The Deep Void Chapter-3 Part-1

[vader146]

Chapter 3 – The Silent Killer

Saint paced rapidly up and down the medical ward glancing anxiously at me every now and then.

“What the hell were you thinking?” He asked me incredulously.

“Well,” I answered, jokingly, “he’s just an officer.”

“Just an officer? You’re lucky he didn’t do anything.” Saint said exasperatedly.

“But that’s the point,” I said waving a finger knowledgably at him, “he didn’t do anything.”

Saint gave up; he saw no point in arguing anymore. What’s done is done. He slumped into a chair and closed his eyes. The past hour had obviously been very trying for him.
Seeing this moment of mental weakness I brought up a subject I knew he’d normally ask many questions about, but not in his present state.

“Saint?” I said cautiously.

“What?” Answered Saint suspiciously, he had heard the tone in my voice.

“Well,” I started slowly, “I said a crew of six. That’s me, there are two gunners I hope will join me, I know the perfect navigator and I want to bring my brother.”

“That’s five, not six.” Said Saint, exasperatedly.

“No!” I said curtly. “I was hoping you’d join me. I won’t lie, this is a dangerous mission. There will be injuries and from what I’ve seen and heard you’re a brilliant medic.”

Saint blushed slightly at this praise. This was a good sign, it meant he’d be easier to convince.

“I’m needed here.” Answered Saint, doubtfully.

“Look,” I replied, finally feeling it was time to come out with the truth, “this isn’t just a personal vendetta; the entire galaxy could be in danger.”

At these words Saint awakened slightly and sat upright. Knowing that I had his full attention I continued.

“When my father turned traitor he had stolen two chemicals. Worth millions, enough money for ten lifetimes over. The two chemicals were originally designed for military purposes, however I feel the buyer, whoever he was, wanted to do something different with them. Something more…” I paused searching for the right word, “sinister.”

Saint stared at me for a moment taking in my words then he replied, in a very faint voice.

“So what were these chemicals?”

“One,” I continued, now standing up and pacing the room myself, “was the most deadly disease known to any species. One drop of the liquid could eventually wipe out an entire race.”

Saint looked at with mingled fear and curiosity. I could see he wanted to know how.

“It’s very simple,” I said as I stopped pacing and glared straight into his fearful eyes, “place one drop in, say, somebody’s food and they’ll catch the disease instantly. There are no noticeable affects for two hours or so but by then it’s too late, the disease will have spread to others.”

I sat slowly down on one of the beds in the medical ward and stopped speaking, waiting for a reaction from Saint.

“And how,” he said, sounding as though he didn’t want to ask, “does the disease spread?”

This was one of the worst parts. I gulped and continued, speaking in a dreadful whisper.

“You just have to breath on someone for them to catch it. No sneezing, no sex, you just have to breath on someone and they instantly catch it.” I stopped for a moment, hating my own words.

“It’s the most contagious disease ever known.” I finished dramatically.

Saint sat there not moving, stunned. After a while he looked up and spoke words that were barely audible.
“And is there no way of stopping it?” He said, his eyes watering slightly.

“There is only one sample of the cure,” I said quickly, “and my father took it.”

“The other chemical?” Asked Saint, already knowing the answer.

I merely nodded, unable to talk anymore. I felt a lump in my throat, as if somebody had jammed a walnut down it.
Saint looked down at the floor, we sat there in silence for a few minutes. No sound apart from the buzzing of a light overhead.
After a while Saint asked, in a choked up voice.

“What will the buyer do with the chemical?”

I forced the lump in my throat down and answered hoarsely,

“My guess is he’ll unleash the virus on a large diplomatic or economical planet. He’ll demand power and he’ll get it, they’ll have to give it to him. The ransom he’ll demand will also be an unthinkable amount of money.”

Saint sat there for a few moments looking thoughtful. He starred at the floor, unblinking.

“There are innocent lives at stake.” He said as he looked up at me with tear filled eyes.
“I’ll join you!” He said the last words quickly, and then looked down at the floor again.

I smiled and felt a single, salty drop trickle down my left cheek.
As I myself looked down at the floor it fell of my skin and splattered on the floor below.

I drifted off to sleep. I dreamt that time. I remembered.
I was in a room with many people in, I sat in front of a steel control panel and all was fine.

My eyes were staring blankly at a small radar on the control panel.
A single red blip appeared, another ship wanting to dock at the research centre, probably to stock up on food.

Then to my amazement around fifty other red blips appeared like a swarm of bees heading straight for us.
A large screen flickered on and took up half the circular room.
On it were the fifty, or so, ships. They were destroyers, each a large machine of death.

Rusted metal shot out from many areas of the room. The destroyers were old but deadly none the less. Each bore the same symbol on its side.
A large skull with a red ribbon encircling it.
Many large beam cannons jutted out at all angles and there was only one small window visible on each. At the very tip of the nose of the destroyers. They were an ovular shape, much like an egg.

Then a voice sounded from somewhere in the far distance,

“Steve,” it said patiently, “Steve.”

My body shook.
‘No,’ I thought, ‘they’re blowing up the station.’
But no, the station was still perfectly intact.

With a particularly sharp jolt my eyes sprung open.
I found myself staring into the eyes of Saint, he looked concerned.

“You okay?” he asked sounding solicitous.

“Yeah,” I said sleepily, “yeah, I’m fine.”

“Alright,” he whispered not sounding convinced, “it’s just you were talking in your sleep.”

“Just a bad dream.” I answered defensively as I stood up and stretched.

“It’s five to eleven,” Saint said softly, “better get to the docking bay. I told the commander I’m going with you.”

“Commander?” I asked wearily.

“Yeah, we saw him earlier, remember?” He replied sounding troubled.

I nodded as I slipped my shoes on and took the lead out of the medical ward. As we exited the doors slid open with a satisfying hissing sound.
Saint turned left and I followed him hurriedly towards docking bay ten.

[KiwiNZ]

Good read. Looks like the screaming made kind of a lasting impression on the commander At least he did not yet change his mind and imprison him.

Well, at some point I was under the impression the story about the poison was only half true. So will be interestiing to see how it goes.

Looking forward to the next installment.

[SteveMill]

Getting better and better.

One tip I've had hammered into me in Creative Writing class. Almost all the time, you do not need to modify 'said' etc, with 'curtly', 'suspiciously' etc etc. It should come through in the context and manner of the speech.

Adverbs and adjectives should be used with care and generally treated with suspicion.

I'm as guilty of this as the next man - but writing with heavy use of these is, I'm belatedly finding out, is considered a beginner's mistake.

Steve

[vader146]

thanks steve i'll keep that in mind

[SteveMill]

thanks steve i'll keep that in mind

Hope you don't mind me passing on tips and stuff. I've just finished reading Worlds of Wonder by David Gerroll (who wrote the classic Trek episode, the Trouble with Tribbles). It's a 'how-to' Sci-Fi and Fantasy creative writing book, full of useful information.

Worth ordering from the local library.

[vader146]

i'll have a look into that book

[vader146]

can't find it i'll have 2 order off the net

[SteveMill]

can't find it i'll have 2 order off the net

See if you can get your local library to get it - it's worth a read but unless money isn't a problem there are other books a serious beginner (like both of us really) could benefit from reading.

My local library has a quite decent selection of creative writing books.

Are you part of any creative writing group? The leader might have useful things. 'Story' by Robert Mckee is great, but way too expensive.

I joined a writing group at open college level but didn't keep it up, too many little old ladies so the standard wasn't challenging.

It was a few years later that I signed up for the university creative writing course. The thing I find so valuable about being part of a group is that it challenges you to try different things and so learn lessons you wouldn't learn just writing sci-fi.

Despite having written half a million words of the Rogue trilogy, because it is set in space and in a non-Earth context, I have little practice in writing descriptions of the out doors, or indeed, normal human life.

And I've been unable to stray far into the metaphorical because I can't use any Earth related imagery. To be proper writers we need to master these skills too and a writers group is great for that.

In my class there was an American exchange student who inspired me a lot. She was no more than an okay writer and was hampered by knowing almost nothing about anything as far as I can tell ('no, Scotland did not fight in Vietnam' ) but she had that spirit that I so admire in Americans, she wasn't afraid to try anything that came into her head.

Poems about food, a screenplay of a MMF love triangle, anything. And it made me think - yea, i could do that too and learned a lot from it.

Of course the down-side is that you get your work criticised, possibly unfairly, but you learn what you want to take on board.

I'm lucky in that the leader of my seminar group is a published fantasy author. In developing the plot for my fantasy novel he's been really useful for firming up ideas and suggesting character developments.

Anyways - keep it up, I'm really impressed with what you're achieving from a standing start. As well as continuing this tale why not think about short stories?

Trying to tell a tale in 1500 words is good practice - you learn discipline and get to do all stages of a story in a short time. There are several good books on it. Another advantage is that the end-product can be entered for competitions and on-line publications.

steve

[vader146]

i'll see if i can join a creative writing group. (another ten minutes of yellow pages and phoning ) and i'm already writing other things like i've begun a historical fiction story based around the storming of pegasus bridge.

i've written a short ghost story (called 'The Prisoner')

and have just begun a fantasy story (swords, magic etc) called
'Those who fought'

also just finished making a comic with my friend (i did the story he did the drawing)

right from the start i tried to get in as much variety as possible.

[SteveMill]

i'll see if i can join a creative writing group. (another ten minutes of yellow pages and phoning ) and i'm already writing other things like i've begun a historical fiction story based around the storming of pegasus bridge.

i've written a short ghost story (called 'The Prisoner')

and have just begun a fantasy story (swords, magic etc) called
'Those who fought'

also just finished making a comic with my friend (i did the story he did the drawing)

right from the start i tried to get in as much variety as possible.

Sounds really interesting and varied! Where else do you display your stuff?

[vader146]

most I write on paper and kepp to myself, friends and relatives but the start of 'Those who fought' is on the site I gave in another post (for all you writers) but nothing else on the net though i could post some on that other site.

P.S. Was it you who replied to the start of that story already???