Genesis (16 page)

Rosie went hot then cold. She backed away from the door and sat on the bed.

She couldn’t have heard them right. She put her elbows on her knees and rested her head in her hands. The pendant swung out from under her shirt and she watched it dangling. Hundreds will die.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been sitting there when her aunt called out to her. Her heart leaped in her chest. The door opened and her aunt poked her head in.

“There you are. What’re …” she trailed off as she saw the expression on her face. “I’ll just be a minute,” she said over her shoulder. She came into the room and shut the door behind her. “Rosie, what is it?”

Rosie’s voice shook as she said, “Why didn’t you tell me?” For a moment she thought her aunt would deny it, but then a defeated expression came over her face.

“You were listening?”

Rosie nodded and Aunt Essie let out a long breath and sat on the bed beside her. “Rosie–” She got up again and began pacing back and forth before her. “I’m not good at this,” she said. “How much did you hear?”

“Hundreds of people. You said hundreds of people were going to die because of what I did.”

“They
might
die – might,” she said. “There’s a difference.”

“That’s not what you said to Riley. You said
will
die. Is that what Riley told you on the ship? That it’s my fault, that I’ve–”

“No. This is why I didn’t want to tell you. You’re blaming yourself.”

“But it is my fault. I found the box. I let Juli put the code key into the comnet.”

Her aunt sat back down again, rubbing her face with her hands. “Hon, these people – Helios – they started all this, not you.”

“Yeah, but it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t found the box. Now Juli’s dead and Dad’s gone. He could be dead too. I just …” She felt like she wanted to cry but she pushed back the tears.
There’s no use crying, Rosie Black
. She felt a sudden aching hollowness inside. “I deserve to know, Aunt Essie, I’m not a little kid any more.”

“No, I guess not.” Her aunt sighed. “All right, do you remember Riley saying Helios had built a base on Mars called the Enclave?” Rosie nodded. “Okay, well what the Shores were working on was part of something Helios is still doing there. They call it the Genesis Project. They’ve been doing experiments – tests. If the Senate found out they were doing it, they would not be happy.”

“But what is the Genesis Project?” Rosie said. “What were the Shores doing?”

“I don’t know, but Riley thinks it’s a new generation of experiments built on what the Shores did – and since the beacon was turned on Helios has become very nervous.”

“Because they think Riley will expose them with what I found in the box?”

“Yes. And because of that he says they issued an order to clean Genesis.”

“What does that mean? Are they going to attack the colony?”

Aunt Essie didn’t answer right away. “No, not the colony. It means they’re going to destroy their labs, the Enclave – with everyone who works for them inside.”

For a second Rosie felt nothing. “Hundreds of people,” she whispered.

“Yes,” her aunt said softly.

She stared at her hands. “What’s Riley going to do?”

“Try to stop them.”

“How?”

“I’m not sure. He keeps saying that what he has to trade will save your dad and allow him access to Helios. That he’ll get to them that way. He has a plan but he won’t tell me what it is.”

“He doesn’t want us involved,” Rosie said. She felt strange; along with the fear had come a profound sense of clarity. Consequence. She remembered one of her first science classes. For every action there is an equal, or opposite, reaction. Who had said that? She couldn’t remember but it didn’t matter. This was the consequence of what she and Juli had done.

“We should help him,” she said. “After we get Dad back, we should help him.”

Her aunt didn’t reply as sadness filled her face. Rosie felt a leap of fear and realisation. Something caught in her throat. “You don’t think we can save Dad.”

Aunt Essie looked away. “These people …” She shook her head. “If they will kill hundreds to protect themselves …”

Rosie knew what she left unsaid. Why wouldn’t they kill one man? It made the well of pain inside swell, threatening to spill over, to immobilise her with grief as it had done when her mum died. But she refused to believe it. They had to have some hope.

She grabbed her hand. “Aunt Essie, we–” Her words were cut off by a loud crash from the other room. They stared at each other.

“That didn’t sound good.” Her aunt moved swiftly to open the door. Riley was holding a hand to the side of his head while behind him the outer door was sliding shut. Shards of thick glass lay scattered on the floor.

“What the hell happened?” Aunt Essie rushed to his side. “You’re bleeding.”

“Yeah, I guessed that,” Riley said.

“Sit down.” Aunt Essie pointed to the sofa. “I’ll get my medikit.” She went back into the bedroom.

Riley moved awkwardly to sit. Blood was trickling down the side of his face and a bruise was forming near his temple. Rosie looked around. “Where’s Pip?”

“Gone to his master like all good dogs, I expect.”

“What?”

Riley gave her a bitter smile. “Seems Helios had an inside man after all. We really were being followed.”

Aunt Essie came back and sat beside him. “Let me see it,” she demanded. He lifted his hand. A long jagged cut ran from under his hairline down one cheek. He screwed up his face as her aunt wiped it clean and mopped up the blood.

Rosie sat down on the sofa. She felt as though she’d been punched in the stomach. Pip was one of them. He’d been working for Helios all along.

“He took the code key,” Riley said.

“What?” Her aunt stopped swabbing. “How the hell did he get that off you?”

“I was careless.” He flinched as she spread skin repair foam over the cut.

“What about the diary?” Rosie said.

“No.” He shook his head and patted a fastened pocket on his shirt. “Here.”

She was relieved. “Well that’s okay then, isn’t it?” Rosie said.

“Without the key the information in the diary is useless. It only has the codes for the Enclave’s internal labs. It will get us through the complex but we need the key to get the Shores’ information from their system.” He stopped. “There could be a back door in, another way to break their computer hub.” But he didn’t sound certain.

Aunt Essie packed up her kit and handed it to Rosie. “Put this away.”

Rosie took it automatically and went to the bathroom. She couldn’t believe Pip had betrayed them. She shoved the kit back into the cupboard and slammed the door. How could she have been so stupid as to think he cared about her? Idiot. She kicked the cabinet then caught a look at herself in the mirror.

She was a mess. Her face was pale and dirty, her hair tangled. She brushed it out with her aunt’s comb, pulling the strands down savagely again and again, getting more furious at herself as she began to cry while she did it. When it hung unknotted about her face, she pulled it back into a single ponytail and wiped her tears away. She splashed her face with cold water.

“Rosie?” Aunt Essie appeared in the doorway. “We have to go.”

She nodded and wiped her face. Her aunt watched her.

“Hurry,” she said quietly, “we need to get to the pod.”

Rosie went back into the lounge room. Her head was throbbing as she swung her pack onto her shoulders. Aunt Essie and Riley picked up their own gear, their faces hard and set. She kept seeing Pip smiling at her – that slow smile. It was like a spike going through her heart. At least now she knew what he’d been about to tell her.
Oh, by the way, Rosie, if I happen to betray you all, don’t get mad. It’s not personal
, or some crap like that. He’d probably been putting on all that hand-holding stuff.

Her aunt went to the sofa and reached underneath. She pulled out two guns. She handed one to Riley. “In case.”

He put it in the waistband of his trousers.

“Come on.” Her aunt led the way. Rosie followed, thinking of how she wanted to slap Pip’s handsome, lying face.

The hallway was empty but Aunt Essie was taking no chances. She pushed Rosie between her and Riley and led them at a jog towards the end of the corridor, then stopped. “Wait,” she whispered. “Did you hear that?”

Rosie heard a faint thudding vibration coming from around the corner.

“Sounds like heavy boots,” Riley said.

“Follow me to the corner.” Her aunt’s face was grim.

They crept quietly along the corridor until she put her hand up again. Rosie flattened herself against the wall next to Riley.

Aunt Essie peeped around the corner. “They’re here already,” she said.

“How far is it to your pod?” Riley whispered.

“Around the corner, where the corridor turns right, there’s an access door that goes under the spoke to the docking bay. The pod is on level three, bay five.”

“On the other side of those men,” Rosie said. Her stomach was in knots at the thought.

“Yep.” Aunt Essie dropped to the floor and risked another glance. She pulled back quickly. “There’re three of them. We’re going to need a distraction to get past. It’s the only way to the pod from here.” She chewed on her bottom lip. “Rosie, you remember my lessons in how to fly the pod?”

Rosie’s heart contracted. “Yes.” What was she planning?

“Good, just remember not to give her too much juice or she’ll fly uneven, and watch the cells, they’re getting old.”

“Essie,” Riley said, “what are you doing?”

She gave him a hard smile. “Getting you to Genesis, Riley. I’m the most expendable – if they get you, my brother doesn’t have a hope.”

Rosie suddenly understood what she was going to do. “No!” She gripped her arm but her aunt pulled her hand off.

“Cowards don’t make the Academy, Rosie,” she said sharply. “I’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”

Dread filled Rosie as she stared at her aunt. Wasn’t Riley going to stop her? But he wasn’t moving and Aunt Essie pulled the docking pass key from her pocket and pressed it into her hand. “This will open the accessway doors and the hatch. The password’s 563. Now you run like hell when you hear me shout, okay?” Rosie nodded and saw a blink of fear in her aunt’s eyes as she met her own. “You’ll be okay, Rosie. You can do this.” Then she was straightening up and looking over her head at Riley.

“You keep her safe or I’ll break your neck.” She pulled out her gun, drew a breath and was gone. Rosie’s heart was hammering and she didn’t know she’d moved until Riley pushed her back against the wall. She couldn’t see what was happening but she could hear. There was a man’s grunt of surprise, followed by the concussive whump of a pulse weapon.

“Go!” her aunt shouted.

Rosie and Riley ran down the corridor. Ahead of them a man lay on the floor, another was on his knees, blood dripping from a cut on his head, and Aunt Essie was grappling with a third.

“Run!” Aunt Essie roared and elbowed the man in the face. She turned to kick the kneeling man in the head, but he caught her boot and flung her against the wall.

“Aunt Essie!” Rosie slowed but Riley dragged her towards the door at the end of the corridor.

“The pass key, Rosie!” he shouted.

Her fingers shaking, she swiped the thin slice of metal through the key slot and pushed the door open. Behind them a muffled shot sounded. Rosie turned back to see her aunt lying on the floor with one of the men standing above her, his weapon drawn. Her aunt was clutching her stomach. There was blood on the wall. Time seemed to slow. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

Beyond her aunt, two more people were running towards them.

“Rosie, wait!” It was Mr Yuang shouting at her and Pip was behind him. His face was pale as he stared at her. Fury filled Rosie and she tried to go back, but Riley grabbed her, pushed her through and slammed the door. He shot the lock with her aunt’s pulse gun.

“Move!” he shouted, and dragged her with him.

The accessway was narrow. It sloped down until it turned a corner then levelled out. It led straight to another door with a number three on it. They were under the spoke.
Aunt Essie
. Rosie’s hand shook as she slid the pass key through the lock and pushed through to the docking bay. Walkways made of metal grille stretched away on either side and in front. She paused. Which way was bay five? There, a sign above pointed left.

She turned, running to the outer hull. The metal quivered under their feet and people turned to stare at them as they raced across the bridge. Behind them shouts echoed across the cavernous space.

“They’re on the other side,” Riley said.

She didn’t look back. She felt numb, her terror all but driven away by her focus on one thing: escape. She led Riley to the outer walkway that ran alongside the hatches. Through the slit in the hull she could see three ships docked; the last one was her aunt’s pod.

“The hatch,” she said as she raced towards it. She could hear pounding feet now but didn’t turn around.

“They’re coming,” Riley said.

The crash of boots on the walkways was like an orchestra of chains. Riley aimed the gun and pulled the trigger. Concussive snaps of sound sang.

“Rosie!” His voice held a warning.

She punched in the code and the hatch hissed open.

They jumped over the outer hull into the pod and Riley locked the hatch behind them as a pulse slug slammed against the metal.

Rosie sealed the pod’s doors and ran through the small cargo bay and up the stairs to the bridge. She knew her aunt’s ship well. Every time Aunt Essie had brought it home she’d let Rosie sit in the pilot’s chair and drilled her through a hundred different flight plans. “If you want to be a pilot with Orbitcorp, you’ve got to be ready for anything,” she’d said.

But Rosie had never actually flown it. Her heart was pounding as her whole focus narrowed to the pilot’s seat, the nav console and the controls.

“Sit there.” She directed Riley to the copilot’s chair. She strapped herself in, then began the checking sequence. Aunt Essie ran a tight ship; all the controls were green, good to go.

“Jesus Christ,” Riley was muttering as he strapped himself in. “That was Yuang.”