Final Days: Colony Read online

  “I wonder what we’re going to do there. I don’t see myself as a farmer,” Tony said. He was one of the few passengers not on the itinerary, along with Andrew, Kendra, Diane, and the reverend, who was attempting to make a name for herself with the other travelers. It might all be a convoluted ruse, to ensure her survival. If she had a large enough flock, they might revolt if anything happened to her.

  “I disagree, Tony. I can see you with a pitchfork and a straw hat,” Val told him, and Andrew frowned again.

  “No one has informed us about our roles there. I doubt I’ll be folding laundry forever,” Kendra said, half hoping it was true.

  “What about living arrangements? Are we going to construct houses?” Andrew asked.

  Roland appeared behind Diane, a cup of coffee in his hand. “I saw the plans that first night, even though I was unsure of what I was seeing at the time. This ship will act as our home for the first while. It separates and becomes multiple structures.”

  “Roland, where have you been?” Kendra asked the young man. It was hard not to think of him as a kid, with his shaved face and combed hair. He wasn’t even wearing a hat today.

  He was pale, his eyes darting around even more than normal. He’d said he was trying to stay away from his medication, but she wondered if that was a wise decision at the moment.

  “I was…” He sat at the only empty seat, and set the cup on the table. “Hound came to see me last night in the mess hall.”

  Kendra suddenly understood why he was acting so strange. “What did he want?” Andrew asked, leaning closer.

  “He was being nice, but there were threats laced into the conversation. A lot of them. He knows we’re sneaking around, and he urged me to convince you to trust him and the mission,” Roland said, his fingers folding around the coffee cup.

  “And are you here to do that?” Val asked him.

  He slowly shook his head. “I’m not sure what I’m here to do. He also knows I was hacking into the system. He has eyes everywhere. I suggest we stop chasing after ghosts and fall in line, or we’ll end up like the woman who visited Andrew.”

  “We have no proof she’s gone for sure,” Tony said.

  “Kendra saw her in the tubes,” Andrew said.

  Kendra tapped the table with her index finger. “That’s not totally accurate. I think one of them was occupied, but I didn’t see the woman inside. It could have been nothing.”

  “Still…” Val started, and Andrew cut her off.

  “Rollie’s right. From this point on, we do nothing out of the ordinary. We’ve done our due diligence, and so far all we have are indications of foul play, but nothing concrete. We’re sitting around speculating when we have no control over this outcome,” he told them.

  “Then it’s a plan. We roll with the mission, strap into the tubes, and stick together when we arrive,” Kendra said.

  Tony smiled, hovering his hand over the checkers board. Val placed hers on top of his, and Diane followed, giggling as she did so. Roland peered at Kendra, shrugged, and added his hand to the pile. Kendra went next, and Andrew’s rough palm settled on the top of her hand.

  At least they had each other. It was more than Kendra had had at home, and maybe that was enough for the time being.

  Tomorrow they would move to the next phase of Eden’s mission, but today they would spend time laughing and play games.

  “Who wants to play against Diane next?” Kendra asked.

  THIRTEEN

  Val

  Val stood in the cryo room with Tony, her dad, Kendra, Roland, Diane, the reverend, and over a hundred others. The room was dimly lit, the pods, bulkheads, and floors all gleaming in the pale blue light. They’d been organized into ten different lines and twelve rows. The whole setup reminded Val of people waiting to board a rollercoaster at Disneyland. That memory made her wince. The last time she’d gone to the theme park had been with her mom and her stepdad, Mike.

  Pushing the memories aside, she sucked in an uneven breath and went on studying her surroundings. Ten cryopods were sitting on the deck, with six more stacks visible above that one, rising in tiers all the way up to the distant, hazy ceiling. The cryopods were stored in a rotary system, like a Ferris wheel, as Roland had described it after touring the facility a few days ago. But for there to be enough pods to fit the one thousand plus passengers aboard Eden, there had to be a lot more than six stacks of ten.

  She estimated there must be over a hundred rows of ten cryopods on some kind of belt, running throughout the ship. Sharp hissing noises drew Valeria’s eyes onto the line of pods as they opened up, one after another. There was a blue suit standing beside each of them, configuring systems.

  Icy fingertips brushed Val’s, sending a shiver down her spine, and she turned to see Tony smiling at her. She tried to smile back, but didn’t have the courage to hold his gaze or a cheerful expression for more than a few seconds.

  Val began bouncing on her toes while she waited, her breath steaming the chilly air along with a hundred and twenty other sets of lungs. She rubbed her arms vigorously, trying to chase away the cold, then settled for holding her frozen hands under her armpits instead.

  At least they got to wear their jumpsuits. Val was relieved about that. She’d been afraid they might have to go into the pods in their underwear, or worse—completely naked. If that were the case, they’d have ended up with frostbite before they even entered cryo. Of course, what was frostbite compared with being flash-frozen into a solid block of ice? Val didn’t understand the technology, but it didn’t sound like the kind of thing a person could live through, and that made the process all the more terrifying. What if they didn’t wake up? Or what if cryo was more dangerous than the crew was willing to admit?

  Doctor Hartford turned from the cryopods to face them. He raised his hands and his voice for attention and said, “Row one, step forward, please!”

  Ten people started toward the doctor, and the lines shuffled forward. Val sucked in a deep breath and closed her eyes in an attempt to calm her racing heart.

  “Hey.” Her dad’s voice grounded her. She turned to see him brandishing a reassuring smile. “It’s gonna be okay, Val. I promise.”

  “He’s right.” Another familiar voice. Carrie stepped into view, walking down their lines. She continued to the front of the room, where she stopped beside Doctor Hartford to join him in addressing the crowd.

  “Cryo is perfectly safe,” she said. “We’ve performed rigorous tests over the years. You will experience no pain, no dreams, and no awareness of time passing. As far as any of you are concerned, one moment you’ll be falling asleep, and the next you’ll be waking up, seventy-three years later, having arrived at our destination.”

  “What if something happens while we’re asleep?” a woman shouted back.

  Carrie smiled patiently and inclined her head to the woman. “Space is just as empty as it is vast. There’s nothing we haven’t predicted between us and Proxima that could possibly do any harm to the ship. And to guard against any unforeseen equipment failures, we’ll have a skeleton crew awake at all times, taking turns going in and out of cryo.” Her gaze flicked to the people at the front of the line. “Are we ready? Maybe one of you would like to volunteer to go first?”

  Mutterings of discontent followed that suggestion. No one stepped forward.

  “Anybody?” Carrie pressed, her gaze roving on to take in the people waiting behind row one. One of them could jump the line by volunteering, but even so, nobody took her up on the offer.

  Val frowned, glancing around the room with Carrie. She noticed several armed guards in here—including the baby-faced lieutenant with the caterpillar eyebrows, whom she remembered seeing day after day at the mess hall. She realized that she didn’t even know his name. She’d have to fix that when they arrived at Proxima. Assuming we make it, and that that’s where we’re going, she amended to herself.

  Something suspicious was definitely going on aboard Eden, but they’d all agreed to put that asid
e for now. Not that they had much of a choice. Val noticed that Lewis Hound and his second-in-command were absent from this gathering, and that was suspicious enough by itself. Would they be among the ones who were staying awake to safeguard the ship’s voyage?

  “I’ll go,” Val heard her father say. Her mouth popped open in silent shock.

  He stepped out of his place in line, and Carrie smiled and nodded to him. “That’s very brave of you, Mr. Miller. Please come up here and show the others how it’s done. The rest of your party can come, too. Valeria, Kendra—” Carrie broke off to wave to them. “Step on up here, please. You can follow after him if you like.”

  Val traded worried glances with Tony and Kendra. Roland’s gaze darted to the exit. His fear of confined spaces probably made all this waiting torture for him. Maybe her dad volunteering wasn’t such a bad thing, if it would get things over with sooner.

  Val inched out of line to follow her father to the front of the room with the others.

  “Thank you,” Carrie said as they arrived. “Everyone who isn’t from row six, please make some room.”

  Grumblings of discontent followed that order. Val shook her head at that. None of them had been willing to go first.

  “Over here, Andrew,” Dr. Hartford said, waving him to a cryopod in the middle of the row of ten.

  Her dad nodded, but came over to Val first and grabbed her by the shoulders, at arm’s length. “I’ll see you soon, Princess.”

  Val glowered at him, pretending to be annoyed. “You know I hate when you call me that.”

  He grinned. “I know.”

  She’d stopped going by ‘Princess’ after third grade. He hadn’t used that nickname in ages, because she’d told him that it drove her crazy, but somehow, here in this moment, it was a welcome reminder of simpler, happier times—when she was convinced that her dad was superman and Santa Claus all rolled into one.

  A muscle jerked in his cheek, and his eyes grew moist. He pulled her into a hug before she could see more than that, and kissed the top of her head. “Love you to the moon and back,” he said.

  “To Proxima and back,” she corrected.

  He pulled away, laughing, his eyes sparkling. “I guess so.”

  Even though there’s no way back from this trip, Val thought. Her dad winked and gave her hand a squeeze as he turned away. Kendra, Tony, and Roland crowded in. He pulled Roland into a back-slapping hug, then offered a hand for Kendra to shake. She arched an eyebrow at that, and then he awkwardly dropped his hand to his side and drew her into a hug instead.

  Val watched them holding each other with a frown, and heard Kendra whisper something in his ear. That sent a sharp jolt of unease through her system. What was going on between them? She liked Kendra, but she wasn’t ready to imagine her dad dating anybody, or worse—settling down, maybe even having another kid. Is that where this is headed? she wondered. The thought of him starting another family scared her more than the cryopods.

  The two of them parted with smiles that seemed to convey a lot more than simple friendship. Val scowled at that. Her dad turned and bumped into Tony.

  “Sir,” Tony said, holding out his hand.

  Her dad eyed it before giving in with a sigh and pumping Tony’s hand a few times. Val saw Tony wince as her dad pulled him in to whisper something in his ear. He paled, but nodded gravely, and Val felt a flash of annoyance. He had no right to be giving lectures after that hug with Kendra.

  “See you on the other side,” her dad said, peeling away from Tony and waving over his shoulder as he walked toward Doctor Hartford.

  “Stand inside the pod, please, Mr. Miller,” the doctor said.

  He leaned back into the pod, and Val noticed that it was reclining at about a fifteen-degree angle.

  “Notice the red handle by your right hand?” Carrie asked. Andrew regarded it. “That’s the emergency release. If for some reason you were to wake up and your pod doesn’t open on its own, you pull that lever to escape.” Carrie turned to address the rest of the room, pointing to said handle. “But please, and this is very important, do not pull it prematurely. Count to ten beforehand, and even then, be very careful. Falling out of the cryopods while they’re in storage could result in serious injury, or even death. Under normal circumstances, you’ll only wake up once your pod has been released from storage and returned to the loading bay.”

  Val noticed heads bobbing around the room. She wondered if the children understood. Could they be trusted with the power to open their own pods at will? Diane, for example, might impulsively pull that lever before remembering to count to ten. She hoped Carrie was right about the pods opening soon after they awoke.

  “Roll up your sleeve,” Dr. Hartford said to her dad as he produced a syringe from a rolling stainless steel cart beside him.

  “What’s that for?” Andrew asked with a suspiciously wrinkled brow.

  “A sedative. It’s to ensure that you don’t experience any discomfort or mental distress during the cessation of consciousness.”

  “The cessation of consciousness?” her dad echoed. “That sounds a lot like death.”

  “A poor choice of words. Sorry. Roll up your sleeve.”

  He did as he was told this time. Val took a lurching step forward to stop him. She didn’t like the sound of this. Tony pulled her in, wrapping both arms around her shoulders and kissing the side of her head. “It’s okay,” he said, lacing his hands through each of hers and crossing them in front of her. Val held on tight, watching as her dad’s eyes grew rapidly heavier, his eyelids sinking shut.

  Dr. Hartford nodded to another blue suit standing beside the control panel on the open cover of the pod. That crewman tapped something into the touchscreen, and then withdrew as the cover began swinging shut with a rising groan of pneumatic pistons. The pod sealed with a thump, and Val saw through the glass cover that her dad’s eyes were fully shut now. There was a peaceful expression on his face, but no obvious signs of life. Val held her breath.

  Then came a sharp hiss, and the glass cover of the pod frosted with a thin patina of ice crystals. A strangled cry escaped Val’s lips as her dad disappeared from sight. Worried murmurs spread through the room.

  Roland started backing away, shaking his head. “No way! I’m not doing that! I’m not—” He turned to run and smacked straight into Reverend Morris.

  She caught him by his shoulders. “Don’t make a fuss. You’re scaring people,” she whispered sharply.

  A female technician stepped up to Andrew’s pod and scraped away the frost with her palms, revealing his face with that peaceful expression frozen on it.

  Tony squeezed Val’s hands. “See? Your dad is fine,” he whispered.

  “Yeah.” Val blew out a shuddering breath and gave in with a nod.

  “Who’s next?” Carrie asked.

  “I’ll go,” Val said without thinking.

  “So will I,” Reverend Morris replied.

  Kendra took a step forward. “Let’s do it.”

  Val turned in Tony’s arms to look him in the eye. “Me, too,” Tony said, his eyes never wavering from hers.

  “What did my dad say to you?” Val asked.

  A wry smile lit up Tony’s face. “He said that if I made it to Proxima and he didn’t, that it would be my job to keep you safe.”

  A wash of heat spread through her at that. Maybe her Dad was warming up to Tony. “We’ll keep each other safe,” she said.

  “Deal,” Tony agreed.

  Together they walked up to a pair of empty pods and turned to settle into them, as they’d seen her dad do a moment ago. Kendra, Reverend Morris, and even Roland were busy doing the same. Four others that Val didn’t recognize came trickling forward to fill the other pods.

  “Your sleeve, please,” Carrie said, stepping up to Val with a syringe.

  “You’re trained to use that?” Val replied with one eyebrow raised.

  “It’s not exactly rocket science,” Carrie replied, “but I’m trained in that, too.”
<
br />   Val rolled her eyes as she hiked up her sleeve. Tony reached across from his pod. “You can hold my hand,” he said, his fingers lacing through hers as the needle pricked into Val’s arm.

  “I’m okay,” she said as cold fluid went seeping through her veins.

  “I’m not,” Tony squeaked, squeezing her hand until it hurt.

  Val chuckled lightly at that.

  “Hands back in your pods, please,” Dr. Hartford said as he walked by.

  They let go of each other. Val’s eyes were steadily closing, her mind filling with an all-consuming haze, her body growing blissfully numb. A mechanical groan started up around her, and the cover of the pod came swinging shut. Val’s eyes were so heavy, she couldn’t hold them open for even a second longer. She decided not to fight it. Darkness fell, peeling away the nervous eyes of a hundred and ten onlookers.

  A loud hiss filled Val’s ears, screaming down like the blade of a guillotine—then silence as her mind dropped into oblivion.

  FOURTEEN

  Andrew

  Andrew woke up with a gasp and a pounding heart. His hands shot out, knuckles cracking on a hard, curving wall directly in front of him. Smooth. He ran his palms over it. Cold. Glass.

  Where am I? His mind blanked, groping for an answer.

  A muffled roar blared in and out of his hearing, in time to bloody pulses of crimson light.

  Cryo. He remembered now. But what about those flashing lights and that blaring sound? Klaxons. Emergency lighting.

  A boom shivered through the ship.

  What the hell was that sound?

  BOOM. It came again, and Andrew’s entire row of cryopods shivered.

  Something was wrong.

  His breathing echoed in his ears: short and shallow breaths, a panicky cadence. He smacked the glass repeatedly, bruising his knuckles. “Hey!” He tried a kick, but his foot bounced off, toes throbbing from the impact.

  Andrew spied the red emergency release handle, grabbed it and pulled up, gasping from the effort. His muscles felt stiff and weak. A loud hissing noise started up, and then the glass barrier in front of him began swinging away, revealing a scene of utter madness below.