by G J Ogden
Ethan shook his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted, as much to himself as to Diana. “If you’d have asked me before all this had happened, I would have said no, because I didn’t see a future for me, or for anyone planetside, if I couldn’t understand what had brought us to this point.”
“And now that you do understand?” Diana asked.
Ethan exhaled deeply. “Now I see how precious what we have on the planet really is,” he said. “A new beginning, free of the past, and not condemned to repeat the same mistakes. We came together in our bleakest moment, and we survived and still look out for each other today.”
Diana nodded. “Yes!” she said with renewed vigor. “That is what I want for the people living here; a new beginning. Even if it means we have to struggle and endure, even if many of us die to get there, or die on the planet. It would be worth it so that we can begin again, don’t you see? So that our future generations will survive and thrive, free of the past, just as your people are.”
Ethan thought of Elijah and felt deeply ashamed. “I can’t help you,” he said. “I already had what you want, and I turned my back on it.”
“There’s still time, Ethan,” said Diana. “There’s still time for us both.”
Ethan looked at Diana leaning over the railings, head turned towards him, her straight, red hair hanging down over her cheeks, hiding her ears and drawing even more attention to her powerful, green eyes. Recent events had made him question his ability to judge character, but Diana was heartfelt and seemed deeply sincere. He wished he had paid more attention to his doubts when on the moon base. Compared to Diana, Archer now seemed so obviously fake, and there had always been something nagging at the back of his mind, telling him that all was not as it seemed.
But then there was Maria. She had been a little more guarded and formal perhaps, which was understandable once she was back amongst her superiors, but she was undeniably the same Maria, the same headstrong woman who had woken up in his bed, and made him feel furious and terrified, but also wonderful and alive. More alive than he had felt in a long time, not since that one stolen kiss with Summer years ago. But if what Diana said was true, Maria had played him for a fool. He didn’t want to believe that he could be so easily manipulated, and despite his gut feeling that she was telling the truth, he didn’t want to rule out that it could still be Diana herself that was the master manipulator. But then, if she was manipulating him, to what end? She already had the ship. If she was the aggressor, she would have already used that ship to destroy the UEC base, and would have no need or reason to talk to him. No reason to keep him alive. Or at least, no reason that Ethan could think of. And this was still the missing piece. What did Diana want with him?
“Assuming, for a moment, I believe you...” Ethan said, before hastily adding, “and I’m not saying I do. But, if I did, you still haven’t explained what you need from me.”
“I want you to be our emissary,” said Diana, again confidently and without hesitation.
“Emissary?”
“I want you to be our representative,” Diana clarified. “To introduce us to your people, to show them we are no threat, and to help us become a part of your world.”
Ethan remembered the meeting in the council chambers, and what Administrator Talia had said about the other off-worlders that had come before. He knew how deep their resentment was for these people, because they represented a dangerous link to the past. At the time, Ethan had found this view narrow-minded and xenophobic, but after seeing what he’d seen since, he was beginning to understand Talia’s concerns. These people, whether UEC or GPS, or whatever they were calling themselves now, did represent the ‘old’ world. And despite Diana’s claim that they were separate from GPS and their generations-long war with the UEC, they were still a part of a world that the planetsiders had chosen to leave behind, and forget. Ethan knew that they would not be welcomed. They would be seen as dangerous relics, who could use their knowledge and technology to rebuild the cities and begin again on the dark road that had originally led to the Fall. But this was not something he wanted to bring up with Diana now. Besides, he still wasn’t sure how much he could trust this woman, or even if she was genuinely telling the truth. The only thing he knew for sure was that someone was lying. Whether it was Maria and the UEC, or Diana, he didn’t yet know. And that meant Ethan could only truly trust himself, and his own instincts. Those instincts told him to keep this hidden from Diana, until he knew for sure that she was telling the truth.
“You’ve given me a lot to think about,” he said finally.
“I understand,” said Diana. “I will leave you to think. Take your time, and go anywhere you wish. Down to the plaza for some food, or simply wander and explore the station. When you are ready, come back here and then…” she paused, trying to find the right words, “...and then we’ll see what happens next, together, okay?”
She reached into the pocket of her suit pants, pulled out a small, rectangular card and handed it to him. Ethan took it and looked at it. It was similar to the one Maria had used to open doors on the moon base.
“This is an ident,” said Diana. “It’s an access pass. In fact, it’s a copy of my access pass. I promised that there would be nowhere on this station that is off-limits to you, and I am true to my word.”
“So with this I can go… anywhere?” said Ethan.
“Yes,” said Diana, “although I’d advise against the air-locks leading into space.” It was obviously intended as a joke and she smiled. Ethan did not – he was reminded of his earlier visit to deep space, and didn’t want to think about it again.
“Simply touch it to the silver pad beside the door you want to open and when the panel surround turns green you can enter,” Diana explained. “Or leave, depending on which side of the door you are, of course.” Then she gestured down towards the plaza. “You can also use it to get food, if you wish.”
“And I meet you back here?” said Ethan
“Yes,” said Diana. “My offices are back through that door.” She indicated back towards the door they had gone through earlier in order to reach the balcony. “Till we meet again, young planetsider!” she said, enthusiastically. And then she smiled and walked back towards the door she had just pointed out to Ethan.
***
With Diana gone, Ethan was surprised to find himself feeling anxious and even afraid. He was used to spending time alone on the planet; it was actually something he needed and actively sought out. But here, in this alien environment, he felt exposed and vulnerable. Before, he could think of Maria and draw comfort from knowing that she was with him, and that he was doing something to help her. But if what Diana had told him was true, he was being used to help kill hundreds, maybe thousands. Who knows how many people lived on this vast orbital city, but whatever the number was, he did not want to be responsible for their deaths. He craved the mound and the old tree outside the settlement on the planet, where he would go to seek solace. He missed Forest Gate far more than he had ever expected.
Eventually, he summoned up the courage to push off from the railings and began to wander around the balcony, not really paying any attention to the doors, corridors and rooms that he passed. This circular, central area was huge, he observed, perhaps two-hundred meters across, and each level seemed to have its own network of adjoining areas, like a huge three-dimensional spider web. Strangely, while he could see people walking around on the levels above and below him, there was almost nobody on the same level as he was. He’d seen only two or three others, far on the opposite side of the balcony.
This thought was rudely interrupted by a loud gurgle from his stomach, and he realized that he was actually quite hungry. He fiddled with the square slab in his pocket, remembering what Diana had told him about it also allowing him to get food, and decided to make his way down to the plaza. He looked around for an elevator, or at least something that resembled one, surmising that they must look pretty much the same here as they did on the moon base. He spotted a l
ikely candidate about twenty meters away and started walking towards it, but then something caught his eye. It was a huge door, set back from the balcony edge. It reminded him of the doors in the city space port back on the planet, where he had first met Maria, and where he’d later made the fateful decision to have himself blasted into space with her. Ethan approached it more closely and noticed a sign, surrounded in a red and white striped border that read, ‘Restricted Area – Level C9. DO NOT ENTER’. To the side of the large door was a smaller door, and next to this was a square, silver pad. Ethan reached into his pocket and pulled out the ident card that Diana had given him. Written on it was, ‘Diana Neviah – C9’ and a picture of Diana’s face, framed by her red hair. He looked at the picture. The green eyes stared back. The thin, red lips were pressed together, not smiling. She looked younger in the photo and, despite not smiling, somehow happier. He read the name again, ‘Diana Neviah – C9’, then looked again at the sign on the door: ‘Restricted Area – Level C9’.
He stood for a time with the square card in his hand, looking at the door. Diana had made it clear that nowhere was off-limits; she had made a point of it more than once. But she hadn’t mentioned any restricted areas. Did she secretly want him to go in here? Or was she just trying to show that she trusted him, by giving him access to all areas, but trusting also that he wasn’t stupid enough to enter a restricted area? He flipped the pass over and over in his hand, tossing the different possibilities around in his mind. Maybe behind this door there was something to help confirm Diana’s story, or throw it into question. The temptation proved overwhelming. Ethan walked up to the door and pressed the ident against the silver square to its side. Moments later, a green border lit up around the square and he heard a solid, mechanical thud from within the door. He pulled the handle, and it opened.
Chapter 25
Ethan walked through the door and let it close behind him. As the latch clicked into place he heard the same mechanical thud as the door locked shut again. He was in an empty room, colder than the balcony area and with only one dim lamp for light. The air smelled stale. At the other end of the room, about ten meters away, was another door, the same size and shape as the one he’d just come through. He walked over to it and saw another sign. It was covered in a layer of black dust, which was slightly damp and as a result had turned into a sort of oily grime. He touched the door and it felt colder than the first. Using the sleeve of his flight suit, he wiped away the grime on the sign, leaving black smears on the coarse fabric and on the smooth material of the sign itself, but it was still clear enough to read. There was a word he did not recognize followed again by, ‘DO NOT ENTER’. He looked for the silver square, and found it, masked by grime, in the same location as on the other door. He wiped away the grime as best he could and stood looking at it.
The first door had been a simpler choice. There didn’t seem much danger, and curiosity, fueled by a resolve to this time not be coerced or hand-held had made it a relatively easy decision. But this room was different. From the taste of the air, and the dirt and darkness, it was clear that no-one had been inside for a long time, and that this second door had stayed shut for at least as long. Ethan’s senses were heightened, on edge. He knew this was dangerous, reckless even. But it was recklessness that had led him here, alone, the only planetsider to have left the planet behind and step back in time, into the middle of an ancient war in which he had become a key player. The risks he had taken to be here had been because of someone else. This he would do for himself; his choice for his own sake. Perhaps behind this door there was something to help make sense of everything, or perhaps it was part of another trick, another lie.
Ethan pressed the card against the grimy, silver square and waited. Nothing happened. He removed it and scrubbed again at the panel, clearing more of the black sludge away. Then he took a deep breath, exhaled, and pressed the ident to the panel again. A few seconds later, a dim greenish border appeared around the panel, followed by three dull, mechanical thuds, heavier-sounding than with the first door. Thud… Thud… Thud. A hiss of air escaped through the cracks and the door crept open, creaking at the hinges, and scraping away a layer of dirt to reveal a clean wedge of gray flooring. Ethan nervously looked through the crack that had opened. Beyond was a corridor, again dimly lit, but the air smelled fresher. He pushed at the door to widen the crack far enough to squeeze through and stepped into the corridor beyond, leaving the door open behind him.
Ethan walked cautiously forward, wincing at each thump of his boots on the hard floor, which seemed abnormally loud in the total silence of this environment. The corridor widened into an open area, which looked like a smaller version of the central plaza, with glass-fronted rooms lining the walls, and benches and stalls in the center. Some of the windows were smashed and Ethan could see, further ahead as the space opened wider, that there were metal beams hanging down, with bundles of cables tangled up with them, and debris littering the floor. There was some artificial lighting, at a high level, above the glass-fronted rooms, and some at floor level, like illuminated paths, but the main light source seemed to be ahead, filtering down from above. Ethan walked further into the space, tip-toeing around the larger chunks of debris and trying, unsuccessfully, to avoid stepping on glass. The sound of it shattering underfoot was excruciating. He reached what looked like the central point of the wider space and looked up at a series of balconies layered above him. It was exactly like a smaller version of the plaza area he had just left. Some of the glass-fronted rooms on the lower level had displays of items. In one, dusty clothes hung from life-sized models of people, arranged into poses. Other rooms had different objects inside, and some rooms appeared empty. He looked for an elevator, but then thought better of it. This place was old and broken and the last thing he wanted was to get stuck here. Instead, he dusted off a bench and sat down to think.
It would have been an impressive place once, Ethan considered. His gaze landed on a part of the dome at the very top of the central area, through which the starlight was shining and casting a silvery glow over everything beneath. A large section of the dome was covered, as if a huge hole had been gouged out and then hastily patched up. It reminded him of how the dome on the moon base had ‘healed’ itself after the attack. Then Ethan noticed other similar sections of patchwork in the walls, like old scars that had never fully healed. The damage suggested the reason this place had been evacuated and now lay abandoned. But it was clearly intact and habitable, and would merely need some cosmetic improvements, so why had it been left to rot, Ethan wondered?
Then there was a sound, like a shard of glass scraping along the hard floor. Ethan froze, trying to place it, trying to confirm if it was real or in his imagination. The air was completely still again. His pulse began to climb. He held his breath to remove even the sound of his own breathing, and listened hard. The sound came again, and then movement. There was the unmistakable sound of footsteps, but these were not clean steps; it sounded as if the boots were stepping and then dragging along the floor. But where was it coming from? And how many feet? Ethan could not tell. He stood up, very slowly, trying to remain silent and calm. He closed his eyes, trying to pinpoint the location of the sound. The slow, drawn out steps were coming from inside one of the glass-fronted rooms. He couldn’t tell exactly which, but he could place the direction, and it was from behind him, between him and the doorway to the main part of the station. He backed away, trying to maneuver himself to the opposite side of the corridor to the footsteps, and started to slowly retrace his path. He looked around and saw a section of metal pipe about a meter long on the floor. He picked it up, and it felt reassuringly weighty in his hand. It would suffice as an improvised weapon, should one be needed. He hoped he wouldn’t need it. Ethan tried to quicken his progress without making too much additional noise. He stepped sideways, facing where he thought the sound was coming from, but as his pace quickened, so did the frequency and volume of the noise from the darkness ahead of him. He was being stalked, or
hunted.
“Show yourself!” shouted Ethan into the blackness, and then immediately regretted it, as his voice sounded weak and unconvincing. Come on Ethan, pull yourself together… he chastised himself. He looked towards his destination. He was perhaps a hundred meters from the corridor leading back to the second door, but in less than twenty meters the space between him and the other side of the corridor would narrow, and whatever was lurking in the shadows would be forced to show itself. He continued on, stepping side-to-side, metal bar raised, gripping it so tightly that his fingers were beginning to numb. Then he stumbled over some loose rubble that was littering the floor and fell. The bar slipped from his hands and rolled down the corridor away from him. The noise was agonizing, like a bell being rung, inviting whatever hunted him to attack. Ethan scrambled to his feet, but remained crouched low, ready to spring in any direction and sprint to safety. The bar finally came to rest and there was again silence, for a short time, before the scraping resumed. Ethan stayed low, motionless, watching. Slowly, out of the darkness a figure emerged. As the silvery light caught its features, Ethan recognized it immediately and his stomach twisted into knots. Panic threatened to overwhelm him. It had the same long, gray face, the same sucked in cheeks and straw-like gray hair, lifeless like dried weeds. And the same cold, black eyes, which were fixed on his. It was one of the maddened, there was no doubt in his mind, and Ethan knew that he had to run.
He pushed off and accelerated as fast as he could, using all his effort. The harrowing sound of scraping glass and debris behind him told Ethan that the creature was chasing him. The detritus littering the hallway made it difficult to accelerate, and Ethan found himself struggling to get a good footing and run at the speed he knew he could, and that he knew he needed to in order to evade this thing. He approached a broken wooden bench and pushed it as he passed, scattering fragments of wood along the hallway in the hope of creating an obstacle to his pursuer’s progress. He chanced a look back and wished he hadn’t, as the maddened creature ploughed through it, undeterred.