The rain fell in incessant squalls, the result of countless tens of thousands of people breathing the station’s endlessly recycled atmosphere. That atmosphere was tended by banks of aged dehumidifiers, carbon scrubbers and other technical wizardry totally unable to cope with a population ten times what the station had been designed to house. Water vapor built up fast and rose with the heat emitted by the urban sectors and the direct sunlight beaming in through the station’s hard light ceilings, resulting in swift downpours as the humid vapor then condensed back out in the cooler, shadowed sections of the city. The constantly moving vortexes of vapor created spectacular spectral vistas as sunlight beamed in rainbow hues through the falling veils.
Erin blinked herself from her reverie as the Mag Rail train hummed into the platform and its doors opened. Erin squeezed inside with the rest of the drenched commuters and the train’s doors closed as it moved off again.
The beltway, or simply the Belt, was a conveyor system that ringed New Washington and carried commuters and pedestrians along at a spritely pace without the need for the flying vehicles humming through the skies above. As the belt carried Erin away from the towering blocks of Phoenix Heights, so she got her first true sight of that sky.
The perfect blue vault of the heavens was laced with speckles of distant cloud, and Erin could see their shadows beneath them on the surface of the ocean far below. The panoramic view above spanned only a fraction of earth’s surface, in this case the Atlantic Ocean three hundred kilometers below. Erin could see tiny island chains scattered amid the ocean, and across the view stretched immense girders that supported New Washington’s vast ray shielding that kept warmth in and the radiation and vacuum of space out. The surface of the earth also rotated in a dizzying effect due to New Washington’s movement in space.
Built before the scientists who designed such cities had been able to grasp the fundamentals of the Higgs Boson’s control of mass and gravity that now allowed for super luminal velocities in spacecraft, New Washington relied instead on good old fashioned centrifugal motion: the orbiting platform spun at a rate sufficient to generate one of acceleration on the inside of its outer ring, the Belt, thus providing natural gravity for those living there. In the center of the station the docking and loading bays allowed visiting spacecraft to land without worrying about gravity – docking clamps ensured that they could unload passengers and goods safely before departing again. Not dissimilar in appearance to the ancient drawings of science fiction writers from centuries before, New Washington’s ring like form was now some ten kilometers across, having been repeatedly expanded to accommodate a population that could no longer afford to live on the surface. The spread of the housing projects at the four points of the station’s wheel, named the Four Corners, had become a stain of poverty on what had once been mankind’s flagship orbital living space, back then ironically only available to those super wealthy enough to afford it. Erin had never once set foot on the surface of the planet, though she had once met the wife of a man whose sister had visited earth some thirty years before and talked about it still.
Erin watched the city pass by as the Mag Rail travelled around the Belt, passing through stations along the way and more occasional squalls of rain, streams of liquid that had been in the lungs of the city’s residents hours before now running in rivulets across the hard light windows. The busiest stations were those at the Four Corners where the station’s vast arms met the Rim and she watched through the rain soaked windows the crowds milling there, but as they got closer to the southern quadrant so the train became quieter and she began to relax.
The train eased into her station and she stepped out onto a platform still damp from recent rainfall. The air smelled a little fresher in the southern quadrant as Erin filed off the platform and down to street level. Street lights flared in the damp air and reflected off the sidewalk as though the mirror image of a vast starlit universe now sweeping through the heavens above Erin as she walked along 25th Street. The orb of the earth was now darkening, the twinkling glow from the few remaining cities along America’s east coast sparkling like tiny strings of jewels encrusted in coal. Erin walked without the hovering ring of her hard light umbrella as she headed home.
The geosynchronous orbit of New Washington above the east coast of the United States meant that to some extent it shared the same time zone. Behind her as she walked the limb of the earth still blazed as the sun set somewhere across the Atlantic far below. The strange lighting of simultaneous night and day was something that stationers just got used to.
She checked her optical implant with a brief glance: 21.47pm.
Later than usual but then her work was always busy on North Four, clients ranging from penniless street urchins to the sons of governors caught up in the drug trade and…
Erin looked up as something caught her eye, a flicker of movement high among the rooftops of the apartment buildings. She stopped, caught by a primeval instinct that told her she was being watched. Her ears moved a fraction of their own accord and the fine hairs on her neck bristled.
The brilliant sunset streaming in through the transparent arrays above the Rim cast unusual shadows around her, conflicting with streetlight and the damp air. Halos glowed in the moist atmosphere and she could see veils of rainbow light in distant rain showers far off through the city.
Erin sighed and began walking again. It was late, it had been a long day at work and now she was seeing things. Orbital life was tough for all, and more than one story had been told her as a child of the strange things people witnessed up here. Back in the day, people had apparently gone insane when separated from earth for so long, and Erin certainly felt as though…
She froze as she saw the droplets of water spilling from a nearby roof and heard the swift movement of something across the buildings above her. Dislodged rainwater splattered onto the sidewalk just ten meters from where she stood.
‘Who’s there?’ she demanded.
A deep silence filled the narrow street around her and she suddenly realized that she was standing between two tall apartment blocks and that she was alone. Erin looked behind her, saw the last glow of the setting sun sweeping across the heavens in a golden arc that traced the curve of the earth. The street was empty but she could both hear the traffic and people back on the Belt and she could see vehicles gliding past above the buildings, their flashing navigation lights like nightclub strobes in a gloomy, damp sky.
Erin was no fool. This was no place to be if there was some drug crazed lunatic stalking her across the rooftops. She needed help and she needed it now.
She turned toward the nearest apartment block entrance and walked briskly toward it as with her optical implant she prepared to open a datalink to the nearest police precinct. The access terminal flickered into life in her right eye as she hurried to the doorway and she mentally cued the link to open.
The access terminal turned green and a voice sounded in her ear.
‘South Precinct desk, how may I help you?’
Something crashed down in front of the apartment block entrance and Erin opened her mouth to scream as she saw a huge figure silhouetted in front of the entrance lights. She turned to flee as a sharp pain struck in the center of her back and knocked the air from her lungs. Erin careered off balance and landed hard on the street as the police operator’s voice sounded again in her ear.
‘Hello? South Precinct desk how may I help you?’
Erin opened her mouth to try to cry for help. Nothing came out but a faint squeal of pain as she tried to drag herself across the wet street toward the entrance to another apartment block. Every movement sent pain searing through her body and she knew instinctively that she could never make it to the entrance ahead before whatever it was that had attacked her reached her.
Erin stopped moving, sucked in a breath and tried again.
‘Help…, me…!’
‘Locating you now, ma’am. Please try to stay calm.’
Erin opened her mouth to repl
y when something grabbed her and rolled her over onto her back. Erin stared up at the vast girders of the space station and the hard light panels revealing the opposite side of New Washington’s glittering nightscape and the darkened planet far beyond.
The figure above her leaned down and Erin screamed as something shot from its mouth toward her. Erin’s scream was silenced as a savage lance of pain seared her throat and plunged down inside her body like a river of fire, her limbs and torso twitching as she was lifted bodily off the ground and her consciousness was torn away from her.
***
III
North Four
New Washington
Detective Nathan Ironside shifted his weight from one foot to another on the damp sidewalk and glancing at anything that moved around them.
‘Stop fidgeting, it makes you look like a suspect. You’re here to meet a family member, not get arrested.’
Detective Kaylin Foxx leaned against their squad cruiser with her arms folded and an amused expression on her features, her bobbed chromium hair reflecting a spectacular sunrise glowing between the nearby buildings. Shafts of golden light beamed over the limb of the earth and soared toward them through rainbow veils of falling rain, the light catching in metallic glints on flotillas of airborne traffic.
‘I’m nervous, is all,’ Nathan replied, feeling like a scolded child.
Foxx smiled. ‘That’s understandable, Nathan, but if you’re nervous then Sula’s going to be nervous too, right?’
Nathan shrugged, unsure of whether he should be presenting a confident front to veil his uncertainties in front of Sula. It was tough enough that he was meeting for the first time a descendent of his, a family member. Tougher still that they were separated by four hundred years.
‘How much does she know?’ Nathan asked Foxx.
Kaylin Foxx was petite, no more than five two and a hundred twenty pounds, but her small stature, elfin features and mischievous smile concealed a formidable detective and natural scrapper who had been hauled up on North Four’s toughest streets. The bobbed metallic hairstyle she favoured, which made her head look like a glittering chrome teardrop, clashed with her black leather jacket and boots, and Foxx otherwise wore no make up or adornments but for her detective’s shield.
‘She knows only the vague details, enough to know that this is all straight up and not some elaborate hoax,’ Foxx replied for what felt like the fiftieth time. ‘Director General Coburn felt that it was best if you filled her in on the rest, and now’s your chance.’
Foxx nodded toward the town library where a young lady named Sula Reyon had arranged to meet them, and Nathan turned to see Sula striding toward them across a patch of worn grass amid the towering street blocks.
Sula was perhaps five eight or nine, slender, with long blonde hair that Nathan was relieved to see was not highlighted with metal striations as was the current fashion. Even though he had watched her from afar on many occasions, he was still struck by how healthy and wholesome she looked in contrast to the city’s rough and weary skyline. Beside Sula was a woman with neatly bobbed brown hair, not much taller than her daughter but surrounded by an aura of cautious competence.
‘Okay, I’ll be nearby,’ Foxx said, ‘don’t go making a fool of yourself, y’hear?’
Nathan smiled at her and tapped his chest. ‘Hey, it’s me, right?’
‘Yeah,’ Foxx murmured with a roll of her eyes as she walked away, ‘what could possibly go wrong?’
Nathan drew a deep breath and walked toward Sula. At six two and a hundred eighty pounds he towered over the teenager. Nathan had always been a little heavy set, and his thick mop of shaggy brown hair did nothing to make him look less of the “Colorado grizzly” his mother had once referred to him as, all those centuries ago.
Nathan blinked away the thought of his family and forced himself to focus on Sula as she slowed before him, just meters away now. Despite the centuries that separated them, he could still see something in her that reminded him of his daughter Amira, lost so long ago. The slightly mischievous and lopsided smile, the twinkling green eyes and the set of her shoulders, upright and alert, ready to tackle any challenger.
‘You must be Nathan,’ she said.
Nathan’s heart pinched and his stomach went into freefall at the sound of her voice, the tones uncannily like those of Amira. He hadn’t heard his daughter’s voice in four centuries and yet now it provoked a fierce pain in the corners of his eyes and his vision blurred.
‘I’m afraid so,’ he said meekly.
Sula smiled, more curious it seemed now than ever, and then the smile faded as she saw the raw emotion in his eyes. Nathan turned away from her slightly and sought anything to distract her. A battered, weary sign for a coffee shop beckoned him with the lights of salvation.
‘You wanna grab a coffee or something?’ he asked.
Sula glanced at the shop. ‘In Old Joe’s? Jeez, I’d be churning my guts out for a week. How about The Grain Mill on 9th?’
Nathan nearly reached up and slapped his head. ‘Sure, the Mill, why didn’t I think of that?’
The older woman extended her hand toward him. ‘I’m Rosaline, Sula’s mother.’
Nathan shook her hand gently. ‘Great to finally meet you, both of you.’
‘What’s this about?’ Rosaline asked. ‘My daughter’s been taken out of college this morning on Director General Coburn’s say so? We’ve never even met the Director General. Why are we here?’
‘That’s my fault,’ Nathan began. ‘Well, it’s not my fault, but I’m the cause of it all. Indirectly, if you know what I mean?’
Rosaline narrowed her eyes. ‘Not really.’
Sula stared at him for a moment and then her smile returned. ‘You’re kind of funny for an old guy.’
Nathan’s wrenched guts relaxed a little and he felt an odd wave of relief wash over him, as though somehow the ice had been broken in a way he had never thought it would be.
‘I’m kind of a dork, most of the time.’
‘I’ll second that,’ Foxx chirped from the cruiser nearby.
Nathan saw Sula chuckle and he realized that Foxx’s presence, the detective’s shields they wore and the involvement of the Director General of the CSS had provided a backdrop of trust to their meeting, which would help with what Nathan knew he had to say next.
‘Sula, I need to ask you something. Do you recognize me? I'm going to tell you who I am.’
Sula inclined her head as she watched him. ‘That would be ace, as I don’t know who the hell you are. But…’
Nathan waited instinctively, said nothing as Sula peered at him.
‘…but you look oddly familiar.’
‘Funny you should mention that.’
‘Are we related?’
Rosaline stepped forward. ‘What’s going on here, detective?’
‘We need to sit down,’ Nathan said, and gestured to the corner of 9th and Constitution. ‘Shall we?’
They walked together across the worn grass to the corner of the intersection where The Grain Mill coffee shop stood, the sidewalks crowded as ever with citizens of the oldest of the orbital stations hurrying to and fro. The earth gazed down upon them from above with its bright blue and white eye as they stepped inside, and Nathan realized that it hadn’t rained for at least a half hour as they found a seat and sat down.
Coffee arrived quickly after they had punched their orders into touch screens mounted in the table. Shops like the Mill had reverted from voice recognition and optical implant orders due to the volume of traffic confusing their ageing computer systems.
Sula watched Nathan over the Rim of her coffee cup as he took a sip of his drink and gathered his thoughts.
‘We are related,’ he said finally, figuring it was better to get it out in the open.
‘How so?’ Sula asked inquisitively, blissfully unaware of what was coming next and looking at her mother. ‘You never mentioned a Nathan before.’
‘Your mother doesn’t know me,
’ Nathan replied, still struggling to find the right words to convey what he had to tell her. Words. Maybe words weren’t the only way? ‘Sula, I’ve got something to show you, to show you both actually.’
Nathan reached into his pocket and pulled out an old leather wallet, one of his few possessions that had survived to the present day.
‘Man, you still carry those things?’ Sula asked with a surprised chuckle. ‘What century are you from?’
Nathan managed not to stare at her as he carefully fished out two photographs, both of them now sealed in a gel that preserved them from damage caused by handling. Although Nathan possessed a Holo Lens that allowed him to revisit the past in perfect virtual reality, there was still something important to him about handling something tangible from his past.
‘This was my wife and daughter,’ he said softly. ‘Angela and Amira.’
Sula took the photographs from him and stared at them, Rosaline leaning in with her. Their features were now touched with caution, perhaps even anxiety.
‘Was?’ Rosaline echoed.
Nathan nodded. ‘They passed away.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Sula replied, staring now at the images to avoid his gaze. ‘They were beautiful.’
Nathan kept a grip on himself as he went on despite the trembling wave of grief he kept buried somewhere deep inside.
‘Sula,’ he said, quietly enough that none of the other people in the coffee shop would overhear him, ‘they passed away four hundred years ago, before the plague that you call The Falling.’
Predator (Old Ironsides Book 3) Page 2