Paradise 21 (20 page)

“You’re not getting involved in his crazy suicide. Stay with me.”

The firing ceased, and Tiff and Loot stood frozen in anticipation and fear. Smoke rose from behind the dune, and the air reeked of burnt flesh. She had a moment of regret.

Loot whispered in her arms. “Is he dead?”

A single black silhouette crested the ridge. In his arm, he held a part of the claw.

Loot cheered and hollered, throwing his gun up in the air. He jumped from the ridge, and Tiff raised her arm in salute, but inside she felt empty. Ashamed. She’d stayed on the ridge in safety instead of helping another person.

Tiff jumped down from the ridge as Loot ran to see the war trophy. Drifter seemed proud to show it off to the boy, but he never glanced in her direction.

She didn’t blame him. Yet again, she’d put her life ahead of another man’s, like she’d put her needs in front of Striker’s five years ago.

A coward like she was didn’t have what it took to love anyone unconditionally, to put her herself on the line.

When Aries looked down, her hands were old, the skin thin and wrinkled like ancient silk. She wore two rings on her left hand: a silver wedding band and Barliss’ diamond studded family heirloom. They felt heavy and loose on her bony fingers.

The carpet underneath her feet did little to dampen the sputtering engines of the
New Dawn
. The ship sailed along on its last leg in one final push to reach its destiny. She moved to the bubble-shaped, glass window, peering at a blue nebula surrounded by shimmering stars. Her reflection in the glass stared back at her in condemnation, a halo of gray wisps and sad, crinkled eyes. Her life was spent. She wouldn’t live to reach the paradise planet. She’d never leave the ship.

The room seemed too small, and the chrome walls pressed in behind her, suffocating her with stale, recycled air. She pounded her fists on the glass. She wanted to burst out of the confines of her cell, let the vacuum of space rip her apart to free her soul. Several inches of thick glass muted her suffering and held her in.

A warning beep sounded and she whirled around to see the wall screen flash into color. Barliss stared back at her with wires running from his head like sprouting hair. His skin was blanched, pale as moonlight, and his cheeks sunken to the bone. If she were old, then he was older, a decade or more her senior. She recognized the commander’s chair, attaching Barliss to the ship like a parasite. Her room had a single chair by the table, and one cup of bitter coffee, resting half drunk and untouched.

“My dear, is something wrong?”

“I’m trapped here, alone.”

He spoke to her as if she were a half-wit. “Come now, we’ve talked of this before. You know I can’t abandon my post. There’s much work to be done if we’re to keep our schedule. I am always with you, just the click of a button away.”

A rising current of anger shook her hands and she felt as though she’d burst from the pressure. “No!” She pulled the metal chair from underneath the table and raised it above her head. “You can’t keep me here!”

Barliss leaned sideways and spoke into an intercom. “She’s off her meds. Medics to room ninety-eight, immediately!”

Aries slammed the legs of the chair into the wall screen, shattering the plastic and fragmenting Barliss’ image. The pieces flew around her face. Some of specks cut her face and lodged in her hair. She bent down and picked up a large shard of glass the size of her forearm, as blood trickled down her cheeks.

The chrome wall behind her disappeared and medics poured in, circling her with caution like she was mad. Aries laughed bitterly. She was the only sane one of the bunch.

“Let me go.”

“We can’t do that, ma’am.”

“I’m not supposed to be here. I was free.”

They ignored her claims and stepped forward, using metal trays as shields. She lunged, but her bones were weak and her arm collapsed as the shard hit the metal. Gloved hands grabbed her arms and legs, pinning her down with impersonal, plastic skin. She screamed in pain as a nurse inserted a needle in her arm. The room around her blurred in a smear of bright light. She fell away inside herself, losing what remained of her identity or desires. She floated as an insignificant pebble in the grand scheme of the vast universe, a blink of essence in an endless place.

…

Aries woke with wide eyes. The monitor beside her beeped a rapid rhythm, the tempo of her escalated heart rate. She held up her arm and smoothed her fingers over the firm, young skin. Thank goodness she still had time on her side. The vision had only been a nightmare, of course. What medications raced through her veins?

She focused on the walls, trying to find the camera that spied on her like an evil eye. How many guards stood outside her door? With no sight panel, she could only guess. The nurse hadn’t left anything sharp for her to use as a weapon, either. Still attached to the machines, Aries stood up and paced the room. She felt like a test mouse in a cage. Would they experiment with medications until she grew obedient? Would she end up like the old woman in her dream?

Aries tried to push the thought of never seeing Striker again from her mind. She denied the hopeless odds. There had to be some way to find out if he’d been captured. Although Barliss would never tell her, maybe she could find someone who would.

Aries halted abruptly in front of the touchscreen controlling the portal. The screen read blank gray. She pressed it several times. Nothing happened. They must have shut it off. Fiddling with the back of the panel, she wondered if she could rip it off the wall and rearrange the wires, possibly reactivating the controls. She glanced around the room but still couldn’t find the camera. Perhaps if she blocked the entire panel with her body and leaned in close to the wall, she’d cover up her tinkering.

Her fingers probed tiny screws in the metal. Since she didn’t have anything remotely like a screwdriver, she tried turning the screw with her fingernail. Her nail broke as the chrome vanished beside her. Jumping back, Aries put her hand behind her back.

“Trent?” A mix of emotions filled her, a surge of hope that she was finally seeing someone she knew, coupled with the fact it was her brother, the one who had bullied her into compliance all her life.

He nodded to someone she couldn’t see outside the door and the chrome solidified behind him. “I’ve come to talk to you.”

She ran up to him and held onto both his arms, whispering, “You’ve got to get me out of here.”

Trent scowled and looked away as if her words disgusted him. He pulled away from her and sat on the stool across the room. “That choice is yours and yours alone. Your freedom rests in your own hands now.”

His ambivalence shocked her and she shook her head. “Freedom? This is what you call freedom? Being married to a man I don’t want? Performing a job I didn’t choose?”

“It’s the best life you could ever have.” Trent held out his hand, offering it to her, but she wouldn’t take it. “Look around you. We’re surrounded by space in the middle of nowhere. Where else can you go?”

Aries thought of Striker and his plan to reacquire the map and fly to Refuge in an alien ship, but the whole story sounded like such a fantasy, her brother wouldn’t believe her. He’d believe the doctors who said she’d become delusional, blurring fantasy with reality.

“You’re lucky they found you alive.”

Suddenly, Aries wondered why they’d sent him alone. “Where are Mom and Dad?”

Trent’s voice was edged with anger. “They’re not here. The authorities won’t let them see you.”

“Because they’d listen to me. They would sympathize.”

Trent crossed his arms. “No. Because they think you’re dangerous.”

A rush of emotions flooded through her, free after all the years of holding her tongue. She’d cowered in his presence long enough.

“It’s not that and you know it.” Aries pointed an accusing finger at him. “They sent you because they thought you could convince me to agree to marry Barliss.”

“They want me to try and talk some sense into you, yes.”

“When the doctors found cancer in Grandfather’s lungs, I saw you vote to forgo the treatment. I sat on the sofa and watched you circle the option in red ink. ‘Let him die. His genetic code has been successfully passed to a new generation.’ I remember the moment as clear as yesterday. You showed no sadness in your face, only a quiet and calm certainty. I wasn’t old enough then to have my vote counted, so I kept my lips sealed, but I knew then where your loyalty lay.”

“He’d done his job on the
New Dawn
. He was ready to pass on. We must use all resources to further the next generation. It’s simple logic, not emotional ties.”

Aries’ voice rose. “What about compassion? You’ve always put the Guide above us, above Mom, Dad, everything.”

“As I should. Look, you’ve brought a lot of pain and disgrace to our family. I can only hope you come to your senses and right the wrongs you’ve caused.”

A door closed in her heart, shutting him out. Their differences in philosophy stretched so far they could never understand each other and she felt wrong to call him brother. “Good-bye, Trent. Give Mom and Dad my love.”

Aries turned her back on him, every cell in her being wishing him to leave. She heard the rustle of his uniform as he rose from the seat and the sound of the door opening and closing. When she turned around, she was alone again. Trapped with her rebellious thoughts.

…

Barliss surveyed the team as they herded the giant elephantine beasts of Sahara 354 to wire cages at the back of the zootarium. His stomach churned, but it wasn’t from the stench of three hundred chickens or pens choked with bleating goats. A growing sense of discontentment lurked underneath his military demeanor.

He was pleased with the outcome of the expedition and the success of his mission, but Aries’ continued defiance of the doctors was making him feel more like a wet towel, twisted, wrung out and left hanging to dry. A man wearing a white lab coat directed the team as they backed each monstrous beast into confinement.

“Careful now, don’t spook them!” His voice sounded eager. “Careful of the female’s tentacles. They’re very delicate.” Their snorts joined the chorus of chicken clucks and goat grievances.

Once they closed the cages and locked them, the man gestured for his team to position large buckets of water near the front. Barliss moved to leave, out of time and out of patience. He had other concerns to deal with, but the head zoologist spotted him and waved, signaling for him to meet him in the adjoining room, free of the animal noises.

Barliss walked into a hundred-foot-tall atrium with pigeons flying overhead. Watching them made his tongue water with the thought of roasted wings. The man in the lab coat pushed through a wall of plastic separating the rooms and ran up to meet him. “I’m Doctor Cole. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Barliss.”

Barliss extended his hand. The man’s reputation was unparalleled in the biological fields. It wouldn’t hurt him to be on good terms with the doctor.

“I see you have your hands full, so let’s keep it short, shall we?”

“Oh yes, rightly so.” The doctor smoothed down the front of his coat. “I wanted to meet with you regarding a certain Aries Ryder.”

Barliss stiffened. What had she done now? He balled up his fists and cooled a rising thread of anger. His voice was tight. “What of her?”

The zoologist smiled. “I may have a solution for you, so to speak.”

Did word get around so quickly? Barliss felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. “I have no need for help.”

Doctor Cole put up a finger. “Hear me out.”

Barliss gave a curt nod and looked around for potential eavesdroppers, but only two mottled pigeons looked on from the branches of a pear tree.

Doctor Cole stepped closer, his voice a low, conspiratorial whisper. “Before life-jobs were assigned, Aries Ryder requested biology. I turned her down for others with more optimal skill sets.”

Barliss gave him a stern look. What did it matter to him? There was no sense in resurrecting the past.

The doctor cleared his throat. “What I’m getting at, sir, is we could make a bargain with her, assign her to a new job here in the zootarium. It may solve your obedience problem.”

Barliss raised his hand to silence him. “No. No special rules for her.” Although he wanted to punish Aries, not give her a reward, he quickly came up with a more logical reason. “Word will get out and everyone will want the more, shall we say, illustrious careers? There’d be no more cleaners, trash collectors, laundry supervisors. The Guide dictates it is more beneficial to have the most qualified, not the most enthusiastic.”

“Yes, yes. I remember section ninety-three of the Guide. Do not think I forgot it.”

“Then there’s no question, is there?”

The doctor’s face closed up. Perhaps he’d expected a reward in return, more resources directed to the bio team’s management. “No, sir.”

“Good. I appreciate your concern for Aries Ryder, but I’ll deal with her myself.”

“Of course.” The doctor stepped away and bowed his head. “Nice to meet you, Lieutenant.”

Barliss frowned. “Same here.”

Doctor Cole left him in the atrium. Barliss stared at the pigeons as they flapped through the air, choosing perches in the farthest reaches of the atrium. Somehow they reminded him of Aries, beautiful creatures held in by glass, never to truly know what it was like to fly in the wind. Weren’t they all like Aries? No human alive would get to see the
New Dawn
land on Paradise 21. He grew uncomfortably melancholy and pushed the thought away.