Colonization (The Seamus Chronicles Book 3) (11 page)

“Lets keep this between us for now okay? If everyone had a gun it might be okay, but just one could be trouble.” His face is contorted in thought.

Being a nursemaid is not my strong suit. Grace agreed to go on our trip to the sunken space plane but she needed rest. I took over for her and have been sitting vigil with Sofie and Jake.

Grace says I should just talk to her. Tell her about my childhood, hopes and dreams, she said. That took about two minutes. I was a loner nerd who dreamed of inventing a dark energy reactor, she already knew that.

I find myself more interested in Jake. “Why were you out of your seat when we were landing?” I ask his still barely breathing body.

He was probably standing to stretch his legs or something totally mundane, but I feel like there’s a mystery. Now that I am moderately confident that there is sentient life on this planet, I wonder if he saw a city or other type of encampment. Wouldn’t that make things even weirder?

My mind races off into a fictional world with aliens and amazing cities. They have a protective shield similar to the one I am trying to implement. But they have it tuned to perfection. It traps the right amount of heat and warmth to keep it comfortable all the time. It’s like an artificial and configurable ozone layer.

“Yoo hoo, Seamus.” Liam snaps his fingers around my head.

My brother is holding Remmie and has a dumb grin plastered in his face.

“What.” I don’t like it when he feels superior to me.

“Cassie thinks she can collect enough parts of a reactor to make a second one or at least have spares. There was also a ton of food in their plane that we could sure use. We’re heading back there on a supply run. Mom wants you to watch Remmie too while she gets some sleep.” Liam has never been this good at relaying information.

“Who’s Cassie?” I always have to ask him questions.

“Cassandra. She hates it but agreed to let me call her that if I help her carry reactor stuff.” He answers and winks.

“Wait, is ‘we’ everyone?” I’m starting to understand his plan more.

“Well, everyone from the other plane. I guess you and Grace are going on some mission and mom is going to stay here with Remmie and the invalids.” My brother thinks he’s funny.

“They’re sick, not invalid. I’m glad there will be bodies to carry supplies. Can you look for tools? Any kind will be useful for something.” I tell him

“Yeah, mom gave me a long list of priorities. Tools are definitely on it.” Liam smiles.

“I have to get moving, they may have already started to head out. I just wanted to stop and say good bye to you.” Liam is fidgeting more than normal.

“Thanks man. And be careful. I don’t know what’s making all that noise in the jungle, but let’s assume we’re not ready to meet just yet.” Every good feeling I have ever had for my brother wells up in my head.

It’s a little confusing, all he has to do is walk and carry stuff. Nothing about his task is dangerous, except for the unknown. Yet we both seem nervous about things.

Maybe he’s nervous about hinting at feelings for Cassandra? There may be some reason he thinks he has to check with me for it to be okay?

I never thought about romance among our group. Well, at least not about anyone other than Sofie and me. It makes some sense that people would start to get emotionally involved. There is stress, close quarters, and it’s a normal reaction for people in our type of situation.

Reproduction is going to be important. If we are to keep the human race going every available female is going to need to have a child, preferably multiple. Otherwise this whole thing was a waste. The human race dying in ten years is no worse than if it had died out a few days ago.

“Will you have kids with me?” I ask Sofie’s motionless body.

I blush at the thought. If she had heard me what would I say? My head whips around, what if mom or dad was close by and I didn’t notice them? Clinically speaking, it’s the right thing to do, but I still feel nervous about it.

“Maybe we should get a nice tent together first. If we can’t even spend a couple of days cramped together in a tent, how would we raise a child together?” I talk more freely now that I know no one is listening.

She looks so peaceful lying there on a makeshift pad under a huge leathery leaf. It’s mostly her face that peeks out, and I watch for a moment as the leaf lifts slightly and then falls with her breath.

Sleep would be brilliant. I am the kind of exhausted that comes after weeks of working too hard. Physically and mentally spent, I don’t want to set off on another mission that will only lead to a second, more difficult mission.

Lowering myself to my hands and knees I crawl around to Sofie’s back. Gently I slide in behind her and underneath the leaf. My arm goes over her midsection carefully, and I pull my self in to spoon her. She’s not going to wake up, but if she does I want to make sure I’m close.

It’s warm under the leaf. I feel safe and a smile creeps across my face. This feels right, is my last thought as I drift off to slumber.

“Seamus, we’re up. Let’s go.” Grace is tapping me on the forehead.

“Huh?” I have no idea where we are.

“Come on, dad and Henry want to shove off. We don’t want to be on the water in the heat of the day. Kiss her on the cheek and let’s go.” My sweet sister is all business.

We are looking for a needle in a haystack. The idea that we will be able to find a buoy in open water with no navigation is ridiculous. The sun will be up soon and we should be already paddling back, but we haven’t even been in the water yet.

I’m supposed to be scanning the horizon for any sight of a life raft, but I’m easily distracted. My eyes wander to the water beneath us. It is so pure and clear. There is no sediment, plant life, or even hints of animals. I wonder if it is potentially heavy water that is too radioactive for life. But we have been drinking it without issue since we arrived, so it is not likely.

Even without seeing life I’m scared to have my sister diving to the depths of this lake. Out here so far from shore I wonder if we should call it an ocean. The nuance is kind of irrelevant, so I catch myself before wondering out loud.

“There!” Grace shouts. Of course my sister spotted the unspottable.

“Great work honey.” Dad congratulates her.

Knowing the location is almost worse than searching. We paddle furiously but progress is slow. Our octagonal rubber craft was designed to drift and keep bodies above the water, not to be rowed around open expanses with efficiency.

When we finally get within a few meters dad stops paddling and starts to gather the rope. Grace also stops paddling and begins to stretch out, though I imagine her muscles are already loose from paddling.

The life raft was a false finish line. There is a ton of slack in the line and dad begins the process of pulling it in hand over hand. He tires before I expect and Henry takes over. It is my turn too soon and I look up at the sun baking down on the three of us.

When my father takes over I start to ponder the second life raft. If we flip it on top of us it can act as a shade and block us from the sun. The trade off will be baking in a solar oven, but perhaps we can circulate enough water to stay reasonably comfortable.

“If anyone is searching for a positive thought, maybe it’s that the water level is lower and it will be easier to reach the wreck?” I postulate.

Our plan has gone to hell. It’s late morning and we are not even above the wreckage. We must be close, but there is almost no way to know for sure.

We are again attempting the absurd. My sister is about to risk her life to salvage a piece of mid-twentieth century technology. We are salvaging an antique device that may well turn out to be the key to the survival of the human race.

“We’re there.” Henry calls out.

I’m glad I didn’t have to pull in any more rope. My arms are on fire and I feel like I could vomit at any time. As far as my physical conditioning has come I am still not ‘in shape.’

“Good luck sweetheart.” Dad kisses Grace on the head and she tumbles over the side.

There should be more; more something to signify that we understand the risk. More love shown to my sister.

“I can see the plane. It doesn’t seem that far.” Grace is back with her head bobbing on the surface of the water.

“Be careful in there. The load could have shifted while the plane sunk.” Dad is all business and I am surprised at the lack of fear in his voice.

“I never went in the space plane. You said it was small inside?” Grace should have asked this question while we were paddling.

“Yes, when you go through the door turn right. That’s the area we used for cargo. They had some canned food and water, but based on what they got into the other raft it should be pretty empty.” Dad explains.

“Grace.” I get her attention. “You don’t have to get the generator on your first dive. Scope things out and then come back up.”

“No worries!” My sister is bubbly and confident before she submerges.

We watch the rope tense up between the surface and the space plane. There is silence. as if we are listening for a cry for help if there were need for one. The length of rope she brought down with her stops moving and the seconds tick past. I have no timer with me, but it feels like she has been under for well over a minute.

Dad peers down into the water intently. He is motionless and expressionless. Henry has closed his eyes and may actually be sleeping. My hands and feet are restless, twitching and bouncing on the surface of the raft.

After what I am guessing is three minutes I roll over the side of the raft and into the water.

“Seamus, wait.” Dad speaks firmly from the raft.

“I have go help her.” I don’t know what I can do, but I need to try.

“No. She needs another minute and then I’ll go. You’re a terrible swimmer, and if Grace couldn’t make it you won’t either.” Dad’s voice is suddenly hoarse.

An eternity passes in a matter of seconds.

Two tugs on the second rope signals dad to start pulling.

Emotions can ruin even the greatest minds. It’s hard for me to believe that I didn’t think about an air pocket in the space plane. Dad has a mixed story about assuming that’s how Grace was able to stay under for so long and how he got used to waiting nervously for her to surface when she swam.

We are paddling in with the tide and our pace is strong. It feels like one of the first breaks we have gotten in a while. The sun is high and torturous but we feel safe rolling into the water to cool off.

“Do you think mom picked a spot for a cemetery?” Grace asks.

“Hopefully we won’t need one for a while!” I hope she’s not having negative thoughts about Sofie’s chance for survival.

“Well, we already need one. Remember the life raft that brought us the printer and the note on the location of the space plane?” Dad says grimly.

My tunnel vision may be my undoing someday. I’m so focused on Sofie and getting the reactor working again that I have forgotten about others making huge sacrifices.

“And there should be a marker for the person still in the space plane.” Grace adds somberly.

I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to swim into a submerged craft and see a corpse, probably still buckled into their seat. I’m not sure I could have stayed there and kept searching for the generator. Yet my sister, who I some times call too emotional, was able to catch breaths from an air pocket and find what we needed. Strength comes in many forms.

At this point all of the Robinsons are in the water. Henry is in the raft navigating and keeping us headed towards shore.

He kneels up suddenly and shades his eyes with his right hand. From where I am in the water I can’t see what he’s looking at, but it must be significant.

“What is it?” Dad asks.

“Looks like another monolith.” Henry responds mesmerized.

We have explored so little of this planet. Based on the length of the days I believe that it is larger than Earth. There are generations of discoveries to be made but I don’t think this is one of them.

“Can you see the tail of our plane? Should be off to your left about ten o’clock.” I say to Henry.

His head turns slightly and I can tell he’s searching.

“There.” Henry points.

I can’t see it from my spot in the water but I don’t need to.

“So you knew about this monolith?” Henry asks.

“Yeah, Sofie and I saw it just before she got sick and the rising tide.” I answer.

“You’re something else kid.” Henry shakes his head.

Mom and Remmie and Sofie and Jake were all asleep when we got back to shore. I’m glad they were able to get some rest. The others still have not returned from their supply run.

Dad and I work at setting up the generator and the 3-D printer. It frustrates me that we have these tools but no manuals. Wasting energy on trial and error frustrates me. There is a right way to do things and this is not it. But it’s the only option we have.

While there aren’t rocks and roots the soil is uneven. The generator platform is narrow and we struggle to make it steady. I can’t see a battery on the unit so I doubt that we can store electricity, it’s use it or lose it.

When we finally get it together and working to a point that we can hand crank the pedals I flop down in the seat. My feet clumsily find the pedals and I start to crank. The needle showing volts does not move. I reach forward and tap it, like somehow that makes gauges work. My legs pump again and I can feel the fly wheel spinning but still nothing registers.

A loud snort erupts from my dad’s mouth and I look over to see him sound asleep. He has a wrench in one hand and pliers in another.

I climb off the seat and heft my body over to the front of the generator. There must be a loose connection, I just need to find it and fix it. Tracing the wires leads me to the prone position so that I can see the underside. A bead of sweat rolls down my forehead and into my eye. The sting of the salt shuts my eyes reflexively.

It feels nice to have my eyes closed.

The shaking wakes me. In my dream it was Liam messing around with me. We were at home and I was in my bed after an all nighter working on my reactor. Mom wants us to go to Grandma’s house for something. I was confused about why she would send Liam to wake me when she knows we fight all the time.

It wasn’t my brother though; it was the ground shaking me.