The Scythian Crisis, page 15
part #3 of Space Colony One Series
She tried again. “Where is the man? You took a man in this ship. Where is he? Where is the human you took?”
“WHERE IS THE MAN?” the fila replied. “WHERE IS the MAN? Where is the man? Where is the human? WHERE is the HUMAN man?”
“Yes,” Cariad yelled, losing her temper. She hit the wall with her fist. “Where is he? Where’s my friend? What have you done with him?”
“Cariad?”
She was still. “Kes?” she whispered.
“Yes, it’s me. Are you okay?”
“Am I okay? Of course I’m okay. What about you? You’re the one who… who… ” The sobs she’d been holding back burst out. Kes was all right. The fila hadn’t killed him. He was still alive. Tears dripped from Cariad’s cheeks as a fit of relieved weeping wracked her. “You’re the one who nearly died,” she finally managed to say. “You’re the one they dragged away. I wanted to help you. I wanted to stop them, but I couldn’t move. I was too scared. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Are you sure you’re all right? Have they put you in one of their cells?”
“Whoa,” Kes said. “Slow down. I’m fine, and don’t beat yourself up. There wasn’t anything you could have done to stop them. They’re immensely strong. Besides, it was my choice to come down here, right? You aren’t responsible for what happened to me.”
“But what has happened to you? Where are you?”
As Cariad asked the question, a horrible thought struck. Was she actually speaking to who she thought she was speaking to?
“I’m underwater,” Kes replied. “I’m not in a cell. I’m still aboard the ship. I’m actually near the ship’s control room. It’s intact. The fila have the lighting working down here. I don’t know how they’ve prevented it from shorting out but they have.”
“Kes, I want to ask you something. It might seem weird, but just answer me, okay?” Had the fila co-opted Kes’ body to communicate with her? Had they taken over his mind? If the latter was the case, her question might be in vain. The fila might be able to search his memory for the answer. But it was the best test she could think of in the circumstances.
“Okay,” said Kes’ voice.
“When you went to be prepared for cryo,” Cariad said, “do you remember the last thing I said to you?” She recalled saying something in particular to him. It had been a phrase from an ancient children’s show that she’d watched endless reruns of when she was a child. Cariad was sure the real Kes would remember, but she doubted he would have told anyone or written down the phrase anywhere.
“I do,” said Kes’ voice. “You said, See you on the flip side.”
“Okay,” said Cariad.
Kes chuckled. “Do you believe I’m me now?”
“I guess so.” Cariad did feel more certain she was speaking to her old friend but she wasn’t yet discounting the possibility that the fila might have infiltrated his mind. “So you were telling me you’re underwater. How come you can breathe and speak?”
“As soon as I was submerged the fila put a helmet over my head. I struggled a bit, as you might imagine. But then all the water around my head drained away. The helmet is like one of the very first ones used for diving hundreds of years ago. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yes, but is the air you have to breathe only what’s inside the helmet? That won’t last you long.”
“No, that isn’t all there is,” Kes replied. “A tube in the back of the helmet leads somewhere. I haven’t found out where yet. I’ve been too busy talking to the fila. Then they stopped speaking because they wanted me to talk to you. They’re being quiet now.”
“They’re talking to you? How?” asked Cariad. “Through the helmet’s comm? And how do you communicate with them? I was having a hard time before you took over.”
“The helmet is connected to the ship’s comm but I’m only using that to talk to you. There are two large bulges in the helmet on each side next to my ears. They seem to covert the fila’s movements to words and my speech to water movement. Hearing the fila in the helmet makes them much easier to understand than over the comm. I’d managed to get quite a conversation going before they put me through to you. I’m sorry, I didn’t know I could also use the ship’s comm or I would have let you know I was okay.”
Cariad remained unconvinced that everything was as fine as Kes seemed to think. “Are they holding you captive? Have you tried to leave?”
“No, I haven’t tried to leave. But I don’t think they would stop me if I did. Do you think I should try?”
“I think it would be good to know if they consider you their prisoner or not.”
“I guess you’re right. I’ve been too caught up in my excitement about speaking to them. Though it’s hard work and I’m never quite sure I’m correctly interpreting what they say, the fila are fascinating, Cariad. Absolutely fascinating. But I ought to find out if I’m free to leave whenever I want. I’ll try to go away from them and see what happens.”
Some faint sounds of water movement came through the comm to Cariad and Kes didn’t speak for a brief time.
“So I’m swimming back up the corridor to the surface of the water,” he said. “The depth to the bottom is only four meters or so. The fila have almost entirely drained it. I forgot to say, they’ve cut off the corridor beyond the control room with a wall. I think that must be where the impact crushed the rest of the ship.”
Cariad heard more watery sounds and Kes’ slightly labored breathing.
“They’re so thickly clustered I can’t help touching them,” he said.
“You’re swimming through them?” asked Cariad.
“I am. I don’t have a lot of choice. There are so many I can hardly see where I’m going.”
“And they aren’t trying to stop you?”
“KES MAN human. You ARE MOVing away. … Talk. WE TALK. We … to YOU.”
“Can you hear them, Cariad?” Kes asked.
“Yes. It sounds like they don’t want you to leave. They want you to stay and talk to them.”
“That’s right. But they aren’t actually stopping me from leaving. In fact, they’re moving out of my way so I can pass between them.”
“You said you can’t avoid touching them,” Cariad said. “What do they feel like?”
“Incredibly soft. So soft it’s as if I could be able to pull them apart with my bare hands. But they’re also extremely strong. You saw how they dragged me off. I was fighting with all the strength I had but there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.”
The sound of something emerging from water came through the comm.
“Okay. I’m back at the water surface,” Kes said. “I’ve climbed halfway out and the fila aren’t trying to stop me. I’ll try putting my helmet under water again to hear what they’re saying.”
“Man HUMAN. We talk TO you.”
“Do you want me to try climbing all the way out?” asked Kes.
“What do you think?” Cariad asked.
“I think they’ll let me go anytime I want to leave,” Kes replied. “You don’t have to worry. I’m fine. I’m having a ball, in fact. Only the water’s rather cold and I don’t have a way of taking notes. We don’t have waterproof interfaces.”
“Why do you think it’s so much easier to understand them through the helmet than when they’re speaking over the comm?” asked Cariad.
“It’s probably a conversion problem. This helmet uses their own tech to convert their movements to words. Heaven knows what they’re inputting to the Nova Fortuna’s comm, or what they understand from what we say. They’ve created the helmet to improve the process, but they needed one of us to go into the water to put it on.”
Kes’ explanation did seem to make sense, and the more Cariad listened to him the more confident she felt that she really was speaking to her old friend. Judging by the limited success of the fila’s efforts to use a human-made communication system, she doubted they would be able to fake a human personality so convincingly.
“Cariad, I’m sorry,” Kes said. “I’d really like to speak to the fila now. Can I comm you again in an hour or so? I don’t have any way of telling the time here, so I’ll have to guess.”
“Okay,” Cariad replied. “It’s so good to hear your voice, Kes. I thought you were gone forever.”
“It’s good to hear you too and to let you know I’m okay. Please don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’ll speak to you soon.”
The comm went dead.
It occurred to Cariad that she should have returned to the bottom of the ship and witnessed with her own eyes Kes emerging from the water. That would have put her mind almost entirely at rest. But what if the fila wanted her to do that so they could capture her too? She didn’t have the courage to take the risk unprotected, and as far as she knew there were no weapons aboard.
She would have to wait and hope that Kes would comm again in about an hour, and that eventually he would return from his sojourn with the fila unscathed.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The colonists arrived slowly. They wandered into the remains of the stadium as if they just happened to be passing by and had decided to find out what was happening inside.
“Inside” was a stretch of the imagination, Ethan mused as he waited for the crowd to gather.
The stadium had received the full onslaught of the aliens’ attack. Charred struts sticking up from mud was all that was left of the place. But the circular shape of the former structure was identifiable, and all the Gens and Woken knew the site. Not that their associations would be positive—the Natural Movement had detonated a bomb there, and it had been at the stadium that the Guardians had first been used as a tool of control—but Ethan hadn’t been able to think of a better place for the task he had in mind.
While he watched the colonists assemble, he recalled the mood of excitement and anticipation that had reigned at the Naming Ceremony, the second official event in Concordia’s history. The first had been when the Leader at the time had been the first human to set foot upon an extra-Solar planet. At the beginning of the Naming Ceremony rain had begun to fall. Ethan remembered his delight with a bitter-sweet feeling. Like everyone else, he’d run to the center of the stadium and stood in the field, amazed by the spectacle of water falling from the sky.
The Natural Movement terrorists had soon put an end to the joyful mood. Like Cherry, since that day he’d lost his appreciation of water, especially during the time he’d spent confined by the fila. Plenty more had changed for him and the colony too.
Cherry was waiting with him, kicking a hole in the dirt with the back of her heel. Ethan knew she would much rather be off plowing a field or planting seeds. She’d been right in her self-assessment that she lacked the patience to be Leader. Or perhaps she wished she was seeing Aubriot. Ethan grimaced at the thought.
“Something wrong?” Cherry asked. “Have you changed your mind about this?”
“No, I haven’t. And nothing’s wrong. Have you seen Aubriot lately? Did he say if he’s coming today?”
“He didn’t say,” Cherry replied. “I guess he might, though probably not. He’s still keeping a low profile.”
“I bet that nearly kills him,” Ethan remarked.
Cherry snorted a laugh. “Yeah, it does.”
A few more minutes passed as the colonists arrived in drips and drabs.
“I guess half of them don’t know the exact time,” Cherry said. “A lot of people lost their comm buttons when the aliens attacked or afterward during the tsunami.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Ethan said. “They’ll get here eventually. I want to wait until everyone who wants to be here has arrived.”
“You really think this will do the trick?” Cherry asked.
“No, I don’t,” replied Ethan. “I’m not sure at all.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“I have to do something. You said it yourself. Morale is low. People are so hopeless, I wouldn’t be surprised if they put themselves out of their misery rather than fight when the time comes. I’ve tried talking to them face to face but it hasn’t made any difference. They listen but I can tell they’re only humoring me out of goodwill. After I’ve left I’m sure they feel the same.
“I thought bringing everyone together might help. I want to show them that we’re all in the same position, that there are no more Gens or Woken, that everyone is on the same level now. I want to remind them of why we’re here and what we represent. I want to give them a reason to not lie down and give up.”
“Sounds good,” said Cherry. “Have you written a speech? Do you know what you’re going to say?”
“I have no idea.”
Cherry folded her arms. “Good luck.” Then she said, “I just thought of something. Don’t start until I get back.” She disappeared into the growing crowd.
Ethan looked across the sea of heads. He realized that what he’d said to Cherry really was true: there were no more Woken and Gens, After the Guardians arrived the division had threatened to open up again, but the androids had confined their activities to vital projects and kept out of everyone’s way. They’d demonstrated the value of their presence while remaining weaponless and compliant. The outrage that some had felt at the Guardians’ reappearance had gradually subsided. Although, Ethan had to admit to himself, that could also have been due to the general apathy that hung about the place.
Raising himself onto his tiptoes, he peered beyond the crowd to the area surrounding the remains of the stadium. A few stragglers were still on their way, but that was it. Most of those who wanted to come and listen to him speak were already assembled.
Ethan guessed that about twelve to thirteen hundred people stood around him. Nearly all the colonists, in fact. The others were aboard the Mistral. The amount of people numbered in the throng gave him hope. They cared enough to be there. It was something. A beginning.
Now Ethan was only waiting for Cherry to return from her errand, whatever that was. He couldn’t guess what was so important that it couldn’t wait until after his speech. If he didn’t begin soon people would begin to grow bored and leave.
There was a disturbance in the crowd. Someone was pushing their way through it. Ethan saw the ripples of movement but he couldn’t see the person responsible. The ripples drew closer, and then Cherry emerged carrying a storage box. Did she plan on handing something out?
“This is for you,” she said, holding the box out to Ethan.
He took it from her, confused.
“It’s to stand on,” she explained. “No one can see you. If you don’t stand a bit higher you’re just going to be a voice. Go on. Jump up.”
Ethan placed the box on the ground and climbed onto it awkwardly. His artificial foot clunked on the hard surface. He was only head and shoulders above the surrounding crowd but it was enough. Now everyone was visible to him.
The conversations that had been going on began to fade out. Those still speaking received nudges, signaling them to be quiet.
Ethan glanced down at Cherry. She was watching him, smiling confidently. Ethan appreciated her support. Garwin hadn’t turned up, as far as Ethan knew. He’d seen less and less of the man over the last few days. It wasn’t due to jealousy over Ethan’s leadership position. Garwin had seconded his nomination. There was something else the matter with the older man. Ethan guessed that, of all the colonists’, Garwin’s morale was the lowest.
It was long past time for bad feelings to come to an end. It was time to turn the colony around.
Ethan raised a hand. The final mutterings drew to silence. He knew he should feel nervous, but he didn’t feel anything of the sort. He cared about every single person in the colony and all he wanted was to help them save themselves.
“Nova Fortuna colonists, thanks for coming here today and taking the time to listen to what I have to say. I know you all could have stayed in your shelters relaxing. But you didn’t. You came here because I asked you to, and that gives me hope. It tells me that despite everything that’s happened, all that you’ve suffered, all the loved ones you’ve lost… Despite what many of you have told me about how you don’t expect the colony to survive, you haven’t given up yet. Somewhere inside, you’re still hanging on. It’s that part of you that I want to speak to today.
“I want to ask you something. It’s an easy question. If you know the answer don’t call out, just raise your hand. I want to ask, who knows what the words ‘nova fortuna’ mean?”
A sea of hands rose into the air.
“I told you it was simple, didn’t I?” Ethan joked.
Chuckles and laughter answered him. Ethan’s gaze searched the audience for a child whose hand was raised. He spotted a boy who looked about ten years old. He pointed at the boy. “You. What’s the answer?”
The child answered but too quietly for many to hear. Ethan cupped his palm behind his ear and motioned upward with his other hand.
The boy shouted: “New destiny.”
Ethan clapped, eliciting more scattered applause.
“Correct,” said Ethan. “New destiny. I remember learning that translation when I was about your age. I wasn’t much of a student, but I do remember that. But I didn’t really understand what it meant. I knew the meaning of the words, of course, but not why they applied to the journey we were on. Whose destiny? And what was new about it? Then as I grew older I understood better. It was my destiny, and all the other Gens’ too. “Fortuna” referred to the life we would lead after Arrival. It was our fate, and we didn’t have a choice about it.
“But what did ‘new’ mean? It wasn’t new to us. It was inevitable. There wasn’t a course that we’d set upon only for it to change to a new one. Then when we began waking the passengers I understood who the ‘new’ referred to. These people, the Woken, they’d been living one life, one fate, on Earth, and they’d chosen to change it. They’d altered the rules of the game and invented a new destiny for themselves. We only existed to be useful to them. They’d brought us along for the ride.”
