Ariadne Read online

  Drex gives an emphatic shake of his head, his eyes still on me. “He’s not been out of my sight all day. Glaxtinian didn’t show up at the party and I think Boyd was hoping she never came aboard. That she wasn’t gassed with the others. That’s why I was resistant to go search the ship as you ordered. I knew Boyd would be freaked.”

  “You should’ve told me. Maybe Boyd knows something about what’s going on here.”

  “I doubt it. He was as shocked as I was when he learned of his mother’s death, that she’d been murdered. You all saw that. Deep down, I think he knew she was dead with everyone else. That’s probably why he ran off.”

  “Unless you were in on it too,” I say. “You seemed very close.”

  “I’ve known Boyd for a long time. But that’s not what happened. Things have changed between him and Glaxtinian recently. They’ve been in contact with one another.”

  “He knew she was coming aboard? Coming to stay?”

  Drex nods. “There’s more.”

  “Boyd was her secret agent aboard the Ariadne, am I right?”

  “Yeah, I think so. Although he was tight-lipped about it. He had codes to get into some of the off-limit areas.”

  “He had what?” Klund exclaims.

  I wave away the geek’s outburst with an irritated sweep of my hand. “That makes sense,” I say to Drex. “Glaxtinian was an Arbiter. And we can assume she was sent here to take over the project from Chandrasekhar. Or at least get in his way.”

  “It wasn’t like that,” Drex protests. “Boyd wasn’t given any direct orders from her, Glaxtinian just wanted him to sniff around. At first, he wasn’t interested in helping her. ‘Told her to go stick it’ is how Boyd put it to me. But she was his mum and I think that’s what changed his mind.”

  “Is that everything?” I say, allowing the anger I’m feeling to deliberately sink into my voice. “Because if I find you’re lying to me again, it’ll be you who’s next to get a buzz-gun in the gut. You get me?”

  Drex drops his head. “Yeah.”

  Hewlis twists his massive bulk to stare at him. “Why didn’t you say something before?”

  The kid’s voice is an empty rasp. “Like I said. He’s my mate and mates stick together.”

  Every time I find out something about what went down here on the Ariadne, it turns up as a dead end. Still, maybe Boyd will have more to say when we find him. He could’ve spun any line to Drex, but I admit it—I’ve nothing to go on.

  I turn to face everyone else. “We are all going to die unless we can stop Ariadne. That means that I need to know everything. I don’t care about who you are or what you’ve done. If anyone else is hiding something, I want to know what it is. It could mean the difference between life and death.”

  I CHECK the time.

  23:11

  Fifty or so minutes until Stranng gets his wish of blowing me and the other survivors out of hyperspace. I bet he can’t wait.

  But I’m Vatic. I cannot fail!

  I see a vision of Esta sitting astride me, attaching the brain-squeezer to my head.

  Is this the mission where the odds finally overtake me?

  I catch my thoughts. What the hell did Esta do to me?

  I bring up the ship schematics on my wafer. The bottom deck has a series of viewing ports, allowing crew members to view the cosmos at close hand—like Drex mentioned. It’s as far away from a Company ship as to be ridiculous. Chandrasekhar had style—probably one of the reasons the Company wanted him controlled. They are not fond of ostentation, although I understand the professor’s motivation. The ship is a showcase. A warship is designed to blow other ships out of space and into the afterlife. Not a high-end VIP cruise-liner. It certainly wouldn’t have a goddamn hospitality suite, nor would it have an enormous hydroponics deck complete with viewing ports. But show works. Gets the punters to sit up and take notice and pay their money.

  The Company I remember wouldn’t be impressed. Still, I must give the professor his dues. The guy was pushing two-hundred. To survive this long in the Company means he must’ve known what he was doing. Until Ariadne changed all that.

  “Drex … lead the way to the bottom deck.”

  Drex complies, a tense look prematurely aging his youthful features. Boyd disappearing has hit him hard. I don’t like the kid. He’s the pushy, belligerent type that will barge his way to the top, but I believe he’s genuinely worried for his friend.

  Is he the imposter?

  I can’t quite see it. The phony—whoever it is—is playing a clever game. Sure, the body-blank being found was a misstep, but they could’ve been planning this for months. Plenty of time to get a full back-story on their victims and associates.

  We make a quick exit from the cabin and head down the staircase to the bottom of the ship and Hydroponics.

  Drex leads us around a corner and I trip over an enormous door bolt lying on the floor, my thoughts diverted to what remains of the hydroponics hatch. It’s been ripped off its hinges. Drex was right, it appears that something managed to get out, rather than breaking in.

  “Hewlis, with me,” I bark, and the engineer arrives at my side.

  “What the—?” he mutters.

  “What the hell could’ve done this?” I finish for him. “That’s what I’m asking you.”

  Hewlis shakes his shaggy head. “Something very strong.”

  “A cargo exo, maybe?”

  Hewlis shakes his head again. “The stairwell is too small to get something that large in here.”

  “Then what did it? What broke out?”

  He shrugs. “Like I said… something, very, very strong.”

  His words cause a few nervous glances from the already agitated troop. My eyes dart at Drex. “You think Boyd is somewhere in Hydroponics?”

  Drex shrugs. “I hope so. Like I said, he used to come here a lot. To hide in the viewing ports.”

  “Well let’s go find him.”

  We step through the broken door and onto a metal walkway suspended half-way between ceiling and floor. I’m hit by a sea of green and the sickly smell of vegetation and decomposition. Hydroponics sections are usually warmer than the other parts of the ship, but something has gone dreadfully wrong down here. Despite being on the outer hull, the heat is oppressive. I feel sweat collecting along my hairline, under my chin and down the back of my neck.

  The place is stuffed with plants and small trees fed by curling hydroponic pipes creating a forest-like feel. I remember Elbaz’s domes back in the now destroyed Zeta-Karst Labs and realise he was a true master. This is nothing on the scale of what he was able to achieve, but for a Company ship, it’s unprecedented. From what I can see, the deck is twice as high as the others and stretches the width and length of the ship.

  “It shouldn’t be this hot down here,” Klund says, examining the wilted greenery with alarm.

  “He’s not wrong,” Hewlis whistles. “Still, this place is sure off the scale.”

  “You’ve not been down here before?” I ask him. “I thought engineers had access to every part of the ship?”

  “I’m an engineer, not a hydroponics expert. A sub-light engine specialist. Which means I’m either stuck inside some thrust tube or monitoring essential systems.” The engineer’s lips twist into a sneer. “And besides, this place was off-limits to low-rankers like me.”

  “Unless their VIP parents gave them the access codes,” Velez says, wincing as Xev pushes his gun into her spine.

  “We should not have come down here,” Klund says, looking agitated. “This place was designed especially by the professor. Only top bridge personnel have permission to enter.”

  “You mean he’s responsible for this deck?” Xev says with a whistle. “Wow! I knew he was a grandee from the old school, but this is off the goddamn fucking scale.”

  “Have you also noticed that the gravity is a little less than one gee?” Drex says. “It’s one of the reasons why Boyd used to sneak down here. It reminded him of home.”

  �
�Welcome to the Company,” Velez spits, looking around her as if this was some obscene display. “Welcome to the world of the haves and the have nots.”

  “Everyone in the Company has the chance to excel, to better themselves,” Drex says, an agitated expression on his face.

  “You don’t really believe that? Do you, Sublieutenant?” Velez replies, her eyes roving over the trees and plants surrounding us on all sides. “How did you get aboard this damn flagship in the first place? By merit? By working harder than those around you? By being the best? Because that’s how I got where I used to be, a rare exception to the Company rule. But you? You’re here because you’re the friend of Boyd who just happened to be connected to a Company high-flier.”

  Drex doesn’t answer. I guess the chef’s words are too close to the mark. I’m also an exception to the rule. Although in the case of the Skilled, we were helped by genetic augmentation.

  “This place is amazing,” Rooba says, ignoring the confrontation, her red, heavily lashed eyes flashing this way and that. “We had parks back on the colonies. If you can call them that. Fake grass and screens. I’ve never seen or smelled anything like it.”

  “You’ve never been inside a hydroponics bay?” Hewlis asks.

  Rooba shakes her head. “Why would I?”

  I notice the plants are wilting and sick-looking. Some of the stems and branches have been stripped bare of leaves. I wonder if it’s just the heat that has affected them. “You think the gas came down as far as here?” I ask.

  “We didn’t find any bodies on this level,” Drex says. “It’s where we started our search. The place was deserted.”

  “It’ll all be so much dust if we don’t find a way of stopping the ship real soon,” Velez says with an irritated shake of her head. “So what if Boyd killed his mother, that bitch Glaxtinian? Or was working for her? Or whatever? What the hell does it have to do with what’s happened here? Even if we find him and he confesses everything, it’s not going to stop the goddamn ship or pull it out of hyperspace.”

  “You really need to stop talking,” Xev says. “Whatever happens, you’re done for, sister. Dead and buried.”

  Velez shrugs, but she is making a valid point. However, I disagree with her. I’m convinced the murder of Glaxtinian is the key to solve this mystery. My gut speaking to me, my instinct. As to why I believe this? I have no idea.

  I turn a right-angled corner on the walkway, and I’m met by the eerie lights of hyperspace flashing from a recessed portal below—like an amphitheatre. The scene would be beautiful and mesmerising except for one thing. Torn limbs discarded like the broken arms and legs of a dolly and the tell-tale splatter and splash of blood.

  “No!” Drex shouts, racing forward.

  Pirella screams, followed by the sounds of shock and disgust. Lying on the steps down to the viewing port is the decapitated head of Murton Boyd. His blue eyes staring back at us with a frozen look of terror on his face.

  I EXAMINE what’s left of Boyd’s body while Xev takes up guard duty with his gun raised. My assessment is a simple one…

  The kid has been ripped apart.

  Arms and legs torn out of their sockets, his head, still trailing part of his oesophagus and other bits of flesh, pulled off his torso and thrown away. I’ve seen death many times, but even I’m shocked by this grisly horror show. The splash of fresh crimson blood against the green of this place is somehow obscene. I shudder.

  Hewlis crouches down to examine Boyd’s bloodied and ripped torso. “The mechanical force to do something like this would’ve been immense,” he says.

  “You’re not squeamish?”

  The engineer shakes his head. “Never have been. A body is just another machine, albeit beautiful and perfectly designed—it uses all the same physical principles.”

  I take in his words with a nod of my head. “What do you think did this?”

  He stands up. “I dunno. It could be that exo-skeleton you mentioned before, but it’d have to be souped-up. My question is why? Why not shoot him? Or just crush his throat or head. Why rip him apart?”

  “Maybe it was personal?” Rooba says, the Jen’s voice distant and far away.

  “But who would want to do this to Boyd?” Drex says, unable to take his eyes off his friend’s decapitated head. “He didn’t have an enemy in the world.”

  “Didn’t he?” I reply. “Boyd was working for Glaxtinian. Maybe he was killed because of his association with her? Especially if he was sneaking around the ship as her spy. But that’s only speculation. What we need is hard evidence.”

  I check all parts of Boyd’s body. Even the lumps of viscera and torn flesh.

  Boyd’s right fist is still clenched at the end of his discarded right arm. I pull apart the fingers not expecting to find anything. Two long silver hairs are trapped under Boyd’s still-pink fingernails. Thick and greasy—Pirella’s boy with silver hair and the face of an old man, perhaps?

  I consider another possibility, one that has been bothering me for a while now… that there’s something other than human aboard this ship. Some monster able to pull Boyd apart limb from limb and break its way through a hydraulic ship’s door. If I could test the hairs for DNA, that would give me some answers. But it’s not as if genome sequencers are a common feature of a warship. Sure, they’re used at birth for ID purposes, or before, if the parents decide on augmenting their children. Outside the study of paediatrics, they are difficult to get a hold of. A typical warship wouldn’t have such equipment aboard, but Ariadne is as about as far away from typical as you can get.

  “Something is out there!” Klund says eerily, echoing my thoughts and breaking me out of my inner reverie. “The girl, Pirella saw it, so did your rude friend, Xev.”

  “Let’s say you’re right,” I reply, rounding on him. “Who or what is it?”

  Klund seems lost for words.

  “We’re all dead anyway,” Velez says. “You’ve got no way of getting us out of this and you know it. Either this thing will kill us, or your friend out there in hyperspace will blow the ship apart.”

  “Can it, Velez!” I order.

  The chef ignores me. “There must be another way off this ship. If he got aboard, then surely we can get off?” Velez says, nodding towards me. “He must’ve arrived in a ship. And what about the Ariadne’s transports?”

  “All destroyed when I crashed into the cargo bay.” I reply.

  “But there must be escape pods or something similar?”

  “Sure there are,” Hewlis replies to the agitated chef. “Located along the stern on the bridge deck. But they can’t be used in hyperspace.”

  “There’s escape pods?” Rooba says. “Then why can’t Vatic pilot us out of here. Surely that’s a better option? Better than certain death if we stay aboard.”

  The engineer shakes his mammoth head, his grey, curly hair swinging against his temples. “They are single-person only. Reserved for the bridge crew. Fully automatic. You may launch yourself off the ship and, if the pods don’t break up in the Snag Array field, you’ll only have a very small chance of returning to normal space alive.”

  “Well I’m willing to take my chances,” Velez says. “It’s better odds than what we presently have. I’m getting sick to death of following you up and down this damn ship, waiting for the inevitable with your best friend sticking his gun in my back.”

  “There’s no way you’d be able to get a pod out of hyperspace,” I say. “That’s suicide.”

  “Well it sounds like a better option.”

  “You know what, Velez” I say. “Maybe I should let you go, to take your chances against the void and against whatever monster did this to Boyd. You sure deserve it after what you were going to pull on Pirella, but you ain’t going nowhere. No one is.”

  “Then at least give us something to protect ourselves with,” the chef replies bullishly. “There must be an armoury on this ship?”

  “You ain’t getting a gun, sister,” Xev says. “Now that would be suicide
.”

  “But she’s right.”

  I glance away from Xev to see Drex standing above the open viewing portal, his face lit from below by the flashing lights of hyperspace. “If you hadn’t taken our guns, Boyd would’ve been able to defend himself. He’d be alive now.”

  “Whatever killed him,” I say, “killed him because he ignored my orders. You’re not gonna cause me any more problems, are you Drex?”

  The kid shakes his head. “Boyd shouldn’t have run off, especially as he was unarmed. He was usually one for obeying orders. If he’d done so, he’d be alive now.”

  If Drex is an imposter, I give him full marks for artistic impression. This change in character, if true, can only be a bonus. But I’m not about to take him off the suspect list. As for Boyd—what he did or didn’t do, will now never be known. I’m just as much in the dark as I was before.

  “I agree with Velez,” Hewlis says, rubbing at his grizzled chin. “We need to be armed if we’re gonna fight whatever is out there. None of us want to die like this. And my guess is that Boyd was targeted because he no longer had a gun.”

  “We have guns,” I reply. “Don’t make me use them prematurely.”

  “Quit the threats, okay?” Hewlis spits. “I’m getting sick of them.”

  “This is Vatic,” says Xev before I can reply. “If anyone can sort out this can of fucking worms, he can. So, shut the fuck up and let him get on with it.”

  I’m impressed with Xev’s confidence in me, despite what he told me about Esta.

  “Okay,” Velez says, “if that’s the case… what do we do next? What’s his big plan?”

  “I say we off the chef and see if she is who she says she is,” Xev says with a malicious grin. “Hell, for that matter, we could kill everyone.”

  Killing off the remaining suspects to see who reverts to who they really are is an attractive option, although it’s one that isn’t very practical. “Thanks for the idea, but no thanks. I need them alive to help me make sense of this mess and hopefully give me a way out of it. Klund,” I bark. “You mentioned there was a general lab aboard ship.”