Caroline seemed genuinely shocked, “I’m not the one who ripped Russell’s Biomag -”
“Don’t!” Danny shouted, “Barnes told you to look after me, right? Well I need a bathroom visit.”
“Like I haven’t heard that one before!” Caroline laughed, “You’re not leaving this room!”
Danny knew this, but he also knew of Caroline’s preoccupation with cleanliness and order.
“Fine,” he replied, then adopted an intentionally coarser tone, “I’ll just piss on the bed. You got a mop for the floor?”
Caroline opened her mouth to rebuke him, but after glancing at the handcuffs turned on her heels and headed away, “I’ll get a bottle.”
Danny knew what he was about to attempt was risky. However, he was counting on the fact that he’d already been searched and he’d been dressed in clothing that Caroline had supplied.
Her office was at the far end of the room, but the curvature of the infirmary prevented him from seeing if she’d reached it. Only when he heard the door open, did he lean forward to grab the case. The handcuffs stopped him short.
Wasting no time, he twisted his body forward until his other hand was just able to touch the case. From the direction of the office, Danny heard plastic bottles rattling. He quickly shuffled further down the bed and clasped his fingers closed around the corner of the silver case. It was firmly wedged in place and his sweaty fingers kept sliding off its shiny surface. The plastic rattling sound from the office stopped. Danny twisted his body further over, dug his hand down into the gap between the mattress and the guardrail, then began to lever the case out. Her footsteps seemed to be getting a little louder. The case jerked out from the gap and was about to fall through the guardrail, but he managed to catch it awkwardly with three fingers. The footsteps stopped and the office door closed again. He twisted back upright and got a firmer grip on the case, all the while shuffling back up the bed to resume his former position. Caroline’s footsteps began their return journey. Bending his leg up to meet his restrained hand, he pulled open the lower leg pocket of the jumpsuit and thrust the silver case into it. As Caroline came into view, Danny had managed to sit upright again.
Without a word, she handed him the plastic bottle.
“So, Doc,” he rattled the handcuff securing him to the bed, “Am I supposed to do this single-handed?”
She didn’t quite manage to mask her disgust before she turned her back on him.
•
Alfred couldn’t have wished for a better outcome.
The remote and targeted Biomag failure had worked perfectly. The presence of the forehead-stamped Danny Smith at the scene, had given every impression of a murder carried out by the Exordi Nova. The scene at the infirmary had allowed him to demonstrate just enough physical anger to convince everyone of his sincerity; the fact that he was now nursing a bloody nose was a sympathetic bonus.
The discussions of the remaining nine council members had been brief, but the technicalities of his solution had been confirmed by both Marshall Redings and Trevor Pike. All that remained was to inform the general population.
News of the attack had travelled fast and most people had gravitated towards the infirmary level where Danny was isolated. The surrounding floors had then filled with people needing answers. Rather than attempt to move everyone to the Observation Deck, a portable amplifier had been set up near the central spiral staircase.
“Please,” he tapped at the microphone and waited for everyone to become quiet. Alfred could see through the missing floors above and below him; anxious faces were peering over the balconies, eager for news.
“It’s my sad duty to inform you that Colonel Beck is dead,” his words rang out, but they were quickly engulfed by the crowd’s swift reaction. The response was to be expected; it was born out of fear.
“Please!” he called several times until the volume subsided enough for him to be heard again, “Please! We have the culprit in custody.”
“Frag him!” an individual voice yelled from below.
Alfred wasn’t surprised. The most primitive reaction was of course to simply kill the source of the threat. However, Alfred had a far more symbolic role in mind for Danny Smith.
“No!” he shouted, before the crowd could fully show their outrage or support.
In this fear-driven moment, primitive survival mechanisms were making their minds susceptible. Before the crowd had the opportunity to start forming rational choices, he began to narrow options, whilst simultaneously appearing to restore order.
“Each and every one of you came aboard the Node to avoid extinction. You are the very basis for the future of humanity. We cannot create a future that justifies the extinction of life, but,” Alfred held their attention, “neither can we set a bad example. There must be consequence.”
Alfred mimed drawing a circle on his own forehead and prepared the linguistic sleight that would follow Danny Smith for the rest of his days.
“This… marked individual, this… emissary… of the Exordi Nova, will be exiled.”
A small ripple of confusion passed through the gathering, but Alfred pushed on.
“Today’s events have shown something very clearly. A divided community cannot stand. Accordingly, as an act of amnesty, anyone who wishes to leave the Node may do so at the same time as the exile.”
Alfred heard hurried conversations starting to break out across several levels of the Node.
“There will be no repercussions,” he continued speaking as the conversations quietened slightly, “There will be no judgement. Those who choose to leave will receive supplies to wish them well. Over the next few days, I urge you to make a rational and calm choice. But please know this… once the Field has been altered on day thirty, it will be impossible to return.”
ALLIES
4th July 2076
Valery Hill peered out through the ISS cupola. The bright blue Earth had been visible through this same window just nine days ago, now only black space remained.
She looked again at the screen nearby; it confirmed her worst fears. She drew in a long breath through the oxygen mask strapped around her nose and mouth, and the attached O2 cylinder hissed in preparation for her next lungful.
She became aware that the sound appeared louder and realised that there must be someone else behind her. She whipped around to see Cathy, floating in the cupola hatchway.
“It’s OK!” Cathy’s mask-muted voice assured her, “It’s OK!”
Almost immediately, Cathy’s attention was diverted to the cupola window, so Valery turned off the screen and faced her.
“What are you doing up, Cathy?”
“Fai woke me and Benton,” she replied, staring out at the blackness, “She said you were ignoring her calls to go back to bed. We’re supposed to talk to you.”
Valery knew that this complicated matters considerably. Cathy now refocussed on her.
“Fai said that you overrode the sleep cycle,” Cathy frowned at her, “how’s that even poss-”
“I set a wake-up call,” Valery pointed to the additional components mounted on her medical wristband. “Nice,” Cathy gave it a cursory glance, “but why?”
Thinking quickly, she picked a topic that would resonate with Cathy. The fact that Benton was also awake might make Cathy a useful ally.
“Before we went into hibernation,” Valery lied, “I figured something out about Charles’ death.”
“We were telling you the truth!” Cathy responded immediately, “Me, Mike and Lana had nothing to do with it -”
“I know that now!” Valery offered a smile of acceptance, “I’m sorry I doubted you. But I think I’ve worked out who did it.”
“Who?” Cathy appeared intrigued and manoeuvred herself inside the cupola’s hatchway.
“Isn’t it obvious, Cathy? It was Dr. Chen’s faithful manservant…”
Cathy looked visibly stunned, “Benton? But he’s…”
“Don’t you find it a bit odd that Benton’s the one wh
o ‘found’ Charles in the RTO module?”
Before she could reply, Valery saw the ego-morph suddenly appear behind Cathy and wrap his forearm around her neck.
Cathy kicked violently and let out a guttural scream. Her arms thrashed around as she attempted to pull his oxygen mask off, but he was keeping his head out of her reach. With one arm still wrapped around her throat, his free hand grabbed a handhold and yanked her completely out of the cupola. A second later, the pair had struggled out of view, at which point she heard Cathy’s choking noises end with a sickeningly muted crack.
Abruptly, the struggle ended.
She heard wall straps being stuck into place, then the ego-morph reappeared, framed in the cupola hatchway.
“Now, we both know that I’m not the one responsible for Lincoln’s death. Don’t we, Valery?”
She found herself nodding, desperately trying to think of ways out of her current confinement. The one item that would give her the upper hand, she couldn’t reach while he was watching her.
“You mustn’t panic, you’re quite safe. But please can you help me out with something?” he readjusted his oxygen mask, “How long after you’d sabotaged the life-support system did you kill him? I’m finding the timings a source of terrible frustration…”
When surrounded by other crew members, his manner had never bothered her. But now his detached, cold actions chilled her. His gaze seemed to pass through her, as though she was transparent; a mere object of study.
It would be a mistake to show weakness, so she corrected him.
“You’ve got the order wrong. I’d already set the Sabatier to go down. Lincoln found a data trail and challenged me outside the RTO module. Things got a little rough and…” she rubbed the back of her own head at the thought of his injury, “I locked him in the RTO while he was unconscious.”
“At best, you’d delayed the inevitable!” Benton seemed to find the incident amusing, “You knew he’d still talk once he woke up… I’m curious, did you watch your childhood friend suffocate, or turn your back when he started punching the glass?”
Valery’s thoughts froze and she looked away.
She had known Charles since childhood; a friendship based on the fact that their parents were part of Archive’s generational program. She had also heard Charles pounding at the glass but hadn’t turned to face him. Again it seemed that the ego-morph had the ability to look directly into her mind.
“You really can relax,” he raised a finger, “If I wanted you dead, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Her eyes involuntarily looked in the direction that he’d dragged Cathy and found that even this tiny action had been monitored.
“Cathy was an obstacle,” he reassured her, “You are not. I believe I know what you’re trying to do… so you’ll want to see what I’ve found in Module Gamma.”
It seemed impossible, but apparently the ego-morph already knew what Dr. Chen had hidden there. However, just because the ego-morph had the same information, this did not necessarily make them allies.
He gestured for her to follow him.
For the time being, she would need to appear to go along with him so she pushed herself out of the cupola module and drifted into the connected central axis module. Several feet away, she saw Cathy’s body strapped awkwardly to the wall, her head limp and one arm drifting.
“She won’t be needing this anymore,” he tossed Cathy’s O2 cylinder and mask towards her.
Valery caught it and averted her eyes from the scene. As he guided her towards the Ring’s access tube, Valery subtly checked her pocket; unfortunately she’d buttoned it closed. She would have to pick her moment carefully.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I did it?” she tried to keep the conversation going as she pushed her way along the access tube.
“The life-support failure?” he replied from immediately behind her, “I just assumed you wanted to force a Shuttle evacuation to Earth. If everyone was faced with the certainty of death aboard an ISS with no life-support, who wouldn’t go for slightly better survival odds?”
She knew he was right, of course. The thought of all her wasted planning and the fact she’d been cheated out her return to Earth, caused her frustration to peak.
“Chen’s jumped-up personal organiser ruined it all.”
“I agree,” he replied as they both arrived into the Ring, “The fixing of the life-support system is what stopped us getting back to Earth.”
“Wait,” she hadn’t expected this, “You agree?”
He nodded and pushed on towards the Ring’s second internal airlock door.
“Like me, Valery, I think you’ve reached the same conclusion.”
As he began entering the override code for I.A.2, Valery voiced her thoughts.
“With Fai in control of so many systems, Chen will be unstoppable.”
“Exactly,” he pulled open the door and stood aside, “So let’s change that.”
SAMPHIRE HOE
~
The falling through superimposed and intertwined structures jarred to a halt as a new environment twisted into dimensional stability. Once again it was a place Douglas knew well. He was standing in the living room of Samphire Hoe cottage; his old family home.
His first instinct was to call out, but recalling his previous interactions he decided against it. Until he could work out when this was, he opted to stay silent and investigate his surroundings.
The living room didn’t appear to have changed since the last time he was here. The low ceiling, large plump sofa and wooden coffee table almost filled the entire space, but it somehow made the room seem cosy rather than cramped. Above a quietly crackling fire, the mantelpiece held a few ornaments and a tasteful inch-high model of Nelson’s Column.
He walked around the room and studied the oversized frames holding small pictures and photographs. A large photo of a vibrant pink flower reminded him of his early Field experiments. In another photo, his wife and young daughter smiled back at him. This narrowed the dates down a little; at this point they were all still together.
A dull grumble of thunder drifted in from the English Channel, on the other side of the closed curtains.
He turned to continue walking and felt his shoe crunch through broken glass. Beneath his foot was an upturned picture frame, the glass had been broken by its fall to the floor. He carefully turned it over and was greeted by familiar faces.
It was the photo of him and his daughter in the workspace of Hab 1 at the base in Iceland. He shook the broken glass from the frame then carefully pulled out the paper photo.
These actions seemed suddenly familiar, but the photo didn’t belong here. It had been taken a very long time after he’d left Dover, mere weeks before the Node had departed.
He remembered the photo so clearly because of the way Anna Bergstrom had framed it. Either cleverly or accidentally, she’d positioned herself to be reflected in the room’s only mirror, allowing herself to appear in the photo too.
As he turned the photo from side to side, the perspective of the photo changed; alternately hiding or revealing Anna. The effect was similar to the garish, yellow-green hologram of Earth that used to rotate back and forth on the flat piece of card.
The wind outside rattled through the wooden shutters that were folded back against the side of the cottage. When he looked back at the photo of Kate and Anna, it was just as flat as the others in the living room.
The crackling of the fire and another grumble of thunder were punctuated by four knocks on the front door.
Holding onto the paper photo, he walked down the narrow hallway. Along the way was a tiny pink suitcase and a larger, more sombre looking one that he knew contained the very first Field test equipment. Yet more out of sequence detail.
He reached the door and, after a moment’s hesitation, turned the handle.
COMPILE
13th April 2014
Marcus entered AR1 and started to make his way across the room. Whilst the corri
dors running throughout the rest of the underground labyrinth were literally hewn from the rock, Arrivals Room 1 had vertical smooth walls, a carpeted floor and comfortable furnishings. The room obviously had no window, but a pair of thick velvety curtains hung, permanently closed, from a wooden rail; all designed to give the impression of a comfortable, pre-collapse home.
Marcus placed his laptop down on the glass-topped coffee table and Nathan started looking for a cable to connect the laptop display to the wall-mounted television.
“We’re right next to the Arrivals Lounge,” said Marcus, “Why ain’t this room freezing cold?”
“To be honest,” came Nathan’s voice from the far end of the room, “we don’t even question it any more. We’re just trying to get by, a day at a time. Aha, here we go.”
He returned with a thick VGA cable and handed one end to Marcus.
“The fact we’re still here,” Nathan continued, attaching his end of the cable to the television, “is all we need to know. Go ahead.”
When Marcus had met Nathan down in the USV several minutes ago, the laptop had helpfully and loudly announced that it had completed its comparison subroutine. Marcus opened the laptop and within a few seconds it was displaying the results.
“If it’s a spot the difference puzzle,” Nathan glanced between the two columns of code on the screen, “I give in.”
Marcus stared at the screen.
“It can’t be…” Marcus now concentrated only on the laptop’s display.
Fingers flying over the keyboard, he locked the left and right sides of the screen together and began to scroll down. The further down the screen he scrolled, the more apparent it became. The code bases of the two Peace Keeper drones were now in perfect alignment.
Hardly daring to breathe, he scrolled to the top of the screen, held down the Alt key and F9. The left and right columns disappeared and a horizontal, empty rectangle filled the screen.
“Where’d it go?” Nathan now looked away from the television.
Marcus didn’t reply, as though even the act of speaking may somehow jinx his hopes. Two whole seconds passed before the empty rectangle began to fill from the left-hand side. The text underneath it read:
Boundary (Field Book 3) Page 28
