Project Columbus: Omnibus

by J. C. Rainier

  She could hear a sigh of relief escape his lips. “Thank you, Captain. I was hoping you wouldn’t hold a grudge.”

  “It’s not about us, it’s about them. We band together, everything goes smoother. Agreed?

  “Agreed.” He gave a fleeting smile, and then turned back to the setting sun.

  “Something else is wrong, isn’t it?”

  The corner of his mouth stretched downward in a solemn grimace and he nodded. “I’m sorry. There’s no other way to put this, but we’re completely alone now. Sea water got into the battery compartments and shorted everything out down there, despite my efforts to seal it up.”

  No power. She shook her head. “Any hope of repair?”

  He shook his head again. “Even if I could dry out the batteries, which would probably take weeks, it’s all going to be corroded to hell once it dries up. These cells were never meant to be taken apart. I don’t think we can do much to clean them up.” He placed a firm, calloused hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Captain. Without juice we can’t run the radio. We have no way to call your father. Or the other ships.”

  She slowly lay down on the top of the pod and looked straight into the darkening blue sky. A numbness began to spread within her. “It’s okay, Seth. It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault.”

  He paused a moment before replying, “Captain?”

  “Call me Haruka. Let’s just drop the rank. It’s just you, me, and Jenkins left.”

  “If you insist.” He fell silent and watched her, apparently waiting for some form of response. “Are you okay?”

  “No. Why should I be?” She waited for him to answer, but only the shouts of adults summoning their children to dinner greeted her ears. “Being here has only brought hardship and heartache for most of us. Some have been extremely fortunate to only experience a little, like the Bryants and the Reibers. For some of us, well,” she laughed nervously, “I wonder how we make it day to day. Aidan and Marya. The Serranos. The Eckerts.”

  “The Kimuras,” Leight added.

  “This isn’t about me or Dad,” she shot back.

  “Then you’re lying to yourself.”

  Haruka rolled to her side and propped her head on her elbow. Sergeant Leight had his eyes locked on her, and behind them she saw a softness she had never seen before.

  Crap, she thought. Now he’s going to give me a speech about how it’s okay to take a moment for myself or some other psychological bull.

  “Don’t you even,” she warned.

  He laughed and glanced at the sky for a split second before returning his attention to her. “No, Captain. I’ve seen your type too many times. Officers who are driven to achieve their own insanely high standards of perfection and performance. I know better than to try to convince you to join reality. Reality will do that to you soon enough.”

  “Then what?”

  “I was just trying to get your attention when I said that.”

  She scowled at him and was taken aback for a moment at his admission, but then nodded and prepared to listen. “Alright, it worked. You have my attention.”

  “Perfection and performance to you is measured by the success and happiness of those around you. You love to see people flourish. I’ve seen how you smile after you’ve talked to the Bryants, Reibers, or Vandemarks. But when something goes wrong for anyone that you know, and sometimes those you don’t really know, I see it eat at you. Those two orphan kids…”

  Haruka sighed. “I can’t even begin to tell you how terrible that is. To be in a strange place is hard enough on a kid, but to be there without your parents must be a nightmare.”

  “See? There you go, you’re doing it.”

  Haruka began to get irritated with the sergeant. “So what? It’s the truth.”

  “You passed them off from couple to couple,” he noted coolly.

  “Because Marya beat the living shit out of Gabi,” she retorted. Her hand clenched, but she barely noticed.

  “Speaking of, how are she and Maria doing?”

  “I couldn’t really tell you. Maria will maybe say four words to me on a good day. And Gabi’s changed. I rarely see her anymore, and when I do…” Haruka shook her head and bit her lip.

  “Kid’s going to have a hard life, that’s for sure. More so than anyone else in the village.”

  The village.

  It was a simple term, but used more frequently by the band of survivors. Every day it seemed as if the concept of Camp Eight being their permanent home had taken hold just a little more firmly. Conversation about survival on the planet had changed over the weeks since the destruction of the sleeper ship. The question of where the colonists would go had disappeared and been replaced with debates about where to build farms, or how to design fishing boats with the minimal tools available.

  “Where are you at, Captain?” Leight asked, stirring her from her thought.

  “The village,” she replied. “And I already told you to drop the rank.”

  “Fine, Haruka, whatever.” He paused. “What about it?”

  “Just thinking about how everything is progressing.”

  “Is there something wrong? Should I get James or Troy?”

  “No,” she replied, waving her hand dismissively. “Everything’s actually going quite well. Other than when the planet throws an interesting new problem at us, like these ‘supertides’, or whatever they’re called. There is something you can do for me, though. I didn’t want to bring it up until now because of the fresh wound.”

  “What’s that?” Leight asked, cocking his eyebrow.

  “My staff is short one person right now. With Luis gone, I have no Chief of Security. I’d like to offer you the position.”

  Leight shook his head and grimaced. “There’s no need for that. The village is secure. What would I even do with a title like that?”

  “See if you can find out what happened to Lon Carney. If he’s still alive, take him out. But until we know where he is, the village isn’t safe.”

  “I already told you I’m going to bring him in alive if I find him, Cap… I mean, Haruka.”

  “As long as whatever you do ends with Camp Eight being safe from that prick, I don’t care.”

  “Fine, I’ll take the job. I see you’re still planning every last detail that you can think of.”

  “Just making sure that all of the pieces are in place, Seth.”

  “In place for what?”

  “When I die,” she replied, holding back the bitterness.

  Leight’s mouth opened and he let loose a torrent of unintelligible stammering. He composed himself, then growled, “You’re not dying.”

  “Doc says if I’m not, I’m still probably going to be horribly sick. You think I’ll be in any condition to run the colony if I can’t even get out of bed?”

  The sergeant climbed to his feet and crossed his arms. The reflection of the sun off of the water behind him looked like a brilliant orange fire, and the dark silhouette of Arion hung just over his left shoulder.

  “Just take it one day at a time. You have no idea what you mean to these people. They look up to you. What do you think they’ll do if they find you’ve just gone and given up?”

  “I can afford to now that you’ve accepted the position and we’re all finally one colony. And they’ll do fine without me. They’ll have to.”

  “You’re a real piece of work, you know that?” Leight muttered. He continued to grumble under his breath as he traversed back to the hatch and climbed back into the shell of the dead pod.

  Capt Haruka Kimura

  Planetfall + 36 days, mid-morning

  Camp Eight

  “This is unbelievable,” Troy beamed as he wiped a finger over the thin, white crust that had formed on the trunk of the tree. He brought it to his mouth and sucked the tip of the finger.

  “Now you’re licking trees?” she looked at him, incredulous.

  “Just try it,” he grinned.

  Haruka shrugged and ran her index finger alo
ng the trunk of the giant palm. Tiny white crystals sloughed from the bark and stuck to her finger. She dabbed it on the tip of her tongue. The tang of salt burst forth in her mouth, almost as if the air itself had somehow concentrated on her tongue. She did not believe what she had tasted at first, and repeated the ritual a second time for her affirmation.

  “Salt?” she asked.

  “You bet. And this tree hardly has any on it, because we’ve already harvested it. You should see some of the ones farther down the beach,” he replied. His eyes twinkled and his grin stretched his wrinkled, burned skin even wider.

  Haruka leaned to her left and looked through the dense row of trees that ran alongside the dead sleeper pod.

  “And you’re telling me it just grows on trees?” The words seemed ludicrous to Haruka, even as they escaped her mouth.

  “In a way, I guess.”

  “Salt. Growing on the bark of a tree. On what planet does that make sense, Troy?”

  “Demeter,” he replied without a pause.

  “I guess I walked into that, didn’t I?” she groaned.

  “Want to know how?”

  If that smile of his gets any bigger, his head’s going to explode.

  “Alright, go for it,” she replied.

  Troy rubbed his hands together and he cleared his throat, though his face remained contorted by his proud grin. “I was wondering how these trees along the shore stay alive if they get flooded from time to time by those supertides that we saw. I mean, that kind of salt getting in the ground back on Earth would do serious damage to plants, but these things here are huge.” He jerked his thumb skyward. “Every day I’d come say hello to these buggers and just look at their leaves. Green as the day before. And the day before. Well, then one day as I’m leaning on one of them, these little crystals flake off onto my hand. I’m probably the world’s biggest idiot for sticking something in my mouth without thinking about it, but I tasted them. Tasted like salt.”

  “You’re not the only one who’s done something like that since we got here,” she interrupted, recalling that Gabi had eaten pepperines before anyone had identified them as edible.

  “I know,” he continued. “Anyway, I gathered some up and took them to Charlotte to see what she had to say about them.”

  “I’m sorry, Charlotte the science teacher?”

  “The very same. Anyway, she came down to look at the trees and we talked a bit about them, and she says that it’s salt. Just plain, simple salt.”

  “That grows on trees,” Haruka added.

  “Right. Charlotte says that the trees absorb the sea water when it floods, and then over time they sweat the stuff out. I’m guessing since there aren’t any huge mounds under them that it probably builds up at their bases and then most of it gets washed out to sea when it rains hard enough.”

  “How much salt are we talking here, Troy?”

  He leaned against a palm and folded his arms. His posture and smug grin reminded her for a brief moment of Marco Mancini. “Enough for the colony. Enough to season our food. Probably enough to preserve fish and meat, so we can keep a steady source of protein if there are any lean times.”

  If this planet’s going to eat our pods, I suppose this is the least it can do to pay us back.

  “Great work, Troy. Let’s get someone out here to collect it.”

  She heard someone clear their throat, and Troy looked up and behind her. Haruka glanced over her shoulder to find James Vandemark lurking by another nearby tree. He scratched at the beard on his cheek as he beckoned to her. She took four steps and reached his side.

  James leaned close in to her ear. “We have a problem. Come with me.”

  Haruka sighed and nodded, then pardoned herself from Troy. James turned from the beach and took the boot-worn trail up the hill to Camp Eight, with Haruka only a few steps behind. They emerged from the jungle into a clearing on the shoulder of the hill, occupied only by dozens of stumps, the beginnings of a few log huts, and a timber longhouse that had yet to receive a roof. James led her through an empty door frame and around a short partition wall, into the main room of the building.

  “What are we looking at here, James?” Haruka asked as she surveyed three overturned storage crates in a haphazard heap on the floor.

  Crates of supplies were stacked against the rough-hewn log wall, serving as rests for dozens of axes, saws, and other hand tools. Thinner arches made from a smaller species of tree spanned overhead between the walls, forming the skeleton of the longhouse’s roof. The structure ended at the arches, as suitable roofing material had yet to be stretched over the rafters.

  He shuffled his feet and scratched at his right cheek. “Theft.”

  “What’s missing?”

  “Looks like food, mostly. But it could be anything: clothing, tools, ammunition. We keep everything here, and I won’t know for sure until I run another inventory.” James shook his head and rubbed his chin pensively. “This is not how I wanted to spend my day today.”

  “It needs to be done. You know that every last scrap that we scavenge from the jungle has to be accounted for.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “I don’t suppose you saw who did it?” she asked in the vain hope that the thief was as careless as they were bold.

  “I didn’t see it. Doctor Petrovsky heard the commotion and came to check it out. He saw the guy running like a bat out of hell when he got here.” James scratched his cheek again.

  Haruka grimaced and her stomach knotted. James’s nervous tell spoke volumes about the situation. She glanced at the mess and back to her Chief of Operations.

  “What is it?” she prodded.

  James seemed to shrink and deflate as he sighed. His shoulders slumped and he avoided eye contact with Haruka. “The doctor said that whoever did this was armed.”

  “Armed,” she parroted.

  “With a rifle. He saw it clearly as the guy ran away.”

  Lon Carney, she thought immediately.

  “Shit, then Ken’s lucky to be alive.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Doctor Petrovsky couldn’t have caught Carney if he had tried, so why would he gun him down in the middle of town? Why attract Leight and the security staff? Or one of the scouts?”

  “Why did he gun down Luis?” she spat back with a snarl.

  James simply shrugged and replied, “Maybe you should ask him next time he gets hungry and strolls in here for a snack.”

  Haruka growled and kicked an empty crate, sending it hurtling through the air, almost to the far end of the longhouse. It clattered to the floor with a racket and kicked up a cloud of dirt as it slid to a stop.

  “This cockroach has killed one of my friends and survived alone in the jungle for how long now, two weeks?” She waited for James to nod in acknowledgement. “Believe me, if I knew when he’d be coming back, I’d be waiting for him.”

  “I know, Haruka. I know.”

  “Get Seth. I need to talk to him right away.”

  James bowed slightly and left the incomplete building in search of Seth Leight.

  Calvin McLaughlin

  26 May 2058, 12:05

  Michael

  Cameron’s a smart guy. I need to thank him for this idea later.

  “Seriously, this is taking forever,” Alexis complained. “Now I’m being a good sport about this, but if you don’t take this damn blindfold off soon I’m going to start thinking that you’re doing something really creepy.”

  Alexis remained in the position that Cal had prepped her in; her arms were folded across her chest, her legs shot straight out and her ankles were crossed so as to keep her straight as a board, which made her look as if she was doing a back float in a pool. An unused cleaning rag had been fashioned into a blindfold that wrapped around her head. Cal carefully maneuvered her by the elbow up and over the forward railing on the bridge’s command platform. It took all of his control to keep her moving in the direction that he had wanted.

  “I know,” he replied. “I’m almost d
one. I just didn’t want to ruin the surprise, and this is a little trickier than I first thought.”

  “What exactly are you doing, anyway?”

  “You know how we were just below the bridge when I put the blindfold on, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, you’re on the bridge now. Just trying to get you seated before I take the blindfold off.”

  “Yeah, I figured that out already. But what are you doing?” she asked again.

  “Keeping a promise that I gave you,” he replied with a smile, even though he knew that she couldn’t see it.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see.”

  She sighed, and her lip curled into a mocking pout. “Fine.”

  “Bend your knees like you’re sitting.”

  Alexis untangled her ankles and brought her knees up. Cal rotated her with one hand, and then flipped her forward. He fine-tuned her position over the seat of the nav console, and when he was satisfied with her alignment, he pushed her slowly down. Alexis landed in the seat almost perfectly, and Cal slipped one strap of the harness over a shoulder.

  Tetris with humans, he mused silently before taking a seat next to her. Once he was secure, he reached over and untied the blindfold, which drifted away. Alexis rubbed her eyes and looked out of the front of the canopy. Her eyes popped wide open, her jaw slacked, and she gasped audibly.

  With a smug grin, Cal turned and took in the scene that had Alexis at a loss for words. On the left side, near where the canopy glass curved and stopped at the engineering stations, Alpha Centauri B could be seen. The globe was much larger than before, now nearly the size of a grape. She had seen the star before, and Cal knew that her focus had been drawn to a small green and blue semicircle just to the left of the center glass. It looked similar to a picture of Earth that Cal had once seen as taken from the Moon, only smaller, and the land masses were unrecognizable. Any doubt that this was the planet Demeter would have been erased by the two dark dots creeping at a snail’s pace across its equator.

  Cal pointed at a tiny dot about the size of a pencil lead. “That closer moon is Arion. I’ve seen the pictures that the probe sent back. It’s really dark colored, so we think that it will barely be visible at night, even on a full moon.”