Colony One (11 page)

11

Hyperion, Mission Day 30

Piloting had become a full time job for Charlie since the initial course correction. For a week after the discovery, he spent much of his time tracking the cargo boxes and making adjustments for drift. The course they were following did not turn out to be a straight line and to avoid losing the trail, Charlie had to keep constant vigilance. Niko helped, but at the end of the day, it was up to him to make sure the ship was pointed in the right direction.

Dark circles were beginning to develop under his eyes and he found himself sleeping at the pilot’s console more than he did in his bunk.

According to the ship’s clocks, it was three in the morning and Charlie was making yet another calculation when a pleasant smell hit him. It was the enticing smell of coffee, which preceded him hearing the footfalls at the entrance of the bridge. With the smell alone, he felt instantly more energized.

Finn had made it a little tradition to deliver him coffee when he was working for particularly long stretches of time, which was almost every day since they’d changed courses.

“You’re a cool breeze on a sweltering Atlanta day,” Charlie breathed and swiveled in his chair to face the entryway to the bridge. When he locked eyes on the visitor, color drained from this face instantaneously.

Captain Avery was standing in the entrance way holding two cups of coffee. “I thought it was time we had a little chat.” She overlooked his comment and cut right to it. She continued onto the bridge and held out one of the cups to him. He took it cautiously and watched her with interest as she sat in Niko’s chair.

She set her own cup down on the console. Charlie followed suit, wary of the offering.

“Finn normally brings me coffee,” He said because she hadn’t started talking yet. He found her gaze to be penetrating.

“I told her I could handle it this time.”

Well, Charlie thought grimly, at least someone knew he was alone with the Captain if anything happened to him.

“Let me ask you something, Mr. Foster,” Avery braced her forearms on her knees to lean forward. “Who do you think is in charge here?”

“Obviously you are. You’re the one with ‘Captain’ in her name.” He responded earnestly.

“Evidently that doesn’t mean much.” Avery pointed out in an oddly rational and calm voice.

“What do you want me to say?” Charlie asked with narrowed eyes, her passive-aggressive behavior making him bold. “Do you want me to apologize? I’m sorry things didn’t go according to plan, alright?” Between the sleep deprivation and the real aggravation he felt towards the captain, he lost it – “And, I think
you
owe
me
an apology for holding a gun to my head!” He exclaimed, feeling completely justified.

Avery smiled, and the look took the wind out of Charlie’s sails instantaneously. His face was changing from one of anger to caution when her hand shot out like a striking cobra, grabbing a handful of his hair. His face smashed into the console, confusing the interface, which made noises of disapproval as a result.

“I don’t want an apology, Charlie Foxtrot. I want to know you will never disobey me again.” She explained in a low growl.

“What the…!” Charlie started, but Avery increased the force in which she pushed his face into the glass console. He worried about it breaking and his face taking the brunt of the destruction. The hot coffee he had set down on his console was in sight and visions of it spilling and burning his face kept him from struggling.

“So let me be clear,” Avery leaned down to speak into Charlie’s ear, “Whatever we find, we are to observe and report, not help. Limited interaction. We go out, see how things are progressing, give them a bag of oranges, and come back to a pretty paycheck. Nothing more. That was the plan, and we are sticking to the plan. You got that?” She asked, twisting her grip on his hair.

He grunted in frustration and pain, “Yea, I got it.”

And with his words, she released him just as quickly as she had grabbed him.

He sat up, rubbing the tuft of hair she had sunk her talons into. “I never said we should do otherwise.” He explained with some offense in his tone.

“Good,” she straightened her clothing. “Because going forward, I want you to remember how I handle people who cannot follow the chain of command.”

Charlie was still in shock with the suddenness of her attack when she left. Just like that, he was by himself on the bridge, sitting in the kind of absolute silence that is only achievable in space. Suddenly, Charlie felt very far away from home.

If it wasn’t for the very real pain he felt, he would have thought he had hallucinated the encounter, or dreamed it up after falling asleep at the console again.

He was smoothing down his hair when Finn joined him, “Hey!” She smiled and plopped down in Niko’s chair. “How’d it go?”

Still half-dazed, Charlie asked, “What do you mean?”

“The Captain said she wanted to make things right with you. I was real surprised when she said so because I didn’t take her for the type to apologize. How’d it go?” She repeated, genuine interest in her voice and features.

Charlie glanced at the entranceway to the bridge and thought that it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to make matters worse by alarming the rest of the crew. Who would they have to appeal to, anyhow? Avery was the highest ranking official on the boat, not to mention the only one with a gun. “Fine,” he finally answered. “Hopefully we won’t have any more… disagreements.”

“Oh, good. To be honest I think everyone’s real shaken up by the fact she pulled a gun on you,” Finn confessed.

“She’s not one to cross,” Charlie said, still sounding somewhat withdrawn.

Finn noticed his distant look and was about to comment when something else caught her attention. She leaned to the side and pointed at Charlie’s console, “Hey, what’s that?” She asked.

Charlie turned to look. The interface was still garbled from the encounter it had with his face. Finn was pointing to a blinking alert. He tapped it, then put his index fingers to the glass and slid them in opposite directions to magnify the readout. “It’s a sensor alert.”

“Another cargo box?” Finn asked. She knew from her late night visits with Charlie that he was always on high alert for the next breadcrumb.

He shook his head and furrowed his brow, “No. It’s reading organic.” 

“As in… lifeform?” Finn asked with trepidation.

“Go find Niko for me, would you?” He asked, eyes still locked on the console. Finn nodded and hopped up to leave when Charlie finally looked away, “But… keep it quiet, okay?”

Finn saluted and rushed off the bridge. Within minutes, she returned with Niko.

“What’d you find?” He asked immediately, moving to stand over Charlie to read the data scrolling on his console.

Charlie magnified it again and let Niko’s eyes run over the scrolling light. “What do you make of this?”

“Based on the rate of drift and the composition, nothing good.” Niko assessed with a frown and moved to his own console, keying in commands in an attempt to gather more data. “Is it in line with the trajectory of our cargo boxes?”

Charlie shook his head, “No. There’s a several hundred kilometer difference, but that could just be attributed to drift.”

“I think it’s worth checking out.” Niko said, turning towards Charlie. When Charlie didn’t move to key in new coordinates, he became more direct. “It will help to have a visual. Can you change course?”

“Only if you run it by the Captain first.” The throbbing on the back of Charlie’s head was still very real. Niko gave him an apprising look but must have come to the conclusion it was his turn to take some heat for yet another course change.

“Alright. I’ll be back in five. If not… assume the worst.” He said and flashed a smile. Charlie returned it with a weak smile of his own.

“Why doesn’t he think it’s good?” Finn asked in Niko’s wake.

Charlie shrugged, “We may know soon.”

“What are you waiting for, Mr. Foster?” Avery asked, surprising them both. She hopped the small step that led up to the bridge and gestured out the viewscreen. “I hear we have another clue to investigate.”

Niko followed the Captain in with a pleased look on his face.

Charlie looked monumentally confused, “You mean you want us to check this out?” He asked in way of clarification.

“Of course. It’s what we’re out here for, after all.” Avery explained.

Charlie gave her a wary look and strongly considered the fact she had dedicated her waking moments to messing with him. “Alright,” he finally said. “Setting a new course, Captain.”

“How long before we’ll have a visual?” Niko asked.

“Not long,” Charlie turned his attention to the console. “An hour at most. Better get Makenna up here to help identify whatever this is.”

“I’ll get her!” Finn exclaimed and rushed out. She seemed to take joy in finding a purpose for herself, even if it was errand girl.

Avery walked over to the navigation console and picked up the coffee mug she had left not long before, “I knew I left this somewhere,” she commented and brought the mug to her lips. When Niko looked away, she winked at Charlie with a grin that he did not particularly like. She then turned away and looked interested in the navigation console, sipping the coffee and seeming to be in better spirits than the crew had otherwise ever seen her.

Charlie caught Niko’s eye and gave him an inquisitive look. The navigator just shrugged as if to say – ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’

It had taken exactly 50 minutes to arrive within visual range of the target object. Charlie reversed the thrusters for a burst to counteract their forward momentum and to stabilize the ship so it floated motionlessly. When they were anchored, he activated the forward cameras and relayed their images to all available consoles on the bridge. Then he keyed in the command to activate the forward flood lights, illuminating a large hunk of floating metal.

Makenna stood with her arms crossed and leaned forward to squint out of the viewscreen. “This does not seem correct,” was her initial assessment.

“We’ll need a little more than that to go on, Miss Krasnov.” Avery pointed out. She monitored one of the camera feeds while Niko monitored the other. Finn was floating between them, snapping quiet photos of what was obviously a tense moment.

Winson sat nervously in the briefing room, medical bag at his feet. Since there was an organic reading, the Captain had asked him to report ready to provide medical treatment if necessary.

“I need to confirm. Mr. Foster, please to circle object.”

“Yes ma’am,” Charlie answered and engaged he starboard thrusters to send out an impulse burst, accompanied by activation of the aft thruster to initiate a clockwise drift around the object.

It was hard to tell the debris was anything in particular. If it had been a coherent shape at some point, it didn’t seem to be that way anymore. As they circled to view the opposite side, a gasp escaped from every crew member but Mak, Avery and the Doctor. Though to the doctor’s credit, he could not see the viewscreen or a camera feed. Finn stopped where she had been holding her camera up to snap a picture and slowly let her arms lower.

A frozen body drifted away from the wrecked object, then back towards it as a tether yanked it back in a bleak orbit. “I don’t think we’ll be needing your services, Doctor...” Charlie spoke, sounding detached from his own voice as he watched the scene with wide eyes.

As the Hyperion continued to circle the wreckage, the body went out of view.

“This is not logical,” Makenna spoke, disbelief cutting through her Russian accent. “This is scout ship called ‘Runners’. Designed for planetary atmosphere. It should not be in space by itself. It is not meant to travel long distances or experience reentry through atmosphere.”

“Did the colony ships have these aboard?” Niko asked.

“Da,” Makenna answered in the affirmative.

“Why would they launch a scout ship out here?” Charlie wondered. “And what happened to it?” He looked over at Makenna, hoping she would have an answer.

“It appears severely damaged from collision. The hull strength not so good on these ships.”

“The cockpit burst open.” Niko said as they made another pass along the front side of the Runner.

“Can the sensors tell how many were aboard?” Charlie asked.

Niko slid the camera feed off the console interface and brought up the sensor readings. “Assuming that more didn’t drift away… it appears from DNA residue to be a total of five with this Runner.”

“How many can it hold?” Charlie turned to address the question to Makenna.

She shrugged and made an indecisive expression, “Safely, it can hold three or four. If safety is not concern, probably up to eight.”

“Were they using these as escape pods?” Finn wondered.

Silence was her answer. No one seemed to want to postulate on the idea something so terrible might have happened before a colony ship could reach land that they had to abandon ship so far out.