“Oh my God!” Jeff whispered.
The person in the container turned his head slightly in Jeff’s direction and moaned softly. Then he opened his eyes and Jeff recognized their deep blue color.
“Jeff,” his father said in a weak voice and stretched out a hand.
“Dad!” Jeff sobbed, lifting out the bizarrely light body. Carefully he laid him on the metal floor and held him tight.
His father no longer had any hair. His skin was pale, almost transparent. His bones stuck out of parchment-like skin, beneath which there was no sign of fat or muscle.
“What happened to him?” Jeff asked, stroking his father’s cheek.
Jerry was still fiddling around with the console, on which a small screen displayed changing symbols.
“The demon,” Jerry said. “He changed the nutrient supply in the chambers. He must have wanted to ensure the bodies would no longer be viable outside of the cryopods.”
“You mean, my father is dying?” Jeff asked.
“His muscles have completely atrophied. His body can no longer function on its own. I fear the answer to your question is: yes. The man is dying.”
Jeff sobbed. His father opened his eyes again for a moment and his gaze was very clear. “Where are we?” he asked in a trembling voice.
“On the black ship,” Jeff whispered.
“Hell was really just an illusion? I’m alive?”
Jeff nodded. He wiped the tears from his cheeks.
“Yes.”
How could he explain it to his father? How could he tell him he had woken him from the dead, only to let him die again?
“But I’m so tired,” his father whispered. “I think I need to sleep now.”
Jeff nodded. He couldn’t speak because of the lump in his throat.
“Will you stay with me until I’ve fallen asleep?”
Jeff squeezed his father’s hand. “Yes.”
His father looked him straight in the eyes, as if he wanted to hold onto Jeff and to life with his eyes. But then they glazed over and his head fell limply back into Jeff’s arms.
The console made three long beeping sounds.
“I’m sorry,” Jerry said after a short silence.
Jeff sobbed and hugged his father’s body.
“I think you should make your way to the escape pod now. It is only another fifteen minutes until the reactors overheat.”
Jeff was unable to move. He couldn’t go on. All he wanted to do was curl up beside his father and close his eyes. But he had to think of Joanne. He was responsible for her, too. Jeff bit his lips, until the salty taste of blood filled his mouth. He had to get up. There would be time to mourn later.
Gently, he laid his father’s body on the ground and loosened the last cords and cables that connected him to the cryogenic pod. He stroked his cheek one last time and then got up.
“Let’s go.”
Jerry led the way. Jeff followed him into the elevator.
“What’ll become of you?” Jeff asked as they waited.
“We are tired after eons of roaming this ship, and now that the demon has been destroyed, we are looking forward to being finally released.”
“You don’t mind?”
“Not in the least.”
The doors of the elevator opened and Jeff followed Jerry into a narrow corridor at the end of which was an oval hatch.
Jeff frowned. “That doesn’t lead to the control center.”
“No, but to the escape pod.”
Jeff turned around. “I still have to get Joanne!”
“My friends have already taken her on board, everything is ready.”
Jerry opened the hatch, and then another one right behind it. Jeff found himself in an elongated, oval cabin with a few seats and two large windows at the front. Joanne was sitting unconscious in one of the seats, already strapped in. At the back of the capsule were five open cryogenic pods.
“How am I supposed to fly this thing?” Jeff asked, looking down at the controls on the two front seats.
“As I said, everything has been prepared. As soon as the hatch closes, go to the front and strap yourself in. Then press the illuminated button. The escape pod will take off and leave the mother ship.”
“And how do I get to the next star system?”
“The pod will continue its course as programmed by the mother ship.”
“You mean, the ship is flying toward Earth?” Jeff asked.
“I don’t know. The target is a G-class system, the third planet from the sun. According to the database, it has a satellite and large amounts of liquid water. And it—”
Jeff gave a wave of his hand. “OK. That sounds like Earth. How long will the flight take?”
“Since the escape pod has a lower mass, it can make longer hyperjumps than the mother ship. The computer calculates a flight time equivalent to one hundred and twenty of your days. Upon arrival at your destination, the spacecraft will automatically search for a landing site and initiate the appropriate maneuver.”
Jerry pointed to the back of the cabin.
“The cryogenic pods are very easy to use. You lie down in it and press the oval button in front of you. The device will do everything else. It will wake you when you have reached your destination.”
Jeff nodded and stretched out a hand. “Thank you, Jerry.”
The alien took his hand. It felt cold. “We thank you for freeing us from our suffering. I wish you and your species all the best. I hope you enjoy a better fate than ours.”
Jeff swallowed. “Thank you. I would like—”
“There’s no more time.” Jerry withdrew his hand and hurried back out of the hatch. “Another sixty seconds. Close the hatch and prepare for departure. You must hurry if you want to live.” Then he closed the hatch of the mother ship. Jeff pulled the lever on the inner door of the flight capsule and it closed with a dull thud. A pneumatic hiss told him the hatch was sealed.
He hurried along the narrow cylinder of the ship’s hull. Joanne was groaning and holding her head. She seemed to be slowly regaining consciousness. “Everything’s going to be OK,” he said as he walked past.
He sat down in the chair. It was too small for him and he had to squeeze himself into it. He reached for the harness, which was very similar to one on a human ship, pulled it over his waist, and snapped it shut.
A yellow button shone directly in front of him.
He took a deep breath and pressed it.
Immediately he was pushed forward against his belt. The capsule was going to be ejected backward. He looked out of the window in front of him into a dark tunnel, whose dimly lit walls slid past at breakneck speed. The capsule vibrated violently and he was thrown back and forth in his seat.
For what seemed like an eternity, they raced backward through the long tunnel, reminding him once again how gigantic this ship was. Surely the sixty seconds must be up. Jeff fully expected a giant explosion to tear apart the ship, the tunnel, and the escape pod, sending him into the afterlife.
Then, suddenly, they were outside!
He could see a few stars; more and more appeared as the demon ship retreated from view, until it was barely more than an outline.
Just a few seconds later it had disappeared completely. Any moment now… Jeff was wondering what would happen when the ship’s reactors exploded, when he was almost blinded by an incredibly bright flash of light. Jeff closed his eyes, but the light penetrated his closed eyelids.
He forced himself to open his eyes again and saw a giant yellowish orb in front of him, growing larger.
It will devour us!
But the brightness of the explosion subsided and collapsed in on itself until only a faint, red afterglow in space indicated the former existence of the alien ship.
Jeff sighed with relief. They’d done it!