Return to Bermudas Index
by wordboy
John watched the disabled Leviathan, then turned back at Antandra, who sat quietly behind him and Aeryn. Her face was calm, but John could see uncertainty in her eyes, the concern that she could be cut off from her home and family, maybe for the rest of her life.
He could well understand her feelings.
As he watched, Antandra reached under her jacket and pulled out a small device. She stared at it, then touched one side. The figure of a man appeared above the device. It changed after a microt to the figure of a woman, then again to another woman.
“Family,” John asked.
Antandra looked up, as if surprised by his question. “Yes.” She touched the device again, returning to the first figure. “This is my husband, Mathias, Zoe Baird, one of my closest friends. And this is my…surrogate mother, Athena. I didn’t have a normal family, since I was genengineered.”
“Genetic engineering commonplace in 7781?”
“No. I was a special case, engineering to help save the human race from itself. It’s a long, drawn out story that I’d rather not go into right now.” Antandra watched the holograms again, then switched off the device and returned it to her pocket. “I wonder if I’ll ever see them again. Did you leave any family behind?”
“My dad, a couple of sisters, a bunch of friends. Thinking of them is the only thing that gets me through the days, sometimes. Them and…” John’s voice trailed off, and he glanced at Aeryn.
Antandra followed his gaze, smiled and nodded. “When was the last time you thought about them?”
John turned back to her, and Antandra saw sadness and longing in his blue eyes. “What time is it?”
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The first thing John noticed was the stale smell of the air. Next were the skeletons that littered the floor of the hanger and the maintenance bay. He frowned as he followed Aeryn into the bay. “Okay, we’re way too late. Either that, or they celebrate Halloween out here.”
“This Leviathan is smaller and probably younger than Moya. What were they doing out here?” Aeryn knelt and examined the clothing that adorned one skeleton. “John, this is a Tech uniform.”
“Peacekeepers.” John looked around and pointed at another skeleton. “That one looks like a captain.”
“Lieutenant, actually. Pilot, is there any sign of a command carrier?”
“No, Officer Sun. Why?”
“Some of the remains we’ve found in the maintenance bay are wearing Peacekeeper uniforms.” Aeryn stood and looked around. “What do you think? Pilot’s den first, then work out from there?”
“Sounds like a plan.” John glanced back at Jool, who hovered near the transport pod’s ramp. “You coming, Jool, or are you going to stay with the pod?”
Jool looked around, moaned in despair and almost ran toward Aeryn. Aeryn spared her a quick glance, shook her head and drew her pulse pistol.
As John drew his own pistol, he watched Antandra ease her weapon from its holster and raise it to her mouth. “Safety off, high stun,” she said.
“Safety off,” the pistol repeated. “High stun.”
“Vocal identification for security?”
“That, plus dermal recognition. If anyone else but me tries to use this pistol, the security circuit will cut in. The resulting shock is enough to electrocute the unauthorized user. Who are these Peacekeepers?”
John looked around and nudged Jool forward. “Sebacean military. Their main philosophy is ‘shoot first, don’t ask questions.’ Aeryn used to be one of them. We’ve had our run-ins with them over the past two cycles.”
“So seeing these uniforms isn’t necessarily a good thing.”
“Depends. Techs can be a little easier to deal with, a little less by-the-book military.”
Microts later, they reached the den. The door was open just wide enough for the four of them to squeeze through. The lighting in the den was even dimmer than normal, but John could see the Pilot was hunched over at his console, silent and unmoving.
“Well, that’s not a good sign,” John said as he watched Aeryn climb onto the console. “You got anything up there, Aeryn?”
Aeryn didn’t answer immediately. She just continued to study the console. “Nothing unexpected. Minimal power, life-support barely registering. Starburst is non-existent, although it doesn’t look like the ship would hold together even if it could starburst.” Aeryn turned and began to examine the pilot. “I can’t see any sign of injury. I’m not a medic, so I can’t be certain, but it looks like he just decided it was time to die.”
Pilot sounded almost panicked over their comms. “Commander, Officer Sun, there’s something strange happening.”
“What is it, Pilot?”
“I’m receiving a signal from D’Argo and the others. But it seems like it’s out of sync with us.”
“Out of sync? What do you mean?”
“I had to speed up the message in order to understand it. It would appear that either time is moving slower for them, or faster for us. I have no other explanation at the moment. Moya and I are studying the effect now.”
“All right. Keep us advised.” Aeryn looked toward Antandra, suspicion on her face. “Could this have anything to do with your time travel system?”
“No, Officer Sun,” Parsifal said. “The Arch System has no affect on local time. It merely allows passage outside of timespace to allow travel from one time period to another. Not even the opening registers locally.”
John shook his head. “Did you catch that, Pilot?”
“Yes, Commander. I will check Moya’s data stores for anything pertaining to time travel.”
“You’ll probably find less than what she has on wormholes. We’ll make this fast before whatever happened here affects Moya.” John looked around. “What do you think, Aeryn? Split up and a quick tier-by-tier search?”
“With just the four of us? This Leviathan may be smaller than Moya, but that’ll still take longer than I’d like.”
“Then we’ll just hit the high points. I’ll keep Antandra with me.”
Aeryn turned a look of disbelief at him. “Thank you oh-so-much, John.” To Jool, she said, “If you scream, I’ll shoot you. We’ll take the hammond side. Let’s go.”
Antandra watched Aeryn and Jool leave the den. “Parsifal, keep a lock on their biosignitures.”
“Yes, Archangel.”
John started for one of the den’s side entrances. “He can do that? Track life signs?”
Antandra nodded. “It the best way to monitor them without being intrusive.” She pulled her jacket close and tried to hide the shudder than ran through her body.
“You all right?”
“I’d feel better if I had my squad of Angels behind us. Actually, I’m not certain how I should feel. I think I may have seen something like this is a holo once, but…” Her voice trailed off and the uncertainty returned to her eyes. “The three of you are more familiar with this than I am, and none of you know what’s going on. How am I supposed to feel?”
John laughed and nodded. “Believe me, Antandra, I know exactly how you feel.”
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After what felt like an arn, Aeryn’s voice came from John’s comm. “All I’m finding down here are more skeletons, John.”
“Same here, Aeryn.” John stopped in the middle of an intersection and looked around. “Pilot, are you still picking up those faint life signs?”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Aeryn, what do you think? Another half-cycle, then we call it a loss?”
“We probably won’t even need…what was that?” The sound of rapid footsteps could be heard over the comm.
Before John could ask Aeryn what was going on, Antandra called out to him. “John, I think I heard something.”
“So did Aeryn, apparently. We’ve apparently arrived on the Mare Celeste. Let’s pick up the pace…”
“John! Look out!”
Before he could react to Antandra’s warning, someone plowed into John. Several someones plowed into him. He staggered and dropped to the deck as what seemed like a horde of angry, screaming people piled on top of him. John struggled to either get to his feet or bring his pistol around to start firing.
Then, the attackers seemed to fly off of him. John blinked and saw Antandra standing over him, lifting the people and tossing them aside with ease. She reached down, grabbed his vest and lifted him to his feet. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, fine. Good thing you took your vitamins this morning.”
Antandra smiled grimly. “I was designed to be at least a few time stronger than the average person. But I don’t think that’s important right now.”
“You’re right. Oh frell!”
Antandra turned back to the mob and frowned. The attackers looked more like animals than people. “These aren’t the Peacekeepers you and Aeryn were talking about, are they?”
John fired twice into the deck, trying to keep the attackers back. “Well, they’re dressed like them. But PKs usually have better hygiene that this bunch.” John slapped his comm. “Aeryn, watch your back!” The comm remained silent. “Aeryn? Jool? Oh frell.”
“Parsifal?”
“Both Officer Sun and Jool’s life signs are accelerated, but still strong. I would think they have encountered the same attackers we have.”
“Is it still clear behind us?”
“For the moment, yes.”
“All right, then. John, go! I’ll cover you.” Antandra holstered her pistol and reached for her sword.
“What the frell do you expect to do with that?” John frowned. The sword began humming as Antandra drew it. “What the…”
The humming blade seemed to have an affect on the mob. They stopped and stared at the polished blade. “Easily distracted by shiny objects, are you?” Antandra swung the blade downward, and sparks flew as the tip of the blade cut into the deck. “Is there a power conduit somewhere near here?”
“Right over your head! But there’s no way that blade will slice through it.”
Antandra glanced up and nodded. “Run. Now.” She swung the blade at the overhead conduit, cutting through it with ease. The conduit shorted out and exploded, showering the mob in sparks and debris. “Go!” Antandra spun and followed John down the corridor.
As they rounded a corner, Antandra called out, “John, another conduit!”
“Left and right sides!”
Without breaking stride, Antandra swung the sword to her right, cutting through one conduit. She then spun and sliced through another. As these exploded, Antandra followed John around another corner.
They slid to a stop and checked behind them. They could hear the mob coming after them. Antandra took a deep breath and braced herself. “Okay, John. What now?”
“Your guess is as good as mine, Highlander. Parsifal, can you lead us to Aeryn and Jool?”
“I should be able to, Mr. Crichton. However, you may want to look behind you.”
John and Antandra turned. Behind them stood a group of Sebaceans, a man dressed in the uniform of a Peacekeeper lieutenant in front of them. The techs in the group were looking on in curiosity, while the rest of the PKs all had their pulse pistols drawn and aimed.
“Well, we seem to have some visitors,” the lieutenant said. “You have two choices. Help us or deal with them.” He nodded at the approaching mob, his meaning clear.
John inhaled deeply and shook his head. “Well. No good deed goes unpunished,” he muttered in disgust.
