Destiny: Quantic Dreams Book 3

by Elizabeth McLaughlin

  “You got it?” I looked at him from over my glasses.

  “Yeah, I’ve got it.”

  “Goodnight, Alexander.” He turned and went back into his tent. If I didn’t know better I would swear I heard him cursing under his breath. That was fine. He didn’t need to like the situation. He did need to help us manage it. My next stop was Marcus’s tent where I found him with his date for the evening. Since our return to the real world, Marcus had rarely found himself without an offer of company for the evening. His newfound beard growth and the explosion of muscles from manual labor no doubt helped the situation. As soon as I realized there were two people in the tent I coughed loudly and called out from a distance away.

  “Mom?” Marcus stuck his head outside the entry to his tent, being careful to shield his paramour of the day from my view. I rolled my eyes. As if I cared who my son was sleeping with. “What are you doing here?”

  “Please tell your date I’m very sorry for the interruption. I wouldn’t be bothering you at this hour if it weren’t important.” He turned and murmured something to the person in the tent before carefully stepping into the open. Thankfully for me he had some pants on. I know every parent sees their child naked when they’re born, but it wasn’t a view I needed to be treated to at this stage of life.

  “What’s up? Is everything okay?”

  Unlike my conversation with Alexander, Marcus took the news seriously from the start. He was concerned, but not overly anxious. I was grateful for his faith, but we had to begin the process to see if anything could be done. He agreed to go meet Alexander first thing in the morning and they would coordinate groups of volunteers to harvest. I decided that it would be a smart idea to bring up as many cold storage devices as I could; a certain portion of the healthy crop should be frozen as a last resort. We could safely surrender the lion’s share of the healthy plants to the colonists to bulk up their body fat content but I decided that freezing bare minimum rations for a couple of days would be prudent.

  I considered telling a few others, but word was going to get around quickly, come the morning. When I got back to the house I found Eliza sitting on one of the crates, her leg bouncing as she stared into space. I touched her gently on the shoulder to jerk her out of it.

  “It’s okay.” I cupped my hand to her cheek and stroked it with my thumb. “You’re freaking out, aren’t you.” This was typical for her. She’d put up as much of a front as possible in front of other people but in private, all bets were off. She looked up at me and nodded. I pulled her head close to me and held her as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

  “I’m thirty seconds into leading these people Fiona. Barely into the job, and tomorrow I’m going to be forced to deliver the worst possible news to them. It was a close race as it was, honey. What am I going to look like after this?”

  It wasn’t a close race-it was a landslide. Marcus might have had some chance of winning but the addition of Azan had killed any possibility of a young leader. But the important thing was that she felt like it was. It wasn’t going to help matters for me to tell her otherwise. “You’re going to look like the woman and the leader who brings these people through the trials ahead of them. You’re going to stand up there tomorrow and show them that we are going to endure this.”

  “I feel helpless.” My heart hurt to hear her so upset. I had faith that we could figure something out, but I knew what it was like to feel as if nothing was ever going to get better.

  “I know, sweetheart. But let me tell you, between the two of us? We’re going to be just fine. You trust me, right?”

  “Yeah.” She dried the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath.

  “You know that I’m the smartest person here, especially when it comes to plants, right?” She barked a laugh.

  “Yeah.”

  “Then what’s the problem?” I reached a hand down and helped her up. “Come on, let’s get to bed. We have a long day tomorrow and nobody likes dealing with you when you’re short on sleep.” That earned another laugh. I told myself that I wasn’t actually lying to her. I was projecting the confidence she needed to see. The rest was going to have to wait until tomorrow.

  Word of the potato blight had indeed made its way around camp because we were awoken by the pounding of fists on our door.

  “God. Damn. It.” Eliza swore underneath the covers.

  “I’ll keep them at bay. Take a minute, compose yourself.” I looked down to make sure I was decent and opened the door to be greeted by a mob.

  “Are we going to lose all our food?”

  “We’re going to starve!”

  “What are you going to do about it?”

  The questions were thrown at me like blows and I briefly considered going back inside. Instead, I cupped my hands around my mouth and took a deep breath.

  “SHUT THE HELL UP!”

  That worked. For the moment. The shouting was reduced to whispers and murmurs as I put my hands out and moved the crowd away from our house.

  “Now, who the hell has been talking to you people?” My eyes stalked the crowd for a guilty face. Somebody had opened their mouth and made this a thousand times worse than it needed to be. When I found out who it was, the panthers that stalked the edges of camp were going to get a very nice dinner for themselves.

  “I overheard Alexander!” One voice replied.

  “Your father was talking about it with one of his friends!” Another crowed.

  “ENOUGH!” If it was my father who was responsible for this… “Look, I need you all to fuck off and get yourselves to the center of camp. When Eliza is ready, and no sooner, she will come and address you. Until then, anyone who harasses me or my family is going to have a very bad day! Understand?” If looks could kill, I would have died on the spot. Being the daughter of Jacob Alvaro hadn’t won me a lot of favor with the colony. Having my wife elected leader only made it look like there was some serious nepotism going on, though I knew better. Even those who had been kind to us didn’t like being ordered around by an Alvaro anymore.

  I stalked back into the house and let out a long breath. The adrenaline rush of getting the crowd away from our house was starting to wear off and suddenly I felt more exhausted than I was the night before. When I looked up I saw Eliza, dressed and put together. She ran to hug me. “You’re a marvel, Fiona.”

  “Right back at you. Give me five minutes to get relatively clean and then we’ll go address the panicked masses.”

  While I shucked my pajamas off in favor of working clothes I could hear Eliza in the next room muttering to herself. I didn’t need to hear what she was saying to know what she was doing. She was rehearsing.

  Walking into the group of people felt a little like stalking as quietly as possible through a den of lions. Angry stares burned into the sides of my face and it took effort to keep my eyes forward. Eliza walked behind me to the tune of angry shouts and jeers. Though we weren’t touching, I could feel the stress emanating from her. We reached the center of the circle and she turned.

  “My friends,” her voice boomed through the crowd. I don’t know where she found it but my wife always managed to get herself together when it mattered. “First let me apologize profusely for your hearing this news from any other source but me. I want to assure you, our teams have been working tirelessly since this infection was discovered and we have a plan.” Eliza looked over her shoulder and I took that as my queue to step forward.

  “The infection appears to be a mutated form of P. infestans, or common potato blight. It is most likely harmless to humans as a whole, but we are recommending that if you encounter a potato with discolored flesh that you cut it out and sanitize your tools and hands. The real danger here is spreading the fungus to healthy plants, not spreading it among humans.” I paused for a breath and noticed that the crowd had calmed down considerably. The science talk always helped, but it was the reassurance that their food wouldn’t kill them that took away most of the vitriol. “I have some strangely good news fo
r you, though. The first step in combating this infection is for us to harvest each and every potato plant. There will be teams coming around to instruct you on the best way to do this. The upside of this is that for the next few days, there will be no restricted access to food.” Small cheers could be heard from a few of the heavier colonists. “We encourage you to stuff your faces as much as humanly possible. Fiona and her team will be freezing a minimum calorie count for the entire colony that will last a few days. Everything else is up for grabs.”

  The crowd had gone silent. I expect that they were a little confused. The conflicting messages of eminent starvation with the news of untold amounts of food was strange. The outcries had turned into snippets of conversation. I even saw a few hesitant smiles.

  “You will be relieved from all other non-essential duties until the task is completed.” Eliza took over again. “Any questions or concerns can be directed to myself, Fiona, Alexander Fang, or Marcus. Complaints can be submitted to the latrine. This is not something we’re doing for fun or because we think it’s a good idea. This is about survival.” The crowd didn’t move, seemingly waiting for more information.

  “Get going!” Eliza shouted, and they scattered. She turned to me and yanked her sleeves up to her elbow.

  “Let’s get to work.”

  Chapter Six

  We ended up with a veritable mountain of spuds, fit for a king. The blight wasn’t as widespread as I had feared, affecting about forty percent of the crop. As we harvested I took ample soil samples from random spots throughout the fields to take down to the lab later. It was more important to focus on the victories and boost morale for now. In addition to the fire at the center of camp several more were built with the express purpose of roasting and many potatoes as possible. A few enterprising individuals managed to scare up some jugs and threw together the ingredients for potato vodka. Having grown up on shitty shelter wine, my mouth watered at the prospect of drinking real bonafide vodka. Whoever managed to brew it was about to become very popular.

  I took my third potato out of the fire and split it open, basking in the heat from the steam that warmed my face in the cooling evening light. Salting the next piece of my feast I sunk my teeth into the hot potato and groaned. I wasn’t one to take things for granted but knowing that I could eat as much as my stomach could hold was heaven. I took another bite and shut my eyes, laying back onto the cool grass. The stars were peeking out of the sky, a constellation of paint scattered among the heavens by a cosmic painter. I had seen the sky a million times in simulations but nothing compared to the real thing. It was easy to see how early mankind had cast their gaze upwards and decreed that they were seeing God. Swallowing the last of the potato I let my eyes slide shut. A cool breeze floated over me and I listened to the noises of a thousand other people as they stuffed themselves. We were facing a crisis, of course, but this was a moment of peace that I wished I could hold on to forever.

  I squinted my eyes as a light shone in my face. Somebody with a flashlight…? I pushed myself up from the ground to yell at the person interrupting my reverie but no one was there. Instead a bright blue light had appeared on the horizon, shining so brightly that I could barely look at it directly without my eyes hurting. The beam stretched far into the sky like a kind of celestial laser beam. I wasn’t the only one whose eating had been interrupted by the appearance of the light, everywhere you looked people are gathering and talking. The light didn’t seem to be doing anything other than shining; I didn’t hear anything or see any movement, so it was unlikely to be any kind of weapon. Eliza jogged over to me.

  “What the hell is that?” She pointed toward the light as if it was possible that I had missed it.

  “Honey, what makes you think I have any idea? We haven’t been incinerated so I’m not too worried about it. It’s pretty.”

  “Still, it’s the first sign of anyone else we’ve seen out here. It’s obviously not natural, it looks like its coming from something man-made.”

  “Is that even possible? Are there humans that could be out here with that level of technology? Forget the tech, it’s got to be taking a massive amount of power to project that beam. If that’s not a sure sign of human life, I don’t know what is.” Marcus appeared behind us. A crowd had gathered now. People pointed and stared, no doubt having the same conversation we were having right now.

  “It’s late. We should get to bed.” Eliza’s voice took on the tone it used to when we were trying to convince Marcus to go to sleep. “Maybe this is all a potato-induced hallucination and we’ll wake up to discover there’s no light.” For a moment I was tempted to agree with her, but my gut told me otherwise. The beam of light was real, and it meant that we weren’t alone.

  The next morning, the camp was invaded. Every rodent and small animal for miles had discovered the scraps of our tuber rich feast. Varicolored fur could be seen everywhere you looked. People were quick to take advantage of the unexpected boon, grabbing knives, shovels, and even using their feet to slaughter as many critters as they could get their hands on. Too distracted by their starch-filled feast, most of the creatures didn’t noticed they were being hunted down until it was too late. When all was said and done the camp was littered with furry bodies. Folks raced to grab what they could, stuffing the carcasses into sacks, tying them up with rope, and even pocketing them when nothing else would do. Between the two of us, Eliza and I managed to snag about ten corpses. More than enough for a couple meals, and we could dry and salt the rest to preserve it. I had a feeling that our food choices would be slimming down again soon.

  Cleaning the animals was complicated. Plenty of survival guides where available on our personal tablets, but I lacked the skill to precisely trim the flesh from the rodent without my hand shaking. I finally surrendered my duties to Eliza who was all too happy to slice off cuts of glistening meat. Intellectually I knew the precious protein provided us with life-giving nutrients, cutting pieces from cute little animals was too far beyond my comfort zone. The light shone in the distance, as bright as it had been the night before. If I stared at it long enough, it appeared to shine a pulsating blue. Even in the light of day I couldn’t help but rub my eyes. Such a thing was the stuff of myth. We were no more advanced than our ancestors thousands of years ago, witnessing flashes of lighting arc across the sky.

  The tantalizing prospect of other humans was too great. After the colonists filled their bellies with meat, it was like pulling teeth to get anyone to get to their duties. Rumors about the source of the beam flew through the camp. It had to be addressed.

  “We have no idea what’s out there.” A woman emerged from the crowd to address the group as we ate our evening meal. “Things aren’t perfect here, but we’re in no shape to leave this place!”

  “What if there are other people out there? What if the light is some kind of signal to us that it’s safe to approach? There could be housing there—hell, there could be hot water.” A flurry of happy sighs sounded. We did have limited hot water on the surface; as soon as your shower passed the ten minute mark it was ice cold. The majority of the supply had to go toward printing the houses. I was starting to dream about spending hours under steam.

  In ideal conditions it would be a simple matter to send a team to explore the source of the beam. With the potato blight, spending the excess energy on any kind of non-essential activity was risky at best. I was confident in my ability to solve the food problem but we weren’t in a position to dismiss any concerns yet. Eliza sat on the ground, her hand covering her mouth as she took in the endless opinions.

  “We could split the difference.” I touched Eliza’s shoulder and she looked up at me. “We could send a group out to see what’s going on with the beam and keep the rest of the people here. That way we can continue working on fixing the problems here. If there are people out there, they’ll have supplies. Aid. It’ll be worth it, beloved.” Her stormy eyes cleared as she worked through the pros and cons of the idea.

  “We’ll take a hund
red.” My wife addressed the crowd in the clearest voice, the low din of the crowd subsiding quickly. “One hundred volunteers can come forward. I’ll be taking names for the remainder of the day. Those who choose to remain behind, you can help speed this process along by putting together supplies. Each person will need at least two weeks’ worth of rations. Water, food, medication, and shelter. The faster this task is accomplished, the faster we can find out what’s going on.”

  The possibilities of what lay beyond the beam lent fresh energy to the colonists. People eagerly surrendered their supplies and even their own possessions if it meant that the group could set off faster. The volunteers were comprised of the young, the intelligent, and the exceptionally foolish. Marcus was among them, naturally, but Dad was more hesitant. All right, that was an understatement. His paranoia had escalated. It was subtle to anyone who hadn’t spent half a lifetime watching his behavior. Little things like the way his eyes darted around when we started up the machinery for the day, or how he was momentarily hesitant to use his tablet. Things that could be waved away in the moment but added up over time. When he heard of Eliza’s plan, his jaw clenched so hard I swore that I heard his teeth click from ten feet away. His fears and paranoia would only get worse if he didn’t know where we were. It was best to take him along.

  Chapter Seven

  “You have to stay here!” Eliza had chosen to start our morning with an argument. My favorite way to begin the day. It was my fault really, I should have left the insistence that I would accompany the group for after she had her morning coffee. “I won’t allow it Fiona.” She shrank back at my glare. “Okay, that was a mistake.”

  “Really.”

  “Yes, and I’m sorry.”

  “Really.”

  “Yes. Really. That was uncalled for and I shouldn’t have said it.”

  “Mhmm.” I stood on the cold floor and stretched. The morning air was cool and I could smell the mixture of fresh dirt, rotting meat, and human activity.