The Cloud

by Daniel Boshoff

He took off his shoes and walked into the middle of the beach, the sand warm between his toes. A gentle breeze cooled his lightly-sweating body. The air smelled of his childhood, and a small smile crossed his lips, unseen beneath his BreatheO mask. His eyes stung, whether from the spray of the ocean or the salt of his tears he wasn't sure. He lay on his back in the sand and looked at the blue sky for a few seconds before closing his eyes. Then he took a deep breath and held it. He removed his BreatheO.

  He listened to the ocean.

  “Is she alive?” a female voice said.

  “Doesn't look like it.” This one was male.

  Evelyn felt something poke her sharply in the ribs and her eyes flew open. Several faces were peering down at her against the backdrop of InDi's strange white conical ceiling. She blinked up at the faces, recognizing some of the other interns. Matthew and Seren were missing.

  For some reason those looking down at her all had wet hair.

  And they were naked...

  The girls were holding their arms across their breasts. She couldn't see the boys' hands, but could guess where they were. That was when she realized that she, too, was completely in the nude.

  She snapped up like a rat-trap, drawing her knees to her chest to cover herself.

  “What the Bloom is going on?” she shrieked, surprised to hear her own voice.

  “Your guess is as good as any of ours,” Nelson replied, avoiding her eyes. “We all woke up in one of these things.” He tapped the side of the pod in which she had awoken. “The hatch to the downstairs section is shut.”

  “Where's Reyner?” Evelyn asked, remembering her strange dream. It was like she had been Reyner.

  “You don't remember what happened, do you?” Clove asked.

  “I remember getting into this thing, and Reyner closing the lid. That's all.”

  “He ... did something to us.” Clove said, and there was a horrified tone in her voice that gave Evelyn a chill.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don't know. He drugged us, or something. After he closed you in there he grabbed a BreatheO and held it over his face. We didn't really know what was going on. Next thing there's some kind of gas in the air and we all passed out. When we woke up we were here.”

  “Yeah. Butt neckid,” Kenji added, as though no one had noticed yet.

  Evelyn's mind was reeling. Why would Reyner drug them and take their clothes? Was this some kind of sick initiation?

  “Here. Put these on.”

  Everyone turned to find Matthew standing behind them wearing a set of gray tracksuits. He placed a pile of similar garments on the edge of one of the other pods, keeping his eyes averted, before turning away to fiddle with an instrument panel on the wall. There was something different about him, Evelyn thought. His entire demeanor had changed. Where before he had seemed tense and nervous, now he appeared strangely calm and somehow … relaxed.

  “Thank God.” Holly's voice interrupted Evelyn's thoughts, as she snatched up a set of tracksuits. “Ladies first. And close your eyes for heaven's sake!” she snapped at Kenji, who was staring.

  Evelyn pushed herself out of the pod, keeping one arm over her breasts, and grabbed a set of tracksuits, pulling them on hurriedly. She noticed Seren wandering around the interior of the shuttle, studying the pods. She must have gotten dressed when Matthew found the tracksuits. Seren turned to meet Evelyn's eyes. Somehow she always seemed to know when she was being watched…

  “Dust,” said the strange girl, holding up a finger smeared with a dark stain. “And look,” she pointed at some of the panels on the ceiling. “They're cracked, and coming unstuck.” By now she had everyone's attention.

  “What does it mean?” Brenner asked.

  “Ask him,” Seren nodded at Matthew.

  Everyone turned to him expectantly.

  “Huh? Look, I don't know what she's talking about.” He walked over to the hatch leading below. “Do you lot want to get out of here and figure out what the hell's going on or not?”

  He turned a crank handle on the top of the trap door and lifted it up.

  “I don't trust that guy,” Evelyn heard Clove whisper to Brenner as they walked over to the hatch. “There's something weird going on here.”

  Evelyn had to agree. Matthew did seem to know more than he was letting on. She could see it on his face, in his movements: he was hiding something.

  One by one they descended the ladder into the larger chamber of the shuttle, where a faint electrical humming emanated from the generator room. The lower level looked much the same as when Reyner had showed them around earlier, except there were no loose cables and the technical equipment was gone. Evelyn wasn't sure how long she'd been in the pod but it felt like not much time had passed. She thought about the dust Seren had pointed out. It was probably a residue left over from construction of the shuttle.

  “Okay, now what?” Kenji said. “The door's closed.”

  “Yeah, there's no handle on this one.” Brenner added, moving forward to examine it.

  Evelyn noticed Seren staring piercingly at Matthew.

  “What?” he said. “Stop looking at me like that, you freak.”

  Nelson stepped forward, crossing his arms. “My friend,” he said coldly. “You should not talk to people that way.”

  “Tell her to stop staring at me then. It's weird.” He eyed Seren menacingly.

  Seren smiled dryly and gave a small shrug. She began walking around the shuttle, examining the instrument panels on the wall.

  Nelson wasn't finished with Matthew. “Do you know how to open that door?”

  “I'm sure there's just a button or something,” Matthew mumbled. He went over to a panel on the wall beside the door and touched a switch. The panel slid up, revealing a green button. “There.”

  Suddenly the lights in the room dimmed and there was a whirring above them as another panel slid back. Evelyn looked up to see a holographic projector descending. Its lens flared to life and the ghostly form of Damien Reyner appeared in the center of the half-moon shaped room. His voice crackled from an unseen speaker.

  “Hello, all of you. If you're seeing me now it means you're alive, which is excellent news. I know that sounds like an obvious statement, but believe me it would bring me great relief – were I myself not dead.” Reyner's holographic double smiled wanly. “I'm afraid I wasn't completely honest with you all before. There wasn't much time, you see, and I feared you would not agree to do what was necessary, that you wouldn't understand the importance of what I would ask of you. I would like to apologize for that, for putting you on the shuttle without your knowledge or permission, though I know it is an apology you will probably not accept. Please know that it had to be done. There was no other way.”

  “What the Bloom is this?” Clove demanded. Nobody answered.

  The holograph continued, oblivious. “I tried for years to repair our planet, to reverse the damage our species had done. I tried to make mankind see reason, stop what we were doing to ourselves and our habitat. We had the power to change it ...” A look of sadness passed over Reyner's face. Or perhaps it was regret. “But we are a stubborn species. We drove things too far, and destroyed the balance until there was no coming back from the tipping point. Like a virus on the planet we would have killed Earth, if she did not kill us first. I had to make sure that our species would not take Planet Earth with us to the grave. I … I have done something … Something terrible. Terrible, but necessary.” Reyner coughed. “Within a few years from the time I am recording this message human life on Earth will be over. And you will be far, far away, safe from the necessary darkness that will befall our planet in order to make room for a new light, a new beginning. Janus.

  “The shuttle has everything you need to survive for a year on Janus, after that you will have to rely on what you can harvest and grow and, if there is any life at all when you land – which I believe will be the case – hunt. Remember, you are humankind’s final second-chance. This is your new beginning. Use it wis
ely. That is all I have time for, for there is much I must still do. Good luck.” His face turned to the ceiling. “End recording.”

  The holograph vanished, but the lights did not come back on.

  Kenji was the first to speak. “Okay, what the actual–”

  “Shh!” Holly interrupted. “There's more.”

  Another figure shimmered into view before them, though this one flickered and wavered violently. It wasn't Reyner. This man was smaller, with receding gray hair. He looked vaguely familiar to Evelyn. When he spoke his voice was faint and interspersed with white noise so that it came through in segments.

  “ ... hope to God you mak … Reyner lossss … his mind … the AI ... to take over the ssssa … lites … I managed to sssto … but … There's more, Reyner ssss … an AI with you on … ssshuttle. Don't trust … Matthew ... hear me? God, I ca … believe he took you frrr … You musss ... tell the others ... Don't trusssss…” The man's voice vanished into a completely inaudible hiss of static and the figure flickered away to be replaced by a floating segment of text declaring that the signal had been lost. The recording ended.

  Slowly, everyone's eyes turned to Matthew.

  “Care to explain who the hell that guy was, and why he told us not to trust you?” Clove demanded.

  “Are you serious? He wasn't telling you not to trust me, he was talking to me.”

  “And why would he do that?” Nelson asked.

  Matthew looked at him in disbelief. “You don't know who that was?”

  “No. But obviously you do.” Nelson stepped very close to Matthew, and Evelyn noticed for the first time that there was a lot of muscle beneath the South African's chubbiness.

  “That was Dr Miles Tucker. Ring a bell?”

  “Wasn't he a founding member of OrbiCor?” Holly said. “Why would he send you a personal message?”

  “Because he's … he's my dad.” Matthew looked at the space where the projection had been and hung his head. “Was, I suppose.”

  “Bull.” Clove said. “Why would you intern at your own dad's company? He could just get you a job here any time you wanted.”

  “You don't get it, do you?” Matthew said bitterly. “Everything Reyner just said is true. This isn't an internship, it never was. That was a story to get you all here, into this shuttle, without raising questions. He was going to fake our deaths in an explosion or something. Not that it matters anymore. None of that does.”

  “Enough,” Nelson stepped forward and grabbed Matthew's collar. “What's really going on here. No more games, do you understand me? Tell us what you know.”

  Matthew didn't seem intimidated by Nelson's strong-arm tactics. He took a steadying breath. “Let go of me,” he said quietly. “I'm not your enemy. In fact I'm one of the only seven friends you're going to have for a very, very long time.”

  By now Evelyn was beginning to feel scared. Matthew didn't seem to be messing around. The sorrow on his face was real, as was the hardness in his eyes. His next words chilled her, because deep down she suspected they were true.

  “You think you've been tricked, that this is some weird game? You think we'll walk out that door and everything will be back to normal?” He didn't take his eyes of Nelson as he raised a hand and pointed to the doorway. “You won't find your old life out there. Your old life is gone. Remember that manned mission Reyner told us about, the one he was sending to colonize Janus? We're it.”

  6

  There was silence in the room.

  Nelson slowly released Matthew and took a few steps back, frowning.

  Evelyn could see that she wasn't the only one considering that Matthew was telling the truth. In fact, the only member of the group who didn't seem at all worried or surprised by their situation was Seren, who had wandered over to one of the smaller rooms and begun rummaging around in some cabinets.

  “He's talking nonsense.” Holly said eventually. She glared at Matthew. “What you're saying is impossible. We were just talking to Reyner – the real Reyner.” She stormed over to the airlock. “He's probably waiting right on the other side of this door with a big ol' smile on his face.” She raised her hand to hit the button for the door.

  “Wait,” Matthew said, seeming to gather himself. “OrbiCor couldn't do a spectroscopic scan of Janus' atmosphere through the Rift, since they couldn't even see it without that new imaging device. Reyner thought the atmosphere would be similar to back on Earth, but we don't really have any idea what's out there. We need to put on protective gear before we leave the shuttle.”

  Holly was already shaking her head, and there was a menacing look in her eyes. She opened her mouth to argue but Seren broke in. “Do you mean these, Matthew?” She was holding up something that looked like a stylish version of a haz-mat suit, complete with a helmet, which she held in one hand. “I found them in a cabinet in the storage room.”

  “Don't tell me you actually believe this garbage,” Holly spat, clenching her fists. “We are not on some planet in a different dimension, okay? That's not possible. We're going to walk out this door and be inside the OrbiCor facility – where we've been this whole damn time!” She punched the green button beside the door and the glass slid up.

  “Just wait, dammit!” Matthew darted after Holly as she stepped inside the airlock, blocking the door from closing with his body.

  “Get away from me.” She shoved him hard in the chest, sending him sprawling back into the chamber. The door closed her into the airlock and she turned around, searching for the button that would open the outer door.

  “Holly,” Evelyn called through the glass. “What if he's telling the truth? I mean, just think about it. Why would Reyner make any of this up?” Evelyn herself wasn't sure what to believe, but she figured there couldn't be any harm in being careful, and there was definitely something – actually, many things – about their situation that warranted giving what Reyner's projection and what Matthew had said some consideration.

  “I don't know. But it's impossible.” Holly said for the third time. She finally found the button for the outer door and reached for it.

  “Holly, don't.” Evelyn pleaded. “We don't know what's out there.”

  She paused, turning her head. “I know exac–”

  Suddenly the entire shuttle shook violently and there was a tremendous bang against the outer airlock door. Holly stumbled forward and her outstretched hand pressed the button. The outer door began sliding open.

  “What the Bloom was that?” Kenji said, climbing to his feet. The force of the shock had sent him and some of the others to their knees.

  Matthew's face had turned white. “I don't know.” He turned to look out of the airlock and his eyes went wide.

  Holly screamed.

  The outer door had lifted, and through it a massive black eye was watching them. The eye was housed in a wrinkled, leathery head the size of small car with two long tusks protruding from the jaw below a snaking trunk. The pinkish skin of the head was covered in white fuzz.

  “Holy crap.” Kenji blinked his eyes several times. “Is that an ... elephant?”

  Holly screamed again and Evelyn knew she had to do something, fast. She tried not to think about that absurdity of what she was seeing, tried not think about what it meant: that they were definitely not on Earth, since elephants had been extinct for nearly two decades; and that there was life on Janus. She only knew she had to get Holly out of the airlock. She pushed herself up and made a dash for the button to open the door, just as the elephantine creature reached its trunk inside and began coiling it around Holly's body like a gruesome pink anaconda. Holly beat at it desperately with her fists, but it seemed not to notice.

  Evelyn reached the button, and the outer door quickly began sliding down, but the elephant's trunk was stopping it from closing.

  “Holly!” she yelled through the glass. “There's a safety sensor! You have to get that thing out!”

  By now the creature was dragging Holly along the airlock floor, and Evelyn wondered if she cou
ld even hear her above the sound of her own screaming.

  “Holly!”

  Holly's head hit the bottom of the half-closed door hard as the beast tugged her violently outwards and her eyes met Evelyn's for a second before they dropped shut and she went limp. Her blond hair, still damp, dragged across the floor like a mop as she was hauled outside. And then she was gone. The outer door closed and there was a loud hiss as the airlock pressurized, followed by a numbing silence. Evelyn stared in horror at the splash of red on the base of the door. Blood.

  She turned around. Nobody had moved. There were all staring open-mouthed at the door as if unable to believe or comprehend what they had just seen.

  “We have to help her,” Evelyn said. “Give me that.” She held her hand out to Seren, who handed her the protective suit dumbly.

  “You can't go out there, didn't you see that thing?” Kenji said in disbelief.

  “We can't just leave her.” She began pulling the suit on over her tracksuit.

  “I-I'm coming too,” Matthew said, setting his jaw.

  Evelyn was surprised but didn't let it show. “Get a suit then. Hurry!” As Matthew hurried into the room where Seren had found the suit, Evelyn zipped up her own and pulled on the helmet, finding that it slotted into an aluminum collar and locked itself into place. An HUD appeared on the inside of the visor, displaying pressure levels and a few other numbers, the significance of which she had no time to figure out. She stepped into the airlock and turned around to look at the others. They looked afraid.

  She was afraid.

  “See if you can find anything that might help us,” she said.

  Seren nodded.

  “Dammit.” Nelson shook his head. “I don't know what the hell is happening here, but you'll probably need all the help you can get. I'll be right behind you.” He went to get a suit as Matthew joined her in the airlock.

  Matthew was carrying an ax. “We might need this,” he said.

  “That's they only thing you could find for a weapon?”

  “It's all there was.”