by J.J. Mainor
Chapter 10
As the flash left his sight, Remy pressed the button on his chest to activate the inhibitor. Breathing a sigh of relief, he took in his surroundings to get his bearings when it hit him. This was his first time in outer space, yet aboard the Freedom it never seemed real to him. There was artificial gravity, no windows to see the stars and vacuum outside, and the entire structure was manmade. If he didn’t know he was in space, he never would have suspected it. His mind never processed the glorious adventure he had embarked upon.
Standing on the surface of LX-925, it finally hit his consciousness that this was not Earth. The sky above him was a very pale brown instead of the blue he was used to seeing. Not a single cloud dotted the sky. It was like the entire world was enveloped in a light haze.
The ground below him was solid rock, with little dust and no loose soil. Everything was flat. There were no mountains or valleys, and certainly no plant life. Even the Atacama Desert presented a more pleasing landscape to the eye. Though his suit was climate controlled, the heat below the surface was intense enough to warm his feet through the boots. It was difficult to forget the magma layer began only a few hundred meters beneath him.
He looked off toward the horizon and spied the mining complex, groaning he could not have been placed much closer, but like Fortune, he had no way of knowing how wide a net their inhibitors cast. Nor could he risk getting caught before the materialization was complete. It was a long way to the complex, and Fortune’s men had a head start on him. Remy would have to run if he wanted to reach it before they did.
Remy always imagined himself to be in peak shape. His job required a lot of walking and hiking. War often destroyed roads and other infrastructure, so the only way into many zones and hotspots was on foot. Without a vehicle, it meant he often had to carry up to a hundred pounds of gear and equipment on his back. Though his suit wasn’t quite that heavy, it felt much heavier. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought the gravity beneath his feet was stronger than that on Earth.
With several kilometers between him and the miners, Remy tried to think of other things to distract him from the hike. That was easy. Away from the ship and all the visual reminders of his job, his thoughts flowed toward Roxanne. He couldn’t get over how perfect she was, even though he was now certain she was ordered that way. Still, there was an innocence in her gaze he found attractive.
He swore to himself she found him interesting. All she knew was a life with Pittman in those quarters. She didn’t know her life before materialization. She didn’t know a life back on Earth. She didn’t even know what life was like outside that room. Then he showed up with stories of nobility.
Roxanne hung on every word he gave her, even when he bombarded her with all kinds of questions she didn’t have the answers to. Most people would have grown frustrated facing amnesia, but not Roxanne. Meeting someone new and hearing new things seemed almost like her own adventure. Those blue eyes seemed drawn to him. Even through the solid door, before she opened up and peered out, she found him.
Remy couldn’t be sure, but he thought those irises opened wider when he talked of himself, and closed when he asked about her. It seemed crazy, but he thought his words were the light and dark filtering her vision. The corners of her lips were turned upward the entire visit, but they seemed to tick upward slightly more the wider those irises became.
As if hubris, Remy couldn’t help wondering if she sat on the bed longing to hear more from him. Was she disappointed in her boyfriend after encountering another? Was she left unsatisfied with that boy who didn’t give her a personal thought?
The situation between those two was messed up. The more he learned, the more that situation sounded like one among many cases of human trafficking that might have been going on out here. Where he was outraged that this could go on at this point in human history, Remy couldn’t shake the feeling that Roxanne was meant for him and not Pittman. Something in him clung to the possibility that they were meant to be together; that karma or God or the fates placed him on this mission and her in that room simply so they could find each other.
His heart raced within his chest, and Remy tried to convince himself it was for Roxanne and not because of this trek. The rifle in his hands was imagined to be her waist, to be pulled tightly to his body and caressed. He wouldn’t mind taking her for himself, but she would have to take him because she wanted it. He wanted her on her own accord, and not because she felt obligated to please him.
Something in those eyes told him, Roxanne could be his second wife. Not just that, but she could be the one to last. Roxanne’s eyes could be the ones waiting for him on the neighboring pillow every morning. Her lips could be the ones meant to taste his kisses every evening when he returned from work. No, that woman could be the angel for whom he retires from the UN.
Then he noticed the mining complex was far closer than he realized. Those men were about to see their rights trampled by an overambitious military. And that military approaching was comprised of men who themselves had their rights thrown out the airlock. He might be able to walk away from the work. Maybe he could turn these files over and let the UN select another inspector to investigate, but it could be years before someone else was allowed on a ship. There was no guarantee the bureaucrats would understand the context of the reports he would write. The Republic might even use his resignation as proof that there was nothing out here worth worrying about.
Roxanne beckoned him from that pin of light overhead like a siren calling from the shore. He would rescue her from Pittman’s clutches; of that he had no doubt. However he could not leave this life behind him. She would have to understand there might be other women on other ships with no other choice but to serve as release for the sexual tension. If there was truly something real between them, then she would understand he had to fight for others like her who could not fight for themselves.
Remy wasn’t sure initially, but as he drew closer to the complex, he found a slight change in the landscape. A small ridgeline, only waist high, crossed his path ahead. It looked like the embankment to a trench, but how could that be given the solid rock everywhere? The walls of those trenches would surely radiate the heat of the rocks, turning them into ovens. Would it get hot enough, he wondered, to start melting the metal components of his suit?
As he grew closer still, he caught faint flashes reflecting off something resting on the peak. Somebody, or something was waiting behind those berms. Hopefully they held fire not because they had yet to see him, but because they recognized the message emblazoned across his chest and on his helmet. He had hope painting those letters on his suit was not a vain move.
