Aurora (The Exodus Trilogy)

Part Two of the Exodus Trilogy

AURORA

Andreas Christensen

AURORA

Copyright 2013 Andreas Christensen

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Graphicz X Designs, graphiczxdesigns.zenfolio.com

Editor: Shelley Holloway, hollowayhouse.me

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, organizations, events or locales is purely coincidental.

On Aurora, humanity's final outpost is heading for disaster

In 2080, the starship Exodus left Earth, carrying some 1600 people, to give humanity a second chance. Now, in 2245, the colonists are trying to build a future on distant Aurora. But the doomed world that sent them on their long voyage had turned authoritarian and repressive, leading a small group to form a plan to let those sent on the Exodus choose a different path.

While Kenneth Taylor struggles to accept his self-imposed silence even on the new world, Thomas Dunn is slowly subverting the colonial administration. Governor George Havelar, on the other hand, plans to make sure the mistakes of the past are not repeated as he proposes a radical plan for human expansion. In the north a simmering discontent is threatening to break up the unity of the human settlement on Aurora, and former scramjet pilot Tina Hammer realizes she cannot stay out of the conflict. Maria Solis, torn between loyalty to her father's faction and her own desires, is suddenly being forced into the conflict as she witnesses a terrible crime.

With an entire planet to discover, tensions rise as opposing forces work their plans. While the leadership of the colony tries to affirm its control, others are working to regain lost liberties.

Will humanity’s final outpost survive the confrontation, or succumb to destruction?

Prologue

A thousand ships rose through the clouds as Lifebringer’s day came to an end. For three centuries, they had known this day would come, when the waiting and struggles to save as many as possible would finally end. The ships heading for the unknown would populate new worlds as the old one faced its inevitable death. This was an end, but also a beginning. The older generation would stay behind, while the next generation would find new worlds to settle, far beyond known space. Lifebringer’s legacy would live on, on hundreds of planets, spread throughout the galaxy like seeds blown by the wind.

Ghaaratha was sad to see them go. They were the future, the survival of their species ensured by the colossal arks, yet they represented the end of an era. Lifebringer had been good to them, and they had already spread out to other systems nearby. This moment was the culmination of generations of scientific discovery, technological innovation, and a common purpose.

She wondered what would happen to Lifebringer’s children. Would they colonize planets, and make the natives their slaves, or would they manage to coexist with other intelligent species? Or would they be chased off by warlike civilizations? Or perhaps they would find inhabited planets to be more rare, and instead be forced to populate empty planets? They had the means, certainly, to terraform planets within the habitable zone of a suitable star.

She shook her head, and turned away, wiping a single tear from her face. She was old, and she would get no answers. Soon she would die, knowing nothing of her children’s fate. Her own children, Oahna at twenty-six and Jurghaan at thirty, were lost to her. They would sleep through however long it took to bring them to their destination, but if all went well, they would find a new home, where they would have children of their own. Her grandchildren. The thought lifted her spirits somewhat, but only for a moment.

Ghaaratha ought to be happy to see her bloodline continue, but it broke her heart to see them leave. Decades might still pass before the inevitable cataclysm. By then, Lifebringer’s children would be scattered across the galaxy, populating worlds beyond the farthest reaches of civilization. Life would go on.

Chapter 1

THOMAS DUNN

The night was warm, and there was a sweet scent to the air, even through all the filtering and decontamination, clean and almost flowery. Aurora was a beautiful place, an Eden for those who cared to notice. Thomas Dunn had a task that demanded his full attention, but he also had the ability to take in his surroundings in full. Nothing escaped him. As he approached the building, he grinned at the guard standing outside the door. The guard recognized him, and immediately looked to see if anyone else was around.

“You’ve got the booze?” the guard almost whispered. Thomas nodded, and brought out a gray canvas bag. A clinking sound escaped it when he — a little carelessly — handed it over. The guard smiled nervously and licked his lips.

“It’s been years you know… I almost forgot how much… How good it can be…” Thomas cocked his head and looked at the poor drunk. He’d snatched a few bottles of moonshine from the private stash of one of the soldiers a few weeks ago, and had kept it hidden since. With full access to the personnel files, he knew the strengths and weaknesses of the men and women — civilian and military. This guy had been sober for so long, ever since before they left Earth, but once an alcoholic… So he’d chatted with him, and casually mentioned his little secret stash.

“Now you owe me one, Pete.” The guard nodded eagerly, as he put his hand inside the bag. Then he took out one small bottle and slipped it inside his jacket. The other went down the pocket on the side of his pants. Thomas slapped him amiably on the shoulder as he turned around.

“Save a little for after duty then,” he said as he walked away. He didn’t wait for an answer. He’d been surprised this guy hadn’t been kicked out in Selection, back on Earth, until he connected the dots. Richard Thatcher, the mastermind behind the conspiracy had time and time again proven his foresight. And when Thomas though about it, he chuckled. They needed a few weak links in the chain, and Pete was just that. Placed on the Exodus, where he’d have no access to his little vice, he’d be an obedient soldier, but here… He didn’t know all the instructors involved, but he knew that even Senator Joe Buchanan had been involved, and he headed the entire project back on Earth. He could only imagine the trouble they had gone through to secure Pete’s place on the Exodus.

Thomas rounded the corner, and walked into the administrative building, where he had a small office. He threw his jacket onto his desk and sat down to play around on his tablet for a while. No one noticing the light in his windows would react to it; he often worked late, and sometimes even pulled all-nighters. Layers upon layers of deceptions hid his true intentions, and while some might suspect there was something amiss with his front cover as an administrative assistant, no one really knew who he was. Some in Havelar’s inner circle might know Thomas was his personal spy, but his true mission remained hidden. Just as he’d planned all those months before the day he finally stepped into the role of Thomas Dunn. It was a role he’d become accustomed to, and it was all part of him now. He lived, breathed, and thought Thomas Dunn. It was the only way, to immerse himself into this fictional character, to such a degree that even he sometimes wondered who he really was.

He’d had a lot of these musings lately, and every time, he pushed himself out of it. It could drive a man crazy, thinking like that. He looked at his watch. Half an hour had passed; that ought to do it. He had no way of knowing just how quickly Pete would jump into the bottle. From what he’d learned about the man, he didn’t expect it to take long, but to be sure, he’d spiked the booze, just enough to make sure. A few sips would be tasty; a few more, and the guard would fall asleep.

He went outside again, and as he rounded the corner, he grinned. Pete sat slumped against the wall, the bottle lying beside him. Thomas looked around before he darted over and quickly spilled the rest of the bottle on the ground. He laid the bottle back as it had been, and checked Pete’s pulse. He’d be fine. In a couple of hours, he’d wake up, confused, and Thomas chuckled as he thought of it. Of course, if someone discovered the poor drunk, he’d be facing a shitload of trouble. Oh well.

Thomas took out an access card he’d stolen earlier, and held it up against the lock. He had reprogrammed it, resetting the code, and now he pushed the eight digits. The lock clicked, and he opened the door. The lights were out, and he didn’t dare use a flashlight, so he waited for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the darkness. He knew exactly where he was heading; after all, he’d been part of setting up this compound. He followed a short corridor until he reached another locked door. He fumbled a little in the dark before he found the other access card. This door had a double lock, with two ten-digit codes. It was basically an archive, although it held a few pieces of advanced electronic equipment as well. Thomas had no interest in the gadgets; it was information he was seeking.

There, he quickly spotted the server he’d known would be here. It was just an ordinary computer, but it was the only way he’d be able to access Alphanet, Havelar’s private network. The server had a sophisticated firewall protecting Alphanet from the other networks on Aurora. Even the network run by the powerful servers on board the Exodus, covering most of the northern hemisphere, was completely separated from Alphanet. Only a small number of devices were connected to Alphanet, and every single one of them was tightly guarded. This was the weak spot, though it had taken some planning to make sure it would be accessible. He would never have been able to breach it if not for his privileges from working so closely with Havelar himself. And Pete, of course. Now, by hardwiring his tablet to the server, he’d be able to bypass the firewall, and using a slightly modified stealth program, he’d gain access to the information he sought.

He searched for a few minutes, his heartbeat almost too loud to concentrate. He felt a trickle of sweat down his back, as he impatiently went through file after file. Each file name seemed to be random letters and numbers, no logical organization to go through. Damn, it was taking too long. Someone might come by and discover Pete outside. A muffled sound made him start. He heard it once more, and recognized it was just the main drive of another server working. His presence had probably already increased the temperature of the room, making some of the older machines react by speeding up their fans.

There. He recognized the file just as he opened it. The numbers were obvious; coordinates, dates, times. He thought of the containers smuggled along on the Exodus. Who knew what they held, but he’d always suspected it would be bad. Now he finally had a way to find out. He quickly copied the file. Then he deleted a temporary file that had been created the instant he breached the firewall. He erased a part of the drive as well, ensuring there would be no way to recover the file. When he disconnected, there would be no way to trace the breach, no record of time, nothing to lead to suspicion.

He carefully locked the doors as he exited the building, and made sure everything was just as when he’d come. Then he patted Pete on the head and whispered softly.

“I won’t tell if you don’t. Promise.” Then he walked away.

GEORGE HAVELAR

George Havelar was pacing back and forth, red-faced and fuming, while his closest aides waited. They knew better than to interfere when he had his moods. Actually, he should have been celebrating by now. Less than a week ago, Admiral Greg Hamilton had formally transferred command of Aurora into his hands, as decreed by the late President Andrews, rest his soul. George Havelar was now Governor of Aurora, and likely the most powerful man alive. Of the sixteen hundred colonists, he was the one who should be calling the shots, laying out his plans for building a sustainable society that would not only survive the hardships of the coming months and years, but thrive to become as powerful, or even more so than the world they had left behind.

Yet here he was, less than a week in the chair, and already people were complaining and grumbling, as if they knew better. As if they had better solutions to the challenges of building a new world. Initially, it was just quiet murmurs whispered in dark corners questioning his legitimacy. He’d known they would be coming sooner or later. After all, he’d been appointed, not elected. Not that it should make much of a difference. The way he saw it, these were extraordinary circumstances, warranting extraordinary measures to keep things together. And besides, he’d been appointed by an elected president, as democratically as any other government-appointed leader. No, he didn’t let the quiet murmurs ruin his mood. But the defection of several would-be members of his senior staff was an entirely different matter.