Corrupted

by M. J. Kaestli

  Once he stepped into his chamber, the technician strapped him in. He nearly jumped when he felt needles pierce his skin. The camera had moved to the next person in line, and so he risked speaking to the technician.

  “Is this all really necessary?”

  “Yes. It is for your safety,” they replied, almost robotically. The technician finished off and shut the door. The oddest sensation came over him mere seconds after the door was closed, and then he was asleep.

  Chapter 23

  Colin

  “Colin. Colin. Can you hear me?”

  Colin tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids had never felt heavier.

  “Are you Colin 485?” asked the strange voice.

  “Yes,” he said in a barely audible whisper.

  “I have been instructed to wake you. Can you open your eyes for me, please?”

  Colin tried again to open his eyes but was unsuccessful. A hand was on his forehead, and pried his eyelids open. If that mere thing had not been enough of a shock to his system, a bright light was shone into his eyes. He jerked his head away wincing, and closed his eyes tightly.

  “I need to examine you, Colin. Please let me check your eyes,” she said. Colin moved his head back, and prepared himself for the bright light again. “Follow the light with your eyes if you can,” she said, and moved the light around. “Tell me your name and ID number, please.”

  “But you just said it,” Colin replied.

  “Tell me your name and ID,” she said in a more commanding voice.

  “Colin 485, happy?”

  “What is your duty here?”

  “I am to set up communications,” he answered.

  “Can you move yet?”

  Colin raised his arms first. It was much more difficult than he could have imagined. He was lying on his back, still in the chamber, yet the needles and straps had been removed from him.

  “Take your time. Don’t rush it. Try moving each of your limbs for me.”

  He did as ordered, continuously surprised by the strain. Never before had he felt so weak, but everything worked.

  “Alright then. Keep moving slowly. I don’t want you to faint or fall.”

  Colin worked to sit up, aided by the person who woke him. Once he was standing, she helped him climb out of his chamber. It was a young woman helping him, and she was much smaller than he was. Unfortunately, she was not much help to him when he lost his balance and toppled onto the chamber beside him.

  “Oops,” he said, nearly lying on top of the neighboring chamber. “Don’t suppose you were going to wake them up next. I can be so helpful at times.”

  “Are you hurt?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “She will not wake up until her chamber is deactivated. If you are not hurt, then there is no harm done. Just take it easy. What you are experiencing is normal. You will be dizzy and disoriented.”

  Colin steadied himself. This chamber had created a new obstacle for him. He decided it would be easiest to lay face down, and then push himself up on all fours. As he got onto his hands and knees, he looked down at the lightly fogged glass seeing the face of the sleeping co-traveler. Colin drew in a sharp breath.

  “I know her,” he said.

  “Of course you do. You are coupled, are you not?”

  “No,” he blurted.

  “Oh, must be my mistake. Are you ready to stand yet?”

  “I think so. Maybe you should stand clear though. Don’t want to take you down with me if I fall.” He then pushed himself off Ida’s chamber.

  The small woman unlatched a compartment on the side of his former chamber and retrieved a tablet. “Here, this is yours. It has been preloaded with your instructions. You will also find a map of the ship, and where you can find clothing and rations. I have much work yet to do. I will leave you here.”

  “Leave? Don’t you just wake up the next person in line?” Colin then looked around, getting a grasp of his surroundings. Not a single chamber that he could see had been opened, other than his own.

  “No, I have a list, an order I am to wake people in, dependent on their civil duty. Medics were awakened first, and now we have our lists of who is to follow.”

  “Why not just wake everybody?” he asked. She looked frustrated, at him; he was obviously slowing her down, yet he couldn’t bring himself to care.

  “Because it would unnecessarily use up our rations. Everyone could quite easily survive for years in these chambers, as long as the ship has power. We are waking people as they are needed. Being that you are in communications, you came right after the scientists.”

  “Well, I guess I should feel special then.”

  “If you like,” she replied, and turned on her heel and left him standing there.

  Colin leaned against the chamber for support and turned on his tablet. “Oh good, it works. Yay, I get to eat and get dressed, I think,” he said to no one in particular. “Why yes, I am aware that I am speaking to myself, but I rather enjoy my company.”

  The truth was, after being in solitary confinement for so long, he was desperate for someone to talk to, now that he was not fearful of losing his life. The tablet was clearly laid out. There was one icon labeled civil duty instructions, and one labeled map. He tapped on the map, and instantly saw it had a locating device, showing him where he was and where he needed to go.

  “Well, would you look at that. I am a dot, and this dot is clothing, and it wants to lead me there.” He began to walk slowly. “This is sure handy. Another reason why they won’t need Security here—this map will just show everyone where to go.”

  His mind instantly went back to a fond memory of Freya. When she told him how their society would fall into anarchy if Security wasn’t there to give everyone instructions to walk to their destination. An instant pain took him, and he leaned against a chamber. “Pull yourself together, Colin, and get to work. The sooner you get this going, the sooner you get to see her.”

  ***

  Once he had dressed and eaten some rather foul-tasting dehydrated food, he opened his instruction icon. It seemed to sync instantly with the map and directed him to another area of the ship. Simply walking down the stairs was difficult. He couldn’t understand how he was so tired, why all movement felt so fatiguing.

  The dot was bringing him to somewhere at the edge of the ship. As he drew closer, he could not help but notice how different the air was. It was like nothing he had ever smelled before. The hall became lighter, and he realized what the difference was: it was air coming from outside.

  He approached the open doorway, stepped into the opening, and closed his eyes. Colin inhaled deeply and let out a sigh of pure bliss. It was nearly intoxicating, the scent and the sensations combined. The sun shone on his skin, and a light breeze kissed his hair, sending a tickling sensation through him. He knew there was work to be done, but he needed a moment. He would take just this one delicious moment, breathing deeply, his eyes still closed.

  “I take it you are Colin,” a voice spoke from the ground, disrupting his moment of utter Zen. He opened his eyes and looked down to find two men on the ground near the doorway below him. Without a response, Colin climbed down the short ladder and stood on the ground. A rather large tent had been set up off to the side of the ship. “It’s about time they woke you. We’ve had to do all the damn work around here for the past week. Could have used more muscle around here. I told the medics to wake you sooner, but they had their orders—afraid to mess with the system. What crap.”

  “I take it you are one of the scientists?” Colin asked.

  “Yeah, and the first one they woke up. I had to start unpacking everything on the ship before most of the other team had been woken up.” He scoffed. “Whoever planned this whole thing had their head up their asses, the whole lot of them.”

  Colin was taken back by his statement. He blinked rapidly, trying to process what he had just said. Never before had he heard someone say anything against the State out in the open, with so much disdai
n.

  “What? You going to report me for saying that?” he said. “Good luck to you. Ah, you Security type are all the same—sniveling little weasels. Well, I have news for you. The State has abandoned you here. You were probably some big shot back there. Well, that don’t mean shit here.”

  “Hi, I’m Colin, and I feel like we have somehow gotten off on the wrong foot. I don’t usually have people hate me before I have had a chance to speak. It doesn’t generally take too long after, though I think this might be a new record for me.”

  It was now the scientist’s turn to blink in surprise. “Yeah, suppose we have.” He scratched the stubble on his face. “I’m Aakil.” He held out his hand. Colin closed the gap between them and shook his hand. “I have set up the tent, which was a task that really needed more than two people. We need to start to unload the equipment into it.”

  “Why haven’t you got more help?” Colin asked. “There has to be at least a hundred people on this thing.” He pointed to the ship.

  “Yeah, more like three-hundred, but those medics won’t stray from their instructions. I don’t even have my entire team out yet, let alone people who could help with manual labor,” he spat.

  Colin realized that he had a million questions to ask, yet this Aakil character was in no mood to answer them. If he had been the first person to go to work, he might not be too thrilled either. “So what would you like me to do?” Colin asked.

  “Look on your tablet. Get to the supplies that we need, and start to unload them into the tent,” Aakil answered.

  “My tablet brought me to the door—I don’t have any further instruction.”

  “Then I guess your job is to do what I tell you,” Aakil replied.

  “Then you best come inside and show me what to haul out,” Colin said.

  Aakil just glared at him for a moment, sizing him up, and then without saying another word, walked into the ship. Colin followed.

  ***

  Almost a week had passed since Colin had been woken up. A few laborers had been awoken, but Aakil’s temperament did not appear to improve. Yet again, no one seemed to be in a pleasant mood. There was an uncomfortable silence among the people. Colin was not used to being anti-social with his peers, yet he also kept to himself most of the time.

  It was not just the fact they were unfriendly, but also his own drive to perform. He had already done his task—the radio had been built—and so he simply asked for instruction daily from Aakil as to how he may be of help. Aakil was building something much larger right next to the radio, but Colin was afraid to ask too many questions. Part of him started to feel useless, and the irritability of the small crowd had spread.

  If this radio could be built in less than a week, then why was I sent? It was nothing beyond Aakil’s capability either, something Aakil liked to remind Colin of often as he worked. Two more people were woken, both with the duty to set up a water filtration system. Colin helped them with their task; they shared their next job with him, to set up a meat smoker and area to store the food and water.

  They told him an agriculturist was to be woken next, to start to look for edible plants and herbs, all to go into the shed. Colin was assisting the others, when he heard them calling to the newest arrival from the ship. Colin came around the corner, and saw Ida, with tear-streaked cheeks in the doorway.

  “Ida, down here!” he yelled to her. Colin thought she might find comfort in a familiar face, yet she turned away and burst into a loud sob.

  “I see you have a real way with the ladies.” Aakil patted Colin on the shoulder. “Best you go sort her out. I wish I could say I am looking forward to when my girl wakes up, but who would really want to wake up to this place? I suppose her reaction might be the same.”

  Colin opened his mouth to protest, to tell him she wasn’t his girl, but there was no point. He was right about one thing; it was best he go to her. He walked back into the ship and found she had not traveled far. Ida was curled up, sitting against a wall, still sobbing heavily, her tablet on the floor in front of her.

  Colin approached slowly. Something about a crying woman always unnerved him. He crouched down near her, but didn’t feel comfortable touching her, nor did he know what to say.

  “Yeah, no one is terribly thrilled about this assignment.” He settled down onto the floor near her. He figured this would take awhile.

  “I can’t believe they would do this to me, to us, all of us,” she said between sobs, still not looking up at him.

  “Look, I know it sucks, and we will have to work really hard and stuff, but things will be back to normal soon enough, you’ll see,” he said in the kindest, most reassuring voice he could manage.

  “Back to normal?” she nearly shouted. Her head snapped up to stare at him. “How could anything be normal again? They took everything from us!”

  Colin wanted to slide away from her. This sudden burst of anger frightened him a little. He took a deep breath and held his position.

  “Yes, but we will get it back. It will just take some time,” he said softly. What Ida did next sent a tingle down his spine: she laughed. There was something in his statement she found funny, but he didn’t understand what it could be.

  “You are a piece of work, Colin.” She laughed again. “You had me so fooled. I thought you loved Freya.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” he asked.

  “You will never see Freya again, and things are just going to go back to normal?”

  “What are you talking about? I’m going to see her as soon as we finished setting things up around here. She is going to be one of the next ones to be sent.”

  Ida’s face fell at his words. She shook her head and stared at him. “You don’t know, do you?”

  “Know what?” he asked, his temper starting to build.

  “What about your tablet? Did you not watch the video?” she asked.

  “What the hell are you talking about? What video? I turned the damn thing on, and it told me how to get clothes and food and what to do. There wasn’t a video.”

  “What did they tell you before you came?” Her eyes filled up with tears again.

  “About coming here? Not much—set the place up, and then they send more.”

  “Where do you think we are, Colin?” Her voice rose into nearly a yell again.

  “I don’t know. They didn’t tell me exactly where. Like not a former country or general direction or anything. They just said this area had less damage; it was healthier, and we could live here,” he explained.

  “Former country? What planet do you think we are on?” She gripped his arm.

  “What planet? What planet do you think we are on? Earth, you lunatic.” He shook his head. Her hand on his arm tightened, and she started shaking her head so violently her body jerked. “Whoa, Ida, I think you need to see a medic.” He nearly jumped. “Wait! Your chamber was right beside mine. I fell on you—I must have damaged something, knocked it loose. We have to get you to a medic right away.” He tried to jump to his feet, but she reached out with her other hand, and with both hands pulled him back down.

  “No, Colin, I don’t need a medic.” She looked at him intently for a moment.

  There was something crazy behind her eyes; it scared him. He knew he could not find a medic; he would have to just stay with her until they were found. She definitely had something wrong with her, but he couldn’t just leave her like this.

  When his body relaxed, her grip loosened on him also. She lowered her hands; they trembled as she picked up her tablet. Colin leaned in closer to look; it was best he see what had scared her. Her tablet had three icons, where his had only had two. What had been missing from his was a file labeled Welcome.

  Colin took the tablet from her and tapped on the icon. A video began to play. The head of State’s face came onto the screen.

  “Greetings, colonists, and I welcome you to your new home. I trust that you have arrived safely and are excited to embark upon a new journey. The first thing I wish to sa
y to you is how grateful every single citizen of the State is for your great sacrifice. There can be no progress without great loss, and now is a time for great progress. Your names will be recorded in history; in fact, by the time you watch this video, they already will be, your bravery and value held high among our people. You have all been trained, and trained well for the task ahead of you. You will find your duty similar to the one you held here, yet I cannot even comprehend the differences you will experience. The colony world which you are to build, I do believe will become the new home to most of our population. We are all depending on you back here. You hold the fate of our nation in your hands. I do trust you all to make well with our new world, although I fear I will not be alive to see this great day.” He paused in his speech, his eyes moistening.