Genesis (The Exodus Trilogy) (16 page)

“I just don’t know what kind of family man I would be. You don’t even know my real name; everything you see before you is really just lies wrapped within new lies.” He exhaled, wondering if he’d been too frank. “But I do love you, Maria. Really, I do.” She was still staring intently at her feet, and it struck him.
What sort of fool are you?
He cursed himself.

“What am I saying? Of course I could see starting a family with you!” She looked up again. “After the war…” he began.

“Thomas, I’m pregnant.” The way she blurted it out caused Thomas to skip a heartbeat. Pregnant. With a baby. His baby. His jaw dropped.

“What, how did that… I mean…” he stumbled along, mixing words and thoughts, confusing thoughts racing through his mind.

“I’m pregnant, Thomas. I’m carrying your child,” Maria repeated, voice throaty, emotional. Her eyes were waiting for his response, but he couldn’t find words to express how he felt. Instead, he smiled broadly and embraced her. The tension left her, and she relaxed in his arms. In that moment, everything felt right.

George Havelar

His office felt smaller than it had. Although he could remove his mask and breathe freely in the administration building, the air was more stale, or so it seemed. The man in front of him was giving him the silent treatment, waiting for Havelar to speak, as if breaking the silence made him weaker, less self-composed. Havelar thought it was ridiculous. It might work on others, but he wasn’t just anybody. He’d met some tough negotiators throughout the years, and he recognized the tactic. He smiled, but remained silent, watching his opponent study him. As ridiculous as this game was, he could still play it, too.

“Mr. Havelar, I think you misunderstand something,” the Chinzhoi leader finally said. “You say you have come to negotiate the terms of your surrender. But one does not negotiate surrender; one surrenders, and hopes for mercy.” Havelar cocked his head and scratched his beard. Thankfully, they had uncuffed him once they had frisked him, making sure he was carrying no hidden weapons.

“So you want submission,” Havelar stated, biting the inside of his cheek. It was as he expected. No way to threaten these people to the negotiating table. But he had to play along, if only for a few more minutes.

“But wouldn’t you rather we submit willingly, and commit to an agreement, ending the war between our peoples?” he asked, and paused just long enough for his opponent to lean forward, about to give an answer, before Havelar continued, interrupting the Chinzhoi.

“Of course, everyone can see you are militarily superior, and all we can hope for is to be a nuisance. But a determined insurgent can be a nuisance for years, eventually wearing down even a stronger opponent. If, on the other hand, you give them a certain level of self determination in return for their loyalty, that can go a long way.” He paused again, waiting.
How long is this going to take?
he thought. He was pretty good with technology, and thought he had everything right, but still there were a number of factors that could ruin everything. If he’d had someone like Thomas to work with him, he’d know for certain, but neither Thomas nor anyone else for that matter could be told. No one could know. Only he had the determination, the total disregard for legacy to do what he was about to. No, he would keep talking.

“Really? You think your little colony will be able to wear us down? When you’re barely able to sustain yourselves?” The Chinzhoi leader laughed, a mirthless laughter that never reached his eyes.

Havelar felt the switch between his toes, poking into his skin. It didn’t matter. He had planned carefully, knowing that a thorough search would give him up. But when he had presented himself as an official envoy, speaking on behalf of the Aurorans, he had gambled on being patted down, possibly stripped, even of his shoes, but nothing more thorough than that. As long as he got to keep his socks, his deadly secret would remain hidden. And it had. Now, as soon as the connection could be made and the sequence initiated, he would have the upper hand, and there would be no return. No one would be able to stop him as long as he could work up the courage. After that, it would only be a matter of seconds. He grinned.

The Chinzhoi leader stopped, puzzlement apparent on his face. Something buzzed quietly between his toes, and Havelar knew he had won.

“What are you smiling at? Do you take me for a fool?” The Chinzhoi said, his voice quivering. “Don’t you understand? Submission is your only chance of survival. If you don’t surrender immediately, you will all die. You see, we don’t need you. We just want this planet; what happens to you is irrelevant to us.” Havelar exhaled, and felt a curious calm, warmth spreading throughout his entire body.

“Oh, but you are so wrong. It is you who will die. In fact, you are already as good as dead. You just don’t know it yet,” he said, and closed his eyes.

“Father, forgive me for I have sinned…” he whispered in Spanish, the language of his father, and squeezed the switch hard. He heard the Chinese leader shout something. One second. A guard burst in through the door. Two seconds. Something grabbed at his arm. Three seconds.

A bright light flashed before his closed eyes. And everything ended.

Tina hammer

“Why on earth did he sneak out like that?” Isabella asked, although she didn’t seem to expect an answer. Tina had no answer to give, just a prickle in the back of her head, a gnawing feeling that everything was worse than everyone thought. They were at the southernmost outpost in the foothills of the Rockies, and below them the rolling hills looked serene, peaceful even. Cancri bathed everything in a warm midday glow, and if she closed her eyes, she was able to recall memories of summer days back on Earth, in a forgotten time, before the world ended. Tina opened her eyes and shook it off. It was beautiful on the surface, but she knew better. Somewhere out there, troops were preparing for the final push north, the one that would swallow them all, and make them subjects of the Chinese, or rather their depraved offspring.

“Maybe he just wanted to be left alone; after all, he’s taking one big risk here,” she said absently. Everyone knew George Havelar might be sacrificing himself for nothing. The plan depended on him being able to get inside the administration building, or at least close enough to activate the link, enabling the nukes to be controlled from the Stronghold. The plan was to force the Chinese to the negotiating table, with nukes to back them up. Tina wasn’t sure she believed the plan had any chance at all, but no one had come up with a better one.

“I just hope they don’t shoot him on sight. They don’t seem too interested in talking,” Thomas said as he laid down his binoculars. He was sitting by a control panel, waiting for the signal. Once it came, it would make him the most powerful man on Aurora, able to inflict incomprehensible damage with the touch of a finger. Tina wouldn’t have had it any other way; this was a man she would trust with anything. She thought of the former governor who by now would be in contact with their enemies. She would have put more hope into an incursion by Thomas and his team, but even that would have been a long shot. Letting Havelar play the surrendering governor, just to get close enough? One bullet, one over-eager soldier, or just plain lack of interest by weary men with guns might end that plan in an instant.

“He’s probably being held at gun point right now,” Isabella Solis said quietly. Tina knew Isabella and her late husband, Ramon, had been friends with Havelar for years back on Earth. Isabella was probably a bit more worried about him than the rest of them. Personally, Tina didn’t care one bit for the man who had so much blood on his hands. If it hadn’t been for the invasion, she would have demanded his trial as soon as she’d laid hands on him. Of course, if it hadn’t been for the invasion, he would probably have been safely back in Fort Andrews by now, with an army coming north toward them, prepared to end the war and bring what Havelar called the “colony” under his control. She bit the inside of her cheek, remembering her friend and commander of the Exodus, Admiral Greg Hamilton, who had been a great military mind and would have been a great leader for Aurora. Havelar was the one ultimately responsible for the massacre on the Trickler, where Greg and so many other good men and women had died. No, she held no sympathy for the man who was now likely negotiating to meet the leader of their common enemy. Still, she hoped he succeeded. They all depended on it.

A sudden blinding flash to the south made her squint, and gnawing fear suddenly burst into horrified realization as she watched the mushroom cloud rise into the air.

Thomas dunn

It was by far the most frightening sight he’d ever seen. And no matter how many times he’d seen it on screen, or seen pictures of it in books, nothing could have prepared him for the ominous cloud that rose in front of them. The horizon to the south was rapidly turning a warm red, as if the sky itself were on fire, and the scattered clouds around seemed to be sucked into the mushroom cloud, as if it were a tornado. But even the most powerful tornado couldn’t compare to the devastating force of a nuclear bomb.

In the back of his mind, Thomas wondered if it was one or both of the weapons that had been detonated. It didn’t matter though. The destruction was complete. George Havelar had pushed the button, and instead of using the weapons to force the Chinzhoi invaders to the negotiating table, he had annihilated them in one single blow, like one of the suicide bombers back in the twenty-first century. And although Thomas immediately knew the meaning of it, that he was witnessing the war coming to an abrupt end, he also knew that humanity’s most vicious invention had once again reared its ugly head. Nuclear weapons, once used, would be seen as an effective means instead of as the ultimate deterrent. And even if they kept out of the contaminated zone for the coming decades, there would still be fallout somewhere, with unpredictable consequences. He hoped Maria had the sense to take precautions, as the wind might turn and carry its deadly particles north instead of east. He shivered, thinking of his pregnant girlfriend, and his unborn child.

“He did it,” Tina whispered. “That crazy sonofabitch did it.” The military commander of the Aurorans looked baffled, as if she had a hard time understanding what had just happened. Thomas knew the feeling. He had wondered why Havelar had left early, but he really had believed that he was still going along with the plan. But of course, George Havelar had always gone wherever he planned on going, done whatever he planned on doing, no matter what everyone else thought. Or whoever opposed him. That was what had made him the most successful business leader of the twenty-first century, and it was one of the reasons 1600 people had escaped Earth’s darkest hour to come here.

“Oh, George, what have you done…” Isabella said. Thomas looked at her as she stared at the rising cloud, a single tear running down her cheek. He saw the pain on her face, the pain of losing a friend, as well as the relief of knowing this changed everything. All he wanted to do was tell her she would soon become a grandmother, and that, despite what he suspected was ultimately a form of recklessness, Havelar’s final act might be the one single thing that would give her grandchild a future.

He was certain they were far enough away from the blast for it to be of any immediate danger to them, but Thomas was eager to get back to the Stronghold. The more he looked at that image of hell forming right before his eyes, the more he wanted to turn away. And at the same time, he found it hard to avert his eyes from it all.
So this is what hell looks like
, he thought, as he remained still, captivated by the sight. And the mushroom cloud kept on rising, higher and higher.

Maria solis

Maria was packing her bag in the dim light of her bedroom, preparing to go north again. She worried about radioactive fallout, but Doc Bowers had assured her that, as long as she took precautions to avoid rain or drinking unfiltered water, her baby would be fine. He’d said, with the current wind patterns, most of the fallout would go east, toward the sea. Even if the winds turned, any possible danger to her unborn child was manageable, and he’d promised to monitor her baby closely. Still, she worried. A nuclear weapon had been detonated far too close for comfort, and there was no way she could not worry about such a thing.

She was angry with George. She knew he had done bad things in the past, and even though this last act was one of both bravery and selflessness, it was the one that made her the angriest. She had thought this a thing of the past, and images of the smoldering ruins of Seattle, victim of the first and last nuclear terrorist act, were brought to life by these recent events.

Fort Andrews, the town where they had first landed, their first settlement of Aurora, was now a radioactive wasteland. Eventually, they would clean up the radiation, but it would take time, and it might not even be a top priority, with so many other things to do.

The invasion was effectively halted, though. Most of the invasion force had been vaporized in the blast, and the remaining enemies seemed to realize their defeat. Tina had ordered the troops from the Stronghold south shortly after witnessing the detonation, but so far, they remained north of the Trickler. There would be no more fighting. The Chinzhoi that were still alive would be allowed to leave, as long as they left quietly. From what she could tell, there would finally be peace; it was time to build the human refuge they had set out for so long ago.

It was important that Maria went north as soon as possible, though. The Akhab were in an uproar. With the comms working again, Kim, who had gone north just before George had blown up Fort Andrews, had radioed her and told her everything about it. From what she could tell, the Akhab saw this as an attack on Aurora itself. Kim had said they were hurt beyond forgiveness by this neglect, and unsure whether they could trust the humans anymore. As the one who had built the closest relationship to the Akhab, she had to go talk to them. She had to explain the complexity of what had happened.

And it was complex, and difficult to relate to, even for her. On the one hand, it was an act that would protect both humans and Akhab, and even the planet, from those who would exploit them. And the environmental effects would, given time, diminish. There was no doubt that the invasion would have been worse on the Akhab, had it succeeded, and the humans would most certainly have been enslaved. On the other hand, it was a Pandora’s box, that once opened could never again be closed. Nuclear weapons had not only been introduced to this planet, but had also been used to solve a conflict. It would be easy to do it again, should a grave enough threat appear again in the future.

She had to make the Akhab understand that this had been the act of one man. Although the Akhab could seem primitive, she suspected they would have a vital role in the future of Aurora, and she wanted nothing more than to see humans and Akhab live and work together. She sighed. She felt inadequate in the role of peacemaker, but she also realized she was the one who had to do it, since the Akhab, for some reason, seemed to hold her in near reverence. She was the one they had chosen to paint, to give a place in their collective memory, for future generations to learn of. It was difficult for her to comprehend, but the Akhab had chosen her. So she would have to be the one to speak for them; to make sure their voice was heard.

She had a few more things to do before she left. There was supposed to be a meeting later tonight, concerning Chinzhoi prisoners. She didn’t know anything more, but Kenneth had been adamant that she ought to be there. Also, she needed to see her father’s grave. She hadn’t been there for a while, and now that the immediate threat was gone, she needed the serenity of his final resting place to think. And to tell him how she felt; she knew in her heart he was listening, wherever he was. Hopefully, she would get a good night’s sleep, and in the morning, before leaving the Stronghold, she would walk over there. However urgent her mission was, this was something she needed to do.

Kenneth taylor

Maria started as Kenneth knocked. The door was open, so he stepped through, but not before alerting her of his presence. He noticed the bag and nodded approvingly. It was important to remain on good terms with the Akhab, and from what he could tell, Maria was the one to repair what had been broken.

“I see you are getting ready,” he said. Maria smiled at him. Ever since their first conversation, when he was still uneasy about her, being the daughter of Ramon and Isabella Solis, with their close ties to Havelar, he had liked her. She had something so very… decent and honest and good about her. He suspected that was the reason the Akhab had immediately chosen her, as it seemed. One day, he hoped to go north to see the murals and meet these special creatures, but for now, he could think of no one he trusted more to smooth things over with the Akhab than her.

He closed the door behind him, muffling the sounds of celebration that pervaded across the small community. He suspected it would continue throughout the night. And this time, there was truly reason to celebrate, though there were still unresolved issues, such as the one Maria was going to try sorting out.

“I’m actually looking forward to it,” she said. “I think I understand them, and I believe I can help them see that the Akhab would have faced a worse fate if the Chinzhoi had won.” Kenneth found a chair and sat down. Then, to his own surprise, he chuckled.

“Never thought I’d have to face negotiations with aliens,” he said. Maria came and sat down next to him.

“They didn’t teach you that at Harvard, did they?” she said, smiling. He shook his head.

“No, they didn’t.” He remained silent for a moment, waiting for her to say something. When she didn’t, he took a deep breath and continued.

“Did you know I was once a student at the Space Academy? Before the Mars incident?” Her reaction surprised him, as she smiled briefly.

“I wondered when you would tell me,” she said. He cocked his head.

“Thomas told me. I didn’t think it was a secret, but you never seemed to want to talk about it.” He nodded slowly.

“Yes. I guess I must have told him. And no, it wasn’t a secret; I just don’t tell people, most of the time. It doesn’t seem important. Besides, I washed out. Did he tell you that?” Maria shook her head. They shared a moment of silence again, until she spoke.

“What happened?” she asked quietly. Kenneth thought for a second. He’d never told anyone, not even after he came out as a subversive, a dissident. The pain was still there, dulled by years, but never gone. He had always thought he’d take his secret to the grave. But there was something about Maria Solis that made him want to tell everything, like a confession.

“It was a different time, back then. Before our nation changed. Before everything changed,” he began. He stared out at the half-packed bag. Here he was, light-years away and more than a century and a half later, and it still pained him to talk about it.

"And I was a different man.” Maria didn’t say anything; she just sat there, listening. He sighed.

“It was a Friday. We had been waiting all week for one of our greatest heroes to come and give a lecture. Gregory Caldwell, head of mission control on the first manned Mars expedition. The Academy worked us pretty hard, but after the lecture we’d been let off early, so a few of us had gone out to have a few beers and just blow off some steam. We were all excited from the lecture; we all saw ourselves taking part in the next great adventure, the Martian colony. It was quite a night, spirits high and credit cards loose. The beer flowed freely…

When we were about to drive back to campus that night, our designated driver had had a few beers, as well. Quite a few, actually. Enough so that I offered to take the wheel, even though I’d had a couple of beers myself. Stupid, of course, but that’s a young man’s thinking.” He smiled, staring off into nothing.

“Terry, the driver, insisted that he was sober enough, and I didn’t argue. After all, it was just a short drive. And I had my mind on other things. So we all drove off, five friends, among the nation’s elite, ready to reach for the stars. We were invincible, on our way to fame and fortune, ready to explore the next frontier.” He trailed off.

“Next thing I knew, I was lying in a hospital bed. The doctors told me I’d be able to walk again, but I’d never become an astronaut. They also told me I should count myself lucky. I was the only survivor.” He paused, and took a deep breath.

“Yeah, lucky me… My best friends were gone, and I blamed myself. Terry should never have been allowed to drive; I should have stopped him. The only good thing was that no one else had been hurt. We’d missed a turn, and crashed into the foundations of a bridge.” Maria sat on the edge of her seat, listening intently, and he smiled, a sad smile.

“I was allowed to retain my place in the Academy, even though I was partly to blame, allowing Terry to drink and drive. After all, NASA needed engineers and mission controllers, and experts in every field there was. And I’d been at the top of my class, so I guess they bent the rules a bit to let me stay on. There was just one problem, though.” He sighed.

“I didn’t want any of that; being an astronaut had been my only goal, and having failed that, I began a downward spiral of drinking, partying, skipping class, and finally flunking out. It took me years to accept that I had to find a new purpose.”

“You know the rest of the story. I eventually pulled myself together and managed to get into Harvard on a scholarship and began a new, different life there. If it hadn’t been for Devastator, I’d still be there. Well, if you rewind a century and then some, that is.” He smiled.

“You’re still sad about it, aren’t you?” Maria said. He nodded.

“Even though it saved your life?” Again, he nodded. If he hadn’t been involved in the crash, he’d certainly have been among the colonists to Mars. The mission that ended in disaster, and effectively halted the U.S.-led expansion into space. The failure that paved the road for a new America, the dystopia created by Presidents Holloway and Andrews and their followers.

“It’s just a wound that’s never quite healed. Makes no sense, really.” He chortled.

“And it’s something I’ve always been ashamed of. But mostly I feel sad about those four kids, my friends, who never got to live their lives. I do recognize that, if it hadn’t happened, we’d likely have been dead anyway, just a few years later. And besides, it did put me on the path that ended up here, on Aurora.”

“Where we almost destroyed ourselves,” Maria said quietly. He nodded.

“The Akhab will want a complete ban on nuclear weapons, and much as we’d all like it, with the Chinzhoi out there, we need those terrible weapons as a deterrent. After all, nukes can never be un-invented,” he said. She didn’t answer, so he continued, glad to be able to talk about something other than his own, painful memories.

“We could ban them from the planet surface, though. If we kept a few on the Exodus, under heavy guard, of course, we’d have the capability, while keeping Aurora nuke-free.” She looked at him, skepticism apparent.

“I’m not sure they will buy that,” she said. He spread his arms, rising from his chair.

“We will come to an agreement. No one wants those things, but we can’t forget they exist, either.” He smiled at her.

“Actually, I just came to let you know I trust you to deal with this. Hopefully, we can start rebuilding now. And explore, expand.” She grinned at that.

“If you only knew how long I’ve been waiting for that,” she said.

Tina hammer

The celebration was loud outside, and Tina closed the door to Kenneth’s cabin. She sat down next to his desk, a sturdy thing made from solid blackwood. He smiled at her, but she found it difficult to smile back. He ran his hand absently across his desk. He was in a good mood, but when he’d asked her to come see him just after his appointment with the doctor, she knew something was wrong. Still, she guessed she knew the reason for his good mood, as well. Not even his apparent fatigue or what she had come to recognize as his ever more frequent dizzy spells would be able to take that away.

They had just received confirmation that the party sent up to the Exodus had found the starship intact and undisturbed. It was a surprise that the Chinzhoi hadn’t even tried to take control of it, but he imagined they had concentrated their forces on the ground, and let the Exodus be while they went through with conquering the planet. Although the Chinzhoi were beaten on the ground, they would still have some kind of force in orbit, and one of the first things Tina had ordered after George Havelar single-handedly ended the invasion was to send as many armed troopers as they could fit on the one remaining shuttle, to secure control of the starship. Kenneth had proposed this earlier, but with the overwhelming force of the Chinzhoi, everyone had considered the Exodus to be lost to them. Besides, any attempt to launch the shuttle into space would have easily ended with disaster, considering the weapons their now-defeated enemy had at their disposal. Tina and the others had convinced him they should rather save their one remaining shuttle instead of wasting it in a futile attempt that might even have prompted a takeover earlier than the Chinzhoi intended. Now she was relieved that they would be able to defend the Exodus from being hijacked.