by P. T. Hylton
CB forced himself to look at the screen.
He’d seen the creature hundreds of times, but it never failed to make him shudder. Huddled in the corner and looking directly into the camera, the creature looked more animal than human. Its ears, teeth, and fingers were longer than any man’s, and its eyes were as red as the blood for which it hungered. The feral creature was New Haven’s sole vampire.
Chapter 4
Alex’s feet slapped the concrete as she ran through the Hub. It was midmorning the day after she’d been reprimanded by CB and the general. She’d spent the last hour cleaning latrines, and now she needed to sweat a little. Runs always helped clear her mind, too. Things that seemed complicated often clarified themselves after a few miles of running.
After a night of reflecting on the jetpack situation, she understood why the general had been upset. More than that, she knew he was right. Her actions had been rash, and she’d put herself in danger with untested equipment. It had been the wrong move, even if it had achieved a positive result. But she also knew what had driven her to do it: she loved the Ground Mission Team more than anything, and she wanted the best possible equipment for her teammates.
Before she’d joined the GMT, she’d been a traditional badge—an officer of the law. While that had been rewarding in its own way, it had been a means to an end. She’d wanted to be a member of the GMT for as long as she could remember. She’d wanted to set foot on the surface of Earth, the place humans had lived for most of their history. The place humans belonged.
Here aboard New Haven everyone had a job to do, and all those jobs added up to keeping the massive airship in the sky. It hadn’t been until the first time she’d stood on the surface of Earth that she realized how different things were there. It felt like home. Standing there had felt right. For the first time, she’d understood that humans didn’t have to exist simply as tools to keep New Haven functional. On Earth, she’d felt free.
She’d tried to explain the feeling to a couple of non-GMT friends, but she couldn’t properly put it into words. Her friends had looked at her like she was crazy. Maybe that was part of the reason she’d been spending less time with them over the past six months and more time with her teammates. There was a bond among those who’d been to the surface, a shared knowledge that others just couldn’t understand.
The streets were quiet this morning, and the sun shone brightly through the windows of the ship. Alex wiped a forearm across her brow, sweeping away the sweat before it fell into her eyes. She pushed a little harder, increasing her pace.
Up ahead, she saw a familiar building. She’d spent twelve years there, learning history, math, and science. As she approached, she glanced through a window into a classroom of twenty or so children she guessed were about ten years old. She hoped they weren’t giving their teacher as much trouble as she had given hers. It was strange to think these kids would live their entire lives aboard New Haven while the great big Earth sat below them, not a single human on its surface.
Seeing the children brought on another passing thought: as a member of the GMT, she had the right to have up to three children. Births were highly regulated on New Haven; they had to be if the proper population required for the safe operation of the ship was to be maintained. A baby boom would be a disaster, stretching the limited space, food, and other resources past the breaking point.
Couples on New Haven were allowed to have two children, no more. The GMT was the exception. Probably because so many of them didn’t live long enough to start a family.
Alex wasn’t in a rush to have kids, but having the option of having three kids was nice. For now, she just wanted to be the most kick-ass GMT member CB and the general had ever seen. If she got lucky, maybe she’d have the chance to make a real difference in the future of the kids in that classroom and everyone else aboard.
It was a long shot, but on runs like this she often dreamed that she’d one day help humanity return home.
***
Jessica Bowen, Director of Engineering, stood in the center of the control room, surveying her team hard at work all around her.
The Engineering control room was hidden away in the depths of the airship, and most residents of New Haven rarely gave it any thought. It wasn’t like the Agricultural section, which covered a significant percentage of the ship’s surface. Most residents didn’t go more than a day or two without seeing the fields of corn, wheat, and vegetables covered by a glass dome that darkened to simulate night twelve hours each day.
Jessica had to admit that there was something beautiful about the fields, something that screamed Earth. Not that she’d ever actually been down to the surface. But the pictures and videos she’d seen resembled the fields more than anything else on the ship. It felt especially Earthy when the gentle, artificial mist fell on the crops, gathered by the ship from cloud vapors.
But just because people didn’t think about Engineering didn’t mean it was any less important. That was part of the reason Jessica loved her job. She was surrounded by the guts of the ship, the moving parts that kept humanity afloat and alive.
She cleared her throat and addressed her four-person monitoring crew. “All right gang, hit me with the numbers. How we doing?”
She’d addressed the question to everyone, but Steven, the newest member of the crew, was monitoring the power levels, so he was expected to answer.
“Um, we’re looking good, Jessica.”
“Care to be a bit more specific?”
Jessica waited as the young man frantically scanned the monitors in front of him for the required information.
“Um, okay, here we are. Cruising altitude holding steady at just over twenty-five thousand feet above sea level.”
“Twenty-five thousand, one hundred sixty-two,” another crew member interjected.
“Right,” Steven said, clearly a little flummoxed. “Speed four-hundred-two miles per hour. Current location, just off the tip of the land mass that was formerly known as the nation of Australia. Power levels holding steady.”
Jessica nodded toward Steven. “Good.”
The kid visibly relaxed now that his report was over.
On most days, Engineering did very little. The ship’s auto-regulation systems kept things running smoothly the majority of the time. The computers flew the ship near the poles—the south pole half the year, and the north the other half—at the exact correct speed so that they were always in sunlight. They traveled with the rotation of the Earth, maintaining speed and altitude through a combination of solar and nuclear power.
Jessica wasn’t one to be complacent. The only reason things ran so well was because previous generations of engineers had worked hard to make it so. She intended to leave New Haven to her successor in better condition than she’d found it, so she was constantly looking for new, better ways to do things. Questioning was part of her nature.
She still remembered a conversation she’d had with her mother shortly after she’d toured the Engineering department as a teenager.
“Don’t you think all the work we put into staying in sunlight is overkill?” she’d asked her mother.
Her mother had smiled. She’d always encouraged Jessica’s questions. “You know what dentures and vampires have in common? They both come out at night.”
Jessica had chuckled. “I know that. But do we even know if the vampires are still alive? They need blood to survive, right? And even if they are alive, we’re at twenty-five thousand feet.”
“It’s a fair question. One of the reasons is that the ship is partially solar powered. Haven needs all the sunlight she can drink.”
“What’s the other reason?”
“We really don’t know what the vampires are capable of. They’ve had the Earth to themselves for one hundred and fifty years. I’d like to think we’re safe up here. On the other hand, we’re the last of humanity. As far as we can tell, the vampires don’t even know New Haven exists. Best to keep it that way.”
“Ma’am, there�
��s something you should see.” Steven’s voice brought her back from the memory.
She marched to his station and saw a red light flashing on one of the monitors. It was a motor in the temperature-regulation system. Not vital to keeping the ship in the sky, but things would get pretty cold in New Haven if that went out.
“Check the inventory for a backup unit,” she said.
Steven’s fingers danced on his keyboard. “Um, that is the backup unit, ma’am. Looks like the primary went out last year. We requested the Council send the GMT down for a replacement, but the request is still pending.”
“After a year?” Jessica shook her head in disgust. She stormed back to her desk and radioed Councilman Stearns’s office.
***
Alex showered after her run, then headed toward the R&D room. She still needed to de-stress, and nothing calmed her like playing with experimental weapons that could blow up in her hands at any moment.
Besides, she owed the R&D department a report on how the jetpack operated.
To call Research and Development a department was a bit of an overstatement. It was really one man, Brian McElroy, and a dozen or so assistants. Brian was a certified genius with a curious mind, a sleep disorder that let him work long into the night, and a major crush on Alex, one she wasn’t above exploiting when it came time for him to select who would test his latest creations.
Today, like most days, she found him hunched over a circuit board in the corner of the lab. His assistant Sarah saw Alex approaching, but Alex put a finger to her lips.
She snuck up close behind Brian. Not that she had to sneak too carefully. He was oblivious to everything in his world when he was working. She looked over his shoulder to make sure there was nothing too breakable in front of him, then grabbed him from behind in a big hug.
He nearly jumped out of his skin and let out a decidedly unmanly squeal, but when he realized who was hugging him, he quickly relaxed.
“Brian, the jetpack was kick-ass!”
A broad smile broke out on his face. “Good! I’m glad it, you know, performed to your expectations.”
She punched his arm playfully. “It did more than that. It was like the thing was obeying my every thought. I was corkscrewing, flipping—you name it.”
“Wait, you were doing corkscrews in the hangar?”
“You didn’t hear? I took it outside.”
Brian’s face grew pale. “Wait, seriously? It wasn’t ready for that. The stabilizers aren’t calibrated for that kind of wind.”
“Relax, buddy. It worked great.” She glanced a Sarah, who was watching the awkward interaction with a smile on her face.
“It must have gone well,” Sarah said. “We just got the City Council’s requisition. They want two dozen more of these things in three months. Between that and everything else our boy Brain is working on, we’ll be pulling some long hours for the foreseeable future.”
“You’re welcome,” Alex said. She leaned against Brian’s desk. “So you’re working on other stuff?”
Brian glanced at Sarah. “Should we tell her?”
“Probably not.”
Brian considered that for a moment, then said, “Okay, Alex, but you can’t tell anyone.”
Sarah groaned. “If you’re not going to take my opinion into consideration, maybe don’t ask.”
“Seriously, Alex,” Brian said. “I need to tell leadership about it when I’m ready. Can you keep it secret?”
That was part of the reason Alex pushed him on this kind of stuff. If it were up to him, he’d keep tweaking things until they were perfect. If it hadn’t been for her “accidentally” letting something slip to CB, the jetpack would probably still be sitting in this room, untested. “Yeah, of course I’ll keep a secret.”
“Good.” Brian scurried across the room and pulled something out of a drawer. He tossed it to Alex, but the throw was off target and she had to lunge to catch the small object. “Look familiar?”
She weighed it in her hand. “It’s a bullet.”
“Yes!” Brian smiled like she’d just solved a tough math equation. “But it’s a better bullet. Think of it as a hollow-point round taken to the next level.”
It felt pretty ordinary to Alex. “You have my attention.”
Brian was talking faster now, getting excited. All his shyness and awkwardness disappeared when he started talking about his work. “This thing explodes just after impact. It was difficult to get the timing down, but I think we’ve finally nailed it. You shoot a vampire in the neck with this thing, it’ll take its head off.”
“That’s fantastic.” Alex was tempted to hug Brian again, but she didn’t want to overdo the flirting. “Can I take some with me? Test them on the shooting range?”
The smile disappeared from Brain’s face. “I wish that were possible, but you know it isn’t. General Craig needs to approve the design before we can test it.”
Alex sighed. “Okay. You can’t blame a girl for trying.” She headed toward the door. “Stay brilliant, you two.”
***
After Alex left, Sarah waited ten minutes, then slipped away. She hopped in her cart and left GMT headquarters. After taking a few unnecessary turns to assure herself she wasn’t being followed, she cut through Sparrow’s Ridge and headed for the Hub.
She parked her cart a block away from the City Council Building and approached the rest of the way on foot. Once she was inside, she headed toward a service elevator in toward the back of the building. Using the keycard she’d been given, she let herself into the restricted area and made her way to an unmarked door. She knocked three times, then waited.
After nearly twenty seconds, a voice said, “It’s safe. Come in.”
She opened the door and slipped through the back entrance to the office of Councilman Fleming.
“Were you followed?” Fleming asked.
Sarah shook her head. “I doubled back twice like you said.”
“Good.” Fleming leaned forward and smiled. “Now tell me what the GMT R&D department is working on.”
Chapter 5
Alex arrived at the GMT workout facility just after lunch. The place was more crowded than usual. Her teammates Drew, Firefly, and Owl were working out with free weights, and two non-GMT members, Wesley and Thomas, were sparring on one of the mats.
CB had identified and trained five candidates for the team just in case the need for a replacement arose. Wesley and Thomas were the best of these candidates. Both were employed as badges, and they spent as much time as possible here working out with the team. It was clear they both badly wanted a spot on the GMT. Alex could relate. She’d been in their position not so long ago.
Alex walked toward the climbing rope. She pushed her body hard on her daily workouts, and it showed. Her peak conditioning was the product of long hours in this gym. She paused next to the sparring match, allowing herself a moment of fun before she went to work.
The two men circled each other like animals. Alex knew they were fast friends, but that didn’t matter here. Every moment in this gym was another chance to impress the real members of the GMT, and neither of them was going to waste it. Thomas was the bigger of the two, but Wesley was quicker. Thomas threw his head to the right in an obvious feign, then lunged at Wesley, swinging his right arm in a roundhouse punch. The smaller man didn’t fall for it, and he easily stepped aside. As Thomas reached him, Wesley spun, slamming into the taller man’s back and driving him to the mat.
Alex couldn’t help but smile. “Nice move!”
Wesley smiled back at her sheepishly. “Thanks.”
“Alex is easily impressed.” The voice was Firefly’s. Alex hadn’t noticed that he was watching too. “Councilman Sterns could have dodged that punch.”
Alex frowned. “Give the kid a break, man.”
“A break?” Firefly laughed. “This kid could be watching your back someday.” He turned to Wesley. “Want me to teach you how to dodge a real punch?”
Wesley and Thomas exchanged n
ervous glances. Then Wesley looked up at Firefly. “Yeah, of course.”
Firefly smiled. “Good.”
Wesley started to stand, but before he could get all the way to his feet, Firefly dashed forward and drove his fist into Wesley’s stomach. Wesley crumpled to the ground.
Firefly shook his head. “See what I’m saying? It ain’t so easy when it’s for real. Stand up.”
This time Firefly allowed Wesley to finish standing before he attacked again. Wesley moved to his right, but not quickly enough. Firefly’s fist connected with his ribcage.
“Firefly, that’s enough!” Alex was surprised at the fury in her own voice.
Firefly looked at her with surprise. “Enough? It’s not nearly enough. You think there’s any vampire on Earth as slow as me? If he can’t handle a little sparring, what’s he going to do down there? He needs to learn a lesson.”
Alex stepped onto the mat. “Okay, let’s show them something. Why don’t you throw a punch at me? We’ll see how that goes for you.”
Firefly smiled. “Yeah, okay. I think I’ll just—”
He swung his left fist toward Alex’s jaw in a tight hook, but Alex slid right, easily dodging it. She could have struck back and ended it there, but she wasn’t ready for it to be over.
She took a step back and smiled. “Well, you’re right about one thing. There aren’t any vampires as slow as you.”
Firefly shot her a cocky smile, then lunged forward. His body uncoiled as he attempted to punch her in the stomach. This time, she didn’t just dodge. Mirroring Wesley’s move against Thomas, she spun, driving her elbow into Firefly’s back as his momentum carried him past her. He landed face first on the mat with an oomph.
Alex turned to Wesley and Thomas. “There’s always somebody faster than you. If you want to be on this team, you gotta learn that right now. Vampires are quicker than any of us. You rely on your own speed, your own strength, your own skill, whatever, you’re dead.” She reached out a hand to Firefly. “The one thing you need to rely on if you’re gonna survive is your teammate.”