First Watch: A Watcher Bay Adventure (2 page)

Levra’s eyes widened. “Grandpa Mitch’s quarter?”

Mitch nodded. “You keep this until I get back.”

After one last quick embrace, Mitch turned and walked through the loading doors. Levra gripped the coin and watched her sister’s slight form fade into the distance. But as Mitch turned the corner, Levra saw her sister reach up and wipe a tear away.

Then she was gone.

“You okay?” Gunnar asked. Levra loved that he knew she wasn’t but asked her anyway, giving her the chance to lie to herself.

“Yeah. I’m all right.” She wasn’t fooling anyone, least of all herself. She squeezed the coin tightly, feeling the edge press into the sweaty palm of her hand. The slight pain distracted her from her sad, heavy heart.

“What’s this?” Gunnar asked, eyeing the coin that Levra flipped over and over in her hands.

“It was my Grandpa’s. His name was Mitchell Enric. See the date? 2015. He was ten years old when he got this one. He used to collect coins, and this one was from his home state of Kansas. Before he died, he gave it to my sister.”

“She’s named after him?”

Levra nodded, fighting for a grip on her emotions. “Yep. He always wanted to go to space, but he had a spinal deformity that kept him out of the space program. He’s the whole reason my sister chose this career.”

Levra sniffled and Gunnar handed her a tissue.

“Goodbyes suck.” Gunnar squeezed Levra’s hand. “Come with me. I’ll buy you a coffee.”

Levra was grateful for Gunnar’s presence today. He made her want to be better, tougher. And he made her laugh, which made everything better.

With their goodbyes said, Levra went out to the viewing area. Even though Earth elevators were commonplace now, she could remember being a kid watching Cosmos and other space shows on the Discovery channel. Space was the Final Frontier. The discovery of the habitable planet New Eden was made during her lifetime, but she’d never imagined going to live there. Never imagined things could get so bad here that it would be necessary.

They knew so much more about the neighboring galaxies now than they had even ten years ago. Finding New Eden, a goldilocks planet in the Andromeda Galaxy capable of sustaining human life, had happened just in time to offer a solution to the rapidly declining global political crisis.

Levra and Gunnar leisurely made their way to the viewing bay outfitted for hosting those who wanted to watch the departure of their loved ones as they traveled up the elevator ribbon and out of sight into space. She glanced at her watch that doubled as a phone and mini-computer and saw she had about twenty minutes before lift-off. She always enjoyed watching her sister’s departures, she had never missed one. She never grew tired of the awesome sight as the massive elevator slid into the sky and up the carbon nanotube ribbon, seeming to go on forever. Somewhere, high above the clouds—Mitch had said something about geosynchronous orbit but those details were outside of her interest—the elevator’s lifter would dock at Novux Sky Docking Station, and the passengers would board another transporter that would take them to their various destinations in space.

Mitch would ride it up and then board a transport ship that would take her the rest of the way to the Nautilus-11 Space Station. She would layover there, along with the rest of the Altius 1 crew, until it was time to depart. Mitch wasn’t allowed to divulge too many details about their destination. China had spies everywhere, and NASA took extreme caution these days, especially after the near-miss with the elevator ribbon tampering last year. The US government, along with the help of her allies, had uncovered and mitigated an elaborate scheme by a conglomerate of multi-national terrorists last year in which the elevator ribbon was targeted. If they had been successful, the resulting explosions would have interrupted the Earth and Lunar Elevator programs—and thus the departure for New Eden—for years.

Levra cradled the cup of coffee Gunnar had bought from the small cafe in the waiting area and sipped it slowly while they waited. She had no desire to make the trip above the Earth’s surface. Even before the near-miss with international terrorists, living vicariously through Mitch’s travel was the perfect amount of adventure for her. She ignored the pit in her stomach when she thought about the voyage she would take in a few years to New Eden. With the rapidly deteriorating conditions on Earth, including devastating natural disasters like deadly volcanoes, earthquakes and ever-increasing hurricanes blossoming around the globe, the fear of staying on Earth edged out her panic at the thought of interstellar travel. Space travel had become the lesser of two completely terrifying experiences.

She heard the whirring of the elevator’s lifter that indicated it was getting ready to depart, and her stomach did little flips in anticipation. Levra gripped Gunnar’s hand as they watched the lifter shoot up into the sky. She blew a kiss to her sister.

“See you soon, Mitch,” Levra whispered as she watched her sister slip into the almost-night sky.

Gunnar spoke softly in Levra’s ear. “Don’t worry about her, baby. She’s so excited for this opportunity. She wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. Trust me. This kind of adventure is in my blood just like it's in hers.” He laughed, playfully nudging her in the ribs with his elbow. “I don’t think you got your genes from Great-Grandpa Mitch.”

Levra nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat. Suck it up, girl, she chided herself silently.

“You space travel types are crazy, that’s all I know.” Levra bantered back grateful for the distraction from the angst in her gut.

Once the elevator was out of sight, Gunnar led Levra to the boarding area to wait for the ferry. The mid-sized ferry would depart from the launch platform and take the newlyweds back to shore. She filed into line with the other would-be ferry passengers and waited for the boarding announcement. Her mind slowly pushed away the emotion of Mitch’s departure and replaced it with thoughts of her return to her and Gunnar’s new home in Seattle. Once again, she was grateful for her husband’s willingness to accompany her. Her parents were too ill to make the trip, and she hadn’t wanted to make the long journey to the Maldives by herself.

But now that her trip with Mitch was over, she could focus fully on getting settled into married life. She had plans to decorate their condo on the waterfront. She was leaning towards a rustic country style. Her mother told her that style had made a comeback in the early 2000’s, complete with a mason jar and chalk paint revival that captured Levra’s creative interest. In a modern world of contemporary design featuring all straight lines and monochromatic colors and super-sleek technology, she was drawn to the country charm of milk jugs, barn wood, and white picket fences. These things were all fairly difficult to find and, in some ways, it seemed silly to her to spend time decorating a home she would leave behind in a few short years. Still, she looked forward to it.

Her scheming was interrupted by the arrival of the boat. As she watched the next shuttle boat arrive, she heard an ear-splitting boom. The force of the deafening blast resonated through her whole body.

“What the hell just happened, Gunnar?” Nothing like this had ever happened at any of Mitch’s other departures.

Something was wrong.

She heard gasps from all around her as the other passengers looked skyward. She turned toward the direction the explosion came from—up. Gunnar’s voice stood out in the sounds of mayhem like a beacon in the night.

“Oh my god. No.”

All she could see at first was sparks and then smoke. Heat and raining objects followed. Something had exploded. Only seconds passed before her mind caught up with Gunnar’s outcry.

No! Mitch.

Emergency sirens blared and uniformed personnel scurried about the deck of the platform.

“Levra, come on.” Gunnar pulled her behind him as he raced toward a structure that would provide cover as larger pieces of what had to be the elevator’s lifter began to plummet from the sky.

Large chunks of flaming metal rained down on the platform while others crashed into the ocean, sending waves crashing into the already shuddering platform. Gunnar led Levra through the chaos, dodging what he could as they ran, but Levra couldn’t think past her sister. He practically dragged her along behind him.

“It can’t be.” Her words fell flat, as the evidence contradicting her statement fell from the sky, mocking her.

Something sharp struck her forehead, and she fell to the deck, her sister’s coin falling to the platform and rolling away from her. Warm blood slicked down her face. Her knees ached from the impact, her hands scraped and bloody from the rough metal platform.

“Lev, stay close.” Gunnar’s voice seemed far away as he pulled her to her feet and rushed under the covered portion of the deck.

“The quarter. I dropped it,” Levra sobbed as she stretched her hand out, trying in vain to reach the precious coin from her position under safe cover.

“Stay here. I’ll get it.”

Too numb to respond, she watched Gunnar race back out into the falling maelstrom to retrieve the antique coin.

Levra heard whispers and occasional screams travel through the awestruck crowd. She strained to hear what they said. She felt as if she was in a small ever-constricting tunnel and her heart sped up even as time slowed down.

“Explosion.” That word got tossed around a lot, she didn’t know how to process it.

Levra’s thoughts struggled to form in her muddled brain.

No.

More chatter from the crowd. “Bomb or equipment malfunction.”

Her stomach sunk and turned over. She fought the urge to throw up. No, no, no.

More whispers.

“Definitely a bomb.”

Mitch. She has to be okay. She has to be.

Gunnar came back, wiping her face, holding her close to him, offering soothing words and comforting hands. “I’m here, Lev. I’ve got you. I’m here.”

His words seemed like they were at the other end of a tunnel, drowned out by the frantic cries of the rest of the onlookers. She felt his touch, yet he seemed so far away as her mind raced over the horrific possibilities. She felt like she was falling through an endless space as her mind was barraged with half-formed thoughts.

“Did you get it?”

He held up the coin in answer as two words from a stranger’s lips traveled through the crowd and found her ears. The devastating words penetrated the time-slowing fog that stopped time completely and froze her heart in her chest mid-beat.

“No survivors.”

CHAPTER 2

New Seattle, New Eden, Paradisi System

August 4, 12 AA

16 years after the Novux Sky Elevator bombing

“Goddamn it, Levra. What the fuck is your problem? You knew what this was before I ever agreed to the Altius 11 mission. You don’t get to freak out now. It’s too late.”

Levra stared at this version of her husband, his angry face staring back at her from the wall monitor. She sat in her office feeling much further away from her husband than the space of the galaxies which actually separated them. Nowhere in her imagination could she reconcile that this guy yelling at her was the same guy who’d serenaded her with Frank Sinatra’s Witchcraft before he’d headed off into space like Wyatt Earp in a western movie from Earth. What had happened to her knight in shining armor?

“I’m not freaking out, Gunnar. Don’t be a condescending asshole. Yes, I knew, but you said three years in deep space. It’s been five. I’m simply pointing out that you have a son here who hasn’t been able to hug his dad in years. We had a deal. You would give Abramov three years, and then you would come back. We would work among the Ddaerans and raise our son in their village. You are the one who is changing the program. What the hell happened to you on that spaceship?”

She watched him over the monitor, tried to see him objectively as Gunnar scrubbed his hand through his graying hair and gritted his teeth. These conversations across space, once a sweet connection with her lover—a chance to flirt across the light years—had turned more and more tense over the last few months. She’d been patient when, at the three year mark, he’d announced it would be another few months, but as the months turned into two more years, she’d grown weary of his excuses.

Gunnar finally spoke, acid perforating his words. “Look, I’ll get home when I get home. You are going to have to be patient. And Enric will be fine. It’s not like he’ll never see me again. Remember you and I had to leave our parents on a doomed planet. I’m certain he’ll recover from my comparatively brief absence. Don’t baby him, Lev. He needs to be tough.” His voice was softer when he spoke of their son. Levra took a deep breath trying to compose herself.

“I’m not babying him. Just because we had to experience devastating loss—well, don’t you want better for our son? He shouldn’t have to grow up without a father. He’s eight now, Gunnar. You’ve missed so much.”

“Oh my God, do not start again.”

“Start what? Being concerned for our child—?”

He turned and looked at something to his left, outside the view of her camera, and spoke to someone Levra couldn’t see, interrupting her mid-tirade. “Okay. I’ll be there in a minute.”

Gunnar focused back on Levra. “There is nothing left to talk about. I’ll let you know when I’m closer to home. You are going to have to accept the reality of the situation, Levra. I’ll be back eventually. Quit nagging me about it. You expect me to ask the boss to turn the spaceship off course because my whiny wife is irritated?”

“Gunnar, honestly, what has gotten into you? This isn’t you. You’ve never acted this way with me—not before this trip. This mission is changing you. Has already changed you. If this is the man you’ve become, you don’t need to bother coming home. You won’t be welcome here.”

She watched his face for moment, looking for any kind of reaction. Seeing none, she broke their connection.

“What an asshole.” She slammed her computer closed, happy to be done with the call.

Absence had not made the heart grow fonder. When Gunnar first left she’d missed him terribly. Time and distance made all of her memories sweeter and his mildly irritating quirks seem less significant. But something happened when his crew had gone radio silent for nearly two years. Since then, their relationship turned sideways. He was irritable every time she spoke with him and he didn’t seem to feel any remorse at all when the mission had been extended so long.