Colony One (29 page)

“We’ve got company,” she explained. Niko’s console was lighting up with little dots moving towards the bigger dot – the Hyperion. The planet was a quiet one, she supposed, and someone had heard the shot, the screaming or both.

Avery finished the sequence and the ship began to shudder to life. The ramp retracted as the engines fired up and the auto-launch sequence initiated. Avery lowered her gun and fixed the trio with a plain expression, “You better strap in, it’s going to be a long ride.”

ɸ ɸ ɸ

Niko stood in the middle distance between Colony One and the Hyperion, helpless to what he was seeing. He was on his way to get Mak’s toolkit when he and the others he’d brought with him saw the ramp retract and the engines shutter to life.

They could feel the heat from where they stood and though every instinct Niko had was to chase after the craft, he knew it was both dangerous and futile. There was no stopping a ship from taking off.

He watched with a seizing pain in his chest and was washed in the waves of confusion at what he was seeing.

He was dully aware of Charlie as he ran out to join him. The pilot had his OMNI activated and was talking into it with a harsh, commanding voice, “Foster to the Hyperion – discontinue launch sequence. Foster to the Hyperion – what the fuck are you doing?!”

The ship did not waive
r.
In a few fleeting moments, it was gone, fading into the red light of day. Niko was on his knees, and Charlie’s device crashed to the rocky ground, his arms limp at his sides.

They were marooned.

27

Hyperion: 48 Days Later

The trip back to Earth was comparatively short, since the coordinates were already correctly programmed into the Hyperion’s computers and they could travel at full speed for the entire journey.

None of them seemed to be bothered by their abandonment of Colony Alpha, and so there was a detente between Avery and her stowaways shortly after launch. Though the Journey had not been without its challengers; Demetri still carried his gun around for insurance – if not as a threat to Avery but to the ship itself.

Avery was gracious enough to dig the slug out of Patrick’s shoulder and after a lot of rest and a fair amount of saline drips, he appeared to be fine. He was the quietest of the group, and the Captain could see remorse in his thousand-yard stare often. She let him retreat into his silent contrition, but knew very well that the officials at EMP would probably not allow him, or the others to live.

She had used much of the trip rehearsing the story she would tell the EMP officials when they returned. It was a story perfect for the press if they couldn’t return undetected. The four Colonists, unhappy with their decision to start a New World, commandeered Hyperion, along with her Captain and returned to Earth without sanction.

Avery would get paid and a clean record.

The unexpected company seemed to have had actually worked out better than she could have possibly expected, given the circumstances. As they got closer and closer to being home, Avery distanced herself from the others. It was only because it was their big homecoming that she had joined them on the bridge.

“We’re within visual range,” Patrick was saying. His arm was still in a sling, but could still monitor the pilot’s console with one hand easily.

“Did you recode the transponder like I told you to?” Avery asked.

“Hours ago,” Patrick confirmed.

“This will be a sight for sore eyes,” Ndale grinned widely. “I never thought I’d be so happy to lay eyes on South Africa again.”

“Cut power to all non-essentials, we’re going to drift in from here.” Avery instructed.

“Why?” Patrick wondered.

Avery’s brow furrowed at his question, “Because I said so.” Patrick fixed her with a brief look of defiance, but complied after the symbolic display.

Earth grew larger and larger from their view on the bridge. They were approaching from the outside of Earth’s ellipse around the sun, and immediately Avery recognized something was wrong.

The others did as well.

“Where are the lights?” Ndale wanted to know. He’d seen enough images of Earth from space to know that it emitted an ever-present glow from the densely populated land masses.

“It’s so… dark,” Lucy commented.

“Patrick, start making small adjustments now. Let’s try to take a look from the light side,” Avery instructed.

Patrick nodded, his mouth slightly agape at the view and a growing sense of unease bubbled up in his stomach. “There’s a lot of debris,” he reported.

Avery paced over to the Navigation consol and tapped the display. She adjusted the measurements and scrolled through the readouts.

“Space junk.” Demetri commented.

“It’s big debris,” Avery confirmed. “Some are drifting, others are directional.”

“What does that mean?” Lucy asked.

“Ships, maybe. Satellites, space stations… more than we had when we left.” Patrick answered.

“Ships,” Avery confirmed in a breathless voice. “A lot of them.” There was more than a hint of disbelief in her tone.

“Maybe they finally ran out of space on Earth,” Demetri pondered. “Space condos.” He guessed.

“I’ve adjusted our trajectory. We’ll be able to see the daylight side in minutes.”

Avery just nodded, alternating views between the console readouts and the view from the bridge. She watched as the Hyperion drifted noiselessly towards Earth at such a pace that it gave the illusion of being able to see Earth spin. She strained her eyes to make out what could be seen from space with the aid of daylight. It was difficult to make sense of at first, but her eyes darted across the curved view and it finally clicked.

Her hand went to her lips and she sank into the console seat. For a long time, all she could hear was the pounding of her own heart in her ears.

Mushroom clouds were billowing up from Earth’s surface. Not one – not even two. Dozens of them. The clouds blotted out any view of land, and it was immediately clear – to all of them all at once – Earth was gone. Made uninhabitable not by the gross pollution and smog, but by the dense destruction of nuclear explosions and radioactive dust blown into the atmosphere.

Her eyes changed focus to the floating debris – to the ships that were able to evacuate Earth in time. What had these people done? What war warranted the destruction of the only home – albeit broken and flawed – they had?

Sure – she had had her hand in destruction on Earth’s surface – wide scale, even. She’d been hired to do jobs others refused on moral grounds. And she had done them
well
, but nothing could compare to what she laid eyes on now. She could not possibly imagine being responsible for such widespread destruction.

Lucy began to cry quietly into her hands, unable to take her eyes away from the vision. Demetri held her tightly, though with shaking hands and knees. Ndale sank to the floor, unable to support his own weight. Silent tears streamed down Patrick’s face.

Their home. Their one home. It was a memory.

And in that moment of horror and emptiness, there was the realization that for all their effort, all their moral and ethical sacrifice, for all their scheming, greed and cleverness, they were no better off than the population of Colony Alpha.

End Part One Transmission…