No, there had to be a way!
“Maybe there’s a bridge or some kind of crossing over there,” Shorty suggested brightly.
“Take a look around,” Mac grunted. “All as smooth as a baby’s ass. There are no bridges here.”
“You can’t be sure,” Shorty grumbled. “Maybe beyond the horizon.”
“I don’t think so,” Green said thoughtfully. “I think they isolated the central orb from the rest of the ship for a good reason.”
“And what reason is that?” Castle asked.
But Green just shrugged.
If the engineer was right, they had failed.
“Shit!” Mac cursed.
They stood there for some time, staring silently up at the silver sphere, so near and yet so far away.
“There is one possibility,” Shorty said finally. “But nobody will like it.”
Jeff swung around.
“Out with it,” Castle said.
Shorty sighed. “On the equipment sled, there are four levitation belts. We could use them to take turns pulling ourselves over.
Jeff closed his eyes.
“No!” Mac cried. “I’m not going back to those lunatics.”
It was also the last thing Jeff wanted. But it was probably their only chance of reaching their goal. “Come on,” he ordered the others and started back down the stairs.
“Where are you going?” Castle asked.
“Back to the antechamber. We’ll close the hatch, let the air back in, and rest for a few hours.”
“And then?”
“Then we’ll go back to the cavity and get the levitation belts.”
Mac put his head in his hands. “Holy shit!”
29.
Jeff awoke to find Castle shaking his arm.
“What is it?” Jeff looked at his watch blearily. He had only slept four hours and didn’t feel in the least refreshed.
“It’s Joanne” Castle said. “I’m really worried about her.”
“What’s wrong?” Jeff asked, but he had already sprung up.
Joanne was lying in the corner with her arms wrapped around her chest. Her lips were trembling.
When Jeff looked into her dilated pupils, he got a shock. “Joanne!” He leaned over her.
“We’re all going to die,” she whispered. Saliva was dribbling from the side of her mouth.
Jeff stood up again and pulled Castle over to a corner. “It’s just like Owl. That’s how it started.”
“What can we do?” the WSO asked.
“We need to make sure she doesn’t harm herself, we need to watch her vigilantly.”
“What about that drug?” Castle asked.
“What do you mean?”
“The stuff she gave the woman in the cavity. Maybe it’ll work on her.”
“I’m just wondering—” He heard a noise beside him and whirled round.
Damn it, what the—?
He was looking into Joanne’s contorted face. She was holding a knife in her hand. Jeff jumped backward, stumbled, and fell to the ground. Castle screamed and threw up his arms.
Jeff tried to get up, but his boots kept slipping on the floor. Then the blade pierced Castle’s neck. His scream turned into a gurgle. Blood gushed from a huge wound in his throat. He fell to his knees and then collapsed in a heap.
Joanne took a few steps back. Her eyes were wide open. Her face was splattered with drops of blood. As if in slow motion, she raised her hand with the knife.
“No!” Jeff screamed, finally getting to his feet as she guided the blade to her own neck. “Don’t do it!”
But Mac was already by her side. He grabbed her and pulled the knife out of her hand. Then he pulled her hands behind her back. The blade clattered to the ground.
“Give me something to tie her up with,” Mac shouted.
With trembling hands, Shorty handed him a strap from Joanne’s backpack. Mac tied her hands together behind her back.
“Give me another one,” he ordered Shorty, and tied her feet together.
Joanne was completely spaced out. Saliva dribbled down her chin.
Jeff turned to Castle. Green was already kneeling beside him. “He’s dead.”
“No! No!” Mac wailed.
Jeff covered his face in his hands. This couldn’t be happening. Not another one! And not Joanne! He stumbled forward a couple of steps and thumped the walls with both fists. “Jesus fucking Christ!” he screamed. “You fucking ship from hell. Leave us alone!” His knees gave way. Leaning back against the wall, he slid to the floor and began to sob. “I can’t take any more. I’ve had it.” He tipped his head back and whimpered.
He wasn’t sure how long he sat there like that, but finally he got to his feet. He had to support himself against the wall as he got up. He looked around the group. Mac and Shorty were sitting next to Joanne. Shorty’s eyes were red, he must have been crying, too. Mac was staring at the ground rubbing his wrists. A bit further away, Green was leaning against the wall staring at them all blankly.
Jeff’s anger turned into cold hatred. Hatred for this damn ship, these damned aliens.
The reason for all this misery, all this pain, all this horror, dwelled in the center of this ship and was waiting patiently for them. He wanted to go there and kill it. Whatever it was.
“Mac! Shorty! Green!” he spoke in a rasping voice.
“Yes, Sir?” Shorty asked weakly.
“Get up. We’re going back to the cavity to get the levitation belts.”
“What about Joanne?” Mac asked.
Jeff ran his fingers through his hair. They couldn’t possibly drag her all the way back, bound up like that. But they also couldn’t leave her here.
What to do?
“I’ll wait here with her until you get back,” Green said.
Jeff looked up. He didn’t want to separate the group. Every time they had done it before, something dreadful had happened. But what choice did they have?
“Are you sure?”
The engineer nodded. “I don’t think we’re in any danger here. It’s been a while since we’ve seen one of those light aliens. I’ll look after Joanne till you get back.”
Jeff nodded gratefully and beckoned to Shorty and Mac. “Let’s go.”
Together they crawled through the narrow tunnel and climbed down the ladder into the wide corridor, which would take them back to the cavity. They had around ten miles to cover; Jeff hoped they could make it in about two hours.
“This ship is really starting to piss me off,” Mac said.
“Me too,” Jeff agreed.
“Do you think there might actually be extraterrestrials in that central sphere who are controlling all this?” Shorty asked.
Jeff didn’t want to speculate. He knew they wouldn’t get to the truth by guessing.
“Maybe the onboard computer is part of all this?” his shipmate persisted.
“Listen, Shorty,” Jeff replied crossly. “I don’t know. I really don’t. All I know is that we’ll find the answers we want in the center of the ship. And we’re going to get them.”
“Ooh, the boss is mad,” Mac quipped. Jeff ignored him.
Finally, they reached the anteroom to the cavity, where everything was as they had left it. The pile of ash that had been his father was still lying on the ground. Jeff swallowed and hurried past it.
They stepped into the dim light of the huge cavity and looked down at the barren landscape. In the distance, Jeff could see the group his father had been a part of. And he could see the equipment sled—no more than a black dot—beside on of the little hills. They made their way to the group of people, keeping themselves hidden from view as best they could. It looked like the group had found new victims, who were lying on the ground and watching stoically as the torturers built up the funeral pyres. Did they never sleep? Or eat? Jeff simply didn’t get it.