by J. N. Chaney
“My scanners are only working on a very limited basis as of this moment,” Iris said with a frown. “If we are able to get them up and running again, I would be able to give us a better view of the planet. Perhaps we can even pinpoint the locations of where different sections of the Orion and even escape crafts landed on reentry.”
“I appreciate the need and want to find other ships and various sections of the Orion,” Captain Harold said. “However, I must insist that the defense of the Orion be paramount to our needs. We’ve already had reports of creatures in the mist down south as well as giant alien serpents in the jungles to the north.”
Captain Harold nodded toward my direction this time. He made eye contact briefly.
I’m not sure if he wanted me to back him up here or not. Honestly, I saw the value in both plans. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one.
“Maybe the answer isn’t one or the other,” Stacy said speaking up for the first time.
“What do you mean?” Arun asked.
“Maybe we can work both on building a defensive wall around the Orion as well as getting Iris’ long-range scanners back online. They both seem equally as important right now.”
The room silenced as Arun thought over the plan.
I sure wasn’t going to say anything about the alien doors we’d found two kilometers from the ship. Arun knew what was out there as well as Stacy and Iris. The second day after we crash landed, Iris’ short-range sensors picked up the structure. It wasn’t really even a structure. It was a pair of doors set into the side of a mountain, a set of very large, very old doors.
As far as I knew, there had been no activity from the doors in the past few days. Thus far, Arun had kept the matter silent.
“I would have to agree with the need for both and as fast as we can,” Arun said with a sigh.
I knew she was about to tell them about the doors. There was a heaviness in her shoulders, a fatigued look of worry in her bright, blue eyes.
“Doctor Wong, Iris, and I will work on getting her long-range scanners back online in the hopes of finding other survivors as well as the communication section of the Orion if it wasn’t completely destroyed on impact. But there is more you all should know.” Arun stopped. She looked over to Iris and nodded. “Show them.”
Iris waved her hand over the green holo display again. This time, the image in front of them transitioned from the downed Orion to a giant pair of stone doors set into the side of a mountain.
Everyone in the room was quiet.
I looked over to gauge Doctor Wong’s and Captain Harold’s response. Doctor Wong’s chin dropped. He stared at the image, bug-eyed.
Captain Harold, to his credit, didn’t seem fazed whatsoever. The only indication that he processed the image in front of him at all was the bulging muscle in his jaw.
“Is that—what exactly are we looking at here?” Doctor Wong adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose. “Is that what I think it is?”
“We haven’t examined it in great detail as of yet,” Arun said. “As far as we can tell, it’s alien-made. It looks old, hundreds, maybe thousands of years old.”
“When did you discover this door?” Captain Harold asked.
“Two days ago,” Iris answered. “One day after the Orion crashed.”
“I should have been made aware of this threat to our colony as soon as it was discovered.” Captain Harold glared at Arun and Iris. He turned to Stacy and then to me. “Did you two know about this?”
“I did,” Stacy said without blinking.
“This is going to piss you off even more, but I knew too,” I said to the captain.
Now I could tell he was really going to lose it. A vein in his forehead and another in his neck popped out. He looked like he was going to explode at any moment.
It hadn’t been easy for me either. I knew what he was going through. To go from thinking you’re the only species in the universe to discovering that you’re not alone is a strange, scary, and wondrous gamut of feelings.
“If there are any other findings or developments of this nature, I need to be among the first to know,” Captain Harold said just below a yell. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides. “How am I expected to keep this colony safe if I don’t even have all the facts of what is out there?”
“I understand your concern,” Arun said in an equally aggressive tone. “Know that you were only selected as the head of the Civil Authority yesterday. We’re all trying to figure this out together. In the future, you’ll be among the first to know when we uncover new information.”
Although Captain Harold didn’t exactly look happy, Arun’s words seemed to pacify him and the vein in his forehead pulsed slower.
“While we are working on reactivating Iris’ long-range scanners,” Arun picked up the conversation once more, “Stacy, Dean, and Captain Harold will see to the construction of a barricade around the Orion as well as a perimeter defense.”
Great, how do I get roped into these things? I asked myself. Now I have to work with Captain Ahab over here.
“The—I can’t believe I’m actually going to ask this question, but the alien door,” Doctor Wong said, licking at dry lips. “It hasn’t been opened yet, has it? Are there any other doors that we can see?”
“You know everything we do at this time,” Arun reassured the man. “We haven’t found any other sign of intelligent alien life. Iris is monitoring the door around the clock. If it budges, we’ll know at once.”
“And your brother? Elon?” Doctor Wong added. “Is he well?”
Arun immediately tensed.
The act wasn’t lost on Captain Harold or me.
Arun was a stoic, clear-headed leader until it came to the people she loved. Her brother received a serious injury to his right leg during the crash. His Eternal genes would regrow the limb. For now, the brother and sister team decided to keep his healing a private matter.
I understood that. We were in a very delicate situation at the moment. The last thing people needed to hear was that Eternals were growing their limbs back. Even if they had a working knowledge of that ability, it would be something else to see it.
“He’s fine,” Arun lied. “He’ll be up and around soon.”
“And what are we telling the colonists?” Captain Harold asked. “I’m gathering we’re not telling them about the alien door. Sooner or later, someone is going to stumble across it.”
“I am going to tell them,” Arun said with a heavy sigh. For the briefest of moments, I could see how tired she really was. The weariness in her eyes, the way her shoulders shrugged forward. As soon as it was there, it was gone again.
“We need some time to provide them with anything that looks like stability before we drop this next bomb,” Arun said. “We just gave them water and food. If we can give them safety and tell them we have the long-range scanners in place to find the communication level of the ship, we can give them hope. I won’t crush them with this knowledge now, not yet.”
I got that. I understood it all. Still, standing there in the inner circle of the colonist leaders, I knew what we were doing was wrong. We were deciding what truth the rest of the Transients knew.
“Let’s get started,” Stacy said, ready to put our words into action.
The others were starting to talk and discuss the best place to begin when Arun motioned me to the side.
She lowered her voice to something just above a whisper.
“My brother asked that you would stop in to see him,” Arun said. “He didn’t say what it was about.”
“Sure, I can do that,” I said, reading the Eternal’s eyes but not finding what I was looking for. “Is he okay?”
“Health-wise, I know he’ll be fine,” Arun said, searching for the right words. “His spirit, on the other hand, could use a boost.”
“Got it,” I said, running a hand through my long, tangled hair. I really needed to get it cut. “I’ll check in on him. What level is he on?”
“He—h
e wanted to stay on level ninety-three,” Arun said in a voice so low I could barely pick out her words.
“Level ninety-three?” I repeated. “But that’s the—”
“I know,” Arun said in a harsh whisper. She looked at the others still carrying on their conversation behind us. “He’s in a dark place right now. Help him, Dean.”
4
Level ninety-three was no longer a habitable level. Originally, it was one of the many levels designated for recreation for the Transients on board the Orion. Prior to the crash, there had been large sprawling lawns with rich soil, tall trees, and even a running brook of water.
It was a place for the Transients to go and relax, for those who were claustrophobic to have a place to unwind and forget they were traveling through slip space in a steel globe.
After the crash, the entire level had been turned into a mess of dirt, broken trees, and plants. Lying on its side now, it looked more like the jungle I had just been through.
Lighting had been restored, as well as the cylinder-shaped elevators I had used to travel to the level. Moving around in the elevators that now traveled on their sides was strange, but it sure was a heck of a lot faster than walking up and down the one hundred and fifty levels of the ship that remained.
My feet hit the soft soil as I exited the elevator and moved deeper into the level of the Orion. The moist smell of earth filled my nose. That was a smell I knew I’d missed. We didn’t get it much back in the city I lived in or the yard where I worked. The rich, almost palpable odor of earth was comforting in a way I always took for granted.
I moved around shrubs and piles of upturned dirt. I was about to call out to see if Elon was on the level at all when I heard singing.
“Give us your survivors, your strong of will. We’ll lead them to the promised world. On and on, we’ll work the earth. On and on, we’ll toil,” Elon’s sad voice rang out.
I couldn’t see him yet, but I pinpointed his voice coming over from a section of the upturned level to my left. There was a spot where a tree erupted from the dark soil and a mound of dirt beside it.
I moved closer. I could tell he was drunk. His tune went up and down, his pitch was all over the place. I was no opera singer myself, but let’s just say Elon wasn’t going to win any awards.
“We’ll rule the wind and land and sea,” Elon sang on. “We’ll create a family that’s free.”
I turned the corner, clearing my throat out of respect for him. I didn’t want to sneak up on the guy. When I finally found him, I knew he couldn’t have cared less who saw him.
Elon sat propped against the mound of dirt. He wore his familiar dark grey uniform. A metal crutch lay next to him on his left. His white hair was a mess, falling down his face. A crate of champagne lay open, an empty bottle on his left and another near-empty bottle in his hand.
If he was surprised at all at my appearance, he didn’t show it. He gave me a crazy grin and lifted his bottle in the air.
“Glad you could join the party,” Elon said, motioning for me to take a seat on the dirt with him. “Can I offer you a drink? You know this champagne was being saved for our safe arrival to Kronos Five. Arun and I had it all planned. We were going to toast and cheer to a new world. We were going to give one hundred thousand people a new life. We were going to make a difference. We were going to help so many people. We were going to…”
Elon’s voice trailed off. He forgot whatever he was going to say next and lifted the bottle to his lips again.
I wasn’t familiar with champagne, not really my thing, but the bottle looked expensive.
“Come on.” Elon offered me the bottle again. “Come drink with me.”
“I’m not really a champagne kind of guy.” I refused the bottle but took a seat on the crate next to him. “I’ve been to the bottom of too many bottles myself. I’m not that great of a drunk.”
“I wish I could stay drunk more than a few minutes at a time,” Elon said with a loud, very non-Eternal-like belch. “My metabolism makes it so I process the alcohol four times quicker than the normal person. It takes a lot to get me drunk, and then I don’t stay that way for long.”
“How’s your leg healing?” I asked, looking down to the injured appendage under his grey uniform. I couldn’t see much, but there was definitely a leg there where one wasn’t just a few days before.
“Oh, that,” Elon said, lifting up the pants leg to his right leg. It was skinny and sickly-looking, white with a fair amount of scarring on it. “It’s moving along nicely. A few more days and I’ll be able to show my face again. The general populace won’t have to be disturbed at seeing an Eternal’s leg grow back.”
“If that’s not what’s bothering you,” I asked, “what is?”
I already had a good guess at what was bothering Elon, but I wanted to hear it from him.
“I uh, I let them down. I let all of them down.” Elon swallowed hard. He stared off across the level at nothing in particular. “Most of our passengers died. Those that haven’t are just waiting to do so. Communication is gone, we have no idea where we are in the galaxy, and it seems this planet was built to kill anything that crosses its path. Oh, and I forgot to mention the aliens that either are here or were here before and died off for some reason, doesn’t bode well for us either.”
“You didn’t do this,” I said, shaking my head. My hair, a tangled mess behind me, swung from side to side. I really had to cut it soon. “The Disciples did this. You saved half the Orion by landing it here on the planet and the Transients still on board. You saved them, Elon.”
“I had Iris run numbers on how many died, the odds of how many were still alive, and how many men, women, and children were estimated dead.” Elon lifted the bottle to his lips and took another long pull. “Do you know it’s estimated fifteen thousand children under the age of twelve died in the crash? I was responsible for them. My sister and I took responsibility. Do you know what that’s like? Do you know what it feels like to let someone down to the point they die?”
I felt my chest constrict. A wave of nausea passed over me as memories I fought with on a daily basis pushed their way to the surface once more. I tried to block them out. I knew I couldn’t. Forgetting them meant forgetting her. I would never forget her, even if I wanted to.
“Yeah, yeah I do,” I said, fingering the medallion on the necklace I wore. “I know exactly what that feels like. I know the emptiness you feel inside. The hole you’ll try to fill with alcohol, drugs, anything that will give you temporary relief from the pain you feel eating you from the inside out.”
Her face pushed its way to the surface. The way the dimples formed on her cheeks when she smiled that silly little grin. The way her eyes twinkled when she was being mischievous.
“Dean, I—I’m sorry,” Elon said. “I forgot. I read your file. I know you lost your wife.”
“She was more than that,” I said, clearing my throat. I reached into the crate underneath me and pulled out one of the champagne bottles. It was in a dark green bottle with a gold label. It was a brand called Devine. I bet people who drank champagne ate that name up. “She was my best friend. She was the best part of me, and when she was taken from me, the best part of me died with her.”
“What was her name?” Elon asked.
“Natalie,” I said, rising from my seat with the bottle.
“I’m sorry she passed,” Elon said from his seat.
“She didn’t pass,” I said, reaching down for another bottle of the champagne. “She was taken from me. She was murdered.”
I removed the second bottle from the crate.
“I’m so sorry,” Elon said, eyeing the two bottles in my hands. “Maybe if you have a problem with alcohol, though, you shouldn’t drink.”
“Oh, they’re not for drinking,” I said. I reeled back. I flung the bottle in my right hand as hard as I could against the far wall that was actually the floor of the level before the Orion had been tipped on its side.
CRACK!
The bottle slammed into the hard wall of the Orion with enough force to not only explode but send shards of glass and the nasty bubbly fluid painting the impact zone.
Without waiting, I sent the next bottle through the air. It smashed against the wall, sending another spray of glass and bubbly liquid in every direction. It didn’t take the pain I felt away, but it sure felt good to give my pain an outlet.
“You should try it,” I said, looking back to Elon. “It feels good to physically let go of your anger. It feels great, actually.”
Elon looked at me like I was crazy for a second. I was used to seeing that look. Then he hobbled to his feet, grabbing another bottle from the crate on his way over.
He reared back, a bit off balance, and then flung the bottle forward with his left hand. It didn’t strike the wall with the same violent impact as my own, but it was enough to do the job. The bottle broke on impact.
Elon’s face turned into a huge smile. “It does feel good.”
“There’s nothing we can do about the past,” I said as I watched him hurl his second bottle at the wall. “We just have to learn to live with the pain somehow.”
“How?” Elon asked, panting a bit from the exertion of his throws. “How do you live with the memories?”
“I can’t really answer that for you, but I know that Natalie wouldn’t want me to kill myself, and I’m not going to let her down again. My only other choice is to keep on living,” I said. “For me, it’s as simple as that.”
Elon slowly nodded.
“Don’t put too much stock into what I say,” I said with a grin. “I’m sure there’s some sort of priest or holy man or something on board that could give you better advice than letting go of your pain through violence.”
“Thank you, Dean,” Elon said as if he were seeing me for the first time. “Thank you.”
“Anyone could have told you to break stuff.” I shrugged.
“No, I mean for being willing to open up and share about your wife,” Elon answered.
“Yeah, well, I don’t talk about her much these days.” I paused, fighting back emotions while I searched for the right words. At the same time, it was painful and great to talk about Natalie again. I didn’t know which feeling was winning at the moment. “She’s gone, and there’s nothing I can do about it now.”
