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Chapter 28
Zach Croft: 2053
While the fire may have gone away, the heat had not.
Zach’s sweat-soaked clothes stuck to his skin, bringing back memories of summer camp before Prescott. Back then, there had at least been the relief of an icy cooler of fruit punch waiting for him in the bunkhouse. Now he didn’t even have a decent glass of water.
He watched as Ryker tried to pry the melted control panel from the wall with a screwdriver, in hopes that maybe the electronics inside had survived the fire. The violent tremors that tore through the station had panicked Ryker in a way that Zach had never seen before. Ryker said he had never experienced anything like them in his twenty-three years on the Gateway. There was something wrong with the station. Something seriously wrong.
With a cry of victory, Ryker finally freed the control panel from the wall. He opened the housing to access the electronics inside.
“How’s it look?” Zach asked.
Ryker tilted the housing toward Zach so he could see. The control board was a twisted curl of melted plastic. “Fried.” He let it fall from his hand. It dangled against the wall, suspended by the remaining wires protruding from the hole where it came from.
Zach touched the blast door to check whether it was still hot, then pressed his ear against it for a moment, listening.
“What are you doing?” Ryker asked.
“Something’s not right. Didn’t anyone get alerted that there was a fire? Shouldn’t there be alarms?”
Ryker flipped the screwdriver absently in his hand. “There should have been, yeah.”
“Then where is everybody?” The floor rumbled again. The shaking was so intense that it caused Zach to stumble sideways. He braced himself against the wall. “That’s not good.”
Before Ryker could respond, the loading bay door slid open. Zach stumbled backward, surprised. Carver and Rhea stood just outside in the hall.
Ryker brandished the screwdriver and lunged for Carver, preparing to murder him on sight.
“Wait, wait, wait!” Zach pulled Ryker back. Ryker struggled to break free. Zach grabbed him by both arms and swung him away from Carver and Rhea. “Just wait a second!”
Ryker threw the screwdriver across the loading bay with a frustrated growl. He turned and sneered at Carver. “What the fuck do you want?”
“We have a problem,” Carver began.
Ryker barked out a wild laugh. “You’re fucking right, we do.”
Zach held up his hand to silence Ryker. “What?” he asked Carver.
The ship swayed to the side again. All four of them stumbled off-balance. Rhea winced at the pain in her leg. The floor had a distinct tilt to it now—Zach found himself leaning to counterbalance against the incline.
Carver spoke quickly. He seemed uncharacteristically nervous. “The Gateway’s falling out of orbit.”
Zach and Ryker exchanged skeptical glances.
“Bullshit,” Ryker said.
“This look normal to you?” Rhea asked rhetorically, thumping her foot on the tilting floor.
“We don’t know why it’s happening,” Carver continued. “But it doesn’t matter. We need your help.” His gaze shifted to Ryker.
“My help?” Ryker just stared at him, dumbfounded. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Stop being a child and listen,” Rhea snapped.
“You just tried to kill us!”
Zach shook his head. “Space stations don’t just fall out of orbit.”
Ryker snapped at Zach. “Maybe opening a fucking door into space had something to do with it!”
Zach’s stomach dropped. Opening the massive loading bay door had sent a powerful blast of air venting into space. But could it have been enough to knock the station out of a stable orbit? It seemed impossible, but …
As if answering Zach’s question, the floor rumbled again.
“You better take a look,” Zach told Ryker.
Ryker’s jaw dropped. “Are you serious? I’m not helping these people.”
“Ryker, it’s not just them. There are hundreds of people on this station. Including us.”
Ryker glared at Carver and Rhea momentarily, then looked back at Zach. “Fine. Let’s go.”
As they entered the cockpit, another thrash of the station sent Zach stumbling.
“You okay?” Carver grabbed his arm and steadied him.
Zach nodded. “Yeah,” he replied as Carver released his grip. “Thanks.” For a brief moment, it was like none of the last few weeks had happened.
Ryker rushed over to the control module and examined the altimeter. Sure enough, it was dropping. And fast.
Carver stepped up behind Ryker to look over his shoulder. Ryker turned and grabbed Carver by the front of his jacket, yanking him closer. “This is your fault,” he muttered. Hot air whistled from his nostrils. His brow drew down. His eyes grew cold. He stared at Carver for a moment, then shoved him into a seat. “Buckle up.”
Carver straightened his jacket, smoothed his hands over his hair, then buckled his seatbelt. He watched as Ryker began tapping and swiping on the control module touchscreen. “What are you doing?”
“Stopping this.” Ryker navigated to a different screen. He glanced at Zach and Rhea. “You too. Strap in.”
Zach and Rhea each took a seat and fastened their seatbelts.
“I’m going to engage the orbital thrusters.” Ryker checked a series of boxes on a digital checklist, then flicked a few switches overhead. The Gateway convulsed again, nearly knocking Ryker off his feet.
“Why don’t you take your own advice?” Rhea called out. Zach knew she didn’t care for Ryker’s well-being; she just didn’t want their pilot to get injured. Ryker ignored her.
“Wait,” Zach said, suddenly realizing, “how are you powering the thrusters?”
Ryker shot a look over his shoulder. “With irogen.”
“What?” They barely had enough irogen to get to Alpha Cen as it was. If Ryker used it now—
Ryker must have recognized the panicked look in Zach’s eyes. “Relax,” he said. “We’ve got plenty. A drop of the stuff will put the engines on max power.” Without waiting for another objection, Ryker cranked a lever on the side of the command module as hard as he could. “Engaging thrusters.”
The ship responded with a sudden jolt. A green digital model of the thrusters appeared on the screen, confirming that they were engaged. Explosions sounded beneath the floor, reverberating one after another before harmonizing into a single, continuous blast. The sound overpowered Zach. The vibrations rattled his stomach. He felt the blood rushing from his head and pooling in his two aching feet.
For a few moments, it seemed the thrusters were doing their job.
But the station kept falling. Earth kept pulling.
Clenching his jaw, Zach peered out over the flaming ball he used to call home. Eye-shaped clouds of fire and ash gazed upon the Gateway as Earth drew the station toward its fiery demise. The station creaked and groaned like a dying whale, gradually drifting into a nosedive.
The altitude reader on the control module flashed red as its numbers continued dropping. An alarm began to sound. Standing square in front of the module, Ryker pulled the thrusters’ lever again as if they weren’t already at full strength. But they were. Ryker’s attempts were futile.
“They’re not strong enough!” Ryker shouted over the roar of the engines.
Carver’s eyes went wide. “But you said—”
“I know what I said!” Ryker planted his hands on opposite sides of the module and bowed his head in concentration.
“Are there other thrusters?” Rhea asked.
“No! No, there are no more thrusters!” shouted Ryker. He was quiet for a moment as he scanned the command module for an alternative. Then an idea struck him. “But we have a continuum drive.”
“Use it,” Carver ordered.
“Way ahead of you,” Ryker said as he scanned through the continuum drive’s preflight checklist. The glow of Earth’s flaming surface illuminated his face with a flickering orange light.
“How long will it take?” Carver prodded. He shot a look out the window. “We don’t have much time.”
“It’ll take a minute or so to generate a continuum bubble around us. After that, it’ll be instantaneous.”
Ryker’s comment sent a shockwave of realization through Zach’s body. “Hey, hold on!” Zach exclaimed. “It’ll take half our irogen just to generate the bubble. We won’t have enough to generate another to get Alpha Cen!”
“It’s either that or we die now,” said Ryker.
“Exactly,” Carver said, seemingly almost surprised to find himself agreeing with Ryker. “So, let’s just go now.”
“To Alpha Cen?” Rhea asked.
“We’ve gotta go at some point. So, let’s go.”
“There’s a planet in the way, Carver!” yelled Zach. He motioned to the window. “We’re on the wrong side.”
“So go around it!”
“We’re too close,” Rhea said quietly. She looked at Zach with a defeated frown. “Right?”
“Exactly,” Zach said.
Ryker continued referencing the checklist as he poked at the command module to bring the continuum drive online. “We have to do this.”
“Think about it, Ryker,” Zach implored. “If we can’t get to Alpha Cen, we’ll starve out here! The cryopods are offline. The hydrofarm is failing. We’ll be fucked.”
Ryker left the control module and walked over to Zach’s seat. He leaned over, hands together, as though he were praying. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re already fucked. We’re going to die. Right here. Right now.” The station pulsed violently to the right, forcing Ryker to stabilize himself with the arms of Zach’s seat. “This is our only choice. If we survive this, we’ll have time to figure something out.”
Zach pressed his lips shut and gritted his teeth. Ryker was right, and he knew it. “Fine.”
Ryker returned to the command module and began the continuum drive initiation sequence. He turned a dial, tapped the touchscreen a few times, then watched as a confirmation message flashed on the screen. He tapped it. All the lights in the cockpit turned to a deep, dark blue.
On the screen, a diagram depicting the Gateway appeared. Surrounding it was a thin bubble that traced the contours of the station. A percentage bar was displayed above the diagram, beginning at zero.
One percent.
Five.
Ten.
A jacket of reentry smoke began to wrap around the cockpit windows as speckles of light flashed at their edges. Two modules turned red on another screen that displayed a Gateway schematic. Ryker noticed it and groaned.
Eighteen percent.
“What does that mean?” Carver asked, pointing at the flashing red modules.
“They’re gone.”
“Gone?”
Ryker slapped his palm against the command module’s housing. “They’re dead, Carver! Okay?”
“Which modules are those?” Zach asked.
“Maintenance decks.” Two more in the Spark went red. The cockpit’s lights flickered. “Energy processing units. It’s okay, though. It’s okay.” His words lacked conviction.
Four more modules turned crimson. Zach couldn’t help but wonder who was inside them. How unfortunate they were. How much damage could the Gateway take before the power grid went out? No power meant no air, no water, and no hydrofarm. And no hope of survival.
“We’re still dropping,” Rhea said, her voice shaking.
“We won’t stop until the bubble’s formed and we blink away.”
Thirty percent.
The altimeter continued to plummet. The bright light of the burning Earth grew larger outside, seizing the ship in its hellish grip. Zach’s heart thudded in his neck so loud and so hard that it seemed like it would burst through his skin.
The control module began to beep as the bubble reached fifty percent.
Fifty-four.
Sixty.
Zach realized the space outside the ship was beginning to distort. The flames of Earth wagged back and forth, spinning and stretching. Distant stars grew and shrunk as they ping-ponged between points in space. After another five seconds, the stars and Earth were so blurred and deformed that it seemed like Zach was looking at them from underwater.
Three more modules turned red onscreen, causing Ryker to curse loudly. He wiped his mouth and stared at the ticking percentage bar.
Sweat cascaded down Zach’s back, gluing him to the leather seat. The ship thrashed to one side, the other, and back again.
Seventy-five percent.
Eighty.
Eighty-six.
An alarm sounded. The area connecting the Homestead to the Spark started to flash on the diagram.
“SECTOR SEPARATION IMMINENT,” a monotone voice blared.
Ninety-two.
Ninety-six.
One hundred.
The space outside turned briefly white, blinding those in the cockpit. The station thrashed one last time, then went still. The brightness slowly dissipated. Zach uncovered his eyes and gazed outside.
In the distance sat a blazing Earth, only a fraction of the size it had been a moment before. The continuum drive had worked.
Zach let out a deep breath. He unbuckled his seatbelt, rose shakily, and went to Ryker’s side. He clapped Ryker on the shoulder. “Good job.”
Ryker swiped the sweat from his forehead and nodded. “Thanks.” His voice was barely a whisper.
As Zach stared out the window at the now-distant Earth, he thought of their future. The hydrofarm couldn’t support so many people for very long, and the cryobay was still inoperable because of Carver. Without enough irogen to get them to Alpha Cen, it was only a matter of time before they starved to death.
“Now what?” Zach asked.
“Now we figure out how to get to Alpha Cen.”
Carver and Rhea rose from their seats and wiped the sweat from their foreheads.
“Take a team and check out the modules that went red,” Carver said, directing Rhea toward the airlock.
“What do we tell everyone about what happened?”
“That’s not important right now. Round up the doctors and figure out who’s hurt.”
Rhea sent a look Zach’s way before nodding. “Roger that.” She left, and the airlock thudded shut.
In the reflection of the control module’s screen, Zach watched as Carver came to the center of the cockpit. He reached inside his black jacket and pulled something out.
“Now,” Carver said.
Confused, Zach turned around to find Carver pointing a gun between him and Ryker.
“We weren’t done with our discussion before,” said Carver. “In light of what’s happened, I hope you’ll reconsider my offer, Zach.”
“Are you kidding me? We just saved you!” Ryker yelled.
Zach kept his calm despite the growing pit of anger in his stomach. “What was the offer?”
“These people aren’t your responsibility. They’re mine.” Carver tapped his chest a few times with the side of his pistol. “Either stand down or—”
“Or what?” Ryker mocked. He leaned against the control module casually. “What are you gonna do? Lock us up?”
“If it comes to that,” Carver said.
Out of the corner of his eye, Zach could see Ryker’s finger dragging across the control module, searching for something. To mask his actions, Ryker stood with both hands behind his back, his body blocking any movement of his fingertips. He subtly flicked the station-wide intercom switch. The light on the button turned green.
“Just put down the gun, Carver,” Ryker said.
Zach realized what Ryker was doing. With the open intercom, anyone on the station could theoretically hear what was happening in the cockpit. It was a call for help. “Yeah,” Zach added. “You want to talk? Let’s talk. You don’t need that thing.”
Carver lowered the gun but kept it in his hand. “I’d hope not. But I can’t let you keep causing problems for me.”
“And I can’t pretend you didn’t just try to kill us.”
“What does that matter, Zach?” Carver asked. “Do you think anybody cares?”
“Why don’t we go tell them, then?” Ryker jeered.
“And then what? What are they going to do? They don’t give a damn about you. These people owe their lives to me.”
Zach wondered if anyone was on their way to help. What if the intercom wasn’t working? What if nobody understood what was happening? Or, what if Carver was right? What if nobody cared?
Carver continued. “Like it or not, I’m in charge here.”
Ryker spat out a laugh. “And why is that?”
“Because I’m the only damn person on this station with some sensibility! I worked my ass off to get to where I am today. I didn’t have anything handed to me. I didn’t cruise through life. I put my blood, sweat, and tears into becoming the leader of these people. And here I am!”
Zach scoffed. “You got lucky,” he growled. “That’s why you’re in charge. My dad was next in line to lead OSE. If he hadn’t died on the Gateway, you wouldn’t have stood a chance.” A plan was forming in Zach’s head. His words were getting under Carver’s skin. He could tell by how Carver’s gaze darkened, flickering between anger and disgust.
“Hmm. That’s interesting.” Carver resumed a confident mask, raising his eyebrows. “And why was your dad on the Gateway, Zach?”
Zach felt his face heat up. Carver was once again going to try blaming him for what happened in Prescott, for releasing the Red Plague. He opened his mouth to defend himself. “It wasn’t—”
“As a matter of fact, why was he in Prescott in the first place?”
Zach cocked his head in confusion. Carver wasn’t blaming him. But what was he getting at then? Carver knew why Quinton had left. “Because Victor asked him to go,” Zach answered.
“Ah.” Carver nodded, his eyes tightening into a squint. “I wonder where he got that idea. I mean, Quinton was an odd choice, wasn’t he? Sending a medical doctor to run a mining colony? One with a kid. One who was next in line to take over OSE.” Carver cocked his head thoughtfully. “Why would Victor have done that?”
“I don’t…” As the pieces fell into place, Zach felt the world blurring around him. “You…”
Carver shrugged. “I didn’t agree with the mission, but if it had to happen, Quinton was the man to go. It was nothing personal. He just wasn’t the right person to run OSE. He would have cut funding to MagRes—”
“And he would have been right,” Ryker jabbed.
“No, he would not have been—”
“Look outside!” Zach pointed at the window where the flaming Earth loomed in the distance. “You sent him away for nothing. And me too!” Zach stared at Carver in disbelief. “All those years you listened to me cry about what happened…”
“Because that’s what a good person does. You needed me.”
“I needed my dad!” Zach shouted. He scowled at Carver with a burning hatred he had never felt before. “You should’ve stayed the fuck away from me.” Zach paused for a moment. His eyes narrowed. There was something about Carver’s story that didn’t add up. “What did you tell Victor?”
“About what?”
“He would’ve never let you disable the cryobay. He wouldn’t have left us to die.”
“I told him what was at stake. We couldn’t let the Red Plague get back to Earth—”
“Oh, come on!” Ryker interrupted. “You didn’t give a shit about the Red Plague.”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” Carver snapped.
Zach ignored the bickering. He was still thinking of Victor. “My dad was his best friend. He would’ve done anything to bring him home.”
Carver turned back to Zach. “Well, it’s a good thing he fell off the roof, then.”
Zach stopped breathing. His knees felt like they might buckle underneath him. “Fell?” Zach said. His voice was quiet. He furrowed his brow. “I thought he jumped.”
“Yes. That’s right.” Carver fixed Zach with a steady gaze. “He jumped.”
Ryker’s mouth hung open as he realized Carver’s slip-up. “Him too?” Carver’s eyes shifted to Ryker, but he said nothing. Ryker advanced on him. “You think you’re so smart. But look at you. You’re a failure. You’re nothing.” Carver’s grip tightened on his gun. It trembled ever so slightly in his hand. Ryker kept his eyes locked on Carver’s face. He continued walking forward. “The cryobay? You fucked that up. Leaving Zach and me to die on the Gateway? You fucked that up too.”
“Ryker,” Zach murmured.
“The magnetosphere? How’d that work out?” Ryker gestured to the burning planet in the distance. “Were you trying to make Earth look like Satan’s asshole?”
Carver lifted his chin and straightened his shoulders. “I got my people off the ground.”
Ryker scoffed. “Barely. And then what? What was your plan, exactly, without the irogen that we risked our lives to get? Which— oh!” He snapped his fingers and pointed at Carver. “You fucked that up too, didn’t you? Zach asked you to send a mission to Mars to get the irogen. And you said no.”
“Wilford,” Zach said quietly.
Ryker glanced at him. “Wilford?”
Zach stepped up next to Ryker and said to Carver, “You killed him too, didn’t you?”
“Wilford was a liar,” Carver said through clenched teeth.
“Wilford’s the reason we knew about the irogen in the first place,” Ryker pointed out.
Carver’s face clouded with confusion. “How?”
“Because someone fucked up,” Ryker said with a bemused smile. “Guess who?”
Carver gaped at Ryker for a moment, then raised his gun. “On your knees.”
Ryker chuckled. “I’m not—”
“Now!” Carver yelled and directed the barrel at Ryker’s head. “Both of you. Get on your knees and put your hands on your head.”
“Come on,” Zach said quietly. He grabbed Ryker’s sleeve and pulled him to the ground. “Just do what he says.” Zach put his hands behind his head. Ryker reluctantly did the same.
As Carver approached them, he placed the gun in his belt, then removed a bundle of zip ties from his pocket. He walked behind Zach and fastened one of the restraints around Zach’s right wrist.
Zach saw his opportunity. He drove his elbow into Carver’s knee, then tried to stand. But before he could get to his feet, Carver punched him in the head. Stars exploded in front of Zach’s eyes. He tried to catch himself as his body toppled forward, but his arms wouldn’t respond. Instead, he fell face-first onto the floor, his face impacting the cold metal with a painful clunk.
At the sight of Zach falling, Ryker jumped up and swung at Carver. His fist smashed into Carver’s jaw. Carver stumbled backward, then spat a web of blood on the ground beside Zach before delivering a blow to Ryker’s stomach. As Carver attempted another punch, Ryker blocked his arm mid-swing and tackled him. The two locked against each other, Ryker roaring and Carver delivering a few solid punches to Ryker’s midsection.
Carver’s back collided with the wall. He grunted, then head butted Ryker and pushed him away. Dazed, Ryker stumbled back against the control module. Carver drew the gun from his belt.
Zach’s brain cleared just in time to see Carver pointing the gun at Ryker. From the ground, he lunged at Carver, managing to knock Carver’s arms toward the ceiling just as he pulled the trigger. The bullet exploded a light fixture, sending a shower of sparks down on them. Zach grabbed Carver’s wrist and attempted to wrestle the gun from his hands. Carver pulled Zach closer as the two struggled for control of the weapon.
“Let… go!” Carver ordered.
Then, another gunshot rang out.
Zach froze. A piercing pain erupted in his chest. He let go of Carver’s wrists. With shocked eyes, he looked down at the rose-colored bloom of blood spreading across his shirt. His mouth fell ajar. His breathing stopped.
As the gun tumbled from his hand, Carver whispered, “No…” Then the world went black.
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