Terradox Beyond

by Craig A. Falconer

  “I’m sorry, Romesh,” she said, her words and tone crushing any hope he’d been holding out that her mind might change.

  Romesh Kohli wiped his eyes and stood up. “So am I, Holly,” he said. He extended a hand, but Holly ignored it in favour of moving forward for a conciliatory hug.

  “We all make mistakes,” she replied, “and we all move on from them together.”

  Romesh exhaled sharply as they parted. “I really should have just kept my mouth shut instead of calling you two in here,” he said, almost but not quite breaking into a smile at his own gallows humour.

  Grav slapped Romesh warmly on the back, no harder than usual but still hard enough to make him flinch. “Come on, dumbass,” he said, ushering him to the door. “Let us get you to Arkadia.”

  seventeen

  Shortly after the artificial sun rose over Terradox the following morning, the entirety of the colony aside from a small number of core operational staff gathered for a farewell ceremony in honour of the few among them who were set to undertake the one-way trip to Arkadia.

  Everyone on Terradox had been automatically eligible for a place, but the comfort of their current lives and the uncertainty of what lay beyond combined to ensure that the take up from their number had been very low. The same was true of the Venus station, which like Terradox housed only the families of highly qualified researchers who had naturally already been vetted prior to their arrival.

  Holly and Dimitar had always made it very clear that pre-vetted researchers were free to head for Arkadia, partly because neither Terradox nor the station could safely harbour any resentful colonists; in this regard it was deemed unfair as well as unwise to hold people to long-term research contracts they may not have signed if they’d known that an opportunity like Arkadia would present itself.

  Both were delighted that the vast majority of the populations under their respective leaderships had opted to remain in place, and even their rivals in the Rusentra boardroom had to acknowledge that this point spoke well of the jobs they were doing.

  The farewell ceremony currently underway in front of the temporary grandstands in Terradox’s Romotech Production Zone wasn’t the first of its kind, what with a permanent human presence having been established on Arkadia shortly after Chase Jackson’s first visit and with a handful of former colonists having joined teams from Earth in making the trip. It was, however, by far the grandest.

  The scale of this particular ceremony owed not only to the fact that today’s departure to Arkadia would be the last, but also because of exactly who was leaving.

  The Ferrier sitting outside Terradox Central Station would soon carry six colonists to their new home, and not just any six. Although it had been on the cards for many months, the reality was only hitting some colonists now that they would soon be without all four members of the Kohli family, the inimitable Bo Harrington, and, perhaps most irreplaceably, the widely adored Chase Jackson.

  While Bo was set to be reunited with his own family in an orbital rendezvous before their landing on Arkadia and the Kohlis were of course travelling together, a common topic of hushed conversation among the crowd was that Chase’s parents hadn’t wavered in their decision to stay on Terradox. This was good news for the colony given that both Christian and Jillian’s contributions rested on a pedestal almost as high as their son’s, but everyone understood the emotional strain that his imminent departure must have been placing on all three.

  Prior to today, the largest farewell ceremony had been for a small Arkadia-bound crew which included Chase’s travelling companion on his initial scouting mission to the new world — Rachel Berry, who had already settled on the new world three months earlier and was well into her work in its Shipyard. The botanical irregularities detected on their joint mission had been a point of near-constant consideration for the better part of a year, with Christian Jackson’s expertise being called upon to ensure that there was no danger of the wind causing any more plant-related problems once Arkadia was fully populated and particularly once it ventured irreversibly beyond the bounds of the kind of as-live communication with Earth which might be necessary for the application of advice in an emergency scenario. Bradley Reinhart, another friend of Chase and a high-ranking Communications officer, was also among those to have already made Arkadia their home.

  Rachel’s expedited departure was primarily related to a piece of precious Arkadia-bound cargo which would begin the journey with Chase and the others in just a few short hours: the asteroid probe which had been constructed on Terradox and which would be launched towards its target from Arkadia very shortly after arriving.

  Somewhere around the midpoint of the well-attended farewell ceremony, Holly publicly revealed the existence of the harmless asteroid in question for the first time, referring to it by the ‘NGB-2’ designation that those in the know had been using for months.

  Since she was talking to a very scientifically literate crowd, the word asteroid didn’t conjure up mass panic as it may have done on Earth under slightly different circumstances, but there were nevertheless more than a few gasps in reaction to the news.

  Holly proceeded to speak passionately about the opportunities NGB-2’s relatively close passage past Arkadia presented, and in reality took greater pains than necessary to justify the shift in focus from the previously vaunted idea of launching a minisphere from Arkadia’s Shipyard as a matter of urgency. Many in the crowd, just like many in the boardroom, still viewed asteroid mining as a venture of tremendous potential value despite Holly’s own view that the continued development of romotech rendered the search for extra-planetary material resources far less important than it may once have been.

  In the eyes of some others, and with Chase Jackson perhaps being the greatest proponent of such a view, exploration of all manner of celestial bodies was an end in itself and could deliver answers to questions that no one had even yet thought to ask.

  And as exciting as the utterly unexpected asteroid news was to the crowd, they took it in their stride as Holly continued with the final formalities of the day; perhaps because the rapid progress of technology was by now a firmly established part of their lives.

  It briefly crossed Holly’s mind that if someone had just woken up from a fifteen-year coma and learned of Arkadia, they would have been forgiven for thinking that they had in fact been out for fifteen hundred. The use of embryonic romotechnology on this scale was something that still astounded whoever paused to think about it, but most now took the technology’s existence and efficacy for granted to the extent that such thoughts were rare.

  The final section of the ceremonial departure saw Bo and Romesh formally hand over leadership of the Rover and Primosphere divisions to their respective successors. This was emotional for all involved, as friendships built over eight years of close proximity proved difficult to relinquish without more than a few tears being shed.

  Once the official ceremony was complete, and to the equal surprise and delight of the crowd, Chase spent three full hours shaking hands and saying goodbye to the thousands of colonists who were sad to see him leave but excited about what might come of the unprecedented project he was spearheading.

  Chase stayed long after Holly ushered the rest of the imminent leavers towards Terradox Central Station, where a very small number of the departing individuals’ close friends and family members had been invited to make their far more intimate farewells. She had taken one look at him slowly working his way along a seemingly endless line of well-wishers of all ages and happily decided to leave him to it. That was Chase all over, she thought; endlessly giving with his time and energy, even on what had to be the most difficult day of his life.

  By the time he reached Terradox Central Station, only fifteen minutes remained until the Ferrier’s scheduled departure time.

  This could have been pushed back, of course, since Holly made such calls and the Ferrier was clearly going nowhere without its most important passenger, but she was nevertheless glad to see his tr
ansport capsule arrive outside just in time to meet the original launch window.

  “I’m not late,” Chase called, running in through the station’s vast doors and pointing to the time on his wristband as though anticipating a rebuke.

  None came.

  The emotions on display within Central Station were not mixed by any normal understanding of the term, with only young Vijay Kohli exhibiting anything other than a sombre realisation of the finality of the impending Ferrier launch.

  Everyone knew how keen Vijay was to reach Arkadia — he rarely missed an opportunity to tell anyone who would listen just how much he was looking forward to seeing Peter and Viola again, in particular — but the sadness of the moment was such that even his full-hearted youthful exuberance couldn’t cut the air of solemnity.

  What did cut the air, very loudly, were the last-minute efforts of Bo Harrington’s girlfriend to persuade him to stay. This was difficult for everyone else to hear and see, but nowhere near as difficult as it was for the couple themselves. Bo said little, as he so often did, instead trying to silently console her and let her say what she had to say.

  Chase, for his part, was immeasurably glad that his parents weren’t making a similar case and were so far holding up on their end of an agreed upon bargain that they wouldn’t try to convince him to stay with them on Terradox and he wouldn’t try to convince them to join him on Arkadia.

  The arguments over this had been explosive at various points over the past year, until everyone reached a point of acceptance that no one was budging and there was no sense of living the rest of their time together in resentment.

  Christian had been quicker to stop badgering Chase than Jillian had been, and he had been begging her for weeks not to make Chase’s departure more difficult than it had to be by making him feel guilty about it.

  It was rare for a mother to see her child leave and know that he would never be back, but Jillian’s pain was numbed if not lessened by the length of time she had been enduring it — really ever since Chase first shared his desire to spearhead the Arkadia project, given that she knew his stubborn nature well enough to know that nothing would change his mind.

  “Everything is going to be okay,” Chase said, walking to his parents for the last time. “You still have a great team here with Holly and Grav and we’re going to meet up with Peter, Viola and Robert.”

  “And you’ll listen to Peter,” Christian said, an unexpected tangent. “You hear me? People might see you as the leader but Peter is Head of Security and he knows what’s best for keeping everyone safe.”

  “There’s going to be a decision-making structure in place,” Chase replied. “And it’s not going to be like here where everyone still turns to Holly even though she tried to spread responsibility around. No one is going to be the decision-maker, and no one wants to be.”

  “As long as you and Peter stay on the same page, everything will run smoothly,” Christian said. “I know everyone who’s going has been vetted and quarantined and everything, but still… if there was a trouble-maker, he’s not going to try his luck with you two standing in front of him.”

  Christian said this partly to reassure Jillian that everything would indeed be okay on Arkadia, where a Peter-Chase team did have the potential to become a formidable force for stability.

  Jillian appeared receptive to the points. “I said something like this to Viola about her and Holly a few years ago,” she said, her voice relatively stable now that she momentarily had something to think about other than the imminent launch. “If the people at the top have any resentment for each other or any interpersonal problems, that can filter all the way down. If something is disallowed on safety grounds, you need to respect that.”

  Chase nodded in understanding. “Peter is a good guy — we got along great for the little time he was here after I left the Kompound. But even if he was asshole number one and we hated each other, that kind of simmering resentment stuff doesn’t happen with guys like us. We would just fight.”

  Jillian’s eyebrows rose halfway to her hairline.

  “Relax, I’m joking,” Chase laughed. “But really, it’s kind of like how back in the old nuclear days, countries who had nukes wouldn’t even fight each other with regular bombs. When both know how much damage the other one could do, it keeps things in check.”

  Grav, standing near enough to hear without eavesdropping, slapped Chase on the back. “Mutually assured destruction,” he chimed in with a dry chuckle. “The same reason I never came to blows with Peter back when he was still learning how to conduct himself properly!”

  While Christian laughed, Grav caught sight of Holly leading the Kohlis towards the doorway and gently nudged Chase to let him know.

  “It’s time,” Chase said.

  More than understandably, Jillian began to tear up.

  He hugged her tightly. “Before I go, I want to say thanks to both of you for everything you’ve done for me,” he said as they parted after well over ten seconds. “I know I wasn’t always all that easy to handle, but we got there in the end.”

  She smiled slightly and wiped away her tears.

  “And building me into someone who can lead this project is what it’s all been about,” he went on. “This is what it was all building towards, we just didn’t know it.”

  “Goodbye, son,” Christian interjected, biting his lip to avoid making the moment any more difficult for Chase than it had to be. Jillian was past that point.

  “This is why you raised me,” Chase said, stepping away from them for the last time and talking back over his shoulder as Grav ushered him towards the Ferrier. “This is why I was born.”

  eighteen

  Viola Ospanov, having keenly followed the progress of her friends over the better part of two weeks as they ventured from Terradox to Arkadia, could scarcely believe that her time to leave Earth for good had finally come.

  A Karrier would soon take Viola and just six others to a rendezvous with Chase Jackson and everyone else aboard the huge Ferrier that had departed Terradox. Her family of three would be joined by the Hawthornes and her father Robert, with the overwhelming majority of future Arkadians set to begin their own short trips in a month’s time.

  Viola was nothing but glad to be leaving behind the fear that had swirled in her mind over recent years despite a lack of any tangible threats of late, and what made her happiest of all was that young Katie didn’t resent the big move. On the contrary, she and her best friend Patch Hawthorne could hardly wait to reach the new world they had heard so much about — and especially to meet the famous Chase Jackson, who was idolised on Earth like a cross between the champion athletes and Hollywood superstars of days gone by.

  More than anything else, however, the children were champing at the bit to step inside a real-life spaceship.

  Awake before anyone else, and several hours before their long drive to the Karrier’s launch port a few hundred miles west of New London, Viola glanced at the muted TV wall and saw a live report about her imminent departure. People were sad to see her and the others go, but fortunately — with a tiny handful of exceptions — they were not angry.

  By and large this was because Earth was undoubtedly a better place than it had been when Viola last left as an unfocused 17-year-old, escaping with her family for the station but ending up on Terradox. Rather than harbour resentment that she was leaving, Earth’s citizens were overwhelmingly thankful for all Viola had done and all she had risked over the years.

  Similarly, because of the vast quality of life improvements that had resulted from knowledge gained from the discovery and colonisation of Terradox, Viola herself felt very little guilt at leaving billions of people behind. Indeed, it didn’t really feel like anyone was being left behind since all scientific progress made on Arkadia would be freely fed back to Earth.

  To that end, the Arkadia project was less of a breakaway civilisation than a one-way expedition into the unknown — and one which would benefit everyone, regardless of whether
they were staying behind or going along for the ride.

  Fears of mass-scale brain drain weren’t completely unfounded given that a disproportionate number of highly-skilled individuals had applied for places on Arkadia, but work within sensitive industries and research areas had continued unabated during the quarantine period which removed all successful applicants from their former social and economic positions. That these months of quarantine did not weaken productivity in any meaningful sense strengthened the view that life would go on, despite the sudden exodus of so many intelligent and productive people.

  “Mum, it’s today!” an ecstatic voice called from the hallway. Katie continued into Viola’s bedroom, waking Peter up as she let her bottled-up excitement out.

  Peter looked at the clock on the wall. “Barely,” he groaned, a smile creeping slowly through the words.

  Viola laughed, at both of them. She thought back to all the time-passing conversations she’d had since childhood on the theme of what she would do if she found out the present day would be her last day on Earth. The implication had always been that the last day on Earth would be the last day anywhere, which of course wasn’t true in this instance.

  In this instance, Viola’s last day on Earth was the start of something new: a brave new life on Arkadia. And just as she would wish to spend her real last day with Peter and Katie, so she was eternally grateful that they had all made it through a sometimes-trying seven-year stay on Earth and were ready to cross the bridge together into the new life that awaited them.

  “Go and double-check you’ve packed everything, then get yourself ready, okay?” Viola said to Katie. “I’ll make some breakfast and then we’ll meet up with Grandad and Patch’s family for the drive.”

  Katie’s smile beamed brighter than ever before she gladly set off to follow these instructions.

  Viola turned to Peter. “Are you planning on getting up at some point or should I call Pavel and tell him there’s a space on the early flight out?”