Beyond the Crystal City

by Logan Brookfield

  O’Connor pressed a button and leaned towards a microphone so he could address the ship. ‘Would all technical areas please check in and confirm you are good to go.’

  The voices signalled their agreement one by one over a loudspeaker. ‘Engineering check, navigation check, flight controls check, collision control check, life support check.’

  ‘Go for auto sequence start. Fuel cells are good and holding,’ O’Connor said. ‘She’s looking fine and we’re ready when you give your order.’

  ‘Take us to our future, Captain.’

  O’Connor smiled. ‘OK, ladies and gentlemen, let’s break our bonds and head off on our prearranged course. Engines up to fifty per cent, please, and let’s leave orbit. Keep monitoring your data and report any anomalies.’

  The Lasell creaked and groaned as she slowly moved out of the low orbit she had held for many months. It was a gradual acceleration that would gather pace and eventually take the ship close to the speed of light.

  ‘All systems looking good, handing over flight controls to the on-board computer,’ the captain said.

  Edmond scanned the engine room monitors once more. ‘Who is that?’

  O’Connor took a closer look. ‘Those are the four designated engine room technicians. They are the same guys you saw when we conducted the test.’

  ‘Are you sure? The one on the left doesn’t seem to fit in.’

  ‘I can assure you, Edmond, that is a controlled area and only the engine techs themselves are allowed in. There are several layers of security protocol you have to get through to even get into the engine viewing room.’

  ‘Look closely, three are wearing white boiler suits, masks and a hat. They also have white boots on. He’s wearing a different kind of white overall and you can see his dark footwear,’ Edmond said.

  ‘You’re right,’ O’Connor said reaching for his radio. ‘Possible security breach in the engine room, all security teams hurry!’

  Six Black Hats were despatched from their barracks and made their way towards Engineering.

  ‘I think you’ve found your traitor. Security is on the way,’ O’Connor said.

  ‘There’s no time, can you get a message to the other three?’

  O’Connor asked his communications officer to patch him into the engine room supervisor. ‘This is O’Connor, can you hear me?’

  The engine room supervisor placed a finger to his earpiece but the gravity drive was affecting communication. The six Black Hats arrived in the engine observation room and attempted to gain access but the door had been locked from the inside.

  ‘Sir, the door is sealed and we can’t override it at the control panel,’ one of the security team said.

  ‘We’ll try and override the lock from here,’ O’Connor said looking at his second in command. ‘Use the computer to release the engine door lock, hurry!’

  Inside the engine room Hugh removed his hat and mask and looked straight into the camera. He took out a small black object connected to wires that disappeared into his overalls. On the top of the object was a red button which his thumb hovered over.

  Edmond’s mouth dropped open. ‘No!’ he shouted.

  Hugh pressed the button triggering the explosives strapped to his body. A massive fireball tore through the inside of the engine room and a searing white inferno raged as the gravity drive collapsed under its own weight. The explosion ripped through the lower decks destroying everything in its path as the bulkheads melted and the ship started to break apart and collapse in on itself. The engine exhaust ports disintegrated and drifted away as people from every deck were sucked out into the vacuum of space. The Lasell could no longer maintain its orbit and started to fall back to Earth in a thousand pieces.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  On the double bed were the mummified remains of a man and woman. Their skin had shrunk around their bones and looked like dry leather. The female had long white hair and each was holding the other. There was a small neat hole in the side of their heads and near the man was an old revolver.

  ‘Looks like it all got too much and they decided to end it all,’ Carl said.

  Amy covered her mouth with both hands. ‘That’s so sad. Look, they’re wearing wedding bands too.’

  Carl stepped forward and carefully removed the gun from the skeletal hands of the man. It was a very old model gun but still in good condition, the kind of item that was a highly prized antique back in the city. He opened the cylinder and checked it, then emptied the four bullets into his hand. He pulled the trigger several times to check it was working and still in good order. On a bedside table there was a box of ammunition. Carl took it, reloaded the weapon and placed the gun in his waistband. The remaining bullets he placed in the small shoulder bag he carried. ‘This ammunition is quality and mass-produced, not the home-made variety we tend to see back in the city. You never know when we might need a gun out here,’ he said.

  ‘You mean when we might want to end up like them?’

  ‘No, I hope not. Whatever drove them to this was something terrible that they felt they couldn’t escape from,’ he said.

  Amy nodded. ‘Maybe they just lost all hope and took the easy way out rather than starving to death or dying of some illness. I bet they were in love and had been together most of their lives.’

  Carl looked more closely. ‘They’ve been here a very long time, their skin has turned to leather. I wonder where they came from. Maybe they escaped the city and set up home with others here. There doesn’t seem to be any food or provisions so they were either taken by others or they ran out of supplies and were starving. I bet this place was nice when it was lived in, somebody took pride in its appearance.’

  Amy looked towards the door. ‘Can we get out of here, please, and leave these people in peace. I don’t want to be stopping any longer, the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up.’

  ‘I love your hairy neck,’ Carl said smiling.

  Amy pulled a face. ‘Shut up, you know what I mean.’

  A loud boom shook the building and they both looked at each other as dust drifted through the air. ‘What the hell was that?’ Carl said.

  They walked back outside into the burning heat and looked up. Hundreds of objects were streaking across the sky leaving fiery trails behind them as they burnt up in the atmosphere. Larger objects crashed to Earth still intact creating huge flashes and explosions in the distance.

  ‘What is it?’ Amy said.

  ‘No idea,’ Carl said shielding the sun from his eyes. ‘It’s either a meteor shower or something breaking up as it hits the atmosphere. Maybe something went wrong with their ship.’

  ‘That’s a lot of debris, it must have been very big,’ Amy said.

  ‘It was big enough to take all the Cloud people and enough food and water for a long trip.’

  Amy leaned against the truck. ‘How do you know? Did you see it?’

  ‘Edmond showed me a virtual model and it was massive, very impressive. Just a pity they didn’t use all those resources and the technology they possessed to build a better city for us all.’

  ‘The gods in the sky got greedy and selfish. They turned into devils and ruined everything,’ Amy said.

  ‘The devils ruined everything that was left after the ancients ruined everything before them. It’s going to take a long time to rebuild things.’

  Amy looked in the direction of the Crystal City. ‘Do you think we should head back, see what the situation is?’

  Carl shook his head. ‘It’s too dangerous, there’s nothing for us back there now. We might as well press on and see what else we can find.’

  ‘But what if there’s nothing more out here but more death and ruins? We might run out of fuel and supplies and we’ll be too far to get back. We’ll end up like those poor people in there.’

  Carl wiped the sweat from his face. ‘We’ve come this far and we’re still alive. I don’t intend to go back there or die out here. We’ve found one settlement, there must be more.’

&
nbsp; Amy got back into the truck as Carl walked up the road a little way, peering into the other buildings and looking through doorways. The remaining dwellings were too badly damaged to enter. It wasn’t even possible to step in through the front doors because of the mounds of rubble blocking the way. He walked back to the truck and climbed back in. ‘I don’t have a good feeling about this place, let’s get out of here. Whatever happened was a bad thing and the further we are away the better,’ he said pushing the stick into the drive position and pressing the accelerator.

  Amy rubbed her eyes. ‘I’m tired and thirsty. I still can’t believe they kept Dad locked up for all those years. We seem to have lost everything in just one day. What will we do? How will we survive?’

  ‘Just stay alive, whatever happens,’ Carl said looking at her. ‘Our folks would have wanted us to have a chance to live, I’m sure of that. Mum always said that she’d had her time and I shouldn’t worry about her, she wanted me to have a good quality of life, not be looking after her forever. I would have cared for her until the end either way, that’s what you do for your mum. She looked after me when I was small and I couldn’t fend for myself and all I wanted to do was return her love and show that I cared.’

  ‘She’d have known you loved her, Carl. I hope my mum did too. I tried to tell her every day, even when her sight and hearing was failing. I’ll never forgive them for what they did and I hope that was them burning up in the sky,’ Amy said looking up through the side window. ‘It’s going to get dark soon, I hope it’s safe round here when night falls. There’s still stuff raining down over there, the horizon looks like it’s on fire.’

  ‘Well, we’ve not seen anyone else alive outside the city walls, and the dead won’t hurt us, that’s for sure. We just keep going until the end, whenever and whatever that turns out to be.’

  ‘We’ve probably got a few days before we start to starve and can use the truck as shelter, I guess,’ Amy said.

  ‘We’ve got some small rations in the back of the truck, I checked when we stopped. It’ll keep us going for a while. Maybe there are other people looking to survive too.’

  Amy took a sip of water from a canteen. ‘As long as I don’t have to eat them red biscuits again. I’d rather eat my own foot than have to eat another one of them, they made me so sick.’

  Carl turned the radio on and scanned the frequencies. ‘If there are others out here they might be broadcasting. I’ll keep it on a low volume in case we pick anything up.’

  ‘Half of me hopes we do find others, but then I worry what they will be like and if they’ll be friendly or not. What’s that in the distance?’ Amy asked pointing.

  Carl leaned forward. ‘Not sure, looks like something or somebody in the road up ahead.’

  As they approached the object Carl slowed down. The road split into two forks, one going straight ahead and one heading west. ‘That’s a road sign, looks like someone’s been painting stuff on it,’ he said.

  ‘What does it say?’ Amy asked. ‘You know I’m not very good with letters and stuff.’

  Carl leaned forward for a better view. Next to the arrow heading west was a painted skull and cross bones. Next to the arrow heading north was a painted message which Carl read out loud. ‘Sanctuary - Keep Going To Live.’

  ‘I wonder what that means. It doesn’t look like there’s much out west, that’s for sure,’ Amy said. ‘Unless it’s another trick to make us think there’s nothing out there.’

  Carl looked at Amy and she looked at him. She placed a hand on her small bump as he looked down at her hands and smiled. He moved the stick slowly into the drive position and pressed the accelerator, leaving the sign in a cloud of dust as they headed north.

  About the Author

  Logan Brookfield was born in Birmingham, England and still lives there today with his wife and dogs. Please contact Logan through his website or on social media.

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  Loganbrookfield.com

  Also by Logan Brookfield

  The Girl in Time (Free Short Story)