Domus Read online

  Simon is frantically clawing at the water with his arms. The swirl of sand around his waist is mixed with blood. I grab hold of his armpits, and I pull him. I thrash my legs, and he thrashes his arms, and we are slowly moving towards the shore. I can see his face now, bulging eyes and red cheeks. He will not last much longer, the urge to breathe is growing too strong.

  I pull, and I thrash my legs, but Simon isn’t thrashing anymore. His eyes are closed.

  I’m not giving up. We are shallow enough that I can walk along the seabed now. I pull and pull, but we don’t move. I am feeling light headed. My body craves oxygen it can’t have, it craves it more for knowing so too.

  Just as my eyes begin to blur, I see a pair of legs enter the water at my side, human legs. Sarah. I hear the thrum of Widower, and Simon jolts towards me, free from the pull of the monster. I drag him, pull him, and hoist him up. My head breaks the surface, and I cannot take a big enough breath. My body is shaking, convulsing as it tries to recover oxygen into my blood.

  But I do not care for me. Simon is unresponsive.

  I drag him onto the beach just as the other Seekers are rushing towards us from the Dweller. I didn’t notice at first, but the beast’s detached head is still clamped to Simon’s leg. Widower must have hit the beast’s neck and split it into two pieces.

  Sarah and Captain Reed, who has now just arrived, begin to try and unclamp the head from off Simon’s leg. I can see that the bite hasn’t gone all the way through the bone, and my main priority is to clear his lungs.

  I begin to pump his chest. I pinch his nose and clamp his chin and feel Sarah’s gaze as our lips lock .Surely she can see what I am doing? Even that jealous bitch must see! I pump his chest more, and give him more air. It takes four cycles for Simon to wake and cough up two lungs worth of water. His eyes lock with mine, and he smiles.

  The waves push the headless body of the beast to shore next to us, and Doctors Barros and Yun drag the corpse further ashore before the swash has a chance to take it back out again.

  Captain Reed removes a knife from the back of his Seeker uniform and cuts the beast’s muscles between the upper and lower jaws. The head comes free and I can see the damage to Simon’s leg. The teeth have torn flesh and muscle to the bone. Not life threatening, but it will need treating urgently. There could be all manners of bacteria here.

  Simon sits up, still weary and weak, and he looks at the beast to his side. “Well, at least I caught something. Do we have any potatoes? Any mushy peas? An Englishman loves his fish and chips.”

  He might lose his leg, but at least he hasn’t lost his humour.

  Ximena Barros

  I hate Domus already. It’s such a puta.

  I joined up to the Seeker Project so that I could carry on my family name. I had lost everything back home, all my family and all my friends. I had managed to break free from my poor upbringing, but those I left behind died in poverty, claimed by the rising seas.

  This was a way to survive, to break free and prosper. I joined up because I was scared of dying, and I still am. More so now than ever.

  Domus isn’t the planet we wanted or thought it would be. Death will come for me here sooner than back home. And I am sure that the Project Leaders knew of this place, they knew what was waiting for us. It was a gamble. The reward far outweighed the risks. Could the Captain have known too?

  Reed has already rejected my advances. He is asustado… I mean, he is scared, and worried that the project is failing before it started. Or maybe he is afraid of me. It has been twenty years of looking at each other from afar, and now the time has come he doesn’t know what to do. I’m not sure I know what to do. I could love a woman. I know how a woman likes to be touched, I know where to kiss and caress, but a man? I don’t know.

  I can hear Simon’s screaming from the med-bay. The beast has stripped his flesh from knee to ankle to resemble a peeled banana. But he is a tough man. CETI’s own robotic arms were fixing him, and whatever they were doing to him must be really painful. Evangeline is only there to manage his pain, and the rest of us can only hope there is enough muscle left for him to walk again.

  Sarah is in the med-bay too, keeping her chosen one company. The rest of us, Reed, Yun and me, are gathered in the recreation room. We have been sitting in silence for too long now. Racker’s skinny face flicks onto the screen. He looks more gaunt than usual, and his grey beard and stubble a clear indication that he hasn’t been shaving. It doesn’t look like he has been sleeping either.

  “Seekers, Captain Reed, how is he?”

  “He will live, Racker,” Reed says with a frown. “We are not sure about that leg though. He may lose it.”

  “I’m sorry, Captain.”

  “It is nothing for you to apologise for, Racker. You were tasked with getting us to Domus, and you have done that and much more. Simon will live, thanks to you.

  “But Racker, I need you to keep a more watchful eye on us down here. When you sleep, I need you to programme CETI to watch over us. We cannot have another incident like the one today.”

  “Captain, I don’t know how to say this, but it seems a bit fruitless.”

  “In what way?”

  “Captain, I’m looking at the forest now and it is lined with heat sources, and I can only see the first mile or so. If you want me to warn you when those things are close then you might as well just set your alarm clock to go off now. It would take only seconds for one to break the tree line and be on your doorstep.”

  “Then what do you suggest, James?”

  “We have two options here, Captain. The first is flight; I can come down and pick you up and we can get the hell outta here. The Dweller will be a casualty of our first landing, but we will all survive long enough to float around in this tin for another forty years.”

  “And what’s the second option?”

  Racker rubs his new beard. “You fight back. You all arm up and take the fight to them. Hunt them. Kill as many as you can and build perimeters along the forest line and through the sea. You kill enough to secure a perimeter, and you defend it.

  “We would need a watch posted all day and night, but our weapons are enough to kill anything on Domus. If you extend the triangulation of the beacons, then I am your eye in the sky as you bury those monsters or drive them into the sea. We have two more beacons, Cap. Leave the others, and take those two further out to triangulate with the one in the sea. When the perimeter is secure, then I will come down there and volunteer for the first watch. Flight or fight, Cap, flight or fight.”

  “Thank you for your input, Racker, it was valuable as always. I will think on it and call a Seeker census. I will let you know the outcome. Captain Reed, out.

  The screen fades to black. Racker had confirmed what most of us knew; the Dweller has landed and it is grounded. We have to fight. Yun and I are sure that there is not another planet like this one for decades, maybe centuries. And what about the next part of the Project? How can I fornicate and make life with Captain Reed if we are not safe here? The next phase cannot begin until we have a home, a real home that is safe and secure.

  I for one want to fight.

  Captain Reed turns to the others and me. “The sun is almost down, Seekers, time to sleep. We will take the consensus tomorrow once Simon has been patched up. Until then, the original Seeker contract is in place—no sins. No fornication at all with chosen ones or otherwise. We cannot risk a new life or the afflictions of pregnancy, not yet. Seekers, fall out.”

  I can’t help but think he only said that last part to keep me from him again. I offered my naked body to him before, and he rebuked me. He has to hide behind the contract to try and keep my lust at bay.

  But he is not the only one I lust after. I know that I can please a woman better than I can a man, and a woman can please me just the same.

  Doctor Yun has chosen the living quarter next to the recreation room, a living quarter she will share alone now that Doctor Lawson has passed. But she does not have to.

&
nbsp; I know Yun is sexually active. I know because I have managed to hack into CETI’s system and can see all of the reports she holds on us, the reports my chosen one looks at each morning. I wanted to see the readout on him, but it is locked. He sees ours but hides his own. And he will have noticed CETI’s stock reports for Yun; painkillers, aspirin, ibuprofen…and a pregnancy test.

  Yun and Lawson had been close, we could all see. They were probably the best, no, the only evidence that the chosen one programme even worked. She and he hadn’t been able to keep their hands off each other. The timid Dragon and the stammering African had done the deed, they had committed contract sin.

  And what did Captain Reed do to them? What punishment did they suffer? He did nothing.

  We are free to sin against the Seeker Project and the useless contract.

  I lift a bottle of fizzy wine from the chiller and follow Doctor Yun into her living quarters. I slip through the automatic door before it can close. The room is dark at first, but Yun only has to whisper, “Light,” and the room is alive with illumination.

  She stands on the spot and unbuttons her Seeker uniform. The trousers and shirt are an in-one silver-blue jumpsuit, and all of it flops to the floor. Her back is so smooth and porcelain. I had never known before, but she has a tattoo of a dragon that snakes from between her shoulder blades to her lower back. I can see her back dimples and the curve of her bottom.

  Yun knows that I have what she wants. It is something that she will do anything for, and she knows what I want for it.

  “I thought you would never come,” she whispers.

  I pour two glasses of wine and finish my own in one gulp. Yun takes her glass and pours the golden liquid down her chest. It snakes between her breasts, down her smooth stomach, and is caught in the dark hair where I drink it from.

  This is a contractual sin against the Seeker Project. And it feels so good.

  Yun falls asleep in my arms afterwards. Her long, dark hair smells like eucalyptus and pine oil. Her white body is intertwined with my darker skin, yin and yang. Reed will wonder where I am, but Racker will tell him. Our eye in the sky will have seen the heat in the room, after all.

  I daydream for hours, still delirious from pleasure. I am almost asleep when a scream echoes through the Dweller. It is female and coming from the med-bay.

  Yun is awake immediately and dressed in a flash. I follow, pulling my uniform up over my now satisfied body. We don’t say a word. Yun looks at me with pity, or is it disgust? No, I see it now; she looks at me with regret.

  The scream comes again, louder and more frantic. I can hear Racker’s voice over the speaker’s, and he sounds distraught, “They were too small! They didn’t even register! Oh, God… why? Cap I didn’t see them! They did not register!”

  We leave Yun’s quarters and run towards the med-bay. An alarm is sounding now to alert every Seeker from their quarters. Yun and I are the last there. The others are dressed, and they have gathered at the window of the med-bay door.

  CETI’s chirpy voice chimes over the speakers. “I have locked the med-bay doors as requested, Captain Reed.”

  The Captain presses a hand to the glass. “Scan the room, and tell me what they are, CETI.”

  “With pleasure, Captain Reed. The organisms inside the med-bay, along with the human named Simon, are Compsognathus longipes, of the Compsognathus genus, ten in total. They stand no more than three feet tall and are bipedal. My database shows that they first lived one hundred and fifty million years ago. These organisms are not hunters, but scavenger opportunists. They seem to have taken advantage of Simon’s weakened state and his inability to move.”

  “CETI, please provide Simon’s vitals.”

  “With pleasure, Captain Reed. The human known as Simon is deceased.”

  Evangeline and Sarah both slump to the floor. The news has hit both of them like bullets to the abdomen, and they both clutched at their stomachs. I move past to see through the window, and I wish I hadn’t.

  These things are like turkey-sized fucking lizards, standing on their back legs with limp front arms dangling. They tilt their head in acknowledgement of my face at the glass, and then they get back to their feed.

  Two are fighting over what I think is the remains of a chewed, mangled arm. Another is squatted on Simon’s chest, tearing chunks of warm innards from his abdomen. Three more have left the fight over the fresher carcass and are tearing into the giant crocodile that lays dissected, now pushed into a corner.

  Blood is everywhere. Doctor Yun retreats back to her quarters, whiter than she has ever been.

  “This is my fault,” whispers Evangeline. “I left the door open so I could hear him if he called out.”

  “Why couldn’t he?” asks Captain Reed.

  “He was in pain, Captain, so much pain. I gave him painkillers, enough to almost knock him out. He wouldn’t stop screaming. I’m sorry, Captain. It is all my fault.”

  “My fault too,” fuzzes Racker. “Those fuckers are too small for the beacons to pick up. The smell of that dead croc must have brought them here. I’m sorry, Cap.”

  Captain Reed seems to stand even taller. “This is no one’s fault. It is the nature of Domus. The alpha species is letting us know who is in charge here. The time for a census is over. The time to fight is here. Doctor Barros, please bring me Ex Materia.”

  I run to the armoury as fast as I can. The Captain is going to show those little puta who is in charge now. I lift the brilliantly white Ex Materia from the rack and stroke her long, smooth barrel. I flick her on, and she vibrates in my hands excitedly; it excites me again too.

  I rush passed Yun’s living quarter and see her passed out on the bed. The intravenous morphine that I had hacked into CETI to get for her lies by her pocked, bare arm. Tears are still wet on her face, but I don’t know if they are for Simon, for what we did, or what she has done.

  Yun must have to have known that last night would come eventually. She knew I would cash in on the deal to get her drugs some time. I press the button to close the door so no one else sees her, and I leave her in her stupor.

  I race back to the med-bay and hand Captain Reed Ex Materia. He checks her charge and is ready. “Everyone stand back. When CETI opens this door she will close it behind me. It will not open again until they are dead, or I am.”

  “Be careful,” I whisper, “come back to me, my chosen one.”

  “When I am done, Doctor Barros, you and Doctor Yun are on clear-up duties. Call it a punishment for your sins.”

  He knows. Either CETI reported it, or Racker sold us out.

  Captain Reed

  The first bolt from Ex Materia forces the Compsognathus Longipes sat on Simon’s chest to almost explode. Grey, slightly feathered flesh rains down all over the room.

  Two more blasts send the bastards fighting over Simon’s severed arm skidding across the floor, spilling their insides as they go. The two fighting over the dead crocodile die next, a blast each and they are nothing but feathers floating to the floor.

  Five remain. These five are larger than the others and had been going from one corpse to the next and presiding over the choicest meats from both. One lets out a rally cry, a call to arms, and the others follow. They are all squawking now, coughing and spitting like kittens coughing up fur balls.

  They are smart for their size. Four break away from the leader and flank around both sides of Simon’s corpse while the leader charges forward squawking as loud and as fast as he can. Two bolts leave the end of Ex Materia, and the two Compsognathus Longipes coming from the left skid away dead and sizzling.

  I move around the table and unleash another two bolts that sent the two coming from the right flying into the air before landing in a smouldering pile of charred flesh and burnt feathers.

  It’s just me, and one more of them. But where is it?

  The squawking has stopped. I look around the floor and tables—nothing. I can hear Evangeline and Sarah banging on the window behind me. I turn to see them. Th
ey are pointing behind me, towards Simon’s body, but when I turn there is nothing. I can see Sarah mouth the words, “BEHIND SIMON.”

  Before I can turn again, I hear it, the “ack-ack-ack” of a choking cat. When I turn around, the Longipe leaps from Simon’s chest, scratching and clawing at my face. I feel the warm blood run down into my mouth, I don’t feel my eye leave its socket, but suddenly my vision is half of what it was. Ex Materia drops from my hands.

  I am on the floor now and struggling to see. Blood has run into my remaining eye, and the pain burns like a hot poker has been driven into my face. I can hear the “ack-ack” closing in. I retrieve my knife and look up just in time.

  I grab the little bastard’s throat and pin him to the floor. My knife carves into its belly and opens it right up to the chin. There is a faint “ack-ack,” and the last Compsognathus Longipes dies.

  “CETI, unlock the door.”

  “With pleasure, Captain Reed.”

  I can feel their eyes upon my wounds. I can feel their pity burning into my brain. “Doctor Barros, the room is ready for you and Doctor Yun to clean.”

  “Doctor Yun is unwell,” she squeaks.

  “Then you have a lot of work to do. Doctor Nikosa, please see me in my quarters.”

  Evangeline’s eyes widen with shock. “But sir, CETI’s auto-doc would do a better job at assessing the damage and leaving minimal scarring, you know that. I am old tech compared to her.”

  “I want you to do it, Doctor Nikosa. I do not trust an AI to operate on my eye. Do I trust her to keep me alive? Yes, but she will weigh up the cost of an eye against my life, and I want to keep it if I can. A human knows how important the gift of sight is. Just bring whatever you need.

  “Sarah, please prepare the quad bike. I will need camping equipment, flares, and rations for one week. I am going out to take the two spare beacons and deploy them further afield. The other three will remain in place so that Racker can keep comms with you whilst I’m out of the triangle.”