Senescence (Jezebel's Ladder Book 5)

by Scott Rhine

  Zeiss shook his head. “Just like your mother, going in four directions at once. I’m proud of you for solving this. You’re going to save so many lives.”

  Part of her basked in his praise like Nana’s flowers in the sunshine, yet she sensed a tension weighing on her father’s mind. “But?”

  “The last attempt against us came too close. We can only afford one more transmission, and then we’re gone. Take another couple hours and compose it if you need to.” Zeiss escorted her to the medical lab. “The whole staff is yours for as long as you need it.”

  Mary snuck out soon after.

  Laura spotted her aura but was too busy planning to talk. She had to drive a stake into this monster’s heart before anyone else knew her role in creating it. No one would talk to her after that news leaked.

  Chapter 55 – Farewell

  Since the final message to Earth was a farewell as well as a warning, composing it took much longer than anticipated. Laura weighed each additional sentence, making certain that it would save more lives than those lost during the minutes it took to compose. While she agonized over her last technical paper, her father allowed everyone aboard to add their own last words to the world of their birth. Based on the last contact attempt, none of the original crew members or fugitives would be allowed to return.

  After Snowflake transmitted the entire package from a safe distance, Laura made a copy for her records, kissed her parents, and walked home for the expected round of evasive maneuvers. Stu was in the pilot seat this time and promised not to spill the lakes.

  When Laura arrived home, Aunt Mary was on the porch swing in her green jumpsuit snapping peas for dinner. The borrowed belt was nowhere to be seen, probably back in the storage chest. The happy domestic scene made Laura smile. “We did it! We gave Earth a fighting chance and said our good-byes. We’re on our way to the new colony.”

  Mary reached out a hand for the computer pad. “Do you mind? I wanted to read your father’s final note. I always thought he would have made a good priest … homily-wise.”

  Laura smiled and exchanged her pad for the peas. She continued snapping the ends off as Mary had done, but more slowly. “Did you leave a message?”

  “Goodness, no. I never existed as an adult on Earth. My whole life was a fiction. All the friends and family I have left are here with us.”

  “Johann Dahlstrom is about your age. He might be interested.”

  “Hmph. I may take a lover or two, but I think I’ve missed the window for true love,” Mary said.

  “What will you do on the voyage?” Laura asked.

  “I’m an excellent manager, and I know a fair bit about alien tech. I thought I’d lead the project to reproduce the decontamination pods. We might not be able to rebuild a human from scratch, but we can advance medical science by a few centuries. I think you’d make an excellent chief scientist for the medical branch. Give me your password, and I’ll link you to our project.”

  “Rio gardens with a capital R.”

  “Your first official date with Stu.”

  Laura glanced down. “I didn’t drug him. I would never—”

  “I already questioned him discreetly, honey.” Mary patted her on the leg. “The only time you ever used perfume was the night of Mori’s assault. If he had been drugged, you’d both be dead.”

  “I hope you reassured your sister.”

  “Mercy knows you chose him over the whole world. She won’t say anything. We edited the log so that only Kelly’s confession remained.”

  “How is Kelly?”

  Mary glanced up from the pad. “She hung herself in her cell.”

  “How?”

  “With a belt that contained all the evidence against her.”

  Laura dropped the bowl. “My belt?”

  Helping her pick up the mess, Mary explained, “Don’t worry. She wasn’t pregnant. I told her that Mo had committed suicide after meeting Koku, which was true. I implied he did it because he couldn’t face being bonded to a mass murderer. I ‘accidentally’ left the belt, and she did the rest. Just as well. Putting her on trial as the widow of a hero would have been impossible. I just couldn’t leave that loose end. I mean, one murder you could overlook, but a few hundred thousand indicates a pattern of behavior. Kelly showed no remorse.”

  Shock and guilt warred inside Laura. In the end, relief won out. She wasn’t sure what that said about her as a person, but her family would be safer without Kelly’s threats and schemes.

  Mary deleted the file labeled DeathToTyrants off Laura’s computer pad. “Sojiro has asked Koku to erase the Trumpet research from memory to avoid anyone else from concocting a similar horror.”

  “You’re covering for me?”

  “Yes, I wiped your fingerprints, dear. You’re starting clean. If you want to mend fences with Nyx, approach your friend Evangeline about carrying Mr. Onesemo’s child. Call it a tribute. Lord knows, Mo deserves better use of his DNA for the world to remember his heroism by.”

  “Stu would support that.” Laura scrunched up her brow. “Why are you helping to hide my part in this?”

  “With Stu’s feminist rhetoric and alien tech, people would assume that he incited Nyx to spread Trumpet, you manipulated him, and I funded it.”

  Laura shook her head. “Stu is the best man I know. Even the accusation would crush him.”

  “With our help, he’s going to be a great leader some day.”

  “And a great father,” Laura added.

  Mary smiled. “Exactly. Stu must never find out, and I know how to keep a secret.”

  ****

  In the months it took to reach Saturn, Laura kept busy with pod research, and her belly grew ever so slightly. People began congratulating her in the dining hall and on her daily walk to Olympus. Stu accompanied her each way, whether he had a work shift or not. She caught herself smiling more her first month of marriage than the rest of her previous life combined. It was a good life.

  The community expressed constant optimism about how much better the colony would be than Earth: less sexism, no pollution, no corporations, and no wars. The mantra seemed to be, “This time, we’ll do it right.” Mary laughed every time she heard the statement.

  The spread of the Last Trumpet slowed but didn’t halt entirely. Too many people refused the vaccine on religious grounds or to “preserve the purity of the race.” The purists were decimated by infection, so their enclaves developed detection devices that were 99 percent accurate. Those attempting to cross borders with Trumpet were often held in prison infirmaries until death. A cure was possible, but both expensive and dangerous.

  Listening to the news feeds made Laura glad she didn’t live on Earth anymore.

  Ships orbiting Saturn tried to prevent Sanctuary from reaching the nexus, but Koku inevitably prevented the weapons from firing. She enforced the charter in space with an iron hand.

  Stu thanked the AI for honoring their deal as he lined up Sanctuary for their first subspace hop of the journey.

  Only then did Laura sit down to read her father’s final message to the planet.

  We begin this mission in love, in repayment for all that has been given unto us.

  Sanctuary has done all it can to keep Earth alive while it makes its painful transition to a new age, even as you try to kill us all. My son-in-law, Stewart, gave you a taste of what we could offer and provided critical intelligence regarding the Seven Seals. My daughter, Laura, taught you how to heal your children and your sick even as you ridiculed her. In fact, all those Stewart invited were people you rejected.

  Mankind has proven capable of sentient action but has not yet chosen to mature and follow that course as a race. That is how others will see us—not as men or women, black or white, but as humans and fellow souls. The moment we invented the star drive, we ceased to be a collection of mythical nations distinguished by land masses, ideology, or ethnic history. With the cure to the Trumpet, we are more alike than ever. We’ve shown you that bodies can be adapted, regrown,
or left behind completely. Our identity transcends appendages or tint.

  You know the coordinates of the planet where we are traveling. We will be waiting to welcome you into the Union of Souls if you care to join us. We haven’t abandoned you; rather, we left the Lunar Koku as your shepherd and instructor in the space charter that we all agreed to. We intend to return in about a century to check on you. If we find no one alive, we will place a marker on your grave and sing your loss to the other races we meet. If, on the other hand, you reach our colony and find no life, know that we gave our all in the name of humanity. Our ship and all the treasures you coveted will finally be yours. But in that case, we hope that you will have worked together to build something better.

  The Earth is not your destination but your chrysalis. Finish your metamorphosis, and break free of history. We are not your enemies, only the first of many to awaken.

  Sincerely,

  Commander Conrad Zeiss

  ###

  I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the Jezebel series. My next project is an epic space adventure set in the same universe, roughly 400 years in the future. Stu and the Anodyne colony will have a huge historical influence, but the main character will be Max Culp, a medic for Union Special Forces, who is still recovering from his role in the Gigaparsec war and trying to transition to peacetime life.

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