Stargazer by Karen D. Morton Copyright 1989 by Karen D. Morton. All rights reserved. Chapter 12 Time Unknown Torrential rain forced me back inside the Customs House. My throat ached from screaming Judith's name. She had been nowhere on that drenched, deserted street. Could Mephistopheles have killed her? Surely John or Minnelkin noticed that something was wrong, and one of them would take me from this awful place. This looked like the Post Office section of the Customs House, yet it wasn't quite the same. Gas jets cast an eerie orange glow on the walls. Not even an echo answered my hoarse greeting. The darkened hallway was empty except for a few unreadable posters that adorned one wall. I knocked unsuccessfully on a closed window at the first counter. Footsteps clicked on the wooden floor behind me. "Eddie!" Although he was soaked, he held his jacket folded over one arm in front of him. "So, the trollop returns." "Where is everybody?" "We are 'everybody,' Sister. You, me and Eternal Judgement." Blood covered his chest and abdomen. Cackling evilly, he gouged at his stomach to make his blood flow faster. As he approached me, I realized I was looking at Frederick. "Murderess!" he screamed. "John killed you, not I!" "Then let me feel your loving touch!" He grabbed at me with his bloody hands. Screaming, I ran into a room and closed the door. How did I get from the Post Office to the kitchen pantry at Mrs. Fisher's house? Eliza looked up from her ironing. She grabbed a sheet from the drying rack and threw it around me. "You freeze t' death, chile!" She sat on the floor beside me. "Who you hidin' from, anyways?" I shook my head. She poured malt whiskey into a cup. "Here, this make you feel better." The cup she handed me was filled with blood. I threw it away. "What's the matter, chile? Doncha like t' drink yer victims' blood?" Her smile revealed bloody fangs. "I sucked it outta his head jus' fer you. Now, it's yer turn!" A sharp, burning pain shot up to my head from my neck. An abyss swallowed me. Eventually, I noticed that Eliza was no longer nearby. A spotlight nearly blinded me. It silhouetted the woman who stepped in front of me. She approached, and I realized she was Judith, dressed in her "Star Trek" costume. At least Mephistopheles hadn't hurt her. She gave me her hand. "It's show time!" She spoke to someone behind the light. "What would be your pleasure, madam?" "Shall we do the 'time warp'?" Paul, wearing his "puppet king" costume, grabbed my arms. "No," Teri said. If she hadn't spoken, I wouldn't have recognized her in the robot costume. "The artist wants something more suited to the subject's talents." "That can mean only one thing." Judith stepped between me and Paul. "Get undressed." "Have you gone insane?" I regretted the question as soon as I had asked it. I prayed I wouldn't become as immersed in Mephistopheles' madness as Judith was. "I said take 'em off!" She ripped open the front of my dress. Laughing, Paul and Teri tore my dress and underwear to shreds. Judith watched and cackled. Paul tripped me, then he and Teri pulled me to my feet. I struggled against their painful grip on my arms. "Submitted for your consideration," Judith said to the light. "One poor, battered creature named Carolyn Cooper, who thinks she has been through all the torment a soul can bear." She grabbed my chin. "But she doesn't comprehend that this is only the beginning of her eternal damnation." "This isn't funny!" I bit my trembling lip. "What will be your final pleasure, madam?" The spotlight swung around to illuminate little Linda. She sat in front of the "Star Gazer" painting. "I already made my picture. Let Aunt Nora choose." The spotlight illuminated Mother, who sat with Mrs. Fisher and Mr. Cromley on the front porch. Standing, Mother shaded her eyes as she looked at me. "Maw!" Ruth pulled Paw along behind her. Mother embraced him. "You're the reason I didn't go to Ma'am-maw's house!" The spotlight followed Ruth. "When the fire broke out, I shoulda carried Fluffy and made you walk!" "I was too sick to walk, and you know it! I won't suffer anymore because of you!" "You murdered my daughter!" Mother, with Paw in tow, stepped beside Ruth. "Not to mention Frederick Quarrels." Eddie, now both clean and dry, stood beside Ruth. "Sounds like a death sentence to me," Judith said. "Hang the bitch!" "No!" I struggled as Paul and Teri dragged me to the gallows. Judith slipped the noose around my neck. "Do you have any final words, Carolyn?" I sobbed too hard to even spit in her face. For a brief second, Paul and Teri released me. An agonizing pain shot through my neck, only to be matched by the torment of my lungs pumping uselessly against vacuum -- -- I finally managed to surface in spite of the undertow. Blessed air filled my painful lungs. Current pulled me away from the shore, so I had to work my aching arms and legs against it. The harder I swam, the further the current carried me from shore. Fatigue forced me to stop fighting. As the river sucked me under, I wondered why I had even bothered. Something pulled me from the water. Looking down at the violent river, I realized that my benefactor hovered in the sky. A blinding light forced me to look downward. "Well, what have we here?" Minnelkin held me in the palm of his hand. Sun beams streaked across the sky from his head. Thunder rumbled in his voice. "You've been a bad girl, always trying to put yourself above your place in life." "Minnelkin, I --" "Silence! This is Judgement Day. And Heaven is no place for sinners like you." He tossed me as casually as one would toss away an old newspaper. I tumbled through the air until landing shattered my existence. A hot rock seared my back. Jumping to my feet, I clenched my teeth against the pain. I walked carefully around pools of bubbling lava. Dense heat slowed my steps. Letters of fire hovered overhead, reading: "Abandon all hope ye who enter." People moaned and screamed in the dark. Shadowed shapes scurried about; the screams and moans timed themselves to the shapes' movements. A lava wave crashed into nearby rocks. "Over here, Carolyn!" John beckoned to me. "John!" I ran into his arms. "Please help me." "I'm not here to help you, my dear." His voice changed to a beastly growl. Horns grew on his forehead, and a goatee sprouted on his chin. His yellow eyes peered into mine. "Now, you see my true appearance." His claw scratched between my breasts. "You'll give me such pleasure." He ripped open my underpants. Screaming, I beat on his chest. How could he do this to me? He banged my head against a rock. Pain shot from my groin; he grunted over me. Throbs increased with every thrust. "Tell me how much you love me." He pulled my hair. "Tell me how much you want me." "Carolyn!" John shook me. I lay in the reclining chair on Minnelkin's ship. "I know how to kill them," taunted Mephistopheles. "What's happening?" I sat up. "Damn computer has lost its mind." Judith sat up in her chair. Minnelkin pulled a small cube from the machine. "I have the data from the complexity." "I know how to kill them!" Mephistopheles chanted. "Let's get out of here," John said. "The door to the hallway is jammed." He pulled on it. Minnelkin pushed him aside, removed a small panel from the wall, then pressed a series of buttons. The door opened. The hallway darkened as Minnelkin led us to the service way. A small ladder disappeared into the ceiling. With a startled yell, John withdrew his hand from the rung. Minnelkin found another panel in a nearby wall. John touched the rung. Judith climbed up first. I followed, with John and Minnelkin behind me. Before we reached the main control room, Minnelkin called out a strange word. "Jesus!" Holding her chest, Judith rolled onto the floor of the main control room. A stench of burning flesh stung my nostrils. "Don't go after her!" John pulled me into the service way. He looked at Minnelkin, who shook his head. We climbed down to the previous level. Minnelkin opened a hidden access panel in the floor with an oddly shaped key. After a few moments, he again climbed the ladder. "The laser is disabled now." In the control room, John picked up Judith, whose limp limbs swung like those on a rag doll. Her chest had the dark, wet coloring of burned cloth and flesh. Inside the Conveyance, the entrance hall's wall turned solid behind us. "Oppenheimer, what are you doing?" John carried Judith into the hallway. "We need to disable the Mephistopheles' computer." "The Conveyance didn't move," replied the monkey dog. "The Mephistopheles did." "Where did it go?" "I'm tracking it." Oppenheimer poked a button on the medical unit with its tail. John laid Judith inside. "How badly is she hurt?" I slipped my hand into his. "The wound looks worse than it is. She'll be all right." His gaze hardened when he looked at Minnelkin. "What happened?" Minnelkin looked away. "The ship's computer must have gone insane." "Yes, but how?" John approached him. "Tell me all about computer programming on the Mephistopheles." Through John's slow and careful questioning, Minnelkin revealed that the original computer on his ship had been destroyed before he and Oliva had bought the ship. They programmed their new computer with her personality. After Oliva's integration with the Lovoli, Minnelkin's grief nearly drove him mad. "All I could hear was her voice, so I reprogrammed Mephistopheles with my personality. He is insane now because of my grief. I'm sorry he hurt your friend, Carolyn." He held up the data cube. "Look, Greistolon, whatever Mephistopheles found out might be in here. Oppenheimer, can you build a reader?" "This way." The monkey dog led Minnelkin away. "My original impression of him was more correct than I realized," John said sadly. Poor Minnelkin allowed his grief to eat away at his reason, just as Mother had allowed grief to erode her happiness. Did grief also rule my actions? Was that why I was always running away from my feelings? Until now, I had always had the option of going back. Would I be able to "go back" from the complexity? I shuddered. "Would you like to talk about it, Carolyn?" John looked at me with his gentle grey eyes. I didn't want to worry him with my growing fears about the complexity, so I asked him what had happened to Judith at the Customs House. "Once we found out what was happening, Minnelkin had to be ready to pull the data cube before Mephistopheles could destroy it. I disconnected you by myself, and Judith had to come out first." "Oh." I decided not to say anything about Mephistopheles' torture. I didn't feel upset about it, thanks to the ring. "It probably seemed like a long time to you, but it took me only a few seconds to make sure Judith was awake. Mephistopheles speeded up your perception so that time passed as if you were dreaming." I was too worried to allow the logic of his explanation to sink in. I was concerned not only about the complexity, but also about my life if liberation came. Without it, I would have to deal with the full horror of my time in Mephistopheles' torture chamber. I would have to come to terms with so many emotions! I wondered if the calmness offered by the Lovoli was really as bad as I feared. "You finally see the truth. We live happily as one," said Oliva's voice. But they wanted to quiet too many of my feelings! My passion was squelched along with my pain. I could no longer feel my love for anyone. Even my fears for my future began to slip away. I prayed John and Minnelkin would find the answer soon. In Oppenheimer's room, Minnelkin sat in front of a small device on a table. He frowned at a small view screen mounted next to the device. "How will we ever make sense of this?" I laid my hand on his shoulder and suggested that he get some badly needed sleep. "No," he replied. "We don't have much time to find the answer." "Is there anything I can do to help?" He smiled humorlessly. "You could tell me why you put on the ring." "It's... Well, it's..." "I didn't mean to embarrass you." I squeezed his shoulder. "At least I feel something." He covered my hand with his. When I reached up to touch his face, he frowned at my ring and returned to his work. I sat beside him. To my surprise, he didn't send me away. Maybe having me around was the same as being with his sister. I wondered why I couldn't have been so close to my brother. "Judith has stabilized," John said as he walked into the control room. "She'll be healed within the hour." "The Mephistopheles has finally stopped. I don't have a record of this destination." Oppenheimer quoted a series of senseless numbers. Minnelkin asked for a different set (he called them "Tri-D spacial coordinates"). The monkey dog recited them after a momentary pause. "I don't understand." Minnelkin shook his head. "Mephistopheles went to R7987-X." "Your ship went where?" I asked. "R7987-X. A cluster of asteroids in the Shegullan star system where robots mine minerals to be refined in space." "Yes, but these machines are monitored by people, aren't they?" I asked. "Wouldn't they need a place to live?" Minnelkin grinned. "They are monitored from Shegulla. Space modules are expensive. Robots can adjust their programming and repair themselves. They don't need people." "Then why would Mephistopheles go to those asteroids?" I asked. "One artificial intelligence might convince others to help it." John tapped the viewer. "There has to be some way to make sense of this data. Oppenheimer, how close can we get to Mephistopheles' visit at R7987-X?" "I can take you to Kamara Beach on Shegulla twenty-four hours before Mephistopheles arrives." "Why can't you just take me to the asteroids?" Minnelkin asked. "Because this Conveyance can only visit worlds that can be inhabited by oxygen breathers," said Oppenheimer. "What about the Shegullan Triangle?" Minnelkin asked. "The Conveyance has already been there during this time period." The monkey dog frowned. "How do you intend to get to the asteroid belt?" "I'll take care of that." "Do you want me to come with you?" John asked. "I haven't been to the Triangle during this time period." "It doesn't matter," said Oppenheimer. "The Conveyance would recall you anyway." "It'll be better for me to go to my ship alone." Minnelkin, with a backpack full of artifacts and spare parts, shook John's hand then kissed my cheek. I was too numb by the ring to blush, but John noted his action with a frown. As we watched him walk away from Karmara Beach, Oliva's voice spoke in my head: "We wish our brother success." Somehow, it was just the right thought. "Carolyn, how much do you care about Judith?" John looked down at me sadly. "I love her." Inside Mephistopheles' sensorium, I had discovered that my desire for Judith might have come from me instead of the complexity. I had loved John first, though, before I became entangled with the ring. But who did I love more, John or Judith? That was yet another emotional war ahead of me. John's next question interrupted my thoughts. "Do you love her enough to let me take her home before she gets hurt again?" "I need her to be with me --" "Your friend isn't coping well, and I can't protect both of you effectively. Mephistopheles could have killed her." My need wasn't worth her life. "Very well. But I don't think I can say goodbye." "You won't have to." After we returned to the Conveyance, John ordered the medical unit to sedate Judith. Part of my remaining humanity would go with her. Even the complexity's whispering voices could not take away my newfound loneliness. Putting her back without explanation didn't seem kind either. "Be not saddened," said Oliva's voice. "All will be well." "Shut up," I said. "What?" John looked up from packing Judith's suitcase. "The part struggles away from us," said a man's voice. Oppenheimer connected the data cube reader to the panel nearest his chair. His greyhound forehead wrinkled in concentration. A landscape flashed on a jumbled view screen. I waited until the monkey dog looked up at me before I spoke. "Have you learned anything that might help me?" "I'm sorry," it said sadly. "From everything I've deciphered so far, the bond seems to be permanent." "We are one throughout eternity, Carolyn." Oppenheimer tapped me with its paw. "Tell Greistolon we've arrived at Knoxville. May 26, 1988, at 2:10 a.m. is as close as I can bring us to the time of departure." "That will have to do." John set Judith's suitcase in front of me. "I'll get her." To itself, Oppenheimer muttered, "Now I'll have to go back for her." "What do you mean?" It answered me with silence. In Judith's rec room, the sewing table had been folded, and the machine rested in its case. Boxes containing materials and notions had been stacked in the corner. The kitchen reeked. Dirty dishes filled the sink, and most of the cartoons that had covered the refrigerator were missing. Another stack of boxes occupied part of the living room. Some of the pictures were gone from the walls, along with many knick-knacks from the shelf. Only dolls and a few of the books remained. Debris had been hastily swept aside in the hallway. Both Teri's and Paul's doors were closed. Empty boxes rested on top of Judith's chest of drawers. Her bed had been made, but someone had piled jeans and T-shirts on it. I put the folded clothes in a box while John laid Judith on the bed. I kissed her cheek. "I can't just leave her without saying goodbye." I stroked her hair. "I want to wait until she awakens." "I thought you might feel that way." He pressed a small cylinder into her palm. A few moments later, her lids fluttered. "Wake up." I shook her. "We're leaving now." "Where are we going?" Groggily, she propped herself on elbows. "You're... Staying home this time." I kissed her lips. "I'll miss you." I turned away before she could see my tears. "Say what!" She was fully awake now. John put his hand on my shoulder. "You'll be safer here." "Who are you to decide what's 'safe'?" She grabbed a robe from her closet. "It's better this way," John said. "Well, I don't agree with -- What are all these boxes doing in here?" She walked past me to knock on Paul's door. "Wake up in there." She moved on to Teri's door, knocked, then entered. Teri's room also had a few missing things: Her comforter, her alarm clock, and her teddy bear. Her open closet door revealed many empty hangars. John looked inside Paul's room. "No one is here." "That's weird." Judith peered at the living room clock, which read 2:20 am. She took a tiny notebook from a drawer in the kitchen. After flipping through its pages, she replaced it and picked up the telephone. "Hey, Sammy, sorry to wake you up. It's Judith. Do you know what's going on in my house?... Oh, hi, Teri. What's with the boxes? I didn't say I was leaving forever. Where's Paul?" Her face paled. "When?... Okay, I'll see you when you get here." She fumbled with the receiver, which fell on the floor. As if the house were on fire, she ran from room to room. In Paul's room, boxes were stacked everywhere, with his disassembled bed leaning against one wall, and all his pictures had been taken down. Even his shelf of knick-knacks had been cleared. Suppressing a whimper, Judith tapped her head against one of the boxes. She jerked away from me. "Just get back on your damn ship and go away!" "Judith, please, tell me what's wrong." I clasped her shaking shoulders. Angrily, she walked to John. "Out with it. How goddamn long was I gone?" After he told her, he ducked barely in time to avoid her fist. He pinned her arms against her body, and she started screaming unintelligibly. After an eternity of this, she collapsed onto the floor. John knelt beside her and let her hang on to him. From the pained expression on his face, it was clear that her emotion and anger nearly overwhelmed him. "Carolyn," he finally said, "someone has..." As I looked from them to the packed boxes, a dark and sad truth dawned on me. During our nine month absence, Paul's dreadful disease had taken his life.