“If we ever reach Sigma-7.”
“Do you doubt it?”
Jeff didn’t reply for a long time. He didn’t want to be a pessimist. Finally he shrugged. “I’m not sure if I really trust that computer. On the other hand, Major Irons doesn’t seem too worried.”
Joanne shrugged. “You know what the major’s like. He expresses just the amount of emotion that he wants us to see. My guess is, he doesn’t want to worry us unnecessarily, but I bet he is worried.” She sighed. “All I needed was for this one flight to go smoothly. Then I’d be done.”
Jeff looked up, surprised. Surely she couldn’t have completed the minimum number of missions already.
Joanne noticed his quizzical expression and laughed. “Yes, you heard right. After this flight I could have quit the unit.”
“But… how?”
“I applied for the intelligence service and was accepted.”
Now Jeff remembered: those who were assured a staff officer position in a non-combat unit had a certain number of flights deducted from their quota. After all, you didn’t want to lose your future executives in a routine mission gone wrong. As a historian, Jeff didn’t have that option. History lecturers counted as cannon fodder. But there was no reason to be bitter. He didn’t begrudge Joanne this advantage, especially now, when she was stuck in the same mess as he was.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
She shrugged. “Every mission can go wrong. Others have been shredded to bits on their first flight. Besides, we’re still alive, and maybe this ship will get us back home and we’re just being paranoid.”
Jeff nodded. Maybe they really were being too pessimistic, and in half a year Joanne would take up her position in the intelligence service. If there was anyone in the crew that he wished well, it was Joanne. He’d liked her from the start. She was friendly, open, and sharp as a tack. Plus she got cute dimples when she smiled. At the start of their mission, he’d even caught himself watching her when she wasn’t looking. But just when he thought he was falling for her, it hit him that he wasn’t in her league. Joanne needed a sociable and adventurous guy by her side, and not a geek like him. It never would have worked, so Jeff had nipped his little crush in the bud. In fact, he’d even made a point of keeping out of her way. Only now, in this dark and gloomy place, did it occur to him that he didn’t actually know very much about her.
“This corridor is going on forever,” Joanne said, snapping him out of his reverie. He looked down at his handheld. It was true: they’d already covered a third of a mile since the last junction. The long corridors brought back memories of his childhood. “It’s a bit like on Luna—we also had endless corridors connecting one building complex to the next. Except they weren’t this dark or sinister…”
Joanne nodded. “We had those at home, too.”
He didn’t know where Joanne was from. “And your home is…?”
“I thought that as an XO you’d have seen all the personnel files.”
Jeff shrugged. “Obviously I failed on that front, too,” he said dryly.
Joanne grinned. “I’m from Ross 154/2.”
“Ashland?” Jeff asked.
She nodded. “Have you been?”
Jeff shook his head. “Not really. I once changed ships on one of its orbital stations on the way to Barnard. The connecting flight was delayed by half a day and I had some drinks with my buddy in the panorama lounge. We tried to count the active volcanoes on the surface, but gave up during our second drink.”
Joanne giggled. “I can imagine. We have one thing in common with Luna—you can’t move around outside without a space suit. There’s a monorail connecting the individual settlements and neighborhoods, but often sections aren’t running because a nearby volcano has erupted. Then the only option is to use the passageways that were drilled through the rocks to get from one dome to another.
Jeff shrugged. “Luna is just a boring heap of rocks. The only bright spot is Earth, which looks like a blue paradise. My parents and I used to spend every vacation there. My father bought a holiday home on the Mediterranean, and we went twice a year, usually Easter and Christmas. Even though we had big beach pods on Luna, it never came close to the feeling of lying on a real beach, with the breeze on your face under a blue sky…” He sighed. He wondered if he’d ever see the golden beaches of the Costa Brava again.
“There’s no Earth-like planet close to Ross 154. And no beach pods, either. It was too difficult to get enough water. The nearest beach was on Earth, and flights there were too expensive for my parents. The first time I saw the sea was when I was at the Academy, and we went for a weekend trip. I’ll never forget it. I stepped out of the bar of the hotel on the beachfront, and suddenly there was this huge surface of water in front of me. I panicked!”
“Panicked?”
“Yes, panicked!” Joanne opened her mouth and eyes wide and clutched her head with both hands in mock horror. Then she smiled again sweetly. “It moved like a living creature, the waves breaking on the beach, the foamy tips stirred by the wind… I’d also never seen a blue sky before, so at first I thought there was water everywhere. I really thought there was an endless wall of water in front of me that would devour me at any moment.”
She laughed and then became serious. “I heard your father was on Deneb-6.”
Jeff felt a wave of pain welling up inside him. He sighed. “Yes, he was on a business trip to carry out an inspection on a subcontractor. Deneb-6 was attacked by the rebels with Quagma bombs. A hundred thousand people died in an instant on the colony. My father was one of them. That day he’d actually wanted to—”
A flash of light! Right in front of them.
“Ssshh!” he hissed.
“I saw it,” Joanne whispered and switched off the flashlight. “What was it?”
“I’ve noticed it a few times before,” Jeff spoke as quietly as possible. “But I always thought I was imagining it.”
“I wish that were true. But that was real, for sure.” She pointed in front of her. “I think there’s another turnoff up ahead.”
There was another flash. Something was lurking in the passage behind the bend, which was still about eighty feet away. Jeff and Joanne pressed themselves against the wall and waited. But the light didn’t reappear. Now there were only stars dancing in front of Jeff’s eyes in the darkness. They kept multiplying, until he noticed he’d been holding his breath for a very long time. He barely managed to stop himself gasping noisily for air.
“What shall we do?” Joanne whispered.
“I don’t know,” Jeff said. All he wanted to do was run. But they had to find out what it was. “We’ll go to the turnoff and look around the corner,” he whispered finally.
Moving at a snail’s pace, they edged their way along the wall toward the intersection, doing everything in their power not to make any noise. Now the ground covering was to their advantage—it did a good job of swallowing the sound of their footsteps.
It felt like hours were passing. Because of the dark, they could only guess how much further it was. Jeff felt his way along the wall with his outstretched arm. Finally he hit the edge. They had reached the intersection. Where was Joanne? He felt something soft on his right arm. Joanne was right behind him. He could hear her shallow breathing. With pigeon steps he edged his whole body up to the intersection. No more flashes of light. Had whatever produced the light gone? Of was it lurking just around the corner? Was it lying in wait for them? His heart was beating so hard, he imagined the whole ship must be able to hear it. Slowly he moved his head to peek round the corner. But he couldn’t see a thing. If only it wasn’t so pitch black. Or if only he had his infrared glasses. It was no use. He needed light.