When the door opened, Jake moved as quickly as he could toward the mind ship, walking straight across the sealed drop door instead of skirting it, as he would normally have done. When Nia stepped onto the drop door behind him, she gasped. “You just figured it out, didn’t you,” he said into his intercom.
“What?” Ash asked.
“We’re going to dump it,” she replied. “We’re going to dump it in the Rift.”
Jake had reached the mind ship by now. Luckily, it was still on the sled, so it wouldn’t be too hard to move. “Can’t think of a better place to lose something forever,” he replied as he got behind the object and began to push. “And from where the Guard ships are located, there will be nothing they can do about it.”
“Put the bodies inside,” Nia said. Both Jake and Ash looked at her. “The Grange brothers,” she said. “Put them inside the mind ship. We’ll unload three problems at once.”
He reluctantly helped Ash and Nia shove the two men into the seat he had occupied with Jane a short time ago. Then they sealed it up and managed to push the sled right on top of the drop door. Jake circled it as Ash went to the control panel and pointed to the big door hanging above them. “Seal us in now?” he asked.
“Do it,” Nia said.
Ash hit the switch, and the large wall-sized door slid down from its perch on the ceiling and rotated into place, separating the small drop bay from the cargo bay. When it clanked into place, Ash began filling the room with air to match the outside water pressure.
Jake finished surveying the placement of the mind ship, and Nia tapped him on the shoulder. “Tell me it fits,” she said.
Jake held out his hands, showing a spacing of a few centimeters. “It’s going to be close, but we don’t have any choice.” He looked at the object. “It would fit a lot better if we could cut off those damn antennas.”
The pressure was so high that his suit began to creak when he moved. Something popped loudly, and all three of them looked around and at each other. “Have these hardsuits been maintained at all?” Ash asked.
“You’re just asking that now?” Nia asked and then began to laugh in spite of herself. They all three began to laugh.
“Something funny down there?” AJ’s voice asked through Jake’s internal speaker, which killed the moment.
“What’s happening?” Nia asked, all humor gone from her voice.
“I was about to ask you that,” AJ replied. “The Guard’s shuttle is almost here, so whatever it is you’re planning to do, now would be a good time to do it.”
“We need more time,” Nia said. “You have to stall them.”
“How exactly do I do that?” AJ asked.
“Make something up,” Jake interjected. “Just keep that shuttle away from the bottom of this ship for a few more minutes.”
Ash yelled, “We’re at full pressure.”
“Everybody back,” Jake said as he backed up to the wall. There was only a meter-wide walkway on all sides where a person could stand when the drop door was open. “I wish we could have rigged up the lifting cable to hold that thing in place, but no time.” He looked at Ash and Nia. “When the door starts to open, this thing could get off balance. Just stay away from it as best you can. Don’t want anyone getting impaled by those spikes.”
Jake hit the switch to open the drop door and a series of alarms went off. Before he could wonder why, the floor in front of him began to lower, and a geyser shot up and drenched everyone, making it difficult to see what was happening.
“What’s going on?” Ash yelled. “Didn’t I put enough air in the room?”
“We must be descending,” Jake yelled back. “Pressure on the outside is increasing, pushing more water inside.”
“AJ,” Nia yelled, “whatever you’re doing, you must stop it. We need to maintain this depth. AJ, can you hear me?”
The swirling water was up to Jake’s knees now, and the mind ship began to lean to one side. The drop door must be half-open by now, he thought. “We have to abort this!” he yelled. “It’s too dangerous.”
“I’ll close the door,” Ash said.
“Do not abort!” Nia yelled. “We can do this. There’s no other option.”
Suddenly, the whole mind ship flipped onto its side and then dropped into the swirling water, sending out a wave that knocked Jake backward.
“Nia!” Ash screamed.
Jake got to his feet and saw that only Ash was standing next to him. “Where is she?” he asked.
Ash pointed to the middle of the empty room. “She got pulled down with it,” he mumbled. “I think an antenna caught her suit.”
“Nia!” Jake yelled into his microphone. “Nia, can you hear me?”
He heard her voice in his ear as if she was standing next to him, but she wasn’t. She was far below him and falling fast—just like Stacy. “Take care of the crew, Jake,” Nia said in a voice too soft for the tough woman she seemed to be. “You...you have the bridge now.” Then she was gone.
Genesis 08
“Close the door,” Jake said.
Ash just stood there, staring at the swirling water in the middle of the drop bay. “But she’s still out there,” he said.
“She’s not coming back,” Jake said as he went to the controls and increased the internal air pressure to force the seawater back through the opening in the floor. When it was mostly out, he hit the button to close the door. When it was sealed, and the air pressure began to return to normal, the drop bay looked as if nothing had happened there.
Ash walked over to stand beside Jake. When they both removed their helmets, Ash faced him. “I overhead AJ telling Nia that you had something similar happen with the daughter of this ship's former captain.” He looked around the bay, then added, “I've only been with this crew for a few weeks and I didn't really get a chance to know Nia all that well. I can't even imagine how I would feel if a person I really cared about died this way.”
“Stacy didn’t die this way.”
Before Ash could ask him to explain, the overhead speaker crackled. “Is Nia really gone?” Vee asked.
“Yeah, Vee,” Ash said. “I’m afraid she is.”
“Is it done?” another voice asked. This time, it was AJ.
“The object is gone,” Jake said. “Other than a wet drop bay, there is no sign that it was ever on the ship.”
“Good,” AJ said, “because we’re about to have company.”
When they finished removing the hardsuits, they took the lift to C-deck and joined AJ at the main lockout door. “Where is everyone else?” Jake asked.
AJ, who was standing motionless facing the door, answered without moving. “Doing their jobs. Remember what Nia said. We have done nothing wrong here. We are training a new crew, nothing more.”
When Ash took their hardsuits to the dive locker, AJ faced Jake. “Can I ask how you know Captain Steele? She doesn't seem to like you very much.”
“I told you what happened six months ago. What I didn't tell you was that Captain Coal committed suicide shortly after we got back. I thought that was the end of it, but then found out that he left this ship to me in his will. I don't know why he did it. I tried to refuse it, but...”
“You'd have to be crazy―or stupid―to turn down a ship like this,” AJ said, “no matter what the reason.”
Jake shrugged. “I guess.”
“And Steele?”
“She was there. She accused me of forging the will. When it was finally verified, she said she'd be watching me.”
AJ glanced at the door. “Well, I guess she kept her promise.”
Their conversation was halted by the sound of the inner hatch opening inside the lockout room. A few seconds later, the main door slid open, and five Guards stepped out, with weapons raised.
“Whoa,” Jake said as he cautiously raised his arms. “No need for guns here.”
Lieutenant Winnick stepped through from the back and addressed Jake. “Captain Steele said we should expect resistance. Especially
with that stunt you pulled.”
AJ faced him. “I told you, that was an accident. My new navigator accidentally released ballast while he was trying to hold station.” She glanced at Ash. “I assure you that Mr. Fields won’t be getting his Guild card this trip.”
Ash lowered his eyes. “Yes, I’m sorry, Lieutenant. I hope your shuttle wasn’t damaged.”
The lieutenant glared at Ash. “Ships don’t get ‘damaged’ at this depth, Mr. Fields. If the hull is compromised, you simply implode.”
Ash bowed his head. “I’ll remember that, Sir.”
The lieutenant turned to his people. “I want every centimeter of this vessel searched. You know what we are looking for.”
As the five guards spread out, Jake asked the lieutenant, “Do you mind telling me what you’re looking for?”
“It’s classified,” he replied without even looking at Jake. He then walked back to the deck crew quarters door and headed through it, leaving Jake and the others alone.
Jake raised an eyebrow to AJ, who shook her head. “No idea what they’re looking for,” she whispered. “If they were looking for the ‘you-know-what,’ they wouldn’t bother checking anyplace besides the cargo bay.”
“Agreed,” Jake said. “So what else was taken from that dome today?”
“Nothing,” AJ said. When he gave her a questioning glare, she added, “Seriously, we took only what you saw us take.”
“Maybe someone else was there before us,” Ash offered, “or right after. Maybe we really are innocent in all of this.”
“Innocent is not a word I would use here,” Jake whispered back.
“Either way,” AJ said, “nothing points to us, so let’s just play nice, and maybe they will leave us alone.”
The lieutenant came back in. He had a smile on his face that only made sense if his crew had found what they were looking for. He motioned to Jake. “Come with me, Mr. Stone.”
Jake followed him back to find another guard standing just outside his quarters. For a minute, he thought they might have found some sort of contraband in his bunk, maybe left over from the original crew. Then the lieutenant turned to face the door leading to the rec room. “Open this please,” he said.
Jake was confused. “That door just leads to our recreation room,” he said.
“Open it,” Winnick repeated.
Jake shrugged and pressed the open button, but the display flashed that it was in use and locked. “Who was using this?” he said as he entered the unlock code. The door slid open, revealing the small lockout chamber. “I’m afraid all three of us can’t fit in there at the same time,” he said.
The lieutenant grabbed the firearm from his man and motioned for Jake to lead the way. They both stepped in, and Jake closed the outer door. “Takes a few seconds to clear the air,” Jake said as they stood there. “If any of the utility fog particles made it out of this room, they would—”
“I know how recreation rooms operate,” the lieutenant said.
When the inner door opened, Jake nearly fainted when he saw his Jungle program up and running. Stacy was standing there, still staring up at the waterfall. The lieutenant walked over and poked her arm with his gun. He then moved to face her.
“She's quite beautiful,” he said. Then, without warning, he rammed the butt of his gun into her stomach. Jake almost came unglued, even though he knew that she wasn’t real. Winnick then aimed his gun at Jake. “A clever place to hide someone,” he said.
“What?”
“Believe me, Mr. Stone, you're not the first person to think of it.”
“Hide someone? You mean you're looking for a person?”
The lieutenant raised his gun and pointed it at Jake's face. “Turn off the program now, Mr. Stone.”
“Who are you looking for?” Jake asked.
“I said, turn it off, or I’ll simply start firing around this room.”
“You do realize that firing a weapon inside a recreation room is not a good idea,” he said. The default settings of the utility fog would prevent the gun from firing, of course. If he had the programming skill, he could even instruct the room to rip the gun right out of his hands, or even lift him in the air and hold them there immobilized. The power of utility fog was impressive when wielded by a skilled programmer. Which, of course, he wasn’t, so he gave in and yelled, “Program off.”
As before, Stacy and the jungle scenery broke into a billion particles and after swarming around the room in a little dance, poured themselves back into the corner receptacles. When it was over, Jake and the lieutenant stood together in an empty white room.
After a few moments of utter silence, AJ appeared in the doorway and addressed the lieutenant. “Captain Steele said if you haven’t found what you’re looking for by now, she wants you back on the Scimitar immediately.” She then looked at Jake. “Apparently, there is a Guild convoy heading this way, and she’d like to be underway before they arrive.”
Winnick looked incredibly irritated, if not a bit embarrassed. Jake was careful not to say, “I told you so,” because the lieutenant still had the upper hand, and his men were armed, so he just said, “I hope you find what you’re looking for,” as the lieutenant was heading for the exit.
Winnick turned and walked back to stand toe to toe with Jake, anger still showing on his pale and slightly sweaty face. “Understand that while I can’t technically arrest you for something I can’t find, I can make your life very difficult. When you return to Capitol City, you can count on a full inspection, and I assure you that my men will find violations—everywhere.” His emphasis on the word everywhere made Jake realize he had just made an enemy for life.
“Get in line,” he mumbled to himself as AJ escorted the man to the door.
Genesis 09
When the door closed behind him, Jake confronted AJ. “Guild convoy heading this way? Some of your friends, perhaps?”
“No. Just a communications decoy. The Guild has a number of them scattered throughout the colony for situations like this.”
“That's clever.”
She tried to smile, but the crease on her forehead told him she was still dealing with Nia's death, at least internally.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said. “Actually…No.” She looked at him as though she wanted to say more, but then turned and left abruptly.
When she was gone, Jake stood in the empty rec room for several minutes. It had been a traumatic last twenty-four hours; the woman who had rented his ship was dead, the cargo they were carrying was gone, and on top of that, the lieutenant’s final words had made it clear he that would find only trouble when he returned to Capitol City—trouble he really couldn’t afford. He looked at the exit door and realized that he wasn’t ready to rejoin the real world on the outside.
“Attention, everyone,” Vee’s voice said from the room speakers a few moments later. “They’re off the ship, and we’ve been cleared to leave. Since I don’t know where we are going next, I suggest that we all meet in the galley to discuss our options.”
Jake was heading for the exit when he heard a female voice say, “Program off.” This voice didn’t come from the speakers, but somewhere behind him, inside the room. He spun around in time to see the far wall dissolve into a swarm of particles, revealing Jane Doe standing flat against the back wall.
“What did you do?” he asked, but it was obvious; the girl had somehow found a way to run a program within another program, allowing her to build a fake wall to hide behind when his program ended. It was brilliant. Then something dawned on him. “Are you the one they were looking for?”
She stood up, then walked over and stood close to him. “Why do you carry such responsibility?” she asked.
“I have a ship to maintain,” he said. “I also have bills to pay and not enough credits to pay them all.”
She shook her head. “Responsibility is not the correct word. I mean liability.”
“Liability?” he asked.
/> She shook her head again, and then her face lit up. “Guilt. Guilt is the word.”
He raised his hands in protest. “Listen, I feel really bad for what happened to Nia, but I don’t feel guilty. It was an accident.”
“Not for Nia,” she said. Utility fog suddenly began to pour out of the storage units. No one had initiated a program, but the fog was quickly building a simulation all around him. When it solidified, there was Stacy again, looking up at the waterfall. Jane pointed to her. “Your guilt is for her.”
“I don’t need this,” he yelled and turned to leave, but the exit door was nowhere to be seen. He waved his arms, trying to feel the back wall, but the simulation was keeping him from locating it. He turned to Jane. “I don’t know how you are able to override the rec room controls, but you need to turn this off right now.”
“Why do you carry such guilt?” she asked again.
“Look,” he said, “I’m trying to be nice here, because I don’t know your past, but you need to listen to me.” He took hold of her arms. “Turn this simulation off and show me the exit.”
“Look into her eyes, and your nightmare will end,” she said, and he let go of her. How did she know that? He had always felt that if he could look Stacy in the eyes, his memories of that night would return. That was why he had built this simulation. However, did he really want that? Would reliving that moment in his waking state be any better than reliving a small part of it every night?
He wanted to yell at her, but she looked so much like Stacy that he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “I don’t care about nightmares,” he said. “I just want this simulation to end.” Jane pointed to Stacy.
“Drown you!” he cursed as he began grabbing at the bushes behind him, fighting desperately to locate the exit door, even though he knew the utility fog was capable of disguising the door perfectly. He finally stopped, realizing that she had trapped him in there. He had no choice but to pretend to do what she asked. Once he was out, he would make sure she was locked up somewhere where she could do no more harm.
Novum Chronicles: A Dystopian Undersea Saga Page 7