Green’s smiled faded. “What was that? What did you do?” Then he closed his eyes, as if to listen to an inner voice.
Jeff struggled to his feet. His legs were like jelly and he had to support himself on the console. Nothing appeared to have changed. Only the glow of the switch indicated that something was in progress.
Complete silence reigned. Trembling, Jeff looked at the demon in Green’s body. He understood that a battle had commenced deep in the bowels of the ship. A battle between the commands given by the demon and the computer routines programmed millennia ago. And it was not clear which would win.
Minutes passed. To Jeff they felt like years.
Then suddenly a metallic sound echoed through the room. So loud that Jeff thought his eardrums would burst—as if gigantic hammers were striking planetary-sized anvils. The acoustic inferno lasted only a few seconds, then all was quiet again except for a reverberating echo.
The demon ripped his eyes open. All color had drained from his face. He didn’t even seem to notice as the stun gun fell from his hands and clattered to the ground.
“What did you do?” Green croaked. “What did you do!” He stood there motionless, staring at Jeff with undisguised hatred. Any moment, and he would lunge at Jeff and kill him with his bare hands.
Jeff stumbled backward and braced himself for the moment when the demon would pounce.
But it didn’t happen. Green turned toward the door. “No!” he screamed in desperation.
The door opened.
Light aliens floated into the room. One after another and incredibly fast. Faster than Jeff could run, they moved toward the demon in Green.
The light aliens had changed. They were considerably smaller and came up only as far as Jeff’s chest. They were no longer fully transparent and had discernible shapes. For the first time he could see eyes and a mouth. And their luminosity had diminished, too.
Two of the beings had already reached Green. They grabbed him by the arms and dragged him to the middle of the room, while the others began to busy themselves at the man-high pillar.
“No, don’t do it!” Green screamed. Then suddenly he began to rave in an alien language.
Jeff walked around the pillar so he could see what the creatures were doing. About two dozen of them were gathered around the column, blocking Jeff’s view.
Suddenly, a gray box slid noiselessly out of the post. Now Jeff understood what was happening. It must be the demon’s cryopod. Two of the light aliens began tapping on one of the consoles.
Green screamed in terror. Then all of a sudden he fell silent and his eyes glazed over. As the light aliens released him, he collapsed on the floor like a rag doll.
One of the light aliens took a small box from a console on the wall and approached Jeff. He stopped right in front of him. Now he looked like the picture Jeff had seen on the projection.
“Jerry?” Jeff asked.
The creature nodded like a human.
“Yes,” came a synthetic voice from the little box.
“Is it over?” Jeff wanted to know.
The creature nodded again.
“The demon is dead.”
34.
“Can you hear me?” Jeff asked. Joanne did not react. Her lids were half open, her eyes glazed. But she was still feeling the effect of the strong tranquilizers. Jeff hoped she would recover quickly once the medication wore off. She had only been under the demon’s influence a short time, and he was sure she would be able to make a full recovery. Or would she?
Jeff tugged at the bandage he had wrapped around his finger, got up and turned to the aliens. Jerry had remained by his side. “What happens now?”
“I will take you to a rescue pod that was intended for the ship’s controllers. It will take you to the next inhabited star system.”
Jeff sighed deeply. He and Joanne were the only ones left. Two out of the original ten. And he couldn’t stop thinking about his father, and all the other people still trapped in cryopods. “Do you have access to the cavitys again? And the avatar controls?”
Jeff looked around. The aliens had spread out around the room. They were standing at the consoles, which were flashing back to life one by one.
“Yes,” Jerry said. “The avatars have been deactivated and the cavitys are no longer in use.”
Finally there was an end to all the suffering.
“Good,” Jeff said shortly. He wondered what the safest way would be of transporting all the people to the next world?
“I suggest I take you and your shipmate to the escape pod now.”
Jeff shook his head. “No, thank you. We won’t leave our fellow humans alone here. We will stay until we’ve reached the next star system and disembark together.”
The alien shook his head. “I’m terribly sorry. But we can’t help the other members of your species.”
Can’t help them?
“Why not?”
“Because the ship will self-destruct in… forty minutes.”
Jeff couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was impossible. It couldn’t be. “What did you say?”
“I’m sorry. The ship will be destroyed in forty minutes.”
“But why?”
“It was the only way of stopping the demon. The button you pressed ejected the refrigerant used for the reactors. It was the only way to activate emergency access to the central area. Without sending the coolant into space, we couldn’t have come in here.”
“And what will happen to all those people?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Can’t we distribute them among the emergency escape pods?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Or rescue them some other way?”
“I’m very sorry.”
Jeff cupped his head in his hands. He had thought they could save those poor people. Now they had been freed from their nightmare but he had sentenced them to death.
His father! He had to at least save his father!
“I met my father in the cavitys. I won’t leave the ship without him,” he said firmly.
“I’m not sure there is enough time.”
“I won’t go without him.”
“Follow me,” Jerry ordered.
Jeff followed him to one of the consoles. Jerry fiddled around at the controls and several screens lit up.
“You met him? In the cavity? Did you talk to him?”
Jeff nodded.
Most of the screens were covered in symbols. It took several long seconds, and Jeff hopped nervously from one foot to the other. Finally a fuzzy image of his father appeared on the screen. His eyes were closed and he appeared to be asleep. The background was black. “That’s him!” Jeff cried.
Suddenly the screen went blank and Jerry turned around. “Follow me.”
Jeff followed Jerry to the exit and through the big antechamber. They turned into one of the dark corridors and after a few minutes’ walk reached an elevator. Jeff wasn’t sure if Jerry was taking him up or down. When the doors reopened, they stepped into the big warehouse with the countless cryogenic pods.
Hurriedly, Jerry led him past the endless rows of shelves, through which a reddish mist wafted. Finally, they stopped in front of one. Jerry punched something into a control panel and a few seconds later a small platform descended from above. On it was a cryopod. The platform with the coffin-like container made of black metal stopped directly at his feet.
Jerry punched several buttons on the console on the side of the container. First came the faint humming of a pump, then a metallic sound of latches snapping back. At last, the lid hissed open. Jeff’s heart was pounding.
He leaned forward. The container was filled with a greenish liquid, but it quickly receded. Floating in the liquid was an emaciated body, which bore little resemblance to his father’s formerly muscular physique.