14 Surv1v0rs

3

          "Jack," came Reeves's voice over the intercom in Jack's quarters.  "Get down to the generator—fast!"
          "What's wrong?" Jack asked, depressing the intercom button beside his bed.
          "Just get down here!  And bring a bedsheet."
          "A bedsheet?" said Jack.  He climbed out of his bed, slipped into his shoes, yanked his bedsheet out, and tucking it under his arm, hurried out into the hall.  He figured everyone was asleep—or at least trying to sleep like he had.  He had not managed much of it last night, though.  Now it was dawn and a salmon glow glittered in the distance behind the clouds.
          When he reached the generator, he found Reeves and Audrey already there.  "What happened?" he asked, stopping to assess the situation.  There was blood.  Lots of it.
          "Answer me now," Reeves said critically, turning to walk toward him, "what did he say—exactly?"
          Jack stood rooted to his spot, taken aback by both the sight of blood, the mangled corpse on the floor, and Reeves's sudden and arbitrary question.
          "Who?"
          "Bob Marley!"
          "Are you referring to ... " he paused, as horror took over, and took a step toward the body, " ... wait—what happened to Steve?"
          "The monster, Jack," said Audrey standing up.  "What did he say about the monster still being among us?"
          "He—ah—he said—" started Jack.  Briefly, he recalled the chaotic moment on the Andromeda.  Bob Marley had grabbed his ankle, but he pulled free.  And then Bob said—
          "'We're all contaminated,'" repeated Jack, feeling surreal.  
          Reeves looked at Audrey, but Jack turned his focus to the pool of blood on the floor and stepped toward it again with uncertainty.  "This was an accident, right?"
          "We think," said Audrey.
          "No," said Reeves.  He made a triangle with his fingers and placed his two indexes on the bridge of his nose while his thumbs cradled his chin.  He often thought like this.  "Not an accident."
          "Reeves," said Audrey, "we can't just jump to con—"
          "There is only one conclusion, Audrey," interrupted Reeves.  "If you haven't noticed, look at the burn marks on his hand."  He went over to Steve's body and knelt beside it.  It had nearly been decapitated.  He lifted Steve's lifeless hand.  "Three-twenty kilowatt Alpha-7 Laser-bore—I know what it can do to human flesh, you see.  We use those in asteroid ice-drilling.  It was not even a prototype ten years ago, so that rules out anyone who might have been left behind on this rock." 
          "What are you saying?" Jack asked, as he approached them.
          "The only possibility," said Reeves, "is that ... well ... one of us killed him."
          "What do you mean one of us?" said Audrey.  "Nobody brought a laser-bore from the Andromeda."
          "How would we know?" said Reeves.  "Someone could have smuggled it."  He stood up.  "I asked everyone to turn out their pockets.  It seems not everyone did."
          Feeling in a daze, Jack walked around the facility.  He felt none of this was happening.  "So, you think someone was infected and ....  If someone was infected .... " he stood thinking for a moment, and then looked blankly at them, " ... Bob Marley showed effects only twenty-four hours after having been infected.  He tried to blow up the ship approximately thirty-six hours later."
          "It certainly fits in our timeline, doesn't it?" said Reeves.
          "Wait a minute," said Audrey, "Bob was trying to stop the monster.  That's not the same thing."
          "No," said Jack, "but we know it affects the mind ... makes them rather psychotic.  He certainly wasn't acting rational, and yet he was able to scuttle the ship—that means he was also pretty coherent."
          "Which means this ... monster ... has the same faculties we have ... only now it is using them against us," said Reeves.  
          "That was Bob," said Audrey.  "Not the thing.  I think he was fighting with it."
          "Still," said Reeves, "we know now that it does not turn people into some deranged creature that attacks mindlessly ... like you'd think when seeing the thing Neal Wade turn into.  The thing retains our faculties—preserves them."
          "And that makes it even more deadly," said Jack, as he began to pace back and forth.  Then he stopped.  "And Edward."
          "You think it killed Edward?" said Audrey.
"Why not?" said Reeves.  "Michael said it looked as though he were pushed."
          "But we agreed he'd fallen," said Audrey.
          "That was before this," said Reeves.  "Now there is no doubt.  We have a killer among us."
          "I don't know about you," said Audrey, "but I intend on surviving this, so we'd best find out who is targeting us, and fast."  
          Jack, who was examining the door, raised his hand for attention.  "Hey—no one's come from outside, right?"
          "No," said Reeves, turning to him.  "It's been sealed."
          "Not anymore," said Jack.  "The lock's been fried."
          Reeves went over to examine it as Audrey threw Jack's bedsheet over Steve's body.  Kneeling, he examined the dirt on the floor, and recognized them as boot tracks.  "He came from outside," he speculated.
          "Spacesuit," said Jack.
          "Makes sense," said Reeves.  "Didn't want to be seen coming or going.  And nobody would have been in Sector 1; almost everyone returned to the dormitory about fifteen minutes after Steve left."  He stood up.  "If this is the work of ... the monster—and by now we can agree that monster could be anyone—I think it's time we start with each other."
          Jack and Audrey looked at him.
          "What?" said Jack.
          "Alibis," said Audrey, catching on.  
          Jack stood upright.  "Well I was asleep when you called me.  I went to bed after dinner with a headache."
          "Same," said Audrey.  "And you saw me go back to my quarters, Reeves."
          Reeves waved his hand at them.  "Yes, yes, I know it's not you two.  But when we ask the others, they'll want to know what our alibis are first.  Nobody is above suspicion.  We were all on the ship, and any one of us could have been infected."
          "That's true," said Jack.  "So, what's yours?" Jack asked Reeves.  
          "I was with Michael in the greenhouse when the power came on," said Reeves.  "I headed back to my quarters and decided to check up on Steve.  I saw he hadn't returned yet, so I went to check on him."
          "What about Dilbert?" Audrey said.  "Can't we use him?  He was here."
          Reeves frowned.  "He's just a repair bot.  He's only equipped with basic human-liaison software.  He can't identify—"
          "I know, but he does have one.  And once Michael and I got him to pull up the transcript of the conversational input in his hard drive," she said.  "Er—we were eavesdropping on someone."
          "We could try that," said Reeves, "if Michael can manage it."
          "Believe me," she said, "he can."