Seeder Saga (5 page)

Bickering

They decided against waking all of the colonists
; there was just no way to control such a big group all at once. They woke up half of them. If the other half crumbled and died as a result of a failed artificial gravity generator, then at least they’d still have enough to start a colony, albeit a pitiful one.

Jacob stated, “What does it matter anyway? Even if all one thousand survive this entire trip, the number is too meager to ensure a diversified colony.”

“That’s the spirit,” said Michael sarcastically.

Melanie added, “We’re not stupid
, Jacob. We know we should have at least ten thousand mating pairs to ensure success. But this is what we have to work with.”

Michael added, “Even if interbreeding has to occur, that’s a consequence everyone’s willing to deal with. The alternative is not running this mission at all. Is that something you’re comfortable with?”

Jacob shook his head. “They should have held off the mission until they could build a ship that could hold a hundred times this many colonists.”

“That’s why you’re an idea guy and not a doer. If it was up to you, nothing would ever get done.”

Jane interrupted angrily, “I’ve been alone for a month and a half. I’ve been looking forward to interacting with people for that entire duration, but now I just want this to be over so I can put all of you back on ice to end this wasteful bickering.”

Melanie looked hurt
, but she apologized. Michael nodded and got to work opening the pods.

Jacob ignored her and set to work.

By the time they were done, the entire pod chamber was full of condensing mist. One by one, the colonists woke up and crawled out of their pods.

They had expectant, joyous looks on their faces until Jane explained to them that they were less than two months into the mission and were only being woken up as a safety precaution. Then they became upset. One girl said, “We didn’t sign up for that. We were supposed to be woken when we arrived at our new home. What changed that?”

Jane said, “There’s nothing to worry about. We are approaching Jupiter. This will be over soon enough.”

Jacob added, “Not really. They’ll need to be kept out of their pods for at least two hours. Three would be safer still.”

Michael said, “It’s a good thing our orbit of Jupiter will take almost exactly that long, right folks?”

Jacob sulked as he walked from the pod chamber.

Melanie said, “I can’t believe that little shit passed all the tests to get here.”

Jane allowed all of the colonists to convene to her command station. She did so because she had to monitor their approach
, but she didn’t want any of them out of her sight. When she turned the little monitor on, some of them gasped. Jupiter was huge, colorful, and magnificent.

By the time they’d descended to the appropriate orbit, it was obvious that whatever the sun had done to their artificial gravity was not a problem here. The artificial gravity held up during the entire sling. For that she was thankful.

Malfunction

Everything worked out great until they started to put the colonists back into stasis.

That’s when they discovered that one of the units had malfunctioned. The computer had no answers for them
, and Michael stated flatly that the unit was beyond repair.

Luckily
, they had a single back-up unit that took all of the crew to drag out of storage. It took Michael another twenty minutes to rig all the electrical lines and hoses. When it was ready to use, the poor put-out lady got inside shaking her head out of frustration. They all watched as the freeze took her.

Jane asked, “Should we jettison the broken unit and alter our approach to make up for the weight difference of the cargo
, or should we just leave it?”

Jacob said, “We could conserve fuel if we jettison it
.”

B
ut Michael said, “Let’s keep it. We can use it for parts.”

“Is there anything left of it that’s salvageable?” asked Jane.

Jacob said, “Nothing that’ll make a difference. Michael’s just arguing with me because it’s the fashionable thing to do.”

Michael nodded. “
I guess he’s right. The components apparently received a surge of power. They’re all fried. I’ll yank the hoses and anything else that’s salvageable, then I’ll weigh what we’re cutting loose to space.”

Jacob stifled a smile
, but they all knew he was beside himself.

They dragged the husk of the damaged pod into the airlock after it had been weighed. Then they watched it spin away from the ship on the monitor in the command station. Jane sealed up the outer airlock door and then ordered everyone to go back into stasis. No one said it aloud
, but she knew they must all be thinking,
What happens if we lose another pod?

They didn’t have any more spares.

They left for stasis without complaint.

In a month and a half she’d get to join them in the sweet bliss of nothingness.

Freeze Dried Jane

The trip to the Kuiper belt was entirely too long and boring, but the belt itself was just as boring. She thought she’d at least have to make a couple small course corrections to avoid minor planets or asteroids never before seen, but the ship encountered nothing big enough to do any damage.

She was glad for that but she couldn’t help thinking,
If I’d known we’d encounter nothing of significance, I would’ve gone into stasis along with the others and avoided all of this monotony.

Once she was half a million miles past the known reach of the belt, she disrobed and got inside her pod. She inserted the IV’s and closed the lid. There was an audible hissing
as the atmosphere within was evacuated. She felt the IV’s pump their fluids through her veins. Then, just as the atmosphere became a vacuum, the frigid mist filled the cavity. It was oily between her fingers. Right before she lost consciousness from lack of oxygen, the freeze took all perception of time from her.

Awake

Her head was spinning and her vision too. A dark, undefined shape loomed over her as she felt the thaw tak
ing effect. She was shaking uncontrollably as she sat up. The figure placed a warming blanket over her shoulders and helped her to her feet.

She mumbled, “Are we there?”

Michael’s voice came from the dark shape. “No. We encountered a problem. Apparently three of the colonists have gone missing.”

“Did you search the ship?”

“No. I came right up here as soon as the computer woke me.”

“Why did it wake you first?”

“I couldn’t tell you.”

“Computer, why did you wake Michael before waking me?”

The tinny voice said, “Because you were only recently put into stasis. I thought it was unwise to wake you before the freeze took effect completely.”

Michael yelled at it, “Well
, you could’ve warned me.”

Jane put her clothes on and asked, “How long have I been in stasis?”

“Five hours.”

Michael whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that.”

“It’s okay. It just means I’ll have to stay out of the pod for a few hours longer.” To the computer she said, “How long do I need to stay out of the pod?”

“Six hours would be safe. Any longer is even safer.”

Michael said, “I’ll stay with you for the six hours. When you’re up to it, how about we search this ship for the missing colonists?”

Jane nodded and addressed the computer again. “When did the colonists go missing?”

“I come on-line every twelve hours to do a systems check. I came on-line twenty-one minutes ago, noticed the empty pods, and woke up Mr. Stevens.”

“So you don’t know because you were off-line? I want you to come on
-line at four hour intervals from now on.”

“That’s impossible. If I power up that often the
ship’s energy reserves will deplete before we arrive at the seed planet.”

Michael asked, “Are you equipped with motion detectors? If so, then I could set you to come on
-line whenever there’s motion.”

“I am not. The engineers toyed with the idea of installing it
, but they deemed it unnecessary.”

“They probably didn’t know the colonists would find a way to wake up and wander off.”

Jane said, “Let’s find the sleepwalkers before they cause any problems. They’re probably terrified.”

Suspicion

They searched up and down the ship, but the escaped colonists were nowhere to be seen.

Michael stopped at Jacob’s pod and leaned in. He said, “I froze him myself.”

“So?”

“So his body is in a different position now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean he’s been out of his pod since I put him in it.”

“Computer, open this pod. We have some questions we’d like to ask Sleeping Beauty here.”

Their imaginations were running wild while they waited for Jacob to thaw. Why had his body moved? Either his pod was malfunctioning or else he’d woken up ahead of schedule. But what for? Did he have anything to do with the missing colonists?

Jacob sat up and coughed. After a full minute to gather himself, he said, “What the hell is going on? Someone thawed me halfway and then they froze me again.”

“What are you talking about?”

I saw a dark shape as I was waking up, then I felt the cold take me again, and now here I am. What happened?”

“Why would someone thaw you and then refreeze you?”

“I don’t know, but you’ll need to wake Melanie up. I’ll need to be put under observation while I thaw out.”

“That’s not what we’re here for. We want to know why your body was in a different position. We want to know what you know about the missing colonists.”

“I can only guess that I moved a little bit before I was frozen again. And this is the first I’ve heard about any missing colonists.”

Michael barked, “Bullshit,” as Jacob climbed out of his pod and got dressed.

“I’m not lying. Whoever woke me up and then refroze me might know what happened to the missing people, but I’m clueless.”

Jacob walked over to Melanie’s pod and opened it.

“Hey, we’re only waking people when it’s necessary,” said Jane.

“She’s a medic and my life might be in danger from the freeze I had to endure right in the middle of a thaw.”

“I’d agree with you if I believed your story,” said Michael.

Melanie woke slowly. “Are we at the seed planet?”

“No,” Jane replied. “There are three colonists missing. Jacob claims he was partially thawed and then refrozen. We need you to keep an eye on him and also help us look for the missing people.”

“Jesus Christ. When did they go missing?”

Jacob said ruefully, “Yeah, don’t worry about me.”

“If you were in any danger you’d feel the effects by now.”

Michael said, “That just confirms my suspicions. What did you do to the colonists?”

“I sure hope I don’t have to die to prove my innocence.”

“It would help your case, that’s for sure.”

Just then they heard a light thud from the command station.

Jane took the lead, but when they got there, there was nothing out of the ordinary.

On a whim, Michael turned the monitor on.

Plain as day, there was a frozen body hovering in front of the ship. It looked to be male. What was worse was that his eyes were open.

Melanie said, “No way. Is that one of the missing colonists?”

Jacob said sarcastically, “No, it’s probably a human asteroid. Of course it’s a colonist.”

“But if it was shot out of the airlock
, why is it still with us?”

Jacob said, “Even though it was sucked out of the airlock, it was still traveling at the same speed and in the same direction as the ship. And in space this empty, the gravity of the ship probably caught it and brought it back. Shit, it might even be orbiting us.”

“Why are his eyes open?” asked Michael.

Jane said what they all feared
: “Because he was waking up from stasis when he was sucked out.”

Jacob sucked in a breath. “If we can get to him, we might be able to revive him still.”

Melanie asked, “How? He’s clearly dead.”

“If there were any stasis fluids left pumping through his veins
, and if he was still mostly frozen, then we could thaw him out. He might survive long enough to tell us who did this to him.”

Melanie was the first to say, “That’s inhumane. I’m all for catching the culprit
, but not if it means torturing that poor guy.”

“She’s right,” said Jane. “Plus, the maneuvers we’d have to make to get his body close to the airlock would screw up our trajectory.”

“I could go fetch him,” offered Jacob.

“I understand you want to clear your name
, but I won’t allow it.”

Michael added, “I’ve changed my mind anyway. I don’t think you’d have the strength to drag that guy from his pod to the airlock. Someone else killed him.”

Jacob rolled his eyes at the obvious slight. But he said, “Well, I’m glad to be off the hook.”

Jane said, “We can’t go back into stasis until we find out who did this. We’re all at risk until then.”

Jacob said, “I wish I’d seen who it was that partially woke me up.”

None of them noticed Melanie breathe a sigh of relief.