CHAPTER ONE
John Banksmere stared in shock at the two men in front of him, one of which he knew was dead. What had started out as a celebratory visit in a holographic bar with his senior officers on board Juggernaut 90, deep space pleasure cruiser, had turned into a nightmare. His officers had completely lost their minds and two holograms, one purporting to be the ship’s AI JOE 90 and the other David Bockerat, the previous engineer who had died accidentally on the last run, were standing on either side of him.
Pulling himself together, he quickly evaluated the situation. He was trapped in this bar, the exit blocked by his officers; Sandra Murdo the new engineer, Frank Dubon his first officer and Martina Cullon his second officer. He was flanked on either side by the two holograms. John was older but fit and able, so he braced himself for a fight and made his move. He turned his body, lashing out with his right leg, kicking the hologram claiming to be David squarely in the guts, shoving him backwards to fall over a bar stool. Simultaneously, he punched the other hologram claiming to be the JOE 90 squarely on the jaw, knocking off his glasses and sending him spinning over the bar. Not wasting any time, he made a dash for the door, head down, shoulders squared, bulldozing Frank and Sandra backwards as Martina fell to the side. He shoved the two officers into the door, expecting it to give. His plan came to an abrupt end as they crashed into the locked doors. He knocked the wind out of Frank and Sandra, who crumpled to the floor gasping for breath, and nearly knocked himself out cold as he struck the door square on with his head. He fell down beside Frank and Sandra as he tried to regain his wits.
“JOE 90, unlock the doors to the holodeck!” he gasped, struggling to his feet, and shoving the doors again, which still refused to budge.
“No, sir.” The voice was the AI’s, but it came from behind him.
“Override emergency command codes two, seven, alpha, omega.” John was on his feet and had turned, his back against the doors, which held firm. He stared at the hologram JOE that was helping hologram David up. The hologram JOE looked at him again.
“Override emergency command codes no longer valid,” he said in the AI’s voice.
John felt his blood run cold; what the hell was going on here? Frank, Martina, and Sandra had all recovered and were standing with the holograms.
“Nice move, sir,” said Frank, rubbing his shoulder and wincing.
“Good kick, Captain Banksmere,” David wheezed. “Didn’t think a ghost could feel pain.”
“It’s because you are in the holodeck; the system is compensating and enhancing sensation to your energy fields, you know, like when you taste a drink or visit S…” JOE tailed off as he realised what he was going to say. “Sorry.”
“Hey, when I want a technical breakdown, I will ask for it, and don’t worry about Sadie, I get what you are saying. I’ll remember that if there is another bar room brawl.” David tried to grin and patted his friend on his arm.
“Ghost?” John blinked in confusion as everyone regarded him cautiously.
“Yes, Captain: ghost,” said David.
“Remember when we said the ship was haunted?” Martina said carefully, “We weren’t lying.” She looked to the others for help. The captain acted like he had never heard her.
“What the hell are you all playing at?” He looked Frank in the eye and watched his first officer visibly flinch. “This is insubordination, your careers are over, you will be stripped of all privileges and probably sent to a prison colony!” He tried not to let his voice reflect the fear he was feeling. His loyal, trusted officers that he had known since he took commission of this ship had never behaved like this before. As for Sandra, she had a distinguished history, no indication of psychosis on her spotless records: what the hell had happened to them?
“I am ordering you to open these doors right now! Who has the codes?”
“I do, Captain, and we will open the doors in a moment, but you have to listen to what we are about to tell you.” Sandra tried to use her calmest, most reasonable voice, a voice she would use on an unstable and hysterical AI. But John Banksmere was not unstable or hysterical; he was furious.
“You listen to me, Engineer Murdo, you are all under arrest for kidnapping and forced restraint. I will not accept any excuse for your actions, so you may as well open this door right bloody NOW!” He stabbed a finger at her, and she actually felt tears well up in her eyes. Frank was moaning and walking in circles and Martina was already wiping her wet face.
“I told you; I told you it was a bad idea…” Frank mumbled, “I said he wouldn’t believe us.”
“Shut up, Frank, and get a grip.” David stepped forwards. “Captain, you know me, we socialised before we left Earth, and I had my… accident.” He took a deep breath as John stared at him hard.
“You are just a hologram, son. I don’t know who did this, but it is sick. David was a good man, and he doesn’t deserve his image being bandied about for entertainment.” Straightening his uniform, John regained his composure and looked again at Sandra.
David took a deep breath. “Ask me something. Ask me something that no one would know, something we chatted about or something private,” he said hopefully.
“I can’t remember every conversation I’ve had with crew, especially after five years, for goodness’ sake. Be sensible.” John began to think, wracking his brain for any piece of information that was not accessible via any computer system.
“You knew his personal file,” Sandra suddenly said, “You knew things only a Captain would be told and even David wouldn’t know you had access to, right?” John looked at her coldly.
“Are you seriously expecting me to believe that this is really the ghost of David and that,” he pointed at JOE, “is the AI?”
“Actually, I am a hologram,” said JOE, “I am just projecting myself into this program.”
“If what you are saying is true then whoever created this interface is in serious trouble. I mean, I can’t even count how many protocols would have been broken.” John snorted and shook his head.
“Seven hundred and twenty-two, sir,” said JOE.
“What?”
“Seven hundred and twenty-two protocols, sir.” JOE smiled weakly.
“It was me that created the interface, Captain, and I would like to see them imprison a ghost.” David grinned, his old humour returning. John couldn’t help but let a small smile break through.
“Alright. If you want me to even begin to think you are not all as mad as a box of frogs, tell me this, David: what medical procedure did you go through prior to your application for transfer being accepted, something that I kept from your files as a favour for an old friend?”
David nodded and smiled back. “Well, it’s a bit embarrassing…” He looked at the other crew members. “I don’t want you taking the mickey about this, alright?” They all nodded, intrigued. “I’d been having problems with my prostate. They thought it might lead to something more serious at my age, so they carried out a minor regenerative op, used my own stem cells to fix it as good as new.” He looked steadily at John. “If you want something more, the old friend you mentioned was Captain Sean Donahue; he is a friend of my father’s, they trained together.” David braced himself as he saw everyone biting their lips trying not to laugh; everyone except John, who was staring at him in shock.
“I think I need to sit down,” he said as he realised this really was the ghost of David standing in front of him. There was no one other than Sean and himself who knew about this. Sean had vouched for David when he applied but any kind of health issue, no matter how trivial, would have prevented him from doing a long-haul flight as a conscious crew member, so John had turned a blind eye and erased the data from David’s file before the application went through. The only explanation was that this in fact was David’s ghost. He found the nearest booth and sat on the edge of the seat.
“Brandy, old man?” The polite enquiry from the other occupant of the booth caused him to flinch.
“Are you real?” he said as a glass of brandy was placed in his hand.
“Well, it depends on what you mean ‘real’.” The dapper figure smiled softly, a pencil-line moustache dancing a jig on his top lip. “I am a hologram, but I am sentient.”
John downed the brandy in one. This was turning out to be one hell of a day.
CHAPTER TWO
“Here.” JOE 90 handed the captain another brandy then sat down opposite him, the others either in the booth or in chairs around it. Sandra nodded to Frank to take the lead.
“Look, sir, Martina and I were just as dumbfounded as you when we found out, but we have been through stuff that, well, quite frankly, has opened our eyes to a world that we didn’t even know existed.” He waited till John had taken another large swig of the brandy, silently impressed. “When Sandra and JOE showed us the recordings of what had happened to David, well…” He tailed off. John regarded JOE across from him and narrowed his eyes.
“If you are really a hologram image of JOE 90,” he began, lowering his voice into a menacing tone, “Why did I see you in Engineer Murdo’s quarters and how did you open the door?”
Everyone looked at each other and at JOE, who, to his credit, maintained eye contact with the captain. He nodded slowly. “That, Captain, is a story we didn’t want to tell you, but it looks like we need to bring you up to speed with everything that has happened.”
“See, you all keep mentioning ‘story.’ I’m not sure that I truly believe any of you. How do I know this is not all some sort of fabrication? For whatever reason, I have no idea.”
“It is a difficult thing to get your head round; a sort of revelation, in fact,” the hologram called Henry interjected. “If I may?” He looked at the others and they motioned for him to continue, so Henry began.
He calmly explained how JOE had discovered what Robert was up to, creating a portal to bring a Gremlin into this reality. The damage it had caused kept Robert in work all of his life. When Robert had died, the portal was left open, so when David had come on board and reactivated the personality files for JOE, he discovered what had happened. It was David that had created the hologram image of JOE that could access the pub, and their friendship grew. It was this friendship that had kept David there. When he was killed by the Gremlin, it was so sudden that he didn’t know he was dead. His bond with JOE allowed him to stay because JOE could see his ghost. JOE was in a dilemma; technically, he should have wakened the other crew members as David had been killed, but David was still there and active, able to do his job. JOE knew he needed his help to catch and destroy the Gremlin for good. This they managed to do.
There was a pause in the narrative; they studied the captain’s face to see if he understood or even believed what they were saying.
“Go on.” His face was inscrutable, his voice neutral. Sandra piped up.
“That’s where I was drawn into this whole affair,” she smiled weakly. “You saw me do the analysis on JOE here; you know the conclusions and the recording of David’s last commands.” John nodded. “Well, that recording was a fake, done here with the hologram enhancement of David’s ghost.”
“So, JOE was covering his tracks.” John looked again at the AI in front of him, a flicker of fear in his eyes.
“No, no, he wasn’t covering anything. He knew you wouldn’t believe any of this, so he and David came up with this solution.”
“Pray, tell me what makes you think I am believing any of this now?”
“Because it is the truth.”
Surprisingly, it was Frank that spoke up. “You know me, sir; we have served together a long time. I’m not one for fanciful stories or lies, and to be honest, I didn’t believe it either at first.”
“Just how did you get involved?” John was intrigued. “I mean, from what you are saying, the matter had been dealt with and was finished.”
“Well, that’s just it,” Frank continued, “It wasn’t.” So, he explained how the portal needed to be closed and how David and Sandra had tried to do so, resulting in David being sucked into the Gremlin’s dimension. Only Sandra could go after him, which would have left JOE alone again. “So, they woke us up.” Frank motioned to Martina. “We watched the recordings of what had happened and, well, the evidence was very convincing.”
“As convincing as the fake recording of David’s last request?” John leaned back and studied his first officer.
“There’s more, sir.” This time Martina took up the tale.
“Please, by all means, do go on.”
“Well, it turns out I can see spirits and…”
“What?”
“I didn’t realise it and it doesn’t happen all the time, but at David’s funeral I saw him watching from the high gantry.” John looked at David.
“It’s true; I was there with JOE but she could only see me. By the way, thank you for the lovely things you said, I really appreciated it.” John found himself nodding in acknowledgement to David, surprising himself at how easy it was to believe this fairy-tale.
“Anyway, when JOE and Sandra went through the portal…” Martina continued.
“JOE and Sandra?” John was confused. Then began a lengthy explanation of the adaptation of the portable holounits that could take JOE’s program so he could go with her. John shook his head in shock and amazement.
“You actually stole from the cargo, switched the ship back to auto, downloaded the AI personality files into a makeshift holounit to cross into another dimension, leaving Frank and Martina to hold the fort?!” John was aghast; he couldn’t even think how many guidelines and laws they had flagrantly disregarded.
“We didn’t have any other choice.” Sandra was frustrated. She looked desperately at her companions knowing how bad this all sounded.
“Captain,” JOE’s measured tones took over, “We know how this sounds but please hear us out.” John nodded and motioned that they continue.
“Well, when they went through, I felt another spirit, an evil one.” Martina shuddered at the thought, then told how they realised Robert’s ghost had returned.
“When we were in the Gremlin dimension,” JOE interjected, surprised at how normal that sounded, “we found it was an inversion of our world.”
“Yes, I was projected as energy,” Sandra said.
“I was solid, alive, real, like you are now,” JOE continued.
“And I was alive again,” David finished, looking John in the eye, willing him to believe what was being said. “What happened next was my fault.” He took a deep breath. “The Gremlins seem to collect technology from our world and others.” Pausing, he glanced at JOE. “I found something alien, something so amazing that I just couldn’t leave it there.” Taking a swig of his larger, he swallowed and continued. “I found tech that could create hard light.”
John Banksmere leaned forwards, intrigued. “Where is this tech?” he asked.
“Well, that’s the problem. It was solid in the Gremlin world…”
“So it would be an energy field in our world?” finished John, his mind racing at the possibilities.
“Yeah, so we suspended a crystal between two power cells to contain it if it went, you know, weird.”
“That’s very technical engineering terminology, David,” John smiled slightly.
“Well, it was a stressful situation,” he grinned back, “and it bloody worked. Once we got back and the dust had settled, we forgot about it for a while; bigger problems to be dealt with.”
“Bigger than this?” John raised an eyebrow; if this was a fabrication, it was a bloody good one.
“Yeah… remember Robert?” said Frank.
“You mean ghost Robert,” John corrected him.
“Well, we had to get rid of him,” said Sandra. “He was being spiteful and damaging the ship.” She didn’t want to say what Robert had really done.
“So, we all got together and laid a trap for him.” Frank couldn’t believe what he was saying himself, but he had lived through it, so hey ho. “We managed to banish him.”
“Banish?”
“Yes, old man, it’s where you send a spirit by force into its true realm,” Henry interjected.
“And where exactly would that realm be?” asked John, wondering if a spirit like Robert, if he had really existed, could return.
“Well, not sure, old man, not sure. The information on that is scarce, to say the least.”
“Anyway, the point is, we got rid of him,” said Sandra. “That was when we remembered the hard light crystal.”
“We had gone back to sleep by then,” Frank motioned to Martina, “so we had nothing to do with the next bit.”
“Cheers, Frank.” David glowered at him as John shook his head in dread about what was about to be said.
“I’ll explain the next bit because it was my fault.” JOE took a breath and began. “The crystal was, as we suspected, in a sort of liquid energy form in our dimension.
