Second Earth

by Stephen A. Fender

  Shawn, sensing her trepidation, leaned closer to her. “Nervous?”

  Melissa had begun to bite at one of her fingernails as she continued to stare outside the skimmer. When Shawn spoke, she removed her fingertip from her mouth and shook her head, as if his words had broken a momentary trance. “What?”

  “I asked if you were feeling nervous,” he smiled.

  She regarded him for a moment before turning back to the view. “Thanks for your concern, but I’m not sure what there is for me to be nervous about.”

  Shawn shrugged almost imperceptibly. “About what we might find out there.”

  Melissa looked out across the open plain that separated Delta Base from the destruction of Crystal City. The team still had roughly ten miles before they reached the outskirts of the city, but the spires of the Crystal Towers were already visible in the cloudless blue sky, jutting from a line of trees just in front of the personnel carrier.

  “This whole things has me on edge,” he said without looking at her. “I don’t mind admitting that it’s got me very, very worried.”

  The transport passed through a warm pocket of billowing air that ruffled Melissa’s hair into her face. She swept it away quickly, not wanting to miss a single detail of the city as it loomed closer. She admired Shawn for his strength, and even more for his ability to be honest about his feelings. She sighed deeply as she collected her thoughts. “To be perfectly honest, I am.” As Shawn turned to her, she smiled weakly. “Thanks, Shawn.”

  He smiled casually, letting a silence fall between them for a minute and then, as the carrier dipped down a hill, he gently pressed her for more. “Do you think you could be more specific about what’s eating at you?”

  She smiled to herself. “It’s my father. He was always like this with me when I was a little girl.”

  Shawn raised a single eyebrow with regard to her statement. “How so?”

  “Well, it was always difficult for him to tell me disquieting news. I think he felt I was more fragile than I really was.” She turned to face Shawn, smiling as the memory played in her mind like a movie. “Anyway, he would leave me little things like this,” she held the ID card case up briefly, then set it back on her lap. “He’d leave little notes that would direct me on a treasure hunt to find the answers.” She looked into Shawn’s eyes staring back at her. “I guess it wasn’t such a big stretch for me to go into intelligence after a childhood full of little adventures like that. The notes were mostly benign until my mother passed.”

  “What happened?”

  Realizing she’d opened this particular Pandora’s Box all on her own, Melissa knew she’d have to reveal the information to him. Besides, she’d wanted to for some time; now was as good a time as any. “She was a nurse…medical corps. She was on a cruiser…near the Epsilon Tiranan nebula…when—”

  Shawn reached out and gently covered her hand with his own. After all, he knew fairly well where this story was going. The explosion of the Epsilon star nearly twelve years ago lit up the skies of every planet in Beta Sector. It had happened with precious little warning. There had been a Sector Command fleet nearby, and a small resupply station just beyond the rim of the nebula. No one expected the star to suddenly explode, least of all the scientists sent to study it. The detonation wiped out three light-years of the nebula and sent shockwaves that were recorded as far away as Anchor. “A great, unpredictable tragedy of mother nature,” most had initially said concerning the incident. There were, of course, grumblings that something else had taken place, that a cover-up was hiding the truth, but nothing had ever come of the accusations. Shawn had known that William Graves’ wife had passed away before the Galactic War against the Kafarans, but he’d had no idea she was at Tiranan. After all, William had never talked about it.

  Seeing the pain in her eyes, he closed his hand around hers with added pressure. “I’m so sorry.”

  Melissa withdrew her hand from underneath his and wiped a tear from her eye as she collected herself. “Anyway, after my mother had died, he left a similar series of notes for me to follow around our home on Thress. The trail finally led me to a picture of my mother that he kept on his nightstand. There was a note affixed to it that said…to bring the picture to his study, where I found him waiting for me.”

  “That’s when he told you what happened?” Shawn asked, even though the question was rhetorical.

  Melissa nodded as another tear rolled down her cheek. She inhaled a sharp breath as she tried to hide her pain under the visage of the well-trained OSI agent she was. The skimmer dipped into a small crater in the road’s surface, and the occupants shuffled slightly as the carrier’s thrusters compensated for the slight drop. “I don’t want to find a note like that ever again, Shawn.”

  “And you think that’s what we’ll find in the city?”

  With her free hand, Melissa reached over and brushed the top of the hand he’d placed near her. “I hope not. I really hope not. Considering that we’ve found this first clue, it stands to reason there will be more, possibly many more, until we come to the final answer.”

  At that moment, Shawn wished he had the right words. He looked out beyond the sweeping forward windscreen and to Crystal City, to the northernmost buildings now only a few moments away, and realized that any further personal conversation would have to wait. “Whatever happens, I’ll be right there beside you.”

  She smiled. “Of course you will. That’s Krif’s standing order, isn’t it: to make sure I’m protected at all time?”

  “It is,” Shawn said with a nod, and then inspected his sidearm. It was one of the polished, silver blasters he’d kept in a safe hiding place back on Minos. He examined the weapon, not really checking for anything in particular. What he wished he could add to his statement was, “I’m not doing it because I was ordered to,” but the words didn’t have a chance to come out before Melissa spoke again.

  “I promise not to get into too much trouble,” she said sweetly.

  “I’m not sure I like that promise,” he replied, placing his weapon back into its holster. “A little trouble every now and then is good for the soul. Besides, it’s been anything but dull since I met you.”

  Melissa nodded. “So it has, Commander,” she said, and then turned her gaze back out to the side of the skimmer as the first crumbling buildings of Crystal City slipped silently past the personnel carrier.

  Laid out in series of concentric circles with the Crystal Towers at the heart of the sprawling metropolis, the city had once been one of the most beautiful establishments in Beta Quadrant. The buildings, most of them a consistent gleaming white, had shone like a beacon in the lush greenery that surrounded the place. Now the city was little more than a mess of collapsing edifices and land pockmarked with craters. Nearly one-quarter of the buildings the team had passed were crumbled into the streets, and there didn’t appear to be an unbroken stretch of pavement longer than twenty yards.

  The personnel carrier was currently traveling along a road that had definitely seen better days. It had large cracks and crevices in its surface, with dense overgrowth blossoming from portions that yielded fertile soil. Shawn could see that the sidewalks—once laid out meticulously—were warped and uprooted in places, making any prolonged journey across their surfaces perilous at best. The trees that had lined this particular street were long dead, having given up the last of their leaves many years ago. The thick trunks that flanked the streets remained standing, petrified monuments to the beauty that once was and would probably never be again.

  As the team continued down the wide road, they found they had to occasionally avoid the odd vehicle abandoned in the center of their path, or the collapsed building that blocked their way. From time to time they needed to slow the craft down, giving Shawn and the rest of the team ample time to survey what little was left of the downtown area. As Cal Vross had described back on Darus Station, there were few human remains here in the city. The occasional skeleton of a former inhabitant was lying exactly where h
e or she had fallen. Some were in their vehicles, others were on the streets and sidewalks, and still others could be seen inside any of the numerous storefront and restaurant façades the hover carrier passed. Still, it was easy to see that the vast majority of the population had died at Delta Base.

  “This place gives me the creeps,” Shawn heard Montoya’s Hispanic voice whisper from the front of the carrier.

  As the hovering carrier traveled through a four-point intersection and rounded a corner, the team was greeted by the site of a city park, its swing set long abandoned, the park benches blown over, and the once-fertile fields of grass having long since decayed to dust. Sergeant Adams nodded his head leisurely. “I hear that. And I thought the Icarus was spooky. The sooner we can get out of here, the better off I’ll be.”

  “Not afraid of ghosts are you, Sergeant?” Roslyn asked from beside Montoya.

  “Not usually, ma’am, but…I mean, look around.” Adams waved a hand out toward the former park. “I think this place qualifies as the exception to the rule. All these bodies—the ones here and the ones at Delta—they all died exactly the same way and at exactly the same time. What could have done that?”

  Lieutenant Commander Brunel narrowed her eyes as she contemplated Adams’ words. She craned her head over her shoulder at looked squarely at Melissa. “Some form of viral infection? A plague?”

  Melissa shook her head slowly. “I’m afraid I can’t say at this point. I’ve only got basic medical training; I’m not qualified to study these remains even if I did have the equipment to do so.”

  “And where exactly are we heading?” Raven asked without turning to face Melissa.

  “I’m not really sure.”

  Shawn turned to her in disbelief.

  “Really,” she whispered in defense of her words. “I have no idea where that address will lead us.”

  “Uh-huh,” Shawn nodded.

  Adams spoke up from the front seat and broke the momentary staring contest the two were holding.

  “So we need to take some samples back to the ship?” he asked cautiously.

  Melissa stoically nodded. “Precisely, Sergeant Adams.”

  Pushing down thoughts of disrespecting the dead, Shawn visibly shuddered. “I volunteer you for that task, Agent Graves. There’s no way I’m touching those bodies.”

  Melissa frowned at him and then faced the Sergeant again. “Once we get to our destination, I’ll need you and Private Montoya to collect some bone samples for analysis back on the Rhea.”

  Adams shifted his eyes to Shawn nervously.

  “Don’t look at me, man. She’s the one in charge, or so she likes to keep reminding everyone.”

  Resigned to his task, Adams looked back to Melissa. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Roslyn, do you think you could assist them? I need samples from both male and female bodies, as well as…any children or animals you come across.”

  At the mention of the word “children,” Raven turned and looked at the OSI agent sadly. In fact, the word cast an even more somber cloud over the entire team. It was one thing to think of the bodies as merely free-thinking adults, but to realize there would have been innocent children involved as well seemed to sadden the already dark mood the group was experiencing. “Of course,” she replied softly with a nod.

  Sergeant Adams spoke up from the controls as the carrier began to slow. “We’ll be at the coordinates in about five minutes. It’s just up here on the right.” He pointed a thick, dark finger at a rather unspectacular-looking intersection.

  “Very well,” Melissa took out her map once more and began tapping commands into the computer screen. Within seconds, a list of schools, parks, and pet stores came into focus. There were several of each nearby, but none seemed to be close to one another. She plotted the directions from their current coordinates and handed the map to Raven. “Meet us back here when you’ve…found everything you need.”

  Roslyn inspected the map for a few moments before she addressed Adams. She inputted a series of commands, and the latest sensor readings from the Rhea were overlaid on the map. Several of the most direct routes were blocked, so she knew they’d have to take the long way around. “We’ll need the skimmer to get to a few of these locations.” She then turned to Melissa. “Will you two be all right on your own for about an hour or so?”

  Shawn turned to Melissa. “Oh, I think we can handle ourselves.”

  “Agent Graves?” Roslyn asked, seemingly unconvinced by her commanding officer’s remark.

  Melissa looked to Shawn, then pursed her lips and nodded. “I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

  Roslyn gave the unlikely pair a furtive glance and then turned her attention back to the slowly narrowing road before them.

  Once they had arrived at their destination, Adams parked the personnel carrier in a clearing near an undisturbed patch of sidewalk. Shawn climbed out of the back, offering Melissa a hand and helping her out of the craft. As her boots landed on the pavement, she could feel the years of dust and neglect being crushed under her diminutive weight. She was instantly reminded that the last people to set foot on this soil were probably dead, and that they were now treading through a perilous graveyard of dilapidated buildings and occasional corpses. Even the dust itself could have been pulverized bones. Mindful of Shawn’s thoughts on the matter, she decided in that moment to treat with reverence everything she touched. As she turned her attention from her feet to Shawn, she could see understanding in his eyes. As if he had read her thoughts, he nodded solemnly.

  “We’ll be back in less than two hours, Commander,” Roslyn said as she produced a communication transmitter and tossed it to Shawn. “Call if you need anything, Skipper.”

  “Will do.”

  “Good luck. Both of you,” Raven said, and added a relaxed salute. And with that, the carrier made a sharp U-turn in the street and sped off toward their first destination: one of the schoolhouses Melissa had located. When the carrier rounded a distant corner and was out of sight, Shawn turned to Melissa.

  “Where do we go from here?”

  Melissa looked around the desolate street. Most of the buildings on this block were over five stories tall. Nearly all the windows had been blown out, and glass glittered in the streets like a river of diamonds. Several of the façades had large cracks in them, some stretching nearly the entire height of the structures. Doors were open or smashed, dead trees were toppled, and the light breeze flowing through the decaying buildings gave off a slight howling noise that she found oddly disquieting. She exhaled slowly, not realizing that the breath was punctuated by hesitation.

  “What about you?” Melissa asked hesitantly.

  Shawn scanned the abandoned street, not sure what he was looking for. “What about me what?”

  Her back was to him as she scanned the interior of a nearby building through a shattered pane of glass. “You…aren’t afraid of running into any ghosts, are you?”

  Shawn found himself chuckling, despite the eeriness of their location. “Well, if we do, that weapon of yours isn’t going to do anything to dissuade them. I don’t think ghosts are particularly concerned about bullets.”

  Melissa was silent as she gazed into the decrepit storefront. It looked like it used to be a department store, with mannequins lying in haphazard poses of preformed plastic agony. “It’s the stillness that gets to me, you know? We’re in a city. There should be children playing, people coming and going, sirens and bells or other such things.”

  Shawn reached out a hand and gently placed it on her shoulder. She jumped under the contact as she twirled around to face him. Instinctively, she’d raised a hand to strike at what had caught her off-guard—a knee-jerk reaction born of her intelligence operative training. All at once she felt the familiar foolishness she had been encountering nearly every time she was around the commander. “Sorry, Shawn,” she offered as she lowered her hand slowly. “I didn’t mean to—”

  He placed his hands on her shoulders. “There are no such things
as ghosts, Melissa.”

  “I know. I know. It’s just…”

  “Creepy?”

  She nodded as she folded her arms across her chest, as if her core temperature had suddenly become uncomfortable cold. “For lack of a better term, yes. It’s very creepy.”

  He pursed his lips, then scanned the buildings around them. “You’ll get no argument from me there. So let’s find what we came for and get the hell out of here, okay?”

  “Yes. Okay. Very good,” she said as she followed his gaze nervously.

  He gave her a tiny shake to bring her focus back on him. “We’re gonna be fine. You’re gonna be fine. They’re just bones, remember?”

  She huffed and smiled. “You know, I’m a rated expert in clandestine operations and physics. I hold high marks in mineralogy, computer operations, diplomacy, and general intelligence procedures.”

  “Diplomacy, huh?” Shawn repeated. “I never would have guessed it.”

  “Yeah, I do,” she offered with a weak smile, not catching the sarcasm in his otherwise-warm tone. “But when it comes down to it, I mean when it really comes down to the bottom if it, just because I’m smart enough to know better doesn’t mean my body believes what my head is telling it.”

  Shawn moved one hand from her shoulder to gently cup her cheek. “I’m right here. Nothing is going to happen to you while I’m around.”

  “A premonition?”

  “A guarantee.”

  His dashing smile began to melt away the fear. She smiled, taking his hand in her own. “You know, for someone whose most recent occupation outside of Sector Command skirted the borders of legality at times, you make a pretty convincing hero.”

  “Maybe I’ve simply been reformed?” he suggested with a smirk.

  She looked deeply into his eyes. “No, I’m thinking the exact opposite.”

  “Oh, how so?”

  “If I could be so bold as to say—”