She looked at him. “You think I can’t handle her by myself.”
He shook his head. “On the contrary. I want Ash there to keep you from over-handling her. I know she tried to kill us—”
“Multiple times,” she interrupted.
“—but, we’ve got bigger problems now, I think you’ll agree.”
She nodded as she headed towards the stairwell. “I’ll bring her up unharmed. Mostly, anyway.”
Ash jumped up to follow her. “This I want to see.”
Jake turned back to the forward viewport. “I’m guessing that they wouldn’t appreciate us actively scanning their ship, but is there anything we can glean passively, Jessie?”
“Sorry, Captain,” Jessie said, “but I’ve been pinging their ship ever since our power came back on. Nothing powerful enough to be taken as a threat, and they haven’t complained yet.”
Jake nodded. “Anything you can tell me?”
She shook her head. “Nothing much. The hull absorbs most of the signal so that in and of itself tells us it’s not one of ours. However, there are some strange marks on the surface.”
“Strange? How so?”
“Circular scrapes, like you might expect if their ship was just a child’s ball that someone rolled across a rough surface.”
“That doesn’t make any sense for a water craft,” Vee said.
“What if they actually did come from above the surface?” Jessie asked.
“Maybe you can ask them,” Jake said as he turned back to the viewport. “I think we’re about to go inside.”
Ahead of them, a circular door spiraled open and the Wave altered course towards it. It passed through the door into a darkened chamber, and Jake looked back through the rear viewport to see the door close quickly behind them.
“They have us now,” Vee said, then looked at Jane. “Can you help us?”
Jane looked at Vee and shook her head. “I honestly don’t know. They call me their Emissary, and they claim that I’m one of them, but I have no memory of them.”
“But you seem to remember some things,” Vee said.
“Only random bits and pieces,” she replied, then went over and placed her hand on Vee’s shoulder. “To be honest, I’m just a scared as you are.”
The bridge shuttered as they bumped up against the floor of the lockout they were in. Then the water level outside the viewports began to drop.
“We’re docked,” Vee confirmed. “I read a standard atmosphere filling the chamber, and pretty quickly. We should be dry in two minutes.”
“Permission to come on board?” a woman’s voice said from the stairwell. Jake turned to see Captain Steele standing beside AJ. She looked thinner and somehow much older than the last time he spoke with her.
“Permission granted,” he said.
She stepped up to the chart table and surveyed the bridge. “I always did have a soft place in my heart for these old, Proteus-class ships.”
“Is that why you fought so hard against me inheriting this one?” Jake asked with a scowl. “You wanted it for yourself?”
She seemed to think about that for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. “I’ll admit that it’s a possibility. To be honest, those days seem like another life. I was another person back then. I feel like I’ve been at war for as long as I can remember.”
Jake looked out the viewport and saw lights coming on inside the chamber. Time was growing short, and he still had no knowledge of what was about to happen. He looked back at Steele, and then abruptly walked over and extended his hand. “Listen, Captain. Right now, we are trapped inside a vessel that is far more advanced than anything either of us has ever seen, about to meet the enemy of humanity for the first time since the Fall of Man.”
“I think you need to bring me up to speed, Captain,” Steele said. “Are you telling me those are Betas out there?”
He nodded and then gave her a quick overview of what they knew. “I think if there is any chance of surviving this,” he concluded, “then we need to start working—”
“Together,” she interrupted, shaking his hand. “I’m with you on this.”
“Sorry for interrupting,” Vee said, “but something’s wrong. They stopped pumping air into the chamber, but it’s less than half an atmosphere out there. We can’t breathe that.”
Ash added, “Oxygen level is really high though; nearly twenty percent.”
Jake looked at Raines, who said, “Half the air pressure, but double the oxygen content? That’s very odd, but I think we can handle it for a short duration. I certainly wouldn’t suggest doing any sprints.”
“Or hand-to-hand combat,” AJ added. “Maybe that’s their idea. As with those lights, they’re trying to maintain the upper hand.”
Steele nodded. “This means they’re nervous about us as well. It’s been a hundred years or more since our two sides have met; maybe that lack of knowledge about us can work to our benefit.”
“You’re suggesting we bluff our way through this?” Jake asked. “I’m guessing you’re a pretty good poker player, aren’t you.”
She nodded. “And if this turns out to be a poker game, then we’ll have to use our bluffs wisely. We might be gambling on our very survival here.”
“They want us to come out now,” Jessie said, removing her earphones.
Jake looked at Jane and made a sweeping motion towards the stairs. “This is your show, Jane. I’ll be right behind you.”
Apocalypse 09
Jake followed Jane down to C-deck and then headed forward to the cargo bay. When the rest of his crew had assembled, he held his breath and pressed the button to open the main loading door. When the button flashed red and sounded an alarm, he remembered the pressure differential outside. He looked back at Raines, “You’re sure we’ll be able to breathe, right?”
Raines nodded. “I’m not a doctor, but I’ve been handling ship life support for longer than anyone here’s been alive. I think we’ll be fine, as long as no one exerts themselves.”
Jake bled air from the cargo bay while simultaneously boosting the oxygen content, until it exactly matched the outside pressure, then hit the open button again. This time it flashed green and the door began to fall away from them.
When the door reached the floor of the chamber, becoming a ramp for them to walk down, Jake and the others slowly stepped out. The Beta docking chamber was a cylinder, just wide enough to accommodate the Wave, but twice as long. The room was obviously designed to receive vessels of a different shape, perhaps something spherical. Other than the eight of them, the room was empty.
“Should we say something?” Vee asked.
“Maybe we should raise our hands,” Jessie suggested.
“Why?” Vee asked.
“To show we are unarmed. To show that we mean them no harm.”
Raines whispered, “I think we need to be more concerned about what harm they mean for us.”
After another minute of nothing happening, everyone raised their hands in unison. As they did so, a circular door appeared on the far wall and began to spiral open.
“See?” Jessie whispered.
“Shh!” AJ said. “No one talks except the captain.” She glanced at Steele. “By that I mean, Captain Stone.”
A man stepped through the door and moved quickly towards them. As he approached, Jake noticed that he looked completely human, quite old but well cared for. He stopped when he reached a small platform that rose up from the floor and motioned for Jane to join him.
“Wait here and don’t say a word,” she whispered, then walked up to stand next to the man. He put his hands on both sides of her head and closed his eyes.
“What are they doing?” Vee whispered.
“No talking!” AJ hissed.
The man finally lowered his hands and opened his eyes. Jane moved to stand beside him, facing Jake and the others. “Do you understand my words?” he asked. Jake nodded. “My Emissary is unable to give me a complete picture of her experiences with you.
I believe her birthing sphere was damaged from the long exposure to seawater.”
Jake nodded again and then looked at Jane. Is that why you had no memory of these people? He turned his attention back to the man. “Will she be okay?”
“You have no idea what a treat this is,” he said, apparently ignoring Jake’s question. “We have searched for more years than you can possibly comprehend to find you. Out of a hundred birthing spheres sent across the oceans, only hers found signs of life.”
Jake took a step towards the man and reached out his hand. “My name is Jake Stone and I’m the captain of this ship.”
The man looked at his hand. “I must say that I’m delighted that you remember the protocol, Jake Stone.” He extended a small circular pad and tapped Jake’s palm with it. It gave him a small electric shock.
“Hey, what was that?”
The man stared at the pad for a moment before answering. “Excellent! Your genetic makeup is quite robust, Jake Stone. It appears that you and your kind have adapted well to a life under the ocean.”
“Thanks, I guess. But what do you mean by under the ocean? We live in the ocean, not under it.”
“Merely a difference in perspective,” he replied, “To be honest, I am surprised there isn’t a greater mixing of the Alpha and Beta markers in your blood after such a long period of isolation. Would you say that you represent the median of your population’s gene pool? Is everyone in this colony nearly pure Beta?”
Jake shook his head, embarrassed that he was being identified as a Beta in front of everyone. “I...I don’t know how to answer that.”
“I do,” Steele said from behind him. “This man does not represent all of us.” Jake turned to see her scowling at him. “I assumed you were a Beta sympathizer, but I had no idea you were a Beta yourself. That explains a lot.”
“Is that so?” the man asked, extending the pad to Steele. “May I sample you next?”
Steele took a step backward. “No, you may not.”
The man leaned towards her. “I insist.”
Jake was expecting a fight, at least in words, but then Captain Steele nodded and walked calmly up to the man, extending her open hand.
“Thank you,” he said as he tapped her palm and read the results. “I see what you mean now. This is more what I expected; a good, solid, working-class genome, with our Alpha markers still in place.”
“Alpha markers?” Jake asked.
“Your distant ancestors were all given genetic markers so that we could easily identify them. After all, both Alphas and Betas are nearly identical to true humans in appearance.”
“Wait a minute,” Jake said. “Are you saying you’re neither Alpha nor Beta?”
“We call ourselves, ‘Ascendants,’ and you could say that we are the last children of humanity.”
“We Alphas are the children of humanity,” Steele yelled, frustration growing in her otherwise stoic voice. “We created the Betas to work for us and after they caused the Fall of Man, we have dedicated our lives to weeding them out of our population.”
The man’s eyes lit up. “That is a truly imaginative story, I must say. However, while one part of it has some basis in truth, your knowledge of your own history is surprisingly deficient.”
“What do you mean?” Jake asked.
“History used to be one of my favorite subjects, but I get the chance to discuss it so seldom these days. The truth is Alphas were our first attempt at creating a working-class population. They were, for the most part, dedicated, robust laborers who did what they were told with minimal instruction. However, since supervising them was a tedious task, we eventually created a second batch of workers with higher cognitive abilities to manage them. These were the Betas.”
“You’re trying to tell us that both Alphas and Betas are manufactured?” Jake asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“I’m not trying to tell you anything,” the man said. “I’m simply informing you of the facts of your lives. It’s important that you understand your place in our world. You were created specifically to work for us.”
Steele pointed to Jane. “If your so-called Emissary came out of the sphere we discovered, then she is a pure-blooded Beta. We found her cells inside and they prove it.”
“You are quite confused,” the man said, “but that is to be expected considering your Alpha ancestry. We gave our Emissaries both Alpha and Beta markers so that they could blend in with any population they encountered. You found pure Beta cells in her sphere simply because the one who awakened her was a Beta. If an Alpha had awakened her, she would have appeared as an Alpha.”
“So she can actually change her blood?” Jake asked, looking at Jane in a new light.
“We were not manufactured,” Steele yelled. “Whatever you want to call us, we are humans. I am a human.”
The man sighed. “In addition to the markers we added, Alphas and Betas are best identified by their ability to reproduce without technology, much like animals. We gave them that capability in order to ensure a more genetically diverse population. The reality is; if you have parents, then you’re not truly human.” That shut Steele up.
“You said there was some truth in our version of history,” Raines said.
“Yes,” the man said, “Your belief that the Betas caused our apocalypse is quite correct.”
“Apocalypse?” Raines asked.
“A very old term for the destruction of the world. What you poetically call the Fall of Man.” He turned to look directly at Jake. “We put so much faith in the Betas,” he said, a sadness growing in his voice. “We trusted you. We gave you so much, and you repaid us by destroying our world.”
“How exactly did they do that?” Steele asked, as new sense of purpose showing on her face.
Jake raised his hand, “I think it’s more important that you tell us why you’re here.”
The man smiled and said, “You are correct, Jake Stone. That is a far more pressing subject, and there will be plenty of time to re-educate you all later. I am here because I need your help. What’s left of my people live deep under the Earth. Like you, a small number of us survived the never-ending winter by relying on heat from a small number of fusion reactor to warm us and grow our food. Unfortunately, these reactors are now failing. Our city will eventually die without your help.”
“What do you mean your city is under the Earth?” Raines asked. “Are you saying that you come from Earth Colony?”
The man looked over at Jane. “Is that what they believe?” Jane nodded. He looked back at Jake. “Your people were once the builders of our world. How far you’ve fallen.”
“I’m sorry we disappoint you,” Jake said, growing tired of the man’s constant insults.
“Oh, I’m not disappointed,” he said, “just surprised at how little knowledge your people have retained.”
“So explain it to us,” Jake said.
“Earth is not a colony,” he said, “Earth is the name of the world on which you stand.”
Jake looked back at AJ, and then at Raines, and saw that they too, had no idea what he was talking about.
“The world is not some vast ocean, as you have apparently come to believe,” he continued. “Earth is a sphere, much like my ship, covered by nearly equal parts of land and water, at least before the Apocalypse. Now it is covered from pole to pole by nothing but snow and ice.”
“That can’t be true, can it?” Jake asked, looking back at Raines for help but receiving none.
“What is the name of your colony?” the man asked.
Jake replied, “We call it Civica.”
“It used to be called ‘Pacifica’ because right now, you are standing below the frozen surface of the Pacific Ocean.”
“I can’t believe what I’m hearing,” Raines said, “but now that I hear it, I guess it could be possible.”
Jake thought back at what Juli said to him about the Earth being both near and far, and realized that she must already know this secret. He tried
imagining what the world might have looked like above the ceiling ice, but it was a perspective he had trouble visualizing.
“I don’t believe any of it,” Steele said. “In any event, how can locating us help you? Our reactors are also beginning to fail and we have no ability to repair them. Our colony is as bad off as yours, it seems.”
The man replied, “We have the knowledge and tools to repair both our reactors and yours. With your help, we will make both of our colonies thriving places once again.”
“I don’t understand,” Jake said. “If you have the tools and the knowledge, why can’t you repair them yourselves?”
“We call ourselves, ‘Ascendants,’ because long ago, we discovered the key to life extension, to the point of near-immortality. With minds and bodies that could last centuries, we were finally able to realize humanity’s ultimate dream; a ‘Utopian Society’ on Earth. However, since we could be injured or even die from the simplest of accidents, we created a working-class of people to do all of the hazardous jobs like running and maintaining the reactors.”
“Alphas and Betas,” Jake said.
“We were born as a ruling class,” the man said with no sign of guilt. “We need our workers back. We need your people to return with us to our city and repair our reactors. In return, their descendants will return here with the knowledge and tools to repair yours as well.”
“Descendants?” AJ asked.
“Of course. Our reactors are in critical shape. We estimate that the radiation levels will kill at least eighty percent of the work force. However, with thousands of workers, we are confident that enough will survive to pass on their DNA to their offspring, eventually creating a radiation-hardened workforce. Some of those descendants will then be allowed to return here.”
“You expect us to voluntarily come with you to be your slaves?” Jake asked, “and suffer and die so that our grandchildren might one day come back to help us?”
“Voluntary compliance would be preferable, but we will take what we need nonetheless.”
Jake took a step backward. “We will stop you.”
Novum Chronicles: A Dystopian Undersea Saga Page 44