Colonization (The Seamus Chronicles Book 3)

by McAdams, K. D.

  “Excuse me, Mike.” Mom calls to Mike before any of them start walking.

  Packs are dropped to the ground and heads are thrown back in frustration. There are no words but the body language is clear that this is the breaking point.

  A woman, I think her name is Sarah, sloughs off her pack and walks quickly over to us.

  “How did you get to be in charge?” She points a finger at my mom.

  “I don’t really consider myself in charge. It’s just that with so few of us I feel like we need to make sure everyone is safe and accounted for.” Mom is not surprised by the anger.

  Mike comes trotting over still wearing his pack. He puts his hand on Sarah’s shoulder and whispers into her ear.

  “Bullshit! I want to go home, I want to see my kids.” Sarah screams at him.

  “None of us agreed to participate in psychological experiments. I don’t know where we are or what you’re doing with us but we do not consent to this treatment. Consider this a formal request to speak with your commanding officer.” Mike is serious.

  Mom looks completely off guard. She looks at dad, who just shrugs his shoulders.

  “I’m sorry Mike, I don’t have a commanding officer and I’m not sure what psychological experiments you’re talking about.” Mom finally says to him.

  “Your game was a little too far fetched. Killer viruses and space warps aren’t real.” Mike shakes his head as if still trying to convince himself.

  “But they are. This is not some game or a trick. We really are on a new planet.” Mom is trying not to sound patronizing but it doesn’t work.

  “You cut off communications for months. Then out of the blue you come pick us up and take us back to Ames. At Ames you keep us isolated so we can’t even question what’s going on. Finally you drug us, put us on a plane in a river somewhere and then tell us we’re on another planet. The production quality is amazing, but the jig is up. I want to go home.” Sarah stands defiantly.

  “I’m sorry for what you are feeling, but no one is tricking you. All of this is real. If you can think of any way for us to prove it to you, we will.” Mom is genuinely sad.

  Sarah has disbelief in her eyes. I can almost see a physical reaction as she hits rock bottom. She confronted her supposed nemesis and conceded defeat. In her mind she should be released. Instead, she was told that it is not a game and there is no release.

  “Why did you wait so long?” I ask Mike.

  “Several of us applied to the Mars program. We knew that in addition to the explicit tests there would be covert tests to see how we would cope with the stresses of prolonged space travel. Jane led us to believe that this was one of the tests and if we made it through our likelihood for being selected for the program was high.” Mike makes the whole thing sound reasonable.

  “I didn’t agree to this!” Sarah sobs.

  “I’m finally speaking up because I think that Jane is crazy. Also I finally believe that Sarah is not a plant to introduce social and emotional stresses into the test. If you people are all actors and this is fake then congratulations, you duped me and I’m an idiot.” Mike looks defeated and tired. He is no longer the surprisingly young guy I first talked to, he has aged.

  “Mike, we’re not in charge, so please hear this as a suggestion. Take your team and go on a supply trip to the river plane. We won’t send anyone with you; you can all speak freely. Figure out what you believe and what we can do to help you. When you get back we’ll all move forward together.” Dad is calm but firm.

  It surprises me that adults behave like this. I can imagine a group of high school or college students going along with a crazy experiment for too long. Sometimes it’s hard to speak up and it seems like the more crazy the situation, the more difficult it is.

  The other drawback of not being focused on survival is that Cassandra feels like she can ask me about stupid ideas. She has a theory that there is a way to harness the sun’s radiation to cut through the stone we found at the quarry. If that’s true she wants to build a radiation oven to melt the stone and see what kind of ore we can get from it.

  Sounds great on the surface but in practice it means another walk. I’m not taking down the containment field so Cassandra can run some stupid tests. The only way we can access the pure radiation from the sun is if we go outside of the containment field.

  Going off for a few days with Liam and Cassandra is not appealing to me. If Sofie wanted to come it would be one thing, but she doesn’t. She would rather stay here and play with Remmie and Grace while working with the McMurdo team on some of their materials analysis.

  With the McMurdo guys going on the supply run Sofie will have a chance to do her own thing. She doesn’t want to pass that up and I don’t blame her.

  “Seamus, do you have time for a quick walk before you head out?” Sofie asks.

  “Sure. I never thought I would do this much walking in my life, let alone over a month or two.” I smile at her.

  “I think we should pick a new spot for a cabin. Some of the others have already claimed spots but I think we can find one better than where we’ve been sleeping.” She’s put some thought into this and that doesn’t surprise me.

  “What’s wrong with where we’ve been sleeping?” I’m not sure that better is a real possibility.

  “I feel like we’re kind of living with your parents. If we’re supposed to, you know, procreate, I’d rather not do it next to your mom.” She’s smiling and her energy is radiant.

  My girlfriend and I are looking for a love nest. To be honest I never thought anything like this would happen, let alone before I was eighteen.

  When we get to the other side of the central cabin she looks back to where we came from. Satisfied that we cannot see where my parents have been settled she walks a short ways down one of the newly carved paths.

  “Look, there’s some light that sneaks through onto the ground here and we are totally separate from the others. We can have our own little garden and lots of privacy but not be too far from your family.” She surveys the spot with her hands on her hips.

  I remember back to the conversation we had on our way to Ames. Sofie wanted to go off and find a small house by the ocean. At the time spending the rest of her life alone reading books and gardening sounded perfect to her. Now she’s inviting me to join that life and I’m beyond happy about it.

  “I love this spot. We can start simple but it twill totally be our own.” I hug her and then we kiss passionately.

  Why do these things have to come up just before I leave? I suppose I could stall Liam and Cassandra one more day so that Sofie and I can move over here and get to work on the whole procreation thing.

  “I’ve learned a ton from the McMurdo gang. While you’re gone I’m going to work on a basic structure. When you get back we can move in!” Sofie claps her hands a little and it’s good to see her excited and happy.

  “I was going to offer to stay so we could sleep here tonight?” I say optimistically.

  “Easy tiger. I don’t want to get in the way of your science. Besides, I think Cassie and Liam are already annoyed that you are making them wait.” She pushes me away playfully.

  We walk back around the central cabin and my brother and his girlfriend are waiting for me with full packs. If only Liam knew what I was putting off to help him. He owes me big time but I’m not sure how he could ever repay me.

  Chapter 30

  The containment field stops a little ways beyond the quarry. It’s a pretty good setup because we can go off and work with the radiation but not have to carry the rocks too far from their source. I wish I could say I planned it this way.

  How Cassandra figured out the process for harnessing the radiation was concerning at first. I thought that we were coming here to experiment but it turns out she had some clear thoughts on what to do. It gave a little credibility to the conspiracy theory.

  Liam shared with me that Cassandra had noticed some rock formations in the river and actually saw one of them change wh
en a leaf was moved. She hypothesized that it was the exposure to the sun that caused the change. This makes more sense than her claim that she just thought this might work.

  When the rocks are exposed to the radiation alone nothing happens to them. If you create a water bath and submerge a rock and expose the whole thing to the sun, that’s when you see some action. The rocks break apart quickly and two different substrates fall to the bottom of the bath. There is a heavier clay-like material that sinks quickly and settles along the bottom. A lighter grainy substance settles slowly on top of that. A fierce bubbling and the release of some type of gasses accompany the whole process.

  The grainy substance looks similar to the soil we’ve been working in. I can imagine that once it dries out it will be close. If we could include some broken down organic matter from the trees I bet it would be an exact match.

  Once removed from the water, the clay-like substance hardens quickly. It is surprisingly light but very hard. The whole thing is interesting, but materials science really isn’t my thing.

  I want to understand how the water has any effect on the strength of the radiation. Back on Earth we had heavy water that was polluted by radioactive exposure, but I don’t think that materials changed state when they came in contact with it. But I also have to remember that we are not back on Earth and the rules no longer apply.

  At least Cassandra has maintained the rigors of good science. She is documenting a variety of tests and carefully controlling the variables. Scattered about the quarry are a variety of shaped ingots of material. Each has a different consistency and they are ordered from softest to hardest.

  Unfortunately, I have to remember that while this is interesting it will not feed us or keep us warm. Every hour we spend out here messing around is an hour where we consume resources without contributing any. I’ve been pushing to go back for a few hours, but it’s a delicate balance to not spoil sport with a ‘not invented here’ attitude.

  In hindsight I should have insisted that we bring a fourth so that I wouldn’t be stuck here with these two. As soon as I catch them making out we are leaving. This gives me another reminder that Cassandra is just using my brother. When she wants him to do something she’s sickeningly sweet, otherwise she works to keep him at arms length.

  “Hey Seamus. Cassie wants to work with bigger samples, do you have any idea how we might be able to break off a huge chunk of rock?” Liam breaks me from my thoughts.

  “I think I know how the monoliths were carved out, but the containment field won’t let us try that idea. But if she’s run out of samples to work with we should go back to the village. This is good stuff to know but we need understand where it fits on the list of priorities.” I’ve grown enough to know that confronting my brother directly will not work.

  “If you can convince her I’m happy to go back.” He says, shaking his head.

  My brother has been an annoying thorn in my side for almost twelve years, but I don’t like to see him manipulated like this. Having him be frustrated with her is a good thing; maybe I can sew more seeds of discord.

  “I don’t mind being the bad guy, but with Sofie we try and work together. I’m just sayin’.” I poke at the rift I see between them.

  “Don’t lecture me on relationships. Cassandra may not be perfect but neither am I. She is not manipulating me, she’s just stubborn. Like you.” He’s not taking any of it.

  “So you love me so much you had to date someone just like me?” I tease him.

  “If you make me puke I’m going to be pissed.” He laughs at me.

  “So you’re not getting me a bigger sample to work with?” Cassandra steps into the clearing.

  “Seamus and I think it’s time to go back to the village and see where this work falls on the priority list. My guess is somewhere below food and water, but if you disagree you can argue about it with my mom.” Liam surprises me with his stance.

  “Fine. Can we at least bring the ingots back so I can study them some more?” She asks Liam and ignores me.

  “I would be disappointed if we didn’t.” My brother is all smiles as he packs up the samples and prepares to leave.

  Arriving back at the village I find my father working on a leaf. He’s trying to cut it to a specific shape, a rectangle. The work doesn’t look particularly difficult but it is labor intensive. I’m not sure how I could help, so I stand there watching.

  “How did things go at the quarry?” He finally asks me.

  “Fine. We came back because we weren’t sure what we were doing was a priority.” My response emphasizes the ‘priority’ part.

  “Communication is a huge issue for all of us. You guys were off at the quarry; the McMurdo folks are on a supply run. Grace and Sofie are working around Remmie’s’ schedule, there’s a lot going on.” Dad says.

  “Agreed.” I’m listening.

  “I’m making signs. Mom and I call this the boulevard. Grace calls it Centre Street, and Sofie said you are calling it Main Street. We need to eliminate confusion over simple things if we have any hope of getting past larger things.” Dad never stops working while he talks.

  He’s got a point. When I first started working with real Ph.D.’s I was just a kid. I used words like ‘thingy’ and ‘whatchamacallit’ to describe scientific tools. An older scientist really called me out on it. The man said that it didn’t matter how advanced my understanding was if I couldn’t communicate using the established terms correctly.

  “Do you think it’s possible that we are all being duped by the government?” I’m now thinking about those bigger things.

  “What do you mean, ‘duped by the government’?” Henry appears from out of nowhere looking like hell.

  “Mike was saying that some of them think this is all a test for the people who volunteered for some Mars program. Sarah wants out and is accusing mom of being a part of some government scheme.” I explain quickly.

  “I’ve been around government agents, officials, and operatives long enough to know it when I see one. The Crenshaw’s scream ‘government pawn’ but you people absolutely do not. And the little kid? Please.” Henry sinks to the ground.

  “Where did you go?” Dad asks with concern.

  “After moving the reactor closer to the water I wanted to see if our plane was inside the containment field. Thought we might get lucky.” He smiles wearily.

  “But it’s not?” I’m not sure why he looks so rough.

  “No. But it’s close enough that I couldn’t resist grabbing a few supplies. I guess it took me longer than I thought.” Henry can barely keep his eyes open.

  His body is covered in blisters and there is white spittle cake around his lips. Sofie looked similar to this when she was suffering from radiation poisoning, but a little worse. Henry is the only one who has gone off alone and this gives me another piece of fodder for the conspiracy theory even though I know it is untrue.

  “Let’s get him in to the cabin and make sure he has some water.” Dad puts down his tools and gets to his feet.

  Together we carry Henry down the boulevard and to the central cabin. We didn’t bring hinges with us so there is no door. Over the opening is a large leaf fastened at the top. Dad pushes it aside and we enter the dark cool space.

  Over in a corner, taking up almost half the cabin is the life raft and Jake. I expect Grace to appear any minute, as she has been watching him, but she does not. We lay Henry down as carefully as we can.

  No sooner does he hit the vinyl floor of the raft does Jake sit up and point.

  “Look!” He shouts before falling back, his face contorted with shock.

  “Jake!” Dad yells, hoping to get him to stir again.

  I reach into the raft and slap his face a few times. Not hard but enough to wake a sleeping person. He does not budge.

  “Jake! It’s okay, we’re taking care of you!” Dad is still yelling but Jake does not respond.

  My sister bursts through the door. Seeing four people startles her but she recovers quic
kly.

  “Was that Jake?” She asks.

  “Yes. He said ‘look’ and then passed out again.” I explain to her.

  My sister shakes her head and then steps around us. Reaching under the raft on the back side she emerges with a notebook and pencil. I should have known that she would have kept a notebook handy.

  When we were kids Grace always had a stack of paper and pencil ready to go. In cars, on planes, and even outside in the hammock she was drawing and writing. She’s still writing, but now it’s not for enjoyment.

  “I’ve been keeping a journal. Jake has done this seven times now and it’s getting more frequent.” She scribbles in the notebook.

  “Does he always say ‘look’?” Dad asks her.

  “Two of the times he woke up he said ‘see’ or at least I think that’s what he was saying.” Grace answers and looks at Jake sadly.

  We all believed that Jake was affected by a physical condition. The assumption was that when we crashed he hit his head hard enough to damage his brain and put him into a coma. I had never thought that it might be a psychological injury.

  Even though we have space warped and traveled faster than light several times, there are effectively no studies on the impact these activities have on the human body or mind. Even though I consider it wicked cool I guess there could be people who are totally freaked out by the experience.

  Chapter 31

  Life on Locus isn’t what I would call easy. Every single time that I wake up there is something I need to do so that I can be guaranteed to eat and drink tomorrow and the next day. My hands have callouses and my muscles are often sore and tired. I am happy.

  Sofie and I are living together and we have a nice little routine. We get up together in the morning and have a small meal before going for a walk. Some days we don’t stop talking at all, others are almost silent. The relationship isn’t effort-free, but it is perfect.