Orion Colony
Author: J. N. Chaney; Jonathan Yanez
Date: 2018-11-03 04:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Science Fiction; Fantasy
Description: Humanity’s Exodus is about to begin. When half of mankind revolts and demands more opportunity, those at the top decide on a compromise: they will build the first colony ships and allow those who are willing to discover new worlds to leave and start over. Twelve ships are built, the first of which is called Orion. Many are eager to go, but only one hundred thousand are chosen for each vessel. Far from Earth, a new life awaits, and it promises the prosperity they’ve always wanted. But still, resistance stirs, eager to sabotage this new expansion effort, threatening the promise of a new life. As
Publisher: Variant Publications

J. N. Chaney

Copyrighted Material

Orion Colony and Renegade Star Copyright © 2018 by Variant Publications

Book design and layout copyright © 2018 by JN Chaney

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living, dead, or undead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from JN Chaney and Jonathan Yanez.

www.jnchaney.com
www.jonathan-yanez.com

1st Edition

Books in the Renegade Star Universe

Renegade Star Series:

Renegade Star

Renegade Atlas

Renegade Moon

Renegade Lost

Renegade Fleet

Renegade Earth

Renegade Dawn

Renegade Children (Out Now!)

Renegade Union (January 2019)

Renegade Empire (March 2019)

Standalones:

Nameless: A Renegade Star Story (Out Now!)

The Orion Colony Series:

Orion Colony

Orion Uncharted (Dec 2018)

Stay Up To Date

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Orion Colony

By

J.N. Chaney

Jonathan Yanez

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Orion Colony

Orion Colony Series #1

Humanity’s Exodus is about to begin.

When half of mankind revolts and demands more opportunity, those at the top decide on a compromise: they will build the first colony ships and allow those who are willing to discover new worlds to leave and start over.

Twelve ships are built, the first of which is called Orion. Many are eager to go, but only one hundred thousand are chosen for each vessel. Far from Earth, a new life awaits, and it promises the prosperity they’ve always wanted.

But still, resistance stirs, eager to sabotage this new expansion effort, threatening the promise of a new life. As Orion moves through the void of space, towards a distant world, its passengers must fight for survival in an unprecedented conflict.

Win or lose, their future will be forever changed.

Experience a sprawling galactic tale in this first entry to The Orion Colony series. If you’re a fan of Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, or Indiana Jones, you’ll love this epic, space opera adventure.

For all of the Renegade Readers.

Your support made this new series possible.

-J.N. Chaney

To J.N. Chaney,

Now, we’re cooking with gasoline.

-Jonathan Yanez

Chapter 1

Life on Earth was changing.

Thanks to the creation of an immortality drug, humanity had divided itself into two distinct groups--the Eternals, a class of wealthy, prospering people, and the Transients, which consisted of lower- and middle-class folk who were just trying to stay alive in a world that was quickly running out of room.

My name is Dean Slade, and I’m a Transient mechanic, grade-2.

Once the Transients rebelled against the all-powerful Eternals, demanding a return to the old ways, things seemed to get out of hand, quick and in a hurry. It took a few months, but the Eternals had struck a deal with the leaders of the rebellion, finally granting their lower level counterparts—us Transients—an opportunity to branch out and leave this planet. This compromise had been a long time coming.

Twelve seed colony ships had been built over the last few decades, each the size of a small moon. I was one of the lucky sons of guns working in the trenches, assembling parts. Mechanics were high in demand right now, thanks to the sheer size of the ships. It wasn’t as if they valued our trade, however. Far from it.

They just needed hands to hold the tools, turn the screws, and connect the pieces. Automation could only get you so far, after all. There was just no substitute for human hands and a little elbow grease.

It was about two kilometers in each direction from my apartment to the yard where I worked. During this walk, I traveled through a neighborhood well known for its crime statistics. As it happened, I was about to become one of those numbers.

The sounds of footsteps shuffling echoed like a whisper from the nearby alleyway, followed by someone gagging and coughing. Usually, I didn’t get involved in these types of things. My credo was, don’t ask, don’t tell. Just keep my head down and do my job. Live my life.

Survive.

I don’t know what made me break my silent pledge. It’s not like I didn’t know better. For whatever reason, I chose to stop and investigate the sounds, poking my nose where it undoubtedly did not belong.

Around the corner, large trash receptacles and a fair amount of garbage littered the ground. The smell of week-old rations someone had thrown up wafted through the air. Past the stench, three men wearing heavy coats and beanies struggled with a woman. Outnumbered three to one, she still found the strength to fight back.

While I didn’t know her name, I knew I had seen her before. She was one of the other mechanics working on the colony ship. There were hundreds of us, and I’d only taken the time to talk to a handful.

The three men harassing her were reaching into her coat pockets, or at least I hoped that’s what they were doing. The alternative left a foul taste in my mouth.

“Easy, come on now,” snickered the man covering her lips. “Credits don’t come easy around here. This is Warlord territory, so you’d better get to know that name. You’re going to have to start paying a fee for walking on our streets.”

She tried to speak, but his hand kept her voice muffled. His two counterparts were wrestling her arms to her side, while still rifling through her pockets. To her credit, she wasn’t making things easy on them as she squirmed around, trying to get away. Suddenly, they ripped off her coat and beanie, revealing a curtain of long, dark hair.

“Well, well, what do we got here?” asked the second man as he pulled out of her pockets. “A fistful of credits and some kind of—card? What is this? Is this one of those fancy new holo—”

Her foot came up, kicking him so in the groin.

The unlucky mugger sank to his knees, whining like a small child.

At the same time, she bit the first man’s hand. He grunted and pulled his palm away.

She looked at the entrance of the alley, seeing me for the first time, and her eyes begged for help. She opened her mouth to yell when the last mugger slammed a fist into the side of her face. A hard crack sounded, and she slumped to the ground.

The man glanced back at me, finally alerted to my presence, and all three men weighed my intentions. I wasn’t the biggest brute in the room, by any means. I was only average height and in decently good shape from my years lifting and working with my hands. Still, I’d been in enough fights to know I could handle myself.

You don’t need to do this, I reminded myself. This isn’t your problem. This has nothing to do with you.

“What are you looking at?” The bigger one who’d hit her across the jaw yelled. “You gonna do something?”

“Yeah,” I said, plainly. “I guess I am.”

“Wait a minute. I know you,” the man holding the dazed woman said.  “I mean, you’re different now with the beard and long hair but—I’ve seen you somewhere, haven’t I? What’s your name, fella?”

I ignored the question, making my way down the alley. My steel lunch box container was the only weapon I had, but it would have to do.

“You’re a mechanic, aren’t you?” said the one who had his balls kicked in. He was still recovering, barely able to stand straight. “Just another Eternal slave. Working on their ships, following their rules and doing whatever your Eternal masters tell you to do. The Warlords don’t bend the knee to those albino scum. We make our own rules. You’d better watch out, boy, because if we don’t get you, the Disciples will. Yeah, the Disciples are who you need to worry about.”

“Naw, he’s just dressed like a mechanic, but he’s someone else. It’s right on the tip of my tongue,” said the man holding the woman. His face was screwed up in a look of concentration. “Where have I seen you before?”

“Don’t think too hard,” I said. “You might overheat.”

“Oh, you got jokes,” the big man said, moving to intercept me. “Let’s see how funny you are when you’re lying on the ground. There’s three of us.”

“If you want to make it a fair fight, I can wait for you to go grab more of your friends,” I said. “Or you can just walk away with all of your teeth. No one will hold it against you.”

“That’s it, asshole!” he raged.

He was faster than I gave him credit for. He ran forward, swinging with his right fist.

I stepped back, slamming my lunch box upward with every ounce of strength I had. Adrenaline kicked in. It had been a while since I’d felt this, and I was scared to say I missed it.

My heart rate doubled as the lunch box exploded on impact. The container latch broke, sending my meager meal hurling through the air, falling in a pile of garbage. A spray of bloody teeth followed, launching together with the food in a gruesome display.

I didn’t wait to see how damaging that blow would be. I dropped my broken lunch box and took to the brute. He didn’t have a chance. It was an unfair fight from the beginning.

I landed two left hooks to the body, followed by a right to his temple, sending him to the ground.

The first man released the girl. She was finally conscious enough to stand on her own and slowly staggered away from him.

“I do know you,” said the man. “You’re—”

“Stop talking and grab him!” yelled the other guy who was still holding his groin from the pain.

He reached into his coat pocket revealing a knife with a short blade. He rushed at me with a flurry of blows. I blocked most of them, but it had been too long, and I was rusty. On his second attempt, he stabbed my left forearm.

Pain exploded in my limb. I clenched my teeth, refusing to yell out. Instead of concentrating on the knife in my arm, I took advantage of his momentary sense of triumph, breaking his nose with a brutal strike from my right hand. Blood spurted into the air like a broken sprinkler. Whether it was the pain or being in a fight again, bloodlust took over, and I laid into the man.

Landing a series of strikes to his body and face, a rib snapped inside of him. Coming out of my trance-like state, I shook my head, breathing hard. I didn’t want to kill him, just put him down.

Glancing over, the last man had backed out of the alley. His mouth formed in a wide circle. He gave me one last look, then bolted.

I decided to let him go, knowing it would be a waste to follow. Instead, I turned around and walked over to the woman.

“Thank you,” she said, massaging her jaw. “If you hadn’t come, they would have—well, I don’t want to think about what they would have done to me.”

“You shouldn’t walk by yourself in this part of the city,” I said, motioning to the two unmoving bodies in the alley. “With everything that’s happening, it’s just gonna get worse around here.”

“I usually don’t,” the woman said. “I picked up an extra shift at the yard, and well, I needed to get to work. You’re—you’re bleeding by the way.”

I looked down at my left forearm. As the adrenaline wore off, its throb only grew more intense.

“I’m fine,” I lied. It seemed like the right thing to say. “I’ve got to get to work now. I’m going to be late.”

“At least let me stop that bleeding,” she said, picking up her coat from the pavement and coming closer. She reached inside her coat pocket for her beanie and tore it, making an impromptu bandage.

Getting a better look at her now, she was slender with deep brown eyes and full lips. Problem was, I didn’t want to get any closer to her, or anyone else for that matter. “Really.” I took a step back. “I’m fine.”

“Hold still,” she said, reaching for my forearm.

I bared my teeth against the pain as she squeezed the cloth around the wound.

“No warning? Not even a countdown or something like that?” I asked.

It wasn’t pretty, but it would do the job until I reached the yard. I could pass the injury off as something that happened to me at work and receive medical attention there. They had a med pod that could fix a wound like this in under an hour--one of the perks for working on the colony ships. Gotta keep those cogs turning.

“I’m Stacy, by the way,” she said, moving to pick up her scattered belongings.

“That’s nice,” I answered back.

“Really? You’re not even going to tell me your name?” she asked, raising her brow.

“Dean. And I’m still late.”

She stepped aside, picking up her lunch bag and a red holo card. Whatever the card was, it seemed precious to her. She quickly stuffed it into her pocket, as if she was protecting it.

I thought about digging through the trash for my own lunch, but the horn for the next shift blared from the yard.

If I didn’t get there soon, I was going to be in a heap of trouble with the foreman, and he wasn’t exactly the forgiving type.

Chapter 2

“I suspected this from you, Wilson,” Boss Creed said to Stacy, skewering her with a severe stare. He ran a hand over his bald head as he looked at me. “But not from you, Slade. You’re always on time, keep your head down and—are you bleeding?”

“New fashion trend,” I said, hiding my wounded arm behind my back. The makeshift tourniquet Stacy fashioned for me was beginning to bleed through. My arm felt like it was on fire, and the pain was growing more intense.

“Uh huh,” Boss Creed said, clearly not believing me, but also not caring enough to pursue that line of questioning. “You know there are a dozen other mechanics on the line that would kill for your job. Right now, we’re only weeks away from the greatest journey into space Earth has ever seen, and you two are here showing up fifteen minutes after the horn. I have enough to worry about with threats from the Disciples. I don’t need delinquent mechanics on my mind.”

Boss Creed looked us over again.

“Sir--” Stacy cleared her throat to speak up. “It’s not Dean’s fault he saved—”

“I saved her from a bad date last night, and she returned the favor by going out with me, instead,” I boldfaced lied. “It was a late one. Too many drinks. It won’t happen again.”

I could feel Stacy glaring at me. Not just for the lie, but also for what I was insinuating. I didn’t care. Any lie was better than the truth. This was something Boss Creed could understand—two people acting like fools, spending a work night together. He’d been married for twenty years, but he still talked about his dating life in the break room. Still bragged about the girls he’d been with before the missus tied him down.

“Oh, I see.” Boss Creed stood from his seat behind his desk, crossing thick arms over his chest. “All right, both of you are docked a half day’s pay. One more screw-up like this and it’ll be your jobs. I have too much going on right now to deal with relationship drama. Now, get the hell out of here and make up for the lost time.”

“Thank you.” I turned for the door, trying not to appear too eager to get out of the office.

I reached for the door with my right hand and let myself out into the cold morning. The familiar sounds of welding tools, power hammers, and chain blades echoed in the yard. Engineers, construction workers, and their supervisors were all hard at work on the ship.

Most of the vessel was being constructed at a station near Mars, but most of the more complex systems were designed and put together down here. There were dozens of factories just like ours, each of them tasked with producing specific pieces of a greater whole--a ship that most of us would never have the pleasure of seeing with our own eyes.

The ship didn’t have a name yet but was being built in unison with eleven others. The project had taken years to see through to fruition. It was the start of a whole new era for humanity, a chance for the Transients to get out there and build something of their own.

That was the agreement the Eternals had made with them--stop rebelling and everyone who wanted to leave would be given passage to another world. A fresh start on the other side of the galaxy, never to return. It was an enticing prospect for people who’d spent their lives at the bottom, desperate for a better life.

The first seed colony ship would be launched in the next few weeks, carrying one hundred thousand colonists.

I didn’t really care too much about any of this. Now, I just wanted to get paid and do my job. Oh, and head over to the medical station and blame my wound on a work incident. I needed to get the wound disinfected, and right now, some pain meds to ease the throbbing burn I felt creeping through my wound and up my shoulder.

“Hey, Dean, wait up,” Stacy said, jogging beside me. “Why didn’t you tell him the truth? I was going to take the blame. You didn’t have to get docked any wages for me.”

“I didn’t do it for you,” I said, shaking my head as I headed over to my assigned workspace.

“Then, why did you do it?” Stacy asked, confused.

“No more questions,” I said, stalking up one of the ramps. The interior echoed with the sounds of mechanics at work, welding and cutting. I headed for the level I was supposed to be working on. “Stop following me.”

“At least let me pay for your lunch,” Stacy said, and then a little more forcefully she added, “Let me rephrase that. I’m going to pay for your lunch. It’s the very least I can do.”

I was going to argue with her, but other mechanics and a few Civil Authority Officers were starting to look at us sideways. Here she was again, drawing more attention to me than I wanted. What was with this chick?

“Sure, fine,” I said, trying to get her to just leave me in peace. “Lunch, great, and then we’re even.”

If Ricky saw her with me, there would be no shutting him up.

“Good, see?” Stacy said, still behind me. “Was that so hard? Why are you so reclusive, anyway?”

I turned the last corner. A dozen or so mechanics were at work, laboring on what would eventually become the hydroponics bay.

I let out a deep sigh as I saw Ricky make eye contact with Stacy. Great. Well, my day just went from bad to worse, I thought.

Ricky was probably the closest thing I had to a friend, even though we were polar opposites. He was short and skinny with an overactive tongue and a gambling addiction to match. As soon as he saw Stacy and me, he dropped the torch in his hand and headed over. A Cheshire smile crossed his lips, and I knew there was no shutting him up the rest of the day.

“Well, hello there,” Ricky said, offering a hand to Stacy. “I’ve seen you around the yard but never had the pleasure. Miss?”

“Stacy Wilson,” She said, accepting the offered hand.

“You didn’t tell me you knew—well, that you knew anyone else besides me,” Ricky said, looking me in the eye, then down at my arm. He glanced back at Stacy, noticing the bruise on her face for the first time. “What the hell happened to you two?”

“Nothing,” I said, moving to my tools. “She was just leaving.”

“Just leaving?” Stacy repeated, raising an eyebrow. “First, we were on a long date last night, then you agree to lunch today, and now the cold shoulder?”

I shot her a glare that suggested she’d better stop whatever she was doing and leave.

Ricky looked back and forth between us with his mouth hanging open. “You two went out on a date? Wait a minute, I need to hear everything in as much detail as possible.”

“Maybe next time, Ricky,” Stacy said with a smile. “It was nice meeting you. I need to get to my level and start working before I get into more trouble.” She turned to me with a little smirk and said, “See you at lunch, Dean.”

I knew she was just rubbing it in, so I waved her away with a shake of my right arm. It was hard enough focusing on work right now, thanks to the pain, but this wasn’t helping. The last thing I needed today was Ricky digging for answers.

Too bad for me.

“Okay, okay,” Ricky said, rapidly. “What am I missing here? Mr. Quiet and Brooding is suddenly going out with the hottest mechanic in the yard? You some kind of kink freak? Come on, we’ve been working together for nearly five years now. You never even mentioned an interest in anything other work, and I’m pretty sure that’s not even something you like. What’s going on?”

For a moment, we both paused as a Civil Authority Officer passed by. Their dark blue uniforms and black armor made them easy to pick out among the mechanics wore.

It’s not like we were afraid of them, and we didn’t care if they saw us working or slacking off. They weren’t here to give us a hard time. They were only here as an added precaution against vandalism and sabotage. The Disciples, a radicalized terrorist group of Transients responsible for multiple recent bombings in the city, had already hit a few yards in recent years. Not a month went by when we didn’t receive another threat that our little shop would be next.

Even though neither of us had anything to fear from the Civil Authority Officer—or suit, as most liked to call them—we both paused as he strolled by. He gave us a tight head nod before continuing down the line of pens.

“Come on, give me something,” Ricky begged. “Even if you have to tell me a lie. Just make it good. A little something my imagination can run with for a while. Come on, man, throw me a bone. It gets boring down here.”

“All right,” I said, realizing that Ricky wasn’t going to let this one go. “Walking to work, some thugs calling themselves the Warlords roughed her up. I scared them off, and she feels like she owes me.”

“Warlords, huh?” Ricky said the word as if he knew exactly who they were and then quickly snapped out of his own thoughts. “Wait a minute, you actually stopped to help someone, and you talked to them? When was the last time you did that?”

“Hey, I talk,” I said, reaching for my thick gloves and mask. “I have you to bother me every day and tell me all your stories over, and over, and over again. No matter how much I beg you to stop.”

“Come on, you know what I mean,” Ricky said, sighing heavily. He looked down at my injured arm again. “So, what? Like an hour of work and then you get it checked out? Man, that thing is going to sting when you have it fixed. You’re kind of bleeding all over our workspace. You should go soon. It’s unsanitary.”

Ricky talked a lot, but the man was intuitive. I’d give him that much. He also happened to be right. Looking down, droplets of crimson were falling to the steel floor.

“Yeah, about an hour of work, and I’m headed to medical,” I answered. “Don’t tell anyone, yeah?”

“My lips are sealed,” Ricky said, making a zipping motion across his mouth with his right thumb and pointer finger. “You’re my friend, Dean. In the time I’ve known you, you’ve never done me dirty. That means loyalty, and loyalty means family.”

“Man, you’re not going to get all sentimental on me again, are you?” I asked. “I really need to get to work.”

“A real man’s not afraid to cry,” Ricky said, going to his own station next to mine. “You ever need someone to talk to besides that necklace of yours, you let me know.”

“Yup, will do,” I said, instinctively reaching for my necklace to ensure I still had it on after the fight. It never crossed my mind that I might have lost it in the alley until now.

Through my work glove, my fingers met the thin piece of metal, and I could feel the circular medallion that hung on the chain. I had seen it a million times before, yet it still comforted me in ways I didn’t understand.

The symbol was one I didn’t recognize—a sword with a circle in the middle of the blade and two knives coming up on either side of it. It wasn’t really the symbol that comforted me, but rather the memory of the person who gifted it.

Just before the waking nightmares could pull me down that road again, I was brought back to reality by the crack of Ricky igniting his torch.

You can’t change the past, I reminded myself as I donned my protective visor and lit my own. Ain’t no sense in going back.

Chapter 3

Ricky was right--the visit to the med station had sucked. I made the trip after only forty-five minutes of work. Fear of infection from the thug’s knife was a great motivator, along with the pain, but I only wanted to work and keep my head down. Imagine a white-hot poker tearing a hole through your skin, and you’d be close to what it felt like standing around with this wound in my arm.

Much like Boss Creed’s office, the med station was little more than a sparsely decorated shipping container. The front door opened into a cramped waiting area with a handful of chairs and a small desk.

I was the only one in the room at the moment. I couldn’t tell if it was a good or a bad thing until that question was answered for me. A shriek rang the other side of the long room.

I tried looking further down, but a white curtain kept the source obscured.

The scream came again, along with hushed voices I couldn’t make out. Suddenly, my arm wasn’t hurting so bad. Maybe I could cauterize it myself or clean it out with some whiskey and sew it up. Now, any option seemed better than staying here.

I was about to turn and go when the white sheet drew back and an older woman with short, blonde hair and piercing, green eyes smiled at me. Someone else moaned behind her, but she simply ignored them and closed the curtain behind her.

“No need to worry, he’ll be fine,” she said, like she could read my thoughts. “He just needs a few stitches. There was an accident installing one of The Orion’s cooling valves.”

“The Orion?” I asked, forgetting about the moaning man altogether. I didn’t know our colony ship had a name yet.

“Whoops.” The doctor smiled, revealing pearly white teeth. “Sorry, I don’t think that’s public knowledge yet. Let’s keep that between you and me. I received a memo about it just this morning. Grade-4’s and above, you see, so I doubt you’re meant to know about it yet.”

I wanted to roll my eyes but knew better. I always hated how proud people were of their ranks, but especially when they talked about privileges. No matter how high your rank was, it wasn’t going to change the fact that you were still a Transient. The only way to become an Eternal was with money, and even then, it took decades for the drug to change your physical appearance. White hair, blue eyes, pale skin--these were traits that only the older Eternals had, which meant everyone could still tell the difference.

I thought she was going to say more, but then her eyes found Stacy’s bloody beanie on my arm. The impromptu tourniquet was more of a sponge for blood than anything else.

“Oh, my.” The doctor strode forward, grabbing a pad from a tabletop on her right. She punched in a few keys faster than my eyes could track. A second later, blue light shot out from the top of it, scanning my body. “Dean Slade, mechanic, grade-2. Never visited the med station before. No record of past injury.” She paused. “What happened to your arm?”

“I was working and got caught on a sharp piece of steel,” I told her. “I’m just worried about infection.”

The doctor came closer. She placed her pad back on the counter and reached for a pair of sterile gloves in her white lab coat pocket. She was close enough now I could see her nametag. Doctor Kelly Allbright.

“An open piece of steel did this to you?” Kelly asked as she unwrapped the mushy tourniquet and carefully rolled up my sleeve. “Really?”

“Really,” I said. I was all in with the lie at this point. There was no turning back.

“Mhm,” Doctor Allbright said, waving me to the back of the room. “Okay, let’s get you cleaned up and stop this bleeding.”

I sighed, grateful she had at least pretended to accept my words at face value. The way she looked at me said she didn’t believe me, but she wasn’t interested in pursuing the matter further.

I followed her past the curtain to a narrow hall with three closed doors. Kelly opened the second one and ushered me inside to a square examination area.

“Take a seat and let's get you patched up,” Kelly said, motioning to the reclining chair. “You know, Mr. Slade, I’ve been a doctor for quite a few years. Even worked the Emergency Care Ward at the local city hospital.”

“Is that a fact?” I asked.

“Roll your sleeve the rest of the way up, please,” Doctor Allbright said, reaching for a tool I was more than a little familiar with. It was called a Heal-Aid, and even though this one looked like it was about to fall apart, she seemed confident enough in it.

The tool was in the shape of a wrench with a digital display screen on the back for the administrator to use. It was usually meant for deep cuts, much like the one I had now, but I’d seen people use them for smaller, more superficial wounds. A blue light scanned my abrasion, telling Doctor Allbright what she needed to apply to stop the infection.

“While I was working in the E.C.W., I saw everything you could imagine. Mugging victims, gang fights, street wars, you name it. Transients with nothing better to do than prey on one another for a few extra credits.” Doctor Allbright pressed a few buttons on the back of the device and the machine went to work.

It sprayed something into the knife wound, making me grimace. Disinfectant liquid, I guessed. At the same time, it cleaned the laceration. The process hurt, but in a good way. I’d been in enough fights and visited enough clinics to know the difference.

“Wounds like this one came in all the time.” Doctor Allbright held the Heal-Aid on my arm with one hand while using a towel to soak up the bloody run off with her other. “If you’re caught up in something, I can point you to an organization that can help. Maybe set you on the better path.”

What the hell? I asked myself, looking up at the good doctor with wide eyes. She thinks I’m some kind of thug, wrapped up in a gang?

“It’s not what you think,” I said as the little machine stopped washing out my wound and prepared itself for the next phase. “I’m fine.”

Doctor Allbright raised an eyebrow.

I could see where she was coming from. The beard and long hair didn’t exactly scream “upstanding Transient”. To be honest, right now I just wanted to get the hell out of the med station and disappear. Maybe head home and crash on the couch. This Doctor Allbright was too smart for her own good. It was a reminder to stay away from this place and keep my head down. Doctors always asked too many questions and assumed too much.

“Okay,” she said with a sigh, presumably letting the matter go for the time being. “This next part is going to hurt a bit. I can give you a sedative or some painkillers to take the edge off.”

“I got to get back to work,” I said. If Boss Creed found out about my little medical visit, I’d be out of a job for sure.

“It’s not going to feel good,” Doctor Allbright said, looking at me again. “This isn’t a tough guy act, is it? The Med-Aid has to close the wound now. We don’t have the fancy tech like the Eternals doctors downtown, just the good old-fashioned cauterizing kind.”

“I’ve had it done before,” I said, motioning to my arm. “Like I said, I’m good to go. Just do it.”

“I feel like that’s the first honest thing you’ve said to me,” Doctor Allbright said, tapping the display screen on the back of the healing tool. “Ready? Here we go.”

I needed to concentrate on anything else besides the searing hot pain that was about to scorch my arm. It would take only a few seconds for the machine to close a wound this size, but those few seconds would be hell.

I thought about everything I had to do today to finish my work. I thought about Stacy and the red holo card she and the thugs seemed so interested in. I even thought about Ricky and his incessant need to meddle in my life.

“Okay, that’s it,” Doctor Albright said, tearing me from my thoughts as she placed the Med-Aid on the counter. She cleaned off the blood from the rest of my arm while examining me. “Good as new, I think.”

I followed her gaze, lowering my eyes to the new pink skin that covered the place the wound had been only a moment before. It still hurt, but at least I knew it wasn’t infected and the bleeding had stopped.

“Here, tough guy,” Doctor Allbright said as she stood from her seat and motioned me from the room. She handed me two white pills. “Just old school extra-strength Motrin to help ease the inflammation. You can still work and go about your day. If you don’t want them now, just take them later with a beer.” She gave me a wink. “Just don’t overdo it.”

“Thanks, Doc,” I said, accepted the pills and placing them in my pocket.

She opened the door and invited me into the hall. I rotated my shoulder, stretching my arm and noticing a significant drop in pain from before.

I had to admit, this lady wasn’t so bad, although I’d never openly say it.

She led back down the narrow hall to the front of the office. “If you’re worried about me telling anyone, rest assured that I won’t,” Doctor Allbright said, opening the front door of the med station to usher me out. “I—”

Shouts and the screeching of tires masked whatever she was going to say next. Turning to my left, the suits at the gate opened fire on a dump truck bulldozing its way toward the front entrance to the yard.

The next thing I knew, the gate snapped open and the truck came barreling inside.

Gunshots muffled the screams from the men on the catwalk, followed by the yard’s alarms. In seconds, the entire facility was so loud I could hardly discern one noise from another. I could barely think.

The dark grey dumpster weaved like a drunk trying to find its way, finally turning and aiming itself directly at the medical building.

Chapter 4

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said out loud as my adrenaline spiked for the second time that morning.

The behemoth of a dumpster truck was bearing down on us too fast to make any calculated moves. For those few seconds, I made eye contact with the maniac behind the wheel. He looked younger than me, somewhere in his late twenties, and his wide-eyed expression look fanatical as he fought the steering wheel.

There was no more time to think. I could only react.

I tackled Allbright to the ground, pushing her back inside her office and far from the door. A second later, the dumpster truck tore off the small catwalk outside her building, along with most of the door. Metal screeched as the dumpster truck scraped against the walls, finally breaking through them and sending a mist of dust into the compartment.

The entire med station shook with the impact from the blow.

“Th-thank you,” Doctor Allbright coughed as I removed myself from her. “What—who’s doing this? The Disciples?”

“That would be my guess,” I said, going over to the doorless entrance and into the med station. The yard was in chaos. Mechanics and workers ran all around, looking for safety as the suits continued firing at the truck. More of them piled into the yard as they arrived from the station down the road.

My stomach soured as I realized the reason why this truck had come. The Disciples were the most outspoken group against the colony missions. They hated the Eternals and refused to go along with the colonization plan. As they’d said, this planet belonged to the Transients, not the mutated and disfigured Eternals, who, in the Disciples eyes, were no longer human.

We had multiple key sections of the colony ship in our yard, which made us a target. I don’t think there was a doubt in anyone’s mind that the truck carried a payload of explosives. The Disciples had threatened as much, time and time again.

This wasn’t my fight, though. I was only here to do a job, but that truck had almost killed me, so I couldn’t help but take all this a little personally.

“Screw it,” I muttered, launching myself to my feet and heading for the torn doorway.

“Wait!” Doctor Allbright screamed behind me. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know,” I shouted back, unable to afford the time to give her a decent answer.

I sprinted down the yard, but the truck was going way too fast. The suits were peppering the area with red blaster fire as they tried to bring it down before it reached one of the larger construction centers. One lucky suit got a shot off, blowing out the truck’s front right tire.

The vehicle careened off course from its beeline for the ship. For a second it seemed like all would be saved. Then the runaway truck slammed into the lunch tent, set up for the contingent of mechanics that worked around the clock on The Orion. Right now, it was smack dab in the middle of two lunch breaks.

My lungs burned as I ran toward the nightmare unfolding in front of me. Mechanics raced out of the tent seeing what was about to happen, but they were too late.

The truck detonated in a terrible display of heat and force.

A wave of intense pressure slammed against my body even though I was still a good Sixty meters from the point of impact. It lifted my feet and hurled me through the air a short distance away.

I crashed violently into the hard ground, the wind knocked out of me. A cut opened on the left side of my face, and the familiar metallic tang of blood filled my mouth.

I rolled onto my back and lay on the ground, trying to focus on where I was and how I’d gotten here. I could barely breathe, see, or think.

For a moment, the clouded sky opened enough for the sun to beam down on me. The yellow light hit me in the face, but I couldn’t feel the warmth at all. I closed my eyes, trying to focus. A second later, the clouds rolled back in, killing the light.

The screams of the dying and wounded finally broke my temporary stupor. I pushed myself to a sitting position, wincing at the pain. “Jesus,” I said, holding my head as I finally sat up.

Nothing felt broken, but then again, I could barely feel anything.

“Mr. Slade!?” Doctor Allbright rushed to my side, sticking her thumb on my eyelid and forcing it open. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I said, then pointed to the destruction in front of us. “I’m fine. Help them.”

Doctor Allbright gave me a quick nod and raced toward the demolished section of the yard. It really wasn’t much of anything now. Nothing of the massive white tent remained; not the steel rods that kept it in place or the anchors that ensured it withheld the winter winds when they came.

Large pieces of the truck were still smoldering in the wreckage, while countless bodies lay strewn across the gravel. Several of the mechanics and engineers moaned in pain as others remained still.

“What—what happened?” Ricky asked, out of breath. He’d arrived at my side from our workstation, a decent walk from here. “Are we—are we under attack?”

“I think the attacking part already happened,” I said, looking at him. I was grateful he wasn’t one of the ones in the tent. He helped me to my feet and I dusted my clothes off. “We should help.”

Ricky nodded furiously.

We rushed forward, then abruptly skidded to a halt. A team of suits was desperately trying to lift a portion of the still smoldering truck off one of the mechanics. The man’s left leg was pinned under what looked like the rear axle of the truck, and sheer panic was etched in the young man’s face.

Ricky and I took it upon ourselves to go to his side.

“Hey—hey,” Ricky said softly, clenching the young man’s hand. “We got you—we got you. Hang in there.”

“I-I can’t feel my leg. Please, help me,” the young man said.

“It’s—it’s going to be okay. We’re going to get this off you, and then we will get you some medical help,” Ricky promised.

“Come on, we can move it together, on three,” I said to the pair of suits straining against the axel. I placed my hands on the hot steel, ignoring the pain. I straightened my back and bent my knees, finding finger holds along the bottom. “One, two, three!”

I threw everything I had into the act. Pulling from the memories that drove me forward every day. Each person had their own well of power they drew from when they were up against something physically demanding. I pulled from mine, as memories of everything I’d lost threw me into action.

The hot steel under my fingertips budged, then moved a few centimeters.

“Come on!” I raged at the suits struggling beside me. “Pull!”

With a groan, the axle moved up and sideways, off the young mechanic's leg.

I fell to the ground, panting. Sirens were already growing closer, promising more help to those who desperately needed it. The two suits next to me pulled out a medical case and began working on the young man’s leg.

The next few hours passed in a haze of helping wherever I could. I held bandages in place, searched for survivors in the rubble, and gave my statement to someone named Officer Serol.

By the time we finished, the sky had begun to darken. The emergency crew thanked us for our help and told us to go home. Stacy walked up to me, and we stood looking at the aftermath of the confirmed Disciple attack.

“They’re saying the colony ship wasn’t the real target,” Stacy said, her eyes never leaving the carnage in front of us. “The ship needs a crew of over two hundred able-bodied mechanics and techs to man the craft when it launches in a few weeks. They’ll be shorthanded now.”

She wasn’t asking a question exactly, but there was some uncertainty in her voice.

“The Disciples preach to their cult about keeping human DNA pure and untainted,” I said, looking at her. “They hate the Eternals for what they’ve been able to accomplish. Now, the Eternals are giving the Transients a chance for a new beginning by creating these twelve colony ships. You’d think they’d welcome the chance to start over with other Transients. Other unaltered humans with pure DNA.”

“Maybe the Disciples see anyone willing to aid the Eternals as traitors to their own kind,” she said, letting out a long sigh. “I don’t know. Like you said, they’re a cult. They’re crazy.”

“Guess so,” I said.

“One thing’s for certain,” Stacy said, looking at me sideways. “The colony ships will need mechanics. I heard our ship will have two Eternals and a Cognitive manning the controls, with one hundred thousand transients headed for a new world. That’s quite the responsibility for whoever gets the job. I’ve heard you’re good at what you do, Dean. You might want to try applying for--”

“Not interested,” I said, cutting her off. “I’m not kooky enough to travel through space in a metal ball to a distant planet I can’t come back from. I mean, come on. You’d have to be insane, right?”

The words died on my lips as I saw the look on Stacy’s face. She was one of those people, and she’d just asked me to join her. What the hell could she be thinking? As bad as this place was, why risk your life for an uncertainty?

“I signed up a few months back when they were looking for volunteers,” she said, shaking her head. “I just knew I wanted to get away from all of this, and it seemed like the best option. The Eternals are doing us a favor. They realize there’s no way for the Transient class to move up anymore. No more opportunity in the world when the people at the top can’t die and refuse to retire. If they left things as they are, someone would eventually start a war. This is our only shot. It’s the only chance humanity has to avoid killing itself.”

“Well, it ain’t for me,” I said, ignoring her words. “Besides, for as much as the Eternals are doing, maybe it’s out of guilt and not a sense of actually wanting to help. Maybe they realize what position they’ve put us in and this is just their way of getting rid of us—thinning out the Transient herd, so to speak.”

“Either way, I’m going,” Stacy said, turning to leave. “You can stay here and work in a scrapyard your entire life, maybe get enough credits to pay for a few extra years of life, but you’ll still have the same job you have now. You’ll still be here, serving someone else.”

“We’re all serving someone,” I told her.

“Maybe so,” she said, beginning to walk away. “But I’d rather serve myself.”

I watched her leave, choosing to stay silent. I had no interest in leaving this planet, especially with a couple of Eternals and a Cognitive leading the charge. I’d never interacted with a Cognitive up close before, but an artificial intelligence controlling my fate was something I wasn’t ready for.

“You headed back to the apartments?” Ricky asked, sidling up next to me. He was soot-stained from the smoke. Weariness in his eyes suggested that, like me, he’d had enough for one day.

“Yeah, I’ll walk with you,” I said as he and I began making our way from the yard.

“You two!” Boss Creed’s familiar voice took me off guard. He stood in front of us at the broken gate. “Work tomorrow, same time. We aren’t going to give these terrorists the satisfaction of changing anything.”

“Yes, sir,” Ricky said.

I just nodded, wanting to get through this exchange as quickly as possible so I could go home and sleep. I didn’t know any of the crew who’d died today--not their names or their stories. I didn’t know if they preferred chocolate or vanilla, if they had families, or if they were single. Maybe that was better, maybe it wasn’t. I couldn’t think about it right now.

We headed back up the street to where we lived, passing other Transients walking to and from their homes. There was a nervous chill in the air as everyone saw our smoke-stained faces and understood we’d been at ground zero.

They gave us a wide berth, pretending not to stare when we made eye contact. Ricky and I traveled in silence, both of us lost to our own thoughts.

A few blocks from where we lived, Ricky stopped me with a trembling hand on my arm. I looked at him, then followed his eyes.

A group of men walked towards us.

“Um, just let me do the talking,” Ricky said, swallowing hard. “I got this.”

Chapter 5

“Ricky!” The man leading the group opened his arms. He was average height, but wide like a wrestler. A bald head and a cheap suit gave him the stereotypical cheesy salesman look. Four other men hung behind him. I recognized one of them as the gang member belonging to the Warlords that had booked it out of the alley after I knocked out his friends.

“You don’t call. You don’t write. How have you been?” the group leader continued.

“Mr. Harold, I-I’m fine,” Ricky stuttered. “Listen, I have your money. I know I was late, but I swear I have it. D-don’t shoot me or anything. I’m going to reach into my pocket for the credits.”

“Ricky, Ricky, Ricky,” Mr. Harold said as he moved forward and slung a meaty arm across Ricky’s shoulder. “You know your money’s no good with me. How far do we go back?”

“What, really?” Ricky asked, looking at me confused.

Something was very wrong. Between Mr. Harold eyeing me like I was a prized possession and the thug who’d witnessed me putting down two men in the alley, I couldn’t help but be on edge.

“Why don’t you introduce me to your friend?” Mr. Harold asked, looking at me with a wide grin. A gold tooth shined through his greasy lips. “We can all be chums now.”

“Oh—well, this is...uh,” Ricky said, trying to warn me with his eyes and shaking his head.

“The name’s Dean,” I said, already suspecting what was about to come next.

“Dean, that’s a good, strong name,” Mr. Harold said, extending his right hand. His left arm was still draped around Ricky’s shoulder. “I don’t know too many Deans these days.”

I accepted the offered hand, and his grip felt like a vice around my own. The calluses on his palm were evidence of a lifetime of lifting weights and fighting with his hands.

“Say,” Mr. Herald said, looking at me with a tilted head. “Before that crazy beard of yours and the long hair, you wouldn’t have gone by a different name a few years back, would you? Maybe a title or a nickname?”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” I squeezed his hand back just as hard, and a warning sign exploded in my head. I was already doing the math. There were five of them, probably all armed. This wasn’t a fight I could win.

“I like that about you, Dean,” Mr. Harold said, releasing my hand. He looked over at his group of men, specifically the one who’d been in the alley earlier that day. “You’re a good liar. See, one of my boys told me you KO’d two of my guys today. Now, don’t worry. I’m not out for vengeance or retaliation. He told me he thinks you’re a prizefighter that fell off the radar a few years ago. A real gladiator in the ring, he said.”

Ricky’s eyes widened as Mr. Harold kept talking.

“I think your man might be mistaken,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m just a mechanic. Have been for a while now. Ask Ricky. He’s known me for years.”

“Is that so?” Mr. Harold grinned, but didn’t bother looking at Ricky for verification. “Well, if you did happen to be a skilled fighter, I would have a use for someone like that. I could make them a generous offer that’d make that mechanic pay look like garbage.”

I held Mr. Harold’s gaze, showing no reaction to his words.

“And,” he continued with that stupid grin on his face, hugging Ricky a little too close. “I would overlook any debt that his acquaintances owed to me.”

“I-I have your money,” Ricky squeaked again. “I have it here in my pocket.”

“Oh, your money’s no good with me anymore, Rick,” Mr. Harold said. The grin on his face suddenly disappeared, along with any sign of friendliness, replaced by something far more dangerous.

“But that’s only Dean,” Ricky said. “He’s not a boxer or a fighter or anything. He’s just--well, he’s just Dean. He doesn’t have any friends outside of me. Sorry, no offense, brother.”

“None taken.” I waved the apology away.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to see about that,” Mr. Harold said, pursing his lips and eyeing me again. “You see, despite all your words to the contrary, I know a killer when I see one. I’ve been around long enough to have gained a sixth sense about these things, and I’m never wrong. Not to worry, Dean. I’m a generous man. I’ll tell you what. You take a day to reconsider my offer. If you decline, I take out my anger and frustration on Ricky here. Sound fair?”

“Do I get a vote in any of this?” Ricky asked.

“Naw, Ricky,” Mr. Harold finally released him and motioned for his men to go. “Think about it, Dean. For your friend’s sake.” He smiled at me. “See you tomorrow.”

I didn’t bother saying anything, since there really wasn’t much to say. I knew if he discovered who I was, things wouldn’t end well. My plan had always been to move on if I was recognized. Now because I had saved Stacy, I’d ruined everything.

“Sorry—sorry,” Ricky said shaking his head. “I’ll figure this out. I’ll pay him back double. I don’t know what he’s thinking. Too many drugs have warped his imagination. I mean, come on. You, a famous fighter? Even the mid-listers get paid tons of credits and can have any woman they want. They live in penthouses, not work in the yard or become mechanics.”

I chose to stay silent on the matter as we walked the rest of the way home. Ricky may have been my closest friend—hell, he was probably my only friend--but there were things from my past that I wasn’t willing to share with anyone.

“I’ll get it all sorted,” Ricky reassured me as we stopped at the entrance to my apartment. “Don’t lose any sleep over it tonight. I’ll talk to Mr. Harold. He’s a reasonable man.”

“Yeah, he strikes me as the reasonable type,” I said, sarcastically.

“Good, okay. I’ll see you tomorrow at work, Dean,” Ricky said, too preoccupied with his own thoughts to pay any attention to my remark.

“See you tomorrow,” I answered, unlocking the outside gate to my complex and looking up at the peeling paint and bars over the windows. I let out a long sigh as I stepped inside, then shut the gate behind me.

Making my way to the fourth floor, I passed kids playing in the hall, barking dogs, and open doors to other apartments where spouses argued about what to eat for dinner.

My apartment wasn’t much of anything. I didn’t really need it to be. It was a one bedroom with a kitchen that opened on the far side to a bathroom. A regular old shithole if ever there was one.

For a guy that tried to keep his head down, I was failing at it rather miserably. In a single day, I had stuck my neck out twice for someone else, only for the day to end with a job offer from a crime lord.

My body ached from the exertion of the day, so I decided to turn in early.  On my back in the dark room, my hand strayed to the medallion on my neck. I let it run through my fingers as memories washed over me again. Memories of my ex-wife. Memories of a better life.

And I fell asleep like that, with the necklace still between my fingers, praying to forget.

A familiar dream came to me, although it had been a while since the last time.

The stadium was designed to look like a coliseum. The packed stands were full of attendees who roared and clapped their approval at what was about to happen.

The media had come in droves, and cameras broadcasted the event live for the entire world to see.

The staff was all around me, preparing me for the fight as I strapped my hands in the locker room, slamming my fists together. My coach gave me last minute instructions, while a team worked on keeping me loose.

I couldn’t hear what they were saying. There was no noise, just a faint white buzzing. I was lost in my own head, visualizing the moves, while at the same time preparing myself mentally for what was about to come next. The fight of my life, I kept thinking, even as the dream began to fade. The fight of my life and I’m going to win it. I’m going to take the whole damn thing.

Chapter 6

I could already tell something was up when I saw the activity at the yard from a few blocks away. The local suits had to number in the hundreds. Not only were there the normal officers, but there were also suits in black armor with pulse rifles in nearly every hand.

A pair of intimidating vehicles that looked like tanks blocked the entrance to the yard. They divided a throng of people into two groups. The group on the left appeared to be ordinary men, women, and children. The much smaller line on the right were workers. I didn’t recognize all their faces, but I’d seen some before.

Stacy’s familiar dark eyes found mine. I shrugged deeper into my coat to fight off the morning cold. She waved me over.

“Do I even want to know?” I asked her, joining the line to get into the yard. “I probably don’t.”

“You might be right,” Stacy said with an arched eyebrow. “They’ve moved up the timetable on the launch. We’re hauling all our sections out of here today and they’re launching tomorrow. Boss says the ship is already in transit to a closer station near Earth’s orbit.”

“Excuse me?” I looked at her, not quite believing what she was saying. “Sorry, I must have had my ears damaged yesterday. It sounded like you said they’re launching tomorrow.”

“That’s right.” Stacy pointed past the gate to one of the local docks. Several people were loading into shuttles, all of them marked with the program’s insignia. “Word is the Eternals don’t want to risk another Disciple attack, not when we’re this close to finishing. They say they can have their automated drone system complete everything once the parts are off-world.”

My mind swam with the implications of her words as we moved forward in the line. Up ahead, Boss Creed was with a group of suits. He was visually checking his mechanics before they were allowed into the yard.

“But the seed ship isn’t ready yet,” I said out loud. “Am I wrong? I know for a fact the hydroponics system is still in review.”

“Beats me,” Stacy said with a shrug. “I told you what I know. We’ll have to ask Boss Creed for the specifics.”

I nodded along, looking at the other, much longer line of families getting checked to board the ship. These poor people were only given twenty-four hours’ notice that their trip of a lifetime had moved up. They were leaving everything they knew behind, all in hopes of a better life on some promised alien planet.

“Stop there,” A suit said, extending an open hand to Stacy and me.

Boss Creed looked up from a pad. “It’s okay, they’re part of my team.”

The suit waived us inside.

“Mr. Slade, a moment,” Boss Creed said, motioning for me to come closer.

I didn’t like the sound in his voice. Regardless, I stepped to the side with him.

“I’m sure you’ve heard that The Orion is departing tonight,” Boss Creed stopped to measure my expression.

“The Orion?” I asked, playing dumb.

“No need for the song and dance. Doctor Allbright said she let it slip right before you saved her. We had to keep certain information classified because of all the attacks. Even the name. The folks upstairs thought it would help, but--” He paused, scanning the yard for a moment before looking back at me. “Some good it did.”

I said nothing.

“Look, I’ll get straight to the point,” he went on. “We lost a lot of good mechanics yesterday in the attack. I need to fill a roster for the ship. I noticed you didn’t put your name in for consideration. Why is that?”

“Listen, I get that people want a fresh start, but it’s just not for me,” I said, scratching at the right side of my beard. “I’ve had enough excitement to last me a lifetime. I’m good here.”

“Your family would be able to join you,” Boss Creed continued. “It pays well, and you’d be given housing of your own once the colony is established on Kronos Five.”

“I don’t have a family,” I said, trying to figure out what was bothering me so much about the prospect. “I don’t want to go.”

“Sure,” Boss Creed made a few notes on his data pad. “If you change your mind, I’m adding you as approved on the ship’s manifest. Sometimes we need to do things in life for ourselves. Maybe that means a fresh start, and there’s no shame in that. Don’t be burdened by the events of your past, Mr. Slade.”

My heart rate spiked. I looked up at Boss Creed, searching his dark eyes to see if he was hinting at something. Did he know who I really was? If he did, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he just waved me in.

They assigned the rest of the mechanics and I to load the ship with essential supplies for the journey. Even though the trip to Kronos Five would only take six weeks, it required a massive supply due to the sheer number of people on board.

I was loading couch-sized wooden crates with holes poked into their sides and the words fragile stamped onto them. They were off to the side under a tarp, as if someone didn’t want to bring attention to them. Out of the corner of my eye, it looked as if one of the crates had moved.

“We’ll handle these,” A strong male voice said from behind my right shoulder. “Thank you for your help.”

“This could just be the fatigue talking, but I think I just saw one of those—” I stopped, spotting a tall, slender man standing behind me. He wore a deep hood and high boots. I had seen an Eternal before, but that was a lifetime ago. His pure, white skin and shining blue eyes were jarring, even inside the hood, and it caught me by surprise. What was he doing in a place like this? Had he come to inspect the damage?

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” he said, extending a gloved hand. “My name is Elon Drake. I’m one of the two Eternals that will be guiding the colony ship to Kronos Five.”

“Dean,” I said, recovering enough to shake his hand. “You didn’t frighten me. I just didn’t realize you’d be walking the yard today. Isn’t it kind of dangerous for you to be out here? I mean, the Disciples just tried to blow up your ship. They’d love to get a shot at one of you.”

“Our ship,” Elon corrected.

“What?” I said, cocking my brow.

“You said ‘the Disciples just tried to blow up your ship’, but it’s our ship. Both Eternal and Transient.” Elon gave me a kind smile. “We’ll be fine. We can’t show fear in the face of terrorism. My sister is about to demonstrate that to everyone right now.”

Elon pointed to the platform on the other side of the factory where a crowd was gathering. It was right behind the spot where the truck had detonated, although most of the debris had already been cleared by this point.

“You should come and listen,” Elon said, waving me forward. “The message will be broadcasted to those in line and everyone already onboard the ship. Even still, there’s nothing like seeing her talk in person. She was gifted with the silver tongue of the family.”

I decided to indulge him, if only to avoid pissing off someone with the power to make my life a living hell. Not that I expected him to, but you never knew anyone, and I’d rather take the five minutes than make an enemy.

While I was crossing the yard, Ricky caught up to me.

“Hey, maybe it’s all the drugs I’ve done over the years, but it looks like those boxes are actually moving,” my friend said, blinking a half dozen times and then looking over his shoulder at the boxes again. “I went to go check them out, and a suit told me to go about my business. What the hell are we taking to Kronos Five?”

“We?” I repeated. “Are you on the guestlist now?”

“Yep, that run in with Mr. Harold and his Warlord gang was all the convincing I needed. You should come, too, unless you wanna end up getting shot in the back of the head when you turn him down again.”

“When are you people going to stop asking me that?” I muttered.

“When you wise up to the reality of your situation,” he said.

Ricky and I reached the gathered crowd in front of the podium. It seemed like everyone understood a ceremony for the dead was about to take place, but they seemed more entranced by the sight of the Eternal than the message she was about to deliver.

The albino woman was slender like her brother, but beautiful with sharp and attractive features. A tight ponytail of white hair fell behind her head, glistening in the morning light.

“I think I’m in love,” Ricky said, as those around us cheered when they saw an Eternal at the podium.

The crowd’s excitement silenced a moment later when the woman opened her mouth to speak.

“My name is Arun Drake, and along with my brother Elon, I am honored to take this next step with you to our new world,” Arun said with so much determination and power in her voice, the crowd couldn’t help but applaud.

I managed to refrain from clapping, but Ricky couldn’t hold himself back.

“Yesterday, a terrorist group calling themselves the Disciples attacked this facility in an act of cowardice and murdered over two dozen of your fellow workers. While we mourn their sacrifice, we also honor them by pushing forward. By accelerating our program, we tell the Disciples that whether you are Eternal or Transient, we are one united people focused on creating opportunity, advancement, and new beginnings for everyone.” Arun swept the gathered crowd with her fiery blue eyes. “The name of our vessel is The Orion--a hunter in ancient history praised for his exploits of skill and raw determination. We must embody those traits and, together, begin a new phase in human history. One that does not yield to fear or anger. One that is above division and racism. We are one people, united by a common cause, united to the stars.”

I had to give it to her. Elon was right, that woman knew how to give a speech. The people who’d gathered around me clearly felt the same way as they clapped and cheered for her to continue. When the applause died, she addressed the crowd one last time.

“There is a mountain of work that still needs to be done. We will all labor into the dark hours of the night to see our launch happen, but make no mistake, we will launch tomorrow,” Arun said, shouting the last words. “We will go as one, and we will not give in to acts of those who would seek to extinguish our light. Are you with me?”

The crowd reacted with even more fervor, giving everything they had. Ricky, most of all.

“I love you!” Ricky screamed into the roar of the crowd. “I think I love you!”

The noise level was so loud, only those standing right beside him could hear his words. Some smiled in our direction, and Ricky grinned the widest smile I’d ever seen him give.

* * *

The day passed faster than I could have imagined, along with the night. They asked all the workers not embarking on the trip to stay on to help with the last-minute loading. Ricky and Stacy were each given orders to go to their homes and pack one backpack of belongings to take on the trip. Everything else would be provided.

I had to admit, I’d probably miss Ricky. Hell, if I was honest, I’d miss Stacy too, even though I’d only known her for a day. It was kind of nice to see a familiar face in the yard other than Ricky’s dopey smile.

When the evening came, I found myself exhausted. I kept thinking over Boss Creed’s words, despite trying to push them away. A voice in my head urged me to accept the offer. You’ve got nothing here, I thought. Absolutely nothing. The only thing that means anything to you is around your neck right now. What would you have to lose if you went?

Before I could debate with myself further, a boy no more than ten walked up to me, interrupting my thoughts. He looked at me uncertainly, then handed me a small handheld radio. Saying nothing, he ran off into the masses of people boarding the shuttles.

“Hey,” I started to say, but it was too late. He was gone.

I looked down at the black radio in my hand, wondering why I was given this. A moment later, my question was answered when Mr. Harold’s voice boomed over the open channel.

“There he is. You know, you had me going for a moment. Then I watched some old footage of one of your fights. I know exactly who you are, Steel Hands.”

Chapter 7

I froze, turning down the volume on the radio and looking to make sure no one else had been close enough to hear the words spoken.

My brain was spinning, trying to figure out a response to get out of this. I studied the street around me. How had he known when to talk? How did he know when the boy had given me the radio?

I searched in vain, finding nothing.

“Come on, at least have a conversation with me, Steel Hands. May I call you Steel Hands? That was your nickname in the ring, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t know what—”

He cut me off. “Please, we’re past the point of you trying to lie to me. I know who you are. Dean ‘Steel Hands’ Slade. Twenty-seven confirmed knockouts. You left on top as the number one contender for the regional title. Just picked up and retired. Walked away from a fortune, according to the nets. They say you got broke your contract and lost everything.”

“I’m not working for you,” I said, realizing there was no point in lying anymore. “I’m done with that life.”

“We’ll that life’s not done with you,” Mr. Harold said. “Look over to the front yard gates. To the right of that fence.”

I obeyed. The massive line of Transients boarding The Orion was gone, leaving only well-wishers, the media, and an army of suits maintaining the perimeter. Mr. Harold was easy to pick out in his blue pinstriped coat.

He was too far away to make out any real details, but I could tell he was waving.

“There you go, very nice,” Mr. Harold said. “So, this is what’s going to happen. I’m not sure why you want to keep your identity a secret, but if you want it to stay that way, you’re going to come to work for me as my new muscle. To show how grateful I am, I won’t have my man on the ship take out your friend Ricky. I call that a win, win.”

My mouth went dry. I believed him. Men like him didn’t lie.

Arun’s familiar voice sounded over the loudspeakers in the yard. “To all future passengers of The Orion, please ensure you are settled and give us your attention for the onboarding safety protocol.”

I weighed my options, but I knew I only had two. Stay and start working for a crime boss or board this shuttle and head to Orion. I started walking over to the area where Mr. Harold and his group of lackeys waited.

There was a much larger crowd gathered than I had suspected at first. It seemed Transients had come from all around to witness the departure of the first major group of Transients. When I finally made it to Mr. Harold, he was grinning from ear to ear.

“No one is going to mess with the Warlords now,” Mr. Harold said, stepping closer to the gate between us. “Not when they realize who you are.”

I studied the gate. The steel rods were placed wide enough for me to get my hand and maybe my head through.

“This is the beginning of a great partnership—”

I didn’t give him the satisfaction of finishing his sentence. With my right hand, I reached for his collar, grabbing a handful of cloth and jerking him toward the bars. His face contacted the cold steel and a moment later, I sent the crown of my head into his nose.

Blood spurted down his face and the gate. His lackeys reached for me, but I released my hold and stepped back. I didn’t wait to see what was going to happen next. I turned, running to find Ricky and whatever thug was shadowing him on the ship.

“You’re dead!” Mr. Harold yelled after me. “You and your friend are dead!”

Ignoring the threat, I focused my energy on running, while going through a mental checklist of where Ricky would be. He hadn’t said goodbye yet and knowing Ricky, he wasn’t going to leave without saying his goodbye’s. The last time I had seen him on the ship, he was helping load store supplies in the cargo hold.

I raced up one of the wide ramps to the shuttles, only to have a pair of suits stop me. They looked at me suspiciously before turning to their data pad. After the blue light scanned me, they nodded and waved me in.

“Welcome aboard, Mr. Slade,” one of them said with a smile. “Safe travels.”

“No, I’m not—” I started, then realized I didn’t have the time. “Thanks.”

I ran inside the shuttle, nearly colliding with Boss Creed.

“Whoa, there,” he said, catching me by my shoulders. “Hey, you decided to come.”

“Have you seen Ricky?” I asked, trying to look around the ship. The shuttles were as large as a three-story house, built to carry several hundred travelers. It would take a while to find my friend if I didn’t know where to look.

“What for?” he asked.

“He’s in trouble,” I said, quickly.

Boss Creed searched my eyes, then nodded. “He was looking for you in the yard. When he couldn’t find you, he thought you might have changed your mind and went to the lounge area.”

“Thanks,” I said, turning to go.

“I’m coming with you,” Boss Creed said.

I didn’t argue. I just followed the line on the floor that led to the lounge, which was near seating section twelve.

After a quick walk, we ran up a flight of curving stairs and emptied into the assembly level. The place was packed with Transients. There was an excited buzz in the air. A raised second level offered a bridge over the room.

“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 said 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 feel 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.

Wonderful, I thought to myself with a sigh.

Getting out of the cargo bay post-haste and telling Boss Creed or even one of the suits on board might have been the best idea. I could say I heard strange sounds and the lock was broken on the pen.

Once again, I’d be the center of attention. Maybe I should have just let someone else stumble upon this like I had, but Boss Creed knew I was down here.

Instead of debating all the pros and cons repeatedly, I went down to my hands and knees. If I did report this, I needed to get a better look at what was happening inside the pen. I’d feel like an idiot running for help if it was simply a broken lock. I needed more information, if for nothing else than to satiate my own curiosity. I looked down into the dark room, holding my breath.

The area inside the pen was long and wide. Green lights shined above smaller individual pens, lining the walls in the room.

This alone wasn’t that strange. I knew a few of the pens were larger, offering smaller compartments within. I pressed the right side of my body against the cool surface of the floor. My right cheek made contact, flattening my beard on the side of my face.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the light in the room, although I still really couldn’t see. All I could make out were green lights and movement.

Whining, mixed with angry, guttural growls, wafted from the pen. If there was anyone in the room, I couldn’t see them. All I could spot were large, dark shapes that roved around the floor. The creatures moved on four legs and acted as though they were agitated.

I was so enraptured with trying to figure out what the creatures were, I missed the hand snaking out from inside the pen to grab me by the collar.

With lightning quick motion, I felt myself get pulled inside.

Chapter 10

Whoever had grabbed me quickly released my collar and laid into me with a series of kicks and strikes. I staggered to my feet against the beating, somehow losing my hold on the wrench.

The strikes hitting me were well placed and brutal. Pain exploded in my stomach. Stars erupted in my head.

I put my hands up to block against it, more out of habit than anything else. I was already dazed. By the time I could see enough to make out my opponent, I was already a bloody mess. There was the metallic tang of blood in my mouth, and my right eye cheek had already gone numb.

Dressed in black, the person in front of me had a crimson handkerchief across their nose and mouth. All I could see were their eyes. They wanted to kill me.

I didn’t have time to focus on anything other than onto my consciousness and blocking the blows when they landed.

I played to my situation, pretending I was more injured than I was. My opponent pressed their attack, leaving them open for me to make my move. I sacrificed my own defensive as I jabbed out with a right, catching them in the throat.

They staggered back, grasping at their throat. I swung a wicked right hook, connecting with their eye. At the same time, they whipped out with their right foot and took me in the side of my ribs.

Pain exploded across my body as we both went down. I gasped, realizing my ribs were either broken or bruised. Either way, it wasn’t going to be pretty. I fought back to me knees, searching for my opponent. Like a wraith in the night, they were gone.

I told myself it wasn’t anything nefarious as I searched for them. They’d simply rolled out under the open pen door. That was it, I hoped.

I looked around the room one more time to make sure I was alone. My eyes had finally adjusted to the dull green light. As far as I could tell, it was only myself and the strange creatures on the other sides of the pens.

I winced as I rose to my feet, clutching my left side with my arm. I’d been in enough fights to tell my ribs were bruised, not broken.

Thoughts of leaving the inner pen as soon as possible and reporting all of this entered my mind, but I was already here. I had to find out what was on the other side of the smaller pens. Maybe even what that person had been doing here. My guess was that I’d stumbled on to something, because if they’d been here for me, I’d probably be dead.

Glancing around, there were at least twelve pens of creatures, six on each side. Each pen held a different beast. While they were all animals I recognized, each appeared modified to be larger and stronger than normal. The chickens were twice their typical size. The cows were more muscular, and their hides looked thicker. Instead of man’s best friend, the dogs took on the features of a wolf.

Each pen had a lock and audio seal on it, so you couldn’t hear them from outside. The attacker had been tampering with the dog’s gate when I’d surprised them, and the audio seal appeared to be broken.

A mangy mutt with pointed ears and thick fur came up to me, pawing at the door. The animal looked at me with large, sad eyes.

I placed my hand close enough where he could smell but not so close that he could bite me. He sniffed my hand through a long snout, and then he tried to lick me as if reassured by my presence.

Something else caught my eye, and I leaned down to look at a satchel on the floor. Before I could pick it up, I heard movement behind me.

“Stop there!” Stacy said, entering the room. She held a blaster in her hands, pointed at my head.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said, raising my hands. The act brought an excruciating level of pain from my ribs. “You didn’t see the masked guy running out of here? And why do you have a blaster?”

“Dean?” Stacy said, coming so close I could almost reach out and grab her weapon. “Turn around and get on your knees. I’m not going to ask you again.”

“Listen, I’m not really sure what’s—”

* * *

I awoke, propped up on a medical table. Blinking rapidly into the bright white lights above, I saw an angel. No, not an angel—Iris, the ship’s Cognitive. Her ethereal glow made her appear to be a divine being, like something from the old religions, and she was looking down at me with the same look of pity I gave that mutt in the pen.

“How are you, Dean Slade?” Iris asked in a too human voice. “Can you hear me?”

“I can hear you,” I said, wincing at the pain in my head and side. “Where am I?”

“You are restrained in the medical unit on The Orion seed ship.” Iris looked down at my wrists and ankles. “You were found breaking into the pens in the cargo area and attempting to weaponize the animals Elon Drake brought aboard.”

“Weaponize?” I repeated, clenching my fists to test the bonds. The steel cuffs around my hands didn’t budge. They cut into my skin, so I relaxed for the time being. “Listen, I know what you think you saw, but it wasn’t me. I fought whoever was breaking into the pen. Come on, you don’t believe me? You must have cameras everywhere on this ship. You’re a freaking Cognitive for crying out loud.”

Before Iris could respond, the door opened. Stacy, Elon, and Arun walked in. Stacy wore the same mechanic clothing as always, Elon and Arun were dressed in dark, grey uniforms. Arun’s long, white hair was pinned behind her head, while Elon’s was in a ponytail.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and venture a guess that you’re not a mechanic,” I said, staring daggers at Stacy. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but I felt betrayed. “So, what are you then? Some kind of suit spy?”

Stacy looked over to Arun who nodded to her.

“Special agent, actually,” Stacy said, crossing her arms over her ample chest. “Disciple threats were coming in every day, especially at the construction yards. I was placed in yours to keep an eye out for people like you. That’s also why I’m on this ship.”

I bit my tongue so hard it hurt. Instinct kicked in. I wanted to remind her that actual terrorists attacked our yard. That maybe she should work on finding them instead of keeping me detained. That there was a terrorist on board our ship.

“I didn’t do anything except try and stop the person who was going to release those animals,” I looked over to Elon. “Why do you have animals in the cargo pen to begin with? Hell, while we’re at it, why are they so big and—”

“Enhanced looking?” Elon asked, finishing my thought.

“Sure, we can go with enhanced. I was going to go with mutated and deformed, but sure,” I said.

“We’re taking twelve special kinds of animals with us to Kronos Five, to build and sustain a working population, each for different reasons. A new colony needs livestock.” Elon moved his hands as he spoke like a conductor leading an orchestra. “Most of the animals were chosen for the food, but a few were also chosen as companions. The dogs, for example, are genetically modified to have the loyalty of a German Shepard with the size of a large wolf.”

“Great, we’re taking giant puppies to keep people happy on an alien planet,” I said.

“I do not believe that Dean Slade is responsible for the vandalism found in the cargo bay,” Iris said, interrupting our conversation. “Although the cameras show no one else, I did discover something strange while playing back the footage.”

“No, it has to be him,” Stacy said, shaking her head. She skewered me with a glare.

I stared right back at her.

“There was no one else there when I arrived,” Stacy said. “No one passed me when I found him.”

Iris opened her right hand, palm-side up. Immediately, a screen appeared in the air above us, glowing with the same dull blue illumination that surrounded her.

The image looked down on the cargo pen door labeled with the warning sign. There was no one on camera yet. Even with the absence of any person, the lock on the cargo bay door was already broken and raised a meter. It was like someone had perfected the art of invisibility and succeeded in masking themselves from the camera.

“See?” I said, pressing my case. “I don’t know how they did that, but there it is. Last I checked, I couldn’t turn invisible.”

“Fast-forward to when Dean arrives,” Arun spoke for the first time.

Iris obeyed, fast-forwarding the footage to a few minutes later when my familiar, nosy face appeared on the screen. A moment later, a very real arm reached out and pulled me inside the pen.

“There are no cameras on the inside of the pen,” Iris said, confirming what we were all thinking. She rewound the feed and froze it on the image of the arm reaching out to pull me in. “However, that arm is enough proof to confirm what Dean Slade said is true.”

“All right, then,” I said, nodding over to Iris. “I take back everything bad I ever said about Cognitives.”

“Iris, let the feed play forward,” Arun asked.

Iris obeyed, showing the person dragging me into the pen. Within a mere twenty seconds, Stacy appeared on the screen, ducking under the pen door behind me.

“So, tell us exactly what happened in the pen once you were dragged inside, in as much detail as you can remember,” Arun said, looking over to me with his familiar calculating stare.

“It was dark,” I said, piecing together the events for myself. “When they started pounding on me, it must have deactivated their cloaking tech. They wore all black with a red handkerchief around their face. I could only see their eyes.”

“Was it a man or a woman who attacked you?” Elon asked.

“A man, I think, but I don’t know for sure,” I said, trying to recall the few seconds in poor lighting where I had seen my assailant.

“You think?” Stacy pried.

“Hey, give me a break,” I said, trying to move a hand to my head only to remember I was still strapped to the table. “I had a concussion and probably some bruised ribs.”

“The Disciples’ colors are black and red,” Elon mused out loud.

“Well, while we’re all playing detective, do you think I can get out of these restraints?” I asked, looking round the room.

“Yes, of course,” Arun said, nodding to Iris.

Iris merely glanced at the bonds holding me in place, and they opened. With a satisfying click, I was free.

“We need a plan to find and lure out this Disciple before he or she tries anything else,” Stacy said, pursing her lips in thought.

“Yep, right, so this has been great,” I said with a grimace as I swung my legs off the bed and stood up. “I’ll leave you to your Disciple hunt. I’m going to go lick my wounds and pretend there isn’t an invisible maniac on board trying to bring this ship down.”

“We need your help, Dean,” Arun said.

“Don’t you have an army of suits on board or a—”

“You’re the only one who has seen who we’re after. That makes you our key witness,” Elon told me.

“But I’m not a suit,” I said, then flicked my hand at Stacy. “And I sure as hell ain’t no spy.”

“Special Agent,” she corrected.

“No, you’re not,” said Elon. “But that doesn’t mean you’re not valuable.”

Chapter 11

“Before we begin, we all know who you are,” Elon confessed. “Stacy had her questions when you assisted her in the alley, and it was confirmed when she looked up your history. It was acknowledged once more, when we took in the gang member sent to kill Ricky. He had a lot to say about you, too.”

“Wonderful,” I said, looking over at Stacy with a grimace. “You didn’t really need my help in that alley, did you? I mean you could have taken those thugs yourself.”

“I was about to when you showed up,” Stacy agreed. “I couldn’t blow my cover, and you looked more than capable, so I let you be my knight in shining armor. It was kind of nice. Also, sorry for tasing you in the pen. I thought you were a Disciple.”

“Yeah, it happens, I guess,” I said. “Well, maybe it doesn’t, but it’s fine.” Now that I had everyone’s attention, I decided I needed a few answers. “What was that holo card you dropped in the alley? Your badge or something?”

“Undercover, we don’t carry badges, but it contained information I had collected, and I was going to drop it off to Elon and Arun,” Stacy said. “If those thugs had gotten their hands on it, my cover would have been blown.”

Looking back on it, the only reason I was even on Orion right now was because I’d stuck my neck out for Stacy in the first place—someone who didn’t even need my help. The irony in that wasn’t lost on me.

“If you’re done with your questions, we should move on. A plan to catch the saboteur we have on board needs to be hatched,” Arun said, reeling everyone back in.

“Just one more question,” I said.

Arun looked at me, giving me permission to go on.

“There was a satchel or a leather case of some kind left behind by the Disciple. I only saw it for a second, but it was by the pen with those wolf-dog things. What was it?” I asked. “Was the plan to poison the animals so we wouldn’t have them on Kronos Five?”

“That would have been my guess as well,” Elon said, anger smoldering in his eyes. “But, I’m afraid the plan you stumbled upon is much darker than it initially appeared.”

“The satchel you saw was filled with a violent strain of rabies,” Iris interjected, picking up the conversation. “We believe the plan was to possibly inject all the animals with the strain, not just the canines, and let them loose on the ship.”

My mind went wild with images of animals foaming at the mouth as they burst from the cargo bay. This Disciple was sick, and it made me wonder what his next move would be. Anyone who could even consider doing that had to be out of their mind.

“So, where do we start?” I asked.

“He or she had access to the cargo bay,” Arun mused, lowering her eyes. “We can start there. We may even be able to narrow it down by seeing who was granted access to the bay this morning. Iris?”

Iris blinked her bright blue eyes. “I can bring up all of that information for you as requested, but looking at the data right now, I believe I have a theory.”

“What’s that?” Elon asked.

“It is more likely that the Disciple used whatever cloaking technology they had to slip in alongside someone else. The logs show thirteen people checking in and out of the cargo hold this morning before Mr. Slade arrived.”

“None of this is to leave this room,” said Elon, rather insistently. “Not until Iris has time to run a more thorough investigation.”

“Elon and I will continue our efforts here with Iris while you and Stacy work separately on another leg of the investigation,” Arun said, looking at me to see if I would disagree.

I did.

“Boss Creed might have a few things to say about that, and I’m a mechanic not an investigator,” I said, trying to piece together the events that had led me to this point.

“He’s telling the truth,” Stacy said with a shrug. “Maybe he’s not the best asset to put into the field. I mean, I work best alone and—” She paused. “Well, look at him. He’s kind of a mess.”

“We’ll ask Boss Creed to send you two on a special assignment fixing something on the higher levels,” Elon stated as if he had already thought about this and come up with the solution. “And you’re both wrong. He’s the perfect person to help you, Stacy.”

“You possess more hand-to-hand training experience than anyone on The Orion,” Arun said, picking up where her brother left off. “And I won’t send one of our best into the field alone. Not now, when we know for certain there is a Disciple on board.”

“A cloaked Disciple at that,” Iris chimed in.

“The only people who know about Stacy’s cover are the five of us, Doctor Allbright, and the Civil Authority Officers on this ship.” Elon looked at me with concern in his eyes. “It is paramount we keep it this way.”

“I’m not saying anything,” I said, lifting my arms in a sign of surrender. I immediately regretted the action as another wave of agony washed over my left rib cage.

“Speaking of the good doctor, we’ll send her in here right away to get you looked at,” Elon said, heading for the door. “You and Stacy both have access to our quarters if you should need anything.”

Iris followed behind Elon. Instead of using the door, she traveled right through the wall itself. I knew Cognitives were capable of phasing in and out of physical objects, but it was still weird seeing it firsthand.

“You two be careful,” Arun said, stopping at the door as she turned to leave. “The Disciple tried to attack us a day into our journey. You can bet he or she will try again.”

With that, the trio was gone. I stood in the room looking over at Stacy with an arched eyebrow.

“What?”  she asked, tilting her head down and looking up at me with those big brown eyes. “You want me to say I’m sorry or something? It’s my job.”

“Naw, I get that,” I said. “I’m just debating whether I should be able to tase you back to be fair and all.”

“What?” Stacy scrunched her brow and shook her head. “No way. When I tased you, I thought you were a Disciple. Anyone could have made that mistake. And for the record, when I found you hunched over that pen of canines, you looked super guilty.”

“I think you’re mistaking guilt for what a concussion looks like,” I answered back. “Speaking of that, you should know the Disciple is strong and really knows how to fight. They were precise with their attacks, and each blow felt like a sledgehammer.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound promising,” said a voice from the door. Doctor Allbright entered the room with her data pad in one hand and a motherly expression on her lips. “Mr. Slade, what are the chances that we’d meet again?”

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that it's not the last time you’re going to see him either.” Stacy found a stool tucked into the corner of the room and plopped herself down. “This one is accident-prone.”

“’This one,’” I said, repeating Stacy’s new name for me, “was fine until he stumbled across what he thought was an innocent mechanic getting mugged. Turns out, you’re neither of those things.”

Stacy just grinned at that.

“My goodness, you must be in a serious amount of pain.” Doctor Allbright ran the Med-Aid across my ribs and face. “Mild concussion, bruised ribs, and a laceration inside of your mouth.”

“Sounds about right,” I said.

Doctor Allbright went to work on me with the help of the Med-Aid.

When she gave me a mild sedative, I didn’t fight her.

“All due respect, Doc, but I think I’ll let the inside of my mouth heal on its own,” I said, looking at her right hand as she tried to open my jaw to insert the device. “I’m not too excited about opening wide for that thing.”

“Understood,” Doctor Allbright said, then lifted the side of my shirt to look at my ribs. She frowned at what she saw. “If you remove your shirt, I’ll be able to use the Med-Aid to speed the healing process along.”

I complied, moving my long-sleeved shirt gingerly over my head. With each new motion, I bit back the need to grunt in pain.

Both women’s jaws dropped when I uncovered myself. I wished all of their drooling had been about my abs, but I had picked up more than a few scars over the years. Surgeries, fights, and accidents had taken their toll across my body, painting a canvas of pain that shocked most people.

“You can take a picture while you’re at it,” I told them. “We can put it in a nice frame, too.”

Stacy looked away. Heat rose to her face.

“Yes, sorry,” Doctor Allbright moved the Med-Aid to my side. A warm feeling came from the machine, not quite burning but hot enough to notice. “We’ll be done in a moment.”

When the doctor was through, I waved goodbye and thanked her for the help. It surprised me to find her on the ship, but I supposed it made sense, considering she’d been a little overqualified to be the on-site doctor for our little construction site. Had she been stationed there to simply wait her turn to leave?

Stacy cleared her throat, getting back to business as soon as Allbright was gone. “We should head up to the tech floor and talk to someone about the cloak our Disciple is wearing. See if we can get any information that would help find this person.”

“Right,” I said, getting to my feet. “I could probably use a blaster, by the way.”

“Yeah, right,” Stacy said with a laugh, throwing me an amused smile. “No way you’re getting your hands on one of those.”

Chapter 12

The Orion was truly a masterpiece. With one hundred thousand Transients on board, two Eternals and a Cognitive, you’d think the moon-shaped ship would be cramped, but it wasn’t. Three hundred levels ranging from cafeterias to sleeping quarters and recreation areas, filled the ship.

As Stacy and I made our way from the medical level, she whipped out the same red holo card I had seen her drop in the alley. She swiped it in front of a waiting elevator. Without pause, the cylinder-shaped lift dinged open.

“Nifty little card you got there,” I said, motioning to it. “Give you access to the whole ship?”

“All access whenever I need it and no stops along the way,” Stacy said, punching in our destination on the holo-screen in front of her.

A moment later, the elevator doors closed and we were moving. The same tech that aided the inertial dampeners in propelling us through space while standing still, made the feeling of the speeding elevator feel well, like not moving at all.

“I’m going to guess the chances of me getting one of those cards is…” I allowed my voice to trail off.

“Maybe if you joined the Civil Authority Force on Kronos Five, I could see about getting you a blaster and a holo card,” Stacy said, eyeing me as if she was expecting my answer.

“Me? A suit?” I said, shaking my head. I ran a hand through my hair. “No way. I mean, I appreciate all you do, but trying to police a new colony on an alien planet is not my idea of a fun job.”

“Shame, you’d look nice in a suit.” Stacy shrugged as the elevator doors opened in front of us. “Listen, let me do the talking. I don’t want you to spook the head technician. He’s sort of an oddball.”

The way Stacy said oddball told me all I needed to know. Whoever we were about to see was a straight up loony. That was fine. I had a running theory that we were all a bit broken and crazy in our own ways. Anyone who denied that was just lying to themselves or trying to hide who they truly were.

The elevator dropped us off in a hall alongside the doors of another dozen elevators. I followed Stacy to the left where the level opened into a large waiting room area. There was soft carpet underfoot with chairs and even a fresh assortment of flowers on the table next to a pile of reading material.

Stacy made her way to a desk with a holo-screen. There was no one present, receptionist or otherwise. Stacy opened the display, scrolling down the names of technicians and workers until she stopped on a Doctor James Wong. She tapped the name, opening a line of communication.

“Doctor James Wong’s office, how can I help you?” A cheery female voice asked over the line.

“Hello,” Stacy begin in a rather cherry voice of her own. “My name is Stacy Wilson, I need to speak with the doctor. It’s an important matter straight from the Eternals.”

There was a pause on the other line.

“Are you still there?” Stacy asked.

“Yes—yes, I’m sorry,” the woman recovered. “Doctor Wong is in the middle of his designated resting period. He doesn’t like to be disturbed, but if it’s a matter from the Eternals—may I confirm the request?”

Stacy reached for her holo card again, tapping it a few times before swiping it across the open channel on the larger holo on the desk.

“I see,” the woman on the other end said. “Please, just give me a moment to wake him. You may proceed all the way down the hall and make a right when it dead ends. His office will be on your left.”

The line closed. A quick second later, there was a click at the door leading deeper inside. I followed Stacy as we strode toward what I hoped would be answers.

The technician floor was nothing like I’d imagined. No cubicles or closed doors, and no privacy at all. As far as I could see in every direction, there were teams of technicians in white lab coats and white aprons hard at work in glass rooms divided by narrow walkways.

It was hard to say what they were working on, as different teams in different rooms seemed to be handling a variety of projects at once. Behind goggles and gloves, they worked on advancements I had no doubt we would need once we reached Kronos Five.

I saw one group on my left, working on something that looked like a high-tech lawn mower, while another team of two struggled on my right with a sort of black goopy substance.

“Makes you wonder what they didn’t have time to complete since the launch date was moved up,” Stacy said as we strode forward. “I mean, unless they had everything ready to go in advance, it’s likely they launched without even being ready.”

“Nice thoughts to keep me company at night,” I growled. “The real you is just a ray of sunshine.”

“Ah, you’re sweet,” Stacy beamed, looking back and batting her eyes before continuing forward.

We made it down the first hall and turned to the right. Obeying the instructions we had been given a moment before, we looked to our left where a glass room opened. There was a perky receptionist that looked a bit nervous in a smaller outer chamber.

Another glass wall showed the view of an older man with his feet propped on his desk and some kind of mask over his face.

“I told him you were coming with business straight from the Eternals,” the receptionist said. She stood from her desk, wringing her hands. She was nervous and not good at hiding it. “He’s awake, even if he looks like he’s not. He’s just pretending to be asleep to see if you will leave him alone.”

“How annoyingly delightful,” Stacy said.

The woman tried a nervous laugh then stopped halfway through. She looked over at me with that same strange smile. There was something in her eyes I couldn’t quite place.

Stacy didn’t waste any more time. She crossed the room and let herself into the glass office. The place was a pigsty. There were food wrappers and containers littered all over the ground, with a few used shirts and data cards. It looked like the nerdiest man alive had gone on an education bender in the two days we’d been in space.

“Doctor Wong?” Stacy asked.

The balding man behind the desk didn’t move.  A black night mask covering his eyes hid any indication whether he had seen us or not.

“Excuse me, Doctor Wong?” Stacy said a bit louder. She took a step closer. “We’re here on order of the Eternals to ask you a few questions.”

He didn’t move but a steady snoring came from his thin lips. Not like real snoring but the kind of noises you make when you want someone to think you’re sleeping.

“Okay, rise and shine,” I said, moving past Stacy. I swatted at the man’s polished dress shoes propped up on his desk.

His feet came off their resting place as he swung around in his chair. He grabbed at his mask as he lost balance, wobbling to try and stay seated.

“How awfully rude!” He said, finally removing his mask and staring at me defiantly. Reaching among the debris of packaged food wrappers and papers on his desk, he grabbed a pain of thin, wire-framed glasses and perched them on his small nose.

He glared at me, darting his eyes up and down, taking in my less than impressive clothing. He blinked a few times, turning to Stacy.

“What is it that you want? You are interrupting my personal time, and when Doctor Wong doesn’t get his nap, he gets angry.”

“Well, when you see Doctor Wong, tell him this will only take a few minutes of his time,” Stacy said, producing her magical holo card once more. “I have orders from the top to speak to you.”

“What are you? Civil Authority, here on The Orion? No, you’re not wearing uniforms.” Doctor Wong drummed perfectly manicured nails across his glass desk. “No, you’re something else, aren’t you?” He studied her for a long moment, narrowing his eyes before smacking the desk. “Consider my attention grabbed. What is it that I may do for you Mr. and Mrs.?”

“My name is Stacy Wilson, and this is my—associate, Mr. Slade,” she said.

“We’re here on behalf of the Eternals, working on an issue they have,” Stacy said. She walked over to the desk and leaned down, so she was eye level with Doctor Wong. “What do you know about personal cloaking devices?”

Doctor Wong’s eyes widened. He looked to Stacy and then at me.

“Hey, don’t give me that look. The lady asked you a question,” I said.

“Are you serious?” Doctor Wong asked Stacy.

“Dead serious,” Stacy replied.

“Well, well, well, the plot thickens.” Doctor Wong actually smiled. “Things here were starting to get boring. Sure, space travel was fun the first day, but now I’m stuck here for six weeks in a glass box.”

Stacy and I looked at each other.

“Back to the matter at hand,” I said, trying to reel the strange doctor back in. “Does tech with the ability to cloak someone exist?”

“Well, yes, of course it does. I’ve seen a cloaking mechanism before, but we don’t have one here or on the ship.” Doctor Wong studied my expression. “Or do we?”

Chapter 13

I looked over at Stacy, I wasn’t sure how much of this she wanted to divulge to the doctor. He was a weirdo for sure, but he wasn’t stupid. He understood exactly what we were getting at.

“Who did you say you were again?” The doctor pushed.

“We didn’t,” Stacy answered back, going for her holo card yet again.

Man, that thing is like a magic ticket, I thought to myself.

She swiped it over Doctor Wong’s holographic enhanced table. A decree signed by Arun, stating that we were sent by the Eternals and to be treated as officers of the ship, popped up.

“My, my, I thought I was going to nap all day again and then go out for drinks, but you have my interest piqued.” Doctor Wong rolled his head around his neck stretching his muscles. He then waved his hand over his deck and brought up a screen and keyboard. His hand flew over the keyboard like a true professional.

“I appreciate the help,” Stacy said, taking a step back to let him do his work. “But you’re the head of Technology Advancement, shouldn’t you be more interested in work and less sleep?”

“Trust me, I’ve been over the numbers a million times.” Doctor Wong’s eyes never left the holo-screen in front of him. “Barring a catastrophic event, we’ll make it to Kronos Five in one piece. Once we get there, we have all the tools necessary to begin a thriving colony. The fun part will be working on the fly as we encounter obstacles we never prepared for. Right now, I’ve just been bored. I spend most days napping and drinking. Ah, here we go.”

Doctor Wong pushed his spectacles up further on his nose and turned his holographic screen toward us. On the screen, there were two videos playing. One was of a woman holding what appeared to be a blanket made of some kind of translucent fabric. She placed it over herself and completely disappeared. The other screen showed a man with a heavy wristwatch. He pressed a few buttons on it and also disappeared.

“As of this moment, these are the two ways to do it,” Doctor Wong explained. “One projects images around it through thousands of tiny cameras showing what is behind the wearer. The other bends light. Of course, there is always the possibility that someone has created a third option we do not yet know about.”

“Is there any way to track it?” Stacy asked, trying to come up with a solution. “Does it leave a trace of any kind?”

“I’m afraid not.” the doctor swung his monitor around again. His fingers flew over his keyboard faster than I could track. “What I’m getting from this conversation is that there is someone on board you need to capture that has a cloaking device. I’m guessing it’s a Disciple since they’re the ones with the strongest vendetta against the Eternals and this project.”

“We’re not at liberty to speak on the matter,” Stacy said calmly.

“Oh, a mystery.” Doctor Wong stood from his desk with a huge Cheshire cat smile. “My, my, how I do love a mystery. Sign me up.”

“Sign you up for what?” I asked.

“I’ll help,” he said as he began to pace back and forth behind his desk. “As of right now, there is no way to track someone using either type of these cloaking devices, but that doesn’t mean it would be impossible to create one. Give me a day or two, and I’ll figure it out.”

“Very good,” Stacy said, and walking forward she extended her hand. “Thank you. My contact information is on the holo info that I downloaded into your desk computer.”

“Yes, yes.” Doctor Wong shook her hand half-heartedly. His mind was already racing with the possibilities of a new conquest. He pressed a finger of his free hand on his holo-desk. “Marcy, would you be a dear and get me some of that sniffing caffeine, please? I have a long night of work ahead of me. Thank you.”

I looked up to see Marcy the receptionist staring at us from the glass wall that divided her area from the doctor’s office. She pressed a button on her holo desk. “Yes, doctor, right away.”

“We’ll leave you to it,” Stacy said, motioning me out of the office and down the hall.

“You feel like we can trust him?” Stacy asked.

“Well, he sniffs caffeine, and that has to mess with his head somehow, but I think he’s telling us the truth,” I said scratching at my beard. “I think he’ll come through.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence out of the technology advancements level and back to the cylinder-elevator waiting for us.

“So, what now?” I asked thinking Stacy had some master plan or some kind of suit protocol to follow. I waited to hear her groundbreaking insight.

“Now we get lunch,” Stacy said as we entered the elevator. “I’m starving.”

We rode the elevator to the closest cafeteria. The door opened in front of us to a bustling sight of Transients from all walks of life, waiting their turn in line for a hot meal.

The smells coming from the kitchen area were absolutely mouthwatering. I loved food in all shapes and sizes. From burritos, to burgers and cake, I didn’t discriminate. What I smelled now was barbeque, and it made my stomach rumble with greed anticipation.

Stacy led the way to a food carrousel on our left. There was a stack of dark blue trays along with clean plates and utensils. We grabbed ours and fell in line behind an older woman holding the hand of a young girl. The girl couldn’t have been more than two or three, but I was bad at guessing these kinds of things.

She had dark brown hair with a pink bow, a dirty purple jacket and worn boots. She turned to look up at us with big brown eyes and a smile.

Personally, I didn’t really know how to feel about kids. I mean they were kids, and this one was kind of cute. I smiled back. Stacy went for a full-on hand wave and laugh.

The little girl smiled back before the line moved again.

Stacy and I had found an empty table. My plate was loaded with barbequed chicken and ribs, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and a big glass of water to wash it all down.

Stacy was looking at the little girl and her grandmother again, then turned around toward me.

“Man, I love kids,” She said, opening her napkin and placing it on her lap. “That’s part of the reason I do what I do. There are so many innocent lives put in harm’s way, especially children.”

“Mhm,” I said through a mouthful of potatoes.

“Do you have any kids?” Stacy asked gently, scooping up a pile of her own mashed potatoes and carefully putting it into her mouth.

“Nope, and I don’t really want to talk about it,” I said, grabbing a sauce-stricken rib and tearing into it. The meat hit my taste buds like heaven had somehow managed to enter my mouth.

“That was just a polite question,” Stacy said, clearing her throat and eyeing my hands-on approach to eating with disdain. “I read your file.”

“Good for you,” I said, taking note at how much my eating was bothering her. I may have let some mac and cheese dribble onto my beard just to mess with her. “So, what are we going to do next?”

“Nope, no way,” Stacy said, eyeing me. “If you don’t want to talk about your past, I can respect that, but for better or worse, we’re working together. I want to know more about the guy who is going to have my back. You don’t want to get to know me?”

“I know you’re a good liar,” I shrugged. “You had me fooled from the time that I thought I was helping you in the alley to when you tased me.”

“You’re going to have to get over that,” Stacy said with an eye roll. “I lie to everyone so don’t feel bad.”

“You could have taken those guys in the alley when I found you, huh?” I asked, already guessing at the answer.

“I was about to when you showed up. I changed my mind and figured I’d let you do it to secure my cover,” Stacy lifted her glass of water and took a dainty sip.

I stuffed my mouth with as much chicken as it would hold and then took another bite.

“You should know that I take my job very seriously, and I don’t plan on failing this assignment,” Stacy said. Her tone changed, hardened for a moment. “I joined the Civil Authority ten years ago. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. I get that this is just an event for you because you’re the only one that knows what’s going on here besides me. But this is some serious business.”

“I get it,” I said, reaching for my own water. “I don’t think this is some kind of joke either. I’m going to find whoever thought it was a good idea to put a beating on me and return the favor.”

“That’s all this is to you?” Stacy asked. “Just a chance for revenge?”

I thought about her question. There definitely was the revenge aspect. I looked over at the giggling little girl and her grandmother eating beside her. I thought about what would have happened to her if the Disciple’s plan had been carried out and one of the rabid animals had found her first.

“No,” I said. “I want to find the Disciple to put them down for good, so we can have a peaceful run in space before getting to the new colony.”

“Good,” Stacy said, reaching for her knife and fork. She began to cut the meat off the bone of her rib.

It was a strange event to watch. I’d never seen anyone eat as methodically and slowly as Stacy. Watching her was almost painful.

“We should—”

Stacy’s next words were cut off as she reached for the holo card in her pocket. It was vibrating ever so gently. She tapped a button, and a message appeared on her screen a moment later.

I could tell there was something very wrong by the expression on her face. She looked up at me with a stare that could have turned me to stone.

“We have a problem,” Stacy said standing from her seat. “We need to go, now.”

Chapter 14

Everything I knew of the terrorist group that called themselves the Disciples was pretty despicable. Founded on the ideology that humans were not meant to evolve past our current state, they hated everything there was to do with any kind of new technology, medicine, or tampering with DNA.

Specifically, they hated the Eternals who had found a way to prolong their own lives through the use of advanced nanotechnology and DNA manipulation. You could imagine how they felt about traveling amongst the stars and starting a new colony on an alien planet.

Attacks had ranged from shooting and bombings, to the hacking of networks and online assassination attempts. But the message Stacy received on her holo card, if it were true, would be a new low for them.

I followed her down to a level I had only seen once before in passing. It was the garden area open to the Transient population. A place where they could go and forget they were on a ship altogether. There were fields of grass, plants, and trees even growing up from the rich soil.

The entire place smelt of the woods back on Earth. Living in the city, I could forget that we still had preserved national parks and forests, but the smells here brought all of that back.

As we exited the elevator, Iris appeared next to us in her ethereal blue glow. I nearly pissed myself. Actually, I think I did a little.

“Holy shit!” I said, balling my hands into fists. Not that I wanted to hurt her. I couldn’t if I tried. It was just my go-to reaction when I was scared. “You’ve got to give us a head’s up before you appear like that.”

“What is a head’s up?” Iris asked, tilting her head to the side.

“You know, like uh, advanced warning that you’re going to appear,” I said.

“I’ll note that down for next time,” Iris nodded.

“So, what do we have here?” Stacy asked.

Iris motioned us to follow her as she took the lead down an aisle of massive planters full of wildflowers. If it weren’t for the overhanging lights and steel walls, I would have sworn I was taking a stroll in some kind of fancy park. I guess that was the point of all of this.

“I noticed an abnormality in the growth of the plants in the green room,” Iris explained quietly, so she wasn’t overheard as we crossed the level. “I did not warn the workers here lest we set off a panic. If I’m right, we have a very serious problem on our hands.”

“Great,” I said shaking my head. “Why couldn’t you have just called us over for some good news. Like you wanted to see how our day was, or you had cookies to share.”

“Ignore him,” Stacy said. “Iris, what exactly are you talking about? What abnormality did you come across?”

“Perhaps it’s better if I show you,” Iris said, motioning with an open hand to one of several large greenhouses on the opposite side of the level. There were square greenhouses all lined up together at the rear. Each one was made up of fogged glass and steel supports. The roof came to a point as it sloped up.

I breathed a heavy sigh, wondering what it could be now. I also wondered how I managed to get myself into this mess for the hundredth time. I was here now, and that’s what mattered.

Images of the little girl eating with her grandmother crossed in front of my mind. Maybe I didn’t care what happened at one time. Maybe I just wanted to keep my head down, but I hated to admit that Stacy was right on some level. I couldn’t just stand and allow this Disciple terrorist to have his or her way with the ship. There were too many lives on board.

Iris paused for a moment at the door, waving her hand past a scanner. It immediately clicked open and afforded us entrance.

I walked inside the greenhouse behind Iris and Stacy.

Inside, I was surprised to find we were alone. There were troughs lined up with more rich soil and fruits and vegetables growing out of them. It looked like a chef's dream.

“Each greenhouse carries budding plants, as well as seeds we plan to use for the new colony when we arrive on Kronos Five,” Iris explained to us as she pointed to a misting system that ran just above us. “One of my tasks is to monitor the health of this food source, as it will be paramount in our key of surviving in our new home. A system warning went off, indicating the water level coming from the misters above fluctuated for a brief second.”

Iris looked at us with her crazy blue eyes as if we were supposed to know what she was talking about.

“And?” Stacy said, trying to piece together the facts that Iris assumed we would understand.

“Someone is tampering with the water supply,” Iris said, taking us even further into the room.

My boots stepped in small puddles where the water had gathered from the mist units overhead.

“I tested the water supply to make sure my findings were not unfound,” Iris said. “There is an alien element that has been added to the system. As soon as I detected it, I ran extensive tests accelerating the effects the foreign element would have on our plants if it could continue to water them.

Iris waived us deeper into the room, leading us to a trough of shriveled cabbage. There was a smell of rot coming from the vegetables. The vibrant green the heads of cabbage usually wore were now molding and brown. Leaves fell from the center as though it had been left out in the hot sun for days on end.

“I used the tainted water supply to test these cabbages. There was no change at first, so I increased the dosages to a more potent level. In a week, all the vegetables will look like this. The water is also unfit for human consumption or for use topically. Rashes will break out in weeks if it is used to shower. In a month’s time, organs will shut down if it is consumed.”

Stacy and I shared the same look of disbelief on our face. I knew the Disciples were nuts, but to do this to one hundred thousand people who were just searching for a new home seemed low, even for them. Death by thirst was one way I never thought I’d go out. It would drive people mad here on the ship.

“Have you already told Elon and Arun?” Stacy asked the Cognitive. “Who else knows?”

“They both know, and now so do you,” Iris said looking at the two of us. “No one else is aware. The slightest whisper could cause widespread panic. Elon and Arun are with the emergency water reserve now, ensuring that it is well-guarded with every security measure at our disposal.”

“There’s a reserve water supply?” I asked, feeling a slight sense of relief. “Iris, you’ve really got to lead with information like that next time.”

“Yes,” Iris said, opening her palm. A holo image appeared in the space above her hand. It showed a room with massive water containers on their sides. They looked big enough to float a boat, but I knew with a hundred thousand mouths to quench, the water would go quickly.

“Will it be enough to last us until we reach Kronos Five?” Stacy asked the question I couldn’t bring myself to.

“Without showers and only used for drinking...” Iris paused for the briefest moment as if she were doing some internal math. “Yes, but only if we are careful and ration it wisely.”

The tension in my shoulders relaxed but only for a moment. I understood what we were up against better than most. Telling everyone aboard that their water was going to be rationed would cause panic and worry no matter how we positioned it.

If we told them there was a Disciple saboteur on board, there would be widespread mayhem. There was no doubt in my mind about that. Dissention would be sowed, and fingers would be pointed.

“What if this is what the Disciple wants?” Stacy asked, staring at the rotting heads of cabbage. “What if his or her mission is to just create as much chaos as possible in hopes we’ll turn on each other.”

“Then they’re going to be sadly mistaken when I get my hands on them,” I said, cracking the knuckles on both of my fists. “We’ve been chasing this person, and we’re always a step behind for the last few attacks. If I were him, I’d keep going.”

“If I already went after the animals and water, where would I be next?” Stacy asked out loud, catching onto my train of thought. “Iris, what system controls the recycled air in The Orion?”

“That would be level five and the oxygen reclaiming process,” Iris said. She changed the holographic picture in her palm to a room filled with humming machines. “But like everything else it is carefully guarded and—”

“Carefully guarded doesn’t really apply to someone who’s invisible.” I said. “Not when they can sneak in with someone who has access to the room.”

“Iris, what’s that?” Stacy nearly yelled as she stabbed a finger at the image in front of us.

I followed her eyes to a large square machine of some kind that let out a billow of smoke. My heart seized in my chest. The smoke looked like it was hitting someone or something hunched down by the ground. The invisible figure was only able to be seen by their outline, thanks to the steam behind them.

“Let’s go!” I said racing for the door.

“Iris, tell Elon and Arun, and have as many suits as you can lock down the level,” Stacy said, already turning to join me.

“Understood,” Iris said as we ran for the elevator.

It was impossible to tell if we were going to be too late. I had no idea how long the terrorist had been there and how long it would take them to finish whatever it was they were doing.

Stacy and I sprinted for the elevator like the god of Hades was behind us. We pushed past people, receiving shouts of anger in return. If they only knew what we were up to, they would be shouting for us to hurry.

I didn’t want to think what chemical agent the Disciple would be introducing into our air system. I ran faster.

Chapter 15

I sprinted faster than I could ever remember going before. Once we reached the elevator on the garden level, Stacy swiped her magic holo card and got us a lift to level five. It felt like an eternity but, couldn’t have been more than a minute.

“We’ll probably get there first,” Stacy said, removing her blaster from a holster on the small of her back and checking it. “Stay behind me.”

I wasn’t that familiar with the model of blaster she held, but I was a fan of the old school ballistic weapon previously used on Earth. They were more of historical items now. What Stacy carried reminded me of a fat 1911 with a few extra buttons by the grip. I assumed that’s where the user toggle was between deadly force and a stun bolt.

“I’m not arguing, you’re the one with the blaster,” I said, eyeing it again.

“Iris, talk to me,” Stacy said as she pulled out her holo card with her other hand. “I need directions.”

“I’ve lost sight of the Disciple,” Iris gave us the bad news in her usual crisp tone. “I’m checking alternate cameras now to see if I can pick up his trace. He was last spotted down the right corridor, leading to a room on your right where the oxygen purifiers are held. I’ve also routed all available Civil Authority Officers to the level and informed Elon and Arun.”

“Thank you,” Stacy, and the elevator doors opened in front of us.

She burst into the hall, running down through an open room and to the right.

I followed behind. My heart was pumping and not just because my legs were racing but because the adrenaline was kicking in. What kind of moron with no skin in the game sticks his neck out to go on a hunt for an invisible terrorist?

Maybe you’re invested in the success of this mission more than you think, a voice said in my head.

There was no time to sit and think if I was getting soft now. We followed Iris’ direction, making a right and then following that with another right into an open room. The Oxygen Recycling level wasn’t like the garden level or the tech department at all. This area had walls off shooting to rooms and corridors. It was like a maze on the level, and I was starting to feel like a rat.

The room in front of us looked a lot like the hologram Iris showed us. The room was alive with puffs of steam and smoke coming from square machines taller than I was. There were hundreds, hell maybe even thousands of pipes running from the machine up to the ceiling and to another room or possibly another level. I couldn’t be sure.

The hissing coming from the machines and the dull humming they made, ensured we would neither be able to see nor hear the enemy coming.

“Well, this is something out of a nightmare,” Stacy breathed just above a whisper and motioned to her left.

“We should split up,” I whispered back. “If we go left and he gets out of here on the right, we’re done for. I’ll take the right. You go left.”

The look in Stacy’s eye told me she wanted to disagree but saw the value in the plan. Instead of words, she just nodded. “Be careful.”

“Of course, it’s me you’re talking about.”

“I know. That’s why I’m saying it,” Stacy said, moving down around the left side of the machine.

She was quickly consumed by the smoke and steam shooting from the machines in front of us.

I lifted my fists to a position just below my jaw. I knew right now it wouldn’t do much, but it felt comfortable, and I could be ready to block a blow to my head in a split second.

I crouched low to the ground, trying to use the steam and smoke spitting out of the machines to my own advantage. If I couldn’t see him then maybe the steam would help in masking me as well.

I was practically shaking as I moved deeper into the room. I wasn’t scared. I was a coiled spring ready to pounce in the blink of an eye. I refused to let this guy get the drop on me for the second time that day. The dull ache in my ribs was a reminder to what had happened only hours before.

I maneuvered around the machines, willing myself to see something, anything in the mist and smoke that billowed forth. I didn’t realize I wasn’t blinking until my eyes started to water and burn.

I stayed low, pressing myself to the machines that I came across one by one. The room was so large, and there were so many of them, I was beginning to think the terrorist might have slid past me. But then I saw him.

A machine to my left coughed a cloud of steam at him, revealing his silhouette for a moment. I couldn’t tell if he had his back toward me, and I had the jump on him or if he was staring at me. What I could tell by his silhouette was that it was either a man or a large woman.

They bolted forward, making the smoke swirl as they crossed the space between us. I lost the silhouette of my enemy in front of me in the second it took for him or her to pounce. I calculated the time it would have taken for the saboteur to cross the distance. As far as I knew he or she didn’t know I could see them in the smoke.

I sprang upward trying to guess when the Disciple was going to collide with me. We hit each another with enough force to rattle my teeth. We fell backward on the ground, rolling together. I wasn’t about to let the Disciple out of my grasp this time. If I held on to them, they couldn’t use their cloak to its fullest potential.

I received an elbow to my face as I surrendered the top position to my enemy. My hands were busy around my assailant’s arms and torso, searching for the device that provided the cloaking shield around them. It didn’t seem as if they were wearing any type of blanket or coat.

I was ninety percent sure I was grappling with a man at this point.  A blow landed across my jaw and another on my temple. I was rewarded from the licks I was taking, as my right hand caught his left wrist. What felt like a thick watch touched my fingertips.

I ripped it off with both hands, receiving another elbow to my face for my trouble. I ignored the pain, concentrating all my effort into tearing off the device. Finally, the strap broke in my hands.

The Disciple I had seen that morning came into view. The same black-clad figure, fully equipped with a hood and crimson mask, reaching from the bridge of his nose down to his neck.

His eyes were the only thing I could fully see. Somehow, I felt like I knew him—like I had seen those eyes before. Figuring this part out would have to wait. Suddenly, his hands were around my neck.

I grabbed on to them, trying to pry them loose. He was sitting on my chest, constricting my breathing. I clawed at his fingers around my throat as my vision blurred and the oxygen to my brain slowed.

“Whoever you are, you will not act as a voice to our oppressors,” the man said in a thick Russian accent. “You who stand with the defilers will all suffer the same fate of ash and blood.”

I doubted even if my head weren’t swimming, I would have been able to make sense of the biblical-like words coming from his mouth. This guy was two sandwiches short of a picnic.

“Let him go, or I’m going to paint your brains all over this room,” Stacy said, appearing in the mist behind him. She held her blaster to the base of his skull. “Slowly, let him go.”

The Disciple’s eyes were massive, as if he were thinking of holding onto my throat and sacrificing himself right there and then. Something made him think better of it. He released his grip on me and slowly raised his arms on either side of his body.

“Took--” I coughed before finishing my thought. “Took you long enough.”

My throat felt bruised. My lungs were on fire, and the spots in front of my eyes were just barely clearing up.

“I want you to stand up and lace your finger behind your head,” Stacy told her prisoner. She took a step back to create distance from herself and her target. “Do you believe me when I say if you try anything, I will not hesitate to pump your body so full of blaster rounds, no one will be able to identify your body?”

“I do,” the Disciple said, following her directions. He stood on his feet, alleviating the pressure on my chest. He interlaced his long fingers behind his head. “But you should also know there will be consequences for you. If not in this life, you shall pay for your crimes in the next.”

“Well, I guess I’ll take my chances with that,” Stacy responded.

I slid out from under him, rising to my feet. In my right hand, I still held the device he had used to cloak himself.

“You’re a real piece of work,” I said, staring into his crazed eyes. “The only thing you have to look forward to is a cell here on this ship and another one once we land. I’ll request you get the one with no windows, just the hole in the ground. You know, for trying to spread rabies to the animals and poison our water.”

“The blood of the innocent is the only thing that can renew the truth of our history,” he said, grinning. “You will see this in time. You’re marked for something much greater than you think. I can see it.”

As that moment, a pair of suits entered my peripheral vision. As soon as I turned to see who was coming around the corner of the machine to my right, I knew it was a mistake. My eyes came off the Disciple for a split second.

The pair of suits were just doing their job, coming to help. Sent by Iris, I was sure they really had no idea what was going on.

The Disciple took advantage of the momentary distraction. He pivoted, snapping out with a left kick behind him.

Stacy’s blaster went off as she was knocked backward. The Disciple’s foot connected with her gut. Her blaster skidded on the floor, lost somewhere in the chaos that followed.

Chapter 16

This Disciple freak of nature went through some hard-core training before coming onto The Orion. As soon as he kicked Stacy, he bolted for the exit.

I had planned on reaching out and grabbing him, but at the same time the shot rang out from Stacy’s blaster, a burning pain jolted through my left shoulder. I looked down, and it took me a moment to realize the rogue round had grazed me.

I was more pissed off than anything else as I directed my attention back at the escaping Disciple. The Disciple pounded one of the suits in the face with a vicious right hook, sending him to the ground. The other wasn’t so lucky as the black-clad Disciple twisted his neck around with a sick pop.

Each act took no more than a second. In two heartbeats, he was off again running for the elevator. The bodies of the two suits lie slumped on the ground under my feet as I took off, leaping over them.

No, not again! I screamed in my head. Not this time!

Somewhere behind me, I heard Stacy’s footsteps and knew she was close behind. Right now, I was singularly focused on taking down the Disciple in front of me.

We made two lefts, retracing our steps back to the elevator. The Disciple made it to the closed doors, pressing the button repeatedly for it to come. Unlucky for him, he didn’t have the holo card Stacy did to expedite its arrival.

He turned as he heard me coming, assuming a defensive stance with his knees bent and his hands near his face.

Finally, a fight I would be used to. I slowed my progress, rolling my shoulders. We began to circle one another. Our fighting styles were different but just as effective.

I turned to my training and we went at it. Now that I could see my opponent, the fight wouldn’t go so well for him. I think he was surprised as I dodged his first two attacks and laid into his face, making it my personal punching bag. I broke his nose with my next left.

“You will burn with the rest of the non-believers,” he said with a sneer. “You will—”

I’m not sure what he was going to say next. Stacy arrived on the scene and barreled into him with her right shoulder. She slammed him against the still closed elevator doors, taking the air out of him and forcing him to his knees.

Without mercy, she hammered him across the face with a closed right fist. As a testament to how tough this guy was, he struck out with his own right fist to the side of Stacy’s left hip.

She yelled with what sounded more like a growl and limped backward. The Disciple sprang to his feet. I was on him again. I slammed my fist into his stomach. He doubled over, exposing his head. Stacy took the opportunity to grab the back of his skull with both of her hands, driving it down into her right knee.

A loud, satisfying crack echoed through the hall. The world went black for our Disciple friend. I spat a wad of blood on the ground, remembering how hurt and beat up I really was. I looked over to Stacy, and she didn’t look much better. Her hair was a wild mess with blood coming from her nose. Her left eye was beginning to swell, and she favored her left hip.

“You sure you don’t want to become a Civil Authority Officer?” She asked with a grin. “You’d make a good suit. Fair warning, you’d probably have to shave and cut your hair. On the upside, the benefits are great, and the pay is decent.”

The elevator doors opened, and a squad of heavily armed suits exited, equipped with riot shields, stun batons, and blaster rifles.

“Easy, easy.” Stacy showed her open hands in a sign of surrender. “We got him. I’m Special Agent Stacy Wilson. I’m just going to reach into my pocket to show you my credentials.”

“Where were you guys ten minutes before?” I asked, shaking my head. “Hell, I would have settled for five minutes.”

They ignored my question, still training their weapons on me. Their eyes widened as they saw the Disciple at our feet.

They lowered their weapons, reassured at the message on Stacy’s holo card that she was who she said she was. They secured the unconscious Disciple by both his wrists and ankles. He was propped up in a sitting position against the wall.

One thing still bothered me. I knew I’d heard that Russian accent before. I leaned down, grabbing the crimson mask that covered most of his face and pulled. It was the same guy that had tried to choke me out and pulled me off the Warlord the day before, back in the shuttle.

Sure, it could have been a coincidence that he had been right next to me when that all went down, but I didn’t believe in coincidence. Were the Warlords working with the Disciples, or was I just acting like a crazed conspiracy nut?

These questions and more crossed my mind as I looked down on him. Stacy spoke to the suit in charge. She was informing them of the two men he had wounded earlier.

The elevator doors opened again, and Elon and Arun stepped out. It was strange not to see the easy smile on Elon’s face. Much like his sister, he was stoic.

“You two did well,” Arun said, looking to Stacy and me. “Though, I believe another trip to Doctor Allbright will be in order.”

I dug into my pocket where I had jammed the cloaking device.

“Here,” I said, handing it to Arun. “This is what he was using to sneak around.”

“Thank you,” Arun said, accepting the piece of tech. “You saved us from another catastrophe. Although, some of the damage will be difficult to resolve.”

“The water supply?” Stacy asked.

“The reserve is intact and free of the virus,” Elon said. “We’re going to have to break the news to the ship soon. Questions will arise as to why water is being rationed and now only for drinking. This isn’t the beginning to our journey that I had envisioned.”

“The relationship between Eternal and Transient hasn’t exactly been the best,” Arun added. “Those on board are grateful for the opportunity to start over, but I’m not sure if their loyalty will crack under the pressure of this new information.”

“Are you going to tell them everything?” I asked. “I mean about the Disciple?”

“I know Elon wants to disclose everything.” Arun looked over at her brother, who was slowly nodding his head in agreement. “I’m not convinced. We need to tell them what’s going on without starting a panic. If they think there are other Disciples on board, this could turn into a scenario where fear and distrust tear this colony apart before we even reach Kronos Five.”

I didn’t envy the situation Arun and Elon were finding themselves in. On the one hand, I understood the necessity of keeping secrets. On the other, maybe just coming clean with this whole thing would result in people understanding and keeping their cool.

“Hey, is this yours?” Stacy asked, leaning down to pick up my medallion. It dangled from the broken chain. “It must have been torn off you in the fight.”

I massaged my neck, realizing that the chain was gone. A surge of panic washed over me as I realized I had almost lost it altogether.

“Yeah, thanks,” I said, accepting the medallion from Stacy while trying not to appear too eager to get my hands on it once more.

I ran a thumb over the emblem on the front.

“What is that?” Arun asked, turning to look at my medallion. “I think I’ve seen that symbol before.”

“Really?” I asked, willing to show her the medallion in my palm without offering it to her. It felt silly, like a kid with a toy he didn’t want to share, but this was all I had left of the life I left behind.

“What does the symbol mean?” Elon asked.

“Hell if I know,” I said. “It was a gift.”

We all looked down on the bronze medallion in my hand.

“Where have you seen it before?” I asked Arun. “I’ve researched it myself, and it's never come up anywhere. At least nowhere that I’ve been able to find.”

“I—I can’t remember right now, but it’ll come to me,” Arun said, scrunching her brows in deep thought.

The Disciple at our feet moaned something unintelligible.

“We should get him secured before he wakes up,” Elon said.

“Yes,” Arun agreed. “Before I address the rest of The Orion, I want to speak with him. If another Disciple is lurking in the shadows, I want to know about it.”

“I’ll get him up and taken to the brig,” Stacy said, motioning for a suit to help her get the Disciple on his feet.

“Well, this has all been fun,” I said, gripping my medallion tightly in my hand. “I think I’m going to go get some painkillers and sleep for the next week.”

“Are you shot?” Elon asked, concerned as he noticed the burn in my shoulder for the first time. “Did the Disciple have a blaster on him?”

“Nope, Stacy shot me,” I said with a frown, turning in her direction. “You tased me, and then you shot me. That’s two I owe you.”

“No way, that doesn’t count at all,” Stacy said, coming over and placing her hands on my shoulder. She looked through the tear in my shirt. “You’re barely grazed. That doesn’t count as being shot.”

“All of a sudden, you’re the leading mind on what does and doesn’t count as being hit by a blaster round?” I asked.

Stacy grinned then turned back to gather the unconscious Disciple from the ground.

“My brother and I have had a discussion, and we’d like you to work with us,” Arun said. She took a step closer to me, lowering her voice. “The skill set you possess will come in handy. We need people we can rely on, both on the ship and when we start our colony.”

“You mean you want me to be your muscle?” I asked. “Not interested. This was a one-time deal. I owed our Disciple friend here one for jumping me in the cargo hold.”

“Threats like this one aren’t going to stop,” Elon said, joining his sister. “If it’s not the Disciple, it’ll be someone else.”

“I’m no suit,” I said, shaking my head.

“Just come with us and hear what the Disciple has to say,” Elon urged. “Perhaps when you see what we’re up against, you’ll reconsider.”

I thought about it for a moment. I wondered if they’d let me interrogate the Disciple. My ribs and face reminded me that I could get a few more licks on him before this was all over.

“What the hell?” I asked. “I’m already in this. Let’s see how far the rabbit hole really goes.”

Chapter 17

A quick visit to Doctor Allbright later, and I was with the Eternals and Stacy in the brig. The brig level of The Orion wasn’t like the rest. Dark steel walls and unfinished pipes stuck out from the ceilings. There were more security checkpoints and pass-codes than I cared to remember, even if I was paying attention.

I didn’t plan on being back here, either as a prisoner or a guest.

I was shown into a room with a one-way see-through wall. It reminded me of every interrogation scene out of a movie or book I had ever read. The room on the opposite side of us had a chair with the Disciple strapped to it, both by his wrists and his ankles. A single bright light shone down on him.

He was slumped forward still unconscious, or at least allowing us to believe he was. His mask was pulled down and his hood pulled back, revealing a bald head crisscrossed with scars.

I stood in the room with Arun, Elon, and Stacy.

“I’m giving the appropriate ‘head’s up’ Mr. Slade requested before I enter the room,” Iris’ voice reached our ears.

Elon and Arun looked confused while Stacy smirked.

“Thanks for the head’s up, Iris,” I said as the Cognitive walked into the room from the solid wall behind us.

“Are you and Mrs. Wilson all right? Do you require further medical attention?” Iris asked with an expression I guessed she considered concern, but it looked more like intrigue to me. “You appear as though you’ve been struck by some kind of large vehicle.”

I glanced over at Stacy. We both looked like we’d been through hell. Stacy’s nose had been reset. She limped a little and held an ice pack to the side of her face.

She was one tough chick. I never heard her complain or cry out in pain. It made me have a deeper level of respect for the woman.

Moving in any direction hurt for me. There was a cut on the inside of my mouth as well as multiple bruises on my eye and cheek. My ribs ached, and my shoulder still burned despite the pain meds I received from Doctor Allbright.

“Yes, we’re okay, Iris,” Stacy said. “Thank you.”

Iris nodded.

“What can you tell us about our guest?” Arun asked the Cognitive. “I’m assuming any identity he used to board The Orion is false?”

“I would have to agree,” Iris said, opening the palm of her right hand, allowing a holographic display to pop up in front of us. “He used the alias Jeffrey Hooke to board the ship, but upon deeper inspection, there seems to be no record of that person. I cross-referenced his facial pattern and prints in the Civil Authority database and found a match. His name is Trevor Bishop.”

My eyes wandered from the Cognitive through the wall to our guest on the other side. He didn’t look like a Trevor to me. With his Russian accent, it seemed plausible this was just an alias as well.

“On the street he goes by the Assassin,” Iris continued. “He’s linked to half a dozen Disciple strikes across the globe.”

“How did he board The Orion in the first place?” Elon asked. “The cloaking device?”

“If I had to guess, yes,” Iris agreed.

“It’s disturbing to think that even with our level of technology, assassins and terrorists are finding a way around it,” Elon thought out loud.

“We might be able to solve that problem sooner, rather than later,” Stacy removed the ice pack from her face. “Dean and I met with Doctor James Wong, the head of the tech department. He’s working on the problem now. Hopefully, we’ll have something soon that will allow us to track someone even if they’re cloaked.”

“Very good,” Arun said. She placed both her white hands on the ledge, leaning into the one way-wall. It was clear she was studying her prisoner. “Iris, tell me more about this Trevor Bishop.”

“Outside of his affiliation with the Disciples, he’s somewhat of a ghost,” Iris said as the screen on her hand moved from a blurry image of Trevor to a list of known aliases, accomplices and skills. “He’s a dangerous man trained in the arts of stealth, hand to hand combat, weapons, poisons and well, the list goes on and on. Shall I read it all?”

“I think we get the point,” Elon said.

We all stood there for a moment, staring at the unconscious man.

“So, are we going to go and wake sleeping beauty up or what?” I asked, looking to the others for a consensus.

“I’ll go in with Stacy,” Elon said, placing a calming hand on his sister’s shoulder. “We should try to handle this matter with words if we are able.”

“You think he’s going to willingly give you information?” Arun arched her eyebrow. “Maybe it will do him some good to experience the pain he put so many others through.”

I already knew Arun was the hot head of the two siblings, but this was down-right intimidating. I wasn’t used to seeing the crazy gleam of vengeance in the eyes of an Eternal. Somehow it made it worse since the bright blue of their eyes shone so bright.

“Give us a chance, and then if it doesn’t work our way, you can use yours,” Elon said, looking to Stacy and me for support.

“I agree,” Stacy chimed in.

“Hey, don’t look at me,” I said, pointing a thumb to Arun. “I’m with your sister here. I’ve come across plenty of guys like our assassin Disciple in there. Talking to that manic isn’t going to get you anywhere. I’m down to put a beating on him, but I don’t think that’s going to do any good either. He’s familiar with pain. He’ll block that out of his head like I would.”

“What would you suggest?” Arun asked with an upturned eyebrow.

“I mean, I’ve never used it myself but some kind of drug or narcotic that will make him tell the truth,” I said, looking at the two Eternals in front of me along with Stacy. I threw a quick glance to Iris as well, so she wouldn’t feel left out.

“Are you talking about injecting our prisoner with drugs to make him talk?” Elon said, shaking his head in surprise. “Mr. Slade, we don’t have a serum like that on board The Orion.”

“Well, have Iris alchemy a brew up for you,” I said, looking over at the Cognitive. “Iris, do you have all the ingredients onboard The Orion to create a truth serum if that’s what we needed?”

“Indeed,” Iris said with a bright, cheery smile across her glowing blue face. “I could have a combination made for you in minutes.”

“See,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. “Even the Cognitive thinks we should shoot our Disciple friend up with some happy juice.”

“Before we try anything, Stacy and I are just going to talk to him,” Elon said, resolutely. “We haven’t digressed so far to start injecting one another with chemicals and torture.”

“He never said torture,” Arun reminded her brother. “That was all you. But if you need someone to say it for you to feel better, I would torture him if it meant getting information that would save the lives of a hundred thousand on this ship.”

Elon breathed heavily, in exhaustion. He headed for the door with Stacy following, smirking behind him.

“You’re kinda dark,” I said, giving Arun an approving nod. “I like it.”

“I harbor no mercy for those who kill innocent men, women, and children,” Arun said with a shrug, as if it were just a rule of life like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. “When they come for anyone in my colony, I take it personally.”

I liked Arun the more and more I got to know her. Hell, I liked all these people, and it kind of worried me. I’d been on my own for so long with just Ricky as my only real friend, I forgot there were other people out there that shared a common outlook on life with me.

A moment later, they left our room and entered the holding chamber on the other side of the two-way wall. They made enough noise to wake Trevor if he was sleeping. Still, he didn’t move a muscle.

Stacy brought two chairs in for them from the hall outside of the room and placed them facing the terrorist. She made sure they were slightly apart and turned to the side, almost in a circle, to leave myself and Arun plenty of room to see our prisoner.

“You think you can make a cage that will be strong enough to hold me?” Trevor said, not bothering to lift his head to look at them. “You will lose this war because you lack the conviction to do what is needed.”

“And what is that, Trevor?” Elon asked, sitting in one of the chairs. “May I call you Trevor?”

Trevor lifted his bald head. A look of pure disgust was written on his bruised face. He scowled at Elon as if he were going to answer, then turned to Stacy instead. “You’re a human like me. Why do you serve such a master?”

“We’re all human,” Stacy said, correcting the prisoner. “And he’s not my master. If you put those two truths to use, you’d be able to see past your hate.”

Trevor shook his head in disgust. He spat on the ground next to him.

“Trevor Bishop,” Elon tried again. “I hope you realize that this sit down is an act of...well of hope that you would be willing to talk to us. Whatever mission you had, whatever goal you were tasked with, has failed. It’s over for you now, but there is still a chance of redemption for you. We need to know if you are working alone or if there are other Disciples on board The Orion preparing to strike.”

Trevor lifted his head to the ceiling and roared with laughter. Even standing in the other room, it was a noise that made me wince. The sound was certainly laughter, but it was hollow and void of any true joy.

“Albino, tell me,” Trevor said, glaring at Elon. “Did you trade your soul when you sacrificed your humanity for eternal life? The human line will prosper, and we will outlast your genetically enhanced filth.”

“You do realize that what we’re trying to do here is help, right?” Elon said, patiently, leaning forward in his seat. If he was flustered at all by the insults hurled at him, he didn’t show it. “Eternals are only humans who have manipulated our DNA. That doesn’t make us monsters. We’re just like you. They’re good and bad among us. Right now, I’m traveling along with a colony to assist them in setting up a new world. A world where there will be opportunity for everyone.”

“Opportunity that would have existed on Earth if you and your elitist kind didn’t keep the rest of the population from advancing.” Trevor shook his head with disgust. “And I’ll let you in on a little secret. Your plan will fail.”

“Why is that?” Stacy asked from her seat. Unlike Elon, I could see her fists clenching with anger. The white of her knuckles showed on both hands.

“Because I’m not alone on The Orion,” Trevor grinned. “Others will be activated, and this ship will fall from the sky in fire and ash, and all of you will go with it.”

Chapter 18

Trevor let out another hysterical laugh while all of us remained quiet. My mind was reeling with the implications of his words. There were too many questions left unanswered. Was he telling the truth? If he was, how many Disciples had snuck on board? When and where would they strike next?

“It’s clear that death doesn’t worry you,” Elon said, reigning in the mad prisoner in front of him. “My death nor the death of others. You feel nothing condemning a hundred thousand children and innocents to their deaths. What gives you that right? What makes you able to play God?”

“The second they boarded this ship, they lost all of their privileges to live,” Trevor said with a shrug. “Do what you want because that’s all you’re getting out of me.”

“How many other Disciples are on board The Orion?” Stacy asked, rising from her seat. “Where are they?”

“Questions that will keep you up at night I’m sure,” Trevor said with an ominous smirk. “I told you, you’re not getting anything out of me. I shouldn’t even have let you know that much, but I wanted you to know that you’re not safe. That’s fun for me. While I’m in here, you’ll be out there wondering and worrying. It will be something I can take comfort in.”

Stacy walked over to the prisoner and struck him across the jaw, then in the nose and again in his left eye. She could have kept going, and neither Arun or I would pull her off. It was good Elon was in the room. He jumped up and firmly placed his hands on Stacy’s shoulders.

“Enough,” Elon said, pulling her away. “This is what he wants. This is playing into his twisted game somehow. You’re better than this.”

Stacy was breathing hard, but she refrained from laying into his face anymore.

Trevor was chuckling and howling to the ceiling. “What’s next? Waterboarding? Sleep deprivation? I’ve been through it all!”

Stacy and Elon left the room and entered our own.

“This doesn’t seem like the right time to say I told you so but…” I let my voice trail off. “I kinda did.”

“We need more information,” Arun said, looking to her brother. “If you’d like to leave for this next part, I’ll understand.”

“We aren’t going to torture him,” Elon said, skewering his sister with a hard stare. “If we do, what separates us from the Disciples? If there is no line we aren’t willing to cross, what makes us different from them?”

“Are you serious?” Arun said, shaking her head. “Were trying to save an entire colony ship of lives here.”

“If I may?” Stacy interjected. “I’m going to agree with Dean on this one. Wow, that’s something I really never thought I’d be saying.”

“Hey, easy,” I said. “I’m right here, you know. But please, do go on.”

“I don’t think our guest is going to respond to physical acts to get him to speak. I think we might need to try something else.”

“Truth serum would be the best alternative,” Iris said.

The Cognitive had been uncharacteristically quiet for a time, like she was in a state of deep contemplation.

Everyone looked over to Elon.

“It would be better for everyone if we tried Dean’s method,” Arun urged her brother.

“Fine, yes, all right,” Elon said, blowing out a deep breath. “We’ll try it. I suppose it is better than peeling off fingernails or electric shocks.”

“Only better because those methods wouldn’t work, otherwise I would be more than happy to try them,” Arun said, glaring at Elon.

“Easy now, sister,” Elon replied with a slight smile.

“I’ll be right back,” Iris said, phasing out of a wall and disappearing.

“She just walks in and out, huh,” I said, shaking my head. “No knocking or anything? I guess privacy is out the door.”

Suddenly, Trevor yelled to get our attention.

“You! Him, I mean. I want to see the brawler!” Trevor hollered to the empty room. “He’s the reason I’m in here to begin with. I have something to tell him. Only him—I’ll only talk to him.”

“I think he’s talking about me,” I said, looking to the others.

“Go, but be careful,” Arun said. “Don’t let him get into your head.”

“No worries about that,” I said, tapping the side of my skull. “Nothing gets through here.”

I left the room before Stacy could make a joke and entered the long hall. There was a pair of suits outside the door right next to ours. I nodded to them before going in.

“Ahhh, there he is,” Trevor said, looking up at me with his battered face. “The man of the hour.”

“I’m not sure about that, Buttercup,” I said, pulling up a chair to him and turning it around, so I sat on it backward. “You seem pretty popular yourself right now.”

“You and I are brothers, feathers fallen from the same bird,” Trevor went on.

His eyes were wild, dark but darting all over the place, almost as if he were reading something.

“How’s that?” I asked, playing along to get any more information out of him.

“I see the animal in your eye. You’re a warrior just like me. A skilled fighter.” Trevor said as if he were giving me a compliment. “You and I are survivors. I can see the pain that lives deep inside of you. What you must have been through.”

“Listen, I’m not sure why you’re gazing so longingly into my eyes, but you’re wrong,” I said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “Now, what is it that you wanted to tell me?”

“I wanted to tell you that you are destined for great things, as am I,” Trevor said. For the first time, he looked serious, like he was actually telling the truth, or at least he believed he was. “You and I are about to embark on an adventure together, like two swords poised for battle.”

“Well, if you haven’t noticed, we’ve already embarked on an adventure,” I said, looking around the room. “And I hate to break it to you, but the only thing you’re going to be seeing for a long time is the inside of a cell on The Orion, and maybe the inside of a cell once we establish the colony on Kronos Five. Is that all you have? Is that all you wanted to say? That you think we’re friends about to go on a road trip?”

“I never used the word ‘friends’,” Trevor said, looking deep into my eyes once more. “Not friends. The very best of enemies.”

“There you go gazing deeply into my eyes again,” I said with a sigh. “You got to at least buy me a drink or something if you’re going to look at me like that. Why don’t you tell me something useful for a change? How many of you are on board?”

Trevor grinned. “I will not tell you, friend. No, that is your journey.”

It was my turn to laugh. I chuckled, filling the room with the noise. “I’m not your friend, Trevor. I can guarantee you that.”

There was a knock on the door just before it opened, and Arun walked in holding a long needle.

Trevor’s gaze rested on Arun before turning to the device in her hand.

“What is that?” He asked through clenched teeth. “What are you doing?”

“It’s time to have an honest conversation for once in your miserable life,” Arun said, and stalking forward, she slammed the needle into Trevor’s neck and pressed down on the plunger with her thumb.

“What? No!” Trevor jerked his body and neck as far to the side as he could, but the restraints kept him in place. The needlepoint disappeared into his neck a second later.

I was no stranger to pain, but even I winced at the ferocity that Arun stabbed him with. I realized what she reminded me of. She was like a momma bear, and those on The Orion were her cubs. Her anger came from the fact that they were in danger.

Arun finally extracted the needle from Trevor’s neck, taking a step back.

Trevor shook his head and worked his jaw like he was trying to get water out of his ears.

“Iris, how long will the truth serum take to begin its process?” Arun asked the room. “How will we know that it is working?”

“The serum will take effect in the space of a few seconds,” Iris said, phasing through the closed door. “You will know, trust me.”

Trevor blinked at the Cognitive a few times then grinned. “A Cognitive. One of the enemies of humankind.”

“What’s your real name?” I asked as Trevor continued to grin. “Your accent tells me that you’re not from America. The name Trevor Bishop doesn’t fit.”

“You are correct, my friend,” Trevor grinned. He pursed his lips as if he were deep in thought. He swayed a little in his chair as if he were drunk. “My name—my birth name is Maksim Aleksandre Kuznetsov Petrov.”

“Yeah, that’s a mouthful. I’d probably go by Trevor, too,” I said.

Maksim smiled and actually laughed, almost genuinely.

“Maksim,” Arun took over the line of questioning. “I need you to tell me if you planted any other traps or anything else that could be dangerous or destructive to The Orion or those it carries.”

Maksim looked over at Arun. Previously his eyes had always been full of hate when he looked at an Eternal. Right now, it was more like fear that washed over his bruised face.

“Why don’t you just leave us alone?” Maksim said, looking at Arun like he truly wanted to know. “Transients only want a better life, but you make this impossible, placing yourself at the top of the food chain with your boot on our neck.”

“Maksim,” Arun said while using a softer voice, trying to calm the man. “Please, I need you to focus right now. Are there any other traps set to go off on the ship? Anything that would harm the people on board The Orion.”

“I have not,” Maksim said with a heavy, regret-laden breath. “I did not have enough time to set the toxins to rotate through the air filtration system. My brother here was fast enough to stop me.”

It took me a second to realize that Maksim was talking about me.

That serum was one hell of a drug. Maksim’s eyes were glazed over, and he sported a silly grin on his lips. He could have easily passed for someone who had been out all night drinking.

“My brother, my brother,” he kept on repeating. “My brother, there are great things in store for us. Two swords. Two blades pointed away from one another.”

“Maksim,” I said, trying to get the conversation back on track. “How many other Disciples are on the ship?”

Maksim shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe zero, maybe a hundred.”

“You just said there were others on board,” Arun pushed. “You told Stacy and Elon there were others here.”

“I lied to get into their head,” Maksim said, shaking his own head. “I don’t know. The Disciples would never tell me if there were others on board for this very reason. If I were caught, I could expose their plans. This way I am unable to. That’s the truth.”

I looked over at Arun. I believed him. There was no reason not to know that he was high on the happy juice. It made sense anyway.

Arun’s brows were knit in a line of thought.

“Iris,” Arun finally broke the silence. “How sure are we that the truth serum is actually working.”

“Ninety-two point nine percent,” Iris explained. “It’s highly improbable that he is able to lie at the moment.”

That was it then. There could be no more threats to The Orion, or there could be a dozen cloaked Disciple just waiting to be activated. Only time would tell.

Chapter 19

The suits were going to question Maksim more of course. While he was still high on the drug, they’d use the time to get out anything more that they could. The piece of information we needed most was beyond our grasp.

I went to bed that night battered and bruised, wondering how Arun and Elon were going to break the news of the water shortage to The Orion the following day. I didn’t envy them that conversation.

Ricky was still out, probably drinking, definitely gambling with some of the other mechanics or passengers on The Orion. I fell into a fitful sleep.

When I woke, dull memories of a ruined building touched at my thoughts. I had woken before my alarm even went off. I sat in the lower level of the bunk Ricky and I shared.

I quickly realized what had interrupted my sleep. Iris’ familiar voice reached my ears over the comm system that traveled the entirety of The Orion.

“Good morning passengers and new colonists of Kronos Five,” Iris said in a warm tone. Or at least the tone would have been warm, had I not known what was coming next. “Many of you are asking why the water system is unavailable on your levels. Please do not worry. We are working on the issue now. We are asking everyone to either meet at the Assembly level or stay close to a comm unit. At 0900 hours, we will be holding a conference to answer all of your questions. Thank you for your calm understating.”

I blinked a few times in my bunk, rubbing my eyes.

“What—what the heck is going on with the water,” Ricky asked, swinging his head down over the edge of the bunk so I could see him in the faint light of the room. “Hey, what happened to your face?”

“Oh, right,” I said, touching the bruised places on my cheek and jaw. I had thought about not telling Ricky, but he was going to weasel it out of me one way or the other.

I told him everything. From fighting the cloaked Disciple, to being recruited by the Civil Authority and the issue with the water. Ricky was the closest thing I had to a friend, and as much as I wanted to deny it, it felt good to talk to someone about it.

As I went on, Ricky’s mouth grew wider and wider. He nearly fell out of his bed when I told him about the poisoned water.

“Man, I hope you’re getting paid for all of this,” Ricky said when I finally finished.

“Really?” I asked, getting out of bed and dressing for the day. “I just told you we have to ration water for the next five and a half weeks and that there could be cloaked Disciples ready to sabotage the air we breathe, and all you can think of is money?”

“Well, all I’m saying is that if you’re going to be involved with the higher-ups in the new colony we’re creating, maybe you should consider having a manager,” Ricky swung his skinny legs off the bed and reached for the lights in the room. “I mean, you gotta get paid for your services.”

“I’m assuming you could be my manager?” I asked, buckling on my long cargo pants.

“If you want me to, then yes, I accept the position,” Ricky shrugged, tapping his right pointer finger on his chin. “You should be compensated for putting your life on the line. There’s a term for that. What is it?”

“Hazard pay?” I answered.

“Yep, that’s it,” Ricky said, hurriedly dressing. “You should get hazard pay along with your normal hourly.”

“Pump your breaks there,” I told Ricky, shoving my feet into my boots. “I told them I didn’t want a job.”

Ricky stopped midway through putting on his shirt. “Dean, are you serious? You didn’t even negotiate with them?”

“Nope,” I grunted as I lifted my arm to put it in through my shirt. Pain raced up my body from my ribs to the area where I had been shot by Stacy. That memory brought a sardonic grin with it.

“We can still get you a reasonable deal. I’m sure of it,” Ricky consoled himself as he continued dressing. “We’ll tell them there was a misunderstanding and we’re back at the table accepting offers.”

“I’m not sure it works like that,” I told him.

“Please, please, Dean,” Ricky patted me on the arm. “Let me do the talking.”

I shrugged with an amused smile, and we exited the room together, heading for the male restroom on our level. Not to our surprise, there was no running water. Amongst the groans and complaining of the others on the level, Ricky and I made do. I cleaned my face with a wet disposable cloth that had been provided, then rinsed out my mouth with some mouthwash. My long unruly hair was an easy fix. It went behind my head in a knot.

As we were getting ready, the complaints from the other users of the restroom were growing. Every time someone came in, there was the same conversation to be had.

“Are you serious? No water?” One hefty man said to another. “What’s going on now? Problems with the pipes?”

“Not a good sign so early on in our trip,” Another large man said as he disrobed. “How am I supposed to use these little disposable wet nap towels to clean my whole body?”

I wasn’t fast enough to look away before he dropped his towel. That was an image that would be burned into my corneas for a very long time to come.

“Stranger nudity is like looking at the sun, man,” Ricky said as he used one of the small hand towels to clean behind his neck and ears. “You get a glimpse of it somewhere in your peripheral vision but then look away. Never glance directly at it, or you’ll go blind.”

“Noted,” I said as we finished our meager baths at the sink.

“I guess I’m just cleaning my pits and bits today,” a little boy said as he ran into the bathroom next to his father. “That’s okay with me.”

“They need to get this water working fast,” his father said with a frown. “This can’t go on for long.”

We walked out, heading up toward the spiral staircase on the end of the level that stood next to the elevators. We were only a few levels from the Assembly, and it would be easier to take the stairs instead of wait.

“Man, I still can’t believe that there could be invisible Disciples on board, just waiting to slit our throat while we sleep,” Ricky said, letting a puff of air escape his lips. “I mean, that’s terrifying.”

I pressed a finger to my lips, signaling him to shut it. A woman passing us on the stairs stopped to stare at us with wide eyes.

“Sorry, ma’am,” I said, pushing Ricky along. “Nothing to worry about. Just talking about a premise for a book we want to write.”

I’m not sure she believed me, but I didn’t wait around to find out. Ricky and I walked on, joining a gathering throng as we made our way to the Assembly level.

Although it was still full, the level wasn’t as packed as when we had the initial launch speech there days before. The window lining the gigantic room were all displaying the wonders of slip space. The multicolored light that played across the glass windows was still something everyone was getting used to.

Iris walked to the podium set to address the crowd as both Arun and Elon joined her. The sounds in the Assembly level quieted while we waited for their explanation.

I didn’t see Stacy in the room, but I knew she was there somewhere toward the front of the crowd.

“What’s happening with the water?” Someone shouted.

“Tell us, is there something wrong?” A woman screamed from the middle of the pack.

“Please, all your questions will be answered in a moment,” Iris said, trying to pacify the crowd. “There is no reason to worry. We have things under control.”

“Then why don’t we have water?” Another voice shouted.

“Yeah!” more angry voices added.

“I can see that you are all concerned and rightly so,” Arun said, taking the podium while Iris moved to the side. The microphone allowed her to drown out the questions being hurled at her. “We can start the meeting a bit early, and we will have time to answer questions. Please, allow us to tell you what is going on.”

The room seemed to realize they weren’t going to get anywhere with everyone throwing questions at her at once. A stressed silence filled the area.

“Thank you,” Arun said. She stood straight, wearing her grey uniform. Her white hair was braided in a long design behind her back. “First, allow me to tell you that we have enough drinking water for every single member until we reach Kronos Five. Once there, we will be able to pull moisture from the atmosphere and tap into the water reserves found on the planet.”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Heads nodded in agreement and smiles were exchanged. An unexpected relief descended on those gathered.

“There’s been an issue with the water that we are currently working on,” Arun said. “Understand, we have our best minds on it. In the meantime, water will be rationed and the use of the showers, washing of clothes, and dishes will be minimized. We will figure this out together, but the main thing is that we stick together. There is no reason to panic. We are hoping to have a solution to showering soon. I’d be happy to take anyone’s questions now.”

“Well, what happened to the water in the first place?” A woman asked, somewhere to the right.

“We’re looking into that, and we should have answers for you soon,” Arun lied.

I was torn as I stood and watched. I understood exactly why she was lying to them. Telling them the truth would start a mass panic. Cloaked Disciples on board, poisoning their water and tampering with their air, would put everyone on edge and having neighbor accusing neighbor.

Then why was I so disheartened by it? I would do the same thing in her position. It just left a bad taste in my mouth to lie to so many people.

The meeting went on with more questions asked and answered. By the time we were done, the colonists of Kronos Five weren’t exactly happy, but it seemed they understood what was going on and that it was being worked on now.

Ricky caught my eye as the meeting was adjourned.

“What?” I asked.

“So, that’s it?” Ricky motioned to the space around him. “That’s all there is. You’re just going to report back to Boss Creed like that? It’s all over?”

“It is all over,” I said. “There’s not much we can do now. I’m sure Iris and the Eternals will come up with a plan to sniff out any Disciples if there are any more. In the meantime, we go on like business as usual.”

“As mechanics,” Ricky added.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with being a mechanic?”

“There’s nothing wrong, but we could be secret agents, like super spies or something,” Ricky said shaking his head. “Did you talk about me to Arun at all?”

“What? No,” I said, confused at first, then realizing why Ricky would ask the question. “I’m not sure you’re her type.”

“What? Incredibly smart and entrepreneurial?” Ricky asked as we made our way to Boss Creed’s office and our next job.

“No, gambling prone and the target of the Warlords,” I answered.

“Ah, everyone needs a hobby, and besides that one Warlord in the brig, I left the rest of those chumps back on Earth.”

Chapter 20

“Hey, can you hand me the socket set?” I asked Ricky, looking to my right. “The one with the red handle?”

“Sure thing, super spy,” Ricky said, placing the requested tool in my hand.

He’d been calling me names like super spy and secret agent since I told him about the events surrounding Maksim’s capture. That was three weeks ago. We were halfway to Kronos Five and against all odds, the passengers on The Orion hadn’t torn each other apart.

Water was still rationed. But the tech team had found a way to clean clothes and dishes using a chemical substance. Showering was still a point of contention. Everyone was tired of wiping themselves with antibacterial clothes, but we all had enough to drink.

I’d seen Stacy a few times as she resumed her undercover identity as a mechanic. She always had a smile for me. I had to bite my tongue a few times and not ask how the search for more Disciples was going. I was sure she’d tell me, but it wasn’t really any of my business.

I hadn’t seen the Eternal brother and sister team at all. They were no doubt busy with tasks calling their attention around the ship. Even Iris was someone I found myself thinking about a few times.

It’s over, I told myself. Stick to what you do. It’s already enough you’re on a seed ship hurtling through space. You don’t need to enlist as some kind of agent on top of that.

“You sure you don’t want to sit in on the game tonight?” Ricky asked as we worked on repairing one of the larger sweeping drones that cleaned the floors. “I’m sure the guys wouldn’t mind someone sitting in. I can show you how to play.”

“No thanks,” I said, politely refusing to join in on one of Ricky’s gambling nights. “What do you guys bet with anyway? I mean money isn’t going to be any good at the colony, at least not until things get up and running.”

“Yeah we thought about that,” Ricky said with a shrug as he tinkered with the machine’s power core. “But we decided to do it anyway. Sooner or later, there will be stores and such. We started playing for fun, but it just wasn’t the same.”

“Yeah, I bet,” I said leaning back from my work. I cleaned my hands on a dirty rag. Ricky and I were in a large back closet area on a cafeteria level. They kept the sweeping drones on rotation. It was our glamorous job that day to make sure the drones not working, were maintained and ready to go when their time came.

“So, you and Stacy huh?” Ricky said, unable to let more than a few seconds of silence pass at any given time.

“Nope,” I said with a shake of my head. “Not at all.”

“Oh, come on.” Ricky rolled his eyes. “You and Stacy for sure. It’s obvious she’s into you.”

“How so?” I asked.

“The way she gives you that smile,” Ricky said. “I’ve caught her looking at you a few times, and she’s not exactly hard on the eyes. Maybe once we settle onto Kronos Five, you two can—”

The rest of whatever Ricky was going to say was cut off as the ship buckled for the first time. It wasn’t just a tremor. It was a full-on earthquake as the floor below our feet rocked and rolled.

It was the first time that had ever happened, and red warning lights flashed overhead.

“What the f—”

Ricky was cut off again as Iris’ voice filled the intercoms. “Passengers of The Orion. Please make your way to your rooms and await additional details. There is no need to panic. We will give you further instruction, as soon as we have more information for you.”

The ship buckled again, this time so hard even in my kneeling position, I was almost thrown onto my back. Tools and canisters along the shelves in the utility closet, were falling all around us.

Ricky and I exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing.

“Disciples,” Ricky said to me as if he could read my own thoughts. “It’s the Disciples, man. There’s more of those cloaked mother fuckers here on board. What are they doing now?”

“I don’t know,” I said, rising to my feet as I headed for the door.

“This is your head’s up warning, Mr. Slade,” Iris’ voice reached my ears before she phased through the door in front of me.

“You’re what?” Ricky asked.

“Never mind that,” I said, impatiently. “What’s going on out there?”

“I have been requested to escort you to mechanic Stacy Wilson.” Iris glanced over to Ricky. She blinked her right eye rapidly. “There is a mechanical issue that needs your expertise.”

“What’s wrong with your eye?” I asked.

“There is an issue that only you can resolve.” Iris did the weird thing with her eye again. “An issue you have helped us with before.”

“Are you winking at me?” I asked. “You can just say it out loud. Ricky knows everything.”

Iris gave me a disapproving look before turning to Ricky.

“It’s true,” Ricky said, getting up and wiping his grease stained-hands on an even dirtier towel. “As Mr. Slade’s agent, I’m aware of the matters he was involved in. I’d like to speak to someone about my client’s inclusion in the spy force academy.”

“The what?” Iris looked at us confused.

“Or whatever it is that you’re calling it these days,” Ricky said, trying to save face.

“This can all wait,” I interrupted. “What’s going on?”

“I can tell you on the way,” Iris said as she headed for the door.

I opened the door while she phased through the wall and we took off at a jog. She explained what was happening.

“There was an attack on the navigation core,” Iris said. “We assume another Disciple set off the explosion. Watching the video playback, it shows nothing on the screen before the explosion, which leads me to believe that we may have another cloaked intruder on our hands.”

My mind ran through the possibilities. Could at least one more Disciple be on board? But why did they wait this long to make their move? Why did they attack the navigation core when they could have gone after anything?

We ran through the cafeteria level. Only a few Transients remained as they followed Iris’ instructions and headed for their rooms.

“I’ve been instructed to escort you to the tech level where Stacy and the others are preparing to go on the hunt for this new threat,” Iris said as we waited next to an elevator. She placed a hand on the door, and it opened immediately as if the elevator had been waiting for us this whole time.

We stepped inside. Ricky was still following us and also moved to enter.

Iris looked at him and then to me. “I was only instructed to bring you, Mr. Slade.”

“Ricky taught me everything I know,” I lied. “He’s a better fighter than I am. We could use his help.”

“I am?” Ricky’s eyes went wide. “Dean, I’ve never—”

I stomped on his foot.

His eyes widened with pain as she joined us in the elevator. “Dean, I’ve never instructed a student as poorly as I have you. You’re a disgrace to the Cobra Clan. I should go to make sure no one gets hurt.”

Iris eyed us suspiciously. She allowed the elevator doors to shut with us all inside. That was answer enough for me. Ricky would be allowed along for the ride.

We were whisked up to the same tech level Stacy and I visited weeks before when we were looking for a way to track Maksim. This time when the doors opened, we didn’t have to walk through the glass offices and labs. Everyone was in the lobby waiting for us.

Stacy and Arun wore tactical chest plates. Stacy had her blaster out, and I noticed a similar weapon in Arun’s hands. A dozen heavily armored suits were with them, along with Doctor James Wong who stood in the middle of the group explaining something.

Stacy waived us over, after giving Ricky a confused look.

“Thank you for coming,” Arun said to me, looking at Ricky and then back to Iris. “Iris?”

“He insisted,” Iris shrugged. “I assumed it was more important to get Mr. Slade here quickly, then stop to discuss the matter. He also seems to be the founding member of a Clan Cobra.”

“Hello, I’m Dean’s agent, Ricky Matthews,” Ricky said, extending his hand to Arun. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Arun’s mouth dropped open. She closed it again, shaking Ricky’s hand.

“And this is the most important thing to remember,” Doctor Wong said to the group, capturing all of our attention. “This technology is experimental. Iris will be able to project what she sees on the screen in your headsets. Since the information must be relayed, there could be a slight delay.”

“How long are we talking?” one of the suits asked.

“No more than a millisecond or two,” Doctor Wong said, signaling over to Iris. “The technology I created will capture all motion on The Orion. That amount of data would be nearly impossible for anyone to sift through in real time. Only a Cognitive could make this happen. She’ll exclude any motion from passengers and objects on board until she finds the motion related to our cloaked saboteur. She will then feed that image into our headsets, so you will be able to see it as well.”

Iris joined the doctor as he handed her a dark green data chip. Everyone in the room held their breath as she accepted the data chip in her open right hand. As soon as she closed her glowing blue fingers over the item, the blue light around her shined brighter.

I looked away, covering my eyes to keep it from burning my corneas.

“Iris, are you okay?” Arun asked as the brightness died down.

I lowered my arm in awe, looking at the Cognitive. Her blue eyes were pure white as she sifted through every motion happening in The Orion at once.

“She’s searching now.” Doctor Wong rubbed at his tired, red eyes. “Even if the cloaked Disciple is still, Iris will be able to find him or her through the rise and fall of their chest as they breathe, it’s that sensitive.”

“Oh dear, we have a very serious issue,” Iris said, looking at all of us as her eyes shifted back to their normal blue color.

Chapter 21

The lobby in the tech level was completely silent as we held our breaths to hear what Iris would say.

“I have successfully located every passenger inside The Orion,” Iris said in the calmest tone imaginable. “Except one. I also have a visual on these passengers. There is movement in the Engine room that I cannot see via any external cameras.”

“The Engine room is locked down tight,” Arun said, checking her blaster. “We made sure all critical systems were secured with the most state-of-the-art locking system available at the time of construction. Civil Authority Officers are also standing guard. Whoever is down there won’t get in.”

“Let’s move out,” Stacy told the suits present. She grabbed the headset Doctor Wong was handing out. “We have a Disciple to hunt.”

“Oh dear,” Iris said as Doctor Wong handed me my headset resembling a thick pair of sunglasses.

“What is it, Iris?” Arun asked.

“I’ve been trying to figure out how the saboteur gained access to the navigation core.” Iris looked over at Doctor Wong. “As Arun stated, there were Civil Authority Officers stationed at the checkpoint, which is only accessible by a handful of departments heads.”

Everyone paused as Iris got to the point. Her gaze never left Doctor Wong.

“I was trying to gather information from the blown-out access system. I have finally uncovered that the last person to check into the navigation core room was Doctor Wong.”

Everyone in the room, including me, directed our attention to the doctor. I had to admit, I hadn’t see that one coming.

“Holy shit,” Ricky said under his breath. “It’s always the one you don’t expect.”

“What?” Doctor Wong asked, chuckling nervously. “That has to be wrong. I’ve been working in the lab all morning. You can check the cameras. I have alibis. It wasn’t me.”

“Your credentials were the last to be used to access the navigation room minutes before it was destroyed,” Iris insisted. “The cameras were eviscerated in the explosion, otherwise I would play it back for you.”

“Wait, I can prove it. My secretary Marcy was with me last night. We were working late.” Doctor Wong reached for something in his pocket.

Every suit in the room pointed their weapon at him, including Arun. Doctor Wong looked like he was about to make a deposit in his pants. Maybe he did.

“Please, I’m just reaching for my holo card to call my assistant. She can verify everything,” Doctor Wong said in a shaky voice.

“Go ahead,” Arun said. “But do it slowly.”

Doctor Wong’s hands were trembling as he reached into his white lab coat. Confusion crossed his face as he checked the inside breast pocket, moving to the one on the outside and then to his pants. Nothing.

“I-I swear it was with me when I—”

“It appears the doctor is telling the truth,” Iris said, extending her palm. A holographic screen popped up showing a video of Doctor Wong spread eagle on his desk taking a nap. He was snoring like a hibernating bear.

Marcy appeared in the doorway. She carefully made her way to his side and reached inside his lab coat and removed his card.

“I should have suspected,” Stacy said through gritted teeth. “She was way too nervous when we first came to question you.”

“Marcy, a Disciple?” Doctor Wong asked, total disbelief in his voice. “No, she’s not that kind of person. This has to be wrong.”

“I assure you, the recording is accurate,” Iris said. “Marcy Knot is not currently present on The Orion. She must be the one using the cloaking device.”

“Let’s move,” Arun said, grabbing a headset. “Stacy, warn the officers on duty in the reactor level.”

Ricky and I were handed chest-plates of our own to wear. They were heavier than they looked. An opening for our heads allowed the vest to hang on our shoulders. Synchs on the sides made sure they were snug. They wouldn’t win any awards for style, but so long as they could stop a blaster round to my chest, that’s all I was worried about.

“Iris will have control over the headsets,” Doctor Wong recovered enough to shout to our backs. “Even cloaked, you’ll be able to see Marcy’s movement once your headsets are activated.”

That’s all we had time to hear before we were crammed into an elevator, making our way down to the level. The idea that I should be given a blaster or something this time around, poked at my thoughts. But there was simply no time.

Stacy was trying to get the attention of the suits guarding the reactor. She held her red holo card in her hand, speaking into the receiver.

“Come in unit eleven, do you copy? Unit eleven, please respond, this is Special Agent Stacy Wilson, do you copy?” Stacy said, repeatedly. She pressed two fingers to her right ear, waiting for a response. The grim look on her face told me there was no answer.

The elevator doors opened, and we poured out into the hall.

The pair of suits Stacy had tried to contact, lie motionless on the floor. Each had burn marks on their skulls, signaling the use of a blaster up close and personal. They never have a chance. Marcy had been invisible and on them before they realized what was happening.

One of the suits stopped and knelt to check pulses just to be sure—a formality more than any hope of their being alive.

The engine room was a lower level with a wide, open space. The ceiling reached four stories tall with bright lights that shone down, illuminating the room. Still, there were far too many shadows for my taste. Especially now, as we hunted the invisible Marcy.

There were a series of massive turbines scattered across the room that looked like huge arches. They hummed as they turned, propelling The Orion though slip space.

The elevator next to us opened with Iris, Arun and the rest of the suits exiting.

“I have contact,” Iris said. “Please put on your headsets.”

“Units one and two, guard the elevator doors,” Stacy instructed. “Everyone else, please, fan out.”

I placed the oversized sunglasses on the bridge of my nose, looking through the darkened lenses. Everything appeared in front of me just like before, except it was a shade darker, and there was also a movement like ripples coming from everything that hummed. It almost reminded of the images I had seen of sonar like the way dolphins could see things through the water.

The turbines and a pipe overhead, let off little ripples as they vibrated. Like a rippling pool of water interrupted by someone throwing a small stone inside.

“You two know how to use these?” Stacy came up to Ricky and me, handing us each a blaster she had taken from two of the suits. The suits she relieved the sidearms from looked us over for a second, then turned back to the open room.

“Yep,” Ricky said, examining the blaster, and to my surprise, he seemed like he knew what he was doing.

He caught my look of shock and explained.

“What? I had one of these back on Earth for protection.”

“Right,” I said, gripping the solid piece of steel in my hand. It was heavy with a fat grip and a short barrel.

“Safety on, off,” Stacy said showing me the switch on the right side of her weapon. She pointed to another switch on the left. “Stun and kill. We want to try and capture her to see if we can get more information.”

“Stun it is,” I said, mirroring the two-handed grip on the weapon I saw Arun using.

“And don’t stun me,” Stacy said to me with a half serious, half joking grin. “Actually, don’t walk behind me at all. Let’s go.”

With two pairs of suits at the evaluators, it left the eight others including myself, Ricky, Arun, Stacy, and Iris to travel across the giant room.

“There is movement behind the far turbine,” Iris said to Stacy, who had taken the lead.

Stacy sent four suits to flank from the right and another four from the left. We were going to go straight up the gut.

“Using the cameras in the room, you’re going to see through the turbine to where our cloaked saboteur is hiding,” Iris said.

The view in front of me changed, showing the last turbine on our left as translucent and the outline of a person behind it. The same kind of rippling vibration came from the silhouette of Marcy Knot.

From what I could see, Marcy’s outline was crouched low. If she did have a weapon, I couldn’t see it. I also couldn’t see what she was doing right now.

“Marcy, this is Civil Authority Officer Stacy Wilson,” Stacy said as we made our way forward. “There’s no way this ends well for you. We have tech that allows us to see your every move. You’re already surrounded. Deactivate your cloak and come out with your hands where I can see them. I won’t ask you twice.”

There was no response. The second turbine where Marcy was hidden, was still fifty yards from our current position. I could see the form of her turn as she heard her name. Initially, there was no attempt to obey Stacy’s words. Then she shifted, and to my surprise, she stood up, deactivating her cloak like Stacy asked and put her hands in the air.

I traded confused looks with Arun.

I gripped my blaster tighter and made sure to keep my finger off the trigger. I was pointing it at Marcy like everyone else in the room, but I was sure I didn’t need to. There were a dozen barrels pointed at her, and most would be better shots than me.

Marcy was wearing a black cloak just like Maksim’s, and a crimson mask hid the lower half of her face.

“You’re too late,” She shouted over the humming of the turbines. “Do what you will to my body. You are too late to save your precious ship.”

“On your knees!” Arun shouted as we advanced. “On your knees right now!”

Marcy obeyed with her hands still in the air.

“We will all be lost to space, wiping this Eternal experiment off the pages of history,” She was saying all the right Disciple mumbo jumbo, but her voice was off. It was like she was saying what she knew she should say, without really believing it herself. She was still that nervous, scared woman I had met in Doctor Wong’s office.

I’m not sure what came over me, but I knew Marcy wasn’t the animal Maksim was. I could see it in her body language and hear it in her voice.

“Marcy,” I said, increasing the speed I walked. I came alongside Arun and Stacy in the lead and lowered my weapon. “Marcy, do you remember me? I came in with Stacy to talk with Doctor Wong a few weeks ago.”

“The Eternals must be punished. All who follow them must also suffer. They know—”

“This isn’t you, Marcy,” I said, closing the gap. She was only ten yards in front of me, and she was shaking from fear. Her voice quivered with every false word she spoke.

“What are you doing?” Stacy whispered. “Get back.”

I ignored her.

“I’ve seen killers. I know what people who genuinely want to hurt others look like,” I said as I walked so close to Marcy, I could reach out and touch her. I handed the blaster behind me to Ricky. “That’s not you, Marcy.”

“I-I have to—I have to do this,” Marcy said as tears welled in her eyes, rolling off her cheek and disappearing into the handkerchief that covered the lower half of her face.

“There’s kids on board,” I said to her, kneeling to look into her eyes. “Little boys and girls who are just happy to sit down at lunch and eat barbeque with their grandma. For whatever sins you think others are committing, don’t punish them.”

I’d spent enough time hurting people. I wasn’t sure if I could get through to Marcy, but I had to try. I knew if the image of that little girl eating her barbeque could get through to me, it could reach anyone.

“You don’t understand. I have to,” Marcy looked up at me, unable to stop the tears. “They have my—my family back on Earth. If I don’t do this, they’ll k-kill them all. I’m so sorry.”

Both of Marcy’s hands were behind her head while she spoke. She lifted her right hand ever so slightly. A small remote with a red button on top was clenched in her fist.

“If you survive this tell, my family I love them, and I did this for them,” Marcy said.

“Marcy, no!” I screamed as I sprang up and tried to reach her before she could hit the detonator.

A suit shouted something out. “We have a bomb next to the turbine it’s—”

BOOM!

Whatever the suit was about to say was lost in the explosion.

Chapter 22

The ringing in my ears kept me from hearing anything, but I knew people were screaming. There was a suit on fire, writhing on the ground and trying in vain to put out the flames consuming his body. Others were lying dead, scattered on the ground, too close to the explosion.

Marcy lay in a clump, thrown further than I was, and she wasn’t moving.

Ricky grabbed my arm trying to get me to my feet. His mouth was forming words I couldn’t hear, and he had a panicked look in his eyes. My hearing started coming back as he screamed something at me again. By the tone of his voice, I could tell this wasn’t the first time he had said it.

“We have to go!” Ricky said, dragging me up and shoving me toward the elevator. “The ship’s going down.”

I heard what he said, but it still didn’t register. The Orion was a colony seed ship the size of a small moon. It wasn’t going to go down from an explosion this size.

As if to argue with me, the ship trembled, and I nearly lost my footing.

Arun and Stacy were helping the injured suits make it to the elevator, and I half ran, half stumbled toward the elevators with everyone else. The injured suits were screaming in pain as Stacy and Arun shouted out orders.

“Iris, damage report,” Stacy yelled.

Arun had a red holo card out. She was shouting something to Elon, who piloted The Orion from the ship’s bridge.

Elon’s voice came through worried. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”

“I’m patching Elon through now so we can all speak together,” Iris informed everyone in a very calm tone. “We need to exit this level immediately. The next turbine is unstable and will blow any minute. We need to evacuate the ship. We are being pulled out of slip space. With the Navigation Core damaged, I have no idea where we are or where we will be when we are pulled out.”

“Head for medical,” Stacy told the suits carrying their wounded. “We’ll be in contact as soon as we can.”

The suits nodded and left in the first elevator.

The rest of us got into the second elevator in a hurry.

“Why are you talking about evacuating the ship?” Elon asked Iris though the comm unit.

“Navigation and a single turbine are going to take us down?” Arun asked.

Ricky hit a button on the holographic elevator wall and we were off.

“No, but we could be exiting slip space anywhere in the known or unknown galaxy,” Iris explained. “We could be headed for a black hole or a sun for all I know. It would be prudent to prepare for evacuation.”

The elevator doors opened, and we walked out into the Assembly Level. People were screaming, looking to one another for direction as we exited, but that’s not what caught our eyes.

We looked past the shaking of the floor beneath our feet and the sounds of tearing steel to what lay outside the ship. The slip stream that was usually multicolored lights of blues, oranges, yellows, and greens, was now turning clear for the first time since we left Earth three weeks ago.

We were drawn toward the glass to see where we had been kicked off course. When the multicolor of slip space finally evaporated, my heart sunk.

We were outside of a massive planet that resembled Earth, in as much as there were large bodies of water and landmasses. The bad news was, we were so close to the planet, its gravitational pull began sucking us in toward it. Slow at first but steadily stronger.

I was no scientist, but I understood a no-win situation when I saw one. Without the turbines giving us power, we weren’t getting out of this gravitational pull. We were going down.

“Get as many people into escape pods and escape ships as you can, right now,” Arun said in a defeated tone. “Elon get yourself into a pod—that’s an order. We’re going down.”

“Maybe I can pull us up somehow once we get closer to the ground, maybe—”

A rumbling filled The Orion along with screams and cries for help. Another explosion went off somewhere, losing the connection with Elon altogether.

“Elon. Elon, can you hear me?” Arun shouted. “Elon, come in!”

Only silence answered her desperate cries.

“I’m going for my brother,” Arun said, taking off at a run. “Get as many people to safety as you can. Go!”

Stacy, Ricky, and I leaped into action, heading for the escape pod level in the middle of the ship. The Orion was equipped with enough pods to house every single person in The Orion, should the need arise.

I was part of the team that installed the escape crafts in place. Thousands of smaller cargo ships lined the perimeter of The Orion in a single ring. Along with these ships were also single and double manned escape pods that were built for a single purpose, surviving a crash.

“Everyone, please make your way to level one hundred and fifty where the escape pods are located,” Iris’ voice was magnified over the comm system in The Orion. “There is enough room for everyone. Please, in an orderly fashion, make your way to level one hundred and fifty.

Orderly fashion my ass, I thought to myself as we ran for it along with everyone else on the level. There’s no way this ends well.

Reaching the elevators, there was already a mass of people cramming into them. We joined them all, squishing ourselves into one.

“I’ll be in contact,” Iris said as the doors closed with her on the other side. “I need to make sure as many people reach the escape pods as possible.”

“Be safe,” Stacy said what I was thinking.

Iris nodded, and the doors closed.

I had no idea what death would be like for a Cognitive. I imagined somewhere on board was a power source that gave her shape and thought. Right now, that didn’t seem important. We were crammed in shoulder to shoulder with a group of people crying, asking what was happening, and angry they didn’t know. I was the last to get into the shuttle, so I was pressed up against the closed doors with Ricky’s elbow in my back.

“We’re going to all exit when the elevator doors open and head for an escape ship or an escape pod,” Stacy shouted over the noise in our steel can. “You’re going to be fine.”

“My son!” a man shouted from the back somewhere. “I have to get my son. I’m not leaving without my son.”

More shouts like this filled the elevator.

“Everyone is being instructed to get to the escape bay as soon as possible,” Stacy informed them. “The best bet of finding your loved ones will be there.”

The elevator doors opened, and there were people everywhere, running, shouting, crying, and screaming. We stepped out on the floor as a groan from The Orion reminded us of how dire our situation really was.

The level was wide open with white tile underneath and a large, bright screen overhead. A video played of a smiling woman going through the motions of calmly securing herself into an escape pod. She never stopped smiling and grinning, as if she were about to embark on a vacation instead of trying not to die in a horrible crash.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Ricky said, grabbing both myself and Stacy by the arm and running forward.

“I can’t,” Stacy pulled away going to an elderly woman who had tears in her eyes. The grey-haired woman looked around confused. “They need our help.”

Ricky looked at me, motioning for me to follow. I glanced around. There were elderly, kids, and even a few adults, who were either held stock still by fear or genuinely didn’t know what to do.

“Dean,” Ricky shouted. “Let’s go!”

My eyes landed on an old man who had tripped and fell. He was being trampled in the rush of people arriving on the elevator to get to pods. A line of blood gushed from the right side of his face.

Oh, here we go again, I said to myself. Are you really going to do this?

“Go!” I shouted to Ricky. “I’ll catch up.”

He started to argue, but I didn’t listen.

I elbowed my way to the old man, shoving people aside and receiving a few shoves myself. I leaned down, grabbing the terrified man by the arms and lifting him up. I directed him over to a ship that was already filling.

“Th-thank you,” he said.

“Get on a ship,” I told him, leading him to the open hatch. “The ship’s autopilot will take you to the planet.”

He nodded numbly, obeying my instructions.

I helped a confused family, then a little boy find his father and on and on. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ricky helping as well. I would have to give him a hard time about that later if we survived this.

I lost track of time, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes when things turned from bad to worse. Escape ships and pods were beginning to fill up. One by one, they disengaged then broke away from The Orion. Whether it was a malfunction of one of the ships taking off, or something else altogether, I’ll never know. One second, I was leading a family to a waiting escape ship, and the next, a tear the size of a small ship burst through the far side of the escape level.

Cold air acted like a vacuum, sucking people out. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Transients were pulled off their feet and thrown out into the frigid air beyond. Their screams echoed as they were grabbed by the hungry hands of space and ushered to their graves.

The pull took me off my feet like a giant vacuum cleaner. I slid across the tile floor toward my death. My arms flailed widely, as I tried to grip anything that would keep me rooted to my spot, but the floor was too slick, and there was nothing to hold onto.

“Got ya!” Ricky said, latching onto my right arm with his own. He anchored his body to an escape pod entrance set into the wall with his left arm and feet. “I wasn’t going to leave you that easily.”

I grabbed onto his arm, pulling myself to the steel rod he used to anchor himself. Looking through the tangled hair that had fallen in my face, I had slid dozens of yards from my previous spot. All around us, people were already in ships or sucked out into the atmosphere.

“We’ve done all we can,” Ricky screamed over the sound of the rushing wind. “It’s time to go!”

I knew he was right, even if I didn’t want him to be. Abandoning The Orion was like admitting defeat. We had worked so hard together to stop the sabotage, but in the end, it didn’t make a difference.

“Dean!” Rick screamed. “It’s time to go! We have to go, now!”

I nodded.

He reached for a lever beside us, opening the two-person escape pod and climbing inside. I joined Ricky, taking a last look at The Orion before I closed the hatch.

The wonders of humankind were truly boundless and so was their hate. It had taken years to build a ship like this and only the anger of a few to bring it down. I slammed the seal shut in front of me before I could get too deep in thought for my own good.

A lever I twisted in place, ensured the circular hatch was sealed airtight. The single steel bar was a bear to maneuver, but I put some muscle into it, and it finally agreed to fall into place.

“You ready?” Ricky said as he opened the secure clear glass the disengage button was under. “If we die because we stayed a few minutes longer to help those people inside their own escape pods, I’m blaming you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said as The Orion spasmed again. I clipped into the five-point harness, tightening the strap around my waist as well as my shoulder. “Do it!”

“Here we go!” Ricky yelled, slamming his fist onto the button that would separate us from the falling Orion.

Chapter 23

As soon as Ricky hit the disengage button, we were jettisoned into the air. We didn’t fall away from The Orion— it was more like we were shot out from the ship.

My stomach twisted inside my gut as I held onto the harness at my chest. I gritted my teeth, trying to hold back from yelling.

Ricky wasn’t holding back at all. He was calling out for every saint, god, deity and higher power I had ever heard of.

“Oh, Virgin Mary, save me. Save me!” Ricky was yelling. “I promise, I’ll never gamble again if you see me through this.”

The fall felt like an eternity. I focused on what I knew about the escape pods. They were equipped to take a fall like this. They had measures to hit their own thruster once they were a certain distance from land and again, to deploy a landing buffer when we were about to make contact with the planet.

This knowledge really didn’t help as we waited for the inevitable end of the fall.

“Help us! I’m sorry, I repent from my evil ways!” Ricky screamed. “Just don’t let me die. Not like this!”

The sphere righted itself, and the thrusters kicked in, slamming my tailbone hard into the seat. The seatbelts pressed against my shoulders, knocking the air out of me.

Glancing out the window to my right, The Orion was still falling. Breaking into multiple pieces, it scattered across the planet like a jigsaw puzzle. While the bulk of the ship headed somewhere to the north, smaller pieces that resembled comets, landed haphazardly around.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of escape pods and shuttles made their way down to the alien planet below. Overhead, two strange suns shone brightly. One was almost orange while the other was a bright yellow.

“We-we made it,” Ricky said, breathlessly as we descended to the planet below.

“Not quite yet,” I reminded him as the thrusters slowed our fall. “We have one more—”

A pop sounded from outside the sphere as the landing bags were deployed.

The air was really sucked out of my lungs this time as our pod landed down. A violent tremor rocked our ship one last time. Ricky was coughing. He touched himself over his arms and chest.

“We made it! We’re alive,” he said. “I don’t have to haunt you in the next life now.”

My brain immediately kicked in to action. We were on an unknown alien planet, only halfway through the journey to Kronos Five. We had no idea of knowing if the planet we were on had any water resources, let alone breathable air.

“There’s a holo pad here somewhere,” I said, releasing myself from my straps and digging into the supplies every escape pod was equipped with. “I remember from the training videos we had to watch.”

“You actually watched those?” Ricky asked, also unclipping himself and reaching for his groin. “Oh man. I feel like my balls were sucked into my stomach, we landed so hard. There goes the idea of ever having kids.”

I ignored Ricky for the time being, looking into the side compartment between my seat and the right side of our escape pod. Sure enough, a holo pad came away in my hands from a section of the seat.

I opened the display searching the strange menu. I clicked on the tab that said environment and read the data as it appeared in front of me.

Location: Unknown

Temperature: 75 degrees Fahrenheit

Air Breathability: Positive.

Fresh water sources: Detected.

Life forms: Detected.

I hunched back into my seat, grateful after reading the display. Ricky followed along with the readout as well.

“Life forms are the other survivors from—from the ship, right?” Ricky laughed, nervously. “I mean, we’re not talking about aliens, right?”

“I’m sure it's just the other survivors,” I said, waving away the idea. “As far as anyone knows, we’re alone in the universe. No intelligent life, unless the government has been hiding something like in those old conspiracy holos.”

“Right, right, of course,” Ricky said, trying to convince himself that was the case. “I’m sure that’s true.”

I grabbed the holo pad again, searching for the option to communicate with either The Orion or the other escape crafts in the area.

“I really wished I would have watched those training videos now,” Ricky said, looking at me helplessly.

“It’s all right. We’ll figure it out,” I said, maneuvering around the options menu. “My eyes landed on a button labeled communication. I tapped it, opening a screen that showed another button with the word “talk” on it. I pressed it down. “Hello, can anyone hear me out there?”

I released the button and waited for a response.

“Hello, hello can you hear us this is—” a voice I didn’t recognize, answered. “Oh god, what is that? What is that? Some kind of mist. Help us—”

Ricky looked up at me horrified.  Static cut through our transmission. I pressed down the button again.

“Say again, say again,” I said swallowing hard. “Do you read me?”

Static.

“There has to be thousands of escape pods out there. Why don’t we hear any others?” Ricky asked.

“Maybe it’s only meant for short wave transmission? Maybe our antenna was damaged in the landing? I’m not sure,” I responded. “But we’re not going to figure it out in here.”

“Did you hear those people on the other end before it went all static?” Ricky looked at me shaking his head. “No thank you. They were terrified. Something was coming for them. I’m not going out there.”

“Well, there’s not exactly a future for us in here,” I said, maneuvering around my seat and beginning to take stock of our surroundings. “We’ve got to find others. We have to see if The Orion is salvageable.”

“Salvageable,” Ricky said, shaking his head. “You saw what happened, right? The ship completely broke apart. There’s no way it survived. “We’re stuck. We’re stranded here. Wherever here is.”

I was getting annoyed. I knew all of this as well as Ricky, but what was I supposed to do? Roll over and die? That wasn’t me. I was a lot of things, but I sure as hell didn’t give up.

“You can stay here if you want,” I said, finding a black backpack on the opposite side of my seat. “But I’m going out there.”

“Dean, it’s over, man,” Ricky said, staring out the right window. “We’re dead. We’re never getting back. We’re never going to be found. We’re—”

“Stop it,” I said, reaching across the narrow space between us and grabbing his collar. My anger took over. I stared my friend in the face, trying to put words to my feelings. “Maybe it is over. Maybe we all die here, but I’m not going to die without a fight. It’s not who I am. It’s not who you are. We’ll find a way to survive. We have to.”

I realized what I was doing and pulled myself back, trying to contain my frustration. I released Ricky’s bunched up collar and fell back into my seat.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry, Ricky. You didn’t deserve that. You’ve been nothing but a friend to me.”

“It’s okay, man,” he said. His eyes never left the window to his right. “Hey, is it just me or is that another escape pod?”

I turned to follow his gaze. With his right pointer finger, he directed me to what looked like a sloping grass hill a hundred yards to our right. A white sphere like ours had landed on the slope. The hatches were closed. Whoever was in there, they must still be inside.

“Ricky, you got to listen to me,” I said, trying a different approach. “Maybe it’s like you said, and there’s no getting off here. Maybe we’re all dead anyway. But I’d rather spend the last breath in my lungs trying to live, rather than roll over and die. We’re survivors, both of us. Tell me I’m wrong.”

Ricky slowly nodded, then turned to look at me. The glazed expression of shock was gone from his eyes. “You should have been a coach or a motivational speaker or something,” Ricky managed to say with a smile. “Okay, fine. Let's grab whatever we can and take a look outside. What’s the worst that could happen? We die from a wild animal attack?”

“Atta boy,” I said, pointing to the spot on his left. “There should be a backpack of water and food by your seat. “I think there are flashlights and a knife under it.”

We spent the next few minutes taking stock of our supplies and preparing to leave the somewhat safety of our escape pod. Along with two bottles of water, there was a pack of energy bars, a knife, a flashlight, a blanket, a med kit, and a fire starter.

Ricky carried the same thing, minus the med kit.

“Whatever’s out there, we’ll figure this out,” I told Ricky, trying to give him the pep talk I needed now. Telling him the truth, that I was as scared as he was, wasn’t the right thing to do.

“Let’s do it,” Ricky said.

I leaned on the long lever that released the same hatch we used to climb into our escape pod. It opened with a popping noise. The first thing I realized as I stuck my head out of our escape pod was whatever this planet was, it wasn’t that different from Earth.

There were dark green grassy fields and thick, almost black tree trunks, showing off vibrant forms of leaves. The smell of smoke was in the air. I coughed for a second, then hopped out of the escape pod, letting Ricky do the same.

The twin suns loomed overhead, bringing a warmth to my face. There was an ever so slight breeze, gently blowing. If we weren’t on an alien planet, this place might even seem nice.

“Ummm, Dean?” Ricky said, grabbing my attention.

Chapter 24

A thin line of smoke rose from the other downed escape pod. Instead of landing on oversized airbags like ours, it had struck the ground like a crater.

As we got closer, the escape pod wasn’t just smoking, it was cracked in multiple places. The sphere wasn’t meant to take a fall like that without its boosters or landing bags to soften its touchdown.

Orange and red flames licked inside of it and the ground all around, hollowed with its impact.

Despite my gut churning, I looked inside the window. A single seat escape pod like ours only smaller, revealed a poor soul strapped to their seat, the fire having eaten away much of their body. The scent of burned hair and flesh was overwhelming, and I looked away quickly.

“Ricky, I’m not sure you want to do that,” I said as Ricky leaned in to look through the window.

He turned back a moment later, throwing up on the ground next to him. He fell down on hands and knees, vomiting everything his body contained.

I set my jaw, wondering how many more pods had failed to land properly and why. Was it a mechanical failure? Had a Disciple tampered with some of the pods?

All these answers would have to wait.

Ricky was gathering himself, and I decided to take the time to survey our surroundings. We were in a grass field with trees all around, making it hard to see anything out in the distance. The only thing I could see through the trees, was a mountain range to the east and the twin suns overhead.

I realized that there was no sound. No white noise of other people living, talking, or moving around. There were no birds or animal sounds either. There was only stillness and the sounds of Ricky spitting the last of his breakfast burrito into the dirt.

“You think, you think they went fast?” Ricky asked, pushing himself to his feet and joining me. “I mean the person in the pod. Do you think they died quickly?”

“I sure hope so,” I said. “The landing probably would have killed them instantly before the fire broke out.”

“Right, right,” Ricky said, nodding along with my theory. “They were already dead when the fire started. So, what now?”

“We can’t really see much down here in the trees,” I said, once again looking east. “There’s a mountain range over there, but I don’t think we need to go that far. Maybe we can find some high ground, even a tree to climb up and see where we’re going. We need to find other survivors.”

“Right, we can’t be the only ones…” Ricky’s voice trailed off as if it were a question. “Can we?”

“No way,” I said, shrugging against the straps of my pack. “I saw dozens of ships getting away before and during our escape. They’re out here, we just have to find them.”

“Right,” Ricky said, building up his courage. “I could really use a drink or twenty right now. Maybe a game of dice to relax.”

“You and me both, brother,” I said as we headed east, back toward our downed escape pod and the tree line beyond. After I spoke, I remembered all of Ricky’s promises to every deity he could think of about stopping his gambling ways. “Wait a minute. Didn’t you swear to give up gambling if we landed safely?”

“What?” Ricky looked at me like I was crazy. “I don’t remember that at all.”

“Yeah, that was you,” I said.

“Well, I can’t be held accountable for whatever I did or didn’t say when I thought I was going to die,” Ricky said, then shrugged. “That would never hold up in a court of law.”

The dark green grass crunched under my boots just like the grass on Earth. The only noticeable difference was the color, so dark it was almost black.

I took a better look at the trees as we passed our pod and entered the forest area. The trunks were much wider than anything I had seen on Earth. The bark was also a deep dark brown, and the leaves were vibrant, nearly neon green.

It was like they gave a kid a set of crayons and told him or her to go to town on the landscape.

“Is it weird that we don’t hear anything?” Ricky asked.

He had his knife out in his right hand. He held it close to his body as if he were ready to strike out at any moment.

“If you accidentally stab me with that thing, I’m going to be pissed,” I said, fighting the urge to unsheathe my own knife that sat in a carrier on the right side of my hip. I held the holo pad in my hands instead, hoping to pick up a signal from someone. “And yeah. It is weird. There are no animals, insects, or anything.”

We traveled through the dense forest, always listening for movement, but there was still nothing. We went on the same even ground, looking for a place where we could get a better view of the landscape. I was beginning to think we should abandon the search for a decent vantage point and just try to climb one of the trees, when we heard movement in the forest in front of us.

Ricky and I both slammed ourselves against the closest tree on our right. The wide trunk offered more than enough room for us to conceal ourselves. I grabbed the handle of my knife, sliding it free from its sheath.

The sounds grew closer.

I kneeled low and looked around the base of the trunk Ricky and I were using for cover. I felt hot, as a line of sweat crossed my brow. It was difficult to see through the massive line of trees, and I relied on my sense of hearing to point my eyes in the right direction.

“I don’t—I don’t see anything,” Ricky whispered. “Can you?”

“Not yet,” I answered.

The sound came closer, someone walked on the grass in the forest. I caught movement. Something white. Whatever it was, crossed our hiding space thirty yards to my left.

It was hard to tell for sure, but it had to be someone from our ship. Nothing else existed on alien planets. At least that’s what I was telling myself.

“What if it’s an alien?” Ricky whispered in my ear. “Remember the transmission we received?”

“No such thing as aliens,” I said. “I think it’s another survivor.”

I decided to take a chance.

“Hello?” I called out into the distance. “Hello, can you hear me?”

The steady noise of plodding stopped. Once again, the entire forest was quiet.

The noise came again, but this time it was the sound of running. Not just running, but the clear sound of galloping as something raced toward us. I was wrong. This wasn’t a person at all.

I rose to my feet as a surge of adrenaline quickened my heart rate. I clenched my knife tightly in my hand, preparing to see something crazy burst from between the trees.

“I knew aliens were real!” Ricky exclaimed, gritting his teeth.

A whitish-grey creature sprinted from the forest. I had just enough time to register what I was seeing before it was on top of us. It was the same massive dog that I had seen in the cargo hold during my first run-in with the assassin Disciple known as Maksim.

It headed right for me, nearly grinning as its pink tongue lolled out the side of its mouth. I lowered my knife as it skidded to a stop in front of me. It sniffed at my pants, wagging its tail like a maniac, then went over to Ricky to do the same.

“What the hell?” Ricky asked as he sheathed his knife and went down to a knee to pet the mutt. “Is this one of the animals you said was in the cargo hold?”

“That’s right,” I said as my heart transitioned back to beating normally once more. “He must have survived the crash somehow, or maybe someone let them out.”

“Doesn’t look like he escaped unscathed,” Ricky said, eyeing blood splatter on the left side of the dog’s face. “He doesn’t seem to be limping, so that’s good.”

The dog whined again and nuzzled Ricky, then went over to me and sat down at my feet.

“I think you have an admirer,” Ricky grinned. “Maybe he remembers you from when you got beat up in the cargo hold.”

“Maybe,” I said, reaching a hand down to ruffle the dogs’ soft, pointed ears.

He looked up at me with a stupid grin.

“Man, I thought for sure we were about to see something wild,” Ricky said, shaking his head. “Like a mutated alien beast that was going to suck out our brains, or some kind of skeletal insect creature that was going to pump us full of bile.”

“That’s disgusting,” I said.

“I have a disturbing imagination,” Ricky said with a sigh. “It’s my burden to bear in this life.”

“What do you think about climbing a tree?” I asked.  “I don’t see the terrain opening up any time soon. I think with a boost, I can grab one of these lower branches and pull myself up.”

“Worth a shot,” Ricky shrugged. He laced his fingers together and squatted down to give me a lift.

I shrugged off my pack and placed my right foot in his hands. With a heave, Ricky lifted me up, and I was able to grab a lower hanging branch on the tree in front of us.

The mutt barked once as if he were worried for me and telling me not to fall. The tree’s bark felt like any other tree I had ever climbed as a kid, rough but firm under my hands.

I pulled myself up, choosing branches that were sturdy and only placing my full weight on them once they were tested. The higher up I went, I started noticing dark purple fruit that reminded me of avocados. I had no idea if they were edible, and I sure wasn’t going to try them.

I ignored the allure of a possible food source for the time being and continued upward.

The tree was taller than I had first guessed, but after a few minutes of climbing, I poked my head out of the top of the canopy. What I saw took my breath away. It filled me with both hope and dread.

Chapter 25

My mouth went dry. I surveyed the landscape. To the north, there was smoke. If I squinted hard, I could make out some kind of dome rising from the ground—The Orion.

To the east, a red rock mountain range stood against the horizon—the same cliffs I had seen as we fell to the planet’s surface. To the west, I spied a large body of water, blue as the sky.

Glancing to the south, I blinked my eyes a few times rapidly. I shaded my vision as I leaned forward to get a better look. The forested area continued for about a kilometer before the landscape began to change into a swamp. A wall of mist prevented me from seeing any further.

The mist. The transmission we picked up before we lost contact was talking about a mist. I studied it longer, straining to see anything beyond the wall. There was nothing but the white, rolling waves of the mist as it ebbed and flowed like an ocean.

“Hey, hey, what do you see up there?” Ricky said in a loud whisper. “What’s going on?”

I turned back to The Orion one more time, making sure I had the bearing correct. I was horrible at measuring great distances, but it looked like we could make it in a day if we traveled hard.

Climbing back down to where Ricky and the mutt waited for me, I let myself fall the last few meters to the ground as I hung from the final branch.

“Some kind of ocean to the west. Mountains to the east and I can see The Orion, or at least what’s left of it. We need to head north,” I told Ricky.

“Great, great, and what did you see to the south?” Ricky asked, motioning behind us. “What’s down there? More forest?”

“It’s just a wall of mist, maybe a klick or two in that direction,” I explained.

“Sorry,” Ricky said, then wiggled a finger into his right ear. “It sounded like you calmly said a wall of mist is a kilometer away from us.”

“I did,” I repeated myself. “A klick or two.”

Ricky looked down at the mutt as if he were going to weigh in with an opinion. The dog looked back at him and opened his mouth with a grin.

“Well, let’s get the hell out of these woods,” Ricky said, looking behind him as if at any moment the trees were going to come alive and snatch him up. “You said The Orion was to the north? How fa—”

A scream ripped through the air like nails on a chalkboard.

I wheeled around, grabbing for my knife. Ricky did the same, fumbling for his own. The mutt growled, and the hackles rose on his back as he lowered himself to the ground.

Someone was racing from the south towards us, bleeding from a head wound. Her white lab coat was torn in half a dozen places.

Doctor Allbright caught sight of us and stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes were wide in panic. She was in shock, looking at me as if she didn’t know who I was.

“Doc!” I said, lowering my knife. “Doc, it’s okay! It’s me, Dean.”

Doctor Allbright blinked a few times. She licked at her cracked lips, then cast her eyes down to her hands. “I had them. I was about to pull them free, but it was too strong.”

I could tell something was wrong. She was dazed, maybe confused.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay. You’re safe now,” I coaxed as I elbowed Ricky in the side. “Put your knife away. She’s a friend of mine.”

“I don’t know, man,” Rick said, still pointing his blade at Doctor Allbright. “She doesn’t look right. What if a demon entered her body, or she breathed in some alien spores. You know, like in all those movies.”

“Rick,” I said with a growl.

“Okay, alright,” Ricky said, slowly lowering his knife. His eyes never left Doctor Allbright.

“Hey,” I said, making my way to her side. “Just take a few deep breaths and calm yourself. You’re safe now.”

I reached into my pack and handed her a water. She took it tentatively, and half fell, half sat down on the ground. She lifted the bottle with a shaky hand.

Whether it was the water or my words, when she removed the bottle from her lips, she looked a little better. This close to her, I got a better look at the wound on her head. It was a shallow cut that would probably be fine with a few stitches. Head wounds always looked worse than they were. I knew better than most. I’d had a few dozen of them in my day.

“Th-thank you,” Doctor Allbright managed to say. She handed the water back to me. “I-I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

“What did you see?” Ricky asked, coming up with the mutt.

The dog went to Doctor Allbright, sniffing at her legs and feet, then let off a low growl.

“Easy, hey, easy,” I told the dog, patting him on the head.

“It’s okay, he probably smells whatever is on me,” Doctor Allbright said, shaking her head from side-to-side, as if to clear the images from her mind. She took a deep breath. “I don’t know how to explain what I saw.”

“Well, figure it out and don’t take too long,” Ricky told her, then looked in the direction she had come from. “Mist can travel quickly, and I don’t want to get stuck in it.”

“We should get moving soon,” I said, slinging my pack from behind my back and opening it up to retrieve the med kit. “Can you tell us what happened to you?”

Doctor Allbright nodded. “I was in one of the larger ships when we disengaged from The Orion,” she said, looking past my shoulder, as if she were seeing the events as she spoke them out loud. “There had to be hundreds of us crammed inside the spacecraft, far too many if you go off the safety regulations. In the panic to get aboard, people were cramming themselves into whatever ships were closer, rather than follow proper procedure.” She shuddered, imagining the chaos of the evacuation. “There were so many people inside the craft as we took off. There simply weren’t enough seats or harnesses for everyone. I couldn’t even hear myself think. People were shouting and crying hysterically. It was horrifying.” The Doctor winced as I cleaned her cut, using a spray I’d found in the pack.

“Sorry,” I said.

“It’s okay,” she answered. “The automated pilot controls took us to the surface of the planet. We watched The Orion break apart in a dozen or more pieces. There were escape pods everywhere in the sky, both the smaller spheres and larger crafts. We landed on the planet maybe a few kilometers south of here. We couldn’t see anything through the windows, there was so much fog. Someone impatiently opened the main doors before we could receive the all-clear that the air out here was breathable. The mist rushed into our craft faster than I have ever seen before.”

Doctor Allbright paused. I did a decent job of cleaning out her cut, then placed a wrap of gauze around her head. Stitches would have to wait.

I looked over at Ricky. His mouth was hanging open. He was staring at Doctor Allbright as if mentally willing her to continue the story.

“I-I don’t know what happened from there,” Doctor Allbright swallowed hard. She licked her tongue around her lips. “People started—they started screaming and disappearing in the mist. The mist was so thick, I could only see a few meters in every direction. A panicked, herd mentality overcame us like when a wolf is in a sheep pen. We just started running. We ran out of the craft. There were hundreds of us, maybe more.”

“Did you see what was taking the survivors?” I asked, unable to keep my own curiosity at bay. “What was it?”

“I don’t know, I really don’t know, and that’s the most disturbing part,” Doctor Allbright said, pointing to the wound on her head. “I tripped at some point and hit something on the ground. When I looked up, I saw a dark shape moving through the mist away from me. Whatever it was, it moved slowly, but I can’t recall the size or any discernable details. It could have been anything.”

“I’m never walking into mist again,” Ricky said out loud. “Never again.”

“I don’t know if I’m the only one that got away,” Doctor Allbright said. “I just kept moving. I ran until you stopped me.”

The suns shifted in the time since we found the mutt and Doctor Allbright. I guessed it would probably grow dark soon, but I couldn’t say for certain.

“You think you can walk?” I asked Doctor Allbright, replacing the medical kit and water containers in my pack. “After what you said, I think we should put some distance between us and whatever is in that mist.”

“I can walk,” Doctor Allbright said, rising to her feet. She stumbled for a moment, then regained her balance. “Let’s go.”

I took the lead with Allbright behind Ricky, bringing up the rear. The mutt galloped beside me, sniffing everything in and around our path.

The forest ahead remained the same. There was no noise, foreign or familiar. The suns descended overhead in unison. We marched on.

After an hour of quiet walking, trying to find our way, Ricky decided to share what was on his mind. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” he started.

“That’s never good,” I said.

“I’m being serious here,” Ricky said. “What if that mist travels and spreads overnight? What if it works on a cycle?”

“You’re thinking about this too hard,” I said. “If that’s the case, we can’t do anything else besides what we’re doing right now anyway. We head to The Orion and look for survivors. Iris or the Eternals will have a plan. Focus on the mission and put everything else out of her head.”

“I hope so,” Ricky said, looking back at Doctor Allbright and lowering his voice. “Did you see how the dog growled at her? He was excited to see us, but it wasn’t the same with her. I wonder why.”

“I don’t know, but I don’t want to hear any of your alien spores theories,” I said. “We have enough real-life issues to deal with.”

We walked on as the day turned into night. I reached into my pack for a flashlight to help guide our way. Ricky did the same. The stars were brilliant in a way I had never seen before. As I scanned the horizon for familiar constellations, I paused, realizing that I was no longer home. I was no longer on Earth. My stars were gone, never to grace my eyes again. Whatever shapes we drew in the heavens would be new and different now, given new stories and a new history to them.

That was only if we could survive the night, of course.

I had to remind myself more than a few times to keep my focus on the thinning trees around us. We had been walking for hours. My stomach reminded me that dinner had come and gone.

“Do you think we put enough distance between us and the mist?” Ricky asked after a while. “I don’t know what time it is, but it feels like we’ve been at this all night.”

“I agree,” Doctor Allbright said as she took in the area around us. “We’re out of the woods or very close to it. Perhaps some food and rest will help. We can finish the journey back to Orion tomorrow.”

I wanted to protest, but my legs were already killing me. Plus, the darkness made seeing The Orion impossible. For all we knew, we were heading in the wrong direction.

“All right,” I said, reluctantly. “Let’s find somewhere to rest and get some food in us.”

Our campsite was meager at best. We found one of the few trees that remained in the area. The landscape had transformed into open plains of grass and sloping hills. We gathered at the base of the tree, taking out the protein bars and water bottles. I frowned as Ricky opened a bar for the mutt.

“He needs to eat, too,” Ricky said, catching my eye.

Even though Ricky was the one feeding the dog, the mutt came over to consume his treat next to me.

“Ah, come on, I was the one that gave that to you,” Ricky said.

The mutt ignored Ricky. He braced the protein bar in his paws and went to town on it as if it was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted.

I opened my own, ready to take a bite when the holo pad went off.

An unknown voice came through, saying something inaudible before ending in static.

Chapter 26

We all stopped and looked at one another. Ricky was mid-chew. Doctor Allbright put her bar down. She was the first to find her voice.

“Was that Stacy? It sounded like Stacy Wil—”

The holo pad went off again in my pack. I dug it out trying to listen to the words coming from the transmission.

“Can any—hear me? I rep—can anyone—this is—Wilson of the—Orion.”

I grabbed the holo pad a little too eagerly. It was great to hear her voice, and I was a bit surprised at myself for feeling such a sense of relief.

“Stacy, it’s Dean, I can hear you me?” I asked, pressing the button on the pad to speak to her. “Can you hear me?”

“Dean!? Dean, oh thank—where are you?”

I looked around my small group for an answer to that question.

“On an alien planet,” Ricky shrugged.

“Tell her just north of the forest where it ends,” Doctor Allbright suggested.

“We’re on our way to The Orion on the very north end of the forest,” I told her, hoping that would make sense to her. I had no idea where she had landed. “I think you might be close. The range on the holo pad, I don’t think it’s very far.”

“I can send—flare,” Stacy said on her end. “Look for it.”

There was no need to repeat her words. Ricky and Doctor Allbright were already jumping to their feet and searching the night sky.

A moment later, a red streak erupted from the canopy of trees a few kilometers to our left. The flare shot to the heavens like a beacon of hope.

“We can see you,” I said, excitedly over the holo pad. “You’re just a few klicks out. We’ll head to you.”

* * *

We followed the tree line west for no more than twenty minutes, when we saw the bright lights of the flashlights. A wave of relief hit me as I realized Stacy wasn’t alone. She had hundreds, maybe even thousands of survivors with her.

Shouts rang out from the big group as we approached in the darkness.

“It’s okay, it’s us!” Ricky yelled back to them. “Don’t shoot!”

“Ricky, is that you?” Boss Creed asked in his baritone voice. “Dean?”

Boss Creed had never been a more welcome sight than he was in that exact moment as he walked forward to meet us with a smile. “I should have known you two would be amongst the survivors.”

Ricky smiled up at the large man as we approached, wrapping him in a hug. Boss Creed looked puzzled, then melted and patted Ricky on the back.

Other survivors from the crash surrounded us, asking what happened, as Doctor Allbright walked away to talk to someone she knew.

“Dean,” Stacy said, breaking away from the group. “Dean, you made it! I was so worried you were sucked out of the ship when the hull was breached.”

We stood there for an awkward moment, just looking at one another. Then one of us—I’m not sure which one—reached in to hug the other. Every part of me was grateful she was safe, and it felt wonderful to hold her in my arms.

“Well, it’s about damn time you gave that girl a hug. It only took us being blown out of the sky,” Ricky said, and as I looked around, everyone was grinning. I gently pushed Stacy away with a cough to cover my embarrassment.

“So, uh, what happened to you? Where did you land?” I asked, trying not to seem as awkward as I felt.

“There’s a beach a few kilometers back,” Stacy explained, pointing with an open hand the way she had come. “I was on one of the larger escape crafts. We touched down on the beach. When we saw The Orion in the distance, we started to travel toward it, but it’s too dark now to see much. What happened to you?”

Everyone was eager to hear our story. I let Ricky tell most of it. Doctor Allbright relayed her encounter with the mist again. A thought crossed my mind that maybe the events surrounding her landing should be edited. People were already worried enough about being on an alien planet.

I decided against it. If nothing else, these people needed to know that under no circumstances were they supposed to venture into the mist.

While Doctor Allbright shared her story with those gathered, I took the time to search the area and see how many survivors Stacy had found along the way. Unlike me, she had come across multiple landing crafts and escape pods. It was dark, but I could guess the group she traveled with was near a thousand.

When Doctor Allbright finished, murmurs rippled across those gathered.

“It’s important that we understand there is no need to panic right now,” Stacy raised her voice for everyone to hear. “We’re headed toward The Orion and should be there tomorrow. Iris and the Eternals will have a plan. We’re going to get off this planet and back on track.”

“How do you know that?” Someone asked in the dark.

“What if the Eternals are dead?” A woman shouted.

“Why should we trust them again? Look what happened to us this time,” A man pointed out.

Shouts of agreement grew. If someone didn’t do something soon, the mob mentality would take over and who knew what would happen then.

“Listen up!” Boss Creed roared. “If anyone doesn’t want to go with us to The Orion, there are no chains on your feet forcing you to do so. If you want to go have an adventure in the mist or sit on your ass and play in the dirt, be my freaking guest. We’re going to The Orion tomorrow because that’s our best bet of survival and getting off this fucking rock.”

Boss Creed’s years of experience managing others, worked perfectly in this situation. He was commanding and used to being obeyed. Everyone around us hushed.

“Let’s get some rest,” Stacy said, picking up where Boss Creed left off. “We’ll start early tomorrow and hopefully reach The Orion with a few hours of hard travel.”

Those gathered nodded. The impromptu assembly meeting broke up.

“Looks like you found a new friend,” Stacy kneeled beside me and began to ruffle the mutt’s ears. “You’re a big boy. You’re a sweet boy.”

The dog loved the attention, rolling over on his belly, and his tongue fell out of the side of his mouth.

“What’s his name?” Stacy laughed before going on to stroke the underside of his fluffy belly.

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I’ve just been calling him Dog.”

“What? No way, he needs a name,” Stacy insisted.

“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “You name him.”

“No, he’s your dog,” Stacy insisted.

“He’s not my dog, but if it’ll make you stop, then fine.” I sunk to my knees and sat on my heels. “I guess we can just call him Mutt. He doesn’t know the difference and that’s pretty accurate.”

Stacy raised an eyebrow, but then chuckled. “Okay, Mutt it is.”

* * *

Everyone was so exhausted; the rest of the night didn’t last long. Boss Creed organized a watch of volunteers that would take shifts through the night.

“I can take a shift,” I said going up to my previous manager. “Put me in the rotation.”

“You look like hell, kid,” Boss Creed said. He craned his neck forward in the dark to get a better look at me. “Yup, like death warmed over.”

“Hey, man, cut me some slack. I’ve been nearly blown up, ripped out of a colony ship and crash-landed on an alien planet.”

“Exactly why you need rest,” Boss Creed dismissed me with a wave of his open hand.

I didn’t argue with him. I was beyond exhausted. I fell asleep against a tree using my pack as a pillow. A million stars overheard acted as my own personal nightlight.

I don’t remember much, except that it felt like I had just closed my eyes when I woke to Stacy shaking me.

“Hmmm? What? What’s wrong?” I asked, jolting awake. I wiped at a line of drool coming down the corner of my mouth.

“Nothing,” Stacy said, pointing to the sky. “Suns are coming up. Time to get to The Orion.”

“Right,” I said, stretching. Ricky and Doctor Allbright were still sound asleep across from me. All through the camp, people were talking to one another. They rose from their places of rest and prepared for the trek.

I stood, feeling every muscle in my body complain to me that they were sore and needed more sleep. I ignored them. Instead, I made my way to Ricky’s side. Mutt rose from his place beside me and followed.

I grabbed Ricky by the shoulders and shook him. “Rick. Hey, Rick, it’s time to get up.”

“But everyone will laugh at me if I wear that to the dance,” Ricky muttered in his sleep.

“Ricky,” I said with a grimace. “Snap out of it, man. You’re oversharing right now. I don’t want to hear any of this.”

I shook him harder.

Ricky finally opened his eyes, staring at me and then the sky, as if he had no idea where he was.

A look of realization hit him a moment later.

“Oh crap,” Ricky said, glancing around him and finally sitting up. He yawned and stretched. “All of this was real.”

With the appearance of the twin suns over the horizon, the half steel circle of The Orion was visible in the distance. We could cross the area in a day’s time if we pushed ourselves.

Time to get moving.

Chapter 27

We traveled all day through grassy fields and rolling hills. There was still no wildlife or insects along the way. Just the calm swaying of the breeze in the nearly beautiful landscape of the planet.

If it weren’t for the many escape pods we found on our way, it might have been nice to take a walk. The looming shell of the damaged Orion was another thing that made the walk even more ominous.

More survivors joined our number from escape pods and landing crafts. Some pods we came upon were already abandoned with no sign of the occupants. It was chilling to think these survivors were already gone.

Everything in my mind told me they were just doing what we were. They had seen The Orion and were making their way to the larger ship.

I walked towards the head of the party with Stacy and Boss Creed. The former had her blaster tucked into her pants. The latter had been given a laser rifle usually carried by a suit. I sure as hell wasn’t going to try to take it away from him. Besides, I didn’t trust anyone, and everything I knew of Boss Creed said I could do just that.

“People are already asking questions about what happened to the ship,” Stacy said in a low tone. “They’re going to ask more and more questions and rightly so.”

“We’ll wait for Arun and Elon to make that call,” I said. “I don’t do politics. They decided to keep the truth about the Disciple from everyone in the first place. Let them decide what to do now.”

“If they’re still alive,” Stacy said, nodding towards The Orion. “The ship’s almost half of what it should be. Multiple pieces of it broke apart in the crash.”

I looked up to the sky where dark smoke still reached to the heavens from the downed Orion. There was no point speculating as to who was alive and who wasn’t until we got there.

* * *

We traveled all morning, breaking only briefly for a noon snack of protein bars and water before heading forward again. We reached what was left of The Orion a few hours into the afternoon.

The damage I saw through a mechanic’s eyes was horrendous. The lower half of the craft had torn itself apart upon descent. Only the top upper half of the moon-shaped ship remained.

Whoever was at the controls, had done one hell of a job turning the angle of the ship as it descended. They must have used whatever power the ship had left at the right moment. The Orion had come to a skidding halt on the planet as opposed to striking the ground like a meteor. Somehow, they had managed to turn the craft, so it slid on the ground and finally coming to a hard stop against a large peak.

The landing divot made in the dirt was so long, the starting point appeared lost. The groove it made in the ground had to be ten meters deep. Opened like a cracked egg, exposed wires popped and sizzled, creating fires that continued to burn, while torn steel exposed sharp edges.

There was a large group of survivors who shouted, turning to meet us. I didn’t see either the Eternals or Iris amongst the group.

Stacy recognized a suit, who jogged up to her with a report.

“Miss. Wilson, it’s so good to see you,” He said, motioning to the crowd around us. “And so many of you that made it.”

“It’s good to see you as well, Ira,” Stacy said, embracing the man quickly. “Have you searched the craft for survivors yet?”

“We just started going level by level,” Ira hesitated, looking to me and Boss Creed.

“It’s okay, you can talk freely in front of them,” Stacy told him. “We’re all in this together.”

“It doesn’t look good in there,” Ira swallowed hard. “A lot—there’s a lot of people who didn’t make it.”

We all stood quietly for a moment. It was strange to stand so still, thinking of something so horrific. In the background, we could hear shouts of joy. Multiple survivors from our group had found loved ones gathered at the base of The Orion.

For as many of the shouts of joy we heard, we also caught the concerned screams of others, shouting the names of friends and family, looking and not finding them.

“We can help,” Stacy said, breaking us all away from our thoughts. “We’ll divide into search parties.”

Stacy turned to all those gathered, using her hands to amplify her voice. She placed her palms in a circular shape around her lips. She began to shout. “Everyone, if I could have…”

It was obvious as she began that her voice would not carry to all the survivors gathered.

I put my right thumb and pointer finger into my mouth and released a shrill whistle.

“Hey, everyone listen up if you want to live!” I shouted.

That did it. Everyone turned and gave us their full attention.

My words might have been a bit dramatic, but it sure had done the job.

“Thanks,” Stacy said with a grin. She turned back to addressing everyone in front of us. “We need to search The Orion for survivors and any supplies. We’ll take the ship level by level.”

Stacy went on with directions and things to be careful of, as they made their way around metal corners and exposed wires. While she doled out instructions, I took the time to study what had been the greatest achievement of mankind to date.

It had taken thousands of workers years to build the craft. In minutes, it had been reduced to a pile of scrap steel.

“Ira and Mr. Creed will let you know what portions of the ship to search,” Stacy finished her instructions. “Be careful while you’re in there, we don’t know how stable or unstable The Orion is. Each team should carry a holo pad. The communication distance on each pad isn’t far, but we should be able to hear one another now since we’re so close.”

Murmurs of agreement followed her warning as Boss Creed and Ira divided up search parties.

“We’re going to start at the bridge,” Stacy said as she joined me, looking up at the titanic structure. “Elon was piloting the ship when it went down. Arun would have gone to him. We need to make sure they’re still alive and get Iris up and running while we’re at it.”

“Agreed,” I said as Ricky joined us.

“Let’s get going,” Ricky said, stretching his arms and legs. “I don’t want to spend another night out in the open. It gives me weird dreams.”

“Yeah, I bet,” I said as we made our way toward the ship.

Mutt whined next to me as we walked forward.

“You got to stay here, buddy,” I told him letting my fingers play along his ears. “It’s dangerous and unstable in there. Stay, do you understand, stay?”

Mutt gave me a look like I was kidding. He rolled his eyes at me, sat down and whined.

“Okay, stay there. I’ll be back,” I said. “I can’t believe this. I’m reassuring a dog.”

“You’ve changed for the better since I’ve known you,” Stacy said with raised eyebrows. “I mean that.”

“Just don’t let the word get around,” I grinned back.

Ricky was ahead of us, already examining the best way to enter the craft and how to get to the bridge.

“The stairwell will be the easiest way to the top, or maybe the elevator depending on how damaged it is,” Ricky said, coming up to the smoking ruin that had once been our home. “Either way, we’ll have to walk. It won’t be an easy trip to the top. I’m guessing there’ll be something like a hundred and fifty levels we’ll have to climb.”

“What in this trip has been easy at all?” Stacy asked with a huff. “Come on, let’s get to it.”

The three of us pulled our way to the stairwell on the edge of The Orion. The going was tricky. There was debris and loose items everywhere. I was almost fried at one point, reaching for the next handhold when a live wire singed my hand.

We climbed the perimeter of The Orion, more than four stories up before we found the stairwell. Like Ricky guessed, it was clogged with debris ranging from food, clothing, and of course, bodies.

The smell was already setting in, making me look away and spit. Death was never an easy thing to stomach, and I had already seen my fill of it.

“We should take the elevator shaft,” Stacy said, working her way further into the ship. “Depending on where the elevator stopped, we may have to travel through it, but hatches are on both the bottom and the top, so we should be all right.”

We clicked on our flashlights. The emergency lighting in The Orion, flickered off and on in a bizarre pattern. It was like it was trying to give us a coded message of some kind.

We continued forward mostly in quiet, as we made the long trip to the bridge at the top of the ship.

Lucky for us, the elevator was in the lower half when it had been torn apart. This meant we wouldn’t have to navigate around the cylinder-shaped container.

Sweat poured off my face as the steel tunnel warmed in the light of the day’s suns.

It wasn’t too much of a surprise that Ricky was the one to break the comfortable silence, halfway through our journey.

“Do you think the escape crafts have enough in them to get back into space and go back to Earth for help?” Ricky asked. “That must be the plan, right? We have to go back. Or do you think they’ll send help?”

“I think they’ll try,” Stacy said as if she were talking to herself. “Sooner or later, they’ll realize something went wrong. The only problem is where do they search? We don’t even know where we are. How are they going to know? We have to get Iris up and running again. Once we figure out where in the universe we are, we’ll be able to make a plan.”

“Right, right,” Ricky agreed, chewing on his lower lip. “We’ll figure it out.”

His words were courageous, but I knew the guy well enough to know he was scared.

We made the rest of the way to the bridge as the tunnel sloped ever so slightly upward. Stacy pulled out her red holo card and tapped a few buttons bringing a diagram of The Orion up for all of us to see.

“I think we need to go three more levels up, and we should be there,” she said, wiping sweat from her eyes.

So far, we had traveled the elevator shaft with the doors to every level opening on our left. We followed Stacy’s instructions, heading up three more floors before coming to a set of closed doors that lead to the bridge.

“Here,” Stacy said, reaching into her pack and pulling out a short steel crowbar. She jammed one end of the rod into the door.

Ricky and I pressed our fingertips into the wedge in the elevator door, ready to pull the two pieces of metal apart.

“On three,” I said. “One, two, three!”

Stacy muscled the crowbar as Ricky and I tore at the steel elevator doors. Slowly they opened, allowing us to get a better grip on the doors in front of us.

I anchored my feet into the ground and braced my back. My arms quivered as I threw everything I had into pulling at the door.

Stacy abandoned the crowbar now that the doors were opening. She wedged herself in between the doors, putting her back on one side and pushed with her hands on the other. The door gave more until it was finally opened all the way and locked into place.

We looked into the bridge, completely unprepared for what we saw next.

Chapter 28

“Stacy, Dean!” Arun said limping to the doorway. “You’re alive.”

“And Ricky, too,” Ricky said, probably feeling left out.

I was going to respond, but between the state of the bridge and Arun herself, I held my tongue.

The bridge was a disaster. Emergency lights flickered on and off, exposed wires hung from panels and the ceiling, and pieces of furniture had been thrown to the front of the level where a glass wall lay cracked.

Arun herself was a bloody mess. Crimson stains fell down her uniform and face. Her hair was in disarray, and her left arm was in a makeshift sling.

Arun came up to us and hugged Stacy.

“I’m so glad to see you,” Stacy told her friend. “Where’s Elon?”

“He’s over here. I should warn you, he suffered serious injuries in the crash, but he’s going to be fine. He’ll heal,” Arun said, looking over to Ricky and me with a smile. “So good to see you as well, Dean. And you too, Ricky.”

Ricky didn’t waste his opportunity. He opened his arms, hugging Arun.

“Don’t worry, you’re safe now, you’re safe now,” Ricky said, holding her tight.

“Yes. We’re going to be okay,” Arun said, confused at first, then giving in and hugging Ricky back.

“Shhh…” Ricky told her. “Don’t strain yourself. You need to rest that beautiful head.”

I rolled my eyes, working my way deeper into the room. From where we stood, the floor sloped down. The light blue lights of the emergency lighting allowed me to see well enough, but I still had a hard time of it.

I made my way through the loose furniture and gathered debris resting on the bottom of the level to a steel panel that had come loose from the ceiling. It had been laid flat, and a figure was lying on it.

I moved deeper, realizing it was Elon. He was on his back with a piece of clothing folded to support his head and a blanket over his body. He looked up at me with an uncomfortable smile.

“Dean Slade,” he said. “I knew you’d be among the survivors. It’s so good to see you, my friend.”

His bright, blue eyes showed the pain his voice would not. Much like his sister, his hair was a mess, and he had spattered blood across his grey uniform. He pushed himself up on his elbows, not moving his legs.

I’d seen enough injuries in my time to tell when there was something seriously wrong. Elon wasn’t moving the lower half of his body. The smile he put on was laced with pain.

“You stayed on to land the ship, you crazy son of a gun,” I told him, shaking my head. “I never thought I’d see the day where an Eternal risked his own life to land a colony ship of Transients. You’re crazy. You know that, right?”

“Ah, but am I crazy if I realize I’m crazy?” Elon started to laugh. “I’ve heard the truly insane don’t recognize their own madness.”

I cracked a grin, and he laughed harder. A moment later, he stopped, wincing from the act.

“What’s wrong with your legs?” I asked, pulling off the blanket that covered them.

“No, you don’t want to—” Arun said as she came up behind me with Ricky and Stacy.

Elon’s right leg was completely gone from the knee down. His left leg was a mangled mess of blood and flesh.

I swallowed back the bile that rose to my mouth.

“It will heal and grow back in time,” Elon said, trying to reassure all of us, even though he was the one with the missing appendage. “My DNA will make the necessary repairs, and it will regrow.”

“All of it?” Ricky asked in awe. “I mean, I knew Eternals healed quickly and could grow back limbs but—the entire leg will come back?”

“Yes, there are some that this may bother amongst our Transient counterparts,” Arun said, clearing her throat. “What I’m trying to say—”

“You don’t want us to tell anyone. because growing back limbs is bananas, and you think people will say you’re inhuman,” I said. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Thank you,” Elon said, lowering himself back down on the steel sheet. It’s one thing to know that Eternals are capable of regrowing limbs, but it’s another thing to actually witness it.”

“We can keep it covered until you’re healed,” Stacy added in. “We’ll get a wheelchair in here and cover your legs with a blanket until then. Not to move on from this topic, but is Iris still up and running?”

“She is,” Arun said, reaching for a holo card inside her breast pocket. “I powered her down to conserve energy, but she’s functional.”

Arun produced the red holo card in her palm, tapping a few buttons, and Iris appeared in front of us. The ethereal blue light that surrounded her was a welcome sight.

She looked at all of us in turn. “I’m so glad you’re all alive. I was concerned.”

“It’s good to see you too,” Arun told the Cognitive. “Iris, can you do a full diagnostic of the ship and tell us everything we need to know?”

“It seems that the ship broke apart on the descent. Only levels one hundred and fifty and above are remaining. All other levels are scattered across the planet,” Iris said as if she were reading a report. “I’m detecting multiple life forms in The Orion.”

“Can you detect how many?” Stacy asked.

“Affirmative,” Iris said. “There are currently two thousand, nine hundred and seventy-three survivors onboard The Orion.”

My body felt numb as I heard the number. We had left Earth transporting one hundred thousand new colonists, promising them a better world. Now, not even three thousand were on board.

“How—how can that be?” Arun sank to her knees as the weight of the number hit her. “How did we let this happen?”

“You didn’t,” Stacy said, leaning beside Arun. “The Disciples did this.”

Arun hung her head low. Her white hair hid her face like a curtain, but by the way her body trembled, I knew she was crying.

“That can’t be all of them,” Elon said from his prone position. “That’s only how many are currently on The Orion, not the total number of survivors across the planet. There must be thousands, maybe more that made it onto the escape pods. There’s more out there. We just have to find them.”

The room quieted again. Ricky went over to Stacy and Arun and gave them both a hug.

I looked over to Elon. He wasn’t sobbing, but he stared straight up into the ceiling as tears slid from his eyes. It was a quiet sadness, almost stoic in the way he grieved.

I really wasn’t the comforting type, but I understood in that moment exactly how much Elon and Arun cared for the Transients. They honestly believed they had failed them. I placed a firm hand on Elon’s right shoulder, looking down at him.

“You take this time to be sad or disappointed. You take whatever time you need, but you can’t change the past,” I told him. “That’s something I learned a long time ago. The only option now is to move forward or quit, and you’re not allowed to quit.”

“Dean’s right,” Arun said, standing up and composing herself. “We still have people here depending on us as well as those who were scattered across this planet waiting to be saved. We can help them.”

“Iris, is there a way to calculate how many escape pods and crafts disengaged from The Orion before it crashed? And then calculate how many survivors could have been in them?” Stacy asked, looking over to the Cognitive.

“There was a total of seven escape crafts that successfully detached from The Orion, as well as two hundred and thirty-nine escape pods,” Iris said in her matter of fact tone. “There is no way to know for certain how full each craft was, but if it were filled to capacity, there would be roughly another seventy-five hundred survivors that landed around the planet.”

“If they’re out there, we’ll find them,” Elon said through gritted teeth. “I swear, we’ll find them.”

“I’ve run through the rest of the ship diagnostics,” Iris said, hesitantly. “Would you prefer the good or bad news first.”

“Bad news first,” I said. “Always the bad news first.”

“There is no way The Orion will ascend into space again. The complete lower section of the ship is gone, including the thrusters. The most notable sections lost are the four cargo holds with our supplies.”

“The cargo hold can’t be far off,” I said. “It had to land somewhere within a day or two of here.”

“How do you know that? Arun asked.

“One of the dogs that was in the cargo hold found us,” I told her. “He had to land somewhere close to be able to find us that same day.”

“But what about the brig? Who knows where that section of the ship landed with that Disciple and Warlord thug?” Ricky asked.

“There’s no way they survived the landing.” Stacy shook her head. “No way.”

“Elon did a great job of leveling out the craft,” I said. “If there are survivors here, then maybe there are more on the other sections of the ship. We need to be careful.”

“All right, Iris,” Elon said. “I think we can use some good news. What do you have?”

“The food stocks on the upper levels of the ship need repairs but will be usable. The main navigation is still down so I am unable to tell exactly where in the galaxy we are, but I have managed to get our short-range scanners up and running. I—”

Iris cut herself off from her next words. She held a blank stare with her mouth slightly open, and her eyes glazed over. This was not something the Cognitive had ever done before, as far as I was aware.

“Apologies,” the Cognitive said, finally moving again. “My processing power is limited at the moment. I’m detecting structures on the planet. Yes, the scans are showing buildings of some kind, and they are unrelated to The Orion.”

Epilogue

“Buildings?” Ricky was the first to find his voice. “Like, buildings, buildings?”

“Iris, please elaborate,” Arun said, knitting her brow in a thick line of concentration.

“My short-range scanners are working up to three kilometers in every direction of The Orion,” Iris explained. “Exactly two point four kilometers east of our current location.”

The bridge was so quiet, I could almost hear my own heartbeat.

“There can’t be buildings here,” Elon said from his prone position. “That would have to mean—”

“It would mean that we are not alone on this planet,” Stacy finished the thought.

“Aliens,” Ricky breathed, his legs shaking as he tried to steady himself. “I knew it. Oh God, I need to sit down.”

While Ricky took a seat, Arun picked up the line of questioning. “Iris, can you detect any alien lifeforms in or around the structure?”

“Negative,” Iris said. “Keep in mind, my scanners are only able to look three kilometers out. There may be additional lifeforms further removed.”

“Can you bring up a holo of what you’re seeing on the scanners?” Stacy asked.

“I can, but it will be difficult to make out,” Iris warned as she opened her right hand. “There is limited power at the moment.”

A light blue holo came to life above her hand. Just like Iris had said, there was a building resembling a church or a storefront. The image was full of static and unclear, but there was no denying this structure was made by an intelligent race. It held a roof, walls, and even doors.”

“Where the hell did we land?” I asked. I knew no answer would come, but I couldn’t help myself. “And what do we do now? Go and knock? Ask if anyone’s home?0”

“I don’t know,” Arun muttered.

“Two klicks,” Stacy said, and bit her lower lip. “We can make that before the suns set. At least get a look at what we’re dealing with.”

“Are you serious?” Ricky asked, wide-eyed. He looked at the rest of us. “Is she serious? Who knows what’s in there? I don’t want anything to do with any aliens. Don’t you people watch movies?”

“I’ll go with you,” I said.

“If Iris and Ricky will stay with Elon, so will I,” Arun said.

“Of course, someone should stay and take care of your brother,” Ricky piped up immediately. “I’ll protect him with my life, Arun. You can count on me.”

“Thank you,” Arun said, looking over to Iris. “Can you coordinate with the survivors on the ship and create a livable space here on The Orion? Salvaging whatever you can for future use.”

“Immediately,” Iris said. “Do be careful. There is a maintenance hatch that will let you off just outside the elevator shaft. I’ll send the information to your holo card.”

“Thank you,” Arun said, checking her blaster at her hip.

“Dean,” Elon said, propping himself up on his elbows. He grimaced again before reaching to his left hip and handing me his own blaster. “You’ll need it before I do.”

“Thanks,” I said, accepting the weapon.

“Let’s go,” Arun said, heading for the doors. “I want to be back before nightfall.”

I agreed with her. I had no desire to be out in the open after the suns disappeared. Not with that mist and a freaking alien house two klicks from our location.

I headed out with Arun and Stacy. We covered the ground in silence, working quickly as Arun found the maintenance hatch in the elevator shaft and popped it open. A cool wind rushed inside the tunnel, echoing as it traveled down the lonely shaft.

Iris wasn’t kidding. The maintenance exit point was a good four-meter drop to the hill that The Orion had come to rest against. I went first, hanging from the ledge to shorten the drop before letting go. As soon as my feet touched the hill, I bent my knees to absorb the impact.

I had to catch my balance, but I was good. Stacy came next, and finally Arun.

“If we are not alone on this planet, we are better off trying to make allies of whoever or whatever is here,” Arun said, checking her blaster, then holstering it in her belt. “If we do see anything, keep that in mind.”

“Roger that,” I said as we climbed up the steep hill. “Try to make friends with the little green people instead of shooting them. You know, I have to say you’re both dealing with this pretty well. I’d imagine most people might freak out at the prospect of intelligent life.”

“I suppose with everything else that’s happened today, this is just another piece,” said Stacy.

“What are we going to tell everyone else?” Stacy asked as we made our way from the ship. “I mean, I want to believe the best about people, and I don’t want to lie but adding this on top of what just happened?”

“I didn’t tell them about the Disciple on board, and look where that got us,” Arun said. “I’d rather tell them the entire truth in this case and let them do with it what they will.”

“And what exactly is the entire truth?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Arun said.

The twin suns were slowly making their descent. If I had to guess, we had maybe two hours of light left before the night took over. I wanted to be safely back inside The Orion by then.

It didn’t take us long to see the building in the distance. It looked like an entrance complete with walls, a pointed roof that came up like a steeple, and doors. It led into another small hill behind it.

“There,” Stacy said.

“I see it,” Arun answered.

The feeling in the pit of my stomach wasn’t exactly fear. There wasn’t anything to fear yet. It was a nervous warning. Like a little voice inside of my head was telling me that things were about to get a lot worse.

My blaster was tucked into my waistband. In two seconds, I could draw and have it pointed to anything that moved.

But nothing came.

We kept walking toward the doors until we stood right in front of it. My mouth was dry. Trying to wrap my head around aliens was something I never thought I’d have to do.

Standing in front of the doors, I could see how ancient they truly were. With cracks and carvings etched into the stone, it was like something from a history documentary.

“Iris, can you hear me?” Arun whispered into her holo card.

“Yes,” Iris said in a soft voice.

“I’m scanning the rock with my pad,” said Arun. “Can you detect any known substances? Is there a way for us to get an accurate age on this? Any details as to how long this entrance has been here?”

“Aside from normal rock, there are trace amounts of an unknown substance within,” Iris said. “Were I to postulate, I would say this structure has stood for at least a few hundred years, although I cannot be certain.”

“Hundreds of years,” Stacy repeated, walking closer to the massive doors towering an easy ten meters into the sky.

“We should go back,” Arun said, pointing to the sky. “It’ll be dark soon, and we have no idea what’s behind those doors. Better to face it in the light of day with a larger team.”

“Agreed,” I said. “We’ll return and figure this out. We have time.”

Stacy nodded along, lost for words.

“We will, my friends” Arun agreed, an infectious determination on her face. “If not for ourselves, then for those we must protect. We are stronger together, are we not?” she asked, looking directly at me.

“That’s right,” I agreed, thumbing the blaster at my side. “And we’ll take on whatever comes next.”

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Books in the Renegade Star Universe

Renegade Star Series:

Renegade Star

Renegade Atlas

Renegade Moon

Renegade Lost

Renegade Fleet

Renegade Earth

Renegade Dawn

Renegade Children (Out Now!)

Renegade Union (January 2019)

Renegade Empire (March 2019)

Standalones:

Nameless: A Renegade Star Story (Out Now!)

The Orion Colony Series:

Orion Colony

Orion Uncharted (Dec 2018)

About The Authors

J. N. Chaney has a Master’s of Fine Arts in creative writing and fancies himself quite the Super Mario Bros. fan. When he isn’t writing or gaming, you can find him online at www.jnchaney.com.

Jonathan Yanez is the author of over 30 books. He has worked as a personal trainer, model, and life coach, not to mention a wide array of other professions. When he’s not writing, you can find him online at https://www.jonathan-yanez.com/