Space Colony One

Chapter 3

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HUMAN CIVILIZATION was laid waste. Where vast, busy metropolises had once thrived, only ruins remained. Decaying skyscrapers jutted up from streets choked with debris, like rotten teeth in diseased gums. Immense areas of urban landscape were burned to ashes or drowned in floods from burst dams and levees. Those relentless survivors, rats and cockroaches, had taken over, preyed upon by dogs turned feral.

Along the highways, vegetation thrust through cracks in asphalt or spread over it, infiltrating roots breaking up the hard surface. Abandoned vehicles rusted almost to oblivion formed desolate, motionless convoys. Once-mighty bridges had collapsed and shattered the roads below.

Explosions from processes run out of control had torn factories apart. Billions of hectares of agricultural land were lost to weeds and scrub. In harbors, sunken ships cluttered the water.

During the daytime, the world was silent save for bird song and noises of insects. At night, the sky was black and the stars glittered sharply.

Amongst it all, humanity clung to survival.

Groups of five or six up to several hundred roamed the lands, scavenging for food from the before-times, when people had bought groceries in shops or ordered it on the fabled ‘net’. Sometimes, they hunted beasts, killing them inexpertly with blunt blades, hacking them to death slowly and painfully. Sometimes, they hunted each other.

No one wrote. No one painted. No one invented. The few who could read studied ancient books, poring over the brittle, yellow paper, trying to make sense of the unfamiliar words. On rare happy occasions, such as when a cache of aged cans of unspoiled food had been found, some would sing barely remembered songs—songs of love and longing and loss. But hunger always returned and the singers were silent.

How long life had been like this no one knew, only that it had not always been so. In the past, humankind had dominated the world. Yet the knowledge of how humans had risen to greatness was lost. Some said it was through magic, and a plague had wiped out the wizards and witches. Others said the wealthiest elites had gathered all the Earth’s riches and departed hundreds of years ago. Less commonly, it was rumored the crumbling buildings had never housed people but had been the homes of another, superior species, now extinct.

So when the Scythians came, some believed they were returning to reclaim their world.

They announced their arrival by raining fire on the lands. Pulses from their starships blasted into the quiet cities. They attacked forests, starting wildfires that raged for months. They blew apart defunct factories and plants. A dying civilization was beaten into the dust.

So when the invaders’ ships landed, no one and nothing stood against them. The crescent-shaped shuttles, hulls etched in the signature swirling, irregular Scythian patterning, set down, their hatches opened, and the aliens emerged, heads ensconced in breathing apparatus.

Aubriot jerked awake.

He sucked in a breath and stared at the ceiling, dim in the darkness, trying to remember where he was. Something—someone—lay beside him. He reached out and touched bare skin, turned his head and saw the back of a woman’s head on a pillow.

Cherry.

He wasn’t on Earth. He was on Concordia. He’d spent nearly two centuries in cryo, flying through space. He’d been revived and lived through... So much had happened. Yet his dream had been so vivid it was as if he’d never left home.

Cherry stirred. She moved onto her back and then onto her other side, curling onto his chest and draping her arm over him. He patted her shoulder awkwardly. If she weren’t half-asleep she wouldn’t be so affectionate. Neither of them was comfortable in a romantic relationship, but they were trying. The biggest problem was Cherry’s attitude. She didn’t seem to appreciate him as much as he deserved. He could have just about any woman in the colony and she knew it. Yet she never looked at him the way she used to look at Ethan when she thought no one was watching. That old sap had been dead years. Surely she should be over him by now?

“What’s the time?” she asked.

“Don’t know, Bandit.” He lifted his head to peer out the window. The horizon shone pale gray. “It’ll be dawn soon.”

She groaned. “I better get up.”

“What’s the hurry? Go back to sleep.”

“I have to get the harvester out. Going to be working all day today. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. Gotta get the wheat in.”

“Ah, okay. I’ll give you a hand.”

She sat up and looked him in the eyes, her lips curved into a small smile. Her black, bed-head hair hung shaggy around her face. “Thanks, but there’s no need. The harvester does most of the work. But I appreciate the offer.” She bent and kissed him before climbing out of bed and padding toward the bathroom.

“Are you sure you can manage it one-handed?” he asked.

“I’ve done it before, remember?” She opened the bathroom door.

“What’s the crop like?”

As she turned to answer, her expression was grim. “Not great, but a little better than last year, I think. We won’t know for sure until it’s in.”

The bathroom door closed, and the sound of running water quickly followed.

Ever since the Scythians had destroyed most life on Concordia with their biocide, everything the colony tried to grow struggled to thrive. Kes had said it was because the soil was depleted of micro-organisms. A few bacteria and fungi had a natural immunity to the devastating virus and would multiply to fill the gap left by their dead counterparts, but the process would take years.

Plant life was similarly wrestling to recover. In many places, a single species proliferated out of control in the absence of competitors and predators. Between Annwn and the coast, a massive swathe of the rubbery Concordian groundcover plant shrouded the plain. Billions of sea jellies shaped like starfish filled the oceans. Life had survived but the planet’s ecosystems had been whacked out of balance. When things would return to their former state, the scientists couldn’t say.

Aubriot’s ear comm chirruped. He picked it up from the nightstand and inserted it.

“Hello?”

“You’re coming in to help today, right?”

It was Wilder. The fact that it was before dawn clearly didn’t faze her when issuing her reminder. Day and night didn’t seem to have any meaning for the young woman, except as an inconvenience when they got in the way of her work.

“Uh, yeah. I forgot.”

The breath of a sigh came down the line. “Great. See you soon.” She was gone.

He swung his legs over the side of the bed. The shower noises had stopped. A second later, the bathroom door opened and Cherry reappeared, wrapped in a towel. “You’re getting up too? There’s no need. I told you—”

“Got other things to do, and I wouldn’t get back to sleep anyway.” He held out a hand. “Come here.”

She sat beside him on the bed. “Is everything okay?”

He put an arm around her shoulders. “I had a dream, a nightmare, really.”

Her eyebrows rose in concern. “What was it about?”

“It’s not important. I just wanted...” to hold you for a minute. He pulled her close. “What do you think Earth’s like now?”

“How would I know? I was never there.”

He snorted a laugh. “I was forgetting.”

“You need to have this conversation with Kes.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

It would be awkward, though. They’d never been friendly, and Kes didn’t seem to have gotten over the death of his wife. He was a shell of a man, mentally AWOL. The only time anyone ever saw him happy was when he was with his kids.

Cherry said, “Maybe a more important question is what it will be like when we get there. It’ll take us years. Things change, and if the Scythians—”

“They won’t have changed that much. I think the way things must be on Earth, they’ll be the same for a long time. And we could be there sooner than you think.”

“What makes you say that? Is there some news I haven’t heard?”

“Well, nothing official...”

“Tell me. Go on, spill the beans.” She tickled his ribs.

He swatted her hand away playfully. “It’s not much, but...” he paused for effect “...Wilder thinks she can do it.”

“You’re kidding!” Cherry faced him. “Seriously?”

“Would I joke about something like that?”

“Yeah, you would.”

He held up three fingers. “Scouts’ honor.”

“What the hell does that mean? Don’t start using Earth English again. You know how I hate it.”

“It means I’m telling you the truth.”

“We’ll be able to jump through space like the Fila?!”

“It’s still early days, but probably.”

“So she was right? Thank the stars we listened to her.”

“Yep.”

After the Guardian, Faina, had revealed the Scythians had obtained Earth’s coordinates, it had become clear something had to be done to protect the home planet from the vengeful aliens. But with the Scythians’ fast ships and head start, the Concordians didn’t have a hope of arriving until after the damage had been done, not even with the aid of their friends in the Galactic Assembly.

That was until Wilder had come up with the idea of building a starship with jump capability, similar to their friends the Fila’s but able to sustain human life. If they could use the faster method of space travel, they could arrive at Earth before the Scythians.

It was a huge challenge, even for Wilder, who had cracked the secret of anti-gravity, but, after two years’ constant labor, she’d come up with the answer.

“How long will it take to build a ship?” Cherry asked.

“At least a year, and it has to be constructed in space, so you might not see much of me for a while.”

“I’ll cope.” She stiffened, as if realizing the coldness of her words. “I mean, I’ll miss you, but—”

“It’s okay. I know what you mean.”

She looked at him fixedly. “We’re good, right?”

“Yeah, we’re good.”

“Okay, I’d better get that crop in.”