First Watch: A Watcher Bay Adventure

by Auburn Seal

  No! Mitch.

  Emergency sirens blared and uniformed personnel scurried about the deck of the platform.

  “Levra, come on.” Gunnar pulled her behind him as he raced toward a structure that would provide cover as larger pieces of what had to be the elevator’s lifter began to plummet from the sky.

  Large chunks of flaming metal rained down on the platform while others crashed into the ocean, sending waves crashing into the already shuddering platform. Gunnar led Levra through the chaos, dodging what he could as they ran, but Levra couldn’t think past her sister. He practically dragged her along behind him.

  “It can’t be.” Her words fell flat, as the evidence contradicting her statement fell from the sky, mocking her.

  Something sharp struck her forehead, and she fell to the deck, her sister’s coin falling to the platform and rolling away from her. Warm blood slicked down her face. Her knees ached from the impact, her hands scraped and bloody from the rough metal platform.

  “Lev, stay close.” Gunnar’s voice seemed far away as he pulled her to her feet and rushed under the covered portion of the deck.

  “The quarter. I dropped it,” Levra sobbed as she stretched her hand out, trying in vain to reach the precious coin from her position under safe cover.

  “Stay here. I’ll get it.”

  Too numb to respond, she watched Gunnar race back out into the falling maelstrom to retrieve the antique coin.

  Levra heard whispers and occasional screams travel through the awestruck crowd. She strained to hear what they said. She felt as if she was in a small ever-constricting tunnel and her heart sped up even as time slowed down.

  “Explosion.” That word got tossed around a lot, she didn’t know how to process it.

  Levra’s thoughts struggled to form in her muddled brain.

  No.

  More chatter from the crowd. “Bomb or equipment malfunction.”

  Her stomach sunk and turned over. She fought the urge to throw up. No, no, no.

  More whispers.

  “Definitely a bomb.”

  Mitch. She has to be okay. She has to be.

  Gunnar came back, wiping her face, holding her close to him, offering soothing words and comforting hands. “I’m here, Lev. I’ve got you. I’m here.”

  His words seemed like they were at the other end of a tunnel, drowned out by the frantic cries of the rest of the onlookers. She felt his touch, yet he seemed so far away as her mind raced over the horrific possibilities. She felt like she was falling through an endless space as her mind was barraged with half-formed thoughts.

  “Did you get it?”

  He held up the coin in answer as two words from a stranger’s lips traveled through the crowd and found her ears. The devastating words penetrated the time-slowing fog that stopped time completely and froze her heart in her chest mid-beat.

  “No survivors.”

  CHAPTER 2

  New Seattle, New Eden, Paradisi System

  August 4, 12 AA

  16 years after the Novux Sky Elevator bombing

  “Goddamn it, Levra. What the fuck is your problem? You knew what this was before I ever agreed to the Altius 11 mission. You don’t get to freak out now. It’s too late.”

  Levra stared at this version of her husband, his angry face staring back at her from the wall monitor. She sat in her office feeling much further away from her husband than the space of the galaxies which actually separated them. Nowhere in her imagination could she reconcile that this guy yelling at her was the same guy who’d serenaded her with Frank Sinatra’s Witchcraft before he’d headed off into space like Wyatt Earp in a western movie from Earth. What had happened to her knight in shining armor?

  “I’m not freaking out, Gunnar. Don’t be a condescending asshole. Yes, I knew, but you said three years in deep space. It’s been five. I’m simply pointing out that you have a son here who hasn’t been able to hug his dad in years. We had a deal. You would give Abramov three years, and then you would come back. We would work among the Ddaerans and raise our son in their village. You are the one who is changing the program. What the hell happened to you on that spaceship?”

  She watched him over the monitor, tried to see him objectively as Gunnar scrubbed his hand through his graying hair and gritted his teeth. These conversations across space, once a sweet connection with her lover—a chance to flirt across the light years—had turned more and more tense over the last few months. She’d been patient when, at the three year mark, he’d announced it would be another few months, but as the months turned into two more years, she’d grown weary of his excuses.

  Gunnar finally spoke, acid perforating his words. “Look, I’ll get home when I get home. You are going to have to be patient. And Enric will be fine. It’s not like he’ll never see me again. Remember you and I had to leave our parents on a doomed planet. I’m certain he’ll recover from my comparatively brief absence. Don’t baby him, Lev. He needs to be tough.” His voice was softer when he spoke of their son. Levra took a deep breath trying to compose herself.

  “I’m not babying him. Just because we had to experience devastating loss—well, don’t you want better for our son? He shouldn’t have to grow up without a father. He’s eight now, Gunnar. You’ve missed so much.”

  “Oh my God, do not start again.”

  “Start what? Being concerned for our child—?”

  He turned and looked at something to his left, outside the view of her camera, and spoke to someone Levra couldn’t see, interrupting her mid-tirade. “Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.”

  Gunnar focused back on Levra. “There is nothing left to talk about. I’ll let you know when I’m closer to home. You are going to have to accept the reality of the situation, Levra. I’ll be back eventually. Quit nagging me about it. You expect me to ask the boss to turn the spaceship off course because my whiny wife is irritated?”

  “Gunnar, honestly, what has gotten into you? This isn’t you. You’ve never acted this way with me—not before this trip. This mission is changing you. Has already changed you. If this is the man you’ve become, you don’t need to bother coming home. You won’t be welcome here.”

  She watched his face for moment, looking for any kind of reaction. Seeing none, she broke their connection.

  “What an asshole.” She slammed her computer closed, happy to be done with the call.

  Absence had not made the heart grow fonder. When Gunnar first left she’d missed him terribly. Time and distance made all of her memories sweeter and his mildly irritating quirks seem less significant. But something happened when his crew had gone radio silent for nearly two years. Since then, their relationship turned sideways. He was irritable every time she spoke with him and he didn’t seem to feel any remorse at all when the mission had been extended so long.

  Now he was due home in the next couple of weeks, and she wasn’t certain she even wanted her husband back. She hoped desperately that when they were back on the same planet, they’d find a way to reconnect. For now, she’d make the most of her time working with the Ddaeran natives until he returned. Her mission hadn’t changed, regardless of what crazy notions he’d adopted in space.

  Levra took a deep breath and stood up, pushing her chair violently away from her. “That man,” she said and picked up her jacket on the way out of her office. It was time to relieve her babysitter.

  “Serla?” she called out as she entered what were the main living quarters in her modern condo-style home.

  Serla, neighbor and sitter extraordinaire, was sitting on the faux-leather couch, reading with Enric. Levra never tired of seeing her sister’s beautiful red hair on her son’s head. It was like a piece of Mitch lived on in Enric.

  Their son had made life without Gunnar more tolerable. He always listened to Serla and she took the time to play Wonders of Earth, his favorite virtual reality game, with him.

  He listened, captivated for hours, while Levra told stories of the famed landmarks from Earth, her planet of ori
gin. Unique features from Earth like the Great Sphinx and ancient Egyptian pyramids, Greek ruins, and the Grand Canyon were all scenes in the virtual reality game, and Levra equally enjoyed telling him about them. She and Gunnar had made it a point to visit all the most magnificent places on Earth before they’d departed aboard the Abramov family’s spaceship, the Northern Light. Her ship was one of only ten massive ships to leave Earth under the direction of the Founding Families.

  Telling her son about Earth made her feel closer to her old home, her long-since-dead parents, her sister Mitch, and the world she’d not quite brought herself to forget. She loved seeing the excitement in Enric’s eyes when they talked about what it was like for her to live on a planet with only one moon. She was sure she’d have gone crazy long before now if she hadn’t had Enric to keep her sane.

  His fingers moved so quickly as he signed his questions to her. “It must have been so dark, Mommy. How did you ever see anything?”

  Enric constantly asked questions. Not being able to speak barely slowed him down. Learning sign language had been a bit of a challenge for her, but it was second nature to her now. Enric was insatiably curious. Serla’s help had been priceless for Levra with Gunnar gone so many years. Serla was a member of the family. She was like the sister Enric never had. She had learned sign language and been able to communicate with Enric easily, despite his disability. Even with the advance in medicine, Enric's condition baffled every medical professional she'd taken him to since his birth when the defect was first noticed.

  “Will you make Enric a sandwich at noon, Serla?”

  “Of course, Mrs. Shield.”

  Levra leaned down to kiss Enric on the cheek.

  “I’ll be back in a while, buddy. I have to help Alena’s family. Serla will be here with you until I get back.”

  “But what about Daddy?” Enric signed speedily. “What if today is the day he comes back?”

  Levra pointed at her comm device. “They’ll call me, dearest. Don’t worry.”

  She patted his head on the way out. She pressed a button on the control panel to open the front door, and called over her shoulder as the door lifted, silently sliding into the ceiling. “Be good for Serla.”

  Enric nodded and rolled his eyes before signing. “Always am, mom.”

  With the door closed behind her, she threw her leg over her hover bike and started it with the push button, enjoying the sensation as her transport began to hum and lift a few inches off the ground. She fastened her helmet and shot off toward Dwyr, the Ddaeran coastal village 45 minutes east of New Seattle, which lay on a wide peninsula jutting out into the Azurean Sea. She could use some human, adult contact. Maybe the Ddaerans weren’t exactly human but they were certainly more real—more human to her—than the computer monitor that had been the substitute for her husband over the past few years. Alena and her mother, Mera, always made her forget her own problems.

  Alena’s ability to hear Enric’s thoughts made Levra both envious and grateful. Sign language was fine, certainly better than nothing. But Alena could hear Enric, his thoughts at least, and Levra would give just about anything to be able to really hear her son.

  A lot of the Ddaerans from the small village of Dwyr chose to integrate and live among the Founders after their arrival from Earth, but Alena lived with her mother among other Original families who insisted on maintaining their independence. They didn’t want to rely on the Founders. They were skeptical and anticipated the technological advances the Founders brought with them would come at a price.

  So far, nothing like this had happened yet. As least as far as Levra knew. But she suspected there was a lot she didn’t know that occurred behind the scenes. She taught at the Ddaeran school, and between her job there and her practically single-parent status, she didn’t have time to follow the politics and dynamics between the Ddaerans and the Founders. Unless a drama played out on the nightly newsfeed that broadcasted into every home in New Seattle, Levra didn’t know about it. She was blissfully content to live her life ignorant of New Eden’s bigger problems. For Levra, the absence of her husband trumped everything else and focusing on other problems only made that issue seem bigger and more insurmountable.

  She called Serla after Alena had called earlier this morning. Levra recalled her sweet voice on the phone.

  “Mrs. Shield? My mother asked me to send for you. Can you come today?”

  “Is everything okay, Alena?”

  “Oh yes, Mrs. Shield. Everything is wonderful. Mother wanted to show you something very special.”

  “Of course, Alena. Tell your mother I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’ll need a sitter for Enric.”

  Serla, as usual, was thrilled to hang out with Enric.

  Now Levra watched the scenery pass by as she sped along the countryside toward Dwyr. The bogs were her favorite portion of the trip. She loved teaching the Ddaerans. The children in the school were sweet and eager to learn. They learned English quickly. Levra didn’t pick up their native tongue nearly as easily, but she managed to learn conversational Ddaeran over the years. Enric couldn’t speak at all but seemed to understand the Originals’ tongue well. There was certainly nothing wrong with his hearing.

  She let out a deep breath as her thoughts raced, hopping from one subject to another.

  First, Gunnar. When would he get home? A little kernel of worry lodged deep in her stomach the day he’d finally touched base after two eternal years of silence. He’d warned her before they lost contact that they were traveling to an area of the planetary system they were exploring. The logistics wouldn’t allow for much, if any, contact with New Eden, but she hadn’t expected to hear nothing for two full years.

  She’d thought he was dead. Then when his ship finally made contact again, something had changed. Gone was the sweet man she’d been married to, gone was the man who comforted her through the loss of her sister, who had held her while she sobbed after she’d said goodbye to her parents for the last time.

  Gunnar was back in body, but her husband—the man she loved—hadn’t returned. She wondered every single day if her Gunnar would return once they were reunited, if only for her son’s sake. She’d learned to live without him, but Enric needed a father.

  During her last communication with Gunnar, he said they would be home within the week. She couldn’t get any information from Abramov Command. Sometimes things happened to delay ships. She knew that. But she also knew from dreadful personal experience that sometimes things happened that destroyed ships and killed crew members. A flash of Mitch’s face passed through Levra’s mind, and her stomach twisted in the combined agony of fear and grief.

  Gunnar couldn’t be dead. He just couldn’t. Their marriage had started a little rough, but they’d grown closer together through the immigration to New Eden. For the first 10 years of marriage, it had only been the two of them. They’d had plenty of time to work through their issues and had settled comfortably into a partnership that had grown from an arranged marriage into love. Falling in love with Gunnar had been easy. He had a big heart and an even bigger sense of humor that kept Levra smiling, even during the darkest days.

  Once Enric was born, there were some slight adjustments as Levra had to learn to care for a child who couldn’t speak. But when Gunnar left—after nearly 13 years of marriage—to explore the far reaches of the Paradisi system and beyond under the employ of Abramov Security, they were firmly entrenched in a marriage that worked like a well-oiled machine. They’d fought to survive through overwhelming grief and hardship and it had worked.

  Until he left on Altius 11. Something happened after he left and she had only misgivings about what would he be like when he got back.

  Levra rolled her shoulders back, forcing the tension out of her neck and back as she sped over the landscape on her bike. He was fine. He had to be fine. She would know if he wasn’t. Wouldn’t she?

  The marshland bogs started appearing, becoming more and more frequent as they gave way to inlets of bright blue water
. It indicated she was leaving the far reaches of the crowded city of New Seattle behind. She could smell the salt water; her first indication she would soon be approaching Dwyr.

  She brought the hover bike to a stop near the common area of the village, and waited for the bike to settle back to the ground with a flip of a switch. Levra dismounted and walked a few meters through the village toward Mera’s house. The Dwyr villagers refused much of the technology willingly offered to them by the Founders, so walking into this village was reminiscent of her first arrival at New Eden. They enjoyed such a simple life, opting for natural wooden huts with thatched roofs which stood bare in contrast to the tall apartment buildings where she and Gunnar settled into soon after the Founder’s arrival back in 1 AA. The contrast of tall buildings which soared up into New Seattle’s metropolitan skyline compared to the more organic round huts and thatched roofs that dotted the Ddaeran village countryside was significant.

  Part of her wanted to live this way, free from the comm devices and the constant tech that invaded their lives. But there were too many conveniences technology offered. She wasn’t willing to walk away from the niceties of life. Even though she missed simpler times. She looked forward to living among the Ddaerans full time but would bring her technology and its conveniences with her.

  Her time teaching in Dwyr afforded her the opportunity to live with the best of both worlds—Founders and Originals, or Ddaerans, as the Founders referred to them. It was a true benefit to be able to expose Enric to the easy lifestyle of the Dwyr clan. If Gunnar were home—and not obnoxious—her life would be rather ideal.

  “Mrs. Shield, Mrs. Shield,” Alena called eagerly as she ran to meet Levra in the meadow courtyard of the village. Her laugh was infectious and soon Levra joined in. Alena grabbed her hand, and together they skipped through the meadow.

  Levra felt more than heard Alena communicate through her touch. The palms of the young girl's hands were soft on Levra’s arm.

  “How is Enric?” Alena asked silently.