“You’re armed,” Yan threw over his shoulder, already halfway back through the orchard. “Stay here if you’re chicken, but I’m going to go figure out who’s keeping us inside.” With those words, he jogged the remainder of the way to the door and vanished as the two halves shut.
It’s trying to speak again.
Iris knew, even without VIFAI’s warnings that always came two seconds too late. The growing headache was enough to clue him in to what was coming. With a frustrated flick of his robes, he went after Yan, through the orchard and back down the corridor, jumping over the puddle that would electrocute him if heslipped. Iris begrudgingly pattered downwards along the steel staircase, picking up speed as he went.
He was foolish to let the engineer go ahead without him. Yan was, as he had so eloquently pointed out earlier, unarmed. Iris’s own weapon was neatly strapped to its forearm holster, hidden from innocent eyes by the folds of his robes. He was foolish to ever wish hurt on the engineer. Foolish to wait this long to confide his suspicions to Yan. Foolish to ask for a cigarette.Foolish. Foolish. Foolish.Now, the Light was reminding him of the proper order of things, of his own powerless nature.
He raced down the corridor towards the earlier discovered airlock, the moss-covered floors muffling his light steps. VIFAI was kind enough to project the map without being asked to, and Iris followed it religiously, every step matching a previously made imprint on the moss. He turned the final corner at full speed and dug his heels into the soft moss to bring himself to a jarring stop.
Yan stood motionless; his back turned to Iris. Before him, the body of the older station security guard lay splayed in a spreading pool of blood. His wide-open, glassy eyes stared at the arching ceiling of the corridor. In the centre of his chest gaped a wound the size of Iris’s fist.
“He’s dead,” Yan said, his voice monotone. “Already checked.” Only then did Iris notice that Yan’s hands were stained the same shade as the moss beneath the body.
“The Light welcomes him back into the One Beginning,” Iris started on instinct. “Death is but a mere illusion, engineer—”
“Shut up.” Yan threw Iris alook, enough for him to see the engineer was a single wrong word away from all-consuming panic. Still, Yan commanded his voice level and his hands still, even as droplets of blood ran down his fingers and dripped tothe floor. “Go back, find everyone, wake them up, gather them together. All the academics.Onlythe academics.Now.”
“What about—”
Yan took a slow, shuddering inhale. “Vessel, what do you think makes a hole like that?”
Iris looked at the body. Nothing in his experience made a hole like that. Nothing in his experience could cleanly plunge into a man’s chest at a high enough velocity to create such neat edges.
“No natural thing can make this,” Yan told him. “There are only three of us who are armed. The first one is right here.” Yan nodded at the dead man. “The second was with me the entire time. The third is still among us. Do you understand?”
The rash attribution of blame was foolish, yet something in Yan’s voice made Iris hesitant to argue. He nodded and ran, faster and faster. Rounding a corner, Iris’s feet slid on the damp moss, and he tripped over himself, landing with one palm on the ground. He picked himself up, ignored the stitch in his side, and continued running. Every time Iris blinked, the dead man’s vacant eyes stared right through him from the pit of his memory. Dilated pupils like black holes. He ran. Iris sprinted through the corridor, all divine composure and formal etiquette stripped away and replaced with primal fear.
Dead bodies, fresh dead bodies, bodies that died before his very eyes, were nothing new to him, but those werestrangers. This, this was a man he’d watched play cards, a man he’d seen alive and well not five hours ago. This was aperson, a person whose name he failed to ask for, and was now murdered. Iris stopped. The moisture below his feet slicked like blood, the blood dripping from Yan’s fingers, blood soaking through the moss beneath the body. He didn’t even know the guard’s name.
Keep going.
Shaking himself present, Iris barreled down the hallway, tracing the bends and navigating the branches of the corridor, and into the communal space. He did his best to rouse Ishtan, wrapped up in a cocoon of a sleeping bag, as gently as he could.
“I’m sorry, Ishtan, but you have to get up,” Iris whispered, but Ishtan did nothing more than roll over and produce an impressive snore. The time for gentleness had run out. “Get up!” Iris barked.
With a snort, Ishtan’s eyes shot open. “What in the—”
“Please, get yourself properly awake,” Iris said and scurried over to where Riyu rested. “Dr. Alo?”
But Riyu was already awake, crawling up to seated with one arm in the soft-shell jacket sleeve. She blinked her grogginess away. “Why the yelling, Vessel? Are we in danger?”
Iris didn’t want to lie, so he omitted as always, and said, “Not immediately. Please get yourself ready. We need to have a talk.”
Iris was about to return to Yan when he noticed Jesi and Tev in the dusk of the space. Jesi looked up at him from a steaming mug in her hands. Her dark face went ashen as her eyes darted to the crimson stains along the hem of Iris’s robes.
“We just wanted some tea. We couldn’t sleep,” she said meekly and then her face drained of all residual colour. “Where’s Yan?”
Kids. Be delicate with them. Don’t tell them about the body, not yet, VIFAI cautioned.
“Don’t worry, he’s not hurt,” Iris said. “He’ll be here in just a minute.” Behind him, a rising stomping of boots announced Riyu and Ishtan’s arrival. Iris had yet to locate the second station security guard, but then he saw the edge of Yan’s face emerge from around the corner.
Time had run out. If the station security guard did really kill one of his own, Iris wanted to be the first to confront him. Given the current weapons situation, it was the safest option. But the idea that any one of them was capable of such things didn’t agree with him. Peoplewerecapable of such things, butthesepeople he had spent time in the company of surely couldn’t. He had to believe that, if nothing else.
Through the doorway and past the expectant faces, Yan sauntered over to the console without a word. Five pairs of eyes followed him in unison. He collapsed into the chair like all will had been drained from his body.
Locking eyes with Iris, he asked, “Security?”
“I haven’t seen him yet.” Iris gave an instinctive, apologetic bow. “I could—”
