by C. W Tickner
One of the guards, more nervous than the others, raised his rifle up as the press of men and women forced Harl to take a step back. The guard’s foot caught on a raised bolt in the floor making him stumble.
A single shot burst from the rifle, the blue flash hissed as it crashed into the ceiling, searing the metal plates. Everybody froze. The guard looked wide-eyed at the burn hole then down at the gun in surprise.
‘Idiot,’ the man beside him said and cuffed the stunned soldier as silence descended on the room.
One of Harl’s own men drew a pistol slowly from beneath a jacket, anticipating violence. Harl caught the man’s eye and shook his head as the double doors behind the line slid open.
A tall, willowy man glided in after the guards. He was wearing the same beige clothing as everyone else and was arguing with a short, mean-looking man as they pushed through the line of guards.
The tall man stepped into the space between both parties, seemingly unafraid, while the other hung back.
‘Please, friends,’ the man said as he raised his hands. ‘We’re all strangers here, but I’m sure you are as interested in us as we are of you.’ He scanned the newcomers in wonder as if he could not believe his own eyes, then the placid look returned. ‘This is an unusual meeting. Please lower your weapons.’ He turned to the grey, armoured guards behind him. ‘Lower them.’
They complied and, indicating his soldiers to do the same, Harl stepped out to meet the man.
‘I’m Harl Eriksson,’ he said. ‘I am the leader of these people. Our journey has been long and arduous. Please, they need rest, food, water and safety.’
‘You’re very welcome, Harl.’ he looked at those behind Harl and raised his voice. ‘All of you are welcome here. This is our ship, Orbital. My name is Marlin and if you have a little patience, we’ll see to your needs. As you can imagine this is very unexpected, so bear with us.’
The short, mean-looking man had slipped past the guards and strode across to join the two of them in the middle of the room. His dark, bulging eyebrows gave the impression of a constant scowl, forming a V that angled down to a bulbous nose. He wore an old black coat that almost looked like it was leather. It was patched and worn, with some sort of rusting utility belt stretched around his expansive waist.
‘We haven’t got the space,’ the man half-whispered to Marlin, but loud enough for Harl to hear.
Marlin frowned at the dumpy man and Harl caught a whiff of alcohol.
‘Not now, Turpin,’ Marlin said, keeping his voice down. ‘I need you to bring these people food and water.’
‘Water?’ Turpin blustered, as if he’d asked for gold.
‘Yes, Turpin, ’ Marlin said, his pale, pinched face calm. ‘If you’d be so good. Water, and quickly.’
Turpin shot Harl a dirty look. as if it was all his fault, and marched off between the guards by the door, ordering some of the soldiers to follow him.
‘My apologies,’ Marlin said, watching Turpin leave. ‘We’re not an unfriendly people, but we’ve had little chance to be diplomatic. In fact, you’re the first to arrive here in a very long time.’
‘Where is the medical deck?’ Harl asked, torn between questions about the strangeness of the situation and finding Sonora. ‘My wife was taken there. She’s about to give birth.’
‘Of course,’ Marlin said, understanding. ‘This way.’ He led Harl through the sliding doors into a double wide corridor. Two guards fell in behind them. The walls were lined with the same beige material as that worn by Marlin. They sagged from the weight of water that coated them and drips plopped down into a thin trough at the base of the wall, only to disappear down through holes in bottom.
‘What happened when we arrived?’ Harl asked.
‘A meteoroid strike,’ Marlin said, ‘or so we believe. We are constantly bombarded by rocks, some larger than others. When the docking doors opened, some entered, striking your ship and damaging Orbital. Bad timing really.’
When they reached a dead end Marlin stopped and pressed some controls on a panel in the wall. Harl looked around perplexed. Adrenaline pumped through him as a door behind closed, sealing him and the three strangers inside a tiny square space.
‘No need to panic,’ Marlin said.
Harl felt a light sensation in his stomach as the enclosed room jolted ever so slightly.
‘We are going up,’ Marlin said and Harl remembered the elevators used in Delta for the mines but this was a much smoother ride.
‘How big is this ship?’ Harl asked.
‘Orbital is two thousand meters long, seven hundred wide with one hundred and thirty decks.’ Marlin smiled at the look of amazement on Harl’s face and went on. ‘In total there are one hundred and eighty square kilometres. Far more than our population of just over a thousand would ever need.’
‘Then we’ve doubled your numbers,’ Harl said, wondering what impact that might have on their community.
‘That will be a problem,’ Marlin said, ‘but one for another time. There should be no immediate issue. We hope to recover water and food from your ship and use that until we can adjust or make arrangements. We’re a very measured ship with little resources, as you might have guessed from the water catchment sheets in the tunnel. There will be time to explain more, but for now you must focus on becoming a father.’ He smiled at Harl as the doors opened automatically to reveal a white tunnel, much brighter than the previous deck. The floor was etched with worn lines from countless stretchers being rolled in and out and the walls bore marks of a thousand scrapes where they had bounced off. The deck had a fresh chemical smell to it.
‘This way,’ Marlin said as they reached a set of doors either side of the wide corridor. He pushed open a swing door on his left and Harl heard Sonora’s cries as he entered. His view of her on a metal bed was obscured by doctors fussing around her as she cried out in pain.
‘Stay calm and breathe,’ a woman’s voice said as one doctor yelled at another to bring more sheets.
‘Tess?’ Marlin said when Sonora’s cries lulled.
The red-haired woman from the docks turned to them and smiled.
‘You must be the father,’ she said, stepping forward and grabbing Harl’s hand, pulling him past the other doctors. ‘Hold her hand while I tend to the other man we brought up. He’s had a rough time.’
Harl sat on a worn iron chair beside Sonora as she strained against the pain. He held her hand, not sure how to calm her, but talking in what he hoped was a reassuring tone. She swore and cursed for what seemed an eternity, but he persisted.
Doctor Tess returned during the last moments, encouraging Sonora until she collapsed back exhausted and Tess stepped away cradling a wailing baby girl. She was the most beautiful thing Harl had ever seen. Pride seethed through him. He’d done it. He’d brought Sonora and the child to safety from the hazards of the planet below.
Sonora held the baby, soothing her with a look of devoted adoration. She passed him the tiny bundle of bright pink flesh and he held the child like a glass vial, fearing the slightest movement would crush her.
Only once sleep had taken both Sonora and the baby did Harl risk getting up and looking around. Marlin had left at some point during the birth, leaving the two guards outside. No doubt he had a lot to do with a thousand extra people to feed and house. Harl felt the same. He was torn between Sonora and the baby and the need to protect those he had brought here. As he stepped out of the room into the tunnel, he saw Yara coming out of the elevator. She was flanked by another pair of guards, as if she was so much of a danger that more than one was needed. He waved her over, unable to hide his grin.
‘A girl,’ he said.
She smiled and hugged him.
‘I would have come sooner but these-’She looked at the guards. ‘-aren’t letting any of us move until they have interrogated us.’
‘Just questions,’ one of the guards said.
‘I’ll go back down and find out what’s going on,’ Harl said, ignoring him.
‘Both are well,’ he said. ‘In here.’ He opened the door for her, noticing the looseness of the worn hinges as she crept inside.
‘Can you stay with them?’ he asked. He knew Sonora was safe, but he felt uneasy at the strangeness of the situation.
‘Of course,’ Yara said. ‘Bring Gorman back when you come. I’m sure he’d want to know his great granddaughter. And bring my husband while you’re at it. He should know what he fights for. Maybe I can persuade him to have one as well.’
Harl smiled, Damen would want nothing to do with settling down to have a family if there was an enemy to be fought. Harl glanced at the guards. He might just get his wish if things were not handled with care.
Stepping across the corridor into the opposite room, he eased the door open to peer inside. He’d been hearing a constant beeping noise from the room for hours and it worried him. The white room contained a single bed, with a series of beeping and humming equipment lining the sides. It was all connected by a stream of wires to the unconscious man in the bed.
Kane had been knocked down during the panic that ensued after the meteoroids had struck. Damen had saved the scientist and, even though they constantly bickered, Harl felt they’d somehow become an odd pair of friends. Harl owed Kane so much for getting them up from the surface and he felt a pang of guilt that the man had suffered because of it.
‘I don’t know why he hasn’t woken up,’ a female voice said and Harl spun to find Tess had quietly entered the room. She was slowly dragging the copper comb through her curly red hair in an attempt to straighten it.
‘Thank you,’ he said.
‘No need to thank me,’ she said, ‘he hasn’t woken yet.’
‘I mean for Sonora and the baby.’
‘I’m sure Sonora did most of the work. I just helped the final stage. Perhaps you can answer some things for me? I have a hundred questions about where you came from.’
‘Of course,’ Harl said. ‘Perhaps it would be better to include Marlin so that I can answer all your questions at the same time?’
Tess nodded. She slipped the comb into her breast pocket and stepped around Kane’s bed to a screen that was filled with changing numbers.
‘So you’re the ship’s doctor?’ Harl asked.
‘I’m head scientist as well as chief doctor,’ Tess said.
The steady beeping from a machine next to Kane switched to double speed and Tess rushed around the bed, grabbing a radio clipped on to her belt as she ran.
‘Code blue in medical one,’ she said. ‘Code blue.’ She snatched up a bundle of faded packets from a counter, tore one open to reveal a needled tool and plunged it into Kane’s neck.
‘No, wait!’ Harl tried to grab her hand, but it was too late.
She turned as the guards rushed in followed by two more doctors.
‘Get him out of here,’ she said turning back to Kane as the machines blared louder.
Harl kicked out at a doctor, catching the man on the shin before a guard swept in and caught both his arms behind his back. He struggled, twisting wildly to break the grip and get Kane out. The second guard rushed at him and clocked a baton against his head. Together they dragged him out.
Chapter 2
The rest have woken and, like me, many do not remember anything more than leaving Earth and the expectation of finding a new home. No luck with the power, the doors are locked and we may never know more than the inside of this cryo room.
Harl was thrown back into the long docking room by two guards. His head spun as he stumbled forward and collapsed to the floor, gasping for air. It was too hot and stuffy. People swam before him like reflections shimmering on the surface of a pond.
Damen and Uman rushed forwards as the guards backed away. Damen snatched his pistol from beneath his coat and pointed it up at the guards. They tightened their grip on their own weapons and froze.
‘Back off,’ Damen hissed. He eased forward and laid a hand on Harl’s shoulder. ‘Are you alright?’
Harl tried to shake his head clear. ‘Yes, yes, but she stabbed Kane!’
Damen snarled and twitched his finger closer to the trigger. ‘Is he alive?’
‘I don’t know,’ Harl moaned. He shook his head again and touched the lump where the guard had hit him. ‘I tried to get to him, b-but they dragged me out of there and then knocked me out.’
‘Is he alive?’ Damen roared at the guards.
A shot rang out as one of the guards reacted by mistake. It missed Damen by a hair and he fired back. The blue blast broke against the guard’s armour, throwing him back across the room. Damen shifted the weapon to the next guard in an instant, ready to fire.
‘Don’t,’ Uman said, tugging Damen’s jacket as he pointed to the door.
Marlin swept into the room with his hands raised, a look of horror on his face. Guards filed in behind him. The man Damen had shot tore his smoking chest plate off and scrambled out of the way.
‘Enough!’ Marlin roared. ‘We will have peace here.’
Damen took a step forward and pressed his gun against Marlin’s forehead.
‘Does he live?’ he hissed.
Every guard raised their rifle and took a step closer to Damen.
Marlin’s jaw clenched, but he resisted the urge to look up at the gun and kept his eyes locked on Harl.
‘Your friend is fine.’
‘Then why was he stabbed?’ Uman demanded. He had one hand behind his back and Harl suspected that he had a knife hidden there.
‘It was a syringe,’ Marlin said.
Damen and Uman looked at Harl.
‘What do you mean?’ Harl said. Anger boiled inside him. ‘I know what I saw. She stabbed him with a thin blade. It makes no difference what it’s called.’
Damen switched his attention back to Marlin and pushed the gun forward, tilting Marlin’s head back.
‘A syringe is not a blade,’ Marlin said. ‘It’s an instrument used to deliver medication by injecting it directly into the body.’
Damen pulled his gun away slightly and glanced at Harl. ‘You haven’t seen one before?’
Harl shook his head, confused. ‘So Kane’s alright?’
Marlin nodded.
Damen gritted his teeth and pressed the gun back against the man’s head.
‘That doesn’t excuse your actions. Why did you knock Harl unconscious? Why drag him back here like a prisoner? How long will you keep us locked up in here like cattle waiting for slaughter?’
‘We had to protect the medical staff. The guards were only doing their jobs and we’re keeping you here because we need to be careful. We have limited resources and this station is fragile. We need to know who you are before we grant you free access. There’s also the matter of bolstering the life support systems-’
‘Crap!’ Damen snapped. ‘It’s just an excuse to keep us here. Why don’t we just take the dropship back down and leave you to it?’ He forced Marlin to take a step back.
The world seemed to shrink as the soldiers closed in on him.
Harl stepped forward.
‘This is my fault,’ he said. ‘I misread the situation when they were only trying to help. Damen-’ He held his hand out. ‘-give me your weapon. I will not see a war start among us when we are brothers with the people of Orbital. I made a mistake. Let me fix it.’
Damen hesitated, tightening his grip on his gun, but then grunted and handed it over. Harl offered the gun to Marlin.
‘We are brothers,’ he said. ‘You have my apology and thanks for your aid. I will submit to any interview, but there has to be trust. Let this be a fresh start.’
Marlin led Harl into a small room where Tess was sat waiting behind a desk. He pulled out a chair for Harl. Tess gave him a dark look, but glanced away when Marlin raised an eyebrow at her.
Harl sat on the moulded chair and took in the dimly lit room as Marlin shuffled around the dented metal desk. A large window gave a view of the blackness out
side. Stars stared back at them like distant eyes.
Marlin sat beside Tess and thumbed through a collection of brown paper notes. A stench of alcohol swept into the room as Turpin entered. He slouched over to the window and leaned against the wall, glowering back towards Harl as two guards followed him in and took up position either side of the door. It was the only exit.
‘I am sorry for the recent confusion,’ Marlin said, looking up briefly from the papers. ‘It seems our way of life is different to the one you have know.’
Harl nodded and then waited for the man to continue.
‘Confusion aside, there is a pressing question that needs to be answered if we are to take you in as equals, but it is delicate,’ Marlin said, giving Harl a tight smile. ‘How are we supposed to trust you and your people after so little time?’
Harl shrugged. ‘And that’s your first mistake. It’s no longer “your people” or “my people”; it’s “our people”.’
‘That’s fine in principle,’ Marlin said, ‘but we face reality here and there’s mistrust on both sides. You may see us as one people, but how many others share that view?’
Harl loosened his collar as he thought it over.
‘Probably only a handful,’ he said. ‘But as you said, our arrival has doubled numbers on the station. To survive we have to work together.’
Tess had been noting his answers down on a sheet of paper. She looked up.
‘And how would you suggest we do that?’
Harl raised his hands. ‘You seem to expect me to have all of the answers. I don’t know your situation here. I only know that we’ve come begging for a home.’
‘But you still expect us to accept you as equals,’ Marlin said. He looked at Tess and then across at Turpin, before glancing back at Harl. ‘If I was to offer you the hand of friendship, how do I know that you wouldn’t pull me close and slit my throat?’
Harl laughed and shook his head. ‘It’s called faith. But the flip-side is also true: how do I know you wouldn’t be offering me that hand to drag me into the nearest airlock?’