The Last Builder

by Simeon Graves

  “I don't have an ulcer.”

  “It would be unnatural if you didn’t.”

  “I don’t remember appointing you health monitor.”

  “Just making sure you stay alive. Sue me.”

  “Everything’s gonna be fine. But I tell you, the sooner I can get out of this suit, the better.”

  “Walk me through what you’re doing.”

  “Not much to walk through. I’ve got a bomb here that attaches to a fold-out stand with crampons underneath. I connect a few wires, run a diagnostic test, set the timer, and then run like hell.”

  “Terrific. Just tell me how close you are to being done.”

  “I’m done.”

  “Huh?”

  “I told you, there’s not much to it.”

  “Ok, now what? Do I count down or something?”

  “For what? It’s done.”

  “I just thought that maybe it deserved a bit more—”

  “Fanfare?”

  “Ceremony.”

  “Later. I’m coming back now. We’ll have just enough time to get off-planet and watch the magic happen from above.”

  When he was inside and finally able to take off his helmet, Katherine’s smile could’ve outshone the sun.

  “Do we get to name it?” she said, taking his helmet and following him back to the cockpit.

  “Name what?”

  “The planet, dummy.”

  “Huh,” he said, taking off his gloves. “I guess it is up to us, isn’t it?”

  “Victoria?” she said.

  He smiled at her. Her eyes were those of his Katherine, his daughter, and in them was everything he’d ever fought for.

  “Not very planet-like.”

  “You prefer something stale and Greek?”

  “Victoria it is.”

  “Victoria,” she repeated, hopping into the chair next to him and strapping in. “Victoria will be known as the first planet created following the KV Event. Everyone will want to go there.”

  “Let’s get it terraformed first before we start writing the history books.”

  He punched in the start code for The Artemisia and flipped a few buttons on his side of the panel. He looked over at her and nodded. Most of the ship’s piloting was left to its computer system, but he still felt the thrill of adventure whenever he gripped the throttle and thrust it forward. The Artemisia lifted off as smoothly as could be expected in the winds that raged outside the ship’s walls. A gust nudged them to the side, but the ship’s gyros were as precise as they came, and the craft righted itself for acceleration, whisking them away from the surface.

  When The Artemisia was far enough away from the surface, he made the shift to artificial gravity and put The Artemisia into autopilot.

  “What now?”

  “We wait.”

  “No, I mean, what’s next? When this is done, where do we go?”

  Cutler pulled up Josiah’s files and opened a folder full of documents labeled with a series of numbers. “Do you know what these are?”

  She leaned in.

  “Coordinates plotting terrafarms that were created several years ago. It’s our job to make sure the planets are safe. Then comes the hard part.”

  “Which is?”

  “Finding people to inhabit them.”

  “Three minutes.”

  “I’ve never seen one before.”

  She looked at him with surprise. “In all your time scouting for The Society?”

  Cutler shook his head. “I was usually long gone before they decided to plant the bomb. I never really thought about what I'd left behind.”

  “You think that was your problem all along?”

  He looked at her. She had a mature smile, full of wisdom.

  “I guess it was,” he said shamefully.

  Light.

  Nothing but white. The window tinted automatically to accommodate the human retina.

  He found himself taking a step back from it, as did Kit.

  The light grew, an aura of electric green around it. The shockwave. It went blue, then red, spreading like a dropped crystal goblet. It encircled the planet.

  Cutler looked down at his Omnis, which was connected to the bomb’s various sensors. “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “Something's wrong. Only two of the four triggers fired. The rest are duds. The particulate matter never ejected. Dammit.”

  “How could that happen? You checked everything a half a dozen times.”

  He put a hand to his forehead. “Who knows? The materials could’ve been old. It could’ve been too cold. The wind could’ve knocked the bomb over in a strong gust. There’s no way of finding out now.”

  “Any way to go down there and check it?”

  Cutler shook his head. “At this point, it’s basically a live mine.”

  “So, what, the planet’s dead now?” She seemed like she had choked on her choice of words.

  He felt his heart squeeze as he remembered her excitement over naming the planet after Victoria.

  “We’ll figure it out. We’ll fix it and we’ll find another planet to name.”

  A high-pitched, keening alarm sounded.

  “Holy—”

  Kit covered her ears. “What the hell is that?”

  Cutler was already running back to the cockpit when he yelled, “We got company!”

  16

  Cutler

  “Wait, hold on. What?”

  Cutler slid into the pilot’s chair and brought up the ship’s specs. No damage. A shadow passed overhead and then engulfed them.

  The ship was being swallowed up. As The Artemisia entered the cargo bay of the other craft, he launched himself out of his chair and took her by the elbow.

  “Dad, what’s going on?”

  “God knows. Whoever they are, they’re probably not friendly.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “We’ve been sucked up. Not exactly neighborly behavior. Besides, that’s no ordinary craft. It’s a warship.”

  There was a loud sizzle and pop, and then the entire ship went eerily quiet. The artificial gravity generator shut down, and their bodies went weightless for a nauseating half-second before succumbing to the gravity of their captors.

  “Go to the med bay and hide in one of the cupboards with the supplies. There should be just enough room for you.”

  “What? No!” She gripped his arm. “I want to stay with you.”

  “We don’t have any power. We’re dead in the air. They’re going to force our doors open and come aboard. I need to stay here and stand ground.”

  “What if there are too many? What if you get hurt or killed?“

  “Katherine,” he said, his voice steely, “I need you to hide. Now. I will find you once I secure our ship.”

  She turned and ran in the direction of the med bay. He kept his eye on her until she was out of view, and then made his way to the safe where he kept his weapons. He grabbed a protective vest and slung it over his head, then reached for a small laser gun that hung inside. Getting shot with one of these would sting like a son of a bitch, and probably require medical treatment. There was nothing on board that could kill.

  He peered out the window. The other ship’s cargo bay was a series of dim lights barely strong enough to illuminate the few containers littered around the room.

  He activated the manual override to open the door into the antechamber. Once inside, he assessed his options. There weren’t many places to hide, but it was dark enough that he’d be able to slip from shadow to shadow without being noticed. Then again, so would whoever else was on that ship. He just had to hope he was stealthier than the other guys.

  The LED on the far wall went from red to green and the doors slid open. He took a quick Omnis reading of the environment. Breathable air, thank God.

  He took a tentative step outside, keeping to the edge of the ship, and then darting toward one of the containers in the bay. Obscured, he peered over the edge. He was alone.

/>   He had the urge to stand ground right here in the cargo bay, but in the end, he decided he’d rather be proactive and get the upper hand against the crew than sit there waiting for an ambush.

  The cargo bay doors slid open upon his approach. The interior of the ship was cavernous and surprisingly dark. It looked like the crew had switched over to low power, the hallways lit by a line of lights on either side of the path. All doors ahead were open. Something was definitely wrong. For all he knew, the ship was devoid of life.

  A sound from one of the rooms ahead made his ears prick up. He crept forward, making sure to use his peripherals to keep an eye on his surroundings. The sound, that of rustling, came from dead ahead. As he approached, he could tell it was the ship’s med bay. Upon entrance, he saw, in the center of the room, a young man about Katherine’s age, curled up in a fetal position. His skin was a dark golden-brown, and his jet-black hair was a shaggy mess. Cutler stepped closer to check his pulse.

  The kid’s eyes snapped open. “That’s far enough.” He leapt off the bed and pointed a laser gun of his own directly at Cutler’s forehead.

  He kept his own gun trained squarely on the kid’s chest. “How old are you?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Put that down before you hurt yourself.”

  “I’ll shoot you. I swear it. Drop your weapon. Now.”

  “Fine.” Cutler let the gun drop and hang from his finger. “Not worth dying over.”

  The boy grinned and put his hand on the gun. With one wide sweep of his free arm, Cutler knocked the kid’s weapon from his hand. One knee to the crotch was all it took to bring him to his knees.

  “What the hell?” the kid squeaked.

  “Sure, stick a gun in my face and then get upset with me when I take it from you.”

  He grabbed the boy’s arm and twisted it behind his back.

  “Let me go!”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Screw you.”

  Cutler moved the kid’s arm up another inch on his back.

  The kid squealed in pain. “Ethan!”

  “Ethan, huh? Where’s the rest of the crew?”

  “You’re about ten seconds from finding out.”

  Cutler looked down at the boy. His jaw was set and his eyes were cold.

  “All right, get up.” He pulled Ethan to his feet. “You know something, Ethan? It’s too damn quiet on this ship. Now I don’t know a whole helluva lot, but I do know an abandoned craft when I’m on one. So where is everyone?”

  He dragged the boy into the galley, which looked like it had been shaken up from the outside. By now, Cutler had a pretty good idea of what had happened. He shoved Ethan into a seat and lowered his weapon.

  “When did they die?”

  Ethan looked away, his face hard.

  “KV?”

  He looked at Cutler.

  “Was it The Keresian Virus?”

  “One day everyone was fine, and the next they weren’t. Is that what you mean?”

  “My wife died of the virus. It’s just me and my daughter now.”

  Silence.

  “What did you do with the bodies?”

  The boy took a pained breath. “Dumped them. About a hundred people altogether.”

  “Your family?”

  Ethan clenched his jaw and nodded.

  “I’m sorry. I know what it feels like.”

  “No, I don’t think you do. Unless know what it feels like to be all alone for months on end, on a ship you can barely fly, after witnessing your entire family die right before your eyes.”

  “Why’d you try to steal my ship?”

  “Look around,” Ethan said, an acidic chuckle in his voice. “I’m out of supplies.”

  “Don’t take this the wrong way, Ethan, but you’re not a very good pirate. Listen, I’ve got plenty of food on my ship. A free bunk.”

  “So that’s it? We’re buddies now, you and me?”

  “Training?”

  “Mechanical,” Ethan answered flatly. “I like to experiment, which is the only reason why I’ve been able to fly this thing for as long as I have.”

  “What’d you do to it?”

  “Rewired the computer to do most of the work. Set the nav system to scan for signs of organic life. I thought it was broken until you showed up. Haven’t been able to pick up anything in months.”

  “That’s because most everyone’s dead. Only a lucky few are immune to the virus.”

  Ethan’s face paled.

  “Here’s the deal,” Cutler said. “I’ll give you room and board on my ship if you help me out with a little mechanical problem of my own. You can travel with us until... until whenever. Till we can settle somewhere.”

  One look at the empty drawers in the galley appeared to be enough to convince Ethan that he didn’t have any other choice.

  “Deal,” he said.

  Cutler clapped his hands together. “Well then, that was fairly painless. Now I just need you to undo whatever you did to kill my ship.”

  “Um, about that...”

  “What?” He looked the boy up and down. There was a sheepish grin on his face.

  “What the hell did you do?”

  “I kind of… fried it.”

  17

  Katherine

  She breathed a sigh of relief when her father appeared in the doorway at the other end of the cargo bay, but it was cut short when he was followed out by a bushy-haired young man with a scowl on his face.

  It didn’t look like her dad was concerned about the kid following him, so she stepped out of The Artemisia and into the cargo bay.

  “I told you to stay in the ship.”

  “You were gone for so long. I didn’t hear anything. I was worried.” Her eyes flickered to the boy.

  “Kit, this is Ethan.”

  “Ethan Rush,” the boy said.

  “Nice to meet you, Ethan Rush.”

  “Ethan is the sole survivor on his ship.”

  He didn’t need to tell her what had taken everyone else on board. A surge of rage and sadness and pity rose in her. She turned away and put her hand over her eyes.

  “Kit,” her father said gently. “Please listen. We’re going to travel with Ethan for a little while. He has no family. I need you to hold it together.”

  She turned to him suddenly. “Hold it together? Are you kidding me? When the hell is it going to end? All this death. Are you that deluded that you can’t see it?”

  He took her by the shoulders. “Kit, Kit, listen to me. Please listen. We’re alive, Kit. And Ethan is alive. Yes, there is death all around, but we… we’re life. Do you understand?”

  “I’ve been talking to myself up there,” said Ethan.

  She looked at him through her tears.

  “Yeah,” he said with a smile. “Crazy, right? I mean, there’s talking to yourself and then talking to yourself. There’s talking into the darkness, into the void. Nothing comes back. Not even an echo. My family has been dead for six months. It feels like a hundred years. And I felt that maybe I was dead. Until I came across you guys.”

  His eyes began welling up.

  “You don’t know what it’s like to see a sign of life.”

  She wiped at her eyes. “I do.”

  “No, you don’t.” He sucked at his lip to quell his tears. “I kind of need you guys, Kit. Can I call you Kit?”

  Her father was staring at her intently, a look of hard sadness in his eyes.

  She nodded. “You can call me Kit.”

  “Will you answer me if I talk to myself?”

  “Why did you kidnap us?”

  The boy shrugged. “A sign of life in a sea of death. I don’t know. I guess I lost my mind. I was terrified. I was starving.”

  She looked at him.

  “He’s out of food,” said her father.

  She rolled her eyes. “Okay, for God’s sake. I’m not heartless.”

  Her father hugged her.

  An honest to goodness hug.

  S
he fell into him, into his warmth and his scent. She breathed him in. She cried silently in his arms and wouldn’t let go.

  “Welcome to the Waarheid.”

  “Waarheid?”

  “Modern Dutch.”

  Her father brushed the seat of a chair and sat down. “Waarheid’s navigation system has the ability to search for human life.”

  Kit straightened. She looked between her father and Ethan. “We can find other survivors?”

  “The range isn’t that far,” Ethan said. “But it works. Personal ships usually don’t have this ability, but Waarheid isn't a personal ship. It's a warship. Military brat here.”

  “A warship?” said Kit, her eyebrows raising.

  “We’ll make it work for us,” her father said. “We’ll turn it into a ship that gives life instead of takes it away.”

  She held her necklace in her fist. “So where am I sleeping tonight?”

  The hallway seemed to stretch on for miles. The Artemisia had seemed big enough to her, with all its rooms and tiny pockets of hidden compartments, but Waarheid was like a castle in comparison. The rooms appeared to be endless.

  “What’s wrong with the lights?”

  “Saving power,” Ethan said. “Didn’t need the whole thing lit up anyway, and the emergency lights were enough to get around. I’ve been using solar energy to power the ship’s cells. They drain twice as fast with everything on.”

  “I guess we won’t need to refuel for a while.”

  “Correct.”

  “We should consolidate our resources and see how long we can last without making a pit stop.”

  “I’m running low, but I’m not out of everything yet. We could probably last a couple of months.”

  “But we don’t know where we’ll be able to land,” Katherine said, walking into the galley. She turned back to Ethan. “It’s a mess in here.”

  “She’s got a point,” her father said.

  “I wasn’t too worried about preparing for company.”

  “No, I mean about not knowing where we can land. First we need to find a planet we can actually touch down on, and then we’ll need to make sure it has the resources we need.”

  Kit took a seat. “The people who are left are going to horde all the resources they can get their hands on. That’s how it goes according to history.”