by Gemma Fowler
‘She got the shuttle to Earth,’ she said with a squeeze. ‘She left hours ago.’
Seb nodded. ‘Yeah. I know.’
As Aggie spoke, something twisted in her gut. Mir suspected something, she’d told her in the hospital wing. If she’d spoken to anyone else . . . No, Mir wasn’t that stupid. Still, to Aggie, being in the United Government felt as dangerous as being on the base.
‘Comms are down, that’s all. Mir’s probably in the United Government now, managing the whole Earth-side evac or something.’
The way Seb smiled made Aggie’s heart hurt. ‘Man, I hope she is. Then we’ll all be OK.’
Aggie nodded. ‘She’s probably telling the United Leader what to do, poor guy.’
Ahead of them, Danny kicked a fallen chair out of their way.
‘I think the prisoner is giving us a subtle message.’
‘That wasn’t there before, right?’ Danny shouted, pointing at the floor in front of them.
Aggie pulled Seb forward.
Ahead of them, the floor had split into two pieces. The other side of the floor was at least two metres away where they stood, and it sloped away steeply. They’d have no choice but to jump and pray that there was something solid in the darkness beyond.
Chunks of masonry fell from the cavernous ceiling and shattered on the floor. Every time it happened, Seb jumped so high that Aggie was afraid he’d fall into the gap.
‘Your heart rate is increasing, Sebastian,’ Celeste said from somewhere in the roof. ‘How about we try some calming stretches?’
Seb looked up at the ceiling.
‘Are you kidding me?’
‘Definitely not. The mission would be severely compromised if you had a heart episode.’
Seb looked down at the gap again and swallowed loudly. ‘Then don’t make me jump over the entrance to hell, then. C’mon, man, there’s got to be a way around this, right?’
Aggie had to admit, there was something reassuring about the way Celeste watched over them. She felt protected, looked after. After years of fear and suspicion towards the computer, it was a strange sensation, comforting and uncomfortable at the same time.
‘This way.’ Celeste led them to where a small, thin platform had been left jutting over the darkness. This, the computer had decided, would make the perfect launch platform for their jump across the chasm. Aggie wasn’t so convinced, but Danny seemed to take it all in his stride.
‘Just don’t think about it too much,’ he said as lined up a run-up, glancing between his launch point and the steep slope on the other side.
Seb shot Danny a withering look. ‘Please don’t fall, man, I would be devastated. Truly.’
Danny ignored him, backed up another step, and then launched himself at the gap. Aggie let out an involuntary cry as she watched him soar over the darkness and skid to an unsteady halt against the slope on the other side.
‘Oh he can fly now too, can he?’ Seb muttered to himself as Aggie lined herself up. ‘Cosmic.’
Aggie ran and jumped after Danny, sailing across the gap and skidding away down the slope.
‘Hey! Hey!’ Seb cried. ‘Hey! Wait for me.’
‘You have an exo, Seb, just jump!’ Aggie called from the other side.
Aggie waited. Then there was a sound like a wet towel hitting a wall. Aggie looked up. The tips of Seb’s black gloves were just visible, gripping the edge of the floor.
‘Earth below. Seb!’ He’d only just made it.
‘He’s OK. He just can’t jump, that’s all.’ Danny reached up and pulled Seb over.
When he emerged, Seb looked furious. ‘I can fragging jump, you cosmic denk. Exos aren’t designed for gravity-controlled environments, are they? It makes them fragging unpredictable, doesn’t it?’
Aggie moved between them.
Seb looked over her head at Danny. Even though his exo was activated, she could see the tension in his shoulders. He held out a hand and pointed at the prisoner. ‘You’re testing me, dude. I’m tired, I’m hungry, and I’m scared. Don’t test me.’
‘What you going to do, mate? Sarcasm me to death?’
‘No, I’d do something that actually challenged me.’
‘What? Like lift your own weight?’
Aggie groaned and walked away from them both. ‘I can’t believe you two. Just stop it.’
‘Stop him!’ Seb exclaimed, stumbling backwards over a fallen chair. ‘The guy’s got a thruster loose! Walking around like an escaped gorilla, all knuckles dragging along, and grunting and swinging it about! What do you want me to do – join him? No way, man, I’m far more evolved than that piece of FALL clag!’
Danny balled his hands into fists by his sides, ‘What is your problem, really? We told you why I’m here.’
‘Dude, that is the only reason I’m tolerating breathing the same air as you right now.’
Danny stepped closer. ‘Stop making this about me. This has nothing to do with me. It’s about those people out there who are dying.’
Seb looked outraged, his mouth bobbing open and closed like a fish. His finger wagged about in front of him but it was as if Danny had short-circuited something in his head.
‘Hey, hey. C’mon now,’ Aggie cut in before Seb regained the power of speech. ‘We’re a team. We need to be a team.’
‘I’m trying, honestly, but I’m not babysitting him, Aggie. Not when we don’t need to.’
‘Seb is a very positive influence,’ Celeste interrupted from above them.
Seb gave a thumbs-up to the ceiling. ‘Thanks, dude, though I’d appreciate it if you could stop trying to kill me.’
Aggie felt Danny’s eyes burning into the side of her head as she pushed Seb towards one of the corridors.
‘Get off Aggs, I can walk myself,’ he mumbled, shrugging Aggie’s hands off irritably, ‘and for the record, I don’t care what your boyfriend thinks.’
But everything about the way he was acting said he did care.
‘This way,’ Celeste said.
Aggie led the way to the Forecast Suite with a lump in her throat. She had endured many rooms like it as a child, with pushy reporters asking her about her recovery, all the exclusive interviews with the ‘Child of Hope’, the precious little Angel that was a symbol of survival and better things to come. How surprised would those people be in a few minutes when that same face came once again onto their screens, this time to tell them everything they knew would soon come to an end?
Celeste activated the large Ether on the far wall and the great milk-coloured sails started to emit their soft yellow light. The calm of the place made Aggie’s head swim. Was she just being manipulated again? Things had happened so quickly that she’d had no time to think.
She turned and stared directly at the broadcast cameras. They gazed back at her silently, their blank, black Eyes trained to her every move. She felt she was about to throw up.
‘What are we doing?’ she said, not turning away from the cameras’ dead gaze.
‘What do you mean?’ Danny answered matter-of-factly.
‘We can’t do this,’ she said.
‘What?’ Danny, Celeste and Seb all chorused.
‘What are you talking about?’ Danny demanded.
Aggie turned and looked up at him, wide-eyed. ‘We’re going to change the world, Danny. Do you realize that? I didn’t have time to think about it before now.’
‘Of course I know that,’ he said, moving towards her.
‘But do you really understand it?’
‘Understand what?’
‘What we found? All this – everything that’s gone wrong. Do you really understand what that means to everyone down there? We don’t have any answers for them, do we? We know that what’s been happening is wrong but we’re only going to give them more questions.’ Her tone was pleading. ‘I haven’t got any answers for them, have you?’
Danny placed his hands on her shoulders and looked down at her. ‘Of course I know that, but what’s happening here is wrong, Ag
gie. So what if we give them a reason to ask questions? They should have questions. People should know what’s been happening to keep their coffee machines and cars running. Aggie, no matter what happens now, the people down there have to know what we know. They deserve that, at least.’
‘But do they have to find out like this?’ Aggie looked again at the equipment that surrounded them, the stark alien backdrop, the dirty, bloodied rag-tag band of three that stood before the cameras, two in ancient spacesuits, the other shaking in his filthy guard’s overall. They looked more like enemy militia.
‘Look at us. They won’t believe us. Why don’t we just get a shuttle out of here and go straight to the United Government, tell them everything. Surely the explosion and the quake will be enough.’
‘It’s not enough, Aggs. You know that,’ Seb suddenly spoke up from the corner of the room. ‘If you’re right, then so is he.’ He jabbed his thumb towards Danny. ‘The government must already know.’
Danny looked at Aggie, ‘The United Government is corrupt, Aggie. The only way to change things is to broadcast before we can get cut off. This isn’t about FALL or Lunar Inc. It’s about the truth. We need to tell the people, not the government. Before Rix’s people can do anything to shut us down.’
Aggie stared at the small dent in the wall where the manual broadcast button sat. The consequences of what they were about to do were crushing her. ‘They’ll go back to how they were,’ she muttered, ‘the wars and the riots. It’ll all come back. Maybe the lie is better, Danny. Did you ever think of that?’
‘No.’ Danny looked her in the eye. ‘I didn’t. Whatever happens today will happen eventually. Isn’t it better to do it while the world still has a supply of lumite left? Think, Aggie. How long have you felt that something was wrong? Years? Since Adrianne? That’s because it is wrong. Everything here is rotten and always has been. It needs to stop now. No matter what the consequences.’
‘Aggie,’ Celeste said softly from the Ether. It was the first time the computer had used that name. ‘This place, it isn’t what they wanted, David and the Founding Five. This is what they tried to stop, but they were too late.’
Aggie’s hand hovered over the button. Her fingers shook, her heart beat against her ribs. Then—
WARNING: THE ‘NEW MOON’ FORECAST IS DUE FOR BROADCAST IN FIVE MINUTES.
Out of the corner of her eye, Aggie saw a red light pop on. The suite around them buzzed. The recording light. They were actually doing this . . .
Suddenly, footsteps echoed down the tiny corridor, followed by the sound of heavy breathing. The three people in the room froze.
‘Right on time,’ Celeste said.
Night-Cycle 01
‘A dam!’ Aggie cried.
Her godfather appeared at the mouth of the corridor, wearing a sky-blue Tranquillity overall covered in dust and dirt.
‘Agatha?’ Faulkner shouted, his face sagging in relief. ‘Is that you? How did you get in here?’
Danny stepped forwards. Aggie frowned.
‘Yeah, Aggie’s here,’ Danny said. ‘Seb too. And me.’
Faulkner stopped. ‘Who are you? I don’t know you.’
Danny took another step.
‘Yeah, you do. Though you might not recognize me. It has been ten years.’
Faulkner didn’t move. ‘What are you talking about?’
Danny smiled and moved closer. His face was now illuminated by the Forecast Suite lights.
Faulkner gasped.
‘Not changed that much then,’ Danny said, still smiling. ‘How you doing, Dad?’
The room was silent apart from the humming of the Forecast cameras.
Adam Faulkner stumbled, then steadied himself with one hand against the vibrating walls. He stared at Danny for a long time, his eyes darting feverishly over the prisoner’s face.
‘How dare you pretend to be him,’ he said in a quiet voice.
Aggie could hear her heart beating. What was Danny doing? Was it a trick? Part of FALL’s plan? She looked from one man to the other. They did have similarities – their eyes, the set of their jaw . . .
But Daniel Faulkner had died at Adrianne. Aggie replayed the sequence of events in her head – Evelin and Daniel Faulkner had been on the stage with the United Leader when Aggie had run back into the labs after her father. They were right in the epicentre of the blast zone, with nothing but the open air to protect them. It was impossible that Daniel was still alive.
‘Danny, don’t, that’s not fair,’ she said, moving towards him. But the prisoner blocked her way.
Danny took another step, then another, until he was in touching distance of Faulkner. ‘Not a great time for a reunion, I must admit,’ he continued calmly, ‘but you only have yourself to blame for that.’
Adam Faulkner fell back against the wall. ‘My son is dead. You are not my son.’
‘I wish that was true,’ Danny said tightly. ‘You have no idea how many times I’ve wished it was true.’
Adam Faulkner just shook his head.
‘Mum was going to leave you,’ Danny said quietly. ‘She’d been planning it for months.’
Faulkner’s legs gave way under him. He fell to his knees on the rumbling floor and pushed his face against the wall.
‘No,’ he managed. ‘I don’t believe it. I can’t . . .’ But the words escaped out of him as if they were spoken by another man. Weak and strangled. Something had changed. Aggie felt all the blood drain out of her face. No.
‘She had a shuttle waiting. The explosion happened right after we took off,’ Danny continued coldly. ‘We nearly fell out of the sky in the shockwave, but the guards got it back under control just in time. We watched it all from the inner atmosphere. Even from that height we could see Adrianne burn. We saw all those people burn.’
Aggie couldn’t get enough air into her lungs. She stepped back and thanked the Earth that Seb was there to hold her up.
‘I thought you were gone,’ Faulkner said, his voice thick. ‘I thought I’d killed you.’
‘You did. And Mum too. You killed us both. Then FALL brought us back to life.’
Faulkner got to his feet again, supporting himself on the wall. His whole attitude was different, as if someone had deflated him. Aggie looked at Danny. That couldn’t mean . . .?
Her godfather reached out a shaking hand to his son. ‘Don’t do this. Please.’
Danny looked back at him with a hatred that cut right into Aggie’s heart. She knew that look. She knew how it felt to hate your own father. But why would Danny hate Adam?
‘Daniel, please,’ Faulkner muttered, reaching out.
Danny lifted an arm and landed his fist in Faulkner’s face.
‘No!’ Aggie cried.
Faulkner staggered backwards. Something thick and black oozed from his nose and dripped down his chin. Aggie pulled at Seb’s arms, but he wouldn’t let her go.
‘Adam!’ she cried again, desperate to help him, desperate to stop Danny.
‘Doesn’t feel good, does it? The guilt,’ Danny hissed, his grey eyes shining.
Faulkner didn’t blink, but his face changed. It was a slight shift and Aggie couldn’t read it. Guilt? What guilt? Aggie couldn’t understand what she was hearing.
‘Adrianne wasn’t a mistake, was it, Dad? And it wasn’t David Shepard’s mistake either.’
Aggie pushed herself away from Seb. ‘What?’
‘That’s a lie,’ Faulkner snapped. But Danny was relentless.
‘You never wanted a reactor, did you?’ he said, anger tightening his jaw. ‘You didn’t see enough profit in it. You wanted to keep control over the lumite in Lunar Inc. You sabotaged the Switch On and you destroyed David Shepard’s memory, so you could plough on with your precious lumite cells.’
Faulkner turned his gaze to Aggie. As he did, she felt her knees buckle under her. ‘Adam?’
‘YOU blew up the reactor!’ Danny shouted. ‘YOU killed those people. You did it all so you could get your own way.’
&n
bsp; ‘Those cells saved us,’ Faulkner shouted back. ‘Without those cells we’d have destroyed each other years ago.’
Aggie let out a strangled cry. ‘You?’
She couldn’t believe what she could see in her godfather’s eyes – it was as if the soul had drained out of them. They looked empty, hollow.
Aggie still didn’t really understand what was happening. ‘But, you told them it was his fault?’
Adam Faulkner wiped the blood from his mouth. ‘The reactor was too expensive. It was as big as a town and took years to build. Understand, Aggie, if we’d gone with your father’s idea, half the world would still be destitute and waiting for power. He was playing it safe. Him and the others, they wouldn’t listen to reason.’
‘So you decided to corrupt the reactor? To stop them?’ Danny interrupted.
Faulkner looked around at them as if they were the crazy ones.
‘I wanted to dull the reaction, make it too small to power even one bulb. I never intended for it to explode.’
‘You didn’t know what you were doing. You knew the risk!’
Adam Faulkner took a long breath. ‘That reactor was costing trillions in wasted energy. We only had one chance. It had to be the cells.’
Aggie felt sick. It was Adam Faulkner who had caused the explosion, not her father? The room started to blacken at the edges. Everything she’d ever known was falling apart in front of her, collapsing into the dust just like the base.
Faulkner had tears in his eyes now. His words were coming out fast, as if he was trying to convince himself that what he’d done was right.
‘The cells were the better idea, convenient, portable, easy to produce. Cells gave power to everyone, instantly. What I did saved the world!’
A grief that she’d never felt before started to grow in Aggie’s chest. A big grunting sob shook her whole body. Then came another, and another, until she was shuddering like the ground itself. Despite everything, a warm and comforting thought overflowed and spilt out over her. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t his fault.
‘How could you!’ she sobbed. ‘You made me . . . everyone thinks that . . .’ She couldn’t find the words. Pain, regret, elation and anger were at war inside her. She had doubted her own father. Aggie had condemned David Shepard over and over to the world, in media suites just like this one. All the while, Adam Faulkner had been whispering his poison in her ear.
