Airborne

by Kimberly P. Chase

  ‘Well, if we’re going to save the rest of them, you’re going to have to break the rules,’ Ms Lovell’s voice overrode Veronica’s, saving him from another breakdown.

  For some reason everyone always thought Sky was a rule breaker, but really he’d never broken a rule in his life. He never deviated from protocol.

  ‘What has the Alliance been doing to help?’ Stuck on this rock, Sky didn’t know what was happening anywhere else. He’d destroyed his room days ago and had managed to piss off the entire base.

  ‘They sent a shuttle to pick them up when the first death was reported, but when they realized the magnitude of the situation they quarantined them as you already know.’

  So they hadn’t done anything basically.

  ‘A few minute ago, I received word that they’ve discovered how and why the sickness is spreading. But the Alliance is hesitant to go back.’

  Sky wished he could say he was shocked by this news. ‘We have to do something.’ He’d waited too long as it was.

  When Ms Lovell took a deep breath and didn’t respond, Sky’s heart raced.

  ‘I’m afraid my hands are tied. I can’t directly go against the Alliance.’

  Sky could play this game. What Ms Lovell was really saying was that she couldn’t directly go against the Alliance. What she hadn’t said was far more important. Sky’s mind spun with ideas. He could steal a ship, fly it to Aviary, and bring everyone home.

  ‘There are no shuttles here. Only the lunar transport vehicles,’ Sky said as he thought aloud.

  Ms Lovell nodded, letting Sky come to his own conclusions.

  ‘I can fly the lunar transport to the station? But it doesn’t have landing capabilities …’

  Ms Lovell remained silent.

  ‘We’d have to do an ocean landing. If I could even pilot it that far.’ Aurora would have to help him. Without her, it would fail. ‘Aurora will have to help me pilot it.’ It would take two people on the controls. ‘But what about the virus?’

  ‘If you make it back—’ Ms Lovell shrugged her shoulders, ‘—the Academy will have no choice but to help their cadets. We’ll bring them back to the Academy as carefully as possible and figure it all out then.’

  ‘What if I get sick? Or Aurora?’ Sky’s mind raced. ‘I think it’s a risk we’ll have to take if we want to save them. If we don’t do anything, there may not be anyone left to save …’ Sky nodded to himself, deep in thought. ‘The Alliance is going to kill me.’

  Ms Lovell rubbed her forehead. Her usually perfect bun was coming apart; wisps of hair fell free around her face.

  ‘What about Collin Titon?’ Sky continued, trying to think of all the possibilities.

  ‘He’s tried to commandeer a shuttle, but none of the Alliance pilots are willing to go against the Alliance.’

  ‘Did he throw a bunch of money at them?’

  ‘Yes. And if there wasn’t a killer virus on the ship, most probably would have done it.’

  ‘So they value their lives more than money?’ Sky asked, sarcastically.

  ‘Yes. Needless to say, he isn’t handling the news well.’

  ‘They’ll punish me for doing this.’

  ‘Most likely,’ Ms Lovell confirmed.

  ‘I’ll do it.’ He was willingly going to break protocol—the same rules he’d instructed the cadets to follow.

  But sometimes the rules needed to be broken.

  And to save Aurora Titon, he’d break every fucking one of them.

  ‘I knew you’d figure something out,’ Ms Lovell added with a small smile.

  ‘No thanks to you.’ Sky returned her smile. ‘And don’t think it’s because I’ve gone all sentimental. I pull this off; it’ll be the best flight story ever. I’ll have lifetime bragging rights.’

  ‘With Aurora’s help,’ Ms Lovell added.

  ‘Yeah with Aurora’s help. But I am her instructor, so that’s like double points.’

  ‘Of course.’ Ms Lovell tried to hide her smile.

  Damn, she’d always seen right through him.

  Sky disconnected the call. He didn’t have time to make a plan. He headed out of his room intent on stealing a lunar transport.

  ***

  The lunar transport stood in all its glory before him. The chunky metallic vehicle was meant for hauling, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t fly it like a fine-tuned instrument. Sky ran up the open hatch, pushing the cargo piled into the payload bay off the ramp.

  A slow drop and quick puff of regolith followed. With the cargo bay clear, Sky moved on. Let the others figure out what to do with it.

  A pale blue glow lit the instruments and cockpit. As Sky slid into his seat, a peace he only achieved while flying settled over him.

  Flicking switches as fast as humanly possible, Sky closed the open hatch and plotted his coordinates to the space station. He had done this same routine over the past few weeks that he didn’t even have to think about it.

  Getting off this rock was going to be harder than normal. Sky scooted forward in the pilot’s seat. Unlike usual, he didn’t have clearance to be here and the retinal ignition starter wasn’t working.

  He placed his forehead onto the ignition scanner. ‘Re-Scan.’

  ‘Access denied.’

  ‘Shit!’ Sky shoved the seat back. The Alliance wasn’t kidding around. They’d shut down his access to the lunar transport.

  He took five deep breaths, his mind spinning. It was no longer an option of sneaking out. Sky switched on the headset.

  ‘Alliance Control, Sky hailing with a request.’

  ‘Sky, Alliance Control, what is your request?’

  ‘I need to move one of the lunar transports out of the bay.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Without the daily transports to the station, we’ve got lunar rock pouring out of our asses over here. Where are we supposed to put it?’ Sky forced power behind his words. ‘We’ve got to do something. If I can clear the hangar, we’ll have more room to store everything.’

  ‘Standby for clearance.’

  Minutes passed.

  ‘You’re wasting my time, Tower. If we don’t address this problem pronto we’re going to face a decline in production.’

  ‘Alright, Sky. You’ll have access for ten minutes. Can you move it that quickly?’

  ‘Yeah.’ The tower guy was obviously an idiot. Once he turned the vehicle on, the only one who could turn it back off was Sky. Though it would become an issue once he shut the thing off on Aviary. That, however, was a worry for another day.

  Sky pulled his seat forward until his feet touched the rudders.

  ‘Activate Retinal Scan.’

  ‘Retinal Scan Activated.’

  ‘Initiate.’

  ‘Initiating Scan … access granted.’

  The second the engines were spooled; he thrust their power levers forward.

  ‘Transport, please adjust your course.’

  Sky ignored the hail. They’d eventually get it when they found the discarded cargo.

  When the tower realized he was leaving the moon altogether, frantic yells came over the radio. Sky turned his headset off. He’d deal with the Alliance consequences when Aurora was safe.

  He jettisoned toward Aviary.

  Chapter 44

  Zane

  Aurora’s chest moved up and down as she breathed in a deep sleep. After her coughing fit, she’d panicked over all the blood so Kaylana had given her a sleeping sedative.

  Zane watched over her, not wanting to leave her side for a second.

  He couldn’t believe she was sick.

  Airborne.

  Why was this happening? Why would someone plant a virus on board? Could someone still be trying to kill Aurora?

  How could the Alliance ask them to leave her behind? Didn’t they realize that without her sacrifice, they wouldn’t know how to contain the virus? Aurora had saved everyone left aboard the ship. At least temporarily. With six people onboard Aviary breathing at a normal rate, the carbo
n dioxide levels would become an issue in about forty-eight hours.

  That issue paled in comparison to Aurora.

  She was the only thing Zane cared about. He didn’t need to know about his past anymore, his future was right in front of him. And, if he was willing to admit it to himself, it had been since the day he first saw her. Why had it taken him this long to figure all of this out?

  He loved her.

  Now he only needed to figure out how to help her. To cure her. It didn’t matter that he didn’t know how to love anybody. She could teach him.

  Zane would do anything to spend his life with her.

  Aurora rolled over onto her stomach, her red hair fanning out over the pillow.

  She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. The world outside paled in comparison.

  If she died, Zane didn’t think he could survive it. She was the only thing he wanted to live for. Determined, Zane stood up. His first night on Aviary … he should have been infected. Right along with Tor. Even if Tor’s body fought off the symptoms a little longer, Zane still would have symptoms by now too. He knew what he had to do. Even if it exposed everything.

  ***

  The one thousand twenty four-bit encryption was about to meet its match. Pulling the computer from his bag, Zane quickly depressed the on switch.

  After watching Aurora sleep for hours, he’d finally figured out the password. It seemed so obvious now. Maybe it had taken Zane recognizing what love could do to a person for him to get it.

  The password was Helen. Aurora’s mother’s name, the love of Collin Titon’s life. From what Aurora had said, Collin Titon had delved into the medical field because of her mother’s heart issues.

  It all came down to love.

  If he was right, Zane would find out about his past, what was done to him, and the only reason he cared to break into the computer anymore—the possibility to save Aurora.

  It was entirely probable that Zane was immune to whatever was attacking her.

  Desperate that this old laptop held the answers, he typed in the five letters that could change his life. And maybe even save Aurora’s.

  HELEN

  The computer screen remained black. He released his grip and typed out Helen’s name one last time. If this didn’t work …

  The screen remained blank.

  What if he’d used a password for both the loves in Collin Titon’s life?

  He typed in HELENAURORA.

  Nothing.

  Unwilling to give up, he tried again. Helen followed by Aurora’s birthday.

  The screen remained blank …

  A Titon Technologies logo appeared briefly before the word Eugenics scrolled across the screen.

  Jackpot.

  Suddenly everything clicked into place. As if his mind had blocked out his past until it knew he’d be able to accept all the memories.

  Missing pieces of his life flashed before his eyes—Zane, three years old, doctors surrounding him. Testing his blood, jotting down notes when he did something miraculous. They’d been kind even if he’d never been allowed outside. The laboratory was his home, the doctors his family. The man he now knew as Collin Titon had kept his distance, only showing up when the doctor’s discovered a new ability or when he survived another deadly disease.

  Eugenics … genetic engineering. Zane’s DNA had been engineered into perfection. He was smarter, healthier, and supposedly perfect.

  Another memory surfaced of his last day inside Titon Technologies. A woman with hair like fire stumbling into the laboratory. Shock and horror had coated her face as she’d freed Zane from the room. They’d run together, but the exertion seemed to tax her more than Zane.

  Scared, he kept running. His tiny legs carrying him out into the world beyond, where he learned how to live alone.

  A world he’d never seen before, filled with people, smells, and stimuli overwhelmed his senses. At some point, Zane must have repressed these memories. His mind protecting him in the only way it knew how until he was ready to remember everything.

  He didn’t have time or the inclination to sort through all of these new memories. He focused on the codes encrypted on the computer. Codes that answered every question he’d ever thought to wonder about himself.

  Codes upon codes littered the screen. Every gene in the human sequence paired with a modification.

  A few had failed, but more than enough had worked to make Zane the way he was. The modifications were completed before Zane was born, a random zygote in the Titon Technologies lab. There was no mention of his parent’s DNA.

  His eyes roamed over everything, storing all of the information.

  Patient 32: Injected with AIDS … No Effect

  Patient 32: Injected with carcinogens … No Effect

  Patient 32: Injected with Polio … No Effect

  The list went on and on. Zane was a living, breathing immunity. His body could fight off anything.

  Zane had his answer. Before he shut the computer, he saw a section of notes.

  Patient 32 is far more advanced than the average toddler. Smarter, faster, healthier, superior in so many ways. However patient has not shown any emotional responses, as if they’ve been reduced in some way.

  Perhaps not so perfect then. The absence in Zane’s heart finally made sense. The only person who’d ever broken through that barrier was dying down the hall.

  Could Zane’s blood help her?

  There was only one way to find out. Even if it exposed just how different he was.

  Chapter 45

  Zane

  ‘What do you mean you were genetically altered?’ Kaylana eyed Zane with cautious eyes. Akemi stood mutely beside her.

  He pushed his hands through his hair. He wasn’t explaining this right. ‘Look … the details don’t matter right now. My DNA has undergone eugenics.’

  Akemi’s mouth dropped open but no sound came out.

  ‘Genetic engineering? I … I … don’t understand.’ Kaylana glanced at Akemi as if to see if he believed Zane.

  Akemi’s mouth opened and closed until he finally composed himself. ‘Is this what’s been going on with you and Dr Stevenson?’

  Zane nodded and got right to the heart of the matter. They were wasting time. ‘What I’m trying to say is I think I may be immune to the virus.’

  ‘What makes you think that? Why are you just now telling us this?’

  He stopped Kaylana before she went into one of her talking tornados. ‘It’s not exactly something people should know. And I didn’t have a good enough reason to tell you until Aurora got sick.’ Zane glanced over to where Aurora was sleeping. She was the only person able to crack through his barriers, revealing a depth of emotion he wasn’t used to. He felt bad about the other cadets and Alliance astronauts dying while he held the possible key to their survival, but that paled in comparison to the thought of losing Aurora. It’s not like he knew he was immune until an hour ago.

  ‘If you’re immune, we’ll have everything we need to create an antidote,’ Akemi said, finally getting it.

  ‘Inject me with the virus.’ He rolled up his sleeve.

  ‘Wait!’ Kaylana forced herself in front of Zane. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said without hesitation. He’d waited long enough.

  Kaylana sighed. ‘Okay. I hope you’re right. There will be zero chance of the Alliance picking us up if you get sick too.’

  ‘They’re not picking us up anyway,’ Akemi argued.

  ‘Do you want to try and save Aurora or not?’ Zane asked, knowing this would sway Kaylana.

  He was right.

  Kaylana picked up a syringe and began siphoning tubes of Zane’s blood. ‘I won’t introduce the virus directly into your system because, well, that would just be stupid.’ Kaylana glanced toward Aurora’s prone form. ‘I know you want to know what Aurora is going through and help her, but let’s not make any more impulsive decisions.’ She put a bandage over the needle’s injection point. ‘First, we’ll see how
your blood samples do against it. Then we’ll inject it directly.’

  ***

  ‘Is it done yet?’

  Kaylana huffed and ignored him completely as she examined his blood sample.

  For the first time in his life Zane prayed. He prayed that he was immune, that his blood could save Aurora. If it did, he’d never blame Titon Technologies for anything ever again.

  ‘Nova!’ Kaylana faced Zane, her eyes wild with excitement. ‘It didn’t affect your blood at all. It’s like I never introduced the virus in the first place.’

  Zane’s smile slowly stretched from ear to ear. ‘Then we can give Aurora my blood?’

  Kaylana chewed her lip. ‘Well, no, normally you’d create an antidote based on your blood samples.’

  ‘That could take days.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Kaylana admitted. ‘But it’s what we have to do. Injecting your blood with the virus is a risk. Her blood might not adapt to the virus even with yours present. Are you willing to take that chance?’

  Zane’s smile vanished. It had felt weird anyway. ‘Then what do we do?’

  ‘Akemi and I will just have to work as fast as we can.’

  ‘Okay, but let’s get Aurora’s blood type just in case. If we don’t find the antidote and she’s compatible with me …’ Zane trailed off, he didn’t need to finish the rest. If it came down to it, Zane would pump Aurora’s body full of his blood and hope it would be enough to save her.

  ***

  Collin Titon’s angry face stared at Zane. Why had he been the one to take this call? Coming to terms with his situation on paper was one thing. Facing the mastermind behind it all was an entirely different story.

  ‘What do you mean I can’t speak to my daughter?’

  Zane took a deep breath. ‘She’s sick, sir.’ He didn’t know why in the hell he was being so polite. Maybe because they both cared about Aurora.

  ‘When did this happen?’ Collin Titon’s tone softened.

  ‘Twelve hours ago.’

  ‘I’m too late. I can’t get anyone there in time.’ Mr Titon moved off screen, but Zane could still hear him cursing and banging things around. The virus usually killed within three days, so they were running out of time. Aurora’s theory had proved true. Zane had pulled out the contaminated filter, sealed it, and no one else had gotten sick.