Renegade Children

by J. N. Chaney

  “Makes sense,” I replied.

  Alphonse flipped a switch and the device powered on, glowing with a soft orange ring of light around its metallic base. A few seconds later, he had three identical devices set up beside one another, each of them connected by a single line.

  Dressler had part of the Capsule’s panel removed by this point, ready to take the end of the cord from Alphonse. “This might take a few minutes,” she said, sticking her head inside the oversized console. “I suggest you proceed with unpacking the rest of the equipment.”

  * * *

  It took nearly an hour, but we finally managed to get the Capsule back online. Shortly afterward, Sigmond appeared before us in a golden glow, a knowing look in his golden eyes. “I believe I have the coordinates for the power source.”

  “Let’s hear it,” I said, ready to get this party started.

  “I’ll upload the location to your data pad, but I suggest you bring a team to retrieve the core. It is rather large,” explained the Cognitive.

  “Large?” I asked, wondering if I’d missed something since the last time I’d held a Tritium Core in my hands. “How much are we talking?”

  “Unlike Titan, it would seem this facility uses a unique power source known as a Sedicium Core,” said Sigmond.

  “A what?” I asked, having never heard the term. I looked at Dressler to see if she knew the name.

  “Explain,” ordered the doctor, confirming her own ignorance.

  “According to the data I’ve collected, the core uses nitrogen, specifically an isotope known as N-16.”

  Dressler’s eyes widened. “How is that possible?”

  I glanced at Alphonse. “Are you getting this?”

  “Not really,” he admitted.

  Dressler turned to the two of us. “N-16 has an incredibly short half-life. For the Eternals to somehow create a working, sustainable energy source from the isotope is impressive, to say the least.”

  “It is also highly volatile,” added Sigmond. “You must use extreme caution when removing and transferring the core.”

  Dressler nodded, her eyes deep in thought. She was quiet for a few seconds, then motioned at one of the nearby crew members, snapping her fingers. “Six of you with me. Bring the hover cart and straps. I shall have to see to this personally.”

  “I thought you were staying here to fix Gaia?” I asked.

  “She will have to wait, I’m afraid,” said Dressler. “The core is too dangerous to leave in the hands of a less experienced technician. Ms. Braid can see to the Cognitive’s repairs, I’m certain.”

  Karin nodded. “I’ll do what I can until you return.”

  I thumbed my holster. “Don’t think for a second you’re running off without me, Doc.”

  “By all means, Captain. Considering what happened the last time we ventured into the deeper recesses of the Earth, I should welcome the added protection.”

  Four

  It took some time to find the right corridor since half the facility was buried under a pile of shit. If it hadn’t been for the cave-in, we would’ve reached the engine room in thirty minutes. As it stood, our little underground excursion ended up a good portion of the afternoon.

  By the time we arrived, my feet were screaming for a break.

  The door to the engine room was thick and could only be unlocked with an access code. Lucky for us, Sigmond had it ready in just a few seconds.

  “6-0-2-1-9-4-4-1-0,” said Sigmond, pausing long enough between digits for Dressler to punch them into the pad on the wall. “You’ll need to enter another set on the engine’s panel, once you’re inside. Do not attempt to remove the Sedicium Core without doing so.”

  Dressler entered, followed by about half our crew, while I kept my distance in the hall. “I’ll wait here for you. Don’t take too long, Doc.”

  “I’ve no intention of lingering, I assure you,” she answered, going immediately to the far side of the room.

  I let out a short sigh and leaned against the nearby wall, pulling out a piece of hard candy from inside my jacket pocket. I pulled my breathing mask away long enough to plop the candy in, then quickly sealed the mask again.

  Grape this time. Not bad, I thought.

  I crossed my arms and closed my eyes, leaning my head back as I sucked on the candy, contemplating my to-do list. As soon as we had things wrapped up down here, I’d have to check in with Abigail, see how those new power generators in Verdun were going, and maybe grab a bite to eat again if I had a second to spare.” I shook my head. “No, I still had to meet with Lucia and Bolin about taking point on recruitment. Abigail had been in charge of helming The Galactic Dawn to bring in new colonists, but with everything going on with the Eternals, I needed her here. The same went for Octavia since she was one of the only people we had with traditional medical experience. I supposed I could just wait and send them out once things slowed down, but I knew we’d need the manpower eventually, and those Deadland worlds wouldn’t be around forever, what with the Union and the Sarkonians eating up the border systems.

  I let out a long sigh.

  If things didn’t improve around here, I was pretty sure I’d have a stroke by the second year.

  The thought made me snicker. Renegade fights the Union, the Sarkonians, an ancient fleet of drones, and makes his way to a forgotten planet on the other side of the galaxy, all to be done in by a fucking stroke. Wouldn’t that be a fitting end to everything?

  I shrugged off the concern. To hell with it. If things got bad, I’d just put Freddie in charge and then retire to a beach somewhere. Maybe snag myself a new ship and start working again.

  The shuffle of feet pulled my attention, and my eyes snapped open. Dressler walked out of the room with the hover cart behind her, three people pushing it carefully through the opening and into the hall. “Enjoying yourself?” the Doc asked, giving me a quick glare.

  “You’d prefer to have me in the way?” I asked, still with my back against the wall.

  “A fine point,” she remarked. She beamed a half-smile over her shoulder at the cart and the item on its surface. “The core is secure, but I shall have to find the time to analyze it further. I’ve never seen anything like it, not even on Titan.”

  “Why don’t you save some of that infatuation for your boyfriend?” I asked.

  She stiffened at the question. “M-my what?”

  I eased off the wall and bit down on the last of my candy. With a hard crunch, I turned away from her and started down the hall. “Speaking of which, he’s probably getting worried. We’d best get back, don’t you think?”

  * * *

  I was surprised to find Gaia back online when we returned to the atrium, standing beside Sigmond near the Capsule. She glowed with a soft blue aura—a stark contrast to Sigmond’s gold. The two Cognitives seemed to be talking with Alphonse, who was on one knee, examining a generator.

  “Looks like it’s working,” said Alphonse. “Any problems on your end, Sigmond?”

  “None that I can see,” he replied.

  “I see you boys have things under control,” I announced, causing the three of them to turn.

  “Ah, Captain, welcome back,” said Alphonse.

  I walked up to Gaia and gave her a quick once-over. “How you feeling? All your parts in order?” I asked, then looked at Sigmond. “She still acting crazy?”

  “There is no need to worry, Jace Hughes,” said Gaia. “Now that the automated sequence has fulfilled its intended purpose, my system is fully under my control.”

  “Is that true, Siggy?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Quite so, sir. From what I have gleaned, whatever happens next with the planet will be fully automated and outside of Gaia’s responsibilities. For security’s sake, I purged the Capsule of all non-essential protocols related to the terraforming process. Gaia now maintains full control over her program and all of its subsystems.”

  “What about your memory?” I asked, turning back to Gaia. “Any of that return yet?”
>
  “I’m afraid not,” she replied, frowning.

  “Too bad,” muttered Dressler as she approached from behind me, the hover cart resting beside her. “If you’ll excuse me, I should secure our new Sedicium Core before returning to my work at the Alpha site. I’ve left my research team alone for far too long as it is.”

  “Any word from your team about what they’ve found?” I asked.

  “In addition to the DNA samples we uncovered from hundreds of different types of animals, insects, and other fauna, we discovered nearly sixty artificial wombs. I have my team working to disassemble one of them in my absence.”

  I whistled. “Sounds like we’re about to have our hands full,” I told her.

  “That’s one way to put it. The only problem is that I don’t know when the next phase will begin.”

  “What about you, Gaia?” I asked.

  She paused, briefly, probably in an effort to check her own data before responding. “Not that I can find, Jace Hughes.”

  “Figures,” I muttered.

  “Based on what we know so far, I think it’s safe to say it’ll begin soon,” inserted Alphonse. “Otherwise, why expose the domes?”

  “Indeed. We will simply have to observe what follows next,” said Dressler. “In the meantime, I need to secure this device in our storage facility. Good luck to all of you.”

  Right as Dressler began to leave, both Leif and Karin entered from the hallway, talking amongst themselves.

  “There you are,” I commented. “I was beginning to think you’d left.”

  “Not so,” replied Leif. “I asked to leave in order to give your people the space they required to work.”

  “He didn’t want to be in the way,” explained Karin.

  “Yes, and it would seem you have fulfilled your promise of shutting down the gate. Thank you for taking our words of caution so seriously, Captain,” said Leif.

  I fanned a hand. “I just don’t need another space station crashing into this planet. Once was enough.”

  Leif nodded his agreement at the sentiment, then looked at Alphonse, who stood near the Capsule with his back to us, quietly working. “If need be, I can allocate some of our engineers to assist you with this machine,” offered Leif.

  Alphonse raised a hand over his shoulder but didn’t turn around. “Thank you, but there’s no need for that yet.”

  Leif smiled. “Very well. In that case, I’ll take my leave of you both. Thank you again.”

  I watched Leif head off towards the landing platform with Karin beside him. Once he was out of earshot, I stepped closer to Alphonse to see what he was working on. “There a problem with the system?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” he answered, a distracted tone in his voice.

  I decided to give him some space for a minute, walking a few paces to the side and leaning against the wall. He didn’t talk again for five minutes, but when he finally did, he seemed perplexed. “While you were gone, I had Gaia compile a log of everything she recorded during the slip tunnel event and the subsequent crash.”

  “What’s wrong? Did something not add up?” I asked.

  “That’s putting it lightly,” he said, turning to the machine again and pulling up a data log. “We have multiple scans of the tunnel here, and most of them are normal. There is one point of discrepancy that I can’t account for, though, and Gaia doesn’t seem to have a reason for it, either.”

  “A discrepancy?” I asked.

  “The readings for the tunnel are off, but I’m not certain if this is because of the tunnel itself or something else. It will take time to decipher. I’ll continue to monitor it and let you know if I find anything.” He turned to Sigmond. “In the meantime, we need to worry about getting Gaia out of this facility.”

  “Yeah, about that,” I said. “How do you propose we move her?”

  “The only way we can,” said Alphonse. “One piece at a time.”

  Five

  Alphonse’s team spent the rest of the afternoon working with Sigmond to transfer Gaia’s Capsule from the core of the world to the surface. The drones made the process easier, carrying the non-essential parts back to the city. Meanwhile, Alphonse’s ship would house the primary data drives—Gaia’s consciousness, in other words.

  I left him to it, opting to return to Verdun to meet with Abby and Octavia in my office. The two women were already there when I arrived, each of them wearing a tired expression, suggesting they’d had their fill of the med-bay for the day.

  Lex was also there, holding her book as she sat reading on the floor. When she saw me enter, she sprang to her feet and smiled. “Mr. Hughes! You’re finally back!”

  “Sure am, kid,” I said, letting out an exhausted sigh as I closed the door and walked to my desk. “Hope I didn’t keep you three. The ride took longer than I thought.”

  “How did it go?” asked Octavia.

  “Better than I expected,” I admitted. “I thought for sure something would go wrong.”

  “I’m glad to hear it didn’t,” she said.

  I nodded. “What do you got for me?” I asked. “Did we lose any survivors?”

  “Surprisingly, no,” said Abigail. “They’re quite resilient.”

  “Much like someone else we know,” said Octavia, giving Lex a sideways glance. “That being said, we’ve decided to keep several of them overnight. Athena has agreed to stay active on the floor until tomorrow.”

  “Glad to hear it,” I told her. “What about housing? Food? Crops? How are the teams integrating?”

  “Dr. Hitchens assured us that both groups are acclimating well,” said Abigail.

  I felt relief at the sound of that. “That’s good. Anything else?”

  Octavia laughed. “There’s always something else, Captain. That’s the job.”

  “Nothing major, though?” I asked.

  “Not particularly, and whatever comes up can be handled by one of the team leads,” she assured me. “I’m going to my room to wind down for the evening. I suggest the two of you do the same. Take some time to relax, or you’ll work yourselves into an early grave.”

  “Is that your professional medical advice?” I asked, trying to give the verbal equivalent of an eye-roll.

  “If you’d like, I can give you a lecture on cortisol levels and blood pressure. Or you could just shut up and relax,” remarked Octavia. “Why don’t the three of you take a walk? Get some fresh air for a change. I’m sure you could use it after breathing in all that dust.”

  “I wore a filter, but I get your point,” I said.

  She nodded. “I’ll leave you to it, then,” she said, finally heading for the door.

  Once she was gone, I turned to Abigail. “What do you think?”

  “She has a point, and I’ve heard there’s a nice beach nearby.”

  “Yes!” exclaimed Lex, dropping her book as she leaped a few centimeters off the floor. “Please, can we go? Please?”

  Abigail looked at me with a smile that told me I’d be heartless to turn her down.

  “Alright, alright,” I said, grabbing my coat from the nearby rack and tossing it over my shoulders. “I guess a walk by the water wouldn’t kill me.”

  * * *

  The ocean smelled fresh and clean, a stark contrast to the beaches of my youth. In fact, this might have been the clearest and cleanest ocean I’d ever seen. I supposed that’s what you got from a recently terraformed planet.

  Everything was new again.

  Lex ran in the waves, kicking water as the tide marched in. She laughed with the most carefree voice like things had always been this easy.

  Abigail and I sat on my jacket in the sand, and I wrapped my arm around her as the wind blew her hair into my cheek. We said nothing as Lex continued to play, each of us relaxed and taking in the scene. We’d come so far to be here, fighting our way through the fire to simply exist in this single moment.

  And it was nice. The smell of Abby’s hair mixing with the saltwater air. The feel of her head on my ches
t. The sight of our girl living a free life. All of this had been worth the cost.

  The temperature in the air dropped over the next half hour, bringing a cool chill to the beach.

  Abigail leaned up and kissed my neck. “We should do this more often,” she told me. “Don’t you think?”

  “Yeah,” I said, squeezing her shoulder.

  We were both quiet for a while, content with our silence. After some time had passed, Abby finally continued. “Eventually, these waters might have life in them,” she said.

  I grunted but said nothing.

  “Imagine the fish we’ll catch,” she told me. “And the sky, too. I wonder what kinds of birds we’ll see.”

  “You think they’ll all come back?” I asked.

  “If this planet really does start over, then who knows? We might see all sorts of animals.” She sounded excited, more eager than I’d expected.

  I had to admit, I hadn’t given much thought to the types of animals we’d see, once the planet fixed itself. I’d been too busy and distracted. Now that she mentioned it, though, the realization that we really had no idea what this world would become, finally had a chance to settle. Sure, it was safe to assume it would have land, oceans, rivers, and forests. Maybe even a desert or two. But its life was another story.

  “We’ll finally get to see the world of our ancestors,” said Abigail, drawing me out of my head.

  She sounded almost dreamy, the way she talked about it. “Seems to me like you’ve already given this some thought,” I said.

  She was quiet for a moment. “I suppose I have.”

  “Oh?” I asked, genuinely interested. “It’s the first time you’ve mentioned it to me.”

  “That’s because it’s been a while since the last time,” she explained. “Years.”

  I didn’t say anything, giving her time to get there.

  A minute later, she did. “I used to read those old stories. The myths and legends about this place. I wanted them to be real so badly.”

  “What did they say about it?” I asked.