by Richard Fox
“Nothing now that we’re never going back to Earth,” Jerry said nervously. “It wasn’t anything bad. Not that bad.”
Hale rubbed a temple, feeling a headache coming.
“Sit, both of you,” Hale said. Chairs squeaked as they took spots around the table. “There are forty thousand people on this mission that are counting on me for leadership and answers right now. You’re part of that number, so help me help you and don’t add to the problem set, you understand.”
“I haven’t shared that with anyone,” Elias pointed at the slate.
“The situation is developing,” Hale said. “I’m trying to get more information before I figure out a solution. Jerry, you’re in the Junior Scouts, what did you learn about something like this?”
“Leaders develop the situation and act decisively. Commander’s intent is always the first planning factor,” Jerry said, reciting from memory.
“And what are we doing here?” Hale asked.
“We’re going to join the colony on Terra Nova,” Jerry said. “But…the colony’s not there, is it?”
“The city is there,” Hale said heavily, “the people are not.”
“Uncle Jared’s missing too,” Elias jerked a thumb at his brother. “I wanted to meet him, see if he’s as bad as this Jared.”
“I wanted to see my brother,” Hale said. “Been a lot of years and now that I’m finally here…doesn’t matter. We have a job to do. We’re going to figure out what happened and make sure the planet is safe for everyone before we unload the colonists.”
“What about the Chirstophorous?” Elias asked. “Why didn’t we go for the first wave’s ship before the city?”
“You don’t have access to the ship’s sensors,” Hale said. Elias’s face scrunched up in frustration. Hale took his own data slate out of a pocket, tapped the screen and slid it across the table to his sons. An image of a mostly bare frame hung over Terra Nova’s frozen moon. Elias zoomed in on a cluster of boxes on one spar.
“Empty cargo according to the sensors,” Hale said. “No bridge. No nothing. The ship was modular, meant to be used to build the colony soon as they arrived. The Enduring Spirit is built the same way. There’s nothing to learn from the Christophorous.”
“Are going home? Back to Earth?” Elias asked.
Hale leaned back and crossed his legs.
“We’d need a Crucible gate and years’ worth of data before we would even know if that’s possible,” Hale said.
“Then…we build the gate,” Jerry said.
Hale’s headache arrived. He never lied to his sons about the hidden aspects of his work in the Pathfinders or with this mission. When the conversation touched on something sensitive, Hale’s go to response was all ways “I can’t say.” His sons knew to stop asking about the subject. But now that they were in Terra Nova, the old rules had to change.
“Elias, that information is top secret,” Hale said.
“Come on Dad, it wasn’t that hard to figure out,” Elias said. “Omnium reactors to build the gate thorns. Unnecessary graviton measurement equipment delivered under heavy guard. Off the grid data stacks in vaults. Why else would we need all of that unless we were going to build our own Crucible?”
“I told him about the servers,” Jerry said. “Heard about it from a tech at the gym.”
“Yes, we have the tech to make a Crucible,” Hale said. “But we can’t churn one out in a week and expect it to get us back to Earth. The gravity tides open the jump window every few years, if it would even work out here. It’s all very experimental. Don’t get your hopes up. Could you imagine being cooped up in these quarters for years?”
“You don’t have to share a room with that one after one of his onion binge sessions,” Elias said.
“They help with post-workout recovery, Poindexter. You try lifting something heavier than a data slate some time and you wouldn’t have pipe cleaners for arms,” Jerry said.
“You learn some basic hygiene and—”
“We’re not going back to Earth,” Hale said. “Get it out of your minds. We brought the Crucible tech to get to the next star, expand the colony to another planet when the time was right. Have I ever quit a tough situation?”
“No,” the boys said.
“And why not?”
“Because you only fail when you quit,” Jerry said.
“And Hale’s aren’t quitters,” Elias finished.
Hale’s slate beeped. He looked at the incoming message and stood, refastening his utilities.
“The Pathfinders are coming back from Terra Nova,” Hale said. “You two stay out of trouble. Love you both.” He left without finishing his dinner.
****
Despite having devoured two extra bars each on the flight back up to the Enduring Spirit, both boys sat in the ship’s main conference room, shoving grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans into their mouths. Carson was slightly concerned they’d make themselves sick but didn’t have the heart to stop them from eating.
After they’d showered and Moretti had managed to find them clothes that more or less fit, Nunez had promised to burn the filthy ones and jettison the ashes into space. The boy’s hair hung in long, unmanaged strands that they had to constantly brush back out of their way.
“We’ll need to set you boys up with haircuts soon,” Carson told them just before the door opened and Director Hale strode into the room, obviously frustrated, his face stoic.
“Alright, Chief, let’s hear it.”
Carson nodded to Stephen. “This is Stephen and his brother, Tony. Two brave little boys. Go ahead, Stephen. Tell my boss what you told me.”
The boy looked away for a moment, then seemed to steel himself and repeated the story he’d told Carson back at the data center, stopping where Shannon had left them.
“We dug through the Christophorous’ crew manifest during the return flight,” Carson said. “There’s no one by that name—or a Knight—but they gave us her description and they identified this woman—” Carson handed the director a data slate displaying the picture of a woman in her early forties, “—as Shannon. She was listed as Genevieve Delacroix,” Carson added. “Education specialist.”
“I know who this is,” Hale said. “She was an intelligence operative during the Ember War. Some of my Marines had a run-in with her on the Crucible…they were certain they saw her die too.”
“Earth sent spies on a colony mission?” Carson asked.
“She didn’t work for Earth; she worked for Ibarra.” Hale shook his head. “A galaxy away and that bastard is still making my life difficult.”
“Sir.” Carson gently cleared her throat and leaned toward the director. “There’s a part to their story that I left off my initial report. Given the sensitive nature, I wanted to tell you in person and in priva—”
“Boys,” Hale said, stepping past her, “you are both very brave and I’m glad you’re here on the Enduring Spirit with us. We’ll get you into your own quarters as soon as the doctors look you over.”
Tony poked his brother on the shoulder.
“Can we have cocoa?” Stephen asked between mouthfuls of mashed potatoes.
“All you can drink.”
“Thank you, Mister…”
“Hale. My name is Hale.”
The boy stopped chewing, dropping his fork to his plate with a clink. With a bestial cry, Stephen launched himself out of his chair and scrambled across the table, voice cracking as he yelled. He lashed out, bringing his fists down on Hale in a fury of attacks.
Carson cursed, jumping to her feet as Hale shouted, backing away from the assault.
“Give me back my mommy and daddy!”
Carson managed to get her arms around the boy and pulled him away from the director.
“You took them away from us!” the boy shouted, lashing out with his feet.
Moretti stepped up and helped restrain Stephen.
“It’s OK,” Carson told him. “It’s OK. Stop. It’s not—d
on’t bite me!—it’s a different person named Hale!”
The boy refused to calm down until Hale stepped out of the conference room. Once Carson had him settled and assigned Moretti to keep an eye on the fuming child and to remain close by for support, she followed Hale into the corridor outside.
“I’m sorry, sir.”
Hale dabbed a handkerchief to his lip and pulled it away. Blood seeped from a small cut, his bottom lip already starting to swell.
“What the hell was that?”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you, sir. He seems to think Hale—not you, of course—is the one that’s behind what happened to the colony.”
“I just got coldcocked by a scrawny little kid who looks like he hasn’t had a decent meal in months. Maybe a little more heads-up next time.”
“Sorry, sir. I didn’t want to put that information out on the network until we could verify what he was saying.”
Hale pulled the bloody handkerchief away from his mouth.
“Hale,” he said. “He must mean my brother, Jared. No, not possible. Jared would never do this. He was a soldier, a leader. He came to Terra Nova to be an engineer. This doesn’t make any sense to me…and you kept his name out of your report. Why?”
“Sir. I-I…” Carson stood at attention. The last time Hale had spoken this much to her was after her court-martial, and this conversation was going about as well. “I thought if the crew heard your name in conjunction with the hostiles, it would create some confusion. Erode your position in the chain of command.”
“I can decide what does and does not affect my position and my crew, Chief Carson. Thank you very much. You don’t have a record of pristine judgment, so the next time you think you have a better grasp on any situation than I do, think again!” Hale threw his bloody cloth into a garbage bin, then planted his hands on his hips.
As he looked out a viewport to a red star in the distance, Carson caught his reflection. His mask of command had slipped, and she saw a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, one dealing with unthinkable news about his brother.
“You have anything else to add about Jared?” Hale asked.
“All the boys know is the name and that it’s connected to Negev,” she said. “Negev is the fifth planet in the system, just on the edge of the habitable zone. But it’s a dead rock. Slightly warmer than Mars, incapable of supporting life. I think Shannon might have lied, told them something to give them hope.”
“I believe it,” Hale sighed. “But believing anything Ibarra or his operatives say is always a bad idea. We’ve run probes across the entire planet and the moon. There’s no sign of the colonists anywhere. The Christophorous is a shell—nothing to glean from there. Negev is our only lead for now.”
“How do we get there?” Carson asked. “Our ships are essentially barges. It would take them years to make the journey and none of the Mules have the range.”
“You’ve been on my ship for a total of what? Four hours?” Hale asked.
“Closer to three, sir.”
“And you think you’ve seen everything? Report to Bay Nine with your team and get to work.” Hale double-tapped a screen on the back of his hand. “Marie. Key leader and department head meeting in ten minutes. No exceptions.” He walked off.
Carson sucked in a breath to call after him, then reconsidered. She had a new task and was still in charge of her team after this interaction with Hale, which felt like an important step forward. She could only make things worse by asking more questions.
****
Meetings are the enemy of getting things done, Hale thought to himself as he waited in the hallway outside the Spirit’s main conference room. Calling a hastily emptied cargo bay a “conference room” was a bit of a stretch, but he wanted to address the mission’s leaders at once. To do any less was to invite rumor and speculation, and if anything would foul up the workings of a large organization, it was the confusion and second-guessing that came from rumor and speculation.
He heard his wife through the open door, doing her best to field questions while Hale prepped some difficult news for every ship—and everyone—in the fleet.
Hale motioned to the guard at the door and she signaled to Marie.
“The director,” Marie said as Hale walked into the room. There was a groan of chairs as the department heads stood up around a U-shaped table. Behind them was standing room only for their deputies and everyone else who’d been told to show up.
The room stayed eerily silent, all eyes on Hale as he walked into the space between the conference table’s parallel sections.
“Be seated,” Hale said. “This day has not gone as planned. We made a successful wormhole jump. We are right where we’re supposed to be, but Terra Nova is not as we expected. The XO told you everything the Pathfinders learned?”
Marie nodded quickly.
“So, you believe the children’s story?” asked Raygen Bosch, the mission’s ranking medical doctor. “I’ve seen the report on these hostiles from the Pathfinder team. Their basic structure is based on the doughboy technology, without a doubt. How the hell did that happen?”
“At least one Ibarra operative has been identified as part of the first colony,” Hale said. “That Ibarra chose to meddle with the mission should not come as any surprise to us.”
“Why would Ibarra secretly send doughboy pods with the colonists?”
“Marc Ibarra does things that only make sense to Marc Ibarra. And at this point, why he sent them isn’t as important as why they’re so different now. They’re based on the Mark III sure, but other than that, their externality is strictly alien. Something we’ve never seen before.”
“But the Qa’Resh said there wasn’t supposed to be anyone else out here!” one of the engineers said.
“And why did they take the colonists?”
“Are they still alive?”
“Listen, people,” Hale said, keeping his cool. “I don’t have all the answers. Believe me, I wish I did. I know this isn’t what you signed up for, but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt, and unfortunately, we don’t have any other choice. There is no retreat. No one is coming to help us. It’s only us out here. And we have a situation to address.”
Hale swiped his fingers down his forearm screen and a holo of the six ships appeared in front of him.
“Our ships aren’t meant for long-term occupation. We planned to disembark the families within the first hours of our arrival. Didn’t take long for you all to realize how uncomfortable the berthings were after everyone came aboard. We have emergency food stores for a few months; after that we’d have to rely on what hydroponics can manage and I’ve done the math. We’d have to jettison most of our equipment for food and nutrient tanks. Even then, we’d be on a severe calorie restriction.” Hale let that sink in.
“We have a number of options,” Hale said. “We can try and found a new city on the main continent of Terra Nova.” He tapped his forearm screen and the holos changed to a globe of the planet. “We don’t have much weather or seismic data, but from what we can tell, the first colony set down at the best spot. Climate modeling shows the eastern coastline is prone to hurricanes. The north will be covered in snow seven to eight months out of the year and the mountain ranges to the west are on par with the Rockies back on Earth and bone dry. The longer we wait to find a place for a city, the worse it will get for those of us still up here.”
“How much of a threat are those things the Pathfinders encountered in the city?” asked George Handley, Hale’s top void construction engineer and a decorated former Strike Marine.
“Undetermined,” Hale said. “We haven’t seen any more moving around the city since our team extracted.”
“No firearms? No obvious leadership?” Handley asked. “Doughboys without a handler are little better than a pack of savages looking for something to break.”
“Another option is to retake the city,” Hale said. “Power, shelter, hydroponics, foundries—it’s all there. While most ev
ery adult on this mission is a veteran, not all of you have been through combat. But as this situation unfolds, it’s looking more and more like that may well be our only option. If we don’t fight for our new home, no one else will.”
Hale paused, looking over the faces of his staff. Some nodded, others shook their heads, but none offered objections. The respect Hale commanded—not only in this room, but in the entire fleet—was palpable.
“We came to Terra Nova to build our home, and we’re not going to let a bunch of feral doughboys keep us cowering in our ships. We need a militia, first to scout out just how strong the enemy force is, then to sweep and clear any and all hostiles. XO Hale has gone through our roster for commanders, but first, are there any volunteers?”
Handley stood up, his meaty arms pressed against the table.
“Sir, I’ve fought Xaros drones, Toth warriors, and those damn Ruhaald on more than one system. If you think I’m not going to take the opportunity to crack skulls for the sake of my family and the rest of you, I will be very disappointed,” he said.
“Any objections?” Hale asked. “Good, see the XO and draw whoever you need for a recon company. We’ll need to spin up the foundries and churn out weapons and armor for the troops.”
Hale addressed the rest of the room.
“We’re all veterans here. Not every man and woman in the fleet is a former Strike Marine or Ranger, but we know how to fight. We all came to Terra Nova prepared to do a job, but I’m going to call on you to do more than what you expected. Once the city is secure, we will begin off-loading specialist personnel and equipment and begin the process of ferrying the noncombatants down to the surface.”
“There’s another option,” a small woman said from her seat at the end of the table.
Anger stirred in Hale’s heart, but he fought it back.
“No, Ms. Tanner, there is not,” Hale said.
“The gag order was in effect only until we reached Terra Nova,” she said. “I doubt there are any spies in this room prepared to send a message back to Earth’s enemies.”
“There are forces hostile to us in this system,” Hale said.
