Indentured Page 6

  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 21st 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 21st 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.

  He felt around the sink searching for a lever or a pump that he was somehow missing. Eventually, he pushed on an almost invisible disc on the sink, causing a cylinder to rise up from the sink. He found two more of these camouflaged discs, bringing forth two other cylinders. He pressed the black button on the first bottle, releasing foam of some sort. The second released another color of foam and the third released a minty smelling paste.

  He took his chances with the paste on his toothbrush and became fairly certain by the time he was done brushing that it indeed was toothpaste. He’d figure the foams out later.

  “Don’t try the shower,” Delta peeked in at him, “Apparently space-faring people of the future are limited to showering every other day. And today’s not one of those days.”

  “You tried?” he asked.

  “Yeah, they shut off the water,” he said, “The ensign said that they conserve water on ships, so we have to adapt to their ways. Say, where’d you get the necklace?”

  Declan reached up his hand and took hold of the little amulet. Somehow feeling it this morning made everything from last night all the more real. He’d forgot all about the necklace until just now.

  “It was on my bed, so I figured maybe it was a good luck charm or something. We’ll see if it works,” he replied with a tight smile, “Though starting my day without a shower doesn’t make it seem like we’re headed in the right direction.

  . . .

  They weren’t allowed to eat until everyone arrived in the cafeteria and as of the moment, they were only waiting on two more Indentures. Declan rested his chin in his palm as he watched the people across the table from him. He was glad to see that Juliet had come to the cafeteria today and actually seemed to be in slightly better spirits as she carried on a conversation with Sierra. Watching Sierra, he tried to imagine Tami Guzman or Ensign Rowe for that matter as the spirit inside the woman.

  At that moment, Oscar and Golf entered the cafeteria, causing Ensign Rowe to finally close the cafeteria door. Golf still wore the pained expression of a man struggling just to make it through another day. Declan recalled that he and Quebec were having trouble accepting the loss of their families and though Quebec seemed to be doing a little better, Golf didn’t.

  “Now that everyone is finally here, you may go ahead and grab your breakfast. As we have a limited supply of meat aboard this ship, breakfast is the meal everyday where no meats are offered. It’s basically breads, cereals, or nutrient bars,” the ensign said, “We are living in a closed environment, so there are limits to certain things since we have limited quantities. You probably noticed you couldn’t shower today and even tomorrow when you can, you will be limited to five minutes. The water will shut off after five minutes and if you decide to step back in the shower and take another five minutes, your roommate will be forfeiting his or her shower. I don’t think you want to imagine what type of heartache that would bring you,

  “After breakfast, we will be returning to the shuttle bay where we will be learning to load and use a crossbow. We will also learn how to make explosives including making explosive bolts for the crossbow.”

  “Why aren’t there shuttles in the shuttle bay?” Oscar blurted out, “And why are we preparing for some kind of medieval war?”

  Ensign Rowe turned to him, making no attempt to hide her displeasure with his interruption.

  “We use the bay for incoming shuttles for loading this ship with people or supplies. And as far as the ‘war,’ these are basic skills of self-defense for any colony. If we were worried about a true war, you’d be getting trained on plasma rifles and ion pistols,” she replied, turning back to the class.

  “But we’re a ship meant for colonizing planets which would mean that we’d need to have a shuttle of our own,” he insisted, “Did something-”

  “Oscar!” she thundered, “You will not continue to disrespect the leadership by interrupting. I overlooked it the first time and will not be offering you anymore oversights for the remainder of your time here.”

  “Thank you, ma’am. You answered my question.”

  His smirk barely had time to appear before he jolted from his seat, screeching as he clutched his shoulders. Declan closed his eyes, tired of seeing these horrible demonstrations of power. It was times like this that it was hard to imagine her being the Taz he met in the hospital.

  “Oscar chose to show you all that there are consequences for insubordination. While I may wish to have a good relationship with each and every one of you, I may not be permitted to if things like this keep happening,” she said, staring disgustedly at the prostrate form of Oscar who was just now trying to catch his breath, “I’ve decided that I won’t be eating with you after all. Please join me in the shuttle bay in an hour.”

  She made for a quick exit while many of the Indentures started for the food machines. Declan knelt next to Oscar, assisting him back into his seat.

  “I may be calling on you for some help from you in the near future since it seems like you and I are on the same page here,” Declan whispered, handing him a paper package, “Put this on. It emits a signal at all times that’s supposed to block their ability to do that electrocution garbage to you.”

  �
��What?” Oscar replied through clenched teeth, “Who are you? Why would you have something like this and why haven’t you given us these before?”

  “I’m Foxtrot – we talked in the recreation room. I’ve only got four of them and I’m wearing one of them. Apparently we all existed once before on this ship – many years ago,” he whispered, peering past Oscar to make sure no one was around to hear him, “And at that time, I managed to get one of us – an Indenture – on the other side. Don’t ask me the details of how because I don’t know. It wasn’t me who did it, but a past version of me.”

  Oscar stared wide-eyed at him, but it didn’t take him long to process it all. He ripped open the paper and carefully slipped the amulet into his hand.