Seeing my mother once is fear, an anxious mind projecting. Perhaps even the much-discussed coping mechanism created long ago in a still-developing brain.
But twice. Twice feels more like an omen.
26
The cargo bay airlock is large enough for an entire team to pass through at once. Diaz forces me to wait with her people, going through after Montgomery. Shin’s team is busy climbing all over the Verux equipment, the shipment designated for the Mira colony. Retrieving whatever is still usable/not outdated, I guess.
Diaz’s decision adds perhaps another fifteen minutes to my wait, but the agitation in me builds with every passing second, until it feels like my teeth are vibrating with it.
Finally, on the other side of the airlock, in the corridor, I’m both relieved and disappointed to find the crew deck exactly as I remember it from my first trip through. Furniture shoved into the hall, blocking doors, keeping people in.
I wince, imagining the decay I cannot smell with my helmet and independent air supply. “There are victims here,” I tell Diaz. “In the rooms. Crew and staff on this level.”
Her attention focused on her team in the corridor, she gives a tight jerk of her head, a barely detectable motion. “The dead will still be dead later. Our priority is a ship-wide search.”
For whatever is causing this.Andsurvivors. Though she doesn’t say either, and it’s hard not to press her to confirm.
Montgomery’s team takes point as we move down the hall, and it requires everything I have not to push past them and rush for the Platinum Level. If anyone is still alive, they would have sealed themselves back inside once I left, right? That’s the most logical move for survival. So, if the bulkhead doors are down, there’s a chance that someone is alive behind them.
But if they’re not…
Ahead of me, one of Montgomery’s team members jerks hard tothe right, the light on the end of his weapon illuminating a darkened doorway. It’s empty, the door still firmly shut.
After a moment, his shoulders go up and down in a shrug. “… thought… saw something.” His words come through patchy and faint.
One could blame it on nerves.
But I know better.
It’s starting.
At the first major intersection of this corridor and one running the opposite direction, where we should be taking the stairs up, Montgomery’s team abruptly splits off to the left.
“Hey, wait,” I say. “It’s better if we stay together.” People popping up unexpectedly is only going to add to the confusion. It’s not as big of a concern with Shin’s team staying in the cargo bay, but if we have various personnel wandering around the passenger decks—all of them jumpy, starting to see things, and armed to the teeth—it’s just going to increase the likelihood of someone getting shot.
But Montgomery and his team give no sign of having heard me or, more likely, caring about my opinion in the slightest, marching toward the opposite end of the cross-corridor.
I look to Diaz, who is waiting impatiently for me with her team at the bottom of the stairs. “It’s a big ship, Kovalik. Let’s go.”
I watch Montgomery’s team walk away, unease settling over me. What the hell are they expecting to find? But the atrium and the Platinum Level are up the stairs and ahead, and I need to be there.
The tightness in my chest increases as we ascend the stairs to the next level of cabins. Once again, all is as I remember it. Including the bloody message on the wall.
i see you
leave me alone
That causes even Diaz to pause for a second.
At the end of the corridor, one of her team members stops dead. “Do you hear that?” His voice is tinny and faint. “It’s singing. Like a little kid singing.” The light at the end of his weapon bobblesaround as he turns, trying to find the source of the sound. “… all is calm, all is…” He sings along with it, the sound brittle and sharp.
Next to me, Reed shifts his weight. “I think… I think I hear it, too.”
Shit.The power of suggestion? Or maybe this thing is getting stronger.
“It’s not real,” I say, raising my voice to be heard. “There’s no one singing out here.”
But as the team member’s light sweeps past the staircase ahead, I catch a glimpse of white fabric with little blue flowers and small bare feet.
