by Ethan Proud
“Did you see the woman?” Rhea inquired, her eye on the prize. No point in getting deeper entrenched in danger.
“No. But that’s the direction she was headed in.”
Rhea exhaled in alarm. “She’s cutting around between the Shrike and the farms.”
“Why would she do that? There’s no entrance there,” Gana argued.
“She’s not trying to get into it. She’s headed for the fuel cells.” Rhea’s eyes were wide as she realized the danger.
“Why would she do that? How would she know?” Gana still wasn’t sold.
“She must have been a Hydra Elder. She’s been here before,” Rhea explained as she tried to formulate a plan.
“So she intends to kill all of us in this crater?” Gana shouted angrily, Rhea’s poor prediction meant they would have to cross the entirety of the Hydra’s insurgent camp.
“Not necessarily. The Shrike sits on the largest aquifer other than The Source. The sand is porous enough that it would suck the hydrazine right down into the ground water. She’s planning to poison us all. You need to make it to the palace and make sure we pump as much water as possible so we don’t die of thirst here. I’ll take care of the coup leader.”
“Careful.” With that Gana left the protection of the hut and heard the pop of Rhea’s rifle as she took out the Hydras close to him. He kicked up plumes of sand with each step, but in no time was approaching the wall. He easily grabbed the top of the barricade and agilely leapt over, hoping that his fellow Shrikers would recognize him as one of their own.
After he had disappeared from sight, Rhea focused on the task at hand. She took a deep breath and hoped the men on the wall would provide enough suppressive fire for her to reach Ellie without being killed.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The airlock hissed and formed a tight seal. Treya groped at the door, yet it refused to budge. She heard a mechanical click and knew it was no accident. Someone had judicially held up their flight. They were trapped in the Shrike.
“What now?” Yuto exhaled, his eyes darting back and forth.
“We have to find another way,” Deirde said as panic climbed up her throat.
Treya nodded solemnly and started back the way they had come, when two figures blocked their exit. Aqi’s willowy frame stood several inches taller than any of the three Hydras, while Mertensia’s shorter frame hovered a few feet back.
“Treya, you scoundrel.” Aqi laughed easily, showing off her pearly incisors. “You had to know this wouldn’t end well for you.”
Like a cat, Yuto’s muscles bunched as he prepared to spring. Aqi took another step closer to him before pulling a handgun level with his forehead. “It won’t end well for you either if you continue to behave in this way.”
“Won’t it end poorly regardless?” Yuto growled from deep in his throat.
“We will need slaves to rebuild the damage you inflicted,” Mertensia said sweetly. It was no inflection, simply how her voice sounded.
“Haven’t we been slaves long enough?” Treya said angrily.
Deirde looked at her with disgust. This woman was choosing to take the high ground now?
“That’s rich, coming from you,” Aqi said flatly. Treya felt her face flush. “Don’t worry though, you won’t be around to witness your peoples’ servitude this time. You knew of our impending rescue, why now? Why this revolt? It makes no sense. Did you want to inflict your revenge on us for misleading the Hydra Colonies? You have been wandering the desert for far longer than the current Family has been in control. We were making things right.”
Treya had no answer this time. Deirde and Yuto felt waves of shock roll through their bodies. The rumor Rumo and Treya had told them, that they initially refused to believe, was true.
“You are so selfish!” Deirde exclaimed, her dark-rimmed eyes flashing dangerously. “You should have killed her, Yuto.”
The old woman’s head hung down in shame. She had let her people down again, and this would be her legacy. She looked up and met Aqi’s gaze. “You are no more innocent than I am.”
Aqi raised an immaculate eyebrow. “Even now, you refuse to take responsibility.”
The thud of many booted-feet sounded in the hallway as the guards made their way to the airlock. “Cuff them. Once we collect the rest of the Hydras, these two can join them. The Elder is to stay in confinement.”
The guards obeyed and Yuto and Deirde cooperated, the memory of being dragged through the halls battered and broken still fresh in their minds. Treya didn’t put up much of a fight, what was a woman of her age really to do?
Just then a body slammed into the airlock door and shouted, “Open the damn door!” It was followed by three percussive knocks.
Mertensia glanced at Aqi for permission before pulling a remote control switch from her pocket. She pressed a button and the doors hissed open.
Gana burst in, beads of sweat framing his face. He didn’t bother to introduce himself, but burst out, “The Hydras are going to poison the spring with hydrazine!”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Aqi screamed. “Alert the engineers over the telecom. We need them to pump as much water as possible.” In a moment’s span she had regained her composure.
“That will cause a panic!” Mertensia countered.
“And panic we should,” Aqi said coolly, then she turned to Treya. “You’ve killed us all.”
“You three,” Mertensia said, indicating to half of the number of guards they had summoned. “Go stop them.”
“Rhea’s on it,” Gana managed to say, winded as he was.
Treya noted the stricken look on Aqi’s face that passed as soon as it came on. Seeing that was almost worth whatever punishment was to come. Then she saw the fire in the woman’s eyes and realized she was wrong.
X
The alarm sirens sounded from the Shrike and Rhea knew Gana had done his job. She had skirted the Hydra camp successfully and could see Ellie fiddling with the fuel lines on the ship. She leveled her rifle to take aim but cursed the effort. She wasn’t a chemist and didn’t know how reactive hydrazine was. She did know that within the tank was a mixture of liquid and gas, constantly shifting between one phase and the other, though the majority of it was liquid. The gas was more combustible and she was not trying to massacre the only Exos on AE625. She lowered her weapon and took off at a dead sprint. She could smell the ammonia scent coming from the tank before she saw the fluid spilling from it. Two more lines were severed, and even more fuel greedily slurped up by the sand. She pumped her arms faster, and her legs heeded the demand but it was all for naught. She couldn’t see what piece of equipment Ellie had disconnected, but gallons dumped out like a deluge. The sand was transformed into mud.
Ellie turned in time to see the butt of the rifle smash into her face. She crumpled to the ground, dead or unconscious, Rhea didn’t care. She frantically looked for any way to salvage what little fuel they had left, and to prevent it from contaminating the groundwater. Ellie had done good work and used a knife. Rhea had neither the tools nor the knowledge of how to repair the tanks and lines. She coughed as her throat began to feel scratchy, her eyes itching as well. She leaned over and gagged as bile rushed her lips. A severe pain wracked her stomach and she knew she had to get out of the toxic substance pooling around her. She grabbed Ellie and hoisted her onto her shoulders, ignoring the blisters forming on the back of her hands. She could only imagine what the exposure was doing to her lungs.
She staggered towards the same airlock Gana had entered through, her lungs burning and her legs moving as if tied together. She teetered back and forth, back and forth, on her way to the door. Her breath felt hot and stung her mouth. She tasted blood. She debated dropping Ellie and carrying on without her, but she wouldn’t give the woman a chance to come to and escape. Three indistinct shapes approached her as she collapsed. Two of them attended to her, while the third grabbed Ellie by her ankles. Rhea’s vision swam as she felt a blast of cool air, she was inside the Shrike
. She felt familiar hands frame her face a moment later.
“Aqi,” Rhea said and smiled, right before she blacked out.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
In the control room, Kilo, Fleet, and Mertensia were gathered with the lead engineers. Aqi was in med bay with the surviving apprentices, tending to Rhea’s wounds. Fleet noted this sourly, but he had bigger fish to fry. There were six lead engineers. The only one he had ever dealt with was Johan, in charge of the aquifer construction and water works. The engineer’s nickname was Drips, referring to the constant shortage in The Wreckage. No matter what, the flow of water ceased in some quadrant of the ship, or at some spigot for the peasants, and only a steady drip continued. As such Johan was not popular with the commoners, despite his irreplaceable nature. Everyone thought they knew how to run the colony, but in truth their ideas were outdated and had been tried and failed. On the other hand, it had been decades since a Shriker died of thirst or fed their aborted fetus to a goni. Fleet smirked, they should try to live with the Hydras for a month and see if they would still carp on about their shining gem of a city.
“What’s the status of the water supply?” Fleet inquired, and Johan’s face darkened.
“According to these charts,” he said, pointing at three monitors, “holding tanks, three, five, and seventeen have lethal amounts of hydrazine contamination at six ppm. Holding tanks one, two, four, and eight are ingestible and have no readable levels of hydrazine. The remaining thirteen tanks are reading four to seven ppm and will be carcinogenic. We didn’t get the pumps shut off until tanks three, five, and seventeen were in the red.”
“How long can the clean tanks support our population?” Kilo asked from beneath a furrowed brow.
“Each tank holds two hundred gallons. None of them are at full capacity, and we have three hundred and thirty gallons of drinkable water. Our last census counted us at seven hundred and sixty-four, with approximately five hundred Shrikers in The Exodus. If that number is stagnant, which is highly unlikely, then we have twelve hundred and sixty-four mouths to feed, er drink. Everyone needs roughly thirty-two ounces per day to survive.” Johan ran the math quickly. “If we supply the Hydras with the water they need… that’s one day. We have one day of clean water.”
Kilo ran a hand over his scalp in irritation. “You’re suggesting we cull the Hydras?”
“It’s not off the table,” Fleet quickly interjected. He knew that even if the Hydras were removed, they would only have two days of water. “What if we send teams out to the Hydra Spring locations?”
“We don’t know how far the aquifer beneath us spreads, they could all be attached. There is a possibility that none of them would be safe in regards to chronic exposure,” a different engineer supplied.
“We can’t just kill the Hydras. We need to save face. The coup leaders, yes. Public execution.” Mertensia began pacing as she mulled her thoughts over. “We can supply the Hydras with the toxic water, distribute the tainted water to the commoners, and stockpile the rest for ourselves, the army and essential personnel.”
“Devious, but wise,” Fleet said and rubbed his thumb and forefinger across his chin. “But that plan doesn’t divert any water for the hydroponics. We will need food, and molla need water. The vegetables we can live without, and our gonis are gone. We will have to eat the dingos and harvest immediately.”
“Are the hydroponics contaminated?” Kilo turned to Johan.
“Our charts don’t indicate anything of the sort.”
“We aren’t staying here. We’ll die if we do, and every second we stay lowers our chances of survival,” Mertensia interjected. “Tomorrow we execute Ellie and Treya, but today we make preparations for the Second Exodus.”
“To where?” Fleet bristled with aggravation.
“The Source.”
Chapter Thirty
The entirety of the population of The Wreckage gathered in front of the palace. A crude scaffolding had been placed between two uprights and a parallel bar that ran across their tops. Two nooses hung limply in the breeze. The crowd was silent, but the palpitation of excitement ran through them like electricity. The Hydras who had managed to escape the onslaught of the Shrikers were sequestered away from the rest of the colony, their hands and feet bound, while guards patrolled them.
The Commanding Family exited the palace doors and stood on a pulpit next to the gallows, while the Hydra Coup leaders were brought forward by Gana and Lago. Neither of the aged women revealed the fear they felt. They stoically met the gazes of the crowd.
Fleet stepped forward and raised a hand to bring attention to himself. “My people, we opened our doors to the Hydras in an act of hospitality and kindness, and they returned the favor with slaughter. We cannot damn an entire population for the actions of their leaders. However, those leaders responsible for the destruction of our beautiful city must be condemned to death. It is without pleasure that I deliver this punishment. Ellie of the Wyrms and Treya of Hydra Seven, you are hereby sentenced to death.”
Gana and Lago helped their respective prisoners onto the chairs while lowering the noose over the Elders’ heads. Both of them had a sour expression on their faces. Killing in war was different, but this felt wrong and disgusting. But it was the bidding of the Commanding Family and they had to obey. Fleet nodded and the two soldiers exchanged glances, hesitating for a moment. Before either of them could kick the supports from beneath the Hydra women, the chairs screeched backwards as the women tilted forward, choosing to end their lives themselves rather than relegating themselves to the will of the Commanding Family. Gana turned his back to the scene and covered his face with a hand while the crowd roared in sickening appreciation.
The faces of the Commanding Family were stony, their thoughts darkened by the prospect of their colony surviving. They had to march across the desert and fight for the resources to survive. The satellite comms systems wouldn’t work if they were pulled from the mainframe of the Shrike. The engineers were working on jury-rigging a rover to provide the necessary connection with Earth 2.0, but it wasn’t looking promising. In only a few months they would need to send scouts back to The Wreckage to wait for the ark that would bring them to salvation. The fate of the subterranean civilization of Greylings could only be genocide.
X
Deirde and Yuto alone did not see the execution. They were locked up in the same cell they had been in only a day before. Little was said between the two of them as they tried to process the events of the past weeks. They had been duped by their Elders, their colony slaughtered, they had lost their gonis, and now a chance for escape from AE625. Everything they thought to be true, was false. With Treya killed, they were the last known survivors of Hydra Seven. It was a depressing sentiment. And now they were enslaved, technically for the second time, but they had been ignorant of their first indentured status. Yuto flexed his knuckles and heard the satisfying pop. He did it two more times before he heard a sharp exhale from Deirde.
“What?” he demanded.
“Rio used to do that, despite my telling him how much it annoyed me. I miss him.” Deirde stared at the ceiling.
“I miss him too. But he’s dead. You know that,” Yuto said, and watched as a single tear rolled down Deirde’s cheek, followed by a steady stream.
She sniffled, but didn’t sob. “You know he wouldn’t give up on us that easy.”
“If he is alive, but we need to focus on our survival now or we’ll never be reunited.” Yuto decided to go with a little bit of optimism.
“We’re about to be enslaved. We need to escape,” Deirde said, and was brought back to the night they made the escape pact in the tent. “I wish we had molla.”
“That would take the edge off,” Yuto mused. Thinking of taking the edge off, he eyed Deirde’s long legs stretched out before her. Her well-toned muscles protested against her garment, showing off more of their shape than Yuto could handle. He shook his head, she loved Rio and he had no right to even think those thoughts.
&n
bsp; “Where do you think Aileen and Deirde got off to?” Deirde asked, meeting his gaze.
“Probably cavorting in some caves, gorging on molla. I doubt they even miss us anymore,” Yuto said with a lighthearted laugh.
The comment stung Deirde a little, she felt like she was missing a part of her soul. “I hope you’re right. The thought of them in any anguish is too painful.” Another tear rolled down her cheek.
Yuto watched as the droplet clung to her jaw before dropping onto the floor. He felt his own eyes begin to water and tried to blink back the grief. Little good it did.
“How’d we get into this mess?” He laughed weakly before he felt his tears. Deirde returned the laugh and reached out her hand, which he took. Together they cried. They cried for hours, until their bodies had nothing left to give and they fell asleep, hand in hand. It wasn’t even midday, but they slept for hours.
X
Across the camp, the other Hydras were not faring as well. They had been corralled into the empty goni pen and meager rations were distributed to them by the guards. They each were given two molla caps and a tomato. The fruit possessed some of the most vibrant flavors they had ever tasted, both tart and sweet, which they had never experienced before and thus could not describe, unless they called it euphoric. At least the Shrike Colonial Military had given them plenty of water. Fifty-five-gallon-drums with the lids removed sat in the enclosure, each one brimming with the liquid. They took turns, greedily slurping from the ladles provided. The water had a metallic tang to it, but nonetheless it was refreshing. All the water in the Hydra Camps was gritty with sand and wore down their molars. This was undeniably clean, the closest thing to distilled water they had ever tasted. Perhaps living in the Original Colony wouldn’t be so bad. Sure, they would have work to do, but none of them were unaccustomed to labor.
Despite the baking sun at their backs a chill crept up the spine of every Hydra who partook of the water, that is to say, all of them. It felt refreshing though. Sweat beaded at their foreheads as the fever began to run and the cold dug deeper into their bones. Their eyes itched, as well as their throats down into their bellies, and they coughed up fluid and crawled along the ground with trembling hands.