“I wasn’t sure I’d make it today,” she answered, as she took a chair and moved it closer. He thought she smelled like almonds. A sweet smell, but not obtrusive, just a hint. He coughed, staring intently at the screen.
“So… Let’s do this, shall we?” She gave him a quick nod. He tapped lightly on the screen and a questionnaire opened. He hesitated for a second.
“It’s all routine, you know. Some of these questions are… Well, a little intimate,” he said. She laughed, but there was a hint of something… Distaste perhaps, although it could just be something he imagined. He shook it off, and they started filling in the form together.
Afterward, Thomas leaned back in his chair, not knowing what to say. Maria sat quietly beside him. His cheeks felt hot; there had been a few awkward moments, to say the least.
“So, Thomas… I guess you officially know me better than my own parents now…” she finally broke the silence.
“I never planned on telling anyone about that episode with the instructor…” she said. He shook his head, and looked up at her.
“Don’t worry… This is strictly confidential info. It stays here in the file.” Not entirely true, and she probably suspected, although he didn’t think she had a clue as to why anyone should have to answer such questions. Sexual orientation, detailed accounts of sexual encounters, grandparents’ health issues, eating habits. So many questions that didn’t make sense. Or rather, they didn’t, if not for his suspicions about the HEP. When he took that into consideration, everything fit, like pieces of a puzzle. An especially unpleasant puzzle.
Of course, he couldn’t discuss that with Maria. She was Ramon’s daughter, which meant she had a stake in Havelar’s camp. No, he couldn’t trust her.
They said their goodbyes, and she flashed him a smile as she left him by the door. Afterward, he didn’t feel like doing anything, so he just sat down with a cup of tea, rubbing his chin absently.
Who could he trust? Or rather, where should he start the careful process of linking up with the others of those placed on the Exodus because of Richard Thatcher’s plotting? He didn’t know a single one yet; a security requirement, but damn inconvenient. He’d had his eye on Kenneth Taylor, the shrink, for a while. A very private fellow, with a history of solitude. Thomas had done some research on him, and found very few details from his days at the Space Academy, back in his twenties. There should have been more, and Thomas suspected his late mentor had had a hand in removing vital information about the esteemed professor. Of course, there was always the other possibility, but still a likely candidate.
Then there was Greg Hamilton, admiral and commander of the Exodus. He had been openly opposed to Havelar’s takeover, Thomas knew. The former admiral had hid his disgust well, but Thomas Dunn had a nose for these things. Still, loyal to his instructions, he’d ceded power to Havelar once everyone was safely down on Aurora. Thomas smirked. He’d have to be careful with that one; military types often had some peculiar notions of honor, and he didn’t dare risk anything. Hamilton could end up on either side, and he had no way of knowing which.
The third one he’d been watching for a while was Ramon Solis, Maria’s father. Not the most likely candidate, he knew; Solis was one of Havelar’s closest associates, deeply entwined in the Consortium. The two men went way back, having developed a close business relationship back on Earth. However, those days were long gone, and while Havelar had risen to prominence, Solis had slowly grown irrelevant. Back on Earth, he’d been part of every major decision, since the beginning, and he’d played a valuable part in making the Exodus project a success. Now though, he didn’t have a clear purpose, as far as Thomas could tell. He suspected that Ramon wasn’t actually being pushed aside, but rather that he had chosen to distance himself from the ever more powerful governor. Thomas knew he could be wrong, but he’d keep a close eye on him.
TINA HAMMER
Tina shuddered from the cold gusts bearing down on them from the Rockie foothills. The weather had changed in the last few days. It was still nice, with only occasional rain showers in the evenings, but the temperature had dropped, and everyone knew winter was coming soon. The thought only spurred her on, because she knew once the first snow fell, that would be the end of building season, as everything still had to be done out in the open. It shouldn’t take more than a week to finish the fishing boat she was working on with Dean, so she wasn’t worried. But the one Henry and Kim had started last week was an entirely different matter. They would have to get some kind of shelter for it, or everything they had done so far would be destroyed come spring.
She smiled to herself. Back in Selection, they had discussed what to do once they were settled on their new homeworld. Dean had come up with the idea that they should build ships. Of course, at the time, they had only laughed about it. After all, they were soldiers. What did they know about building ships? But Dean had reminded them of it occasionally, and after a while, they had discussed it more seriously and figured it could be done. Dean knew a little about shipbuilding from having worked at a shipyard before joining the Navy, and the kind of boats they would need in the beginning would be rather simple. By the time they left Earth, Kim and Tina had bought into the idea, and they’d decided they would do this together. Henry was the hardest sell, and hadn’t joined them until they were safely down. Tina guessed he must have realized that his soldiering days were over. After all, with no wars, who was there to fight?
That wasn’t something that concerned her anymore. At some point her hopes and dreams had changed. She had given up on scramjets years ago, and piloting the shuttle had been a different matter altogether. She had been the first human on Aurora after all. What more was there? So she did her duties, and took pride in her job as the executive officer of the Exodus. The thought that her former vocation would soon be obsolete though made her look around, and she discovered there were a lot of other pursuits in life she would like to try.
“I guess there will be a lot of folks coming up here, the way that fucking pinhead is running things down in Andrews,” Dean suddenly said, loud enough to be heard by everyone around. Tina shot a quick glance over at Kim and Henry. Her friends were split when it came to politics, and Dean seldom passed up on a chance to rant about what he once described as “the oppressive bastards down in Andrews and that idiot puppet” — meaning the Consortium and Governor Havelar. She wouldn’t have put it that way, especially not when her best friend was adamantly defending the need for unity and the leadership of Havelar, but she was concerned about the development as well. She didn’t think Henry had heard Dean’s latest comment, or he would have shared an equally eloquent retort. Tina hid her skepticism well enough, but she had to admit Dean had a point. She couldn’t put it all away, like Kim did, but she tried not to focus too much on the bigger issues. Dean though, kept going.
“If you ask me, the admiral should be in charge. Yeah, I know we need a civilian government, and Hamilton is an officer, but he is also a human being, not like those fuckers who still think they’re back on Earth, having the FBI tapping phones and bugging rooms.” She noticed Henry narrowing his brows; he must have heard. Tina didn’t say anything, and motioned for Dean to stop, but he didn’t seem to care.
“You know, this is Aurora! We should have people out there right now, exploring in every direction, building their own farms and shops, not working communal projects. And the boss should be elected, not appointed by some dude who’s been dead for a century and a half!” Tina found herself agreeing with Dean. It shouldn’t matter who an old administration back on Earth wanted to run things here in this new world. It should be up to the people, right here, to decide. And she agreed whole-heartedly that Admiral Greg Hamilton would have been the best leader they could imagine. Having served with him, she knew that he could make the tough decisions, while he also had a gentle side. He had even discussed with her how power corrupts, and how the nature of soldiers in certain instances could turn well meaning, good people into tools of oppression
.
Tina decided she didn’t want to take part in the discussion, as she saw Henry walking over to them. Lately these talks had tended to get uglier than she’d come to expect from her friends, and it was time to take a step back.
“Kim, wanna come with me and get some supper going? I’ve been thinking of chicken lasagna.” Kim complied eagerly, and followed Tina up the trail leading to her cabin. As they entered, they could hear Dean and Henry shouting at each other. Something had to be done about it, and soon. She had come here to find some peace, and perhaps even build something of importance. She had a growing feeling though that the politics of the colony was starting to get too close, and right now she needed something to take her mind off it all. In the back of her mind though, a small voice said that the political struggles had only just begun. Kim laughed, and disrupted her train of thought.
“Those two… Someday, it’s going to get physical.” Tina couldn’t help but smile, and the two women giggled like girls at the thought of the two headstrong men going on about their fucking this and bloody that. No wonder men started wars, while women tended their wounds afterward. Still, in some way, it was depressing: here they were, trying to build boats and find their way around in a new world, and politics were already tearing up friendships.
MARIA SOLIS
Maria straightened and stretched her back, inhaling deeply the smells filtered through her mask, as she took in the vivid red and orange hues of the autumn leaves that littered the ground on the edges of the field. There were evergreens to the north and east, but the trees around Fort Andrews had already started dropping their leaves, and the wind gently rustling the branches caused more leaves to fall. Looking around, she saw her friends nearby, and more people spread out in every direction. This was one of her projects, and the time had come to reap the rewards. A couple of months back, they had planted the genetically modified seeds, and the vegetables were now ripe for harvest. Right next to her, Geena and Tori also decided to take a break, and while Geena was sweaty and breathing heavily, Tori grinned from ear to ear.
“Not your average sci-fi idea of astronauts and space exploration, eh?” she said. Maria just smiled, and Tori continued.
“But this, this is life! We’re growing our own food, guys! I haven’t had this much fun since my teens.” Geena just muttered quietly, which spurred Tori on.
“Hey, I was a farm girl. Me and my sister Johanna used to work the fields every harvest. We were allowed to skip school for a week. Best times of my life.” As she mentioned her sister, she quieted down a bit, and Maria knew why. Tori and her sister had both been picked for Selection, but while Tori just seemed to float through, acing every test and impressing their instructors time and again, Johanna had been kicked out early on, when hundreds were cut every day to weed out those deemed unfit for the then-undisclosed mission. Little did they know it would be the last time they would see each other.
“Farming, bah!” Geena said. “All right, so it has to be done, I know. We need to eat. But what about your greenhouses, Maria? And how about automating all of this?” She flung out her hands, as if to emphasize the obvious. Maria just laughed, before lecturing her friend.
“Come on Geena, it’s just decent, hard work. Don’t worry, most of this will be automated, but this is the first harvest outside the greenhouses. We just haven’t had time to assemble and get everything working yet, and you know it. And if we’re able to use the land outside the greenhouses, too, there will be more room for the sweet stuff, such as kiwis, and grapes, and all the other non-essential produce.” Maria was the authority here, as agriculture had been her chosen specialty since Selection.
Geena had been a math and physics talent even before Selection, and spent most of her days in the astronomy lab, analyzing data collected from the Exodus, which was orbiting the planet. Farming was about as alien to her as… well, aliens.
Tori was more of an all-rounder, having specialized in mechanical engineering, information technology, and electronics. And she’d grown up on a farm. Maria hadn’t known that about her friend. There was a lot she didn’t know about her, since they had only recently begun hanging out together. Actually, she hadn’t known Geena all that well either, even though they met on the first day of Selection. They had been placed on different teams, and hadn’t really spent much time together before landing here. Now though, the two women were among her best friends.
It was funny, she thought, that so many had become close friends while in Selection. It seemed illogical somehow, to befriend your competitors like that. She had spoken to Geena about it once, and Geena had told her she had been wondering about the very same thing back on Earth. Geena had told her she talked about it once with her only friend left from her Selection team, Kenneth Taylor, the psychologist. He had said it only made sense when you let the notion of fully rational behavior go. He had said that humans were only rational, self-serving creatures to a point, and there were other factors that influenced us just as much, such as our social needs or the need to belong. People often need to have their worth confirmed by others, he’d said. Or they might feel the need to destroy something to be really free. Not rational, but profoundly human.
Maria was relieved she had chosen agriculture. Plants were so much easier to deal with than humans. Give them good soil, rich on nutrients, water, and light, and they’d be just fine. You could even tweak their genetic traits, and create new species with more vitamins and stuff that was good for you.
“Bet you two would like to go fishing, too,” Geena said. “You know, up in the camp on the far side of the Trickler, with Major Hammer and the rest of them. They do all that back-to-nature stuff.”
“Sure, I’d love to!” Tori said as she took a big bite of her apple, grinning at the idea. “But I’m needed here, so for the time being I’ll stay. But who knows? I might go up there and build boats. Maybe I’ll even be a fisherman some day. I mean fisherwoman, who knows?”
“Look, Geena, this is a new world,” Tori continued, “and if we are to make this something more than a lab, we need to farm and fish and explore,”
Maria found that she agreed with Tori. She didn’t just run farming projects, although that was her main assignment for the time being. She also hoped to explore Verdi once Jeremiah Lowell and his team set out. Although the expedition to the south had been promptly denied, there were still plans to explore the west. Once this harvest was complete, the plan was that Jeremiah would lead an expedition out, before winter set in. It would only be a few weeks, because they didn’t plan on doing much exploration during winter, but it would be a start. She though it was about time. So far, there hadn’t been much exploration outside the perimeter, because Havelar wanted Fort Andrews to be fully established first. A safe choice, in a way, but the result was that they knew very little of the world beyond the warning signs and quad bike patrols.
“Ah, you’re always so… right!” Geena exclaimed. Kicking at the dirt, she looked like a teenager still, just like Maria remembered her from that sunny morning back in Arizona, when they had first met. She remembered the pink pants, the silver belt, the golden movie-star hair, and the enormous sunglasses. The thing that had made the strongest impression on her, in that absurd situation, was Geena’s wide grin, perfect white teeth from ear to ear. Now, she looked almost grumpy. Maria was about to tell her how it didn’t become her, when she saw the twinkle in her eye. That was the old Geena, she thought. She started laughing softly, and it was as if they read each other’s minds. Geena grinned then, and those perfect teeth lit up the entire world, just as they had on that day so long ago.
BEN WATERS
Ben didn’t know this Thomas Dunn fellow very well, but he’d heard the rumors. They said he was close to Governor Havelar, and being summoned to his office couldn’t be anything good. He’d thought he was finished with being nervous, but something about this man made the hairs on his neck stand up. Maybe it was just the setting, as if being interrogated, or having an important exam. Or it could
be the questions; several of them were way beyond intimate. He noticed Thomas staring at him, waiting.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite catch that last one,” he stuttered. Thomas Dunn repeated the question.
“Did you ever go any further?” he asked. Ben had no idea why he had to answer these questions, which were highly inappropriate. But he had been taught to obey, and to hold a low profile. He shook his head.
“No, sir.” Thomas motioned for him to continue, so he did.
“We never got the chance. I was… picked up by General Hayden’s men, and I never saw her again” Thomas’s hands danced across the keyboard as he entered Ben’s response.
“So you’re still a virgin then? I mean, technically.” Red faced, Ben nodded, staring down at his knees. Thomas must have noticed, because he stopped typing, and gave him a quick smile.
“Don’t worry, kid, your secret’s safe with me.” Then he reached out and got a soda can for himself and another for Ben.
“I’m sorry about all this, you know. But it’s for the good of the community.” Ben eyed him sideways, but said nothing. He opened his can and gulped it all down. Since landing on Aurora, he’d never grown accustomed to the facemasks, so being able to breathe freely felt nice. Downing a full can of soda, and not drinking it through a mask with a straw, felt even better. Still, something about all these questions made him queasy. The feeling of being interrogated wasn’t the only thing that unsettled him. It was also that so many of the questions seemed irrelevant to almost anything. Not to mention the fact that he simply didn’t understand what he was doing here. Why had Thomas Dunn—or rather his employer he’d guess, taken such interest in him? After all, he wasn’t even supposed to be here. The kids from the New Discovery were basically stowaways, and they were lucky to be alive. He knew there had been issues over whether or not to let them on board the Exodus, and if not for Admiral Hamilton and Major Hammer and probably a number of others, they would all have been shipped back to Earth. So if there was some sort of mapping or selection now, whatever could it be? He and the kids had already been through the sessions with the shrink, Taylor something, and also the “debrief” sessions with both administration and military. Their stories were already well known.
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