Excelsior (22 page)

“How long are we staying?”

“As long as it takes to determine whether or not the planet is habitable. A week or two I’d guess.”

“That’s it?” McAdams asked, her smile collapsing.

“It’s obvious that Wonderland is habitable,” Korbin said. “The atmosphere is a breathable mix of oxygen and nitrogen, just like Earth’s. We shouldn’t need more time than that.”

“The air might be breathable, but we don’t know if it’s safe,” Alexander warned. “Remember what Doctor Crespin said.”

Korbin nodded, and Alexander turned to look around. To one side a shadowy jungle of red and purple trees soared. A few gargantuan black mushrooms towered over them. There was already a group of people headed toward the jungle, spear-headed by Lieutenant Cardinal. Alexander frowned and mentally activated his comms to send a message to the whole landing party at once.

“Listen up, everyone. This is a strange planet. We don’t know what’s dangerous and what isn’t. For now, no one goes more than 50 meters from the landing site.”

Acknowledgments streamed in, and Alexander turned back to McAdams and Korbin. “I’m going to go dip my feet in the water,” he said, and started off toward the ocean. The clearing where they’d landed was full of scraggly bone-white shrubs pricking up through the sand. Opposite the jungle, the ocean sparkled invitingly beneath the fiery sunset. Waves thundered and crashed on the shore below the clearing.

Alexander reached the top of a sand dune and all but fell down the other side. The beach dropped steeply into the ocean. That meant there’d be a strong current. Maybe he wouldn’t dip his feet in the water after all. On his way down, Alexander watched the sand, looking for sea creatures. On Earth he would expect to find holes and the scuttling crabs that had dug them, or maybe even washed up jelly fish and seaweed, but he didn’t see anything here.

Alexander stopped a few feet from the smooth, wet sand and looked out across the turquoise ocean. Waves curled and crashed right in front of him. He imagined the salty spray coming off the water.

The sun was dimmer now, lying just above the horizon. The sky glowed a pale red, and the clouds looked like they’d been soaked in blood. The blood of patriots and tyrants, Alexander mused.

As the sun sank below the watery line of the horizon and that crimson stain seeped away, Alexander shook his head and swallowed past a painful lump in his throat. This wasn’t just the end of another day on Wonderland—it was the end of an entire species.

Humanity.

He hadn’t spent much time dwelling on the worst-case scenario. He’d tried to stay optimistic. It would be so easy to believe President Baker had been telling the truth when he’d contacted them. Your loved ones are all safe and well. Alexander knew a lie when he heard one. The question wasn’t whether or not anyone had died back on Earth—but who, and how many.

“Goodbye, Caty,” Alexander whispered.

Commander Korbin walked up beside him, her feet skrishing through the sparkling lavender sand. She laid a hand on his shoulder.

“They’re not gone, Captain,” she said, her voice trembling with stubborn conviction.

Alexander turned to her with one eyebrow raised.

“Call it a hunch, call it faith, but they’re still alive.”

“I hope you’re right, Commander.” His thoughts went back to Catalina, and he tried to imagine her smiling face to make Korbin’s optimism seem more real. “I hope you’re right,” he said again.

Somehow now they’d reversed roles, with Korbin the one clinging to hope while he gave into despair. Korbin had two sons back on Earth, wards of the state being raised by a first-class institution in New York City. New York was a high priority target for enemy missiles—maybe the highest—followed by LA, where Caty was. They’d picked LA because it had a vibrant immigrant community of former southerners. Plenty of people still spoke Español there. It had seemed like a great way to transition to life in the northern states at the time, but now Alexander wished they’d chosen some sleepy town in the middle of nowhere instead.

He forced his thoughts back into the moment. They had a planet to explore. He turned away from the fading light and looked up to the dark, brooding jungle beyond the clearing where they’d landed their shuttles. “We’d better get back and help the crew set up the hab modules.”

Korbin nodded.

Alexander slung his arm through hers to help her up the beach. Not that she needed his help. If anything, he needed hers. They both stumbled equally as they went. Near the top of the beach, where lavender sand met ivory-colored shrubbery, they found Junior Lieutenant McAdams watching the sunset, her cheeks wet with tears behind her helmet.

“Hello, McAdams,” Alexander said.

“Sir,” she replied.

McAdams’s parents had spent their life savings on her so that she could be born a gener. As an adult she’d returned the favor, signing up for the navy against their wishes in order to save them. That was before the nukes had begun flying up North. Alexander remembered McAdams confessing her fears to him at the memorial service—‘I killed them,’ she’d said, and the sad part was, she probably had. But by that reasoning, Alexander had gotten Caty killed, too. He shuddered and pushed those thoughts away, forcing a smile for McAdams’s benefit.

“They could still be alive, Lieutenant. Regardless, we’re going to have plenty of time to grieve for the planet we lost. Right now we need to focus on the one that’s under our feet.”

Something ugly flickered through McAdams’s eyes, but then she sniffed and nodded. “Yes, sir.” With that, she about-faced and trudged back up to the landing site.

Alexander frowned, watching her go. He had a feeling he’d just put his foot in it, but maybe her anger wasn’t directed at him.

“Onwards and upwards, Captain,” Commander Korbin said, nodding as they continued up the hilly shore.

“Excelsior,” Alexander replied.

“I’m sorry?”

“That’s what it means—onwards and upwards.”

“Onwards to a brighter future, and upwards to the stars…” Korbin replied.

Alexander smiled. There was just enough optimism in that sentiment to dull the hollow ache radiating in his chest.

“Excelsior…” he whispered.

Chapter 19

By the time Alexander and Korbin reached the landing site, the stars were already pricking out overhead. Both of Wonderland’s moons were out—one of them a large, angry red eye, the other a silver crescent that was more reminiscent of Earth’s moon.

Alexander activated his comm and said, “Gather round, everyone!” He waited while people stopped what they were doing and turned to face him, their head lamps sweeping his way. A group of headlamps came bobbing in from the direction of the jungle—Cardinal et al.

Speaking to Korbin, Alexander said, “Get me a head count.” He studied the landing site while he waited. The shuttles’ landing lights were on, casting a muted golden glow across the sandy shrub-infested ground. The jungle appeared as a wall of black, towering over everything. Night was falling fast. The stars grew sharper and more numerous in the sky with every passing second.

It reminded him of going camping back on Earth when he was a kid. He remembered his family telling scary stories around the camp fire while he watched wide-eyed as the firelight made shadows dance in the trees. Back then the night had been alive with unseen terrors. The mind of a child could be a scary place. When he’d grown up he’d realized that the only really scary predator on Earth was man, but being here on Wonderland brought all his childish fears rushing back. There could be anything out there.

Even T-rex’s hairy cousin.

Alexander pictured a giant teddy bear, and a silly grin sprang to his lips.

“Sixteen. All present and accounted for, sir,” Korbin announced.

“Good,” he replied, nodding. He dialed up the volume on his helmet’s external speakers rather than use the comms. If he was being honest, that was just because he wanted to make some noise. Maybe he would scare off whatever was lurking in the jungle. “It’s time for us to set up camp, but first we’re going to go back to our shuttles for dinner. Leave whatever samples you’ve collected outside. That goes double for you, Cardinal.”

People began muttering their objections, and Cardinal started to say, “But—”

“This entire mission needs to be conducted with strict quarantine protocols. The airlocks in the shuttles and our habs have been equipped to flash cook anything that hitches a ride on our suits, but that doesn’t mean we should push our luck. There could be any number of deadly pathogens in the air, let alone any samples we collect. This planet does appear to be habitable, but that doesn’t make it safe. Go eat something, and I suggest you all take a caffeine tablet. It’s going to be a long night, and I don’t want anyone fainting from exhaustion.”

Helmets bobbed and yes, sirs, echoed around the circle as people turned to go back to their shuttles. Alexander used his finely-honed sense of intuition to find his, heading for the one with Shuttle One written on the side.

Korbin followed him, even though it wasn’t her shuttle, and McAdams joined them while they were waiting at the airlock. “Mind if I eat with you, Captain?” she asked.

Alexander smiled and nodded. “Sure.” Maybe he hadn’t offended her as badly as he thought.

Cardinal and Stone joined them a moment later, followed by Vasquez. “You won’t believe what we found!” Cardinal said, his face full of wonder behind his helmet.

“What did you find?” Alexander asked.

“The plants move. They all move!”

McAdams arched an eyebrow. “Move how? Reflex or voluntary movement? Are you sure you were looking at plants?”

Cardinal gave her a look of strained patience. “Yes, to the plant question, and if you’re asking whether the movement was self-directed by the plant, I guess that would depend on whether or not it has a brain. My bet is that it does, but probably a very rudimentary one. I tried tests involving movement, light, and water. The plants I tested reacted to shadows caused by movement, turned toward the light, and gave no reaction to the water.”

Alexander frowned. “So plants on Wonderland don’t need water?”

“More likely the ones I tested weren’t thirsty. They must have an abundance of rain on a planet like this.”

“So you’re saying the jungle could sneak up on us while we’re eating.”

“No, of course not—well… I don’t think so. Just the branches and fronds move. And they’re not dangerous, just curious.”

Alexander turned to look at Lieutenant Stone. “What do you think?” He was in charge of mission security, and his expression was guarded, not awed.

“I think I’m glad we brought the Cheetahs. It might not be safe to explore the jungle on foot—especially not if we have to hack our way through. Who knows how those curious plants will respond if we start chopping off their limbs.”

“Is violence your first response to everything?” Korbin demanded. “We’re not going to hack our way through a living jungle.”

“Why not, ma’am? They’re just plants.”

“Plants that move,” McAdams said. “That makes them more like animals than plants.”

Stone shrugged. “Plants, animals… We eat ‘em both, so what’s the big deal?”

“All right, enough bickering,” Alexander said. “We’re not going to be eating any alien life forms, and we should probably wait until we’ve studied this new environment before we start hacking it to pieces.”

“Yes, sir,” Stone replied while climbing up into the shuttle airlock.

Once they were all standing in the airlock, they activated the radiation shields on their helmets, and their visors polarized, effectively blinding them. Lieutenant Stone gave the airlock a verbal command to pressurize, and a warning siren sounded briefly before the flash-cooker sterilized their suits. Another tone sounded, this one pleasant and musical to let them know it was safe to deactivate their radiation shields. They did so, and the airlock’s inner doors swished open.

In the shuttle’s cargo hold, Lieutenant Stone found a food crate and began passing out ration packs and bottles of water. They all removed their helmets and sat on the floor to eat.

Alexander picked up a meat-colored protein stick and sniffed it suspiciously. It smelled like old socks. He was beginning to agree with Lieutenant Stone about checking to see if the native fauna tasted like chicken. McAdams sat down beside him and handed him a caffeine pill. He nodded his thanks and set his ration pack aside to swallow the pill with a swig of water.

“What do you think we’re going to find down here? Anyone have any predictions?” Korbin asked.

“Well I predicted we’d find plants, and we did,” Cardinal said. “You owe me a month’s wages,” he added, looking at Lieutenant Stone.

The geologist grunted, but gave no reply.

“I think we’re going to find plenty of animals, too,” McAdams said. “We already found avian life on our way down. Those jungles are probably teeming with all kinds of amazing creatures.”

Vasquez spoke up, “In terms of climate I predict the tides will be either more frequent or more pronounced thanks to Wonderland’s two moons. The climate is pretty mild, but there are signs of water damage on the trunks of some of the older trees, so we might find hurricanes or tsunamis here.”