by Joseph Rhea
Jake sat back. “Now we understand each other.” He then turned to his first mate. “Call a crew meeting, AJ. I want everyone to hear this.”
Chapter 13
After everyone arrived and seated themselves around the table, Wood cleared his throat and addressed Jake. “Are you recording this, Captain?”
Jake shook his head. “Should I be?”
“For obvious reasons, I would rather you didn’t,” Wood replied, “but just in case you are, I would like to state that I am speaking out of duress, for fear of my life.”
“So noted,” AJ said. “Now get on with it.”
Wood stared at the raised light panel in the center of the table for a moment and then began. “Do you recall what I told you earlier, about the true nature and location of the event we call the Fall of Man?”
“You told us it happened on this world,” Jake said, glancing over at Raines. “In this ocean and not on some other world like most of us believe. Not on Earth.”
“And you said it was a war started by the Betas,” Vee added, “rather than some sort of natural disaster.”
“All true statements,” Wood said, “but that’s not the entire story.”
“What do you mean?” Jake asked.
“I realize that most of you do not believe this version of history,” Wood began, “but assume for a moment that the story I told you was the truth, that our ancestors built their utopian society right here in this very ocean, and it was wiped out by a race of artificial humans that they created.” He looked at the faces surrounding him. “Can any of you tell me what happened to the victors of that war?”
“They left,” Raines said.
“That’s correct,” Wood said. “They left.” He let the words float over the table.
“They left Civica?” Jessie asked. “And went where?”
Wood walked over to the back wall display and turned it on. A view of the ocean beyond the border appeared, and Wood pointed to it. “Out there,” he said.
“So,” AJ said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “You’re trying to convince us that you armed the borders of our colony to protect us from the evil hoards of pureblood Betas that might lie out there, waiting to attack us again?”
Wood walked calmly back to his chair and sat down. “Yes, that is one of its purposes.”
“That’s sludge, and you know it,” she replied. “I see no problem in arming our borders to protect us from outside threats, in fact I would vote for it, but that doesn’t give you the right to kill people who venture too close to that border. You have murdered the very people you say you want to protect.”
Now Wood shook his head. “You people seem to be missing the point. I said that keeping things out was one of the border’s purposes. The other is obviously to keep us inside.” He looked at Raines. “Surely you understand the reason for this, Dr. Raines? Why it’s vital that we do not allow anyone to leave our colony?”
Raines shook his head. “I’m afraid that I don’t.”
Wood faced him squarely. “You know that our systems are falling apart, our infrastructure is crumbling, and our technology is, unfortunately, a mere shadow of what it apparently was in the Pre-Fall world. So tell me, why haven’t the pureblood Betas come back to finish the job?”
“There could be many reasons,” AJ said.
Wood faced her. “Tell me, First Mate, why are the cities of our colony so spread out. Why aren’t they situated next to each other? It certainly would make it easier to transport people and supplies, wouldn’t it?”
AJ looked as though she were about to answer when Ash spoke up. “That’s an easy one. Every dome is separated from the others by at least twenty kilometers on all sides, just in case their primary reactor goes critical. Not that it has ever happened. There are plenty of backups and safeguards.”
“That’s not my point,” Wood said, looking a little more frustrated. “My point is that the cities were moved to their current positions.”
“So?” AJ said.
“If the cities can be moved, what if they were all moved in the past? What if the colony itself was once somewhere else, far away?”
Raines’s face suddenly lit up. “The pureblood Betas haven’t found us because they don’t know where we are.”
Wood sat back and smiled, like a proud teacher whose idiot class had finally understood his simple lesson.
Jake decided to jump back into the conversation. “So, if I understand you correctly, our Council has locked us inside the borders of our colony, unknowingly and against our will, just to keep us from venturing outside and accidentally alerting the evil purebloods of our location?”
Wood nodded. “That is a somewhat simplified explanation, but it is essentially correct.”
“But we have the border defenses,” Vee protested. “Why worry about an attack when we are protected on all sides?”
Raines answered. “Because, as Dr. Wood said, our technology is children’s toys compared to what our ancestors once possessed. If the original Betas had access to that same technology, and were able to preserve any portion of it over the centuries, then they would likely overcome anything we could throw at them.”
“If you pardon my crudeness, it would be a bloodbath,” Wood said then looked directly at AJ. “You said the Council was responsible for the murder of dozens of people, and perhaps that is so. But can you see now that they are also responsible for the salvation of the rest of our colony? Perhaps all that is left of the human race?”
“Killing one person to save a thousand might be acceptable losses in a war,” AJ said, “but those people weren’t killed in a war. They died because the Council didn’t trust us enough to tell us the truth.”
Wood appeared frustrated again and turned to Raines for help. “If we opened the borders, and one single fool took his ship out too far, just to see what’s out there, we could all die because of his stupidity. Surely you understand the reasons for keeping this a secret, don’t you?”
Raines had a look on his face Jake had never seen before. Then he stood up and walked over to Wood. “You killed them!” he yelled and shoved Wood backwards. He flipped head-over-heels onto the floor.
“Grandpa!” Vee yelled.
Everyone jumped up, but AJ got there first and stepped between Raines and Wood. It looked as though the engineer were ready to kill him.
“I had nothing to do with closing the borders,” Wood said.
“I’m not talking about those killed by the border defenses,” Raines said, still fuming but not trying to get past AJ either.
“Then what?”
“I’m talking about the Compass Expedition fifteen years ago.”
Compass Expedition. Those two words just about knocked Jake over. His parents died when the four ships sent to explore the ocean beyond the border failed to return. It hadn’t dawned on him that the Council might have had something to do with their disappearance.
“I was a young man back then,” Wood said.
“You were older than Jake is now,” Raines said.
“But, I had nothing to do with that mission,” Wood said. His former arrogance was gone, and he was almost pleading.
“But you know what happened,” Jake said, stepping up to stand beside Raines. The doctor didn’t seem as impressive lying on the floor. “My parents were on the westbound ship.”
Wood stared at Jake, and a look of recognition came over his face. “Stone,” he said. “I should have made the connection before. I believe I met your parents just before they left.” Then he looked back at Raines. “But if you really want information about the Compass Expedition, you should ask its leader.”
Jake stared at Raines, whose face had lost its former rage and now looked sad. “I should have told you earlier, Jake.” Then some of the anger returned, and he looked back down at Wood. “I sent them out, but your father and the other Councilmembers are the ones who killed them.”
“You can’t know that,” Vee said, coming up beside her grandfathe
r.
“He just about admitted it,” Raines said, pointing to Wood. “He said they couldn’t allow anyone to leave Civica. Back then, the Council wasn’t as powerful as it is now. The scientific community had some backing, and ultimately the voice of the people won.” He looked down at the man on the floor. “They couldn’t stop us from leaving, but they could stop us from making contact with anyone.”
“They rigged the ships?” Jessie asked.
“Most likely,” AJ said, as she walked up to join the others surrounding Wood. “It wouldn’t be hard to plant a time-delayed explosive on the hull. Just a small one, so the ship would implode and not send out a shockwave that we might detect back here.”
“You people are mad,” Wood said, trying to appear defiant but failing.
Jake had heard enough. “I want him off my boat,” he said. “Right now.”
“We’re a long way from any outpost,” Ash said.
“Exactly,” Jake said.
“You can’t condemn me for my father’s actions,” Wood said.
“Watch us,” AJ said as she grabbed one of his arms and pulled him up.
Ash grabbed his other arm, and together they walked him towards the stairs. “Speaking of implosions,” he said, “you’re going to experience one up close.”
“You can’t do this,” Wood pleaded. “You can’t just kill me in cold blood.”
“Watch us,” AJ repeated.
As they headed down the stairs to the lockout chamber, Wood yelled, “Your parents might still be alive, Jake!”
Chapter 14
It took a few seconds for the words to sink in. “Wait!” he yelled. “Bring him back up here.”
When AJ reached the top of the stairs, she shoved Wood into a chair then looked at Jake. “You do know he’s bluffing, don’t you?”
Jake ignored her. “Start talking,” he said to Wood. “You’ve got about a minute to convince me you’re worth keeping alive.”
Wood seemed to regain some of his composure. Maybe he saw through their act; maybe he didn’t. Either way, he finally seemed ready to tell them the truth. “I remember overhearing my father talking with another Councilmember about something called a ‘Rubicon device’ that they were installing in each of the ships.”
“Rubicon?” Jake repeated, remembering a conversation with Raines a few months back. “That’s when you’ve used up half of your fuel, right?”
Wood nodded. “Therefore, it is logical to assume that all of the ships of the Compass Expedition were rigged to fail in some manner if they passed this point, but I assure you that I had no part in that action.”
“But you didn’t tell anyone, so that makes you culpable.” Raines said.
“I was a junior researcher, and I admit that I wanted to impress my father and work my way up in the Ministry of Science.” He looked at AJ. “You don’t get very far in any organization by questioning the decisions of your superiors, do you?”
“So what makes you think my parents might still be alive?” Jake asked. “Even if they discovered the device and managed to disarm it, they’ve been gone fifteen years. They certainly didn’t have enough life support to last that long.”
“It actually has to do with the map you had up there earlier, the one showing the salvager’s navigational tracks.”
“You were asleep in your quarters when I showed that,” Raines said.
Wood shrugged. “It’s not that hard to replace a live camera feed with a loop,” he said. “I was actually listening to your conversation from the bottom of the staircase.”
So, that’s how you knew what we were doing, Jake thought, remembering his conversation in the rec room. Aloud, he said, “What do those tracks have to do with…” Jake’s heart suddenly sped up. “Wait a minute—are you talking about the location west of the border? The place we think the salvager might have picked up the sphere?”
Wood nodded.
“But if we’re right about the numbers,” AJ said, “that’s an eight thousand-kilometer round trip. Nothing can travel that far.”
Wood nodded again. “Exactly. The salvager has an advanced fuel cell that would allow it to travel the four thousand kilometers to that location, but there is no way it could return without refueling.”
“So you think there’s a refueling station of some sort out there?” Ash asked.
“That is one theory,” Wood replied.
“What’s yours?” Jake asked.
Wood started to rise but then seemed to think better of it. “There is no reason for a refueling station to be sitting out there by itself. I believe that there is something habitable there, perhaps an outpost or even a full-sized city.”
“What would it be doing out there?” Jake asked.
“As I mentioned earlier, I believe Civica was once somewhere else. Perhaps it was left behind when we migrated.” Then he did stand. “And, Captain Stone, if I’m correct, then there is a real possibility that your parents could have reached it before any damage occurred to their vessel.”
“They could be alive?” Jake whispered.
“Once again,” AJ said as she pushed Wood back into the chair, “You know he’s making this up.”
Jake glanced at Raines. “What do you think?”
The engineer frowned. “I’m not sure. While I agree with our first mate that the doctor could be fabricating all of this, the fact remains that we have no other explanation of how the salvager could make the trip out there and back without refueling.” He turned back to Wood. “Speaking of which, if the Councilmembers are so concerned about alerting Betas to our location, why did you send the salvager so far outside the borders?”
Wood sighed. “We didn’t send it. The salvager was programmed to search for Pre-Fall devices within a few hundred kilometers of the colony’s borders. Apparently the gentlemen we hired to operate the salvage yard reprogrammed it to travel much farther.”
“Could the ship Jake’s parents were on have made it that far?” Jessie asked.
“That’s an excellent question,” Raines said, “and the answer is yes, it’s possible. All four ships in the expedition had enough fuel and life support for a planned three thousand- kilometer round trip, but if they cut down on nonessential power usages, and the crew agreed to reduce their rations, then it is possible they could have boosted their range by another thousand kilometers or so.”
“But why would they?” Jake asked. “Why would they risk their lives on a one-way trip?”
“My guess is that they picked up some sort of signal from that location,” Wood said. “Why else would they continue so far out?”
“It was why they left,” Raines added. “They were looking for signs of other humans, other colonies out there. That was the very purpose of the expedition. I know if I was on that ship, I would have voted to continue.”
“So, what happened?” Jake asked. “They made it to this outpost, or whatever is out there, and then just decided to stay? If there is a refueling station there, why didn’t they recharge their ship and come back?”
“Their ship was rigged to fail, remember?” AJ said. “Maybe they made it there and then couldn’t come back.”
Jake shook his head, then looked hard at the doctor. “Or maybe they died on the way.”
“You know, there’s only one way to find out,” Wood said.
“The salvager is gone,” Ash said. “We can’t send it to look for us.”
“Pity that,” Wood said. “Perhaps you all should have thought of that before—”
An alarm went off on the bridge, and before anyone could move, the ship began to vibrate violently as it rolled hard to port. Jake had to grab the table to keep from falling down. “What’s happening?”
“Another shockwave,” AJ said, “but this one is big.” She tried to climb up the slanted floor to the bridge, but couldn’t. When the ship began to flatten out, everybody ran to the stairs.
“Lock him in his room,” Jake said to Raines as he headed up.
Wood protes
ted. “If this is what I think it is, you need me up there, Captain.”
“Fine, just watch him,” Jake said as he reached the bridge. He started to run forward when the ship began to shake again as it rolled the other way. “Another one?” he yelled over the noise as he held on to the chart table.
Jessie climbed into the chair next to him. “Recoil,” she said. “Must have been a massive displacement.” When the sound began to dissipate, she put her earphones on and added, “I’ll try to find out what caused this.”
“Check for quakes nearby,” Raines said, and he made Wood sit on the floor next to his engineering station.
“It wasn’t a quake,” Vee said from her helm. She turned on the overhead speakers and a male voice began to speak.
“This is an automated message from the Colonial Guard. An explosion has been detected in the proximity of the New Braska Supply Station. The magnitude of the shockwave indicates a likely detonation of the city’s main reactor. All ships are warned to avoid the eastern sector until further notice.”
Chapter 15
AJ stepped over and shut off the speaker.
“We were just there,” Jessie said as she pulled off her earphones, her face looking pale. “I met people. I got to know people there.”
“Can’t be a coincidence,” Ash said. “That fight in the dock.” He looked at Jake. “Did we cause that?” he stood and glared at Wood. “Did he cause that?”
“Wait,” Vee said. She still had an earphone pressed against one ear, listening to the broadcast. Her eyes suddenly widened before she switched the overhead speaker back on.
“Do not approach or attempt to contact this ship or its crew. I repeat. Any person knowing the current whereabouts of the cargo vessel, Rogue Wave, or its captain, Jacob Stone, is instructed to contact the nearest Colonial Guard vessel immediately. Do not approach or attempt to contact this ship or its crew. I repeat.”
“Shut it off,” AJ said, and Vee hit the switch.