Talia's Planet (Recycling Humanity Book 5)

by Heather Lee Dyer

  "Do you think we have time to change?" I ask Zayn at the doorway of the locker room.

  "From the sound of Dad's voice, I would say no. I've not heard him that stressed out in a long time." I wonder about that as I watch Zayn take off his helmet and run his hands through his sweaty curls. Although the suits have temp control, Zayn runs hot and his head always sweats. I smile to myself that I know that about him.

  "Let's go then. It'll be easier to understand what's going on with my sight anyway."

  Zayn and I jog through the corridors, gathering strange looks from everyone. They aren’t used to seeing crew in space suits, I guess. Maybe mandatory spacewalks should be scheduled for every crewmember, not just the engineers.

  People clear off the lift as we barrel in. I push the button to the bridge and lean against the wall. I use my interface to scan the news vids.

  "Two people were seriously injured in the explosion," I share with Zayn. "The good thing is that we already had the ship far away from the Migration, so no other habitats were damaged."

  "That's creepy, you know," Zayn teases. "Like you're part cyborg."

  "You could get a vid interface in your helmet too," I tease back. "It doesn't take a sight interface for it to work with our helmet tech."

  "I do have one, I just don't use my suit enough to get used to it."

  The lift doors open, and we're greeted by chaos. We step out, and I look around for Destry. I hear him to our right, on the other side of a group of highly animated crew. Zayn and I head that way and join the circle of officers.

  Destry looks up from the console they're all staring at and does a double take at our suits. He makes eye contact with me, and I smile.

  "I see you didn't waste any time getting here." He looks amused for a moment until alarms start wailing.

  The chaos around us stills for just a moment, and then starts up again.

  "The Aurora is moving," Destry says.

  Zayn and I step closer to the main console and watch the readouts scroll across multiple vid screens. Destry is monitoring the Resurrection and the Aurora, as well as the main news channels from the Migration.

  I watch the damage reports out of the Resurrection, my body tense. Commander Saj has his hands full, but thankfully there aren't any deaths.

  The wailing gets more frantic as Destry says, "She's passing near us." He mashes a button in front of him. "All hands to your stations," he yells over the ship-wide comm channel. The main vid combines into one picture, that of the Aurora coming toward us.

  "Is she crazy enough to ram us?" Destry asks me quietly.

  I look over at him and can see that his facial expression matches his tired but anxious voice. Zayn definitely gets his blue eyes from his dad. Although the same amazing color, Destry's eyes are surrounded by dark circles. He has the same trusting expression as Zayn, which makes me want to assure him everything will be all right. I look away.

  "Yes, she is crazy enough, but I don't think she will." I point to the vid as the Aurora is getting larger on the screen. "She cares too much about herself to do anything to bring harm to her own ship. She's just trying to make a point, and warn us. I guess she's done pretending to be nice." I slide my gaze back to Destry.

  Destry frowns and studies my face like he's deciding whether or not to believe me. "If the Council had listened to you years ago, we wouldn't be in this predicament right now."

  Huh. I don't look away. I know his history. He was once in my spot, where no one believed him and his friends about danger until it was almost too late. "Yes, like what happened with Dr. Kincaid." This is meant as a peace offering, not as an accusation. I hope he takes it that way.

  Destry doesn't flinch or look away from my gaze. Zayn's uncle Abishai is the son of the infamous Dr. Kincaid, who although he did successfully deliver the famous Eugenesis project to start healing Earth, he also tried to take leadership of the Council by force. Nuclear force. He died locked up on the Resurrection a few years ago, but I found old vids that told the story of Destry and his friend's struggle to get the Council to believe them about Dr. Kincaid's manic side.

  The bridge lights suddenly strobe bright red. We all look to the vid just as the Aurora buzzes underneath us. We watch helplessly as scout ships scatter out of her way. We hold our collective breaths as we watch the readouts from the sensors. She doesn't even slow down.

  One ship is unlucky enough to not get out of her way and goes careening off to the side. Destry swears. One of his officers quickly orders several jump ships to the rescue. The Aurora continues in the direction of New Earth.

  The sirens cut off mid-wail but the red strobes continue. I look around the room as the red light illuminates shocked crewmembers. I just shake my head and look back to see what Destry will do next.

  "Track her," he orders his nav officer. Several scout ships soon are seen trailing after the Aurora.

  The comm starts frantically buzzing, and Destry swears a second time. He looks over at Zayn and me. "It's the Council. Be ready with answers."

  The front vid fills with the Council's chambers, with a secondary vid showing the Aurora speeding away.

  "Councilman Lee." Destry bows. Zayn and I do the same.

  "What's going on, Commander?" The Chairman looks like he just got woken up. The other Council members are filing in behind him, finding their seats.

  "Seems Captain Kae escaped your escorts." Destry's knuckles are white as he grips the sides of the console in front of him.

  I suck in a breath at his emphasis on "your escorts." Everyone on the bridge becomes still as a statue. No one dares to breathe or move.

  Chairman Lee runs his hand down his face. "We underestimated the support she still had in the community."

  "It seems so." Destry's face is a mask of dangerous anger.

  Chairman Lee sits up straight and leans forward. "But now we need to figure out what to do. How is your habitat? Any damages?"

  Destry looks down, reading through the scrolling damage reports. "We had one scout hit as she passed by. The ship is beyond repair, but our pilot only suffered minor injuries." He glances at Zayn before addressing the Chairman again. "It was one of our new pilots, they were out doing training maneuvers. We also had a group of our engineers on a spacewalk." He looks over at me. "Who thankfully were uninjured."

  I swallow. Although I didn't know she had escaped, I feel responsible for placing them all into danger.

  "Well that's good at least, considering. It sounds like the Resurrection will need the most repairs now." The Chairman waves a hand. "Midpoint station's techs are just finishing up, we'll send them directly to the prison ship instead of your ship. But what do you think we should do about Captain Kae, and how will this affect our project and its timeline?"

  I step forward, and the Chairman looks surprised to see me in my suit. "Chairman, as much as it pains me to say this, I think we need to go after her. We need the Aurora, and she has a whole ship full of people who won't survive without us. We don't know if her crew actually chose to go with her or not. And even if they did, one ship cannot sustain life for very long. But…” I look back at Zayn. "…since we don't have the bio star fuel plant built yet, we'll need to send jump ships with security who can hopefully take over the Aurora before she gets too far. Once they have control of the Aurora, the jump ships can use her bio star fuel plant to get back to the Migration."

  "You still believe Planet 2 in the other direction is the best choice? We couldn't just follow her to the New Earth galaxy and stay there?" Queen Amira speaks up behind the Chairman. I smile, seeing her for the first time. She's as beautiful as she sounds.

  I shake my head. "It could sustain maybe a third of us, but not the whole population. We’re positive about that."

  "But it has a very rich asteroid belt."

  "Yes, it does have an unusually large amount of raw materials on the outskirts. So, we can do some quick mining to keep the Migration’s ships healthy, but then we really need to concentrate on getting long-ra
nge sensors to Planet 2."

  She nods. "All right, so why don't we just leave this ship to go her own way, and we'll concentrate our work on the next phases?" There's a small smile on Amira's face as she gazes directly at me. She's baiting me, but why? She knows the answer to her own question, since she was once married to Dr. Kincaid. She’s been through a similar scenario.

  I look around the Council room. Most of the members are in agreement with Amira's suggestion. She knew they would be.

  I press on, encouraged by her confidence in me. "Years ago, when we watched our planet die, our people promised to find a new home where we wouldn't make the same mistakes. We believed every life was so precious that we made the decision to raise our children on generational ships until we found the perfect home. One that would give us room to live all together. This woman caused the death of my parents and took my sight, but she's still one of us, and those people on her ship don't deserve to die because she's psycho." I press my lips together so I don't cry.

  Chairman Lee nods at Amira and then turns back to the vid. "Miss Jade, I'm assuming since you have your suit on that you can see us."

  "Yes, sir." My throat constricts.

  "You can see that not everyone is here. We're missing a few Council members that are dealing with major uprisings on their ships. When the news got out that Captain Kae escaped, damaged the Resurrection and the Blue Ridge, they were left in despair. The people don't have confidence in us now. They fear this means the projects are impossible to finish now, and that we'll die here, stuck between two worlds."

  My skin goes cold and clammy.

  Destry pulls up news vids in the other corner of the screen. Vids showing people destroying public areas, storming into storage levels, and weeping and crying.

  "I have to tell them something, Miss Jade. They need to know, as you have shown us time and again, the truth. What is our truth today? Can this be fixed? Can we still finish the three-phase project?"

  I swallow, forcing myself to look away from the Chairman's desperate eyes. I look around at Destry, Zayn, and the other officers here on the Blue Ridge. They all either have a look of anger or frustration on their faces. A petite woman with dark hair has appeared and has her arm wrapped around Destry. Zayn's mom. My heart breaks as I realize humanity is on the edge of a threshold. We need to tread lightly.

  I drag my gaze away from the people and step toward the console, pulling up all the current sensor readouts. I calculate that the Aurora is actually heading toward the asteroid belt, not New Earth. She must still be intercepting our readouts. If she knows it's a material rich location, maybe she thinks she can survive there.

  The comm beeps as I pull up the Resurrection's damage reports and sensor readouts. My heart skips a beat and I smile as I notice the Gryphon has pulled alongside the Resurrection. I knew it. My captain is already responding, not waiting for direction from the Council.

  "Talia?" Zayn has been standing so still next to me that I'm startled when he speaks. "What are you thinking?"

  "I think we can do this." I turn toward him and see that his expression softens in relief.

  "We're going to need more help though." I turn back to the vid screen. "Chairman Lee, give me one hour, and I'll have a new plan for you to present to the people. We can fix this, I know we can. We didn't get this far to give up now. The people are just feeling powerless while all hades breaks loose around them. My idea should get us back on track and help the people feel empowered again."

  The Chairman looks doubtful but he bows. "One hour, Miss Jade. Then we'll talk again."

  I bow until the connection is severed.

  "Seriously?" Destry pulls away from his wife. "You think you can fix all this just like that? We all dig in and we're saved? Sometimes it's not that simple, Talia." I watch as pink splotches appear near his temples. I wonder as I watch them spread if Zayn's skin does that.

  I shake my head and frown. I don't have time for this. I need to do some research, and I only have one hour.

  Kindra steps forward and speaks in a quiet but commanding voice. "We once thought we could pull off big ideas and plans, Destry." She softly places a hand on his stiff shoulder. "And we did accomplish great things when we worked together. Talia and Zayn are a lot like us when we were their age. Strong, intelligent, full of ideas and confidence, and not yet tainted and dragged down by the weight of daily struggles and limiting messages."

  Destry looks at her, blinking. He then pulls her to him and kisses her. Some of the crew looks away, blushing. I just smile, amused that he doesn't care. I look at Zayn and he just shrugs. He's used to their affection in public apparently.

  Then Destry turns to me. "You'd better get going then." He points off to the side. "You can use my office. I believe any interfaces you might need are installed there. Let's see what you can do in the next hour."

  And with that, Zayn and I are dismissed.

  CHAPTER 15

  Dangerous Plan

  I keep my helmet on so I can interface it to the ship's computers. I also connect my data cube to Destry's office computer.

  "Let's get the lead engineers from each of the departments connected here." I point to the multi vid monitor hanging above Destry's desk. Outside the view port I see dozens of scout and jump ships circling the habitat. The scout habitat community is a strong, loyal one, and it looks like we've got jump ships from all over the Migration arriving.

  "That's pretty amazing." I gesture toward outside.

  "There's no politics with the scouts. We come from families all over the Migration. Different histories, cultures, languages, beliefs, but once here as a scout, there is only us as a team, a family." Zayn leans against the metal wall, gazing outside, pride evident on his face.

  Maybe that's why he was able to accept me and my blindness. He's used to diversity and acceptance. Some of the habitats are very set in their ways, customs, and beliefs.

  That gets me thinking and I pull up the sensors showing all the ships in the Migration. The first group is about a day's travel behind us.

  "How did all the jump ships get here so fast, Zayn? The Blue Ridge is quite ahead of the Migration."

  He comes over and looks at the computer and then outside the port again. "I bet most of them started heading this way days ago when we announced the Blue Ridge's project was beginning. Probably tradesmen hoping to get hours on the job. Mechanics, electricians, computer programmers."

  Excellent. "That is amazing."

  I pull up my original plans for the three-phase project. I almost file away the Midpoint phase, but I hesitate, staring at the completed range of sensors and communication abilities we've given it. I throw the other two projects up on the vid. Then I turn on the 3D vid projector and images of the Migration fill the entire office.

  I smile and walk through the images and notice where Midpoint, the Resurrection, and the Blue Ridge are in relation to Planet 1, the asteroid belt, and Planet 2.

  A tingle goes up my spine. I sit at the computer and start outlining my plan. Zayn's not going to like most of it, but there's no other way.

  As I'm typing, Zayn has reached all of the head engineers. They've finished their spacewalk safely and have been updated on the latest Captain Kae drama. I fire questions at them as I work through my plan. Although they're confused at the seemingly random questions, I don't have time to explain. I get all my answers and finish up just as Destry walks in.

  "Are you ready to face the Council?" He looks at both of us.

  Zayn shrugs his shoulders.

  I look at Zayn. "I haven't had a chance to explain my ideas to Zayn yet, he's been helping me gather data with the engineers." I send the file to my cube and stand up. “What about Captain Reyes? He was given control over the scheduling of these projects. Shouldn’t we include him in our discussion with the Council as well?”

  “He’s busy helping the Resurrection get stable. I think the Council will understand.”

  I nod, holding my cube.

  We walk out
to the bridge, but Destry keeps walking. I look sideways at Zayn, and he looks as confused as I am.

  My eye catches a red flashing light in my suit. "Uh oh, I should've charged my suit while we were in there, it's low on battery life." The readout says I have five minutes before shutoff.

  "We're going to the engineering auditorium for this meeting, so you can take off your suit before we get there," says Destry.

  Zayn doesn't look convinced.

  "It's fine, Zayn, I've saved everything on my cube. I'll just jack it into the vid system."

  His jaw muscles flex and he looks forward. "Another time where a permanent ocular link would be helpful."

  A little hurt, I ask, "And what more would I be able to do with sight while I'm just presenting ideas? They're the ones who need to see it, not me."

  He blows out his breath forcing his curls off his forehead. "I'm sorry, Talia. I just don't feel like I'm much help with all of this."

  "Would you feel more useful as a scout pilot?” I ask softly so Destry doesn't hear us. Destry’s shoulders look tense as we trail several meters behind him.

  Zayn looks over at me, his blue eyes causing my heart to beat faster. Those eyes are definitely worth seeing. "Yes, I think I would. I don't know enough engineering to feel helpful so far."

  We come to a halt as we wait for the lift. Destry takes us down, overriding the lift so it doesn't stop until we get to engineering. We hurry on to the auditorium.

  At the back, I step to the side and silence my suit's wailing alarm. I take a deep breath and detach the helmet, emotionally going through the process backwards. This time the shapes in front of me, Zayn's worried face in this case, get blurry and then gray until I'm left in the dark.

  I strip off the suit and run a hand through my hair while I wait for my other senses to kick in. Thankfully, we were in such a hurry to suit up, I have normal clothes on instead of just my under clothes. I store my suit under a chair and walk with Zayn to the front.

  At the now-familiar podium, I jack my cube into the vid system. When I have all the settings ready, I turn to Destry. Zayn remains beside me.