Everything Has a Heart
It was an odd feeling, knowing that you were about to commit murder.
Will Robinson knew that there were other terms that he could use – mankind had slaughtered itself for hundreds of thousands of years, and along the way, it had developed no shortage of terms to describe the taking of a life. Justice. Euthanasia. Mercy. A necessary evil. Mankind had slaughtered itself, and while that had been going on, had killed the planet that had birthed it. It was why the Jupiter 2 had left Earth in the first place. It was why, even as Earth approached its terminus, groups like the Global Sedition existed because Pax Terra was a lie. It was why they were lost in space, so far from Alpha Prime that chances were they'd never be able to reach it within his lifetime. Why even if they did, there was no guarantee that humanity would have made it there. And it was why, being a human being, fully capable of committing murder, that Will had resolved to do such a thing. Why he knew that tonight, as his family slept, that Zachary Smith would die this night.
Doctor Smith wasn't sleeping. From the other side of the med bay, Will could hear his moans and wails. Kind of like something out of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, only this time the deformed monstrosity was just as deformed on the inside as well as the out. In fact, as he opened the doors, he reflected that Smith was still less deformed outwardly than the titular hunchback of Victor Hugo's novel. And as Smith looked up at him, bound in chains, Will was left to ask whether he was saint or sinner. He knew what had to be done, even as his family denied it. Only question now was could he do it.
"Mister Robinson," Smith whispered. "I did not expect you to come see me in this late hour."
Will didn't say anything.
"It's the voice, isn't it?" Smith whispered. "Sore throat and all that. Maybe you can't hear me."
Will still didn't say anything. Smith's voice had certainly been affected by the pathogens coursing through him, but that was the least of the changes. Changes that included blue pulsing veins. Bulging eyes. Blackened skin. Growths jutting out of him. Smith was turning into the monster he'd been in the future, as described by his father when the infection had started. At first, it had been subtle. Then it had become worse. Smith had become more erratic, more crazy, and when he'd broken Penny's arm, that had been the last straw. That had been when his father had come clean, and the crew of the Jupiter 2 had been cloven in two as the needs of the many were pitched against the needs of the one – save Smith, save themselves, or find a way to save both.
"I can feel it," Smith whispered. "The scar, where the spider scratched me." He tried to move himself forward, the chains keeping him to the bed, and far away from Will. "It isn't healed. All this growth, all this change, and still the scar remains in place." He let out a giggle. "Isn't that funny, Will Robinson? This strength, this power, and yet I-"
Will unholstered his pistol, and the look in Smith's eyes changed. Even as they changed from human to something else, he could still see some humanity within them. That primal human reaction known as fear.
"I see," Smith whispered. "You visit me tonight, and you packed that to feel safe."
Will turned up the power setting, and the look in Smith's eyes changed once more.
"Or you have come here to kill me," he said. He leant back against the bed and smiled. "Though whether you go through with that is another matter."
"You don't think I can do it?"
"I think you want to do it, but you won't. And do you know why?" Smith smiled, and Will could see his yellow teeth, steadily becoming more serrated. "Because you're not a monster. Not even now. And little boys who aren't monsters don't kill."
"Says the monster in this room."
"Oh I am a monster, I don't deny it. I was willing to sell out the human race to the Global Sedition to get a palace on Alpha Prime." He giggled. "Well, we both know the story your father's told us – thanks to those spiders, I'll become a monster on the outside as well as in. And while dear Judy Robinson believes in doing no harm, and Major West wants to kill me now, the rest of you are caught in the middle." He nodded at Will's pistol. "Perhaps you fall more on one side than the other."
Will stood there in silence, keeping his pistol steady.
"If I'm to die, don't you think it should be Major West who does it? He's the one who brought me onto that ship after all. He's the one that got you stranded on that planet."
"And you're the one that forced us to jump into hyperspace in the first place," Will said. "Ultimately, it all comes down to you."
A silence lingered between the two of them, eventually broken not by words, but by Smith coughing. Blood pattered on the floor of the med bay, accompanied by much more solid material. Will's nose twitched – it appeared that Zachary Smith was puking his guts out. Literally.
"You're still here," Smith whispered. He coughed some more, and more blood was added to the growing puddle in front of him. "Still haven't…pulled the trigger."
Will knelt down and looked into Smith's eyes. "We know what's going to happen here."
"What? The dear Doctor Robinson saves me?"
"She wants to. Even after your stunt nearly got her killed, even after future you killed future us, she still wants to. And God help us, mum's on her side."
"But you?" Smith smirked at Will, a strange yellow liquid seeping out from between his teeth. "What do…you want…my monster?"
"What I want…" Will took a breath. "Everything has a heart."
"What?"
"Everything has a heart. It's what I told the robot. It's what I told myself before I went to the armoury." He got to his feet. "I don't hate you Smith, after everything you've done. But I saw the future me. What he'd become. He told me to look after my family, and that's what I'm going to do."
"With…murder?"
"If it comes to that."
Smith smiled. "Bold words, William Robinson, but I don't think-"
"I'm sorry," Will said. "I know you have a heart. But…" He trailed off.
Then he fired.
The look in Smith's eyes told Will that he hadn't expected that to happen. That he'd honestly believed he'd survive this.
Alert. Alert. Firearm discharge in med bay.
A klaxon sounded.
Alert. Alert.
Smith tried to whisper something. A stab from Hell's heart, or a final prayer for forgiveness? Will didn't know. He'd never know. He just fired again. And again. And again.
Firearm discharge in med bay.
He kept firing, bolts of plasma passing through Zachary Smith's body. He spasmed, but he didn't scream. He just lay there as the bolts of light passed through him. Well over a dozen of them until Will drew back his pistol.
Alert. Alert. Firearm discharge in-
He pulled the trigger one last time, the bolt passing through Smith's head.
…med bay.
And he stood there in silence, beholding the fruits of his actions. His sin, so that his family would be saved. So that history wouldn't repeat itself.
"Will?"
He didn't look back at Judy as he heard her voice. Of course Judy would have arrived first. Who else would it be, other than a doctor who had vowed to do no harm?
"Oh my God, Will!"
That was her exclamation, but she didn't run to her brother. She ran forward to Smith's body, checking his pulse.
"Will, what did you do?" She looked back at him, tears in her eyes. "What the Hell did you do?!"
So many words for murder, Will reflected.
"Mercy," he whispered.
So he chose one of them.
"Night Judy."
And thus, headed back to bed. Leaving the doctor with the body of the monster.
A monster who, up to the end, had still had a heart.
A/N
So, like, did John have a plan to deal with Smith since he knew that the spider scratch would eventually turn him into a spider monster in the future?
Guess we'll never know.