Exodus (The Exodus Trilogy)

by Christensen, Andreas

  Suddenly, a flash of light appeared on the horizon to the west. At first it was bright white and lit up the twilight sky, then it slowly turned yellow, and after about a minute it became a deep orange glow, which didn’t go away. A few minutes later the ground shook, and they were tossed around by tremors too violent to remain standing or even sitting. All the while there was a rumbling sound like thunder.

  “Oh shit,” Derek said, as the tremors slowly subsided. “Was that …” John nodded while gritting his teeth. It couldn’t have been anything else. And soon they would feel the aftershocks and the other effects, whatever they might be. They had very little time, and if they were to survive, they would have to move quickly. They both looked around, and saw Johanna slowly come creeping out from the bushes. Her expression was twisted, and there was sweat in between the dirt on her face. Her face looked pale, and her eyes were half closed. She coughed and spat, and she moved slowly, crawling over the ground, every movement seemed to take an eternity. John immediately saw that there was something else, not just the pneumonia, although that was already bad enough. Then, as he ran over to her, he became aware of her left leg, and the way it twisted in an odd angle at her knee. There was blood pouring in regular spouts out of her broken knee, and now they could see the bone sticking out. Not a word came out of her mouth; she only coughed and gasped for air. Then their eyes met, and she slowly shook her head. He instantly knew that she wouldn’t live long, and it seemed she understood as well. For a split second, he considered making a travois, an old Indian method for transportation, and dragging her along, but he knew there was no time. Johanna looked him in the eyes for a few seconds before she smiled faintly and closed her eyes.

  Moments later, it seemed like an eternity to John, Derek came over. He touched John on the shoulder and whispered, as if afraid that someone might hear his words.

  “We need to get going. She would have wanted us to.”

  She’s not dead, John wanted to call out, a sudden flash of anger at them both, but his words caught in his throat. He knew Derek was right, and that Johanna would have wanted them to carry on. She still breathed, although wheezing and laboriously, but he knew it wouldn’t be long until she stopped breathing altogether. They slowly stood up beside their dying companion. Neither of them said anything as they looked toward the light on the western horizon. Finally Derek went over to where their bags and equipment lay scattered on the ground and started filling the bags with whatever he deemed worth carrying. They knew the aftershocks were probably just minutes away, but they couldn’t sit still anymore. John walked over and started helping out. They carelessly stuffed their bags until they couldn’t fit anything more. As soon as they had packed as much as they could carry, they looked at each other, then cast a final look at Johanna, who still seemed to breathe faintly, and started walking. John realized they would probably be dead soon. But better to die walking toward something, than while hiding out in a hole somewhere. Devastator had finally struck, and there was nowhere to hide from that.

  Chapter 12

  2086 ~ Interstellar space

  More than six years had passed since the Exodus left Earth orbit. Since then, the starship had first traveled inward for the slingshot by the sun, before it passed through the solar system at 10 percent of light speed on its way toward Nemesis. Four years into the journey, they had received a final signal, before Earth went absolutely quiet. That had been just hours after the projected impact by Devastator, and considering the time it took for the transmission to reach them, it would have been recorded some time before or after the impact itself. No one would ever know what happened to their home world, now that it had gone quiet.

  The Exodus had continued its journey, undisturbed, through the vast emptiness of space beyond the solar system, following the carefully plotted course through the Oort Cloud. Reaching the twin star of the sun, the starship had made a second slingshot, before finally reaching cruise velocity. The fusion rocket had been spent when accelerating toward the sun, and after two slingshot maneuvers the starship now floated through space at more than a quarter of light speed, on a steady course toward Aurora. Before it reached its destination, the magnetic sails, now stowed in the nose of the ship, would fold out and give it the deceleration it would need in order to enter an orbit around the new world.

  Tina Hammer hadn’t been around for any of this, having been deep in Sleep since before the first gravity assist by the sun. Waking had been a terrible experience, from which she was still recovering, and she could understand perfectly well why something had to be done about the process. It had been three days, and still she felt feverish. The price you pay for survival, she thought to herself. She’d been through rough times before though, so she knew it would pass. In a couple of weeks, the guinea pigs, as she’d come to think of them, would be revived the second time around. She would have to steel herself for that. She knew that if they were physically damaged by being subjected to cryo sleep twice, she would have a nasty task ahead of her. She could hope for the best, but in the worst-case scenario, she would have to be quick and ruthless. That would be the only way to save the rest of the crew and passengers of the Exodus from the same fate. There simply weren’t enough cryo cells to let everyone sleep through the entire journey, which had always been deemed the safest option. That had been the plan all along, and the ship had even been outfitted with ten extra cells just to have spares in case of a failure. They had also thought these could be used for parts, in case an emergency repair had to be done. In such a case, the repairs could have been performed by the maintenance robots, or bots as they were called among the inhabitants on the Exodus. But even the best laid plans cannot predict every conceivable event, and when a shuttle filled with children was launched up from the wreckage of a civil war, the commander of the Exodus, Admiral Greg Hamilton, had conceded to try every effort to save everyone on board. The responsibility for making sure this didn’t cause them injury—or worse—all had fallen on Tina, and she would have to deal with the consequences if their method failed.

  For the next two weeks, Tina got up to speed with what had happened so far, reading and studying about the trip and going over the news from Earth until it went silent. Although the thought of what would most likely have happened back on Earth saddened her, she’d accepted it and dealt with all that a long time ago. Humanity was now right here on this ship, and would continue to live on and prosper once they settled in on their new home. Having no family to leave behind back on Earth probably helped her establish such perspective. She also spent considerable time reviewing the data from the last waking of the guinea pigs. Although there was nothing spectacular or remarkable about these data, she knew she’d have to make thorough comparisons, and she needed to know exactly how to spot anomalies that might indicate that something was wrong, and separate those from variations that would be considered normal. There were fifteen others awake at the time, but none of them were initiated into this; they were computer technicians and life-support technicians, and a few scientists, such as Karin Svensson, the ESA astronomer. Tina needed to make sure that her decisions were correct, or she’d endanger the entire ship and all of its inhabitants. In Selection, she’d studied medicine, so she had already familiarized herself with the terminology, and if she could only find the key data that would indicate anomalies, this task should be something she could perform with a level of certainty.

  When the day came, Tina had prepared herself for whatever would come. She would start by reviving one, then go through all the tests and evaluate the data she got, and at last compare it to the data from the last time that person was awake. It was a tedious process, and would most likely take the entire day. If there was something wrong, and that proved to be serious enough, she would make sure that when she revived the next person that would be the first thing to look for. In all, she would have to wake up at least three people to be certain. If there was a system to it, a recognizable pattern, she would execute her contingency plan. She would f
ake a small radioactive leak, and give everyone awake, including the scientists and technicians an iodine pill that had the side effect of putting them sound asleep, and then she would inject a lethal dose of morphine. Instead of reviving the others, she would let them sleep. That would minimize the losses to only those who’d actually been woken twice. All this would be properly logged, and she would finish a report that would document everything that had been done, the findings that she had made, and how all of this had been done to ensure the survival of as many as possible. Then she would check the settings for each and every cryo cell, so that no others would be woken before the ship reached Aurora. In the end, she would inject the last dose into her own vein. That wasn’t part of the plan she’d discussed with Admiral Hamilton, but there were some things that shouldn’t be discussed with anyone. She would share the fate of those she had condemned, that much she would decide for herself.

  The first person to wake up from cryo sleep was a young administrative assistant. Her name was Tori Peters, a blonde around thirty, although with her shaven head and distorted features from the agony of waking, Tina thought she looked at least forty. As she tried to comfort her while she sobbed and shivered, she quickly took blood and skin samples for testing. Then, after about an hour, Tori calmed and, although feverish and somewhat disoriented, she was able to take care of herself, so Tina went back to the lab to get the samples analyzed. That would take hours, so as soon as she had placed the samples in the appropriate slots, she went to get Tori a cup of nice Darjeeling tea.

  “D ... did it feel like this for you as well?” she asked. Tina just smiled at her while she nodded.

  “I d … didn’t remember how bad it was … But I … guess it was the same the last time …” Her teeth rattled and she shivered hard. Tina didn’t know whether she should get to know the guinea pigs, or whether it would be wise to avoid them just in case. After a moment of hesitation, she decided that she couldn’t get all the data she needed just from samples. The psychological effects might not show if she didn’t try to get to know them. Her conversations with the ship’s psychologist, Kenneth Taylor, had made her realize that even if the physical samples turned up nothing, there might be damage that only a close examination of the psychological state of those who were woken would expose, such as certain brain damages. There might be long-term effects that would take years to expose, but that was something that Taylor had thought could be mended with the proper treatment, so it shouldn’t condemn anyone to death. Tina decided to get to know them as well as possible. She knew she would be able to perform her duties if need be; it was something her military background had taught her. To save many lives, you sometimes had to make sacrifices. And the personal pain you felt when you knew those who would be sacrificed, or even when you had to make the hard decisions of who would live and who would die, was just as much a part of the sacrifice.

  “Waking up from this is probably the worst thing I’ve ever been through,” she said quietly. “But it heals, just give it time.” She smiled reassuringly, while Tori sipped her tea. She had difficulty holding the cup steady, and spilled hot tea over her fingers, so Tina took the cup from her hands and held it carefully up to her lips. Tori smiled faintly and gave her a grateful look. As she finished her tea, Tina left her alone for a while and went back to the lab to wait for the first round of results.

  Three days later, she had woken four people, and still she had found nothing to indicate that waking more than once had any lasting effects, other than the short-term agony and distress experienced by the process itself. As she went over the results one final time, she let out a breath of relief. She then took out her tablet to start filing her report. She now felt certain they could get everyone on board safely to Aurora. Eventually her report would be publicly known, and everyone would know what would have happened in the event waking more than once had been deemed dangerous. There would be a lot of questions, she knew that. But in the end, she also knew the hard truth of it all. Her primary goal had been to get everyone safely to the new world, and so far it had been a success.

  2192 ~ Interstellar space

  It had been more than a century since the Exodus left Earth with its more than sixteen hundred inhabitants, but decades still remained. Kenneth Taylor had been awake for almost a year now, and still had more than a year left until he was to be put back to Sleep. He had worried about the possible danger of multiple Sleep cycles, but studying Tina Hammer’s report from her investigation a century ago had reassured him that the only effects were the possible psychological trauma experienced during the waking process. And several scientists were working on designing a better way. As one scientist would finish part of the research necessary, another would pick up when the first went back to Sleep. Kenneth was one of those, and his main propositions for those who followed would be to create an environment that made the subjects feel like they were waking up in the morning, from natural sleep. Others would research the possibility of using a cocktail of various drugs to induce a feeling of well-being, postponing consciousness until the worst physical effects had subsided, and so on. Having extensive research experience, he felt they were making better progress than what he was used to from his own career back on Earth. He supposed that was due to the ability to work with very little distraction for a two-year period, and then leave the work for someone else, who would then go at it with a new perspective and new energy. This made everyone work faster individually, as the time limit was fixed. At the same time, the many heads working on the same problem ensured that every angle was covered, which provided a quality rarely found in Earth-based science. As a matter of fact, Kenneth thought they had accidentally discovered an entirely different way of conducting science, which felt deeply satisfying. In a few cycles, the research phase would come to an end, and the engineers and technicians would take over. He was curious as to how they would be able to use the insights gained from all those years of research to tweak the waking process into something better. He shrugged. There was nothing else to do but wait and see how it would be once they reached Aurora.

  Even though his task at hand occupied his mind most of the time, there were times when he'd put his research aside, and contemplate something that had bothered him ever since they left Earth orbit. It would creep up from the back of his mind; a mystery he couldn't seem to solve properly, and once it came over him, he couldn't shake the feeling, even now. Back on Earth there had been a lot of arrests, both before and after launch. So many people had been revealed as having been part of a conspiracy connected to Project Exodus. Even the director, Senator Buchanan, had been one of the conspirators, and rumors had it there might even be conspirators on board. In the early days, there was talk of sabotage, but now that they had travelled so far, he for one didn’t believe that anymore. There had to be something else, but what? And the thing that really made him wonder was the fact that no one, as far as he knew, had been arrested aboard the Exodus. If the director had been involved, surely there had to be someone on the Exodus itself.

  Having mused over the possibilities during this past year, privately, of course, since such matters weren’t discussed openly, he had come to his own conclusion that there was no plan to disrupt or sabotage anything. What purpose would be served at this point? But his presence on the ship was puzzling. In Andrews’s America, he wouldn’t normally have stood a chance of being among the few selected for such a journey as this. Even though he’d never been vocal when it came to his political views, in a society governed by the fear of real and imagined enemies, he knew it was naïve to think that he’d escaped being monitored by the ever-present eyes and ears of the government. And, that being the case, why would someone with views contrary to the current administration’s be selected? The only possible answer he could envision was that someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that critical voices and dissidents were allowed on board. The goal of that might actually be to make sure the values and principles that had been gradually torn apart after Mars
and Seattle would be brought back to life on the new world. That would surely have meant that even more people in the security services, the FBI, and the project had to be involved. And it definitely had to mean that someone close to Havelar, who had been appointed by the president to become acting governor as soon as they established themselves on Aurora, would have to be involved too, in order to divert attention from such people even after the starship left Earth. But who? It was impossible to know for sure. Besides, he had already decided to leave these things be for the time being. After all, if he was right, someone was protecting him and others, to make sure they made it safely to the new world. And what if he did discover who that someone was? If he dug too deeply into this, he might end up helping those who would rather see the new world populated with obedient conformists; to build a world in the image of Havelar and Andrews. No, he would keep his thoughts to himself. He would do as he’d done for so many years back on Earth; observe and keep his mouth shut.

  The alarm sounded throughout the ship, loud enough to hear, but not so loud that people would be unable to focus or concentrate on their immediate tasks. Kenneth Taylor started as he heard the sound, and immediately left the lounge compartment where he’d been relaxing after having too large a dinner with a couple of the others. He quickly ran over to the console by the door and saw that this was something he should stay out of. There were already technicians working on the problem, and although the maintenance bots were capable of dealing with all sorts of situations, he felt more reassured knowing there were actual humans around who had the insight and knowledge to handle this.

  The door closed automatically as he stood there; a safety precaution in case of a hull breach. That way, if they lost one compartment the others would hold, and losses would be minimized. He sat down again, took out his tablet, and logged on to the open comms channel, where he could follow the crisis as it unfolded. In deep space there was very little that could interfere with the starship, but one of the things they had occasionally seen were meteors. He had no idea where they came from, or whether they orbited some distant star or were rogues such as the planet that had hit Mars. But they were out there, and in this instance, it seemed the ship had come too close to a meteor tail, where microscopic pieces of debris had hit the ship. Although the pieces were small, the speed of both the comet and the Exodus meant they hit with tremendous force, causing damages much larger than their size would imply. According to one of the technicians, speaking rapidly as she checked the status of each and every compartment, there were two breached hulls, the thing they feared the most. The lesser damages would be taken care of by the bots, with no need for human intervention. However, there was a fist-sized hole in the stowed magnetic sail, which would require one of the human technicians to inspect it before deciding what to do with it. Normally that would be an easy fix by the bots, but there was a danger of damaging the sail even more, so a human would have to make a decision whether to leave it as it was or to attempt a repair.