Charles had a momentary vision of the bucket of android heads in the storage room aboard the Stellae. “I don’t know. I feel like he knows something he’s not telling anyone. And it stems from the Watcher we have here.”
Wren nodded. “But what would drive Benson to go to the lengths of hiding his presence? He’s free to come and look at the Watcher any time he wants.”
“I haven’t been able to find out yet,” Charles said.
“I have something for you. He spoke to me,” Wren said, sitting back down and pulling up the footage.
Charles remained behind her, the gentle whir of his interior cooling fan clicking to life. He watched the video, seeing their captive pacing around, speaking in its odd language. He heard it repeat a few words in sequence, and he instantly got excited by the prospect of figuring out the language. “I’ll study it. Thank you.”
“Let’s see if you can learn those phrases and reply to him. He might be willing to talk more then,” Wren offered, and Charles nodded, sitting down at the other desk and plugging in.
10
Jarden
Jarden was going to see his family. It was worth the pain and suffering of being alone for the last countless years, and even the crash landing, followed by the bullet to the thigh. His eyes struggled to focus as the vessel they were traveling in hit something and clanged to a stop.
Bree had explained how they were in a lander being pulled by a large chain toward the Pilgrim, which sat at the bottom of the lake. It was amazing how the ship had managed to survive after being down there for so long. Bree looked concerned for him, and when the ship stopped, Flint glanced back, his look giving himself away. Something was terribly wrong.
“What is it?” Jarden asked quietly, not wanting the colonists with them to hear him.
“Nothing. You’ll see,” Bree assured.
The lander entered through the blue containment field. Apparently, they were able to run power underwater. That was why the beacon still worked, even if there was a weak signal because of it. The ship leveled out as Jarden sat up, looking through the viewscreen. He saw the familiar hangar. It was the same model he’d based his own ship’s dimensions on.
It was full of water, and seconds later, a klaxon rang out, a red lamp flashing under the water as the room began to empty out.
“This was an airlock, and we can drain it of water. It’s the best way to come and go from the ship. Pretty cool, huh?” Jane asked, getting an excited reply from Ace on the bench ahead of Jarden. Pretty cool indeed.
His leg ached, but they’d done a good job patching him up. The stasis had allowed the blood to stop flowing, but Jarden knew the bullet was still inside his flesh, and they needed to get it out as soon as possible.
“It’s drained. We can leave.” The woman opened the side door, which hissed open and up, allowing Flint to escape through it. The others followed him, and Bree stayed back to help Jarden out. He tried to avoid putting pressure on the wound but found it close to impossible.
“Where’s my wife?” he asked the new faces. He didn’t know their names yet, but the bearded man just nodded.
“There’ll be lots of time for that. Let’s get you to the medical bay first. My name’s Karl, and this is Jane. Scott was our lead in there, but he’ll be staying behind. You’re Jarden?” the man asked, as if this were so hard to believe.
“That’s me.” Jarden didn’t argue as they helped him into the ship. It was as beautiful now as it had been when he’d toured it so long ago. He remembered the way it had smelled as he first set foot on it. That scent was gone, but his excitement at being back on board after so long remained.
Where was his family? His kids? They’d told him they were aboard, alive and well, and he couldn’t wait to see them. He supposed going to medical first wasn’t the worst idea, but he wanted to see his grown kids and elderly wife with every ounce of his being. It had all been for this. For them. Every day, his obsession had led him to this moment.
The medical bay wasn’t far, and a few crew members looked at them sideways, getting curt explanations from Karl and Jane along the way. The pair sent the onlookers away with half-answered questions and promises of answers soon.
The doors to the medical bay opened, and Jarden smiled at the fully-functioning space around him. A doctor was behind a desk, leaning over a receptionist in uniform. He glanced up and met Jarden’s gaze before rushing over.
The doctor assessed Jarden’s appearance, seeing the blood-soaked pants. “What happened?” he asked Karl.
Jarden noticed Flint and Ace had kept out of the bay, choosing to remain behind in the hallway. He wished he could sneak away to find his wife and kids.
“Jane shot him by accident. It happened so fast,” Karl said. So it had been the woman who’d shot him. She glanced over at Jarden and gave him a look that said, “I’m sorry.” Jarden didn’t blame her. They’d arrived to find a crashed ship and two intruders. For all they knew, the Watchers had attacked them.
Bree helped Jarden into an operating room, and he was placed down onto a table. Something pressed into his neck, and before he could call out his wife’s name, everything went dark.
Jarden awoke some time later. He was in a different room, with three empty beds surrounding him. Soft lights glowed along the walls, and he fumbled along the edge of the bed, looking for the controls. He found them and lifted the bed up, propping his torso up to view more of his surroundings.
“You’re up,” a voice said. It was a voice from his past, so distant, yet so close to his heart. After all these years… he wondered if he’d actually been shot and killed, and was now waking in heaven, where his wife greeted him.
“Leona?” he croaked out.
“I didn’t believe Karl when he came and told me you were here.” Her voice hadn’t changed a bit.
“Come closer, darling. I can’t see you,” he said. She was in the doorway, hidden from the weak lighting. Leona stepped inside, and Jarden’s heart jumped in his chest.
“How?” he asked, tears streaming down his face. She was so young. He raised one hand to her, running the other over his own face, feeling the deep grooves that came with age.
“Oh, Jarden, I don’t know.” Leona sat beside him now; her own tears splashed down onto his hand as she held it. Her fingers were warm and soft on his bony hand.
“I did it all for you. How could you have left me behind like that?” Jarden was usually such a composed man, and part of him felt foolish for breaking down like this. Leona was the one person in the world he could truly act himself around. She alone could soften his hard exterior.
“I thought I was doing you a favor. You wanted to become a titan, and having to think about us all the time distracted you. I thought you’d appreciate it,” she said, still crying.
Jarden cleared his throat. “Leona, I’ve dedicated every minute of my life to getting to you. Every damned minute. And I made it here. Sixty years for me, and it appears as if no time has passed for you.”
“Two years. It’s been just over two years here, Jarden. The Rift must have brought us somewhere with a time dilation or a variance in time relativity. I can’t explain it.” Leona sat closer, nudging her leg against his ribcage as she leaned in. He could smell her now and was surprised at how familiar her scent was.
“As confusing and strange this is, I can’t say I’m not happy that you’re still so young. I was worried I’d arrive to find you had passed, and the kids in their seventies.” Jarden broke his gaze with her and searched the doorway for any more visitors. “Where are the kids?”
“I haven’t told them yet. I needed to see you first. To make sure it was really you. Oh, Jarden. How did you even manage this?” She squeezed his hand so tightly, it hurt.
“It was all worth it. I love you, Leona,” he said, never meaning something so much in his life.
She hesitated. “I… I love you too, Jarden. But things are different. We weren’t in a good place back then. I know you’ve probably replayed our
relationship over in your mind a million times, but…”
Jarden touched her lips with a finger. “I don’t expect to waltz in here and fit right back into your life. I only want to be here if you need me. I want to see the kids and make sure you’re all right. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you all.”
“We’ve missed you too, Jard. We’ve missed you too.”
Ace
Ace slept for longer than he had in years, maybe ever. The bed was comfortable, the room a silent oasis under water. He awoke with a start, pulling his blankets tight, fearing someone was trying to take his meager possessions while he slept on an abandoned church’s doorstep in Old Chicago. Instead, he found himself on a large, soft mattress, with pillows like warm clouds under his head.
He shifted under the blankets, his legs protesting after the rigorous trudge through the forest over the last twenty-four hours. He was underwater. The feeling was so abstract, even compared to being on a ship in outer space.
He’d been fed last night before being ushered into these quarters, where he’d fallen asleep so quickly, he didn’t even recognize the room around him now. Time to get up.
Ace steamed and found a brand new outfit laid out for him by the door. It was an Earth Fleet uniform, navy blue slacks and matching button-up long-sleeved shirt. He’d mostly worn jumpsuits back at boot camp, and he found these clothes fit his thin body better.
He looked in a round mirror to comb his hair, which had grown by several inches since his initial haircut. It still stuck up in odd places, and nothing he did stopped it, so he shook his hands through it, making it all messy. If you can’t beat them, join them.
Flint’s room was adjacent to his, and Ace knocked on the door, wondering if the older pilot was still inside or not. Flint answered; his shirt was half-buttoned, his hair still wet. “Come in,” he offered.
Ace slipped into Flint’s quarters and sat down on a chair to the right while Flint finished getting ready.
“What do you make of all this?” Ace asked, loud enough for Flint to hear him from the other room.
Flint popped his head in the doorway. “It’s not what I expected.”
“And what did you expect?”
“Honestly? I thought the colony wouldn’t exist. I figured they would have traveled through the Rift and been blown up by a waiting Watcher fleet. Or they would have made it to a hostile world and perished trying to survive.”
“You were right about one thing,” Ace said. “The world’s hostile.”
Flint shrugged. “It’s not too bad. I mean, maybe working the land with your hands and getting back to the basics is an okay life. It sounds like the other predators aren’t very friendly, but other than the Suckers killing anything electrical, the world is nice. More than nice. It’s kind of perfect if you can deal with those two issues.”
Ace was surprised to hear this from Flint. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. Few enemies, plenty of food, and shelter. Maybe I could see myself living here.” He’d only recently become a pilot, and he was already talking about hanging up his wings and becoming a farmer.
“All I’m saying is, this could be worse,” Flint said, and Ace saw him grimace as he put the Earth-Fleet-decaled shirt on.
“What about back home? The Watchers invading us, and all that?” Ace asked.
Flint glanced up to meet his gaze. “I know. I don’t know if we can, in good conscience, stay back here while the Watchers destroy our home.”
Ace could understand sticking their heads under the sand. He didn’t feel like he owed anyone under attack anything. The Fleet had only brought him in to use him and the others as fodder for the war. They’d assembled a collection of ships and needed warm bodies to fill the seats. In the end, the Grand Admiral had knowingly sent them to their own deaths.
Still, it felt wrong to ignore it. There were so many lives at risk.
They left the conversation unfinished. “Breakfast?” Flint asked, and Ace’s stomach rumbled in response.
An hour later, Flint said he was heading to a meeting with Karl and asked if Ace wanted to tag along. Part of him did, but another part wanted the adults to sort it out and make his mind up for him. He declined and took the opportunity to explore the underwater colony ship. Pilgrim. Ace liked the name. It had a sense of adventure to it, like an old story from centuries ago.
Ace found himself wandering the corridors until he was lost among the different decks and halls. He read a placard on the wall, seeing he was in section 4A on deck three. Ahead, there was a long window set into the wall. It ran for a hundred meters or so and stood the height of the deck.
Beyond it, instead of seeing space like it was intended for, he saw the murky bottom of the lake. Soft blue lights emanated from the ship’s side, allowing him to see a ways out into the water. A few species of fish-like creatures swam by, followed by a massive black shadow. Ace jumped back as he saw it swim away. It had to be the same thing he’d spotted from aboveground while he and the councilman were walking.
So it was real.
“Pretty amazing, isn’t she?” a small voice asked.
Ace had been so enthralled with the sight, he hadn’t even noticed the girl come to stand beside him.
“She?” he asked.
“Her.” The girl pointed, her finger tracing the movements of the large creature. “We’re not sure, but I consider it a she. What else could be so magnificent?”
“You’ve got me there. She it is. Do you know what she is?” Ace asked, getting a good look at the girl. She was pretty. Ace admired her cheekbones, the way her hazel eyes sparkled when she smiled at him. Her mouth twisted in a cute smirk.
“She’s the queen of the lake. That’s what I consider her. We’ve only seen the one, so we don’t have much to go on, but to be that size, Mom thinks she must have been here a really long time,” the girl said.
“How did she get here, then?” Ace asked, instantly wondering if that was a foolish question.
“The lake has underwater passageways leading to an ocean far away. Mom thinks she came from there.” The girl turned to stare at the moving shadow. Ace tried to get a feel for the shape of the underwater animal and thought he saw a fin like a whale’s. But this was wider, squatter than the old extinct sea creature from Earth.
“I wonder if she’s trapped here?” Ace asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe she came here and grew too big to pass through the underwater tunnels,” Ace said.
She looked thoughtful. “I never considered that. How rude of me.” The girl stuck her hand out. She had an air of protocol and primness Ace was drawn to. “I’m Oliv.”
Ace met her hand and shook it. “Wait, did you say Oliv? You wouldn’t happen to be Oliv Fairbanks, would you?”
“The one and only.” She shot him another smile, and he couldn’t help but feel like he was in a trap.
“I’m Ace. Have you seen your father?” Ace really hoped Oliv knew Jarden was here, and he hadn’t just broken some code of silence or something.
“I knew who you were. It’s not every day a group of people walk up to our colony. Thank you for bringing my dad to us.” Her gaze shifted down to her feet for a moment.
“It wasn’t me… I was kind of along for the ride,” Ace said, not wanting to take credit that wasn’t his to take.
“Cute and humble. I like that. It was nice meeting you, Ace. Hope to see you around,” Oliv said before spinning on a heel and walking down the corridor away from him.
He had no idea what that was all about, but butterflies had found their way into his stomach. This was different than what he’d felt about Serina. That had been infatuation with an older girl far above his station; this was… well, pretty much the same thing, but it still felt different.
Ace turned back to watch the gigantic sea creature, wondering if they were both stuck in that lake for the rest of their lives.
11
Flint
“Flint Lancaster, this is Captain Alden
e Hawk.” Karl motioned to an older woman; her red hair was shoulder-length, and her smile held a grandmotherly hint to it. Flint guessed she was anything but. You didn’t become captain of the one and only colony ship in the Earth Fleet by baking cookies.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Flint said, snapping off a salute.
She waved him off. “We’ve been through too much to worry about protocol like that. Please feel free to call me Aldene.”
“Deal.”
“The Earth Fleet has sent a ship to us. Did they not think we could make it on our own?” Aldene asked.
Karl answered this. “Don’t mind her. She’s joking.”
“Have you spoken with Jarden yet?” Flint asked her, and she shook her head. “It wasn’t Earth Fleet. They didn’t even know he was doing it. He funded the project and did it all behind closed doors. The old codger had to go missing for the last two years to finish it off.” Flint was happy to see her eyes go wide before she regained her composure.
“I knew it! They never gave a damn what happened to this mission. What’s this I hear about the time dilation? Were we really gone for two cycles of the Rift?” she asked.
Flint nodded. “You were.”
“What’s happening back there?” Karl asked.
Flint didn’t know what the man’s title was, but he seemed to be in charge of the colony. Perhaps he led that effort while Aldene was in charge of the Pilgrim.
“War. The Fleet is a mess. Believe me.” Flint left out his own desertion. “The Watchers have come through with a fleet. A big one. We might not be able to defend.”
Aldene slunk down into her captain’s chair and rested a hand on her face. “They did it, did they? The whole point of us coming here was to start a new world, somewhere we could default to if they ever attacked Earth and the colonies. We haven’t been able to do more than grow a handful of crops and build a fence.”
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