Colonization

by Scott McElhaney

  “Who’s to say that this past eighteen years wasn’t already a second or third span of eighteen years? Who’s to say we haven’t been doing this cycle over and over again for a thousand years?” she asked.

  My heart dropped in my chest. This theory kept getting more and more disheartening the further we examined it. From the look in her eyes, I think she was feeling much the same way. I shook my head.

  “This has to end,” I muttered, much to my own surprise, “It has to. No matter what’s out there in the real world, it has to end. I can’t keep hurting you.”

  She pressed herself against me and wrapped me in her arms. I pressed my lips onto the top of her head and held her.

  “You’re right. I just needed you to be the one to say it,” she said, “As long as we’re together in whatever’s out there, I’ll be alright.”

  Chapter Twenty

  We decided to spend the rest of the day together, giving me a chance to properly get to know her. We strolled along some of the walking paths, talking about all the things we shared in the past. I loved to hear about the things I did and all the fun we had, even if I had no memories of such things. I was still jealous of the intimacies I didn’t get to partake in, but as far as she was concerned, I did. But I was extremely grateful that she allowed me to discover multiple times what it was like to kiss those tender plump lips of hers. That alone could hold me for an eternity in an unknown world.

  We returned to the house and then spent the night holding each other in a platonic embrace on her oversize bed. I fell asleep with her body pressed perfectly into the curve of my own, ‘spooning’ as I believe it was called, and with the scent of her shampoo filling my head with dreams of her. And this was exactly how I awoke the next morning.

  We both showered and then dressed more appropriately for the exploration we had ahead of us. Shorts wouldn’t do if we were going for a journey underground. From there, we went to the shed and grabbed the flashlights, the same length of rope she said that I took on prior journeys, and a hunting knife. She said that although I never returned from those fateful journeys, the items I took with me always did.

  In spite of the “suicide” that we were both pursuing that day, neither of us felt any sense of dismay or worry. As a matter of fact, we had the attitude of a couple of close friends who were just going off to spend the day at the beach. While I wasn’t surprised by my own attitude, I expected that she would have been a bit more concerned. She had eighteen years of life, love, and happiness in her heart and mind. I only carried inside me the life of a man who lived two days with a beautiful woman. I probably loved this woman, though not as deeply as the previous Zanes who really got to know her and spend some quality time with her. But if they all loved her as passionately as her history suggests, then I would also one day love her as well… though not in an imaginary world such as this.

  We rode the ATVs up into the hills and eventually arrived at the mine cart tunnel. When we reached the entrance, she turned to me and asked for one more embrace. I gladly provided this, which after a minute turned into a wonderful and passionate kiss. My heart somersaulted the whole three or four minutes that I held and kissed this lovely woman.

  “Just in case we somehow get separated in the next world,” she whispered against my lips, “I wanted something to keep me for a while.”

  “For a kiss like that, I’ll find you one way or another,” I whispered back, pressing my lips to hers again.

  We broke from the embrace a moment later and agreed to focus solely on the plan. She admitted that there was no way to stop the mine cart in mid-journey, so we wouldn’t be able to ride that to the location of the tunnel branch. We would simply have to walk the hilly tunnel. Thankfully it would be just that – a tunnel and not some wooden raised structure like that of a rollercoaster.

  I offered to lead the way and she followed close enough behind that the beam from her light also helped to dispel the darkness up ahead. The tunnel had its own lighting system, but the bulbs were dim and spread too far apart to be of any real use.

  I held onto her hand as we started down the steep hill. We used the wooden crossbeams beneath the metal track as something of a staircase as we descended. At the bottom of the hill, we found ourselves faced with a darkness that was more absolute. The flashlights would have to work hard for the next several yards before the track veered to the left. One of the dim ceiling lights up ahead showed where the track would then veer to the right.

  We went on in silence, both being cautious of our footing. We came to an incline where again we had to use the crossbeams as something of a ladder or a stairwell. The incline was followed immediately by another steep hill. Sarai found this to be funny because of the effort it took to simply get past it. Her laughter brought some brightness to such a dark journey.

  After several yards of flat track, we came to a point where it veered to the right and upward at the same time. I actually remembered this turn because that’s about the time I saw the other tunnel. I knew we were going up an incline and turning to the right at the same time. Halfway up the hill, we located the dimly lit tunnel to the right.

  “This is it,” I said, shining my flashlight onto the wall of the tunnel.

  “I’m surprised I missed it,” she said, “It’s fairly large and lit up.”

  “We were racing at a pretty good clip around this curved incline, so I only saw it briefly both times,” I said.

  I led the way in, happy to be walking on flat ground now with no crossbeam obstacles to worry about tripping over. She quickly came up alongside me and took hold of one of my belt loops.

  “I’m thinking we should stay closer from this point on,” she whispered, “We don’t know what it is that takes you away.”

  “True,” I said, slipping my arm around her.

  We continued onward for several yards before the path turned abruptly to the left. There, only about three feet in front of us, was a black blanket draped down and hiding the rest of the path from us. Only I suddenly realized it wasn’t a blanket at all. When our flashlight beams hit the black wall, the beams disappeared. There was no circle of light where it hit the object, blanket, or wall. The light simply disappeared.

  “What is that? Is it a wall?” she asked, waving her light frantically.

  I shone my beam on the wall to the left and then moved that circle of light slowly to the blackness where it immediately disappeared. Then I reached forward with the flashlight itself to touch it.

  “No!” she shouted, startling me.

  She took the knife from the scabbard at my waist and then tossed it at the blackness. It instantly disappeared, not even offering us a delayed clang when it would have hit something.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” I said, reaching forward again with my flashlight.

  When the tip of the flashlight touched what seemed like a solid object of emptiness, the tip disappeared completely. I might as well have been lowering the flashlight into a pail of black paint.

  “Unreal,” she whispered, “We need to examine your natural instincts. What would previous Zanes have done at this point?”

  I stared at it for a moment and tried to imagine someone who was slowly realizing all the crazy peculiarities of the island. I imagined how I would feel if I was the Zane that saw an ATV repair itself and a gas can magically refill.

  “Rather than this place just being a dream manufactured or coerced into existence in our heads, I have to believe that it was programmed. Like a computer generated world where the details are quite vivid. Even the dust particles move appropriately,” I said, trying to put words to what I was thinking, “They thought to program all the details except for this.”

  “So this is a void?” she asked, “Nothingness? But why would they do that? Why even make a path that would lead here? Just delete the path completely and there would be no problems.”

  “Emergency exit,” I said with a shrug, “Hidden away so that it could never be accidentally stumbled upon. Maybe we were e
ven told about it before we went into this dream world and that’s why I subconsciously keep going here over and over again. Because subconsciously I believe something is wrong in this world.”

  “But why wouldn’t you bring me with you?” she asked.

  I turned to her and touched her cheek. I didn’t want to say what I was thinking because it might hurt her. I didn’t want to answer her question.

  “Because you thought I was part of the program. That maybe I wasn’t real,” she said, “Because I dismissed the things I claimed not to understand and other times, I purposely led you away from seeing the peculiarities.”

  “Is it too hard to believe that I’d wonder?” I asked, “Imagine it from a previous Zane’s point of view.”

  Her eyes were getting moist as she looked up at me.

  “But you keep coming back here,” she argued.

  “Believing I was coming back with the knowledge I had with me,” I replied, “Because I had discovered that I was wrong. Think about it.”

  She nodded, a tear escaping down her cheek.

  “That I’m a real person and I’m trapped here,” she said, “And it would have never changed.”

  “Until now,” I agreed.

  “Please come find me, Zane. Don’t forget that I escaped with you this time. Come find me,” she said, and with that, she took my hand and leapt into the void, taking me with her.

  Outside

  Chapter Twenty-One

  I could hear a hissing sound. I attempted to open my eyes, but my lids felt like they were glued shut. Suddenly I could hear the sound of a can of soda being slowly opened, only it sounded much louder. An electronic hum now invaded my space and all the while, I could still hear the hissing sound.

  I was cold…

  So cold…

  I struggled again to open my eyes and this time I was successful, but only partially. My eyelids still fought with the glue that clung along the edges. I reached up a cool hand and wiped a crusty substance from my eyes which helped me to open them further. I realized in that moment that I was lying inside a cold black coffin and up above me was a red beacon, spinning like the light atop an old-fashioned police car. Perhaps a warning for someone to come over here and tell me what was going on.

  I attempted to sit up and quickly discovered that I had a ventilator mask over my mouth and nose with a cord attached that restricted my movement. I wasted no time pulling it off and checking to see if the air around me was breathable. I was suddenly overcome with an aroma of oil mixed with rust and iron.

  The smell of machinery…

  Déjà vu…

  The smell of life…

  I tried to sit up again and then realized that something was tugging at my temples. I discovered two thin wires attached to both sides of my head. I pulled at them and when I discovered it didn’t hurt, I pulled harder. Suddenly I heard a metallic snap and discovered what had looked like a typical snap fastener at the end of the two wires. I felt my temples and just forward of my ears, I found two metal snap nubs attached firmly to my head. I couldn’t even move the nubs like I would have been able to if they were simply attached to the skin. These must have been attached to the skull.

  I made a third attempt to sit up and this time it was successful. I looked to my left and discovered the coffin lid propped up on its geared hinge next to me. Glancing down at the foot of the coffin, I could see that there were other similar coffins against the wall and lined up perfectly going to the right and left. Then I looked to my right and saw another two dozen or so coffins, only this time there was an open one in the distance with a red beacon spinning above it.

  “Sarai,” I choked the words out of a painfully dry throat.

  It came out as nothing more than a raspy whisper. I tried to move and discovered that I had two tubes inserted into a port taped to my arm. I removed both tubes and attempted to climb out of the ice cold coffin. I realized in that moment that I was completely naked. Completely pale and naked. Pale, naked and shivering all of a sudden.

  I still got out of the coffin nevertheless. That was when I took a closer look at the container where I had slept for an unknown amount of time. The thing truly resembled an iron coffin. The lid was hinged with hoses coming down along the sides. The lid was propped upright and I noticed vents of some sort on the underside of it. In the bed portion, it offered a thin dirty mattress that appeared to be dirtier at the imprint of where I had slept. The IV tubes, the breathing mask, the snap-wires, and the vents suggested the exact sort of refrigerator unit Commander Stark was…

  Commander Stark…

  Commander Sarai Stark… Executive Officer… XO…

  So wait… I’m… who am I…

  My memory was slowly coming back. I remembered Sarai was the XO of the ship we were on, but I couldn’t fully recall where I fit into the picture. I knew she was my wife but that…

  Wife?

  We’re married?

  Of course we were married. I wasn’t even in the chain of command here but rather just a family member who got to hitch a free ride to the Tau Ceti system. Zane Stark was my name.

  Petty Officer First Class Zane Stark…

  We met in the shipyards in Earth’s orbit…

  She was a Lieutenant and I was just a lowly Third Class welder at the time. She was coming through on an inspection… wondering why we were six months behind schedule. I simply had to meet her when I’d seen her pass by. Oh God she was beautiful.

  “Sarai!” I hollered, running as best as I could on those rubbery legs and weak ankles.

  “Zane?” I heard her raspy voice echo.

  She was now starting to sit up in her Delayed Aging Chamber. Another term that just came to me. She had the mask off and was trying to rub the grime from her eyes. I came up alongside her and when she saw me, she choked out a sob and wrapped me in her cold, frail arms.

  “It looks like you knew what you were talking about,” I said, rubbing her back and trying to bring some heat back into her veiny pale flesh.

  “I-I never d-doubted it for an instant,” she laughed, still holding me tight, “I’m so c-cold and n-naked.”

  “We need to go get our clothes,” I said, still trying to create some heat with the friction of my hands.

  “Our clothes? Wait… our room… I mean, our quarters,” she muttered, “W-we share a berthing… How could we…”

  “My last name is Stark. And so is yours, Commander,” I said.

  “Stark,” she repeated, pulling away and looking at me, “We’re married. I totally forgot everything.”

  Although she was still very beautiful, I realized that I was going to miss that golden tan she’d had in the dream world. She now looked every bit as pale as I did. We both also had chapped lips and gummed-up eyelashes with prominent dark circles under our sunken eyes. But nothing could conceal the beauty of my Sarai.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  We went back to our quarters and got into uniform. We washed up in the sink, which took quite a bit of effort. The Delayed Aging Chambers or D.A.C.s showed that we had been asleep for twenty-seven years but only aged a total of three years due to the gases and controlled refrigeration. Thanks to me continually waking up and reinserting myself, I probably aged at least five years.

  Our first order of business was to try to find out why I kept reinserting myself into the dream and the D.A.C. That question brought us up to the ship’s bridge. After powering on all the manual controls, we discovered that we were already orbiting our destination which curiously enough was the moon referred to as Kepler Moon Alpha. The autopilot got us here almost ten years ago and we’d been orbiting the moon ever since.

  “Why wouldn’t the autopilot wake us up?” I asked.

  As a welder by trade who really didn’t count as an actual crew member, I wasn’t made aware of a lot of the ship’s functions and system controls. I was truly just a passenger like nearly half the people on this very ship. Everyone who crewed the ship were permitted to bring along a single family me
mber since we were never going to be returning to Earth ever again. This ship, the Colonization Project or CP-4, was sent to Kepler to verify all the previous findings of the unmanned probes as well as to set up a ground base and begin our ecological research. As to how we would sleep during the journey or how we would wake up, well that wasn’t part of my job. I only knew the abbreviated details, which didn’t include anything about computer generated dreams or temporary memory wipes.

  “The autopilot woke up the medical officer one hundred and eighteen months ago. The medical officer was supposed to then oversee the waking of the rest of us,” she said, typing rapidly on the main control keyboard, “Only Lieutenant Commander Barr, Captain Murphy, and I had the codes to open up the chambers. No one else on this ship could have woken anyone up.”

  “So then where is the medical officer?” I asked, although for some reason, I recalled seeing something unsettling.

  She’s dead…

  I saw the body…

  When did I see the body?

  I was recalling some very unsettling images, but wasn’t sure if they were from nightmares I’d had or something I somehow really saw with my own eyes. Even as I was looking down at the computer terminal that Sarai was using, I was feeling an odd sense of déjà vu.

  “That’s what I was checking. She definitely was woken up, or at least…” she stopped suddenly and then turned to me, “We need to go to the medical bay.”

  I followed her as she attempted to run. We both had trouble using our legs in their weakened state. That was another thing I missed from the dream world. I was as muscular in that world as I was before this trip ever started. Now Sarai and I both probably lost at least fifty pounds each and since neither of us were large to begin with, it was a significant change.

  The medical team consisted of three people – two naval doctors and one naval nurse. One of the doctors, Lieutenant Commander Barr was a qualified surgeon and held the position of Chief Medical Officer. All three were stored in the medical facility. While the rest of the ship shared one giant room for their Delayed Aging Chambers, the medical team would wake up right in the medical bay so they could be near any medical supplies they discovered were needed upon waking.