Colony One

by E. M. Peters

  “I believe there may have been a miscommunication.” Jia spoke quickly, out of breath from the brisk walk to his office.

  The man coupled his hands and placed them in his lap, fixing her with an evaluative look, “What do you mean, Dr. Li?”

  “World Corp has ordered the construction of the first Colony ship. Sir, we haven’t even sent anything more than a probe yet. I believe they are getting ahead of themselves.”

  Ts’ai arched an eyebrow, “World Corp is moving forward on my recommendations.” He explained.

  Jia was stunned into momentary silence, mouth slightly agape. “Sir, is that wise?” She asked before she could stop herself.

  His jaw set in stony displeasure, “Do you have doubts about our findings, Dr. Li?”

  She shook her head, “Our findings, no, but there is so much we don’t know yet.”

  “There is no room for doubt on a project like this, doctor.” Ts’ai adjusted his thick rimmed glasses. “I would remove all doubt from your mind and continue on the projects I assign. Let me worry about what World Corp does and does not do.”

  Jia’s chest tightened like the air had been knocked out of her. She had worked with Doctor Ts’ai for so many years now, and he was always nothing but the most dedicated of scientists. She felt like she was looking at a completely different person. While she wanted to continue the discussion, to press him for his logic in the decision he had made, the look in his eyes warned against it. Instead, she straightened her back, bowed traditionally and closed the door to his office on the way out.

  What she did next was the exact opposite of what Ts’ai had recommended. She began paying more attention to what World Corp was doing, and how her lab in particular was involved. She researched the company outside of work and found that World Corp had donated not just to this project, but many more at the research lab. Bonuses had been awarded to several key members of the facility. Not just her lab, either. Many other facilities were on the list.

  Jia found the advertisements World Corp was making for Colony One – and images that she had never seen of the planets they had discovered were shown. They were remarkably authentic, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that they were fakes.

  She even found the drafted agreements that potential colonists would have to agree to in order to be selected. It was a complete waiver of any rights – in effect; it was excommunication without an exit clause if you suddenly changed your mind. Passengers would not be permitted to communicate with Earth once they stepped on the Colony ship, their rights as citizens of Earth were forfeited – including voting rights, legal protections and assets – provided there were any.

  Despite all the warning signs, Jia tried to rationalize everything she uncovered. Was it so bad that her research facility was the object of such lavished attention? Advancements were being made at unheard of paces. The images were fake, yes, but it wasn’t uncommon to generate projections based on research findings of what a planet’s composition would be.

  She spent many sleepless nights in her small high-rise apartment telling stories to herself about why she was probably making it all up in her head. The exercise exhausted her, but it allowed her to go to work every day without feeling the dread that she continuously pushed down.

  She was able to keep up the façade, to herself and others, until one day she was reviewing the ship’s software configuration. At first, she was confused by what she had found, but the more she uncovered, the clearer the picture was in her mind. She stood over the console for what seemed like an eternity, reading and rereading what she had found.

  Eventually she came to the conclusion that she could not remain silent given what she had discovered – if she was correct, it was simply unconscionable. Her head began to pound as she made the decision. She was about to lose the battle to remain quiet.

  Once she made up her mind, however, she moved quickly. She scanned her right forearm and tapped in commands with her left hand, downloading the information to an encrypted drive she had created when she started to have doubts about the project.

  Mere moments after initiating the download, one of the two lab doors opened. She deactivated the display of the station she was working at and began a brisk walk towards a second exit, away from whoever had just entered.

  Just as she was reaching the door, it opened and filled with the outline of a research facility security officer. He wore dark glasses and spoke with a deep voice, “Doctor, you are going to have to come with us.” His arms rested at his sides – sleeves of his black athletic fit shirt bunched up at his elbows, revealing strong, muscular forearms.

  Jia shook her head and smiled, “I’m sorry, but I’m very late for a meeting.” She tried to go around him, but he took the opportunity to grab her by the upper arm. “What are you doing?” She asked and repeated loudly as he began to walk with her in his grasp. “Where are you taking me?” No answer. She tried to pull away from his grip, but he only tightened it to the point of pain.

  They were joined by another security officer – presumably the one who had flushed her out towards the back entrance. They led her to a nearby observation room and let her go. She rubbed her arm as they backed her up against a wall, “Empty your pockets, Doctor.” The one who had been holding her instructed. The other stepped away with his back towards them, making sure anyone who happened by would continue walking.

  Jia gaped, “I… what? I haven’t done anything!”

  “Now, Doctor.” He commanded, “Or I will have to do it for you.” She glared up at him, and while his eyes were hidden behind tinted glasses, she could see the slight illumination from the inside of the glass lens. There were readouts that only he could see – it was how he was receiving his orders.

  Reluctantly, Jia turned over her personal hand held glass device. She carried nothing else. The man took it, pocketed it, and forced her inside the observation room. He locked the door from the outside and Jia found herself looking for another exit even when she knew there would be none. She was familiar with these rooms – there was nothing but an examination table and locked drawers and cabinets.

  She paced the small room and looked knowingly at the mirror – she was fully aware that there was a room on the other side where they could see in, but she couldn’t see out. She crossed her arms and considered the weight of the situation. She had broken the lab’s protocol by copying classified information to another location. She had been sloppy and didn’t cover her efforts well enough. Only she thought she had, which was another troubling thought. She was hoping, desperately, this was simply a case of broken protocol and not what she had found. If it was about what she had found…

  She pushed that thought out of her mind. She had to hope for the best, otherwise she was going to drive herself mad in record time. She waited for someone to retrieve her, to talk to her, to scold her… anything. But no one came. She found herself watching the digital clock display above the door. An hour passed, then another. She alternated between pacing and sitting on the examination table, keeping as calm an exterior as possible – just in case anyone was watching.

  Finally, the faint noise of the audio system clicked on. “Ms. Li,” a voice spoke, filling the small space. “Explain why you were copying World Corp data.”

  “Can we please speak face to face?” Jia asked, looking purposefully towards the mirror. A beat passed, and then a light switched on that allowed the mirror to be see-through. A white man she had never seen before was standing on the other side. He wore an expensive suit and had smooth, wrinkleless skin despite the white in his hair.

  “Explain,” he prompted.

  “I was trying to transfer it to another work station,” Jia lied.

  The man stared at her, letting the silence weigh heavily between them. “We have been watching you, Ms. Li.” He finally said. “We know you are… curious.”

  “I was just doing my job,” Jia insisted. “I obviously keyed in the wrong command by mistake.”

  “Do you make many mistak
es, Ms. Li?”

  “I…” Jia shook her head, “No, but there is a first time for everything.”

  “Yes, there is. If you do not tell us why you were copying that data, we will be forced to investigate using other methods.”

  A chill went down Jia’s back. The file she was downloading was a large one – of course they didn’t know what, exactly, had caught her attention.

  Despite knowing that, she had rapidly calculated that she was in big trouble. She decided it would be best to admit to a lesser evil, “I… I’ve been approached to provide details to the press about the ship. Everyone wants the scoop.” She explained, letting the nervousness in her bleed through, hoping it might garner her some sympathy.

  Another stretch of silence followed as he stared at her with intense eyes.

  “You’re lying,” he finally concluded.

  “I swear…”

  “I told you, we have been watching you, Ms. Li. That includes quite a bit. We know that no one has approached you.”

  Jia’s mind reeled and she stared at him for a long time. Had this man personally been following her every move? She, like most, never expected perfect privacy, but there were still lines that most felt shouldn’t be crossed. He looked at her – through her – as if he knew every detail about her life.

  She sighed in frustration, “Fine, it was my idea to leak information for money, alright?” She confessed as she threw up her arms. “Nothing important, just the general specifications, materials… things people have been speculating about.”

  The man frowned, “Ms. Li, if you do not tell us what it is you found, we cannot determine what level of risk you are. If we cannot determine that, we must assume the worst. Do you really want us to assume the worst?”

  “Well let’s start with who you are, first.” Jia countered. She was not a simple girl. She knew what she had was a big deal, and if she told them, she feared that they would most certainly make her ‘go away’ despite her status as an accomplished scientist. Every moment locked in the observation room confirmed to her that they would not hesitate to mistreat her. This secret was the only leverage she had.

  “It doesn’t concern you. If I were you, Ms. Li, I would get out of the habit of asking questions.” He said and looked away, making a gesture with his chin. The mirror went dark and a tube was shoved under the door of the little room.

  Jia shrugged off her lab coat and wrapped one of the sleeves around her mouth and nose as gas began to pump into the room. In the end, it was a stopgap measure as minutes later with burning eyes; she slipped to the floor, unconscious.

  Jia awoke in a cell, laying on a hard bunk that was built into the wall. She took her time to get her bearings, carefully sitting up and looking around through blurred vision. Eventually she made out a sink, toilet and besides the bunk, that was it. There was no window. There was one door with a slot near the bottom and a small, rectangular hinged window at the top that was closed.

  She was not wearing her work clothes or her lab coat. She had been redressed into a blue jumpsuit. That is when panic gripped her the hardest. In an instant, her life as she knew it had been ripped from her – and so effortlessly. Her skin crawled with the inescapable confinement and the indefinite nature of it. She had not cried since she was a child, but in that moment, there was no stopping it. She sobbed for the life she had lost, for her uncertain future and for the bitter truth that she had learned, only confirmed by her imprisonment. A celebrated scientist, doctorate holding, successful middle class woman – reduced to a criminal with one, simple action.

  An important action, Jia reaffirmed as she started to pull the pieces of herself back together. Her secret deserved to be known by those in the most danger – the passengers of Colony One. She had to survive this – for those thousands of people.

  Over the next several weeks, the cell became her home, and she was questioned often. Weeks turned to months and they questioned her less, but gave no indication that she might be released, or even if she was formally arrested for anything. Some days she screamed until she was hoarse. Other days she didn’t speak at all. She often questioned the legitimacy of her internment. She never told them what she found, despite coercive tactics that included electroshock and pain simulation. When that didn’t work, psychological attacks began.

  As Jia began to hit her breaking point – a feeling metamorphosis that was becoming a shell of her former self, she was visited by Ts’ai. They had taken her to a normal looking meeting room to see him. If he was surprised by her transformation – thinner with dark circles under her eyes and slumped shoulders – he did not show it. She took a seat across from him, fixing him with her vacant stare.

  “Good news, Jia.” He started. “While you’ve been away, Colony One was successfully completed. The launch is set to take place in two months.”

  Jia simply continued to stare at him with hollow eyes, not registering a reaction one way or the other.

  “They wanted me to tell you because they think you will receive this offer better from me.” He explained. “The offer is this; you may be released immediately.”

  Jia’s shoulders stiffened as she was snapped back to reality with his words. Despite his betrayal, she didn’t think Ts’ai had it in him to lie to her in such a profound way, so she felt the first wisps of hope begin to fill her.

  “For two months you will be free to settle up your affairs – because you have a one way ticket on Colony One.”

  “I… They want me to join that suicide mission?” The words spilled out of her mouth as the hope she began to feel was suddenly stamped out.

  Ts’ai shook his head, “Only you think that, Jia. The mission will be a success. They are giving you an opportunity to be a part of it. A chance to start over.”

  “Who are THEY?” Jia’s voice rose. In all her time in captivity, she had never been told who was demanding answers from her.

  “Do you accept or not?” Ts’ai ignored her question.

  She closed her eyes and took in a shaky, defeated breath, “What choice do I have?”

  “It seems simple to me,” he emphasized. “You can choose to stay here,” he gestured to their surroundings, “For the rest of your days, or you can join the mission.”

  “Aren’t they afraid I am going to leak their secrets?” Jia asked, feeling like she had very little to lose in that moment.

  Ts’ai shook his head, “No, they have made it very clear they will kill you and anyone you tell if that is the case. They will not jeopardize the success of something like this because one person has it in her head that it will not succeed. And, as you know, their response time is impeccable.”

  Jia felt a lump develop in her throat. She ran her thumb over the bio-stamp in her arm. She could try to find someone to mask her stamp long enough to get to the media. But who in the media was not owned by World Corp? With the two impossible choice laid out in front of her, she was finding that her survival instincts were still alive and well.

  “You should have listened to me in the beginning, Jia.” Ts’ai said, his voice expressing a tinge of remorse and sympathy. “If you play along, at least you’ll get to see your family before it’s all over.”

  He was baiting her to tell him what he knew. She almost took it. She reminded herself to stay strong – especially now that she might be tethered to the very mission she wanted to avoid and prevent.

  Jia put her face in her hands at the thought of trying to explain to her mother and father why she was choosing to leave Earth when she had a perfectly good life made for herself already. The thought stirred something inside of her, “What have my parents been told?” In the beginning, she had held out hope that they would find out what had happened to her. That they would protest or call out to the media. But after so long, it was evident that was not going to be the case.

  “As far as they know, you’re on a research trip to New America. You’ve been writing them regularly.”

  Jia’s mouth went slack. With the confession, she realiz
ed that these people had enough power and influence to forge her bio-stamp signature. All of a sudden, the dominos fell at light speed in her mind, causing a chain reaction. There was no question in her mind at that point; that she was being held in a corporate prison by World Corp. There was no other alternative explanation. She had worked at a Confederation research lab long enough to know that they did not have the capability to do what had been done to her. No, only World Corp had the resources, and the ability to manipulate the bio-stamps that they themselves first patented.

  It was so much worse than she had ever imagined. She had always expected, along with many others, that the corporate oligarchy had their fingers in every pot. In fact, popular sentiment had been that corporations had too much power, but by the time people had the motivation to do anything about it, it was too late. Viewers were bidirectional devices and were in every home, watching every move and amassing surveillance at a zettabyte per second. Corporations influenced and controlled the population through resource and product control, education agendas – everything. People whose voices rose up too loudly on the subject were either paid off or simply forgotten about after a sudden disappearance.

  Corporate Prisons had been talked about before by conspiracy theorists only, and until that very moment, she never believed it to be possible that corporations could pay the confederation enough to look the other way when it came to imprisoning citizens. Perhaps it wasn’t monetary, she reasoned. Perhaps it was blackmail. Perhaps that is how they had turned Ts’ai against her. Something had compromised his morals and his empathy – and it had to be of great significance.

  It had been so easy to dismiss all these things, Jia thought, when she was comfortable in her apartment, sleeping on her soft bed and distracting herself with the viewer. But now it was happening to her. Crashing down on her. There were no distractions where she was.