Chameleon by Otto Gramm (free ereaders .txt) 📖

– Hell must’ve frozen over! – Will chuckled. – Or it’s some supernova effect.

A soft laughter filled the cabin.

After finishing his last marshmallow, Alex felt relieved and his fear quickly evaporated. It seemed that Shad really understood the issues of empathy: he did not even confuse him with the phrase about the experimenter.

The pilot cabin soon was empty: tired folks went to their rooms. Diego passed the captain a purple crystal and returned to the pilot seat. Kyle gestured Alex that it was time for them to leave.

– Di likes to stay there for prayers. – He explained as they passed through the hall.

– Do you believe in someone? – Alex skeptically narrowed his eyes.

– We all believe in what we want, Al. Although views and outlooks of my crew changed with time, the faith of Diego has never shaken. It deserves respect.

– It reminds me more of sick fanaticism, which leads to nothing but degradation.

– He’s had enough of that too. – Kyle said calmly, as they stopped. – He might tell you his story if you ask it of him.

Alex could not think of anything to say. Captain, smiling, nodded toward the door. They’ve just came to Alex’s room.

– Rest now. You’ll need your strength.

Alex slowly slid down the closed door. Only now, when he was alone in his room, he felt how tired he was. For a while, he sat motionless on the floor in the darkness and stared at the black sky. His thoughts were tied in a bungle and more he tried to untangle it, more he felt confused.

“What drug did they give me?”

Alex gazed up and then looked sharply at the floor. Everything remained in place. Or Warren had invented something new, or...

Alex studied his hands. They were all the same and in place of nails, they still had a pink corneal substitute. He tried to pull one up but the glue held it firmly in its place.

– Wssss!!! – He almost howled and squeezed his aching finger. Plastic immediately glued again and pain at once disappeared, leaving nothing but the memory. – Maybe I’m wrong.

He stared through the window at a dark infinity.

“Did I really choose this? Is it now my reality? One world is left behind, and I have only... space ahead!”

Gateway to other worlds, supernova, unusual ship that can merge with your mind and... Danae.

“Too many thoughts, too many impressions, and I’m so tired!”

He didn’t want to get up, but the view of the bed in few steps helped him to overcome his indolence. With great effort, he pulled off his shoes.

– Just as I thought. – Alex smiled sadly, as he examined his fresh blisters on the heel and toes.

Then he lazily tossed off his shoes, slowly got up and, reaching the bed, fell down sprawled.

“Funny, I’m on the bed without straps”, Koldoum thought and fell asleep.

– Doctor, you have a call from the center.

– Elvy, please!

– They say that this is urgent.

– You know I can’t stand being distracted from an operation.

– This is Dennehy and he’s insisting.

– Aw, what a people! – Flaps of removing rubber gloves. – Gabe, give him morphine, let him rest for now.

“What the hell?! No! It cannot be!!! I can’t be there. This is a dream! Wake up, Alex!”

– Disconnected! Can you believe it? – A masked man bent over, but Alex easily recognized him by his voice, soft, burring and melodic. He would have recognized him even by silhouette, by one fragment, by a curved little finger with a thick knuckle, by a quiet shuffling gait, by his smell – a mixture of ethyl, expensive coffee and Encre Noire – he would have recognized Warren even having lost all his senses.

The doctor slightly pushed the body lying on the table and sat next to it.

– We must wait. They usually call back in five minutes. Not before. Stupid rules. – He snorted. – Lucky you! Though... – He looked closely at the drugs dosing screen. – ...The dummy did forget about morphine. Aw well.

He got up, took out a small case from under the countertop, opened it, took out earplugs and put them into his ears. It was a tradition, their own small ritual, like shaking hands before a business meeting, or like buying popcorn at the entrance of the cinema. Then everything happened very quickly: the doctor made one precise cut from the sternum to the navel, waited a little for a wild cry to fade away and only then took out his earplugs. Warren hated loud noises.

Again, his hand ascended above One-one-four. The scalpel threw a blue flare of the operating lamp and fell sharply on the experimental...

“No! No!!!”

– No!!! – Alex screamed and jumped in bed. All his horrors vanished in a flash and flew away with memories of the night.

He touched over his body to make sure he had no wounds. Cold sweat was pouring off him, his heart went mile a minute. He sat up in the bed and took a few deep breaths. There was silence and stillness all around. The darkness of his empty room was blurred with a faint light flowing from the window. Thousands of bright stars serenely burned in the golden and green nebulae. It seemed that the storm raged only in his mind.

“No, that’s not gonna work”, Alex thought and turned on the light over his bed. “I need to rest, just a little sleep, otherwise I will just fall down.” He laid back and closed his eyes. Little by little, the dream began to overcome his exhausted mind, but only he felt a sweet slumber closing, as a loud clank of instruments awakened him again. A cry escaped from his chest, and his body shook like after an electric shock.

“What’s wrong with me?” he thought desperately. “Maybe a small shower will help?”

Shower did not help, the nightmares continued, even at all lights on. Alex began to rummage through all the sliding cupboards and shelves in search of soporific, but it was in vain. However, he found a few light clothes, nice, free and without a single seam. He changed in pants and a T-shirt and lied down again, but one glance at a wall and ceiling brought him back to the lab.

– Calm down, it’s over! These are only memories. It’s all in the past now! – Never stopped repeating Alex, sitting cross-legged on the bed and winding himself.

“Geez! The reality is much less truthful than a dream!” The ex-prisoner thought sadly. “I need a drug!”

Then he remembered how the Spaniard opiated and gave him a few hours of a sound and deep dream.

“Diego must be at the helm.”

Alex left the room and headed decidedly to the cockpit. As he passed the corridor, he was in the hall. Newcomer automatically clapped his hands and the light turned on to its maximum. Alex stopped only in the middle of the room. “Dream-time-coach”, he remembered. “Coach me anything you want if only I could fall asleep!” He saw the elevator and decided to use it. Glass easily slid aside; Koldoum stood on the platform, closed the transparent door and instantly found himself on the second floor.

– Whoa! – He staggered in surprise. As soon as his foot left the platform, the latter went down.

“That’s how Shad disappeared!” he grinned.

As he entered the cabin, Alex was disappointed to find that it empty. Chameleon made its way through space on autopilot. The guest set in the pilot seat and glanced at the helm. “No way”, he rejected the temptation. “Our talking gen take us hell knows where... and the whole crew too.” Leaned back in his chair, he began to contemplate the cosmic panorama.

Myriad stars shone peacefully behind a transparent dome; the leaking colors of nebulae charmed with shapes and patterns.

“It’s amazing how different space can be”, Alex thought. “Only couple hours ago it almost incinerated us with an infernal flame and now it is a silence and serenity itself. Could I think of such a thing a week ago, in my ward?” Suddenly he realized that only one mention of a confined space ignited his inner protest and disgust.

“So that’s what Kyle had in mind then, before the exam! That devil must have second sight. He’s good in combing others’ thoughts. Though... What happened to him was before the exam?”

As Alex gazed at the starry sky, he fell engrossed in a mental dialog and did not even notice that all his arguments and guesses gradually went out, like stars at dawn. He did not feel how smoothly he sank into sleep, succumbed to a pleasant hypnosis. When his head was filled with lead, the restless guest folded his hands on the panel, lay there his face and finally fell asleep. His dream was so sweet and strong that he did not even hear quiet footsteps from behind. A dark figure slowly descended the stairs and approached the pilot seat.

– You can sleep here for now, Al. – Kyle said quietly. – And later we will solve your problem.

Alex woke up feeling a pleasant, bitter smell. He opened one eye and saw a round table in front of him. On its top, there was a familiar glass; hot steam wreathed above it and nearby was a saucer with a small piece of chocolate.

– How interesting. – He drawled, as he moved his gaze a little lower.

That table had no legs; the monolithic disk hovered in the air.

“Still not in the lab”, he thought with relief.

– Good morning, Schumacher! – Somewhere from above sounded a clear voice of Mitch. – How was your sleep?

Alex wearily rubbed his eyes and looked around. He was in the cockpit, not in the pilot chair; he laid under a warm blanket on one of the sofas near the stairs.

– We’ve been whispering here for ten hours! – Englishman’s voice rang again.

Alex looked up and saw a familiar face, smiling happily from the bridge.

– Hey, Mitch. – He said hoarsely and stretched his neck and shoulders. – How long did I sleep?

– About a day. – Skorvi replied, walking down the stairs. – Earth day.

– Really? – The new scratched his ear in surprise. – Did I flake out right here?

– Uh-huh. – The guy leaned his shoulder against the wall. – Will wanted to carry you into your room, or... well, at least on the sofa in the hall so that you could get a good sleep in a sound isolation, but Cap did not approve. Your claustrophobia gave you a dog-sleep, so he was afraid that you would awaken.

– Just an ordinary insomnia! – Alex objected. – One sleeping pill and I’d be fine.

– That pill wouldn’t solve your problem. – Kyle responded in a serious voice, as his black figure rose from one of the navigator chairs. – I never underestimated the fears of the past and I don’t recommend you either. Your sad life experience combined with destructive abilities have entangled in a complex knot that we’ll have to unravel. However, before you grow stronger in your confidence that everything that happens to you is real, I will be responsible for your spiritual balance. But for now, I want to provide us a safe way to Athanna. So