by M. M. Perry
“I’m Yvette. Just Yvette. I’m sure you know what that means.”
Yvette took another step forward.
“You’re a gennie.”
Yvette smiled.
“Gennie sounds so juvenile, don’t you think? It’s fitting it was created by you civilians. You are like children. Easy to mold, easy to punish.”
“You don’t have to kill us,” Naomi said. “All we want is not to be counseled. We’re fine continuing everything else. Why is it so important we keep doing this one thing? We’re so close to Mission’s End, does it really matter if the counseling ends?”
Yvette stared at Naomi, her eyes dark.
“Kyi said something similar to me not too long ago. She also thought it would be better if we just dropped the counseling program. But none of you understand. Mission’s End is only the first part of our grand mission. The next takes place on the planet. Counseling was created to solve problems on a perfectly designed ship where our every need has been accounted for. Everything is preserved, our population, our food, water, air - all of these things calculated long before any of us were even designed and put in a tube to be shot into space. And we still had trouble with you. Fighting and complaining. Strikes, you don’t even know the meaning of the word, but it happened. Passions flared. People wanted more than the abundance they had, more than the life they were given, more than the protection and sustenance provided by the ship.
“You don’t know what happens when this is allowed to continue. The logical end of this type of avarice. Some of the other ships take and take and take until there is no more to take. They’ve found a way to get more, and it isn’t pleasant. You say all you want is an end to the counseling. But that’s right now. Eventually that won’t be enough to keep you happy. Someone has to see that. Someone needs to keep all of you safe from yourselves. Because when we get to that planet, if we don’t keep you safe, if we don’t continue to make sure you follow your path as it was designed, when you get somewhere where food isn’t delivered to you on a tray three times a day, where warm little sleeping pods aren’t what you retire to each night, where fresh water requires a three-day hike to get - things will fall apart faster than any of us can react. We won’t be able to take care of you anymore. And everything, all these years in space, will be for nothing.”
Naomi swallowed.
“Okay,” she said quietly.
“What?” Yvette said.
“Okay. I’ll tell Mike myself. I don’t want you to kill me. I’d rather have my life here. I’d rather live this way than not at all.”
Yvette let the gun drop a little. She glanced at Naomi’s wrist.
“You’re… you’re telling me the truth.”
She looked to Jeremy, then back to Naomi.
“Yes,” she took Jeremy’s hand and smiled up at him. “Yes. I don’t need anything more. You’re right. It’s not worth it. If we’ll lose it all, it’s not worth it.”
Yvette lowered the gun the rest of the way.
“The com, you can use it over there. If you turn it to two, you can talk to him. Tell him to stand down. Tell him you don’t want to fight. Remind him I’m here with a gun,” Yvette said.
Naomi moved to the station Yvette indicated. Yvette watched her carefully. Naomi switched to the second frequency.
“Mike?”
For a second, she thought something was wrong. Then she heard the audible click of someone coming on the channel.
“Naomi?”
“Yeah.”
“Naomi are you okay? We’re clearing out the Gardens and it’s a mess. We can’t find Yvette. You shouldn’t be on this thing, they’ll be able to…”
“Yvette is here with me,” Naomi cut him off.
“Naomi?”
“She’s here with me and she has a gun. Mike, I’ve made a deal.”
A long silence followed.
“Naomi, I don’t know what…”
“Mike, you need to stand down. Surrender to the rest of the military. She’s going to kill me. And I don’t think it’s worth it. I want to go back. I want to go back to the way it was before the Tereshkova. Mike, please. For me.”
“Naomi, is that really what you want?”
Naomi fought back her feelings, hoping it would be for the last time.
“Yes,” she said steadily.
Mike took so long to reply Naomi was worried he wouldn’t.
“Tell Yvette we’ll surrender on the bridge. I need to make sure you’re okay before I lay down arms.”
Naomi looked over at Yvette. The older woman nodded.
“Okay. I’ll see you there.”
Naomi turned to Yvette. She smiled weakly at the gennie.
“Very good, girl. I’ve always told the others, if you have the right motivation, people are happy to listen to you. Alright, go back over to…”
As Yvette turned to point at Jeremy, Naomi let the heavy wrench slide out from under her arm. She felt the top slide past her fingers and clenched the grip. Her arm came up, swinging the wrench around in an easy arc. The end of it connected solidly with the top of Yvette’s head.
Yvette crumpled to the ground, her skull crushed. Naomi’s wrist lit up redder than ever as her legs gave out beneath her. Jeremy rushed forward to catch her. She started sobbing, and didn’t stop even after Mike and the soldiers stormed the morgue five minutes later.
Seventeen
Naomi sat at a table in Observation alone, staring at the now vivid planet. The ship was fully past the dark side of Badb and they would only have this clear a view of it for a couple more days. She took a sip of her drink and counted silently as she watched the planet slowly rotate. For the first time in a long time, she didn’t count names. She counted off seconds to time Badb’s rotation. She was amazed at how quickly such a huge object could spin. She realized if she watched the dark line of the twilight zone on the far side, she could see the rotation, albeit very slowly. Mike cleared his throat behind her. Naomi glanced over her shoulder, smiled at him and gestured for him to join her.
“I’ve been looking for you. Alphea was worried. You didn’t show up for therapy today.”
“You know,” Naomi said, stirring her drink, “I can’t get over this feeling that she isn’t our Alphea. That they switched for some reason.”
“And she just isn’t telling us?”
“Yeah.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Just to screw with our heads. She is a gennie after all.”
“You’ve been spending too much time with Chef,” Mike said.
He took the drink from her hand, set it down then took her hands in his own.
“And not a lot of time with Jeremy. That has me worried.”
Naomi brought Mike’s hands up to her cheek and pressed them there.
“It’s hard. He saw what I did to Yvette. I know he understands, but he saw it. It keeps replaying in my head. What’s it doing to him?”
“He loves you, Naomi. Don’t throw that away. Not after everything you went through.”
Naomi laughed bitterly, picking her drink back up.
“Isn’t it funny? They were right all along. Love does make us do terrible things.”
Mike didn’t know what to say. Naomi saw the troubled look on his face. She put her drink back down.
“I’ll get through it. Jeremy knows that. He’ll wait. I know. When we… The first time we met, things were fun. We got into a pod and had a great night. We weren’t unitmates. We weren’t even on the same shift. It was a drop party on a leisure day. I didn’t think I’d see him again. He was sweet and funny and handsome, and it seemed right that it was once, this one-time thing. A perfect night I would remember when I was feeling lonely. Then we met again, here in Observation. That second time we sat here all night long, just talking. We didn’t do anything else. We talked right up until his shift started. He hadn’t been looking for me, it just happened.
“Then, he did come looking for me. We had another night in the pod, but t
hings were different. We kept having to stop… Our vitals… We thought it was a fluke. We were both tired and excited, so we didn’t think anything of it. At least, it didn’t seem like it. But then he switched his shift to mine. I remember when he told me. He found me in a cafeteria. I was sitting with my unitmates, and he said, ‘I’ve switched my shift, same as yours now.’ And I said, without even thinking about it, ‘you’ll need a new unitmate then.’ And with my old unitmates staring after me speechless, I took off to the nearest station to transfer into a unit with Jeremy. We moved in. And that night, I only remember the moment he looked at me, when we were so close, and he screamed at me. ‘Naomi,’ he screamed, ‘Naomi you’re hurting me.’ I didn’t know what was happening. Everything had been so perfect and right, and he just started screaming. He kicked me from the pod. It wasn’t until the counselor came in that I understood. I saw my vitals burning bright red on the ceiling. And his, right next to mine. He was rocking in pain, holding himself. The counselor started to come up to me. I had no idea what to say to her. But then Jeremy screamed for a doctor, and the counselor ignored me to run to a panel to call medical.”
Naomi touched the damp glass in front of her, forcing herself to finish.
“He really did need a doctor. When we were in the sleeping pod, everything right and perfect, he looked up over my shoulder, and saw the red numbers. In that instant, he knew we were both bound for counseling. So, he took his testicles into his hands and squeezed as hard as he could. To save us. To save me. We stayed apart for a couple weeks after that. We needed time to process it. But we did. And we got back together. And we stayed together. Eight years, a couple more emergencies. But we always came back together. It isn’t just me that needs to be here, in this room, thinking about what I did. He needs his time, too. Don’t worry, Mike. I’m not throwing anything away. But thank you. Thank you for checking in on me. Thank you for caring. And thank you for not giving up on me.”
Mike nodded. He sat, unsure if what he wanted to say was appropriate.
“I’m here for you. If you need anything. Even…”
Naomi looked at Mike askance.
“Eagle Eye, you’re blushing!”
Mike looked away, embarrassed.
“I’m sorry,” Naomi said, her tone softening. “You’ve just been so serious the last few days, I was sure you’d decided to move on. I wouldn’t blame you.”
“No,” Mike said. “No, I haven’t. I just… I know you needed your space. I didn’t know when it would be appropriate to approach you about it. We left things on the table. And, I guess I wanted to make sure I was still someone you considered part of your life.”
Naomi smiled at him. He realized it was the first time he’d seen her break into a warm smile since the night in the morgue.
“Mike, you don’t have to worry. Just give me a little more time with this. Then, trust me, I’ll happily move on. But I don’t want to mar the beginning of what we’ll share with that moment.”
Mike brushed Naomi’s hair from her face.
“You know where to find me.”
Bullseye watched Mike, Jeremy and Naomi from across the cafeteria. A bearded man was there as well, but Bullseye didn’t recognize him. He couldn’t stop staring at the trio, wondering how they were making it work. Weeks had gone by since the coup. He figured the lack of urgency would cool his doppelganger’s feelings, believing the soldier who shared his face was only interested in the civilian because he had been in a highly stressful situation and she’d been a small comfort during that time. Bullseye had seen similar post-battle trysts form and dissolve among his squad mates. But not only had Mike moved into one of the strange civilian leisure units with the two of them, he was enjoying himself more the longer they were together.
“I thought you picked a strange meeting place. Now I understand,” Jamil said as he sat down.
Bullseye cleared his throat, embarrassed he’d been caught staring at his counterpart.
“I beg your pardon?”
“I know. It’s weird. I never met my copy, but I wonder all the time if he was the same as me. Must be off-putting to see that - you, with civilians.”
“We’re meant to integrate now. Alphea thinks that’s best,” Bullseye said gruffly.
“Hmmm. Maybe it’s not just that. It’s their situation, too. Three of them, all in a relationship together. Don’t worry about it. You’ll get used to it in time. Most of our ship is like that. From everything I could dig up, that’s been common on this ship for hundreds of years. It wasn’t designed to be that way by Yvette’s predecessors. The civilians just adopted that along with their social conditioning. It’s actually not even uncommon among the fleet, from what I can glean from communications.”
“I didn’t call you here to get a history lesson,” Bullseye said testily.
“Yes, of course,” Jamil said. “You wanted a report on Kyi. She’s transitioned just fine. The revelation that she was so close to counseling set her straight. I haven’t seen any evidence that she still harbors desires to re-instate emotional monitoring and control. She’s perfectly happy to keep us on track to Mission’s End without any counselors to aid her. Daily reports show civilians with higher production, better temperament and overall greater happiness. How long it all lasts, that’s another issue. Next week they’ll start allowing the kids the opportunity to choose their own vocations. Within reason of course. If they aren’t capable of doing what needs to be done, they’ll be encouraged down other paths.”
Alphea’s shadow loomed over the table.
“Did you start the meeting without me?”
“Yes, Ma’am. I’m sorry. You haven’t missed much.”
Alphea sat and nodded.
“It’s fine. I’m glad you chose this location. I, too, like to keep an eye on those who’ve helped us so much.”
Bullseye’s neck reddened. Jamil and Alphea shared a smile.
“I was just telling him about the changes being implemented in Childhood Learning.”
“Ah yes,” Alphea said. “We might have a few shortfalls in certain areas, but so close to Mission’s End keeping everything one hundred percent isn’t necessary. I was more curious on what we had decided in regards to reaching out to some of the other ships. It’s pretty clear from what Jamil’s found in their communications some of them have been travelling between ships for quite some time.”
“They have,” Jamil said, “though we may want to avoid those particular ships. Most of the other ships have. It seems any ship that trades with the Ericson eventually succumbs to their rule. That’s the best way I can put it. They control no less than four of the ships in the fleet and have significant influence over at least one other.”
“So we’ll need to form an alliance with some of the other less aggressive ships. We’ve come too far to allow one overly aggressive colony to determine the outcome of the greater mission,” Alphea said.
She paused to look over at Naomi, who was happily chatting with her unitmates. She smiled, glad her machinations hadn’t cost Naomi more dearly. It had been a great concern of hers, after Yvette’s death and Naomi’s descent into despondency. But Naomi had proven to be of strong character, and was her old self again.
Alphea returned her attention to the meeting.
“We’ll discuss our choices regarding the other ships later in the official meeting with the rest of the gennies and Command. Right now, we need to discuss our side project. Is there any progress in gaining access to the builder?”
Jamil sighed.
“Yvette was careful when they secured that location. I’ve searched her logs forwards and backwards, and I can’t find any evidence she was the one who hid him. In fact, quite the opposite. She talks about being advised by a gennie named Terrence to keep the builder secure.”
Alphea looked to Bullseye.
“Book and Prof think they may have found the location. Chef is currently working on how to access it without damaging the rest of the ship. Shaped charges. If you still wa
nt to keep this under wraps, it’s going to take longer. If we could get help from…”
“No,” Alphea said, cutting Bullseye off. “No chatter about it. Not yet. Not until I know why our builder was kept locked up. Yvette was wrong in her methods, but she still wanted the mission to succeed. I want to make sure this was just bad judgement, and not legitimate protection from something truly dangerous. When we pardoned a lot of people who aided Yvette in her schemes, including other gennies for the sake of unity, we accepted they might not embrace the new order, but I’d rather not give them any tools that could aid them in returning us to the way things were.”
“Yes, Ma’am” both Jamil and Bullseye said as Alphea stood.
“I’ll see you both at the meeting tomorrow. Have a nice dinner.”
As she walked away Jamil grabbed a tray from a passing food cart.
“I hope we’re not opening Pandora’s box here.”
Bullseye looked at Jamil in confusion.
“It’s a box full of trouble.”
“Brother,” Bullseye said, spearing some food on his plate, “we’re about to go knocking on the door to thirteen Pandora’s boxes. One builder doesn’t scare me.”
“Twelve.”
“What?” Bullseye asked, chewing.
“Twelve. Only twelve manned colony ships now.”
The Ericson
672 years since launch
Conformity level 49%
The huge man stirred against the two half-naked women lying in bed beside him as a shaft of light reached his face.
“We’ve intercepted a communique, Captain. From the Magellan.”
The captain sat up, rubbing his deceptively warm-looking baby blue eyes. His blond hair was a matted mess atop his head. He nimbly rose out of bed, rubbing his massive chest. Scars crisscrossed his well-formed body. He pulled a ceremonial looking cloak over his naked body.
“The Magellan?” he scoffed. “The bloody Magellan? That pissy ship all the way at the back of the fleet with its ass-kissing conformity levels? I thought we decided cyborgs ran that ship.”