The Darwin Elevator

by Jason M. Hough

Page 20

 

  Before she could reply, Angus spoke over the intercom. “Everyone prep for lift configuration. One minute. ”

  At the prompt, Samantha and Jake took seats on the starboard side of the cargo bay. Skyler took a seat as well and began to strap himself in, but then realized their guest was still standing in the middle of the compartment. He stood and guided her to the seat he’d been preparing to use, and then folded out another seat facing hers.

  Tania stared at the harness, confused.

  “Watch me,” Skyler said. He used slow motions to attach the first two belts across his waist.

  “Twenty seconds,” Angus said on the speaker.

  Tania started to rush things. The buckles clanged together.

  “Relax, plenty of time,” Skyler said.

  She paused long enough for a deep breath, then latched the first belts together.

  “Shoulders,” Skyler said, reaching over each shoulder and pulling two additional belts across his chest. He connected them at a special latch above the waist belts.

  The woman mimicked his movements. As the belts crossed her, Skyler tried not to stare.

  “Five seconds,” Angus said.

  “Last but not least,” Skyler said, and reached above himself to pull a thick metal bar down.

  Tania stretched for the bar above her own seat. Her fingertips were short by a few centimeters. She extended further and the metal briefcase in her lap started to slide away.

  The Melville began to tilt. Outside, the tow crane had started to lift the nose of the ship. Soon the craft would be pointing nose-up.

  “Shit,” Skyler said. He pushed his own restraint bar up and unbuckled himself as quickly as possible.

  By reflex, he shot a hand out to stop himself from falling. He grabbed Tania’s seat just above her shoulder. They were just a few centimeters apart now. She closed her eyes. “What is going on?” she whispered.

  Skyler spoke in a low voice as he strained against gravity. “We’re being attached to a climber,” he said, finally snatching the restraint bar above her seat. He pulled it down and locked it in place.

  Tania opened her eyes enough to see the bar and grab hold of it.

  “We have to attach vertically or we won’t clear the top of the guard tower,” Skyler continued. He grunted as he pushed himself back into his own seat. Getting back into his own harness required all his strength, as the ship was at a ninety-degree angle now. In his seat, he looked straight down at her, and she stared straight up at him.

  A sickening moment followed, when the crane stopped and the entire ship swayed freely.

  Skyler kept a close eye on Tania. “Are you going to be okay?”

  She closed her eyes and nodded rapidly. Her knuckles were white on the restraint bar. “Why a cargo climber?” she managed.

  “It gets us to a hundred kilometers. The Van Allen Belt. Edge of space. ”

  She let out a nervous laugh. “I’m an astronomer. ”

  “Oh. Of course. ” Skyler grinned. “Well, it’s the only way we can make a round trip to distant targets. Drop from one hundred klicks, glide above the atmosphere most of the way, save the caps for the way back. ”

  She looked confused. “Why not go higher? Drop from Gateway—”

  From across the cabin, Samantha cut in. She played up a thick Australian accent. “Mudders like us aren’t allowed up there. ”

  Tania looked at her, then back at Skyler. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking …”

  Skyler shook his head slightly, hoping she would let it go.

  A loud clang from outside rumbled through the cramped cabin, followed by a low ratcheting sound, as the ship was finally attached to the climber. Angus’s cheerful voice came over the intercom. “Cleared the tower. Get cozy everyone; ten hours until drop. ”

  Skyler winced, realizing he sat facing backward. Which now meant downward. The belts of the harness, and the metal restraint, were all that kept him from falling. He already felt the uncomfortable bite of the nylon belts through his jacket.

  Ten hours, he thought, and nowhere to look but right at her. He closed his eyes to keep from staring.

  The captain’s arms extended almost to Tania’s neck, his hands outstretched as if reaching to strangle her.

  He drifted off during the long tow to the edge of space. The others had, too.

  There had been some small talk, at the beginning. The crew seemed anxious to talk about anything but the task at hand. This frustrated Tania no end, but she recognized it as a calming technique. They were risking their lives for her mission, after all.

  Well, that and money, she thought. The risk remained.

  She’d kept quiet, content to listen, waiting for the right moment to turn their discussion to the task at hand. There would be plenty of time.

  But then they’d all fallen asleep. For the last six hours, she’d had nothing to do but stare at their captain.

  He almost looked dead, the way his arms floated free, his head lolled side to side. Like he’d drowned.

  The situation was worse before, when gravity tugged at him with its full fury. At one point she’d pressed, with all possible strength, into the left side of her chair to avoid a stream of drool that spanned the entire gap between his mouth and her headrest.

  She couldn’t quite pinpoint the moment when Earth’s eternal tug had begun to fade, but she’d watched with fascination as his motions became lighter. The speed at which his face changed from looking tortured, to serene as a baby, was remarkable.

  He had a scar on his forehead. An old one, faded now. His brown hair showed early signs of gray, just behind his temples. Thin lips, cracked from exposure. Bags under his eyes implied a poor sleep schedule. Tania realized she had absolutely no idea what life was like for him.

  “Or anyone in Darwin,” she whispered to herself.

  Scraps of faded paper and old photographs filled the wall behind him, taped there in haphazard fashion. Souvenirs from past missions, she assumed. A restaurant menu, a string of bottle caps. Someone’s Australian passport. A wedding invitation. Tania found herself smiling at the display. These were the true relics of old Earth, the things no one else thought to collect, or ask for.

  One photograph caught her eye. The subject looked familiar, and she squinted to be sure. It can’t be, she thought.

  Working as quietly as she could, Tania released her harness. The others remained asleep as she pushed out of her chair and floated to the wall, to the photograph.

  In the picture, four men stood in front of a telescope.

  “Papa,” she whispered.

  Her father stood there, smiling from beneath that horrible mustache he wore, something Tania at eight years old had teased him about. He looked sad, she thought. A ghost trapped in a time long gone.

  The odds that this crew would have a picture of her father were astronomical. Of all the people—

  And then she saw it. Neil Platz, standing next to him, his arm thrown around her father’s shoulder. Shorter hair, blond, not gray. A younger Neil.

  Tania’s heart pounded. She held her breath and removed the picture from the wall. With delicate care she turned it over.

  A printed note graced the back. Toyama, Japan, 2264. The telescope’s grand opening, thanks to a grant from Platz Space Industries. Two years before the Elevator arrived.

  “Neil founded the place …,” she whispered. He’d said nothing of it when Tania told him where the data she needed was stored. Yet here he was, cutting the ribbon, funding the facility. With my father.

  She clutched the picture to her chest. Confusion swarmed in her mind. Perhaps Neil had forgotten about it. His company funded many projects, in a time long forgotten by most.

  No, a voice inside her said. It felt too convenient. She thought back to how she’d identified the telescope as a source for the information. Neil had listened to her theory with rapt attention, a theo
ry she’d come to after several offhand comments he had made over the years. They’d stayed up late into the night, brainstorming, searching the archives. Had he guided all of it? Could he have led her to her conclusions?

  She shut her eyes. It seemed impossible that he would do that. It made no sense, and besides, he wanted the data as much as she did. More, perhaps. She saw no point in speculating about it now. After the mission, she would ask him.

  The intercom next to Skyler’s head crackled to life. “Captain, you awake?”

  Skyler did not stir at the voice, nor did the others.

  Tania forced herself back to the moment. She floated back to her seat and buckled in.

  “Captain,” the pilot said through the intercom, louder.

  The captain woke violently. He thrashed once against his restraint, and shouted, “Falling!” before recognizing his surroundings.

  Tania realized she still had the photograph in her hands. She slipped it into a pocket.

  Skyler’s eyes settled on her, his expression shifting to embarrassed. “Did I snore?”

  “No,” she said, and attempted a smile.

  “Good. ”

  “There was some drool. ”

  Skyler cringed and forced his eyes closed. “I’m so sorry. ”

  “That’s okay. ”

  He opened one eye. “You must get that a lot. ”

  “Apologies?”

  “Drool. ”

  She laughed, despite herself. Then she looked at the others, who were still sleeping. “I have to say, everyone stared when they first saw me. ”

  “They’re not used to someone like you,” Skyler said.

  “An ‘Orbital’?”

  He shook his head. “More to the point, a beauty. ”

  She blushed.

  “Captain?” Angus said, through the speaker.

  Skyler tapped the button. “We getting close?”

  “Thirty minutes,” Angus said.

  “Understood. ” Skyler clicked the microphone off and lowered his voice. “It’s a compliment, if you like, but I’m just speaking the truth. Someone with your … qualities, is simply not seen in Darwin. ”

  “Why not?”

  He broke away from her gaze and began to remove his harness. “It’s not a kind place. Enough about that. You’re a scientist, so tell me, have you people figured out what’s going on with the Aura?”

  “We’ve got a team working on it,” she said. “I’m afraid I don’t know much else. ”

  “I hope they work fast. Nightcliff thought we caused it. Did you know that?”

  “Why?” she asked.

  Skyler shrugged. “The first power blip happened at the same moment we were hitting the Aura, coming back in. Bad timing. ”

  Tania studied his face. If what he said was true, she doubted it could have been a coincidence. Perhaps they were just the straw that broke the camel’s back, and the Aura really had reached the end of its operational tolerances.

  The captain offered her a comforting grin. “Let’s get you suited up. ”

  She took the prompt and unbuckled herself from the seat. He showed her how to use a strap on the wall next to her to secure the briefcase temporarily.

  Satisfied it wouldn’t float away, Tania followed Skyler to the back of the craft. He stopped next to a large metal locker and tugged it open. Inside a bright yellow environment suit waited.

  “Your evening gown, miss. ”

  The suit looked ragged, like it had been used for many years. “I hope it fits. ” And works.

  “A little baggy, perhaps. As long as the seal is good you’ll be all right. ”

  The severity of what she would soon do crystallized in her mind. She pinched the yellow material between her fingers, reassured by the thickness of it. “And if the seal breaks?”

  “If it breaks,” Skyler said, “we race back to Darwin, hopefully before—”

  Tania put a hand on his arm to silence him. She knew the consequences of exposure and doubted they could make it back to the Aura’s Edge fast enough to stall the infection. The Aura did not cure the disease, or even kill it. It only put the virus into stasis. Dormant cells would stay that way even after they left the Aura, until they came in contact with a live copy that switched the sleeping cells back on. Because of that, air packaged inside the Aura would be safe to breathe, provided it never mixed with the tainted air outside.

  To be exposed for hours would leave most people dead, and the rest devolved into a primal form of human, often with one emotion amplified at the expense of all others. Fear, desire, hatred, rage—one would consume the mind. The thought gave rise to a knot in her stomach.

  Skyler removed the outfit from the locker and handed it to her. She took it and, with one arm hooked through a handhold on the wall, pulled it up over her legs. All the while she watched Skyler inspect the seal along the helmet, gloves, and boots she would put on next.

  “How did you find out you’re immune?” she asked him.

  He answered while studying the gear. “I was twenty, a copilot in the Luchtmacht … um, Dutch Air Force. When SUBS began spreading up through Africa, we were flying doctors and medical supplies to Alexandria. Then Naples. Madrid. Kept retreating, every day. On the way back from one mission, about a week after it all started, my pilot … just lost it. Everything scared the hell out of him. Everything. His own damn shoes were the most terrifying thing he’d ever seen. I had to subdue him. I didn’t know what it meant, not then. ”

  Tania let out a long breath, waiting.

  “By the time I landed back home, everything was in chaos. It seemed like everyone had been possessed, only no two acted quite the same way. ‘Everyone has their own demon,’ I remember thinking. ” He lifted the bulky helmet and placed it over her head, twisting it into place on the ring mount. “I ran, stole a truck. Drove into Amsterdam to try to find my family. It didn’t take long to realize the effect had hit everyone but me, near as I could tell. I really thought I was unique. The last sane man. ”