Citadel: First Colony (38 page)

The files were there for anyone to see, as long as they had the technical acumen it took to decrypt them.

Alan had that.

He had been looking for answers. He had been searching for any scrap of information that might fill the void he felt at the loss of his parents. And, as he had dug through the deleted sectors of his mother’s hard drive, he found ... not answers. Something else. A new hope.

She had discovered something frightening. The cancellation wave used to shut down the mind of someone in stasis could be
altered
, and thus the mind
itself
could be altered. Through his digging, Alan discovered that his parents had taken this discovery to Uncle John and had been told to bury it.

Smart. This kind of technology, in the hands of the world government, was too much power. It could be used for awful, evil things. It could be used to enslave the population. Burying it deep was the only way to ensure it wouldn’t be used against humanity.

But for Alan, it had another use.

It took a while, but he managed to get his hands on the core program used to generate the cancellation wave, tediously uncovering it and reconstructing it from the research notes and scrapped bits of programming he found on his mother’s laptop and in the databases of their lab. He then spent weeks meticulously hacking into the Colony Fleet’s database and downloading the brain scans for each of the colonists. These he was able to compress into a single file. A large file, to be sure, but not so large as to be noticed once it was placed into the memory buffer of a modified stasis pod.

He had his plan, he had the tools, and eventually he had his uncle. A bit of modification to Uncle John’s cancellation wave, and Alan was able to erase his knowledge of the implant technology. It was a precaution ... Alan couldn’t risk anyone guessing what he might be up to.

And now, in a distant future where he stood with his back against one of the walls of the cargo bay, Alan was wondered about his success as the guards watched him warily. Each had his gun drawn and ready to fire. The slightest provocation would result in Alan being shredded to pieces by molecular disruption discs.

Maybe he should let them. He had, after all, killed quite a few people. He hadn’t meant to. Not really. First Commander Marcos had been an accident, a case of bad timing. The others ... well, they were the casualties of the plan. But far fewer had died here than had died on First Colony. And in fact, Alan was bringing back those lives. True, it was at the expense of the wealthy colonists.

And at the expense of Penny.

Alan felt the pang again. He tried to force it down, but it kept nagging him. Penny ... she was innocent. She wasn’t like Taggart or the others. She had been ... pure. And now she was gone. Alan hadn’t expected that he would feel this way, but if his parents were alive again, somewhere among these colonists, then he would have to find a way to cope. Eventually, the regret would fade. He had to believe that. He might spend the rest of his life in a cell, but it would be worth it to know that his mother and father were walking on the surface of the world they had risked ... and lost ... everything for.

Mitch and Thomas came into the cargo bay. Thomas looked grim, and Alan felt another pang of regret. Didn’t he realize that this was, at least in part, for him? This was as much about redeeming Uncle John as it was about bringing Alan’s parents back.

“Alan,” Thomas said.

“Uncle John.”

Thomas winced. “Don’t call me that. My name is Thomas. Now, anyway.”

Alan saw the guards glance at each other. It would be a while before the people here would accept Thomas and forgive him for the crime they believed he had committed.”

“Alan, I need to know what you did. I need to know exactly how you did it.”

Alan shook his head. “It can’t be reversed. It would kill them.”

Mitch stepped forward. “The colonists? The people you ... infected?”

“First Colony,” Alan said. “They’d die.”

“They’re already dead,” Thomas said gently.

“No! They’re not Uncle ... Thomas. They’re
alive
. As alive as you and me, in the bodies of the colonists.”

Thomas shook his head. “It’s an illusion, Alan. These people aren’t the First Colony crew. They just think they are.”

“What’s the difference?” Alan asked. “I think, therefore I am. They believe they are someone else. That’s all it takes.”

“You son of a bitch!” Mitch shouted and grabbed Alan by the front of his jumpsuit, lifting him slightly and smashing him hard into the metal wall.

“Mitch!” Thomas shouted, pulling at the man’s arm. “We need him! If you kill him, we lose the only link we have to restoring these people!”

Mitch tensed, then relaxed, and lowered Alan back to the floor.

Alan was seeing spots and stars. His head hurt where it had smashed into the bulkhead. And somehow, this pleased Alan. It made him feel better. He deserved it, he thought.

“How do we reverse it?” Thomas asked.

Alan shook his head, more to clear his vision than to say “no.”

“I’m sorry, Thomas. I can’t tell you that. I don’t even know if it’s possible. I wouldn’t tell you if it was.”

Thomas looked at the boy, and for the first time, Alan felt ashamed. He saw the look of disappointment on his uncle’s face and wanted so badly to make things right. For such a long time, Thomas had been Alan’s only link to his parents. He still thought of him that way.

Out of the corner of Alan’s eye, he saw movement toward the front of the cargo bay. An EVA suit had been hanging in one of the alcoves, and suddenly it moved. Alan turned to look at it, and the figure raised an MD gun, pointing it straight at the boy.

Alan sprang forward, knocking Mitch and Thomas out of the way. The guards shouted and raised their guns, but it was too late.

Billy Sans was on top of Alan before anyone could stop him.

He held the barrel of the gun against Alan’s throat.

“You killed First Commander Marcos!” he shouted. “And a whole lot of people who were my friends! You’re a
murderer
!”

“Billy!” Mitch shouted. “Let him go! We’re taking him back for trial now, and we need him alive!”

“Alive?” Billy asked. He shoved the barrel deeper into Alan’s throat, putting pressure on his larynx. “He deserves to
die
!”

It was Thomas who stepped forward, hands slightly raised. “Maybe,” he said. “But that’s not up to us to decide. He needs to be tried. He needs to face justice.”

Billy turned his head slightly, “Like you? Didn’t you go to trial? Didn’t you face justice? And what happened? They convicted you! And you ... you didn’t even do it!”

“No,” Thomas said. “I didn’t do it. The system ... well, sometimes it doesn’t work. But it will work this time, Billy. Because this time it will be a jury of your friends. Alan will have to stand trial in front of the people of the colony. You trust them, don’t you? And the judge ... you know who the judge will be. The rules of the colony have already dictated it.”

“Captain Somar,” Billy whispered.

“That’s right. You trust Captain Somar, don’t you?” Mitch asked.

Billy’s grip loosened a bit and Alan could breathe again.

“Yes,” he said. Then in a flash, the fury returned to his face, and he raised the gun, intending to use it to bludgeon Alan.

Thomas and Mitch rushed forward, tackling the boy, and the gun fired. A searing MD disc clipped through the control panel for the cargo bay door as if it were something insubstantial. The door activated and began to creak open.

Pressurized air gushed outward, and everyone was knocked off of their feet as the shuttlecraft rumbled and shook. The rushing air pulled at them, and one of the guards was flung out into the open air. Billy and Alan were dragged to the very lip of the door, while the remaining guards, Mitch, and Thomas managed handholds.

The two boys flipped over the edge.

“No!” Thomas shouted.

As the pressure balanced out, Reilly’s voice came over the comms. “What the hell happened back there? We’re bouncing all over the place!”

“Keep it steady, Reilly!” Mitch shouted. “The cargo bay door is open. How’s the pressure?”

“Stabilizing. I’ve taken us down a bit, and we’re leveling off in the lower atmosphere.”

Thomas rushed to the edge of the cargo bay door and peered over. Below, he saw Alan’s face peering up. His restraints were caught on a jutting piece of metal.

“Thomas!” Alan shouted. “Billy is below me. He’s holding on to the landing strut. You have to save him!”

Mitch and the guards reached the edge.

“What do we do?” Thomas asked.

Mitch was shaking his head. “I can have Reilly try to bring us down, but we’re pretty high up. It will be a while.” He shouted to Alan, “Can Billy hold on until we get to the ground?”

“I don’t think so!” Alan said. “He’s hurt! I’m trying to press against him with my foot, to try to hold him in place, but I don’t have any leverage!”

Thomas peered around for something that might help. He spotted a roll of cargo netting and rushed to grab it. Mitch helped him tie it off and lower it over the side, but it came up just short of Alan’s hands.

“No good!” Alan shouted.

Mitch looked at Thomas, “Someone needs to go down. You stay here, and I’ll make the climb.”

“I’ll do it,” came a female voice from behind them.

It was Penny. Or, at least, the girl who was once Penny.

“Ma’am,” Thomas said, unsure of who he might be talking to, “you need to go back up front where it’s safe. We’ll ... we’ll take care of this.” He glanced at Mitch, and it was clear that neither of them was sure if their plan would work.

“I’m a climber,” Penny said in a voice that sounded somewhat distant. “I’m trained. I can get to them and bring them up.”

Thomas peered at her. “Penny?” he asked.

Penny looked at him, uncomprehending for a moment, then nodded. “Yes. I think so. I’m ... I’m not sure.”

“We can’t let you go out there,” Mitch said.

“I’m the only one trained to do it,” Penny said quietly. “I can do it.”

Thomas and Mitch exchanged glances. “ok,” Mitch said. “You’ll need a ...”

Before he could finish, Penny held up a climbing harness. She shimmied into it, buckled it, and walked to the edge of the door. She clipped the trailing safety cord to a handhold and quickly started climbing down.

Below, Alan was trying his best to hold on to something and get the leverage he needed to save Billy Sans. Billy was barely hanging on, really just balanced on the strut. His head was bleeding, and he seemed to be struggling to remain conscious.

“Don’t move, Billy!” Alan said. “Just lay still. Someone is coming to help. They ...”

He looked up to see Penny climbing down the cargo netting.

“Penny?” he asked.

The girl didn’t stop. She reached the point where Alan was hanging on and grabbed his wrist. With an expert move she tugged, freeing him, then slung him out and upward so that he connected with the net. He grabbed with both hands, which were still bound together, and scrambled to get his feet into it.

“Penny,” he said.

She looked at him dully. He wasn’t sure how, but he knew that she was still in there, but fading. He hadn’t ... she wasn’t entirely gone after all.

Penny looked down. “I have to climb,” she said. Her voice was flat, with no emotion. And Alan watched as she mechanically scaled down to the landing strut.

He couldn’t let her do it alone.

Glancing around, he saw the rough edge of the opening for the cargo bay door. He began frantically rubbing the restraints against it. Finally, the strands began to fray, and the restraints broke free. Alan let them fall and gripped the cargo net with both hands. He reached out to the supports that Penny had used in her descent and climbed down to follow her.

“Alan!” Thomas cried from above. “Come up!”

“I have to help!” he shouted back. And with that he dropped out of sight.

Penny was cautiously moving toward Billy, who lay motionless on the strut. Alan put a foot down, gripped the strut with one hand, and then managed to get both feet under him. He edged along just behind Penny, until he caught up with her.

“What do we do?” he asked.

Penny looked at him, and her expression changed.

“Wha—“ She looked around, then screamed. “Where am I? How did I get here?”

She clutched the strut, hugging it. There was a brief shudder as the shuttle hit turbulence, and Billy began to slide.

Alan moved past Penny and fell to his stomach, reaching out just in time to grab Billy’s hand as the young man slid off of the strut and dangled in mid-air.

“Penny, help me!” Alan shouted.

The girl, no longer Penny, screamed again. “I don’t want to die!”

“Penny, please! I need your help!”

The girl buried her face against the vertical strut, and Alan was on his own.

He pulled with all of his strength, but he couldn’t get Billy up. The effort was immense, and Alan felt trickles of sweat roll down his arm and drip from his face. His hands were becoming slippery. Billy’s fingers began to pull free.

“No!” Alan said.

Billy looked up at him, wide-eyed, then said, “Captain Somar ... tell him ...”

Before he could finish, Alan’s grip slipped, and Billy tumbled out into the open air, falling away so fast that Alan soon lost track of him.

The girl screamed and toppled backwards.

Alan’s heart was thudding as he reached for her and missed. “No!” he shouted. And then, he lifted himself up, amazed. Penny was dangling by a safety line.

Her situation was still dangerous, but Alan was able to reach out and snag the line and hoist her up. Soon he had her on the strut. Safe.

From above, he heard Mitch’s voice. “Alan!” he shouted. “Is everyone ok?”

Mitch had obviously climbed down and was hanging from the cargo netting, out of sight above them. “Penny and I are fine. Billy ... he’s gone.”

There was silence. “Hang tight. We’re going to bring the shuttle down. Get a solid handhold.”

Alan only nodded in response, too tired and too filled with regret to say anything. He hugged Penny between himself and the landing strut’s vertical support and waited for the ground to come.