Dreaming of Ayama
Page 29
“I know you have been exploring the Dawnbreaker at night, even after Barrott told everyone not to until they could assess the structural unsafeness. I have been as well, but I never get far.” I give him a conspiratorial grin and he grins back. “Did you find my unit?” I rush out.
“Well, well, well, need to find your toys and clothes…or maybe something more interesting? What’s it worth?” he inquires, his eyes blazing for the haggle.
“What do you want?” I groan.
“There is a speeder at one end of the Dawnbreaker, broken, but still salvageable. I want to fix it up.” He shrugs.
“And that is down to me…how?” I ask.
He snorts. “You might not want to admit it, but you are in charge around here, you say no and everyone will have your back. I want to restore it and I want to borrow one of the engineers.”
“For the colony, or for you?” I question.
“Both, always both, Indy. You know I serve myself first and everyone else second.” He winks.
“Fine, you can have it, but no breaking the ship anymore than it is and keep the speeder cloaked so the rebels don’t see it,” I order and he nods.
“Good deal. Yes, I’ve found your unit. You are lucky, the ship broke two units down from yours. It’s a bitch to get to mind you, not as bad as the upper stations I raided, but not easy.”
“I don’t care, take me to it?”
“Deal.” He holds out his hand and I shake it.
“Now.” I get up and he laughs, throwing down his spoon and standing.
“There is the Indy I know.” He grins, swaggering over as we walk side by side to the Dawnbreaker. I wave at Barrott so he knows where we are going, and he narrows his eyes but nods before turning back to Riley and Rhet.
We don’t mess around or wait, Lee leads me into the hole of the Dawnbreaker, picking up two torches as he goes and passing one to me. I grab it and flick it on as we head down the hallway. We curve around the unit I slept in with my guys to a dead end, and I look around with raised eyebrows before watching Lee’s light catch on a rope leading to a hole in the floor above.
“Ladies first,” he offers, and I roll my eyes but step past him.
I clip the torch to my shirt and jump onto the rope, winding it around my feet to help myself climb. It’s hard work, my arms straining and my face flushed. The hole itself is a tight squeeze and I have to be careful not to catch myself on the jagged edges as I pull myself up and over.
“You’re up!” I holler down to Lee, before unclipping my torch and shining it around. It catches on the destruction here, but obviously Lee and some other colony members have been through because it’s all pushed to the sides, creating a footpath. Getting to my feet, I look each way, swinging the beam of my torch around in the darkness. It’s creepy in here, the air feels stale and old, and it’s completely without light. It feels like a dead beast. So strange to think we lived here not long ago.
Lee grunts and I turn to see him yank himself over the edge, his shirt catching on a sharp part and ripping slightly, but other than that he is fine. “This way.” He jerks his head and clambers to his feet then heads left. I follow after him as we pass units upon units, and have to climb more ropes until we get to a staircase where the door is blown open. “Careful in here, okay? We only need to go up one level, but because of how the ship crashed it has tipped the stairs, so it’s easy to lose your footing.”
Lee goes first and I make sure to follow exactly where he steps, and when we get through the door I see what he meant. It’s leaning slightly on its side and some of the handrails on the stairs are missing, leaving a long, dark drop below. Laying my hand on the wall, I slowly shadow Lee, ducking under wires and hanging lights until we reach the next level. The door is propped open here and there is blood on it, but I quickly look away.
“Okay, the lagoon is flooded up here but contained. It should have drained, but I think they lost power too quickly. We are lucky as hell it hasn’t broken open yet, there is enough water in there to flood the camp. We have mostly been working downwards instead of upwards...so I’m not too sure about the rest of the ship,” he mutters, as he steps through the door into a familiar hallway.
Blood, my blood, is covering the junction between the lagoon and my unit, and I swallow hard as the echoes of my screams and panic ignite within me. I force myself to look away and Lee doesn’t notice my hesitance. I follow after him and we stop outside of my unit, the door is closed and I look at him. “You been in there?” I ask, suddenly worried.
“No, out of respect.” He nods and I blink. Wow…okay.
Looking back at the door, I start to fidget. The last time I was here was when the boys’ dad attacked us. Will that memory haunt me here now rather than my parents’ ghosts? Only one way to find out. I grab the metal tool Lee has from his hands and wedge it into the crack of the door. Using all my strength, I wiggle the door, and when it finally slides all the way open, revealing the dark inside, I stumble back on a gag. The smell of death and decay hits me, making my eyes water, and I slowly shine the torch inside, terrified of what I am going to see.
There, on the floor, is Eldon and Auden’s father and his two men. Their bodies are still intact, rotting away, the smell of the corpses obviously trapped in my unit until we opened it.
“Fuck,” Lee curses, covering his nose as we both step back. “I think we should head back,” he suggests and I shake my head,
“No, it’s important. I won’t be long, are you staying?” I inquire hesitantly, not wanting to be here alone with the bodies. I know they are dead but that is freaking me out, coupled with the pitch-black in my unit, I am glad I brought Lee along.
“Yeah, I’ll wait here?” he says and I nod. “Indy,” he calls and I look over. He strips off his shirt and passes it to me.
I grin my thanks and wrap it around my mouth and nose, using it to block the worst of the smell. I know it’s only going to get stronger the farther I get in there, but I have to know. I have to be sure. A whole world is counting on that research and now is not the time to lose my bravery. Forcing my feet forward, I make sure to shine the light on the floor so I don’t accidentally slip on a body. I have to hop over one of them and make myself look away so I don’t throw up on them—that would only make it worse. Breathing lightly through the shirt that smells like Lee, I head straight for the stairs leading to my bedroom and my parents’. I left everything like it was up there so it’s a good place to start.
It’s slow going with only the little torch beam to go on, but I finally reach their room. Throwing my shoulders back, I step inside for the first time since they died. It looks exactly the same—the bed is still unmade, my dad’s clothes are thrown all over, and my mum’s organised chaos is everywhere. Tears fill my eyes but I breathe them away, knowing the longer I am here the longer Lee and Barrott will be worried.
Where would she hide it? It wouldn’t be somewhere obvious. Not something that important, especially not when she knew the rebels would be looking for it. So I discount the drawers straight away, that would be the first place people would look. I slide open the wardrobe, my fingers lingering on their clothes, and before I can stop myself I step in and take a big sniff of them. They still smell like them, pine and cedar for my dad, and mint and lemon for my mum.
Focus, Indy, I remind myself as I crouch and run the light along the bottom of the wardrobe, but only shoes line it and I sigh. I don’t even know what I am looking for…something…something to do with Ayama. It has to be here, something has to go my way unless Howard was wrong and everything was in the lab. The lab! Standing up quickly, I locate my mother’s lab coat with her name badge still clipped on it. She had forgotten to take it that day and had to borrow one from my dad. I search the pockets but come up empty. Spaceballs. Maybe there isn’t anything here.
Stepping back, I run the torch beam around the room, debating where else they could hide something like that. It has to be well hidden, somewhere you wouldn’t think—
“Indy, how’s it going?” Lee hollers.
Swallowing, I stare around the room, my eyes catching on all their belongings.
“Indy, did you find whatever you’re looking for? Are you good?” he shouts worriedly.
“Yeah, I’m good,” I reply with a smile and I am. I thought it would hurt being here, but all I can feel now are the good memories. “Yeah, I’m good!” I shout louder, my voice echoing around my tomb-like home. I quickly leave but stop in my room to grab some clothes before heading back downstairs.
“Good, lets leave!” he yells, his torch shining on me.
I sweep my torch around and see on the bodies again. I have a frown on my face as I step outside to Lee, and only then do I drop his shirt. “We have to bury them.”
He groans, looking at the ceiling. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
“I can’t let Auden and Eldon see their dad like that though. He was a bastard, but he was still their father.” Turning, I pull my mask back up and slip inside. I grab a sheet from upstairs and cover all the bodies, before Lee and I head back down to camp. Nerves are running through me the entire trek, and the information disk is burning a hole in my pocket.
Only when we step outside do I flick off the torch and breathe deeply, chasing away the stench of death with the fresh, clean scent of our camp. I spot Barrott, and with a thanks to Lee, I head over to him.
“Hey baby, did you find anything?” he asks, looking around.
“I think so, but we have a problem.” I wince.
“What?” he growls.
“We need to bury Auden and Eldon’s dad and the men he brought to attack me,” I say softly.
“We need to do what?” he yells, catching people’s attention.
“We can’t leave them there like that, big guy. Not everyone is good or bad, I know that. Just because they made bad choices—”
“Fucking vile choices, baby.”
“Doesn’t mean they were totally bad people, they had families and lives and they deserve to be put to rest,” I finish and he groans, already knowing he is defeated.
“Fine, I’ll grab some guys and Lee and get them,” he agrees with a sigh.
“Thanks, big guy. I’ll let them know.” Leaning on my tiptoes, I kiss him, then order, “Be careful.”
“No,” Eldon snaps.
“Cutie—”
“No,” Auden echoes, both of them facing me with their arms crossed.
“We are burying them, you don’t have to be there,” I tell them softly, knowing how much of a touchy subject this is.
“After everything he did to you?” Eldon roars.
“He still deserves to be buried,” I counter, and I see him deflate a little. They both look at the ground, grinding their jaws, and it hits me how similar they act all the time. No one speaks and I fear I have overstepped when Eldon finally looks up.
“One condition,” he says finally.
“Of course.” I nod.
“They don’t get to be buried near Howard and Terry.”
“Okay,” I agree, and step into his and Auden’s embrace, holding them. “We will find somewhere else.”
They hug me for a while before we head out to find a place to bury the men. Auden finds a spot in the jungle, away from the camp in case any animals dig them up, and we get to work digging. By the time we have three graves dug, Barrott, Jim, and Lee are bringing the bodies over. They place them in the graves and help us cover them again.
“Any words?” I ask the brothers, grabbing their hands to offer them comfort. He might have been a grade A prick, but he was still their father.
“You got what you deserved. At least you can’t hurt us anymore,” Eldon snarls, before turning and stepping through the trees. Auden follows after him and I sigh before holding my hand out to Barrott.
“You did the right thing, baby. Whether they hated him or not, this was still hard. Let them have some space to deal with that,” he suggests and I nod, cuddling into his side as we walk back to camp. Ker jumps down from a tree and follows along. He has been venturing into camp more and more, and I am convinced he didn’t before because he could sense the threat the rebels posed inside our walls.
People are accepting him, even those who freaked out when they first saw him. I see them sneakily petting him and he loves all the attention and food he gets from people. “I’m heading to test the thing I found,” I say in a lowered voice and Barrott hums.
“I’ll come with you,” he replies, so we skirt around camp and walk through the trees to the alien settlement, with no hurry in our steps.
We are greeted when we get there and I wave to the colony members I spot working the fields. Chrissy is one of them and I smile at her as she waves back. We are never going to be best friends, but our grudges seem stupid in the light of everything that has happened. We head to the command centre and I find Jolp at his usual desk, but my eyebrows rise when I see a flower placed in a cup there.
“Cute decoration,” I tease, and he wags a finger at me in warning.
“My woman brought it to me.” He puffs out his chest, daring people to tease him.
“Your woman, eh?” I grin and he smiles, flashing fangs as his tail thumps happily.
“Effie the wondrous,” he confirms. “Now, what’s up twat waffle?”
I really need to stop teaching him swear words. Barrott just groans at my side. “I need you to access this for me, tell me what’s on it.” I hold out the information disk and he snatches it, already losing interest in us. He makes some weird noises as he turns it over before he jumps up and rushes from the room. I turn to Barrott in confusion, but we just wait until he comes back with a holo projector, which he attaches to his computer. I have no idea what he does next, and when I ask he just growls and tells me to ‘fuck my muffin,’ so I quickly shut up even as Barrott shakes with silent laughter next to me.
“Yes!” he cheers, turning to face the screen and typing rapidly. I lean closer, noticing the files he is drawing up from the disk.
“Some are video files, some are photos, some look like data and findings,” Jolp informs me, and I pick a video at random.
“Play that one.”
He does as I ask, moving back so we can all see the screen, and I gasp when my mum’s face appears before me. She is exactly as I remembered her with wild hair and tired eyes. “Hi honey, if you are watching this that means something has gone wrong.” I stumble back and Jolp freezes the recording, looking between her face and mine before it seems to dawn on him.
“Press this to play, this to pause, and this for next,” he instructs softly, before getting to his feet and walking away. I don’t move and in a blink he is back.
He snatches his flower and holds it to his chest with a growl. “Mine,” he rumbles before leaving again.
“Baby,” Barrott whispers.
“Will you stay, will you watch it with me?” I beg and he kisses me.
“Of course.” He grabs me and sits down in the chair, pulling me into his lap and wrapping his arms around me. I blow out a breath before leaning over and pressing play, it continues playing from where we stopped it.
“It was always a possibility. There are some things you don’t know, some choices we have made. We are only human, Indy, and we make mistakes, but I am hoping we have learned from them. Ayama is
dying, but I have found a way to save it. It can be saved, Indy. We can have a new shot at a better life. Ayama can be our—your—second chance.” Her face darkens then. “Some people don’t want that chance, they don’t want change. We are in danger with every passing minute, and that’s why I have hidden this, just in case. You need to get the information on the disk to Commander Prot or Doctor Lisa Giles on Ayama, both of whom I have been in contact with and trust. I had hoped you would never have to know this. I have been trying so hard to protect you, to let you live a normal life, and I hope you don’t hate us for that.”
My dad comes in then, his hand landing on my mum’s shoulder.
“I guess that is everything, Indy. I am so proud of you, I didn’t tell you that enough and I’m sorry. I hope you know now why we were so busy all the time. We made sacrifices for the human race…but I never regretted it as much as I did when I saw how fast you were growing up. I missed so much of your life, we both did, and it’s my biggest regret. I hope you still love us.” She looks away, gripping my dad’s hand on her shoulder. “I know you will get this to the right people, and if not then it means we did it and you don’t need to. I hope that’s the case, but you know I like my backup plans.” She grins with tears in her eyes.
“Indy, my daughter, you are the best thing that ever happened to us. You have the best of your dad and me, you are so strong and smart, loyal and kind, filled with adventure and hope. Don’t lose that, no matter what. Keep it close, let it guide you, and you will never go wrong. This world has a way of sucking that from people, don’t let it. Most of all, I hope you are happy. I hope you fall in love, have a family, become the pilot I know you will. Whether that is on Ayama or back on Earth, I made sure that was a possibility. Everything we did was for you, for your future. We saved Ayama to give you that choice, so choose your life Indy. Live every moment to its fullest, feel the pain and the love.” She pauses and takes a deep breath. “I love you, Indy, my beautiful daughter. Goodbye,” she whispers.