Colony B Box Set

by Michael Campling

  Cate turned her attention back to the control panel. “All right, we’ll wait. Since it’s her. If it had been anybody else, I’d have headed out ten minutes ago.”

  “Why don’t you take the rover out, so we’re ready to go?” Siobhan said. “Not too far, just in front of the cave.”

  “You got it.” Cate’s fingers flicked over the control panel, and a rising hum filled the cabin as the rover’s motors spun up to speed. “Here we go.”

  Siobhan sat back, watching the cave’s rocky walls slide past the side window. The glow of daylight grew stronger as they approached the cave’s mouth, and in seconds, they were outside, the rover’s cabin suddenly bathed in the early morning light. Siobhan smiled as she gazed out across the rocky hillside. Soon, they’d be leaving this place behind, and though their trip would only last a day, she’d be breaking out from behind the wall. She’d be free.

  “Here she comes,” Cate drawled. “Tessa, the wonder woman.”

  “Give her a break,” Ben said. “You know what happened to Tessa. She got hurt because she put herself in harm’s way with no thought for herself.”

  Cate sighed. “I know. I know.”

  “It’s not like she ever asked for any attention,” Ben went on. “It’s not her fault if people make a fuss of her.”

  Cate brought the rover to a halt. “You’ve made your point, Ben. Don’t worry. I’ll be nice.”

  “Are you guys going to bicker all day?” Siobhan asked, but she didn’t wait for a reply. She stood and went to the door, pushing it open. Outside, Tess was hurrying to meet them, her limp barely perceptible. In the fight for control of the settlement, Tessa had been shot twice with a sonic rifle at close range, and she’d fallen hard, damaging a ligament in her knee. But she’d never complained, and she’d been one of the first to volunteer for a ride along on the new rover missions. Cate, Ben, and Siobhan made up the regular crew for these scouting parties, but the council had decided that there would be a guest on each sortie, and Siobhan was all in favor: it gave people something to look forward to, something to work towards. And it gave them something else. It gave them hope.

  She waved to Tessa then returned to her seat. “How’s the map coming along, Ben? Are you making headway?”

  “Yeah, it’s good,” Ben said. “It’s slow work, but I really think we’ll get there.”

  Siobhan nodded. “So where are we headed today?”

  “North.”

  “Okay.” Siobhan glanced at Ben. He was sitting very still, tight-lipped. He clearly didn’t want to say more, and she knew better than to press him. She was happy to help Ben with the scanners, but the mapping of the planet’s magnetic field was his baby, and although he’d loved to talk about it at first, these days, he kept his cards close to his chest. It can’t be going too well, Siobhan thought. Maybe I could do more to help. But before she could say anything, she heard Tessa clambering up the steps, and she nudged Ben in the ribs. “Time to make room for our visitor.”

  “All right, I’m going. I need to get set up.” Ben stood and headed to the workstation near the back of the cabin. “Hi, Tess,” he called out as he passed the door, and Tessa appeared at the top of the steps, fresh-faced and bright-eyed from her exertions.

  “Hi, everyone.” Tessa scanned the cabin. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I keep you all waiting?”

  “No problem.” Siobhan patted the seat next to her. “Strap in, and we’ll get going.”

  Tessa slid a backpack from her shoulder. “Where can I stow my gear?”

  “Lockers in the back,” Cate called over her shoulder, an edge of impatience in her voice. “But you needn’t have brought anything special. You won’t need much on this trip.”

  “It’s just a few things,” Tessa said. But when she turned to make for the lockers, Siobhan saw what else Tessa was carrying.

  “You brought a rifle?”

  “Sure, why not?” Tessa began hunting through the lockers. “Seemed like a sensible precaution.”

  Cate turned around in her seat. “Why’s that? Do you know something we don’t?”

  “Not at all.” Tessa let out a chuckle as she stuffed her rifle and bag into a tall locker, securing the door before moving forward to take her seat. She looked from Cate to Siobhan. “What?”

  Siobhan raised her eyebrows. “Nothing. It’s just that this is a regular scouting run. I guess we weren’t expecting an armed escort.”

  “It’s not like that,” Tessa said. “I’m just along for the ride. But after everything that’s happened, I thought it wise to be prepared.”

  “I can’t see the problem,” Ben put in. “We have pistols on board, anyway. No big deal.”

  “True,” Siobhan conceded. “I suppose it’s okay.”

  “Just to make things clear, though,” Cate said, staring at Tessa, “I’m in charge of the rover today. I have the route all planned and a schedule to keep. If you have other ideas, you’d better say so right now.”

  Tessa shrugged. “I have no idea what you’re suggesting. I told you, I’m here for the ride. But I’m on the patrol team too, and these days, we carry our rifles at all times. You all know that.”

  “You’re right,” Siobhan said. “Sorry, Tess. I guess we’re all still a little jumpy.” She nodded to Cate. “Let’s get going. We have a lot of ground to cover.”

  Cate held eye contact with Tessa for a moment, then she turned back to the controls. “All right, let’s make up for lost time.” She pushed the yoke, and the rover surged forward, its wheels kicking up a cloud of dust, chunks of stone and grit rattling against its underside as it rolled over the uneven ground.

  Siobhan sat back, her lips tight. Cate was driving much faster than usual, showing off, but she’d settle down in a minute. She cared more about safeguarding the precious rover than she did about impressing Tessa. And anyway, Tessa looked like she was enjoying the ride, her expression alive with childlike enthusiasm. I remember that thrill, she thought. After five years of living on the hill, anything faster than a brisk jog was a novelty. But Siobhan had been through a lot in the last few weeks, and now, these scouting trips were a part of her routine. It was amazing what a person could get used to.

  She looked out through the windshield, the steep slope unrolling below them as the rover trundled down the rocky trail. When they’d started these missions, the first part of the journey had been rougher, but regular use had worn a smoother path down to the wall, and now the trip down to the lowlands hardly seemed to take any time at all.

  “This is great, isn’t it?” Tessa asked.

  “Yeah,” Siobhan said. “But the really good part is when we get past the wall. It’s a whole other world.”

  Tessa grinned. “I can’t wait.”

  The rover jolted over a rock, the cabin shaking hard enough to make Siobhan’s teeth rattle. “Yeah, the lowlands are smoother too.”

  Tessa laughed, and Siobhan, catching some of the older woman’s enthusiasm, felt herself start to relax. Perhaps Tessa would turn out to be good company after all.

  ***

  Siobhan took her place at the workstation next to Ben, not bothering to strap herself into the narrow seat. They’d been cruising north through the lowlands for a while, and the terrain was relatively level. “Usual routine?” she asked.

  Ben didn’t look up from the monitor. “Yeah. If you can keep an eye on the nav info, I can concentrate on the sensors.”

  “No problem.” She checked the nav display, making sure the coordinates were updating as the rover went along. A few days ago, the nav system had crashed without anyone noticing, and Ben hadn’t been able to cross-reference the data from the geophysical sensors with their actual route. His map of the planet’s magnetic field had been thrown out completely, and they’d had to repeat the trip. Cate and Siobhan hadn’t been too happy about covering exactly the same ground the next day, but Ben had taken the failure particularly badly, and he’d been fussy about the nav system ever since.

  “All nav systems are nomi
nal,” Siobhan said, her hands moving swiftly over the console’s keypad as she searched through the system logs, double-checking the timestamps. “The files are updating correctly, and the backup is writing to the drive every two minutes.”

  Ben glanced up at her. “When did you last check if we can restore the backups?”

  “Yesterday, but we can test it again later when we stop for a break.”

  “You know what they say, a backup not tested…”

  “Is no backup at all,” Siobhan said. “I know, Ben. I’ve got it covered. You can leave it to me.” She hesitated. “But how about you? How are you getting on?”

  “Fine.”

  Siobhan lowered her voice. “You don’t fool me, Ben. I know something’s up, so you may as well just tell me. What’s the problem? Aren’t the scanners working properly?”

  Ben’s jaw tightened.

  “Seriously,” Siobhan insisted. “Either you tell me what’s up, or I’ll have to find out by talking to someone else. Maybe I’ll dig around a little, talk to the council.”

  “No,” Ben snapped, then he sat back with a sigh. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you.” He bowed his head, looking anywhere but at Siobhan.

  Gently, she laid her hand on his arm. “Ben, this is me you’re talking to. I want to help. Just tell about it, and maybe we can figure something out together.”

  Ben looked her in the eye for a second, and when he spoke, he kept his voice low. “The thing is, Siobhan, it’s not the scanners. Everything’s working exactly as it should. But I’m just not finding anything. As far as the magnetic field goes, the place is pretty much a blank page. Sure, the field fluctuates all the time, but it’s nothing to write home about. A lot of the changes barely register. It’s starting to look like our hill is a one-off.”

  Siobhan pursed her lips. “We always knew that was a possibility.”

  “Maybe, but we hoped, didn’t we? I know I did.” He gave her a sad smile. “If we could find somewhere with a strong enough field, maybe even stronger than up on the hill, well, you know what I think.”

  “Yes, I do,” Siobhan said carefully. “But, Ben, it’s just a theory. And there are other things we can look for—like fresh food.”

  Ben shook his head. “That’s the whole point. If I’m right, then we’ll find plenty of food.”

  “We don’t know that. I mean, I hope you’re right, I really do, but—”

  “Come on,” Ben interrupted. “I thought you were with me on this. Do you want to spend the rest of your life scraping by on the hill? Because I don’t. I want more than that, and I thought…I thought you wanted it too.”

  “I do,” Siobhan said. “I’d love to find somewhere new, I really would. But we have to be realistic. It was always an outside chance.”

  “Was it? Do you really think we landed on the only viable place on the planet? There has to be somewhere else with the same rock type, someplace where the magnetic field is strong enough to hold the symbiont back.” He held out his hands toward her. “Think about it, Siobhan. We might live free. No wall. And all the fresh food you could want.”

  Siobhan studied his expression. Ben’s eyes burned with hope, and she hated to burst his bubble, but he couldn’t go on like this, searching for something that almost certainly didn’t exist. The only sensible thing was to let him down gently. “Ben, I know your theory, but you’ve got to remember, there was symbiont on the hill when we landed. It took a long time to clear it up, and since then it’s been the wall that’s kept us safe, not the magnetic field.”

  “But the field helped, I’m sure of it.” Ben raised his voice. “Trust me, Shiv. You need to see the bigger picture.”

  “Hey,” Cate called out. “Quit arguing you two and come up here. Quick!”

  Siobhan felt the rover slow, and her stomach tightened. “What? What is it?”

  “Oh my God!” Tessa breathed.

  Siobhan hurried forward, squeezing her way between the back seats. She sensed Ben following close behind her.

  “It’s the grunge,” Cate said, bringing the rover to a halt. “Look.”

  “What do you…” Siobhan’s words died on her lips as she peered through the windshield. “What the hell’s happened to it?”

  “Shit!” Ben breathed. “It must’ve mutated.”

  Siobhan gazed out over the stunted forest of glistening blue-green clumps, each one strangely stump-like and at least three feet tall. “Maybe it just grew up over something. Maybe there were some bushes or small trees, and the symbiont sort of coated them.”

  “I don’t think so,” Ben said. “They look like they’re growing, like the symbiont cells clustered together and formed towers.”

  “Why?” Cate asked. “Why would they do that? To get to the light?”

  Ben shrugged. “I don’t know. I think it’s more likely that the symbiont mutated, and there’s a new strain trying to outcompete the rest. But there’s something weird happening here. Most mutations are harmful to the organism, fatal even. It takes a long time for a new strain to get established, and the symbiont just hasn’t been here long enough.”

  “That might be true in nature,” Siobhan said, “but there’s nothing much natural in the symbiont. Maybe they made it grow like this on purpose.”

  “Did they tell you that?” Ben asked, his tone sharp. “In the trucks, did they say the symbiont was going to change?”

  Siobhan turned on him. “No, of course not. If I’d known about this, don’t you think I’d have told everyone? Give me some credit.”

  “Okay, okay.” Ben raised his hands, his fingers spread wide. “I just wondered if you’d heard anything—maybe some clue that didn’t make much sense at the time, that’s all.”

  “Well, I didn’t. This is just as much a surprise to me as it is to the rest of you.” Siobhan took a breath, her scowl fading. “The point is, what’re we going to do about it? Shall we turn around and head home?”

  “You’re kidding, right?” Tessa blurted. “It’s obvious what we do. We go out and take a look—maybe take some samples to show the council.”

  Cate unstrapped herself and stood tall. “That’s not your call, Tessa. I’m in charge here, and my priority is the safety of the crew. We have no idea what’s going on with this grunge, but God knows it isn’t going to be anything good. We can record as much data as you want from inside the rover, but that’s it.”

  “What?” Tess rose to her feet, squaring up to Cate. “Listen, I don’t know what your problem is, but you’ve been giving me the side-eye ever since I set foot in here, and I’ve had enough. If you’ve got something to say to me, spit it out.”

  “Only problem I can see is your attitude,” Cate said. “We have a thing called chain of command, and you’d do well to remember it.”

  “We’re not on the ship now, Cate, but if you want a contest, how about this? We’re both patrol team leaders, so I answer to Connor, not to you.”

  “Stop!” Siobhan commanded. “For God’s sake, what’s got into you two? We might have found something important, and you’re wasting time squabbling. It’s ridiculous, and quite honestly, I expected better from both of you.”

  Tessa set her jaw as though spoiling for an argument, but when she caught Siobhan’s eye, something seemed to make her think twice.

  “We need a rational discussion here,” Siobhan went on. “Let’s weigh everything up, and then we’ll decide, all right?”

  “Definitely,” Ben said. “This could be vital to the whole settlement, so let’s keep our egos out of the way.”

  Cate stared at Ben, her hands on her hips, but then her expression softened. “Seriously? A man is telling me to keep my ego under control?” She let out a dry laugh. “What do you think of that, Tessa?”

  Tessa folded her arms and looked Ben up and down. “I don’t know, maybe he does have a point.” She turned to Cate. “Aw, what the hell. I guess I might’ve overreacted. First time outside the wall. Might’ve gone to my head a little.”

  “Fa
ir enough,” Cate replied. “It can take you that way, the first time. You get used to it.” She paused, but when she saw Siobhan glaring at her, she added, “And, for the record, I don’t have a problem with you, Tessa. But the rover’s my baby, you know? I’m responsible for it. But, I didn’t mean to be a jerk. Sorry about that.”

  “Right,” Siobhan said. “So let’s talk. Ben, you’re the one with the scientific knowledge. What do you say?”

  Ben looked from Tessa to Cate. “We won’t get much data from in here. If we turn around and head home, we’ll only have to come back another day for a closer look. And we’ve got suits and equipment on board, so I’m happy to volunteer. I’ll go out, take a sample and come back in. Ten minutes tops.”

  “If everyone agrees, I could go outside with him,” Tessa put in. “It’s safer with two, and I’m used to the suits.”

  “What about your knee?” Siobhan asked.

  “Not a problem,” Tessa said. “I’m good to go. Just show me where the suits are, and I’ll get ready.” She hesitated. “But it depends on Cate. I’d like to hear what she has to say.”

  Cate took a slow breath. “All right. I can see what Ben’s saying. If we turn up at home with nothing more than a few photos, I know exactly what the council and the patrol team will say. They’ll send us back out, but they’ll waste a day arguing over who should go on the mission. Half of them will want the glory, and the other half will be falling over themselves to stay out of it. Meanwhile, we’ve got two volunteers who can handle themselves. Seems to me like we’ve got this covered. So long as it’s a quick walk outside and everyone sticks to the usual routines, I’ll go along with it.”

  “Good,” Siobhan said. “We need to find out more, and there’s only one way to do it. But listen, you two, you’d better be careful out there. Don’t touch it, not even with your gloves. Keep your suits well away from the symbiont.”

  Ben nodded. “No problem. There are plenty of tools we can use. I’ll go and see what I can find.” He started back toward the rear of the cabin. “Come on, Tessa, I’ll show you where to find a suit.”