Deception

by M. R. Forbes

  Deception

  Forgotten Colony, Book Two

  M.R. Forbes

  Chapter 1

  Guardian Alpha Caleb Card stared at the door.

  He had tried the control panel beside it multiple times, and multiple times it had refused to open. Then he had returned to his stasis pod and checked the event log. Then he had discovered he had been in hibernation, not for the single year he was expecting, but for over two hundred years.

  Then the door had started opening.

  His stasis thaw had registered in the log as remotely operated. Had the door been opened remotely too, or had it been programmed to open after he reviewed the logs?

  Was someone playing some sort of strange game with him?

  He had no idea what was happening, or why he had been in stasis for so long. Where were Shiro and Ning? Dead? Or in one of the nine other chambers? The Marine module had been designed to house ninety Marines in stasis at one time, with ten maintaining watch over the starship. That had been the plan anyway. But the trife had ruined that plan and left the Space Force Marines with only six survivors.

  Now, they might be down to four.

  Caleb broke out of his momentary hesitation. He would figure it out later. He sprinted to the door, suddenly afraid it would decide to close again before he could make it to the other side. The last thing he wanted was to wind up trapped in the chamber again.

  He made it to the door and through, out into the Marine module’s armory. He came to a stop on the other side, scanning the racks of rifles positioned between the doors. He grabbed a standard-issue carbine from the rack and put it on the floor, positioning it so the hatch wouldn’t be able to seal again if it tried to close.

  It didn’t seem like it was going to close, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He was still confused and definitely frightened. His heart raced, his body shook with cold and fear. Waking up from stasis had been a shock. Discovering something had gone wrong was an even bigger shock. He was a Marine. A Guardian. It was his duty to protect the Deliverance and the city of forty-thousand resting in its belly. He glanced back into the stasis chamber.

  At least he didn’t have to do it alone.

  He was about to return to the chamber when he noticed the smell. It caused him to freeze in place. It was pungent and rank, drifting over from somewhere nearby. He recognized it. Death. Recent? Anything that died two centuries ago should have finished decomposing by now, even in the climate-controlled air of the ship.

  A ship that was still operational after all of these years. Caleb wondered if he should be thankful for that. Maybe he would be better off if the Deliverance had run out of power and died, taking him with it.

  He grabbed another carbine from the rack and a magazine from a shelf on the opposite side of the aisle. The sound of the magazine locking into the gun seemed magnified, echoing in the room. If there were danger nearby, it would know someone was in here.

  But how could there be danger? The Guardians had killed all the trife, he was sure of it. They had scoured every last nook and cranny of the massive starship. It had taken nearly two months, but they had been ninety-nine percent confident the creatures were gone. If one had turned up, Shiro would have woken him.

  But what if the trife had caught Shiro off-guard? What if it had killed him?

  The pod had been programmed to wake him in a year. Its programming had failed.

  Or someone had changed it.

  That made more sense, didn’t it? Someone had altered his pod. Someone had changed the date. He knew there was at least one person on board who could have done it. A man he knew only as Harry, a computer programmer who had been with Doctor Valentine’s research team.

  Had Harry done it?

  Except there was no need to go through the network to cancel the thaw date on the pod. Anyone with access to the chamber could have done it from the terminal, including Privates Shiro and Ning. But why would they? What purpose would that serve?

  There had to be a reason, and it had to be related to the smell.

  Caleb reached the corner of the armory, coming around it with the carbine up and ready to fire. He swept the weapon across the aisle, but he didn’t see anything. He started down it, coming to a stop about halfway when he reached the door to another of the stasis chambers. He stared at it curiously, new fear putting pressure on his chest.

  The door was dented in like something had hit it repeatedly. But what could do that kind of damage?

  He glanced to his left, at his artificial arm. The trife queen had bit his original, damaging it beyond repair. This one had the strength to make dents like that. Doctor Valentine’s Cerebus armor could probably have done it too.

  But why? Was this door sealed too? Was someone inside?

  He reached for the control panel, activating it and trying to open the hatch. He wasn’t surprised when it didn’t budge. He decided to leave it for now. There was too much he didn’t know to get fixated on any one thing.

  He moved along the wall, turning left at the corner. The exit was up ahead on his right. He could see the hatch was open, and the smell of death and decay had gotten stronger. He made his way along the aisle, moving slowly. The floor was cold on his bare feet, but at least it helped him stay quiet.

  He reached the open hatch, leading with the carbine as he cautiously emerged from the armory and into the short corridor. He swung left and right, checking his position. Clear.

  The smell was getting stronger to his left, down the corridor leading to the CIC. His arms prickled, his skin crawling. He had a bad feeling about all of this. A momentary panic hit him. What if they hadn’t killed all of the trife? What if the trife had gotten into Metro? What if he and the Vultures were the only humans left alive on the ship?

  The contingency if they were overrun was for someone to contact Command on Proxima and tell them what happened, and request assistance getting the trife off the ship or the colonists away from the ship past the trife. That wasn’t the kind of thing that took two centuries to execute.

  Unless they had tried and failed?

  How could that have happened?

  Caleb stared down the corridor toward the CIC. The hatch leading to the central command room was closed. Sealed and locked? He hoped not, but either way he was done operating solo. His team was still in stasis. Still alive.

  He needed their help.

  He turned around, moving back into the armory. He hesitated near the hatch, considering whether or not to close it. He was nervous it wouldn’t open again if he did, but he also knew the Guardians would be vulnerable while they were coming out of stasis. He reached over and tapped the control panel, relaxing slightly when the hatch slid closed without complaint. It wouldn’t open from the outside without a passcode.

  Unless whoever opened the stasis chamber door could open that door too?

  There were only so many things he could control, and that wasn’t one of them. He took a shortcut through the armory, passing between the shelves of military equipment – guns, shells, magazines, knives, and more. It didn’t look like the inventory had diminished over time. Whatever had happened out there, nobody had come here searching for firepower.

  But somebody had come here. Somebody or something had dented the door to one of the stasis chambers.

  Caleb approached the chamber. The door was still open. Everything had remained as he had left it during the few minutes he was gone. He was about to go inside when he heard a loud groan from the side of the room, followed by grinding and popping. The noise echoed in the space, loud enough to wake the sleeping Guardians on its own and causing Caleb to fall to a knee, pivoting and aiming his rifle in the direction of the sound.

  He found himself facing the dented hatch. It was sliding open, or at least trying to. The dent was hitting
the wall, the motor fighting to overpower it and causing the awful noise as it bounced back and forth.

  Caleb didn’t move. He held the rifle steady, aimed at the opening. He waited there for a moment, in case something was inside and came out.

  The motor on the hatch lost the fight. It made one last terrible grinding noise, and then the heavy panel settled into place, smoke spilling out of its track.

  Caleb stood and walked toward the door, keeping his carbine ready to fire. The inside of the chamber was dark, the interior lighting either malfunctioning or shut down because there was nothing active inside. He hoped it was the latter.

  He reached the door, trying to look in. He didn’t see anything moving. It was hard to see anything at all. He held the gun forward, waving it in the room to activate the sensors. A few of the lights along the ceiling activated, casting the chamber in an eerie, dim glow.

  There was nothing in the room. Nothing awake, anyway. But the door had opened for a reason. Caleb stepped through, approaching the first stasis pod. It was empty. He moved to the next. Also empty.

  He reached the third. The cryogel inside the pod was crystallized, making it hard to make out what was beneath it. A person, that much was obvious. A woman. Not a Guardian then. Sho and Flores were the only females on his team.

  Who was it?

  He circled the pod and tapped on the control surface for its terminal. It took a few seconds for the display to activate, and Caleb drew in a sharp breath when it did.

  What the hell was Doctor Valentine doing in stasis down here?

  Chapter 2

  Caleb stared at the display. According to the terminal, the occupant was one Doctor Riley Valentine. The pod was in optimal working condition. Her vitals were good.

  Caleb navigated the computer, opening the log. He checked the timestamp on the first line to determine when she had entered hibernation.

  Two years after he had gone under.

  If there had been a problem, why hadn’t she woken him? And why had she come down here to go into hibernation? The Research module had its own pods. She didn’t need to use theirs.

  The dented door was a clue. He didn’t need to be a scientist to figure that out. Something or someone had chased her, and she had locked herself in here. The chambers all required a passcode, the same as the armory door. She knew it. Her assailant didn’t.

  But who was her assailant?

  Or rather, who had her assailant been? The chase had occurred two hundred thirty-four years in the past. Whoever it was, they had to be dead by now.

  But his pod had activated. Then his chamber door had opened. Then hers had opened. Someone was orchestrating the sequence of events. In the present? Or had all of this been programmed to occur two centuries earlier?

  Doctor Valentine’s hibernation had started two years after his.

  He had questions.

  She had answers.

  There was only one thing to do.

  He navigated back out to the main menu, tapping on the command to manually thaw the pod. A box popped up on the display, asking him if he was sure. He confirmed without hesitation.

  The pod began to hum loudly, the display switching to a countdown timer of the thaw sequence. Caleb took a step back, splitting his attention between the timer and the pod. Condensation started rising from the sealed lid as the cryogel’s temperature was slowly adjusted from a deep freeze to a warm bath. The process wasn’t quick, and Caleb leaned back against the empty pod on the other side of the aisle, with nothing to do but wait.

  The minutes ticked down. The cryogel became evident in the pod, the glass defogging as well. Caleb straightened up and stepped forward, looking into the pod to confirm the occupant really was Doctor Valentine. Her expression was peaceful, her arms folded beneath her breasts, her legs straight. Her eyelids fluttered gently in the flow of the gel, which was filtered continuously out of the pod, cleansed, and replaced.

  A loud thunk signaled the next phase of the thaw. The cryogel began draining from it, sinking away from Doctor Valentine. Caleb stepped away, moving closer to the exit. He didn’t want her thinking he had been standing there staring at her naked body the whole time.

  The machine thunked again, and the display message changed.

  THAW COMPLETE. SUCCESS!

  Caleb waited. He was beginning to settle into his new predicament, his heart rate starting to slow, his adrenaline rush fading. He was switching over to acceptance, curious about what Doctor Valentine would have to say and growing eager to figure out how to proceed. If there was a problem, he wanted to solve it.

  “Doctor Valentine,” he said a minute after the thaw finished. He was using his own experience to assume she could hear him. He figured his voice would be less jolting than having her sit up and find him standing there. “Can you hear me?”

  He heard her clear her throat. “Guardian Alpha Card. Is that you?”

  “It is.”

  “Where are you?”

  “Near the door.”

  “Are we safe?”

  Caleb couldn’t help but laugh. “Doctor, I have no idea. I was hoping you could tell me. There are a lot of things I’m hoping you can tell me.”

  “Come here. Help me up.”

  Caleb walked over to the pod. Doctor Valentine’s eyes were open, looking up at him with a peacefulness he found disconcerting, all things considered. He hadn’t noticed how blue her eyes were before.

  He held out his hand. Riley reached up and took it, and he pulled her into a sitting position.

  “How do you feel?” he asked.

  “Scared,” she replied.

  “You don’t look scared.”

  “Looks can be deceiving. You have no idea how deceiving.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “How long?” she asked instead.

  “Two hundred thirty-six years.”

  She nodded. “And we’re safe in here?”

  “The armory door is closed and sealed. Is that enough?”

  “It should be.”

  “What the hell is going on here, Doctor?”

  “Please, call me Riley.” She looked up at him, her eyes locking on his. “I know all of this is jarring. It is for me too. I want to get you up to speed, but we have problems.”

  “I figured that much. What about Metro? Are the civilians safe?”

  “I honestly don’t know.”

  Caleb’s fresh calm vanished again. “What?”

  “I’m sorry, Alpha. I wish I could tell you everything is great. It isn’t. I wish I could tell you Metro is secure. I can’t. It’s been two hundred years. I have no way of knowing what we’re waking up to, any more than you do.”

  “But you know what you went to sleep to.”

  “Yes.”

  “Let’s start there.”

  “Are your people still in stasis?”

  “Yeah.”

  “We need to wake them.”

  “I need answers first.”

  “We don’t have time for answers yet, Alpha. Time isn’t on our side.”

  Caleb laughed out loud. “Are you kidding? We just spent more than two hundred plus years asleep. What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Riley stood up in front of him. He was surprised her skin wasn’t covered in goosebumps. He had been freezing when he came out of the pod. Wasn’t she cold?

  “Help me down,” she said, reaching out toward him.

  Caleb offered his hand. Riley took it and stepped over the edge of the pod, using him for balance as she dropped to the floor. He turned away from her while she picked up her clothes and started dressing in the same bland pants and shirt he was wearing.

  “I take it the trife weren’t all dead?” Caleb asked.

  “Those trife are the least of our concerns right now,” she replied.

  “What does that mean?”

  “The Deliverance is rated for a two hundred year duty cycle. We’re thirty-six years past it.”

  “Which means what?”

&n
bsp; “Which means we have to get the ship to the surface before it runs out of power. As you can imagine, landing a vessel of this size and weight inside an atmosphere with Earth-like gravity takes a lot of energy.”

  “I can imagine. And since we’ve been out here longer than expected, we have less energy to land with.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You said Earth-like. What happened to Proxima?”

  “We aren’t near Proxima.”

  Caleb closed his eyes and sighed. “Seriously, Riley. This would be a whole hell of a lot easier if you would stop making me ask you for every little detail.”

  She came around in front of him, fully dressed. “Maybe, but I don’t want to tell the same story five times. We should wake your team.”

  “Hold up there, Doctor. I’m not dragging my team into this until I know what this is. You were just in stasis too, so you know hibernation is a hell of a lot better than coming to in the middle of a nightmare.”

  “Let me ask you a question, Alpha, and we can decide to proceed after that, okay?”

  Caleb nodded. “Go ahead.”

  “Do you want to give the people in Metro the best chance to survive or not?”

  “You said you don’t know if they’re still alive.”

  “Which means we should assume they are, don’t you think?”

  Caleb’s jaw tightened. He had forgotten how condescending Doctor Valentine could be. Maybe he shouldn’t have woken her up.

  “Okay. You win. Let’s go wake the others.”

  Chapter 3

  Caleb and Riley woke the Guardians as close to the same time as they were able. It left the stasis chamber echoing with hums and pops and gurgles, each of the machines running through their thawing processes almost in unison.

  Caleb remained near the door to the chamber. Riley stood beside him. They didn’t speak to one another, each lost in their own thoughts while they waited. Caleb wondered what the doctor was thinking. About what had happened, whatever that was? About how to move forward? They had never been friends, and he didn’t expect they ever would be. Right now, as before, they were reluctant allies.