Free Dead Space: Martyr by Brian Evenson

said. “What are you doing out there?”
    “Shut up!” said Dantec. “What’s wrong with you? Shut up!”
    It’s good to see you, Jim, said Shane.
    Hennessy put his face very close to the glass. “I have to be quiet,” he whispered. “If I don’t, Dantec’s going to throw a conniption.”
    Shane nodded and smiled, then pretended, as they had done when they were kids, to be zipping his mouth shut.
    “I have to be honest, Shane,” Hennessy whispered. He couldn’t see his own face in the darkness, but he imagined his forehead to be wrinkled with worry. Hopefully Shane could see that and would take the question in the spirit it was intended. “I thought you were dead.”
    Of course you did, Jim, said Shane. That’s what they wanted you to think.
    Hennessy nodded. “Those bastards,” he whispered.
    Shane nodded. They’re not that bad, he said. They just don’t know any better. But you know better, don’t you, Jim?
    “I do now,” whispered Hennessy. “God, Shane, it’s really great to see you. But I have to ask you another question.”
    Go ahead, said Shane. You can ask me anything.
    “What are you doing out there?”
    Well, said Shane, looking down shyly, to be frank, Jim, I was hoping you’d invite me in.
    Hennessy looked around at the darkness, trying to picture in his mind what the cabin looked like. “Shane, it’s already pretty cramped in here. I don’t know if there’s room.”
    Trust me, there’s more room than you think, said Shane. Invite me in and you’ll see.
    “But what will Dantec think?” he asked.
    “Stop whispering!” shouted Dantec. “Stop it now!”
    Shane gave him a sleepy grin. He’s not the boss here, Jim. I know how things really are. You’re the boss. Dantec, he’s just a big bully. He needs someone to put him in his place. I’ll be quiet. I bet he won’t even notice me.
    “You’re right, Shane,” whispered Hennessy. “He’s nothing more than a big bully.” He waited, pressing his face against the thick glass of the porthole. “Why not, then? Come on in, Shane. Come on in.”
    With that, suddenly the lights flickered and went out again, then came on in full force. The readouts went live again. Hennessy heard crackling in his ear, saw Tanner’s ghost on his holoscreen before it was rubbed out by static.
    The oxygen recirculators started up and the drill began to hum. Dantec gave a whoop. “We’re okay,” he said, casting a quick glance over his shoulder. His face, Hennessy saw, was slick with sweat. “We’re going to be okay.”
    But Hennessy already knew it would be okay. His brother, good old Shane, was here now, sitting right beside him on a chair he hadn’t remembered being there before. Shane must have brought it with him. He was smiling, holding Hennessy’s hand in his own. Now that Shane was there, everything would work out.

16
    He gently disengaged his hand from his brother’s and looked at his chronometer. Six thirty-eight, it read, but he could tell by the way the numbers flashed and then slowly faded that it had stopped. Why wasn’t it working? He showed it to Shane, who just nodded.
    Nothing to worry about, brother, Shane said. It doesn’t really matter.
    Shane was right, of course, it didn’t really matter, but he still wanted to know what time it was.
    “What time is it?” he asked Dantec.
    “Leave me alone,” said Dantec. “We’re getting close. I have to watch this.”
    Hennessy waited a moment and then asked again.
    Distractedly, Dantec looked at his wrist, then held his chronometer to his ear. “It’s stopped,” he said.
    “Mine, too,” said Hennessy.
    Dantec turned and looked at him. He didn’t seem to notice Shane, even though he was right there, right next to Hennessy. People see what they want to see, thought Hennessy.
    “Doesn’t that seem weird to you?” Dantec asked.
    Hennessy shrugged. “Nothing to worry about,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter.”
    Dantec narrowed his eyes. “And another thing,”