Indentured (6 page)

The first thing he noticed upon entering the room was the unsettling way his fellow Indentures were adapting to their new lives. Two Indentures were currently hovering over some hi-tech billiard table with holographic balls, laughing and joking as if they were hanging out at a local club.

Declan quickly maneuvered around Echo as he lined up his cue, then watched curiously as Echo’s real life stick actually tapped the ghostly cue ball. The ball rolled leisurely toward the corner pocket, lightly skimming the six-ball as he probably intended, sinking it into the side pocket. The cue ball stopped a breath away from dropping itself into the corner, bringing a sigh of relief from Echo.

“
You’re lucky, man,” Romeo said, stepping back so Echo could line up his next shot, “You want to play after this, Foxtrot?”

It took Declan a moment to realize Romeo had been talking to him. He shook his head quickly, then turned to check out the rest of the room. There were unrecognizable pieces of equipment throughout the room, some of which he assumed were used for exercise. In the corner of the room, he saw the back of a few heads gathered around something of apparent interest, so he headed over there to see what it was.

He discovered Kilo and Papa sitting on a sofa playing a large screen game system not much different from the various Xbox and Playstation systems of his own time. The game itself involved racing a vehicle through a three-dimensional world, but neither Indenture seemed to have the hang of the controls. Declan joined Oscar who was leaning against the back of the couch watching.

“
Who’s winning?” Declan asked.

“
I don’t think anyone knows,” Oscar replied, “I thought Papa was ahead, but now it looks like they are in completely different worlds, so I’m confused.”

“
You’d think we would have sword fighting games so we could prepare for these alien swordsmen,” Declan said with a chuckle.

“
Oh, that was just one day. Tomorrow we’re learning the crossbow in the morning followed by ‘Fishing 101’ in the afternoon,” Kilo added, never taking his face from the screen, “I heard Ensign talking to Mike about it.”

“
What kind of crazy planet are we going to?” Papa asked, inadvertently leaning as he steered his vehicle through the maze, “And how do they know what kind of lures will catch these alien fishies?”

“
And would we even
want
to catch these alien fishies?” Kilo added, twisting the controller in his hand as he tried to steer around Papa, “I mean, these could be ‘Loch Ness Piranhas From Space’. Who knows what they could do to us.”

“
Which is why we’re learning the crossbow on the same day. If you reel in a ‘Loch Ness Piranha From Space’, you just grab your crossbow and shoot it,” Papa said, “Then you cut off its head with your long sword for good measure.”

Declan and Oscar just looked to each other and shook their heads. The story of the alien piranhas continued on between the two on the couch while Declan headed toward the presumed exercise equipment. He examined an odd looking device with multiple handles and foot pedals.

“
We all lose hope sometime. It could be the hope that we somehow get a date that pretty cheerleader in high school or maybe it’s the hope that we can overcome the rampant cancer that’s destroying our body,” Oscar said, settling onto the machine in front of Declan, “Some people keep a hold of that hope for a long time, but there comes a time when even the strongest of us lose hope. It’s what you do when you get to that point that actually defines you.”

Declan watched Oscar as he leaned into a seat, then pulled down on two of the handles, effectively demonstrating how the device worked.

“
Did you lose hope?” Declan asked.

“
No, nor do I plan to,” he said, releasing the handles and leaning toward Declan, “And I don’t think you plan to either. I may not be able to go back to my life, but I have no intention on living the life they have planned for me.”

“
Me neither,” Declan whispered, glancing over at Romeo and Echo spinning their cue sticks around like weapons, “They’ve lost hope already. It seems like they almost accept our new situation as a good thing.”

Oscar watched the two Indentures dodging each other’s blows before finally returning to their game of pool.

“
Yeah, but we don’t know what kind of life they had before this. Maybe this is better compared to what they had in our world,” Oscar said, “Or maybe they truly believe there’s nothing they can do to.”

“
What do you think is really going on? Do you think we’re really going to colonize a planet?” Declan asked.

He continued to watch Echo and Romeo for a minute before turning to Declan. He simply shook his head.

6

He had to lie in his bed for nearly an hour, waiting until his roommates fell asleep. Delta was asleep probably five minutes after he went to bed, but Charlie shifted around for more than a half hour, muttering complaints persistently that his body was the wrong size.

Declan waited an additional ten minutes after Charlie settled down before heading toward the bathroom. He closed the door behind him, then turned on the light. The bathrooms of the future were very similar to the bathrooms of the 21
^st
century. The toilet didn’t change much at all other than the conservation of water. He’d be surprised if it used more than a ½ liter of water per flush.

He turned his attention to the sink. The cabinet below held spare towels, washcloths, and toilet paper. He had checked this earlier, but didn’t risk pulling everything out for fear that he might raise undue suspicion if stumbled upon.

Now, he had nothing to worry about. He knelt down and pulled all the supplies out of the cabinet and set them on the floor near the shower. He tapped the back panel and indeed, it sounded hollow and loose. He pressed his hands against the panel, feeling for something to grab a hold of. Finally when he slid it about an inch to the left, if fell forward into his hands. He pulled the whole 3-foot panel out from inside the cabinet and peered at the wall beyond.

To his pleasant surprise, there was indeed a large oval hole in the steel wall. Whatever method was used to cut this hole, it definitely wasn’t a typical saw or cutting torch from his time. The edges of the metal and the plastic-like coating on both sides were perfectly smooth.

He tucked his head under the sink and into the hole, peering into a semi-dark room loaded with tubular and rectangular containers. It was becoming more and more evident that the author of the note was telling the truth. He pulled himself through the hole and into the storage room, trying to make as little noise as possible.

He glanced back at the hole, listening for any noise in his own bathroom. Finally he stood up and stepped over the two containers that appeared to have been placed there to hide the hole. He moved cautiously through the storage room, looking for whoever had written the note. He was just about to step over a large crate when a small hand clamped over his mouth from behind. Another hand came around as though to slap him, but stopped 6 inches in front of his face. The flat palm had been scribbled upon with a marker and now seemed to be presented before him waiting for a sign of acknowledgement. It simply read:
“stay silent until we leave this room.”

He wasn’t sure if he should trust the person, but then he noticed something odd about the hand. It was a thin female hand. Whoever had their hand clamped across his mouth must have realized that he could probably overpower them. The hand pointed forward toward a door. He decided to go along with it, pretending she had the advantage over him. Nothing was more disarming than allowing someone to believe they have the upper hand.

Once outside of the room, she removed her hand from his mouth and allowed him to turn around. His eyes widened in recognition, forcing him to take a step back defensively.

“
Ens-”

“
No names,” she interrupted, “Make up a name if you must, but don’t say the name you know me by. I also won’t say yours.”

Declan didn’t know what to make of it all. Ensign Rowe had led him to escape from their “prison,” and brought him straight into the warden’s home. As if his jaunt through the hole wasn’t risky enough, now he was faced with the enemy herself on her own playing field.

“
What’s going on?” he asked, still refusing to let his guard down, “Are they still listening?”

“
I’m still learning as I go, but I think they only listen in on people in the Indentured section. I’m not 100% sure though, so that’s why I want no names. At least not in the halls,” she replied, “I need you to follow me. I have to show you some important stuff.”

He remained planted firmly in the passageway; unable to imagine why she thought he’d be willing to follow her anywhere. Surely she had to know that Declan had only a few faces to put to his new enemies and she was one of them.

“
I’m not so sure I should come with you,” he replied, “Why would I follow you?”

When she turned abruptly, he caught a hint of anger or frustration imbedded in her features. She tried to cover it with a partial smile, but it was a little too forced.

“
Because
you
got me into this mess a long time ago and I need some help figuring it all out,” she whispered, “I’ll explain in a bit, but for now, please… follow me.”

If he was confused before, he was baffled beyond belief now. She started purposefully down the corridor while he remained planted by the storage room. Something in the back of his mind warned that he had a good chance of getting killed if he got busted standing there in the hallway. That same intuition whispered that she could quite possibly have him killed if he refused to go along with her right now. But that same intuition hinted that he might get a chance to overtake her and force some information from her.

By the time he decided to follow her, she already had a twenty-meter head start and was about to head up a flight of stairs. He rushed to the woman who now seemed indifferent to him; being led up two flights of stairs and down a bewildering maze of passageways.

She finally stopped at a silver door and quickly punched a code into the small keypad imbedded onto the door itself. The door emitted an audible click before she opened it and gestured Declan into the room.

He warily slipped past her, keeping his guard up the whole time. He skimmed his antiseptic surroundings, coming to the conclusion that this was probably some sort of a medical facility. The lighting suddenly increased, permitting him a better view of the room.

“
No one can interrupt us now and I’m positive this room is secure,” she said, shuffling past him toward the cabinets on the far wall, “I’ve got something to show you.”

She opened one of the cabinets to reveal a system of clear drawers, each tiny drawer probably no larger than a typical baseball card. Before him were probably more than a hundred drawers.

“
What’s this?” he asked.

Rather than reply, she turned toward another cabinet with a keypad similar to the one she bypassed to enter this room. She punched in a code and opened the door, revealing another drawer system of anywhere from 60 to 80 drawers.

“
The drawers I just unlocked contain the scans of citizens or crew members of the ship,” she said, pulling one of the drawers out and placing it on the counter, “And those drawers beside you contain scans of Indentures – yourself, your friends, and some that haven’t even been used yet.”

He looked down at the drawer she pulled out and immediately noted the name “Rowe” on the front.

“
Yeah, that’s me. Ensign Brianna Rowe. If I were to die, they could take this little chip,” she said, lifting what appeared to be a small black and gold postage stamp from the drawer, “and imprint the information into the undeveloped brain of a clone created from my own DNA. Basically, Ensign Rowe gets to live forever.”

“
I’m completely confused,” he said, shaking his head, “What does any of this have to do with me?”

“
Oh, it has everything to do with you,” she said with a laugh that made Declan all the more uncomfortable, “You see, this little chip isn’t Ensign Rowe. Ensign Rowe is dead – killed at the hands of a couple of Indentures several years ago.”

He looked down at the chip she held between her fingers, then to her again.

“
Whose identity then is in that chip?” he asked.