ganymede rising
by Jonathan Shepherd
EPISODE 6
Alexander stepped cautiously through the debris and further into
the abandoned tenement in the heart of Atlanta. There was a cool breeze through the broken
windows, but it carried a foul garbage and burning kerosene smell that made his nostrils
flare. He would have called out, but he had already been told where to go and how to act.
He
pushed aside a wooden plank held by a single nail, and stepped through the remains of a
doorway into a large room that was devoid of the trash that seemed to dominate the
rest of the structure.
Chaplain stood across the room looking out of a clouded
window at
the afternoon sky, smoke rising from the cigarette dangling from his right hand.
“Those are hard to find these days.”
Alex broke the silence. Without turning Chaplain took a long drag
and held it for a second. Through the smoke he said, “I roll my own.”
“I did what you asked,” said Alex, “though I
hardly see what it was
supposed to do, other than upset me about the details of my mother’s
murder.”
The older man finally turned, stirring up the smoke
that was dancing
around him in the sunbeams. “What did the justice tell you?”
“Just what I was already told by every other authority
involved. That
my mother was murdered by her assistant, who then killed herself.
They were unclear as to the motive, and are still investigating why it
could have happened.”
“Did you ask them what I suggested?”
“Yes. Yes… I asked them what they knew about the
murder weapon.” Alex paused for a minute and swallowed a lump of nothing down his dry
throat. “And they said she was shot by an automatic firearm.”
“Did you press the issue?”
“I asked them why the bodies had to be destroyed and
cremated if it was a simple firearm… and they told me that it used explosive bullets,
and that the effects were too gruesome to hide.” Alex’s lips shook a little as
he forced the words to come out. “My mother wanted to be cremated anyway. No matter
how wealthy she was… she believed that
embalmment and burial were archaic practices and shouldn’t be inflicted upon our
environment… so everything happened in line with her wishes anyway. I don’t see
why you wanted me to find that out…”
“Well,” said Chaplain, “don’t you find
it odd that the body was destroyed before you or anyone else was notified of what had
happened?”
“A little,” Alex admitted, “but on a space
station, the rules are a little
different… and they had official documentation about what had
happened… there was no need to wait.”
“Very tidy indeed,” he said, “But what if I
were to tell you that the story is missing one important element? What if I told you that
what killed your mother wasn’t an explosive bullet? What if it wasn’t even a
bullet as we know it at all?”
“What are you talking about?” Alex had only
spoken to this man a few times since his mother’s death… and while he
hadn’t grown to trust him exactly, he was beginning to feel that Chaplain was a man
who didn’t speak unless he really knew what he was talking about.
Chaplain reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a shiny silver
object that was about 4 inches long and held it out. “Ever seen one of
these?”
Alex walked forward and looked at it, then took it in his hand.
It looked like a really big bullet with drill-like ridges
going up the pointed end.
“No. It looks like a bullet…”
Chaplain took it back and held it by the blunt end in his
left hand, then pulled out a cigarette lighter and lit a flame under the pointed end.
“Now watch it,” he said.
After only a second or two, the pointed end of the bullet
sprung
open, like a flower blooming all at once. It looked like a deadly star,
with five points surrounding three smaller ones coming from the
center.
“Razor sharp,” Chaplain said, “and
that’s not all. When it hits its target it is spinning so fast that it’s barely
visible.”
“What’s your point?” Alex said.
“This is what killed your mother. You can believe me
or not…. But I have connections around the consulate. One of them confiscated this
before it could be done away with and written out of the official report. Not sure if this
is the one that was in your mother, or in her assistant, but
this was what did it. It has special technology in it, Alex. After it hits the
body, it burrows and travels around inside its victim for a long time
before they die. Only one kind of technology like this.”
Alex was visibly shaken. He could barely talk; images of his mother
suffering clenched his throat and kept him from saying anything. He
leaned against the wall and steadied himself for a second before he
regained his composure.
“I don’t know whether or not I believe
you. God knows I don’t want to believe you… but still I don’t see
what you’re getting at, Chaplain.”
“That’s why it’s time for a little history
lesson…. What do you know about the ETH war?”
“I know what they teach everybody. In 2120 some kind of
conspiracy or alien intelligence caused everyone involved with the Ganymede project to
turn on Earth. It was the biggest war humanity has ever known, and millions of lives were
lost…. Sixty-seven years later, we’re still rebuilding our world and our
culture… blah blah blah… I learned
all that in high-school- what does that have to do with anything?”
“And why did they call it the ETH war?” Chaplain
sounded like a
school teacher.
“ETH… Enemy To Humanity… no other name for
it. No one really knew what happened to those people up there, but there was speculation
that it was an alien intelligence that wouldn’t reveal itself. Why are you asking me
this stuff? Everybody
knows all that.”
“Right. Some believe it was apolitical conspiracy and
that the
whole idea that some alien force caused it all is ridiculous… but
believing what happened was not caused by humans makes it easier
to sleep for some.”
“Yeah, since we had to blow up Ganymede One. All those
people…”
“Well, did they teach you anything about what
substantiates the idea
that the force behind the incident wasn’t human?”
“Not really,” said Alex, “I never paid much
attention. Ancient history.”
“What gives credence to those ideas is the technology
that the ETH used during the battle.” Chaplain paused for a second and folded the
blades back into the weird bullet, and slipped it back into his pocket.
“Technology like that.”
Alex stared at him for a minute, and then looked down at
the floor. “I don’t know what this all means or why you’re telling me all
of this.”
“I would suggest,” Chaplain said as he lit another
cigarette, “that you
read up some more on your ‘ancient history’— because the ETH killed
your mother.”
