Building New Canaan - The Complete Series - A Colonization and Exploration Space Adventure

by M. D. Cooper

  “Jere!” Reiko exclaimed. “You can’t make an offer like that without Admiral Iysra’s permission.”

  “Yeah,” said Erin, “I’m sorry, but I really doubt our governor would agree. Besides, I have too much to do here. I appreciate it, but—”

  “Holy smokes,” breathed Fazir. “Look!”

  He was pointing at Poros, which dominated the view. Smoke and steam were gushing from the volcano in great puffs, bursting upward into the clear blue sky.

  “I don’t like the look of that,” frowned Lark. “We should all get out of—”

  Her words were cut off by a deep, loud, juddering rumble emanating from the volcano. At the same time, the caldera shuddered.

  “Shit!” Fazir hollered.

  Millions of tons of rock exploded as the massive crater broke apart. An ear-shattering crack split the air, and a pressure wave nearly bowled Erin over. The ground leapt under her feet. She was thrown forward, a high-pitched whine ringing in her ears. The earth seemed to rise up to meet her, and for a second, she lay still, dazed.

  Walter urged.

  Thanking the stars she could hear him if nothing else, Erin struggled to rise. Everyone had disappeared, no doubt running to their skiffs to escape the eruption. Hot ash, dust, and chunks of rock rained down, quickly dulling the vivid green of the undergrowth.

  The explosion had disoriented her. She swung around, trying to figure out where she’d landed her skiff. As she scanned her surroundings, she saw the volcano—or what remained of it. Half of it was simply gone, dissolved into grainy clouds that pirouetted toward the sky briefly before spreading outward and plummeting down as if sucked in by the ground.

  I have to get out of here.

  Turning, she saw the skiff in the distance. The ground beneath it had shifted, and the vessel lay on its side. Erin sped toward it. Even in its current position, she thought she could take off in it. She only had to reach the damned thing.

 

  It was Isa. News of the eruption must have arrived in Attica.

  Erin spoke with both Isa and Martin as she ran across the smoldering, black ground, already thick with ash. The air was filled with the sulfurous fumes and iron scent of the eruption, but Erin caught a whiff of something else, a horrible smell. She finally recognized it.

  Her hair was burning.

  She ran a hand over the short strands, wincing as her palm met a smoldering piece of debris. She brushed it and the burned strands of hair away.

  Each breath was turning into a struggle, and she pulled her shirt up over her mouth and nose to keep out the ash and dust. Walter was attending to the damage that the heated atmosphere was doing to her lungs, but she had to reach the skiff soon.

  The vessel lay only a few meters away, one of its doors popped open. Though she wasn’t quite safe yet, Erin felt the welcome pleasure of relief. Even if she couldn’t get the skiff off the ground, she might be able to seal herself inside for a while and escape the worst effects of the disaster.

  But then something barreled into her hard enough to lift her off her feet and fling her forward. The last thing she remembered was a boulder rapidly approaching her face.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  STELLAR DATE: 05.13.8942 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: PETER (Planetary Exo-Thermic Extraction Ring)

  REGION: Athens, New Canaan System

  Erin woke to utter darkness. She lay on her back, secured to a hard surface by restraints at her wrists and ankles. When she tried to lift her head, she discovered another restraint around her neck.

  Confusion befuddled her.

  Am I having a nightmare?

  But nothing was changing. She wasn’t waking up, she was already awake. She reached out with her mind.

  What the hell?

  She had no Link access. Her mind felt wrong, like someone had poked holes in it.

 

  When no answer came, Erin wondered again if she was dreaming. She tried to think of possible reasons Walter might not answer her, but she couldn’t come up with any. Her head hurt, but if her brain had been damaged enough to also damage Walter, she wouldn’t have been able to think.

 

  There was nothing. The direct connection to her AI was null-routed. She tried to access the Link again, then her other mods, finding them either null-routed, or reporting offline. She finally managed to access a base bio-data module, but all it gave her was the time; she couldn’t even access her body’s nano.

  Almost an entire day had passed.

  Anxiety began to overwhelm her. What had happened to Walter? Had someone removed him from her mind? Why would anyone do that? And where was she?

  Her eyes strained to penetrate the darkness, but it was complete. There was no heat, no EM, nothing.

  Knowing it was futile, she mentally said Walter’s name again.

  Silence.

  Erin tested her restraints again, but they were firm, allowing no more than a couple millimeters’ movement. The neck restraint even tightened uncomfortably when she swallowed. She strained her ears, but she could hear nothing except a deep, quiet, familiar hum. She was on the PETER.

  How did I get here?

  The last thing she remembered was Poros erupting.

  “Hey!” she shouted.

  The sound barely echoed before dying away. So, she was in a small, enclosed space. She shouted again, trying to judge just how small from how it reflected her voice, but it was hard. Walter could have told her exactly, down to decimal points.

  Where is he?

  Erin was utterly alone, for the first time since she could remember. AIs had been part of her mind for a long time. When one had gone, another took his or her place. They were a part of her.

  Yet the inexplicable loss of her AI was the least of her worries.

  Erin ran through the recent events she remembered. She’d been running to her skiff after the volcano exploded, deafened by the noise and probably the pressure wave too, dodging the falling debris, the hot air and ash searing her throat and lungs.

  Something had hit her in the side, she couldn’t remember what. And next, she’d woken up in this, this….

  Did someone make a terrible mistake, and now everyone thinks I’m dead?

  Erin recalled history lessons about how people used to die when they were very young, and those left behind had to dispose of the dead bodies. Sometimes they would put them in something called a tomb.

  She appeared to be in a similar kind of place, but she was pretty sure they didn’t used to tie the corpses down, or that’s what she remembered….maybe. What was wrong with her brain?

  Another memory hit: Martin and Isa!

  They would be waiting for her in Attica, wondering what had happened to her. They would be worried out of their minds, and she had no way to contact them.

  Dammit!

  Erin struggled vigorously against her bonds, which only resulted in choking and sore wrists and ankles. She reasoned that she would not be restrained unless someone meant her some harm.

  This has to be Leif’s doing. Or maybe Reiko’s. Probably both.

  She didn’t particularly trust Hal or Jere either, no matter what Lark thought of them, but surely none of the Transcend’s engineers would risk kidnapping her. That would be insane. Phaedra would easily notice she’d been abducted, and as soon as Tanis found out about it, she would have them all arrested.

  Time was dragging on, though in the darkness, and lacking some of her augmented mind’s most basic functions, she kept losing track of time—used to seeing it displayed on her HUD. She was soaked in sweat from her struggles, and growing thirstier and thirstier.

  Deprived of her senses, she began to see imaginary colors and hear voices speaking far off, their words indistinct. Her sense of isolation grew, accompanied by increasing anxiety.

  Did Leif and Reiko get what they wanted from Walter? Are they going to leave me here to die? How will my family cope if they never see me again? Wil
l Jude ever get over it? She began to wish she’d spent more time with him.

  Dread and misery gnawed at her, but then something else kicked in. She’d forgotten all about the training she’d done. What had Usef told her? It was about survival. Whatever it takes. It was time to put her training into practice and reach deep. She could survive this. She would survive this.

  Erin realized her breathing rate and pulse had been speeding up, and that she was wasting her energy. She deliberately calmed herself, shutting out the thoughts that would lead her down a rabbit hole of despair. She even forced herself to shut out her anxiety over Walter, Martin and Isa. Her breathing and heart rate naturally followed suit and slowed down.

  She had to get out.

  She asked herself what Usef or Tanis would do, and knew immediately that they would find a way, no matter what. She might be able to open the other restraints, if she could get a hand free. Which she probably could, if she pulled hard enough. If she could shut her mind to the pain. That was a grisly thought. Her control systems to dispense analgesics were offline—likely tied to Walter’s removal—so it would be agony, and what was left of her hand might not work very well, but anything was preferable to passivity and helplessness. She wasn’t going to die alone in the dark without putting up a fight.

  No time like the present.

  Erin grimaced and set her teeth as she began to pull. The restraint cut into her flesh at the base of her thumb bone. Her hand was pretty small, but she relaxed it, trying to make it even smaller. If she was lucky, she might only lose some skin. The restraint bit deeper, and Erin gasped. She felt blood trickle out.

  All of a sudden, a crack appeared in the darkness, allowing in piercing rays of light.

  Erin squinted and blinked as the crack grew wider. A door was opening. The silhouette of a human figure passed across the blinding beams, then the door closed, and all was dark again. Erin thought she’d recognized the person from the brief glimpse, but she wasn’t sure.

  A light turned on, and she saw her guess had been correct. Reiko stood in the narrow space. The gaunt woman did not look at all friendly.

  Erin had found her kidnapper.

  While Reiko glared at her, fury twisting her features, Erin quickly took in her surroundings. She was inside a slim storage tank; the ceiling curved only a meter above her bed. If Reiko stretched out her hands, she would be able to touch both walls at once. Erin guessed the space had formerly stored equipment for the orbital ring. Perhaps the walls were made from a material that blocked Link signals…. That would make sense, yet in the brief time the door was open, Erin had attempted to make a connection and failed—which strengthened her fears about what had been done to her, and to Walter.

  “What have you done to my brain? What did you do with my AI?” she demanded.

  Reiko didn’t answer immediately. Her eyes narrowed, and she looked at Erin as if considering what to tell her. Finally, she spoke.

  “Your AI…Walter, was it? He rather stupidly decided to sacrifice himself for New Canaan.”

  A shadow settled over Erin’s heart.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, though she’d already guessed the answer.

  “Faced with the choice of giving up your system’s defense plans or his life, he chose the latter. I strongly suggest you don’t make the same mistake.”

  Sorrow and grief rose in Erin like a great tide, but she fought to maintain control of herself. She would have time to grieve Walter later—after she’d killed Reiko.

  “You’re a fool. Walter didn’t know New Canaan’s defense plans any more than I do. We’re engineers, not military. But when Tanis Richards finds out you’ve murdered an AI and kidnapped me, you’ll be the one to die, and all for nothing.”

  “No, you’re the fool. No one’s even looking for you, everyone thinks you died in the eruption. You’re all alone, Erin. There’s no rescue on its way. If you decide not to tell us what we want to know, all I have to do is leave and lock the door. Your death won’t be pleasant, and it’ll take a long time. So what do you say?”

  “Some choice. Even if I did know something about the system’s defenses, what would be the point of telling you? So you can leave me here anyway? So my family can be killed when the Transcend attacks?”

  “If you answer my questions truthfully, we will offer you and your family safe passage outsystem.”

  Erin almost laughed. “You think I would leave millions to die as long as the people dear to me are safe? You think I would be that much of a traitor?”

  “One person’s traitor is another person’s smart decision-maker. You should count yourself fortunate you’ve been given this opportunity.”

  This time, despite the loss of Walter and her dire situation, Erin did laugh. “If this is good luck, I’d hate to encounter bad.”

  Reiko leaned in close to Erin’s face. “We will have the picotech. It’s inevitable. And if we don’t take it, someone else will—such an imbalance of power can’t exist forever. New Canaan is doomed whatever you do. If you don’t tell us what you know, you’ll die here, alone and in agony, and your family will die too.” She straightened up. “Personally, I think it’s a good offer. I’d take it, if I were you.”

  “You’re not me, though. New Canaanites don’t steal what doesn’t belong to them.”

  “Very noble, Erin. Let’s see how long your moral superiority lasts.”

  Reiko walked out and slammed the door, and Erin was immediately plunged into darkness once more.

  She exhaled heavily. Walter was gone; they’d killed him. She would never feel his familiar, welcome presence again. Her eyes filled with hot tears that ran out the sides and into her hair.

  Poor Walter.

  Of course he hadn’t told them anything. And neither would she. She would never jeopardize the safety of New Canaan. She would never make Walter’s death meaningless.

  One thing working in her favor was that Reiko hadn’t actually harmed her yet. That meant, now that Walter was gone, Erin was the only source of information Reiko had, and she would be reluctant to kill her.

  That fact would buy her time.

  Erin realized something else: Reiko had said ‘we’ and ‘us.’

  That means Leif, for sure.

  She wondered if all the Transcend’s engineers had been in on the scheme to extract intel. It would have been hard for Reiko and Leif to get her away from the eruption site by themselves.

  Reiko had said no one was looking for her, which meant that, through some butchery of her mind, they had destroyed her Link access. That meant Phaedra would not receive her signal.

  Martin and Isa must think I’m dead.

  The thought tore at her. She resolved to do her best to prove she wasn’t.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  STELLAR DATE: 05.13.8942 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: PETER (Planetary Exo-Thermic Extraction Ring)

  REGION: Athens, New Canaan System

  Hours had passed since Reiko had left. Erin guessed the engineer was concerned her absence would be noticed by Lark and Fazir if she was away too long. Erin had spent that time trying to free herself, but all she had achieved were bloody and torn wrists and ankles.

  When she’d undergone her military training, Usef had suggested she upgrade her mods to military standard, but she’d wanted to put it off until after Athens’ PETER had been fixed.

  If only I’d done it earlier, I could break out of these restraints, and be ready to give Reiko a nice surprise when she returns.

  She might even have been able to break out of the tank where she was confined. But wishing wasn’t going to change anything.

  Erin had decided her best option was to play for time, wait for Reiko’s vigilance to wear down, and watch for opportunities. Perhaps she could feed her tidbits of information that were convincing but unverifiable, or put on a performance that her resolve was crumbling and her sense of desperation increasing.

  Whatever she did, Erin knew she was on a fixed timetable…. The
Transcend’s engineers couldn’t remain at the PETER forever. The eruption would put back their departure for the moment, but the day would come when either Tanis would decide they were incapable of fixing the PETER, or they would actually fix it, removing their reason for remaining.

  The door opened.

  “Hey!” Erin yelled. “Help! It’s Erin! I’m in here!”

  The door closed. When the light inside the tank turned on, Reiko was smiling.

  “You’re a long way from help. Unless you can make your voice carry hundreds of kilometers, no one’s going to hear you.”

  It was a small piece of information, but worth knowing. Erin now knew she was somewhere on the PETER, far from the section where the engineers lived. This was important because it meant that a skiff was nearby, as Reiko would need one to fly there.

  “You’ve been busy,” said Reiko when she noticed the bloody effects of Erin’s struggles. “To be honest, I’m not surprised. I guess I would do the same in your circumstances. But it really was a waste of time. The only way you’re getting out of here alive is if you tell me all you know about how Tanis plans to defeat an invasion of New Canaan.”

  “What’s the point of telling you anything?” said Erin. “You’re going to kill me no matter what I say. You have to. You can’t risk anyone finding out that you faked my death and kept me here. You would never make it out of the system.”

  “All good points. But you’ve forgotten that I could take you with me when I leave and no one would know you survived the eruption. You could have a life in the Transcend. You would be welcome, especially considering everything you know.”

  “I’m happy here, thanks.”

  Reiko heaved a sigh. “I thought you would say that. You leave me with no alternatives. Erin, I’ve worked alongside you for weeks. I’ve gotten to know you and, strange as it may seem, I don’t dislike you. I’m not going to enjoy what I’m about to do. You have to understand, I’m not a bad person, only a determined one. If I have to put you through hell to get what I want, I’ll do it. Do you understand?”