Colonization (22 page)

A voice spoke on the intercom. “Prepare for takeoff.”

Footsteps sounded past me, but I didn’t open my eyes. I was sick of drama and couldn’t deal with Nova anymore. A familiar voice whispered in my ear.

“I heard what you told Sirius in the Landrover.”

My eyes flung open. “Corvus!”

He must have climbed on at the last minute. He sat next to me and clicked on his seat restraints.

I decided to confess everything. “I’m sorry. I should have told you. That day I bumped into you in the hall, I was running to my grandpapa to put in a request. I was running from you—”

He put up a hand to silence me. My heart clutched inside my chest and I thought I’d spew it out right into his lap.

“I know how you felt about Sirius when you heard about the match. It doesn’t matter.” His hand grazed my cheek. “What matters is how you feel now.” His lips tickled my earlobe. “How do you feel now?”

I turned my head to face him and swallowed. “I want you.”

He bent down and whispered against my lips. “I want you, too.”

***

I roamed among buildings, knowing with a pang in my heart that what I saw could never be again. The towers spiraled up to the sky in pin-pricks carved from ivory. Aliens flew from window to window like angels with gossamer wings. They had a garden with onion-shaped bulbs swelling over crystal shards. Some carried eggs as large as a child’s sleep pod across the ridges between the balconies, setting them up to sparkle in the purple sunlight.

Was I in a past time? Their time?

The sky cracked above me. Swirling storm clouds rolled over the ridge like planetary guardians, spitting forth their spite in rain. No, it can’t be. My insides clutched. I reached up to the sky to warn the flying aliens, but no one looked down at me.

“Get inside!” I shouted so hard my throat hurt. But it wouldn’t do them any good. They’d constructed their buildings with open walkways. The windows had fluttering ribbons instead of glass. Even if they all rushed inside before the rains came, the microbes could travel on the wind into their houses.

In that moment, I hated Paradise 21. It was more of a hell in disguise; a lure to trap innocent beings from other worlds and poison them once they established their homes. No wonder the planet didn’t have mammals or any form of intelligent life. Here on Paradise 21, plants reigned.

A smaller alien huddled by the foundation of a building. It drew abstract symbols in the black crystal sand with its branch-like fingers, or fingernails—I couldn’t tell where one stopped and the other began. I approached it carefully, knowing both of us didn’t have much time.

The pearly eyes didn’t scare me any longer. They glittered with intelligence and an all-encompassing sense of peace. The being scratched the shape of a pyramid into the crystals and filled it with concentric circles. Its wings glittered like seashells under water in an oily purple-pink hue.

The tragedy of the situation rattled my very core. Maybe I could bring it to a safe place. Maybe I could save at least one. I reached out to touch it, my fingers shaky and cold, wondering if the wing would be soft or hard.

Before my fingers reached it, a bird call trilled beyond the buildings. The storm had arrived. The aliens dove and whirled in the sky, scrambling in panic. Fear rushed up my arms and legs, encompassing me. I froze.

The rain came, pouring down from the black clouds in a thick ooze and coating everything it touched. I wiped my head and shoulders, but none of it landed on me. I was an onlooker from another time, another world.

Beside me, I watched as the small alien cuddled up, trying to block the rain with its wings. The ooze filled the grooves in the patterns it had drawn in the soil just as the rain washed the symbols away.

The planet couldn’t wash them away completely. Amongst all the chaos, one alien stood upright while the others fell. He walked from the garden toward me in purposeful strides. I recognized his green-tinged wings from the greenhouse and the cliff by the ridge. Perhaps he had had the same job as mine, pruning the new plants to feed the colony. We were kindred spirits, even though we were different beings from worlds away.

His eyes beckoned, pleading with me, and I knew what I had to say.

“I won’t let it happen again. I promise.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chaos

“Annie, wake up. We’re here.”

Corvus’s kind voice interrupted my dream, and I awoke to the sound of engines as the Corsairs landed on the airstrip. I stood up before they flashed the seat restraint signal and shouted, “Everyone to the ship!”

“Hold on, Annie.” Corvus fidgeted with his seat restraints. “The Corsair has to park first.”

The idea of parking when the storm loomed so close was ridiculous. My eyes scanned the inside, and I wished the windows were large enough to jump out of. I shifted on my feet, feeling claustrophobic. “We don’t have much time.”

“I know.” Corvus put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll be outta here in no time. You’ll see.”

The seconds it took for the hatch to open and for us to exit weighed on my nerves. When we got out, my eyes shot to the sky. Lavender-gray clouds gave an impression of calm above us, but in the distance, the black mass rolled in.

Engineers walked on the airstrip, tying down the Corsairs and covering the wings with tarps.

“Everyone needs to get inside the ship,” I shouted, knowing I looked like a raving lunatic. “Forget the procedures. Run!”

My thoughts flitted to the greenhouse, and I wondered if Mom had received the message. I checked my locator, but then I remembered the crystals had ruined it. Where was she? Hadn’t they told her I was found?

“Come on, Annie.” Corvus pulled my arm. “Let’s go back to the
New Dawn
.”

“No.” I yanked it back. “I don’t think our warning was taken seriously. I have to go to the greenhouses. I have to check on Mom.”

Corvus looked at the oncoming storm and then to the path leading to where Mom and I worked.

“It will take us twenty minutes to get there. What if she’s already on the ship?”

A squirmy feeling in my stomach told me there were a lot of people outside the ship.

I looked into Corvus’s eyes. “I just know.”

“Okay.” He secured his mask. “Let’s go.”

Sirius and Alcor exited their Corsair and I yelled out, “Spread out around the colony. Make sure everyone gets inside.”

Sirius waved. Despite our disagreement in the Landrover, he’d follow my directions. Medics surrounded me, blocking my way. I tried to push past a man and he grabbed my arm.

“I have orders to take you to the emergency bay right away.”

Before I could react, Corvus shoved him in the stomach and grabbed my hand. I stared at him in shock.

“Come on, Annie, run!”

We bolted through the jungle. Not only was it hard for them to track us, it was also the straightest path to the greenhouses. Thunder cracked open above our heads and fear welled up inside me, making me sweaty and feverish. If I wasn’t fast enough, history would repeat itself, and we’d end up like the aliens. That thought made my heart break all over again.

When we emerged from the jungle, two women stood on the perimeter, chatting as though nothing was wrong. They stared at me and Corvus as we ran up to them.

“Get inside the ship. There’s a storm coming that will make everyone sick.”

At first, both women eyed us suspiciously.

“I mean it.” My voice turned to steel. “I know what made Ray sick, and it’s on its way.”

Their expressions turned from denial to questioning. The older one pointed a finger. “Wait. Aren’t you the kids that disappeared a few nights ago?”

“You don’t know?” I emphasized my words. The whole colony should have been informed of our rescue. We had found the missing Corsair, the expedition team, and sent out a warning.

Shivery fear crossed my shoulders. Unless Lieutenant Crophaven didn’t get the message, or he wanted to keep it a secret. Unless he didn’t believe us.

“You have to listen to me.” I grabbed the older woman’s hand. “The storm is coming, and anyone outside the ship will be infected.”

She ripped her hand back and nodded to her partner. “Buzz Lieutenant Crophaven. Let’s see what he thinks of this. Meanwhile, you two stay right here.”

Like I was really going to listen to her? I gave Corvus a nod, and we both ran in the direction of the greenhouses. I glanced over my shoulder to see if the ladies were chasing us, but they stood where we left them, probably reporting us on their locators.

Corvus pulled me aside just as we reached the path to the first greenhouse.

“Wait, I have an idea.”

I couldn’t see how anything was more important than finding Mom.

Corvus approached a box for the intercom system, and then it dawned on me; here was a way to alert everyone in the colony. If only we had access.

He dug in his pocket and pulled out his key tag. Thank goodness he’d taken it with him out of the Landrover. “Being head of security has its advantages.”

I wanted to wrap my arms around him, but there was no time.

Corvus stuck the card in and typed in his access code. He pulled a small microphone from the inside and unwound the wire, handing it to me.

“Go on, Annie. It’s all yours.

I froze like when I’d had to give a report in front of the class and everyone was watching and waiting for me to screw it up.

He put a hand on my arm and squeezed. “You can do it. Go on, tell them.”

I took a deep breath and pushed my voice out, hoping it wouldn’t sound too shaky. “Attention all colonists.”

The sound boomed over us. I cringed back, but Corvus nodded and wiggled his finger for me to keep going.

“A poisonous storm is coming. It will bring the same microbes that made Ray Simmons and Amber Woods sick. Everyone must evacuate to the ship. Immediately.”

My gaze went up to Corvus, and he nodded. He took the microphone.

“Code five-six-TRG-seven-eight-three. This is not a drill.” He clicked the microphone back into the intercom box. “Good job, Annie.” Corvus ran his hand up and down my arm. “They have no choice. It’s the law: once an evacuation is called, everyone must go with it, even if it’s a false alarm. Now let’s go get your mom.”

As we ran toward the greenhouses, colonists headed toward the ship. First only a few popped out of their work stations, then more and more funneled onto the path in an endless tide. Some of them carried important belongings and others ran with nothing in their hands. My announcement had worked.

A young man bumped into me and knocked me to the ground. I fell on my hands and knees, my right arm stinging. As Corvus helped me up, Mom stood with her back propped up against the greenhouse, balancing several containers.

My emotions came crashing down. I was so sorry for leaving. I wanted to hide in her arms and feel her forgive me. “Mom!”

“Andromeda!” She almost dropped the containers, but she had too much good sense for drama. She wasn’t like other moms. Usually I hated her for it, but today I loved her even more.

“Ms. Barliss.” Corvus took some of the containers in his arms.

“Annie, where have you been? What’s all this? Was that your voice I heard on the intercom?”

“It was.” After scaling the ridge, running among the pod plants, and coming back alive, I looked into my mom’s eyes and stood up for myself. “I found a whole crop of those poisonous flowers over the ridge. Every one is filled to bursting with microbes. There’s a storm coming that could blow them into our colony.”

“Ma’am, are these really necessary?” Corvus pried more of them out of her arms and placed them on the ground. “We have to get to the ship.”

“Of course they are.” Mom glared accusingly. She picked them back up and hugged onto them like they were her children instead of me.

“Mom, you haven’t been listening to a word I’ve said.”

“Oh, yes, I have, Annie.”

I paused because she never called me that. The nickname was a term of endearment, only used with friends or equals. Had she lost her mind?

“I’ve listened to every word of it. In these containers I have the antidote, the vaccine. We’re going to need it if everything you say is true.”

“Mom.” I was almost speechless. “You did it?”

“I did.” She winked at me. “With your help, of course. I was so worried about you. I’m glad you’re back. I never want to lose you again.”

Corvus was the only one of us with his brain not turning to mush. “This is nice and all, but we’ve got to go.”

We distributed the containers among the three of us, me taking one, Mom taking two, and Corvus taking three. I was so worried about him, but it was the only way to get Mom to leave and not come back for more. Our burden slowed us down so much the other colonists ran ahead.

“Will they close the hatch without us?” My arms burned and I thought I’d drop my container and, with my luck, trip over it.

“They better not,” Mom growled as she balanced hers and jogged.

We ran up the ramp just as a security guard rounded up the last stragglers.

“Is there anyone left out there?” I asked.

He scanned our locator numbers and read the screen. “No, ma’am. You folks are the last ones.”

I wanted to ask him about Dad, but he pushed us ahead and punched in the door code to close the hatch. We were herded into the main auditorium. I ran to our pew in the congregation. Dad stood there, his eyes scanning the crowd for us.

“Oh, Andromeda!” He ran to me and flung his arms around me. “I feared we’d lost you.”

“I’m right here, Dad.”

“Where did you go? You’ve been gone for days. Are you okay?”

I couldn’t answer. My eyes traveled up to the podium where Lieutenant Crophaven stood in my grandpapa’s place.

“Everyone settle down. There’s no reason for panic.” I could barely hear him over the crowd. The congregation had never been this rowdy before. People sobbed and shouted. He had to wave his arms to get people’s attention, and he seemed more annoyed than ever. “Everyone, settle down!”