Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
EDDIE
TWO WEEKS TO CHARON
The Control Room was dead silent, all eyes on Captain Ro-nold, who stood at against the fore wall, a grimace plastered to his face.
Eddie and Jett had been pulled from bed at the captain’s request, and ordered to report to the Bridge.
Why? They had no idea. But as they stood there, staring at people who stared right back, something in Eddie’s guts sank.
“There has been a development in City,” Ollie said, his usually jovial expression grim.
He led them to a bank of tabs showing each of the different districts in City.
And on each feed there were people standing stock-still.
Eddie thought the feeds were paused until someone walked into view in District Two.
“Henrich?” the person said, speaking to a Terran man with short hair and a stocky frame who stood with hands cupped and held forward. “Henrich? Can you hear me?”
The person grabbed the man by their arm, but he didn’t move. Didn’t respond in any way. He just stood there, staring at his palms, elation on his face.
“Henrich!” The person yelled until a uniformed Security Officer arrived and pulled them away.
The feed cut off.
“This is happening all over the City. They appeared out of nowhere around 2230, according to our reports and video feeds. They were all alone and no one saw them stop.”
Ollie turned to another feed, this one a body cam for one of his Officers.
“Approach them,” he ordered.
The officer approached a Centaurian woman, slim for her size, and waved a hand before her. Her near-colorless eyes were glossed over, her pale skin tinged a sickly green. She’d paused mid-step, one long leg bent at the knee, but perfectly balanced.
“There’s no response, sir,” came the officer’s voice.
Ollie looked to Jett, standing beside Eddie, then back to the captain.
“This is similar to what we saw on the Golden Lion,” Eddie said.
“Fuck similar,” Jett responded. “This is must have been what happened on the Golden Lion.”
Eddie waved a hand at the feed and looked over his shoulder at Captain Ro-nold “We saw the end of it. And this must be the beginning.”
Fear burned against Eddie’s skin beneath the layers of day-old fabric. It stuck to him in the worst of ways, the seams irritating the skin of his arms and legs. He fought against the urge to strip off his uniform coat, knowing that would only draw more attention to him than he wanted right now.
No one spoke. No one moved. Beside Eddie, Jett still stared at Captain Ro-nold over his shoulder.
“We have a problem on our hands,” Captain Ro-nold said, his voice booming in the silence.
Eddie looked to Jett. “What do we do now?”
“We need to know how many people are affected by this…whatever that’s going on is.”
“And see if there is any way to fix it. We need a subject to bring to Medical.” Ollie sounded more authoritative, more in control than the meeting after intercepting the Golden Lion’s distress signal. And certainly more in control than Eddie felt.
“I agree with both of you,” Captain Ro-nold joined Eddie, Ollie, and Jett. The rest of the Control Room staff stared at the four of them. “But we need to have contingency plans in place for when or if something goes wrong.”
“We saw perhaps hundreds of these affected people on the Golden Lion, so it may spread fast.”
“Yes,” Eddie said. “But we also know that 1,230 people were not Affected. There must be some…immunity to the condition.” Eddie searched his mind, going back to the day the shuttles docked after their mandated week-long quarantine. No one had come aboard with any signs of disease.
“Do we know if any of those Affected are the survivors of the Golden Lion?”
Ollie shook his head. “We only just started the process of finding and identifying who is in this condition. A thousand people or more could be Affected, maybe more.”
Beneath the chatter, the Song wavered and warbled, distorting, rising, falling, disappeared.
It’d been quiet, almost content, since Eddie’s episode when Jett woke up.
Almost as if Jett’s presence, his rebirth, had changed something for them both.
Changed the bond between them that ached when Jett was not around.
Eddie had noticed the changes, but hadn’t had the time to sit with the feelings, process them, and talk to Jett.
Everything had moved so fast, and yet so slow.
“Send out everyone you have on the streets,” Jett ordered, easily taking control from Ollie and Captain Ro-nold. “We need more information than we have right now.”
Two days later, Eddie had the answers he’d sought. A full 2,265 people were Affected the night they were found. A day later, it was 9,690, and today it was nearly 20,000. The horde was growing at an almost exponential rate.
There was muted panic in the streets of Neo-Tokyo as people lost loved ones, friends, and coworkers to something they didn’t have a name for.
Security Officers and videos from the captain did only so much to keep the people of Neo-Tokyo calm.
Eddie didn’t know what to do, where he’d be best suited to help, so he kept close to Jett, to Captain Ro-nold.
He minded the stats that continually updated, and kept his ears tuned to the changes in the Song.
“Captain,” Jett said.
“Yes?” Eddie and Augustus both replied.
Eddie flushed and ducked his head. He’d gotten so used to people calling him Captain that it’d become a habit to stop and turn at the word.
Jett smiled and rubbed Eddie’s hand and a reassuring glow filled Eddie’s chest.
“Captain Ro-nold,” Jett clarified. “We need to consider the possibility that we’ll need to evacuate the ship.”
Eddie found himself nodding along to the suggestion. It would be a massive undertaking, and would incite worsening panic in the streets. “Perhaps we should quarantine the district where the Affected have appeared the most.”
Captain Ro-nold shook his head. “Not yet, that would cause panic.” He turned to Ollie. “Send every officer you can down to City. We need calm eyes on the ground to keep us informed.”
Ollie nodded, turned for the conference room, and disappeared inside, talking animatedly to someone on his tab.
Captain Ro-nold sat with his head resting in one large hand. He sighed and turned to Eddie.
“What would you do, Captain Stone?”
Eddie stalled. He didn’t know what the right thing to do was. Should he quarantine the city? Or would he evacuate the ship immediately and incite severe panic?
“I do not know, Sir,” he admitted. But after a moment he spoke again. “I would quarantine the Districts before anything else. Especially knowing that Medical hasn’t found a way to cure these Affected people.”
Beside Eddie, Jett let out a breath.
“I won’t argue with you two, but we need to do something. And now.” He looked out the Control Room door to the hundreds of Bridge Officers. “It’s not gonna get any easier for us anytime soon.”