Explorations: Colony (Explorations Volume Four)

by Dennis E. Taylor

  “Good.” Then, something made her study the old man next to her intently. She stared hard into his ice-blue eyes, and finally she stammered, “P-Philip?”

  He nodded slightly, his head never leaving the pillow, and his smile turning down only a notch. “Ensign Philip Mann, at your service.”

  “You’re…you’re so old.”

  “True.”

  “In my dream, you looked in your late thirties!”

  “It’s how I wished to appear to you. The ship’s supply of life extension drugs ran out a long time ago, and we lost our appearance of youth. The colonists’ organs have been the only thing allowing the crew to stave off death. I didn’t want to tell you that. I never wanted you to see me like this, because now this is how you’ll remember me. But it was unavoidable.”

  “Remember you?” Harriet repeated. “Are you going somewhere?”

  “I’m dying, Harriet. Dying slowly, for months now. The same period I’ve been trying to contact you.”

  “So, you…you lived almost your entire life while doing nothing about the captain’s crimes.”

  “Yes. But telling you that probably wouldn’t have endeared me to you, and it was important that you trusted me. If you didn’t, you might not have acted.”

  “I guess not,” she said, her heart racing—but not for the reason it had raced during her dream conversations with Philip. Now it raced with anxiety, and even a little fear.

  “There’s something else I didn’t tell you. I’m dying of cancer, which has spread from my stomach to the rest of my body. But before it spread…” Philip grimaced, and a single tear leaked from his right eye, sliding sideways down his wrinkled face. “Before it spread, I accepted a stomach transplant from one of the colonists. So I’m just as damned as the captain was.”

  “Philip…” she whispered.

  “This is my death bed, Harriet, and it’s only here that I began to atone for what I’ve done. I requested a sim unit be brought to me, and the captain granted my request. Why wouldn’t he? I’d never given him a reason to mistrust me before. And I used that sim unit to contact you, to arrange all this. To put a stop to what was happening.”

  “What next, then, Philip?” Harriet said, her voice cracking. She was crying too, now.

  “The rest is up to you and the other colonists. How you’ll conduct yourselves. How you’ll spend your time remaining aboard the Delphi. A distress message truly was sent to the nearest known colony, and if it arrived safely, and the colonists there heeded its plea, then they should arrive for you within a few years at most.” He smiled, though this time, the expression looked far more forlorn. “The rest is up to you.”

  “I loved you, Philip,” she said, even though she knew it probably sounded crazy—falling in love with a man who’d appeared to her only in her dreams. But it was real, wasn’t it?

  “And I loved you, Harriet. I still love you.”

  “I don’t love you anymore,” she said, shaking her head against her own pillow. “You’re as much a murderer as the rest of them.”

  “Yes,” he said, and closed his eyes, turning away from her.

  Two weeks later, Philip died. By then Harriet was feeling well enough to attend his funeral, though she still needed Mariah’s help to get around. When Philip’s metal coffin was jettisoned into space, Harriet wept again.

  A few weeks after that, she rejoined Mariah, this time in the Delphi’s lab. It was much tinier than the simulated one they’d shared for what had felt like years, but had really been decades. There was still plenty for them to do. The Delphi was the perfect incubator for disease, which was a large part of why cryo-tubes were necessary for interstellar journeys. But after the indomitable challenge of Imagovirus, they tackled each shipboard illness with methodical determination, and they defeated them all.

  Harriet often thought about Philip—the old version as well as the young, in equal measure. In large part, she owed her life to him. They all did.

  And yet, he’d been monstrous, too. Fortunately for them, his monstrosity had been contained enough for him to do the right thing, in the very end, after dozens had already been killed.

  She missed him, despite all that. Or maybe she just missed what she’d thought he was, once.

  She and Andrew Ferdinand ended up dating a few times, but by the time the rescue ship arrived, they’d mutually decided to end it.

  That was just as well, because the rescue ship had two cryotechnicians, and the colonists were once again placed in cryo for the journey.

  Given the ordeal they’d gone through, they were offered the option of opting out of the farming sims while they were en route to the planet that would become their new home.

  But Harriet chose to enter the sim once again. After all, what little real-world agency the sim had allowed her had saved her life. If she’d been totally unconscious, then she could very well have died instead of fighting through to the real world.

  Besides, the colony of Somnus already had two virologists, and they didn’t need any more. So Harriet would need to learn a new trade.

  Perhaps I’ll choose farming this time.

  That would likely prove a lot less stressful. Somnus was said to be ideal for human habitation—a utopia, basically.

  Almost every crop thrived there.

  Scott Bartlett Biography

  Scott Bartlett is an SF author whose most recent series combine space opera and military SF - The Ixan Prophecies trilogy (Book 1 is Supercarrier) and the Mech Wars series (Book 1 is Powered). Both series are set in the same universe.

  If you like your sci-fi packed with action and interwoven with alien mysteries, you can get 2 free books from the Ixan Prophecies universe when you join Scott’s mailing list: http://scottplots.com/traitor-giveaway

  Spiderfall

  By Scott Moon

  Eva took another step toward the launch bay, stopped, and put her hands on her hips. A strand of her diamond-blue hair floated in her large helmet. She ignored it, but accepted the soothing effect of its nearly inaudible song. The hair of her people looked like silk, but was as coarse and musical as a violin bow across the strings of life.

  She wasn’t the only colonist considering the launch bay opening. Fifteen meters wide and ten meters high, it was large enough to accommodate one shuttle at a time. With her left hand, she reached up to check the neck of her environmental suit. The alloy bands protecting the seals looked and felt new. The helmet visor was so clear she could believe it wasn’t there.

  She dropped her hands, but hipped them a second later.

  “Nervous?” Jax asked from her left.

  Eva had grown up with the woman, who was one year older, then attended the ad hoc Exploration Fleet Academy her father designed post-exodus. Like most of her crew, she had spent most of her adult life on one starship or another.

  Jax would always be Eva’s rival. Despite her superior age, Jax had always lived in Eva’s shadow. Jax was human, and an average human at that. She didn’t have the snow-white skin and diamond-blue hair of Eva's people.

  Ten years after the Empyrean war, they’d grown into a deeper friendship and a harder rivalry. The reason wasn’t obvious or distinct. Raised together by nannies, bodyguards, and teachers, neither of them knew any other way to interact.

  Jax stood taller, with the more robust form of an earth-born human. She had larger breasts and curvier hips. Her hair was blonde or chestnut, depending on how strong the ship lighting was at the moment. Eva had overheard enough of the men on the colony ship talking about Jax to know that the young woman was attractive. Depending on the narrator, she was a hot-blooded nymphomaniac or an ice-cold sex machine.

  The same men who claimed to have slept with her also said she was a force of nature who never admitted to being wrong. Hot or cold, but always fierce, she intimidated the crew easily.

  Eva smiled. She didn't look back. It was better if her friend and rival didn't see her expression. Eva suspected Jax was still looking for her first kiss.

 
; “Of course I'm nervous. Planetfalls are dangerous.”

  “Then why are we making one? We don't have resources for this type of thing. The orbital survey of this rock doesn't suggest it'll be a fun place to live, even if we can survive here.”

  “I already gave the order. We're going down to check it out. You don't have to come if you don't want to.” Eva paused. “Have we had communication with the fleet?”

  Jax made a negative sound. “What do you think?”

  They stared down on the stratosphere of the planet as pilots and mechanics reviewed checklists on the two shuttles she had selected for the mission. The same routine had been followed prior to pumping the launch bay atmosphere into storage containers. Everyone wore their environmental suits. This part was easy. Eva felt safe even with butterflies dancing in her stomach. On the planet, gravity would make the suits cumbersome and stifling until they were sure it was safe to breathe the air.

  “I think I'd like to know what happened to our comm system,” Eva said, knowing exactly what went wrong with it but hoping nobody else did.

  This close to the planet, everything looked huge. She saw continents and oceans that were mostly icefields, but had potential at least to support life. Jax stood beside her now. There was no way to know if she was appreciating the stunning panorama for what it was. Her second in command had no nervous habits to betray her.

  The rest of Eva’s team waited several steps behind. Montgomery was a former soldier in charge of security. Carter was both a soldier and a fighter pilot jock, who would complain loudly about the boredom of landing the clunky but safe shuttle. Amanda, Carter’s co-pilot, was an equally renowned veteran of the war against Empyrean.

  All three were human, probably more loyal to Eva than her own people — none of whom had volunteered for this mission. She suspected they still resented not being included in her father's colony ship, wherever it had headed.

  “That's another reason we shouldn't be taking unnecessary risks. If we get down there and need help, no one is coming to save our asses. My recommendation stands. Maintain an orbit and work on the communication problem.”

  “I'm aware of your recommendation, Jax. I also know that if I don't put my feet on a planet soon, I'm going to go crazy. Same for the crew.”

  “Sure. Maybe. But there are others who don't agree.”

  Eva popped the knuckles of her gloves and exhaled forcefully, suddenly frustrated and impatient. “They don't have to agree. My father gave me command of this ship, not them.”

  “Are we missing our daddy?”

  Eva turned and faced her. The wrap-around helmet visor did nothing to stop the power of her eyes as she stared into the human woman’s face.

  Her father had nearly died when the assassin Pyr rescued them. Never affectionate in the first place, he'd become cold and distant after the ordeal. Eva felt like he blamed her for the loss of the Impregnable and his fall from grace.

  Powerful leaders in the UEF would never forgive him for failing to fight off Empyrean’s Astrals and the assassin Pyr. They gave him command of the smallest fleet, then sent him to the farthest reaches of space.

  “I'm sorry,” Jax said.

  Eva turned and walked toward the first shuttle, summoning the crew with one hand. Montgomery and Carter led others to the shuttle she would be taking. Jax grumbled, but took her team to the second shuttle.

  She brooded as the crew conducted final checks and prepared for launch.

  Engines came online. The flight control officer gave the green light and the shuttle floated from the bay. Small steering jets oriented them toward their destination and let physics do its work.

  She felt the increasing effect of gravity take hold. Atmosphere buffeted the vessel. Her eyes watched the spectacular approach of the planet, but her heart and mind braced for death.

  She thought of Pyr in the chaotic battle the nearly immortal assassin had waged against Empyrean’s shock troops, to give Eva and these few colonists another chance at life. The woman had been evil, someone who made a bargain with the devil so that Eva's people could survive.

  She locked the memories away. This mission would be dangerous despite the lack of murderous enemies sent by a star-god bent on genocide. Surveys from orbit indicated the planet was habitable, but what a computer thought possible and what flesh-and-blood mortals could tolerate were two different things.

  “How's your suit?” Montgomery asked.

  She smiled. He was probably ten years older than her and far too nice. In her old life she might have flirted — maybe cornered him in private and jumped him — but romance was the last thing on her mind now. She had to lead this expedition and start a new civilization. That was all a colony was, after all.

  Tall and lean by human standards, his complexion was darker than some but lighter than others. He kept his hair in a buzz cut and hadn’t removed the scar below his left eye from, to hear him tell it, a training accident. He could be loud and forceful, but generally defied the macho soldier stereotype.

  “How are we doing, Carter?” she asked.

  The ship bumped hard several times as the atmosphere thickened.

  “I'm getting a lot more crosswind than I thought, but nothing too bad,” Carter said.

  Eva waited for his tough-guy sarcasm, but it didn’t come. She moved to the cockpit and saw him fighting the controls, veins popping out on his arms as he muscled the ship onto its proper vector. Amanda sat in the co-pilot seat, her hand resting easily on her double stick, ready to take over if needed. Eva found herself fascinated with Amanda's light touch and the way she moved with each twitch and jerk of the controls connected to Carter’s double stick.

  Carter spoke without looking at either of them. “Strap in, Eva, or go back to the crash couches. Cockpit rules.”

  Eva slipped into a seat and secured the five point harness.

  Ice fields rushed upward. Gravity pulled on her body as Carter banked into his final approach for the landing. The rocky plateau that had been designated for their touchdown looked small. Under other circumstances, she would have been fascinated with the swirling patterns of the volcanic rock set against a white background.

  She glanced out the window, marveling at the peculiar sensation. For years she had been used to looking at video screens and simulations made to imitate a window. Several hundred meters to the right, the second shuttle made its descent. Plumes of moisture spread out from the wingtips.

  “Is that normal?” she asked.

  Amanda shrugged. “No matter what our scientists tell you, surveys from orbit are educated guesses.”

  Eva nodded to herself. That was the argument she had used on the crew.

  Amanda keyed up the intercom. “All crew and passengers, brace for landing. Touchdown in thirty seconds.”

  Eva saw it coming, but the impact startled her. The restraints slammed against her. Spots danced in her eyes. A memory of burning ship parts tumbling through space came and went in a heartbeat.

  “Not so hard,” Amanda said.

  Carter laughed.

  Eva slowed her breathing as Carter and Amanda conducted one system check after another. She had been a passenger on enough ships to know that everything they did was part of a checklist. The rhythm of their voices was soothing and routine.

  She checked her own gear and went to the back of the ship, where a ramp was lowered to the surface. Montgomery and two of his security force went first, spreading out into a semicircle with their weapons ready. She waited patiently.

  “Secure,” Montgomery said.

  Eva strode down the ramp at a leisurely pace, looking at the planet that might become their home. She touched the left side of her helmet and spoke on a private link to Jax. “Status report.”

  “We're down,” Jax said. “My security team is linking up with Montgomery and his people. This landing strip is small, so we should have a perimeter set very quickly.”

  “First impressions?” Eva asked.

  “It's cold. I don't like the
wind or the ice. However, I did see some open caves on the way down that seem to be full of vegetation... or slime. Hard to say.”

  Eva checked the ship and the security team, then moved toward Jax. Together, they walked to the edge of the plateau and looked down into an expansive canyon. Far below, she thought she could see flowing water. Tall green grass flowed around it.

  She waited for Jax to comment on the scene.

  The moment grew as Jax seemed reluctant to admit she had been wrong. This planet was a place where humans could live. Eva touched the left side of her helmet again and called to her science officer, Doctor Arno Peterson. “I'd like to start conserving our stored air as soon as possible.”

  Peterson's distinct accent lilted through her earpiece. “One hour, Eva, then I give you the all clear.”

  “Ten minutes,” Eva said, staring at indistinct movement near the river several hundred meters below.

  “Thirty minutes. Far too abrupt, but for you, done,” he said.

  “Ten minutes,” she repeated.

  “Thirty. Minutes.”

  She was satisfied with thirty minutes, but ignored him until she could almost feel him growing uncomfortable.

  “Ten minutes, under protest,” Peterson said.

  “That should be the motto for this mission,” Eva said. “Make it happen.”

  A tour of the flat and solitary space she had chosen for planetfall brought her to a chasm. A wall of solid ice stood a few meters out of reach, towering high enough to cast her team in mild shadow. Through gaps, she saw a webwork of dark green vines and dripping water. A smear of gravel marked one section of the glacier-like wall.

  “Are those vines or excrement?” Jax said. “The green stuff looks chewed up and compacted.”

  Eva looked closer and thought of a cheese grater or meat grinder, pushing out processed food.

  Something moved.

  She jerked her vision to one of the cave openings ten feet above her and across the chasm.

  “Shit!” Montgomery said. “Jackson and O’Brien, get your asses over here. We’ve got alien contact.” He moved closer to Eva and guided her back several steps. Shouldering his rifle, he visually searched for whatever had moved.