Equinox

by Christian Cantrell

  ALSO BY CHRISTIAN CANTRELL

  Containment

  Kingmaker

  Short Stories

  Farmer one

  The Epoch Index

  Anansi Island

  Human Legacy Project

  Venom

  Brainbox

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2015 Christian Cantrell

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by 47North, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and 47North are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781477825952

  ISBN-10: 1477825959

  Illustration and cover design by Jason Gurley

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2014951620

  CONTENTS

  START READING

  PROLOGUE

  PART ONE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  PART TWO

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  PART THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FORTY

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  PART FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

  CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

  CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  The term “equinox” refers to the two days per year when the plane of Earth’s equator is perfectly aligned with the center of the sun. As a result, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are illuminated equally, and day and night are approximately the same length for everyone on the planet.

  The word “equinox” is derived from the Latin words “aequus,” meaning “equal,” and “nox,” meaning “night.”

  PROLOGUE

  CADIE CHIYOKO TOOK A SINGLE, decisive step forward through the outer airlock door, and for the first time in her life, found herself outside.

  She had always been more interested in pushing scientific boundaries than physical, and therefore never really had much of a desire to leave V1. Unlike her husband, she did not have the intrepid—even borderline reckless—nature of a true explorer, and consequently never fantasized about wandering the surface of the planet. Nevertheless, now that she was actually doing it, she found that she did have unconscious preconceptions that the reality of the event did not match. Rather than a feeling of expansiveness—of almost infinite volume and of an immensity beyond anything she’d ever experienced—the density of the atmosphere made her feel even more contained than the narrow polymeth passages she was leaving behind. In fact, her first time inside V1’s massive geodesic-dome greenhouse was probably more of a marvel than her first time beyond the confines of any artificial physical structure.

  She wondered if it would be different if her husband, Arik, were with her—whether the exhilaration he felt might heighten the experience for her.

  Cam had made the decision that they would take a rover out to the rendezvous point to save Cadie the exertion of the two-hundred-meter walk. Cadie knew it was not because he or Zaire felt that she was fragile or incapable, but because it was her first time in an environment suit. Adjusting to the additional weight, bulk, and constraints of seven alternating layers of ballistic composite fiber with welded seams was difficult even for someone not in her third trimester of pregnancy.

  Cadie didn’t argue with her companions about being ferried out to their destination, but she did ask for one concession: she wanted her first steps from V1 out onto the planet’s surface to be her own. After Zaire maneuvered the rover out through the airlock door, Cam stayed at Cadie’s side, ready to assist in case she lost her balance or caught a tread.

  The planet’s surface was a fine sulfur-yellow powder that somehow managed to get kicked up onto Cadie’s boots after only a few steps. On one side of her, the rover crept along matching her pace, and on the other, Cam carefully monitored her progress, ready to help stabilize her should she stumble. When Cadie turned, she saw that even though they had gone only a few meters, V1 was no longer visible. She could see the white strobes marking the perimeter of the Wrench Pod, and the red strobes denoting the entrance of the airlock, but the structure itself had been entirely swallowed by a thick, mustard-colored haze.

  “Cadie,” Cam said. When she turned and looked up at him, he used the handheld laser projector he was holding to point to the chronometer strapped just above his left glove. “We need to go.”

  The nanotubes in their audio drops were all configured for the same frequency, so communication among the three of them was seamless.

  “When is he coming?” Cadie asked. It was really more of a plea than a question since she knew that Cam had no more information about what was going on than she did.

  “I don’t know,” Cam said. “Soon, I’m sure.”

  Zaire broke in from the rover. “He’ll meet us at the rendezvous point,” she said. “Come on. We need to move.”

  Cam helped Cadie into the passenger side of the rover. When she was secure, he went around to the back and climbed up into the cargo hold.

  “I’m in,” he said, and then the rover pulled forward.

  Visibility was so poor that the vehicle could not be piloted purely by sight, so Zaire divided her attention between whatever she could discern up ahead of them and the screen between the hand controls. The rover was equipped with a short-range terrain mapping system that used radar to scan their surroundings. In addition to rendering a topographical model on the screen, it also fed the data to the rover’s onboard computer, which dynamically adjusted both tire pressure and the rigidity of the rover’s independent suspension, resulting in a ride almost as smooth as a maglev track.

  Cadie had the impulse to turn and look behind them once again, but she knew that the stiffness of her e-suit would not permit her to get her visor all the way around. And even if it did, she
doubted there would be anything to see anymore. Even V1’s strobes were probably entirely obscured by now.

  “How can you tell where we’re going?” she asked.

  “I can’t,” Zaire said. “But the rover can.”

  “It’s just a straight shot,” Cam said. “We’re almost there.”

  The farther away they traveled from V1, the less comfortable Cadie felt. Although the opaqueness of the atmosphere was more likely to make one feel claustrophobic than agoraphobic, what Cadie found most disconcerting was that she had no sense of space or position. With no structures, horizon, and no sky to use as reference points, she found she could not construct a mental model of where she was, or how she fit into the world around her. The sensation was new to her, but there was no doubt in her mind that she was beginning to panic.

  She tightened her grip on the forward bar, then suddenly felt her weight push against it. The rover stopped quickly enough that she could tell something was wrong.

  “What the hell is that?” Zaire said. She was looking down at the rover’s screen. Cadie tried to make sense of the three-dimensional rendering, but to her, it simply looked as though the background had changed color.

  “That,” Cam said from behind them, “is what Arik wanted us to see.”

  “What the hell is it?”

  “It’s exactly what it looks like,” Cam said. “A huge wall.”

  Zaire touched the screen with a gloved finger and brought up a set of virtual controls. She began manipulating a directional knob and an alarm promptly sounded in response.

  “What’s wrong?” Cadie asked.

  “The navigation system is complaining that it can’t see the ground anymore,” Zaire said. “I’m raising the radar’s trajectory to get a better look.”

  “I can save you the trouble,” Cam said. “It’s twenty-five meters tall. Keep going. Get us as close to it as you can.”

  “We’ll have a discussion about how you know so much about this later,” Zaire told her husband. The alarm stopped and the rover continued forward.

  “Why would there be a wall out here?” Cadie asked. She was peering forward into the haze, but she wasn’t sure whether she could see anything or not.

  “And who the hell built it?” Zaire added.

  “We don’t know,” Cam said. “But just wait. It gets better.”

  The rover crawled ahead another few meters, and then the wall emerged.

  “There,” Cam said, leaning forward and pointing between them.

  Zaire made a slight adjustment, and then they could see it. The door in front of them was a massive sheet of metal that had somehow gotten slightly dented near the center. There were columns of bolts through the steel, and it was hung inside a substantial metal frame by four bulky hinges. Beside the door, protruding from the siliconcrete wall, was a tremendous wheel that Cadie assumed provided leverage against a set of screws and gears in order to move the massive slab.

  Zaire was the first to step out. As she stood watching the door, Cadie felt the suspension of the rover change again, and she knew that Cam had climbed out, as well. She started to step down and found that he was already right beside her, offering her his gloved hand.

  “I’d like to know just what the hell this thing is designed to keep out,” Zaire said. She was tracing the contour of the dent in the middle of the door with the fingertips of her glove.

  “Or in,” Cadie said.

  Zaire turned to look at Cadie, then turned back to the door. She moved over to the wheel and ran her glove around its circumference without actually trying to turn it.

  “This doesn’t make any sense,” she said. Now she grasped the wheel and applied a small amount of experimental torque, though it did not move. “I’m not even sure that we have the materials to build and maintain something like this.”

  “Why did Arik want us to see it?” Cadie asked.

  The question was implicitly directed at Cam, but there was no response. When she and Zaire turned to look at him, they saw that he had the handheld laser projector pressed up against his helmet’s visor. Cadie could see green lines across his face and Cam’s eyes moving across lines of projected text. They watched him in silence until his finger came off the projector’s trigger and he lowered it to his side.

  The look on his face made Cadie’s voice tremble. “What did it say?”

  “The wall isn’t what he wants us to see,” Cam said. “There’s more.”

  “More of what?” Zaire asked. Her apprehension came across as hostility.

  Before Cam could respond, the atmospheric mics in their helmets picked up a distant metallic clatter from the direction of V1. All three instinctively turned.

  “What just happened?” Zaire said.

  Cam took a step toward the pod system, peering into the haze with obvious futility. “I’ve heard that sound before,” he said.

  “What was it?”

  “I think it was the shields dropping off the Public Pod windows,” he said. “The power must have flickered.”

  They waited and listened, but the next sound their mics picked up came from directly beside them. The massive steel bars that secured the door had started to withdraw.

  “Get back,” Cam said. He moved forward while Cadie and Zaire moved away. He looked to either side of him, then checked the rover’s cargo hold, but he did not come up with anything he could use as a weapon. As the wheel turned and the door began to pivot, Cadie could see Cam tighten his grip on the projector.

  “It’s OK,” Cadie said as calmly as she could. Her breathing was elevated but her voice was steady. “We’re not in any danger.”

  “What makes you so confident?” Zaire asked.

  “Because whatever’s happening, Arik must have arranged it,” Cadie said. “He wouldn’t have put us in any danger.”

  “Not intentionally,” Zaire added.

  The massive door moved with surprising speed and fluidity, and when it was fully open, they saw why. Standing on the other side of the wall were two figures: a fairly petite woman, and beside her, easily the biggest man that Cadie—and probably anyone in V1, for that matter—had ever seen. The strangers’ environment suits were nothing like those from V1, but rather were a bluish-gray color with red welds, and seemed surprisingly thin and supple. Almost quilted. Their helmets were fitted and sleek like a pilot’s headgear, and the entire forward hemispheres were transparent for unimpeded peripheral vision. The man’s weapon was lowered, but when he saw the projector in Cam’s hand, he sprang in front of the girl and the tip of the long slender rifle jumped up.

  “Cam,” Zaire said with exaggerated poise as though speaking too harshly might discharge the man’s weapon. “I think he thinks you’re holding a gun.”

  “Put it down,” Cadie said.

  Cam watched the man for a long moment, then tossed the projector to the side. Cadie and Zaire held up their hands in a gesture of surrender, but Cam did not. Cadie could see the defiance in his expression.

  The man stepped back beside the girl. The girl’s lips moved and the man lowered his rifle, then swung it back behind him on its strap. They both held their hands up in a gesture to match Cadie’s and Zaire’s.

  “It’s OK,” Cadie said. “They won’t hurt us.”

  “Who the hell are they?” Zaire wanted to know. “Cam, if you have any idea what’s going on, now would be the time to explain.”

  “I don’t,” Cam said. “But I think I’m starting to figure it out.”

  The girl’s lips moved again and the huge man tentatively advanced. His prominent features were clearly visible through his helmet, but he did not come across as threatening. His thinly gloved hand went into a pouch on his thigh and came back out as a fist. With his other hand, he pointed to a tiny metallic cylinder attached to the outside of his faceplate just in front of his mouth, then tapped the side of his helmet beside his ear. When he opened his fist, there were four matching cylinders in his palm.

  “I think he wants to attach those things to
our helmets,” Cam said. “He probably wants to establish a comm link.”

  “Don’t their helmets have external audio?” Zaire asked. There was caution and suspicion in her tone. “They look a lot better than ours.”

  “I guess not,” Cam said.

  “Let him do it,” Cadie said.

  Cam looked beside him at Cadie and Zaire, then back at the man in front of him. He nodded and the stranger approached with an obvious effort to appear as nonthreatening as he could. Cam was tall—exactly two meters according to the most accurate instruments available on V1—but the stranger had at least a few centimeters on him, and easily twenty-five kilos. When the man was close enough, he selected one of the cylinders from his palm, reached up, and cinched it against Cam’s faceplate. Cadie could see the man’s lips move, and then Cam nod.

  “I can hear you,” he said.

  The man nodded then moved down the line, attaching cylinders first to Zaire’s faceplate, and then Cadie’s. Cadie watched the device vacuum-seal itself to the smooth surface of her visor. The man took his hand away, then stepped back. When the girl moved forward and spoke to Cam, the polycarbonate of Cadie’s visor became a speaker as it conducted the sound.

  “Are you Arik?” she asked him in a tone that was urgent, but not unfriendly. The girl appeared slightly older than Cadie with black, chin-length hair.

  Cam shook his head. “Arik isn’t here.”

  “Yet,” Cadie added. “He isn’t here yet. He’ll be here any second.”

  The girl looked at Cadie. Her eyes dropped to the layers of bunched-up microfiber covering her belly. Cadie could tell that the girl somehow knew she was pregnant. “Are you his wife?”

  Cadie nodded.

  “We don’t have much time,” the girl said. “We’re not safe here.”

  “Who are you?” Zaire asked with a combination of suspicion and what came across as disgust. “What the hell’s going on?”

  “I’ll explain as soon as I can,” the girl said. “Right now, we need to go.”

  The girl’s partner had turned around and was watching their backs. Between his shoulders was a black, ribbed, slightly raised mechanism that looked more like a filter than any kind of a cartridge or tank. The rifle was once again off his shoulder and ready to be raised.