Heliopause by J. Dianne Dotson

Author:J. Dianne Dotson [DOTSON, J. DIANNE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-9994082-3-0
Publisher: J. Dianne Dotson

24

Lost

A yell and a crash sent Forster and Ariel sprawling again. Forster saw a figure struggling with Efron, and for a wild second he thought maybe the figure in the pod had risen to fight them. Efron had the person clamped around the middle with his long arms.

“Enough!” yelled Efron. “Enough! There’s nothing you can do!”

A gurgling yell answered him. Forster saw the bulging, ruddy countenance of a shorter man fighting against Efron’s grasp.

Gibbons!

“No! Ronnie, Ronnie!” Gibbons yelled. He managed to slip out of Efron’s grasp, or perhaps Efron let the man go. Gibbons skidded and fell in the puddles of melted ice and slush as he tried to reach the pod. He stood again and threw himself onto the side of the container and looked in.

A long, broken wail lifted up and bounced inside the bay walls, a sound of such anguish that Ariel yanked her chained arm up to help cover her ears. Efron stood off, away from Gibbons, his face stern, his teeth clenched. The sounds of Gibbons’ sobs echoed in the hollow bay.

“Ronnie-Ronnie-Ronnie-Ronnie,” Gibbons whimpered. He leaned over the dark, entangled being in the capsule and his tears and his snot dripped down onto it. Forster could not see the diamond eyes, nor did he want to.

“Gibbons,” Efron said, in a soothing voice that still betrayed an edge. “You cannot help her now. She is lost.”

Forster held up his free hand. “Let him have this,” he said. He felt a deep pang for Gibbons, who, after all, had been a kind of friend to him not very long ago. Their meeting and camaraderie had brought everything together, to his rescue of Ariel, and now this. But Forster’s thoughts reeled over this scene.

How did Gibbons manage to get on board the ship? And why was he not in a tortured state, like Spears and the crew of the Alta Mira?

“Be careful,” Ariel told him. “Try to block anything that comes at you, even me if you have to. If she’s still alive, she’s powerful. Oh, and unstable.”

Forster nodded. He helped Ariel stand and they made their way to Efron.

“You knew he was here?” Forster asked.

“No, but I suspected,” Efron answered. “I never would have let him come with us. Now we see why he did, but we don’t know everything about our…passenger.” He considered the capsule with half-lidded eyes. Forster spied a deep glint in them, a silver spark.

Gibbons lifted his head and stared at Efron, then sputtered, “Can’t you do something? Can’t you save her?” And he stood and walked toward them. Efron moved in front of Forster and Ariel.

“I cannot,” Efron answered firmly. “As I told you, she is lost. This presence seems to have ensnared her, and drained her of most of her humanity. What little is left seems to be keeping you from falling to its sway.”

Forster spoke up, “So Veronica is fighting against this…presence?”

“That I’m not sure of,” Efron admitted. “I suspect this is more of an…arrangement.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” said Forster.

Ariel stared beyond Efron.

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