Colony One (7 page)

“I swear…”

“I told you, we have been watching you, Ms. Li. That includes quite a bit. We know that no one has approached you.”

Jia’s mind reeled and she stared at him for a long time. Had this man personally been following her every move? She, like most, never expected perfect privacy, but there were still lines that most felt shouldn’t be crossed. He looked at her – through her – as if he knew every detail about her life.

She sighed in frustration, “Fine, it was my idea to leak information for money, alright?” She confessed as she threw up her arms. “Nothing important, just the general specifications, materials… things people have been speculating about.”

The man frowned, “Ms. Li, if you do not tell us what it is you found, we cannot determine what level of risk you are. If we cannot determine that, we must assume the worst. Do you really want us to assume the worst?”

“Well let’s start with who
you
are, first.” Jia countered. She was not a simple girl. She knew what she had was a big deal, and if she told them, she feared that they would most certainly make her ‘go away’ despite her status as an accomplished scientist. Every moment locked in the observation room confirmed to her that they would not hesitate to mistreat her. This secret was the only leverage she had.

“It doesn’t concern you. If I were you, Ms. Li, I would get out of the habit of asking questions.” He said and looked away, making a gesture with his chin. The mirror went dark and a tube was shoved under the door of the little room.

Jia shrugged off her lab coat and wrapped one of the sleeves around her mouth and nose as gas began to pump into the room. In the end, it was a stopgap measure as minutes later with burning eyes; she slipped to the floor, unconscious.

Jia awoke in a cell, laying on a hard bunk that was built into the wall. She took her time to get her bearings, carefully sitting up and looking around through blurred vision. Eventually she made out a sink, toilet and besides the bunk, that was it. There was no window. There was one door with a slot near the bottom and a small, rectangular hinged window at the top that was closed.

She was not wearing her work clothes or her lab coat. She had been redressed into a blue jumpsuit. That is when panic gripped her the hardest. In an instant, her life as she knew it had been ripped from her – and so effortlessly. Her skin crawled with the inescapable confinement and the indefinite nature of it. She had not cried since she was a child, but in that moment, there was no stopping it. She sobbed for the life she had lost, for her uncertain future and for the bitter truth that she had learned, only confirmed by her imprisonment. A celebrated scientist, doctorate holding, successful middle class woman – reduced to a criminal with one, simple action.

An important action, Jia reaffirmed as she started to pull the pieces of herself back together. Her secret deserved to be known by those in the most danger – the passengers of Colony One. She had to survive this – for those thousands of people.

Over the next several weeks, the cell became her home, and she was questioned often. Weeks turned to months and they questioned her less, but gave no indication that she might be released, or even if she was formally arrested for anything. Some days she screamed until she was hoarse. Other days she didn’t speak at all. She often questioned the legitimacy of her internment. She never told them what she found, despite coercive tactics that included electroshock and pain simulation. When that didn’t work, psychological attacks began.

As Jia began to hit her breaking point – a feeling metamorphosis that was becoming a shell of her former self, she was visited by Ts’ai. They had taken her to a normal looking meeting room to see him. If he was surprised by her transformation – thinner with dark circles under her eyes and slumped shoulders – he did not show it. She took a seat across from him, fixing him with her vacant stare.

“Good news, Jia.” He started. “While you’ve been away, Colony One was successfully completed. The launch is set to take place in two months.”

Jia simply continued to stare at him with hollow eyes, not registering a reaction one way or the other.

“They wanted me to tell you because they think you will receive this offer better from me.” He explained. “The offer is this; you may be released immediately.”

Jia’s shoulders stiffened as she was snapped back to reality with his words. Despite his betrayal, she didn’t think Ts’ai had it in him to lie to her in such a profound way, so she felt the first wisps of hope begin to fill her.

“For two months you will be free to settle up your affairs – because you have a one way ticket on Colony One.”

“I… They want me to join that suicide mission?” The words spilled out of her mouth as the hope she began to feel was suddenly stamped out.

Ts’ai shook his head, “Only you think that, Jia. The mission will be a success. They are giving you an opportunity to be a part of it. A chance to start over.”

“Who are THEY?” Jia’s voice rose. In all her time in captivity, she had never been told who was demanding answers from her.

“Do you accept or not?” Ts’ai ignored her question.

She closed her eyes and took in a shaky, defeated breath, “What choice do I have?”

“It seems simple to me,” he emphasized. “You can choose to stay here,” he gestured to their surroundings, “For the rest of your days, or you can join the mission.”

“Aren’t they afraid I am going to leak their secrets?” Jia asked, feeling like she had very little to lose in that moment.

Ts’ai shook his head, “No, they have made it very clear they will kill you and anyone you tell if that is the case. They will not jeopardize the success of something like this because one person has it in her head that it will not succeed. And, as you know, their response time is impeccable.”

Jia felt a lump develop in her throat. She ran her thumb over the bio-stamp in her arm. She could try to find someone to mask her stamp long enough to get to the media. But who in the media was not owned by World Corp? With the two impossible choice laid out in front of her, she was finding that her survival instincts were still alive and well.

“You should have listened to me in the beginning, Jia.” Ts’ai said, his voice expressing a tinge of remorse and sympathy. “If you play along, at least you’ll get to see your family before it’s all over.”

He was baiting her to tell him what he knew. She almost took it. She reminded herself to stay strong – especially now that she might be tethered to the very mission she wanted to avoid and prevent.

Jia put her face in her hands at the thought of trying to explain to her mother and father why she was choosing to leave Earth when she had a perfectly good life made for herself already. The thought stirred something inside of her, “What have my parents been told?” In the beginning, she had held out hope that they would find out what had happened to her. That they would protest or call out to the media. But after so long, it was evident that was not going to be the case.

“As far as they know, you’re on a research trip to New America. You’ve been writing them regularly.”

Jia’s mouth went slack. With the confession, she realized that these people had enough power and influence to forge her bio-stamp signature. All of a sudden, the dominos fell at light speed in her mind, causing a chain reaction. There was no question in her mind at that point; that she was being held in a corporate prison by World Corp. There was no other alternative explanation. She had worked at a Confederation research lab long enough to know that they did not have the capability to do what had been done to her. No, only World Corp had the resources, and the ability to manipulate the bio-stamps that they themselves first patented.

It was so much worse than she had ever imagined. She had always expected, along with many others, that the corporate oligarchy had their fingers in every pot. In fact, popular sentiment had been that corporations had too much power, but by the time people had the motivation to do anything about it, it was too late. Viewers were bidirectional devices and were in every home, watching every move and amassing surveillance at a zettabyte per second. Corporations influenced and controlled the population through resource and product control, education agendas – everything. People whose voices rose up too loudly on the subject were either paid off or simply forgotten about after a sudden disappearance.

Corporate Prisons had been talked about before by conspiracy theorists only, and until that very moment, she never believed it to be possible that corporations could pay the confederation enough to look the other way when it came to imprisoning citizens. Perhaps it wasn’t monetary, she reasoned. Perhaps it was blackmail. Perhaps that is how they had turned Ts’ai against her. Something had compromised his morals and his empathy – and it had to be of great significance.

It had been so easy to dismiss all these things, Jia thought, when she was comfortable in her apartment, sleeping on her soft bed and distracting herself with the viewer. But now it was happening to her. Crashing down on her. There were no distractions where she was.

What had the world come to? The question resonated in her mind so loudly that it pained her.

Suddenly, Jia only felt like one very small, very powerless person. The feeling of helplessness dealt a blow more painful than anything she had endured up to that point. In that moment, she felt defeated. Her free will had been stolen. It had been stolen for a long time, she realized – stolen from everyone except a select few. What had the world come to? The question was becoming too heavy, too unwieldy. They had finally broken her, and she finally realized that she had absolutely nothing to lose anymore. 

“I’ll go,” she said, tears filling her eyes and her hands shaking. “I’ll go to Colony Alpha.”

ɸ ɸ ɸ

Jia looked down to see what she had made with the paper at the community table on Colony One. When she did, she found she had ripped the paper into tiny pieces. She looked up and around. Several of her fellow passengers were staring openly at her – looks ranging from concerned to guarded.

These people had no idea what was in store for them
, she thought.
I don’t even know what is in store for us – not with any certainty
.

She searched the faces of nearby passengers and, not for the first time, wondered which of them were World Corp plants assigned to monitor her, ready to strike out at the first hint of her disobedience.

She reminded herself to take deep, calming breaths. Because the alternative was so much worse, she often seriously entertained the idea that she might be crazy. That she had made up the whole experience in her head – that she was never a research scientist or tortured for information.

Perhaps she had made it all up to cope with her decision to change her life so radically.

Perhaps she had a long history of mental illness.

Perhaps we really are headed to paradise
, she considered.
Is that so out of the realm of possibilities?

07

Hyperion, Mission Day 10

The crew of the Hyperion settled in for a meal in the small mess area of their ship, with the exception of the Captain, who didn’t take meals with the crew if she could avoid it. The craft was commissioned to hold a crew of up to ten, but the galley was the only informal space large enough to fit them all comfortably.

“What’s for chow this time, Doc?” Charlie asked. Winston had become the de facto ‘chef’ of the group, having little to do on the voyage since everyone had remained healthy. Even Finn, who had had a brief bout of space sickness, had a healthy color back in her cheeks.

The doctor evaluated the supplies and decided, “Looks like green pea soup and flatbread.”

“Anything will be better than the meatloaf you tricked us into eating,” Niko commented with a shiver, eliciting an eye roll from the good doctor.

Makenna had some device disassembled on the table. At first, the others had complained when she did this at mealtime – which was often – but they had since relented. There was no talking to Mak when she was engaged in a project. At the mention of the meatloaf, however, she proved to everyone that she wasn’t completely oblivious, “Never again with the meatloaf.” She said and blanched slightly as she worked. “I lose two hours of productivity because of meatloaf.”

“Aw, I didn’t think it was that bad,” Charlie put in, trying to assuage the doctor’s hurt feelings. In reality, he had spent just as much time in the bathroom as everyone else after the meal.

“That’s because you were raised in a barn,” Charlie looked up and over to see – much to his surprise – Captain Avery standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame with her arms crossed. She had a distinct amused look on her face and before Charlie could respond, she spoke again – “It’s tea time again, I see.”

“Just because I am British,” Winston huffed, and then sighed tellingly as he gestured. “Tea is on the hotplate.” He admitted and went back to preparing the soup.

The Captain helped herself to a cup, and then joined the table. Charlie, Niko, and Finn all stared at her with blank expressions. Even Makenna spared a surprised double take before refocusing on what she was doing.

“What?” Avery asked.

“Are you joining us for dinner, Captain?” Finn asked.

“A girl’s got to eat,” Avery admitted, taking a sip of the tea and blanching. She was more of a coffee person, made evident when she abandoned the cup. She leaned back in her chair and stretched to grab an apple from a see-through compartment drawer. A stack of pull-out drawers were what made up the dry storage pantry on the ship. She bit into it and noticed everyone was still staring, “Well don’t go out of your way to make me feel welcome.” She commented. “Just… carry on with whatever it is you all do.” She insisted, but watched them with an unusual keen interest and a half smile.

Niko pursed his lips, pushed down the unsettled feeling at the Captain’s attentions and turned to Finn, who had been paging through a physical album of photos, “Are these all your work?” He asked her.

Finn nodded, “Yer welcome to have a look.” She slid the album over to give him a better view.

He ran his fingertips over the plastic pages that protected the photographs, “It’s so odd to see a non-digital photograph,” he admitted. He studied the first image – the one she had been viewing. It was a colorless picture of a woman and her three children working in a production zone. The smallest one looked to be three years old. “My goodness,” he found himself breathing the words aloud.

The image was striking in a way he could not express. There was a look of true burden on the woman’s face – not because of her kids. On the contrary, she seemed to be burdened with the guilt of the life she was providing for them. The children all wore weathered looks far beyond their physical ages. Childhood would mean something entirely different for these children than it did for him. Niko wasn’t sure how he had come to that conclusion from the photo alone – perhaps he had just made up a story based on pity. Either way, the impact on him was real. Knowing that poverty existed was one thing – being faced with it front and center was another. He found himself looking up from the photos to Finn, who had dedicated her life to trying to bring the injustices of the world front and center. He suddenly understood why her energy felt so different than anyone else he had ever met.

He turned the page to find similar pictures of men and women with their families, all working no matter what age. It seemed to be a series she did. It progressed into a different story, photos of gatherings came next, then portraits of people as they stood in crowds listening, or standing in front of crowds speaking.

Niko came to a photograph that evoked an instant memory. It was a close up shot of a young man with his filter pulled away from his mouth and nose. His mouth was open, frozen in mid shout. On instinct, Niko turned to the next page to find the same subject hunched over in mid cough, a stark contrast from the image of defiance on the previous page.

“I saw this on the viewer.” Niko pointed to the young man. “I saw this protest on the news. I heard what he said. You were there?” He sounded surprised, but he shouldn’t have been considering what he already knew about Finn.

She nodded and her tone was solemn when she confirmed, “That gathering was not dispersed peacefully and that young man did not make it out alive.”

“That’s too bad,” Avery commented dismissively, tossing her apple core into a nearby waste bin. Her voice forced Niko and Finn to look up, “But it does remind me. I was just looking up coverage of the launch of Colony One.” She pulled out her handheld glass device and set it on the table. She tapped the interface a few times and a projection hologram of the footage sprung from the glass device, hovering over it like a cast of ghosts.

Makenna looked up from her project and the Doctor stopped what he was doing to watch the image. They had all seen the speeches and the footage of the ship taking off, but what was playing on Avery’s handheld was different.

“Lieutenant Dilyn, can you share with us your thoughts on this historic voyage?” A reporter asked one of the passengers who was about to board Colony One. She avoided the question, looking nervous, anxious or both.

“Me too!” Another passenger put in. When the group saw him, they all immediately looked at Niko, then back to the projection. “I’m here to make all my family and friends proud. What we’re doing is important and necessary to humankind.” The man on the projection said and Avery paused the image so that he was frozen temporarily in time.

There was stunned silence for a long moment, until – “That’s you!” Charlie exclaimed, pointed at the image and fixed Niko with a meaningful look. The projection ghost-like figure had exactly the same features as Niko – the dark curly ringlets for hair, right down to the bump on the length of his nose. Most striking were the eyes and the voice, which were identical. The man in the image – Luca – had jovial eyes. Not something anyone had seen on Niko, but they were remarkably similar in color, depth, and intensity.

Niko smiled and laughed, “Everyone has a doppelganger.” He said dismissively.

Finn was shaking her head, looking from the projection to Niko and back. “Normally I would agree, but…” she trailed off, feeling that he was uncomfortable. It was clear Avery had an agenda and Finn wasn’t sure she wanted to help.

“I just happened to have access to Colony One’s manifest,” Avery said as she sat back in her chair and fixed Niko with a meaningful look. “His is listed as last name ‘Andris.’”

The images Avery had played made a crushing anxiety build in Niko. Even with her expectant eyes on him, he felt himself losing the fight to stay in the present as the memories came flooding back.

ɸ ɸ ɸ

Since his work was in the astronomy field, Niko had been the first of the two brothers to hear of the Colony One mission. Luca, while being an intelligent person, did not have the penchant for the sciences like his brother. He liked people, which oftentimes did not pay the bills. Despite his disinterest of academic fields, Luca was incredibly jealous when he heard that Niko had been offered a spot on Colony One, but was still able to remain supportive of his brother. He even encouraged Niko to go. It would be the single-most amazing thing anyone in their family would have done, he would always say.

Niko did not reject the idea of the amazing opportunity outright, though his natural skepticism made him reluctant – a fact he had not shared with his family. He put in his tentative agreement to be a part of the mission, but was careful to research every aspect.

It was the month before launch when everything began to unravel. Niko had not been able to find any substantial record of Colony Alpha – anything that even came close to it was classified information that he did not have clearance to view. He called friends, colleagues, past associates – no one could, or would, give him the information he was looking for. Niko was not a natural risk taker, so at the first sign of doubt, he backed out.

Luca was busily making a sandwich in the community kitchen of the public housing complex he lived in when Niko dropped by for an unexpected visit. It was late and they stood alone as Niko broke the news.

“What do you mean you’re not going?” Luca exclaimed, abandoning the knife he was using to cut the sandwich in half. “You have to go!”

“My place was always optional,” Niko explained. “I have not been able to substantiate the probability of success for literally any part of the mission.” He crossed his arms and leaned against a row of lower cabinets, careful to touch nothing. He didn’t enjoy making the trip to the inner city to see his brother – he preferred the illusion that his brother was not, in fact, a broke letch on society. He had offered so many times to move him into his apartment until he could get onto his feet – but Luca always refused on principle. He didn’t want to be a burden, or in truth, admit that he couldn’t make it without the support of his family. After a pause and a confused expression from his brother, Niko tried to explain it another way, “I have an unsettled feeling about it.”

Luca shook his head with resolve and Niko wondered for a moment why he was taking it so hard. “This is so typical of you. Never willing to take a chance on something that you can’t fully predict.”

“It would be foolish to do this now,” Niko insisted. “Why are you so upset?” he finally asked.

“Because…!” Luca struggled with finding the words. He threw up his hands in frustration, “Because I wanted to be on the next ship out. I wanted to be there with you, making history. They’re saying the transport is full and they’re not taking anyone else. You’re giving up on a chance of a lifetime!”

“Luca, listen to me. It’s simple – we’ll wait. If the colony is successful, we can both sign up for the next trip out.”

“That’s not good enough.” Luca insisted. He crossed his arms and his eyebrows knit together as he stared at the floor. After a tense moment, his forehead relaxed and his eyes lit up, “I’ll take your place.” He said with excitement.

“Brother. Absolutely not.” Niko was shocked that Luca even considered it an option. “Don’t you hear what I’m saying? I have not been able to corroborate key factors regarding trajectory, sustainability or planetary categorization.” He paused, and after seeing another flash of incomprehension, continued. “In other words, I have serious doubts about the planning and execution of this mission. I’m an astronomer – I know what I’m talking about.”

“You have always been too cautious. They would not send an entire colony ship into space if they weren’t sure.” Luca reasoned. “And it’s about time we did something to try and save Earth from ourselves!”

Niko sighed – Luca had always been a bleeding heart, always taking the news reports of impending catastrophe too seriously. It was one of the reasons he claimed to avoid investing in things like property and career – unsure of the ultimate worth of it. He supposed Luca thought this might be a chance to finally commit to something. Even still – he couldn’t let Luca ruin his life even further. “I will not allow you to take my place,” he proclaimed sternly, dropping his arms to his sides and taking a step towards his brother with a serious look. “You have a son, for crying out loud,” he reminded.

Luca visibly bristled. “Lauren won’t even let me see him. I can’t stand being here anymore where everyone thinks I’m a screw up.” His jaw tensed and he looked up with glossy eyes. When he finally returned his gaze to Niko, his expression was earnest, “Don’t you understand? I could change everyone’s mind with this one thing.”

Niko put a hand flat to his own chest. Luca’s look cut right through him and with his words, Niko felt an incredible weight settle on him. He had been guilty many times over of thinking lesser of Luca. “I feel your pain, brother.” In a way, it was true. The bond of twins was still a mystery, but Niko knew from firsthand experience, it was very real. His expression softened, “But it is still impossible. They will be reading bio-stamps before they let anyone board. They will know you’re not me.”

“I can take care of that,” Luca countered aloud. Internally, he was already recalling that he had made an acquaintance who claimed to be able to tamper successfully with bio-stamps. He thought that since he and Niko shared many similar biological markers, it would be even easier. It was quite the gamble to try – punishment for altering a bio-stamp was a lengthy stay in prison, indentured servitude in a production zone, or both depending on how successful the effort had been.  Seemingly, it was worth it in Luca’s mind. By time they figured it out, he would be long gone.