False Horizons

by CJ Birch

  “When you were born, I thought, here’s a chance. This is my chance to finally do something right for the first time. To create life instead of death. You know how many decades of my life have revolved around death? Too many.”

  “Nobody made that choice for you.”

  He pauses but doesn’t comment. He stares straight into my eyes. Even in the dim light they flash with intensity. “You may not believe me when I say your mom and I loved each other. That’s fine. I won’t try to convince you, but I loved her and you more than anything. The day you saw that man hung up in the mess I knew I had to find a way for you to have a normal life. As much as it killed me to admit, that life would never be with me. So I helped your mom and you escape. I wanted you to live without death in your life.” He makes a circular gesture with his hand. “And here you are. When I learned you’d been selected for this mission, I knew I had to do everything in my power to stop you. I wasn’t trying to kill you. I was trying to save you. I knew if the Posterus couldn’t make it to the rendezvous site, they wouldn’t be pulled into this galaxy to be poached. Do you have any idea how dangerous these people are? They abduct humans and use their bodies to create their young. They kill humans, and you were part of a payment so they’d leave the Belt alone. I couldn’t let you go.”

  “Wait. Hold up.” I pull back both physically and mentally. This is all too much. I don’t want to believe a word of it, but what if? What if for once he’s not lying? “Are you saying this was all planned? That the Commons built a generational ship so it could send 45,000 people to their deaths? That’s insane.” He’s insane.

  “You don’t have to believe me about that, but if you don’t believe me that the illya are dangerous, you’ll regret it. Now let’s move before we’re discovered. I’m sure you’ve tripped a number of alarms.”

  My mouth’s still open as he turns and continues down the tunnel. I can’t move. A part of me believes him, and not a small part. A brash alarm is going off in my head. Too many things are falling into place now. His story explains a million decisions that, at the time, didn’t make sense, but given this new information, suddenly do. It’s why they insisted the mission was on a volunteer basis only. And why none of the members in the Commons volunteered for it. Or why Ash’s dad was so set against her going that he would give the worst recommendation letter I’ve ever seen. And if Sarka was trying to sabotage the mission to keep me safe, then he was willing to sacrifice Ash and everyone in the engine room.

  “Jordan, move it,” Sarka calls from up ahead.

  “You programmed a human being to explode so you could save me? What kind of a person does that? Why’d you even bother telling me all this? Did you think I’d—what?—be happy you were trying to save me? What is it you think I want from you? Love? It sure as shit isn’t that.”

  He slows and eventually stops. When he turns to face me he’s so far down the tunnel I can’t see his expression. But by the look of his shoulders and the way he huffs at me, he’s long done with this conversation. “I don’t really know what you want from me, if anything. You don’t need to want anything from me. But I’m here just the same.” He chuckles, a deep throaty laugh that echoes through the tube. “What does it matter anyway?”

  “Ash could’ve died. Doesn’t anything matter to you?”

  In a tone of voice I’ve never heard before, he says, “I didn’t know you’d fall in love with her. She was convenient. I’m sorry if that hurts you, but I didn’t know her. It was you I needed to save.” He turns back and continues crawling. “Now come on,” he says gruffly.

  I fall in behind him because I have no other choice. I’m ready to get the hell out of these damn tunnels. Sarka leads us to a large hatch at the end of a tunnel. It’s locked, so I hand him my torch. The light from it illuminates the tension in his face. Is he worried I’m going to bolt as soon as I get out of here?

  It takes only a few moments for the lock to give, and we’re in. The tube fills with light from the service corridor we’ve entered. It’s deserted as we step down. I remove my helmet and suit as soon as possible and dump it in a service hatch. An eerie feeling washes over me as we step into the main corridor. My feet sink into the ground. It’s malleable, as are the walls. When I run my hands along them, it’s like running my hand over someone’s skin. The smell is sterile, like most ships, but there’s something else. An unfamiliar smell that has me on edge.

  Sarka and I exchange a look. We’re both of the same mind. The sooner we find the others, the better. As soon as we round the corner I hear my name. When I turn, Ash is striding toward us. I don’t think I’ve seen a more beautiful, more welcome sight in my entire life. I rush into her arms just as alarms start blaring all around us.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Ash

  The moment I see Jordan all my anxiety and worry evaporate. She’s alive. And I have proof because she’s right in front of me. I stop from kissing her senseless only because as soon as I wrap my arms around her, the alarms go off. Hartley’s started the process.

  I step back to grab Jordan’s hand and notice she’s covered in blood. She has a messy bandage on her right forearm.

  “Why are you covered in blood? Are you okay?” I ask.

  She waves me off. “It’s nothing.”

  I decide not to press it and pull her toward the lifts. “Come on. We don’t have much time now.”

  “Where are we going?” She follows without hesitation, and that’s when I notice Sarka lurking in the background. I ignore him. Why’d he even come back? Does he think this’ll buy him some favor?

  “Their bridge. The only way to open the bay doors to fly the Persephone out is from the bridge. We’ve created a diversion of sorts to clear it, but we need to hurry.”

  She stops and pulls me back. “The Persephone’s okay?” Relief and disbelief fight for prominence on her face.

  I nod. More or less. “She’s spaceworthy.” And right now that’s all that matters. The basic repairs are done. Anything else can wait until we get the hell out of here. “I don’t have time to tell you everything, but we need to get the fuck out of here as soon as possible. These people—”

  Jordan looks back at Sarka. “I know. They’re dangerous.” I’m not sure how she knows, but I’m guessing it has something to do with Sarka. The bastard probably intercepted some encrypted communique from the Commons and knew the whole plan. Hell, it could’ve been years ago. Twenty years of lies and deceit to intercept.

  The noise of the alarms penetrates my brain. We don’t have time for this. I tug Jordan’s hand, and we take off for the lifts, Sarka close behind.

  As soon as we’re in the lift ascending to the bridge, Jordan asks, “How did you manage to create a diversion that will evacuate everyone from the bridge?”

  I know what she’s thinking. No force in the galaxy would make her abandon her bridge. “I had Hartley suck all the air out. Ito is meeting us on the deck below with our enviro-suits.” Jordan nods. Something unsettling about the way she keeps glancing over at Sarka. She’s unsure of something, but I have no idea what.

  I can’t keep my eyes off her. She’s wearing some strange black uniform that looks perfectly tailored for her. It’s dangerous and powerful. Just standing next to her, I feel those same energies radiating off her. I have a million questions, but they’ll have to wait. She’s alive. And she’s here. That’s enough for now.

  The lift stops on our floor and we exit into darkness. Another of Hartley’s precautions. We didn’t want to risk bumping into anyone, so I had him cut the lights as well as the emergency lights on this whole deck. I raise the flashlight I brought and aim it down the corridor. It’s empty.

  We’re halfway from midship and the bow and still have about a five-minute run until we’re below the bridge. Hartley says the ship’s so big it would take a good half an hour to get from one end to the other.

  I see Ito a minute or so before we meet her. At this end of the ship the corridors are straight. She’s carting two envi
ro-suits she brought from the Persephone.

  “Captain. It’s so great to have you back.” Her voice falters when she sees Sarka. “I only brought two. I didn’t know I’d need a third.”

  “It’s okay. He’s not coming with us,” Jordan says.

  “You’re just going to leave me here in the dark?”

  “What? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark? I have no problem bringing you up on the bridge with no breathable air. None whatsoever,” I say.

  He scowls but doesn’t say anything, which isn’t like him. Has someone finally managed to reprogram him?

  “Ash will leave her flashlight for you.” Before I can protest, she grabs it and hands it to him. “Now let’s suit up,” she says. God, it feels good to have her back in command. She takes her enviro-suit from Ito and almost sighs with pleasure as she slips into it. “I never thought I’d be happy to get into one of these, but I forgot how much better they are when they’re made to fit.”

  I check our time. We have two minutes until go time. I lift my helmet over my head and seal it. The noise of the alarms dulls, and it feels like I’ve entered a cocoon. Like those pillow forts you used to make as a kid. I switch on my comm unit and headlamp. “Testing, can you hear me?”

  Jordan gives a firm yes. Now we wait. There’s an awkward moment as we all stand around, the alarms the only sound. Nobody wants to make eye contact, so we have nothing to do but stare at our feet. Finally my alarm goes off.

  “Time to go.”

  On this last deck we’ll take the service chute up to the next floor. It’s less likely we’ll meet anyone.

  Halfway up I ask, “Aren’t you afraid Sarka will take off?”

  “Let him.” Jordan’s voice sounds loud in my headpiece. “If he sticks around, he’s going to be nothing but trouble.”

  “You’re just going to let him go free? Instead of paying for what he’s done?”

  She sighs. “I don’t have a good answer for you. But I don’t want to have any part of his trial or punishment.”

  “You wash your hands of it?”

  “This isn’t the time to discuss this. Let’s focus on the mission ahead of us. We’ll worry about Sarka later.”

  I have some choice words for that statement but keep them to myself. Sometimes I forget she’s his daughter. Most of the time I forget that. It can’t be easy being in that position. If I were back on Alpha, would I be able to condemn my father for what he’s done? He knew we were being sent to our death, and he did nothing. A half-assed communique doesn’t make up for his actions. I grip the rung of the ladder tight and stop, my breathing erratic. The heat of my anger begins to boil low in my stomach. This is all his fault. He could’ve stopped this. Jordan interrupts my thoughts with a gentle nudge to my thigh to prompt me to keep moving.

  We reach the bridge and pry open the main doors. It’s silent and empty. And dark. Hartley’s turned the lights off here as well. He’s turned off all the consoles except the one we need. The only light comes from the large window in front, and even that light is dull and muted. We aren’t very close to any suns.

  “Where did they all go, do you think?” I ask in hushed tones. It feels wrong to talk at full volume. I imagine the illya standing behind the closed doors, listening in, waiting to surprise us if we make too much noise.

  “A ship this big? They’ll have a secondary command post for emergencies like this. Let’s hurry. It’s likely they’ll be able to monitor everything that happens on this bridge. Or worse, they’ve gone to get their own enviro-suits.” Jordan walks to the window and looks up at the second deck of the bridge. “What’s up there?”

  “Their main command post. That’s where the captain sits.”

  She turns back to the enormous window in front. “Nice view.”

  “It is, isn’t it?” says a hollow voice from above. I nearly jump out of my skin. On the above deck is Bragga, his mouth and nose encased in a breathing apparatus. He’s leaning on the rail watching us. He pulls out a blaster and aims it at Jordan. “And who is this? Your captain, perhaps? The one you’ve been searching for?” He walks over to a platform along the side, steps on, and descends to our floor, his eyes and aim never wavering.

  “And you are?” Jordan asks.

  “Who I am really isn’t important, is it? All that matters is what happens next.” He reaches the bottom of the lift and steps off.

  I wish we’d thought to arm ourselves. Breaking and entering isn’t something we do often, but I’m guessing having a gun helps in these situations.

  “So what is going to happen next?” asks Jordan.

  “As soon as we secure the Posterus, you and your people will be returned to the planet.”

  “And what happens on the planet?”

  “You live out your lives.”

  I push Jordan behind me. If he shoots one of us, it’ll be me first. “As what? Containers for your offspring?”

  He smiles. “Ah, so you’ve learned of your fate. I’m not surprised. Humans have always been resourceful beings. They have a tendency to muck things up. Yes, you are here to help us procreate. But we’ve ensured that the climate will be suitable for your needs. And we won’t need all of you at once. Most of you have many, many years ahead of you.” So it’s true. All of it’s true. The slow simmer of anger begins to boil over.

  I look back at Jordan, and I can guess what she’s thinking. Our time on that planet will not be pleasant. We’ll spend most of it fleeing the natives and local wildlife. Not exactly the future any of us had in mind when we embarked on this mission.

  “And what about the species that already lives there? They won’t take kindly to sharing,” Jordan says.

  “They won’t be around much longer. We’ve had scientists studying the effects of some germ-line editing we did. It makes them sterile.”

  “Scientists? Like that dead guy we found in the pyramid?” I ask.

  “An unfortunate accident.”

  Jordan crosses her arms. “You’d be willing to eradicate a whole species just so you can survive?”

  “Why not? They owe their existence to us. If we hadn’t abandoned the planet thousands of years ago in search of a cure for our plague, they’d never have evolved into the creatures they are now. Our absence left a gap in nature, and they filled it. How fitting we’re the ones to cause their extinction.”

  I can think of another word besides fitting.

  “And the ship on the planet? The one with the humans?” Jordan asks.

  There’s movement from the far end of the bridge. I glance up and see Sarka moving through the room, holding a canister of air to his lips.

  “An early experiment. We’d hoped to be able to keep bodies in stasis and use them when needed, but it only works if they’re kept alive. We keep hoping. After all, wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t know your fate?”

  “So you’ve been doing this a while? Killing humans? If you had the ability to travel to our solar system—”

  “Yeah, how did you do that?” I take a step to the left, focusing his attention away from Sarka. “How did we get here to this system?”

  Bragga smiles graciously, like I’ve given him a compliment on a nice table arrangement. “We have the technology to fold space.” He mimics folding something in half with his hands. “As you travel from one side to the other, your body breaks up into base elements. When it remerges on the other side it’s complete again.”

  “Complete but different,” I say.

  Bragga shakes his head. “No. Nothing changes. You are exactly the same.”

  “I came out different. I was in the process of—” I stop for a moment. It sounds so strange to say that I was in the middle of exploding. “I had been altered to explode.”

  “Altered how? Humans aren’t combustible.”

  “Someone,” I throw a glance at Sarka, who has moved to the lit-up console, “injected me with nanotechnology—”

  “Your body would’ve been purged of any and all foreign objects not esse
ntial for living.” Bragga interrupts and waves his gun as if to erase this conversation. He’s growing impatient. And frankly so am I. What the hell is Sarka doing over there? “What does it matter now?” Bragga asks. “Why does it matter why you’re here? If you’re hoping this information will help you, it won’t. We have you outnumbered, and our technology is far superior. What can a bunch of primates do to us? You’ve barely begun to explore space. You thought it was an accomplishment to land on your moon.” He sneers like this is a task similar to learning to chew with your mouth closed. “We first reached space before you even left the trees. We have every advantage over you.”

  Except surprise. I smile as Sarka rounds the console and leaps onto his back. Both Jordan and I duck and roll out of the way. I hear but don’t see the blaster discharge. It strikes a monitor to the right of us. While Sarka has him distracted, Jordan and I circle around. With one gesture, Jordan lets me know she’ll go high while I go low. I run at his legs to unbalance him, and Jordan reaches for the blaster, wrenching it out of his hand. He howls as he crashes on top of Sarka.

  Jordan aims the gun at him. He sweeps her legs out and kicks the blaster out of the way. At the same moment he smashes an elbow into Sarka’s gut. Sarka groans and lets go of his neck. Bragga rolls off him and scrambles for the gun. I reach for his ankle, but I’m too far away. His fingers grasp at the handle, inching it forward.

  I look over at Jordan, who’s dazed. She must have hit her head on the ground hard. She sits up as I crawl closer to Bragga. His hand closes over the blaster. He spins and aims right for my head. A second later, Sarka tackles him from behind just as the lights and all the consoles on the bridge come back to life. The canister of air he was using falls and rolls back toward the entrance of the bridge.