First Life, page 34
part #1 of River Saga Series
“Is this what you dragged us here to see?” Desmond didn’t sound impressed.
Gordon laughed. “I wish it was.” Two more soldiers guarded a doorway. It had the same firm hinges propped open like the main entrance. “We don’t know what we’re looking at, but I think it’s important.”
My vision focused on the stairs just out of range of the lantern’s light. I heard something emanating from below, and noticed Indie’s head tilt slightly to the left. No one else seemed to hear anything out of the ordinary. It wasn’t quite a ticking, but a constant tapping, rising and falling in pitch. It was almost imperceptible, but grew louder with each step I took.
Indie said we were different now, but the rest remained to be seen. I let Gordon go first, and he jogged down the stairs, which continued for thirty steps.
“We stopped here until Paula saw the hidden compartment.”
“I don’t see anything,” Miya said, staring at the wall.
“Neither did I.” Gordon waved a hand near the corner of the dead end, and a tiny sliver of light shone against his palm. He pressed his knee against the surface, and his fist two feet higher. The wall rotated inwards.
I almost dropped the lantern.
The gigantic room was full of electronics. Screens, consoles, unidentifiable hardware.
“We haven’t been able to get any of it powered on, but we’re…” Gordon paused when Indie walked in.
The entire room lit up like the fourth of July the moment she entered it.
TWENTY-FIVE
“Let their lives not be forgotten, and their sacrifices remain in the history books of Dicore. We will build this colony for them.” Indie Hart stood at the front of the funeral pyre, her back facing all six thousand colonists.
She asked that we let her start the flame, and we couldn’t deny her the honor. Having our citizens in a single location was a memorable event. Before, we were spread out across the city, handling various tasks to prepare the colony for the Angor’s arrival. Our supplies were still held on Palora, and the fact that they had yet to make contact with us was unsettling.
I watched with my friends at the edge of the gathered crowd, wishing we didn’t need to hold a ceremony for these people. Almost a thousand had lost their lives at the final battle near this site, with three thousand dying between their drop zones and here. Those bodies were still above ground, littered over the landscape, many dead from Stingers’ poison.
The moon had disappeared, making way for the system’s star to swell above the horizon. Indie flicked the lighter and tossed the shimmering flame into the line of fuel leading to the pyre. It burned hotly, rushing like a sprinter toward our deceased.
Desmond whispered a quiet prayer, and I patted his shoulder. He’d endured a lot in his life, meaning loss wasn’t new to him. I was quite the opposite. I’d lived a sheltered existence in Fayetteville, compared to many, and the most dangerous thing I’d ever done was work pouring cement compounds into quadrants on the barges we built for the Angor.
Gordon’s eyes were damp, and Miya’s were downcast, not willing to watch our dead erupt in flames. It was the only thing we could think of. The ground was too dense to bury them, and this was our form of cremation.
The flames licked higher on the wooden furnace, and Indie had to step away as sparks shot from it.
Everyone remained silent for a full minute as we observed the fire growing, and eventually, they began to leave the site, knowing there was a lot of work to do.
The sunlight hit us. It was the end of our day, but the beginning of Dicore’s. The instant the glow struck us, the temperature increased. I could sense it would be remarkably warm today.
“What’s the plan?” Miya asked me.
“With the room?” I glanced at Indie, staying separated from us as she continued to stare at the fire.
“Yes. What else is there? A giant space filled with alien technology! This could be from centuries ago, preserved in that tomb. What kind of secrets does it hold?” Miya was clearly excited about the cache we’d uncovered.
“I was hoping to…”
“Colton, I need your help. It only works with one of you nearby,” she said.
This concerned me on a deep level. Gordon and the soldiers hadn’t been able to activate any of the electronics, but the moment Indie went near it, they powered on. We tested it, and the devices did the same in my proximity. “What about Indie, can you ask her?” For some reason, I wanted to stay as far from that place as possible. It was disturbing to find I was somehow linked to an ancient alien race Leruf had called the Rusa.
“I think Indie will be busy for a while,” Miya said.
The majority of the group had disbanded, heading to their final chores before breaking for the day. We were all exhausted, but Miya was correct that this was important. She was hoping something would be able to help us. To teach us about Dicore and the previous culture who’d endeavored to build a colony here. “Fine. Give me five minutes. I’ll meet you there.”
She ran off, and I went to Indie. “You okay?”
Indie nodded but refused to take her gaze off the fire. “They were my responsibility. But I let them go to Dicore without joining the drop myself.”
“You were dying from Xeno. The Angor wouldn’t let you out of their sight,” I reminded her.
“I know…” She sighed, and the sound broke my heart. “Almost four thousand people. They came willingly, dreaming of a new life on Dicore, and this is what happened.”
“They died protecting something. Isn’t that better than living for nothing?” I asked.
“I’m not sure anymore.” She met my gaze. “What if your theory is right? That all of these people were selected because of their connection to someone with Xeno? What are we being dragged into?”
“I wish we knew. There’s nothing else in the Accord that hinted at it?”
“Not that I can recall. I read it very quickly. It was obvious they were acting on the behalf of another party,” she told me.
“Then we’ll figure it out.” I held her hand, and she leaned onto my shoulder. We were alone now.
“How did we both end up with Xeno? What are the odds? I mean… such a small segment of our people was infected with it.”
I looked up, almost expecting to see the ship above Fayetteville while we were playing baseball that hot summer day so long ago. “They came to our city, of all the places to go. Why?”
Indie coughed, and her hand flew to her chest. “Wait. You’re right. I never thought about it.”
“Yeah. Feplow coming to Fayetteville makes no sense. I asked my father, and he couldn’t give me a good answer.”
Indie was lost in thought, tapping her finger on her chin as she always did when she was puzzling something out. “I can’t think of a reason.”
“Neither can I. But we’re here. Alive and together. Let’s make what we can of it. We may have lost these people.” I indicated the fire fifty yards ahead. “But we can still protect the rest of them.”
“You’re a good man.”
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I replied with a smirk.
“I better check on rations. You have somewhere to be?” she asked.
“Miya.”
“Say no more. Whatever we’ve stumbled on must be kept confidential. We need any advantage we can find.” Indie strolled away. I waited another five minutes, staring into the orange glow of the flames until it receded.
I found Miya where I expected, trying to connect her tablet to one of the consoles. She had a harness splayed out, with loose wires everywhere. As soon as I walked in, the lights snapped on, and the screens hummed to life. It was disconcerting to learn my body was somehow linked to the technology inside the Rusa’s hidden control area.
I studied the place, seeing alien text appear on the monitors. There were more than twenty seats, and I counted over thirty individual screens.
“Be careful,” Miya warned me. “This whole place could be a trap.”
“Trap?”
“If I had a colony, I’d ensure that only my team could access the command center.”
“This is the command post?” I wondered why it would be hidden in the basement of the most nondescript structure in the colony.
“It has to be. Keep it out of sight. If there’s a threat, they’d be able to ensure things ran from the safety of a bunker.”
“Wait.” I grinned. “You think this controls the colony?”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” she said.
“Should we ask a few others for advice? I’m sure we have computer engineers...”
Miya went rigid. “You don’t think I can handle it?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
She blew her bangs from her eyes and sat at the console nearest me. Her harness adaptor was nearly completed, and she twisted the ends of the wires, sticking her tongue out while she joined the wires to the socket beside the monitor. Her tablet glowed brighter, and dimmed while the screen on the desktop flashed to a new program. “See. I’m good for a few tricks of my own.”
She used her own keyboard to maneuver the alien network.
“What are you doing?” I was lost. She was moving between screens so quickly, I had no clue what I was witnessing.
Miya smiled with excitement. “I think I recognize their system. They have layers, but not a hint of security. I guess they didn’t expect anyone to bypass their hidden door.” She rolled her eyes, telling me this was the equivalent of using password as your PIN back home.
An image appeared, this one recognizable. “That’s the colony.”
The picture was from above, like a satellite image. It showed the layout of the colony, except it was different than ours. The central building we’d sunken into the ground still existed, and the barriers along the edges of the camp were solid, a thick blue metallic line surrounding the entire colony.
“I thought they hadn’t finished the barricades,” I said, recalling the makeshift fence we’d seen on the way into the colony.
“Guess again.” Miya pressed a button on her tablet, and the computer beeped. The entire building shook, sending dust falling from the ceiling.
“What’s happening?” I was ready to duck under the table.
“We have power.” Miya went to another program and tapped the Rusa’s screen. The border around the colony flashed on the image, and I felt the grating, my enhanced ears hearing the barricades rising from their concealed location.
I rushed from the room, alerting the soldiers, and ran outside. Everyone was staring at the boundaries where a giant wall now rose, circling our perimeter.
I located Desmond and Indie, and explained what Miya had uncovered. The blue barriers continued to grow, and stopped when they were twenty feet high, clicking loudly into place.
“Gordon!” Indie called, and the older man ran to her side. “Get the team to secure the boundary. Make sure there are no cracks, holes, or breaches in our defense.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He took off, barking orders at Bull and the others.
Lights glowed from posts all around the colony. We had no idea what they’d been until now.
“That’s one hell of a power source, to work after all these years,” Des said.
“Ask people with electrical engineering knowledge to work with Miya. I don’t trust anything after a few centuries of weather and a lack of maintenance,” I suggested. “It would be a shame if we found power and let it destroy the city as a result.”
“I’m on it,” Des said.
Indie and I surveyed the colony from the rooftop, smiling at the activity. With the tall blue fence erected, I instantly felt safer. If another Queen emerged, it wouldn’t help us, but it gave me the same sense of safety as locking your bedroom door did. Someone could break in, but you’d hear them if they tried.
With the lights on, the city was starting to feel like a haven. Now all we needed were the supplies from the Angor.
And a few answers.
“Has anyone seen Leruf yet?” I asked.
“I haven’t seen him since the other day.”
“The pod is here,” I said.
“Then maybe he left. The Vezo have a very different sense of loyalty. He might feel disgraced. When they do, they go on a pilgrimage. That’s what I’ve been told.” Indie gestured to the mountain range, and I hoped that wherever Leruf was, he was safe.
____________
A week went by, and we were too busy creating some semblance of a home to notice the passage of days. The power was on throughout most of the colony, making our lives a lot simpler. We discovered coolers to keep our remaining food chilled. The water tower’s functionality improved with the automated pumps, and so far, nothing had attempted to breach our barricades around the city. The Rusa equipment had manuals in another language, but our people claimed it wasn’t so different than something humans would build. It made the integration far easier.
Miya led the charge on the Rusa technology, and a linguistics expert was working on a translation program, citing that she was close to completing it.
Indie and I seemed to be at odds. Any time I brought up our improved senses, she disregarded it, not wanting to discuss our alterations.
I was already growing more used to the slight blue tinge to my eyesight, and the fact that I could move faster when necessary. I hadn’t tested anything else, because I had no idea what I was capable of. It reminded me of the time my mom had bought my grandfather his first computer.
Endless processing power, and all he ever did was play solitaire. I used to tease him, but now I understood better. He didn’t know how to operate it, and no one taught him, so he played a game instead of learning how to use internet banking.
There was no sign of Leruf, but I had faith in his return. I was beginning to think of him as a friend. Des was the most disturbed by the Vezo soldier’s disappearance, but there was nothing we could do to bring him back, so we rarely discussed it.
The colony was in high spirits despite the adversities we’d encountered. They wouldn’t be so delighted when our food rations dwindled to zero. Six thousand mouths were too many to feed without our greenhouses and containers of sustenance on Palora.
“We’re going to be out in four days. And that’s at half rations.” I walked around the coolers again, shaking my head in disgust.
“Where are the bastards?” Desmond asked me.
“What if they left without us?” It was worst case, but a genuine possibility, especially after Indie and Leruf had broken protocol to join us at the colony.
“Nah. Too much effort to bring us here. Why abandon us to our deaths?”
“Then where…”
Adley appeared in the doorway, and her expression was uncertain. Ambrose was close behind her, looking far happier than her. “They’re coming.”
That was all we needed to hear. We rushed out of the cooler and saw the huge bottom of Palora as she lowered for Dicore’s surface. Despite my anger and reservations with Director Ulison and his people, I was flooded with relief at the sight.
People were openly crying, hugging one another and celebrating. Leave it to the Angor to pretend to be our saviors once again. Had everyone forgotten we were in this mess because of them?
Gordon held his GR-852, and I glanced around the courtyard, spotting his soldiers all precariously positioned, each holding a weapon as they observed the dark skies. The moon was fresh, the sun having set a half day ago.
“Finally,” Indie said. She pulled her hair into a ponytail, tugging it tight. She seemed upset, and rightfully so.
Palora took a full half hour to descend, the sounds of the thrusters cutting across the entire colony. Orange flames burned beneath the starship, scalding the shale as it landed, and we watched from the tallest structure’s lookout. From here, we could see in all directions. A lake spread out in the distance to the north, with the mountain range we came from visible to my right. Palora settled to the south, choosing the most level section near the colony. They were still about a mile from our barricades.
“Do we go to them?” Franklin asked.
“No.” Indie frowned. “Let him come to us.”
She was referring to Director Ulison, the Angor man behind the Expedition. The ploys, the lies, and the Accord. Director Ulison was the front man for the Angor, and he had some answering to do. Whether he would offer it was another story.
“Remember what we discussed,” Des reminded us. Willow nodded, and Gordon gritted his teeth.
“We won’t do what they say unless it is best for our colonists. These people.” Indie glanced at the crowd. “Dicore is ours, and we won’t let the Angor rule us any longer.”
Her words were uplifting, but there was little truth to them. We were powerless against the Angor. They held all the chips and were playing with a stacked deck. But I agreed on our solidarity with the rest of my friends, and finally, Palora’s exit opened. I used a scope to watch Director Ulison step off. Ambassador Volins was with him, along with a Vezo man. Another Angor joined, and I wondered why Abbyl, our representative, was present with the leaders.
“Is that Leruf?” Des spat out.
“Looks like it.” Even from here, I could identify the angry scar on his shell.
“How did he end up on Palora?” Indie whispered. Our ally’s head hung low, and that was when I saw the chains on his ankles.
“He’s a prisoner,” I muttered. Indie grabbed my scope and paled at the sight.
She likely expected the same treatment when she faced Director Ulison. A regiment of twenty Angor soldiers joined their leaders, approaching our colony at a brisk pace. Ulison’s face was unreadable. From his expression, he could have been strolling the park on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Before they arrived at our walls, three Meteors rose from Palora’s hangars, flying overhead.
“They’re purposely intimidating us,” Gordon said. “If we don’t comply, we’ll be dealt with.”
