The Price of Paradise

by C. S. Johnson

  “Did any of them eject?” Aerie asked. “Did you see anyone alive?”

  “No one other than Cal and me.” Brock paused a moment before he added, “I’m sorry, Aerie.”

  Aerie shook her head and ignored him. She sat back down and tried swapping out frequencies, working to enlarge the range and trying to cut off interference, all while trying not to think about how very much she wanted Exton there with her.

  ♦12♦

  As he stared at the screen in front of him, a cold sense of dread tingled down his body, chilling him all the way to his fingers.

  I can’t believe he was telling me the truth.

  As he read and reread over the notes and numbers, Exton felt his chest convulse, as if his father’s ghost—a sad, almost benevolent figure in his mind over the last decade—had stuck a knife into his back and twisted it.

  He had spent the last several days, as Merra and her selected volunteers prepared for their venture and headed out, sorting through the States’ military intranet and finding his father’s matching scribbles. In between breaks for rest and food, he had been able to piece together a tentative timeline of the Paradise and its construction, and his father’s evolved designs. As an engineer, he was able to read the notes from Osgood and other military leaders, asking for different elements to be included or the plans adapted a certain way. There was nothing explicit about his father’s defection.

  Not until his note.

  2122528—see Lu for details. Tell Exton about Ark.

  The Ark was placed below the Biovid, only able to be accessed through the Biovid. The Ark on the ship was where different seedlings and animal DNA had been gathered for preservation and study. Exton already knew that, thanks to Emery and others, and their work within the Biovid.

  He’d only gone down there a few times in all the years he’d been onboard the Perdition. It had been nothing to assume that the URS had ordered the Ark to be built. The room was small, cold, and impersonal; animal DNA was stocked in small test tubes, labeled with terrifying efficiency, while seeds were vacuum-sealed and packed away.

  After his papa’s funeral, Exton remembered his mother’s voice, full of venomous trepidation, as she told him the URS wanted to use the Paradise for destruction rather than research.

  He almost envied her, that she was gone, too. She didn’t have to process a fresh, foreign layer of grief.

  He looked down at the blueprints and mock-ups of the Paradise prototype again. He knew, as he held the prints between his fingers, that the official URS design hadn’t called for the Ark. His father added it of his own initiative. According to the dates, that note was the first one that mentioned the Ark, and there was no reason for anyone other than a member of the Ecclesia to call it that.

  “Lu” was proof of that—it was an easy reference to Luke 21:25-28, where the end of the world was foretold by Jesus himself. The references to the signs in the stars, distress among the nations, the seas full of roaring waves while men’s hearts were full of fear—all of these things, before the people were told to “look up, for redemption is at hand,” seemed to point to deliverance.

  Exton sighed, done double-checking his data for the last time.

  What does this mean?

  He knew part of the answer: He knew he didn’t know his father as well as he originally thought, for one. He also knew that St. Cloud had just cause in punishing him, even if shooting him seemed excessive.

  Did he really have to kill him for all of this? Exton shook his head. He knew the URS officials could use brutal tactics. St. Cloud would have likely had to threaten to use his family or torture to get the job done.

  Papa was the best engineer in the whole nation, he thought. It would have been necessary to get him to cooperate. Maybe St. Cloud was, in his own way, being merciful.

  “No!” Exton slammed his fist down on the Bible before him. “No, I will not vindicate him for this.”

  He knew instinctively that he still wasn’t ready to forgive St. Cloud, either.

  Exton heard St. Cloud’s voice, almost as if he was whispering in his ear:

  You’ve ruined my plans before, but I won’t let you ruin them again.

  St. Cloud had been working to overthrow the URS government. He told Exton that he had worked alongside Merra for years, as they undermined the power of the government.

  It didn’t make sense. Why kill his father? To show his loyalty to Osgood? St. Cloud was never working for Osgood.

  “He had another plan,” Exton murmured, thinking of his old mentor’s ways. There was always a plan and a backup plan, and at least two different motives for every movement. As much as he had a feeling St. Cloud was content to stay onboard the Perdition for the meantime, he knew there was likely another reason for his motive, too.

  But what was it this time?

  That is what I need to figure out next.

  There was a quick, sharp knock at the door. Exton nearly fell out of his seat when his aunt opened the door to the darkened office. When he saw she was looking down at him with a hard look, he almost dismissed her.

  Exton could never clearly remember a time when his aunt seemed genuinely happy, and from the look on her face as she came into his makeshift office, he knew today would be no spectacular exception.

  But then she caught his gaze, and he was shocked to see the sheen of unshed tears.

  He was in no mood to share in her obvious despair; he had enough of his own to work through. His father’s old Bible was in his hand, the old pages musty with settled use. He had been flipping through the book, often switching between it and the Boötes web, almost as often as he switched between fear and anger and despair as he sorted through the information.

  But family was family, and he knew what it meant to do his duty. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice croaking from fatigue.

  “The mission failed,” Patty told him.

  Exton blinked, uncertain if he’d heard her correctly. “What?”

  “The mission failed,” Patty repeated. “Aerie’s been trying to reach you for several hours now.”

  “Aerie.” At the mention of her pain, Exton forgot his own. He stood up, banging his knee on the edge of the desk as he straightened. He ran his hand through his hair, scowling as he realized it was getting scruffy again. “Where is Emery?”

  “She just came on duty,” Patty said. She stepped to the side, allowing him out of the room, and then walked beside him as they started down the hall. “I have been reporting in with different leaders around the globe, trying to figure out the next move. We lost a good bit of our fighters along with our pilots.”

  Agony ran through him, thinking of all the people he would never see again. “This is terrible.”

  “Agreed, from a personal and practical standpoint,” Patty said. “And we lost some of our best fighters. Aerie’s mother and her one brother among them.”

  Dread came over him once more. He forced himself to ask the question. “Dead or missing?”

  Patty pursed her lips. “Most likely dead, but we are not sure.”

  “I doubt Merra’s gone,” Exton said. “If anyone could survive an attack from the URS, it would be her.”

  “Reports are coming in that suggest it wasn’t from the URS exactly.”

  “What? Who else would it be from? MENACE hasn’t really existed in decades now.” Before he could comb his mind for other nations and communities capable of attacking his people, Patty interrupted him.

  “It seems it was sabotage of some sort,” Patty said. “The fighters all went down on their own, according to the analysts on the Perdition. Petra’s forces are examining the fighters who did come back.”

  “Down ... dive-bombed?”

  “Yes.”

  Exton frowned. “The survivors?”

  “Aerie’s other brother and Brock Rearden are the only two that survived, so far as we know.”

  Brock. Exton mentally consigned Aerie’s old friend to the grave, and then thought that was too kind. Brock h
ad to know something about this, Exton thought. “Call them up. I want to talk to them.”

  “They’re both in the med ward,” Patty told him. “But just to warn you, you might want to find out what happened first. Neither one of them seems to have much of an idea.”

  “Of course they wouldn’t,” Exton grumbled. “Where’s Tyler?”

  “Comms. He’s waiting for sunrise in New Hope. He wanted to contact his family today for updates. His parents have been keeping tabs on Osgood for us.”

  “Oh, good.” Exton nodded. He knew that he was one of the leaders around Petra and the Perdition, but any of his success at it stemmed from his family and their organization. He had forgotten, lost in a world of URS military schematics and blueprints and notes, just how demanding it was.

  They walked on in stifled silence before Exton let out a weary sigh. “Do you think the war will end soon?”

  Patty shrugged. “There is always a war going on, Exton. It never truly ends, so long as people seek power. All that changes are the players.”

  “I agree. But I meant this war, the one we’re fighting.”

  “I know what you meant.” She gave him a quick smile. “Honestly, it depends. If we can take out Osgood, we can end it much sooner.”

  “I doubt that,” Exton muttered, softly enough his aunt wouldn’t hear. Exton knew that with St. Cloud out of the picture, it was Gerard who was next in line to take over as dictator. While he didn’t know who followed him, he had a feeling it was going to be nearly impossible to maintain order. The war might be over soon, Exton thought, but there would still be plenty of battle lines to be drawn.

  They entered into the forward command center, and as soon as Exton entered, Emery called out to him.

  “There you are,” she said. “Here.” She tossed him a comm device. “I should have made sure you had one when we left you the other day. Aerie’s on the line. We have more information to discuss once you’re done.”

  “Thank you.” As Exton stepped off to the side of the room, he thought about telling Emery he would be quick. But he didn’t want to take anything away from Aerie, especially while he was so far away from her. He didn’t know what she needed, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t be able to do much, other than listen while he was on Earth and she was onboard the Perdition.

  “Aerie?”

  “Exton.”

  He nearly grimaced at the sound of her voice. It was flat and sad, deflated and defeated—nothing like the sunlit music he’d come to associate with her presence. “I’m here,” he said. “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m trying to be strong for the crew. I don’t think I’m doing a good job,” Aerie admitted. “I’m worried about my family.”

  “I know.” He sighed. “I’ll see what I can find out from down here. I haven’t been briefed on everything just yet.”

  “Gerard is onboard the Craftcarrier,” Aerie said. “I was able to intercept a message from him.”

  “He is?” Exton frowned. “Are you okay? I know hearing from him couldn’t have been easy.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, and I’m glad you told me. With Gerard onboard the Craftcarrier, it’s likely we’ll hear from them soon. He never liked to wait. That was part of the reason he escaped the Rothsburton before, too. He’s quick to fight, but he’s also quick to run away.”

  “I wonder why Osgood promoted him then,” Aerie scoffed. “He seemed to enjoy his time torturing people in the Reeducation Center.”

  “If I had to guess, I would say it’s your father’s fault.”

  “Seriously? Do you think everything is my father’s fault?”

  He would have laughed if he didn’t think she was seriously concerned. “My judgment on this matter is entirely impersonal,” he told her. “St. Cloud told me that Osgood has a history of not trusting people, even him. He likely promoted Gerard in hopes that he would help watch over your father. Gerard and the General were never close.”

  “I guess that makes sense. Sorry.”

  “It’s okay.”

  There was a moment of silence, and Exton hated that he couldn’t see her. They were both strained by their circumstances. It was hard enough to guess whether or not she was sad or angry with him.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you,” Aerie said.

  He thought he heard a sniffle.

  “I know you have your own family crisis at the moment. I don’t want you to think that you were wrong to leave me here to help.”

  “Of course I don’t think that.” He gripped the comm. “No one could have expected this, Aerie. I certainly didn’t.”

  As he said it, he realized that this was the first big mission failure. The reality of it hit him hard all over again. They’d lost friends as well as family. Jared had been among them, he remembered. He struggled to try to find something to say to Aerie, and he suddenly regretted leaving her.

  “I’m going to have Tyler come and get you,” he said. “He’s on duty right now, but I’ll have him come and get you and we can be together.”

  “No. I don’t want to fail you up here,” Aerie said. “I’ll be okay. I already lost my mom once, didn’t I?”

  “We both know this is different,” Exton replied, wishing that he didn’t sound so angry. “Please, Aerie, just come down here. I need you, too.”

  “Did you find something?” Aerie asked.

  Exton thought about the papers and notes he had been able to see on the older designs of the Paradise. “I’m still searching,” he finally said. He felt awful, but he couldn’t tell her the truth about what he’d found just yet. “Papa had his codes for things and it’s been years since I worked with him.”

  “I see.”

  They lapsed into silence once more.

  What else could he say? Exton wondered. There was no use in telling her how strange it had felt to leaf through his father’s Bible; to find the little notes tucked into its pages from his mother; to see the secret prayers his papa prayed, for him and Emery and their future; to feel the anger and confusion and desperation of his father’s spirit as he held the old leather book between his hands. The only other thing he could tell her was what he saw in the Boötes system, and there were too many ties to his own past to choose where to begin.

  “I miss you,” he said instead.

  “I miss you, too.” Aerie’s words were a soothing whisper over his wounded soul.

  “I’ll call you back when I find out more,” Exton said. “I’ll make sure I have a working comm.”

  “Thank you,” Aerie said. “I’m going to check in at the Biovid. I’m going on duty here in a little while.”

  “Don’t overwork yourself.”

  “I won’t.”

  “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.” Exton was reluctant to click off their communication, but he had no choice when Aerie left the line. He sighed. Had it really been two whole days since he’d last seen her?

  A month ago, not seeing her was the purist form of torture. Thanks to St. Cloud, he had once more been taken prisoner by his past.

  Exton shook his head, disappointed in himself as he headed over to Emery once more.

  “Updates,” he requested.

  “What? No, ‘Hi, sis, how are you?’” Emery’s attempt at levity fell flat as she handed him a file. “Here. This is the information we have so far. Brock and Cal are being checked over in the med ward. They’ve talked with some onboard the Perdition, but I know that they didn’t survive unscathed. We don’t know where the rest of our fighter pilots are, if they survived. But it doesn’t look good.”

  “Did we miss enemy fire? Anything slip through our radars?” Exton glanced through the file, thinking back to the different diagrams on the Boötes web as he glanced through the data. There wasn’t anything he could remember that would have prevented Petra or the Perdition from picking up their deployed weapons.

  “No. There was only a quick system disruption from what we could tell. Aerie talked t
o me a little while ago. She said Greer told her it was a forced kamikaze.”

  “How though? Did they hack the fighters?”

  “It’s possible,” Emery told him. “But it’s terrifying to think they would have had the access to everything they needed to do that, especially without our forces noticing.”

  “They already do that, through NETech,” Exton reminded her. He paused as he put it all together in his mind. “What about the NETech? Could that work? Aerie told me before they can send signals to their pilots.”

  “I don’t know if that would work either. But it is an idea.” Emery glanced down at her desk. “Cal and Brock were the only ones who didn’t crash.”

  “When we went to go rescue Aerie, one of her brothers told me that he’d turned off his NETech,” Exton said. “I don’t think it would be hard for Brock to do it. He was in their military classes with them, even though they were older students.”

  Emery tapped her fingers against her desk thoughtfully. “It would make the most sense,” she agreed. “I can send a message up to Aerie and ask her about it.”

  As she reached for the communication settings, the line beeped. “Impeccable timing,” Emery murmured.

  Exton gave her a playful grin. “Just in time to ruin your plans.”

  Emery answered the call. “Petra, main control station, Director Caldwell speaking.”

  “I was told I would be speaking to the captain.” Kamalo’s voice came over the line seconds before his picture popped up.

  “I’m here,” Exton said, nudging Emery over. She gave him a quick frown, but she hurried to the side.

  “Ah, there you are. I have the information you requested about the Freedom.”

  “I’m guessing from your tone I’m not going to like it,” Exton said with a sigh.

  “Doubtful. The Freedom was never scheduled for departure. It seems a small group of pro-State rebels took it. They were apparently headed for Panama in hopes of joining the URS military outpost there. The States has a reserve base there.”