by Davies, WJ
As he neared the supply depot, Jonathas picked up the pace, sprinting the last five hundred meters. He ignored the aches in his body and pushed through the discomfort. The explorers he saw in the holo-vids were always running tirelessly toward their goals. Where their strength came from, Jonathas didn't know. He wasn’t sure if he could find that force within himself. But he would have to.
Nearing his destination, he felt a gust of hot air rush through the hall. The warmth was a sharp contrast to the frigid zephyrs that usually haunted these forsaken corridors.
Something must be wrong with the heat sinks, he thought. They normally did an efficient job of removing excess heat from the air. Too efficient, considering how many nights he’d gone to bed shivering.
Jonathas passed a small door marked sensory equipment. This was where the delicate gyroscopes and optical sensors used by the mining drones were stored. He tried the door but it was electronically locked.
No way Linsya could have gotten in there.
He forged ahead, praying that access to the supply depot wasn’t similarly barred.
When Jonathas arrived at the supply depot, he found the door wide open. On the wall, where the door’s control panel should have been, was a jagged crack through the rock. Perhaps the disruption was good for something after all.
Wires and bits of metal lay destroyed in a heap on the floor among rocks and other debris. The door must have sprung open when the panel was shattered. A lucky break. Without tools, he might not have been able to bypass the security locks.
Jonathas stepped into the gloomy chamber. It was hard to believe it had only been a few hours since he had received the nano-DNA injections here in this very space. Ironic that he should end up right back in the room that he was sure he would never see again. He shuddered when he saw the table where he’d lost consciousness during the injection, not wanting to relive that nauseating experience.
He scanned the room for any indication that Linsya had been here. He called her name but there was no response. The chamber was small, only a dozen meters square, so he was able to take it all in in a few seconds. It was empty except for the steel table, a stack of large storage bins, and a dusty old mining drone which had been lying discarded in a corner ever since he started working down here.
Other than that, there was nothing. There was no sign of Linsya, and what little hope he’d felt vanished into the shadows. He had been certain Linsya would be in here. There was nowhere else for her to go. Horrible thoughts crashed through his mind, images of Linsya lying trapped beneath a pile of rubble, calling for help with no one to hear her screams.
Just like poor old Fletcher.
Feeling a panic coming on, Jonathas took a deep breath, calming himself. Linsya had to be ok. It would take more than a little planetary turbulence to derail such a determined woman.
Resigned, Jonathas looked around for something he could use to help him out of this mess. Just beyond the table in a forgotten corner of the room lay a bin which he knew contained a collection of tools. He grabbed a crow bar and pried off the lid, revealing a small handle resting on a flat surface. He twisted the handle and a compartment sprung up out of the box, revealing previously hidden shelves and containers. The sections were labeled, and he quickly found what he was looking for. He jammed a screwdriver set and laser tool into the cavernous pouches in his tunic, sparked up a flashlight, and continued searching the room.
The silence was eerie and the heat was increasing. Sweat gathered on his forehead as he pawed through a pile of bins, looking for more supplies. He could use an energy bar right about now: it had been many hours since he’d last eaten.
Then he saw something that gave him pause. One of the bins had been pulled aside and when he shone his flashlight into the shadows behind the crate, his heart leapt. The cone of light revealed a hole in the wall. A vent cover lay discarded on the floor beside it.
He whooped in delight and wiped sweat from his eyes—or were they tears? Smiling at his good fortune, Jonathas got down on hands and knees and peered into the dark ventilation shaft. Linsya must have gone through here. He pulled some elastics from his pocket and strapped the torch-light to his head—now he was hands free.
The light illuminated the narrow walls of the shaft, but ahead he saw only inky blackness. He took a breath and entered the small tunnel. The walls squeezed tight against both his sides and he felt more than a little claustrophobic. Despite what his work required him to do, and the confined spaces he found himself in everyday, he had never gotten used to small, dark spaces.
Jonathas experienced a moment of panic when the walls seemed to grow narrower, but he continued onward, blocking out all thoughts except Linsya’s beautiful face, that shining beacon of hope inspiring his body to move forward through the narrow shaft.
He called her name again, hoping his voice would carry through the length of the vent, but he was met with nothing but suffocating silence.
Chapter 12
A small hatch hissed open and MiLO emerged from his maintenance chamber, rubber treads softly humming as he glided toward Skyia. His steel cylindrical body was more shiny and reflective than usual, as if all his parts had recently received a good buffing.
“MiLO, you look fabulous!” she beamed at him.
The lights on the small robot’s chest display blinked happily. “Don’t I always?” He turned and wheeled toward the main door of the control room.
She skipped after him. “Of course. But today, I swear you look more… polished than usual.”
“Thanks for noticing,” he said. “I had the system apply an extra coat of synthetic polymer to my body casing and all my lights have been re-ionized.” Indeed, she noticed the lights on his front panel flickered with additional vigor.
Skyia was always gushing over her mechanical companion. Some people said it was impossible for humans to have meaningful relationships with machines, but they had obviously never met MiLO. He’d been a fixture in her life for as long as she could remember, always working around the Tower, helping Skyia and her mother keep their house in order, and alerting them to any unusual weather patterns or storms that they would have to prepare for. He also operated the Tower’s entire communication system almost single-handedly.
Over the years, MiLO had truly become her friend. She had spent countless peaceful moments in his calming presence, had always been able to talk to him in times of need or loneliness while her mother was away, and viewed him as a friend and fellow Signal Keeper.
Skyia was aware that she herself was only a blip in his expansive life. She always struggled with that concept, for MiLO had actually been built on Earth, all those centuries ago. It had taken several hundred years for the Resurrection Ark to travel from Earth to the Rigil Kentaurus system. MiLO had been onboard the ship, performing many of the same maintenance and repair functions that he did now. He had been an integral component of that vessel, keeping thousands of cryogenically frozen settlers alive over the course of their long journey. He’d acted as the ship’s brain, its mechanical captain, and had been instrumental in the success of that brave and desperate mission: bringing humanity through the depths of space to the unknown world of Taran.
When Skyia did the math, she realized that MiLO was almost four hundred years old.
She followed him through the short hallway, carved from the rock, and into the more habitable portion of the house.
“Come on, you have to tell me,” she pleaded. “What’s the occasion, MiLO? Am I right, is it your birthday today? Are you really four hundred years old? Oh no, I didn’t get you anything.” She frowned as MiLO wheeled into her bedroom.
A trill of beeps. “No, Skyia, when have we ever celebrated my birthday? Besides, I’m only… 398.3 years old.”
He rolled to a stop in front of Skyia’s dressing mirror. A thin arm emerged from his body which he used to open a drawer and remove a long boar-bristle brush.
Skyia huffed as she accepted the brush. “Does my hair really look that bad?�
� She checked herself in the mirror and combed through her sandy-blond locks. She didn’t think her hair looked unruly, but MiLO was acting pretty strange today so she figured she’d go along with whatever game he was playing. It wasn’t every day he was quite so mysterious, and she wanted to get to the bottom of his unusual behavior.
“So, it’s not your birthday… yet. But let’s celebrate your four-hundredth when it comes, ok? I would love that.”
“Of course, Skyia. As you wish.”
She finished combing her hair and MiLO prodded her toward her closet and tapped a small button beside the door. He wheeled backward as the door swung open, revealing a breathtakingly elegant dress: A gorgeous pattern of red and orange silk with designs splattered throughout of a vast landscape of mountains and rivers. Skyia gasped, putting her hands to her face. The overall impression reminded her of an Earth book her mom used to read to her as a child: Legends of the Orient.
“MiLO, we already celebrated my birthday, what is this? It’s so beautiful, I’ve never seen anything like it before! Oh please MiLO, won’t you tell me what’s going on?”
“Remember I told you your mother was coming home?” he asked.
“Of course! But I thought she wasn’t due back for, what, another ten days?”
“There was a change in her plans,” he said. “She left earlier than expected and wanted to come back before Nightfall.”
Skyia’s eyes opened wide. “Why didn’t you tell me? I need to clean my room, I was going to bake something and—”
“No need to worry. This is all quite unexpected, I only received your mother’s voice call this morning. And don’t worry about your room, it looks splendid, as usual. Rest assured the cleaning bots are implementing a full sweep of the house as we speak.”
She flashed a smile and reached down to hug the little bot. Hugging MiLO was like hugging a toaster. His sensors and antennae poked her in the arms and ribs, but she hardly noticed.
“I’ll leave you alone so you can try on the dress,” he said. “Your mother brought it home after her last expedition to Ganji and she asked me to give it to you at an ‘appropriate time’ while she was away. I thought I’d give it to you now so you can show it off before the novelty wears off.”
Skyia shook her head. “Novelty, are you crazy? This is the most beautiful dress I’ve ever seen. Get outta here so I can try it on.” She twirled away from MiLO toward her bed as he left the room, closing the bedroom door behind him.
Skyia laid the dress out across her woven Spindex duvet, relishing the perfection of the moment. Her mother would be home soon. She had everything to be thankful for and nothing in her life she wanted to change—no regrets.
She shrugged off the simple white tunic she had been wearing, the synthetic fabric sliding off her body with a musical hum. Standing in her underwear, she picked up her dress of fire. Holding it up to her shoulders, the cool fabric caressed her body. She turned to the mirror, examining the fiery shades and intricate collage of images and symbols. She loved the way her golden hair shimmered against the red and orange rays of light streaming in through her bedroom window. Her green eyes shone out in stark contrast to the autumn colors of her dress. She caught her gaze in the mirror, her own eyes looking back at her.
Her father’s eyes, her mom had told her when she was very young.
She thought about her dad as she walked with the dress toward the open window, thinking about how little she knew of him, and really, how little that mattered to her right now. He had left them before Skyia was born. Her mother had told her he left in order to continue his successful career in science and discovery, not wanting to be burdened with a family.
Skyia didn’t really hold it against him. Considering how perfect her life was now, she couldn’t imagine anything changing. What more could she ask for? All that she needed was here in the Tower. Sure, a few more friends might be nice, and she’d definitely like to be able to spend more time with her mother, but overall, she was happy.
Skyia smiled to herself, at all the things she was grateful for, as she slipped the dress over her head. The delicate silk brushed softly against her skin.
She didn’t need a father, she told herself. Especially not one who would so easily walk away from her and her mother.
∞
Skyia danced out of her room while MiLO waited patiently by the front door, a perfect gentleman. She heard the rumble of her mother’s rover outside—why she drove that noisy, archaic machine, Skyia would never know—and glanced out the window just in time to see her mom disembark from the buggy.
She felt a rush of excitement at the thought of reuniting with her mom after so many months—nearly half a cycle. The lights on MiLO’s front display blinked and cycled through magnificent shades of deep violet and crimson—he, too, was obviously excited.
A chime sounded and she heard her mom’s voice fuzz a muffled “Hello” through the speakers. MiLO reached a mechanical arm up to the door panel and pressed a button. The door cracked down the middle and the two halves swung to either side, welcoming ruddy rays of sunshine into their home, along with her mother.
Cassidy Walker stood, silhouetted against the glimmering light, a glowing torus surrounding her lithe frame.
Skyia squealed and ran to her mom, throwing her arms around her. She buried her head in a familiar bosom and whispered how much she’d missed her. She felt like she never wanted to be separated from her mother again, and that all the time she had spent in the Tower alone with MiLO was a distant dream.
Chapter 13
Patient, weary feet
Home is where my heart lies still
Who is waiting there?
Cassidy Walker’s speeding buggy ate up kilometers as fast as it guzzled gasoline. The vehicle's engine rattled a thunderous roar as it barrelled up the steep and rocky slope, heading upward to the Signal Tower plateau. Cassidy was returning home, and relished the thought of reuniting with her daughter.
Through the windshield, Cassidy’s eyes followed a forest dove as it soared up into the clouds, becoming nothing but a tiny, dark smudge in the wide sky. A second smudge joined it, both birds catching the thermal drafts rising up out of the humid valley. Suddenly, with wings folded tight, they catapulted down toward the ground, chirping a mournful song to any who would listen. These were large birds, larger than a human head, growing larger during the two centuries that they had been living on Taran. The lower gravity here seemed to have that effect on most plants and animals imported from Earth.
The doves called out again, their lonely cries echoing across the valley. To Cassidy, their distinctive woo-OO-oo-woo-woo was one of the most beautiful sounds on Taran, and was something she had been looking forward to in the months since she had last been home, half a cycle ago.
Despite having the freedom to traverse the entire planet, the doves tended to stay close to the redwoods here in Alexendia, their original nesting grounds. Though they usually brought her much joy, today, as Cassidy listened to their songs, she was filled with a great sadness—a strange, aching emptiness in her stomach. How could such beauty be so full of misery, she wanted to know? Why did she feel as if her heart was breaking, just a little more, with every note of their mournful scale?
Cassidy adjusted the seat of her mountain buggy, making room for her long, tanned legs. She was returning from a months-long archaeological dig in Ganji Province, and suspected she would have to return yet again before this cycle came to an end.
She navigated the buggy around a bend, thinking about the twenty year journey that had led to this moment. As a bright and enthusiastic twenty-year-old university student, she’d been part of the team that had discovered the first extinction layer: geological evidence that proved something terrible happened on Taran, some forty-million years ago, causing the extinction of most plant and animal species on the planet. An earthquake in Ganji had knocked a city-sized chunk of rock from a mountain, revealing a myriad of planetary history. The newly exposed rock had flashed its ge
ological evidence to her team of researchers like an ancient history textbook blown open in the wind.
It was an exciting discovery and had propelled funding into planetary research, an area of interest in which Cassidy excelled and was passionate about. The initial enthusiasm turned into confusion and then frustration, as it became clear that there were no answers to the question of the cause of that great calamity that had rid the planet of most of its life forms.
Scientists, geologists, and archeologists banded together and scoured the planet, searching for any sign or explanation of what happened to Taran all those eons ago. The extinction layer was indeed ubiquitous around the planet, all lining up to exactly the same point in the planet’s history: forty-million-years ago. The only thing that they knew for certain was that the average surface temperature had plummeted from a balmy 28 Celsius to well below zero. This resulted in a massive bout of die-offs, apparently involving widespread glaciation and a resulting fall in water levels.
Cassidy skidded around a tight curve and felt the exhilarating rush of a vehicle on the verge of losing control, at the edge of chaos. Despite her safe and simple lifestyle now, Cassidy had not always shied away from adventure and true peril. In fact, she felt that as the years went on, she had more and more inclinations to take up vestiges of her old life. She imagined that’s what had led to all of her recent forays into the jungles of Ganji. She wanted to feel useful again, to contribute back to society— to science. But this latest project had brought her full circle back to the dig from her youth, and her recent discovery had unearthed much more than anyone was willing to except.
Something crashed into the side of her vehicle—a strong and powerful force which sent her buggy sliding to the edge of the cliff, dangerously close to teetering over. She cranked the wheel to the right, correcting her path and swerving into the middle of the road.