by K. D. Jones
“What is it?” Jared asked, getting right to the point. Liam loved that about his older brother. He was a no-nonsense kind of guy. But it also made it hard to relate to him, since he was always so serious.
“I need to use the learning simulator to learn the culture and language for the Sol Solar System.”
“We’re going to Sol? Why? It is a small, insignificant solar system.”
“We recovered a mayday call that was sent out about five years ago when a nuclear disaster occurred. We’re sending teams down to see if there are any survivors.”
“Why didn’t father tell me this? I have to prepare my mediko staff.”
“I’m sure he was going to talk to you about it next. At least you don’t have to have Kyle under your feet. I have to take him on at least two missions before father will let him lead a team.”
Jared’s lips twitched and he almost smiled. “Good luck with that.”
“Come on, brother, hook me up with the learning simulator. It’s going to take hours for me to acclimate.”
“Patience is a virtue, brother,” Jared told him, getting a headset and inserting a disc into the earpiece.
“Actions speak louder than words,” Liam responded automatically, a timeworn reflex in their ongoing verbal sparring match.
***
His first view of Earth left a bad taste in Liam’s mouth. How could the Earth people do this to their home world? They had come across many planets that were attacked by other world nations, but this was the first time he had seen a place where the planet’s own people attacked each other to the point of near extinction. How could they hold such little value for one another? Did their personal differences mean so much to them that the value of life meant so little?
Liam had spent almost a whole twelve hours under the learning simulator, trying to learn as many languages and customs of the many different Earth cultures as he could. He was amazed any of them survived so long being separated from one another. It was vastly different from Drasta.
On his home world, there was only one language. Their society was governed by a military system. The head of the military was the Ruling Admiral, who had to earn his position and then acquire a consensus of votes from the ruling military council. This was far different from Earth, with its many different countries and many different languages.
In fact, the last reported statistics that they were able to retrieve showed that Earth had roughly 6,500 spoken languages. Learning them all would have been nearly impossible, even for the Drastans.
Liam met with his father and the other team leaders to discuss how to split up the search. Earth had once had seven continents, but after the nuclear disaster, only five continents looked like they might be able to sustain survivors. Liam would take the continent known as North America. The other continents that would be searched were called South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.
Liam concentrated his learning on the languages that were spoken in North America. He thought this decision would make it easier, but in North America alone there were over three hundred spoken languages documented. However, it appeared the three primary languages were English, Spanish, and French, so Liam focused on those. He still planned to take a computer translator in case they ran into a survivor they can’t communicate with. He briefed his team on their mission and had them schedule time with the simulator to learn the three languages needed.
Chapter 3
“Come on, Jerry, we need to spread our search,” Maggie insisted. She had met someone from another tribe that had a computer and was able to access dictionaries and encyclopedia information. He had told her that there were some areas where, weeks, months, or even a few years after a nuclear disaster happened, people could go above ground. It had been five years and none of them had been willing to try to go topside, but she knew they needed to seek other locations where supplies could be stored.
“Have you ventured up yourself?” the Tribe Leader asked her.
“No, not yet,” Maggie admitted.
“Then how can you expect me to ask others to put their lives at risk because you read about it somewhere?” Jerry was always the voice of reason. But he was also not bold or adventurous. In Maggie’s mind, sometimes you just had to go for it. She had learned that from her mother, who had always been more of a free spirit than her father, who was a strict, by-the-book kind of guy.
“I’ll go up, then.” She straightened her shoulders.
“No!” Corey stood up, shaking his head. “You can’t do that. We don’t know what levels of radiation are out there.”
“It’s low right now. The winds have died down the last few months,” said a voice from the back. It was Laura, their resident teacher. She had been a science professor at a local college before the nuke hit. Now she spent most of her time teaching the children of the tribe. She was a genius, so if she said that the levels were low, then she would know.
“See, I’ll go up and scout it out a little. Then I’ll report back to you,” Maggie said.
“I’m going with you, then,” Corey insisted, despite his mother’s frantic attempts to get him to change his mind.
“Fine, let’s get ready and go.” Maggie stood up and headed towards her sub car. Lily was not going to like this, but it had to be done. The tunnels nearby had all been scavenged. There was a barrier blocking off one end. If they could find their way around that barrier, they might be able to find more hidden supplies. The shortest route would be to go topside and walk to the next subway entrance. Should be easy as long as it wasn’t blocked up too.
***
“Why are you doing this?” Corey asked.
“You know why. It has to be done if we hope to find more supplies,” Maggie said as she squeezed past a large rock partially blocking the stairway that would take them topside.
“Why does it have to be you? Why not let someone else do this?”
She stopped to frown at him. “Corey, no one else offered.” She watched the expressions flicker across his face. “Why did you decide to come?”
Corey looked at her intently, then turned away. “Someone has to keep you out of trouble.”
“Seriously, what kind of trouble could I get into?” She waved her hand at the abandoned area.
“It’s not safe. What if you came across some men and they wanted to have sex with you?” Corey asked, stepping closer to her.
“Maybe I’d let them,” she shot back, trying to lighten the mood.
“You wouldn’t stand a chance if there was more than one. I couldn’t take it if something else…” He didn’t finish. She could tell he was remembering what Ben had done to her all those years ago. He saw the suddenly shuttered look on her face. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring that up.”
Maggie shook her head. “I’m fine. It happened years ago, but the memory does still haunt me sometimes. Probably always will.”
“You still have nightmares?” he whispered. He gently cupped her face.
“I do,” she admitted.
“Do you think you would one day be able to tolerate another man’s touch?”
“You’re touching me now and I am tolerating it just fine. I am not glass, Corey, I won’t break.”
He smiled down at her. “You are definitely not glass.” He leaned down and kissed her.
It was sweet and gentle. He didn’t pressure her or rush her. It was a good kiss. Not that she was an expert. But she had kissed a couple of guys before the nukes hit. She allowed him to pull her towards him and their bodies aligned. She raised her arms around his neck and opened for him.
Their tongues met and danced. He was so careful to not scare her. She really appreciated it. She enjoyed the kiss. She wished she felt more. But she was too distracted to really let herself go. She kept a tight reign on her emotions. They pulled apart and he smiled down at her with a slightly hazy look in his eyes.
“You taste good.” He kissed her again briefly. He stared at her like she was the only woman in the world. Maggie felt gui
lty because she wasn’t having the same kind of reaction to him.
“Corey I can’t …” She pulled away from his embrace with a sad look on her face. “If this had happened years ago, I would have been thrilled. But so much has happened and you’ve become one of my best friends. I don’t want to lose you as a friend.”
Corey tried to cover his disappointed look. “Maybe in time we could be more than friends.”
“Maybe.” She doubted it. But she didn’t have the heart to say that out loud. She stopped talking when she heard sounds of laughter. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “What’s that?”
Corey pulled her over to hide behind another large boulder. “I don’t know for sure, but it sounds like voices to me.”
“Me, too.” They sat in silence and waited as the voices grew louder and louder. Maggie suddenly gripped Corey’s arm. Her face turned pale as she turned to whisper to him, “It’s Ben and his tribe.”
Corey nodded his acknowledgement and held her hand tightly. They watched silently as Ben and those in his little tribe approached, then passed them by without detecting their presence.
***
“What do you think, boys? Will we find easy pickings this time?” Ben asked.
His best friend Taylor answered. “Its Tuesday. The trucks always come on Tuesdays. So my guess is we’ll have no problems.”
Maggie turned to look at Corey and mouthed silently, “Trucks?” Corey shook his head; he didn’t know what they were talking about either. She turned back to see if Ben or his tribe would said anything else.
“I hope it’s a bigger shipment than last time. Maybe we won’t have to come topside as much,” one of the older members said.
Ben turned to glare at the man. “Are you complaining, Russ?”
Russ immediately looked apologetic. “No. Of course not.”
Ben looked at the rest of his tribe. “If anyone has a problem following my orders, they can leave now.” No one moved a muscle. “Good. Let’s get going. The trucks should be arriving any time now.”
Maggie looked at Corey. “We have to follow them, see what they’re up to.”
“I think this is a bad idea.” Corey shook his head.
“Come on, I’ll protect you.” Maggie headed after the Ben. Corey sighed and followed her.
***
Her eyes hurt as she stepped out onto the surface for the first time in five years. They found they had to wait inside the tunnel entrance because the sun was going down and their eyes were having a hard time adjusting. Half an hour later Maggie and Corey were hiding just inside a broken-down building, staring at a gated area. “Where are we?”
“The city’s dome,” Corey told her.
“Dome?” She peered through the dirty window. This was the first time she had seen the dome. But she didn’t actually see it. “Where is it?”
“Through the gates, there’s a small dome-shaped building.”
“I thought it would be bigger.”
He laughed. “It is bigger. I saw pictures once of the city building it. That small steel dome is just the top layer. It has stairs that lead down to an elevator. The elevator takes you miles down under the dome to a huge bunker.”
“So why are Ben and his guys here?” she asked. They watched Ben, who was clearly waiting for something, standing at the edge of the pool of light from the bulb over the gate. He didn’t try to approach the gate, though. A few minutes later she heard sounds, sounds she hadn’t heard in quite a while. “Is that … are those trucks I hear?”
“Yes, they are.” Corey leaned in closer to the window. “Two trucks are stopping at the gate.” They watched as the drivers of each truck got out and went to the gate. They entered a code and the gate opened up. The drivers went through, leaving the trucks unattended. They disappeared inside the doorway to the small domed building.
“Look!” Corey pointed to where Ben and his crew were standing. Now they rushed over to the back of the trucks and opened them up. They pulled out boxes and began carrying them away. Then they rearranged the boxes that were remaining inside the truck. “What are they doing?”
She shook her head. “They’re trying to make it look like they haven’t stolen anything by moving the other boxes around.”
“Won’t the drivers know something?”
“Maybe, if they have a list of the supplies showing what they brought. Well, now we know where Ben is coming up with all those supplies that he trades and barters with.”
“Stealing is horrible,” Corey said, shocked.
She shrugged her shoulders. “Some might say that we’re stealing, too. We hunt down the hidden storage areas in the subway system and distribute supplies we find. None of us have paid for the stuff we scavenge.”
“That’s different. We’re not purposely taking supplies from other people.”
“True.” She didn’t want to argue ethics. If they ran out of supplies, it could very well be them stealing from the trucks. “Let’s head back.”
“But we haven’t found a new entrance to the other side of the blocked tunnel,” Corey protested.
“We’ll look for the entrance first, then. That will give Ben and his group time to get back with their loot.”
“What do we tell Jerry and the others about this?” Corey asked pointing to the dome gate.
“Lets leave out the stuff about the supply trucks and dome gate for now. We can tell them that we searched for the entrance and that the air was bearable for a while.” She wiped the sweat from her face.
“You don’t want to tell them about Ben and the trucks?”
She shook her head. “Someone might think stealing from the trucks is a good idea. But it could put us between Ben’s group and whoever is running the dome. That’s too dangerous.” She looked out the window. “Come on, let’s try to get out the back of this building and look for another subway entrance.”
They had to move some debris from the fallen walls to get by, but eventually they found a hole that let them exit unseen from the other side. The semi erect building had blocked the wind for them, but now that they were out in the open she coughed as heavy dust blew all around her, making it more difficult to breath.
“We’re going to need to make some kind of filtering mask,” Corey said, also coughing.
“I have an idea.” Maggie stopped and took out the knife she kept tucked in the side of her boot.
“What are you doing?” Corey watched her in fascination.
Maggie cut a hole in the side of her t-shirt. She cut all the way across the front, then put her knife away. She pulled the cut piece of fabric until it came off, leaving her t-shirt now coming up to right under her breasts. She looked up triumphantly at Corey, but frowned when she saw him staring intently at her revealed skin.
“Corey, are you okay?”
He gulped. “Why did you do that to your shirt?” He didn’t take his eyes off her stomach.
“To do this.” She reached for her small canteen with water. She soaked the piece of fabric then she squeezed the excess water out. She wrapped the damp material around her head making sure to cover her nose and mouth.
Corey smiled. “Ah, I see. A mask. Give me your knife. I want to cut the rest of your shirt off to make my mask.”
“Corey!” She punched him in the arm.
They both laughed as Corey cut his pants leg and doused it with water. He wrapped his face and worked it in place. “Okay, now that we have masks, what now?”
“Let’s head in that direction.” She pointed in the opposite direction from where the dome was located.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Chapter 4
Day of Contact
Once they were orbiting Earth, Liam’s father sent out a response to the mayday calls, one to each of the twenty different designations. Ten strong signals came back to them within a few hours. Five more signals responded but they were fuzzy. One of the responses came from someone called the President of the United States. He requested that there be a meeti
ng at the dome near a location called Norad. Liam and his father agreed to meet with him.
Liam wasn’t sure what he expected to find, but the lavish underground bunker was not it. Granted, this dome shelter held the President and many high standing officials, but they did not appear to need assistance. Why would they request to meet?
Liam and his father were shown to a large oval room with a table in the center. Six men and three women sat around the table. Upon entering, the man at the head of the table stood. He was in his sixties, gray-haired and thin. He walked across the room to shake their hands. That was a custom Liam had learned about through the simulator. On Liam’s home world, people did not do such a thing. Instead, they mostly nodded or saluted each other. Evidently his father had not read about that custom, because he simply stared at the Earth man’s hand warily.
“I am President Newton.” The man dropped his hand when neither of them shook it.
“I am Commander Estro of the Drastan Nation. This is Captain Estro,” replied Liam’s father.
“We mean no offense, President Newton, we are simply not familiar with this handshake custom,” Liam explained.
President Newton looked relieved. “No offense taken. We have a lot to learn about each other’s customs, I’m sure. Is there a way your people greet one another?”
“Unrelated adult men do not touch,” Liam told him.
“What a shame,” a younger man sitting at the table said. He gave Liam a wink. What did that mean? Liam looked at the younger man with confusion.
“Ignore Wesley, he’s my advisor on foreign customs, but mostly he’s a pain in my ass. Let us show you around,” the President said. They were introduced to the President’s family and so many other people that Liam wasn’t sure he would remember all their names. By the end of the meeting, Liam still wasn’t sure why they were there. Except for the aboveground world being unlivable, the Earth people in these dome shelters were living very well. He could tell his father was thinking the same thing.
“Mr. President, I am not sure what my people could offer you, other than to relocate your people to a more livable planet. But I get the feeling that you are not ready to leave your home world yet.”