Genesis (The Exodus Trilogy) (9 page)

They needed to reach the Trickler before daybreak. The sixth man on the team would be waiting on the south bank, and once they managed to cross the river, they would hide out in the forward base on the north bank. This was all about gathering intel, and their most important goal right now was to slip away. He figured the enemy would have some kind of system that would react when the patrol didn’t report back, so they had to be quick. Thomas readied a syringe. It held enough tranquilizer to knock out a grown man for a day, but since they didn’t know how these creatures would react, it was a gamble. Nevertheless, he pushed the syringe through the fabric of the creature’s arm, and quickly injected the tranquilizer. He had no idea what he hit, but it seemed to work, since its thrashing subsided.

“Careful with the helmet,” he said. “If the parasite works on these guys as it does on us, we’ll have some sort of super-prisoner in a few days. We don’t want that.” As Thomas removed the syringe, one of the men chuckled, as if he had just told some joke. The two who had held the creature, now lifted it onto a portable stretcher. Then, while two men carried the stretcher off into the woods, Thomas and the rest of the team watched for pursuit, rifles ready.

They moved like that until the first light started to appear on the horizon. Sometimes they would switch, to keep up the pace, always ready to face pursuit. They reached the Trickler a bit low, and had to follow the river west for ten minutes before they heard the signal. A clicking sound, and they knew they had reached the right spot.

A dark figure appeared from behind some shrubbery, and then, surprisingly, another. Thomas kept his rifle ready to fire, as they approached. There should only be one!

“You got one of them?” he heard the whisper of a familiar voice once they got close enough. It was Tina Hammer.

“Yeah,” he said, lowering his rifle. “And you couldn’t stay away from this, Major?” He grinned. Tina chuckled and went over to look at the creature, which lay strapped to the stretcher, unmoving.

“It’s still alive?” she asked. Thomas nodded.

“We had to sedate it. But it seems fine.”

“All right then. Let’s move it across. Jim’s got the boat ready.”

On the north bank, they deflated the boat and packed it in a water-tight sack that one of them hoisted onto his back. Then they moved away from the landing point and off toward their forward base, just five hundred meters inland.

The entrance to the forward base was just a hole in the ground, completely hidden from view. It was reinforced so that an enemy could walk over it and not notice. It was also insulated so no body heat would slip out, making it impossible to find with heat sensors. It had two rooms, the smaller of them airtight, with an airlock separating it from the bigger room, and it was big enough to house ten people. They would have plenty of space.

Once they got settled in, Thomas and Tina had a good look at the figure. Obviously, it was humanoid, slightly thinner and lighter than the men; about the same build as Tina. The helmet was connected to the rest of the suit, making it part of the suit itself. Thomas suspected it was airtight and, for a moment, feared that the syringe had contaminated the creature. Well, nothing to be done for it. The helmet visor was shaded, and there was no way to see what was inside. The suit was all black, carrying no markings that they could see. They had managed to retrieve one of the firearms, which looked strange, but familiar enough for Thomas to understand how it worked. He suspected he would be able to operate it, if needed. The sighting mechanism looked impressive, and from the few accounts they had, it was.

They carried the prisoner into the airtight room, and laid him on the ground. It would still be hours before it woke, if the tranquilizer worked as intended. Nevertheless, Tina and one of the men held their weapons ready, just in case. Thomas looked at the figure, thinking how it had behaved, how it had reacted to the tranquilizer, everything about it. He had a nagging suspicion that grew with every minute, but it didn’t make sense. None of this made any sense.

“Ah well, no way around it,” he said, and checked to see that everyone had their masks securely in place. Then he searched around the neck of the creature and found the locks that kept the helmet latched in place. He loosened them, and a hiss of air escaped. He carefully removed the helmet, and someone gasped.

The creature had short black hair on its head and a few stubbles on its chin. The eyes, though closed at the moment, were slanted, and the bridge across the nose was slightly flatter than that of most Aurorans.

“My God, it’s Chinese,” Tina whispered.

“It’s human, all right,” Thomas said, confirming his suspicions. Tina moved closer, all the while shaking her head at what lay before them. Then she looked at Thomas, her face the biggest question mark he’s ever seen.

“And just how the hell did that happen?”

Maria solis

They were walking along the path toward the moorings on the Arizona, the great river that led up all the way to the north coast of Verdi and the growing community of farmers and fishermen up there. Isabella Solis was one of the few people who knew of the Akhab and their strange society. Maria was sorry she couldn’t go with her mother, but Doc Bowers had been adamant that she stay in the Stronghold, preferably in the hospital tent at night, due to her morning sickness, as the hospital was one of the few places where she could take off the mask safely. So as long as it lasted, she had to stay put, while her mother went up north to see the little creatures. Maria couldn’t wait to get back up there, but she understood the doctor’s concern. She hadn’t told her mother about the pregnancy, claiming too much to do before she could leave the Stronghold as her reason for staying behind.

The boat, a medium-sized river barge carrying food supplies from the north coast, was almost ready to go, and she saw a few familiar faces loading up empty crates and equipment for the return trip. Karin Svensson would go, as would Dean. Kim would wait and only go when Maria was ready. The four of them were the original discoverers of the Akhab, and Karin and Dean would introduce Isabella to them. Maria felt certain the Akhab would welcome her as seemed to be their custom. She almost giggled thinking about Jujjj, who seemed to learn English a lot faster than she would have expected. In fact, it was amazing how fast he was learning.

They sat down on the pier. Maria enjoyed being with her mother again. It had been too long since she had seen her last, and even before everything blew up, Isabella Solis had grown distant. Maria saw that her mother had had a hard time adjusting to her new life, and it seemed even then that her parents were growing apart, as Ramon tried to hold on to his place among the decision makers, while Isabella pulled back from everything, hanging on to the memory of Earth and her life there.

It wasn’t hard to understand her reaction. Isabella had lived her entire life making business decisions with her husband, and after coming to Aurora, a lack of purpose drove her into depression. With her father becoming steadily more estranged from the Consortium and their dealings, her mother’s role had also diminished. It had happened to others, as well, but Maria had noticed many returning to other vocations that were more hands on, such as carpentry or farming. Isabella had been a historian, who just happened to be married to a businessman, and when her business role diminished, she did take up her studies of history. But on a planet with no human history until the day Tina Hammer first set foot on it, she’d been reduced to studying and interpreting the electronic documents brought along to ensure a certain interpretation of Earth’s history. That made her more of a propagandist than a true historian, which had to be difficult for someone had a mind of her own. Understanding human history was important, but with such a skewed selection of sources, it was an impossible task. And, of course, it was different from what she had been doing for most of her adult life.

Now though, she seemed to be doing pretty well, and Maria noticed her mother smiling more than she had ever since they set foot on Aurora. Maria asked about it, and strangely, Isabella furrowed her brows and nodded.

“Yes, I guess you’re right,” she said.

“You know, losing my husband—your father—was the hardest blow I’ve ever had to face. I still miss him, you know. Ah, he was such a good man; don’t let anybody tell you otherwise!” Maria smiled as her mother slumped her shoulders.

“Strangely though, it made me realize something; my own behavioral pattern, well… thought pattern, as well, it was so futile. I mean, what good did me sulking do? So I decided to pull myself together and fight my way back.” Maria knew she hadn’t heard the whole story, but she’d heard enough and deduced from her own observations. She was impressed with what her mother had done. From becoming a reclusive loner caught up in depression, and on top of that losing her husband, she had indeed fought her way back. From what Maria had heard, she had almost forced herself into the colonial administration in a matter of weeks.

“You know, I don’t know the first thing about war, but I do know both business and history. And though George has always been a deft businessman, his knowledge—or rather, understanding—of history wouldn’t impress anyone,” Isabella said.

“So, I take it you’ve heard about the Human Expansion Program then,” Maria said quietly. Her mother snorted.

“Yes, that… Let me just put it this way—I have never been so angry with your Uncle George in my entire life.” She paused, and Maria noticed how her mother struggled to find the right words.

“Did you know that I was supposed to be… mated?” Maria asked. Isabella nodded, and looked down. The boat was almost ready, so they had to say their goodbyes soon.

“Maria… When I learned about the plans for HEP, I immediately saw which way this was leading, and though I never heard your name, I assumed you would be part of it, being the bright, young woman that you are. I scolded both the governor and the rest of his inner circle for being such complete ignorant fools, both when it comes to human behavior and motivation, and history. I called it lack of judgment, but that’s understating it. I mean, it was one thing to consider breeding humans to speed up evolution. The stupidity of believing such a plan could be forced upon the population…” She shook her head in disgust.

“And the reference to the Nazis was even worse. Havelar is no Nazi, far from it.” Maria nodded reluctantly.

“I don’t know…” she said. “I don’t recognize Uncle George anymore.” Isabella reached out and touched her shoulder.

“You have to understand the amount of stress he’s been under, even for years before we left Earth. George was looking for a way to save us all, and at some point, he wound up on the wrong path, and I think everything just got out of hand. The HEP? Stupidity is one of the nicer things I can say about it. Thinking it, and even doing it, would have been evil, but his motives weren’t.” They both looked out at the river, bathed in the vivid rays of Cancri. Maria was about to change the subject, when Isabella spoke again.

“On the surface, the HEP was the strongest evidence that the man is a monster. And although I saw the idiocy, and though I felt queasy just thinking how he’d used Ramon to do his dirty work, I decided that I would help him make better decisions. After all, no matter our differences, we are all in this together.” Maria smiled, and looked at her mother. This was Isabella Solis, legendary businesswoman, speaking. She had identified a course of action where she would actually be able to have an impact, and from what she could tell, her mother would have succeeded. As George Havelar’s number two, she would have quietly, in small steps, changed the reign of the governor, and the HEP would have ended up as a preposterous idea, even to the governor himself, shelved away to gather dust until no one remembered it.

They stood and walked over to the boat. Isabella kissed her daughter on the cheek and smiled.

“I’m so excited about this trip, you know,” she said. “I feel like a little girl!” Maria burst out laughing, and they giggled together, until they had to say goodbye. One of the men helped Isabella aboard, and as the boat floated away from the pier, she kept thinking that her mother must be one of the most impressive people she’d ever met.

Nick gilbert

Nick Gilbert had always wanted to see the world, and he surely had. At eighteen, he’d barely graduated from his high school and immediately went to see the local Marine Corps recruitment officer. By his twentieth birthday, he was already a combat veteran of the North African wars, like so many others back in the twenty-first century. Decades of warfare had destroyed most of the countries that once ringed the largest, and ever-expanding, desert in the world, and while the western forces were superior when it came to weapons, technology, and funding, the enemy maintained their vision and determination. Nick learned the hard way that an enemy that fights for what he believes to be a God-given purpose will always have an advantage over the one that really just wants to survive the war so he can return back home with his life and limbs intact.

So after his second tour of duty, he decided not to return to the carnage. He’d had enough of war and decided to settle for a quiet life in his home town in northern Missouri. He settled into his old room in his parents’ house, planning to save enough money to buy his own apartment. He figured, with no financial obligations, he’d have saved enough by the end of the year. But life never goes as planned. Less than three months after his return, one morning while driving his car to work, he accidentally ended up in the middle of a firefight between local law enforcement and suspected terrorists. When the last officer fell, Nick snatched the weapon from the dying man and pursued the terrorists. He shot and killed one, and wounded another. The last of them managed to escape, but not before he’d dropped his backpack in the middle of the street. When police and S.W.A.T. entered the scene, they found Nick with the open backpack on the ground and the disarmed bomb right next to it.

Nick received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Valor and became the local hero. His actions had prevented a bloody attack on a local mall, and many innocent lives were saved. When the third man was finally caught a few weeks later, Nick provided the testimony that connected the terrorist to the scene of the crime.

Six months later, a man in a suit appeared at the door of his parents’ house, and half an hour later, Nick left his home for good, on his way to a remote part of Arizona. He never got to say goodbye.

That’s the biggest regret of my life
, he thought, staring into darkness, alone with his thoughts. He’d lost good friends in combat, both in North Africa and here, and he had found a way to live with that. But leaving his parents without a word, not even a note, was something that haunted him still. It seemed a lifetime ago, and he sometimes wondered why he had been given the chance to come to Aurora, to live while other, better men and women died. Then, when he thought back, he knew. The Exodus project needed people of all kinds of professions, and he was a soldier. Maybe not on duty at the time, but that didn’t change who he was. And his actions in the terrorist attack hadn’t gone unnoticed. Someone, somewhere, who had something to say about who got picked and who didn’t, had chosen him. He would never know who that person was, but he knew he should be eternally grateful.

However, his chances of living were slim at the moment. He’d seen the attackers kill Sarge, Rob, and even Pete, unarmed and surrendering. Nick was the only one left, and once they figured he had nothing more to tell them, he would be dead, too, for sure. He didn’t remember coming here, but he did remember them stripping off his clothes, everything but the facemask, before injecting something into his arm. Darkness had come quickly. When he awoke, he was here, in some kind of prison cell. He guessed it had to be some kind of modular shelter, airtight, probably completely hidden from view both from the ground and from space.

The first time he’d heard their voices, he’d been nearly unconscious, and the memory was blurred. Later though, he’d concentrated on listening for clues, trying to gain as much information as possible from his captors. It wasn’t easy; only one of them spoke any English, heavily accented. An officer, apparently, with a smile that never reached his eyes and a hideous scar across his face. He’d only spoken to Nick twice, but each time, he’d behaved like a ranking officer. More important, the other captors clearly deferred to his every command.

All his captors had distinct Asian features, and Nick thought they had to be Chinese. He was aware that with his limited knowledge of Asian cultures, they could easily be Japanese or Korean, or another East Asian nationality, but he figured they had to be Chinese for two reasons. First, only two East Asian entities would have been able to make it out into outer space. That ruled out everyone else but the Chinese and the Japanese and Korean joint agency. Second, the Koreans were extremely anti-authoritarian, the result of their entire population having nearly perished by the effects of almost a century of harsh dictatorship. They would never have accepted a system such as these people seemed to have on board their ship. The Japanese might, though, but they depended too heavily on the Koreans, at least back in the twenty-first century, to deviate much from their egalitarian, flat-structure thinking. With the Chinese, he could easily imagine they would embrace a hive-system in a tight situation, since it had worked for them before. You could say a lot about the old Chinese communist regime, but when it finally fell, it was because of economics, not political pressure. From what he remembered, the opposition in communist China had been scattered and powerless. No, the transition from communism to a version of democracy was a deliberate act by the powers that be. Instead of holding on to political power while the pressure of increasingly competitive new economies such as India or Brazil caused the Chinese economy to crash, they had decided to let the old system die, while they retained their privileges through economic means.

So, being captured by a Chinese invasion force more than forty light-years away from Earth left him with a big question: If the Chinese had managed to send a starship into space, how many other starships were there? How many other arks had left Earth in the final years, to settle new worlds? And what did it mean to his people, here on Aurora?