“That’s…” Creepy is what he wanted to say, but he was pretty sure generals weren’t supposed to find things creepy. He settled for, “unsettling.”
“Indeed,” Riina murmured. “I wonder where it came from?”
“There was a garden ship,” Naxe said, “more than one. At least,” she stopped, giving a head shake, “that’s what I…remember. A place for growing food.”
“How would it get here?” Halliwell objected. It would have had to get through airlocks and transit tubes. He looked around. It looked like the other ship, like it had been abandoned, and in an orderly manner, based on that one room he’d looked in. “Would this ship have had armaments?”
“Some, perhaps. Not necessarily standard for this class of ship,” Riina said. “But the pirates are always with us, are they not?”
“I’ve never not had them be an issue,” Halliwell said, equal parts wry and grim.
“This ship has been modified for weapons,” Tim said, “but there is no one on board. No human presence,” he corrected.
Halliwell glanced up instinctively, but the vine, if that’s what it had been, was gone.
“The airlock is ahead,” Tim said.
Halliwell wished he felt like that was the good news.
Naxe tried to keep her body relaxed enough to react if something went wrong, but it was challenging. The retreat of the vine, or whatever it was, had unsettled her in a different way than, well, than all the other unsettling things, including the shadow. It had flicked at her memory and now it felt as if she walked in two places, though not every moment. The other flickered in and out of sight so fast she couldn’t see it properly. It was more a sense of something there.
Sometimes the pulse was longer and she had the impression of people moving up and down this corridor. During one longer pulse, she had to stop herself from moving aside, but the figure faded before running into her.
They aren’t here. No one is here.
If her head hadn’t felt better, she’d have wondered if something had broken inside when Tim scanned her brain. It was a relief to reach the airlock and go through the tube to the next ship. As soon as they were inside the small transship area, Naxe spoke involuntarily.
“This is the garden ship.”
“Hydroponics?” John looked sharply at her.
Despite the headgear, she smelled damp and soil and green. There were no visions here, but she felt she knew this place in a different way. A real way?
“Are you seeing anything? Or anyone?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. This is different. I feel like I remember being here…but how is that possible?”
“This ship is not as old as the others,” Tim said.
“I don’t recognize it,” Riina said. “It must have been after my time.”
Tim stepped up to the hatch that would give them access to the rest of the ship. It resisted opening, but Tim was persistent and it finally slid back, revealing a riot of unchecked plant life.
“Who wouldn’t want to take a trip to Little Shop of Horrors,” John said, sounding resigned.
Halliwell did not like the look of this at all. It had Charlie Foxtrot written all over it. Some of the vines he could make out in the dimness of the corridor looked bigger around than he was. And some of those vines, which could be trees, he supposed, had flowers attached that looked like they could eat two of them in one bite. If he had to pick a movie to be in? Little Shop of Horrors wasn’t the one he’d have picked.
“Tim?” he asked. The robot wasn’t moving forward, which probably said more than if he’d started giving them a risk assessment.
Light stabbed out of the robot’s eyes—another scan. This time he didn’t assume it was his imagination that the green crap didn’t like it. Maybe he should have paid more attention in biology class, but he thought plants liked the light. But then these plants were—oh, wait—alien? He huffed out a silent sigh as Tim scanned the three corridors available to them.
“The direct route to the next airlock is the most congested,” Tim said finally.
“Is there a better alternative route?” Halliwell asked. Safer is what he meant, but longer could cancel out safer. He’d like to spend as little time as possible with the scary plants.
“My assessment is that each route will take approximately the same time to traverse, barring obstacles not visible with my scan,” Tim said. “There could also be an alteration in present conditions.”
Naxe stepped past him and her face shield lifted. Didn’t they have movies in this galaxy? Because if not, they needed some. Okay, maybe that wouldn’t help. In the movies they needed people to lift their face protection so they could get the plot moving. In real life? That didn’t go as well.
“What is it?” Riina asked.
“I’ve…been here before.”
She’d said that, but this was not what he’d imagined before Tim opened the door. This was not what he imagined of any hydroponics setup.
“Before the plants were like this?” Riina stepped up next to her, which caused Tim to get closer.
Oh yeah, he liked Riina.
“No.” Naxe shook her head. “It was like this.” She reached out and Halliwell had to stifle a protest as she stroked one finger down the closest leaf, which was almost as tall as she was. The leaf seemed to quiver, but nothing came out and ate her. “Look.”
She directed her headgear light, though on a lower setting, and shone it down the corridor. There was a path visible. And the other way? It seemed more blocked with vegetation than the last time he’d looked.
If it looked like a trap, it didn’t have to smell like a trap to be a trap. On the other hand, if this was the trap, then maybe they could get this “vacation” over faster. Because they were going to have to walk into the trap to find out what it was.
“I will go first,” Tim said.
Halliwell was starting to feel guilty about putting him out there…but not enough to go first himself.
“Let’s try to get through without shooting anything.” It was probably his imagination that this jungle felt alive and not in a good way. “Riina, stay close to Tim, and Naxe? You fall in behind her. I’ll take our six.” The shiver he felt at being at the rear of the team was not imagination. But there was only room for them to move single file.
“We should connect ourselves.” Tim lifted a hand and a thin wire began to emerge. Riina ran it through a slot on her suit, then passed it back to Naxe, who hooked up, and passed it to Halliwell. Well, that helped with the alone-at-the-rear feeling. But it also made it harder for any of them to act independently.
Tim adjusted something and his body began to give off a soft glow, but the spectrum must have been right because the vegetation seemed to calm down. Add that to the growing list of thoughts Halliwell never thought he’d have. Ever.
“Let’s move out,” Halliwell said.
4
The silence was oppressive. And the smell didn’t help. Belatedly Naxe remembered her face plate was up and lowered it, but the thick moist smells took a few minutes to cycle out of her suit. Every now and again her suit picked up a soft rustle, but the leaves and flowers seemed to hang limply on their branches and vines. Maybe it was their movement that caused the sounds? She could hope.