Spindown Read online

  Spindown

  By George Wright Padgett

  Thank You

  To my wife, Sabrina. After all of these decades, your presence in the room still makes my heart beat a little more quickly.

  To my daughter, Faith, whose excitement and eagerness to listen launched me on a journey of story-telling many years ago.

  To my son, Joel, who daily reconnects me with the boyhood version of myself.

  To the members of Team Armageddon. Each of you patiently took turns holding the candle that helped me find my way through the alleyways of this book. Thank you Shannon, Hilary, Dominick, Erik, and Christian (in order around the table).

  Finally, thank you to readers everywhere who turn these pages and allow themselves to believe, even if only for a little while.

  Prologue

  Dmitri Pasechnik adjusted his red ball cap and looked across the station’s solarium at his son, Martin. He was still getting used to seeing the boy enjoy his newfound mobility. He watched Martin search the packing containers with an uncommon intensity for a seven-year-old boy.

  “Where’s it at?” fumed Martin in a panic. “He got sent with us, right, Dad?”

  “Your companion bot is here somewhere, don’t worry,” answered Dmitri. “I’ll help you find it after dinner, and we can activate it.”

  “I’m naming him Buck,” Martin said.

  “Like the one in the story?”

  “Yes, and he’s going to be better than a bio pet because he won’t wear out and die like Pavel did.” Martin paused. “At least, that’s what Alina says.”

  “Your sister’s right: if you do your maintenance on the machine, it could last indefinitely.”

  “That’s like forever, right?”

  “Yes.” Dmitri chuckled slightly. “A very long time.” He thought about how Martin’s new teaching companion was nothing like any of the simu-pet bots back on Earth. It looks more like a stumpy little filing cabinet to me, but if helps him make the adjustment here, then let him pretend it’s a dog.

  He adjusted the cap on his head again.

  Maybe when this tour here is finished, I’ll have enough to buy them both a real mecho-pet back on Earth.

  Martin had returned to his search, a sly expression on his face. Dmitri watched the boy’s eyes lock on to a plasta crate with Alina’s name blinking on the identifier. Small fingers mischievously typed in the release code, and the container’s top slid open.

  “Martin, what are you doing?” asked Dmitri, though more out of duty than out of expecting an explanation.

  The boy ignored the question as he rummaged through an assortment of Alina’s personal items. “Ah,” he exclaimed with satisfaction. “This’ll work.” He repeated the code sequence and the crate resealed. “She doesn’t know that I know her code.” He sounded proud.

  “What do you have there?” asked Dmitri.

  “Nothing much… just this.” Martin extended his palm to show his prize, his sister’s necklace. His smile was infectious, causing Dmitri to smile in return.

  “Just be careful with that,” Dmitri said.

  “Why?” protested the boy. “It’s not like it’s real Orium V like they mine here. It’s just the scum they scrape off the sludge on the top.”

  “I know, but it’s important to her.”

  “Why?” asked Martin as he examined the hexagonal shape in the center.

  “Mom gave it to her… before…” The words stuck in his throat and would not come. Dmitri was caught off guard as his mind began to conjure up memories against his will, memories both good and bad. It had been nearly nine months, and he still fought back the tears. Angry tears.

  “Before the attack?” Martin’s hand fell to his side. “Before what happened during her orbit around Earth?”

  Dmitri nodded, and Martin lowered his head. The silence thickened in the air between them. The boy’s face tightened into a grimace. Every line betrayed his guilt at invoking this. It was awkward for a minute, and Dmitri didn’t know how to close the gap. He was relieved when Martin did it for him.

  The boy’s eyes beamed with excitement at the prospect of lightening the mood. “Look at me, what I can do.” His voice was boastful. His acto-boot braces responded to his mental command and extended him upward.

  “Ah… you’ve been practicing,” said Dmitri, finding a smile again.

  Martin continued his ascent, still holding the necklace. He spread his hands wide and spoke in the lowest register his voice could muster. “I’m taller than you, Dad. Now you have to do what I say.” Martin aimed an authoritative index finger while commanding, “Dad, it’s time for bed! No more vidi-tablet games for you!”

  “Yes, sir,” answered Dmitri in his most obedient tone.

  Alina strolled into the room. She glanced at Martin but didn’t acknowledge that he was now nearly twice her height. “What’s going on in here?”

  “Your brother’s showing me what his acto-boots can do.”

  Alina pointed at the jewelry that spilled out of his small fist. “Hey! What are you doing with that? It’s mine. Give it back!”

  Martin smiled defiantly as he placed the necklace atop the highest crate. “Come get it. It’s right up here.” He retracted the titanium braces strapped to his legs and rapidly came back down to his original height.

  “Dad!” shrieked Alina. “Make him get it!”

  “It’s no big deal,” said Martin.

  “Dad, are you going to help me?” she asked in disgust.

  “Martin, give it back,” said Dmitri.

  Martin grinned and pointed at the braces. “I can’t get my legs to work now.”

  “Martin…” said Dmitri, exasperated.

  “Yes, sir,” the boy said in a voice that trailed off. He extended back up to the necklace, then down again. “Here,” he said, shoving out two fists for Alina.

  “Give it,” demanded the girl.

  “You have to pick a—”

  Alina shoved him backward. She swiftly stripped the necklace from his hand as the motorized brakes in Martin’s braces adjusted to keep him from falling.

  “Alina!” scolded her father.

  “But he’s such a sludgebot, Dad.”

  “I know, I know, but he’s only seven, and you’re going to be twelve in five cycles. You know better.”

  “Three,” Alina said. “You forgot the komatic sleep on the way here from Earth.” She somberly looked at the necklace in her hands.

  “You’re right,” Dmitri said. “It’s three cycles.” He knelt down beside her and said, “I know this is all very different, being in a place like this, apart from your friends, and what happened to Mom’s station, but we’re going to make it through this. I promise.”

  “I miss her, Dad.”

  “I know. I do, too, very much, but we’re going to be OK. The three of us, OK?”

  The girl nodded as he forced himself to smile.

  “For now, though, I need you—I really need you—to get along with your brother.”

  A scowl returned to Alina’s face. “I know, Dad, but ever since we got here, he’s been pestering me with those things.”

  As if on cue, Martin began lifting on the leg frames behind her. As he did, the sound of the acto-boots’s gears gave him away.

  Alina took a step backward into the metal frame that held Martin above them. The apparatus compensated too quickly as it tried to adjust to the boy’s subconscious commands to keep him from falling flat, and he nearly fell. Until he saw the boots stabilize, Dmitri felt the urge to run over and catch him.

  Alina loudly spelled out, “P-E-S-T-E-R-I-N-G!”

  “I can spell, too, you know,” answered Martin, towering over her. A confident smirk showed that he had regained his mechanical equilibrium again.

 
Dmitri ignored their bickering. “It’s just new to him, having all this mobility. It’ll wear off soon.” Standing up, he smiled knowingly. “My older brothers did things ten times worse to me than putting something out of my reach.”

  “Don’t give the little compost-eater any ideas. If he’s this big an annoyance with the acto-boots, how much more of a pain will he be after the surgery? I wonder if coming here is worth it after all.”

  Before Dmitri could chasten her, Alina bolted out and around the corner. She made her point, he thought.

  Martin slowly lowered back down to his normal height. “What’s her problem, anyway?” scoffed the boy.

  “Well, you have been kinda rough on her since you got your acto-boots. She’s gotta have time to adjust to the idea that you don’t have Titov’s Syndrome anymore. Or, at least, that you won’t soon. She’s so used to caring for you, bringing you things, doing things for you. This is an adjustment for her, too.”

  “But I do have T.S. I still have it.”

  Dmitri put down the manifest screen and returned to Martin. “Son, we agreed as a family to come here for your legs, even before Mom…” He paused as he caught himself. “It’s not your fault you were born with T.S. It happens to many babies whose mother spends a lot of time in weightlessness before they’re born. When Mom was pregnant with you, doctors didn’t know what they know now.”

  “But other kids are able to fix themselves by exercising.”

  Dmitri gave him an empathetic nod. “Sometimes. Some kids are able to teach their legs to work after a few years of therapy.”

  “Not me,” answered Martin with a dejected expression. “My legs are stupid!”

  “They’re not stupid. They just don’t have enough… well, the technical term is ‘nerves,’ but enough leg parts on the inside to train them how to walk. That’s why you need leg transplants.”

  Martin’s eyes were fixed on the ground before him.

  “Son,” said Dmitri as he crouched to the boy’s level. He removed his red ball cap and placed it on the boy’s head. “Martin, look at me.”

  “What, Dad?” asked Martin as he adjusted the over-sized hat.

  “Listen, my tour”—Dmitri corrected himself—”our tour here is over in five standard years. After that, we’ll have enough for the transplants.”

  “Yeah…” Martin started hesitantly, “the surgery… it won’t hurt too much, right?” Apprehension had flooded his face.

  “I’m not going to lie, it’ll hurt some, but that’s after you wake up. And the surgery isn’t scheduled for a long, long time from now. By then, you’ll be older than your sister is now.” He checked the boy’s face to see if his words were gaining any traction. “The hard part will be the work you’ll do after the surgery, to train your new legs.”

  “Why can’t I just keep these boots?” Martin’s mental command made the rollers on the base of the harnesses scissor in opposite directions a few times. “You said they’d grow with me as I get taller. And I’m getting better at controlling them with my brain.”

  “Yeah, they’ll adjust as you grow, but those aren’t ours. They’re on loan from the company. Besides, I want you to have real legs. After you reach fifteen standard years, the transplant won’t take. You’d forever be trapped in something like that. It might seem wonderful now, but trust me, it doesn’t compare to the real thing. Walking barefoot on the wet morning grass, or digging your toes in the sand at the beach, or slow dancing at midnight.”

  Martin looked quizzically at Dmitri, who was swept away by another memory. “You’re talking about Mom and you.”

  Dmitri’s raised eyebrows and tight smile confirmed it.

  “Whatever,” said Martin as he playfully shook his head in disgust.

  Dmitri, satisfied that he had steered Martin’s emotions into a better place, decided to solidify the deal. “Hey, I want to show you something.”

  He moved to the wall and touched a button in the recessed panel as the boy watched with curiosity. The lights dimmed as the ceiling encasement retracted to reveal the sky. Through the treated Cranis glass, a blaze of light flooded the room.

  The sky filled with milky swirls of tan, grey, and white overlapping each other. Jupiter stood at attention above them—a swirling magnificent red spot of an eye blazing as if on fire from the far corner of the sky. Judging by his wide eyes and open mouth, Martin was astounded by the sight.

  “Do you like it?” asked Dmitri. “The Greeks and Romans worshiped this as Zeus, Jove, the mighty Jupiter, ‘King of the Planets.’ This solarium was designed to impress Ganymede’s visitors, and I think the company accomplished that. Don’t you?”

  Martin looked straight up, nodding slowly. Finally, he said in a voice slightly louder than a whisper, “So close. It looks so close.”

  “Actually, that’s about a million kilometers from us… that gives you an idea of how big it is. It’s the second biggest thing in the solar system, right after the sun.”

  The seven-year-old did not need to be sold on it—he was speechless. Dmitri could not recall the last time his son had been quiet for so long while awake. The boy was planted in place, motionless as he beheld the object that hovered above them.

  A few minutes later, Dmitri dialed the canopy closed and the lights of the receiving lobby returned to their normal setting.

  Martin protested, “No, Dad. Open it again, Dad. Please?”

  Dmitri smiled. “Ah, I’ve found something you like.”

  “Come on, Dad—again,” said Martin as he rolled across the room. He reached to touch the wall panel, but he could not figure out the sequence.

  “Later… after dinner,” said Dmitri.

  “But, Daaaad,” whined Martin.

  “After,” said Dmitri, shaking his head.

  “Well, when can we go see all the clone people?” asked Martin, extending his arms out stiffly, imitating an old-world robot.

  “We’re not allowed to,” answered Dmitri. “We have to stay here.”

  Martin stopped his impersonation and dropped his arms. “Why? ‘Cause the company says so?”

  “Yes, the company, and they are being very generous to me. A lot of credits just for playing host to their friends. That’s how we’ll pay for your legs.”

  “Operations cost a lot, huh?” asked Martin as he pulled Dmitri’s ball cap off his head and studied it.

  “Well, yours is a special one, and it costs more than your mom or I could’ve made on Earth or at one of the station orbits. That’s why we’re here.” Dmitri paused as the image of her flashed across his mind again.

  “Alina said you won’t be the boss of the clones.”

  “That’s true.” Dmitri anticipated the next question before it formed in his son’s head, but he waited for him to ask it anyway.

  “Then who is?”

  Dmitri smiled. “The clones are run by a big computer. We won’t have to do a thing. Not even give tours of the mines. Does that disappoint you?”

  “Em… a little. It’d be fun to go to the mines and meet them and tell them what to do.” Martin brandished an authoritative finger again and a face to match it.

  “But they’re not like us.” Dmitri decided not to pursue the topic. “We just meet the V.I.P.s when they come around to see how the Orium V is loaded into freight vessels.”

  “What are vee eye pees?” Martin’s boots lifted him a few centimeters, lowered him back down, then repeated the process again and again.

  Dmitri tried to ignore the distraction. “V.I.P.s are the dignitaries, Gensiid company executives, or guild members that they’ll be sending up here.” He could tell the answer did not register. “Uh… special friends of the company that we are to play with and eat with. And be extra nice to.”

  “Like ‘best manners’?”

  “Yes, the very best manners.”

  Martin returned the oversized cap to his head. His face stiffened into an intensely serious expression as if to ask another question.

  Dmitri waited, but upon
realizing that Martin’s thought had evaporated from the boy’s mind, he added, “Speaking of manners and eating, go clean up for mealtime.”

  Martin looked up at the closed canopy one last time, then spun toward the doorway.

  “And, Martin…”

  A small screech chirped from the left acto-boot’s braking mechanism as he whirled around. “Yes, Dad?”

  “Please try to be nicer to your sister.”

  208 Orbits around Jupiter Later

  There was no way for Alina to gauge how much time she had left.

  Since their arrival four years ago, she had never been able to determine a pattern to the farm’s irrigation cycle. The only thing she knew for certain was that she had to be out of here when it began. She had to be out of here or drown.

  She kept a steady pace, the rubber soles of her shoes occasionally letting out short squeaks as they hit the slick metal grates of the flooring.

  The air was damp and thick with the tangy stench of the vegetation that surrounded her. Seemingly endless rows of dark ochre-colored stalks towered above her head as if saluting allegiance to the high dome enclosure.

  Of course, this was the first time she had ever seen the kelp-like forest from the ground level. It had always looked smaller from her vantage point above it, from their home above the swaying top of the forest.

  This certainly was not the way that Alina had imagined spending her sixteenth birthday when they had first arrived here years ago. But she had to do something, and she had put this off as long as she could. She had to find a way to get them off the base, for Martin’s sake, before his T.S. became irreversible.

  As she navigated through the labyrinth of vegetation, she wondered how far it went. It seemed like she had already walked for half an hour or so. In truth, she had no way of knowing, since everything had begun to look the same to her—just endless rows of dripping stalks.

  She wondered if the Prinox system knew she was down here in an unsanctioned area, away from home.

  Her mind wandered to thoughts of the base’s clones. Still never having met any, she tried to imagine what they were like. She knew that there were thousands of them on the other side somewhere. If she could just get to them, everything might be OK.