remarkable to happen. We jump at a buzzing behind us, turning to see Gorian’s dragonfly. A tiny voice says, “All clear guys. Come on up.”
We ascend into the ship. As my eyes adjust, I realize that the interior of the Raven is much like that of the Fuerst. However, instead of the pristine space in the Fuerst, the air in the Raven is musty and damp, with a hint of rotting meat. Gorian emerges from the pilot house, shaking her head in disgust. We enter the large bare room, which resembles that in the Fuerst. In the center is the pilot’s chair, which is occupied by a motionless, emaciated body with dry strands of red hair. It looks similar to the mummies we encountered in Troll’s compound — lips shrunken, teeth bared, and fingers clenched. However, the eyes of this body are long gone.
Gorian reenters the room. “Amy, Bets, and English, meet Melat.”
“Well, good. She’s dead.” Bets asks.
Gorian gives Iggy a knowing look and points at a lighted panel on the chair.
Iggy tries to explain. “Melat is still alive — just in a different way. She’s part of the ship now, all around us. When pilots travel through space, their minds enter the ships via a conduit, allowing them to navigate the impossibly complex pathways. She uploaded herself into the ship and never re-entered her body. This form, her cadaver, simply died of neglect in that chair.”
“So, she and the ship’s one? Just like Amy and the bird? Then half of Melat’s ass is hanging in nowhere,” English muses.
“How can she be in a machine?” I ask.
Gorian responds. “Same way that you are able to occupy the minds of Thresh, the bird, and the sentient fog. You channel them telepathically using the energy of your brain melded with the energy of the ship.”
Bets groans. “So, that means that she’s still here, like Troll?” She looks up and around. “We’re inside of her?”
“Yup, but the ship’s disabled, so I think we’re safe.” Gorian fidgets with a panel of buttons on the wall.
My skin feels strange, the sensation mingled with the now familiar tugging in my mind. “I don’t think she’s completely disabled, Gorian.” The lights intensify and we all crouch in fear.
“Sorry,” Gorian giggles. “I just turned up the lights. No Melat.”
The air crackles. “No, Gorian, I’m here. Please help me.” We all freeze — the cold, faceless voice piercing our skulls.
“Melat?” Gorian stammers.
“Yes, my friend. Things have gone terribly wrong.”
“No shit, Melat. You tried to kill us and destroyed an entire planet. That’s pretty hard to forget. And then there’s the part about your rotten body here…”
“Gorian, the problem will only get worse if you don’t help me.”
“Mel, I can see that you landed the Raven half-way in earth. Bad parking job. Where’s the other half?”
“The Raven’s stuck between earth and infraspace. I brought it here to destroy the natural portal on earth. You’ve got to free me — the ship — and help me close it forever. The beings without eyes cannot be allowed to escape.”
Iggy responds. “Mel, are you telling us that you want us to help you destroy earth like you did C9?”
“Yes. It’s the only way to stop them, the lifeless ones, from invading.”
“Are you talking about the fog and the monsters?” I ask. “Because if you are, you’re too late.”
“You’re a pilot? I sense this.” Melat’s voice asks me.
“No. But I’m smart enough to know that destroying my home’s not the answer. That’s what the others — the things — are already doing.” The tugging grows stronger and my vision grows dim. “What are you doing to me?”
“Bringing you along for the ride.”
I feel the Raven inside of me. Wires, chips, circuits — things I never heard of and could never hope to comprehend seem natural to me. Mel tells me to sit in the pilot’s chair. I try to resist but the pull’s too great. I lurch toward the seat, lob the mummified husk of the corporeal Melat out if it, and sit down. Straps emerge, binding my arms and legs. To my dismay and dread, a wire snakes out and pierces the skin of my hand. In my last moment of consciousness, I perceive a flurry of activity as my companions try to free me.
I’m floating in that same, strange void in which I confronted Thresh. “I’m so sick of this,” my unvoice says.
“What are you weary about?” A red-haired woman appears. She’s clearly excited to see me.
“You — you people. All of this. I’m losing grasp of myself, flying around outside of my body. How’d you force me into the chair?”
“I don’t know. I think it has something to do with the power of the portal on earth. It’s allowing me to extend my reach beyond the Raven. You can do it too, can’t you?” She gives me no time to answer. “You don’t know how great it is to see someone else. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a chance to talk with someone. I’m lonely.”
I’m incensed. “What’s wrong with you? How dare you force me to join you here? I don’t want to be trapped in some machine and certainly don’t want to chat with you. I’m sure Gorian’s working to revive me and then destroy your ship.”
Mel’s ghost laughs. “You’re not going anywhere, my new friend. Your body’s now part of the ship. If Gorian disconnects you, your body will die and you’ll be here with me forever. Not that I’d be disappointed. The company’s welcome.”
I hope that Melat’s lying to me. She floats in front of me, smiling warmly. “As you probably know, this is my ship. I learned that the holes in the universe are bad. They let the things get out. I can’t let that happen. Before I joined the Raven, I was a lot like you. I loved someone very much, as I’m sure you do. So, you understand what must be done to protect them?”
I realize that I can feel the entire ship and that I’m not restricted to this single spot. I turn away and look into the pilot house from my vantage. Iggy stands over my body, looking intently with his androgynous bulbous eyes at a small gadget he’s attached to my forehead. Gorian’s working intently at some panel on the wall. A foreign voice — not Melat — whispers, “manual control”, to me. I realize that I’ll need to help Gorian if I want to return to my body.
“Hold it, there.” Melat’s presence engulfs me, pulling me back toward her. “You can’t just go traipsing through the Raven like you know what you’re doing. You might push the wrong button and kill your friends. As I was saying, we need to help those we love. I loved a man named Fromer once. He joined me in this void.”
I freeze. “Fromer?”
“Yes, he was distant and so lost. But I know he loved me. He left me here. We could have spent eternity together.”