Colony One (16 page)

Avery brought up the rear and let her hand rest on the grip of her sidearm. The colony ship wasn’t just murky and seemingly infinite, it was… she tried to put her finger on the right word to describe the feeling she got. Ominous was the closest she could manage.

They walked for several meters without incident. Makenna found the maintenance compartment and worked on the manual overrides while Niko tried to get the software to cooperate. Between the two of them, the lights were restored in a matter of minutes. They emerged from the compartment to find the rest looking over the railing at the network of walkways below and above.

“How many decks does this thing have?” Finn asked. She hadn’t put the goggles on yet – mostly because she wasn’t sure she’d know how to use them even if she did. They hung around her neck like a scarf.

Niko peered into his goggles and after a moment, answered, “Including maintenance decks, twenty-two.”

“Are we… going to search every one of them?” Winston asked with slight alarm in his voice. He was a portly man and he had done the calculations in his head quickly – that was a lot of stairs.

“We start with the cockpit and the largest common area we can find. We have to assume that is where we will find the most… evidence of what happened.” Avery suggested. “Andris, you’re with me. The rest of you, find the common area and keep your comms open. Report anything you find to me and to Mr. Foster.”

Niko straightened. “If it’s all the same, I’d rather investigate the common area.” That was where, if the ship was in fact Colony One, his brother would be.

“It is not the same. You’re more useful in the cockpit than you will be anywhere else.” She explained and when he didn’t look entirely sold, added; “I need you.” At this final appeal, Niko’s resolve broke.

“Fine,” he relented and then turned to Finn. “I’m counting on you to let me know if there is anything I should… be aware of.” He said. He had gotten to know Finn very well – at least in his mind – and he knew she was the most likely to be honest with him.

She nodded, “Of course.” She said sincerely and before he turned to leave, she reached out to grasp his hand tightly, squeezing it before letting it go again. Niko’s glanced down at the gesture, feeling his heart begin to race at the sensation.

Avery did not allow the moment to linger. “Let’s go,” she insisted, marching off towards the bo
w.
And with that, he and the Captain parted ways with the others.

Makenna was already darting her eyes back and forth across the interior of her goggles. “I think I know best way.” She said and began to walk. She stopped abruptly and even though Finn and Winston immediately followed her she turned and emphasized, “Please do not get lost. This is big ship.” She stated the obvious.

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Finn answered.

“Khorosho,” She nodded and Finn assumed she meant ‘good.’ Finn was getting remarkably good at picking up key Russian phrases after a month and a half of close-quarter living with one.

Makenna started walking again, Finn and Winston staying close. Though there were moments Winston fell behind a little, he caught up with a quick jog that winded him. He didn’t mind the jogging as much as he did the idea of being left behind.

“This is forward section. Close to cockpit.” Makenna explained as her pace slowed. “Passenger quarters should be here, on right.” She gestured and closed the distance. The three rounded the corner and stepped through the doorway one after the other, stopping just inside.

Makenna pulled her goggles down around her neck as she surveyed the room. It was a large chamber with six rows of bunks cut into the bulkhead and several columns making the space seem beehive like. Some bunks were occupied, but not by the living.

Winston, feeling an obligation to do so, tentatively paced towards the nearest occupied bunk. When he got close enough, he could see that a man lay in the bed. His hands were crossed over his chest and his legs were ridged. His eyes were closed and his pale, dead cheeks were sunken in. Winston went to the next bunk, and then the next. Finally, he turned to address Mak and Finn, “This isn’t a common area,” he said. “This is a morgue.”

“It didn’t start that way,” Finn said. Her eyes went to the bags that the dead have no need for that were tucked in near some bunks. The tables in the middle space looked used – slightly tarnished and not as shiny as they once were.

“They look like they were arranged here,” Winston reported. “After they died,” he clarified.

Finn looked up and around the room, turning in place so she could do so. Every bunk looked filled. She let out a shaky breath and tapped her earpiece to activate an open frequency, “Finn to the Captain and Niko,” she said with numbness in her voice. “We found something.”

16

Earth, Present Day, Expansion Manifest Partnership Headquarters

Lance Richardson was sitting at his desk when the lights flickered above him. The glass interface of his table flickered at the same time and he looked up and away from it in frustration. He hadn’t shaved in days and the result was a scruff building along his jaw line. His normally perfect hair was mussed and ill-kept like he’d had a particularly unpleasant camping trip.

He stood and closed the gap between his desk and the window. He keyed off the artificial view of a sweeping field and glared down at the real, and starkly contrasting, view of a sea of people who surrounded the building. A mob had been prevented him and many others from leaving for the past several days. Those who tried were chased back inside or beaten badly enough to be rushed off to the hospital. He muttered profanities down at the crowd under his breath and took to pacing the room for what seemed like the countless time.

The lights flickered again when a knock came at his door.

“Yes, what?” He snapped and Tom cracked the door. “Come in,” Richardson motioned and then crossed his arms. “Why is this still going on?” He asked bitterly.

“The police have tried to disperse the crowd, but more just show up.” Tom explained with defeat in his tone.

“Then start making examples of people,” Richardson snapped. Tom made a helpless gesture – his eyes were just as sunken with the same black circles under them as Richardson’s. He had to remind himself that Tom was in the same boat as him. “Have we heard from Avery?” He asked with a more measured tone.

“No,” Tom answered with frustration. “It’s been too long. She should have reported back by now and her booster is a one-way device. We can’t call in.”

“I know,” Richardson grit his teeth. “Not that I expect anything they have to report would help this situation,” he swept his hand out towards the window.

Tom moved to sit in one of the chairs facing Richardson’s desk. Exhaustion was clear in his posture and he just put his head in his hands. It was clear he was reaching the end of his rope.

Richardson’s arms uncrossed and he moved to sit beside his friend, “Now is not the time to give up, Tom.”

“Have you seen the crowd below?” Tom asked. “Have you heard of what similar throngs have done to other research labs and or any other facility with even a vague connection to World Corp?” He paused to let that sink in, “We’re funded by World Corp!” He stated what they both knew.

As if on cue, the lights flickered, then extinguished entirely. After a moment, the dim glow of emergency lights filled the space.

“It doesn’t get any worse than this, Lance.” Tom pointed out. He sighed heavily and looked away from the man as he added, “I hope, if we both make it out of this, you don’t hold anything against me.”

That made Richardson’s eyebrows furrow, “What do you mean?” he asked in a guarded tone.

“I didn’t have any other choice,” Tom explained with conflict in his voice. He elaborated – “They would have burned the building down. There are innocent people here. Innocent people who have already been hurt.”

Richardson stood, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck raise with instant fear and dread. “Thomas, what have you done?” He asked and a powerful thud sounded at the double door entrance to his office.

“We have both done terrible things,” Tom reminded him as voices and a great commotion rose up in the hallway outside of the offic
e.
Richardson’s eyes widened and he rushed away from Tom, away from the doors and to the closet where he kept a pistol.

The doors burst inward as a group of people flooded in all at once and made for Richardson without hesitation. The man wasn’t able to set a finger on the weapon before he was tackled to the ground.

“Get off me!” Richardson protested, trying to yank himself free of several hands that grabbed for him.

Tom waited for the flood of people to thin and slipped out through the double doors. He had been granted safety, but he did not expect everyone to have gotten the memo. He left to the sound of his friend’s struggles.

As Richardson thrashed, the crowd moved like one angry flow of water. The man tried to cover his face and curl away from the violence he knew to be imminent. Instead of a violent beating, he was drug away from the closet and pulled to his feet by many hands.

“Lance Richardson,” a man spoke and Richardson worked to find the voice among the mass of people suddenly surrounding him. The man stepped through the throng and stood in front of him with his shoulders pulled back, “On behalf of Citizens United, you are being summoned for immediate questioning in regards to the motivation, planning, and execution of the colony missions.”

“What the hell gives you the right to summon me?” Richardson asked incredulously.

“We represent all the people of Earth who were sent away to a fate that is, as of yet, unknown.” The man answered simply.

“I have already divulged everything that has to do with those missions,” Richardson answered with hardened features. “Everything we have to provide is public record.”

“Lies!” Someone cried and the group buzzed like an angry bee hive.

“This is illegal!” Richardson called back. “You can’t do this!” He insisted.

“We already know more than you think,” the leader spoke and took a step closer to Richardson. “Do you think you are the only person who we have summoned? Others have talked. We want to hear it from you, Mr. Richardson, the face of Expansion Manifest Partnership.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Richardson growled, anger becoming the prevailing emotion in him instead of fear in that moment.

The man shook his head and made a dismissive gesture, “Tie him up and bring him down.” He said and the group jumped into action – ropes were at the ready. “Mary,” he addressed a woman standing somewhat apart from the group. “Get with your contacts. We’re going to want media coverage for this.”

“No!” Richardson was yelling as the ropes tightened around his wrists. Panic crept into his yelps as the reality and weight of the situation hit him all at once. “Let go of me! Tom! Tom!” He screamed and managed a “HELP!” before someone struck him in the face, causing his body to go limp with the force of the blow.

17

Hyperion, Mission Day 46 – Boarding Party

“We found something,” Finn’s numb voice came through to Avery and Niko’s earpieces. The pair had just pushed open the hatch to the cockpit and was sitting on either side of it with their feet dangling into the space they had just climbed through.

Avery tapped her earpiece and answered Finn – “So have we.” She said and looked towards the corpse of Captain William Rockford. He sat in the Captain’s chair, but was slumped back with his hands crossed over his abdomen. His skin was pulled tight, indicating he had been extremely emaciated before he had died.

“It’s Rockford,” Niko added. After a pause, he explained – “He didn’t make it. We can now confirm the ship we have boarded is Colony Two.”

“Copy that,” Finn’s voice came back over the earpiece. There was relief in the words, though it was still mixed with a considerable amount of strife. “We’re in one of the bunk compartments. There are passengers, but… none surviving.” She reported.

“They’re arranged in their bunks as if they were coffins,” Winston’s voice came through after Finn’s.

Niko and Avery shared a look of mutual befuddlement. “Copy,” Avery finally said. “Keep looking and report your position every ten minutes. Report any findings immediately. Andris and I will report anything noteworthy up here.”

“Copy,” Makenna’s voice confirmed and the lines between the boarding parties went silent.

“Time to go to work,” Avery told Niko. He nodded and pulled himself the rest of the way out of the hatch. He was careful to access the console without disturbing the ship’s late Captain.

Niko keyed on the console and frowned immediately. “It’s locked,” he said and typed in a sequence. The console made a disapproving sound. He tried another with the same results. Finally, he looked towards Avery, “I don’t suppose you have an override code?”

Avery shrugged, joined him and keyed in the override code she had been given for the Hyperion. To the surprise of them both, it worked and the console lit up with several available options.

“Better to be lucky than smart sometimes, I guess.” Avery commented and let Niko work while she looked around the small cockpit. There was no sign of a co-pilot. No coffee cups or leftover food wrappers. Stuffed in the corner, there was a blanket and pillow, indicating the late Captain had taken to sleeping at his station. She considered the fact the man probably lost his co-pilot on Colony Beta and had to shoulder the responsibility of navigating and searching for Colony Alpha all on his ow
n.
She felt a tinge of something at this thought, but pushed it down to the deepest, darkest recess she could.

“Find anything?” She asked Niko after what seemed like an impossibly long silence.

The man shook his head grimly. “I was able to stop the auto-deletion program, but the damage has been done. There is no information for me to access to see what happened. Not without gutting the physical storage and trying to restore it, but I doubt the deletion program would be at surface level only.”

Avery listened and nodded. Eventually, her eyes fell meaningfully on Rockford. “Well, we should find the others,” she said after a pause. “After you,” she gestured to the hatch.

Niko had seen her meaningful look and it seemed to spark a similar idea in him, “Wait a minute…” He ignored her suggestion to find the others and knelt to turn out the late Captain’s pockets until he found Rockford’s personal handheld. “He left us a message before, maybe he did it again.”

Avery nodded reluctantly. She had every intention of searching for his OMNI herself and inspecting it on her own time. She didn’t want Niko knowing more than absolutely necessary but, unfortunately for her – and possibly for him – he was not a dense man.

Niko keyed on the handheld, swiping and tapping the screen until he seemed to find something. From where he knelt, he activated the OMNI’s projection mode and placed the device on the floor. The now disturbingly appropriate ghostly figure of Captain Rockford sprung from the device. Unlike the recording from Colony Beta, the Captain looked frail and thin. Instead of standing in the recording, he sat like perhaps he could not support his own weight. His voice was so difficult to hear, Niko had to turn up the OMNI’s volume to the highest level.

The projection of Captain Rockford stared into the middle distance for what seemed like a painfully long time. Niko and Avery watched and held their breath without realizing it. Only when the late Captain began to speak did they finally breathe out.

“I am recording this message on my OMNI,” he provided in way of preamble, “Because I cannot trust the ship’s computers. I have just found all my previous log entries have been deleted. I do not wish to speculate on why this might be,” he sighed, clearly burdened with other worries.

“We have lost many more passengers.” He started in a haunted voice to match his haunted face. “Some have asked to be euthanized as an alternative to the painful and lengthy death of starvation.” He took another long pause. “I have granted the requests for two reasons. One, I am not certain our quest to find Colony Alpha will be successful. Not… in time. And two…” He swallowed and the effort looked forced. “It will increase the rations and chance of survival for those who want to continue.”

The image of the late Captain blinked rapidly for a moment, his eyes having to work to refocus, “I have not eaten in three days and do not intend to until I absolutely must. Our sensors indicate that Colony Alpha is just two month’s journey from our current position. I have jettisoned every possible unnecessary item on this ship in an attempt to travel at maximum velocity. I hope it is enough,” He added and put his forehead in his hand. In that moment, he was the personification of famish and fatigue.

The message blinked off and Niko bent over the OMNI and keyed on the next entry. The late Captain reappeared looking, somehow, even worse.

“Fighting has begun to spread throughout the ship,” he reported in a hallowed out voice. “I have ordered peace over the audio system but those still with us are insane with hunger.” He paused and a pained expression spread across his face, “I am powerless to stop this,” he spoke the words like each was a dagger in him. “I fear no one but I will be left to run this fool’s errand.” He added bitterly. “I’m so hungry,” his voice twisted into a plea – a plea to no one. He could not control the impulse to say the words aloud. He clutched his stomach and his face screwed up into a picture of pain. “We have forsaken all of the Gods we once knew and so they have forsaken us,” he said in a fit of weakness and anger. “We have reached too far.”

The recoding continued but the late Captain said nothing more. He simply stared into the middle distance with pain frozen in his features. And so it was that Niko and Avery were witness to the final moments of the Captain’s life.

After a time, Niko reached over and deactivated the projection. He tapped the interface and said, “It recorded until it was out of space.”

Avery nodded vacantly. “I’ll take it,” she said, holding out her hand. Niko hesitated, but it was for only a split second before handing the device over like it weighed several hundred kilos. “There’s nothing else we can do here,” she said after she pocketed the device. “We should find the others.”

“Should we…” Niko started, giving Avery pause. He gestured to the late Captain. “Should we… do something? Lay him down?”

“He died at his post,” Avery said after a moment of consideration, “It’s only right to leave him there.”

Niko found himself hard pressed to disagree with her logic. He reached up and tapped his earpiece, “Niko to Makenna. What’s your location?”

No answer came.

Niko tried again. “Makenna, report your location.”

“Ms. Kranov, report.” Avery tried.

Still nothing. In unison, the pair pulled their goggles over their eyes and scanned the schematic readout to look for the dots that should have indicated where the three others were. “You start on the lower decks, I’ll take the top decks,” Avery advised as each two dimensional map was broken into sections.

“Acknowledged,” Niko said and flicked his eyes to control the goggle glass interface. He looked from icon to icon until he worked out an efficient method to quickly scan through each deck schematic. He was going so fast, he had already accessed the next slide when he had to go back to the previous readout that had the glowing dots displayed. “I’ve got something,” he told Avery. “Engine room.”

“Of course,” Avery groaned. “I wonder what Ms. Krasnov is up to now.”

“The reinforced bulkhead around the engine compartment may be causing our communication issues.” Niko suggested.

“Time to go on a search and rescue mission.”

“Who are we rescuing, and from what?” Niko wanted to know.

“Connolly and Waltham from the tedium of watching Krasnov fondle the hardware.”

Niko made a face that indicated he wasn’t sure if he wanted to laugh or cringe. “They covered a lot of ground. We’d better get moving.”

Avery nodded in way of agreement and they both descended the cockpit ladder with ease. They kept a clipped pace on the deck they were on and moved down two when they hit a dead end. Niko alternated pulling his goggles over his eyes to check they were still in the engine room and trying to radio them. So far, they hadn’t moved. He noticed they stayed in a relatively motionless grouping and for some reason, this bothered him. Something about it seemed… off.

He picked up the pace to a jog and heard Avery match his speed behind him.

When they arrived at the entrance of the engine room, they heard Finn’s panicked voice raise up, “Captain? Charlie? Anyone?”

Niko and Avery shared a look before pushing open the engine room door that was already partially open. Niko was first in, so he saw the scene before Avery did. Makenna was collapsed on the floor near a console and Winston was over her, his hands pressed against her abdomen. Finn was pacing around them with her finger pushed into her ear.

“What the hell happened here?” Avery barked. Winston and Finn looked up and tinge of relief flashed over their expressions, but the majority of their demeanors showed alarm and fear.

“There is someone else on this ship,” Finn explained in a rushed tone. “He attacked Makenna and ran off. We found where he was living,” she gestured to further into the engine room. “We tried to talk to him but… he… his eyes…” she shook her head, the memory of the wildness coming to the forefront.

“How badly is she hurt?” Niko asked Winston, who looked somewhat helpless.

Winston shook his head, “She’s been stabbed in the abdomen. The bleeding is bad. I need to figure out if any of her organs have been damaged.”

From where she lay, Makenna winced and cursed in Russian. Her hands were over Winston’s in an attempt to staunch the blood flow. She began muttering angrily in her native tongue.

“We need to get her back to the ship immediately.” Winston spoke over the woman’s angry monolog.

“Did he say anything?” Avery asked, ignoring the doctor.

Finn shook her head, putting her hand to her forehead in an attempt to focus her thoughts, “He wanted to know where we came from.” She recounted and resumed her nervous pacing, “And where our ship was.”

That made Niko and Avery stiffen.  Simultaneously, they gave each other a meaningful look. “Shit!” Avery exclaimed with their shared revelation.

“Charlie. The ship,” Niko elaborated.

“Stay here in case he doubles back.” The Captain told Niko in a rush, “Get her bleeding under control before you move her.” She added and without further explanation, took off in a sprint towards the docking bay and the Hyperion.

ɸ ɸ ɸ

“Damn it!” Charlie cursed and slammed his hand down on the console. He had been trying to raise any of the boarding party on their assigned communications channel but no one was answering. He stood and began to pace the bridge – he didn’t like the feeling of helplessness that came along with the silence. He knew what he had already heard – Avery and Niko found the Captain of Colony Two dead, along with, seemingly, everyone else. Then they tried to raise Mak and her team with no luck.

But then everything had gone radio silent. He did not like that one bit.

After a few minutes of pacing, a chime sounded from his console and he rushed over to check it. A light flashed on his interface, indicating that the docking bay hatch had been accessed. He felt instant relief – content to assume that something had gone wrong with their communicators, forcing them to return without reporting in. All that was important was that they were back and this calmed him. He sat back down at his console and tapped the indicator light to dismiss it.

After a few minutes, Charlie heard footsteps, but he didn’t turn immediately – “What happened to your comm?” He asked before swiveling to face the entrance of the bridge.

Charlie felt his breath leave him. Instead of seeing the Captain or any other member of the crew, he was faced with a vision of a nightmare. A man filled the doorway with long, straggly hair and a face caked with dried blood. He was shirtless and Charlie’s eyes widened when, with filthy fingernails, the intruder raised his hands in an aggressive gesture, bared his teeth and snarled at the pilot.