Serendipity

by Dennis Ingram

  Of course, they’d built the hospital for their old colony of just thirty-three, not their new, larger population.

  “And then I thought, if we can turn the pavilion into a shelter for us, why can’t we turn the warehouse into a shelter for the animals?”

  “And I made this,” Vasily put in, holding out a large zip-lock bag with a small silvery cylinder attached to it.

  Understanding dawned. “It’s for small animals, right?” David said. “Like a portable airlock for them.”

  Vasily nodded. “We can’t get them all, but we can save some.”

  David looked at the faces of the children and young adults waiting for his approval. He had to give Mia and Vasily credit – they’d thought it through, including finding the manpower.

  “Can we, Daddy?” Emma asked, brown eyes wide.

  “Well, you’ll have to be careful your masks don’t run out of power –”

  Cheers from the little ones cut off his words. They wasted no time, scattering in all directions as they set about their task.

  Most of the older children, their young adults, remained.

  “Let’s drive the farm animals to the warehouse while we still can,” Mia said.

  “And make it as airtight as we can,” Vasily said. “The others will gather the small animals.”

  David nodded. “Good luck. Well done, all of you.”

  Tears streamed down Bianca’s cheeks when she saw Kevin enter the pavilion. She rushed to his side, unable to speak at first.

  “I-I thought –”

  “Hey, I’m tougher than I look,” Kevin said. “They didn’t even put me in the hospital.” With a sigh he sat back on a sofa, being careful with his bandaged limbs.

  Bianca sniffled and pushed her tears away with the heels of her hands.

  “Come around this side,” Kevin said, patting the sofa with his good hand. Bianca obliged and he took her hand in his. Kevin’s eyes met hers; no words were needed to convey his love for her and joy at finding himself alive.

  “It looks as if we’ll be a family together after all. Speaking of which, where are the kids?”

  Bianca smiled. “Out saving animals.” She told him of their plan.

  Kevin nodded and smiled. His smile faded when he noticed Joyce Abramovich in the background, helping with the wounded.

  Bianca followed his gaze and her hand gripped Kevin’s. “We are the lucky ones.” She explained how it hadn’t taken them long to find Vasily and learn how he’d died.

  Joyce was moving like an automaton, devoid of emotion. Kevin’s heart ached for her loss. Everyone had liked and respected Vasily. If anyone had deserved a peaceful life together in Haven, it was Vasily and Joyce.

  That would now never happen.

  “Get up!” Joyce Ng said, pulling at the neck of the unwilling cow. Frantic work had gotten some livestock into the warehouse already. The sheep had been easy, the goats not so much. The cows, though, weren’t having any of it. They’d all sat down and refused to move, panting for breath.

  “Help me, Vasily! They won’t get up!” Joyce’s eyes darted up to her brother, who stood next to her, one hand rubbing at his chin.

  “Vasily!”

  “OK, OK. I have an idea.” He grabbed one of the breather bags he’d made, intended for the chickens. “I need help, though.”

  He opened the bag and guided the open end over the cow’s nose. The cow did not like this. It jerked its head, trying to get free of the bag.

  “Hold its head!”

  Joyce tried, but the cow wouldn’t cooperate. With a cry of frustration, she straddled the animal and wrapped her arms around its neck, closing her eyes as she strained to stop it jerking its head back and forth.

  “Hurry up!”

  Vasily pulled the bag up below the unfortunate beast’s eyes and reached for the duct tape that was never far away from any of the engineers or their apprentices. With quick, sure motions he taped the open neck of the bag to the cow’s muzzle then stepped back to admire his handiwork.

  Joyce scrambled to dismount the animal as it struggled to get up. As they watched, it lurched to its feet and galloped away, shaking its head back and forth as it tried to dislodge the foreign object taped to its head.

  Joyce started to laugh, setting Vasily off. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen,” she said when she got her breath back.

  Their bovine patient discovered it could breathe again and settled down, but looked very confused.

  “This proves it,” Vasily said, holding up his roll of tape. “This stuff really does stick to anything.”

  As the children moved into the wild lands, the result of its proximity to the new hole in the ceiling and the now open waterfall tunnel became plain. Dead and dying animals lay everywhere. Even now, birds fell from the trees like a macabre rain. Those that survived the fall lay on the ground, their beaks working as they fought for oxygen.

  Little Zoé Duplessis scooped up a blackbird, placed it into her bag and pushed the power button on the attached air scrubber. The bag inflated as the filter pumped scrubbed air into it. The blackbird gasped for air a moment longer then moved in her hands, its head darting from side to side as it took in its new surroundings. Then it tried to fly, fluttering its wings as if it could burst through the plastic bag holding it captive. Zoé squealed and almost dropped it.

  Her older sister, Élise, looked up from where she was encouraging a rabbit to hop into her bag. “Take it to the warehouse, Zoé! But be careful not to drop it, OK? Hold on to the air scrubber.”

  Zoé nodded and ran off with the bag containing her rescued bird. Élise smiled and turned back to her rabbit. The dumb creature didn’t realize she wanted to save it and hopped away every time she thought she had it in the bag. She ran after it again, determined she would win this battle.

  “There, that should do it.” Ernie looked up from the jury-rigged piles of equipment spread over the comms room desk. “Let’s give it a try.”

  He turned to a data pad and opened a channel. The screen flickered then stabilized to show the image of a young girl with red hair and green eyes.

  “Ernie!”

  “Yeah Hope, it’s me. Good to see you again.” The words had barely left his mouth when Nathalie snatched the data pad from his hands.

  “Ma chérie!”

  “Maman! Maman, I was so worried! Are you OK? Where is Papa?”

  John moved into shot, his face grubby. He grinned. “I’m right here!”

  Hope’s lips parted and she bowed her head. “I didn’t know if I would ever see you again. I knew the capsule had landed, but then nothing!”

  John’s smile faded. “I’m sorry, I wanted to call earlier but we had to get back to Haven to help. Hope, the ceiling’s been breached and our animals are dying.”

  Hope looked up, eyes wide. “What has happened?”

  John exchanged a look with Nathalie. “It’s a long story. I’ll start with what happened after the capsule landed …”

  It had been the longest day. Together they worked to stabilize the wounded and save as many animals as possible.

  John and Elizabeth returned from Broken Hill with more feedstock for the fabricators so they could manufacture more plastic sheeting and duct tape. Heidi and John and anyone who could lend a hand scavenged building materials and used them, together with the plastic sheeting and duct tape, to block off the waterfall tunnel. Nothing could be done about the large hole in the ceiling just yet. More materials needed to be manufactured, and they had worked themselves to exhaustion.

  John felt ecstatic to be back and relieved to see his family safe, but his body had called it quits. He had eaten when he could, but weeks of malnourishment had left their mark. Finding a mattress in the pavilion he lay down and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Nathalie wrapped her arms around him and held him tight, content at last. She too drifted off to sleep.

  Chaos reigned at the warehouse. Supplies lay in haphazard piles, thrown out to make room. Animals o
f all description had little room to move. Cows, sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens shared the space with birds and rabbits and even insects. The noise was bad, the smell worse.

  David took a quick look inside before turning to confer with the animals’ saviors.

  “Very impressive – you’ve all done a wonderful job, thank you.”

  The children beamed with pride at his praise.

  “It’s late,” he said to the little ones, “so you all need to go to the pavilion and get some sleep now, OK?”

  He heard groans and protests, but not many. It had been a long and traumatic day.

  David turned to Mia and Vasily and the other teenagers. “Without you, we would be back to square one with livestock and other animals. But they’ll be in there,” he said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder, “for maybe a week, until we fix the hole in the ceiling and stabilize the atmosphere. They’ll take some looking after.”

  Mia, Vasily, and the others exchanged tired looks. “Yeah, we thought that,” Vasily said. “Tomorrow we’ll be on it. The air scrubbers need work too, they won’t last with so many.”

  David smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good job, all of you. Now, you guys need sleep too.”

  Mia stifled a yawn and nodded. “Don’t worry, we’re going!”

  13

  At first a trickle, then an increasing torrent rushed through the tunnel. David watched with satisfaction as water once more coursed into the catch pool. John, Heidi, and a collection of other engineers and apprentices had taken the shuttle and some explosives and repeated their river diversion effort of fifteen years earlier, undoing the damage caused by Carla and her crew.

  The best part of the day would be needed to restore the waterfall to its former glory. Then the river would flow once more, a ribbon of watery life wending its way through their haven and outside down to Lake Cartier.

  David looked up to see the patch over the hole he’d blown into the ceiling. Heidi, John, and the others had worked wonders. Temporary aluminum beams crossed the void, plastic sheeting duct-taped into place over them. It flapped in the breeze, painting the trees in dappled light.

  This side’s always been a little dark. Not any more, though.

  It felt obscene to consider this a silver lining, given the death and destruction wrought by their civil war. It felt right to be thinking ahead though, to move on.

  This conflict must be the crucible forging a new, stronger, more cohesive community. Never again.

  He felt a hand slip into his and looked down to find Nathalie standing there. John held her other hand, and David looked around to see everyone linking up. Elizabeth completed the chain, taking his right hand in hers, her grip warm and firm. Her lips parted in a smile he couldn’t help but return. A cool breeze laden in water spray drifted from the waterfall. David closed his eyes for a moment, giving thanks for their lives, for the people surrounding him.

  Another two days, Heidi had said. She boosted their climate plant, bringing mounds of lithium hydroxide from Broken Hill to help soak up the excess carbon dioxide. Then they could let their animals out of the warehouse and take off their masks and return to their homes. He looked up again, toward the ceiling. He saw the movements of the construction bots beyond the plastic sheets. One week, John had promised. By then they would have fabricated all the components they needed to build a permanent skylight.

  The future held hope, but not without a lot of hard work. First, they must restore Haven and restore themselves.

  Then it would be time to deal with Doom.

  John had been itching to speak to Ernie and spotted an opportunity. He and Heidi sat together nursing beers after dinner when Ernie shuffled up and sat down with a plate full of steaming stew.

  “I’m completely buggered,” he said. He laughed when he noticed John’s expression. “Must be picking up bad language from you.”

  John reached over and grabbed a bottle of beer nestling in a bucket of ice. “Here mate, get that down ya.”

  Ernie accepted the bottle and took a swig, his eyebrows rising as the golden liquid hit his taste buds.

  “That,” he said, admiring the label, “is the best beer I’ve had since arriving at this fine establishment.”

  Heidi beamed with pride.

  “Oh, one of yours, huh?” Ernie said, noticing.

  “Yes, Josh force-grew hops for us, enough for a trial batch.”

  “Well, if that’s the trial I can’t wait for the real thing,” Ernie said, taking another slug.

  He set to work on his stew, washing it down with more slugs of beer. At last he sat back and sighed, closing his eyes. “Man, that hits the spot.” He stretched and yawned. “And now I could use some shut-eye.”

  John leaned forward. “Not until you spill the beans on this new tech you know nothing about.”

  Ernie squinted at him. “Uh huh.”

  “Come on. The witch is dead. Spill it.”

  David emerged from somewhere and sat down, parking his crutches at the end of the table. Ernie looked around with bemusement as one by one Nigel and Josh arrived, followed by Veronika and Silvia.

  “Why do I get the feeling I’ve been set up for this?” Ernie said.

  “Because you have,” Nathalie said, joining the party. “Both of you,” she said, looking at Silvia.

  “Hmmm,” mused Silvia. “I guess I deserve it, given my big mouth already gave it away and got us into this mess.” She looked down, shoulders hunched.

  Veronika laid a hand on her back. “You can start,” she said with a smile. “We are all dying to hear.”

  Silvia glanced around the little group and nodded. “What you really want to know is, can we help stop the asteroid, yes?”

  That got everyone’s attention.

  “Yes, you could say that,” David replied, his eyes intent. “Can you?”

  “Me, no.” She hurried to continue when she noticed David’s lips pressing together. “Ernie, though, I think yes.” She turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

  “Could be that I do, but the night is young, and you have a story to tell too. Ladies first,” he said nodding to Silvia.

  Silvia smiled when she noticed the others, some literally on the edge of their seats. “Let me start with why we know what we know.”

  “None of us had the full story,” Silvia said. “We’ve pieced it together since, though. We think Edward’s plan was to assemble a group with advanced knowledge of new technologies and bring them here, to found a new society that could one day return to Earth. A society modeled according to his plan. Crucially, the technology level here would be greater than Earth’s. We would return with the tools to not only help Earth recover, but to take control of Earth itself. That’s what we think.”

  David nodded. “His plan B.” At Silvia’s surprised look he elaborated. “I picked up a piece of the puzzle from Edward. Plan A was to take control of Earth without coming here first, but he didn’t expect the war.” He signaled for her to continue.

  “That’s the first part. The second part is what we know. We all came from Harper’s advanced technologies group, which he had scattered across many locations, both on Earth and off. I myself am part of that, as you’ve already heard. My group dealt with life-sciences and we worked on an orbiting habitat in medium-Earth orbit, my birthplace.”

  Veronika nodded, a little in awe of what Silvia represented. “What about your parents?”

  “They were still alive when I left,” she said. “When everything went … wrong on Earth, those of us living on the habitat had less than an hour to leave. I hope they are safe.” Her voice broke, and David remembered that for her, it had happened only three months ago.

  “The habitat would have been one of the safest places they could be,” he said, touching her shoulder.

  Silvia nodded her thanks. “I’m sure they’ll be fine.” Veronika handed her a glass of water and she took a sip and continued. “The point is, the things we knew weren’t common knowledge. Harper and others active
ly suppressed knowledge of new developments.”

  “They did?” John asked. “Really?”

  Silvia nodded. “They did, and they had been doing so for decades. Longer, maybe. Think of all the times you read about new discoveries that never seemed to go anywhere.”

  John looked thoughtful. “I always thought that conspiracy theory stuff was rubbish. How can anyone hide from nine billion people?”

  “You’d be surprised,” Ernie said. “It not only happened, but people like Harper developed new technologies and hid them as a matter of course.”

  “But why?” Heidi said. “Why would they do that?”

  Ernie shrugged. “Commercial reasons, for one. They never wanted new, radical technology to be released quickly. Far better for them to dole it out over many years so people continue to buy upgrades. I mean, it’s terrible for business to sell long-lasting products.”

  Heidi looked affronted. “But what about competition? Other companies surely would offer products if Harper didn’t?”

  “That one I know the answer to,” David said. “We all assumed the multinationals and other corporates competed against each other. In fact, they were just one face of a deeper structure, one based on the families who controlled international business.”

  The others stared at him with a mixture of surprise and disbelief.

  “Where did that come from?” Josh asked.

  “Edward and Carla,” David replied. He sighed. “It’s a long and ugly story I’ll save for another time. You can just take my word for it, Harper and his gang suppressing new developments is no surprise to me.” He looked at Silvia. “Go on.”

  She cleared her throat. “My parents were scientists. They specialized in the artificial gestation technology that ultimately led to my birth.” She smiled. “I owe them my life, in more ways than one.”

  “Did you grow up on the habitat?” Heidi asked.

  Silvia nodded. “I went Earthside when I grew older, to go to college. It felt so weird. We had artificial gravity, but it always pulled a little to one side. When I got to Earth, I kept feeling like I was going to fall over for weeks, and I just couldn’t get over having the sky above me. I stayed inside a lot.”