Embarkment 2577 Read online

  *****

  Seeing hatches open in my husband’s head freaked me out. He looked like a perfectly normal person, and all of a sudden, there were wires and electronics. Jia’Lyn connected a thick cable to his neck and stuck a probe into his ear. She glanced over at me, “This will take some time. Take a seat.”

  I obeyed and sat in silence, watching them. It was so creepy, and I still wasn’t able to turn my gaze away.

  “Does it hurt?”

  He closed his eyes for a moment. “Not exactly, but it’s cold. It feels like cold insects are crawling through my mind.”

  Eerie. I reached out my hand, and he took it and squeezed it. For the moment, all was well. Blake stepped in and eyed the scene. “How are you doing?”

  Jia’Lyn shrugged. “We’re looking for a code that could be hidden in any of tens of thousands of programs, or in several of them. This will take hours.”

  Minutes ticked away. Maybe everything would be okay. I was comfortable and sleepy, and completely unprepared when Adam jumped to his feet and tore the probes out.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m leaving.”

  Blake stood in his way. “I can’t let you do that.”

  Adam pushed the large human out of the way, so hard Blake fell backwards. Jia’Lyn called out, “Don’t let him leave. We’ll never get him back.”

  “Adam, stay here with me.”

  My voiced reached him and he glanced back. “I can’t.”

  He marched for the door, and I imagined a trail of destruction following him through the ship. There was only one thing to do; I drew out the little box, squeezed my eyes shut, and pushed the button.

  My husband fell to the floor like a broken doll, and Blake staggered to his feet, coughing. There must still be some safety protocols at work or he would be dead by now, but this was bad.

  I stared at Adam’s lifeless body and slapped my hands over my mouth. “I must be the worst wife ever.”

  Jia’Lyn lifted her eyebrows and even her snakes looked surprised. “Yeah, that’s what’s wrong with this day. You’re a bad wife. Bad, bad wife.”

  She laughed softly. It was a little funny, but not enough to make me smile. She turned to Blake. “You okay?”

  “Yeah. Let’s get him up on that table.”

  Adam looked peaceful lying there. What was worse, being awake and tormented, or deactivated? Maybe the situation wasn’t all that different from when I’d been unconscious and he waited by my side. “Do you think he’s aware? Can he hear us?”

  Jia’Lyn shook her head. “I doubt it. But to be honest, we know very little about how he really works. I think he’s just as turned off as a computer without power.”

  She returned her attention to the terminal, but several of her snakes still watched me.

  I didn’t have anything to say, so I blurted out, “How does it feel?”

  “How does what feel?”

  “Your hair… How does it feel to have snakes on your head?”

  She laughed. “I don’t know. How does it feel to have hair?”

  Good point. “If they’re watching me, can you see me?”

  “Tell you what… this will take some time. Hours. Let’s go grab some lunch and I’ll tell you all about it.”

  Leave him? “I can’t do that. I mean… he never left me.”

  Her strong blue hand squeezed my shoulder. “You’re right. He didn’t.”

  When I originally arrived to the Bell, cold and dead, Adam ignored his duties. He got away with it thanks to people covering for him, but Ima said he drove her crazy, hovering around sickbay. Leaving him now when roles were reversed was out of the question.

  “If you want to stay, I’ll bring you something back. How’s that sound?”

  “That would be awesome.”

  The way this day was going, Adam might wake up and disappear the second we left him alone.

  I sat there for a long time, holding my husband’s hand. I talked to him, just in case he was able to hear me. Eventually all the stress and fear from the last few weeks took its toll and I leaned forward, resting my head against him. No one would know if I closed my eyes for just a minute or so.

  I rested on the verge of sleeping when the ship lost its mind. Alarms blared, computer terminals flashed, and the Bell shook as weapons’ systems fired randomly. I sat up, disoriented by the blinking lights, trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

  The ship tipped over to the side and I tumbled headlong towards the wall. Adam freed himself from the cords tying him to the computer, closed the hatches in his head, and jumped off the table to catch me just before I hit the wall, all in one smooth movement.

  I held on to him, and he pulled me towards the door, keeping his balance even on the slanted floor. “We have to leave. The ship is going to explode.”

  He sounded distant. Did he even know where we were? He hauled me into his arms and carried me along, giving me little choice but to hold on to him.

  “Adam, we can’t let that happen.”

  At least the doors still worked; it opened and let us into the corridor.

  “You have to stop it. Think of all the people here, and it’s our home. Adam, please.”

  I didn’t think he heard me, but he paused and put me down. He stared into my face from the other side of a great abyss. Then, recognition came into his eyes and he nodded, grabbed my hand, and pulled me back the way we came. “You’re right. Come, we must hurry.”

  Just as I got the hang of running on the lopsided floor, the ship rolled over to the other side. He regained his balance with ease and half carried me through the main entrance to Engineering, into the huge hall that housed the mainframe.

  A number of people in uniform scurried around in near panic. Adam pushed his way past everyone and stopped outside a large enclosement, his fingers dancing over the keypad that gave access to the main computer.

  Someone shouted, “Commander, you can’t go in there,” but he ignored them.

  “See the breaker over there? I will count down from three. I want you to pull that for me. We have to do it at the same time.”

  As intimidating as the thing looked, I should at least be able to do that.

  A second later, we broke power to the mainframe, and the ship fell dark and silent. Emergency lights flickered on, and the dusk was a welcome change to chaos.

  Adam pulled me into his arms and held me tight. “It will be alright.”

  My husband was finally back and I clung to him, oblivious of all the people around us.

  Chapter Six

  By the time Jia’Lyn pulled the door open, the commotion in the computer room had settled. Adam gave calm orders to the people around us, manually getting vital systems up and running.

  “What happened?”

  I wondered the same thing. Adam said, “If you take over here I’ll start work on the mainframe. I’ll have to go through all the code.”

  All the code for a starship? Jia’Lyn seemed to share my sentiment; she stared at him. Then, she held out a sweet smelling box to me. “That’ll take a while. You’ll need your lunch.”

  “Thank you.”

  I plodded after him to the mainframe enclosure. Could I bring food in there? “Do you think Anya is okay? She would be in there, wouldn’t she?”

  “At this time a day she’d probably be in her mobile emitter. I’ll keep an eye out for her.”

  He turned towards me and I drowned in his eyes. I had missed him more than I had words to say. He trailed his fingers over my cheek and murmured, “You can go home if you want to. I promise to come by there before I go anywhere else.”

  It took an effort to pull free from the tug of his gaze, but I gave my head a slight shake. “No… If it’s okay with you I’d rather stay here.”

  “Of course.” He brushed his lips against mine, but the kiss was much too brief.

  “Adam…”

  He already stood by a terminal, and glanced over his shoulder when I spoke.

&
nbsp; “What is it, sweetheart?”

  “Nothing… I’m just so glad you’re back.”

  Understatement. I was so relieved I wanted to weep. He smiled and sent me another hypnotic stare. “I’m glad to be back.”

  I took a seat on the floor and opened the lunch box.

  “Did she get you something good?”

  “Yes she did. Miniature spring rolls. Want some?”

  “No, thank you.”

  The old routine of me asking and him declining reassured me. Maybe life was back to normal.

  I was still eating when Blake and Jia’Lyn came in. “It appears the ship is safe. Would you care to explain what’s going on here?”

  Adam paused the lines of code that flew over a screen faster than my eyes could register. “Eve planted code in me as a failsafe in case her plan was unsuccessful. I suspect I was supposed to realize something was wrong and connect to the mainframe to run tests.”

  He never did, of course. The code couldn’t spread to the ship, and gave him bigger and bigger problems instead.

  “I knew something was wrong, but I failed in removing the danger. My apologies.”

  My fault. I deactivated him so we could reconnect him. “You told me the ship was about to explode. How did you know?”

  “When the last piece of code transferred out of me I was only aware of my base programming. She left a few lines of code there. I guess she counted on me leaving so she could pick me up somewhere. I’d be rid of everything tying me to the world of humans, and we could take over the world in peace and quiet. It would have succeeded if you hadn’t been there.”

  I blushed. “I didn’t do much.”

  “You connected me to reality. For you, I could override the command to leave the ship.”

  Wow. He really loved me.

  Blake looked between us. “Alright. Adam, report to my office as soon as you’re done here. Jia’Lyn, you have the ship. Eve is out there somewhere, keep an eye for her. I’m going home for a few.”

  The frown on our captain’s face made my heart sink. None of the things that happened were really Adam’s fault, he kept the malicious code contained for weeks and almost destroyed himself in the process, but there would be repercussions for hurting people and nearly blowing the ship up. This time it would probably be worse than a house arrest. Deactivation seemed a bit steep, but maybe he’d end up in the brig. The thought of being separated again made me want to weep.

  I had too much time to think and tears brimming in my eyes. I needed to distract myself, so I decided to count up to a hundred thousand and backwards down again. It was extremely boring and probably a bit insane, but it worked: I didn’t cry.

  I was at thirty four thousand three hundred and sixty seven when John came by. He peeked in through the door in an almost comical way. “No hostile officers in here?”

  I waved to come in. “The coast is clear.”

  He fixed me with eyes identical to my husband’s. “Anya’s seeing a patient. She wanted me to tell you she’s fine.”

  The news raised a boulder from my chest.

  John lifted an eyebrow and bobbed his head towards Adam, clearly asking if he was alright. I nodded, and he stepped up to pat Adam’s back. “It’s good to have you with us.”

  Adam turned the chair around and faced his father. As always, the likeness amazed me. “I know what you’ve done for Alex when I couldn’t. Thank you.”

  Interesting. I hadn’t mentioned that.

  John looked embarrassed. “Any time, son. What’s going on here, anyway?”

  My husband explained and John grimaced, turning his attention to me. “I don’t want to scare you, but if Eve is anything like her mother, she’ll be back. It wouldn’t surprise me if they have Cheryl’s vindictive brain transferred to a computer somewhere it can plan mischief and disaster for decades to come.”

  That was an unwanted and unnerving thought. Maybe this truly was a time when you wouldn’t get rid of people even when they died.

  How had John and Cheryl ended up together anyway? I didn’t want to ask, not in the computer hall. Maybe she wasn’t always crazy. Maybe she’d been a sweet girl when they met. Deeming from Eve’s looks, she must have been drop dead gorgeous.

  When John left, I rested my hand on Adam’s shoulder. “You’ve been keeping tabs on me.”

  “Of course.”

  I probably shouldn’t probe, but it was impossible not to. “So… How did that work out for you?”

  “Not good.”

  He returned his attention to the computer, and it was clearly the end of the discussion. All these past weeks I thought he just ignored me, but he must have watched from a distance. That was both sweet and heart-breaking.

  If he wanted to crush Anya’s processor for talking to me, I couldn’t even imagine what he must have wanted to do to John for being there every day and every night. He had slept on our sofa for weeks, chased away my imaginary monsters, and comforted me after more nightmares than I could count.

  “He loves you, you know.”

  “Not like that. He loves Anya.”

  “I know.” Adam flashed a wry smile. “But he’s enough like me to love you too.”

  I never thought of that.

  Minutes ticked by and became hours, but time didn’t seem too long. In spite of everything going wrong, we were together.

  Finally, Adam lifted his warm eyes to meet mine. “I’m done.”

  “Really? All of it?”

  “All of it. The computer is getting back online. Come, I’ll walk you home.”

  He would walk me home because he couldn’t come in, because he had to see the Captain. I was queasy and wanted to cry again. There was no hiding emotions from him; he saw every twitch of a muscle and every change in a person’s pupils.

  “Don’t look so sad. It will probably be alright. I’ll come home as soon as I can.”

  “You’d better.”

  The overhead lights came on and seemed unnaturally bright compared to the earlier dusk.

  “See, it’s all fixed.”

  We walked hand in hand to the lift. It was empty, and once the doors closed he pulled me tight. “There aren’t enough words to say it, but I’m so sorry. For everything.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I held on to him, kept my face buried against his chest, and nodded.

  He walked with me all the way to the door. “I wish you could stay.”

  “I do too. But I must face the consequences of my actions just like everyone else. Trust me, the Captain has told me this many times the past few weeks. I’ll be back, and I’ll let you know what’s happening.”

  I hurried inside so he wouldn’t have to see me cry.

  *****

  I roamed around the large rooms feeling like a stranger. Maybe the soul of our home died from lack of usage, or at least slumbered? “Stop projecting yourself on the room.”

  It was good advice, even when presented with my own voice, but it didn’t do me any good. I just got him back, and if I lost him again I’d break. Full scale mental breakdown, here I come. Waiting powerless was already getting to me, and he’d only been gone a few minutes.

  I rummaged around in the bedroom closet, lacking anything better to do, and my heart froze when I heard the front door open. The computer would ask whether to let visitors in, and Adam couldn’t be back so soon. Who else could it be? I peeked out with a mix of dread and curiosity.

  After John’s words of Eve coming back I expected a vindictive, platinum blonde android to stand there. I could almost hear her voice demanding to know how I dared cross her plans.

  A moment later, I threw myself into Adam’s arms. He caught me easily and held me tight, my toes dangling a good foot or so over the floor. “I didn’t expect you back so soon.”

  He looked content. “I have three days’ house arrest for almost killing a crewman.”

  Three days and nights of pure bliss. “We have the best Captain.”

  “Yes we do.”

  “Shoul
d I call him and thank him?”

  Adam smiled. “No.”

  “So… Three days of just you and me. What should we do?”

  His eyes glittered. “I’m sure we can think of something.”

  I woke in the middle of the night, certain I felt Eve’s unrelenting fingers strangle me.

  “Alex… Alex, it’s me. I’m here, it’s okay.”

  Eve’s face from my dream morphed into Adam’s. He held my hands so I couldn’t hurt myself while tearing at the invisible enemy’s grip around my throat.

  “You’re home. You’re safe.”

  I stared into his eyes for a long moment, just to make sure it really was him and not John or a dream. When certain my senses weren’t playing a prank on me, I threw my arms around him. He held me and stroked my hair.

  “Can I get you anything?”

  “No. Just… be here.”

  “I’m here.”

  I eventually fell asleep again in his arms. Having him there was a relief. I could cling to him as much as I wanted, and he had the patience of an angel.

  Three days passed much too quickly, and as much as I tried to be normal and ready for him to go back to work, I didn’t succeed very well. Daytime wasn’t too bad, but evenings found me jittery if I had to be alone in a room. Adam normally worked all night and a shorter shift during the day. The mere thought of him leaving every evening made me cry.

  The day I feared arrived much too soon and Adam’s symbolic house arrest was over. Early in the morning, I slept with my head on his shoulder, and woke from him moving me to a pillow. I tried to hold on, but he slipped out of my arms.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to work. We have this big starship just waiting to find trouble.”

  I had to laugh in spite of all. “Now? What time is it?”

  He kissed the tip of my nose. “Ssch, it’s early, go back to sleep.”

  “But…”

  My husband tucked me in. “I’ve pulled in some favours. I’ll work daytime until you’re feeling better. I figured you’d rather have me gone in the mornings than at night.”

  “Yes, I can handle mornings. Thank you.”

  He brushed his fingers over my cheek. “I love you.”