Pathfinder

by Gun Brooke

  Briar, a neonatal intensive-care-unit nurse, was assigned to work at the main hospital, geared toward specialized care, four cubes from theirs. Each cube had its own standard medical unit, but the main hospital would deal with the critically ill or the most difficult traumas. Briar had seen information videos explaining how the transportation system worked and knew it would take her about thirty minutes to get to her duty station, depending on the demand for jumpers.

  They reached the common area, where Caya lit up considerably when she saw the trees and grass in the center of the square. This was one of many and, as it was close to their quarters, was no doubt going to be a familiar spot in the future. Briar spotted a free table at the café to their right. Sprinting through the crowd, she secured it for herself and Caya. Briar ordered some herbal tea for them and gratefully relaxed against the backrest. She would soon be on her feet for twelve hours straight during the night, and knowing how intense her shifts usually became, she would have very little rest.

  “It looks like a real sky, almost,” Caya said and peered up at the ceiling. “How did they do that?”

  “With some special paint that absorbs the brightness from the light sources, I think.” Briar had worked so hard on studying everything required of them before the Exodus, and even gone beyond what was mandatory. To keep Caya safe, she couldn’t allow major surprises. “It will follow our normal rhythm to not confuse our sense of time.”

  “That’s great,” Caya said, tilting her head and making her ponytail fall onto her shoulder. “I’d hate to get the hours all jumbled.”

  “Me too.” Sipping her tea, Briar tried to grasp the fact they were actually aboard and nobody had suspected Caya was anything but a regular teenage girl. At nineteen, she looked several years younger. No one, not even the lab tech who’d performed the genetic scan, knew the truth about Caya. When Briar had discovered Caya’s abilities several years ago, she’d thrown herself into planning their deceit. The authorities mustn’t find out about Caya’s gift. The punishment for concealing and hiding a changer was severe. For the changer it was even worse. If anyone found out about Caya before they reached their new home planet, she would no doubt be put into an escape pod and jettisoned. Briar would be incarcerated for a very long time.

  Shaking off her onset of nerves at such prospects, Briar regarded the crowd around them. She had delayed coming aboard until the very last minute, thinking the guards would be less diligent in their scans and probing questions with launch time only hours away. Her plan had worked splendidly. A weary ensign had waved them in and confirmed their quarters and status among the population. Now, two hours later, all two million passengers and crew were aboard. Briar tried not to think of the people left behind, either voluntarily or because their genetic makeup disqualified them. They would soon launch into march speed. Everything was carried out remotely since the space dock was now deserted.

  Speakers crackled briefly and a huge holographic screen appeared across the square. A tall, distinguished-looking man in uniform came into view, flanked by one man and one woman, also in uniform.

  “Greetings, Oconodians. My name is Fleet Admiral Orien Vayand. I’m the military commander for this mission of taking our people to our new home, so far called P-105, but that designation will change, of course. We’re about to release the docking clamps and begin the journey for which we’ve prepared for decades. Some of you have already lived aboard Pathfinder for months as you embarked first; some of you arrived only hours ago. You may or may not have family or friends left behind on Oconodos, and I recognize this is a bittersweet moment. On one hand, it’s filled with promise for a safer future, and on the other, it’s a farewell to our world, our past, most likely forever.” Vayand cleared his throat, his deep baritone emphasizing the emotional moment for all of them. “No matter what, we’re on our way and will make a stop at the Loghia homeworld to collect the 100,000-some Gemosians who are joining us.”

  Briar had closely followed the disastrous event two years ago, when the advance team from Oconodos had come upon the destroyed Gemosian homeworld. The use of garnet oil in a mining endeavor on one of Gemosis’s moons had caused the moon to explode, which in turn created natural catastrophes all over Gemosis. Only a little more than 100,000 Gemosians survived and had to take refuge on their closest neighboring planet, Loghia. Ironically, it was the same world where garnet oil originated. Now, most of the Gemosians, including those of their cabinet of ministers who had survived, had arranged to join the Exodus fleet.

  “We heard from Admiral Caydoc and her interim government on P-105 only hours ago. She assures me they’ll be ready for us to arrive approximately two years from now. As you know, it took the advance team a little more than a year to reach P-105, but as our vessel is so much more intricate and larger, we can’t travel as fast as they did by magnetar drive.” Vayand smiled. “With me to my left is my next in command, Commodore Numeyo, and on my right, my chief engineer, Commander Adina Vantressa. They are in charge of day-to-day business when it comes to getting us all to our goal safely.” Nodding briskly, Vayand motioned for someone not yet in sight. “Now I will let President Gassinthea de Mila Tylio take over. Madam President?” He gestured toward the transmitter and a white-haired woman in her fifties stepped into view.

  “Greetings on this historic day, my fellow Oconodians.” President Tylio went on with her speech, but Briar wasn’t listening anymore. She focused on the woman standing to Vayand’s right, the chief engineer. Brown hair, short and wavy, framed a strong face and widely set brown eyes. No, not brown, more like liquid amber. She stood at attention slightly behind her superior officers but looked completely confident.

  “Imagine being on the same ship as the president.” Caya interrupted Briar’s thoughts. “I never realized she’s so beautiful. Just look at her.”

  “A ship with more than two million individuals. I daresay the chance of you ever even spotting Tylio at a distance is miniscule. Let’s keep it that way.” She raised her eyebrow deliberately at her dreamy-eyed sister. “And don’t give me your ‘let’s just see about that, shall we’ look.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Caya crinkled her nose. “No matter what…” She stopped talking and paled. Her hands began shaking, and she dropped her tea mug, which made a loud clatter as it hit the deck. People around them paid hardly any attention, but Briar trembled from anxiety as she rounded the table quickly.

  “Sweetheart. What’s wrong?”

  “Dark…dark and no air.” Stuttering, her lips tense, Caya was losing all color as the blood drained from her face. Her voice was slow, and she spoke with a slur Briar recognized only too well.

  Damn it, this couldn’t happen now. Not in public. Briar hauled her sister up and wrapped a steady arm around her. “Let’s get you out of here. Must be something you ate before we came aboard.” Briar spoke the latter in a louder voice for the sake of potential onlookers. She knew all too well what was happening to Caya.

  Helping Caya back to their quarters, Briar managed to remember the lock combination despite her fear of meeting someone who’d realize what was really going on. Inside, she helped Caya lie down in her alcove. “There. We’re alone. You’re fine.”

  “It’s not clear.” Caya sobbed. “So strange. It isn’t clear when it’s going to happen or where, but everything is dark and lives are lost. So much pain comes from that darkness and…you’re there.” She looked up at Briar with turquoise eyes framed by wet lashes. “You need to be very careful.”

  “Of course I’ll be careful.” Briar knew better than to doubt Caya’s premonitions. Her accuracy in seeing details about what would happen in the very near future was uncanny. Usually, Caya’s visions stretched only one or two days forward. They came to her at any given time, and her physical response ranged from mild surprise to violent convulsions, depending on the subject matter. This wasn’t the worst reaction Briar had witnessed, but strong enough for her to feel unsettled.

  “I—I need to sleep now.” Caya squeezed her
eyes shut. As Briar pulled a blanket over her still-shivering body, Caya snapped them open again, panic radiating from her. “Did anyone see me? Did anyone—”

  “No. I mean, I don’t think anyone saw anything but a girl getting overwhelmed and perhaps a bit sick. Everyone was watching President Tylio.”

  “You sure?” Gripping Briar’s wrist with strong, ice-cold fingers, Caya flicked her eyes back and forth, as if trying to read the truth in her older sister’s.

  “I am. Rest now. I’ll make us something to eat later before I have to report for duty. I can’t be late for my first shift.” Briar smiled wryly. “No doubt the chief nurse would have my head. I’ve met her only briefly, but I bet she can be scary.”

  “Ha. She’ll love you, like all your previous bosses have.” Sounding calmer now, Caya yawned and turned on her side. “Wake me in time to help you set the table.”

  “All right.” Briar sat on the side of the bed until Caya fell asleep. She tenderly stroked the long tresses from Caya’s face. Her little sister did look like a fairy-tale creature with her long hair and transparent, all-seeing eyes. Even as a baby, she had drawn people in. Fascinated by her delicate features and strong presence, all their parents’ friends and family had worshipped Caya. Briar, in turn, was never envious of her sister. She never sought the attention Caya always attracted, nor did she begrudge her sister the way she always remained center stage. Instead, Briar took it upon herself to protect Caya against those of her young peers who were jealous.

  Briar sighed as she stood. She found it impossible to avoid the painful memories of the unforeseen events that had taken their parents from them. First their mother became ill with the Garazabian plague when Caya was five and Briar eighteen. She died in the hospital within a week. She was gone so fast and it broke their father, who left them to fend for themselves during long periods of time when he worked off-planet. It was as if he couldn’t bear to be around his daughters, especially Caya, who strongly resembled her mother. Briar had just finished her training as a nurse when she learned their father had died in a mining accident on the Hosoni asteroid belt. Caya was eight and Briar twenty-one. Apart from a few elderly, distant relatives, they were on their own.

  Pushing away the memories of how she’d struggled to keep Caya with her, Briar switched the screen from the exterior viewfinders to the president’s broadcast. Tylio had finished, and now the tall, dark-haired woman, the chief engineer, spoke.

  “Once we are safely away from the space dock, we’ll go to magnetar drive, which we’ll maintain for a little more than thirty days. We’ll slow down to march drive as we approach Loghia. There, we’ll evacuate the Gemosians, which will take approximately six days.”

  Briar had never heard such a vibrant alto voice with such a dark timbre and obvious strength. Briar easily imagined her in command. What was her name again? Oh, that’s right. Adina Vantressa. Forceful, and…there was something arrogant, even disdainful around her.

  “Once they’re all installed and the cabinet approves a final passenger manifest, we’ll be on our way to P-105. I’m in charge of engineering, and if you have technical issues of any kind, you will talk to my subordinates. We have a hundred engineers on each cube. We don’t expect anything serious to come up, but we all enjoy our recycled hot water for our showers, don’t we?” She smiled, and this expression altered her severe features altogether. Her amber eyes sparkled, and stepping closer to the screen, Briar saw the fine lines around them. Perfect white teeth glimmered between her full lips. “I’ll give the floor back to Fleet Admiral Vayand now.” She turned with military precision and resumed her place behind Vayand.

  “As you can tell, we’re in the best of hands. I know you’ve all read this in the information package you received, but it bears repeating. When you hear the signal and order to strap yourselves in, including the children, do so immediately. Going to magnetar drive is a dizzying experience, even for those of us who have been through it before. Our new life is about to begin. I wish for us all to go in peace and splendor.”

  “Peace and splendor,” Briar muttered under her breath and turned the screen back to exterior viewfinders. Oconodos sparkled like a blue-green pearl in the upper left corner. Once they engaged magnetar drive, she would never see her home planet again. She and Caya were headed for a new home, a new world, and nothing was going to happen to her sister. As long as Caya never gave anyone a reason to doubt her genetic makeup, they were home free.

  Starting to prepare some of the food available through the automatic system hooked up to all quarters, Briar found herself gripping the dicing tool so hard, her hand hurt. Who was she trying to fool?

  A lot could still go wrong.

  Chapter Two

  **Adina Vantressa**

  **Commander and Chief Engineer**

  **Day 1**

  **Exodus Operation**

  **Personal log**

  One day and my family is already breathing down my neck and demanding things of me. They should know better. Correction. They do know better. Mother is only doing this to reestablish herself as the ultimate matriarch. My stepfather #4 uses his proverbial blinders, and I swear he’s getting increasingly out of touch with reality each time I see them. Then there are the siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles, and the grandparents, and…I honestly could have gone on this mission alone, without one single member of my family aboard the Pathfinder, and never missed them for a second. No matter how easy it is for them to weasel their way into people’s lives and minds, they’re not getting anywhere near me. As chief engineer I rarely have to interact with the passengers, no matter the size of the vessel—this ought to make it easier for me to stay clear of the Vantressa clan.

  A chirping sound from her communicator automatically put Adina’s log entry on pause. “Vantressa here.” She impatiently tapped the surface of her desk.

  “We have a major power loss in sector eleven, sir,” a stress-filled voice gushed at the other end.

  “Backup?”

  “For some reason, several of the generators aren’t kicking in. Most power sources are off-line.”

  Adina stood and pulled on her jacket. “I’m on my way over there. Have the team on standby in main engineering.” Thundering in her chest, Adina’s heart felt like it was about to trip and fall. Sector eleven. That was the main hospital cube. A power loss on a space ship was always serious, but when it affected a medical facility, it could be disastrous. If she didn’t fix this problem instantly, and on day one of their journey to a new and safer world, her reputation would become seriously dented. Not to mention her own self-confidence.

  The jumper shuttle system took her to the tenth sector, which didn’t appear affected by the power cut. Tapping her communicator, Adina barked her orders. “I’m on the threshold to sector eleven.” She peered through the dark tunnel. No jumper cars appeared. The power outage was affecting the main grid as well. That wasn’t exactly good news.

  “The power cut is to a defined area in sector eleven. The starboard part of the hospital and the shuttle system.”

  “All right. When can you reach the department heads in the hospital cube, sector eleven—”

  “Hello? Nurse Lindemay, NICU unit, university hospital cube eleven here. Hello?” The clear, young-sounding voice broke through the channel assigned to engineering. “We have no power. This is an emergency, as the backup system hasn’t kicked in. Our incubators have no power! Can anyone hear me?”

  Adina frowned. “You’re on the official engineering channel, Nurse…eh…Lindemay,” Adina said curtly. “I suggest you check your manual and find the nearest—”

  “Check my manual? Are you joking? It’s pitch-black in here, my premature babies are on oxygen, or I should say, they were on oxygen, but now we have no power. And no backup power.”

  “This is being dealt with. I suggest your return to you duty station—”

  “I heard you before. You’re Vantressa, from the broadcast this morning?”

  “Yes, but
—”

  “You need to come here and figure this out. I have my entire staff hand-ventilating twenty-six babies who can’t saturate themselves on their own.”

  “As I said—”

  “Not good enough,” Lindemay snapped. “My babies will die. The future generation of our people. These are someone else’s beloved children, and without the technology available to keep them alive, they won’t make it. That will be on your head since you refuse to come here.”

  Adina’s mind whirled. Children. Tiny, premature babies struggling for air. Damn it. “All right. I’m on my way. Keep the kids alive until I’ve solved the problem.”

  “You’re handling this yourself?” Lindemay sounded hesitant.

  “Yes. Get off the official channel system. Vantressa out.” Adina climbed onto the magnetic track where the jumpers normally ran continuously. She tugged at a lever and a large hatch opened, deploying a two-seated mini-jumper, which utilized hover technology instead of relying on the track. She entered and was about to head into the black tunnel when a male voice stopped her.

  “Commander! Glad I caught up with you.” Lieutenant Dodgmer climbed into the mini-jumper. “My team’s meeting at the hospital entrance.”

  “Good.” She lowered the bubble around them that would protect them in case of an atmosphere leak in the tunnel system. “What the hell could be wrong? I surveyed the systems over the last week and everything functioned perfectly.” Adina shook her head in dismay. “And now, of course, little babies, the future of our people, are in danger of asphyxiating.”

  “Oh, Creator of Oconodos, that’s just too much.” Dodgmer, usually stoicism personified, looked ill at ease. “My youngest was in a NICU ward on Oconodos for six weeks.”

  Adina had forgotten that about Dodgmer’s twelve-year-old son. Now she remembered how as a lieutenant commander she had visited the Dodgmer family in the hospital, and how impossibly tiny the little boy had been. “We’re going to fix it,” she said through gritted teeth.