Colonization (13 page)

The portal dematerialized and I stepped into the corridor, smoothing out my uniform to look presentable. If anyone would believe me, my grandpapa would. He wouldn’t report Corvus for taking me to the dig site. I had to tell him the aliens matched the bones in the excavation. The upper command needed to know the strange winged beings were still out there, still alive, spying on our colonization attempts.

The guards stood in my way like pieces lined up on a chess board. Usually they recognized me and parted as I walked toward them. Today they stared over me as if I were invisible.

“It’s Andromeda Barliss.” I emphasized my last name. “I’m here to see my grandpapa.”

“Sorry, kid.” A man in his early forties, the same age as my dad, spoke up. “He’s not taking visitors.”

“Not even from his own great-granddaughter?”

The man shook his head. “Nope. He’s preparing the ship for evacuation.”

I tried to keep my voice steady, but it rose to almost a shriek in my throat. “Already? We’re not scheduled to leave the ship until the housing modules are assembled.”

The man’s eyes looked kind, but his compassion did nothing to appease me. “It’s a long process, disconnecting all the systems, transferring the data to computers on the colony site.”

I peered over his shoulder at the chrome portal, imaging my grandpapa in his control chair, just a mere few feet away. “You have to let me through. I have findings to report.”

“Take your findings to Lieutenant Crophaven. Commander Barliss has appointed him as the new leader in charge of colonization.” The man gripped his laser across his chest and resumed his stance, as if to say our conversation had ended. I stood there like a dumb desert cow from Sahara 354, staring off into space. Or I guess it wasn’t space anymore, but Paradise 21 beyond the sight panels.

Lieutenant Crophaven wouldn’t listen to me any more than he’d listened to Mom that day in the emergency room. He’d have me and Corvus taken in for seclusion before we spread the word and panic ensued. What was I going to do? Without my grandpapa in charge I was a nobody. Turning away from the guards, I dragged my feet down the corridor in defeat.

When I returned to my family unit, a message beeped on the main wallscreen. My pulse accelerated as I thought of Mom’s angry face, or Lieutenant Crophaven’s stern grimace. Did they discover our footprints at the dig site?

I walked over with my backpack still on and pressed the button with quivery fingers.

Sirius’s handsome features graced my wallscreen like a teen idol. I smoothed back my hair, suddenly aware of my lack of a shower, but I realized it was a prerecorded message.

“Annie, I’m going on my first flight mission tomorrow at dawn. I’m not sure how long I’ll be away. I wanted to tell you because I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye. I’ll be at the airstrip all day practicing routine landings and tactical maneuvers if you want to stop by.”

I stared at the wallscreen for several minutes after the message ended and the pixels went black. Did I want to say goodbye? Should I?

I searched my feelings and came up with a mixture of anger, lust, and regret. What if he died on this mission and I never got a chance to see him again?

Corvus’s cool blue eyes and easy smile intruded my thoughts, questioning the yearning cravings of my wanton heart. He’d done so much for me. Would he mind if I visited Sirius? I’d only meet him to say goodbye, and I had the day off anyway because I’d called in sick.

After a quick shower, I strapped on my bio mask, grabbed my backpack, and exited the
New Dawn
, heading toward the newly paved airstrip at the far end of the colony. Corsairs whizzed in the sky above my head, silver birds against a violet canvas of filtered sunlight.

I walked through the stationary transport ships to the faster, lighter air gliders perched on the edge of the jungle turf. Lieutenant Crophaven stared at me with a shifty eye as I approached. I wondered if he could see into my mind and pick apart my innermost secrets.

“Where are you going, young lady?”

Here was my chance to come clean. I could spew up every truth into his hard-edged face: hoarding the flower specimen, sneaking into the excavation site, seeing aliens. I straightened as tall as I could, but the top of my head only reached the broad curve of his chest. “I’m here to say goodbye to my friend, Sirius Smith. He’s going on a mission tomorrow at dawn.”

“Ah, yes. Andromeda, Delta Barliss’s daughter? Is that right? How’s the ankle?”

Why did he have to remind me of my failure? Did he only see me as a troublemaker?

“It’s fine. Thank you.” Silently, I told the pain to stop, but it burned all the way up my leg.

He read his locator. “I’m afraid he’s up in the air right now, but he’ll be down shortly. You’re more than welcome to wait on the perimeter, where it’s safer for civilians.”

“Okay.” I wanted to flee the lieutenant’s penetrating gaze before something slipped out, so I ducked my head in salute and ran to the edge of the airstrip, where the pavement ended in jungle vines. Discarded cartons of supplies lay in a heap on the edge of the turf. I upended one and sat on top of it, kicking my legs back and forth against the plastic container.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

I wondered what to say to Sirius. What would he say back? A small voice inside me dreaded the conversation, but a much louder urge commanded me to see him.

A Corsair glided down effortlessly, hovered above my head, and landed on the airstrip. The hatch opened and the aviator jumped out, light as an acrobat. My heart sped. He shook off his helmet and exposed a head of curly blond hair. Nope. Not Sirius. I settled back down, biting my fingernails. Waiting was the hardest part of life. The entire population of the
New Dawn
, except for me, waited for Paradise 21. Now here I was waiting for a future that could never be.

A strange blur of light distracted me from my melancholy thoughts. I turned my head, shielding my eyes against the glare of the dark plum rays of the noonday sun. A figure stood on the edge of the turf, apart from the aviators congregating around a large transport ship. His hand rose and he waved in my direction. I looked behind me, but no one was there. He must be trying to get my attention. Was it Sirius? Had I missed his landing? I squinted against the light, looking for that familiar dark swash of hair.

This man’s hair was light brown and thin. Ray? No, it couldn’t be. What was he doing outside the ship? With his mask off as well. You’d think that boy had learned his lesson the first time he wandered in the jungle. Not only that, but it looked as though a transport ship prepared for takeoff just a few feet away, and he stood too close.

I called his name out at the top of my lungs. He gestured over his shoulder and disappeared into the jungle.

“Wait!”

I jumped off the supply container. A hundred questions bombarded my mind. I ran by a transport ship just as the engines roared, and crystal dust surrounded me in a plume. I pushed through the haze, batting my arms at the cloudy air until my feet fell on the turf. I entered the jungle where Ray disappeared, pushing the vines out of my way.

Large crystals jutted up from the turf like weeds in a garden. I weaved my way around them and called out Ray’s name over the din of the transport’s engines.

“I’m sorry. I had to get you closer to the crystals so we could talk.”

I whirled around, startled. Ray leaned on one of the larger quartz formations. The purple sun filtered down through the vines and cast him in a violet, otherworldly light.

“What are you doing out here?”

“Trying to get your attention.”

“Shouldn’t you be on the ship?”

He shook his head. “Not anymore.”

All the questions in my mind froze and I stood there not knowing what to make of it. Although I didn’t know him very well, Ray seemed quieter, more at peace. Maybe it was just the way the sun’s light hit him, but his uniform looked brighter and hazy, like my eyes had glazed over. Maybe they had.

“Listen carefully, Annie. They tried to warn me, and now I’m trying to warn you.”

I nodded and focused my concentration away from the roar of the transport ships taking off behind us.

“Something big is going to happen beyond that ridge. I’m not sure what it is exactly, but it has to do with what made me sick. You have to send a team to investigate, or the entire colony may be at risk.”

“What do you mean? Why are you telling me?” I jabbed my finger over my shoulder. “Lieutenant Crophaven is right over there. He’s the one in charge of operations now.”

Ray blinked, and his body swayed before he caught himself, clinging to the crystal as if it gave him strength. “I’ve tried but he won’t listen. You’re the only one sensitive to the crystal vibrations, Annie.” He leaned forward and his eyes glistened. “You can see.”

“See what?”

Engines roared behind us as a transport ship rose from the ground. The wind ripped through the jungle like a hurricane and debris whipped through the air. A vine the size of Lieutenant Crophaven’s thigh came at me, smacking me in the face.

I fell with a crunch to the turf. The clangor of the engines muted and the purple light of the jungle went black.

Chapter Fifteen

Warning

Billions of stars surrounded me, winking and blinking in foreign constellations. I soared in space like an eagle from Old Earth, with my arms spread out like wings. It wasn’t cold, like the astrophysicists said it would be, and I could breathe wondrous clean air, not the stink of Paradise 21.

Worlds passed below me, barren desert planets, icy chunks of tundra and hard crusted rock. Only one planet glowed green and blue. I accelerated to it, reaching out with open arms. As the orb grew bigger, the blue and green blossomed into gray plumes of soot and ash. I was too late. Several generations too late. All I had left was my purple planet where I started, the strange and dangerous world of aliens and vines.

As I turned to go back, a splinter of white vaulted through space in a cylindrical comet with a single trajectory. I pushed toward it, hoping and dreading what it was.

A coffin. Not any coffin, but one from the
New Dawn
. As I met its speed with my own, I recognized the smooth microfiber and the emblem of a ship cutting through high seas. It could be any of a number of colonists discarded for six generations as the ships coursed to their paradise destinations. Somehow, I knew this coffin was unlike all the others. This one held Great-grandma Tiff.

I reached down and scraped away the crystal formations on the sight panel, expecting a withered corpse inside. My great-grandma lay as though she slept and dreamed, with rosy cheeks and soft, wrinkled skin. Her white hair crowned her head in light wisps, and her tiny mouth pouted in a thoughtful frown.

I grabbed the casket and held onto it, hugging it with my arms and slowing down both our speeds to a standstill. We floated together in the deep backdrop of space. Without a second thought, I snapped open the sight panel with my bare hands and a whoosh of stale air came out.

“Why couldn’t you live long enough to see Paradise 21?” I asked as if she could answer me through the dark embrace of death.

Great-grandma Tiff’s eyelids fluttered, and I wondered if deep space breathed. Her eyes opened and a smile broke upon her face. “I didn’t want to, my dear Annie. I had a complete life and then some. I was relieved to see it end.”

“I need you now more than ever. Paradise 21 is so confusing. My life is changing fast, and I have so many decisions to make.”

She nodded, as if the troubles in life were inevitable. “Be true to yourself. Search your feelings to find out who you really are. Many years I lived as a tough spitfire with ruthless renegades in Pirate Central, and that wasn’t truly who I was. I longed for a stable life, a loving husband. Only when I realized it did I find my place in the universe, my seat on the
New Dawn
.”

Buzzing filled my ears, and I shook my head to ward it out. “The
New Dawn
isn’t flying anymore. Soon we’ll have to abandon it.”

“You must learn to let go.” I could barely hear her through the insistent humming. I squeezed my eyes shut, and the blackness of space seeped in.

***

I awoke groggy and with my head pounding. Another whoosh of wind as a transport ship left the airstrip beyond the jungle perimeter. The vine that smacked me in the face dangled inches from my nose, tickling my cheek with its curly end. How long had I been out?

The sunlight filtered through the canopy of vines in a ruddy violet blue, which meant early evening. Had I slept here all day? Why hadn’t Ray called for help? Maybe he was hurt as well.

I hoisted myself up and searched the turf for Ray. Vines, vines, and more vines twisted up against the crystal outcroppings, but no sign of Ray. I hoped he was all right. Only a real jerk would leave a girl unconscious in the jungle, and that wasn’t Ray’s style. I’d have to check on him once I got back to the
New Dawn
.

Brushing my knees off, I made my way back to the airstrip. The Corsairs were parked for the night in a fleet of rows as if they guarded the edge of the jungle. I pulled on the shoulder of the first man I found and asked about Sirius.

“The aviators have all gone back to the
New Dawn
.” He rubbed a metal cylinder with a cloth. Oil stained his shirt. “They have a long day ahead of them tomorrow. Have to be up well before dawn.”

I knew that much, but I thanked the man and jogged back toward the ship, thoughts rolling around in my head much resembling the thunder clouds closing in above me for a nightly rainstorm. The air fizzled with static electricity, and I wondered if it had anything to do with what was to come.

The corridors of the
New Dawn
bustled with activity. Everyone rushed home early to avoid the rainstorm. I pushed my way through to my family unit, flashed my wrist locator, and waited for the portal to dissolve.