The room seemed too small, and the chrome walls pressed in behind her, suffocating her with stale, recycled air. She pounded her fists on the glass. She wanted to burst out of the confines of her cell, let the vacuum of space rip her apart to free her soul. Several inches of thick glass muted her suffering and held her in.
A warning beep sounded and she whirled around to see the wall screen flash into color. Barliss stared back at her with wires running from his head like sprouting hair. His skin was blanched, pale as moonlight, and his cheeks sunken to the bone. If she were old, then he was older, a decade or more her senior. She recognized the commander’s chair, attaching Barliss to the ship like a parasite. Her room had a single chair by the table, and one cup of bitter coffee, resting half drunk and untouched.
“My dear, is something wrong?”
“I’m trapped here, alone.”
He spoke to her as if she were a half-wit. “Come now, we’ve talked of this before. You know I can’t abandon my post. There’s much work to be done if we’re to keep our schedule. I am always with you, just the click of a button away.”
A rising current of anger shook her hands and she felt as though she’d burst from the pressure. “No!” She pulled the metal chair from underneath the table and raised it above her head. “You can’t keep me here!”
Barliss leaned sideways and spoke into an intercom. “She’s off her meds. Medics to room ninety-eight, immediately!”
Aries slammed the legs of the chair into the wall screen, shattering the plastic and fragmenting Barliss’ image. The pieces flew around her face. Some of specks cut her face and lodged in her hair. She bent down and picked up a large shard of glass the size of her forearm, as blood trickled down her cheeks.
The chrome wall behind her disappeared and medics poured in, circling her with caution like she was mad. Aries laughed bitterly. She was the only sane one of the bunch.
“Let me go.”
“We can’t do that, ma’am.”
“I’m not supposed to be here. I was free.”
They ignored her claims and stepped forward, using metal trays as shields. She lunged, but her bones were weak and her arm collapsed as the shard hit the metal. Gloved hands grabbed her arms and legs, pinning her down with impersonal, plastic skin. She screamed in pain as a nurse inserted a needle in her arm. The room around her blurred in a smear of bright light. She fell away inside herself, losing what remained of her identity or desires. She floated as an insignificant pebble in the grand scheme of the vast universe, a blink of essence in an endless place.
…
Aries woke with wide eyes. The monitor beside her beeped a rapid rhythm, the tempo of her escalated heart rate. She held up her arm and smoothed her fingers over the firm, young skin. Thank goodness she still had time on her side. The vision had only been a nightmare, of course. What medications raced through her veins?
She focused on the walls, trying to find the camera that spied on her like an evil eye. How many guards stood outside her door? With no sight panel, she could only guess. The nurse hadn’t left anything sharp for her to use as a weapon, either. Still attached to the machines, Aries stood up and paced the room. She felt like a test mouse in a cage. Would they experiment with medications until she grew obedient? Would she end up like the old woman in her dream?
Aries tried to push the thought of never seeing Striker again from her mind. She denied the hopeless odds. There had to be some way to find out if he’d been captured. Although Barliss would never tell her, maybe she could find someone who would.
Aries halted abruptly in front of the touchscreen controlling the portal. The screen read blank gray. She pressed it several times. Nothing happened. They must have shut it off. Fiddling with the back of the panel, she wondered if she could rip it off the wall and rearrange the wires, possibly reactivating the controls. She glanced around the room but still couldn’t find the camera. Perhaps if she blocked the entire panel with her body and leaned in close to the wall, she’d cover up her tinkering.
Her fingers probed tiny screws in the metal. Since she didn’t have anything remotely like a screwdriver, she tried turning the screw with her fingernail. Her nail broke as the chrome vanished beside her. Jumping back, Aries put her hand behind her back.
“Trent?” A mix of emotions filled her, a surge of hope that she was finally seeing someone she knew, coupled with the fact it was her brother, the one who had bullied her into compliance all her life.
He nodded to someone she couldn’t see outside the door and the chrome solidified behind him. “I’ve come to talk to you.”
She ran up to him and held onto both his arms, whispering, “You’ve got to get me out of here.”
Trent scowled and looked away as if her words disgusted him. He pulled away from her and sat on the stool across the room. “That choice is yours and yours alone. Your freedom rests in your own hands now.”
His ambivalence shocked her and she shook her head. “Freedom? This is what you call freedom? Being married to a man I don’t want? Performing a job I didn’t choose?”
“It’s the best life you could ever have.” Trent held out his hand, offering it to her, but she wouldn’t take it. “Look around you. We’re surrounded by space in the middle of nowhere. Where else can you go?”
Aries thought of Striker and his plan to reacquire the map and fly to Refuge in an alien ship, but the whole story sounded like such a fantasy, her brother wouldn’t believe her. He’d believe the doctors who said she’d become delusional, blurring fantasy with reality.
“You’re lucky they found you alive.”
Suddenly, Aries wondered why they’d sent him alone. “Where are Mom and Dad?”
Trent’s voice was edged with anger. “They’re not here. The authorities won’t let them see you.”
“Because they’d listen to me. They would sympathize.”
Trent crossed his arms. “No. Because they think you’re dangerous.”
A rush of emotions flooded through her, free after all the years of holding her tongue. She’d cowered in his presence long enough.
“It’s not that and you know it.” Aries pointed an accusing finger at him. “They sent you because they thought you could convince me to agree to marry Barliss.”
“They want me to try and talk some sense into you, yes.”
“When the doctors found cancer in Grandfather’s lungs, I saw you vote to forgo the treatment. I sat on the sofa and watched you circle the option in red ink. ‘Let him die. His genetic code has been successfully passed to a new generation.’ I remember the moment as clear as yesterday. You showed no sadness in your face, only a quiet and calm certainty. I wasn’t old enough then to have my vote counted, so I kept my lips sealed, but I knew then where your loyalty lay.”
“He’d done his job on the New Dawn. He was ready to pass on. We must use all resources to further the next generation. It’s simple logic, not emotional ties.”
Aries’ voice rose. “What about compassion? You’ve always put the Guide above us, above Mom, Dad, everything.”
“As I should. Look, you’ve brought a lot of pain and disgrace to our family. I can only hope you come to your senses and right the wrongs you’ve caused.”
A door closed in her heart, shutting him out. Their differences in philosophy stretched so far they could never understand each other and she felt wrong to call him brother. “Good-bye, Trent. Give Mom and Dad my love.”
Aries turned her back on him, every cell in her being wishing him to leave. She heard the rustle of his uniform as he rose from the seat and the sound of the door opening and closing. When she turned around, she was alone again. Trapped with her rebellious thoughts.
…
Barliss surveyed the team as they herded the giant elephantine beasts of Sahara 354 to wire cages at the back of the zootarium. His stomach churned, but it wasn’t from the stench of three hundred chickens or pens choked with bleating goats. A growing sense of discontentment lurked underneath his m
ilitary demeanor.
He was pleased with the outcome of the expedition and the success of his mission, but Aries’ continued defiance of the doctors was making him feel more like a wet towel, twisted, wrung out and left hanging to dry. A man wearing a white lab coat directed the team as they backed each monstrous beast into confinement.
“Careful now, don’t spook them!” His voice sounded eager. “Careful of the female’s tentacles. They’re very delicate.” Their snorts joined the chorus of chicken clucks and goat grievances.
Once they closed the cages and locked them, the man gestured for his team to position large buckets of water near the front. Barliss moved to leave, out of time and out of patience. He had other concerns to deal with, but the head zoologist spotted him and waved, signaling for him to meet him in the adjoining room, free of the animal noises.
Barliss walked into a hundred-foot-tall atrium with pigeons flying overhead. Watching them made his tongue water with the thought of roasted wings. The man in the lab coat pushed through a wall of plastic separating the rooms and ran up to meet him. “I’m Doctor Cole. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Barliss.”
Barliss extended his hand. The man’s reputation was unparalleled in the biological fields. It wouldn’t hurt him to be on good terms with the doctor.
“I see you have your hands full, so let’s keep it short, shall we?”
“Oh yes, rightly so.” The doctor smoothed down the front of his coat. “I wanted to meet with you regarding a certain Aries Ryder.”
Barliss stiffened. What had she done now? He balled up his fists and cooled a rising thread of anger. His voice was tight. “What of her?”
The zoologist smiled. “I may have a solution for you, so to speak.”
Did word get around so quickly? Barliss felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. “I have no need for help.”
Doctor Cole put up a finger. “Hear me out.”
Barliss gave a curt nod and looked around for potential eavesdroppers, but only two mottled pigeons looked on from the branches of a pear tree.
Doctor Cole stepped closer, his voice a low, conspiratorial whisper. “Before life-jobs were assigned, Aries Ryder requested biology. I turned her down for others with more optimal skill sets.”
Barliss gave him a stern look. What did it matter to him? There was no sense in resurrecting the past.
The doctor cleared his throat. “What I’m getting at, sir, is we could make a bargain with her, assign her to a new job here in the zootarium. It may solve your obedience problem.”
Barliss raised his hand to silence him. “No. No special rules for her.” Although he wanted to punish Aries, not give her a reward, he quickly came up with a more logical reason. “Word will get out and everyone will want the more, shall we say, illustrious careers? There’d be no more cleaners, trash collectors, laundry supervisors. The Guide dictates it is more beneficial to have the most qualified, not the most enthusiastic.”
“Yes, yes. I remember section ninety-three of the Guide. Do not think I forgot it.”
“Then there’s no question, is there?”
The doctor’s face closed up. Perhaps he’d expected a reward in return, more resources directed to the bio team’s management. “No, sir.”
“Good. I appreciate your concern for Aries Ryder, but I’ll deal with her myself.”
“Of course.” The doctor stepped away and bowed his head. “Nice to meet you, Lieutenant.”
Barliss frowned. “Same here.”
Doctor Cole left him in the atrium. Barliss stared at the pigeons as they flapped through the air, choosing perches in the farthest reaches of the atrium. Somehow they reminded him of Aries, beautiful creatures held in by glass, never to truly know what it was like to fly in the wind. Weren’t they all like Aries? No human alive would get to see the New Dawn land on Paradise 21. He grew uncomfortably melancholy and pushed the thought away.
He should check on Aries’ progress. Perhaps her brother had been able to change her mind. Barliss had offered him an excellent promotion as a reward. He stepped forward and his wrist beeped. At first Barliss thought it was some alarm, that he’d trespassed on the herbs cultivated by the foliage team, but his feet stood solidly on the plastic walkway. He brought his arm up and looked at his locator.
The devices were only meant as beacons to locate members of the crew. Messages were rarely sent and had to be approved by the higher in command. He stared at the tiny screen as letters flashed before his eyes, creating a full sentence.
May I request a private audience?
Barliss blinked to make sure he wasn’t imagining the string of letters on his locator, but they were still there. He pressed a button on the side, identifying the sender. The device flashed a name: Commander Gearhardt.
Only the commander would have the power to alter the internal systems of the locators. It made perfect sense. What didn’t line up was why he needed to speak to Barliss so soon after his return, and why the meeting was so clandestine. Barliss broke branches in his haste to get out of the atrium.
Chapter Nineteen
Fear
Striker peered over the ridge at the remnants of the raider den. Black smoke stained the clear blue sky, creating shadows as it rose from piles of ashes while the raiders gathered bodies and cremated them. More raiders picked through the desolation, some of them probably looting, while others roamed without direction, perhaps looking for lost family members. Striker felt a pang in his chest. Even the “lizard men,” as Aries had called them, didn’t deserve this kind of devastation.
There were too many raiders to win a fight against them, so he couldn’t drag the processor right through their territory. Jumping down from the ridge, Striker skirted the den and searched for a discreet path around the refugees.
A body lay on the edge of the ridge. The raider’s two-pronged tongue hung from an open mouth, which contained two small incisors that were as sharp as pins. Laser fire had blackened his midsection, and his scrawny leg bent at a strange angle.
Striker had never come this close to one besides the boy who’d chased the snake up so close to where he’d hidden with Aries. He pulled off its bone mask and looked into the blank stare of its dark eyes, wondering what thoughts had flitted behind them. The mask was carved with slits and tied with pieces of desert cowhide.
Striker held his breath from the smell of burnt tissue and pulled the crude coat from the creature’s back. He tore off a strip of animal hide and shook it out, lizard scales glimmering as they fell into the sand. After wrapping it around his head, he tied the bone mask on as well. They did block the wind and sand, and hid a large portion of his face. He put the remainder of the lizard man’s coat over his own black cloak. It didn’t reach down to cover his black boots, and he had no way to fake a tail, but it might get him through. Consumed as they were by their colony’s devastation, Striker doubted the raiders would be on the lookout for new victims. In any case, he didn’t want to be confused with the humans who had brought the destruction down upon them.
Weaving his way in and out of the fallen tents, Striker worked toward the canyon where he and Aries had hidden the processor. He tried not to look at the bodies, because each one left a searing impression on his mind: a blackened arm reaching from a fallen tent, a cracked bone mask small enough for a child, an unraveled string of beads. He had to remind himself the people who’d created this mess had taken Aries, and the only way to get her back was to find the processor. Stepping over what must have been a raider’s living area with broken clay pots, Striker avoided contact with the other wanderers.
Hissing erupted ahead of him. A fight had broken out, two raiders pushing at each other while others looked on. Striker walked around it, ducking through one of the only tents left standing.
A small raider with dull coloring bent over a pile of eggs, white and wet as the sides of someone’s eyes. Was it a female? She licked the round tops with her tongue, flicking it in and out of her mouth to keep it moist. The vuln
erability of the female with its eggs distracted Striker as he thought back to the eggs on his ship. In times of overwhelming destruction, every species struggles to protect its young, to survive. Feeling like an intruder, he tripped, knocking over a stand of clattering pots.
The female hissed, a long and drawn-out noise. Striker stepped back, but she ran at him, tail swinging behind her. Not wanting to fight her, he retreated until she pushed him through the front flaps, right into the middle of the dispute.
The two raiders engaged in the fight froze, and the onlookers turned their heads at incredible angles, by human standards. The female clicked her tongue and flicked her three-taloned hand at Striker in a rude gesture, as if to say he’d committed some blasphemous act by invading her egg tent.
The raiders stepped forward, closing in. He stumbled backward, but raiders surrounded him on all sides. They reached behind their backs and drew their spears. Striker put up both hands to show his peaceful intentions, but he’d forgotten he wore no gloves. As the crowd stared in shock at his tanned skin, he expected them to slaughter him right then and there and braced himself for a final fight, making fists with his fingers.
The raiders stared at his bare skin with wary eyes. One by one, they dropped their spears and scattered, running in all directions. The female disappeared back into the tent. Striker stood alone in the ring of sand made by the dueling raiders’ claws.
For a moment, he felt a great sense of disgust for his own species. For all of recorded history, humans had forced their will on the natural world, exterminating other species and driving them to the far regions of old Earth. It was partly the reason he stood on this barren planet today. Perhaps humans were doomed to repeat history wherever they went. Perhaps the New Dawn would make a barren world out of a paradise.
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