“Clarke, go round everybody up. Meet me in the center of the camp in five. Zeke should be back by now. Let’s debrief.”
“Yes, sir.”
Clarke bounded off ahead of Elida and Sinnett, jogging toward the first set of tents. Elida watched him go and smiled. It was good to be here. It was good to have these men by his side. In fact, despite their shortcomings as soldiers, the engineers and scientists had been pretty compliant overall. It made his job easy, and so far none of them had gone and done anything crazy.
As the crew gathered around, Elida jumped up on one of their empty supply crates so they could see and hear him clearly. He surveyed the looks on their faces. They were dirty, sweaty, and tired, but they also looked triumphant. The look of men that had conquered something enormous glistened in their bright blue and gray eyes. They were hungry for more, ready to know what to do next so that soon they could have a home as they’d never had before. Elida gave them a broad smile and lifted his hands over his head, pumping his fist with enthusiasm.
“We did it!” he began, and the crowd cheered and hooted. “Before we begin, let’s have a moment of silence for the one we lost. A fellow soldier and adventurer, who met his fate far too young.”
Quiet fell and the sound of the wind beyond the trees whistled around them. Elida bowed his head and closed his eyes solemnly, counting to sixty as his people shuffled back and forth in front of him.
“All right. That’s all we can do. We need to keep our minds focused on the future. Is the perimeter completed?”
“Yes, sir,” they called back.
“Is my first watch rested and prepared to take over security?”
“Yes, sir.”
“All tents are assembled? Food, weapons and other supplies are accounted for?”
Elida carried on, ticking items off of his mental to-do list, while simultaneously reminding his team of everything they had accomplished in just one day. The weariness lifted from them, and it raised their morale. Finally, he ran down the plan for the next day, assigning people to the most important tasks.
“Now, Zeke, tell us about the water.”
Zeke shuffled forward, holding up a tube of liquid that he had brought from the waterfall.
“We will use the falls as a source of water for our camp. However, it is not safe to consume in its current form. The easiest and quickest way to purify it will be to boil it and capture the steam, allowing it to re-condense and gather in a clean container. The impurities will stay behind in the boiling container and we can dump them. It’ll take a while to get this system running on a large enough scale to support all of us, so we will need to limit water rations for a while, but I think we can manage. There’s plenty of wood and other debris around here to use as fuel for a fire. That will be the easiest way to get things boiling. The bigger problem is that we don’t have any large barrels or cooking pots that can withstand the boiling. We may have to make something ourselves. The engineers can help.”
“I’ll assign you someone to help with that,” Elida confirmed.
As he finished speaking, a far off rumble carried through the air over the sound of the wind and the rustling trees. It grew louder and louder, and everyone froze, staring up at the sky, afraid of what might come next. As the sound wave passed over them, bending the tree branches and sending tiny dust devils swirling in every direction, many of the men dropped to their knees and covered their heads. When it passed, Elida glanced up just in time to see several ships flying past, winking in and out of the treetops. If he wasn’t mistaken, they were Earth ships, complete with the Central Government’s tail colors painted proudly on them. Probably just checking in on him. He wished someone had told him about the visit.
“We’re all right. It was just our old friends making sure we landed okay. They were probably expecting to see our camp over by the ship, but we weren’t there. Maybe they’ll come back and land so we can show them around some time,” Elida chatted, hoping he was right. Either way, he needed his men to stay focused on the task ahead. “Let’s get to bed. First watch up. What did I tell you? I knew everything would work out! It’s good to be home.”
With uncharacteristic pep in his step, Elida hopped down from the crate and headed for his own tent, ready to turn in for his first night in his new home.
7
ELIDA DIDN’T SLEEP well during that first night on the planet. His mind insisted that there was more to do. He wanted to get up and walk the perimeter one more time for himself. He wanted to check on his security team and start unloading supplies, and all the other things that needed to get done around camp. It didn’t feel like the time to rest, yet, but he knew that if he didn’t rest, he would be no use to them as a leader either. Their first day had been hard, and they owed themselves a little downtime to recover before building a colony really got underway.
Drowsing in and out of fitful sleep, every strange noise in the semi-darkness woke Elida. Every footstep outside his tent or whistle of a creature somewhere off in the distance grabbed his attention and called him out of his dreams. He chalked the footsteps up to his team getting up to use the latrine, and as for the other noises, he listened curiously and imagined what type of animals might produce such a sound. They filled his mind with Earthly birds and monkeys, but he knew better than to assume these animals would be anything like the ones he was used to. Even the lizard they had spotted earlier was something of an oddity with its whip-like tail.
After trying a few more times to get some real sleep, Elida gave up. He rose, dusting himself off and slipping his boots on over his feet. He didn’t bother to tie them just yet. First, he wanted to peek outside and see who else was up at this hour, whatever hour it was. During the night, the watch was supposed to change so the first detail could get some rest. It relieved him to see that there were different soldiers marching along the perimeter now, so at least that had gone according to plan.
Clarke was one of the guards pacing back and forth now. He monitored things, his hand resting easily on a holster at his side, and Elida watched him for a moment before shuffling out of his own tent and stretching his arms and back skyward with a big yawn.
“Where’s Sinnett? I thought he was supposed to be on patrol with you during second shift.”
“Not sure, sir. He was with us a little while ago, and then he said he needed to go relieve himself. He should be back any second. Maybe he’s just shy,” Clarke winked at the commander with a smirk.
Elida rolled his eyes and walked on, checking in with the other impromptu guards and seeing who else was awake. It was definitely still too early for the rest of the crew to be out of bed just yet, but he might as well get a head start on setting up a makeshift kitchen so they might have some breakfast before long. Call it a token of appreciation for his men.
Ambling slowly, Elida inspected each of the supply crates lined up in the camp. The first order of business was finding the cooking supplies. Elizabet had promised them enough equipment to get the colony off the ground, but during his first inventory onboard he discovered that she only sent him with two measly cooking stoves to feed all fifty of his men. Apparently, Elizabet expected them to start the business of chopping down trees for firewood right away. Grumbling to himself, he hammered the end of his crowbar under the lid of a crate. The nails were stiff, and they made an awful squealing sound as they pulled loose from the crate’s frame. Elida barely had time to bemoan the noise before an explosion rumbled up from inside the dark container and threw him flat on his back.
Seconds later, a series of other explosions followed, and through swollen, half-blinded eyes, Elida watched as the crates beside him also went up in flames. Wood splintered in every direction, throwing shrapnel into the sky and through the sides of their newly erected tents. Men came tumbling out into the sunshine in bewilderment, looking around wildly despite being half-dressed.
Elida crawled away from the burning crate where he lay. His face was a bloody mess, and he knew his skin was bubbling up from the bu
rn. He could feel it already. The explosion broke the hand that had been holding onto the crowbar. He couldn’t curl his fingers, and it sent a shooting pain up his entire arm whenever he lifted it to pull himself away. He was losing blood from dozens of tiny cuts where the shrapnel had struck him. Just before blacking out, Sinnett’s face appeared before him, and hauled him up and away, his legs dragging limply across the sand.
“I’ve got you,” Sinnett reassured him.
Elida nodded through the haze. Other men stepped up to help carry their Captain, and soon a makeshift gurney was set up so the medics and science team could get to work on him. Sinnett ran for Zeke, the de facto second in command, and brought him to Elida’s side.
“What happened?” Zeke asked, his voice panic-stricken.
Elida only managed a strangled groan, but could not speak. His face had gone from bad to worse in the few minutes it took to get him ready for medical treatment, and now his lips were blistered and swollen as well. The skin on his face and neck was discolored and his hair was singed.
“Sinnett, you were on patrol. What happened?” Zeke whirled on the man who was first to the scene.
“I- I don’t really know. I went to take a piss. I was coming back, and I heard an explosion, so I came running to see what it was. He was near the supply crates, everything was burning. I don’t know what happened before that. I don’t even know what was in the crates he had opened.”
“Was anybody paying attention?” Zeke screamed, throwing his arms into the air.
“I don’t think so, sir. Everybody else was asleep. Elida must have been getting an early start on us or something. He was alone.”
Zeke heaved a slow breath through his nose and tried to calm his nerves before releasing the breath through his lips. He closed his eyes tightly and didn’t say a word as he clenched his fists over and over. When he extended his fingers for the fifth time, he took another long breath and looked down at Elida.
“I’m going to find out what happened. You just hang in there, and I’ll be back. Sinnett, you’re with me. We’re going to investigate.”
A moment later, the two of them marched out of the temporary medical tent and vanished. Elida grunted his approval but could do nothing more than twitch the fingers on his uninjured hand. His legs had mostly escaped the damaging blow, and the medics wrapped up the shrapnel cuts quickly. Then they turned their attention to his face. He didn’t even notice when they gave him a shot to stop the pain, and he was so focused on the wet rags they placed on his still burning skin that he didn’t realize one medic had lifted his broken hand and begun setting it with a splint.
As the medical team buzzed around Elida’s face, he fell unconscious, partially because of the intense pain, and partially because of the medication making him drowsy. The next time he woke up, he could feel a thin film of gel that had been applied to his burns along with some stiff bandages. It was greasy and slimy at once, and it filled his nostrils with a harsh scent that made him want to gag. Inside his own head, he laughed at the thought that somehow this smell was more offensive to him than the smell of rotting flesh that had permeated every second of his life since they had landed here. Then he passed out again, oblivious to the passing of time and the safety of his fledgling colony.
8
WHEN ELIDA AWOKE many hours later, Zeke was sitting anxiously by his bedside. Elida’s eyes fluttered open, and he gazed up at the roof of the tent. He had very little memory of the last few days. The last thing he remembered was walking the perimeter right after he woke up. The explosion had erased everything after that. More than anything, he knew his face tingled and burned, and every bone in his body felt stiff. The medics immobilized his hand, and he couldn’t lift it far enough to see what kind of contraption was holding his fingers out straight.
“Are you awake, sir?”
Elida blinked twice, lacking any other means of communicating.
“Good. I have some information for you. Just try to relax and listen. We found explosives inside the crates. Not all of them detonated. Enough to do damage, but not enough to kill you, luckily. Whoever planted them had big plans. Sinnett recognized them. He said the explosives came from that ship you guys explored yesterday. They had a symbol on them. He also said that’s why some of them didn’t go off. They were old and probably got wet at some point. They definitely didn’t come from Earth.”
As Zeke spoke, Elida’s eyes widened in surprise. His mind raced. Only three people knew about those explosives. Himself, Sinnett, and Clarke. Where was Clarke now? The questions swarmed through his mind, and he forgot to listen to Zeke at all.
“He’s in custody now,” Zeke finished, and then paused uncertainly, waiting to be dismissed before realizing that Elida was in no position to do so.
Who was in custody? Clarke? Damn it, Elida thought. He should have been paying attention. And Zeke hadn’t given him an update on any of the other developments either. How was the camp coming along? Did they have enough supplies to survive? Why was nobody telling him anything? Hot tears of fury came to his eyes, but beneath the layers of soothing gel and bandages, they were trapped.
Medics rushed into the tent and surrounded him with a flurry of activity. This was the most lucid he had been in two Earth days, and they had a whole battery of tests lined up for him. They began by changing his bandages, examining the skin underneath carefully, and prodding at him with a variety of instruments that looked vaguely dangerous as they approached his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sinnett enter the tent, watching the action over the shoulders of the medics.
“Good afternoon, sir. I hope you’re feeling better today. Glad to see you awake,” the man rambled.
Elida blinked his eyes slowly, trying to meet the man’s gaze.
“Terrible business with Clarke. I never would’ve suspected, sir. We have locked him down. Well, as best we can, anyway. I’m sure Zeke told you. He’s got the rest of us working hard, just like you would’ve. Everybody’s been on their best behavior. We don’t want you to worry while you’re down for the count, ya know? Just worry about getting better. We’ve got this all under control.”
We? Elida wondered. Sinnett had not been one of the natural leaders in his crew until this point. He trusted Zeke to have things under control but Sinnett was little more than a grunt. Elida sincerely hoped that Zeke hadn’t left Sinnett in charge of anything important. Besides, he still wasn’t certain that Clarke was the one who planted those explosives. It really could have been anyone. As soon as he was feeling better, he would speak with the first security watch and find out who had been up and walking around. The longer it took to investigate, the less likely he would be to find the real culprit, he knew.
Even if he found the person who planted the explosives, there were deeper questions to find answers to. Did they act alone? Was he the intended target, or were they only trying to sabotage the supplies? And why? Why, why, why?
Elida’s eyes popped open suddenly, and bile rose in his throat as he thought back to his final conversation with Elizabet. How angry he had been. How he had accused her of shortchanging them on supplies and opportunity when she had done so much for them. He had been unkind, ungrateful. But could she have acted all the way from Earth to get payback? Were things that bad between them?
Elida tried to hang onto consciousness long enough to follow all the questions to their logical answers, but his head was swimming and he felt weak. He needed food to restore his strength. They didn’t have much in the way of medical supplies here and feeding him through an IV was proving challenging. Instead, they had been trying to feed mashed potatoes between his blistered lips during his waking moments while he sputtered and spat and choked down what he could. They had no other choice, but the few calories he got weren’t doing him any favors.
Eventually, the medics and Zeke shuffled out of the tent, leaving Elida and Sinnett in a strained silence. Sinnett pulled up a crate and sat down heavily.
“You mind if I join you for a while?
”
Despite the pain, Elida tried opening and closing his jaws. He could feel the delicate parchment paper that was now his skin pulling taut as he did so. It was agonizing, sending him into a momentary dizzy spell. He clenched his teeth tightly together and waited for the pain to subside. Then he tried again, slower this time. Each time he moved, he opened his mouth a little wider. Sinnett took notice of the movements and came curiously to his side.
“What is it, sir? Do you need more pain medication? Let me,” Sinnett patted Elida’s shoulder, and Elida winced.
When Sinnett returned, he held a large syringe in his hand, but there was no medic in sight. Not only did Elida not want any more pain medication right at that moment, because it made his head fuzzy and his thinking slow down, but he was positive that Sinnett should not be the one to administer it in any case. Elida’s mind tried to tease out the meaning of this action, and he raised his uninjured hand weakly, swatting at Sinnett to get him to back off. A gurgling cry escaped from Elida’s throat and he stared into the man’s eyes with fear and terrible understanding.
“Come now, sir. I’m just trying to help. I mixed up an extra-strong dose myself,” Sinnett said with an eerily charming smile, baring all his milky white teeth.
“NO,” Elida screeched with as much volume as he could muster. The words scorched his throat and pain coursed through his body at having exerted himself so suddenly. He fell back onto the bed, his eyes rolling back into his head as he lost consciousness once more, Sinnett still poised over him with the gleaming needle just inches away.
Atonement Page 4