by Cheri Lasota
“All right, all right.” With a grunt, Tavian extricated the unconscious guard from the closet and propped him up against the bulkhead. That left Solomon sitting on the bucket with the drill pressed firmly against the stunned guard’s temple.
Solomon locked eyes with him. “Keep your mouth shut and slowly move back toward the slider. Are we clear?”
The guard took a moment to consider the alternatives and nodded once, his stare turning more heated as the moments ticked by.
“You want them back in there, Boss?” Tavian asked, grabbing the stunned guard from behind and pulling him out into the corridor while Solomon kept the Taser suctioned to his head.
“Yes.”
When Solomon passed the other guard, the man breathed multiple obscenities under his breath.
“No hard feelings.” Solomon offered the guy a faint smile of apology.
“Someone will find you eventually,” Tavian said to the stunned guard without a hint of remorse, as he clumsily shoved the unconscious guy back into the closet.
“And when they do find us, you can bet I’ll be relaying this incident to Challenge Command, Reach,” the guard said as he stepped back into the closet.
“Say hi for me,” Solomon said cheerfully as he zapped him with the Taser again, tossed the weapon in with him, and shut the slider in the guy’s face.
“What’d you do that for, Boss?” Tavian looked longingly at the slider. “We could have used that Taser.”
“The last thing we need is to draw attention. Last I checked our uniforms don’t leave much room for a Taser holster.”
“All right, but I think you’re just nervous I’ll stun you again.”
“Damn straight, I am,” he retorted.
“Solomon, are you all right?” Dextra asked, touching his recently zapped arm.
“I’m fine.” He rolled his shoulder a bit, contracting and releasing his muscles. He felt much better despite some residual pain. “But we’ve got to go. These delays are killing our time table. I’d say the kid is going to be spacewalking for another two hours at most.”
“Lab Sector next?” Dextra asked, as they headed up the stairs toward the Lab Sector two decks above.
“Yes, we’ll keep a steady pace in there.”
“I don’t get down to the Lab Sector often.” Dextra touched Solomon’s arm. “What do I do if we get separated?”
“We’re heading up to Lab Deck 10 first thing, and we’ll access it aft and head forward through the hydroponics labs and vivaria to the port side labs. If we get separated along the way, we’ll meet outside the slider of the Deck 11 Astro Lab where they keep the empty animal cages. Agreed?”
Tavian and Dextra nodded.
“And what if one of us gets detained?” Tavian asked.
Solomon thought a moment. “To be honest, I hope that doesn’t happen because I haven’t come up with a Plan B.”
Tavian waved a hand at Solomon. “You’re the only one who can’t get caught, boss. We’re not being hunted... as much.”
“Let’s move.” Solomon motioned them on. “I’ll explain all this as we go, Dextra. First up, we’ll pass through hydroponics where we’ll pick up some food.”
“And then take the lower walkway past the Lacuna and Aura Labs?” Tavian asked.
Solomon nodded. “Actually, it’s better to take the upper gangway over the filtration pools on the first leg. Less likely to be seen by the lab techs up there.”
Tavian nodded. “Got it, boss.”
When they finally made it up to Deck 10, sweating and panting from the exertion, Solomon glanced through the window of the Lab Sector’s main slider. On the other side lay an interim room designed as a safety measure in case anything in the Lab Sector escaped its confines, whether it be contaminated air, water, or even animals or insects from the vivaria further forward.
Directly on the other side of the inner sliding door lay the central walkway traversing the length of the Lab Sector. Without the life-sustaining labs and processes on this deck working in harmony, they would all die, most likely by suffocation first. The Lab Sector was so vital that it was strictly off-limits to the majority of personnel in order to prevent contamination. If the Founders did eventually kill him today or sometime soon, Solomon was glad he’d have a chance to see Eden one last time.
It was the first area to be built out, and he used to watch the technicians and scientists as they constructed the filtration systems and populated the vivaria housing the various ecosystems they planned to study on the voyage to the Paradisi Planetary System. Eden was truly a wonder. And he had missed it while he’d been so focused on managing the passenger and cargo bay loading, dealing with Challenge Command politics, testing the thorium reactors, checking and rechecking all engineering systems were a go, and on and on.
After decades of planning, it was maddening to realize the entire mission was now threatened by the greed of his management, the ten Founding Families who had started the secret Paradisi Project way back in 2025. And now he was left to wonder when the Founders had turned against his Reachers. The Founding Families had already saved over 100,000 of their own people and delivered them to the Paradisi System in the Andromeda galaxy. It shouldn’t surprise him now that the Reachers were dead weight to the remaining Founders, garbage to be cast aside in their attempt to make it out of an apocalyptic Earth alive. He only wished he had uncovered their plans earlier.
If he were a religious man, he might have surmised the greedy Founders were getting their just due, like the Pharaoh’s men swallowed by the Red Sea. It was people like his half-sister, Nisolda, who likely still lay in a hospital bed, her body ravaged by a rare mitochondrial disease, who were caught in the crossfire between greed and fear. In the end, he didn’t have time to contemplate the meaning of it all with philosophical debate. He had one single goal: he had to save his crew from getting kicked off the SS Challenge or die in the attempt.
Then again, he had seen the wonders of the stars and planets wheeling in their orbits far above the petty greed and political borders of men. Something happened to the mind at the mere glimpse of planet Earth from space, a profoundly altered understanding of life, even without the benefit of science. As they made their way into the beginnings of Eden, Solomon vowed to make the most of it if this was to be the last time he’d pass through the Lab Sector. At the very least, he knew he’d lose his freedom if they caught him. They’d either stick him in lockdown—the irony not lost on him that he would have designed his own prison in that scenario—or they’d put him into cryo sleep for the duration of the journey to ensure he wouldn’t cause them any more trouble. Or maybe they’d just float him and be done with it.
“Wait. Lab techs are passing by the inner slider.” Tavian stood off to the side, peering through the window again.
Solomon had designed this level with windowed doors, as he knew it would be useful to the lab techs to keep an eye on their experiments at all times, even if they didn’t have time to go into a particular lab, or especially if a lab had gone into lockdown for any reason. Little did he know how useful he’d find it for avoiding those same people.
“Okay to go,” Tavian whispered.
Solomon keyed in the code. The moment the door slid open, a wave of scents and sounds assaulted their senses. Whereas the rest of the ship smelled of plastic and chemicals and sounded perpetually like the dull whir of machines, here the green of growing things surrounded them and the sound of water had a calming effect. Solomon breathed in deeply, catching the pungent scents of rosemary and oregano mingled with the freshness of greens and berries.
“Welcome back to Eden,” Solomon whispered to Dextra, unable to keep the smile from his face. Even a man who lived much of his life in space still found the sensual feast of growing things to be a pleasure. He was human after all.
“Smells like heaven in here,” Dextra whispered. “Wish I came here more often.”
“Me too,” Solomon said, as they all glanced around for any movement across th
e Lab Sector’s main floor and the gangways above them.
To his right lay circular pools stacked atop each other, each holding various kinds of fish in the water below and water plants floating in plant trays above. Several lab technicians were closing the powered plant tray coverings to prevent water spillage during transit.
Further ahead to portside were massive counters of endless starter plant rows. Below the counters, in pristine white cabinets, canisters of myriad seed varieties were stored. When the Paradisi Project first began, the Founding Families had no idea what kind of flora and fauna to expect on the new planet, so they took painstaking care to bottle up every variety of animal and plant they could get their hands on, either to cryo freeze them or extract their DNA or seeds for safekeeping. All of these were kept under lock and key to protect against contamination or sabotage.
Along the starboard bulkhead stood rows of slowly turning rotary hydroponic systems complete with light bulbs at their centers. In the central sections of the floor, Rows of smaller plants to Solomon’s left rose up into the cavernous hydroponics chambers in double helix-shaped supports that eventually connected to the overhead bulkheads. Just ahead, long rows of strawberries and other varieties of berries hung overhead. He and his crew designed Eden to make use of every inch of available space; considering how many mouths they had to feed over the course of the journey, it was a requirement.
Tavian and Dextra pulled down handfuls of strawberries and blueberries, and Dextra passed some to Solomon.
“Eat as much as you can,” Solomon said as he tossed them into his mouth, momentarily savoring their sweet juices before gathering more. He wasn’t optimistic that fruit and vegetables would be sufficient nutrition, but he hoped adrenaline would kick in if needed to see them all through the rest of the day.
“To port?” Tavian whispered. “I don’t see any techs over there.” He pointed toward the area housing the lettuces and greens.
“Yes, and let’s keep an eye on the gangways above,” Solomon said.
Hurrying along the aft bulkhead of the Hydroponics Lab behind the lettuce pods, they passed rows of zucchini and cucumber plants strung up vertically reaching toward an upper gangway running perpendicular to port and starboard.
A technician was checking over a water systems panel on the far port bulkhead, but she was turned away from them. Solomon grabbed a handful of kale and shoved it into his mouth while Tavian broke a zucchini in thirds and gave Solomon and Dextra a piece as they traversed the length of the Hydroponics Lab.
Solomon punched in the override code for the Aura Lab, otherwise known as the CO2 Scrub Room. As they traversed Aura, with its machines lining every inch of the lab’s bulkheads, he briefly wondered if it would be the last time he’d see the scrubbers at their work.
The process was simple: the CO2 the passengers expelled was converted into breathable oxygen via photosynthesis. A beautiful symbiosis of human, plant, and machine—perfect in its simplicity. The machines had a quiet, almost musical hum and whoosh, which always soothed Solomon’s mind when he’d come here to relax during the construction phases of the Paradisi Mission.
He wished he could drop everything and hide out here forever. And again came the thought he might not accomplish his goal. So many things could go wrong. Challenge Command might have even found a way to disable the ship’s hatches and were off-loading his crew right now. That thought spurred him into action, and he picked up his pace.
After they had passed through the first half of the scrub room, they moved toward the Lacuna Lab via the main walkway overlooking all areas of the central Lab Sector: the filtration pools, the farming sectors, and eventually the vivaria. Tavian paused at the slider to the Lacuna Lab, listening. Solomon heard only the fall of rushing water into the filtration pools.
Water was such a precious commodity in space, so to hear that sound of all sounds was a miracle in itself. Even if he hadn’t designed this ship, he’d still be in awe of this mechanism. And certainly he’d had expert help from Reach Corp’s top minds in its design and construction, including the gravity controls and inertia negation required to keep the water in the pools when the ship was on its way. But this lab of all of them was a beauty. Or maybe it was because it had been his favorite thing on the ground.
He loved the feel of water. Much of his early childhood was spent studying in the Baker Library at Harvard Business School while waiting for his mother to finish teaching her finance students. Each night they would walk the Anderson Bridge crossing the Charles River toward home. Solomon would watch the light-play of the sun on its surface for hours and never tire of it. He remembered those as the happiest days of his life. That was before October 15, 2064.
It had started out as any other day in the library. There were parts of it he could not recall while others were burned into his memory like a brand. The acrid odor of gunpowder mixing with the milder scent of the rare books—that he would never forget. Blood pouring from his mother’s mouth as she struggled to scream his name. In his nightmares, he still saw the fear in her eyes as she slumped against the bookshelves. The last thing he recalled was the scar running down the side of the terrorist’s face. And when the man grinned at him, the scar looked exactly like a snake.
Solomon still had no idea how he made it out of that library alive. And he never saw his mother again. He remembered nothing until the day of her funeral, when his father finally came to fetch him. Tears were streaming down his face as he took Solomon gruffly by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes.
“I’m taking you to the stars, Solomon. It’s where you belong. It’s where we all belong.”
“Solomon,” Dextra said, “someone’s coming. Hide!”
Her voice snapped Solomon out of his thoughts of the past. He saw a flash of movement a few yards up ahead and felt the reverberation on the gangway underfoot. The three of them tip-toed up the stairs onto the next gangway above, which overlooked the Lacuna Lab, it’s air cool and fresh compared to the humidity of the Aura Lab. Streams of water spaced widely apart amid endless varieties of water plants originated from giant pipes in the lab’s bulkheads and splashed down via waterfalls, which all fed into a collection basin farther aft.
“There’s another tech.” Tavian pointed toward the far left quadrant of the lab where the tall man was monitoring a bank of computer terminals. “Follow me.”
Solomon and Dextra ducked their heads down. If the tech turned around for any reason, they’d be discovered.
Solomon kept an eye on the tech as they moved quietly above the pools. His engineers had designed them to be aesthetically pleasing, knowing people would come here for solace as well as science. And they were that. They had a natural, unstudied look to them. Otherworldly, almost.
The slider whooshed open far aft. A blue-uniformed Founder lab assistant came in a mere hundred feet behind them, calling out to the technician in the corner, who finally turned around. The guy made eye contact with Solomon, and he knew their cover was blown.
“Run to the exit ahead!” Solomon shouted at Dextra.
“It’s Solomon Reach!” The tech’s voice carried loudly across the water.
“Warn Challenge Command,” the lab assistant yelled back and immediately rushed at Solomon, his boots clanging loudly on the gangway.
“I’ll get the tech, boss.” Tavian was already sprinting toward the technician, who was ringing up Challenge Command on his wrist DOT while preparing for Tavian’s onslaught.
“Head toward the vivarium, Dextra. I’ll try to buy us some time.”
“Be careful,” she shouted to Solomon, as she took off for the Lacuna Lab’s exit toward the Olympia Vivarium.
Solomon turned back toward the lab assistant, focusing all his attention on the fight ahead. By the look of him, this guy wasn’t going to be an easy takedown. When was it ever? He took in a heavy breath and felt the adrenaline rising in his chest. He welcomed it. Solomon balled up his fist and waited.
Two hundred pounds of muscle rushed
at Solomon. Challenge glinted in the lab assistant’s eyes. No shortage of confidence with this guy. The moment the man’s fist was about to make contact with his face, Solomon ducked and punched him in the kidney as he swung down. The assistant hit the railing with a loud thwack but recovered quickly, spinning around to come at Solomon again. He got a solid punch into Solomon’s gut, and the shock of it reverberated through his body, nearly bringing up his last meal of berries and zucchini.
Solomon jumped back to give himself a moment to recover. The guy missed again, his arc going wide. The gangway shuddered as Solomon rushed him, shoving him down onto his back. He landed a square punch to the guy’s nose, which killed his injured hand. It started smarting something fierce, so he moved to punch the guy with his right hand. The guy grabbed his fist and thrust him backward. The move lifted them both to their feet as he shoved at Solomon’s stomach with his boot.
Solomon bent him over backward against the rail. He squeezed the assistant’s neck and lifted him with his other arm over the top rail. The man grunted and struggled against him, arms flailing. Solomon didn’t want to kill him, but he had a feeling he was crushing his windpipe all the same.
The lab assistant’s hand slipped, and Solomon was able to push him over the rail entirely. With a shout, the guy fell several meters down to the lower stream. Solomon, breathing hard, glanced down to see if his head would resurface. When it did, the lab assistant fixed him with a glare and shouted, “Command is going to walk you for this.”
Solomon didn’t disagree as he turned away. He just hoped he’d be able to save his crew before Challenge Command sent him packing into the void. The mere thought of it made him shudder, and he tried to shake the sudden fear out of his shoulders and aching hands.
He glanced over at Tavian, who had the tall, skinny technician on his stomach, hands behind his back. The guy was screaming obscenities and squirming like a toddler throwing a tantrum.
“Can it before I punch you out,” Solomon said, the racket instantly making his headache.