Earthbound (The Reach, Book 1)

by Mark R. Healy

  “Like two lost little stray cats finally wandering home,” Hildi said, her voice sounding very nasal from the respirator that covered her nose, held in place by thick black straps around her ears. Below, her red cheeks puffed out at the edges of her smile. She pressed Knile and Talia closer and Knile was wedged uncomfortably between a thick arm and one of her pillowy bosoms.

  “Hello, Hildi,” Talia managed to get out as the air was all but squeezed from her lungs.

  “You know these two, Hildi?” the guard said uncertainly.

  “Course I do,” Hildi said sharply. “Do you think I just go around hugging random people for the hell of it?”

  “Uh…” he began, but Hildi ignored him.

  “What are you doing, my young ones?” Hildi said, releasing her death grip a little and allowing Knile and Talia to breathe again.

  “We need to see Giroux,” Knile said. “Is there any way you can get word to him?”

  “I can do better than that,” Hildi said. She looked over at the guard and waved a hand imperiously. “Stand aside, please.”

  “But Hildi, they don’t have any permits–”

  “Oh, stand aside, James,” she said, shouldering past the startled guard with Knile and Talia in tow. “Don’t make me call your mother. She wouldn’t be pleased to know you’re giving poor old Hildi ulcers.”

  “Uh, okay,” the guard said, and then, dazed, turned back to interrogate the next people in line.

  Hildi led them under the outer folds of the taut white material that served as the skin of Grove, separating the foul outside air from the pristine environment inside. They joined a group of around ten others waiting in the airlock, and as the doors were closed and sealed, a warning horn blared. Hildi spread her arms wide.

  “Mornin’, all!” she cried, a deafening sound in the enclosed space.

  There were scattered greetings in return, and Hildi offered them all a smile. Then the jets went into action, sucking out the bad air and replacing it with the good. Knile’s shirt flapped against his skin, and Talia lifted a hand to keep her hair out of her eyes as it whipped around her head. In a few seconds the turbulence died down and the door opened on the other side to the sound of another warning horn.

  “So, you two,” Hildi said, dragging the respirator from her face and taking a deep breath, “did you finally decide to come back and work for me?”

  Knile opened his mouth to answer, but then stopped abruptly and stared up at the interior of Grove. It was like stepping into another world. Gone were the drab grey and brown hues of the poisoned city outside – here there was colour as far as the eye could see. Refulgent green apple trees bore shining red fruit and rows of cabbages and carrots ran away from them in perfect lines. Stalks of corn stood tall and leafy. In patches there was even the glimmer of carnations and roses and other bright flowers. Above it all, the pale canopy of Grove’s outer skin encompassed everything before them.

  “I forgot how damn beautiful this place was,” Talia said, removing her respirator.

  “Well, you shouldn’t have stayed away so long, darlin’,” Hildi said. “Why don’t you follow me and I’ll find something to keep those hands busy?”

  “Hildi, I can’t,” Knile said with real regret. “I’m very short on time.”

  “Oh, Knile,” she said, her features clouding over. She lifted a hand to his face. “You in trouble again, boy?”

  “Aren’t I always?”

  Hildi smiled. “You wouldn’t be Knile if you weren’t in some kind of mischief.” She turned to Talia. “What about you, Talia? You messed up in this as well?”

  “Not this time. I’m just trying to help him on his way.”

  “I don’t want to know anything more,” Hildi said, holding up her palms. “Follow me and I’ll take you to Giroux. Hopefully the old bastard is awake by now.”

  She led them down a sandy pathway that wound through the oasis, and Knile was reminded of why there was so much security around Grove. The place was a living, breathing treasure. The crops that grew here were unparalleled in their richness and purity, a level of quality that rivalled the halcyon days of Earth. Considering how many people outside were starving or living on toxic scraps, the value of the plants that jutted from the soil beneath this dome was not much less than their weight in gold.

  “He’s probably in Section Three,” Hildi said as workers in light grey overalls edged past from the other direction. “Been spending a lot of time there lately. Had a leak that almost killed off the little lovelies a few weeks back.”

  “Is everything okay?” Talia said.

  “It should be. He’s worked greater miracles in his time.”

  They came to the wall of the first enclosure, and Hildi expertly tugged on a zipper that opened an aperture in the membrane. She indicated for them to pass through. Sealing the opening once again, she strode past them and continued to lead at a brisk pace.

  “Not far, now,” Hildi said. This enclosure was smaller and the ceiling lower than the first, and it lacked any tall plants whatsoever. They made it across in only a few strides and then entered the next habitat.

  “There he is,” Talia said, pointing down a row of strawberries. Knile saw him then too, a tall man with thinning golden hair and a stubbly beard. He was bent over the soil and hadn’t seen them yet.

  “So he is,” Hildi said. “Giroux himself. This is where I leave you, then.”

  She held out her arms and embraced each of them in turn.

  “Thank you, Hildi,” Knile said. “I really appreciate this.”

  “You’ll visit the boy before you go, won’t you?” Hildi said firmly, glancing at each of them in turn. Knile and Talia exchanged glances.

  “Of course,” Talia said.

  “I think that would be for the best,” Hildi said.

  “We will, Hildi,” Knile said. “Thank you again.”

  Hildi nodded, then disappeared through the wall of the habitat and back the way she had come.

  “Come on,” Talia urged. “Let’s do this.”

  They strode toward Giroux, their boots thumping purposefully on the firmly packed sand of the path. Giroux heard their approach and straightened, wiping his hands on his grey overalls. At first his face betrayed no emotion, but as they neared he couldn’t prevent a broad smile from spreading across his face.

  “Look what the cat dragged in,” he said, reaching out one of his massive hands and shaking each of theirs in turn.

  “Nice to see you too, Giroux,” Knile said.

  “What’s it been? Three? Four years?”

  “About that,” Talia said.

  “I heard you were dead, Knile,” Giroux said, twitching his eyebrows humorously.

  “That story seems to have gone around a lot,” Knile said. “Luckily it’s untrue.”

  “So I see.” Giroux turned to Talia. “And what about you, Talia? Haven’t seen you in almost as long. You risen from the dead as well?”

  Talia shrugged, embarrassed. “I’ve been around. Just doing my own thing.”

  “There’s still a place for you here, if you want it. You know that.”

  “Thank you, Giroux,” Talia said. “I appreciate that, but I’m doing fine on my own.”

  “Never one to accept help when it’s offered, that one,” Giroux said to Knile conspiratorially, as if Talia wasn’t there. “I’ve tried, believe me.”

  “Well, I could sure use some right now,” Knile said.

  Giroux narrowed his eyes playfully. “This doesn’t sound good. What is it you need?”

  “I’m going back to the Reach.”

  Giroux considered that, rubbing at his large broad chin as he did so. “That’s not a good idea, Knile. Not a good idea at all.”

  “A day ago, I would have agreed with you, but since then everything’s changed. There’s a passkey waiting for me, Giroux.”

  Giroux glanced at Talia doubtfully. “For real?” he said.

  Knile nodded. “Yes. Word came from Jon Hanker himself.”
r />   Giroux turned and dug his hands into the soil, massaging it between his fingers.

  “They’ll be looking for you, Knile. The Enforcers, I mean. You know that, don’t you?”

  “I can handle them, once I’m inside. I just need someone to get me in the front door.”

  “And that’s where I come in.”

  “Yes. I figure you’re my best bet, Giroux.”

  “You’re asking a lot, Knile. Do you know what they could do to me if they knew I was helping you out? They could march five hundred men over here and wipe me out. Not even my security crew could stand up to that.”

  “I know, but you don’t have to vouch for me in any way. I’ll make it look as though I was acting alone.”

  “So what’s your plan?” Giroux said, taking a scoop of soil and placing it carefully in a clay pot.

  “Do you still make daily supply runs into the Reach?”

  “Of course.”

  “So what if I dressed as one of your gardeners and went along with the convoy? If I was caught, I could say that I stole the uniform without your knowledge. You’d be blameless.”

  “Maybe,” Giroux said. “It’s an awful risk, though. There’s a lot of eyes watching over at the gate.”

  “Like I said, I just need a foot in the door,” Knile said. “Once I’m inside, they’ve no hope of finding me.”

  “That’s what you said last time,” Giroux said, winking at Talia.

  “They didn’t find me last time.”

  “Oh? So how did the plan unravel?”

  Knile simply shook his head. “There’s no time to go into that. Your supply runs always leave in the morning, right?”

  “There’s one headed out in less than an hour,” Giroux said.

  “So can you help me?”

  Giroux sighed. “You did a lot for me in the past, Knile. I can’t deny that. Your ability to acquire useful items was… unparalleled.” He chuckled. “I still haven’t found someone who can do the things you did.” He looked at Knile soberly. “But this is huge. This is a one-off. I could jeopardise my whole operation if this went bad. You know that.”

  “It won’t,” Knile assured him. “If I go down, it will be alone. I wouldn’t put you and Hildi and the others in danger like that.”

  Giroux nodded. “Then all right. I agree to it.” He pushed away from the edge of the plot. “Come with me and I’ll get your gear sorted out.”

  “Thank you.”

  Giroux began to lumber away and Talia and Knile followed.

  “I still don’t know why you’re in such a damn hurry to leave this place,” Giroux said. “It’s not so bad at times.”

  “What about you, Giroux?” Talia said. “Surely you must have made a fortune selling stuff to the Reach all these years. This produce is incredible. It always has been. Surely you could buy yourself a Sponsor by now.”

  Giroux stopped abruptly and turned to face them.

  “Hah, creds. I don’t see many of those for too long.” He looked around him. “Grove has gotten too big. Too unwieldy. It’s costing me more creds to keep it running than what I make from the sale of the produce. Look at all these workers. Their wages add up. Then there’s security. There’s maintenance.” He pointed up at a worker on a cherry picker spraying something onto the interior of the domed roof. “That polymer coating is driving me broke, but it’s absolutely necessary. Prevents tears in the outer membrane.”

  “Hildi said you had a mishap recently,” Knile said. “A leak in the roof?”

  “I’ve had more than one. It’s a constant battle.” He shrugged and then resumed walking. “Then there’s supplies from off-world, fertiliser and equipment and the like. It all adds up. I should really scale Grove back, make it a more manageable size, but I can’t bring myself to rip anything out. Not for the life of me. But the day is coming when I won’t be able to sustain it anymore, and that’ll be the end of it. It will all fall apart around me.”

  There was a great sadness in his voice, and Knile knew that it must have been hard for Giroux to admit this to anyone, let alone himself.

  “I built this place from the first brick,” Giroux went on. “Did you know it started in something the size of a shed? It fit in my backyard. The whole damn thing. It wasn’t even called Grove back then. It was just a little box where I made a few plants grow. Pretty soon after that I knocked down my house and started living inside the habitat, and sold enough to buy the house next door to me. I knocked that place down too, levelled it and started expanding the garden. Built the first dome with the money I made, just a small thing, but it was a start. To see it now, what it’s become… it fills my heart with pride. With joy.” He looked at them each in turn. “I could never leave here. This place is everything I ever wanted. While it thrives, I thrive. And when it dies, so will I.”

  Giroux led them through a couple of other habitats before reaching a long and narrow enclosure that was darker than the rest. Judging by the clutter of tools on walls and on benches, this was a storage area of some kind. Giroux waited for the only worker present to leave, then sealed the entrance behind them.

  “One of my workers passed on last month,” Giroux said, rummaging under a bench and producing a neatly folded stack of clothes. “Cancer, I think. Took him too young. He spent too many years breathing and eating toxins outside before he came to me. He was a good man.” Giroux sighed and patted the garments fondly, then shrugged. “Anyway, I haven’t registered his passing yet. His ID will still be in the system. It won’t stand up to close scrutiny, since you don’t look much like him, but if you’re lucky they’ll let you through with the rest of my men.”

  Giroux dug into one of the pockets and pulled out a clear slip of plastic with a tiny golden chip inside.

  “You kept his chip?” Knile said, mildly surprised.

  Giroux shrugged with a hint of embarrassment. “Sometimes they come in handy.” He gestured to Knile. “For times like this. But I don’t know how you’re going to embed it under your skin. We don’t really have the equipment here for that.”

  “No need. I can transfer the data without physically implanting the chip. All I need is a holophone and ten minutes to do it.”

  “Simple as that?” Giroux said, smiling.

  Knile nodded. Changing identity was as simple as changing clothes for someone with skills such as Knile’s, now that he had the chip in his possession.

  “Thanks, Giroux,” Knile said, taking the overalls and slipping them on over his regular clothes.

  “I have to say that I don’t like it,” Giroux said, his smile fading. “That ID is only good for a small zone inside the Reach. They’ll figure it out pretty quickly. You won’t be safe.”

  “Don’t worry, Giroux. This won’t come back on you. I promise.”

  Giroux rattled through another box and handed Knile a battered holophone.

  “I take it you could use one of these, then?” Giroux said.

  Knile took the holophone and turned it over in his hands. “Sure. I was going to see if I could get hold of one on the way, but this will save me the trouble.” He ran his fingers over the cracked screen and it began to shine dully. “Does it even work?”

  “Hold on,” Talia said, grabbing her own holophone and holding it up. “What’s the number?”

  She fidgeted with the settings on Knile’s holophone and found the information she sought, then punched the details into her own phone. The connection went through and Knile’s phone began to ring.

  “Seems fine,” Knile said. He pocketed the phone and finished shrugging into his new clothes.

  “You’d better hurry if you want to leave with the shipment,” Giroux said. “That’s assuming you don’t want to change your mind and stay? Like I always said, there’s a place for you here.” He turned to Talia. “For both of you.”

  They shook their heads sadly, and Giroux gave them a faint smile. “I thought you’d say that.”

  Knile began to walk away, but stopped at the sound of Talia’s voice
.

  “Knile,” she said. “Don’t forget Roman. We need to go see him before you leave.”

  “The kid?” Giroux said. “Of course, let me take you to him.”

  Knile took a deep breath as Giroux led the way, struggling with the thought of what he was going to say to the boy after all these years.

  8

  Giroux led them to another enclosure, where smaller plants and saplings were being nurtured by a dozen or more workers. He pointed at a skinny youth carrying a large potted basil plant not far away.

  “There he is,” Giroux said. “You have a few minutes before you need to be out front for that convoy, Knile. Don’t be late. Good luck to you both.”

  He shook each of their hands in turn and then left the enclosure, pulling the zipper closed behind him. Talia looked at Knile helplessly.

  “I have no idea what to say to Roman,” she said. “What do we tell him?”

  “I’ve been thinking about that myself,” Knile said. “I’ve got nothing.”

  “Do we apologise, or just go straight past that and try to ignore it?”

  Knile grimaced. “I don’t think–”

  “Hey.” Knile turned, his mouth hanging open mid-sentence, to see Roman standing there, a basket of herbs clutched in his arms. The boy regarded them calmly between strands of thick black hair that hung across his face.

  “Uh… Roman,” Knile said. “Hi.”

  Talia stepped forward and linked her arms around Roman’s shoulders, attempting an awkward hug.

  “So good to see you,” she said. “You’ve grown so big.”

  “What are you guys doing here?” Roman said, making no attempt to return Talia’s gesture. His voice carried not an ounce of warmth.

  “Just passing through,” Knile said. “We thought we’d drop in to see how you’re doing.”

  Roman looked Knile up and down. “Why are you in that get-up?” he said in reference to Knile’s gardener garb. “Are you working here now?”

  “No,” Knile said. “I guess it’s a long story.”

  “Well, I don’t have time to hear it,” Roman said, pushing past them. “I’m on the convoy this morning and I’m running late.”