Project Columbus: Omnibus

by J. C. Rainier

  To her surprise, Gabi was able to loosen the straps themselves. She yanked again and they loosened even more. She shrugged the shoulder straps off of her small body, and then wiggled her legs free.

  I’m supposed to keep that on. It’s supposed to keep me safe. Gabi felt guilty about disobeying the nice man and her mother, but nobody was around to see her do it. Gabi shoved against the door to her bed and it swung open with a groan. She saw a metal floor and what looked like a long, low door across from her.

  Gabi crawled from her bed into the hallway and stood up. She looked around and saw more doors like hers on both sides, in long rows, stacked two tall. Besides the door to her bed, there were two other open doors at the far end of the hall. Two people lay on the floor next to those open doors. They looked like they were sleeping.

  Maybe they know where Mama is. She felt another twinge of guilt. She didn’t want to wake them up, but she really wanted her mom.

  Gabi sneaked down the hall to the two people. As she neared them, her foot slipped and she put her hands out in front of her to catch her fall. They landed in something slick and red. Gabi stood back up and looked at the thick liquid, and then back to the two people.

  The man was facing down and she could not see his face, but the woman stared straight at the ceiling with dull brown eyes. Her skin was paler than any Gabi had ever seen, and her mouth was stained with blood. Gabi’s eyes fell to the woman’s stomach, and she realized that there was a piece of metal barely poking through her belly. A trail of red ran down the woman’s side and to Gabi’s feet.

  Gabi remembered something that her mom had told her one day when Gabi had unbuckled her car seat while they were driving; People can be very badly hurt in crashes without their seatbelts, and sometimes they even die.

  These people are dead.

  She gasped, as if her lungs could not find any air. When she finally drew in a huge gasp, she screamed at the top of her lungs. Her scream echoed through the metal hallway. Gabi turned away from the bodies and ran to the other end of the hall. She saw a small open doorway at the other end that looked like a crawlspace. Gabi bolted into it and crawled along the ladder that was inside.

  She came out to a short, dark hallway. She ran a few feet and came to a skidding halt when she saw another body crumpled against the wall at the end of the hall. Groans and angry shouts echoed from beyond. Gabi sobbed and looked around. To her right was a heavy looking door with some words on it that she could barely understand: “something PERSONsomething ONLY”. She looked to her left down another dark hallway lined with cabinets.

  At first, Gabi thought she would hide in one of the cabinets, but as she ran down the hall she saw a ladder going up, with light filtering down from somewhere above. She bounded the few extra paces and grabbed the ladder. When she looked up, she saw blue sky mixed with wisps of black smoke.

  Gabi struggled to climb the ladder. The rungs were made for an adult, and her short legs and arms strained to make it to each of the next rungs. Her hands left smears of blood every time she grabbed one, and she nearly slipped from the ladder when her blood soaked foot pushed off of one of the steel rungs.

  She reached the top of the ladder and scrambled her way onto the top of the giant metal cylinder. There were scrapes and mud all over the outside, as well as tears of many sizes. Smoke seemed to filter into the air from all around. Gabi surveyed the surrounding area and saw a wide path of trees that had looked like they had been snapped. On the far side of the cylinder, a few trees close by leaned as if they might fall down, but the rest of the forest beyond looked untouched.

  Gabi was thrown down to the skin of the craft as a loud boom rocked everything. She hit her head on the steel. The force made her bite her lip hard enough to bleed, and she started crying. She looked back over her feet and saw a column of smoke and wisps of flame rise up from just beyond the edge of the craft. The fire filled her with dread, and her panic was renewed.

  She sat up and curled her knees to her chest, then looked down the side of the craft at the ground below. She knew it would be too high up for her to jump, and that she would hurt herself if she tried. She rested her head on her knees and wailed, rocking back and forth.

  She cried for minutes, alone on the top of the wreck. A warm breeze that tickled her neck made her open her bleary eyes. Through the tears, she saw rungs built into the side of the cylinder that led down. She scrambled to her knees and crawled over to them, her mind locked in single focus.

  Gabi grabbed a rung with her hand, then slid her foot precariously down to another. She cautiously worked her way down the side of the craft, past scars and gashes. Part of the way down the ladder, it straightened out, and the side of the craft dropped straight down. Gabi kept going, making sure she could put both feet on a rung before moving her hands down.

  She was still high above the ground when her foot moved for a rung and slipped. Her other foot could not find the rung either. Gabi screamed and looked down as she dangled helplessly by her hands. She saw that the next few steps of the ladder were missing; only a large hole in the metal remained where they should have been.

  Gabi’s feet flailed as she tried to find some place to brace them. Her right foot kicked the top of the gash and her hands slipped loose from the rungs. With a terrified scream, Gabrielle Serrano fell from the side of the pod.

  Brev Capt Haruka Kimura

  30 March 2058, 10:18

  ex-Raphael engineering escape skiff

  There was no doubt that the skiff had descended into Demeter’s troposphere. The horizon was dominated by lush, green land, edged by a long, pencil thin white beach that separated from the contrasting blue seas.

  We’ll be lucky if we see any of it, at this rate, Haruka thought.

  “Hey Kimura,” Mancini said, “we look like we’re coming in a little low to you?”

  Haruka feigned a glance out the window. “No, we’re fine,” she lied.

  Too damn much time chasing Singh. Haruka clenched her teeth. We can’t possibly make Cormack’s landing site.

  “Hey Marco. There are your white sand beaches,” she pointed as she swung the skiff in a lazy left turn. She searched the ground beyond, trying to find any signs of a break in the endless foliage on land. I could try crashing on a beach. That might be a softer landing.

  “Great. Remind me to go play on them when we land.” Haruka tried to ignore the cutting sarcasm in his tone.

  “Captain,” Nova queried, “can you turn the other way? I think I saw something on the ground.”

  Haruka swept her eyes across the ground one more time and sighed. She saw no clearings ahead, so she reversed the turn of the skiff. A plume of smoke rose from the beach far in the distance.

  “What do you think it is, Nova?”

  “I can’t tell from here, ma’am.”

  “It’s probably a pod.” Mancini’s voice was becoming more sullen every time he spoke. Haruka felt pained in her soul. She had always known Marco Mancini to be one of the most upbeat and comedic people she had ever met, but he seemed to be in an uncontrolled spiral.

  She shrugged off the thought. None of us are having a good day today. I just need to keep us safe and we can start over tomorrow.

  “Looks like a cargo pod,” Nova remarked. “The sleeper pods should have used up most of their fuel on the way down. They shouldn’t burn like that.”

  “And just which cargo pod would burn like that?” sneered Mancini

  “We should have been carrying four pods of fuel for the power equipment.”

  “Diesel fuel, Airman.”

  “Well then just what do you think it is, Lieutenant?”

  “Enough! Stop fighting, you two,” Haruka snapped into her boom.

  Airman Weyler and Lieutenant Mancini both fell silent. Haruka could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Everyone was on edge, but she had never had to pull rank before to get her way. The power tasted like a bitter pill to her.

  Haruka scanned the ground all the way to the
far edge of the ocean, but the only thing she could see besides the blue sea was an endless green one marking the land beyond. She leveled her flight and fired all of the thrusters for five seconds.

  She curled her lip and bit it. That’s the last of it. The thruster reserves were dangerously low, and Haruka knew that if she fired them again, she would be unable to slow their descent, and a crash landing would be unavoidable.

  The ocean dropped out of the lower view of the skiff’s windows. They were close to land, and Haruka’s passing thought of a beach landing became infeasible. She desperately scanned the horizon for a patch of grass or a bald hilltop. She turned the craft left once more.

  A quick flash of brown in the sea of green caught her eye. A clearing! It was not far off, maybe five or ten miles. In an instant, Haruka aimed the nose of the skiff at it and put the nose in a slight dive.

  “What are you doing, Kimura? Pod seven is off to the right,” Mancini protested.

  “Yes it is,” she responded coolly.

  “So turn back.”

  “Can’t do that, Marco. We don’t have enough fuel or altitude left.”

  Nova shrieked, “What?”

  “You said we were fine, Kimura!” She could hear the escalation in his voice.

  “I lied. So court martial me,” she responded without skipping a beat. “Just remember that when you do court martial me, it’s because I saved your life by not trying to make the pod seven site.”

  Mancini spluttered for a moment before he formed a reply. “Just who the hell do you think you are?”

  “The pilot, and your commanding officer. Get those pod beacons loaded into the radio tracker so that we can follow them once we’re on the ground.”

  “Yes ma’am,” he shot back. Haruka could hear the slight against her in his tone, but ignored it.

  The skiff glided closer to the tree line. The density of the tree canopy gave Haruka the impression that this might be a jungle or tropical area. She used her flaps to tip the nose up slightly, and she felt the tightness of her harnesses as the craft slowed down.

  Almost there, she thought.

  She dipped the right wing down hard and banked into a turn. The edge of the brown clearing passed into her line of vision. Haruka’s heart plummeted and her hands froze on the controls.

  We can’t land here, she screamed in her own mind. This is a crash site!

  “Captain,” Nova yelled through her headset, “there’s a crashed pod over there.”

  Haruka quickly leveled the skiff and fired the thrusters to gain altitude. The trees dropped below them and Haruka saw white, fluffy clouds ahead of her. Don’t stall… DON’T STALL!

  She leveled the nose out just before the thrusters sputtered and coughed out. A warning light blinked on her terminal. Haruka dared not look at it for fear that it would be the stall indicator.

  She nosed down slightly to build up speed and the tree canopy again dominated her view. Once more she pulled up and the skiff gained altitude at the costly price of speed.

  I can’t keep doing this. She nosed down again and caught a glimpse of blue mixed in with the green tree line. She closed her eyes and blindly aimed for the image in her mind.

  “Kimura?” Mancini no longer had anger in his voice, only terror.

  “Brace for impact,” she yelled.

  There was a deafening noise of tearing metal, and the tail of the skiff suddenly jumped. Haruka squeezed her eyes tighter. The nose dipped to the left, then the craft felt as if it was doing a cartwheel. Shattered glass from the canopy showered her face, and her body bounced back and forth between the harness and the seat. There was a bright orange light and a brief searing sensation, and then water splashed her face.

  Her eyes shot open just as the canopy rolled into water. Haruka tried to scream, but water forced its way into her lungs. She gagged and choked, then the skiff flipped once final time and came to a rest. Water quickly rushed into the cockpit, rising up to her chest.

  Haruka coughed and vomited, then coughed more until she could feel her breath again. Her hands clawed at the restraints that held her, but her latch was jammed. She could taste blood; she brought her hand to her face and drew it back, stained in red. There was a sensation of backward motion and she could hear splashing noises. Haruka’s hands shot to her headrest and her eyes closed.

  “C’mon, Kimura, let’s get out of here,” Mancini said from behind her.

  She opened her eyes and saw Nova Weyler staggering out of the water and to shore just ahead of the craft. Haruka looked down and tried to release her buckle again, to no avail.

  “My latch is jammed.”

  “Hang on.”

  Haruka heard more splashing. She looked behind her, but Mancini was nowhere to be found. “Marco?” The skiff jerked again and slid backward a couple feet. The water level rose to her shoulders. “Marco, where are you? Help me!” The surface of the water thrashed and bubbled as she jerked desperately at her harness.

  She heard a splash and a gasp from behind her, then the sound of metal plunging into cloth. Her left shoulder was freed. She looked to her right and grabbed for her harness.

  “Wait, don’t move,” Mancini barked. Haruka saw the glint of a blade as he jabbed it through the right shoulder harness and into the cushion behind. He drew it out of the seat, flipped the handle around, and handed it to Haruka. “Cut the hip belt and let’s go.” He slung a pack over his shoulders and reached down to grab more equipment, then jumped from the skiff.

  Haruka reached under the water and felt for the harness at her waist. She sawed furiously at the belt. The craft groaned and slid back another foot, and she took in a mouthful of water. Haruka coughed and drew in a gulp of air before her face went under. She doubled her efforts at cutting through the thick harness, and managed to free her torso. She kicked the last bit of webbing from her legs and clawed toward the surface, bursting through like a rocket. She gasped and choked. The water blurred her vision, and she could not tell if she was aimed at the right shore.

  She felt a hand grab her flight suit and yank her back. “Hang on, Kimura,” Mancini yelled. “I’ve gotcha. Just keep kicking.”

  Haruka obeyed and kicked her feet for dear life. Moments of her life flashed back to her, and she thought of her mother, sister, and father. She thought of how much she wanted to see their faces again, and to hold them. She muttered a prayer that she would not drown. Her feet brushed against something solid. She pushed with all her might and flopped onto the shore, casting the knife aside. Her lungs hacked as they tried to expel the remnants of the cruel, murderous waters. She curled a hand up and felt something soft between her fingers. Her eyes opened as she brought her hand to her nose and took a deep sniff.

  Wet earth. Mud.

  “Kimura, you alright?”

  Haruka rolled onto her back and spread her arms out wide. Her face widened into a grin as she saw fluffy white clouds far above. She rolled her head to the side and saw Marco’s worried face looking down at her, and Airman Weyler behind him, watching her as an angel might have watched.

  Haruka started to laugh. Mancini’s worried frown disappeared, and he chucked as well. Haruka grabbed him by the front of his flight suit and planted a kiss on his surprised lips, then shoved him away. Mancini landed on his butt with a look of complete shock.

  “We’re alive,” she screamed in jubilation as she scrambled to her feet. Haruka looked up as the brilliant orange sun escaped from behind a cloud. She felt the warm radiance wash over her as she took in the smells of Demeter.

  “Well, we won’t be forever if we don’t find shelter or more supplies,” Mancini remarked. “I got everything off the skiff that I could before it sank, but we need to find a pod.”

  Haruka turned to the other two survivors, their faces again grim. She walked forward to look at the supplies that Mancini had managed to gather. Three emergency survival packs. Three canteens. Two belts with an M9 bayonet and an M9A1 pistol each, one M4 carbine. The skiff’s ammunitions box, and the
radio tracker. She sighed as she knelt beside the ammunition box and opened it. Dry inside, good.

  She looked up at Mancini and Weyler. “Marco, Nova, each of you take a pack, canteen, and belt. Marco, I want you to take the tracker. The rifle is mine. We’ll carry as much ammo in the packs as we reasonably can, but this box is not coming with us. Marco, toss me my pack.”

  Mancini lobbed a pack to her and then reached for a belt. Haruka unzipped the pack and took a quick tally of the contents, and retrieved a compass from inside. Only four meals. At least they have matches and emergency blankets. She grabbed three magazines for the rifle and shoved them in the pack between the emergency blanket and a coil of thin rope, then locked a fresh magazine into the rifle. She rooted through the remaining ammunition and found eight magazines for the pistols. A shame that we have to leave the rest of it here.

  Haruka lifted her pack onto her shoulders, grabbed the rifle, and then distributed the ammunition to the others. “We have no idea what is out there in the wilderness, so be very careful. We want to move quickly, but don’t be stupid or reckless. Marco, what’s the closest pod reading on the tracker?”

  Mancini held up the device and slowly turned in place. “I think the one we flew over was number eight. That’s the closest by a long shot, but it also crashed.”

  Haruka considered for a moment. “How far away is the beacon for number seven?”

  “About forty miles, and in the other direction too.”

  Haruka looked back at the water that they crashed in. It looked to be a sizeable lake, and that it might be several miles around either end to add to the journey. Beyond that loomed the dark silhouette of a mountain. “Nova, did you get a good look at eight when we flew over?”

  “Sort of, why?”

  “How broken up was the pod?”

  “Actually it looked like it was mostly intact.”

  “How far away is eight, Marco?”

  “Maybe six miles or so as the crow flies.”

  Haruka nodded. “We’re going to pod eight. If there are any survivors, they may need help. There will also be supplies there.”