Departure

by Ken Barrett

  “I’d like a nice pair of leather boots.”

  *****

  He left the People’s City Council Building with clean clothes, new boots, and a cane. The deep cut Mother’s Nurse had made to his thigh and the injuries to his feet made every step an absolute agony. Carolyn held his arm and walked beside him, they were both limping. Soldiers followed them as they slowly made their way north toward the tech center.

  They would not be returning to his girlfriend’s home because Mother wanted them under constant guard, and the best and easiest way to do that was to keep them both locked away at the tech center. As they passed Acacia Park the pain in his feet was too much to bear, so he pulled Carolyn with him as he staggered to a bench and sat down.

  He tried to bend his toes and failed. “They brought me down here in a car. You’d think that the least they could do is take me back the same way.”

  Carolyn leaned back on the bench and closed her eyes. “No, that’s not the least they could do… this is.”

  Their guards watched them with blank and uncaring expressions. Beyond them, Liam thought he caught a glimpse of Keith and Rose. He wasn’t sure though, and when he looked again, they were gone. He would contact them through the secret database once he got back to the tech center.

  “We’re not getting any closer by sitting here,” Carolyn observed. “Are you ok to go? It’s only about seven more blocks.”

  He nodded and they stood up together, then continued their painful walk home.

  *****

  Julee Garcia met them in the lobby. She motioned to members of her staff to come and help them walk to the elevators. “I’m so sorry this happened to you. It wasn’t what I expected at all.”

  He nodded mutely, unsure of whether he should believe her. As they all rode the elevator to the third floor he said, “I’ll have my workstation configuration to you by tomorrow evening. Fortunately, I’ve done this before, so that part will go quickly. What I need back from you is the exact specifications for what we’re moving through N-Space. The mass of the object is critical; if I’m off by more than one percent, everyone on board will die or go insane.”

  “I understand and will get everything to you as soon as I can,” Julee said. “I’ve also allocated living quarters for you both in one of the apartments just down the hall from your lab.”

  “There’s one more thing,” he said. “I need to get back in touch with the Trappist-1 probe. Lucy can give me her exact coordinates, and I need to know if planetary conditions have changed there.”

  Julee nodded. “That’s no problem; the quantum portal is in your workroom. I know you have a lot of work to do, but Mother wants to know, how can we be sure that you’ll not deliberately sabotage the design?”

  “It’s not up to me to decide whether humanity continues or becomes extinct,” he said. “Your escape plan is the only chance for our species to survive; all I can do is hope that maybe someday you’ll evolve into something better.”

  Chapter 15: Panic

  “Good morning everyone.” Liam limped into the computer lab and the steel security door slammed shut behind him. It had been nearly a month since he returned to work after being maimed by the dark woman; the wound to his thigh still hadn’t healed, and nerve damage in his feet made it hard to walk. Mother’s Nurse was feared by everyone at the institute; people who did not meet expectations often disappeared and only a few ever returned from her Treatment Room.

  “Liam! Your new workstation arrived, and the project specifications from Julee are finally on-line,” a frail and thin elderly man said.

  “Thanks Dave.” Liam smiled. “Have you looked at the specs yet?”

  “I have, and I don’t think you’re gonna be too happy,” the older man replied.

  “Why?”

  “I doubt anyone’s ever taken a really good look at how big those ships are.”

  Liam sighed. “Well, let’s hope that I don’t have to be the bearer of bad news and piss off Mother again. Would you please send the specs to my new terminal? I’d better take a look at them right away.”

  “Sure, no problem boss,” Dave replied and hurried away.

  Liam limped through the cubicle maze then collapsed into his chair next to the window. He quickly nodded to the soldier that stood motionless nearby. The scrutiny of the guards was a complete waste of time, none of them were trained engineers, and without a grasp of what his department was working on there was no way for them to detect sabotage. “Good morning Earl,” he said, although he didn’t know the man’s real name. The masked guards were changed daily, and to keep things simple he called them all ‘Earl’. Predictably, Earl said nothing in reply.

  His old workstation had been replaced by modern equipment that was patterned after what he had built for himself in Flatiron. After inserting his hands into the glove-style keyboards that hung at the sides of the apparatus, he leaned over to peer into the darkened compartment were multidimensional images could be viewed and manipulated.

  After pulling up Julee’s report, he immediately saw that the ships were far larger than he expected; the rotating drums that would simulate gravity were eight kilometers long and two in diameter. He quickly ran a materials and spatial analysis, then reviewed the specified power output of the fusion reactors. The power to mass ratio looked extremely lean.

  He pulled up an application to calculate the Slip-Drive requirements for the mass of each ship, and discovered that in the best-case scenario, the fusion power output was 50% shy of what was needed. It looked like the Socialist escape plan wasn’t going to work; no one was going anywhere unless the reactor output was increased dramatically. Somebody had seriously fucked up, and he was glad that it wasn’t him.

  With a sigh, he pushed away from his terminal and stood up. “Mind if I go outside Earl?” he asked. The guard said nothing so he opened the glass door and limped out onto the balcony. The sky was a hard gray and the humidity made the day feel hotter than blazes. He stood at the edge of the terrace and looked out at the city, watching as people casually went about their business. Some strolled in groups while others went in and out of the stores and commissaries along Tejon Street. Soldiers also patrolled the sidewalks, marching along at regular intervals.

  He was unsure of what, if anything, he should do with what he had just learned. If he said nothing, the escape plan would fail, everyone would die and the human species would end. The Slip Interstellar Drive could not be used on an object that was not already traveling at a rate of 60,000 Km/H. So, considering time of acceleration, the escape ships would be well on their way to the Moon when the drive was used, but if the energy requirements weren’t adequate… what would happen? That was a problem he’d not encountered before. The most likely outcome was that the ship would slip only partially into N-Space and be torn apart. Everyone on board, along with Mother and her Nurse would be gone, and good riddance.

  Remaining silent was tempting; to avenge Flatiron, every single Socialist motherfucker deserved a long painful death. Dave had already noticed the power issue though, and sooner or later someone would sound the alarm. By not reporting it, he might seem complicit, and end up back in the Treatment Room facing the Nurse and her fucking needles again.

  He reluctantly went back inside and created a report to send to Julee Garcia. He kept the document impartial, limiting it to only the mass to energy calculations and the Slip-Drive requirements. His boss could reach her own conclusions and decide how to navigate the dangerous political waters; he wanted NO part of that discussion.

  *****

  A series of nested spheres floated within his terminal display chamber, and he started building the core functional objects necessary for interstellar navigation. It was a task he’d done before, so it was familiar, but he wanted to make some improvements. There was a lot of work ahead; beyond the navigation program, he needed to design the crystalline structure for the on-board processors, and also create a self-aware operating system for the escape ships that would pilot the vesse
l.

  Someone lightly touched his shoulder, and he jumped. Julee Garcia was standing right next to him, smiling uncertainly. “I saw your report,” she said.

  Why had she come to him? He only reported the problem… he didn’t cause it; the whole mess was not his fault. His hands began to shake and it felt as if he couldn’t breathe. He shuttered and broke out in a cold sweat. “Not the needles… not the needles… I can’t do that again,” he said. The space around him was suddenly too confining; he couldn’t breathe and needed to get outside. He pushed away from his terminal and started to rise from his seat, but his legs wouldn’t hold him and he slumped toward the floor.

  Strong arms wrapped around his middle and lifted him back up onto his chair. A dull hum invaded his head, and when he looked up, he saw the face of the guard; Earl’s expression seemed to show genuine concern. “Sorry Earl,” he whispered as a murmuring darkness rushed up and claimed him.

  “It’s ok little man,” a deep voice said. “I got you.”

  He was aware of his surroundings again but wondered how long his eyes had been open. His entire body continued to shake uncontrollably, and he couldn’t catch his breath. “Not the needles… please,” he begged.

  “We should get him over to Medical,” Julee said.

  Suddenly he was lifted; he watched the acoustical ceiling tiles march by as he somehow floated through the workroom toward the fortified hallway door. He heard running feet and muffled voices.

  Hopefully this was a heart attack; he wanted to die peacefully, rather than while listening to the sounds of his own screams, feeling the cold pain of the needles, and seeing the grinning countenance of the Nurse’s face.

  He must have faded out, because the next thing he saw was a large spotlight shining down at him. The room was painted a sterile white, with metal counters and shelves on either side of his uncomfortable inclined chair. He blinked and slowly sat up. Julee, Earl, and a woman wearing white surrounded him. “What happened?” he asked.

  “You had a panic attack Mr. Collins,” the doctor said. “I’ve given you something to take the edge off, so you’ll be fine now.”

  “What the hell did that bitch do to him?” Julee shook her head sadly. “Liam, had I known, I would have been more careful when I approached you.”

  His hands were still trembling. “They’re not taking me back, are they?”

  “No, you’re not going back into that hell,” Julee replied. “I knew that Mother’s Nurse did dreadful things to people, but I guess I didn’t grasp how bad it was. I’m really sorry Liam.”

  He took a deep breath and sat up. “It’s ok. I didn’t expect that reaction out of myself either.”

  “A member of my platoon was taken to the Nurse’s Treatment Room just because he gave his food ration to a starving kid,” Earl said stoically. “Only gone a week and he never was the same after that. He killed himself about a month later.”

  “Have Liam stop in tomorrow morning. I’ll give him something that will help calm his nerves during the council meeting,” the doctor said.

  His skin tingled with fear. “Council meeting? No, I just found the problem, I didn’t cause it.”

  “I know Liam,” Julee answered. “Don’t worry, I’ll do everything I can to protect you. But Mother wants to understand how the problem was overlooked. You’re definitely not at fault because you arrived so late in the game.”

  *****

  Julee and Ron walked with him through the City Council Building lobby. Liam had left his cane behind because the doctor had given him a shot of something fucking awesome, and pain was something that was easily forgotten. He also carried extra pills in his pants pocket, just in case he needed a little touchup.

  The doctor had also quietly slipped him another pill. “Take this only if you’re certain that they’re going to take you back to the Treatment Room. It will kill you quickly and almost painlessly,” she had said.

  Confidence came from having medicine that would provide an emergency exit if things went bad. He recalled the young female guard telling him that ‘killing is an act of mercy’, and now he knew the truth of her words down deep in his bones. If it came to it, he would take the pill and smile.

  The old bat and five of her minions were already seated at the elevated council table when they arrived. Mother’s Nurse smiled and winked at him from her place on the stage. She was obviously trying to intimidate him, so he grinned back and blew her a kiss.

  Julee poked him with her elbow. “Liam, what the hell are you doing?” she whispered, then stopped to look into his eyes. “Whoa, how much medicine did the doctor give you? Your eyes look like donuts.”

  “She didn’t give me enough.”

  “Just answer the questions and don’t be too much of a jerk; you might get us all killed.”

  “Ok boss,” he answered as he sat next to Ron at the lower table.

  They waited while Julee took her place at the council table. Then finally after a few minutes of murmuring conversations and rustling paperwork, Mother spoke up. “Well Liam, you’re back to see us again. What have you gotten yourself into this time?”

  Liam smiled. “Not a darned thing Ma’am. I found a problem with your design and reported it. If I’d kept quiet, everyone would’ve been torn to pieces when you fired up the Slip-Drive. You ought to be thanking me.”

  “Huh. We’ll see about that,” Mother said.

  “I hope you’ll be visiting me soon Liam,” the dark woman said sweetly. “I miss you.”

  “Yeah, well, the feeling isn’t mutual,” he replied.

  “Shut up Chelsea,” the old woman ordered. “How did this mistake happen, Julee?”

  “Secrecy,” Julee answered. “For security reasons, which you insisted on Mother, we split the design review up and had each specialty only go through their portion of the project. The pieces all worked independently, but no one checked to see how they all fit together.”

  “Who do I get to play with?” the Nurse asked.

  “No one,” the old woman grunted. “A mistake was found, and this late in the game there’s nothing we can do except work toward correcting it.”

  “That makes sense,” Liam said casually.

  “Well, I’m glad you approve young man,” the old woman replied. “What will it take to fix it?”

  Liam leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. “At best you have about half the power you need to enter N-Space. If you try using the Slip-Drive in your current configuration, every atom within the ship will be ripped apart. So, let’s just say that’s less than optimal.

  “Right now, you have two fusion reactors powering each vessel, but the calculations show that with an added safety margin, you need five. Obviously, you can do this by adding three to each ship, or design new higher output powerplants to take the place of the old ones. Considering the cost and delay of manufacturing retooling, my suggestion is to build more of what you have, then figure out how to tie them into the existing power grid.” He shrugged. “It ain’t rocket science… oh wait, yeah it is.”

  The Chancellor scowled. “I should give you to my Nurse just for your insolence.”

  He saw the dark woman smile, and reached into his coat pocket and felt his escape pill there. “You’re the boss Ma’am.”

  “Yes, I am,” she said. “And you’re an arrogant little prick, but you did catch the mistake, and although you could have said nothing you chose to speak up and save us all. So, I’ll let you keep all your parts intact… for now”

  “We need to all pull together for the good of humanity,” Julee said.

  “I agree with Director Garcia,” The old woman then turned her gaze on Ron. “What are you going to do to fix this situation young man?”

  The traitor of Flatiron shifted uneasily in his chair. “With five ships in orbit we built ten reactors initially, the last of which were delivered to Yuma a few weeks ago… and now you want fifteen more?” He fidgeted. “Well… could we get by with the minimum safety margin on the ships
transporting the lower civilian classes?”

  “Huh,” the Chancellor grunted thoughtfully. “I’d rather not. We need manual laborers and maintenance people.” She sighed. “But ok; your first priority is to supply reactors for the ships carrying the government, the upper classes, and the military. If there’s time, go ahead and do the rest. We need to save as many of our people as possible.” Without waiting for a reply, the old woman stood up. “Ok, we’re done here, everyone get back to work. This session is adjourned.”

  *****

  The car ride back to the tech center was mostly silent. Ron stared out through a side window, while Julee sat in the center with Liam on her other side. “You were awfully brave in there,” Julee whispered. “I thought you’d be taken back to the Treatment Room for sure.”

  “Yeah, whatever the doctor gave me had me feeling great,” he replied. “The pain med is starting to wear off now though, but it felt good to not seem weak in front of the woman that tortured me.”

  “I’m glad, and again, I’m sorry that happened to you; I had no idea it was that bad,” she said. “But how could you risk being sent back by talking that way?”

  “It wasn’t that much of a risk,” he answered. “The doctor gave me a special pill just in case things went bad.”

  “Really?” Julee smiled. “Let me see it.”

  Liam frowned and retrieved the small white pill from his coat pocket, then was shocked when Julee plucked it from his hand and popped it into her mouth. Panic suddenly swelled in his chest. “Spit it out, that’s poison!”

  Julee smiled. “No. It’s just sugar. I asked her to give it to you so you’d feel confident. Seems that it almost worked too well.”

  *****

  It was late at night and his staff had all gone home. Liam sat at the quantum portal and prepared to speak with Lucy. He was anxious and hoped that she was still alive and well. He inserted his ear buds then slipped his hands into the keyboard gloves and tapped out: Hello Lucy, are you there? It’s Liam.

  All ones suddenly appeared on the screen, and he smiled. Lucy was laughing. “Hi Liam. It’s nice to hear your voice. Are you and Rose well?”