Genesis (33 page)

“View screen up,” Nerita said calmly. The front panel of the bridge became transparent revealing the Enclave slowly breaking apart from beneath. God, Riley. Rosie hoped desperately that he’d got out.

“Disengage the pad lift,” Nerita said.

Rosie swiped a trembling finger across the holo image of the lift on her screen, detaching it, and the ship rumbled as Nerita powered it up.

“Strap in, this could be bumpy.” She spoke through the ship-wide com so Pip would hear it. “Lift-off in ten seconds.”

A massive boom sounded again. The ship shuddered and the patch of trees they’d come through a few minutes ago suddenly disappeared as a hole opened up beneath them. But the abyss in the planet’s crust didn’t stop there. It kept caving in and the
Cosmic Mariner
began leaning towards it as the ground became unstable.

“Fire the ion thrusters,” Nerita said.

Panicking, Rosie stared at the panel. Where were they? Lights and control options were everywhere. The ship was oscillating with its gathering power then it suddenly pitched forward almost twenty degrees. The blackness of the massive hole rushed towards them.

“Rosie, top left!” Nerita shouted.

She found them and punched the control harder than necessary. A savage roaring came and she saw the fierce blue flare of the thrusters burn across the ground outside. The ship pulled back from the hole.

“Lift-off,” Nerita said and the
Cosmic Mariner
rose into the air just as the ground crumbled beneath them.

Rosie held tight to her seat as the ship clawed its way out of the atmosphere at full power, leaving a blast ring behind.

“Good job, kid.” Nerita grinned at her through the amber light.

Rosie couldn’t smile back. She activated the ground scanner so she could see Mars as they left. One by one the domes of the Enclave fell into the crater. The selfdestruct system had done its work well, destroying the complex in a thunder of dust and explosion. Streaming away from it in trails of light were the rovers filled with the test subjects the medibots had herded out. She hoped Riley was one of those tiny dots of life running to the Genesis colony.

“Still not awake?” Aunt Essie looked over Rosie’s shoulder.

She stared at her dad’s pale sleeping face. Pip had injected Aunt Essie with his blood not long after they’d left Mars and then her dad as well. Twelve hours later, her aunt had been recovering quickly, her rash almost gone, and her dad … the rash was receding but he still lay so still, as if he’d never open his eyes again.

“Don’t worry,” Aunt Essie said. “He’ll come round. Look at me. Good as new.”

Rosie studied her aunt’s pale skin and the dark circles under her eyes. “You walk like an old lady.”

“I am an old lady. Not everything can be fixed as fast as your ankle.” Aunt Essie gently prodded Rosie’s recently nano-repaired foot. “I’m hungry. Let’s find some food.”

Aunt Essie drew her towards the door of the medilab and Rosie put an arm around her waist, feeling how frail she was. Her aunt had always been small but she had never thought of her as weak. But at least she was alive. Almost losing everyone she cared for had made Rosie more than grateful for having them in any kind of shape. She just wished she knew if Riley had made it too.

They entered the galley and she felt a flutter of nerves as she saw Pip leaning against the food lockers eating fruit out of a plaspak. Since coming on the ship he’d barely spoken to anyone and spent most his time holed up in one of the cabins. He wasn’t the same boy she’d met. There was no swagger, no jokes. Instead, there was silence and a look on his face that warned her not to even try to ask him if he was okay.

“Pipsqueak,” her aunt said, “think you can spare some food for us?”

“There’s plenty there.” He brushed past them, heading for the door.

“Pip, wait,” Rosie said.

He paused at the doorway, half turning to her.

“We have to figure out how we’re going to get these files onto the news waves.” She pulled the pendant out of her shirt.

“I don’t know any news wavers.” He leaned against the doorframe.

“We don’t need a waver; we just need a comnet that Helios can’t track,” Aunt Essie said. “Did Riley have any or know of one?”

Pip poked the fork into his fruit. “The Game Pit.”

“What’s that?” Rosie frowned.

He shrugged. “A place I used to go. They’re under the radar, zero surveillance zone.”

“Is that possible?” Rosie looked at her aunt.

“With blocking tech – I guess.”

Pip pushed off the doorway and started walking away. “I’ll take you there when we land,” he said over his shoulder.

Rosie tried to follow but Aunt Essie stopped her. “Leave him.” She drew her to one of the tables. Rosie wanted to ignore her aunt’s advice but nothing in Pip’s expression had invited her to follow. She sat down feeling depressed.

“Let it go, kid.” Aunt Essie hobbled to the lockers and opened the cold store. “If he wants to talk, he’ll talk.”

“Guess I don’t have a choice.”

Her aunt sighed. “He killed someone, hon. That’s not an easy thing to deal with – especially not the first time.”

Rosie stared at her hands remembering the dreadful look of pain and anger on Pip’s face when he’d pulled the trigger. “I’m just–” She let out a short breath. “He did it because of me, to stop Yuang. I feel like he’s blaming me or something.”

“He might be, or maybe he’s numb, or scared. Killing does strange things to people.” Her aunt sat next to her with a bowl of soy protein chilli.

“You want some?”

Rosie shook her head. “How did it affect you?” she said.

Aunt Essie paused and didn’t answer right away. “I was a soldier, Rosie. It was my job. And mostly it was from a distance.”

“But when it wasn’t?”

She dipped the spoon in her bowl, watching it. “It’s terrible and you never forget it, just like you’ll always carry seeing Yuang die with you. But that’s how it should be. It shouldn’t be easy.”

“Perhaps you should talk to him,” Rosie said.

Aunt Essie shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m not good at that sort of thing. And I doubt he’d want to hear anything from me. He might have helped me out before but we’re not exactly buddies.”

“What do you mean, helped you out?” Rosie said.

“Here on the ship. He convinced Yuang not to kill me, then helped me get loose so I could stop the weapons from locking onto the pod when you were getting away.” She half smiled. “The dumb ass took on one of those guards he calls grunts and almost got buzzed as well when I shot the guy with his own pulse gun.”

Rosie slowly said, “That’s why we weren’t hit.”

“Yeah, well. Yuang wasn’t too impressed with him for that.”

So that was where the bruises on Pip’s face had come from. Had he helped out of guilt or something else? And did it really matter now? She wanted to talk to him but he was avoiding her. Since they’d left the Enclave he’d been acting like there was nothing between them, like he hadn’t kissed her. She’d gone to the bridge last night to help Nerita and he’d been there asking, for what must have been the hundredth time by Nerita’s expression, if the sensors had picked up anyone following them. He’d left the bridge as soon as he saw Rosie. That had hurt. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk to her.

Her aunt sighed and said softly, “Don’t hold out your hopes for that one, Rosie. He’s messed up. A boy like that … he’ll break your heart.”

Rosie didn’t reply. She wasn’t sure how she felt about Pip but there were bigger things to worry about. Nerita had picked up a news wave an hour ago. It had called the explosion of the Enclave an accident. Helios must still be pulling strings. Rosie didn’t know if Helios knew she had the Shore files, but she had to assume that someone would be sent to ensure they wouldn’t be talking about anything that happened. The sooner they got the files out in the open, the safer it was going to be for all of them.

A few minutes later the galley com buzzed and Pip’s voice came over the speaker. “Rosie, your dad’s awake,” he said, and the com switched off.

Her aunt looked at her. “Well, at least he told you that,” she said.

Pip left the medilab as soon as they arrived, with barely a glance in her direction. Rosie tried to shrug off his coldness and went to her dad’s side.

“Rosie.” He smiled weakly at her.

“How are you feeling, Dad?” She took the shaking hand he lifted and tried not to show how his frailty scared her.

“I’m okay.” He blinked and looked behind her at her aunt. “Ess?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” said Aunt Essie and took a step closer. “We’re on our way back.”

“Back?” He frowned.

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it. You look like crap. Do you want some water? Or maybe you should get some more sleep.”

He looked confused and Rosie felt her chest tightening up. Didn’t he remember anything? She suddenly felt like she had to leave.

“I’ll get the water,” she said quickly and, avoiding her aunt’s gaze, headed out the door again.

Once out in the corridor she walked fast, not even sure which way she was going. She forgot that she was supposed to be getting water. There was a hard ball in her chest. Everything was suddenly too much, too hard, and she felt her control slipping. She stopped and put her hands against the hull, but it didn’t help. Her legs felt weak, like they wouldn’t support her. She began to shake and sat on the floor against the cold metal wall, trying to suck in air. It didn’t help – the tears came anyway. They burst out with a moan of pain that shocked and frightened her. But she couldn’t stop. She put her head in her hands and gave in, her whole body trembling as she sobbed so hard she thought she might break apart. It was Nerita who found her there in what felt like an hour later.

The pilot walked up the corridor and stopped nearby. Her expression was bland as she said, “Bad day?”

Rosie wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Bad week.” The storm of tears had abated, leaving her feeling drained and exhausted so she could barely lift her head.

Nerita was silent for a minute then surprised her by squatting down beside her. “I had a bad day once,” she said.

Rosie studied her profile. Was Nerita going to tell her that her problems were minuscule compared with other people’s?

The pilot turned to her. Her dark eyes skimmed over Rosie’s face, giving nothing away.

“Only once?” Rosie said.

Nerita’s expression didn’t change. “No one only has one.” She settled closer to the wall. “I used to have my own ship – a crew of three, a contract with the UEC out on Gliese transporting the exploratory scientists, providing earth to planet support.” She brushed a speck of dirt off the knee of her pants. “A trip went sour. A few UEC guard personnel took a dislike to each other and we had a hull breach between Gliese D and E. Too far to make it to the atmo and too much damage. She broke up. I managed to get into one of the spacewalk units and so did one of my crew, but the others didn’t make it.” Nerita eyed Rosie. “One of them was my lover, the other my friend. I didn’t give a damn about the UEC lot – they brought it on themselves – but the other one, who I got into a suit, was my sister and it didn’t have a full tank of air. We were stuck in the black for five hours before they got to us and by then it was too late. I watched her die. Never have forgotten how scared she looked. That was a bad day and my first scar, the one you get on your heart that never heals because someone you loved died due to your actions – or lack of.” Her voice was low, almost emotionless, but not quite. “But you go on, don’t you?”

“How long ago did it happen?” Rosie said.

“Twelve years.” She rose. “I’m going to see if your aunt wants to view the bridge, maybe copilot.”

She walked off. Rosie sat for a while longer thinking about what she’d said. It was a terrible story and it made her think of Juli. She didn’t like to think about her, or imagine what her last minutes might have been like, but Nerita’s words about watching her sister die brought an awful image to her mind of Juli being engulfed in the fire of the explosion at her house. What had she thought of in those last moments? It made Rosie sad all over again for her friend. She couldn’t face going back to see her dad – yet another person she loved who was suffering because of this mess.

She got up and went back to the galley instead.

Pip was there, sitting at a table staring at an empty cup. She stopped in the doorway.

“Need something?” he said without turning around.

She almost went out again, but where else was there to go? She pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him. He didn’t move, just kept staring at the cup.

“Pip,” she said.

“What?”

“Are you okay?”

His lips twisted in a sardonic smile and he watched his thumb tapping on the tabletop. “Yeah, sure, just perfect, how about you?”

“You look like you haven’t slept since we got on the ship.”

He stopped tapping and said in a low voice, “Rosie, I don’t want to talk about it.”

She hesitated. “It might help.”

“There’s nothing to help.”

“Pip–”

“I don’t feel anything, Rosie,” he interrupted her.

His gaze was so bleak, so empty it frightened her. “Nothing?” she said.