The Season of Passage

  But I did love you, Jim. I always will.

  Gary thumbed through the pages angrily, but couldn't find what he was looking for. He slammed the Bible shut. 'I'll say my own prayer.' He addressed the red heavens. 'If you're there, God, and you do care about us, please watch over Jim's soul. I believed in him. I think he helped me believe in you. He was the best of us all.' Gary spoke quietly to the plastic bag at his feet. 'He was my best friend.'

  There followed an empty silence. It was always a one sided conversation when you talked to God. Gary thrust out the Bible to Bill. 'Here,' he said bitterly. 'You're our commander. You're the one who should be saying these things.'

  Bill took the book without any sign of emotion. He spoke to the rectangular hole in the ground. 'Our loss is great. Jim was rare among men. All his life he accomplished what he set out to do. He let nothing stand in his way. He was brilliant, he was kind, but above all else, he was courageous. We can take a lesson from the example he set, to perform our duty without hesitation, and let nothing stop us. Our thirst is great but soon it will pass. We will complete our explorations and leave this world. Tomorrow Jessie will accompany me under the ground.'

  Jessie.

  The last rays of the sun licked their commander's back. A gust of wind came up and sprayed snow in the air; it settled on their faceplates like dirt thrown in their faces. Bill searched the Bible. 'But for now we must say goodbye to our friend,' he said. 'I would like to say the Lord's Prayer. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth, as it is in heaven..."'

  I will show thee the condemnation of the great harlot, Lori, who sits upon many waters. With whom the Kings of Earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the Earth were made drunk with the wine of her immortality.

  Lauren did not recognize the voice in her head. It was not the voice of her own thoughts, nor was it Bill's voice. Yet it flowed in rhythm with Bill's words and it seemed to express a part of him that was still hidden, but a part which was becoming clearer with each passing second, as the light steadily faded.

  "'Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and..."'

  And I saw Lori drunk with the blood of saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus...

  ' "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,"' Bill said. '"Amen."'

  Amen. And fuck you, sweet Lori.

  Lauren was having difficulty breathing. Her lungs felt as if they were filled with burning ash. Yet there was a cold spreading inside her, too, like frost growing on a cracked window in an empty house. The sun had set. Bill closed the Bible and stared at her. The ceremony was over. She was glad it was over.

  'That was very nice,' Gary said sarcastically.

  'Yeah,' Jessica agreed blankly.

  Bill nodded, still watching Lauren. Finally he spoke, 'It's late. We have shown our respects. You will bury the body, Gary. The rest of us will return to the ship.'

  'I'd like to stay,' Lauren said.

  'Fine,' Bill said, 'Let's go, Jessie. We have much to accomplish tomorrow.'

  As they turned and walked toward the Hawk, Gary reached for the laser he had earlier lain beneath Jim's body. In seconds he had released the safety and leveled the rifle at Bill's back. Lauren closed her eyes, and heard Gary pull the trigger.

  But no devastating beam of energy spurted forth. Lauren opened her eyes and found a shocked Gary examining the laser. Bill had turned and watched him patiently. Jessica stood to Bill's left, to the left of the ozone, not understanding that anything unusual had just happened.

  'Is something the matter, Gary?' Bill asked.

  'No.'

  'Something I can help you with?'

  'No,' Gary said.

  'Good,' Bill said, taking his wife's hand and turning away again. 'You need not bury him deep.'

  Jessica and Bill disappeared inside the Hawk. Lauren stepped to Gary's side. He had thrown the laser to the ground.

  'You missed,' she said.

  'The laser's broken.'

  'Obviously.'

  Gary knelt and took hold of Jim's legs. 'I didn't particularly like Bill's last remark,' he said. 'Give me a hand, Lori.'

  'OK.'

  'We have a deep hole here,' Gary said. 'He'll rest peacefully. Nothing will disturb him.'

  Lauren nodded, and took hold of the shoulders.

  'We don't have to worry about Jim,' Gary said. 'I know we don't have to worry about him.'

  'Yeah,' Lauren said. Still holding his legs, Gary jumped into the grave.

  'The bastard overloaded the laser,' he said. 'He's the one we have to worry about.' Gary quickly slipped Jim's body into the ice-rimmed hole, setting it down gently, and then climbed out. He began to scan the area.

  'What are you looking for?' she asked.

  'Jim won't hurt us,' he said for what seemed the tenth time. 'But I think we should get a big rock.'

  'What for?' Lauren asked.

  'It's good to be careful. I'm looking for a boulder that we can roll over the grave.' He got angry when she shook her head as if he was crazy. 'Just help me, goddamnit! We don't know what's going on here.' He turned away. 'We don't know nothing.'

  The steps echoed from the control room to the bedroom where Lauren lay staring at the ceiling. According to the engineers who had built the Hawk, it was impossible to hear footsteps from one deck to the next. Lauren figured Bill must have gained two thousand pounds.

  Jessica was asleep on the other bed, her system fortified for a long excursion in dreamland with two grams of phenobarbital. Lauren had contemplated taking a pill herself, but only for a tenth of a second. In her right hand, under the covers, she held the razor-sharp scalpel she had used during the autopsy on Jim.

  The door opened. Lauren jumped, but it was only Gary. He sat at her feet, and the bedroom door shut automatically behind him. He wore a pair of red shorts and nothing else. His muscles looked remarkably tan and supple considering that he hadn't exercised in the sun in months.

  'Can't sleep?' he asked.

  'That's a stupid question.' She sat up against the wall and tucked her bent knees under her T-shirt. Her bare breasts touched her thighs.

  'Will I wake Jessie talking?' Gary asked.

  'She'll stay asleep,' Lauren said sarcastically.

  'She suspects nothing?'

  'Not even that you tried to shoot her husband in the back a couple of hours ago.'

  Gary tightened his fists. 'Are you glad I failed?'

  'I don't know.'

  'Well, listen to this. The other lasers are overloaded, too. Coincidence? Thank God we still have the one at the Karamazov.'

  Lauren coughed with a dry throat. She was beginning to believe she would give her life for a glass of water. 'I was just thinking of Jim,' she said. 'How wise he was. How much he saw that none of us could see. He never tried to do what you did today.'

  Gary was hurt. 'I know I'm not Jim. But the situation was different yesterday. He had a theory. He was trying to gather information. He didn't have the proof we have. No one was dead then.'

  "The autopsy showed it was his heart,' Lauren said.

  'You believe that?'

  Lauren sniffed. 'I don't know.'

  'I remember once when Jim and I were sitting alone together in his room in the isolation complex,' Gary said. 'A moth began to buzz around his lamp, and I started to swat it, but he stopped me. He said to open the window and let it out. Sure, I thought. We were in quarantine. Those windows couldn't be opened without taking out a half dozen screws. But you know what he did when I told him that? He went to the kitchen and got a knife and undid the entire window. Just to save a moth's life.' Gary shook his head. 'I don't think Jim could have shot a rattlesnake if it was ready to bite him.'

  'He was very brave,' Lauren said, thinking that Bill had said the same thing. She noticed that Gary had a new book with him. It made her mad. 'Oh, and I see you've got fresh reading material.
I don't know where you find the time, what with all the funerals we've been having lately. What is it this time? The Invasion of the Body Snatchers

  Gary held up the book. Dracula.

  'What are you reading, Jenny?'

  'Nothing. Just something I found at the library.'

  'And it's a secret?'

  'It's a love story.'

  Lauren felt miserably depressed. Nothing was sacred anymore. Not even young girls with golden hair and blue

  eyes. 'I didn't know you had a copy, too,' she said.

  That startled Gary. 'Too? does Bill have this book?'

  'No. Jenny was reading Dracula before I left. She was really into it, but I burned it before she could finish it.' Anger rose inside Lauren. 'I burned it because it's garbage. How can a story help us now? You and your Martian Chronicles and your lost expeditions. You hear those footsteps? He's right above us!'

  I said it. I confessed my faith. Am I a believer now?

  Gary nodded gravely. 'You're right, I know these stories are bullshit. But what about the stuff that inspired the authors to write the stories? Some of that stuff could be true.'

  'What stuff?'

  'Jim mentioned ghost stories. I've read some fairly reliable cases about people who've drunk blood and had supernormal strength.'

  'In the Enquirer?' Lauren asked dryly.

  'No. In sensible books written by sensible people. Get off your high horse and open your mind. Weird stuff is going on around us left and right. We can't just close our eyes and say we're astronauts and NASA will take care of everything.'

  'You can't possibly be talking about vampires?'

  Gary paused. He blinked. 'I think I am.'

  Lauren chuckled. 'Bill can stand the sun.'

  Gary leaned forward, intense. 'I don't think he likes it. At the funeral, he kept his back to it. Plus we're on Mars. The sun's a lot brighter on Earth.'

  'There are no vampires on Earth.'

  'What about on Mars?'

  She gestured to his book. 'That story was written on Earth. You've got a gap of millions of miles to account for before you start making sense. And you're not going to

  make sense as long as you keep talking about vampires.'

  'Call them what you want,' Gary snapped. 'AH right, they're not vampires, but they're like vampires. Let's call them Martians. How do we kill these Martians? That's all I care about.'

  'I don't think that book's going to give you any ideas.' 'There's a pattern here. How can you deny it?' 'What pattern? Dracula was a count who lived in Transylvania. Bram Stoker was a writer who lived in Ireland. We're on Mars, Gary!'

  'You said that already. What about the blood beside Ivan's bed? What about his abnormal strength?' 'I never actually saw Ivan drinking the blood.' 'He would have chewed on your neck had you given him half a chance,' Gary said. He sat for a moment. 'Perhaps something in the distant past inspired these legends. I'm reminded of Jim's cavern under the Himalayas. We may not be the first civilization on our world capable of space flight. There could have been a people here, too. There could have been an interaction between us and them, and they could have been real nasty bloodsuckers. The stories we're talking about could have arisen from then. Quit laughing! Lots of myths have been found to be based on historical fact.'

  'You have been reading the Enquirer.' She waved him away with her hand, tasting the salt that crusted her lips. 'I'm tired of arguing about this. If you've got garlic, I'll be glad to keep it by my bed.' 'I don't have any,' Gary said seriously. She spoke wearily. 'What else does your monster bible suggest?'

  Gary studied the novel. 'Most of this you'll know from TV. First Dr Van Helsing prescribes driving a stake through the heart of the vampire.'

  'Bill won't go for that.'

  'Or driving the vampire off with a communion wafer or holy water.'

  'We should have brought a priest with us.'

  'Or using a cross. Jesus, Lori, we can make a cross. Listen to me! Our souls are in danger.'

  'A cross is just a symbol. Doesn't Van Helsing say that as well? If I remember correctly, he was big on faith. A cross won't work for us. Neither of us is a Christian.'

  Gary protested, 'I was baptized.'

  'So was I. Who gives a fuck? I'm sure Martian Bill doesn't.'

  'I believe in God,' Gary said. 'How else can you explain people like Jim? He went down there, knowing the danger. He died trying to save us.' Gary paused, and asked in a worried voice, 'You don't think he's going to rise, do you?'

  She smiled painfully. 'No, I cut out his heart in the autopsy. It's in a bottle in the basement. Even a vampire needs his heart.'

  Gary considered. 'You may have a point about traditional symbols failing us. There was a cross on the cover of Jessie's Bible and Bill didn't bat an eye.'

  'Oh, that was a great pun. Thank you. Thank you very much. That's just what I needed.'

  'Shut up,' Gary said. 'There may be a weapon vampires and Martians can't withstand. One that doesn't have anything to do with belief or disbelief.'

  'What?' Lauren asked.

  'Fire.'

  I see you brought the fire.

  There was a ring of truth to what Gary was saying. In fact it rang perfectly well with the voices in her head. She didn't know whether that was good or bad, yet his remark made her heart race.

  'I'm all in favor of getting the other laser,' she said. 'If we get the chance. But you know we can't use it against Bill inside the ship.

  Gary nodded. 'That's two problems right there. But I have a plan. Bill said he wanted to take Jessie with him tomorrow.'

  'He might take us all,' Lauren interrupted.

  'I think he can only handle one at a time. Don't ask me why. He seems to have lost his inhibitions about his wife.'

  'With his super strength, he could kill us all.'

  'So you do believe he's strong?'

  'I just don't want to get in a fight with him.'

  'He doesn't want to kill us,' Gary said.

  'Oh, yeah? He needs to fill out his vampire family. Why doesn't he destroy the other laser? Surely he suspects we didn't lose it.'

  'He knows if he leaves the ship, I'll take off. He's clever. He doesn't go outside without taking insurance with him. But this time he's not going to cash in.'

  'What are you going to do?' Lauren asked.

  'This planet murdered my best friend. It's going to pay. It's going to burn. Fire's got to kill these bastards, and their heart has to be down in that pit where Bill wants everyone to go. We have a nuclear bomb in the basement. I'm going to drag it down there and set it off and flush the devils out.'

  'You'd be killed.'

  'No. When Jim gave us the code, he said the warhead could be triggered manually, and that it had a timer in it.'

  'Bill will stop you,' Lauren said.

  'He isn't going to be here.'

  'You can't set it while he's gone with Jessie.'

  'I don't intend to. I'm going to take the bomb down there after he returns with Jessie. We'll retrieve the laser from the

  Karamazov, and then I'll wait outside the Hawk and greet both of them with the hole in the chest.'

  'You'd kill her?' Lauren gasped.

  'She'll already be dead.'

  'I won't let you do that.'

  'Then he'll take us one by one! Don't you see, he hits us where we're weakest. Jim knew the danger, but he hesitated because he couldn't conceive of killing a friend. But if we don't kill them then one of us will be taken down there, and then the other. We'll both be turned into Ivan clones. We'll return home and look just fine to everybody else. Except at night we'll go out and suck on people's throats until the whole goddamn world is one walking corpse.'

  'Stop it!' Lauren cried

  'No! Think of the consequences. You don't need to kill them. I'll do it.'

  Lauren looked away. "There must be another way.'

  'There isn't.'

  'We should get Jessie off drugs, tell her what's going on.'

  Gary snickere
d. 'Right. We'll tell her we have to blow away her husband. Maybe we can get her to hold him still for the shot. Give me a break.'

  Lauren had an idea. 'The boat.'

  'Huh?'

  'The boat we made out of the jeep. Hummingbird isn't the only way to the island. You remember? Jim insisted we tow it back and anchor it on the canal beneath the end of the cave. There's another way, Gary. We'll let them go tomorrow, and then we'll retrieve the laser and follow them.'

  'We'd be hours behind,' Gary said. 'We'd be too late. Jessie won't be able to hold out.'

  'Jim did.'

  'Jim's dead.'

  'We have to try,' Lauren said. 'We have to give her that chance.'

  'No. By the time we reached the island, there'd be two monsters. They'd creep up on us in the dark. We wouldn't come back human.'

  Lauren got up and stepped to Jessica's bed. She fixed the blankets about Jessica's shoulders. Jessica slept on.

  'Is her one life less precious than ten lives?' Lauren asked, looking down at her friend's face. 'Than a hundred? What would Jim have said?' Lauren stroked Jessica's hand. 'We've lost Jim, we've lost Bill. And now we're sending her down there ignorant. We've got to give her a chance.'

  'I don't like it.'

  Lauren came back and sat on the bed beside him. She spoke firmly. 'We'll take the boat. We'll do the best we can. At least we will have tried.'

  Gary sighed. 'OK, Doc. But I'm going alone. I have enough on my conscience already, the way I let Jim die.'

  'We're going together.'

  'No way. It's me alone. That's an order.'

  'I don't give a shit about your orders. I have to go.' She glanced at the ceiling, in the direction of the heavy footsteps. 'If you come back like him, I'd just as soon die. Besides, it will take two to paddle the boat.'

  Gary put a strong arm around her. 'I can never win an argument with you.' He added, 'I hope the warhead doesn't sink the boat.'

  'Don't take it. It will just slow us down. The next expedition can incinerate the place.'

  'If I have my way, there won't be a next expedition. This planet's going to pay now. It's going to burn.'

  Lauren felt tears in her eyes. 'God,' she whispered.

  'Lori?'

  'I was just thinking how we'll be leaving Jim here.' The grief broke inside her at last and she began to sob against his chest. 'Remember the time I discovered his cookies, Gary? I think he was eating them while we were fasting at the isolation complex. He liked sweets. He liked coffee, too, and I wouldn't even make it for him.'