Colonization (3 page)

“Why doesn’t he at least train someone, in case he doesn’t make it?”

“It’s useless.” I shook my head. “If you connect to the mainframe too quickly, it can drive you crazy. It almost did to my grandpapa. He never wanted another man to go through what he did. He lost himself completely to the machine and came back forever altered. For that reason, the training procedures are time-consuming. By the time we reach Paradise 21, anyone he chooses would still be in the beginning of the transformation.”

“Oh, I see.” Sirius moved his shoulders as if a chill blew by his neck. “Let’s hope we get there in time.”

Chapter Three

Tests

Ms. Hoodcroft pressed a button and the main screen flashed with a picture of an impossibly large and radiant violet flower, taller than a man and bursting with white tentacles shooting outside its bell-shaped petals. It dwarfed one of the satellite probes taking pictures beside it. “Can anyone tell me what this is?”

We’d been fed information about plant species for months now, and every flower blended together in a vast bouquet. I scanned the classroom. Only one girl held up her hand.

“That’s Trillium Bisonate.” She ran a hand through her unbelievably perfect, long auburn locks. “Very poisonous, very deadly.”

“Excellent, Nova.”

I sighed, shifting my shoulders against my uncomfortable plastic seat. You’d think with a genetic matching program everyone would have an equal amount of brains and beauty, but Nova had them both in superfluous quantities. Her hair always flowed down her back in luscious waves and her uniform fit snugly in all the right places, bringing out her supple curves. I looked down at my own baggy pants and smoothed my stray wispy-blond ends, rolling my eyes.

Mrs. Hoodcraft scanned the rest of us in disappointment, tapping her fingertips on the image projector. “What will you do when you stumble across one of these, hmm? The tentacles will pull you into its stigma so the flower can digest you over the course of thirty days.” The teacher’s eyes narrowed as she pressed the button for the next image. “Now, how about this one?”

Sirius flicked his eyes over to catch my attention. I tried to ignore him but he kept staring, making my cheeks hot. I feared Mrs. Hoodcraft would see my rebellious inner thoughts. Nova had just answered another question, and the teacher was busy explaining the properties of a large fern. I typed a message on my keyboard.
What’s up
?

His message flashed on my desk screen moments later.
Meet me after class. I want to show you something
.

Mrs. Hoodcraft shot a glance in my direction, and I straightened up. When her eyes shifted away, I typed
K
.

The tests came next, a slew of questions I could barely answer about physics, biology, architecture, and chemistry. I made up half my answers, my brain as empty as a used energy cell.

Dad’s disapproving voice sounded in my head and guilt crept in. I should have studied harder. The reality of the situation blindsided me and I wondered if they’d make me a janitor, sweeping up the dying turf while Nova did exciting things like lead exploratory teams into the unknown.

A flash of remorse turned my stomach as I wondered if the computer would use the tests to pair us up as well. I’d be stuck with a dummy mate and Sirius would get someone smart and beautiful. I clenched my teeth, stifling the rising wave of anger and frustration building up in my chest. I wanted to stand up and scream, but instead I tried harder, exhausting my memory, pulling at any information I could recall. All of a sudden, I cared about my destiny and my lifemate pairing. Too bad the wake-up call had come too late.

After the examinations, we shuffled out of class single-file. I walked to the line but Nova cut me off, glancing down like I was an annoying cleaning droid. She stood five inches taller than me, dwarfing me as I trailed behind her, my eyes boring a hole into her back.

Sirius waited for me in the corridor. He tilted his head and his eyes had a look of triumph, like he’d aced his tests in less time than I’d botched mine. “How did you do?”

“Terrible.” I hugged my laptop to my chest, trying to hide behind it. “I’ll end up cleaning dead turf.”

“Nonsense.” He smiled, lighting a spark in my heart. “I’m sure you did fine.”

I wanted to blot out the tests and how they’d ruin my future. I wanted to pretend my life would be the same as before and none of us would get our assignments for the new world. I searched for anything to stop talking about it. “What did you want to show me?”

The curve of his lips promised something wonderful. “You’ll see.”

I followed Sirius down the corridor to the elevator, and he pressed the button for one of the lower decks. His eyes sparkled dangerously, and I wondered what rules he’d have us breaking.

“We’re not going to the engine room, are we?”

His smile was as dazzling as the diamond stars. “No, this is even better.”

We got off on deck four, two decks above the engine room. Sirius pulled out a disc and inserted it into a portal. “I borrowed the ID card from my dad.”

I followed him into a large ship bay that buzzed with activity. Mechanics wearing shield masks welded chrome plates onto large truck-like things with tires taller than me and Sirius put together. Sparks rained around them like fireworks.

“They’re called Landrovers.” Sirius pointed beyond the large machines to small winged compartments at the far end of the bay. Workers airbrushed the
New Dawn
’s symbol—a ship cutting through waves in blue and red paint—on the silver-tipped wings. “Over there are Corsairs, small planes able to travel long distances for scouting missions.”

“Wow.” Acid bubbled up in my stomach and I swallowed it down. Theyhad made all the preparations. We really were headed to another world.

My head reeled. I didn’t want to be there, staring change right in the face, but Sirius beamed like a newborn sun and I couldn’t spoil his moment. I was happy he wanted to share it with me. I faked excitement. “This is amazing.”

He took my hand and squeezed it. “I want to be an aviator, Annie. I want to fly those Corsairs in the purple skies of Paradise 21.”

“Sirius, you can’t choose what you do, the computers—”

“I know, but I slanted my answers to tip the scales. I answered all of the questions concerning aerodynamics and physics correctly and chose poor answers for biology and chemistry.”

His words shocked me into silence. I’d never thought about cheating on the tests.

“Will it work?”

He raised an eyebrow. “We’ll see.”

One of the men shot up from his work and shut off his power tool. “Hey, you kids over there. You’re not supposed to be here.”

Sirius’s eyes went wide. “They’ve spotted us! Come on, Annie. Run.”

My heart jump-started, thudding in my chest. Before they could scan our wrist locators, Sirius and I raced toward the exit.

Two men in shiny silver bodysuits blocked the corridor. Sirius zigzagged across the metal walkway to another exit. “Over here!”

He’d already pressed the portal panel, and the chrome materialized as I caught up. Men in welding masks hunted us down. Sirius pressed the panel, and the portal rematerialized behind us before they got through. It would take another minute for them to restart the cycle and follow us.

We disappeared around the bend of the corridor. I huffed worse than the first time I ran a mile on the indoor track. My athletic scores were low, and I’d barely passed with nine minutes and fifty-seven seconds.

Sirius gazed over his shoulder and whooped. Besides a flushed face bringing out the perfect bridge of his nose, he looked as though he’d had a grand time.

“Do you think they’ll follow us?”

“Nah.” He leaned against the sight panel, a blue nebula hanging like a cosmic painting behind us. “They have too much work to do to waste time on us.”

We were the only people in the corridor, and the air thickened with static friction. He dropped his head next to mine, our foreheads almost touching. “What a great adventure, Annie.”

He glanced down at my quivering lips. Was he going to kiss me?

We hung suspended for a small eternity. So many emotions swirled through me at once, I couldn’t process all of them: excitement, elation, fear. My conscience murmured one word.
Forbidden
.

I pulled my head back before it was too late, feeling my heart tear. “You could have gotten us into trouble.”

He took a deep breath, as if he tried to repress his own feelings as well. “Just wait until we reach Paradise 21.”

Our destiny slapped me in the face. The truth was a wall between us. Our assignments loomed in our future and soon there’d be no more adventures. Not for the two of us, anyway. A hundred teens made up our graduating class and the possibility we’d be matched together was slim, especially after they computed my miserable test results. “I have to report back to my family unit. My parents are going to wonder where I am.”

“Like you could go anywhere on a ship in deep space?” He sounded disappointed.

I almost turned around, but my head intervened with my heart. We were growing too close. He had a gravitational pull on me that only increased the more time I spent with him. I took my first steps down the corridor in agony, as if I were pulling apart two fused-together polarized molecules. The computer wouldn’t take our chemistry into account. The analytics probably only considered unromantic information such as aptitude and genetic compatibility.

The intercom beeped and fizzled, and I heard my grandpapa’s voice echo throughout the ship. “All colonists report to the main deck in the auditorium immediately. We’ll be arriving sooner than planned and preparations must be made at once.”

I stood there with wobbly legs, teetering alongside a great abyss. Sirius came up by my side and nudged my arm. “You heard the man. Let’s go.”

We followed a rush of people into the main auditorium, a bubble-shaped glass dome at the head of the ship. I lost Sirius in the commotion but didn’t try to find him. We all had our assigned places, and his family sat all the way across the room.

As I walked to my parents’ pew at the head of the congregation, I filed in behind Nova. She chatted with another girl from my class. I listened more out of boredom than curiosity, anything to get my mind off of Paradise 21. Besides, she was right in front of me, so how could I help overhearing?

“I’m sure it’s about Paradise 21. I’ve been waiting for this day my entire life.” Nova clutched her laptop to her chest as if it were a badge to show off. “When the computer calculates my test scores, I’ll be rewarded.”

“You’ve always been so diligent.” The other girl sucked up to her as if Nova could choose her position instead of the computer.

“Yes, well, finally those of us who have worked hard will get what we deserve.”

“You’ll certainly get a high-ranking job,” the other girl chimed in. “I can only hope that I—”

Nova raised a hand to silence her. “You’ll be fine. I’m talking about people spoiled by their family connections, thinking the commander will hand them respected titles on a golden platter.”

The other girl shook her head. “Who do you mean?”

The people behind me pressed me forward, and I almost bumped into Nova. As I recovered, clutching the side of one of the pews, her voice fell to a whisper. “Andromeda, of course. She slacks around without a care for her school work and expects her grandpapa to waste a high position on her. That’s not how the system works.”

Fury rose up inside me like vomit, and I wanted to pull out a chunk of her beautiful hair. She thought I was unworthy of being Commander Barliss’s great-granddaughter and that I ran around asking for favors all the time.

Suddenly the day seemed too much for me, the room full of people, the change in plans, Sirius’s lips so close to mine. A wave of doubt overwhelmed me, and the room swooped in my eyes.
Maybe she was right.
I dreaded the arrival of Paradise 21 as much as Nova yearned for it. I didn’t deserve all of the special attention and I certainly didn’t live up to my family’s name by being a mediocre student.

I took my seat next to my parents, sinking onto the plastic bench in shame. My mom was still dressed in her lab coat. She must have come right from the biodome, and oil and grease covered Dad’s hands and arms.

To add the icing on an already stinking cake, Dad bent around Mom and asked me, “How were the tests?”

I bit back a negative retort. “Fine.”

“You answered all the questions correctly?”

“As many as I could.”

As the remaining colonists filtered in, my grandpapa appeared in the far rear of the auditorium. People clapped as he rode his hoverchair to the stage, haloed by the cloud of the cerulean nebula with stars on all sides. My heart trembled with regret as I saw him. I had achieved nothing for him to be proud of, nothing to aid in his mission: the
New Dawn
’s quest. I thought of Great-grandma Tiff. It had only been a few days since she passed away, but I missed her severely. I’d lost the woman who believed in me, the only person who knew my secrets.

With a flick of his fingertips, my grandpapa pressed the panel on the armrest of the chair and his voice boomed out over the masses.

“Congratulations are in order. Paradise 21 is in sight.”

The room erupted in shouts and applause. My grandpapa pointed to the glass behind him. One star sparkled brighter than all the rest, winking at me from beyond. As the ship sped toward it, the engines surged, rumbling in my gut like the voice of inevitability. The glimmering speck was no star. I stood up out of my seat. My eyes opened so wide they dried out and tears stung.

Commander Barliss hailed Paradise 21.

Chapter Four

Assignments

The food congealizer buzzed and gurgled as I dropped crushed tomatoes into the blades.

“I’ll need that paste soon.” Mom stirred a pot of boiling water, brewing up one of her great stew concoctions.

“It’s almost ready.” I pushed the button and watched the chunks turn to mush.