“Daddy, what’s going on?” Mr. Drayton’s daughter asked, her voice so frail I could barely hear her over the commotion.
He didn’t respond. He was busy staring at the chaotic scene below. “I didn’t think I would cause this…” he muttered.
“You didn’t think?” I said, my glare boring through him. “Three thousand spots, Mr. Drayton. Life support doesn’t allow for any more. Do you suppose I only chose people with no connections for my health? A man is dead because you didn’t listen!”
“What does it matter!” he snapped, startling me. Tears streamed down his cheeks. “He would’ve been dead tomorrow. They’re all going to be dead tomorrow. Nothing we do can stop that.”
“No.” I caught a glimpse of the surging mob in my peripherals. “But we can retain our humanity.”
Mr. Drayton took a measured breath. “You built this whole thing to save our species, Director. Isn’t that enough?”
“I did what I had to.”
“So did I.” He released his daughter and rose to his full height, no longer afraid. She wrapped her tiny arms around his leg and hid her face against him. “I wasn’t going to let her go like that. Not while there was a chance.” He gestured into the ship’s interior. “And I know you wouldn’t either.”
I pride myself on my quick mind, but for once I had no idea what to say. There was no denying Mr. Drayton was right. I looked inside and saw Kara, and I couldn’t help but picture her as a nervous ten-year-old orphan without a place to go. Just seeing the fresh scrapes on her legs made me uneasy.
“Let my daughter take my place,” Mr. Drayton implored. “I know the risks of sending her this young, but it’s got to be better than her staying here, right? She can learn from the other horticulturalists. She’s smart. Smarter than I was at her age.”
I remained silent. Beyond Kara, hundreds inside scurried about preparing the sleep-chambers, moving up and down the central lift. Despite my stringent requirements, each of the people inside them was unique. Many could be considered true geniuses, while others were merely the hardest workers on my staff from a peaceful time. The only thing they all visibly had in common was that they were young. Young enough to flourish on our new world.
Everyone but me...
I looked in the opposite direction, over the shoulders of the security officers crowding the ramp. Each livid individual in the mob at the gate was someone I’d decided wasn’t worthy of propagating our species. My criteria. My interviews. My decisions. I was to remember their faces forever so that nobody else had to. But years of focusing on work had led me to ignore one simple fact… that I belonged with them.
The scraping of metal over dirt made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. The gate was breaking, and if the people on the other side reached the ship, we’d all be torn to pieces.
Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. I had one last gift to give.
“Kara,” I mouthed. I moved in front of her and gripped her gently by the arms to gain her attention. “Kara, I need you to do something for me.”
Her teary gaze snapped toward me. “Anything, dad... I mean, Director,” she stuttered.
“I need you to go to the command deck and prepare the ship for launch while I manage the situation out here. This vessel was built to withstand entry through the thick atmosphere of Titan, but I don’t know how long we can endure the fury of humankind’s will to survive.”
“It’s your design. I’m … I’m not sure if I know the ignition sequence well enough without you.”
I held her at arm’s length. “As you said, you’ve been with me since the beginning. You know everything that I do. Just stay focused and ignore what’s out there. I believe in you, Kara. Your people need you.”
“Okay,” she said. She gritted her teeth and nodded. “I can handle it.”
“I know you can.” I smiled as I patted her on the shoulder and turned her around. My heart sank as I watched her run toward the lift. I wanted to holler, “I’ll see you soon,” just so she’d glance back over her shoulder, but I couldn’t get the words out.
I didn’t want to lie.
Not to her.
“Mr. Drayton,” I said, spinning around. My gaze darted between him and his daughter. “Are you sure you want this?”
“It’s wha—” A thunderous crash cut him off. Half of the compound’s gate swung open against the wall, and the mob poured through, stampeding each other and screaming. Sgt. Hale and the officers at the ramp’s base tightened their stance and readied their rifles. “It’s what any father would do,” he finished.
“I think I understand.” I leaned in close so that I could whisper in his ear. “First, have your daughter loaded into the chamber meant for you. Then, I need you to follow Kara. There’s no time to get everybody hooked up. Tell the staff to have everyone get into their chambers themselves and worry about hooking up when the ship reaches space. Once everybody is safely restrained, initiate the launch. Kara will have it ready, but she’ll be waiting for me. Don’t.”
Mr. Drayton eyes opened wide as he realized what I was planning. “There has to be another way,” he said.
“Another body on the ship means someone else must be left behind. It’s as simple as that.”
“Then let it be me! These people need you.”
I smirked. “Not anymore. I’ll be dead in a decade. One old man isn’t going to make a difference on Titan. You have an entire lifetime to make it feel like home.” I regarded his daughter and wondered what Kara might’ve looked like at her age. “It starts with her.”
“Director Trass, I don’t –”
“This is an order, Mr. Drayton!” I cut him off. “Now, there are two chambers in the command deck. You might have to force her into hers, but make sure she gets in. You tell her…” The words got stuck in my throat. I could picture her beautiful smile. “Tell her she’s the only Trass who matters now.”
He stood motionless. “Thank you,” he muttered, hardly able to get the words out. “For everything,”
Our gazes met one last time. “Thank me when you’re there,” I replied. He was the only chosen candidate willing to risk everything on a lie. It was because of that I knew he wouldn’t fail me.
He wrapped his arm around his daughter and turned to a member of my staff. Once he began communicating the orders I’d told him to, I hurried to Sgt. Hale at the ramp.
“Move everybody inside!” I told him.
“Director Trass, what’s going on?” he questioned. He fired off a few rounds to slow the rapidly approaching mob, but they were growing bolder. In minutes, I knew the guards I hired for protection were going to have to do whatever it took to survive. Having to slaughter members of their own species was going to be the last memory of Earth my candidates had. I couldn’t allow that.
“It’s time,” I said. “Nobody gets in or out after me.” I keyed the ramp controls and set the closing sequence to initiate. Then I sprinted out across my compound before any of the officers could stop me. Sgt. Hale shouted something, but he wasn’t foolish enough to follow.
“That’s him!” someone in the mob screamed.
I lowered my head and made a break for the compound’s office building. The throng abandoned the Titan Project to chase after me, just like I knew they would, but the angle I’d taken allowed me to stay ahead of them. They shouted all manner of obscenities. Debris rained down around me.
A quarter-mile later, I busted through the lobby doors just before a slew of rocks peppered the glass. For once, there were no candidates at the front desk blocking the etching on it that read, titan’s cold embrace awaits us.
I wasn’t far enough ahead of the mob to take the elevator, so I entered the emergency stairwell. My legs felt like jelly by the time I reached the hallway six stories up. My office glowed at the other end of it like a beacon. Apparently, I’d left my lights on. The rest of the floor was dark.
I sprinted toward my office, locking the door as soon as I made it inside. A few seconds later
, the mob pounded on it. I wasn’t worried. The door was installed by the company that I’d started from nothing, and our products always worked. It would hold long enough.
“You can’t hide!” someone hollered.
I strolled over to my desk and took a seat in my all-too-familiar chair. My foot knocked over a bottle of whiskey underneath. Enough was left to fix myself a glass. I grabbed one off the windowsill and cleaned it with the bottom of my shirt. As I held it up to the moonlight to see if I’d gotten out all the smudges, a series of bright lights along the bottom of the Titan Project winked on. A siren blared throughout the entire compound.
I poured myself a drink and leaned back. The floor began to shake violently, causing the golden liquid to slosh over the rim of my glass. The shouting and banging at my door stopped. Seconds later, a blinding flash filled the sky, swiftly drowned out by smoke and dust. I could feel the heat radiating through the glass.
The shaking grew so intense my bones rattled, and then it was gone. The faint light grew steadily smaller, and even though I couldn’t yet see the Titan Project through the fog, I knew liftoff was a success. Kara and Mr. Drayton had done it. They—his daughter, and two thousand, nine hundred and ninety-seven others—were going to live — humanity’s best hope.
As the dust and smoke began to part, the moon was revealed. On one side of it, the flaming engines of the Titan Project glimmered. On the other, the asteroid shone. I raised my glass to the instrument of Earth’s destruction and took a sip.
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If you enjoyed The Children of Titan series, check out my newest collaboration with Jaime Castle, The Luna Missile Crisis.
Audible number one best sellers Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle return with a relentless sci-fi adventure that asks: What if?
The year is 1961. The Cold War is in full swing and the space race is on. Russia aims to send humanity to space. But what if space comes to humanity instead? Yuri Gagarin’s epic flight into space is disrupted when an alien Mothership jumps into orbit, causing a cosmic car crash that defies all odds.
Everything changes. The US and USSR must quickly put aside their differences. In exchange for the Earth’s help in the rebuilding of their Mothership, the mysterious aliens, the Vulbathi, offer promises of technology beyond humanity's wildest dreams. All the while, the world asks whether the Vulbathi are saviors or conquerors.
When an alien tech counterfeiter's mistake sets off a chain reaction, the fragile peace is threatened. Connor McCoy didn't mean to upset Earth's new intergalactic neighbors. He only wanted to make some cash.
Now, Connor is the only person who can stop the doomsday clock from striking midnight. That is if his estranged brother, an agent in the new Department of Alien Relations, doesn't stop him first.
Interested in epic fantasy? Get started with the first three books of The Buried Goddess Saga.
From Book 1:
A rotten thief. A disgraced knight. Only together can they save the kingdom.
When the young king's soul is stolen by a cultist desperate to resurrect the Buried Goddess, exiled knight Torsten Unger makes it his sworn duty to get it back. He has one chance to restore his honor. But he can't do it alone. He'll need a thief.
Whitney Fierstown planned the perfect heist, one that would have made him a legend among thieves, until he got caught. Now, a knight with a questionable reputation is offering a deal: rot and die in a dank cell or join him on a dangerous expedition to put his skills to good use and earn his freedom.
Whitney and Torsten must put aside their differences and work together to battle unholy cults, demons, rebels, and worse to become the heroes their war-torn kingdom never expected...if they don't kill each other first.
About the Author
Rhett C Bruno is the USA Today Bestselling and Nebula Award Nominated Author of The Circuit Saga (Diversion Books, Podium Publishing), Children of Titan (Aethon Books, Audible Studios), and the Buried Goddess Saga (Aethon Books, Audible Studios); among other works.
He has been writing since before he can remember, scribbling down what he thought were epic stories when he was young to show to his friends and family. He currently works as a full-time author and publisher in Stamford, Connecticut, with his wife and their dog, Raven.
You can find out more about his work at www.rhettbruno.com
Children of Titan Series: Books 1-4: (A Space Opera Thriller Box Set) Page 117
