City of Twilight Part III: The New Dawn (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 3)

by Donald Stephenson III

  ​“Michael,” Callista said, “what’re you doing up?” He looked down at the floor for a moment, silent. Then he finally looked up at her again.

  ​“Something bad happened tonight,” he said. As he finished his sentence, an alarm went off on the intercom over the entire ship. The voice of Isaac Vanguard could be heard on the speaker.

  ​“Everyone report to the medical bay,” Isaac said, “immediately.” Callista jumped out of bed, and ran to the door. She slammed her hand on the panel, causing it to open. As the door opened, Charlotte could be seen running nearby. She stopped at the open doorway, looking in.

  ​“There you are, Michael,” Charlotte said, “I was worried when you weren’t in your room.” She turned to Callista. “Both you and your brother come with me.” Callista ran over to Michael, who’d remained in the chair with a blank look on his face. She grabbed his arm, pulling him up, and they both followed Charlotte to the medical bay.

  90

  ​Two covered bodies were on separate gurneys. There was a dark cloth over each of them. Callista didn’t know what had happened, but she could deduce whose bodies were on the gurneys by who was standing in the room. Isaac, Charlotte and Carl were there, along with Callista and Michael. That meant that the bodies were Randy and Rachel.

  ​“Carl discovered her first,” Isaac said to Charlotte. "He found her on one of the lower levels of a maintenance hallway for the stasis chambers. She was already dead when he found her. He needed her to initial her schedules for the last two weeks, and she’d left a note that she would be down there for the night working.” Charlotte put a hand on Isaac’s shoulder.

  ​“What about Randy,” Charlotte said, “where did you find him?” Isaac sighed.

  ​“In his room,” Isaac said. “The amount of dreg in his system was off the charts." He paused for a moment with a crack in his voice. “I don’t know where he’d hidden his stash, but he somehow got out of his room and found it. When you overdose on dreg, you don’t die. For a short period of time you go insane. He raped and then brutally killed her.” Isaac pointed to a pistol on a table nearby. “This was missing from a supply locker. I don’t know how he got it, but he used it on himself not long after he’d finished with her.” Charlotte was still standing in shock over the news.

  ​“So Rachel’s really gone?” Charlotte said incredulously. They’d been friends. Tears formed in her eyes. Isaac was upset, and he put his hands over his eyes for a moment. He then threw his fist down on a tray, knocking it off the small table to the floor.

  ​“I don’t even know how he got out of his room," Isaac said. “I locked it myself. Why didn’t I just put him in the brig?” Callista watched them, and saw the bodies through her mind’s eye. The tremendous amount of violence visible on Rachel’s body caught her off guard, and she began to weep. Her tears quickly turned to sobs, and she rushed over to Charlotte for comfort. The two held each other as Michael stood there, silent. The expression on his face was passive.

  91

  ​Callista and Michael stood next to Charlotte, who was staring at a data screen on one terminal in the bridge of the White Dirge. Carl was sitting working on another data screen nearby. They were silent. Charlotte slapped her hand on the screen, deactivating it.

  ​“I can’t explain it,” she said.

  ​“It seems there was some sort of electrical disturbance last night,” Carl said. "That's what caused all internal and external sensors to go haywire. We’re lucky we didn’t crash into a stray asteroid or anything.”

  ​“It’s amazing,” Charlotte said. “This seems too much a coincidence that we had no security displays that were active last night. The only proof we have of what happened was the bodies.”

  ​“That’s pretty big proof in and of itself,” Carl said, “although my forensics are a little rusty.” She smiled a little at him. Anything to avoid thinking about what had actually happened. One of the screens beeped, and they could hear Isaac’s voice.

  ​“Any luck over there?” he said through the speaker.

  ​“No, we still haven’t figured out what caused it,” Charlotte said. “Either there was some sort of strange power fluctuation, or someone deliberately tampered with the system. All sensor records from last night were lost.”

  ​“I didn’t think Randy was capable of something like that,” Isaac said.

  ​“Neither did I,” Carl said as he shook his head.

  ​“Well,” Isaac said, “I’ve just finished up down here. Both the bodies have been put on ice. We can let some people look at them when we reach Cirrus.”

  ​“In the meantime,” Charlotte said, “I think we should say some words on Rachel’s behalf.” Carl nodded his head silently.

  ​“I agree,” Isaac said, “let’s meet in half an hour in the medical bay.”

  92

  ​Their small funeral lasted less than ten minutes. Each of them said something, except for Michael, who remained silent throughout the small ceremony. Callista had never experienced death, especially in such a dramatic and brutal way. She wondered how her brother was dealing with it. He must have seen the event with his mind’s eye, she thought, while I was asleep. That must be why he’s taking it so hard.

  ​He indeed had seemed to be taking it hard. He’d hardly spoken to her since it had happened. His face was more sullen and serious.

  ​The next few days passed quickly, although she saw less and less of him. He began to seclude himself from everyone else.

  ​As nearly a week passed, neither of them had noticed how much they’d grown. Callista finally stopped one morning to stare at herself in the mirror as she was getting ready for the day. Two mornings ago she’d started what was generally called a woman’s period, but she didn’t notice any other physical changes until she started examining herself more closely.

  ​She was nearly as tall as Charlotte, but it looked like she still wasn’t finished growing. Her body had grown more shapely, and her chest had grown further outward. She suddenly became more self-conscious. She was glad Charlotte had supplied her with more feminine undergarments, expecting her to need them relatively soon. Callista didn’t understand why she and her brother grew so quickly. She tried not to think about it, although looking in the mirror it was obviously going to be harder to ignore. She shut her eyes and inhaled deeply, smelling only the filtered air from the ventilation system.

  ​She pulled her clothes on after a quick shower, and decided to seek out her brother. She began tying her hair up in a ponytail as she left the room, the door opening up for her automatically. It shut behind her as she cleared the frame, and she began searching for Michael using her mind’s eye. She detected him at a terminal in the small room they used for studying. She headed over there, walking at a fast pace.

  ​The room was dark when she entered. Michael was sitting at the terminal, tapping on the screen. The light from the screen made his face look more pale than usual, matching his white hair. His face reflected seriousness.

  ​“Michael, what have you been doing for the past few days? I’ve felt like I’ve been alone here.” He leaned away from the screen, turning to her.

  ​“I needed time to think, to read.”

  ​“Read what?”

  ​“All the works of history,” Michael said, “that all of humanity has to offer. Not just what was in our textbooks, but all of human history. Articles, poems, novels, speeches. I needed to understand them.”

  ​“What do you mean?” she asked. “There's so little any of us understand. I mean, look at the two of us. I have no idea why I’m a month old and I have breasts. You have a five’o clock shadow. There’s something not right about that.” Taken aback, he put one hand to his face, feeling the whiskers. He looked up at her, his blue eyes almost glowing in the darkened room.

  ​“There is a lot I don’t understand,” Michael said, “but maybe we can in time. There are some things that I think I’m learning to understand, though.” Callista sat next to him on the benc
h.

  ​“Like what?”

  ​“Like people,” Michael said, “and their violent tendencies. Their hatred and anger. Look at all the wars in their history. You have people killing off other groups of people for reasons that, from a universal perspective, are trivial.”

  ​“What are you saying?”

  ​“I’m saying I’m surprised mankind hasn’t killed himself off a millennia ago. I’m saying that we’re not human, and I’m glad. I’m thankful that I’m not, and you should be too. We’re not part of them or their madness.” Callista couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

  ​“Michael, how can you say that? Randy was a bad person, but there are good people too. Look at Charlotte and Isaac.” Michael shook his head as he turned off the data screen.

  ​“Sooner or later,” he said, “everyone becomes bad. They just have to make a choice, and look what they always choose…” He stood and began to walk out of the room. Callista reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. He stopped, turning his head for a moment to look at her. She looked into his eyes. They were different. They were no longer the eyes that she’d grown used to. The pupils had become narrow slits, like a snake’s eyes. Startled, she pulled her hand away. He shut his eyes, opening them again. They were what they’d once been, normal blue human eyes. He turned and continued to walk out of the room.

  ​“Michael,” Callista called out to him.

  ​“I don’t think so,” he called back to her without stopping or even turning his head. She stood there, watching him leave. The automatic door opened, a stream of light entering the room. All she could see was his silhouette in front of the light. Suddenly the door closed, and she was alone. I’ve lost him. She wanted to cry, but she was also afraid. She stood alone in the dark room, when suddenly the intercoms flared.

  ​“Carl, Callista, and Michael,” Isaac said over the speaker, “we need all three of you to get to the bridge. Immediately.” She stopped all the thoughts that had been entering her head, and stepped forward. The bridge. She just had to try to not think about her brother.

  ​The walk to the bridge didn’t take long, but she took her time. When she did arrive, she could see she was the last one. Isaac turned to her from the main panel and smiled warmly. There was excitement on his face. She looked outward, to the large plate window in front of the bridge. There was a massive planet before them. She felt awestruck. She’d seen pictures, and read data about the planets and Cirrus specifically. But nothing had prepared her for the actual thing. It looked bigger than she could have possibly imagined. She couldn’t help but smile, and through all the emotions filling her, a tear fell from one of her eyes.

  ​“Is that,” Callista said, “is that it?” Isaac looked at her with a smile.

  ​“Yes,” Isaac said to all of them, “that’s it. That’s Cirrus. The course changes you made worked, saved us nearly a week in flight time. Actually, some of the path changes were nothing short of incredible.” Callista glanced over at Michael, who stood over to the side near the wall. He was quiet, but she could tell even he was in awe over the sight. She tried to look him over with her mind’s eye, but saw nothing. He was somehow hiding himself from her. She then noticed something else.

  ​She turned and looked at Charlotte. Focusing on her with the mind’s eye ability, Callista saw something amazing. There was a small aura of life growing inside Charlotte, inside her lower abdomen. She’s pregnant. Callista grew even more excited, and rushed over and hugged Charlotte. Charlotte was surprised, but hugged her back.

  ​“Congratulations,” Callista whispered into Charlotte’s ear. Charlotte looked at her curiously. She backed away for a moment.

  ​“Is something wrong?” Charlotte asked her. Callista shook her head.

  ​“You don’t know,” Callista said in surprise, “you don’t know yet.”

  ​“Is it about Cirrus?” Charlotte asked.

  ​“No,” Callista said, “you’re going to have a son. You and Isaac are going to be parents.” The bridge turned silent. Callista could see Michael out of the corner of her eye, shaking his head slightly. He obviously didn’t agree with her decision to tell Charlotte. Isaac approached them, as did Carl. Both had looks of surprise on their faces, although for different reasons.

  ​“Wow,” Carl said as he looked at both Charlotte and Isaac, “I can’t believe I never connected you two as a couple. I guess it all makes sense now, though.”

  ​“We’re married,” Charlotte said. "We have been for two months. I couldn’t do it, but we could register through the computer. Legally speaking, we’re married. We just haven’t had a ceremony.” Isaac nodded silently.

  ​“I think it’s great,” Carl said with a large grin on his face. He was glad to hear some good news after the previous week’s events.

  ​“We were going to wait,” Isaac said, “to tell everyone until we reached Cirrus.” Callista blushed a little.

  ​“Well,” Callista said, “we’re here, and I guess now we all know.”

  ​“How do you know she’s pregnant?” Isaac asked.

  ​“I just know,” Callista said. She didn’t say anything after that. Charlotte stared at her for a moment.

  ​“She’s right,” Charlotte said, “I’m late. I was going to take a test, but I just hadn’t gotten around to it. I’ve had all the signs. I just wanted to be sure.” Isaac stared at her for a moment, a little shocked. Finally, a smile reached his face.

  ​“If he is a boy,” Isaac said, “can we name him after my father?” Charlotte smiled at him, and then wrapped herself around him.

  ​“Sure,” Charlotte said. She was happy, holding him close.

  ​“What was your father’s name?” Callista said. Isaac looked up at her from his embrace with his wife.

  ​“Elijah,” he said.

  It was just as Callista looked up and noticed her brother had left the room that a sudden sharp tremor ran throughout the ship. All of them nearly lost their balance. It sounded as if one of the engines had exploded. There was more shaking. The view of Cirrus in the window suddenly became skewed, and then twisted out of shape as the ship began to roll.

  ​“What’s happening?” Carl shouted.

  ​“I don’t know,” Isaac yelled back, “everyone get to a seat." Charlotte, Isaac, and Carl each sat in a chair, strapping themselves in. They began working furiously at the data screens in front of them.

  ​“We’ve lost stabilizing thrusters,” Carl said. “It looks like the explosion is causing us to vent thruster pressure into space.”

  ​“That explosion,” Charlotte said, “was caused by engine number two. The crystal fusion reactor for that engine overloaded. The reactor destroyed the entire engine, disintegrated it.”

  ​“Did we lose any of the stasis chambers?” Isaac asked with urgency. After a few seconds of tapping on the screen, Charlotte answered.

  ​“No, fortunately.”

  ​“Alright, good. See if we can distribute the power evenly between the other three engines and their fusion cells,” Isaac said. He turned back to Callista, who was standing at the door way. “Find someplace to sit,” he said to her, “and buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”

  ​Callista ran out of the bridge, trying to hold her balance as the ship shook. The door to the bridge closed behind her as she rushed to the navigation room. She knew there were seats in there. Before she reached the room, however, Michael ran up to her.

  ​“Callie,” he said, “something’s wrong.”

  ​“No kidding,” she said as another tremor caused them to both lean to the wall of the hallway. There were emergency lights throughout the ship, causing red flashes over everything.

  ​“We need to get to one of the shuttles,” he said, “before this ship crashes.”

  ​“What?” she said as she held on to the wall, “No, it’s not going to crash. We’re going to stay with the others.” He shook his head and took her arm, pulling her down the hallway. She tried to stop him,
but he was much stronger than she’d anticipated. She screamed for him to let her go as he started dragging her down the hallway. Suddenly there was what sounded like another explosion, and the ship shook even more violently. It started to roll, the artificial gravity in the ship fluctuating. The jolt caused Callista to fly forward into Michael. They flew together into a wall, falling to the floor as the ship's gravity kicked back on.

  ​Callista felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She looked down at Michael, who was still on the floor. He was unconscious, and there was blood trickling down the side of his forehead. She put her hand on his head and examined him with her mind’s eye. He might have a concussion. She felt relief mixed with concern for him.

  ​She stood, and felt dizzy. She put her hand to her head, feeling pain. She touched her head, and it felt wet. She looked at her hand, which was now red with her own blood. I’m hurt, she realized. She felt dizzy, but knew she needed to take them some place safe. She leaned against the wall for a moment, not realizing she’d left a red hand print. She bent down and grabbed Michael's two legs. He was heavy, but she could drag him. She was strong, too.

  ​She focused her mind’s eye on her hands, her arms, and her feet. She felt stronger, more able to carry him. She instinctively started dragging him in the direction of the cartography room. It’s not far, she thought as she pushed herself. It felt like the world around her was spinning, and her head began to throb. Finally she reached the door, and she slammed her hand on the panel; opening it. Blood streaked down the panel from her touching it, but she ignored everything as she pushed herself forward.

  ​The room was flashing between the blue of the holographic display, and the red of the emergency lights. There were several seats that lined the edges of the outer wall. She quickly chose one, and dragged Michael to it. She bent down and wrapped her arms around his torso, and counted to three in her mind before lifting him up with all her strength. She grunted as she pulled him up, then lowered him into the seat. She felt even more winded. Without hesitation she strapped him in, adding the head strap around his forehead since he was unconscious.