“Do your thing, Jessie,” AJ said.
Jessie slid her hands over her console in a complicated pattern he couldn’t match if he tried. Then she glanced up and dropped her earphones to her neck. “Coordinates transmitted. The salvager should be heading due south.”
Jake looked back out the window in time to see the salvager turn and race towards the invisible border directly ahead of them. As they stood there with their eyes glued to the darkness, Raines came up to stand beside Jake.
“How long do you think?” the engineer asked.
“Ash?”
The navigator glanced down at his console. “It’s right there,” he said. “Should be crossing—”
A flash lit up the bridge, nearly blinding everyone.
“Get ready for the shockWave,” Jessie yelled as she grabbed hold of her dashboard.
Jake held onto her chair just as the bow rose slightly, and then the bridge shook so violently it sounded as if it were going to rip itself apart.
Jessie leaned in close to his ear and said, “Don’t worry, Captain. It’s loudest on the bridge because the hull is exposed to the water here. Sound passes right through.” Apparently, his face had given him away.
He was relieved when it passed, even though the floor continued to vibrate under his feet for another couple of seconds.
“Well, that was fun,” Ash said.
“Any damage,” Jake asked.
Raines was already back at his engineering console. “Just a lot of sensors trying to deal with something they had never experienced before,” he said. “They’re a little upset, but I think I can calm them down.”
“He means that he’s going to recalibrate them,” Jane said from the stairwell. Jake had been so busy that he had forgotten to even wonder where she was. A captain should always know where his crew is, Coal used to say, but he wasn’t sure if that was even possible.
“What’s going on?” Wood yelled as he ascended the stairs behind her.
“You’re not allowed on the bridge, Doctor,” AJ said, moving towards him as if she were going to push him back down the stairwell.
“It’s okay, AJ,” Jake said, extending his arm to stop her.
“No, it’s not okay,” she said as she ducked below his arm and grabbed hold of Wood.
“Take your hands off me, young woman,” he bellowed. “You have no idea—” AJ didn’t even reply; she just marched him down the stairs.
Jake looked at Raines. “I guess we’d better get down there before she does something rash,” he said.
“Agreed,” the engineer said as he headed aft.
“Rash?” Vee giggled. “You mean more rash than shoving a Councilmember’s son down a flight of stairs?”
“It’s not funny,” Ash whispered.
“Yes, it most certainly is funny,” Vee said.
Jake reached the bottom of the stairs just as Raines stepped between AJ and Dr. Wood. “Let me pour you a coffee, Doctor,” he said.
“Captain, I want that woman arrested,” Wood fumed.
“You don’t give orders on this ship,” AJ fired back.
“Everyone just calm down,” Jake said, standing between the two. He then looked directly at AJ and added, “And that’s an order.”
Wood was the first to sit. AJ waited a moment, probably for effect, and then sat on the opposite side of the table.
“Can you tell me why you sent that salvager across the border?” Wood asked Jake, ignoring AJ altogether. “What possible reason can you have for intentionally destroying a one-of-a-kind piece of machinery like that?”
Jake glanced at AJ before responding. “We wanted to test...something.”
“You wanted to determine whether or not the transmitter you found inside the salvager worked,” Wood said.
“How do you know about that?” AJ asked as she rose to her feet.
“Because I think he’s the one who put it there,” Raines said from the stairs.
Jake looked at Raines, and then back at Wood. “Is he right?”
Wood narrowed his eyes. “I certainly didn’t do the dirty work of placing the device inside, but yes, I was involved in its creation.” He looked past Jake at Raines. “How did you know?”
Raines smiled. “I didn’t, actually.” He started towards the coffee pot in the galley but then stopped and added, “I believe it’s called a ‘bluff,’ and I have to admit that I’m surprised that you fell for it.”
“I have nothing to hide,” he said. “Nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Nothing?” AJ yelled, lunging towards him. Before Jake could react, she grabbed his arms and physically lifted him out of the chair. “You were a part of this deception, part of the lie that allowed so many of my people to die, and you say you have nothing to be ashamed of?”
Wood kept an impassive face as he said, “I stand by my statement.”
AJ dropped him back down to his chair, pulled out her gun, and shoved it in his cheek. “And I stand by mine,” she hissed as she cocked the gun’s hammer back.
Jake took a step back. “Don’t do it, AJ!”
She tightened her grip on the handle. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t.”
Jake tried to come up with something but couldn’t. Wood’s crime was beyond anything he could imagine, and he probably deserved to die for it. Nevertheless, did they have the right to execute the man? He glanced at the wall behind Wood. It had a recessed shelf that held the crew’s coffee cups. “The bullet might ricochet off his skull and break my favorite mug,” he said.
AJ glanced back at him and rolled her eyes. “Was that supposed to be funny? You’re trying to diffuse a tense situation with bad jokes?”
Jake smiled. “Yeah, well, I couldn’t think of any good jokes, so I had to improvise.”
She released the hammer and slid the gun back into her pants. “Don’t give up your day job, Jake.” She then turned and walked past Raines to the galley.
“Thank you, Captain,” Wood said as he tried to straighten his shirt.
Jake sat down in the chair right next to him. “Don’t thank me,” he said. “Just tell me why the Council has been lying to its people for so long. Why the sludge aren’t we allowed to cross our own border?”
Wood sat back and sighed. “You expect me to just sit here and tell you the biggest secret there is?”
“I do,” Jake replied. “Otherwise, I’ll walk out of here and let my first mate ask you.”
Wood tried to smile but failed. “Haven’t you heard, Captain? Dead men tell no tales.”
Jake kept a straight face when he leaned forward and whispered, “There are many places she could shoot you that wouldn’t kill you right away.” He glanced down at Wood’s abdomen and added, “I guarantee you will beg her to kill you before it’s over.”
Wood swallowed hard but tried to hide his obvious fear. “Very well, Captain. I don’t suppose I can be blamed for talking under threat of torture.”
Jake sat back. “Now we understand each other.” He then turned to his first mate. “Call a crew meeting, AJ. I want everyone to hear this.”
After everyone arrived and seated themselves around the table, Wood cleared his throat and addressed Jake. “Are you recording this, Captain?”
Jake shook his head. “Should I be?”
“For obvious reasons, I would rather you didn’t,” Wood replied, “but just in case you are, I would like to state that I am speaking out of duress, for fear of my life.”
“So noted,” AJ said. “Now get on with it.”
Wood stared at the raised light panel in the center of the table for a moment and then began. “Do you recall what I told you earlier, about the true nature and location of the event we call the Fall of Man?”
“You told us it happened in Civica,” Jake said, glancing over at Raines. “Not in Earth Colony.”
“And you said it was a war started by the Betas,” Vee added, “rather than some sort of natural disaster.”
“All true statements,” Wood said, �
��but that’s not the entire story.”
“What do you mean?” Jake asked.
“I realize that most of you do not believe this version of history,” Wood began, “but assume for a moment that the story I told you was the truth, that our ancestors built their utopian society right here in Civica, and it was nearly wiped out by a race of artificial humans that they created.” He looked at the faces surrounding him. “Can any of you tell me what happened to the Betas after that war?”
“We assume they left Civica,” Raines said.
“That’s correct,” Wood said. “They left.” He let the words float over the table.
“And went where?” Jessie asked.
Wood walked over to the back wall display and turned it on. A view of the ocean beyond the border appeared, and Wood pointed to it. “Somewhere out there.”
“So,” AJ said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “You’re trying to convince us that you armed the borders of our colony to protect us from the evil hordes of Betas that might lie out there, waiting to attack us again?”
Wood walked calmly back to his chair and sat down. “Yes, that is one of its purposes.”
“That’s sludge, and you know it,” she replied. “I see no problem in arming our borders to protect us from outside threats, in fact I would vote for it, but that doesn’t give you the right to kill people who venture too close to that border. You have murdered the very people you say you want to protect.”
Now Wood shook his head. “You people seem to be missing the point. I said that keeping things out was one of the border’s purposes. The other is obviously to keep us inside.” He looked at Raines. “Surely you understand the reason for this, Dr. Raines? Why it’s vital that we do not allow anyone to leave our colony?”
Raines shook his head. “I’m afraid that I don’t.”
Wood faced him squarely. “You know that our systems are falling apart, our infrastructure is crumbling, and our technology is, unfortunately, a mere shadow of what it apparently was in the Pre-Fall world. So tell me, why haven’t the pureblood Betas come back to finish the job?”
“There could be many reasons,” AJ said.
Wood faced her. “Tell me, First Mate, why are the cities of our colony so spread out. Why aren’t they situated next to each other? It certainly would make it easier to transport people and supplies, wouldn’t it?”
AJ looked as though she were about to answer when Ash spoke up. “That’s an easy one. Every dome is separated from the others by at least twenty kilometers on all sides, just in case their primary reactor goes critical. Not that it has ever happened. There are plenty of backups and safeguards.”
“That’s not my point,” Wood said, looking a little more frustrated. “My point is that the cities were moved to their current positions.”
“So?” AJ said.
“If the cities can be moved, what if they were all moved in the past? What if the colony itself was once somewhere else, far away?”
Raines’s face suddenly lit up. “The pureblood Betas haven’t found us because they don’t know where we are.”
Wood sat back and smiled, like a proud teacher whose idiot class had finally understood his simple lesson.
Jake decided to jump back into the conversation. “So, if I understand you correctly, our Council has locked us inside the borders of our colony, unknowingly and against our will, just to keep us from venturing outside and accidentally alerting the evil Betas of our location?”
Wood nodded. “That is a somewhat simplified explanation, but it is essentially correct.”
“But we have the border defenses,” Vee protested. “Why worry about an attack when we are protected on all sides?”
Raines answered. “Because, as Dr. Wood said, our technology is children’s toys compared to what our ancestors once possessed. If the original Betas had access to that same technology, and were able to preserve any portion of it over the centuries, then they would likely be able to overcome anything we could throw at them.”
“If you pardon my crudeness, it would be a bloodbath,” Wood said then looked directly at AJ. “You said the Council was responsible for the murder of dozens of people, and perhaps that is so. However, can you see now that they are also responsible for the salvation of the rest of our colony? Perhaps all that is left of the human race?”
“Killing one person to save a thousand might be acceptable losses in a war,” AJ said, “but those people weren’t killed in a war. They died because the Council didn’t trust us enough to tell us the truth.”
Wood appeared frustrated again and turned to Raines for help. “If we opened the borders, and one single fool took his ship out too far, just to see what’s out there, we could all die because of his stupidity. Surely you understand the reasons for keeping this a secret, don’t you?”
Raines had a look on his face Jake had never seen before. Then he stood up and walked over to Wood. “You killed them!” he yelled and shoved Wood backwards. He flipped head-over-heels onto the floor.
“Grandpa!” Vee yelled.
Everyone jumped up, but AJ got there first and stepped between Raines and Wood. It looked as though the engineer were ready to kill him.
“I had nothing to do with closing the borders,” Wood said.
“I’m not talking about those killed by the border defenses,” Raines said, still fuming but not trying to get past AJ either.
“Then what?”
“I’m talking about the Compass Expedition, fifteen years ago.”
Compass Expedition. Those two words just about knocked Jake over. His parents died when the four ships sent to explore the ocean beyond the border failed to return. It hadn’t dawned on him that the Council might have had something to do with their disappearance.
“I was a young man back then,” Wood said.
“You were older than Jake is now,” Raines said.
“But, I had nothing to do with that mission,” Wood said. His former arrogance was gone, and he was almost pleading.
“But you know what happened,” Jake said, stepping up to stand beside Raines. The doctor didn’t seem as impressive lying on the floor. “My parents were on the westbound ship.”
Wood stared at Jake, and a look of recognition came over his face. “Stone,” he said. “I should have made the connection before. I believe I met your parents just before they left.” Then he looked back at Raines. “But if you really want information about the Compass Expedition, you should ask its leader.”
Jake looked up at Raines, whose face had lost its former rage and now looked sad. “I should have told you earlier, Jake.” Then some of the anger returned, and he looked back down at Wood. “I sent them out, but your father and the other Councilmembers are the ones who killed them.”
“You can’t know that,” Vee said, coming up beside her grandfather.
“He just about admitted it,” Raines said, pointing to Wood. “He said they couldn’t allow anyone to leave Civica. Back then, the Council wasn’t as powerful as it is now. The scientific community had some backing, and ultimately the voice of the people won.” He looked down at the man on the floor. “They couldn’t stop us from leaving, but they could stop us from making contact with anyone.”
“They rigged the ships?” Jessie asked.
“Most likely,” AJ said, as she walked up to join the others surrounding Wood. “It wouldn’t be hard to plant a time-delayed explosive on the hull. Just a small one, so the ship would implode and not send out a shockWave that we might detect back here.”
“You people are mad,” Wood said, trying to appear defiant, but failing.
Jake had heard enough. “I want him off my boat,” he said. “Right now.”
“We’re a long way from any outpost,” Ash said.
“Exactly,” Jake said.
“You can’t condemn me for my father’s actions,” Wood said.
“Watch us,” AJ said as she grabbed one of his arms and pulled him up.
Ash grabbed his o
ther arm, and together they walked him towards the stairs. “Speaking of implosions,” he said, “you’re going to experience one up close.”
“You can’t do this,” Wood pleaded. “You can’t just kill me in cold blood.”
“Watch us,” AJ repeated.
As they headed down the stairs to the lockout chamber, Wood yelled, “Your parents might still be alive, Captain!”
Exile 07
It took a few seconds for the words to sink in. “Wait!” he yelled. “Bring him back up here.”
When AJ reached the top of the stairs, she shoved Wood into a chair then looked at Jake. “You do know he’s bluffing, don’t you?”
Jake ignored her. “Start talking,” he said to Wood. “You’ve got about a minute to convince me you’re worth keeping alive.”
Wood seemed to regain some of his composure. Maybe he saw through their act; maybe he didn’t. Either way, he finally seemed ready to tell them the truth. “I remember overhearing my father talking with another Councilmember about some sort of device that they were installing in each of the ships, but I assure you that I had no part in that action.”
“But you didn’t tell anyone, so that makes you culpable.” Raines said.
“I was a junior researcher, and I admit that I wanted to impress my father and work my way up in the Ministry of Science.” He looked at AJ. “You don’t get very far in any organization by questioning the decisions of your superiors, do you?”
“So what makes you think my parents might still be alive?” Jake asked. “Even if they discovered the device and managed to disarm it, they’ve been gone fifteen years. They certainly didn’t have enough life support to last that long.”
“It actually has to do with the map you had up there earlier, the one showing the salvager’s navigational tracks.”
“You were asleep in your quarters when I showed that,” Raines said.
Wood shrugged. “It’s not that hard to replace a live camera feed with a loop,” he said. “I was actually listening to your conversation from the bottom of the staircase.”
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