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“We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.” – Carl Sagan
Date: 01.27.2104
Calypso Colony Ship
He wasn’t going to make it. The access door glowed white hot, but the crew still hadn’t broken through. The alarms continued to shriek. The intensity of them hammered his already battered skull, and he could feel his pulse jumping in time. The heavy, coppery taste of blood filled his mouth. His tongue had been lacerated at some point, perhaps during the fight, or when he hit the floor of the Cryo Deck, his teeth digging deep into the sensitive organ. It was swelling, and still bleeding, He tried to spit out the mouthful of blood, but it just dribbled down his chin. He had no strength left to spit, it seemed, and the world tilted, his vision blurring.
Daniel kept moving, his feet clumsy, stuck on legs that felt heavy and unyielding. He keyed in the sequence, it beeped, and he tried again. On the third try, the words scrolled.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON YOUNG, NISKA
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 10:29 MINUTES
Four rows to go, with nearly eighty innocent people still in their pods, completely unaware of the grim fate that awaited them. His friends, people whose talents the entire colony depended upon. But despite this, Daniel was moving slow, struggling with every ounce of his being.
It had taken him three tries on the last pod to enter the correct sequence and initiate the emergency revival. He was barely able to stand, his hands were cold and they shook. The blood from the blow he had taken to his head still ran freely, and he squinted out of one clear eye, too tired to bother wiping his face.
His mind was wandering too. Perhaps it was blood loss, perhaps Luke and Janine weren’t really there, but damned if they didn’t seem so real. Luke looked exactly as he had the day Daniel had last saw him, Janine as well, wearing that sad, disapproving look she could get. His vision blurred again, and he wondered if he would see Toby.
“No,” came his own voice, slow and slurred, as if he had been drinking, “Toby isn’t dead. At least someone you love is still alive.”
Luke’s specter nodded at him. Janine’s just looked pissed.
“I have to save them,” Medry muttered, cold and clumsy hands reaching for the next Cryo pod.
He pressed the keys, blacking out momentarily at a critical juncture, repeating it once, then twice, before it came out right.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON LYONS, THEO
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 10:22 MINUTES
The crazy bastard who had done this, who had murdered his friends Deeks and Evers, lay unmoving on the Cryo Deck floor behind him, a pool of his own blood spreading from his nose and mouth. Medry couldn’t help but hope that the man was dead. His mind simply could not conceive of a world in which his actions made sense.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON DRENKOWSKI, SARRA
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 10:18 MINUTES
Sarra, she and Kit had both come from Chicago, and had been friends for years. He remembered that from training. That and her practical jokes. She was also a veterinarian and well-versed in the artificial wombs they had on board, having helped develop them.
He leaned for a moment on the pod he had just initiated. His eyelids felt heavy and his legs and arms were like lead weights. He closed his eyes, just for one sweet blessed moment. He was so tired.
Falling against the pod was what jerked Daniel back to consciousness. The knife slammed into the meat of his shoulder, then ripped loose and fell to the floor with a dull clang. The shock of the impact was enough to pull him back to present, more awake than ever, and lucid, for the moment. He entered the code on the pod in front of him and then stared dumbfounded at the screen.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON RUBINOWITZ, LITA
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 10:05 MINUTES
How could over thirteen seconds have elapsed since the last pod? He had only closed his eyes for a second! He had just over ten minutes to go, and countless pods left. He continued to move down the line of pods, inputting the emergency revival sequence and moving on as soon as he saw the familiar words begin to scroll on the screen.
He was so cold. The world swam around him, dimming to gray splotches when he moved his head too quickly.
He still needed to reach Sam. He had to keep going. All of these people, they needed him to save them. He peered at the display and slowly entered the code.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON DUNN-EDMONDS, SIMON
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 10:01 MINUTES
This one was a little boy. The name that flashed across the screen, Dunn-Edmonds—that was Kevin’s kid. Thank God. Daniel’s mind flashed to a memory of Toby’s face smiling, framed in tow-headed curls. His heart thumped harder, the loss of his son knifed deeper into him. How could he have left him? If he had only known what was to come, what the fates of those who had been left behind would be. If only he had known. But how could he? How could any of them have known?
The ‘would haves’ and ‘should haves’ had been driving him nuts for over a year now. He had no right to miss him, no right to call Toby his son. What kind of man leaves it to another to raise his son? What kind of man has an affair with his brother’s wife?
“You are a piece of shit, Medry.” Daniel muttered out loud.
Janine’s specter nodded, smirking as if she had been waiting for him to figure this out all along. Who was he to think he could save these people? He was a fuck-up of the worst degree. He shook his head, earning himself another wave of dizziness.
“Piece of shit or not, you are all they have right now, so suck it up.”
He moved to the next pod and keyed in the sequence.
MANUAL OVERRIDE INITIATED
BEGIN EMERGENCY REVIVAL SEQUENCE ON LOWRY, ELLEN
03:58 MINUTES UNTIL REVIVAL
SYSTEM RESET ON ALL CRYO PODS IN 9:56 MINUTES
Was this Lowry’s wife? She looked young, far younger than Nagel. He thought of Nagel, uptight, by the rules, the ‘Ponics deck a far different place under his supervision. Especially for those used to Sam’s management style.
The wound in his shoulder was worse with the knife out. Six more pods on this row to go, they all seemed to blur together. His foot slipped and he fell hard. He was running out of time. Worse yet, his body was running out of blood.
