Genesis

by Lara Morgan

  Beyond the dome, behind the high walls, the rooftops of the rest of the buildings of Orbitcorp poked up into the pink-washed sky. There were apartments for the employees, offices, workshops, and beyond them four shuttle bays. Orbitcorp occupied a large chunk of Central and it was all locked tight.

  Rosie backed into the deep awning of a closed robotics store. She sat slowly down, pulling her knees to her chest and positioning herself so she could see the street.

  Her eyes and limbs were heavy with fatigue, her mouth was dry and she felt sick with hunger. Exhausted, she rested her head back against the cool wall; she had hours to wait. Aunt Essie was due for planetfall at nine. The public viewing gallery would open at eight and she guessed right now it was around five if she was lucky. She should stay awake in case, she thought. She shouldn’t sleep here. But that was the last thought she had as her eyelids closed and her head dropped down to her chest.

  Pip hid around the corner, peering out every so often to keep an eye on her.

  He was surprised she’d made it. He munched on a strip of dried meat and watched Rosie hunched in the corner of the doorway. She was a mess and a twinge of guilt hit him. Her hair was all tangled and she still had mud on her shorts. She looked so small there by herself. Alone. It made him feel things he didn’t want to feel. Things that could make his job harder.

  Riley would be pissed he hadn’t taken her to his safe house but Pip was sure he’d be able to talk him around.

  He bit savagely on the dried meat. Why had that other girl got killed? It had been unnecessary. He hated it when people were killed.

  He stayed watching Rosie a moment longer, then slunk away into a nearby access tunnel.

  He headed to the Game Pit in the Western Rim. Built underground, it was dim, cheap and the staff would sometimes sell him beer. Plus it was off the radar – a wholly zero surveillance zone – and Senate or whoever couldn’t get a look-in. It was a perfect hide-out.

  He hunched down in a game pod and munched on a hot chip. It was greasy and stale and had a chemical aftertaste, but it helped him think.

  It bothered him that he couldn’t get the girl out of his head. Rosie hunched over in the doorway, Rosie wiping mud off her face, Rosie saying those things to him.

  She had no idea about him, not really. He hated that it bothered him.

  “Thought I’d find you here.” A voice spoke quietly.

  Pip turned to see Riley behind him. He looked angry. Pip tried to judge if he was gunning for a fight. It wasn’t usually Riley’s style but you never knew when you pushed someone. And he’d deliberately disobeyed him. “How’d you know about this place?”

  Riley ignored the question. “Shouldn’t you be somewhere else?” he said.

  Pip shrugged. “She pissed me off – I had to drop her. But don’t worry, I know where she is. She went to her aunt’s place.”

  Riley put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it hard then, leaning down close to his ear, said, “Get up.”

  “All right, all right.” Pip got to his feet. “Why’s it so important anyway? You got the stuff you wanted.”

  Riley put his hand tightly on the back of Pip’s neck and steered him towards the door. “Where is her aunt’s?”

  “Orbitcorp.”

  “Great,” Riley muttered under his breath and pushed Pip out the door. “Let’s go then.”

  Rosie woke to something hard prodding her side and a nasally voice saying, “Get up!”

  She blinked and squinted up at a pudgy man with a pink, sweaty face who was prodding her with the toe of his shoe.

  “Get up,” he grunted again.

  Rosie struggled to her feet. Her eyes felt gritty and she swayed dizzily for a second.

  “Move it, before I call the Senate.” The man pointed to the street and she stumbled out from under the portico into the sunlight. Behind her the man mumbled something about Ferals as he unlocked the shop door.

  Rosie looked down at herself. Dried mud stained her shorts, her T-shirt was grubby and creased, and the long-sleeved shirt she wore over the top was wrinkled and splattered with mud. She supposed she did resemble a Feral, sleeping in a doorway and using her bag for a pillow.

  She stood on the kerb. It had to be near opening time now. Bleary-eyed, she stepped out onto the road and was almost knocked over by a hovercar. It whirred past, the driver sounding the horn and glaring at her from his climate-controlled interior.

  Rosie jumped back onto the kerb. She was definitely awake now. There were more people in the street and a steady stream of hovercars were buzzing quietly up and down the road. Those she met eyes with cut their gazes away quickly as if she didn’t exist. Rosie began to feel uncomfortable. She pulled her shirt over her T-shirt and watched for a break in the traffic, then she jogged across the road to Orbitcorp. There wasn’t anywhere to hide so she settled for standing as inconspicuously as possible near the doors. She peered through the glass. There were people in there. Was it open?

  She moved to stand directly in front of the double doors but nothing happened. She waved her arms up at the motion sensor. The doors stayed closed.

  She went back down a few steps, checking left, then right. There. At the far left corner, a single door was open and a few people were entering through it.

  She lined up behind three men. The last one turned and glanced down at her in surprise. “Hello. Are you an employee of Orbitcorp?” He raised an eyebrow.

  “I’m here to meet my aunt.” Rosie noticed a large guard armed with a gun near the entrance.

  “Really?” The man looked bemused. “Then you’ll need one of these.” He waved a plascard at her. It was some kind of ID.

  Rosie’s heart sank. “But I’m just going to the shuttle bay.”

  “New rules. No one gets in without a pass.” He gave her a rueful smile and turned away.

  Since when? There seemed to be more and more rules every day. Aunt Essie couldn’t have known or she’d have got Rosie a pass. She studied the man in front her. He was about forty, with wavy black hair and caramel-brown skin, his natural colour though, not tanned.

  She tugged on the back of his dark purple jacket. “Excuse me,” she said quietly.

  He turned to her. “You still here?”

  “Could you help me? My aunt is coming in from the space station today and she told me to meet her.” She hesitated. “I know I don’t look very good. I had an accident – that’s why I’m so dirty. But if I don’t meet her, she’ll be worried. She didn’t know I’d need an ID card.”

  The man considered her for a minute. “You know you could be mistaken for a Feral, don’t you?” he said.

  Rosie nodded. “Yes, but–”

  “But you’ve got much better manners than Ferals have,” he interrupted. “So you might be telling the truth. What’s your aunt’s name?”

  “Um.” Rosie didn’t want to tell him, but if she made up a name and he knew people, he’d know she was lying. “Essie Black,” she said. “She’s a pilot.”

  “Black?” He frowned slightly. “The name is familiar.”

  “Sir?” They’d reached the front of the line and the guard was holding his hand out for the pass. His eyes went to Rosie and narrowed. “She can’t come in here.”

  “I’ll decide that,” said the man to the guard. His voice was sharp and Rosie felt a little scared jolt inside. But then the man smiled blandly at her.

  “Come,” he put an arm out, “I’ll show you to the dock. Your aunt’s coming in from the space station, you said?”

  Rosie nodded, moving with him past the guard.

  “That will be dock fourteen. This way.”

  He drew her across the wide foyer towards a bank of lifts.

  People gave her surprised glances, quickly smothered when they saw the man she was with, and Rosie began to wonder if she should have trusted this stranger. But she was in, at least, and the time display said it was just after eight, so she didn’t have long to wait. Nervously, she followed him into the shiny silver li
ft and turned to face the doors as they closed. Besides, what could happen to her here? She folded her arms about herself and smiled at the man in the purple suit as he selected the floor.

  CHAPTER 14

  It was further than she remembered to the shuttle dock. They went from the lift, down a long glass-covered walkway to another building, then down again and through another walkway, through gardens to yet another building and then another. By the time they reached the dock, Rosie was disorientated.

  The man hardly spoke as they walked. He stopped once to show her to a bathroom and gave her a bottle of water, but he didn’t ask her any questions other than her name.

  The longer they walked, the wearier she felt. When they reached the shuttle waiting area, he led her to a seat, patted her firmly on the shoulder and left. After he’d gone Rosie realised she didn’t even know his name.

  The waiting area was a long glass-fronted building that looked down at the dock. Rows of blue cushioned seats, grouped in lots of four, were placed throughout the room. Behind her, near the door, was a small shop.

  When she’d visited before, there had been about one hundred people to watch the landing. Now, the shop was closed and only five other people were waiting for the shuttle. They were all dressed in white jackets and conferring over coms, which meant they were probably scientists. After a single, measuring glance, they ignored her and Rosie sat by herself on one of the chairs, hugging the water bottle and staring out of the window at the empty shuttle pad.

  Time passed slowly. She had a headache from hunger and closed her eyes against the glare from outside. It was very quiet and soon she felt herself nodding off again. She jerked awake and tried sitting up straighter. Her heart felt as though it was beating too fast and she put her head in hands.

  Suddenly, a loud beeping filled the room. Startled, she looked up to see the scientists strolling to a door marked Disembarkation Area: Personnel Only.

  She went to the window and peered up at the sky. A faint white trail of vapour was streaking down. The shuttle had made planetfall. A wave of relief struck her.

  Before long she could make out the streamlined shape of the shuttle, dropping to Earth in a controlled fall.

  She watched it stow its solar sails and invert, powering up the ion thrusters to land. She could feel the rumbling vibration through the floor as it settled on the dock. A blast of enviro scrubbers burst up from the dock as it touched down to capture any hazardous particles.

  She anxiously watched the exit tunnel extend from the waiting area and connect with the hatch. There were no windows on the tunnel, so she couldn’t tell when the hatch opened or if anyone was coming out. She moved towards the door marked Disembarkation and waited.

  After a few minutes she heard voices on the other side, the door slid back and six people came out. Among them was a woman with short, black spiky hair wearing dark green pants and a tight, black tank top.

  Rosie’s heart lifted. Her aunt spotted her and smiled, waving.

  “Hey!” Aunt Essie dodged past the rest of the crew. “How long have you–” Her smiled faded. “You’re a mess, kid. What the hell have you been doing?”

  She placed her hands on Rosie’s shoulders. She smelled familiar, of frangipani and spice, and her tiny diamond nose stud gleamed in the light. Rosie felt tears starting to gather behind her eyes.

  “Can we go?” she said. She didn’t want to start bawling in public.

  Aunt Essie’s hands tightened. “Sure. You okay?”

  Rosie shook her head and her aunt put an arm around her.

  “Okay, right.” She began steering her towards the exit. “I’ll make tea and you can tell me what’s going on.”

  Aunt Essie’s apartment was on the sixth floor of one of Orbitcorp’s scientific complexes. It had pale green walls, one bedroom, a lounge room adjoining a white kitchen and a tiny balcony with a view over a garden. It also had a com room decked out with bio computers and shelves of gadgets and research materials.

  Rosie sat in the very corner of the big cream-coloured sofa while Aunt Essie made tea. On the coffee table a miniature model of Genesis glowed softly under a dome of glass, flakes of red Martian dust flitting around the tiny representation of the colony.

  “How did you get in?” Aunt Essie called from the kitchen. “I found out they’d brought in new security rules on my way back. You’re supposed to have a pass and I couldn’t get hold of you to tell you.”

  “A man helped me.” Rosie took the cup of tea her aunt offered.

  “What man?” asked Aunt Essie, as she sat beside her.

  “I don’t know.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “Um …” Rosie stared at her cup. “Black hair, tall.”

  “I wonder who that was.” Her aunt frowned, sipping her tea for a moment then shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, I’ll find out later. First, what happened to you, kid? You look terrible. Should I call your dad?”

  Rosie put her tea down. Her hand shook and the cup almost tipped as it met the tabletop.

  “Rosie,” her aunt grabbed the cup, “what’s going on?”

  “Dad’s gone. Some men took him.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  She covered her face with her hands.

  “Rosie?” Aunt Essie’s voice was sharp.

  Rosie shook her head, unable to meet her eyes. “I found this box of stuff and–” She faltered, gripped by a terrible feeling that once she told her aunt, everything would be true. Juli would really be dead, her father really gone. Just like her mum.

  Aunt Essie took a long breath. “Rosie,” she said. “Just tell me.”

  She told her. About the box, about everything that had happened since she’d found it. The words came out stiff, washed with an overwhelming feeling of guilt, but she didn’t cry and she was glad for that.

  Aunt Essie didn’t speak for a long moment. “It’s not your fault. All right?” she said finally.

  Rosie could only nod but she found it hard to believe. If she hadn’t found the box, none of this would have happened.

  “Okay, so Adam’s been taken by these men and this guy Riley has the stuff you found?”

  “Yes.”

  Her aunt was staring out of the window.

  “Do you think he’s still–” Rosie wasn’t able to form the words.

  “Alive?” Aunt Essie finished. “If they wanted him dead, they would have just killed him in the flat – it’s not like anyone there would have stopped them. Bunch of cowards.”

  “Riley didn’t want me to go to the Senate,” Rosie said. “He thought they would have people waiting there to get me.”

  “He thinks the people who took your dad have infiltrated the Senate guards?” Her aunt looked thoughtful. “It’s possible, I guess, but … he might be saying that to confuse you. This guy, Riley, could be behind the whole thing.”

  “That’s what I thought, but he has the box now,” Rosie said. “Why would he take Dad, and why did he want Pip to take me somewhere safe?”

  “To scare you, so he knows where you are. Plus your dad was taken before you met him and then you went straight to him after, didn’t you?”

  Rosie nodded. But if she hadn’t run away from Pip, she’d have been there before. Maybe her dad wouldn’t have been taken then. Or maybe she just wouldn’t have found out until later. She didn’t know what think. Why were the diary and key so important?

  “Riley could be wanted by the Senate,” Aunt Essie was saying. “I’ve got a friend, I could contact him, ask him to check the database – get some help.”

  Rosie felt confused. Was Riley involved? He’d been so certain of who had taken her dad. But she didn’t know if she should disagree with her aunt. She’d been in the Senate Elite for two years before she joined Orbitcorp. The Elite was the force the Senate sent to work for the United Earth Commission’s Earth Peace Alliance and helped keep the peace both on- and off-world. She must know something.

  “Rosie, tell me again
what the message said when you put the key in the comnet.”

  “Shore beacon activated. Code entered. Target acquired. Searching …” she replied. “Why?”

  Her aunt was frowning. “There’s something familiar about the name, Shore.” She went to her com room and activated her holo drive and began searching. “Ha! Look here.” She pointed to an icon hovering within the parameters of the controls square that had appeared in the air in front of the back wall. Her aunt selected the icon and the control panel disappeared and a block of green text appeared. “I knew I’d seen that name.”

  Rosie read the news wave sample her aunt had recorded.

  Mars report: The Genesis colony has been temporarily closed due to the recent explosion of a research laboratory. Officials have still not released the cause of the explosion but are calling it an accident. Twenty-three people were killed and hundreds injured by the explosion which destroyed a main medical research laboratory on Genesis. Among the dead were renowned geneticists, Drs Margaret and Ethan Shore, who had been working on a cure for the recently discovered generation-X strain of malaria, known as the MalX, which it is feared will decimate the highly populated poorer areas of Earth.

  Next to it was an image of the destroyed lab.

  “They were looking for a cure?” Rosie said.

  Aunt Essie hesitated then said carefully, “Yeah, kid. I know. I remember when it happened. This wave is ten years old – you would have only been six. It was huge. Everyone had to be evacuated because the domes were damaged. I was with the Elite then and we were sent up to oversee the evacuation.” She shook her head, staring at the image. “It was a mess. Everything was destroyed. All their research lost – it really set them back. That was one of the reasons I went to work for Orbitcorp, to help with the rebuilding. Me and your mum fought over that. Who knew–” She stopped and Rosie felt a tight band of pain grip her. She wanted Aunt Essie to tell her more, but at the same time she didn’t want to hear it.

  “Why would their name be in that message?” Rosie said. “Shore beacon. What does it mean?”