Ark-13: An Odyssey

by B. B. Gallagher

  I explored my pod for twenty minutes or so, becoming acquainted with my new home. It didn’t take me long to spot the camera in the corner of my pod. At this sight, I felt immediately trapped. It was a feeling in my gut, one I didn’t like at all, and one that I would feel a lot more of. I flipped through some family pictures for strength. I said a quick prayer that we wouldn’t blow up during launch like the Challenger 60 or so years ago. Then an announcement sounded throughout the pod.

  “Attention all colonists. Please proceed to your bed, lie down and strap yourself in as we prepare for launch. I repeat, please proceed to your bed, lie down and strap yourself in as we prepare for launch. You will be administered hyper sleep in three minutes.

  So I lay on my back and looked over to either side of the bed to see the restraints. I strapped myself in as if I was about to embark on a roller coaster ride. I could hear a distant hum from the other side of the pod wall. The engines were powering up.

  I didn’t think about my family or any of my friends but of Cyrus Holder and the poor employees of GENESIS mission control that were sending us off and then waiting for doomsday. A harrowing feeling came over me as I laid there on my back, until a crimson gas started to spray into my pod.

  Every pod was undergoing the same procedure, I wondered how the other colonists reacted to it. It wasn’t every day you watched as a red cloud billowed toward you. And then as if I took five sleeping pills, the world faded and I was out.

  When I awoke we were already out of our atmosphere with Earth in the rearview mirror. I stumbled out of the pod, fighting the lingering effects of the hyper sleep and walked out onto the railing outside of my pod. A few other colonists had awakened and began exploring their new surroundings. After a treacherous walk across the Ark we gathered in front of the large observation deck. When we arrived we couldn’t believe the sight. There, against a black sky full of stars was our planet.

  It was the beautiful blue planet, where all of our loved ones went about their lives as if it were any other day. It was the beautiful blue planet where every memory had resided. That beautiful blue planet would be destroyed in 48 hours and we all knew it. We had a front row seat for the end of the world – but no one wanted it. I was going to have to rely on a fellow colonist like Meredith Jones to help get me through it.

  Chapter 33

  Day 25

  “What do you think they meant by Tomorrow Night It Will End?” Danny asked Jake, as they marched the Loop with their army behind them. A crowded mass of people followed them as the Insurrection made its way around the Loop and to the Stacks.

  “I don’t know… but I guess we will find out soon enough…” Jake responded with focused eyes ahead of him.

  “Junior! Elijah!” Jake barked back over his shoulder. Junior Posey’s bulky frame jogged forward to meet Jake’s side. Elijah followed and joined him on the other side.

  “Yeah. What’s up?”

  “You remember the plan. I need you two to pry that door open and I’ll slip through. If I can get on the other side of the Drop door, I can climb the ladder to the Bridge.” Jake spoke clearly to ensure that the plan was heard and understood.

  “Yeah, I got it.” Junior tapped a massive crowbar in his hand.

  They arrived at the bridge which connected the Loop to the Stacks. Jake stepped up on the bridge but stopped and turned to face the army behind him before crossing it.

  “Men and women of the new world, what lies past this bridge, I do not know… But we will stand firm in our resolve to oppose any force whether it be fellow colonists or GENESIS that infringe on our natural rights. When the founding fathers formed America they revolted on the premise that we as human beings have certain inalienable rights, imbued in us by nature and nature’s God.” Jake beamed down on the Insurrection before him with an unparalleled intensity. Heavy eyes looked back.

  “We have to fight for these rights. Because if we don’t we are no longer human and therefore humanity ceases to exist. If that is the case, then that asteroid that killed everything that we knew and loved took care of us too. Tonight! We fight against extinction!” Jake threw a fist in the air, to which the army did the same. Together in unison, the Insurrection stood as one. Jake spun on his heel and walked the bridge and out onto the floor of the Stacks.

  His eyes lifted to see all of the colonists gathered on either side of the railings, outside their pods. And then his eyes fell to what awaited them on the Stacks floor. Fifty or so enforcers, some of which had drawn electrostaffs, awaited them – Jim Booker at the forefront.

  “Well, well, well… if it isn’t our little terrorist cell… out for blood tonight?” Jim Booker mocked as the mob came to a halt thirty yards from the enforcers.

  “Jim, we are here to take the resources. GENESIS has not been just to us.”

  “Just?!” Booker squawked aloud. “They saved our lives!”

  “It’s better to die than to live here on the Ark. Where how you feel, not what you do will get you detained for treason. Where they plant a spy among us to ensure that we play by their wishes, yet remain silent. So yeah, Jim. I think it’s time we had a word with who’s flying this ship!” The mob behind him lifted their fists in the air. The insurgents began to shake, smacking their chests and allowing the adrenaline to course through their veins.

  “Alright, then. The Drop is right there.” Booker pointed behind him. “All you have to do is open the door and go on up.” Booker then squared his stance and activated his electrostaff, sending electrical sparks out of its top.

  “For Humanity!” Jake yelled one last time to his army, raising his fist in the air. He then dropped it forward.

  A war cry belted out through the Stacks and the Insurrection charged. Jake ran forward along with the mob, screaming as he approached. Thirty yards became twenty and twenty became ten.

  And then they clashed.

  Jake tackled Jim Booker to the floor and punched him over and over while he was on the ground. Booker kicked Jake from the ground, causing him to stumble back. Booker thrust an electrostaff toward him that only caught air, a second time Jake blocked.

  “Come on you bastard, give me what you got!” Booker taunted.

  Jake caught Booker’s electrostaff. They were locked in a stalemate, until Jake got shocked on the shoulder from another enforcer. Jake screamed out as his skin burned from the contact. He dropped to a knee in crippling pain. Jim ascended and towered over him.

  “You should have played by the rules…” Jim readied his electrostaff and jabbed it forward, catching Jake in the chest, pushing him backwards, burning a hole into his chest. Jake screamed out in agony. Jim gritted his teeth as he pressed it deeper into his skin. Electrical shock seized through Jake.

  Just as he lost hope, a chord wrapped around Jim’s neck. His eyes gaped wide as the wire bore down into his esophagus. Jake noticed it was someone’s holographic that was being used to strangle Jim. Jim gasped for breath and dropped his electrostaff. Just before suffocating, a hand smashed Jim’s head into the ground, knocking him out cold. Jake’s eyes lifted to his savior. It was Danny Ryder twirling his holographic chord in his hand.

  “Now, he deserved that!” Danny quipped, offering a hand to Jake.

  “Thanks buddy!” Jake spoke through heaving breaths. He wiped the blood from his face, smearing it and leaving a faint pink complexion to his cheeks.

  Danny nodded and ran through the fray seeking another fight.

  The fray toiled on but many colonists were knocked out while others were shocked into submission.

  Jake made his way through the battle, toward the Drop where Junior Posey awaited him. Posey nodded as Jake limped toward him. Junior could see Jake’s injury and shot him a concerned glance which was put at ease by an affirmative nod from Jake.

  No sign of Elijah. It couldn’t be done by one person, they would need two to separate the door enough for Jake to squeeze through any aperture created. Jake turned his eyes to the battle waging before him. It looked like the Ins
urrection may be winning, but many of his men and women were on the floor in shock.

  Then Elijah’s head popped through the crowd and toward them. His face was battered and bruised. His shirt was riddled with burn holes from electrostaff wounds.

  “You should see the other guy!” Elijah announced, pleased with himself.

  Immediately they both positioned themselves on either side of the Drop door and after a quick countdown forced their crowbars into the crease of the door. With all of their might, they pulled using any available leverage to pry the door open six inches.

  They strained as hard as they could as each inch grew more difficult. Then when they were twelve inches apart, Jake squeezed between them through the opening. As soon as he cleared, they let go of the crowbars and the Drop door slammed shut again.

  Jake was now on the other side of the Drop, closed off from the battle waging in the Stacks. His head hit the back of his shoulders as his sights ascended the ladder. Then his feet hit the first rung of the ladder. Pain surged through his body from his wounds, but it didn’t matter to him.

  He began his climb.

  After awhile a hatch came into view at the top of the tall shaft. He knew it had to be the Bridge and he knew he would be there soon.

  Chapter 34

  Day 25

  Jake kept moving, ascending the ladder one rung at a time. The shaft was tall, running the length of the whole Ark. He knew that he was now passing the Resource Bay, which would be on the other side of the wall. He didn’t want the resources though, he wanted the Bridge.

  He wanted answers.

  After an arduous climb and a series of crippling shocks of pain from his burnt flesh, he finally reached the hatch. The hatch was attached to the shaft ceiling and had a wheel knob, serving as the handle to the door as if it was a bank vault.

  Jake reached above him and winced in pain as his body stretched to grab hold of the wheel. He turned it one quarter revolution with all his strength. He adjusted himself and then forced it another half revolution. Turning it had become easier as it was loosened and it now spun with less friction. After three full rotations, he stepped up and put his shoulder into it, lifting it from the ceiling, where it fell back on hinges on the floor of the Bridge.

  Jake pulled himself through the door and quickly looked around the circular chamber.

  But there were none. Jake’s eyes searched the Bridge wildly, but there was no sign of anyone. The Bridge was a 360 degree room with windows lining each of the walls. At the Bridge’s center was a series of observation consoles where the surveillance feeds of the Ark played on repeat. He could find no captain’s chair. Only smaller chairs lining the bank of consoles in the core of the room. Jake couldn’t comprehend each console’s purpose upon first glance but after a moment of inspection was able to determine that each of them had the colonists as the subject of the data within them.

  He began pacing around the circular room that was the Bridge, surveying each monitor. He stopped upon seeing the surveillance feed of the fight waging below him in the Stacks.

  Jake then found what seemed to be the central command console. He looked down at the controls, eager to find some sort of map or radar that could help him decipher their location or the location of the crew.

  Then his eyes found a large file sprawled out on the console. It was a manila folder with different profiles of the colonists, including their vital outputs.

  “Why do they care so much about our levels?” Jake asked aloud, unable to make sense of it.

  But then his eyes moved to a large red button that was encased by a glass cover. He opened the cover, which illuminated the button in a bright red. He read the label and didn’t quite understand what it meant.

  THE END

  Jake remembered the sign on Meredith when she was returned through the Drop.

  “Tomorrow Night It Will End,” Jake pondered aloud. In a moment guided by pure instinct, his hand came over the button and pressed it hard.

  A siren went off immediately, blaring through the Bridge. By the look of the surveillance feeds, the alarm was going off all across the Ark. Then a robotic voice spoke.

  “Prepare for hyper sleep.” Jake stepped back, unsure of what he had just done. And then he saw the same red gas flowing out of vents all across the lower levels of the Ark that had been used at launch. Jake watched for a few minutes as the insurgents and enforcers below on the Stacks floor, collapsed, passing out from inhaling the hyper sleep gas. All across the Ark, people were now passed out where they stood.

  The Ark was now motionless, except for him.

  Then a side door opened. It was Cyrus Holder.

  “Congratulations Jake.” He had a wild smile. “Come and have a seat, we need to talk…”

  Jake was at first reluctant but wanted answers, and so he found a chair across from Cyrus Holder at the center of the Bridge. He was not restrained but he was too weak from his wounds to lunge at Cyrus to kill him. He was surprised to see him, given their last conversation.

  “You told me you weren’t going to be on the Ark! You lying bastard! You coward!” Jake yelled with such force that his voice cracked.

  “Jake, you have been the first to actively lead a successful rebellion, congratulations.”

  “What are you talking about?!” Jake’s fist tightened, but Cyrus’s expression remained blank.

  “As you have heard, I am dying. My company is up for grabs with no children to pass it on too. I told you under that tree that with great technology comes great responsibility. GENESIS Enterprises is the world’s leader in technology. We are the single most influential company in the world.”

  “What the hell do you want from me?!” Jake was shaking as he looked up into Cyrus’s eyes.

  “I want to give you my company.”

  “What company?! It’s all gone! There’s nothing left other than the Ark!” Jake exhaled with all of his energy.

  Cyrus pressed a button on the command console.

  Then a shudder sounded through the Bridge. It was the observation windows. Jake heard something moving, like a crank reeling back a curtain. Then a bright light came through the windows, striking him blind. The light grew more intense, consuming the whole window. Jake ascended from the chair and stepped toward the light.

  He could not make out anything coming from the stars but he could feel a warmth come over him. His blood flowed freely as if being released from a tourniquet. He found his feet and was shocked at each sight around him, trying to find some bearings in any sight as they came into focus. He spun, confused by his surroundings. It didn’t make sense. A sun shined through the windows of the Bridge. Green grass and trees rolled over the hills in the distance. Water glistened near the horizon. He continued his lap around the Bridge searching for answers.

  “Where are we?” Jake found himself, standing on the Bridge, no longer in a pressurized chamber of a space station. He was breathing fresh air, seeing natural light, feeling the fresh breeze blow through the windows over him. But then he looked down at the file on the central console that he had noticed before.

  Cyrus gestured toward the file, as if directing him to open it. Jake did so and focused on the first four words of the file header.

  ARK – Armageddon Research of Kodiak – Trial 13

  He then turned and gazed out of the window. A structure up the ridge came into focus. He couldn’t believe his eyes. It was the same GENESIS Hangar they had gathered in for orientation. And then revelation came to his lips.

  “It was all a simulation… We never launched…”

  Cyrus, then, reiterated something from their previous discussion under the tree.

  “People are suspended between humanity and technology. The lines are blurred so the question has become where does one end and the other begin? The problem is that line is so blurred now that no one knows what is real anymore…”

  Chapter 35

  Day 25

  “But why… why do all of this?” Jake’s shock seized his e
very word.

  “First off, we needed to test the effect certain technologies would have on society. The armports and holographics for instance. We needed to know how the public would react to having technology be a part of their physiological make up.” Jake saw that Cyrus did not have an armport. “But of course that was not the ultimate point to all of this madness. The objective was to find you…”

  “What?” Jake, still lost in his shock, tried to follow.

  “We needed to find someone capable of carrying on the torch of my company. Someone to shepherd this world into the future. A custodian of limitless possibility and power…”

  “What about the others…” Jake turned a concerned eye toward the monitors, showing the other colonists in hyper sleep across the Ark.

  “The others… they won’t remember this at all. They will go home with a headache and a small block of amnesia. The world will think they were in Haiti building houses with Alliance,” Cyrus explained, simply. Jake’s mind wandered to Meredith Jones and how she couldn’t remember anything and how her vitals indicated that she was erased of the last twenty five days.

  “But you can’t do that to people. It’s…” Jake’s eyes aimlessly searched the floor before him as the truth gained traction.

  “Wrong? See you have a sense of right and wrong. One I no longer have.” Cyrus paused a moment. “We have collected countless terabytes of data on each colonist’s vitals, looking for a specific model of action and reaction. One that would revolt the injustice we embedded in the simulation. One that would plan each action logically. One that would not be afraid to act on what they knew to be the right thing to do, no matter the possibility of failure. One that can lead others to become better versions of themselves. I’ve been looking for you, Jake.”

  “Me?”