Beyond the galaxy, p.7
Beyond the Galaxy, page 7
“You mean she didn’t want to give up any of her Normals. The Krad wouldn’t have wanted us Obscures,” I say bitterly. The Krad are the same species as the Teku, they just have different codes and ethics. They’re basically slave ships. They don’t keep them; they kill the Obscure because they’re useless to them.
I shiver.
“No, they wouldn’t. She didn’t want to give up any of us or put any of us in danger, so she altered course.”
My mouth hangs open. “We’re not heading for Earth?”
Mika shakes his head.
I wave my hand at the giant view screens. “Then what is all this? We weren’t injured by the Krad, so what’s changed?”
“We’re not going to make it to Earth now. Coral can’t.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “So, we don’t get a few more humans.”
He sighs. “The Normals above are too weak to keep powering Coral. We needed that stop at Earth.”
Too weak? “So, what are we going to do?” I feel like I’m missing something important. My brain is in a loop and I can’t figure it out.
“We stopped the genetics project for a while so we could build all this. We scoured the path between where we were and Earth. We ran diagnostics on Coral that we haven’t done in decades.”
“Diagnostics?” my voice squeaks out.
“We’re not going to make it back to Earth, Kimber. Ever. Coral is too old and too large with her centuries of new growth. The detour she was forced to take used up what reserves she had left after giving her donation to her elders on Arkadia.”
“And when she runs out of energy?” I sit heavily on one of the shiny chairs bolted in rows across the room. The trip to Arkadia was generations before I was born, but we mark time by our trips between Earth and Arkadia. I squeeze my hands into the armrest. It’s surprisingly padded. I look down at one hand in the white gel. It’s made of the same stuff as Coral’s new growth.
I look up at Mika. “She gave her new growth to build all this? When she was already low on energy?”
He takes off his glasses and wipes away a tear. I can’t even remember when I ever saw Mika cry. He sits next to me. “We’ve found a suitable planet for us to live on, we researched everything we would need to survive there.”
I turn in the chair to look at Mika. “That’s great, right?” I search his distressed face. “You’re our leader down here. Why, after all you’ve told me, is there no hope left in you?”
Mika waves a hand and two of the screens change. They show trees, flowers, a lush valley. “Because Coral doesn’t think we can make it on our own without her. Especially not the Normals. But she doesn’t even think we could survive. We’ve gotten used to the small amount of food freely given to us. Our tools and knowledge have been handed down from generation to generation. Even we’re dependent on her.”
I grab his arm. “What does all that mean, Mika? I don’t understand.”
He’s crying now and can’t answer.
“Coral’s dying?” I ask in a whisper. My heart races and instead of wanting to run, my body just wants to sink back into the comfortable seat and stay there.
He nods.
Hot tears pool in the corners of my eyes. I dig my fingers into the soft chair even farther.
“Are we heading toward that planet? Or Earth?”
He points to the planet.
“That’s good, then. Right? It doesn’t matter what she thinks, we can survive down there. We’ve survived under the barest of conditions for centuries.” I look between him and the beautiful planet.
He shakes his head. “Even after all our research and preparation for a planet landing,” he waves his hand over the large room full of seats, “she still doesn’t think we can survive. And she didn’t tell us when she allowed us all this new material that it used up even more of her energy. Too much.”
A cold chill goes up my spine. “What do you mean by ‘too much’?”
Mika turns away from me. “Even if we were able to convince her that we could survive on the planet — we really did try to persuade her because other Teku ships leave their Obscures on empty planets and they survive — she doesn’t have enough energy to slow down.”
I stare at the screens. The phrase “the vastness of space” doesn’t even do it justice. There really is everything and nothing out there. So many stars, but none I can reach out and touch.
A slow, painful twist starts in my belly and works its way upward. I turn toward Mika and force him to look at me. “Wait. What does it mean that she doesn’t have enough energy to slow down?”
Mika waves his hand again and another screen changes. It shows a bright red dot and some lines leading to a smaller dot. “We’ve worked out every trajectory possible. We’ll get to the planet, but she’s going to just crash herself into it.”
My mouth hangs open.
I stare at the screen. The lines. The dots getting closer to one another. “How long do we have?”
“About eight hours.”
“What?” I punch him in the shoulder. I’ve never hit anyone, and it surprises him as much as it does me. “When were you going to tell me? And everyone else on the ship?”
“There’s no use scaring everyone, now. Our emergency plan won’t work if she just crashes.”
Anger rises up in me, and I feel like I might puke. “So, you’re just giving up? Accept that we’re all going to die?”
He shrugs, staring at the pictures of the vegetation on the planet that seems so close now. “There’s no other choice, Kimber. We’ve been working on it for months.”
“You guys are geneticists, not mechanics, astrophysicists, or a Teku. You don’t know everything there is to know about Coral,” I yell as I stand and start backing out of the room. “All you know is what’s in the databases. There’s got to be another way.”
“Kimber, wait. I know you’re close to Coral, but we’ve seriously tried pleading with her. Even though she’s gone through extreme lengths to protect those of us who are Obscure, and then protected us all from the Krad, she still only has so much power left. The Normals up above aren’t enough for her growing body.”
I look up and there in the top corner are numbers counting down. I point to them. “That’s how much time we have left?”
He nods. “Yes, that’s what we’ve calculated as the actual crash time.”
As I keep backing away from Mika, he looks so small, so pale, and so crushed. “I’ll find a way, Mika. You’ve always taught me never to give up. Don’t give up now. You just make sure you get everyone down here when the time comes.” I turn and run out of the room without waiting for a reaction.
The corridors are packed with shift workers. I look down at my wrist, and sure enough, shining through my skin shows the end of shift time. I missed the whole day. The urgency of why hurries me on, pushing through the workers laden with the tools of whatever trade they’ve been assigned for life, and they’re sweaty with a hard day’s work. I wrinkle my nose.
“Kimber!” I hear Amalia’s voice through the dense crowd.
I tap the implant in my ear. “I’m sorry, Amalia. I’ve got to go do something. I’ll catch up with you later.”
“But you missed the whole day, K. What’s wrong?” Amalia and I have been friends since nursery. I’m known for being late for work but have never missed a whole day. Even that one day when I had a horrible reaction to one of the test meds Mika had given me years ago. I was a miserable mess and my skin looked slimy like a giant squid’s. But I still made it to work.
I sigh. “I hope I can explain later. Just go find Mika. Now. Corridor L.” I tap my implant so I can’t get any more messages.
As the crowd thins, it’s easier to make better time down the corridors. I run as fast as I can toward Coral.
The room is still dark. And cold. I rub my arms as I walk deeper into the heart of the ship.
“Coral? I know you’re still mad at me from this morning.”
The dimness seems to throb slightly.
“But I need you, Coral. I need to talk to you. Mika told me about the Krad and that now you’re…” I can’t bring myself to say it.
I find the wall deep into the recess and put my forehead on the soft surface. It warms slightly at my touch. I smile. “Please, Coral. You’ve protected us all these years. You’ve seen generations of Normals and Obscures. This can’t be the end. I know there has to be another way.”
“I’m very old, Kimber,” comes the whispered voice surrounding me.
I look up. I place my hands on the walls, feeling a faint pulse throughout. “I know, Coral. But you don’t want your life to end like this? Suicide?”
“It is how the Teku do it, my child.”
I bite my lip and close my eyes. “But when they do it, they’re usually empty, unable to sustain any more life forms. You aren’t empty, Coral.”
“I know,” she answers, barely audible.
“You can’t just allow all of us die. I know that’s not what you want,” I say back angrily.
I open my eyes as light surrounds me. In front of me, a door-like shape has opened. My form is reflected back to me endlessly until I’m just a tiny speck in the distance. I step back, but so does the mirror image of me, still projected as I move.
“What is this, Coral?”
“Step through, Kimber.”
As far as I’ve ever known, there is nothing beyond this room. This has always been calculated as the very middle of the ship. It’s surrounded by areas that are easily accessible. We’ve mapped out Coral over the years, carefully calculating her growth.
I put my hands out and where the wall was, there’s nothing. I step into my mirrored projection.
And find another me. I keep going through the projections until finally, I stop. “Coral, just talk to me! I don’t have time for these games.”
“Just a bit farther, Kimber.”
Coral’s voice even sounds weaker. I think back to the ticking clock in the large room and I keep walking, my heart racing with it.
“Why do you think you can survive without me?” Her questions catch me by surprise, and I trip myself.
I catch my balance and keep walking. “Because you’ve taught us to be tough, to ration our food and water, and to make everything by hand.”
“What about the Normals? They can’t do all that.”
Is that guilt in her tone?
“True. But we can teach them.” The air around me heats up.
“They’ve been given everything all these centuries. And those of you who can’t give me life have had much less. Why save them, Kimber?”
I stop. Not only because the heat is getting intense, but because it’s a good question.
Why am I so determined to save them, too? We’d have a better chance of survival without them. Is it because of seeing my bio-mom?
I picture her face, so like mine. The way she played with her hair like I do. I shake my head to clear the image.
“Yes, Coral, they have had everything we haven’t all this time. But we’ve had something they’ve never had. We’ve had freedom.”
“Freedom? You were taken from your mother at birth and sent below all the luxury to live in squalor. How is that freedom?”
I turn in a circle, smiling. “I have freedom because I haven’t been forced to give any of my essence like they have. And living below, we’ve been shielded from the radiation that now affects them.”
“But you’re subjected to tests from your Mika and those like him every morning. How is that different than what the Normals give me?”
“We choose to give to them in order to find a cure. Not everyone is subjected to the tests like I am. I choose to help my fellow humans because I believe in what Mika is doing. The Normals up above aren’t given a choice. You take from them every morning because that’s what your species does. And in return, they’re given life and every kind of luxury they desire. I’d rather have my freedom and choice over my body than their luxuries and loss of self.”
The heat flares and the visuals of me suddenly disappear. I find myself sweating in a small room surrounded by Coral’s soft walls, except these are red, not the pulsing pink of what we thought was her core.
“Where am I, Coral?”
“My heart, Kimber.”
My eyes widen as I see just inside one of the walls is a pulsing miniature Coral. The same shape as her spiky-oval outside.
“Do you have an idea to save the others, Kimber?” The heart pulses. I watch as the pulsing slows slightly.
I look all around me. “Am I trapped here?”
“No, but you’re safe here.”
I narrow my eyes at the heart. “How much time do we have left?”
“Two hours and twenty-three minutes.”
“Can you give me a visual of the outside?” I point to one of the adjacent walls. I didn’t think I had been here talking to Coral for that long. My heart thuds in my chest.
In response, a small screen appears next to me showing just how close we are to the planet.
I gasp. We’re almost inside its atmosphere.
“Coral, look. If you alter your course slightly this way, you can make one more loop around the planet to slow yourself down.”
“Your scientists already calculated that. It won’t work. I’m going too fast.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, tasting the tangy liquid. “Then request another donation from the Normals. Now. You need to slow down, so we all have a chance.”
“But the Normals don’t have the seats that Mika built. And if I take from them, they’ll be even weaker.”
I look down at my shoes. “Tell them, Coral. Get on their ship-wide speaker and let them all know to head to the donation center immediately.”
The room pulses with heat in the silence.
“I don’t understand. I thought you wanted to save them, Kimber.”
I grip my hands into fists. “I do. The donation center is in the lowest level they can go. It’s the safest place for them. Start processing them now, and when you have enough energy to slow down, order them into the quiet spaces to protect themselves.” I picture myself watching from one of those cubbies. They’re padded and small enough that they should help save most of the Normals.
My heart races, and I feel like it’s going to beat right out of my chest as I wait for Coral to make a decision. If she doesn’t agree, I’ll need to think of something else. I look over at her heart, sunken into the red goo.
I shiver in the oppressive heat. I’m just steps away from the heart of an ancient Teku. I could threaten her…
My stomach tightens painfully. Could I do that to save the other life forms aboard?
“All right, I’ll try. Your idea seems sound, Kimber, if not one hundred percent effective. We will lose some in the crash.”
Bile rises from my throat. I’m relieved she’s agreed, but she’s right. Up above, there’s no way to keep all of the humans and other life forms safe with just the cubbies. We will suffer some losses.
I swallow and tap my implant back on. I ignore the flood of messages waiting for me and open the direct channel to Mika.
“Mika?”
“Kimber! Where are you?”
“I’m in her heart, Mika. Her heart is right in front of me. She’s agreed to my plan.”
“Heart? Plan? What’s going on, Kimber?”
“Just start the evacuation to your safe rooms, Mika. Now. Then I’ll explain.”
A slight hesitation, then, “All right.”
I listen as he gives the order for everyone below to head toward Corridor L and strap in. He gives a clipped explanation of what’s happening, then comes back to my channel.
“All right. Now, talk, Kimber.”
I explain to him what Coral and I agreed to. I go sit in front of Coral’s heart and slide down the warm wall and pull my knees up to my chest.
“What about you, Kimber? You don’t have time to make it back here.” Mika’s tone breaks my heart.
“I know. I think I’ll be safe here. I’m right next to her heart, and she’s programmed to protect it at all costs. I love you, Mika.”
“I love you, too, Kimber.” Mika’s crying again.
I swallow. “It’s all right, Mika. I’ll see you down on the planet. Tell me the countdown.” I close my eyes and brace for the impact, wishing I was in his arms right now.
“Twenty seconds, nineteen…”
I listen to Mika’s voice until Coral’s gigantic body skids into the lush valley. As I’m tossed around, I feel the gel walls tighten and harden around me. The noise is deafening, much louder than I had imagined. I tighten my arms around myself and hang on as I wait for Coral’s gigantic body to come to a stop.
A final lurch and then, there is nothing but silence.
I open my eyes and find myself in darkness, except for the small red pulsing heart behind me. I reach through the goo and grasp it to my chest gently. I don’t know if Mika can save this part of Coral, but I can’t leave it behind.
I trace my path out of the heart of the now-dead Teku to find the others, sadness chilling me to the bone. My feet automatically take me toward Mika. As I step over debris in the corridors, I wonder how many others survived the crash, and how we’ll survive our future. I know the new freedom that I just gained for us has come at a great cost. My stomach lurches as I think of my bio-mom up above. But as I stumble toward my new life, crying, carrying the heart of the Teku that was my real mother, I can’t help but smile for our future.
About Heather Lee Dyer
Heather Lee Dyer is the award-winning author of three complete young adult science fiction series and the non-fiction book Creativity Over Perfection: The World Needs Your Book! She was raised in the mountains of Montana on a hippie commune by a single mother who had top-secret clearance on the Apollo 1 program. Fangirl of anything YA, sci-fi/fantasy, romance, and paranormal. Geek girl.
www.heatherleedyer.com
Temple of the Dogs
by Zach Bohannon and J. Thorn
Layne knew the Teku would eventually call his number, but he never imagined he’d be leaving alone.
