Authors: Scott McElhaney
She laughed, dropping her face into her hands, “See you think I’ve lost my mind, and I guess we all have in some sense. It’s so hard trying to figure out the ethics, morality, and principles for having multiple versions of ourselves.”
“
Believe it or not, I can see how you’d feel awkward about all that so don’t worry about it. I’ve seen so much insanity in the last 24 hours that this doesn’t even come close to the top ten,” he said with a chuckle.
“
Good,” she raked her fingers through her hair, then nodded, “Good, so then I imagine you’d also understand that people share things with their spouses… such as the fact that a certain spouse may be on an undercover mission to save the Indentures from slavery.”
“
Are you kidding?” he sputtered, “Please tell me you’re joking. He could ruin everything!”
“
No, you don’t know him and actually I needed his help on some things, so stop looking at me like I’m a bad guy again,” she said, “He’s not even a member of the crew, so he’d have nothing to gain by reporting infractions.”
Declan turned toward the door, aware of the fact that he was quickly losing any footing he thought he’d gained. Every time he thought they were making some headway, something would jump out and knock him to the floor.
“
He’s a GRAV. That’s what we call the civilian organization that runs the artificial gravity systems on spacecraft,” she said, “He’s just an engineer that spends ten hours a day monitoring some giant reactors in the core of the ship. You can trust him, Declan.”
“
But how do you know he doesn’t talk to his friends? And what about when those friends talk?” he asked, “I’m just talking about normal people innocently hanging out with their friends.”
“
He’s already spent some time helping me – helping
you
,” she said, turning toward him, “I just paged him up here. In a few minutes you’ll see for yourself why you can trust him.”
He rushed over to the chair where she was still seated, searching her lap and the terminal in front of her for whatever paging device she used.
“
Where is it? How do I know the whole cavalry isn’t headed here?” he pleaded.
“
Where is
what
?” she asked, raising her hands to show them empty, “Wait, you’re looking for a pager? We don’t use devices like that in our time. It’s a… I’m not even sure how to explain it. Imagine having the ability to bring up a little computer screen that you can see hovering in front of your left eye. Then with your mind, you move the little cursor to what you want and you just select it. I mean, how did you think people were getting jolted without anyone physically doing anything?”
“
So what, you just simply think it and it happens?”
“
Pretty much, but we also see a visual while we think it,” she said, “Please just trust me on this one. I’m deeper into this whole thing than you are and I’ve got much more to lose than you, so I’m not going to make any foolhardy decisions. Give me some credit.”
He glanced back to the holographic image of dots and triangles, then slowly nodded.
“
Okay, now can we just return to the display that I originally came in here to show you? This is an up-to-the-moment display,” she said, tapping a key that caused it to gradually rotate.
She pointed at a small blue triangle that appeared to be dragging a dotted line through the image.
“
This triangle is us right now. Thanks to my lack of security clearance, I’m not lucky enough to get any of the nice little definitions, codes, or notations of any sort on these maps. I can pull them up, but I can’t tell you what they are for sure,” she said, tracing her finger to the furthest point of the dotted line behind the triangle, “But I can tell you that this little circle back here is probably the planet Hydrus where a version of you and I are at right now,
“
I did some research and learned that Beta Hydri is part of a binary star system in the Hydrus constellation. Here we have two yellow circles that seem to be surrounded by multiple blue circles – a binary system with its planets. So you can see why I’m certain this is the planet we’ve been calling Hydrus.”
“
Yeah, I can see it,” he said, reaching into the holographic display and pointing toward the planetary system they were now entering according to the map, “So, if our Jump Drive is shot and we’ve spent eight years travelling this far, where are we actually going?”
She turned to him, “I think we’re heading back to our own solar system – to Earth.”
It took him a moment to process this. He shook his head, then pointed at the planet she called Hydrus.
“
No, because you said this system is about 24 light years away. Without the Jump Drive, we can’t even travel at the speed of light, which means it would take more than 24 years to get from there to Earth,” he said.
“
I’m guessing you were a horrible student in school, Declan. I just explained Einstein’s relativity to you,” she said, rising from the seat and gesturing toward the hologram, “To the stationary observer on Earth, it would take our ship around 26 years to make it back from Hydrus. So yes, you’re right about that, but to the people aboard the ship, traveling at 95% light speed, it would take around 7 to 8 years to reach Earth.
Eight
years.”
He shook his head, looking from the map to her.
“
Trust me on this one,” she said, “I think we’re just now entering our solar system. But something worries me about the place we’re returning to.”
Declan was about to ask her another question when he heard someone coming up the small flight of stairs behind him. He turned to see a smiling man anxiously approaching him, clad completely in orange coveralls that resembled the prison jumpsuits of the 21
st
century.
“
Greetings, greetings,” the man rapidly spewed, shaking his hand heartily, “I’ve heard so much and I’m honored to meet the real Declan Stringfellow.”
Declan glanced curiously toward the woman he still saw as Ensign Rowe. She replied with a grin of embarrassment before taking the arm of the unusual man.
“
I told him about your vigilante superhero deeds of the 21
st
century, some of which actually exists in our historical records,” she explained.
“
Indeed,” the man said, raising his hand to his stubble-covered chin, “Sorry about my haggard appearance, but I had no idea you were coming today. My name is Stephen, by the way.”
“
It’s very nice to meet you, Stephen,” he said, feeling a bit more comfortable about the man, “I hope you can appreciate the secrecy of all this.”
“
Definitely,” he replied, reaching into one of his pockets, “I’ve
appreciated
it for a few years now.”
Stephen drew four paper pouches out of his pocket and handed three of them to Declan. Declan started to open a pouch, but Stephen placed a hand over it, stopping him.
“
No, put those three pouches in your pocket. You need to give one to Sierra and explain what it is. The other two are for you to give out at your discretion. If I had the materials, which I’m still hunting out, I’d make enough for all of you guys,” he said, opening the pouch in his hand.
“
I told Stephen about the implants they put in the Indentures to shock them into submission,” she said, lifting a silver chain from Stephen’s paper pouch.
As she lifted the chain, a small silver amulet slid down then spun at the end. Declan reached up and stopped the charm, examining what appeared to be a decoratively engraved cylinder slightly smaller than an AAA-size battery.
“
I tried to give it the looks of a coiled up scroll because that was one of the few things I could come up with shaped like my transmitter. That little thing is designed to disrupt the signal that triggers your implant,” he proudly stated, “It’s always on, but don’t worry about it running out of power. The batteries should last about four years. Hopefully by then, things will be a little different and it won’t matter.”
Declan accepted the amulet, holding it up and grinning.
“
It’s amazing! How did you come up with this? This could definitely give us an edge, especially if you could make more,” he said, lifting it over his head and tucking it beneath his shirt.
“
It was Brianna’s idea,” he said, sliding an arm around her waist, “She asked if I could make something like that. I told her I might if she could get me one of your implants. I’d need to know what frequency I’d be blocking.”
“
Getting the implant was nearly impossible,” she added, “They have those in MedLab 3 but I don’t have the clearance to get in. Lucky for us though, one of the Indentures in Alpha’s group died in an accident about two years ago. I had no problems gaining access to the dead body of an Indenture, if you get what I mean.”
“
Gory, but effective,” Stephen added.
“
Wow, I’m beginning to think we chose the right person to infiltrate the enemy lines,” Declan stared in amazement.
“
Just don’t forget the role I’m playing anytime I see you on the other side of the wall. I’m not going to risk getting busted, so I will be completely in-character at all times over there,” she said, bringing a more serious tone to her voice.
“
So basically I’m getting no special treatment tomorrow?” he asked.
“
Exactly,” she replied, “And speaking of tomorrow, we should be getting you back to your room. We’ve only got a few hours until another day of training.”
7
Declan couldn’t seem to find anyone in the hospital as he ran with purpose down the barren hallways. He searched each room to no avail. He could have sworn that the Emergency Room was open 24 hours, but that didn’t seem to be the case today.
“
Hello?” he shouted, tears streaming down his face, “Is anyone here? My son needs help.”
Ryan lay lifeless in his arms, but Declan refused to lose hope. He started kicking in doors at the hospital hoping to find anyone willing to help. Room after room, he couldn’t find another soul in the god forsaken building.
“
Where is everyone?” he screamed.
Just then, he saw a woman in green scrubs at the far end of the corridor.
“
Ma’am, excuse me! I need help. My son is dead,” he cried.
As she rushed toward him, he immediately recognized her. It was Tami Guzman from that night he had the life-damning MRI.
“
You can save him. Can you implant him into another Ryan?” he pleaded.
“
Let me see him,” she said, taking the boy from his arms.
She lifted Ryan’s shirt, then pressed on his belly. Some kind of battery compartment opened on his belly, bringing forth a nod from Tami.
“
Yeah, this is an easy one. He’s got 20 copies of his chip in here,” she said, drawing out a black and gold chip, “I could just keep recreating him anytime you need. You’re a lucky one, Mr. Stringfellow.”
“
You’re a godsend!” he said, “How long will it be?”
“
Ten second’s maybe. I just need to drop this chip into the soda machine down-”
“
Everybody up!” someone shouted behind her.
Declan looked around, but didn’t see anyone else in the hall.
“
Everybody up!”
Startled from the depths of a dream, it took Declan a couple seconds to recognize his surroundings. The painful discovery that his son wouldn’t be returning was magnified even further by the realization that yesterday wasn’t a dream after all. He was still aboard a spaceship inside a body that wasn’t his own.
“
Breakfast will be in thirty minutes in the cafeteria,” Ensign Rowe insisted, standing in the doorway, “Even if you aren’t eating, your presence is required. Though with these new bodies, I imagine you’re probably starved.”
Then she was gone as quickly as she came. Declan wasted no time getting out of bed, leaving his blanket in a twisted heap. Once in the bathroom, he had no problem locating his ‘F’-imprinted toothbrush and something that he assumed was a futuristic form of electric razor, but he couldn’t find any soap or toothpaste.