Paradise 21 (25 page)

Lying in the cold shaft, she wondered if he had given up on her.

…

“The first input connection will be the most painful.” Dr. Pern brushed the back of Barliss’ neck with a wet swab as he lay, facedown, on the operating table. Her cold fingers made his skin prickle with goosebumps, and he felt like a chicken waiting to get its head chopped off. A cold sweat broke out down his back underneath the skimpy hospital gown, and the hairs on his bare legs stood up.

His voice came out weaker than he intended. “The commander said it would be painless.”

“Once the initial procedure is done, yes.”

Barliss tightened his palms into fists and suppressed an urge to spring up and run out of the operating room. Initial connection was the first physical step in the process, and he’d already signed the papers accepting the position. He couldn’t back down because of a small procedure with a drill. It’d happened sooner than he’d expected, but the commander had ordered the connection done immediately. Barliss could understand his reasons. The old man must be eager to set his replacement up before he wasted completely away. The
New Dawn
couldn’t fly without a brain behind the helm.

“You’ll experience a brief sense of displacement while the ship attaches to your consciousness. Your mind may wander into memories of your life. When you wake, you’ll be connected to the mainframe. Your state of consciousness will be forever heightened.” Doctor Pern’s voice sliced through him. He shivered. He could feel her hovering above him like an angel, or a reaper, come to claim his soul. “Put him under.”

An assistant injected a needle into his arm without hesitation. She pulled the tip out, and the initial sting receded. Her voice was calmer than Doctor Pern’s and had a kind ring to it. “Count down from ten.”

He only got to seven.

…

Barliss opened his eyes and saw Gerald’s flabby face leaning over him, wearing the ship’s former workout jumpsuits. “You had quite a fall. Are you all right?”

“I guess so.” Barliss looked down the length of his body and wiggled his toes inside his sneakers. He wore his orange jogging jumpsuit with the
New Dawn
symbol on the right shoulder. Gerald gave him a hand towel to wipe the sweat from his face.

“Let’s call it a day. I hear they’re opening the last case of wheat beer in the lieutenants’ quarters. Care to let me in?”

“Sure.” Barliss brightened with the thought of drinking. He needed a reward for attempting the impossible workout regime dictated by the Guide. At least a number of higher-ups had seen him running long enough to make an impression. He had a reputation to build.

Gerald pulled him up to his feet with a heave and they both stared as a group of young ladies entered the track at the opposite end.

“Would you look at that? Mrs. Macy’s gym class. All the graduating pretty women destined for computer-designated mates.” Gerald sighed. “If only we got to choose.”

Barliss scanned the crowd with mild interest until his eyes fell on a head of blazing auburn locks like a miniature sunset in a barren land. A perfect heart-shaped face turned in his direction with eyes flecked blue like cosmic dust. He’d never seen such a beauty in all his life. As the young women jogged around the track, he watched her progress, wondering how he’d never seen her before.

“Hey, speaking of which, why haven’t you been set up with anyone yet? You’re ten years older than me.”

Barliss shrugged, although he’d been dodging the system for years now, lengthening his bachelorhood by bribing the computer analysts. “Guess they haven’t found one for me.”

“Those girls will be up for their assignments soon. Imagine the lucky guys…”

As Gerald drooled on the track, Barliss watched the beauty smile at her blond-haired friend. The two ladies broke away from the crowd and ran with athletic grace, their slim legs propelling them forward like gazelles.

Barliss decided he’d make another trip to the computer mainframe. Maybe Gerald was right. It was about time he was paired off, and he had the exact woman in mind. All he had to do was come up with something special to tempt the analysts, something stowed away in the archives of old Earth, like a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

An alarm sounded in his ears and Barliss looked around the track for an emergency, but the other runners kept their pace as if they didn’t hear it. Gerald smirked and rubbed his hands together, perhaps contemplating his future mate, and the pair of women giggled, pushing each other off the track.

Barliss’ memory faded as the alarm grew louder. Something was wrong on the
New Dawn
and needed his complete attention. He sighed, unwilling to give up this last vision of Aries running free.

“Reckon, check on the excavation of the ship and get the others. We’re taking off!”

Striker smoothed his hands over the controls, his emotions surging. This ship would take him to Aries. He’d see her again and set her free. Together, they’d reach Refuge.

He grabbed her locator and punched in the coordinates of the
New Dawn
. A sky chart came up and Striker decoded the symbols as fast as his mind could tick. Estimated travel time was forty-eight hours. Striker’s eyes widened with hope. That was it. The alien ship could reach the
New Dawn
’s position in a mere two days.

Tiff, Drifter and Loot walked in, followed by Reckon holding his laser at their backs. Drifter hunched over, lurking like a ghost waiting to strike. Tiff and Loot were covered with sand, crusted over from head to foot as if the desert gods had dipped them in batter and breaded them whole.

“’Bout time you came to get us.” Tiff’s hard-edged voice reminded Striker of a knife lunge.

He ignored her and looked to Reckon. “How’s it look out there?”

“They managed to uncover most of the engines. Enough, I’d say, for takeoff.” The old man’s voice bubbled with eagerness.

“Good, because we’re getting off this sandy rock.” Using the tip of a wire, Striker traced another set of hieroglyphs on a giant crystal touchpad and the rumble of the engines heightened. Tiff and Loot’s work impressed him, but he wasn’t ready to make nice with the woman who’d betrayed him. The boy, however, had never done him harm. He glanced over at the kid. “You may want to find a secure seat.”

“Do you know what you’re doing, Striker? Or are you going to get us all blown up?” Drifter leaned on the wall like it was his ship and Reckon held up his laser in warning. He licked his cracked lips. Striker figured his former first mate was too proud to ask for some water.

Striker waved the old man back. “I’ve got it, Reckon. Thanks.”

He turned to Drifter. “This is your only chance of getting off this desert hell. I’d think you’d be thankful and have a little faith. But no one is forcing you to come along. You could make a nice life here, build a sand castle, find some lizard pets.”

Drifter grinned in a menacing stretch of his lips. “Let’s leave the desert nomad reputation to you.”

The engines rumbled like primordial thunder, revving up. Striker pulled back on the main controls. The ship tilted, everyone swaying backward as the engines blew out the sand around the ship. “Don’t push it too far,” Reckon advised. “We can go back out and keep digging.”

Tiff jutted her chin out. “Speak for yourself, old man. I’m not going back out there.”

“There’s no need to.” Striker trusted the analytics. The ship told him he had enough clearance, so he fired the engines harder. “We can break free. I know it.”

As the hull emerged from the ground, the ship jerked forward with the force behind the thrusters. Striker fell back into the captain’s chair, and the rest of them fell on their butts on the floor. Regaining his balance, Striker pulled the main lever forward, leveling out the ship as it hovered in midair.

“Last chance if anyone’s changed their mind.” Striker looked around the control deck, but no one so much as twitched a finger.

“I didn’t think so.”

He drew his finger along the screen, plotting a direct course toward the
New Dawn
. The ship responded to his request by computing a clear path into orbit. Once the coordinates were set, Striker pressed a fingernail into the panel to engage, and the ship shook, rattling his bones. Striker looked back to a series of frightened faces, some hiding it better than others. They’d each found a seat along the back of the control deck in a massive indent in the coral. He settled into the white half-bubble of the captain’s chair. “Hold on.”

The main screen retracted on both sides, giving way to a glass-like sight panel. Striker stood up as the desert scene spread out before him, the red sun burning his eyes.

“Way cool!” Loot’s voice was wispy with awe. Striker couldn’t help but agree with him as he squinted against the glare.

A light flashed on the controls and Striker had to focus to decode the symbol below it. He scratched a circle with the wire tip, and the ship arched up to meet the new trajectory. Orange sand turned into endless blue sky. Striker engaged the thrusters and the ship took off, cutting through the atmosphere. The force pushed him back into the chair, and he wondered how much pressure the hull could stand after all those years of disuse.

The blue sky gave way to a star-studded backdrop of space. After the ship broke free of the planet’s gravity, the shaking subsided and it cruised smoothly. Triumphant cries erupted behind him as Tiff and the boy jumped out of their seats. Striker focused on Reckon. The old man winked, giving him a thumbs-up.

“Where are we going, anyway?” Drifter slid out of his seat, dusting off his pants. Although he didn’t seem impressed, Striker bet his life the ascent into space on the alien craft made his old nemesis wish he knew the correct hieroglyphs to take it for a spin himself.

“We’re going directly to the colony ship.”

A chorus of protest erupted behind him. Tiff batted her fist in the air. “You’re going to get us all killed.”

At the same time, Drifter threw back his head in frustration. “Without a plan?”

Loot stood up. “How are five of us going to beat a whole shipload of them?”

Striker looked out of the sight panel, his eyes scanning over a purple-pinkish galaxy cluster as the ship took them farther from Sahara 354 and closer to the
New Dawn
. He’d come up with a plan. He always did.

“We’ve got two days to figure it out.”

…

Aries woke with a raw hunger gnawing at her stomach walls. She’d seized her only opportunity to escape, which had forced her to flee without planning her next meal, or anything else for that matter. Now she squirmed on the floor of an air duct, holding her growling midsection in her arms.

She needed to find the air duct leading to the food supplies. Retracing her steps, she thought back to which direction she’d turned and where she’d climbed. It had seemed so clear when she started, but now the air ducts were a maze in her mind, and her head ached, thinking about directions. The medication had made her delusional. Now, as it wore off, she was left with the reality of the situation. She was lost.

Fighting off dizziness, Aries looked around. She could climb down the ladder to the workroom below, but she’d chance being seen. Aries weighed her options. She could be lost in the air ducts for days. She shivered with the thought of that. She might even die of starvation in the inner workings of the
New Dawn
. No one would find her until she’d decomposed. At least it was better than being shot out into space in an airtight coffin.

Aries listened for sounds of footsteps or voices but couldn’t hear anything. Only the dim emergency lights cast the shaft in a red glow. Her stomach gurgled, the sound echoing in the small chamber, and she took it as a cue. Climbing down the ladder, she found herself in a workroom with pipes running across the ceiling and a table of containers storing various plumbing tools. A map of the air duct system was pinned on the wall.

She figured out her position on the map, calculating the distance to the nearest food source. Her best bet were a pair of storage units located on the deck above her, twenty meters away. If those were empty, she’d have to sneak into the bio-dome and raid the crops. That was the riskiest option, because workers would be watering and pruning.

Aries tore the map off the pin and folded it up, stuffing it under her arm. She found an unused light stick on the counter and cracked it in half, illuminating the room in a green glow. At least she wouldn’t be crawling around in the dark anymore. She climbed back into the air duct and elbowed her way forward to the storage chambers.

She reached the junction above the storerooms, feeling lightheaded from lack of water. Aries backed up and kicked the metal under her feet until the grating fell, stirring up dust from the room below. A mildew scent wafted up. She covered her mouth. Not a promising sign for food.

She lowered herself, landing on her feet. Holding up the green light stick, she examined the contents of the room. A long hallway led into darkness, lined with boxes and shelves on each side. The dust lay as thick as carpeting and it tickled Aries’ nose, making her stifle a sneeze. She held one arm across her nose and mouth and stepped toward the first plastic container lying underneath a swash of stars and stripes.