Paphos, p.28
Paphos, page 28
“What happened? Where’s Dmitry?” Carolina asked.
He was quiet for too long. He hated lying to his daughter. “You don’t have to be afraid of Dmitry; he’s gone now.”
“Thank you, Daddy,” she said.
Austin said nothing. He didn’t save her; she saved herself. His anxiety fluttered, knowing she could open her mouth and that thing could kill him at any moment. But she wouldn’t if she were in control, but that begged the question, was she in control? The sudden vision of that thing shooting out of her mouth made him shiver.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing. Nothing. I’m just glad you are okay,” he said. Austin had to pull himself together. He had to think. Carolina didn’t know what was in her, and Athen didn’t know either, yet. Athen herself was likely contaminated, because the same parasite had entered her, too. Right now, only Austin knew this truth.
He would keep it that way, to protect her. That was his job. He was a good dad, and he would prove it. He would find a way to keep this secret.
Athen must have sensed the tension; she was studying him from her seat before he noticed.
“I’m feeling better now, thank you. But if we aren’t waiting for anyone else, we should get going,” Carolina said.
“What of Helena?” Austin asked.
“Dead,” Carolina answered.
He didn’t need to know how. “And Orlean?”
By the look on Athen’s face, he was dead too.
“That leaves… well,” Austin sighed, “…no one. Everyone is accounted for.” He didn’t name Dublin; the fiery crash was still emblazoned in his mind. And of course, Dmitry, but there was obviously no need to name him either. They were all that remained of the crew.
Carolina stood and walked over to the pilot’s chair perched in front of a large curved windshield. She climbed into the oddly shaped seat, which was wide and poorly angled for a human, especially a twelve-year-old.
Austin sat across from Athen, who was fading in and out of pain. He couldn’t imagine what she must be feeling, but he also couldn’t help but wonder if it was more than just exhaustion. The parasite had entered her as well, if ever so briefly. Would Athen have a similar transformation? Would he soon be outnumbered? Austin shook his head. First things first, they needed to get off this planet. He would have time to think after that.
“You were right, Austin, you were right all along. We should have contacted Command immediately, maybe none of this would have happened,” Athen said. “Once we get to the Orbiter, I’ll radio in and tell them what happened.”
“Yeah, that’s protocol,” he said, staring at the floor. But he couldn’t let her do that, protocol or otherwise. It would expose Carolina. But exactly how he was going to stop it, he wasn’t sure.
The ramp raised and morphed back into the wall of the ship. Carolina placed her hand on a sphere in the center of the dashboard, and lights surrounded her hand as instruments gave readings in alien script. He accepted what he was seeing, but he still hated it. Suddenly, the engines activated, and he felt a wave of uncertainty as the vessel moved. With the door closed and engines on, there was no turning back. Not that he would give up now. He braced a hand against the panel for liftoff.
Flight was a much different feeling; if it weren’t for the images outside the cockpit, he never would have known they were flying. The dome above them retracted, and a heavy groaning of shifting earth followed. Pebbles and rock splattered the top of the vessel, popping and scraping in a hollow shower of dirt. The earth fell easily away from the cockpit, and he watched as the ground level came and went. Austin saw the barren rock he had marched across shrink slowly as they rose higher and higher. His stomach was begging to abort, and more than once, he watched Carolina for any sign of worry, of concern. He held on to her confidence as they were soon a hundred meters above ground and climbing. In actuality, he had never had a smoother liftoff, but still, he wished the pilot’s windshield were not so large. The entire horizon could be seen. Now the ship moved faster. They had to be five hundred meters now and climbing. When they entered a cloud, Austin had to close his eyes the rest of the way. He knew how high up they had to go, and he had never felt so alone or helpless on any flight before. When he felt Paphos’ natural gravity disappear, he knew they had left the atmosphere.
He was floating. He opened his eyes; the worst part was over. The first thing he saw was stars.
“Ahhh, that feels bad,” Athen said as her leg adjusted to weightlessness.
“The Orbiter is coming around soon. I’ve charted a course that will dock us in three minutes,” Carolina said.
“I only have a faint idea of how you know all these things, kid, but I’m damn glad you do,” Athen said, grimacing as the pain in her leg settled.
In about three minutes, they’d all be on board the Orbiter. Three minutes, that was how long Austin had to figure out how to keep Athen from contacting command. She was only following procedure; he couldn’t blame her for that.
He looked down at his hands. He’d let Dmitry live, even when he knew better, and it’d come back to bite him, hard. There was at least one way to keep her from contacting command, but it was the last thing he wanted. It meant he’d have to kill Athen.
No. No way. He’d find something else. She just couldn’t be allowed to send the transmission.
Austin took a farewell look at Paphos as they orbited above it, at the rings softly circling without end. It seemed to be looking right back at him. He felt nothing as he stared at its blue and purple hues. The further he was from this cursed planet, the better.
“There it is,” Carolina said, pointing at the Orbiter. It was only a speck in a sea of black at this distance. Athen smiled and floated over to Carolina, grimacing in pain as she did.
He could choke her to death. That would be painless, quick.
“I still can’t believe you’re flying this. God, this is amazing. This changes everything,” Athen said. Her spirits had never been higher, between being saved and changing the course of humanity forever, despite everything that had happened.
Elation was something Austin couldn’t entertain under these circumstances. They were two minutes away from docking inside the Orbiter. He couldn’t hide the fact that they encountered an alien species if they came home with the alien vessel docked in the Orbiter. After killing Athen, he’d have to jettison the alien ship. They’d never know it was there; they’d pretend their own shuttle was lost, by some equipment failure in the loading bays. It’d be a tragedy of scientific loss that, again, only he would know anything about. Undoubtedly, the company would return to Paphos, at least to follow up on all of the claims. But during that time, he could disappear, and she with him. So at least, she’d still be safe. He was not equipped for these decisions. He at least needed more time to prepare for what he was about to do.
The Orbiter’s features were visible now; it was long and round like a summer squash, purposely built to be unable to enter an atmosphere. Orbiters were built in space and would forever remain there. The belly opened wide as they neared, with Carolina guiding the ship to land. Austin smiled when he saw big, bright CAUTION signs. He didn’t realize how homesick he felt until seeing a sign he could actually understand.
The craft docked through the gaping entrance and parked with a sliding platform. Big loading bay doors slid closed with a resounding whoom, and they waited as air flooded in. Once the room was pressurized, the signal lights came on, and then the Orbiter’s artificial gravity re-engaged. As it did, they clanked the distance to the ground with a hearty lurch.
“Sorry!” Carolina said, suddenly, a nervous kid again. Austin looked around; they were jolted but otherwise in good shape. He saw the yellow signal lights outside become bright green, and it was safe to disembark the craft.
This time, the faux gravity wasn’t so strange, probably because they had only been weightless for a little while. But noticing that was simply a distraction, an occupation in his mind since he was avoiding what he needed to do now. So far, Austin had not devised a better solution to his problem.
“Next time, we put her in charge!” Athen joked, patting Carolina on the shoulder. “We’re here! I can’t believe it,” she added, her face becoming a little more serious as she looked at Austin. “It feels good, Austin, salvaging this alien ship to bring home. It means that after everything, no one died in vain,” she said. They both knew there was much more to the story than that.
Austin stood at the exit and waited for the alien ramp to lower. When it finally opened, he watched it descend completely, taking in his first sights of the Orbiter’s receiving dock. The sterile smells, devoid of all that pollen. The loading bay was a tall grey cubicle with a set of stairs and two control panels. Dublin’s bag, the bag he had cursed himself for forgetting, lay on the bottom stairwell just as Dublin had said. Looking at that bag was another reminder of loss.
“We made it,” Athen said, probing to cheer him up. After he wouldn’t acknowledge her, she nudged him in the arm. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said. He felt Carolina’s arms squeeze him around the waist.
“We did it, Dad,” she said.
He was quiet.
“Alright, let’s radio in already,” Athen said.
“Wait. I’m the ranking member of the crew; the Company would want me to do it,” Austin said.
“At this point, Austin, who cares?” Athen replied.
They disembarked, and he let her walk in front.
She approached the control panel at the base of the loading bay stairs. She could use any control panel to send a message to Command; the Orbiter’s computer was accessible all over. Austin went down the ramp and approached Athen with a heavy heart. He placed his hand over hers, stopping her from logging in.
She looked up to him. “Are you okay?”
He couldn’t answer; he could barely look her in the eye.
“Austin?”
“Daddy, what’s the matter?” Carolina asked.
“Nothing, kiddo.”
“Austin, what’s wrong?”
“Athen,” he said and then swallowed. “Listen to me, listen carefully. We can’t tell them what happened. We can’t tell them any of it.”
She blinked. “Why not?” she said, followed by a nervous laugh.
“Because we can’t,” he simply replied. She knew him well enough to know that he was deadly serious.
“You were the one who said we needed to follow protocol, let’s just do it already,” she urged.
She wasn’t getting it. She just didn’t see what he was trying to say. That was her answer; he had to accept it. He’d given her a chance, at least. What he was about to do next was for the good of his child. He knew in his heart that he had given Athen a chance. Now he needed to kill her, because if he didn’t, his daughter would not be safe. As ugly a truth as it was, killing Athen was the only way to keep his daughter a secret.
“Okay. We will radio in. But like I said, I’ll do it,” Austin said, pushing her hand away.
“Have it your way,” she replied, a little hurt and confused.
He opened the radio frequency. She’d been given a chance, though she didn’t know it at the time. This was hard for Austin; he really liked her, and he lacked the stomach for murder. But the situation with Dmitry had taught him everything. It wasn’t fair to her, but fair didn’t matter. He just couldn’t see any way around it. Letting Athen live meant losing Carolina. His daughter would be hurt, experimented on, and a prisoner for the rest of her life.
“Voice message, prepare to send… This is what remains of the Orbiter crew, the crew returning from Paphos Station One…” He was about to report that after a serious malfunction during the return voyage, there were only two survivors: Carolina and himself.
Athen stood in his space, close enough to kiss him.
“Wait,” she said. She placed her hand on his wrist. “You are right. Of course you are,” she said, staring into his eyes. She pointed to Carolina. “If they find out, if they ever found out…” she added.
Austin prayed she said the right words.
“You’re her father, and… she knows things, things she shouldn’t know. You’re afraid they might hurt her, that they might take her away from you,” Athen said.
“You have no idea,” he replied, his voice so soft and pained it sounded like a whisper. He held back the flood waiting at the gate. “What are you telling me, right now?”
Athen never took her eyes from his. “We jettison the alien ship. The others died in a tragic accident; we can figure out the details later. Nobody knows what we went through, because I understand now. I know what’s at risk for her,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “We die with this secret.”
“You better swear—”
“No one will find out!” she said.
The tears couldn’t be stopped. “Thank you,” he managed to say. Austin’s breaking point had arrived. Every pain he had endured, every stress he had absorbed, every fear suppressed was now released. He didn’t realize that Athen had activated the radio until he heard her speaking into it.
“After an incident that nearly ruined the entire mission, only three of us have survived, and we lost the landing craft as well. Some of the experiments and their data were salvaged. The survivors are preparing to embark home, finally,” Athen said. She held eye contact with Austin the entire time.
“They’ll want to come back to retrieve the bodies, the experiments, and then the insurance claims. They’ll come here,” he said.
“It buys us time. We can volunteer to return, be the ones to clean up.”
He hadn’t thought of that.
“We’re in this together. All the way.”
She said everything he needed to hear, and they shared a vow at this point. All they had to do now was explain four deaths and a missing shuttle. All they had to do now was bury the greatest scientific discovery of their lives and go home empty-handed.
They had a secret to keep.
The solution Austin had been desperately seeking had presented itself, and it was just in time, too. A moment later, and it would have been too late. It was one big problem down, a dozen little ones to go. But he could handle little problems.
His thoughts plagued him as they went about being normal for the next several minutes. What would become of Carolina’s condition? Was Athen destined to have a similar transformation? Would their hypersleep monitoring trigger some alarm?
He was looking in the other direction, so he didn’t see Carolina and Athen. They held eye contact with each other for several seconds, expressionless the entire time. Then Carolina nodded, and Athen resumed preparations for the return home.
Austin collapsed into his chair. The return voyage had begun. The answers to all of those questions had solutions, and he’d solve them one by one.
Nothing would stop him, no matter the stakes. Whatever did or didn’t happen, he still had a job to do. He would protect his daughter.
The End
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nick Burnette is an American author specializing in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Raised in a secret society of 80’s movies, he honed a unique blend of adventure, suspense, and imagination—along with a few deadly skills best left in the dojo. When he’s not crafting high-stakes stories of first contact, cyberpunk detectives, and kung fu, he can be found plotting his next twist, exploring the cosmos with a telescope, or debating the finer points of old television series with his wife.
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Nick Burnette, Paphos
