by J. N. Chaney
“I’m going to get a better look from up top,” I said.
“I’ll look for him down here, but what kind of trouble is he in?” Boss Creed asked with a raised eyebrow.
“A gang put out a hit for him. Their man is here somewhere, ready to take him out,” I said, deciding to come clean. If Boss Creed was going to stick his neck out to help, he deserved to know the truth.
The old man gave a disturbed look but shook it off quickly. “Got it,” Boss Creed said, moving into the mass of Transients. “Let’s find him.”
I made my way to one side of the bridge and ascended the steps. The lounge room was one giant circle. Stores with open bars and coffee counters set into the walls.
The noise level was one you’d expect from a throng of people about to embark into space, excited and nervous chatter coming from every direction.
Arun’s familiar voice sounded over the speakers. “I want to thank everyone for their attention. We are about to embark. Before we do, I wanted to give you some last-minute instructions. Also, it’s time to introduce you to the Cognitive that will be accompanying us on this trip.”
The room quieted down to soft murmurs and low whispering. I shouldered my way through several oblivious onlookers.
What are you doing? I asked myself. If you don’t get off this ship soon, you’re going to be going with the rest of these crazies on a journey through space.
I needed to make some quick and hard decisions before it was too late.
“The ramps and airlocks are closing now,” Arun continued her instruction. My brother Elon, as well as the Cognitive that runs The Orion, are going through pre-launch checks. When we depart, you will be able to stand and enjoy the scene around you as we depart for our temporary new home. Our inertial dampeners will afford you the ability to move around as if you were in your own home. Remember, once aboard The Orion, the trip to Kronos Five will take six weeks. As you know, the planet has been specifically selected as a prime location to begin a new colony. Both the atmosphere and lush resources will ensure that we have a smooth transition.”
Arun continued speaking but I was too busy searching the hundreds of gathered Transients for Ricky. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I’d even lost track of Boss Creed. No doubt, he was somewhere below having the same issue.
“Our Cognitive’s name is Iris and through the miracles of hard light, she is able to appear anywhere on the ship,” Arun explained, stepping to the side of the raised platform and motioning with an open arm to her left. “Iris would you like to introduce yourself?”
I looked up for a moment. Even with the ship about to take off and Ricky still lost in the crowd, I didn’t want to miss seeing a real Cognitive in person. It was amazing. Right in front of my eyes, a woman appeared out of thin air. She was tall with short, white hair and pale skin. A blue glow shimmered around her. She also wore a grey uniform and held a friendly smile on her lips. For an artificial person, she certainly looked real enough to me.
Everyone was looking in one direction at Arun and Iris. The place was as silent as a tomb. This may be my only shot, I thought.
“Rick! Ricky!” I shouted, my voice echoing through the entire room.
Iris, who had been going over safety procedures, immediately stopped speaking. Every head in the room turned in my direction. I ignored them all.
“Rick!” I said again.
I was starting to get shushed by those around me and receiving plenty of rude stares, but I didn’t care.
“Dean, is that you? What are you doing?” Ricky’s voice came up to me from somewhere to my right.
I followed Ricky’s voice to my left. He was just below the bridge, about thirty yards to my right. I breathed a sigh of relief. That was, until I saw the same thug that had run from me at the end of the alley, moving through the crowd. He had a hard stare in his eyes and something shiny in his right hand.
Chapter 8
It was one of those times where there was nothing else to do but put all your eggs in one basket and go for it. I took off down the bridge. From the corner of my eye, I could see the suits on the ship moving into action, but none of them were close enough to stop me and my insane plan.
The bridge had a chest-high railing on the other side. I pounded down the bridge and climbed over the side, grasping the edge with my hands and vaulting myself over.
I aimed myself at the attacker, managing to crash into him with a heavy thud, feet first.
People were shouting all around me. I didn’t care, not right now. I needed to make sure this man didn’t have the chance to do what he’d come to do.
Other Transients began trying to pull me off him. One guy put me in a headlock.
“Back off!” yelled Ricky, taking a swipe at the guy holding me. He fell off my back a moment later.
The man underneath me wasn’t putting up much of a fight. That snapping noise was his head bouncing off the floor, and I was pretty sure he had a concussion.
For the moment, I remained content to just sit on his chest. In his right hand, he carried a plastic shiv he’d snuck past security.
Moments later, I was surrounded by several suits carrying stun batons. The yard of hard metal crackled blue with a dangerous electric current.
“What are you doing?!” Arun yelled out loudly. I looked up to see her standing alongside the suits.
“He had a weapon and was about to hurt someone,” I said, pointing to the shiv as I raised my hands and backed away.
Arun searched me with her bright blue eyes, like she was trying to decide to kill me or thank me.
“He’s telling the truth,” Boss Creed said, panting as he ran up to our group. “He’s telling the truth. He was only trying to save his friend.”
“You saved me?” Ricky asked, swallowing hard as he finally realized what had just happened. “He was going to stab me like a pincushion, and you saved me?”
“Don’t let it go to your head,” I muttered.
“Seize the man on the ground and secure him before we depart,” Arun said. “The airlocks have already been sealed, so put him in an isolated area.”
The suit immediately moved to obey, leaving me in a bit of a conundrum. If the doors were sealed, how was I supposed to go back?
“We’ll want a full report from you, too,” Arun said, looking at me. “Once we’re on our way, I want to sit and speak with you.”
“Yeah, okay,” I said, still coming to grips that I was on my way to The Orion. “I need to get off this ship, though. I’m not supposed to be here.”
“H-Hey, don’t listen to him,” Ricky said, quickly. “He’s just dazed from the fight. He’s on the list and everything.”
He gave me a suggestive look.
I didn’t really know how to feel.
Part of me knew wanted to be here, escaping the planet in a metal box, aimed at the stars. The other part was wondering if I could get off right now, even if it meant jettisoning myself through an airlock.
The crowd in the room relaxed as the concussed man was lifted by the suits and taken away. Ricky apologized to the man who had grabbed me by the neck.
“Sorry—sorry, no hard feelings, right? You were attacking my friend and I had to stop you,” Ricky said, offering the man a hand. “Okay?”
The tall Russian looked Ricky up and down before accepting. He looked at me for a moment. “No hard feelings. I didn’t let go because you hit me. I let go because I slipped. Your hit felt like a slap from a small child.”
“How dare you, sir,” Ricky said, aghast.
“Easy,” I chided him. “We’ve been through enough drama for one day. Let it go.”
“I mean, okay, but the audacity of some people,” Ricky said, shaking his head.
All attention turned back to the podium as Arun rejoined Iris.
I followed Ricky to look out the two-story window as Elon’s voice sounded over the speakers. “We are cleared for departure. Here we go.”
“No getting off now,” Ricky sa
id to me as we both stared outside.
That wasn’t true, of course. I could leave as soon as we reached the colony ship, but the farther we flew from the surface--from the city I’d called my home--the more I realized how little I cared. I had nothing in that place, no reason to get up in the morning, aside from going to work.
I thought about Stacy and what she’d told me before. She’d mentioned opportunity--getting the chance to expand our horizons and find something better in this life. She had told me, in kinder words than I could ever give, that my life was meaningless, and that if I didn’t leave, I’d spend the rest of it in the same job I had right now, doing the same task every day. At the time, I’d told myself that was good. It was the life I’d wanted, but standing here in this place, next to the friend I thought I’d lost, I wasn’t so sure anymore.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, I thought. Maybe leaving would be better than staying. Make things easier.
I couldn’t say for sure. I didn’t know the future or how I’d feel tomorrow. All I knew was where I’d been, and it wasn’t a place I wanted to return. Maybe if I moved on and left this planet, the dreams would finally stop.
Maybe it was time to find out.
* * *
The Orion trembled the slightest bit as the thrusters powered on. Like a colossal moon, the colony ship departed the space station near Mars, preparing for the journey ahead.
Ricky and I found a place where we could lean against the cold glass and watch the Martian world fade away. In under two minutes, the red orb drifted far into the darkness, becoming nothing more than another light among the stars.
I was leaving everything I knew behind, but I no longer cared. It had taken a last-minute rescue attempt to convince me of that, but standing here in the landing deck, it felt like the right thing.
Elon’s voice spoke through the speakers, giving us updates on our position. It was all white noise in light of the wonder I felt at traveling through the solar system.
“There are so many of them out there,” Ricky said in awe, speaking of the stars. “So much to explore. I bet we’ll never know exactly how many there are.”
“I’m not going to bet you anything,” I breathed, unwilling to take my eyes off the scene in front of us. “I’m not going to enable your gambling addiction.”
Elon continued, finally mentioning something I’d only heard about on the news. “In a few short moments, we will enter something known as slipspace. This will allow us to make the trip to Kronos Five in a fraction of the time it would have taken using relativistic speed. Rather than a generation, we will instead be able to make the journey in six weeks. Be aware that you will see a bright variety of colors upon entering the tunnel, but this is all very normal. Enjoy the ride.”
“It’s amazing, isn’t it?” asked a woman from my left.
I turned to see Stacy smiling at Ricky and me.
“Yes, it is,” I agreed.
“I’m happy you decided to come,” she said, cheerily joining us. “This ship is destined for great things.”
I nodded, turning back to the forward window. I didn’t want to miss a second of the tunnel. I’d seen the green rifts in holos, but never in person. I wagered not many Transients had before now. They never let people like us pilot starships. We were nobodies, born to serve.
True to Elon’s words, a humming came from the thrusters along with another tremble. Slowly at first, then growing in intensity, a strange light formed in the darkness of space, sliding down like a splitting curtain, and then it came apart. We drew closer to it, and the rift widened and revealed a beautiful storm of emerald lightning.
The three of us stood there, speechless, not knowing how to process what we were seeing. How in the world did something like this exist? It was incredible.
“Welcome to slipspace,” Ricky breathed.
Stacy chuckled. “Welcome to the new world, gentlemen.”
“We’re in it now,” said Ricky.
Chapter 9
Life on The Orion was strangely normal. I shared a small square room with Ricky that was barely large enough to hold our bunks and a bathroom. It wasn’t much different from my old apartment, honestly, although I did miss the solitude. Much as I liked Ricky, he did wear on me after a few hours.
During the day, I worked as a mechanic and reported to Boss Creed, the same as I always had. He doled out tasks that needed doing around the ship, just like he would at the yard. The difference was that instead of building all of this from the ground up, we were fixing it, and since the ship had launched a little prematurely, it meant there was more than enough work to go around. Several of the systems were barely functional, and I guessed the Eternals had expected that.
Boss Creed’s office was as small as my room. With so many Transients living in such a relatively tiny space, every meter was precious.
“You’re making quite a name for yourself,” Boss Creed said, leaning back in his chair. He interlaced his finger and placed them behind his head. “I think everyone aboard the ship might know you by name, thanks to the stunt you pulled on the shuttle.”
“Wonderful,” I said, hoping we could just move the process along. “Where do you need me first today?”
“The doors for the pens you were working on still need finishing.” Boss Creed sat up straight in his chair and reached for a data pad on his desk. “You should be able to complete that in the space of a few days. I have your gear down there waiting for you.”
“Sounds good,” I said, already heading for the door. If I could get out of this conversation without talking anymore, it would be a small miracle.
“Hey, Dean,” he called me back.
“Sir?” I returned, pausing at the door.
“You did a good thing coming,” he said, nodding at me.
I’d know this man for a few years and he’d never once given me a compliment. It was surprising.
I just nodded and moved out of his office.
There was a small line of mechanics waiting outside of his door to receive their own assignments. Stacy was one of them.
“Hey, you figure out what they’re having you do on the ship?” She asked with a mischievous smile. “Cleaning out the sanitation receptacles?”
“Nothing that glamorous,” I said, heading down the hall with a wave.
This level was reserved for the ship maintenance crew, which now included me. There were various names on doors set in plaques: engineer, medical, food supplies, and more.
Reaching the end of the hall near the elevator, I found the area completely empty. That same feeling that made my hair stand up on end, raced across the back of my neck—something telling me that I was being watched.
I casually entered the elevator, then looked back down the hall to see if someone was behind me. It was clear.
I pressed the holographic display, choosing the cargo level. The doors on the cylinder-shaped elevator began to close, and as they did, a head peeked out the left side. The movement was so fast, I could barely focus on it before the doors closed.
I couldn’t tell who it was.
You need to chill out man, I told myself, shaking my head.
The cargo doors were sealed now that the journey had begun. Only those granted access would be able to enter, due to the shields along the walls. I placed my right hand on a screen set into the side of the double steel doors. It scanned my prints and beeped a cheerful hello. A moment later, the doors opened, and I was let inside.
The cargo area was packed from floor to ceiling with crates and supplies for the six-week trip. Along the right and left sides of the room, there were pens with thick gates that rolled downward from the ceiling and locked into the floor.
Just as Boss Creed promised, my gear was waiting for me near the back end of the area. My feet hit the steel floor underneath me, nearly echoing in the massive chamber.
I reached down, grabbed my belt and secured it on my waist. The weight of my tools on my hips was comforting, something familiar for me to fee
l in an unfamiliar world. The other tools I needed were neatly placed in a pile beside the door I’d be working on.
My torch, gloves, mask, and more, were all there waiting for me like old friends. While I was securing my belt, I felt a presence behind me.
My right hand traveled to the side of my hip where a large wrench rested in a side holder. I didn’t grab it, not yet. My fingers rested against the metal, ready to use it if I needed to.
I turned my head to the left to get a view behind me.
There was no one there.
Was I losing my mind?
Across the cargo bay on the opposite side of the open area, another row of pens was set into the wall. The massive rolling gate on the last pen was opened ever so slightly. A gap no more than two-meters-high between the ground and the gate, caught my eye.
Although the room was brightly lit thanks to overhanging lights, the way the shadow played between the floor and the empty space between the gate, it was hard to tell if it was really open at all.
The sound of rushed, angry breathing filled the air. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound human.
I knew it was none of my business, but all the warnings were going off in my head. There was something going on here that wasn’t right. I thought back to the wooden boxes with holes that I loaded onto the ship. The ones that moved on their own—the ones Elon told me not to worry about.
I picked up the wrench from the side of my belt as I walked toward the barely open gate. The sound disappeared again.
My heart rate was drumming quickly in my chest. I took a long, slow breath to try and calm myself.
I reached the pen, examining the lock that usually held it to the ground. It was broken. Forced open by some kind of tool using leverage to pop it free from the steel floor.
More concerning was the sign that wasn’t there two days before when I was working on the pen doors. A yellow hazard symbol was painted on the door with a clear warning underneath. The warning read: Authorized Personnel Only. Under No Circumstance Is This Pen to be Opened.