Mutationem

by Phoenix Jericho

  The last body put into the oven was Susanna’s. At first Libby gave out soft cries, but as the body rolled in, they turned into screams.

  Connie approached Libby from behind and slid the hypodermic needle laced with sedative into the little girl. It was water based and flowed in easily, and soon Libby went limp. Connie pulled Libby into the hover chair and held the girl to her like the child she had never had.

  *

  It was many days before anyone saw Libby again, and when they did, she had changed. The loss of Susanna had heavily affected Libby. All those months on board wearing the learning visor and only having adults to interact with had advanced her mental development rapidly. She knew what death was and felt its loss. Because of this, she never wanted to leave Connie’s side.

  At first Libby wouldn’t even leave Connie’s quarters. Her entire world was that small room. It felt safe there, and nothing could get in or out without her seeing it. She would beg Connie not to leave the room, but someone had to go to the mess hall to get food, someone had to wash clothes, someone had to take care of the scientific needs of the colony, and that someone was Connie.

  Libby would only let the chief science officer leave if Dozer was present. When Connie tried to leave her alone, Libby would have a panic attack, and they were severe. Libby would breathe in and out deeply, make choking noises, and her face would turn white as she held her chest in pain.

  It was Dozer who finally coaxed Libby out of the room and back into the world. Libby could no longer ride the cat like she had in space; now, the planet’s gravity made her much too heavy. So instead they played fetch. Libby would throw a ball, and no matter which direction it bounced, Dozer would always pounce and retrieve it. One day, Libby threw the ball inadvertently at the stainless steel doors. Dozer rushed after the ball, his RFID chip triggering the doors to open, and he ran out of the room, chasing it down the hall.

  Libby’s mouth dropped and her eyes opened wide. The doors closed and she was alone. She tried to scream but no noise came out. The room didn’t feel safe anymore, so she bolted down the hall in pursuit.

  As if he knew, Dozer didn’t stop. Instead he ran until he was outside in the bright light of both suns. Then he chased his tail and pretended that it was some furry animal that he must kill. When Libby finally caught up, he was hissing and growling. The absurdity of Dozer’s performance distracted her. The madder he got at his tail, the less Libby thought about being outside, and soon her fear was replaced with giggles. She started to laugh so hard that tears flowed down her cheeks like little rivers.

  *

  With time, the colony began to find a new rhythm, and as the days turned into weeks, the disciplined routine brought comfort to all. The wells drilled for the nuclear reactor’s cooling system functioned perfectly, as Connie had predicted, the garden was bountiful, and Libby was growing both mentally and physically.

  Connie was startled to discover that every year on their new home planet was the equivalent to five on Earth. But this aging ratio had an effect not just on Libby, but on the whole crew. The additional gravity made the adult spines shorten, and increased ailments, such as knee, hip, and back problems. As Libby blossomed, everyone else appeared to fade. But everyone was so busy that no one really noticed.

  What the crew did notice was Libby. She was growing into a beautiful young woman.

  Everyone but Connie, Pickle, Smitty, Merc, and the captain thought the cloning process was moving along well. No one knew the truth but this little group, and they weren’t sharing this information with anyone else. To let this secret out, with the colony just getting back on its feet, would have profoundly demoralized everyone.

  The gene sequencer was gone. It had been gobbled up by a giant underground fissure that had opened up and closed forever. It didn’t matter that Felix was still intact; without the gene sequencer, his DNA couldn’t be replicated. Since the gene sequencer was a specialized device, Merc couldn’t just make a new one from spare parts in Engineering.

  Connie tried to come up with a solution, but the same negative thought kept returning: we are fucked.

  In the garden, surrounded by the others who knew, Captain Kriss said, “We have come too far to die now. You are my chief science officer and I have faith in you.”

  “But Captain—”

  “None of this is logical, so don’t educate me on logic. Look around at our surroundings. We shouldn’t even be here. We should all be dead with everyone else back on Earth, but we are not. So I want you to expand your mind and come up with an illogical solution to our male DNA problem. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, sir,” responded Connie in a weak voice.

  “Good. And in the unlikely chance of you failing, I want Libby trained thoroughly. She needs to know everything about mankind, our colony, and how to survive. If she is our last link, I want her to be the strongest.”

  Looking each woman in the eye, the captain let her words sink in. She had an uncanny way of inducing confidence and morale, and she wouldn’t break her glance until she saw that same spark come to life in their eyes. No one dared look away.

  Chapter Seventy-Seven

  “Don’t do it! I forbid you to do it!”

  Connie’s words were drowned out by the roar of the rocket’s hiss as its engine ignited. At first it sputtered and seemed to stall, but then it blossomed to full thrust, and the propellant’s exhaust blew the planet’s red soil into Connie’s open mouth.

  Turning her head to avoid the flying debris, Connie inhaled a mouthful of air in panic, which resulted in her coughing violently. It took her several seconds to clear her airway. Spitting out fragments of freshly salivated soil, she looked back in the direction of the rocket’s departing noise and held her hands up to block the sun’s light from her eyes. Squinting, she scanned the sky and spotted the rocket. If it hadn’t still been fueled, she wouldn’t have known where to look.

  Suddenly, without warning, the rocket’s yellow plumed flame went out. Holding her breath in anticipation, Connie silently counted; it was a full four seconds before a white mess of nylon shot up into the sky in a bundled knot. Then it opened into a rigid canopy and formed a wing, its arched shape spiraling down in gentle circles.

  As it got closer, you could see what was hanging beneath the chute. It was a woman, and below her hung the now silenced rocket. Though too far away to see who it was, Connie already knew: it was Libby.

  Breathing in deeply, Connie was relieved to see the pararescue pack working as designed, but she was also angry—angry at Libby for disobeying her. The pack was initially designed for downed aviators on Earth to avoid capture behind enemy lines. The small rocket was powerful enough to lift one person ten thousand feet up, and when turned off, a parachute was deployed and the pilot glided back down. If the new landing site was not ideal or too dangerous, the rocket could be reignited one more time, but first the primary chute had to be cut away. Then, upon gaining the same altitude, the rocket burned out and an auxiliary chute was deployed.

  They worked remarkably well, but this time it wasn’t being used by a downed aviator; instead, Libby was using it to explore the planet. She had shown a keen interest in the pararescue pack once she discovered it in Engineering. Merc had shown her how to use it, and Libby had studied it on her learning visor. Connie hadn’t thought much about it when Libby had brought the subject up at supper the night before; Libby was curious about everything, and the captain had ordered everyone to fill her full of knowledge. It wasn’t until Connie had flown her hover chair to the garden in search of Libby the next day that she realized this information was being acted upon.

  As Libby drifted closer, she could see the entire colony. It was like floating above an ocean of green. The only breaks in the landscape were the two rectangular clay-colored clearings.

  Libby had never seen a real living bird before, but she had watched them many times on her learning vis
or. This is what it must feel like to glide as a bird, she thought.

  Tugging on the nylon ropes, Libby effortlessly guided the chute. The only noise was the passage of air as it rippled over the canopy. As she descended, she could see the sticklike figures of women walking around the colony. No one was identifiable yet except Connie. The chief science officer still sat on her hover chair where Libby had left her minutes earlier, and as Libby drifted closer, she could make out Connie’s hands on her hips. She was clearly displeased.

  “Get your butt down here now!” yelled Connie.

  In response, Libby kicked her dangling legs back and forth, and this only made Connie angrier.

  The planet’s surface loomed, and Libby felt the accelerated speed of gravity pulling her down. With unpracticed ease, she pulled on the nylon cords, causing the chute to choke in one last gasp of air. The quick-stop maneuver couldn’t have been articulated any better. Libby’s forward rush to the ground had all but stopped when she extended first one foot and then the other, like an elegant swan landing on its nest.

  She let out an adrenaline-filled yell of excitement as she came to rest facing Connie. Connie tried to keep her face as stern as possible, but it was impossible to hold for long; Libby’s happy face melted away all of Connie’s anger. When Connie did talk, it was with concern.

  “What were you thinking? Flying off like that could have gotten you killed. You worried me sick pulling that stunt. I think I just aged another year.”

  “Oh, Mimi, it was so great,” Libby gushed. “Did you see me?”

  “I most certainly did,” replied Connie. “As a matter of fact, I remember looking right into your eyes and telling you not to go.”

  “Mimi, don’t be angry. I was perfectly safe, and you saw how good I was.”

  “Yes, you did a splendid job,” Connie said with motherly pride. “Just don’t do it again.”

  “But Mimi, I have to. It’s the best way to explore the planet!”

  Connie groaned. “Pack that thing up and sign it back into Engineering before Merc gets after you.”

  “Merc already knows, Mimi. She said I could use it.”

  “Oh really? Well, I’ll have to have a word with her,” said Connie.

  Spinning around, she glided away in her hover chair. It wasn’t long before she was in Engineering. Confronting the section commander, she voiced her concerns and was stunned when Merc confessed that she had allowed Libby to take out the pararescue pack.

  “But,” Merc said, “I had no idea she was going to actually deploy it. Mimi better get control of her girl.” Merc chuckled. “She is growing up to be a wild one.”

  “I know,” replied Connie. “She makes me so mad, but everything she does, she masters completely, and I can’t bring myself to break her adventuresome spirit. I’m just worried she’ll hurt herself.”

  “Don’t worry so much. Hell, she’s just acting like any young teenager would,” said Merc.

  “But she isn’t a teenager yet,” replied Connie.

  “Well, she’s the closest we’ve got on this planet,” Merc pointed out.

  Just then, Libby appeared, dropping the pack at Merc’s feet. “Did you see me fly?”

  “Yes, kid, and that was a perfect landing,” said Merc. “I couldn’t have executed it any better myself.”

  Beaming at the praise, Libby asked, “Can you refuel the rocket? I want to take it up again tomorrow.”

  “It will be ready,” replied Merc, “but you better ask your Mimi first.”

  Shooting a stern look at Merc, the chief science officer replied, “We’ll talk about this later. First get back to our quarters and get cleaned up for supper.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” responded Libby.

  *

  This was only the beginning, and soon Libby began to explore even more. As each day came and went, Connie’s stress only increased. Finally, Connie gave up voicing her concerns and accepted her adopted young’s ways.

  Hiccup also continued to grow, and so did her kittens. Everyone in the crew loved the cats. Even Dozer was fond of the kittens, though he feigned indifference when they showed him attention.

  Libby was becoming more independent as the days went by, but she still slept in the same room each night with Connie and Dozer. Dozer accompanied her on all of her excursions, except those involving the pararescue pack. Anything that could hiss louder than him was off-limits.

  Whenever Libby went exploring outside of the colony’s clearing, she always brought back new plant specimens that she had found and gave them to Connie. Her Mimi was delighted to study and categorize them, and documented every detail in a new library of knowledge for the planet. After a while, Libby learned all the names Connie had given the plants, and with time, this lengthy list grew less quickly, as fewer new plants were discovered.

  One afternoon, Libby was lying on her back resting in the shade of a palm-shaped plant. Its delicate, fanlike leaves were moving gently, and the shadows they cast from the overhead suns gently traced the outline of her body. There was no wind; the movement was caused by Dozer rubbing up against its base. Reaching her hand out to the cat, Libby scratched him under the chin. As she loved on Dozer, she noticed the black outline of a plant she had never seen before.

  She started to reach for the unusual plant when, without warning, a cracking sound made both Libby and the cat stiffen in fear. Sitting up, Libby peered through the foliage and tried to see what had made the noise. Dozer’s hair stood up on end, making him look twice his actual size. He growled deeply in his chest and crouched perfectly still; the only thing that moved was the tip of his tail. This slight movement was a warning, like the shake of a coiled rattlesnake’s tail. Whatever had made the noise was approaching the pair.

  Finally, Libby spoke. “Who is there?”

  The seconds slowly ticked by. Libby was considering making a run for it when she heard a beautiful voice begin to sing. Libby remembered that voice; she had heard it in the Great Hall many times. It was Leea’s.

  She waited in anticipation as the voice moved closer. Stepping out of the dense jungle, Leea appeared, and then her two companions.

  Rushing towards the trio, Libby threw her arms open. She was so excited to see them, and they were equally pleased to see Libby.

  “My, but you have grown!” Leea said, looking at Libby’s blouse. “You are no longer a baby. You are a beautiful young woman, and I see that you are filling out in all the right places.”

  “Have you had your first period yet?” asked Brooke.

  “No, not yet. Mimi says it will be soon, though,” said Libby.

  “Who is Mimi?” asked Jade.

  “It’s what I call Connie now that Momma is gone.”

  “Oh, we didn’t know,” said Leea. “We’re sorry, honey.”

  “It’s okay, but I do miss her. So how are you guys?” asked Libby.

  “We’re tired of eating plants that we know nothing about and cracking rocks to drink from,” Leea said bitterly. “But at least we are free.”

  Dozer remained hidden during the visit, his memory warning him of danger. Seeing Leea again only reinforced the fact that she was an enemy.

  That night, lying on her bunk in crew quarters, Libby heard the soft snoring of Mimi and questioned why she hadn’t told Connie about the encounter with the escapees. Leea had asked her to say nothing, and for some reason, Libby had complied.

  Her eyes became heavy, and as she drifted off to sleep, she remembered the strange plant. What was it?

  Chapter Seventy-Eight

  Since the death of Susanna, the chief science officer had smoked seldom. Libby needed her full attention, and Connie was trying to be more responsible. Feeling a little guilt for giving in, she lit the joint, inhaling deeply. She waited for the comforting warmth of her old friend. Soon she began to relax and focused on her surroundings. She was sit
ting on top of one of the fifty-foot-tall mounds of dirt the ice quake had pushed up in the clearing beside the colony. The crew had cut a path through the vegetation that connected both clearings, and without intending to, Connie had floated down it in her hover chair.

  She was deep in thought, struggling with the heavy burden of what to do with Felix. Her eyes were open but she didn’t see; they only acted like robotic sensors that guided her down the trail. As her surroundings came into focus, Connie breathed in the planet’s pure air, and as she exhaled, the stress began to leave her body.

  Bringing the joint back up to her lips, she inhaled again, and as she did, she heard a bee fly by. Blowing out the smoke in a white cloud, Connie followed the bee. Even though her chair levitated above the surface, it still followed the contours of the ground below, and the terrain was unforgiving. Soon the bee outdistanced her.

  Rising up to the top of another ridge of dirt, she scanned the area and was disappointed when she couldn’t see where the bee had gone. Feeling anxious, she stopped and rested. Looking up, she heard the noise of two more bees go buzzing by, and with renewed determination, she followed.

  This time was easier, as more bees flew past her head. In the distance, she could hear the hum of their many insect voices. Connie had reached the clearing’s edge, and now the dense vegetation completely blocked her view. Relying on hearing alone, she pushed her way through the foliage. Stopping frequently, she used both ears to decipher where the sound was coming from, and then pushed forward.

  Connie didn’t have any tools like a machete to help her clear the way, and soon her hands were cut and blistered. Pushing the joystick forward as far as she could, she used her hover chair like a miniature floating battering ram. Sometimes it pushed the plants to the side as it plowed between them, and other times it crashed to a halt like a bumper car hitting a wall. This constant bombardment against the vegetation shook Connie up, and after a while she couldn’t see the clearing anymore.