The data contained, among other things, estimations of different global populations, climates and electromagnetic fields, most of which he already had on file previously. He was essentially just looking for any major changes between past and current data. Most of it was more or less unchanged, but about halfway down the list, Deejay saw something that made him drop his potato chips and turn off the mp3 player. He was about to call Ty, but then decided he needed to discuss the matter in person. He got up and headed for the elevator.
Ty was in his usual place at the head of the table in the boardroom, though today he wasn't working very hard. Ty was in the middle of a game of solitaire when the elevator doors opened. He looked up and saw Deejay enter the room with a very grim look on his face.
“Something wrong?” Ty asked.
“…You could say that.” Deejay walked over to Ty’s end of the table and brought up the data he’d been reviewing a moment ago onto the desktop. “I was just going over the stuff the probes sent back today. I think you should take a look at this.”
The data on the screen was very cryptic. There were at least half a dozen unlabeled spreadsheets with rows and rows of numbers, and several line graphs, which really didn’t make things any clearer.
“Why do you want me to look at it? I was never good with statistics; it’s like a whole other language to me.” Ty crossed his arms. “So, what does this stuff mean?”
“Ty, this is the data from Earth 28-D. Take a look at the global population estimates.” Deejay pointed to one of the graphs. “This time two weeks ago, it was up here in the green; perfectly normal. Now, look at this week. It’s all the way down in the red.”
“So… that’s a bad thing?”
Deejay looked Ty square in the eye. “It’s a very bad thing. If this is accurate, it means the planet lost almost five billion people in two weeks.”
“…Five billion?” Ty matched Deejay’s grim expression. He looked back at the data again, but he still couldn’t understand much of it. “What the hell could kill off five billion people? Global plague?”
“I doubt it.” Deejay pointed to another ambiguous spreadsheet. “The probe didn’t find any unusual toxins in the atmosphere.”
“So, maybe it wasn’t airborne.”
“But wouldn’t it have to be? I mean, what else could spread that fast?”
“I don’t know… but I guess there’s one way to find out.”
Deejay immediately cheered up. “You mean… road trip?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Sweet! When can we go? Can we go soon?” Deejay was practically hopping up and down with excitement.
“Whenever you want. I’ve got nothing left to do today.”
“Alright! Lemme go get my stuff.” Deejay dashed back to the elevator and hit the button for his room. “See you on the roof in ten minutes. Be there or be square!” he said just before the doors closed.
Ty shook his head. “He really is just like a little kid.”
The portal opened high above what looked like New York City. The Scyphozoan emerged from the portal and floated out over the city. As the portal closed behind them, Ty and Deejay surveyed the area from the cockpit. The enormous concave screen in the cockpit showed a live video of the area outside, creating the illusion that they could see right through the wall of the ship.
Deejay looked down at the city below in astonishment. There were broken windows on all the buildings, and the streets were clogged with wrecked vehicles.
“Jeez,” he said. “Did a bomb hit or something?”
“Not likely,” Ty replied. “A bomb wouldn’t kill everyone in the city and leave all the buildings intact.” He looked down as well. “Hey, I think I see some people down there.”
“You sure? According to my scans, there shouldn’t be a living thing around for miles.”
“Well, there’s definitely something moving around down there.”
Ty motioned for Deejay to continue downward. Deejay adjusted the controls, and the ship slowly floated down toward the movement. As they got closer, they could just make out a few people moving around amongst the wreckage.
“This can’t be right,” Deejay said in astonishment. “How can there be people here? My data’s never been wrong. There shouldn’t be anything alive around here.”
As they got closer, it became apparent to both Ty and Deejay that something was amiss. Deejay stopped the ship roughly a dozen feet above the people. From there, it was plain to see that something was wrong with them. They all had a sickly pale complexion and disturbingly vacant looks in their eyes.
What was worse than that, all of them looked like they’d been through a war zone. Their clothes were filthy and torn, and most had an assortment of gruesome wounds. One was missing a huge chunk of flesh from her neck. Another one was missing an eye and had most of the flesh torn from his face. Still another was missing an entire arm.
As the ship hovered there above them, they all looked up and started reaching toward it. Some of them moaned wordlessly as if they were in pain. The melancholy sound was very eerie, and definitely didn’t seem human.
Ty and Deejay were both silent. Taking in what they were seeing, neither of them was sure what to say. Finally, Ty broke the silence.
“Well… I guess your data might be right. They don’t exactly look alive.”
Deejay shook his head. “This can’t be real. I mean, I’ve seen some crazy stuff, but this is just… well, I guess that explains how so many people could die in so little time. They were all eaten by-”
Ty stopped him. “Dude, don't even say it.”
Slowly, more people began to appear, all looking like the others. They limped forward unsteadily, and let out the same unearthly moans. Ty noticed a vacant lot nearby and pointed toward it.
“Set us down over there,” he said. “I want to take a closer look at these… things.”
Deejay looked uneasy, but did as he was asked. As he set the ship down, its spidery legs extended out of its sides and gripped the ground.
“You’re sure it’s nothing in the air, right?” Ty asked.
“Yeah, the atmosphere’s clean… Well, not really clean, but there’s nothing in the air that’ll hurt us.”
“Alright. Keep the engine running.”
The ship opened, and Ty jumped out onto the ground. As he did, the people started shuffling slowly toward him. They were still a good distance off, though. The closest one was at least forty feet away.
“Listen up,” Ty said. “We come in peace, okay? Now, can we talk? That is, can you talk?”
The strange beings continued toward him, still moaning wordlessly.
“I’ll take that as a no,” he said, drawing a pistol from the holster under his jacket. “Well, I’m going to regard your creepy shambling as a hostile action, so all of you stop where you are, or I’ll be forced to shoot you.”
Still, there was no reaction. Ty aimed the pistol at the nearest one, the young woman with the huge bloody wound on her neck.
“Last chance. If you can understand me, stop where you are, or I’m shooting.” When there was still no response, he shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
Ty pulled the trigger, and a loud gunshot cut through the air. The bullet struck the woman’s right knee, shattering her kneecap. She staggered when the bullet hit, but the wound didn’t bleed, and she continued toward Ty. She walked with a serious limp, almost falling over with every step, but she looked as though she didn’t even notice it.
Looking unimpressed, Ty raised the gun a bit and fired again. This time, the bullet hit the woman square in the chest, just a few inches from where her heart would be. A small spurt of blood came out of the bullet wound, but once again, she didn’t even seem to notice. The woman kept staggering forward, moaning eerily.
“Hmm… I expected as much,” Ty said. “Well, this should do the job.”
He raised the gun higher, this time aiming at the woman’s head. He fired, and the shot hit her right in the center of her forehead. The bullet continued straight through and shot out the back of her skull, sending a spray of blood and gray matter out into the air behind her. The woman stopped, and her head tilted back as though she were about to collapse. But then, her head tilted forward again, and she continued shambling toward Ty, still moaning as though nothing had happened.
“…Or maybe not.”
Ty’s face started to turn pale as well, though in his case, it was out of fear. He swallowed nervously and climbed back into the ship. Once he was back inside, the ship closed again.
“…So, what do we do now?” Deejay asked. “What’s the plan?”
“Get the hell off the ground before they get any closer.”
“Good plan.”
Deejay pulled back on the controls, and the ship’s legs pushed off the ground, propelling them into the air. Once they were a good distance up, Deejay turned the ship toward a tall apartment building. He hovered to the top of the building and set the ship down again on the roof.
“Okay,” Deejay said. “Now that we’re not in immediate danger, what’s the plan?”
“Here’s a suggestion,” Ty replied. “Let’s go home, leave this place behind us and never come back.”
“What? Are you kidding me? We can’t just leave.”
“Why not? It’s Land of the Dead down there. There’s nothing left to see.”
“Ty, the population’s in the red, not black. There are still survivors out there somewhere. We have to at least try to find-”
“No… no, don’t put me in this position again. It’s not our place to decide who lives and who dies.”
“How the hell can you say that? We have a chance to save those people; we should take it.”
“We can’t. What about our rules? We said we wouldn't seriously mess with the lives of people in other worlds.”
“Bullshit! Ty, you even said yourself once, if you find a situation where someone is on the verge of death, you should go ahead and save them and bring them back to Utopia. ‘They’re leaving their world either way, so the end result is the same.’ Those were the same words out of your mouth.”
Ty didn’t say anything, and Deejay glared at him.
“Oh, I know what this is about,” Deejay said crossly. “You’re just shook up because of that last little incident you had, aren’t you? You’re going to let one bad experience be the death of everyone left on this planet?”
Ty took off his glasses and glared back at Deejay.
“…First of all, the fact that you have the balls to call it a ‘little incident’ shocks me. Second, how many do you think you can possibly save, Deejay? This ship barely has room enough to hold us and four passengers. You can’t fit the whole rest of the population in here, even if you take trips. Hell, you don’t even know if you’ll find that many. Face it, Deejay; it’s too late for this world. You can’t make enough of a difference to-”
“Don’t give me that crap, Ty. I don’t care if we can’t save everyone. I don’t care if you don’t think we can make a difference in the big picture. We can make a difference, Ty, even if we only save one person out there.”
Ty turned in his seat and looked out at the screen. “You’re telling me saving one person is making a big difference to you?”
“Hey, one guy might not seem like a whole lot, but if you ask the guy we save, he’ll say you made one hell of a big difference to him.”
“…Deejay, I wish I could have that same optimistic outlook as you, but I’ve seen too much reality for that. For every one or two people we might save, there are thousands more that we were too late to help, not only here, but on other planets with similar situations. When I think about that, I have a hard time seeing the good in what you’re suggesting.” He sighed and folded his arms. “Look, if you really want to look for survivors and try to save them, I’ll go along with it… but don’t expect me to be enthusiastic about it.”
“…As long as you’re with me, that’s enough. Thanks.”
Deejay pressed a few buttons on the control panel. A green radar display with a sweeping bar appeared on the screen in front of them.
“By the way,” he said, “I’m sorry if I seemed insensitive about what happened before. I mean, I wasn’t there, so I really shouldn’t talk...”
Ty put his sunglasses back on. “No, it’s fine. In a way, you might have been right.”
“It was Earth-9A, right? Just what happened out there, anyway?”
“If it’s alright with you, I’d rather not talk about it right now. I’m feeling a little uncommitted to this little rescue mission as it is. Can it wait until we get back to the Citadel?”
“Yeah, sure.”
There was a beep from the control panel, and a holographic arrow appeared onscreen. It was very small, creating the illusion that it was off in the distance.
“We’ve got a group of survivors about 20 miles straight ahead,” Deejay said, pointing to the arrow. “Looks like they’re all that’s left of this area. No other survivors around for at least a hundred miles, maybe more.”
Deejay made the ship lift off again and started flying toward the arrow. Unlike the initial ride to this planet, during which they had their usual sibling banter, Ty and Deejay flew over the city in relative silence. The only noises to be heard were the gentle hum of the ship’s engine, and the distant moans of the inhuman creatures far below.
(to be continued)
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