Green punched a button on the wall and the hatch slid open easily. Behind it was a room only a few square feet in size. Controls were mounted in the wall, and when Jeff entered, he realized he was standing in an elevator.
He laid Joanne down on the ground and stood next to Green to inspect the panel. There were two rows of vertically arranged buttons, with golden lettering next to each one.
Jeff took a deep breath. “Hmm, now what?”
“I’d say we want to go right down to the bottom,” Green said, and pressed the lowest button on the panel without waiting for a reply. Immediately, the door closed behind them, and the whole cabin shuddered slightly. Was it supposed to be this easy?
There was no indicator panel to show their current position. Only the constant vibration suggested they were actually heading toward the core of the ship. They were still twenty-five miles from the center, so the ride might take a while. On the other hand, they had no idea how fast the elevator was traveling.
After less than a minute, the elevator came to an abrupt stop. The doors opened with a hiss. Jeff lifted Joanne out of the elevator, and as he looked around, his eyes widened. By now, nothing ought to surprise him, but this…?
They were in a huge hall. It was dark, and Jeff could only make out vague outlines. The elevator they had just stepped out of was embedded in a huge, gray pillar, hundreds of feet high, which is what they must have traveled down. And there were more pillars all over this chamber, but at odd angles that led upward and sideways to a hemispherical ceiling that was so high above them, you could have fit several cathedrals on top of one another. The entire room was in fact a vast hemisphere with a diameter of at least a third of a mile. There were hatches at irregular intervals along the walls, some of which were open and emitting a shimmering reddish light. In the center of the room was another hemisphere, the shell of which was so black, it was like an enormous blind spot in Jeff’s field of vision.
“Well, I guess that’s the center of the ship,” Green said, marching resolutely toward a dark-gray hatch around eighty feet away from them.
Could it be? Was this hemisphere the control center of the ship? Had they really found it? And would the demon—or rather its hermetically sealed cryopod—be waiting for them inside?
Green seemed pretty convinced that they had reached their goal. Having almost reached the hatch, he beckoned to Jeff. “Come on. We’re there.” He grinned.
Jeff stood rooted to the spot. Something about Green bothered him. It had been bothering him the whole time. Subconsciously. The engineer had changed since coming on board this ship. True, they had all changed, but Green more than the others. Jeff remembered how sick the engineer had felt after they had moved into their accommodation. What had been the matter with him? A headache… dizziness. He’d had the same symptoms before. But where? That was it! On the Charon—during the attack on Acheron-4. When they had been hit by psychorays and Green had discovered his deflective shield was defective.
His deflective shield was defective.
Jeff felt a shiver go down his spine and stars dance in front of his eyes. How could they have been so blind? How could he have been so blind?
Jeff let Joanne slide to the floor and straightened himself. Green stared at him, his face still frozen in a grin. He must have guessed what was going on in Jeff’s mind, because he began to walk toward him. “Everything OK?”
Jeff took a step back and shook his head. “It’s you!” he husked. “You’re the demon.”
Green came closer. His grin widened. “Now, now,” he said, as if admonishing a child. “Who would want to be so rude as to insult his host?”
There was something in Green’s face—something strange that Jeff hadn’t noticed before. An evil grimace just below the surface that was now revealing itself. Jeff felt his pulse quicken and his hands turn clammy. He was standing right in front of the demon that had caused so much suffering, simply for his own perverse pleasure. All he had to do was reach out his hand to touch him. Instinctively, he knew he was no match for this sinister creature. He had to get away.
As if Green had read his mind, he began to laugh. It was a tinny, cackling laugh.
Jeff turned around and made a dash for the open hatch. He couldn’t face his opponent here. Green’s laughter echoed after him.
33.
Jeff stumbled through the dark corridor, gasping. Every few feet he passed blood-red lights embedded in the wall. Finally, his panic subsided. He turned around. The demon hadn’t followed him. He gasped for breath and grabbed onto a yellow and black wall strut.
What should he do? He didn’t stand a chance against this creature.
How could he have been so wrong? He’d been convinced Joanne was the one who was possessed, like Owl before her. Was it possible that the demon was able to possess several people at once? Was Green also responsible for the deaths of Fields and Irons? What if Jeff simply went back and shot Green? Would the demon allow it to happen? And if he succeeded, what then? Maybe he’d already replaced Green with an avatar. Would he be able to stop this devil from turning him into an avatar in this pseudo-hell, too?
It was all too much. Jeff lowered his gaze and glanced furtively at the pistol in his holster. Wouldn’t it be simpler just to shoot himself? Then at least he could rest in peace and not end up the plaything of an insane, godlike creature.
No, he knew he couldn’t do it. He had to find a way out of here. But how?
He trembled as he tried to breathe normally. Slowly, he continued to make his way down the corridor. A few feet further on, he came across a dark-gray metal door in the wall. The edges were marked with black and yellow paint. Maybe Jeff could find something that would help him or at least give him an idea.
He touched the square on the wall next to the door. On the other side was what looked like a big hall. Jeff stepped through the hatch and his heart skipped a beat.
The hall was gigantic, with a diameter of at least several miles. It was filled with shelves and Jeff’s first thought was that he’d stumbled into a warehouse. But then his eyes fell on the neat rows of rectangular boxes that filled the shelves. He touched one of them gingerly. It was made of black metal and on the right-hand side were a series of depressions and switches.
Jeff ran a finger over the strange material. It was cold as ice. These must be the cryogenic pods of the passengers and crew. He walked back to a railing a few feet away. The shelves with the sarcophagus-like containers continued not only upward but also downward. He couldn’t begin to guess how many levels this gigantic hall had, because the rows of shelves disappeared into a reddish mist far below. There must be thousands, no, millions, of cryogenic pods in this hall alone. And God alone knew how many of these halls were on the ship.
Was his father lying in one of these containers somewhere in this hall? It would be impossible to find him.
“Jeff!” Green’s voice echoed through the hall.
He looked around but couldn’t see anybody. He must be hearing the voice over a loudspeaker.
“Jeff,” the voice repeated. “I know where you are.”
Jeff closed his eyes and sighed in resignation. Of course, the demon had him under constant surveillance. He was trapped. It would never let him out again.
“What do you want from me?” Jeff cried out in despair.
Laughter echoed around the room. “What do you think?” That laugh again. “I want you!”