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Chapter 18
Zach Croft: 2053
Hours.
It had been hours since they tried to open the cryobay, and they were still locked out.
Zach leaned over Ryker’s shoulder, studying the lines of complex computer code scrolling on the screen. It looked like complete gibberish to him.
“Do you mind?” Ryker said without taking his eyes from the terminal.
“Sorry.” Zach stood up and backed away a few steps. “What are you looking for?”
“If I knew, I would have already found it.”
“Why don’t you check the code you patched to launch the dropship?”
Ryker pivoted in his chair and looked up at Zach, dumbfounded. “Gee, thanks, Zach. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“This is ridiculous,” Mabel said. She looked at her watch and sighed. “What happens if we can’t figure this out?”
Zach dropped into the seat next to Mabel. “Worst case? We put up with each other for a few weeks until we get to Mars.”
Mabel brightened. “Okay. That doesn’t sound so bad.”
“Speak for yourself,” Ryker said dryly as he opened another file on the terminal.
“Are you sure every cryobay on the station is locked?” Mabel asked.
Zach shook his head. “There are no other—” He stopped mid-sentence. At the same time, Ryker spun his chair around to face Zach. It seemed they both realized the same thing at the same time. Their eyes met, and a wave of mutual memories flowed between them. “Have you checked them since we were last here?” Zach asked.
“Nope.”
“Let’s pray they still work then.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Mabel slowed behind them, blowing a curl out of her face.
“There are more pods. Not many. But more than zero,” Zach said, smiled, and clapped the side of her shoulder. “Come on.”
On their way to the storage room, Mabel hounded Zach for information.
“Why are they there?” Mabel asked.
“I have no idea. All I know is that Ryker and I were the first—and last—people to use them.”
“But they work just as well as the ones in the cryobay?”
If they didn’t work properly, he and Ryker would have been turned into ice cubes as kids. “Well, we’re alive.”
“And Plague free,” Ryker added.
They had Zach’s father to thank for that. They had his father to thank for knowing the pods existed in the first place.
“And the other colonists—did they know about these pods?” Mabel brought up.
“Not that I know of,” Zach answered.
They descended several flights to C Deck, then entered a large storage room. Zach walked to the center of the room, knelt beside a floor panel, yanked on the plate, and slid it aside. As expected, a set of controls were hidden beneath it. Zach tapped on the touchscreen, navigating through options until he found the one he wanted. A few seconds later, the floor on the far side of the room completely retracted into the wall.
Ten cryopods arose in its place, and for a brief instant, Zach could see himself climbing into one. Not now, of course, but as a child. Zach glanced back at Ryker, who had a similar look about him, caught up in his own memories.
Something occurred to Zach, and he couldn’t help but ask, “Ryker, you knew these pods were here. Why didn’t you use them? Instead of living alone all those years?”
Ryker gave a small, sad smile. “I wanted my rescuers to be able to find me.”
Not knowing what else to say, Zach walked up to the pods. “Let’s just get this over with.”
He crouched beside one and tapped the disengage switch. As the pod slid open, he squinted through a cloud of gas.
“You’re sure this is safe?” Mabel asked.
“Definitely.”
With a final worried look, Mabel climbed into her pod and closed the lid. Zach sat beside her as ice crystals produced a frame around her face.
“The bodies are still there, Zach. In Prescott,” Ryker suddenly said. “The colony’s gonna be a graveyard.”
Zach considered it. “We’re standing in a graveyard. Prescott’s not gonna be any worse than being here.” He knew that was a lie, but what else was he supposed to say?
“Very reassuring.” With a shake of his head, Ryker approached his pod and got in. “Thaw me out when we get there?”
“You got it.”
Zach waited for Ryker to freeze over, then climbed into the third pod. The hood clicked into place, and an ice-cold gas began pumping in from all sides. He used his last few seconds of consciousness to look at his friends through the pod’s glass wall.
They both seemed so peaceful. Zach drummed his fingers against his leg, swearing to do Prescott justice. He’d make sure the colonists hadn’t died in vain.
Zach turned his head to the other side to gaze into the empty chambers beside him. But as he squinted through the glass, his heart stopped. Not because of cryo. Not because of his fear of returning to Prescott.
Because there was someone in the next pod.
It was a young man with his arms crossed over his chest. He had a short beard. Sunken cheeks. A yellowed jumpsuit.
Zach gasped as panic seized him. He pressed up on the lid of his cryopod, but it was already locked. He tried commanding the Gateway to let him out, but cryogenic gas filled his lungs and froze his vocal cords.
As his consciousness slipped away, he looked at the man in the pod next to him one last time. Embroidered on the man’s sleeve was a series of simple block letters.
PRESCOTT COLONY // PRISONER
Nicolas Carver: 2053
He’s dead. And I killed him.
It seemed unbelievable, yet there Carver was, standing amidst the wreckage of Zach’s dropship. No bodies had been found yet, but no one could have survived such a catastrophic explosion. Every inch of the dropship had been engulfed in flames. Every piece of shrapnel was charred and melted, forged by the blast into twisted shapes that jutted from the loose earth.
Smoke poured from the debris, blanketing the sky and blocking out the orange light of the sinking sun. Through the smog, Carver could see blue and red flashing lights. Fire trucks slammed their brakes at the entrance to the park. Cops strung yellow tape between trees as onlookers watched in horror.
All Carver wanted was to bring Zach home. But in so doing, he had gotten Zach killed.
Zach was like a son to him. A stubborn, arrogant, disobedient son, but still a son. Carver had watched him graduate elementary school, had coached his sports teams, had helped fund school field trips when Sarina Keaton was too tight on money, had paid Zach’s way through college, and had landed him a job at OSE. Initially, Carver’s support was a way for him to keep a close eye on Zach, but eventually, he began to genuinely care about the kid.
Carver didn’t have any children, but he felt like he could be a better father than his own dad had ever been. The past few weeks had proven to Carver that he had failed. Despite his efforts, Zach had turned out more like Quinton: strong-willed, refusing to back down, always doing what he thought was right no matter the cost.
In a way, Carver understood why Zach did what he did—he honestly thought going to Mars was the only way to save lives. He never considered that he could be wrong.
Carver’s head pounded as he stepped over a patch of smoldering grass. Waves of guilt washed over him. Not for his hand in Zach’s death—not entirely—but rather for the fact that he saw the light in it.
With Zach gone, his problems were solved.
The entire Prescott chapter—the colony, Exodus, the Red Plague, Victor, Quinton, Ryker—was closed. It was over. Every loose end was tied up. There was nobody left to challenge him. To question him. To stop him.
Carver hated himself for seeing the bright side in Zach’s demise, but he couldn’t deny that the positives could outweigh the negatives in the long run. He’d feel terrible for a time, but eventually, things would return to normal. MagRes would continue. The solar flares would be stopped. Billions of lives would be saved. All of Carver’s struggle, all of his sacrifice, all the tough choices he had to make… it would all be worth it in the end.
Carver’s eyes drifted to an ambulance stationed by the playground. It sat still, back doors wide open, with a woman wrapped up in a blanket sitting on the tailgate: Cora. Her eyes were glazed over and vacant. An EMT wiped her forehead with a wet rag, consoling her.
Carver headed in Cora’s direction. When he reached the ambulance, he sat down beside Cora. She didn’t acknowledge him. She tightened the gray blanket around her shoulders and watched blades of grass lean in the breeze. Soot covered her face, only thinning in the spots where the EMT had wiped her brow.
“Were you here when it happened?” Carver asked.
Cora answered with a nod. She was silent for a minute, then asked, “Why were they coming back?” Her voice was raw and scratchy.
“What do you mean?”
Cora swallowed, adjusting her hair. “They were headed for the Gateway. Why’d they come back?”
Carver couldn’t tell her that they hadn’t chosen to come home. That he’d allowed Rhea to hack their autopilot and change their course back to OSE. “Maybe they realized going to Mars wouldn’t help anything.”
Cora shook her head. “There was no changing his mind.” She slowly peeled off one side of the blanket and revealed a scrap of burgundy fabric. The letters HARV were written across it in white. “I found it in the wreckage.”
Carver felt a knot forming in his throat. He struggled to find the necessary words. Ultimately, he could only muster, “What do we do now?”
Cora stared at the smoldering grass in the distance. “We pray that he was wrong.”
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