The Last Builder

by C G Cooper

  He didn’t answer right away, which unnerved her to no end. She felt him maneuver his way back over to her.

  His voice low, he said, “They’ll be moving and stacking the containers shortly. It’ll be a bumpy ride, but once they set us down, we’ll be able to get out of here.”

  “Won’t they spot us?”

  “With any luck, no.” He didn’t sound entirely convinced of it himself.

  Katherine groaned. “And if they spot us?”

  “We run,” he said. “My ship isn’t far from here. Once we can get on board, they won’t be able to touch us.”

  “If we can get on board,” Katherine mumbled. She doubted he was really listening. The glow of the Omnis screen threw his face into sharp contrast, and Katherine could see little trickles of blood running down his forehead where the corner of a food packet had jabbed him. The sting of tiny scratches all over her face and arms made her wonder if she looked just as bad. She could see him pulling up the schematics of a building on the device.

  Shouts from outside the container made him put away the Omnis and lean up against the wall once more. He barely had time to say, “Brace yourself,” before Katherine tumbled forward. Something had slammed into the side of the container. Sparks exploded before her eyes as she hit her head on the far wall.

  Groaning, she felt her father’s arm wrap around her waist and pull her to the corner of the box where they could use the walls to keep themselves steady as they were unloaded from the ship. By the time the jostling had ceased, she felt like one giant bruise.

  Her eyes now fully accustomed to the darkness, she could see he'd dug a hole into the sea of packets, revealing a large area of the wall. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small laser, he flipped the safety off and told her to move back as he cut a wide hole in the side of the box.

  “Oh, they’ll never notice that,” she said, rubbing her head.

  “By the time they do, we’ll be long gone.”

  Once the metal was cool enough, they poked their heads outside and took in the cool air. Everything looked slightly off-color. Machinery and signs and people’s clothes. It all had a different flavor to it that made it feel foreign.

  “The moon,” she said, trying to force it to sink in. “I’m on the moon.”

  He smiled at her, and she noticed how it changed his whole face. His eyes lit up, his cheeks dimpled; he looked younger. She was struck by the idea that she hadn’t often seen her father smile, but that maybe other people had. Her life wasn’t the only one that was changing here. He would have to introduce her to his friends, his associates, people who might not even know she existed in the first place. Did he have a girlfriend? Did he have a wife? Did he have other children?

  She shook her head to dispel the thoughts. She might not know her father that well, but if they ended up getting to his ship without any complications, she had a feeling she was going to learn exactly who he was when he wasn’t with her down on Earth. For better or for worse.

  “You don’t have a fear of heights, do you?” he said.

  She tore her eyes away from the horizon and looked down. She hadn’t realized it before, but whatever machine that had carried them to this side of the facility hadn’t placed them on the ground, but had stacked them on top of at least ten other containers.

  “No,” she said. She swallowed hard. “But I think I’m developing one.”

  “The trick is not to look down, apparently.”

  “Oh good. Just so happens it’s too late for that.”

  “Personally, I find getting to the ground in the quickest way possible without falling to your death does wonders.”

  There was a wry smile on his lips, but Katherine didn’t find this one as charming as the last.

  He swam back to their luggage and, grunting, pulled the pieces out from under the thick surface of food packets. Katherine looked down as a few of them spilled over the edge and fell to the ground below. It didn’t seem as if anyone had noticed.

  “Dad?” she called nervously.

  “Two seconds,” he said.

  She looked back and watched him as he pulled out a length of rope from his bag, replacing it with a handful of the food packets. Having zipped the bag back up, he waded over to her again. The packets shifted once more, and several cascaded over the edge.

  “They’re going to notice them sooner or later,” she said.

  “Let’s just hope it’s later. You got anything particularly fragile in your case?”

  “Not really.”

  “Good.” He tied the length of rope to the handle of the suitcase, then lowered it down the side of the container. “Because this isn’t going to be long enough.”

  Sure enough, when the last bit of rope had slid through his hands, the suitcase was still a good twenty feet off the ground. He let it hang there for a moment, putting all his weight into keeping it steady.

  “Ready?” he said.

  “Not particularly.” Her suitcase looked pretty damn small down there.

  “Better now than never,” he said, letting go of the rope.

  “Hey!” She leaned out of the hole and watched as her suitcase hit the ground. It bounced once and skidded to a stop, a dent noticeable in the side even at this height.

  “Let's go,” he said, swinging himself out of the hole, his duffle across his back. “We’ve only got a few minutes before someone comes to investigate.”

  “A little warning would’ve been nice,” she said, watching as he used the various metal bracings along the outside of the box to steadily move downward.

  “I asked if you were ready.”

  “What I meant was, I'm not.” She found herself hesitating even before the primary step of swinging her leg outside the box. She realized she was suddenly a lot more scared than angry. “Dad, I don’t think I can do this.”

  “You can,” he said, pausing long enough to look up at her. “I know you can.”

  Katherine shook her head so violently she felt her neck pop. “Isn’t there another way?”

  “No.” He shifted his weight so he could more comfortably hang against the side of the container. “We’re so close now, honey. We’re almost there. Once we hit the ground, it’ll be easy, I promise. It’ll almost be over.”

  Katherine knew he was only slightly more sure than she was, but the reassurance worked nonetheless. She reached a shaky hand outside the box and gripped one of the metal rods so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

  “That’s it,” he said. “Now put your foot in the tiny area where the two braces meet. It won’t feel like you have strong footing, but use your arms and your stomach to stay light on your toes. That way, if your foot does slip, your upper body will be ready to keep you in place.”

  Her stomach heaved in response to the mental image of a free fall to the ground.

  “Brace your legs against the bars. Move one limb at a time, and don’t shift your body weight until you feel secure.” His voice sounded farther away now, but she was too frozen with fear to look down and see where he was.

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It felt like she was trapped in a huge hourglass, with every grain of sand landing on her shoulders, pushing her down against her will. She knew she had to move, had to make it to the ground before anyone saw them, but her muscles weren’t following the same logic as her brain.

  “Katherine?”

  “Yeah?” she croaked.

  “Honey, I’m going to need you to hurry.”

  “Why?” She hated the way her voice cracked.

  “Another cargo container is headed this way, and it’s going to hit the pile pretty hard. If it knocks you off, you’re going to... be hurt.”

  “Oh God,” she said uncontrollably. “Dad, I can’t do this.”

  “Yes, you can. Just move one hand, one foot at a time. Don’t think about what’s waiting for you at the bottom. Worry about your next move. Once you’ve made that, you can worry about the next one.”

  She didn’t have
the energy to speak, every ounce of it going to the death grip she was keeping on the bars before her.

  One step at a time, she told herself. If she took it one step at a time, she would just keep going until she made it all the way down. She moved her hand to the next available hold and gripped it tight. Then she took a deep breath and moved her other hand. Once secure, she pulled her right foot free of its hold and let it slide down the outside of the box until it hit the next bar. Only when she did the same with her left foot did she allow herself to let out the breath she'd been holding.

  “Perfect,” she heard him say. He didn’t sound any farther away yet. There was a modicum of comfort in knowing he was waiting for her. “Now just do that one more time.”

  Taking another grating breath, she moved her right hand, then her left hand, followed by her right foot and then her left foot. Each time she moved, she let go of her breath, paused, then repeated the process.

  Soon, she found herself so focused that she could blot out the rest of the world around her and repeat her mantra over and over again. One step at a time. One step at a time. One step at a time...

  “Katherine!” Her father’s voice pierced her thoughts, and that's when she realized he'd been shouting her name for a while now. “Katherine, hold on!”

  She only had time to register what he'd just said and hook her arm through one of the bars before she felt the container begin to shake violently. Above her, another crate had been set on top of theirs, and the reverberations sent a shockwave through the rest of the pile that dislodged both of her feet from their holds. She let out a yelp as her feet went out from underneath her. The crook of her arm bore the brunt of her weight as she swung free. The pain was excruciating. Her arm was going to break.

  “Hang on!”

  It was a stupid direction to give. She would've been annoyed if she hadn’t been so terrified.

  Her feet scraped against the side of the container, trying to find purchase. Once she got a foothold, she used her legs to take some of the weight off her arm, crying out again as another wave of pain tore through her body. Her arm was already turning purple.

  “Are you okay?”

  “I'm fine,” she shouted down to him, out of breath. Tears ran down her face. Her heart pounded. She was alive. She was still alive.

  “I’m coming to get you,” he said.

  “I’m fine,” she repeated. “I just want to get down.”

  Despite her violent trembling, she descended more quickly than before. Nausea had melded with her fear, and if she was going to throw up, she’d rather wait to do it with her feet firmly planted under her.

  “Are you sure?”

  Before she could respond, a third voice found its way into the mix.

  “What the hell?”

  It had come from below.

  She'd looked down toward the source of the foreign voice, and immediately regretted it.

  8

  Katherine

  The world spun.

  She instantly shut her eyes and gripped the bars even tighter. Her injured arm screamed in response.

  By the quick glance she’d gotten of the ground below, she figured she was still about thirty feet up, her father about ten feet below her. On the ground, a worker in an orange vest had been standing over her suitcase, looking up at them with a mixture of shock and confusion.

  She heard her father curse and steeled herself to look down once more, just in time to see Cutler push off his foothold, twist in the air, and land squarely on the guy below. It happened so fast, she didn’t even have time to shout after him. It was over by the time she realized what he had done.

  The worker had let out a winded shout. One elbow to the face, however, and he was out just like the last one. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Katherine made a mental note to remember the move.

  Her father stood up while she was still rooted to her spot, arms shaking from the strain of her grip. She watched him take a few hasty steps to the side of the container and peer around it. When he glanced back up at her, she could tell she wouldn’t like what he was about to say.

  “I either need you to jump or climb down as quickly as you can.”

  “I’m not jumping,” she said. “No way in hell.”

  “Then you need to climb down right now, as fast as you can. The guy I knocked out, his radio is going off, and I see a bunch of guys looking confused, pointing over here. We need to get out of here. If they catch us, we’re both going to be in a lot of trouble.”

  “Okay, okay, okay.” She took a deep breath and held it until her lungs burned. She let it out slowly, her eyes closed, until there was no more air left. When she opened her eyes, there was a renewed strength in her arms, and she began chanting her mantra under her breath again.

  One step at a time, moving each limb only when the other was secure. She climbed down as quickly as she could, and even though it felt like ages, she had both feet on the ground in less than ten seconds. She collapsed to her knees and put her forehead to the cool concrete floor beneath her.

  “You did great,” her father said.

  “I just need a minute.” Now that she was relatively safe, her body relaxed as all her muscles seemed to melt. She felt like a pile of goo, but she knew they had to leave. As much as she hated the fact that they were fugitives, she didn’t want to find out what would happen if they got caught.

  “We’ve got time,” her father said. “Just breathe.”

  Katherine furrowed her brows, but she was too tired to lift her head and look at her father. Since when did he sound so relaxed? True, it was quiet around them, but that was bound to change once the other workers realized where their friend had—

  Wait. Quiet?

  Her head snapped up. She caught a glimpse of the worker on the ground a few feet away. His radio was silent, but he was beginning to stir, one hand to his head in confusion. Katherine looked over at her father, not even trying to keep the annoyed look off her face.

  “It would’ve taken you twice as long to get down if you didn’t have the motivation,” he said, holding his hands up in surrender. She caught the slight twitch of a smile at the corner of his lips.

  “And if I had slipped and fallen? If I’d gotten hurt?”

  The smile disappeared. “I wouldn’t have let that happen. I would’ve broken your fall.”

  “At least one of us is sure about that,” she said, struggling to her feet.

  “Katherine,” her father started.

  “Kit,” she snapped. “Forget it. I just want to get out of here.”

  He tried to say something nonetheless, but she ignored him, stepping over the worker to grab her suitcase. Behind her, she heard the smack of an elbow against the man’s skull again and absently wondered if the poor guy would have brain damage after not one, but two of those vicious elbows from this violent brute who called himself her father.

  Something tugged at her suitcase. She turned to see him trying to lift it out of her hand. She gripped it tighter and yanked it away. The last thing she wanted right now was his help. Next thing she knew, he’d be asking her to jump off the edge of a moon crater. She’d rather return to Earth and deal with whatever consequences waited for her there.

  They skirted along the wall of the warehouse, and slipped out the door unnoticed. Stopping in front of a rugged looking vehicle, he said, “Hop in,” and then set to work hotwiring it.

  She wanted to ask how her father knew all of this—the fighting, the history of the virus, even how to hijack a car. She’d only known her father as a talented but simple explorer whose job it was to scout locations suitable for terraforming. That had been her mother’s fairy tale for her. Was it space that made him so hard? Her anger kept her from asking questions aloud, but there was nothing that could tamp down on her curiosity.

  “Do you know how the atmosphere works up here?” he asked after a few minutes of driving in silence.

  “I didn’t really care much about science in school,” she said, aiming the dag
gers of her voice directly at his sweaty face.

  His mouth twisted into a frown. “I guess you were always much more like your mother.” His voice was quiet, ragged. She looked away rather than have to bear the sight of tears in his eyes. He cleared his throat before he continued, his eyes dead ahead. “History and literature, that’s what she was good at. I always had trouble with philosophical concepts. Give me a formula any day.”

  She answered with a non-committal grunt.

  “They set off a giant bomb,” he said after a moment. When she didn’t respond, he continued anyway. “It sends up the right amount of chemicals in the air to create an atmosphere. An artificial Ozone layer keeps it in place. It’s not instantaneous, and it doesn’t always work exactly right the first time. But after a few years, as long as conditions remain stable, you can begin planting trees. Eventually you can even plant crops and start building.”

  “And that’s what you do?” She caught the way her father’s lips twitched at her interest, but she kept her own face impassive.

  “I scout for planets that can handle an atmosphere like Earth’s. It’s got to be non-gaseous and have a decent energy source, a sun. There’s an area called the ‘hospitable zone,’ a certain distance from the sun that is ideal for organic life. Of course, every planet is different, and each one has its quirks, but if you can get used to the new environment, you might find you like it even better than the one before it.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Real subtle, Dad.” She expected him to laugh, and looked over at him just in time to see his body go rigid. His eyes were glued to the rearview mirror.

  “What is it?”

  “We’re being followed. Hang on.”

  He jerked the wheel, causing the vehicle to fishtail before righting itself and peeling off down a side road. Katherine watched as squat buildings, mostly warehouses and hangars, flashed by them in streaks of grey.

  They shot across a short bridge, heading toward what looked like the main city. It looked a little like New York, only with shorter and less imposing buildings. A line of spaceships stood off to the side, like watchmen on a hill. Her new home was over there somewhere, she surmised. She ignored the pit of dread forming in her stomach.