Survivor (8 page)

"Where is he?" Alaina said.

The soldier in front of Nova glanced over
his shoulder. "Where he always is."

They swept into the ship, passing people in
Confederacy uniform. The workers checked screens and looked over
equipment. Others were gathered in small groups talking. All of
them stopped to stare at Nova as she was marched past.

They walked through multiple rooms. The ship
stretched out in dark corridors. After walking down a maze of
passages, they came to a thick steel door.

"Why does he need such a massive door?" the
man in front said.

"To guard his precious research, of course,"
Alaina said. "I heard he's even got a new shield on it; better than
anything our ships have."

"Why don't we have that technology?"

"Beats me. The man's a nut-case. He probably
imagined the whole thing."

As Alaina finished talking, the door slid
open to reveal Codon. He wore a thick pair of plastic glasses and
the same clothes Nova had seen earlier.

"Codon, I have to talk to you," Nova
said.

"Sir, she's a problem. She's already defied
your orders by going down into the tunnels. I recommend you let me
deal with her," Alaina said.

"She'll have to be punished. But first,
what's the problem?" Codon asked. He glanced over his shoulder,
into the room beyond, and then back to Nova. "The fugitives haven't
escaped, have they?"

"No, it's worse than that," Nova said. "It's
about what you're digging up."

"What about it?" Codon said.

She had to make Codon listen, make him
understand. She couldn't do anything with Alaina's gun pressed into
her spinal column.

"I've discovered something important," Nova
said.

"Oh?"

"Perhaps you'd want to keep it
confidential?" she said. "You never know who's listening. This
could be a significant find."

Codon's eyes went wide at her words and his
tongue flicked out to lick his bottom lip.

"Leave her here. Wait outside," Codon said
to the soldiers. His voice was curt and his eyes never left
Nova.

"Sir, I don't think that's a good idea. It
could be a trap," Alaina said.

"I'm sure I can take care of myself," Codon
said.

Nova stepped away from Alaina and stood next
to Codon, inside the door. He nodded once to her and gestured at
the door. It slid shut on Alaina's face.

"Well what is it?" he said, turning to Nova
and tapping his foot.

"Codon, you have to listen to me," she
said.

Her eyes swept the room. It was a compact
laboratory with sensing equipment and machines lined up along the
walls. A bench covered in fragments of stone took up the middle of
the room. A brush and tools lay next to the pile of rubble, ready
for Codon to continue his work.

"No. You listen," Codon said and stepped
closer.

He whipped his hand out from behind his back
to reveal a black semi-automatic pistol. His mouth twisted up to
one side. "I generously let you stay here, against my better
judgement. I should have had you thrown off of the planet and been
done with you. But I didn't. I let you stay so you could finish
your little mission. I specifically told you not to interfere with
my dig."

"Just listen—"

"I'm not finished!" Codon yelled. His face
was red and his nostrils flared. "What were you doing? Hoping to
steal a few trinkets and sell them on the black market? Was that
your little plan? Were you trying to take my great discovery?"

"No. I—"

"What made you come running? Tell me now or
I will have you killed."

Nova's heart was beating hard. Fear welled
up in her stomach and her chest. Her head pounded with the need to
yell and scream at the man before her. Her fists clenched at her
sides as she imagined slamming them into the man's stomach again
and again. The timid scientist was gone, replaced by a stern and
hard-faced man.

"Doctor Codon! I would suggest you shut up
and listen or you and all of your men will be dead," she said. Her
voice was even louder than his and drowned out whatever he was
going to say. "You translated it wrong."

Codon's open mouth snapped closed and his
eyebrow rose up. He stared at her with narrowed eyes and the
outburst he had no doubt planned was cut short. "What do you mean?"
he said through clenched teeth.

"I mean the words above the entrance. You
translated them wrong."

"That's impossible. The languages are so
similar to old-Earth dialects that it barely took the computers a
minute to create the translation software. Plus, I'm never
wrong."

"There's a first time for everything. Your
computers got it wrong."

"Are you worried about a few grammar
mistakes?" Codon said. His voice was low and stony, a condescending
sneer played at the corner of his mouth. His eyes were cold steel,
ready to send her to the nearest prison asteroid.

"It's a little more important than
that."

"Well?"

"You read it as; enter and you will have the
power to control the universe."

"Yes, that's the closest translation."

"It should be open and we will have the
power to control the universe."

"What does that even mean?" Codon said.

Nova wanted to strangle the man. How could
he not see what was right in front of him? It changed everything.
"It means that whatever you're hoping to uncover won't help
you."

"That's ridiculous. It's just some ancient
text. I'm sure whatever is buried there will benefit whoever finds
it. Which, by the way, will be me. I deserve it; I've worked my
whole life for this, for the great discovery."

"I don't think you've—" Nova was cut short
by the floor giving way beneath her feet.

The whole world lifted up on her right and
fell down on her left. She watched, almost in slow motion, as
Codon's eyes went wide and he tilted to the side, collapsing to the
ground.

The ship was falling sideways.

Nova's eyes widened. How could a ship this
big fall over? That was impossible.

She ducked down and tucked her body into a
tight ball, protecting her head as best she could. That was all she
managed before the ship collapsed onto its side and everything
inside it, including her body, slammed into the wall.

Glasses, books and paintings whizzed past
her face in a desperate race to reach the opposing wall where they
exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces. Shards of glass shot out in
all directions followed by chunks of metal and bits of plastic.

Nova and Codon's fleshy bodies struck with
solid thuds. She landed shoulder first, tucking her head out of the
way. Pain coursed through her arm, followed soon after by her side.
The agony in her ribs compounded the pain from being kicked
earlier.

Her eyes flew open to see a couch falling
towards her. She grimaced and rolled to the side, taking Codon with
her. Her skin scraped along pieces of broken glass.

They were only just out of the way, when the
couch slammed into the side of the ship, leaving a sizeable dent.
The wall shuddered under the force of the blow and other debris was
sent flying. The couch shivered in place and then lay still against
the wall.

That was the last of it. Everything else in
the room was bolted down. The entire place leant sideways like a
drunkard. The sounds of falling items echoed from other rooms.

Nova and Codon lay amidst a mess of broken
items. Miraculously, their bones and bodies were still intact.

CHAPTER EIGHT

"What the hell was that?" Codon said. He pushed Nova to the
side and stood up.

She scrambled to her feet. It was
disorientating to stand on the wall of the ship instead of the
floor. "I warned you. What sort of lab has a couch?" she said,
putting a hand to her forehead.

"A mistranslation does not lead to an
earthquake," Codon said.

He shouldered past her and climbed over the
fallen couch. He stepped over pieces of broken furniture and made
his way to the door.

She shrugged and trailed after him. It was
like walking through the broken remains of someone's life. Little
pieces of everyday things were jumbled together to create a garbage
heap. Her boots crunched pieces of glass into even smaller specks
that glinted in the still-working bright lights.

"I think you'll count yourself lucky if it's
an earthquake," she said.

Codon was already at the door. It slid open
at his command. The sheer size of it made it easy for the Doctor to
clamber over and out of the lab, into the ship beyond. Nova
followed him.

Three bodies were crumpled just outside of
the door, Alaina among them. The soldiers had trails of blood
leading out of their mouths, nostrils and ears. Their eyes were
wide open and staring.

Codon knelt beside Alaina and placed his
hand on her neck.

"She's dead," he whispered before moving to
the next soldier and then the next. "They're all dead. What the
hell happened?"

Nova didn't reply, she had nothing to
say.

"Cal, can you hear me?"

"Confirmed," Cal said, his voice filled with
relief.

"How's Crusader?" she said.

"No more damaged than before. We're some
distance from the source of the blast. How are you and the
others?"

"I'm with Doctor Codon but I don't think
anyone else is left."

"Our scanners detected a massive shockwave.
Technological systems appear unaffected, but some of your plants
have died."

"What?" she said. Her eyebrows drew
together. Why would Cal be talking about her flowers at a time like
this?

"They were killed by the blast. They turned
brown and wilted in a matter of seconds."

Realisation exploded in Nova's mind. "It
targeted living things."

"It would appear that way," Cal said.
"Although how you and the doctor survived is beyond my
understanding."

"Mine too," she said. Her imagination was
whisked away with thoughts of the soldiers and workers outside. She
wondered what had let her survive, while they died. Then again, she
didn't know they were dead. They could still be alive.

Don't be foolish, another part of her mind
said.

"Damned thing!" Codon yelled. A loud bang
brought Nova back to the present.

She forced her eyes to focus on Codon. He
was back inside the laboratory, slamming his fingers onto a large
screen. Numbers and maps flicked across the display.

"What is it?" she said, making her way
towards him.

"We're grounded," he said.

"Where is the ship damaged?"

"That's just it. It's not damaged, we just
can't take off."

"That doesn't make any sense," Nova
said.

"Well thank you, hunter, for pointing that
out. Work, damn you!" Codon said.

"Cal, are you able to leave?" she said.

"Negative. Crusader's engines are in working
order, or at least are working as usual, but we are unable to
lift," Cal said.

Nova couldn't help the corners of her mouth
twitching. For a robot, Cal had an excellent sense of humour.

"Look, Doc, there has to be some kind of
force-field," she said.

"What the hell would create a force-field
like that?" Codon said.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you.
The writing above the door said 'we'. 'Open and we will have the
power to control the universe'. There was something waiting inside
that tomb, waiting to be let out."

"That's ridiculous. What could possibly be
down there?" Codon said.

"I'm sure we'll find out sooner than we
would have liked."

Codon started off down the corridor, away
from his laboratory and the three bodies. Nova trailed after him.
The going was slow; there was rubble and pieces of broken furniture
everywhere. Worse than that, the doorways were all the wrong way.
They either fell away below their feet or opened above their heads
in what was now the ceiling.

The ship had become a three dimensional
maze, complete with hazards and debris. The most awful thing of all
was the bodies. The workers and soldiers who had been standing
throughout the ship were all dead. Their bodies were crushed
beneath piles of rubble, bones broken. Their eyes stared
blindly.

Trails of dried blood streamed out of the
eyes, ears and noses of each corpse. While some of the bodies were
broken from the ship's collapse, it looked as though something had
killed them before the shockwave arrived.

Codon puffed hard as he climbed over yet
another fallen chair. By Nova's estimates, they were about half-way
to the main door leading out of the ship.

"If you people didn't spend so much damned
time sitting down, this would be a lot easier," she said.

Codon didn't reply.

"Or at least if you'd bolt down your
furniture. Who in the hell has a spaceship with loose, floating
furniture?"

"I'll be sure to mention that to the
Confederacy designers," Codon said. His tone was grating. "If I
ever get off this damned rock."

Nova used both hands to vault over a broken
table. She landed amidst more rubble and broken glass. It was as if
every inch of floor had been coated in a layer of razor-sharp
crystals.

It took them over half an hour to get from
Codon's lab to the main entrance area. Unlike the many toppled
couches they'd passed, the statues were bolted down and protruded
out horizontally from the upturned floor. They looked ready to fall
at any moment, waiting to crush an unsuspecting passer-by.

They made their way to the main entranceway.
The door was set into the side of the ship which was now a wall,
metres off the ground, far above them. Like the rest of the ship,
the doors were out of place.

Codon reached the wall first and used a
fallen table to climb up and press the green button. The door swung
upwards, leaving a gaping hole. All Nova could see was dark sky
outside, it filled the doorway and seemed to press in on them.